How To Become the Center of Attention

There are millions of people with tons of advice, techniques, and strategies for how to reach your audience and get them to take action. Yet, if we’re drowning in such advice, then why are so many marketing campaigns, books, speeches, articles, blogs, and other content painfully ineffective? Why does it seem so hard to get others to take action?

This is a must-read article if any of the following are true:

• You are a marketer, writer, entrepreneur, politician, or leader and you want to increase your ability to impact your audience, lead your organization, and make a positive difference.
• You’ve struggled with getting your message across in the past and have wondered why.
• You have an excellent product, service, or message that you know people will benefit from, but are having a hard time selling it.
• You have a passion for a particular message, but more often than not people seem to tune you out.
• You want to learn how to increase your conversion rate on your website and marketing campaigns.

When it comes to marketing, publishing, websites, public speaking and all forms of content creation and distribution, there’s one secret that supersedes anything else you’ve ever heard on the subject. Learning and applying this one secret will make a bigger difference in your style and presentation than anything else.

Are you ready for it?

Let me give you a hint: Why are you still reading this article? You’ve made it this far for a reason–what is that reason? Is it because I’m such a great writer? Is it because you like my website? Is it because you think I’m a cool guy?

Does it have anything to do with me at all? Of course not. You’re still reading this because you have your own needs, struggles, and issues that you’re dealing with and you’re looking for answers. It has nothing to do with my writing style or my charismatic personality, charm, or wit. It’s all about you and your needs. I’ve promised to help you meet your needs and answer your questions by giving you a secret that will increase the effectiveness more than any other factor. You haven’t made it this far because of me; you’re here because of you. You might care about my credibility, but only as it relates to your purposes.

Have you figured out the secret yet? Lean in closer while I whisper it in your ear. Here’s the secret: It’s not about you.

That’s it. It’s really that simple. It’s not about you — it’s about your audience. It’s about your customer, or potential customer. It’s about their needs, desires, passions, fears, perceptions, sense of belonging, personality, sense of humor, tastes, preferences, and aversions. It’s about giving them what they want, not what you want.

The Golden Rule says to treat people how you want to be treated. The Platinum Rule says to treat people how they want to be treated. The Golden Rule is great for avoiding conflict and war, but horrible for marketing. No one cares that your product is the best and that it was the result of your years of toil and passion. They only care if it happens to coincide with what they want.

To give a tangible example of this secret, I’ve visited a few websites of freelance writers to extract and analyze two writing samples. Consider the differences between the two:

Example 1: “I enjoy working with people and I love to write. The combination gives me an edge in the freelance writing industry. I’m outgoing enough to ask all the right questions and lucky enough that I never get bored doing my job. I believe any piece of writing is worthy of perfection…I have always gone the extra mile for my clients. You will find that I am meticulous, that my work is original, and that I will consistently produce above and beyond expectations.

Example 2: “I am here to make your life easier. Partner with me for your writing needs and give yourself the freedom to focus on other aspects of your business. If you are looking for an experienced freelance writer who is committed to your satisfaction, you have found her! I look forward to helping you achieve more with words.”

The first one isn’t written too badly, but notice that “I” is used eight times with only two references to the writer’s potential clients. In an effort to sell you on her services, she has told you all about herself. In the second example, the writer references herself just four times while referencing you, the potential client, six times. The first person wants to tell you how great she is; the second shows you that she’s all about meeting your needs.

For some reason we think that to sell people we need to tell them how great we are. The reality is just the opposite — you must show them how in tune to their needs you are. They only reason they care about how great you are is if your perceived greatness coincides with what they’re looking for and the particular pain that they’re feeling that your product, service, or message will alleviate.

Learning that it’s not about you and writing to the perspective of your audience will impact the effectiveness of your message more than any other factor. Stop being me-centric — make your message customer-centric and you will quickly become the center of attention for your audience.

Posted on July 24th, 2008 by Stephen
Filed under: Blogging, Book Writing, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Public Speaking, Writing | No Comments »

A blog is absolutely indispensable for most business owners: it will help you draw unprecedented traffic, establish yourself as an expert and as a trusted friend to your customers, allow you to create more value, gain more customers, gain and share testimonials, and earn more money.

Having a blog allows you to have ongoing conversations with customers, where any other customers and prospects can personally witness how you deal with concerns, answer questions, and provide value.

You can also create polls and surveys to quantify your effectiveness and get real-time feedback on what your customers like and want to see improved. This type of interaction also tends to create a sense of community amongst users, and community translates into loyalty, and loyalty means increased sales.

A blog gives you more transparency, honesty, and accountability, and your customers will respond to that. It also happens to be one of the best ways to drive up your ranking in Search Engine Optimization, which means increased traffic to your site.

In short, a blog for a small business owner means more traffic, more customers, more feedback from the market, increased value to customers, and ultimately more revenues.

“These are all good things,” I can hear you say, “but I’m not a good writer!”

This is one of the best parts of the whole deal: you don’t even need to be a great writer to have a world-class blog and draw tons of traffic! Let me write your blog for you professionally.

This is an excellent service for small business owners who want to leverage a blog, but simply don’t have time to give it justice. Simply fill out this short form describing what you would like to write about, I will ghostwrite it for a nominal fee, and you get all the credit and benefits!

“What if I’m not a business owner,” you say. “Why should I have a blog?

Even if you don’t have a business, with a blog you can stay connected with family and friends, publish your passions and values to the world, network, create community, educate, share, create, discuss, and most of all, have tons of fun!

Best of all, with blog templates, your blog can also be a fully functional website, complete with a product store, static pages, forms, pictures, links, and more!

Most importantly, however, you should know that maintaining a blog can actually be an excellent business for you, as many professional bloggers literally generate $4,000 per month or more from their blog alone. Who knows, this might end up being a full-time job that you love and that makes you an excellent living!

Isn’t it time for you to start your blog? Contact me today for help!

Posted on March 29th, 2008 by Stephen
Filed under: Blogging | No Comments »

3 Simple Steps To Dramatically Improved Writing

Amateur writers write for the sake of writing. While this may create copious amounts of inconsequential content or provide them personal pleasure, it does nothing to increase business prospects, improve the world, or move their audience to take action.

So what is the goal of great writing, and how can it change your presentations? Professional writers always have one main goal in mind with everything they write: to transform their audience. Great writers strive to help their audience see through different eyes, act differently, change the way they interact with the world.

Anyone can throw words together and make complete sentences (case in point: most of the blogosphere), but if you want to actually have impact through your writing, you must learn to write for transformation. There are three simple steps to transformational writing: 1) writing for a specific audience, 2) using the right venue, and 3) choosing and executing the right type of transformation (there are three).

1. Specific Audience

If you want to reach your audience, it’s absolutely crucial that you understand them, get out of your own perspective, and write to their perspective. One of the first things I do with every piece I write is identify my target audience, things such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, location, income level, purchasing habits, hobbies, talents, interests, etc.

When I know who I’m talking to, I’m prepared to custom tailor the message to resonate with them specifically. For example, words such as “revolutionary,” “cutting-edge,” “fresh,” or “in vogue” will more likely resonate with an 18-25 age group, whereas a 60-70 age group will probably have negative reactions to them, who prefer things that are “proven,” “safe,” and “sensible.”

2. The Right Venue

By venue I mean the medium used to convey your message, including such things as magazines, newspapers, journals, books, radio and TV ads, blogs, websites, etc. The venue you choose is, in large part, determined by your audience.

For example, if I’m writing a lengthy article on monetary policy intended for scholars and economists, the best venue is probably a scholarly journal. Few people can stand to read long blocks of meaningful text on a computer screen, I probably won’t have enough space to make my case in most magazines, etc. On the other hand, if my content is concise, simple, and intended for a broad audience, perhaps a newspaper article makes sense.

All of us are exposed to written communications that we skim or ignore, yet if that same message is presented in a venue more palatable to us, we’re much more likely to spend time reading it. Writing for transformation requires utilizing the best venue for our subject matter and audience.

3. The Right Transformation

There are three types of transformations: know, feel, and do. A know transformation seeks to give the readers new information, or old information arranged in a different way, to help them to learn and know things they didn’t know before, in such a way that changes their life and perspective. A feel transformation obviously seeks to evoke strong emotion in the audience, while a do is designed to get an audience to take very specific, immediate, and tangible action.

Amateurs look at this list and try to do all three; professionals focus on one and nail it, because doing so affects the others. How do you want people’s lives to change because they read your message? What do you want to see occur in them? Do you primarily want them to know, feel, or do something? Pick one–yes, just one–and execute it well, and the others will take care of themselves.

If you want your message to actually have impact, you must learn to write for transformation. Know who you’re writing to, use the right venue to reach them, and choose the right transformation and execute it well. After all, transformational writing is the only writing worth reading.

And by the way, you don’t even have to write your message yourself; you can leverage my unique abilities to reach your audience. Contact me today for a free consultation and custom bid.

Posted on February 2nd, 2008 by Stephen
Filed under: Writing | No Comments »

I opened up my mailbox this morning to find this headline: “Castro Says He’s Too Unhealthy to Speak.”

Hmmm… I think I’m too tired to write this post and point out the irony of that phrase.

Posted on January 16th, 2008 by Stephen
Filed under: Misc. Commentary | No Comments »

Marketing is such a critical aspect of the Information Age, and anyone who wants to succeed today must be very familiar with marketing principles, techniques, and strategies.

I’ve read quite a few books on marketing, but by far, the three that have impacted me and my style more than anything else are:
Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath
The Wizard of Ads by Roy H. Williams
Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads by Roy H. Williams

If you want to thrive in the Information Age, these books are absolutely critical!

Posted on January 15th, 2008 by Stephen
Filed under: Marketing | No Comments »

Why Write a Non-Fiction Book?

Surprising Truths About Book Publishing

When people approach me about writing a non-fiction book, my advice often disappoints them because of their expectations about the publishing world. There seems to be a pervading myth that simply publishing a book, on its own merits, is enough to bring fame and fortune to any author. This may come as a surprise, but if your purpose in wanting to write a book is to make money, then read on as I shed some light on the real truths behind book publishing.

The truth is that very few non-fiction authors make much money from their book alone. Publishing a book and getting nationwide distribution is an exorbitantly, and in most cases prohibitively, expensive process. It’s time and energy intensive, and will take massive amounts of resources. In fact, non-fiction authors will spend anywhere from $400-800,000 before they even break even with book sales (anywhere from 200-350,000 copies sold). So if it’s that difficult and expensive, what’s the point of publishing a book anyway?

There are two main reasons to write and publish a non-fiction book, and to make money certainly isn’t one of them. The two reasons are to market your business and to gain credibility.

Reason #1: Marketing

Unless you have a baseline business platform, other than your book idea, to drive traffic to, there’s very little point in publishing a non-fiction book. You won’t make any money and it won’t be worth the effort. The successful non-fiction authors are those who understand that their book is nothing more than a marketing tool to drive traffic to their business, and who exploit this knowledge effectively.

For example, Stephen Covey’s books drive traffic to Franklin Covey, T. Harv Eker has Peak Potentials Training, Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen’s book The One Minute Millionaire markets the Enlightened Wealth Institute, Killing Sacred Cows by Garrett Gunderson and myself leads to the Freedom FastTrack process, marketing guru Seth Godin built Squidoo, Ken Blanchard’s company is a global leader in workplace learning and productivity, just to name a few.

The real money to be made from publishing a book doesn’t come from the book itself; it comes from the business that the book is designed to market. So what does this mean for you? You should spend far more time and effort developing a legitimate business, rather than writing a book.

Besides, you don’t even need to write the dang thing yourself–that’s what guys like me are for. You build your business, and let me get your book written. Your time is much better spent focusing on your business, products, and services. This approach will ultimately result in far more dollars to you than trying to make money from book sales alone.

Reason #2: Credibility

In the Information Age, your audience is drowning in information. They’re constantly bombarded with television, radio, books, advertising, Internet, blogs, music, etc. So why should they listen to you, especially when there may be countless competing factors sending them conflicting messages? When faced with information overload, people listen to and buy from those they deem to be credible.

Think about it: why are quotes so powerful? It’s not because of what is said in a quote that makes it relevant and important to you–it’s because of the credibility of the person saying it. When you hear the words, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” the quote sticks with and impacts you not because of the actual words, but because you know they came from Gandhi, a man who earned ultimate credibility on the subject of changing the world. Your neighbor could say the same thing, but unless he has credibility on that subject, the words will impact you far less and you will quickly forget them.

The phrase “Imagination is more important than knowledge” could be seen as nothing but a trite adage, but coming from the mind and mouth of Albert Einstein, it carries substantial weight and meaning.

Credibility is a precious commodity in the business world, and it’s one that, once gained, will dramatically increase your bottom line. There’s something about being a published author that gives a person instant credibility. Imagine being at a party and meeting three new people. Suppose the first two people you meet are incredible businessmen (or women), and the third is actually far less accomplished than the first two. But if you learn that the third is a published author, suddenly you pay more attention and give more weight to their words. And the chances are high that the published author, despite any of their other accomplishments, is the one that you will remember months later.

Conclusion

If you are thinking about writing a non-fiction book, my advice is that you must first understand that publishing a book is not a good way to make money in and of itself. You absolutely must develop a world-class business that the book is deliberately designed to market, and it’s through increasing traffic to this business that you will make your real money. And by gaining credibility, which comes from being a published author, the chances of getting people to consistently buy from your business are considerably greater.

In other words, what you need isn’t a good idea for a book, but rather, a good business to market. So what’s your business, and how can I help you market it by ghostwriting your non-fiction book?

Posted on January 10th, 2008 by Stephen
Filed under: Book Writing | No Comments »

The First 10 Steps to Starting a Business

(And a Business Plan Isn’t Number One)

As a freelance writer and business consultant, a lot of people come to me with a business idea and want my help to write a formal business plan.

Contrary to what many aspiring entrepreneurs think, writing a business plan isn’t the first or most important step to start a business. For most people–especially those who have not yet started a business–this is actually one of the last things you want to do in the start-up and get-off-the-ground phase.

This article is specifically designed for those brave souls who have never started a business, have a burning desire to do so, but don’t know where to start. Here are 10 practical, learned from the school of hard knocks, that will help you avoid common pitfalls and get started right. (And keep in mind that these are intended for businesses that need little to no start-up capital.)

1. Read

Before you do anything else, read these four books in order:

2. Dream

Take time to create your business “spiritually” before you create it physically. See it in it’s best, most perfect state, as a world-class operation. How does it look, feel, taste, smell, and sound?

Entrepreneurship is one of the hardest things you will ever do, and your business must invigorate and excite you consistently, otherwise you won’t last through the hard times.

Write these dreams down–this is not a business plan, just written dreams, plans, goals, and brainstorms. The formal business plan will come much later.

3. Research

Before you invest a lot of time and money in your dream, do adequate research to find out if your idea is viable and sustainable.

In this step, you basically want to ask and answer a lot of questions, such as these: Will the market support your idea? What evidence do you have to support this? What discontentment exists that your idea solves? Will it unleash an ideavirus? Who else is doing it, and how successful have they been? What will you do differently? Do you have a readily identifiable market? Do market trends support the idea, or will the idea be obsolete in a few years? Do you need funding? If so, how much and by when? What technology can be leveraged in the business? What skills do you lack necessary for the business?

Remember also that hands-on experience can be the most useful form of research–you may want to implement your business on a small scale at this stage to see what the market tells you.

4. Form an Entity & Ensure Legal Compliance

Assuming you’re convinced that your idea will work, now it’s time to make it real and form a business entity. You need an entity for four reasons: to be legal, to maximize tax savings, to decrease liability, and to maintain control.

Your basic business entity options include a sole proprietorship, LLC, S-Corporation, and C-Corporation. Meet with an attorney and a CPA to discuss the differences between them and choose the appropriate entity for your uses. This will cost about $125 if you do all the paper work yourself, or between $200 and $500 if you use a professional or an attorney.

In addition to your entity, you must also ensure that you are legally compliant in all other areas. For example, if you have employees, you probably need Worker’s Compensation Insurance. A good attorney will help you safely navigate all of the legal issues you will face.

5. Generate Revenue

This step is absolutely critical. Too many newbies try to do too much at once, and are so concerned about things like image that they spend tons of money, time, and effort on logo and branding work, marketing brochures, advertising, etc. While all of those have their place, they should be paid for BY the revenues generated by the business.

Now that you’ve had your time to dream, it’s time to be extremely pragmatic about applying them. Do whatever it takes to generate revenues, even if it means door-to-door selling. No dream, however inspiring, will ever be realized unless you can pay for it to materialize.

6. Create Financial Systems

Now that you have cash flow, it’s imperative that you manage it wisely. Account for EVERY income and expenditure, no matter how trivial, and maintain impeccable records. You’ll be glad you did come tax time.

The most common accounting software programs are Quick Books and Quicken. Or, you can use a quality bookkeeping service, which can help you with payroll and quarterly taxes in addition to keeping your records.

7. Begin Writing an Operations Manual

An Operations Manual gives you the ability to leverage your efforts and duplicate yourself by providing simple, step-by-step directions that anyone can follow to perform any task.

Systematizing your business is the most important thing you will ever do, and you can never start soon enough. Systems, of course, will be refined over time, but it’s critical that you get them down in writing and keep them updated.

And by the way, I happen to know a guy who is a genius at creating and maintaining Operations Manuals. I’m just sayin’.

8. Create Marketing Systems

Many novices want to immediately start spending money on advertising, without knowing the costs and/or benefits. It’s been said that advertising takes a lot of money, while marketing takes a lot of time.

For start-ups, stick with marketing; in most cases, you have time, but you don’t have money, and marketing is generally more effective anyway. Advertising is costly and relatively ineffective. Start-ups should be obsessive about managing finances wisely, and very cautious about spending money.

Advertising would include things such as billboards, radio and TV ads, flyers, yellow page ads, etc. Marketing usually boils down to direct selling of some kind, whether it be telemarketing, door-to-door sales, customer referral programs, etc.

If your idea and delivery systems are good enough, the business should market itself virally anyway. In any case, find something that actually gets results, stick to it, and create and document systems in your Operations Manual.

9. Refine Systems, Replace Yourself, More Refining, & Document Religiously

In the first year or so, you will most likely be performing most, if not all, tasks yourself. This gives you the opportunity to learn and work out necessary details, but it won’t be sustainable when it’s time to grow.

With an Operations Manual in place, you can now begin hiring and training others to replace you. Once they’re replaced, then continue to oversee and refine the systems consistently.

Also, you must be absolutely religious about documenting every aspect of your business. For example, if your business does door-to-door sales, all salesmen should document how many doors they knock, how many people they actually talk to, and how many people bought.

Over time, this data will prove to be invaluable as you seek to refine your systems; without real numbers you have no idea what’s working and what’s not.

10. Write a Business Plan

The final step in the start-up process is the one that most people think they should start with. Here’s why it should come last: if you want it to secure funding, investors will want to see a proven track record before they invest anyway, and if you do it after the first nine steps, you can now do it right, with actual numbers, facts, and statistics rather than unfounded assumptions.

Furthermore, this gives you an opportunity to reconnect to your dreams after wading through a lot of trials.

And did I mention that I know a guy who can write your business plan professionally?

Posted on January 9th, 2008 by Stephen
Filed under: Entrepreneurship | No Comments »