Top Ten Reasons to License Your Seminar or Workshop

Five years ago, I did something that radically boosted my business and pushed it right into the six figures … and it helped get my name out there like crazy.

I created a licensing program of a seminar I created that bore the name of my book – the How Much Joy Can You Stand workshop. Since then, I’ve built an entire business on the strength of this licensing work, and I urge you to do the same.

While it seems complicated to set up a licensing program, it doesn’t have to be. Really, it’s more of a creative challenge as you make choices that shape your training program to suit your purpose, style and goals.

Here are my Top Ten Reasons to set up a licensing program.

10. Your mother will be so proud!

9. You’ll be forced to dig in and refine your work so it’s laser-sharp and at its best, just through the process of teaching others how to lead it.

8. You’ll no longer be doing your work alone and in a vacuum. In fact, think how many helpers you can attract.

7. There are a lot of people out there actively looking for workshops to lead so simply don’t want to – or can’t – design their own. So you’ll be serving them.

6. You’ll radically increase the number of people who sign up for your ezine or visit your website, if you arrange to have them promoted at each workshop.

5. If you create the right product – one that’s necessary and fills a gap – you can seriously boost your income.

4. You can increase your passive revenue as your trainees sell your books and CD’s from the back of the room at their events.

3. You get instant credibility as people hear your name and keep running into the name of your workshop again and again.

2. You can fill your coaching practice with grace and ease as more and more people hear about your work – and want to work with its originator or the ‘head honcho’.

1. You’ll fulfill your mission in life by leaps and bounds. Just think how many more people will find your work, a you teach others to join you in spreading your word.

Guaranteed Ways to Build Up Your Ezine List, Part II

More tips on how to beef up that all important ezine list … which in case you didn’t know you can still use to connect with your folks, even if you’re a passionate blogger. Why? It’s a better concrete list building tool because you HAVE to sign up to get it, unlike a blog post. 

1. Announce ezine ‘events’ on PRweb.com and other PR sites. There’s an entire world of web-based press release distribution services out there, some of which are low cost or even free. But be sure to only plant press releases that are truly newsworthy.

2. Sponsor other people’s contests/events. Simply run an announcement in your ezine. Ask participants to provide a URL for the event so you know it’s legit. Then offer up your bonus … and see if they’ll promote your ezine to their list as a thank you, too.

3. Run quality content. There’s no substitute for heartfelt writing plus solid information about a subject that matters. It gets passed along!

4. Allow reprints. I like to have borrowers send an email requesting permission, so I can enter their info into a big database – these could be future swap partners. Plug the reprint permission at the end of your essay.

5. Create a survey or contest. This would be one of those newsworthy ‘ezine events’ I mentioned above in point # 6. Surveys can generate media-friendly statistics you can use in all kinds of press releases, etc.. And contests are just … well … fun!

A Cross Country Tour is Always Good for Publicity

Here’s an enterprising project from the fertile minds of youth. Two recent college grads are traveling the country to interview over 200 passionate professionals about their career path. Says co-owner of Pursue the Passion, Brett Farmiloe,

“We are conducting the tour because we believe there are too many Americans who are not passionate about what they do for a living, and we want to change that.  We believe that by uncovering paths to fulfilling and meaningful careers in our interviews, other aspiring individuals will be able to find work that fuels their fire as a result of our efforts.”

Nice idea … and I like how Brett contacted me for a blog plug to help him get known. See? The blogosphere (and the accompanying interesting tour) works! To learn more about the tour, please visit www.pursuethepassion.com.

I Quit Vista for a Mac: Life is Good

Right now, I’m happy to report, a brand new Mac G4 is humming away on the floor of my office, quietly recharging. I just unpacked it, plugged it in, and want to say a loud, boisterous ‘Yeah!’ to all the Mac users who commented here, urging me to go for it.

Returning my Vista-disabled HP laptop to Costco was amazingly easy. I fretted because I no longer had original packaging … or the little polishing cloth that came with it. All other pieces were in tack (some even still shrink wrapped) and I had my receipt, so the refund was made in a few quick minutes. I walked out of the store with my original $1300 in my pocket … and headed right for the nearest Mac dealer.

I was persuaded to dump Windows by my 45 day saga trying to get Vista to treat me kind. And it just wouldn’t. Not only did I hire tech support to disable the many layers of Vista paranoia filters, but I even dumped the inadequate MS Office 07 for my old trusty 03 version.

But still, I could not pick up a wireless signal on Vista in a public place to save my life. Meanwhile, next to me, my teenage daughter was happily IM-ing and Facebooking on a choice of wireless conduits. Was I happy? NO. I was pissed.

Drama over, saga ended. We all know Vista is a worthless piece of junk which, as one reader put it, will undoubtedly have Microsoft looking at a class-action suit here pretty soon. There is just no excuse for putting software out there that functions so poorly.

And take note, at my local Mac store, Small Dog Electronics in Burlington, VT, the guy who sold me my G4 (Such a deal! Available online!) told me that every other customer right now is a disgruntled Visa person. Right on!

Now if we could just harness that righteous anger to end … say …. the Iraqi war.

 

What Sanjaya & Blake Lewis Taught Me About Platform

OK, American Idol fans, and the other 28% of America who couldn't force themselves to watch ... it's all over. Jordin Sparks is the 2007 winner. Awesome singer, true blue kid, gorgeous smile, what's not to like?

BUT ... I thiink what America is really talking about today is Blake Lewis and yeah, even Sanjaya (who seems to have improved massively since he left the show last month.) Those two have proven, for once and for all ... even in the homogeneous world of freshly-scrubbed American Idol ... that different is good.

Yes, put your hair into a 'ponyhawk' if it's really YOU. Yes, have the guts to rearrange Bon Jovi's biggest hit, while he watches and advises you not to, by adding beat-boxing. Yes, be your own person because that is what's ultimately most memorable ... and most worth talking about at the end of the day.

And talk about us is just what we in platform-building world want people to do, right? Last night, Blake gave a great interview to mtv.com, in which he said, "I've tried to stay true to myself this whole entire time, and I think I've represented myself as creatively as I could with what I got on the show."

As for Sanjaya, he's the one who got the most screams on the red carpet last night (sorry, Carrie). Again, he was just being 'Sanjaya' up there until he finally got booted off and the competition got serious. Which has landed him in virtually every major media venue in America ... and even at The White House. (But let's not go there, shall we?)

Rock on, America! Ponyhawk anyone?

Am I ADD? Are you?

So I recently attended a conference for the ACO, (ADD Coaches Organization), for life coaches who work with folks with ADD/HD, aka Attention Deficit Disorder. That was quite a fascinating experience for me, because by the end of the conference, I was fairly sure I was someone (even entirely?) ADD.

And I wasn’t the only one. Two of the other keynoters also felt the same thing. For here we were, in this sea of intensely creative non-conformists, feeling like we fit right in.

Here’s what I saw in this particular ADD population that made me feel like I belonged:

A propensity to want to do lots of things, all at once, all the time. Man, is that me in a nutshell. The more projects the better.

A certain obliviousness to time. At the start of my talk, I had one person in the audience, who was another speaker. Where were they all? Breakfast. So I went into the dining room and personally invited them all to come to my talk. They looked up at me charmingly, as they were about to tuck into their eggs, and in the most laid back manner possible, assured me they’d be there in ‘just a minute’. While I’m all about being on time these days, I wasn’t always. I can relate.

They are passionate believers in … well … all kinds of things. At least, I saw passion as a real hallmark of this group – maybe because they’re life coaches? Or because of the ADD? Not sure. At any rate, that level of energy always attracts me … cause it IS me.

They’re not afraid to get out of the box and even stand up on their chairs. Or at least a few would. We need more flaming non-conformists in this dreary old life! And yeah, I’ve gotten up on a few chairs in my life.

Finishing things can be hard. It was for me for years – til I finally took myself by the short hairs and forced myself to do the last gnarly bits.

If I’m indeed ADD, I know I’m functional enough to be fine as I am … And I do know is that I’ve set up my life to provide as much variety and spice as possible. It was a pleasure for me (and my fellow speakers) to hang with such a lively crew and learn about this interesting slant on life. Viva la difference!

ADD-ers or not, thoughts?

Bad, bad Direcway/HughesNet

The tech glitches continue …. Ah, life in the electronically dependent millennium! So I live in the woods, right? And the only high speed net connection I can have is via satellite. So three years ago I went with the standard provider, Direcway.

And then they were young, fresh and new, the connection was fine and life was good.

Now they are abysmal. Their ‘Fair Access Policy’, which keeps their service from being overused by say, one wild user downloading hundreds of film files, has gone berserk. This policy, designed to keep the ranks from hogging all the bandwidth, spanks over-users with 24 hours of achingly slow connection after each ‘indiscretion’.

Here’s the rub: every day is “Fair Access Policy’ at my house, and nobody’s doing more than checking email and going on a few websites. There are no aggressive security updates being downloaded every day. No one’s even buying a song off of iTunes. We can’t! We’re at a crawl here.

Though I can’t believe I’m actually writing this, thank God for my Earthlink dial-up back up system.

And why has this all happened? Because Bad Bad Direcway has oversubscribed their satellite…. To the point where a signal is damn near impossible to get. Duh! I’m only one of probably thousands of subscribers who are now quitting their service. I can only assume so because tech support (in a far off land) is now a good 45-60 minutes wait any time of the day or night that I have tried.

Ah, but then there is Wild Blue. This is the upstart satellite server who, marvelously, makes a habit of not oversubscribing. And they have fast, accessible tech support. I’m joining their ranks this week!

Comments? Rants? Raves? Alternatives for those of us who want to go high speed in the woods?

Why I’m not on a Mac

Thanks to all the Mac users who were feeling my pain in my recent posts, titled ‘Vista Sucks’. Man, you ARE a loyal breed. Note, I did not get a single email from happy Windows users. Why? Because we’re not so happy.

I was once a happy Mac user and made the switch to PC only three years ago, when I realized that I couldn’t download much valuable free marketing software only available to Windows users. (And yeah, I was grumpy about having to relearn everything with the arrival of OS X.) Since then, it appears, the rise of the iPod and subsequent re-emergence of the Mac platform has changed everything.

Had I known, I suspect I would have busted out of this box. But now I am on a new, somewhat snappy PC; I’ve also been getting all sorts of tweaks set up on it that get around some of the darker aspects of Vista . However, I’ve found I can’t actually remove Vista and  load in the old XP system software. Nooooooo… those clever engineers designed the drivers in the new machines to only work with Vista.

The bitterest pill – I can’t seem to pick up a reliable wireless signal in free wi fi areas. Anyone else noticing this? The networks don’t even show up in my network list.

Question: Should I go back to Costco on bended knee and return this baby? It’s well past the return date, but I am hobbled here.. Please note: I am one of those officially ‘nice’ people who doesn’t like to be a cranky customer. Perhaps, however, I am being pushed out of my comfort zone.

Thoughts? A promise: if I do attempt a return at Costco, I will blog about it here.

Should You Switch to One Shopping Cart or Aweber Alternatives?

Reader Sarah Zeldman sent in the following comment in response to my blurb about an alternative to One Shopping Cart, aweber, etc.  called WAHMCART, after reading my comment below. Like the competitors it offers unlimited autoresponders, a secure shopping cart, affiliate management program and more for only $30/month. That’s actually a great deal, I think.

Sarah notes:

Anyway, wahmcart just came out with a 5-page report that answers the most common questions and concerns about using WAHMCART. I thought your readers might appreciate it. It can be downloaded here:

http://solutionsforbusymoms.squarespace.com/storage/BenefitsAndPowerofWahmcart.pdf

Please do bear in mind the implicit problems in switching your opt in sign ups from one system to another if this makes you feel like changing services. Opt In folks must be recontacted and resubscribe, and the list essentially rebuilt when you change services. That can result in as much as an 80% loss in you subscriber base.

And while we know that not everyone still reads our ezines or mailings, their sheer presence on our lists as raw ‘platform’ is worth gold for book contracts, TV bookings, etc.. That’s one of the ways your platform is assessed by decision makers.

So get your service right from the get-go … don’t switch mid-stream. That’s my advice.