GKIC No BS Marketing Letter

T H E L A U N C H PA D I S S U E :

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS WITH A PRODUCT LAUNCH

MARKETING LETTER

k i l l e r s t r at e g i e s yo u c a n u s e to g row yo u r bu s i n e s s | au g u s t 2 0 1 5

Sales Magic Secrets

News Flash: Sex Still Sells p. 5 Big Lesson Of The Month

How Do I Know If My Direct Mail Campaign Was “Successful?” p. 6 Lee Milteer

How to Effectively Use Your Life p. 19 Energy Online Marketing

How to Plug a Leaky Sales Funnel with Ad Retargeting

p. 20

Inside the Mind of the

Millionaire Maker

BY DA N KEN N EDY

BUY NOW! Buy before it’s too late! Buy while you still can.

Buy now, to get in on the ground floor. Buy now, to be the first on your block. Buy now, because it’s a limited edition available only for a limited time, or until supply runs out, whichever comes first. Buy now, at pre-release pricing. Buy now, “off season,” for huge discounts.

Buy now and we’ll double your order, just pay separate shipping and handling.

These are only some of the “Buy Now!” exhortations that can be seen and heard hourly, in TV commercials and infomercials, on QVC and HSN, from county and street fair pitchmen, from “closers” selling person to person; seen at e-commerce sites, webcasts and in print media and direct-mail. This is the world where people like me, like Rick Cesari – the author of BUY NOW!, presenting at Info-Summit, like Clayton Makepeace – newsletter industry copywriting king, also presenting at Info-Summit… live. We eat, sleep, and breathe getting people to buy now. Conquering this is our daily life.

In the minds of millionaire marketers, there’s never a time as good as the present. There’s always a good and compelling reason for immediate action. Creating urgency is the name of the game.

My friend John Carlton famously described the typical consumer as a “somnambulant sloth” who must be awakened, prodded by lightning bolt to action. I refer to that prospect when I caution: never underestimate the difficulty of the task. Please take that to heart. An enormous amount of unnecessary disappointment and failure is rooted in assumption and presumption that it will be easy or, worse, should be easy. (continued on page 3)

Editor’s Note Kim Phelan

Blasting Off With More of What You’re Hungry For I used to be an editor in the construction equipment industry. Now I’m here to help you build a more powerful, profitable business. -KP

Welcome to your August edition of No BS! This is Kim Phelan writing to you, GKIC’s new editor-in-chief, and each month I’m committed to delivering inspiring, actionable, and fun-to-read insights to you, as well as a few surprises here and there.

For starters this month, we’re piloting the concept of a theme for every issue, so now, on top of all your favorite contributing authors, you’ll find a new guest feature that hones tightly into a topic that has direct, profitability-enhancing relevance to just about every kind of small business.

Ironically, as we launch this whole theme thing, our first whack at it is: “The Launch Pad Issue,” growing your business with a product launch. I’m pleased to direct you to page 8 for some good insights shared in an exclusive GKIC interview with launch expert Jeff Walker.

He’s scooping up real how-to steps for doing a “seed launch,” for example, and positioning yourself as a subject matter authority – and virtually creating a valuable, saleable product from scratch.

Here’s my true (but no longer secret) confession: As the marketing rookie around here, I had a very different mindset on how we’d approach the topic of product launch – I was thinking, you know, like a new widget, a new service that you want to launch into your market. The new vegan meatball on the menu! So, as a supplement to what you’ll glean from Walker, here’s a little more to chew on as you contemplate launching new things in your business.

You might find this checklist helpful from Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends: (1) Start the launch planning early! (2) Brand it – develop a name and consider if a logo is appropriate. Do a

Important Dates DIAMOND CALLS 2015 DATES: 8/20, 9/17, 10/15, 11/19, 12/17 AUG 20 – Guest LARRY PINO, Attorney & Entrepreneur, on: What Business Owners Don’t Know About Raising Capital & Bankers Won’t Tell Them SEPT 17 – Guest KIM WALSH-PHILLIPS, co-author of the new No B.S. Guide to DIRECT-RESPONSE Social Media, on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

OCT 15 – Guest BEN GLASS of GreatLegalMarketing.com, on MANAGING MULTIPLE BUSINESSES – And Still Being Home For Dinner NOV 19 - TBA DEC 17 – DIAMOND Marketer of Year Competition DON’T MISS ANY OF THESE TERRIFIC CALLS! If you’re not DIAMOND, UPGRADE NOW! Call 800-871-0147.

2015 INFO-MARKETING AND COACHING GROUPS Platinum: 2015 MEETINGS: 10/13-15 2016 MEETINGS: 3/16-17, 7/13-15, 10/5-6 Titanium: 2015 MEETINGS: 10/13-15 2016 MEETINGS: 3/16-17, 7/6-8, 10/5-6 Peak Performers: 2015 MEETINGS: 9/10-11, 12/3-4 For more information please go to www.gkic.com/coaching

TITANIUM & PLATINUM Q&A CALL WITH DAN: 8/27: 1 to 2:15 p.m. EST

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trademark check and design packaging.

(3) Sell it – figure out how you’re taking your product (or service) to market. And set sales objectives. (4) Price it – think through price points and introductory offers. (5) Plan for good customer service – do you need user manuals?

And don’t forget internal training. (Make sure all staff are clued in, in other words, and not caught off guard.) (6) Market it – outline your campaign, replete with sales pieces and white papers; if you need advertising, get going on it. Your integrated plan should include all details on your website, plus a strategy for PR and social media. (7) Put one person in charge of the launch plans. (8) Keep plans flexible because you may need to adjust on the fly.

Please connect with me anytime – I want to get acquainted with you, learn about your victories and your challenges so we can collectively share, whine (just kidding), brag and solve right here.

Call or email me at 773-632-4651, kphelan@gkic.com.

Now get out there and launch. And thanks for reading!

UPCOMING EVENTS BOOTCAMP - 2015 DATES: SEPT 10-11, DEC 3-4

For more information please visit www.gkic.com/bootcamp

INFO-SUMMITSM 2015 - NOV 5 - 7, 2015

PRE-DAY NOV. 4 | BONUS DAY: NOV 8 For details & registration please visit www.gkic.com/infosummit

DAN KENNEDY Speaking:

2015: 9/29-30 Chris Cardell’s SOVEREIGNTY SUMMIT at

Downton Abbey (KennedyCardell.com) 11/4-7 GKIC Info-SUMMITSM in Denver 11/12-13 Adam Witty’s AUTHORITY MARKETING SUMMIT (AdvantageFamily.com) 12/3-4 Media Platform & Writing Special Mtg. (Sold Out)

DAN KENNEDY Consulting:

For availability, contact Vicky - fax 602-269-3113 2015: 9/3 Spence/Keffer/Noble 9/8 Witty/Advantage Media 9/10 P. Black 9/15 GKIC Strategy Day 10/16 S. Adams & PPS Corp. Team

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Inside the Mind of the Millionaire Maker (continued from cover)

People do not easily buy now. Most home security systems are sold only after a burglary or home invasion in the buyer’s or neighbor’s home. “Prevention” is always devilishly hard to sell. Cavett Robert said, “It’s hard to sell burial insurance unless they see a hearse backed up to the door.”

He didn’t mean literally. He meant figuratively. In the mind’s eye. If you are too late, a sale can be ruled out. Never waste time offering a bald man a comb. But you must also be keenly aware of everybody’s tendency to procrastinate. It is up to you to make them buy now, not later – even if doing so is inconvenient or they “can’t” afford it right now or, well, whatever.

In the minds of millionaire marketers, there’s never a time as good as the present.

Of course, it’s helpful to source leads and prospects and get sales opportunities when the timing for buying is good, and the customer has the present ability to buy, and the willingness to buy. But we must also persuade and motivate to action in less perfect circumstances with less perfect prospects.

The first 7-figure income salesman I met was laser focused on this. He said, “Product, features, benefits, demonstration, price and the prospect all matter. But nothing is more important than my ability to manufacture and heat up a sense of urgency.” He went on to say, “No one questions the price of the ambulance.

No red-blooded male turns down sex because the timing of the offer could be better. This is the kind of urgency the master salesman creates.”

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Intention withers. Only action is certain to be action. Ideas die by delay and dithering. Only an idea acted on and put into motion has certain chance at life.

A 99.9%-certain sale may reverse itself if given time. This is why, in my mind, I am always striving for urgency and immediacy, for doing not to-do, for motion, not meditation. It is why, personally, I rarely accept a big, dumb, committeerun, chronically constipated company as a client; instead, the entrepreneur capable of making and acting on a decision.

The idea that those who don’t or won’t buy now, won’t buy at all is false and foolish. My kind of multi-step, multimedia marketing deployed as follow-up to “Appointment, No Sale” prospects almost always pays good dividends. I have personally made a fortune mining “buy later” prospects others won’t bother with and too easily write off as value-less. But this should not relieve anybody of the imperative of getting all those who can be persuaded to buy now to do so.

Time itself is an issue. Dr. Edward Kramer said that the only time you have is NowTime. I once knew the assistant head coach of the Detroit Pistons, of the Coach Daly era. He said, “Basketball has a big picture. It has a long season with a lot of games. Each game has a lot of basketball in it. It may seem to the casual fan that only the last 5 minutes of a game matter – but the game is not really decided then as it may appear to be. It is decided by each player’s every decision, move, made or missed shot, rebound. The only shot a player has is this shot. This minute. If players start thinking an individual shot doesn’t matter in ‘the grand scheme of things,’ and there’s plenty of time to make good on the bad – he’ll be home watching the play-offs on TV.”

Every shot at a sale must matter. If you start thinking any one doesn’t matter much in the ‘grand scheme of things,’ you’ll soon find yourself out of the marketing or selling game.

This leads to the requisite “plug” – being at the upcoming Info-SUMMIT, entirely dedicated this year to getting customers to “Buy NOW!” is a very important thing. Attention is incredibly fragmented and hampered. It is easier to hypnotize a goldfish than to hold the attention of even a pre-interested human long enough to make a sale, particularly a complex one – yet this is what must be done, to succeed at selling information OR noninformation products or services requiring you to educate your prospect. And it is more important than ever to succeed at BUY NOW!, because the instant you aren’t commanding their attention, you are forgotten, as they return to the swirl of competing distractions surrounding them like a dense tornado engulfing a mobile home in an Alabama trailer park.

Yet, this is, in significant part, now an Information (and Entertainment) Economy. More people are accessing more information for buying decisions than ever before. Having a plan for being one of the top, trusted providers of information in your category, with your customers, is critical. For all these reasons, every marketer of any kind of business has much to gain at the Info-SUMMIT. For the true info-marketer, not getting Rick’s, Clayton’s, my most current experience-based information and insights, in this challenging environment, is foolhardy.

People say “Tomorrow is another day.”

Others say “Take it easy.” Others say “Relax.” Others say “What will be will be.”

Some say “Can’t win ’em all.” Some say “There’s another bus coming.” Who says these things? Poor people, that’s who.

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Outrageous Advertising

BY KI M PH EL A N

Today, let’s talk for a moment about art and advertising. Here at GKIC Insider’s Circle we teach you great things about writing compelling copy, but as a GKIC student, an entrepreneur, and as a consumer out in the wide wide world, you know that there’s just something magical when art and copy are joined in marital bliss.

Now, there are cliché examples all over the place. A picture that’s totally redundant to whatever the headline says. This is not what we’re talking about when we say “art support.” Example: “Kids Love ‘Em” and, what d’ya know, there’s a smiling kid right there. That’s unimaginative at best, lazy at worst. (Although, keep in mind the powerful truth that people are drawn to pictures of other people, so please think of this example only within the context of avoiding redundancy. In general, pictures of kids are fine!) Strong ads get attention because the art supports or complements the copy instead of just repeating the copy visually.

dental practice struggled to keep its head above water in the sea of little flyers sharing its Valupak mailing envelope.

Good intentions at creativity with children holding hands resulted in a confusing message and a missed opportunity.

“Ready for School” and the checklist are ok, but the job of the image is to draw the reader in. Rather than supporting the theme of a dental checkup as part of the back-to-school routine, the photo seems boring and out of place – and, oh, what’s that they’re holding? Lunch bags? Backpacks? No, plastic bags with the practice’s name on them. We can do better than that.

The Science of Art Look at the kitty treats ad I tore out of a magazine recently. Regardless of how you feel about cats, this ad is genius – a beautiful marriage of copy and image. No verbose raving about the ingredients, the healthful benefits; and, what a refreshing and novel concept: no picture of a cat on an ad for kitty treats. Just a ripped up empty bag and three simple words – and mission accomplished.

Sadly, it’s easy for this concept to take a wrong turn. This confusing ad for a

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You may think that telling a story is something you can only do in a long sales letter or, heaven forbid, a long email, but it can actually work in an ad – IF you let the image do its fair share of the storytelling. Ok, so you probably don’t have the marketing budget of Toyota, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them and apply their concept.

In this ad, at first all you notice is this woman next to the Camry, and a random bulldog nearby. Then, you’re like, what’s

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with all the scattered papers; and then you notice the guys in the background and the blown-up bridge. Then, and only then, do you even realize there are eight lines of small copy resting above the headline. Ok, now I’m ready to read that copy. Did they get me? Oh yes they did.

And they didn’t have to clobber me over the head. Nice hook, Toyota! (sorry, but I’m still going to get a Nissan.)

The Art of No Art The last example we have room for this month shows that compelling copy is always required and can bravely stand alone and win, even when there appears to be no art support – but of course there really is.

“Improve any aspect of your life in 20 minutes a day – even while you’re sleeping!” Ok, you’ve got my attention. And it gets even better on the flip side. All the reader is paying attention to is that great, grabbing copy. You and I know that the graphic artist who splashed color and texture on one side and used a handwriting font on the other was quietly pushing the buttons and levers to make this ad work. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” as OZ would say, and in this case, we barely know he’s there.

Do you have an outrageous advertising piece or idea that is working for you? Would you like to be featured in a future No BS Marketing Letter?

Send an email along with your example and why it’s outrageous to kphelan@gkic.com for consideration in next month’s newsletter.

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Sales Magic Secrets

BY D AV E D E E

News flash: Sex Still Sells If you are easily frightened, I recommend you not read this article because you are about to see a very frightening photo.

would have been ineffective without the illustration of the woman.

Here is another ad for the same product:

Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

who called to order said, “If I am not one of the first 21 people to get the sales magic kit, I don’t want to order.”

Did you get that? They were really spending the $997 to get the magic tricks but in their minds justifying their purchase with the fact that the course would teach them to sell more effectively.

Let’s move into our second, “racier” lesson, namely, using sex to sell.

When I sold my original Psychic Salesperson course, I subliminally added in the secondary benefit of sex.

Here is your humble servant and Dan Kennedy on the set of a recent video shoot for our fall launch wearing the infamous X-ray Specs. Do you remember X-ray Specs? If you’re a dude, my guess is you do.

Here is the ad that was run in the back of comic books:

My guess is this ad did not perform as well because it was too overt. A kid could justify wanting the glasses so he could look at the bones in his hand.

The not overtly mentioned benefit of buying my course was that you could use the persuasion and influence techniques in your personal life as well.

Obviously that wasn’t the real reason he bought.

Napoleon Hill in his book, “Think and Grow Rich” says this:

There are a couple of important lessons here. The first is tame. The second is a bit more controversial. Both will put more DEEnero in your pocket.

“The emotion of sex is an “irresistible force,” against which there can be no such opposition as an “immovable body.” When driven by this emotion, men become gifted with a super power for action.”

Regardless of what you’re selling, you need to have at least two reasons for your prospect to make the buying decision. The first is the logical justification.

The second is emotional and the real reason people are buying.

You have to love the copy, “Look at your friend. Is that really the body you see under his clothes?” HIS clothes. LOL. I guess that was the politically correct thing to write but there is no dude I know of who bought the glasses for that purpose. I know I sure didn’t when I sent in my dollar!

This is a rather crude example of the secondary benefit that is the actual unstated emotional trigger that’s gets someone to buy and was the reason every boy actually bought the product. This ad

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A number of years ago, I sold a sales training product to financial advisors.

The product was $997 and contained a ton of subliminal language patterns, hypnotic sales scripts, etc. It definitely helped advisors close more sales.

The bonus was a “sales magic kit” that consisted of money-based magic tricks an advisor could show their clients and prospects to illustrate key points in their sales presentation. This bonus was limited to the first 21 people to order the course.

Guess what happened. EVERY person

Hill is talking about using sex energy in a different context but it also applies to what we’re talking about here. Notice the words, “super power for ACTION.” By adding in an implied element of “sex” to your presentations, you will make them more powerful. Heck, look at beer and car commercials for a perfect example.

This is advanced stuff, mi amigo, and you really need to think it through. (In my updated course, which is slated to come out in the fall, I go through this in detail.)

What is the secondary benefit that actually might be the REAL reason your prospect buys your product or service?

Kick butt, make mucho DEEnero!

Dave “X-ray Spec Man” Dee

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BIG LESSON

of the month

How Do I Know If My Direct Mail Campaign Was “Successful?”

BY CRAIG SIMPSON How do I judge whether or not my campaign worked? This is an important question to ask. Direct mail campaigns are expensive, and they serve a crucial function, which is to build your customer base and bring in an immediate influx of money. If your campaign isn’t effective, you’re losing money on the mailing itself now, and in lost revenue in the future.

So you should always assess the results of your campaign to determine how well it did. This will tell you if this campaign was worth it, and will also give you a basis to experiment with ways to improve future campaigns by making changes to the sales piece, the mailing list, etc., and comparing the results of the original campaign with the revised one. If you don’t do this, you’re shooting in the dark, and you’ll never get the full value that you could from your advertising efforts.

The way I determine how well a direct mail campaign did is to calculate the return on investment (ROI) of the campaign, taking into account the costs of the campaign itself, the immediate monetary gain from that particular campaign, and the average Lifetime Value of customers who are acquired through the campaign.

There’s some controversy concerning what to include in the costs of the campaign. Everyone agrees on what I call the “hard costs,” which include printing, list rental, data processing, mail processing, and postage. And if you’re selling a product, you would want to count the cost of the product itself for each order that’s fulfilled.

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But some marketers want to include more of the operating costs of the business and expect a successful campaign to make enough money to cover some of those. I don’t agree with that. You’d have those costs whether you ran the campaign or not. I like to just stick with the specific costs associated with running the campaign itself.

But then there’s the issue of costs like paying for a copywriter and a graphic designer to prepare your sales pieces.

Should you include those costs? It depends. If you’ve created a sales piece that will be used in many campaigns down the road, then I wouldn’t saddle the first campaign with having to “pay for” the whole thing. But if it’s a one-shot sales piece, than maybe you would want to consider its total cost.

Once you’ve decided how you’ll come up with the cost of the campaign, you need to decide how you’ll determine the other side of the equation – the lifetime value

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of the customers you get from the campaign. What is a customer worth to you?

You want a profitable ROI as soon as possible.

Some marketers think you should determine the actual lifetime value of the customer over the full life of that customer with your business – five years, or perhaps even 10 years. Other marketers think that’s too long to consider, and that one to three years is sufficient. You don’t want to wait five to 10 years to get paid for acquiring a customer. You want to make your money back in much less time. You want a profitable ROI as soon as possible.

In my experience advising marketing clients on this issue, I tell them that

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they should be able to make enough money from a campaign to start seeing profits based on plugging the average nine-month lifetime value into the ROI equation. So, if you have data on your average customer lifetime value based on different periods of time, then you want to make enough money on a direct mail campaign that a nine-month lifetime value will ensure a profit given the cost of running a campaign. Ask yourself how long you are willing to wait to recoup your costs and start making a profit on your campaign...and that’s the lifetime value you should put into your calculations.

Now the question is, how will you get the figures you need to make these calculations? And the answer is, you need a systematic way to track your results, and you need to put the information you collect into a good database.

Accurate tracking requires consistent coding of your data (customer numbers, codes on different versions of sales pieces or different mailing dates), and a

way to capture those codes (with coded order forms, requesting codes for online orders, and a well-trained telephone staff that always asks for the code).

You won’t make as much on a small list...but then you won’t lose as much either...

Then all that data must go into a database that gives you easy access and flexibility so you can always pull out the exact data you need. This makes it so much easier to determine the ROI for each campaign. And it lets you try out different ways of looking at the data so

you can find out which approach gives you the best analysis.

Finally, if you’re not sure how your campaign will turn out, and you want to avoid investing too much money on a trial run, simply start small. Start with a limited list and see how you do. You won’t make as much on a small list as on a large one, but then, you won’t lose as much either, in case your sales piece needs major work, or you haven’t tapped into the best mailing lists yet.

There’s nothing wrong with dipping your toe in the water before diving in.

Then look at the results. If you cover your costs on a small mailing, then you can be more confident about rolling out to a larger list. Keep calculating and examining your ROI, and let it guide you to larger and larger, and more profitable campaigns.

Craig Simpson is the nation’s leading direct mail consultant and coach. He sends out over 200 mailings per year for his private clients. You can contact Craig at craig@simpson-direct.com or to order his book, The Direct Mail Solution, go to www.TheDirectMailBook.com

Saddle up and ride into the Mile High City for Info-SUMMIT Nov. 5-7 | Denver, CO Featuring: An A+ list of guest speakers that are sure to inform AND entertain. You’ll get to see and hear some top-notch marketing gunslingers and rustlers including Rick Cesari, Clayton Makepeace, Matt Furey, Roxanne Emmerich, Russell Brunson, Brittany Lynch, Thomas Blackwell, Dave Dee and the one & only: Dan Kennedy.

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www.gkic .com/ infosumm it

...AND MUCH MUCH MORE!

NO B.S. MARKETING LETTER

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Guest Feature

Launch a Product, Lead Your Market An interview with Jeff Walker, founder of The Product Launch Formula, a system to build your reputation and your business by creating a content-rich product your market craves.

Jeff, what exactly is a “product launch” by your definition? When you do a product launch, you put out great content. You often have people linking to that content in social media. You often have partners mailing about that content. You show great authority and it’s really, really powerful.

Basically, what you’re doing is you’re learning how to teach and you’re learning how to present [your area of expertise].

At the end of it, you’re going to end up with five calls and five recordings. So, you’ll have five hours of product. You get this transcribed for a couple hundred dollars, and now, with five hours of audio and a hundred pages of transcripts, you’ve got yourself a product.

If I’m a brick and mortar business, I’m probably thinking, “This is not for me.

This is about high-priced marketing products sold by marketing ‘gurus.’”

Yes, it works for them, but it actually works better in, say, the massage market, in the carving wooden dolls market, and the learning to play guitar market, and the yacht rental market, and all these other markets that don’t see launch after launch. It’s actually more effective there.

What benefit is there in positioning myself as a so-called guru in my market? When you have that expert position, it gives you all kinds of great things. It gives you pricing power. Generally, you can get a premium price. It gives you deal flow. All of a sudden, people are going to come to you with potential deals for you. It gives you the power to get top partners, top joint ventures partners; it’s like throwing gasoline on a fire when you

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add joint venture partners, people that can mail their list about your stuff.

You get all those things and lots more as the guru and one of the principal ways you get to be seen as a guru is through a product launch.

Give me a run-down on how this works. There’s a thing I call the seed launch, and it works even if you don’t have a list. It’s not hard to do it these days in social media. Just start publishing relevant stuff to social media and then you’ll get a following there. Drive them to an app and you’ll put several hundred people on your list very easily.

Just get some list management software – I know GKIC uses InfusionSoft.

Say you’ve got the real expertise at growing tomatoes. And so what you would do is basically put together this little mini launch – it’s a series of communications generally via email; it could be a blog, but it’s two or three or four emails that go out and say basically, “Hey, people keep on asking about growing big tomatoes,” or, “So many people see my tomatoes, taste my tomatoes, they think they’re amazing. They want to know how I do it.” And, “You know, I’ve always been a bit reluctant to do this just because well it’s a real passion of mine, but I never thought of myself as teacher, but you know, I finally sat down and I looked at how I do this and I structured it into five key steps.”

“And so, what I’m going to do is I’m going to do a series of teleseminars about exactly how to grow big tomatoes. In fact, the timing is perfect. It’s going to be early

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spring, so it’ll set you up perfect for growing tomatoes this summer.” And I’m going to do a series of five calls; I’ll go through these five steps. “If you want to get my training, go here.”

And then you send them to a link. The end result is you want to get 20 to 50 people going through this training with you. Ideally, you’ll charge them for this series of teleseminars or you could do webinars; teleseminars are easy so I just go ahead and do teleseminars. (Try freeconferencecalls.com to get free bridge line.) You’re going to do these five calls, and you’re going to record them and they’re going to become your product.

And the reason that you want that 20 to 50 people in here is because you want the interaction. All you need to do is come up with that first call.

The first call is going to be about starting your seedlings and what are the top two questions you have about starting this.

And then you take the responses you get from the people that are signed up and you come up with the top 10 or 12 questions. Then you just get on the phone and you answer all those questions. You just walk right through the questions.

It’s going to take you anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes.

Then, after the call, you send a survey.

You ask, “What didn’t I cover about that topic A that I need to cover? And then ask the same question about topic B, the (continued on page 23)

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Secret Sauce

The role of automation in generating more sales – a case study

BY KI M P H EL A N

If It’s Not Going Well, Do Something Different Recently we interviewed long-time GKIC member Kim Walsh Phillips. She founded IO Creative in 2001 as a traditional public relations and marketing firm but later reinvented the company as a direct response social media agency that, as she says, “utilizes digital marketing to get our customers’ phones to ring.” Today she employs a staff of 16.

The following Q&A format seemed the best way to let her do most of the talking, since she has so many good and helpful things to say.

At the end this interview, Kim made a powerful statement: “I believe my purpose in life is to share this message: “We all have value and worth, and it’s a good thing to be paid for it – don’t apologize for it! And if you’re not currently being paid what you’re worth then you need to not work harder, but to find something different. I just want everyone to hear that so clearly – I don’t want people to beat themselves up if it’s not going well – they might just need to do something different.”

And now, back to the beginning.

GKIC: How did you come to the conclusion that something had to change in your business?

KWP: For my whole life, my answer to success has been to work harder and harder. But we were still failing at our firm no matter how hard I worked – it got to a point where I was probably working at least 80 hours a week, and still struggling financially. So it really

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wasn’t about working hard; what I had to do was find something different. And when I found out I was expecting my oldest daughter, that’s when I knew I had to make a change.

I had to do something completely different because I couldn’t physically harm myself anymore with the lack of sleep I was getting and the amount of stress I was under. I’m a woman of faith, and a friend of mine gave me a copy of Dan Kennedy’s No BS Marketing book, and that, I thought, was basically the answer to my prayers.

I finally saw that I could do something different and that marketing results need to be measurable and I could position myself differently. And that we are worthy of being paid. We have value and we can choose who we work with. We should look at the market, and we were in the wrong market – we were focused on a local market with small businesses that could never pay us what we were worth.

GKIC: So that was 2009 when you got on board with the GKIC methodology for marketing. But implementation is where the real battle lies, isn’t it?

KWP: Yeah, we pivoted at that point into what we are today, and for the past six years. But here’s the thing: I’ve always enjoyed writing and producing content as part of our marketing strategy.

However, until I got into GKIC I didn’t realize how to tie our content into our overall sales and marketing strategy; so I really discovered that, but I still needed a mechanism to distribute the content on an automated basis that didn’t require me to be writing, in real time and also to track how leads were coming in and building our email list. I needed a way that we could monetize what I was getting from GKIC.

We learned about Infusionsoft from GKIC and very quickly we became hooked – and we love it.

GKIC: Does Infusionsoft do anything to actually improve the customer’s experience with your company?

KWP: One example is that after a client signs up with us they receive a special gift; we send them a bonsai money tree, and a special thank you to them for agreeing to do business with us. As soon as a new client comes on, that person is automatically added to our database; then a trigger is set off that sends a fax to the vendor to send them that tree with a personalized message.

GKIC: After customer retention, almost everyone’s No. 1 priority is lead generation. What are some best practices in developing a healthy tide of new prospects?

KWP: GKIC is one of our clients and we do lead generation on social media – what’s fantastic is that we can run one test on Facebook; I can write six different headlines and quickly see which headline produces the greatest results, and then Infusionsoft gives us the ability to go into a campaign that’s already set up and very easily just change one or two sentences or a subject line on an email to make that whole campaign successful. It also gives us the ability to track not only which ad someone clicked on, but we can track that customer for life.

Kim Walsh-Phillips

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Info Marketing How to Double Your Continuity Membership Retention

BY RO B E RT S K RO B, C PA

While a lot of continuity marketers struggle with growing their lower-priced member programs that have many members, I also hear about problems with retention in more exclusive, high-priced continuity programs. Coaching members get a big head, think they know everything and drop out. Often a coaching member becomes resentful, even though everything was delivered exactly as promised. The key to long-term retention is recognizing that your members’ needs change as they grow within your program.

One of the key leadership strategies is to have a common mission with shared values. For years within the association world, I knew it was important to create a set of values shared by all members.

When members embraced the mission and the values of the organization, they valued the resulting sense of belonging way above the money they spent to renew their memberships. In fact, it never occurred to them that they would ever not be a member of an organization that so closely aligned with their values.

I discovered, however, that emphasizing these values with some members got me nowhere. In fact, some thought it was stupid.

When I read the book Tribal Leadership, I learned that leadership is a stage-bystage process. I have distilled the five stages presented in Tribal Leadership into three levels for you here.

Most of your new members are at Level 1. They believe the world is a positive place, but they are stuck. This is why they are reaching out to you. Before they will care at all about your mission or values, you must help them believe in themselves. Help them get some results and get them liking who they are again.

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It’s at that point they move to Level 2.

At Level 2 your members have experienced success, plus they’ve worked with people who don’t get it, mostly because those people are back at Level 1. Your members at Level 2 can see that their productivity has increased, and they begin to believe that everyone around them is a complete moron. You’ll see businesspeople taking projects back from their team thinking, “I can get this done in less time than it would take me to explain it to you.”

How to Customize Your Member Messaging to Reduce Attrition The key to continuity retention is to understand the levels of personal development. Each movement from one level to the next creates a huge productivity improvement for your members.

Improve your member retention by giving them what they need to move from one level to the next.

LEVEL 1 – I’M STUCK They believe the world is good, and they are lagging behind. Move them to the next level by helping them learn new skills, believe in themselves, and experience success.

LEVEL 2 – I’M AWESOME They believe they are better than everyone else, and they feel there are too smart for the room. Move to the next level by redefining success as working and connecting with others.

LEVEL 3 – WE’RE AWESOME Your coaching members who believe they are “too smart for They recognize that their continued success the room” are at Level 2. Help depends on connections with other people. Keep them as members by connecting them with other these members define success people who can help them grow. in terms of working with and through others, connect them with members at Level 3 and encourage them by communicating your 1 to Level 2 need something completely mission and values. These members are different to help them move up to Level eagerly looking to be connected to other 3. And people at Level 3 are motivated people “who get it.” by completely different things than people at Levels 1 and 2.

Finally, Level 3 is where you’ll see the longest member retention. This is where Recognizing this helps you direct your members are constantly looking for a new-member welcome sequence so it slight edge. They love the values and the can establish the dream and create fast mission you stand for. They like how you wins. As your customers ascend into connect them to other people with new higher coaching levels, you change the ideas. And they understand how one definition of a “win” from an individual more contact could help them transform victory to a victory through others. And their life and business. at Level 3 you provide connections to other Level 3 players and maintain a The key to the levels is to understand cooperative atmosphere. that people who have moved from Level

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Robert Skrob is a member of the GKIC’s Expert Advisory Board for Information Marketing. He authored the bible of the info-marketing industry, published by Entrepreneur Magazine, The Official Get Rich Guide to Information Marketing, 2nd Edition, which includes an introduction and an epilogue written by Dan Kennedy. It’s available at Amazon.com, from your favorite local bookseller or at www.InfoMarketingStepByStep.com.

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The

Dan Kennedy Lette r

AUGUST 2015 - Volume 4, Issue 8

This month will be a bit unusual. I’ll be referring to and talking about a number of subjects from the Advanced Business Development Academy conducted in June, and much of this is being written immediately after the Academy, far in advance of you reading it 2 months later. Some usual “departments” of this Letter have been set aside or abbreviated just for this month. This opening monologue is inordinately long. If you are a brand new Member, you’ll see a return to normal, as normal as I ever get, next month.

Over all these years, Members, event attendees and clients have given me a wide variety of gifts. On three different occasions, clients have given me automobiles. I’ve been brought things from many different foreign lands – wooden shoes from Holland, wine from Australia, an ancient manuscript from China. So many books, rare books, first editions, rare comic books. I try to at least thank each person privately, but it is impossible to thank them all publicly. But in all these 40+ years at this, the one thing I have never been given by anybody before is…

LIVE PIGEONS!

At the Advanced Business Development Academy in June, Parthiv Shah brought me, in a USPS approved carton, a box that opened to reveal two beautiful white, live pigeons. (Were it to present dead pigeons, that would not be good.) If you do not know IBA/CBA Member Parthiv Shah, you will now.

Pigeons are descended from the rock dove, a racing bird, and one taught to carry messages back and forth. They have retained their ability to learn to be homing pigeons. Most of today’s pigeons are still wild, gather in public parks and other places with abundant food – like the Boardwalk at Atlantic City, and the Boardwalk at Disney World, and they can be a nuisance. Walt’s favorite song in Mary Poppins involves feeding the pigeons. But some are bred on farms and trained to be messenger carriers.

“Pigeon” is also slang for a gullible person, picked by a con artist as a victim. I’m not sure what the two have to do with each other. The only other pigeon that pops to my mind is the late actor Walter Pigeon.

Irrelevant, but at my age, the mind wanders.

Anyway, when ushered outside to the hotel patio and presented with a box almost large enough to contain Parthiv, with holes in both its sides, you worry. Turns out the two pigeons shipped to the hotel are homing pigeons, two of many in the employ of a GKIC Member owned company, a client of Parthiv’s, that ships its trained homing pigeons all over the country to be given as surprise, surprising gifts; to be turned loose at weddings and bon voyage parties and real bon voyage parties i.e. funerals and other occasions, while some poem is being read. Obviously, a sales letter could be sent in the box with the pigeons, mimicking a now legendary stunt. This is why Parthiv gifted these particular pigeons, in honor of that story which I told at Mailbox Millions, my mid-year Training of several years ago. Once photographed and having delivered their message or served their ceremonial purpose, they are simply released and they fly back to the farm in Utah. Of course, Parthiv could not know that I have a fondness for barbequed pigeon. It is delicious. Home to the farm, nuts. Why not home to the dinner table?

DIAMOND LUXURY Member, Pastor Nelson Searcy and his aide-de-camp Scott Whittaker were present. I like having them with me as protection against lightning strikes. In their honor, I thought: waste not, want not.

Two pigeons, a side of slaw, a side of baked beans or corn on the cob, and who needs Colonel Sanders?

Or, at the track, we have a lot of barn cats.

Relax. I’m kidding. We turned them loose. And, with one’s brief head bumping into a window detour, off they went. Home, to rest, and then be rented again and dispatched on their next mission.

Is there any lesson here?

Of course. First of all, there’s simply no end to the size and scope and diversity of opportunity.

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There is no opportunity ‘problem’ – as so many whining and crying about the shortage of instant, good careers for college graduates or apologists for the ever-mounting number of people settling for being wards of the state, one way or another, insist. Anyone can make a job for themselves. I had a client years back who did so with one bucket, one mop, about $8 of supplies, a flyer, and knocking on doors and, 5 years later, sold her cleaning company for one million dollars. Retired a cash millionaire.

A similar story is in this issue, about a furniture retailer. Anyway, should you have an unknown crazy uncle die and leave you as a strange inheritance a big pigeon farm of your very own, you now have an idea about what to do with it. There is no opportunity problem. The problems are only lack of imagination and lack of initiative.

But here’s the bigger, more specifically useful lesson. In this case, Parthiv may have merely been engaging in a pure act of gratitude, in a creative way, thanking me for all he has gained (and purloined) from me, by bringing to life the little anecdote of advertising history he’d heard me tell. More likely, this was also calculated to garner some spotlight shined on him – at the Academy, where he was already an exhibitor but not the sponsors certain to get more attention (Dicks & Nanton/Celebrity Branding and Infusionsoft), and possibly, hopefully, something exactly like what is occurring here: exposure to the entire GKIC audience. This is a lesson in “currying favor”.

If you wish to “curry favor” with just about anybody, whether you know them or not, you can. You can infiltrate just about anybody’s fortress, if you’ll approach doing so in a creative and clever way. I had lunch while at the Academy with a friend of 30 or so years who was in attendance, the real inventor of Internet marketing, Ken McCarthy. He told me of a nifty little ‘currying favor’ strategy he was using, to initiate conversations and create relationships with selected authors, health experts and others – which I summarized and repeated from the stage that afternoon, although I suspect most missed its instruction and heard it only as an odd little anecdote. Actually, it was a prescription anyone in the room could use to create connection with just about any person of importance they wanted to reach.

Everybody has a ‘thing’, too, by the way. Mine isn’t pigeons, but one is ‘advertising history’, so Parthiv picked a ‘thing’ of mine to tie his favor currying to. Ron Popeil is possibly the world’s most avid olive oil collector. My old friend George Douglas was an avid collector of clown and circus memorabilia. These days, it is easier than ever to discover someone’s “thing”, thanks to their use of social media. People use Disney memorabilia and rare books, horse racing antiques and books, classic car related items as ways of getting my attention or maintaining a top of mind relationship with me. At the Academy, Qubein spoke of ‘relationship capital’ and I spoke of the value of sustained relationships, networks in which the ‘nine steps to Kevin Bacon rule’ apply, and developing and maintaining CCC: Concentric Circles of Capability. These are all applications of the ancient axiom: the size of a person’s Rolodex tends to predict and reveal the size of his bank account. You maintain the important relationships by investing in acts of currying favor, at least several times a year. That’s my modus operandi. I recommend formalizing it as yours, too.

Now, brief detour: I am compelled to tell you that Parthiv Shah is a genius at organization, systemization and implementation of all the marketing “stuff” I teach, for clients of his company, eLaunchers.com. An article I invited him to write, hours after the pigeons-on-the-patio episode, appears on pages 15 and 16.

You won’t always get an instant result, like this. The activity shouldn’t even be all or mostly about getting instant results. More, about building up a big bank of relational capital. There are things to bank that are more useful and important than money.

WHERE To Invest In Building Your Relational Capital Account?

Belonging to GKIC, and being active in GKIC, is an outstanding way to very efficiently learn about, meet, form connection with a lot of very useful people with whom to develop relational capital.

Where else do so many smart, clever, aggressive entrepreneurs and marketers, experts and specialists, 12

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open-minded deal-makers, “pipeline owners”, etc. gather? Nowhere. Being active means: being noticed.

Making yourself visible. Contributing. Getting into the newsletters, on to the Gold or Diamond calls.

Being in Peak Performers. Attending every event, and if you can be a vendor, exhibiting at every event. You can’t just consume. Many who began (just) as Members have made themselves prominent in the GKIC world; on Planet Dan, and have benefited and do benefit directly, in flow to them of customers, clients, joint venture partners, business friends willing to publicize or promote them, etc., etc., etc. GKIC even is a ‘market maker’ and launching pad for a number of enterprises begun inside our borders, then subsequently grown far beyond them – Infusionsoft, 3DMailResults.com, and Parthiv Shah’s company leap to mind. This is an incredibly valuable ‘place of opportunity’ (for astute investors in connections), and it will be that long after I have retired from it. It’s a good place to put down roots. Ask Titanium Members like Craig Simpson or Shaun Buck about this as ‘place of opportunity.’ Note, too, that they are “Steady Eddie’s”. Many, many others have come ‘round briefly or sporadically, hit ‘n run like a pigeon zooming in to snare a scrap from a table, then left this scene. It is those who sustain their relationship with this place that grow and thrive because of it.

Infusionsoft, as example, sponsored the welcome reception and breakfasts, beverage breaks and snacks at the Academy despite, literally, 90% of the attendees already being Infusionsoft users. Not much to directly snare. For them, a wise investment in relational capital.

Of course, there must be other ‘places of opportunity’ – additional places – of specific match with your specific business, geographically, or by peer involvement, or otherwise, where you should invest too. Make those yours too.

Fish Floss Hippos, A Symbiotic Relationship.

Hippos Safeguard Fish From Prey, Making Theirs A Strategic Alliance, Too I also spoke about Co-Petition as alternate to Competition. GKIC is loaded with competitors who learn this, and then find ways to fearlessly aid each other rather than expensively butt heads against each other. If you operate a local business, there is a valuable ‘model’ for you, in what you see them do on a national or global level. In your market, in your town, you need to figure out how to form a network, put satellites in orbit around you, be a benefactor to and connector of others, and actually share customers. Customer-sharing is the new capital. It is accessible to anyone and everyone, no pesky banker in the way. It creates no financial debt. It trades away no equity. If you want to hear more from me on this here, in these pages, let me know. It will be a subject included in my main presentation at this year’s Info-SUMMITSM. Relational capital does “come home to roost.” At Academy, there were Members hearing me live for the very first time. A few as damp as yesterday’s morning dew. But the majority of these 165 stalwarts date way back with me. The record-holder in the room was DIAMOND LUXURY Member Gayle Carson, I think to early 1980’s. Many there to mid-80’s. Many also with whom I’ve had direct relationship. I was in Gayle’s living room many moons ago, consulting. There were people who have moved through three or four different businesses during their time with me. Even my guest speaker, Nido Qubein, dates to the 80’s with me, as a one-time client, a peer, a business friend. And without direct effort, I went home Saturday afternoon with a couple speaking engagements and copywriting projects and a couple consulting days raised up, by once again stirring this pot.

I am proud of this, of these long sustained relationships, demonstrated by and at an event like this. I hope it serves as inspirational model for many others. Few of us are actually Scrooge McDucks, or Jack Benny, happy with just sitting in our home vault counting our cash. What really counts is the relationships. The only dollar most business owners can look at or show that has stayed with them over decades is the first dollar they made in their business, framed, mounted above the cash register, later in the den. Bill Gough hanging around means more. Being able to call on Ben Glass for assistance is more useful. Driving home Saturday, I was, of course, keenly aware of the money aspects of the work just completed: registration revenue vs. all costs, now known; sign-ups for the follow-up, small group mastermind with Nido and I at High Point University*, for the Media Platform/Writing meeting with me*, for next year’s Training*, the new consulting, copywriting and speaking engagements, and the fundraising done for my two animal charities. All told, it was a damn (Continued Page 15) good haul. I believe in being very well paid – and I think you should too. In me GKI C.CO M

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Dan Kennedy’s

MILLION DOLLAR MARKETING LESSON

Class is in session. The Professor of Harsh Reality and Grand Opportunity is here.

…in place of. Instead of a Lesson this month, a collection of smart questions from smart people. I gave Academy attendees many good ones, including ones designed to help you think about your business like an investor, not just as an operator. Here are some more…

1: HOW CAN WE BECOME THE (KIND OF) COMPANY THAT WOULD PUT US OUT OF BUSINESS? From Danny Meyer, the CEO of Union Hospitality Group; a multi-restaurant operator in NYC; author of Setting The Table.

2: IF WE WEREN’T ALREADY IN THIS BUSINESS, WOULD WE ENTER IT TODAY? IF NOT, WHAT ARE WE GONG TO DO ABOUT IT (TODAY)?

From the late Peter Drucker, a question he reportedly posed to Jack Welch at GE, inspiring GE’s “FIX, SELL OR CLOSE” strategy for under-performing businesses and business units. Variation: IF WE ALL GOT KICKED OUT AND THE BOARD OR NEW OWNERS BROUGHT IN A NEW CEO, WHAT WOULD HE DO? From Andy Grover, former CEO of Intel, and one tough cookie.

3: ARE WE PAYING ENOUGH ATTENTION TO OUR ‘PARTNERS’ WE DEPEND ON TO MAKE THIS COMPANY SUCCEED? Ron Adner, professor at Tuck School of Business. I hated including an academic, but it is a smart question. And it should include a lot of unofficial partners. We all need people, vendors, centers of influence, etc. who are genuinely interested in seeing us succeed, not

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just going through the motions when required. At my Modus Operandi Day (with Academy) I explained how I sustain and nurture and “feed” such partners. What’s your SYSTEM for this?

4: IS THERE ANY REASON TO BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE OF MY CURRENT BELIEF? From Chip and Dan Health, authors. I made a big point about differentiating facts from (ingrained) beliefs; that even facts change; and that test results matter but beliefs and opinions don’t. A related, good question: what advertising, marketing, sales or business premise or practice of yours hasn’t been tested in the past 12 months?

5: DO WE UNDERESTIMATE THE CUSTOMER’S JOURNEY? From Matt Dixon, director of research at CEB. This starts with Taubman’s ‘Threshold Resistance’ that I wrote about in July. I find most do underestimate the actual barriers encountered and/or the emotional barriers blocking the customer. At Info-SUMMITSM, in my session exclusively for CopyConfidential / Look Over Shoulder subscribers, I’ll be talking about Sequential Agreements, an important part of the customer’s journey.

6: WHAT SHOULD WE STOP DOING? Again, from Peter Drucker. For me, a very big one at its time was: stop traveling on business – which required stopping 90% of all speaking engagements and effectively ended customer/ member acquisition from speaking. Both the income and the acquisition were replaced, but might never have been without the Stop.

(Source: INC. MAGAZINE, April 2014)

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being well paid! And in you being well paid. For each and every thing you do. One doc present told me he had immediately figured out how to turn a 2-income adjunct to his business into an 8-income operation, thus increasing his paycheck from it by 400%. Terrific! But driving home Saturday and then sprawling exhausted on my backyard deck, I wasn’t thinking about the money. I was thinking about the amazing relationships with such exceptional people.

(Continued from Page 13)

(*You can contact Vicky, fax 602-269-3113, for information.)

A few lost along the way, mourned, too. Nobody has anything close to a 100% batting average.

LeBron missed quite a number of free throws, and bounced it off the front of the rim for crying out loud, and probably should have been embarrassed by it. But, then, we all miss. Me too. But I stood and looked at everybody in this room and thought, what a remarkable number of hits. Of home runs. I hope you feel this way about your business relationships too. If you don’t, work on it. Money will follow.

So, Parthiv and his pigeons. The original story follows. Will he and his client create a new, bigger, legendary business story? Will they conquer and corner the market on homing pigeons, organizing a global consortium of pigeon farms and pigeon refueling stations? Stay tuned. In the meantime, please, make this your home. Make this your place of opportunity. We put it all together for you.

SYMBIOSIS

By Parthiv Shah I’m a data guy. Like the kid in the movie with Bruce Willis who saw dead people, I see data. Awake, asleep; doesn’t matter. Running, compiling, split-testing, algorithms and APIs are to me what copywriting and horse racing are to Dan Kennedy. We are both pros in our own areas. I conveniently hang around him, “swipe” all of his stuff and feverishly implement it for my clients. He keeps coming up with new content. I keep swiping. Like a little sucker fish that hangs around the great white shark, Dan and I have had a great relationship for years and years.

Recently, I was reminded why I’ve been hanging around Dan for so long. At his Advanced Business Development Secrets Academy and Personal Modus Operandi event in Cleveland, I discovered a “big aha!” That’s saying a lot, because I’m literally a little Indian guy. If you’ve been to one of Dan’s events, you’ll notice he references me as the little Indian guy, the annoying IT guy or the little guy who will stick to your leg like velcro. There’s a good reason he gives me a lot of crap from the stage. First, I continually pepper him with questions and ideas and favors and he continually says, “No, stop, get out of here or go away.” It’s when he graciously says “fine” or “yes” that I get to clean up a few scraps of business, like the sucker fish near the mouth of the great white shark.

It happened to me at this event and it happens to me at nearly every event with Dan Kennedy. He says something profound, I ask a question or pester him about that area of business development and a client magically appears out of the ether to ask me to help in that area of their own business. Coaches, consultants, dentists, infomarketers, dentists who want to become info-marketers; all of these people come to me and ask me if I can implement what Dan teaches. The answer is always “yes.” But, I’m surprised more don’t see the power of the little game Dan and I play at live events.

Some people come to an event to feel like they are accomplishing something. Getting on a plane, traveling to another city and sitting in a conference room feels like activity and movement in their business. Some come to network or to see new products and services by vendors like my company, eLaunchers. Others come to write down new lessons and actually implement new strategies inside their business. Regardless of how you approach a live event like Dan’s recent trainings in Cleveland, the smartest people in the room walk away with several different synergistic opportunities inside their own business or partnerships with new businesses or vendors that didn’t exist when they walked into the room. That’s what Dan does. He builds better businesses. He creates connections.

Like my client, Dr. Dustin Burleson and his consulting group, Burleson Seminars. Burleson didn’t know he was going to build a multi-million dollar information marketing business, coaching orthodontists from all over the world. He certainly didn’t know how he was going to implement setting up InfusionSoft accounts and multi-step marketing pieces for hundreds of clients. He didn’t know that until he met me at a Dan Kennedy event years ago and saw what eLaunchers could do. I’m certain I asked Dan some annoying little question that brought me a whale of a client when Burleson brought his business to me. It’s happened over and over again with clients in similar niches, like Dr. Greg Wych and his successful coaching business and Dr. David Moffet in Australia. All of these brilliant business leaders have strengthened what they do because of Dan’s genius and my implementation.

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on a plane and sit inside four walls asking tough questions and seeking accurate answers about how to build a better business. So, at the next live event when you see me asking some annoying question and Dan giving me more crap for being the Annoying Little Indian Guy, it should be a reminder why you are there and what we are doing. Don’t let the power of live events escape your awareness and don’t let the distraction of everything else going on around you keep you from making the next big leap in your business. Start asking some “annoying” questions of yourself and of your own business. And, get to Dan’s next live event. It’s the first step in the next giant leap inside your business. This year I am going to apply for my doctorate in technology, and if my proposal is accepted I will be writing my dissertation on the subject of ‘Evolution of Technology in Direct Response Marketing’.

If this proposal is accepted, I will be studying Dan in a whole new light. No one has studied Dan at the depth of doing a doctoral dissertation. If my proposal gets accepted I will have a whole lot of annoying little questions for Dan. I am always on plane, traveling to events where Dan is speaking or occasionally showing up at his house for a consult with a client. I am always studying. Read, listen, watch, observe, mind map and implement. That is my modus operandi. I studied Magnetic Marketing. Dan mentions the Magnetic INTERNAL marketing. Internal marketing is all about using the data you already have. At this event, one of my favorite lessons Dan taught was all about “plugging holes in the bucket” with multi-media multi-step campaigns. During a break I showed him the image you see here of a system we’ve created to plug those holes in any business (obviously swiped from what I’ve learned from him). We built an entire machine that facilitates every conversation you want to have with your prospect, client and ex-client.

Dan says that most people don’t do the follow up because it is complicated and overwhelming.

I embrace complexity. I ‘figure out’ how to do what Dan wants done.

This system is a classic demonstration of how you can sit in front of Dan, listen, watch, observe, mind map and then make it happen. If you want to feel the power of the system visit the website www.internalmarketingmachine. com and request access to 3 video classes where our lead implementation expert Loren Smith unwraps the box. nnnnnn

Parthiv Shah is President of eLaunchers.com, Parthiv is also the Maryland/DC area GKIC Certified Independent Business Advisor. In 2015 Dan wrote a foreword for his book ‘Business Kamasutra: From Persuasion to Pleasure’.

To request a free copy of his book along with a copy of the implementation blueprint please visit www.businesskamasutra.com.

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“TOP 10” CONSUMER INTERESTS? In May, the top 10 long-form direct-response TV winners were #1 Beachbody’s* 21 Day Fix; #2 the long, long reigning champ Total Gym; #3 Guthy-Renker’s Crepe Erase** with actress Jane Seymour; #4 Luminess Air; #5 – Beachbody* again – Focus T25; #6 – GuthyRenker** again – Wen Hair Care; #7 – Beachbody* again – Body Beast, and in #9 – Beachbody* AGAIN – with P90X#. Gee, I think we have to conclude that “LOOKING GOOD” is THE #1 consumer interest! This obviously applies to directly related businesses, like gyms, fitness equipment, spas, cosmetic DAN’S IN-BOX surgeons, etc., but also can be utilized by restaurants for healthy menu items; mattresses (better sleep = less bags under eyes, wrinkles, you’ll be noticed as having youthful vitality); even moneymaking opportunities – how others “see” i.e. think of you, envy you, admire you. In short, anything that can be tied to how you ‘look’ in other peoples’ ‘eyes’ should be tied to it. In May, the top 10 short-form DRTV winners were more diverse: #1 was Guthy-Renker’s** Pro-Activ Plus, but the rest included home repair products, kitchen gadgets, headlight brightener and the Pocket Hose. Of the top 10 lead generation campaigns, NutriSystem was #2. That last category is deceptively skewed by monster spending of companies like Progressive, State Farm and Liberty Mutual, included in this category incorrectly in my opinion. (SOURCE: DRMETRIX.COM). *Beachbody’s direct-mail is managed for them, from lists to execution, by GKIC Titanium Member Craig Simpson, author of the book, THE DIRECT-MAIL SOLUTION, to which I contributed. **Guthy-Renker has been a client of mine since 1987.

Now, here is THE Million Dollar Moral of This Story, that can be worth 1,000 years’ GKIC Membership dues, if you’ll grasp it, embrace it, and apply it: People are much more motivated by how they appear to and are thought about by other people than they are by personal benefits.

Stop. Read it again. Give yourself a moment to let it sink in. Later, take all your advertising and marketing messages, sales scripts, etc. with you into a locked room and meticulously examine them to determine how much of yours is pitching personal benefits versus talking about how others will see, think about, feel about and judge the person with your benefits and without your benefits. Look, the reason 5 of the top 10 long-form DRTV winners have to do with “fat v. fit” is that bathing suit season starts in June. The reason 7 of the 10 have to do with personal appearance is that attend-weddings-season is summer. People are pretty damn shallow. Very short-term thinkers.

The above ‘reveal’, the italicized sentence, opens the door to a great deal of what I now call MIND HIJACKING®, a literal taking control of consumers’ minds – this the subject of my 2016 mid-year, Dan-only Training, which you can, already, now, put yourself on the early-invite list for, via fax, 602-269-3113. This rather amazing fact about human behavior and motivation in that single italicized sentence can be the key to making your proposition irresistible; to making people defenseless to it!

FROM LITTLE ACORNS. In 2007, a Clevelander named Alex Nemet ambitiously opened a “wholesale” store featuring home furniture. He started in a neighbor’s garage, with an inventory of two dining room sets. When deliveries by semi-trucks became a regular disturbance in the residential neighborhood, he relocated to a rented storage unit, then two, then four. Then again, to an abandoned auto body shop. He got flooded, with no insurance, and wiped out once, but started over immediately. Today, his NORTHEAST FACTORY DIRECT operation consumes a gigantic warehouse – still with a leaky roof, just a few blocks from the auto shop, where every home product and home improvement is sold at wholesale prices. Last year, 1,000 complete kitchens, thousands of hot tubs, football fields of couches and bedroom sets were sold, all via what he calls “the NFD experience”. Alex did not attend college, and exited directly from high school into selling CUTCO knives door to door, there sharpening his sales skills. He’s never lost his “sense of” the barely-making-it-financially, hard working consumer. You can see his business at NortheastFactoryDirect. com. As I said in the open, there’s no shortage of opportunity. As a lesson: he knows his customer. He has crafted an experience – from which his customers deduce they are getting great, factory direct prices and savings. In my parlance, this falls under Message To Market Match.

BUT THAT’S JUST NOT THE BUSINESS WE’RE IN. Rick and Larry Simpson have a western clothing store. At a customer’s suggestion, they started a fan club specifically for kids, which now has 3,800 members, most age 3 to 9, but with one 93 year old. For a $6 fee, the kids get a certificate, fake bullet or arrowhead, copy of The Code of the West to live by, and a family newsletter. And the Simpson’s own an Income At GKI C.CO M

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Will Position. You should be able to pull the trigger on a 3,800 membership and sell something to 5% to 20% of them (average 12%, good house list) pretty much at will. So, the Simpsons have written, produced and starred in six classic, traditional western movies – at it since 1996, and as very independent filmmakers, they are making a profit doing it! Their stated mission: giving kids stories that make clear right from wrong, that give them heroes like they (and I) grew up with – John Wayne, Sky King, Roy Rogers, and that show them a worthy way of life. Their theory of business: if we hook ‘em at age 4 or 5, they’ll be with us for life. Plus: get the kid, get the parent. They are direct marketers of DVD’s of their films via Western magazines, agricultural retail outlets, feed mills, small town stores. It’s easy to say: but that’s not the business we’re in. It’s smarter to ask: what businesses aren’t we in? – and could, should we be in them, partner in them, be a platform for them? Obviously, cautions apply, regarding distraction, deviation without synergy, lack of know-how and refusal to get it or rent it or buy it. But those cautions should be applied, not serve as prohibitions. You can look and then decide not to touch. But you should look.

At the Academy, I told the little known fact about The Apprentice. Burnett came to talk Trump into doing the show, and Trump definitely could have summarily dismissed the idea; TV was not the business he was in. But to his credit as an entrepreneur (a creature different than a ‘business owner’ by mindset and behavior), Trump considered. One of the deciding factors: NBC foolishly let Burnett and Trump be entirely responsible for finding the company to be the subject of each episode’s competition, thus letting Burnett and Trump keep control over 16 such slots a year; 32 for the initial contract. From which Burnett and Trump pocketed $100-MILLION, by charging the companies promotional fees AND making the companies work, provide products, executives, supervision, and so on. It can be costly to too quickly say: that’s NOT the business we’re in. n WARNING: About Communicating With Me: an increasing number of people are sending correspondence direct to me by fax but with no fax number to respond to!….only an email address. I can no longer devote Vicky’s time to checking with GKIC for contact info or calling or otherwise chasing. No fax number – no answer from me. I’m now just throwing these in the trash. Sorry.

Also: do NOT send email or mail to me @ GKIC. The email never reaches me. The mail accumulates for weeks at a time. My direct communication info is in every issue of the No B.S. Marketing Letter, but without either a fax# or, if you’re fine with slow, a stamped, self-addressed envelope, you won’t hear from me. And please don’t provide a phone number and expect me to call you. I work by pre-set phone appointments controlled by Vicky at MY office, grouped into one or two days each month, first accommodating Private Clients. There are tens of thousands of Members. I try to be courteous and responsive to all, and I welcome thoughts, ideas, success reports, etc., but it has to be by MY rules of engagement.You WILL BE IGNORED if you can’t follow them.

Final Thoughts, This Month – confessions of cheating, from ‘the professor of harsh reality’ The astute will realize I cheated a bit this month, getting Parthiv to paint two stretches of my fence ala Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, using larger type font, arguably an unnecessary photo. For entirely personal reasons, I had no alternative but to compress the normal time given this by half, and do it early, and hand it off to Carla early. I didn’t cheat you, though; I just cheated this. You got plenty served on your plate, and if you can’t make a good meal of this, I’m sorry for you. Not sorry about my cheating.

Which brings me to the “GE-SPOT” that I often talk about, and did again, very openly and candidly, in the confessional booth of Modus Operandi Day at Academy. With most things, I do not do all I can nor do the very best I could, and I have made millions of dollars more by this (controversial?) practice than by subscribing to Tom Peters’ old “excellence at any and all costs” idea, first popularized by his mega bestselling book – which featured a number of ‘excellence companies’ that went belly up and bankrupt shortly thereafter. Oh, and, for the record, while widely praised for unmatched excellence, even by me, Disney cheats too. Did you know, for example, that they slightly speed up rides like Pirates and Haunted Mansion and Soaring at extra busy times? Well, they do.

At Modus Operandi Day, I explained my time budgeting by ROIT: Return On Invested Time, which governs just how good or excellent what I do or make gets to be. Just like a thermostat governs just how hot or cool a room is allowed to be. It locks it.

This is part of being a pragmatist, a self-identification and behavioral mandate I credit most of my success to. If you watch shows like The Profit, Bar Rescue or Shark Tank, you see business owners being everything but pragmatic. Some are coach-able and can be helped. Others cannot. In every business, there are elements that are of life or death criticality, that an inch or ounce of cheating with is caught by customers and severely disappoints them, but there are many other elements that can be temporarily or even permanently compromised with negligible short or long term impact. It’s important to determine which is which. Because, if you attempt democratic, universal excellence, you’re guaranteed to fail at its pre-requisite: survival. n 18

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Performance & Productivity

Lee Milteer

How to Effectively Use Your Life Energy How do you spend your mental energy?

You must be aware of the unconscious thoughts that rob you of your time and energy and keep you from achieving the success you want, both in your work and personal life. What we think about expands. The more you think about what stresses or upsets you, the worse you feel.

The more you think about what is good in your life and work, the better you feel.

When you feel better, it goes without saying that you are more equipped to handle problems with more creative solutions.

Plus the quality of your life improves on a conscious level.

Stop allowing yourself to be preoccupied 24 hours a day with thinking about work or personal problems. A one-track mind will leave you no energy to develop other areas of interest or recognize and enjoy the blessings in your life.

If you have nagging thoughts, you’re supporting all that information in your mind which, just like a computer, has only so much room for storage of information; you leave yourself no room for the interests or pleasures you want to experience.

One very effective way to learn to minimize or even stop energy leaks is to divide your life into compartments. When you’re at work, leave your personal worries at home; you can be assured that they will be there when you get back. When you stop actively thinking about your problems, subconsciously your mind has the opportunity to allow itself to process information and come to intelligent decisions.

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The more you worry and fret over your problems, the more unresourceful you will become. When you’re stuck in the same old mindset, you cannot see the other potential opportunities that may exist for solving your problem. By simply letting the problem go for a few hours you actually improve your chances for coming up with new, workable solutions.

Please give yourself permission to honor yourself. Make a commitment to give yourself some down time. All work and no rest will make you a very crabby person!! You do deserve rest. Trust me, I know! You have to set new rules for your own peace of mind! Be good to yourself.

Life is short, so make sure you love yourself enough to do the right things for you, your family, and your business.

To plug an energy leak at home, give yourself permission to be in the present and let your personal life be separate from your work life.

Be Good to yourself and don’t let yourself get stressed out! IT IS NOT WORTH IT.

The same holds true for any type of problem, personal or business. You need to give your computer (aka your mind) the opportunity to offer additional options.

When you refocus on the problem you will be able to analyze it from a different perspective. This new viewpoint allows you to see new strategies to use.

To plug an energy leak at home, give yourself permission to be in the present and let your personal life be separate from your work life. I know from personal experience, since my office was in my home for many years, that this can be a challenge.

For the next 21 days (this is how long it takes to create a new life habit) give yourself a specific time that you are going to STOP thinking about work. That may mean you have to leave your office or home office by a certain time. Promise yourself that after a certain time every night that you will not talk, worry, or think about work.

As most of you know, I run the Peak Performers Coaching group and one of my talents is to assist people to find their blind spots. If you’re dealing with challenges, stop trying to do this all alone.

You can join me for the Peak PerformersImplementation Coaching program. This exclusive Coaching Program is focused on Performance, Productivity, Right THINKING, Wealth Building, Entrepreneurial Marketing, Masterminding, and Implementation Strategies.

Go to www.milteer.com/icinfo to find out more about it today.

Find Your Blind Spot Coach Lee Milteer www.milteer.com

2015 Peak Performers Meetings will include: • Lee Milteer Presentations on Productivity Strategies, Performance, Time & Boundary Issues & Wealth Mindset.

• Hot Seats to Discover Personal Blind Spots, How to Overcome Them and What New Actions to Take for Profits.

• Dave Dee’s Marketing Hot Seats and Solid Marketing Advice.

• We’ll Also Cover Other Hot Topics that Benefit Entrepreneurial Business Owners

Meeting Dates and Location: • September 10-11, 2015: San Antonio, TX • December 3-4, 2015: Atlanta, GA

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Online Marketing How to Plug a Leaky Sales Funnel with Ad Retargeting

BY RYAN DEISS Last month I began discussing a critical evolution in digital advertising: Ad Retargeting.

Ad networks like Facebook have changed the game by allowing marketers to serve ads to customers and prospects based on their behavior on your website.

Here’s how it works.

Imagine one of your prospects clicking around on LinkedIn (or Twitter or Facebook or wherever they hang out) and finding a link to some of your content – an article, a video, an audio, etc.

They click on the link to that content and visit your website.

Boom. That prospect has been added to a retargeting list.

Yep, without entering their contact information or credit card details they’ve been added to a list. This is the magic of retargeting.

Time for an Ascension Offer We lead with ungated content (usually on a blog) that is some combination of…

• Entertaining • Inspiring • Educational … because it builds goodwill, gives the visitor a touch point with our brand

and (most importantly) segments the visitor so we can follow up with the right “Ascension Offer.”

For example…

• Those that visit content about peanut butter get retargeted with ads that make peanut butter offers.

• Those that visit content about jelly get retargeted with ads that make jelly offers.

If you’re familiar with Digital Marketer’s Customer Value Optimization (CVO) system (Learn more at digitalmarketer. com/start-here/) you know that our first offer to cold prospects is often a gated piece of content (called a Lead Magnet) that asks the prospect for their contact information (Example 1).

Example 1 Those that visit the article (left) about creating blog content are retargeted with this Facebook ad (right) for our “Free Blog Post Template” Lead Magnet.

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Retargeting Throughout the Funnel But the offers don’t end with the Lead Magnet.

From here we’ll make additional “Ascension Offers” that are consistent with the interest they displayed in the ungated content.

• The Tripwire Offer – This is a lowdollar product or service designed to convert leads into customers. (Some marketers call it a self-liquidating offer because it’s not intended to be profitable.)

• The Core Offer – A higher-dollar “flagship” offer that monetizes new customers.

• The Profit Maximizer – Just like it sounds… this offer is designed to maximize customer value.

It looks like (Example 2)…

Example 2 This funnel has four offers. A Lead Magnet, Tripwire, Core Offer and Profit Maximizer. You can download this funnel flowchart at digitalmarketer. com/start-here/

What to do when they say “NO” Like it or not, this is the truth…

• X% of individuals will opt-in for the Lead Magnet

And so on. It looks like (Example 3)…

Example 3

• X% will buy the Tripwire • X% will purchase the Core Offer • X% will purchase the Profit Maximizer

Use retargeting ads to bring customers and prospects back to the next “Ascension Offer.”

… and X does NOT equal 100.

If just 10% of leads take your Tripwire offer, you’ve likely found an effective frontend offer for your funnel. But that means 90% did not convert.

They leaked out of your funnel.

You must follow up and close those leaks. Solid follow up can often be the difference between a winning and losing funnel.

And when it comes to follow-up, ad retargeting gives email marketing a run for its money.

For every “Ascension Offer” in your funnel, you’ll need an ad retargeting campaign that brings them back to the funnel by making the appropriate offer.

For example, those that visited the Lead Magnet landing page but not the Tripwire sales page are retargeted to the Lead Magnet.

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The fact that they never made it to the Tripwire sales page tells us they didn’t opt-in for the Lead Magnet. Those that visited the Tripwire sales page but not the Core Offer sales page are retargeted to the Tripwire.

Ad retargeting networks like Facebook have made it remarkably easy to create lists like these.

You don’t need to be a tech geek to close these leaks.

Set up retargeting throughout your funnel. It works.

Ryan Deiss is the founder of Digital Marketer, an online publication dedicated to testing and sharing the most effective online strategies that are working right now.

Read more at the Digital Marketer Blog.

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Advice

BY SH AU N B U C K

Failure to Launch 3 tips to help you see every project to its finish line faster I am often baffled by the things that slip through the cracks. Recently I had a $20,000 invoice I authorized a vendor to process and charge to my card, only to look up a few weeks later to find they never collected payment. I had to call and ask again for them to charge my card. To be honest, I was surprised; $20,000 is not a small sum of money, regardless of your sales.

It’s easy for us all to point at my example and call this company out on grounds of stupidity, but the truth is, you may be committing even worse crimes in your own business right now.

Seventy percent of all projects fail, according to the Project Management Institute. In our community, we call it Shiny Object Syndrome. We start, we get all excited, we take some action (i.e. we buy something, come up with a name, create an outline, and get started) and then in the blink of an eye, we are on to the next thing. It happens to all of us, except maybe Dan here in our office.

The act of doing something is confused with getting something done. I recently had a customer complain to me, saying newsletters didn’t work for his business.

When I looked at his account, I saw the problem. In an 11-month period of time, he had only mailed two editions. This would be like complaining to a copywriter that his copy didn’t work, without ever actually mailing the piece.

I have found that as a company, the

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Fail Fast.

down projects that wouldn’t make him at least $100,000. I remember thinking to myself, “That’s crazy! If he could make $50,000, why wouldn’t he take that project?” I now understand – there just isn’t enough time to do it all. You need to learn to say no. Sometimes that means saying no to projects; sometimes to new customers; sometimes it means saying no to yourself and outsourcing the work; either way, you simply can’t do it all, and the larger your company becomes, the more and more that becomes true. At the end of the day, the money is in getting stuff done, even if it isn’t perfect.

I used to think this meant “fail and move on to the next shiny object” but I have found much more success in failing and adjusting, instead of scrapping and starting over. No one hits a home run every time they’re up to bat, so stop being disappointed when you strike out.

At the end of the day, the money is in getting stuff done...

larger we get, if we are not careful, the problem of starting and not finishing can be magnified. If you are running a million-dollar-plus business with 10-plus employees, you have likely felt that, at times, you were standing still; projects were taking twice as long to finish, regardless of having more team members.

The good news is there are simple solutions for this, regardless of your stage in business.

Outsource.

I am not an expert at everything. I know that is hard for many of you who know me to believe, but it’s true. I either hire experts in-house or I outsource; either way, I don’t try to do it all. If you have a million-dollar-plus company, you most likely need help. Even if you can do everything, that doesn’t mean you should.

When you are just starting out, you have to do more, at least until you have additional resources; but don’t get stuck in the trap of “I can do it better.” Most of the time that is a lie – you can’t do it better – but even when you can, you doing everything doesn’t make sense.

Say No. Ten-plus years ago, I was broke, but I had scraped up enough money to buy a GKIC seminar and was listening to Dan give a presentation where he said he turned

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A customer of ours, who is also a GKIC member, recently told us he wants to get his newsletter to where he feels it is 90 percent perfect and then simply mail, because anything more is a waste of time and unlikely to ever get completed.

This is the attitude of someone who is and will continue to be successful. Stop starting and start finishing, even if it means you take on fewer projects or launch at 90 percent perfect instead of 100 percent perfect. If you do, you’ll be richer for it.

Shaun Buck is the owner of The Newsletter Pro and author of the book “Newsletter Marketing.” Shaun’s company creates and prints full custom newsletters that sound like they were written by his clients, but without his clients ever having to write a single word. For more information about newsletters and newsletter marketing visit www.TheNewsletterPro.com.

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LADDER OF SUCCESS

THE HIGHER YOU GO, THE FASTER YOU GROW. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL US AT 800-871-0147

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continued from page 8 second call. By the way, it doesn’t have to be five calls. It could be three, but five is a good number. And then I would always throw in a bonus call.

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I see where this ends up; you burn CDs, you transcribe the recordings, you package it, price it, and sell it. But couldn’t you just bluff this and record yourself monologuing without an audience, and sell that?

At the end of the day, it’s about creating a great product and creating value. There used to be this theory that you didn’t have to have a great product. The reality is you don’t need a great product to make sales, but to have longterm success, you need a great product.

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Give me a final takeaway on bundling my expertise in way that’s going to benefit others and position me as the market leader. I don’t care what market you’re teaching in, you are teaching primarily beginners and since you are an expert in the topic, you have a hard time remembering what it’s like to be a beginner. So, often we create products that are slightly out of touch with our market.

But by doing this seed launch process, you learn how to teach material. You learn how to stay in the beginner’s mind. You learn how to teach the material and it’s beautiful for them, and you end up with a great product.

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The Monthly No B.S. Marketing Letter Monthly Exclusive - Gold Interview on CD Monthly “MARKETING GOLD” Hotsheet GOLD Member RESTRICTED ACCESS Website Gold Member Discounts for Info-SUMMITSM and SuperConferenceSM

For more information about Jeff, visit jeffwalker.com

PUBLISHER: GKIC PHONE: 800-871-0147, 8-5 CT Monday - Friday FAX: 312-880-1201 WEBSITE: www.gkic.com MAILING ADDRESS: GKIC, 8430 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Suite 500, Chicago, IL 60631 EMAIL: If your email is in regards to your membership, contact customer service at info@gkic.com. If your email is in regards to an upcoming event, please contact event@gkic.com Publisher’s Notices: Copyright Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle™ LLC expressly disclaims all warranties as to the contents of this publication including, without limitation the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and on infringement, and makes no warranty as to the results that may be achieved by using the information contained in this publication. Because this information can be used in a variety of ways to fit various business purposes, Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle™ LLC will not be responsible for any damages (including, without limitation, indirect, consequential, special, or punitive damages) suffered or incurred by any person arising out such person’s use of or reliance on this publication or the information contained herein.

All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or

CONTACT DAN: Should you wish to communicate with Mr. Kennedy’s office directly concerning consulting, copywriting or speaking engagements, FAX: 602-269-3113 Phone: 602-997-7707

108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed to GlazerKennedy Insider’s Circle™ LLC. Confidentiality is assured. Please contact Tonya Pszcolka at Tonya@gkic.com.

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What Are YOU Afraid Of? When the rich ’n famous tumble and fall, a lot of people celebrate, sort of like the masses in Iraq the day the statue of Saddam was pulled down and hordes of commoners looted the palace.

Right now, people are rejoicing in the financial body blows Trump is taking in exchange for speaking his mind and, mostly, in-artfully, truth. But do they think about the more than 10,000 jobs at stake? The negative economic impact on vendors who also control thousands of paychecks? No, there’s never much thought to the celebration over deposed tyrants and crashed empires of any kind. No thought to collateral damage.

The size of your fear determines the size of your accomplishment – and your bank account.

Never forget it.

So, back when Martha Stewart did screw up, with an act of financial pettiness followed by lying – so, even though there was no provable underlying crime, there was obstruction of justice, the “Queen” was marched

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off to prison, and the peasants rejoiced. I know people who know Martha, and no one describes her as a nice person. But the huge numbers who took cheer in her humiliation didn’t know her at all. More a general, rather vicious envy. I wonder: do you fear a slip ’n fall? A messy mistake?

A public embarrassment? No one who fears this can ever rise to the top of anything. The size of your fear determines the size of your accomplishment – and your bank account. Never forget it.

Martha has fallen again. Her once mighty media and merchandising company valued at $2-Billion when it IPO’d in 1999 was sold in July, ironically for a bargain-basement price of just $350-million, after 5 years of losses. Bought by a scavenger known for trolling troubled brand waters, buying cheap, dumping the operating businesses, and re-licensing the brands.

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Fools rejoicing don’t give proper credit. Along the way, Martha virtually created an industry, advanced “lifestyle TV,” signed a bazillion paychecks directly and indirectly that paid for college educations, homes and retirements, and so much more.

An enormous population needs to say: thank you.

Now here’s the funny thing. $350-million. Some hunk of that Martha’s, to add to considerable existing wealth – all earned as a fromscratch entrepreneur. Often, where Renegade Millionaires fall and land to looks pretty high ’n good to most.

If you are going to take a loss, better from, say $1-billion to $100-million, than from $1-million to $10,000.

It’s good to get rich, even if there are a few reversals of fortune now and then and, maybe, toward the end.

Then you can let spectators enjoy your slip ’n fall as they wish. While still laughing all the way to the bank.

The true entrepreneur always has one foot on a banana peel. Thinking big, doing big things, being big does leave you open to big plates of egg on your face, now and then. But as Churchill said to Lady Astor after she rebuked him for being inebriated, “I may be drunk… but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”

GKI C.CO M