Project Runway: You’re All In!

My fascination with the 9/27 episode began early when the 9/22 episode aired as a rerun.

It kept building until it hit a crescendo early Wedneday morning when Lori Lizzard – a fab underground fashionista, called to tip me off to the Project Runway portfolio on the Olympus Fashion Week site.

Lizz kept exclaiming, "It’s so obvious!" every time I asked about the final three. The Lizz did run through her Fashion Week faves, but she wouldn’t give away who was offed.

So as soon as I hung up, I checked into the site and saw Uli,Laura, Michael and Jeffrey’s influences. I couldn’t off anyone. And neither could the judges.

If you missed the show on Wednesday night, here’s the Newsday Project Runway story.

What I love about this show is watching the creative process unfold. For us, each finished work gets its embyronic imprint with a scrap of a concept so faint we can’t make out what we’re looking at. Aren’t most creative projects like that – a complex ordering of simple insights?

For a closer look at each designer’s portfolio, check out the www.newyorkmetro.com slide show. To see really huge pictures and converse with a friendly fans, click on over to Blogging Project Runway.

Read our related post, Project Runway: What Do Moms Think about Laura? And, leave your comment below to tell us what YOU think . . .

Project Runway: You’re All In!

My fascination with the 9/27 episode began early when the 9/22 episode aired as a rerun.

It kept building until it hit a crescendo early Wedneday morning when Lori Lizzard – a fab underground fashionista, called to tip me off to the Project Runway portfolio on the Olympus Fashion Week site.

Lizz kept exclaiming, "It’s so obvious!" every time I asked about the final three. The Lizz did run through her Fashion Week faves, but she wouldn’t give away who was offed.

So as soon as I hung up, I checked into the site and saw Uli,Laura, Michael and Jeffrey’s influences. I couldn’t off anyone. And neither could the judges.

If you missed the show on Wednesday night, here’s the Newsday Project Runway story.

What I love about this show is watching the creative process unfold. For us, each finished work gets its embyronic imprint with a scrap of a concept so faint we can’t make out what we’re looking at. Aren’t most creative projects like that – a complex ordering of simple insights?

For a closer look at each designer’s portfolio, check out the www.newyorkmetro.com slide show. To see really huge pictures and converse with a friendly fans, click on over to Blogging Project Runway.

Read our related post, Project Runway: What Do Moms Think about Laura? And, leave your comment below to tell us what YOU think . . .

9-29 MTN News: Top 20 + last call for call

This article originally appeared in our ezine, MTN News. Subscribe at www.transformmarketing.com and claim your free bonuses.

Note: the <firstname> formatting shows you how we personalized this email. When you subscribe, your messages will be personalized, too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to Marketing Transformations Network News
~ Engaging PR and Marketing Tips to ~
~ ~ ~ Create Business for Your Business~ ~ ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

September 29, 2006

To: <$firstname$>

From: Barbara Rozgonyi

Hope this finds you well and on
your way out to enjoy the last
weekend in September.

Thanks to those of you who
dialed in to listen to my call
with Jenny Hamby, ‘How to
Fill Seminar Seats Using the
Power of Free PR.’

If you missed the call, but
would like to order a copy
of the recording go to:
http://www.seminarprsecrets.com

Order before October 6 if
you want the bonuses. That
link will disappear and the
cost of the recording will go up.

Last week, I mentioned Randy Gage
and promised to tell you more
about his presentation to the
National Speakers Association
Illinois Chapter.

After rereading my 14 pages of
notes, I decided to condense them
down into the top 20 takeaways.

Note that these are my notes –
not direct quotes.

Randy’s topic is prosperity.

1.Really define what your brand is 
– don’t be interchangeable with anyone else.

2. Ask yourself, ‘What’s my assignment?’

3. Build your whole program around you.

4. If you’re not making at least $1 million
a year in your business, you’re not
making a difference.

5. When you give value, you get wealth.

6. Your brand is the most sacred property you’ll ever own.

7. Every speech needs its own signature story.

8. Two or three speeches are all you need.

9. Tell your own stories, don’t repeat other’s.

10. Set up a Star Fleet Command site
like www.randygage.com

11. Sell your information in as many mediums as possible.

12. Promotional copy guide: 80% about them; 20% about you

13. Don’t waste time talking to people that can’t afford you. 
(Make exceptions for some groups and speak for free.)

14. Packaging does matter – you need to stand out.

15. Use the same elements, but change up colors
so your materials look different.

16. Different looks and colors increase sales results
and involve the reader more.

17. Change your video every 4-6 seconds to align
visually with younger audiences.

18. Market directly to the people who will hire you.

19. Focus on the big picture stuff like product creation functions.

20. Be a dull edge if you want everybody to see
your website. Forget the flash.

Hearing powerful speakers is motivating,
educating and can even be a tax write-off!

Our $500 off Big Seminar rebate is open
until the event is sold out. To get your
rebate, sign up through our link at:
www.bigseminar8tickets.com. Then,
send us a copy of your receipt. I’ll
be waiting to give you a check in
Atlanta – see you there!

Happy (almost) October!

Barbara

Killer PR: Is Social Media the Suspect?

My call with Jenny Hamby is less than 2 hours away and I’m having a hard time pulling myself away from the research about the future of PR.

Getting ready to present motivates me to run down the latest, the freshest, the most provactive research.

And, most of the time my audiences comment: "Wow! I’ve never heard that before!"

Yes, I am into marketing PR shock therapy.

So, what will I reveal today on the call?

(Sorry, Jenny for breaking the news here first – I’m scooping your exclusive.)

Here’s the deal . . . lots of places, sites and people – like an international PR publishing standards group that’s organized to pioneer structures for distribution and reporting, Wikis, Yahoo! groups, Crispy news, feeders of all sorts – are trumpeting the arrival and imminent overthrow of traditional PR by new media.

Well, that’s exciting, edgy and controversial now isn’t it?

But, how is this way out there PR space ship relevant to Jenny’s seminar promoter audience?

Like most marketing . . . it depends – on your where you want your news to go and who you want to read it.

If the pick up receptor is tuned into tags, diggs and media – and your audience is too, check out this Top Rank blog post for a list and primer of  new media resources.

If, however, the news receiver:

1. suffers from technophobia – like many writers I know
2. doesn’t know how to read blogs or search for Technorati tags
3. has no clue how to open up multi-media files
4. doesn’t know about You Tube
5. thinks an iPod is for teenagers and mp3 is a motor oil
6. actually spell checks and follows a style guide
7. works from a computer that has no speakers
8. might be techo-savvy but needs to be trained on how to interpret the social media format
9. appreciates stories written in a traditional news format
10. prefers to receive plain text email or faxes

. . .  then there’s no point in going all out to fit your news into a format that doesn’t fit their preferred style. They’ll tune out before they ever tune in.

Last week I tested out a social media release format modification. Here’s a simple website with everything reporters needed to cover the event – except downloadable images. Because of design copyright concerns, we wanted to keep track of who requested what.

Results?

Every reporter we called wanted the images emailed – and nobody clicked that link. If we’re going to use this system going forward, we’re going to have to be the ones to train the media on how social media works and how the format can enhance their lives – save time, give resources, etc. Do we have time for that? Do they have time for that?

Real live writers (good ones) appreciate a press release that’s more storytelling than writing – that’s why so many of our press releases run verbatim.

On another project, following the new social media format for PR web releases brought the intended results: high search engine rankings, blog pick ups and a quick spike in pages visits.

Until the two types learn to interpret each other’s languages and technologies, the safest bet is to approach each press release project with the end receptor in mind, whether it’s a search engine, blogger, consumer, jounalist or mass-media outlet. Don’t get out that shovel just yet old school PR’s going to be around for awhile – at least in the local markets.

PR Fantastico : Oprah on TV & Radio

Today will go down in history. Oprah’s making her on-air debut. On the radio. Everyday. With Friends. This lady is one multi-tasking media maven and I applaud her (and her friends) for that.

The question for PR people is: will it be any easier to get on the air with Oprah & Friends Radio than it is to get on The Oprah Winfrey Show?

That remains to be seen. After all, the friends are already in place and they’re waiting to hear from you. You can ask Oprah’s friends a question that they’ll answer on the air.

Find out what topics Oprah and friends are working on.

Here’s what I love about this concept and program launch:

• collaborating with friends means that many people promote you or your services
• daily broadcasts keep the information fresh and relevant
• two-way communication invites listeners to become a part of the show
• a mix of topics reaches listeners at different places and stages of their life
• regenerating radio is trendy and appeals to a broad cross-section of generations and delivery places that only radio can reach
• satellite radio gets a huge midas touch boost that can only come from Oprah

Watching Oprah and Gail talk about their show this morning on ABC, I rode an exercise bike next to a workout buddy who grew up in the 40s and remembers radio’s heyday. "That’s all we had back then. Kids today have iPods, TV, the Internet and video," he said. Yeah, we have all that – and satellite radio.

Sign up for a free 3-day trial of XM radio online. According to the site, monthly service is $12.95 with family plans available. Unless your car has XM radio or you want to listen to it online, you’ll have to buy an XM receiver.

PR Fantastico : Oprah on TV & Radio

Today will go down in history. Oprah’s making her on-air debut. On the radio. Everyday. With Friends. This lady is one multi-tasking media maven and I applaud her (and her friends) for that.

The question for PR people is: will it be any easier to get on the air with Oprah & Friends Radio than it is to get on The Oprah Winfrey Show?

That remains to be seen. After all, the friends are already in place and they’re waiting to hear from you. You can ask Oprah’s friends a question that they’ll answer on the air.

Find out what topics Oprah and friends are working on.

Here’s what I love about this concept and program launch:

• collaborating with friends means that many people promote you or your services
• daily broadcasts keep the information fresh and relevant
• two-way communication invites listeners to become a part of the show
• a mix of topics reaches listeners at different places and stages of their life
• regenerating radio is trendy and appeals to a broad cross-section of generations and delivery places that only radio can reach
• satellite radio gets a huge midas touch boost that can only come from Oprah

Watching Oprah and Gail talk about their show this morning on ABC, I rode an exercise bike next to a workout buddy who grew up in the 40s and remembers radio’s heyday. "That’s all we had back then. Kids today have iPods, TV, the Internet and video," he said. Yeah, we have all that – and satellite radio.

Sign up for a free 3-day trial of XM radio online. According to the site, monthly service is $12.95 with family plans available. Unless your car has XM radio or you want to listen to it online, you’ll have to buy an XM receiver.

PR Fantastico : Oprah on TV & Radio

Today will go down in history. Oprah’s making her on-air debut. On the radio. Everyday. With Friends. This lady is one multi-tasking media maven and I applaud her (and her friends) for that.

The question for PR people is: will it be any easier to get on the air with Oprah & Friends Radio than it is to get on The Oprah Winfrey Show?

That remains to be seen. After all, the friends are already in place and they’re waiting to hear from you. You can ask Oprah’s friends a question that they’ll answer on the air.

Find out what topics Oprah and friends are working on.

Here’s what I love about this concept and program launch:

• collaborating with friends means that many people promote you or your services
• daily broadcasts keep the information fresh and relevant
• two-way communication invites listeners to become a part of the show
• a mix of topics reaches listeners at different places and stages of their life
• regenerating radio is trendy and appeals to a broad cross-section of generations and delivery places that only radio can reach
• satellite radio gets a huge midas touch boost that can only come from Oprah

Watching Oprah and Gail talk about their show this morning on ABC, I rode an exercise bike next to a workout buddy who grew up in the 40s and remembers radio’s heyday. "That’s all we had back then. Kids today have iPods, TV, the Internet and video," he said. Yeah, we have all that – and satellite radio.

Sign up for a free 3-day trial of XM radio online. According to the site, monthly service is $12.95 with family plans available. Unless your car has XM radio or you want to listen to it online, you’ll have to buy an XM receiver.

PR Fantastico : Oprah on TV & Radio

Today will go down in history. Oprah’s making her on-air debut. On the radio. Everyday. With Friends. This lady is one multi-tasking media maven and I applaud her (and her friends) for that.

The question for PR people is: will it be any easier to get on the air with Oprah & Friends Radio than it is to get on The Oprah Winfrey Show?

That remains to be seen. After all, the friends are already in place and they’re waiting to hear from you. You can ask Oprah’s friends a question that they’ll answer on the air.

Find out what topics Oprah and friends are working on.

Here’s what I love about this concept and program launch:

• collaborating with friends means that many people promote you or your services
• daily broadcasts keep the information fresh and relevant
• two-way communication invites listeners to become a part of the show
• a mix of topics reaches listeners at different places and stages of their life
• regenerating radio is trendy and appeals to a broad cross-section of generations and delivery places that only radio can reach
• satellite radio gets a huge midas touch boost that can only come from Oprah

Watching Oprah and Gail talk about their show this morning on ABC, I rode an exercise bike next to a workout buddy who grew up in the 40s and remembers radio’s heyday. "That’s all we had back then. Kids today have iPods, TV, the Internet and video," he said. Yeah, we have all that – and satellite radio.

Sign up for a free 3-day trial of XM radio online. According to the site, monthly service is $12.95 with family plans available. Unless your car has XM radio or you want to listen to it online, you’ll have to buy an XM receiver.

PR Pirates + Teleseminar: Seminar PR

This article originally appeared in our ezine, MTN News. Subscribe at www.transformmarketing.com and claim your free bonuses.

Note: the <$firstname$> formatting shows you how we personalized this email. When you subscribe, your messages will be personalized, too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to Marketing Transformations Network News
~ Engaging PR and Marketing Tips to ~
~ ~ ~ Create Business for Your Business~ ~ ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

September 22, 2006

To: <$firstname$>

From: Barbara Rozgonyi

Ahoy, <$firstname$>!

Whew! Just got back
to my office after a
day watching the
illustrious Randy Gage
peform/present and
inform/entertain.

Here’s a guy who
commands major
keynotes, makes
millionares and
millions, spends
as much on clothes
as other people do
on condos, flies so
much he’s topped
out at every
frequent flier level
this year alone,
is known for his
effusive generosity
and is speaking to
sold out crowds in
opera houses in
Russia and the
Ukraine – thanks
to bootleggers. 

Like most of the
National Speakers
Association’s
Illinois Chapter
luncheons, this
one was a knock-out. 

Watch for a blog post
that recaps what I
learned in Randy’s
6 hour presentation.

Speaking of my blog,
http://www.mtnlive.com,
I got pinged by
a pirate social
network this week.

Don’t worry,
I wasn’t injured,
I still have
all my booty
and my ship
cruised into
fresh waters.

Tuesday was
International
Talk Like a
Pirate Day.

When I saw the
promo on the Yahoo!
Homepage, I couldn’t
resist writing a post
called “Talk Like a
Pirate Day:
PR Takeaways.”

Like long white cat
fur on baggy black
jeans, my post showed
up all over the place.

How’s a 10/310 ranking
in a blog search
for a post made on a whim?

Being pinged by a
pirate social network –
that means they
commented on my story –
hoisted my post up to the crow’s nest.   

Aaaarghhh!

How is this relevant to you
– or me – you ask, <$firstname$>!?

The lesson is: there’s a social
network for everyone –
even pirates – that’s
waiting to be tapped
into in the blogsphere.

If you’re not a blogger,
that’s okay. Writing and
posting public commentary
doesn’t work for
everyone or every business.

You can be a blog reader,
though.

Here’s how . . .

Go to Google and type
in blogs: your topic.

What do you want to
know more about –
dogs, cooking, marketing,
sales, vacations, pirates?

FYI, I’m researching a
best of blogs list for you.

Think about the PR
possibilities blogs offer:
a mention or endorsement
by someone who’s
perceived as a
subject expert
within their community –
they promote your
product for you to
the blog captain’s
loyal crew.

Posting comments
to a blog ships your
story to a new breed
of publishers and
captures search engine
attention. 

With today’s diverse
array of PR outlets
and packaging possibilities
to choose from, it can be
difficult to cast off
and even harder
to set your story sailing.

Over the course of the
week, several people
shared their PR
voyages with me.

One created a contest
to give away thousands
of dollars in consulting
services, but the press
wasn’t interested.
With no coverage,
the contest was cancelled.

Another sent a local
release to a national
distribution list and
ticked off a few editors.
Not good.

One lucky person
was getting media
attention, but doesn’t
have a product to sell
so there’s no treasure
coming in.

What’s your experience
with PR, <$firstname$>?

Do you fall into one of these categories?

-I have no clue about PR –
what does that stand for?

-I’ve tried sending press
releases and I get no response.

-I get lots of hits on
http://www.prweb.com, but no orders.

-I paid an agency thousands
of dollars for releases
that got limited exposure.

PR isn’t rocket science,
but it is tricky to navigate
any body of uncharted waters
on your own.

Just ask Jack Sparrow –
or a seminar marketer
who has several audiences
to reach, deadlines to
meet and mega seats to fill.

I got my start in the
marketing world as an
inside sales rep for
Dun & Bradstreet’s
Plan Services division.
We planned and presented
a few dozen seminars
a year in cities throughout
the Midwest.

Sending out press releases
wasn’t in our marketing mix.

Filling the seats in the last
few days often called for
laborious hours on the
phone to every prospect
in the region.

Now, there’s a better way.

Next Wednesday, September 27,
Jenny Hamby, the Seminar
Marketing Pro will grill me
on “How to Fill Seminar Seats
Using the Power of Free Publicity.”
If you know Jenny, you’ll know
why I’m thrilled to have her
interview me. She’s one of the
best copywriters in the business.

Check it out at http://www.seminarprsecrets.com.

Busy that day?

We’re recording the
call; order your mp3 at
http://www.seminarprsecrets.com.

Wishing You Clear Skies and Smooth Selling ~

Barbara

Rethinking The Wealthy Mind

Late this afternoon, I got a call from someone who found me on the Internet.

When I hear that comment, it’s my cue to ask, "Tell me. . . exactly where did you find me on the Internet?"

One place I forgot about is The Wealthy Mind trainer site.

This caller wanted to know where they could find a list of my 2007 workshops.

Workshops? What workshops?

And here I thought the caller needed marketing or PR consulting . . .

Slowly, I put the conversation’s puzzle pieces in place: universal cycles of change, NLP, wealthy something, California.

Eventually, I came up with the answer, The Wealthy Mind Trainer site.

Here’s how I became a Wealthy Mind trainer. . .

In 2003, I left my family for the first time in 17 years to get away. (In my corporate life, my contract required me to be up in the air at least 40% of the time – that was BK [before kids])

My destination?
Burlingame, California

My purpose(s)?
To . . .  reveal my Wealthy Mind, walk on the beach in the wind, rediscover my inner nomad, sip coffee all by myself, drape my motherly persona for a few days, bargain in Chinatown for green amber, cruise on the freeway with Mick singing in the background – and to watch my niece and her husband on stage.

My discoveries
The first few days were so magical I stayed longer than I’d planned to take the Wealthy Mind trainer’s training. A misty, twisty turny drive down to Half Moon Bay with fog cloaking the scenery was scary; an old time gospel show on the radio played a song, "The Lord is on the Television" to let me know that God is indeed everywhere. Japanese people find Americans to be quite curious – why do sell candy with coffee? why do our kids stay home or come home so early? And, Kris and Tim are revered by their students, deservedly so.

My plan
At the time, I envisioned conducting Wealthy Mind seminars at least once a month. I made a run at it and hosted one training. One of my students said the experience was better than his time with Tony Robbins in Hawaii. But, I found different things to do.

Back to the call . . .

When the caller didn’t recognize the names Kris Hallbom and Tim Hallbom, I knew they weren’t familiar with the co-directors of the NLP and Coaching Institute of California and their presence in the international NLP community. That’s okay, in fact it’s good because this program knows no boundaries.

Surprisingly, it didn’t take me more than a few seconds to switch over from talking like a marketing consultant to communicating like a Wealthy Mind trainer.

In these few hours afterwards, I’ve been reliving my own Wealthy Mind experiences. In all, I’ve been through the course three times and the training twice.

Although I am not an NLP practitioner, I believe the program transcends any definition from its foundations in science, NLP and quantum physics.

My personal connection to the NLP and Coaching Institute of California?
Kris is my niece – and technically, Tim is my nephew-in-law.

Thanks to the caller who jogged my memories and my interest in training again – and to Kris and Tim for the inspiration and their love of training and guiding their students to create the life they want in so many places around the world.

Learn more about Wealthy Mind Training
Learn more about NLP Coach Training
Let me know if you’re interested in a Wealthy Mind workshop by leaving a comment below.