Coaches Make Sales Stick

Street Smarts VIP Club

10 Things I Have Learned
About Making a Living
with The Internet

By

Kathleen Gage, The Street Smarts Marketer™
http://www.kathleengage.com

A Street Smarts Marketing™ VIP Club Lesson

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© 2010 Copyright Kathleen Gage

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
whatsoever, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational
storage or retrieval system without express written, dated and signed permission from the author.

DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES:
The information presented herein represents the view of the author as of the date of publication.
Because of the rate with which conditions change, the author reserves the right to alter and update
her opinion based on the new conditions.

The report is for informational purposes only. While every attempt has been made to verify the
information provided in this report, neither the author nor her affiliates/partners assume any
responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. Any slights of people or organizations are
unintentional. If advice concerning legal or related matters is needed, the services of a fully qualified
professional should be sought. This report is not intended for use as a source of legal or accounting
advice. You should be aware of any laws which govern business transactions or other business
practices in your country and state. Any reference to any person or business whether living or dead is
purely coincidental.

2 © 2010 Kathleen Gage - All Rights Reserved. http://www.kathleengage.com/VipClub.htm


Foreword
Welcome to the next Street Smarts Marketing VIP Club™ lesson!

I’ve got two questions that I’d like you to consider and then answer by sending
me an email reply.

Question One: Where are you in the Lesson process?

1. I’m gathering ideas and making decisions before I get started with
building a sustainable business.

2. I’m preparing for my big splash on the Internet by preparing materials
(market analysis, website, blog, first product, etc.) and should be
ready to launch this month.

3. I’ve already launched and am seeing results.

Question Two: What would help you get from #1 to #2, and from #2 to #3?
Please email me your responses to these two questions at …

kathleenlesson11questions@gmail.com

While I won’t be able to respond to everyone individually (please don’t wait for
a reply), I will use this information to continue providing needed content,
offering ―extras‖ and structuring things to best benefit VIP Club members.

I know that quite a few members have been moving forward as of this point,
but I also know that there are those who have not. I’d love to find out what’s
holding you back and do my best to provide resources to get you to the next
level.

Note: Most weekly lessons will be 5 – 10 pages in length for text documents
(not including cover page, legal page and foreword). Take time to do the
action steps for every lesson. This will assure you greater (and faster)
success.

Note: Download links for previous lessons will be at the close of
each PDF file in case you missed or misplaced an earlier lesson. Be
sure to check the end of each lesson for the links of previous
lessons.



Introduction
You have leaders and you have followers. The leaders are more likely the ones
who are the risk takers, they are willing to fail in order to succeed, they are not
afraid of hard work, they know success takes effort, and they teach others
lessons from their own trial and error.

In building my own sustainable online business, I’ve learned a lot of things that
come from being willing to stick with this long enough to have made plenty of
mistakes, had plenty of successes and be considered one of the leaders and
experts in my industry. In today’s lesson I’m going to share ten of them with
you.

Lesson 1: People don’t always understand until they walk a mile in your
shoes.

It is not uncommon for someone who has not done any product development,
Internet marketing or building a sustainable business to understand the full
scope of what this entails. Those of us who do, know what it’s like and we know
that there is always more to it than meets the eye.

Lesson 2: Technology is great…to a point. All things have “hiccups”.

Although we love technology for all it can do, there are definite ―downsides‖ to
it. For example, email is great to a point, but the fact is, sometimes emails get
lost in cyberspace.

Everyone counts on his or her lessons from week to week, but occasionally a
lesson will go into the spam folder or for unknown reasons not make its
intended location – your inbox. It will be the same for you when you are selling
online products or starting your own fixed-term membership program. There
will be times, no matter how many checks and balances you have in place,
something isn’t delivered.

You can do as much as possible to prevent this from happening, but there will
still be occasions when you are delivering information and someone doesn’t
receive it. Most people are pretty rational and kind in their response to this, but
occasionally you get someone who immediately accuses you of something you
would never dream of doing; shorting them a eBook, an MP3, an eReport or any
number of things. In other words, trying to rip them off.

Even if they’ve been getting your information for a while, it’s as if some folks
are waiting for you to ―slip up.‖



Oh yes, dear member, there are people who immediately attack rather than
sending a message or making a call to let you know they didn’t get what they
purchased.

The longer you conduct business online, the more likely it will be that something
goes wrong and cyber-mud is flung at you. Be patient if someone sends you a
snippy message. Once you get a message or two like this, it is much easier to
empathize when you don’t get something you paid for.

99% of the time a very simple message resolves the issue.

Lesson 3: Consistency is essential to one’s success

Success isn’t a haphazard event. It is a step-by-step process — some big, some
small. When you are taking the steps you may not see immediate results, but
as you look back over a period of months, you see some amazing progress.
That is, if you have been consistently moving toward your goal of success.

Many people foolishly buy into the ―get-rich-quick‖ mentality. Sure, there are
occasions where one can experience a windfall and mistakenly believe this will
always be the case.

The fact is — a solid foundation is essential as are daily action steps moving you
toward your vision.

Lesson 4: Investing time and money is an absolute in building any
business.

Some people think they can buy one eBook, read one or two books, listen to
one teleseminar and presto, they will make money hand over fist. It doesn’t
work this way.

There are investments all of us who are in business have made and will
continue to make.

Some are fixed investments such as subscription fees, automation software that
requires a monthly payment, ongoing services of experts who can do for us
what we cannot do for ourselves, and utility bills.

There are other investments such as a specialized training, a coach or mentor,
attending a conference, and services such as design work, editing, postage and
other such things.



As your business grows, so will your monthly expenses (investments). I
currently pay more out each month than I used to make in a month. However, I
also make a heck of a lot more now than I did in the past. And yes, I have
those windfall $10,000 - $20,000 days. But I have worked for this. I didn’t
expect it to happen without effort.

Don’t believe for a minute that you won’t need to make investments. However,
before spending money, evaluate how necessary the purchase of a product or
service is.

If you have a ―gotta have‖ feeling, sit with this for a day or two and if you still
feel the same way, then make the purchase. If you have a business partner, set
a rule on what amount of money you each need to discuss spending before
doing so. This often will eliminate impulse purchases that are not necessary.

Some people will buy program after program without getting into more than a
thimbleful of information compared to what they bought. Don’t make this
mistake.

When you buy programs (or join membership clubs – hint, hint) get as much
value out of your investment as you possibly can. To not do so is a huge waste
of money.

Lesson 5: All work and no play makes you boring, stressed out,
lackluster and not fun to be around.

Yep! I speak from experience. The first few years of running my business, I
went overboard in how much time I put into my business. I ate, drank, slept
and talked business all the time. To the point that friends and family told me I
needed to get a life.

This is not how my life is today. Now I find time for other things like exercise,
family time, hobbies, spiritual development, my pets, and much, much more.

A life that is only focused on business is not a life of true success. Balance is the
key here.

Lesson 6: Those who have been in an industry, had a hobby or a
passion for any length of time likely have more information inside them
than they realize.

It’s amazing how much information most people have. Often, when they
develop their first product, whether it be an ebook or a short report, they
realize they have more where that came from.



It’s very exciting to see the big Ah Ha! when they do realize that they have a
vast knowledge base that can be packaged in a number of different ways.

This is where repurposing can be so valuable. You can take information you put
into one format and create a completely different format for it. The possibilities
are endless. It simply takes focus, vision, belief and application to see what is
really possible.

Lesson 7: Automating is essential to take your business to the next
level.

One of the most important lessons I learned very early on is to automate
whenever possible. Early on (and I’m going back several years) I sent out my
first ezine one message at a time. Arghhh. It could take all day to do what now
takes the press of a button.

The things that are most important to automate are your opt-in subscriber list,
shopping cart, product delivery, recurring payments, much of your social-media
marketing, and anything that is extremely time-consuming for no good reason
other than to save a few dollars.

In reality, not to automate can lose you a considerable amount of time and
money.

The nice thing is, there are lots of free automation tools available. For those on
a tight budget, this would be a nice solution. However, as you grow so should
the sophistication of your automation.

Lesson 8: You have to know when to outsource.

One of the best things I ever started doing was outsourcing tasks that either
took too much of my time, things I don’t know how to do and don’t have the
time to learn, and tasks that are repetitive.

Often, again to save a few bucks, solopreneurs may try to do all the tasks of
the business themselves. Initially, you may have to do a lot of your own
work, but set aside a percentage of what you bring in to outsource a little at
a time.

As with any investment, think through why you are outsourcing and what
the benefit will be for doing it.



Here’s a partial list of what to outsource:

-Article submission
-Bookkeeping
-Design work
-Editing
-Physical product fulfillment
-Transcription services

Lesson 9: Surround yourself with the winners.

Who you hang out with is just as important as what you do day in and day
out. It’s easy to consider ourselves successful if we surround ourselves with
low achievers. The true test is to surround ourselves with high achievers.

Get involved in mastermind groups. If you are in a mastermind group and it
is not a productive experience, be willing to find another group.

Be willing to pay people to mentor you. Over the years I have invested a lot
of money for the knowledge a mentor could teach me. There are times when
free is not the way to go. Sure, there are plenty of free opportunities, but if
one is always on the lookout for the cheapest way to do something, he or
she is not being stretched.

Ask any successful person if he or she invests in mentors, coaches,
mastermind groups, etc. and the likely answer will be a resounding YES!

Know that you are worth it. But as with anything you invest in, use the
information you gain.

Lesson 10: You will be called LUCKY when you succeed.

I love this one. ―I am an overnight success and it only took me 15 years to
get here.‖ Many a successful entrepreneur will share a similar story in what
it took for them to succeed — years of work, dedication and effort.

Yet, many ―outsiders‖ look at someone who is successful and rather than
finding out what they did to succeed, they flippantly call them lucky.

The fact is, the harder you work, the luckier you get. If you have been
applying each and every lesson you likely are seeing some results from your
efforts.



If you are not, you have to ask yourself, ―What will it take for me to get
serious about this?‖

Success is not something that happens through osmosis. It is something
that takes time, energy, learning, mentors, investments and vision. It also
takes being able to manage the ups and downs of emotions and the
willingness to hang out with the winners.

The winners are those people who are not letting outside factors determine
their success. They understand that they need to maintain a positive outlook
on what they are doing. And they are willing to pay the price.

As my good friend, Dr. Joe Capista says, ―You can have anything in life you
want, if you are willing to pay the price.‖

Are you paying the price?

Follow the advice that I’ve given in this lesson for each of these simple
assignments. I expect that it will have taken you longer to read the lesson
than it will to do the assignment. Give yourself an hour or two to work on
the assignment.

Until next week,

Kathleen Gage
Publisher
VIP Club™


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