Do More Great Work, with Michael Bungay Stanier [video]
Michael Bungay Stanier, author of Find Your Great Work, has written another book – Do More Great Work. As you would expect, he has a way of capturing exactly what you and your clients are thinking about busy work and great work.
His message is: Stop The Busywork!
Here’s a video he created to share a little about the new book.
(Secretly I have video-envy when it comes to Michael’s videos. They are truly great!)
You can see this and the rest of Michael’s Possibility Virus resources on his website.
Let me know what you think of the video – and the books – in your comments below. I’m especially curious to know how you might use this with your clients and/or customers.
please note: some, though not all, of the links provided on this website, are affiliate links. At the Association of Personal Growth Professionals we research resources that might be of benefit to you and your clients. This research takes time and money. One way you support the continuation of this work is to use the affiliate links. We appreciate this. It may only amount to pennies for PGP, but pennies are nice, yes? If you are anti-affiliate links, then please do not use them.
PLR and Ghostwritten Articles: Are they Ethical?
This article is by guest columnist Nicole Dean.
Recently, in an interview, I was asked “Is it ethical to use private label rights and ghostwritten articles?”
Let me step back a moment and explain… Private label rights (or PLR) articles and ghostwritten articles are used by web owners as a
method of outsourcing some of their content.
* PLR articles are packages of articles that are pre-written and sold to more than one person.
(The Association of Personal Growth Professionals uses EasyPLR as one of its resources.)
* Ghostwritten articles are articles that are written by someone else just for you that you can put your name on and are not sold to
anyone else.
In both cases, you are allowed to edit the content as much or as little as you’d like and use the articles on your website, blog, or in
your newsletter.
So, back to the question. Is it ethical? My answer was, “usually, yes”.
If you’re using the articles and saying “written by me” without changing anything at all, it may bite you in the butt later, when
someone else does the same thing. Does that make it unethical? Not really. It’s just not smart. Can you use the article as it is or edited
slightly, without saying it was written by you? Of course!
Most PLR packs are written by ghostwriters. Ghostwriters are professional researchers and writers. If you purchase well-written,
informative PLR or ghostwritten articles and share them with your readers, don’t you all benefit? Your readers benefit by getting great information. You benefit by saving time. Is it any different than hiring a graphic designer or webmaster? Not in my opinion. Heck, most politicians don’t write their own speeches. They leave that to people who are professional speech writers.
Of course, you’d want to only use top-notch PLR articles and not “sell-out” just to pump out blog posts or web pages quicker. We
recommend you research thoroughly before choosing any ghostwriter or PLR service.
Here’s what to look for in a PLR service so you don’t waste your money:
1. Make sure the articles are written well.
2. Make sure that you know what topics you’ll receive (instead of some grab-bag of articles).
3. Be sure that the people running the program have some experience in article writing themselves, so they know what they’re doing.
There’s no point in doing everything on your own, especially if you dislike writing. All successful business people outsource the tasks
they are not good at or dislike. Check it out. It might take some pressure off you and allow you to spend more time with your kids. And,
that’s definitely ethical.
Nicole Dean welcomes you to check out EasyPLR.com – where you’ll find high-quality PLR articles on niches sold in very limited quantities.
Part of the reason we recommend EasyPLR is because Nicole limits the number of packages she sells – so you know when she says she’ll sell the rights to a set of articles to only 10 people, that’s what she means.
PGP Affiliate Disclosure: We are grateful to be of service and bring you content, like this article, free of charge. In order to do this, please note that when you click the links in these posts and purchase items, in most (not all) cases the Association of Personal Growth Professionals will receive a referral commission. Your support in purchasing through these links enables us to empower more people worldwide to live more conscious lives. Thank you! 
Michael Port speaks out on the James Ray tragedy in Sedona.
As personal growth professionals, this is just the sort of event that haunts us. Those of us who are genuinely trying to do good and help others get lumped in with people like James Ray. It hurts us, it hurts our businesses, and ultimately, it denies our audiences and clients the chance to hear what we have to say because it’s hard to hear through all the muckety-muck of atrocities like this.
Michael Port, author of The Think Big Manifesto and and leader of Booked Solid University, recently captured his thoughts in a compelling look at what this incident has done to the families of the victims, and those of us in the personal development industry who are trying to make a difference, being honest about what we can and cannot do.
Here’s what Michael had to say:
(Please note, Michael calls it like he sees it. It may rile you up.)
The tragic death of three people attending a “spiritual retreat” with James Arthur Ray has made me so angry that I’m having trouble finding words to express myself. But I’m going to try because, to me, silence is acceptance—and there has been a deafening level of silence from other “teachers” in the spiritual-help “community.” Though, I am not in the “spiritual-help” business, I do write business-help books, and am close enough to, and sometimes, much to my annoyance, associated with James Ray’s corner of the self-help market, that I’m embarrassed and ashamed that I haven’t spoken up earlier about these teachers and their tactics. What happened in Sedona on Oct 8, 2009 was unacceptable. This is not the first time a narcissistic sociopath with a god-complex has lead people to their deaths and unfortunately it won’t be the last time.
I’m not a psychologist nor am I a sociologist but the word that keeps coming to mind when I think of this tragedy is Pathology. According to the New York Times, as recounted by one of the retreat participants, James Arthur Ray told his customers (for that’s what they were) that they were vomiting profusely because “you are purging what your body doesn’t want, what it doesn’t need.” That is pathological and, frankly, idiotic. Another retreat participant was quoted as saying, “He told us that it was going to be an intense situation and it was to resemble a rebirthing.” Again, pathological and fantastical. Yet another participant “described a game in which Mr. Ray wears white robes and plays God, ordering some participants to commit mock suicide.” Absolutely pathological and sociopathic. The conclusion of the article was mind-boggling, but it’s not the first time I’ve heard this kind of talk: “In a conference call Mr. Ray held [last week] for sweat lodge participants, Dr. Bunn (the cousin of one of the victims) was shocked to hear one recount the comments of a self-described ‘channeler’ who visited Angel Valley after the retreat. Claiming to have communicated with the dead, the channeler said they had left their bodies in the sweat lodge and chosen not to come back because ‘they were having so much fun.’ Dr. Bunn had a less charitable view: ‘They couldn’t re-enter their bodies because they were dead.’”
According to Ray’s website he teaches “practical mysticism.” Apparently, this is the kind of “practical mysticism” that gets people killed. Read the rest of this entry »
Positive Attitude…I think, therefore I am
You’ve heard it a million times since René Descartes first said it. “I think, therefore I am.” What and who you are begins with a thought. The mind is a powerful tool that can make or break your life and your business success. Personal Growth Professionals have known this for years…it’s part of why we do what we do.
We teach other people how to use their thoughts, but sometimes we aren’t so great about using the technique with ourselves. We might think we are, but then a project fails, the economy drops, the computer crashes….
It’s just as important, if not more so, that we, as personal growth professionals, use our minds to fuel our business success.
In these tough economic times, it can be hard not to think about the possibility of business failure. That’s normal – after all, look at all the messages on the news, radio, internet, and conversations you overhear at the coffee shop.
Of course, no one said that business would be easy even if the economy is up. It takes work. Knowing that truth and truly believing it are two different things.
Anyone can go out today and say they want to start a business. Unfortunately the statistics show that few will actually succeed in taking the steps necessary to start a successful one. This is not to deter you from following your dreams, but just like your clients need to have the right mindset to make the changes they want, you need to have the correct mindset in order to triumph in your business. Making it through the rough times means you’ll be around to celebrate the good ones!
What is the mindset you need to have in order to succeed?
Read the rest of this entry »
The New Business Model…shining in the 21st century
If you haven’t already, there’s still time to sign up for a groundbreaking preview call hosted by Ali Brown coming up TODAY, *Wednesday, July 29*.
It’s called “Shine: The New Entrepreneurial Model That’s Changing the World”
If you haven’t heard of Ali, get ready to have your world changed forever. This dynamic woman is leading the way for entrepreneurs with her business models and income growth strategies.
The important thing to know is Ali’s methods work – she’s helped everyone from home-based moms to millionaires double or triple their revenues by ramping up their businesses. She leads by example, having started with so little and having become a multi-millionaire herself.
She also gets what it means to be in the personal growth industry. She’s a marketing expert, but I think she’s a closet personal growth professional.
Well, Ali’s ready to launch something new, innovative, and relevant to today’s changing business model. And she’s revealing all on this one-time complimentary teleseminar called “Shine,” which you can learn more about at:
You see, there’s a monumental shift happening in business, and the world. Previous income models are failing and fading.
Personal Growth Professionals who are continuing to operate as they have previously are finding the same old strategies are not working anymore. In fact, they are likely hurting their business. I don’t want to be in that category – and I’m sure you don’t either.
Ali will explain it all on this one-time call. She’ll also be sharing about her groundbreaking new LIVE Shine event this fall in Las Vegas, Nevada. (And you’ll learn how you can enjoy a generous $500 discount off the ticket price.)
Again, learn more and register for this free teleseminar TODAY at: SHINE.
You don’t want to miss this call with Ali – she’s leading the evolution.
See you on the call!
Chris Anderson (author of The Long Tail) gives away “FREE”
In 2006, Chris Anderson published The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. It was an eye-opener for anyone in business, particularly digital business. The old economic theory of scarcity and “hits” has been replaced by abundance (high variety) and moderate to tapering off demand.
The book, which turned out to be a revolutionary bestseller, Chris Anderson demonstrated how the online marketplace creates niche markets, allowing products and consumers to connect in a way that has never been possible before. This was excellent news for Personal Growth Professionals who are known for creating digital products and then niche-ing them.
In his newest book, FREE, he makes the compelling case that in many instances businesses can profit more from giving things away than they can by charging for them. He describes it as being more than just a promotional gimmick or tool, but a full blown business strategy which now may be essential to your company’s survival.
In a “walk your talk” style, Chris Anderson is giving away his book FREE for free via scribd.com. You can read it below.
Click on the arrows to flip the pages.
FREE (full book) by Chris Anderson
Read it and let me know how you will use these ideas in your business!
Talent, Luck or Hard Work – Which matters most when it comes to success? (Part 1 of 2)
This article is a collaboration between Karen Van Cleve founder of Live Well Coaching, Nina East, founder of the Association of Personal Growth Professionals and PersonalGrowthPrincess.com.
So, is it talent, luck, or hard work that contributes the most to success?
According to Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers: The Story of Success, talent and luck play a part in creating opportunities, but they are not the critical factors. What matters most is experience. Time in the saddle, as it were.
People like to think that inborn talent and luck have more to do with success than anything else – because that way there is a ready, reasonable example for why they haven’t achieved success they want for themselves. After all, if someone is born into a wealthy family, don’t you have more opportunities? Sure – at least what people generally think of as positive opportunities. And if you have a natural talent at something – say, brilliance at math – doesn’t that give you an advantage over someone else who isn’t very good with numbers. Sure it does.
But, what Gladwell documents so clearly, is that while those factors can play a small role, the real distinguishing characteristic is how much time and effort someone puts into something.
Is your virtual assistant letting you down?
As a personal growth professional – well, as any professional, for that matter – how and what your team does reflects directly on you. If they aren’t getting their jobs done, it affects your reputation, your clients’ satisfaction and progress, and your own sense of peace and accomplishment.
In a recent blog post, Kendall Summerhawk gives some great pointers on how to address missed deadlines, goofs, and the disappointment that comes when someone you trust and care about is letting you down.
She says the relationship you have with your virtual assistant, or any other team member, is like any relationship.
“At first, you’re both feeling the love and everyone is happy. But after a few months you may start noticing tasks slipping through the cracks or that you’re having to spend as much time tracking your assistant’s tasks as you used to spend doing them yourself.”
She offers 3 respectful and powerful tips you can use. What’s great about these tips is that they don’t make anyone wrong or make you out to be the “bad guy”.
The tip that struck me the most was Tip #2 – Have A Courageous Conversation.
You’d think we’d all be past this by now, but even the best business owners sometimes dream having “that” conversation. But that’s only because we’re making it mean something it doesn’t.
If you’re challenged by this, two great resources are
- the national bestseller, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work & in Life, One Conversation at a Time, by Susan Scott (it’s on sale right now at Amazon) and
- What is The Emperor Wearing: Truth-Telling In Business Relationships by Laurie Weiss.
Enjoy!
Where does your “Aha” moment come from?
“Eureka, I’ve got it!”
That’s what Archimedes was reported to have shrieked as he jumped from the bathtub and ran through the streets sans clothing. It turns out he had just figured out how to calculate density and volume. Exciting, eh?
OK, so maybe not that exciting in this day and age. But what IS exciting is what this tells us about insight and where it comes from…and what this means to the personal growth profession.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal – Science Journal published an article called “The Wandering Mind Heads Straight Toward Insight”. In this article Robert Lee Holtz explains some of the latest research about how the brain creates breakthroughs, and why daydreaming may be a valuable business practice.
In our fables of science and discovery, the crucial role of insight is a cherished theme. To these epiphanies, we owe the concept of alternating electrical current, the discovery of penicillin, and on a less lofty note, the invention of Post-its, ice-cream cones, and Velcro.
There is new, strong evidence from the neuroscience community that the work we do as Personal Growth Professionals reaches far beyond the “feel good” effects. In fact, scientists at Drexel and Northwestern Universities have found that even before we are presented with a problem, our state of mind can affect whether or not we will likely resort to insightful thinking. People in a positive mood were more likely to experience an insight, researchers at Drexel and Northwestern found. “How you are thinking beforehand is going to affect what you do with the problems you get,” says Dr. Mark Jung-Beeman of Northwestern University.
While we’ve known this intuitively for a long time, we now have science backing us up. Think about what this means for your next proposal. How might you use this to “make the case” for bringing personal development work into the business setting?
Researchers have been evaluating what is really happening in the brain just before a breakthrough. What they have found is that people who solve problems using insight are using their brains differently than those who solve problems analytically. Their brains actually generate different brain wave patterns because there are different brain mechanisms involved, according to psychologist John Kounios at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
This isn’t actually a new thought, though the scientific research supporting the statement may be. Herbert Benson and William Proctor wrote about this in The Break-Out Principle, published in 2003. (For those of you who have been around awhile, you may remember Dr. Benson as the one who was laughed at for suggesting back in 1975 that heart disease, blood pressure and lifestyle were somehow related.)
What research is now showing us is that our brains may be most active – and at their problem-solving best – when we’ve lost track of our thoughts. Also known as “daydreaming.”
We used to think someone’s mind was empty when they were daydreaming. But apparently our brains have a mind of their own. Some of the complex problem solving parts of the brain scientists used to think were dormant during daydreaming, are actually activated – in fact they are “much more active than during reasoning with a complex problem,” says cognitive neuroscientist Kalina Christoff at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, who reported the findings last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Think about how you would apply this in your business? What exercises and activities might you utilize to help people develop this part of their brain? How can you help business leaders understand the value this has for their bottom line?
You will want to read Robert Lee Holtz’s article to get the whole story.
30 Reasons Personal Growth Professionals Should Use Special Reports to Grow Their Business
Personal growth enthusiasts (your ideal clients) love special reports. They are chock full of information, they come in manageable bite-sized portions, and they answer a burning question or provide a solution quickly. That’s why they love them.
Personal Growth Professionals love them because they’re quick to make and easy to sell, which means you can make money from them – fast – plus spread the word about what you do. There are lots of ways to help your clients, promote your business, and earn money with special reports. In fact, I came up with a list of 30 ways!
But first, if you think you can’t possibly make your very own special reports, check out the Special Report Club and use the code “save10” to get $10 off your first month.
So here it is, my super list of Top 30 Ways to Earn with Special Reports (and by earning, you are spreading the word and helping people!):
1. Sell it – and keep all of the profits. The most obvious way of making money with special reports is to sell them.
2. Sell it through affiliates – and keep some of the profits. This is the similar #1, but your affiliates lead buyers to your sales page and pocket a commission from the sale. Remember, you have to REACH people in order to help them. How better to do that than via a special report that other people are helping share?
3. Sell it through affiliates – and give them all of the profits. How does this make you money? Well, you build a list of buyers plus you can earn money on the back-end, either by promoting other products in the report itself, or as part of the sales process, or both. And you get to feel like a do-gooder.
4. Give it away – and build your list. Use the special report as an incentive for people to join your list. Remember – the report needs to be relevant to your ideal client, and it needs to be well-written. If you aren’t a natural writer, or simply don’t have the time, seriously think about the Special Report Club.
5. Give it away – and make affiliate sales. Embed affiliate links in the report, and you can earn commissions by giving it away. Just add a “Resources” page or sprinkle affiliate links where appropriate. Of course, you want to do this with integrity and your reputation in mind. A report full of links is a bit of a turn-off, and even more so if the links are to products that are irrelevant or shoddy. Make sure that anything you recommend you believe in strong enough to stake your reputation on it.
6. Break it up into blog posts. A blog needs regular content. Write blog posts easily from a special report. Seriously – this is a great one! (Not sure about blogging, check out the Become A Blogging Maniac course.)
7. Give it away as a bonus to a paid product. Increase the perceived – and REAL – value of a paid product by including a special report – or several – as a bonus.
8. Combine them into an E-book to sell. Turn each special report into a chapter, add an introduction, conclusion, new title and cover, and you’ve got a brand new E-book to sell. Think about how great it feels when you can tell your clients about the book you’ve just completed.
9. Combine related special reports into an E-book, to give away. Same idea as #8, but you give it away for list building and/or affiliate sales.
10. Combine related special reports into a physical book, to sell. Turn the E-book from #8 into a book that buyers can publish-on-demand, such as on Lulu.com.
11. Use it as a basis for an article. Get the most actionable points from the special report, turn them into an article, and submit it to Ezine Articles or another online article directory.
12. Create an audio version to give away, or sell. Some people prefer audio products they can listen to while they’re on the go or doing other things. Give in to their demand by converting the special report into an audio report.
(If you don’t have an audio/recording service, I highly recommend Audio Acrobat. It’s simple, easy, quick, and you’ll create one of those fancy players with buttons in your email or website, without having to know anything special about web design or html code.)
13. Use a special report as the basis for tutorial videos – to give away or sell. Videos are hot nowadays, so turn a special report into video format for increased value.
14. Combine the audio and video versions into CDs and/or DVDs – and sell physical products. Physical products don’t cost a lot to produce, but have higher perceived value than digital products. And, as you well know, the personal growth industry is a multi-billion dollar industry!
15. Use the special report as the basis for a series of marketing videos to build your list and/or drive traffic to your site. Get 3-5 top tips from the special report and turn them into a video you post on YouTube and other video sharing sites, for instant traffic for your blog or site.
16. Use it as the basis for videos to promote affiliate products. Similar to #15, but use the videos to drive traffic to products you’re affiliated with, using your affiliate links.
17. Make it a prize on your Twitter giveaway. Want to get more Twitter followers? Offer a special report to all your new followers.
18. Give it away in exchange for answering an online survey to do market research. Set up an online survey and give respondents a free special report for their time.
19. Make it a surprise bonus for your clients or subscribers. Delight your existing clients with a free special report they didn’t expect to get and make them loyal to you, for life. Adding value is always a good thing.
20. Create a teleseminar out of the special report. Create a list of frequently-asked questions the special report addresses, and set up a teleseminar.
21. Make it a monthly resource in a paid membership program. Add useful special reports in the members’ resource area, or make it the featured content of the month.
22. Break it up into an E-course, to sell or give away. Chop up a special report to create an E-mail course or pre-recorded audio course.
23. Use the special report to create free Web 2.0 sites, such as Squidoo and Hub Pages. Create content for Squidoo lenses, Hub Pages and other Web 2.0 sites that promote your products and/or services, or affiliate products.
24. Break it up into autoresponder messages for your subscribers. Use the special report to give your subscribers useful information regularly.
25. Rewrite it to cater to a different or more specific niche within your target markets. With a few tweaks, you can make a special report appeal to a completely different niche or market. For example, turn a general self-help report into one just for work-at-home Moms.
26. Use the content to create a mini-site for affiliate marketing. Set up a mini-site (5 pages or less) to promote an affiliate product. Get content from a special report.
27. Create a podcast. Use a special report as the basis for a podcast, which can be in audio or video format.
28. Use it as an upsell or downsell to another paid product. Offer a special report to buyers of a related product.
29. Turn it into a brandable report for your affiliates to use to promote your product or service. Let affiliates give away a special report to draw leads to your site or list.
30. Cull out the most actionable tips from the special report and turn each one into a Twitter Tweet. Shazam, you’re an instant expert. Talk about increasing your visibility and credibility….
Surprise! I actually came up with 31 ways. Here’s the bonus:
31. Turn special reports into hand-outs, checklists or even main resource materials for a coaching program.
Ready to make money with special reports? You can jump-start the process with a special report, sales page, e-cover and more done for you month after month. Find out how at Special Report Club.
And don’t forget to use the discount code “save10” (without the quotation marks) to get $10 off your first month with Special Report Club.
Then all you’ll have to worry about is which of these 31 ideas you will do to earn from special reports!
