Consumer generated media is fast becoming the most important factor in marketing effectiveness for many industries. And for those industries where it’s not yet a major determinant of marketing success, it’s just a matter of time.

Consumer generated media (CGM) is the combination of comments, reviews, critiques, and complaints wielded by consumers and devoured by prospective buyers in the world of blogs, forums, and online social networks.

CGM is nothing more than word of mouth. And word of mouth marketing — which marketers have always desired — is now on multi-media steroids.

As your business coach, I’d be remiss if I didn’t warn you of the irreversible transformation taking place in the marketplace of the new millennium. The consumer is in control with all the information, commentary, and comparisons she could want at her fingertips. If you haven’t already begun to adapt your marketing strategies to today’s marketplace, you need to do so immediately.

One example from the auto industry

In the automotive industry, the Internet is now inseparable from the purchase cycle. Nearly 75 percent of consumers cite word-of-mouth recommendations as the most influential factor in their car buying discussion. If you want to think of it another way, over $300 billion in global auto sales are influenced by the recommendations of others.

That’s some pretty serious power behind word of mouth. And this is where CGM comes into the picture. Here’s what you can learn from the big auto makers that you can use to supercharge your small business growth.

In an article Who’s Behind the Wheel Now? Pete Blackshaw outline how auto shoppers increasingly rely on the digital trail of high-impact consumer-generated media (CGM).

* CGM Impressions: The Web hosts over 100 million auto-related comments from consumers. This barely factors in the explosive growth of experience-rich blog commentary. A growing percentage of these public comments are fortified with highly-persuasive multi-media imagery such as photos or videos

* CGM Reach: Comments act as de facto ad units. They’re served in a highly-targeted manner against nearly one billion auto-related searches every year.

* CGM Hot Spots: Millions of comments provide specifics on auto-related fraud, lawsuits, and safety problems.

* CGM Impact: A growing percentage of auto shoppers walk into showrooms with a stash of Internet commentary, blog reviews, Edmunds scorecards, and more to increase negotiation leverage. Data equals power.

The auto industry is just one example of the new marketplace dynamics that companies must deal with. The small business owner who makes stimulating a dialog with consumers and monitoring CGM a top priority now will be the one to establish a firm leadership role in his or her chosen niche.

What you need to do to succeed with your small business

It’s the same thing as big corporations — you need to listen to your target market, and provide them an easy way to communicate with you. There’s a major difference for you though.

In making these adaptations to your marketing and business operations, you have two distinct advantages as a small business owner.

1. You’re already a lot closer to your clients and customers than big corporations can ever hope to be.

2. When it comes to changes and improvements, you can make them a lot faster than larger companies can.

These are BIG advantages held by small business owners, and they’re not to be taken lightly. Consumer behavior, desires, and demands are changing in every industry large and small. You can use the advanced research and tracking of big corporations to adjust and improve your marketing and business growth.

So what are some of the things you can do to put CGM and word of mouth in your corner?

1. Position yourself as a trusted expert. That means positioning yourself and your company in areas that people in your target market visit (online and offline) for information or education related to your industry.

When they see you have a presence where they visit, you’ll be more trustworthy. This is something we’ve seen have significant impact on sales closures for many of our business coaching clients.

2. Make it easy for consumers to learn about you, your company, and what makes you a better choice than your competitors.

That means having a web site that is user friendly and easy to navigate. And in some cases it means providing direct comparisons of your product or service benefits over your competitors right on your own web site. Consumers will find that info on their own anyway, so you might as well save them the time. When done properly, this is another powerful ally in attracting new clients to your company.

3. Open channels of dialog and provide multiple ways of channels for developing a relationship with you. An essential first step is having your own business blog. They’re low cost, easy to manage, and extremely effective in this area.

A business blog provides a less formal area (than your “regular” web site) where people can get to know you and your company. Consumers can interact with you at will. And you can generate a significant amount of trust with prospects and clients by communicating through words, audio, or even video that you can publish to the web in a snap.

Note: If you don’t yet have a business blog and would like to learn how to use one to develop a long-term strategy for attracting more qualified clients, boosting traffic, and building trust with prospects before their eyes or ears ever meet a marketing message — check out the master level multi-media course How to Master Business Blogging.

The most important thing you can remember if you want to succeed in the 21st Century marketplace is that consumer comments, opinion, and satisfaction are one with marketing. There is no separation and you can’t overcome CGM with traditional marketing, not matter how much money you put behind it. (The auto industry has learned that the hard way, so learn from their mistakes for free.)

How to get started today

If you remember those essential facts, your mindset will begin to shift when it comes to marketing and growing your business. Then, with coaching in the right strategies and actions, you’ll be able to establish a firm leadership role in your chosen industry or niche. You can do it on your own, or significantly speed things up with the help of your business coach — but which ever path you choose — start shifting your approach today. If you don’t, I can guarantee one of your competitors will.

John-Paul Micek

The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

What an exciting morning here in Hawaii!

I got up early (yes, we’re six hours behind Eastern time during the Summer) to watch Danica Patrick , a true contender race car driver in the 89th annual Indy 500 held in Indianpolis this year.

Her qualifying speed of 227.004 mph was fourth fastest, earning her the top starting position by a woman in the race’s history.

“Danica Patrick, 23, the only woman in the 33-car lineup and only the fourth female to race in the big event at the Brickyard in its 89-year history, is squarely in the spotlight heading into the 500-mile race.” ~ reported by The NY Daily News via RSS feed, May 29th, 2005.

Danica lead in the last 12 laps in the Indy 500 race this morning - and almost won her first ever Indy race - while still a rookie! - She made history as the first woman racer to lead one lap in the Indy 500 - let alone leading a total of 14 laps!!!!

Danica Patrick became the first woman to lead the Indy 500 on the 56th lap! She kept herself in the top 5 positions during the majority of the first part of the race. Despite some setbacks, rookie mistakes, including a minor accident, she still pulled off a bold move and wound up being the race leader again, held that position in the last 8 laps of the race, and could have very well won the Indy 500 with as little as a half gallon more of fuel!

Although Danica Patrick wound up placing 4th place when the Indy 500 race was over, she showed the world what she was made of, and I predict her taking first place in the not too distant future. Danica Patrick is the fastest female in the Indy 500, and she’ll soon be the fastest racer.

With all the obstacles Danica overcame throughout the race - including an engine stall in the pits, a 360 degree spin out, a bump from another racer’s tires, then later in a minor accident — she continued to recover, gain her composure, stay focused and came back, again and again. Going from 16th place to 8th place during laps 79 - 151, she later took the lead in the final 10 laps, with a courageous move that came with the risk of running out of fuel in the last lap.

It was a risky and bold move approved by her championship coach, Bobby Rahall, and it proved the perfect move that got her in the final four on the last lap. A race I’ll remember forever - and fortunately, others will too, as she made history today, and will go down in immortality in the history books - not just the race car books where the winners go ever year.

The underdog makes bold moves

Danica Patrick certainly won in my book today, and in the hearts of millions who watched and cheered on. Whether fans of the sport were at the edge of their seats in their living rooms, like my husband and I, or out of their seats standing in the Indianpolis stadium, everyone was impressed with the feat she pulled off today.

She had an entire stadium filled with standing fans and admirers who respected what she did in the final 12 laps. No one - I repeat - NO ONE was seated, and the crowd was cheering her on, men and women alike, whether they were fans of hers or Andretti fans, they were waving their caps and cheering for what she accomplished today…

Ahhh… what an awesome and exciting race!!!

Danica Patrick has led an interesting life that has served to develop her skills in the racing industry.

What you can take away from Danica’s performance as a small business owner

Her focus, determination and ability to handle an Indy car as fast as the next guy is an example for all small business owners who experience a “stall” in their business, or get into an accident with a business move that doesn’t pan out as well as they’d hoped.

Keep this in mind:

A stall doesn’t mean defeat.

Failures and mistakes don’t mean defeat. Even the risk of running out of funds (or fuel) should not stop us from pursuing our goals with every ounce of energy we’ve got. It’s tough mentally, but you need to focus ONLY on one thing — winning.

You can’t make determinations of your future based on one time incidents because you just never know. And Danica Patrick, a 23 year old woman from Illinois certainly just proved that today as she raced her heart out.

Let her inspire you to keep going forward in your business - even when you think the chips are down. You just might make history.

PS: Post your comments if you tuned in to this race, and share your thoughts and predictions. Where do you see Danica Patrick in the next 3-5 years?

BTW: If you happen to know Danica, and you’re reading this, let her know that I’d love to interview her in an upcoming Effective Entrepreneur Radio Show. If she’d like to inspire other women to pursue their big goals, and share her strategies for success, send her our way. I’d love to meet this amazing woman!

Deborah Micek
The Business Communication Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Q. With the big companies out there with huge teams and unlimited capital and resources… how can the small business owner compete?

I’ve read about misunderestimated business owners, and how they came out of no where to clobber their big competitors.

But how do underestimated people win? Is there a system for small business success? A rule of thumb? Or is it just plain luck?

What makes “The Underdog” Win?

Sincerely,
The Underdog Business Owner

A. Aloha Underdog Business Owner,

Good news! If you believe you can win, and consistently give it your all (and about 35% more…) you may just be one of those underdog business owner success stories we’ll read about on Fast Company, INC, or in Fortune Magazine.

The Contender TV show on NBC just wrapped up it’s mega popular new Reality TV series that for me, was exciting to follow as a business coach, as it provided an insider’s look and insight into what qualities and actions lead up to winning a championship.

In the end, an underdog, Alfonso Gomez, who was boxing fighters who were two levels above him got into the final four, had his entire fight televised in front of a huge live audience at Ceaser’s Palace in Las Vegas, and in front of millions who tuned in to root for this underdog, who won his last fight.

Although I was rooting for Alfonso Gomez to win the entire championship, despite not being in the final two, he did get into the final four, and still wound up winning against his opponent in the final four who was much bigger and stronger than him. He also earned the privilege of sitting along side boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard, and the producer of this popular television series, Sylvester Stallone. In my book - that’s winning - and that’s winning big time!

When we use our minds to think innovatively, we can think of how to apply this underdog mentality and strategy using a step-by-step system for success in our own small business.

These same qualities for boxers can be applied in the business world.

We saw in the first episode how the winner, Alfonso Gomez, ultimately prepared for his win and how the loser exhibited “over-confidence” and “fear of losing” which led the underdog to win this round.

During the second episode - once again, the underdog took it! At 20:1 odds, the underdog was the clear winner - despite injuries he fought through in order to pull off an incredible victory!

Time and time again throughout the entire series, the underdog would take everyone by surprise and win the match.

I believe success can be modeled - and who better to model than olympians, athletes and those who have gone before and hurdled extraordinary odds.

Here’s a re-cap of The Contender’s premiere show, and the success strategy that you can model when reaching Big Goals in your business and life.

Gaining the upper hand from a win earlier in the day, Alfonso Gomez had the choice to pick anyone he wanted to fight in this first show in the first match of the season.

The obvious strategy would be to pick someone weaker and easier to beat.

But instead, Alfonso Gomez chooses a greater, bolder, more daring strategy. He chooses to fight the best boxer on the opposing team, undefeated champion Peter Manfredo, from Rhode Island.

Why does Gomez choose someone in a higher division than him, and an undefeated champion (until he lost to Gomez)?

Because he’s confident that he’ll win. Knowing that if he wins, he becomes a hero, and a force to be reckoned with. However, if he loses, it goes on his professional fighting record and he goes home. So either way, it was still a huge risk, but one Gomez felt was worth taking.

The stakes are high, but he’s got the “eye of the tiger” and he does everything to prepare himself for the fight of his life.

The underdog takes it!

Here are a few things our underdog did that ultimately allows him to win against an undefeated boxing champion who was ranked #3 in the world!

1) Alfonso Gomez prepared himself up to this point to get him on this show.

2) Alfonso applies a bold strategy by picking the best fighter on the opposing team – who “on paper” according to news reporters at the press conference would be the “stronger fighter” of the two. This demonstrates his leadership abilities, because he set the tone for the entire series from that day forward.

3) Gomez is realistic – he knows it’s going to be a tough fight – but continually takes a positive viewpoint with his reoccurring statements proclaiming to everyone who will listen,

“I’m ready for this! I’m GOING to win! I‘m gonna beat him. I know it.”

4) Gomez prepares himself for the next day’s fight by going into the ring – the place where it’s all going to happen. He visualizes the entire fight. Jabbing, punching, blocking, ducking and ultimately – winning the fight – with hands lifted up and gratitude in his eyes.

5) Alfonso Gomez adopts Ali’s confidence of proclaiming his future, stating,

“This is my passion, my dream… I came here to fight… I came here ready. I WILL become The Contender.”

6) Next, on the day of the fight – you see he has the full support, love, confidence and prayers of his entire family. This is one of those intangible things that give us the energy to perform at an optimal level.

7) Throughout the fight, he additionally has the support of his entire team – a team who will ultimately fight him if he maintains to the end. But his leadership in choosing such a formidable opponent gains him the respect of his entire team.

And, as underdogs usually have – he possesses such charisma, confidence and leadership in choosing this daring strategy – while his team roots him on, jumping off their chairs, and coaching him to win.

Ultimately, he wanted it badly enough to give everything he had. After all… as the underdog, Alfonso Gomez had nothing to lose yet he had the world to gain. (Not to mention the potential one million dollar prize money in store if he does win the entire championship.

Your Coaching Corner:
Now, look carefully through the 7-steps to a winning strategy and apply each one to your small business.

How can you apply Alfonso’s boxing strategy to your business?

How can you come up from behind and blow your competitors away?

Just like NetFlix did with Blockbusters - forcing it to totally rethink their business practices, and then model after “the underdog’s strategies” in order to stay in the ring.

How can you do the same in your business and/or industry?

Share some of your thoughts and ideas in the comment section to this blog post - and let us know who you were rooting for if you caught the contender series.

If you didn’t - go rent the entire series from NetFlix as soon as it’s released.

Business Owner’s Question: Should I have a business blog AND a newsletter? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having both?

Your Business Coaches’ Answer: Yes – we recommend having BOTH a blog and a newsletter – for a variety of reasons. But for the sake of brevity, here are just a few ideas to get your brain thinking creatively on the concept of using business blogs.

1. Until your market catches up with the world of blogging and RSS feeds, you’ll want to keep your newsletter up to date, keeping in constant contact with your clients, subscribers and referrals. Offering both delivery channels keeps you from losing any subscribers who don’t understand what RSS feeds are or who are unwilling to step into a new technology yet.

2. Publishing both a business blog (using RSS technology) and a newsletter does not have to be double work either. You can even use RSS feeds to automatically CREATE your newsletter for you — including content. You become a resource center for your target market, saving them valuable research time. If you’re the type of business owner who prefers not to write articles, this is a neat strategy.

3. If you do like to write, with some pretty basic programming steps to customize your business blog — your blog can actually SERVE double duty as your newsletter. If you keep a client-centric focus no one will even realize the change.

Your subscribers would just think your format changed a little, but otherwise, they would continue to appreciate the valuable content you provide for them – sending it directly to their inbox.

If you are commited to learning more about blogging and RSS, and are ready for a more indepth understanding of blogs, RSS and leveraging the technology for your business you’ll want to subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog: http://www.AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com

John-Paul Micek
The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

In part one of this business coaching e-session, we looked at why planned incremental improvements are the sure path to BIG success. You also learned why making improvements in your business in small bite-sized pieces is the way to keep yourself from “should-ing” all over yourself. In part two, you’ll learn a practical four-step process that you can use to make it easy for you and your team to put small incremental improvements into action each and every week.

Let’s get right to it!

Here’s a simple, incremental process that’s we’ve proven time and time again with our business coaching clients to accumulate BIG gains in the real world of the busy business owner. It starts with four simple steps.

Step 1. Once per month, you (and your team) create a master list of five improvement targets (tasks or projects) that you’d like to make in the next 30 days – one for each category in the list below.

Step 2. Decide how you’ll know when each target has improved to an optimal level. (Coach’s hint: To make this easier, always make sure that your plans and actions are linked to measurable results. To help with that, just think about how your clients will be able to tell when you’ve achieved the improvement you wanted in this target area.)

Step 3. Every week, choose one small step you can take in each improvement target that will help you reach your ultimate goal. Focus your attention ONLY on taking that one small step in each improvement target area - no more! Do this for all five areas listed below.

Step 4. Before planning your small steps for the upcoming week, review the previous week’s actions and see how you’ve improved. Once the month is up, repeat the process again for the following month.

5 key for your to focus on for sustained business growth

When working with our business-coaching clients we help them to focus on 12 specific areas of business development. That can be a little overwhelming when starting out on your own, so here are five general areas with which you can start. These are core areas that every business owner should focus on improving, no matter what your industry or niche is.

1. Systems and organizational structure
2. Click-and-mortar marketing
3. Consultative selling
4. Client service
5. Delivery of your product or service

After just four weeks of consistently practicing this process, you’ll be amazed at what you’ll begin to see. You’ll have proved to yourself how easy it is to make significant and measurable improvements - one small step at a time. And, if you’re like most small-business owners who faithfully follow this process, you’ll have tons of new ideas for improvements in your business.

Most of our coaching clients have developed so many incremental improvements that we’ve developed special Organizational Structure and Task Management Maps to help them keep moving along at warp speed — even with hundreds of bite-sized improvements in the lineup! This is something you can do for yourself too.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or want to really accelerate your achievement of BIG gains with simple small steps, then it’s time to move up to working with your own business coach. You can do that with one-on-one RPM Business Owner’s Coaching, customizing this process to address areas specifically related to you and your business. Or, gain peer support and masterminding along with practical guidance by joining the Business Owner’s Coaching Club.

This process of incremental progress is too valuable a tool for you not to have in your growth and success arsenal. Like many of our business-coaching clients, you’ll find that this proven incremental process works in any area of your business and life.

If you want exponential returns on your time, money and effort, STOP “should-ing” all over yourself. Create your own success – and do it one small step at a time.

John-Paul Micek
The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

You don’t have to make BIG changes in your business to be a HUGE success!

Does that shock you? It really shouldn’t, but don’t feel bad. Unfortunately most small business owners and entrepreneurs get fooled into believing it takes BIG improvements to make it BIG.

Take a closer look at the lives of the most successful business owners in the world. You’ll see how their current level of achievement is the result of a massive number of small, almost unperceivable actions and decisions consistently over time, not one-time dramatic events.

The “BIG change” business growth trap

Have you ever found yourself looking for some groundbreaking event to make a dramatic improvement in your business? I know I’ve fallen prey to that thinking at times. It’s the best way to get stuck in the status quo and to feel sorry for yourself. And, it’s the surest way to fall behind your competition too!

Running your business (or living your life) with this type of thinking is the sure way to live a life of “shoulds.” You know what I’m talking about.

“I know I should do ‘x’, but ‘y’ hasn’t happened yet.”
“I should do ‘this’, but I can’t without ‘that’.”

You keep it up and pretty soon you end up with more excuses, delays and justifications for not reaching your goals than you can shake a stick at. Before you know it you’ve got so many piles of “should” lying around that you can’t walk through your office without getting it stuck to your shoes. Before you know it you’ve “should” all over yourself and you’re a stinking mess.

I don’t want you to let it get to that point, it just makes for a real dirty job cleaning it all up. I know because I’ve been hardheaded enough to revisit that type of situation a few times in my 25+ years of entrepreneurial pursuits and business ownership.

There is a better way to business growth

It doesn’t involve really BIG improvements, it’s practical for the even the busiest business owner, and it’ easier that you might think.

Here’s a powerful principle that will revolutionize your approach to business growth. If you put this principle into practice I guarantee it will transform your business development and allow you to make what will end up being radical, yet lasting improvements in your company.

Instead of always trying to make something dramatic happen, concentrate your efforts on planning for, scheduling, and taking action on one small improvement in each one of the 12 key roots responsible for your business growth every month.

If you strive for the business improvements you want in incremental “bite-size” pieces you’ll make remarkable gains in as little as 90-days. Best of all, once you’ve seen what you’ve achieved, it’ll seem effortless. You can do this on your own, or really supercharge your business growth by involving your employee team.

It’s only common sense — right?

After all, think about it. If you’re not happy about something in your business or life right now, that’s how it got that way to begin with, right? Small actions (or in-actions) stacked one on top of another, day after day for years – minute after minute — intentionally or not, you are creating your own future.

It’s the smaller incremental changes you make on a consistent basis that determine where you’ll be a month, a year or a decade from now. If you dedicate yourself to improving just one small component of your business (or life) every month, you’ll rocket ahead of 94% of the population. That being true imagine what you could accomplish if you focused on boosting your performance in one targeted area per week!

In part 2 of this article I’ll show you a practical four-step process you can use to make it easy for you and your team to put small incremental improvements into action each and every week.

(If you haven’t already grabbed the RSS feed for this site and added it to your RSS reader/or your “my.yahoo.com” home page — do that now so you won’t miss part 2. You can also bookmark the page, but when you subscribe via RSS the RSS feed will let you know automatically every time we post new info and strategies. If you’re not yet familiar with RSS feeds and how to subscribe using them, visit www.AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com for introductory videos and coaching on using RSS readers and aggregators. You can also learn more about blocking and RSS there too.)

John-Paul Micek
The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

I was recently in a forum on Ryze.com, and the question on whether to have a website or not came up, (shockingly from a very brave newbie) with my corresponding answer in the Q&A blog post written yesterday.

I wanted to share that answer with my blog readers, because it’s such a critical question that many ponder, and most people still don’t realize how they can reduce the time it takes to get a website up and running, through the creation of a business blog.

Literally within 10 minutes of creating a business, or business name, you can have a free blog up and running on the internet.

Within 24-48 hours of creating your blog, you can have it crawled by a popular search engine spider like Google. (ah… but that’s a strategy beyond the scope of this blog Q&A.)

If you’re looking for more specifics on how to set up a blog, including free videos that walk you through the process of setting up your first blog in under 10 minutes, you’ll enjoy this link: http://www.AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com

In the meantime, here’s my response to that Question on having a website (or a blog substitute), and what Bill Gates has allegedly said.

>>Coach Deb replies:

Bill Gates was “semi-right” - because there will ALWAYS be people who exist in a “non-connected” universe, while still finding food and water to survive on.

Sure, they may still “BE in business.” BUT - they certainly won’t be THRIVING in it.

But if they took advantage of all the powerful advantages of having both a website and a business blog they could instead attract traffic that converts to clients that churns out CASH!

There are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many things you can use a website and a blog for. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

(Boy, I should write copy for a web designer, b/c I can think of at LEAST a dozen different ways that a website can increase the profitability of ANY business - even an old-fashioned brick-and-mortar business who never even considered adding a website to their business marketing plan.)

Show me a business owner who doesn’t want to make a good profit while also having a nice life, and more time on their hands, and I’ll show you someone addicted to a life of hardship and martyrdom.

Perhaps that’s how Bill Gates should have worded it. They may still “be” in business - but they’ll also be complaining and whining about the complexities and hardships of running it all the time.

Deborah Micek
The Communication Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Yahoo is expanding its Yahoo Local search service by providing a free web site to business owners that will automatically be integrated into Yahoo Local listings. This aggresive new program is available to any U.S. small business owner who has a physical presence serving a local area. Believe it or not — approximately 50% of businesses in the U.S. stuill do not have a web site according to the Kelsey Group. And Yahoo wants to grab as many of those business owners as possible.

If you’re a small business start up, or if you just have not had the time or energy to get your website up and rolling, Yahoo’s “point and click” site build will get you there quickly.

Free business sites are similar to Yahoo Local enhanced business listings—with a key difference. With both basic (free) and enhanced ($9.95 per month) local listings, businesses submit information directly to Yahoo. This information is merged with other sources of information like maps, user reviews and so on, and is returned in Yahoo Local search results.

The new free business web sites, by contrast, are stand-alone destinations over which an owner has full control, and users can be sent directly to the site’s URL. Yahoo will link to these sites in Local business listings, but perhaps more importantly, even though free business sites are hosted by Yahoo other search engines can crawl them, potentially broadening the scope of exposure for a business.

So, if you already are paying for an enhanced Local listing, should you stop and switch to a free web business web site? That depends on the type of traffic you’re receiving. Enhanced business listings allow you to include additional content in your Yahoo local listing, such as photographs, promotional messaging, additional links and so on, and also provide reporting.

You can get more details and learn how to get your free small business website here.

John-Paul Micek
The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Press Release For immediate release: May 4, 2005

HAWAII CELEBRATES ITS AMAZING WOMEN

Honolulu … On Saturday, May 7, 2005, the 4th Annual Amazing Women’s Conference will take place at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider’s Grand Salon and Terrace.

More than 100 of Hawaii’s amazing women have pre-registered to attend this inspiring event and ALL 100 women who attend will receive FREE massage gift certificates to enjoy at their own leisure!

One lucky woman will win a $2,000 scholarship to the University of Phoenix.

The purpose of the conference is to provide a day of celebration to honor all women; simultaneously raising awareness for women’s issues not only in Hawaii, but around the world; raising the status of women everywhere, while inspiring each woman to take action to improve her own life as well as the lives of those around her.

When learning of the scholarship donation, Business Coach Deborah Micek, producer of the Amazing Women’s Conference, commented

“I was thrilled! This is what the event is all about – to provide more opportunities for women to become successful. I am so pleased that Tau Vee-Remmers and Nada Kegley with the University of Phoenix will be on hand for the grand prize drawing. There are many other wonderful prizes that have been donated to help improve the lives of Hawaii’s amazing women too.

Gillian Armour Image Consulting has donated a complete style-makeover. One woman will receive teeth whitening from world reknowned dentist, Dr. Wynn Okuda and Dr. Bob Peterson will present a thermage makeover.

The outpouring of thousands of dollars worth of prizes and gifts has been amazing in itself. There are so many that I can’t begin to mention them all.”

Registration and networking begins at 9 a.m. The Amazing Women’s Conference celebration program runs from 9:45 a.m. through 3 p.m. and features vendor booths; gifts; prizes; sit-down luncheon; and amazing speakers including Marisa Burgess, the Dream Makeover Hawaii winner, who will share her amazing experience and transformation to a self-confident professional.

The Hawaii Dream Team of doctors and coaches will also be on hand to give tips and answer questions. Other Amazing Women presenters scheduled are Dr. Suzanne Gelb, Licensed Psychologist, Attorney At Law, and published author; Gracanne Keohohou Lee, motivational speaker, Hawaii-born woman, mother, wife, author and business owner; and Li‘i Naeole, Amazing Woman of the Year.

All proceeds from the event will be presented to Sisters Offering Support, Hawaii’s only nonprofit that provides services to youth and adults affected by the abuse of the commercial sex trade.

Cosponsors of the Amazing Women’s Conference are The Queen’s Women’s Health Center and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts Hawaii in conjunction with RPM Success Group Inc. For more information, go to: http://www.amazingwomensconference.com/

There are plenty of small business owners who have incredible intelligence, yet still struggle with achieving lasting success. You may even know people who are talented beyond imagination, yet haven’t yet found “real success.” Ultimately, small business success comes down to having the right attitude.

Although the “right” attitudes may vary depending on how your company is structured and what responsibilities rest on your shoulders, there are some attitudes that are a requirement across all industries and professions. Courage is one of these essential attitudes.

Some people might say that courage is not an attitude, rather it’s a feeling. Yet if you ask the heroes who put their lives on the line they may not tell you they “felt courageous” right before a heroic act.

For example, a fire fighter I spoke with after the 9/11 tragedy reflected how he moves forward “in spite” of any fear that may enter his mind. The very action he takes is what chases the crippling fear away.

If he simply focuses on the fear itself, it will immobilize him or cause him to think a few seconds slower. And that could ultimately cost him his own life or the life of a team member or person he is attempting to rescue.

Being an entrepreneur takes immense courage

Entrepreneurs who take on the unknown risks of starting a new business often report feeling nervous and unsure of their future.

Regardless of not “feeling ready” for everything that lies ahead, they take the first step in faith to pursue things yet to be seen. That very action is what develops momentum and propels them towards their business goals. Just before they take that action, the words “Just Do It” flash through their minds and suddenly, they’re off running toward the finish line!

Courage is an action

It’s taking the first step in starting your own business or pursuing a goal you’ve been talking about for years.

It’s going above and beyond the call of duty on the job.

It takes courage to say, “Enough is enough. This is the year I take control of my destiny, and start looking at the attitudes I must develop to succeed.”

Courage means doing things that you don’t “feel” like doing simply because you know these actions will move you closer to your goals.

Courage means no more excuses! No blaming your situation on the economy, the state you live in or the “luck” everyone else seems to have been born with.

WARNING: Too often people envy things they see others have achieved without pushing through and taking all the courageous actions it took for those people to get there. This is one of the greatest outright killers of success. Be aware of it so you can avoid getting hooked in this trap!

Some Well Known Examples of Courageous People From Popular Culture are…

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Bruce Willis
Clint Eastwood

For some people the huge success of famous actors like these people above cause envy. Some people attribute their success to “good luck” or “good looks”.

Yet people rarely stop to think of all the difficulties and struggles they endured with persistence in order to get where they are today.

Small business success takes courage

It takes courage and an unstoppable commitment to your dreams to reach your goals, even when it seems that all hope is lost.

Take Arnold for instance. He came to America barely speaking English using professional bodybuilding as a launching point for his career.

John Travolta had a dry spell of fifteen years before he became a major player on the mainstream movie scene. Yet he never gave up his dream.

We forget how many years Bruce Willis spent in off-Broadway plays and the weekly TV series, “Moonlighting” before he “got his break” into the movie business. Most people just see the end result and want that level of success right now.

Are these actors doing what they love? Are they masters of their own destiny? YES — for sure!

But did they love every role, or did they enjoy the rejection that often came in their earlier days, “practicing” their talent and honing their ability?

I doubt anyone would envy the sacrificial actions made by those who create their own success. No one thinks about the sleepless nights these and other great actors spend practicing a scene over and over again or the times they experience the horrible feeling when “all hope seemed lost”.

What entrepreneurs and start up small business owners can learn from big name celebrities

What we can model as small business owners is their ability to hold onto the vision of what they ultimately want, and their persistence to pursue their dreams even when “success” didn’t seem possible.

Ask yourself, was Bruce Willis a good actor when he first started twenty-plus years ago or did his skills develop over time with each new role he played? With your answer to that question, you can begin to understand that you also have the ability to fulfill your goals. You simply need the courage to pursue them through the fun times and persist with unrelenting tenacity the tough times.

If you would like to learn more about this success principle, post a comment and I’ll make sure you receive the link to the article I wrote, “Courage is not a feeling”. You’ll learn how courage is the key to your small business success.

Deborah Micek
The Communication Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club

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