We always hear the word “Expert” which gets thrown around in conversations, presentations and branding seminars. It’s hard to understand what that word Expert means to you and even more complicated on the word “Position”. Let’s take a closer look at the definitions. According to the Webster dictionary, the word Expert means: having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience. The word Position means: relative place, situation, or standing <is now in a position to make decisions on his own> b: social or official rank or status.
Combine the words and you have a platform and a foundation that you can build on. The first step to positioning yourself is:
1. Claim it
Whoever you are claiming to be, whatever experience or skill you possess, let’s claim it and believe it. If you do not believe in yourself, people will smell the uncertainty and the mixed messages you are sending out. If you are a speaker, you should figure out what kind of speaker, what topic you speak about it and the people you touch with your unique message. Believing in you, feeling worthy and confident in the level and status you are at right now is the key to claiming it. You must walk the walk and talk the talk. People sense a fraud so don’t be a hypocrite to your calling. Avoid claiming to be the Profit coach, and you complain to your friends about how hard times are and how this recession has stopped your business growth.
2. Write it
Position your expertise in words, whether it’s your words or someone else’s. Start to provide free content to your audience. Visualization is important for those who like to read, who like to reference and like to research your topic of discussion. If you like to bake, why not write about ingredients, exotic spices, seasonings that can be used in multiple ways. You can discuss how people can cook great meals for a family of four or five on a budget. If you are not a writer, grab someone else’s recipes and post it up as the recipe of the day (make sure you reference the source), get contributing writers that will write an article for your blog weekly or monthly.
3. Speak it
Start to record one minute segments or infomercial and place them on your blog or connect the link to your social media sites. You can use systems such as www.audacity.com which is free recording software.
Connect with Toastmasters to practice speaking in front of groups, you will find that this will help you with your online video recordings and will help to boost your on air confidence and presence.
Following these three steps is a start. It will help build a platform and a foundation in your expertise and your industry… people are waiting for you to step out and do something. Let’s start with claiming it, writing about it and speaking about it to everyone we know.
Start today the universe is waiting!
Having a plain-Jane blog with a few scattered keywords nowadays isn’t enough to
grab any search engine’s attention. The home-based working mom must choose her
categories and keywords carefully so her important pages will move to the head of
search engine’s list.
What categories does she choose? It depends on what her blog is about. For instance,
if she’s a life coach, and she posts affirmations often, she can use affirmations as a
category. The main thing is to make the categories reflect the subjects she posts about
most often.
Also, there should be no more than five categories, all of which must be short (two
to four words), to the point and keyword rich. Those categories have to be general
enough to have a lot of entries, however. Each category can reflect a different part of
the business. She mustn’t be whimsical about the categories; changing them means
anyone who has earmarked category will lose it. It’s better to add another category, but
not too many.
If the mom is having difficulty finding the right categories, she can go to http://
www.blumenthals.com/index.php?Google_LBC_Categories , which is a Beta site right
now, but has a search engine that offers a multiple choice of category names. Also,
http://google.com/analytics examines the Web site’s traffic so postings can be refined
to boost viewings. Warning: Google Analytics requires putting HTML code into the site,
so the working mom can have a knowledgeable person do it for her or give it a whirl
herself.
Keywords, also only two to four words, should appear in the title of the blog and in the
first sentence. They can also appear in other parts of the blog. The minimum number of
words for a blog is 250.
Remember, search engines look for pages not Web sites, so the categories and
keywords have to be so full of information that once visitors click on the search entry,
they’ll click through other parts of the site. Any mom from life coach to retailer can
maximize outreach and potential income with targeted blog categories and keywords.
When a stay-at-home business mom wants to reach a wide audience, she can turn to a social radio network such as http://www.blogtalkradio.com or other podcast outlets (seehttp://www.podcastdirectory.com for a list of sites). These outlets offer several different ways to spread the word: as a caller to a show, as a a guest on a show or as a host.
As a caller to a show she can let the listeners know she’s out there and available, but it’s hard to let friends, family and business contacts know beforehand.
In order to be a guest she only needs to find her category, click on a host’s name to get to an About page, which will probably have contact info. Once she’s accepted for the show, she can e-mail and Facebook blast the time and place of the interview to her client list, friends and family. If the listener registers with blogtalkradio and posts a picture, it will appear on the host’s page as either a listener or fan. The show is archived and always available to future audiences.
The corporate mom dropout can check the show’s audience by noting the number of listeners and fans. If it’s a small number, maybe there’s a different site to promote her business. I’ve appeared on several shows, and a recent talk about my book, Corporate Mom Dropouts, increased my book sales by 40 percent.
Finally, if she can find the time, the business mom can host her own show. The site is easily set up for the entrepreneurial mom to get on the air. All she needs is a computer and a phone. Also, it’s another way to increase SEOs. And it’s free.
When working on a marketing plan, the home-based business mom has to wring every drop from the social media for the greatest possible exposure, and talk radio is a good way to go.
We all form habits in childhood that may interfere with running a sound and profitable business.
For instance, did you procrastinate as a child, like not cleaning your room when your mom asked? Well, now you’re a mompreneur, and that nasty little habit can get you into a world of hurt in your business. You have to return phone calls promptly; you have to pay bills promptly; you have to write reports promptly. Well, you get the idea. Your livelihood depends on recognizing the habits that will hurt your business and learning a new more business-like habit.
Once you can recognize this baggage from your childhood, you can do something about it. Take a long, hard look at yourself and add up the good points and the bad. If the bad can hurt your business, be stern with yourself and start the retraining campaign. You can accomplish a lot just by taking note every time you slide back into the old routine.
Many years ago before the patches, the pills and the gum there was a smoking cessation trick that had the smokers put many rubber bands around the cigarette pack so that they were aware every time they reached for a smoke. It slowed them down enough so that they could decide whether they could do without. That’s what you need to do. Tie mental rubber bands around the bad habit, and every time you feel yourself slipping, you can stop and follow the new business habit.
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GIFT #2: 
When is the last time you put your vision on paper. I am not talking about a 30-page business plan or the hottest self-improvement seminar that you went to and had to fill out a questionnaire or assessment. I am talking elementary school. Taking glue, pictures, colors and phrases and placing your vision on a board. This concept known as a Vision Board is a visual explorer.
It is our thinking, more than our surroundings, which determines our level of happiness. Hold a thought and you will create an emotion. That emotion drives a behavior, which in turn creates an event. To change your events you must first change your vision.
I was up one Sunday morning watching Joel Osteen and he was talking about visions and he stated that we must change our vision in order to change our lifestyle…he used chickens and eagles as an example. Chickens vision is limited, they only go after more of the same thing that is placed in front of them and they are always pecking down, they never look up for other things to eat. Eagles on the other hand uses his vision and soars, he chooses to get his food from afar, his vision is expanded and he uses that to survive. Which one are you? The chicken who just accepts what’s in front of him and continues to look for more of the same, or an Eagle who soars and reaching far to get what he wants?
The challenge, for most of us, is to move from pessimistic thinking to a place where your thoughts create feelings of hope and joy. So how do you do it? Simple, no secret, you create a Vision Board or better yet do what I do, have a Vision Board Party where you get a group of friends together with magazines, books, anything visual, and you cut out pictures that represent how you envision your life/business in the future. This whole process helps you turn your visions into reality and watch your goals come to fruition right before your EYES.
The concept of vision boards has been around for years; I actually started researching this concept last year and have conducted a Vision Board Party in Feb 2009. As a living testimonial, I was able to accomplish 80% of my goals for my life and business that I had on my vision board for 2009. Most people have a hard time creating a life plan or business plan and a hard time believing in the success of accomplishing their goals, but this visual process will give the motivation you need to go after “What’s been holding you back”.
Here are some tools you will need:
1) Create a vision board that includes pictures of things that you would like to have in life. Include things that you know you cannot afford right now, but if money were not an option you would have it right now. Items could include a vacation, a new house, a husband, wife, kids and of course more money and health. The pictures can come from anywhere such as magazines, computer printouts, and newspapers.
2) Place the vision board in an area where you’ll see it throughout the day.
3) Look at each picture on your vision board at least daily, and daydream about having that thing in this present moment. Allow yourself to be fully engaged in the daydream, and have fun with it.
Enjoy your visual creation and please keep your eye on the prize.
If you are in the NY area on January 26th you are invited to attend the Empire State of Mind Vision Board Party: click here for more information
