Stand Up 8 Times Blog ~ Diana Schneidman

How to start earning money quickly as a freelancer or consultant

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Tasty recipe to Get Clients Now!

August 31st, 2010 · Feature Article, Marketing

“The magic formula for professional services marketing and sales is choosing a set of simple, effective things to do, and doing them consistently,” says C. J. Hayden.

That is precisely how her best-selling book, Get Clients Now!, advises professionals, consultants and coaches on how to achieve their marketing goals in 28 days.

Get Clients Now! has been compared to a cookbook because it helps self-employed professionals list their marketing ingredients and follow their own step-by-step recipe to bake a “win” with rich chocolate frosting.

This book is exactly what many of us need. We already have a lot of “info” crammed into our brains and filed in our offices. GCN helps us turn this mess into coherent action. The book also pulls together succinct how-to training for lots of techniques.

The ingredients we pull together include a workable number of marketing strategies, identification of which marketing stage most needs attention (e.g., filling the pipeline, follow up), the results we want to achieve within 28 days and the specifics we will undertake to achieve those results.

Lots of value for a book under $20 and perhaps the single best bookstore-stocked volume on how to market your services. This publication just passed 75,000 in all-time sales, which places it in the top 1% of book sales.

Why not buy the book? (and I don’t make a cent)

My first ready-for-your-action takeaway in this article is to recommend you purchase the Get Clients Now! book, an inexpensive title that can discipline your service marketing by showing how to commit to a reasonable amount of daily activity. (Obviously there’s no affiliate relationship here—simply pick it up at your local bookstore.)

Now for the second point I’d like to make about how the program can be more effective.

The GCN program is even more effective when you have human support. (This is where I come in.)

Much of the program’s power comes from its accountability feature. While the program provides written forms to record progress, having someone to share your progress with adds a spoonful of sugar to the recipe.

A GCN coach also provides a sounding board for marketing dilemmas ricocheting through your mind and support during the ups and downs of developing an independent service business.

My Get Clients Now! program is coming

Which is why I am excited to announce my first Get Clients Now! group coaching program, to be held in the Naperville / western Chicago suburbs, starting in October. And after that I’m looking forward to offering a teleseminar-based series to serve you wherever you live . . . in a format unaffected by January snowstorms.

I also offer one-on-one coaching year round.

I’ll provide GCN details soon!

More info:

Being unique is a good thing . . . isn’t it? By C.J. Hayden

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Being unique is a good thing . . . isn’t it?

August 31st, 2010 · Marketing

By C.J. Hayden, MCC

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients Now! and the creator of an exciting marketing program for professionals, consultants and coaches. I am proud to be a trained GCN program facilitator, and I am pleased to showcase this example of C.J.’s work. – Diana

New entrepreneurs frequently hear the advice to “be unique” in their marketing. The basic idea is a valuable one — to get attention in a crowded marketplace, you must stand out in some way. Distinguishing your product or service from the competition can make your marketing more effective. Crafting a novel marketing message can attract the notice of more potential customers.

There’s no question that an element of uniqueness in your marketing can make your business more memorable, competitive, and special to your target audience. These are all reasons why being different can be good. But how different should you be?

A student in one of my classes had noticed there were no display ads for management consultants in his local Yellow Pages. “What a great opportunity,” he thought, “to make my business stand out to prospective clients.” He spent over $200 per month on a large ad for a full year. The result was not a single phone call, unless you count the ones from vendors trying to sell him photocopiers and phone systems.

He had neglected to ask his consulting colleagues WHY none of them had ads in the Yellow Pages. It seemed like a good idea to him, and no one else was doing it, so he pulled out his checkbook. What never occurred to him — and what any experienced colleague could have told him — was that companies don’t choose management consultants from ads in the phone book.

Sometimes you can be too unique for your own good. There’s a lot in sales and marketing that is tried and true. If you decide to forge a completely new trail, you may be attempting an experiment that many others in your field have already tried with no success.

It’s not always just your marketing techniques that are a little too different. The same problem can afflict the product or service you are marketing.

I met a fellow while networking who had a “unique process” for helping companies resolve conflicts between employee groups. When I asked him to explain his process, he said I would have to experience it to understand it. I inquired how it compared to solutions like mediation or team building, and he told me it was a totally different approach that defied comparison.

Since I knew a company that needed help with a problem like the one he described, I would have liked to refer him. But I couldn’t picture myself calling my friend at the company to say, “Hi, I know someone who says he can fix your problem, but he can’t explain how. You’ll just have to hire him and see.”

Being noticeably different from the competition can help you attract customers and close sales. But claiming that you have no competition is naive. Comparisons to a known quantity can help prospective customers understand where your product or service fits in the range of solutions they are considering. If they can’t compare it to anything, it’s doubtful that they will be able to see how your offering could work.

Your market, too, needs to be a group of people who already exist and can be readily identified. A reader once wrote to ask me for some advice on getting her new book published. I asked what market category it fell into, and she replied that she hadn’t really thought about it.

I pressed her bit, explaining that her book needed to be categorized in order to be marketed and sold. Even something as simple as where to shelve it in a bookstore depended on having a category to print on the back cover. Was it self-help, spirituality, careers, business? Who did she see as the audience for her book?

She asserted that she was creating a new paradigm, and if I was going to help her, I needed to think more creatively. My reply was to tell her I couldn’t help her at all. Her idea may have been brilliant, but no publisher was going to touch her project.

Creating the perception that your product or service is one of a kind can help you capture people’s attention and make them remember you. But you have to be able to identify the people you want to reach and communicate how you can be of service in words they can understand.

You know those car commercials that go, “Zoom, zoom, zoom?” I had to see those ads dozens of times before I could remember that the car being advertised was a Mazda. “Zoom” was unique alright, but what did it have to do with Mazda? Or with the benefits of owning one? A catchy slogan like “Inspiration Beats Perspiration” may be clever and unusual, but what the heck is it marketing?

Definitely look for a unique way to express the benefits you offer to your clients, but make sure it still communicates what you actually do. It’s okay to get creative with your marketing, but don’t bet the rent money on untried techniques.

If you really want to make your marketing more effective, cheaper and less stressful, stop re-inventing the wheel. Find models that work and replicate them. I’m not suggesting that you plagiarize your competitors’ marketing copy, but when you see someone successful in your field, find out what they are doing right, and follow their lead.

Don’t let your business be a victim of “terminal uniqueness” — the belief that you are so different from anyone else that none of the rules apply to you. Being distinctive is good; being eccentric can be unwise.

Copyright © 2004, C.J. Hayden

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients Now!™ Thousands of business owners and independent professionals have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of “Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You’ll Ever Need” at www.getclientsnow.com.

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How our best ideas can lead us astray . . . or to greater success

August 24th, 2010 · Feature Article

Caleb Scoville of North Bank Audio Solutions made a brilliant point on a recent teleseminar. So striking that I almost dead stopped in traffic. (So be careful if you are driving behind a dark green Acura in the Chicago suburbs.)

He proposed that when you are getting bored with an idea that you have taught, written about or otherwise worked with for awhile, this means you have become an expert.

We may mistakenly take our yawns as signs that we should move on to something else. But on the contrary, we should hang in there to utilize and share the mastery we have developed.

Looking at this from a practical perspective, this is our opportunity to put our foot to the monetization accelerator. Learning something new is a nice-to-have, but growing our income from existing strengths certainly has a lot to recommend!

A sense of been-there-done-that does not mean we have reached a dead end. Instead, we have arrived at a place where we can thrive and can help others more effectively. Where we have a springboard to greater creativity and effectiveness.

I am taking Scoville’s advice to heart and reexamining what initially seems ho-hum to me.

Even if others in our specialty community know what we know, that doesn’t mean our knowledge is a snooze inducer for everybody. Others often do not know what we assume is universally known.

Here are two experiments you can try. (I assume you are at least moderately internet savvy.)

First, find an acquaintance who is not involved in internet marketing. Ask him what “know-like-trust” means.

Those of us interested in this subject area know that it describes how to create a relationship with others online that may lead to sales, affiliations or other opportunities. But your friend may draw a blank at this phrase.

Or ask her what she thinks about Twitter. Many of you readers are familiar with Twitter. You may have tried it out. You may have looked it over and decided it’s not for you. You may love it.

Whatever.

But believe it or not, there are still many, many computer-wise people who don’t know what it is.

So let’s claim our expertise with pride and employ it to realize our full potential.

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Here are my goals. What are yours?

August 23rd, 2010 · Living life well


In my trips around town, I listen to free teleseminars I have downloaded. I frequently hear the same advice: set your goals and put them in writing. Post them on your wall or your bathroom mirror where they serve as a constant reminder.

Occasionally I hear something even better: when the moderator asks listeners to share their goals. This is generally done anonymously or with a first name only and I find it fascinating.

What especially intrigues me is that all the goals I hear are monetary: How much I want to earn this month or this year.

I have monetary goals also but they are insufficient in providing me with direction. Because if my only goal is monetary, then my sole intent is to determine the best effective way to make more money.

Maybe I’m not on the most effective path. Maybe I should be revealing Donald Trump’s get-rich secrets or “no-fail” MLM programs. I’d guess it must be working for some of the people I inadvertently follow on Twitter because they sure seem to stick with it.

Anyhow, in addition to making money, here are my other two goals:

  1. To help self-employed service providers develop their businesses (and achieve their income goals) through my marketing coaching and information products.
  2. To be heard.

The first relates to a search for meaning and serving others. If it is just about making money, there are a lot of roads to take me there. This idea of service complicates decisions but also keeps me motivated over the longer term.

The second one is more complex. Frankly, I’m still figuring out what it means to me.

It popped into my head quite awhile ago. Communicating with others, especially via writing and speaking, are core callings of mine. They support my more formal business objectives, but they also steer me in directions that do not clearly boost the search engine optimization of my internet presence.

I suspect that is true for lots of bloggers and other internet marketers. Which is why some blogs are strictly business and others have a larger component of self expression.

What about your goals? Do you have clear goals beyond monetary figures? Comments invited.

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Do you hang up on cold calls? My surprising revelation

August 17th, 2010 · Feature Article, Marketing

If you’ve read many of my articles or if you’ve seen my new ebook, you know that I heartily endorse cold calling to build service businesses. (I prefer to call it “telephoning,” but I use the term “cold calling” to cater to Google.)

I believe in cold calling because it gives me the opportunity to offer something of value to the people most likely to welcome my services. I’m strategic in selecting people to phone and I engage in a friendly, relaxed conversation. I’m proud to be a telephoner.

And I am proud to have originated many thousands of dollars in income and warm, long-term customer relationships through these phone calls.

So I’d guess you think I politely take telemarketing calls and hang on till the caller understands why I am not buying (or donating) and wishes me a sincere good evening. Or you may even think that I buy or donate or whatever because my heart goes out to people who are simply trying to make an honest living.

Surprisingly, I often hang up. Let me explain why.

Reason number one is that I am generally not interested and they have no reason to think I would be interested. I’m saving them time so they can go on to a more likely prospect.

Reason number two is that telemarketers read from scripts they clearly didn’t write. They drone on in a monotone, tripping on words they are not comfortable with. Ugh! And it’s even more of a turn-off when I can hear masses of telemarketers all talking in the background.

Reason number three is that the caller has become obnoxious. For instance, I recently eavesdropped when a major political party phoned an unemployed friend who had donated in the past. He said he could not donate again because he was unemployed, and they proceeded to tell him how important it is to maintain an ongoing mass media campaign for elections that are months in the future.

I would have hung up immediately. I am not obligated to tell strangers deeply personal information to justify my decision. And then for them to prolong the misery with more pressure is exceptionally distasteful. Click!

Reason number four is that some telemarketers call too persistently. My bank called repeatedly to peddle an insurance product I did not want, and I repeatedly said I was not interested. Finally I raised “heck” with a supervisor and got off the list. A limited number of repeat calls is acceptable when getting voice mail, but a one-on-one “no” means “no.” And it means to wait awhile (maybe even till forever) before calling again.

In contrast, here’s how I do my calls.

I ask if the other person uses services such as mine. If they say yes, I ask about their needs and how we could proceed to work together.

If they say no, I ask if they may be interested in the future or pose some other polite follow-up question.

If they still say no, I thank them for their time and get off the phone.

People don’t have to hang up on me to get rid of me. I just wish other callers were as polite.

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How to comment on a blog

August 16th, 2010 · Social networking

Now that I have a blog, I’m seeing the whole issue of comments from a different perspective. So as the internet marketing big shots say lately, let’s pull back the velvet curtain and see what’s really going on back there.

What’s going on is lots of spam.

So let me fill you in on what it looks like and what that means for those of us who care about blogging.

What spam looks like

Some spam is easy to spot. A jumble of keywords that you’d recognize from the rest of your spam. Or long strings of related terms about shoes, replica watches or whatever.

This spam comes from domain names that make no sense or are about topics that do not relate to the blog in any way.

Some spam is difficult to detect. At first glance it appears to endorse your content and compliment the blog owner. But as you read more slowly, you see that it doesn’t quite fit. It talks about how much they enjoy what you write or how valuable your ideas are, but they don’t quite mesh with the post in question or the overall intent of the blog. They’re sufficiently generic to be used on any number of blogs. And they probably are!

Why would anyone do this?

I’d guess it’s to create “Google love” by creating backlinks that tell Google that my website likes their website by posting a link to it.

The solution is in the hands of those of us who comment on the blogs of others. We have to post comments that are sufficiently specific and relevant that they are clearly written for that one blog.

This doesn’t mean that comments have to be long. The blogging culture welcomes posts of all lengths. Succinct is fine.

Here’s something else that’s important:

Some bloggers post lots of blog comments to create backlinks to their own websites. But ironically, many blogs create no backlinks at all even though their owners may think they allow for functioning backlinks.

This was true for my blog for awhile. It did not allow backlinks and I didn’t know it. Then I learned about SEObook and installed its Firefox toolbar. Now when I am reading someone else’s blog, I click on a certain icon and “nofollow” links are highlighted in red. This means that comments posted on the blog are not recognized by Google. (SEObook provides other info too.)

Good to know.

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The new telephone party line

August 10th, 2010 · Marketing

Back in the olden days, when my 87-year-old mother was a child, there was a telephone arrangement called the party line. (Actually, it persisted till somewhat recently in some rural areas and Wikipedia claims a few still exist.)

Multiple households shared the same phone line so only one person from among all the homes could talk at a time. Varying ring tones indicated which household should answer the call.

Telephone party lines were a tremendous nuisance, in part because each individual could listen in on all the calls and, of course, you had to compete for phone time.

There was simply too much, shall we say, “community” for anyone’s taste.

Today we have a different phone problem.

Sure, when people tell me they refuse to build their freelancing, consulting or solopro practice by phoning (called “cold calling” by Google), they uniformly give the same justification: they fear rejection.

But in practice, that fear is totally unfounded. I’ve made thousands of calls and experienced remarkably little rejection. One person curtly hung up on me. But no swearing. That’s it.

Of course, many people have not answered the phone, and with modern caller ID, it’s possible they were by the phone but decided not to pick up.

And many, many people have said “no,” but I don’t count that as rejection. Since I’ve called them without knowing if they have any upcoming assignments, it’s perfectly natural for most of those called to have no need.

So if you know what you’re going to say and you believe in your product (you do believe in your own services, don’t you?,) rejection-dread quickly fades away.

Now as I do phoning for clients, I find another problem: isolation.

Phoning can be emotionally exhausting. It feels like we are all alone facing a conversation that can be perceived as confrontational (though in practice, we are calling to offer assistance, not to engage in combat).

I’ve found a successful way to manage this uncomfortable feeling and I call it the new “party line.”

This party line doesn’t exist in reality like the old ones did. It exists in our minds.

People all over the country, around the world, are all engaged in phoning to offer our services to those who may need them. We can see ourselves as part of a community, all of us engaged in the same challenge.

And wouldn’t it be fun to share stories of our most challenging calls? Reminisce about rejection stories and turn tense situations into laughs?

I invite you to share your stories right here. Go out and try to get some rejection. This will motivate you to make calls and turn the sting of “rejection” into a shared pleasure.

As you can see above, I have experienced no rejection. So alas, I have no story to present.

Therefore I did some online research and still unearthed no rejection stories. Instead, the funny tales are about callers who did not realize that the “hold” button or “mute” button did not “take” when pressed. As a result, the individual being called heard the insults and jokes at their expense on the caller’s side of the line.

Oops.

Please share your stories here.

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Lots of penny-wise, pound-foolish companies lately

August 1st, 2010 · The big issues

I’m hearing so many stories recently . . .

One company spends many thousands of dollars of staff time as accounting blocks IT from purchasing less than $4,000 of licensed software that is universally acknowledged to work—and then the company spends thousands more in staff time to work around not having the right software.

A Fortune 500 employer lays off a competent IT person (technically a contract worker who does not receive benefits) in favor of outsourcing. As a result the company misses out on the convenience of an onsite expert, sacrificing control over how and when the work is done. Oh, plus the cost in actual dollars is higher!

A medical provider scrimps on hiring administrative personnel to keep on top of insurance, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Then they set high-count work quotas that reward staff for quickly handling a lot of easy accounts while complex, big-money cases languish past deadline until their rights of collection expire.

Marketers throw massive quantities of cheap, search-optimized but mediocre “content” onto the internet to game the system with quantity over quality.

My husband Wayne—who monitors our medical bills and insurance reimbursements with an amazing attention to detail—phones his doctor’s office to point out that they have not collected their reimbursement from the insurer and there’s evidence of a systemic problem with the insurance subscriber numbers on file. You’d think they would thank him, right? No, they are not interested in following up—they say it takes too long for them to collect on insurance claims.

Seems to me that more companies than ever are slowly committing suicide—or at least self-mutilation—for the appearance of saving a few bucks.

I choose to look at examples of intelligent or daring entrepreneurship as glimpses of the new economy.

And when the economic outlook seems bleak, I tell myself that this is the disintegration that precedes rebirth.

I prefer to believe that there’s a lot of opportunity for creative, brave, self-employed freelancers, consultants and entrepreneurs to emerge because there sure is a lot of stupidity out there now.

Giant companies will need big solutions to overturn the impact of long-term, brain-dead bureaucracies and myopic false economies.

Talented solopros will be needed. And if executives perceive these needs, we will be hired. So let’s position ourselves for opportunities on the horizon.

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A different perspective on this whole “rejection” thing

July 30th, 2010 · Marketing

It’s kind of interesting when people tell me they couldn’t possibly telephone companies for freelance or consulting assignments because they can’t risk the rejection.

It’s interesting because I got into telephoning (or as others call it, cold calling) to avoid rejection.

Let’s start at the beginning.

I’ve been terminated from “good” corporate jobs four times. Once I was on disability leave. I’m fine now (that was many years ago) and it didn’t sting because them’s the rules.

The other three times were not plant closings or massive right sizing. Just little ole me and hugely painful. Big time rejection.

It’s been many years and I still feel the rejection. Fortunately my mental health is satisfactory, but I’m just saying. For me, getting terminated is worse than getting divorced.

My divorce in 1993 was big-time messy, but losing jobs has been, for me, far worse.

My next most important experience with rejection was in looking for a full-time corporate job.

I don’t know if “rejection” is the right word. What I experienced was less personal than rejection. I simply didn’t exist. I fell into the black job-market hole repeatedly.

I submitted carefully tailored resumes and cover letters. No response, usually. I did telephone and in-person interviews. No response, usually, unless I was hired. I waited for their follow-up call that was promised early next week. Nothing.

The experts said I should be looking for a full-time job 40 hours a week, but I couldn’t think up enough useful activity to fill the time.

“They” said I should discover unsolved corporate problems and get meetings with executives to show my solutions so they would create jobs that did not yet exist.

Huh?

Still haven’t figured out how to do it.

I was a financial writer for mutual fund companies. Their “problem” was that the marketing copy was dull and uninspired. The reason was that industry regulations prohibit effective writing. So the best way to demonstrate that you don’t know what you’re doing is to show them how you can improve their writing.

Furthermore, I had—and have—no idea how to identify and solve problems that company insiders can’t solve and even less of an idea about how to get in to talk with corporate executives for this purpose without relying on false pretenses.

Most everything I knew how to do to get a job was well-known to be a waste of time (especially sending in a resume for an advertised opening).

And since very little was working, I felt rejected.

So to fill up some time and generate some income, I started telephoning for freelance and consulting assignments. Yes, I turned to phoning to avoid activities that were causing me to feel rejected—or even invisible.

How much rejection have I experienced while phoning for freelance and consulting?

Well, someone hung up on me once. A few people have said “no” somewhat curtly.

And of course, many people have not answered and have instead allowed the call to roll over to voice mail.

I’ll take this level of rejection over the alternatives any day!

For more information

Visit http://www.StandUp8Times.com for your free report: Two Secrets to Get Freelance and Consulting Assignments Quickly and Two Dangerous Questions Guaranteed to Lock You Up in Analysis-Paralysis Prison

http://www.StartFreelancingAndConsulting.com: how to start getting assignments quickly

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Can you become an overnight success in one night?

July 25th, 2010 · Feature Article, Marketing

In 2008 I took my first extended course on internet marketing from Mark Silver, immortalized on my mentor page.

This was my first concentrated effort to develop the concept that became Stand Up 8 Times.

On more than one occasion I whined to Mark that it’s taking me too long to get going and everyone else succeeds so much faster.

Mark thought I was comparing myself to others too much and in an unhealthy way. He had a point—I still believe that it’s unfair for others to eat twice as much chocolate cake as me yet weigh 30 pounds less.

But frankly, I saw it a little differently. I believed I was making valid comparisons. Everyone seems to be posting hazed out screens from Paypal showing how rich they are becoming. Everyone seems to be doubling their lists and their sales in no time at all. If only I could afford to buy everyone’s secrets. Or was my problem laziness?

“What’s the secret? What’s the secret?” I silently called out. (Had I been hiking solo in the Alps, my frustration would still be echoing among the peaks.)

I still may not know the secret but I know a secret: it takes time to build a business. Internet marketing promises instant results if you buy the right advice, but for many people, instant stretches on longer than they would like.

Many of the top experts say that their coaching program will teach you in three months what it took them eight years to learn.

The problem is that more is involved than “learning.” Yes, in three months you could ace an essay test about their area of expertise. But implementing all these lessons in a way that matches your unique product or service takes time. You have to internalize the knowledge and live with it in the process of claiming it.

That’s why it took them eight years to learn. They weren’t stupid, it simply took time.

And that’s why we often find that we’ve learned little from a teleseminars. Sure, we already knew what they are saying. The challenge is in applying this knowledge!

Over time I appreciated Mark’s observation much more than I did initially. I realized that most people buy multiple coaching programs and products as they develop their businesses. No matter how much they try to stay on schedule with their first course—week one, create USP; week two, post website; week three, start blog—they get frustrated because even the work that is “completed” on schedule may not feel ready to be released to the world.

Coaches love testimonials from students who have succeeded under their watch, who have tripled their list or earned a million bucks or halved the hours they work each week.

Now I’m not saying there’s anything dishonest about coaches publishing these success stories—factually, they are probably true—but I am saying that it took months or probably years for the student to put all the mental and tangible pieces in place that enabled this leap to success. The last coach in line wins, standing upon the preceding coaches’ shoulders.

The truth about my business

You may have noted that the copy on my website says you’ll start making money quickly. But note that while I talk about “quick,” I’m limiting this speediness to starting to make money, not to telling your boss where to go next Monday morning.

I still claim that I can help you get your first paying assignment within 30 days. But anyone who earns five figures in his first 30 days already has something in place—unique specialty, lots of connections, stunning resume, well-developed marketing system—that changes the game.

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