If I had a dollar for every guy who sang that to me thinking they were the first guy ever to do so, I’d be set on Starbuck’s lattes for a year.  Ok, a week.  Alright, I could get one tall latte (have you seen how expensive these things have gotten?)

What I didn’t know until a few months ago, was the close connection I had to the hit Ritchie Valens song.

Ritchie Valens of course wrote the song “Donna” for his high school sweetheart, Donna Ludwig.  The song hit the billboard top 10 just eight months before Valens died far too young in a plane crash on February 3, 1959.  Don McLean called this “The Day The Music Died” since Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper were also on board that plane.

So, where’s the connection to me and the song?  Let’s move further in the lyrics…

“I had a girl
Donna was her name
Since she left me
I’ve never been the same
‘Cause I love my girl
Donna, where can you be”

Where can you be indeed, Donna Ludwig?

Well, turns out Donna Ludwig got married (those of you who immediately got the connection with Buddy Holly and Peggy Sue got married get extra pop culture points).

Thing is, she married someone by the last name of Fox, becoming, of course, Donna Fox!

This explains why when you do a Google Search, even though I dominate the search engine results for searches for Donna Fox, you’ll often get a related or suggested search from Google for “Donna Ludwig” 

See the woman cut off on the lower left hand side of the search?  Well, that’s none of than Donna Ludwig Fox, the inspiration for Ritchie’s Song.

So where is she now?  She’s a well respected member of her Sacramento, California community, a grandmother, and branch manager of her real estate office. 

Apparently she still makes appearances for Valens-related charity events.

Here’s a YouTube interview of her from what seems like some time ago
Donna Ludwig Fox
 

She looks like a lovely woman, and I hope to meet her someday.

After all, she’s a Foxy Donna Fox like me!

Click here to see where Oh Donna (Ludwig) Fox is now…

So I moved into massive action, and on August 2nd I “tweeted” another single message that was responsible for an interesting chain of events.  I talked about how I’d gotten more done on that Saturday morning than I had on most weekdays.  This inspired a conversation with @MattDetrick which resulted in him interviewing me the next day on my thoughts on focus and time management.

You can listen to the entire replay here.  I recommend you download the MP3 (right click and Save-Link-As)  and listen to it while working out, doing the dishes, anyway you can multitask while consumming the info.  It’s a good call.  I talk about the little tips and tricks I’ve developed over the years to be at my most productive.  I discuss how time management is a myth, it’s all about time prioritization and time respect.

I even discuss my weakness, how I treat appointments and obligations to others more highly that the promises I make to myself.  Good stuff.

But perhaps the one topic I covered that the most people said, “what was that, did you catch that?” was my accountability system.

I have an accountability partner, Richelo Killian, that I’ve been meeting with for over two years.  And before that there was another one, and one before her too!  Richelo and I speak almost every day, and often the conversation doesn’t last more than 5-7 minutes.  We keep it up because it works.  We provide encouragement and enthusiasm for each other.  We celebrate victories.  We sympathize defeats.  We were mostly strangers when we started the process, now I consider him one of my closest friends.

I’ve developed a system for accountability that I’ve taught to my private coaching students because it works.  It’s a 5-question script that provides structure for the process, but contains quite a bit of psychological impact worked into it.  Here are the 5 questions:

1. We are getting together this morning (or noon, or evening) because we are both committed to surpassing our goals.  Your goal is (insert their goal).  Is that still your goal today?

2. Yesterday, you said you were going to further your goal by (insert specific action step your partner reported yesterday). Did you accomplish that goal?

3. How did (accomplishing the action step / failing to complete your action step) make you feel?

4. What are you going to do today that will further your goal of (insert goal)?

5. How will you feel when you complete that action step?

That’s it!  It takes only 5 minutes to go through two people’s goals, it’s a simple addition to the day of even the busiest people.  Yet 5 minutes a day has been responsible for me hitting and exceeding more goals then I ever did before I invented this process.

Now go find a partner and together achieve more!

Donna Fox

…Any questions?

Following is a fictional conversation that’s based on those three phone calls:

(Ring-Ring)
Donna Fox: Hello?

Clueless Caller: Hi Donna, I was calling to see if you’d be willing to be interviewed on your topic of (insert credit or marketing to women, and in one case, “whatever you’d like to talk about”) to my list?

Donna Fox: Yes, that would be lovely. What are you thinking

Clueless Caller: I’d sign up as an affiliate to promote your product, it would be great if you’d give something for free too, and we’ll record the call so I can sell the recording and transcripts. I’m just getting started, and I have a small list, only 150 peeps or so, so to really get a lot of people on the call you can mail your list for the

Donna Fox: (interrupting) You mean you want me to send MY list, to a call where the content is provided by ME, and you’ll get an affiliate commission?

Clueless Caller: Well, yes, how else do I build a list?

One of these day’s I’m going to get down and write an ebook. I’m going to give it away for absolutely free as my gift to the world of internet marketing. It’s either going to be called:

Donna Fox’s Rules of JV Engagement

or

Donna Fox’s Rules of JV Etiquette

It will of course cover how JV relationships should work, with an emphasis on fairness, thinking of others, and on creating relationships that secure a second JV opportunity, instead of looking for just the first one. In other words, how to treat JV partners like a relationship, not a transaction.

So, which title should I use? Seem like the first, rules of engagement, is very male centered, and the second, Rules of Etiquette, very female. Maybe there’s a marketing to women test and lesson here as well.

Dear readers, I’m starting the research now. I’d love it if you’d comment and:
1) vote on which title you prefer
2) Tell me your worst “clueless” JV story

I was at an event a couple of weeks ago and I met someone whose name I don’t recall (and either didn’t get, or threw out his business card).  He said one thing thought that stuck and I did take with me.

He said that most people fail to meet their goals… and similarly fail to meet their potential, because they are too close to their own business.  And when you’re too close to something, you really can’t see it.  Often people who are outside of us see our potential much more clearly that we do.  They have a view of us at our best, without the negative self talk that so many people experience.

He suggested asking others, trusted friends, to set their goals for them.

So I’ve been working on doing just that.  I’ve asked a few people I know, love and trust to set short term goals on my behalf for the end of this year.  Here’s what I’ve observed.  When asking about short term goals, most of my friends focused their goal setting on their area of expertise.  (so bloggers talked about blogging more, adsense peeps talked about increasing sites, adwords about new campaigns)… or they talked about their business hotbutton platform (outsourcing, firing bad clients).

Some friends were even self serving and set goals for me to help THEM Which of course, I’m happy to do.  My friends are cool like that.  If they ask me to do something, it’s usually mutually beneficial.

So now I thought I’d ask a larger audience.

What should my short term (end of 2008) goals be?
My intention is to complete every genuine goal someone gives me.

While you’re at it, what do you think my 5 year goals should be?

I’ve put on this event a number of times over the last few years.

This time, it’s different. For the first time ever, we’re bringing the event to your home.

Find out more here Donna Fox Liveкомпютри

C&B
combine in a martini shaker with ice:
5 oz vanilla vodka
1/2 oz Frangelico hazelnut liqueur
1/2 oz Chambord raspberry liqueur
splash of cream
a few shakes of cinnamon

Shake well and strain into a large martini glass, top with sprinkled cinnamon.  Yum.

I can’t resist a racy subject line to entice a reader. If you’re reading this, you know it worked.

The fact is, internet marketing is all a game of careful seduction. We seduce our customers with our offers, our bonuses, our words, and our successes.

We seduce our customers with our mastery of a niche.

Do you want to be an expert in the art of customer seduction?

Then you want to attend the Internet Masters Seminar now.

Ross Goldberg has assembled the most seductive group of marketing experts that I have yet to see at an event.

Here’s just a sample:

Brian Koz will help you seduce your customers by using outsourcing to dominate your niche. Whatever you think that means, I promise you you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the content Brian is bringing to the event.

Million Dollar Mike Morgan knows how to easily and effortlessly generate seductive copy. He’ll show you the secret to getting your customer to buy now, and buy again!

Deborah and JP Micek will be sharing their methods on creating tribal seduction. Deb and JP have figured out how to turn the art of creating raving fans into an exact science called tribal seduction. With a topic like that you don’t want to miss is.

And I’ll be teaching you how to seduce women.

How’s that for a topic?

Of course I’m talking about adding the powerful female market to your customer base. It’s easier than you think it is, and I’ll help you tap into a potential 655% more sales.

To view the full speaker lineup and register now at http://www.DonnaFoxLive.com

Oh, and did I mention that the event is in Vegas?

For the first 10 people who register for the event with me, I’m going to take you out on the town to party like a rock star on my home turf. They say “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”

or I’d have a few testimonials to share on my idea of a party!

Want to be part of the exclusive party posse? Visit http://www.DonnaFoxLive.com

I can’t wait to see you there

Fondly,
Donna Fox

It’s great seeing a speaker grow in experience. I remember Simon when he was still working for Google, not being a full time internet marketer at all. Now he’s helping people navigate the landmines of Google AdWords, so they can maximize their visitor value by keeping their click costs low.

Simon rocks!

Two very important people in my and Joey’s life came back to us this year.  In one case, it was as a result of MySpace.  And for that, I can’t express enough thanks.

Here’s what I look like when I’m doing my yoga in the morning.

Ok, maybe I don’t have the makeup and lipstick on…and my hair is definitely pulled back off my face.

Oh yeah, and there’s no oceany clifffront here in Vegas.

So it’s basically what I WISH I looked like when I did my yoga!