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Advice Best Practices Capital Leadership

HABITS ARE NECESSARY FOR ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS, AND THEY CAN ALSO LIMIT YOUR SUCCESS WITH SELF-DESTRUCTIVE PATTERNS

Habits and practices may prevent you from achieving your goals.

Habits make us who we are, how we respond to the world, how we act in front of others, and how we think. And that’s not always a bad thing.

The importance of habits cannot be overstated. Why some habits/ patterns are needed:

You don’t have to concentrate on how to drive your car, so you can be on the lookout for danger while driving. You don’t have to think about how to walk, so you can focus on where you are going.

However, habits can also limit your success by keeping you stuck in self-destructive patterns.

More than likely, if you wish to achieve higher levels of success, you will need to drop some habits you have established up to this point.

Therefore, if you want to accomplish something that requires you to perform at a higher level, I strongly encourage you to drop these bad habits that aren’t serving you and develop new ones that align with what you want.

Do you have any habits that prevent you from achieving your goals?

Ask yourself these questions and be honest:

  • Are you late frequently?
  • Do you forget to return phone calls?
  • Do you stay up late and don’t get enough sleep?
  • Are you prone to breaking your promises?
  • Do you spend money that you don’t have?
  • If all your habits were productive, how would your life be?
  • If you ate healthy foods, exercised regularly, and slept enough.
  • How about saving money, avoiding credit cards, and paying cash for everything?
  • What if you overcame your fears and began networking with people in your field instead of procrastinating?
  • To stay on track to achieving your goals, how about creating a detailed plan broken down into monthly, weekly, and daily objectives?

Changing your habits may not be as hard as one thinks:

  • Make a list of all the habits that keep you from being productive or could negatively affect your future.
  • Choose better, more productive success habits and create a system to support them.

Follow these tips to make sure you follow through on your new habits:

  • Put up signs (yes, signs) to remind yourself to follow through.
  • Stay focused on your new habit with a partner. Talk to your partner five minutes a day, or every few days, to stay on track. 
  • Create consequences for failing to maintain your new habit. (Maybe a monetary amount, slightly painful,  for each offense to a charity.

The “no exceptions rule” is perhaps one of the most powerful ways to stay on track.

People don’t suddenly start living perfect lives overnight, and their habits play a significant role in enabling them to create the lives they want. It is up to you to decide whether to develop habits that lead you to create your ideal life or keep you anchored to your current circumstances.

Decide, commit, and watch your new life unfold. What are your thoughts?

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

(951) 926-4158

Categories
Advice Case Studies Leadership

THE GOAL OF LIVING LONGER WITHOUT PAIN OR DISEASE, AND THE GOLD MINE OF THE WELLNESS PROGRAM INDUSTRY

Most Company’s Health Wellness Programs – fail to save any money

In an attempt to reduce the skyrocketing costs of health care, many companies have employee wellness programs. On average, employees spend about 6 K while companies spend about $16,000 per employee on health care. The attempt at cost-saving has not shown any success in saving money and has not proven effective in better health.

Over 80%  of large employers have a wellness program that may include free screenings of BMI, cholesterol, blood pressure, and other health indicators. There are various incentives to stay healthy, from subsidized health classes to insurance discounts to cash payouts for meeting specific goals, such as quitting smoking. 

Research has shown that preventing cardiovascular disease or other chronic diseases is the best way to save costs. Therefore companies thought that taking the preventive role some of these programs offer could help them pocket some of those savings.

Sadly, companies aren’t getting much bang for their buck with these wellness programs. This has become a $50 billion industry, and the marketing for these programs is prolific. The market is so good that 66% of those companies want to expand their wellness programs, even though very few firms have not seen any savings over the past decades.

Wellness programs do not work for various reasons, but behavioral economics is the main reason. People are more likely to stay the course when they receive an immediate reward for staying the course when the goals are abstract and distant, such as lowering cholesterol. 

Despite some minor evidence that wellness programs work in some cases, randomized trials found no difference in:

  • Health outcomes 
  • Cost savings 
  • Reduced absenteeism

Even though wellness programs sound like they should work – if we give you a little nudge, maybe you’ll take better care of yourself – the data does not support it.

The employees who benefit the most from wellness programs are already those in good health. No evidence suggests that healthy people are more likely to increase their healthy behaviors when participating in a wellness program. They exercise regularly and see their doctor, so getting a gym voucher just rewards what they are already doing. To receive the program’s benefits, they register.

It is when we talk to people who aren’t engaged with their health that they see these incentives and they want to act, but their lives are so complicated  many lower-income workers have some comorbidities; this is such an enormous cognitive burden that adding more routines is difficult.”

The goal of living longer without pain or disease is valuable to most people. Although wellness programs are well intended, they aren’t working.

The idea that these side benefits would alter the calculations for these people is just completely illogical. There is a fundamental point here: these programs redistribute incentives from the unhealthy to the healthy, but neither group changes its behavior.

Do wellness programs help you save money?

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

(951) 926-4158

Categories
Advice Body Language Growth Management

THE ART OF CONCENTRATION: HOW TO DEEPEN YOUR FOCUS AND ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS

Low productivity is a focus problem.

If you keep feeding your distractions, you can’t make real progress. If you are trapped in a wealth of online distractions, you must start thinking about a different approach to work.

Focus, a valuable commodity for getting real work done, is increasingly becoming a lost art.

If you’re trying to be more productive, don’t analyze how you spend your time. Pay attention to what consumes your attention.

If how you work is not working, design a different system that makes progress possible every day, increasing efficiency and output.

Your present life and career total everything you’ve focused on. If you are unhappy with your productive life, change the system that drives it.

New tools and technology are meant to help us work better, faster, and more intelligently, but they often distract us.

Many productivity apps are meant to improve our lives, but they get in the way of deep and accurate work.

You can’t stop responding to those notifications. The zero-email mindset is a productivity trap that keeps you constantly responding to emails.

How can you get real work done when you can’t stop reacting to almost every notification?

“Feed a cold and starve a fever.

To gain productivity, feed your focus and starve your distractions.”

“It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Albert Einstein once said.

Many people have a real plan to get important stuff done — they are not necessarily lazy and don’t know how to stop feeding their distractions.

Attention distraction is one of the biggest obstacles to getting real done. “Focus is the art of knowing what to ignore.

People who cultivate their ability to concentrate without distraction will thrive:

To feed your focus, start separating your urgent work from essential tasks. And most importantly, identify your distractions and how they starve your focus. Knowing your distractions can help you understand how you spend your attention.

For every focused work you want to do, identify the potential distractions, and stop them before you get in the focus zone.

Deep workers often find that notifications, no matter how important the message, takes their deep focus away from the task, and it takes twice as long to get back to focus mode again.

To produce at your peak level, you need to work for extended periods with total concentration on a single task free from distraction. 

To feed your focus, create healthy work boundaries that allow you to concentrate on essential tasks fully. Build a system that starves distractions. Create intentional constraints that will enable you to assume focus mode.

When you’re ‘on,’ be entirely on — use headphones, and when possible, hide your phone, turn it upside down, or block notifications. Block internal and external distractions.

The ability to focus for about 30/40/60 minutes is the only difference between truly productive people and those who struggle to get things done.

Measure your work and find the most suitable focused time that works for you. Your degree of focus determines how fast you make progress.

Structure your day in chunks of focused work to make in-depth work sessions work. Start your day with intention. What is the one thing you have to accomplish today? Start your focused sessions with that task.

Set up your environment to support your focus mode. And plan purposeful breaks in-between deep work sessions. (Pomodoro method)

One final insight about prioritizing involves getting disciplined about what you don’t put on the stage. This means not thinking when you don’t have to, becoming disciplined about not paying attention to non-urgent tasks unless, or until, it’s genuinely essential that you do,

Deep work is a habit and working for long stretches at a time takes time to develop. You can start today. Do more focused work daily, and it will become a habit that helps you get real work done weekly. Better routines are the personal habits of highly efficient people.

What do you do to become more productive?

 

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

(951) 926-4158

Categories
Accounting Advice Capital

BREAKING THE RETIREMENT PLANNING MYTH: WHY 100% OF STRATEGIES FAIL TO SECURE YOUR LIFETIME INCOME

100% of all retirement planning will fail to provide you with a guaranteed lifetime income.

Yes, 100% is correct. Regardless of how big the planning company is and how lucky or smart the advisor is, none can guarantee you an income for as long as you live.

The best they can do is guess how much or how long you could expect to get checks in retirement. Unlike Social Security and a company pension (not a 401k type plan) that can give you exact numbers, investment advisors can never give you any guarantees.

There are two separate and distinct areas of planning that confuse. Both of them start with the word Retirement. Retirement planning is what an employee gets when he starts working for a company and needs to learn about his investment options, risk tolerance, and dollar matching in the company’s 401(k) or IRA plan.

However, retirement “Income” planning is very different. Note the word income. How to get this saved money to produce a monthly paycheck as I or we are nearing Retirement? That sounds like a reasonable question to ask- how much can I take out for as long as we are both alive? In all honesty, it is the only question that matters. (I have put together critical questions you need to ask now). Income planning should be seriously looked at about ten years before you want to retire.

The retirement planning investment pros cannot give you an answer to that seemingly simple question. Why not? Social Security and company pension plans know to the penny how much you will get guaranteed for your life and a partner if you have one. How come to your retirement planner cannot do the same? Unfortunately, there is no way for them to do that. They can’t give any guaranteed amounts or length of time the money may last.

Why? You see, investment advisors are prevented by law from doing so. Because they can’t give you any guarantees, they need to craft a story that will convince people to leave their money with them: failure to provide a convincing story will result in them losing billions of dollars in commission and fees!

The first step is for you to believe they are the authority by multi-million-dollar advertising.

The second step is to do hypothetical case studies and use computerized projections to tell a story that looks so factual that you believe it. These projections appear authentic by predicting (really guessing) the chances your savings will last and not run out during retirement. To do this, they must apply guesses about what inflation will be projections for portfolio growth, (even though every investor knows “past performance does not guarantee future results, asset mix, and a sustainable

Withdrawal rate. These many assumptions lose any basis in reality. Countless economic studies have proven no one knows what percentage you can take out of your portfolio without running out of money. (No one can predict to future). Now your retirement planner puts these assumptions into a computer, presses the go button, and from these “guesses and assumptions,” impressive report prints.

The best part is that it looks official, leading many to a false sense of security (no guarantees) and the real possibility of running out of money in retirement.

It would be best to ask your advisor direct questions about how your money can produce income now. I have created a robust list of questions, including a guide highlighting each question and detailing what to look for. Please reach out, and I will send them.

 

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

(951) 926-4158

Categories
Advice Strategy Women In Business

SEEING THE BIG PICTURE: HOW CAN YOU SEPARATE THE BIASES FROM REALITY WHEN CONSIDERING RETIREMENT PLANNING?

The majority of people think they’re better-than-average drivers, and mathematically, not everyone can be above average. Being optimistic is excellent, and too much may impair your judgment on many things, especially when planning for your financial future.

Being optimistic is valuable as we live our life. Frequently, overconfidence bias leads quickly to confirmation bias, and both of these biases are problematic, especially when combined.   However, sometimes our abilities begin to skew toward unrealistic, which can impair decision-making behavior.

Either alone or combined, these biases are often linked to us believing we can avoid negative things from happening to us. When it comes to retirement planning decisions, you need to separate your biases from reality; this can present a challenge.

Overconfidence in your retirement planning may cause you to overlook potential risks, underestimate the time spent in retirement, and misjudge how long your income will last. Seeing the bigger picture through another set of impartial eyes is crucial and will help you sidestep the influence of biases. Finding ways to work around these biases will allow you to see the value of long-term planning. 

Let’s be realistic about the financial future:

Over 50% of retirees retired before they planned; the most common reason was health problems. Illness can occur at any time and may lengthen your retirement requiring savings to stretch farther than planned. 

50% of retirees said their health care costs were higher than expected. 

Almost 40% said all other expenses were more than they thought. 

It’s essential to understand no one can avoid retirement risks; however, careful planning can help mitigate them.

While overconfidence can undermine the success of a long-term financial plan, clients who are secure in their decisions will likely be satisfied customers. It would be best if you found a balance between an optimistic yet realistic approach to planning.

 

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

youtube.com/@healthymoneyhappylife

Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

https://healthymoneyhappylife.com/

Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com

(951) 926-4158

Categories
Advice Capital Leadership Management Women In Business

CHAINED CPI AS AN ALTERNATIVE FORMULA TO THE CONSUMER PRICE INDEX, AND THE COST THAT COMES WITH IT

The government wants to reduce expenses by using a different CPI version of the (Consumer Price Index). Their new attempt, known as chained CPI (Consumer Price Index) (aka C-CPI-U), this alternative formula reflects how consumers change their purchasing habits when prices rise or fall for a broad range of services, including food, housing, clothing, and medical expenses. 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that government spending on Social Security, Medicare, and other benefits would decline by about $300 billion over ten years if this less-generous index were in place.

The idea of switching to a chained CPI has garnered bipartisan support to rein in entitlement spending. But at what cost? There will be plenty.

Many elements of the federal tax code — including tax brackets, personal exemptions, standard deductions, limits on contributions to 401(k) plans and similar accounts, and critical parameters of the earned income and child tax credits — are also adjusted annually for the CPI. According to the CBO, switching to the chained CPI would raise an additional $150 billions of tax revenue through 2026.

The chained CPI grows on average by about 0.3 percentage points per year more slowly than the official CPI (which is weak at best gauge to the actual cost of living). The Social Security actuaries, in their projections, assume the gap between the two CPIs will continue to average 0.3 percentage points per year in the future. 

The Chained CPI will chain you to a lifetime of higher taxes. According to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, if individual income taxes had been indexed to the chained CPI starting July 2013, by 2022, 69 percent of the gains in revenue would come from taxpayers with incomes below $100,000, while those in the highest income brackets would barely be affected. In other words, raise the taxes on the middle class while leaving the rich alone.

Higher taxes are coming; start planning now!

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast “Money 911”

Sign up for a Financial Fitness Strategy Session:  Meet with Kris Miller – Financial Fitness Strategy Sessions

You can reach me at Kris@HealthyMoneyHappyLIfe.com, (951) 926-4158

Categories
Advice Leadership

THE FOUR THINGS YOU NEED TO DO NOW! TO EXEMPT EMPLOYERS FROM LIABILITY FOR LOSSES PLAN PARTICIPANTS INCUR DUE TO THEIR INVESTMENT CHOICES

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the federal law establishing standards for 401(k)s and 403(b), some employers may poorly 

By full compliance with 404(c), companies can have no liability for poor investment results, losses to plan participants, or not having enough money to retire. However, full compliance is a vague term subject to much interpretation and lawsuits.

ERISA set forth rules to exempt employers from liability understand plan requirements. for losses plan participants incur due to their investment choices.

To qualify for relief under ERISA Section 404(c), the plan fiduciary must provide participants the chance to:

Choose, from a broad range of investments, how their accounts will be invested, which allows participants to diversify their investments and have the ability to make frequent changes among them. 

This sounds simple enough. However, the regulation clearly specifies that participants also must have sufficient information to make informed investment choices. If not, the Department of Labor can revoke     companies’ 404(c) protection. Four specific categories of participant communication that do not constitute investment advice:

  1. Plan information 
  2. General financial and investment information 
  3. Asset allocation models 

The objective is not to lead the employee in choosing any investments—the critical question to ask to comply with 404(c) fully and sadly, where most legal challenges arise:

When using employee education, is it on generally accepted investment theories? 

Do they clearly disclose the “What if assumptions on which they are based?

Is the plan surveying participants to determine their level of investment knowledge? 

Are plan communications written so that participants can clearly understand them? 

The above four lead to so many problems and legal challenges for companies. Most of these problems can be avoided by providing employee education through a Personal Financial Proficiency (PFP) course. This course gives the employees all the tools they need to understand, prepare and adequately save for retirement. More can also be found in my July 2022 Linkedin paper: An HR guide to: Financial Literacy vs. Financial Proficiency.

Categories
Advice Real Estate

The Job You Have (or Had) Is NOT the Only One You Can Do: Use Kaleidoscope Thinking to Create Your New Future

This is the time of year when we slow down enough to contemplate how our year went and what’s ahead for us. It’s also a time of year for layoffs, as companies do the same. That means that a lot of people will be looking for new job opportunities in 2023, either by their own choosing or because their role has ended.

If you are in the latter category, do allow yourself some time to grieve. Whether you loved that lost job or merely tolerated it, being without it is a major change in status, routine, income predictability, and access to colleagues.

When you’re ready to launch your search, here are some things to keep in mind:

  • You still have your skills and your experiences
  • Your skills and experiences will allow you to do jobs similar to the one you had (or are contemplating leaving)
  • Your skills and experiences can be applied in new ways to a totally different role
  • You are worthy

When I work with someone who is seeking a new position, I share my analogy of the kaleidoscope. Kaleidoscopes create their captivating images using the same pieces (think skills and experiences), combined in different ways each time you change the position of the wheel. This is an especially helpful analogy for people who have determined that they don’t want to keep doing the same kind of work until their retirement and for people whose industry is retrenching.

 

My own kaleidoscope story

For 20 years I worked with a Fortune 500 company as a marketing communications consultant across two of their divisions, writing the kinds of written collateral  that would launch new medical devices around the world. Through my own choosing and to avoid any conflict of interest, they were my sole client. My primary skills were active listening to my clients explain about the new device, discerning what each of their audiences (physicians, patients and third-party payers) would want to know, and writing messaging that would resonate with each. Of course, I had deep content knowledge and a strong understanding of branding as well.

Then, in 2011, my phone no longer rang. My in-basket was empty. I learned that in response to an economic downturn the company had outsourced whole functions under retainer arrangements, including marketing communications.

I was out of business.

Because I knew practically no one outside the company and no one knew of my skills, I turned to LinkedIn to grow a network and to attract new clients or a new position. I knew that my writing skills would allow me to write about my skills effectively but I felt I needed to know more about how the platform worked. So I began to study LinkedIn intensely, attending webinars, reading articles, and following thought leaders. Along the way I reached out to my former clients who had also lost their jobs and helped them with their profiles. They were so impressed with my new content knowledge that they sent me their friends who needed help with their online branding, too.

 

Now I am honored to shine branding brilliance on people instead of products. I listen actively to my clients – where they’ve been and where they’re going. I discern how to most effectively communicate to their intended audience. And then I write authentic and powerful marketing story for them, using my new deep content knowledge of how the LinkedIn platform works.

Look again at the paragraphs above and note that the words in boldface are common between the two paragraphs.  You see, the key skills from my prior job are now being used in my new career. The new image created by shifting the shapes in my own kaleidoscope turned out to be even more satisfying to me than the last.

My own journey is one of the reasons I am very effective and successful at working with others whose job has ended or who no longer find their job to be satisfying. In fact, this year The American Reporter named me one of the six “top personal branding experts to watch.”

 

 

Use Kaleidoscope Thinking for Yourself

To use kaleidoscope thinking, concentrate on identifying your skills. Start by examining and modifying your Skills inventory on your LinkedIn profile. We all have skills that we don’t enjoy using as well as skills we are passionate about using. When you identify a skill that you don’t enjoy using, just delete it from your list. Then look over your list again. The chances are that although what is left on your list are skills you enjoy using, they don’t fully capture all the value you can bring to a workplace. It’s time to add additional skills you enjoy using that are not currently represented on your Skills inventory. LinkedIn allows you to list 50 skills, and using all 50 slots is the best practice. You might find it helpful to do this exercise with a trusted advisor familiar with LinkedIn’s skills inventory.

When you’ve completed subtracting and adding items on your Skills inventory, identify your three most important skills and pin them in the top three positions of your inventory.

 

Expand Your Horizon

Now that you’re warmed up, think of places that need those skills. If doing a similar position for a competitor is not going to meet your needs, it is time to think expansively. Make yourself a list. Do any of these possibilities make you smile? If so, you’re ready to re-engineer your LinkedIn profile and other job search collateral to target those right-for-you opportunities.

Job transitions are difficult. Please remember that the world of work still needs your skills and you are worthy. And, if you could use some help along the way, I’m here.

 

About Carol Kaemmerer

Named one of six top branding experts in 2022 by The American Reporter, I’ve helped countless C-level clients over the past ten years to use LinkedIn to frame conversations, impress customers, and introduce themselves before their first conversation takes place.

Contact me through my website https://carolkaemmerer.com for:

  • Executive one-on-one assistance with your online brand
  • Professional speaking engagements on personal brand and LinkedIn
  • An autographed copy of my book, LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive-2ndEdition
  • My self-paced, online course
  • To receive my articles in your email mailbox monthly

 

My award-winning book, LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive-2nd Edition received BookAuthority’s “Best LinkedIn Books of All Time” award. It was named one of the “Top 100+ Best Business Books” by The C-Suite Network, and it is an International Book Awards winner. For your author-inscribed and signed book or for quantity discounts, order at: https://carolkaemmerer.com/books

 

 

Categories
Advice Branding Entrepreneurship Growth Marketing

“7 Effective Marketing Strategies for 2022” – Adam Erhart

Did you know that only 9% of b2b companies rate their digital promotional efforts as highly effective? So chances are that’s you (and me, and everyone else too for that matter)…

So than what do we do when our marketing isn’t working? When no one is clicking our stuff, liking our posts? Just crickets…

According to marketing expert Adam Erhart, 90% of businesses ARE NOT posting near enough content (what he calls the minimum effective dose to trigger the algorithms) for anyone to notice.

Don’t you skip this part, it’s way more important than you think.

Erhart explains that most businesses dabble in too many things and totally fail to find their sweet spot online.

Here’s why….

 

In a recent video, Adam Erhart breaks down where most businesses fail online and covers 7 effective strategies to finally take your online presence by storm in 2022 (or skim the full summary below for the highlights).

 

WATCH:

 

 

Adam Erhart’s 7 Effective Marketing Strategies for 2022

 

#1 Most Businesses Don’t Post the Minimum Effective Dose:

When competing online, you’re not simply competing against your competitors, or even simply inside your industry for that matter. Instead, you’re competing with Youtubers, Twitter, CNN, Fox, Disney, Pandora, and millions of other sources of content distractions all fighting for the same attention.

So like Adam mentioned, as simple as it sounds, 90% of b2b businesses simply aren’t creating enough content on one single platform to stand out from anything else. A couple posts a week isn’t going to cut it.

Not even close…

Most companies “try social” or will spend $100 on ads and won’t see any sales and thus conclude…”the platform doesn’t work.” Spoiler alert, it doesn’t work that way.

If you’re not standing out, it’s almost always the case that you haven’t created enough content or a minimum effective dose to stand out on a particular app (let alone all of them). This is where 90% simply fail.

 

#2 The Marketing Rule of 7

Okay, so then how much content and how many touch points does it take to stay in front of someone long enough to get them to buy?

Fair question…That’s where Adam’s “rule of 7” comes into place.

The rule of seven works roughly like this; if your product is inexpensive, say $1-$20. You will likely have to get someone to see your message 7 times before they will open their wallet to grab their credit card. Higher ticket item? Plan on 14 or 21 touch points.

The higher the ticket price the more times you will likely need to be in front of your prospect. Just like a sales person doesn’t close someone usually on the first call, it’s even harder for a marketing message to close a sale to cold traffic post.

The average digital touchpoint to close a sale online is typically between 17-29 touch points!

That’s why volume is so important and again why 90% of companies are not producing enough.

But it’s admittedly a bit more complicated than just social posts, you will most likely need to create a subscription to create what Adam calls the “Mere Exposure Effect”.

 

Here’s what that means…

 

#3 The Mere Exposure Effect Explained…

The mere exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon where people develop a preference for things that are more familiar to them than others. Repeated exposure increases familiarity.

In short, it’s the familiarity effect. The more often people are exposed to your brand the more they will trust you and willing to buy from you (or recommend you to others).

  1. Post enough to reach a minimum effective dose.
  2. Keep increasing the volume until you see results.
  3. Implement the rule of seven until you discover how many touch points it takes to generate a lead.

The most effective way to get to the rule of seven is by getting your customer to join your communication list (email, newsletter, podcast, youtube).

Then finally continue to nurture them to create the Mere Exposure Effect.

 

#4 Go Deep on a Subject, Not Broad

Rule #4 is short and sweet. There’s billions of people on the planet, you can’t and don’t want to serve them all.

In fact, the broader your content, the easier it is to fail.

Instead, focus on making better connections with fewer people. The easiest way to do that is to find people that see the world the same way as you and who have the same goals.

Find them by sharing your beliefs and values in your content. Share your story of how you overcame the gist hurtle your customer is experiencing (as it relates to your product or service).

Sharing is caring…

 

#5 Develop Your ICA (Ideal Customer Avatar) 

Get clear on the demographics, geographics, and psychographics beliefs, values lifestyles that make them who they are. What are their fears and frustrations, goals and aspirations?

The easiest way to develop your core message is to write down the top 5 things your customer wants to achieve and the 3 things that are stopping them from achieving their goals. Choose the top obstacle to focus your story around.

That’s where you will identify your brand story. Adam refers to this as knowing your customer’s miracles and miseries…

 

#6 Know Your Customer’s Miracles and Miseries

Dean Graziosi always says; “customers don’t buy from you when they understand what you sell, they buy when they feel understood.”

The miracles are all the things the customer wants and desires. Their miseries are all the things stopping them from getting what they want (as it relates to your product or service).

Knowing what’s stopping your avatar from getting what they want will allow you to position your service as the bridge that can help them overcome the misery gap to achieve what they want and see you as the hero.

This is where conversions take place.

 

#7 Sell the Benefits – Not the Features

When it comes to marketing, it’s not about the features, it’s about how those features will get the customer what they want. The real value is in the benefit.

People don’t buy based on logic, but rather emotions. That’s why promoting features doesn’t work, it doesn’t engage people at an emotional level. But connecting the feature to the outcome will overcome that.

Follow these 7 steps to take your marketing to the next level in 2022.

 

WATCH:

 

 

 

 

For more information visit tylerhayzlett.com

Categories
Advice Capital Case Studies Entrepreneurship Growth Investing Personal Development Wealth

This Couple Makes $10k/month Growing Veggies in Their Basement. Here’s How…

There’s a growing multi-billion dollar industry that’s sprouting up from, of all places, homeowner’s basements. Here’s a peek inside the growing “Microgreen Industry” that one of your neighbors is probably cashing in on.

Here’s why…

The global microgreens market size was valued at $1.3 billion in 2019, and is now projected to reach $2.2 billion by 2028. Growing demand for microgreens, along with recent interruptions in global supply chains have created a local cash opportunity.

Especially amongst innovative homeowners looking to cash in on their un-utilized square footage.

 

What the Hell Are Microgreens?

Microgreens are young seedlings of edible vegetables and herbs. Unlike larger herbs and vegetables that take weeks or months to grow, microgreens can be harvested and eaten a week to 10 days after leaves have developed. Like baby carrots but for herbs…

These tiny plants only grow to a few inches and can come in 50 to 60 different varieties. Microgreens were originally limited to fancy dinner plates and boutique grocery stores due to their higher cost. But now they’re a multibillion dollar industry.

And did I mention, you can grow them in your basement? The set up cost is low​ and the growing cycle is super quick, meaning you can be harvesting and selling your first crop in just a couple of weeks.

Interested in this as a side hustle? Here’s an e-Book to get you started…

Microgreens can be grown in a small space and can sell for $50 per pound or more​, making them an ideal crop for small farms and “urban growers”. In an area as small as a shipping container, a garage, or basement you could generate thousands per month growing and selling them.

Here’s the full story on how one couple makes $120k/year selling microgreens from the basement of their urban home.

Check it out…

 

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For more information visit tylerhayzlett.com