Escape Velocity, Gravity, and Focus

Ever notice, as an internet entrepreneur, the temptation to diversify your focus into a multitude of markets, partnerships, joint ventures, sources of traffic, conversion methods, and marketing techniques  is seemingly irresistible?

I think there are MANY factors driving this rather neurotic tendency we all seem to struggle with (including, and perhaps especially, yours truly!)…

• Traffic sources are inherently unstable.   Google’s always changing the rules for both Adwords and SEO.  Social Media is a wild new animal hardly anyone really understands yet.   The email landscape is  subject to various laws, filters, and conventions (people have been crying “email marketing is dead” since I first started studying internet marketing back in 1998),  there are constant mergers and acquisitions, talk about taxes and online restrictions, FTC regulations, etc.
• A Tremendous Number of Skills Are Required to Succeed:   Research, copywriting, pay per click, blogging, systems development, market evaluation, human resources, management, legal, communications, emotional marketing and imagery, time management, accounting, html, javascript, blogging (you can outsource these last three  - oh yeah, you gotta know how to outsource well too)… I could go on and on.     The point is, NOBODY really is strong at all of these, so we’re all constantly searching for partners, JVs, and vendors to fill in the gaps
• Dreaming is a LOT More Fun Than Doing:   Setting up a marketing system (and the business to support it) is a lot of WORK.  It’s a lot more fun to consume the latest marketing package than to EXECUTE the latest marketing package.     (I still remember when this hit me.  In the midst of near bankruptcy back in 2003, I LOVED nothing better than to fill up my MP3 player with PPC and Copywriting gurus and just go walk in the mountains all day long.   It’s GREAT that I did this… I wouldn’t know what I know at this time if I hadn’t.  But the point is, we all need to ensure we’re “dreaming to live” and NOT “living to dream”)
• We Live With Constant Disappointment:  Because it’s rare that people thoroughly do their research and cash flow projections for a project… and then put in the necessary time, effort, and resources against a very realistically estimated growth curve, what happens to most entrepreneurs can only be described as episodic mania followed by severe disappointment (and depression).   It’s only human nature to run to the NEXT project dream when this happens.

Now, I’ve been fond of telling people “it takes 85% of a rocket’s fuel to achieve ‘escape velocity’ and get into outer space… the rest of the ride to the moon is mostly coasting and steering.”  I say that in order to assuage people’s anxiety, and to help motivate them through the “hump” required to get their projects off the ground.

But suddenly it hit me…

If it takes 85% of your fuel to get off the ground, then trying to launch four rockets at the same time is a losing game.  You simply can’t put 25% of your fuel into each rocket and expect it to do anything but fall back under the weight of the Earth’s gravity.

So, DESPITE the fears, insecurities, and constantly changing landscape of the internet, or perhaps BECAUSE of them, the spoils really go to those with persistence, fortitude, and FOCUS!

If you’re a member of Glenn Club, you know how psychotically I focus on choosing the right keyword conversation for your market, so YOU can narrow down your focus to exactly the right competitors, do exactly the right survey and interview research, and really dominate that keyword space.

But I’m talking about something way beyond your keyword space, I’m talking about your whole business.

What’s the single most important project in your business?  Are you focusing 85% of your resources on it?

Something worth thinking about, don’t you think?

Dr. G

Getten U Eeena Ze Club |   Coaching |   Beginners |   Outsourcing Webinar Replay

Marketing Technique-itus

There’s something driving me nucking futz today, and I hope you’ll excuse my ranting to my list because my wife is tired of hearing about it, and my dogs just look at me like I’m an idiot.

(“No Dad, PLEASE… not the ‘Technique-itus’
talk again, anything but that!”)

What’s irritating me is something called “Technique-itus”,  which is the technical term we psychologists use for a psychotic obsession with new marketing techniques.

Can I ask you a question?  How many people do you know… and I mean REAL people, not someone on stage at an internet seminar, who’ve built sustainable businesses based on the latest shiny object bouncing across the IM product launch world?

Do you even know ONE?

Now, let me ask you another question … how many broken hearted people do you know who spent money they couldn’t afford on an ill-fated dream they thought this technique or that would finally put together for them?

(I bet that’s a much bigger number)

Here’s what I keep coming back to, and it’s actually something Perry Marshall taught me…

You need ONE way of generating traffic, and ONE way of converting those people into buyers.

When you get good at that, you can let everyone else worry about all the other methods and just pay a really, really good affiliate commission.  You can even do this for the other parts of business you’re not good at.

For example, I’m so good at PPC for traffic, and Market Research for conversion, that I not only let affiliates handle all my web 2.0 stuff and SEO, I was also able to attract a partner to run a whole company for me  (Rocket Clicks).

I’m really not saying this to brag. (Except sometimes I AM an idiot and I do brag … but que sera’ sera’)

I’m saying it to FOCUS you on the real question at hand which is …

Do YOU know what your MAGIC TWO are?

More importantly, what’s it going to take to cure your Technique-itus and get you to focus on THOSE?

Damn … I’d probably better stop getting so much gratification from writing these posts and get back to selling stuff by presenting benefit after benefit, etc.

But it’s really cool to have 30,000+ people who really pay attention to what you’ve got to say… I guess sometimes I abuse that priveledge.   But please don’t complain to me… you can just write my wife supportive letters.

And honestly, this IS an important message given where we all are in the world now, don’t you think?  Who among us can afford to be chasing shiny bouncing balls TODAY?

Hope I made you think. (That’s my job)

Dr. G

Outsourcing Disasters and Duplicating Failure

I’d like to make a brief, but obvious point today, because there’s something I see over and over again across dozens of students and hundreds of customers…

“Outsourcing Disasters and Duplicating Failure”

The desire to duplicate oneself and offload work is only human nature. In fact, it’s one of the strongest elements I’ve observed in the entrepreneurial mindset.

So it’s only natural that people want to COPY other sales systems, and OUTSOURCE all the work involved in building their own.

The problem comes when people don’t take the time to ensure they’re copying SUCCESS, and when they try to OUTSOURCE something they don’t really fully understand or know how to supervise.

Because here’s the secret…

The success of a sales system doesn’t lie entirely in the words on the sales page, or even necessarily in the system as a whole.    It relies much more on the understanding the writer has of the market. And since copycats can’t legally plagiarize the whole system, absent this understanding, they wind up copying an empty shell.

Moreover, it’s rare that a WHOLE system is successful. Lacking an exhaustive understanding of the market in which the system operates, people are prone to copy the failing elements just as easily as the successful ones.

In other words, many competitors are succeeding in spite of bad marketing, because just a few elements are right on target.  Without thorough research and market intelligence, how do you know you’re not duplicating their failure?

There’s also a lot of talk these days of just outsourcing your marketing, or your market research, Glenn-Style.

Now, I’m totally in favor of getting help to scale up your operations. In fact, I’ve been working through John Jonas’ materials, and they’ve helped me to hire no less than 8 people in the Phillipines now.    (You can watch the Outsourcing Webinar Replay through my affiliate link here.  John has a lot of very useful advice for hiring full timers at $300/mo, and provides some training to get them started.  I have a LOT of good experience with his hiring advice and resources, but can’t really say one way or the other about the training he provides for the outsourcers — I’d prefer you used them to do things you already do very well and just want to offload from your plate)

There’s a LOT you CAN outsource. You CAN outsource all the grunt work of setting up your automatic intelligence machine, doing some of the initial scanning of social media conversations, installing and managing your websites, installing wordpress blogs and plug ins, doing routine backups, setting up your surveys, programming scripts and databases, running through the first set of codes for your survey analysis, transcription, audio editing, video editing, article distribution, social bookmarking, data entry, a very, very rough first draft of your copywriting, and so on)

But in my opinion, you can’t outsource the STRATEGIC THINKING AND MARKET IMMERSION necessary to succeed in a project, especially in today’s competitive adwords auctions.

Somewhere along the way, if you want to build a REAL business, you’re going to have to spend a few hundred hours immersed in the market yourself.

Because no one’s really going to care about it like you do.

And because without doing this, you’re NOT going to pick up the subtleties which allow you to connect with the market above and beyond  your competitors.

You simply won’t know what your customers “smell like”, and they’ll sense your templated, outsourced approach.

Because prospects in any market can “smell” honesty, integrity, and passion when it’s poured into a project.

In my experience, the people who try to outsource strategic thinking and market immersion wind up with MORE work, not less, in the long run, because their systems simply don’t perform.   (You CAN partner with someone to champion a market for you, but only if they’re tested and proven in their entrepreneurial and strategic thinking abilities… and if they’ve got enough upside potential and skin in the game to make it worth their while)

A long time ago, I heard Brian Tracy say “if you want to make a mark in your market, make 100 phone calls to prospects and I promise you you’ll never look back”

At the time, I was starting a psychology practice in the midst of the collapse of  indemnity insurance (doctors could no longer get so easily reimbursed for their high session fees as the big companies cut off the gravy train).   My colleagues were all terrified, complaining, and going broke.

What did I do?

I made a few hundred phone calls to every psychologist, psychiatrist, counseling center, etc. I could find on Long Island.  I asked them if they had any patients they were having trouble working with.  I asked how I could help them.  I asked if I could volunteer to see clients for free at their clinic for a day.   I asked if I could work for them in any capacity whatsoever.

I also set up focus groups and individual interviews with people considering seeing a psychologist or counselor.

18 months later I had a private practice with 65 patients. (By the way, for any psychologists considering advertising, one of the critical insights was that no one looked for psychologists, only for counselors, ’cause “you’ve gotta be sick in the head” to see a shrink, “but everyone needs a little counseling sometimes” )

Why?    I knew what the market wanted cold.  I had more connections than any of my peers.   I WENT THROUGH THE IMMERSION EXPERIENCE.

I’ve got several coaching students now who are really getting the value of this.

One of them spent the bulk of this year doing low-end consulting with literally hundreds of people looking for help with a particular software program.   He’s now set up a lucrative PPC lead funnel in this VERY competitive space, and I’ll be utterly shocked if he doesn’t have a million dollar business in 18 months or less.

Another one got so psyched about immersion, he decided to make 1,000 phone calls to prospects in his market.  ONE THOUSAND.   Then he developed a training system based on his experience.  (I can’t imagine anyone else’s training system in that very, very competitive market could possibly be any better.  I can’t imagine any prospect not instantly sensing this after just a little exposure to his materials)

Moreover, both of these gentlemen are NOW in the ultimate position to leverage themselves and outsource their work.   NOW they can replace themselves, and begin building multi-million dollar enterprises.

I guess what I’m saying is,  we’re all in such a hurry to get away from the market, most of us never get into it deep enough to truly succeed.

And so we look for the short cuts…

And wind up copying failure, or outsourcing things we don’t really understand.

I’m not invulnerable to this…  I’m human too, and always fighting a tendency to get lazy.  (Plus, when you get a little money and can easily afford the help, it’s easy to think “I’m above this now”)

But when I look back at my successes, the #1 thing they all had in common were a passionate immersion period in the market, right there in the trenches with the customers and competitors.

Have YOU really immersed yourself in your market?

Something to think about,

G

Get in the Club Already, Huh? |  Get Step by Step Hand Holding and Motivation to Do It |  Blueprint for Beginners

My Favorite Blog Comment Ever

I’ve had thousands of comments on my blog. But my favorite one is  from Alan Kirke who, upon seeing a picture of Sharon in a post said something like “the biggest learning is that if dude like you can get a babe like that, there’s hope for me yet”.

Which inspired me to make the little caricature above.

Of course, you’re seeing the best picture of her, and the WORST picture of me. And of course, I didn’t look like that when she married me (but she did!)

Still, it’s a very interesting point.

Joe Jackson noted in a fabulous tune from my youth  (“Is She Really Going Out With Him?”):

Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street
From my window I’m staring while my coffee grows cold
Look over there! (Where?)
There’s a lady that I used to know
She’s married now, or engaged, or something, so I am told

Is she really going out with him?
Is she really gonna take him home tonight?
Is she really going out with him?
‘Cause if my eyes don’t deceive me,
There’s something going wrong around here

But–and for all you suave marketers out there, the point is coming  soon–this song got very popular for a VERY good reason.

Because if ONLY alpha males could find such an attractive, smart, supportive mate, then only the absolutely most fit evolutionary specimens would have any reason to hope.

But it’s simply not true.

Dudes like Alan and I take heart when they see “pretty women walking with gorillas” down our streets.  It reminds us wit, intelligence, love, and just plain hard work can catch a mate almost as well as a stunning set of biceps and abdominal muscles.

Now, go have a look around the Google Adwords Auction… pretty much any one.

Sure, you’ll find some “alpha males” in the top spots, but in almost every market you’ll also find at least one gorilla holding his or her own.  (Try monitoring the auction for a month to see who’s really winning the game)

You’ll scratch your head wondering what they’re doing there, in the midst of all the big players, how on earth did they ever scratch out that territory?

But still, there they are, plain as day, buying clicks every day for months on end.

Because “pretty women” (e.g. the most attractive customers) in the adwords auction are attracted to wit, intelligence, love, and just plain hard work (e.g. research)  too.

Which means, you’d don’t have to be a superhero to build your business.  Just willing to work a little harder and study a little more, like the big hairy dude in the picture above.

For what it’s worth,

Dr. G

Get in the Club Already, Huh? |  Get Step by Step Hand Holding and Motivation to Do It |  Blueprint for Beginners

Siberian Marketing Advice – Pay Per Click

I’ve got a good friend from Siberia. (I’m going somewhere with this, stay with me please)

Seriously… he was my full time programmer 10 years ago, then he came to visit, then I helped him immigrate to the USA.  Now he lives a few minutes away from me.

When he and his wife (then his fiance’) first came to visit us here in New Hampshire in November, they were constantly shivering and complaining about how cold it was.   (It was about 35 degrees that week, which is relatively warm for New Hampshire in the fall)

Very surprised, I said to him “Alex, you’re from fricking Siberia, where it’s maybe minus 10 on a warm day, what gives?”

He looked at me with a funny Russian smile and said, in the thickest of Russian accents:

“Glenn, man from Siberia NOT warm man, man from Siberia man with lots of clothes!”

In other words, I had assumed the Siberian weather had toughened him up, and that he could go anywhere on the planet without batting an eye.  I had visions of him taking showers outside in the snow in his bathing trunks, like the Ant Arctic expedition workers I had read about  in the Guiness Book of World Records as a child.

I figured he lived in an igloo or something, chewed on ice all day long for water, and spat out icicles with glee.

But I was wrong.

I made assumptions about the man, when what I should have been looking at was his adaptive tools and materials (his warm clothing).

He was wrong too.  He came to New Hampshire without these tools.

It’s a funny story without too serious a consequence, but if you transfer it to the marketing arena it can be deadly.

Because here’s a story I hear all too often…

Guy does his research, goes into a competitive market, builds up a series of products and services, writes a g’zillion follow ups, and tests and tweaks his way into strong profitability.

THEN, he starts to feel like a SuperMan.   He forgets how he got where he was.

He goes into a new market without doing the research, without plans for a full product line, without the expectation of a long period of testing and tweaking his conversion, without the same zeal for writing follow ups, without the same break even cash flow planning, without the willingness to thoroughly and passionately immerse himself in the market by talking to the customers and finding out what they smell like.

He just trots off to a totally foreign country, attributing his success to his personal marketing genius, rather than all the tools, methods, resources, and techniques which put him where he was.

He forgets to bring his warm clothes.

If he’s lucky, he only shivers a little until a kind stranger or friend gives him shelter.

More often, he almost freezes to death and catches the next plane back home.

You see, we can be ruined by our own success.

We’re constantly tempted to attribute it too much to our own abilities, and our sheer marketing genius, which, naturally, means we can go into any market or take on any competitor without the exhaustive, and sometimes quite tedious research and planning required to get there.

Which is why I strive to be one dumb-ass marketer, with lots of checklists, cheat sheets, and methodical plans for everything I do.

Not that I’m always perfect… just like everyone else I’ve made my mistakes by thinking too much of myself too.

But a simple checklist goes a long way towards knocking my ego back down where it needs to be. (Read “The Checklist Manifesto” at your leisure by the way, it’s surprisingly insightful and will change the way you run your business in a weekend)

“PPC Marketer from Siberia Not AdWords Genius, Marketer from Siberia Man with Lots of Checklists!”

For what it’s worth,

Dr. G

Get in the Club Already, Huh? |  Get Step by Step Hand Holding and Motivation to Do It |  Blueprint for Beginners

EMOTIONAL MARKETING CONTEST: Using Emotion to Stimulate Consumer Behavior

EMOTIONAL MARKETING CONTEST:  Winner gets one 20 minute consult with me, and one 20 minute consult with Sharon. Two runners up will each get five minutes. We’ll announce the winner next Friday here on the blog.

This VERY SHORT video is an excellent example of stimulating emotion and human needs to motivate consumer behavior. (It’s also very appropriate for the upcoming July 4th Holiday travel weekend)

As an exercise, please watch the  video and see if you can answer the following questions (by the way, wholeheartedly embracing this exercise will definitely benefit your business in immeasurable ways)…

- What product FEATURE was the video promoting?

- What is the RATIONAL benefit of this feature?

- What is the EMOTIONAL benefit of this feature?

- MORE DIFFICULT:  What is the BRAND IMAGERY of the organization doing the promoting?  (Sussex  Safer Road Partnership)

And now, for the hardest, yet most important one…

What was the EMOTIONAL MARKETING INSIGHT which made this commercial so effective?

=======

Here’s a refresher from Sharon’s FREE materials on emotional marketing, for those of you who might be a little confused by the terms…

“AN EMOTIONAL MARKETING INSIGHT is an in-depth understanding of your category as a whole. It simultaneously describes what consumers want, why they want it, and how to push their emotional hot buttons with features & benefits that are logically consistent with the emotional punch. It entails an intimate knowledge of …

• The most desired FEATURES and RATIONAL BENEFITS that drive purchase in your market. (What people say they want).
• The EMOTIONAL BENEFITS or human needs which are satisfied by providing the above. (Why they want it!)
• How FEATURES and RATIONAL benefits are connected to EMOTIONAL BENEFITS (Which features push which emotional hot buttons!). (This is important to know because you can’t blurt out the emotional benefit to the consumer … rather we have to imply it with a focus on the right features in the context of a creative mood and tone consistent with the emotional need served.)
• What BRAND & USER IMAGERY is most consistent with all of the above (So you can set the right creative mood and tone for all of your marketing communications, choose the best actors and actresses, and develop the right characters and dialogue for your ads.)

For example, here’s how I might describe the EMOTIONAL MARKETING INSIGHT for a fictitious brand of “Eagle’s Nest Hiking Boots”:

Hikers want boots that make them feel safe enough to enjoy all the adventure and splendor that the mountains have to offer (I’ve got hiking on the brain since I climbed one of the biggies in NH yesterday).

Practically, this means a super-grip rubber sole embedded with micro-fiber beads so they won’t slip on the ledges, high rise boots to protect them from twisting their ankles, complete water proofing to allow them to cross any stream, and winterizing with royal baby alpaca fiber so even the toughest winter won’t stop them!

Hiking boots are much more than the leather and rubber they are made of … they are a kind of spiritual fuel that makes it possible for the user to transcend the mundane world and reach a higher, more inspired level of being with a peaceful perspective on life.

=========

OK, now, can you take a stab at the questions above, including what the sponsoring company may have concluded as their Emotional Marketing Insight?

AND, for extra credit, most useful to YOU, how would you then describe the Emotional Marketing Insight in YOUR market?

Post your answers below.  And remember, the winner gets one 20 minute consult with me, and one 20 minute consult with Sharon.  (We’ll announce next Friday)

Glenn

PS – Emotional Marketing is covered in depth in both the bonus area AND in Month #11 of the Hyper-Responsive Marketing Club.    And of course, you can always get direct coaching here.

PPS – No purchase necessary, void where prohibited, don’t pour hot coffee on your sensitive areas, avoid telling Dan Kennedy you use a cell phone, etc.

PPPS – Winners selected at our sole judgement and our sole option.

Getting Paid to Talk to Yourself

Here’s something VERY strange which occurred to me today…

I’ve got the weirdest job in the world.

It’s true!

Because, you see, I get paid gobs of money to talk to myself.   I spend a LOT of time alone in my room, staring at the computer, recording Camtasia videos, MP3s, etc.   Of course, I’ve also got REAL businesses, and of course, I’m not really talking to myself, I’m talking to thousands of people.

But still, if a Martian were to land and observe what I was doing, he’d see a great big hairy guy sitting in his room and talking to himself.

Which couldn’t be farther from what I set out to do as a psychologist… (I really thought I’d be spending my days in a room listening to other people talk to themselves)

Anyway… sometimes it makes me a little “loopy”

(The Rocket Clicks team is great, and always interested in talking to me… but they’re in Milwaukee and, truth be told, Rob Sieracki is such an amazing Chief Operating Officer and partner that Jeff and I really don’t have to do that much anymore)

So I suppose this is a part of the reason I’m pushing the coaching program more seriously now.   (Get on the priority notification list at the bottom of this page if you’re interested … a limited number of slots will open tomorrow and, from experience, will go very quickly) I find that the people who’re willing to work my systems seriously via the coaching structure I’ve set up are some of the nicest, most interesting, (and most respectful of my time and boundaries)  people I’ve met in my years as an internet marketer.

Plus,  sometimes it’s just plain nice to worry about someone else’s business instead of your own.

I dunno.

Maybe I really am nuts.

I really should be DOING more than teaching, if money was my primary goal.

But I’m gonna do this anyway, at least for a while.

Hope you’ll take me up on it before I change my mind

Ryan, one of my most successful students, is also offering to coach a limited number of people through my systems for a little more than HALF my personal rates.   (Get on the priority notification list at the bottom of this page if you’re interested … a limited number of slots will open tomorrow and, from experience, will go very quickly)

Here’s a VERY SHORT MP3 (13 minutes) where Sharon and I discuss my personal neuroses, and how they can benefit you.

Enjoy

KAIZEN FINALE: The Secret Emotional Connection between Kaizen, Coffee, and… Your Customer?

What might these coffee grinds have to do with Kaizen in Marketing?

This is the third and final article in the guest posting series from Ryan, one of my most successful students.  Ryan’s already built a $250K/year business using my methods (please read the disclaimer on GlennCoach.com), and after coaching directly with me all year, is about to launch what I believe will be a much larger one.

It probably won’t surprise you to learn I’ll be opening several coaching slots tomorrow, including a new level with monthly telephone access, and with Ryan available to walk you through the hyper-responsive process at a much lower price.   You can review the NEW details on GlennCoach.com, and if you’re even remotely interested, please sign up for the priority notification list at the bottom.

Here’s Ryan’s article

—-

“KAIZEN FINALE: The Secret Emotional Connection between Kaizen, Coffee, and… Your Customer? (HINT: It’s NOT What You Might Think…)”

Hi, it’s Ryan here again

And today, I’ll be wrapping up this three-part Guest Post series on the Power of Kaizen.

But before we begin, let’s quickly recap what we’ve covered so far:

In Article #1, we talked about Kaizen and your BUSINESS.

I shared a few real-life examples of how tiny, incremental improvements can yield big gains in your business (and how this exact approach enabled me to go from earning $0 to $25,000 per month in my first 18 months online, using the hyper-responsive process).

In Article #2, we talked about Kaizen and your BRAIN.

We explored the idea of moving toward your business goals by taking one “impossible to fail step” at a time — using a deceptively simple (but extremely powerful) “Kaizen Mind Trick” that I personally use whenever I reach a “sticking point” in my business.

(By the way, if you missed either of those articles, you can still get them here: #1, #2.)

Now, in today’s conclusion to this three-part series, I’d like to talk about how I apply Kaizen principles within my sales materials — and across my entire marketing funnels — in a way that might surprise you…

Specifically, I’m going to talk about how you might use Kaizen principles to positively influence THE single most important person in your business — (Yes, someone even more important than YOU…)

And that someone is of course — Your CUSTOMER

To illustrate the sort of thing I’m talking about, I’d like to share a slightly embarrassing personal story with you, which I think you may find amusing:

Some time ago, I had one of those mini-marketing-epiphanies we all get from time to time — as I was standing in the supermarket looking to buy — of all things — coffee.

As I stood there scratching my head, staring at the shelves hopelessly lost, and deciding which brand of coffee to buy — it was like suddenly, my entire coffee-drinking life flashed before my eyes:

The first coffee I remember drinking was the one my parents drank their entire lives — Folgers — the Buick of coffees — sold in that unmistakable giant red can, priced at $3.99 / lb.

For most of my early adult life, Folgers was my coffee of choice — by default.

But years later, by the time Starbucks was on every corner and they’d started selling their ground coffee on the grocery store shelf — at some point, it went on sale — probably for something like $5.99 / lb.  And as a fan of their ‘by-the-cup’ product, I decided to give it a try.

I remember weeks later, when it went back up to the regular $8.99 / lb. price, I was faced with a decision — continue drinking the Starbucks brew, OR go back to my Folgers roots?

But, by that time, it was already too late.  I was hooked on Starbucks– whether I cared to admit it or not…

And then, a few years later, my coffee drinking habits evolved yet again:

As we started getting bit older, my wife and I began making a concerted effort to eat healthier across the board.  And in that quest, I came across compelling research that convinced me to start drinking certified organic (and pesticide-free) coffee only.

Making that organic transition came with a $10.99 / lb. price tag.

And now, after this whole episode flashed through my brain, I found myself standing in the coffee aisle at the local Whole Foods, deciding between two different certified-organic, fair-trade, boutique-brand varieties at a price of $12.99 and $13.99 / lb. respectively.

(And after realizing how I’d arrived at this point, suddenly questioning my own sanity…)

But THAT’S also when the mini-marketing epiphany hit me like a ton of bricks.

(Any guesses on what it might be?  And how it relates to Kaizen?)

Well, let’s start with this:

For me, as a consumer in this market, I NEVER would have made a direct leap from Folders at $3.99 / lb. to my current boutique brand, certified-organic, fair-trade variety at $13.99 / lb.

The price jump is just TOO BIG.

But each buying decision along the way that lead me there was small enough (and non-threatening enough), that I was able to seamlessly and unconsciously move down this path without setting off any of my internal, amygdala-controlled warning signals.

Or in other words, moving up a notch — one small step at a time — was never a big deal.

Okay, so how can you take this and apply the Kaizen principle of “one small step at a time” within this context in your sales materials — and across your entire marketing funnels — on a  practical level?

Well, for starters — knowing what you now know about how Kaizen impacts the brain, you might start asking yourself a few questions:

Like for example: Are you seamlessly moving your prospects and customers through your marketing funnels — and more broadly, to your way of thinking — one small, non-threatening, step at a time?

Or somewhere along the way — maybe in the form of an objection you fail to address in your sales letter or autoresponder sequence, or the price gap between your front and back-end products — are you asking your prospects and customers to take a step that’s just TOO BIG?

Because perhaps that could be the VERY STEP that might be causing them to “freeze” or “flee” — and put the brakes on any sort of buying decision.

After all, your customers’ brains are not unlike yours or mine.

We’re all wired the same way.

Until next time — to your continued success!

Ryan

PS - But going back to the coffee story, really the Kaizen lens above is just ONE way of looking at things — (and a convenient way to bring our discussion on Kaizen full circle…)

But there are at least 5 other marketing takeaways (which have nothing to do with Kaizen) that I was able to pull from that experience as a consumer.

And I’d be VERY curious to know:

As you read that story for the first time, what marketing lessons were YOU able pick out?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below, and I hope at least some of you will let me coach you through your very own Kaizen Success!  (Sign up for the priority notification list if you’re interested on Glenn’s coaching page)

PPS - I’d also like to send out a warm word of thanks to everyone who took the time to read this series of guest posts — and particularly those who shared their comments and feedback. Thanks so much!

The “Kaizen Mind Trick”

“Discover How to Use This Unusual (But Powerful) “Kaizen Mind Trick” to Finally Get Unstuck, Stop Procrastinating, AND Reach That Next Level in Your Business…

This is a continuation of last Thursday’s Guest Post on Kaizen in Internet Business – which is well worth reading.  The author (Ryan) is one of my more successful students who used the original HDYB process to develop a $250K business, and, now after direct coaching from me since January is about to launch his second business, which I firmly believe will be much larger.  (Disclaimer: please see the Full Testimonial and Results Disclosure on GlennCoach.com for typical results) Ryan is the ONLY person I’ve ever let guest post to this date, which tells you something about his abilities, character, and work ethic

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LESSON 1 (Part II): The “Kaizen Mind Trick”

In the previous post, I talked about using a relentless, methodical Kaizen approach of incremental improvement to achieve big gains in your business.

It’s an approach that enabled me to grow my first internet business from $0 to $25,000 per month in 18 months.

And I strongly recommend anyone who isn’t making the progress they’d like to be making in their business to consider adopting a similar mentality.

Now, what I covered in the previous post is sort of like Kaizen on a MACRO level.

But there’s a WHOLE other side to Kaizen — And it’s something that almost NOBODY talks about within the internet marketing world.

And it has to do with Kaizen on a MICRO level: How Kaizen affects your brain.

As a marketer who also has a background in neuroscience, this is a question I’ve explored with great interest. And in doing so, a few years back I happened to stumble upon a deceptively simple, but extremely powerful “Kaizen Mind Trick” which I now use whenever I find myself reaching a “sticking point” in my business.

And in a moment, I’m going to share that exact technique with you, because I think YOU might be able to benefit from it yourself the next time you get stuck in your own business

But first, I want you to think about the following question:

WHY does Kaizen work, exactly?

I mean, on one level, it works… because it works, right?

It’s common-sense. A self-evident truth. Something we marketers take for granted — like the effectiveness of split-testing, for example.

But think about it for a minute:

WHY is it that when you start thinking small, you’re able to achieve big results?

To answer that question, it actually helps to take a quick look inside your brain:

To your brain, any changes you make in your life – even the positive ones – are scary, because they deviate from your safe, comfortable routine.

And, when you attempt to reach goals through radical or revolutionary means, those attempts often fail because big changes heighten anxiety — which in turn activates the primitive “fight or flight” fear response controlled by a structure in your midbrain known as the amygdala.

(In fact, this fear response should be more accurately described as the “FREEZE or fight or flight” response. Because it’s why we tend to procrastinate — or suffer from “analysis paralysis” — when we feel stressed, anxious or overwhelmed about taking that next big step toward our goals…)

Now here’s the thing:

When you activate your primitive fear response, you ALSO restrict access to your cortex — the “thinking” part of your brain — which is responsible higher cognitive functions like creative problem solving and rational thought.

BUT…

When you start thinking in terms of making positive change through tiny, incremental, steps (or in other words, the Kaizen way) you’re actually able to bypass your brain’s fear response, engage your cortex, and therefore stimulate your creative problem solving ability.

The result?

You start making rapid progress toward your goals.

Now with all that mind, here is the deceptively simple, but powerful “Kaizen Mind Trick” you can use to take advantage of all this on a practical level:

Whenever you find yourself procrastinating, having trouble getting started, or simply feeling “stuck” on something in your business, just ask yourself the following question:

“What’s the next immediate step I can take that’s so small it would be impossible to fail?”

*The KEY is that it is HAS to be something that’s SO small, and SO basic that you literally CANNOT fail. (This is absolutely CRITICAL.)

For example:

Say you’re feeling overwhelmed about writing your next sales letter — and you find yourself having trouble getting started.

Simply ask yourself the question:

“What’s the next immediate step I can take that’s so small it would be impossible to fail?”

Your next immediate “impossible to fail” step might be something like typing one character in your word processor. Or opening up Microsoft Word. Or even just turning on your computer.

When you’ve reached the step that makes you feel silly and think, “Well, duh! Of COURSE I can do THAT..” then you’re on your way.

It has to be something THAT basic.

Because here’s the thing:

Once you’ve convinced yourself to type that one character, and realize “hey that wasn’t so bad” you can convince yourself to take that next “impossible to fail” step — which might be typing a single word. And when you convince yourself to do that, you can convince yourself to string together a single sentence.

And before you know it, you’ll discover that not only have you overcome your writer’s block, but you’ve got two pages worth of stuff down on paper without even realizing it.

Now, if you try the technique and STILL find yourself struggling to get moving on something, dreading the activity, or making excuses for not doing it, the solution is this:

Just cut back the size of the step.

It’s really as simple as that.

I cannot emphasize enough how critical this strategy has been to the progress I’ve been able to make in my business so far.

Coming from a regular guy, I’ll tell you that the Hyper-Responsive process WORKS.

It really does.

But where I think most people struggle is EXECUTING the entire process from start to finish because of all the different component parts.

The secret to success? Break things down into one “impossible to fail” step at a time.

Really, that’s it.

And if you STILL have trouble to get yourself moving — here’s a little something I remind myself of to help get my own butt in gear:

You can ALWAYS correct a poor decision, but if you do NOTHING, you can NEVER get the time back

Until next time — to your continued success!

Ryan

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GLENN SAYS:    Ryan will post PART III of this series in the next few days.  We’d love to have your questions and comments below.

Ryan will also shortly be working with me to provide Hyper-Responsive Process Coaching at a little more than HALF my personal rates, and we should be ready to take clients before the end of the week.   I’m happy to say the NEW coaching format will also include a level with PHONE time as many people have been requesting this.  If you’re interested, please get on the priority notification list at the bottom of my coaching letter… we’ll email that list 24 hours before the main list when the slots open.   (Space will unfortunately be very limited, please do get on the list if you’re considering it)

Success Story: (Why I Never Play the Lottery)

Know why I don’t play the lottery?

Because I thoroughly and firmly believe there’s a better way to make 10 million dollars, and the odds of winning the lottery are, when rounding errors are accounted for, effectively ZERO. (Daniel Gilbert, author of “Stumbling on Happiness” notes that, if instead of putting lottery winners on TV for 30 seconds, we put all the lottery losers on, you’d need 9 years of 24 hour per day television to get through just one drawing)

Below you’ll find a guest post from one of my more successful coaching students (Ryan), who’s used my process from scratch to build a $250K business. He’s also about to launch his SECOND business after coaching directly with me since the beginning of this year , which I anticipate will be much, much larger. (Disclaimer: please see the Full Testimonial and Results Disclosure on GlennCoach.com for typical results)

So Ryan’s a true success story.

And Ryan’s also got a very unique, realistic, and contagious perspective on business which I think you should all pay very, very, VERY careful attention to, because in all the years I’ve been teaching, I have to say that THIS is what separates the successful from those who merely try for a while and fail.

Now, the post’s admittedly a little long, but I must point out there are several gems within it which could, in and of themselves, very well bump your business to the next level, even, and perhaps especially if you’re feeling stuck, or having trouble breaking through to profitability, or moving to the next level.

Ask yourself, before you read it, if Glenn’s EVER let anyone post as a guest previously on his blog.  Your answer should be a resounding NO.  (That’s 201 posts, and not one guest)

Which means this guy truly’s got something special, worth paying attention to, worth taking notes about, and worth implementing in your business.

Your first impression may be that you “already know” what he’s talking about…

Please read it anyway…

Because the key point is deceptive unless you do.

And remember, the thing which keeps most of us from breaking through to the next level is just a case of the  ”already knows”.

Zen mind is a beginner’s mind.

Here we go…

———– Guest Post from Ryan Follows ———-

I’ve been a student and customer of Glenn’s for the past 3 years, and after we had the opportunity to get together for dinner recently, Glenn asked if I might share a few marketing insights with his audience from the perspective of a “real person” who has actually implemented his systems successfully.

After he twisted my arm, I (gladly) agreed to write a few guest posts for his blog

First, a quick background on who I am:

My name is Ryan, and in 2008, I launched my first internet business, in an obscure niche market (that has NOTHING to do with how to make money) using the original “How to Double Your Business” system — the pre-cursor to the current Hyper-Responsive Club.

I had no previous experience in internet marketing – or even as an entrepreneur.

The result?

Within 18 months, I was making $25,000 a month from that business.  And today, my wife and I run that business out of our home along with 2 other internet businesses we’ve started building since then.

And here’s the thing:

I’m just a regular guy.

Just a regular guy who kept the dream alive, executed the process from start to finish, and who now has a passive-income business that provides a comfortable lifestyle for my family — AND allows me to give a little something back at the end of the day.

Don’t get me wrong – We’re not wearing diamond encrusted Rolexes or driving $95,000 Maseratis…

But I DO get to work from home and set my own hours.  There’s no boss or rush hour traffic to deal with.  I have the freedom to go for a run or take a nap in the middle of the day if I need a break.  And we regularly take days off (on our own terms) to travel or spend time with friends and family who visit from out of town.

And like many people, I used to be a wage slave doing the Fortune 500 Dilbert Cube thing — tethered to the Blackberry 24/7, grinding out 2-3 hour daily commutes, and hopping on a plane every other week.

So I’ve been on both sides of the fence.

What I’m hoping to do in this series of posts is provide a few insights that have had a strong impact on my own thinking as an entrepreneur, and which I think YOU might be able benefit from yourself as you implement the hyper-responsive process in your own business.

So without further delay, let’s dive right in

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LESSON #1 (Part 1): The (True) Power of Kaizen

I’ve got a quote by Mark Twain scribbled on the white board in my office that says the following:

“The secret to getting ahead is getting started.  And the secret to getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks and starting on the first one.”

Or to put it another way, the secret to getting ahead — is Kaizen.

Since it’s widely talked about in internet marketing circles these days, you probably know that Kaizen is a a concept adopted from the Japanese auto manufacturing industry that translated means continuous improvement through tiny, incremental steps.

John Wooden, the famous UCLA basketball coach (and one of the most successful college basketball coaches of all time) who recently passed away at age 99 put it like this:

“When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur.  When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning.  Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made.  Don’t look for the big, quick improvement.  Seek the small improvement one day at a time.  That’s the only way it happens — and when it happens, it lasts.”

The advice is simple enough, and fairly intuitive, right?

Seek out opportunities to make small improvements, and work toward achieving those small improvements every single day.

So how exactly does one go from earning $0 online to earning $25,000 every month within 18 months?

I know this isn’t going to sound sexy, but the answer is this: $500 at a time.

Let me explain:

I first started making major progress in my business when I stopped thinking big, and started thinking small.

Initially, when I was first getting started as an entrepreneur I had a tendency to set ambitious goals like making $100,000 within the next 6 months — I’d look myself in the mirror every morning, do the whole visualization thing, carry around the piece of paper with my goal etc.

But instead of making progress, I found myself just spinning my wheels.

So I switched gears.

And eventually I discovered a strategy that changed everything for me.

Instead of setting large (and somewhat arbitrary) goals, every month I focused on asking myself the smallest of questions.

Questions like:

What’s one thing I can I do in my business will make me an extra $500 this month?

Or, what’s one thing I can I do that will generate 1 additional sale per day?

These small numbers were the sort of thing I could get my head around.

This was the shift in thinking that freed up my mind to “seek the small improvements, one day at a time..”  And it also happens to be what enabled me to start making real, significant progress in my business.

Let me illustrate with a few concrete examples:

When I first launched the business, after I conducted and analyzed my survey and finished up the market research process, I created and started selling our information product in the form of an e-book.

Within a month, I was selling about 60 units per month — or 2 sales a day.  And after some modest growth, sales plateaued at that level for the next few months.

So I asked myself a small question: What can I do that will generate just 1 extra sale per day per month?

At the time I knew based on emails we were getting from interested buyers — particularly among the 50+ demographic — that the market wanted a physical book.

I really wanted to sell digital products only — which avoided the whole fulfillment issue, but there was clearly strong demand.  So I decided to suck it up, and start offering a physical book, in addition to the e-book, with the target of generating 1 extra sale per day.

The result?

Instead of generating 1 extra sale per day, we TRIPLED our sales — almost overnight.

It was something I did NOT anticipate.

But the problem was that we knew nothing about shipping a physical product, and we were shipping all our books USPS priority mail at a cost of $4.80 per unit at the time (Not to mention writing out every address by hand!…)

To ship our books, we’d go to the post office after business hours (when there were no lines and the counters were closed) to use their postage printing machine, which was accessible in the lobby 24 hours a day.

(Going to our post office DURING business hours with a crate full of books to ship was a miserable experience — and usually meant at least 45 minutes of waiting in line, plus a lecture from the cranky counter clerk who did NOT appreciate our business…)

The after hours approach worked well enough when we were just getting started, but by the time we’d grown to fulfill an average of 250 orders per month, this really wasn’t feasible anymore.

So we started looking into “print from home” label & postage printing solutions — And since we could afford to invest in a printer and shipping labels at this point, we now had the option of shipping using Media Mail rates at the cost of $2.54 per unit.

When we made the switch from Priority Mail to Media Mail we picked up an additional $2.26 in profit per unit sold – which at the time (when we were selling 250 units/month), put an additional $565 per month directly in our pockets.

Nice, but not really something to write home about, right?

Well fast forward to today, and now that we’re selling in excess of 900 orders per month – that one little $500 per month improvement is putting an additional $24,408 in our pockets this year.

As John Wooden might say: “When you improve a little every day, eventually a big gain is made.  Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made…”

I’ll give you another example.

After the initial front-end product started selling well, we started developing a few back-end products.  First, we had the physical book made into an audio book on 4 CDs.  Then, we created a complimentary e-book on a related topic – and we started upselling those using a sequential “1-click upsell” process.

The result?

After about 2 months worth of testing and tweaking the sales copy, pricing, and determining which sequence performed best, I was able to increase the upsell rate from 6%  to 21% — which translated into an additional $1.75 in profit per order.

Again, nice but nothing to get really excited about, right?

Well, now that we’re doing 900 orders per month – that $1.75 increase in profit per order puts an extra $18,900 directly in our pockets per year.

Those are just 2 examples.  But there are another two dozen examples just like that — some small, and some big…

And THAT’S the secret to going from earning $0 online to earning $25,000 every month in 18 months.  There’s no one improvement that will get you there.  It’s the sum total of all the small things.  It’s the relentless, methodical attention to incremental improvement across everything in your business.

In a word – Kaizen.

But that’s not the whole story.  There’s a WHOLE other side to why Kaizen is so powerful — and it’s something you can use to propel yourself and your business EVEN further.

And this is where things get REALLY exciting, because here’s the thing:

NOBODY is talking about this.  And it’s also something that few (if any) marketers truly understand.

It’s something that I’ll be covering in the NEXT post in this mini-series.

Stay tuned…

Until next time — to your continued success

Ryan

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GLENN SAYS:    Ryan will post again with the continuation of this series shortly.  In the meantime, I’d love to have your questions and comments below, which I’ll pass along to him to consider addressing going forward.

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that I’m working on a deal with Ryan  to provide a number of people with  Hyper-Responsive Process Coaching at a little more than HALF my personal rates, and I should be able to open this up next week.  It’s likely to include some PHONE time too, so you can really get the hand holding you need.  If you’re interested, please get on the priority notification list at the bottom of my coaching letter… even though he’s not listed there yet, you’ll still get the first shot at the discount coaching slots when they open)