Hi everyone

You must be wondering what on earth has happened to me? It’s been a while since I’ve been on my site and this has purely been as a result of working way too hard on everybody else’s business except my own.

I’ve just completed another successful event being a High Tea Fundraiser for Retina SA Western Cape Branch.

Have a look at the pictures here to see what’s kept me so busy – Click here: http://

The next event in the pipeline (also for Retina SA Western Cape branch) is their annual Ripped Genes Music Concert Fundraiser where we source local Artists and Performers willing to show off their talents Pro Bono to raise funds for finding a cure for genetic retinal blindness.

This concert was a huge success last year and we are looking forward to building this year’s concert into a bigger and better event.

The next few months leading up to the end of the year is going to be really busy but when you’re doing what you love it doesn’t even seem like work at all.

Hope to chat again soon.

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MARKETING CHALLENGE:

 

Q: How much time do you (honestly) spend on marketing each day or week?

 

Challenge: Every time you post on social media, write a blog, update your website or attend a networking event, over the next 7 days, make a note of how long you spend on it. Write it down on paper, in your diary, set an online timer or use a stop watch. The method you use is entirely up to you. The most important part of the challenge is timing it.

 

By the end of the week, add up the time spent and answer these questions:

  • How much time are you currently spending on marketing your business? Do you think this is enough? How can I help you? Let me know in the comments box below or drop me an e-mail at info@prioritybizservices.co.za
  • Share your plans for being more productive in your marketing efforts with us in the comments box below.

 

Don’t forget to check out our Facebook page and make sure you “like” our page to stay up to date with what’s happening in the administration field.

 

Follow me on Twitter (business):  https://twitter.com/PriorityBizServ

Follow me on Facebook (business) at:  facebook.com/prioritybizservices01

E-mail (business): info@prioritybizservices.co.za

Website: http://prioritybizservices.co.za

Find me on LinkedIn at:  https://za.linkedin.com/in/nataliejohnson2

Skype (by prior arrangement): http://skype.com/natalie.johnson539

 

 

 

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What mid-year targets have you set for your business and do you have someone who is holding you accountable to the targets you have set? Maybe a peer? Your business partner (s) or your life partner/spouse?

  • What have you accomplished for the past 6 months?
  • Did you meet or exceed your 6 month goals you set for yourself?

 

What about the next 6 months leading up to the end of the year?

 

  1. What sales targets have you set for the next 6 months? (The total amount you would like to bring in through sales over this period)

 

  1. How much do you need to sell each month between now and December to hit this target? (divide this by 6)

 

  1. How many products or services do you need to sell each month to achieve this? For example: X products/services per month equals Y per week. If you sell your time by providing a service, this would translate to X hours @ R____ per hour

 

  1. Where might these sales come from?
    • Existing Customers?
    • Do a promotion to attract new business?
    • Run a special offer for your newsletter subscribers?

 

  1. What monthly salary are you aiming for and by when?

 

Marketing Ideas:

  • Social Media: What can you do on social media to create a buzz and generate sales?

 

  • Seasonal Events: Which seasonal events can you tap into? i.e. National Women’s Day, Heritage Day, 16 Days of Activism of no violence against women and children, Christmas or New Year?

 

  • Collaboration: Who could you team up with to do a joint promotion where you share the work and share the reward?

 

  • Speaking Engagements: Could you do talks or speaking engagements at local groups or business clubs where your ideal clients/customers would be, to raise awareness of your business/services you offer? If so, which meetings would you attend and where?

 

  • Existing client base: What could you offer your existing customers/clients that they would find irresistible?

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Here are eight basic steps to follow when building a list of contacts by collecting e-mail addresses.

  1. Use an e-mail marketing programme like Aweber (good) but Infusionsoft (better)
  2. Get a programme to create an opt-in-page. For example: LeadPages.com (good) but Kajabi (better)
  3. Create an added-value deliverable such as a free report, template, E-book, audio or video training so people will happily provide an e-mail address in exchange for the value you provide.
  4. Ask your community about their desires. Send an email to your community with the link to a survey (use a free service like SurveyMonkey.com) asking what they want or need help with in the area of value you’ve identified. Ask open-ended questions to help you later brainstorm or offer multiple choices if you’ve already thought about what you can provide.
  5. Create a solution: After receiving responses to your survey, get to work and create the solution(s). This could be a physical or digital product (a book, audio or video, written training programme, workbook, E-book etc), or a service (dog grooming, babysitting, coaching, consulting, speaking or training)
  6. Plan the launch: Turn the launch into an event. Build anticipation months in advance – make people WANT to buy your product or service. Read the book: “Launch” by Jeff Walker for more tips.
  7. Find a mentor: Find people who have already achieved what you want and copy their behaviour and make it your own. You could either have a relationship with a face-to-face human mentor, hire a coach, read a book or articles by an expert or do web research.
  8. Schedule time to begin implementing these steps, one at a time and within months you can be enjoying the benefits.

 

Was this information helpful?

Let me know how this helped you. I’m waiting to hear from you.

Birds under umbrella (raining)

Communication: Four secrets anyone must have to have massive impact in the first 5 minutes

 

 

Today is the fourth and final of four posts in which I will share tips on how to have massive impact in the first five minutes of walking into a room.

 

Storytelling . . . did you know that the gift of storytelling can be one of life’s most powerful and envied skills? A well told story can make us laugh, weep, swell with pride or rise with indignation. A story badly told can be boring and uncomfortable and also positively painful to experience. As human beings we seem to be fundamentally hard-wired to tell stories. Stories are how we record both the monumental events of our lives and the small, everyday moments.

 

Become a Master Storyteller:

Ancient philosophers recognised that expert communication had to have two parts working together: Logic and Rhetoric.

 

Logic involves getting the facts right and making sure that the speaker knows that what they are saying makes sense and follows sound reasoning.

 

Rhetoric is all about how things are said, how emotion is used, and how convincing one is in the way they tell the facts so as to have maximum influence on others.

 

The Greeks recognised that both logic and rhetoric had to be combined and that too much of one without the other would diminish the impact a person could hope to have. Storytelling focusses on the rhetoric part and it’s a skill that recognises that there is more to influence than just intelligence.

Although it is incredibly useful and important to be smart and correct, facts on their own rarely move people to action.

 

Influence comes from being able to tell an engaging and moving story that captivates an audience and wins them over with its power. Example: why do movies have so much more effect at bringing world problems to people’s attention?

 

We need stories to move us into action and people who own the room need to be able to move others into action, which means we have to become Master Storytellers.

  • We need to use vivid language to tell our stories “Imagine the worst flight in the world . . .”

There is power in injecting emotion and drawing out the detail – instead of just saying “yeah, so my flight sucked today.”

 

Are you a good story teller?

 

Was this post helpful? Let me know in the comments box below

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Four secrets anyone must have to have massive impact in the first 5 minutes

  • Be a master of the conversational Sleight-of-Hand –

    Communication: Be a master of the conversational Sleight-of-Hand

  • Learn how to be an “Emotional Conductor” (and become resistant/unreceptive to insults, criticism and mockery)
  • Adopt a Value-Delivering Mind-set (and let others praise you for it)
  • Become a Master Story Teller

 

Today is the second of four posts in which I will share tips on how to have massive impact in the first five minutes of walking into a room.

 

How do you deal with insults, criticism and mockery?

Have you ever been in a situation where you have maybe delivered a speech or a talk and had insults or criticism thrown at you? Maybe after the talk or speech while networking with the group you heard some negative comments/criticism about you or your talk or speech on the other side of the room?

 

How do you deal with insults, criticism and mockery? Do you act or react?

 

Learn how to be an “Emotional Conductor” (and become resistant/unreceptive to insults, criticism and mockery):

We all have to learn how to be strong in the face of criticism. Criticism gives you a chance to show what you are made of in the way you respond. This is possible when you have mastered the art of being an Emotional Conductor. It is especially great when facing intimidating and urgent scenarios in which you have to respond on your feet.

 

Being an Emotional Conductor means being able to be the emotional centre of any situation. It’s being the person who controls the mood, instead of simply reacting to it. It’s the ability to turn a negative into a positive, instead of meeting a negative with another negative and end up embarrassing yourself and losing control of the conversation.

 

People who don’t have impact are easily flustered and become emotional when they are attacked or when things go slightly wrong. They fall to pieces. They complain. They get upset, or worse, they respond in anger and end up looking like the nasty one themselves.

 

Being in control isn’t about avoiding these difficult or dangerous conflict situations, it’s about being calm and knowing how to deal with conflict, difficulties and criticism. One way to do this is by leading the energy in the room where you want it to go.

 

There is a Japanese martial art called Aikido which embodies this idea beautifully. Aikido is translated as “The Way of the Harmonious Spirit”, and its main philosophy is based on the idea that we must never meet force head-on, but instead re-direct the force of the attacker to where we want it to go. This means that Aikido requires very little strength. Instead it requires us to be more sophisticated and “lead” our opponents momentum and either turn it in another direction, turn it into something else, or dissolve it completely.

 

There are three ways to master this technique whenever you face criticism:

  1. Remain calm: If you panic, you lose impact. Whatever is thrown at you, remain calm and assured that you are able to deal with it in a reasonable way. This already makes you more powerful than anyone in the room.
  2. Decide your own mood: Choose your response and set the tone yourself. Never let other people’s moods influence your own energy. The more in control you are of your mood, the more others will be led by you.
  3. Re-direct criticism to something positive: Very few things in life warrant an angry or emotional response. Some better responses are to either (a) calmly explain why a criticism is incorrect, (b) laugh it off and take it in your stride, or (c) ignore it completely (because sometimes the strongest response is no response at all).

 

Now, when you are faced with tough questions you will look forward to them and enjoy those moments of tension. It becomes like taking a remote control into your hands and deciding how to play the situation any way you choose.

 

Was this post helpful?

 

Let me know what you think in the comments box below.

 

 

 

Do you sometimes feel that a particular client or few clients are leaving you feeling drained at the end of the conversation or at the end of the day?

 

Have you thought about the reasons why you might be feeling this way? There are three possible reasons for this.

 

  • Over giving: Charging too little or giving too much of your time, almost always leads to feelings of being drained. It takes courage to charge what you want to charge and end the session when you say you’re going to end. Do it anyway. It will leave you with more energy to continue your day.
  • Not speaking your truth: What about those things you wish you could say to your client (but it might be rude or disrespectful, and after all, they’re paying you lots of money . . .). Those are the things you need to say!! Just begin your bold statement with a large dose of acknowledgment, compassion and gentleness. It’s nearly impossible to boldly speak your truth and get drained at the same time.
  • Getting attached to your clients getting results: Generally speaking this is a good thing . . . don’t we all want this for our clients? The problem is that when you get attached to your client getting great results, you tighten up and when you tighten up, you lose connection with your client and you lose connection with your intuition. From this place, you probably push your client too hard, or you protect your client from your inner pusher and you become quiet and withholding. Neither works.

 

Instead, trust that there is a much bigger picture working here. Sometimes people are ripe for results, and other times, it takes time.

 

Your clients’ results do NOT determine your goodness or worthiness. You can be amazing, even if your client didn’t get results and you can be terrible and still have clients get results but its helpful to use their lack of results as inspiration to step up your game so that you are holding the most optimal space for your clients to get results.

 

It’s helpful to trust that there is a bigger picture happening that we are not always privy to that goes way beyond how much money they made, weight they lost, or soul mate they have found. It’s helpful to celebrate the results they are getting, no matter how big or small.

 

It’s helpful to address your clients’ feelings about the results they’re getting. It’s helpful to love them completely as they are, even if they don’t change a bit, and, at the same time, it’s helpful to hold vibrant space for them to become who they are becoming.

 

But, it’s NOT helpful to take responsibility for your clients’ results. You can’t get results for your client, even if you try your hardest, because they are the ones doing the work . . . it’s their results. Your job is to hold impeccable space, like a cocoon for a butterfly. The space you hold includes your love, wisdom, energy and compassion and it’s their choice to become the butterfly.

 

When you’re doing your best to help your client win, it’s best to simply hand the rest over to them and to God and trust that everything that is happening is exactly what needs to happen, but, what if you’ve been charging an amount that feels good, sticking to your time agreements, speaking your truth, and giving the results over to God but, you’re still getting drained? Well . . .

 

Sometimes the arc is simply over and it’s time to complete. After all, even the best things in life have a beginning, middle and end. Your work together might feel like a stick of bubble gum that you’ve been chewing for 30 minutes and it simply no longer has much flavour.

 

If this is the case, its time to set this client free and refer them to another resource that can help them grow.

 

This will make space for new clients to emerge.

 

Sometimes, the problem is having draining clients . . .  but other times, the BIGGER problem is simply getting enough high-paying clients to pay the bills.

 

If this is the case, I’d love to help.

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I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get rather annoyed with the way some marketers bombard me with their content marketing, many using the “Fire Hose Effect”.

 

We all know that a fire hose blasts a flame with a high powered surge of water, destroying anything in the way of the water stream or at least completely soaking anything in its pathway.

 

The Fire Hose Effect in marketing works very much the same and is how many marketers are targeting their prospects. They assume that once they have your attention they need to throw as much marketing material in your face as possible so they don’t lose you. With the Fire Hose Effect, the goal is to keep your attention while they have you.

 

For example: A prospect visits your website site where you flood them with calls to action. They can sign up for your free newsletter or free class, watch your video, connect with you on Facebook and Twitter etc. Now, let’s assume they choose one of these offers they’re then provided with more content than they know what to do with.

 

I’ve had situations where as soon as I sign up for the free newsletter, I’m given a link to a video series, a workbook, a book and a link to member only content – password protected (some of it time bound forcing me to respond within a given timeframe).

 

It’s too much all at once. I’m now feeling overwhelmed and you know what happens? Half the stuff I receive goes unopened and therefore unread. If I’m really interested in what you have to say, I will file it in a file called “unread” with the intention of reading it later when I have the time. I must warn you though, this file is growing daily and the likelihood of me ever getting to read what’s in it is getting slimmer by the day. So instead of taking action like you were expecting me to, your mail has gone unread.

 

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Let me share three simple steps you can take to stop overwhelming me (your future prospect) with information overload.

  • One call to action – decide what you want me to do and then create one landing page that does everything in its power to motivate me to follow through.
  • Create one simple, powerful and valuable piece of information to enter into your sales funnel – free information is great and valuable information makes me see you as a credible resource I can turn to for help. Keep it simple and focus on quality over quantity.
  • Follow through – building a relationship with me (your future prospect) is the best way to move me forward in your sales funnel. Instead of overloading me with freebies and content, follow up to see how I’m doing with the information you provided. Ask me if I have any questions, ask if I’m ready to take the next step and tell me what that next step is.

Make things simple for me and for yourself.

Create a highly focused strategy that strives to offer specific information to interested people like me.

Then build relationships with people like me by providing superior quality information and a genuine interest in my progress.