Free Trainings Coming This Fall

Hey there… 🙂

I’m planning a series of free training calls for the fall… what would you like to learn from me most?

Let me know in the comments below – and thanks!

cheers,
~ A

How to Overcome the 4 Most Common Struggles of Every Entrepreneur


While the message and the market of your business may be different, there are some stumbling blocks that seem to pop up for even the seasoned entrepreneur.

Here are four of the ones that I frequently coached on with my private clients:

1. Not moving ahead even when they know what to do.

Almost always, this is a fear-based immobility. Whether it’s fear of failure or fear of success (the later seems more prevalent for entrepreneurs, including myself). We come up with all kinds of excuses as to why something isn’t getting done, but most often it has nothing to do with anything other than fear of the possible result of moving forward.

If you’re afraid of failing, remember that in our online world, we get to test things out with very little risk. My favorite strategy is to ‘fail fast’. Put it out there, see what happens, tweak until you get the result you want.

If you’re afraid of success, then you need to take a look at your Big Money Why (BMW – see #4) to see how you can make it more powerful and motivating (tip: money is never enough of a motivator, believe it or not). And you need to put in place a process for how you will handle the abundance that’s too come.

2. Being self-disciplined enough to make and stick to self-imposed deadlines.

The wonderful thing about being an entrepreneur is that you’re your own boss. The tricky thing about that is most, if not all, of our deadlines are self-imposed. Which makes them very easy to move, doesn’t it? I know because I’ve struggled with this one more than once.

If we go back to knowing what your emotionally driven motivator is for the success you desire, you’ll be more likely to stick to those self-imposed deadlines – but only if that BMW is strong enough.

Here’s a simple but very powerful tip for you in sticking to your own deadlines: Make them public. When I launched my first info-product, I told my ezine list that they would be able to buy it on a certain date, which gave me about 3 weeks to get it done. And done it was.

3. Claiming leadership status and fulling stepping into the role of the CEO of your business.

Once an entrepreneur gets the foundational pieces in place for their business, it’s actually easy to stay in the start-up phase, because it’s comfortable. And because often they don’t know what the next step is, what the next layer of the business should look like, to take them to the next level.

The sooner they can take on the leadership role, by becoming the CEO of their business (even if they don’t call themselves that), the faster the growth of both the entrepreneur and the business.

One of the ways you can step more fully into that role is by delegating. So if you’ve been in business for a couple of years and you’re still doing too much of the managing of it, and especially if you’re doing all the admin work, and you haven’t hired an assistant yet, it’s time. Start with one small project and add from there,

For every task in your business, ask yourself, “Is this something I should be doing?”

Because remember, even if you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD.

If the answer is no, then pass it off to a capable assistant.

4. Having an emotionally driven motivator for your Big Money Why (BMW).

This is probably the most important one…

Money is NOT enough of a motivator, no matter how much you want it, or are attached to the ‘6-Figure’ or “million-dollar’ mark. There has to be a reason behind wanting it, something that is so strong that it drives you and the business forward, no matter what.

If you find things aren’t moving as quickly as you’d like, or it feels too hard much of the time, or you just aren’t using your time and talent effectively, take a look at your Big Money Why. And if you haven’t done this before, then that’s your coaching homework.

In as much detail as possible, write out why you want the financial success you do. Is it to give to your family, is it to give to others, is it to create a charitable foundation, is it to take care of elderly parents, is it to enable your children to get the best education you can give them, is it to travel and expand your world view, is it to buy a nicer home for your family, is it to give experiences to those you love – they are a thousand reasons why, but you need to be very clear of what they are for YOU before you can make them happen.

Do you Have the Courage to Create Wealth?

Other than with my Platinum clients, I don’t talk about this too often, but your mindset is as important to the success of your business as your skills are at what it is that you do. In my brand-new L.E.A.P.™ GOLD* program, we’ll cover this topic first so we can get you in the perfect frame of mind to have the clarity and peace to boldly move forward in your business.

This one topic alone could unlock the door to unlimited prosperity for you.

Reserve one of the *very* limited seats TODAY

I’d love to hear which of these four mindset shifts you’re willing to embrace today. Feel free to share with me below.

Joint Ventures 101


Do you know that one of the best ways to build a successful online business quickly is through joint ventures?

I know this concept can be a bit hard to grasp to those of us who like being a lone ranger (one of the common traits of being an entrepreneur, right?). But what I know is that since I’ve embraced the “no one reaches success alone” philosophy myself, I’ve enjoyed a huge increase in my business, in terms of clients, customers, revenues and fantastic opportunities that would not have happened otherwise.

To begin, what exactly is a joint venture?

Simple: a joint venture happens when two or more business owners decide to do something together that benefits all parties.

For example, when two authors write a book together. Or when three colleagues produce a live event together. Or when twelve experts come together to hold a telesummit.

The purpose is for each of the business owners to promote the others’ wares. In other words, you tell your list about my stuff and I’ll tell mine about yours. 🙂

Besides the obvious benefit of helping each other build your email list of potential clients and customers, there’s also the added value you give to your own list by introducing them to something that can benefit them in addition to your own offerings.

And you simply make more money!

How? Well, if you’ve been following along with me for awhile, you know that the way to build a successful and sustainable business online is to 1) find out what your niche wants; 2) create it; 3) offer it to them via the list you’ve been building all along.

Because it’s those people on your list who have raised their hand to tell you that they want more information from you. They are the people who will tell you what they want and then buy it from you when you offer it.

Joint venturing can also make the work you do easier, more creative, and more fun simply by sharing the idea and tasks involved.

To get you started, here are some things you should do when considering a joint venture:

1. Get to know your potential partner first.

Sign up for their Free Taste and/or ezine. Do some research and reading to see what they are about and how you can potentially complement each other.

2. Partner with someone who shares the same audience as you.

A great potential joint venture partner is someone who already has an email list whom they’ve developed a relationship with and to whom they can and do make offers to periodically.

3. Pick 1 or 2 potential partners to approach first.

Create a list of 5 or so potential joint venture partners, and pick your top 1 or 2 to approach with an initial “I had an idea of something we could do together that would benefit us both as well as our audiences” email. Be sure to tell them what’s in it for them, but keep this first contact simple and somewhat casual (yet professional) in tone.

Once you do your first successful joint venture, you might find that it was so easy and enjoyable that you’ll start doing more and more of them. I know I will!

Do you want to learn how to “Collaborate, Don’t Compete”?

If you’ve been around me for awhile, you know that I don’t believe in competition, and since this seems to be a bit of a mind-stretch for many entrepreneurs (and a barrier to reaching the next level in income in their business), I felt it was very important to cover the topic of collaborating with your colleagues – and how to do it with integrity and authenticity – in my brand-new L.E.A.P.™ GOLD program.

I can tell you that a major factor in the dramatic increase in my revenues over the last few years has come from joint ventures that I’ve done with people I admire and trust, who also serve my market.

Learn how to approach a potential joint venture partner, what to say, how to discuss who does what, how to split the money – every critical factor you need to know in order to come across as a professional and be invited to do more lucrative ventures in the future.

Interested? Reserve one of the *very* limited seats TODAY

I’d love to hear about successful joint ventures you’ve done already, and/or your comments or thoughts about teaming up with other like-minded colleagues. Feel free to share them with me below.

4 Ways to Gracefully Set Boundaries in Your Business


Over the years, I’ve developed very strong boundaries in my business, which have contributed to its quick growth, and I coach a lot on setting and standing strong in boundaries with many of my clients. I wanted to share some of the ways I’ve created and strengthened the boundaries within the way I run my business so you can do the same.

Here are 4 ways that you can gracefully set boundaries in your business:

1. Have a policy page

For every product, program or service you offer, someone is going to ask you to do something different for them. It could be to offer it in a different format, at a different time or day, with a payment plan option, or dozens of other scenarios than I can’t possibly cover here.

As a general rule of thumb, don’t accommodate. Yes, there will be times when you make a different decision, but most of the time, stick to the parameters you created in the first place. You can’t please everyone, and every time you accommodate someone, you a) typically un-accommodate someone else who was just fine with the way your offer stood in the first place, and b) attract more people who will ask you to bend things for them in the future.

What do you do with the requests you get? Create a policy page from each and every decision you’ve made on how you will or will not run your business. Then when the next person makes a similar request, you simply send them to that page that explains clearly what your policy is, and that the policy applies to everyone. It takes the edge of it feeling like saying ‘no’ was a personal decision as much as it makes it super-simple for your team to handle these requests.

2. Be fair to ALL your clients

Being fair to all my clients is one value that I hold that makes it easy for me to be clear about the boundaries I have in place in my business. If you remember that it’s NOT that you aren’t willing or don’t want to be accommodating, but that it simply wouldn’t be fair to the rest of your clients and customers by doing so, it makes it much easier to say no graciously, and it keeps your integrity intact.

3. Have a buffer

Having someone on my team who manages these requests is imperative. First, as the business owner and leader of my company, it’s not the best use of my time or energy to be dealing with these requests personally. Second, my team is quite capable of knowing when a request may require my attention, and I trust them to let me know. And third, it makes saying ‘no’ less personal and much more graceful and respectful to the person making the request when they get an answer from my team instead of from me.

4. Be willing to let go

Ok, this one used to pop up for me a lot when I still struggled with a tendency to over-explain. I liked to craft just the right words to make sure someone understood my decision about something. I’ve realized that in doing so I wasted a lot of time, energy and emotion. So I stopped doing that for the most part. Once in a while when I found myself back in that loop again, and when I realized how much of my team’s time I was wasting, it bopped me over the head and I instantly went back to my short-but-sweet way of responding.

Here’s the thing: there’s always going to be a tiny percentage of people who want you to customize and accommodate them. But let them go play somewhere else. Because what happens when you stick to your guns is that you honor your value, your time, and your self-respect. You attract more clients and customers who are ideal and who are respectful of you and your team as well, and your business runs more smoothly and more joyfully.

Which one of these boundaries can you set in your business today? Please share below…

Top 10 Reasons You Must Have a Signature System



Did you know there’s a super-simple way to leverage your gifts, talent and know-how into lucrative, highly leveraged income streams?

It’s your Signature System, and it’s your step-by-step formula for multiple streams success.

So, what exactly is a Signature System? It’s the work you’re ALREADY doing with clients, packaged into a highly marketable, step-by-step system they’ll want to buy.

If you’re thinking you can’t create a system because every client is different, think again. EVERY service can be transformed into a simple, repeatable system clients will happily say ‘yes’ to.

Once I figured this out and finally moved away from solely working one-on-one with clients and started adding other revenue streams, I knew I’d found the right system that was going to help me create the kind of income I desired.

Specifically, here are the top 10 reasons why having a Signature System is a MUST to quickly transition out of 1-on-1 work…

1. Your clients LOVE systems.

They’re so overloaded, they can’t even stop to think. Your system tells them “I’ve done the work so you don’t have to.”

2. Your clients can practically predict their success.

When they see the results others have achieved, clients feel very reassured… and start to picture the results for themselves.

3. Your Signature System sets you apart.

It’s as unique as your signature, after all – nobody else has it!

4. Instant credibility.

Without a system, your services can appear all over the place. A system instantly elevates you to expert status.

5. Quicker, easier sales.

Your clients “get” what you offer much quicker and are ready to buy much sooner.

6. Your clients get better results…

…when they follow given steps in a given order, instead of blundering around trying to find their way.

7. Your clients get results faster…

… because they’re not wasting time on needless “stuff.”

8. Your clients come back again and again…

…because they’ve had such success with you the first time!

9. You’ll help more people…

…because your Signature System (or key elements of it) can be “bottled and sold” at different investment and commitment points.

10. And best of all…

…you’ll see just how easy it is to create 3, 4 or even more lucrative income streams that will deliver a steady and predictable flow of cash into your business. And you know what that means? Peace of mind. Priceless.

I’d love to know your thoughts on having your own Signature System – please leave your comments below.

3 Steps to Your Next Profitable Offer

 

Do you get stuck when trying to figure out what to offer to your market next? Do you wonder if they’ll buy what you put together for them? Just follow these three steps to easily create your next successful offer:

Step 1: Know what your market WANTS

Be really clear on your market, what their problem is, and what your solution to that problem is. And more importantly, don’t make the mistake of creating something that you think your market needs before you find out if it’s something they want.

How do you find out what they want? Ask them!

Step 2: Fill in the holes in your HourGlass

In the business model I designed and teach, there are different offers at different price points. When deciding what to offer next, take a look at your HourGlass and see where your next gap is and then fill it.

So, if you have a Free Taste and nothing in the less than $50 range at the first level of the Hourglass, that’s the first gap you’ll want to fill.

One way you can fill this gap is to take one of your larger offerings and modulize it to fill in a lower level of your HourGlass.

Advanced TIP: if you have a $50 product and it’s selling really well, that’s when you want to start creating something at the next level of the HourGlass to offer, which would be at a higher price point.

Step 3: Create the Offer

Once you have identified the hole to fill you can start creating your next product, program or service.

Knowing what level you’re creating your product for will inform the end product. And you’ll want to make sure your time and effort equals the price point.

Here are some examples to get you started. Know that your market may demand higher (or lower, but not much) price points:

Level 1: $50
ebook
CD
print book
journal/day planners
teleseminar

Level 2: $200
teleseminars – single or series
more comprehensive e-manuals
short group coaching programs
two-part-multi-media module
live workshops or seminars

And don’t forget – create a product that you actually enjoy creating!

How you’ve decided to package your product will determine your delivery system. This is the path to getting your product into the hands of your buyer. Some systems only do one thing, but most overlap, so it makes sense to think about your bigger vision for your business as it grows and make the investment in some of the systems that do several things if you can.

I’d love to know your thoughts on how you’re going to create your next offer – please leave your comments below.