Thanks Laurie Foley

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Relationships are fuel.

Call it networking, or brand building, or just being cool, but relationships are key in business, and in life. They have a duality of building real connections that have nothing to do with profits, and also real connections that have everything to do with profits.

With iPhone in hand, I thought I’d give a quick shout out to someone who has been really helpful to me in development, and has referred IT Arsenal more times than I can count in the last few weeks to some really great people.

Her business is Branding from the Inside Out, she has a great mind, and mastery of what she does. Thanks Laurie.

Who should you go thank?

Leveraging Busyness: 10 Tools for Re-purposing Content for Product Creation and Traffic

scale Leveraging Busyness: 10 Tools for Re purposing Content for Product Creation and Traffic

In the business creation cycle, IT Arsenal’s specific “website setup” pitch has had it’s waters tested. Looking at April and May’s report, busy is good, but we’re all busy, how can you put busy to work for you? How can you spend time working on your business while you’re working in your business? (or just plain jammed for time) Re-purposing content is one way, and here are some tools and background on how to do it well. Continue reading →

“The M6 Method Guys are Retarded”

Screen shot 2011 05 15 at 9.48.21 PM The M6 Method Guys are Retarded

I finally had a minute to sit down and read the latest e-mail i received from the m6 method guys and what they are producing. i mean this in the nicest way, these guys are retarded.

i can’t believe the quality of the information they release, or how they are able to hit the nail on the head so well with their information. i read it, and seriously said, “wow, these guys are retarded”…while that is probably the most uneducated, improper, un-intelligent usage of the term…i never the less said it, out-loud, to which my fiance then asked “what?” and i then looked literally retarded as i explained.

i’ve been working on a post to explain all about their main product (m6 method), and actually go out and chill with these guys as they live near my home town, a few miles outside philadelphia. they are the real deal. while i still plan to do that, after reading this latest e-mail, i had to get something out there.

i’m not going to screw with you, below is almost a verbatim suggested e-mail swipe letter they sent out. it’s so good, i really have no reason to touch it. (take some notes, it’s well written)

their latest offering is over the should style video’s that show you how to create a digital product the RIGHT way. the first one focuses on taking expertise and turning it into product.

i know personally this is a lot of you, and it’s also myself right now. we all look inward at first when developing our first few products, what are we good at?, what can we explain and package up?, these videos breakdown how to take that and package it up well enough to sell it.

no more words from me, check it out.

Subject:

How to transform your expertise into a profitable product

Body:

Hey,

I’m going to share a link with today because frankly, you’re about
to see something I’d have killed for when I started online. (no joke)

My friends David & Derek over at M6 Method have started filming
over-the-shoulder style videos on creating online ‘information
products’. They call it ‘M6 Sessions’. (I can actually say this literally as I’ve hung out with David on more than one occasion, one time at aWeber’s headquarters for chris guillebeau’s book tour)

See Here for the Sessions.

In M6 Sessions David & Derek explain, all the things you should
be doing to create a product – the right way.

It’s like “reality TV” for product creation – except this will make
you smarter, not dumber, for watching it.

Learning “over the shoulder” style is one of the fastest, smartest
ways to replicate what works, and grasp ‘why’.

They’re giving you a way to watch and model their process (the m6 method, which i’ve mentioned a bunch and use myself), using real-world examples from inside their publishing company.

  • The first session is titled: “Transforming Expertise Into Products”.
  • This is going to help any of you who have specialized knowledge, dying to create your own information product around it.
  • For those without valuable expertise, you’ll learn how you can work/partner with  an expert to create a product.

You can “publish” an expert. If you’re the expert, you’re just
“publishing yourself”. It’s the same process.

Registration is open for just a few days so go enroll for the first
one if you want to check it out:

See Here for the Sessions.

If nothing else, use the above as a good template for how to write a solid marketing e-mail.

April Action Report & The NEW Life Design Project

new clipart April Action Report & The NEW Life Design ProjectYou may have noticed that The Life Design Project has been in Update/Maintenance mode for the last few days, today I unveil why. As you can see all around you, I went into a rather consuming design mode, especially for the last 24 hours! It’s faster, clearer, has more pictures, the fonts are all new, and I put my ugly mug on the home page!

I hope you’ll find it easier to interact with me, and the information easier to read, absorb and act on! Let me know what you think in the comments, and check out the new Inspiration “Feed” page … a constantly updated feed of images directly from my progress, that are meant to encourage, inspire and make you think.

A refresh was long overdue, stick around, we’re still breaking down how to build an online business, and life’s tricks and shortcuts along the way to enabling more life freedom. www.itarsenal.com and various other “satellite” businesses are current business creations.

 

April Action Report (better late than never)

April was an incredibly busy, profitable, and experiential.

I’m still in awe of what getting super targeted does to newsletter growth, sales, and focus. My ideas are focused, my communication is targeted, and it did a lot for sales. Just pick one thing and get obsessed about it on a timeline, just try it. It changes what you bookmark, what forums you go to, people you pay attention to, ect. With a specific offering, you have a specific sale.

The thing to be worried about is time suck, getting bogged down will draw focus from packaging your service better, and creating/re-using content for products. If you don’t work on your business and instead get stuck in your business, you’ll stay mediocre. Especially if your some or all service based. Anyone can make $500 online a month, not everyone can make $5000. In receiving feedback and interest in validating my specific service and product, I’m continuing to think from a systems stand point, how can I affiliate a service, or capture content to re-use, or ways to free time to develop upcoming ideas for a catalog of products and few honed services. This is the main “conflict” and continues to be something to wrestle with when your hit with the happy problem of growth.

So What? Networking booms, experience booms, your “wanted” but make sure you’re stepping back and putting that intellect into something that scales, or building a system that lets you grow, be more efficient, or a “campaign” that will surge a sale later. I love working with clients, but when I’m not with them, I’m thinking how to provide more value with less of my time. Some ideas include implementing an online scheduler for booking time, templating offers, having closed members only membership offers, utilizing a virtual assistant, focusing solely on digital products for a while. I’m a giver it’s in my personality so I am speaking to myself when I list these things and stress to avoid time suck so I can improve and offer more value.

  • I haven’t seen much use in business cards these days, but had some cool ones made so I can force myself to go to some live events with them in hand. Hopefully the encouragement to actually book a business venue to go to. I’m such a homebody. Each card is similar in size to a stick of gum, has my mug on it (apparently that’s popular, it gives you a human feel) and a different tech support-ish slogan the back. moo.com, they were awesome.

5684130962 58fe617cee April Action Report & The NEW Life Design Project

5684131238 6577c2916a April Action Report & The NEW Life Design Project

Notes

  • Very little business product creation, but a lot of content capture, and manual offers of my backup product, build me one service, and trainer product at IT Arsenal.
  • I’ve been referred almost 10 clients this month, huge, big thanks!
  • Dabled with retainer agreements, and I think I might template an agreement for one.
  • Considering a private forum membership for tech and web support
  • I got involved with some really cool coaches and projects, one with Cath Duncan I’m excited about.
  • I generally found myself more excited to be doing what I do, and eagerly looking for ways to handle client load, and offer new services and product in June.
  • As turnkey as I’d like to be, I love answering questions. JustAnswer.com continues to be a favorite, and I found another tech support remote service called www.supportspace.com…always at odds
  • So little blog posts and interaction, I’d like to pick this up, instead I did too much e-mail and in person work, although I captured a lot of it for re-use.

Metrics

  • 4,000 hits to the business site (IT Arsenal)
  • 46 rss subscribers, 3 this month
  • 1 blog post
  • 11 new e-mail list subscribers. 32 including the ones I manually added with permission
  • 4 trainers sold
  • 4 build me ones
  • 2 retainer packages
  • 40 answered JustAnswer questions
  • 15 RAQs (recent asked questions) posted to website
  • $300 in affiliate sales (what’s in the sidebar, amazon, and hosting)
  • $2863 earned online

People that Helped and Why They are Awesome

  • Laurie Foley – mastery of her craft (branding), referrals!
  • Cath Duncan – referrals, sweetness, feedback
  • Noah Kagan – direct communication
  • David Walsh (and Derek, although I’ve yet to meet him, my fault) – systems brain, enlightened
  • Norcross – development skills
  • Stephen March – client, keeping an open mind, and thanking me
  • Sid Savara – re-tweeting my stuff, staying connected
  • Jared O’Toole – sharing, letting me help with under30ceo
  • Greg Rollett – encouragement, hustle, believing in me
  • David Damron – creative personal video marketing
  • Srini – conversation
  • Ashley and Sean – potential partners
  • links to these guys coming soon, use google for now.

Recent Tools/Resources and Uses

  • slidedeck
  • wordpress plugin “fluency admin”
  • join.me – web based screen sharing
  • bookfresh (not to be confused with freshbooks)
  • interviews by mixergy
  • appsumo.com
  • moo.com
  • links to these coming soon, use google for now.

Business Goals April

  • FAIL 11/20 newsletter signups (really should have made more effort on this)
  • FAIL $2863.00/$5000 (5k might be a high number to hit without raising prices)
  • COMPLETE 3 Trainers sold
  • COMPLETE 4 Build Me Ones sold
  • COMPLETE Business Cards ordered.
  • UPDATE 7 books to read this year -> [ ] booked solid, [current ] 52 rules of thumb, [X] art of non conformity, [ ] running lean, [ ] the lean startup, [ ] start over finish rich, [ ] the netwriting masters course
  • COMPLETE Write backlog of posts for IT Arsenal. A few not great posts, but their coming along.
  • FAIL. (100 is too many!) – Answer 100 tech questions for free. This is hard to track, so I created the RAQ, and I’m working on it.
  • FAIL – Schedule a big convention to go to for 2011
  • PARTIAL. Conversations started. – Connect with 3 bloggers and provide tons of value to their audience

May Business Goals

  • 15 newsletter signups
  • implement online scheduler
  • website updates based on feedback from first big change and focus on a single service/product
  • partner with 1 blogger and provide myself as their (and their audiences) tech resource in some arranged agreement
  • create brainstorm for new tech support related service and product (possibly membership, or understanding e-mail lists)
  • finish 52 rules of thumb book
  • $1000 in online income, and much more time spent on creation and interaction this month
    • at least 3 digital product sales
  • schedule to go to a big convention after august
  • do at least one consulting call with a more experienced entrepreneur
    • check in with board of directors (people i’ve asked to keep me accountable)
  • answer 40 questions for free and record them somewhere

What’s Working: Action Report + The Cycle of an Online Business (Which are You In?)

lifestyle business Whats Working: Action Report + The Cycle of an Online Business (Which are You In?)

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Resources Mentioned: RAQ, Mixergy, App Sumo, Corbett Bar, M6Method, Sean Ogle and HDR Photography, 3 Internet Marketing Secrets of the New Rich, Cath Duncan, Laurie Foley, Norcross, Craigslist, Google Forms, iThemes, 52 Rules of Thumb, Be like Water, Quotes by Mark Twain, JustAnswer, SupportSpace, Virtual Business Lifestyle, Ramit Sethi, Mailchimp, Evernote, Destination X

The image above came about by goofing around and getting my head on straight with the cycle of online business creation. It’s good to look at things that frame your actions. It’s similar to the M6 Method, a stellar framework for rapid business creation (reviewed by Corbett Barr, Virtual  Business Lifestyle, and Thrilling Heroics/Cody McKibben) and possibly by me if I ever get my butt into the city. The above is how I’ve approached online business creation and I was taking another look as things develop with my various ventures and core tech service/product site. I’m in the “make product available” stage and creating buzz there. The results from networking while having a very specific offering is doing wonders, but there are things to be scared of. What’s working and what isn’t below. Continue reading →

2 Minutes of Pictures to Inspire You (I have 17,885 days to live)

IMG 0512 2 Minutes of Pictures to Inspire You (I have 17,885 days to live)

What will you do with your last 17,000 (give or take a few thousand) days here?

Continue reading →

What’s the Point of Your Business?

seriously…what’s the point of business?

i’ve been asking for a lot of feedback, and i’ve been asking myself something constantly…what’s the point? as my business arm of this project has been relaunched, refocused, and brainstormed about for the umpteenth time, can you relate with the thought?

can you answer this questions about your idea? business? website? Continue reading →

Don’t Read This, Execute Instead

late for work running1 Dont Read This, Execute Instead
Seriously, get going. Get some feedback, execute on your idea.

Tell you more later, but you need this right now. I know I do. Feedback is a powerful driver, it creates better work and sales. Go get ‘em.


ITA Business March Goals

  • 1. [X] validate first specific service/training with mini launches, surveys, trades for feedback
    • * be as lean as possible. google forms, ask friends, craigslist
  • 2. [X] revisit how my homepage can present a crystal clear message. (complete, new model! narrowed obviousness and focus)
    • * [X] Convey “I am your IT guy”. I train, troubleshoot and set you up.
  • 3. [ ] 7 books to read this year -> [ ] booked solid, [ ] 52 rules of thumb, [X] art of non conformity, [ ] running lean, [ ] the lean startup, [ ] start over finish rich, [ ] the netwriting masters course
  • 4. [ ] schedule attendance at big convention -> no clue, suggestions around philadelphia? (NOT COMPLETED)
  • 5. [X] post re-launch announcement.
  • 6. [X] write free report from survey results and post to give it away
  • 7. [ ] write a few backlog posts on first launch subject, posts for WordPress & Websites Setup  (NOT COMPLETED)
  • 8. [X] complete wordpress and websites “build me one” proposal and agreement
  • 9. [X] make changes from feedback to visuals, and salespages
  • 10. [ ] connect with 3 bloggers to provide value to their audience…see what comes from it (NOT COMPLETED)
  • 11. [ ] order business cards (mock created, nor ordered)
  • 12. [X] launch, promote, and test out the first 2 month module!

 

Photo Credit: http://spaceoutt.blogspot.com/

Progress Report: Getting Feedback = Execution, The One Solution Problem and Controlling Influence

mind control Progress Report: Getting Feedback = Execution, The One Solution Problem and Controlling Influence

Resources: Experience, BlogcastFM, Ramit Sethi’s Earn1k Course, 4 Hour Work Week Forums, Noah Kagan, Omnigraffle, Google Forms, Mixergy, Young Entrepreneur Forums, Craigslist, Mailchimp, WordPress

Despite writing about it for months, thinking I know better, and generally trying to skip over the “solve one specific need” argument when thinking about how to build a business…I finally gave in (sorta)…and it’s been amazing what’s happened since (sales, sense of progress, networking, and e-mail list growth to name a few things).

Today’s post will focus on recent progress surrounding entering a business mindset when you’re caught up trying to build “your stuff”, how to spur execution by lean startup methods via finding feedback, and managing influence once you’ve found feedback. Continue reading →

Wall Fuel: Stop Doing Now List and the Wisdom of Others

Photo1 3 Wall Fuel: Stop Doing Now List and the Wisdom of Others

Resources Mentioned: Matt GarlandChris GuillebeauRamit SethiM6 MethodBlogcast FM

Today’s post is on the wisdom of others in the area’s of time management, monetizing your website, traffic, getting started, and being better. I’m passing on the gems I’ve found from the last week of reading, conversation, and online business building. These things stand out for effectiveness. Business updates very soon, lot’s to explain. Continue reading →