Lea Charlton

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most
intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. ~ Charles Darwin

This blog post is for anyone that is not doing well at marketing someone else’s dreams! You have tried following the marketing gurus and sales funnels, though felt more screwed over than accomplished in your mission. You have tried starting a business by joining opportunity after opportunity, and are not even close to where you thought that you would be. You have tried “blogging for dollars” – Clickbank, Videos, Adsense – and could not get it to produce fast enough none-the-less make it look like a blog that people should bookmark to favorites. You have taken the time to do what your mentors have suggested and are still not making the money that you need to make … you are still not making money online … you are still not working from home full time. :(

As the old saying goes, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” …

So, you have been plugging away at – what feels like – the crash course in exhausting your savings account. Your schedule is filled with offline and online marketing training, networking events and opportunity calls. You have been going through the work at home / make money online motions for quite some time … when all you need is for someone to break down “How To Make Lemonade” … this is also called getting the “golden nuggets”.

Lets use my friend as an example …

I just had a chat with a friend that I haven’t heard from in months. She has been in real estate for quite a while and does pretty good at it, but every time we talk about work, she mentions the same two things: 1) she is waiting for a big deal to close and 2) she is sick of working in real estate. My friend has been trying to learn how to make money online, though has not been able to replace her current job. It is not lack of motivation or willingness to “invest in herself” because she does take the time to develop skills and she does put in the time to market her affiliate programs. She is not “wishy washy” about really making a change. She is seriously trying to gain the “financial freedom” and flexibility that she needs. She is just tired of the ups and downs of the real estate industry, as well as running from appointment to appointment around others schedules. She still has to go into an office and does not care for most of the people she works with daily. She wants more control of her time. She feels as though now is the best time to make a change that will provide her desirable lifestyle and future.

There are 2 problems that most experience …

1) She needs to find a “good” business, product(s) or service(s).

2) She needs to replace her current income and has not come close to this goal.

This is a not an uncommon scenario. These are the two basic reasons why people are not successful at working from home. They cannot find a business that is “right” for them (as is always suggested). When they settle for something that makes sense, they cannot make enough money to replace their job so that they can work from home full time. Some get “sour” enough to quit trying to accomplish their dreams.

Lets put this juicy concept on steroid and give it the 100% it deserves …
“When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold” (Atmosphere 2008).

Lemonade Stand and Oregon Trail are 2 of my favorite computer games. As a child, I couldn’t wait to finish my 3rd grade math and use the school computer to play either one of these games. I would happily go play either right now, too. I was good at these games, though, obviously, the competition began prior to my sitting at the computer each time because only the first person done with math could play Lemonade Stand or Oregon Trail, and we had to get a good grade on the previous math paper to expect to qualify to play the next time around. Ironically, math was right before “break” (what they call study hall now), so the 1st person to get to this computer could play through break time if they did not have something else to do.

How To Build The Lemonade Stand …

My friend is determined to quit her job in real estate, but she does not feel as though she is skilled enough in anything else to, flat out, quit the real estate industry. She turned to the internet for “something to do” and bounced from company to company – while trying to accomplish her goal of making enough money – to replace her existing job. She did not take time to plan how she could accomplish short term and long term goals, and then move into action. She is focused on whatever she jumps into and not “the big picture” and her results are poor in comparison to what they could be. Although my friend is a smart woman and good at selling real estate, she feels like a failure in the online business / work at home industry.

As in my example about the Lemonade Stand game, YOU CAN HAVE WHAT YOU WANT BY DOING WELL AT JUST ONE THING as well as applying the following principles:

1) Determination

2) Skills

3) Goals

4) Planning (*)

5) Action

6) Focus

7) Results

8) Automation

9) Replication

10) Duplication

As promised, THIS IS HOW TO MAKE LEMONADE … the golden kind … not yellow!

Although my friend does not want to sell real estate, she is EXTREMELY intelligent about the real estate industry, sales process, homes, financing, etc. She is down right passionate sounding about it, too. In fact, she is to real estate as I am to seo marketing – she comes across like a straight up real estate nerd!

Tonight, I finally had to tell her to stop trying to dive into someone else’s business, products and services … that it was time that she started capitalizing on the vast experience and real estate knowledge that she has. I gave her the first 2 steps in getting started …

YOU CAN DO THE EXACT SAME THING, BUT YOU NEED TO HAVE A PLAN – MAYBE – SOME HELP.

This blog post is for anyone that is not doing well at marketing someone else’s dreams!

You have tried following the marketing gurus and sales funnels, though felt more screwed over than accomplished in your mission. You have tried starting a business by joining opportunity after opportunity, and are not even close to where you thought that you would be. You have tried “blogging for dollars” – Clickbank, Videos, Adsense – and could not get it to produce fast enough none-the-less make it look like a blog that people should bookmark to favorites. You have taken the time to do what your mentors have suggested and are still not making the money that you need to make … you are still not making money online … you are still not working from home full time. :(

Need the recipe for your perfect lemonade?

You can CLICK HERE to learn “How To Make Lemonade” or use the comment section below to discuss with other blog visitors. It would be great to hear from people that have been successful at making their own “lemonade” – Tell us what you do in the comment section below.

In a few months, Traci S Campbell will join my list of recommended authorities for our video training series. She is the leading family advocate and life coach for teens from single parent families, as well as the host for Heroes At Home Radio. Heroes At Home Radio is an online radio show that inspires single parents by honoring those that are working  hard to become successful in all areas of their lives. Traci has been a blessing  in my life for many reasons. The most obvious is because I had been a single parent for the majority of my younger son’s years. I respect that she has been helping so many people (single moms, single dads, married couples, teens, tweens, psychologists, other advocates) and can relate to her passion for making this difference in the lives of as many families and children that she can help. I continuously learn from her knowledge, professionalism and loving spirit.

Traci will release her first book and teen coaching program – The C.H.A.M.P. Within. There is still time to get the free audio and transcript from the left hand side of her blog at http://blog.traciscampbell.com – she also has interesting blog discussions that will help your friends and family learn more about teens, pre-teens and family value systems.

As 2010 would have it, my 1st video training took a “back seat” to an extremely important person in my life … My 10 year old son, Jonny “MJ” Charlton. I am using it as our January 2010 Video Marketing example. We hope that you pay attention to this case study and use this information to help YOUR business with video marketing :)

As the ball dropped on Jan 1, 2010, Jonny “MJ” Charlton (my son) appeared in a dress shirt and pants, Michael Jackson glove and hat, socks dirty from running outside to set off fireworks and EXCITEDLY announced that he wanted to make a video to get started on his 2010 New Year goal. I stood scratching my head wondering what he was up to. Roxy and Coby got the video camera ready. We ventured into a room with enough space (still unpacking from trip to Florida) and my son instructed us to play the song Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. When he was finished, he instructed us to load the video to Youtube and TAUNTED ME that he had made his video before me – LOL :)

We recorded as he danced to Billie Jean and had a great time – SEE VIDEO BELOW.

He announced that he knew what he wanted to do for a living, “be a Michael Jackson impersonator and professional WWE wrestler”, so that he could use these to help kids with Aspergers, ADHD, ADD, ODD and this spectrum of disabilities. Coby and I did as he requested. I launched his coordinating blog and told all of our family / friends. The next day we promoted his video a bit on January 1st and a few more hours during the month. In total, it was about 1 1/2 day of marketing in January 2010.  According to the Youtube statistics, Jonathan’s Michael Jackson video received 3,391 hits, 37 Comments and 30 five star rankings in 31 days? Google Analytics shows his blog received over 292 visits although the link was added to his video post mid-month. He is extremely proud!

Video Marketing Training #1 – What does this mean to you?

Well, this 10 year old started the 2010 new year with a goal in mind and the passion to accomplish it quickly. In comparison to some of the videos we come across and that I have marketed in the past, Jonny’s Michael Jackson video had fast branding success in under 2 days of video marketing. He did some things that many work at home and corporate professionals refuse to do:

1) He made a solid marketing decision and acted upon it quickly.

2) He utilized effective video marketing resources.

3) He asked help from people that were skilled in particular areas where he is not.

4) He chose a fantastic niche based on market popularity and personal interests.

Most of all, he dropped any insecurities about his chubby belly, not having the best dance planned and being shy about performing in front of others … went with the Nike “just do it” philosophy and just did what he set out to do.

With the Google Caffeine changes, social media marketing is even more important to your business than you could have imagined. Videos, Twitter, Press Releases, News Feeds, Blogging and other Social Sites like Myspace, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. are you very best platforms when it comes to organic SEO and Internet Marketing. My next Video Marketing Training will discuss a network that was VERY important to my branding and development in the past year … This friend has a new video training series that will help you, too.

How did I help my little Michael Jackson Impersonator accomplish his goal?

1) I supported my tween in his marketing decision although it felt like a risk to the parent in me.

2) I immediately posted the video to YouTube while doing marketing analysis in other browser windows to determine who he was competing with & what keywords (including his name).

3) Once the video was posted, I added the title, description and keyword in the YouTube boxes.

4) I made sure to add his website link as the first text of the description and mine at the end, then set it as the main video on my Youtube homepage – http://www.youtube.com/leacharlton

5) I cloaked the link, tweeted it and sent the info to family and friends, so that they could watch, rank and comment. Some retweeted and social feed for us, so that he could get the exposure.

6) I took a few minutes to post his Michael Jackson video as responses to other’s similar videos.

7) He already owned the domain, though it had a very old website builder on it. I added WordPress, a cute template and the content that he dictated to me, while I had Coby posting his video to locations on the Internet, ping and feed. This took a few hours of the first day of marketing.

Imagine if you had over 3391 Youtube video views and 292 hits to your new website in less than 2 days of marketing. You would be much better off in your business, as a result of video marketing, than you were last year.

The following is his Michael Jackson Impersonation Video – Let us know what you think!