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More Clients
- the Online Marketing Newsletter
for Independent Professionals
from Action Plan Marketing
and Robert Middleton

In This Week's Issue: Is it possible to inject clarity and
passion into your marketing?

 

Clarity and Passion

In my Marketing Action Groups this past week, the theme has
been "Clarity and Passion." We've explored why these two things
are so important to business and marketing success, and why
you really can't have one without the other.

Remember when you've had extraordinary moments of clarity,
when you knew just what to do? You created a plan, or worked
on a project, or put together a presentation that communicated
exactly what you wanted to get across.

And did you also notice that, when you had that clarity, you were
also "on fire" with passion? You discovered that you could work for
hours without a break.

In a way, passion and clarity are the same thing, experienced by
different parts of ourselves. Clarity is an intellectual expression,
and passion is an emotional expression. They both lead to the
same things - including clearer communication and the ability to
persuade people to take action.

How can you develop clarity and passion?

A few weeks ago I was at a workshop/retreat that was very
stimulating, both intellectually and emotionally. I found myself
grabbing my notebook and jotting down ideas for a new kind of
marketing workshop. Before long I had ten detailed pages
outlining the new workshop and a complete marketing plan.

The program I was attending had nothing to do with business or
marketing, but the atmosphere stimulated both my clarity and
passion. I suppose another word that encompasses both of
these is creativity.

By putting yourself in situations that stimulate your intellect
and/or your emotions, you'll find that creative ideas about your
business will tend to kick in without a lot of effort.

And believe me, sitting around in front of the TV usually won't do
the trick! You want activities that are active, not passive; ones
that both demand something from you and are fun to do.

Here are a few ideas:

Walking - This might be the universal creative stimulator. I'm not
sure what it is, but the rhythmic activity or walking seems to calm
down the restless mind. Beautiful surroundings stimulate the
feelings. I always get great ideas when I go on walks.

Writing Class - Want to be a better writer in your business? Take
a writing class that focuses on fiction, journaling or poetry. This
uses a different part of your brain and taps into your passion.
You'll find that passion rubs off on your business writing.

Acting or Improv Class - When you have to think on your feet, you
stimulate your intellect and passion. You go into action, and move
and do things in an uninhibited way. Again, this can rub off in
many ways in your business. If you develop skills of spontaneity,
you'll be a much better speaker and presenter.

Painting or Drawing - Again, an activity that uses very different
creative muscles that typically aren't used in business. You will
develop more depth, a sense of proportion and balance. You'll
start to notice the visual aspects of your marketing with more
clarity, and you'll understand the impact this has on persuasion.

Martial Arts - In a karate or tai chi class you'll develop the
disciplines of exactness and focus. Both are very useful skills for
a business person. You'll develop awareness and the ability to
be flexible and adaptable to changing business situations.

Of course you can't pursue all of these extracurricular activities
at once, but try at least one. See if it doesn't enhance
both your clarity and passion in a way that very positively
impacts your effectiveness as a business person and marketer.

More about "Clarity and Passion" in Marketing Flashes below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The InfoGuru Marketing Manual

This comprehensive marketing manual for Independent Professionals
is the flagship product of Action Plan Marketing. Written by Robert
Middleton over several years, it contains the accumulated wisdom of
over twenty years on how to attract clients with less struggle.

Why is the InfoGuru Manual for you?

- It was developed exclusively for Independent Professionals such
as consultants, coaches, trainers and other service professionals
who are great at what they do but have a hard time consistently
attracting clients to their businesses.

- The manual is based on a few powerful marketing principles that,
once you understand them, might seem obvious but are missed by
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- The marketing principles contained will help you: increase interest
in your services, build trust and credibility with prospects, get prospects
wanting to learn more about what you do and create a steady stream of
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- It goes way beyond theory, vague generalizations or concepts and
contains hundreds of hands-on marketing strategies and action plans
that are easy to implement, even if you have no marketing experience.

- Includes foundational marketing information on things like creating
an attention-getting marketing message and then goes into depth on the
most recent marketing techniques of web marketing and eZines.

- You can read it like a book, you can go through it slowly and do
the exercises like a home-study course or you can refer to it whenever
you have a question about marketing your business.

- It comes with a boatload of extras, including audio files, articles,
and the InfoGuru Support Forum, where you can get any question
about marketing answered for free.

- The Support Forum can be used to answer questions, provide
resources, review marketing materials, web sites, proposals and
sales letters, as well as explore the more complex and confusing
aspects of attracting clients to your business.

- It will help remove the mystery and struggle about marketing
and selling that so many Independent Professionals experience and
will help you realize that marketing can actually be fun.

- It comes with my unconditional guarantee. Get it and try it. If you
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- Unlike most marketing information sold on the web, the manual is not
only available in digital form (pdf file) for immediate download, but for
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- The InfoGuru Marketing Manual was published in February of 2001
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- If you are looking for one tool that will help you attract clients with
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For complete details and to order online go to:

http://www.actionplan.com/infoguru.html

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Marketing Flashes on "Clarity and Passion"

* Clarity and passion come from discipline - discipline that is often
rather boring. Just as well-developed muscles come from the
often-boring activity of regular exercise, clarity and passion can
come from the exercise of just writing on a regular basis.

* We are often lost in a fog of muddled thoughts and confused
emotions. We don't know what we want or why we want it.
When you get a flash of clarity and/or passion, go for it! Use the
momentum to work with intensity.

* Clarity builds with successive drafts. If you're writing an article,
marketing materials or a sales letter, don't be satisfied with the
first draft. You'll be at a whole new level of clarity after four or
five rewrites. And your passion will be higher as well.

* Borrow the clarity and passion of others. In the Marketing
Action Groups participants send each other their materials and
give each other feedback. This interactive process stimulates
ideas that would be hard to generate alone.

* Clarity and passion come to us in spurts. Be satisfied with
what you get, and put it to use. Edison's saying that genius is
1% inspiration and 99% perspiration definitely applies here.

Until next week, all the best,

Robert Middleton

ACTION PLAN MARKETING
Helping Independent Professionals Attract More Clients

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.actionplan.com

210 Riverside Drive
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
831-338-7790

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© 2004 Robert Middleton, All rights reserved. You are free
to use material from the More Clients eZine in whole or in part,
as long as you include complete attribution, including live web
site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear.
The attribution should read:

"By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit
Robert's web site at
http://www.actionplan.com for additional
marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional
service businesses."

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