Welcome to Episode 77 of Praestabilis: Excellence in Marketing

Welcome! Episode 77 asks the all-important question, “Are Marketers Born or Made?” The answer, in my opinion is that it’s a little of each. Marketing is sales and selling, persuasion, finding commonality, and building relationships.

Think back to your childhood… Did you become a master of persuasion to get what you wanted and needed from your parents, siblings, and others? I was pretty good at this skill, although it didn’t always work in my favor.

What are sales and selling? Did your school, church, or other group ever enlist your help with raising money for a special project or general fundraiser? How did you respond to this request? Were you anxious to sell to friends, neighbors, and strangers alike? Or did you dread the very thought of selling something to someone and asking them for money?

Finding commonality works in all situations, I have found. The idea of connecting with people based on your mutual likes and beliefs is one older than time itself. Building relationships is a natural offshoot of finding commonality.

All of what I’ve shared with you here leads to marketing excellence, exactly what Praestabilis: Excellence in Marketing is all about.

Embrace the Hard Parts of Everything You Do…  Because Skipping Through the Hard Parts of Life Won’t Serve You

Throughout my lifetime I have discovered that skipping past or through the crucial parts does not serve one well. These also tend to be the boring or uninteresting parts of the process, so it takes grit and perseverance if you are to achieve success and reach your full potential.

Some of the things I engaged in during 2006, the first year of my online business were born of necessity. I was a new online entrepreneur with no prospect list or connections. Also, I did not have an information product or course or even an eBook to sell and start earning some income. I order to get my new business rolling and bringing in some money, I knew I’d have to get creative. I came up with  few simple success strategies that continue to be effective today:

* I hosted a weekly “Ask Connie Anything” call. This was a teleseminar, so anyone could join me by simply dialing in to my conference line. They could also go to the webpage to ask their questions at any time, whether or not they were attending live. The replay was accessible from the same link, making this a stress free solution.

* Three times a week, I wrote and published a short post to one of the several blogs I had set up on a variety of topics. I hadn’t yet chosen my niche and was still experimenting with my ideas.

* I reached out to the people I was buying from through email primarily. If they had an affiliate program I joined it and then shared information about them with those who attended my teleseminars, as well as within and in the resource/author’s bio area at the end of each blog post.

These simple success strategies were only the beginning. I’m sharing more with you here…

Learn the “So What” Concept as One of the Most Valuable “Simple Success Strategies

While I was teaching school, my students taught me so much in the way of life lessons and setting and achieving goals. I taught elementary school for most of my twenty year career. Young children say and do things without thinking. Much of this can be hurtful to others over time. Early on, during my first month of teaching a 5th/6th grade combination class, I taught them two powerful words, when used in tandem…

“So what?”

And the even more effective, with the major emphasis given to the first word, “So? So what?”

This phrase became the answer to any behavior or action or co...