Volume III I Number 9 I September 2015 I $97
Love Plus Logic Equals
GREAT
MANNY’S BLOG:
Let’s Hear it for Extracurricular Activities
MARKETING
HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN RULES FOR SUCCESS and Play the Game You Want
expert interview with
MORE
MUST-SEE TV
for Entrepreneurs
Jimmy Nicholas
Winning Online Strategies
September 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
MORE MUST-SEE TV FOR ENTREPRENEURS
September 2015
More MUST-SEE TV for Entrepreneurs By Steve Sipress
West Texas Investors Club on CNBC – Basically a “redneck” version of Shark Tank, with two good ol’ boy southern millionaires (one of them being the brother of actor Matthew McConaughey) deciding whether or not to invest in the hopes and dreams of entrepreneurs.
Steve Sipress being interviewed for one of his appearances on MSNBC’s Your Business. In the November 2014 issue of this magazine, I wrote an article recommending “7 Must-See TV Shows For Entrepreneurs.” Among the shows on that list were ABC’s Shark Tank and CNBC’s The Profit, and I still strongly recommend both of them. This year, I’m adding these two to my list of “must-see” TV shows for small business owners and entrepreneurs: Your Business on MSNBC – I’m not too thrilled about the fact that MSNBC relegates this show to Sunday mornings at 6:30am here in Chicago, but of course I record it anyway, as I’m sure most of its viewers must do. The half hour flies by every week as host JJ Ramberg first profiles a successful small business owner or two, then leads an entertaining and informative segment on small business strategy, then ends the show with a panel of experts fielding questions from small business owners (you may have seen me participating in that last segment a couple of times). Notwithstanding the obscure time slot, it’s nice to see this far-left cable network celebrating small business in America – even if it fills most of its other 167 ½ hours per week promoting the agenda of a “You didn’t build that” anti-small business President.
As of this writing, only two episodes of this brand-new show have aired, but we’ve already been treated to several elements that make this show more entertaining than Shark Tank, including behind-the-scenes comments by both the investors and the entrepreneurs, on-site actual demonstrations of the products and services up for consideration, and the fact that the investors are wearing casual clothes (including baseball hats), chomping on cigars, and drinking beer the whole time the entrepreneurs are making their pitches to them (McConaughey even informs us that he named one of his sons “Miller Lyte,” just before rejecting the pitch of an inventor who obviously didn’t do her homework and infuriated him by insisting “I know you like Heineken”). The outrageous, no-holds-barred, down-to-earth personalities of the millionaire investors and their proclaimed interest in getting to know their prospective partners on a personal basis are two more ways this show differs from Shark Tank. But make no mistake – there are some excellent business lessons to be learned here for those of us who pay attention and look past the pure entertainment and craziness. While both of these shows are my standout selections, several others have central characters who are entrepreneurs and small business owners. And in an interesting and pleasant trend, they are not all portrayed as evil.
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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August 2015
EXPERT INTERVIEW
expert interview with
Jimmy Nicholas
Winning Online Strategies
Steve Sipress: Jimmy Nicholas of “Jimmy Marketing” fame! Fantastic to talk to you! I know we had a fantastic round of golf a year or two ago out in beautiful San Diego. It’s great to have you as a guest on the Rhino Daily Podcast.
Steve: Well, I appreciate that. You are a fantastic golfer. If you are half as good at being an interview guest as you are at being a golfer, this is going to be fantastic.
Jimmy Nicholas: Thank you, Steve, for having me today. I appreciate you taking the time to interview me and looking forward to giving some great information to the listeners.
Steve: What is your handicap, by the way? Are you a scratch golfer?
Jimmy: There you go.
Jimmy: No, I’m a six right now. Steve: A six! Slacker!
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Jimmy: Yeah. Steve: Get to work! I’m a six – I get a six on the first hole. It’s already done! All right. Let’s get on with this here. You are a superstar of marketing, but your claim to fame… You first got your start in marketing building websites. So, still, to this day – it’s 2015 as we record this – and still to this day I go to so many local business owner websites and they are just a static, brochure website without any kind of means of people opting in
EXPERT INTERVIEW
Really, what we want is what we call a direct responsebased website. What that means in our world is that the website talks directly to your prospects. or joining a list or getting educated or anything like that. Can you talk about what’s the importance of not having a brochure website? Jimmy: Absolutely. Most of the sites that we see out there today are certainly brochure-based. What we mean by that is it’s very typical for the website to list a laundry list of services or products that the business offers. Really, what we want is what we call a direct response-based website. What that means in our world is that the website talks directly to your prospects. Let’s say, for instance, you are an orthodontist. Instead of just listing the different types of manufacturers like Invisalign or certain manufacturers that you use, what we would want to do is have a section, right on the home page: “You are here because... ” You can take this in any business. So, in any industry, you don’t have to be an orthodontist, but when you have a section on your website: “You are here because…” and list out maybe three or four different options, what that now does is it allows you to guide your prospect, getting them closer to actually buying from you. You mention “opt-ins,” Steve, which is a phenomenal way to capture people’s information who raise their hand and say, “Yeah, I’m interested in potentially your product or service, but at least learning more information.”
What we’re testing currently and what we’re seeing, though, is that some reports that you normally would put behind an opt-in, we normally won’t do that anymore, because the purpose of the report is to get them to a next step, which might be downloading a savings certificate, or scheduling an appointment, scheduling a free estimate. Giving them some sort of next-step gift. If the report is written in a way to help position you as the expert and the logical choice in your local market – whether your local market is your town, your state, your country, or the entire world – ultimately, you want people to come to the conclusion when they read your content – whether it’s on your website or the report that you’re giving out – to make that conclusion that they definitely want to at least explore the opportunity of doing business with you further. We see so often that people just try to sell too many of their services on their website instead of just using the website to assist the sales process. What we’ve found is when we really drill down and use the website to answer the most common questions that people have and basically start them down the path of a buying process with you, that is much more effective than your typical brochurebased website.
We see so often that people just try to sell too many of their services on their website instead of just using the website to assist the sales process.
September 2015
One of the things that we see time and time again that drives us nuts is that the headline on the website is “Welcome to…” and the business name. Your real estate on that initial home page – especially towards the top – is so critical that you want to make sure that you’re using words that would cause people to want to stay on your website longer. The longer they’re on your site, the more pages they go to, the more of a relationship that they feel that they’ve built with you. Another test that we do is called the Logo Test. This one can be painful for some people when they see the results with it. It doesn’t mean you have a good logo or a bad logo. What it means is, if you take the logo off of your website and replace it with a competitor’s logo on your website, if the messaging and that information on your website is pretty much all true outside of maybe the phone number and a name here or there, then you’ve a major problem, because obviously your prospects are going to be confused as to determine how you’re different than everybody else. A great way to pass the logo test is to use innovations in your business that really separate you from the competition, so that it’s easy for your prospect to say, “Yeah. I definitely want to do business with you” versus “I don’t even want to look anywhere else” because it’s just so clear that you’re the right solution. So those are just… Steve: Let me break in, because you said a whole… You just covered like 17 different topics in there, but one thing you mentioned was giving away your report without getting an opt-in. It sounds great, but we both know – at least I do it all the time, I don’t know if you do – but people don’t even read these free reports. I don’t. I have all good intentions when I download it, but then I get busy. The reason I went to that website of the plumber or the dentist or the electrician, or whoever it is, is because I have a need that I want a solution. I don’t want to have
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September 2015
EXPERT INTERVIEW
to read through a whole report and then find the practitioner say, “I’m that electrician, if somebody needs me.” That’s surprising to me that you’re really going to think that somebody is going to have to read through a free report before they’re going to just call me to have me come out. I’m just surprised at that, because isn’t it still true that people go to websites and they then click away, and maybe they haven’t hired anybody yet, and it would be nice for you to have a followup phone call or an e-mail. I have clients that every time there’s an optin, they get a notification right there on their phone when they’re out in the field on a job. They immediately call the person and say, “Hey, I see you got my free report.” The person will end up never reading that free report. The plumber will already be out at their house, fixed the leak and gone. Jimmy: It’s a great point. What we’re utilizing to get the people back, because what we’ve found, though, is most traffic that comes to the website typically won’t opt in. If the report has the information that would sell your prospect on you, why would we want to put that behind a report? We’d rather use it as a baby step towards maybe a next call to action that their contact information would make sense. Ultimately, in a lot of local businesses, the phone call is really very, very critical. So, having that phone number in there ….
I go on the internet after that I’m seeing ads from that company! It especially is strange to me when I’ve already bought something. I go on and I buy something, and then I’m still seeing ads for that thing everywhere I go for the next two weeks. I’m like, “Dude, I already bought from you. Cut it out!” That’s a technology that every business owner can take advantage of. I do want to hear more about that, but I want to finish up this conversation real briefly. This idea that whether you’re doing a free report with an opt-in, without an opt-in, whatever that is, the key point I think you’re making is not to just have a website that looks the same as all the competitors, not just kind of a brochure that lists your stuff. Give people a reason why they should do business with you versus all the competition, and make that a direct response website. Give them something to respond to, so you can see who is interested in your service – maybe down the road, maybe now – and who is just clicking around. Jimmy: Exactly. And really have your site assist your sales process. That’s a very critical point – that you can put things on your site that’s going to help people want to call you, or want to request a free DVD, or whatever
And then what we’re also doing is utilizing retargeting to get people to come back. So, if they don’t opt in for whatever it is that you’re offering at that point where you ask for the opt-in, with retargeting they can see your ad throughout the entire internet and you can get them back to your website if they haven’t made that decision yet. Steve: I love this topic of retargeting. I can see we’re coming towards the end of this segment here, but I would love to hear more about that. This is where I’ll go to a website and then everywhere
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it is that you’re offering in your sales process. You can have your website working for your 24/7, 365 days a year. Steve: And who doesn’t want that? That’s a worker who won’t ask for a raise of the minimum wage, and they won’t sleep and they don’t need any days off, so you might as well get that website working for you! Jimmy: Exactly. Steve: All right. Very good. So we’ve reached the end of this segment. That was some fantastic stuff right away. But I want to get into some more detail. You mentioned his word “retargeting” that I’ve not used myself, but I have clients that have, and I have seen it used on me where I am seeing these ads all over the place. Is it something that any business owner can fairly simply have working for them? Jimmy: Absolutely. Steve: Can we cover that in the next segment? Jimmy: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely! Steve: Great! To listen to the full interview, go to: www.RhinoDaily.com/podcast
Jimmy Nicholas started his web design company in 1997, at the age of 15, when he built and sold his first website to a local jewelry store. His mission is to help organizations grow and succeed, and he has helped thousands of small business owners throughout the world. He was named GKIC 2013 Marketer of the Year. Get your free report “14 Costly Mistakes You Are Making With Your Website” by going to:
www.JimmyMarketing.com
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September 2015
HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN RULES FOR SUCCESS
HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN RULES FOR SUCCESS and Play the Game You Want
Being an entrepreneur is about having the confidence to go out into the marketplace and escape from other people’s rules.
By Dan Sullivan
There’s a totally unrealistic and unhealthy notion out in the world that people become entrepreneurs because they can’t stand rules.
Rules serve an important purpose.
I’ve known entrepreneurs who have this attitude themselves, and they’re constantly frustrated. It’s like they’re running on a treadmill, never making progress because they’re using up all their energy breaking everybody’s rules – including their own!
To be successful in life, you have to follow some rules. Rules point out the most direct route to the best possible performance and results. “Do this, don’t do that. Focus on this, not that.” Keep doing these things and you’ll consistently get better for your entire entrepreneurial career.
Yes, being an entrepreneur is about having the confidence to go out into the marketplace and escape from other people’s rules. But if you want to be a rule-breaker, you also have to be a rulemaker – because if you don’t have your own set of rules, you’re going to be controlled by other people’s rules. The literal meaning of the word “autonomy” comes from Greek and is made up of two parts: auto, meaning “self” and nomos, which means “law” or “rules.” So a person who’s autonomous is someone who can create their own rules. What a great skill!
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So I don’t dislike rules at all – as long as they’re mine. The Strategic Coach Program is all rules, but they’re self-created by each person for their situation. Every day, I’m exploring new territory, so the first thing I always do is tell myself what the rules are going to be for my performance: “Why am I doing this new thing? What are my success criteria, so I can recognize whether I’ve achieved it or not?” I’m making myself autonomous in a new area of bigger and better results.
HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN RULES FOR SUCCESS
September 2015
Staying disciplined only to my rules. People ask me, “But how do you stay disciplined to your rules?” There’s no other choice! I have to stay disciplined to my rules, or I’ll be disciplined to somebody else’s. You can relieve yourself of an enormous amount of personal stress, anxiety, and frustration if you just accept the reality that, wherever you are, the percentage of rules is going to be 100 percent. What percentage of that is going to be other people’s rules, and what percentage is going to be yours?
What I’ve tried to do, year after year, is make a higher percentage of the rules be my own. If you want to keep growing for the rest of your life, the ability to create your own rules is perhaps the greatest new habit, skill, and attitude you can have.
Dan Sullivan is founder and president of The Strategic Coach Inc. A visionary, an innovator, and a gifted conceptual thinker, Dan has over 35 years’ experience as a highly regarded speaker, consultant, strategic planner, and coach to entrepreneurial individuals and groups. Dan’s strong belief in and commitment to the power of the entrepreneur is evident in all areas of Strategic Coach® and its successful coaching program, which works to help entrepreneurs reach their full potential in both their business and personal lives. He is author of over 30 publications, including The Great Crossover, The 21st Century Agent, Creative Destruction, and How The Best Get Better®. He is co-author of The Laws of Lifetime Growth and The Advisor Century. Dan is married to Babs Smith, his partner in business and in life. They jointly own and operate The Strategic Coach Inc., with offices in Toronto, Chicago, and the U.K. New workshops are also being held in Los Angeles and Vancouver. Dan and Babs reside in Toronto. To download your free copy of The 80% Approach digital book and audio, and to watch Dan’s presentation of The 80% Progression, go to:
www.StrategicCoachFreeGift.com
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September 2015
Love Plus Logic Equals GREAT Marketing By MaryEllen Tribby
Every good marketer I know loves marketing. They read as much as they can about it. They understand the elements that make up a good marketing campaign and are thinking of ways to make each campaign better. However, every great marketer I know not only loves marketing but also understands that marketing is a methodical process. That the science behind marketing is MORE important than the creative driving marketing.
And the greatest marketers of all are those who love marketing, use logic to track and read results and who understand the value of testing and live it every day.
Know Your ABT’s If you ask any great marketer the number one rule of marketing they will say ALWAYS BE TESTING! It saddens me when I meet young
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marketers and they dismiss testing with a wave of the hand. They assume a single panel campaign they send to their prospects is the best way to go. If you don’t test, your business will not grow. Think about it, how can you possibly improve on your results if you do not go through the testing process? You can’t. Because this is one of the only ways to discover what your prospects want, let’s start at the beginning.
LOVE PLUS LOGIC EQUALS GREAT MARKETING
What is Testing In direct response marketing, testing is the process of two or more variations of a single variable offered to prospects simultaneously and coming to some conclusion based on responses. Testing is a great way to tap into new audiences, explore a new market or niche, compare response rates on direct marketing fundamental elements and get insight on a new concept or promotional package. Testing is beyond theory and can be applied to almost any business and marketing channel. If you have been wondering, “Can I sell my product or service the way I want and at the price I want?” Testing gives you the answers.
COPY: The Message Behind Your Product
The best copy tests are:
Generally testing will fall into four categories. You should either be testing:
• • • •
• • • •
COPY PRODUCT OFFER/PRICE LIST/MEDIA
PRODUCT: Evolution is a Must Good products are things that meet certain needs and solve particular problems. But what solves a problem today is not necessarily what will work tomorrow.
When talking about copy tests, I am talking about any test where you change copy against your control. Don’t be scared off by this thinking that it will be an expensive test and you have to have a full blown new creative package against your control. This is not always the case. There are lots of ways for you to test copy.
You could be asking if you can charge more for your product, or whether a new marketing message will work to your target audience. You might want to see if you can cut costs by reducing the number of bonuses offered or changing your shipping and handling charges.
• • • •
•
September 2015
Subject lines Senders You can test formats: Long copy vs. short copy or text vs. HTML You can test leads (the first two to three pages of your copy) You can test headlines Background colors Graphics You can test closes (such as by adding a P.S.) And you can test entirely new packages
In the long run, your biggest breakthroughs will come from completely new creative packages with new messaging and positioning.
A common mistake many entrepreneurs make is becoming very knowledgeable about a product without knowing how to market. Extreme product knowledge without marketing knowledge gives you a false sense of control, because it allows you to answer all the questions. But in the long run, it is NOT as important as knowing how, when and why customers buy. Having market knowledge means that you understand the attractiveness of the product rather than the product itself. It means you understand its benefits, not just its features. It means that you know the customers’ wants, needs and desires so intimately that you can reinvent the product before they even realize it needs to be reinvented. At that point, you can test the products against each other. This part is hard, because you have to assume you know nothing and let the market tell you which product they want. Being a market expert implies having a very good understanding of the selling process. Everything from how it’s done, why it works, what is essential and what’s not.
Always ask yourself if your test is meaningful and will provide you with a significant boost in response. Do not test minor and frivolous things, meaning: Always test things that SCREAM – not whisper.
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Rate yourself by answering these questions: 1. What is the most important psychological benefit your product offers? 2. What are the most common mistakes other marketers make when selling a similar product? 3. How have YOUR customers’ need and desires changed in the recent past? 4. What changes have you made to accommodate those changes? Products and services are not static things. They exist in relation to markets. And markets are a collection of individuals with changing needs, values and perceptions. As time passes, these things change – and if your products/services don’t change, you will be handing your market share to your competitor.
OFFER /
PRICE: It Can Make it or Break it The offer is the third make-it-or-breakit factor in the direct response world. When it comes to testing, there are three main components to test. In order of importance, they are: Price: For example, if you have published a special report on “How To Avoid A Heart Attack By Eating Three Grapefruits A Day,” how much will people pay for it? Maybe $9.95 or $19.95 or $29.95? You just don’t know until you test. Often you will be amazed at how many people place orders at prices you thought were sky high. Look
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at what your competition is charging to give you an idea of where your price points should be and test from there. Term: Should be for orders or leads. Should you offer a 1-year and a 2-year subscription, or a 1-year and 5-year subscription? Do you offer 3 free bonuses or 6 free bonuses? Do you offer a physical product such as supplement holder, or information on the benefits of a certain type of supplement? You just will not know until you test. Refund policy: The “If you are not 100 percent satisfied, simply return this product to us within xx days and we will gladly refund 100% of your money” is really one of the most-used refund policies. But what is that xx magic number? Is it 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, one full year or your lifetime? Generally speaking, the longer the refund period, the lower the refund rate. But too many marketers are afraid to offer long-term refunds. So what do you do? TEST.
LOVE PLUS LOGIC EQUALS GREAT MARKETING
LIST /
MEDIA: The Best for Last List and media testing is something you will do when launching your online business and something you should continue to do with each mailing. You will always be on the lookout for potential new lists of people to buy your products. List testing will reveal new segments of buyers and help grow your business. Here’s how it works:
You may take the previouslymentioned “Grapefruits” report and test it to a variety of different health lists to see which list produces the best response. When you start your list research for a particular product, you will generally find the lists fall into different categories. For our example of a heart health product, you can break down the list universe into the following categories: • • • • •
Other alternative heart health products Other heart lists (subscriptions, fundraising) General nutritional health lists Specific condition alternative health lists Health newsletter list
September 2015
Take the time to go through this exercise BEFORE your next mailing. Once you have categorized your lists, you will see which category has the most available names. You should always consider the longterm implications of your testing. If you bring people in on a heavily discounted offer, that is what they will want to see in other offers from you. If you have tests that are premium intensive, then your customers will want to see those kind of offers again and again. Consider this when you are setting up your tests: Be sure whatever copy you use is clear and specific. The important thing is to be selective. Don’t test everything. Don’t over-test. Test in order to increase your current response rates by AT LEAST 25%!
MaryEllen Tribby is the proud Founder and CEO of WorkingMoms Only .com, the world’s leading media company for the empowerment of the working mom. Prior to founding WMO, MaryEllen was the 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.
You will always be on the lookout for potential new lists of people to buy your products. List testing will reveal new segments of buyers and help grow your business.
MaryEllen is a highly sought-after business consultant, speaker, and author. Her first book, which she co-authored with Michael Materson, is Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions Fr 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
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September 2015
MANNY’S BLOG
Let’s Hear It For Extracurricular Activities Ah, September and “Back To School” season. I’ve written to you before about the classes that dogs attend when humans aren’t watching, but this time I’d like to say a little something about extracurricular activities at the local canine-only high school.
Many pooches go out for the track and field team. But the cross country relay in particular can be quite time consuming. (“Everybody take a break while we extend the invisible fence… again.”)
The Literary Club critiques novels such as “Catch-22 (And You’ll Surely Be Elected Dogcatcher)”. The members give brutally honest critiques of new offerings. (“This book is garbage! Wait, I didn’t mean it that way! Quit rolling in it!”) Some join the Science Club (studying the Periodic Table scraps) or join the dog-year book staff, producing keepsake volumes that students will sign with “I know I’ll never forget you – hey, was that a squirrel???” My personal favorite is the Drama Club. They sold a lot of tickets to “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof,” but had to give refunds when there was, well, an absence of actual cats on hot tin roofs. Many of their plays are attended by elementary school students, so when they staged “Death Of A Salesman,” to protect the puppies’ tender sensibilities, they had to rename it “The Salesman? Oh, He Went To Live And Frolic In The Country.”
The school chorus is a popular choice for many students. They learn anthems such as “You Are The Wind Beneath My Doggie Door Flap” and soul hits such as “Papa’s Got A Brand New Mailbag.” Some of the students keep pushing for the country tearjerker “He Stopped Deworming Her Today.” My neighbor’s son joined the Spanish Club in order to have a well-rounded resumé for college. He wound up being more well-rounded himself, after all those enchiladas he scarfs down. Our tennis team has won many tournaments, but it’s even more of a full-contact sport than football. That’s because the players’ masters have always told them “Stop that racket!!”
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.
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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.
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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.”
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“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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RHINO MONTHLY www.SteveSipress.com/magazine
Volume III Number 9 | September 2015
CONTENTS:
1
More Must-See TV for Entrepreneurs
6
How to Create Your Own Rules for Success
By Steve Sipress
By Dan Sullivan
8 12
Love Plus Logic Equals GREAT Marketing
By MaryEllen Tribby
Let’s Hear It For Extracurricular Activities
Manny’s Blog
2 Jimmy Nicholas INTERVIEW WITH
Winning Online Strategies
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
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