Unfortunately, in the online world this tend to exists more than it should.  However, there are two things that you really need to avoid, which are copying and comparing.

Social media has been an incredible way to stay connected and grow my business, but it can also be a bad thing.  People have false ideas of what others' reality is like due to social media.  You can run a Facebook and look pretty awesome to those who know you just because you constantly keep showing up in their feed.  You have to understand that people are showing you their best versus their behind the scenes.

Businesses tend to make things look a lot better than they are, and you can't keep comparing yourself.  You have to do what's best for you.  Put your head down, and do your best in order to get your business moving.

The other C-word is copying.  It really is important, even though everyone says it.  Yes, you need to not re-create the wheel every time.  However,...

I see this one all of the time, the story of what I like to call the 'Hope Deposit'. Someone is at their wits end. Their business is crumbling.  They just can't get it together.  They are on their. last. dime.

And then it happens.

They borrow money, or put it on their credit card... That program.  That conference.  That 'thing' that takes them from rags to riches.  It's like magic, and suddenly by making that investment in themselves, EVERYTHING changes.

It's a great story, and yes, you need to invest in yourself.

However, let me be clear that making that payment or borrowing that money, does not magically make all your problems go away.

You have to apply what you learn.  You have to take MASSIVE action behind that program or event.  You can't just hope that everything changes by osmosis.

That's the part they often leave out.  What they did after that program or conference to really make them the success that they are.  They don't...

In this week's podcast, I'm making an announcement about some changes over at The Starters Club.

I'm also talking about the one thing that has made the biggest impact on my life and my business.  I can't stress enough how much you're going to want to start doing it too.

Sometimes our paths come to be by total accident but in the end they are worthwhile and come to be very useful. The journey that Brittany has taken with e-mail marketing and becoming a certified partner with Infusionsoft has proven to be just that. Learning the ins and outs of a software that can present itself as being difficult to use and understand.  She will share ways that she has found to make it work for her and her clients that will allow you to make a very educated decision about what your next steps will be within your business and e-mail marketing strategies. Even if you are not an Infusionsoft user Brittany’s story, tips and advice can lead you in a direction for your business and how to market your business with e-mail marketing.

Tell us about becoming an Infusionsoft parter and all things e-mail marketing. The path to using Infusionsoft happened a bit on accident. She started working for a small business that basically handed her the login information to...

Social Media can take some time but after I walk you through these different tools I hope that you will have the tools to make preparation simple, a set plan in place and images that will ROCK your audience.   Sharing images over words is much more powerful.

So I am going to share some tools with you to get information out to your follower, make a schedule and make images that look like you know how to graphic design all for FREE.

First, let’s talk about the information that we share to our audience. There is a couple of great tools that are out there to be able to share great articles that pertain to your business. The first tool is google.com/alerts. It allows you to set alerts about keywords that are specifically about your business or what your clients would find interesting. Once they are set up then you start getting an e-mail on each keyword with articles that are specific to that keyword that Google finds that pertains to that keyword. I may use some of them...

Membership sites are one of the most important things you can do for the growth and the success of your business.  Whether you're building something that's a monthly membership, or something that is a one time payment with monthly access, providing valuable content and community engagement is key.  Keith Griffis of ifsimply.com stopped by to help us understand how you can use membership sites for your business, along with some great tips of how to make raving customers out of the ones you create.

Keith started out in engineering, but didn't love it.  He got into marketing, and was doing a lot of marketing consulting for brands.  As he was helping people put together their offerings, he was getting frustrated with constantly having to build everything from scratch.   Everyone had different websites, and they all wanted membership sites built for them. He was spending too much time on the technical side, when in fact, it's the content that will really be what...

Jayne Rios of Express Yourself E-learning, Jayne has been creating websites since 1996.  Back then she would use meta-tags and utilize keywords.  It’s still how Google finds you, however, the technology has changed.  

She started really getting involved in Internet Marketing, which is all about utilizing keywords.  She’s been helping others do this for five years now.

What does it mean to utilize and how do I do that?  A keyword can be anything like a topic, or just a term.  Whenever you go into Google, you type in what you want to find.  Essentially, that’s your keyword.  When you type that into a search engine, it goes out for all the websites are out there and looks for that exact term that someone typed in.  They look for that in their content, page title, and their headlines.  

So when that person searches that list of Google comes up, those are matching what the person searched for versus what’s on...

I wrote this as a newsletter just a few days ago, and it received such an amazing response, that I thought I would put it here for everyone else to read.  A true moment in my life that I will never forget, and a lesson learned!

I read 'The Secret' several years ago, and that's when I was first introduced to vision boards.  I believed in them a little, but after having one vision board promoting a strong marriage, and a divorce later, I kind of gave up on them.
 
This year that changed.  I've made no bones about the fact that I'm dreaming big.  That I want to see this business build quickly, and I have dreams of vineyards and rottie rescues galore.  So as I started to put together my plan of walking away from Corporate America and living the life that I dreamed of, I felt it was time again to make a vision board.
 
And since I've always dreamed of meeting Oprah and being on her show.  Here's a picture I threw together with Photoshop and put on...

When it comes to gaining more followers for your business, Facebook Ads, seems like the easy choice.  However, it’s also a game of money, tweaking, and analyzing and doing it all over again.  Heyo.com has come to help take the guess-work out, and to gain followers, all for free, using campaigns. 

Nathan Latka Founder and CEO of Heyo.com came by to break down how campaigns work, and how they can save you a lot more money.

Explain how Heyo.com works and how it can be implemented into a business.  Heyo helps businesses market on Facebook. They work with over 2,000 customers and brands on a monthly basis with over 100,000 total users. Heyo allows the business owner to capture your fans’ email addresses. In the world of Facebook, “likes” mean nothing and contact information means everything.

What’s the advantage of using Heyo’s Campaign System?  Facebook’s ad system can be very complex to both operate and target the...

I have a bit of a bone to pick.  I spent the last weekend at Podcast Movement, which was an amazing experience.  I met a lot of great people, made some fun new connections, and just had a wonderful time.

But as much as I loved it, and learned a lot of great things, I also learned a lot of what 'Not To Do's'.

It's getting really bad in the podcasting world, the what are you going to do for me attitude, and this constant need to leverage someone else's audience.  I get it.  I mean John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire Fame, did it to get himself to a pretty comfortable financial position in just two short years.  

I just feel now it's gotten out of control.  It's not about what's best for their listeners, it's what's best for them.  And their efforts are constantly being spent figuring out how they can get more and more.

I also had someone form email me a few months prior asking me to sell his program to my listeners.  I had never heard of this...