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Are you a home based business owner and entrepreneur? Well then I suggest that you pay close attention to this post!
If you are a blogger like myself and/or do any type of advertising to promote your business, you need to be aware of a recent change in the FTC guidelines regarding advertising practices.
The “FTC” or “Federal Trade Commission” whose tag line is “Protecting American Consumers” has just released some new guidelines on 10/05/09 with regards to celebrity endorcements, testimonial advertisements and bloggers.
With the health and wellness industry on its way to being a TRILLION dollar industry, this will no doubt have a profound impact on many home based business owners.
I think that it is necessary to have oversight of the health and wellness industry for the protection of consumers, but I also feel that there needs to be a balance between oversight and the right to share personal testimonials with a health product. It’s also no secret that these testimonials are a BIG factor in the marketing of health supplements and communicating their true value.
I’m sure that this is exactly why the FTC has created the following new guidelines in part as follows:
Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.
So it would appear that this is not to say that one can’t share their individual experience and testomials with regards to a health product, however the disclaimer, “results not typical” will no longer cut it. You have to provide a source of what the “typical” results one could expect would be if you choose to advertise your own personal experience with a health supplement.
So this then begs the question, how does one determine and communicate that?
The nutritional supplement industry is a far cry from big pharma with millions of dollars at their disposal to do controlled clinical trials to be able to demonstrate what “typical results” are with a given product.
I know my primary business of choice Mandura has actually removed all testimonials from its site just to help ensure that Mandura’s Corporate website is compliant with the FTC regulations.
FTC fines are NOT cheap! Just ask Donald Barrett from ITV about his FTC fines!
This certainly creates a new level of complexity for the home business entrepreneur when it comes to advertising and blogging to promote their health products.
I’ll be closely following this new paradigm shift in advertising under these new FTC guidelines.
It already has started to have an impact. Have you noticed it being harder to get ads approved on Google Adwords? Coincidence? I think not!
So what is the answer? I think that “old school” off line marketing will see a new resergence in face to face marketing to be able to adequately share ones personal testimonials.
Online Marketing will always have a place with the savy entrepreneur. We just need to be very cautious in what we say in our testmonials and advertisements.
I’ll keep you posted on this very important topic as it unfolds.
To Your Success!
Amy Stroud
Personal Branding Expert
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Have you ever felt like there just aren’t enough hours in the day? Have you ever found yourself saying..”If there were only two of me..or 5 or 50..” This is something that I often struggle with. For the longest time I often find myself wondering how I would ever get ahead will all the daily craziness that life throws at me sometimes..
Can you relate?
Fortunatley, I recently attended a training on Time Management and Personal Leadership which completlely transformed the way that I view my time and how I go about managing it.
First of all, I now think of “Time Management” as “Decision Management” and “Personal Leadership” in terms of “Personal Improvement.”
Believe it or not, we all actually do make decisions everyday about how we go about managing our time. Moving forward, I will be using the following system when it comes to deciding how to prioritize my time. This system is based on accomplishing results when it comes to achieving my personal goals or my “gain tasks” and managing my daily life or “prevent pain” tasks.
A Tasks represent my Gain Tasks
B Tasks represent my “must do tasks” that others will be keeping a record of in some way (ie bills)
C Tasks represent my “must do tasks” or “Prevent Pain tasks” that will somehow find me if I don’t do them, but aren’t necessarily being recorded by anyone else.
Putting this system in place has totally changed how I manage my day, and thereby has transformed the level of productivity that I’m able to accomplish towards my personal goals as a result!
For example my “A Tasks” for the day might involve planning my day for 10 min, reading 10 pages of a personal improvement book, writing a blog post, sending a “thinking of you card” just because and creating a you tube video to promote my home business in Mandura of which an example can be found by clicking here.
My “B Tasks” might include paying my cell phone bill and mortgage and writing my monthly report for work.
My “C Tasks” might include taking out the trash, doing laundry, and making an appointment with my dentist.
Now mind you, I know that I can’t plan for everything that will be thrown my way but it has made a world of difference having a managable to do list written down so that I can easily get back on track when “my day” repeatedly tries to throw me off my game.
Now if you’ll notice my “A Tasks” are all designed at advancing me towards achieving my goals and creating the results that I ultimately desire in my life. In order to ensure that they get accomlished, I actually take the time to also put my A tasks as an appointment on my calendar making every effort to place the priority on them that they are due.
I encourage you to implement a similar system in your life. I’m confident that it will make all the difference for you as it has for me.
If you are an entrepreneur and would like to take this system a step further, I encourage you to contact me about attending a 90 Day Success Bootcamp that I will be hosting with some business partners of mine in the upcoming few weeks by emailing me at aes3372@gmail.com stating, “I’d like more information about attending your 90 Day Boot Camp.”
To Your Success!
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You must have heard the expression, “Team work makes the dream work”, but is this true in some cases more than others?
In my opinion, YES!
Team work is always a great thing don’t get me wrong. ”Together Everyone Achieves More” has always been a true statement, however I KNOW it to be true in some circumstances more than others.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what goes into making a great team but even more than that, is it possible for different roles on the team to be compensated equally? I think the answer to this depends on many factors but there are 2 that I would like to cover in particular:
1. What is the structure of the compensation plan by which the team gets paid?
2. How driven is each individual team member?
Let’s take me and my business partner Eddie Saenz and our experience in a previous company for example…
My strengths as a leader are in teaching, marketing, and making sure that my team is and stays connected. These are very important qualities to have in a team for sure. I think I’m a big part of the glue and fabric of a team when I believe in its vision. My business partner, leader and tremendous friend Eddie Saenz shares my strengths in teaching and marketing and he is also a GREAT recruiter. This is not to say that I can’t recruit because I can and do, but Eddie is certainly quite gifted in this area.
So what does this all mean?
Eddie and I have partnered together before in other home based businesses, in fact he was my upline. Did that benefit me financially in that particular compensation model?
Sure, but this direct impact was spread out over many people. We built a GREAT team both personal downline and crossline for that matter together in that particular business which unfortunatley ended up going out of business for many reasons, mostly poor management and corporate greed in my opinion.
Eddie and I both love to teach and help people to succeed. It gives us great joy..so much so that we even opened up our weekly training that we did “cross line” just because there was a clear need for it as many people in this company had been “recruited” by some who were great at instilling hopes of wealth and financial freedom but as soon as they had your start up bonus they were nowhere to be found and these poor IBOs were pretty much left on their own with regards to personal guidance training by their sponsor with some even being told to “go read their company handbook” if they were lucky enough to even get ahold of their sponsor.
This is not team work.
Eddie and I both agreed that we would open our weekly training calls cross line to all these “orphans” in need of a team and training or just anyone who wanted to plug in and benefit from them even though we didn’t benefit financially from that because they weren’t in our direct downline. Why? Because it was just the right thing to do!
The company did provide some “training” but it could never provide the “team training and community” that is so key to one’s success. In a few short months we had a company following of over 500 people! Clearly there was a need for what Eddie and I were providing!
Did this create waves in the company? Oh yea! I received many complaints from other “leaders” in the company who were threatened by Eddie and I opening our trainings to any and all who wanted to learn and improve their business. Did we receive rave reviews from other leaders too? YES! Most importantly did Eddie and I make a positive impact on our loyal listeners and have their deep grattitude? YES! To us that was PRICELESS!
One thing was clear, this decision to do the right thing certaining struck a nerve in the company to its core! Why? It exposed many things that were clearly lacking with regards to proper personal sponsorship and it also exposed fear driven by financial loss because the compensation plan was set up so that you only benefited financially from your direct downline. These two factors created much controversy, let me tell you!
From the beginning to the end, Eddie and my heart was only to do the right thing and meet unmet needs so that everyone could be successful.
Fast forward a few years to the present. Eddie and I have remained tight friends since the end of that business and have even tested the waters in a couple of businesses separetly, but didn’t find a company that we both shared the vision of again, until now in a company called Mandura!
Eddie and I are about to start doing opportunity and training calls again in a company that actually rewards company team building because of the way the compensation plan is structured as a single line team compensation plan. Everyone new in the company is acutally placed directly under the person that enrolled before them. We are seeing on average right now 50+ new Mandura reps a day added to the company and we are still in prelaunch! The team synergy and momentum that we have as a company is amazing! Everyone keeps saying that we’ve never seen anything like it!
To touch on my 2nd point of being personally driven, even though we are all building increadible TEAM volume in an exponential growth rate, in order to unlock all that is financially available to you, you do have to go to work and build personal team volume but you are actually encouraged to plug in to the company teams and local groups regardless of who sponsored you!!
We are actually encouraged to socially interact with all comany reps from the beginning through our company social site www.ManduraInMotion.com. It is increadible the “cross” synergy that is happening and actually encouraged!!! I absolutely love it!!!! It is so refreshing! This concept is revolutionary, trust me I know!!!!
Our team is called the ManduraBuzz Team has a tremendous amount to offer people including the following:
1. 2 Replicated websites (company site and replicated marketing system)
2. Team training site and personal support (www.ManduraBuzz.com)
3. Access to me and my team for 3 way calls and exclusive training
4. Daily conference calls to bring prospects to so you don’t have to be an expert
5. Access to our exclusive Social Network (www.ManduraInMotion.com)
6. Direct Access to TOP Corporate and IBO leaders
and our promise that we will do all that we can to help you succeed.
This companies motto is:
One Line | One Team | One Vision
Eddie and I have found our “new home” again and all is right with the world 
If you’d like to be a part of this home based business REVOLUTION with me, learn more at www.ManduraOverview.com and then join me by enrolling.
You can even lock in your position for as little as $30!!!
This is unheard of!!!
So to recap, yes in some cases “Team work makes the dream work” but I’ve never seen it to be as true of a statement as in Mandura!
To Your Success,
Amy Stroud’s Personal Mandura Site
- www.OneLineTeam.com
Mandura Buzz Team Site
Mandura Company Social Site
- www.ManduraInMotion.com
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Momentum is defined as the Mass of an object multiplied by its Velocity. The symbol for momentum is a small p.
By no means am a a physics major, in fact I never event took it as a class, but I realize how important this concept is in business so thought it worth doing a post about it to look at it in more detail.
Even though I may be broadening the intended defintion of mass, here are my thoughts about it with regards to business.
Let’s say that we can define our “Mass” as a combination of how valueble we’ve made ourselves both as a leader in what we have to offer our followers, as well as the value of the product and company we’re promoting.
Let’s also say that “Velocity” for this example can be defined as how quickly or the speed at which the company is growing as a whole as well as your individual business.
Now, what if while you have been consistently working on building the value of ”You, Inc.” in 2009 through continual learning and applying what you’re learning, you’ve decided to partner with a company that has a tremendous amount of value to offer your customers. Is that enough to be uber successful?
Granted, this is an edge in business for sure but is it enough of one to gain maximum return on your efforts?
What if you could partner with a company whose figured out a way to create a syngergistic effect in their compensation plan and harness the power of the combined velocity or speed of its growth and have everyone ’s efforts mutltiplied to benefit the entire group as a whole? Now you’re able to maximize your personal speed of growth by the efforts of the entire group! That’s pretty powerful!
Now, what if you combine that synergistic speed of group growth or (velocity) with your great value as a leader and that of the quaility product(s) your company has to offer (Mass)? The Momentum from this would be pretty spectacular wouldn’t you agree? Far more than you could ever accomplish on your own!
Well I’m here to tell you that this example is possible and in fact it is a reality for me!
If you’d like to learn more, check out my recent Press Release on Mandura by clicking here.
You can also listen to a recent Teleseminar I hosted last night on this oppportunity by visiting here.
If you’d like to partner with me you can do so by clicking here.
I’d love to hear your comments and feedback on this post!
To Your Success,
Amy Stroud’s Personal Mandura Site
www.OneLineTeam.com
Mandura Buzz Team Site
Mandura Company Social Site
www.ManduraInMotion.com
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Are you trying to promote yourself, your business or your products online using social networking?
Having any success with it?
Its not as easy as you might think if you don’t know what you’re doing! Believe it or not there is a science to it!
Ever wish that there was a book to tell you exactly how to go about building your social web so that you will have the results you’re looking for? Well now there is!
My great friend and Social Network Marketing Mentor David Foster has just Pre-Released his new Ebook entitled “Building Your Social Web”.
I’m actually one of the first people that he’s allowing to actively promote it as a thank you for being so active within his community. I’ve had the chance to read his ebook and can without a doubt recommend it as THE authority on how to go about creating and building your social web for the beginner.
If you want to learn how to set up your own self hosted blog and then naturally drive traffic to it and then actually know how to build a relationship with your readers to where they know like and trust you, this is a MUST READ!
Dave has also given the readers of the Masterminding With Amy blog an opportunity to get this valuable resource at $10 off through this Sunday by visiting www.socialweb-ebook.com or
The price will go up to $39.00 after Sunday so be sure and grab your copy ASAP!
This is THE “How to manual” for the internet marketing of the future – Social Network Marketing!
To Your Success,
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This week is one that I will remember for “many moons” to come! I had the tremendous opportunity to see the Legendary Brian Tracy in a LIVE seminar that he was presenting at here in the the Boston area this past Tuesday which was sponsored by iLearningGlobal
As you probably know by know I am a huge believer in the power and necessity of continual learning from the Top Success Mentors in the world and am thrilled to be a subscriber to iLearningGlobal and the EDGE program (Expert Directed Guided Education).
Through the EDGE program, I have become quite familiar with Brian Tracy and have developed a tremendous admiration for his wisdom and success strategies that I can view on demand in HD Video 24/7.
Even having this kind of direct access to his invaluable lessons, I still was in awe of seeing him at the LIVE event! If you ever have the chance or opportunity to witness him in action LIVE, do what ever you need to do to get there!
For today’s post, I wanted to briefly share with you what Brian Tracy calls the 7 C’s of Success. I encourage you to listen to this week’s Masterminding With Amy at www.MastermindingWithAmy.com or click here to get a full detailed Mastermind recap lesson from me as I relate in detail the 7 C’s of Success!
So here are Brian Tracy’s 7 C’s of Success:
1. Clarity
2. Confidence
3. Constraint
4. Creativity
5. Concentration
6. Continuous Learning
7. Courage
These are princiapls to live and succeed by!
I hope you enjoy this Mastermind Session and I’d love to hear your feedback on it through leaving me a comment
To Your Success,
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If you’re reading this post, chances are you are an entrepreneur and hopefully a “Knowledge-Preneur” so welcome, you’re in the right place!
I wanted to cover a topic today that I think is crucial to the success minded entrepreneur – What areas should You consider when selecting a Product or service to promote as a business opportunity?
I can’t stress enough that you give the following concepts their due consideration when deciding whether or not to invest your time, hard earned dollars and most importantly YOUR Personal Brand into marketing any product or service as a home business opportunity.
Let me just start off by reiterating that I’m speaking with the assumption that you are FIRST and FOREMOST selling and promoting yourself first because as I’ve said before and will continue to say your biggest assets are Your Personal Brand or in other words, ”You Inc.” and YOUR list. Period!
When considering, a product or service to promote as a business opportunity, and there are MANY, I’ll never knock any of them and in fact I’m a customer of several of my friends products because they offer a great personal value to me.
So why have I decided not to pursue them as a business opportunity?
Let me explain…
If I am one thing, I’m an excellent student of the Masters of Success! My studies, as well as my own personal experience have led me to many keen observations of what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to selecting the “right” business opportunity. As a student of business success principals, I’ve learned to ask myself certain key criteria questions when I’m evaluating whether or not I will invest my personal brand, time, energy and money behind building and promoting a business.
As my loyal readers, I thought it important to share some of my observations and considerations with you.
Here is My Top 10 list when considering whether or not to promote a business opportunity:
1. Does the company have a proven and/or novel marketing system in place as to how I will get my leads or customers so that I won’t have to bug my friends, relatives and neighbors?
2. Is the Company a Reputable Company with ethical leadership?
3. How will I be positioned in that Company?
4. What kind of support will I receive from joining that team/sponsor?
5. Will their compensation plan make it worth my while as a serious business builder?
6. Will their compensation plan make it worth the majority of my future team’s while?
7. Is their product a necessity that is consumable or repeatable?
8. Is their target market positioned as a profitable niche in the marketplace?
9. Is my team’s / the company’s system duplicateable?
10. Can I get passionate about what I’m promoting?
Did you notice my number 1 consideration when evaluating an opportunity? There is a reason that it is number 1. Customers are the life blood of any business and without them, businesses die, plain and simple!
If I can’t answer yes to all 10 of these questions, especially question #1, I won’t promote it as a business opportunity. Period!
I am the type of person that if I decide to build a business, I like to know that I have every chance of success if I’m going to invest “Amy Inc.” behind it. My time and energy are too valuable of a resource to invest otherwise.
I don’t say this from a place of arrogance, just one of great self confidence and recognition of the value of my own personal brand and what I bring to the table.
How much do you value your personal brand?
What business opportunity are you willing to put your brand behind?
Now of course I realize that there are no guarantees in life, but I also realize that the opportunity that I choose to promote is only as strong as its weakest link. If my chosen opportunity is strong in all 10 of the key areas I’ve raised, I firmly believe that the sky is the limit for me..and for you for financial freedom!
I welcome your feedback and comments on My Top 10!
To Your Success,
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If you were to rate your internet marketing knowledge and skill level right now, how would you describe your current ability to market online in today’s competitive internet marketplace?
Do you have a proven system that shows you how to naturally incorporate all of the latest advances on the internet today?
As a knowledge-preneur and business owner I’m consistently looking for ways to gain leverage in my business endeavors.
One thing that has become crystal clear to me in today’s competitive marketplace is the critical importance of knowing how to market myself online successfully. I would even go so far as to say the future of my business depends on it as does yours!
Do I have your attention yet?
As you know, I’m a huge believer in the premise that the shortest distance on the path to success, is that which has the least amount of resistance.
Common sense dictates that if you want to learn how to be an “uber” successful internet maketer, the fastest and most easiest way to naturally do that is to learn from a Master Internet Marketer who has “been there done that”.
Mike Dillard is one of THE Masters of internet marketing and has earned 7 million plus dollars in a very short period of time to prove it!
I was so excited today when I picked up my copy of Mike Dillard’s new course as soon as it launched called “Traffic Formula 2 (TF2)“. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you also invest in “You Inc” and take advantage NOW of Mike Dillard’s generous 70% discount through June 10th on his new course TF2 so that you will have a complete education and understanding on how to leverage the power of today’s internet in your personal business!
You can’t afford not to get this course!
I plan to keep you updated in my future blog posts with my success through implementing the strategies for success I’ll be learning in Mike’s proven system that he’s so graciously sharing with the world in TF2.
I sugggest that you do the same as well on your blog.
Don’t have one yet? No problem. Get started with your own selfhosted blog by clicking here and save $30 on annual hosting and get a free domain name to boot.
I can’t stress enough the importance of taking advantage of this limited time opportunity to get Mike Dillard’s TF2 at 70% off!!! I promise you, you’ll be kicking yourself if you don’t!
Click here to get yours now so you can discover the secrets of the masters and realize your own amazing results!
You can thank me later
To Your Success,
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Are you interested in learning how to best use your business cards and email to get more done in your business faster, better and with less human effort?
That is true business optimization!
Check out my latest “Masterminding With Amy Teleseminar ” that I recorded last night to hear me share some key effective optimization strategies that I’ve been learning through my iLearningGlobal EDGE business tool.
Just implementing these 2 creative and intellegent stratagies alone can greatly increase your productivity! Check it by visiting www.MastermindingWithAmy.com
Be sure to subscribe to my “Masterminding With Amy Club” to be able to receive special updates as well as free access to my Business Optimization Worksheets and tools to help you strategize and directly apply these techniques to YOUR business!
Thanks to all my faithful listeners and contributors to the Mastermind discussions! I greatly appreciated YOU!
To Our Success,
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Do you consider yourself business owner? Are you really a business owner? Really???
I know this sounds like a silly question but I promise you its not! I watched a free video today by Mike Dillard on the MLM Traffic formula which you can also watch by clicking here which really made me re-evaluate if I truly am a business owner.
Mike Dillard has become a legand in the internet marketing industry. As I watched his free video on the MLM traffic formula, I found it interesting that the main points that he was talking about was what I have been posting about for over the past month. He talked about the critical importance of topics like:
- Personal Branding: Brand Yourself because YOU are Your Most Valuable Asset!
- The Power of Video: Video/Audio Blogging with Special Guest Dave Sweeney!
- Adding value before you can receive: Can I buy you a Virtual Drink?
- Building and maintaining your own list : Building Your List and The Law of Value
- The quality of the relationship you have with the people on your list: ? Do You Know the Value of a Mastermind Group?
Mike Dillard has a way of taking timeless principals and making them relevant to the industry trends of today! The internet has changed how everything is done and he has created courses that are a brilliant manual on how to leverage its power to create what he calls “You Inc.” of which your largest assets are those listed above which boils down to your ability to brand yourself and then influence others by earning the right to market to them through recommendations that they willingly accept because of the solid personal relationship you’ve created with them by consistently adding value over time.
If you are a network marketer and in a MLM and are not taking steps to brand yourself and host your own list built on solid relationship principals, I suggest to you that you are not a business owner because you have no real assets!
The sad truth is that your company could fold tomorrow or even revoke your distributorship without cause or reason at their whim and if you don’t have a solid list that you can email outside of your comapany’s database, you’re done and have to start over.
As I’ve said from the beginning you and your list are your greatest assets, period!
To get your hands on the latest release of the MLM Traffic Formula 2 where Mike will cover all the latest enhancements including social networking, video etc as well as be able to watch a 36 minute summary of MLM Traffic formula with Mike breaking it down on a whiteboard, be sure to Click Here.
To Our Success,
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