A common challenge for coaches, teachers, healers and other helping professionals is differentiating themselves from others in their fields.
The good news is you set yourself apart just by being born. People forget that. The nature of your unique life makes you different and makes you unique. I call this your intuitive intelligence.
You have not lived the same life that I have lived and neither has anyone else. Even if we have the same training and we sat down and decided to teach the exact same model to people, it would be different because we are different people.
Hold your hand up in front of you right now. No one shares those finger prints. Your marketing style, your business style, and your message all reflect that uniqueness.
Get off of the marketing hamster wheel for a while and ask yourself the question: "why did you get into this game to begin with?" There is a reason that you are reading this article. There is a reason that you're doing the business you're doing.
Someone reading this lost a significant amount of weight. Someone reading this made it through a serious illness. Someone reading this helped a child through a diagnosis. Someone reading this got divorced and they thrived through it. Someone reading this changed their lifestyle through health and wellness. Someone reading this built a business out of nothing.
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Continually telling my story has been the most powerful business building strategies I have ever implemented, and it comes completely naturally because it's my story. Framing it in a way that underlines my movement and the changes I want to see in the world helps me attract perfect clients.
Everyone has a story and any business must have a movement and a mission driving it. Don't lose sight of the fact that it is your story that is going to heal people.
When I started my business, I finally got off my butt and decided to do something and change something. I came across coaching. I didn't have a clue how to market. It was hard and it was painful, and there were some really difficult pieces.
Through that experience I healed a lot in myself, I healed a lot in other people, and I now have this really brilliant gift. I know that my purpose on this earth is to help people heal their shame around money and use marketing and business building as the tools to do that.
Keep it simple. Go back to the reason you got into your business or the field you're in to begin with, whether you are an energy worker or a life coach or a marketing consultant. Why did you start this to begin with? Because that's what you've lost sight of if you don't have the energy to share your movement in a way that differentiates yourself from others.
in Marketing Tips
Friday, May 14, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Avoiding Dot-Cons: On Internet Business Scams
internet advertising
Internet Business scams abound. And you probably figured out why; it is because there are a lot of people who do fall for the earn insert-6-digit-amount-in-4-weeks schemes.
Well, some people, especially those who pioneered a market niche or came up with a revolutionary application or method, do earn serious bucks, such as Google or Amazon and E-bay. There are also marketing consultants (the real ones, at least) who know what they are doing and what they are talking about, and earn income by mentoring dedicated people who want to try their luck, and their marketing skills, online.
The thing is there are actually a lot of ways to earn a quick buck online, especially for not-so-honest people. If you are thinking of starting an online business by acquiring that internet business opportunity that some random fellow sent you an e-mail about, you might want to keep these things in mind in order to make sure that you will not fall a victim to internet business scams
What changes hands?
While there are legitimate Multi-level marketing businesses, there are pyramiding schemes that masquerade as MLM firms. You have to be very careful and check whether the income is commission-based or member-recruitment-based. Most fly-by-night businesses actually sell distributorship instead of products. In this case, take a step backward and ask yourself - is it really necessary to acquire distributorship for that price? If the product is a market leader, that is a possibility, but take note that reputable companies would normally let you sell pr advertise their product, and let you earn part of the profit, instead of selling you some run-of-the-mill website.
However, do not confuse MLMs with two-tier affiliate programs where you can 'link' your site to a 'middleman' who will earn a cut from another company by the sales or traffic you generate. This might work, and some actually take advantage of this. But you can always eliminate the middleman and be the affiliate yourself, right?
What are the so-called add-ons?
Some of these con artists would tell you that they can give you a bonus by letting you have 'free advertising' in dozens of search engines. Most people would like this idea, since everybody knows that search engines are a sure-fire way to gain traffic and eventually earn brand recognition. However, only a handful of these search engines deliver considerable traffic (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Dogpile, to name a few), and the others are relatively insignificant. So why would you care for that 'free advertising'?
How wonderful is wonderful?
Most people fall for internet business scams because of much hyped-up 'wonderfulness'. Some would tell you that they can generate 50,000 clicks or site visitors in a day, when the truth is, they could not even guarantee a hundred. Others will tell you that you can earn, say a hundred grand, without telling you that it will actually take 20 years. Some of these 'offers' do not give you what you were promised and it is up to you, to find out whether they could or couldn't. When checking into a company's background, do not be fooled by testimonials, guarantees and huge income potentials. You can check a company's trustworthiness by checking whether it is a Better Business Bureau member, for starters.
When all else fails, remember that if it is too good to be true, it probably isn't. Note that the operative word is 'probably'. There are offers that are blatant internet business scams and others are much more difficult to spot and might even be legitimate. You might miss out on an opportunity; however, when you are about to shell out hard-earned money for that opportunity, sometimes it is good to investigate whether what is offered is a gift, or a burden.
Internet Business scams abound. And you probably figured out why; it is because there are a lot of people who do fall for the earn insert-6-digit-amount-in-4-weeks schemes.
Well, some people, especially those who pioneered a market niche or came up with a revolutionary application or method, do earn serious bucks, such as Google or Amazon and E-bay. There are also marketing consultants (the real ones, at least) who know what they are doing and what they are talking about, and earn income by mentoring dedicated people who want to try their luck, and their marketing skills, online.
The thing is there are actually a lot of ways to earn a quick buck online, especially for not-so-honest people. If you are thinking of starting an online business by acquiring that internet business opportunity that some random fellow sent you an e-mail about, you might want to keep these things in mind in order to make sure that you will not fall a victim to internet business scams
What changes hands?
While there are legitimate Multi-level marketing businesses, there are pyramiding schemes that masquerade as MLM firms. You have to be very careful and check whether the income is commission-based or member-recruitment-based. Most fly-by-night businesses actually sell distributorship instead of products. In this case, take a step backward and ask yourself - is it really necessary to acquire distributorship for that price? If the product is a market leader, that is a possibility, but take note that reputable companies would normally let you sell pr advertise their product, and let you earn part of the profit, instead of selling you some run-of-the-mill website.
However, do not confuse MLMs with two-tier affiliate programs where you can 'link' your site to a 'middleman' who will earn a cut from another company by the sales or traffic you generate. This might work, and some actually take advantage of this. But you can always eliminate the middleman and be the affiliate yourself, right?
What are the so-called add-ons?
Some of these con artists would tell you that they can give you a bonus by letting you have 'free advertising' in dozens of search engines. Most people would like this idea, since everybody knows that search engines are a sure-fire way to gain traffic and eventually earn brand recognition. However, only a handful of these search engines deliver considerable traffic (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Dogpile, to name a few), and the others are relatively insignificant. So why would you care for that 'free advertising'?
How wonderful is wonderful?
Most people fall for internet business scams because of much hyped-up 'wonderfulness'. Some would tell you that they can generate 50,000 clicks or site visitors in a day, when the truth is, they could not even guarantee a hundred. Others will tell you that you can earn, say a hundred grand, without telling you that it will actually take 20 years. Some of these 'offers' do not give you what you were promised and it is up to you, to find out whether they could or couldn't. When checking into a company's background, do not be fooled by testimonials, guarantees and huge income potentials. You can check a company's trustworthiness by checking whether it is a Better Business Bureau member, for starters.
When all else fails, remember that if it is too good to be true, it probably isn't. Note that the operative word is 'probably'. There are offers that are blatant internet business scams and others are much more difficult to spot and might even be legitimate. You might miss out on an opportunity; however, when you are about to shell out hard-earned money for that opportunity, sometimes it is good to investigate whether what is offered is a gift, or a burden.
