Meeting Quattro Instructor Gary de Rodriguez

Posted on by Posted in 2009 A Defining Year of Evolution

gary de rodriguez

April 30, 2009

I had the great, good fortune the morning of April 30th to spend a brief time at breakfast with Quattro teacher Gary de Rodriguez. He was staring, lost in thought, out the window at the vast sea of boats and masts docked just outside the Kona Kai hotel in San Diego (where the college is) and I went over to say Hi and how much I enjoyed his classes when he invited me to sit down.

Though we only spent about 10 minutes talking, it was great to just converse outside class about little things here and there…the kundalini of the planet, where we each were when Kennedy was assassinated, further training for Quattro reps in the Los Angeles area. He expressed a desire to train us in such a way that we “don’t even mention sales during our presentations”, making them all about the service Quattro provides and how important it is to the future of small business owners and entrepreneurs everywhere. It was a great, pleasant start to the morning I will keep among the best memories of our time here at the college.

I learned so much as a student in his class at the Quattro inaugural College. The transformations I saw in his Powerful Presentations class among my husband, the students I worked with and the ones who gave their talks at the end of the class were amazing. It was during that 20 hours of instruction with him that I felt us as a community at the Quattro College really bond to each other. Having that brief time to talk at breakfast during the college, too, was a joy and a rare moment. I can’t wait for him to come to L.A. to give us more instruction. I will be there, whatever it takes!

Taking the Chance that Pays Off

Posted on by Posted in 2009 A Defining Year of Evolution 1 Comment

Evolution means sometimes taking risk. Anything worth obtaining is worth paying the price for. Do you believe this? If you do, your possibilities in life widen.

The next step in business evolution for me, I believe, is to become a better salesperson. To learn more about how to sell my products and myself, to learn more about how the world of business works, and especially about who is not only surviving, but thriving in this downturned economy and more importantly WHY they are thriving. Even before the economy turned, about a year, year and a half ago, I realized that jewelry and cell phone purse retail sales were not going to cut it in bringing in enough money for me. I followed what the Universe seemed to be guiding me to do, and that was website design. When the economy killed my retail sales half a year later, it began bringing me more opportunities for expanding my website design clientele and so I went back to school to get some more education in the Adobe CS3 suite. But that was only the beginning of my evolutionary journey.

Now, in April 2009, my research into this area has me sitting at the inagural opening ceremonies of a new business college created by Quattro University. This is a large, financial chance we are taking, but in a sense it was also a no-brainer. With our 401ks hemmoraging money every month, they no longer served our purpose where they were. They are better invested into sharpening our business and entrepreneural skills. Remember, give a man a fish (or a job) and you’ll sustain them for a time. Teach them to fish (or run a business as an entrepreneur) and they will not only feed themselves, but they will be able to adapt and adopt to changes in the economy. And, as Quattro teaches, they will be able to “pay it forward” so everyone around them who are willing to listen will also benefit.

Email Discretion – the foot is firmly in the horse’s mouth!

Posted on by Posted in Networking & Sales Common Sense

I was attending a non-profit organization’s volunteer meeting last night. This group gets funding from a government agency whose representative made an opening statement last night that should really be taken to heart by many who often make this obvious, yet all too common, terrible business mistake. For clarity’s sake, I will paraphrase the lesson, and then go into what was said and why it was said.

The paraphrase is: “Be careful what you say in emails.”

What was said, “There has been a lot of negativity in the emails back and forth on this upcoming project…many seem to think we are the enemy, but the truth is, we aren’t AND you need us to fund your project.”

My long-time experience with sending emails and seeing the repercussions of poorly-worded/tactless emails made me sit there and silently agreement with this man. He had the grace and tact to word it in such a way as to not make it look like the friendly warning it was, and while I applaud him for his decorum, at the same time I feel sorry for him.

He is fighting an uphill battle against the anger ineffective government has engendered in today’s common people. Whether he or his department is guilty of the all too common funding shenanigans that run rampant in any City Hall, he is still a victim of it, as were the upset constituent, you and I. There is a time and a place for such ventings of one’s anger at officials or the “system”, BUT it is never at a volunteer meeting, or on an email list going to the very people one is accusing. I guess this must be a lesson learned, and not common sense, and of course, when tempers run high, ALL sense and common sense go flying out the window and back into the mouth of the horse who just said it (hence the title of this piece).

What amazed me is the fact that as soon as this official said this, someone spoke up right away (gee, I wonder who sent the email?) and added to the fire by reiterating what was in the emails. Gee, he wasn’t listening, was he? In this day and age in the United States/California, expecting government to have tons of money to throw at small, community projects when their budget is getting cut and their staff is let go is positively ludicrous. But I digress…

…back to the main point, at least in this blog. If you are in business, and I will capitalize this for emphasis, RE-READ THAT EMAIL BEFORE YOU SEND IT! Would you tell that person this to their face if you were face-to-face? I look at words spoke like pointing a gun – if you are going to point it, say it, email it, YOU BETTER BE PREPARED TO USE, DEFEND AND LIVE WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF THAT HURLED VERBAL BULLET!!!

Don’t burn your business bridges because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut long enough to rethink that stupid, thoughtless, antagonistic comment you felt it was your God-given right to say. Sure, you have a right to say anything you want, but if it hurts someone else or your business for future, potential business, you better think twice or be prepared to live with the consequences of fewer friends in life and less business.

eNewsletters – What are they and why you need them

Posted on by Posted in Social Networking

First off, you might be asking some serious questions like these:

1. What are online newsletters, or eNewsletters as they are commonly called?

2. How are they done and what is their purpose?

3. How do they get me more customers, leads and/or sales?

4. Why should I go with a hosting company for the email lists I will be sending them to?

Let’s address these questions before going further. I promise you these answers will be quick.

1. What are online newsletters, or eNewsletters as they are commonly called?

Remember that newsletter your school class used to put out?

Ever see a newsletter sitting among the magazines at your doctor’s office? One that praises their hard work and shows off their knowledge in their field of specialty?

Or, did you get a flyer in your grocery bag that had tips on how to cook for the upcoming holiday and what was on sale right now at your local grocery store? (Gelsons supermarkets chain puts out a very nice flyer/newsletter, by the way. Check it out for a great example.)

These are all examples of newsletters. An “online” newsletter, or eNewsletter as we are going to call them from now on, is simply a newsletter that is available to view through email or by browsing the internet.

2. How are they (eNewsletters) done and what is their purpose?

eNewsletters are done two ways: either through a web page editor such as Adobe DreamWeaver, or through a program which, for the purpose of this discussion, is one that is hosted by an internet company such as Net Atlantic or Constant Contact.

Their purpose is simple: you use them to advertise your business and to keep in touch with your current customers.

3. How do they get me more customers, leads and/or sales?

Once your business starts taking off, a large percentage of your sales will be in return customers. You can use an eNewsletter to remind them of who you are so they keep you in mind the next time they go shopping, or need to use the type of services you offer. Customers will read your eNewsletter and if you have written it well, they will be impressed by your knowledge or drawn in by any images you have inserted of your merchandise. Leads will naturally follow if your readers know of someone who can use your product/service because people love to forward emails and if you have sent your eNewsletter via email, it could very well reach many more people than just your target customer!

4. Why should I go with a hosting company for the email lists I will be sending them to?

Heh, well, if you are new to this, the answer is simple…because you don’t know what you are doing at first (let’s be honest about this!). Veterans that have sent eNewsletters before will also know it streamlines the process of creating them. Using a hosting company’s tracking reports to see if customers are even opening them and/or forwarding them to friends is also an important way to see if this whole eNewsletter business is really for you, or is just a waste of your time. These reports are helpful and vital. You NEED someone else to do this work for you – a company that is an expert in tracking email blasts and campaigns. Honestly, you are in business to sell jewelry/create websites/sell real estate…why would you take more time away from that than you need to by doing this the hard way? You don’t, so do it the easy way and let someone else handle the tasks you can’t while you are learning the ropes on how to do all this!

So that’s it…eNewsletters. What they are, why you need them, how they work. If this is enough information to get you interested in their potential usefulness to your business, then see our review on two companies that handle eNewsletters distribution in the world of the Internet – Net Atlantic and Constant Contact.

Share this post:

enewsletters – NetAtlantic vs. Constant Contact

Posted on by Posted in Social Networking

 

net atlantic logo

I did a cost analysis for a client last year when they were shopping around for newsletter hosting sites. They had heard about Constant Contact and currently had Net Atlantic and asked me to do a comparison. Here are the results of that analysis:

Pricing (the thing everyone wants to know first) –

1. An option to build your own templates and include surveys with a “survey wizard” are already included in the price for Net Atlantic, BUT there is an additional charge for the survery option with Constant Contact.

constant-contact-logo

2. With Constant Contact, pricing runs cheaper at smaller numbers of subscribers, but becomes more expensive the higher the subscriber base. For example, at 1,000 subscribers, Constant Contact is less expensive than Net Atlantic’s. This does not even include the additional price for surveys and use of more than 5 images at a time.

3. Hidden Cost – also with Constant Contact, “Image Management & Hosting” has a hidden cost. The customer is limited to 5 images at a time per their “standard image hosting and management” package. Adding more is an extra $5/month and is limited to 25mb of storage. This fee was not immediately apparent. I stumbled across it in my indepth research of the website. (http://www.constantcontact.com/email-marketing/email-campaign-creation/manage-images.jsp)

Ease of Use –

1. Constant Contact appears to be a program that anyone can use – both online newsletter editors looking for an easy, quick alternative, and professionals that do not know/work with html code.

Template Limitations –

One drawback to Constant Contact is that as an easier, quicker alternative, it also means that the choices are more limited. There is also a question of whether the images in their templates can be left off the design completely. This was not answered on the website.

Free Trial Limitation –

In Constant Contact, the “free trial” is limited to accounts with lists under 100 contacts. They say that if “your list exceeds 100 contacts at any time during your trial, you will be prompted to upgrade to a paying account”. (http://www.constantcontact.com/pricing/index.jsp)

Constant Contact’s Pros –

1. Preview and tests of an email campaign can be conducted.
2. Campaigns can be scheduled.
3. Selection of one contact, many or multiple contacts or contact lists.
4. Names can be imported from a spreadsheet or Microsoft Outlook.
**All of these pro points already exist with Net Atlantic’s “Discussion Group Email List Hosting” account level.**

Constant Contact’s Cons –

1. The “free trial” is limited to accounts with lists under 100 contacts (see under “Free Trial” topic).

A further analysis of the breakdown of Constant Contact’s available templates:

“SpeakUp email marketing product” –

1. Email Newsletters (http://www.constantcontact.com/email-marketing/html-email-templates/email-newsletter.jsp) –
As in the case with the “Business Newsletter” template (http://www.constantcontact.com/email-marketing/html-email-templates/email-newsletter.jsp), there are choices for two top images which they call the “Left Column Image Block” and the “Right Column Image Block” but it does not say if these images can be left out or not. Would we be stuck with them even if we didn’t like them?

2. Email Promotions (http://www.constantcontact.com/email-marketing/html-email-templates/email-promotion.jsp) – is geared more towards retail with their ability to insert Paypal Buy Now links, promotions and coupons. All of these items can be inserted into enewsletters created with Net Atlantic, but not as quickly and the code needs to be written for them first. Once an item is created for either your Net Atlantic account or for Constant Contact, however, it remains available to use in the future.

3. Email Cards (http://www.constantcontact.com/email-marketing/html-email-templates/email-card.jsp) – has an ability to add any background image in the users library. Coupons can also be used.

4. Email Event Invitations (http://www.constantcontact.com/email-marketing/html-email-templates/email-event-invitation.jsp). Again the question arises if the images can be left off and this question could really be applied to any of the above four products.

5. Association and Nonprofit Templates – (http://www.constantcontact.com/email-marketing/html-email-templates/association.jsp) – another choice for templates not in their menu. I found it in the non-guided tour of their products. If, during the 60-day trial period, one can find a good or perfect combination of graphics, color schemes and choices for their needs from what is available, then Constant Contact will serve the purpose nicely. If, however, Constant Contact cannot meet a new or unexpected future need by their clients, if they have not upgraded their system to allow more choices and/or the uploading of the users preferences, then they will not do.

A helpful tip – you learn a lot by reading some of the comments in a company’s forums and message boards.
http://community.constantcontact.com/forum

Let us know if you agree/disagree or have any additional comments or experiences with either company, especially with Net Atlantic.

Thank you for reading!

The WebMistress

Invite Programs – evite

Posted on by Posted in Social Networking 2 Comments

eviteI did a review of evite.com for a local networking group I co-run. We use evite invitations every week and I thought it would be neat if everyone knew how useful it can be. I like to use it in addition to my Outlook Business Contact Manager. When I have customers I need to follow up with in my networking group, it’s faster to look up the information in evite and not sift through the 269 leads and clients I have in my Outlook program. When I update my notes in evite, it’s just a simple copy & past over to the Outlook BCM program to put in the important stuff to keep track of. The social details I keep separate in evite so as not to clutter up BCM, which unfortunately, has a word limit on notes entered in the notepad files it keeps linked to the contacts.

I hope you find this information useful…please leave a comment if you do.

Kristine

evite perks:

1. evite is free
2. Has an address book function.
A. Addresses can be imported from AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, MSN Messenger, Outlook or “other” program.
B. By clicking on the “Name”, you can add typical address fields such as your contact’s, name, email address, phone #, street address, birthday, add them to a “group” and add notes.
C. When clicking on the “Email Address” field, evite will take you to your default email program and set up the name in a new email ready to send out.
D. If there is information in the “Info” field, when clicked on, you can view their personal stats such as as a photo they upload, their age, birthday, location, interests, favorite party drink, favorite party song AND what “shared” upcoming events you are both invited to, and events they have been to in the past that you have invited them to.
3. Has premade invitation designs AND an ability to make your own designs.
4. Can view up to the last 3 events you created or were invited to.
A. Tells you who said, “yes”, “no”, “maybe”.
B. Copy Invite, email guests, send thank you cards, view all past invites.
C. Photos of events can be added.
5. If you sent the invitation, you can tell who viewed your invitation and on what date. Good information to have to see if your invites are being opened…are they effective?
6. Under the “entertaining” tab, includes party ideas, planning tools such as a drink calculator, budget estimator & party checklist. Budget Estimator keeps track of your estimated costs on drinks, “DECORATIONS, FOOD, ENTERTAINMENT” and has an addable field for CUSTOMIZABLE CATEGORIES.
7. Can add their blog items to “del.icio.us”, “digg.com”, “technorati.com” and “StumbleUpon”.

8. Can send eCards in their designs or personalize one of your own.
9. “evite mobile” allows you to:
A. Send event details you can access the dates and locations of your invitations right on your phone.
B. View your upcoming events, get event details and see who’s coming, send QuickVites to friends and reply to eVites you’ve received.
10. Can add their blog items to “del.icio.us” (http://del.icio.us/), “digg.com” (http://digg.com), “technorati.com” (http://technorati.com) and “StumbleUpon” (http://www.stumbleupon.com).

review © by Civic Site Design – www.civicsitedesign.com

Take care…

Posted on by Posted in 2009 A Defining Year of Evolution

I put out this story to you as a word of advice about what you put out on the internet…

An anonymous stalker from my past showed up at the beginning of this year. If you don’t think it’s scary when you have been successfully hiding from someone for the last 27 years who tried to ruin your life, you are in for a shock when it happens to you.

Perhaps this should go under the “Pearls of Wisdom” category? I will find another, more pointed story one day that perhaps might emphasize the point better and do that.

Does that make me a weird person that I had a stalker? No, not really. EVERYONE has had someone in their life they would rather left the planet…we just don’t have the Star Trek transporter technology yet to accomplish such a feat. I look at it as a part of life…we all have a vulnerable point in our lives into which things and people come that are unwelcome, and one day we stand up to that, stop running and tell them, “I am not afraid of you anymore.”. That has been my most satisfying, recent experience this year and it was AWESOME.

I have been told I am a strong woman…one not afraid to speak her mind. Perhaps the latter is true and always has been, but I did not become a strong woman until I faced down that man. I just wish every woman could learn that lesson in her lifetime.

More power to you who do and my prayers to those yet to.

Evolve or Die

Posted on by Posted in 2009 A Defining Year of Evolution, Networking & Sales Common Sense

How do you get better in business? You keep up with the evolving marketplace. Continue your education, for it is truly a life-long process. If you don’t, you will never survive it’s ever-changing pace!

Human beings are constantly striving to learn new things, to move forward, find the newest trend or fashion. They always evolve, and this means you have to, too. Not could or should, but HAVE TO. If you hate education, this is a good time to get over it and accept the fact that it is a must.

Don’t take this advice as being my opinion…it’s a proven fact of nature that creatures that don’t evolve to their ever-changing surrounds get wiped out. If you think human beings are exempt from this reality, you are sadly mistaken. We are as much a part of nature as everything else on this planet that lives, breathes, eats, sleeps, reproduces and dies. And if ANY OF US drop our guard for a moment, we get taken down – whether it be in the jungle, a street crosswalk or in the marketplace.

Now that that statement is out of the way…let’s get to the business of evolving you and your knowledge, not just in business, but in the all-important categories of Wealth, Wellness, Leadership & Legacy…

Never Take Advice From Someone More Messed Up Than You.

Posted on by Posted in 2009 A Defining Year of Evolution, Networking & Sales Common Sense

This was the first, best advice I ever got listening to a Quattro University presentation by one of its four founders, Cheri Tree. I think if people really thought about the advice they got, considered the source, and ran away when it was bad advice, they would be a lot less miserable

It’s always easier, less painful and quite often less expensive to take a look at the bad examples life gives us and learn from them. Why more people don’t do this, I have no idea. Why doesn’t this come naturally to adults? We always never take our parent’s advice during our rebellious teenage years…so ask yourself this important question, “The person giving the advice…is their life messed up?” If you don’t know any personal details about them to be able to answer this question, just ask them outloud (or yourself quietly), “Are you a millionaire?”

It’s like my husband Dennis always said when quoting Solomon Short. “It’s too bad common sense isn’t.”

Think about it and get ready to run TOWARDS some good advice for a change. It all comes from people I know who are millionaires and whose lives are definitely NOT messed up.

My passion and mission here is to relay some of the sales & marketing wisdom I have learned from the millionaires I know. After you digest what is here, what you do with the information is up to you, but remember, again, some of this advice is from millionaires…they are “paying it forward” to help others get out of the rat race and they KNOW what they are doing…don’t you want advice from someone like that?