Volume III I Number 10 I October 2015 I $97
MANNY’S BLOG:
TAILS from the Crypt
YOGI-ISMS for Business Owners
WHY A LOT OF “EXPERTS”
DIE BROKE (And What We Can Do to Change That) expert interview with
THE DEVIL IS IN THE
DETAILS
Richelle Shaw
The Million Dollar Equation
October 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.
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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
YOGI-ISMS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS
October 2015
YOGI-ISMS for Business Owners By Steve Sipress
As I write this, I’m mourning the news that baseball great Yogi Berra passed away last night at the age of 90. Best known as one of the all-time greatest Yankees, Berra also played in a few games for my beloved New York Mets, before coaching them to one World Series in 1969 and managing them to another in 1973 – solidifying his place among my fondest childhood memories. He was one of the most successful, honest, humble and likable athletes of all time – but what he’s best-known for are his many “Yogi-isms,” his seemingly-nonsensical statements that actually make a whole lot of sense, and have him widelyviewed as “the most-often quoted American.” In honor of Yogi, here are some of his best-known Yogi-isms, and their application to the lives and careers of small business owners and entrepreneurs.
“It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” As in baseball, perseverance in the face of adversity is a key to success in business. When’s the last time everything in your business went perfectly as planned? The difference between the many businesses that fail and those that succeed is often a matter of good, old-fashioned “stickativity” – and a consistent positive attitude that things will get better if we get the right guidance and take enough of the right actions.
“We made too many wrong mistakes.” A business mentor of mine said to me long ago, “Make every mistake – but make it just once.” One key to success
in business is to continually test new strategies and tactics – especially with our advertising and marketing efforts. The “right mistake” is one where you take a calculated risk on a high-probability action that doesn’t work out. The “wrong mistake” is when you do something that has a low probability of working, or you keep doing the same things that don’t work, or you do nothing at all – all usually due to not learning from experience or getting the right guidance.
“If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.” A big mistake I’ve seen many business owners make is trying to convince people who don’t want to buy to give them money. The far smarter strategy is to first find out what people want, then simply offer it to them. We call that “the low-hanging fruit” – the easiest, quickest sales to make. Why work harder than you have to, and add more risk and uncertainty to your life?
“You can observe a lot just watching.” Too many business owners are not students of their own industry, nor of business and marketing in general – instead choosing to focus almost all of their time and energy on the mere “doing” of their businesses. I have a poster in the room at all of my educational business seminars that says, “Lifetime Learners Are Lifetime Earners.” Take Yogi’s sage advice and make sure to keep your head up and constantly be looking around for examples of success to model – and of failure to avoid.
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October September 2015 2015
YOGI-ISMS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS
“You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.”
Every business owner should know the power of proper goal-setting and business planning. How often do you set and review your goals, and are they the right ones for your situation and desires?
towards more of “being taken care of” by handouts from Big Government or jobs with Big Businesses. We didn’t get into business for ourselves because we thought it was going to be a smooth ride full of guarantees. In fact, some of the fondest memories I have of all the successful businesses I’ve built is how crazy, unpredictable, wild – and just plain FUN! – things were in the beginning, and during each period of massive change. Successful business owners would get bored if we weren’t constantly riding a roller coaster!
“How can you think and hit at the same time?” “You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.” Don’t count on your prospects and customers to be math whizzes. Never say “33% Off” when you can say “Buy Two, Get One FREE!” instead.
“It was impossible to get a conversation going. Everybody was talking too much.” For sharp marketers, social media – like all of marketing – is about putting money in to get money out. It’s not about putting in a lot of time and hoping you’ll get something out of it. Let the public complain about how much Facebook knows about everybody; smart marketers LOVE that fact, and we take advantage of it by running highly-targeted Facebook ad campaigns – not by posting photos of what we had for lunch every day or wasting time looking at everyone else’s.
“All pitchers are liars or crybabies.” Yogi was a catcher, so his job was to deal with pitchers. Business owners often say the same thing about customers – but our job is to deal with them. If you think your prospects and customers are liars and complainers, deliver excellent value, and you’ll discover that their character miraculously changes. Even better yet – start taking the right steps to attract better customers, clients or patients to begin with. I’ve done that myself and helped thousands of business owners to do the same. It’s easier than you think.
“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.” America is increasingly moving away from self-reliance and
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Study business and marketing, get the right help, and keep taking massive action until you reach the level known as “unconscious competence,” where you consistently do the right things to grow your business without having to think about them. Over-thinking and perfectionism of the owners have killed many businesses before they ever grew to the successes they could have become.
“The future ain’t what it used to be.” The world is changing faster than ever. If you’re not constantly changing with it and embracing the improvements that technology makes possible, you and your business will quickly and surely be left behind, wondering what went wrong. Always examine your business systems with an eye towards improvement, and keep a constant eye out for innovations of businesses both inside and outside of your industry that you can model for the benefit of your customers and yourself. A business mentor of mine is fond of saying, “If you’re still doing business five years from now the same way you are now, you won’t be.” Hmmm… Sounds like he’s a big fan of Yogi Berra. Isn’t everybody?
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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October 2015
EXPERT INTERVIEW
expert interview with
Richelle Shaw The Million Dollar
Equation Steve Sipress: Richelle Shaw, this has been a long time coming. We talked about this long ago, and the day is finally here! I am totally excited to have you on The Rhino Daily Podcast and in Rhino Monthly magazine. Richelle Shaw: Me too, me too. Now we can use our cute picture we have together. Steve: Yes, and we are going to have so much fun. I have to give a warning to my audience: Have the kids clear out of
the room, because this is Richelle Shaw, so this is possibly not going to be one of the G-rated episodes we have here. Be forewarned: this is content for adults. Specifically, you have just released a new book, which is all about how you can make lots of money for medical doctors. However, that doesn’t mean – those of you listening – if you don’t happen to be a doctor in the medical profession, that doesn’t mean that what we’re about to talk about here, Richelle, doesn’t apply to that. Is that right?
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Richelle: That’s right. This is the second in the series of “The Million Dollar Equation.” I wrote that a couple of years ago, because people kept asking me, “How in the world were you able to rebuild your business back so quickly?” I told them, “Well, there’s these nine steps you’ve got to follow, yada, yada, yada” and it seemed as if new clients were coming to me – but they were all physicians. So I decided to write one that was specifically targeted to the medical
EXPERT INTERVIEW
We live a pretty amazing life when you understand how to attract a new customer, and an ideal customer, and keep them forever.
industry, to help them achieve that dream lifestyle that we were just commenting on before. We live a pretty amazing life when you understand how to attract a new customer, and an ideal customer, and keep them forever. Steve: I love the fact this is now a series. So you wrote the book, “The Million Dollar Equation,” which I have right here. It came out a few years ago, and now you’ve got one for doctors, and the sky is the limit. I once counted how many different professions I had helped in my consulting career, and the number was over 200. So, congratulations on number two out of a series of over 200 best-selling books! Richelle: Yeah, it’s going to be fun. Every time… because – I don’t know about you – but every time I meet a client, they say, “Ooh, I’m not sure that you can help me because” – wait for it – “my business is different.” And I go, “Oy!” Steve: Yeah. I had a big sign put up that was in the room… I ran over 250 events for entrepreneurs here in Chicago for over six years, and that’s a big sign up in the front of the room: “But Steve… My Business Is Different,” because it’s the number one excuse that you get, that I get, that everyone gets. And my response, probably same as yours: “Of course your business is different, they’re all different. But in the ways that matter, they’re all the same.”
new patients, or clients, or customers? Would you like to have more repeat business? Would you like to be able to charge higher fees? See? In the areas that matter, we’re all the same!” Richelle: I love that that’s your answer: “In areas that matter.” Steve: And I love that I just wrote your 200 other books! Put that in the intro, put word-for-word the whole rest of the book, change the one word of the title, and there you go – you have 200 more books. Done! Okay, great talking to you, and that was fantastic. Richelle: And it’s a wrap, right? I tried – which is really funny – when I first started, I was writing this particular book first, actually. And the title before was “M.D., Inc.” – How do you build a business while you’re running a medical practice? And I kind of got side-tracked, when I was writing it the first time, because I was working with so many different businesses, that I said, “Okay. Let me just give a general one, and we’ll just kind of go from there.” And I think everybody gets caught up in that. Yeah, it was fun. But this specific one, the docs who have read it already have been like, “Okay, now I finally get it.” Not that they didn’t kind of get it with “The Million Dollar Equation,” but this time they finally get it, because – believe it or not – I only said “patients” instead of “clients, customers and patients.”
October 2015
Steve: Well, I think that’s true, and it’s human. I think we’re all like that. We all want the magic, easy-button, shortcut, Jack-In-The-Beanstalk beans to throw out the window. If I am a consultant, which I am, I want you to tell me you have a website, that a consultant can put up, and automatically get calls from unlimited number of ideal clients calling up. And I don’t want to hear that you can do that for any industry, I want to hear that you have one specifically for me. I think it’s just natural, right? Richelle: Sure. It is very natural to want things exactly like you like it. And I think that’s part of what’s going on in our crazy country right now, is that everybody just wants it exactly how they want it, with a low tolerance of other things that work. But what I found, especially when I was building my telephone company, and when I was working with my very first client, which was a gynecologist, that the same things that worked in my telephone company, actually worked 10 times better in his medical practice, because it was something his patients had never seen before, and it allowed him to stand out from the crowd. Steve: Now, wait a minute. This is genius, but I’ve got to say, I remember you giving a presentation years ago, where you won the “Marketer Of The Year” award, and you talked about this gynecologist, and one of the slides I’ll never forget, you put up on the screen,
It is very natural to want things exactly like you like it. And I think that’s part of what’s going on in our crazy country right now, is that everybody just wants it exactly how they want it, with a low tolerance of other things that work.
You can just ask them a couple of questions: “Would you like to have more
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October 2015
EXPERT INTERVIEW
If you’re not having fun in your business, then who wants to come and see you?
he was wearing a hula hoop, and doing some kind of a video. And the whole crowd, was like a thousand of us, we all laughed and looked at each other and said, like, “She has my vote automatically, for getting a medical doctor to put on a hula hoop and shoot a video. That’s incredible.” So you’re telling me that that’s what you did for your phone company? Richelle: But I was in a bikini. Steve: Aha! Richelle: If you’re not having fun in your business, then who wants to come and see you? Going to the gynecologist is never fun, and I don’t know any woman who would raise her hand and say, “Ooh, I can’t wait to go to the gynecologist.” But when they understand that he’s a nice guy, that he’s human, and that he’s funny, too, it makes going to see him much more of an interesting visit than, “Hey, can you scooch down? Can you scooch down?” Okay, it’s really cold, and somebody up your hoo-ha. Not fun.
“How To Get Better Care For Patients” comes when the doctor loves what they do, and are having a great time and is not worried about that seven minutes that they can spend with you.
Steve: Well, now you’re talking, and that’s what they call a “writer-downer” right there, listeners. That is a golden nugget for the ages Richelle’s just given you. I coined the phrase “The edu-tainment business.” We’re in the business of educating our clients, but also we have to entertain them. You just mentioned, our modern society is amazingly overly-entertained, especially here in America. We’ve got 500 TV channels, and we’ve got twitter feeds from everybody, and Facebook posts, and a thousand cat videos a day on Youtube… It’s just “entertain me, entertain me, entertain me.” And so, if we’re business people and we’re not doing that, we’re missing a huge opportunity. Am I right? Richelle: Right. Make me laugh. There’s so much sadness. If you turn on the news, story after story is somebody dying, three people shot – some injustice in the world. So why would you ever want to spend your money, or spend your time with somebody
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EXPERT INTERVIEW
who’s just going to make it worse? I don’t care if he’s got to give good news or bad news, there’s a section in my book where I talk to them about how you deliver bad news, and what needs to happen. My mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Steve: Oh, I’m so so sorry to hear that. Richelle: Thank you so much. She’s doing well, though. She’s doing really really well now. But the doc that came in to talk to her, I wanted to slap her. And I said, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to go to jail the day my mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer.” Steve: It’s good that that thought went instantly through your head, right after the thought of “I’m going to smack her in the head.” Richelle: Right. Praise God that at least I do have some things that slow me down these days. But I just looked at her and I said, “Really? You’ve got to be kidding me.” And I immediately took my mother out of her care, and we moved to another doc. I called my doctor friends and said, “Okay. Who should we go to? Who should we see? Somebody who has some compassion.” Because, when you are faced with a life-or-death situation, and getting the worst news at the worst possible time, what in the word makes you think that you can just say it matter-of-factly? And I understand that they see it every day, and they try to take the emotion out of it. But all I want to know is that you’re going to work hard, and that you’re committed to getting me better. Whether you think that it will work or not, doggone it, you need to at least have it on your face, and let me know that. And she was absolutely just the worst ever. And once I sat in there, I went and picked up this book again, and started just rewriting it. And rewriting it not just from the marketing standpoint of “let’s have fun,” but “How To Get Better Care For Patients” comes when the doctor loves what they do, and are having a great time and is not worried
about that seven minutes that they can spend with you. And how does that happen? When you’re able to attract the perfect patient to you. Steve: And I guess they made a whole movie about that, the Robin Williams… “Patch Adams,” right? But you’re not saying… There’s a middle ground there, right? Not every doctor has to walk around with a clown nose. Richelle: They don’t have to, but even if they had one in their pocket... One of my favorite urologists goes in and he does the same three tricks every time he sees a new patient. Now, can you imagine going in to see… And he goes, “Now I’m going to stick this middle finger up whatever.” But he actually does make them have a great time while they’re there to see him. It’s not bad, it’s not horrible. And the spouses are immediately at ease, or the person that goes with the patient can say, “Okay, it’s not all on me.” It
October 2015
makes it so much more fun. Steve: I’m glad the spouse and the person with the patient is at ease, but as a man of a certain age, I can tell you: that topic doesn’t put me at ease, no matter how many clown noses he has in his pocket. Okay. Here’s the deal. This segment has unbelievably completely flown by, and I didn’t even ask you any questions yet – we’re just having some fun! So I hope everyone is going to stick around, but I really want to get into the title of the book: What is “The Million Dollar Equation?” What’s the secret equation, not only for doctors, but for everybody, to grow their business? Can we get into that? Richelle: Absolutely, my pleasure.
To listen to the full interview, go to: www.RhinoDaily.com/podcast
Richelle Shaw is the leading expert and authority in building successful million dollar businesses and medical practices. Richelle’s experience comes from building her first business from $300,000 to $36 million, generating more than $100 million in sales in less than 3 years, then losing it all after the 9/11 World Trade Center Tragedies. Richelle successfully rebuilt her million dollar company in approximately 5 months as reported in USA Today, Smart Money, Entrepreneur Magazine, Black Enterprise and many others. As the only female African American public utility owner in the nation, Richelle has won many local and national business awards, and was named one of the Top 25 People to Follow on Twitter from Become Your Own Boss Network and one of the Top 10 African Americans to Follow on Twitter 2011 from Black Enterprise Magazine. Get a free copy of her latest book, “The Million Dollar Equation - for Doctors” by going to:
www.MDE4Docs.com
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October 2015
THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
THE DEVIL IS
IN THE DETAILS By Felicia Slattery
As I sit here writing this post I have about 927.5 things on my -to-do list that exists, as of this moment, only inside my head [cue dramatic dum-dum-DUUUUUM music]. Now stop, before you ask how an item can be a .5 on a to-do list. It is inside my head. So there. There are piles of laundry that have be to tossed into the washer, then other piles that need to be folded and put away; dinner somehow will sneak up on me if I don’t start thinking about planning what that will look like; my assistant asked me this morning about two different projects we’re working on; I have marketing messages to write and send; people to follow up with; a book of my own to review the edits on; a new book to organize, sort out and add to; volunteer activities to coordinate (although that part is done for the moment, I think!); class content to create; sponsors to find for a couple of events
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When our brains and our lives are filled with the mundane, it’s so easy to forget that each us has a gift from God to share with the world.
this year… and that’s just today. And I’m wondering if my 6th grader has a basketball game tonight – gotta check her schedule. Yet all those “things” that are clamoring for the attention of my ADD brain [squirrel!] that all somehow have to get done, all that “noise” inside my head reminded me of something as I was showering, when I do my best thinking, that the old adage, “the devil is in the details,” can mean more than what it commonly means. Most people use the phrase “the devil is in the details” to mean that an idea or project or event is fun and exciting and interesting, but in order to pull it off there are a million little things that have to happen in order for the complete idea, project, or event to fully come together. That part isn’t always so fun, thus the usage of “devil.”
THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
Beyond that most common meaning, however, it occurs to me that it’s those same details that can keep you from your most important work. The work you are on this earth to do. When our brains and our lives are filled with the mundane, the “hurry up and get this done and move on to the next thing,” the minutiae of life, it’s so easy to forget that each us has a gift from God to share with the world; and in fact, we likely have many gifts. Yet, sadly, none of those gifts, our true genius, can be shared with the world if our brains and our laundry baskets are overflowing. Now, that’s not to say you should chuck your to-do list, wherever it may be (on paper, on your smartphone app, or in your head) and remove yourself from all responsibilities. In fact, I suggest the contrary. Find a system that works for you to get all that “stuff” done and carve out time in your busy life to spend some precious time thinking about, working on, learning about, and doing things that will matter in 20 years. Because if you don’t carve out the time, soon 20 years will have come and gone and you’ll wonder what you did with the time. Don’t believe me? What day is it right now as you read this? Ask yourself what you did in the past 7 days since the last time you were on the same day of the week. It’s likely you accomplished a bunch of small things. For example, if the laundry doesn’t get done, we have no clean clothes to wear; if the groceries aren’t purchased, dinner doesn’t get on the table; if we don’t interact on Facebook, the world could come to an end. But what BIG things were you able to get done that will impact the legacy you leave the world? The devil can be in the details, because it’s those very details which are stopping your flow and not allowing your genius to shine through and stopping you in your tracks from sharing your gifts with the world. For some, it means they don’t even know or remember why they are here. If you are alive and have breath in your
October 2015
Find a system that works for you to get all that “stuff” done and carve out time in your busy life to spend some precious time thinking about, working on, learning about, and doing things that will matter in 20 years.
body (something I don’t take for granted after surviving lung cancer), you have a purpose, gifts to share and serve the world with, what can be referred to as your unique genius. You simply have yet to discover it because of those darn “details.” For others their unique genius is evident, but it’s those daily details that stop them from taking the time to truly develop those gifts. It’s like receiving a beautiful rosebush for your garden, but neglecting to water and fertilize it, allowing whatever weather comes to take care of it because you’re too busy. It may survive because it was planted where it belonged, but it will be neglected, and not grow to its full potential, and possibly never bloom. You must make the time to develop your genius. Finally, for a few, they have found a way to carve out time to develop and appreciate their genius and gifts, but allow those daily devil’s details to stop them from sharing with the world. When you don’t, you waste your precious gifts keeping them to yourself, as if you’re a hoarder of blessings, not willing to allow others in to experience your light. We are here to serve others with our gifts, and you’ve got to deliver those gifts to the people who need them most. It’s time to get your life on track for the greater things you are meant to do. Don’t let the devil throw the details in your way so you never get to bring your essence, light, gifts and true genius to the world.
Felicia Slattery has been a teacher and trainer for more than a decade at businesses, colleges, and universities, as well as a best-selling author and communication consultant and coach to entrepreneurs around the world. She teaches teleseminars, is a keynote speaker, and offers private coaching, as well as various written and home-study programs to service-oriented entrepreneurs on improving their communication skills in order to present their best image and see increased cash flow to succeed at work and enjoy happy and fulfilled personal lives. Subscribe to Felicia’s newsletter at:
www.FeliciaSlattery.com
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October 2015
WHY A LOT OF “EXPERTS” DIE BROKE (AND WHAT WE CAN DO TO CHANGE THAT)
Why a Lot of “Experts”
DIE BROKE (And What We Can Do to Change That)
By Joe Polish
There are so many good people in the world with expertise who aren’t making the money they desire or having the freedom they deserve – and worse, they aren’t making the impact they could... I’m thinking of one of my friends in particular. Every time I talk to him it boggles my mind: He’s a world class expert, he’s connected to celebrities, he put enormous effort into writing one of the most comprehensive books in the world on his topic matter...and yet, this guy can’t make money or market to save his life. He keeps himself broke. The worse part about this is I can’t even help him because despite my best efforts to give him marketing books to read, ideas to implement and even trying to send him business (really!), he just can’t bring himself to love or appreciate marketing or money. I feel for him because he’s a really good guy and he is, in my opinion, one of the most knowledgeable people in the world when it comes to his topic – but he can’t get out of his own way and market. He sees himself as an “expert.” There’s nothing “wrong” with being an expert, but it’s super sad to watch experts
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When you have expertise, you can make such a difference in the world and have a huge impact... but unless you are going to rely on luck, you have to appreciate, respect and love the vehicle that makes that difference and impact possible: Marketing!
WHY A LOT OF “EXPERTS” DIE BROKE (AND WHAT WE CAN DO TO CHANGE THAT)
flounder. When you have expertise, you can make such a difference in the world and have a huge impact... but unless you are going to rely on luck, you have to appreciate, respect and love the vehicle that makes that difference and impact possible: Marketing! If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: There’s no relationship between being good and getting paid! It doesn’t matter how good your product, service or expertise is until somebody has bought it. And let me ask you: What precedes something being bought? Yes! Selling and Marketing! There are a TON of really good people running around with expertise who are broke that never get paid. The reason they never get paid has nothing to do with whether their expertise, product or service is any good...
There’s no relationship between being good and getting paid! It doesn’t matter how good your product, service or expertise is until somebody has bought it.
Here are 3 simple questions to get you started so you can make more money and impact with your expertise: What is ONE thing you can appreciate or love about marketing? What’s your VISION for your expertise/product/service? What ONE marketing strategy/technique/idea are you going to utilize to make that vision real, and by when? Make a commitment NOW to start using marketing to make more money, have more freedom and make the impact we all know you can make. Today really can be the last day of the way you used to be.
...Listen, when I was a dead broke carpet cleaner, I knew how to clean people’s carpets and we provided a great service. But when I couldn’t get anyone to hire me, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t until I really appreciated, loved and implemented marketing that everything shifted. If you’re “good” and you create value, you’ve got to position yourself, your product, your service and/or your expertise in a way that is appealing to people. If you don’t, not only will people never do business with you but you won’t be able to serve them either – and you will never have the kind of freedom you want. So, having said that: Do you know someone in your life who is an expert, but they just can’t seem to get the whole “money thing” going? PLEASE. SHOW THEM THIS ARTICLE. It could be the difference between them living a life of regret and the life they deserve. You could be the catalyst that finally helps them make the impact they desire and live the life they deserve. And if that expert is you, then come back to this article and re-read it until you GET the importance of marketing and are using it.
October 2015
Joe Polish is the Founder and President of Piranha Marketing Inc. He is also the creator of the Genius Network® Interview Series, founder of The Genius Network Mastermind®, and co-founder of I Love Marketing®, a highly popular free weekly podcast on iTunes, and www.10XTalk.com with Dan Sullivan. Joe has an Entrepreneurial Focus on Value Creation, Connection, and Contribution. His marketing expertise has been utilized to build thousands of businesses and has generated hundreds of millions for his clients, ranging from large corporations to small family-owned businesses. Joe’s marketing audio program with Nightingale-Conant, “Piranha Marketing,” has continued to be their No. 1 best-selling marketing program for nearly a decade. The Genius Network® interview series taps into the wisdom of some of the greatest entrepreneurial and marketing minds on the planet. Best-selling authors from Bill Phillips to David Bach, marketing pioneers from Joe Sugarman to Gary Halbert to John Carlton, and perhaps the best-known, high-adrenaline entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson. Joe’s I Love Marketing® podcast with marketing consultant and productivity expert, Dean Jackson, has become a worldwide phenomenon with I Love Marketing Meetup groups throughout the globe. Check out Joe’s podcasts at:
www.ILoveMarketing.com
www.SteveSipress.com I RHINO MONTHLY
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October 2015
MANNY’S BLOG
TAILS From the Crypt
October means it’s time once again for Manny’s Halloween Haunted House. Dogs from all over town come to see what spooky things I’ve conjured up. Every year I build it from scratch. Of course I build EVERYTHING from scratch; I have GOT to find a more effective flea dip. One of the most popular scenes is an interactive adventure where visitors get to chase a car. What’s so scary about that? It’s Stephen King’s Christine! (Speaking of devices with a mind of their own, your pooch might want to check his heart condition before encountering Revenge of the Pooper Scooper.)
defense. Look for scores of lawsuits against canines. I was going to have my Torture Chamber again this year, but I couldn’t find enough human toddlers who could stay up that late. I’m having to settle for store-bought ghosts. When I use actors, they float away toward the factory smokestacks. (“Wow! New stinky stuff to roll in!”) I really should have done a better job of auditioning dogs to help me with the haunted house. Rusty was eager enough to grab a scythe and play the Grim Reaper, but how grim can a reaper appear if his tail is wagging a mile a minute?
The Egyptian mummies are always a hit. Visitors get to decipher hieroglyphs such as “Cats not only have nine lives – they also have nine AFTERLIVES.” BRRRRRRRR!
Cardboard tombstones? We’ve got ‘em, with inscriptions such as “My mother always told me to get a leg up on the competition, but I got a leg up on an electric fence instead.”
I have no shortage of creepy sound effects for those brave enough to venture inside. There are moans and clanking chains and witches’ cackles and sounds of electric can openers conking out. Not to mention eerie voices saying things such as “This will only sting for just a minute” and “This is just as good as the stuff that costs 10 dollars more a bag.”
Some characters that work for human haunted houses just don’t work for canines. Last year I had Dracula greeting everyone with “I vant to suck your blood.” The typical blasé response was, “Yeah, get in line behind the ticks and fleas, pasty-face.”
My zombie hordes are always a crowd-pleaser. There’s nothing quite like a chant of “Kibbles ‘n brains, kibbles ‘n brains…I’m gonna get me some kibbles ‘n brains.”
My scene with the devil, his pitchfork, fake flames, and the lost souls didn’t scare anyone much, either. That’s because as soon as they saw the delicious skeletons hanging nearby, they were gushing, “Ooooh, we’ve died and gone to heaven!”
One of the most terrifying scenes is Washington, D.C.-based. Actors dressed as Supreme Court justices rule that the old “The dog ate my homework” excuse is a constitutionally valid
I promise everyone a spine-tingling adventure. Now if I could just get my chiropractor to stop charging a royalty every time I use the word “spine-tingling”…
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
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RHINO MONTHLY Volume III Number 10 | October 2015
CONTENTS:
1
Yogi-isms for Business Owners
www.SteveSipress.com/magazine
10
By Steve Sipress
8
The Devil is in the Details By Felicia Slattery
Why a Lot of “Experts” Die Broke (And What We Can Do to Change That) By Joe Polish
12
Tails from the Crypt Manny’s Blog
4 Richelle Shaw INTERVIEW WITH
The Million Dollar Equation
Publisher Steve Sipress Successful Selling Systems, Inc. 869 E Schaumburg Rd #237 Schaumburg, IL 60194 (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.