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Risk Management

July 18th, 2010

Core, central concept… every ACTION and INACTION brings with it some form of RISK. By focusing my efforts on Risk Management (worst-case analysis, what-if, if-then analysis) I can focus on the most important aspects of self and business development.

Does that hound real to you?

Sun Tzu: All battles are won or lost BEFORE they are fought.

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Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Take a Gamble? or Take a Risk?

March 26th, 2010

Third in a series, this is some gentle training on the difference between Risk and Gamble. Risking SOMETHING is part of a normal, everyday life and its NOT gambling with your life, health or reputation.

This short, fun video helps you get the gist of the differences…

Make sense? Hammer me with feedback!

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Posted in Actions, Excellence, Mindset

Two Terrific Take-Aways!

March 25th, 2010

For all who want to sort out HOW TO BEGIN their online efforts, or how to sort out their niche, here’s a short, fun MP3 (we’ll have the video soon) that gives you some key insights into the matter…

And for a dose of powerful, effective mindset, try this… (even shorter MP3)

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Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Brand Flavoring, Seasoning…

March 17th, 2010

Here, for your earbone enjoyment and headbone amazement, are some wonky, bizarre (but NOT scatalogical or cursing) podcasts and recordings. Enjoy and share as you wish. 1-900-Reality is an oft-requested favorite, along with Aloha Snackbar and Governmentium…

When I try to follow headlines about how the government is trying to seize power over EVERYBODY, ALL THE TIME, I’m reminded of this recent scientific discovery: Governmentium

Laziness and hazy thinking and comfort-zone cowardice won’t cut it… Find the Cost of Freedom

If you’re feeling abused by western concepts like equality of the sexes, freedom of thought, freedom of worship or personal responsibility for one’s actions in this life, try your Resort at Aloha Snackbar

And when you need a break from the Marxist-inspired headlines coming out of the White House so much of the time, try a dose of Reality…

More later, but for now relish the new-found freedom that MILLIONS of Iraqis cherish, since they experienced Victory in Iraq Day…

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Posted in Mindset

Interest-Free Loans

March 17th, 2010

Giving away these recordings on Interest-Free loans, for free, might seem counter-intuitive, but here they are for your downloading pleasure. LISTEN to them and take action steps to find and acquire YOUR Interest-Free loan…

+Interest-Free Loans… Intro
+Interest-Free Loans…Two

+Interest-Free Loans… Three

+Interest-Free Loans… Four

+Interest-Free Loans… Five

+Interest-Free Loans… Six

+Interest-Free Loans… Seven

+Interest-Free Loans… Eight

+Interest-Free Loans… Nine

+Interest-Free Loans… Ten

Which of these do you find most valuable? Tell us of your efforts, loans, outcomes…

Posted in Actions

Health Update: February

February 13th, 2010

Hi, and thank you for your prayers.

The pounding and crushing in my chest, Tuesday the 2nd, during the heart-attack was unbelievably painful and jolting, but we got me to a taxi and 3 minutes later I was in ER… a few hours after that, I was sent to another hospital, and after medications and shots and bed-rest and EKG and blood tests and sputum and stool and urine and hair-follicles and- wait, not QUITE all of those, but more than I was really comfortable with, I was told to report back on the 23rd of February, with a couple thousand dollars to cover the balloon angioplasty I needed to a) locate precisely and b) clean out the 2 clogged cardiac arteries so my heart muscle could BREATHE again…

That’s why I’ve been quiet lately, I’ve been away…

Again, thank you for your emails, your support and your prayers. … Karridine & Family

Posted in Mindset

One: Winning Mindset

January 20th, 2010

#1. Winning Mindset

Setting and achieving worthwhile goals! This is where success happens! It’s easy to get stuck at the beginning of the process with assessing our current situation and setting great goals without following them through to completion. Setting goals without achieving them equals failure to achieve your own worthwhile, pre-determined goals.
Some Keys to Effective Goal Setting
#1 Have a Vision – Create a VISION that is worthwhile, BIGGER than MONEY, and potentially achievable. Write this down, by hand, into YOUR Dream Book or your Goal Book. Communicate this vision to your Team.
#2 Know your Passions – Pursue what JUICES you, pumps you up, invigorates you and rewards you for the doing.
#3 Be Frankly Honest – Setting goals means being honest with yourself and others. Listen to Chapter 15A of Think and Grow RICH! As Billy Shakespeare wrote, “To thine own self be true.”
#4 Set Goals that are Yours to Achieve – Your goals must be literally “Your Goals.” Overcome FEAR with Chap 15B
#5 Live Your Life in Action – Set goals then Act On Them. Stay in Motion.

Entrepreneur Mindset also includes the willingness to take rational, calculated risks; the ability to DECIDE, often without all the data available; a drive to succeed; a willingness to INNOVATE, do it DIFFERENTLY, to stand out from the crowd; and an ability to hear criticism, fair and unfair, and weigh it without a knee-jerk acceptance or rejection of it.

Action Steps: with low-tech pen, pencil and notebook in-hand, LISTEN to some of the links here, an start writing out YOUR VISION, your Definite Chief Aim! Write AS IF you KNOW YOU CANNOT FAIL, and find a goal LARGER THAN MONEY! Take some time, listen… write!

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Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Two: Sales Process

January 20th, 2010

#2 – Sales Process

Simplified Overview of Sales Process steps

1. Preparation (of my self as seller, mentor, provider)

Do I have the facts at my immediate recall? Do I have high motives in wanting to serve my potential client? Am I prepared to deliver the highest quality service I can to this person, these corporate people?

2. Meet and qualify (prospective buyers, clients) (in person or online) If online or by print media, okay. If in person, BE PERSONABLE! Be professional, approachable, informed, honest, well-dressed and possessed of a comfortable sense of self-deprecating humor.

Qualify the prospect (can this person afford what he says he wants? What does she want? *Use A.I.D.A.)

3. Demonstrate My Wares, Services (answer objections, show benefits) Benefits are NOT ‘features’… benefits are the FEELINGS and the EXPERIENCES that Client GETS from using your feature-laden products or services. Features-smeechers! SHOW THE BENEFITS!

4. Negotiate the sale (Close. Help client to COMMIT to purchase) Learn ‘Questions That Sell’. Help this person MOVE to his own self-interest, ACT in his/her own best interests by TAKING ADVANTAGE of your offer.

5. Make the exchange and deliver goods (Move through the transaction) Take action, follow through, inquire in a timely manner about the delivery, suitability of purchase and Client’s Experience. CARE how your Client is experiencing this all.

Advantages of process

This process is time-tested, logical and emotionally satisfying to both sellers and buyers, IF it is followed. This is what some very competent people call a ‘canned, planned procedure’. Following a process becomes part of a winning System. Systematize YOUR processes.

From shy-hello to congratulative closure and on to supportive follow-up, selling is a PROCESS, NOT an ACT, a SERVICE not a SCAM!

Action Plan: Meet with your Team, to REVIEW and TWEAK Your Sales Process. Are you hitting the major hot-buttons for your (prospective) clients? Are you satisfying emotional NEEDS when they become Clients? Are you aiming at your Ideal Client?

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Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Three: Marketing Schedule

January 20th, 2010

#3 Marketing Schedule

Develop your marketing schedule after you’ve completed your research and analysis for your market area. At this point, you should know who your ideal clients are, where they are located, who your competition is, and what your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) are. Now you can begin to incorporate all the information you gathered into a strategic plan to promote your business.

The following are relevant parts of your Marketing Schedule

Your Marketing Budget:

Pencil in some figures that you & your Team see as ball-park accurate. Make sure you’re aiming at marketing channels that will reach your Ideal Client. Focus on serving your Ideal Client, INNOVATIVELY!

Frequency of Contact

Sketch out ONE Auto-Responder series, then go from there. What are the FIRST things your Ideal Client wants to learn, hear, know? GIVE THEM OUT, right away! Determine what makes an ideal Contact Frequency by polling, asking and testing!

Your Marketing Message

This MUST BE FOCUSED on the fears, problems and desires of your Ideal Client. You are NOT all things to all people, you are ONE THING to your Ideal Client! THIS is your niche. If you want another niche, duplicate this process with THAT difference in the forefront, for THAT Ideal Client. Until then, keep your Marketing Message FOCUSED SQUARELY on the fears, problems and needs of your Ideal Client!

Marketing Piece Guidelines

Attention Grabbing Headline – usually 5-9 words – arrest your customer – INTERRUPT their thoughts the moment they hit your page, hear your commercial, see your ad – you have something they want – make it interrupting, powerful, authentic, honest!

Engage — Only one offer/message per piece – BE REAL! — avoid a sales pitch – stress the benefits of your offer, NOT the Features – get to the point, THEIR Problem’s SOLUTION –

Educate – Why they benefit – HOW they benefit – WHAT differentiates YOUR services to justify YOUR higher price – instill a sense of urgency – give something of REAL, PERCEIVABLE value – make it a keeper
Call to Action — Tell your customers what you want them to do (put name and email addy in the slots here; call now; refer a friend)
Marketing Piece ID — Add a unique identification code to each marketing piece for tracking your success. When you get a call, ask how they got your name. Record this information because so you can know what is working and you can repeat it.

5 Reasons to Create an Internet Marketing Schedule

As a website owner or business owner who uses a website to generate income, internet marketing is important to your success. For that reason, you need to implement it. If this is a new step for you, you may be looking for guidance. A good first step is to familiarize yourself with popular internet marketing techniques. You can easily do this online by visiting internet marketing forums. Once you know how to market your website or blog, you start to implement the techniques you’re learning. Careful, this is where many new marketers make costly mistakes.

To ensure you get the most out of your new-found internet marketing knowledge, you need to create a schedule. When properly compiled and used, a schedule will increase your productivity. Remember, the more traffic you drive to your website or blog, the more your earnings potential increases. If that isn’t enough reason to create a schedule, continue reading on for five more.

It Is Easy to Make a Schedule

Get a big wall calendar, assemble your Team, and plan out your rollout! Use erasable white-board markers, and sketch out 18 months of Product/Service Rollout.

You Have Many Options

You don’t need to deliver everything today, tomorrow or this week. It can be printed, PDF, MP3 or MP4, blogged or newslettered, Seminar or Webinar… what does YOUR Team think is most appropriate for YOUR Ideal Client?

Your Schedule is Your Guide

Even if it eats two days of productive time to set it up at the beginning, by creating your Marketing Schedule and putting it up there, for your whole TEAM to see daily, you’ve spun into motion a tremendous gyroscope, a powerful unifying and harmonizing influence which can focus your team as lasers are focused, same wavelength, same message, in harmony, in unity. And remember, UNITY does NOT MEAN ‘Uniformity’.

It Serves as a Source of Motivation

With your Team-Accessible Schedule up for all to see, your people will surprise you by taking initiative, finding extra leverage, squeezing extra juice out of and landing extra clients for you, MOTIVATED by the trust, openness and clarity your Marketing Schedule provides!

You Can Extend Your Reach

You can quickly surpass the Marketing Goals you set in your Schedule, as your Team meets the milestones and experiences the joyful satisfaction of HITTING THE MARK, which leads to extending your reach through creating improved Product or Services, based on improved Client input!
Action Step: Have fun creating your Marketing Schedule!

Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Four: Lifetime Value

January 20th, 2010

#4. Lifetime Value

Companies today have tens of thousands– in some cases millions– of customers. We do not know who they are. We cannot recognize them and talk to them as the old Mom-and-Pop corner grocers did. Loyalty has all but disappeared. Customers are loyal until tomorrow’s newspaper, when they see a coupon for something at another store and – shloosh, they’re gone. What is true of grocery stores is also true of department stores, drug stores, hardware stores, office supply stores, banks, movie theaters – virtually every retail sales organization today.

What has begun to rapidly change this picture has been the advent of computers. In the past 15 years, computers have become so sophisticated and powerful, and their prices have become so inexpensive, that it is possible to keep in a computer today the kind of informative data that the old corner grocer kept in his head, and to use that information to recognize and do favors for our customers. By setting up a customer database, and using it to start a dialog with customers or clients, some companies have been able to reestablish contact with their customers, contact designed to build loyalty, referrals and repeat sales. Retention building is possible.

So, a one-to-two week focus on THIS area of The Big Ten can yield MASSIVE RESULTS in your services, sales and profits. Watch your Inbox for further explanatory emails about this and all other Big Ten dynamics, because these are THE dynamics which make a business super-successful, head-and-shoulders ABOVE all competition!

Segments

Your gold customers should not be bombarded with marketing programs, rather they should be rewarded with super-services. These are 80% (or some other large percentage) of our revenue. We must retain these loyal folks. We spend our marketing budget on the Silver and other two fifths encouraging them to move up, to get into Gold Heaven. On the other hand, the bottom fifth may be costing you more than they are worth. Don’t waste marketing dollars here. We don’t want to retain them.

How can the success of these programs be measured? The answer is in the lifetime value. Think in terms of LIFETIME VALUE of a customer and you’ll lift your vision ABOVE the transaction, lift your service ABOVE the blah ordinary, and lift your profits into the stratosphere!

People LOVE to be pampered, and this includes the people who are SPENDING LOTS OF THEIR MONEY WITH YOU!

Action Plan: Tweak (or CREATE!) your Lifetime Value Plan, start collecting profile data immediately and start (or continue) rewarding loyal clients and customers in creative, meaningful ways!

Posted in Excellence, Mindset