Volume V • Number 4 • April 2017 • $97
YOUR MILLENNIAL CUSTOMERS ARE COMING – ARE YOU READY? expert interview with
DO YOU HAVE “The Entrepreneur’s Trait?”
CLATE MASK
Marketing Automation Maverick
April 2017
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
DO YOU HAVE
“The Entrepreneur’s Trait?” By Steve Sipress
Many of the world’s all-time top achievers across all walks of life have or had ADHD – “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.” Here is a list of just a few of them: Albert Einstein Leonardo DaVinci Alexander Graham Bell Thomas Edison Orville and Wilbur Wright Louis Pasteur Galileo Galilei Socrates Stephen Hawking Wolfgang Mozart Ludwig van Beethoven Salvador Dali Pablo Picasso And, of course, top entrepreneurs, including: Bill Gates Steve Jobs
John Lennon Will Smith Edgar Allen Poe Ernest Hemingway Louis Carroll George Bernard Shaw Henry David Thoreau Virginia Wolfe F. Scott Fitzgerald William Butler Yeats Babe Ruth Michael Jordan Magic Johnson
Pete Rose Bruce Jenner Michael Phelps Woodrow Wilson John F. Kennedy Abraham Lincoln Winston Churchill Napoleon Bonaparte Dwight D. Eisenhower George Patton Eleanor Roosevelt Prince Charles Christopher Columbus
Walt Disney Malcom Forbes Steven Spielberg Richard Branson
William Randolph Hearst John D. Rockefeller Andrew Carnegie Henry Ford
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April 2017
DO YOU HAVE “THE ENTREPRENEUR’S TRAIT?”
And that, of course, is only a very partial list. The truth is that almost all entrepreneurs – successful or not – have ADHD. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting ADHD expert Dr. Ned Hallowell a couple of times, and
seeing him speak. He’s the one who renames ADHD “The Entrepreneur’s Trait,” and explains that having ADHD is like driving a racecar – it can perform amazingly, but you need to learn how to control it, how and
Extremely intelligent Adaptable to change Energetic Rebellious Resilient Hard-working Imaginative Big-thinking Spontaneous Extremely intuitive Boundless energy
Problem-solving Athletic Creative Fun-loving Very optimistic Humorous Determined Insightful Very visual Trusting Open-minded
when to apply the brakes.ADHD, as we entrepreneurs (and our family and friends) know, has both positive and negative aspects to it. The key is to leverage its positive aspects, such as: Deeply compassionate Artistic Extremely passionate Sensitive Verbally advanced Mechanically inclined Charismatic Enthusiastic Visionary Humble
While minimizing its negative aspects, including: Prone to boredom Lack of focus on details Difficulty with facts Live in a world of chaos Often seen as “selfish” Over-emotional Conspicuously absent from the above list is one obvious high achiever in several categories: business, entertainment, and now politics. Yes, of course I’m speaking of our current President, Donald Trump. I’m no doctor, but as an ADHD entrepreneur, I can recognize one when I see one. Browse through the above lists of positive and negative aspects of ADHD, and I’ll bet you can, too (you might also notice that Trump’s supporters like to focus on only the positive aspects, while his detractors love to point out and go absolutely crazy over the negative aspects). Maybe your detractors, enemies, competitors, disgruntled customers and employees, and even your family members also enjoy pointing out the negative aspects of ADHD that they see in you. Your job, of course, is to
Hot-headed Thin-skinned Extreme impulsivity Love drama Often childlike Tendency towards black/white thinking learn how to control and minimize those, while capitalizing on and maximizing as many of the positive aspects of ADHD as you can. This is a big reason why entrepreneurs need to surround ourselves with supporters who understand that we have both strengths and weaknesses that stem from our ADHD. Hopefully you have a great business coach or mentor, a strong and capable board of directors, and you’re a member of several groups of high-achieving entrepreneurs. By the way: If you don’t recognize yourself as having ADHD, “The Entrepreneur Trait,” or – gasp! – insist that you do not have it, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be a successful entrepreneur. You just may have more of an uphill battle than the rest of us who are fortunate enough to have it.
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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 from Steve and other top business-building experts from around the world, go to:
RhinoDaily.com or LessonsLearned FromDonaldTrump.com
MANNY’S BLOG
April 2017
I DON’T THINK ROCKY STARTED THIS WAY Man, I have really got to do a better job with spoiler alerts. So, yes, I had a recent physical encounter with a raccoon. I was doing my Neighborhood Watch duties when I came face to face with him near a neighbor’s garbage can. I can’t say I have been particularly impressed by raccoons. What’s the deal with wearing a mask that looks like a comic strip burglar’s mask, anyway? You don’t see pigs with a big $ sign like on a bank robber’s loot sack or a sloth with a bunch of ZZZZZs in his fur. Just saying. And people think it’s just soooo cute when they see a raccoon washing its food in a nature documentary. If you think OCD behavior is so cute, maybe you’d like to hear the neighbor’s cat Prissy the Persian count each of her grooming licks – and start over if she loses her count. And maybe raccoons wash their food, but have you seen the carb intake? Nothing cute about that. Wikipedia even gets on the fawning bandwagon, saying that raccoons are noted for their intelligence, with studies showing that they are able to remember the solution to tasks for up to three years. So I guess tasks that come up only every four years are an Achilles heel for the little scavengers. (“I wanted to purchase tickets for the Summer Olympics again; but for the life of me, I can’t remember how. Maybe I’m supposed to pole vault into the stadium…”) Anyway, I startled the prowler (perhaps I shouldn’t have
tried the “Citizen’s arrest! Citizen’s arrest!” routine from “The Andy Griffith Show”), and he lunged at me. Two factors really worked against me. One, the raccoon was not fighting by the Marquis of Queensbury rules. Two, I was most definitely fighting by the Doughboy of Pillsbury rules. I know a lot of macho humans have a “stand your ground” philosophy, but I’m more of a “dig up your ground” sort of guy. (At least this was better than my encounter with that skunk last year. Sorry about that county-wide tomato juice shortage.) It wasn’t on my resolutions list, but I really need to learn techniques to scare assailants away this year: karate, jujitsu, religious pamphlets, something! The raccoon managed to get in a few bites and scratches before Steve came along and separated us with a highpressure hose. I know you’re worried about me, but it turns out the raccoon was an escaped pet from down the street. Bandit was up to date on his vaccinations and everything, or I might be watching an “Old Yeller” marathon now. He’s lucky to live in captivity. Raccoons in the wild die pretty young. Bandit will probably live to say, “Forget nocturnal natures! I’m hitting the Early Bird Special on the garbage cans. Hey, you kids get off of whoever’s lawn this is!”
Manny (full name Emanuel or “Dog With Us”) brought non-stop joy, affection, and energy into the lives of Steve and Michele Sipress for over 13 years. He also shared his wit, humor and insights with readers here every month. Thankfully, as he got on in years and knew that his time on this Earth was growing short, he poured himself into his writing, leaving many, many columns behind, so that his fans can have the continued pleasure of being entertained and enlightened by him for a long time to come. He is no longer physically with us, but his memory lives on…
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expert interview with
Clate Mask MARKETING
AUTOMATION MAVERICK Steve Sipress: Clate Mask, this is an absolute pleasure, and I thank you so much for you being here on the Rhino Daily Podcast! Clate Mask: Thanks, Steve, great to
be with you! Steve: Boy, it’s so great to hear your voice. I know the next time that I’m going to hear it, I’m going to be at ICON, for the – I don’t know – maybe
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tenth time. I only missed the first one, and I’m going to hear your voice booming out to over 3,000 entrepreneurs from the stage. It’s always one of the most exciting things of the year. But for listeners who
EXPERT INTERVIEW
To grow a business is so much more difficult than anybody understands. We’ve lived it, we observed it and watched it growing up, and then we lived it when we got into our business. don’t know who you are, which I can’t imagine. It’s shame on you, listener, if you’re a small business owner and you don’t know who Clate Mask is, and what Infusionsoft is, and what it can do for you. But life always wasn’t a matter of having hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of employees, and over a 100 million dollars of investor money, and running a big company. You started just like all of us did, as an entrepreneur, you had your ups and downs – more downs than ups in the early days. And a lot of entrepreneurs don’t survive and don’t push through it, but you did. Can you take us back to those earliest days of Infusionsoft?
And it wasn’t until we started to really get automated with our sales and marketing that things changed. So for us, what happened is we were doing customer software for small businesses, it was all sales and marketing software. We created our first product about a year and a half or so after we started the company, but it was for the mortgage industry. And for six months or so – maybe a year – we were selling that automation software to the mortgage industry in a very manual way. It wasn’t until we began to take some of that technology that we had created and really apply it to automate our follow-up processes that things completely changed. So it was about three years before we felt like, “Okay, we’re going to make this thing really work.” And it took us those three years of just figuring things out, and then a couple more years of really getting clear on our product and getting it out to market. And after about five years, that’s when we kind of caught the big vision of what we could do to help small businesses automate their sales and marketing process, so that they could
February 2017
systematically grow their companies. And that was several years in the making to get to that point, and then we’ve been up to that for about the last ten years. Steve: First of all, it’s a fantastic story. I’ve been along for a bunch of that ride, and you’ve saved thousands of hours of my life, and streamlined it, and made my business able to grow, so I thank you for that. But we’re glossing over the story. As every entrepreneur knows, there is ups and downs in there. We all have heard, “90%...” You know better than me. People say it to me all the time, and I love small business owners, but if there’s anyone on Earth that loves small business owners more than me, it’s got to be you. Everything you do, every fiber of your being, you wake up every day, and all you’re doing is thinking, “How can I help small business owners more?” And you’ve been doing that, like you said, for over 10 years. But isn’t that ironic? What a great lesson for all the listeners, that you weren’t using your own thing. And so many times, we’re running our own
Clate: Yeah, you bet. The reason why we do what we do is we know the challenge of growing a small business. To grow a business is so much more difficult than anybody understands. We’ve lived it, we observed it and watched it growing up, and then we lived it when we got into our business. So, you’re right. Sometimes people look at Infusionsoft and think, “Oh, you just have a bunch of investors and venture capital.” That’s not the way we started or built the company. It was three years of just blood, sweat, and tears, and a brutal fight for survival every day. That’s the reality of it.
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February 2017
EXPERT INTERVIEW
you’re in that mode, you sometimes don’t see what’s right around you and what’s possible, because you’re just so myopic about keeping the lights on and surviving. And the reality is this: To change your process does take a little bit of time, it takes a little bit of attention. And it’s almost like you have to slow down in order to speed up. And when you’re running like crazy just to try to keep the lights on, the thought of slowing down to put some automation in place is actually a scary thought. That’s why it took us a little while to get around to it. And ironically, I see that in small businesses all the time, who don’t want to slow down in order to speed up.
business and we can’t see through the forest. We can’t see, we need fresh eyes, we need someone from the outside. Did you have someone, a mentor? Somebody from the outside to see in and say, “Hey, by the way, guys, why don’t you use your own stuff to grow your own business?” Clate: It’s funny. It’s so true. We were struggling so much just to keep the lights on. We had created a product for the mortgage industry, and we weren’t in the mortgage industry. So we didn’t take that technology and apply it in our own sales process. So I was doing a lot of manual follow-ups. Just the time-consuming, getting a lead and following up on that lead,
and calling it. I was the sales and marketing team. My two partners were the software creators. So I was doing it manually, and really just struggling like crazy to keep the lights on. And you’re right: The downs were every day. I used to tell people that… People would say, “Was it a good day?” and I’d say, “We have maybe one good day a month, maybe.” And the reality is that almost every day in that survival period, is just brutally difficult. It’s an absolute mental challenge every day just to fight through it. So I was in that mode. And when
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Steve: What a great way of putting it. Of course you see it all the time, because that’s the exact problem you solved. It’s like you said, if only the small business owners would allow the problem to be solved. I always say – of course, again, you know better than me, who am I talking to? – but when I talk to clients about systems, I’m like, “Look: The thing with systems is there’s more work, more time, more money, more investment in the beginning, with less return, but once you get that system in place, down the road there’s a heck of a lot less of all of that, and now there’s a huge return coming in.” Clate: That’s right. And that’s the thing that sometimes is hard for business owners to see. I’ve been there, as I’ve just described. I see it all the time. I’ll make it really, really simple and specific. I was following up manually with every lead that came in, and I had a process that I followed to move people through the pipeline, so to speak. And I knew how to do that. And time-consuming and laborious and painstaking though it was, I had a way of doing it. What I ended up doing was, I spent some time over
EXPERT INTERVIEW
Christmas, when I wasn’t able to buy any presents for my kids because we were scraping by so much, and I just said, “I’ve got to change this.” And I spent some time over the Christmas holidays just getting a follow-up process in place that was automated, using our technology, and once we got that automated follow-up process in place, then customers and prospects began calling me – and I wasn’t chasing them, they were calling me – and we were closing sales. And that literally was what completely changed the game and we began to recognize how we could put more and more follow-up automation in place. That is what grew our business. Steve: Two things: Here is where I thank you profusely on behalf of all small business owners, because so many people, when they make a discovery like that, and come up with a solution like that, they keep it to themselves. But you, somehow, because of who you are, and how much you love small business owners and other people, and you love sharing, and you believe... My mom was a school teacher. I grew up believing that if you learn something, you ought to share it with other people and help them, too. You did that. You could have just said, “Okay, our business is rolling along.” But then you said, “Hey, why don’t we do the same thing for small business owners?” Because that’s what I do when I onboard, or I welcome a new person: I convince them that with some help here, we’re going to get this going, this Infusionsoft is going to take a little work, it’s not a magic jelly bean software. It’s magical, but you’ve got to make it work. That’s the first thing I say is, “What is your process right now? And this amazing machine Infusionsoft, we’re going to take that offline, in-person process, and we’re going to put it into a
April 2017
To change your process does take a little bit of time, it takes a little bit of attention. And it’s almost like you have to slow down in order to speed up. And when you’re running like crazy just to try to keep the lights on, the thought of slowing down to put some automation in place is actually a scary thought.
computerized system, that’s going to automatically do this all the time. No more leaves falling through the cracks, no more, “Ooh, I don’t feel good today, I didn’t call that one,” no more, “I forgot to say something to that one.” All the best stuff just keeps going out. You can fine-tune the system. Again, it just revolutionizes life. Do you remember the point where you said, “Hey, instead of
just using this ourselves, why don’t we share this with as many small business owners as we can?” Clate: I absolutely do, and it’s actually quite a significant point in mine and my co-founders’ lives… To listen to the full interview, go to: SteveSipress.com/magazine
Clate Mask has been educating and inspiring entrepreneurs for over a decade, and is recognized by the small business community as a visionary leader. His passion for small business success stems from his personal experience taking Infusionsoft from a struggling startup to an eight-time Inc. 500/5000 winner. As CEO, Clate is leading Infusionsoft on its mission to create and dominate the market of sales and marketing software for small businesses. Clate was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, a Top 100 Small Business Influencer by Small Business Trends, one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2013 by Goldman Sachs, and Business Leader of the Year by the Arizona Technology Council. He is a national speaker on entrepreneurship and small business success, and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Conquer the Chaos: How to Grow a Successful Small Business Without Going Crazy. To discover all kinds of ways Infusionsoft can help your business grow, go to:
Infusionsoft.com
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Your Millennial Customers Are Coming – Are You Ready? If you want to market and sell to Millennials , you have to make it available in the way they prefer to receive it.
HOW DO I MAKE THIS WORK FOR ME?
While you might not be doing business with this generation right now, eventually they’re going to be the age of your current target market and you’ll have to. They’re not going to change. We’re the ones who are going to have to change. And in all likelihood you’re going to have to offer two versions of your online courses, information products and programs, because your current customers aren’t going to like the way Millennials consume information.
By Sydney Barrows I had dinner last week with an old boyfriend, and he was a bit miffed that when he’d gone to make dinner reservations for a fun new place in the East Village there was no way to do it other than on a smartphone. He was a cross between p***ed off and bewildered, and couldn’t understand why on earth would they do that and how did they get any business?
I gently explained that’s the trend, and one of the reasons is because Millennials, and even many Gen Xers, would rather do as many tasks as possible on their phone and not have to speak with anybody.
DISCONNECTED
As New Yorkers, we walk a lot (I had walked to the restaurant) and you really have to keep your wits about you because many, many people are so wrapped up with their cell phones that they’ll literally run into you because they’re not looking where they’re going. We’d both had that experience!
And I’m always amazed at how many people who are out with a friend or friends for dinner keep their phones on the table and as soon as a text or an email comes in, they immediately disconnect from everyone else at the table to read it and respond.
WHAT’S THE LESSON HERE?
The regrettable truth is more and more people are living their lives via their smartphone. Especially Millennials. And this is why those of you who sell programs, online courses and information products need to take a look at what you’re offering and ask yourselves if it lends itself to being consumed on a phone.
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A descendant of the Mayflower Pilgrims, Sydney was born into an affluent family in Philadelphia. After losing her job in New York’s fashion industry, she worked the phone for an escort service. She opened her own escort service, and gained a reputation for providing high-class prostitutes. She was arrested in 1984, and has since become a best-selling author of business books and has enjoyed a highly successful career as an author and business consultant. To schedule a complimentary 30-minute private conversation to talk about it further to see if it’s right for you, email:
Sydney@SydneyBarrows.com
REINVENTING FOOD
December 2016
Steve Sipress The WOW Strategy™ Creator
To find out if The WOW! Strategy™ Results Group could be right for you, go to:
www.SteveSipress.com/results
Jon Bockman Sycamore, IL
“Steve is all business. He is an unbelievably smart, brilliant, brilliant man. I can't say enough about him. Steve has put probably more, I would say, thousands, and thousands, and thousands of dollars... I mean, I probably can't even put a true figure on it, because it keeps coming back, and keeps coming back, just more and more money all the time.”
“One suggestion that Steve gave me, well, without question, put $300,000 more in my bank account. And we are going to be using it forever. This is not a one-time deal. We’re going to be using this idea that Steve helped us with... and we’ll be using it until it doesn't keep working like it is. And so, the value over time could literally be way over even the $300,000 number.”
Mary Forte Bensenville, IL
Keith Lee Seattle, WA
“He's helped me learn how to market my business, and today I can say that we're more successful than we've ever been… I needed to learn how to market the business better to create more revenue, and that's what Steve has helped me with. The financial difference is considerable. We've probably close to doubled our revenues. We're on track now to do another close to $500,000 more than we did last year. So that's awesome. I do owe all of that to Steve.”
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RHINO MONTHLY www.SteveSipress.com/magazine
Volume V Number 4 | April 2017
CONTENTS:
8
1
Do You Have “The Entrepreneur’s Trait?”
3
I Don’t Think Rocky Started This Way
By Steve Sipress
Your Millennial Customers Are Coming – Are You Ready? By Sydney Barrows
Manny’s Blog
4
INTERVIEW WITH
Clate Mask
Marke�ng Automa�on Maverick
Publisher Steve Sipress Successful Selling Systems, Inc. 20701 N Sco�sdale Rd Ste 107-509 Sco�sdale AZ 85255 (p) 773-236-8134 (f ) 847-232-1535 Ques�ons? Comments? Sugges�ons?
w w w.AskSteveSipress.com
Layout & Design Bobbie Miltcheva www.33graffics.com
Publisher’s No�ce: Copyright 2017 Successful Selling Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduc�on of any part of this work beyond that permi�ed by Sec�on 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 warran�es concerning the legal or ethical appropriateness of any of the marke�ng documents, materials or instruc�ons 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 instruc�ons, you should obtain competent guidance, just as you would with any marke�ng documents, materials or marke�ng 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.