Sandra Martini's Success Strategies

Why you're missing the boat with audio and video

The *gurus* tell you to post audio and video on your sites, in your social media posts and in your emails.  Heck, I've advised the same and, for good reason: When done right, it works and works VERY well!

However, posting the audio or video link isn't the end...it's only the beginning.

You want to track what's going on with those audio and video links:

Unexpected Observations from 30-Day Blogging Challenge

My goal in creating this 30 Day Blogging Challenge was to inspire you, and me, to blog more frequently -- if you made the daily goal, FABULOUS! If you didn't, at least you blogged more than you otherwise would have.

Thus creating winners on all sides: you for getting increased traffic and your target audience for having access to more of your content.

We're 2/3 through the blogging challenge and here are several of my observations-to-date, many of them unexpected:

97 equals 58, or is it really 12?

The first time I heard the term "money loves speed", I was in Ali Brown's Platinum Mastermind group. 

And boy did the phrase hit home.

I've altered it slightly for me to "success loves speed" and with success defined as "achieving a goal", whether it be personal, business, revenue-related, etc.

That said, the calendar shows we have 97 days left in 2009.  Or do we?

Looking to increase your credibility? Do these!

If you run any type of online business, chances are, you're looking to increase your credibility with your target audience.

Here are a few simple, yet sadly, often overlooked, ways you can do that:

5 Strategies To Getting Your Money's Worth At Seminars & Workshops

Would you prefer to LISTEN to this week's article?

Turn up your speakers and click PLAY to hear my audio newsletter!
(If you don't see the audio play button, Click here to listen...)

You open your email to find a notice about an upcoming seminar or workshop on a topic you desperately want to learn more about.

Later that day, you get the mail and there's a postcard inviting you to the same workshop.

"Should I go?" you think.

"It's expensive, I'll have to pay for airfare and hotel, but I'll learn *so much* and will really be able to propel my business forward," you say to yourself.

After much wrangling between those two guys that sit on each of your shoulders, you decide to go for it. You tell your clients you'll be gone, you buy the plane tickets, book the hotel, pay the workshop fee and you're excited!

The day finally arrives. You can hardly wait. You get a seat and wait for things to start.

"Losing" a client can be a win

Seth Godin recently published a great blog post on winning the fight and losing the customer and it prompted me to think about clients I've "lost" over the years.

With very few exceptions, each "loss" turned out to be a bigger win.

Either a new client came on board or profits increased or some other overall win happened for the business.

What I realized is that these "losses" simply weren't my ideal clients long term.

Some clients start out as ideal, but as they change, and you change, your paths diverge and that's totally okay -- it doesn't make either side "wrong" or a "loser", it just means that you're no longer a good fit.

There are plenty of other clients out there with whom you are a great fit.

To know whether you're a good fit for each other, try this simple test:

When you see an email from them, do you happily open or do you think "what now"?

The answer to that one question will tell you whether or not this person is a good fit for your business.

Subjects for your blog posts/ezine articles #30DayBlog

We're almost halfway through the #30DayBlog Challenge and I know some of you are beginning to wonder -- what else can I post about?

After all, as Liz Schneider posted on Facebook when asked how she was doing with the Challenge:

"[I] don't want to bore people by talking about things that are not pertinent to my business or what I'd love to help them with. Perhaps I am making each article too complex (thus too long, lots of work to create)."

Liz posted what most of us think about. 

After all, posting for the sake of posting means nothing.  You're posting so that your ideal client will come to your blog/open your ezine and READ what you've written.

Given the above, what should you be posting about?

Here are my top 6 types of topics, for both blog posts and ezine articles:

Read BEFORE leaving for your next conference or wksp

With conference and workshop season fast upon us, I wanted to share some steps for getting the most from them and reading this BEFORE you go will put you in the right mindset for when you get home.

Once you return home from a conference or workshop, it's easy to forget all the things you learned and promised yourself you'd implement.

After all, you're back in your regular environment: your family needs attention after you've been gone, work tasks have piled up, personal items need handling. How are you to "catch up" and incorporate all the new things as well?

Here's my simple process for ensuring I implement and put new ideas into action as soon as I return from a conference or workshop:

Does it pass the litmus test? #30DayBlog

I wrote a post earlier today about having a Team and systems in place to support you and your business (although the same thing is true of our personal lives!).

Another way to build in support is to create an "Absolute YES!" and "Absolute NO!" list. 

I first read about the "Absolute YES!" list in a book titled "Take Time for Your Life" by Cheryl Richardson.

The concept (as I use it) is simple:

Without these 2 things, you'll always feel stress in your business #30DayBlog

The past few of weeks have been "off" our regular routine in that my Mum sold her house of 36 years and has decided to move to South Carolina, I was vacationing in New Hampshire the next week (pretty much unreachable), preparing for and attending my sister's beach wedding for 70 people last week (we served as wedding planner), Mum bought a house in SC and my primary assistant is on her honeymoon this week.

With all the personal stuff going on, you'd think that nothing's been going on in the business. . .truth is, I've been hosting teleseminars, client consulting, signing a new client, hosting a 30 Day Blogging Challenge, writing my ezine, mailing out over 50 handwritten cards, putting up a new site, getting ready to launch my signature system, etc.

This is the first time I've actually thought about everything that's been happening over the past few weeks and taking the time to celebrate all that's been, and is being, accomplished.

And it's all been happening for two reasons: