Eben Pagan, through His Business Training Program, has established himself as a leader, teacher, and extremely successful business man in the world of  information marketing.  Information marketing refers to coaching/consulting services and producing e-books, CDs, DVDs, and giving live trainings on a particular subject. In my article on Marketing Skills, I mentioned that I had signed up for his GuruMasterMind program and would be attending the live seminar in Los Angeles.

Whew!  I'm still recovering!  Once again, I have been fortunate enough to find someone who gives far more than expected. The training includes self development in the form of taking care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally.  One portion of the training is called "Wake Up Productive" and is designed to help you prepare and discipline yourself so that you will be twice as productive as you were when you started out. The lessons are sound and I'm already seeing results.  Good thing, too, since I also have at least twice as much to accomplish as I did before my business started to grow!

The training is intense. Eben establishes his expectations from the very first and makes it clear that anyone who is not truly motivated to take their business to the next level needs to rethink being a part of the program. We are reading and studying great books, but in an analytical way. We submit our marketing materials and Eben gleefully points out the errors in his "Marketing Demolition" sessions. There's everything from nuts and bolts training on pay per click, writing sales letters, creating training programs to learning about press kits and how to get the attention of magazines, journalists, and television producers.  I haven't even scratched the surface!

The program is a year long and it came with a (for me) hefty price tag of $5000.00.  Platinum members pay $10,000.  Having researched Eben and his programs as well as speaking to his former and current students, I knew I would get my money's worth but it was still a stretch.  Imagine how pleasantly surprised I am that only a month into it, I have doubled my investment in the form of materials, business partners and clients.

I signed up for the program through Mike Dillard of Magnetic Sponsoring.  Mike immediately sent me ALL of his training training materials (a $4000 value), offered a phone consultation and invited me to  Austin to meet with him and his team. Eben has given away hundreds of dollars in free software and tools and his complete Print Persuasion program.  At the seminar in LA, the attendees competed with one another to see who could give away the best ideas or software.  I got writer's cramp taking notes and it has taken me a week just to go through all the links.

With so many scams and people offering worthless services, it was incredible to share a room with five hundred driven people, determined to offer their customers the best of everything.  They all understand that in order to win a client's trust, you have to be willing to give them your best stuff up front with no strings. This unselfish attitude has helped build multi million dollar businesses for many in attendance because you really do get back in proportion to what you give.

There was a sprinkling of people that were fairly new to the business and found themselves a bit at a loss on some of the technical terms like "anchor text" or the use of keywords. These are the people who came rushing over to me, knowing that I specialize in training "newbies" to the internet.  What was surprising, was the number of six and seven figure incomers who sought me out wanting fresh eyes and someone to help keep them on track. There are so many directions to go in this business, and many were fairly bursting with ideas and needed someone to simply help them pick one and run with it rather than trying to do several projects all at the same time.  I was so happy to have something to give back since I am not yet at the same level as most of the people there.

I will be posting an article about Ray Perez and incorporating your business as soon as Ray approves the piece. I want to be sure I've gotten the facts straight since that is NOT my area!  I also want to introduce you to Joachim Klehe - he has a passion for finding business resources that can make running your business much easier. Some are free and some aren't but all are definitely worth taking a look at!

I recorded a video when I got back from the weekend, and you can see that I was practically giddy with excitement.  The main message of the video is no matter where you are in your business, new or experienced, you have something to offer. It's an exciting time combining the internet and marketing and the next few years are going to see enormous growth.  I hope you are there with me!]]>http://www.home-business-diary.com/marketing-training/2008/6/1/marketing-skills-marketing-training-is-an-investment-in-you.htmlBarbara Silva2008-06-01T00:04:10Z2008-06-01T00:04:10ZI have been very fortunate in coming across excellent marketing skills training early in my business.  The books I have read by Ann Sieg and Mike Dillard have been so helpful and kept me from making too many mistakes as  I lay the groundwork for my business.

As I have written before, the first six months in my home business were a valuable learning experience but I wasted an awful lot of money.  Since that time, I have learned how to generate my own leads, use affiliate marketing, and gone through the Renegade University Professional all at minimal cost.

Now, I am ready to go to the next level.  My training at Renegade University is kicking up to a much more advanced level.  Now is the time to take everything I've learned and build on it.

Recently, I received an invitation to become a part of Eben Pagan's Guru MasterMind training.  Since there is a much higher cost involved than what I have been paying, I had to give it a lot of thought.  Upon researching Eben Pagan, I discovered that he mentored none other than Ann Sieg, Mike Dillard and Mike Klingler.  The Guru of my Gurus!  I went through several of his free videos and while the material is very intensive I think I'm ready for it.

The best part, for me, is this will help me to offer even more value to my clients and the students. Marketing Merge Guide program at Renegade University, which means I will support new students who come in through my links or choose me as their guide from the main page.  This is part of the free service offered to the University level as well as Professional level students.  Beyond that, at the MasterMind level of the university, I will be part of a coaching team that offers advanced one on one consulting in specific areas requested by the students.

Thank goodness I am able to do this full time so that I can serve my clients, while stepping into this additional training.  I'm excited and can't wait to share with you what I learn.  There will be a two day live seminar coming up in Los Angeles and I will be sure to let you know how it went.

When I work with new clients, I always encourage them to keep to a strict budget.  Until you know for sure that a home business is the right choice for you, or a particular mlm for that matter, it just doesn't make sense to invest too much money.  As your business grows, there will be various tools to help make you more efficient. A contact manager/autoresponder, a good phone service, software which enables you to hold meetings online, and so on.  These things can be added as you need them, not all at once. 

As far as network marketing training goes, there is a lot of free information available on the web. Some more valuable than others, of course.  There are wonderful books that are relatively inexpensive.  There are free programs that offer mentoring services.  I have yet to find anything better, at least for me, than Renegade University. 

As your business grows, you have to be ready to step up that training.  Investing in your own marketing skills is to invest in your best asset: you!  Your team members are more likely to sign up under YOU than your company. I've had people ask to sign up under me before they even knew what my company was!

As I record here the various milestones in my business, I see this as the time when I have to step up.  I've gotten the basics.  I've gotten the intermediate skills and some of the advanced.  But now, I am ready to take this business full throttle and see where it goes!

Stay tuned!