Hello Internet Marketers, Advertisers, Entrepreneurs! This week we are featuring Life Coaches Judi Finneran and Joanie Winberg of SSS University and Seven Strategies For Success. Judi and Joanie are in an incredible niche market and are doing not only great things in their business but helping others grow in their own lives and businesses. Cathy and I met these two in the International Virtual Women's Chamber of Commerce - only now men are invited to join and they are joining! So, drop by the IVWCC Channel for details. Without further ado, here are Judi Finneran and Joanie Winberg:
1. Judi and Joanie, thank you for
taking the time to participate in this interview for our readers.
To set the stage for this interview, would you please tell us a bit about
yourself?
Judi and I are often asked how a
coach from San Diego and a coach from
Boston got together in the first
place. Because we both believe there are no accidents, we know we know our
meeting was meant to be. We met in April
of 2003 in San Francisco. Without even knowing each other we were on
similar paths. We were using the same
tools, based on the same beliefs in each of our individual businesses. These principles are simple, basic tools
which you can easily implement into your business and life instantaneously. We have combined over 40 years of experience
as business owners, speakers and coaches of hundreds of clients into developing
the Seven Strategies for Success System, which is just one of the programs
offered by SSS University.
2. You’re right Judi, there are no
accidents. Okay, give us your elevator speech, or 30-second spiel, about what
you do, about your business:
Seven Strategies for Success and SSS
University is a company whose
mission is to empower others to live more fully and abundantly in every area of
their lives. Our goal is provide a space for positive change and to be the
catalyst in creating the energy which feels most essential in your life.
3. How long have you been in
business for yourselves?
Joanie and I have been in business
together 18 months. Prior to that we both were entrepreneurs in our own right
for many years. We feel a lot of the
power behind our partnership is the various experiences we have had in so many
different areas.
4. Why or what was
the determining factor for you in starting your own business?
As we said before, we both were
very involved with coaching and training individuals and groups in realizing
their maximum potentials. Upon
discovering our similar belief systems and styles, we recognized the power of
joining together to cover the country from coast to coast. We had both taken lots and lots of seminars,
training programs etc. What we felt was
there was a lot of information out there and yet no one program contained all
of the steps necessary in one complete easy to implement package, so we decided
to create that missing link ourselves.
5. Some things are just meant to be
aren’t they? What, in your experience, has been the greatest benefit in running
and owning your own business? What do you like best about your business?
The benefits are so numerous but
some of the really important include watching people literally change their
beliefs and seeing the corresponding changes in their lives. Hearing someone so excited about having set
an intention and then having that intention become real. We love watching people begin to really enjoy
the journey and what happens along the way instead of always focusing on the
outcomes. What we love about our
business is the ability to share and touch people’s lives and we are honored to
have that privilege.
6. What a privilege that is indeed!
Running a business takes a certain “mindset” so tell us what is the most
difficult or challenging part of having and running your own business:
Time management is one crucial
factor. When we decided to create the
“complete system” I don’t think either of us realized the time it would
take. To create our 8 week tele-program,
Joanie and I spent at least 150 hours on the telephone. When you are in two completely different time
zones, this can be challenging.
Oftentimes, I knew it was time to stop when Joanie had fallen asleep on
the phone. It was only 9 o’clock
pacific however that meant it was midnight
in Boston. The mindset we had was that what we were
creating was needed and important and would be beneficial to many, many
people. So we made whatever arrangements
we needed to get the job done.
7. Now that is what I
call dedication! Who is your primary
target audience? How do you attract them?
Seven Strategies for Success and SSS
University are really universal and
can be used by anyone to become more successful in both their personal and
professional lives. Under SSS
University we offer 3 programs:
Personal Foundations, Business Foundations, and Marketing Strategies. Business and Marketing are directed more
toward entrepreneurs and people looking to become entrepreneurs. In addition, a niche market we serve is the
coaching industry in that we offer licensing opportunities to qualified coaches
to teach our system. This allows them to
get their businesses up and running immediately without having to invest the
time and money into creating a system of their own from scratch.
8. That sounds like good sound
business to me! Duplication at its finest. Can you share with our readers what
you are currently doing to promote your business? How do you integrate your
online promotions with your offline promotions?
Judi and I believe in a
multifaceted marketing approach and this is why we created Seven Strategies for
Successful Marketing. We are examples of
walking the talk. Some methods we use
are networking, presenting workshops, writing articles, teaching teleclasses,
public speaking, etc. Each of these
techniques is covered in detail in our course Marketing 101 and people can feel
free to learn more about these strategies by going to our website www.sevenstrategiesforsuccess.com. We have also used joint ventures to
successfully enroll over 150 people from 5 countries on one of our free
teleclasses. Because both of us speak,
we have the additional opportunity to promote our business and our products at
live events also.
9. Wow that is impressive! Is your
business primarily online or offline or both? If offline, do you have a
website? If so, what is the
purpose of that website and how do you promote it?
Seven Strategies for Success has a
strong online as well as offline presence.
As mentioned, speaking gives us a strong target audience as well as
presenting workshops. Our website
contains all of the information regarding current and upcoming classes and is
also a venue for selling the products we have created. We publish a newsletter “Coast to Coast
Coaching News” as another way to gain more exposure and to market our classes
and products. We promote our website by
having the URL on everything, including our email signature boxes.
10. I understand also from Joanie
that speaking is what you both love doing best. Our URL is our online lifeblood
so having it on “everything” like you say, it exactly what we all should do. What
is your best source of customers, prospects and/or clients?
Judi and I both have extensive
personal sphere of influence lists we market to jointly. This has been a great source of
business. We have also have had success
in our niche market of the coaching industry by utilizing the teleclass.com
system.
11.
Since we’re are having this interview on the International Virtual
Women’s Chamber of Commerce channel, we know you are a member of this
organization but are you a member of any other professional organizations? If
so, would you please tell us a little bit about them and why you chose these
particular organizations to affiliate yourself and your business?
We are both members of a number of other
organizations for example American Business Women’s Association, Toastmasters,
Direct Sales Women’s Association, International Coaching Federation and
International Association of Coaches. In
addition, we are both certified “Dream Coaches” ™ with the Marsha Wieder
program and are both part of Coaching From Spirit and are Advanced Spiritual
Business Coaches and Certified Spirit Coaches.
All of these organizations and affiliations allow us to generate maximum
exposure for our business, as well as keeping up with the needs and desires of
our marketplace.
12.
All of that must certainly keep you both very busy, but the good news is
that along with being busy in networking groups, your affiliation with these
groups is what keeps you busy in business too. Online networking groups are
rising in number so are you a member of any online networking groups?
Some of the groups we belong to are DWSA,
Ryze, and Coaching from Spirit. In
addition, we created an online networking forum for our participants in “The
Success System.” This allowed for the
opportunity to connect between scheduled classes with challenges and wins. Networking evolved from this; for example a
menopause coach connected with another coach who arranges Italian tours.
13. That’s great Judi, helping
others succeed is one of the keys to our own success. On average, how often do
you visit those networks? Do you post messages there regularly, or are you more
of an information seeker and lurker?
I would say we visit sites between
1 to 2 times per week up to once monthly depending on how relevant their
information is to what we are doing at the time. Joanie and I definitely see ourselves as
information givers.
14. Moving onto a very vital
subject in online business, on average, how many email messages do you receive
every day?
The average number of emails daily ranges
between 40-60.
15.
That isn’t too bad, especially thinking about all the email I receive!
About how many of those emails is actually email you either requested from
clients, or pertinent information?
Approximately 75%.
16. What is your number one
complaint, if any, about email? ...and how do you think it could be resolved?
Spam and pop-ups used to be issue
and we now have software to prevent that.
17. Hmmm, that’s pretty good
considering a lot of spam software doesn’t do a lot to stop the spam but at
least it helps. Do you publish a newsletter / ezine? If so, describe the
content, frequency and delivery method you use.
We publish “Coast to Coast
Coaching News” our ezine on a biweekly basis.
It is delivered via our subscriber list by our Virtual Assistant.
18. How about generating new
subscribers? How do you do that or is that even a consideration in your type of
newsletter?
We are always looking for new subscribers
and we do by offering a useful lesson and exercise each month. We offer resources and links to them. We also offer gifts to our readers who refer
other people. New subscribers also
receive a complimentary article.
19. Are you familiar with RSS?
I’m not and Joanie has some
knowledge of how it works.
20. Well, I’m sure in the coming
months Cathy Carlton and I will be helping everyone to learn a bit more on RSS.
Do you read or subscribe to any RSS feeds/blogs?
No, we do not.
21.
At least not yet! Since IVWCC is now on an RSS channel I’m sure many
members who may not have been subscribing to RSS will be soon.
There are so many ways to promote ourselves
online and off, and one of the most touted and apparently great ways to do so
online is to write articles. Do you write articles for use on the internet? If
so, describe the typical subject
you cover and tell us how you promote and distribute it?
Yes, we not only write articles,
one of our marketing courses is designed to teach others how to use article
writing to grow their businesses. We
focus on success, intentions, living on purpose all of which are covered in
curriculum offered by SSS University.
22. How excellent Judi because once
someone learns how to promote their businesses through the written word,
they’re wide open to possibilities! Have you ever submitted a press
release? How has that worked for you?
We have submitted press releases
and we found the response varied.
23. Thanks for the candor on that
question Judi, I appreciate knowing I’m not the only one with a “varied”
response on press releases. What is the most creative thing you have done to
attract customers?
One of them would definitely be
our successful joint venture. Another
would be the licensing program we created for coaches and developing the SSS
University format for delivering
our programs in a context everyone is familiar with.
24.
That has obviously not only been creative but very successful for you
both as well! If there was one thing you wish you had (other than time!) to
help you grow
your business, what would it be?
Unlimited money.
25.
Oh, I’m laughing in agreement on that one Judi! If you could offer a
word of advice to someone wishing to start a business in
your field, what would you tell them?
The advice we would give is to
first become very clear about what it is they want to create, set strong
intentions and set up an accountability system with a coach. (See www.sevenstrategiesforsuccess.com)
Thank you both again
for taking the time to participate in this interview.
Interview conducted by member Kim Bloomer
