You can learn a lot from cartoons. I have 4 kids in the house, so I know.
Marc Brown’s classic cartoon Arthur teaches us a business lesson we should all heed. Competing on price is a losing proposition.
The entire episode is enjoyable, but the business fun starts about 5 minutes in.
So, do you still want to be the low price leader in your field?
Do you remember learning Sir Isaac Newton’s “laws of motion” in school? I wonder, were you like most of your classmates, questioning whether knowing this stuff would do you any good in the real world?
Today I want to apply Newton’s thinking to something other than physical science. You know me: I always have to look at things differently.
Newton’s first law of motion states that objects tend to remain in the state of motion that they’re in. We use the term inertia to describe this phenomenon. Moving objects want to keep moving. Stationary objects like to stay still,
You can probably already see where I’m going with this.
If you’ve ever been in business, or seriously considered launching a one, you have almost certainly experienced what I’m talking about. Getting started is hard, isn’t it?
Changing your state of motion from stationary to forward motion takes a lot of energy. Not to mention if you have to get others to move with you! No part of the process requires more hard work than the initial phases. Think of the space shuttle. It takes two rocket boosters and a fuel tank bigger than the shuttle itself just for lift off. The rockets and fuel tank are unnecessary after the astronauts are several miles from the ground. I’m only guessing here, but I imagine that 95% of the fuel burned during the entire voyage is consumed in the first few minutes. Defeating inertia is not easy.
Once you’ve got things started and moving along…Continue Reading on Fishing for Customers blog.
I just added another of my favorite classic works to the website, The Art of Money Getting (alternately known as Golden Rules for Making Money) by the one and only P.T. Barnum.
I won’t babble for too long about how much I love this little booklet. I’d prefer if you read it for yourself. But let me make a few comments.
1) It contains very good, practical advice on being “economical.” You hear complaints about the bad economy. Well, the national and global economy is made up of billions of micro (personal) economies. Do you part!
2) Barnum presents a driving emphasis on focus, perseverance and hard work. “Hard work” is a dirty phrase these days. We’ve evolved, apparently. Work smarter, not harder. Even Scrooge McDuck taught us that lesson.
Tell that to Usain Bolt. If you think hard work and determination are not key elements in his success, you’re lying to yourself.
3) He keeps earning money in its proper perspective.
I’ll be the first person to tell you that money isn’t everything. Barnum puts it more eloquently than I could.
Getting rich is not always equivalent to being successful. “There are many rich poor men, while there are many others, honest and devout men and women, who have never possessed so much money as some rich persons squander in a week, but who are nevertheless really richer and happier than any man can ever be while he is a transgressor of the higher laws of his being.”
4) This stuff is just plain old good fashioned advice from a master businessman. Simple and straightforward, but rarely implemented tactics and strategies to success in life and in money-getting endeavors.
Check it out here. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed, and I guarantee you’ll benefit from reading it. It’s a 25-page PDF. You can read it in one sitting, if you like.
The other day I listened to an interview with Stephen Covey, author of “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and “The Eighth Habit.” Lots of profound material was covered, but I want to share one comment that stuck out for me.
This is another acronym, like WAGs (Wild “A” Guesses) from the previous post. In fact, we’ll tie the two concepts together in a minute.
Covey spoke about setting and orienting yourself toward accomplishing WIGs, that is Wildly Important Goals. These are the most important objectives that you want to achieve in the various areas of your life. He teaches that if you don’t set WIGs, you will spend most of your time focusing time and energy doing less important things.
Having clearly defined goals helps direct action. You only have 24 hours in a day; why waste even one minute doing something that may be urgent, but not important. Leave “firefighting” in the past.
Here’s the connection, along with an application.
You will not be successful in reaching your WIGs if you settle for making WAGs.
You need to be knowledgeable (as well as constantly learning). You need to be specific. You need to be discriminating in what you choose to do along the path to the finish line. WAGs will not do the job.
While I’m on the subject of “Rubicon” (can you tell that I’m excited?), let me paraphrase a couple of the powerful one-liners that really made powerful statements during Episode 4 from this Sunday:
“I’d rather face the consequences of my action than my inaction.”
Quite a powerful statement. Are you action oriented, or passive? Are you a cause, or are you subordinate to the effects others produce?
“There’s no special sauce. Only data and decisions”
Reminds me of something I heard Jay Abraham say (again, paraphrased): “I don’t have thoughts. I have tests and results.”
Get out there and work! Analyze your results and adapt accordingly.
By all means, learn from others, model success whenever you can. But realize that there is no “special sauce.” Just don’t tell the gurus you heard that from me.
How about one from Episode 1:
“There’s always a why. You just don’t understand it.”
As marketers, as business people, it is important to figure out the “why” behind transactions and interactions. Why do people buy from you? Why don’t they? Don’t settle for a WAG, either!
Have any of you seen the new AMC series “Rubicon?”
Four episodes have aired so far. I’m loving every second.
(I’ve always been into conspiracy theories, espionage and stuff like that. If you have a similar interest, you really need to take a look at this show. You almost never hear me recommend that you sit in front of the television, so you know this is serious.)
There was an acronym that one of the characters used in this Sunday’s episode that I wanted to share. There is, naturally, a practical application to go along.
Forgive me: like the obsessed fan that I am, there is a bit of an introductory synopsis coming up. If you want to get to the point of this post, skip down to where you see THE POINT in red letters.
We follow a team of intelligence analysts working at the American Policy Institute, aka API. They basically tell various government and military agencies what the data they collect from wire taps, satellite images, etc., really means.
In this episode, the team is assigned to make the analyze info and advise the military’s decision on whether or not to drop a bomb on a potential target. Innocent lives are at stake.
Trying to determine the risks involved in the mission, the 3-person team guesses the number of civilians that could be in harm’s way. One of them exclaims that the estimate quoted is a “total WAG.” This is defined as a Wild “A” Guess. Feel free to guess what the “A” stands for.
So here’s THE POINT:
In direct response marketing, you cannot afford to make WAGs. You don’t have the luxury of fooling around with the money you spend to roll out your campaign. Every dollar has to be accounted for. This is especially true if you’re working on a project for a client. You can’t play around with their investment.
The good news is that you don’t have to settle for making guesses in your marketing.
Too many business and ad agencies develop concepts without ever doing research to find out exactly what motivates their target audience. Even more proceed with their ideas without ever testing to see if what they’re doing is producing results.
This is wasteful at best, and potentially suicidal for your business.
Lesson for today: don’t make WAGs when it comes to your business decisions. Strike that: never guess at any of the important decisions in your life, business or personal.
Do the necessary research so that you can move forward prepared for what’s out there. What is your hottest prospect really scared of? What is your wife’s favorite flower?
Then test everything. I’ll go out on a limb and say that everything in life is quantifiable to some degree. Find out what kind of results you’re getting, and work on improving them constantly.
Maybe I’m crazy, but it seems like you can find marketing lessons everywhere. I’m not talking about learning from the hundreds of sales messages that harass our eyes and ears daily.
You can gain marketing insight in what seems like most unlikely places…
Last night, my lovely wife and I had a great time playing Scrabble. After having the crap beaten out of me for most of the game, I had an epiphany. Scrabble can help you be a better marketer!
I won’t take up all your time going trough all the details, but observe some of the benefits that you get from playing this classic game:
The key lesson that I took away from my epiphany is that what’s on the board is more important than the letters on your rack. If you spend all your time looking at your own letters, you’ll get trounced (a word I am now quite familiar with). No matter what you have in your possession, if you can’t get it on the board, it’s worthless. Contrariwise, even if your assortment of letters is really sorry, you might still be able to create a huge word based on what’s already been played.
This is crucial with marketing as well. It is essential to understand your market. Understanding your audience is the most important part of marketing. Probably the most important aspect of running a successful business.
Short version: don’t spend all your time and effort looking at you. Look at your target, find out what they want, and figure out how to use that intimate knowledge to elevate your marketing to a higher plane.
Oh, and I’m selling my Scrabble Marketing Training Manual for $49. Give me a ring if you’re interested.
(Yes, that’s a joke!)
From the Marketing Beyond Advertising blog:
Do your ads sound like ads? Do your ads boast about your superior service, your wide selection, or name the number of years you’ve been in business?
If so, you may be guilty of Ad-Speak.
Introducing the Carlin Ad Speak Calculator!
This cool tool will analyze your advertising copy and tell you if it sounds too salesy, too much like and ad.
I think its rather neato.
Advertising that sounds like advertising is easy for your target audience to ignore. If it does get read, it’s often disregarded.
Your message has to interrupt your readers enough to grab their attention, channel desire, and direct them to you and what you offer.
The Carlin Ad Speak Calculator is just another way to take a critical look at your copy. It will even list the elements that you’ve used that are commonly considered advertising lingo
Have a little fun, a little laugh, and another look at the quality of your message.
Here’s another great article from an outstanding resource. Lawrence Bernstein is a brilliant marketer, and his InfoMarketing Blog is an amazing source of knowledge.
$50 Thousand In Free Publicity And The “Mystery Briefcase” is a case study about the attempted sale of a $17.5 million house on Ebay. You’ll learn how to:
Don’t miss this information packed article, $50 Thousand In Free Publicity And The “Mystery Briefcase.”
Jim Punkre is a legend. He’s widely considered to be among the top ten copywriters in history, generating over $1 billion in sales over his 35 year career.
I can’t even describe this treasure trove of copywriting and direct mail wisdom from an interview Daniel Levis did with Jim for his Masters of Copywriting compilation.
You can take a look at Part 1 and 2 on Clayton Makepeace’s Total Package.
Highly recommended!
About this time last year, I finally read Robert Ringer’s magnum opus, Winning Through Intimidation. It had been recommended by so many people that I respected, so I had to pick it up.
Tonight, I’d like to lay out a couple of quick thoughts on one of the most important lessons we take from the book: the leapfrog principle. Ringer describes it this way:
“The quickest way to the top is not by fighting your way through the pack; the quickest way is to leapfrog over the pack and simply take it upon yourself to proclaim that you’re above it.”
Let’s look at this theory, particularly in reference to people in the freelance writing or design field. Many people now considered “gurus” in their industries started out this way. Rather than “paying dues,” they simply elevated themselves to the next level.
Four major thoughts come to mind:
1)This should go without saying, but if you are leap-frogging, do not let anyone know about it. Appearing like an amateur defeats the point.
2) You absolutely must do the preparation necessary to go to the level you’re leap-frogging to. You have to actually be prepared to be above the pack.
3) Assume the posture of someone at that new level. This introduces another of Ringer’s ideas, the posture theory. This theory states
“It’s not what you say or do that counts, but what your posture is when you say or do it.”
Act like you’ve been in your position for years. Again, having the appearance of an amateur defeats the purpose. Get an attitude, as John Clausen says.
4) Don’t overdo it. Don’t simply say, “I’m the best widget maker in the universe.” Statements like that destroy credibility, and reek of immaturity. The best don’t have to go around telling everyone. They do carry themselves with the confidence of a world-class pro. You’ll have to strike a balance.
You could take this line of thinking much further, but that’s not my current intention. There are plenty of good lessons in Winning Through Intimidation. Do yourself a favor and read the book. You can thank me later.