We’re really excited.  We found the perfect location for our next event February 4-5 here in Lancaster, PA.  The Cork Factory Hotel is one of the newest boutique hotels in the city and we were really impressed with it.  We’ll post the details shortly as soon as they’re confirmed.

Is Passion to Profit for you?  Absolutely, and I don’t care if you are already doing what you love or thinking now’s the time to do something completely different.  Think you’re too old (or too young)?  Never.  There’s no longer a “safe” retirement in store for any of us.  What you want to do is explore those things you’ve always been excited about.  Now’s the time to be the person you always felt you were inside.  And we’d love to give you the proven steps to establish yourself as the best and only choice in you’re niche.

You don’t have to be an internet star, but we’ll show you how to utilize Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ in your marketing strategy.  It’s simple and proven to work as long as you follow the steps detailed for you.  It doesn’t matter if you love to bake or are great at motivating people you know,  Passion to Profit fits.  And we’re here to help.

The hotel is wonderful but our meeting room is small.  When we hit 50 people, we’ll be cutting off reservations.  We have a limited number of scholarships available, and when they’re gone…..

So don’t wait.  Contact me  as soon as possible and we’ll get you ready by sending you our mini trainings.  The weekend is chock full so we’re going to cover some things we may not have much time for by email too.  This will be your best way to begin the new year, taking that step into a profitable, successful future.

When a health practice opens its doors, we often just assume people will flock to their doors. No one thinks that a practice must develop over time as people learn to trust and like the people that practice their profession.

And that is extremely difficult. Potential clients often have relationships with other professionals. And it’s hard to break through that comfort zone. How can a practice develop if they can’t break through? And how do you make progress as quickly as possible.

Sometimes making a plan is necessary. We often don’t think of marketing as something health care providers need to do. But it’s vital to all practitioners.

Social media is perfect for these practitioners. One chiropractor I noticed has really developed his social media interaction. http://www.facebook.com/drjessechappus had a great Facebook page and it is linked to his Google+ and Twitter accounts. It wasn’t just a page but showed real interaction with people which has to impress potential clients.

I know it’s hard to connect this way but it’s one way that many find and decide that a health care provider can offer services that would benefit someone. It’s often impossible to put the time in on something like this when you need to concentrate on helping people, but there are small businesses that offer a social media service like this that just may be up your alley. Think about it. And don’t just have your kids do the work unless they’re a savvy bunch. Professionalism is paramount.

If you’re in the Long Island area, come to our Passion2Profit seminar on April 21-22. We’ll cover ways to show potential clients your expertise and make you the only logical choice when they’re looking for your service. Visit us at www.starmarketingsystems.com to find out more.

Do you ever wonder why some people seem to dance circles around others and attain what others only dream of? It’s because they know what they want and go for it.

Everyone dreams of success but few really obtain it. Do you wonder why?
When we were little everything was possible. We were excited by each new thing and had no fear of trying new ones. And then we usually lose something. We’re taught by parents, or teachers, or “friends” that we should be just average and not draw attention to ourselves.

But what if we have a passion for something and work hard to live a life that we thought as children we could?

What kind of dreams could we make real if we lived our passion?

On February 4-5 we’ll show 50 enthusiastic students how to make their dreams possible. And all it requires is a commitment and focus. Do you have those qualities? If you do, we hope to see you there. Register now at www.StarMarketingSystems.com and see what you can accomplish.

There are a number of people that want to come to our next Passion to Profit, February 4-5.  But THAT weekend isn’t good for them.  Now I can see if they have a trade show that’s going to make them a large number of sales.  Or they had a funeral in the family, that I could understand.

But they’re going to a Super Bowl Game, or they like to catch up on household chores on a Sunday.  Now if we would just have it when it was convenient for them…..

How many times do we get the opportunity to make substantial improvements in ourselves but it means putting ourselves out a bit.

When I first went to Passion to Profit in 2009, let’s say I had pretty good excuses not to go.  I’d had a massive stroke in 2008 and I was (am) still recovering.   But I went.  I couldn’t take notes because I was still trying to learn to write with my left hand (I was NOT one of those ambidextrous  folk). All I could do was listen while my partner took notes.

But what I heard struck  a nerve…..I was NOT going to give up.

Things could get better for me and the seminar gave me ideas how I could do it, including getting a license to give the seminar from my viewpoint.

Alicia is one of my hosting clients.  She is blind as a result of her diabetes.  But she’s got an online business and she’s becoming known as a very motivating speaker because she really wants more than being known as a handicapped person.

It seems the people that try the hardest are usually the ones that are challenged.  And they look at it as a challenge.  Not as a handicap.

What about you?  Do you want to change your life enough to be inconvenienced or do you want to complain that life isn’t fair?

Have you noticed that people usually want something different to happen, but they don’t want to change to make a difference?

It has become quite common.  I run a trade association for herb businesses.  And the usual complaint is that sales are down.  Not for everyone, but a majority.  And when I ask if they’ve tried Facebook or Google+ and added business pages (which we teach), they say no, they’ve been meaning to learn but don’t have time, blah, blah, blah.

And I used to commiserate with them but not any longer.

We’ve all got too much to do.  That’s a fact.  But it’s also a fact that some people organize themselves and get things done.  No one gets everything they want done.  But they push themselves a lot more than others.  They don’t use the excuse that there is a TV show they want to watch.  Or they’re on Facebook or Twitter too much (chatting, not working on their business pages). Or they had to run the kids all over.

I had a hosting client who decided her site didn’t bring in orders.  When I suggested she should put pictures on her blog and show how she makes the jewelry, or set up a Facebook business page and ask her clients to “Like” it, her answer was “she didn’t have time for that.”

Since she’s a friend I said I’d create a page if she would just send me pictures,  she said she would…..and I’m taking her site down the end of the month because she just didn’t have time.

It would be so easy to wrap myself in my blanket and muse in front of the TV about why things don’t work out the way I plan.  But that wasn’t how I was raised.

Rather there are days when I forced myself to do certain projects starting with the ones I hate first.  And after that first one which doesn’t turn out as bad as I thought, I start accomplishing things.  Women are good at making excuses as to why they haven’t done something.  Usually it’s because they’re waiting until they have absolutely everything they need to do it perfectly.

That ain’t ever going to happen.  Start with what you have and do something.  If you want to add something to your site, do it.  Then later when you have more time, add another part.  Then more.  Suddenly you realize you’ve got the entire project complete.  And you’d still be waiting for that perfect time, if you did it your way.

If you come to our Passion to Profit seminar Feb 4-5 it’s your first step in changing your life and creating your new life exactly the way you want.  And all it takes is that first step.

It always amazes me that books on what I consider common sense are big sellers.  Let me rephrase that.  I have a Kindle and am obsessed with “free” books.  We’re not talking the classics like Jane Eyre and the Complete Works of Shakespeare which are essential.  But if you check every day, you can get amazing bargains online.  But that’s something  I’ll give you  at the end of this post.   What amazes me is different.

One book that’s crossed the top 100 free books for the past few weeks is “ Email Etiquette.”  This book obviously fills a need.  I’m glad that so many people realize that writing whatever occurs to them AND sending it may be a big mistake.

There was a time not all that long ago when you would have died of embarrassment if someone heard your comments about a competitor of “friend” which you mumbled in an off moment.  You were raised better than that.  Your grandmother would have given you a talking to or a real friend would have explained to you that some things were better written down and then sat on while you cooled off.   We’ve now lost all restraint in expressing ourselves.

When I first went online in 1995 I was a bit naive.   I thought when you deleted an email or sent one it would just disappear.  After all, who would keep such stuff.  Luckily, I learned differently quite quickly.  A woman wrote me an email that I was stunned by.   I thought why would she say such things when it was something I could keep and forward on to others.

And why would someone send pictures of their body parts to anyone?

I was giving training on setting up business pages in Facebook a couple years ago and one attendee didn’t appreciate  my advice on keeping your personal page as innocuous as possible because business and personal  merged so easily.  That was her outlet for ranting about whatever struck her.  Even though stupid comments in your personal page will be viewed by potential clients and could lose you business.

You want your business to be successful.   You want to present yourself as a professional even when you do work that isn’t “white collar.”  Remember that the shelf life of what you put on the net is forever.  If you don’t want your grandmother seeing it, keep your words to yourself.

Now about those free books.  You can get free Kindle books even if you don’t have a Kindle.  There are free apps you can get for your computer or phone.  And the Kindle books are yours for watching for them.

Use your Amazon account.  Check the Kindle Store a couple times a day.  (www.amazon.com  Kindle  along the left then Kindle Store.  Then down to Kindle Bestsellers on the left…..and you see two columns…books that have a charge and Free Books.   And some books will be free for weeks and others for a few hours.  Some are great and some…well they were free….and there’s a delete key.

How often do we just go along trying (sort of) to make sales.  We get a great idea and then promote it…sort of.  Our intentions are good but life gets in the way.

Instead of making a New Year’s list of resolutions which are nowhere to be seen on January 15, consider making some real changes.

For most of my life, I was overweight.  Not huge, but I destroyed a lot of pictures.  After my stroke in 2008, I finally had my excuse because “I couldn’t” exercise, eat right, …..you know the usual litany.  And I could just as easily let my business slide…because now I had a real excuse.    But I didn’t do either one.

I finally lost the weight.   I found something that worked for me (Medifast) and, politically correct it’s not, I knew my business would do better if I looked the part.  It did.

Stop giving yourself permission not to succeed.    It’s too easy  to do that.

There was a 20/20 or some other show several years ago that made such an impression on me, I’ll never forget it.  The focus of the story was a girl who had just been accepted by a prestigious college.  We all hear about them.  But this woman (because she was far from a girl in attitude) was different.  Her mother was dead.  Her father was an addict with AIDS.  Most of her childhood she was homeless.   But she didn’t let these problems stand in her way.  She didn’t let” legitimate”  excuses keep her from her goals.  She had an amazing attitude even caring for her dying father as much as she was able.  She didn’t feel that life was unfair.  It just was the way things were, but she knew things would change if she kept her mind focused on her goals.

What could you do if you stopped giving yourself permission to fail?   How would your life be if on December 23, 2012, you could look back on a year where you finally did things you never gave yourself permission before to accomplish?  Think about it.

And then DO IT.

Don’t forget about our upcoming Passion to Profit weekend February 4-5.  It will give you the motivation to turn yourself or your business around.  Better yet,  you’ll leave knowing what to do next.

Yes, there’s planning for times ahead but somewhere along the line we started living in the future….or living for the future.

It’s why a blog like Zen Habits is so popular. Anything zen. We are caught in surviving and want so bad to return to a way of life that, for many of us, never really was but should be.

So we do stupid things. We hate our life as it is, so instead of thinking and planning to change we plunge right in without a parachute. We feel if we don’t, we’ll lose the momentum. We panic.

I took a 7 day course that promised to make me a better speaker and gave the tools to do it. And 4 things happened to the people in the class.

The first group did nothing. Zip. They spent the not insignificant price of the class, got excited at the class and for a couple of weeks after and we never heard from them again.

The second group was a bit better. They talk about things on our Facebook list, ask for advice, and make some small moves, and again, do very little. The intent is good but the follow through is lacking. And they have a million great reasons why they haven’t done things but intend to. And they want everything to be just perfect before they take action, and it never is, so they never do much else.

The third group is different. Here Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and hare seems so apropos. Like the hare, they rush home and complete some things right away. They work so fast at making massive changes that the rest of us feel like we’ve been left in the dust. But after this insane bit off work, they disappear. And often we hear a few complaints that they did the right things and miracles didn’t happen overnight. And with all the various gurus out there promising things will be perfect, it doesn’t happen quite that way.

And the last group reminds me of the tortoise to continue my Aesop’s fable version. They go home from the event and begin making plans. And then they break the plan down into steps. And they make a reasonable timeline. Not in the distant future, but now. And they participate in the Facebook group, but they have too much to do to live on the list. And you start to notice results. They complete a small book. They mention talks they are giving. They’re small changes (as opposed to other participants) but they are consistent and growing. And they win in the long run.

Desperation can be a motivator but usually doesn’t work. It often causes us to take 3 big steps and then we sit frozen because the miracles don’t appear as we want them. And we don’t have a backup. Or Plan B or C. Start making that plan today. And break things down into more manageable steps. I recently read branding, business tools, marketing yourself, maureen rogers, passion to profit