Summer brings relaxing days spent with family and friends, yummy barbecues and trips to new or favorite places.  It is a time when, for many people, work takes a back seat for a while to more playful and enjoyable pursuits, whether that includes, from gardening and yard work to lazing on the beach, and everything in between.  We’re definitely called to spend more time outdoors and less chained to our computer screens and telephones.

You may have found that summer can also mean a drop in coaching clients, as people in general turn to  summer sunshine and activities for their motivation, gratification or solace.  This might place a strain on your finances and leave pockets of empty hours in your work schedule.

Fortunately, with a little planning and preparation, the summer months can be particularly fruitful for the enterprising life or business coach.  Here are some ways to either boost your flagging income or fill those empty hours with business-building activity:

• Have a summer sale. Do you have ebooks or products that you’ve been selling for a while?  Why not offer them at a substantial summer discount?  Better yet, run a different special every couple of weeks, so that you bring in income at a steadier pace.  Or consider offering a summer group coaching program at a very attractive rate; perhaps you can lure clients with a six-, eight- or ten-week program that will help them make major strides or changes in some aspect of their lives by September.

• Go through your articles, blog entries and other written works to see if they can be recycled. Can you turn old blog entries you’ve written into a new book?   Go deeper on topics you’ve covered in articles and turn them into short, inexpensive, downloadable reports?  Record a book you’ve written in the past and now offer it as an audio program?  The summer months can be an ideal time to mine your past work for future gold.

• Use the coaching downtime to create a new product or program. Sure, you have every right to enjoy your summertime, too, and free space in your coaching schedule can help you restore your own energy.  But why not devote at least some of that downtime on a regular basis to creating a new high-end product or program that you’ll release in the fall?  There’s no better time to get the creative juices flowing than when they are not being sapped by your coaching clients or a too-full, hectic schedule.

• Develop a six-month marketing plan to get your business back on track for the second half of the year. This is an excellent time to study new marketing strategies and tools, research the costs of using different media for your marketing efforts, and set up a marketing game plan that will bring you phenomenal results come late summer or autumn.  If you create the plan now, you’ll be ready, willing and able to promote your products and services consistently and effectively by the time September rolls around.

As you can see, you can continue to grow your business and still have time to enjoy picnics, travelling and poolside parties.  If you use this time wisely, the “lazy” months of summer can end up being among your most productive of the year.

It’s ready, it’s here, and I’m excited to release my brand new site on multiple income streams for life and business coaches, consultants, authors, speakers, and service professionals!

This site has been 6 months in the making – no, not the design or the content or writing the free guide. All of these were put together in less than a week! What took the longest was thinking about how to communicate my ideas in the most compelling and way. There’s so much noise about information marketing, I wanted to keep it very focused and demystify what it truly takes not to just create an info product after info product, but a sustainable profitable multiple income streams business.

1. I first started with having a logo designed – this is the first time I invested some serious money into researching, conceptualizing, and designing a graphic to capture my brand. I took a course on branding and as a result was able to communicate to the graphic design company exactly what I want. This one actually allowed me to select a design from multiple designers!

2. I then hired the same company to create the web site look for the home page and the blog. I wanted the home page to look exciting, inviting, and different from the rest of the site. The blog needed to be simple and clean. You can see the difference. Once the look was designed, I had to hire a blog developer to turn it into an actual blog, not just a graphic.

3. The rest of the site was created on a Wordpress blog platform to make it easy for me to create and maintain all the pages without programming or coding of any kind. You can see that I decided to deviate from original colors as it started to look way too pink for me and for my male fan base

What do you think?

Are you ready to turn your passion, topic, or experience into a highly profitable multiple-income-stream information business?

Then I invite you to check out my brand new web site Milana.com, where I offer free tips, articles, and videos about turning what you know into a series of lifetime income streams! Plus, grab a copy of my FREE 25-page guide, “7 Secrets to Creating a Profitable Multiple-Income-Streams Business!”.

Would LOVE your comments and feedback!

Milana

I have just been featured on the cover of the Insights Magazine, life – love – bliss – health – wealth – inspiration, where top visionaries share their wisdom, success secrets and the defining moments that have shaped their lives in exclusive interviews.

I am honored to be a part of this premier issue, which also features Michael Port, Rhonda Hess, Gina Morgan, Peter Sherer, Evelyn Kalinosky, and Michael Bungay Stanier.

To get your free copy right now, go to Coach Exchange Expert Insights site.

Tipping Point...

Have you ever reached a “tipping point?” You know…That moment when everything you’ve been doing finally pays off in your coaching business?

• New clients are referred to you on a regular basis…
• Your products are selling…
• Your events are filled every time…
• Your articles are published in important magazines…
• Your clients are raving about what you’ve helped them achieve…
• Industry leaders want to create strategic alliances with you…
• Your days are filled with joy and excitement of what’s to come…

This moment comes at different times for all of us, depending on our experience, persistence, desire to grow, entrepreneurial mind, the people that surround us, but also, our own perception of what that moment feels like.To me the “tipping point” means total and complete peace of mind. Peace of mind about my business, my schedule, my cash flow, the stability and predictability of my income.

The concept of a “tipping point” was introduced by Malcolm Gladwell in “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” in 2002, and was described as “epidemics” – ideas, products, messages and behaviors that spread just like viruses do. After reaching a tipping point, growth becomes exponential and self-driven. Learn more about the tipping point concept in a really great Wikipedia summary.

Here are some ways well-known people reached their  tipping point:

• Publishing a provocative or controversial book (Tim Ferris, “The 4 Hour Work Week“)
• Creating strategic alliances with “mega” players (Armand Morin, Big Seminar)
• Licensing a coaching program to others (C.J.Hayden, “Get Clients Now“)
• Creating big bold branding (Ali Brown, AliBrown.com)

…among many others. Here are some things to think about:

• What will make your clients talk about you to others?
• What will compel your event participants tell everyone they know about it?
• What uniqueness do you offer in your industry that no one else does?

These are some questions to ponder to help you reach YOUR “tipping point.”

What does the “tipping point” mean to you?

Have you reached it? What does it feel like?

Do you know someone who did? How did they do it?

Please, post your comments below.

Last weekend I watched one of my recent favorite movies, “Mad Money” with Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah.

I’ve seen it before, but this time with a friend, and what a difference it made! We laughed, joked, ate popcorn, and had a great time. So much fun, we decided to schedule movie nights at least once a month now.

As an entrepreneur, I rarely stop thinking about my business, but this was one of those days when I got totally immersed in the experience and forgot all about it.

Then I came home and had one of the biggest business breakthrough ideas without even trying!

Sometimes your best ideas come when you expect it least. Or maybe my brain just needed some “soul food” to get creative. So…

Do you schedule fun time?

When was the last time you DIDN’T think about your business?

What if you schedule your favorite activity weekly?

By the way, if you like “Mad Money”, you will probably enjoy “Flawless” with Michael Cane! Can you tell I am a movie buff?

P.S. Coaching Boom 2010 begins next week! You can still make it!

Ahhhh….the dream.

If only someone else could do the marketing, so you could focus on what you love the most, and what you get paid to do the most – coaching, teaching, speaking, or writing.

But is that really possible? Absolutely!

There are several different ways you can outsource your marketing.

For example, you could hire a marketing consultant, who would create a marketing strategy for your coaching business, and your virtual support team would implement it under your supervision.

Or, you could hire a marketing manager, who would work with you to create a marketing strategy, then oversee your virtual support team as they implement it.

If you know what needs to be done, you could create your own marketing strategy along with a marketing schedule, then hire a project manager to get it implemented by your virtual support team.

The problem is that 99% of coaches, speakers, authors, and consultants will NEVER outsource their marketing – even though they can easily afford it!

Why? Mostly because…

1. They don’t know what to outsource not being a marketing expert themselves.
2. They don’t know how to measure the effectiveness of what they are outsourcing.
3. They are afraid of being ripped off and losing money.

Marketing is like a necessary evil to succeed in business – it has to be done. The good news is that you don’t have to be the one to do it. And I can show you how to do it in a way that doesn’t cost a lot and generates results.

To help you get started with outsourcing your marketing, I will be teaching a 90-minute teleseminar, where I will share with you:

• Top mind shifts you must make before you can successfully outsource it and how to prepare for outsourcing your marketing
• The four key questions you should answer before outsourcing
• Who exactly you need on your team to market your coaching business effectively
• Where to find talented marketing professionals inexpensively and how to choose the right people for your virtual team
• The one person to add to your team to make it all run smoothly
• Two types of people to hire for your marketing team to make it cost efficient, to make sure your marketing actually gets done, and nobody drops the ball!
• What exactly to outsource in your marketing and the first three things to hand in to your team
• How to measure the results from your outsourced marketing
• How to integrate and leverage everything you already do into your marketing, so it still comes from you and in your voice, and you spend no extra time training your marketing assistants

I will also include a Simple Marketing Plan you can just hand in to your virtual team to begin implementing immediately and start seeing increase in your traffic, grow your mailing list, and sell more products.

Plus, I will answer any questions that may come up for you on the call.

Hope you can join me as I reveal these secrets and make your 2010 a year of more cashflow, more free time, and less stress.

Outsource Marketing Made Easy

Want to know how I sold 6k worth of coaching in 2009? Life coaching is a high-ticket service, and there are only 2 basic ways to sell it:

#1. Build a relationship with someone over time, which includes networking and referrals. This approach may take months or years, although many coaches do very well with it.

#2. Establish yourself as an expert, sell information products and educational workshops, then offer coaching. This approach also includes public speaking, teleseminars, article publishing, and product launches.

Both are wonderful ways to fill your life coaching practice, and you can decide which one is best for you based on your personality and lifestyle goals.

But there is ONE major problem with these methods of building your coaching business. While you are out networking, writing, and speaking, you’re not generating any income. Sure, you may sell a product or two, or get a new client every month…But wouldn’t it be great if you could network, write, and speak with complete peace of mind from knowing that you are also getting paid, even while you are marketing?

Here’s my best secret weapon for selling more coaching this year than ever before…

A membership web site can do for you. Any coach with a membership site can tell you how essential it has become in their life coaching career and in the process of enrolling more coaching clients.

But not just ANY membership site. First of all, here’s how and why it works:

1. A membership-based web site allows you to build a community of people who trust you – one of the major barriers to getting a coaching client is taken down with your own membership site.

2. They already gave you money to become a member, so you know these people are truly interested in your topic. They have already shown that they are buyers, not tire-kickers – a great way to pre-qualify coaching prospects.

3. You can communicate with your members on a regular basis sharing your expertise, ideas, and resources with them. You are not only their trusted advisor, but you’re now an expert in your field. People LOVE working with and buying from experts!

4. You are generating revenue, while you’re promoting your life coaching practice. What a great mental place to come from, when you’re not desparate for money.

There are many more benefits to creating your own membership-based web site (recurring monthly income, ever-growing database of your knowledge, etc.).

But here’s one I want to emphasize when it comes to your life coaching career.

You can actually build your coaching service right into your membership site! Here’s how:

1. First, treat it like a coaching club. Create multiple tiers of membership and include coaching in the top tier.

2. Always remind lower-tier members that they can get help and coaching from you when they upgrade to the top tier.

3. Allow your top-tier members to contribute content, classes, and ideas to your membership site.

4. Add a coaching retreat (fee or free – depending on what you charge) as part of their top-tier membership.

5. If you run live events, create a “VIP style” treatment package just for your top-tier coaching club members.

What do you offer in your coaching club? What type of content do you add to your membership site? How do you set everything up? How do you price the different membership tiers? All of these questions and many more are answered inside my How to Build a Six-Figure Coaching Club program, so be sure to check it out.

Another thing I really love about having a membership site is that it sort of becomes my “play pen” – that’s where I share my best ideas, strategies, tools, discoveries, and breakthroughs.

Most importantly, when you speak, write, network, or teach, always invite people to join your membership site or coaching club. Don’t try to sell coaching right upfront. Once they join your low-tier membership site, they’ll become aware of everything else they’re missing if they’re not a top-tier member, and upgrade if desired.

Depending on where you are coming from when starting your business, you may be completely new to the idea of hiring other people to do the work for you. You may feel it’s unnecessary to do this when your cash flow isn’t stable yet, or you may feel strange about outsourcing the work you can actually do yourself.

This is a typical do-it-yourself business owner mentality: this is my own business, so I am going to do everything myself. The problem becomes visible when you want to grow, or grow faster – it’s absolutely impossible to achieve significant growth without bringing other people on board! But how do you overcome the hurdle of being self-employed and having a do-it-yourself mentality?

If you’ve never hired anyone and don’t know where to look, I highly recommend my How to Find, Hire & Work with Your First Virtual Assistant toolkit. For now, here are my 3 favorite questions I like to ask coaches:

1. “What do you do?”

I mean, what do you really do? When asked this question, you don’t answer by saying “I submit articles” or “I work on my blog”. You usually tell people what problem you help solve. So why would you want to “pollute” your business day with all the other stuff, when you can be doing exactly that – generating revenue by helping your clients and customers solve a specific problem?

2. “What are my top 3-5 profitable activities?”

I bet you’re not going to say “emailing people” or “setting up my shopping cart,” unless that’s what you actually do for clients. There’s got to be 3-5 things you do that lead you to profits. For me it’s e-mail marketing, creating products, and holding virtual and live events. And if you’ve been around me long enough, you know that these are the top 3 things I usually occupy myself with. (Coaching is not on the list because it’s a small part of what I actually do in my business)

3. “What is my minimum acceptable hourly rate?”

You may not quote this rate to clients, but there is a number in your mind that you feel good about. Perhaps its $75 for every hour you work. For some it might be at least $200 an hour. As you go through your day, ask yourself if what you’re doing can be done by someone else who’ll charge much less than your hourly rate. For example, updating your web site may cost you $5-$15 an hour.  Submitting articles might cost around $3-$5 an hour. Should you be really dealing with these things yourself?

In other words, get real – you can spend the next five years tweaking your blog, looking for linking partners, and printing workbooks. Will it get you to where you want to be in five years?

Some food for thought.

I rarely publish other people’s articles, but this one caught my attention. It was written under the guidance of one of my favorite lifestye business mentors, Terry Dean who created a unique intern program for his business.

The article you’re about to read was written by one of his interns and contains many insightful tips it takes years for most people learn about doing business online.

Every single tip has tremendous wisdom in it. Read it, study it, do it. I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s what Terry writes:

One of my internet business blog interns recently finished the program and sent me an incredible article of what he had learned during the time he was an intern.

After looking over the 12 keys he said he learned, I asked him if I could publish this for you…and he agreed. I wanted you to have these to print out BECAUSE it isn’t just about being an intern. These 12 keys apply to all of your internet business. They’re 12 lessons everyone needs to learn to be successful online (the only thing I changed in this article was an adjustment to the title – everything else is directly from him).

“12 Keys I Learned As An Intern”

By Shaun O’Reilly
AKA “Shaun van Hart”

Lesson # 1: The Internet is Primarily a Keyword-Driven Medium

Only create content for subjects that people are ALREADY searching for. Find out what people are already looking for by thorough keyword research. My own thoughts are that the keyword tools are like a mind reading device that allow you to really get inside the mind of your prospects to find out what they are looking for so you can give it to them. The main lesson is that if people aren’t already searching using keyword phrases on the subject then DON’T waste your time producing any content for that area.

Lesson # 2: The Incredible Power of Affiliate and JV Relationships

Invest a lot of time in developing strong relationships with active affiliates who can make a lot of sales for your business. Leverage the time, money and effort of affiliates to produce more sales with less time, money and effort on your part.

Before doing the Intern Program, I had negative feelings toward affiliate programs mainly due to my past experiences with the Internet Marketing pimp-a-product approach of many affiliates in this market. They don’t seem to care if the product will really help the most important person of all – the end customer.

I now realize that I can use affiliate programs, affiliates and JV partners in an ethical way on my terms. Not all affiliates are bad!

Lesson # 3: The Importance of Having a Consistent Daily Habit of Promoting Your Internet Business

Rather than having a haphazard approach to marketing your Internet business it’s vital to have a daily discipline and routine of promoting your Internet business every day. In fact, it’s important to have a strategic marketing plan for promoting your business via multiple channels on a regular basis.

I’ve learned that promotion is not a bad word and is a way of letting others know how you can help them. If I don’t promote my Internet business on a daily basis then I’ll not reach and impact as many people as I want to.

Lesson # 4: Go Where the Highest Traffic Is to Leverage Your Time, Money and Effort

Strategically select the highest traffic sites in your niche so that you can get the biggest ROI on any time, money and effort you put into your Internet business. Use Alexa and other tools to determine where the most traffic is and focus your time, money and effort on those sites. This reminds me of the 80/20 Rule and the importance of investing my time, money and effort wisely.

Lesson # 5: There Are No Magic Buttons for Internet Success

Quit looking for magic bullets and allowing the guru cartel to distract you into buying the latest ‘must-have’ product on the Internet. Get real and get into action doing the things that will grow your Internet business and focus on the fundamentals and things that work instead of being distracted by the latest trend and fad.

Lesson # 6: Copy is King on the Internet so Constantly Test to Maximize ROI

The words and images on a web page greatly affect conversions so constantly test and track the most important elements such as headline, first paragraph, photo, caption, call to action, etc. Focus especially on headlines and sub-headlines to maximize the number of people who read your whole message and act on it.

Lesson # 7: Multi-Purpose Your Content Into Different Forms to Get the Most Return from Every Word You Write

Rather than just producing content in one format look for multiple ways to re-purpose the same content many, many times. This will maximize the exposure and returns you get from every piece of content you take the time, money and effort to create.

For example, Blog ? Article ? Video ? Press Release ? Product ? Product Series ? Affiliate Tools

Videos are a quick and easy way to create content and have a high perceived value too.

Lesson # 8: The Internet is Now a Social and Highly Interactive Medium – Get Involved

The Internet has now evolved into a more interactive media with social bookmarking sites and the growth of Web 2.0. Therefore, it’s vital to grow along with the trends and use the new Web 2.0 sites to reach people who they prefer to communicate and interact with them where they are.

Before the Intern Program, I was mildly interested in Web 2.0 and saw it as more of a fad. Now I see that it is vital to follow the trends and use them effectively to grow my Internet business.

Lesson # 9: Think Strategically & Look for Leverage Everywhere

Before taking action in your Internet business make sure that it makes the best use of any time, money and effort you invest. Look for ways that you can get other people or software to do things for you so you can focus your time on marketing and growing your Internet business.

Before this program, I allocated my time poorly, haphazardly and un-strategically. Now I think before I choose the actions I take and which ones I’ll choose to do and which ones I’ll outsource to others. I’m developing some routines and systems to be able to use my time more effectively.

Lesson # 10: A Life-Changing Product Focuses on Small and Significant Action Steps

The Intern Program has been a great demonstration of how to get people to take small but significant action steps to build a successful Internet business and actually DO something with the information instead of just learning it. Why aren’t more information products structured like this?

Lesson # 11: Find a Successful Internet Business and Model Them

Watch what successful Internet business owners do and observe what they actually DO versus what they tell or sell you to do. Follow the changes they make and study their processes to use them as a model in your own Internet business.

Before the Intern Program, I was dipping into different models from various Internet marketers and allowing myself to be pulled in multiple different directions. Now, I’ll save a lot of time, money and effort by focusing on the methods of a small number of Internet marketers that I respect and whose marketing methods I resonate with. This will minimize distractions and give me more time to work on building my own Internet business instead of somebody else’s. Success leaves clues.

Lesson # 12: There’s a HUGE Difference Between Education and Practical Experience

Most information products in the Internet Marketing niche focus on educating you and giving you just more information. However, by actively participating full out in the Intern Program and DOING each and every assignment, I was able to actually experience the theory in action and see the results of my work directly and it became more visceral. So, get involved in the material you learn and look to apply everything useful that you learn so you can really turn the information into real knowledge and results.