Sandra Martini's Success Strategies

AHA moment while walking my dog this morning

It all started by my shutting down earlier than usual yesterday and not going through my regular process of setting things up for the next day -- what am I doing, when am I doing it, how much time will it take, etc....

As Sasha (big lab/rotti mix) and I went for our "Mommy and Me" morning walk this morning (Sasha's MUCH less demanding than my shepherd or llasa apso and so I'm sure to get this focused time in with her), I was thinking about everything that I "had to do today":

• Grocery shopping after being gone for over 2 weeks (thank heavens for PeaPod!)
• Finishing information page for new group program
• Sending "CONGRATS" gifts to everyone who completed 30 Day Blogging Challenge (gifts just arrived from Amazon!) -- this is something I wanted to do myself given the great accomplishment
• Planning menu (& get ingredients) for band's practice tomorrow night (something more than appetizers, but not as much as a dinner)
• Creating affiliate materials for upcoming program launch
• Complete and send "Online Essentials" info page to Team to get up on site
• Hosting Nancy Marmolejo's Women of Impact Implementation call this afternoon

There are several more, but you get the idea...

And as a slight feeling of overwhelm started to creep in from the "had to do today", I tweaked the words a bit to "wanted to get done today" and instantly felt a sense of relief.

I wasn't "doing", I was "done'ing" -- these things were going to be completed and I WANTED to do them, I didn't HAVE to do them.

That shift in verbiage created a HUGE shift in how I felt about the day.

The next time you feel a little overwhelmed, check out which words you're using to describe what you're doing and see if you can't tweak them a bit.

MAKE it a great day! :-)

Instantly Boost Your Creativity -- AND Your Happiness

It wasn't long ago when a friend asked me what I was tolerating in my life.  

Tolerating? Me? I have a husband I adore and who adores me, 5 fabulous pets, a house we're comfortable in, supportive friends and family and a business which fulfills me while allowing me to help others. What could I possibly be tolerating?

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?

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:

Want to build your business? Replicate and Tweak! #30DayBlog

Enjoying movies more, I rarely watch television and especially television shows.  Just before bed last night however, I saw a commercial for the upcoming season premiere of NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles and it got me to thinking.

The TV producers know how to increase ratings -- they take what works (what has high viewership), replicate it and then make a few tweaks.

Here are just a few examples:

Law & Order -- soon followed by Law & Order: SVU and Law and Order: Criminal Intent

CSI -- soon followed by CSI: New York and CSI: Miami

and now NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles.

Let's "make it real" -- What in your business is working well?  Whether it's a system, a lead generator, a teleseminar series, a product. . .WHAT is working well?

How can you tweak it?

If a digital product, can you add an audio or video component? Or make it a physical product?

If a client attraction system, can you tweak it to be a client follow-up/retention system?

Think of it as another way to repurpose content you already have. :-)

Rather than reinvent the wheel and hope your new X, Y or Z is what you're clients are looking for, take something which is already working (replicate) and mix it up a bit (tweak). 

When "Good" is NOT Good Enough

Today's the first day of my 30 Day Blogging Challenge (Are you in?  If not, click 30 Day Blogging Challenge to learn more and sign up) and I wanted to share some simple math for entrepreneurs, regardless of the industry you're in:

If time = money, then inefficiency = throwing money out the window

  

Another fact...

This is true regardless of the state of the economy.

There are several specific subjects related to productivity that we could cover here, but I'm going to focus on one:

Another workshop or a focused attitude - which does your business need most?

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An online friend of mine – someone met at a workshop years ago and we’ve casually kept in touch – direct messaged me on Twitter the other day to ask which of two upcoming workshops she should attend as she “needs a boost this year”.

Conversions What do they mean and why do they matter?

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We hear all the time that we need to "increase our conversions" or "get our numbers up". But what exactly does that mean and what else do we need to know?

"Conversion" is all about turning leads into paying clients and, when done well, more leads into more clients while doing it better, faster and with the least possible expense.

"Conversion" is also used to describe the result of desiring someone to take a step -- whichever step you want them to take -- whether signing up for a f'ree report, register for a strategy session, join a teleseminar or webinar, etc. -- the result is a desired action.

"Conversion Percentage" (sorry, just a little bit of math here) is defined as the "number of NEW sales" divided by the "number of leads" times 100.

And in the above case, "NEW sales" are people who are giving you money for the very first time (they're not repeat clients) and "leads" are people who have expressed, in some way, interest in what you're offering -- whether they visited your website, called your office, sent you an email, etc.

"New Client Cost" is defined as how much it costs for you to market to someone such that they give you money for the first time.

"Extreme Client Care(tm)" describes the process by which the better the care you provide to your clients, the less likely they'll be to switch to another vendor. (More on this in an upcoming series.)

Why do these terms matter?

Quite simply put, the better your conversion, the lower your new client cost AND the better your client care, the less new clients you'll need as existing clients won't leave your service and will refer others who cost almost nothing to market to (and therefore lower your new client cost even further).

You may want to read the above paragraph again to truly absorb the logic.

Make It Real -- My Request to You

Before we can even chat about increasing your conversions, you need to know where you stand today.

Ask your webmaster or assistant to get you signed up with a service such as Webstat if you don't already get statistics about the number of visitors to your site, blog, ezine sign-ups, etc.

After all, you need to know where you are in order to determine where you want to be. :-)