I’ve been delivering training programs now since 2007, and I’ve always had an internal debate around this topic.

Should I deliver my training programs live or in a self-study format? Self study being either via online audio recording, video or a shippable product with CDs/DVDs and workbooks.

There are pros and cons on both sides of the fence, and I’d love to hear your opinion here (if you are game to pop a comment on the blog).

I think live training programs are the best from a value perspective for participants – be it a teleclass or webinar, it’s great to go live for so many reasons:

• Biggest consideration is that people are more likely to actually show up and participate when they have a place and time to be on a live call – vs. a self-study or recorded program that they have good intentions of doing, but quite often end up gathering dust on a shelf or in a computer – yes, I have many of those myself.
• Likewise, people are willing to pay more for a live program than a self-study program – in many cases at least double the price or more, the perceived value is much higher when a program is live.
• You can add interactivity to the program – via chats, forums or open Q&A on the calls themselves. This is one of the biggest benefits of our OBM Certification program, as our participants get to “chat” with each other along the way asking questions, sharing aha’s and such. Makes for a strong community component.
• The vibe is totally different – even if it’s just people on a bridgeline together, you can feel the *energy* of a live program. From the perspective of having led many programs and also participated in many you simply can’t beat this.

On the other side of the coin, self-study programs can be very appealing, especially from a business building perspective – offering self-study programs has some real benefits as well, including:

• Leveraging what has already been created – record a program and continue to sell it ongoing (via digital or tangible packaging) is a great additional revenue stream for any biz.
• People can get what they want when THEY want it – they don’t have to wait for “the next class” in order to get the training they want right now.
• It doesn’t take up any more time to deliver – many business owners are already tapped out, and simply don’t have the time/energy to continue to do live programs.
• The person may be bored with teaching that topic – there comes a point in time where a business owner may simply be tired of teaching something. They might have moved on to other things and don’t want to deliver an existing program anymore. If someone is in this space, then it’s best not to “be live” imo.

Bottom line for me – as a participant I MUCH prefer a live training. I can’t count how many times I’ve bought a self-study program and simply never got to it (actually, I can count them if I look on the shelf behind me where they all sit). I need to have a date & time to be there or I probably won’t participate. Sad but true for me.

As a business owner/trainer, I do a bit of both – some of our programs are live and some are self-study. I think the key is to consider the training itself – what is the “scope” of the training program being offered? How in-depth is it?

For example, I can’t imagine ever teaching our OBM Certification program as “self-study” – there is simply so much to learn, so much to absorb and I think people would lose a lot of the value (especially the value of the community) if we went the self-study route. Plus I would become really disconnected from everyone.

However for some of our OBM Academy courses – especially the how-to courses – they are simple and straight forward. Want to learn Infusionsoft? Great, as a self-study you can get it when you want it and dive in right away to access the training videos.

So many options, and at times can be hard to decide. Curious about your thoughts – from the perspective of participant or trainer, what do you prefer? What has been your experience with live and/or self-study programs?

I had one of those ‘aha!’ moments the other day when I received this email from Andrea J. Lee’s Best of Multiple Streams f’ree ecourse. The subject line was:

Niche + Problem + Format = Income Stream

Out of a deluge of emails in my inbox this one instantly jumped out at me – as a (much needed) reminder of just how simple online business really is! And how much I had been overcomplicating some things in my business lately…

I’ve been knee deep in online business for years now – coming up on ten years actually – and despite all the great new things that arise in the online world it all comes back to this simple formula.

To break it down…

Niche

Definition: A niche is a group of people who have common issues and problems and who hang out together in some organized fashion.

Who do you serve?

It is essential that you have a clearly defined and specific niche market. This is the foundational piece in the ’8 Steps to Building a Multiple Streams Business’ that we’ve been teaching for years now… and is the one area where many businesses fall apart.

If you don’t have a good handle on your niche it becomes really hard to effectively tap into the specific needs of a market and provide products/services that serve that market (and that they are willing to pay for!). We go into finding your niche in great detail in Pink Spoon Marketing – be sure to check it out if this feels like an area that needs some work in your business.

Problem

People spend money on things that will help ease the ‘pain’ of their problems.

What keeps your niche up at night?

When you know what it is that the people in your niche market struggle with, then you can look for ways to help them – the solution becomes obvious. The key is, of course, to know what their problems are in the first place! And the thing is, this will change from time to time… so you need to make sure you are ‘plugged’ in to your niche.

How to find out their problems? Ask them what their biggest challenge is, and listen to their answers – look for themes. Read their blogs. Subscribe to their ezines. Follow their tweets. Pay attention.

Format

Once you know the problem, you want to consider how you are going to package and deliver the solution.

What is the best package for your solution?

The options for packaging offerings today are simply endless – everything from print-on-demand services (for books, CDs and such) through to webinar, multimedia and online video. It actually wasn’t too long ago that we were limited by our packaging choices, as many options where complex and expensive. We’ve come a long way baby!

When looking at packaging you want to consider two things:

1. What will be appealing to my market? If you are marketing to baby-boomers they may prefer a print book to an ebook. If you are marketing to twenty-somethings you may want to do an online video series.
2. What would I enjoy creating? If you love speaking but aren’t a big writer, drop the idea of writing a book and look to create classes, trainings, recordings and such. If you are camera shy you may not want to go the online video route. It is just as important for you to enoy the creation process, otherwise you will get frustrated, stuck and may never finish your product.

And there you go – at the heart of things it really is just that easy.This is one super powerful little formula – one that I recommend you print off and post on your wall.

If you want to dive deeper into any element of this simple formula check out the Pink Spoon Marketing Multimedia Home-Study Kit which will take you step-by-step through the process of building your business online.

Comments, thoughts? Post them here at the blog.

You *need* to grab a copy of Sheri McConnell’s Create your Group program.

Those who know me know that I very rarely recommend things for purchase… for the simple fact that i’m quite picky myself! (who me? picky? just ask my husband, haha). There are LOADS of programs, systems, products, classes and various other offerings out there for all sorts of things – many of which are more hype than value.

That being said, I will wholeheartedly recommend something when I know it is worth your money - and Sheri’s Create your Group program is just that.

Having helped create and support a number of membership and group based programs over the years, I know that there is a right way to do things and a ‘not so right’ way. What it boils down to is this – save yourself the headache of stumbling along and having to learn the hard way about setting up your group. Instead, follow Sheri’s step-by-step *proven* system which she shares in great detail through this program.

Why am I promoting this today? Sheri has less than 100 copies left and after those are gone this product will no longer be available. So hop to it!! Grab a copy today if you have any interest in starting your own group either now or in the near future.

And a sneak peek for you, to prove how much I value what Sheri has to offer. Her and I are partnering up on a brand new association to be launched soon – and she is one of the *very* few people I know that I would every consider partnering with. So I can say from personal experience that Sheri rocks, and i’m a huge fan (in case you couldn’t tell by now, hehe).

Again – less than 100 copies left, click here to check it out.

…which includes pretty much everyone I would think? LOL

When I was asked to review Linda Dessau’s new book The Customizable Style Guide for Coaches Who Write I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I had no clue what a style guide was and wasn’t sure if I even needed one?

As I dove into Linda’s book I very quickly came to understand the benefits of a style guide and how to create one for my business. Put simply, a style guide is a central reference for how you (and your team) will handle recurring writing issues. By using a style guide you will have consistency in your writing style, be able to write with ease and improve your overall readability.

This book isn’t a boring grammar lesson – Linda takes a very simple and light approach to the various elements of writing that you need to consider. Things like proper use of punctuation, when to capitalize (did you know Internet should be capitalized?) and how to use lists (when to number a list or just use bullet points) to name just a few.

What I love best about this book is that it answered some age old writing questions for me:

• should I be using hyphens in my writing – which I tend to do alot.
• do I put a period at the end of points in a list?
• how to properly use quotations so I don’t ‘overdo them’
• why I should stop using i.e. (and use e.g. instead)

She also includes some great tips on how to approach different writing projects, from websites to white papers and everything in between. And of course there is a section for us Canadians and what we need to consider in our writing – a client of mine likes to point out the very Canadian words and phrases that I use from time to time, hehe.

If you are using writing at all in your business I highly recommend grabbing a copy of Linda’s book. It is a quick read, and you will be glad to have it on hand when you tackle your next writing project.

Just a few days ago I completed the first draft of my new book for Online Business Managers (coming out this fall.)

I had set myself a deadline of getting the draft done by the end of June, and was typing my final chapter up to 10:30pm the night of June 30th. Nothing like waiting til the final moment, hehe. But considering a busy life with two wee kids and commitments to my awesome clients… I was quite thrilled that I met my deadline!

There is still work to be done on the book – July is ‘polish and perfect’ month before I get the book off to my editor. But even though i’m not officially finished yet, i’ve found a very special gift in the process so far.

For the first time, i’ve truly defined what it is that an Online Business Manager does.

This may sound funny, given that i’ve worked as an OBM since 2003. Shouldn’t I know what the heck i’m doing?!

Let’s just say it’s been a situation of can’t see the forest for the trees. I’ve always been a ‘natural’ OBM (for lack of a better term)… I’ve just always done this level of work for clients without really realizing what it was. Andrea and I coined the phrase Online Business Manager a few years back just to give it a name… so when people asked what I do for a living I could say OBM.

But if they asked ‘what does an OBM do?’ I would be a bit tongue tied… I didn’t really know how to describe what I actually do for clients. So I would generally say some kind of platitude about helping build online based businesses or internet marketing… which is true, but doesn’t really answer the question.

In writing this book I had to really step back, take a look at what clients need, what we do for our clients and – for the first time ever – put it to words. And oh what a journey that is… my poor brain was twisting in the wind at some points, wondering if I really do anything at all? Then it clicked for me, a moment of clarity where the pieces fit together. An A-ha moment as Oprah would say.

And in defining the role of an OBM, i’m finding that I have some work to do myself! It’s actually been somewhat humbling and challenging at the same time… even though i’ve been an OBM for 5+ years now, there is still stuff that I need to step-up to in this role. (Constant growth – which is part of the beauty of this role really.)

Take a taste of my own medicine, LOL! Such is the journey of writing a book… so far so good, i’ll keep you posted.

The honor of your company is requested at a one-time event for coaches, authors and all business owners committed to serving others for a living.

For Once And For All Let’s Tell It Like It Is:
Out, Out, Out with the Obsession with ‘Money, Money, Money!’ In Our Businesses…

And Say Together From the Rooftops: “We Want MEANING with Our Money…”

How Would You Like To Be Part of a Movement to Make BOTH Money AND Meaning, Sustainably?

That’s right – you can make a living while making a difference.

We at ‘Creating What Matters’ are willing to stake our professional reputations on it:

There’s more to running your business successfully than you can learn from getting an MBA. And the first step is busting old paradigms about how it ‘should’ be done, through long hours and another excuse to your family (or yourself.)

This is something to care about folks…

It’s An Unprecedented Opportunity To Open Your Mind to The Idea That ‘You CAN Have it All’ as pie-in-the-sky as it *may* sound.

In fact, Business Owners of all stripes are reaching five, six and seven figures more quickly than ever before, in a diversified way that reaches more people; in a deeper way, and s-u-s-t-a-i-n-a-b-l-y without indenturing themselves to the marketing hamster wheel from hell.

Isn’t that worth celebrating, together, just once?

Because that’s what makes us different, we think. As business owners with heart, we want more than just money, agree?

So What’s This All About, Exactly?

You Are Invited to A One-Time Only “Virtual Conference”
for Business Owners Who Make a Difference For a Living

The theme is “Money, Meaning and Beyond: Tapping Into the Unexpected” and it’s a gathering of hearts, minds and bodies via teleconference once a week for the next 5 weeks.

Starting June 28, 2006, we’ll meet together to delve into the world of sustainable money and meaning, as introduced in the new book “Money, Meaning and Beyond: 27 Unexpected Ways to Create What Really Matters for Business Owners.”

Dates/Times:

5 Wednesdays, from 400 to 455 PM Eastern (100 to 155 PM Pacific) starting June 28 and ending August 2, 2006 (no call July 5)

Location:

Virtually, from Your Own Telephone, or via MP3 recording ‘after the show’

About The Teleconference Content:

Each practical call will be delivered personally by Andrea with a combination of how-to steps and everyday business principles that may surprise you – these are mundane things like salad bowls, frogs and even your sex life that are easy and natural to ‘latch onto,’ even as they light a firecracker inside your head. This is the key to integrating them into your everyday reality!

Plus, you may be interested to know that the 5 hours of Teleconference content covers the *most* requested and specific business-building topics we get, period.

Each topic regularly commands consulting fees of thousands of dollars to implement, but for this unique occasion we are making the material available to create a special momentum. See for yourself:

TeleConference #1:
How We Wrote (And Published) Our 2nd Book in 45 Days (And You Can Too)

Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 from 400 to 455 PM Eastern (100 to 155 PM Pacific)

Tap into the concept of the “Gravy Pan” and start acting on a do-able plan to publish your own book quickly and easily. We’ll share the specific tools we used so you can cut to the chase.

TeleConference #2:
Thirty Ways to Get Your Mailing List To Respond (To The Benefit of Your Bottom Line)

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 from 400 to 455 PM Eastern (100 to 155 PM Pacific)

If you’re a parent, or have ever been a child, did you know how have a very special skillset you can apply to your mailing list? We’ll cover 30 ways to “Nag Your Way to Success…” and get your mailing list to respond, the way you want.

TeleConference #3:
10 Differences Between a Virtual Assistant Who Costs You Money and a VA Who Makes You Money

Wednesday, July 19, 2006 from 400 to 455 PM Eastern (100 to 155 PM Pacific)

This advanced topic is profound yet simple. And we’ll share a “Lesson from a Golf Course” to help you make the shift. If you want to make a big difference in your business, you will be building a team. Would you recognize a great team member if they were standing in front of you? You can.

TeleConference #4:
10 Reasons to Weave Coaching Into a Non-Coaching Business: For Immediate Effect

Wednesday, July 26, 2006 from 400 to 455 PM Eastern (100 to 155 PM Pacific)

A popular topic for non-coaching businesses who appreciate the benefits of a ‘coaching approach.’ Everyone from a tattoo parlor to a printer ink reseller can earn more money by understanding coaching from the inside-out. And hey, in addition to 10 Reasons, we’ll also give you at least 3 *ways* you can get started…sound like a deal?

TeleConference #5:
How Not To Mess Up A Joint Venture: Including A Formula for Sharing the Money

Wednesday, August 2, 2006 from 400 to 455 PM Eastern (100 to 155 PM Pacific)

Learn how a wacky concept of Heaven and Hell can help you make a giant leap towards maximizing joint ventures. And then get the scoop on the formula for sharing money in a clear-cut way. This last part usually leaves people jumping up and down to get off the call and implement…just a head’s up.

Event Cost: Free When You Buy – and agree to start reading – a copy of the book…

‘Money, Meaning & Beyond: 27 Unexpected Ways to Create What Really Matters to Business Owners”

(US $19.95 +s&h)

You can start reading before OR DURING the conference.

This last part actually means a lot to us. More so than the fact that you get the virtual conference for the price of just one book, as enjoyable as that is to organize.

You see, we know there are a LOT of books lying around, bought in a frenzy, that are never read, or even cracked open. Our goal is the opposite. That is, that every book we ship gets read by at least one person.

So if you’re willing to commit to at least starting to read the book before the conference ends, wonderful! Just go to http://www.MoneyMeaningandBeyond.com and let the reading (marinating, pondering and a-ha-ing) begin.

We hope to spark a season of conversations about money AND meaning, sustainably, like none other – the whole reason for this celebration in the first place.

That’s it! Five hours of enjoyable, meaningful and profitable content in the form of a Virtual Conference… all for the price of a book. Oh and yes, as ‘conferencel-goers’ we’ll be asking you to join the fray…you can debate, discuss, connect and generally celebrate together at the Money and Meaning Blog. We’ll bring the streamers…

So will you accept our invitation to celebrate and explore the possibilities?

Remember festivities end August 2…

To register for the “Money, Meaning and Beyond: Tapping Into the Unexpected” Virtual Conference, go to http://www.MoneyMeaningandBeyond.com and pick up your copy of the book.

Instructions on the number to call on beginning next Wednesday will be sent to you right away.

(By the way – if you’ve already bought and have started reading the book, fabulous! Your copy of the instructions is on its way to you now.)

That’s it. That’s the invitation. We hope you’ll RSVP now and take advantage of this one-time complimentary event. It would be an honor to have you join us.

Go to http://www.MoneyMeaningandBeyond.com to buy the book and get a jump on reading. Our shipping department is standing by.

Just one last thing…if you can’t attend the calls at the time they are being held live, we WILL be making MP3 recordings available. Each of these will remain available to you as a Book-Conference-Participant, however they will also become separate products for sale in the fall, each at its own price.

So if you decide to join the Conference-for-the-Price-of-A-Book but can’t attend live – DON’T FORGET to book time in to actually follow-through and listen. Deal?

See you at the festival grounds…one week from today!

http://www.MoneyMeaningandBeyond.com

I hereby proclaim, before all ye who visit this blog, that I am officially starting to write my book today.

Actually i’m writing half a book, it is going to be co-authored with my biz partner Andrea Lee. A great concept/outline landed at our feet recently and we are SO excited.

Yay! Eeek? Yawn… It’s funny actually how tough a time I have to get writing. I spend most of the day with my brain in ‘ops’ mode, getting things done, managing da biz, etc… so much so that it almost physically hurts to switch my brain from ‘ops’ mode to ‘writing’ mode.

Although I really do enjoy the writing once my brain makes that transition… I find I especially get inspired in the evenings before I go to bed. So perhaps i’ll end up writing lots in the evenings?

Either way, i’ll keep you posted. Our draft is due end of March, but with baby coming I probably only have a couple of weeks. Gak!

So what is the book about? It’s a secret for now, but I can tell you that it will be done in time for the Power of Collaboration SuperConference this May 11-12, 2006.

Here’s a question that my business buddy Andy received from someone just the other day:

How do I drive thousands of people to my website for free to buy my new ebook?

His answer: If you find a way please let me know!

For those of us who have been doing business online for a while now it is easy to chuckle at the naiveté of this email (I admit that I did). But I think there is a larger ‘issue’ at hand here… and that is the expectation out there that you can just flip a switch and magically have *instant passive revenue* on the internet.

I like to call this the Passive Revenue Myth.

Seriously now folks, there is no such thing as passive revenue…

If we take a look at the word passive it literally means no effort. (In fact I looked it up in the dictionary – existing, conducted, or experienced without active or concerted effort.)

Like anything in life, nothing comes for free. This is especially true in business.

In order to build a successful and sustainable business online you *do* have to be quite active and willing to put in effort. Passive revenue is something that is earned, it is not something that appears with the flip of a switch.

In my over 5 years of working online I have yet to see a truly successful ‘field of dreams’ business online… like in the movie where they say ‘if you build it they will come’.

“All I have to do is write an ebook, put it on a website and people will come to my site and buy it earning me thousands of dollars per month immediately”

Arg! Talk about a recipe for frustration and failure, and yet many people have exactly this expectation based on various promises and misconceptions out there in the online world.

Doing business online is no different than doing business offline… the environment is different but the effort required is the same.

What does a person do if they plan on opening a local flower shop? They do their research, learn all about flowers, write a business plan, find the best location, etc… they *work* at it.

The exact same thing is required of any successful online business – you need to do research, become an expert, write a plan, know your market, etc.

To look at it quite simply, even if you write the best ebook in the world on a super hot topic you still need to:

• package it for online delivery
• setup a shopping cart system to handle orders
• create an effective sales page website
• drive traffic to your website
• test your results/conversion
• make changes to your sales page
• provide customer service

All of these things require management/effort on an ongoing basis, especially driving traffic and increasing conversions… which is the heart of any successful online business.

I would prefer to use the phrase Leveraged Revenue instead of Passive Revenue.

Because the thing that is so great about the internet is the leverage that it gives you in doing business.

• Opportunity to reach many people worldwide
• Ability to create an online product once and sell it many times over
• Lower start up costs than many traditional offline businesses
• Flexibility in hours and working location (home based business)
• Your store is open 24 hours/day
• to name just a few

But it does take work, and you effort will reflect in your results. So if you are game to put in a bit of elbow grease the internet is a wonderful place to do biz.

Just wanted to drop you a quick note today before I head out for the ICF Conference in San Jose.

I have a great offer, for newsletter readers only.

Can I help you save $200?

Andrea Lee and I are putting the finishing touches on our newest product ‘Pink Spoon Marketing: The Art & Science of Building a Multiple Streams Business.’

This 200+ page workbook and CD set is the synthesis of our over 5 years experience building 6 and 7 figure businesses online. And we are so thrilled to finally be able to offer this to you in a simple guide.

We’ve taken the ‘headache’ out of launching your business online through this step-by-step guide. Based on proven relationship based marketing principles, Pink Spoon Marketing will give you everything you need to launch a successful online initiative.

So are you ready to take your business to the next level online? Let us help you get started with a $200 savings, available to newsletter readers only.

Important: To claim your $200 savings you must be added to our pre-sale notification list.

To join the list send a blank email right now to
andrea1-3670@unlimitedautoresponders.com.

You will receive a special *activation* email from us in just a couple of weeks, that will give you the option to be one of the very first people to get a copy of Pink Spoon Marketing ‘hot off the press’.

Go ahead and send your email now, before you forget! Even if you are just thinking ‘maybe’…

Again, to get on the list send an email to
andrea1-3670@unlimitedautoresponders.com

Will you be in San Jose? Be sure to drop by the Multiple Streams of Coaching Income booth to say hello.

Some of you may have noticed that i’ve been pretty quiet the past couple of weeks.

Well i’ve been buried ‘up to my neck’ in creating our first big ticket product on Pink Spoon Marketing.

And I just got notification from our production guy that we’ve literally hit the press today… can I get a yahoo on that one?

It’s been quite the adventure creating this product…

I have to admit that I wasn’t really prepared for what creating this product would entail. It’s a 200 page behemonth binder complete with 5 hours of audio… and we created it all in a mere 2.5 weeks (nothing like putting on the pressure hey?

First of all, i’m not that great at doing focused work. Its the ‘ADD’ in me… so spending all day writing was a real shift. I love writing, but anything that requires more than an hour of my attention at any given time takes alot out of me.

But I did find that after a few days I really got into the flow… I was able to start writing and things started to click. When you are creating something this big it really is quite the mess in the beginning, and to see it come together was an absolute joy.

Oh and I must say that it wasn’t just me doing all the work, Pink Spoon Marketing is co-written with Andrea Lee and had the editing/formatting wizardry of Kerri Martin all along the way.

And Joe Taylor is ‘da man’ putting it all together for us, I SO recommend his services if you need to create an info product. Check him out at http://www.joetaylorjr.com/

No great thing is ever accomplished on our own, ain’t that the truth!

So it occured to me as I was buried (and whining) halfway through, that this thing friggin rocks! Why? It is a synthesis of *everything* that we’ve learned from working online with various clients over the past 5 years. It’s all that you need to know to get started building a business online, based on our proven philosophy of Pink Spoon Marketing.

(No clue what a pink spoon is? Be sure to sign up for my Online Business Essentials ecourse.)

How cool is that? Now when people ask ‘how we do what we do’ we have a product to point them to… something that will literally take them step by step through the process.

I feel like I just gave birth to a baby, so darn proud!

And if some of you are itching to get your hands on a copy, never fear… we will be ready to announce this new product in just a couple of weeks. And I promise to give you a great deal as a reader of OBM, gotta get something for putting up with me hey? lol