It had to end sometime.

National Be Heard Day was a great success!  Thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs got their free gifts of low-cost marketing tips and advice at http://www.BeHeardFirst.com.

Did you?

If not, you better hurry.  I’ll be shutting down the site tomorrow.

I don’t want you to miss the great information from 18 marketers who want to help you to find your voice, tell your story and be heard. All of this – and more – for free, without any sales pitch! 

Seriously, what are you waiting for? Go to http://www.BeHeardFirst.com

Welcome to the next podcast in the Be Heard series, an exclusive audio series for Startup Spark in celebration of Be Heard Day on March 7.

Today’s guest is Michele PW of MichelePW.com. I was quite honored to have Michele participate in Be Heard Day.  She’s one of the best copywriters out there, and knows several ways to attract clients to your website.

And you can now access her free gift, as well as other gifts valued at more than $3500 at http://www.beheardfirst.com

Welcome to the next podcast in the Be Heard series, an exclusive audio series for Startup Spark in celebration of Be Heard Day on March 7.

Today’s guest is Gina Ratliffe of the Esther Experience. Gina is amazing.   I’ve seen her empower a group of women with just a few words. Sometimes she literally takes my breath away. Listen in as I ask her to reveal some of her marketing secrets.

And you can now access her free gift, as well as other gifts valued at more than $3500 at http://www.beheardfirst.com

Welcome to the next podcast in the Be Heard series, an exclusive audio series for Startup Spark in celebration of Be Heard Day on March 7.

Today’s guest is Troy White of Small Business Copywriter. I’ve been getting Troy’s information for some time now and admired his marketing know-how, so I invited him to participate in Be Heard Day.

And you can now access his free gift, as well as other gifts valued at more than $3500 at http://www.beheardfirst.com

Welcome to the next podcast in the Be Heard series, an exclusive audio series for Startup Spark in celebration of Be Heard Day on March 7.

Today’s guest is Sarah Spencer of GotClicks. Sarah used to be my VA, believe it or not, and while she worked for me - and others, she created another business to help kitchen table entrepreneurs build their own websites for less than $100!

And you can now access her BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) seminar, as well as other gifts valued at more than $3500 at http://www.beheardfirst.com

Happy national Be Heard Day.

I created the holiday to help entrepreneurs and small business owners find their voice, tell their story and be heard.

You can access all the free gifts by going to www.beheardfirst.com

Welcome to the next podcast in the Be Heard series, an exclusive audio series for Startup Spark in celebration of Be Heard Day on March 7.

Today’s guest is Felicia Slattery of Communication Transformation. In just a couple of years, Felicia has grown her business using speeches and presentations. I’ve been watching from the sidelines, and I must say it’s amazing how she’s done it.

Check it our interview - and don’t forget to make note of what she is giving away to you on National Be Heard Day.

Welcome to the next podcast in the Be Heard series, an exclusive audio series for Startup Spark in celebration of Be Heard Day on March 7.

It’s not often that I gush, but I was very giddy talking to a marketer that I’ve admired over the years, but never reached out to: Shel Horowitz of FrugalMarketing.com.

Shel is the author of several marketing book s(which I have on my shelves) as well.

Check it out - and don’t forget to make note of what he is giving away to you on National Be Heard Day.

What is it that makes you remember one business and not another? Regardless of what they did, they somehow created excitement. They somehow got to your emotions and created a buzz inside of you. They got heard!

How can you create excitement for your business? Well, for one, you must avoid herd (as opposed to heard) mentality. Just because something works for one, does not mean it will necessarily work for another.

If you have a great and creative marketing team to help you, this will be very easy. Your marketing team will already know (or be in the process of finding out) that one key is to differentiate you from the pack, and they will have experience and proven success at doing so.

However, if you are going to go it alone, you need to really go out of your comfort zone and put a toe in the marketing waters, to avoid herd mentality.

And that’s why I created National Be Heard Day on March 7. It’s a chance for entrepreneurs, small business owners and solo professionals like you to find your voice, tell your story and be heard without the million dollar price tag.

National Be Heard Day is one of the holidays that appears in Chase’s Calendar of Events, has been recognized in New York State, and has gotten amazing media coverage including being featured by the Associated Press.

In the past, I’ve celebrated this holiday by giving away a free press release and other gifts that help you develop low-cost marketing strategies.

But after three years of doing this, I decided to mix things up a bit. So I reached out to 17 other respected marketers and organizations to give away additional free tools to help you be heard.

You’ll get information on attracting new customers from marketing powerhouse Shel Horowitz, free business card design and printing for J. Patrick Greer, learn 25 ways to hear Ka-Ching! in your business fast from Michelle PW, and even several gifts from me. All in all, you’ll get more than $3500 worth of marketing tips and tactics for free.

I know. I know. You’re wondering… what’s the catch? What do you need to buy to get all these great things - and more?

Nothing. You won’t even get one of those sleazy sales pages to look at before accessing the free gifts. After all, I’m the one coordinating this, and I hate those things. Plus, it just wouldn’t be in the spirit of National Be Heard Day if I did that.

But you’re going to have to wait until the actual holiday to get access to all these great free gifts. So mark you calendars for March 7 to get tons of information to be heard!

For the next couple of weeks, I won’t be posting a Success Secrets interview or my Monday Media Marketing Minute.

We’ve got a lot of audio coming up in the Be Heard  series, that includes a lot of marketing tidbits AND best practices, so I don’t want to overwhelm.

Enjoy!