Money-Making Monthly - November 2014

MONEY- MAKING MONTHLY

Volume II Number 11 | November 2014 | $97

THE Monthly Magazine For Sharp Entrepreneurs

BITCOIN: EMERGENCE

OF A NEW CURRENCY

By Peter Diamandis

EXPERT INTERVIEW

EVERY

BUSINESS

NEEDS A

HERO

By MaryEllen Tribby

JEREMY SHAPIRO

Delivering World-Class Customer Support

ABOUT STEVE | NOVEMBER 2014

About the Publisher, Steve Sipress

If you want to grow your business slowly – or just maintain it as is, you’ll have to do that all on your own.

But if you want dramatic growth in your income and lifestyle, then Steve’s out-of-the-box and time-tested strategies and tactics could be the keys to your dreams.

You can benefit from Steve’s coaching experience and expertise to revolutionize your business – yes, even in this challenging economy – at one of the many in-person entrepreneur events he hosts, OR from the comfort of your own home anywhere in the world.

You can also learn basic and advanced direct response marketing strategies and tactics from 150+ hours of video instruction, plus use any or all of Steve’s multi-million-dollar, proven “done-for-you” marketing materials at SSSMarketingUniversity.com. That website has been called The Single Most Powerful Client Attraction Program Available Anywhere, and you could be using it to skyrocket your income anytime you want, 24/7, along with hundreds of other sharp, successful business leaders.

If you’re just starting up your new business, you’ll want to take advantage of all of Steve’s training, guidance and resources at NewBusinessAcademy. org.

Steve is a successful and award-winning serial entrepreneur, who has created and built nearly a dozen successful companies of his own, and he can help you do the same – more quickly and easily than you’ve ever imagined. In fact, you can immediately use plenty of his simple and powerful strategies and tactics that work especially well in this current frustrating economy.

You can discover the basics of Steve’s powerful “The WOW! Strategy™: How To Solve All Of Your Marketing Problems” by watching a short video at www.SteveSipress.com.

Steve is a celebrated author, speaker and business coach who has established profitable businesses and helped thousands of ambitious and aggressive business owners, entrepreneurs, executives and sales professionals all around the world. He has written numerous newsletters and articles on sales and marketing for a wide range of publications and has appeared on radio and television, helping millions of people along the way.

For over five years, Steve was the #1 “Dan Kennedy Certified No B.S. Business Advisor,” and was Runner-Up out of 25,000 members for 2010 GKIC Marketer Of The Year.

If you want the very best, hard-hitting, no-nonsense, caring advice and help you can get, then “Straight-Talk Steve” could be exactly what you and your business need most.

Whether you’re a current or future business superstar, Steve can help you get exactly where you want to go as quickly, easily and powerfully as YOU want – with massive results both short-term and long-term.

Pg II | Money-Making Monthly Magazine | www.SteveSipress.com

www.SteveSipress.com www.SSSMarketingUniversity.com

www.NewBusinessAcademy.org

www.Facebook .com/SmallBizHelp

www.Twitter.com/SteveSipress

“An Incredible Experience!”

"When we first started, I was terribly in debt and we were just a few months away from bankruptcy. We started seeing a boost right away in our business, we took what Steve's given me and we just started implementing and implementing, and it's just totally transformed my business.

Steve has helped me with my laser focus, he helps me implement, he's taken my business to a whole new level. We went from a half a million dollars to a million dollars in two years. It's just an incredible experience to know that where you think you're just dead and things are horrible, to now anything is possible. I can see taking this to a whole new three or four types of businesses -- it's going to be huge.

Steve is all business, he is an unbelievably smart, brilliant man. I can't say enough about him. Everything he's told me, I've made so much money it doesn't matter what it costs. They don't make enough money in this world that somebody could pay me so I would stop listening to Steve. Steve is the exact reason why I have a retirement fund now. It's probably illegal how much fun I'm having!"

Jon Bockman

Owner, Bockman's Auto Care Sycamore, Illinois

MANNY’S BLOG | NOVEMBER 2014

Manny’s Blog

f o y r o t s i The H

THANKSGIVING

Hi, folks! I’ve had to rush to do research on Thanksgiving. I waited until the last minute because my grandpa had assured me he was an expert on Plymouth, but it turned out he just CHASED a lot of Plymouths.

Of course the meal between 53 colonists and 90 Wampanoag Indians in November of 1621 is what most of us regard as the first Thanksgiving meal (even though they probably had lobster, seal and swans on the menu). The Pilgrims and the Native Americans were really grateful for a good corn harvest, but dogs didn’t do much celebrating until 1931 when the electric can opener was invented, so they would have a little advance warning of goodies.

Some historians question the significance of the 1621 Thanksgiving. It was not established as an annual event and there had already been various offerings of thanks in North America and the world throughout history. Forensic scientists now discount the role of a poisoned apple in the long sleep of Snow White and say the culprit was probably tryptophan from a big Thanksgiving meal.

You’ve probably heard from various trivia sites that Benjamin Franklin wanted the noble turkey rather than the eagle as our national symbol. The other Founding Fathers told him to go fly a kite, and the rest is history.

Thanksgiving as a national holiday. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November. He borrowed from his Gettysburg Address in calling for “malice toward none – except the bum who ate all the cranberry sauce.”

College football became part of the Thanksgiving tradition in 1876. The Detroit Lions made NFL football an annual Thanksgiving event beginning in 1934. There soon followed a tradition of throwing a penalty flag and punting everyone into next week when they ran off to watch football instead of staying to clean up the kitchen.

The Macy’s department store in New York City began a Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition in 1924. The parade really came to national fame in 1947 with the release of the movie “Miracle On 34th Street.” That same year, President Harry S Truman started a modern tradition of pardoning a turkey. Of course the turkey was told, “There’s more good news! You’ll soon be receiving an unexpected inheritance from your uncle Mort!”

Ah, a day of prayer and meditation. Beats 400 million Americans wagging their tails at the same time!

President George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United States in 1789. Among other things, he was thankful for the power of eminent domain, because “Now I can chop down all cherry trees I want!”

In 1817 New York became the first of several states to adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; gradually, we wound up with nicknames such as the “Show Me The Antacid Tablets” State.

Sarah Josepha Hale – writer of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had A Little Lamb”—waged a 36-year campaign to establish

Manny (full name “Emanuel” or “Dog With Us”) is Steve and Michele Sipress’ crazy, rambunctious cocker spaniel. He has a weak leg (despite a mostlysuccessful back surgery), grey hair, is totally deaf and partially blind. But he still enjoys barking at the mailman and landscapers, pulling dead frogs out of nearby ponds and chasing after his beloved squeaker toy. He loves everyone (even the mailman and landscapers), and everyone loves him.

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EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS A HERO | NOVEMBER 2014

EVERY

BUSINESS NEEDS A

HERO

By MaryEllen Tribby

It is beyond sad; it is downright sickening what many of our hero athletes have turned into. I am sure you had the same revolting visceral reaction as I did when you saw Baltimore Raven’s star running back, Ray Rice, brutally beat his then girlfriend, now wife, in an elevator.

excited about. He was able to incorporate his greatest passion, football into his schoolwork. This was someone Connor wanted to emulate, someone Connor looked up to. The look of disappointment on Connor’s face and the sense of his confusion was heartbreaking for me.

And of course later that week the Minnesota Vikings horror story was revealed. Pictures of their star running back Adrian Peterson’s son surfaced. In these pictures you can witness the pure hell this four-year-old child endured from a beating by his father.

A Modern Day Hero

A Real Fallen Hero

“Derek Jeter: Salute 2 The Captain”

This was doubly horrifying for me.

Everyone who has kids that are serious about sports should sit down and watch this special with them. And frankly anyone who has a business or wants to start his or her own business should watch this special.

First and foremost just to comprehend the unadulterated terror, confusion and pain this baby endured continually makes me nauseous. And to think in this day and age, some people think it is perfectly appropriate to viciously beat a child like that in the name of discipline.

Next, I was so sad for my son, Connor. Just last year, Connor was required to do a report on a “hero” for school. He chose Adrian Peterson. He spent hours doing research and writing this report.

As I have shared with you previously, Connor is not big on school. But here he was doing a project he was actually

Luckily for me, I had recorded a special on TV a week earlier, a special we were all able to watch as a family. The special was called:

Why? Because every business needs a hero!

The special on Derek is more than just a comprehensive look at his career. It is a playbook on building a legacy. It showcases not only Derek’s accomplishments but also breaks down the distinctiveness REQUIRED to be a modern day hero. Let’s discuss them now and how you can apply them to your life and business.

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EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS A HERO | NOVEMBER 2014

The Six Distinctive Characteristics of a Hero

The End of an Era

1. Passion – From the time Derek was a little boy he loved

After 20 years as the New York Yankee shortstop and holding more Yankee records and major league baseball records, poignantly Derek Jeter retired. So many of us Yankee fans and Jeter worshipers had tears in our eyes as he played his last major league baseball game, ironically in Fenway Park.

We will miss his passion and leadership. However, we will continue to explain to our kids that this is what commitment and dedication can do for you. Let’s help transform society and create more modern day heroes like Derek Jeter.

the game of baseball. In every interview you hear him say that he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Also he says that when he is playing baseball is when he feels the most alive. This is how you should feel about your business.

2. Respect – You have to give respect to get respect. Derek has shown respect for the game since he was a kid. As an adult every time he hit the ball he ran 100% full out to first base. He tried for every play in the field. He showed constant respect to the game, to the Yankee organization, to his teammates and to the fans. And because of that he is one of the most respected players to EVER play the game. Now ask yourself if you show respect for your team members, colleagues and supervisors.

3. No Excuse Zone – I have written many times before that excuses are easy, but having a successful business takes effort. Well like me, Derek hates excuses. Mostly because excuses are a waste of time. Instead of making excuses, just do the necessary work. Try breaking that project down into little tasks and accomplishing them one at a time.

4. Visualization – At eight years old Derek hung a Yankee uniform on his wall in his bedroom and told his parents that he was going to be the New York Yankee’s shortstop when he grew up. He looked at that uniform everyday and said those words to himself. He kept his goal close to him visually and in his heart. Do you have a way of reminding yourself of your goals on a daily basis?

5. Work Hard and Smart – Of course Derek had raw athletic talent – as do many of our fallen heroes of today.

But what separates him from so many is his work ethic. The special shares a story about when Derek was just a rookie and he had a ridiculous amount of errors for the season.

Instead of giving up or making excuses, he spent months working on his skills AFTER their regular workouts. And his off-season workouts took place everyday. How much time do you spend learning and honing your skills?

6. Support Systems – Derek was very good at creating support systems. These support systems included his parents and coaches and trusted friends. This too, I have written about before. Everyone needs support systems in business and in life. They need to be people whom you trust and have your best interest at heart. Do not try to go it alone!

About MaryEllen Tribby MaryEllen is the proud Founder and CEO of Working Moms Only .com, the world’s leading media company for the empowerment of the working mom. Prior to founding WMO, MaryEllen was Publisher & CEO of Early to Rise where she was responsible for growing the business from $8 million in sales to $26 million in just 15 months. Before that, she served as President of Weiss Research where she led the company to $67 million in sales from $11 million in just 12 months.

MaryEllen is a highly sought-after business consultant, speaker, and author. Her first book, which she coauthored with Michael Masterson, is Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions For Your Business. It hit #1 on Amazon.com within just 10 hours of its release.

If you have been yearning to start a business, but are confused, overwhelmed or scared about the thousands of programs out there, go to: www.MaryEllenFreeGift.com

“I have written many times before that excuses are easy, but having a successful business takes effort.”

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EXPERT INTERVIEW WITH JEREMY SHAPIRO | NOVEMBER 2014

EXPERT INTERVIEW

JEREMY SHAPIRO Delivering World-Class Customer Support “It’s uncomfortably too common that businesses will launch, sell a product, and be so focused on the sales funnel and the intake side of it, but not so concerned of what happens after that sale.”

Jeremy: Great question. If only folks woke up one day and said, “Gee, I think I want to build a helpdesk today.” Right?

Steve Sipress:

Jeremy, welcome to this call today.

Jeremy Shapiro: me.

Thank you, Steve. Thanks for having

Steve:

I’m really looking forward to this, because my readers and listeners know that I’m all about marketing and sales and growing a business. But the topics that you are an expert in – customer support and customer service – are really universal to all businesses, because people go through all the trouble and expense to get a customer, and we hate to then lose a customer, especially when it’s something that we could have done very simply to save that customer.

And that’s what you’re all about.

What the story was for us is, I was running an information marketing business at the time, and we had hand-built from scratch our own entire CRM system. And this was in the world before Infusionsoft and some of the more approachable systems of small business were on the marketplace. And during that time, we had an integrated helpdesk that we’d built and created for our entire CRM, and it did everything we needed as a CRM, from ecommerce and marketing and follow-up and all that.

But the problem was we had built the single purpose just for our business. When I met the founders of Infusionsoft at a Glazer-Kennedy event, they told me about this great new platform they were building, it sounded fantastic, I was very interested, but I said “For us to change over what we’re doing now in this business from a completely custom system wouldn’t make sense. But I’ll tell you what, Clate [Mask, CEO of Infusionsoft], the next business we start, I want to run that on Infusionsoft so we’re not in the business of managing and building a software CRM for ourselves.”

I really want to get right into it. The first thing I want to know is: You created this whole customer support helpdesk system. What made you do that? How did you come up with the idea to create this?

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DELIVERING WORLD-CLASS CUSTOMER SUPPORT | NOVEMBER 2014

Steve:

Let me just break in for our listeners and readers.

CRM, I think it stands for Customer Relationship Management. Right?

Jeremy: Precisely. So a CRM tool allows you to manage all of your customer data in your business.

Steve:

So when I was in a mastermind meeting, I reached out to some of the other folks in my group and said, “Hey, we’re thinking about building a helpdesk to use in our business that integrates and talks to Infusionsoft. What that would allow us to do is provide a great customer experience for our customers, it would be really easy for our staff to use, and would provide the key metrics that we need to know as business owners.” And as folks at the table looked around at me, the response I got was, “Jeremy, if you build that, I want that in my business, too.”

So from that, FuseDesk as a helpdesk platform was born.

Steve:

I know that not everybody that’s listening or reading this has a helpdesk or does a great job with customer support.

Got it. So here we are, you had this brain, and yet the brain was not functioning properly with the customer service end of the business.

Jeremy: Well the CRM that we had for that past business of mine worked great. The problem is we ended up putting more and more resources into managing our own CRM system that it just didn’t make sense. So as we sold that business and moved on, I had already said with the next business we start, I’m committed to running it on Infusionsoft. So as we launched our new information marketing business, we wanted to do something strangely unusual in that space, which was not just to sell a great product, but take great care of our customers after the sale as well.

we looked at was always missing one puzzle piece.

It’s uncomfortably too common, Steve, that businesses will launch, sell a product, and be so focused on the sales funnel and the intake side of it, but not so concerned of what happens after that sale. When we looked at options out there, I would’ve loved to have worked with an off-the-shelf system that allowed us to take great care of our customers. But every option

Jeremy: There’s a story which I think illustrates that really well. One of our customers came on board with us and had been running product launches in his business. Now he knew that with some of their best practices they had in place, they had about an 18% return rate. Now when you’re running more of a high pressure launch and people are buying, sometimes more than emotional buy, you will get returns. There’s a certain percentage threshold you need to be comfortable with.  Volume II Number 11 | Pg 5

EXPERT INTERVIEW WITH JEREMY SHAPIRO | NOVEMBER 2014

“...sometimes what they’ll do is they’ll reach out to the support team with a question.

So for their business, he knew they were right around 18%. After they came on board and implemented some best practices, they got that return rate down to 10%. So Ed was sharing this with me, and I said, “Well hang on a second, Ed. That’s great that on a $3.2 million launch, you guys dropped your return rate from over 18% down to 10. But what did we have to do with that?” And he shared a few really interesting best practices around the product launch side of things, and how FuseDesk was able to help them.

So these are some good “writer-downers:” First of all, all of their customers got a welcome call from their staff. So when an outbound call goes out to a new customer, they now know you’re there for them. If they didn’t get their welcome email, for whatever reason it went to their spam folder, they entered the wrong information, having someone proactively reach out and ask that customer if there are any questions, welcome them to the program, and provide support contact resources is a personal touch so few companies do these days that they were able to cut off support issues at the pass right away before they ever came up just by reaching out.

The second thing is they found that with buyers, after they buy, if there’s that hesitation around, “Did that buyer make a good decision or not?” sometimes what they’ll do is they’ll reach out to the support team with a question. And it can be a very minor question. But if they don’t hear back, suddenly the hairs on the back of the neck tingle, and they think, “Oh my gosh. Did I make a bad decision? I just invested with some company over the internet that I’ve not heard of before that had a really great looking offer. I reached out to them, and I didn’t hear back.

Maybe this is all a scam.” And that’s when that “buyer’s remorse” kicks in, they call the credit card company, they charge back, they reach out to you and initiate a return, and that positive buyer has now gone to a negative returner. And that could have been kept had there been a system in place and a team to get back to the customer in a timely fashion.

Steve:

First of all, congratulations. Just doing some quick math, saving them about 8% of a $3.2 million launch is like $250,000 or something. So hopefully the cost of your service is some kind of fee plus a commission.

Jeremy: Right?

Steve:

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I’m a consultant myself, so of course I always wish I got a commission. Sometimes I even offer to clients to pay me a little less than my normal fee plus a percentage of all the extra money I create for them. And almost always, they’re too smart to do that. They’re like, “No, no, no, no.” Short-term, that sounds great, but in the long-term, they do not want to be paying me commissions on all the extra money I’m making

DELIVERING WORLD-CLASS CUSTOMER SUPPORT | NOVEMBER 2014

And it can be a very minor question. But if they don’t hear back, suddenly the hairs on the back of the neck tingle, and they think, “Oh my gosh. Did I make a bad decision?” them. It sounds like your clients do not want to be paying you a commission based on all the money you’re saving them. So congratulations.

Jeremy: Thank you.

Steve:

But I have this question: You’re talking about a multiple million dollar launch, which I’m assuming is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of customers. So having an outbound call to every single one of them, that sounds crazy expensive and a crazy amount of trouble. How do you pull that off?

few years of this challenging economy – have maybe cut some costs, and cut some staff. It just sounds all great, but it sounds a little pie-inthe-sky, that I can have an automated customer support. Can you tell us a little bit about how just a regular old brick-and-mortar business owner can have an automated customer support? That just sounds awesome.

To listen to the full interview, visit: www.SteveSipress.com/magazine

Jeremy: Well, two things to think about here, Steve. One is when we’re talking about keeping $250,000 in sales that are already made, keeping that money in the bank and keeping those customers thinking good things about you with good reputation versus negative, are you able to staff up and take care of some outbound phone calls?

At least for that initial launch period to cover that?

Steve:

Secondly is with the right tools in place, your team can handle all the inbound support far more efficiently. So I’ll share with you one of our other customers. After they came on board with FuseDesk, they were getting ready for a product launch on their own as well, and they brought on 5,000 new customers within about a one week period, and they had one customer support rep taking care of all the inbound support. Now they weren’t doing the personalized individual welcome calls, but when they had emails coming in, they were able to handle all that seamlessly with one person, because they had a system like FuseDesk in place. That let the team work more efficiently.

All right, so we keep talking about a team and efficiency and a system. I think all of those are like such magic dream words for entrepreneurs.

A lot of entrepreneurs – especially from the past

About Jeremy Shapiro Jeremy B. Shapiro is the creator and founder of FuseDesk. com, a customer support helpdesk system for businesses running on Infusionsoft who value providing world class customer support.

After running multiple companies, and realizing how terrible support after the sale typically was, Jeremy sought out to do something differently: Create a business with a focus on customer support. FuseDesk, an Infusionsoft Featured and Five-Star rated Infusionsoft Add-On, allows entrepreneurs to provide world class customer support, is easy for staff to use, provides key business owner level metrics and most of all creates happy customers.

To see if FuseDesk can help you and your business, visit www.FuseDesk.com

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TELEVISION FOR ENTREPRENEURS: 7 MUST-SEE TV SHOWS | NOVEMBER 2014

TELEVISION FOR ENTREPRENEURS: 7 MUST-SEE TV SHOWS

By Steve Sipress

In the September issue of this magazine, I shared a few of my favorite “personal development” books that have helped me and my clients (and millions of others) over the years.

This month, I’m going to provide another list for you, because the “Fall Television Season” is now in full swing.

*And coming soon, ABC will announce a Shark Tank spin-off called “Beyond The Tank,” featuring updates on companies whose owners landed deals on the popular show. (There’s another great marketing lesson there.)

•

Mad Men on AMC — An extremely realistic look at the inner workings of an advertising agency in the 1960’s (most still function the same way today), presented in an entertaining soap-opera style. The show is in its final half-season, but replays of episodes from previous seasons are readily available and provide chilling insight into how the vast majority of image-based advertising is created and sold, very often to the benefit of everyone but the business owner.

•

Million Dollar Listing (New York, Miami, Los Angeles) on Bravo – Reality shows that follow the daily exploits of some of the top real estate agents in these three major cities. Every episode has plenty of interpersonal drama, plus great lessons in high-end sales and marketing strategies and techniques.

•

Tabatha Takes Over on Bravo – For the first three seasons, deadly-serious and tell-it-like-it-is beauty salon expert Tabatha Coffey “took over” a different salon on every episode and performed a miraculous turnaround that usually included schooling the owner, training and motivating the staff and overseeing a complete physical makeover of the location itself. For the past two seasons, Tabatha branched out beyond just salons to performing turnarounds on a wider range of businesses.

A sixth season has not yet been announced, but all entrepreneurs and small business owners can learn a ton about what to do and what not to do to run a successful business from watching reruns of previous seasons’ episodes. 

Although I never mindlessly plop myself down on the couch in front of the “boob tube,” I do like to watch TV to relax and unwind at the end of a day, and I sometimes have it on in the background while I work in my home office.

I have a “DVR” device that records television shows for me, so I never have to waste time channel-surfing or watching something I don’t really want to.

Here are seven of the “must-see TV” shows I program my system to record, in no particular order…

•

Shark Tank on ABC — Is it your dream to come up with an idea, start a business and then convince multimillionaire and billionaire investors to reward you with a big payday plus their help to take it to the next level? That’s exactly the opportunity several entrepreneurs get every week on this intense and entertaining show, as they try to maintain their cool and answer the probing questions of five “sharks” who hold their futures in their hands. Great insight into the keys to building a mega-successful business.

I’ve met three of the “sharks” and a number of contestants who have been on the show, and have been entertained by a number of behind-the-scenes stories.

Still, the on-air antics do not disappoint as among the best entrepreneurial moments ever on television.

Especially over the past six years of “You didn’t build that” anti-small business sentiment and government regulation in America, it’s a rare treat to see entrepreneurialism being celebrated on primetime network television.

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TELEVISION FOR ENTREPRENEURS: 7 MUST-SEE TV SHOWS | NOVEMBER 2014

•

•

Infomercials and home shopping networks – No, I’m not suggesting entrepreneurs start staying up all night or endlessly flipping through obscure channels. But taping the best ones to replay over and over and study can pay big dividends in one’s own sales and marketing efforts. You can tell which ones are good, because they are aired repeatedly. EVERYTHING in the big-money, high-stakes world of infomercials and selling shows is tracked, so if a particular item is being presented over and over, you know its process is working.

The Profit on CNBC – This show is a cross between “Shark Tank” and “Tabatha Takes Over,” where serial entrepreneur/billionaire Marcus Lemonis not only makes a deal and personally invests his own money intro a different struggling company every week, but he also gets down-and-dirty to help perform the miracle turnaround himself.

Not only can every entrepreneur and small business owner learn valuable business lessons on every episode, but they can also gain motivation from observing the unbridled passion Lemonis has for finding solutions to business challenges.

And even when the turnarounds fail, mostly due to the ineptitude, poor attitude or bad work habits of the business owners who are now Lemonis’ partners, these cautionary tales provide important business lessons for all.

•

elebrity Apprentice on NBC – Okay, I’ll admit C it: This one has a fairly large amount of “fluff” – celebrity-driven reality show drama. However, most of the episodes contain valuable lessons in sales and marketing (the money-producing aspects of any business), and every episode features a chance to learn persuasion, leadership and deal-making skills from billionaire entrepreneur Donald Trump.

The writers, producers, directors and stars of these shows are absolute masters of persuasion (be careful – you may want to watch only shows about products you have absolutely no interest in, lest this academic exercise become a costly one!).

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it’s a good start!

To find out more about Steve Sipress and how he can help you have more fun and make more money with your business, see the Inside Cover Page.

To get new money-making strategies and tips every weekday from Steve and other top business-building experts from around the world, go to: www.RhinoDaily.com

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 *FACT: 95% of Small Business Owners work WAY

too hard, have WAY too much stress and make WAY too little money – then go out of business in their first five years.

Steve Sipress The WOW Strategy™ Creator

I help Small Business Owners who want A LOT more out of life systematically attract their ideal customers, clients or patients using The WOW! Strategy™, so they totally transform their income and lifestyle.

To request your personal, 1-on-1 The WOW! Strategy™ Session, go to:



Jon Bockman Sycamore, IL

“Steve is all business. He is an unbelievably smart, brilliant, brilliant man. I can't say enough about him. Steve has put probably more, I would say, thousands, and thousands, and thousands of dollars... I mean, I probably can't even put a true figure on it, because it keeps coming back, and keeps coming back, just more and more money all the time.”

“One suggestion that Steve gave me, well, without question, put $300,000 more in my bank account. And we are going to be using it forever. This is not a one-time deal. We’re going to be using this idea that Steve helped us with... and we’ll be using it until it doesn't keep working like it is. And so, the value over time could literally be way over even the $300,000 number.”

Mary Forte Bensenville, IL

Keith Lee Seattle, WA

“He's helped me learn how to market my business, and today I can say that we're more successful than we've ever been… I needed to learn how to market the business better to create more revenue, and that's what Steve has helped me with. The financial difference is considerable. We've probably close to doubled our revenues. We're on track now to do another close to $500,000 more than we did last year. So that's awesome. I do owe all of that to Steve.”

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BITCOIN – EMERGENCE OF A NEW CURRENCY | NOVEMBER 2014

BITCOIN

EMERGENCE OF A NEW CURRENCY

By Peter Diamandis

Bitcoin is moving from its Deceptive Phase to a very Disruptive Phase. In this article, I am going to explain why, and what you may want to do.

I’ve been tracking Bitcoin since its inception, and my confidence has grown to the point where I’m now trading in a portion of my gold holdings for bitcoin, buying it and accepting bitcoin for my own events.

What exactly is bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital currency. Right now, one bitcoin is equivalent to about $350 USD. Bitcoin is divisible down to 8 decimal places, or 0.00000001 BTC. You can buy things with bitcoin, sell, and exchange bitcoin for other currencies (and vice versa). You can also “mine” it, but that’s another whole discussion entirely.

At its core, bitcoin is a smart currency, designed by very forward-thinking engineers. It eliminates the need for banks, gets rid of credit card fees, currency exchange fees, money transfer fees, and reduces the need for lawyers in transitions... all good things.

Most importantly, it is an “exponential currency” that will change the way we think about money. Much the same way email changed the way we thought of mail.

If you’ve followed my work, or participated in my Abundance 360 Summit, you understand that I teach and track exponential technologies using my “6 D’s” approach, looking for “user interface moments.”

Bitcoin is following the 6Ds and is on a path to go from deceptive to disruptive over the next 1 - 3 years.

Why Bitcoin is following the 6 D’s 1. DIGITIZED: Bitcoin is digitized money -- it is a global, purely digital currency. Every bitcoin is traded, earned, sold, exchanged and bought in cyberspace. For this reason, it is living on Moore’s law and hopping on the exponential curve.

2. DECEPTIVE: Bitcoin software was released to the public in 2009 and for the first few years has been growing in its deceptive phase. Few heard about it, few used it and accepted it. In addition, the currency has been hard to use; therefore, it hasn’t had its “User Interface Moment” (the key transition from deceptive to disruptive). More soon.

3. DISRUPTIVE: As described below by my friend Barry Silbert (founder of Second Market), bitcoin is about to enter its disruptive phase where its rate of acceptance and use will explode, as will its value. See below.

4. DEMATERIALIZING: Bitcoin is eliminating or dematerializing the use of physical money (bills and coins), even credit cards. But more than that, it is also dematerializing (read: eliminating) the need for central banks, lawyers and currency exchanges.

5. DEMONETIZING: Bitcoin eliminates middlemen (banks, lawyers, exchanges) and demonetizes the cost of transactions. No fees. It makes it cheaper to use, spread and share money.

6. DEMOCRATIZING: Bitcoin makes access to capital available to everyone, where there are no banks, no ATMs and no credit card suppliers. Ultimately, as we move (over the next 6 years) to a world of 7 billion digitally connected humans, bitcoin makes currency available to anyone with a connection to the internet.

Pg 12 | Money-Making Monthly Magazine | www.SteveSipress.com

BITCOIN – EMERGENCE OF A NEW CURRENCY | NOVEMBER 2014

Bitcoin’s evolution - why it will be disruptive soon Barry Silbert (founder of Second Market) recently spoke at Singularity University’s Exponential Finance conference about bitcoin. He provided an excellent overview of its near-term trajectory, summarized below. His input has also put me on the lookout for the “User Interface Moment” - that moment in time when an entrepreneur designs a piece of interface software (think Marc Andreessen and Mosaic) that makes it so easy to use bitcoin.

Barry outlined five phases for this digital currency.

Interface Moment materializes, but I believe, as does Barry, that this is only 1-2 years out.

So now what?

Learn, do, teach... Go experiment! Create a bitcoin wallet and buy some bitcoin. There is no better way to learn than by doing. The most popular exchanges are: • Coinbase (www.CoinBase.com) • Bitpay (www.BitPay.com) For those of you in my Abundance 360 Community, we will be discussing bitcoin in more detail.

Phase 1: The period 2009 to 2011 was the early Experimentation Phase for bitcoin (i.e. deceptive). Here the software is released to public and most technologists and hackers started playing with the code. During this phase, there was no apparent value to currency yet; mining bitcoin was easy and could be done by a single person.

Phase 2: 2011 marked the beginning of the Early Adopter Phase (still deceptive). There was a lot of early hype and press around Silk Road (where you could buy drugs). The value went from less than $1 to over $30, then crashed. This spurs the first generation of bitcoin companies to build basic infrastructure: wallets, merchant processors, mining operations, exchanges, etc. - i.e. the early user interfaces.

Phase 3: 2012 thru mid-2014 marked the beginning of the Venture Capital Phase. Folks like Marc Andreessen, Google Ventures, Benchmark and others have begun investing in Generation 2 Bitcoin companies. Thousands of bitcoin companies have started the process of or gotten funding.

Many of these are trying to create the “User-Interface Moment.”

Phase 4: Fall 2014 thru 2015 will likely see the start of the Wall Street Phase. Here we will begin to see institutional money acknowledging digital currencies as an asset class, and they will begin trading it, investing it and creating products around it. This marks the start of the Disruptive Phase.

Phase 5: Finally will come the Mass Global Consumer Adoption Phase – this is where bitcoin becomes a major player in the global economy. When consumers feel it is easy, safe and secure to use bitcoin. It won’t be possible until after the User-

About Peter Diamandis Recently named one of the “Top 50 World Leaders”

by Fortune Magazine, Dr. Peter H. Diamandis is an international pioneer in the fields of innovation, incentive competitions and commercial space.

In the field of Innovation, Diamandis is Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, best known for its $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private spaceflight.

Today the X PRIZE leads the world in designing and operating large-scale global competitions to solve market failures.

Diamandis is the New York Times Bestselling author of Abundance – The Future Is Better Than You Think.

Abundance was #1 on Amazon and #2 on New York Times.

Get connected to Peter Diamandis at: www.AbundanceHub.com Volume II Number 11 | Pg 13

MONEY-MAKING MONTHLY Volume II Number 11 | November 2014 www.SteveSipress.com/magazine

This Month’s Money-Making Info

1

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TELEVISION FOR ENTREPRENEURS: 7 MUST-SEE TV SHOWS

By Steve Sipress

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BITCOIN: EMERGENCE OF A NEW CURRENCY

By Peter Diamandis

FEATURE ARTICLE

4 JEREMY SHAPIRO: DELIVERING EXPERT INTERVIEW

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