Dear

Catching up with Possible Woman Foundation Founder, Linda Wind! Once a month Linda hosts a video taping for selected speakers to be featured on her network. I shared 5 Essentials to Perfect Prospects and Profits recently and this week was 5 Secrets to Closing the Deal Without Selling. I look forward to sharing these with you all soon!

Attended both a NARI Education Event and all day Redefining Luxury at ADAC! I love to keep my finger on the pulse of the design and build industry and these eventswere great opportunities to catch up, get the latest and the real scoop instead of what the media is feeding us!

Heading to the West Coast next week for Adam Urbanski's Attract Clients Like Crazy. I couldn't miss it since I'm an alumni of his programs and know that no matter how far I go, he is always going to have nuggets to share. And there will be great netweaving going on. Remember YOU are YOUR biggest asset, be sure and invest in your education, growth and expertise, no matter how far up the ladder you may be!

Together we all go farther,

Melissa
www.twitter.com/prosperbydesign
www.facebook.com/melissagalt
www.linkedin.com/in/melissagalt

"Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have
the time or the money to do it right."

~ Kurt Herber Alder, 1905-1988 Composer

Brevity Briefs for Brain Food

YOU know how much I advocate a steady success diet of brain food! Well, Rick Raddatz has really done us all a huge service with his Brevity Briefs. I don't want to say much more, except go check it out at Brevity Briefs . It is truly one of my professional and personal favorites for staying up to date with the latest, hottest, and greatest in marketing, social media, branding, business development, and success strategy techniques, tools, and giants. This is an invaluable shortcut to what would otherwise take me weeks every month that I don't have! I know you are as inundated as I am and need valuable time savers that will keep you at the leading edge, Rick does!

Leverage the Power of 5 for Maximum Exposure

I've got to commend Holly Blalock the Creative Director at C.R. Laine again. She has done an awesome job of leveraging her company's exposure with marketing partners. This something every small business owner and retailer must do to beat the competition by maintaining and growing your exposure while minimizing marketing cost. Holly follows me and I was really tickled to meet her at High Point in person. What she has done, is something I've been advocating for the last couple of years to businesses large and small. It just makes sense to leverage your brand.

Whatever your business, in C.R. Laine's case it is custom upholstery, you can make this work. Holly identified quality manufacturers of goods compatible with upholstery. These include European aged case goods (www.porteliot.com), hand-knotted rugs (www.kalaty.com), mirrors, wall décor and accessories (www.uttermost.com), fine home décor and lamps (www.orientaldanny.com), blue and white porcelain (www.tozaihome.com), twig chandeliers and lamps ( www.wishdesignsusa.com), fine custom art (www.artscapeusa.com) and hand-crafted rugs (www.companyc.com ).

Holly designed a simple but informative flyer with a complete listing of each vendor, their specialty, their full location and contact including an email contact in addition to the website of each. These were handed out upon entering the C.R. Laine showroom at High Point and buyers are encouraged to source these resources in addition to C.R. Laine. Each vendor chosen has provided selected inventory appropriate to C. R. Laine's vignettes and is well showcased.

Now the true key in this is for C.R. Laine to, in turn, have a piece or two or three of upholstery in each partners showroom with a similar flyer directing buyers back to their opportunity. In addition, by implementing a password for each order, buyers could be offered even a 5% discount, making leads easy to track from this marketing coop program. C. R. Laine and Holly get it. They understand that this isn't about competition but about collaboration. She knows that while there are a few buyers that will only want upholstery, most also are going to be sourcing for lamps, mirrors, rugs, artwork, and accents.

C.R. Laine becomes the "go-to" resource for their buyers and they increase their exposure, their credibility and subsequently their profitability with a minimal amount of investment. To appear in five or more additional showrooms would typically cost tens of thousands of dollars. Instead to collaborate and share exposure for mutual benefit with a select group of vendors at the same product quality, service level, and price point is what leveraging your brand is all about.

Want to use this article? You can, just include the text here: For more simple, easy, and quick tips on social media success check out www.todaybydesign.com. And when you are ready to take your business farther simply and easily, get your special report on the single simplest and quickest way to move ahead, www.changeyourrewards.com.

How to Invite Connections and Friends on LinkedIN and FB

I have to confess this is my all time pet peeve! I am so tired of getting impersonal invites to friend connect on Facebook or the generic invite on LinkedIN "I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn." I'll tackle LinkedIn in next week's article, this is about Facebook.

Remember this isn't about collecting names as friends or connections. It is about building relationships. At the rock bottom minimum you must (please, please, please) make your invite personal. Let the recipient know why you want to connect and how you found them. This isn't difficult, take a look at some easy FB connect reasons here:

	I've been following your blog and love what you share.
	You show up everywhere and I love your wisdom.
	We share X# of friends so I want to friend you.
	I am impressed by your profile and what you are working on, like to friend.
	You've got a great smile, I want to friend you. (weak but complimentary)
	Not sure you'll remember me but we both attended Name of School.
	We attended an event (name the event) and I wanted to friend you here.
	Great to see you here, so enjoyed your recent teleseminar/webinar/speaking event.

Oh and you must have an avatar to make recognition easy. That is a current headshot, not one that is 30 pounds lighter, 10 years younger and with a different color hair! It is tough enough to remember those people I see often let alone recognize someone from an event or years ago without honesty in imagery. I had this reinforced again at a recent TweetUP at High Point Market. There were 2-3 Tweeps that I totally didn't recognize and they confessed that they'd put on a bit of weight. Get over yourself, get on with integrity. This isn't a body shot, just a headshot.

With a proper headshot, close up smiling, no pets, no kids, no interiors, just you and a warm invitation that is personal, I am thrilled to add you to my friend circle and share you with anyone there. While you can friend anyone you like, not everyone will friend you back, having a recommendation can help. I'm here to make your Facebook experience better, just ask me anything you want about it and I'll answer or tell you who can!

Want to use this article? You can, just include the text here: For more simple, easy, and quick tips on social media success check out www.todaybydesign.com. And when you are ready to take your business farther simply and easily, get your special report on the single simplest and quickest way to move ahead, www.changeyourrewards.com.

The Jewelry Show YOU Don't Want to Miss

For those of you in Atlanta, I've got a special announcement! My friend and design colleague, Debby Hall, just picked up a really fun line of jewelry called Stella and Dot. She is having a showing on November 11, 2009. Do check it out!

When: Wednesday, November 11 4pm - 7pm EST
Where: Frameworks Gallery, 1205 Johnson Ferry Road, Marietta, GA 30068
Wanna Know More: www.stelladot.com/debbyhall

Hi! I'm Melissa Galt and as a successful business creativepreneur and business owner of the last 15+ years I learned that the key to a profitable business is all in the marketing. I was spoiled at the start because corporate America had done it for me so when I jumped into the wild blue yonder of owning my own business I had a lot to learn, and learn it I did! And I've gone from wasting thousands on advertising, direct response mail, expos and more to creating a finally honed marketing machine that regularly delivers perfect prospects whom I convert to ideal clients for lifetime demand. Can I show you how to do the same?

As entrepreneurs we all have the dream of designing a business that is both profitable, passionate, purposeful, and gives us the lifestyle we deserve and want. That means:

But too often that dream gets buried in 15 hour days, 6 days a week, years without vacation and missing friends and family. Marketing makes the difference and from mindset to strategy, Twitter to Facebook, blogging to article marketing, passive revenue products to your own teleseminars I've got the solutions.

Please consider me your marketing success resource to move your business forward and become the thriving profitable opportunity you dreamed of! I welcome and invite your emails, Tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIN connections, and even phone calls. I'm old fashioned but learned how to harness today's marketing tools for real success. You can too!