Advantages of Face-to-Face Networking

With the internet making the world a smaller place, it’s easy to think that networking can be done through social media and social media alone.

However, even with those you meet on social media, you still need to find a way to have face-to-face meetings, when possible. Here are 5 reasons why there are advantages to face to face networking.

Gives that personal touch.

Having face-to-face meetings is more personal and will give you a better way to show who your true self. It’s hard to see what someone’s personality is when you can’t see or hear them. If you want your personality to shine, then you need to have those face-to-face meetings.

Builds stronger relationships

We all crave human connection and when we get it, it builds stronger relationships. You can think a person is great when you meet them online, but to see them in action and be a part of their energy creates a better and more inviting experience.

It is hard to build a strong relationship with someone if you’ve never shared physical space. In person, you get to see how they connect with other people and truly know how strong your connection is with them.

Provides Immediate feedback

If all of your meetings are done through email or on social media, then you don’t get that immediate and direct feedback that you do when you’re face to face. You also can’t tell someone’s tone or demeanour if everything is done through typing. This makes it very easy to misconstrue someone’s intent or what they were saying.

When you are discussing something in person, then the exchange you have will go differently. There’s more give and take, so to speak. It’s just faster this way.

Ability to Read Body Language

There’s a way that we communicate in person that just cannot be expressed on the internet. You can read someone’s body language; you can pick up on sarcasm better when you can hear the tone of someone’s voice or see their face. You just learn so much about a person by seeing their mannerisms.

Avoid misunderstandings

You might think you are being very clear when you communicate on the internet, but how someone else interprets can be entirely different. This is why emotions fly and things get so heated on the internet. A simple misunderstanding escalates into something out of your control.

Using social media to network is great but it is still important to get out there and make personal connections. Whether it be at local business events or you find ways to meet up with your online connections, it’s crucial to create face-to-face meetings to strengthen those connections and build your business.

Now, I want to hear from you! How often do you get out to a local networking event or see your customers face-to-face? Share below in the comment section or join the conversation in the Facebook group.

3 Surefire Ways to Create In-Demand Products and Services

If there’s one thing that holds promising entrepreneurs back from launching their business, it’s this: a lack of confidence in their products. Sure, you think that new product or workshop is a great idea, but how do you know it will sell?

Imagine spending weeks or even months of time—plus the cost of document design, video editing and all the other pieces that go along with it—only to discover it’s not what your audience wants or needs. How frustrating would that be?

You don’t have to leave it to chance, though. There are plenty of ways to test your idea before spending the time and energy on a full launch.

1. Ask

This is the simplest way to get a feel for what your market needs and wants. Simply ask them. Create a survey with Survey Monkey (or even a Google form) and send it out to your mailing list. For best results, keep it short, but do ask:

What they’re struggling with?
What problems are these struggles causing in their life?
How would their life be different if they had [insert your product or service here]?
What do they feel your product or service is worth (what would they pay)?

These four pieces will tell you everything you need to know to create a product or program that’s practically guaranteed to sell.

2. Listen

If you have a community (or are part of one) that is full of your ideal clients, pay attention to what they’re asking about the most. These are the things they need help with. For example, if you’re a business coach and your Facebook group is filled with questions about running Facebook ads, then clearly there is a need for some training in that area.

3. Know

Hopefully, you have a list of competitors and you’re reading their blogs and emails, joining in their Facebook groups and getting to know them. Network and build relationships with them, this is a great way to gain insight into what is out there—not to copy them but to discover what’s hot in your industry right now.

Creating products in a vacuum is a great way to waste a lot of time and money on programs that won’t sell. Instead, pay attention to what your market is asking for, find out what they’re willing to pay, and delve into your competition’s offers. The information you gain from these three activities alone will give you incredible insight. Not just into your market but what they want and need, making it easy to create your own hot-selling products.

Now you know what to creat, take a peek at 3 Proven ways to Market Your New Business to help promote your new product!

What kind of content tends to go viral?

If you’re trying to get your content to “spark” and go viral, it really helps to have a strong understanding of what kind of content tends to go viral. Of course, nobody can predict what will go viral, nor can they make something go viral 100% of the time. But by understanding what kind of content tends to go viral, you stand a much better chance of creating something viral yourself.

Here are a few of the main attributes of things that tend to go viral.

It’s Human

It’s rare that a factual, statistical or economical video goes viral. Instead, it’s usually the most human videos that go viral.

The singing homeless man on the street. The baby laughing at something senseless. An incredible display of guitar prowess.

Strong Emotional Content

The more emotions you can arouse in your audience, the better.

Let’s take one of the world’s most viewed videos, the “Charlie Bit My Finger” video. The video features a baby whose brother bit his finger; he sits there laughing and complaining at the same time.

This video has an astounding 863 million views at the time of this writing. That is crazy, I have to admit, I have seen it more than once…

One of the main reasons this video took off so strongly is because of how clear the emotions were in the video. The watcher can almost “follow along” with the baby’s emotions and also experience the joy of playing with your baby brother, not to mention the pain of being bitten by a baby with a fresh set of pearly whites.

Videos That Provide Unique Information

Another type of content that does really well are videos that are informational. The key here is that the videos really have to provide content that can’t be found anywhere else.

My point is, informational videos work in many different industries, but the most important thing is that there’s something truly unique to them.

Content That Appeals to Specific Groups of People

Content that tends to appeal to specific groups of people tends to do very well if they have strong emotional or informational content.

A video that recently went viral was M.J Hegar’s campaign video to become a Democratic candidate for the Congress in a Texas district. The video racked up 4.7 million views on Youtube and Facebook combined as of June 28, 2018. At the time she was challenging 15-year Republican incumbent, John Carter.

Hegar’s video racked up 4.7 million views on Youtube and Facebook combined as of June 28, 2018. I am pretty sure, she did not need half that many votes to win. Which did happen by the way, with 62.2 percent of the vote!

Consider your business niche, something can go viral within the community. Like, new food laws, something which may be seen as boring, could be very interesting to vegans if it affects the foods they’ll be able to purchase. A video about the new laws could really take off among that specific community.

These are some of the factors that go into determining whether or not a video goes viral. At the end of the day, a video going viral really means that a lot of people want to pass on your content. The key, as with many other things in business, is to just create something so amazing that people want to share it.

9 Principles for Successful Women

No List? No Problem! How to Build an Audience with Paid Ads

We’ve been told (and told and told) for years that “the money is in the list” and that “your mailing list is your biggest business asset.” But if your list numbers are hovering in the low four-figures—or fewer—with no sign of growth on the horizon, such advice can seem a bit unhelpful.

The fact is, building a list is a catch 22: You can’t get signups without traffic and it’s difficult to find traffic when you have no list. What’s a busy entrepreneur to do?

Paid Ads Make List-Building Easy

By strategically placing ads in front of your target audience, you can drive tons of traffic to your opt-in offers and enjoy conversion rates of two or three percent or more. Even better, with some tweaking and split testing of your offers, you can carefully refine your ads and copy so that you’re attracting your exact ideal client and filling your list with buyers who are ready to take action, rather than freebie seekers.

All you need to run paid ads to your opt-in pages is:

A compelling offer, such as a video training series or live webinar
Copy to grab the attention of your target audience

Best Ad Placements

Once you have your components in place, the only question remaining is where to run your ads. You have dozens of choices, from Twitter to Google to YouTube to solo email spots.

The key is to first determine where your market is most likely to be hanging out. If they’re on LinkedIn, then running ads on Twitter will be a waste of time. Keep in mind the cost as well. Ads on Facebook are generally less expensive and less competitive than a Google Adwords placement.

Start Small, Then Refine

Once you’ve decided where to place your ads, it’s time to set your budget and begin running a small set of ads. Consider setting a small daily budget, such as $10 or $20 at the beginning, so you can get a feel for how your ads will perform. Watch the traffic, track your conversions, and create split tests of your landing page and ad sets to determine which performs the best. You can also refine the audience you’re targeting based on the stats you receive. For example, if you find that men between the ages of 20 and 30 are clicking but not opting in, you might want to remove them from your audience.

At least at first, it’s best to avoid running ads for paid products. Conversions for a free offer will far outshine those to a paid product—especially if your program is expensive. After all, those who are clicking on an ad most likely do not know you at all, so it takes a much bigger leap of faith to offer up a credit card number than it will to provide an email address.

Ad Copy Blunders to Avoid

Have you ever clicked on an ad because you saw an adorable pair of sandals that you just had to have, only to land on a page full of sneakers, with not a sandal in sight? It’s frustrating, to say the least, and that kind of ad to landing page mismatch will kill your conversions.

Your ad copy is making a promise to the reader. If your landing page doesn’t fulfill that promise, your readers will click away, and you’ll have wasted the money you spent to get them there. Before running any ads, be sure your ad headline, image, and copy all match the message on the landing page.

Paid advertising was once a tool used only by big companies or marketers with a lot of money to spare, but today they’re more cost-effective than ever, and the technology makes them easy to create and monitor. If you haven’t yet tried your hand at this useful traffic generation method, it’s time to do some experimenting. You might just find your list numbers—and sales—growing.

10 Reasons Moms make great business owners.

You have thought and heard, countless times, that motherhood is a thankless, underpaid job, right? Well, I hate to say it, but so being a business owner. I learned the hard way that starting my own business wasn’t all about coffee dates with girlfriends or a large boost in my income. But, like being a Mom, I just jumped right in, learned every day, and worked hard at being good at it. 10 Reasons Moms make great business owners

So should you.

With no explanation needed for each item on the list, here are ten underestimated reasons why moms make the best business owners.

They are great at uniting people.
Moms have mastered the art of event planning.
Natural leadership instincts.
Amazing negotiators.
Multitaskers – if you can call it that.
Strong problem solvers.
They have the ability to meet urgent deadlines.
They are always asking a lot of questions.
Know how to deliver bad news gently.
Moms understand the importance of planning ahead.

These are just TEN reasons why moms make amazing business owners. This list could have easily been the top 100 reasons but that would defeat the purpose. My goal, for this article, is to help you realize why you will make a great business owner.

If you are still unsure, read this article on why starting your own business is a good idea.

[Tweet ““Being a mom gives you superpowers for doing stuff you don’t want to do.” Solly Baby founder Elle Rowley”]

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make great business owners

The ONE Thing by Gary Keller

I just started reading The ONE Thing, by Gary Keller and I am learning that it is a must read for every entrepreneur. I haven’t finished reading the book, yet, but I wanted to share something that has already changed my perspective.

In the book, it states:

“The problem is we tend to act on what we believe even when what we believe isn’t anything we should”.

We all have beliefs that just aren’t true, but we truly believe them to be. Yet; there are six very specific ones, stated in this book, that truly hold us back from our success. We tell ourselves these lies so often to make decisions, that they eventually become our truth.

Once you learn that the above “truths” are in fact lies, you can focus on the truth and start moving toward your success. Which according to Gary Keller it comes down to:

“being appropriate in the moments of your life. If you can honestly say, “This is where I’m meant to be right now, doing exactly what I’m doing,” then all the amazing possibilities for your life become possible.”

Hello, May!

3 Ways to Empower Your Entrepreneurial Mind

An empowered woman walks through the world with confidence and grace. She pursues excellence in all aspects of life and does not settle. She has a clear vision of her dreams and is fearless in making them a reality.

We are all capable of being empowered women, women who build amazing businesses and achieve our own vision of success. The thing is, for most of us, this doesn’t come naturally and we need to make conscious decisions to be in an empowered and entrepreneurial mindset at all times, which, is not always easy.

Our mindset plays a big role in determining our success, in both business and in life. So, if we want to be empowered, achieve success, we have to do it on purpose.

To help you along your journey, below are three things you can do to help you get into the entrepreneurial mindset.

Be a risk-taker.

Entrepreneurship is all about risk-taking. To truly be empowered and reach higher levels of success, you absolutely need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. There is no direct path to success and you know as well as I do, that there is no certainty of it.

Creating your dream life and starting your own business means betting on yourself and not looking back. Taking risks that both scare and excite you is usually a sign that you are on the right path. Learning to love this discomfort will take you much further than any safe feeling ever will.

Redefine your definition of success.

The definition of success is ‘the accomplishment of an aim or purpose’. I know many people in the entrepreneur space that define success as a monetary amount, yes this financial success is important, being driven by money will not help you succeed. This way of measurement will burn you out faster than you could imagine. Define your success by the people you help and the progress you make in your business, not by comparing yourself to the success of others or how much money is in your account.

When you define your success this way, it will ensure your accomplishments are much more satisfying and reinforce your mindset that you are heading in the right direction. Not to mention, what may seem like failures will be viewed more as learning opportunities that help you to be more empowered in your business and a successful entrepreneur in the long run. Empower Your Entrepreneurial Mind

Celebrate Every Little Win.

When you take time to celebrate every success, big or small, it will build your confidence and will help you take it to the next level to reach those large-scale goals. Not to mention, a celebration will give you closure on the goals you’ve been working hard toward. So, when you hit that publish button, empty your inbox, call a client, any accomplishment, stand up and do a little dance! Give yourself the credit you deserve for the time, effort and energy you are putting into your business. Keep the momentum going and make every success a celebration.

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