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Archive for September, 2007
September 28th, 2007 by Lani Voivod
 He was for us. In fact, we believe Mr. Adam Urbanski is a marketing god.
I know this because I’ve been reading his ezine for years, and Allen and I worked with him in an intensive mentoring relationship from June, 2006 - June 2007.
During that time:
- We each attended TWO of his 4-day, mega-focused, and information-loaded bootcamps.
- We each took part in TWO closed-door Platinum Mastermind pow-wow sessions involving Adam, a private hotel conference room (the first one) and a hotel suite (the second one), and fewer than 5-8 other entrepreneurs and small business owners
- We had monthly one-on-one coaching/mentoring calls that lasted 1-2 hours
- We had monthly group Mastermind calls (always around 2 hours)
- We’ve listened to and read a ton of his audio programs - including interviews, strategy-focused trainings, and much more.
 I also know this because I’ve spent hours and hours talking to him in person - watching, listening, learning, engaged in conversation, looking into his eyes, and seeing how he treats and interacts with others, including his wife and kids.
Adam’s the real deal. He’s passionate, fast-thinking, and whip-smart. (He’s got a silly side too, but he tries to keep that under wraps in front of casual acquaintances.)
For the purposes of this blog post, you need to know this about Adam:
He knows Internet marketing inside and out. He lives and breathes it. He scrutinizes it, condemns its abusers, champions its honest and genuine players, and builds his knowledge base continuously, passionately, and with the purpose of teaching other like-minded professionals a better, more profitable way to build their own businesses and lifestyle.
The reason I’m ranting about Adam like this is because I just read one of his emails. It was a message promoting his new Business Navigator System. As with most (if not all) of Adam’s communications, it was conversational, straight-forward, and offered some grounded reminders and the “simple” essentials of building a successful business. Check out this snippet:
Here is the simplest formula for success in any business:
1) Find a market that has a specific problem you can solve
2) Develop a unique solution to that problem
3) Build a machine that generates leads and converts them into first time customers
4) Convert first time customers into life-time clients
5) Maximize profitability by developing new products or services to further help your clients
In its simplest form this is the same formula I’ve been teaching and implementing for my students for over seven years now. And everyone who follows it reaps big rewards.
You what’s interesting about this? While your business is unique it’s NOT different - and this same formula will work for you. Just look at any successful company - now that you are aware of it, you’ll immediately notice they use this formula too.
Now that’s pretty basic stuff, right?
But it’s astounding how easy it is to get away from those “basics” and get distracted with all the other pings, pop-ups, and dot-compromises of doing business these days - which means integrating your brand, products, and/or services into the online arena.
I encourage you to check out Adam’s Navigator System. He’s currently accepting applications for his year-long program that starts in November.
If you want to grow your biz, learn more than you’ve ever learned about marketing and biz success in a 12-month period, and meet other savvy, goal-focused entrepreneurs who will help you improve your game (and profits), Adam Urbanski is the guy who will lead you to your destination.
 Oh - one more thing. I’ve also taken the time to write this post because Allen and I hit a milestone yesterday, and we know we owe a lot of that milestone to Adam’s tutelage.
Yesterday, we deposited the client check that put us into the Six-Figure Club for 2007. We’ve still got three months to go, and business has never been better. (Neither has our working - and marital! - relationship, by the way.)
We would not have hit this milestone if we hadn’t invested the time (or money) with Adam. Sometimes you just have to take the plunge to move forward to the next level. Adam’s offering this opportunity to a lucky few.
Give it some serious consideration.
(And THANK YOU, Adam, for all your help, patience, guidance, smarts, and support.)
Posted in Dances With Gurus, Entrepreneur Diaries | No Comments »
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on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 10:52 am and is filed under Dances With Gurus, Entrepreneur Diaries.
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September 27th, 2007 by Lani and Allen
Content vehicles - the means by which your message and mission gets out to your ideal audience. You know, like press releases, articles, blog posts, teleclasses, workshops, podcasts, vlogs, social networking pages, and the like.
So many to choose from, but c’mon, let’s be real. You can’t do ‘em all at once. You have to pick and choose the ones that suit your budget, resources, realities, goals, and vision.
But…but…how do you evaluate them and decide which ones to run with?
We recommend you run ‘em through the FIRES:
- Fun - Complements existing assets, is comfortable, exciting
- Implementable - Skills and tools are available or can be had
- Realistic - Achievable within timeframe and existing workload
- Energizing - Creates momentum, revitalizes and inspires
- Strategic - Supports the goals and bigger vision of your company
Use a 1-5 rating system, where “5″ is highest and “1″ is lowest. Take a look at the content vehicles that strike your fancy. See which ones score the highest. They’re the ones you’ll want to use to FIRE UP your marketing efforts, increase visibility, build your brand, and (ultimately) boost your biz profits.
 Hey - want immediate access to insider knowledge on more than 12 of the easiest, most effective, and most affordable ways to market your products and services for long-term success and profitability? Interested in getting a blast of ideas, information, and recommendations about the content vehicles available to you?
Check out “The A-Ha Action Guide: How to Turn Your Most Powerful Ideas Into Profitable, Joy-Filled Action” and get the answers, insights, and direction you’re looking for!
Posted in All About Content, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!" | No Comments »
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on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 1:12 pm and is filed under All About Content, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!".
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September 21st, 2007 by Lani Voivod
Ever hear of a “hook”?
It’s that clever angle - a powerful and uniquely-positioned entryway - into an article, press release, or other piece of communication that grabs your readers’ attention and compels them to take the bait into your world.
Author and Communications Guru Jonathan Kranz enlisted a bunch of his “Bulgarian friends” to nab MY attention and lead me to this fab article on www.RainToday.com.
As Mr. Kranz explains:
By “Bulgarian,” I mean a proof point or intriguing “thing” that makes your promise credible or at least provocative. Bulgarians can be:
- Numbers: Use statistics to quantify the value of your benefit:
- TrackStar’s Automatic Verification Data Eliminates 30% - 35% of Home Delivery Errors
- Stories: Demonstrate your benefit in real-life action:
- Learn How Bling Co. Leverages TrackStar to Reach New Markets in Record Time
- Secret Ingredients: Introduce something new and unfamiliar into the benefit message:
- Transportation Transformation: TrackStar’s “Feedback Loop” Corrects Addressing Errors In Real-Time
He goes on to show you how you can “recruit Bulgarians” to help you with your special reports, articles, press releases, white papers, and smorgasbord of other marketing materials - and specifically in that all-important HEADLINE.
What I love about Kranz’s article is he invokes all the tricks and tools he talks about in this article - weaving a story about a copywriter’s before-n-after victory, using lots of quick examples to demonstrate his point, showing how numbers in headlines can make all the difference - skipping along the whole way, hand in hand with his favorite Bulgarians.
In fact, I think it’s fair to say this:
Using “Bulgarians” effectively is a prime and wonderfully fun way to “A-Ha Yourself!”
Posted in All About Content, Fun With Marketing, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"? | No Comments »
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on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 6:37 am and is filed under All About Content, Fun With Marketing, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?.
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September 18th, 2007 by Lani Voivod
 In a September 11th blog post, Mr. Purple Cow marketer himself explained to an inquiring mind why he’s never stingy with his ideas.
Since our Company - Epiphanies, Inc. - is all about using the “A-Ha!” (Bold Insight PLUS Joy-Filled Action) to catapult your life and biz to new heights, passions, and profits, I thought his eloquent response was worth sharing here on our “A-Ha!” blog:
…[I]deas are easy, doing stuff is hard.
My feeling is that the more often you create and share ideas, the better you get at it. The process of manipulating and ultimately spreading ideas improves both the quality and the quantity of what you create, at least it does for me.
History is littered with inventors who had “great” ideas but kept them quiet and then poorly executed them. And history is lit up with do-ers who took ideas that were floating around in the ether and actually made something happen. In fact, just about every successful venture is based on an unoriginal idea, beautifully executed.
So, if you’ve got ideas, let them go. They’re probably holding you back from the hard work of actually executing.
Right-eo, Sir Godin. Right-eo! So many people get stingy with what’s going on in their brains. “If I share the stuff I know openly, my competitors will steal it!” or “My clients won’t pay me for my services!” or “Someone will run with my million-dollar idea, and I’ll be bitter for the rest of my life!”
Yes, all that may happen, it’s true. But if you haven’t committed to an idea enough to put some actionable OOMPH behind it, you can’t be that in love with it, can you?
By all means, BRAINSTORM. Experiment. THINK. Dream. WONDER. Imagine.
Work it out in your head, talk with trusted friends and colleagues, do research, poke around the Internet and see who else is doing something similar to what’s on your mind. (And if it’s a good idea, 9 times out of 10, there ARE others playing in your idea’s territory!)
But if you find yourself dwelling in the Land of Ideas for weeks, months, and even years and never actually DOING something about ANY of your brilliant thoughts, chances are there’s a reason for your obsessive hoarding, and it’s a four-letter word that starts with “F.”
F-E-A-R.
Posted in Brainstorm Blitz, Insight + Action | No Comments »
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on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Brainstorm Blitz, Insight + Action.
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September 18th, 2007 by Lani and Allen
It’s a classic exercise in the value of small numbers compounded over time. (You can find this in a bunch of places, but we got the following graph here.)
Most people would think a million dollars in the hand is better than taking a penny and doubling it every day for a month. But as it turns out, you get waaaaaaay more if you go with the penny:
Below is an example of how fast money can accumulate. Start by putting a penny in a bucket (better use a big bucket). The next day, put two pennies in the bucket. Each day after that, double the amount put in the prior day. At the end of a month, you will have over $10 million.
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Day #
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$ Saved Today
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Total $ Saved
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1
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0.01
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0.01
|
|
2
|
0.02
|
0.03
|
|
3
|
0.04
|
0.07
|
|
4
|
0.08
|
0.15
|
|
5
|
0.16
|
0.31
|
|
6
|
0.32
|
0.63
|
|
7
|
0.64
|
1.27
|
|
8
|
1.28
|
2.55
|
|
9
|
2.56
|
5.11
|
|
10
|
5.12
|
10.23
|
|
11
|
10.24
|
20.47
|
|
12
|
20.48
|
40.95
|
|
13
|
40.96
|
81.91
|
|
14
|
81.92
|
163.83
|
|
15
|
163.84
|
327.67
|
|
16
|
327.68
|
655.35
|
|
17
|
655.36
|
1,310.71
|
|
18
|
1,310.72
|
2,621.43
|
|
19
|
2,621.44
|
5,242.87
|
|
20
|
5,242.88
|
10,485.75
|
|
21
|
10,485.76
|
20,971.51
|
|
22
|
20,971.52
|
41,943.03
|
|
23
|
41,943.04
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83,886.07
|
|
24
|
83,886.08
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167,772.15
|
|
25
|
167,772.16
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335,544.31
|
|
26
|
335,544.32
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671,088.63
|
|
27
|
671,088.64
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1,342,177.27
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|
28
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1,342,177.28
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2,684,354.55
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|
29
|
2,684,354.56
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5,368,709.11
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|
30
|
5,368,709.12
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10,737,418.23
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It still blows our minds every time we see it. For us, it just reinforces how small changes over time add up to really, really BIG results.
What small change could you make today?
Posted in A-Has in the Ether | No Comments »
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on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 11:49 am and is filed under A-Has in the Ether.
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September 17th, 2007 by Allen Voivod
By way of introduction…
Gene and I knew those old shows would be worth saving, but for a long time nobody agreed with us. In the years before home video, it seemed like a waste of expensive video tape to preserve hundreds of episodes of “Opening Soon at a Theater Near You,” “Sneak Previews” or “At the Movies.” After all, the movies we were reviewing weren’t going to be opening again, and who’d want to watch a show of old movie reviews? Right?
That’s Roger Ebert, movie critic with the Chicago Sun-Times, writing the Introduction to the Balcony Archive on the At the Movies website. And as he continues, you realize how lucky and prescient they were.
Siskel and Ebert (now Ebert and Roeper) are arguably the most famous movie critics in history, and their commitment to never giving a thumb sideways - not to mention their obvious passion for the art of moviemaking - resulted in a catalog of reviews to die for.
And now they’re making all the reviews they have available online. For free.
They throw a 15-20-second ad up before the review plays, and they sell banner ads on the site as well, so they’re certainly not sharing their content out of charity. What they are doing is reinforcing their brand even further, as they add new reviews and content, to do for the web what they did on TV - become the go-to powerhouse for online movie opinion-making.
And considering their core audience, who’ve aged with the show and are increasing in numbers, demand, buying power and confidence online, this is one of the smartest content moves I’ve seen all year.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again - if you’ve got a lot of content about your business, your hobbies, your passion, or however you think about that area of life where you excel, PLEASE, get it out there and grow your reputation as THE source of knowledge and education in your field.
Build your brand with solid, reliable, relevant content. Siskel, Ebert, and Roeper seem to think it’s a good idea. If you trust them for movie-viewing advice, would you trust them with the marketing example they set, too?
Posted in All About Content, Brand Funk | No Comments »
This entry was posted
on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 5:24 pm and is filed under All About Content, Brand Funk.
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September 13th, 2007 by Lani and Allen
No sense making it harder than it has to be. Start with the easy ways to “A-Ha Yourself!” - put your boldest insights into joy-filled action - and work up from there.
1. Write an email to a person or business that caught your attention. It may be one-on-one, or it may be through their marketing efforts, but if a person or business makes an impression on you, let ‘em know about it!
2. Comment on a blog or website. Let the blogger or site owner know you came, you read, and you enjoyed it.
3. Blog. Design the blog around your business, passion, or expertise. In the best case scenario, those are the same things.
4. Write useful articles to your target audience. Assist, inspire, answer, inform, educate, debunk, entertain! Then send out to ezine publishers, magazines, article directories, and more. (We use and recommend www.AhaArticles.com.)
5. Submit a press release. Got news, an upcoming event, seasonal tips, a new product or service, etc.? Sanctify it with a press release to your local media, and with online services like PR.com, PRWeb.com, or MarketWire.com.
6. Create a social networking page for yourself and/or your business. We’ve got one on Squidoo, and we’ll be getting in the MySpace and Facebook games next.
7. Teach about your topic. Whether it’s a speaking engagement, class, workshop, seminar, webinar, or teleclass,
get in front of an audience and let loose on the things people need and want to know most in your field.
8. Serialize your knowledge. Create a series around a theme, process, set of steps, bag of tricks ‘n tips, crazy shtick, you name it. Don’t just go for the written word, either. Try out audio (we use and recommend www.AhaAudio.com) or have fun directing a few YouTube videos.
9. Send out ezines, newsletters, or autoresponders. Build an opt-in list and start sending them regular doses of user-friendly, info-rich content relevant to their lives. Repeat! (We use and recommend www.AhaCart.com.)
10. Last but not least, get yourself a website. Preferably a real website, with a dedicated domain, and matching email addresses. (That means no you@gmail.com, @hotmail.com, @yahoo.com, @aol.com, etc. We use and recommend www.AhaWebHost.com.) Make it easy to read, engaging, and make each page its own relationship-building experience. And don’t forget one clear call to action on each page!
 We were inspired to write this blog post because someone took the time to “A-Ha Herself!” with us, and we took the bait - hook, line, and sinker. Her name is Mary Leedy of CandlePassion.net, and she dropped us a line on our comment form to let us know she heard Allen on an Ali Brown call, which is what inspired her to check out our blog and sign up for our Inciter ezine.
She reeled us in (to continue the fishing metaphor - can you tell we got our son a fishing rod as a new-big-brother gift, though he doesn’t know it yet?) with great storytelling on her About page, and a compelling Team Vision page that details her R.I.P. Roaring Business philosophy.
What’s more, she’s passionate about what she does, she actively takes the steps to share her mission and vision with others, and she’s an advocate of the Golden Rule. Basically, she’s an “A-Ha Yourself!” natural, and we really dig that about her.
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