content development

Have You Checked For Changes Recently?

December 18, 2012 By Cara Lumen

There are two elements that are constantly changing in your life that you need to consider: the changes in the environment of your business and the changes in yourself.

Check for changes in the environment of your business

My friend’s business had been built on her ability to help writers publicize their books. However, two major changes have occurred in the field of publishing – marketing itself has changed from selling to educating and the publishing business has broken wide open so anyone can self-publish a digital book. Those major changes in her field meant that she has to complete rethink who her target community is and what she wants to offer them. Publicizing a book is and always has been about your platform. Should she start offering courses on platform building? Did she want to work with the beginning author or did she want to work with people who had been writing for a while? Who you work with and what you help them do are two vital decisions that will dictate how you repurpose your business.

Check for changes in you

My interests have shifted. I am looking for ways to stay relevant as I gradually move into retirement. That’s what I want to think about. That’s what I want to figure out. That’s what I want to write about. That has shifted my target community from people interested in creating information products to entrepreneurs who are facing retirement with ideas still calling them. I now have to figure out what that target community needs from me and what I am willing to offer. It also requires me to let go of what I have created so far and look at what I am willing and eager to do next. Letting go is hard to do, but you have to let go in order to embrace the new.

What have you learned?

A major reason you might make a shift in your business is that you have developed a new skill. As I got better at creating information products, I positioned my coaching practice to specialize in that. I don’t have the skill of staying relevant in retirement yet but I’m figuring it out. What new skills have you learned that you can put to use in the service of others?

Has your passion shifted?

It was a shock to find myself becoming uninterested in doing what I had been doing. I no longer wanted to coach people in developing information products because I already knew how to do that. I wanted to go exploring. I wanted to learn something that was new to me and more relevant to my interest. My passion shifted and I had to change my business to accommodate it.

Check for changes in your community

When you shift your business, you don’t have to develop a new community; you just have to notice how they are changing and address those changes. For instance, I’m aware that members of my community are growing older just as I am. Their needs are changing. They are beginning to look at slowing down, at retiring, and they will face the same challenges I am. Of course, I could go try for a new target audience but why would I not simply find ways to keep on serving the people who already know me, those I have already served. All I have to do is identify what they need from me now that I am willing to offer.

Watch for the signs

I’ve been thinking about this repositioning change for several months. Not knowing what I wanted to do made me feel stuck and even lost. I finally figured out that at the very least I would write about the topic of creatively moving into retirement. It was a topic I was exploring on a personal level and I knew it was relevant for others. However, personal expansion is esoteric. It’s much easier to coach someone to create an ebook than to help them find and develop their passion. I watched my own progress, observed the questions I asked myself and I began to see how I would coach people – the questions I would ask, the exercises I would give them, the sequence I would use to help them unfold. I wrote down a coaching sequence. I love to coach and if I choose this path, I can help people move in this new direction. What signs are showing up in your life that are asking you to change?

Redefine your offer

What do I want to offer? What do people need? What form does this take? I can write. I can teach courses. I can coach. I will write articles. I will create self-discovery exercises that help people make strong choices. I will help entrepreneurs who are moving into retirement with all their creative juices still flowing, to repurpose their passion and talent so they can slow down and still feel productive and relevant. I will encourages awareness and help people find balance.

Who do you help and what do you help them do? How does that need to be modified because both you and the market have changed?

How To Move Forward When You’d Rather Stay Stuck

December 5, 2012 By Cara Lumen

Sometimes it takes a crack on the side of my head by a Cosmic 2×4 to realize I’m stuck or that something basic needs to be changed. It would be much easier if I could figure that out ahead of time.

Take a quarterly reality check

You can take a reality check any time but I suggest you actually schedule one on your calendar four times a year. You might align them with the solstice and equinox celebrations to remind you of a steady pattern of growth.

Begin by writing down the parts of your business that you love to do. List the activities and interactions that fill you with enthusiasm and satisfaction. Mark the ones you are really good at doing. This is your calling. This is where you are needed. This is where you are to serve.

Make a list of what is working. Do you like doing it? Does it bring in enough income for the effort/time it takes? Do people need/want what you offer? Are they buying it? Be honest. Don’t list “what if’s, or maybe’s.” Don’t let something be OK if it is not OK. Circle the most lucrative aspects of what you do in your business.

Look for what is missing

There’s always something more we can do to move ourselves forward. For instance, you may know that your networking and keep-in-touch strategies are weak. What are you willing to do? What personalized version can you create that can fill that need. I’m not a go-to-meeting person but I can reach out through blogging, or simply by calling people I would like to know better and reaching out to deepen our connection. Schedule the actions you are willing to take to improve that area.

Let go

Let go of what is not working and that you don’t like to do. Hire it done if it is integral to your business, but if it is a pet project that you like doing but no one needs, drop it.

If you are stuck, take one action as soon as possible

Sometimes it takes awhile to realize that we are stuck. I got stuck recently. It was depressing. Some of the options I considered made me very, very unhappy to even think about. On top of being stuck, the first thing I thought of was the old solution. The very same steps I used to take to rescue myself from this type of situation. All that did was take away from what I had achieved so far. I knew the old solution was not a solution. I needed to find new paths, new opportunities, and a new inner approach.

Strategist what you want to create on the other side

How do you want it to be? What if… What if you started doing more of this and less of that? What if I wrote and posted five articles a week instead of one? How much free advertising would that be? How is my conversion rate? Do I need to change my opt-in offering? What if I clustered my coaching clients and scheduled them only three days a week and scheduled one full day of business marketing for myself? Where are the leaks in my spending? What am I buying that I don’t need? What should I purchase to make my business run easier, faster, better? What do I see as the outcome? How do I want my business to be?

Check your beliefs

Whatever is showing up that is not working indicates an area of your consciousness that needs adjusting. How is your self-esteem? Can you look at your services for the value they bring to others rather than thinking in terms of cost per hour or worse yet, what you think people can afford to pay you. Do you think you can do the job? Do you believe your work is good enough? Check your beliefs around the areas of your business that are profitable and satisfying as well as examine the aspects that are not. See what kind of adjustments you can make. Change your thinking and it will change the outcome.

Ask for signs

This is my favorite thing to do. Ask for a sign for your next step, for guidance in making a choice, for what new door to open next. Then simply watch and interpret.

Look to the future

Start focusing on how you want it to be. Start listing the steps to get you there, the people you need to work with, the outer changes you need to make, the inner work you need to do. Keep asking “what if.” What if I did this? What if I change that? What if I no longer offered that?

The minute you feel stuck take action as soon as you possibly can to change the circumstance and immediately start making plans for the new direction you want to take. Even a small shift will take you down a new path.

Out With The Old, In With The New

November 21, 2012 By Cara Lumen

This is one of those times I get reflective about how I’m doing and where I want to go. How can I make the next quarter better? Or the next year? Or the next five years? Am I headed in the right direction for me? Am I headed for success?

Am I still going where I want to go?

How has my vision changed? Can I see myself playing bigger, reaching more people, touching more lives? Have new paths opened up that I want to follow or explore? Starting right this minute, what do I want to attract, create, and manifest over the next twelve months?

Write it down. Make it concrete. Prioritize. What’s at the core of all you do that you want to keep doing? Why do you get up in the morning and do what you do? What is your passion and are you still following it?

What new skills have I learned?

We are constantly learning and changing. What have you learned, discovered, experienced that has brought a new realization or insight that you want to incorporate into your life and business? Have you added a new credential? Is there a new venue you want to explore? Have you met new people to partner with? Write down your skill sets, see how many ways you can use them. Prioritize them and build them into your business.

What’s working and what needs to be phased out?

Get real with your dollars and cents. What is earning you money? What is fun but doesn’t bring in income? How can you streamline your costs? What help do you need to get? Shed the worst 10% of everything you’ve got – that includes clients, products and time wasters. That leaves room for you to add 10% more of the great stuff.

What are my goals for the year?

Only take the steps that forward the goal you have chosen for the year. That will keep you on target and produce more relevant results. Do you want to get more clients? How many? What do you need to do to make that happen? Get a coach? Do more networking? Do more referral education? Pick tangible goals with measurable results and track your success. That helps you know what to keep and what to toss at your quarterly 10% house cleaning toss.

Re-price, Repackage, Reposition

The easiest way to increase income is to re-price – as in raise your prices. Don’t look at what you do according to the time it takes you to do it. Look at the value it produces and price accordingly. When I coach a person in developing an information product, it’s not about the time we spend together or the time I spend strengthening the content, it’s about the value of the results she will get with the content we produce. Even more important is the knowledge she obtained that she can reuse again and again to make more information products. That changes our thinking, doesn’t it?

Repackage – position your offering so people sign for longer periods of time. That allows them to make the buying decision only once. I ask for a three-month commitment because the decision-making process takes time. The completing of the project is a snap after the decisions are made. Some coaches have a six-month or twelve-month commitment. How much time do you need to get the results you promise? The coaching process is about change and that simply takes time. If you are settling for a three month commitment, look for other offerings you can make to up-sell that client to a longer coaching package. Keep finding ways to serve those loyal customers who already know and love you.

Chunk your products up or down. Present the same material in new formats. I broke a five-week telecourse down into a series of eight ebooks so people can access the information at a lower price point. Breaking that information down also gave me the chance to expand each topic.

Reposition your offerings to a new target market. As I move into semi-retirement I have discovered a whole new set of personal challenges. How do I stay relevant? Who am I if I am not my business? My passion to learn and teach and write remains but my interest has shifted. I now help entrepreneurs who are moving into retirement with all their creative juices still flowing, to re-purpose their passion and talent so they can slow down and still feel productive and relevant. I’m focusing on personal growth. I help my clients find balance. My business background can help them downsize and reposition their business. My spiritual background can help them prepare for retirement. It’s the same me with the same skill set. It’s simply a different focus for my offerings.

Move more deeply in service

If you continue to move more deeply in service, to continue to find ways to support, nourish, guide, encourage, inspire your target market, you’ll be happy and they will keep coming. Don’t throw out everything. Don’t start over with everything new, but take time to reflect on how you’re doing and how you’d like it to be different. Then simply take the steps to make it happen.

Your New Statement of Solution

May 12, 2012 By Cara Lumen

Seth Godin suggests that we can attract new prospects simply by rewording our statement of the problem and providing a new statement of solution. I began to consider how I would apply that to my own business.

People don’t buy unless they recognize their need

If I don’t know that I have a problem, I certainly won’t seek out a solution. For instance, a proffered telecourse described some of the characteristics of an introvert, a label I had never applied to myself. However, words like “loner” and “needs big personal space” resonated with me. Those descriptive phrases helped me recognize myself as a potential participant in the course and the solution the course offered helped me realize that the course could help me learn to modify those tendencies. How can you restate the need or want you meet so people will recognize themselves?

Your headline must indicate who you serve and tell what problem you solve

As a consumer, I have to be able to recognize myself in the headline. I personally am not going to read more if the headline speaks to young people who want to learn to salsa because I’m not young and the salsa is not of interest to me. But I will read more if a specific need is met, like a product that helps me see the need for a strong opt in offer and how to craft one or understanding why I should write my landing page first Why did you create this product or service in the first place? What was the need or desire that you saw that you meet? How can you reword it so people know it is meant for them?

What’s in it for me?

The most common error we make in our content is to talk about ourselves – our process in developing a product, the reason we created it. The hard fact is that people don’t care about us; they don’t care how we created it or how many pages or classes it contains. They care about what’s in it for them. Tell them what’s in it for them in your headline and in your landing page content. Talk about the recognizable results they will achieve.

A new statement of their problem

Write down what you see as the problem you will solve or the needs you will meet in as many ways as you can imagine. Approach it from the emotional comfort it will produce, the physical results to be gained, and the personal growth it fosters. Brainstorm 10 or 12 statements of the problem. Then choose the statements that have the most emotional appeal to include in your content. People identify through their emotions.

I prefer to state problems in the positive but the negative approach does work. For instance rather than a headline that says, “Do your knees hurt when you go down stairs?” I’d rather hear, “Think how great it will be to take long walks with your dog again.” Tell me what results I will achieve. If I learn to format my book for an ereader will I be more attracted to your offer if you show me how easy it is to format for an ereader or that that process can make me more money? That’s two different reasons for wanting to engage. Know the needs and desires of your target community. If I buy your product, what is it going to do for my business? What’s in it for me?

A new statement of the solution

Now write 10 to 12 new statements of the solution. Is the solution to invest in a new software program or is it to learn a few simple, repeatable steps for creating compelling content? the solution an easy way to craft an ebook or does it offer ideas on how to hire a ghostwriter? What results can I expect if I purchase your product or service? What solution to my problem do you offer?

The product promise

For every product or service I write a product promise. “At the end of this… (book, course, video, coaching series) you will… (what?).” Before I even begin creating my product, I have to know what results I want my participant to achieve. What is the compelling need or burning desire that I am answering? The product promise for this article is that “at the end of this article you will understand the need to express the problem you solve with your product or service in a way that emotionally connects with your prospect so that you can improve your results when you look for new ways to express the statement of solution.”

Rethink your landing page.

Look at your landing page from the viewpoint of the first time visitor. Will they recognize themselves as the exact type of person this site addresses? Is the problem that you solve one that they have? Is the need that you fulfill a need they have? Is the solution doable? Do the results seem achievable? Get empathetic. Put yourself in their place. How would you feel? Would you be drawn to the person who offers this solution?

How can you more effectively state the problem you solve and the solution you offer?

Creative Freedom vs. Sticking with the Plan

May 6, 2012 By Cara Lumen

Does having a plan squelch your creativity? On one hand, I love to submerge myself in the creative muse. On the other hand, if I don’t have a plan I’ll end up taking an entirely different journey than the one I intended. Having a well thought out targeted result in mind before you start writing will help achieve the results you want even as you allow your creative muse free rein.

A plan sets boundaries

When I create a new information product, I write the landing page first . That helps me make major decisions about the scope of the project and the results I want to achieve. It gives me an opportunity to decide who I am writing to, what they need and want to know and what results I want to achieve with this product.

A plan eliminates idea clutter

When I make the defining choice of writing an ebook on creating an opt in offer that choice immediately focuses the project. It eliminates a big portion of the idea clutter that was present when I began the project. It tells me I’m not going to write about the mini-ecourse in that book. I’ll save that for another book. I’m not going to make a telecourse or a video from this idea, I’m going to write one book on a specific topic for a specific audience. Any idea that is not going in that direction is set aside for another project.

A plan identifies the most important points

An outline is vital. When you start to craft your information product put yourself in the Beginner’s Mind. What do they need to know first, then second? What do you want your readers to understand by the end of this project? How do you help them achieve the promised results? What topic needs a fuller explanation, what do they already know? Keep your ideas in outline form as long as possible so you can recognize the organic flow of the content and make certain it takes your reader on the journey you want them to experience.

A plan helps you get measurable results

When you help people get measurable results they begin to understand that you know what you are talking about and that you can help them. In every project, you need to take your participant through a series of steps that lead to a measurable end result. You need to point out the results they have gotten so they recognize their progress. What measurable results do you want from this project?

A plan can expand your own understanding

A plan helps you capture and organize your ideas. It helps you clarify what you think and what you want to teach. As you explore what you want to offer your community you may see the need for a series that takes them step-by-step through a process. As you create your plan you will see how some ideas can become ebooks or a videos or telecourses. You may explore your core concepts by writing great Cornerstone Content. A plan offers you a place to store ideas that don’t fit into this project while allowing you to keep them safely in mind for the next project. A plan is about making choices and choices clarify your intention and focus the result.

A plan keeps you from feeling overwhelmed

Once you have a plan you can work on it in segments – one chapter at a time, one article at a time, one teleclass at a time. Working in smaller chunks keeps you from feeling overwhelmed. Your plan will keep you on target.

A plan helps you stay creatively focused

As you create your interactive elements, as you add stories to your content, as you come up with more ideas, your plan will help you made relevant choices. A plan makes you look at the end results you plan to create and choose or discard each idea based on its value to that ultimate goal.

A plan can simplify

When you make an outline, it’s easy to see whether you have too much information for the format you have chosen. A plan allows you to break an idea up into a series, or make a beginning and intermediate level of a teleclass series, or write a series of ebooks.

Your product promise

For every project, write a product promise. What you do want to deliver to the consumer of this product? Your product promise guides your plan, it focuses you outline and colors the content. The product promise for this article is “At the end of this article you will understand that creating a solid plan does not take away from your creative freedom, it allow you to communicate in a meaningful manner that will change lives.”

Start with your product promise and design a great plan.