Live events are not only a great way to meet some peeps you’ve known online for awhile but they are also a great way to network with other like minded business people!

The question is – how do you know which live event to choose?

There are so many out there that are available to attend! You need to know where to look to find the ones that are best suited for you. Here are two suggestions that will help you hear about live events:

• Forums. This was the first way I heard about the NAMS event. One of my favorite forums – Mom Masterminds – had a topic all about those members of MM that would be attending the event. This was when I first really started giving some serious thought as to whether I wanted to invest the money or not to go.
• Favorite Blogs. This is a great way to hear about upcoming live events. People are excited to go so they’re eager to share with their readers! Not to mention that most events offer an affiliate program which provides a little incentive to get the word out! This was the second way I heard about the NAMS event and probably the most influential on me. When your favorite bloggers talk about their experience with an event it’s hard to not get as excited as they are. Nicole Dean really ’showed’ her enthusiasm and excitement for NAMS through several of her blog posts.

After I made the decision to attend NAMS I started thinking about ways that the event would benefit me. It came down to two beneficial aspects:

1. Professionally. On the professional level you need to choose events that pertain to your business. It would be pointless to spend hundreds, even thousands, of dollars on an event that doesn’t pertain to your business. For example if your business is built around selling dog items you wouldn’t attend an event focused on cats and cat products.
2. Personally. On the personal level it boiled down to cultivating relationships on a deeper level with those I’ve known online for some years now. There were so many people going to this past NAMS event that I’ve known online for several years I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet them in person!

Maybe you’re thinking that because you’re new to online business that a live event isn’t for you. Or that maybe because you’re so new to online business that you don’t have a clue how to pick a live event to attend. Those are definitely valid thoughts but let me help you with a few suggestions on how to pick an event if your a ‘newbie’ to online business:

• Location – To help cut the cost down (live events can get expensive quick, you’ll be staying in a hotel – if you don’t live nearby (and even if you do staying at the hotel is something I’d still recommend if you can swing the cost just because there is so much networking going on after the events end for the day!) – eating out for all your meals, snacks, etc.
• Registration Costs – The cost of your ticket to attend a live event can range in price greatly. It’s hard to give a specific cost because there are so many different price points for live events. You’ll have to decide whether you can swing the cost for a high caliber event or not. Just make sure it’s one that will benefit you and your business.
• Speakers – Take a look at the lineup of speakers the event has. You’ll want to pay for an event that’s going to provide top notch, internet marketing savvy speakers. If they’re all speakers you’ve never heard of you just might want to pass. On the other hand if the speakers are some of your favorite bloggers or business owners you’ve wanted to meet you just might not want to pass up the opportunity to hear them speak and to get your questions answered.

Don’t make the decision to attend a live event harder than it needs to be! All it comes down to is gathering as much information as you can about the upcoming events (fees, locations, etc) and then sitting down and figuring out which one you can afford and which one would benefit you and your business the most!

p.s. Whether you’re a ‘newbie’ to internet marketing or a pro I recommend NAMS for your live event. It’s broken down into 3 stages – beginners, intermediates or advanced – so there’s a place for everyone!

Finally! It’s only taken me how long (oh let’s see…12 days now!) to get my NAMS post written. I’ve been that busy since getting home Tuesday night the 2nd! Let me just say that the first night we got home I couldn’t do anything except sleep. I was that exhausted! All those late nights finally caught up with me!

I don’t really know where to start. I have so many thoughts. I guess I’ll start with I’m so glad I decided that the beginner’s group was exactly where I needed to be. I was contemplating this decision because I do know some stuff about affiliate marketing but I ended up learning a lot… way more than I realized I needed to learn…from the beginners group.

My favorite thing about the workshops? The fact that we got to actually WORK on selling a product that was created right there as we sat in the audience. 5 internet marketing gurus shared their secrets about social media marketing. And while 3 sales isn’t much to brag about I was so geeked! Before NAMS I had only ever made 1 affiliate sale and that was in the course of a year! I had 3 sales within 24 hours at NAMS! It really opened my eyes to the fact that affiliate marketing is totally doable and that I can do it.

Kathleen Gage

Speaking of the 3 affiliate sales. Once I realized the winner of the sales contest had sold 26 products I started to feel like a total DORK for ‘bragging’ about my 3 sales. I was blown away when one of the speakers (who rocked the house by the way) Kathleen Gage actually took the time to send me a DM on Twitter and ask about my sales before NAMS and to tell me congratulations on those 3 sales. The fact that she took the time to actually seek me out and encourage me just kind of blew me away. I wasn’t expecting someone ‘important’ to care about the fact that I was feeling like a dork. She really made me respect her a lot more than I already did by just that one small action! Thank you Kathleen

Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins

And then there was the man who rocked my world (not like that you guys! jeez lol) Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins. I was so drawn to him. I hung on his every word. I felt like the brightest bulb in the box after hearing him speak. Suddenly so many things made sense even though I knew a lot of what he was talking about. It was just one of those things where the pieces of the puzzle finally all came together and fit and you’re like ‘oh duh’! His presentation was engaging, easy to follow and he was just great. Nuff said!

Lynn Terry

Oh man! Where do I start? I’ve ‘known’ Lynn online for the last several years but getting to meet her in person amazing! She’s just as sweet, funny, kind, caring, considerate and down to earth in person as she is online! Her presentation was pretty basic stuff for me but I had a total leap out of my comfort zone moment during Lynn’s presentation. Those of you that know me know my serious issue with public speaking and the fear I face. I had a question and I didn’t let my fear stop me from asking! This was a huge breakthrough for me! There was a microphone shoved in my face and I talked…in front of a room FULL of people! Yikes!

It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t mention the lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s with Lynn, her daughter Annie, Angie Newton and Danielle Johnson. Let me just say that we were getting looks for a lot of the people there. Yes folks us adults were being that loud and obnoxious! How we didn’t get kicked out is beyond me! It was at that lunch that I learned Lynn Terry and I have so many things in common. I never would have thought that! My favorite phrase now? Chaaaaarlie (if you have no clue what that means check out this video and it will explain everything!)

There were other presentations that rocked my world too. Aileen Bennett was amazing. She kicked us off Friday morning and man oh man what a great way to kick things off! Kathleen Gage as I already mentioned rocked the house.  Denise Wakeman gave lots of blogging tips that I picked up several pieces of gold nuggets from.

And of course there was the whole point of the event – meeting so many awesome peeps! And here’s just a few…

• Angie Newton
• Danielle Johnson
• Nicole Dean
• Andrea Amir
• Kimmoy Matthews
• Susanne Myers
• Glennette Goodbread
• The Man From Down Under – Steve Cockrane
• The Man That Forgot His Luggage and then left the tag on his shirt (you just had to be there to get this)

There were several other people I met too. Just not enough space to list them all! And next time I need to push myself out of my comfort zone even more and network with way more people. I kind of stuck to the same ‘group’ the entire time so that’s my goal for NAMS 4 – to network with lots of other peeps!

It was just an all around great experience for me! I learned so many things, met so many awesome people and will be going back for NAMS 4 in August. This is one event that I can see myself attending over and over and over – it was that great of an experience for me!

Of course with most good things come some bad. And while for me there weren’t that many bad things there were a couple things I didn’t like. I didn’t like what Joey Smith taught the beginners. At first it didn’t bother me but then the more I sat and thought about it later that evening, it really ruffled my feathers. I don’t agree with what he taught and I know everyone has their own opinion and that’s just mine. He was teaching us the Twitter Cash Method (I believe that’s what it was called).

The service in the restaurant of the hotel wasn’t always the greatest. There were a few times we waited and waited and waited to get our food or to get our check. They also didn’t have a very big selection of food (they mostly offered a buffet and for those of us that were ‘dieting’ a buffet isn’t the greatest choice!) and the food was pretty expensive. Thankfully there was a Subway right next to the hotel and I was able to eat there several times for lunch.

And last but certainly not least – my Michigan road trip gals. Kelly McCausey, Cindy Bidar and Kim Smith. This is the 2nd road trip with them and the 1st time around (to Canada) they got to watch me ‘conquer’ my fear of driving over bridges and this time around they got to watch me…well NOT conquer my fear of mountains and totally FREAK out!

It’s kind of hard to put into words everything I experienced during NAMS. It’s just one of those things that you really need to experience for yourself. Everyone walks away with such a different experience. If you’re thinking about going to NAMS 4 in August be sure to grab your ticket now.

p.s. Check out all my NAMS pictures.

So let me get right to the point! No beating around the bush right?

I’m working towards winning this sales contest that they have going on. We have until 5pm tomorrow, January 31st to see how many sales we can make on a product that 5 top internet marketing gurus sat right in front of me and created!

The product?

Strategies 4 Social Marketing.

Listen in as 5 top gurus – Willie Crawford, Kevin Riley, Maritza Parra, Jeff Herring, and Joey Smith – share their Secret Strategies for Driving Traffic and Dollars through Social Media. With an audience of 180 eager online marketers watching, five of the world’s most successful Internet Marketing masters revealed their secret strategies for leveraging the incredible power of Social Media.

I was one of those 180 eager online marketers mentioned above. Let me just say it was awesome and because I was sitting right here in the audience I can personally tell you that the product is packed full of great information and easy to implement tips from the gurus. The product is based around 5 questions:

1. Why would I want to build an online presence using Social Media? Isn’t it just about hooking up with buddies? Find out how Joey Smith transforms his online ‘buddies’ (and former girlfriends!) into happy and loyal customers.
2. Is Social Media for real? If so, how is it changing the way we interact on the web? Learn how Maritza Parra uses Twitter to tap into what her audience really wants – and uses that information to create products that have a hungry market already waiting for them.
3. How do you drive traffic using Social Media? Take notes as Willie Crawford explains exactly how he achieves an “economy of action” with his Social Media efforts. (Hint: he is traffic-driving legend for a reason!)Do you still need an email list if you have thousands of followers online?
4. How can you convert ‘friends’ to a list and why? Jeff Herring explains why you still need both – and offers great insight into how to convert your Social Media lists into responsive email marketing lists.
5. Do conversion tactics still work in Social Media? Kevin Riley offers some great ideas on who you should be following and why – and how this can dramatically improve your conversion rates.

Strategies 4 Social Marketing, like mentioned above, sells for only $17.00. And this is exactly why I drove through the mountains!

Tishia

The other day when I interviewed Scott and he was talking about how exercising has a lot to do with productivity in your home business I honestly had no clue how true it really is. I’ve had the best couple days minus a minor ‘injury’ yesterday that I wrote about on my personal blog today.

Over the last couple days I’ve been amazed to see some pretty significant results. Here’s a couple things I’ve noticed:

• More energy
• More productive
• Happier
• Sleeping Better
• Swelling in my ankles/feet has went ALL the way down
• More ‘awake’ in the mornings (wake up feeling refreshed)

I had a video all recorded to upload for you. But because I had such poor video quality and major issues with using my webcam last time I decided I’d use my digital camera this time and once again it turned out poorly (side note: Once again I’m realizing how if I’m going to keep on doing videos I’ve got to get my hands on a Flip Video Cam! lol). This time my digital camera made me sound like I had a lisp or something. It wasn’t pretty. So I’ll spare you the video and hopefully next time I’ll have better luck because maybe a Flip cam will just drop from the sky & land on my desk…hey a girls gotta dream right?

Until next time…

Tishia

This week’s thought was ‘again’. It was used in the context of going back to the basics, picking back up at the beginning and doing what works over and over. So once again I walked away with a head full of information and several things added to my to do list. And I took the whole going back to the basics for both my business and personal life.

Personal: 

There are several things I need to go back to the ‘basics’ on and once I do I know it’s going to have a positive effect in my life. I won’t go into too many details – I don’t want to bore you to death It just has to do with finances, eating healthy, exercising (which eating healthy & exercising pertain to business stuff as you’ll soon see when I talk about it in a minute). I was doing really good with my finances when I first moved back into my mom and step dad’s a couple months ago. I saved some money and paid off a few things which was a HUGE relief. But just recently I’ve gotten pretty relaxed with budgeting and saving due to a circumstance that came up recently that I wasn’t expecting. So I’m bound and determined to get back on track and that means I’m revisiting the budget or the ‘basics’ and getting back on a budget and looking to the future and the goals I have for the near future (a car and my own place).

Business:

The first thing is I have all these learning resources that I’ve read but I’ve never applied or taken action with the things I learned. So it’s time to start with the basics – SEO, traffic, marketing, blog posting regularly, article marketing, etc – and get my business moving in the direction I want it to. It’s impossible to move to the next level if I’m not even doing the basics. So all these things are a huge priority right now. No more pushing the business things I need to do to the back burner. It’s time to make the time and do it! I’m really fed up with myself and all this talk and no action!

Then as I mentioned above the healthy eating and exercise. I signed up for Fat Loss Quickie quite awhile ago but there was also one excuse after the other why I didn’t start the program. I had the awesome opportunity to interview Scott for Wahm Talk Radio and the man inspired and motivated me like I’d never felt before! So I was able to get days 1, 2 & 3 under my belt then I got sick and once again exercising was put on hold. There was no excuse I couldn’t do the exercises yesterday – I didn’t feel a 100% but I felt good enough that I would have survived the exercises. I did get out and go for a 30 minute walk so at least I did something! But anyways I’m taking this week’s Breakthrough theme ‘again’ and going back to the basics which in this case means I’m starting over at day 1 with the Fat Loss Quickie program!

It seems silly to think that eating healthy and exercising has anything to do with your business (at least in my mind it seemed silly) but talking to Scott and following his program and reading his content makes me fully aware of how it really does affect my productivity, etc.

I Recommend You Check Out: 

• Fat Loss Quickie
• Mom Masterminds
• Wahm Talk Radio Interview with Scott Tousignant
• Monday Morning Breakthrough Sessions (open to the public every Monday at 10am EST – we do record each session but those recordings are only available to Mom Masterminds members)

Until next time…

Tishia

I was fortunate enough to get Scott on the phone for about 30 minutes today to do an interview with him for Wahm Talk Radio (it will air soon). That call with him was exactly what I needed. The energy, enthusiasm, encouragement and motivation I needed to get my ‘computer butt’ in gear!

I did a quick little video to let you know how my workout for today went (I still have the cardio session to do yet!). I recorded via YouTube using my webcam and it didn’t turn out so great There seems to be a delay which looks kind of funny because my mouth doesn’t move to the words I’m saying. And there is one spot in the video where it freezes for a second. (On a side not this is just one more reason why I really really want a Flip Video camcorder!!!)

Day #1 Video Check In:
So there you have it – I actually survived exercising! I can only imagine how the cardio portion of today’s workout is going to kick me in the butt! LOL

Until Next Time…

Tishia

For probably about the past month, maybe even a bit longer I’ve been seeing tons of people “talking” about Scott Tousignant’s Fat Loss Quickie Home Office Workouts and I kept telling myself ok I’m jumping on board and joining. Except I never did it. It sounded good and from what I was hearing everyone was really enjoying the workouts. But up until now I wasn’t ready to jump back on the exercising/healthy eating wagon. Now I’m ready and I’m pretty sure Scott’s workouts are going to kick my butt but that’s exactly what I’m needing right now!

So tomorrow morning starts day 1 for me! I think I’m looking forward to this

Tishia