I miss you guys so much! The problem with producing one post a week is that if you miss a couple, you go dark for an awfully long time.
This is just a quickie to let you know where the heck I’ve been. I’ve got some nifty post ideas, so you’ll start hearing from me again very soon.
Teaching Sells
I became a partner in Brian Clark’s wonderful Teaching Sells, which I originally joined as a member in 2007, about 45 seconds after it first opened.
If you don’t know about Teaching Sells, it’s an online course that shows you how to create the next generation of information products. Beyond ebooks and teleseminars, the Teaching Sells model shows you how to create interactive learning environments, so you can teach anything from weight loss to cold-weather koi pond gardening, in a way that lets you serve your customer/learners with much richer, more useful education.
I’ve been helping to expand the original course content and make it even more user-friendly, including creating audio recordings of the original articles, and worksheets to get folks moving through the content and taking action.
It’s fun, fun work, and it’s very time consuming. One of the cool side-effects, though, is that I’m learning the Teaching Sells methods in much more depth. (If you’ve bought an information product yourself and you’re not quite using it, try teaching it to someone else! It’s a fantastic exercise.)
Personal stuff
One upside is that this partnership has allowed me to completely transition out of the corporate world. (Translation: I quit my day job.) I can’t even tell you the flood of energy and creativity this has given me. And it’s given me the bandwidth to say yes to a bunch of great client projects, which always gives new perspective.
The downside is what I am not-so-fondly calling “launch strep,” brought on by too many late nights. Everyone in my house got it, so we’ve been a very pleasant bunch to be around. We’ve all taken our meds and seem to be well again, fortunately. Three cheers for modern medicine.
Yanik Silver’s Underground Conference
I’m giving a talk on blogging this weekend (actually it was yesterday, and it was so much fun) to Yanik Silver’s Underground conference.
It’s been a long time since I went to a conference and didn’t see any familiar faces. (The only two I recognized on sight were Perry Belcher, who’s got an amazing story about how he became The Twitter Guy, and Facebook goddess Mari Smith.) This crowd is great, though, and so receptive to learning about how social media and Internet marketing can go hand in hand.
Maybe I’m just a starry-eyed optimist (ok, I definitely am), but I think the Internet Marketing crowd is coming around to the “quality content” point of view. There will always be some who slap together mediocre content to try to seduce the search engines, but the case for genuinely remarkable writing is becoming stronger and clearer. Which just makes me so happy I could giggle.
OK, I can’t let myself ramble on, as I want to get to Yanik’s young entrepreneur’s lunch (as a Tired Old Lady entrepreneur, I suppose my role will be to give advice and encouragement). I just didn’t want to go another day without letting you know how much I miss you guys, and writing for Remarkable Communication. I’ll be back soon, so keep the faith.
xoxoxox
Glad to hear from you and that (aside from the strep) all is well!
We miss you too, but between twitter, Copbylogger and BC’s tweets was able to get some idea of your plans for world domination! Sounds brilliant, and look forward to hearing more when you’ve time
Joanna Youngs last blog post..Audacious Writing Goals for 2009
I am so happy I giggled too when I read your point “the case for genuinely remarkable writing is becoming stronger and clearer.” I’m sending my own writing through a sort of rebuild experiment right now, aiming toward that end (I’m not there yet) even though my writing ability has always been singled out as a strength. I’m not saying that out of vanity, but just to point out readers really do want good writing. Actually, you won’t really see it on my blog right now either, due to the whole rebuilding-how-I-blog experiment, but the point still stands!
Terry Heaths last blog post..Stream-of-Consciousness Shamrocks
“Launch Strep!” Now that’s one to remember. LOL I know what you mean. 🙂
I’m looking forward to your return to regular blogging. Sorry to hear about the Launch Strep but congratulations on quitting the day job.
JoVEs last blog post..Play review: Belle Moral
Anxious to hear more about your Underground experience. How does it feel to be stepping into the spotlight? Star power!
Leonard Klaatus last blog post..Socialist Pigs, Capitalism and Why Marketing Will Save America
Thanks all! So nice to hear from you.
@Leonard, truth be told, I am the world’s biggest ham (ok, actually Scott Stratten is the world’s biggest ham, but I’m high on the list), so spotlights are always fun for me. I will say that it’s lots of fun to pretty much show up here and do my usual thing, and have it be something novel and different for folks.
Hi sonia,
Congratulations on being able to quit your day job and to do what you do best all the time. I often get sick when I go through big transitions like the one you are in. It sucks, but what are you gonna do (-:
Looking forward to seeing you back “home.”
chris zydels last blog post..CONQUERING THOSE NASTY, INNER CREATIVE SABOTEURS
Congrats on being a full time entrepreneur. Bummer on the Strep! Glad to hear you’re all feeling better.
I too am interested in the Underground Conference. What is it?
Terenas last blog post..The Rules of Working With Your Significant Other
Hope to see you back soon!
I joined Teaching Sells, this time around. I am so glad I did!
Sheila
Sheila Atwoods last blog post..Is Marketing A Dirty Word?
Sonia, congratulations! Whoo hoo! Doing the happy dance with you. You are loved and missed so looking forward to the next post!
Simone, I was wondering where you were! Missed ya. All great news, so happy that you’ve joined the work from home crowd and Brian. Nothing but blue skies…
Patsi Krakoff aka The Blog Squads last blog post..Recession Proof Your Business: List 5 People To Be Grateful For
I heard Sonia’s presentation at Underground 5 and she was awesome. Very down to earth and a passed on good useful insight. Thanks Sonia.
Congrats on leaving the corporate world. It’s not an easy leap. I would love to make it, but I’m not quite ready yet.
I do need to buy some informational products like teaching sells. I’ve been reluctant because I’ve been so busy. Maybe it’s time I stepped up.
Thanks for a motivational kick in the pants.
Karl Staib – Work Happy Nows last blog post..Pajama Day
So I didn’t realize I was going to the seminar until Friday afternoon — and I totally missed your presentation, but I got the downloads of the power points, so looking forward to going through them and just wanted to say hi 🙂
Later
Caleb
I heard a lot about Yanik’s conference through Facebook. I know Carrie Wilkerson (The Barefoot Executive) spoke there. That’s awesome you did as well!
Congrats on making the leap out of corporate. More time for you to focus on creating marvelous stuff for us. 🙂
Christine Gallaghers last blog post..Recession Marketing: Communicating Value is Even More Crucial Now
Congratulations on your new venture, Simone — and on getting to quit your job (I’m so jealous!). The Teaching Sells program sounds like something I could use. I’ve got some good ideas, and I’ve outlined most of it. But somehow I always lose steam when it comes down to actually writing it all down. I was just over at ZenHabits reading about inspirational people (hello, Mother Teresa, and hello, Ghandi), and it seems I have some fears (failure? commitment?) to conquer before I can truly consider myself a success. Don’t they say that knowing the problem is half the battle? Well, it’s the other half that’s so daunting to me. I’ve rambled on long enough (can you tell I’m procrastinating?). I guess I better get to work. 😉
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Sonia,
I almost bought into his program but I could not bring myself to because it would have meant more learning and not taking action….once I clear the decks though and you guys do the next relaunch I’m “in like Flynt”..especially now that your a team member.
I assume the Teaching Sells is an blending of the various membership type programs like Ryan Deiss’ Continuity Blueprint with a dash of Eben Pagen’s Altitude? Regardless it sounds like quite a program. Hint: at the next launch a sneak peek video of the learning environment would be great.
Cheers
Edmund
Edmund, I hear you. I get that way too, can’t process any new input for awhile while I deal with what I’ve already committed to.
Teaching Sells is very meta, it’s not really based on anything other than itself. In a nutshell, it’s Brian taking the tactics of direct marketing and applying them to teaching, then using the product as a methodology to create really effective information products. It’s very A-Z, you go from identifying a market & topic all the way through the launch and beyond.
I like the idea of a sneak peek at the environment, I’ll mention that to BC.
Man I’m sold. I’ve taken a great interest in the “teaching sells” concept as I’ve just created a video based training product for the equine market in a jv with some wonderfully talented “equine industry experts” and so I’m looking at the idea of how to best “teach” people a skill that is normally taught face to face, but now only using video, transcripts, diagrams and of course a great Q&A process so they can ask their questions and get answers via video “show me hows”
ciao