Diane Armitage, Website & Writing Maven

Creative Bent: If you don't want it in your life, stop thinking about it!

2007-08-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

If you're at all familiar with the renowned book, The Science of Getting Rich, from Wallace Wattles, you have come across the proven concept that what we think about we create in reality.

There's no limit to what we can create because there's no limit to the energy and power that moves into action in our behalf, creating what we've "asked for." This energy and power is what Wattles refers to as "The Original Substance." I personally think of this "Substance" as God's limitless creative power.

For some reason, I always think of Silly Putty when I consider this action - Silly Putty is that gooey, rubbery substance that comes packaged in a toy egg. My brother and I used to apply Silly Putty to the Sunday color comic strips because the color would magically transfer to the Silly Putty surface.

Now, I'm sure Wattles AND the Original Thinking Substance could be a bit miffed at my comparison here, but I think it gets the picture across . . . whatever thought you think is immediately impressed on Original Substance, just as the color comic is impressed on a patch of Silly Putty. It can't help itself - Original Substance is almost a magnet that your thought attaches itself to. From that moment, Original Substance begins to move your thought into form – it must become reality because that 's what creative power does - it creates.

This creative energy isn't subjective. It doesn't stop and ask you if you're SURE you want to have this thing created . . . it simply moves forward, as Thomas Troward puts it "going forward beyond what's gone before, creating something absolutely new."

It's vital, then, that you consciously remain focused on what it is you WANT rather than what it is you DON'T WANT or FEAR. Raymond Holliwell wrote about this most succinctly in his book, "Working With the Law." In his chapter on the Law of Non-Resistance, he reminds us that, when we begin to focus on obstacles in our way (real or imagined), our progress not only stops - it can turn in an entirely wrong direction. We might first think that obstacles standing in the way of getting what we want are coming from someone ELSE - and sometimes, they do. But more often than not, we're guilty of putting up our OWN obstacles to impede our own progress. We doubt that we'll be able to accomplish this feat. We fear the loss of not achieving this goal. Our minds rummage around to past experience, when things went wrong, when we got stopped before.

You got stopped before because you stopped yourself. This time, be more consciously aware of when these "obstacle thoughts" perk up in your head. Stop them immediately, as soon as you notice they're there. Fill your mind immediately with the results you'll be feeling and experiencing when you DO accomplish this goal you have.

As Holliwell counsels, don't stop and marshal your forces to beat back or subdue the obstacle in your path. With your eye on that goal ahead of you, simply move around the obstacle - don't give it any energy. Don't argue with it. Don't reason with it. Just dismiss it. And keep moving on to that life you deserve.

Creative Bent: Spirit is working on what you asked for … whether you know it or not!

2007-08-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, I decided to start working through Bob Proctor's seminar rendition of Wallace Wattles' The Science of Getting Rich. It's been months since I last worked through the audio and workbook, and in just weeks, I've seen, noticed, and been reminded of how powerfully Spirit works in our behalf.

Nearly a century ago, Wattles wrote urgently about the necessity to marshal our conscious thought, as every thought begins to whir energy into motion to create that very thing. As you've learned from The Secret - a beautiful follow-up to Wattles' primary concepts - it doesn't matter if it's a positive minded thought about your life or a negative thought - it is created, period.

Now, I know you and I are both working on lofty visions - concepts we're consciously thinking of that will massively increase our success … our wealth … our happiness. But don't fail to notice or commend Spirit for bringing you those things that you considered more "minor!" What we might view as "minor achievement" is really an example of the absolute power we have working within and through us for EVERYTHING that we think. Let me give you a personal example of this . . .

This week, my new couch was delivered. It's the first new couch I've had in 12 years. About two weeks ago, I was shopping on the Santa Monica Promenade with a girlfriend of mine. We were in a 2-story furniture shop and had gotten separated. She came to the landing at the top of the stairs and said, "Di! You've got to see this couch! It's perfect for your place." She was right. I had an idea to buy a couch this year, and had actually written it as one of my goals at the first of the year. But I hadn't been actively looking . . . yet, this was a great find. So, this week, it arrived at the "ocean skybox."

I was cleaning out my car's console two days ago and discovered a scrap of magazine that I'd cut out more than two years ago. It was a picture of a couch I particularly liked, and I'd added it to my poster board of "Things I'm Buying For My Penthouse." About three months ago, I removed it from the poster board and put it in my car so that I could keep it in mind when I began couch shopping. Not a single friend saw this photo in a magazine, nor did I even think to look at it again. Further, I never started couch shopping.

You know where this story is going. My good friend had found a couch - completely unaware that I was even looking for a couch - that was a 98% match to the couch in the magazine picture. Even the odd color pillow lineup is an exact match.

You think that's a coincidence? It's not. That's a smile from God.

As I sat this week, pasting the magazine photo and the "real" photo in my journal, I began to make a mental list of "odd coming abouts" that have happened in just the last two or three months.

Here's another example that had completely slipped my mind that has to do with business goals.

At the first of the year, I made a goal to create two actual books of my own - one on websites, the other on strategic marketing. I was in an airport bookstore in April and saw the greatest series of business books - they were compact, short reads that anyone could pick up and read on a plane trip. I thought, "Wow. I love the cover, I love the insides, this is the perfect length … I'm going to do my books like this."

Then, of course, I walked away from the rack of books and couldn't, for the life of me, find the same series again. I looked in other airport shops. I looked that airport bookstore up on the internet and tried to find the book series there. No luck. I had small moments of beating myself up about it - why hadn't I bought just one book to use as a model?

Well, over the next 2 months, the idea for the books fell between the cracks and I wasn't even thinking about that goal. In June, I was traveling to New York and ended up sidelined in Chicago on the tarmac, waiting for a storm to pass. My seatmate, bored from the long wait, rummaged around in his briefcase and sat up with two books in his hand - the same books from the same series I'd been looking for.

That wasn't just a smile from God. That was a nudge. A serious nudge.

Now, despite the fact that I gathered enough information from my seatmate's books to find them again, did I act right away?

Of course not. Why do that and … you know … succeed at creating an instant stream of income while sharing my knowledge with tens of thousands of people around the world who are seeking these very answers? Seems like something I should stall on, right? So I did … stall, that is.

Finally, two weeks ago, I decided it was time to get them done. I set a very unreasonable date - my birthday, Sept. 10, to deliver the completed copy to my designer. That's three weeks from now.

First, I had to find a transcriber to transcribe all my audio series for the book content. Several months ago, I'd done a tiny bit of looking for a transcriber, hadn't found anyone and decided to call it a day. So, this time, I sent a note out to about 4 of my favorite business cronies, asking if they knew of a good transcriber. In an hour, the two busiest people that I LEAST expected to hear from recommended the same transcriber. I called her that day and in TWO DAYS she had delivered the completed 10 hours of transcription!

Then, I had to find those danged books for my model. Of course, I'd managed to lose all the publisher info and titles I'd written down from the Chicago airport miracle find. I did, however, remember one of the subject lines of the books - so I entered that in Amazon on a whim and - kaboomy - there was the model book, first in line, with its entire recommended series. At this point, I've stopped questioning if I'm supposed to be writing these two books - I whipped out my credit card and ordered a couple of the "models" and sent one shipment to me, and the other to my favorite designer in Arizona, Patti Knoles.

The books are on. They will be completed and turned over to my designer by my birthday - that's just the way it has to be.

See, there are two examples here of how God and the Universe and all the angels crowding around us immediately begin working in our behalf, based on the SINGLE THOUGHT, the SINGLE GOAL we choose to write down or focus our mind on.

Since these two discoveries this week, I wrote a quick list of "odd coincidences" that have occurred in just the last few months … things that pertain to my list of goals I wrote for completion before my next birthday (My "New Year's" is my birthday) … I have 18 "coincidences" that have either completed the goal in its entirety, or have arrived to roll the world along in a very straight path to my goal.

This stuff works.

It works for couches that you cut from magazines and put on your "Image Board." It works for finding a single piece of desired furniture in the middle of nowhere in a third world country and managing to get that piece to my penthouse when no official shipping companies would pick it up and I had no personal contacts to bring it here . . yet, it sits here now on my deck (heh. That's a whole 'nother miracle story.) It works for creating and completing the product or service that the Universe knows is needed. It works for new friendships of supportive, like-minded people. It works for bringing in the kind of client I have specifically detailed. It works in health issues and doctor visits. It works for finding a talented junior writer. It works for finding and settling my Mother into a new house in my brother's town when, 8 months ago, she was NEVER going to move. It works for finding a true source I can work with in real estate investing. It works in finding a true source I can work with in financial investing and tax planning.

Look at what's changed in your life this year. Who are the new people in your life, and could they be connected to that goal in your head? Could they be six degrees of connection from that goal being completed? have circumstances changed around the people who are already in your life? You see, these people could be in your life NOW because Universe sees them as connected to YOUR goal. And … you could be in THEIR lives for the very same reason.

Keep this in mind. Tomorrow, I'll be writing more about the specifics of Wallace Wattles' theory on thought.

Websites: Can't I Just Do a 1-Page Web Site?

2007-08-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

Q: Diane, I just bought my domain name with a company that says they'll set up my 1-page web site for free. Is this something I want to do?

A: Well, it's worth it if the fine print includes amenities to go along with the "1-page web site." Programmers don't think of "pages" like we think of "pages. As an example, a page with your domain name and a descriptive of what you do is ONE page. Many "freebie" web sites will include an email address that prospects can click to email you. And that's about it, folks.

If you're going to do any kind of decent marketing around this web site you're building, it needs to have at LEAST – at a minimum – four pages. Once past your landing page that should give people the general idea why you're there, here's what should be a requirement:

Page #2 - The fill in form.
As you probably know, I'm a very big NON-fan of email address links on web sites. This allows people to contact you without giving you much of the info you need to further contact your prospect. Remember, if someone emails you, this does NOT give you permission to put this person's email address in your blasting list of future emails. They MUST opt in to a FORM with a check box to SAY they want info from you. If you don't give them a box to check, you have no legal right to contact them. This is the sort of thing SPAM police are on the lookout for, and they don't mess around.

Further against simple emails - when someone sends you an email, this means you've got to try to enter whatever info they've sent you in your own database manually. If you offered a fill-in form, instead, all the info you're really looking for goes directly into your own online database. (Not bad for safekeeping prospect info, either.)

So, if you decide to do a fill-in form with a submit button, that form creation is actually considered PAGE #2 by programmers. The form could be a Contact Us form . . . a form for a free bonus report . . . whatever it is, it's a PAGE. If you do multiple forms, count an EXTRA PAGE for every form.

Page #3 - Confirmation you received their info.
When your prospect fills in the form and submits, it's much nicer of you to tell your prospect that the form was received. "Yep, thank you got it! You don't have to re-fill in the form another 91 times."
This form of communication is called a CONFIRM page, and it's PAGE #3 according to programmers.

Page #4, 5, 6, etc - Your selling information
So, what if you want a button on your site . . . something other than your home page of text? Maybe you want to offer case studies of your successes . . . testimonials from clients . . . a more descriptive page of the different products you offer? These are all phenomenal ways to further sell your prospect on this wonderful thing you offer . . .
You COULD throw it all into the single page - the landing page of your site, and some people do. But, if you prefer to not run on and on, forcing people to scroll and scroll . . . then every "button" you add is a NEW PAGE.

Sketch your blueprint first.
This is why it's so important to know what you want to do before you start putting that web site into play. Sketch what you WANT, then start minimally if you have to. At the least, put your home page copy together with a Contact Us form and a confirmation page once the prospect fills in the form. Start there. Negotiate THAT with your "free web site" folks.

Marketing Anywhere: Little Things Make a Big Difference

2007-07-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

On my trip across the country last week, I picked up Malcolm Gladwell's read, "The Tipping Point. I'd read the book ages ago and remembered it for some very decent tips, so thought I'd do a quick review. If you haven't yet read it, I'd say it's a MUST:

It's simply reassuring to know that it only takes LITTLE things to make a product or service really boom through the charts. Look at the movie, The Secret, as an example! Among several grea points, Gladwell comments that, in order to make YOUR entity zoom up the popularity charts, you need just three people in your world: A Connector, A Maven and A Salesman.

Your Connector knows LOTS of people. They don't collect people around them as a business strategy – they just find themselves fascinated with people, period. They're the ones who will start talking with you on a plane – not because they want to sell you something but they have a genuine interest in what you're all about. I met a Connector like this in February when I was flying to Santa Fe. He was a retired psychiatrist from Beverly Hills and he knew everyone and everyone's everyone. He wasn't bragging - he had no ego about it - he simply and genuinely likes people and loves being the Connector between them, whatever their need may be. These are the people who will get your product or service into the right hands - they've got big leverage with the people who matter to what you have to sell.

Your Maven is a person who spends his or her entire life collecting data and accumulating knowledge. They're a walking, talking Consumer Reports with knowledge in just a handful of arenas … or knowledge in just about any arena they come across in their lives. Once they figure out what the best TV is … which frozen food heats most evenly in the microwave … which financial magazine columnist has the greater percentage of successes in his or her recommendations … they want to share this knowledge. These are the Internet folks who participate in the discussion boards and start the big information sites. When I purchased a new Motorola Q a couple months ago, its handbook was pathetically paltry. So, I found my way to a "Q" discussion board and began asking my specific questions. In minutes – almost every time – I'd get answers right away from Mavens around the world who had already explored the phone's every button and feature. When you have a Maven in your corner, you might actually gain more leverage than you would with your Connector. While Mavens might not know as many big and powerful folks, they want to spread their findings to EVERYONE on the planet - a big plus for your emerging product.

Your Tipping Point Salesman is the farthest thing from the classic stereotype. This person has something within his or her personality that is powerful, contagious, and irresistible. People WANT to agree with this person. As Gladwell states, it's enthusiasm, charm and likeability. It's persuasiveness by accident. The VP of Sales at my client, ExpensAble - http://www.expensable.com - is exactly this kind of Salesman. He's so genuinely enthused about his automated expense reporting software that you've got to chuckle when you watch him in action or hear him on the phone. He's a strange combination of glee, sophistication and expert knowledge of the product. Because of the combo, their sales continue to climb through the roof and their customers become infected with the same high-energy satisfaction and praise of the product. I just did a round of over-the-phone testimonial collection of about 30 of these clients and they're positively rabid fans – and each of them was initially touched by this single VP of Sales.

So, today it's time to make your list of who in your life is a Connector, a Maven and a Salesman. They don't have to be employed by you. They don't even have to be Affiliates of yours. But find them and enroll them in what you have to offer and you'll be well on your way to your own Tipping Point.

Creative Bent: If They Don't Support You, Keep Your Mouth Shut

2007-06-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

In one of my Mentoring for Women sessions the other day, my client was telling me about the repeated attempts a female relative was making to logically talk away my client's dreams and plans for improvement. For everything my dear client said, her relative had a retort - a negative, "it's never going to work" and "look where you are in your life; it's how it's supposed to be" kind of retort.

Sabotage? Yes.
Is it conscious sabotage? No.

The interesting thing about self-improvement is this – when you set out on a course and make your intentions public, you might very likely find that the people you expected to be your biggest and staunchest supporters are actually your biggest dream-busters.

If and when this begins to happen in your world, remember this – what they're saying is not about you. It's about them and where they are in THEIR lives. Now, if you're attempting to do something absolutely dangerous – something way out of the "healthy" zone, you might need some well-meaning folks there to tether you back in. But if you're on a mission to change up your life … if you've finally decided you deserve it and that it deserves you … then know that this might cause waves or rifts with people in your life who aren't sure they like the changes.

Remember, as you change, their lives change as a result. And, while they might have initially pushed and cheered you on to create change in your life, once it starts to happen and they start to feel the difference, they might stop cheering altogether. AS the gap widens between where you are and where they are, they might be uncomfortable studying that gap of space between the two of you. It forces them to look at their lives, where they are – and in many cases, that's not a place most people want to go.

When this happens, remind yourself that this is about them, not about you. Further, it's not going to do much good to try to argue your point – this simply stirs up a negative-minded argument that you don't want to be in the middle of. That's not the kind of energy you want to stir up.

Further still – it's not your job to change or correct where THEY are. In many cases, they're not ready to make their own changes in their lives. This doesn't mean you have to drop them from your life. As you change and grow, your relationship with them might change - and that's a natural evolution, not anything that has to be forced by you. Let that happen in its own course. You just stay focused on staying on track.

Don't allow yourself to be pulled back down or stymied in any way by others' opinions. One of my favorite quotes to this day is by Wayne Dyer - he says, "It's none of my business what other people think of me." That makes me smile every time I say it to myself. As harsh as it might initially seem, it's the honest truth. It's YOUR business what you think of yourself. It's YOUR business to explore how you feel about your life and where you're taking it. Are you living it the way you want to live? That's YOUR responsibility because, in the end, you're only going to be answering to you.

As you work through improvements in your life, and set higher and higher goals for yourself, keep them to yourself. As Bob Proctor used to tell me, your new goals and plans are like fragile chicks in a nest. They might be out of the egg, but they need nurturing and careful protection until they're ready to fly.

If you wish to, share your intentions with a mentor or someone of like-minded energy, but otherwise – keep your goals and plans to yourself. In so doing, you're remaining positively focused and moving forward without the unnecessary quips, comments or flat-out fights that may occur between you and those who, for reasons of their own, might now want the same for you.

Marketing Anywhere: It's About Leads AND Conversions

2007-04-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

The other day in a consulting appointment with a client, we came across a different kind of problem. He has hundreds - even thousands - of leads coming into this site monthly. It's the kind of problem most of us out there WANT to have. His issue lay on the conversion end - despite the numbers coming through, less than 5% were buying.

When it comes to an overload of leads and a temporary lack of staff to sell, here's what I recommend:

1. Put items in place that further qualify the leads in your fill-in forms. Are they decision makers or not? Are they actually the people looking for a home, or is this the mother in law who just wants her daughter back in her neighborhood? Are they thinking of traveling in 3 weeks, 3 months or 3 years?

As children, we all played the "Hot - Cold" game. Put that game into action in your business. You want to immediately devise a way to separate your HOTS from your LUKEWARMS, and your LUKEWARMS from your PRETTY CHILLY leads.

2. Once your leads are divided, create just 2 or 3 follow-up email pieces that accommodate EACH group. This is important.

3. If they're HOTS, you want to decrease the time between contacts, meaning that if you're only sending eblasts as follow up (no sales call), you want three emails to go in about 5 days. If they're CHILLY, you have more time to warm them up to you.

4. If you have a sales staff, stop stuffing them full of all the leads. Send them ony the HOTS so that conversin rates immediately soar.

5. When it comes to CHILLY leads, really get honest with yourself. Depending on your kind of business, these people might never be the kind of prospect for you. Remember, YOU choose who you want to work with. Last week, I was talking with a real estate agent who is bringing in hundreds of leads that are only qualified to buy at a much lower price range than he works. Aside from making changes on his site to staunch that flow (your copy should always allow the prospect to pre-qualify himself as to whether he can work with you or not), I suggested the most obvious solution:

Rather than just letting them sit there, gather them up and sell them in bulk to other hard-working agents who would LOVE to work a leads list of people who want to buy at a lower price range. Why not?

Creative Bent: New Beginnings

2007-04-09T10:39:00.000-07:00

Easter is such a great reminder that this world's theme is all about New Beginnings and Fresh Starts.

On my kitchen range hood - the only place that accepts magnets anymore in this household of mine - I have a magnet that reads, "What would you do if you knew you could not fail?"

Interesting question. Every time Easter rolls around, I make myself do the one thing I've been hemming and hawing about. I call the prospective dream client … I begin a personal regimen that I schedule myself to stick to … I start working on that danged movie script I keep putting off … every year, it's always something new … always something that I know I WANT to do but I've stalled on because there's some insecurity or bad paradigm that keeps stepping up and asking, "You can't be SERIOUS, can you?"

Get serious. This is your life. Make it what it deserves to be. Take the step and follow through on subsequent actions every day as the first action of your day. Take the step as if you cannot fail. And you won't.

Web Site Design: Admin Tools Go In "Phase Two" of Your Site Build

2007-04-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

In consulting with a client yesterday about the build of his web site, I came across an issue that I'm seeing more and more often.: You're asking for whizbang stuff that you really don't need or might never use in your site. Any time you ask for functionality, you're usually asking for something customized and built from the ground up. As an example, in this particular site, the client had asked the programmer for the ability to change/edit pages … the ability to change the navigation bars … the ability to load their own photos in a photo gallery … the ability to load dates to a calendar of events … the ability to up[load media files in case they had a radio or tv interview done about them … and all of this required custom builds from the programmer.

In five minutes of questions with the client, I was able to remove 117 hours from the programmer's bid! That was nearly $12,000!

Here's the rule of thumb I've learned over the years: If you WANT special features that require the build of administrative tools for your use, first seriously consider how much you'll be using that feature vs. the 10 or 15 minutes it would take the programmer to load the same information for you. As an example, I have several real estate clients that I've created "SOLD Galleries" for in their web sites. Even if they sell 3 or 6 homes a month, it's going to cost them a lot less to give the address and photo to the programmers to resize, clean up and load in the SOLD Gallery than it is to create a custom admin tool that allows the already-busy client this function. I can't tell you how many sites I built with these whizbang features in the site that, then, became MY responsibility to manhandle because the client is too busy to operate his or her own administrative tools!

There's nothing wrong with thinking that you'll need greater access to functionality on your site - but build the site first WITHOUT that optional functionality. THEN, schedule your next construction phase - the one that includes one or more of these desired admin tools - for a 6-month review. Use your site for 6 months, and see if you're ever in a situation where sending something to a programmer on a repeated basis takes WEEKS of time or HOURS of work on the programmer's part to upload in your behalf. If this is the case, then it's definitely time to look at an admin tool as a solution. But in most cases, you're going to find that you never really needed the tool – and you'll have saved yourself thousands of dollars in programming.

Marketing Anywhere: Even if They Don't Know You, Warm is Better

2007-04-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

I just spent the week with my best friend in Santa Fe on a "spa vacation." She and I have similar business lives, so even though we're on "vacation," we're normally and quite happily discussing our various marketing ventures.

Interestingly, my passion for niche audiences came up again when she began telling me about a new project she's working on - raising millions of dollars through sponsorship for a new rugby stadium in her town. It's the first stadium dedicated to rugby in her town and, for that matter, it's the first in the United States. She's been tasked with finding the corporate sponsors as the stadium is being built.

While she has great corporate contacts because of the work she's done over the last decade or so, I reminded her to "nichefy" to the corporations and entities that already support rugby in town and around the world. Pull video play of the international matches and look for obvious sponsors on THOSE stadiums. Investigate top-level rugby clubs, American Team and international rugby web sites and note the sponsors there. Bring in the USA Rugby Coach and owners as consultants on your question – because they fly all over the world and pull players from teams all over the United States, they've likely experienced and seen more corporate sponsorship than any video or web site will tell you. It doesn't matter if the team is based in Texas or Singapore – quite often, that same sponsor will have offshoots in your town.

If that avenue fails (and it won't), take the next step out to like-minded sports. Explore sponsors in the world of soccer first, as stats show that international fans of soccer are more likely to cross over to rugby than fans of baseball or tennis. Who sponsors THOSE events?

You see, it doesn't matter if you're seeking to establish your own fan base or scanning for your next multi-million dollar stadium sponsor – always, always start with your WARMEST audience, those who are already imbedded and interested in what you have to offer.

Marketing Anywhere: Two Lessons Clients Have Taught Me

2007-03-25T20:16:00.000-07:00

As we all head into the business week ahead, two quick pointers I'd like to mention that two of my clients taught me this week . . .

1. I have a client who definitely has a strategy for her overall marketing, but the great thing about her is that she ACTS even if she's not quite sure it's perfect. She puts her ideas together and gets it out there, testing it immediately in small doses, and actually listening when the results come back in. Then what does she do? Well, if it requires tweaking, she doesn't pout about it or staunchly defend her original station. She just tweaks it and sends it out again - in hours.
How refreshing is THAT?
I'm all for planning your attack and putting the pieces into place, but let's all work past a bit of that performance anxiety we might be feeling and get it out there. Your business is not going to die. You're not going to embarrass yourself beyond repair. Remind yourself that in marketing, everything is fixable - EVERYthing. So stop fussing with it and wondering if it's the right approach - get something out there.

2. A GREAT reminder from a client came later in the week when we were discussing our business goals. He simply said, "There's a big difference between saying I will create this much income by this date … and saying, I MUST create this income by this date …"
Isn't that the truth? If you absolutely had to … if you MUST create income by a certain date, there's a certain new sense of urgency about it, isn't there? This isn't about acting out of panic or fear. This is about acting with URGENCY – as Bob Proctor says - "When you act with urgency, you speed up and … and calm down."
This week, act with a sense of urgency. Make your will a MUST.

Marketing Anywhere: Announcing My Open Forum Calls

2007-03-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let you know that I "officially" began my Open Forum Q & A Sessions this Tuesday. As this was a "beta" run, I opened it to my most recent classes of telesession students and those who have invested in my new "stem to stern marketing course," Marketing Your Way to Millions (click here for details: http://www.armitageinc.com/shopping_marketingmillions.asp

These calls are designed as simple Question & Answer forums. Any one at any level is welcome to get on the call and ask just about anything about marketing. You might be developing your USP. You might be just starting your web site process. You might be revamping your web site. You may have questions about follow-up email campaigns, upsells or joint ventures. Whatever it is, get on the call and ask me. It's free and it's a great way to learn other tidbits of information in our 30-45 minute call.

As for this first week's test call, we all had a great time on the call … well, let me rephrase that. I had a great time on the call, and I hope all those who joined in did as well.

I'm going to open this call to a larger vat of people now, so mark your calendars for April 10th at 4:00 PDT/7:00 EDT (New York time). I'm setting up a quick, free registration page that I'll ask attendees to sign in to so that I can simply set up enough phone lines for each call. I'll also be posting these Q&A calls to the same "membership" page.

I hope this new Armitage Open Forum is of help to you as you progress in your marketing strategy and success. I'll let you know when the "membership" page is up and will be reminding you about the upcoming April call. Thanks again to all of you who participated in our debut!

Creative Bent: Goals vs. Affirmations

2007-03-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, one of my consulting clients asked the difference between Goals and Affirmations. Good question, actually. I'll give you my take on it - not sure if this is the "official take," but we'll give it a shot.

As I've worked with my various motivational speakers over the years, the consensus seems to be that Goals are what you put to paper, then organize according to priority, then assign timelines. As Mark Victor Hansen always says, "Goals are simply dreams with deadlines."

A lot of times, people will write their goals for the year or the month or even the day - but they won't take a few moments to then prioritize them, or they won't apply estimated timelines as to when they'd like to have the goal accomplished.

It's important that you do all three. I know the last item there can be a bit of a wiggle - sometimes you really don't know how long it will take to achieve a specific goal, but put a date down anyway - even if it's 5 years from now or 10 months from now. This helps provide order in your mind as to what really is your priority, and what you have there on the back burner that you'll be moving to next once the goal is achieved.

One note: It’s easy to put a long timeline on a goal that you don’t know how to accomplish or might be a bit afraid to tackle. If you succumb to this tactic, you’re going to be pushing that goal back every single time you look at your list. When you set your deadlines, ask yourself, “If I had all the pieces in place to make this happen, how soon would I want this goal completely fulfilled? Then write down THAT date. I’m serious.

As you’re reminded in the movie, “The Secret,” and as I’ve told you many times in this blog – it’s not your job to determine exactly how a specific dream is going to be accomplished. It’s your job to have passion for it and want it badly enough that you think on it every day and apply action to it every day – no matter how small that action might seem. Start moving in the circles … start seeking out the people who have the pieces to what you need to get this thing accomplished.

So, that’s what I consider a Goal.

Affirmations are positive, present-minded statements you create for yourself that you say out loud, memorize eventually (one would hope) and write on a daily basis (daily affirmation writing is a phenomenally fast track to moving your dreams into reality, I assure you.)

Affirmations don’t necessarily have to be focused on the goal list you’ve created, but you’re going to find that they’re quite similar in nature as what you’re focusing on daily in your life should quite likely be your Goal, don’t you think?!

Choose a goal. Here's how your Affirmation will be different . . .
So, say your GOAL is to lose 10 pounds by June 1st.
Your AFFIRMATION does not state this. You want your affirmation to be a visualization of what you are becoming … what you’re looking like … how you’re feeling … the benefits you’re experiencing … once that 10 pounds has lifted from your body. So, an Affirmation might be:

I am so happy and grateful now that my body is at its perfect weight. I’m much more lean and my clothes fit loosely on me now. I’m feeling marvelously healthy, vibrant and energetic with this trimmer me.

Say your GOAL is to bring in more clients (and income). Write an AFFIRMATION about the enjoyment of PRESENTLY working with these people, and list some of the great things they bring to the table:

I am so happy and grateful that clients who specifically need our product are suddenly coming in the door from all avenues and venues. They are delighted they’ve found us. They recognize that we provide exactly what they’re looking for and yet we still delight them with added benefits they never expected. They pay us in full – with a smile – and are always recommending us to their friends and peers.

Are you beginning to see the difference? Now, your affirmations don’t have to be this long. And, they can be 10 times longer. I have a single affirmation that takes an entire page every day I write it (It’s an important one!)

But there are specific points you want to keep in mind when you write your Affirmation:

1. Bob Proctor recommends you start each affirmation with “I’m so happy and grateful now that” as it states gratitude immediately and also incorporates the present tense, NOW.

2. Always write in present tense.

3. Never, never use negative words. Don’t write that you’re losing 10 pounds. Write that you’re lean and trim. Don’t write that your clients never fight you about payments. Write that they pay you in advance, in full.

4. Write the affirmation on a small card and put that card somewhere in the path of your daily routine of life so that you’re constantly coming across it. Put it in your trouser pocket each morning. Tape it to your car’s radio station so that you see it every time you look down. Tape it in an obvious spot on your computer monitor or on your coffee pot … anywhere that you’ll see it or even touch it several times through the course of the day.

5. Then, set aside just 10 or 15 minutes each morning (or evening, or both) and write your primary affirmations in a journal. You don’t want 15 affirmations – for one thing, you can’t focus on all that number. You only want a handful at MOST. If you bring your primary affirmations down to just one or two, you’re doing even better. I know you’re impatient, but Universe will work with you more quickly and efficiently when you’re able to remain focused on a single purpose.

After you write each one, stop and read it. You don’t want this to be a “writing lines punishment” kind of thing like our elementary school teacher might have assigned you for troublemaking. This is your life! This is your passion! Shift it up, change it up – when you have a couple extra minutes, write different scenarios around that affirmation. As an example, I have a Client Affirmation that I write every day. Underneath it, I’ll write scenarios around that Client Affirmation that further draws the big picture of my perfect client.

6. Say your Affirmations out loud. Somehow this just sort of solidifies its importance to you – and assures God and all his creatures working in your behalf, too.

7. Then – and most importantly – believe that it is already done. How’s that for a closing thought?

Now, you've probably noticed that the Affirmation process is a bit lengthier and involved than simply writing your Goal down at the beginning of a year and shoving it in a desk drawer somewhere. Yes, it does involve more work and focus. I guess the question to ask yourself is this - just how bad do you want it?

Marketing Anywhere: The Armitage Advantage - Identifying The Need

2007-03-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how many of clients come to me, having spent a bazillion dollars on something that just isn't working. Now, in most cases, this is because this spectacular product or service hasn't been marketed properly. In some cases, though, the client THOUGHT he had the next best idea to sliced bread and … well … his consumer didn't seem to be convinced.

Before we get too heavily involved in the marketing of this amazing product or service, it's absolutely imperative that we hone in on two primary, elementary, foundational, never-forgiving, always bluntly honest keys:

1. You've got to indentify the need.
2. You've got to identify the primary niche.

Most marketing out there is all about talking about the product. All well and good - you do have to explain your product. But most marketing STOPS there. The prospect is left with a bunch of features … and features may be nice, but they aren't the selling points that make the prospect buy. BENEFITS make the prospect buy. What this feature DOES for the prospect makes this prospect buy.

An orange juicer might have 17 speeds, but just what do all those speeds do for the buyer? Are they really necessary? If they are, explain why. And why, exactly, does the average consumer really NEED an orange juicer in the first place? Why is my life greatly enhanced because I've bought an orange juicer? More specifically – why should I buy THIS orange juicer - how will it benefit my life MORE than that other orange juicer over there?

It doesn't matter if you're a swim coach, a plumbing repairman, a software engineer or a stay-at-home Mom who's developed a great knack for hand-knit scarves. The same questions bear true across the board. Every once in a while, you're going to be the first person in the WORLD with this product. But in most cases, there's at least one other person out there offering something very similar to what you offer.

By honing in on and identifying your prospect's greatest NEED, you've begun to put together the concepts and sentences that build your case in marketing your product.

Sit down for a few minutes and ask yourself this:

1. What do my customers and prospects lack in their lives that I can provide?

2. When my prospects first come to me, what are the first questions they ask or statements they make. (If you listen more carefully, you'll have your first marketing ad laid out for you.)

3. If my "competition" is providing this product, is it … selling? Is anyone interested? If it doesn't look as if enough people are interested, don't just shrug it off as not enough money or not enough marketing prowess. Really look at this. Is this something the buying world needs?

3. What about the product or service I provide is singularly unique in comparison to anyone else's product or service out there?

Once you have these questions answered in full, it's time to move to the next step in identifying the need. That future blog is coming 'round the corner!

Creative Bent: When Your Goal Has Been Thwarted …

2007-03-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

One of the larger lessons of my life came along this weekend.

Back on December 17, 2006, I wrote out a single goal on a goal card - a practice Bob Proctor encouraged me to do years ago. I taped the card to my computer monitor and have since seen it and read it hundreds of times a day. It's a big, big goal that involved work with a certain entity to achieve my specific financial goal.

On March 1st, just a week or so ago, it looked like it had all fallen apart. What I'd devoted the majority of my hours to every day (and night and, actually, even while sleeping because I dreamed about it all the time) … looked like it had just poofed its way out of existence.

That weekend, as I thought about this goal's denouement, I realized that I'd fallen into situations over the last several months where it seemed more of a push against a brick wall than an even, steady, calm unfolding. Universal Law teaches all of us that the flow is the way to go. When a small trickle of a stream begins to find its way down from the top of a mountain, it won't stop to bulldoze its way through a clump of trees - it will instead find the easiest course around those trees to continue its destined trek. As it gains momentum, it will more easily break through obstacles in its path, but that's because it's NOW rolling at a momentum that ALLOWS that stream to do so. When the stream comes up against huge rock boulders, however, you'll find that it will still find its way over, around or under instead of stopping to bulldoze through the granite.

You see, the stream has a goal: roll to the ocean. It will find its way there by taking the easiest route, even joining with other tributaries, to ensure its arrival.

I made a commitment that weekend to really stay conscious in my new movements forward of what felt like force vs. what felt like solid, calm power. The path of least resistance isn't a wimpy way to go – when you're on path and on purpose, it's the ONLY way to go.

That same weekend, I sat here at my desk looking at my goal card taped here on my monitor. All that work down the drain, I thought. As I reached to tear it off, a thought occurred to me. … … In the movie The Secret, one of the teachers talks about the fact that we have this big goal – we're asking for it, we're acting on it and nothing seems to be happening. And, just as that goal is about to push into our reality, we say, "This stuff doesn't WORK!!" And, the Universe acting on command, simply says, "Your wish is my command” … and the goal recedes."

I looked at that goal card for a good long while. Finally, I concluded that it might very well apply – I could actually work with this entity’s materials and I could still achieve the financial goal – I just might not be working DIRECTLY with that entity.

So the goal card remained. I figured I’d be open minded and see what happened if I just allowed all the forces out there to continue to work toward this end in my behalf. I went on with my new directions and business (because you never want to stop acting on your goals) and reminded myself daily to keep an open perspective to another angle showing itself.

And this Sunday – just one week later – the answer came.

Only THIS time, the answer came in a spirit that flowed. What I had been struggling with (or against) while working on this goal the last few months – all that struggle was gone. A new entity had entered the picture with this same goal … but with an entirely different perspective that immediately rewarded and supported me.

The lesson here for all of us is this:
Just when you think your big goal might be thwarted, stop stop stop that line of thinking. Continue trusting. Consciously tell yourself that you’re going to keep your mind open to new angles and new solutions as they come in – because they will be coming in.

If you’re absolutely committed to this goal, a way will be shown to you. I don't doubt this. You shouldn't either.

Marketing Anywhere - The Armitage Advantage Revealed - Your First Step

2007-03-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

All right folks. It's time to get down to business on making you more business. Though I'll be throwing in other snippets around marketing and such in this blog, you can look for "The Armitage Advantage Revealed" as your key phrase to this new series where we'll be building a never-fail marketing strategy for your product or service.

I don't care what it is you're selling, tryin to sell or wanting to sell. I don't care how long it's been around. I don't care if it's just been a figment of an idea in your mind. When you follow the Armitage Strategic Marketing Advantage, you cannot lose.

Before you lift a pencil to start creating or improving all the marketing stuff around your product or service, we've got to first check in on your head. That's right. We need to clear some presuppositions you might have going on in there.

This is absolutey vital to the ground floor of your success. Please don't skip this exercise - it will reveal a lot about what you've been thinking up to this point.

See, here's the thing –
When clients come to me for consulting, I tend to hear phrases like …

“It’s overwhelming”
“Training staff differently would overload me.”
“I haven’t had the time”
“I’m maxed out financially”
“We don’t have the money”
“I have lost . . . ”
“Feel like I’m on a treadmill”
“I don’t know where to begin.”
“I’ve heard from so many experts, I’m completely confused.”
“Don’t have any joy any more in what I do”
“We’ve put enormous time and money into other ventures …”

I know it’s not easy starting a new business or a new direction. I know it’s not easy feeling mired in the middle of a business that seems to be sucking your bank account and personal energy dry.
That’s why, starting right now, we’re going to change all that!

Most of us aren’t even conscious of the negative or halting thoughts that burble up the surface. We put it in writing; we say it in words – sometimes repeatedly to friends, spouses, peers and fellow workers – without even recognizing that whatever we’re THINKING, we’re CREATING. If we’re thinking negatively about a situation, it doesn’t just keep showing up negatively – it shows ups SPECIFICALLY negatively, based on what we’re SPECIFICALLY thinking and talking about.

Give yourself a few minutes to think. Then on a pad of paper, write down the negative thoughts that come up when you think about your business, your bank account, the risks, the risks you’ve taken, the failures, the whatever it is that’s in your head.

Now, we’re going to employ one of our Universal Laws – the Law of Polarity.
Everything in the universe has its opposite. As Bob Proctor has reminded me a million times, there would be no inside without an outside. Every up has a down. Every black has a white, and every shade in between has its direct opposite shade.

Draw a straight line on a piece of paper. On the far left, write a minus sign (-) and on the far right, make a plus sign (+). In the middle of the line, write the word "IS"

Permit the line to represent how you THINK about the business, enterprise, practice, product or service you represent. Realize that every situation within that business just IS. You make it negative or positive by virtue of how you choose to think about the situation. When you look at the situation in a negative way, you can change your perspective and look at it from the opposite viewpoint and find – holy crow – it’s got an equal positive. Or, even more simply, you can CREATE a positive viewpoint on which to focus by beginning with the writing of statements that are in direct opposition to the negative statements you have written above.

Sound ridiculously elementary? It is. I’m going to ask you to do it anyway. Write out the exact opposite to any and all negative statements you wrote on that pad of paper, and you will discover an interesting thing – it rests much easier on your soul.
As you write these statements, make them full sentences and in present tense.

That's it.
Now, if you really want to make the most effective progress for yourself and your business, I suggest you rewrite these same full sentences … every single day … for 20 days. Just give yourself 15 minutes in the morning before anything else begins, and write them thoroughly - once only is fine.

It doesn't have to make a lot of logical sense, this 20-day thing. Just trust the process. You'll find an interesting discovery along the way …

Marketing Anywhere: How to Increase Sales of One Item by 300%

2007-03-09T13:02:00.000-08:00

OK, here's an easy one for a Friday read:

Whenever you're ready to offer special pricing on a product or service via an email blast, you want to follow two basic rules of thumb to ensure it rocks and rolls.

1. Set a deadline for the sale, and make it less than 10 days. Prominently assure them, from your subject line … to your subhead … to one sentence within your copy … and to a last sentence at the end of your copy or in a P.S. that this is your sale deadline.

2. Twenty-four hours before the sale deadline hits, send out your second email blast – your reminder. This one is shorter and sweeter and to the point - basically, "You've got 24 hours or you're out of luck."

You'll find that the vast majority will buy on the 2nd eblast. Yesterday, I blasted the second of two DRIPS to a client's prospect database. On the first email blast about a week ago, we had about 42 buyers. On the second reminder, a marauding horde appeared. When the dust had cleared, we'd sold to more than 320 buyers.

It works every time.

Marketing Anywhere: Another Angle on Joint Venture Commissions

2007-03-07T11:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in a consulting meeting with a client, we began discussing strategy around a joint venture (JV) she was beginning to set up. I was able to shift her course so that she'd be gainfully rewarded for the work she put into the relationship.

The focus here is on putting yourself in the potential JV's shoes.

In her situation, she was going to ask a JV (let's call him Bill) to send out an endorsement to his list, sending people to her free teleseminar through his own affiliate link. If they signed into the call and subsequently enrolled in the course she was offering, she was going to pay a decent commission to Bill for each enrollee.

All well and good, but from Bill's perspective, it's not a guarantee of income. He might send 30 people or 300 people to my client, but if my client only closes 4 into her larger program, he's not made much income and has basically "given" those names to my client.

How can we make this a bigger win for Bill?

In past situations, I've personally set up another payment plan that works surprisingly well. Rather than leave it to my sales ability to close a client, I tell my potential JV that I'll pay him for all the incoming leads. Of course, this is a lesser amount than, say, a commission of $100 or $200 on a product/service I sell on the backend, but it assures him of immediate reward for introducing that client base to me.

In most cases, I'll set the pace anywhere between $4 and $8 per lead. Now, this might seem like quite a bit to pay for a lead, but I find that my carefully-chosen JVs are the niche markets that are inclined toward my product already, so in a sense they're already "pre-qualified" to participate with me. In my estimation, this is worth the higher lead payout than doing a Pay-Per-Click kind of thing with Google or Yahoo - but only when I know that the JV has the niche audience I'm looking for.

Consider this same tactic as you put your own JVs together out there. Let me know about your results!

Marketing Anywhere: Start a Joint Venture Today!

2007-03-06T07:41:00.000-08:00

The other day I was on the phone with Harrison Klein, the founder of True Millionaire Stories. He and I were doing a preview call about joint ventures. To a lot of people, joint ventures sound like monstrous deals with boardrooms full of lawyers and COOs. Not so.

A joint venture is simply this – You have something, but you’re missing something. And someone else has that something!

There. See how easy that is? Joint ventures are all about what you have that someone else doesn't have, and vice-versa.

You might have a great list of people who buy electronic gadgets – but you have no electronic gadget to sell. Someone else does.

You might have all kinds of knowledge in your head about teaching a better golf swing but you don’t have a writer or a videographer to help you create a book or a DVD. Someone else has that writing skill or video talent.

You might have a great new restaurant in town, but you haven’t established ties yet with the community you want to attract to that restaurant. Someone else has that community list.

You might be really well known in your primary niche of customers but now you want to expand – across the Internet, or across the country … Someone else can help you do that.

So, the key to starting a joint venture is figuring out what you have and what you don’t have – not a very complicated science.

And – one key point – this isn’t just about one specific activity that YOU want to do – it’s about recognizing what you have that can be offered to others. There are many assets you or your company has that you’re probably not taking advantage of - what you might think is unimportant or minor could actually be the key element someone else out there is looking for.

So, sit down and outline all your assets. Ask friends, associates or peers to help you define some of these assets – often they’ll see something that you offer that you hadn’t even considered. Then, start compiling a list of the niche markets or audiences that would be interested in what you have to offer. From that list of niche markets, your contacts will begin to appear.

I usually start my joint venture thinking in this regard first: What product or service or way of doing business or systematic back-end or programming solution do I have that I can offer others? What do I have to offer or GIVE first to help others create a better solution or fill a need?

Somehow, going through that practice first makes it much easier to start and complete the next list - what I NEED from others in order to make my product or service fly.

Give it a try. You can participate in - literally - hundreds of joint ventures in a single year, all of which exponentialize your name, your brand, your audience and your buying clientele. It all starts with defining your list of assets.

Whiz-Bang Announcement: I'm Back!

2007-03-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

I know. You thought I'd fallen off the edge of the planet. Well, the last few months it's certainly FELT that way. I've been imbedded in the marketing set-up and direction of a monster project that entailed a global launch. And now – I'm BACK! And I'm back with more knowledge and resources for you! In the weeks ahead, I'll be laying out the plan I put in place, from genesis to pre-launch deadlines on this particular project so that you can apply any of the same principles to your own product or service strategy.

Remember, marketing is easy when you create a systematic strategy that leverages several simple sciences together. Much of my own strategy over the years has morphed from Yahoo! Marketing Master Seth Godin's book, Unleashing the Idea Virus. His "sneezer" theory is a wunderkind whose basic foundations have served me time and time again with various clients.
To order his book, just click here:

Marketing Anywhere

2007-02-12T12:19:00.000-08:00

Q: Diane, what are the best and most reasonably priced email marketing systems on the market?

A: Constant Contact is an easy one for up-and-comers - it's inexpensive and allows quote a bit of customization. It also takes care of unsubscribes and reports any "SPAM" issues to you. The only issue I've run into with Constant Contact is that SPAM issue - if you send to a list that might report you as spam abuse, Constant Contact allows only about 5 or 6 of those initially and then they'll red flag you. Not a pretty picture. So, if you're confident of your lists, Constant Contact is a great way to go.

If you think you have to roust your list first and remind everyone there about who you are, send them an eblast OUTSIDE of Constant Contact and ask them to sign in to a form you have on your site to receive more emails from you (offer them a bonus, a freebie, a free consultation, whatever you think is big enough to make them drop what they're doing, click the link and sign in.) THEN you have a decent opt in list to which you can continue to market to.

Another you might consider – if you're into bigger mailings, I've heard great things about Silent Blast. They cover a wide range of clients and lists, providing multiple "drip" campaigns, auto responders and what-have-you to your lists in your behalf.

Marketing Anywhere: The First 3 Questions When Fixing Your Web Site

2006-09-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

Q: Diane, we have a site that stinks. What's the first thing we need to do to get it fixed with you?

A: Well, if you're really talking first things first, there are a few questions I always ask my prospects:
1. What's your relationship with your current programmers? I can help you re-write and re-navigate your web site, but that's just half of the total picture. I then act as middleman with the programmers of your site to get the new content and navigation loaded for highest marketing strategy. If you adore your programmers, and they work quickly for you when you have new items of change, then we'll keep your site there and I'll forge a relationship with them.

In most cases, though, you don't have a great web site because you weren't sure how to create it and they weren't very forthcoming with marketing tips and advice to make it better. This doesn't make them bad programmers - simply, most programmers know as much about higher-level marketing web sites as WE do about programming HTML code! In other cases, existing programmers can be very unresponsive or slow to do your work. This, unfortunately, is more common in the programming industry than we'd like to admit.

When your relationship with your programmers (who are hosting your site) is just an existing one - not a lot of relationship there - then I recommend we move the site to any of the 4 programming teams I work with who have proven themselves repeatedly, hurling themselves through various hoops and requests for my clients. This also works to your advantage as I have an existing relationship with these 4 teams and they know my "schtick," so to speak - because a lot of programmers think I come from left field on some of the requests I ask for as we're intent on making you a MARKETING web site that really works!

2. Who has control of your domain name? If you're not sure who "owns" or controls your domain, go to http://www.networksolutions.com and click on the "WHO IS" button in their lower menu. Type in your own domain name and they'll tell you if you're registered as the owner (you'd better be), and who "hosts" your domain (this is usually your programmers or a larger entity like GoDaddy.com or NetworkSolutions.com).

When your site is re-fashioned, and if it's done with my programmers, we'll have to have the ability to transfer that domain to my programmers' servers OR we can ask the existing entity to "point" the domain to your site - sort of like a dog on a leash. Your domain name can be housed anywhere as long as it's "connected" in some fashion to your actual site. The smarter thing, I think, is to actually transfer the domain name so that it sits right there with your site, especially if your domain name is currently housed at programmers you might be leaving . . . sometimes they get less careful about protecting your domain name if you're no longer working with them.

While it might seem like we're putting the cart before the horse here, domain name "pointing" and "transfers" can be a surprising little can of worms. It's ALL fixable, but it's good to know where we stand from the beginning!

Last question:
3. Is your site a template site, or is it "home grown," meaning it's been designed by you with a set of programmers? Template sites are more limited in their ability to be changed drastically and we're confined to working with the programmers who have provided that template to you. When I have people come to me with template sites, I normally resort to doing text changes, removing extraneous buttons, changing headlines, etc., but a complete revamp in marketing strategy is just not possible - it's like trying to park a semi-truck in your suburban garage - you might get it to fight, but I'm betting something gets broken in the process!

Once I have these three answers from you, then we can actually move forward on what our options truly are to get you fixed up! And THAT'S when the fun begins!

If you'd like me to take a look at your site and give initial opinons, I offer Six Quick Fixes for just $89. Check it out at: http://www.armitageinc.com/shopping_webreviews.asp

Creative Bent: A Tale of a Peregrine Falcon

2006-08-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

As you probably know by now, I live on the true edge - a large rock that sits on the ocean with Laguna Beach stretches of sand to either side. I was just telling someone yesterday morning that I'm completely absorbed in living here as my view changes here on the edge about every 3 minutes. And you wouldn't BELIEVE what I saw yesterday afternoon.

I have phenomenal thermals here on this rock, and I live in the penthouse, which actually sits above the rest of the complex. So the edge of my living room and side deck is right in the lift-off and flight pattern for every wheeling and diving bird you can imagine. As I was working away at my desk yesterday, a unique bird caught my eye. He was perched on the only jutting edge of the roof about 10 yards from me, just studying the lay of the ocean below him.

At first I thought he was a kestrel, a member of the falcon family (kissing cousins to the hawks), which I'll see now and then amidst my more common feathered visitors. He had the gray and black body markings, but was styling black sideburns and a black cap on his white head, which I'd not noticed in kestrels before. But when he suddenly took off and plunged toward the ocean, I knew we had a different bird of a very different nature. From tip to tip, his wing span was well over 40 inches and his belly had all the gray and white strappings of a Peregrine Falcon.

For about half an hour, he was his own hang glider in a small thermal that swept him toward the ocean, over the unsuspecting heads of the tourists on the sand to my right, and then up, up, up to swoop effortlessly toward me as I stood there on my deck, giggling at his approach. For a few seconds, he and I would be square on, looking each other in the eye, then within about five feet of my head, he'd tweak one of those enormous wings and swoop out toward the ocean, a rustle of feathers and push of sweet breeze as he meandered by. After his fourth repeat – swoop toward the ocean, beeline toward Diane's head – it occurred to me that a camera might come in handy, but he was moving as such velocity and speed that I was only able to pull off one embarrassingly blurry shot. I gave up the endeavor in favor of standing there, mesmerized and grinning.

With one final beat, he circled above my own roofline and headed south across the ocean. I spent the next half hour studying bird sites and jumping at every incoming bird shadow with happy expectation. He wasn't to appear again. But his lesson stuck with me.

The Native American Indians believe that when certain animals or birds appear in your life, they're coming with a lesson or reminder. When a falcon makes his guest appearance, he's reminding you that you have the ability to fly much faster and more powerfully than you already are. At the same time, the falcon is one of nature's rare birds that can be going Mach 10 one moment, then stop dead still and hover effortlessly the next before plunging into action with new direction and purpose.

In other words, the falcon is teaching us (me and, by extension, also you, because he knew I'd be writing about him) that it's not just about speed – it's about flying with intention, recognizing opportunties and acting on those opportunities at only the correct moment. It's not just about speed … it's about the accuracy of your action.

What an interesting week we have ahead of us …

Creative Bent: An Assignment

2006-08-14T22:54:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I was doing the usual busy-ness around the house with the TV burbling in the background. There, in the middle of the day, the movie Pay It Forward came on and, though I've seen it a couple times already, it slowly reeled me in. Finally, I just sat down with the realization and recognition that it had shown its face on this day for me for a reason.

There are some phenomenal lessons to take away from this movie. First, the Social Studies assignment given to the 7th grade class is one each of us should pick up and carry this week in our own lives: Think of an idea that will change the world and put it into action.

The lead boy, Trevor, decides that he'll do something out of the ordinary for just three people, then ask those people to pay it forward by doing the same for another three people, then asking them to carry the same theory forward. When he tells the class of his plan, the teacher comments that his is an extreme act of faith and belief in the goodness of people, and that he's attempting to truly interact with his world.

Now, how long has it been since each of us trusted at that same level and did the same in our own worlds?

At first, the boy doesn't think his experiment is working. Those he first tries to help are resistant. They're reacting out of fear, which is yet another fact we need to recognize when we make a concerted effort to make a serious and dramatic change in our world. As the 7th grade boy so astutely points out, "You'll know it's the action you're supposed to take when it's hard."

So many of us think of the idea. In fact, it's amazing how great those ideas are when we're tuned into Spirit. We're meant to be the conduits and act on those ideas as they flood our Mind. It shouldn't surprise any one of us when the idea comes along.

I'd suspect you've already HAD the idea stewing there for a while and . . . like me . . . just haven't fully acted on it . . . because THAT part is scary. Or overwhelming. Or too big, you think, to put into motion. Or maybe it's an idea that someone bigger than you with more power or clout will eventually think of, too, right? So you figure you'll just let it lie dormant in YOUR head because someone else will surely put it into action bigger and better than you ever could.

Wrong. The idea was given to YOU. And, as Bob Proctor has reminded me countless times, you won't think of an idea unless you're able to bring it to fruition. So, let's get those ideas rolling, folks. Lord knows, there's plenty of change we need to be making out there.

And, in the meantime, if you're really waiting for that idea to come along, adapt the idea our 7th grader did in the movie, Pay It Forward. Do something you wouldn't normally do for just 3 people out there. Something big. Then, ask them to do the same for another 3 people. While you're waiting for your big idea to change the world, you'll be significantly changing it … already.

Creative Bent: Got Alligators?

2006-08-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

In just this last week, I've seen an inordinate number of clients and friends struggling mightily with something that just isn't working right in their business or personal lives. Or, maybe I'm finally recognizing it in others as I've been dealing with a few of those same issues myself over the summer.

In other words, you have alligators in your swamp.

Every morning, you get up and the biting, thrashing problem is still there. Some days you might go at it with all the resolve and muster of a professional tackle for the Denver Broncos. Other days, you'd rather lay in bed and hope it doesn't notice you, that lump you've become there. You might even ramp up the effort for a full week, but the extra work doesn't seem to be clearing the 'gators.

You might complain about it to friends and family - nothing changes other than the fact that your friends and family grow weary of hearing about it. You might complain to a higher authority - still nothing really changes. You might find a fix and think you've gotten it solved but, sooner than later, the creature is back in your backyard, sunning himself with that toothy grin.

As an old friend used to tell me, "Stop fighting the alligators. Drain the swamp."

Gee. WHAT a novel idea.
Take a moment and stop beating at the problem. Put that broom down. Now, think. Really think: It's time to reframe your ideas for solution. It's time to figure out how to get to the drain of that swamp.

I just heard Bob Proctor give a short presentation on Price Pritchett's book, You2. The combo of these two masters - Bob's further interpretation of what I consider Price's best book - just can't be beat. In his presentation, Bob noted that it's your paradigm that's controlling your current result. You've got to shift the paradigm - tackle the root of your thinking and THIS TIME radically shift away from that root in a completely different direction … or you're just going to keep getting the same results.

As Price noted, there's an obvious move you can make. It's already there, hanging out, waiting for you to discover it. Just sit back and think … if you had in your hands the most energy-efficient, time-saving, moving-on solution to the alligator infestation, what would it be?

Now, I know, I know what you're thinking . . . sure, there's a drain but it's at the bottom of a SWAMP of ALLIGATORS. That's an impossible solution!

No. The impossible solution would be no drain.
And every problem has a drain.

You might have to think creatively to pull the plug, that's for sure. But the plug IS there.

Stop beating at the problem around you. Find a way to the plug.

Marketing Anywhere: Direct Response works in ANY industry

2006-05-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

When people are first introduced to the idea of direct-response advertising vs. the more "mainstream" concept of image advertising, they argue with me. It might work for my real estate industry, or it might work for my motivational speakers and authors, but it is never, ever used in THEIR industry so, by extension, it doesn't WORK in their industry.

That's OK - when I was first introduced to the same concept, I was highly skeptical, too.

A few weeks ago, I put it to the test with something you'd never imagine – my own spin class at my Laguna Beach fitness club. Spin is a strange aerobic and anaerobic deal. People crowd into a room filled with stationary bikes and then proceed to follow an instructor through a series of ups and downs to music. It ain't easy, but it is addicting – especially when you see results happen as quickly as they do.

I decided to start advertising my class in the local newspaper. When I delivered the first ad, the ad agent and two of her superiors argued with me. This was TOO MUCH COPY. There weren't enough pictures. I didn't even have a fancy logo. I was crazy to be paying them this kind of weekly money. At the same time, they assured me that I'd need to run for several weeks, based on reports they'd received from other fitness ad entities saying that it took several weeks to even generate noticeable interest. I shrugged and nicely told them I thought I'd give it a try anyway.

From the first day the ad was published, I've had a veritable stream of incoming new prospects giving the class a try. This astounds everyone but me. But, see, I've just put the basics of direct-response into the ad - Jay Abraham calls it the AIDA method.

1. A-Get their Attention. What's the biggest benefit they'll receive from you? In my case, they burn between 700 and 1,200 calories in a single hour. That's greatest benefit should always be your headline. Mine said:

1 spin class with Diane = 700 calories burned

2. Next, give them your invitation right up front - In the subhead, I told them to join my class at this time, on these days.

3. I - Increase their interest. Next, you tackle their spoken and UNSPOKEN objections about participating in spin class. This is empathy. Put yourself in their shoes. Why are they reluctant to try your product or service? In two short sentences, I told them that they'll vastly increase cardio and burn off winter fat, that they'll see improvements in this short amount of time. Then, I assure them that spin is adaptable to any level, even beginners (most are intimidated watching it and, thus, don't even venture into the room)

4. D - Then, the desire falls into play. How do you entice their interest even further? Most spin attendees will faithfully attend one instructor's class because of the instructor's personality and song choices. Good music makes the time in a spin class pass more quickly and even makes it a little bit fun. I figure they'll get enough of my personality when they get there, so I focused on telling them which musical artists are "on deck" for the following week. Each week, that's the only section that changes. I figure if they see at least two or three artists they like, they're more tempted to try it.

Now, I'm taking chances here - if they don't like the artists I list, they're not going to come to my class. But the fact is, they'd be miserable if they WERE in my class listening to music that appalled them. I firmly believe that the more you "nichefy" toward the audience you want to have, the faster that very audience gathers 'round you. Don't be hesitant to tell them who or what you represent.

In the last few weeks, I've had about 40 people bring up my ad - people at the coffee shop, the grocery store, even a Realtor client I have who operates out of neighboring Newport Beach, but picked up our Laguna paper a week ago and guessed it was me. To the last person, each has ONLY mentioned my song list and asked for more details, even offering a few of their favorites that they think I'll like. They're hooked.

5. A - Tell them how to take action. I close the ad with another invitation, then list cross streets nearest the club, parking access and the club's phone number. Don't ever assume they know you want them there or that they know how to find you or get there. Lay it all out in simple directives; make the act of taking action an easy one.