Goodies

AT&T/Cingular, Sprint, & Quest Are Blocking Your Calls

This is an article I lifted directly from Michael Port's blog. He's the guy to go to for the Product Factory and the Traffic School. I respect him and his work tremendously, and am so grateful he wrote this - here's: Michael Port's blog.

He says: I'm not surprised when people or businesses behave badly. I'm disappointed but not surprised. This one has not only surprised me but shocked me.

I got an email from a subscriber today saying he couldn't get on to a tele-seminar that I was doing using a conference line from nocostconference.com. He said he is a Cingular customer and that Cingular has been blocking his calls to most conference lines. I was skeptical: a) I didn't think it was technically possible and b) I didn't think it would be legal to do something like that.

I did some checking. Turns out he was right. Apparently AT&T/Cingular, Sprint, and Quest are blocking your conference calling. Absolutely ridiculous and offensive.

Anti-trust laws were established in response to this kind of illegal business practice.

Just because you can, doesn't mean that you should stop people from getting what they want. If you do, they'll most certainly stop wanting you.

TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT:
If you are a Cingular/AT&T, Qwest or Sprint customer and feel compelled to respond to their blocking your access to free conference calling services, you may file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by clicking here: Do something about it!.

For your convenience, nocostconference.com has offered the following text that you may copy and paste in the text window of the above link. After filling out the required information, you may choose from the following responses. Feel free to edit as you feel necessary:

For nonprofit services:
We have found that the blocking by the above-named long distance carrier is affecting our ability to function as a nonprofit organization. The long distance company is using its ability as a monopolizing carrier to drive competitive conference services out of t! he conferencing market. We find these services vital to our functionin g as a nonprofit organization. These competitive conference solutions provide us with the ability to carry out needed services to all our patrons that we otherwise could not afford at the partners of the long distance carriers rates. We find that there is no added advantage to use their partner services over competitive conference solutions that would justify their exorbitant rates. We respectfully request that the FCC look into this matter and order the long distance carrier above to cease its strong-arming of the competitive conference solutions that we find vital to our ability to carry out our much needed philanthropy. Thank you for your time.

For businesses:
We have found that the blocking by the above-named long distance carrier is affecting our ability to function as a business. The long distance company is using its ability as a monopolizing carrier to drive competitive conference services out of the conferencing market. We find that these services are necessary with their alternative pricing structure for us to operate as a business. We see no added benefit of using the long distance company's partners' pay-for service which is usually at an exorbitant rate vs. the competitive solutions available. Our company would cease to be able to perform its functions if we are forced to change conferencing service models. We respectfully request that the FCC look into this matter and order the long distance carrier above to cease its strong-arming of the competitive conference solutions that we find vital to our ability to carry out our daily business. Thank you for your time.

Business Blog Basics

Blogging is all the rage these days.

Just take a look around: businesses of all sizes have joined the blogosphere by the bazillions. They’re seeking to connect with customers, increase their credibility - and grow their businesses, of course.

Here's where to sign up for this Blogging Basics course: Business Blog Basics. Class 1: Jan 17, Class 2: Jan 24, Class 3: Jan 31.

Bottom line: Before you take one more step and jump on the business blogging bandwagon, you need to ask yourself several crucial questions:

Easy Bake Weblogs

Easy Bake Weblogs! You can build a blog in the next 15 minutes! Here's a 4 part course with Andy Wibbels - including instant lifetime access to audio archives.

Stop right there! What’s a blog and WHY do I need one?

For starters, a blog is an instantly, easily and frequently updated website. That’s it. Looks like a diary but is so much more.

Now, for the “why in the heck do I need this?” part.…Easy Bake Weblogs is great for people who really have no clue if their business could even use a blog. The course is taught by the King of Bloggers, Andy Wibbels, and runs 4 weeks.

Here's the link where to sign up for the course: Easy Bake Weblogs. Dive in!

Last year, I took a basics blogging course with the King of Blogs, himself, Andy Wibbels. I learned all the basics - which blogging site to use, how to sign up, what kind of blog to have, how many, how to set up my blog, how to design the pages, set up the colors, make an entry, post photos - the works.

It was so simple that, once I started, I had it done in less than a day. And, I haven't changed anything about it since then - that says lot for this tweak-it-til-it's-perfect freak!

The Feast Special Continued

I'm in San Blas, Mexico right now, loving the fine weather and new experiences that go along with a first-time visit to a country. And we just happened to come in the midst of the country's biggest holiday, the 9-day celebration of the Virgin de Guadalupe, so we've seen beautiful, colorful processions and celebrations every night since we got to Mexico a week ago, both in Puerto Vallarta and San Blas.

Lenses and Squids

Do you know what a lens is? No, not on a camera—on the internet. I just found out about them this summer.

Imagine that you want to find out info about a subject, and there is a simple site where you can access links, affiliate programs, articles, books, apparel, recipes, polls—you name it—all about—ONLY about—that subject.

That's a lens. It's a deep well, rather than a shallow puddle—which is how a "normal" website is compared.

Now. Many of you have asked me how you can create a website revolving around your business. This is one of many ways to do it. Point it to your business blog, or vicey versey—and lots of traffic, lots of opportunity for income.

Setting up a lens is easy, fast, and is no cost to you, other than your time and energy.

The name of the place to go to set your up is Squidoo.com, a site imagined, innovated and put together by Seth Godin, who you may know as a radical guy in internet marketing and innovation (Think Purple Cow, Bootstrapper's Bible, Do Less etc).

There's a whole nother aspect to building a lens through Squidoo I love—when you get paid for any affiliate stuff from them, you can choose to take part of it and shunt it over to a charity of coice. You can choose how much and when. Check this out—this is very cool—tonight I got this note from Seth:

Whole, or Fragmented?

Last week in my public speaking class, someone gave me a hard time after one of my talks, scolding me for saying to the group that I wanted to help them live their dreams. She thought that I was assuming that they were not, already, living their dreams.

So in my next talk, I addressed them as if they were already successful, and I gave them ideas for increased success.

It worked - they liked it.

I thought I'd try the same idea when I told everyone about my Meet Your Future: Immersion class tomorrow and Monday, just to see what happened.

It didn't work. How many people will tell you their ad campaign didn't work? Let me tell you, not many. But I will, because what I learned was important not just for me but for you, too.

Here's the thing. When my speaking group told me they felt insulted that I assumed they weren't already living their dreams, I thought, they're right. I can't assume anything but the best of them.

Because if I do, then I'm actually creating them to be less-than - less successful, less prosperous, less-whatever - than they are. I'm creating an I-am-less-than mindset in them. A less-than vacuum. Then, when they see my solution, they will be sucked into this vacuum, this less-than feeling, by wanting something to fill it up. They will be lured into my solution.

Is this honorable? Is this supportive? No. It doesn't honor or support the reader's mindset. It brings it down a notch - or more - until they want something they perhaps don't even need. Effectively lowering their mindset to an "I need" vibration.

Does it work for the majority of marketers to do this? You bet!
Do I want to continue to support this mindset? No.

Even though I probably didn't get my idea across in the Meet Your Future: Immersion class email to you, I still would prefer to speak to you - and my speaking group - in a way that you feel **already** supported, not less-than. The only way to do that is to assume that everyone is already where they want to be, already as successful as they can be in that moment, already having received everything possible for them at that moment they read or hear my ideas.

This is very definitely not how we are encouraged to think of ourselves, is it?

Competition or Cooperation?

I forgot to tell you something. It's so basic, so fundamental, that I forget to say anything about it when I write you about this and that.

It's this: it's my intent to be a source of strength and inspiration to you who are moving from the State of Survival to the World of Thriving.

Because without an underlying motivational urge, one that is larger than I am and that inspires and uplifts *me*, how can I hope to supply anyone else with anything that is much more than programs that are disguised give-me-money or a lot of hype?

At the last 2 IBI Forums, BJ Dohrmann, the founder, who is a business genius and whose predictions are highly respected by top biz and economic people, and are 97% spot-on, drilled it into us that the time we are experiencing right now is unique in the history of the world and in economics because of the upswings in technology, global communication, information and its wide dissemination, and the radical upturn in the learning curve.

He says that we are at the end of the last leg of a 15-year economic boom, and predicts that the economy will do a major down-turn starting in January.

Now hear me out before you turn me off and say, "don't tell me such negative stuff!" I'm not here to discourage! This is a wake-up call, not a signal to turn tail and go slithering into a hole!

Looking for a Business Idea?

This is an article from a blog written by my friend, Kathleen Gage, who is a business expert who helps people expand and excel on and offline. It's such a great mirror of what I call "pull" marketing - instead of shoving our products in peoples' faces, we pull them in by giving them what they want and need.

Her story is the perfect example of how one woman, understanding exactly what Kathleen needed, made all the difference for Kathleen in her move to another state and the particularly specific subsequent remodelling - with more people who understood what she wanted - of her home.

The Relocation Market Could Be a Goldmine for Your Business

With my recent move from Utah to Oregon, I had the opportunity to experience marketing from a powerful perspective: a consumer in need of numerous products and services. As I have been settling in, I realize what an incredible opportunity this is for countless businesses to increase revenues by tapping into the relocation market. Sadly, not many companies take full advantage of what could literally be a goldmine to their business.

Depending on the location of the move, some of the consumer needs may include: an accountant, carpenter, dentist, doctor, electrician, financial planner, gym, hair and nail salon, health food store, insurance agent, landscaper and plumber just to name a few. More and more people are moving hundreds, if not thousands of miles.

Cooperation, Not Competition?

I just got back from LA, where I spent a very intense week of training at a CEO retreat called the Free Enterprise Forum put on by IBI, Income Builders International.

It's great to be back home in the sweet air of Hawaii! I told you my first impressions and experiences with IBI before I left (see the articles posted below), but I wanted to verify all the amazing claims I heard about it before I said any more - and omigoodness, were they SO understating everything!

I'll back up a bit - IBI was founded 17 years ago here in Hawaii by a genius enterpreneur named Bernhard J. Dohrmann. His vision was to train and nurture a group of top-notch entrepreneurs who, in turn, would bring in more people for the same training, and consequential networking. Co-operation rather than competition was - and still is - the name of the Game.

So now, imagine 17 years and over 30,000 members later...and what we have is a major force in world-wide business of people who want to - and do - operate out of cooperation, good will and what-do-YOU-(rather than I)-need-next mentality. Rather than living and working from should/ought-to/got-to and gotta-make-money/nevermind-my-dream, these people do their lives centered in and from their genius and passion.

Needless to say, even though the meeting - called the Free Enterprise Forum - was only a little over a hundred people this time, it was an awesome experience.

People attending included folks who were finding their "genius," looking for a way to channel that genius into product or service, business start-ups, seasoned biz folks, people in transition, investors, people with multi-million dollar ventures - you name it. Artists, therapists, writers, inventors, educators, business advisors, accountants, lawyers, planners, high-level CEOs, financial planners - the variety and richness of expertise and knowledge available was stunning.

We were encouraged to meet and speak at length with each Forum Instructor - every one of them was a highly respected expert in his or her field, and would be available for free the entire week. You could ask them anything you needed to know about your next step, your vision, your planning - whatever.

Here's some of what I came away with:

I DID IT! EEEHA!

A friend asked me today to "Share with me a risk that you have taken recently in your life, and how your life has been altered out of taking that risk."

I just finished raising the money I need to go to the business training next week. From the day of my first phone call, it took 8 days and 11 phone calls. And the last person ($2000) doesn't even want interest. Yeeha! I've never raised capital for my biz before.

Here's the list that I sent my friend:

WHAT IS RAISING CAPITAL?

I learned that raising capital is not begging for money:
it is sharing my successes and the wealth of my being
it is an opportunity for people to gain more from giving me money than they would get in the ordinary banking world
it is an opportuity to open further and receive graciously that which I WANTED, but on a core level never thought I could/would receive. And
and it is a track that others can step into and have their own success by using elements of mine.

SELF-WORTH

I learned that the fear I had in the beginning of this process was absolutely nothing compared to the fear and turmoil I used to experience when I was broke, hungry and angry. If I can do this - wow - what ELSE can I do?

I learned to trust myself - that what I am doing has value and merit, and even if it doesn't eventually manifest in the form in which I see it now, it will manifest in a form that does have value.