Something has been perplexing me for a while now…and it has started to come up more and more as I see the OSI Rock Stars moving so quickly forward in their Success and yet so many others remain with feet and dreams firmly planted in their own self-created cement.  But why?  Why can you give two people the exact same opportunities and one will succeed wildly and one will fail?  One will move towards their goals and one will make excuses? 

There is a girl who:

·        Had a learning disorder as a child

·        Failed most of her written English tests

·        Was told in 1990 that her final college paper she had written about the “internet” – where in the future people would have access to learning online, creating relationships with people all over the world, and a place where you would have greater access to many things – was ‘science fiction’ and was given a failing grade

·        Was surrounded by family and friends who told her to quit setting her sights so high – she would just be disappointed when they didn’t happen

·        Had family members recommend that she marry so someone could take care of her

·        Never finished college

·        Received many ‘pink’ slips warning her of potential utility shutoffs

·        Was homeless for a time in her life

And what happened to that woman – what choices did she make in her life?  Did she buy into her English teachers failing grades?  Did she believe her family’s adamant disapproval?  Did she ‘settle’ in life after being told her dreams were just that?  Did she blame everyone else for these potential dream-stopping situations? Did she just give up when everything and everyone told her to?   

This girl went on to write multiple best-selling books, has published articles and columns in numerous magazines, her educational content is used in colleges, she is considered an expert in her internet field and has been interviewed on CNN, Fox and other TV stations, she has toured the country as a leader & motivational speaker…and her dreams?  Well her dream was to use the gifts she had been given to help others realize their potential on the internet…and I am blessed everyday that I get to do that here in the Success newsletter, on OSI and definitely at OSI Rock Stars.   Yep, that girl above is me.  I have an amazing life – but I ALWAYS have had an amazing life – even when faced with the situations above.  But why can I look at that situation and say amazing, when someone else would say ‘doomed to fail and why should I even try’?  So again, how can you give two people the exact same opportunity – and one will wallow in self-pity and one will have an incredible life for which she is truly blessed?

I have been driving all of my friends and business friends crazy with this question for the past couple weeks and one very strong word kept coming up over and over again with all of them – faith.  “Faith in myself.” “Faith in my partner.” “Faith in my business.” “Faith in the future.”  Well great…but that still doesn’t get me any closer to answering my question.  But why?  We are all given the exact same opportunity to possess faith – but why the extreme differences in what people do with those opportunities?  Apparently I had been bugging God too much with this same question (trying to figure out what I could do different to get ‘everyone’ moving forward with living their lives to the fullest) because when I walked into Church this morning guess what Coach Mike (our Pastor is also an entrepreneurial coach!) was teaching about? 

“Fear is just faith in reverse.”

Aaaahhh…now I am starting to understand.  Faith IS the great equalizer, but how much we will let fear undermine that faith we have in ourselves, our partners, our businesses, and our futures will determine our Success in our life.  We were all born with the same amount of faith in our hearts – and through our parents, friends, siblings, radio, tv, school, church, movies, books, relatives, etc – our original faith in who we were was instead changed to how everyone else perceived us.  I always envisioned a body covered with sticky notes of what people think I should do, act, think, feel, want, etc.

Coach Mike has a great description of what fear is in his book Sabotage – “Understand that fear is false expectations appearing real.”  WOW.   We create false expectations all the time about how someone is thinking about us, about how a business deal will go, about our abilities, about a promotion – all before they actually happen.  Others also try to hand us false expectations with back-handed compliments, discouragements, and general lack of support.  Sometimes these people are saying these comments to us out of their perception of love and protection of us.  BUT if we buy into their false expectations we will start to believe them ourselves.  Remember one of my favorite sayings is:

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”
Henry Ford

Living from the inside out, as Coach Mike puts it, allows us to create truth from our own faith and then decide if those around us are speaking the same ‘truth’ as us.  He said as you start to listen from the inside out, the right voices will start to resonate with your own faith and the ‘wrong’ voices will start to stick out.  I have noticed that in my own world.  I have worked so hard on creating a world from the inside – a world of who I really am, not what anyone has told me I am…that it is almost difficult for me to travel outside of the pink sparkly world that I have created - lol.  If you are fluent in a foreign language, you know when someone just learning that language pronounces a word wrong…when you have a musical ear, you know when the note is sung out of tune…when you have an authentic mindset of who you are and where you are going, voices that are headed in other directions will filter through you.  Interestingly enough, with one exception, none of my friends today are the same group of friends I had 10 years ago.  Their words, and thus false expectations, didn’t match the faith I had in myself.

Another thing Coach pointed out is that by choosing faith, you will be hurt.  By removing fear from your life, it will probably be replaced to some degree with hurt.  And this is good.  With fear, absolutely nothing can be achieved – it simply paralyzes your heart and stops any movement forward.  But failure, hurt and disappointment aren’t false expectations – they are real.  We now know, black & white, what will not work…and our Success becomes that much closer.  Thoreau said:

“There is no remedy for love – but to love more.”

We get closer and closer to what we want – in our jobs, relationships, life – by knowing what we don’t want.  The only way to know that is by continuing to move forward, stumbling, learning, stretching and then moving forward again.  eGads!  I know that very well – my mistakes far outweigh my successes if I simply count them by number.  But I don’t.  My successes far outweigh the fear when I see my mistakes as opportunities to grow closer to my goals.

When I am speaking to groups I explain the world of being an entrepreneur like this:

You are just like Wiley E. Coyote.  You will be running off that cliff every day, multiple times a day with nothing underneath you to catch you, and will have to have the faith that Acme will work this time…uhm, no…this time…uhm, well maybe this time.  No room for fear.

If the thought of doing that fills you with fear – you aren’t ready to be an entrepreneur.  Am I ever fearful?…I can honestly 99% of the time I am not.  Was I starting out?…no again.  I remember walking onto stage for the very first time, no butterflies at all, and it felt like the most natural place in the world for me to be.  I was doing what I had been given the gifts to do in life – my passion.  I had never felt that same feeling working in the corporate world.  I would get glimpses of it when I was put in charge of marketing projects, but never felt truly in sync.  Now…do I have bad days, make not very smart decisions, and fuss over money? – egads…of course…I am a human being – lol.  I still can remember the days of getting the ‘pink’ version of my bills in the mail right before something was about to get turned off.  But I was doing what I was supposed to be doing and I knew that I would be provided for until I could get my feet underneath me.  And I still can’t spell or write to save my life - you guys should know that from reading this newsletter - but at least I am better than I was in school.  And I definitely didn’t do this overnight - you just have to keep moving in the truthful direction of your faith one step at a time.

Are you a ‘wantrepreneur’ who is ruled by fear and excuses?

Or an Entrepreneur who Chooses Success?

Have you been on this newsletter for awhile and keep saying, ‘someday I’ll get to this…?”

Do you keep talking about wanting to be an entrepreneur, yet every morning head to the ‘same old job?’

Amazingly, nothing in your life will change unless YOU do.

You know there is a saying by the famous Andrew Carnegie that goes,

“There is no use what so ever trying to help people who do not help themselves.   You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he be willing to climb himself.”

And while I agree that this definitely needs to be your responsibility to Choose Success, we are here to help you in any way we can.  SO many people are choosing Success and running off those Acme cliffs daily on Rock Stars…I know it can be done…I know we continue to teach the very Best Practices to Success and our Rock Stars keep doing the hard work by climbing up that Success ladder and building their Successful realities.  We simply take it day by day (sometimes hour by hour) and with each step towards our goal, we are one step closer to making that dream a reality.

What is the one thing YOU can do today to Choose Success instead of letting fear win over your life and take away your dreams forever?  Can you register for Squidoo?  Put up your first listing?  Open an eBay Store?  Get a business license?  Hire someone to do a logo for you?  YOU, not your fear, can make this happen.  Fear will NEVER let any of this happen, yet faith will.

You have one life to live – isn’t it about time you started living it?  Email me at info@janelleelms.com and tell me that you have stopped fear from ruling your life today.  Let me know what you are doing in the next 24 hours that is truly coming from faith – faith in yourself, faith in your abilities, faith in your dreams.  I truly believe in you and can’t wait to see you live to your fullest potential and have an amazing and blessed life.  I have faith that it will happen!

“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

Our Rock Stars Rock

·        Learning

Huge kudos to Rock Stars Dorothy of eclecticcollectit and Jim & Barbara of Grandpas Trading Company!  I know all 3 of these RS’s are very busy, yet they have been tearing up the education stage on OSI Rock Stars listening to podcasts and webinars to be more Successful in their businesses.  They have been averaging a couple of classes a day and I swear Dorothy  must have done 4 the other day!!  I am very proud of you for having faith to choose Success!  You guys rock.

·        Keeping us laughing

Our amazing Rock Star, PowerSeller, Trading Assistant and eBay Education Specialist Carolyn “CJ” Jacinto keeps our sense of humor intact with her latest find.  You Rock CJ:

http://www.therightfoot.net/mystuff/whatever/swf/bubblewrap.swf

·        This is how you do it

Huge Rock Star kudos to quite a few Rock Stars involved in the following Story:

·        Rock Star Rina of NicheMarketplace

·        Denise of Terapeak (AND one of our incredible Rock Stars)

·        Home Run Rock Star Tim of Mr. Customer Service

·        Steve at Bling! It – definitely a Rock Star

·        And of course ALL of the supportive and amazing Rock Stars on the RS Forums!

Here is the email I just received – you SO Rock Rina!  This is EXACTLY the blueprint to success that others should follow if they want to actually MAKE money on eBay.  SO proud of you.

Janelle–

Based on your recent newsletters, you are as busy as ever, but I wanted to share a modest “Home Run” success story with you.

A few months ago, I was poking around in my favorite thrift store and I found a Wilton Mickey Mouse Cake Pan. The pan appeared to be new and unused and included the original insert (although it was scuffed up and showed some slight shelf wear). I have had some experience selling Disney collectibles in the past so I decided to take a chance (I figured I could always bundle the cake pan with some other Disney trinkets and sell them as a package).

As you taught me, I started my research by searching eBay’s completed items. I found that Wilton Mickey Mouse Cake Pans consistently sell well on eBay. I also discovered that this particular design of Wilton Mickey Mouse Cake Pan was retired by the manufacturer in 2001. My initial plan was to list the pan as a 7 Day Auction with a starting bid of three times what I paid for the item. I also considered multiple listing the item both in the Collectibles / Disneyana category and the Home and Gardens / Kitchen / Bakeware category.

After listening to your February podcast with Denise Hogue of Terpeak–Using Research to lower your eBay Fees–I decided put my new skills to the test. I went to Terapeak, typed in the keywords Mickey Mouse Cake Pan and off I went. The first thing I noticed was Mickey Mouse Cake Pans had a high sell through rate across the board (80% + versus the average eBay sell through rate of about 30%). I also noted that the Home and Garden category had almost 10 times the number of listings for Mickey Mouse Cake Pans as the Collectibles category (and the average selling price was almost double). It was also pretty clear that multiple listing the item was not worth the extra listing fees (multiple listed items didn’t have a significantly higher sell-through rate than a listing with no features). Although bid auctions vastly outnumbered fixed price listings (by almost 10 times), the average selling price of fixed price listings appeared to be higher.

I decided to confirm my conclusions by drilling deeper. I expanded the time frame of my search from 7 to 30 days to see if the patterns that I identified represented a bonafide trend or were simply a fluke occurrences. I also refined the keywords to search for the specific type of Mickey Mouse cake pan that I wanted to sell (believe it or not, there are many different styles of Mickey Mouse cake pans available for purchase on eBay). I discovered that the type of Wilton Mickey Mouse Cake Pan in my possession sells consistently on a fixed price basis. Moreover, the fixed price listings showed a higher sell-through rate and a significantly higher average selling price. I also found that generally speaking the shorter the duration of the listing, the greater the sell-through rate and the higher the average selling price.

When I thought about it carefully, it kind of makes sense. If you were planning a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party for your three year old in and you wanted to bake a special Mickey Mouse birthday cake, do you want to wait 7 days for the auction to end and another week for the item to ship? No, you want that cake pan NOW! I also determined that the optimal time for listing the item was mid-week (Wednesday / Thursday) during the middle of the day (so much for the theory that the best time for listings to close is Sunday evening).

Upon consideration, I decided to list the item as a Fixed Price listing with a Buy In Now price that was nearly 5 times higher the starting price of the auction listing I had originally planned. I ensured my own success by making my gallery picture really stand out by using Bling! It and by checking out my competitors. I discovered that a competitor who regularly sells Mickey Mouse cake pans for the same high fixed price that I was contemplating didn’t have any fixed price listings currently active on the site. There was also a competitor who included detailed baking / decorating instructions with each shipment. Guess where he / she gets those instructions from? You guessed it … a downloadable PDF with detailed baking / decorating instructions is available from the manufacturer’s website. [You could say, well anyone could download non-copyrighted information off the web and offer it as a bonus with purchase. The point is that while anyone COULD do that, not everyone WILL!]

I put up the fixed price listing for the Mickey Mouse cake pan at 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. Less than 8 hours later, the item had not only sold, PayPal had already processed the payment.

The vital statistics are as follows:

Mickey Mouse Cake Pan

Purchase Price:  $2.65 not including tax (from a local thrift store)
eBay Listing Fee:  $1.00 (does not include eBay final value fees and PayPal fees)

Selling Price: $49.99  WAHOO!

Check out the closed listing for yourself at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150230035887&ssPageName=STRK:MESO:IT&ih=005

So what is the point to this undeniably long-winded story? If I hadn’t been a member of OSI Rock Stars, I wouldn’t have listened to the Tim “Mr. Customer Service” Chapman podcasts and I wouldn’t have taken a chance on a quirky cake pan in a category that I really don’t know much about (kitchen and bake ware). If I hadn’t been a member of OSI Rock Stars, I wouldn’t have listened to Denise Hogue’s Terapeak podcasts and my research would have been insufficient. I would have wasted money on bells and whistles that weren’t necessary. I would NOT have listed the item in the best listing format or the optimal day or time. And that means leaving money on the proverbial table. If I hadn’t been a member of OSI Rock Stars, I wouldn’t have known what Bling! It is or why it pays to make your gallery pictures stand out. I certainly wouldn’t have been motivated to go the extra mile in the area of customer service. Most importantly, if I wasn’t a member of OSI Rock Stars I wouldn’t have anyone to share this story with and I wouldn’t be able to celebrate the little personal victories that make the journey toward success worthwhile.

Thank you for making OSI Rock Stars. Thank you for sharing your heart every day so fearlessly and unselfishly. You deserve every ounce of happiness, sweetness, and success that life has to offer.

–
R. Mizrahi Varon
NicheMarketplace–Your Online Emporium

http://stores.ebay.com/gifts-apparel-accessories-home?refid=store

Find out what cutting edge eBay entrepreneurs already know …
OSI Rock Stars success coaching is the key to taking your
online business to the next level and beyond!

http://osirockstars.com/nichemarketplace

New Classes this week

New Classes for this week…

Hey…get registered ASAP for this week’s classes. All OSI Live classes are fr-ee to attend and instructions are included during the registration process for both the podcasts and the webinars. Remember, you can either ask a question for our special guest or simply put “I Choose Success” in the question box.

3/31/08, Monday at Noon pst/3pm est – The Spiritual Entrepreneurs – One of my great friends in this business is the brilliant Troy White. Troy had been interviewing successful entrepreneurs and found a common theme running throughout the process…over 75% of them attributed their Success to their spirituality/faith.  He took that information and wrote an amazing book called “Entrepreneurial Spirits”.  (You can get your copy if you haven’t already at www.JanelleElms.com/spirit)  I have read that book over and over again…and the information is priceless – BUT, you have to apply it.  So I thought it was a perfect time to ‘help’ apply it by bringing in some of my favorite heavy hitters in the world of Success and Faith.  You’ll hear from many types of people in this series – who all have one thing in common – they have a Faith Mindset for Success.

First up in this new series is my Pastor…Pastor Mike.  But he also goes by the name of Coach Mike as he is also an entrepreneurial coach! For the past 13+ years, Coach has trained & motivated entrepreneurs, business leaders, CEO’s and top executives to maximize their potential using his unique blend of humor and proven insights.   Save your Success spot on this call by getting registered at www.osiRockStars.com (scroll to the bottom for details)

4/1/08, Tuesday at Noon pst/3pm est – Meet your fellow Rock Stars.  This Tuesday we have world-traveler, multi-talented artist, PowerSeller and Rock Star Charlene Anderson on the show.  You can check out her many facets at www. www.andersonshea.com.  Boy I can’t wait for these fascinating tales from her!  Save your spot by getting registered at www.osiRockStars.com (scroll to the bottom for details)

4/2/08, Wednesday at Noon pst/3pm est – Rock Star Sneak Peek
at Cool NEW Research Tools by Terapeak – the fabulous Denise of Terapeak will be joining us again, but this time incognito as she will be sharing with you super, duper, secret spy stuff – just for YOU! – Before the rest of the eBay public gets a chance!  Come see what all the fuss is about (they are very cool – I have seen them!) by getting your registration information at www.osiRockStars.com (scroll to the bottom for details)

4/3/08, Thursday at 3pm pst/6pm est - Ask Janelle your Success questions - LIVE - for 2 hours (Rock Star exclusive) - answering all of YOUR Success questions.  

Want me to take a look at your eBay Store?

Have a new business idea that you need advice on?

Questions about sourcing, research, marketing?

I’ll be answering these Live during the show.  First come, first served!!  Get your questions in asap in the registration box.

Find out more information as well as how to register at http://osirockstars.com/topic.php?id=291&replies=1#post-2287

You can find out more about these classes, as well as register at: www.osiRockStars.com (scroll to the bottom of that webpage for upcoming classes, details and registration information).

Best in Stores Contest - Final 2 days to enter

The eBay Best in Stores contest is almost closed for entries.  We already have many of our amazing Rock Stars entered and I hope many more of you will enter too before the deadline.  I am excited to see SO many of you entered and think it would be fabulous if ALL of you win!

·        Flightline Fabrications **

·        Katiyana’s Collectibles

·        MJ Consignments

·        Belas Boutique

·        Alice In Stitches

·        Infant Traveler *

·        Worldwide Traders Online **

·        Janieruth’s Fabulous to Funky Finds **

·        Brens Mart USA

·        Mimis Discount Boutique ***

·        Vineyard Creek Original Findings

·        Brown Dog Treasures ****

·        Purveyors of all Things Creative **(Soon)

·        Sweet Pea Jeans Stitchery

·        Vintage Millinery Flowers

·        Le Petit Garage **

·        Lady Linda’s Loft **

·        Vintage and Now

* Designer, Jennifer at www.Meepworks.com

** Designer, Jennifer at www.SittingBoo.com

*** Designer, Auction Add-ons at www.auctionaddons.com

**** Designer, Jennarationx at www.jennarationx.com

There are also new entries from the Success Newsletter:

·        Dixie Cats Books and Stuff

Can’t wait to see the others! 

• Register your Store into the Best in Stores contest
• Open an eBay Store
• 99% of eBay Stores are set up wrong – be that 1%
• Some of our favoritest eBay Store designers are our Jennifers…Jennifer at www.Sittingboo.com and Jennifer at www.meepworks.com
• eBay Live ‘Best in Stores’ forum – lets hear who is entering! - http://osirockstars.com/topic.php?id=275&replies=3

1 CENT insertion fees for high DSR’s – Final 2 days

From eBay…

Start it low and listing fees are just a penny.
List any item for just a penny when you:

·         List it auction-style starting at 99¢ or less, and

·         Specify your shipping costs

·         Detailed Seller Rating requirement applies

Get more details at: http://pages.ebay.com/promo/startlow08/

Remember, you can still get one of the remaining copies of the 3-CD set that includes: 9+ hours of training on DSR’s, feedback and other eBay Fee and Site Changes at www.JanelleElms.com/cd

huge blessings,

j