I hear speakers boast how they’re “ignoring” the economy or “choosing not to participate” or “not joining the membership to poverty”. Just today I received an invitation to attend a workshop called Marketing Through the Meltdown.

C’mon America. We’re better than this. Don’t ignore your life or your future. Don’t resign yourself to doom.

This isn’t a time for desperate measures. But it IS a great time for considering how your product or service is essential to someone’s well-being, that’s all.

And, I believe just about any product or service can be promoted as an essential component to someone’s well-being.

So, here are some steps for you to pick yourself up and change your mindset from one of attempting to ignore what’s happening to embracing the economic situation and moving forward and upward:

1) Know people are making money - Sure, lots of companies have been laying off and shutting down, but there are plenty of new business starting-up too. Before you can make money, you have to believe you can. Doesn’t that make sense? If you keep thinking “nobody’s going to buy from me, nobody’s going to buy anything!” then they surely won’t. Don’t get caught up with “who’ is making money exactly, or what industry. Just change your mindset by knowing in your heart and mind and even saying to yourself that, “In every economic downturn, people do find opportunity and I are one of them!”

2) Diversify – Adapt some of your current offerings to meet the new needs of your market. Our HereNextYear blog package is a good example. In January, we had a “soft launch” of the new package deal and had a record sales month. We just got two new clients yesterday for the blog package and that’s a $2500 product. Same service as what we would’ve done previously, just packaged differently to meet the needs of the market.

3) Acknowledge your lifestyle – Those that know me know I go skiing every weekend with my kids, sometimes once during the work week too. Sure costs money to make those trips even with paid season passes. There’s gas, breakfast on the way, dinner on our way home…at least we bring bag lunches! That weekly cost adds up, but it’s a lifestyle I want to uphold and it motivates me to continue to be positive and work hard to maintain that lifestyle.

4) Find what people are doing – When you find someone that’s not foreclosing on their home, hang around them. Find out how they’re spending their time, what seminars they’re attending, what they’re learning about, how they’re promoting their business.

5) Learn and expand - This is not the time to turn into a t.v. zombie and watch 5 hours of news or fall into a trance listening to old Pink Floyd albums or playing Captain Jack by Billy Joel over and over again. Once you find out what people are doing to be successful, give yourself a chance to learn with them. Take a video production class. Learn SEO for your Web site or get onto the social networking bandwagon and devote an hour a day to conversing with others online with Twitter or industry forums.

They say that when the economy recovers, the world will never be the same and that we will all be so much better off. What about your personal economic growth? Does it have to wait until the world fixes itself?

Of course not. Take this opportunity now TO PARTICIPATE in this economy. Because what you have to offer really is essential but only if you believe it is.