The other day, out of nowhere, one of my coaching clients blurted out:

“Hey, I think I want to be able to send out offers to a list of subscribers like you do…  can you help me with that too?”

You see, the reason he said “too” and the reason I said “out of nowhere” is because, like the proverbial “too many irons in the fire” brain, he really didn’t have a focused reason to ask it, as a) the question didn’t relate to what I was coaching him on and b) he didn’t understand what the purpose of a list is in the first place.

After asking him a few questions, it turned out he’s been carrying around this pretty head-shaking, comical belief that list-building means “marketing” and that marketing means “pitching.” (Ah, Joe, I dig ya, dude, for giving me the green light to rip on ya some).

“What makes you think that I, or anybody under our LWL umbrella for that matter, uses opt-in lists as the email version of an advertising and pitching channel?”

I heard the long pause… he knew he’d stepped into something he thought, somehow, someway, that he’d be able to tip-toe out of. So, Joe took a deep breath and preceded to continue what he started:

“Aaaaah, a-hemmm, well, I guess I was just assuming, since everybody else who sends me emails sends me offers, that you guys do too.”

This, unfortunately, is the typical advice given to current-day, green-around-the-ears affiliate markers and anybody else who just wants to “make money online.”

And, like I told Joe, I’ll say it here too:

When you equate an email to an eyeball, the same way that Dot Com’ers did in the ’90s, you end up missing the ‘secret distinction‘ that most newsletter PUBLISHERS “get.” It’s the adoption of some time-proven principles that can take you BEYOND just being a so-called marketer.

The person who labels himself a marketer (and “just” or “mainly” a marketer), more often than not sees an email (and a name) as a target. A hit-or-miss part of the equation that’s gotta be in place to make a sale. It’s not far removed from the “one night stand” mentality.

The person who doesn’t like labels, but just a business that serves — through value-added products or by delivering focused newsletter-style content that synergistically leads into unique, usable products — sees email as a relationship. An ongoing way to communicate his/her interest, experiences, and knowledge. It’s not far removed from wanting to ‘marry the reader’ into his/her world.

But, therein lies either the disservice or the magic.

I explained to my curious, ambitious coachee that this is often where marketing stops and publishing begins.  Many people attempt to bring a reader (a subscriber) into their world, either for all the wrong reasons — by not being upfront about why they are — or by not even delivering what the subscriber subscribed for in the first place.

Actually, Heather wrote a post about this distinction, as it relates to congruency and integrity.

But, I’m going to pass along some quick rules — ah, nah, more like guidelines — that Joe asked me to write up so he could better understand how to command attention, interest and desire with  readers:

== Cont’d ==

♦ First thing to figure out is what you’ll be using an opt-in form for. Is it to give away a “preview” of a product, in the way of a report, audio, video, etc?

If it’s going to be put on a product-specific landing page, for the sole purpose of keeping people in the marketing pipeline, be upfront about that.

In other words, don’t call that campaign or list a “newsletter” if you’re mainly going to use it to “time drip” follow-ups and reminders to purchase that product. There’s nothing wrong with this approach. My advice, if you’re going to set it up for this purpose, is to create a serious of autoresponder emails that go out automatically, and ensure those emails KEEP the focus on moving the subscriber/prospect to customer.

I can’t begin to tell you how many lists I got on, to check out a person’s product offer, only to be emailed about something, sooner-than-later, completely not related to the reason the landing page was set up.

♦ Learn to teach what you know, instead of share what you’ve found. When you use the product-specific landing page technique above, preface your call-to-action with some personal knowledge, life stories, and something that the prospect can resonate with.  Share an opinion, pass along some wisdom and then subtly transition into the reason your product will solve a problem they may have.

Better yet, have multiple opt-in forms whose sole purpose is to ‘prove your worth‘ upfront, as it relates to what that ONE website or product can do for them.  If they opt out, have your email system/software direct them to a custom page that says something like:

Hey, FIRSTNAME… no offense taken.  I know my XYZ product doesn’t make sense for everyone on the planet.

I’m confirming that you’ll no longer receive updates and follow-ups about XYZ product. Also, I wanted to make sure you know that I write an ongoing XXXX newsletter that promises to ________ ( fill in a few benefits).

It’s not a product-driven list. If you join it, I promise I won’t fill your brain with endless pitches or advertising drivel. There is no set publishing schedule, either. We will only write commentary, add a resource link, or upload news items when we have something provocative, progressive, and potentially profitable for you to peruse.

Well, I’m passing on some of our secrets here. And, the last paragraph above is actually part of the verbiage we use ourselves to transition people who don’t want to learn anything about a specific product over to our “No-Limits Living Newsletter“.

You can see how we structure that newsletter HERE (one of our weekend updates).

If a subscriber goes through your cycle of  product-specific emails, doesn’t become a customer, and ALSO doesn’t opt out, then here’s where you can get creative.

Obviously, they still like what you have to say, and probably have an interest related to your product or niche.  Make one of the latter emails in the series an email that essentially tells them that you “Give Up.” Explain to them that you’re scratching your head wondering why they haven’t become a customer yet. Tell them that, if they choose to stay on XYZ list that you’re going to lay off on your own product-specific updates, but you’ll occasionally send them a few intriguing offers from friends of yours. Tell them you understand that these other related products / services may be a better fit for them.

Which brings me to the next and last guideline…

♦ Be a trusted resource — a connector, an expert, a researcher. People buy you, not endless hollow, non-personal emails about unrelated product launches and income-earning deals.

Meaning, people need to know your Killer Value Proposition BEFORE they’ll even pay attention to your name (the one that shows in the FROM: field in their email inbox) or care about your subject line.

If you’re doing MORE impersonal pitching than offering up your experiences, stories, resources, tools, ideas, and passion, do you think they’ll care about your NEXT email?

People care when they know you care.

So, my final thought is that the affiliates who perform the best for us are the ones who have a loyal following. Their readers see them as advocates for their success, their interests. There’s a common bond.

These affiliates sell because they really don’t sell. They’re instead going out of their way to research, write, and serve by being genuinely fascinated by our products/services that they have an interest in themselves, and products/services that they feel serve their subscribers/readers.

—-

LWL Worldwide Inc
Publisher, upcoming  ‘LWL Wealth Vault’ & ‘Renegade Money Guide’

* Amongst many other products that help
you think outside the box and live a
no-limit life.

So, as promised a few days ago via my email broadcast (it’s linked here if you didn’t read it), I’m going to share with you how CAUSE MARKETING comes into play via social media.

First, it’s important to NOTE that my definition and description of “cause marketing” isn’t going to be the same as the standard, dry academic one you may be aware of:

“the type of marketing involving the cooperative efforts of a ‘for profit‘ business and a non-profit organization for mutual benefit.”

Nope… instead, what I’m talking about here is all about your REASON for communicating with one of your lists — your open statement of “here’s why this newsletter (or blog or list you’re asking people to join) exists.”

I can’t begin to tell you how many people online confuse “pitch marketing” with “endorsement teaching” (hell, sometimes I think some folks are trying to be the Billy Mays of Email).

Yeah, sure, I get it — I just made up the phrases above; yet, when you look at how the two words in “quotes” go together, you can begin to see the word play and WHY your readers  either run to OPEN your email or instantly CLOSE  it.

We’ve got some affiliates wondering WHY their conversions were LOW on our recent Interviewing Unwrapped promotion.

Yet, when I go to look at WHAT they’ve been saying to their readers in the recent past, and HOW they’ve been saying it, the commonalities between 4 to 5% sales conversions (which several affiliates achieved) and 1 to 2% conversions (which several affiliates achieved) are pretty clear.

The higher conversions come from lists where the writer, publisher, or marketer spends the majority of their time TEACHING WHAT THEY KNOW about a very narrow and niche-specific topic.

Let me ask you something:

If you create a landing page, or have an opt-in form on a blog, where the verbiage is all about how you’re going to teach “traffic techniques,” yet you pitch MORE THAN you teach, or you rarely give away your “traffic generation” knowledge, what d’ya think your subscribers are eventually going to do?

Uhmmm, let’s see: possibly wonder about your intentions, what your agenda is, and just who the hell you are?

Or, if you’re constantly pitching stuff that’s not really related to traffic-generation, what could be the ultimate backlash from the reader?

Let their fingers do the walking to the DELETE key?

Yup, probably.

Here’s the rub about all this:

I constantly see more and more UNFOCUSED pitches and canned endorsements about others’ products (including ours) — products that don’t sync up, resonate, or jive with the “marketer’s” list.

Whether it’s the need to be seen as one of the cool people who jumped on board a “buzz-filled” dated launch, or whether it’s just about fast cash, in the long run the shotgun strategy is going to do more harm to your business (hopefully that’s how you look at cultivating and nurturing a list of readers).

I do believe Dave Vallieres said it well when he said:

“A lot of online email newsletters are well nothing but sales machines — full of hype — or pure fiction. Here’s a fact: Of the 372 IM email newsletters I subscribe to, only 12 provide any kind of factual, un-biased advice or news about Internet marketing. I’m not making a judgment here, but those are the facts.”

And, of course, like Dave, I’m NOT slapping the verbal ruler at any LWL affiliate(s) in particular.

What I am saying, however, is this:

It doesn’t matter how spectacular, mediocre, or even bad a publisher’s sales page is (er, forget that — I know we need to present somebody with a proper offer and have compelling reasons to look at that offer); if you’re not open and clear with your list about what they should (and will) expect from you, it’s all a moot point.

If you’ve got a GENERAL “internet marketing” list and you’ve been explicit somewhere along the reader’s opt-in path about you being their advocate, their researcher, their investigator for QUALITY products… then, FIRE AWAY and strictly present them with offers.

Yet, do it with YOU behind the pitch. There’s a reason, by the way, I mentioned Billy Mays above.  He wasn’t the most-liked, most respected pitchman on T.V. just by chance.  He became famous and fabulously rich for one reason ONLY:

As his partner,  Anthony “Sully” Sullivan, said last night on the Discovery Channel’s tribute to Billy:

“He was the most authentic guy I know, only pitching products that he had a passion for. Everybody could see and feel how genuine he is on camera. It’s like he came alive in your living room.”

In other words, like Billy, if you are gonna “pitch” (sell your brains out), do it for all the RIGHT reasons — to serve your subscribers and customers by finding informational products that can make their life better, easier, happier, healthier, and more prosperous!

Now, as promised, here’s the excellent blog article about how someone with 2000 Twitter followers can be more powerful than a person with 25,000.

The article will give you two specific examples of how cause marketing (my version) endears YOU, your specific interest, hobby, or fascination, with readers who actually DO want to cheer you on and LOOK at you as their expert and advocate.

Talk soon… actually, I’ll talk to you tomorrow via a  QUICK video tour of some of our new “Affiliate Tools” associated with our product line-up.

LWL Worldwide Inc
Publisher, upcoming  ‘LWL Wealth Vault’ & ‘Renegade Money Guide’

* Amongst many other products that help
you think outside the box and live a
no-limit life.

We’ll be with you next week about the release of two new very unique, highly-anticipated PHYSICAL products you can promote, assuming they make sense for any specific list or customer base you have.

Speaking of that, it’s rare, we’re finding, that affiliates are spending time segmenting what they do or do NOT send to people.  In excerpt #2 below, you’ll hear more about that.

First, the introduction:

In 2005, a world-class copywriter, a high-paid marketing consultant, and a Guerrilla Marketing teacher got together to discuss seven steps that, when and if implemented, would produce a seven-figure business.

The recordings of these calls are still much-talked-about in the world of Internet Marketing, and you can listen to TWO excerpts that we feel will CATAPULT your online business and affiliate commissions, due to a few tweaks in how you “think” about your subscribers.

Both these excerpts RELATE to the impromptu message Barry gave a few days ago on “Cause Marketing.”

POWERFUL EXCERPT #1: (10:08)

POWERFUL EXCERPT #2: (6:57)

If you’re an existing (approved) affiliate — you ARE one if you’ve been sent a WELCOME email and/or you can log in using the instructions on the next page — click below to gain ACCESS to the entire recordings.

——————————

From John Carlton:

The Tactic7 calls were some of most solidly informative — and pure fun — teleseminar-type calls I’ve ever participated in. It was a short, and incredibly intense series of calls. Just five, total.

Like a meteor shower of info. Blazing bright, then gone.

Yet, there were nearly 4,000 people signed up to listen in. Judging from my email, the joint was packed with players and hotly-motivated marketers.

The whole concept was brilliant. My colleagues and I were sitting around one day, and realized that we agreed on the 7 basic tactics behind the most successful entrepreneurs and marketers we knew. Thus: Tactic7 was born.

You can still catch replays of the calls here:

http://www.copywriting.tv/1948.html

or

http://www.copywriting.tv/1953.html

NOTE:  If the files, via one of the two pages above, don’t work, USE THIS PAGE INSTEAD

I seriously am not sure how much longer they’ll be posted, for free, like this. There are four of us involved in this endeavor, and we’re all headstrong in our opinions. Okay, stubborn as mules.

If the embedded video above buffers — stops and starts — 
watch it via this page instead

“What makes you tick?”

“What’s your game?”

“Why do you do what you do?”

“With a proliferation of marketers selling personal and business growth material, what makes yours different?”

Well, good questions, and they deserve some answers.

After all, these are the very questions we ask authors, mentors, teachers and coaches when we’re either consulting with them, or figuring out whether somebody fits into a product line (if you’re an approved affiliate with an account, you can log in to this site and see “Diving Deep Into Metaphysical Marketing” for DETAILS).

After 4 years of FOCUSING our efforts as researchers, investigative interviewers, and just flat out inquisitive explorers into topics (and teachers) around manifestation, conscious-living, metaphysical laws, human nature, spiritual-growth, etc, it’s safe to say we’ve seen a few things…

…Whether from a marketing standpoint, teaching standpoint, or seeker (user) standpoint, this industry isn’t any more immune to critical examination or standards of common-sense practice than any other. Meaning, we KNOW it shouldn’t be, and like all other aspects of life, there are always things that need to be said, but aren’t.

Yet, this won’t be a soap-box post about the “use” and “practice” of self-improvement material, as much as it will be just us being honest, open, and direct about the “business” and “marketing” side of our LWL (Life Without Limits) brand.

So, if you really want to know what sets the FOUNDATION of our products (the ones listed on the right side of this website ) — as in their reason for BE-ing — and you want to know WHERE our “marketing” values lie, read on….

- Continued -

As you should know by now, the world is moving away from fancy — from anything to do with glitz, glamor, over-indulged surface-level learning, spiritual fads or conspicuous consumption for unnecessary “things”.

In other words, people, as much as we just feel so powerful in using such a HUGE “generalization” (yes, that was intended to be facetious), are looking for ways to simplify, get to the heart of the matter, and experience LIVING.

“Spiritual self-study is worthless UNLESS you’re converting it into the PHYSICAL realm.” — us referencing The Scarecrow Syndrome

Yep, when you strip away all the academic metaphysical / personal growth concepts and some of the more overly-cryptic unusable spiritual philosophy and theories, you end up with just two KEY human desires:

To DISCOVER!

To GET RESULTS!

When you think about it long enough, these two elements are as innate a part of our human fabric as “self-worth” or “self-esteem” is to prosperity (thank you Dr. Joe Rubino for being a LEADER in this area).

DISCOVERY (learning, listening, growing your internal wisdom, desiring things and experiences) by itself doesn’t get anybody anywhere, other than in information or knowledge overload.

Yet, when mixed with RESULTS (actually EXPERIENCING what we think, imagine, and say we’re going to do or have), we never get burnt out! (After all, there are only so many books, reports, videos and, yes, even interviews* that we humans can read, watch, and listen to).

* More about “interviews” in Part 2 of this post, as it’s a key component to all our products… products, by the way that are being re-vamped, re-purposed, and re-positioned to match up with our brand and to be calibrated for today’s market.

- – - – -

Things are always changing and, as an LWL affiliate / JV partner, we plan on giving you access to products and marketing angles that are unique, rooted in effecting change, assisting with results, and helping your readers flourish inwardly and outwardly.

- – - – -

If we felt that transformation that sticks was just about going around re-packing superficial metaphysical “laws” or marketing the works of stage-walking “motivational” cheerleaders — teachers who specialize in telling the masses what they WANT to hear (the “instant gratification” crowd) — we’d without question have several “me-too” products ready for you to promote by now.

- – - – -

Instead, we’re hard at work putting the final touches on some solid, grounded, no B.S., authentic, self-help material that people can sink their teeth (not just their head) into.

What sums up our version of a Life Without Limits?

Deepak Chopra — the world’s leading and most recognized metaphysical guru and Holistic Doctor — said it better than we’ve ever heard.

He spoke to an audience of ambitious, prosperity-minded health consultants in a very passionate, but direct, way about WHY they’re doing what they’re doing… what their intent is for study, for self-exploration, for providing value to others.

And when he finished, he pretty much summed up, in the most eloquent and succinct way, everything that Heather and I have been trying to tell you that we stand for at LWL.

He said:

“In any endeavor, in any pursuit, in any quest, ask yourself three questions:

#1) Is it Easy?

#2) Is it Fun?

#3) Am I Getting Results?

If you can answer YES to all three, then you’re doing the right thing.”

Can you now see why life isn’t really that complicated when you don’t get lost in the details — when you just FOCUS on what really matters to your own happiness, your own odyssey, and believe wholeheartedly that you’re here to EXPERIENCE (get results from) whatever it is your heart desires?

Sometimes we find there’s this Mary Poppins or Gandhi-like responsibility that hits people’s soul and fools them, in the most detrimental way, into thinking that they MUST* (like it’s their calling) do “big things” — like save or enlighten the world, or initiate change among many.

Ohhhhhh Virginia, *MUST is such a strong word; so, so much pressure. We, at least, prefer knowing it’s okay to WANT that calling, but it’s not a MUST for everybody working in this industry. We feel we’re NOT here to live under the “thumb” of fitting into structure, or into thinking we can help save the planet by being activists for lofty conscious ascension and global awareness movements.

We’re doing our BEST here, at LWL (Life Without Limits) Worldwide Inc., to ensure we only pass along things that don’t (or won’t) cause your readership to be in some ever-circulating state of excessive personal analysis — a place where they’re too engrossed in what’s wrong with themselves, or how they could do things better, or why they don’t measure up, blah, blah, blah!

Well, you get it… we’re all about presenting tools and avenues of growth that cause folks to come from a position of STRENGTH (gaining an edge), not a position of weakness.

We’re NOT here to ONLY cater to people who “need” a constant dose of feel-good self-growth information (as our forthcoming LWL Coaching Director would say: the equivalent of constantly needing to gulp down “spiritual Prozac”); we’re here to ALSO cater to the crowd that just WANTS it… movers, shakers, achievers, doers who want to gain an edge in life.

The former crowd is usually focused on constant lack and approval seeking (cheerleading) while the latter completely understands that self-improvement needs to be taken in moderation… they ensure the proper ration, and keep a balance between learning and living.

Yes, certain courses, teachers, methods, and instruction totally ATTRACT the former crowd that sees the material as “saving” them and pulling them up from a place that is below mediocrity. You know, that “lift me up from the gutter so I can finally fly… or at least walk” mentality.

We also recognize that some of the packages we’ll be releasing very well may attract this same crowd. It’s okay with us, as long as the customer who buys it understands it’s NOT going to be the magical cure  (or the next “hit” if they’re a junkie) for all that ails them.

Everything we do requires the consumer to use it, to work with it; to listen, to read, to examine, to apply, to be, to do, to have. It’s not just about “taking action”, that over-used self help catch-phrase of late; it’s about, again, DISCOVERING and then getting RESULTS.

And yes, we try to make it as FUN and EASY as possible during that process, but that doesn’t make it a panacea pill!

We don’t promise or guarantee magical “fixes”, and we despise it when other marketers do.

Like The Wizard of Oz so famously showed (even though it wasn’t the flagship moral), oftentimes it takes facing our greatest fears and uncovering our doubts, through a “journey of exploration”, BEFORE we can know our greatest strengths and abilities.

The products we’ll be releasing in a NEW and GRANDER way soon are designed to take the HYPE and visions of lollipops and show how they suck (pun intended!)

We’re NOT going to be the self-growth equivalent of glitzy, glamorous Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, saying, “I have these magic ruby slippers that will allow you to discover that you’ve had the power to get what you want all along… but you need to earn (or buy) the slippers before the truth comes out!”

Consequently, we’re not going to be like some of the glitzy, glamorous stage-walking hucksters who like to say, “we have these newly discovered (or forgotten) Universal Laws that will show you how spiritually enlightened you already are, but you need to earn (or buy) my program before the truth comes out!”

We understand that we are all “perfect” spiritually — but we don’t feel that gives us much of a boost physically. The inner world creates the outer world, and yet the outer world also affects the inner world. They go hand-in-hand, and that balance is what we promote in everything we do.

We feel that the journey is more important than the destination, as desirable as the destination might be, because once you get there, there’s another destination to reach. Every desirable destination becomes a comfort zone once it’s reached, whether that’s a promotion, a relationship, or elusive Nirvana-like enlightenment; none of it’s worth a rat’s ass without the DISCOVERY, and the GETTING RESULTS.

We’re here to learn, grow and develop !

In Part 2, we’ll shed  a little more light on HOW specially some of our upcoming product launches with help do precisely that.

—————————————————————

If you haven’t APPLIED for an affiliate account yet,
CLICK HERE

—————————————————————

Your Partners in the Quest For
Living a Life Without Limits,

(( Life Design Consultants,
Agents of Higher Learning &
Catalysts For Change ))

LWL-approved Resource:

>> Why a BIG opt-in list means squat if you’re not doing three essential things with it.

>> Meet two LWL contractors who help us grow our business. They can be available to you, on an “on call” basis too.

>> The $15,000 One-Click Upsell Module.

>> How our Graphics division can help you look gooooood, baaaaaaby !

——————————————–

Before we dive into this news update and training, here’s a memorable little acronym for M-O-N-E-Y that came across our desk recently:

M aximize your dreams
O rganize to overcome obstacles
N etwork to net worth
E njoy the moment
Y ield and abundance

So, let’s get right into it…

Our LWL (Life Without Limits) brand is all about doing the “right” kind of activity, not just any activity, to produce optimized RESULTS. Results that come about by operating in a way that makes things easy and fun for you while you’re doing it.

Then again, there’s something that sets the foundation for that too.

You’ve heard the old saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” and probably the modern variant on it, “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.” We’re here to tell you it’s not that, either. A big address book or an even bigger fan base is worth next to nothing unless those people will do one thing: take action on your behalf.

It’s not your network itself that has value for you, it’s your ability to call your network into action.

Years ago, our friend and fellow info-publisher Marlon Sanders coined the phrase, “The money is in the list.”

You’ve heard that repeated so many times that you probably had no idea who said it first, and you may have even taken it as a gospel truth. After all, if you hear something enough, it usually becomes a part of your belief system (which is why affirmations, when done properly — with emotion attached to the words — can have some really profound effects).

Internet marketing was — and often still is — a game of “how big is your list?” Yes, just like kids play a sandbox game of “My dad’s bigger than your dad,” and boys grow up thinking that the size of their equipment is what’s important in the bedroom, and girls flock to plastic surgeons thinking bigger breasts will solve all their problems, many marketers are still under the impression that “bigger is better” when it comes to your opt-in list.

But you’ll always hear people in the know say, “It’s not about the size, it’s what you do with it that counts!”

And the same holds true, believe it or not, with your list.

A few years ago, Heather was hired to interview numerous list-building experts for a product called Opt-In List Confessions.

By that time, the landscape was starting to change. Gone were the days when only a few marketers were actively building subscriber lists, and those with 100,000 or a million followers were basically printing money at the push of a button by sending out a carefully crafted email.

Click Here to Read More Of This Post (affiliates only)…

A unprecedented arena of certain confusion, anxiety, and uncertainty — picture it like this:  it’s like 30,000 people entering the Dean Smith Center in North Carolina* with no individual tickets.  Hey, no assigned tickets, who needs a seating chart?

Either that, or it’s like the Tarheels* are trying to compete on court, making moves from the same playbook that was written over and over by coaches and strategists with an identical mass-conscious mindset (i.e., repurposing, without question or critical examination, the same time-worn, trite, ho-hum techniques … er, just because it seems COOL to do).

* hey, March Madness is in full swing, and Barry likes college basketball analogies… so he looks for an excuse to use them in any way possible!

So, how do we know this?

What makes us the self-professed analysts of the human condition?

Why do we feel we’ve got our finger on the pulse of the market?

Simply because of this:

WE TALK TO PEOPLE! –  As in interactive, authentic, no BS, revealing conversation with subscribers, customers, affiliates, and, of course, people who have a platform to provide value through (yup, those would be the mentors we dance with on the phone at http://lwlwebcast.com — one a month this year, and many more last year. But, hey, our 5-month-old makes the slow-down all worth it

Some of the mentors we’ve gotten to know in a very close way, AFTER our initial interview or marketing venture, are indeed on the right track — they’re living congruent to what they teach, and they do NOT “need” to teach just because they’ve got their own deep-seated issues to work through.

They’re on their platform — whether via book, course, interview package, workshop, seminar series, etc. — because their “reason for BEing” syncs up with their values. They, in other words, don’t engage in the selling of themselves just because they THINK there’s a clamoring personal development market waiting on them.

Other mentors (and, yes, marketers — typically you don’t have the former label without the latter), not so much !

Like that overly-exuberant rookie basketball coach who thinks he’s providing his team virtuous value by calling plays from the same watered-down, time-worn playbook as those who went before him, there’s a proliferation of NEW teachers and metaphysical marketers popping up who are either: a) trying to provide their version of the same on-court move or b) teaching for all the wrong reasons.

Over the last several months, we’ve PRIVATELY consulted with several teachers/authors/coaches/marketers and, because of these close arrangements, have certainly learned a thing or  two about INTENTION — how it relates to focus, to unique  value, to common-sense business practice, to transparency… as in whether any or all these things are sitting on a solid foundation or a shaky foundation for the person who wants to take their product, ideas, or service to the market in a bigger way.

One consulting client we flat out told:

“Yeah, sure, you’ve got a nice little package here about the laws of success, and it comes from a place of gracious servitude, but truly, don’t you KNOW there are thousands of others out there who are providing the same surface-level stuff that the masses, like crack addicts, inhale to feel better about themselves? Are you really ready to dive into a market that expects attention over transformation? What you’re offering is like spoon-feeding people the very ‘fix’ that treats the symptoms and NOT the cause.”

Another we had to emblazon with this awareness (once aware, however, he got it):

“It’s clear, over the past year, you’ve been trying to mold WHO you are — your personality, your style, your agenda — around a group of people you want to take notice. Yeah, well, HayHouse may take notice, but it’ll still be superficial and watered-down from what you normally teach. Trying to measure up to the status quo, just because you feel you’ll be more accepted in the “mainstream”, is the equivalent of selling out. It happens with artists and musicians. Yet, you don’t need to let it happen to you. You don’t need to be endorsed by some stage-walking, high-gloss teacher to attract customers to your work.”

And then we had a mentor, who’s part of an upcoming package we’re releasing, say that he had decided to give up teaching personal development in favor of spiritual growth – like the two can’t go hand-in-hand as smoothly as chocolate and peanut butter (yeah, you know: “You got your peanut butter on my chocolate!” “Well, you got your chocolate in my peanut butter!”)

In fact, we find it hard to take the spiritual growth OUT of personal development, and vice versa. And we find it humorous when people try to put different aspects of the same whole into little compartmentalized boxes.

We’ll even go one step further and say that it’s hard to take the personal development out of business and marketing, and to take business out of personal development.

After all, we’re well-rounded humans on this planet — we’ve got physical, spiritual and mental aspects — and we need all three legs of that tripod to remain solidly balanced.

Ah, the tripod of life.

Life is part of a continual process of exploration with not just ourselves, but with “others” too.

And when you strip away all the fluff, hyperbole, and timid behind-the-computer communication, you’re only left with fresh, candid, uncensored conversation.

That basis is the root for nearly everything we do — and that’s because secrets are discovered, ideas are created, thoughts are provoked, and answers are revealed during the course of asking the right questions of the right people.

So whether you’re talking interview, candid discussion, or formal consultation, the art of conversation is what sows the seeds that the greatest a-ha moments spring from.

It’s truly where life is designed, folks, and without skipping a beat, it’s the very same reason you haven’t heard from us in awhile.

Heard from us, that is, in regards to WHERE we’re at with our own products, and what that means for you as an affiliate, supporter, and prospective JV partner.

Between consulting, dissolving a website operation that we orchestrated entirely last year (one that produced six figures in profits), remolding our LWL (Life Without Limits) brand, re-structuring some of our flagship products, and having fun with Konan (our baby boy), we’ve admittedly neglected the very same conversation, that we mentioned above, with you.

Feel free to call us anytime, about anything at all.

Just know, however, that when it comes to the business of selling “how to” personal-growth stuff, we’re all about substance, uniqueness, and ONLY promoting or endorsing information that “packs a punch” — the figurative “Wow, this is radically cool and paradigm-shifting” kind.

Don’t misread or misjudge that…

Yes, in the past, we have promoted and endorsed material that could very well appear to fall into the “me too” genre. It’s because we’ve been crystal-clearly aware of WHO is behind it, their reasons for being behind it, and how it gels or compliments what we’ve already offered to an existing subscriber or customer list.

As we told one affiliate recently:

“If we promote everything you create, every time you create it, or send a promotion to the same list every time you have some mega pricing promotion, what are we saying to that list?  Something like, “Hey, regardless of where you’re at in your life, just consume, consume, consume more learning.”

We don’t want to turn people into personal-growth gluttons; we just want them to move forward and achieve what they truly desire and deserve.

There are more people coming out with “Manifesting Secrets of the Ages” and “Personal Growth Breakthroughs Gone Wild” information than you can shake a stick at right now. And we’re acutely aware of why it’s happening. So we’ve taken a more “on alert” role with “will you interview me or promote my stuff?” invitations.

A Life Without Limits isn’t about soaking up EVERY spiritual growth or metaphysical book, CD, seminar, or interview when it becomes available.

Our LWL brand has never been about LOA, and our motto has never been: “Life 100% Filtered For Your Protection.” We’ve never stated that success (self-growth) is only derived from clamoring to the sunny side of spirituality.

Life involves more than analyzing yourself to death, or discussing the merits of gratitude, or constantly trying to hone your meditation and intuitive skills.

Life’s about politics, economics / wealth, travel, business, marketing, health, family, relationships and more, and the products you’ll soon be seeing from our camp will accommodate our well-rounded view of living.

We often tell our readers, customers, and simulcast listeners (when we’re in teaching mode) that if their Learning-to-Living ratio is too over-cooked (something like 3-to-1 or greater), they would benefit greatly by DOING a few things…

Like instead of being in some ever-circulating state of excessive personal analysis — a place where you’re too engrossed in what’s wrong with yourself, or how you could do things better, or why you don’t measure up, blah, blah, blah — train yourself to spend most of your time thinking about anything — your friends, your family, your business, your pets, your hobbies, your sports teams, charities, UFO’s, Big Foot, annnnnnnything… but, spend as little time as possible thinking about yourself.

But of course, the REVERSE is true if somebody spends too much time in “outer” activity (think of the over-worked executive). They would benefit by spending more time in contemplation, in self-study, in aspects of higher-learning.

As a marketer, it’ll pay off well if you can figure out where the majority of your subscribers / customers fit in on the balance beam of life.

To finish off this heart-felt / open email to you, here’s what summarizes our ideology for living.

When you strip away all the academic metaphysical / personal growth concepts, and some of the more overly-cryptic unusable spiritual philosophy, you end up with just two KEY human desires:

To DISCOVER!

To GET RESULTS!

When you think about it long enough, you’ll see how these two elements are as innate a part of our human fabric as “self-worth” is to prosperity (an analogy we know that everybody can relate to).

DISCOVERY (learning, listening, growing your internal wisdom, desiring things and experiences) by itself doesn’t get anybody anywhere, other than into information or knowledge overload.

Yet, when mixed with RESULTS (actually EXPERIENCING what we think, imagine, and say we’re going to do or have), we never get burnt out! (After all, there are only so many books, reports, videos and, yes, even interviews that we humans can read, watch, and listen to).

Deepak Chopra — the world’s leading and most recognized metaphysical guru and Holistic Doctor — said it better than we’ve ever heard.

He spoke to an audience of ambitious, prosperity-minded health consultants in a very passionate, but direct, way about WHY they’re doing what they’re doing… what their intent is for study, for self-exploration, for providing value to others.

And when he finished, he pretty much summed up, in the most eloquent and succinct way, everything that we have been trying to tell you that we stand for at LWL.

He said:

“In any endeavor, in any pursuit, in any quest, ask yourself three questions:

#1) Is it easy?

#2) Is it fun?

#3) Am I getting results?

If you can answer YES to all three, then you’re doing the right thing.”

Can you now see why life isn’t really that complicated when you don’t get lost in the details — when you just FOCUS on what really matters to your own happiness, your own odyssey, and believe wholeheartedly that you’re here to EXPERIENCE (get results from) whatever it is your heart desires?

Sometimes you may find there’s this Mary Poppins or Gandhi-like responsibility that hits your soul and fools you, in the most detrimental way, into thinking that you must do “big things” — like save or enlighten the world, or initiate change among many.

But REMEMBER: the best way to start that is to start with YOURSELF and those in your immediate circle of personal friendships and business partnerships. The more you can affect people’s lives directly around you, the more value, prosperity, and wellbeing you spark in a micro-transformational sort of way.

It’s phenomenally AMAZING what can happen when you start with yourself and just one other special person around you.

This is the SHIFT we’ve taken lately, as played out through PRIVATE consulting roles and through introspective, let’s-keep-this-all-real conversation with prospective and current content and business partners.

Yes, YOU too can effect change in the most amazing ways when you stand up for accountability, strength, boldness, risk-taking, and integrity within yourself and within those who you work and play with.

Stay tuned for some super NEWS and UPDATES soon, as we unveil our first MAJOR rolling launch (yup, something different) with a product that goes against nearly everything you’ve ever learned about spiritual growth. This is no-holds-barred, tell-it-like-it-is, in-your-face information that will cause people’s jaws to drop to the floor.