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Jan
20

An ode to entrepreneurs

By | Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial Spirits

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This is for you if you’re an entrepreneur (or one in the making) …

We are the dreamers.
The visionaries.
The doers.

We are your neighbors.
Your friends.
Or your family.

We pursue our dreams, rather than letting them die a slow death.
We’ve learned to ignore the negative people in our lives.

We know we are different.
And we relish in it.

We are unemployable.

We are good people.

We are writers.
Artists.
Technicians.
Directors and creatives.

We have a disdain for bureaucracy and red tape.

We love to build and enjoy our creations.

We are most definitely off the wall.
…Yet the most sane of them all.

We are passionate about our trade.
Yet we realize most people would never leave the ‘security’ of a job to live their dreams like we do.

We are the biggest employers out there.
We stick to it, amidst economic turmoil and media frenzied trash talking.

Thank the entrepreneurs that you know.
Tell them to keep on plugging and building.

Embrace the entrepreneurial spirit.
We are the future.

Troy

PS: My new Entrepreneurial Spirit Sauce book is just off the presses!  14 great entrepreneurs
put their heart and soul into this book and I am looking forward to sharing their stories with you.
Watch for it next week.

Jan
19

Don’t be shy… everyone does it

By | Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial Spirits, Success

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The truth is…

Some people hide it.

Others flaunt it.

But the fact is, everyone I have always met in life wants better for themselves.

You may love the life you live right now.

…your health
…your relationships
…your spiritual beliefs
…and your present wealth

But there is something I would bet you have always wanted.

Something you have kept secret.

Maybe you have shared it with your friends, family or lovers.

The fact is…

…there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting more abundance in your life!

Despite all the negative nonsense in the media about wealth… or the occupiers wanting to rid the world of evil people who are successful… or the poor who want to steal from the rich…

…desiring wealth is a VERY good thing.

If it wasn’t for entrepreneurs who go after their dreams and do everything in their power to create wealth and abundance (through products that please people and a company that supports people and their families)…

…the world would be a very dismal place.

Entrepreneurs are the unsung heroes of the economy.

People like you and I that drag economies back from the brink.

And people like you and I (and John, who I want you to see in this video) that create breakthroughs others can aspire to.

FIRST: you should want to do good things with your wealth once you get it.  Help the underprivileged (on your own terms – no one else’s).  Support charities.  Whatever your do-good dream is… you should want it.

…the key – want it.

The one thing you need to do first before helping others with your new found wealth?

Help yourself.

This is the BIG second more of us need to understand.

John Paul Dejoria is one of the co-founders of the Paul Mitchell hair care products empire.

…a VERY WEALTHY MAN.

In this video (a must watch) – he reveals his strategies for wealth creation and distribution to those in need.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZUxodNRjQU

He shares a number of lessons in this interview with Barbara Walters.

But he never once apologies for being a billionaire.

He is proud of what he has built.

As a teen, he is fortunate to even make it out alive.

But he did and he went big.

WATCH THIS – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZUxodNRjQU

With the media and governments telling many of us how evil we are for desiring wealth, messages like this are a MUST for entrepreneurs who want to go big.

If a guy who lived in his car with his son can go on to become a billionaire…

…anyone can.

You may not want billions… but millions sure would change things wouldn’t it?

Watch that video and let me know your thoughts.

Troy

PS: It’s an 8 minute video – watch it.  He turned $700 into a mega-empire.  You can too. Keep your head high and be proud of your desire to do and be more in this world.

PPS: At 5:55 through the end there are some very powerful insights you need to hear.  Listen as his wife explains what the worst part of being a billionaire is.  Funny.

And the last 30 seconds of the video reaffirms my beliefs on the stupidity behind the “Tax the rich higher nonsense out there”.

…as well as his fantastic initiatives to educate those who want more in life…vs giving them handouts that will soon be pissed away.

Harsh, but true.

Jan
18

Jackie Dumaine… Yogawoman on a mission (and a great storyteller)

By | Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial Spirits, Marketing on the web, Story Selling, Writing

2 Comments

Jackie Dumaine... Yoga Woman on a Mission

Jackie Dumaine... Yoga Woman on a Mission

I met Jackie Dumaine some time ago when she was in the advertising business, and I was considering buying some advertising.

We never did do business together there, but I have been marveling lately at her new found passion for yoga, meditation, and incredible story telling.

She mentions in one of the pages I am going to refer you to that she began writing at the young age of 6, and obviously has kept up her craft, as her site sings with pure genius.

          I want you to first read her “I Am Manifesto”
          http://www.jackiedumaine.com/about-me/i-am-manifesto/

Not much I need to say about it other than… AWESOME!

Jackie has poured her personality on that page and it is a work of art.

Have a look through her entire site and pay close attention to what she has done, and how she has shared it.

http://www.jackiedumaine.com/

Jackie has put together a wonderful example of how websites SHOULD be done.

Personal.

Personality driven.

Revealing.

Engaging.

If only more of them were like this!

I have nothing to do with Jackie’s success, and I don’t want to infer that by any means.

We have spoken a few times over the years and I always enjoyed speaking with her.

Tad Hargrave (http://www.marketingforhippies.com) had some influence on her marketing, me thinks.  

Tad is a great guy and a very smart marketer.  Tad and I co-taught a seminar or two way back when… and I thoroughly enjoyed working with him and seeing how he too has found his niche and created a revolution of “hippy” story tellers like Jackie.

I am a marketing geek, and just LOVE great success stories like this.

Especially when the story telling side is woven into the fabric of their websites and marketing.

Jackie… you go girl!

I am in awe of what you have done with your site and your vision.

Can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeve next.

Troy

PS: If you are near Calgary on Thur night, you definitely need to see about attending her Guided Synergy Magazine Launch Party (she is on the cover and is the feature story).

Details at http://www.jackiedumaine.com/events/

Jan
17

Thick skinned marketing approaches

By | advertising, Copywriting, Direct response, Entrepreneur, Main Content

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Yet again, I truly do wonder why I bother doing what I do.

The strangest phenomenon in my business is client resistance to trying something, anything, new.

For 10 years now I have been selling products online, writing copy for myself and for others, and have built up a solid reputation.

…I’m not perfect and have messed up along the way.

But I have stuck to my ground on using direct response copy and marketing…to avoid promoting the scam artists online…to avoid preaching the get-rich-overnight-bs…and to always test small and roll out big.

There were many distractions along the way that I could have followed, or recommended…

…but I didn’t.

And I CANNOT FIGURE FOR THE LIFE OF ME, why people would hire a copywriter or marketing consultant for help…and COMPLETELY ignore the help given.

It happens all the time.

“Well that’s not the way we do it”

“I’m not comfortable trying it that way”

“It is just too far off from what we are used to doing”

…the excuses are varied.

Marketing and copywriting fears erased here daily

Press the delete button on your marketing and copywriting fears and try something new for a change!

But the problem is the same: thin skin.

I personally am willing to try all kinds of new approaches in my marketing – because I have seen time and time again the breakthroughs that happen there (I just test a weird approach with some Facebook ads the other day on one of my own products and found a wickedly good response).

I also understand that most marketing and copy tests fail.

It’s a fact of life!

Ask any marketing or copy veteran who’s been doing this for a decade or more.

More tests fail than succeed.

But the ones that succeed do so in a big way and MORE than make up for the failures.

…failure IS how you discover success.

So don’t be yet another one of those thin-skinned-entrepreneurs.

Thicken your skin real quick now, ok?

The best way is through testing new approaches and failing.

Try all kinds of things to see what works and doesn’t.

Accept that you WILL get complaints along the way (hint: that’s because you are actually communicating with prospects and clients… you never got complaints before because they NEVER heard from you!)

And when you hire a marketer or copywriter, test out their approaches before cutting them down.

One of those approaches just might dig you out of that massive hole you put yourself in by not communicating with your clients.

Try it… you might like seeing your sales grow faster than ever before.

Ok?

Troy

PS: The quickest way to get thick skin while trying all kinds of new approaches is with my 2012 Cash Flow Calendar http://www.cashflowcalendars.com

Packed with daily, weekly, and monthly marketing ideas – crammed with copy-and-paste postcards, letters, emails and sales campaigns you can send to your own list. This is a gem for those who want to succeed in a BIG way this year.

Try it… you might like it.

Jan
13

Big data small data all data

By | Direct Marketing, Entrepreneur, Leads Generation

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A good friend of mine is a math geek (PHD) and is right up near the top of a very large, very public organization.  His job is to determine what data is needed and then sends his stats squadron in to analyze data and find trends.

Much of what they find the general public never knows about… it’s just too scary.

What fascinates me about what he does (it sure isn’t the math stuff!) is the power that these anaylatical types hold in their hands.

When they analyze data, they can find some oh-so-useful-and-powerful information.

So when I read an article in reuters.com called Big Data Big Impact, I thought of him and how this all is becoming the lifeline of small business owners like you and I.

Data IS the future.

Knowing how to use it is where you find incredible breakthroughs that can grow your business by leaps and bounds.

Consider a few statements from this article: (reuters.com)

* “…if you use big data to track your sales more precisely, you need fewer salespeople.”

* The McKinsey Global Institute, trumpeting big data as “the next frontier for innovation, competition and productivity.”

* “To understand how much data is now at our fingertips, consider a few striking facts from the McKinsey report. One is that it costs less than $600 to buy a disk drive with the capacity to store all of the world’s music. Another is that in 2010 people around the world collectively stored more than 6 exabytes of new data on devices like PCs and notebook computers; each exabyte contains more than 4,000 times the information stored in the Library of Congress.”

* McKinsey believes that the transformative power of all of this data will amount to a fifth wave in the technology revolution, building on the first four: the mainframe era; the PC era; the Internet and Web 1.0 era; and most recently, the mobile and Web 2.0 era.”
So what does this mean to you and I, and all other non-math-stats-geeks?  

It means yeeeeeeee haw!

It’s time for us all to get a real grip on our customer data.

It means it’s time to start digging deeper into our customer databases to look for unique trends and commonoalities (imagine if you found out that 63% of your big ticket buyers were fans of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”, or that 51% of your Facebook fans were members of the CPSA).  

Think about it!

THAT is power in your hands.

You can customize your marketing and lead generation to find MORE of those people.

You could go to the CPSA and buy ad spots on their site, their blog, and inside their members newsletter.

You could and you should.

I specialize in helping small businesses grow (small business being defined as 75 employees or fewer, most fewer than 20).

That’s you.

That’s me.

That’s where our biggest opportunity is in 2012 folks.

   This is something I truly hope you “get” and that you really start tracking customer information better.

Perry Marshal has his new Fanalytix program which helps you analyze Facebook data.  I am just starting to test it – if it is even half as good as I think it could be, WOW – that is some SERIOUS power in your hands.

Every single chance you get to talk to a customer, or collect survey data, or do a questionare with them… look for information like books, movies, hobbies, memberships, and associations.

Track them.

Record them.

Look for trends.

…and when you find a trend or common trait… make sure you modify your marketing to capture MORE people like those who already buy from you.

   Small Data is just as powerful as Big Data.

But it is up to you to find it and capitalize on it.

Start now.

Troy

Jan
08

Your daily success ritual

By | Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial Spirits, Marketing Calendar, Success

14 Comments

Every successful person has one.

Every great athlete swears by one.

…but peek inside the average day of those who struggle with success, money or confidence, and this almost always missing.

I’m talking about a daily ritual.

You need one or more of them.

One of the best ones you should develop is your morning ritual.

How you kick your day off right.

…it determines how the rest of your day goes.

And it sets you up for success in whatever you want.

When you roll out of bed in the morning, the first thing you determines how the rest of your day may go.

Do you check email? It means email is your main priority for the day, and you are setting yourself up to be a slave to the inbox.

Do you watch the local news? It means you are letting newscasters set your mood for the day (and it usually will be a negative mood, rarely are there good things discussed on the news).

But…

If you start your day out with a success ritual… amazing things can and will happen.

You have to try different ones to see which ritual gets you best results…. and you have to give each new test an honest chance before trying something new.

Here is my morning ritual, that I stick to religiously.

1) Wake (I am a night owl so I wake later ~7 am)
2) 30 minute brisk walk with my dog (fast walk that breaks a sweat)
3) While walking, listening to training audios on one area of interest.
4) Return home, walk my daughters to school.
5) Back home, I have a cup of coffee and make my daily smoothy (Mucuna puriens, Maca, protein, coconut oil, himalayan salt, astralagus, reishi powder, incan berry, banana or apple, and some type of liquid like milk, apple juice, etc)
6) Shower
7) Office

This sets me up for the right kind of day.

I feel great, I am alert and raring to go, and I get started with my writing (tracking in 15 minute increments how much focused writing I am doing that day.

A big thing for me is focused writing time so I am constantly looking for ways to eliminate meetings, phone calls, surfing and wasting time on social media sites – writing is my business so I need to do as much of it as possible).

Your ritual may be different, or you may need to start working on one.

There is no better time than right now to get this started.

One other ritual I highly recommend you develop is a marketing ritual.

…what are you doing each and every day to market yourself?

Set a schedule in advance.

Stick to it.

Weekly themes.

Monthly marketing themes.

Content development every day.

The Cash Flow Calendar http://www.cashflowcalendars.com helps you get a regular marketing system in place and will consistently grow your business month after month.

Set up your success ritual today, and stick to it for a month before trying a new one (if you honestly feel the one you set up didn’t make a difference in your life and business).

I would love to hear what your ritual is… please share it below in the comments.

To a great year ahead!

Troy

Small business marketing plan and promotional calendar

2012 Cash Flow Calendar and Marketing Plan

PS: I mentioned regular content development above… and a daily 20-30 minute writing comitment is THE BEST THING you can do to build your business. The Cash Flow Calendar gives you something to write about each day, and it comes complete with my 31k kick-start writing program which gives you step-by-step directions and inspiration on what to write about for your first 30 days. You can get started here http://www.cashflowcalendars.com

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