Mohandas Ghandi was undeniably a leader, yet he lived a simple life style.  Corazon Aquino was a leader who also lived a simple life style. Many people are leaders in their organizations or communities who nevertheless are far from wealthy.

On the other hand, many are wealthy and are not leaders [...]]]>

Corazon Aquino

Mohandas Ghandi was undeniably a leader, yet he lived a simple life style.  Corazon Aquino was a leader who also lived a simple life style. Many people are leaders in their organizations or communities who nevertheless are far from wealthy.

On the other hand, many are wealthy and are not leaders at all. No one follows or even desires to follow them.  So we know that wealth does not indicate a leader, despite aphorisms to the contrary through the ages.

And being in a position of leadership does not indicate a leader either.  We know this because we have all experienced it; we have known corporate CEOs, church pastors, and college presidents who are not leaders at all.

Have you ever heard someone lament, “What this company (country, church, industry, club) really needs is leadership.”

But what is leadership?

In a broad sense, a leader attracts followers. Others (tyrants, swindlers) may push or manipulate people into following them, but there is no coercion associated with following a leader. I have made a small animation where I have illustrated the difference of a life-style of attraction vs that of compulsion.

So what is it about a person that enables them to attract others? What allows them to pull willing-minded people toward them, to lead them?

Part of the difficulty is in using terms interchangeably. For example, the terms “success” and “leadership.” Network marketers and internet marketers are in business (presumably) and it is only reasonable to want success! I think it is fair to say that wealth is a sign of business success, though, as previously noted, not all who gain wealth are leaders.

It is just this confusion that contributes to some of the mythology surrounding leaders and leadership in the direct marketing arena.

“Look How Rich I Am!”

Years ago, I was involved with a group of network marketers where visible wealth, business success, and leader were all discussed in one breath. So it was expected that anyone rising to leadership or even aspiring to leadership had to have a Cadillac and a Winnebago Motor Home. A lot of people went into debt in order to look successful. I believe the phrase is, “fake it ‘til you make it.”

This same mentality has been used in the internet marketing arena to “attract” followers. Successful marketers are photographed in their luxury homes, standing by their luxury car, or on their luxury cruise in order to convey their success, and thus authority, and thus leadership.

I am not saying it doesn’t work. It does work, even if it is not necessarily logical. As we are told so often, marketing is emotion based.

Not so differently, some internet marketers talk excessively about their charities, and depending how it is done, it can be an unconscious or deliberate attempt to convey wealth to a different segment of marketing newbies in a manner presumed to be more acceptable than ostentatious consumerism.

Authentic Leaders

But increasingly we hear from more transparent leaders, some who share their financial struggles with their followers – in the present (not years later as part of a sappy tale from the stage).

One such leader is Eric Walker who has always said what he believed and what he was doing in his business; he has always been open. He is a leader because he attracts people through his warmth, encouragement, modeling, creativity, and willingness to help. He has openly shared the story of his entrance into internet marketing, his time of working on the staff of Mike Klingler, and his settling in to build his own internet business.

Eric left the certainty of a career in teaching to follow a dream. In a blog post two years later, he wrote: “I’ll say it as plain as can be. Don’t quit your day job.”

He went on to say that his desire to do a better job in providing for his family necessitated rethinking the idea of “full time marketer.” He told all of his followers that he was going to get a day job. Obviously, Eric is not wealthy.

Yet he is a leader. At the time of this writing, he is still developing his carefully mapped out plan for setting up a service for internet marketers. He hasn’t quit.

He emphatically stated that he is forging ahead with his online business, it is just that he has taken another pathway toward building it. And he still has many followers.  He is still a real leader.  An authentic leader with integrity you can trust.   It will not surprise me at all to find his number of followers grow exponentially in the next few years.

I am not opposed to wealth! I aspire to be wealthy. I like material things. But I do not confuse wealth with the qualities of leadership. Authenticity, giving your time and help to others, and integrity is what counts for me.

Honest Leaders

One month after Eric’s post, another marketing leader told her friends and followers about her agonizing decision to cut expenses by selling the family’s large home and relocate to a smaller home. She said that her family had finally accepted that “We can’t rely on future earnings, spend it now and expect to generate more… We were ready to no longer be: HOUSE RICH AND CASH POOR.”

Emma Tiebens is a marketer loved by many for her ability to reach out and connect with people. She is a gifted speaker and video marketer with a large following. She entertained many followers and well known marketers in her lovely home. Now she has downsized her home to reduce the stress in her life of keeping up with it all.

Is she any less a leader now that she has come clean about her financial struggle and mistake? Not at all! If anything, her authenticity improves her standing with many of us.

What is often overlooked is that leaders are first of all people. They have a lot of the same struggles as everyone else. But there are two differences –

• Leaders keep progressing, albeit with ups and downs, because they don’t quit.
• Leaders are authentic.

Mike Klingler, one of the better known internet marketers, has said:

When you reach high, transcending all fear and doubt, taking on more risk than before… and then you MISS (because perhaps you leaped from a difficult position)… you will fall and could hit hard. When it happens, know that it’s OK to “cry” – Just be sure to get back up. Go at it differently. Don’t think ‘leaders’ never whimper when they fall short. The difference is they keep at it. Be the person of influence!

Coming Next:  Internet Marketing Leadership Myths | #2  New Leaders Can’t Be Trusted

This is Part 2 of “Sprucing Up My Facebook Page.”

Well, after making the “Offer” Tab, I felt like I was on a roll. I was ready to make another Tab page.

By the way, [...]]]> In the previous post, I described what led me to create an “Offer” Tab on my Facebook Fan Page.

This is Part 2 of “Sprucing Up My Facebook Page.”

Well, after making the “Offer” Tab, I felt like I was on a roll. I was ready to make another Tab page.

By the way, isn’t it ridiculous that Facebook created the expression Fan Page for a collection of pages? It certainly makes it difficult to describe the place where the body of content appears beneath any given Tab. Fan Site?  Fanbook?

Anyway, I wanted something a little “softer” as a landing page for most people that I refer to my Fan Page, even though the Offer Tab recommended by Schwind and Yaghi would be fine for PPC redirects. So this raised some new questions.

How To Create Another FBML Page:

Step	Action	Pictures
1	Once again, the following assumes that you are logged in to your Facebook account, and on your Facebook Fan Page. It also assumes that you have already created ONE FBML page.  That’s why the heading says… “Another FBML Page.” Click on “Edit Page.” (See Red Arrow on the right. This is located under your picture or logo in the left column. )	Click "Edit Page."
2	Scan the list of settings and applications. Find your previously created “FBML” Tab (located under the list of “Applications.”) In this illustration, the Tab was previously named “Example.” Click the “Edit” link under the title.  See the red arrow at right.	Find the Previously Created Page, Click Edit
3	You are now looking at where you created your previous Tab. Click the “Add another FBML box” link, located at the bottom of the editing area.  See Red Arrow. After this, it should be fairly clear what to do next.  It is pretty much the same as described in the previous post..	Click "Add Another FBML Box"

How Do Images Appear on the Fan Page:

If you look at my own new “Welcome” Tab, you will see four images in all. I created all of them using Photoshop. However, the first one is different from the other three. Do you understand why?

• My Logo Box – In the left column – Showing my name, photo, company name, and tagline.
• My Tab Banner – At the top – Starting with the words, “Glad you stopped by… .”
• A Little Check Mark Image – In the center – Used over and over as bullets in a list of items.
• My Newsletter Banner – At the bottom – Starting with the words, “Collaboration and Growth….”

What is different is this: The Logo Box image is uploaded into Facebook. Many people just use their Facebook photo, but having a bit of branding here is cool, right?  However, the other images are NOT uploaded into Facebook. They must be hosted elsewhere and linked. You will see how it was done for the check marks in the next paragraph.

How to Make a List in FBML:

Did I already say that FBML is not exactly the same as HTML? Not that I would be able to tell all that easily. I have learned enough HTML to be dangerous. Not trained in it; I am a learn-by-experimentation kind of guy.

Anyway, I wanted to use a list of bullets on my new “Welcome” page but it took me quite a while since HTML would not work. Here is what did work.

Note how the link URL [changed for privacy reasons] is used to access the hosted graphic of the check mark. You can use the same mark up script to create your own similar list. But you will need to create a bullet graphic and store it somewhere.

One of the things I tried to do with the “Welcome” page banner at the top of the page, is to make the request to “Like” the page as clear, yet as smooth as possible. How do you think it works?

How to Get an Opt In Form on the Page:

I use MailChimp [affiliate link] as my email system provider. My reasons would probably be best saved for a different post!

However, since each of the different systems (Aweber, iContact, etc) vary somewhat, the following is only generic advice.

1. Set Up Communication Between Your Email System Provider and Facebook.  Generally this is done with an application created by your email service provider and uploaded into Facebook. This is necessary to establish permission for your email service provider to access information from Facebook – specifically, the form you will place on one of your Facebook Fan Page Tabs.  Get the application from a link provided by your email service provider. Follow instructions to upload this application into Facebook.
2. Place the Form on Your Page. As with other forms, your email service provider will have a section of its site where you can design the type of form that you like.  It will then generate the HTML/CSS script for this. Copy and paste the script into the FBML edit area. It worked!

+++===+++===+++===+++

I hope that my discovery process will give you some ideas too!

This Part 1 of  ”Sprucing Up [...]]]> Last Saturday, I added an “Offer” Tab and a “Welcome” Tab to my Facebook “Fan Page.”  I’ll let you decide if you think the results are pleasing and/or whether you think they will help to get results. (You can let me know in the comments to this post.)

This Part 1 of  ”Sprucing Up My Facebook Fan Page.”

I had kept putting off these Facebook improvements because I could not figure out how to add a new Tab (or blank page) to the “Fan Page” – and because it was not a priority. Still, every once in a while I would poke around to see if I could figure it out. So here’s my story of how I stumbled into some interesting stuff and figured out how to do a few things that puzzled me.

Enter Jim Yaghi and David Schwind

Talk about an amazing launch sequence! Yaghi and Schwind have been putting out some outrageously high value content for the promotion of their launch of Operation PPC Supremacy on August 31. “The Google Switch” eBook has had everyone talking about it. But as a testament to my determination to stick to my own business projects, I can say I resisted numerous emails and didn’t even download it. Then they put out the “Facebook Bushwack” video and I bookmarked it. Friday night I gave in and watched it. What I saw got me rolling. First, here is a summary of the video message:

Yaghi-Schwind Sample Click-Click Page

• You can double the results of Facebook ads if you apply the psychological principle of consistency. In this case, the consistent action is Click-Click-Click. 1-2-3.
• Click #1 – A Facebook visitor sees a Facebook ad and clicks on it.  The click takes them to your “click-click page.” [By the way that's my name for it. You could call it your "Offer" page or even name it the same as the offer itself. Yaghi and Schwind call their page "Google Switch" because their offer on that page was for that eBook.]
• Click #2 – Visitors to the “click-click page” see a bright red arrow that encourages them to click the Fan Page “Like” button. That’s two clicks. Visitors are on a roll! Click-click….
• Click #3 – Visitors on the “click-click page” see another bright red arrow pointing to the same offer alluded to in the ad. They must click again to obtain the offer… CLICK!… and they are on your lead capture page.  The odds that the visitor will proceed to obtain the free offer by entering their email address has been increased.

Well, as interesting as that was, the really cool thing was that Yaghi and Schwind actually give away the “click-click page.” In a link under the Bushwack video, a “generator” tool allows you to create your own customized version of the page, and the relevant mark up language script that you can just paste into your own blank Tab. I don’t know how long the link for their tool will be live, but here it is. Naturally, it was tempting to plug in my own offer text and my own link to the image of my free product… you know just to see what it would look like.  Now I really really wanted to put it on my Facebook Fan Page!

The Challenge and Solution to Creating a Blank Tab in Facebook

Schwind’s video did not help me understand how to create the blank page.  But now that I had the actual mark up script, all ready to paste in, I was driven to find the answer. There are a lot of out of date how-to videos floating around. But here is what I finally figured out. Like everything else – not really that complicated. One thing that threw me off a bit, is that Facebook uses what they call FBML, which is not always the same as HTML. As best as I can remember, this was how I did it:

Step	Action	Pictures
1	The following assumes that you are logged in to your Facebook account, and on your Facebook Fan Page. Install FBML application as follows: Type “Static FBML” into the Facebook search box. Click on “Static FBML Application” – see red arrow at right.	Locate the FBML Application
2	Click on “Add to my Page” (located in left menu).	Click- Add to My Page
3	Navigate back to your own Fan Page. (There don’t seem to be any easy buttons to make that happen.) After you are on your own Fan Page, Click on “Edit Page” (located in the left menu, under your picture or logo).	Click "Edit Page."
4	Scan the list of settings and applications. Find your newly created “FBML” Tab (located under the list of “Applications.”) See the red arrow at right.  (It may or may not have a number after the title “FBML.”) Click “Edit” (located under the title “FBML.”)	Find FBML App and Click Edit
5	On this new page, notice: “Box Title” (Red Arrow) – Change the existing “FBML” to the title of your new Tab. For example, “Welcome” or “Offer.” For purposes of this illustration, we will change the title to “Example.” “FBML” (Green Arrow) – Add your FBML script here. Specifically, if you have created a “click-click page” script from Yaghi’s tool, you copy-paste it here. Later you can tinker with it if you are a learn-by-doing guy like me.  Or if you are already good with FBML, … what are you reading this for??!! Click “Save” at the bottom of the editing box!	Change Tab Name and Add in the FBML Script
6	Once again, navigate back to your own Fan Page. You should see your “Example” Tab at some point after the “Wall” and “Info” Tabs. If not, it is because you have more than 5 or 6 Tabs already and it is hidden. So… Click the little “>>” button (Red Arrow). Click the new “Example” selection. You can change the sequence of the Tabs by the click-and-drag method.  For example, you could move your new “Example” Tab up next to your “Info” Tab.	Locating a New, But Hidden Tab

By the way you can determine what Tab your visitors will see FIRST in several ways:

1) Do nothing. Default is the “wall” Tab.

2) Make your new “Welcome” Tab (or any other Tab) to be the new default.

• Go to “Wall” Tab
• Click “Options” link under the Blue “Share” button.
• Now Click “Settings” link (now visible under the “Share” button.)
• Select your default Tab here.

3) Use one of your own domain names [purchase a specially created one?] and forward it to the Tab of your choice. You can then use different domain names to refer different audiences to different start points on your Fan Page.

A Couple of Issues I Had with Yaghi’s Script

Although it does a fast job of creating a suitable “Offer” (click-click page) Tab, I had a couple of things I wanted to change on his script.

1. I noticed that the two supplied images were stored on a server Yaghi owned. I wondered how long those images would be there. Could they suddenly disappear and leave my site hanging, without my not even knowing it?  It was easy enough to create my own red arrow graphics using Photoshop.  I then uploaded them into a special directory (folder) on one of my own website servers. They could also be uploaded into a blog site – WordPress assigns every graphic in the media library its own URL. Anyway, I substituted my own URL for the one in Yaghi’s script.
2. My other issue is the arrow that points straight UP, supposedly to the “Like” button next to the name of your Fan Page. It probably works for the vast majority of users.  In my case, my Fan Page name is sooooo long, that the arrow needs to angle off to the far right to make any sense. So the graphic of my #1 red arrow does just that.

+++===+++===+++===+++

I hope that my discovery process will give you some ideas too!  To be continued….  I will discuss how I added a “Welcome” page in Part 2.

When it comes to marketing funnels, many have made the mistake that I made. I thought I had a funnel when all I had was a hoop. Note that a hoop is similar in shape to the rim of a funnel.

If you get someone to jump into [...]]]>

After the hoop, then what?

When it comes to marketing funnels, many have made the mistake that I made. I thought I had a funnel when all I had was a hoop. Note that a hoop is similar in shape to the rim of a funnel.

If you get someone to jump into a funnel, they’re kind of stuck there for a while, right?

What happens when someone jumps through a hoop?  They just… keep on going. See a problem there?

So I have made another video about my biggest marketing mistakes; of course, this is “my big funnel mistake.”

Please watch carefully.  Then share your comments!

If you cannot see the video here on the blog, click here.

*  *

Yes, I heard the admonitions. But I honestly believed I had found my niche!  I just did not fully appreciate what it all meant.

And so I plowed ahead “building my business.”

Which is like building a skyscraper on a 4 foot foundation on a sandbar.

And now I see so [...]]]> “Find your niche!”

Yes, I heard the admonitions. But I honestly believed I had found my niche!  I just did not fully appreciate what it all meant.

And so I plowed ahead “building my business.”

Which is like building a skyscraper on a 4 foot foundation on a sandbar.

And now I see so many others repeating my mistakes.

So I have made a video about my “big niche mistake.” Kind of like displaying my foolishness for your sake. I hope it helps!

(If you cannot view the video above, please click here!)

Does this mistake resonate with you? Please add your comments (click the comments link).

Want to talk about it?  My subscribers receive a free 30 minute consultation on anything they want to discuss.  Want resources on finding your niche? Check my resource page.

Recently a beginning coach expressed some inner turmoil over choosing a niche. “Everyone says I need to narrow my focus – that I need a niche. But right now I have a variety of clients: different backgrounds and different issues – and I enjoy working [...]]]>

The Find Your Niche Dilemma: Approach-Avoidance Conflict -©iStockphoto.com/BeauSnyder

Recently a beginning coach expressed some inner turmoil over choosing a niche. “Everyone says I need to narrow my focus – that I need a niche. But right now I have a variety of clients: different backgrounds and different issues – and I enjoy working with all of them.”

This individual wants to follow the advice to choose a coaching niche but is not feeling good about it.

How about you? Do you experience niche conflict? Do you feel caught in the middle regarding the advice to “find a niche”?

Should a coach develop a specialized niche? In my recent Coaching Cognition course, students brainstormed and came up with over 130 coaching niches! Divorce Recovery Coach, Debt Relief Coach, Prayer Coach… to name just a few. And even – an Attract Your Niche Coach.

I believe choosing a niche is good advice and especially for online businesses, but I can fully appreciate that it can create a lot of needless conflict and confusion.

The dilemma, as some see it, is that narrowing one’s focus (choosing a niche) could cause one to lose prospects, maybe even existing clients. It seems to be a classic approach-avoidance conflict.  ”I should…” but “I don’t want to.”

I think that we need to understand the purpose of a niche and when to apply it. That may help reduce the conflict over this challenge.

Let’s start with this idea: A niche is the basis of a marketing strategy.

Do you need a marketing strategy?

If you have widget X and people are flocking to buy it, you may be tempted to think – I don’t need a marketing strategy.  I have all the business I can handle.

I felt that way a few years ago. I offered a service that a specific Fortune 500 company loved and mandated for all of their vendors. That business kept me going for over ten years – until new faces at the company changed their priorities and my business dried up within 3 years. I thought I had a never-ending business, but I was wrong.

If you have a lot of business, a never-ending supply of customers buying from you, then you don’t need a marketing strategy. On the other hand, that is an unlikely situation. Why?

• Customers may get their problem solved.  (In fact, maybe you solved it.)
• Customers may buy elsewhere.  Never forget that competition is fierce.
• If you have a niche by default (like the service I gave to the specific Fortune 500 company), remember that a niche is not permanent.  You have to adjust as market conditions change.
• No one else knows you are in business (lack of marketing). So if the amount of profit earned from selling to your friends and family is insufficient for you (or they stop buying), then what?

A marketing strategy includes a niche, products or services needed by that niche, and a marketing plan (most usefully a marketing funnel plan). I refer you to my recent post and video about the six elements of internet marketing.

Where will you find your customers or clients?

A common response is “everywhere.” So, everyone is your potential coaching client? The challenge is that there are many coaches competing for the business. There are over 14,000 fully certified members of the International Coaching Federation alone, and probably 100,000 more who call themselves coaches. Many are doing business globally, over the internet.  How will you get noticed?  Maybe you need a marketing strategy.

Or maybe you have a line of health and wellness products (perhaps in conjunction with an MLM). Maybe you feel – everyone on this planet can use these products! So all 6,857,744,507 people are your market?  Why not start with the person next door then. Oh, they are not interested? Well then, who is interested? Maybe you need a marketing strategy.

A strategy implies methods.

Have a Strategy / Know Your Target Group -cc by glockkid at Flickr

A fisherman that heads out into the Atlantic had best have a strategy.  Will the boat have a net or lines? Will bait be needed and if so, what kind of bait? Where will the bait be obtained and how will it be kept fresh? How many fishermen will be needed on board? Where will the boat go to fish? All these questions come down to – What is the target fish?

In marketing terms, What is my target group?

You cannot head out into the ocean and hope that any type of fish will hop into your boat, all by themselves. Knowing your target group allows you to clarify marketing themes, branding, media, and “bait” (offers, headlines, photos and illustrations with which the target group can identify, etc).

To continue the analogy: Not only does the fisherman start with identifying his target species, he asks what problem does that species face. OK, this process is instinctive for seasoned fishermen. Because obviously, the problem facing tuna is getting food. The “unique” solution is to be first to bring the food directly in front of the tuna!

Having one strategy does not mean you must reject business!

If you are experiencing “niche conflict” then so far this post is probably making you feel uncomfortable again. Why?  Because I am once again stressing the value of having a niche and you … well, you don’t want to limit yourself by narrowing your business. Heck, you don’t want to turn away a perfectly good flounder if it jumps into your tuna boat!

Let me put your mind at rest. I don’t know what the tuna fisherman would do, but …

• If you are a coach that has branded herself as a “sales and selling coach” and you were approached by a businessperson troubled with business-family life conflicts, would you have to turn that client away?
• If you are an MLM distributor for a health and wellness line of products and you have focused on a “care of aging skin” niche, would you have to turn away a customer who wanted your company’s vitamin product for kids?

To both situations, the answer is- of course not!

Having a niche (or marketing strategy) is for the purpose of developing a customer base. It does not mean necessarily that you must limit yourself to doing business in that niche.  You do not necessarily have to reject other business. You can choose to:

• Reject the business because it would distract you from efforts needed to develop your current promising niche business.
• Take the business because it would be a refreshing break from what you are doing.
• Take the business because it has opened your eyes to a better (or at least another) promising niche. Working with this new customer will help you develop experience working in this promising niche.

Positioning yourself in a niche can mean different things to different types of businesses.

It is possible that niche conflict is the reasult of a limiting idea of how to approach the idea of “niche.”

Example: Many people promote themselves as “life coaches” with no seeming niche. But what about branding that…

• Emphasizes their availability as a Polish speaking coach?
• Emphasizes their availability during night-time hours – 7pm to 6 am?
• Emphasizes their own spiritual orientation?

Whether you call these a niche or not, can you see how it can help with a particular target group?

So ask yourself –  Why would someone prefer to do business with me as opposed to X, Y, and Z? (Those are others that you know in the same type of business.  Competitors.) The answer may help you think about your position in your niche (or, how to brand yourself).

(Recommended Affiliate Book)

How will you find your customers, clients, or partners?

Earlier I said, having a niche is especially important for online businesses. Why?  Because when someone looks for a solution to their problem online, they enter words in a search engine. So if you want to be their solution, you must pre-determine what keywords such potential contacts will use. And you are limited to just a few words.

Thinking about your niche will help you determine the right keywords to use in your social media promotion as well as in your advertising.

So if your target group is “everyone” and you use the words “life coach” to describe what you do, a search with those words will turn up 2.3 million results – your page may well be buried.  Compare that to these terms:

• family life coach – 156,000 search results
• anger management coach – 155,000 search results
• Christian life coach – 14,800 search results
• home business coach – 692,000 search results
• list building coach – 9,600 search results
• niche coach – 3,200 search results

I’m just using coaching as an example!

So how about it?  Are you counting on finding your customers online?  If so, you will need “keywords” to help people find you; you will need a niche to help you think about the keywords (and other matters).

If you are not looking to find your business online, a laser-focused niche may be less of an issue.

And then, what about business partners? A niche helps to facilitate collaboration conversation with potential partners, as I discuss in my free special report, “Preparation for Collaboration.”

What’s your take?

Do you have an approach-avoidance conflict over choosing a niche? Is finding a niche a big dilemma for you?

Do you have a different view of the “find your niche dilemma?”

Please share your comments below.

You’re thinking, “Yes, beginning marketers need all the training [...]]]> I have said it before and I’ll say it again, going to internet marketing conferences is very important for the growth of your online business. Today, I am off to the No Excuses Summit in Las Vegas.  Why? Networking and, oh yeah, learning new stuff.

You’re thinking, “Yes, beginning marketers need all the training and hand-holding they can get.”

Nope – these conferences are just as valuable for marketers at all levels.  I have previously shared the views of Chris Brogan and Willie Crawford regarding attendance at Live Events. They are NOT beginners … more like well-respected gurus. Each insist that networking at offline internet marketing conferences has been crucial to their online success.

Today I want to share with you a blog post from Connie Ragen Green. I have been following Connie for about a year and have enjoyed her teleseminars. She started an online business in 2005 and has since published over 1300 articles and has created 20 information products. She now derives her full time income from her affiliate marketing and training business. Her purpose and strategy in going to Live Events is worth studying. Her opening comment:

Attending live events has been the best way for me to connect with new prospects and continue my education. Last year I attended 13 conferences and seminars, and my business took off like gangbusters. I believe you must think about your strategy for doing this before you sign up to attend a live event, in order to make the most of it in the months to come.

Note how she ties her participation in Live Events with her business growth. Was it just because she was a speaker?  No, she did not speak at all of these events.

What is particularly striking about Connie’s strategic use of attending Live Events is found in this paragraph:

I also attend several events each year that are held by people outside of my marketing circle. This enables me to meet people I would otherwise not have connected with, and to learn other perspectives on building my own business on the Internet.

I think many marketers attach themselves to one or two gurus and attend events sponsored solely by them and the other gurus with whom they partner. But note how Connie steps outside her circle –her box (?!)– to find other leaders and attend their events. Yes, it is a great opportunity to learn new things, but the really big deal is – this is the way to expand one’s growing business into new circles of influence. Networking at live events is a major lubricant to business growth.