Monthly Archives: April 2014

3 Keys to Using Stories in Your Marketing

One of the fastest, easiest ways to get your ideal clients and prospects engaged with your marketing is to start using stories.

People love stories, in all forms. Plus, stories allow you to show your vulnerable, human side — which helps people get to know you (and of course, the more people know, like and trust you, the more they’ll buy from you).

But there IS a right way and a wrong way to share stories in your marketing. That’s why I want to share 3 keys to using stories in your marketing. Continue reading →

PW Unplugged Radio — Nadine Nicholson & The Truth About Business Success

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Today on PW Unplugged Radio, my guest Nadine Nicholson (MeJane) and I peeled back the curtain to take a look at what really happens under the hood of successful businesses.

Nadine shared her story — how she was busy climbing the corporate ladder and nearly lost everything important to her. So she made the leap to start her own business and couldn’t be happier. Continue reading →

Ask PW — “What’s this about blogging more and using Facebook less?”

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After a big social media conference a few weeks ago, one comment making the rounds around the Internet was about blogging more and using Facebook less.

The reason being is your blog is your real estate. No one can take that away from you. When you build your marketing machine in someone else’s sandbox (i.e. Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, iTunes) you run the risk of that person/company changing the rules and leaving you (and you biz) hanging out to dry.

What just happened in Facebook is a good example. There were folks who had massive organic reach and engagement via their Facebook Fan Pages, and they were getting quite a bit of business that way. Then Facebook changed their algorithms and you have to “pay to play.” So if you aren’t running ads to your Facebook Fan Page, you are getting about a tenth of the visibility as you did before. Continue reading →

Life, Biz and the Pursuit of Happiness — How “The Secret” was the Worst Thing That Could Have Happened to The Law Of Attraction

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Remember that movie “The Secret?”

It was all about the Law of Attraction and basically boiled LOA down to this — you attract what you think about so if you think bad thoughts, you’ll attract bad things to you but if you think good thoughts you’ll attract good things to you.

When it first came out a bunch of years ago, it rocked not just the Transformational industry (and Internet Marketing industry) but ended up going mainstream with this message about the Law of Attraction.

Which you would think would have been a good thing. But actually I think it was just the opposite, and part of the reason why I think that is based on my own experience with “The Secret.” Continue reading →

The Writing Life — Paragraph by Paragraph

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I got a great response to last week’s The Writing Life — several comments on social networking sites plus my blog. And one comment in particular really stood out so I thought I would highlight that today.

You see, my goal last week was not to make anyone feel guilty or shame or beat themselves up about what they haven’t done (although Lord knows I’ve done enough of that myself over the years). Instead it was really to get you off your tushy and into action, i.e. writing regularly. (Or maybe it was sit your tushy down and get some writing done every day.) Regardless, if you want to be a writer, then you need to be writing. Period.

Now for some of you, that may be all you need to hear to break through and start getting things done. But for others, you may be feeling overwhelmed right now. You KNOW you’re a writer but where on earth are you going to squish writing regularly into your hectic schedule? Continue reading →

Q&A With Jeanna Gabellini and the Law of Attraction

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I had a blast this week interviewing my good friend Jeanna Gabellini on PW Unplugged Radio on the Law of Attraction and how you can turn it on in your biz to attract all the money and clients you want, so I thought it would be super fun to do a follow up Q&A with Jeanna. Enjoy!

What exactly is the Law of Attraction (LOA)? It’s a Universal Law that is always in effect whether you use it consciously or not. Just like gravity. What you focus on, with emotion, you will attract to you. Honestly, there’s more nuances to it than this. For instance, I recently had surgery to remove a tumor on my wrist. I was not focused on getting a tumor. But it’s evidence that I’m not allowing my natural state of well being to flow through me as well as I could. 😉 Since last summer I’ve been grieving the death of my younger brother and those kind of emotions will definitely impact your body.

If you have constant stress or overwhelm in your life, often your health is impacted or lots of little things can go wrong. Like your water heater breaks down. You lose your cell phone. You get in an argument with a family member. A customer asks for a refund on your highest-priced product or service. Continue reading →

A Simple 2–Step Process to Get the Law of Attraction Working for You

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Getting rid of my personal money blocks (or money “monsters,” as I sometimes consider them) required 2 different strategies. One was working on my subconscious inner blocks. The second was learning to use the Law of Attraction correctly.

Now, when I first encountered LOA, I did NOT use it correctly (and I’ll talk about that in a future Life, Biz and the Pursuit of Happiness column, which you can find on my blog on Sundays) but today I’m going to talk about a simple 2-step process to start getting the Law of Attraction to work for you.

.But first, a word of warning — do NOT be deceived by how simple this is. As humans, we tend to overcomplicate things when in reality, keeping things simple tends to serve us better. So take a deep breath, give it a try and see what magic starts to happen in your life and business! Continue reading →

PW Unplugged Radio — Jeanna Gabellini & Law of Attraction

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Today on PW Unplugged Radio, my guest Jeanna Gabellini (Masterpeace Coach) and I had an absolute blast talking about the Law of Attraction and how you can use LOA to attract a wealth of money and abundance and opportunities and anything else your heart desires to your biz.

What? Sound too good to be true? Yeah I was pretty skeptical about the Law of Attraction too when I first heard about it as well. (And it also screwed me up for a year — more on that in this week’s “Life, Biz and the Pursuit of Happiness” post.) However, I’ve known Jeanna for a few years now and quite honestly, she knows her stuff. Continue reading →

Marketing Case Study — Launching a Podcast

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Today I wanted to share an interesting marketing strategy that I’m in the process of watching — it’s how Kathleen Gage is launching her new podcast Power Up For Profits.

Now, I have the unique position of seeing this launch “from the inside” since I’m one of her guests included in the launch group, which is another reason I thought it would be interesting for all of you to get a peak behind the curtain to see what she’s doing.

First off, podcasts are pretty hot right now. As I talked about before, iTunes is one of the hot place to find ideal prospects in 2014, so launching a podcast is a great way to take advantage of this. Continue reading →

Life, Biz and the Pursuit of Happiness — Are You REALLY An Entrepreneur?

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I know I’ve been focusing on money blocks and your business in recent columns (and I have plenty more to say about that so don’t worry, I’ll be circling back around pretty quick here) but I was inspired to write this after I wrote my The Writing Life column yesterday.

Basically what I wrote was writers write and non-writers don’t write — circumstances don’t matter in either case.

But what I also realized as I was writing was this also applies to owning a business. Continue reading →

The Writing Life — To Write or Not to Write

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Back when I was mostly operating as a freelance writer, I joined a local writers’ group.

I live in a community with a lot of retired folks in it, so we have quite a few large, active groups to join if we so choose. This particular writers’ group was no different — most of the meetings had 50+ attending.

The problem was most of the members weren’t actually writing. Instead they preferred to talk about writing — their current project (that they typically have been “working” on for years, if not decades), the mechanics of writing, the mechanics of plot or character development, how to market their book once it was finally “done,” and of course, how they still struggled to find time to write. (And don’t even get me started about the woman who was so unhappy she and her writing instructor didn’t become pen pals rather than any talk at all about what she learned or how far she progressed in her novel.) Continue reading →

When should you hire a business coach? (Plus coaching resources)

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Periodically my plan is to have a post highlighting various coaching resources for you so you can make an informed decision on what you need to take the next step in your biz.

Last week I highlighted money and mindset coaches, and if that’s where you feel you’re stuck then definitely check out those resources.

But if you’re feeling stuck in your biz, like you’re not happy with your biz model or you’re overwhelmed or a strategy that used to work isn’t working so well and you feel like you need some fresh ideas, a business coach may be the answer. Continue reading →

Isolated Income Streams: Is Your Offering Like a Puzzle Piece Without a Puzzle Box Top?

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Note from Michele PW — Andrea was my PW Unplugged Radio guest this week and we had a blast chatting about more future biz trends and other more advanced business strategies. I really enjoyed this article from Andrea because it again takes a different look at how to grow your biz. Rather than the “same old, same old” biz advice about how to break 6 figures, she instead takes a look at what could be a missing opportunity.

On that note, I’ve heard more than one super successful entrepreneur admit this was one of their biggest mistakes when they first started out — only selling one main product and taking too long to get to solution to the second problem. (So, in other words, if you recognize yourself here, know you are in good company.)

Enjoy!

By Andrea J. Lee

“Raise your prices!” is one of the first pieces of advice many service-based entrepreneurs hear when they seek advice on growing their business.

“Build your list!” is often one of the next. “If you build your list and raise your prices, you can break six figures!” Which is, in fact, possible. Continue reading →

What Business Model Is Right for You?

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For many entrepreneurs, when you first start your biz, you end up with a one-on-one service delivery model. In other words, you sell whatever you do (typically it’s some sort of service) one-on-one to clients.

While this tends to be the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to get a new biz off the ground, it’s not without its limitations — specifically you’re selling your time and you really haven’t leveraged yourself.

Now, you may be expecting me to dive into other business models — like selling group programs and info-products — and to talk about how “much better” they are than the one-on-one service delivery…but that’s actually not where I’m going today.

No, today I want to talk about what makes YOU happy.

Continue reading →

PW Unplugged Radio — Andrea J. Lee & Hot Future Business Trends

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Today on PW Unplugged Radio, I asked my good friend, Wealthy Thought Leader Andrea J. Lee, to look into her crystal ball and tell me what the future holds for businesses and entrepreneurs everywhere — especially those trends involving the Internet. PW-Unplugged_01

Andrea is one of the smartest people I know, and she has a knack for seeing future trends in business (well, probably anything for that matter but we’ve only chatted about business and entrepreneurial trends — maybe I’ll need to ask her for style tips or new food trends the next time we talk). If you’re wondering what’s the next hot thing is in websites (and internet marketing in general) and how you can capitalize on it to grow your biz, this is definitely podcast is definitely for you. Continue reading →