Leela Cosgrove
Leela Cosgrove is a Speaker, Author and Information Product Specialist. She is also a firewalker, has a black-belt in Tae Kwon Do, a penchant for tattoos, and enjoys bands such as Rammstein, Lai Bach, Marilyn Manson, Pennywise and Bad Religion.
You get the clients you deserve
But let me take this statement a step further: You get the clients you deserve because you teach them how to treat you. This important life lessons came into sharp focus for me a couple of months ago when a client left one of our programs after making $30,000 in four months, letting us know that they didn’t think we’d added any value to their business.
Hey Baby-Boomers… We are sick of your ‘booming’. (Why young entrepreneur programs are NOT...
As a Master of Throwing Rocks, I understand why boomers might want to attack young entrepreneurship programs. But if these loud-mouths can forget about unfair for a moment (yes, it’s not nice losing your place as the centre of attention), they might learn why programs of this type are so important.
What going home with a hooker taught me about my business
These nuggets of wisdom shared by a brothel worker are more useful than most pieces of business advice you’ll read in a book.
Not all advice is equal
If you wanted to send a rocket to the international space station, would you listen to your cousin John when he said there’s no way that you should use that kind of fuel, because he used it in his car once and the car blew up? So why do people do this every day in their businesses?
Why PR is a pointless waste of time
I’ve never been a fan of the whole PR thing -- I’ve seen so many people sink time, effort and money into PR and then see no real ROI from it. And don’t even start with that “brand awareness” crap.
Your clients are morons
I was reading someone’s blog the other day and they were talking about determining what information products are best for your clients… and therein I read the offending sentence:
“The best way to find out is to ask them.”
What a load of crap.
Five predictions: the state of publishing in five years
Books have always been a huge part of my life. But only an ostrich would deny that tectonic shifts are reforming the once-staid publishing industry. Here are my predictions for the biggest trends in publishing over the next five years.
Why SEO is just sooooo 2009. Is social media the future of internet search?
I used to Google hairdressers, plumbers, cafes. Now I ask my Facebook and Twitter connections who to go to, because a personal recommendation tells me a lot more than someone’s website can. SEO is doomed. In the format we know it, at least.
The History of Social Media: As Seen by Geekstorians
People who say social media is a fad have a profound misunderstanding of the internet and the reasons why people love it so, writes Leela Cosgrove.
Flame Wars 101: A Guide to Profiting from your Disagreeable Nature
Are you a misanthrope? Do you enjoy causing arguments for the sake of it?
Do you insist on playing devil's advocate in every single situation, no matter how inappropriate?
Then you might just have a career ahead of you as a blogger.
Obfuscation for idiots: jargon and the end game
The enemy shall be known by the name ...
People-who-have-to-use-big-words-to-sound-smart-even-in-marketing-copy-where-the-point-should-be-to-sell-rather-than-to-be-liked.
I chose entrepreneurship, not motherhood. Am I missing something?
I'm childless by choice -- a decision I cop a lot of flak for. But one line of criticism I cannot abide is that I am somehow a lesser entrepreneur because I'm not a mother too. There's some weird calculus going on here.
5 reasons I hate logos
Okay, maybe that's a tad on the dramatic side. What I hate is this faffing around with logos as an excuse for not doing other, real, important stuff with your business.
Who else is fed up with Freeple (“Free Stuff People”)?
If you're going to give something away, you need to know what the value of it is and what your ROI is. Too many people are caught up in this 'giving stuff away for free and hoping money happens later' thing. I'm guessing that's because they're afraid of selling.
“Muuuuuuum! Woolies is stealing my market share!”
If the only way you know how to sell is to compete on price and thereby make yourself a commodity, then get out of business or get so much money behind you that you can compete on price. But either way, stop bloody complaining.
A social media dictionary for a new age
You’ve heard all the pros and cons for social networking. So, I’m not going there again. If you hate social media, run away. Now. However, for those of you who are hooked, there’s a whole new world of words and phrases that you need to be across. So, I felt it was time for a dictionary for our new, social media age.
Sheesh, Rupert, would a subscription model KILL you?
The truly anarchical nature of the internet (despite attempts to control it) precludes the concept of the captive audience. Now, it’s a buyers’ market – and we have so very many options. Big media take note.
OMG how do you keep filling your rooms?!
I have several arms to my business, but one of the main ones is the events we run. We're currently in the process of filling a three day event and have been using low-cost preview events to do this. At every single preview event, I get someone asking me,
"How do you keep filling your rooms?!"
When is too much, too much?
I spent a lot of time at the start of my business trying to conform to what I thought I had to be to succeed, with limited success. I found that when I let go, started uncovering my tattoos at presentations and generally being myself, “all of a sudden” my business exploded. But where do you draw the line?
Stop trying to monetise Twitter. You’re killing the golden goose!
There’s no getting around it – utilisation of social networking as a form of marketing requires an input of time. This bugs a lot of business owners, looking for a shortcut. Isn’t there some way in which we can just, like, advertise on it or something? Do we really need to spend hours in front of our computers tweeting, LinkingIn and Facebooking?
