Your Ideal Customers

• You can choose your customers.

• You can change your customers.

• Find customers you really enjoy being with. This will make it a pleasant experience to serve them, because you'll want to help them anyway.

Exercise:

1) Think about who you enjoy spending time with. Write down any specifics that come to mind.

2) Are there particular activities you enjoy doing with these people, and others that you don’t like doing with them? Think about this and take notes.

3) What kind of people do you naturally attract? Are they people you enjoy being with? If yes, what do you like about them? If no, what don’t you like about the interaction? Can you think of a way to make this win-win? Take notes.

Clarify: Who is your customer?

Spend some quality time with the people you most enjoy being around and listen to them on their terms. Learn what they need, and from that perspective start thinking about what valuable improvement in their lives you can provide.

A ‘customer’ is more inclusive than just the people you are hoping will buy what you are selling. Think about the people who support you – your co-workers and family. They have needs too, and will be more receptive to helping you if you are interested in making their lives better first.

Best wishes,

Marilyn McLeod

Marilyn@PersonalizedHealthCoach.com

Visit Marilyn McLeod's Amazon Author Page
http://www.bit.ly/drWaBB

Blog: http://www.PersonalizedHealthCoach.com

Products & Free Assessment: http://www.Amway.com/HealthCoach

Your Image

The image that really sells has less to do with the cost and flashiness of your promotional materials, and more to do with the depth of personal authenticity you convey, and how much you sincerely care about the other person’s wellbeing.

• To convey mastery of your business message: practice, practice, practice.

• Sincere appreciation of others can be the most powerful incentive program.

Exercise:

1) Can you convey your message effectively without PowerPoint?

2) The next time you're in front of a prospective customer or stakeholder, notice how you're coming across:

a. Do you push your 30 second commercial at them whether they want it or not? When you do this, how often does this lead to a new customer?

b. Do you listen first to understand who you are talking to and what they need? When you do this, how often does this lead to a follow up conversation?

3) Ask people around you (who will tell you the truth) how often you let them win, and whether they consider you a good listener.

4) Think about your presentation from your ideal customer’s point of view. What about image would turn them on, and what would turn them off?

Best wishes,

Marilyn McLeod

Marilyn@PersonalizedHealthCoach.com

Visit Marilyn McLeod's Amazon Author Page
http://www.bit.ly/drWaBB

Blog: http://www.PersonalizedHealthCoach.com

Products & Free Assessment: http://www.Amway.com/HealthCoach

Your Business Identity

Do you know what business you are in?

Do you know why?

Have you thought about how well the design of your business matches how you like to spend your day, and the way you like to work?

• Choose a business you enjoy, providing a needed and valued product or service to people you enjoy being with.

• Give yourself a role you can enjoy over time.

• Remember: Just because you have a product or skill does not mean the people you want to work with will buy it.

• Also: Just because you have discovered an important need and you’re ready to fill it, does not mean your target market will buy it, even if they acknowledge the need.

Exercise:

1) Spend time with people you enjoy, doing activities you enjoy. While you're doing this, listen for clues about services or products they value and don’t have, or needs that aren't being fulfilled. Take notes.

2) Look at your list and take some time to consider what your favorite people need and want that you could provide.

3) Put together some ideas and talk with some of your prospects about them. Get their involvement and buy-in. If they think it’s a bad idea, ask other people. If they think it’s a great idea, ask if they know anyone else who might be interested.

4) Test by having an entry-level offering to sell that doesn't cost you very much to provide, and gives your customer an experience of your product or service. Then you can see how committed they are to actually buying the solution they said was so valuable to them.


Most of the time the work I do feels like fun to me. I work out of my home office, and I’m responsible to my clients for the specific projects I’ve agreed to do for them. It’s usually something I’d like to do anyway, and I enjoy the people I surround myself with. I know it’s work and I know I’m in business for myself, but I often don’t notice because I just wake up in the morning and start doing things I enjoy doing.

In 1987 I opened a business in a retail setting. I had a storefront with office hours. People came to my office in the morning and expected me to be there when my sign said my office opened. If there was no work to do, I stayed in the office anyway because if a customer came through the door, they needed to find me behind my desk waiting for them. If a customer came in at the end of the day and needed something first thing the next morning, I’d probably stay late and complete the work, even if I’d spent most of the day waiting for customers that didn't show up … actually, especially if there were no other customers that day, because I needed the revenue!

That experience helped me learn some things about myself. First of all, I was very bored waiting in my office. I realized I liked more flexibility than a retail storefront would allow. Second, it was more difficult to choose my customers based on who I enjoyed spending time with, and the work I enjoyed doing. It was a good learning experience, I made adjustments and now I’m happier in my business.

However, the retail storefront was a step closer to my heart than the job I’ve held just previously at a large corporation in Minnesota. I left Minnesota one winter in January. I was so done with winter that I left in a blizzard and just kept driving south until I got to Texas. Gradually I made my way to southern California, where I set up the retail storefront in a small beach town. I could see the ocean from my desk. The beach was about two blocks away, so I’d walk there during lunch.

One day during lunch at my Minnesota corporate job I told a co-worker that I was thinking of moving to California. She immediately said, “You can’t do that!” It wasn't that she would miss me; it was that our culture said our place was there in the snow to suffer like everyone else, and who was I to think I was better than they were? I don’t think I’m better than anyone else, but I did bring my nameplate from my corporate desk job and put it on my desk across the street from the beach. It turns out I could do that!

Best wishes,

Marilyn McLeod

Marilyn@PersonalizedHealthCoach.com

Visit Marilyn McLeod's Amazon Author Page
http://www.bit.ly/drWaBB

Blog: http://www.PersonalizedHealthCoach.com

Products & Free Assessment: http://www.Amway.com/HealthCoach

Important Diet Tips

As you consider making changes to your diet and exercise habits, it's possible your current eating habits are less than ideal. When you simply reduce calories with your current diet you'll also be reducing important nutrients. Be sure to choose foods full of the nutrients you need, and reduce calories by not eating foods high in empty calories. Supplement with a quality multivitamin. Making sure you have the right nutrients will help you have better energy during your transition to new dietary habits.
Drink plenty of water. Avoid drinks high in sugar. It's been found that people who drink diet drinks actually gain more weight than people who don't drink diet drinks. This is partially because if people are in the habit of drinking sodas, when diet drinks argent available they drink what is available, which is usually the sodas full of sugar. These don't suppress or satisfy your appetite its like not taking anything except for the added empty calories. For better health, develop a taste for lightly flavored water. Make juice ice cubes that you can drop into plain water for variety.
Keep appropriate snacks available such as an apple, raw almonds, a protein bar (watch the label for sugars and refined or enriched ingredients) or sunflower seeds.
Create support in your environment. Invite your family to join you in a healthy lifestyle, which will make it easier for you to stick with your diet and probably reduce health issues for everyone in the future.
If you think you deserve a reward after exercise, find something healthy to eat that supports your diet.
Variety will help you stay on track. Check out Chapter 6: Supplementary Support for more options.
Read labels. Manufacturers are able to add more sugar to their products without disclosing it directly to you by using sugar aliases. Labels list ingredients in order of percentage by weight. If you want to know the real amount of sugar in a product, add up all of the maltose, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup there are ten different ways to call sugar sugar to hide the amount of sugar in a food. The good news: If you cut back on sugar for several months, when you go back and try it again, it wont taste as good. The same with fat and salt.
Because sodium, sugar and fat makes what we eat taste better, many foods labeled as diet foods contain large amounts of these ingredients. Be a smart consumer and check the label.
Build in occasional treats, and find ways to make what you're doing fun. Don't become a martyr; you'll just compensate later. Keep a balance. It's easier to maintain your diet if you treat yourself once in a while.
It helps to keep food a diary, and to plan meals in advance. That way you can make sure you have the right foods available to grab when you're busy, plus it gives you a record so you can look back and see what worked, and build in more variety.

Best wishes,

Marilyn McLeod
Marilyn@PersonalizedHealthCoach.com

Visit Marilyn McLeod's Amazon Author Page
http://www.bit.ly/drWaBB

Blog: http://www.PersonalizedHealthCoach.com

Products & Free Assessment: http://www.Amway.com/HealthCoach

Financial Tips

Please consult your CPA or financial advisor for specifics which relate to your industry.

The basics are simple:

1. Earn more than you spend.
2. Save what you can.
3. Use a budget.

If you're thinking about going into business, I recommend starting as lean as possible. Do you really have to lease that fancy office space and hire a full time receptionist? What can you do with no overhead at all? Can you start by just cultivating relationships with prospective customers and provide a service which costs little but your time?

Can you start by trying out different ideas while still enjoying a stabilizing income from your current source of revenue? Unless you have no other source of income and this is your only option, giving up your current source of security may be unnecessarily putting yourself at the edge of terror. Building a business takes confidence and focus. This is not the time to increase unnecessary challenges.

When asked what a successful Amway business would be, Jay Van Andel, co-founder of Amway, is reported to have said, “One that is profitable.”

In a conversation between John Travolta and Brian King on The Larry King Show in 2008, John Travolta said he uses a budget. When Brian asked him, “Even you?” John replied, “If you want to keep any money, you have to budget. Anybody could lose what they make if they don't budget.”

For more information:

Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Vicki Robin, Joe Dominguez, and Monique Tilford
Penguin
ISBN 978-0143115762

Best wishes,

Marilyn McLeod

Marilyn@PersonalizedHealthCoach.com

Visit Marilyn McLeod's Amazon Author Page
http://www.bit.ly/drWaBB

Blog: http://www.PersonalizedHealthCoach.com

Products & Free Assessment: http://www.Amway.com/HealthCoach