Should You Start A Company

I just completed setting up a new blog that has but one purpose:  to help everyone accurately predict their own personal five year future.

Hope Is Having A “Point B”

As many of you may already know, I have two apparently disparate careers: one, as an internationally-known management consultant to start up and emerging companies – two, as a relationship expert and published author of a book called, “Efficient Love.”

Even though this combination may seem strange, these two parallel careers are really not as dissimilar as they might first appear.

As a matter of fact, these two different personal focal points I have share a common, passionate mission of mine:  Helping people get from their current Point A to their desired Point B – for both their personal life and their business life.

I want to help you finally define the right-for-you Point B for your life – there is absolutely no cost, no obligation – just my best wishes that you find your Point B sooner than later.

The premise of my personal mission is:  If folks will freely choose and fully define their DESIRED Point B, they are much more likely to reach their DESIRED Point B.

I use the Five Year Life Quiz as a starting point for most all of my consulting clients — whether it’s for Efficient Love or my management consulting related to starting or growing a company. Until I know my clients’ real and personal Point B, I can’t fully understand how to give them the very best help possible.

But beyond this business use, I strongly believe that everyone can greatly benefit from this methodology. Every man, woman and near-adult child can use this basic approach to more fully take control of their own lives.

I’ve been using this Quiz with business clients and relationship clients alike for the past dozen years. During that time, it has been gratifying to see the overwhelming, positive impact it has had on so many folks.

Because of these successes, I already know this process can help those who approach it with an open mind.

Because these issues are so important to virtually everyone’s life, I want to offer this Five Year Life Workbook as a free gift to everyone – so you can realistically take control of your life and find the congruent path to your own fulfilling personal Point B.

It is my way of “paying it forward” to the world — whether we ever do business together or not.  Even if there is less than a zero chance we will ever work together – I still want you to grab this Quiz for YOU!

If this Quiz even helps you have one insight that will help you get more quickly to YOUR desired Point B, then that is all the reward I want.

If you want to know more, or download the Workbook for free, just click Five Year Life.

How well branded are “YOU”?  When I say “you” I am talking about your name.

Once upon a time, I used to think I was unique.  That was until I found out just how many guys were named “Robert Goodman” in this world.  It’s even true here in relatively small Clearwater Beach, Florida.  Come to find out that there are THREE of us named “Robert Goodman” that go to my same doctor!

So, when you look at the world wide reach of the world wide web, you quickly find how difficult it can be to create a brand around your own name – especially when the best popularity metric here in the new millennium is Google.

They are very few of us who have not “googled” ourselves to see what’s out there.  Sometimes, it can be a little disturbing and embarrassing – since Internet photos, videos, blog postings, instant messages, tweets, pokes, flames, complaints, rants and raves, etc. live on forever.

So how DO you create a brand around your name?

For many of us with “common” names like mine, there is a special ingredient that improves on our individuality.  It’s called our middle name.

In my case, my middle name is Lee.   Even though that helps tremendously, trust me when I say there may be a near-infinite number of other folks with the same name – even counting the middle name. (Would you believe, one of the other two “Robert Goodmans” in the small universe of my doctor’s office has my same middle name?)

My recommendation is that you start branding your name, with your middle name, as aggressively as you can to establish your Google presence before someone else does.  This is what I call “G-Branding.”

To see how this can work for you, I invite you to check out my new online business card at: www.RobertLeeGoodman.com.

As of this writing, you’ll notice that I currently have 9 out of the top 10 first page positions for my full name (the obituary is not me).  On both page two and page three of Google, I have 5 of the 10 entries on each of those pages.

As you can see, there is room for significant improvement on my part to tweak these numbers.  Note that there is almost NO hits for me if you type “Robert Goodman” since all my “G-Branding” is focused with my middle name.  As a consequence, everything you do, say, publish and distribute needs to include your full name – so your prospects and customers know you by your full name.

Just so you know, this “G-Branding” is not ego-driven (okay, maybe just a little.)  In my case, I have several different companies and several different products and services that I offer to startup and emerging companies – along with products and services to a completely different audience for my relationship book, Efficient Love.

What gets difficult is trying to describe ALL of those companies and services on one small business card – even front and back.

At a recent seminar I attended in San Francisco, our host, Alex Mandossian, handed out his new business card which is similar to what you see at my website www.RobertLeeGoodman.com.  If you google “Alex Mandossian“, you’ll see he has even MORE products and services to sell than I do!  Alex is probably THE best expert on promotion that I have met in three decades in business.  As you can see, he completely dominates the first 10 pages on Google and is an excellent example of how to create your own “G-Branding.”

I thought that his Google Business Card was such a great idea that I decided to produce an online version of Alex’s idea with www.RobertLeeGoodman.com.

Like it or not, it really is the World According to Google when you’re in business – especially if your predominant market is found on the Internet.  If you take that statement as axiomatic – and your market is the Internet – then you have GOT to take action to improve your own “G-Branding” before someone else with your same name beats you to it.

If you’re online with any part of your business, then you’re faced with constantly writing copy.  This includes sales letters, web pages, blogs, auto responder messages, e-mails, etc.

Many of my clients are start up company CEOs and entrepreneurs who have no background whatsoever in sales and marketing.  Many of my clients are startup entrepreneurs who have little or no cash to pay for copywriting talent (or any thing else.)

I’m certainly no expert on copywriting – and I’m currently working on learning more myself on how to improve my own copy.  However, a friend of mine, Trevor ‘Toe Cracker’ Crook, IS an expert.  He’s also offering 10 hours of downloadable audio MP3s of his “Copywriting Blueprint Formula” for free.

I know that you see a lot of this kind of stuff on the Internet – but I’ve listened to the audios and there is a huge amount of content with virtually none of the usual upsell.

Trevor’s concept on giving away his content for free is “Pay it forward.”  Just like in the novel and the movie by the same name, the idea is to give up front with no expectation of receiving in return.  Trevor’s goal is to “pay it forward” by giving this audio course to one million entrepreneurs.

I’m not an affiliate of Trevor.  I don’t get paid anything for this recommendation. He doesn’t even know that I’m posting this information on my blog or sending it to my list.  However, I strongly recommend you take advantage of this free download, listen to the audios and start applying what you discover to improve your own copy.

This is just my way of reciprocating by helping Trevor - with me “paying it forward” to help him reach his one million Entrepreneur goal.

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
http://Virtual-Exec.com
http://DeviledDetails.com