One by one, twelve people connect to a conference call. Each takes a turn reading a personal Slightly Famous marketing action plan, ranking progress on goals and acknowledging shortcomings. When somebody exceeds a goal, such as getting quoted in a prime publication or seeing several articles appear in print, participants applaud and celebrate. If somebody has a problem, everyone offers advice.

What's going on here? It's a Group Mentor Program based on Get Slightly Famous™: Become A Celebrity in Your Field and Attract More Business with Less Effort.

If your business depends on attracting new clients and customers, you should ask yourself these questions:

• Are you pursuing a marketing strategy that gets prospects calling you, rather than the other way around?
• Are you working to get people to take your calls because nobody has heard of you?
• Are you tired of seeing people in your field who are less qualified than you land prime speaking opportunities or be quoted in the media?
• When a local paper or trade journal does a story on your area of expertise, do they call you?

If you can't answer these questions with an unequivocal, "yes," the Get Slightly Famous Group Mentor Program will boost your marketing into a new realm of effectiveness.

The Group Mentor Program draws from my years of experience working as a journalist and a small business marketing consultant. During this time, I identified and refined the Slightly Famous marketing system as the basis of my book, Get Slightly Famous.

The Group Mentor Program takes this system a step further, providing a goal-oriented program that combines elements of book study circles, mastermind groups, and support teams, but with a focus on helping you implement your own Slightly Famous marketing program.

As a participant, you will concentrate on becoming a recognized expert and mini-celebrity within your industry or target market. You will learn the tools and secrets to build a step-by-step Slightly Famous marketing program customized to your business.

The program is based on proven strategies that can help you get more business with less effort. Any professional in any industry can leverage the Slightly Famous marketing system. Even if you're already practicing these general principles, you will find lots of specific strategies, support, and resources that you can add to your ongoing efforts.

Best of all, getting Slightly Famous does not require a lot of time or money. All you need is a proven system, a steady guide, and a system of accountability to help you get started and stay in motion.

"Steven knows the value of a strong market niche and clearly states the importance of branding without sounding cute, contrived, or gimmicky. His approach is that of a tried-and-true professional who speaks from experience. His background in journalism makes him an expert on media relations and his approach to making yourself famous in your own industry truly works.

I should know--I hired this man to help grow my own company, Creative Visions Consulting, and everything he's done has PAID OFF! If you want practical advice you can immediately apply to your business, THIS is the book! But be warned--these are not OVERNIGHT SPLASHES that create success--what Van Yoder offers is a SYSTEMATIC WAY to build your business through CONSISTENT and QUALITY exposure, something most marketing gurus or "'niche experts' never want to tell you."

Jim Jenkins Creative Visions Consulting

Who This Group Is For

The Group Mentor Program draws from the Get Slightly Famous T marketing system and is ideal for service professionals dependent on self-promotion. The program focuses on setting goals and achieving results, and is structured around the unique needs of self-employed professionals.

You can benefit from the program if your business falls into these basic categories:

Professional Service Providers

Accountants, attorneys, medical practitioners, certified financial planners…

Consultants

Management, marketing, human resource, small business and corporate consultants of all services and specialties…

Helping Professionals

Therapists, counselors, life and business coaches…

Authors and Speakers

Non-fiction, technical and business writers, professional speakers, seminar leaders

Members don’t have to be in the same industry, and usually it’s better if they aren’t. It’s amazing how much a freelance technical writer, for example, can contribute to a financial advisor, and vice versa.

This program is not for everyone. It's for people who have achieved a base level of business success and are ready to take their businesses to a higher level. As a good mentor prospect, you should embrace the following principles:

• You know your business can make a difference, if only more of the right people knew about it
• You assume responsibility for your success and take a proactive approach to building your business
• You want to follow a proven marketing system, instead of reinventing the wheel
• You are willing to invest in your success by getting professional help rather than going it alone
• You know you don't have all the answers and accept the advice, support, and assistance of others
• You are willing to set goals and be held accountable

How It Works

This is a 4-month program consisting of 9 sessions structured as mini-workshops. Groups meet approximately twice a month for 90-minute teleconference sessions, held virtually via a telephone bridge line. Sessions will be recorded and made available as Real Audio files.

The Get Slightly Famous book will serve as a blueprint for the group. Everyone is expected to have a copy available throughout the program. The book will give the group structure and provide participants with the same common denominator.

Each participant will be expected to complete a Get Slightly Famous Marketing Assessment, which you will submit prior to the first group session. Based on the information in your assessment, we will provide feedback about and advice on where to specifically focus your energies to get the most from the group.

Once the group starts, you'll be given resources to review and homework exercises to complete before the following session.

Although your efforts will take many different forms, underlying and guiding them are six basic principles that go to the heart of the Slightly Famous marketing system:

1. Targeting the best prospects

2. Developing a unique market niche

3. Positioning your business as the best solution

4. Maintaining your visibility

5. Enhancing your credibility

6. Establishing your brand and reputation

As a participant, you'll look for ways to apply these principles to your business and reach out in all directions. You will develop a media strategy, an online marketing strategy, and a niche networking strategy, and you will also consider information products and service packages that can expand your business and create new income streams.

Although you'll be following a system, you will tailor it to your particular marketing goals. You may choose to focus on a few key areas, such as honing your marketing message, publishing articles in trade journals, developing information products, or creating a Slightly Famous web site.

What You'll Get

Although each participant will have a difference experience, here's what you can expect from participating in the Group Mentor Program:

You'll create a realistic marketing strategy tailored to your goals and priorities. With feedback and support from the group, you will develop a plan to achieve your personal goals. You'll no longer be daunted by the enormity of the challenge or not knowing where to begin -- you'll know where to focus your energies.

You'll clearly articulate your Ultimate Benefit. We'll help you work on your unique business solution in a way that gets the attention of your target market and clearly communicates how you work, what you deliver, and how you are different from your competitors.

The group will keep you focused. By associating with others on the same path, you will stay motivated to do what it takes to be successful. When we get together, we'll review the actions that participants committed to at the last meeting, as well as good results or, conversely, where they got stuck. Participants then commit to new actions based on their progress.

Accountability is at the heart of the mentor program. As a participant, you will make commitments and share them with the group. Your fellow team members expect you to follow through on goals you have established. If you get stuck, we'll help you. But if you keep showing up with excuses, we'll call you on it.

Another bonus is support. Groups will help you draw from the collective wisdom and expertise of all the members. When you hit a roadblock, talking about it with group members for a few minutes may be all you need to get back into action. Groups will provide a source of networking, prospect leads and resource sharing.

Other benefits you can expect include:

• You will establish your reputation in a target market of your choice
• You will see your name in print media via articles and interviews
• You will develop a personal brand that out-positions your competitors. Prospects will no longer question your abilities or haggle over price
• You will enjoy greater visibility and get more business with less effort
• You will finally make your web site a prospect-generating tool. You will develop or refine your web site so that it educates, informs, and builds confidence in you and your service
• You will expand your prospect base, develop new markets, and/or introduce new products or services to your prospects, clients, and customers
• You will be seen as an expert and center of influence in your field…the person your target market considers over your competitors
• You will maximize your marketing dollars -- through effective publicity you can generate as much visibility as your competitive giants
• You will stay in touch with your customers and prospects, and close more sales, by providing them with useful information
• You will eliminate the need for expensive marketing materials by developing new and effective educational sales aids that can be used as trade show handouts, as prospect packages, mailers, and in media kits.
  

Tons of Free Resources!

For the duration of the program, participants will have access to many Get Slightly Famous proprietary resources. These are literally worth thousands of dollars if purchased separately and will save you a lot of time and energy:

Members-Only Message Board. Participants have access to a professional program message board and online community. This is a way for members to get expert advice and support from Steven Van Yoder and other program leaders, as well as feedback from other group members.

Media Interview Service. This powerful program will alert you to interview opportunities in national newspapers, magazines, and broadcast media. Via an email feed updated daily, we monitor leads for potential interview opportunities and connect you with journalists and editors seeking subject matter experts in your field.

Audio Programs. Participants have access to all past audio archives in a members-only web site. You'll also attend all upcoming teleclasses, free of charge, for the duration of your participation in the Group Mentor Program.

Media Databases. Participants have access to the Get Slightly Famous databases of over ten thousand magazines, newspapers, and broadcast media outlets to create their own media lists. This resource will save you time, money, and trips to major library reference sections.

Reduced rates on web design, virtual assistant services, and Get Slightly Famous service packages. Participants can take advantage of deeply discounted rates on web site design and virtual assistant services. This will help you cost-effectively implement changes to your marketing materials and implement marketing strategies at a fraction of the normal cost.

“The Get Slightly Famous model really works. Since working with Steven, my daily web traffic has jumped 100 percent, and I've developed new models, products, service packages and promotional strategies to profitably master my target market.

Working with Steven is like having a guiding light attached to you at all times. His approach is practical, clear, and insightful. It's not easy to ’Get Slightly Famous,’ but Steven provides a clear path that is both rewarding and gets results!

Since working with Steven Van Yoder, my overall brand has been building and attracting clients, increasing product sales and web site traffic worldwide! If you are not working with the ’Get Slightly Famous’ model and Steven Van Yoder, hurry and sign on before your competition does!”

Craig Nathanson
The Vocational Coach
www.thevocationalcoach.com

Program Starts January, 2005

There will be 10 total scheduled sessions for the group, approximately (2) sessions per month (see dates below). Although members are expected to participate in live sessions, each session will be recorded and posted online as a Real Audio program for review throughout the duration of the program.

The program will follow the course of the book, Get Slightly Famous, with room for improvisation.

1. We will focus on target marketing, positioning, and developing your Slightly Famous personal branding strategy.

2. You will create your own media strategy as we explore publishing articles in print and online and getting interviewed as an expert resource.

3. Finally, we will help you "reach out in all directions," including using speaking engagements to cultivate your target market, leveraging the Internet to its full potential, mastering "niche networking," and creating ancillary "info-products" that supplement your income.

Program Schedule:

All program sessions are held Tuesday afternoons, and run approximately 90 minutes, starting at 1:00 pm Pacific. (2:00 Mountain, 3:00 Central, 4:00 pm Eastern):

Exact program dates will be finalized mid November 2004.

Fee: The Group Mentor Program is priced to be affordable for small business owners. You can pay in one of two ways:

One-time fee:

• $999, upon acceptance into the program

Monthly installment plan:

• $299, upon acceptance into the program;
• (3) additional payments of $299 in February, March and April 2005