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A Simple Tip To Raise Your Profile And Get You Lots Of Attention

by Paul Joseph July 18, 2011 Featured

Last week, I was asked a series of very interesting and valid questions by one our readers, Malik Mirza . Malik wanted to know about ways to deal with continuity and consistency , marketing and competition in blogging . Because there’s such a wealth of experience among the different writers on this blog, I suggested asking some of the other writers the same questions to get a variety of answers and options for tackling these issues. One thing I know for sure, is that what works for one person, doesn’t always work for another, but there’s always a way to get what you want if you keep looking. In this blog post, I’m going to look at some of the things I’ve learned from my own experience of marketing and attracting attention to my work. Success By Association Marketing is interesting… from my experience so far, one of the most effective kinds of marketing seems to come through association with someone who is high profile in my niche. Even if they aren’t in my niche, but are somewhat related to my work, this still works. Leveraging my profile by association is something I would never have paid any attention to before it consistently proved to be a great generator of interest and attention. When people associate me with someone they already hold in high esteem, then they start to take more notice of me. It consistently shows up that being associated with a “big name” or recognized “authority” generates more interest and attention even though I’m the same person sharing the same information as before. I Always Thought This Was Weird This has been a very weird thing for me to reconcile with. I never used to get photos of myself with well-known people I met, and I didn’t understand why other people did. I used to think, “ Why do people do that? Having a photo of yourself next to someone important doesn’t change who you are – having them next to you in a picture doesn’t make you any more valuable than you already are.” But having seen how effective it is for leveraging my own profile or even just to get people’s attention, I’ve started doing it as well. Why Does It Work? Malik wanted to know why this works, it seems that both of us can be somewhat perplexed by this phenomenon. Reason 1: One of the reasons leveraging profile by association works is that people are so bombarded with so much information fighting for attention, I think they just can’t give an in depth appraisal of everyone’s work. Taking a recognized authority’s reference is just faster & easier. Reason 2 : Another reason is that people do generally want to be seen as part of the “pack”, we’re wired to want to fit in as part of a survival mechanism. So if person “A” is a trusted authority, and person “A” says person “B” is worth listening to, people will agree if it looks like that’s the general consensus. Reason 3: A third reason is related to your values and filters. You have a unique set of values through which you filter the world and these same values direct your actions in life. You’re constantly screening people and events through these filters. Recognized and trusted authorities have already been passed through the filters and you trust them because they align with your own value system and have demonstrated their value. Because the trusted authority has your stamp of approval, people who are associated with them are given a more streamlined passage through your filters. Profile leverage by association gives you a jump-start on everyone else who is vie-ing for attention. It’s important to note, just because you associate with a high profile person, it doesn’t mean you are immediately accepted as someone who has something valuable and valid to share. What You Need To Do To Make It Work It’s completely pointless to run around getting associated with high profile people unless you’re doing something that adds value to them and gives value to others. High profile people have massive demands on their attention and the key is to focus on how you can help them rather than what they can do for you. I’ve found that my writing skills are a highly valuable resource . I can offer them to add value to people I want to be associated with and give value to others as well. Writing for Yaro is a great example of this. I’m also getting to spend a day interviewing one of my favorite businessmen in August. Nobody gets to spend a day with this man for free, he is flat out and in great demand. I offered to take transcripts of the interviews, write up some articles for his PR team to use, and depending on what content we uncover, I may be able to put together a few chapters to go in a book for him. If you want to make use of leveraging your profile by association, the golden rule is look at how you can add value to the person you want to be associated with, and how you can give value to others . Two More Ways To Get Extra Attention There’s a myriad other ways to generate interest and draw attention to what you’re doing. Before I sign off, I’ll mention a couple more things I know have worked. I have two friends, Fran and Gideon who have found YouTube videos to be the holy grail for building business. Another friend, Leonie , was recently featured on the Word Press Freshly Pressed page. Leonie was on day 4 of a 30 day writing challenge when her blog was selected for the Freshly Pressed page. This generated around 3000 page views and nearly 90 comments, very exciting traffic for a newbie blogger! I’d better buzz and get some other work done! Hope this has been useful and I’d love to hear your comments at the end. Cheers, Neroli Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: attention, Featured, online, people, person, work

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5 Effective Reading Strategies For The Busy Entrepreneur

by Paul Joseph July 13, 2011 Featured

Entrepreneurs are often curious, passionate workaholics. Yes, that’s a generalization – but often true. We want to learn more about things – our business, our world, our customers, our industry, our marketplace, our technology and other stuff. And we each have our preferred ways of staying up to date. Watching TV. Listening to the radio. Reading books. Subscribing to magazines. Surfing the Web. Even getting an assistant or professional service to summarize the most relevant information for you. One thing you cannot afford to do is fall behind. Information is indeed power , especially in today’s “knowledge economy”. And that’s why the staggering fact that the average American reads ONE book per year is so shocking. (I don’t know how different this figure is for other countries, but it’s probably representative). I average between 2 and 5 books every week , and my bookshelf is loaded with reading material, both professional and entertainment. Indeed, my taste in books ranges widely, with spiritual guides and business reviews rubbing covers with medical texts, the latest pulp fiction or copywriting tutorials in my bookshelf. And this isn’t all that I read. Online, I browse forums, blogs, news sources, article collections and social networks to stay on top of things. Studying so much material has given me a serious competitive edge over others in my market. And many entrepreneurs would agree that “ applied information ” is one of the secrets of their success too. Why Does Reading Matter? There are many benefits to studying new material regularly: Course correction – Learning something new helps you measure your progress against benchmarks and allows you to make changes that will power you ahead more surely and steadily. Keeping up with trends – Shifts and changes have devastated some industries. The unwary and uninformed were those crushed in those turbulent times. Being aware of trends helps your business adapt and stay competitive. In-depth knowledge – Expertise takes time to acquire. Study any subject for 10,000 hours and you’ll become one of the world’s leading experts. And there are some areas where detailed knowledge sets you apart from competition. 1. Read Longer I recently polled my contacts on social networks to ask how much time they spend reading every week. Not surprisingly, the answers were all over the place. The most frequent response was 2 hours a day . Maybe you’re surprised at that. Maybe you think there’s no way you can find two hours every day to read. Well, if you are serious about keeping up with your business world and remaining competitive, it’s time you started trying. Despite a hectic schedule, I manage to squeeze in 3 to 4 hours of reading every day , often early in the morning or late at night. It may not always be ‘easy’ and you might have to make small sacrifices – but the pay-off is rich and well worth the struggle. Here are some ideas to find reading time: Give up (or cut down) watching TV Wake up a half hour earlier Go to bed a half hour later Carry around a book and make use of ‘down time’ (waiting for a meeting, flight or client) 2. Read Faster I’ve been an avid and voracious reader since childhood. And a key factor in reading so much has been my reading speed. As I wrote this, I tested my reading speed using an online test and it says my speed is “504 words per minute” . For material that I enjoy reading, my actual speed could be double. When you consider that the average full-length book is between 50,000 and 300,000 words, I can zoom through it in 1.6 to 10 hours of reading time. And by reading faster, I’ll save 10 hours in comparison to another reader who can only read half as fast! When it comes to speed reading, practice indeed makes perfect. Concentration impacts your reading speed, as does the absence of external distractions. If you’re serious about improving your reading speed, you can try: Attending a speed reading seminar or course Buying a speed reading book and studying the techniques Using speed reading software to train yourself to go faster No matter which learning method you follow, the improvement in your reading speed will benefit you massively – for the rest of your life. 3. Read Smart What type of books (or other material) you read impacts your overall benefit from reading in a very significant way. A powerful mental image that I use frequently to highlight similar concepts is one that I first read in a book by Stephen Covey called “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” . It was about a man who scrambled quickly up a very tall tree, reached the top, and looked around… only to discover that he was in the wrong jungle! Doing things fast is not always more effective. Doing them right matters more . And that applies to reading as well. When you focus on the right kind of things to read, you get greater advantage from every minute invested into the activity than if the greater part of your reading time is spent weeding through junk. That’s what makes ‘Top 10′ lists and ‘expert recommendations’ so powerful and valuable. Some tips that may help you read smart: Look at ‘best-seller’ or ‘recommended’ lists (if many others thought it was good, it probably is) Seek peer group suggestions about the best sources of reading material Keep a critical watch on what you read, and be quick to abandon wasteful drivel (How often have you plugged on with a book just because you started reading it? Stop doing that – it’s not worthwhile!) Skim the highlights and dig deeper only where you feel you need more detail Make it convenient to access quality material (buy or borrow books to keep by you for whenever you are free to read, bookmark favorite online resources, subscribe to great blogs in your RSS feed). If you click here you’ll see one of my 4 bookshelves – with titles I’ve bought so that I’ll be able to refer to them quickly whenever needed! 4. Read More Everything else being equal, the entrepreneur who reads more (and applies the information effectively) will steal a march over another who doesn’t. As the reading habit grows on you, keep exercising it like a muscle . You’ll be amazed at how much more information you’re able to consume, process and apply in a relatively short time. In biographies of business icons like Donald Trump , Bill Gates , Richard Branson and many others, one common theme is the prodigious volume of information they have access to, and stay updated about, on a regular basis. At his busiest, Gates is said to have personally overseen the progress of almost 900 different projects – on a weekly basis! (And you thought it was EASY being the world’s richest man, huh?!) That sounds impossible – until you start pushing yourself as you gain facility at consuming and applying new information in your business and life. When you find a helpful resource, you’ll often come across references in it to other related information and material that will enhance your understanding about the topic that it covers. Following these links to explore new content sources will broaden and deepen your level of expertise. Before you know it, you’ll be a widely regarded subject specialist – and it all comes from reading more. 5. Read With Purpose Simply reading more books without doing anything purposeful with the knowledge you have acquired is as wasteful as not reading at all! Knowing what you hope to get from reading is the best way to maximize your time. In very broad terms, you may be reading for: Information – This comes from studying how-to guides, news updates, technical manuals, polls, surveys, research reports and similar content. Inspiration – When you study success stories, case reports, biographies and histories of famous companies, you feel energized and excited about replicating their models and successes. Insight – Editorial commentary, opinion pieces, guest columns and special reports or whitepapers can sometimes spark a breakthrough idea, fuel innovation or provide a flash of illumination that creates revolutionary impact. No matter what you’re reading for, be sure that you get value from your time and effort – by having a plan . Record the big (or small) lessons you gained from what you read Jot down ideas you intend trying out in your business or life Highlight passages that you liked very much – and scrapbook them for later Share relevant books and magazines with others in your team or mastermind group for discussion and debate Set deadlines and targets for any actionable steps you plan to implement based on whatever you read All of this will enhance the value you get from reading – and act as a positive feedback loop to encourage you to read even more. Then apply that learning towards further growth. So get passionate about reading more. Start today. Find some time to read. Learn and practice reading faster. Read as much as you can. Do it the smart way. And have a purpose to your reading. Oh, and let me know if you read any great books that I should look at too! Dr. Mani Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: business, countries, life, people, process, radio, time, young

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6 Fundamental Traits of Great Small Biz Managers

by Paul Joseph July 7, 2011 Featured

Being a successful business manager is not always as easy as it may seem. Effective management requires the ability to blend a technical understanding of your business, excellent people skills, effective decision making abilities, and more. For many entrepreneurs, ideas, planning, and big-picture tasks might come naturally, but being a manager might be a different story. But even though being a good manager isn’t easy, it is simple. In other words, it only takes a few skills to heighten your effectiveness as a manager. To significantly improve your performance as a manager, work on demonstrating the following managerial traits. A great manager is… 1. An amazing communicator. One of the most important managerial skills to possess is the ability to communicate clearly and concisely. Whether written or verbal, having outstanding communication skills is a requirement of any good manager. If you have the ability to compose well written documents and engage in motivating discussions with employees, you’re already on the right track! 2. Enthusiastic and optimistic. Have you ever noticed that when one person in a group has a negative attitude, the attitude of the entire group tends to follow?  As a manager, you need to remain enthusiastic and optimistic so the people you’re managing will reflect the same positive energy. Your customers will pick up on this positive attitude, and will be more likely to not only spend their money with you, but also bring you repeat business. 3. Confident in his or her area of expertise. All successful business managers are masters in their areas of expertise. Learn from managers in your field who have proven themselves to be very successful, and try to find one or more mentors to follow. By doing so, you’re not only given a terrific example of success to refer to, but you’ll significantly shorten your learning curve and avoid some of the mistakes they might have made early on. 4. Able to delegate effectively and efficiently. Having the ability to delegate tasks properly does not mean placing crucial tasks on the other members of your team and trusting them to follow through. Instead, discover which members of your team are best suited for particular tasks, provide guidance, and follow up with your team members to make sure that everyone‘s got a thorough understanding of the tasks at hand. In other words, don’t simply bark out orders to your team members. Make sure you’re not just the leader, but truly a member of the team. 5. Always calm and collected. No matter how hard you work and how well thought-out your plans are, problems will present themselves. When a challenging situation arises, handle it in a very calm and collected way. By remaining level-headed, a solution to the problem will become evident more quickly and simply than if you fly off the handle. More importantly, you’ll earn the respect of your team members and set an example of how to handle tough problems. 6. Their team’s biggest fan. Make sure that you present yourself in an encouraging way to your team. A team can only be as good as its leader, so you need to have an understanding of what will be required in order to motivate your team members so they’ll be at their very best at all times. Be encouraging and recognize any and all successes of the team as well as each individual member. By offering this type of encouragement and motivation, your team members will be much more likely to strive for success within the business. No one said that being a manager was easy, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. The six traits above take practice to master, and few people demonstrate all of them as new managers, but working on each one is the important thing. As with so many areas in business, it’s progress that matters most and will lead you, eventually, to mastery.

Tagged as: business, employees, entrepreneurship, hiring, people

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How To Beat Procrastination When You Don’t Know What To Do Next

by Paul Joseph June 29, 2011 Featured

This is part one of a two part series where I want to address some of the common issues that are faced by many Internet marketers. This article will focus on an obstacle I feel is stopping many people from getting started with Internet marketing. The second article will focus on proper business strategies for an online business. A growing part of my work is private consulting where I help other people with the “sticking points” of developing and growing a profitable online business. The common issues that I help people with are many of the topics I have shared with you here previously such as market research , narrowing your niche and creating a USP . Other areas I commonly help with can include developing customer relationships , product creation ideas , and strategizing . Recently I had a consult with a young man and it really brought home a few of the main points where I see online marketers failing. I thought I would share the story with you. The Story Of Tom Tom (not his real name) is a smart person and he has been dabbling in Internet marketing for a couple of years now. He does not make near enough to quit his day job, but he is spurred on by the small returns his online ventures do make and the success stories of others he reads about. After chatting with Tom for awhile, a few issues became apparent as to why he was maybe struggling with his online efforts. Like most people trying to make money online, Tom had immersed himself in the vast amount of knowledge available. He was constantly reading, researching and learning. We all know there is no shortage of information on the Internet and sometimes a bit of research can really lead to going down the rabbit hole, so to speak. I am all for learning and researching. But I am also all for acting upon that information and actually doing something with it. Sound Familiar? For example, one of Tom’s websites had very little content on it and I quizzed him why that was the case, and he told me the reason was because he wasn’t sure about what traffic source he was going to focus on. He told me he was thinking of doing some videos and putting them on video sites, he also had thought about doing some article marketing to the article directories, and lastly he was contemplating creating a Facebook fanpage. The end result? He did nothing . He just thought about what he should do or could do. It was like Tom was suffering from a term some people joke about called “ analysis paralysis ” – where so much thinking is going on that nothing actually gets done. I’m certainly not saying that some thought and planning into your actions isn’t necessary, I’m saying excessive thought and planning that prevents action is not a way to build a business. The Decision Making Rule Successful Internet marketer Jason Fladlien is known for his expertise in time management (he is the author of Double Your Productivity for Life ) and one of his key principles relates to decision making. Jason says that the ability to make decisions is like a muscle and can be trained and strengthened. If you always labor and hesitate over decisions you have to make, then your decision making muscle will be weak. If you are assertive and take action quickly, then you will build that into your decision making ability, and you will feel comfortable and confident making quick decisions. Like anything it takes practice. Once great principle Jason has is the 30 second decision making rule . This is something he implements to strengthen the decision making muscle . Jason does have some other rules related to business decisions but he says that this is a great way to get started on making decisions that you can use in everyday situations. He recalls going out to lunch with some fellow Internet marketers during a seminar and how it took ten minutes to decide where to eat. Jason highlights if the 30 second rule had been applied then they would probably already have been seated at a restaurant and already ordered their meals in this time. Break Through The Stagnation It is much easier to correct a wrong decision once it’s made then to make the right decision in the first place. I know the above statement sounds a little irresponsible or maybe even a bit crazy. But people often say the first step is the hardest. And sometimes that first step is just making a decision about what to do. Just make a start, it doesn’t have to be perfect. I told Tom that he just needed to do something . The fact is all those previously mentioned traffic avenues work. Many people have had success using each of those content methods. Obviously it depends on your market, for example Facebook may not be an appropriate choice depending on your demographic. All you can do is give it a go. Trial And Error Is A Good Thing With regards to traffic mediums, you may find you or your audience tends to gravitate towards one of the mediums. But you will never know if you don’t try . That is what is great about an online business, there can be some trial and error involved and that is OK. And while a lot of learning can be gained from researching and reading, the best learning is actually applying the information and giving it a go. So I told Tom that he needed to pick article marketing, video or Facebook and decide which one he was going to use (I didn’t mind if he used all three, as long as he did something!), and to make a start on getting some good quality content out. And now he could spend all the time he was researching, which was the best avenue, and dedicate that time to content creation and helping his customer base by providing them with some great information. Just Making A Start Can Be A Relief Well, Tom felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He told me later that the decision had been weighing him down. And it can. Decisions can go around and around in our head and wear us out. However, once we make a choice it can relieve a lot of that anxiety and give us a sense of peace of mind . Conclusion There can be many obstacles to starting a successful online business. Knowing what to do can certainly be one of them. Most of us have a general idea of what we have been procrastinating on. So hopefully this article will give you some motivation to make a decision and get started on something you have been putting off. Unfortunately, the act of not doing wasn’t the only obstacle facing my client Tom. His overall mindset and approach to his online businesses was also letting him down. But I don’t think he is the only one suffering from an ineffective online business strategy. But more about that next week. Leevi Romanik Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: book, client, mindset, people, young

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Identifying Your Best Customers – and What to do with Them

by Paul Joseph June 28, 2011 Featured

Who are your best customers? Are they the ones who spend the most? Are they the people who you enjoy dealing with? You might think this is a subjective question, but there is a methodical way to identify the customers that are doing your company the most good. At a conference in Phoenix a while back, author Steve Wilkinghoff presented a very interesting process for this. The method outlined below isn’t necessarily easy – especially if you have a large customer base – but if you want to truly maximize your profitability, it’s essential to evaluate what you’re selling to whom and how. Customer Impact on Your Business It’s important to understand how your customers affect your business. Many business owners will say that every customer is just as important as any other, and all should be treated the same. While delivering great service to everyone is clearly a good idea, it isn’t true that all customers are the same. Obviously anyone who spends money with your company can be considered a customer, and they affect your revenue every time they make a purchase. There are other ways in which a customer can have an impact on your business though, and they can vary greatly from one customer to another. For example, which products or services they buy can make a big difference. Also, how you acquired the customer, how they interact with your company, and the level of service they require after the sale can all make significant impacts. If you want to increase you company’s profitability and experience considerable growth in a short time, a great place to start is by evaluating your customers and making adjustments based on your findings. The numbers side of the evaluation is the easy part, but just as important is customer resonance (how positive or negative interactions with the customer generally are). The best way to determine this vital factor is to go to any and all staff members who interact with the customer and ask them to give each customer a rating from 1 to 10. Their score will often be determined by what some companies refer to as the PITA factor (we’ll let you figure out what the acronym stands for), but it’s important to keep this a positive exercise. You aren’t trying to create an ‘us vs. them’ mentality within your organization. This evaluation can be part objective and part subjective. The objective part is anything like the number of hours of service provided, number of calls into technical support, the length of any particular customer’s sales cycle. The subjective part really comes down to how the customer treats employees.  This type of evaluation is an easier task within a sales and service organization, but even in the most basic retail setting, your employees will know which customers they look forward to seeing, and which ones they dread. Plotting for Success Once you have an evaluation of each customer complete, and each has been assigned a resonance score of 1 to 10, it’s time to create some graphs. Don’t worry – no math is involved. Generally you want to create three separate graphs: one for profitability, one for cash flow, and one for ROI (Return On Investment). They’ll look something like this: Now What? Now that you have your customers plotted on your graph, you have a visual representation of how each group of customers is affecting your business. In the top left quadrant , you have high profitability customers who are hard to deal with. These customers might just be grumpy or picky people, or they might be unhappy with your company. Either way, they are not likely to be loyal, and they are at risk. Depending on how low they are on the resonance scale, you might or might not want to work harder to keep their business. The bottom left quadrant represents customers who are difficult to deal with and result in low profitability to boot. Some say drop these customers immediately. The problem with that is they are bringing in some revenue, and if you dump them, you’d better have a plan for replacing it, or your cash flow might suffer. At the top right quadrant , you find the customers you wish you could clone. These are the folks who are helping your business not only by being profitable, but by requiring less maintenance and just being generally good for morale. This is the only quadrant where a higher cost of acquisition makes sense. Study these customers. Where did they come from? What’s their demographic? Go out and find more of them! Last, but certainly not least is the bottom right quadrant . This is an exciting group, because they represent great opportunity. They might not be buying the products or services you would want them to buy, but they are probably loyal and could be moved into the top right with the right kind of attention. If you want to make a significant impact on your bottom line, pay a lot of attention to these folks and find out what it will take to get them buying what you wish they’d buy. Is this a lot of work? It can be. But it’s well worth it. If you have a large customer base, take them a chunk at a time. As long as you’re working on it and willing to make some adjustments in your methods where necessary, you’ll see a bigger number in your bank account before you know it.

Tagged as: business, business psychology, entrepreneur, people, strategy

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Eccentric Canadian Shares How To Profit Using His Simple Story Telling Method

by Paul Joseph June 27, 2011 Featured

Hello again, this week we’ve got part two of the Shaune Clarke interview, and I promise it’s just as packed with unusual and insightful tips for business as part one: Why Keeping It Real Is Your Best Selling Tactic In fact, this week, we get to cover something I’ve made a fuss about a few times in previous posts . Some of you might remember me waxing lyrical about the power of story , Shaune explains how it creates connection and builds relationship with your audience, and it’s application for sales and marketing. He also explains the art of story and it’s role in graceful persuasion , overcoming unwarranted sales resistance and creating resonance with your audience. Shaune speaks about the role of intuition in his business, and how his work has lead him to help other people find their purpose and understand their unique giftedness . So settle in for another adventure exploring topics that cover the core of successful business, and morph into the esoteric realm of our human experience. How To Build Credibility Through Story Shaune begins by stating that resonance is key when it comes to creating a connection and building trust with our clients. He then tells us a story to illustrate the power of resonance , and reminds us that our customers are going to come to some conclusion about us on their own before spending money. Shaune’s a big advocate of being strategic when it comes to communicating and presenting, but even with all the strategy in the world, you can’t know exactly how your clients are filtering the information they receive, so they will come to some conclusion that doesn’t necessarily relate to your strategy. This is the gift of stories, they build resonance unlike all the other things your clients are expecting, like testimonials and credentials. Customers have preconceived notions about, and unwarranted sales resistance to the things they expect . Resonance through story is not only under the radar , it’s a very elegant way of conveying the same information that we do in testimonials or displays of credentials. Testimonials and credentials are still valuable and valid, but clients expect them and what’s more, they can get very bored and resistant to them. How To Overcome Unwarranted Sales Resistance Through Story You know that glazed over looked and feeling you get with the same old blah ? I know I get it and I’ve actually seen on this blog when a reader responded with annoyance to a writer listing off their credentials. The writer wasn’t doing anything wrong or different to what we all do, and what is espoused the world over for building credibility. The problem is, we’re all so used to this drill that we get that glazed over, jaded response to it, which of course, is the last thing you want happening in your customers’ minds. Part of Shaune’s training helps people learn to relay a story in bullet points , the aim is to get the story across quickly, clearly and concisely , so you don’t lose your audience. It’s key to impart what’s in it for them, that’s what your customers are thinking, and they don’t have time to waste on you if you don’t give them value for their time spent listening and learning from you. He explains that: A story needs to be a well articulated metaphor that brings a lesson . Story As A Multi Faceted Approach To Securing Sales The beauty of story is that you can bring so many layers to it, resonance is just one layer. Story has a huge trust building element . For Shaune, story is the art of graceful persuasion, creating resonance and demonstrating value . A well defined and succinct story can build trust, establish credibility and create an awareness of your value to your clients. Shaune gives a demonstration of himself telling a story and breaks it down for us. He uses it to display his credentials in a way that builds resonance and doesn’t land on us like he’s trying to impress us with his credentials. Trusting Your Instincts I ask Shaune about intuition and the role it plays in what he does. Shaune explains that our intuition is the first thing that gets sacrificed because we don’t listen to it if we don’t believe in ourselves. Unfortunately, this is a common challenge for people the world over. Shaune has spent 20 years doing extensive work on dissolving his emotional blocks . All of us have these and have a choice to work through them in the way we see fit. He says this has played a big role in him being able to believe in himself enough to trust his instincts or intuition . Shaune’s adamant that we are all intuitive beings, but he believes we may have different types of intuition. Shaune’s specific intuition is around seeing the value that people can bring to the world. He is inspired by helping people find their purpose and he’s been trying to do this his whole life. It’s one of the reasons he loves speaker training, because he finds the clients that come to him for speaker training are wanting to awaken to their giftedness and are ready to take the next step. Finding Your Purpose And Unique Gifts He’s been through a few different methods to try to help people find their purpose, but speaker training has proved to be the most effective method to accomplish this. He is inspired by the awareness that we all have a unique purpose and giftedness , he knows this instinctually and has been on his own quest to find how this is demonstrated in life. Shaune believes there are different types of instinct and intuition related to the different types of giftedness in individuals, and the only thing that stops us from listening to our unique intuitive knowing is not having a level of trust in ourselves to allow ourselves to listen to this inner voice. My experience of learning from Shaune in his presentations, speaker training and doing this interview has been invaluable . I honestly love being around someone with a mind like this, who shares such unique insights into business and human behavior. I’m going back to his one day training on July 30th. I’ve attended this training twice before, but there are so many layers of understanding and so many dimensions and applications for my business that it’s crucial for me to keep discovering the next level. If anyone reading or watching these interviews is interested in seeing Shaune presenting live, you can click here to see when and where he’s speaking. Unfortunately for international readers, his days of traveling the world and presenting are on hold, and those of us in Australia are extremely lucky he’s living here so we get to learn from him. Fingers crossed he might take to the skies for some international appearances again in the future. Once again, thanks for reading, and I’d love to hear your comments at the end. Cheers, Neroli. Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: australia, book, internet, mindset, people, power, young

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Young Entrepreneur Interview: Divya Gugnani of Behind the Burner

by Paul Joseph June 23, 2011 Featured

For anyone working in an industry that isn’t their true passion, inspiration can be found in our talk with Divya Gugnani, entrepreneur, TV personality, author, and founder & CEO of culinary media brand Behind the Burner as well as Send the Trend . Having created a successful career in the world of investment banking (a career with which many professionals in that industry would have been perfectly content), Divya never forgot her love for the culinary arts and finally left the finance world behind to pursue her true passion. Now, she’s doing what she loves, and doing it well. She and her company have been featured on MSNBC, American Express OPEN, CBS News, The Huffington Post, and Tech Crunch, just to name a few. She’s a shining example of what an entrepreneur can accomplish when they’re doing what they love. Enjoy the interview, and share your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page ! You are the CEO of Behind the Burner, CEO of Send the Trend, and the author of the book, Sexy Women Eat: Secrets to Eating What You Want and Still Looking Fabulous . You’re also on the board of New York Entrepreneur Week and appear regularly in all forms of media. How do you balance it all? Sleep is an indulgence! I also have a great team. At the end of the day, every successful endeavor comes down to people, and I surround myself with smart people. When you’re the dumbest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. You refer to Behind the Burner as a “culinary media brand.” For our readers who aren’t familiar with Behind the Burner, can you give us a quick overview? Behind the Burner is a culinary media brand that focuses on tips, tricks and techniques for food, wine, mixology and nutrition. We create videos that can be seen on NBC NONSTOP network across the US as well as recipes, blogs, and interviews with chefs, sommeliers, nutritionists, and winemakers that can be viewed on the site.

Tagged as: advice, book, business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, Featured, finance, interview, people, study, thoughts, women

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L.A. Balamurugan, BookMyTrainings, an Online Training Marketplace

by Paul Joseph June 17, 2011 Featured

Bala, tell us about BookMyTrainings. BookMyTrainings is an online training marketplace.  People can browse, evaluate and book training programs online. Bookmytrainings.com is one stop platform for all training needs. What is your market differentiators? (Visit Yourstory.in for full news, other content, and much more!)

Tagged as: content, frontpage, market, other-content, people, visit-yourstory-in, your-market, yourstory-in

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L.A. Balamurugan, BookMyTrainings, an Online Training Marketplace

by Paul Joseph June 17, 2011 Featured

Bala, tell us about BookMyTrainings. BookMyTrainings is an online training marketplace.  People can browse, evaluate and book training programs online. Bookmytrainings.com is one stop platform for all training needs. What is your market differentiators? (Visit Yourstory.in for full news, other content, and much more!)

Tagged as: content, frontpage, market, other-content, people, visit-yourstory-in, your-market, yourstory-in

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L.A. Balamurugan, BookMyTrainings, an Online Training Marketplace

by Paul Joseph June 17, 2011 Featured

Bala, tell us about BookMyTrainings. BookMyTrainings is an online training marketplace.  People can browse, evaluate and book training programs online. Bookmytrainings.com is one stop platform for all training needs. What is your market differentiators? (Visit Yourstory.in for full news, other content, and much more!)

Tagged as: content, frontpage, market, other-content, people, visit-yourstory-in, your-market, yourstory-in

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