Juggling Act: Even Sex and the City 2 Recognizes the Mom Dilemma
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Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals: Blonde Don’t Live Here No More
Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals – BHAGs. These are the stuff entrepreneurial dreams are made of. BHAGs are motivating, 
inspiring, and often take more than a minute or two to complete. In fact, sometimes it can take years to bring a BHAG to fruition.
But there’s an even bigger, more hairy audacious obstacle that prevents many entrepreneurs from ever attaining their BHAG.
Distractions. Entrepreneurs have a horrible time with this. We’re constantly distracted by the ideas that float into our brains. Great ideas, though they may be, we’re often found floating from idea to idea, never really completing anything.
Several terms have been concocted to describe this condition. Shiny object syndrome is a pervasive problem amongst entrepreneurs. According to one study, about 50% of entrepreneurs demonstrate ADHD tendencies, and becoming distracted is a big issue.
So if you have big, clearly defined goals, what can you do to stay on track?
For me, it took dying my hair a bright, shiny, platinum blonde color.
From This...
To This
I took a LOT of flak for this change. And the comments (to my face) ranged from “Oh GAWD! What were you thinking?” to “Wow! You look AMAZING!” – and everything in between. I can only imagine some of the snickering that went on behind closed doors.
Deciding to go blonde had nothing to do with having more fun, or really even about being more visible – although those were possible side effects. For me, there was a deeper meaning to embracing my “inner blonde”.
It was a constant, daily reminder of three BHAGs I needed to accomplish in my life.
Every morning I wake up, I look in the mirror and see this face, surrounded by this hair – an unavoidable reminder of things left undone. Things that MUST be completed before my hair goes back to a more, um, natural shade.
I could have chosen a less outspoken color, but part of the shift that needed to happen in me was being able to embrace my outspoken nature. And the other goals I’ll talk more about at my live event this fall.
Some people can use a vision board, or write it down, or do a daily visualization and consistently hold those goals in their mind. Some people can plug it into a computer, a PDA or have someone else hold them accountable. I’m not one of those people. Ink washes away. Strings break. Kids spill stuff on your PDA, delete your hard drive, and decide to color on your vision board.
I needed something indelible. Something that wouldn’t rub off, wash off, or get lost in the translation. So about this time last year, I made the leap from dark brown to blonde (with a pit stop at orange. There’s a picture somewhere on Facebook, I think. It’s horrible.).
In the intervening year, my “daily reminder” was met by occasional snide remarks – even from family and friends. The suggestions to “pick a more flattering color”, the questioning, and the outright assumptions on the part of most people were more examples of how people don’t always ‘get it’ when we want to accomplish something huge. Sometimes our closest friends think they’re doing us a favor. They think they’re being supportive, but in reality, they’re trying to fit our BHAG into their world. People don’t understand (or care to understand) the motivation behind the transformation, they only judge the outward manifestation of the first step.
Crazy? Silly? Stupid? Unflattering? Perhaps. But I didn’t go blonde to please you. I didn’t even do it to please me.
The thing about changing your hair color to something VERY different from your natural color is that it requires work to maintain. You can’t just quit when the going gets tough – or another distraction comes along.
When the roots come in, you’ve got to decide to keep going or go back. Cut it off or let it grow. For me, this was a very visceral, tangible, and physical manifestation of my business and personal goals.
Do I quit just because it’s hard? Just because I haven’t reached my goal yet?
Do I cut myself off just because other people are telling me it can’t be done – or that I’m too (old, fat, young, smart, dumb, poor, educated, etc.)?
Do I keep going, or go back?
I chose (and continue to choose) to ‘let it grow’.
A couple of weeks ago, I hit goal number one of three. So blonde don’t live here no more.
My target is to complete goals two and three so that this whole “hairy goal” thing is ironed out by August – and settle on the final hair color for the rest of my 30′s.
Or until my next BHAG comes into view.
Exploding Websites for Fun and Profit
I am jealous – a little.
Okay, a lot. But it will pass soon enough.
My pal @elizabethpw remodeled her website. I’m sharing some of the pertinent insights to my audience on my direct sales blog, but today, I wanted to share the discoveries that are pertinent to you.
See I created that site eons ago, when I was just a fledgling online person. I shunned WordPress (not one of my better decisions, I’ll admit). I was creating pages by hand (still do sometimes). I thought I was doing well.
Then the other day, I got an email from Liz Pabon, where she wrote this:
Our inner knowing is like an attic filled with great treasures made up of our knowledge, experiences and wisdom. And sometimes those treasures are blocked or hidden by the cobwebs of self-neglect.
And I got to thinking about all the “stuff” that’s crammed into that site. 2 years of teleclasses (yes, 2 freakin’ years worth). Classes, courses, downloads and handouts. All of it muddled, mixed around, and hard to navigate.
I was making it difficult for people to buy from me.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like earning my keep. I enjoy getting paid for the contribution I make. I think I do a pretty good job of sharing what works, and it’s important to my family that I’m compensated appropriately for my “genius work” as my coach calls it.
But buried within layers of links, pages and other subterfuge, it wasn’t easy to do business with me. And the irony is, I tell people time and again to make it easy for customers to do business with you.
I’m accessible. I’m probably too accessible. If someone sends an email, a tweet or a facebook post, I usually respond – and pretty quickly when I’m able. And I answer questions, provide tons of advice and strategies to help my clients and strangers who may never be my clients.
But on more than one occasion, I’ve had people say the very same thing that I read at the top of Elizabeth’s blog post (except that my name’s Lisa and not Elizabeth).
But in my own head, I thought I was being really clear. I was following all the “rules” about building an opt-in list, creating info products, doing launches, and sharing “free content” with my followers (you know, “the what” but not “the how” stuff we’ve been fed).
So I’m blowing it up – for fun AND profit.
I’ve had this vision for an entire training program much like a college curricula for direct sales pros that want to run their business like a real business. But it’s built around small group coaching – classroom style – and that violates “the rules” of online marketing.
See, according to “the rules”, I’m supposed to create content once, get paid to do it, and then re-package it into an info-product I can sell over and over. It’s a great way to produce “passive” income, but if you follow “the rules”, the bulk of that revenue comes during the product launch, and then trickles in over the lifetime of the product. The more affiliates you have promoting the launch, the more money you stand to make when it launches. Which is why you hear a LOT about people that have multi-million dollar launches, but then you never hear how the product does on the back end.
Things that make me go hmmm…
I’ve been doing this “info marketing thang” for a couple of years now, and when I was green, I was following “the rules” religiously. Step-by-step, cranking out teleclasses, setting up continuity programs, etc. And in the last three weeks it hit me that I wasn’t being authentic in my business.
For as much as I enjoy “passive” income. I had become a slave to “the rules” – and they really didn’t fit me or the way I wanted to do business.
Here’s the truth I’ve learned in the past two years in my online business:
- People will buy info products, but they’ll pay more to work directly with you.
- Info products by themselves are mostly worthless. They sit on shelves and collect dust. I think it was Dan Kennedy that said 20% of your customers will never even open the product. And to get USED to that. Um, sorry. That does not compute for me.
- My business is seeing a shift towards hands-on help that guides people through the info products. And that’s because…
- People get better results with hands-on help.
- Small groups rock. The synergy, the energy and the masterminding that goes on is exponentially better than self-study, and bridges the gap between info products and live events.
- The biggest payday happens at product launch. BUT…
- Big launches leave big gaps in your cash flow.
There’s nothing wrong with helping people and getting paid to do it, folks. That’s what teachers and mentors have been doing for centuries. The catch is to price yourself accordingly for the services you perform. There’s always someone who thinks you’re too expensive, and someone that sees you as the bargain basement extra meal deal. The key is to find your own value in that mix and be fair with your pricing. There’s NO disputing the fact that hands-on help is worth more than info-products all day long.
That’s why you’re seeing a surge in live events, big ticket “masterminds” and ultra pricey one-on-one coaching programs – complete with swarming, affiliate-driven promotional launches.
But you can’t feasibly launch a big ticket item every month to keep cash flow consistent.
Even the “guru’s” are filling those gaps with smaller ticket product launches, generally joint ventures in a teleclass (small group) format. They can launch them every couple of months, and both partners benefit. In fact, one multi-million dollar guru has already launched 6 products in the first 3 months of the year. Talk about bombarding their audience!
But between affiliate and JV promotions, the cash flow keeps coming in.
Take a look at who’s doing what this year. You’ll see most of them moving away from continuity-based models (especially in light of the new California legislation), and towards more mid-price ($300-500), “one-time-only” tele-series and product launches. It serves the same purpose, but at a higher price point, and with fewer customer service issues.
My own business is taking a similar stance – albeit at a much lower price point in most instances. We’re blowing up HomePartySolution.com – and the entire online community that goes with it – to create a more streamlined user interface, and a more lucrative business platform for the direct sales portion of our coaching business.
In short, I’m going to make it so easy for people to do business with me that my clients will wonder what happened.
It’s not an easy process, by any means, and we’re considering documenting the process to help YOU shorten the learning curve if you ever want to do this in your own business. I estimate the entire site will be down about a month to test everything and make it all operational again – with all the new content we’re adding to boot.
The only thing that will still be live on that site is the home page opt-in for new ezine subscribers. I still plan on sending out the weekly ezine, and generating content behind the scenes. But we won’t be selling anything for about a month over there.
So how am I going to keep the employees paid and the family fed?
With a GI-NORMOUS product launch over here. 
Tickets for The Renaissance Mom Experience are slated to go on sale April 15. You can sign up for the advance notification list on that page. You have been warned.
The cool thing is that I’m able to continue to do what I love in a way that I truly enjoy. I am able to connect with the very people I enjoy helping and they are seeing better results because of it. I’m able to leverage myself as well (more on that in another post), and continue to grow both segments of my business (both here and on the direct sales side of things). I can’t wait for you all to see what new things we have in store this quarter.
What about you? I’d love your thoughts and feedback on this. Share your comments below, or send me a note on twitter.
Saying “No” is Sexy Part Two: Size Doesn’t Matter
Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of backlash from info-marketers, coaches and others that follow the “freebie opt-in” model to build their lists. In my previous post, I mentioned a new opt-in gift I created for my own list that I think will benefit them, AND will help grow my marketing list at the same time. To be clear, I do not have a problem with the freebie opt-in model. In fact, I encourage it with many of my new clients as a safe, simple way to encourage people to build the “Know, Like and Trust Factor” with their potential customers.
But these “back-lashers” have started complaining about the ROI, “smash and grab” and generally grumbling about how free isn’t really free, because ultimately someone is paying – either for the time to create the freebie, to sustain the giveaway, or on the back end when there’s an upsell.
To me, that’s a red flag that someone isn’t being sexy in their business. They’re saying “yes” because it’s the thing to do, instead of doing it because it’s what they want to do.
In Gary Vee’s book, Crush It, he makes a comment about how he starts his video show the same way every time, and because of that, he loses a percentage of his potential audience because they don’t like his opening. As a business owner, it drives him nuts that he could have more people wat
ching, but he chooses to stay the course because it’s being true to who he is.
Gary’s being sexy by saying “no” to normal and saying “yes” to memorable.
I have my own confession: my list is not large. I don’t have umpteen gajillion followers on twitter. And I’m happy with that. Would I love tens of thousands of people? Maybe. But the thousands that I do have know me, like me, and trust me enough that they spend money with me regularly. My list is incredibly responsive and on twitter alone, I averaged about $15 for each follower I had in 2009. I’m not bragging here. I’m illustrating a point.
When it comes to lists, size isn’t as important as responsiveness.
And yet, it’s the same mentality we’ve been seeing from online marketers. Put your free samples out there, start raking in people, and see who shakes out and who sticks.
Others charge for everything and wouldn’t think of giving away a scrap of their information. I had a teleclass guest once tell me that everything that she says is under copyright the minute it comes out of her mouth. She was so concerned about getting credit for her work, that she was making herself look foolish on the call. Needless to say, I won’t be asking her back any time soon.
Neither option is the be-all, end-all. In fact, I think there are times where both are appropriate. To me, though, you shouldn’t grump and complain when you get the expected results from the work you do.
If you give something away for free, there will always be a trick-or-treater/tire kicker that just wants the free stuff. It’s the nature of the beast. Don’t begrudge them the very thing you’ve offered them. If you don’t feel good about giving it away to everyone and getting nothing in return, you probably shouldn’t be giving it away in the first place.
That’s what happened with our Super Summit. Our very first event was completely free, with the option to purchase the MP3′s after you registered. Right away we had problems with people that signed up, got the dial in number and unsubscribed. It made it difficult to contact them to share bonus content, etc. But instead of grumbling, I figured those just weren’t the kind of people I wanted to work with in the first place.
Now we charge a small admission fee, and while we don’t get as many sign-ups as when it was free, that minimal barrier to entry has resulted in more qualified customers, better conversion rates, and happier people all around. I feel good that everyone that registers will get an amazing value for their paltry investment (and they do), and customers are ecstatic that they only had to pay a few bucks to get such good, pitch-free content.
Another incredible thing that happened was that fewer people were asking for concessions on the event. At the first summit, we had dozens of requests for free access because someone couldn’t make it live to a call. People asked us to make the calls available for individual purchase so they could just buy the ones they missed. Dozens of people already getting free content asking for more free content.
Really? Um. No.
We tried the individual purchases at our last summit – and sold one. One copy of one audio. Aside from the amount of effort we put into creating the individual products, the demand just wasn’t there. So we didn’t do it this time. Instead we kept the registration fee low, and offered early bird pricing for any audios purchased before the event.
You’d be surprised how many people turn down virtually free content just because it’s not free.
And that’s okay with me.
Because the ones that say “Yes, my business is worth $3″ are the people I want to work with. They’re the folks that recognize the real value of the content – and will probably put it to good use. They’re the folks who recognize that you can’t spend $3 to talk to ANY of the people at this event, but they can listen to all of them share their great ideas for next to nothing.
And this time, I’ve had less than five people play the ‘poor me’ card and ask for free access to audios for the event.
And that’s okay with me.
So while this event may not add tens of thousands of people to my list, I DO know that the folks that are signing up want what we’re sharing with them, and are willing to shell out a few bucks to have access to the content. It’s not about the number of folks – it’s their effectiveness, responsiveness, and VALUE to me as a business owner that matter much more.
But I still have my free weekly ezines and my opt-in freebies. I still have a marketing ‘funnel’, if you will. And that’s okay too. Some people are very leery when it comes to spending even $3 with a total stranger. So we feed them a little info from time to time, and encourage them to get to know us so they can make an educated decision. Frankly, if you don’t know me, like me and trust me enough to spend $3 with me, I don’t WANT your money. I want my customers eagerly whipping out their wallets because they know in their core the value I provide. They know that any investment I ask of them will return ten to a hundred-fold. They know that it’s not a cost, it’s an investment and they’re willing to make that investment – not in me, but in themselves.
That’s the kind of list I’m building. It may be smaller than some, but it’s mightier than others.
And that’s okay by me.
Saying ‘No’ is Sexy Part One: Boundaries
In a recent conversation with Ann Evanston, we talked about bringing sexy back to business. She is the beauty and brains behind warrior-preneur.com and is an instructor at my Small Biz Super Summit at the end of the month.
One of the key take-aways from that conversation was the idea that saying ‘no’ is sexy.
I have been SO un-sexy lately. And it takes work for me to say no.
Speaking opp? Okay.
Performance opp? Sure thing!
Sign up for a free teleclass? Why not?!
Help you promote your stuff? How can I help!?
In fact, for most women, it’s hard to say no – most of the time.
But this week, I put in some extra effort and turned down a couple of bright shiny objects that were REALLY appealing to me.
And I felt sexy.
And by ‘sexy’, I mean I felt more in control of who I am, what I’m about, and proud of the way I’m taking care of myself and my business.
Could there be anything more sexy?
Yes. Saying ‘no’ is sexy, but saying ‘YES!’ is even sexier – when you say ‘yes’ to the right things.
I said ‘yes’ to writing a book by the end of April, and getting it proofed and ready to publish. Yesterday, I said yes to creating a new e-book about the three secrets I’ve uncovered to get more of the right things done in my life. You can get your own copy when you post your details in the opt-in box on my website. I’m excited about sharing it and can’t wait to get your feedback.
Look at all the stuff I’m getting done! Because I chose to be sexy! Saying ‘no’ to bright shiny objects, and saying ‘yes’ to business enhancing projects.
That’s a whole lotta sexy goin’ on. By saying no, I was able to say yes.
Now instinctively I know that. I’ve read the books that say ‘create a vacuum in your life to make room for the better things God has planned for you’, ‘less is more’ and stuff like that.
And usually, I’m pretty good about sticking to my plans. Every once in a while, we all get distracted. And while those BSO’s have been flying through my radar for years, sometimes we need to get distracted.
I made an impromptu investment in a coaching program with Marcia Hoeck – and you’ve already seen my posts on how that worked out. I wouldn’t trade that BSO for anything. It moved my business exponentially down the field toward my ultimate goal. It distracted me from my work on the Super Summit, but it WASN’T a distraction for The Renaissance Mom. It was a MUST DO.
Part of my saying ‘no’ has been cleaning out my in-box this week. It’s been more than 3 years since I’ve had less than 1000 UNREAD messaged in my mailbox. I started having my assistant create filters, and I STILL had over 2000 unread messages. The oldest unread message dated back to April, 2008. Now most of these are subscription notices or updates and marketing messages that I just never opened because they didn’t apply to me. But I didn’t delete them, either. tsk tsk tsk.
As I went back to the messages from 2007, I saw an email promoting a website that is now defunct. Then another and another. In 2008, I saw more emails of the same ilk. Emails touting the next “latest and greatest” thing, and when you click on the link, the sites no longer exist.
These folks fell off my radar months, if not years ago, and yet they were still in my in-box. I think it’s safe to say I was one of those ‘non-responsive’ list members (more on that in part two)!
I know a women who STILL holds the recruiting title in her company for adding more than 50 recruits in a single month in her direct sales business. And yet, by the end of the year, less than 10 of those recruits were still active. She spent SO much time and energy training them, and lost 80% of them by the end of the year.
I’m not one to want to spin my wheels like that. That’s too much like work, and not enough like enjoyment, for me.
Setting healthy boundaries – in my personal and business life has allowed me to actually HAVE a life. Minimum wheel spinning, maximum enjoyment.
It doesn’t get much sexier than that.