11.29.11
Posted in Business at 4:04 pm UTC by Michele PW
I love Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday. Family, food, friends and football thrown in for good measure. But I digress.
What I REALLY like about Thanksgiving is it’s about giving thanks. And I think gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions out there. Why is it so powerful? Because it has the capacity to change your life.
My business and life are going great right now, better than I had planned, but it hasn’t always been that way. There were plenty of times where things were looking pretty bleak. During one particularly bleak time, a friend told me to just start listing everything I had in my life to be grateful for. Now, when things are looking pretty bad, in can be easy to say “everything sucks, I have nothing to be grateful for.” But, if we’re honest, we know that isn’t true. There’s always something, no matter how small, that is in your life you can be grateful for, and sometimes you just need to take a step back to see it.
What’s so amazing about gratitude is it’s so simple yet it has so much power – in fact, it’s so powerful it can start turning things around for you. Now, granted, being grateful all by itself will probably not turn a sinking business into a profitable one. But, it CAN be the catalyst to a transformation.
Why does this work? Well, if you’re a fan of the Secret and law of attraction, you’ve heard the phrase “what you focus on expands.” So if you focus on all the things you’re grateful for instead of all the things that aren’t working, the universe will bring you more things to be grateful for and less of the things that aren’t working.
Now, while I do think this is true, I also know a lot of people do not believe this or don’t think it’s true for them. So, might I suggest another, more practical reason, for why gratitude works — because it makes you feel better.
Yes, if you start to think about all the wonderful things that are in your life and that you have to be grateful for, things don’t look quite so bleak. You’re able to break, even for just a few moments, the funk you might have sunk into. And, with that improved mindset, you most likely can see your situation a bit more clearer and start coming up with some solutions (and maybe even take some actions) to get yourself out of it.
But gratitude isn’t just about when things are going wrong, it’s also powerful when things are going right. When you’re on top of the world, it’s still an amazing practice to give thanks. If nothing else, it gives you a moment to fully appreciate how wonderful things are right now. (And isn’t that a nice feeling to enjoy?)
So, how do you start adding a practice of gratitude to your life? Here are 3 tips to get you started:
1. Feelings are important. It’s not enough to just think about being grateful, you have to feel grateful as well. When you think about all the things you’re grateful for, really feel that gratitude throughout your body. Focus on it, and feel it radiate everywhere, from your fingers to your toes. Another tip is to imagine you have a dial in front of you, and when you turn up that dial you’re amplifying that emotion. It only takes a few moments to do, but the results are amazing. Try it and see if you don’t feel so much better afterwards.
2. Write it down. My coach, Melanie Benson Strick, Success Connections, has a great daily journal which includes a space to write 5 things you’re grateful for each day. Writing is a physical activity, so again you’re anchoring that gratitude feeling in your body. If you’re really struggling right now, I would suggest taking a few minutes and writing down everything you’re grateful for each day.
3. Put out a reminder. My grandfather gave me a stuffed bear. But not just any stuffed bear, this bear has a little button on it and a story. The story is a bit longer than what I want to get into now, but the gist of it is this — the bear comes from a magical land and represents an emotion. When you push the button and give it a hug, the emotion is released. My particular bear is about love. I’ve put the bear out so I can see it every day, and when I see it, it reminds me to be grateful. (And yes, sometimes I push the button and give it a hug as well.)
I agree, it’s a little silly. But it works. And if there’s something you can put out that reminds you to be grateful, then it’s an easy way to make being grateful a daily part of your routine.
It only takes a few minutes, but the results can be amazing. I challenge all of you to try it for 30 days and see if your business and your life start to improve.
Permalink
11.22.11
Posted in Copywriting at 4:11 pm UTC by Michele PW
Guest post by Cathy Demers
In 2007 Discover Card conducted an independent survey to shed light on the characteristics of the 22 million small business owners in the United States. The number one trait common to small business owners? The study revealed: “Independence is their prime motivation.”
While there are many personality characteristics common to most entrepreneurs, a very independent spirit is the one trait shared by each and every one. Most small business owners would not give up the freedom that comes along with owning their business to work for someone else, even if it meant making more money.
But there is a danger to being too independent. This one trait of extreme independence can be the biggest roadblock to success for entrepreneurs. No one person has all the answers. No one person can work alone and always aware of potential problems or roadblocks. Everyone has their blind spots. No matter where they have been or what they have accomplished, everyone is missing vital knowledge and experience in one area or another.
Small business owners need to seek out a trusted network. Entrepreneurs need a place where they can discuss issues with others in a similar situation. Sometimes, when working alone, it is very easy to continue down the wrong path until suddenly you discover what a costly error you have made. Working alone is like that.
Another challenge that entrepreneurs face was discussed by Michael Gerber in his classic book The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most New Businesses Fail and What to Do About It. Gerber talked about the importance of working ON your business and not IN your business.
But how do you change from being a day-to-day business “technician”, dealing with customers and putting out fires, to spending time as a visionary executive looking at your business from the outside in? The best way: schedule committed time to work “on” your business!
If you are like most entrepreneurs, who are surrounded by “busy business noise” in which it can be difficult to even hear yourself think, you will have to structure your time in such a way that the urgencies of the moment will not deter you from this important work. You and your business will benefit from a structure which ensures that you use the time you allocated for exactly what you intended, regardless of the emergency du jour.
If you are really committed to being successful by working on your business instead of just in your business – if you want to prevent failure which so many others have experienced – then join your peers for weekly education…free and only 20 minutes!
Next week at the Business Success Cafe, I will be interviewing Michele about how to craft your website so it get you results by using the real website of one of your peers as an example.
http://tinyurl.com/bskuszp
Permalink
11.17.11
Posted in Copywriting at 9:17 am UTC by Michele PW
In the movie, The Prestige, one of the main characters dissects the elements of a magic trick.
You start by showing the object you’re going to manipulate in some way (i.e. make disappear).
You manipulate the object, in this case you make it disappear.
Then, you bring it back. This is the prestige. It’s not enough to make something disappear. You need to bring it back.
In essence, what he’s talking about is closure. You need to bring closure to whatever you’re doing or it will feel unfinished. This is true for a lot of things in life, including your marketing and copywriting.
How do you do this? Well, let’s look at how people buy. For the most part it looks like this:
* Someone has a problem
* They look for a solution to their problem
* They determine the best source for their solution
So, to give you an example of this, let’s say someone wants to lose weight.
* Their problem — they want to lose weight.
* The solution — they want a diet and exercise program that will work for their specific solution
* The source — they look for the best nutrition/fitness person to give them that solution (whether it’s a book or a home study course, work with someone one-on-one or something else).
If you look at a sales letter, many times it mirrors this process:
* Outlines the problem
* Agitates the problem
* Explains the solution
* Emphasizes that the business writing the sales letter has the best solution
See how this works? Okay, so let’s look at another copywriting example — how you write benefits.
First, what is a benefit? In a nutshell, benefits are what people buy. It’s the “what’s in it for me.” It’s what gets people excited about buying your product or service.
As an example, if we go back to the weight loss example, people aren’t really buying losing weight. What they want is the BENEFITS of losing weight — i.e. they look good, they feel good, their health improves, etc. Think about it, if someone didn’t care what they looked like, how they felt or if they were sick or not, why would losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight be a priority in their life?
They want the benefits of being thin, not so much being thin for thin’s sake.
So, with that in mind, when you write a benefit, you can work in both the problem and the solution. For instance:
Frustrated because the scale has been stuck at the same number for MONTHS no matter WHAT you do? You’ll learn my secret for smashing through that plateau and getting back on the weight loss track.
It’s not enough to simply talk about the problem. People need to know they’re going to get a solution. They already know the problem, they want to know they’re getting a solution. You need to bring it back, show the prestige.
Now, why do you want to go through all of this? Because providing closure feels comfortable to people. And the more comfortable you can make them in the sales process, the more likely they’ll become a customer.
Permalink
Kill Their Sales…And How to Prevent Them” and “Conversion Secrets: 5 Expert Strategies for Turning Leads into Clients.” Sign up here or 
