The New Leaf™
The Official Newsletter of Authentic Promotion™
Volume 5, No. 28, July 15, 2003
U.S. Library of Congress ISSN: 1530-311X
Molly Gordon, Master Certified Coach
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In This Issue
Fast Focus: It's Always Something
Simple Gifts: What Are You Laughing At?
Coaching: Study Shows It Works
Internet Marketing: From Butt Camp to Web Audio
Open for Business: Build Momentum That Matters
The Bedside Table: The Ministers of Marketing
Quick Links: Resources
Small Print: Copyright | Getting On and Off the List
Privacy Statement | Contact Info
Fast Focus
It's Always Something
Doubtless you've noticed that life is not fair, and perhaps you have
come to the conclusion that fairness is not the issue. Still, you
may nonetheless be hobbled in business or career by the fantasy that
some people have it easier than you do.
While this may be true, it is so difficult to prove absolutely that
it's hardly worth your consideration. Rather, consider that no
matter what your circumstances, resources, and aspirations, the
inexorable turning of the wheel of life means that there will always
be challenges, problems, irritations, and setbacks. It's always
something, and it always will be. In other words, life goes on.
Understanding this down to your toenails will give you the
detachment you need to respond rather than cave when you meet an
unexpected challenge. When life throws you a curve, take a minute or
two to whine (might as well explore your full range of emotion),
then pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and see what this latest
twist has to offer in the way of adventure, grace, insight.
It is always something, and isn't that grand?
Vacations can play havoc with email. If your email box exceeds its
quota while you're enjoying a break, your copy of The New Leaf
will bounce. If this happens repeatedly, our software drops you from the
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of checking for you. Just send a blank email to
resub@mollygordon.com .
Simple Gifts
What Are You Laughing At?
Laughter keeps us flexible. It breaks up the habitual patterns that
cramp our style and limit our vision. It helps us meet life's
curricular challenges with élan instead of despair. You can request
a list of New Leaf readers' favorite laughter-provoking videos by
sending a blank email to laughs@mollygordon.com
Coaching: Study Shows It Works
Coaching is a living, dynamic technology for facilitating meaningful
change in just about every domain of life and work. Sherrill Nixon
of the Sydney (Australia) morning Herald reports on a new study that
demonstrates just how effective it can be. Read all about it at
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/04/1057179163923.html .
Looking for a coach? I am interviewing now for both individual and
group openings in August and September. Learn more about my practice
at http://www.mollygordon.com/coaching/coachfaq.html . If you'd like
to choose from among several coaches (I'm not the perfect coach for
everyone -- go figure) send a blank email to
referrals@mollygordon.com for information about several excellent
practitioners.
Internet Marketing
From Butt Camp to Audio Web Sites
Butt Camp: I'm always on the look out for practical guidance in
online marketing. Butt Camp, the brainchild of professional speaker
and Internet entrepreneur Tom Antion, is one of the best. Tom's
background is stand up comedy, so when he set out to create a boot
camp for successful Internet marketing, he named it butt camp. He
says it's a guide to making money while you sit on your butt. I say
that if you invest a couple of weeks listening to his butt camp
tapes this summer and then put even half of what you learn to
consistent use, you'll be able to sit on your butt a lot more next year.
The truth is that success online, as in any medium, requires work.
But, as with most things, you can work harder or work smarter. Tom's
tapes have saved me months of time and energy and thousands of
dollars of development costs. He delivers up-to-date content in a
direct, irreverent style with just enough detail to get started but
not so much that you get overwhelmed.
http://www.antion.com/t.cgi/192738/buttcamp.htm
Web Audio
I'm very excited about a new tool I bought just today (July 13th).
It's Sonic Memo, one of several new ways to put audio on Web sites
or in your newsletter. What I like about Sonic Memo, apart from its
promise to make getting audio files online simple, is that unlike
some other systems, I own and control my own audio files and there
are no monthly fees. The initial investment is $97 and that's it. I
downloaded my copy just a few minutes ago, and I'll keep you posted
about how it is working in future issues. Meanwhile, if you don't
want to wait, you can learn more at
http://www.sonicmemo.com/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=mollygee .
Open for Business
Build Momentum That Matters
When people reach the mid-point in my Authentic Promotion course, I
ask them to do a check in, reflecting on several questions and
writing down the answers. Like so many other actions we take in life
and work, such a check-in may seem unimportant, something we can do
without, given the other demands on our time and attention.
While other demands may be more pressing, I doubt they are more
important. Learning to choose among competing demands on time,
attention, and other resources is essential for building momentum,
the momentum that matters because it leads to a purposeful,
prosperous business in which your gifts and longings meet most
perfectly the needs of those who can benefit from working with you.
So what is it about exercises and practices such as those in my
course and the companion e-book that builds the momentum that
matters? How can you wisely pick and choose among the many
possibilities not only in my offers but those in the world at large?
Before answering that, allow me to introduce a pair of images that
Jim Collins uses in his book, Good to Great, Why Some Companies Make
the Leap...and Others Don't. Collins proposes that the choices of
companies that become great are like pushes on a giant flywheel. At
first, each push hardly seems to register on the huge wheel, but
with each subsequent effort, the wheel gathers energy. In time it
develops such momentum that it reaches a breakthrough point--the
point at which success becomes inevitable.
Collins contrasts the flywheel with the doom loop, a pattern of
going around in circles without coherent direction or purpose.
Companies caught in the doom loop (and this applies to one-person
shops as well as to Fortune 500 behemoths) are addicted to flavor of
the month success formulas. They try one thing, then another,
changing direction and strategy willy-nilly. Every start is a false
start because there is no governing principle or focus to function
as a flywheel, no core principle or direction that can gather
momentum from day to day.
Now, back to the question of choosing which practices will help you
generate the momentum you need to create a purposeful, prosperous
business in which you thrive while serving others. The Authentic
Promotion course and e-book are designed to get you out of the doom
loop and onto a flywheel in two ways. First, you learn principles
that help you envision and articulate your core values and offer so
that you can focus your efforts on being the best in the world at
that which you are uniquely design to do. In other words, you begin
to identify your flywheel.
Second, Authentic Promotion provides exercises and practices that,
with consistent and persistent repetition, move the flywheel. This
lets you stop measuring success in the short term by how fast the
wheel is turning, and measure it instead by how consistently you are
moving in the direction that is right for you. It may happen quickly
or it may take a long time (most overnight successes have ten to
twenty years of pushing on the flywheel behind them) but you will
reach breakthrough.
Sound like too much work? Compare it to going around in circles
forever, always looking for the quick fix, the faster solution, the
fast track. You can spend twenty years chasing your tail, or you can
spend twenty years creating a business that adds value to the world
and creates prosperity for you and your family. What will it be for
you?
Learn more about Good to Great by Jim Collins at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0066620996/mollygordonperso
Learn more about Authentic Promotion at
http://www.authenticpromotion.com. The fall course starts September 8,
and you'll save 10% if you register before August 10.
===>Protect your subscription to The New Leaf
When you change your email address, change your subscription, too. You
can do it in under a minute at http://www.mollygordon.com.
The Bedside Table
The Ministers of Marketing
[By Ann Handley. Reprinted by permission from MarketingProfs Today,
a free Ezine from www.marketingprofs.com .]
I've just returned from a few restorative days at the shore, where I
was reminded of something important: a book read ocean-side is
always more enjoyable. Its message tends to find a more receptive
reader when the sun is warm on the skin and the surf is crashing
close by.
Dragon Spirit: How to Self-Market Your Dream (Newmarket, 2003),
might be an exception, though. You could read this book folded into
a coach airline seat or with an ocean breeze wafting in. But, either
way, it remains a breath of fresh air.
Written by Ron Rubin and Stuart Avery Gold, the founders and
"ministers" of The Republic of Tea, the book is part motivational
discourse, part solid business sense.
"Be guided by your heart" exists alongside nuts and bolts advice on
"building buzz" and creating a recognizable visual identity.
Like their British Breakfast tea, it's good stuff.
What I really liked about Dragon Spirit was its customer-centric
perspective, which is something we marketers need to be reminded of
every so often:
Success comes by "rising above the hollowness of mass marketing,
abandoning the entanglements of the seller, transcending to become
the customer.
"By relinquishing the opiates of marketing, and letting go of the
language of the seller, you will approach business from the needs of
the customer, not yours."
Learn more about Dragon Spirit: How to Self-Market Your Dream at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1557045631/mollygordonperso .
Searching for a book or other product on Amazon?
When you use these linksto Amazon search engines you support
The New Leaf. Please visit and bookmark them today.
US: http://www.mollygordon.com/searchbook.html
UK: http://www.mollygordon.com/eurobook.html
Quick Links
Resources
Too funny!
Check out The Bonsai Potato, the path-in-a-kit that leads to
instant serenity and peace.
http://www.bonsaipotato.com/
Thank you for supporting The New Leaf by purchasing the products
and services recommended below. I personally test every product I
recommend, and every merchant will refund your investment if you
are not satisfied. If they don't make it right, I will.
===>Make Sales Without Selling
Kendall SummerHawk's three-tape series, "What to Say if You Hate to
Sell," shows exactly how to have a respectful, authentic, thoughtful
conversation with prospects, a conversation that results in people asking
if they can hire you (how would you like that!?).
http://www.cartville.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=38272
===>Online Business: Ken Evoy's SiteSell Products
Five years ago I invested in Ken Evoy's Make Your Knowledge Sell.
It's the single best resource I've found for turning information into
income by focusing on delivering value to the customer. Since then
I have these additional products: http://www.sitesell.com/authpro.html
• SiteBuildIt. A very compelte template for building a sales-oriented
Web site. I used it to build http://www.sitesell.com/authpro.html.
• Make Your Site Sell. A comprehensive guide to the design, layout,
and writing principles that lead to successful ecommerce Web sites.
http://www.sitesell.com/authpro.html
Ken focuses on value, not hype, and he's got tens of thousands of
faithful customers to prove it. I'm proud to be an affiliate.
===>Show Up, Serve, and Prosper
"No matter how many years you've been in
business, Molly Gordon's book Authentic Promotion
will inspire you to cast a fresh eye on your business practices. I went right to the chapter on Authentic
Prosperity to see if I was doing it "right." Her superb
coverage of the topic provides not only the tools and
clarity to achieve wealth, but also the support
needed to achieve it." --Jane Pollak, Author of Soul
Proprietor: 101 Lessons from a Lifestyle Entrepreneur
Sample chapter
at http://www.learntolovemarketing.com; Order and
download your copy at: http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/netcart.asp?merchantid=29060&productid=1283526
Small Print
Copyright | Getting On and Off the List
Unless otherwise attributed, all material is written and edited by Molly
Gordon, MCC. Copyright (c) Shaboom Inc. (tm) 2003. All rights reserved.
www.mollygordon.com
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