You might be wondering what a membership site is. A membership site (or community site) is a way to monetize a website and protect its online content. In most cases members pay a regular fee (usually monthly) to have access to the site. With a membership site, owners can sell an ebook, protect their course material, deliver a home study program or utilize it for a host of other creative options.

Developing the sites came naturally to me and I was able to show the new owners how to easily manage their site. It also helped that I very much enjoy the work. At the same time, Focused Business Action, helping business owners get more stuff done, seems to have run its course.

So I decided to combine these 2 areas under one new business:

I create membership websites for service-oriented businesses

and

I help solo business owners be productive and effective
in their day to day activities.

I will be including much of the same material (and more!) from Focused Business Action to help business owners get stuff done. Only this new site is focused on membership site owners. The new business is called Corner Stone Community Sites. Go there now to check it out and see what I have to offer.

For those who would like to share a comment about my new venture, feel free to do so on the new blog.

After all, people buy from those they know, like and trust. What better way is there to build that trust than by connecting with them and their desires (and objections) for your product or service.

I have shared in other posts strategies to get “over there” with others. These same strategies can help you connect with potential clients and make it more likely that you will convert them to clients. Here are some highlights from those suggestions:

• Maintain eye contact with the speaker. This is not the be all and end all, and it is a great start to getting connected with the person across from you.
• Reflect back what you hear being said when there is a natural pause. If you hold the intention to do this, you will have no choice but to listen.
  • Some people like to hear their exact words being said back to them.
  • Others enjoy hearing their words paraphrased.
  • Or you could ask, “Are you feeling [fill in blank] because you are needing [fill in blank]?

• Voice mirroring – Remember when you were a kid and you used to bug your brother by repeating everything he said? Voice mirroring is just like that. You say the speaker’s words as they come out of their mouth. But you do it inside your head, rather than out loud. Voice Mirroring brings your focus to the words the other person is saying rather than anything going on in your head. So when you find yourself nervous or having trouble concentrating in a conversation, try this for a sentence or two, and see how effective this strategy can be.

Do you want to learn more about connecting compassionately?  Come to our free teleseminar this Tuesday.

Create a Successful and Sustainable Business

Compassionate Communication as a Business Building Tool

Many solo business owners have outstanding skills related to their product or service, but lack the marketing and organizing skills to sustain themselves in doing their life’s work.

On this call, Jeff Brown will share how he created a thriving  business in his own independent practice using principles of abundance  combined with unique and practical action steps.

Jeff will share with you how to:

• Create financial abundance by surrendering limiting beliefs about money
• Enthusiastically promote yourself by releasing self-doubt, false humility and the martyr syndrome
• Respond to potential clients’ concerns and objections and convert them to customers
• Create balance and synergy by diversifying income-earning activities

For more information and to register for this  free conference call on Tuesday, click here.

Drawing on his many year’s experience as a writer, Steven Pressfield (The Legend of Bagger Vance, Gates of Fire) goes self-help in The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles. Dubbing itself a cross between Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War and Julie Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, Pressfield’s book aims to help readers “overcome resistance” so that they may achieve “the unlived life within.”

Even though the book  is mostly written for frustrated writers struggling with writer’s block, business owners will find the wisdom in this book helpful. After all, you are attempting to channel your creative energies as you develop marketing plans, write copy, or go through the sales process with a potential client.

Whether one wishes to embark on a diet, a program of spiritual advancement or an entrepreneurial venture, it’s most often resistance that blocks the way. To kick resistance, Pressfield stresses loving what one does, having patience and acting in the face of fear.

Here are some selections from the book that struck me as particularly poignant:

I hold Olympic records for procrastination. I can procrastinate thinking about my procrastination problem. I can procrastinate dealing with my problem of procrastinating thinking about my procrastination problem.

Look in your heart. Unless I’m crazy, right now a still small voice is piping up, telling you as it has ten thousand times, the calling that is yours and yours alone. You know it. No one has to tell you. And unless I’m crazy, you’re no closer to taking action on it than you were yesterday or will be tomorrow. You think resistance isn’t real? Resistance will bury you.

You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and later to the School of Architecture. Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement, but I’ll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas.

Seeking support from friends and family is like having your people gathered around at your deathbed. It’s nice, but when the ships sails, all they can do is stand on the dock waving goodbye.

It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior’s life. ~ Telamon of Arcadia, mercenary of the fifth century B.C.

Someone once asked Somerset Maugham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. “I write only when inspiration strikes,” he replied. “Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.”

What came up for you when you read the selections from the book? Have you read the book? Feel free to share with us in the comments.

1. Put them in luggage tags instead of writing the same ol’ boring name and address
2. Use them as a bookmark
3. Write on the back for quick notes when you don’t have any scratch paper
4. Use them as name labels for books
5. Clean out the keyboard — “really gets those mini-dust bunnies and some other stuff that I try not to analyze too much!”
6. Use them to clean tiny crevices around the house (like the space next to the oven, around the bathroom sink, in between tiles…you get the idea)
7. Use as labels on those black file cabinets. Just cut a little off the edge, write what you want on the back with a marker and slip it into the label holder.
8. Build a card castle
9. Make cubes (this is COOL!)
10. Clean between your teeth instead of dental floss (GROSS!)

Do you have any more suggestions to add to the list? Let us know in the comments.

Wow, What a Great Business Card! 15 Tips to Make Your Next One Even Better

To learn more about using your business card as a marketing tool that will actually do what it’s meant to do, join us this Tuesday for the Marketing Action Seminar.

You will learn:

• key words and other elements to attract a wider spectrum of clients
• top 7 elements to include on an effective business card
• 8 things that are least liked about business cards

For more information and to register for this free conference call, click here.

Mindmapping takes advantage of the tendency of the mind to work in short, intense bursts by allowing you to “dump” your ideas and thoughts onto paper in just a few minutes. This process allows information to flow freely out of your busy brain and it is organized into clusters as it flows from your mind to the page. This is brainstorming with a twist.

1. To begin you only need a piece of paper and something to write with.
2. In a box in the center of your paper, write one or two words which capture the essence of the problem you want to solve or the project you want to implement.
3. Then, as ideas start to pour out related to the topic, write down key words of those thoughts and connect them to the focus with lines.It is critical that you use just key words, because you want to capture your thoughts quickly-just enough to stimulate your memory when you go back later to review.
4. As each idea is generated which relates to one of the branches, write the key word(s) and associate it to the branch with a line.
5. Allow yourself to put down everything that comes to your mind. The longer you keep information in play, the more opportunity that information has to make new connections, to bounce off other ideas and information and to score new ideas.

Mindmapping is widely recommended to help explore creativity and problem-solve. Here are seven ways you can make use of mindmapping in your business:

• Business writing – Whether you are organizing material for a report or exploring an idea for a new business venture, mindmapping will help you bring depth and richness to your writing.
• Project Management – Mindmapping is an excellent way to begin “chunking” down a project.
• Managing Meetings – Much of our work time is spent in meetings. Mindmapping gives you a way to make this time more productive.
• To Do Lists – If standard “to do” lists don’t work for you, try this method.
• Presentations - Mindmapping gives you an easy way to prepare for speeches; it helps your audience understand and remember more of what you are presenting.
• Note-taking – This visually interesting method of note taking allows you to organize information as you receive it, add connections, and increase retention.
• Personal growth – Mindmapping taps into your deepest thoughts and provides an effective method of discovering our inner selves.

How might you use mindmapping in your business. Let us know by leaving a comment.

Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it. ~ Jack Canfield

Have you heard of the Law of Attraction which has been getting a lot of press lately? In short, you attract what you think and feel. The law is very clear. If you want good things to come in to your life, you’ve got to be thinking about those things and feeling as if you already have them. If you have things in your life you wish were different, it’s time to take a look at what you’re focusing on.

If you want to know how you’re doing, all you have to do is look at what you’ve been attracting into your life. It is a clear sign of what you are thinking and feeling.

I have a concern though, about how people take on the Law of Attraction. The teachers of LOA talk about action, but many of their students only focus on the attraction part. So much so that they tend to downplay the action part. The Law of Attraction is great AND you can’t take the “action” out of “attraction!” Whether it is due to fear, lack of confidence in marketing or a desire for an easy way out,they don’t act.

Don’t get me wrong. I completely believe in the Law of Attraction. I have seen its results in my life. And (this is an important and), I believe there are other important laws in the universe. The law of gravity for one is vital to our lives. Stopping at red lights is another one that works.

Then there are the laws that directly impact your business such as the Law of Supply and Demand that we learned in Economics class. The following story illustrates another law for your business that I enjoy just as much as The Law of Attraction.

A man finds himself in dire financial trouble. He prays earnestly to God to help him out of his predicament. “God, I’m about to lose my car. Please help me. Let me win the lottery.” Lottery night comes, but sadly he is not the winner.

Things go from bad to worse. Without a car to get to work, he loses his job. Without a job, his mortgage is foreclosed on and he loses his home. Without a home, his wife leaves him taking the kids. After each horrible step in the mounting crisis, he pleads with God to let him win the lottery, but he never does.

Finally, broke, hungry, living on the street, he tries again. “God, please, my life is a wreck. I have no car, no home, no family. Please let me win the lottery just this once so that I can turn my life around. I beg you.”

Suddenly, a flash of light rends the sky and the voice of God echoes down from the heavens.

“Meet me halfway. Buy a ticket.”

Funny and poignant. I love it!

Yes, your thoughts and beliefs have a huge impact on what comes in to your life. And, true progress comes when you meet your beliefs halfway and get into action. I call this the Law of Action.

Virtually anyone who appears to be solely using the Law of Attraction or seems to be enjoying an “effortless” business, is working their butt off behind the scenes (or has done so for many years!). Granted they likely love what they do so it doesn’t feel like work, but when it comes down to it they acted on their passion and are reaping the rewards.

At the risk of hammering this point home until it’s a flat blob 6 feet under, here’s another illustration by Chellie Campbell.

You can learn how to play the piano. You can study music composition and theory, learn to read music and build dexterity in your fingers. You can buy the finest piano money can buy, rent an auditorium, sell tickets and gather an audience.

But if you don’t actually put your fingers on the keyboard and play–nothing will happen. You can sit in front of the piano and think “Ohmmm, I’m playing beautiful music, ohmmm…” but unless you’ve rigged a player piano, no music is going to come out of it.

Let the Law of Attraction meet the Law of Action. When passion meets action, results happen.

The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps–we must step up the stairs. ~ Vance Havner

Here are some coaching questions to ponder:

1. What are you waiting for in your business?
2. In what area(s) of your business are you being called to take action?
3. Name 1-3 action steps you can take to move forward in those areas.
4. Who will hold you accountable to your action steps?

Feel free to share a comment below.

For example, in a scene you might be asked, “Do you sell fence posts?” A tempting response might be, “No,we don’t sell anything”. That might get a laugh, but it offers no new directions for the scene to go in and gives your partner nothing to work with.

So just say “Yes” and keep going by adding more concrete detail.

“Yessiree, I’ve got a cow-fence post here that even a 4,000-pound cow was unable to tip over.”

Now something is happening. That could trigger just about anything in your scene partner’s imagination.

“Oh, good! I’ve only got two 2000-pound cows, but they like to team up. Now let’s see, I’ve got them enclosed in half an acre…how many fence posts am I going to need?”

Now, in just two lines, we’ve gone from nothing to the beginnings of a plot.

This can work for you in your business, as well. Whether you are with your employee or a client, “Yes, And…” requires you to listen to what they are saying It gives you practice in valuing and respecting other people’s ideas, taking the time to acknowledge and find some value in each suggestion and opening yourself to other perspectives.

The alternative is “No, But” usually cloaked in a “Yeah, But” even though it’s really a “No, But.” We have been well trained to look for what doesn’t work; therefore, we typically respond to new ideas with “Yeah, But…” not even considering what may be of value in another person’s idea. In the long run, this has the effect of narrowing our world down to only our own ideas and ways of doing things.

Try this: The next time an employee or clients offers you an idea, respond by appreciating at least one aspect of what was offered.

• Use this phrase ‘What I like about your idea is…,” completing it with something you can honestly say you like about the idea.
• After offering your appreciation (which is the “Yes” step), you can say, “And…” Then, add your own idea. (If you really want to play full out, answer as if there are no restrictions whatsoever to limit your response. Budget, practicality, and the laws of physics do not exist.)

Watch what happens.

• What is your experience?
• What effect does this have on the both of you?
• Is it hard to find something you appreciated about your partner’s contributions?
• What effect might a “Yes and…” attitude have on your business relationships?

Here is your homework (for the rest of your life). Whenever you want to say “But…,” stop yourself and begin with “Yes, And…” instead. It might be hard at first to find common ground, and your conversations (and even negotiations) will be more successful if you remove the word “but” from your vocabulary and do your part to build a culture of “yes” in your business.

What is most lacking in your business? The answer I hear most from new members in my program is that they would like more money and more clients. However, you don’t get more money and more clients simply by wishing it were true.

Here’s the key that I really want you to get in this series:

The systems you put in place actually determine the success of your business.

Building a business without systems is like building a house without a frame. You’re just never going to get enough support to hold up the whole structure and the whole house will come tumbling down. When you focus on developing systems for your business, you make it more likely that you will follow through on the stuff that brings you results which then bring in those new clients and grows your business to 6 (or even 7) figures.

Now, I’m not suggesting that by creating systems you’re going to have a complete turnaround overnight in your productivity and in your business. That’s usually a long-term goal for the next, say, 6-12 months.

And just like a small course correction on a ship can make a large change in its destination, I’m here to tell you that you can begin to turn your business in the direction that you want it to go. You do that by creating systems that will help you focus and take action.

It’s the Law of Attraction combined with the Law of Action, coming together to support you in getting in touch with what athletes, artists, salespeople, teachers, all who have experienced being completely focused in a moment know as being in The Zone. I want you to experience being in The Zone with your business by creating systems in the following four areas:

• Mindset (thoughts and beliefs)
• Environment and Organization
• Strategic Planning
• Implementation and Follow-through

I tell you more about these 4 areas in subsequent messages. The first thing you can do right now though is make a decision. There are lots of resources available to help you, but resources won’t make a lick of difference until you decide.

So decide right now that you will work smarter, not harder and sign up for the Power Productivity: 7 Key Strategies for Getting Stuff Done mini-course by filling out the form in the top right hand corner of my website’s Home page. Or send a blank email to fbatips@aweber.com.

Do it now. It will change the way you do business.

It’s time for a major re-evaluation of your planning if you find most hours of your day you are shoulding on yourself (because that really stinks).

Here’s the way that I look at it: Your daily action plan works for you, you don’t work for it!

• Make a conscious choice of what to do next rather than choosing what is most enjoyable in the moment.
• Your daily action plan is a tool that you manage and you can be flexible with it by moving non-time-bound events around. Just remember that you’re in charge.

As you practice flexibility, your schedule can help you see more clearly what you’re trading for what. You can ask yourself questions such as:

• Is this conversation more important to me than sending out invoices?
• More important than getting to my meeting on time?

The answer may be “yes.” This may be a person who is important to you whom you haven’t seen in a long time. You may have an important issue to discuss with this person. Your daily action plan doesn’t forbid changes in the plan – but the operative word is “plan” instead of “Oh, shoot! I lost track of time.”

If you have action items on your schedule that are not time-bound (in other words not attached to a specific time), be open to moving them to somewhere else on your schedule when life gets in the way. Here’s the key, though. To keep from postponing the item indefinitely and never getting it completed, give yourself a limit of 2 times to move the item. After that, get it done at the time you planned.

The fretting continues for a week or two, and he feels the pressure of not getting it done. Eventually, he lets it go, figuring he’ll do one next month. But the same thing happens next month. By the time he actually sends his newsletter, six months have gone by and he practically has to reintroduce himself to his subscribers.

Does this sound familiar?

The bottom line (quoting Linda):

A newsletter that is sent inconsistently–one here, another four months later, the next six months from that–is almost not worth sending at all.

But now all that’s changed. On the Marketing Action Seminar call with Linda, I got very clear on why and what I need to do.

First, the why. I have a number of subscriber lists including ones for my blog, the Marketing Action Seminar, and my newsletter. I thought about how my newsletter list is the biggest of all the lists I have and as all the marketing people say, “There’s gold in that list.” I was losing an opportunity to demonstrate my expertise, build credibility and trust, develop a loyal following, and add value to people’s lives. Getting in touch with that put some fire under me.

So with that newly found inspiration, I now publicly commit to the following two suggestions that Linda shared during her presentation and which support my sending out the newsletter consistently.

1. Keep an editorial calendar.

When you lay out your newsletter topics for the whole year, you always know what you are supposed to write about. When you write the tasks in your calendar (and follow through), you assure yourself that your newsletter will go out like clockwork, the hallmark of a great newsletter strategy. So when you create an annual newsletter calendar, you know what you want to write about in advance and you’ve scheduled the time to do them.

So here’s what I did. I first made a list of all the topic ideas in my head and I brainstormed more ideas using Linda’s Ezine Planner. I then printed out a calendar and figured out the 2 days each month the newsletter is going out.  I finished by filling in each day for the rest of the year with the topics that I’m going to write about .

One last thing: I also scheduled myself at the beginning of each quarter to update the editorial calendar. That way it can be up to date with any new events going on in my life.

2. Always have newsletters in the hopper.

Linda has a service where you can buy newsletter articles which you are then free to edit and use as you please.  I bought 5 articles from Linda just in case I get behind. Not that I’m planning to break my commitment to send out the newsletter consistently, but hey, everybody’s human and I’d like to have a plan B that I know I can fall back on if needed.

I feel so..well.. organized. I have the editorial calendar to guide me and if I do get stuck I can always use one of the articles I bought from Linda.

What do you do to stay on top of newsletter writing? Share in the comments.

( By the way here is Linda’s article service. She also has a minicourse on how to generate great, targeted content easily and learn other unique newsletter strategies. Download your FREE copy of the Easy Ezine Content Creator. I highly recommend it.)