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Marketing – is it all a big CON? - Anthony Turner

Many people in the Natural Health/LOHAS (Lives of health & sustainability) view marketing as a big con and marketers as con-artists – sadly with good reason in many cases.

However, like a gun, it is NOT the tool that is bad – it is how it is used that determines the good or bad outcome. So if we can accept that marketing is a just a tool that can be used appropriately or not – the question then is; how can we use marketing in a way that is both synergistic and appropriate to our ethical and spiritual natural health/LOHAS beliefs?

The best way I have found is to understand why people buy and how to communicate with prospective customers in ways that are meaningful to them.

Many Practitioners I assist make the BIG, BIG mistake of deciding that advertising is not working after only one or two insertions and decide that advertising is either a waste of time or a big con to take their hard earned cash.

Regular advertisers however, understand that potential customers have to see their ads several times (between 3 and 7 usually) before feeling confident that the business is viable, consistent and that it is therefore likely to be someone they can depend on.

In most cases, I find the main issue is what is being said in the ad that is the REAL problem, rather than being the selected advertising medium not working for them.

Large marketers ALL understand the innate and natural psychology of buying and spend $millions learning why people buy products or services, what is important to customers, what customers like and dislike, what customer believe and most importantly, what issues and problems they are looking to solve as a result of buying a particular product or service.

This buying behavior is equally true of YOUR clients.

Every one of them tunes into radio station WII FM (what’s in it for me) when making a decision to purchase – in other words, they are thinking - can you or your product/service help me overcome the problem or issue I am attempting to fix?

It therefore makes extreme sense to ensure that your advertising/promotional materials speak to potential clients and customers in terms of what is most important to them (the benefits or how you can help them) rather than simply stating who you are or what you would like to tell them.

For example, someone with chronic headache & back pain is not likely to be particularly interested in who you are, what qualifications you hold or what modalities you have been trained in – they are most interested in finding out if you understand their pain and that you have both the expertise and experience to help ease that pain.

Compare these two line ads – they use the same words, but which one has more impact or appeal?

Mary Smith, Massage Therapist. Get relief from back pain & headache. Call on 1234 5678

OR

Get relief from Headache & back pain. Call Mary Smith, Massage Therapist on 1234 5678

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YOU HAVE TO LAUGH

- Angela Rossmanith

Whether or not the world laughs with you, laughter is good for you. On average, adults laugh seventeen times a day. That’s a lot of laughing, and it’s good to know that you can learn to laugh. Spending time around funny people, or people who have a great sense of the ridiculous, is one of the best ways to kick-start a good laugh. It’s hard to have a pessimistic outlook when you’re laughing heartily and in company.

When do you think human beings laugh most? If you think it’s in response to jokes, then you may be surprised to learn that less than twenty per cent of laughter is associated with such humour. Professor Robert Provine, one of the world’s leading authorities on laughter, says that most laughter follows statements that are quite banal and lacking in intentional humour; when you’re engaging in behaviour that’s playful; and during social bonding.

Research is currently underway to understand some of the finer points of laughter, but you don’t need research to tell you that a healthy mind and body relies on a regular good laugh. Whether you’re laughing at yourself or at some crazy aspect of the universe or at an incongruous end to a story, you are doing your health a favour.

Laughter matters. Take a look at these facts:

• Laugh hard for 20 seconds and you’ll exercise your heart to the same extent as three minutes of rowing.
• Laughter releases chemicals that are the body’s natural painkillers. These are the same chemicals responsible for runner’s high, that feeling of elation spreading through the body that athletes report.
• During laughter, natural killer cells that fight off tumours and viruses increase.
• When you laugh, the concentration of a substance that defends against infection in the respiratory tract (salivary immunoglobulin A) is increased.
• Laugh heartily and your blood pressure and breathing rate increase, and your abdomen expands and contracts, leaving you feel as relaxed afterwards as if you had a bit of a workout.

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Working from Home - peril or pleasure? - Anthony Turner

Like many business owners, I share in the delight of working for myself, being my own boss and also, like many such people, working from home.

But has it been an easy journey to get the rhythm right and work with the pleasures of working from home rather than being caught in the traps and perils of working from home?

No - it took me over a year of interruptions, frustrations and poor results to get the balance working. I fell into all the traps - you know what they are - sleeping in a little longer when tired or after having a big night out, going for a coffee with friends, watching a bit of TV (business programs for research purposes of course), doing household messages or shopping whilst out or running after family because of the time freedom I never had before, getting distracted by household chores and much more important (I mean interesting) things than those tedious accounts staring at me from the in-tray on my desk. I’ve had to face the fact that it’s pretty lonely at times when the only person to discuss an important issue with is the dog – and her advice is useless to both of us.

So is it all peril? – NO it is not.

After a while, I woke up to the fact that I was the problem and that I had to create and maintain a proper professional business approach to my work and behave in the same way I do when working for someone else for my home based business to be successful . So I made some changes to my life and work habits.

The first thing I did was to create physical separation between my home and work environments by converting a spare room that I can shut the door on, into an office. This way I work in my work environment and live in my home.

Next I created some boundaries with family and friends. Our rules are that family and friends treat me as if I am away at work (like in a regular business environment) and only interrupt me if there is some emergency that needs my attention. Naturally I have interaction when they are around by coming out of the office for breaks and lunch.

Next I have a separate telephone line and answering service on the business phone. So, before 8.00am and after 6.00pm on weekdays plus at weekends, which are my personal times, I let the answering machine look after clients in the same way as most other 'regular' businesses do.

Lastly, I recognized that I don’t have all the answers and certainly can’t do it all on my own. So to break the loneliness and to get rid of the bad advice from the dog, I engaged with a Mentor – someone with business expertise that I talk to regularly to bounce ideas off and from whom I get meaningful and honest feedback about my business. I also attend development programs that are appropriate to BUSINESS SKILLS and other workshops to build my contacts, to learn and to share experiences. Not only has this created a handy list of people who, like me are willing to share their experience with individuals experiencing the isolation dilemma, this feeling of connectedness has helped me turn my business around into one that is meaningful and fast reaping the rewards of success from my efforts.

When first beginning to work with Spiritual Business, many people make the same mistake.

In their quest for living in alignment with their Spirituality, they turn their back on the other half of the equation – business in a misguided belief that the two can not co-exist harmoniously.

If you study Universal Laws you will realize the enormity of this error. Putting full concentration on Spirituality is no different to being fully concentrated on Business. It is like a pendulum operating at the extremes rather than at the mid point of harmonious and enlightened balance. In attempting to shut out the ‘evils’ of business it is easy to fall into the trap of what you resist, persists.

This is why many learn the hard way that a Spiritual Business only flourishes when it combines Spirit and Business in equal balance.

It is therefore essential to learn how to harmonize the best aspects of spirituality with the best aspects of business in order to create a flourishing business and a harmonious life.

So how do you achieve this?

First, become very clear about what you intended to achieve. Ensure that your head, heart and work are always aligned with that direction.

Second, take all the positive Spiritual Values you hold about integrity, working in service to others, respecting others and the planet and make them cornerstone Values for your business.

Third, conduct a lot of research (and continue to research) into best practice business, client requirements and anything related to fulfilling your direction.

Fourth, do a lot of planning - working out how to break the big picture down into manageable and meaningful steps.

Fifth, make Marketing your friend. Realize that marketing is simply how you communicate what you do to potential clients so they can become aware of how you may be able to help them.

Sixth, learn to take care of the little things before they magnify and become big obstacles.

Seventh, fully open yourself to the Law of Abundance and recognize that it is only through allowing abundance into YOUR life will you be better able to fulfil your purpose and serve more people.

Eighth, treat obstacles and setbacks as stepping stones rather than blocks to your success.

Ninth, be willing to make lots of mistakes. Realize that mistakes are only attempts to do something that have not given you the result you expected.

Tenth, reward your successes because acknowledgment for what you have achieved empowers you to achieve more.

When you look at every successful life (no matter the area of success) you will notice as I did, that these people ALL live by these principles.

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