general + announcements

the worst business advice i’ve received

Really bad advice is just great advice in reverse.

(To protect the identities of the following well-intentioned bozos and mogul wannabes, names are being withheld.)

Constantly innovate.

I live to innovate. It’s one of my favourite practices. Howevah…innovation for the sake of innovation is masturbation. Innovation fascination can distract you from what’s already really working. It’s disruptive by nature. The pursuit of new n’ flashy can block you from going from good to great.

Once you have lots of online traffic, then you can figure how to monetize it.

That only works if you’re playing a very big league game, and you have stupid amounts of time and money to burn through. And even then it’s incredibly risky. For the rest of us babies, we need to stick to making stuff that people want to pay for—immediately.

Take the money.

Most of the time (not all the time) the source of the money is as important as the money itself. When you’re the start-up beggar, it’s tough to be choosy. But remember the rules of nature: otherwise cute and friendly animals tend to get vicious when their territory or uh, nuts are threatened. Hang with friendly creatures.

Leave your emotions out of it.

I had an investor tell me to calm down when (unbeknown to him but very known by me,) the hired fox was robbing the hen house we’d all invested in. And I, being the Head Hen n' all, had my feathers very appropriately ruffled.

“Look, the best thing for you to do is leave your emotions out of this, Danielle,” Dudeboy told me, rubbing the key to his Mercedes and twisting his espresso cup round in the saucer.

Sad but true, this tends to be a male/female thing. A Dudeboy gets angry and it’s cool, it’s warranted. A Chickwoman gets pissed and she’s just “freaking out.” Men go by their "instincts." Women follow their "emotions." Same thing, asshole.

In a quagmire of politics, my “emotions” were the most effective radar system I had—my “emotions” were telling me exactly what was going on, before it could be proved. You can let your emotions rule without over-ruling your good sense and integrity.

Just do one big thing at a time.

When it comes to actual time management I’m a big fan of focus. You need to tune out Twitter and email to make some creative, productive headway.

But in terms of overall development strategy and creativity, the singular focus route has never worked for me. I just can’t do one project at a time. I need to feed different parts of my brain and spirit. And with more than one iron in the creative fire, the fire just gets higher.

It doesn’t matter who gets the credit.

Screw that! It matters. A lot.

. . . . . . .

This is the final excerpt I'll be releasing from the prelude of THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS digital book. The full book launches May 12! Pre-order now and get the "True Strengths & The Metrics of Ease" session immediately!

"I quickly downloaded the first chapter and it's blowing my mind. Amazing. I can't wait to get the rest. This chapter alone is worth way more than $150."
- Tim Murphy

"After The Fire Starter Sessions, you'll stop thinking of yourself as a 'little entrepreneur.'"
- Abby Kerr

"If you haven't heard, or you've been on the fence about pre-ordering Danielle LaPorte's FIRE STARTER SESSIONS for entrepreneurs, run, don't walk. You will not be sorry. The first chapter is brilliant and I am sure the rest to come will be. just. as. amazing."
- Nona Jordan, business & life coach

. . . . . . . .

INTERVIEWS

Maria Ross at Red Slice and I talked about authenticity in branding.

Yvonne Bynoe from Sophisticated Woman & Mama asked me some great questions about money, honey.

LaFemmeSabotage threw 3 Big Questions at me.

 

announcing: a digital experience for entrepreneurs. the fire starter sessions are going to burn the roof off this mothah!

I’ve said this to hundreds of my Fire Starter clients: “You’re sitting on an empire.” Or, “Just start!” And now I’m taking my own advice… and it feels sooo good. I’m creating a “digital experience for entrepreneurs” called:

THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS:
Spark your genius. Ignite your business. Do it your way.

It’s a downloadable book, meets video seminar, meets cosmic transmission of love. (And it’s going to be gorgeous!) There’s nothing out there like this. The pre-launch starts the week of April 5, which will be a “buy now” and get a sneak peek offer; and the worldwide release is the week of May 10. (I love saying “world-wide release”. Makes me feel like Sade.)

IDEAS + REQUESTS + OPPORTUNITIES

Need some great content for your site? Interview… Me!
I participated in Seth Godin’s Linchpin book e-campaign, in which he asked 50 bloggers to interview him and run it on the day of the launch. In return, he included our site links in his launch blog post. Traffic spiked for everyone. It was a beautiful thing.

If you want to interview me and post the interview the week of The Fire Starter Sessions pre-launch (or anytime thereafter,) that would be fabulous. We can record a video, an audio, or do something via email. I’m putting this request out now so that I have lead-time to be responsive. If I get deluged, well, I'll dance with it and we'll get every single interview done in as long as it takes to do that. Big bang campaigns are effective, but steady, slow burn campaigning can have lasting dazzle . (Keep that in mind when your publicist says you need to do twenty cities in ten days.)

If you’re game to interview me, send me an email [d @ daniellelaporte dot com] with a few questions, or if you want to record a video, or a phoner (which is my preference, but I’m flexi,) we can set a date.

I will tweet, facebook, and post a link in my blog posts to our interview on your site. I may also create a separate page of just interview links that lives on my site. If your site isn’t the fitting venue, then if you can tweet, facebook and forward links like crazy, I'd be deeply grateful.

WHAT IT WILL COST AND WHY I'M NOT DOING A CONVENTIONAL MARKETING STRATEGY

The Fire Starter Sessions program will be $150. Period. No tiered pricing. No fluffy bonus offers. No preferential, velvet rope, or ‘scarcity marketing’ tactics.

Here's the thing, and this kind of chokes me up... after writing literally hundred of bios and press releases for clients, editing dozens of books, pitching major media outlets and TV networks; and even being the lead author of a wonderfully successful book, this is my first 100% solo, free-flying creative project. I can hardly believe it myself. White Hot Truth (and all things now and evermore) is the result of the creativity sovereignty that I've longed for my whole life. And therefore, I hereby decree that The Fire Starters Sessions will be elegant and straight forward in every possible way. I've hustled on too many less-than gigs, and kissed too many effin' frogs to shrink away from the high road now.

Besides, I believe that people (especially you, my tribe) are innately intelligent. I know that you know that there is no limited time offer on perennial wisdom and vibrant love.

And so it is: $150 for full-tilt extreme value. $5 from every purchase will be donated to a charity (I'm meditating on which one, I may do two charities.)

AFFILIATE LOVE
For the first phase of launch, the affiliate kickback program will be only open to my Fire Starter clients and past seminar attendees, and actual purchasers of the program. We’ll do a 30/70 split. We’ll start the affiliate program pre-launch week, April 5, with cool badges you can pull from my site, and links to the affiliate system. We’ll make this easy breezy for everyone.

MORE TO COME
I’m giving this all I’ve got in one fell swoop. I thought of doing a “series” with a phased-out delivery, but I want to pour it on. So I will. I want this to be one of the best selling digital books of its genre. I want to use state of the art technology to create a classic. I want as many people as possible to feel and shine their light, ever brighter - and to create deep freedom while doing it. You know what I’m talking about.

Lovelove,

p.s. I’m really excited. Like, crazed with excitement. Like, mad artist, scientist crazed. xoxo
p.p.s. if you want to tweet about how excited you are, please do. Hashtag is #FireSS

ONE MORE THING, IMPORTANT:
If you want to get on my official “interested” Fire Starter list for announcements and offers, PLEASE CLICK HERE TO GET ON THAT LIST RIGHT NOW.

 

beloved subscribers - please read

I posted this week that I'm switching to a new subscriber database system. It's a little scary for a media person to mess with her d-base, but the new set up means I can send better looking emails whenever I want. Creative control. Gotta have it.

IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY DONE SO, please either:
a) go to my White Hot Truth site and subscribe to the 'SOMEWHAT DAILY EMAIL' or the 'MONTHLY ROUNDUP' - it's on the home page.
b) open the email I sent you a few days ago titled 'Confirm White Hot Truth' and click on the obvious link.

In a few days, I will shut off the old system (Feedburner) and exclusively send out my new pretty emails (with AWeber). Don't miss out on the love. (For you RSS people, everything remains the same.)

Please & Thank You,
Danielle
xo

 

if you rec’d an email from me…

...that SAID:
"CONFIRM White Hot Truth and away we go!"
please please open it and click on the link to update your e-subscription.

I'm changing the program I use that manages all of my fabulous e-subscribers. The new program will allow me to send out my posts so they're stylin' and pretty.

(FYI, for anyone who cares, I'm switching from Feedburner, ugly and controlling; to A-Weber, which is customizable and flexible.)

Since I'm tryin' to, like, build an empire of conscious multi-media and rocking wisdom, every subscriber who cares about my content is precious and deeply appreciated. So check your email and click the link.

Or better yet - go to the upper right of my home page where it says GET HOT, SUBSCRIBE - and do just that.

With Love,
Danielle
xo

PS... you may receive two WhiteHotTruth identical daily emails from me for the next few days - one from the old system, and one from the new (which will look way better.) SO sorry for the potential annoyance. Change can be a bitch and technology can be even bitchier.

PPS... if you're getting me via RSS - you're free and clear, no changes required. Fhew.

 

best moment of peace for 2009

An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?

The monastery was peaceful. Those five days when the Man and the Boy went camping, now THAT was peaceful (read: get to have long baths with magazines, write at 3am, eat breakfast at noon, watch documentaries in the day time.)

But this week, this week has a quality of Love Boat peace to it - exciting and new. And I've come aboard. I made way for the peace by declaring December the Universal Month of Tying Up Loose Ends. And I've given myself the space to meander. Time management systems have their place, but not for the immediate now. I'm clearing my in box. I'm having lunch with my Man, tea with the girls. I'm following the rabbit hole of new blogs and spiritual texts and iTunes. Hell, I may even put my kid's baby photos in an album - the ones that have been sitting in a shoe box for five years. I may...bake something. But probably not.

Nothing's changed on the outside. I still have tons of email. There are new projects that I'm so excited to ignite, that I can barely sit still when the promise of it all runs 'round my heart. There's laundry in the living room right now, and my TV producer is waiting for me to deliver my next segment. But peace is my call to make. 1-800-Life-is-good-cause-I-say-so. I'm letting the GO! GO! GO! of 2009 unwind from my spine. Flexi plexi meander. Peace in. Peace out.

 

yo, canada! tune into to CBC TV + me

Every Wednesday between 6pm to 8pm EST (4pm to 6pm PST) I'm on CBC TV's new national show, Connect With Mark Kelley. Look for this fancy lead in:

It's a total honour, because the CBC is a national treasure, the show is GOOD, and because Mark Kelly is such a total hotty. This is him smiling at me saying something really hilarious but searingly smart.

Want to see the show from wherever you are? I'd like that to. Email the producers and tell them to upload my stuff for y'all south of the border, and for any one who misses the show on Wednesdays. And if you catch the show and dig it, fan mail to the producers raving about my wry wisdom is good karma for everyone.

The Connect website
Connect on Twitter
Connect on Facebook
Email the producers fan mail about moi, or leave a comment on the blog

 

vancouver: gwen bell workshop saturday november 28

I'm really thrilled to be hosting Gwen Bell's Mind Body Tech Workshop in Vancouver on Saturday Nov. 28, 10am - 1pm. Location TBD. We're going to have a brand-mind-body-bending blast. Guaranteed.

Also, we'll be having a casual meet up a few nights before the workshop, so come on out! Wednesday Nov 25: Chill Winston in Gastown, 3 Alexander Street. 7pm.

CLICK HERE FOR WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION + REGISTRATION
http://vanmindbodytech.eventbrite.com/

. . . . . .

My Burning Questions with Gwen

 

new york + vancouver, let’s get all fiery

I've just locked in dates for Vancouver + New York Group Fire Starter Sessions! I'll also be doing a cocktail evening talk in NYC - details on that forthcoming.

: Saturday September 26: New York, 10:00am to 1:00pm
: Saturday, October 17: Vancouver, 10:00am to 1:00pm

For details, check out my new GIGS + EVENTS page.
NYC will book up quickly and my Van gig is half sold. So, if you feel the love, click quick. Contact me directly to reserve your space: [email protected]

Lovelove,
Danielle

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vancouver group fire starter date set

I'm offering Group Fire Starter Session in my favourite city in the world: Vancouver!

WHEN: Saturday, October 17 @10:00 to 1:00pm
WHERE: TBD (likely Gastown)
COST: $200

Got the mojo, but need the game plan? Have the strategy but need the emotional clarity? From start-ups to 9 to 5'rs who want to break out, this is a special opportunity to get strategically inspired and practically informed. It's a jam session-meets-lecture-meets tribal pow wow. We cover lot's of ground, from guerrilla marketing to life purpose. It's the business of life, really. Take notes.

3 hours. First come, first served. About 20 people per session. Happily, there's already a line up, so if you're game, I suggest booking in soon.

Contact me directly to reserve your space: [email protected]

"In addition to providing a joyous ass-kicker of an evening, you, yourself, are an excellence magnet of the highest order. Thank you. I expect to be reverberating with juicy goodness somewhere in your orbit for years to come."
- Colleen Wainwright, The Communicatrix, Los Angeles

"An excited, thankful update: my blog readership went up 60% last month. THANK YOU, THANK YOU a million times over for all of your practical inspiration. I really feel blessed."
- Lindsey Lewis, Yoga teacher, and Writer, Vancouver

“Your work is like a blazing path into my highest good with my business. I can't thank you enough for your authenticity, humor, and straightforward honesty. Your Fire Starter sessions are something I would do over and over again.”
- Lauren Harkness, Jewelry designer, Seattle

 

i’d eat books for breakfast if i could

Announcing my Amazon a-store. Think of it as private tour through my neuroses and brilliance. Enjoy.

CLICK HERE TO HEAD ON OVER.