Archive for the ‘Mindset’ Category

How do you define an internet marketing campaign to be ethical? Have you ever thought about it? What standards do you adhere to? How do we hold our peers accountable?

These are some of the questions I asked myself this week after receiving an email from an internet marketing company. The email itself wasn’t offensive. It was what happened after I clicked on the email. Actually, it was what happened after I signed up for the FREE seminar that made my blood curdle.

The first email of the campaign was short, simple and enticing…

Debra,

Want a chance to win $30,000??

We’ve given away iPads, trips to Costa Rica, and all sorts of stuff.

Yes, I’m a bit CRAZY, but I guess you can say I’m in love with marketing.

To find out how you can win $30,000:

CLICK HERE!!!!

Of course, I’d love to win $30,000, who wouldn’t? So I click. The sales letter page then promises me the following:

three of the top marketing powerhouses from the Infusionsoft community (Ultimate Marketer: Bob Britton, SEO Expert: Grant James, and Internet Guru: Micah Mitchell) have now joined forces and developed the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT thing a business owner needs to triple their sales and profits in 12 months or less,

The landing page goes on to claim:

“We have decided to host a special “FREE Sneak Peak, Live Event“  for the first 100 people to register.”

“you can attend WITHOUT shelling out your hard earned cash for a plane ticket, a hotel room or ANYTHING else,”

“YES! I Want To Be One Of Only 100 People To Attend This FREE Live Sneak Peek Event Into How Your Guys Systems Can Stuff An EXTRA $100,000+ Dollars This Year Into My Wallet! YES! I Also Want To Learn How I Can Win The $30,000 Cash”

Notice the use of the word free everywhere.

There was also a line that said this:

“having a one in 50 chance of winning $30,000”

If they are accepting 100 registrations, how do your odds become 1 in 50? There are no contest terms listed. No legalese at all anywhere.

Here’s the worst part…

Once you type in your name and email, they send you to a new page that says this…

“Your registration request for the “Infusion Elite Mastermind Sneak Peek Live Event” has been received, but before I can register you I first need you to pay a seat deposit of $97.”

“IMPORTANT!!: If you DO NOT pay the seat deposit, you WILL NOT receive a link for this event and you’re spot WILL NOT be reserved.”

And there is a video of the Infusionsoft Ultimate Marketing Award Winner (he makes this claim in the video) telling everyone why they need to pay $97 and they only get it back if they actually attend the event.

So they entice people with a $30,000 prize. They offer no terms and conditions regarding the contest rules. They play upon their relationship with Infusionsoft and their authority as the Ultimate Marketer of the Year. They tell you its free to join. Then after you sign up they say that you can’t complete the registration until you pay them $97.

I found this to be the type of campaign that gives internet marketers a slimy reputation. I found it to be borderline ethical and legal (deceptive advertising).

I now ask you, my readers,

What would you do?

Do you find this to be ethical?

Is this the type of role model we should be emulating?

Here’s a link if you want to check it out. PLEASE DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY!

Closing the Gap: How to Define you Business Model

When you know what you are good at and what you are not good at, and then you know what you love and want your life to be like (which is often the opposite of what you don’t want it to be like), then look at what you like about where you are and what you don’t like and plot a course to get to your ideal lifestyle.

Once I knew that I wanted to work from home around the hours of my childrens’ school, and I didn’t want to deal with furniture suppliers, but I did love solving problems and marketing, I was able to move forward.

In my case continuing with the business model I had created was no longer viable. Could I have changed the model and brought it back to an internet only business? Yes, but then I would still have to deal with the manufacturing of custom furniture which would not be in line with my passions or strengths. In my case, there was only one decision.

You want to think about how you might get from where you are to where you want to go. Take some time to think about how you might “close the gap”. Don’t pressure yourself to have all the answers right away. Sometimes they are obvious and sometimes they are not. It may take time for the answers to reveal themselves. It may be expedited by having someone who is not so close to the situation, like a business adviser or coach, take a look and make suggestions.

Let me give you some examples of how you can “Close the Gap”.

Let’s say you are passionate about flowers. You are thinking about opening a florist. Can you get to a 6-figure income as a florist? Well, probably, but you may have to open multiple florist shops and you may have to supply weddings or businesses. A single retail floral shop will probably not get you to that 6-figure goal. You will need to achieve a large volume of sales to reach that income goal.

Now let’s say you want to get to 7-figures or more. Can you do it with a floral shop or chain of floral shops? It’s not likely. In order to achieve that goal, you are going to have to look at business models that affect the entire industry. Think of FTD. Remember how they linked all the independent florists together so that you can buy flowers from your local store and then a store located somewhere else would deliver those flowers for you?

Another example is 1-800-flowers.com. They were one of the first to take the floral business to the internet on a national basis. There are other examples. There are people who changed the way flowers were grown and shipped to florist at a wholesale level. This is another example of a company that improved inefficiencies in their industry and improved the economies of scale to reach huge income levels.

Building a 7, 8 or 9-figure business isn’t for everyone.

You will notice in none of the floral business models I just mentioned will the founder be hands-on dealing with flowers on a day-to-day basis. You will be a business person running a business and will need to have or develop the skills to do that.

If you can combine your passion with your business skills to achieve the dream, GREAT! Most of the rest of us might have to make adjusts to our business model, learn new skills, or pick a different industry altogether. It just depends on where you are starting and where you want to go.

Exercise: Close the gap

Here are some questions you will want to ask yourself to help you close the gap.

• Does your current business allow you to utilize your strengths and reduce your weaknesses (perhaps even outsourcing the work you don’t like or do well)?

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• Does your business model support your lifestyle goals? If not, are you familiar with one that will?

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• Are their changes you can make to your current business that will bring you inline with your passion and lifestyle goals?

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Identifying the Gap: The Entrepreneur’s Dream

In the previous posts we addressed how to identify your entrepreneurial passion and your desired lifestyle. We also took a look at the things which you are not good at and don’t want to to.

The next step is for you as the entrepreneur to identify the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. To do that you need to identify your starting point.

Let’s take an inventory of where you are now. And then we will discuss how to close that gap altogether.

• What does your lifestyle look like today?

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• What is not working for you in your current lifestyle?

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• What do you love about your current lifestyle?

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• What does your business look like today?

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• What is not working for you in your business?

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• What do love about your business?

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What I found in doing this analysis is that I loved being a business owner and I loved marketing including all tasks and strategic thinking associated with it. I did not love the hours and schedule required in a retail store. I did not like shipping furniture, working with manufacturers of custom furniture, and some of the customer service issues that came along with the previous challenges. I love design and strategy. I love solving problems. I loved owning my choices.

What’s working for you? What’s not working for you?

The next step is “Closing the Gap”.

Visualize Your Lifestyle

As an entrepreneur, you have the ability to create any lifestyle you want. Are you living that life now? Most people just start doing and don’t think about where they want to go.

Do you know what your dream day looks like in perfect detail?

Have you spent time really thinking about it?

If you could choose to spend your time any way you wish, how would it be spent?

Here is an exercise that can put you in the space where you can allow your dream lifestyle to come to you.

Exercise: Lifestyle Visualization

EMC-Perfect-Day
LISTEN to this VISUALIZATION exercise now.

Exercise: Define the Lifestyle of Your Dreams

Now think about your perfect day.

• Would you like everyday to be like that?

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• What would you like to have the same?

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• What would you like to be different?

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I want you to think about how you can incorporate elements of this dream day into your daily life.

• How does this impact your current lifestyle?

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• What changes do you need to make in your business to make your daily life accommodate your dream lifestyle?

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• Write down your dream lifestyle?

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In doing these exercises I realized that my perfect day was waking up and taking care of my kids, sending them off to school, then coming back home and working on something I was passionate about that helped others. I wanted something to stimulate my brain that would enable me to transform the lives of the people I cared about.

I also wanted to be free to pick my kids up from school and spend afternoons and evenings with them and my husband. I wanted relaxed weekends with the family. I wanted the time and money to travel for vacations. I wanted to live in a friendly environment with loving supportive neighbors who had children for my kids to play with. I want my kids getting the best education available and I want them to learn to pursue their dreams. I want not to think about money. I want to make a difference in the world and use my unique abilities as best I can. And this is what I want for others.

While this was my dream lifestyle, this is not where I was 18 months ago. I owned a retail store that was open 6 days a week from 10am to 6pm. And this was reduced hours. Before that we had been open 7 days a week, from 10am to 8pm.

Because of this schedule, I needed a live-in childcare to help care for my children (who were not school age). My husband and I tag-teamed the remaining childcare hours, were balancing that with work at the store. While one was home with the kids, the other was working.

Weekends away were not existent. Actually, we went a year without a weekend together as a family.

Exhaustion and stress ruled our lives. We were miserable.

I’d say that’s a pretty obvious difference between where we were and where we wanted to be. Needless to say, the store had to go.

Not all situations are as obvious as that. Though, as obvious as it was, it still took us nearly a year to close out that business and get back on track to fulfilling our life vision.

What is your vision? Please share it with me below. I’d love to hear what your dreams are.