Bill Baren Blog

The time is NOW…

This is the best time in history to be in business for
yourself.  And no, this is not the new age positive thinker
in me talking.  I do believe in being positive, but I also
believe in seeing the clear signals that the world is constantly
sending out.

So what am I seeing?

** The internet and computers have made marketing and
delivering your message easier than any other time in the
history…

** People are thirstier than ever to better themselves and
their circumstances and are now actually believing it’s
possible for them to do so…

** Interest rates are the lowest they have been in over 50
years…

** Lots of great people all over the world are looking to
be involved with businesses or projects that have meaning
and that are positively impacting the world…

There is been no better time in your lifetime for you to
succeed in business.

The information you need to succeed is here now.

The access to delivering your message is here now.

The help you need is here now.

The opportunity is here now.

The question is:

What are you doing during this time of unparalleled
opportunity?

Are you spending your time whining and complaining or are
you taking full responsibility and doing whatever it takes?

Are you paralyzed with worry or you looking fear straight
in the face and taking action anyway?

Are you wasting your time waiting or are you going for it
now?

Your abundant and impactful business is waiting for YOU.
Don’t you think it’s time to answer the call?

So what are willing to do about it today?

Share what you’re going to do here.

I am back at my office after an amazing Big Shift Experience
and then a week off to take care of myself and get the much
needed rest my body has been craving.

I have to confess that this is the first time ever I took
time off right after a big event I was hosting and I’ve
gotta tell you, taking care of myself in this way feels
awesome.

But I digress…

What I really want to talk to you about is what I learned
from putting together my biggest (over 250 participants)
and best event ever.  The sheer power of the big shifts
happening in the room was awe-inspiring and the community
that was created was gratifying to me at the core of my
being.

Since the Big Shift Experience, I’ve been getting tons of
emails and phone calls with what I can summarize as a one
question “How did you do that?”

So without going into the nitty-gritty details of what it
takes to create a community, do a mega-successful launch and
design a transformational experience, I want to give you the
highlights of what I learned.

#1 My favorite trifecta of intention, commitment and design
works today more than ever.

Here’s how I think about the process of creating:

First I set the intention of what I want to create - what
transformation I want my participants to experience, how do
I want them to feel, my goals and as much vision about the
program as I can muster.

The second, and arguably the most important aspect of this is
the commitment. The commitment to bring to life my
intention. The commitment to mastering the elements of what
I am creating, the commitment to delegate all aspects of the
project that I don’t intend to master; and the commitment to
being the best me possible throughout the process.

For me, the rest of it is all about design - how do I
design my program, my 1-on-1 service or my event to create
the results I want my clients to get AND the experience I
want them to have.

And yes, I do believe design is a key component to creating
anything. So why not think of myself as a designer of
amazing results and transformational experiences for my
clients?

#2 - In today’s age of lots of connections with very little
depth, a deep supportive community of individuals connected
by a common desire is the missing piece for most business
owners.

My whole team and I have become community junkies…  we want
to be creating communities and we want those communities and
every participant in them to feel like they are not alone.

And what I am seeing in all of my programs, especially the
Big Shift Coaching Program is that there is an incredible
thirst for feeling like you are a part of something bigger
and for knowing that others have your back.

As a society, we are in a period of mourning the loss of
community.  Personally, instead of mourning for it, I
believe that the future of the planet is dependent on
creating and leading these communities.  So I am
committed to this today more than ever.

#3 - Pattern interrupt is key for success. 

We are so ingrained in our current way of thinking, our
established habits and our way of being in the world.
NOTHING will ever shift for us unless we shake things up.

So participating in experiences that help you interrupt
your patterns (which helps you to be a lot more at choice in
creating new patterns) is one of the few effective ways to create
change in your life.

Yes, it is foolish to be thinking the same way and
performing the same actions and be expecting different
results.

These are just a few of things I learned or now own in a
deeper way as a result of the Big Shift Experience.

So what did you get out of my learning?
What do you want to commit to now?Share your comments below.

I want to share with you about what’s currently happening in
my life.

After 3 years of wanting to move out of the house I had
lived in for 17 years, it finally happened.  And as a result
of that process, I have grown a lot and I now know who I am
and what I want in deeper and more profound ways.

Moving is not fun!

But what is gratifying is envisioning what I want and
taking the steps every day towards that.

My wife and I had no intention of buying a fixer-upper, but
when we both saw the house we wound up buying (and because
of our schedule we saw the house separately), we could
immediately envision what the house wanted to be and what we
wanted to become in it.

This was OUR house.  We wanted it and it wanted us.

Is this a “they lived happily ever after story”?  Not
exactly.

Now that we are moved into OUR house, the real work begins.
Every single room needs work and every single room is
screaming at us “Please get me done first.”

We do have a vision and our place is going to be incredible in
six to twelve months.  But now it’s about taking small steps
every day to move the project forward.  And as I take steps
forward, my vision is starting to change, too.  And it’s not
easy.  It’s challenging my wife and I every day.

And it reminds me what it was like for me when I was
starting out in my business.  I thought that I knew what I
wanted, but with every step I took forward what I found
would surprise me and almost never looked and felt like I
envisioned.  It felt like so many pieces of my business (just
like the rooms in my house) were screaming at me to get them
handled NOW.

• Do I have my niche down?
• Are my packages and offerings attractive enough to
  clients?
• Do I have a sustainable marketing system that will bring
  me income every month consistently?
• How do I talk to my potential clients in a way that will
  have them sign up with me?
• Etc…

Will all these pieces align together and create a
sustainable business where I get to positively impact the
lives of others and help me create the lifestyle I want for
myself?

Now a few years later and my business is flourishing, all
the pieces are aligning and my impact is growing.

But I am reminded with my house project of how unsteady I
felt in the first years of my business.

So if you’re feeling unsteady and not sure if it’s all
going to work out for you.  You are in good company.  You’re
supposed to feel that way.

THIS is the reason why I love to coach, train and mentor.
When you’re feeling unsteady, when you’re doubting whether
your vision will come alive in your business or you’re
unsure of how everything you do in your business comes
together, I am sure.

I’ve been there and I know the way.

Warmly,
~Bill

I want to tell you a story about a Big Shift I had to make
that changed my life forever.

This is a personal story from when I was in the music
industry.  I owned a record label.  And the function of
a record label is to find great talent, help them record
great music, find the best ways to promote the music
and then use effective distribution  channels to get the
music into the hands of the people who love it  and are
meant to experience it.

And in the 90s, that’s when I was in the music business,
this was a very difficult, complicated and labor intensive
process.  The odds of being successful were extremely
slim.  But I loved music, I loved discovering new talent
and being at the forefront of creating musical trends
that despite my parent’s disapproval and all odds
against me, I was able to achieve relative success.

I got my company to about a $1 million in sales in 1996.

Yet I felt stuck and I wasn’t sure what to do next.

I wasn’t able to break through that invisible ceiling and I
wasn’t able to create the kind of exposure for my groups
I really wanted for them.

I knew I had to shift, I knew I had to play a bigger game,
but I wasn’t sure what to do and I was scared to try
anything different.  At this point, my label was beginning
to get a pretty good reputation and I didn’t want ruin a
good thing.

I looked like a winner to the outside world, but I felt
very stuck.

So I was in the running to sign two very respected hip hop
artists, Kool Keith, who was big in the underground circles
and Ice T, who already had major success and just  signed
on to star LA Law, a very popular  TV show.

It was scary because the kind of money they were asking for
to sign them was so much more than I was used to paying.

I was terrified to risk everything I worked for on a big,
high-profile project.

I knew I had to take that next big step.

After much negotiations, I was able to sign the duo to do
album together.  I created a marketing plan that was
bigger than anything I had ever experienced.  I promoted
that record more than any I had previously.  We got it
into what seemed like every record store in the country.
We got the album onto the Billboard charts.  We got
reviews in every major music magazine.  We were
prominently featured on MTV news.

All of that happened because I made a decision to make my
next Big Shift.

It all worked out in the end, but it was going through
making the big shift to really going for it and to do
something different and bigger, that’s what made the
big difference for me.  From then on, all the albums
I wound up releasing got that same kind of treatment.
After I made the shift, there was no going back to
doing it the old way.

That experience propelled my label to increase its revenue
to nearly $5 million just two years later.  It  was an
amazing process, I learned so much from it - I was able to
increase my earning, skyrocket my reach and put my
label and all of my artists on the map because the decision
I made to play a bigger game.

It all started with deciding to make the shift to sign high
profile artists, but what I got out of it was  so much
more.  It was not easy and it was really scary, but
going through that was one of the greatest experiences
ever.

And it shifted how I approached my business and it shifted
who I was, too.

That’s the power of committing to big shifts rather than
incremental small changes - to really go for it despite
the fear.   I have been a true believer of the Big Shift
ever since and it has served me well in my current
business.

I have literally become a student and now a teacher
of  Big Shifts. I understand what it takes to accelerate the
shifts and I now know what it takes to make them more
effortless and doable and not as scary.

Stay tuned to some major announcements in my world that
will shift your world.

Warmly,

~Bill

What Big Shifts do you want to make in your business?
Please leave your comments below.

I love this time of the year.

This is the time for family and friends. It’s the time to
slow down and reflect. And I am consistently reminded to
practice being in a state of gratitude from moment to
moment.

I am writing this to you on a plane ride to visit my
parents in New Jersey. And as I sit here reflecting on my
life and what I am grateful for, one thing keeps
surprisingly popping up over and over again.

I am grateful that I believe in myself.

And I am especially grateful that I noticed a pattern that
most successful people in business, in sports and anywhere
in life, have this uncanny ability to believe in themselves.

Those who believe in themselves succeed and those who don’t
have a tendency to struggle.

By the way, when I say I believe in myself, I don’t just
mean I believe I can do this one activity or be good in this
one particular situation.

What I am talking about is an overarching belief – “I can
do it. I trust myself to achieve anything I put my mind to.”

I have been studying this subject and experimenting on
myself with this for years. So that now after years of
practice and personal inquiry, I can now honestly say:

“I believe in myself.”

So I want to share some of my practices and mindsets that
have been incredibly helpful to me on my journey towards
believing in myself:

1. Put good thoughts in my head – my thoughts create my
   reality, so I do my best to expose myself to good thoughts
   that serve me and humanity (hint: I have given up being
   connected to the news cycle); what I put in is what I get
   out
2. Give myself permission to go for what I want – what I
   want is sacred; by going for what I want no matter how
   impossible or scary it may seem, I am honoring myself and
   what the Universe has in store for me
3. Appreciate small wins – I know everything is cumulative;
   there are no overnight successes; so by appreciating small
   wins consistently, I get to create constant movement forward
   towards that which I want
4. Pay attention – I am getting feedback from the Universe
   all the time; by not taking this feedback personally, I get
   to course correct and get better over time

So I want to encourage you to consciously embrace the
journey towards believing in yourself. It will change your life.

What are you grateful for?

Gratefully,
~Bill

P.S. A couple of weeks ago, I held a “Get Real Open Forum
with Bill” community call as an experiment. On it, I openly
shared about my daily practices and my “secrets” to success,
and many other things I don’t usually have a chance to talk
about. One of my favorite questions was “how do you talk
your spiritual practices when you have a business
audiences?”

I got so much positive feedback that I wanted to share the
recording with you here.

Download ‘Get Real Open with Bill’ call

Enjoy!

Remember the survey I invited you to about 3 weeks ago? The one asking “what you would like to know about holding successful teleseminars?”I don’t know about you, but I am often curious to see the results of the surveys I take. So I will share what I learned with you - I hope you find it as fascinating as I did. Before I get to that, I want to thank everyone who made the time to take our survey. I know how valuable your time is and I am grateful that you lent a few minutes of it to give us your opinions.

Here are some key highlights. It might be interesting to see if you have similar opinions or concerns.
First off, we did a survey last year and we asked a group of our top clients:

“Which of the following are you most interested in using to create more income in your business?”

Turns out Teleseminars were the most popular topic.

That’s not surprising, right? Since every day you see the top experts in your industry expanding their audience using teleseminars.

We asked people in our teleseminar survey the following question and this is where it starts to get interesting.

“How many teleseminars have you already conducted?”

According to our survey, 69% of our respondents have never conducted a teleseminar! And only 15% have ever done more than 5 teleseminars.

I found this to be a startling statistic. I hope you are taking note of this.

The thought that struck me when I saw this - wow, very few people are using this powerful marketing method.

The reason this is so important is: there’s a lot of opportunity for you to stand out in your field by using teleseminars. Because most of your colleagues haven’t taken the plunge.

Next question is:
“On a scale of 1-10, what is your interest level in creating teleseminars to market your services?”

As you can see, 80% of respondents selected 7 or above.

And the average level of interest in teleseminars is 7.81, so a very strong interest.

So isn’t this a paradox?
80% of our survey-takers have a strong interest in teleseminars  And yet 69% have never conducted one.

I was scratching my head on this one, until I saw the answer to the next question:

“What is your #1 question (or challenge) about doing teleseminars to market your services?”

Here’s what people told us are their biggest challenges:

1. I don’t know how to attract enough people to my teleseminar
2. I don’t know how to create a compelling topic or content
3. How do I make my offer so that people want to buy?
4. Technical issues - what do I need to set up a teleseminar?
5. Overcoming fear and doubt - will I sound foolish, what if there’s no audience, etc

“A-ha!”, I thought.

This explains why so many people are INTERESTED in teleseminars, but so few people are actually doing them.

And with all of these perceived challenges, this is why it’s such an opportunity for you to break from the crowd.

My team spent hours sitting with the survey results, absorbing the wisdom within.

As you know, I like to think BIG, so naturally I wondered how I could address these varied concerns with one project.

And the Teleseminar Enrollment System was born

I’m proud and excited to give you advance notice about my next exciting project - The Teleseminar Enrollment System.  It’s an unprecedented program where I’m going to share practically everything I know about creating successful teleseminars that bring really good income into your business AND allow you to shine in a big way.  It’s the number one marketing method in my business, and my last 5 program launches have all well-exceeded 6 figures, thanks to teleseminars.

I feel like an expectant parent!

I’ll send more info about the “new baby” soon, but here’s one thing for you to note - my intention is to make doing teleseminars as easy as possible for you.
It is to give you an easy to use, step-by-step system for creating your own teleseminars, so you know exactly how to:

• Attract lots of people to your teleseminars
• Create compelling content that your audience will love
• Make an offer that will enroll people into your programs and products
• Easily create your teleseminar “tech setup”
• And be confident in presenting your teleseminar material

If you loved my Master of Enrollment program, then you are going to love this too.

So keep your eyes peeled for our launch announcement soon.

When I first started to write my newsletter, it was very difficult for me to write about anything personal.  I made up a story that people didn’t care about me. All they wanted to read from me were my business building tips, success mindsets or any other relevant information on how to get clients.

But over the last few years, I have allowed myself to open up more and let people into my world.  And it’s been an incredible relationship building adventure.

It all started at the urging of my business partner, Patrick, to shoot a video with Gia simply announcing my engagement.  I didn’t want to do it… but Patrick can be persuasive, so I finally agreed.  Getting Gia to do the video was even more difficult, but she finally relented.

What happened shocked me…

I got more comments and emails from that one video than anything I have ever done.  What!!!

Since then, I have done everything possible to bring the human Bill element into everything I do and it’s made a difference.

We would all rather engage with someone who is open and personal.  We want to know about people we do business with.  We want to feel like we are dealing with real people who care about us.

We do not want to deal with closed and impersonal corporations trying to sell stuff to us all the time.

When you speak about who you are and when you speak your truth – your newsletter subscribers are going to respond…

Here are a few tips on that for ya:

• Write the way you speak. There is no reason to use big words or fancy language. Write as if you were speaking to a friend who you care deeply about and are pretty familiar with.  Don’t worry about making mistakes.
• Share powerful opinions even if you think some of your readers might disagree (especially if you think people might disagree!). Share perspectives that need to be said, but others are afraid to say.  Scary – perhaps.  Powerful – definitely.
• Tell stories from your own life experience.  People love stories that allow them to extract what’s useful to them and their own lives.

I remember 4-5 years ago, my ex-wife emailed me after reading one of my newsletters.  She said that it sounds like I am leading a charmed life, that everything seems so neatly put together and that I come across as perfect.  I didn’t like getting that email because here’s someone who knows me and is telling me that I am not being altogether real.

That authentic email from my ex-wife made a huge difference for me on my journey towards being more real and personal in my own communication.  I learned that sharing things about my journey that haven’t been easy or flattering is part of who I am, so why omit them from my communications.

So I want urge you to be more YOU, including all the rough edges, when you speak to people in your life, your clients, your newsletter subscribers and even your potential clients.

This will allow you to feel better in your business and your business will reward you with more revenue, more clients and more fulfillment.

So how are you going to be more authentic in your next communication/newsletter?

Warmly,
~Bill

There are three relationships that I hold sacred in my
business.

Without these relationships, the success I have achieved would not be possible. Without these relationships, my reach and my impact would be a fraction of what I’ve been able to create. Without these relationships, my level of fulfillment and satisfaction would pale in comparison to what I experience every day in my business.

I am grateful every day for what I have been able to create through my three marriages in my business.

So what are my three business marriages?

1. My audience – the people I have committed to serve. I am committed to loving my audience and holding their best interest audience sacred.

I pledge to do my best to place the interests of my tribe above my own.

I vow to continue to grow personally so that I can be the best messenger I know how.

Do I always do these things? Am I even near perfect here?
A big f**ing NO, but by holding my commitment to this marriage sacred, I can see and feel myself getting better everyday.

2. My peers – the people who have also committed to serve my audience

I am committed to seeing the people who are serving the same audience as my allies.

I do my best to strike the word competition and competitor out of my conscious and unconscious thinking.

I practice abundance consciousness knowing that there is enough business for all of us.

3. My support network – the people who have committed to support me in serving my audience

I am committed to cultivating the best team that allows me to exponentially increase my impact.

I am committed to their growth and the full realization of their gifts.

I do my best to get support in areas where I know I can be better.

I vow to surround myself with people who will call me on my shit and will act as great mirrors for me to see who I am being and how I am acting.

My job is to nurture these relationships and bring as much of my loving self to them as I can.

And with all 3 of these marriages, I set my intentions high and the same time try to be willing to look at where I’m messing up.

Which marriages are most sacred to you?
What can you do TODAY to nurture this relationship more?

Join the conversation and leave a comment…
Warmly,
~Bill