Michelle Mangen of Your Virtual Assistant is my guest this week. Michelle is a successful virtual assistant earning 6 figures after just 3 years in business. She’s also a single mom to a teenager and understands the challenges of running a home-based business and being the sole source of income.

She works primarily with solopreneurs in a wide range of industries who need bookkeeping support and general administrative/online business management help. Michelle also assists VAs through a referral network, internship opportunities, and educational leadership.

Trying Out ”Power 90″

Listen in as I share the new schedule I’m trying out this week.  It’s inspired by this blog post.

Upcoming Learning Opportunities

• The next Know Your Blog Stats Workshop is Thursday, May 23rd.
• The next Plan Your Offer Funnel Workshop is Tuesday, June 4th.

Special Smart Podcasting Skills Promo!

I have five Limited Edition ‘Podcasters Rock’ Mugs left in my inventory and I’m going to gift them to five Solo Smarts readers/listeners who sign up for the self study course with a One on One Coaching Upgrade.

The offer is simple:  Sign up for Smart Podcasting Skills with the coaching upgrade and you’ll get the full self study course and TWO One on One Coaching sessions with me.

Please note: You will see the upgrade offer at checkout – not on the sales page. (Because it’s special for you!)  When the mugs run out, the Coaching Upgrade offer will be removed.

Of course I like to think I’m setting things up to make sense around here, but it sure is lovely to find the someone else smart agrees ;)  Check out this quick video from Stacey Myers (I met her at NAMS9 – she IS SMART!) and get registered for her free webinar.

Many people are building their businesses on shaky ground. Not putting the key pieces in place before adding more and more components, which puts the business at risk of toppling over.

In this video I share 3 visibly obvious signs that Kelly has done a great job of building her business on solid ground.

If you want to be sure you are building your business on a solid foundation, just like Kelly is, join me on my upcoming webinar.

Stacey Myers is a social marketing strategist, speaker and trainer supporting entrepreneurs and small business owners in connecting the dots for online business success.

My guest this week is D’vorah Lansky of Digital Publishing Cafe.  D’vorah coaches and trains authors in online book marketing practices through a variety of programs. D’vorah is passionate about online marketing as well as helping authors to grow their business and their brand.

Claim your free virtual book tour tips.

10 Day May Madness started today!

Get registered and browse the 35+ $7 deals offered by smart solopreneurs like you!  The sale runs between now and May 15th.

This post is a product recommendation with a video demo of me using the product and a coupon to save $30.

I’m promoting this with my affiliate link – I hope that doesn’t give you the wrong idea though.  My admiration for this product is real, I promise you!

Do you ever need to create eCover graphics?

Maybe you need to create a cover graphic for a special report you’ve written to give away or an ebook you’re going to sell.

Good eCover graphics are a visual representation of the gift or product.  It helps your potential subscribers and customers understand what you’re offering and increases your conversions.

If you hire it out it costs you fifty bucks a pop – I know because I’ve been paid to make hundreds of these ecovers over the last few years.

Now, you can do it yourself – with this tool that I’ve fallen in love with.

I promise I’m not just talking like a marketer here – I LOVE what this product does and know that it is going to be tremendously useful to those who need it.

The product is Box Shot King. It’s not actually a ‘product’, it’s a membership. With your membership you have access to a 100% online tool that creates beautiful graphics perfect for promoting virtual products and mailing lists.

See for yourself, watch me using the product to create an ecover from scratch.

When I listen to myself talk about it in this video I think I sound like a smitten girl describing a new boy LOL!  I’m a geek – can’t help it.

Here’s the graphic I created in the video –>

Box Shot King isn’t limited to eCovers for Books and Special Reports, they also have templates for boxes, CDs, DVDs, Kindle views, Ipad and Ipod views, etc.

Why is it a membership?

I wondered that at first too – I wanted to pay him $XX and get the software to use on my PC.

But I learned there’s a good reason for it to be offered as a membership.

• First, It can be used from any computer – PC or Mac. (I have both so this is awesome!)
• Second, as they improve the product or add new graphic options, you have instant access.
• Third, all of the graphics you create are saved for you in your account. That’s pretty cool.

Yes, this means that you pay for your membership every year.  This doesn’t bother me because I know how much I’ll use it. If you know you’ll make at least two eCovers, your investment will be  a deal – if you never need it again, that’s fine – don’t renew your membership.  (But I think you’ll be hooked.  I have a dozen ideas for graphics in my little note book – just waiting for some free time to get them made.)

Have you made you as excited as I am yet?  If you need ecovers, I bet I have LOL!

What’s it cost?

A one year membership is $99 – but I’ve arranged a $30 discount for you.

Before Box Shot King you needed Photoshop ($529 on Amazon right now) and several pricey action sets (I’ve spent over $200 on them) to make these great 3D graphics, you could easily spend $1000 once you finish buying all of the extra graphic sets and font styles that come IN your Box Shot King membership.

They have templates for more than book and report covers too, see these cute graphics I made with Box Shot King:

So here’s my special link – use the coupon code: ‘mccausey’ to get the $30 discount.

Enjoy this free replay of my ‘Why Now Is The Time’ webinar presentation from this evening.

Then sign up for my Stretch Yourself Challenge!

My notes from this session…

Only So Many Kingpins

There’s plenty of business to go around but there are only so many amazing opportunities.

There are people who you connect with who will in turn connect you to new circles of people they influence.

• Some of them can introduce you to dozens.
• Some to hundreds.
• Some to thousands.

If you don’t make yourself ready, they’ll find someone else.

Someone else will get that amazing opportunity to impact their circle of influence.

One more note: Lest you think you’ll never reach a Kingpin, you don’t know WHO will be the Kingpins of tomorrow.

Lifetime Value of a Customer

There’s someone right now who needs something done and they’re actively seeking out the right person.

Because you aren’t putting yourself out there, they’re finding someone else.

Over the course of the year… you’ve lost for example:

• $250/Month in retainer fees. (That’s $3000 per year.)
• $497/Month in Coaching fees. (That’s $5964 per year.)

The Law of Inertia

An object at rest tends to stay at rest.  (Unless something comes along and gives it a shove.)

Unless you invite a shove, you’ll stay where you are indefinitely.

If you never take any real action, folks will just come to expect it from you – they’ll form the opinion that you’re ‘all talk and no action’

It’s harder to overcome a negative opinion than it is to make a first impression.

It Only Gets Harder From Here

Again, I don’t want to play too much to a scarcity mindset but it’s an inescapable fact – the playing field is growing and there’s more competition rising up daily.

No more holding back, no more delays – now is the time!

Get signed up!

Sometimes its what you do before you do the actual work that will ensure you get paid on time and for the amount you deserve. Follow these tips to minimize problems with not getting paid for your work.

Things are firing up around here as I prepare for the May Stretch Yourself Challenge.

When you hear me talking about the challenge, what comes to mind?  Do you imagine that I’m going to ask you to suddenly take massive amounts of previously unknown action?

That is exactly what the Stretch Yourself Challenge is NOT.

It IS about is taking steps outside of your comfort zone:  Small, steady, determined, focused, purposeful steps.

Take a peek at this little drawing:

The people who need you are not far away.  They’re just outside of your present circle of influence.

Reaching them isn’t about doing something massive.  It’s about doing something – period.

Tonight’s Webinar: Why Now Is The Time

Monday, April 29th at 9pm Eastern I’m sharing why there is no time like NOW to participate in the Challenge and leave your comfort zone behind.

Get registered here:

I like JustRetweet:

NAMS10 in August 2013

NAMS10 promises to be extra special for me.

• My first ever business partner will be there for the first time. (Alice Seba!)
• My most recent business parter will be there too. (Melissa Ingold!)
• I’ve learned about several new folks who will be joining the Instructor team for NAMS10. Ray Edwards and Rachel Rofe to name just two.

NAMS is such a great experience. I believe anyone who wants to make the most of the internet for their business can get a lot from it.

Tickets to NAMS10 are currently $297 and can be ordered here.

If you do, maybe you should take another look. Some people are making a lot of money promoting Amazon products. If you’re still a unsure about it, put to use the tips found in The Ultimate Guide to Making Money with the Amazon Affiliate Program. This will help you get on the fast track to making money with Amazon.

Have you been slapped with a manual penalty notice from Google regarding unnatural links? If you’re not sure how to proceed to get your site back on Google’s radar follow these detailed instructions provided by Marie Haynes of Search Engine Watch.

Decisions get tough when you wrap them up with personal relationships and a misplaced sense of loyalty. We need to care about how our choices impact other people, but I believe we can do that and also make smart decisions about our time and money.

Are any of these personal struggles familiar?

• Do you stick with a project that isn’t making you money, because you don’t want to ‘let the other person down‘?
• Do you keep charging a client super low rates because they ‘were one of my first clients‘ and you just can’t ask them to pay more?
• Do you keep paying for memberships that haven’t helped you grow your business, because you don’t want to stop ‘being a part of the group‘?
• Do you continue working with a coach that hasn’t helped you achieve your goals, because you ‘don’t want to have that uncomfortable conversation‘?

If you’re nodding your head, you’re not alone and I’ve got some great advice for you in this breakthrough audio.