Out of the Blog, Into the Light

Putting Your Expert Team Together

By Catherine Franz

As a freelance writer myself, I know how important it is to have, and keep track of, experts to interview. Here are a few ideas on the topic:

I always emphasize to clients and seminar participants how important it is to start and maintain a “Team 100” list -- people to support you in whatever you are doing. It is also equally important to start and maintain “Expert 100” list. For a writer this is almost mandatory whether fiction or nonfiction. However, even if you are a business owner or an employee it is just as important to have this list. One of the experts might be your next employer or a friend of one.

What is an Expert 100 list? Group of people who are experts in their careers who you know a little or a lot that you feel comfortable enough to contact them if and when you have questions in their area. It doesn’t matter whether the questions are for your business or for your writing.

There isn’t a right way to track your list--computer or index cards. MS Excel handles the process well. MS Access offers an easy-to-set-up template that needs minor tweaking. Outlook is a possibility as well, however, the file corrupts easily. I began in Outlook, moved to MS Excel, and now use Access. Even with never using Access before, I walked through the learning curve in less than an hour.

Where to Begin Your List? Take the easy route; make a list of friends, family, significant other’s parents, co-workers, neighbors, and anyone else you know. What is their expertise? You also want to track what some of them might consider their hobby. I’ve met many whose hobby knowledge is off the chart, including a seven year old on baseball cards. Don’t forget Mama favorite cooking recipes. How about your family member’s friends, your parent’s friends, or co-workers parents? Share what you are creating and watch them start one of their own.

What about professors or teachers? Record any papers or books they have written. Do they have a web site? Don’t know any local professor or teachers. Pick up the phone and call the institution’s main office, they will gladly provide you with a list of their experts who have agreed to be contacted. Call and introduce yourself and discuss their expertise – before you need them. You never know when they know someone who knows someone who knows someone that might be your ticket to fame or fortune. Yes, who you know does matter. Take them to lunch at the school cafeteria. Send them a book, article, or magazine with a topic of their interest from time to time or send them an email when you come across an Internet article on their expertise. The two or three minutes now will make a BIG difference later.

Seeing this from another angle -- think of the topics you frequently write about or if a business owner or employee what you need support on from time to time. Start by making a list of those topics and then search to fill the list starting with friends and then emanating outward.

What about the authors of the books you read? Or the newspaper stories about local people? Do you belong to any groups? What experts do you know there? Place them on your Expert List. Remember though, the key is that you only want to place them on the list if you feel comfortable contacting them and know them in some slight way. If not, then you need to take the initiative.

The hero in this is that you begin and you feel comfortable enough to ask. Here’s a tip – people want you to ask. They are proud of their expertise, it has taken them years to obtain their knowledge, and they are proud of that. Rightly so.

If you don’t know them, pick up the phone and introduce yourself. Choose to add one a week to your schedule. Explain why you are calling, what you do, and offer to exchange each other’s contact information. Track the date of your contact and other tidbits they’ve shared. Always ask permission if you can contact them again.

Are you an officer of a group? How about a member of a writer’s group? Host an Expert Party. This could turn into a yearly event. Invite experts relevant to your focus. Start with professors and teachers. Charge a fee to members to pay for the expert’s attendance. Invite vendors, however, I suggest keeping the event charge-neutral (no selling).

For nonfiction articles, ProfNet (http://www.profnet.com) is an excellent place to find experts to interview. Pass the synergy around, create an Expert 100 List, and more importantly stay in touch with them. If they sell their knowledge and you are not a writer be rest assure that if you cross the threshold of their f*ree point they will tell you.

**** AUTHOR ****

Catherine Franz is a Cetified Coach with niches in product development, Internet marketing, nonfiction/marketing writing and eduction. Additional tips: http://www.abundancecenter.com

E-mail marketing tip

Here are two tips that can increase your brand:

Whatever is in the main body of your emails, you should use the footer to tell your background story.

The emails you send may be the only exposure a reader has to your company.

1. Every message should include an "about our company" section

2. Along with "about this newsletter" or "About the [name of ezine]" and links to the main sections of your site.

They may not be read every time, but eventually it will be.

Don't make them long, KISS them (short and sweet). If you are a solopreneur a paragraph insteadof "about our company" could be "about [your name]." Example: About Catherine Franz (that's me!).

Handling Interruptions

Article: 10 Easy-to-Learn Tips On Handling Interruptions
by Catherine Franz

Published in: Charles Burke's Newsletter dated May 26, 2004

Click here to read!

Life is a Continuous Prayer

Prayer doesn’t just happen when we kneel or put our hands together and focus. Prayer actually occurs more often than we think.

Place yourself in your car. See yourself driving along. You see a green light and think, “Please don’t change yet.” Well, guess what, you just said a prayer.

When you hug a friend, that’s a prayer. Whenever you hug your children, that’s your prayer for them and they you. A sharing prayer has extra vibrations.

When you cook something to nourish yourself, friends or family, that’s your prayer to them and even yourself. You’re praying the dinner comes out right, praying that your husband doesn’t bring up “that” same ole subject again. When you go out to eat with friends, you pray for a good time.

When you entertain, you pray people show up, and on time. You pray the food appeals to them. Towards the end of entertaining, when you’re tired, you’re praying the guests will leave soon. And when you say good night to them, you send them off with, “Drive safely,” or “Be safe.” That’s a prayer too.

When you shower and the warmth of the water tingles the sensations in your skin, your body says a prayer. It’s no different when you drink water to hydrate your body.

When you’re helping someone in need--giving your time, energy, or money. You are giving a prayer and answering one at the same time.

When you wash the car, you are saying prayers. The first one might be, “I hope this doesn’t take too long” or “It’s going to be nice to drive a clean car.” Even later you can hear yourself, “I hope it doesn’t rain.” Again, prayers.

When we walk into a meeting, you say a little prayer in hope that the meeting will not drag on. Or that your presentation will go well. Or that Sandy will not ramble on as he usually does. That’s a prayer.

Yes, there are times when people, places, or things don’t want to receive our prayers. Then our soul cries out to them in prayer over the loss of possibilities.

Prayer is a vibration. It feels good because the vibration meshes in with nature and the Universe. Quantum physics proves these theories.

Prayer is the voice of love that brings us internal peace, understanding, and the wisdom on how to share.

Now, doesn’t your day look just a little different? Your prayer is a vibration that manifests from the inside out. It’s natural and easy to do. The key is awareness. We’ve been doing it for so long, we’ve taken it for granted and thus stop noticing unless something big. Could the miracles that occur everyday in our life share the same fate?

Embrace your prayers everyday in whatever form they appear. Connect the positive, natural vibration that enthralls attraction. Be aware of its presence and natural attraction to you.

Writing is a prayer. What comes forth we seldom know until it’s done. Just like this. Then we realize, we wrote a prayer. Then it becomes the writer’s prayer to you.

(c) Copyright, 2004, Catherine Franz

Article Published in the Writer Gazette

I'm so excited, I had one of my articles published by the big guys -- the Writer Gazette. The #1 web site recommended by Writer's Digest magazine.

A Writing Exercise That Increase Awareness And Description
by Catherine Franz

Here's the link to see this in action...

http://www.writergazette.com/articles/article415.shtml

Planning A Slow Season Calendar

Every business has slow periods. For some, this could be during the Christmas season. Some sell more during the summer and others less. The key is being aware of your seasons and alternatives available to solve the challenge and change the results.

All businesses need downtime, breathing room to re-evaluate where they are going, and where they've been. What’s working. What’s not? And then a plan of action to change everything in the future.

Do you plan breathing room time into your calendar year? Is it scheduled during you slow period or when? There's no exact answer, just possible considerations.

As a coach and independent professional, I know by personal experience and through the feedback of my clients, that during the slow times, stress, fears, and challenges on how to pay the bills increases. Sometimes, stress increases without any money factors because we’re not used to having additional time on our hands, so our brain manifests things to fill the void. So, what are the alternatives? Good question. Let’s explore the possibilities…

You can use the “save for a rainy day” philosophy by moving a certain percentage from a regular account to a money market or savings account for those rainy time periods.

You can plan out, on a paper calendar your seasonal periods. Look at your Income Statement for the past few years and you will see a pattern appearing. If that history isn’t available, ask others in your field area. As a coach, I’m in the personal development field. I would contact others in this field, like speakers, trainers, who have experience and history and interview them on the question.

After you review your historical financial information, keep in mind that future economic conditions will influence your seasonal plans. This requires a strategy on who and what you are going to use for economic indicator flags. This may require a financial planner, economist, or other professional on your support team. Reading the paper or watching the news is all well and good, however, it can also add to confusion. Too many cooks in the kitchen syndrome. Choose one or two cooks and ask the others to leave the kitchen.

Remember, there are different seasons all over the world. When its summer in the United States, there is a different season in Australia and Japan. If your marketing vicinity is global, you need to plan your seasons very carefully. Each requires different marketing strategies and procedures. When marketing in the U.S. reduces, marketing in other countries will most likely increase. Especially if you are in the bathing suit business.

If your business is strictly local, you can create additional products or services that will only be available during that season. This can maintain momentum. You can use the “limited availability” technique for these products.

You can use this time for vacation, organize, plan, create new products, and use your rainy day funds for support.

As well as, establish new joint ventures, expand personnel, test new product ideas, clean up backlogs in filing or emails, send out thank you gifts, upgrade your computer, or learn new software.

Keep in mind that leaving some of these to-dos might be detrimental to your revenue generation thinking. Allowing a build up of the items that support your success, as mentioned in the above two paragraphs, can create a desire to create your own self-fulfilling prophecy. You will intentionally create a slow period when a natural occurrence wouldn’t regularly happen. An indicator can be if sales don’t return after the slow cycle. Pay particular attention if it occurs.

Choose to do some planning today on your seasons for the money results you want tomorrow. Identify when and where your business and industry seasons are, explore all possible solutions, and work through a plan to fill the void. The results will almost be a given.

(c) Copyright 2004, Catherine Franz

A Writing Exercise That Increase Awareness And Description Skills

Practice attaching words to feelings requires time to do. Without a system that helps you monitor that time, the minutes or hours could feel unproductive. With the right exercise, you can then use that time wisely, as well as save you time and frustration.

Learning to apply the right words to our six senses is a top ingredient to the mixture of writing. Its language brings the reader into the story. All of us easily know how we feel, or what we're seeing (okay, most of the time), what
we're hearing, smelling, tasting, and sensing, and can usually explain it in 50 words if pushed to do it. But, how do you describe it in one or two words without the pushing?

To read the rest of this article....click here

Virtual Chocolate

by Catherine Franz
Inspired by Andrea E. Schlapia (http://www.AGLCoaching.com)

A second on your lips forever on your hips never happens with virtual chocolate.

Chocolate begins from a seed. A cacao seed. It is then fermented, roasted, shelled, grounded, and melted into other forms and tastes. It is also exactly how a product is created. Whether a car or an article.

The process begins with an idea--another way of seeding. We ferment it--we let it roll around in our imagination, sprinkle on a little creativity, and even place it into a state of aggravation in order to deshell it.

Next, we roast the idea, melt it, add this and that, and mold it into some delectable small, large, round or square piece that will tingle taste buds, yours, and mine too. It could be building a book, an article, a building, or sending food to a starving country.

Sometimes we remove something to change it's color or to make it fat free. With chocolate, they remove the extra shell and then make it into white chocolate. For a writer, it's the editing process, the removing of that inner shell to find the white sweeter spot or to make it fat free.

Everything leads up to one thing whether it’s making virtual chocolate or anything else. It’s the user's result. When someone pops that piece of chocolate into their mouth and that smile of delight lights up their face, it doesn't matter whether they’re young or old, an American or of Australian descent. A smile is a smile on any human being. And a smile on a child is forever on our hard drive.

So, what is the difference if you are making chocolate or writing an email that makes someone smile. Send virtual chocolate everyday and make everyone smile.

Magazine List

Allure: firstname_lastname@allure.com
American Baby: firstinitiallastname@americanbaby.com
American Health & Fitness: firstname@ahfmag.com
Audubon: firstinitiallastname@audubon.org
Baby Talk: firstname_lastname@timeinc.com
Better Homes & Gardens: Firstname.Lastname@meredith.com
Bridal Guide: lastname@bridalguide.com
Budget Living: firstinitiallastname@budgetlivingmedia.com
Budget Travel: Firstname.Lastname@newsweekbt.com
Chatelaine: FirstinitialLastname@chatelaine.com
Child: firstinitiallastname@childmagazine.com

Solving the Teleclass Attendance Problem

Frequently people contact me with the challenge of their teleclasses having a low attendance.

Here are six tips on the feedback I usually give them as to the cause. Written in a short, direct, summary format.

1. The topic is a want from the teleclass leader and not a need by the market. Something they thought "ought" to sell or something they have passion about. The passion is good but it needs to be matched to the needs of the market.

2. Don't really know what their market wants -- the want that opens their audience's wallets (this is for time and/or money). They think they know, they guess, or they ask and use what the friends, family, other coaches, are guessing at they want.

3. Aren't reaching their market. It's all in the numbers. If you want 10 attendees, you need to reach 1,000 or more of your target audience. If you have an ezine that talks on one topic and a teleclass that talks on another, it's a communication problem. Your communication problem, not theres.

4. Test, did you set up a test, two, three? How did you use the tests? All marketing needs to be tested. Even the experts don't know for sure that something is going to sell. Setting up a testing element to every product (or service) is a MUST.

5. Sometimes the market needs to be educated first on the topic. Like knowing about teleclasses. It took many teleclass train-the-trainers years to educate the community that teleclasses are beneficial to reaching larger markets. They are still working on it. Have you been honest with yourself on this. Introducing a new product -- and that includes teleclasses -- is like starting a new assembly line in a manufacturing plant. It takes time for the equipment to be installed, the people be assembled, the first few testing, as well as to connect with the new buyer for that product. Just because you have defined your market for your coaching practice, don't assume its the same for all or one of your teleclasses. It's not.

6. The market doesn't always tell you what they will open their wallet for. Many times they don't know themselves. When this is the case, as in many coaching situations, then you have got to give it the time to let your material educate the audience on its importance. And honestly, what's selling right now, and is an evergreen topic, how is this going to save me time, money or open more time or make me more money. You haven't answered that, you aren't going to sell to entrepreneurs. Period! And you never ever want to dance around the bush on this. If you are going to save me 10 hours, say so. If you are going to help me add $10,000 to my revenue this year, show me testimonials -- prove it. There's so much hype without proof, it's like yelling into the wind.