The Tiny Shoes Story (And Why You Need To Know It)

I heard a good metaphor from Fred Gleeck that I want to share with you. There is a clear distinction between using the "info guru" marketing technique and having little shoes shaken out of your head. Read on:

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Many years ago I used to tell a story when I did consulting seminars. To illustrate an important point, I'd like to share it with you.

Let's assume that for the last 20 years you've bought your shoes at Thom Mccann. Let's say that tomorrow you go into one of their retail stores, pick out a couple of pairs of shoes and bring them up to the cashier. You place them on the counter and when the clerk looks up at you, you say:

"Since I've been buying shoes here at Thom Mccann for the last 20 years I think I deserve these two pairs of shoes for FREE today . . . what do you think?"

If this were a New York City store the cashier would look at you and say: "You can put your shoes rightoverhere!"

No dice!

When you are an expert in your field, people will try and "extract" information from you for free. When someone contacts you by email, over the phone, or when they meet you in person, people will make their best effort to get FREE STUFF from you.

Inside your head there are racks with lots of tiny little shoes - your inventory.

Just like Thom Mccann, you sell something. You sell your knowledge and expertise. That's your inventory. Giving away your inventory on a regular basis will land you in bankruptcy court. It may be prudent to occasionally give away a pair of shoes in hopes of getting a large order. But you must be VERY careful when and how often you choose to do that.

So WHEN this happens to you I want to imagine that the person who tries to do it to you has grabbed you by the lapels and is shaking you. While they are shaking you, they have their hands open under your ears as they wait for the tiny shoes (your inventory) to fall out of your ears and into their hands.

They are looking to STEAL your inventory!

Don't let them do it.

If your knowledge and expertise is what you sell, don't let people steal your inventory. It's how you make your living. Instead, answer people very directly when you get this kind of routine.

Tell people that you know what they're doing. Bust them. Say something like: "I would love to give you the answers to some of those questions and will be happy to do so once you are a paying client . . . . how would you like to pay for my services? Would a check work or would Paypal be better for you?"

Stop giving your services away for free.

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Fred Gleeck is an expert in the field of Information Marketing and Seminar Marketing. He's the author of 10+ books and is an accomplished coach and consultant. Fred is known as the "King of Content" and "The Product Guru"; to receive his regular INSIGHTS via email, send a blank email to tips@seminarexpert.com; http://www.fredgleeck.com/; www.TheProductGuru.com

Get $100 worth of free books from Fred! Go to:
www.fredgleeck.com/ebooks

Booting Spammers Out of Your Mailing List

I've noticed a trend lately: a lot of sign-ups to my mailing list from the same IP address. So I did a little research and lo-and-behold, it's a "zombie" computer automatically signing up for ezines in order to steal the return address when you send the "thanks for signing up" autoresponder. (Those little stinkers!)

So, what do you do?

• First, check to see if your ezine software captures the IP (internet protocol) address of people when they sign up. I use Professional Cart Solutions (a variant of 1shoppingcart.com), and they DO capture IP addresses of each person who signs up.
• Next, check for repeat IP addresses. I notice that these sign-ups are always in the "waiting for optin" list under the Manage Clients tab, because they have no intention of opting-in. It's easy to find them: look for email addresses that don't match the name they signed up under. For instance, the name is "Mary Jones" but the email address says georgesmith@xxxxxx.com. The email addresses are almost always from hotmail.com, gmail.com, mail.com, or yahoo.com because these are free email services.
• When you find repeat IP addresses, type the IP address into Google and do some research. For example, this IP address comes up a lot on my wait-list: 203.113.13.3. When I type it into Google, I find that it's a zombie computer and Wikipedia has blocked it
• Finally, I go back to my mailing system, and look for the place where I can block specific IP addresses from either ordering from me or from signing up for my mailing lists. In the case of Professional Cart Solutions/1shoppingcart, it's under the Orders tab.

Voila! Now that zombie can't sign up for my mailing list anymore!

It takes a little due diligence to keep your list clean, but it's well worth it. And if your mailing list system won't let you ban IP addresses, consider switching to a new one.

Creating Your Reality

Back in 1998, I wrote an article entitled, "Creating Your Reality, Manifesting Your Dreams."

So many people that I've spoken with in the past month are echoing these questions about how to create the life you want, so I decided to republish the article here.

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It has been said that nothing in the world has ever been created without a thought initiating the process. Thomas Edison made hundreds of attempts at the light bulb before he found success. When asked why he kept persevering, he replied, "For each attempt that failed and was discarded, it put me one step closer to the one experiment that would succeed." For each thought, each belief, that created a reality that wasn’t quite right, a new thought took its place, creating a better reality.

We’ve all heard of these success-from-failure stories and they often help to motivate us to try our personal best, to keep persevering. But how can we keep trying in the face of overwhelming odds? How do we get past the negative beliefs, the distractions, the lack of support from our family and friends? What can we do when we’re tired of trying? What if we don’t know what our soul wants?

Your thoughts do create your reality, and in learning to modify your old, entrenched thought patterns, you can modify your reality. There are three ways to modify our thoughts. First, changing your attitudes and beliefs about your current reality often shifts your focus and awareness so that you can begin to find peace in your life. Second, creating an image or thought of the new reality you want to create and keep that in focus as you go about your day. Third, through psychotherapy, gain insight into the birth of the thought and heal it.

Setting Priorities

The first step in creating your own reality is to determine which reality you’re looking for. Often we don’t reach our dreams because we never have a clear idea of what dreams are the most important to us. What is it you want most in this lifetime? Vital good health? A loving and supportive mate? Success in your business or career? A nice home? Spiritual enlightenment? Freedom from emotional turmoil? An opportunity to study with a master?

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Read the full article here:

http://www.passionforbusiness.com/articles/creating-your-reality.htm

Sending Junk Fax Just Got Easier

According to this article on MSNBC, the FCC has loosened rules on sending junk faxes. Basically, if you give someone your fax number, that constititutes a "business relationship," and they can fax you any offer they want. Here's the kicker: if you have your fax number on your website, business cards, or brochures, that also constititutes public display and people use those items to gather fax numbers unless you specifically indicate that you do not accept unsolicited faxes.

I guess it's time for all of us to update our websites!

You can read more about it here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14684181/