PPC – PayPerClick – is also referred to as Sponsored Advertising in the search engines. Any time you search for something in Google, Yahoo or Bing, you’ll see that Sponsored Advertising usually sits at the top and runs along the right-hand column of the page in a colored box.

These PPC advertisers are creating their own ads and using them in automated rotation. Every time a prospect clicks a specific ad, the engine (Google for instance) deducts a few cents from that advertiser’s pre-set budget. Most clicks might cost 5 – 10 cents based on the keyword the advertiser is using in that ad, but some clicks in more competitive spaces might cost $2 or $3 based on the keyword.

In our website marketing strategy at Armitage, Inc., we like to use PPC for brand new sites, especially if they need to get up and rocking for a specific purpose quickly. While we immediately start SEO action as well, it takes longer for a site to organically crawl its way over millions of competitors to Page One visibility, whereas PPC can have a brand new site up in advertising rotation and visibility in just a matter of hours. We, however, never use PPC for more than a month or two – it’s too expensive an endeavor when it produces no long-term traction for our clients.

The problem with PPC, as I explained to my dear reader, is this:   

PPC will keep you visible as an advertiser as long as you’re advertising. Once your budget is depleted for that week or month, the engine (i.e., Google)  just drops you like a rock, back to the original depths from which you came.

SEO Off Page work is money much better spent. Yes, it takes anywhere from 3-8 months to see your site crawl up through the mire of millions of sites to settle in on Page One, but you STAY positioned well once you’re there. (Well, there’s a little jostling, depending on how competitive your neighbors are, but you’re never going to drop to Page 78 again (let alone Page 7).

From that point, you can either choose to maintain or increase your budget to hit #1 placement above some very serious competitors of yours, or lessen your budget to secure your positioning and expand out on a broader keyword base.

It doesn’t make sense to do SEO OFF Page, though, without SEO ON Page work done first. This, of course, is just a one-time fix that might involve some content tweaking based on our SEO research and the keywords you really want to target. The primary work, though, involves the rather meticulous writing of all the meta tags, URLs and page titles for your “money pages” – the pages you really want to drive your audience to.

Once that’s done, the SEO Off Page picks up the baton and runs for the finish line, tying your site into much greater traffic and high-level visibility in the search engines using those same keywords.

Armitage, Inc. has created substantial – often very phenomenal – results in our SEO On Page and SEO Off Page efforts. We’ll be happy to review your site for SEO On page and SEO Off page needs. Just Contact Us or call directly at (949) 637-1995 (PST).

The feeder is suctioned to my front window, just a few feet from my desk, and about 40 feet above the ocean below. Of course, being “high and dry” up here above the ocean, there isn’t a flower in sight. Anyone who heard I was putting up a hummingbird feeder thought I was being ridiculously optimistic. Why in the world would a hummingbird make a trek all the way up here when there’s an abundance of flowering plants in easier locations?

Well, the way I see it, someone’s got to fill the need between flower visits. And, just like a gas station in the middle of the desert, the darling birds flock to me as if I’m the only flower in town. And as they patiently hover, waiting for the first in line to drink his or her fill, I find these birds offer a great reminder in business:

Remember, one of the biggest mistakes you can make in business is to make the assumption that someone else is already taking care of the need out there. Too many times at Armitage, Inc. in my website marketing or Internet marketing strategy calls, I hear clients tell me “that’s already being done,” or “all my competitors are doing that.”

Really? Are they filling the need exactly as YOU can fill the need? And if they really are “already doing it,” how can you improve upon what they’re doing? What can you offer by way of …

• Risk reversal – what portion of your service or product can you absolutely guarantee?
• Unique benefit that your peers either don’t offer or don’t talk about offering? (Remember, he who speaks first wins).
• Cross-selling to introduce your client to a new product or service that enhances the product or service they’re already buying?
• Or simply a different angle of approach that provides even greater benefit to your incoming client?

They’re not thinking big enough.

They’re thinking of coaching 8 people a month or 20 people a month. They might be planning to coach these people individually or in a group setting, and if they’re thinking of groups, they might be planning to coach 2 or 3 groups in a single month.

Sounds all well and good until you start to put the logistics to paper. Over the years of developing website marketing, and Internet strategy, I’ve also worked with my team here at Armitage, Inc., to develop leveraged business plans, curriculum creation, publishing empires and, yes, the creation and delivery of many coaching programs. And here’s the primary truism that runs through just about every coaching program I’ve worked in – even in Bob Proctor’s 13-month coaching program … we repeatedly found that we weren’t thinking big enough! We never initially considered that as many as 1,000 people would be in Bob’s coaching program on a monthly basis. So, as we added a new “chapter” of people to the mix every 2 months, we had to start looking at what we were really doing: exhausting Bob in WAY too many phone calls with individuals and groups!

When you’re putting a coaching program together for yourself, it’s very important that you think with the MUCH LARGER END in MIND.

What would happen if you promised your coaching clients that you would be on the phone with EACH of them, twice a month, for an hour each time … and then discovered that you had 100 clients sign up in a single month?

You’d be so caged to the phone that you wouldn’t even be able to eat.

What if you decided to do a 6-month program of sequential curriculum (meaning they can’t get to this module until they’ve completed this one first), and had 15 clients sign up just 26 days after you began your 6-month program? Would you make them wait 5 more months before they can begin? Of course not. In fact, after putting many, many coaching programs together, I’ve found you can’t make a coaching client wait more than 4 weeks or they’ll lose interest, momentum and heart.

What if you promised unlimited email access to you and guaranteed turnaround of responses in 24 hours for all your coaching clients? Not a bad plan, very proactive on your end. But, suppose that over the course of the next 5 months, you have 6,000 clients dive into your coaching program. Then. … it’s a VERY bad plan!

… All right. I know what you’re thinking!

You’re thinking, “Gosh, that would be a great problem to have, especially as I don’t even have a single coaching client right now.”

Well, trust me. If you create the right website, have an experienced SEO team in place, and start getting the word out about the results you’re helping people create, you’re going to have a big problem!

And remember, when you’re changing websites and membership platforms with “A New Coaching Plan,” it’s not quite as easy as simply erasing something from a chalkboard and writing something new. Every time you change your coaching program and/or your curriculum delivery, you might be creating hundreds to thousands of dollars of redesign and programming.

Think with the end in mind. If you can’t find it in yourself to think REALLY big, please at least do me this favor: Just triple the numbers you ARE thinking about and begin designing from there!

Where to start?

Bottom line, it really all starts with designing your curriculum for the kind of delivery you wish to have, based on how much time you personally want to be “in” the business of coaching.

If you need help with any portion of the strategy, design, curriculum completion or delivery systems for your coaching program, consider a short-term consulting package with me. I’ll take you from A to Z, with every detail in between. I’ve been there, I’ve done it for many, many coaches (from mega to just beginning), and I can help you create the right coaching program for YOU.

This Saturday, I was in for a bit of a surprise.

I had taken a cut-across path to a rarely used fire trail on a very steep hill. Fortunately, my running path takes me DOWN it as I initially tried to go UP it a few times and decided that “down” was a MUCH better plan.

On Saturday, I had trotted about a third of the way down the hill when I spotted an animal about 30 yards ahead of me, heading down the same fire trail. On first glimpse of its tawny body, I thought I’d come across a fox. “Wow, look at that fox. I’ll run behind THAT!” I thought to myself as I continued to scamper down the hill.  Another 10 yards and I pulled up short – A fox? Not so much. This was a full-grown mountain lion.

At first, I was struck with awe. I watched her trotting ahead, oblivious to me, and couldn’t believe how majestic she looked. I have a love for big cats and, in fact, have “adopted” the two Bengal tigers Michael Jackson used to own before turning them over to a lovely big cat preserve – Shambala.org – just north of L.A. I visit “Sabu” and “Thriller,” and hang out with their lion, panther and cheetah friends, too.

Those tigers and big cats at Shambala, though, … they’re behind really tall, sturdy fences.

This was the SECOND thought I had as I stood there, plain as day, admiring this wild cat. It suddenly occurred to me that I was completely isolated on a very big hill with a path of little resistance between a mountain lion and myself.

I began to back up the hill, hoping I’d make progress without her noticing me. The hill was so steep, however, that it was terribly slow going. So, against everything I’ve learned about mountain lions/big cats, I turned with my back to her and started running (at a surprising Olympic sprinter’s pace) straight up this terribly steep hill. I figured I needed to get as much distance between the two of us as possible.

About 20 yards higher, I turned to see what the mountain lion was doing. She had stopped and turned so that I could see her entire body profile and, with tail twitching lazily (“Just like the movies,” my mindless mind chittered), she was watching me.

I put my hands high in the air to make myself look bigger, ha … she probably thought I was flagging her down … and turned around again to keep scrambling up the hill.

A second peek – she was still standing there, motionless except for that twitching tail. I finally reached the cut-across path that would set me on the fire trail back to the ranger station and tried another peek. This time, she was gone.

This gave me NO peace whatsoever.

Mountain lions can purportedly cover 40 feet in a single hop and NOW I was surrounded by high grass and shrubbery on the cut-across. I sent up a quick notice to my guardian angels and kept running.

Obviously, she and I didn’t meet again, or I likely wouldn’t be writing this to you from the comfort of my living room.

After reporting her  … (The rangers kept asking, “Are you sure you know the wildlife here? Are you sure it wasn’t a coyote? Maybe a bunny?”) … I thought of the book I love, Ted Andrews’ “Animal Speak.”

As a Native American Indian, Andrews provides an encyclopedia of birds and animals, and the lore and message each carries for you when they suddenly cross your path. These might be animals or birds you see fairly regularly, but in certain circumstances, they’re suddenly acting differently, drawing your attention to them.

Whenever my “pet Osprey” comes back to roost on my deck, or a hummingbird allows me to rescue it from entrapment in a skylight, or a coyote decides to just jump out of the bush to lope next to me, I figure Ted Andrews’ book will provide some entertaining food for thought. In most cases, though, the “message” smacks me right between the eyes.

Per Andrews, a mountain lion sighting (or cougar to the Indians) means this “If a cougar has shown up in your life, it is time to learn about and test your power. When cougars show up, understand that much of your trial has been worked through. Now it is time to assert. Know your power, believe in your power, and take action.”

“The cougar teaches decisiveness in the use of personal power. A cougar does not hesitate. The cougar teaches you how to bring out your power and fill your heart with it in a manner that will enable you to take charge of your life.”

All right. Fine. Another smack between the eyes for me.

I don’t need to fill you in on what I’ve been struggling with lately over the past few weeks, but I’ll just say for the record that there’s not another bird or animal in that book that could have carried a more fitting message my way.

Isn’t it amazing, though, how we can so mindlessly relinquish the awesome power that imbues each of us? These days, so many people are screaming that the sky is falling, and so many media talking heads are repeating the same grim “facts” that it’s very easy to get caught up in it. We simply forget ourselves; we forget that we are wonderfully made and fully alive with the ability to single-handedly change the course of our lives. As Rev. Michael Beckwith says, “We forget WHO we are and WHOSE we are.”

Bob Proctor always teaches that, in times like these, the LAST thing you want to do is pull back or retract. Whatever you might be putting off doing or starting. … whatever you’re procrastinating on or feeling uncomfortable about … take a moment to really look at all the reasons you’re giving yourself for not taking that action.

Why are you hesitating?

When I think back to that mountain lion watching me, there was no hesitation in her stance. She wasn’t letting ME know what she had decided, but she had already made her decision. This wasn’t about her questioning whether or not she could bound up the same hill I was achingly scrabbling up – questioning her power wasn’t even part of the equation.

If you stopped questioning your own power, where would YOU be?

© 2011, Diane Armitage, Armitageinc.com

Turns out, their online shopping cart can’t be connected to our new site!

While we’ve created the new website in WordPress – probably the most universal and amenable programming language to every major shopping cart on the planet – this existing online shopping cart that the client is currently working with is more of a “homegrown” proprietary cart.

This is not a good thing. As it turns out, we’re probably going to have to take another 2 weeks to build a brand new shopping cart for this client because the programmers who created this proprietary shopping cart intentionally created a shopping cart AND website so that neither product can be moved, accessed by other programmers for improvements, or connected to an “outside,” newer site.

Please don’t let programmers do this to you. This, essentially, holds your business hostage. There is no need to go with a company that “builds your shopping cart from the ground up for you.” This is just a snare to keep you with them and ONLY with them for time eternal … even if their customer service is bad … even if they don’t update their systems to match other shopping cart bells and whistles … even if their carts run at a speed slower than a turtle’s pace … you’re stuck unless you choose to completely start over and build a new shopping cart elsewhere.

There are many, many “ready-made” online shopping carts  – also referred to as e-commerce carts – on today’s market that easily handle the sale of your products or services and require very little customization. These shopping carts (the most popular (I believe) being 1ShoppingCart.com, BigCommerce, Shop Site Pro, Pinnacle and Volusion) are somewhat proprietary to their owners in that you are “renting” the cart from them on a monthly basis. These popular e-commerce carts, however, are built to be universally compatible with just about every programming code imaginable out there, thus allowing you to essentially hitch your website’s “trailer” to any one of these shopping carts.

As an example, I, for one, have used 1ShoppingCart.com since I created my first website  – www.Armitageinc.com – back in 1999. At that time, the website was coded in ASP. Then we rebuilt the website in PHP. Then we rebuilt the website in Joomla. And, a couple months ago, we updated (for good!) to WordPress. (No, there’s no reason for you to have to rebuild your website 4 times in 12 years – I just do it because I need to provide more of a showcase site for building web sites!)

In every instance, 1Shopping Cart easily connected to my website in a matter of minutes.

Now, I’ve covered the subject of deciding when you need a shopping cart vs. using a simple shopping cart attached to something like PayPal in my Armitage free subscription, Rise Above the Internet Din (in the right hand column here). I’ll also address what to actually look for in a shopping cart shortly.

If you have great experience with one ecommerce cart or online shopping cart, by all means, share it with your peers here by leaving a comment! Make it a great week.

© 2011, Diane Armitage, Armitageinc.com

He’s now ready to get the ever-important blog up and running, but doesn’t feel entirely confident in his writing abilities. He’s been asking me what I’ll charge to write his blog with weekly entries, and he’s collecting bids from other blog writers, too.

Now, given that I write two blogs – one here, and one very active blog at www.LagunaBeachBest.com , I know what it takes to write a blog.

AND, I know what it takes to write a blog that actually …

1. Is researched prior to the first word being written so that keyword phrases used by one’s niche audience are in place in each blog entry,
2. Is custom-optimized with on-page optimization (SEO) before it even publishes,
3. Promotes quickly cached pages in Google and other search engines,
4. Is immediately moved into several social media platforms,
5. Is adjusted and condensed to be placed on at least 3 other primary article directories for an even larger pool of social media linkage.

The first one – mere blog writing – will eventually work in getting more notice and audience to your website (as long as you have compelling content). Just posting entries on a blog, however, is a very long, slow train to fame.

The second one – a blog that is written with Internet marketing strategy in mind before even the first word of the first blog post is written – now THAT’S a blog that has the potential to gain very fast notoriety with a very large audience.

I’m quite sure there are many accomplished blog writers out there who know how to research keywords, write the SEO metatags for each entry, change slugs to read more SEO-friendly, and then write content that reflects your targeted strategy.

I’m also very sure that there are a few accomplished blog writers who know how to then post portions of each blog entry on various social media platforms in your behalf, using a combination of something like Ping.fm, HootSuite.com, and important manual placement. If they know how to do this, they’ll know which article directories they should also be placing condensations of each completed blog entry.

Sound like work? It is!

For writing my own blog entries, I estimate the following:
10 minutes keyword search
45 minutes content-rich, keyword-rich blog writing
10 minutes devoted to doing/writing the tags, SEO metatags, categories and changing the slug for each blog entry’s URL
So, that’s about an hour for the writing of the blog itself (and this doesn’t include the research I do on the subject before I start writing!)

Then, once the blog is published live, it’s:
5 minutes adding the entry to my spreadsheets with URL, short link and Bitly link all included (you need the different lengths for different reasons)
10 minutes manually placing on immediate social medias (Linked In, FB, Twitter for me) and Ping.fm
10 minutes of pre-programming the entry for additional tweets or FB mentions in the month ahead
20 minutes devoted to rewriting the blog and condensing it for load to major article directories (you can’t post the same blog entry to article directories or the search engines will slap you silly, assuming you stole it from someone – that someone being yourself!)
30 minutes of manual postings to my primary article directories to create much greater visibility and track backs to me.

So, that’s about an hour and a half of ADDITIONAL social media and directory posting work to truly get that blog posted in the most leveraged space for you.

Does all that work pay off? Absolutely. In spades. It even amazes ME how quickly each of my blogs rise in the search engines … how many complete strangers find my blog entries out there and follow the garden hose back to my website … and how much of my information is re-tweeted, “mentioned,” “favorited” and given the thumbs up to other people’s audiences, all with existing links snaking, again, back to my website.

My Google Analytics continue to show serious gain in number of visitors and first-time visitors day after day and week after week. My opt-in subscriptions on both sites gain new subscribers every day now.

It’s so amazing, it’s almost addicting!

When you really pay attention to your blog and play it the right way, it is by far the most efficient, leveraged social media tool you have in your toolbox. But that’s the caveat right there – you have to play it the right way, or the blog “writer” you hire has to know how to play it the right way.

When you’re interviewing blog writers, don’t hesitate to ask about what I’ve written above. A great blog writer who’s really dialed in is going to have hundreds of pieces of proof to show that he/she knows how to create your greatest possible marketing leverage. (Oh, and make sure they’re good writers, too, would you?!)

Note: I’m beginning to put together a webinar on How To Do A Blog The Internet Marketer’s Way. I’ll be dividing it into two sections -

One class will be designed for people who are just starting to set up and write their blog, or want to know how to “dial in” their blog entries for better visibility. I’ll teach which blog formats to use (hint: WORDPRESS!), all the free plug-ins you need that so few bloggers even know how to utilize out there, and how to do the research, and write the blog using professional content writers’ rules of thumb.

The second class will be a more advanced class to walk you through the primary social media postings (Along with setting those social medias up!), important article directory postings, and tools of the trade that help make this all a bit more efficient and faster.

I’m trying to get an idea of interested numbers of attendees – can you let me know if you’d be interested in one (be specific) or both classes? You can either comment below, or email me directly at Diane@Armitageinc.com

Thanks! We’ll make you a professional (and, more importantly, famous) blogger yet!

When I begin consulting with my clients, I start with how we can leverage the domain name, and what we can do to create better visibility for you in the Internet WITH your domain name (or a better one). 

 Do I take this to heart myself in my OWN Internet marketing? Apparently not.

When I first started my LagunaBeachBest.com blog, I had it under a different domain name – HotSpotsInLagunaBeach.com – until I realized that this was NOT a searched term as compared to the now existing domain, LagunaBeachBest.com . . . so I changed it up.

Given that I did this early in the site’s existence, I didn’t rattle the search engines’ cages too much, and thought I was doing just fine. When the HotSpots domain came up for renewal, I let it go. Who needs it, right?

Well … ahem … I did. OI VEY!!!

Here’s the scoop:

Yesterday, I was inputting some of my new LBB entries to TripAdvisor, Yelp and Urban Spoon (great social media leverage which I’ll talk to later).

On a whim, I started perusing my earlier entries at TripAdvisor, et al, from 2009 and, lo and behold, there at the bottom of every single one of my posts, I had this sentence:

“For more reviews on Laguna Beach, go to my website, www.HotSpotsInLagunaBeach.com “

 What an idiot I was! When I let that domain go, I didn’t even THINK about the hyperlinks I’d put in place in the grander scheme of social media! For three years now, more than 68 THOUSAND people at TripAdvisor, Yelp and Urban Spoon collectively have read those entries and perhaps clicked to  . . . nothing.

Thankfully, all those people are still clicking to nothing. Imagine if someone had actually built a site on that domain name!

Of course, there’s no editing to be done in these larger media directories once you’ve submitted an article. So, no other option – I scrabbled my way to GoDaddy in a heartbeat to buy the domain back. Turns out it’s up for auction as a “premier domain” and, what I originally spent $11 is now at lowest bid of $240. Did I bid for it? You bet I did. I need that domain back!

As of today, I won the auction and I have my domain back. I feel like throwing a party.

Now, the HotSpots domain will NOT become my primary (replacing www.LagunaBeachBest.com . . . . That would be suicide at this point – www.LagunaBeachBest.com has 59 cached pages recorded in Google – not 59 pages of my entries . . . 59 FULL pages in Google, meaning 59 x 9 entries per page = 531 cached entries for LagunaBeachBest.com . . . that’s pretty enormous for an 18-month-old site.

BUT! I can put the HotSpots domain on forwarding TO the LagunaBeachBest.com site. (This takes about 30 seconds to do.) So, anyone clicking the old domain will still end up in the right place.

Like I said, domain names are very serious business. If you’re looking to change yours, or wonder which domain you should be using from an assortment, feel free to email me for my quick research and appraisal.

Why, then, can’t they get prospects to STAY on their web sites and engage?

Well, the first of the two reasons I listed in my weekly subscription is a similar issue I see in lots of web sites all around the word:  Too many navigation buttons without enough content beneath them. Granted if you have solid content with entirely different key words and phrases, you deserve those buttons. If you’re just slapping up a short paragraph or a single line of text, you’re doing yourself a disservice in the search engines. You can learn more about this in the weekly entry . . .

Here, I want to address the next biggest issue that keeps these amazing Las Vegas restaurants in a place that’s just not at all deserving of who they really are:

2. Get your most unique content front and center!

How many restaurants are in Las Vegas? About a billion. How many offer all sorts of different dining room “experiences,” panoramic views, and 12,000 bottle wine cellars? Maybe, ehrm, counting on my fingers here . . .  2. How many of those 2 offer their renowned chef in special workshops, wine tasting/food pairing events, and cooking class events? Probably TWO . . . the two restaurants I was reviewing this week.

These 2 restaurants really have a lot of great stuff going on, but their greatest, most unique selling propositions were buried deep inside the content of the site. Take a look at your site and see if you’re guilty of doing the same (it’s easy to do, believe me).

Get that great content up on the home page, front and center, with easy, BIG links to details, photos, videos and registration pages for your next great events/workshops/author signings, whatever.

In the case of the 2 restaurants I talked with . . . . this is an easy fix. Their content is already there, and it’s profuse! It’s just a matter of re-organizing the content so that your prospect has a super easy time navigating – and getting pulled in – to all the greatness of you.

 Go on . . . ask away.

It’s OK to ask me questions about this, you know. This is not a one-way lecture street. Contact me any time at Diane@Armitageinc.com

© Diane Armitage, 2011, www.ArmitageInc.com

This is a luxury I haven’t allowed myself at a full-time level for a couple years. Normally, I try to fit it around my client needs and, while I certainly love each and every client I work with, this putting my business on the back burner wasn’t doing me any favors at all.

So, last Thursday, I sat down and made my list of everything I’ve wanted to accomplish for my two businesses – www.LagunaBeachBest.com and www.ArmitageInc.com – in the year ahead. Not just logical progression, but really big quantum leaps.

What I came up with was a leaning tower of tasks, a veritable compilation of everything I do for clients that I don’t do for my own business, all squished into a 12-day period!

For example … writing more blog entries and posting for future publication … adding SEO on-site optimization to each new blog entry AND old blog entry so that EACH blog has its own standing in the search engines (this is huge) … cutting my free subscription pieces down in size so that they’re easier reads … creating Excel spreadsheets for both of my blogs with each of the entries, their shortlinks, and all the social media columns where I’m posting and re-tweeting information . . . going to the Apple store for lessons on editing my own videos … getting my Facebook Fan page written, designed and launched … Facebook lessons with my star FB Queen, Karriann Graf … a thorough blogging tutorial from my friend, Marilyn, the “WPologist” … collecting my DRIP pieces for a year-end book … moving all my prospect and client databases to one repository … adding my content to major web directories like TripAdvisor.com, Yelp.com, and LinkedIn.com … writing new pages for my web site that shift the company’s entire focus to what I intend to be doing more of in the year ahead . . . setting up video recording time with Bob Proctor on a new video idea he suggested for me … researching, writing and creating advertising facts sheets and official Rate Cards so that adveritsing can begin on LagunaBeachBest.com … pre-programming HootSuite with social media content through the next 90 days …  making appointments for joint ventures… exploring exchange trips and cross-traffic advertising with Laguna’s Sister City in France … devising new speaking topics for incoming requests … getting new head shots done … creating and printing real-world postcards for a new “shopping trip raffle” with one of my Laguna Beach clients, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah . . . the list goes on and on and on!

You should see the big poster-size Sticky notes I have on my living room wall – it’s ridiculous! There’s one for Armitage Inc. and one for LagunaBeachBest.com and every time I finish another task, I trot over to the wall and write it down. It’s the only thing that keeps me motivated because there’s so much to do!

What an amazing progression this Work Sabbatical has been, though, not only for my business but for my HEAD. For the first time in years, I’ve been fully immersed in the blueprinting and architecture of my business dreams. It’s a powerful gift to give yourself and your business.

A few take-away lessons I’ve learned from this Work Sabbatical:

1.  If you don’t work ON your business, your business will stop working. Thank God I’ve managed to squeak a few hours in here and there every week to work on my business, or I’d really be up a creek. Thank God I’m in a weekly mastermind group that keeps me accountable to working ON my business … but even the little bit I was allowing was not sufficient for real creativity, mind expansion, business growth and residual income. Yes, because I allow myself some work on the business, I keep bringing business in the door, and I’m very grateful for that. But it has to stop being ME bringing business in the door … I want business to come in the door WITHOUT me!

2. Doing a full-time Work Sabbatical ONLY once a year can be overwhelming and, frankly, you’re already behind the 8-ball at that point.

Instead, scheduling one full day every two weeks to work ON the business is the smartest thing in the world you can do. With today’s Internet demands and social media pushes, you have GOT to stay on your game; it’s far too easy to drop off and drop to the back of the pack.

3. When you allow yourself to work on your business, you’ll find yourself reviving and getting enthused again, I guarantee it. Granted, you’re WORKING, and there’s administrative stuff involved here that might feel a bit laborious, but you’re working on your DREAM, and that changes everything!

4. Help is out there everywhere. Use it.  Do you think I know how to program a Facebook Fan Page? Do I look like someone who knows how to take on a video editing studio? Did I just wake up one day knowing how to research and write painstaking page titles, keywords, and meta descriptions for each of my blog entries?Absolutely not. But, I know where to find the experts who can teach me how. And YOU have ME!

Remember, what I’ve been doing in this Work Sabbatical is exactly what I do for my clients. My consulting packages allow you to schedule twice-a-month meetings with me (maybe even on your official “Working On The Business Day” that you’re now going to schedule) so that you continue to move forward at an accelerated, highly leveraged pace. So, if you’re starting to feel as motivated as I’ve been this last week, check out my Quantum Interview 2-Week Consulting or my ongoing support and help with my 3-Month or 6-Month Consulting packages

I have a few more take-away lessons and tips to share from this Work Sabbatical that might come in handy for you … but this blog has gotten long enough. Check out “Take Away Lessons, Part II” here.

And oh, man, it’s work. But what an amazing progression this Work Sabbatical has been, not only for my business but for my HEAD. For the first time in years, I’ve been FULLY immersed in the blueprinting and architecture of my business dreams. It’s a powerful gift to give yourself and your business.

In the previous blog entry, I noted initial take-away lessons I’ve gotten from my Work Sabbatical. See that blog for the details of each – these are just the bulleted reminders before I continue the list below!

1.  If you don’t work ON your business, your business will stop working.

2. Doing a full-time Work Sabbatical ONLY once a year can be overwhelming. Instead, scheduling one full day every two weeks to work ON the business is the smartest thing in the world you can do.

3. When you allow yourself to work on your business, you’ll find yourself reviving and getting enthused again.

4. Help is out there everywhere. Use it.

To continue the Work Sabbatical Take-Away Lessons …  

5. Much like taking a vacation, it might take a few days to really settle into the “spirit” of this Work Sabbatical. Initially, I found myself doing my usual knee-jerk actions – answering emails and responding to the endless litany of programmer questions on our many client projects. I had to consciously, consciously, consciously STOP myself and move back into what I was here to do – Work ON My Business. And, it wasn’t until about Day 5, as I’ve been journaling this process, that the real creative thinking kicked in … because I was finally quiet enough, I think, to pay attention and listen.

6. Eat the Big Frogs first. Years ago, an old boss of mine, Bill Shue, used to remind me to eat the big frogs first. Yes, the phrase and the concept has been around forever, but he was a stellar and shining example of practicing what he preached. You’ve got stuff out there you want to do for your business, or KNOW you should do for your business, but it intimidates or bores or frightens you. Make those items the first to check off your Work Sabbatical list.

7. Ask for the big ideas at the beginning of the Work Sabbatical and make an absolute promise to yourself that you’ll ACT IMMEDIATELY on whatever big idea comes your way before you allow yourself to “logically” talk yourself down. When you’re working on your business and have devoted yourself to this end, you’ll find that big solutions drift in at the ready.

And, then, a final idea I committed to, based on my mentoring with Bob Proctor and Mike Dooley -

8. Act as if you’ve already achieved the result you’ve set out to achieve. 

This is a doozy.

So, for instance, when I sat down at the start of this Work Sabbatical, I thought to myself, “When I have my Armitage, Inc. business at the point I wish to see it … and when my LagunaBeachBest.com is rolling along just as I’ve architected in my mind, how will I spend my days THEN? What will I do differently in my days THEN in comparison to how I spend my days now?”

Believe me, I have ALL KINDS of ideas! So, I infused each day with an activity that I’ll be doing THEN. (Does that make sense?) For example,

• I plan to be doing 2-month excursions to other resort towns around the world to write about them much like I do LagunaBeachBest.com … so, I began exploring the neighborhoods in the first 5 cities I plan to visit (so that I’m living right in the hub), and also began sending initial queries to their Chambers of Commerce and Visitors’ Bureaus.
• I created my weekly schedule for consulting, work on client projects, and work on my two businesses that I’ll begin following as soon as I’m back from this Work Sabbatical.
• I had a landscape architect come over to do initial research and bids on my expanded “writer’s den” on my side deck over the ocean.
• I set up a speaking tour of several Eastern seaboard towns with enough days in between to spend a bit of time in each city or town of choice.
• I spent one working morning trolling import furniture shops for new furniture pieces (and let me tell you, it was very difficult to make myself break away on a “working” morning in the middle of a week!).

It’s important to regularly treat yourself to the thinking and actions you will be participating in when you reach those bigger goals or find yourself with the result you seek.

By doing so, it acclimates your consciousness and subconsciousness to EXPECT this end result, and that’s the energy you want to emanate.

Again, what I’ve been doing in this Work Sabbatical is exactly what I do for my clients. My consulting packages allow you to schedule twice-a-month meetings with me (maybe even on your official “Working On The Business Day” that you’re now going to schedule!) so that you continue to work ON your business and move forward at an accelerated, highly leveraged pace.

So, if you’re starting to feel as motivated as I’ve been this last week, check out my Quantum Interview 2-Week Consulting or my ongoing support and help with my 3-Month or 6-Month Consulting packages

As soon as you sign up, I’ll be contacting you to set up dates and times for our bi-monthly talks and work together.