The Success Magnets with Cara Lumen

The Product Factory is the Wind beneath my Wings

If ever there was a driving force in my business life, it has been The Product Factory, that incredible 90 day course in product creation. Not only do you create a unique product, but you learn project management skills, online and offline marketing techniques, how to write compelling sales pages and resources on every product creation subject imaginable.

I'm about to start my fifth time through, my third time as Team Leader of The Success Magnets. Last time we won and our whole team has received a free return trip. .

The people are incredible. We work in teams and in forums because there are over 100 of us but we interact with resources and ideas and support from every team. As a Team Leader my job is to create a supportive learning environment, help you keep on target with your project, and do whatever it takes to help you get your product completed. .

In the end, your product goes on The Product Factory Wall of Fame where over 35,000 people are invited to take a look. .

Michael Port and Mitch Meyerson created the Product Factory. I have never known two people more in service to others. They give us everything they've got, share everything they know and are totally invested in our success. Michael is the author of "Book Yourself Solid" and "Beyond Booked Solid" and Mitch is the author of eight books including "Secrets of the Online Superstars" and "Mastering Online Marketing". They are both mover and shakers and great teachers. They have truly been the wind beneath my wings. .

The Product Factory is offered only once a year and it starts Monday February 25th. There is a weekly call with Michael and Mitch and then a team call you select that fits your schedule. And the rest is up to you. If you stay with the assignments, take advantage of the multitude of rich resources, and stay steady on your course, you will learn more than you ever imagined, make long-lasting friends from all over the world, and come away with a unique product for your business and know how to make many more! I hope to see you there! .

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps you focus your passion into profitable course of action. Through internet marketing, content strategy, signature product development and her own information products she helps pro-active entrepreneurs become Success Magnets. Join her on The Product Factory and subscribe to The Success Magnets emagazine at www.caralumen.com

Teaching made prosperous!!! Take your love of teaching to a new level

It's like going to college again. Or graduate school, or being in any stimulating learning environment that gets you excited about what you are learning, eager to put it to use, and continually amazed at the clarity it offers.

I'm talking about Teaching Sells an incredible learning site with Brian Clark and Tony Clark focused on helping you create your own membership site. They sure do know what they are doing and they are doing it well.

I’m no slouch at this. I've been studying and interacting with some very knowledgeable internet players for a good number of years, but this is the place that is bringing it all together in one, cohesive learning environment and I’m thrilled with what I am discovering.

But then I love to learn. I love to explore. I love to create. And with every "lesson" I read, I either get greater clarity on a topic I’m now ready to explore, validation of what I already know, or I am inundated with exciting new ideas that will make an immediate difference in profitability.

There is no stone unturned. And the navigation is beautifully clear.

The cornerstone of teaching is to be a step-by-step guide, being certain that the first step is grasped before using that foundation to build the second step. This amazing learning environment builds clear parallel steps that gently lead you to a total understanding of the topic – creating information in an environment that earns you money. I'm an educator and this is about becoming an even better teacher and making money in the process.

This course is about how to build a membership site. Why would you want to join if a membership site is not on your radar screen? Because it talks about so much more. Yes, it talks about how to build a membership site, but it also shows you how you should build your content and sales pages, the best way to approach a joint venture partner, profitable use of web 2.0 and technical tools to expand the impact of your business. It gives business models and marketing ideas that are applicable anywhere.

Just join. And plan on taking every course they have to offer. It's all great. It's all dynamic. It's all relevant. Check out Teaching Sells.

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps distill your vision into a specific and profitable course of action. Her specialty is internet marketing, content strategy, and signature product development. Through her Magnetic Marketing Method, Cara offers innovative, inexpensive, and impactful ideas for the pro-active entrepreneur. Become a Success Magnet at www.caralumen.com

Off the Beaten Path, Creative Thinking For the Entrepreneur

Don’t you love it when you have so many great ideas! I do too—most of the time. Then there comes a point where I am going in circles, trying to decide which idea to focus on, which one will add the most to my offerings, which one I am burning to do.

So I sat down and wrote, “OFF THE BEATEN PATH, CREATIVE THINKING FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR.” In it I explore how to capture your ideas, how to nurture and select the best ones to act on, show you over 35 ways to approach your idea to make it uniquely yours, and finally, discuss the most profitable way to bring it to market.

This four week teleclass with its powerful e-book accompaniment will give you creative tools and techniques to apply again and again.  Whether you have a mere inkling, a long list of ideas that you can’t choose from or a few special ones that are dear to your heart, bring them along. We’ll find more ideas and then take them all Off the Beaten Path to make them unique and profitable!  To learn more and to secure your place, go to

http://tinyurl.com/2d9djs

A Measuring Stick for New Projects

One of the reason we are entrepreneurs is because we have tons and tons of ideas. And fortunately or unfortunately, we are enthusiastic about every one of them. So how do we focus ourselves? How do we pick the projects we would undertake next? What kind of a measuring stick can we build to help us make a decision?

Everyone's measuring stick will be different. You are the only one that can pick the qualities that define value for you. After you choose your list of qualities you will need to assign a value to each of them in order to create your own personal Payback Measuring Stick. Here are some ideas:

What is the payback I get for this project in terms of:

- My time (How long will it take to implement? Can I do it or do I need to hire some/all of it done?)

- Money invested. (How does this project fit into my over all business budget?)

- How it feeds my passion (Is this on target with my innermost goal?)

- Creativity

- Pleasure/enjoyment in creating/doing it

- Potential joint venture possibilities

- Leveraging capabilities

- Is it scalable in that it can get bigger?

- Is it scalable in that it can be built so I do not have to work all the time?

- Will it hold more customers/clients?

- Will I run out of customers for it? Is there a burning need for it?

- What is its current worth? (If it's a project in place now that you are considering expanding)

- What am I personally up for right now in my life—a big undertaking, or a small but valuable tweaking?

What weight you give the aspects of this Pay Back Measuring stick depends on your goals.

Are you trying to create passive income that will keep rolling in for the future? Then you are going to care about the leveraging and joint venture aspects of the project. Leveraging is a key component to growth. Can this one idea become many other things? Can this e-book become a teleclass and an audio book and a packaged information product? Can you create a retreat based on its content? Is it the basis for a radio show or a podcast? Who else can you join with to strengthen the idea and make a profit for you both? What other lives can this project idea have?

Scarcity may be a deciding factor. Do you have the time and/or money at your disposal to do it yourself or can you be a team leader and get someone else to do it for you?

Is being creative a core value for you? Then you are going to give more weight to creativity and your pleasure and enjoyment in doing the project.

What size do you want your business to be? Are you limited by 1:1 delivery methods or is this new project a way to leverage your knowledge base into a group target market? Is there a genuine need for this idea or should it be modified and adjusted?

If you are in a hurry to create a product to accompany your next speaking engagement, or if you want something up on line and for sale in a week, the time it's going to take to create it will carry more weight.

Every decision must be weighed heavily against your core passion. I see lots of moneymaking ideas floating past me, but many of them do not represent my values, or the needs of my client base, or my basic purpose for being in service. Some I can adjust to my business, some I cannot. Choose a project because it honors your heart's calling.

Once you determine the value of each possible project, you have your own unique Pay Back Measuring Stick to help guide your choices.

c 2006 Cara Lumen