Dragging your butt?

Every single entrepreneur I know goes through it.  Every single person in a career goes through it.

That awful feeling of complete burn out.

Having been there and collected the t-shirt (more like a collection of them), I can feel your pain.

Actually, my burnout went beyond just that and led me into a multi-year bout of depression.  Never told you that before.  I spent far too long locked up in my office, avoiding people, being the recluse I am good at being…

…and it did me NO GOOD at all.

Interesting thing is, I have spoken to a LOT of entrepreneurs who let burn out lead to depression… and it is an awful thing to go through.

So, in honor of anti-burnout day (yup, just made that up)… here are a couple things I would recommend you do to fix it.

* Shake things up…in a BIG way.  Book a day without meetings and just call people you haven’t spoke to in a long time.  Long lost friends, clients, even leads you have that haven’t been followed up with properly.

* Go do something fun.  If you have children, go to a kids movie, or to the zoo, or to a carnival, or just out for a beautiful walk and picnic.  Being around the young ones is very refreshing and reinvigorating.

* Watch and play with some dogs.  Those fur balls are MASTERS at showing you how to live life to its fullest.  Their unbridled enthusiasm just for a little attention is contagious!  As you may know, I am doing some fun things in the pet business right now and absolutely love it!  If you watch to find out more about what I am doing – maybe even build yourself a business alongside me in the pet business, this video will give you an overview of what I am up to.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xCoT4FI2aw

* Have some FUN with your marketing.  Create some new wild and wacky campaigns.  Go out to the grocery store and pick up some National Enquirers, maybe a Cosmo or two.  Look at the headlines, read the stories… and spice up your marketing some.  Your clients and prospects will love you for it.

* GET OUTSIDE.  Nothing beats the blues better than some sunshine and exercise. I am out twice a day for 30-45 minute per time walking the dog at the dog park.  I do my martial arts 3 to 4 times a week.  I eat good and look after myself.  If you don’t now, start.  You and I aren’t getting any younger, so make the most out of every single day you have.

When the burnout blues grab hold of you, it’s in your court to beat them back.

Massive change and activity will do it every time.

So get busy will ya :O)?

Have a great day.

Troy

I have been lately.

Craziness at its finest…

But it pains me to admit something.

The most therapeutic thing I have done over the past 5 months, I have been slacking on.

Writing.

Daily.

Nothing has proven itself to be more beneficial to my business, my client’s businesses, and my head-space.

VERY, very therapeutic.

Yet I let busy-ness get in the way.

Battling my way back now.

What about you?

When you find a ritual that brings you success, do you ever struggle keeping that ritual going?

Much like my writing, your ritual may be writing, or blogging, or videos, or phone calls.

Are you slacking on them?

Here is a quick and easy solution.

It works best if you use Gmail.  But there are ways you can set it up in any of your mail systems.  If you use Gmail – get this plugin http://www.boomeranggmail.com – (not an affiliate link) – it is pure brilliance!  What it does is allows you to set reminder emails to yourself at whatever frequency you want. Or you can “Boomerang” an email that comes to you for a later date (not urgent today, but may be in a week – Boomerang it to email you again in a week).  There are so many ways to use this wonderful little tool, I can’t even begin.

Once you have Boomerang setup – schedule an automated reminder to come to you every 14 days.  In it describe whatever your goal is.  Want to write daily? Set it up in Boomerang to remind you daily. Want to make more phone calls? Reminder yourself daily.

It actually helps you hold yourself accountable.

If you are constantly being reminded to do something, chances are you will.

It is a beautiful thing and I hope you give it a go.

I have and love it.

Have a great day.

Troy

Some people are scared to death of public speaking (used to be me too – Dale Carnegie training fixed that).

Some people have fears of heights, water, fire or spiders.

Mine used to be snakes.

The mere thought of them gave me the heeby-jeebies.

So I decided to do something about it…

…I bought a snake.

Then an aquarium.

And put it on the night stand next to my bed.

(gulp)

Nightmares for 2 weeks.

Cold sweats.

Fears of it getting out and wrapping itself around me while I slept.

Guess what?

I came out alive… and FREE of my fear of snakes.

What’s your fear?

My quick and dirty way of getting over the fear has applied to anything and everything I can think of in business.

Writing (hated English – almost failed it twice in University!).

Marketing.

Phone calls to cold leads.

What’s your fear?

Is there any possible way you can immerse yourself in the world you fear most?

It’s the easiest way to get over it once and for all.

I got bit by a dog as a kid… now I not only own one… I run a pawsitively fun dog business that I thoroughly enjoy.

(if you like dogs… marketing… and money… make sure you join me Wed at 2:00 MST – use this link

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/249865786

Title:  Dog Park Dollars… Health and wealth for your favorite furry friend
Date:   Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Time:   2:00 PM – 2:37 PM MDT

Hope you have a great day… free of fears and full of fun.

Troy

One of them was Facebook ads.

If I recall right, the advertising part of it was fairly new, and even Facebook was nothing big (compared to the hyper-addiction it has now become for many).

The ads were cheap, cheap… so I thought I would try them out.

Low and behold, $15 in advertising clicks and I had sold $1,300 worth of tickets to the Summit!

THAT is my kind of ROI !!

Fast forward 5 years to today…

…does it still work like that?

It can.

But it can also bomb.

Just like any kind of marketing.

Saying Facebook advertising doesn’t work is like saying email marketing doesn’t work…

…or that direct mail doesn’t work…

…or that referral marketing doesn’t work.

I call BS on anyone that says that kind of nonsense.

It ALL works.

Not necessarily the first time you try it though.

You have to try different ad approaches.  Different landing page approaches.  Different copy.  Different graphics.  (change one thing at a time and measure the difference in response you get).

It all DOES work, and HAS worked for many people.

But it can fail badly just as easily.

I am working on a project right now in a specific niche, and Facebook advertising is a part of the lead generation efforts.

I targeted a specific geographic area, set my daily spend low to start, set my targeted likes and demographics… then let it loose.

And it bombed.

So I rewrote the ad, put a different picture in, refined the targeting.

Nailed it.

Got exactly what I wanted…

…good click through rates, good landing page results, and some VERY telling demographic information.

Facebook has some exceptional demographic reporting.

I found out that a certain sex between 45-64, that live in 4 Canadian provinces are VERY good prospects for me.  They clicked the highest and responded the highest.

Now I can refine my ads and target JUST THEM.

So I eliminate the money I was spending on the wrong age groups and wrong provinces… while narrowly targeting my most likely prospects.

The results are exceptional when you do measured and targeted marketing like this.

Are you?

You know you should… and NOW is the time to start!

If you are interested in a webinar around Facebook advertising, let me know and I will put one together. It will be a paid one (low priced), because this kind of information is very powerful (and profitable) when in the right hands… but most people consider free events useless… so paid it would be.

If you want better quality lead generation at lower prices… let me know by reply to this.

Have a great day.

Troy

PS: 2 LEFT…

2 more can grab it now before I pull it down.

Here are the details…

==========================================
I am offering a special deal to 2 more people only.
==========================================

Story Selling Home Study Course (sells for $99 online right
now). Turn your stories into wealth and master the fine art of
leveraging personal stories into sales and marketing success.

Wild West Wealth Audio Libraries. 2007 and 2008 MP3 Recordings.
This is the SAME information that helped Chris V become a multi-millionaire
before he hit 30 years old! Sold for $29 for 30 days only in
March.

Small Display Ads Report. Shows you how to create effective
sales funnels that attract the ideal buyers, and convert them to
loyal clients. Sells for $20 online.

Direct Mail Detox. The simple formula that lets anyo on or
offline business virtually eliminate the competitive masses, and
become their own industry of ONE. Sells for $49 .

Entrepreneurial Spirit Sauce – never before released stories of
14 entrepreneurs who mastered the money game and built businesses
that worked. ($9 ebook)

2012 Cash Flow Calendar – 365 days of marketing ideas and
copy/paste templates you can use to grow your business and fatten
your bank account (digital version – sells for $59 online now)

==========================================
All in all, this adds up to $265
…yours today, for the next 4 people for $113

Just use this link and pay via paypal
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=ETEJJ7BLJBCKS
(after 2 come in I will just refund those after)
==========================================

I will send you all the files, links and downloads.

This is not a rant about politics, so hang on there.

This is a rant about you, about your marketing, and most importantly about your clients and prospects.

Are YOU coming across like a politician to them?

That in-your-face annoying presence that keep pestering them…

…or maybe its the promises of grandiose save-the-world miracle solutions you, and only you, have up your sleeve.

I detest politicians… most of them are full of hot air and broken promises.

So, at times like this, I cringe every time I see what they are allowed to get away with.

They can say whatever they want without prosecution.

They can place advertisements anywhere and everywhere they want without fear of legal action.

They can phone you and show up on your door step unannounced without care for you or what you are doing.

They are a royal pain in the ass and can get away with it.

Pitch, pitch, pitch.

No real value delivered.

DON’T BE A POLITICAL POSER!

You don’t get to break the laws like they do.

And your clients and prospects WILL shut you down quickly… politicians aren’t so easy.

You must deliver real value to your clients. Articles, videos, reports, and yes, products or services for sale.

But if you blatantly promise something and deliver another, they can ask for a refund.

…we can’t do that with politicians.

Your prospects can.

What have YOU done in the past week, month or year to deliver value to your prospects?

I would like to think after 120 months (10 years!) of writing consistent articles, reports, and videos for my subscribers, I have added some value to their lives.

I know many of them that never even bought from me, but used the tips delivered in my newsletters to make millions.

One guy quietly went about reading my stuff, and applying it (the real secret to success).

He wrote me an email saying how I helped him build a company with 100 employees, which he turned around and sold for a tidy bundle.

…I had never heard from him before, nor had he bought from me before (I do accept unannounced gifts thought Saddleback Leather http://www.sbackleather.com is always welcome, or cash works too :O) – if you are still reading there Neil).

That is value I can be proud of.

And I want to push you to think about the value you add to your market.

Make it big.

Then make it bigger.

Best of all, deliver on your promises.

And put an END to political posers.

Have a great day!

Troy

PS: Nothing for sale – but just a reminder of the truly exciting new business venture I am doing in the dog market. If you LOVE DOGS… and MONEY… this is for you!

Fill out this form and it will just show you are interested in learning more.

Dog Lovers Who Like Making Money

No catch, hook, or obligation.

Woof.

But it’s true…

…my Grandmother’s Welsh Corgies were stars in the movie 2012.

Kinda cool, hey?

My Grandmother, Jill, is one of the few Welsh Corgie breeders out on the West Coast of British Columbia.

So when the directors were trying to find some Corgies to play the part of the Queen’s dogs in the movie, they called my Grandmother.

Not only did they pay her very well for bringing the dogs to the set for a week or so, they put her and the dogs up in a nice place, fed them and pampered them.

Not a bad gig.

If you saw the movie 2012, you may recall when all the World Leaders and Billionaires were being loaded into the “Arks”, the Queen was there with her infamous Corgies.

Ya, those were my grand-dogs.

Stars!

Actually, their roles were about 2 seconds worth… but they were still stars in a $769 million dollar movie.

Are you a dog lover?

If so, you need to be on the call I am hosting tomorrow night.

Sign up and get the details below.

This is a $60 billion dollar market and I have stumbled onto a great opportunity for marketers and entrepreneurs who also happen to love dogs.

Join me on the call and find out what is happening, and how you can create additional income streams in your life, and with your love of dogs.

Fill out this form and it will just show you are interested in learning more.

Dog Lovers Who Like Making Money

It just shows you are interested in finding out more, no other
catch, hook, or gimmick.


Details on the upcoming webinar will come to you soon. (the call will be Thursday)

Have a great day.

My stance is and will always be: you can NEVER win a price war! There will always be someone willing to undercut you. There is always someone hungrier. There is always someone with deeper pockets to ride out a price war.

You won’t win.

Period.

Prime example sent in by Greg Douglas of Douglas Environmental (http://www.douglasenviro.ca)

From the New York Times:

In Manhattan Pizza War, Price of Slice Keeps Dropping

By N. R. KLEINFIELD

Published: March 30, 2012

In the amped-up war of commerce and 75-cent pizza on the Avenue of the Americas in Midtown, a perilous moment is approaching. Circumstances suggest that ravenous New Yorkers might soon witness 50-cent pizza, 25-cent pizza or, yes, free pizza.

How low can they go in the price war on Avenue of the Americas between 37th and 38th? “We might go to free pizza soon,” one combatant said. 

It is that caustic. Neither side is willing to yield an inch — or a cent. Escalation seems imminent.

As so often happens in twisty New York stories involving wallets and food choices, who is being picked on and who is attacking vary in the telling. Convenient facts get omitted from the narrative.

It’s best to start at $1.50 a slice.

That is what pizza was selling for about a year ago at a family business that is a combination vegetarian Indian restaurant, candy store and pizza parlor on Avenue of the Americas (also known as Sixth Avenue), between 37th and 38th Streets. It is called Bombay Fast Food/6 Ave. Pizza.

Then a Joey Pepperoni’s Pizza opened near the corner of 39th and Avenue of the Americas, offering pizza for $1, a price that has in recent years been favored by a number of New York pizza establishments.

So Bombay/6 Ave. Pizza shrank its price to $1 too.

All was good until last October, when a third player entered the drama.

A 2 Bros. Pizza, part of an enlarging New York chain of 11 shops that sell slices for a dollar, opened virtually next door to Bombay/6 Ave. Pizza. The only separation is a stairwell that leads up to a barbershop and hair salon.

Price stability at a buck all around persisted until eight days ago, when both 2 Bros. and Bombay/6 Ave. Pizza began selling pizza for the eye-catching price of 75 cents a slice, tax included — three slender quarters.

(This alone was not a milestone. The Ray’s Pizza on Broadway between 54th and 55th introduced a 75-cent slice for a limited time in January of last year. Slices are now 99 cents, plus tax: $1.08.)

The primary owner of Bombay/6 Ave. Pizza is Ramanlal Patel, 68, who also has a few businesses in Atlanta and holds property in India.

His nephew, Bravin Patel, 45, oversees the establishment. He and his manager, Mohid Kumar, 49, were there the other day griping about 75-cent pizza.

“I’m thinking, God help me,” Mr. Patel said.

They said that 2 Bros. was trying to drive them out of business, that 2 Bros., unprovoked, slashed the price to 75 cents, forcing them to follow, that things were miserable, that Ramanlal Patel has serious kidney problems, that property in India had to be sold to keep the place going.

“We’re angry,” Bravin Patel said.

Depicting the battle as “small guy” (Bombay) against “big guy” (2 Bros.), Mr. Patel said: “He comes in and he thinks he’s king.”

Mr. Kumar said he was contemplating checking with a lawyer to see if there might be a city law that somehow prohibits a business from selling pizza at outlandishly cheap prices.

But as is so often the case in battles like these, the other side told a slightly different story.

At the St. Marks Place office of 2 Bros., its owners, the Halali brothers Eli, 29, and Oren, 27, identified the true aggressor as Bombay/6 Ave. Pizza.

Here’s how they described it:

On Thursday evening a week ago, Bombay/6 Ave. — unprovoked, and without warning — cut its pizza price to 79 cents. The next morning, 2 Bros. retaliated by moving to 75 cents (its owners felt it was easier to make change from a dollar than at 79 cents). Bombay/6 Ave. matched the 75 cents, and that’s where everything sits.

“We don’t sell pizza at 75 cents,” Eli Halali said. “But if they think they’re going to sit next to us and sell at 75 cents, they’ve got another thing coming.”

Could they prove it? At this point, it was just one pizza seller’s word versus another’s.

But 2 Bros. has a security camera. Winding back to the night in question, the night of the sudden 21-cent price drop, a manager found frames that showed the front of the two stores. And there it was: Bombay/6 Ave. Pizza’s 79-cent sign when 2 Bros. was at $1. Mr. Patel and Mr. Kumar had made the first move.

When they were apprised of this information, they said they did not realize there had been interest in talking about 79-cent pizza.

Why, then, did they lower their price first?

“He was taking away our customers,” Mr. Kumar said. “How were we going to pay our rent?”

For his part, Eli Halali made it clear that 75 cents was a temporary price point. He said he could not make money at that level and eventually would return to $1. He said that if Bombay/6 Ave. Pizza went back to $1, he would as well.

Mohit Mitra, in white hat, served a customer at Bombay Fast Food/6 Ave. Pizza on Avenue of the Americas. One customer said, “We need 75-cent hamburgers next.”

If it didn’t, he said, it better watch out.

His father, Joshua Halali, who acts as a consultant to 2 Bros., said, “I suggested to my children to go to 50 cents.”

Oren Halali said, “We might go to free pizza soon.”

Eli said: “We have enough power to wait them out. They’re not going to make a fool of us.”

The brothers said they are also contemplating adding fried chicken to the Avenue of the Americas store to intensify the pressure on Bombay/6 Ave. Pizza.

Meanwhile, Mr. Patel remains intransigent. “We’re never going back to $1,” he said. “We’re going lower.”

“We may go to 50 cents,” Mr. Kumar said. Of his next-door rival, he said: “I want to hit him. I want to beat him.”

They had added the name, Pizza King, to the sidewalk sign out front, hoping a regal nickname might do some good.

Related prices at both establishments have also tumbled. The special of two slices and a drink dropped to $2.25 from $2.75. An entire pie fell to $6 from $8 (actually to $5.99 at Bombay/6 Ave. Pizza).

A haircut at the barber located between them is $12. Better that you eat.

As for Joey Pepperoni’s, Met Zade, one of the owners, said: “I can tell you we’re absolutely not dropping our price. For $1 a slice, you can still make a profit. For $1, an owner can still sit down and eat. At 75 cents, you’d be a mouse on a wheel.”

While the pizza parlors insult one another, the eating public couldn’t be happier.

At 6 Ave. Pizza, Mike Dooley, 60, a maintenance worker, said while polishing off a slice: “I think it’s beautiful. We need 75-cent hamburgers next.”

At 2 Bros., John Combs, 46, a carpenter, said, with a mouthful of pizza: “It’s awesome. I’m from Jersey, but any time I’m in the city I’ll be back. It’s awesome.”

You see it?

A no-win battle.

Yes – you may get more customers - but you are going to lose your shirt in the process.

I don’t call that winning in business.

Look throughout history… never has price alone been a long-time winning strategy.

Walmart is still around… but in the grande scheme of things… they haven’t been around long at all.

NOT ONE PRICE LEADER LASTED IN THE LONG TERM.

Interesting lesson there if you ask me!

I repeat… you will NEVER win a price war… don’t bother trying.

Look at what has happened to the Groupon customers or fad-of-the-day coupon sites.

They may have gotten new customers in the door… but they are AWFUL customers to have!

They buy based on the cheapest price of the day…

…and have NO INTENTION on ever coming back.

And are proud to admit it.

Yee haw – fun customers to lose your shirt for!

Just don’t do it.

There are far too many other ways to win the marketing game.

Have a great day.

Troy

Uncooked frozen raw meat.

His favorite.

Granted, he is part-Husky and his sharp teeth can gnaw through some pretty tough dinners without a problem.

Magpies are his enemy.

They like to steal his leftovers from the yard.

…and they like to pester him to the point of insanity.

Magpies are pretty damned smart, if you ask me. In the big old world of birds, these guys seem to have gotten some pretty good bird-brains.

They are good planners.

They are strategists.

They know that pure persistence is usually enough to win the war.

Last night there were 3 of them scoping a chunk of steak in the yard. Casino was guarding it… but as soon as he turned his back to chase one Magpie away, the other 2 would scoot in and start pecking at his steak.

The game would continue.

And the braver they would get.

Ultimately they wore him out and he sat off to the side watching them peck at the remains.

Isn’t this what marketing is all about?

…not about pestering people till they wear out and buy.

Rather, it’s all about trying new angles.
Testing new strategies.
Seeing what gets people to stand up and take note.

If the Magpies were like your typical entrepreneur, they would try one marketing idea like postcards or direct… try it once only… and declare “direct mail doesn’t work!”. Or they would run some Google ads to a campaign that never had proper keyword strategy or landing page design done. They whine and moan about how “Google Ads are a rip off”.

If you ever want to succeed in business and marketing, you need to drill in the Magpie mentality.

Persistence, combined with multi-point strategies, and you will ultimately find a winning way to get to the gold.

Giving up gets you no where.

Keep on keeping on!

“Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.” — Unknown

Have a great day.

Troy

PS: If you are a dog lover too… you TRULY need to get in on this. Something massive is a brewing in my world with an idea and strategy that happened about a month ago now. Response has been exceptional… and I will be doing a free webinar this week to discuss what it is and how you can take part.

Discover the $60 billion dollar market that is ripe for marketers and passionate entrepreneurs like you and I.

Fill out this form and it will just show you are interested in learning more.

Dog Lovers Who Like Making Money

It just shows you are interested in finding out more, no other
catch, hook, or gimmick.


Details on the upcoming webinar will come to you soon. (the call will be Thursday)

This video was mind-blowing to me and I hope to you too.

It also holds something each and every one of use should be striving for in our marketing

…shock value.

When you first see this duo walk out, you think one thing.

When they start singing… WOW.

Shock value in marketing can be done in a few different ways.

One of those is just for the shock (nudity, profanity, blatant disregard for decency).

The way we should strive for is to come out unassuming and shock them with the delivery.

Like this…

Strive for it.

I know I will be doing more and pushing harder to get this built more into my business.

Have a great day.

Troy

I have alluded to some of the massive change I am going through this year.

In my personal life.

In my health.

In my business focus.

…and does it EVER feel good.

Change is good.

At least positive change.

But there is much to be said for that highly uncomfortable change too.

The kind that makes you wince because you just know it’s going to hurt… but you know it must be done.

Ya, that kind.

The kind that makes you flinch.

There is a FANTASTIC free book you can grab called “The Flinch”

Grab it here…

http://www.amazon.com/The-Flinch-ebook/dp/B0062Q7S3S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332427738&sr=8-1

The author, Julien Smith,  shares numerous examples of how to flinch more than ever, why you MUST start flinching more, and what to do when those around you try and hold you down while prying your eyeballs open so you CAN’T flinch anymore.

They do.

And you must fight them with all your might.

This has been a flinch-filled 3 months for me.

…I feel like I have a medical condition with all the flinching I have been doing!

But it was my motto for the year for massive change… and I am flinching more than enough to make it all happen quickly.

Get the book.

Just do it – read it – and make it your motto for the year.

You have 9 months left this year to make it your best ever…

…and if you aren’t flinching at LEAST 2 or 3 times a day… you will be highly disappointed at what changes you made this year.

Join me in the Flinch club.

Ok?

Troy

PS: One of the major flinches I am experiencing daily is with the business I am rolling out in the dog market.

It is something new to me.

It is exciting…

…and uncomfortable.

And I am loving it.

If you love animals and want to see what I am doing, and how you can work with me on this massive project ($56 BILLION DOLLAR market in Canada and the US alone)…

Then join me on the webinar tonight!

Fill out this form and I will let you know the details for the webinar at 7:30 MST tonight.

Dog Lovers Who Like Making Money