I have so many exciting new plans for helping you reach all of your business goals in the coming year that I can barely contain myself - one of which is going to be the most incredible LIVE event I have ever done. I will be sharing proven strategies that I’ve been using for years to build a million dollar business and integrating them with information that will literally blow your mind and make you look at your business in a whole new way. (More to come on that!)

But, in an effort to make sure that this LIVE event meets YOUR needs, I put together quick survey http://www.successconnections.com/survey/ so that you can let me know what you want. And, to show you how much I value your time, in exchange for completing this survey I am going to give you 2 audio interviews where some outrageously successful entrepreneurs like Tim Ferris, David Allen and yours truly discuss how to accomplish more in your business by increasing your productivity and
leveraging your resources. There are some serious gems in these interviews you won’t want to miss. 

All you have to do is hop on over to http://www.successconnections.com/survey/and complete the quick survey. You’ll be given the link to the audios immediately. 

Then, once I receive all of your valuable feedback, I can get busy creating the best Lifestyle Business building event of the year. 

Thank you!

Melanie

Becoming the center of influence in your chosen niche is an excellent way to build your brand as the expert of choice. An underutilized strategy by many leaders in professional services is establishing your own membership-based business. Find out why the membership-based business model is a smart way to generate more profits and position yourself as the expert in your industry almost immediately.

Wednesday, November 14th 2007 at 11:00 am PST

Together with Sheri McConnell, the President and Founder of the National Association of Women Writers and the Association of Web Entrepreneurs, we’ll be sharing:

• The many benefits of the membership-based business model including free publicity, immediate platform, and more
• How to leverage your position as a gatekeeper
• Core elements to consider before creating your own membership-based company
• Key roles as the leader
• How to select your team of professional experts
• What systems you need to implement to run a profitable membership-based company

This class is available to all members of the ULTIMATE Wealth & Success Circle, with the option of attending the call live or enjoying the recording on CD delivered straight to your mailbox.

Not yet a Member? Join today for just $9.95 the first month. You’ll get instant access to this class along with coaching, support and resources to transform your overwhelm into simple, easy to follow success strategies!

http://www.ultimatewealthandsuccesscircle.com/register

See you on the call,

*** I’m one of the featured experts at AWE (Association of Web Entrepreneurs.) This event is hosted by one of my ULTIMATE Wealth & Success Circle Members, Sheri McConnell. If you do business on the web, you don’t want to miss this upcoming virtual telesummit. ***

On September 18, 2007, the Association of Web Entrepreneurs will be hosting their first annual telesummit featuring some excellent speakers! The best part - this event is totally fr*ee! Find out more by clicking here: AWE TeleSummitHere is the lineup of speakers for the event:

(1) Viki Viertel on Time Management Secrets

(2) Penny C. Sansevieri on Red Hot Internet Publicity

(3) Stefanie Hartman on Marketing Strategies from the Guru’s!

(4) Raleigh Pinskey on Maximizing Your Biz-Ability with Viz-Ability

(5) Sheri McConnell on Building a Membership-Based Business

(6) Christina Merkley on Allow Yourself to Become Your Next Self

(7) Adam Urbanski on How To Build A Bigger Biz In Less Time

This is one exciting, information-packed day which you can attend simply by clicking this link:

AWE TeleSummit

As a registrant, regardless of whether you attend or not, you’ll receive a fr*ee workbook which contains material from each of the experts featured at this event.

This workbook is a unique, never before seen workbook with an amazing compilation of information! You also receive audio recordings, in the form of a download, of all of the events! That means that even if you can’t attend each of the events, you’ll still receive all of the valuable content – absolutely FR*EE! So, what are you waiting for? Join me and hundreds of other web savvy individuals by clicking this link: AWE TeleSummit

Questions? Send an e-mail to the customer service department at AWE and they’ll respond immediately! That e-mail address is support@aweconnect.com.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Sustaining the Forbes 400 Wealthiest List

Why Entrepreneurs Don’t Stay at the Top

One of my new favorite shows to watch is CNBC’s High Net Worth. Last week they did an interview with Maria Elena Lagomasino, an asset manager, who shared her insights into why entrepreneur’s don’t stay wealthy.

A study was conducted on the Forbes 400 Wealthiest people List. In 2006, only 13% of the people on the 1982 list remained. Why? Here is what Maria’s take on it is.

She calls it the “success paradox.” The attributes that help you create massive wealth are not the same attributes you need to sustain it.

For instance, what you need to create wealth is:

• Great ideas
• Lots of energy
• Focused concentration
• Very “directive” management
• Big risk taking

Unfortunately, these attributes will eventually position you to “implode” and lose what you gain. Maria suggests that once you create wealth, you need to switch strategies and enter a different mode that includes:

• Diversification (vs. singular focus)
• Risk Management (vs. risk taking)
• Delegation to Proper Support Teams (vs. being overly involved)
• More Collaborative/Consensus management (vs. more directive)
• A vision of your life style (vs. focus on just creating $$)

This insight is quite powerful for those entrepreneurs that experience the “yo-yo” success syndrome. How could you apply this to other areas of your success? Feel free to post your thoughts.

The Dollars and Sense Behind Selling from the Platform
by David Newman and Steven Rowell

** NOTE FROM MELANIE ** Because so many of my clients are building a speaking business around there products and services, I thought this article might be interesting. I’ll be one of the speakers at their Book Camp, April 9 - 12 in Orlando, FL. Be sure to register for the teleclass preview series where all the experts will be dishing their knowledge!

Because you share a common (and incorrect) belief that “selling from the platform” is cheesy, unprofessional, and pushy, you may be leaving HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars in revenue on the table!

Here’s some news: you rightfully deserve this money for bringing your expertise, proven strategies, great information and time-tested experience to your audience. And when you provide high quality information, people actually WANT to give you their money, because you have added real value to their lives.

What do we mean by you’re “leaving money on the table”? Let’s say you’re a moderately successful professional speaker and you keynote 50 times a year. Your average audience is 100 participants. (Yours may be much higher or even a lot lower – stick with us and we’ll show you the numbers…)

If you spoke 50 times a year to 100 people, that’s 5000 prospects. With ZERO high-pressure sales gimmicks or pushy “selling from the platform” tactics (we’ve all seen ‘em and we don’t like ‘em), you could reasonably sell 10% of your audience on some sort of follow-up package. As a point of reference, seasoned pros can close between 26-58% of any given room if they’re in front of the right audience with the right message.

Stop the tape, here, folks. Before we go on, it’s VITAL to make clear that these “seasoned pros” DO truly have great quality material, are comfortable sharing their expertise, and know how to get people to go for their wallets with the utmost in professionalism and a genuine spirit of sharing valuable information.

OK, let’s finish the math - that’s 500 people buying your package. Now, the package consists of your book, some special reports, two audio CD’s, and a pair of follow-up 1-hour consulting calls. It sells for $149.

The math on this is 500 x $149 = $74,500. Are you SURE you don’t want to learn how to sell from the platform with integrity??

And for many experts and speakers the actual numbers are 500 x $297 = $148,500. Did you know the average profit margin from these information products ranges from 52-68% depending upon your industry or target audience? Now these are numbers worthy of taking serious action!

====Steven Rowell and David Newman are co-founders of The BookCamp(tm), the only professional-grade, anti-pitchfest conference aimed at entrepreneurs, authors, and experts who want to build a booming business around their books. Download their f.ree 44-page special report loaded with more strategies, tips, and tools at Bookcamp Info.