See if this sounds familiar?

You look at your bank account or monthly sales report online and think, “Oh crap! I better get some customers in the door!”

So off you go on a frantic, frenzied pace focused on getting new customers and pushing the numbers up. Phew! Then you go to work fulfilling on what you just sold and sit back until the next time (a month, 2 months, 3 months from now) when the sales curve dips again.

Then it’s back on the treadmill again…

It’s this inconsistent roller coaster of sales that drives you crazy, right? And that’s exactly, I want to share with you a new resource that can help you (and/or your sales team) fill your pipelines with qualified sales opportunities so you feel confident the numbers are always growing and improving.

And to dig into this I interviewed my friend, Aaron Ross.  Aaron has designed a step-by-step framework that liberates you from the anxiety you may experience when faced with generating new business, building your sales pipelines or launching a new business-to-business product. Best of all, this framework is scalable (can grow as you want it to grow), and predictable (reliable, foreseeable, calculable) without cold calling!

This process was conceived and developed by Aaron at one of the most successful startup companies in California – salesforce.com. In a few short years, use of this process helped increase Salesforce.com’s recurring revenues by $100 million.

Listen in (see audio playback below!) as I get Aaron to cover:

•    The Seven Fatal Sales Mistakes Entrepreneurs and Sales VPs (even experienced ones) make time and time again.

•    How sales and selling can be friendly, helpful and enjoyable without cold calls or a marketing budget.

•    How an outbound sales process, without cold calls or a marketing budget, can generate a 9% response rate and millions of dollars from cold prospects.

•    How to develop self-managing sales teams, turning your employees into mini-CEOs and much more.

Note:  There’s nothing on the call to buy, but I’ll be recommending Aaron’s new book “Predictable Revenue: Triple Your Results With The $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com”

In fact, you can get a free preview right here with our compliments to see how powerful these concepts are.

Here’s the call:

 

About Aaron Ross:
After years in venture capital and the corporate world, Aaron Ross created PebbleStorm, which is helping create a community of100 million people “make money through enjoyment,” based on values like trust, integrity and authenticity.  He teaches people how to discover their Unique Genius while starting a fulfilling business that can’t fail (www.UniqueGenius.com).  Aaron’s a serial entrepreneur and the author of two books, the Amazon bestseller Predictable Revenue, and CEOFlow: Turn Your Employees Into Mini-CEOs.  He is also the cofounder of Predictable Revenue, Inc., which helps companies multiply sales (www.PredictableRevenue.com).

I love questions…

I think questions dictate your answers and the more powerful questions you ask the better the answers are in life and business. One of the first questions I asked that had a dramatic impact on me was in 1999 before I started my online business.

Here’s what I asked:

“How can I create a fully automated web business, that makes me money while I sleep, and is an incredible value for people without being another ebook?”

It’s from that question, I sat-up bolt upright in bed at 3 o’clock in the morning with the idea for Instant Sales Letters. And then I did what most people probably wouldn’t: I hopped out of bed, registered the domain and got to work on it. By February 2000, with about $1,500 invested, I made my first $29.95 sale. It was one of the most amazing feelings in the world to take an idea and have it turn into cash. And the sales kept coming – about $1,800 the first month…then $3,400…then approx. $7,800.00 and roughly $9,400.00 the fourth month out of the gate. I was on track to hit six-figures with my very first site – and that’s when things really started exploding. Since then, it has my first million dollar product.

That’s why I love questions.

In Robert Kiyosaki’s best-selling, Rich Dad, Poor Dad series one of my favorite distinctions was revealing. Kiyosaki tells of his “Poor Dad” looking at a beautiful stretch of beach and saying, “I can never afford to live here.” And conversely his “Rich Dad” looking at the same stretch and saying, “How can I build something here?”

It’s the questions that open you up to all sorts of possibilities instead of simply saying “I can’t afford it” and closing down that conversation in your head. Our minds want to search for answers. In fact, I used a similar question when I wanted to fund my ticket for Virgin Galactic spaceflight. I asked “What kind of product or service can I create to pay for this?”

And that’s when the idea for one of my events came together that more than paid for my ticket from the event tickets and sales of the tapes afterwards.

I like writing down my question on the top of a piece of paper and then working on multiple answers. Most times the first answers you get will be pretty pedestrian and won’t have much creativity to them. Keep pushing yourself to come up with more distinctions and sometimes even wilder answers. Don’t censor yourself either – just write. Here’s an actual example of mine with the question – “How can I get my business ideas implemented quickly and easily without my direct, day-to-day involvement?”

Here are some of questions I frequently ask myself or clients:

Q: How can I create 10x – 100x in value for this product or service?

I love this question because one of my personal statements written in my planner is ‘I get rich by enriching others 10x – 100x what they pay me in return.’ I think the more value you can provide, the more rewards you’ll be provided. It’s simply a natural law and this is a great question to jumpstart the answers. You might be surprised at what you come up with too. This opens up the avenue of not only thinking about what you can add to a product or service yourself but if you think creatively about this question, you might consider other related products or services that would be provided as a bonus or you license, etc.

Q: How can I go the opposite direction of most of my competitors?

I’m a big fan of not following the pack. In fact, I think it’s a smart idea to create your own category of goods or services if possible. Taking a look at where most of your competitors are headed and then actively making a decision to do the opposite is enough, in many times, to set you apart and create a differentiation point in the marketplace.

Q: What’s the single, most powerful ultimate benefit my customers are looking for?

The answer to this question helps you frame your headline, your offer, your guarantee, etc. A whole lot comes out of this.

Q: Who else has more to gain than I do if this succeeds?

One of my favorite questions to ask when consulting with clients since it forces to think outside yourself. Many times there might be other companies or individuals who want you to succeed because it helps them succeed. You might be surprised at what those other individuals would provide to help you too. For example, from my father’s medical equipment business we were able to get co-op advertising money from manufacturers to sell their items but unless we asked we’d never know it was available.

Q: What businesses or services do my customers already use before they would come to me?

Another powerful question that starts you heading in the right direction for partners and possible affiliates. If you strategically step back and consider what a customer does before they come to you – you’ll find the perfect partners to promote your products or services. For instance, if was an email service provider like Aweber, you’d bet I’d be trying to talk to different domain companies because once someone registers a domain they might need our services.

My friend, Tony Hsieh, CEO of $1Billion eTailer, Zappos.com uses these questions in discussions:

• What stories do they (customers) tell their friends?
• How can culture create more stories and memories?
• What emotions do customers feel?
• What do customers actually experience?
• What do customers expect?

I asked my Twitter followers and via Facebook what their favorite business or life questions were, here are a few I got back:

“What do I love doing and who can I best serve?” – Kat Tepelyan

“What is the best use of my time right now?” – Rosalind Gardner

“What would have to be true to _______” i.e. “What would have to be true for me to sell my business for $50million?”   – Derek Naylor

“Am I happier today than I was yesterday?” – Capt Rob Lee

“What does my client have to already believe in order for him to eventually believe what I need him to believe?” – Nicholas Neilson

“If I only accomplished one thing today, what should it be?” – Danny Welsh

“Do I really want to be THIS guy?” (I use it to determine whether an idea is worth pursuing.) – Mahesh Grossman

“What does my client want (VS what I have to offer)?” – Rebecca Trelfa

Let’s keep the conversation rolling and leave a comment with your favorite business or life question.

Happy New Year! And welcome to part 4 in this continuing series…

I’m a big believer in having a lot of fun in how you work and how you play.

Maverick Rule #31 says “Make your business AND doing business with you FUN!”

As a self-described “adventure junkie”, I’ve found that my own life-changing experiences (such as Running with the Bulls, Bungee Jumping, Sky diving, Exotic Car Rallies, Baja racing, Zero-Gravity flights, etc.) have not only brought a profound sense of accomplishment but also led to breakthroughs in ideas, focus and business thinking.  Trust me, you don’t have to get as extreme as I do sometimes – but you do need to break out of your typical routine. Fresh thinking and big ideas come from new experiences away from the office! Plus, as you open yourself up to new adventures or experiences it opens up different ways of thinking about issues in your business (and life).

Let’s start…

By and large, most people’s businesses are B-O-R-I-N-G! I’m talking Zzzzzzzzz city! Even the good sales letter sites do not use this technique to breathe life into their site beyond the typical benefit-driven headline, subheads, etc.

I’m talking about giving your site (and yourself) a unique personality in the marketplace. First, let’s talk about giving a site a personality. Here’s one of my favorite examples – www.Demotivation.com and www.Despair.com

The personality of being sarcastic, entertaining and against the grain comes out just about everywhere on the site. Here are a few examples, starting with Demotivation.com.

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From the FAQs about their book “The Art of Demotivation”:

1. Is this book for real?
As sure as the ISBN is 1-892503-40-9, this book is for real. If you don’t believe us, order a copy and watch as our real financial department really charges your real credit card for thirty real dollars.

2. What is the overall message of The Art of Demotivation?
Here’s a message for you: Buy the book! You’re too old for Cliffs Notes, dude.

12. Will there be a paperback version of The Art of Demotivation?
A paperback version? Would you sell a 1997 Louis Roederer Cristal champagne in a Juicy Juice box? We’re about quality. If you want a paperback, go read the newest John Grisham book. I think it might have something to do with lawyers.

26. Is it possible to get Dr. Kersten’s autograph on my copy of the book?
Dr. Kersten autographs each and every Chairman Edition of The Art of Demotivation with a personal message. He can’t be bothered with Manager or Executive Editions. Money talks, yo.

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This book comes in 3 editions – up to the $1,195.00 Executive version. Check out some of the copy from that page –

Now on Despair.com they sell some of my favorite prints which are the opposite of ‘Successories’. I bought some of my friends this year for the holidays. They are hilarious! This is the one I bought my buddy Bill Glazer:

Look at the navigation bar on the site – even the way the buttons are labeled gives you more of the site’s personality. There’s a button for “Spin”, in which people can view and sign up for audio & video podcasts. And then instead of “customer service” or support there is “disservice”.

Check out the “Contact” us link

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Contact Us

As should be quite apparent, Despair takes great efforts to avoid contact with virtually everyone. However, we recognize that, from time to time, it becomes necessary for someone to reach us. (e.g. notifying Dr. Kersten of various nominations, particularly those with cash components)

(PLEASE NOTE: All order and product-related inquiries should be sent via our Troubled Ticket form.)

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And when you click to contact them – they have a picture of their own poster about “Apathy: If we don’t take care of the customer, maybe they’ll stop bugging us”.

Now a true personality for your website has to be carried through in all the little communications with customers and prospects. To see how far they take their personality – here’s the response after you fill out a “troubled ticket”:

They really have this personality plugged into every nook and cranny of their website – I love it!

Now you might be thinking that you’ll repel some customers and people will get a little pissed off after this type of treatment. The answer is absolutely yes! And that’s a good thing because you don’t want to be plain vanilla if you are in heavily competitive marketplaces. Go ahead and polarize your prospects/customers to either love you or hate you. There’s no money to be made in the middle. Look at Howard Stern. There are people who absolutely love him and now pay Sirius radio a monthly subscription just to listen to their “god”. But on the other hand there are lot of people too who will tune in just to see what Howard says so they can hate him more.

Let me show you a few more examples of a site personality…

Here’s one: www.CordaRounds.com. It’s a site that sells horizontal corduroy pants (and shorts) instead of vertical. It sounds kind of stupid but this company has got a lot of mileage out it and their customers are really into it. The founder of CordaRounds, Christopher Lindlands, does a great job of bringing in the quirky, wacky and fun side of their product on the site. Take a look at their “motto”, in which they call themselves, very firmly tongue-in-check, an Evil Multinational Corporation:

What started out as a joke has become a real business. In 2005 they sold 3,000 pairs of courdarounds. The fun, quirky and wacky style comes across just about everywhere on the site. In fact, here’s the “technology” behind these remarkable breakthrough pants:

And once you get into the actual store – the same personality is evident. Check out this product photo:

Here’s another site to check out – www.CDBaby.com – that doesn’t quite go as far but it tells you in no uncertain terms you’re not dealing with a conglomerate. Check out the personality that comes through in their emails about when your CD ships:

Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with

sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure
it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money
can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved ‘Bon Voyage!’ to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Wednesday, August 7th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby.  We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as ‘Customer of the Year’.  We’re all
exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you once again,

Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
the little CD store with the best new independent music
phone: 1-800-448-6369  email: cdbaby@cdbaby.com
http://www.cdbaby.com

* * *

Themed Marketing for Mavericks

One of the biggest issues most businesses have is not being BORING!

You want your customers and prospects to be thinking “Wow! What’s this crazy guy (or gal) going to do next?”

It’s no secret that the majority of your customers/prospects live somewhat typical lives. So it’s not enough anymore just to present an offer filled with benefits but it’s also got to entertain them and keep it exciting.

I’m going to let you step behind some of my best-selling campaigns that involved “themes”. Now don’t think you need to create some sort of corny, fake image that’s not really you – you don’t. You want to keep it fun and keep the sales message in the forefront of your prospect’s mind.

Let’s start with my very first one – that was “Yanik’s 30^th Birthday Bash!”

I decided I was going to hold a super blowout party for my 30^th birthday and invite all my best customers/prospects to it.

Over 531 people came to my little birthday party (see the pic above) and it was the biggest Internet Marketing-only seminar at that time.

I brainstormed what a birthday party has and then planned my promotion – and the actual event – around it. People everywhere love to have fun! Entertainment is something people spend their last nickel on because everyone wants to have fun.

So here’s what I did…

First, starting with the promotion. Here’s the first page of the sales letter – notice me in the goofy birthday hat:

A few guys on my hockey team saw this picture and gave me a hell of a time at the next game we had. But the picture really fits perfectly. You may or may not want to be this “goofy”, but don’t throw away the idea of “Birthday Bash” in your honor as a perfect sales event. I know 2 other info marketers who took this concept, and one ended up doing multiple 6-figures from this event. (His was a 40^th Bday Bash!)

I also tied my event into a charity – Make-A-Wish Foundation®. I worked with the Central FL chapter (instead of trying to contact National headquarters) and they were extremely accommodating . Here’s the paragraph describing the charity requirement and a second optional (FUN) gag gift contest:

* *

There is one simple requirement for getting into the Birthday Bash:

1. There is a $50.00 charitable donation required to attend. The whole $50 will go to Make-a-Wish® of Central and Northern Florida. Your donation will help grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. I’ve personally donated thousands and thousands of dollars to the Make-a-Wish Foundation ® and I’m hoping that we’ll able to grant at least 2 or 3 wishes with the amount we raise. The $50.00 donation is paid now and is non-refundable to hold your spot — but there is no fee for the event.

The event is going on at Disney’s Coronado Spring Resorts. We have negotiated a special rate of only $131/night with the hotel for seminar attendees (During prime vacation time this is a real steal). Information for registering will be given to you (only) when you have confirmed seminar registration. Let me assure you, Disney’s Coronado Spring Resorts is a great resort that you’ll really enjoy! It’s close to all the Disney parks and other attractions.

And then there’s also a second OPTIONAL admission requirement that gets you entered into a fabulous contest!
2. (OPTIONAL) A gag gift for me. Show up with some sort of silly or funny gag gift for me and you’ll be entered into a contest for the “best gag gift”. The winner will be decided by an attendee vote. You might want to give this gift a bit of thought because the winner will receive either a half-day consultation with me (that’s s $2,000.00 value) or $500.00 in cash. And the runner-up will get their choice of one of our best-selling products or $200.00 in cash.

* *

It was pretty cool that we were able to raise $25,000.00 for Make-A-Wish® and really make a difference in a lot of kid’s lives.

As far as the gag gift contest – that got pretty out of control during the event. I loved it! We got piles and piles of gifts. Some were definitely a bit off kilter. One guy from the UK thought it was a “stag” party and handed me a ream of porn magazines. Another guy brought over some endangered animal pelt that he smuggled into the country. Someone else gave me a family heirloom passed down through generations.

I mean, you name it – I got it. Fart machines, dancing birthday bears, a giant sack of fake money (I liked that one), a picture of me with Al Gore saying I invented the Internet, a blank book “written” by me called “Everything I know about the Internet”, etc, etc. We even had a beagle come out and bark “Happy Birthday” to me.

I bring all this up because it’s all part of the birthday party theme. If you are going to do a theme go for it all the way! We had confetti on the tables, balloons all over the seminar room, banners, etc. We even brought out cake (yes, very thin slices) for everyone, and Mickey Mouse even came out to lead the crowd in singing happy birthday.

All these little touches made it a lot of fun for everyone attending, even if each speaker was selling something. The whole attitude of most of the people there was that they’d never had such a great time and learned so much.

Underground Theme

Okay let me showcase another theme you should be well versed in…my very own Underground Online Seminar®.

I’ve already shared the thinking behind the Underground and how it was meant to be a complete 180 degree shift from any other Internet event, since every speaker is a “real-world” doer and not someone who sells “How to Get Rich Online” as their main business. So at a brainstorming meeting with my own MasterMind group the theme become a SPY theme.

I really try to play up the theme in every communication and “touch” a prospect has from me relating to the Underground. It’s evolved a bit since the very first event and I’ll share with you some interesting examples along to way to show…

Here’s one of the first direct mail pieces that went out:

Instead of having speakers or presenters, we had “Rogue Agents” with their front and spy-profiles like they were “wanted”. I gave each speaker a distinct agent name. Here are a couple of the first graphics:

I truly tried to tie in everything into a full spy experience. The event was (and still is) held in Washington, DC because that’s the spy capital of the world. And once attendees got to the event they were immersed in the world of the Underground.

We had 2 checkpoints set-up to sign their NDA (called the “Cone of Silence” which nobody picked up on from Get Smart) and then they were handed their spy briefcase.

Now inside the briefcase was the attendee manual, a T-shirt (“Official Underground Agent”) and official Underground sunglasses.

The theming continued throughout the event with the VIP dinner being held at the Spy Museum in Washington, DC. We had a private dinner there and really played it up. To enter there were 2 Russian border patrol guards checking for passwords. And then Boris and Natasha showed up for a little entertainment. And finally, the whole group went on a private tour of the Spy Museum.

For the next year’s Underground® II – I went even further…

This time I used a specific spy theme – “Austin Powers” – instead of a combination of all spy themes. I wanted to keep it different enough that people who attended #1 would still be surprised and excited with #2. Underground® II sold-out even faster than the first one – and we added 100 more seats.

And going with the movie theme, here’s a little preview movie poster I had created before we announced the event:

I really got into ‘character’ for this one. Actually it wasn’t hard, because I love Austin Powers and that was one of my favorite Halloween costumes ever. And we decided to up the ante a lot and bring in professional entertainment for the VIP dinner. I hired an Improv troupe from Canada who were all “Second City” alum. They were awesome! We called it a ‘mystery spy whodunit dinner’ and everyone was roaring in their seats….especially when I was killed off. Somebody started yelling “Search the dead guy for drink tickets!”

I decided to go full tilt and hire a celebrity tied to the theme, so I booked “Mini Me” – AKA Verne Troyer – from the Austin Powers movies. Surprisingly it’s not as much as you’d think to book a celebrity (depending on their status) and it can really add a lot to your events. Here’s a picture of me, Verne and our “Roller Girls” (see, I told you I went all the way with the theme).

Having a celebrity there not only gives you excitement but provides additional reasons to contact your customers.

The next year for Underground® III I kept up the theme but this time it was a “Mission Profitable” theme and I brought in Peter Graves from the original TV series. And when I did the Underground® UK we had a James Bond theme with the prize being an Aston Martin race day experience. This year we’re doing “Get Smarter” so I’m sure there will be something with a shoe phone!

Using Holidays & Events

You don’t need to rack your brain for a theme or something to add fun into your business. Just use a calendar of holidays and events to find your perfect excuse.

A few Halloweens ago I released my “Ultimate At-Home Internet Copywriting Course”.

I planned the launch during Halloween and wanted to create a bit of a stir in the Internet marketing community to try to get some people talking about what I was doing. So my idea was to become “Count Yanik”. You see, the previous Halloween I dressed up as “The Count” from Sesame Street. Missy said I was the most annoying guest at the party because I went around counting everything…

“One, Two, Three beer bottles…..Ahhhhh…..Ahhhh!!!…..”

“One, Two, Three, Four, Five hot dogs…..Ahhhhh…..Ahhhh!!!…..”

Okay, so maybe I was annoying – but I had fun.

Regardless, I had one good photo of me in my purple make-up, monocular and black cape. That became a key part of my campaign. I sent our subscribers to this page with a message from the “Count” – http://www.UltimateCopywritingWorkshop.com/count/

It’s a flash animation file I had created where you see a purple bat fly into the screen and turn into a talking “Count Yanik”. Then I turn back into a bat and fly out of the screen. I paid $150 to have this created at www.Rentacoder.com – super cheap.

Then on the landing page there’s even more Halloween theme. I really got into it with the “bloody” text. Actually Missy told me I had to tone it down so people could read it better. I settled on just the headline in dripping blood.

And there were a couple sections of the letter where I mixed in more fun elements of Halloween:

Bonuses:

Guarantee:

I added a follow-up audio postcard – http://ultimatecopywritingworkshop.com/trickortreat/ (this was my Halloween costume pic from 2 years ago):

* * *

Okay now how about results?

This sold over six-figures of my copywriting course in the first week on the market. Actually more specifically 114 packages for a total of $145,350.00. So this stuff works!

Now there are a couple big points I really want to make sure you get before I go on with a other examples:

#1 – Make your marketing fun and have people wonder, “What is this guy/gal up to next?”

Fact is, most of your prospects and customers probably lead fairly normal and mundane lives. If you can give them something to get excited about or even live a little bit through what you do – you’ll have ‘hooked’ them in.

#2 – This is critical! Don’t make your theme or “fun” idea take away from the sales message. Big advertisers do this all the time and waste all their money. They try to use humor or something clever in their advertising but have no salesmanship. The fun or theme aspect of your promotion cannot stand on its own without the fundamentals of direct response (i.e. compelling offer, deadline, headlines, benefits, etc). Bottom line – don’t confuse this with being cute or clever and not actually selling. There is a big, BIG difference.

#3 – “Reason Why” copy works perfectly for most of the events or themes you create. As you know, most retailers will use some sort of event (i.e. Presidents Day) for a sale. Well that’s a pretty weak reason why, but most people will accept just about any excuse for a special deal. However, when you combine it with real meaningful reason why copy it works even better, even if the reason is a bit contrived. For example, I did a “Save Yanik’s Marriage” sale when I needed to clean out our stockroom because Missy was pissed off at me.

Using this psychological ‘hot button’ can massively increase your Marketing success.

Max Sackheim, famous for the long-running ad “Do You Make These Mistakes In English” and originator of the book-of-the-month concept, says this: “Whenever you make a claim or special offer in your advertising, come up with an honest reason why, and then state it sincerely. You’ll sell many more products this way.”

Adding More Fun to a Regular Business

I’m always interested in what companies do to add more fun to their business. Certainly booking a hotel room usually isn’t the most exciting thing in the world (well – I guess it can be if you’re going to a cool resort), but otherwise a room is pretty much a room. I’m a big fan of the “W” hotels.

Here’s a promo I got from them promoting a “Sleep-a-Way Camp” theme. Smart.

Notice the copy – it ties into this theme, from the s’mores to bug juice. Good stuff and a little inspiration for you to think up something fun for your customers. Personally, I think simply delivering a straight product/service will only get you so far. The companies that will excel are the ones that deliver true experiences and entertainment for their customers. People are bored. People are busy. People are jaded. You need something to break through all of that.

Creating More Fun Away From Business

Okay, now let’s switch gears and talk about your personal life. I know for many entrepreneurs (including me) the default mode is work. There are always too many projects and too many to-do’s left undone. That’s why I firmly believe you need to have something else scheduled and on the calendar.

Think back to when you were a kid and what activities or interests got you really jazzed and excited. Somehow as ‘adults’ many of us have lost that sense of fun and inspiration. What did you like to do? For me, it was playing sports, drawing and making people laugh. That’s why I still play ice hockey and beach volleyball. It’s why I’ve taken art classes and stand-up comedy classes. I make sure to incorporate what gives me enjoyment into my life by actually making it a priority.

How many times have you heard yourself saying, “I’d love to ___ BUT I can’t because I’m too busy.” That’s total bullshit. What you’re really saying is that activity does not have enough priority in my life. Or I feel guilt around having fun.

Don’t just settle for enjoying life when you squeeze it in between your business. Here’s a great quote from Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, New-York Times Best-Seller “The Power of Full Engagement“:

“…the richer and deeper the source of emotional recovery, the more we refill our reserves and the more resilient we become.”

Put fun activities, rewarding experiences and exceptional adventures on your calendar and protect them like you would any ‘real’ appointment.

I’ve previously written a lot about this, so instead of just copying and pasting I want to link over to the posts. It’s well worth reading them!

Creating your Ultimate BIG Life List

I’ve always been a fan of lists and I know many other successful people share this notion. What better list can you create than a list for your most memorable and exciting life? I call this my “Ultimate BIG Life List”. (Btw – you see many of mine on this blog on the right-hand side.)

Shutting down the 3-most common excuses for not checking off items on your ‘Ultimate BIG Life List’

At this point a little voice inside your head might be whispering (or shouting) about all the reasons you can’t do this kind of fun stuff in your business or in your life. It’s these excuses that will sap the spirit and energy out of your life. As entrepreneurs, we’re naturally inclined to create so let’s smash these final excuses to create what you really want in your life & business.

Creating your own Fun…Or how to stop “I’m Bored Syndrome”

You don’t have to wait for the EPIC over-the-top experiences to add more fun into your life; I’ve done something I call “tweaking the fun” with regular, everyday activities. See what you think.

I think we’re wrapping up with the next part – part 5 talking about ‘Giving More’. See you on the next installment.

** Update**

You can now download this series of blog posts (and the other posts they refer to) here. http://www.surefiremarketing.com/decade/

So let’s start where we left off, talking about “Making More”…

Maverick Rule #1 says:

It’s got to be a BIG idea that you, your team and your customers can “get” in seconds.

Creating The BIG Idea

Before we get started with the how – let’s talk about the why. Why do we even need to worry about creating some kind of hook, angle or big idea for our product or service? Easy answer is because there is so much frickin competition! There’s just too much noise in the marketplace (in just about every marketplace) that you need some way of sticking out.

If you don’t have a big idea you simply fade into the background like every other ‘me-too’ product or service. Actually it’s not always even about having a proprietary product/service. This is really more about positioning and the immediate reaction a prospect has to your deal the moment they hear it.

That’s on the key elements of the BIG idea – gut reaction. If you want a real interesting insight into this get the book “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell. You’ll see exactly how much our attitudes and perceptions are based on what he calls “thin slicing”. With our world’s being busier than ever – people usually don’t have all the time in the world to explore absolutely everything about a product or service. We’ve got to use shortcuts for our decision-making. And the clearer and more poignant you can make a distinction for your product or service the better you’ll do in the crowded marketplace.

Let me cover some real-world examples and then you’ll have a little better notion of how to create the same kind of hooks and angles for yourself. I’ll start with a couple products from the consumer world and see if you can pick up on it…

“Uncrustables”

“100 Calorie Packs”

“8 Minute Abs”

“Time Shares”

“101 Nights of Grrreat Sex”

“The Real World”

“Club Med”

“24”

All of these consumer products broke out and created serious financial windfalls for companies involved.

1. Uncrustables are a pretty silly idea but they work. Create a pre-made PB&J sandwich, remove the crust and seal it together so the bread is a little pouch. Then put in your freezer and stick in your kids lunch bag to thaw for lunch.  (Side note: We buy these a lot! Missy absolutely loves uncrustables herself. I’m the one who loves 5-star meals at fancy restaurants with great wine, while she could go for a grilled cheese sandwich any day of the week.)
2. 100 Calorie Packs are from Nabisco and now have grown to a bunch of different varieties. Anything from Ritz crackers to Oreo cookies – but they only have exactly 100 calories per pouch. That’s the big idea – you don’t have to count calories because we’ve done it for you. You know that with each snack pack you can’t eat 18 portions because we’ve put less than 100 calories in there for you.
3. 8 Minute Abs – the name says it all. That’s all you need to hear to know exactly what you get and how long it’ll take. It’s specific and very powerful – enough that on the strength of this concept hundreds of thousands of copies were sold
   
4. Time Shares – it’d be almost impossible for someone today not to know what a time share is – but in the late 60’s and early 70’s this was a breakthrough concept. You could simply purchase a week of a hotel/condo instead of buying the whole thing. The concept first debuted in Europe and quickly spread to the US in Florida and Hawaii.
5. 101 Nights of Grrreat Sex – I absolutely loved this concept when I saw in bookstores. It was so different. This is a paperback (mass market, bookstore) book by Laura Corn that has 50 sealed activities for men and 50 for women. You just rip out a page and away you go. You don’t have to think too much because it’s all there for you. The other point that I absolutely love about this book is the curiosity factor. You simply cannot “browse” the book like you typically would in a bookstore. All the pages are sealed and you only get little tantalizing hints like “Sucking the Mango”, etc. Laura is a fabulous marketer and constant promoter – she smartly has charged a premium price on her of $29.95 (way more than most paperbacks).
6. The Real World is probably the first reality TV show and was a major breakthrough because there were no actors and no script. MTV concocted a recipe to whip up mega drama from a bunch of strangers all living together. Hey, I watched it. I still remember season #1 in NY. This concept is so strong that they are still going years and years later. Of course, reality TV has gone haywire in the past few years and really exploded. TV viewers will watch just about any kind of reality show if Flavor Flav is any indication.
7. Club Med started the all-inclusive concept for vacations in the 50’s. This was a BIG idea since previously you had to pay for meals, drinks, activities, etc. all separate.
8. 24 is the TV show that I haven’t seen copied yet. It’s got a unique format of every episode occurring in an hour of real time. And the entire season occurs over exactly 24 hours. Missy and I were totally hooked on it until about Season 5 or 6. If you watch this show – you know what I mean when I say we can’t believe some of the twists and ridiculous turns the writers put in there – but we go along for the ride.

Okay I’m sure many of you picked up on some of these BIG ideas but I want to make sure nothing is glossed over because this is critical and means the difference between a “base hit” or a “home run” product.

There are 5 major things I think about and keep in mind when coming up with a BIG idea or hook for something I’m doing:

#1: Give Them the FISH!

I can’t over emphasis this idea and I can’t remember how long I’ve been telling this to students. People are downright lazy – cater to it! Everyone knows the saying about if you give the man a fish you feed him for a day but if you teach him to fish you feed him for life. Let me give it to straight here – that’s complete and total B.S.!

People want the fish handed to them on their plate, grilled perfectly and with some seasonal vegetables on the side. Look at Home Depot – the world’s largest “do it yourself” company in the world. Why did they suddenly start buying up companies left and right and provide the service for consumers? And why does their CEO think the “done for you” services will eclipse their current sales? Hmmmm….

I’ve had big success with giving people the “fish” including the first online product that you’re probably sick of hearing by now - Instant Sales Letters. The whole hook behind Instant sales letters is in the headline on the site – “In Only 2 ½ Minutes You Can Quickly and Easily Create A Sales Letter Guaranteed To Sell Your Product Or Service…Without Writing! Looking To Increase Your Business? Just Fill In A Few Blanks And PRESTO… You’ve Just Created A Powerful, Money-Making Sales Letter!”

That hook has been responsible for me generating $1M+ with a little $40 – $50 product.

Another big success story using the “FISH” concept has got to the Public Domain Goldmine package created with my partner, Michael Holland. After the success of my Public Domain Riches product where I covered how to find and profit from public domain works – I realized many people didn’t want to go through the trouble of finding the public domain works and analyzing markets themselves. Here’s the big idea:

I’m going to hand you 35 different public domain works on a silver platter with nearly EVERYTHING done for you and ready to start making you money. We’re talking all the market research, competitive analysis, keyword analysis, locating back-end affiliate revenue sources, finding potential joint venture partners, clearing the copyrights, etc. – All for a TINY fraction of the time and money you would have to spend if you did it all yourself

That hook was enough to make sure all the volumes released so far have instantly sold out. Giving people exactly what they want handed to them in a done-for-them concept is so powerful.

As I look back, I’ve been doing this since I started selling information in ‘98. In fact, one of the very first successful products was a pre-done newsletter for cosmetic surgeons to send to their patients already written for them. Here’s how very simple and straightforward the letter selling this product started:

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“How To Write A Patient Newsletter…Without Writing”

Dear Doctor,

Are you too busy to write your own patient newsletter?

You know you need a newsletter, but if you’re like most doctors, you just can’t find the time to ever get one out. Coming up with interesting articles and compelling stories is hard, hard work, and unless you have lots of extra time on your hands, it’s easy to keep putting off publishing a newsletter until “someday”.

But of course, we all know “someday” usually never comes…

Oh sure, there are a couple companies that will do it all for – but they’ll charge you an arm and a leg. And since they don’t really know the first thing about compelling offers and killer copy it probably won’t get too many patients to actually call you (which is the whole point of putting out a newsletter).

Well, all that can change starting now…

Announcing The Pre-Done, Ready-To-Go, Camera-Ready, Just Plug-In Your Name and Phone Number, Patient Newsletters

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One of my previous students, Lisa Preston, had been struggling with the information marketing business online until she took the “FISH” concept to heart. She launched “Instant Niche Emails”, which provided an easy way to get 52 weeks of follow-up autoresponders for just about any niche. It’s a great concept and she quickly saw her sales explode because of the big idea. And this isn’t just for info products – if you look back over the examples I originally gave you, I would put “Club Med” into the “FISH” category because they provide you everything you need to gave a wonderful vacation for one price. I’d also put “Uncrustables” in the “Fish” category since Moms and Dads just need to chuck one of those sandwiches into the little tykes lunch bag and they’re all set.

I’d possibly put “101 Nights of Grrreat Sex” in this since each torn out page gives you exact specific instructions but they don’t give you all the props, etc.

Okay on to the second way to develop BIG ideas and hooks…

#2: Make Your Promise Specific

Specifics are so important but usually completely overlooked because it’s much easier to make a generic promise. However, a specific promise or a specific target market makes your marketing that much more powerful.

One of my best selling products (since 2001) has been “33 Days to Online Profits” that I co-wrote with Jim Edwards. I firmly believe that “brand” has been kept alive because of the very specific claim or hook. Originally when Jim and I first began discussing the idea behind this ebook it was going to 30 Days to Online Profits – but we decided on “33” because it was specific (and credible). The other unique aspect of this product is that each day you are given a homework assignment so it’s a step-by-step, day-by-day course for 33 days.

I have no doubt in my mind if the title was “30 Days to Online Profits” it wouldn’t be as successful.

Here’s another example from an actual critique I gave to a student when they submitted an idea that they wanted to create an info product for Stay-at-home-moms….

Here’s what I told them in the critique: “Stay at home moms are a great category – you need to get specific on it the moneymaking info. How about something like “233 Ways Stay at Home Moms Can Make an Extra $200 Every Month” Now that’s different, specific and has a nice hook to it.”

You can see from my comments how much more powerful this would make the concept. Specifics also apply to things like “1001” compiled resources. However, I don’t like “typical” numbers so I’d use very specific numbers like “233” or “33” as I mentioned.

Looking at the first group of examples I’d obviously put “8-minute abs”, “100 calorie packs” and probably “101 Nights of Grrreat Sex” into the specifics category. Side Note: Notice “101 Nights” is in both categories and I firmly believe you can create bigger and better hooks by having not just one of these factors in your BIG idea. Stack them on top of one another!

Another good example of specifics selling the big idea is the success of “5 Hour Energy”.  I found this a few years back when I needed an energy boost before my Hockey finals. I went to 7-11 and was sitting there trying to decide which energy supplement/drink/powder/doohickey I should buy. I saw this little bottle called “5 Hour Energy”. I read a tiny bit on the back of the bottle and grabbed it. Yeah it tasted like crap but it worked. Not only did it give me more energy (we won the championship) but it worked from their marketing standpoint.

A point-of-purchase product like that really depends on you being able to make a split second decision whether or not you’ll get it. (Fact is, many decisions are made like this from a quick emotional, gut level but we don’t want to admit it to ourselves.) So using #2 – a specific promise of “5 hours of energy” they were able to get my business. Now just recently I saw them advertising their site – www.5hourenergy.com on TV which to me means the product has become pretty successful in a marketplace filled with competitors (like Red Bull, etc).

#3: Go the Opposite Direction

I love this. However, I don’t suggest being different just for the sake of being different – however – there is a lot to be said for ‘zigging’ when others ‘zag’.

My biggest example of this is the “Underground” concept I developed

Don’t you think there are more than enough Internet seminars going on all over the place? Some good. Some not so good. It’s real tough to create a stir in the Internet space unless you have something different. Which is exactly why I didn’t want to do another ‘same-ole’ Internet seminar. Of course, the easy way (and trust me there is nothing easy about putting on seminars) would have been to just gather up all my buddies and have a seminar – but that would be too similar to other established events.

My big hook (which was true) is every year I bring in a lot of unknown speakers who were really making it in the real world online. It wasn’t the same usual suspects you’d see at other events. I took it all the way with making the promotions ‘spy’ themed to stand out. Sure, some people emailed us and said it was silly. But a lot more people got into it because it was different. It really worked! Each year the event has SOLD-OUT weeks before the event took place (just as a comparison most other events will get the bulk of their registrants 2-3 weeks before the seminar and most will take registrants up until the event.)

[Shameless plug: This year’s Underground® 6 event has an incredible line-up of speakers and we’re just about to announce 2 really big keynote additions. The very best bonuses including the VIP networking dinner and lowest ticket prices expire on January 20, 2010. Click here for details!

For a broader example of going the opposite direction, think about when VW Beetle first came to the U.S. with their “Think Small” campaign in 1960.

It was the era of big cars and automakers were trying to outdo themselves by building bigger and bigger cars for the American public. But the VW Beetle quickly became a blockbuster because it went in the opposite direction and even highlighted the fact it was small. This campaign was so powerful that AdAge magazine named it the #1 in it’s Top 100 Advertising Campaigns list.

#4: Move to a New Application

Many times you can create a great hook by simply taking one successful hook from one industry or place and moving it somewhere else.

A great example of this is the successful Time Shares concept I already mentioned to you and moving it to other industries. The time share concept has been successfully applied to private jets (think NetJets), exotic cars, luxury second homes, yachts, etc.

Or on a smaller level, one of my friends and former Underground® II speaker is a great example of this. John Alanis’ site is www.WomenApproachYou.com and the whole hook behind his info products is to get women to approach you instead of you having to chase them.

Great concept – however it’s not even close to original!

Both John and I would credit Dan Kennedy with being a tremendous influence in our business. And one of Dan’s most successful products is “Magnetic Marketing” – with the big idea of not chasing business but having it come to you.

See any similarities?

#5: Being First

Sometimes the most important thing you can to is simply be the first. From our example list “Time Shares”, “Club Med” and “Real World” qualify since they were the very first in their category.

If you are moving into a crowded marketplace you can actually “slice” off a piece of that market to be first. For instance, Dan Kennedy talks about his foray into helping dentists and chiropractors with their practice marketing. He would say his company was “the single biggest provider of practice building information for the dental & chiropractic profession”. And that’s because nobody else was serving both.

Or how about this one?

Hedonism (owned by SuperClubs) took the concept behind all-inclusive resorts from ClubMed and geared only towards singles or adventurous singles. But that wasn’t the end because another smart company niched the all-inclusive concept again but only for romantic couples with “Sandals” resorts.

If you start thinking about these points for creating the BIG idea or a hook – you’ll action begin to notice ideas everywhere. Plus, you’ll also see how successful products/services are in many ways take-offs on other successful concepts/ideas that came before them.

Or how about this mega moneymaking example – if you have kids you surely have heard of the Wiggles, right?

Zak likes their songs and surprisingly (or maybe not) I now know all the words to the songs on his Wiggles CD. The Wiggles have become a huge hit by following BIG idea method #4 and #5. So huge that according to Business Review Weekly magazine, The Wiggles were Australia’s highest grossing entertainers for the year 2005, earning more than AC/DC and Nicole Kidman combined.

2 of the Wiggles started off in a regular rock bank called “The Cockroaches” and had some modest success. It was only after deciding to move to a new application (#4) and being first (#5) did they have their massive success.

For moving to a new application they took their same popular rock sound and moved to kids music. Most kids music pretty much stunk but the Wiggles aren’t bad. Now moving to a new application they didn’t need to compete against tens of thousands of other hopeful musical acts trying to go big and mainstream. They went for kids and cornered the market. According to Wikipedia one of their hit songs came from reworking a few of the old Cockroaches tunes into children’s songs. For example, “Do the Monkey” was originally a Cockroaches song with different lyrics. Another Cockroaches song, “Get Ready To Wiggle”, inspired the new band’s name.

Then the other portion of the BIG idea used her was (#5) Being First. Now, they were not literally the first children’s entertainers but they took this combination of CDs, live performance, videos, and characters to develop a sticking point in the heads of little rug rats everywhere.

The more you can incorporate a BIG idea or hook into your product – the easier it’ll be to write a kick-ass sales promotion for it. It almost writes itself. The times when I’ve struggled writing copy is because I didn’t have enough of a big idea behind it.

Maverick Rule #3: You must charge a premium price so you have a large margin to provide an extraordinary value & experience.

About 2 years ago I conducted a $10,000/person workshop on “How to Sell Super High-Priced Information Products and Services” and I’ll share a few insights here…

If you boil down my biggest profit windfalls in my business (and the most astute marketers I observe) it has come down to selling premium products and services at premium prices. That’s how my business has leapfrogged from 6-figures to 7-figures and now multiple 7-figures a year!

Personally, I’ve sold everything from $5,000 workshops to $14,500.00 “Apprentice Programs” to $20,000 MasterMind groups and even a $40,000+/yr program for cosmetic surgeons.

First, let’s say you want to make an extra $1M this year – then you’d have to sell 20000 copies of your ‘doohickey’ at $50. Or it could be 2000 copies at $500. Or better still 200 copies at $5000. It’s a lot easier dealing with 200 customers than 20,000. Think of all the customer service and infrastructure, etc.

Once again before we get into the “HOW” let’s discuss the “WHY”…

Reason #1: More Profits

Okay no surprise here. When you sell for higher prices you make more profits. Very few companies have been able to sustain a “low price” position in the marketplace. Sears couldn’t. K-Mart couldn’t. And now it remains to be seen what Wal-Mart does with that position. (Actually if you study Wal-Mart you’ll notice they are bringing in some significantly high-priced, high-margin products.)

Reason #2: Better Customers

Price qualifies your customers more than you might realize. The ones that pay $7 for an ebook are going to be the ones that whine and complain the most! They’ll tax and strain your customer support team. But in comparison the customers who spend significant amounts of money are surprisingly easier to deal with and less demanding.

Think about the last time you gave free advice to someone – what happened? That’s right. Nothing. But if you had made them pay you for consulting – they would have taken it to heart.

Reason #3: Psychology of Price Works In Your Favor

This is a big one! We’ve always been taught “You get what you pay for”. It’s not uncommon for a prospective customer to discount a product or offering because it’s “too cheap”. If the price is not in line with what it should be you’d think there is something wrong.

Reason #4: Can Deliver More Value

Ultimately the value you provide will dictate the profits you receive from your customers. Increase the value and your revenues go up. By high-profit products with high-margins you have lots more wiggle room to deliver sensational value. You can really “WOW” your customers and buyers. Not only can you throw in high-value extras but you can afford to deliver truly unique unadvertised bonuses and follow-ups.

Reason #5: Some Buyers Will NOT Buy Low-Priced Items

It sounds crazy but some customers are only premium buyers. If you gave them a discount it would actually decrease the response. Plus, some customers are only comfortable buying in the high-end range. I was shocked when I discovered with my first high-priced offering. My Apprentice program was $14,500 and at the time this was head and shoulders above any other marketer.

I thought my best prospects for this program would be customers who had already bought from me and were happy. Surprisingly about half of the people in this program had *NEVER* bought anything from me before. Their comfort level was for a premium offer.

Reason #6: You Will OWN The Marketplace

I think this is the biggest reason of all…

This means you can afford to pay more to acquire a customer. This is huge! If I’m in the same marketplace and I’m competing against someone who only has $100.00 product at the end of their funnel and I have a $10,000.00 offering – there’s going to be almost no contest.  I can spend more on Pay-per-click, more on advertising, more on affiliate pay-outs, more on offline follow-up, more on testing unusual advertising places, etc..

And I can make bad results work for me. If I’m direct mailing for a high-priced product I only need a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the response for a low-priced product to make me money.

Fact is, the business owner who can spend the most to acquire a customer will WIN.

Period. End of story.

Most people are undercharging for what they provide. My rule of thumb and one of my values I look at it every morning in my planners says “I get rich by enriching others 10x – 100x what they pay me in return”.

That’s a big deal for me. If you pay me $1000 for a product – I want to make sure it delivers $10,000 in value for my customers. I suggest you consider something similar. If your product isn’t good enough for you to raise your price on it – make it better!

And that’s the first step at the “HOW” to double or triple our prices…start brainstorming the value you provide.

Step #1 – Brainstorming Additional Value

Either find a trusted advisor, work with your team (if you have one) or just grab a blank yellow legal pad and start coming up with answers. It doesn’t matter how crazy they are. Just write them all down. In fact, the rules of brainstorming should be used:

• Rule #1 – No criticism allowed (turn off your left brain)
• Rule #2 – The wilder the better…everything’s possible
• Rule #3 – Quantity
• Rule #4 – Jump off and “Plus” others ideas

You want to start with a blank slate and just “blue sky” questions like these:

• “How can I provide 10x-100x the value to my customers?”
• “What can I do that will absolutely amaze them?”
• “How can I get my customers the end-result they want on a silver platter?”
• “How can I ‘do it for them’?”

Step #2 – Your thinking

Next, setting higher prices begins inside your head. People are usually too slow to raise prices and it’s more about confidence & self-image than the actual value delivered. Get Maxwell Maltz’s book “Psycho Cybernetics” and consider your self-image. We all have self images in every single area of our life and if you are not charging a premium it’s usually more to do with what’s in-between your ears than the actual marketplace. Which brings me to my next point, never allow your competition to set your prices. Just because someone else charges $x dollars – that does not mean you have to charge similar prices. There will be always a very profitable spot for businesses at the premium scale who deliver what’s perceived as exceptional products and value.

Step #3 – Targeting the right marketplace

Another mistake I see a lot is going after markets who cannot afford to pay premium prices. There’s no reason you cannot have another division of your business go after customers who have already shown they will pay premium prices for products/services. For example, I have a giclee of a painting by Thomas Arvid in our dining room at home. I believe we paid about $2500-$3000 for this work. Now in case you are unfamiliar with the term a giclee is really just a fancy print. This one being on canvas. I can most certainly assure you there is a high margin in this piece.

Why would I and many others pay such a premium for it? Well, the artist’s originals go for $25,000 or more now (if you can even get them) and he chose a subject that buyers would pay a premium for – namely high end wines. Also, it’s a limited edition piece (something we’ll discuss in greater detail shortly.) Arvid only specializes in hyper realistic wines paintings. They are absolutely beautiful and the first time I saw his work in Carmel, CA I was blown away. (You can see for yourself at www.ThomasArvid.com) Arvid paints high-end wines like Opus One, Silver Oak, Caymus, etc.

And the people who are passionate about these high-end wines will pay a premium for wonderful art. He stumbled onto this by accident when he started painting and found that a red wine painting was snapped up immediately. Very astutely Arvid learned more about wine and which ones to paint so that customers would open up their wallets.

And the final aspects of creating a high-priced offer are the psychological ones…

We’ve talked about the psychology of scarcity previously in this post. Human beings have been hard-wired to want what is going away. Many more people are motivated by the thought of potential loss than potential gain. You see this used all the time in marketing and it works *IF* there is truth behind or we perceive there to be truth behind it. Here’s one example from a company I buy a lot of wine from that really illustrates this point (combined with ‘reason why’):

If you have trouble reading the text in the email – here’s the main part (underlining is my own):

WINE ALERT: As you probably read in the news, our friends at Silver Oak experienced a terrible fire at their winery earlier this year. At that time, there were rumors that they had lost most of their past and current vintages. Hence, the winery ceased new sales of their prized Silver Oak 2001 Alexander Valley Cabernet – - Robert Parker’s highest rated Silver Oak since renowned 1997 vintage – - to the great disappointment of thirsty collectors across America who have made this wine the #1 selling Collector Cabernet. However, today the big news is our friends at Silver Oak just found 15 more cases of this wine + several BIG bottles including an extremely rare 6L quadruple magnum (details below) safely tucked away in their private cellar and have made an exclusive offer to Porthos Insiders on a “first come, first sell” basis. These are the last cases and only big bottles of this prized vintage that will ever be available for sale so don’t miss this insiders-only offer!

Some of you know I bought the 6L quadruple magnum (that’s equivalent to 8 regular bottles). I really like Silver Oak anyway so I wouldn’t have bought this just because it was so scarce (or at least I tell myself that). I’m planning on popping this bad boy for some big celebration.

With this information the only thing stopping you from raising your price is yourself. But if you want to just try it out – you can always start small by offering a “Deluxe” or “Gold” version of your existing product/service and see what happens. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by adding some of these elements to your marketing how you can easily double or triple your prices and still provide an incredible value.

Okay that wraps up part 2 – part 3 will cover creating your own MasterMind group and authentic connections, leave a comment and let me know what you think.

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** Update**

You can now download this series of blog posts (and the other posts they refer to) here. http://www.surefiremarketing.com/decade/

When the clock strikes midnight this New Year’s it’ll mark the 10^th year I’ve been in business online. I’ve been taking stock of my accomplishments, lessons learned and what I’ve done in the span of 10 years.

Here’s a glimpse at part of my list…

Personal Accomplishments:

• 2 incredible kids (Zak & Zoe)
• Freedom to work at home to see the kids grow up, take them to school any day or go on their field trips or special events without worrying about it.
• Married to an encouraging, supportive and flexible wife. (Thanks Missy!)
• Millionaire before the age of 31
• “Officially” a pro beach volleyball player

Impact:

• Helped raise over $500,000.00 for Virgin Unite to start a Young Entrepreneurship program in the U.S.
• Directly donated another $500,000.00+ to charities including Caring House Foundation, Tony Hawk Foundation, Village Enterprise Fund, etc.
• Helped thousands of people get their own Internet business and improve their lives and financial situation.

Adventure:

• #144 to go into Space with Virgin Galactic
• Ran with the Bulls in Spain
• Baja racing 3x
• PlayersRun Road Rally dressed as Elvis
• HALO Skydive
• Scuba diving between tectonic plates in Iceland
• Celebrity hockey game with NHL Pros and Gordie Howe
• Rafting the Gauley River
• Bungee 440 feet in New Zealand
• Drove a Lambo 200mph+ (in a green speedo)

Business Accomplishments:

• “Real” book ‘Moonlighting on the Internet’ published by Entrepreneur Press in 3^rd printing
• Sold out the Underground® Seminar weeks early (for the last 5 years)
• Have over 5 different products that have eclipsed $1,000,000 in gross sales.
• Run two sold-out, high-level MasterMind groups
• Spent time with and interviewed Sir Richard Branson, Jesse James, Tony Hawk, John Paul DeJoria, Frank McKinney, Chip Conley, Carl Banks, etc.
• Appeared or featured in INC, Business 2.0, Fox Business News, Portfolio.com, TIME, Entrepreneur, Outside’s GO magazine, American Way, TechCrunch,  USA Today, Denver Business Journal, Boston Globe, Millionaire Blue Prints, Forbes.com, LA Times, Financial Times, Portfolio.com, etc.
• Set the biggest goal of my life of getting 1,000,000 young entrepreneurs (aged 13-23) to start their own businesses by 2020.

Your Own List

Side note: I would strongly suggest you compile your own “Best of the decade” list of how far you’ve come. I’ve also been a big fan of using the power of gratitude but I heard this another way from Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach. He has a theory of people being disappointed because they cannot reach their “ideal”.

Dan gives the example of the horizon. We all know it’s silly to think we can ever reach the horizon because it keeps moving as we move closer to it. Same with an “ideal”. We feel despondent and maybe even depressed in our greatest victories if we attempt to measure them up to our ultimate ideals. But the people who are happiest are the ones of take stock of where they are today (Point B) than when they started (Point A). And we can all look back and gain that confidence and awe of how far we’ve come.

Okay fair warning, this is going to be quite a long post but I promise it’ll be filled with some serious insights for you. (In fact, I think there will be so many prominent and buried lessons here that I’m willing to put up a little bit of a prize for the best ‘lesson detectives’ – more details at the end of the post.)

To set the stage, Jan 1, 2000 when this decade started, I was in a 1-bedroom apartment and was engaged to Missy. I didn’t have a website and I barely had an email address.

That same month was when I got an idea at 3 o’clock in the morning and woke Missy up to tell her about InstantSalesLetters.com. (She wasn’t happy!) And then I did what most people probably wouldn’t: I hopped out of bed, registered the domain and got to work on it. By February 2000, with about $1,500 invested, I made my first $29.95 sale. It was one of the most amazing feelings in the world to take an idea and have it turn into cash. And the sales kept coming – about $1,800 the first month…then $3,400…then approx. $7,800.00 and roughly $9,400.00 the fourth month out of the gate. I was on track to hit six-figures with my very first site – and that’s when things really started exploding.

As people started hearing about my success, I was invited to speak at my first Online marketing conference and I started helping others take their interests, passions, hobbies, etc. and create online oil wells.

The unusual way to ‘stumble’ onto success…

There’s a profound theory I heard from R. Buckminster Fuller that says your true success is found perpendicular along the path to your original perceived goal.  Instant Sales Letters is a perfect example because my original end goal was to sell it for $500k to Stamps.com or someone like that. But on my way to building up that site – I had so many people ask me how I started making money so quickly that I began teaching. And that teaching became part of my “accidental” success path for the last 8 years, opening up one door after another. I would never have got on that track unless I was moving towards the original goal.  And it’s the same thing today – the next chapter in my life is with my Maverick Business Adventures® and Maverick Business Insider companies – which wouldn’t have been formed without the contacts, connections and success delivered from my Internet business.

Starting with the Fundamentals

It’s easy to look back and see my somewhat meteoric rise with Instant Sales Letters and laud it as being an “overnight success”. Not exactly true. Before this decade started I had been preparing and studying direct response fundamentals, inner success laws and psychology.

One of my biggest mentors is Earl Nightingale. He passed away several years ago but you can and need to get everything he recorded at Nightingale.com.  He has a program called “Lead The Field” and “The Strangest Secret”. I learned from Earl Nightingale that if you want to be an expert, you spend an hour a day reading or studying on whatever subject that you’re interested in for 3 years. Or if you want to world-class expert you ready or study for 1-hour a day for 5 years.

So I said, “Well, what would happen if I read for two or three hours a day?”

I just started learning as much as I possibly could around these subjects.  Let’s cover a few here since I really believe the fundamentals never change.

When I first really started this blog I created a series of posts around the 9 ‘inner secrets’ to success. Those are worth re-visiting:

Inner Success Secret #1: Cheerful Expectancy

Inner Success Secret #2: Set your Plan

Inner Success Secret #3: Do One Proactive Thing a Day

Inner Success Secret #4: Deliver Exceptional Value

Inner Success Secret #5: Build on Your Successes

Inner Success Secret #6: Decision

Inner Success Secret #7: Continual Learning

Inner Success Secret #8: Gratitude

Inner Success Secret #9: Giving

Direct response

I would have to say figuring out and learning about direct response has been one of the biggest paradigm shifts for me. Since we’re heading down memory lane, I have to take the story back well beyond this decade to the bi-centennial.

My family is from Russia and immigrated to the U.S. in 1976. My Dad came over with $256 in his pocket for me, my Mom and my Grandmother. Just a year and half later, my Dad started his own company repairing (and then later selling) medical equipment.

I grew up working in the business starting with telemarketing latex gloves at age 14, and then even selling medical equipment to docs in person at age 16 when I got my license. At the time, I thought this totally sucked! My friends were living at the beach having a great time and I was spending my summers pedaling X-ray film and EKG machines. You can definitely look back and see significant turning points in your life, and one of my mine came when a doctor client of mine, Dr. Nathan Wei, gave me a Jay Abraham tape that turned on “the lights” about direct response marketing. I was about 18 or 19 at the time and I basically devoured it.

I loved the fact that I didn’t have to deal with rejection anymore in person and the incredible leverage of ‘knocking’ on tends of thousands of doors and only speaking to interested people. It was endlessly fascinating to me to realize you could write something in an ad or letter (now a website) and have people open up their wallets or raise their hands.

From Jay Abraham I learned to think broadly about how to leverage businesses. From there I found Ted Nicholas. Ted Nicholas is a true gentleman in the direct response world and I found his teachings just as he was transitioning out of his newsletter. I ended up buying all the back issues and previous products. (Actually I remember about 1 or 2 years later writing a note to Ted about our shared immigrant background and how much his teachings had meant to me – Ted responded back to me personally from Switzerland.)

At the same time I was studying Ted, I got a direct mail piece from some guy named “Dan Kennedy”. Dan truly changed my life. He is probably one of 3 people I credit with helping me achieve financial independence at such a young age. I went on to pay a small fortune for his manuals, books, audios, seminars and personal guidance.

I continued learning from direct marketing and copywriting masters who came before me; people like Gary Halbert, John Caples, David Ogilvy, Bob Stone and Joe Sugarman. (BTW – Joe is our business icon guest for the next Maverick Baja adventure.) From there I might find a random reference to someone in a manual or book and immediately look them up, which lead to more influences and original sources. I loved digging through the past to the beginning of mail order since those guys had to truly persuade people without the benefit of instant ordering via phone, fax, online, etc. Their customers had to slog to the post office to place their order. Greats like Claude Hopkins, John E. Kennedy and Maxwell Sackheim. And then I went back even further to find obscure (and extremely rare texts) like “Printed Salesmanship” by Robert Ruxton.

Obviously there is a long history of direct response, but if you boil it all down it comes to:

• An offer (ideally with a deadline)
• A way to respond/call to action (fax, phone, online, etc)
• Measurement of response

A basic example is one I told to a dentist friend of mine. I explained to him a little bit about direct response marketing while playing volleyball together in Turks & Caicos. I told him to mail his patients with an offer; in his case it was raw materials for crowns. The cost had gone up significantly and he would have to raise his price. Because he valued his patients he would give them a window to get any crowns or dental work done at the old price until X date. They had to bring the letter in to get the special. That’s it, pretty basic. And that worked spectacularly, creating his best month ever.

With the web – nearly everything can be measured and quick test results achieved. That’s part of what makes this one of the most incredible times to be around. I definitely believe a true direct response fundamental is a key to understanding the Web. I got my chops by writing ads for my dad’s business, attempting to sell medical equipment that we only previously sold face-to-face and toes-to-toes. My dad would look at the ads I created and say, “Who’s going to read all that?” I had to persuade him to let me try it and see what happened. Quite frankly, it was a revolution in the way we could sell because we had now expanded our reach nation-wide and I only spoke to doctors who were extremely interested in a product (for a demo) or who actually whipped out their credit cards to buy. Here’s one of my original ads:

Understanding Marketing Psychology

And then the next fundamental I stress deals with psychology. I was a marketing major and got my B.S. from the University of Maryland (a top 25 business school when I graduated), but I always say I didn’t learn much in college except partying. All my real marketing insights and knowledge came from self-study and trying things myself. In fact, if I had to do it all over again I probably would be a psychology major. To me, it’s fascinating what motivates people to take action or buy.

One of my first exposures to how powerful this could be was a book written by a professor at Arizona State University, Dr. Robert Cialdini. His book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” is definitely a top 10 book for me. I’ve read this book at least 9 times and continue to find amazing insights each time I do. Joe Sugarman also has a great book on psychology called “Triggers” where he has a slightly different take.

I uploaded a special presentation for you on the 11 Hidden Psychological Hot Buttons to Create Maximum Sales for you. (Please use this material and information ethically!)

The final thing I’ll mention about fundamentals came after meeting one of my entrepreneurial heroes, Sir Richard Branson. I was so inspired that on the plane ride home I started jotting down a list of “rules” and got to 34. I called it “34 Rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs” and it received a ton of excitement. And then it became been the catalyst for a lot of things, including a print book by the same title.

“Maverick Entrepreneurial Philosophy” of Make More, Have More Fun and Give More!

I realized this blog post was going to be a really, really long post so I’m breaking this up into several days – plus a lot of people suggested I put into a PDF. So good news – at the end of this series, I’ll bundle it all up into a neat little PDF with a bow. (Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed or provide your email address in the upper right-hand corner to be notified when each new section is up on the blog.)

* Update: We just completed the PDF of all 5 parts. Download it here *

Part 2 will start where a lot of people believe they need the most help in these interconnecting circles… Make More

So here we are on July 4th Eve (is that even a day?)…and tomorrow all around the U.S. we get to enjoy our Independence Day with hotdogs, apple pie & fireworks!

Now even if you don’t celebrate “The 4th of July” like we do in the U.S., this is still  the perfect chance to think about your independence. And for just that reason, you’ve got to check out this new video I just released…

‘7 Keys to Achieving Your Personal Freedom as a Maverick Entrepreneur”

This brand spanking new video is all about the 7 essential keys to getting to your Independence Day (and beyond). I’ve used these 7 principals to create financial freedom. Plus, as an added bonus there’s some serious behind-the-scenes footage inside my house that nearly nobody else has ever seen. Let me know what you think by coming back here and posting a comment.

Plus on the same page you can see the finalists in last weeks contest all about ‘freedom’.  There are some really incredible submissions and these are the 5 winners. Good stuff! Click here to watch it all!

Side note: With the current state of what’s going on in the world – I believe this message of freedom is even more important (on so many levels). So check it out and if you like it please help spread the ideas.

** Update the winners are announced. Check them out here **

With Independence Day (July 4th) right around the corner – I had a brainstorm last night to give something fun a try.

So here goes…

I’m opening up a video contest all about ‘freedom’….

Personally, I believe the single biggest reason when you boil it all down for entrepreneurs to start anything is that word ‘Freedom’. Financial freedom, entrepreneurial freedom or whatever freedom you want.

So I’d like you to SHOW what FREEDOM means to you!

I’ll mention the cool prizes in a minute but for now here are the simple rules. Or as Secret Agent Oso on the Disney channel says there are “3 Special Steps” to be part of this. (Umm…If you don’t get that reference that means you don’t have pre-school kids)

Step 1: Create a 3-minute video (max) about what freedom means to you and incorporate a creative mention of MaverickBusinessInsider.com in some way shape or form.

Step 2: Upload the video to YouTube.com and include one of these 4 title choices:

• “Freedom – What it Means to me” or
• “Financial Freedom – What it means to me” or
• “Independence – What it means to me” or
• “Entrepreneurship – The Ultimate Freedom”

Step 3: Email the link in to support@maverickbusinessinsider with the subject line ‘freedom contest’

That’s it.

We got a short fuse on this sucker because I want to get the top videos together for Independence day. So your deadline
is Monday, 6/29 @ 12pm (EST) I repeat the deadline is Monday, June 29th  at 12 noon EST.

Okay now for the prizes in line with our make more, have more fun and give more theme – take a peek:

First Prize: My Ultimate ‘At-Home’ Internet Copywriting Workshop Course (true value at $1475 – on sale @ultimatecopywritingworkshop.com) + 6 months of Maverick Business Insider newsletter + a fun (and slightly goofy)
patriotic hat +$100 Kiva.org microfinance gift card.

2nd Prize: 6 months of Maverick Business Insider newsletter + a fun (and slightly less goofy) patriotic hat  +$50 Kiva.org  microfinance gift card.

3rd Prize: 3 months of Maverick Business Insider newsletter + a different patriotic hat +$25 Kiva.org  microfinance gift
card.

4th Prize: 3 months of Maverick Business Insider newsletter + freedom ducks. (What the hell are freedom ducks? You’ll
have to see if you win!)

5th Prize: 3 months of Maverick Business Insider newsletter

(Note: If you are already a Maverick Business Insider subscriber we will simply extend your subscription if you are the winner. And if you’re not – what are you waiting for? It’s our least expensive newsletter filled with information on how make more money, have more fun and give more back!)

But here’s something else you win…

* FREE PUBLICITY *

Once we pick the 10 finalists – we’ll ask our list to vote on winners – then the final 5 winners will be featured to over 100,000 subscribers online. Pretty cool, right?

So fire up your Flip camera, webcam…or even the ole’ BetaMax but get your entry in before Monday’s deadline (June 29 at
12 pm EST). Leave a quick comment if you’re in.

Here’s an important question for you – are you a “Future-Based” person or a “Past-Based” one?

In the past few days this distinction has really hit home with me on Facebook.

I’ve had several people from my elementary school dig up school pics of our class in 5th grade and now 3rd grade. It’s painful to admit but I’m on the bottom row all the way to the left. (Missy says if the kids are geeky it’s because of me.)

Now I certainly can understand (and enjoy) the occasional looking back, laughing, reminiscing of the past – but some people are truly just stuck there

It’s like the Bruce Springsteen song “Glory Days”.

“Now I think I’m going down to the well tonight
and I’m going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don’t sit around thinking about it
but I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days”

Facebook really shows me how many people want to re-live their ‘Glory Days’. That’s all they talk about.  They only connect with old friends and are obsessed with what’s already happened.  There’s no forward progress. Or in a sadder way, some people hold some deep hurt or wrong that’s been done to them. This past-based person will not and cannot get over it even though it’s history. They’ve let it become their permanent identity.

Now with all that said I actually believe there’s one important aspect of past-based living that’s important to your success and I’ll share it in a moment.

The second type of person is the “Future-Based” one…

This is the kind of person who believes the best is yet to come and nearly anything is possible. Every year is going to be even better than the last one. A lot of entrepreneurs fall into this camp. Personally, I’m optimistic 2009 is going to be even better than ever. And I bet I’ll say the same thing for 2010, 2011, etc.

It’s also someone who doesn’t let their past circumstances, situations, bank account dictate their future. I love looking forward and seeing possibilities and what can happen. What kind of ideas I can take and make real.  (To me that’s my biggest thrill!)

The Trap of the Future-Based Person

Now there’s a caveat and a real trap you can fall into if you are a future-based person and that’s always looking forward that you discount today. I know first-hand about this. One of my 34 Rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs is “Celebrate Your Victories”. For Future-based people that’s not so easy. We’re hard wired to move on and look to our next project, idea, etc.

I have to truly force myself to stop and celebrate the wins. Or stop myself and attempt to “be” just in the moment. I work hard on this when I’m with Zak and Zoe. I’m not always successful but it’s something I strive for. My favorite moments are comforting Zoe in the middle of the night while she cuddles up on my chest in the glider in her room. I stop and think she’ll never be this small again and take a freeze frame image/vision/feeling of that moment.

And that’s one of the benefits future-based people can take from past-based people (what I hinted at earlier).

Anytime I am working on a real big, challenging project I go back into my head and think about the feelings I had when I “won”. You know, that all powerful “I can do anything” feeling that comes from a success. I use that as my stepping-stone and anchor for the next project my future-based self is always working on. (Side note: After any victory or time you really feel on top of the world – file that away in your head so you can call it up again and again.)

I also heard an interesting concept by Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach that plays into part of this discussion. He has a theory of people being disappointed because they cannot reach their “ideal”. I think this is especially important for future-based people who don’t stop and consider their wins enough. It’s part of his “Pure Genius” Audio program (which if you can find it is well worth grabbing if you can find it anywhere still).

Why The ‘Ideal’ is Impossible to Reach

Dan gives the example of the horizon. We all know it’s silly to think we can ever reach the horizon because it keeps moving as we move closer to it. Same with an “ideal”. We feel despondent and maybe even depressed in our greatest victories if we attempt to measure them up to our ultimate ideals. But the people who are happiest are the ones of take stock of where they are today (Point B) than when they started (Point A). And we can all look back and gain that confidence and awe of how far we’ve come.

I just made a list last night of what I’ve done and accomplished in 2008. Before making that list I didn’t think I had such a great year. Our overall business revenue and profits were down because I’ve been heavily investing in Maverick Business Adventures® (time-wise and capital-wise). But when I actually made the list I was shocked at how incredible the year had been.

Everything from meeting my business hero, Sir Richard Branson on Necker Island, to having 3 sold-out Maverick Business Adventures experiences and launching the Maverick Business Insider newsletter with 5000+ charter subscribers. Or simple accomplishments like having Zak potty-trained & sleeping in a big-boy bed and Zoe taking her first steps.

It really made me appreciate the accomplishments and celebrate them (which isn’t my nature as a future-based person).  So as 2008 winds down take stock of your accomplishments and maybe you’ll be further along than you imagine.

Here’s to an incredible 2009 and beyond!

Side note: Speaking of 2009 – if you want your future to be bigger than your past you should consider attending the Underground® 5 seminar (Feb 20-22, 2009). Not only do you get the real inside from an incredible line-up of speakers bringing in over $200,000,000.00 each year.  But more importantly it’s about the connections and networking that happens there. (And for people that sign-up before January 15th you get access to a private VIP dinner and Casino Royale night where big deals will happen.)

I got documented testimonial after testimonial about people meeting there, hearing one idea or simply finding that one spark they needed.

In fact, here’s what one of my MasterMind members and Underground® 5 presenter, Carrie Wilkerson, reported back to me about her connection at Underground® 4 last year…

“At UG4 last year (at the blackjack table to be exact, before UG even STARTED), Vic [MaserMind member] and I discussed this model for the women’s audience and he gave me contact info for his programmers. I branded it out as PowerLinesforWomen and started list-building

Our list is 8,000+ and we’re going to monetize it with our first affiliate promotion this week!! (I should mention that I’ve not promoted this AT ALL to ANY of my lists yet – I wanted to get the kinks worked out first…so I think it’s going to be big) I know you’ve heard me say that UG4 was a huge catalyst for me…I’m not just saying that – I have example after example after example…”

Sign-up now before the price goes up and VIP networking bonuses go away

(Plus you get to write off the ticket on this year’s taxes!)

I was lying here yesterday, pretty medicated, with some random thoughts going through my head on success, wealth and an occasional pink bunny.

Just a quick background on the meds. I had a new type of procedure yesterday on my right knee. The doctor sucked stem cells out of my back, added some secret sauce, and then injected them into my knee cartilage. Kinda cool. The doctor who supervised had both his knees done and he told me he jogs again. I blew out both my ACLs playing beach volleyball and Ice Hockey. I still play but it really bothers me. So hopefully this will re-grow the cartilage and I’ll be like the bionic man. (As a side note – the nurse filmed part of the procedure and I might even post it up online. I was kidding around we should auction off some of the bloody rags on eBay. Okay maybe not a great idea – remember I’m on meds)

Okay back to the point I wanted to throw out there and it’s around this question…

Do you have to want (and obtain) material things first to then turn your attention to more meaningful endeavors?

I found an interesting picture of me from 5th grade on Facebook today and it sorta started this chain of thoughts. Take a look – I’m the 2nd from the left on the bottom row.

My family is from Russia and immigrated to the U.S. in 1976. My Dad came over with $256 in his pocket for me, my Mom and my Grandmother. Just a year and half later, my Dad started his own company repairing (and then later selling) medical equipment. Even 8 years later times were still pretty lean as you can see from the knee patches and goofy shoes. Actually, I don’t think I had a pair of normal sneakers until 7th grade. (And yes, I definitely got made fun of constantly for that!)

It wasn’t until years later that my Dad’s company really started growing and blossomed into a multi-million dollar enterprise that things changed. I grew up working in the business starting with telemarketing latex gloves at age 14 and then even selling medical equipment to docs in person at age 16 when I got my license. It’s interesting how things come full circle because a doctor client of mine, Dr. Wei, gave me a Jay Abraham tape that turned on “the lights” about direct response marketing. And it was Dr. Wei who performed my knee surgery yesterday.

Like a lot of kids, I grew up fantasying about exotic cars with posters of Porsches and Ferraris on my wall. I remember for my Bar Mitzvah calling my parents up to light my final candle and I said something like, “I’d like to call up my parents who have given me everything I’ve ever wanted…except a Porsche.”

Back in 1998 I was just starting to get my entrepreneurial juices going and I attended a Brian Tracy 1-day seminar. He told everyone there to write down the 10 most important goals in our lives at the time.  Mine centered mostly around things or dollar amounts. I couldn’t find the notebook but it was something like:

•    Make $20,000/month in my own business
•    Drive a Mercedes SLK
•    Own a townhouse
•    Rolex watch, etc

One-by-one I knocked those all out without looking at the list everyday or taping it to my forehead or whatever “secret” I was supposed to use. (Actually I missed one goal – the Mercedes SLK. I actually got a much better SL55 AMG model). It was mostly the things that kept increasing on my goal list. A bigger house, a nicer car, nice trips, nicer watch, etc. until there really wasn’t much left that I really wanted.

Yes, I still love my Aston Martin but I quickly realized it was ‘just’ a car.

Quick side story: Actually, that really hit home to me spending time with my friend, Corey Rudl, before his untimely death. He had a new Lamborghini and we went off to the local smoothie place in La Jolla. Corey forgot he left his smoothie on the armrest and as he accelerated out of the parking out it spilled all over the interior of his car. He just sorta laughed and didn’t freak out like I might have. Previously, I never let anyone eat in my AMG or drink anything but water – but now I really don’t mind. In fact, I’m pretty lax with the car and have let a bunch of my friends drive it. (And I’ll let you drive it too if you want too if you’re the winner of a pretty cool contest for Underground® 5 attendees with the ultimate 007 day.)

So at some point you pretty much got all the toys you really need and then what’s left? To me, it boils down to experiences and relationships.  (Yes, there are still some ‘things’ I want like a beach house and maybe a private jet share – but not too much else.)

Maybe that’s why during the past few years that I’ve really gotten clear on the ‘Maverick Philosophy’ of Making more money, having more fun and giving more back! (Somebody the other day told me this is called a Venn diagram – nifty.) In fact, one of my big goal for 2020 involves getting 1,000,000 entrepreneurs to join this ‘movement’ that’s part of  Maverick Business Insider.

But I’ve been thinking lately – do you need to get the material things first before you can appreciate the other parts?

I’ll admit it. I really, really wanted my Mercedes AMG roadster. It drove me to create products and services to pay for it – but after the initial thrill wore off – there wasn’t much substance. The anticipation and journey was the best part.

Do you need the Rolex on your wrist before you realize it doesn’t really tell time very well? I used to wear my Rolex as a symbol of my success and new found wealth but I haven’t touched it in years. Today I have a nicer watch but it’s not a name most people would recognize. But maybe getting the ‘reward’ proved to myself I had arrived and could move on to bigger challenges and opportunities.

Some of the material wants really drove me in the beginning – however I still understood the underlying natural laws (like delivering 10x – 100x in value) would help me get the ‘thing’ I wanted. Now I’m much more focused on the bigger picture described in the diagram above. Personally I felt like I had to go through that phase to come out the other end (but maybe not everyone has to).

The unusual way to ‘stumble’ onto success…

There’s a profound theory I heard from R. Buckminster Fuller that says your true success is found perpendicular along the path to your original perceived goal.  For example, when I first started InstantSalesLetters.com back in 2000 – my end goal was to sell it for $500k to Stamps.com or someone like that. But on my way to building up that site – I had so many people ask me how I started making money so quickly that I began teaching. And that teaching became part of my success course for the last 8 years opening up one door after another. I would never have got on that track unless I was moving towards the original goal.  Same thing today, my next course is with my Maverick Business Adventures® and Maverick Business Insider companies – which wouldn’t have been formed without the contacts and connections made with my Internet business.

I’ve love to hear from people who have ‘made it’ (so to speak) and those who are still striving. Can you create a ‘rich’ life without getting the material things first that many of us (me included) initially wanted? I know some people are not motivated by material things and that’s great too. But I find an issue with some of those same people that believe making money is wrong or immoral. Somehow by being poor is more honorable. Umm…Bullshit.

I bet I’ll also get responses saying the happiest and ‘richest’ people are actually the poorest dollar-wise. Or money doesn’t buy you happiness.

Whatever.

I’ve said it before, I think money only amplifies who you are and what resources you have available to you.  If you’re a jackass before you had money – you’ll be an even bigger jackass. However, if you’re a generous and giving person – you now have more to give, etc.

I believe you can have it all…the complete package of profits, passion and purpose – but which road gets you there?

What started off as a quick 15-minute Saturday project turned into a 1 hr+ of new material on how to make more, have more fun and give more back! I asked you guys a few days ago for questions and some of the answers were quite eye-opening in each of the 3 areas.

With the elections going on in the U.S. tomorrow – the big idea behind the Maverick Manifesto is FREEDOM!

Freedom to write your own ticket regardless of what’s going on with the crazy economy, the next person in the White House or any external factor!

Here are a few things I covered:

• How to truly really create a Work/Life balance that actually works!
• Figuring out the right questions to ask so you get back the answers you need.
• What you really need to know in order to work once and get paid over and over and over again.
• Why you’ll never say “I can’t afford this” ever again…write your own rules for paying for what you want.
• How to make sure you turn up the ‘FUN quotient’ in your life and not get burnt out! (Plus: Exactly how to shatter the biggest excuse to waiting for more money to have fun!)
• Easy ways to bring fun into other people’s lives who you care about – and create real meaningful experiences.
• The painless rule to “automatically” giving back now instead of waiting & lots more!

Check it out and I would love to hear your comments.

 

I’m looking for some thoughtful insights and you don’t even need to agree with me – but I’m interested in the conversation that arises here.