Moving from Consciously Incompetent to Unconsciously competent
or how to get Unshakeable confidence......

Learning anything new can be quite nerve racking.

New people, new systems, new software, new skills.

All these things can cause stress, mild or major, for many of us.

But, once armed with our new "way" we are off to the races.

Because new found skills breed confidence.

But going through the 3 phases of skills adoption can temporarily dent confidence.
Stage 1. Consciously Incompetent
Stage 2. Consciously Competent
Stage 3. Unconsciously Competent.

Dr Jill Ammon-Wexler explores below how to "get" confidence:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Dr. Jill Ammon-Wexler
Date Created: 20-Mar-05
9 Steps to...Unshakeable Confidence By Dr Jill Ammon-WexlerPioneer
Brain/Mind Researcherwww.quantum-self.com© 2005 All Rights Reserved.

What is confidence? According to Webster's dictionary, it's:
“Having no uncertainty about one's abilities.”
Have you ever wondered why some people seem totally self-confident,
while others are in almost total lack?

Actually -- no one is born confident. Confidence is built through life experience,
and especially the feedback you receive as a youngster about your experiences.
If you receive (and collect) a lifetime of negative believes about your own abilities,
then you will have low self confidence.

It’s true that some people are naturally extroverted -- naturally bold and outgoing.
Others seem to be more naturally introverted, and tend to be more caution in life.
But the fact is … extroverts are not always self-confident, and introverts do not
necessarily lack confidence. Both extroverts and introverts can have unwavering
certainty about their own abilities – the most basic sign of confidence.

Here are nine steps to increasing your self-sonfidence:
1. Gain some New Skills
Building some new personal or career skills will always
strengthen your confidence. What would you like to improve?
If you would like to speak before others with more confidence,
consider joining a Toast Master’s group.
Take action and reach out to expand yourself.

2. Recognize your own Success
Nothing builds confidence like success, but too many
of us fail to appreciate and recognize our own successes.
You know how you feel when someone else compliments
you for something you’ve done well. Make it a point to personally
recognize your own successes, no matter how small they may seem.

3. Believe in your Potential
You may not today be the person you wish to be – but
believing in your potential will help you move in that direction.
If you want to achieve something notable in your life, you
absolutely must believe in your own potential.
Just take it on faith at first, and seek out your personal
purpose for living.

4. Learn from your Setbacks.
Everyone experiences disappointments and set backs,
and it’s just human to become discouraged at times.
But you can use setbacks as positive experiences if you
view them as learning experiences. Meet your challenges head on,
and focus on your intended outcome - not on the obstacles.

5. Get Some Support
Turn to experts in the areas where you want to build more confidence.
You can find expertise in books, ezines, articles, courses, videos, seminars,
or even lectures. If you’re really serious, get a professional coach to hold you
accountable for taking the necessary actions to achieve your goals.

6. Show Confidence in Others
Just as like attracts like, confidence also attracts confidence.
The more confidence you show in others, the more confidence
they will show in you. The more recognition you give others,
the more confidence-building recognition you will receive.

7. Act As If
Acting “as if” is one of the most powerful life-changing tools known
to mankind. Since your unconscious mind cannot tell the difference between
what is “real” and what is “acted” – the more confident you act, the more
convinced your powerful subconscious mind will become that you ARE confident.
See yourself living with courage and strong conviction.

8. Expect to be Confident
Expectation has often been called “faith in action.”
Expect that you will act confident, and your mind will
produce the actions you expect. Expect to be confident,
and you will truly become confident.

9. Go On a 'Mission'
Whatever you believe to be true IS the truth for you.
If you do not believe in your own self and your abilities – that belief becomes
your own internal truth. Remember Webster's definition of confidence:
“having no uncertainty about one's abilities.”

Uncertainty equals low self-confidence. It’s that simple.

If you lack confidence, a good personal mission would be
to discover your own unique personal strengths.

We all have them, and YOU are no exception.

The truth is, none of us ever reaches our true maximum potential.

At its best, life is an on-going process of learning and expansion.

A basic key to developing unshakable confidence is to know your TRUE self.
If unshakable confidence is your goal, you MUST check out the authors
“Smash your Limits” ecourse.

It has the proven ability to change your self-confidence,
and your life -- forever. www.quantum-self.com/smash_your_limits.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dont forget to visit www.livewirebusiness.com too and see the simple, effective tools
that can help with training, advising with clients and gaining more finanical confidence.

Best regards, hope you like that article. Henry Winter.

Well done - with a PostCard!
Copyright Henry Winter 2006
-----------------------------------------

Well done with a PostCard!

As you may have gathered from previous blogs and the
content of my web site, I am a believer in postcards
as part of the marketing message mix.

This weekend I went to collect my eldest from a "sleep over".
In other words an all night chin wag with his mates!

I left home, relaxed, in a good mood.

Little did I know what was in store.

First, I have not been to this friends house many times before and
nearly persuaded myself I did not know where it was, en route!
But I got straight there.

Second I managed to scare the living daylights
out of my son's friend's sister as I walked
past a window on my way to calling at the back door.

Thirdly, I think I embarrassed the lady of the house as
she had several bra's hanging from the ceiling drying in the utility
that I had to navigate round.

Apart from collecting my son what would redeem the visit?

A post card.

Just as I was leaving the post man arrived and brought with him
a great, unexpected example of how effective post cards can be
at delivering a motivating message.

It was addressed to my son's friend.

Nothing unusual in that.

Was it from a friend, back packing round the world. No.

From a doting Grandma and Granddad on a cruise. No.

It was from his school.

From the RE (Religious Education) Department to be exact.

It's purpose - to convey a message of congratulations on all his hard work.

Simple, effective, easy to complete.

Motivational, different, and cost effective.

This school gets great results. It's well run. It manages it's finances well.

It's great at doing lots if little things other don't even think about
and doing them well.

It's great at marketing too.

Marketing anorak that I am it made me leave the house with
a very happy smile on my face. :-)

If you want to put a smile on someone elses face
why not send them a post card too. You can get some great graphics and
create meaningful, effective messages.

When was the last time you sent a message to a
customer or client that said "thanks" for their business or
to one of their employees who went the extra mile to service
your account? Go on, do it today. Make someone happy :-)

It's useful, inexpensive, very effective and a great way
to engender customer loyalty or reward exemplary service
in a quick, easy and timely way.

Post Cards - a job well done!

---------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Henry Winter is an author, marketer, adviser and coach to small
and medium sized businesses.
He specialises in bringing sales messages to life.
Ask about his "WordSwordTM" methodology

When sales just walk out the door.
Copyright 2006 Henry Winter and Livewirebusiness.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Are your sales just walking out the door? - literally......

I am still shocked, shocked that so many medium and small
business owners do not document what works for their business.
I don't mean product walking out the door earning you tons of cash.
I am talking about all the sales you could be missing.

What do I mean?

Your top performer has just walked out the door.
How did they become that top performer, what did they say,
what tactics did they use to get them to #1 for your sales?
Do you know? Are they documented, recorded, stored?

A prospect or customer walks in to you store. They walk out empty handed.

Why is that?

You get a phone enquiry it goes no further than that.

Is that what should be happening?

Your sales team follow up leads but get no appointments,
or far less than you expect.

How come?

When they do see someone they fail to convert to the level predicted.

What can be done?

If, deep in your gut, you are not 110% ceratin why, you have a problem.

Because:
a) the expertise that could have helped you just walked out the door
b) the customers "experience" of your firm just left the shop
c) the knowledge to help you just hung up
d) the respondent approached by your sales team did not get
your "business" offer
e) the sales approach just did not work - you need to fix it.

Here is another example. Let's pre suppose you are taken ill.

You run your business, you have all that info in your head.

But now you are laid really low.

If, like lots of small businesses, it is reliant on just a few key personnel
to make "it" happen then you have a problem.

I know you know that it won't happen to you but it could.
And if you don't plan you are in trouble. BIG TROUBLE!

You owe it to your business to make sure that somewhere
is something to make sure that the blue print you created continues!

OK, lets go down a level.

The point is without planning and thinking the lifelblood of ANY
business can walk out the door.

That includes planning for the creation, retention and storage
of key messages. It means constantly ensuring that key skills
are identified, trained, developed, maintained and stretched.

What's more the cost and complexity of doing that are massively
reduced due to the web and very easy to do.
Web training/web messaging/conference rooms etc are in easy reach
of any and every business.

Full blown systems that can do virtually everything you
want can be available for less than $200 a month, some even lower.

Check some out at www.livewirebusiness.com

Everything is now so accessible if you are not doing it your
competitors will be, and that will hand them an advantage.

You don't want that!

For example:

Your written sales message may be "right on the button".

But if the way that message is portrayed over the phone,

or in person, at presentations or in meetings is not, that’s

a total waste. It loses you sales.

If this is happening in your business it is costing you money

and I bet you won't be happy with that? SO, the minute you

have read this blog post, if you have staff working for you go

and compare what you "think" they are saying now to what

they are "actually" saying.

For one client doing this simple exercise highlighted that one

simple statement was on the verge of costing him 33% of the

commercial potential of his product.

That was worth @ £150,000 to his business on just one product line.

Another had a salesman "giving away" a product he should have been

charging for but it was bundled as part of a package and went un detected

until a customer query highlighted it to the business owner.

The potential cost of that was @ £2000 per customer plus

all the work rounds, extra IT support and more that it caused,

let alone the creation of a credibilty gap with the clients.

The trouble is, lots of business owners don't know if this is

happening in their business until its to late. So you need to put it right.

Every time you meet with a client or make a presentation,

your company image is affected - for better or worse.

From a public relations perspective, your business can have no better

advocate than a well-spoken representative. Let’s face it, your most

important personal and business transactions will involve face-to-face

communications, either in person, via video or on the phone.

So consider these 5 short questions:

5 Quick questions to turn your business round

1. When your business makes an “outbound” telesales call do

your staff follow a sales script that re qualifies the prospect,

hits the right emotional and rational buttons, creates the right

response to your approach?

2. Do you do that consistently for better qualification and

improved conversions?
3. Do you do the same when you receive an “inbound call”?
4. Does your sales team present in a tried and tested way?
5. Are they still delivering the same message you thought

they were delivering or has it become diluted by the passage

of time and personality?

Beware lots of sales messages get diluted over time,

they can also get "tired" and need re working or tweaking.

Ask any business owner using a good telesales team

"FACT - Winning sales scripts convert".

If you hesitated, or answered yes to any of the above questions ,

it's time you put it right.

If I can help you create winning scripts for talking, meeting with,

presenting too, receiving and making approaches to suspects,

prospects and customers let me know.

If nothing else at least go check all the above is not happening in

your business as it does in many others.

A script that makes the right ”connection” with your target

audience will ensure you get the best bang for your buck.

If you feel you are not getting the best return from your current

efforts I would like to help you make sure you do.

If you have a business with sales messages of any kind that

need rekindling to boost flagging sales or refreshing dried up

prospects I am the one they call.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

About the Author

Henry Winter is an author, marketer, adviser and coach to small

and medium sized businesses. He specialises in bringing sales messages to life.

Ask about his "WordSwordTM" methodology.

Post Cards and Email - a winning combination - REVISITED
Copyright Henry Winter and Livewirebusiness 2006
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Crowded markets, crowded rooms....how to get attention?

Marketing campaigns can bomb. Yuk, don't you hate that.

You put in all the time and effort, your expectation soars, preparing for all the new orders and enquiries and the campaign bombs - badly. Often it's the list, the message, poor timing and can be a host of other reasons too.

Timing is everything

Badly timed messages, poorly thought out delivery and "scatter gun" targetting just doesn’t
do it anymore - not that it ever did.

If you have ever locked yourself out of the house with no keys you know what frustration feels like. Well leaving Post Cards and Email marketing out of your marketing mix leaves your communications strategy can feel equally frustrating. It can be that "missing" magical link to extra success.

Baking a cake with the wrong flour

Leaving post card and email marketinhg out is like trying to bake a cake with the wrong flour - it goes flat!

Post Card and Email marketing is a very cost effective marketing medium. Taking advantage of it will hit your target market right in the bull’s-eye, it will hit their taste buds with your product or service.

It’s a channel overlooked by many small businesses and few markets are really so profitable it can be ignored. Just because competitors ignore it doesn’t mean that you should too.

You know it’s sensible to use ALL money making channels for sales, promotions, conversions and market placement. You also know many markets have Attention Deficit Disorder and getting your message across to a crowded, competitive market can be difficult.

So, how can Post Card and Email Marketing cut through the clutter?

Just imagine yourself in a large ballroom.

Across the crowded, noisy floor is someone you want to speak to. Do you shout?

No, because you wont’ be heard.

Do you throw some food at them to get their attention?

No, because a) it’s not very sociable b) the chances of hitting them are negligible and c) how would they know where it came from?

Besides if it did hit, it would make a mess and they would probably not want to speak to you anyway – you just soiled their outfit!

So what do you do?

Do you do something that gets the attention of the floor; stand on a chair, do a crazy dance, break into a beautiful song, do something the whole room becomes captivated by, something that silences and entrances so you become the entire centre of attention.

That way you can walk over to the person you want to speak to, you have their undivided attention AND the attention of the whole room. Isn’t that a better way to do business?

That’s what Post Card and Email Marketing can do for you.

Its gets attention, it takes the guesswork out of customer capture and gets leads.

There are lots of ways to use Post Cards and Email marketing as part of your marketing mix. Leave it out at your peril.

If you want to explore and discover how they can attract even more customers to your business drop an email to webmaster@livewirebusiness.com

We all have our favoured Guru's
Copyright Henry Winter and Dr Jeffrey Lant.
----------------------------------------------
We all have our favoured GURU's.
One of mine is Dr Jeffrey Lant, well known in some circles but not others.

Dr Lant is a no none sense, hit you between the eyes, straight talking "get to the point" kind of guy.

As a Self-Made Internet Multi-Millionaire he explains below why web site interactivity is an absolute must for making headway on todays net. Many others have jumped on the band wagon over the last 12 months or so but Dr Lant has been doing it since.......1994.

Here he Explains Why He Uses Efficient, Inexpensive WebcastServices Every Single Day.

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

"I'm going to be frank. One major reason whyI profit online every single day is because my website is webcast-enabled. I have and use my inexpensive, super efficient webcast services every single day to profit, and I cannot imagine any online business that wouldn't be better off webcasting. See for yourself.

First, I use webcast services to talk directlyto my prospects worldwide. I'm a copywriter and marketer. People retain me to sell more of their products/services and to generate lots more prospect leads.In the olden days, I dealt with them by telephone and by email. Now I webcast. A prospect goes to my online meeting room, rings a doorbell (or sends me an email letting me know she's there).Notified, I pop up live and get down to business with my prospect. (If I'm unavailable the prospect can easily leave me a message so I can get back.)

If the prospect has a webcam, we talk face-to-face.If my prospect doesn't, my live picture is on screen and he can talk to me via audio or, lacking that,he can type in his questions and I answer them live.It's an incredible, ultra-efficient system. Say that my prospect has a partner who he wants to hear what I've got to say but who cannot come to that meeting. No problem! With my webcast servicesI simply record the meeting by clicking a button.When the meeting is over, I click another button and create a link. I then email this to the missing participate who clicks on the link and gets the complete meeting content. Terrific!I can do the same thing with larger meetings. Mywebcast services enable me to hold meetings and professional presentations of up to 150 people at a time. I can use PowerPoint slides or create myown; I can even rent out time I don't use and enable others to use it while generating extramoney for myself. As always, all meetings can be recorded and posted online, used in signaturefiles, included in ezines, you name it.

This way nobody loses a word of what I want them toknow. I've got another super webcasting service, too:The Instant Video Recording System. This gives me10 full hours of video recording time every single month. Using it is as easy as 1-2-3. Sit downin front of your webcam; (I like the Logitech QuickCam Messenger at about $40 at Walmart). Record your message of any length; (most people prefer 5-10minute messages). When you're finished hit the stop button, then hit a button that creates alink which you can email to whoever you want.This is a great way to create product/service promos, video ads, and, of course, personal messages to prospects and customers. So far, I've recorded nearly 60 of these handy videos. I constantly use and reuse them to deliver my messages. What'sgreat about the inexpensive system I use is that you can rent it by the month if you like; you get unlimited downloads as part of the price. That means if you want to email the link to a million people who download it, you never pay more.Thanks to the incredible webcast services, I have, I'm making more money than ever online --every single day!Once you start using webcasting in your business,you'll wonder how you ever did business online without it. I know".

See for yourself. webmaster@livewirebusiness.com withSHOW ME ALL THE WEBCAST SERVICES in subject,along with your name, business, address, phone.Be sure to include all these details, please!Webcasting services can easily be added to yourwebsite in just 5 MINUTES! In short, you canstart profiting from webcasting, like Dr Lant (and myself), TODAY!
Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the CEO of one of the most exciting Internet companies I have come across: Worldprofit.Spend just 2 minutes at www.worldprofit.com/videocentral and we'll show you how to dramatically grow your business online. Or go to my web site See for yourself! and whilst there why not collect a FREE ebook from Dr Land and also one on web site design by design Maven Sandi Hunter too. Thanks for reading......