Did you miss my call with Todd Wheeler?

I had the opportunity to chat with Todd Wheeler today about the errand and concierge service industry as well as niche marketing. He was a guest speaker for my Errand Guru Coaching Cafe. For those of you who are members, the recording will be up in the next day or two so you can download it and listen to it at your own convenience.

Want a chance to listen to Todd yourself and you currently are not a member of my Errand Guru Coaching Cafe? Then click here to check out what our members receive for being a part of our Coaching Cafe.

Joystar is going bankrupt!

For those of you who I have recommended Joystar to for the past 3 years to help with booking travel for clients, I apologize. For the longest time they were a good company to work with. They recently turned into an MLM and I do not do business with MLM's otherwise I would be harking the Mona Vie products along with Amway and a whole other mess of MLM's, you know who they are.

In 2007, their sister company, VacationCompare.com, signed on to provide the travel for Wheel of Fortune. The trips were not being delivered and the promotion company who handles setting up the prizes for TV shows had to pay for the trips out of their pockets to make sure the contestants got what they won.

Last year Joystar had more issues and now they are being forced into bankruptcy by their creditors. To top it off, they have not been paying their agents, meaning people like you or me, their commissions. For many people this means thousand of dollars they have gone without because Joystar doesn't have the means to pay them, especially if an account has been frozen.

Thank goodness I have not had an issue with not being paid, but have not used them since the last half of 2008 after finding out that several companies were not honoring the IATA/CLIA number. I have been using a regular travel agent for the meantime, but am looking for a new agency to work with. Once I complete my due diligence, I will let you know an update about the new company I choose and what they can offer you.

Do you want to laugh today?

Please join me, along with my co-host Danette Moss, for our weekly radio show on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 10 am PT/1 pm ET. This week our special guest is Lauren Mayer.

-Are you a parent and business owner?

-Do you need to learn how to balance work and life so you could help your clients do the same?

-Do the stresses and anxieties of everyday life make you want to go psycho?

Join me and my special guest, Lauren Mayer, as we take a hilarious look at how to balance work and life with a spouse/significant other, children, and all of life's ups and downs.

You can listen online at Errand Guru Talk Radio or call in at (646) 478-4999 to listen in on the phone.

Don't worry if you can't be there live, you can listen in later to the archived segment on the website. If you have a question that you want answered, just email me at info@ecsuniversitytraining.com.

We will have a chat available during the segment so you can ask your questions or, if you call in, you can ask your questions live on the air!

Is Disney one of the many needing a boost?

As a annual pass holder of Disneyland, I receive their newsletters that come to me via email. One such email recently hit my inbox and I checked it out. To my surprise they had a link to see about their payment option plan. Payment option plan? As a Southern California resident, you can purchase an annual pass and pay over twelve months. Twelve months? A whole year to pay off your pass? From Disneyland? I know it is the happiest place on Earth, but the person counting the tills doesn't seem to be very happy with the income reports.

Is Disneyland only one of the latest casualties being hit by the slower economy? I think so. If I had to choose between food on my table or a pass to Disneyland, the obvious choice would be food. Now if I could put food on my table and still scrape together enough each month to buy an annual pass for my family, that would make me happier. I think that is the mindset behind Disney and their choice to help locals who they know would return far more often than someone from another state or country who may have been saving for a while to get to Disneyland.

I have to say that while I haven't seen any advertising for this, mostly the get in on your birthday for free, I have to say that it may be what Disney needs to boost sales. What they need to do though is put on their imaginears and think of a great advertising scheme without sounding desperate. They could be like your local gym. Get a ton of people who think they will frequent Disneyland to buy passes, pay a monthly fee, and then not use the pass as much as they thought they would. I hear a ching! ching!

Join us today for our weekly talk show!

Please join me, along with my co-host Danette Moss, for our weekly radio show on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 10 am PT/1 pm ET. This week is a special week as it is a Q&A segment.

-Are you researching the errand and concierge service industry and aren't quite sure where to start?

-Have you opened your doors for business, but things are going slow?

-Been in business a while, but you are facing a new situation and need some help?

Bring any and all questions to this segment and we will use this hour to answer as many as possible. Where else can you participate in a free consultation?

You can listen online at Errand Guru Talk Radio or call in at (646) 478-4999 to listen in on the phone.

Don't worry if you can't be there live, you can listen in later to the archived segment on the website. If you have a question that you want answered, just email me at info@ecsuniversitytraining.com.

We will have a chat available during the segment so you can ask your questions or, if you call in, you can ask your questions live on the air!

Fabienne Fredrickson is doing it again!

I wanted to give you a quick heads-up about a FREE teleseminar series beginning this coming Tuesday, January 20 that could honestly change your business and your life, for good.

Have you heard of Fabienne Fredrickson, the million-dollar Client Attraction Breakthroughs Mentor?

After struggling to attract enough clients to stay in business and pay her bills each month, Fabienne made a commitment to learn everything she could about attracting clients. That was nearly 10 years ago. A year of blood, sweat and tears later, she found the magic formula: a verifiable, repeatable system that anyone can use to authentically and consistently fill their client pipeline and turn prospects into paying clients.

She went on to create the popular Client Attraction System® that thousands of people are now using to attract more clients, make more than ever before, and have more time off to enjoy it all. It's truly amazing.

But she didn't stop there. Fabienne took it all to another level...

Not only was Fabienne able to fill her business to full capacity with ideal, high-paying clients, she kept it consistently full, and kept doubling her 1ncome every year, as a result of employing innovative business models, applying simple passive and leveraged 1ncome principles AND delegating, systematizing and outsourcing many parts of her business.

But here's the best part: Fabienne discovered along the way that it's not just the MARKETING that fills a practice. It's the MINDSET as well. Over the years, she started to notice her own limiting thoughts, her inner critic, her self-sabotaging behaviors, and a whole slew of FEARS that kept getting in the way of making what she really wanted to make and living the life she dreamed of. You name it, she experienced it, INCLUDING not believing she could make a lot more than she made back in Corporate, and definitely not by working much less than she used to.

But once she realized that these "negative forces" were at work, Fabienne started working on them, one by one, and each time she did, she started seeing changes in her 1ncome. The more she worked on her mindset, the more she made. The more she implemented SYSTEMS for marketing, the more she made. Soon, Fabienne noticed that she was much more focused and getting more done than she'd ever been able to do. She stopped procrastinating and started DOING what it took to get the results AND the life she wanted as a self-employed person.

No one had EVER taught this as part of a practice building process...

And now, Fabienne is a million-dollar mom-preneur, spreading the message that you really don't have to settle for a mediocre business. You really can make a LOT more than you're making now, while having a life of freedom and ease to spend time with the ones you love. She and her clients are walking examples of it.

The GOOD NEWS for us: NEXT TUESDAY, Fabienne has agreed to reveal the EXACT steps she took to create big BREAKTHROUGHS in her Client Attraction on the first call of her *FREE teleseminar series*, just for us!

Here's how to sign up for these FREE calls.

She only does this once a year and she's known to give a LOT of information, so I know I'll be there, and I want to hear you on the line too. You just CANNOT miss this.

So, won't you join me? The first call is on *Tuesday, January 20* and you can sign up and get the details here now.

I'll see you on the first call!

PS: Feel free to forward this to your friends and associates, but know that spots are LIMITED on this call, so be sure to reserve YOURS first.

PS - Fabienne's business-building topics are THAT good! I'd hate to see anyone miss out on this ONE-TIME event.

Are you watching the advertisers?

I have been going through the coupon section of my Sunday paper for the last two weeks and I have noticed something. The companies who place their coupons in the paper, like just about everyone else, are trying to hit peoples' needs at this time with the New Year's resolutions. One of the big ones most people have on their list is to lose weight. Guess what all of the coupons are for? You guessed right if you said foods to help people lose weight or maintain a healthy lifestyle.

They even had a sample of a Fiber One bar in my newspaper that my 11 year old proceeded to eat up and then tell me that it was so good that he wants me to buy more. Guess what I am buying at the store this weekend with the coupon the company provided?

These companies are using their words and their images wisely to let you know you have a problem, which is that you want to lose weight or that you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and they offer a solution to your problem, which is that you should eat their foods to lose the weight or maintain your shape. People are fueled by emotions, whether it is happiness or sadness or everything in between, and those emotions drive us to do certain things, purchase certain things, watch certain things, or whatever else goes on in our lives.

Now is the time to look at your business and see if you can clarify your target market's problem, your solution to that problem, and the message you want to convey with your words and images.

Can You Win Her Back If You Made Her Mad?

Women are extremely loyal with girlfriends as well as brands. Not only that, but they tell EVERYONE about their experiences. Good or bad.

So if you've made her mad, the best thing you can do to get her loyalty is great customer service. Customer service is often the first place businesses ignore because of the pressure to keep up in so many other areas. But it's never been more important than now.

If your business has lost a female customer, here are some strategies to getting her back in the fold:

1. Offer a discount to give your business another try;

2. Write a long letter of apology and let her know you want her business back;

3. Make her feel cared about and special - the key to regaining trust.

Obviously these same techniques make sense when it comes to getting male customers back under your wing as well. That's what is so wonderful about embracing these strategies that reach women. We ALL benefit from a new and effective approach!

If you're looking to reach the female market, you have to speak HER LANGUAGE. For the first time ever you can learn to write copy SPECIFICALLY for women. On January 22, Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero of Red Hot Copy is holding a hands-on, virtual series for 8 weeks called the "She Factor Copywriting Bootcamp."

Or just test drive her tools for FREE on her content-rich webinar, Thursday, January 15 at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern called "How to Successfully Market to Women." Either way, you'll learn a ton about the new copywriting rules! Details here.

Did you really fail?

My mom always taught my sisters and I when we were growing up to try different things. At the dinner table we were told to take a bite of everything she offered. Just one bite. If we didn't like it we didn't have to eat more, but we would never know if we truly did or didn't like something until we tasted it. I have instilled this same value in my kids and they have learned that they like many different foods all because they tried it.

The same thing happens in our lives. We may try different boyfriends and girlfriends out until we find "the right one". We may try living in different cities until we find the right location we want to stay in. We may go through a variety of jobs until we find the right fit. It is the same with starting a business. Many people are afraid of failing before they have even given it a chance, so they are afraid to try something new out.

I have seen many people start and stop their own errand or concierge business through the more than a decade that I have been in business. For those that had a mindset from the beginning that it wasn't going to work, (you may have said it was going to work on the outside, but deep down you told yourself it wasn't going to work) you set yourself up for failure. For those that gave it their best shot, but it didn't work out, you didn't fail. You just found out that it didn't work for you.

I have worked on things that I thought were great ideas only to find out that they didn't work at all. It is not about failure, but about finding out the lessons you learned each time something didn't work and using those lessons to help you on your path to success. As Thomas Edison said, "I have not failed. I have successfully discovered 1,200 ideas that don't work."

Make Money with Teleseminars the Street Smarts Way

On January 13th Kathleen Gage is launching her newest product, Make Money with Teleseminars the Street Smarts Way - Home Study Course. The course covers everything someone needs to know to develop, market, and sell profitable teleseminars.

The cost of the home study course is $497.

Kathleen is offering a free bonus report. Click here to access the free report.

Frustrated with your blog?

Blogging is hitting the mainstream as marketing tool, but it seems the average professional is struggling to keep up with posting fresh content often enough to get results from their business blog. And yet, a blog is one of the best ways to get found on the web by your ideal client.

My colleagues The Blog Squad, Patsi and Denise, have just released a resource to help out the folks who want to get found, get known and get clients by leveraging the Internet.

They’ve just launched the 3rd edition of their Better Business Blogging Training System. It includes their newly revised Build a Better Blog ebook, a best-selling manual for setting up a blog on TypePad and it covers EVERYTHING about how to use your blog for business and marketing.

The Blog Squad claim blogs are “The Best Darn Marketing Tool on the Planet!” But only if you know how to use it right, in a smart way.

Many people get started with a blog, then let it go because they don’t see results – they simply don’t know what to do to with their blog to optimize it for business.

Click here for more information

The Better Business Blogging Training System…

Like the name promises, you'll find time saving tips, tactics and strategies laid out in a step-by-step system to create a better business blog. Following these strategies can increase your online visibility and optimize the results you get from your blog.

AND this is very important: what makes their product better than other ebooks is that modules are delivered weekly, one by one, so you avoid information overload.

It’s a comprehensive learning system that includes three levels of tutorials and audio files. You can enter the system at three different entry points, depending on your needs and if you’re just starting out or a veteran blogger.

More importantly, if you are a service professional, coach, speaker, consultant, or author and consider yourself a non-techie, this ebook is for you. Learn more by clicking on this link:

Click here for more information

As The Blog Squad says, "Blog on!"