The Refresh Orlando Heirs

Do you use teleclasses to market your service? Would you like to increase your clients to your ideal number?

Avoid these 7 mistakes and count your new profits! You…

1. Don’t give yourself enough marketing time before your teleclass. It’s best to send two, three, even four email sales letters before your event. With two months of marketing, you can spread the word to other ezines and pros who will send to their lists.

2. Don’t charge anything. Your audience only values what they have to invest in. Freebies attract lookie loos. You put a lot of effort into your teleclass–don’t dilute your efforts with people who run the minute something costs. Quality information deserves quality payment. If you are just starting, make the price low, maybe under $15. If you are the guru, charge more, maybe $30-$40. For interactive small group coaching , where you give feedback on submissions, charge about double. Maybe $70 or more.

3. Don’t charge what your expertise defines. If you offer stress management, you probably won’t charge as much as for writing a book, copywriting, or what’s specifically needed for online marketing? Think about article marketing. Your articles need a pro’s feedback so all the web article directories will love them.

4. Don’t include a free book, bonus report, or workbook with the teleclass. When people see an offer they can’t refuse, they won’t. Seeing added value, they will commit. Some people aren’t good listeners and will depend on the printed information to learn your top points or how tos.

5. Don’t include benefits in your teleclass title. Or, you use boring descriptions that won’t pull attendees. Motivate your audience with titles like, “Attract New Clients with the Number One Way to Market Online–Writing and Submitting Articles.” or “How to Write your Book in Less Than 30 Days.”

6. Don’t offer full on content and ways to help your audience get skills they need. People will leave your and the call forever if you spend too much time marketing other programs or products. They will judge you on your knowledge of your topic, your own success, and will realize you are the one they need. Of course, plan for a two-minute commercial. That is expected.

7. Don’t follow up your teleclass with an outstanding offer or just to review the points on the teleclass. Remember, it takes 5-7 contacts with your audience before they begin to trust you and think you are the right choice for them.

Turn your teleclass audiences into clients with a little more attention to marketing, yet still delivering a fully-packed informational teleclass. Survey them to find out what level they are and what they need.

Coach Judy Cullins works with small business people who want to make a difference in people’s lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income with a book. Author of 11 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, she offers 2 free monthly ezines, “The BookCoach Says” and “Business Tip of the Month,” at http://www.bookcoaching.com and over 215 free articles. Mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com. Questions and Orders: 866/200-9743

Will the technology I invest in today be obsolete in 5 years?
Will the only systems installed in 5 years be IP systems? Is it
a mistake to consider digital phone systems? These are questions
that I am frequently asked. The answers are not as cut and dried
as some would think.

Some people are not even aware of what the term IP, let alone
VoIP, mean in the current technology environment. Some people,
when they see the letters VoIP, wonder first why the “o” is not
as large as the other letters. Still others understand that VoIP
has something to do with changes in current telephone technology
but they don’t know the first thing about what it means.
Additionally, there are those that know that VoIP means “voice
over IP protocol” which involves the conversion of voice packets
to data packets and because it’s the latest and greatest
technology, they just have to have that technology NOW!

Before rushing into a technology purchasing decision there are
items to consider. First, review your business and see if there
is an immediate need for VoIP connection. There are several
situations where VoIP technology can enhance business practices.
For instance, take a company with a large main facility and one
or more small remote facilities throughout the city, region or
country. This facility could use a digital telephone system with
digital phones in the main building but utilize data lines and
IP phones at the smaller remote facilities. This allows the
users in the small remote facility to connect to the main
facility through existing internet or private line wide area
network connections and take advantage of all call handling
features without installing unnecessary equipment at the remote
locations. The remote equipment can also be configured to
address local 9-1-1 identification and the ability to survive at
a minimum level without the connection to the main facility.

If the facility in question is hard to wire and available cable
is sparse, there may be a need to share a single data connection
between the telephone and desktop PC. With the introduction of
IP phones sharing that single data connection is now a reality.
On the flip side, a business may have limited space and requires
data functions over a device the size of a telephone. By using
certain IP phones a user can now have some web browsing and/or
data sharing capability on that telephone - - saving space and
maximizing your data resources.

Finally, a business that has two or more large facilities that
while spread out geographically must function as one entity can
benefit by using VoIP technology. Many times a single data
connection can be used for voice as well as data applications.
The days of segmenting wide area network lines are now in the
past. With VoIP technology the computer network can use all/most
of the wide area bandwidth for data processes while the voice
traffic is inactive or at a minimum.

In reviewing a telephone system that uses IP technology, do not
assume that an existing data network is able to accommodate the
voice traffic on top of the data traffic that it is already
carrying. To start review the routers, switches and bandwidth
available within and between the buildings to determine if the
proper equipment is in place to accommodate a new telephone
system. One thing to do is identify the amount of bandwidth
required for a 2-way conversation for the telephone system
solution being provided. Second is to have a trusted data vendor
(if different than the telephone vendor) or an independent third
party provider perform a network assessment before choosing a
solution or beginning a project. The assessment should be run
for no less than a week. In order to provide the best snapshot
of the network it is wise to select a busy week. This will
provide vital information to your IT staff/consultant and assist
in identifying if any data equipment is required to facilitate
the new voice solution.

When examining a network assessment, remember that voice
transmission is much more precise and requires a level of
reliability above that of data traffic. With data information, a
computer can accept packets out of sequence or some loss because
it fixes or waits for the rest of the information and places it
where it needs to go or drops unnecessary information
altogether. However, in voice transmission a lost packet or
certain levels of inconsistencies (latency/jitter) on the line
could result in some very broken conversations.

If a course has been plotted for an IP telephone system, spend a
little bit of extra time and money up front to have a
professional network assessment completed to ensure all of the
proper equipment is in place to go forward. The VoIP system,
whether it be from CISCO, Inter-Tel, Avaya, Toshiba, or Comdial
will all have to connect to the data network in some way and if
the system is insufficient it may cause an exponential increase
of the voice equipment budget to cover costs to update the data
system. Forward thinking helps protect the time, budget,
technology AND productivity of a business.

Will the technology I invest in today be obsolete in 5 years?
Will the only systems installed in 5 years be IP systems? I
believe our region will not see the digital telephone system
disappear within 5 years. However, we will see a much greater
installed base of “hybrid” systems. These are systems that share
digital technology with IP technology. Redesigning an existing
system may protect an original investment. In conclusion, before
giving in to that “gotta have it now” routine and ripping out
all of the equipment in the business investigate the options.

Most women are caught in a tug-of-war between who they think they should be and who they are; between what they want to do and what they are actually able to do. In other words, you are at the mercy of your guilt demons. Your feelings of guilt often prevent you from taking care of yourself. Most of the time, these feelings stem from unrealistic expectations. You have impossible ideals that you strive to live up toideals such as, “I must always put other people’s needs first,” or “I should never disappoint anyone.” These kinds of standards are not only impossible to meet, but they are harmful to your well-being.

Guilt is a major roadblock to taking care of yourself. There’s always a list of things that have to be done that take precedence over attending to your needs. Then there’s the fear of who you’ll disappoint if you occasionally make yourself a priority. But stop and consider for a moment that when you put yourself last on the list and allow guilt to run your life the person who you continually disappoint is yourself.

Don’t worry, there is something you can doin fact, you must do. Most of you have an idealized image of what good parents, good employees, good daughters, good wives should be, and are haunted by these images of perfection. Rather than confront the comparison between the idealized images and your actual self, many of you feel inadequate and guilt-ridden because you can’t match up to your own impossibly high standards.

You have a choice, you can either adjust your standards so that they more closely match reality or you can change your behavior. In the majority of cases, we would suggest you get rid of those ludicrous expectations. Remember Super Woman? She’s not deadshe never existed. It’s time to admit that you are a mere human who has needs of her own.

For those of you who are parents, we have news for you. In case you haven’t noticed, the times have changed. In the past, the “average” family meant a breadwinning father and a mother who stayed home with the children. Today only 6 percent of families fit this description. In the majority of homes in America both parents now work outside the home, even when there are children of preschool and elementary school age. Blended families and single-parent families are fast becoming the rule rather than the exception. Our roles have changed along with the demands made on us, yet our internal standards for ourselves often are not a practical match for our actual living situations.

If you are a mother and breadwinner, I challenge you, to become realistic about what you can do in a day. You don’t have to live up to the expectations of your mother, and you don’t have to meet every demand of your children or husband.

Stephanie is an acclaimed speaker and author. She
speaks from experience. Stephanie is the “go to” expert for
those seeking to create quality driven lives. She is the
author of Chicken Soup for the Soul’s Life Lessons for
Women: 7 Essential Ingredients for a Balanced Life, If Not
Now, When? For more information please visit her website:
http://www.stephaniemarston.com

Neale Donald Walsch - God’s Abiding Love

People often ask me what are the most important things that I
have gotten from the Conversations with God material.

I think the most important thing I have gotten out of the books
was a deep sense of God’s abiding love. I have learned in an
extraordinary way of God’s unremitting, unconditional love and
total acceptance of us… even the worst of us. This came
through to me even as I was “writing” the books by the bare fact
that I was writing them. I mean, by the earthly standards of
many people (including my own), I am the last person who
deserves to have been chosen to put this information into a
series of books. Yet I was chosen, and I have put it into book
form. So by that measure alone, I am clear that God loves
without condition; that God rejects not even the least or the
worst of us, and that all we need do to understand and
experience that salvation is to accept it, claim it, honor it,
and hold it as true.

Now there are those who disagree with me. Many, in fact, who do.
They say that God’s word and God’s law and God’s love is
worthless and pointless if there was no such thing as the
possibility of God’s rejection. They say that the only way to
God is through obedience to God’s commands, adherence to God’s
laws, and - in some theological constructions - acceptance of
God’s Son. Failure to do any or all of these things means
certain damnation, they say, and we’d better be aware of that,
and ready for it, because we’ll get what’s “coming to us” if we
don’t watch out. In fact, we not only had better watch out, we’d
better not cry. We’d better not pout… I’m tellin’ you why…

Oh… sorry… that’s a different myth. You see? Every myth we
create, we create around a system of Judgment; around a
construction of Reward and Punishment. It is inconceivable to us
that there is a being in the Universe - in Reality or in
Mythology - who could accept us just the way we are, and just
the way we choose to be.

That is because we cannot believe in the ultimate purpose of
life. We believe that the purpose of life is to follow God’s
law, do as God wants, and, essentially, please God. Yet pleasing
God is not the purpose of life. Only an egomaniacal deity would
create beings whose essential purpose was to please Him. And
only an insane egomaniac would then add such treachery and
misery to the mix as life contains in order to make it virtually
guaranteed that his created beings would stumble and fall. And
only an incredibly cruel insane egomaniac would go further,
saying it doesn’t matter whether they fall or not, because they
have already fallen! Before birth!

As improbable as this scheme might seem, that is the theological
construction which millions upon millions of people have laid
upon their so-called “loving” God. So I think the most important
thing the books have done for me and do for me daily, is free me
from the shackles of a belief in an angry, vindictive,
judgmental God. I am now more open to creating my life as I want
it, not as I imagined it had to be.

The second most important thing I’ve learned from the books is
that there is only one reason to do a thing - anything - and
that is to be and to decide, to create and fulfill, Who I Really
Am, and Who I now Choose to Be. You see, I thought there were
all sorts of reasons that I was supposed to do this or that. My
father told me. The world expects it of me, God demands it of
me. Whatever. Now I’m clear that God demands nothing, the
world’s expectations are distorted and misplaced, and my
father’s orders no longer need to be followed.

The ironic part of all this is that I am now acting more in
accordance with what the old teachings asked of me than I was
when I was told to act that way, or else. In other words, I am
finding that “being good” (whatever “good” means)
feels…well…good…when it isn’t having to be done because
I’ll be condemned if I don’t.

Put another way, I tend to rise to higher expectations of me,
and aspirations for me, when these expectations and aspirations
are mine, not someone else’s. This is a Great Secret which God
understands, but which Man refuses to believe: we are basically
Good…not basically bad. We do not need an angry, vindictive,
punishing God to scare us into doing what is “right,” act in the
interests of others, or “show up” grandly. Our basic nature -
human nature - is loving and kind. We are taught greed. We are
taught fear. We are taught ugliness, prejudice, violence. We are
LOVE… and we are taught to be something else!

By Neale Donald Walsch