Archive for Business
The Instant Power of Negotiation
Posted by: | CommentsDarren Jacklin has made a life and career out of MANIFESTING what he wants through the power of NEGOTIATION. You can meet him Tuesday (tomorrow) on Logical Soul Talk by calling (347) 843-4544 and pressing “1″ to raise your hand. Or check out this amazing video by an amazing personality:
Logical Soul For Atlanta Entrepreneurs Meetup
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Michael Craig at Meetup
The Fifth meetup meeting of the Logical Soul for Atlanta Entrepreneurs meets tonight at the Serenity Lakes Wellness Center in Lawrenceville, Georgia. The meeting starts at 7 pm ET with networking and greetings, then a presentation by Dr. Craig at 7:30 entitled “Branding from the Inside Out: How to Turn Your Passion into Products and Services that Attract Buyers Like Crazy!”
This topic came about as a result of a lifelong search of Dr. Craig and others for the elusive idea “what I want to be when I grow up” . . . and how to actually make your own passion come alive for others to the point where they will pay you to have that! Dr. Craig will present the overview tonight of an all-inclusive course that will involve 9 instructors and last for 6 months.
If you haven’t yet made plans to attend, be sure to RSVP by going to http://www.meetup.com/logicalsoulatlanta.
Logical Soul Talk: Otis Collier, Branding Expert
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Otis Collier is a seasoned expert on the topic of branding and creating a brand, and will be Michael Craig’s guest tonight on Logical Soul Talk at 6 pm ET. This Blog Talk Radio program will be broadcast while the two are attending the Atlanta Internet Marketing Mastermind group meeting in downtown Atlanta.
Mr Collier knows business, marketing, training, personal development and how to take new technology and apply it to practical real life applications. On today’s show he will share his secrets on how to become a recognized expert in your field of work using online marketing and social media. Michael will also ask how he got into this work . . . a little “behind the scenes” probing for Mr. Collier’s decision processes and early influences.
Otis enjoys experimenting with and coaches business professionals and entrepreneurs on using this technology. As a Certified Internet Recruitment Trainer with over fifteen years of experience with military and civilian recruiting, he is considered one of the country’s top experts in e-recruiting. He is author of the book entitled You Don’t Know SQUAT About Job Hunting. His professional clientele list includes Starbucks, Indy Mac Bank, Northrop Grumman, Citibank, Abbott Laboratories, Google, and Microsoft.
Call into (347) 843-4544 to hear the show live, or press “1″ to raise your hand, ask a question or make a comment.
Home Business Success: The Hidden Reality
Posted by: | CommentsThe job market sucks. That wouldn’t be so bad if not for the fact that it has been sucking for the past two years, and there appears to be no relief in sight. You know it. I know it. Let’s not kid ourselves. So what do you do before your unemployment benefits run out . . . assuming you still have some?
Home Business Success?
For a rising number of Americans this means start a small business or home business. They figure they will have little overhead, get to be their own boss, spend more time with the family, and hopefully soon be one of those financial success stories they often see on late-night infomercials.
While that may be true for some, the hidden reality is this: success in small business is never guaranteed. In fact, you will probably become a failure statistic within ten years, and most likely one during the biggest drop-off: within 5 years. This is when over half of all small businesses go OUT of business.
Below is data from the Bureau of the Census produced for the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
While this data looks at new single-establishment businesses, the failure rate percentages are almost identical for all types of small businesses, including home businesses. These are pretty much the survival rates of new firms over ten years . . .
Ten-Year Small Business Survival
These failures, by the way, have causes. You want to know the #1 cause . . ?
Going into business for the wrong reasons!
Home businesses are particularly vulnerable to wishful thinking and illusions of grandeur. This is primarily because the new business owner or CEO has often only worked for a salary, and hasn’t a clue about what it really takes to be in business!
In Georgia, you can form a corporation for $100, get business cards printed up for $10 and hang up your shingle. But this doesn’t make you a smart business person. I know – I’ve had these illusions myself and formed several companies most of whom, by the way, did not survive over 5 years.
What I had to learn – as I assume most of you will need to learn as well – is that there are consequences for NOT knowing yourself, what motivates you, and what hidden decisions you have made that actually prevent you from seeing the truth.
I’ve come up with 7 different and fundamental ways you actually sabotage your home business success, and will cover these items over the next few weeks. Stay tuned.
Logical Soul Talk: The Online Physical Therapist
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Sam Owosolu
Samuel Awosolu is Michael’s guest on Logical Soul Talk today (Tuesday) at 6 pm. Tune in to learn about how he turned his expertise and knowledge of a “brick and mortar business” into an online success . . . and how you can do the same thing!
A physical therapist in Atlanta, Georgia, Sam completed his education and degree at the State University Of Buffalo New York. Since graduation, he has worked in some of the top rehab hospitals in the country, including the NYU Medical Center at Rusk Institue For Rehabiliation Medicine, and Emory Hospital University in Midtown Atlanta.
Sam has been a practicing physical therapist for over 13 years, yet found the time to learn how to build websites and study Internet marketing. What was once a hobby has now blossomed into a full time business.
In 2007 Mr. Awosolu started Yomi Rehab Media which consists of a network of content releated websites focusing primarily on physical therapists. He is still an active physical therapist and is seeking to advance his career by pursing a Doctorate degree in the future.
He is also a great teacher and loves to help others discover their abilities and strengths. Tune in tonight to hear his remarkable story, and how you can turn you own experience into online dollars! The call-in hotline is (347) 843-4544.
Social Marketing Means Connecting
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Social Marketing Workshop
If you are as old as I am (few people are these days) do you remember sales training where you learned to stick your foot in the door, talk a lot, guide the conversation, overcome objections, and push the product before they got buyer’s remorse? I do.
Consequently, I used to think (and rightfully so at the time) that the words “selling” and “marketing” were bad words. Thankfully I found out the definition has really CHANGED in this age of the Internet and Social media!
This past weekend, I had the privilege of spending quality time with some of the premier Social Media (Social Marketing) experts in the country. Gina Gaudio-Graves, Ron Capps, and Mike Wesely shared their success stories, love and wisdom with a small group of us gathered at the Defoor Center in Atlanta – an event sponsored by online marketer, Phil Cullum.
The biggest thing I walked away with is this: Selling online (or off-line)
Michael with Gina G
does not mean pushing stuff onto people they don’t want. Selling and social marketing means connecting with the customer first, getting lots of feedback, customizing products and services based on this feedback, and delivering them in a way that really serves the customer.
The Internet has transformed the way we do business into a much more customer-oriented community. By getting to know each other as friends and associates, “marketing” becomes simply another word for social networking and connecting heart-to-heart.
Mike Wesely, et al.
Ron Capps, the NicheProf
Michael Craig was a call-in guest on their Blog Talk Radio Show “Niche Radio” on Saturday (see link below)!
Are We Losing the Battle to Technology?
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Overwhelmed?
Once upon a time there was this older fellow who lost his sanity to technology.
He blogged. He tweeted. He even facebooked and LinkedIn-ed. Still there were more and more people wanting more and more of his time to buy more and more of their stuff-ideas-beliefs-and-more.
Eventually he went a little nuts, took his boat out, and tossed his computer and I-phone into the lake. Afterwards he took out his fishing pole, threw the line in, and spent the rest of the day floating around while mumbling under his breath.
Everyone – especially his kids – said he was insane. “How can you just give up the ability to connect with new friends, customers, prospects, and followers???” He just grabbed his bait box and walked out the door, smiling.
He fished for months, and even caught something once in a while. Then one day, Conan O’Brien found the guy had stopped tweeting, and called him up. He got his answering machine… “I’ve gone fishing. Leave a message and I might get back to you.”
“This is Conan O’Brien. This is your lucky day. I’m going to give you a million dollars for being the only American left whose NOT tweeting!”
Since he was always out fishing, this guy never got his messages. He did, however, catch the best bass ever found in that lake!
So what’s the moral of the story? Live your passion, and don’t let the technology overwhelm you. When it does, stop. Or at least slow down.
Is technology really taking over our lives and driving us crazy? Are we becoming like the humanoids in The Matrix – dumbed-down versions of real people?
Maybe. I don’t know. What I DO know is that if you have a passion for something, you will find ways to share this thing with others. Technology – as overwhelming as it can be – is simply a tool. It is simply a way to share your passion with others.
Young people take to this stuff like a duck to water. They relish the thought of having 15 applications running simultaneously while they drive or sit in class. They instinctively see how their passion is translated to sharing.
I remember these thoughts of wanting to ditch the whole thing. Heck, I even bought a cabin in the woods where I CAN’T get cell phone messages or the Internet! Its a place I can go to de-stress, unwind. Relax.
So find the time to unwind. The act with passion. Don’t have a passion? Simply ask yourself this before going to sleep: “What would I be doing, if I didn’t have to ‘earn a living’?” Then let the answer come to you during the night.
Once you have your passion. Start writing about it. If you don’t write, talk! There are programs out there that can write for you!
However you do it, here are the steps to harness technology for your passion:
- Create a blog
- Write (or record) stuff,
- Use keywords and link to other interesting sites,
- Have Ping.fm or some other bookmarking site bounce your posts around the internet, and
- Do this a few hundred times,
- Then go fishing!
Not a fisherman? No problem. Do something else you love. If you are blogging about your passion, go learn more about that passion from another source. Play. Have fun. Learn how to de-stress . . . your own way!
How to Save Your Business in 10 Minutes, Part 2
Posted by: | CommentsThe Logical Soul(tm) is a process involving 4 phases: the Interview, Discovery, Access, and Resolution (or Intergration). Each of these four are crucial for hidden decisions to change and results to “take.”
The first phase – the Interview – is taken from the Socratic method. This method, obviously, was derived from the habit that the philosopher (and “corrupter of the Athenian youth”) Socrates developed to ask questions, more questions, then still more questions, until the truth is revealed.
This 20-question approach actually pinpoints the problem needing resolution. Without digging beyond the surface and finding that “needle in the haystack,” or hidden factor that truly motivates us, we are unable to change our results. Period.
Brett McFall from Australia does an excellent job with the Socratic method in getting to the truth of why customers don’t buy. While he uses audience feedback instead of muscle testing the way I do, the results are similar. Check out this second installment from the World Internet Summit he sponsored down under:
