Posts Tagged "USEFUL and Free"

Embracing Eclecticism: The Multi-faceted approach to business

Posted by LisaYoung in Big Ideas | 7 comments

Think Richard Branson, Oprah, Kathy Ireland, and the like.

These multi-passionate entrepreneurs have gone big time by embracing their eclecticism, and there’s a good reason for it.

It works.

Simply put, embracing all the facets of who you are means you’ll feel more satisfied in the work that you do. I’m a direct sales coach, and a mom entrepreneur. I fought hard to carve out a niche in the coaching arena and realized that it was only a fraction of who I was, and the work that I do well. In reality, I like working with all kinds of entrepreneurs, and my heart most resonates with parents – and entrepreneurial moms in particular.

So do I give up coaching direct sellers? Hardly! Not only am I good at bringing fast results for direct sales professionals, I LOVE it. Why would I give it up?

However, there are so many hours in a day. Any mom can tell you that. How do you bring all the things that you love under one roof? Here are my strategies for embracing eclecticism:

1. Focus on one project at a time. This is a challenge for entrepreneurs, but in order to find success in anything, you’ve got to focus on SOMETHING – even if it’s only for a short time. I completed my book and developed my coaching client base so that I had enough income to pursue other interests. The more money you have to throw at a project, the easier it is to keep multiple plates spinning at once.
2. Develop a reputation for excellence. If you sell crap, people will talk. If you deliver the goods, consistently, reliably, and with quality, people will also talk – and they’ll trust you when you branch out into other categories or markets. They’ll refer others to you based on their history with you – even if they’ve not sampled your new venture. When I launched The Renaissance Mom this year, I was able to introduce my existing clients rapidly to my new venture. I just launched the first product for the new company, The PEACE System, and I had more than 80% attendance on the live preview call (I’ve NEVER had that kind of turnout, and I’ve been told that 30% is more typical.) Some clients embraced it immediately, others sent me referrals because they knew my reputation for delivering a quality program. A reputation for excellence begets clients more rapidly.
3. Diversify slowly. Don’t throw 15 irons in the fire. Give your new project enough focus to have a fighting chance for success. Oprah incubates projects under her care. Branson has an entire panel of people considering new venture investments. When you decide on something, take action to make it successful, but take your time when adding to your business “portfolio”.
4. Grow your support team. Whether it’s support staff (VA’s, employees, etc.),  an emotional support team or a mastermind group, you can’t grow beyond yourself by yourself. A solid support team makes exponential growth easier, and more possible.
5. Enjoy your success. It doesn’t mean a hill of beans if you have an incredible team of people and a highly profitable business if you can’t take time off to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Find ways (even small ones) to reward yourself and celebrate your accomplishments. It’s a form of self-care that shouldn’t be ignored.
6. Rinse and repeat.

What about all those ideas you want to work on? Start with the low hanging fruit first – do what comes easiest, and add projects as time and money allow. I keep a mental lock-box of ideas for later use, and incorporate them into my PEACE System process each day. It’s fun to be able to pull them out (and dust them off sometimes), and figure out where they fit in the grand scheme of  ”my business empire.”

Don’t panic if you have a ton of ideas. Sequester them, assess them, and decide where to move first. Then you can come back later and add the others to your arsenal. You, too, can become the multi-faceted, multi-passionate entrepreneur you’ve always dreamed you’d become.

Saying ‘No’ is Sexy Part One: Boundaries

Posted by LisaYoung in Big Ideas | 0 comments

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.

What Matters Most – God and Focus

Posted by LisaYoung in Big Ideas, Faith | 0 comments

I heart Seth Godin.

The guy’s not only a genius at dissecting the social creature – as demonstrated by his numerous books – he’s also not afraid to share that knowledge with the world in ways that don’t necessarily bring a monetary return.

That’s fancy speak for saying he gives away free stuff that’s high quality.

One of his latest projects is sort of a crowdsourced e-book called “What Matters Most”. In it, dozens of authors speakers and friends of influence have contributed short, one-page ideas that just might shake up your snowglobe. It’s free. You can (and should) take hold of this book and read it as if your life depended on it (because it might).

Focused Intensity over Time, multiplied by God equals Unstoppable Momentum

First, in a “big business” book, it’s always refreshing to see a reference, acknowledgement or other acceptance of God as a catalyst in the world. I admit that I’ve not been familiar with Ramsey’s work, and as a former financial advisor, tended to shy away from his work because of all kinds of wrong thinking on my part. This formula changes everything.

Second, this formula works regardless of your religious/spiritual beliefs. If we subsitute numbers for God, they can be any number you choose to believe. It doesn’t matter if you beleive in God or not. God only multiples your efforts. For you, God can be a zero, and you get nothing. Or he can be ’1′ and there’s no multiplication. It’s just you, doing what you can, over time.

Or you can choose to make God truly infinite – which gives you what Ramsey calls “Unstoppable Momentum”. Ultimately it’s your choice that determines the outcome. I LOVE that.

Third, Ramsey acknowledges the need for intense focus. That means one thing. You can’t wear 80 gajillion hats all the time. You need to focus on one thing in any given moment. It’s been a process for me, and I’m leading a group of business women right now through a process of self-study to help themselves gain more clarity and hone their focus on the important things in their lives. Each of them is shaking off old ideas, prioritizing the REALLY important things (instead of what they think they “should” do), and taking action in the moment to improve their lives and their results. I plan to share the full-blown project with the world next year, but the discoveries we’ve been making have litterally shifted my whole way of thinking about the need for focus.

In your life, and in your business, what are you choosing? I’m not so much talking about your faith, although that could be a big factor in your success. I’m talking about what choices are you making about what matters most to you. If you want momentum, Ramsey suggests you need focused intensity over a period of time. How much time are you focusing on what really matters? How much time are you devoting to that area of focus? If your results aren’t what you expected why? What could you do differently? Is it a matter of time or a matter of focus, or something else entirely?

Understanding those ideas will help move you forward in a way that you may never have dreamed before.

Free or freebie? There is a difference.

Posted by LisaYoung in Big Ideas | 0 comments

In marketing, we talk about the power of the word “Free”

One of my Direct Sales Leaders was oft found telling her teams “People love ‘Free stuff’” in an effort to generate a feeding frenzy at parties. “They don’t even care what it is, as long as it’s free.”

Um. No.

There was a time when you could give away your business card with a coupon on the back of it for 10% off their next purchase, and people got giddy.

That bird has flown.

Free has been reduced to a watered down, hackneyed attemp on the part of almost everyone to get your contact info, pawn off old junk, or avoid the real work of coming up with something really valuable.

Freebies are those little “goodies” of insignificant value that people give willy nilly to their clients, potential clients, hair dresser, bell hop, flight attendant, and your uncle’s brother’s nephew’s cousin on your great grandpappy’s side.

Everybody gets ‘em, and very few people really want them. They accept them, offer a cordial “thanks!” and you think you’ve done a good deed for the day – or worse, that they’ve just invited you to share about your income opportunity for the next 45 minutes.

Stop it.

Free is a value proposition. Free doesn’t have to be expensive. It DOES have to be valuable.

Free will cost you something. More often than not, it’s not the monetary investment, but the time or effort expended to make, develop or acquire the valueable free item in the first place.

For example, when you’re creating an opt-in offer, be sure that the person would be willing to PAY for whatever you’re giving away. An ebook full of recipes is nice, but include a special, exclusive recipe that they can’t find just doing a google search. Yeah, it takes a little effort. But the effort you invest on the front end will pay you back many times over.

There’s a big hullabaloo going on right now that because so many people are giving away “free stuff” that you’re watering down your value. Forget it.

If the only value you have is in whatever you’re giving away, you’ve missed the boat. The idea is to give people a valuable taste of what you have to offer so that they want more. You’ve heard me talk about creating a customer “crack addiction” before. The idea that people get a taste,and can’t get enough of you. That’s how it’s supposed to be.

But if you’re getting a bunch of “tire-kicking, freebie seekers”, maybe you need to look at the value of what you provide.

If you know you’ve got a quality product or service, the next thing to look at is the market you’re targeting.

You don’t have to plaster the word “FREE” all over your website 8 gajillion times. Emphasise the value of what you offer, rather than the fact that it’s free. I’m sure your perfect fit customer isn’t a freebie seeker – so why market to them?

There’s a difference between free and freebie. The value makes the difference.

4 Simple Strategies Saved My Life

Posted by LisaYoung in Uncategorized | 0 comments

The last 6 months have been a time of tremendous change in my life. Heck, this whole year has been a roller coaster, but especially the last half of 2008.

Things have been so crazy, and stressful, and frantic, and exciting, that my doctor told me I needed to lighten my stress load before I became another family statistic.

So I got cast in a musical, created a new direct sales training course with my good friend Ruth Fuersten, and agreed to help a friend create a website for a local comic and entertainment publication that’s being born in my home town.

And I didn’t break a sweat. Well, okay, I sweat a lot during the musical, but that was because it was hot on the stage under all those lights.

I’ve lost 15 pounds (and counting). I feel less stressed most days (remember, I’ve got 2 kids!). And I have never felt better about my business and financial future.

Why? I’m building better customers. My businesses now revolve around me, instead of revolving my businesses around my frustomers – those frustrating customers that seemed to exist oly to make my life more difficult.

So I finally said “ta ta” in 4 simple steps.

Wanna know the steps?

I’m sharing them FREE of charge on a call this Monday night. I’m not holding anything back, either. You’ll not only hear from me, but two of my “guinea pigs” that I’ve already shared this process with. They’ll be telling you how it’s helped them. And if it will help us, I know can help you, too.

Clear away the “frustomers” in your life. It could save your life, too!