I hope you don’t mind me sharing  a short story with you about what happened on July 5th, 1998.

While on a family vacation, my wife Amy and I with our four kids straggling behind made our way to see Mount Rushmore for the first time.

We had to park about a mile away because there were a ton of cars and couldn’t get any closer.

Now, picture this, we had already been on the road for about 3 weeks, a bit tired, had seen many American treasures and were very excited to be at Mount Rushmore.

As we approached, all of a sudden, we rounded a curve and there was George’s nose. The biggest nose we’d ever seen. Of course, I took a quick snap shoot (Took about an hour of serach the box with all the old photos and finally found it. Showed up in the second from last enveope).

We kept walking and walking, seeing more and more of the great presidents, getting bigger and bigger as we got closer and closer.

Finally we made it to the entrance, went in and the place was packed. People everywhere.

Turns out that the official Fourth of July Celebration was rained out the day before and we walked into the rescheduled Fourth of July Celebration.

So we walked in further, made our way to the seating area, not a seat in sight except a roped off row or two about 10 rows up.

Being one to rarely follows the rules, we made our way and sat in that row. Other’s followed and in moments, the row was filled.

Within ten minutes, the master of ceremonies started making announcements about the program that was about to start.

I gotta tell you, it was amazing, the presentation and program took about an hour and a half. There was music, dancing and celebration.

All along, the sun was going down, getting darker and darker.

Mt Rushmore July 5th, 1998 W0W!

Then suddenly, from behind the presidents, a loud boom, fireworks starting. And they got bigger and bigger. Exploding behind and shining on the rocks. Illuminating the Presidents. The fire works went on for a very ling time. Booming. Cracking. Showering us with magicial colors. It was amazing.

After the grand finally when the fireworks faded away and the smoke hovered low, my wife looked at me, my kids looked at me, tears running down my cheeks, my shirt wet, they asked why I was crying.

I was too choked up to explain my feelings to them at the time.

Anyway, that moment I’ll never forget the patriotic feelings I had.

How proud, lucky, and appreciative I was to be an American living in America. And, to be there, with my family, of all places on Earth or in America we could have been on that early July day. Wow.

You see, I just had to share this with you because every 4th of July this fond memory comes flooding back. Once again bringing tears of gratitude, appreciation for all who have been kind enough to let me be part of their life.

Thanks for allowing me to be part of your life.

Now, what fond memories do you recall of your past 4th of July’s?

What will you have gratitude and appreciation for on this 4th of July?

Go out and create your great memories of this 4th of July 2009.

And may they be fond memories that you’ll be proud to carry with you, tell your friends and family over and over for many more 4th of July’s to come.

Does your business communicate a positive attitude?

Do you have a written “Mission Statement” that explains what your business is about?

Does this statement represent the vision, purpose, and aspirations that your business communicates to the world?

More importantly, do you tell your customers and prospective clients about your mission statement in every marketing effort that you create?

What should this statement include?
Typically, it will include your USP or SOB (statement of benefit). It also will include what “attitude” your business is trying to communicate.
Is your business and marketing attitude friendly, exclusive, or inviting?
Is It classy, low-priced, or responsive?
The list could be endless.

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you can do.
Attitude determines how well you do it.”
- Lou Holtz

It is important how you integrate your attitude into your marketing.
If the public sees and hears your positive attitude, then they will know and understand that you are proud of what you sell.

They also will know that you are very serious about your business and are willing to go the extra mile to keep them happy.

Your attitude should tell them that your business is ready to be their sole source —their “go-to” solution.

Your attitude should be communicated in everything that you do and say. If each of your marketing efforts is consistent and professional, then prospects will pick up on your attitude.

When the statements that you make in your marketing efforts are positive and consistent, your clients and prospects should understand that you will deliver on them.

This builds their confidence in you and will increase your sales. Consistency and attitude are the keys to getting people to remember your business.
Do you know what your company’s attitude is?

Are you getting this message to your customers and prospects every day?

Do you ask yourself regularly, “Is this information reaching my clients?”

How much do you love your clients and their business?

Even more importantly, how much do you love helping your clients?

How passionate are you about it?

I have met so many business owners over the years who are just not very passionate about what they do or sell.

This makes me wonder, “Why did they go into business in the first place?”

Having passion for your business is an essential part of successful marketing.

In fact, the passionate drive to succeed is a huge factor in the success of any business.

If you love what you are doing, then your success will be so much greater than what you will achieve if you don’t.

Whether or not you are truly excited about what your business has to offer will be very evident to all of your customers and prospects. It will come across in every¬thing that you do, in all of the words that you write, and in how you speak about the products/services that you offer.

If you really believe in your business, then your intensity will be transferred to your employees in the amount of effort that they put forth, and to your cus¬tomers and prospects in a way that will increase their interest in your products/services.

If you are passionate about what your business does, the result will be more sales. It does not matter what motivates your passion, whether it is making money, or loving the “in-charge” feeling that you get with self-employment, or enjoying the freedom of setting your own hours.

If you maintain a love and passion for your business, you will find that many people will want to do business with you, both now and in the future. Passion breeds success, and success breeds more success.

If you don’t love what you are doing—if you are not totally passionate about it—then go find something else!

“Passion is everything.”
-David Copperfield

People will have a hard time believing you if you don’t have passion for what you are doing. Your clients and prospects can sense it in you when you don’t believe in what you are marketing.

You might fool them once, but you won’t fool them twice.

Be passionate about your business. It will catch on fire.

What are you doing to show how much you love what you do and the things that you sell?

Why, Why, Why?

Because displayed on your computer screen is a combination of science, art, and common sense.

Yes, the subject of marketing has been covered before from many angles by professors, millionaires, self-styled experts, assholes and “gurus.”

I also am aware that you don’t have the time to absorb everything presented by these folks.

Plus, you may think that you would have a hard time using tactics, techniques and tricks” to achieve your own success.

With these things in mind, I am presenting these business and marketing ideas in the language of the everyday business person.

Presented in a clear, simple way with the goals of helping you to grow your business and to have a lot of fun doing it.

WARNING:
Merely reading these secrets will not make you instantly wealthy.

Sorry, I have yet to find a get-rich-quick scheme that truly works.

My sole goal is to help you sharpen your marketing, sales, and business skills.

More importantly. Help motivate you to achieve your own greatest potential.

I will share with you some of the secrets that I have developed through marketing my own businesses and those of my clients as well as secrets revealed to me by many experts in the fields of marketing, sales and public relations.

Perhaps you came to this blog because of the collection of marketing and business secrets.

Maybe you’re here because you felt that it would help you market your business more effectively and improve your sales and profits, or maybe you wanted to save time and money marketing your business.

The ideas in this blog promise to help you to do these things. However, and this is something you all ready know.

You ultimately will have to do these things yourself, or hire well—in other words, the ideas that you will encounter are going to take work on your part to succeed.

Don’t let this discourage you! I am here to help you, every step of the way.

“Nothing focuses the mind better than the constant
sight of a competitor who wants to wipe you off the map.”
Wayne Calloway

Know this right up front: if I can learn these ideas, so can you.

You can put these things to use immediately and spare yourself the thousands of hours they have taken me to learn (I am a slow learner). I also hope that these ideas will spare you some of the mistakes that I have made along the way and will give you greater success and more fun than I have enjoyed.

When you use them in your own way, the timeless and valuable secrets that you are about to read in this blog will help your bottom line.

In order to make the best use of these marketing ideas, here are some quick pointers:

1. As you read these ideas, think about how you can use them in your own business. While your thoughts are still fresh in your mind, I suggest that you take notes. Jot your ideas down in a separate notebook or somewhere else. I use 3″ x 5″ cards. Whatever you do, get your ideas written down so that they will be at your side when you need to recall them. Please read the quotes that have been included for your learning and enjoyment. Sometimes it’s the little things that inspire us.
2. Keep in mind that you cannot do everything. Focus your time, energy, and money on marketing to your top prospects and best customers. Be very selective. Concentrate on the most profitable methods of marketing and on getting the best return on your investment. (Yes, marketing is an investment.)
3. Develop a marketing plan. Planning is critical to your success. It is the first and most crucial step to market your business. We’ll get into this in more detail later, but start thinking about making a master plan now. Check out www.iMarketCalendar.com
   
4. Study everything that you can find about business in general as well as sales and marketing. If you need to, read everything over and over again until it sinks in. Come back to these secrets many times. The more that you read them, the easier that it will be to remember them at critical times in your business when you have to generate more sales or greater profits.
5. Finally, track all of your marketing campaigns. Record your results. Be totally honest with yourself. Always ask, “What can I do better?” Test everything before spending big. Test, Test, and Test again. Use what works!This blog is not a textbook about how to market your business. Rather, it is written to be a selection of useful secrets from me and other marketing experts: tips, examples, stories, and suggestions to get you thinking like a marketing genius—in other words, small things that you can do to reap large benefits.

“A bicycle maintains its poise and equilibrium
only so long as it is going forward towards something.”
- Melvin Powers

I promise that if you use any or all of these ideas that I’ll share with you, you will grow your business bigger and stronger.

I don’t think that you would have come to this blog unless you sincerely wanted to make a change in your life—a change for the better.

You would not have cared one bit about these ideas or even taken the time to read them unless you truly believed they could give you the results that you wanted—specifically, marketing, sales, and business ideas to grow your business.

Now, my friend, these ideas CAN do all of these things, but the biggest problem that you are going to run into is procrastination – putting off getting started.

If you do run into this wall, and everyone does, try picturing your marketing efforts generating all the sales that you possibly could handle. Picture the rewards that will come with all of your additional sales and profits.

It may seem silly, but close your eyes. What do you see?

Can you picture your rewards? Are they more money, more time with family and friends, the freedom to do what you love or to go to the places that you’ve always wanted to visit? Are they meeting the people you would love to meet, or buying a home on the ocean? What is it that is close to your heart? Set up the goals that you need to accomplish in order to achieve what you have just pictured in your mind.

Now, start working on meeting your first goal. These ideas cannot teach you everything, but they will help you to get started and to get moving in a forward direction.

Have fun on your journey!

The alarm went off today, November 4th (voting day) at 6:30am.
The sun was shining through the window making the fall leaves glow beautifully.
Did the routine three S’s, read a bit and off I went.

This morning wasn’t much different then any other morning.

Except for voting…
Now, I made it to the polls by 7:45am and was out by 8:20am
Small voting district. Short lines.
Saw a neighbor that I had not seen in a while.
Got the latest neighborhood news.
Births. Deaths.
You know what I’m talking about.

While standing in line to vote, it hit me.

“We vote every day of our lives”

We vote for cereal or eggs.
We vote to work or goof off.
We vote to prospect or not.
We vote on who we want to see that day
We vote on what projects to work on
We vote to hit the enter key
Who to work with
What route to take home
On and on and on.

Every decision we decide is a vote.
A choice to move forward, stay the same or move backwards.

Besides all the political candidiates, what did you vote for today?

Here are a few quick voting ideas.

• Vote for your family members success.
  Give them praise for anyting well done and you will help them grow even stronger

• Vote for your client’s success.
  Do everything in your power to help them succeed and you will succeed.

• Vote for doing something. Anything.
  Nothing happens until something moves. Get the pendulum moving, momentum makes things easier.

• Vote for YOURSELF.
  Forge you own path and be willing to stand alone because your life in no way depends on what others think, say or do.

• Vote for Forgiveness.
  Forgive yourself and others for honest mistakes of the past.

What will you decide today that will change someone life?

Happy Marketing
Sandy Barris
Business Marketing Services
Author of ’97 Marketing Secrets to Make
More Money: Your Secret Guide to Growing
Your Business”

P.S. Your Invited To Join (By Invite Only) Our Next  Monthly How To Market Profitably Teleseminar Hosted by List Expert Jerry Bresser.

For Details Click Here:  www.HowToMarketProfitably.com