Have you ever listened to a keynote speech and got all pumped and motivated, then found out what the speaker has suggested just didn’t give you the results you hoped for? Or maybe you bought a best-seller and found it page-turning fascinating, but no clearer on what you were meant to do next? Silver Bullet…
Today I want to give you some ideas for how you can attract clients and fill your coaching practice using blogging and content marketing. If you would like some background on why I believe coaching is a fantastic service to offer in your business, check out the previous article. First Big Mistake Before we get…
Todd wanted want to know how I have always had a steady flow of coaching clients going back to when I started my business, despite not always having a big list, not always having traffic, and all my shyness/introversion psychological limitations! If you are a coach who struggles with sales and marketing then this article is…
Creating and selling information products is all the rage right now, with forums filling with conversations about launches and techniques. I can understand the enthusiasm, and I would suggest a lot of the excitement is coming from Jeff Walker’s latest “Product Launch Formula” buzz. Sadly I think a lot of the people who are getting…
Is finding time to blog something you struggle with? A number of people have asked me how they can find time to blog on top of everything else that I have going on. Writing content is vitally important for your blog. It is your source of direct visitors, plus the meat of what you share…
“The only stupid question is the one you fail to ask”. That has always been my philosophy. Of course at school that philosophy contributed to my regular beatings. Any pupil who took too much of an interest in class was considered fair game for a head-flushing. In adult life though we should be above such…
On a coaching call the other day my client asked how to break into the JV (“Joint Venture”) club and I realised it was something I wondered myself years ago. You see there is a real challenge facing anyone who hasn’t got any joint venture partners, affiliates, or is even struggling to get people to…
One of my clients was telling me how they feel overwhelmed because of all the commitments they feel they have been guilted into making. She knew I had wrestled with this lately and wanted to know my solution. I think she was disappointed to find out my magic bullet was to simply say “No” more….
Every now and then the “a blog is not a business” meme will come around again. Each time someone will challenge me about it. Look, I agree. A blog is no more a business than a book is a business if you want to be strict about it. But why does it matter? Rather…
During an interview with Sonia Simone for their Teaching Sells course members, I realised I had created more products in the last eleven months than I have the previous five years. That’s eight products delivered and two more in the works, either solo or as part of a joint venture. This was while moving my…
Jake Nickell is the founder of Threadless, the super cool t-shirt store/design community. When I reviewed the Threadless book I only touched on what the company is about. So here is more of an insight into the workings of a 10 year old successful internet startup. Q: What do you think has made the biggest…
One of the things I work on with my mentoring and consulting clients is their “Brand”. Having that outside viewpoint and guidance can help them get to a stronger point than trying to struggle alone. It is difficult to be objective about ourselves. What, though is a strong brand? How do we create one? Do…
I have finally managed to start unboxing all our collected shipping container cruft that recently arrived from England and this book from Threadless was right at the top. If you don’t know Threadless then you should have a browse around their site. It is a real treat just to explore, even if you do not…
Fear is a huge deal in our lives sometimes. It can stop us making progress. I recently had an email conversation with Julien Smith, one half of Trust Agents and all round cool dude. We talked about fear and how to manage it. He had some wise words for us: Chris: In your blog you…
Have you noticed I have been a bit quiet lately? There are two reasons. The first, of course, is that I have been moving country. These things tend to constrain your time a little … I can happily say I am typing this from our rental home in Canada 🙂 Today’s post is about the…
What makes a successful blog? What makes a successful blogger? I have been reflecting on these questions as I start planning out the next stage of my Authority Blogger course. It’s important to me that people get real results, and honestly the only way I can do that is by basing my advice on what…
It’s Blogworld coming up in a few days. Another big conference with busy halls, packed sessions, and loud parties. That might sound like heaven or hell to you, and believe me I understand both perspectives. I am doing up to six sessions this year. Around six more than my nerves are built to take. You…
Have you noticed how most of your day goes to stuff that is not related to what is really important? I am not even talking about the obvious things like dealing with spam, hanging out in Twitter, and people hanging on the telephone too long. There are lots of things that demand our time and…
Hosting an event or conference is a major undertaking, and one of the hardest parts is getting the right people to show up and engage. A successful conference doesn’t just fill seats, it builds relationships, sparks conversations, and leaves a lasting impression. To do that, you need a clear message, smart promotion, and creative strategies…
Here we go again. Another week, another “revolution”, another “rebel” stirrs things up. To paraphrase a line from a movie … “He’s not a rebel, he is a very naughty boy.” Ideas should be free, says the latest link-bait, attack-post, call-to-arms, etc. Whatever. It seems even in 2010 there are still people out there who…
Are you wondering how you can get more people to visit your site or buy what you are selling? People often ask me why some people can get a lot of traffic or business while others struggle along with what seems like the scraps from the table. Why can “over night success” stories break through…
I don’t remember exactly when I first shared my “flagship content” concept at Performancing.com but it came from looking at how we were going to achieve growth. We were hovering around the top 20 blogs on the internet, as ranked by Technorati. Each successful website reaches the same stage, but each gets there in its…
One of the disgusting but useful phrases in the programming and developer community is “Eat your own dogfood”. I am sure there are people out there who really do have to eat their own dogfood in a literal sense, but the meaning behind the phrase in our context is that you have to experience your…
The unfortunate truth is that most businesses don’t explode into flames or crash in one spectacular disaster. Instead, they sink quietly, bit by bit, while their owners convince themselves that everything is fine. By the time they realize there’s a problem, the lifeboats are already gone. If your company feels like it’s drifting, it’s time…
I just got off a call with my NLP coach. We swap services, so I give him advice about internet stuff, and he helps me with my (many) “issues”. One of the things he is helping me work through is my fear of moving my family thousands of miles away to live in Calgary, Canada….
“It’s the year 2022… People are still the same. They’ll do anything to get what they need. And they need SOYLENT GREEN.” I was only small when I first saw the film Soylent Green. Perhaps that is why it had such an impact on me. It’s an old film, it came out the year before…
I’m a firm believer in networking. In fact I credit my network with a great part of why I have achieved my goals in the last five years. My journey from intention through to completion just would not have been possible without my friends, mentors and contacts. Many of the people responsible for where I…
Ask a business owner what they want, why they are in business. You will certainly hear the following amongst the answers: Rewards (financial or otherwise) Freedom Control What you will find though, and I include myself in this, is business owners actually working COUNTER to those aspirations. Rewards, freedom and control come from being at…
Most times when a company kills their brand it is through a steady decline. The kind of loyalty to unloyalty that Scott talks about in his excellent post over there. There are also those occasions where the brand goes from king of the world to “wouldn’t touch that in a hazmat suit” bad overnight, such…
5 reasons I love webinars and encourage you to try them out so you can see for yourself how webinars can help grow your business too.
Five years ago I cut loose from my day job and launched myself into the adventure that is working for oneself. That was the start of my journey towards claiming my independence day, and I think there are lessons for you if you want to do something similar to what I have done. I’m proud…
Networking has delivered more return on investment than any other tool in my business. Both financially and in non-monetary terms, my network has delivered so much value that I can not imagine what my situation would be like without it. If there is one thing that I could suggest that would be guaranteed to boost…
What would you say is the main habit that is common to all successful online business owners? Is there one thing that if you just applied it would make a massive difference to your own progress? As an inquisitive student of internet marketing I talk to a lot of people involved in the online business…
I was interviewed late last night for an American radio show where I was asked where I get my product ideas from. My answer was that I am not any kind of bright spark when it comes to this stuff, so I do the easiest thing, which is to ask. I ask my community what…
Melani wrote a great post called “Happily Delusional or a Few Things to Make You Feel Better about Your Marketing Stats“. In it she talks about how people feel about their business numbers and it has some strong messages for any business. A lot of my friends, clients and contacts look at their results and…
During a webinar the other day, I asked the following question. Have a guess what the result turned out to be. I wonder if you will be as shocked as I was … Have you ever had a successful launch? There were only two possible answers, yes or no. We had a discussion about “success”…
I have been putting a lot of thought into why some people succeed and others fail. It’s easy to put success down to luck or natural talent, but while there will always be an element of that, it does not seem to be “the answer”. There seem to be some ingredients that a lot of…
SXSW is a fixture on many a geeks calendar. It’s the biggest and wildest conference on the scene, encompassing “interactive”, film and music. My coolest friends in the UK thought it was the music festival I was attending, I didn’t have the guts to tell them I was only going to the nerdy bits, ha….
My first experiences online came before the web, and before most of the modern “nettiquette” was written. It was the days of ultra nerdy folks (like me), librarians, and academic PHD types in lab coats. When people were not doing serious science type stuff there was a lot of socializing going on. There were hippy…
Steven Aitchison has a strong blog. Most people would regard his site as a success (in fact he claims it as the “biggest personal development blog in the UK) .. So why would he ask for a blog critique when he is doing so many things right? With stats like these, Steven could be giving…