Rhino Monthly Magazine - December 2015

Volume III I Number 12 I December 2015 I $97

3

Reasons Why I Hate Small Business Saturday

Tis The Season...

Manny’s Blog: Santa’s Workshop: Secrets Revealed expert interview with

THE TRUTH

NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR

MARKETING POINT SPREAD

Jon Bockman Miracle Business Turnaround

December 2015

ABOUT STEVE

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.

ii I RHINO MONTHLY I www.SteveSipress.com

www.SteveSipress.com www.SSSMarketingUniversity.com www.NewBusinessAcademy.org www.Facebook.com/SmallBizHelp www.Twitter.com/SteveSipress

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

3 REASONS WHY I HATE SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY

3

December 2015

Reasons Why I Hate Small Business Saturday

By Steve Sipress

We recently experienced the annual occurrence of “Small Business Saturday.”

Just the very thought of it makes me cringe.

Don’t get me wrong. Anyone who knows even one iota about me knows that I LOVE small business owners, and am a firm believer that small business owners are the backbone of America.

I am extremely open and outspoken about the fact that Big Government LOVES Big Business, and both have been growing by record amounts recently, at the expense of the very backbone of America, and the key to turning this stagnant economy around: the small business owner.

So why do I absolutely HATE Small Business Saturday?

Here are just three reasons why...

1. Why is it only one day a year? Every day should be The Day to buy from small business owners instead of the big chain stores. Just the suggestion that Americans should only show a preference to small businesses on one day a year is insulting to me and other small business owners.

2. Whose brilliant idea was it to make Small Business Saturday the day AFTER Black Friday – after millions of Americans have spent all of their time, money and energy shopping like crazy at big chain retail stores?

Oh, that’s right. Small Business Saturday was the invention of American Express – a Big Business that clearly favors other Big Businesses in its policies, including rewarding larger businesses with better rates and lower fees, and by making sure that Big Businesses get their lion’s share of American holiday shopping dollars on Black Friday before they throw a few crumbs to small business owners on Small Business Saturday.

In other words, instead of just pleading with people to please do us small business owners a big charitable favor and spend some money with us that you don’t really want to, wouldn’t it make A LOT more sense for us to create compelling, irresistible OFFERS that shoppers couldn’t possibly refuse?

Or is such smart marketing something only Big Business chain stores should be smart enough to do?

If a small business owner had invented Small Business Saturday, don’t you think he or she would have had it come BEFORE Americans empty their wallets and max out their credit cards on the biggest shopping day of the year?

If that were the case, Big Business needn’t worry – there would still be PLENTY left for them, mainly because of reason number three.

I own several small businesses myself, and I help a group of private clients build others. All of those businesses have irresistible, Black Friday-like OFFERS that work to attract our ideal target WHO (that’s the first “W” in my The WOW! Strategy™) 365 days a year.

I know it’s strange, but I believe that’s A LOT better way to run a small business than just to wait for one day every year so we can beg consumers to spend some money with us, trying to plead for our very right to exist and tug on the heartstrings of consumers to please stoop low enough to do a little bit of shopping with us small business owners, who can’t seem to figure out how to create and market irresistible OFFERS like the big chain stores do.

3. This one is my biggest pet peeve of all: Small Business Saturday is all about asking people to shop at small businesses without giving any legitimate reason why (other than “it’s the right thing to do” or “to help support your community”). That’s pathetic, in my opinion, and is really just a form of unseemly begging.

Instead, small business owners should do on Small Business Saturday what they should (but don’t) do on all of the other 364 days a year: give shoppers a compelling, irresistible OFFER (that’s the “O” in my The WOW! Strategy™) to do business with them.

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

www.SteveSipress.com www.SteveSipress.comI IRHINO RHINOMONTHLY MONTHLY

I 1

December 2015

EXPERT INTERVIEW

expert interview with

Jon Bockman

Miracle Business Turnaround Steve Sipress: Jon Bockman. What a pleasure it is to have you here.

Jon Bockman: Thanks for having me here, Steve. I really appreciate it.

Steve: Well I’m really looking forward to this, because it’s going to be a little different than what we normally do, which is a lot of nuts and bolts, and “How to do this,” and “Here’s what…”

Of course you could teach people forever that kind of stuff, but why I asked you to be on here is because of your personal story, your

entrepreneurial journey… We all know as business owners, it’s always a rollercoaster, but you’ve got what I think is a motivational, inspirational story that I think is really going to have a positive effect on a lot of people. Of course I know the story, but I would love for you to share it with the listeners of the Rhino Daily Podcast. Can we do that?

Jon: I would love to, Steve. I guess where we start out is, my father had a repair gas station out here, about sixty miles west of Chicago. It was just the center of the town. It was a great little place to be. People used to just

2 I RHINO MONTHLY I www.SteveSipress.com

come in to say “Hi” and get a cup of coffee. And not only did they do tires and everything else, but it was also just a place to hang out. It was really just a great place to be. And growing up – Steve: All right, now I’ve got to stop you there, because already... I’ve owned cars for a while, and they break down, you take them to an auto repair, but I’ve never thought of like an auto repair where you just go in to hang out. I mean, this is not like the – well, I guess it’s kind of like a little barber shop.

People are going in… And that’s what kind of a center of the community your

EXPERT INTERVIEW Jon: I don’t think it was as big deal back then as it probably is today. [laughter]

It was just kind of the corner shop, where everybody could come in and say, “Hi.” And the whole business had been like that since I was a kid.

father’s business was; people would just go there even when their car was running perfectly, just to hang out.

Jon: Exactly. My father tells me there’s a story. Years ago, when the Chicago Bears football team had practiced at Northern Illinois University (that’s in DeKalb, that’s where the shop was), George Halas, who was the Owner and Coach of the team at the time, he would even stop in and just kind of shoot the B.S. (I don’t want to say the other word) – just kind of stop in and talk and read the paper.

Steve: “The breeze,” “Shoot the breeze.” First of all, again I’ve got to stop you. I mean, I know the story, but every time I hear it, it’s still crazy. Nowadays, all they talk about with these football head coaches is how overworked they are, and they watch film 15 hours a day… And here’s George Halas who I think is one of the founders of the entire National Football League, and he’s not only getting his car fixed by your dad, but he’s just stopping into the shop just to hang out.

Steve: Well, that’s true. Because like we just said, if the Owner of the Chicago Bears was just hanging out... Would other people from the town come in knowing that George Halas is there?

Jon: You know, I don’t think my father really said that he was hanging out there, because it was one of those things. I think George had just come in to just be like every other person, and not really bring a lot of attention to himself. But, I think it was the fact that it was just kind of the corner shop, where everybody could come in and say, “Hi.” And the whole business had been like that since I was a kid.

Steve: All right, so this is great. Your dad’s got a great business, pillar of the community, and you are, like anyone else is listening who’s second generation, whose parents owned a business, you’re being brought over there all the time, and you’re probably…

I know you told me you’re pulling the weeds, or you’re doing whatever you can do around the shop, and hanging out, and you must have been thinking, “Someday, if my dad is going to retire and give this to me, how great that’ll be to have this fantastic business.”

December 2015

Jon: Right. Exactly. And it was. That was the place that I wanted to work. I was painting… It was like I said, filling the pop machines as a kid, and every little step I took as I got older and came into the business, this was what I wanted to do. So long story is he ends up getting ready to retire, and now it’s my turn, now I get to take over.

And boy, I was in for a lesson there! It wasn’t anything that I was ready for. I didn’t think it would be as hard to run a business as what it was. And it was shocking. It was very shocking.

Steve: I’ve got to stop you there, because even though you were brought up in it… I mean, most Americans – 95% of Americans, probably – don’t realize how difficult it is to run a business.

But you were brought up in the family business, seeing your dad work it – I don’t know – six days a week, and running the place, and you still were wide-eyed, bushy-tailed and thinking, “Just give me the keys and the cars will just roll in, and I’ll be printing money.”

Jon: Right, exactly. I watched my father do it, and he didn’t do it any way different than I did. It was all word-ofmouth, and everything was great.

But then, it started slowing down a

Jon: Right. That’s the kind of shop it was. So, seeing this as a little kid, it was a very cool place to hang out. You get to talk to everybody, all the customers, they used to come in and just say “Hi”, and they’d get their gas and move on, but they were always back in week by week, day by day, and it was just…

Steve: Well, I hope you got a signed football, or a jersey or something.

www.SteveSipress.com I RHINO MONTHLY

I 3

December 2015

EXPERT INTERVIEW

little bit, and things got a little tough.

So, I was not ready for this at all. I got frustrated, and I didn’t want to be there, I just could see it starting to spiral out of control, and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t eat anymore, I couldn’t sleep anymore, anytime I came home, my wife didn’t want to be around me. She said I was just being an ass all the time.

And I had these two kids. It was really tough, and it seemed like it just started getting worse and worse and worse.

Steve: And your dad wasn’t around to help you out?

Jon: No. He had retired. He had moved down to Missouri, where he could do his fishing, and actually enjoy this part of his life, when you get to retire.

So he wasn’t around, so I didn’t have somebody there that I could always ask questions. “Hey, what did you do when things got tough?” I didn’t have that.

And it just got tough. And that’s when my business… The parts store ended up putting our business on a cash-only basis, and then I lost my lead technician, where he decided he could do better and start his own business, and he wanted to become an auto repair shop owner. It just went from bad to worse.

Steve: Well, first of all, he was probably right, that he couldn’t do it worse than you. Second of all, I remember you told me, your top technician, who I’m guessing had been with your father for a while?

It wasn’t anything that I was ready for. I didn’t think it would be as hard to run a business as what it was.

And it was shocking. It was very shocking.

was likely taking a lot of your good customers with him.

would take care of college, and take care of the house. So it got pretty bad.

Jon: Right. He had his own following.

People would come in and talk to him. And so when he started his own business, there were guys that were loyal to him, and ended up going back with him.

Steve: So that’s just totally awful. I’m going to stop you there, because it’s just awful. I didn’t even live through it, and it’s just awful to hear about it. So I think we get the point, that the thing… You have to hit rock bottom before you’re ready to move up. But that’s about as bottom as it gets.

Steve: That’s common for business owners who don’t take the right steps, which now, of course, that wouldn’t happen to you. What were you feeling at that point?

Jon: It was really – and I hate to say it, but – it was really bad, because I knew I was worth more on paper than I was worth running the business.

There were some dark thoughts that came into my head. And I’m kind of ashamed to say, a couple of times I actually contemplated what would happen if I had to off myself. And then I knew my wife and my kids had to have money from the insurance policy that

Jon: He’d been with us for quite some time here. He’d been with us a long time.

Steve: Okay, he goes out… This is common for a small business owner.

Your top guy leaves, and goes to start his own business. But here’s the kind of the “twisting the knife”: Where did he locate his own auto repair shop?

Jon: I had to drive by him every day when I’d come in to work. He was just down the street. And it was tough driving by him.

Steve: So to add insult to injury, not only was he leaving your business, he 4 I RHINO MONTHLY I www.SteveSipress.com

Jon: It was absolutely rock bottom.

Steve: So now you’re at an absolute bottom point, and the good news is I see that our time is up for today’s segment, but you’re going to stay over ‘til tomorrow, where… I’m going to give a hint to our listeners that it’s not going to get any worse. But let’s start talking about what happened to make it start turning around for the better. Can we talk about that tomorrow?

To listen to the complete interview, go to: www.RhinoDaily.com/podcast

Jon Bockman is the owner of the awardwinning Bockman’s Auto Care in Sycamore, Illinois. He founded High Torque Marketing to allow other auto repair shop owners to “Look Over My Shoulder” and copy everything he does to keep his business booming year after year.

To discover how you can get every single advertisement, newsletter, postcard, letter, flyer, email, phone script, and operations system that Jon uses in his own business, go to:

www.HighTorqueMarketing.com

Handy Mailing is the Go-To Resource for all of your Direct Mail & Printing Needs! www.HandyMailing.com

We’re Highly Recommended!

"I've used many different print-and-mail services over the years, and I trust only Handy Mailing with my monthly magazine. That should tell you everything." - Steve Sipress “Handy Mailing is honest, easy to work with, and sends out my mailings on time. I have used them for almost 100 different mail campaigns with a variety of formats. They always get the job done!

I highly recommend them” - Craig Simpson “HMS understands Direct Response Marketing and all that Dan is teaching. They go above and beyond to get jobs done and take care of the little details involved with mailings.” - Darcy Juarez, GKIC “Their service is phenomenal, their price is great, they are easy to work with, and they do what they are supposed to every time.” - Keith Lee

Get A Quote Today!

1-800-624-3622

JulieS@HandyMailing.com Thomas@HandyMailing.com

OUR SERVICES INCLUDE

SERVICE

Laser Print - Small and Large Runs - Color or Black & White - Cards and Letters - Variable Data Letter Quality Ink Jet Targeted Mailing Lists Post-It-Notes Tear Sheets Hand Font Addressing Live Stamps Lumpy Mail PURLs Postcards Scratch Offs

SPECIAL OFFER! Recieve 10% off of labor on your job when you mention this ad

December 2015

MARKETING POINT SPREAD

MARKETING

POINT SPREAD

By Dan Kennedy

A lot of businesses have Operating Systems. You probably do in your business. You’ve probably got an operations manual. So a lot of businesses; now they may be good, they may be bad, but just about every business has got what they would call an Operating System. And if I came to your business, and I reached into my pocket, and I pulled out a $100 bill and said, “Show me a chart. Show me a picture of your Operating System.” you could get out a piece of paper, and you could draw me a chart. If I pulled 10 $100 bills out and said, “Now show me your marketing system.” I’d get to keep my money because everybody has an operating system; nobody has a marketing system.

Their marketing is what I call, “Random Acts and Hope.”

6 I RHINO MONTHLY I www.SteveSipress.com

This is how most marketing is done – Hope; see because if I say to you, “What are your sales going to be this coming week?” and your answer is anything but a number, your system is one of Hope and Faith, because you can’t make a prediction. So you take the average restaurant owner, you say, “What are your sales going to be the 3rd week of May?” His answer is, “I don’t know.

I hope a bunch of people come in.” Bad answer. He should be able to tell you, based on the promotions he’s got planned, the customer list he’s got, the number of birthday promotions he’s sending out on the 1st of that month, the traffic to his website, probably his marketing system, he should be able to say, “My sales should be no less than ‘X’, and they may be as much as ‘Y’.” and he should be right. Now we know he’s got a system.

MARKETING POINT SPREAD

If you pay attention, if you work at it, if you observe everything I teach, you can evolve. You can get from random acts of marketing and hope, to a system. That means you go to bed every night knowing, not hoping, not praying – pray if you like, but it frees up time to pray for something else. You get to go to bed every night knowing – knowing what’s going to happen in your business tomorrow, during the week, during the month – with reasonable certainty.

December 2015

If I pulled 10 $100 bills out and said, “Now show me your marketing system.” I’d get to keep my money because everybody has an operating system; nobody has a marketing system.Their marketing is what I call, “Random Acts and Hope.”

Any of you bet football? Admit it. Any of you play football?

How many of you know how the point spreads work, at least?

Okay, there you go. So for those of you that don’t, if you bet football, you don’t just bet in the wins or loses. If you look in your USA Today, you’re going to find point spreads. And so Pittsburgh’s playing (I don’t know who they’re playing) New England. I didn’t look, but New England’s probably favored by somewhere between 3-6½. Let’s say it’s 3. That means if you bet Pittsburgh, you start the game up by 3; New England gave you three points. If you bet New England, you start the game down by 3 points; you gave 3 points to Pittsburgh. It’s sort of like letting the slow kids start the race a few steps ahead of the rest of you. And in order to win when you bet football, you must beat the point spread. Vegas keeps all the money because they’re real good at the point spreads. I play for fun.

There’s a lot of weekends I’ve got 5-6 games, I wind up the whole thing decided by not even a full point; a half a point, and they were right by the half a point. That’s how good they are. They’ve got a system. Gamblers think they’ve got systems.

No, no, no. Vegas has got a system, and it’s uncanny how right they are about these point spreads. I envy it. I admire it. I still for fun try and beat it, but I envy it and I admire it.

You want your predictability of your marketing results to be like their control of the point spread. You want to be that precise. You want to know – not guess, not hope, not try for – know. That’s what a marketing system can give you.

Dan S. Kennedy is a serial, multimillionaire entrepreneur; highly-paid and soughtafter marketing and business strategist; adviser to countless first-generation, fromscratch multimillionaire and 7-figure income entrepreneurs and professionals; and, in his personal practice, one of the very highest paid direct-response copywriters in America. As a speaker, he has delivered over 2,000 compensated presentations, appearing repeatedly on programs with the likes of Donald Trump, Gene Simmons (KISS), Debbi Fields (Mrs. Fields Cookies), and many other celebrity-entrepreneurs, former U.S. Presidents and other world leaders, and other leading business speakers like Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy and Tom Hopkins, often addressing audiences of 1,000 to 10,000 and up. His popular books have been favorably recognized by Forbes, Business Week, Inc. and Entrepreneur Magazine.

Check out Dan’s Elite Gold Crown Program and receive his Look Over My Shoulder Newsletter by going to:

www.EliteGoldGrownProgram.com

www.SteveSipress.com I RHINO MONTHLY

I 7

December 2015

THE TRUTH NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR

THE TRUTH NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR

By Steve Clark

Business is tough and getting tougher.

Only one time in my 30-year business career have I experienced the difficulty in selling that I am now experiencing.

Just like in the early 80’s – although not as bad – buyers are fearful, cautious and skeptical about parting with their money.

If you have been in the profession of selling for less than 20 years you have never experienced an economic climate like the one we are currently in. And I’m afraid this dismal climate will continue for longer and be more protracted and elongated than any of us can comprehend or foresee.

The fallout of this economic climate will be continued high unemployment, stagnant growth, the elimination of tens of thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Nationwide unemployment lingers.

And with every 1% increase in unemployment – or people voluntarily leaving the workforce – an additional million people become unemployed.

Even if you are fortunate enough to still be employed, this economic calamity has an enormous impact on your ability to extract money from people.

Additionally, those who have money are squeezing the penny until Lincoln has tears. Last month, Americans saved 7% of their gross income. Those hundreds of millions of dollars were taken out of the marketplace and put into mattresses or in coffee cans buried in the backyard. No matter how good a salesperson you are, you’ll not get

8 I RHINO MONTHLY I www.SteveSipress.com

If you are to avoid becoming a victim of this economic reality, you must step up your game. You must become more skillful, more influential, diligent and resourceful if you are going to survive this economic trainwreck.

THE TRUTH NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR

that money and neither will anyone else. Fact is, there is less money to be had than at any time in the last 20 years. The easy money is gone, and no amount of pissing and moaning will change that reality.

If you are to avoid becoming a victim of this economic reality, you must step up your game. You must become more skillful, more influential, diligent and resourceful if you are going to survive this economic trainwreck.

Specifically, you must increase your skills and improve yourself. This is the time to invest more – not less – into your education and skill enhancement.

The shortsighted, cheap, ignorant and lazy salespeople who don’t get it will ignore this advice and will become extinct just as the dinosaurs.

Sales organizations, like all organizations, will become leaner and will be downsized. Only the productive will be retained. Companies are being forced to do what they should have done all along: face facts and deal with the complacency that exists within their sales organizations.

Managers who are unable to build effective sales organizations will be

December 2015

This is the time to invest more – not less – into your education and skill enhancement. demoted and reassigned or fired along with the non-productive salespeople.

Any business owners who is ineffective in building a sales organization will find his or her revenue streams drying up and his or her company becoming a skeleton of its former self. Many others will be forced to close their doors and sell their assets for pennies on the dollar.

competent will survive.

To put it bluntly: All of us are in survival mode, and only the strong and

You have a choice to make. You can get better or you will get gone.

Success in today’s climate involves working much harder and being much more effective than ever before. Those who possess the skill, knowledge and talent to survive this current climate will be positioned to make enormous sums of money in the future.

Steve Clark aka, “The Sales Psychologist”, is the founder and CEO of New School Selling, an international business development and marketing consulting firm. He is the author of ‘Profitable Persuasion - Proven Strategies for Sales and Marketing Success’ and the CoAuthor of “The Ultimate Success Secret” with marketing Guru Dan Kennedy. To take a FREE Sales Quiz, and receive a customized personal analysis of your sales skills plus a set of 6 FREE Sales Training CD’s, go to:

www.NewSchoolSelling.com

www.SteveSipress.com I RHINO MONTHLY

I 9

December 2015

TIS THE SEASON...

TIS THE SEASON…

By Heather Seitz The holiday season is almost upon us and it’s time to start planning your promotions if you haven’t already done so.

You’ll want to think about how you can stand out from the competition among all the clutter, and not simply copy what everyone else is doing in your market. Look to other industries for creative promotional ideas.

Here are a few quick things to think about...

1 2 3 4 5 10 I RHINO MONTHLY I www.SteveSipress.com

What worked well in previous years?

Which promotions had the best opens and conversions?

What is currently trending, both in your market and in pop culture?

USE this to your advantage to craft relevant promotions.

Look at “predictions” for your market.

Better yet... create your own 2016 predictions and market around those.

Don’t count out mobile behavior.

According to the Mobile Marketing Association, mobile promotions are expected to have an impact on 87% of all holiday purchases. This means that your funnels need to be easy to consume (and buy) on mobile devices.

TIS THE SEASON...

6 7 8 9 10

December 2015

Consider promoting across different channels if possible with your market (think Amazon).

Think beyond the typical promotions and look for unique “in between” promos.

Segment your audience for different offers... and consider tweaking similar offers for different segments of your list.

Queue up your offers early.

The best part about planning early is that you can set it and forget it and have a smooth holiday season yourself!

Have fun!

People are generally happy, want to have fun, and are in a giving spirit. Make some of your messages light hearted. Inject some humor. And find a way to give back.

Keep in mind that the sheer number of emails that your subscribers are getting increases as we enter the holiday season. Your subscribers will have different purchasing goals this time of year, so this may or may not work in your favor depending on your market.

Heather Seitz started her career online back in 1999 during the Dot Com boom and worked at a number of startups prior to starting her own digital marketing company. She has sent millions of email messages and has learned what works and what doesn’t.

Heather has built a highly successful email marketing and deliverability company, and works with some of the top marketers in the world on a daily basis. She has helped develop campaigns across a variety of industries and campaign types, such as marketing sales funnels, re-engagement campaigns, affiliate promotions, product launches, and more…

With over 14 years in digital marketing, and email specifically, Heather is able to help take your email campaigns to the next level – AND get your messages to your subscribers’ inboxes!

Sign up for the EmailDelivered Pulse newsletter for articles, tips, and recommended resources related to email marketing and email deliverability at:

www.EmailDelivered.com

www.SteveSipress.com I RHINO MONTHLY

I 11

December 2015

MANNY’S BLOG

Santa’s Workshop: Secrets Revealed This is your bundled-up buddy Manny reporting from the Frozen North-- Santa’s Workshop, to be more precise. I’m visiting some of my cousins, who are on staff.

If the puppies in your house like to watch “Sesame Street,” they probably already know about the Make-Me-Kick-My-LegInvoluntarily Elmo.

What’s that? You thought elves were the ones working so hard making toys for Santa? Ha! Who ever heard of “elf-tired” or “It’s an elf’s life”?

Even Buzz Lightyear has been reconfigured for a canine market. He’s really inspiring, with his cry of “To the end of my leash and beyond – Akkk! Better luck next time.”

Okay, elves used to have a lock on the profession; but then there was a misunderstanding with the Arctic Labor Relations Board. One of the elves casually told an auditor that Santa was a sleigh driver, but the board thought he said “slave driver,” so they “rescued” all the elves.

What budding scientist wouldn’t like a chemistry set? Vials include: kibbles ‘n sulfur, kibbles ‘n ammonium chloride, kibbles ‘n sodium hydroxide…

Canines were brought in to fill the void – especially service dogs who had distinguished themselves performing service for one human but who now wanted to provide service for millions of youngsters.

Some dogs were hesitant to work in a “he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake” environment; but apparently water cooler chats, office supply thefts, and New Year’s Eve photocopier abuse slip under Saint Nick’s radar.

The dogs are dedicated to producing toys for all the good little boys and girls, but in their spare time they have created a lot of canine-targeted knockoffs of popular playthings.

Surely you’ve heard of the classic chew-chew trains? They go right along with the Stretch Armstrong copycats: Stretch My Little Pony, Stretch Care Bears, Stretch Transformers, etc. (I suspect the trend started with Buried-In-The-Cabbage-Patch Dolls.)

Millions of girl puppies look forward to receiving a Barbie’s Dream-of-Chasing-Rabbits House under the Christmas tree.

Running a close second is the Kenner Easy Raw Oven.

The crew produces a lot of board games. Some are for niche markets, such as Trivial Pursuit – which is obviously designed for bob-tailed dogs who run in circles. But there are also crowd-pleasers such as Monopoly, in which pooches monopolize one end of the sofa. (“Mine! Mine! Grrrr!”)

Some of the toys I’m less enthusiastic about. The Yellow Snow Cone Machine isn’t exactly my cup of …tea. And the fact that the “Lincoln Logs” come off a Pooper Scooper instead of a conveyor belt should be a tip-off.

They even make their own coal for the stockings of naughty kids – by reversing the pressure on diamonds via playing Michael Bublé records.

In conclusion, I’d just like to say one thing: “Top of the world, ma!”

No, I’m not bragging or shouting defiance; I’m just giving directions. I got my wet nose stuck on the North Pole!

Top of the world, ma!

Send help!

Manny (full name “Emanuel” or “Dog With Us”) is Steve and Michele Sipress’ crazy, rambunctious cocker spaniel.

He has a weak leg (despite a mostly-successful 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.

12 I RHINO MONTHLY I www.SteveSipress.com

PETER’S LAWS July 2015

 *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.”

www.SteveSipress.com I RHINO MONTHLY

I 13

RHINO MONTHLY Volume III Number 12 | December 2015

CONTENTS:

1

3 Reasons Why I Hate Small Business Saturday

By Steve Sipress

6

Marketing Point Spread

By Dan Kennedy

8 10 12

www.SteveSipress.com/magazine

The Truth No One Wants To Hear

By Steve Clark

Tis The Season…

By Heather Seitz

Santa’s Workshop: Secrets Revealed Manny’s Blog

2 Jon Bockman INTERVIEW WITH

Miracle Business Turnaround

Publisher Steve Sipress Successful Selling Systems, Inc. 20701 N Scottsdale Rd Ste 107-509 Scottsdale AZ 85255 (p) 773-236-8134 (f ) 847-232-1535 Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

w w w.AskSteveSipress.com

Layout & Design Bobbie Miltcheva www.33graffics.com

Publisher’s Notice: Copyright 2015 Successful Selling Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act without permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Neither the author nor the publisher make any express or implied warranties concerning the legal or ethical appropriateness of any of the marketing documents, materials or instructions in or enclosed with the magazine and/or your use of the same. If in doubt about the appropriateness or legality of any materials or instructions, you should obtain competent guidance, just as you would with any marketing documents, materials or marketing plans you have develop ed or would develop on your own. In the interests of disclosure, we want to b e op en ab out how we may, from time to time, make money from this mag azine.

Certain third-party links contained in this magazine may be affiliate links for which we get paid a commission if you buy the product or service through the affiliate link.