Relax.

This is not one of those best-kept-secrets-now-revealed, hard-sell, sign-up-now-or-forever-be-a-loser sales page. It does require a bit of scrolling, however.

I want this to be more like a conversation. I want it to give you a chance to explore whether or not you want to set aside one day (and 90 minutes on the phone 10 days later) to finally get your hands around what you need to know and what you need to do get better results from your marketing, attract more clients and sell more products or services on a regular, recurring basis.

Please set aside the laundry list of all the things you’ve tried before that may or may not have worked that well. Set aside how you feel about yourself as a marketer. It’s OK if you hate marketing, have no budget for marketing, or think you’ve tried everything and nothing works. On the other end of the spectrum, it’s also OK if you love marketing so much it could be your middle name.

Here are a few qualifying questions to help you explore whether or not this one-day event and 90-minute follow-up is right for you.

1. Do you sell the invisible? Do you sell your time, talent, creativity, expertise, skill, advice, counsel, healing, wisdom, insights or information—aka do you provide a service?
2. Are you in an industry or category where prospects think there’s little to no difference between you and the gazillion other people who do the voodoo you do or sell the service you provide? You know, as in, one freelancer is the same as another. Consultants are a dime a dozen. (Don’t get me started on financial services, health care, creative types or coaches.)
3. I’ll bet you’re good at what you do, born to do it, perhaps even passionate about it. You know you’re worth every penny you charge—even more. But if you’re like many people I know who sell their time, you might also sometimes (always?) feel not-so-confident discussing your fees and pricing. And I’ll bet you have not yet nailed the perfect answer to the “why should I hire you instead of the cheaper person” question that invariably comes up.
4. Do you ever feel bogged down or overwhelmed because providing the service you deliver and doing a great job on your current projects means you never have time to market or look for new business?
5. If you’ve ever felt disappointed with the results of your marketing, frustrated by the random hit and miss of what you’ve tried, worried over the ups and downs and unpredictability of cash flow, you’re not alone.

All this is why I created Help Them Hire You! A one-day marketing retreat for growing your business, especially when YOU are the business.

No MBA theory. No rhetoric. No kidding. The event is designed to get you outside your normal (frenzied?) work environment, immerse you in marketing and business development for one day and equip you with simple strategies and tangible tools you can use to get visible and book more business right away. In the real world.

If you come away from the retreat with some great ideas that you want try, well, that would be bad. I want you to make decisions at this event. Decisions that will create a path and a plan for doing the work you love to do and putting more money in your pocket.

Finally—a step-by-step marketing
and business development program
that gives you more
focus, prospects, clients and referrals—
even if you wear all the hats
and even if you think you don’t
have the time or talent to market.

Here’s the core of what we will zero in on our time together so that you can:

1. Set a clear direction for your business, making sure you are positioned properly, and that you know where you are and where you want and need to take your business to be successful. We’ll take a good look at various numbers and I’ll show you how to develop a realistic, laser-like focus and path to reach them on a daily basis.
2. Distinguish and set your business apart from the competition (both real and imagined), in both the marketplace and in the minds of your prospects, referral sources and clients so that they not only understand what you do and for whom you do it best, but also so that they remember and call or refer you when they need you or know someone who does.
3. Craft a compelling message platform that gives you the building blocks and specific language you can use in all your marketing materials and conversations to attract better prospects and referrals, generate more sales conversations with decision makers and trigger a decision to work with or hire you.
4. Decide the right mix of marketing activities that get you visible and in front of more decision makers. We’ll look at the pros and cons of 10 different acts of marketing, and you’ll walk away with a realistic, doable plan that is specific to your market, personal strengths, time and budget constraints.

Stay motivated, focused, productive and on-target on a DAILY basis. Once you know who your targets are, what your message is, how to reach them with those messages, how to attract, engage and convert them to clients, there’s one more important business development step.

In order to put all these ideas into action, it is critical that you create a path and a plan that will keep you on track, or get you back on track if (when?) distracted or deterred by tangents.

You will walk away energized and equipped to immediately be more effective in your business development efforts. You will have more confidence, visibility, impact and response. All of which boils down to growing your business and enjoying a better bottom line.

In our day together you will:

• Discover the easy-to-use formula for putting more money in your pocket on a monthly basis.
• Learn a 6-step, proven model for marketing anything to anyone so that you get better results and build better relationships every time you use (and re-use) it.
• Identify and learn how to attract your ideal clients, the ones you love to work with and can serve the best—over and over.
• Discover what truly makes you different and how to express it without feeling pushy or salesy.
• Learn to describe what you do and articulate your value the right way, at the right time, in each of the four phases of the marketing and selling process so that you are more likely to  influence choice in your favor and lower fee resistance at the same time.
• Get the most important part of your marketing message platform crafted (or at least drafted ) so that you can use it right away (maybe even during the event) to attract more clients and referrals.
• Avoid costly mistakes and common time wasting traps that could repel prospects and actually lose you business.
• Learn the #1 thing you can do every day to get you focused, stay focused, build marketing momentum and generate results on a daily basis, no matter how busy you are delivering the service you provide or working on existing business.
• Get clear, convincing marketing models and tools, including a template for creating a proposal that connects to what your prospects care about, doesn’t end up dead on credenza and keeps you out of the perpetual follow-up business.
• Be able to discuss your fees, pricing and payment terms clearly and comfortably.
• Learn how to build, maximize and mine your database so that you stay top of mind without becoming a pest.
• Discover and correct the two deadly mistakes most independent professionals make that keep them (you?) from having more repeat business, deeper relationships and greater depth of sale with existing or past clients.
• Feel more comfortable being who you are, letting your unique voice and personality come to life in all your marketing so that it really sounds like you and sets you apart.
• Be energized and equipped to have more impact and influence in the marketplace so that you can make immediate improvements in your marketing and business development efforts, build a better pipeline and close more sales on a consistent basis.

But WAIT, there’s more.

OK, forgive me that subhead. I couldn’t resist. After the one-day event, we’ll re-convene for a 90-minute group coaching phone call. You will have had between a week and 10 days to absorb the material, work with the tools, make decisions and craft messaging. During our call we can clarify content, report progress, get feed back on implementation and messaging, check progress, make mid-course corrections and celebrate success.

More focus, impact, clients and referrals–
Yes, you CAN have it all,
and here’s why I know so.

The first business I started failed miserably. The second one didn’t. In fact my ad agency and marketing firm that I started in Southern California grew large enough to expand nationally, and profitable enough to eventually sell to a publicly traded Big Boy.

We won the American Marketing Association’s prestigious EFFIE award for the most effective, results generating campaign in the country. Throw in the coveted CLEO for advertising and a New York Film Festival award for TV spots, and I guess you could say we knew what we were doing.

Mind you I was also walking that proverbial work-life balance beam, juggling a family of hubby, three kids and a cat, the client work, travel and the constant concern of whether or not there was enough new business in the pipeline and cash flow on the books to meet payroll and, once I sold the business—shareholder profits and growth.

When you do all that, something happens. You either go nuts, or you learn a few things. Lucky for me, it was the latter. (Although it could have gone either way for a while there.)

I learned that marketing is marketing, but it is so much more than mere promotion and making noise in the marketplace. I’ve worked with more than 500 clients of all shapes and marketing is so much more than that.

I learned that it doesn’t matter how much money you have or don’t have. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a big company or an entrepreneur or a freelancer. It doesn’t matter what category or industry you’re in.

“Marketing is anything that helps or hinders the sale of your product or service.”

That’s the definition I eventually wrote in my book, The 7 Marketing Mistakes Every Business Makes (And How to Fix Them). It was not a definition the Powers That Be who then owned my company appreciated. They were in the business of creating advertising and buying media. “Call it whatever you want, as long as you sell plenty of billable time and commissionable work.”

OK, they never exactly said it that way, but they didn’t have to. That was my charge.

Yes we were successful, winning awards and generating results for our clients. But as CEO of a wholly owned subsidiary, I found myself being pulled more and more into the administrative side of big business and away from the client work I loved. It got to the point where I hardly recognized my own company any more.

I did manage to hang onto new business development to some extent, and I loved being the Rainmaker. Especially when it meant I got to speak at conferences and corporate meetings. Speaking was a great way to attract prospects and showcase our clients’ successes, plus it usually led to the other thing I loved—presenting strategies, pitching (and winning) new business.

My world changed forever at one particular conference. I discovered that some of the other speakers there were actually being paid to speak! How great was that? Very.

I went to another conference, this one for professional speakers, and I was hooked. I resigned from the agency, handed the reigns to the Creative Director, but not before asking him to design me a logo for my new speaking business as a going away gift. (It’s the one I still use to this day.)

I went from CEO with a mulit-layered org chart reporting to me to COE—Chief of Everything—at Blah Blah Blah, a lean, mean marketing and speaking machine. (Actually, I’m not mean at all. I sometimes get carried away with rhyme and alliteration, however.)

My backstory boils down to this. I’m back to doing what I’ve always loved the most—helping people make their message stand out, get better results from their marketing and grow their businesses. I’m done with long, drawn out consulting relationships, agency agreements, retainers, so-cakked “proprietary processes” that were really nothing more than ways to bill a boatload of time. You don’t need or want all that to get the results you’re looking for.

Which is why I created and packed the Help Them Hire You! one-day marketing retreat with simple strategies, scads of tangible tools, models and templates you can use right away to grow your business and be more focused and effective on a daily basis. It’s the same information, process and tools I used to grow my own businesses, and the same ones I used to charge my clients beaucoup bucks for, doled out in hourly fees, markups and media commissions.

All right, already.
How much does this retreat cost?

There are marketing consultants and Internet copywriters all over the planet who are shaking their collective heads in disappointment right now. I used the word cost instead of investment. They better get ready to groan again, because I am also NOT going to play their long-winded game of inflated pricing and special discounts and bonus offers from my friends in the business. You’ve scrolled long enough already.

It’s $197
You get to spend an entire day with me, and another 90 minutes a week or so later, for less than I charge per hour for 1:1 consults.

Use the links to the left to register for the city of your choice. If you can’t attend a live event, ask me about doing a 1:1 virtual retreat via phone and/or video conference.

A few specifics.

1. No late arrivals and no early departures. I need you to be 1000% present for each of the various modules as we build on them in a step-by-step way, starting at 9 a.m. That means seated and ready to rock at 9 a.m., not arriving at 9 a.m. Don’t register unless you can commit to coming for the full event.
2. Lunch is on your own, and there will be an exercise to work on during your break. Bring your own beverage or snacks, if you want more than water during the rest of the day.
3. The follow-up 90-minute phone conference will be recorded, and I will send you a link to download the mp3 for your listening pleasure, whether or not you were able to be on the call. But why would you NOT want to on that call?

I, for one, can’t wait! I hope you’ll decide to join me.

Terri Langhans, COE, CSP*
Blah Blah Blah

*Certified Speaking Professional. This is the highest earned designation awarded by the National Speakers Association and the Global Federation of Professional Speakers. I am one of only 213 women worldwide to have earned the designation, which requires a rigorous 5-year process of documenting certain financial metrics, client evaluation and education to attain. It makes me one of the few and the proud, albeit too old to join the Marines.