I’ve been back from a trip to San Diego for a mastermind and conference and am just now feeling ‘recovered’. Anyone who has attended a conference for a few days knows exactly what I’m talking about (and in this case was at the end of the week and I didn’t stay for all of it). 

You’re motivated and inspired to go, suck up all the information and inspiration you can and come back and kick ass and take names. Then of course by the end of the first day your brain is on overload, spinning with ideas and all kinds of ways you’re going to ‘take things to the next level’.

I know you know what I’m talking about.

The mastermind was only 2 days (one day of Baja ATV racing in Mexico, which was amazing) followed by a full day of mastermind (mastermind-ing? is that a word?). The ATV racing was a blast (although I don’t need to do that again) but was a LONG day (we sat in traffic for 2 1/2 hrs. crawling to the border), then had a quick shower and a dinner out with everyone. Our mastermind was the next day from 9 – 7 and was amazing.

And exhausting.

But brilliant.

I had one day in between the mastermind & conference and had more or less made up my mind on my ‘free’ day that I was going to skip the conference entirerly. Partly because I was a little fried (I drove down to San Diego on Sunday..  7-8 hr. drive), but really because I simply did not need MORE information!

I gained SO much from the mastermind and I knew exactly what I needed to do and implement. More information would just have overwhelmed me (and frustrated me to be honest with you).
Of course I woke up on Thursday morning with a slight change of heart (very slight) and went to the conference for the keynotes on Thursday.

And I’m glad I did.

The information I got from the 3 keynotes was completely in alignment with what I did at the mastermind earlier in the week and that was enough. My brain was on overload, I was emotionally tired and I just wanted a few days to myself.

Aah the wisdom that comes with age.

I actually think I might take a 4 day sabbatical every month, where I’m not available online to anyone and just checkout, or I could start with taking Fridays off. hmm…

Why a Blog Isn’t A Business

There is a LOT of noise online and I’m the first to say that sometimes it can be hard to filter. But the key, and I’m SO not kidding here, is to find your own voice and trust your gut!

Which I really just started doing this past year, but it has paid off in ways both measurable and immeasurable.

One of the things that people seem to have a HUGE aversion to is List Building. They don’t want to use pop-ups (I asked people on FB and pretty much EVERYONE agreed that they hate them, but they work. So someone is opt-ing in through them, right?). What people do is put this little opt-in box off to the side in their sidebar hoping people will subscribe for their ‘newsletter’, or e-zine as they were called (can we just retire that phrase already?). Hear my heart on this (thank you @AllegraSinclair for that saying… brilliant), you DON’T have to use pop-ups, but you DO need to put your opt-in in front of people and in a way that motivates them to opt-in.

Here’s a question for you…

How many ‘newsletters’ do you sign up for? No opt-in offer, no value provided, just “hey, let’s stay in touch?”

Be honest.

For me? Unless you’re Brene’ Brown or Dr. Wayne Dyer, then it’s highly unlikely that I’m going to subscribe just for updates (updates on what exactly?)

And no, you don’t need to be a ‘celebrity’ but it is human nature to think “What’s in it for me?” How many emails do you get in ONE day?

Let’s apply this idea to an ‘offline’ business, and in this case, because I spent the majority of my working life in retail (until I started my business 6 years ago), we’ll use a retail store as an example.

You open the doors, provide TONS of free stuff to your customers, don’t ask for a way to stay in touch with them or communicate with them and never offer them something for sale. Or better yet, you hand them a card to fill out with their information so you can send them ‘updates’… IF you happen to catch them in the right section of your store at the right time.

How long would you be able to keep the doors open? Unless you have deep pockets and are doing this for shits and giggles you wouldn’t be open very long.

And speaking of retail, NOTHING blew my mind as much as the first time I purchased something from the retail chain “Hobby Lobby”. I went to hand the cashier a piece of wall decor that was in my basket so they  could scan the barcode and she says “Oh, we don’t scan anything, I just enter the price” (and department number or whatever).

SERIOUSLY? Is this 1945 and we don’t have technology to TRACK WHAT THE HELL WE’RE SELLING? Literally the stupidest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Are they profitable? Of course, because everything they sell is their own manufactured product and the mark it up a zillion percent. How else can a company pick one category of product each week and sell it for HALF off?

*Note* please don’t send me comments or question anything about this statement. I’m not bashing Hobby Lobby but I think it’s ridiculous in today’s day & age that a company of that size wouldn’t want to MEASURE what’s working, what their customers want and how they can better serve their customers.

I’ve mentioned in my about page and in different podcast episodes before about my time in retail management, but I don’t think I ever mentioned any of the companies I worked for. Probably my most favorite company and job was with HomeGoods where I was a training manager (owned by TJX corp., they own TJ Maxx, Marshalls, etc. and a few other companies). Besides the fact that this company constantly invests in training, learning and development, they TRACKED what sold. Especially as an off-price retailer (brand names at a discount). How on earth could the buyers do their job and buy for the different markets without knowing what sold well and where it sold?

O.K., enough of my rant.

Back to a blog not being a business.

What do you have for sale on your site?

How many different ways are you giving people the opportunity to do business with you?

This was like a HUGE slap in the face for me when I was at the mastermind. I do NOT have enough ‘assets’ up for sale on my site or opportunities for people to work with me. WHAT THE BUCKET?!

I hate seeing the obvious after the fact. Sigh.

For a VERY long time I was sooo hesitant about putting anything up for sale on my site, creating funnels, measuring how well things converted, etc.

Not any more.

The reality is that you’re not going to please everyone, you simply can’t. Nor should you want to.

If you know in your GUT that your goal is to provide value and help solve a problem for people then it is YOUR responsibility to get it out there. Being quiet and not wanting to offend anyone isn’t going to keep the lights on.

I’ll be sharing what I’ve changed and how it impacts my business from here on out on each of the individual shows (and probably in some blog posts as well). I’m not exactly sure how that is going to look but I’ll share at least one thing I’ve done and the results of what I’ve implemented.

As always, thanks for listening. 🙂

Feel like spreading the LOVE?
I would absolutely love a review in iTunes if you’re up for it.

Click Here to leave a Review in iTunes

Links from this episode

Wealth Dynamics Test

February 5th Webinar