Be on the look-out for information on the Extreme Women Entrepreneurs Event in July 2012! I held a private call with past attendees of the event and the feedback and response has been amazing, wait until you hear what we have going on and who we have speaking! This is going to be an event you do NOT want to miss!

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Customer service appears to be DEAD! Customer service has gotten so bad that we no longer even expect it.

Remember the day when people went out of their way to make sure their customers were happy? When you could go into a restaurant and have someone greet you with a smile? These days I am constantly greeted by people who appear to be robots. No expression on their faces unless it’s a scowl.  They talk in monotone voices and don’t even bother to give you eye contact.  Sometimes I wonder if they even have a pulse!

And yes, while everyone has a bad day, it is unacceptable!  I have personally walked out of restaurants when nobody bothered to acknowledge I was even there, and I have left doctor’s offices for the same reason.

When I was in Miami for my birthday in January, my friends and I went shopping for new sunglasses, something we do as a tradition when we vacation there.  Each year I look forward to treating myself with a nice pair of designer shades.  The first shop we went into had some nice stuff to choose from! But the lady working there was so preoccupied with her Ipad that she had the nerve to act annoyed when we asked her where the male and female sunglasses were.

It was CLEAR, we were bothering her and she had better things to tend to, so we left.  We went two doors down and spent a LOT of money buying about two pairs each, her loss and she was on commission.  Maybe she didn’t need the money, I don’t know.

That is why you as a business owner should strive to offer great customer service to your supporters. If you have employees working for you, you should not accept anything less of them either. So many entrepreneurs and business owner have no clue that the person answering their phone or handling their emails is single-handedly losing business for them due to their attitudes or poor delivery and follow up.

Likewise you should have fair business policies that are not outrageous, imposing ridiculous rules on customers makes you appear to be desperate for money. Furthermore the word will spread like wildfire damaging your reputation and once your reputation is shot, shortly your business will follow.

So in 2012, let’s get back to the basics and bring back good old fashioned customer service where people actually CARE about the people investing in their products and services!

Cheers to Business, Beauty & Balance,

Vicki

Did you grab your copy of FeMail Marketing Secrets yet? The feedback has been amazing, women are finally seeing that writing grammatically correct emails the way you were taught in school is NOT what makes a person see the need to buy your product or service!

If  you are involved in email marketing, if you have an ezine, or communicate with your list to make sales, then you can’t afford not to invest in learning how to do it RIGHT! Right now, along with FeMail Marketing Secrets, you also get FeMail List Building Secrets at ZERO cost, so don’t lose out on this game changer for your business.

Check out the details here:

www.FeMailMarketingSecrets.com

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Are Excuses Your Best Weapon?

My next Mastermind meeting with my Platinum coaching students is coming up in January. Three times per year we get together in a room for two days and tackle business challenges, strategies and ideas.  Most importantly, the group provides suggestions, feedback and priceless insight to help each member accelerate their business as quickly as possible.

In a nutshell, the Mastermind is a serious kick in the butt! It’s structured to force business owners to take fast action and be accountable, something we ALL need! Trying to figure out your business on your own doesn’t work, plain and simple.

Women are in charge of their kids, their households, the bills, the school functions, homework and everything else we do on a daily basis.  We hold our kids accountable for good behavior, good manners, and good grades. We keep our husbands on track and let them think they are in charge when we know without us, there would be chaos!

But who holds US accountable for doing what we need to do to realize our goals and aspirations? Usually we have nobody. Friends who don’t get the entrepreneurial desire and lifestyle tell us we are crazy. Family normally tells us we are crazy for even trying and encourages us to stop dreaming.  Not to mention the negative people who tear you down on a regular for daring to be extraordinary and wanting something more for yourself.

Sound familiar? Battling all of those forces by yourself is almost impossible, Even the most driven and self-motivated person you know can’t fight all of that 24/7.

It’s easy to let yourself off the hook and make up excuses as to why you can’t do this or why you can’t do that. Why this isn’t working and how you just don’t have enough hours in the day. Why someone else can make it work, but you just can’t catch a break.

But at the end of the day, they are just excuses. Our immediate defense mechanism when we want an easy way out because we become overwhelmed and can’t imagine ourselves really making it.

That is why having someone else to hold you accountable is the key to you consistently moving forward and making big leaps in your business and life.

I wish I could say I get so much done because I wake up every day giving it my 100%, but I would be lying. The truth is that I get so much done because I have people holding me accountable and because I invest in myself. Without that single factor I would be making excuses and letting myself off the hook.

Do you have that? Do you have a person holding your feet to the fire? If not, you have to get that and get it QUICK, 2012 is days away and you can’t yet ANOTHER year go by where you look up and your are still stuck!

Cheers to Business, Beauty & Balance,

Vicki

P.S. Don’t forget to get your email marketing on track, check out FeMail Marketing Secrets today:

www.FeMailMarketingSecrets.com

Remember when I told you that I was working on a new product designed to help entrepreneurs write compelling emails, autoresponders and ezines that really resonated with female consumers so that they could effectively sell their products, services and events?

Well I finally dumped all of the material out of my head and formatted it just for you!

www.FeMailMarketingSecrets.com

Every entrepreneur knows that the power of your business lies in the “list” of qualified prospects that you start, build and grow. After working with hundreds of women and dissecting their businesses, it became very evident that most women entrepreneurs are catering to a primarily female target market…which leaves us with a BIG problem!

The majority of people teaching email marketing are men and they just don’t get “our” language and how we make buying decisions. When women emulate a more masculine and technical writing style they are actually turning their prospects off, causing them to lose interest and KILLING the sale without even knowing it.

If you have been marketing your products or services using email and wondering why nobody is buying from you, then I may have just solved one of your biggest business challenges.

If you don’t yet have an email list and need to start building one from scratch in order to get in on the game, then this is definitely for you. No need to be scared of the process, it truly is simple!

If you have been plagued by writer’s block time and time again, not knowing what to say and how to say it, then this is going to make your day.  I know how it is to KNOW you should be writing, but scared you have nothing valuable to say.

Writing to your list on a regular and consistent basis is the key to you making big profits in your business, but if you are struggling with your ezines and online marketing then you are probably frustrated and ready to throw in the towel, right?

Don’t be.  Click here to check out my BRAND NEW Email marketing course, FeMail Marketing Secrets™ designed for women, by women. I think you’re going to LOVE it…

www.FeMailMarketingSecrets.com

Cheers to Business, Beauty & Balance,

Vicki

I feel like I have been on a world tour! I was in DC, Vegas and LA all in 48 hours of each other last week! I thought when I got home I would have time to relax but, that was NOT the case. I had coaching calls and clients scheduled and a bunch of things to do with my son. Such is life as a Superwoman, YOU know how it is, don’t ya?

I am excited to be working through the weekend with a business consultant of mine who is flying in to work with me on a project.  Although he doesn’t know it, I am trying to convince him to join my coaching staff so we can reach even MORE women who need help with their business! I’ll let you know how that goes, keep your fingers crossed for me please!

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I was in LA last weekend at my mentor’s 4 day live event, James Malinchak. There were over 600 of us there and the networking and information was priceless!  I was SUPER happy to see a couple of my Superwoman Platinum Mastermind members and some coaching clients in attendance, I was able to connect them with some amazing people. My husband Lloyd also had a bunch of his mastermind members there as well, so it was a GREAT time!

If you weren’t at the event, this is your lucky day! I want to share just a FEW of the money making tips and information I walked away with and I hope you put it to use too! These are million dollar tips from James, so TAKE NOTES!!!

1. Stop taking advice from people who have not experienced success in their own business, many of these people love to give advice although they just can’t seem to make it happen for themselves…hmmmmm
2. NEVER turn off your marketing machine, the minute you stop marketing your business will go waaayyyyy down.
3. Don’t fill your ego, fill your bank account….Too many people are caught up in getting accolades from others, but if the people telling you how great you are aren’t BUYING from you, then something is not working. Don’t get caught in the hype, figure out how to make money!
4. If you are running a business, then treat it like a business. The minute you devalue yourself or your products and services is the minute others will devalue you as well.
5. Don’t try to take on a million tasks at once, work on one big thing and see it through to completion.  It will motivate you to tackle the next one and before you know it, you will have more done in a month than you did in 6 months!
6. Entrepreneurs need products we can sell, stay in a mode of product creation so that you always have fresh content to share with your subscribers
7. SPIDER WEBBING- The act of spreading as much of your content as possible in as many places as possible so that you are constantly bringing new prospects into your funnel. Be everywhere!

I literally have pages and pages of notes and I am already implementing them into my own business! The key to success is self-investment and plugging into people who can elevate your income in the quickest amount of time. That’s why every single successful person you see and admire has a coach or mentor. Nobody can do it alone!

2012 is just a few weeks away. Have you accomplished your goals? Have you done anything new and different and scrapped the things that don’t work? Have you moved your circle of influence?

Always remember the definition of insanity…doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result!

Cheers to Business, Beauty & Balance,

Vicki

I’m heading out to a Red Carpet event in Vegas with my husband Lloyd, and then to attend James Malinchak’s event in LA. I was trying to bypass the red carpet event but my husband and James ganged up on me and told me a REAL Superwoman could swing both! I suggested they both split the cost of a private jet for me. Never heard a peep from them since! Hmmmmm! LOL

Want to hang out with me at the Evening Exchange “MS.BIZ” in studio Television taping? Ms. Biz is a television show with a panel of women entrepreneurs telling their secrets on what it takes to be successful in business. You can be a member of the studio audience, ask questions and network with other amazing women doing big things.

The taping is being held with WHUT-TV at Howard University on December 6^th at 5:15 pm. To RSVP your attendance, please email wgl@gmail.com or call 202-806-3059 by November 30^th.

Hope to see you there!

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Do you have any accountability in your life and business? I received an email from a young lady who admitted that no matter how hard she tried to stay disciplined and work on her business goals and tasks each day, she ends up falling short.  She wanted to know if I thought something was wrong with her and even questioned if she had an attention deficit disorder, it was THAT serious to her.

The fact of the matter is this. Regardless if you have a bonafide diagnosis of an attention disorder, to some extent we ALL have it.  This “thing” called life can get hectic and pull us in a million directions. At the end of the day you can look up and wonder just where all the time went and realize you haven’t done much of anything.

Even the most disciplined person you know has problems staying motivated and focused, that’s just the way it is.  So what we need to do as entrepreneurs is come up with some strategies to help us stay on target.  The tips I am about to give you come from my own experiences as well as the habits of some of the most successful people in the world, including my own mentors.

First thing is first and I hope you don’t take this the wrong way….you are NOT smarter than everyone else! When we see successful people doing certain things, for some odd reason we think we don’t need to do them or that we can shortcut that process somehow.  HUGE MISTAKE!

Cutting corners and ignoring the obvious will keep you stuck in the same place with little to no progress year after year until you grasp some basic concepts.  Here are the most glaring success traits that I see run rampant with the people really doing it BIG and doing it WELL:

1. You MUST have a coach or mentor, you can’t do it alone, IMPOSSIBLE
2. You MUST have goals and a plan to reach the goals, keeping them in your head doesn’t work, write them down!
3. You MUST assign yourself specific tasks to complete each day and make sure they are REALISTIC! Do NOT let anything take you off course.
4. You MUST stay in the company of other goal-oriented people who “get it.”
5. You MUST cut off negative people who whine and complain about their life.
6. You MUST become an avid marketer for your business and learn how to gain clients/customers (without them you don’t have a business)
7. You must learn how to take fast action and seize opportunity
8. Do NOT become a seminar or information junkie who never applies or implements what they learn…Education without Implementation is PURELY entertainment!
9. You must be able to envision something greater for yourself, if you can’t see it, you probably will never do it
10. You must NEVER allow fear to prevent you from trying something new, although fear will never go away, you have to learn to push through it, after-all we ALL have fear and you are not alone.

So take a moment to review this list and put a check next to the things you KNOW you can do better.  BE HONEST, nobody is looking but you!  If you find that these are some of the very things stopping you from reaching the level you wish to be at, then it’s time to do something new.

Always remember that when you know better, you will do better!!

Cheers To Business, Beauty & Balance,

Vicki

Monday, Dr. Susan Mathison of PositivelyBeautful.com interviewed me for her long anticipated tele-summit, “Beauty Freedom: An End to Judgement.” During the call, I shared deep thoughts and secrets regarding beauty and how feeling beautiful is really all about health and happiness!

Missed out? You can grab the replay of my interview here (no-cost) for the next 24 hours ONLY:

http://positivelybeautiful.com/special/?w=beauty-freedom&p=vicki

You’ll also get access to additional recordings from other Wise Beautiful Women too – so grab the replays while they’re HOT and F.R.E.E!

Enjoy!

ARE YOU STILL PUNISHING YOURSELF?

Nobody is perfect and to expect someone to be perfect is unrealistic. I don’t care how much you admire someone for their looks, their clothes or their business savvy, they too are making mistakes in life.

To some extent, we are all a product of our upbringing and our past. Some of us were raised by loving parents who instilled great values and some of us were not. Some of us never had positive role models in life.

Some people never even had parents and were raised by someone else, or in the foster care system perhaps.

Some of us long for the father we never had or someone just to say “I love you,” or “I am so proud of you.”

Whatever environment you were raised in however, doesn’t have to define you for the rest of your life.

I work with women all of the time who carry the weight and baggage from a not so great past or upbringing that they allow to haunt them in every aspect of their life.

I have also seen some women who came from some horrible circumstances that have gone on to give so much value back to the world through sharing their experiences and gifts. These women have acknowledged their past but also proven that it does not have to define who you go on to be.

If you are a person who makes a mistake and learns from it, then kudos to you.  If you are a person who continues to make the same mistakes over and over again, then you have some serious self-reflection to do.

When you know better, you CAN do better.

When you know better and you REFUSE to do better, you need to ask yourself why you are continuing to punish yourself with self-sabotage when the whole world can see that you are indeed worthy!

Cheers To Business, Beauty & Balance,

Vicki

I had an amazing weekend at the UFC fights in DC on Saturday! Both of my husband’s fighters won and we had a HUGE after party celebrating my husband Lloyd’s 15 year anniversary for his martial arts school. It was also my girl’s weekend with my best buddies from high school and they are now fight fans!

I’m gearing up for my small group tele- coaching program starting on October 11^th and so looking forward to reinventing businesses for entrepreneurs ready to start 2012 with a big bang! I hope you decided to join us, we are doing some amazing things this quarter!

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TO PARTNER OR NOT TO PARTNER

Is it me or does it seem like everyone is partnering up these days? Partnerships can be a good thing…or they can be a bad thing, depending on who you go into partnership with.

Speaking from direct experience, I can tell you some of the pitfalls to avoid when trying to decide who to partner with! I have had my own horror stories as well heard horror stories from my clients and coaching students that will make your skin crawl.

Can you believe I even had a partner one time who hid the fact he had a full-time government job for YEARS and pretended to be a full-time entrepreneur?  After I spoke to others who worked with him, the trail of lies was a mile long and this was a pattern of behavior. Crazy, right? You will be amazed the lengths dishonest people will go to in order to create an appearance about themself that is far from the truth!

You must always protect yourself and your business! Here are some key things to beware of and some things to think about when you are considering a partnership of any kind in your business:

Tip #1- I find that many people partner with others simply because they are afraid to go into business alone and want the security of someone else being “in it” with them. BAD IDEA, partnerships should never be made out of fear, this is NOT a good reason.

Tip#2- Only partner with people who bring something to the relationship.  For instance if one person has the money to fund the business, but the other has the marketing knowledge to make it work, that is a partnership where each person is bringing something extremely valuable to the business. This makes sense.

Tip #3- Never partner with someone who has nothing to bring to the business of value, for them it is a winning situation because they will benefit from you, but for you, it’s a lose/lose situation.

Tip #4- Never be persuaded by someone who talks the talk, only partner with people who can PROVE their business savvy, success, experience etc. Someone’s word is just not good enough, we all know that talk is very cheap!

Tip #5 -Be sure your visions and missions are in alignment and the expected outcomes of the partnership are laid out on paper. There is nothing worse than partners in business being on the same page, it causes confusion, dissention and ultimately will lead to a nasty split.

People begin partnerships with good intentions, but so many of them go bad if you don’t do your research. Bad partnerships have landed plenty of people in court spending big money and wasting valuable time.

So if you are considering a partnership, be sure to follow these guidelines. And if you are in a partnership that you know isn’t working due to some of these reasons, then it is time to GET OUT before things get too messy!

Cheers to Business, Beauty & Balance,

Vicki

I just got back from meeting my son Lloyd’s 1^st grade teacher, he starts school after Labor Day. I’m also getting a little sad as I look at his long legs and see how much he is growing up. ALMOST makes me want to have another baby, but then I quickly snap out of it! LOL

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Do you know where your prospects and clients are coming from? What are you doing to be seen EVERYWHERE?

Those two questions are extremely important to your business for a couple of reasons. One it lets you know that what media you are using to market is working well, and two knowing that information allows you to concentrate your marketing in areas that are working and pull back from those that are not.  This will save you both time and money.

As for making sure you are EVERYWHERE, that too is critical to your business. You must diversify your marketing efforts and be sure to cover a wide range of places you are seen.  Anyone relying on one sole method of marketing their business like social media, is most likely not getting the results they anticipated.

Successful business owners are using a variety of ways to get their message out to the world. My mentor James Malinchak refers to this strategy as “spiderwebbing,” if you attended the Extreme Women Entrepreneurs Event in July, you heard him talk about it. Using this term allows you to get a visual and see how casting your marketing web a variety of places can bring prospects and clients back to your funnel from different avenues.

You should be speaking on other people’s stages, using social media, using your website and having traffic driven to it, attending seminars and events, radio, TV, Magazine interviews, radio interviews, writing books and giving interviews!

Here is a perfect example. I was on a consultation call yesterday with someone who wanted to inquire about coaching with me. I asked her immediately how she heard about me. Guess what she said? She said she saw me in Millionaire Blueprint Magazine with my husband years ago! WOW. I think that was in like 2007!  Then she said she has seen me in promotions and videos with other top marketers and that she sees me hanging out with James Malinchak and other successful people and she wants to be associated with people who are in those circles too.

This illustrates the importance of being EVERYWHERE! If this person first heard of me in 2007, here we are in 2011 and she is on the phone with me and ready to work with me 4 years later!

It’s not by coincidence that this happens, it is by design.  There is no reason in the world why you too can’t employ this strategy for your business and bring in droves of potential clients from a variety of different places.

It is your job as an entrepreneur to spread your message wide and far so that you can experience the ultimate business success you so deserve and help the people your product or service was designed to help.

So today, I want you to go out and cast your marketing web!

Cheers to Business, Beauty & Balance,

Vicki

I have a date with my son this afternoon, we are going to the movies! He doesn’t start first grade until after Labor Day and summer camp is over. That means he is home with me and all I hear all day is “mommy, mommy, mommy. Mommy watch this and mommy watch that.”  You know how it goes! LOL

This is a critical time of year for me, I have a dozen high level Mastermind Members gearing up for my 12 month coaching program. These business owners are invested at a high level with big plans on business reinvention by working closely with myself and my team for an entire year.

I also have my small group tele- coaching program getting ready to launch for this quarter and we are putting together the latest and greatest business strategies for those attendees as well.

I am extremely excited to be working with so many diverse entrepreneurs and business owners, all who are ready to dive in and make BIG shifts in their business and who are sick of trying to figure things out on their own. Not a fun place to be and unfortunately a place that will have you stuck year after year with mounting frustration.  I don’t want that for anyone!

If you wish to inquire about if one of my coaching programs may be right for you, send an email to: info@vickiirvin.com and we will try to help you too.

Women Empowerment! Turn Those Compliments To Cash

One of my email subscribers sent me an email admitting that they have been avoiding focusing on the money making aspects of their business because quite frankly it scared them! This person received BIG kudos from me simply because most people will never admit it! She is also sick and tired of people telling her how great she is and how inspirational, but none of these people are paying her.  In other words, the compliments and flattery are getting her nowhere!

From working with thousands of people on how to increase their business profits and bottom line, I know first-hand that it is a natural tendency to shy away from sales and marketing.  But I also know first hand that anyone not focusing on sales and marketing is not making money in their business, no matter what they say or what image they try to portray to others.

Women in general have a tendency to focus on “women empowerment” something I am all for, but only in moderation. The term is extremely over-used, abused and taken out of context.  In fact you will probably never hear me say this term.

Here is the reason why…Women in business are already empowered and know that they have special gifts to offer the world.  They would not have started a business unless they were motivated and believed in their expertise.  Being in the company of like-minded women is a powerful thing when you need a charge or reminder of all that is possible and we all need that from time to time.

However where women empowerment gets dangerous is when women start to believe that is the ONLY education they need.  When they start to attend event after event in search of the next motivational message thinking that is the key to making their business profits explode.

That is a false sense of security and as my email subscriber boldly confessed to me, a way of her avoiding having to deal with learning the “hard” skills of making money in her business.

Look at it this way.  You can attend a motivational event every day of the week for a year, but it won’t give you what you need to keep your business afloat.  You can believe in your abilities all you want, but it won’t give you what you need to make money in your business.

There is a skill set involved in making money in your business that must be acquired.  If you want to learn how to be a doctor you go to medical school.  If you want to practice law, you must go to law school.  And if you want to run a successful business you must learn the mechanics and skills to make that happen.  It’s no different.

Do you ever see guys going to “men empowerment” events? Heck no.  The guys I see making big money are learning how to market, convert prospects, write copy, and the art of sales…the things they know are needed to reap the financial rewards.

And it’s time for women to do the same.  So while women empowerment is great for that pick me up, social piece and reminder of what is possible, at the end of the day we still have to learn how to make the big bucks like the big boys!

Don’t let another year pass you by where flattery, well wishes and compliments pacify you, I would much rather have you turn those compliments into cash!

Cheers to Business, Beauty & Balance,

Vicki

P.S. If you wish to inquire about if one of my coaching programs may be right for you, send an email to: info@vickiirvin.com and we will try to help you too.

People need a kick in butt to implement with speed and see results in their business by using a PROVEN system. It wasn’t until I got kicked in my butt and put my business on a system that I began to enjoy 6 and even 7 figure pay days!

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There is still time!

You can join the hundreds of people who have signed up for one of my most popular tele-classes ever, “5 Simple Secrets to 10k in 30Days-“How to Leap From Concept to Implementation and Profit” on Tuesday, August 16th, at 8pm EST.

Click Here To Register

Are You Speaking for a Fee or Fun?

I work with a lot of different people, from all industries and niches, one of them being speakers.  I find that many people are passionate about sharing their story with the world in hopes it will inspire and motivate people to take action and better their lives.

What I have also found is that there are two categories of speakers.  Those that are speaking and not getting paid for it, and those that command high fees to speak.

Whenever I work with any of my personal clients that are speakers, one of the first things I ask them is if they are getting paid a fee to speak.  Alarmingly, I am finding that so many people are not getting paid at all! They are hopping on airplanes, spending money for hotels and jumping on stages without a thing to show for it!

This bothers me for a few reasons. One because I am all about you running your business like a business and NOT like a hobby.  If you are agreeing to speak for people and not charging, then you are doing yourself a huge disservice.

Are there ever exceptions? Of course there are. Sometimes you will speak for a benefit or charity event and that is both amazing and commendable.  And sometimes you will speak because you are able to sell your product or service from the stage in front of your TARGET market, and that too is a win/win situation because you can make money from your back of the room sales.

But if organizations that are profiting from their event are asking you to speak without paying you and you are not selling from the stage, then you are once again treating your business like a hobby and allowing others to do the same.

The speakers who are REALLY speakers are getting paid amazing fees to show up. They spend their time traveling and getting booked all over the country and they are making a handsome living from it. They are providing real value to these organizations and the people paying them respect what they do.

That is the type of speaker that you want to be.  Remember that your time is valuable and you are in business to make money, not lose it.

Getting booked to speak is cool, but getting paid to speak is way cooler, don’t you agree?

Cheers To Business, Beauty & Balance,

Vicki