The one where we answer questions LIVE!

Dean: Hey, everybody! It’s Dean Jackson.

Joe: And Mr. Joe Polish. How’s it going?

Dean: This is exciting. Our very first live episode of the I Love Marketing Show.

Joe: Yes. This is very exciting. Can everyone hear us? Who’s out there?

Dean: I’m listening. Let me open it up here. I’ve got it on lecture mode, but let me open it up.

Joe: Dean’s being a little greedy.

Dean: No, we want to see who’s all here. There we go. Can everybody hear us? Who’s all out there?

Joe: Now it’s getting exciting.

Dean: Now it’s getting exciting. I’ll put it back. We’re getting new people every minute here. Welcome, everybody, to our first live I Love Marketing Show. We’re very excited to do that. Joe, we’ve got a few things we want to share with them before we get into kind of the… We’re going to totally base this episode around all of the questions that guys sent in. We’ve got lots and lots of questions. So, we went through, and kind of selected questions that are going to sort of have multiple or deep lessons in them, so that everybody will learn from them. We’re happy that you all sent in your questions, and we’ve got lots of material that we’ll use as the basis for future episodes, as well. But before we get started, we’ve got a couple of things to tell you about.

Number one, we just posted our new free report called “Breakthrough DNA: 8 Profit Activators That You Can Trigger In Your Business, Starting Right Now.” And that’s available for you to download, if you go to ILoveMarketing.com/breakthrough. So, that’s available for you right now, to download as a PDF. It’s great examples of how to apply the 8 profit activators in your business. Lots of examples in there and it will give you a good foundation for all the things that we’re going to be talking about at the I Love Marketing conference in September, too, which we hope you’re able to join us. If you haven’t already registered to come, you can go to ILoveMarketing.com/VIP, and you’ll find out all about the conference. Joe, this is exciting. I’m going to let you share this, that somebody had wrote us an email and purchased an extra ticket for somebody to come to the I Love Marketing conference. Why don’t you talk a little bit about that?

Joe: Yeah, yeah. So, this really nice person, who wants to remain anonymous, she wants us to basically give away an extra ticket to the I Love Marketing conference, to whoever is most worthy. So, we thought about this, and we were thinking that the best way we can do that is we can have a contest for whoever sends in the best one-page essay on your business, that’s pretty much a before-and-after listening to our I Love Marketing podcasts and episodes. And the reason we’re thinking that’s the best way to do it is for people that have been with us from the very beginning or people who have gotten into I Love Marketing and have really just listened to as much as they can. Implemented as much as they have been able to so far, and can write a one-pager as to kind of what they’ve accomplished and how as a result of I Love Marketing.

We’ll basically read those, and we’ll decide which one’s the best. And if someone’s already signed up for I Love Marketing and you still get chosen, we’ll basically just give you admission to it. So, Dean, I guess what we need to do is kind of create a mechanism for people to submit. And I can either just give out an email address for one of my team members that can collect them, if that’s fine with you.

Dean: I think that would probably be the easiest thing.

Joe: Okay. So, what I’ll do, I have this wonderful person that works for me by the name of Gina Delong, and her email is Gina@JoePolish.com. Whoever will write a one-pager, before and after listening to I Love Marketing, what sort of success you’ve had, you will then be put in the running to win attendance to the I Love Marketing event. So, Gina@JoePolish.com. So, just go and submit it. And everyone that submits one, I’ll come up with some prizes for anyone that actually takes the time to put in print kind of where their business was at before and where their business is at now. It could be the smallest of successes but something that’s really been a game-changer for you in some way, in terms of raising your prices or increasing your conversions, or networking, referrals, anything, big or small. It’s just a matter of what accomplishment have you had.

And whoever can articulate that in the best way, that’s how we’ll make it work. We’ll read them all, and then we’ll announce a winner. Maybe we’ll do it next week, or we’ll see how long it takes everyone. Because we are going to have a special live teleseminar, I think we’re doing next week. Right, Dean?

Dean: That’s right, Wednesday night. So, we hope you can join us next Wednesday, too. We’re doing a live teleclass. I want you to download the report and then we’re going to be talking about how to apply those 8 profit activators to your business. So, we hope you can join us on Wednesday night as well, same time, 8:00, same phone number. But we’ll send you all email reminders about it, and all of the details. Joe, let’s get to some of these questions. We talked about this before. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to read the questions that somebody sent in. We’re going to have a discussion about it. Maybe we’ll get through maybe 4 or 5 of these. And then, what we’re going to do is open up the call for some laser coaching here. We’ll do some Q&A, and we’ll tell you how to queue up for a question in just a little while. It’s very exciting, and a different energy being live. Isn’t it, Joe?

Joe: Yeah. Totally. Totally. And I do want to let everyone know I will have to apologize for this in advance. There will be no possible way that me and Dean can get to even a fraction of all of the questions. But we’ve read the questions that have come in, except the ones that have shown up for me in the last 30 minutes, because there’s so many questions. And a whole bunch more keep coming in. But we will address these in a future call, if we can’t get to them, or we will try to pick questions that can apply to any of the people that have submitted questions. And I’m sure that anyone that has submitted a question is probably listening live, and the report that just went up, “Breakthrough DNA,” which, again, you can get if you just joined us, at ILoveMarketing.com/breakthrough. It will answer a lot of the questions.

Some of the questions that we know that, if you were read that report, would literally tell you what you need to do, we’re not going to actually cover those because we know it will be answered there. So, I’ll go ahead and read the first question. It’s from Robert at Successful Computer Consulting. He wrote, “Very much looking forward to your call tomorrow night,” which is tonight. “I’ve been a long-time fan, follower and customer of yours, so I’ve got a question that’s killing me. I provide a marketing toolkit for computer consultants looking to build their business, similar, in many ways, to what you’ve offered to carpet cleaners,” referring to me. “My list of my customers is very responsive, and like what I have to offer. When I find the prospects, I convert well. To date, I’ve made about 150 sales at a price point between $247 and $497, but the big problem: finding the prospects. I won’t bore you with all of the details of all that I’ve tried so far. Suffice it to say I’ve been at this full-time for over 2 years, and I’ve tried lots. And still, I get an average of only 3 opt-ins to my list a day.”

“Finding computer consultants who want to grow their business is a very different challenge than finding guys looking to make a buck in Internet marketing. I know my prospects are out there, I just don’t know how to reach them. I would assume my challenge is similar to what you might have run into when you were first trying to find carpet cleaners who needed your expertise. I can’t imagine it was SEO blogging, article marketing, PPC (pay-per-click), or form participation that got things going for you.” “So, that’s my question. In the early days, how did you build your list of potential buyers for your carpet cleaning marketing kits and boot camps? Hopefully, you’ll be able to address this.” Dean, I’m going to have you actually speak to this, because you are so good at converting people online. But I do want to answer Robert’s question about, in the early days, how did I build my list of potential buyers for my marketing knowledge. Well, I did it all offline, in the very beginning, because there was no Internet at the time. So, I ran space ads in industry trade magazines, I sent out lead generation postcards, and I sent out lead generation direct mail. That’s basically how I did it.

I also did joint ventures with people that sold things to professional cleaners and restorers, such as distributors who would sell them chemicals and equipment. And I would do seminars in order to have them endorse my educational seminars to their list of clients. And then, we would do a really awesome seminar and upsell people that were interested in the marketing kit that way. I will say that, to this day, if you use the direct mail techniques and free recorded messages, and all of the stuff that we’ve talked a lot about on I Love Marketing, I believe you can still build a very substantial business, a multi-million dollar business, even if you never had a website. I wouldn’t recommend that, in this day and age, because there’s so much more you can do. But I’m just saying. If you’ve got the copy down and you’ve…

Dean: That’s the thing, isn’t it? A lot of times, people think like in today’s age, you’ve got to be online, and direct mail and free reports don’t work. And that’s absolutely not true. They still work like gangbusters. Even more so, probably, because fewer people are using those techniques. If you listen to our episode with Dan Kennedy, he talked about that, too. Everything still works. Everything works. It’s just having the right message. I chose this question, when we were looking through all of the questions, and we were kind of deciding which ones would have the best applications, this was one of the ones we chose because it’s not dissimilar to what a lot of people go through. “How do we attract people and start the process there?” I’m going to suggest, if you’re online, you can check out Robert’s website at SuccessfulComputerConsulting.com. That’s not a bad URL, SuccessfulComputerConsulting.com. It promises sort of a benefit there. It’s crystal clear. You know what that’s about, when you see it.

But when you get to the page, here’s the kind of thing. They may be very subtle things, but they can make a huge difference in the response that you ultimately get. Robert, we love you for doing this. And I want you to take everything that we’re going to say about this; I want you to take it as a constructive way for us to give you our experience and education for you, and how to make this even better. So, the first thing that people experience, when they come to your URL, you land on SuccessfulComputerConsulting.com, the first thing that’s very evident here is that this is Robert Peretson’s Successful Computer Consulting. So, immediately, he’s turned the tables, and he’s the star of this website. He’s the star of this.

Successful Computer Consulting and stuffing your books with juicy, high-paying clients as the headline, “The Shortcut To Stuffing Your Books With Juicy, High-Paying Clients Without Spending A Single Penny,” it sounds exciting and promising, but it’s not specifically offering a benefit, like a specific thing. And if you watch the video, the way that it’s talking about is kind of credentializing Robert. So, when I say this, this is what happens to most people, when they start doing led generation stuff. You start making it about you, as opposed to a very specific thing that you can help somebody do. We did an episode called “More Cheese, Less Whiskers,” and this is really completely applicable to this situation.

So, I want you to get a sense of how this is looking here, and the idea that what Robert is doing is offering people free information. He ultimately wants them to leave their name and their email address. And you don’t really know exactly what you’re going to get by doing this. So, this is a model that really works well. If you’ve got something that you can give to people in your target audience, and you have a way to compel them to come to this website, and then you can keep that excitement going, the model of doing any kind of doing any kind of lead generating to a website where people leave their name and email address. And then you continue to add value, and ultimately they buy something from you because you’ve been giving them so much cool stuff.

So, I want to contrast that, and I’m going to show you an example of something that follows this model, that I myself use in marketing for finding real estate agents who want to grow their business. So, I’m going to have you go to a website called TheListingNextDoor.com. This is a way that we have been using, very successfully, to get people into the funnel, because we’re offering something that’s completely free. This is all cheese. When you look at this – I’ll read in case you can’t be online here – the basic idea of this is we run Facebook ads, Google ads, pay-per-click ads, postcards, all kinds of things that bring people to this website by offering them a free listing-getting postcard. Or, on Facebook, one of the ones that’s really worked out well has been using a headline called “Sneaky Listing-Getting Postcard,” and it’s got a picture on the actual website, of a guy who looks kind of sneaky.

So, the basic idea is that they come to the page, and the headline says, “How to turn any sold listing into your next listing, even if it wasn’t your sale. Dear friend, here’s a really simple, sort of sneaky way for you to get more listings by marketing around recent sold activity in any neighborhood, even if it wasn’t your sale. Here’s what I’ve got to make it really easy for you.” “First, a lead-getting postcard to mail or hand-deliver to the 50 or 100 homes immediately around any sold listing. Odds are one of the neighbors around this sold listing has been waiting for that home to sell and will put their house on the market in the next 7 to 10 days. Sold signs breed for sale signs. If you act quickly, you can be in their mailbox within 24 to 48 hours after the sold sign goes up.” “The reason this postcard is attractive is it gives potential sellers an opportunity to get exactly what they want: information on what homes in their immediate neighborhood are selling for right now.”

Then, it’s got a picture of the postcard there. “This postcard is camera-ready print. Just add your contact info, and you’re ready to go. You can print them on your own printer or take them to any printer or copy shop. Just mail the postcard. And when people respond, I’ve written a direct response letter offering to get together with them, so they can find out exactly what their house is worth and which fix-ups would give them the best return on their investment. Plus, you get a free magazine article style report called ’10 Ways To Make Your House Show Like A Model Home In One Weekend, For Less Than $200.’ Just add your contact info as the author of the report. You can print it in color, on your printer, or in black and white, whichever you prefer. Then, all you do is include a printout of the homes that have sold in their neighborhood in the last 6 to 12 months, and the homes that are for sale right now.”

“So, here’s what you get: 1) the camera-ready listing-getting postcard; 2) the direct response appointment-getting letter; 3) the magazine-style article ‘10 Ways to Make Your House Show Like A Model Home In One Weekend, For Less Than $200.’ All you do is add your contact info, and you’ve got an easy listing-getting system.” “Today’s Thursday, August 4, 2011, and you can get all 3 of these tools for free. Just leave your name and email below, and I’ll send it right to you.” They leave their name and their email address. “Happy listing-getting, Dean Jackson. PS: I want to hear about your results using this system. All I ask is that you send me an email with your results.” So, that model, right here, is very instructional for anybody who wants to do any kind of initial lead generation for any sort of niche.

So, if I were Robert, what I would do to model this is I would find one strategy. If you’re selling a kit to people that have lots of strategies for them to get new business, the very best way for somebody to want to eat all of your cheese is to let them sample some of your cheese. So, if you were to give them one strategy, something easy that they could try and get a result without any obligation to you, without any mention of you. It’s almost like you’re doing this as just a way to share with your colleagues, with the people in your industry, when you look at the website TheListingNextDoor.com, there’s nothing about me. It’s not about me. It’s about them. It’s about here’s what I’ve got for you, to get new listings.” And people are very excited about it. We get a very high opt-in rate on that page, and then I’m able to start a relationship with people and invite them to come on a teleclass, where we show them how to get the most out of this program, and introduce them to I have a program that sells for $349, called Getting Listings, and it’s got all kinds of turnkey tools for how they can get listings.

So, it’s very similar to what Robert is doing here. And I would say that for anybody trying to break into a niche like that, find something that you can give them, that will get them a result in advance, so that they’re more than happy to leave their name and their contact information. Whenever somebody’s making that decision, you have to imagine that there’s this mental scale going on. You know those scales, like a fish scale, where you put one on one side and something on the other? On one side, they’re weighing, “Do I want to give up my name and email address?” On the other side, they’re looking at everything they’re going to get. And that side of the equation, the benefit that they’re getting has to far outweigh the cost of leaving their name and their email address. So, it’s not even a consideration. It’s a thud on the other side. It’s so powerful. What do you think, Joe?

Joe: I think you’re absolutely right. And I think someone that’s not even an information marketer or selling kits should still take a look at the website at TheListingNextDoor.com. Literally, understand the psychology that is being used here. We could always make examples with I Love Marketing, too. We are just giving out useful information. When I did the last episode, where Dean interviewed me about the Magic Rapport Formula, one of the things about being useful to people is that, exactly that. However you give them something that is useful, something that they can get value from right away, a strategy that they can use, some secret that would just be helpful to them, people want it, people need it. And if you give it to them and offer it to them, they will not only give you their name and email, they will give you money, in many cases.

That’s one of the challenges with so much of the nonsense that is taught to people in marketing about brand building. “Build your brand. Build your brand.” It keeps people fixated on them. Nobody cares about you. They care about themselves. You’ve got to tie it into that’s Dean’s whole entire premise about giving them cheese. And that’s why you need to get brand building out of your head first, until you actually have something that speaks to the wants, desires, needs of your prospects and your clients.

Dean: Yeah.

Joe: So, it’s all a positioning. It’s all a positioning game. And I will say what I said at the very beginning. I think a lot of technology causes people to be spending all of their time getting ready to get ready. “I’ve got to set up the website.” I have a friend who has another friend who recently started a carpet cleaning business, almost. And I say recently. Bought the equipment, hasn’t really kind of put his shingle out there. I’m sure the guy’s got business cards and everything. But she was telling me that he’s like, “Well, he can’t really launch it until he gets his website set up.” And she’s like, “No, you don’t! Just go out and start. You don’t need a website set up to start cleaning people’s carpets; you need a job!” So many people suffer from that sort of stuff. But I think what you said, I completely agree with. I wouldn’t add more to it, because there’s not more that needs to be added. Just awesome.

Dean: I think there’s some great lessons in that for anybody, especially in the information marketing business. That’s a very dependable model.

Joe: Let me mention something, too, since you’re talking about free reports. There’s one question that we got in, and I’m just going to touch on this one very shortly. Actually, it is a longer. I’ll just mention one part of it. No, this one’s actually short. It’s a guy named Jeff. He said, “If free reports are overdone, what works now to get people to respond? Ryan Dice says this is the case.”

Dean: You want to hear a funny thing about that?

Joe: Yeah, what?

Dean: Ryan Dice is a good friend of both of ours.

Joe: I was at his office yesterday, with Mary Ellen Tibby. I was in his office yesterday.

Dean: Here he is, if he’s saying free reports are dead, he’s got one of the hottest free reports going right now. One of the hottest free report offers, right now, is out there, making its way all across the Web, about the end of the Web as we know it. It’s a free report.

Joe: Yeah, exactly. So, my point is whenever you think long copy doesn’t work anymore, because everyone’s doing it, people are going to say that crap forever. And it’s nonsense. It’s just utter nonsense. And even if you have a marketer say that, it’s probably because they’ve got a new twist on the same thing, and they’re trying to position it so that it invalidates all of the other marketers, or whatever. I can assure you Ryan Dice gives out all kinds of free information, be it in the form of video or in print or in webinars or teleseminars or events, or whatever. He would give out free bobble-heads, if it could convert into leads and sales. And he’s a very sharp guy. He really is.

Dean: Absolutely.

Joe: I’ve got some videos I shot, that probably need to be edited in his office, but we did a whole brainstorm session yesterday. It was awesome. So, don’t, for a minute, think that anything that we’re talking about here doesn’t work anymore, because if it wasn’t working, we wouldn’t be talking about it. And secondly, everything we talk about, we do ourselves. Me and Dean, we sell millions of dollars’ worth of stuff every year, using all of the strategies and techniques that we tell people to use on I Love Marketing, for free. Would we like you to buy some of our stuff and come to our events? Sure, if you want to. And if you never buy anything, we know that the vast majority of people that listen to this are never going to give us money, and that’s fine. It doesn’t matter. You put enough stuff out there, life gives to the giver and takes from the taker. Just put good stuff out there. You’re going to have a lot of people that may request reports, and you might have to, in some cases, give out dozens, hundreds, sometimes thousands. And you can do a lot of this robotically, in a very easy, lucrative and fun manner, online.

So, I just wanted to speak to that. Okay, let’s go to the question from Zack, because Zack is coming to the New York event. Zack is a guy that’s already ponied up some cash. The least I could do is answer his question here. Zack, I’m looking forward to meeting you. Sean Phillips, Bill Phillips’ brother actually sent me a text saying, “Yeah, Zack is a…” I think he said a madman, or something like that, meaning in a nice way.

Dean: Perfect.

Joe: So, Zack’s question, I’m going to read this, and then throw in your 2¢ on it, and I’ll do the same thing. He actually has a company called UndergroundStrengthCoachCertification.com. I’m doing an event in 2 weeks, by the way, that Paul Zane Pilzer is actually speaking at, along with a VC guy that’s one of the early investors in Facebook and basically runs about a $2-billion, $3-billion fund. I don’t even know. He’s going to be speaking. And also, Ned Hallowell is going to be talking about overwhelm. And we’re going to have some of the top marketers in the world. If anyone wants to pony up a boatload of money and come to that event, it’s JoePolish.com/Pilzer, if you want to hear a phone conversation with me and Paul Zane Pilzer.

So he wrote, “Hey guys, I’ll be attending, blah, blah, blah. I wanted to get the ball rolling. Love what you guys are doing at I Love Marketing. Here’s my scenario. I run a certification course for strength coaches, usually every 2 to 3 months. I hold my certification, most of the time, here in New Jersey, at my small warehouse gym. The draw seems to be coming here, to experience my gym, train my athletes, and see how I built my business and changed my life through this small 1,500-square-foot warehouse gym, while doing what I love.” “I was a teacher for 11 years, and I left after being maxed in pay at $94K. Pursued my dreams full-time, and made it all happen.”

“Right now, the certification is run by me, and only me, and some steps are currently being made to get a few other coaches onboard so we can hold certification courses without me, in other states. We’re going to test-drive short seminars, and then one-day certifications, and eventually full-blown 2-day certification.” “I am not a big fan of traveling all the time, and more a fan of autonomy, living and working on my own terms, and I like my weekends with my family. I like staying here, in my hometown, with my wife and kids, which is huge to me. I’m thinking I need to take the certification to the next level and start an organization or federation, of sorts, so it’s not a one-man show.”

“What do you guys think or have experience with other guys taking certifications to the next level in their own industry? Pretty much every certification I hold has coaches flying from overseas to my New Jersey gym. Australia, Europe and UK are common visitors here. I have a certification this weekend with an ex-Navy Seal who’s flying in. I’d like to take this to the next level, just not sure if the draw to attend a certification will be there without me being there.” “Any advice you guys have on taking certification to a much greater level, federation, organization, etc.? Any quick tips? Sorry, I know this is a loaded question. This is my sales page for my certification on my blog. It’s UndergroundStrengthCoachCertification.com. See you in New York City, Dean. Hope you are in New York City, my man. Zack.” There you go. I’ve got some thoughts on that, Dean, but you go first.

Dean: Well, this is kind of interesting because a lot of times people do certification programs like this, and a lot of people are very interested in taking certification programs like this. But once you kind of appeal to the people who are really into getting certified at stuff, the way to attract a broader audience of people is to show them how to make that certification a pathway to making more money or to getting more training clients. And how to use that certification that they’re going to have as a way to expand their practice. It’s almost like you’re really trying to not only give them certification and the training, so that they’re better at what they do, but also giving them a way to turn that being better and being more educated into more bankable results, into more money. In every industry, we see it in real estate all the time; there’s so many certification programs. I know you, and I have talked about this, Joe. In carpet cleaning, there’s all kinds of education and coaching and certifications that you can get, but none of it means that you’re going to get more money as a result of it, unless you skillfully know how to use that.

Joe: Yeah, exactly. Part of my story was I was certified, but I was still dead broke. I knew how to clean carpets, but I was still broke. I did a good job and didn’t use bait-and-switch advertising and cared about my clients, and I was still broke. So, the moment I actually learned how to put together a compelling marketing message, that’s when it made all the difference in the world. So, one of the ways to differentiate yourself, especially since you’re obviously so into marketing, listening to I Love Marketing, you’re investing money to come to a very high-level mastermind group in a couple weeks, all the stuff you’re doing, everyone you’ve learned from. You know things about how to make money in the business that other strength coaches have no early idea about. And I think one of the biggest hooks of coming and getting training from you is you’re not only going to teach them the techniques that you are an expert in and that you will give them expertise in, but you’re also going to teach them methodologies on how to generate business. And that is way more valuable than just the techniques and the methods and whatever you’re teaching alone.

Having something that is valuable is useless if you don’t have a system for selling that which is valuable. And you combine the selling system, develop the ELF strategies that you have or any more that you can develop through working with us, listening with us, that sort of thing, all the better. And I think that should be the big hook. Now, can you tie that into a certification? Absolutely. But I would really tie into the fact that you’re not only going to teach them how to do the craft, but you’re going to teach them how to make money with it, once you teach them that. That is what I would consider the big hook.

That’s why more carpet cleaners come to my organization to learn how to run their businesses than any other organization in the world. And there are a lot of people that are way better at teaching carpet cleaners how to clean carpets than me. As a matter of fact, I don’t even care how to teach someone how to clean carpets. I care that they do a good job, but my clients even know not to ask me any technical questions, although I used to be the Arizona Director of the Carpet & Fabric Care Institute. And Lisa Wagner, who’s worked with me for many, many years, she writes for the industry trade magazines, has a big, successful rug plant, understands chemistry. I never talk about that stuff. That’s not what makes anyone any money.

Dean: Right. I think the lesson from that is transferable to not only certification programs or offering things like that, but also to any type of product. If you’re selling to manufacturers or if you’re selling photocopiers to printers, or you’re selling digital presses to copy shops, any of those kinds of things are only a tool, unless you can show them how to use that tool to make more money. The more that you can wrap your product or your service around the actual result that’s going to be resulting in more money for them, I don’t want to sound like a broken record and focus on money, but it’s about money. Money, money, money. That’s the thing. That’s the reason anybody is in business. And if you ultimately get to whatever it is people say, money doesn’t sound like a very noble thing to be motivated by.

But I guarantee you all of the nobler things that people say, “I want my business to provide security for me, or peace of mind, or time to spend with my kids,” all of those things are a byproduct of having a business that makes more money than you need. That’s ultimately what it’s about. So, it’s almost like the trump card, in a lot of it, is having more money. You and I have talked about this, Joe, people who say that money can’t buy happiness or whatever. But there’s a lot of stuff that money can buy.

Joe: Money can buy a lot of happiness. I buy happiness every day with money. If I want to eat somewhere I really like, and I don’t have the money to eat there, that makes me very unhappy. And, at the same time, there’s a lot of good things I do with money that makes me very happy, because I can really do things. I just financed a family reunion for a lot of family members that couldn’t do it without me. That made them happy; it made me happy. That’s cool. That sort of stuff. And it makes me happier to fly first class than coach. Money does some things. We are here to help people be happy. At the end of the day, we love marketing. We love happy people. And marketing is a vehicle to create happiness. And I say that jokingly, and it’s serious. I am as serious as can possibly be. Marketing is a vehicle. Yeah, me and Dean are ad men. At the end of the day, that’s what we kind of are. We’re advertising people; we’re marketing folks. There you go.

And also, Zack, a couple people that are friends of mine, that I think have really cool certification programs, that can probably be dramatically improved with more improved marketing, would be like StretchToWin.com, Chris and Ann Frederick. They have a great certification program, really solid teaching. Eric Cobb, with ZHealth, I think it’s ZHealth.net, they’re here in Arizona. They’ve got a fantastic certification program. I’m not sending you to them for, per se, the marketing, but just the way that they actually package up the certification and everything, they do a really good job, that sort of stuff. I’m sure there’s a lot of other organizations out there that I’m just not aware of. But being a marketing person, I can assure you there’s very few people teaching strengths coaches how to make money. And the ones that I know, heck, I was just one of the keynote speakers at the Austin Fit Fest. Bill Phillips was there yesterday, finally walking, because he had knee surgery on both his knees. He had a real bad accident, and stuff like that. But they’re all focused on marketing, the ones that are making money. Shall we go on to Christopher, from Germany?

Dean: What have you got? I had one here, too. But you go.

Joe: Okay. I’ll go with Christopher. “Hey, Dean and Joe, thank you for terrific work with the I Love Marketing podcasts. I’m currently building an info business regarding sleep quality improvement. I’m not sure if the market is willing to pay for the advice, because there’s a lot of cheap books and free articles out there. In addition, you find, on Clickbook, a lot of non-selling eBooks.” “Because I know that the traditional eBook sale doesn’t work, I will try your approach. First, I give everyone a free eBook that explains the whole system of sleep wellness. After that, I try to sell one session of telephone coaching, which upsells them into a 6-week telecoaching program.” “My take on that is either I found a good niche that is easy to dominate, or that I’m completely off-track. Question: do you have a tip for creating excitement for subjects that people are not really passionate about but should be, but appreciate a few thoughts on that.”

Dean: I read that one, too, when we talked a little bit. There was somebody else who had a very similar situation, where they are selling hearing. So, it’s kind of like the same. I think what we’re going to talk about here is going to apply to both of those, and to selling a service for something that people should want, but don’t necessarily want right now. I think that the very best way that I would approach this is by focusing initially on the situations where it’s so advanced that it becomes the number one thing on their to-do list. There are people who are so stressed-out about the fact that they can’t sleep, that they are willing to and will try anything. There are people who have had such bad hearing loss, that it’s almost inevitable that now they have to do something about it.

The very first eBook that I ever wrote was called “Stop Your Divorce,” and it’s still available at StopYourDivorce.com. But the appeal of that book is that it focuses on the person who is ultra motivated to take action. They’re working on their own momentum. So, I look at it that people who are in a relationship that’s in trouble or in tension, or arguing or strife or neglect, or not necessarily the best relationship, most of the time, let’s talk about the men in this situation, have a vague awareness that their relationship is not great. But they have very little interest in pursuing how to improve your relationship products or books or information. But yet, the moment that their spouse says, “I don’t love you anymore, it’s over, I want a divorce,” now, all of a sudden, it’s like the ice has kind of cracked underneath them, and they’re frantically struggling to do anything to get back to normal, to win them back, to do that.

But it wasn’t until it became an emergency. And it’s the same thing when you look at any type of prevention or sort of early intervention, opposed to solving a problem. It’s like very few people are interested in getting regular dental checkups and cleanings and doing early detection for cavities, yet there’s not a person who, when they crack a tooth, and they’re in eminent pain, doesn’t put “go to the dentist” on the top of their to-do list. So, there are people…

Joe: I can speak to that personally.

Dean: Including my friend, Joe Polish.

Joe: I talked about that, I think, on a recent episode. I got a freaking root canal 2½ weeks ago. I even videotaped it with my iPhone. We’ve got to post that. I think it will freak people the hell out. But I’ll think about that. But yeah, yeah, exactly. As soon as someone says, “I want a divorce,” you want to think of this as like what sort of life condition is creating the eject button to be hit, to where they’re like, “Oh shit, I better respond. I better act. I better do something. I’d better figure this out.”

Dean: So, I think the ends of the spectrum are the ones that have the most appeal to people. So, if you’re going to the ones who are absolutely self-motivated and you are promising a solution, you’re promising blessed relief to the problem that they have, that they’re going to be able to hear that they’re going to be able to sleep, I would start with that. And make sure that I get that message in front of every single person that is having that level of commitment to getting something done. Then, on the opposite end of the spectrum are people who are absolute keeners – people who love to prepare and do things in advance and have the best of anything. There are people who are really into sleep and getting the best sleep. If you start thinking about almost like positioning it as like high-performance sleep or people who are looking for an edge, I’m sort of one of those people, and I think you are too, Joe. It’s kind of like there was a great book called Power Sleep, that I read, that I learned a lot about sleep and I learned a lot about the cycles.

Did you know, Joe, that most sleep cycles are 90 minutes? And if you’re sleeping, typically, if you sleep without an alarm clock, like I do, then you’ll typically wake up naturally on a number that’s divisible by 90 minutes. So, you’ll either wake up at 6 hours, or you’ll wake up at 7½ hours, or you’ll wake up at 9 hours naturally, without being jarred awake by an alarm clock. One of the things that I learned from that is if you ever do have to get up, if you ever have to set an alarm clock, they talked about people who were sort of chronically sleep-deprived. And learned that they’ve been going to bed at the same time, and their alarm clock is waking them up right in the middle of one of those 90-minute cycles. So, they feel completely dead. They feel completely dragging all the way through the day. By getting up 45 minutes earlier, they feel more refreshed with less sleep than they do by actually getting the full amount of sleep that they had been getting, which was interrupting one of the cycles. So, I learned things like that. I’ve invested in incredible Tempur-Pedic beds and great comforters. We keep our house at 65 degrees.

Joe: Which is not enjoyable.

Dean: I was just thinking about that, because when you come to Florida, you’re absolutely freezing. It’s funny. But on the end of that spectrum, there are people who would love to use sleep as an advantage. So, the point of that was to attract both ends of the poles first, and then sort of go into the middle by appealing to either end of that.

Joe: There you go.

Dean: Yeah, that’s what I would do. Now, we said, Joe, that we would open it up for questions here, so I want to kind of honor that. We have lots of others. There’s no way we could have gotten to all of the questions. But we’ve got lots of things that we can talk about on future episodes.

Joe: Yeah. And I just want to say a couple things before we open up the line, if we could, Dean.

Dean: I’ll get them queued up. Let me get them queued up. What we’re going to do is we’re going to open it up for questions. So, if you have a question and you’d like to brainstorm something or talk about something, we’re going to try to keep these short and do like laser sessions. So, if you have something that you’d like to talk about, you can press *6 on your phone. That will raise your hand. I’ll see that you have a question that you’d like to join in, and I’ll be able to bring you into the call. Okay, so go ahead, Joe.

Joe: Okay. The last thing I’d like to say about Christopher, like with tips for creating excitement for subjects that people are not really passionate about but should be, is you tie it into things like “Is sleep affecting your sex life? Is sleep causing you to be unproductive on your job? Is sleep causing you to have a terrible appetite and overeat?” You tie it into things. Obviously, tie it into things where it really is true. I’m not talking about making stuff up, I’m talking about what are some of the ramifications and bad habits and forms of sabotage, or things that are important to people that, if you fix this particular area or improve the particular area of their life, they would have dramatic improvement in this other thing. Great marketers know how to do that. They know how to tie in certain things with others. So, think about it that way. I just wanted to say that. And that’s applicable to most people that are on the call.

Another one that came in, a guy named Anthony, with Appliance Doctor, real quickly, I want to address this. There’s a lot of questions that we have that are kind of like this. He’s like, “Joe, what’s up? What are the main benefits that we can build our marketing campaign around, in a service business? Repairing the product on the first visit? Being a factory-authorized service firm? Being on time? I’m sure being in the carpet cleaning business; our problems are the same. Thank you, Anthony.” Well, basically, what I would say to Anthony is it could be any of those things that you mentioned. However, what I would do is ask your clients. Literally, ask them. Do a survey. When people call up, “What do you want? What’s most important to you?” People that have done business with you, “Why did you select us?”

So, this is one of those things where you can spend a lot of time trying to figure it out, reading marketing books, asking marketing consultants. And sometimes, the best consultants that you could ever have are free, because they’re your prospects and your clients that are buying from you – or, more importantly, not buying from you. And if you take time to just have some conversations with them, you can learn things that you’re never going to learn any other way. So, the reason I wanted to address that is there’s several questions that have to do with like how do we figure out how to sell stuff to people. And I want to put it back on you to say, “Ask your clients. Ask your customers. Ask your patients. Ask your prospects.” People that haven’t bought from you, ask them, “Why didn’t you buy? What was it?” And you will learn all kinds of valuable stuff. In the free report, the 8 profit activators, breakthrough DNA, which if you joined us halfway through this call, you can get it at ILoveMarketing.com/breakthrough. It will give you a lot of really good tips on that. So, let’s go with the questions, Dean.

Dean: Alright, here we go. We’ve got 10 to the top of the hour. We’ll probably go a little bit over the top of the hour, but let’s see who we’ve got.

Caller: Hey, Dean. Hi, Joe.

Joe: Hey. Who’s this?

Caller: This is Dwight in Miami.

Joe: How are ya?

Dean: Perfect.

Caller: Doing good. Joe, you and I actually ran into each other at the super conference back in Chicago.

Joe: Oh, okay. Great.

Caller: I just started an interview program, kind of patterned off the Genius Network. So, everybody’s saying that it’s a great idea, but nothing like it has been done in my field. So, even though everybody thinks it’s a great idea, nobody’s subscribing.

Joe: Yes. What is your field?

Caller: Martial art. Specifically, Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do.

Joe: Here’s the things with interviews. Interviews, as standalones, are hard to sell as a front-end, especially in this day and age, where you can get interviews all day long. Like Ryan Lee, as an example, he’s a really good marketer, a good friend of mine. He has interviews he does with people about continuity, but he doesn’t call them interviews. He calls it the “Reoccurring Revenue Report.” It’s just a different name. So, part of it is what you name it, for one. Secondly, what is your backend, other than interviews? What other products do you have, other than just interviewing people?

Caller: Well, the idea is to develop, ultimately, coaching and consulting products.

Joe: You know how me and Dean are doing I Love Marketing for free? We do a podcast. What if you did the same thing in your niche, and you make it free? You don’t try to sell anything. And you put together some really great, valuable stuff for those people, and you give it to them for free, and you build a list. And then, if they find it valuable and you’ve got something that you can develop and create for them, that they would spend money on, then you sell it to them. That’s one way to do it.

Caller: I had kind of an add-on. Is it while you’re doing the interview that you make notes for what becomes the hot tip, or do you already know beforehand?

Joe: Oh, no, no. And for people who have not listened to one my Genius Network interviews, and if anyone wants one of them for free, like one that I’ve posted up for free, it’s GeniusNetwork.com/P90X. That’s my interview with Tony Horton, who you see on infomercials all the time. We have the interview people can download, or they can listen to it online, or they can download the transcript, and then we have a hot tip sheet, which are the most valuable tip. So, after every interview, we transcribe them, and we basically pull out what we consider the most useful ideas on the interview. I never know what those are until after I’ve actually interviewed somebody. So, none of it’s kind of figured out beforehand.

Caller: Okay, got it.

Joe: And part of it is don’t focus on interviews. Your name, again, is Dwight, right?

Caller: Yes.

Joe: Okay, I see your question right here. You launched an interview program patterned off of Genius Network. Unified Martial Art Academy. In terms of what to show and offer your list members to persuade them to subscribe, make sure you really talk about the benefits of what’s on the interview, not on the interview. Again, I’ve sold Genius Network for years. Telling people to buy my Genius Network interview with Brian Tracy, unless they’re really a Brian Tracy fan or they’re really a Robert Kiyosaki, or they’re really a Robert Cialdini fan – which I’ve interviewed 170 people at this point – that alone rarely makes the sale. It’s what does Brian Tracy talk about? What does David Bach talk about? What does Mike Koenig’s talk about? It’s what are they going to learn on the interview.

So, really focus on the benefit, and do your best to call it and name it what it actually will teach them. What is the benefit of what you’re going to share? That sort of stuff. Years ago, there was a guy who sold a $500 cassette tape on theft control, that Dan Kennedy would always talk about; not because it was a cassette tape, but because of the content of it. So, you may interview someone that contains information that could change someone’s life, it could save their life, whatever, and that’s what you want your copy and your messaging to do.

Caller: Got it. Thanks, guys.

Joe: Cool, man. Good luck!

Caller: Alright, thanks a lot.

Dean: Thanks, Dwight. Something like that is often the thing that people don’t really realize is that even if you’re thinking of giving them away or doing it for free, you’re perhaps getting a more valuable asset than money – and that’s somebody’s attention. If you have a group of people that you have their attention, and you’ve earned their attention, and you’ve earned by giving them value, you have influence. And that is, I think, a great thing to focus on, especially if you’re just getting started on launching something like that.

Joe: Exactly. And there’s a lot of philosophies on pricing and free and stuff. I’ve interviewed Jason Fried, with 37 Signals, and he’s not a big fan of giving things away for free. But he does have things like TadaList.com, which is a free to-do list that 37 Signals developed. And it’s still a lead generator for them to sell Basecamp and the various 37 Signals online services that they have. But for the most part, between fee and free, there’s a lot you can do to test and see. And also, when you have to give something away for free, it really keeps you on your game. Me and you, Dean, we constantly get questions from people like, “What’s your angle? What are you doing?” There’s always the skeptical people that cannot think of anyone giving something away for free. It’s like some calculated conspiracy master plan, to try to fleece people of their money or something. It’s kind of ludicrous, some of the comments that people will make about that sort of stuff.

My whole thing, I get a tremendous amount of joy knowing that there’s people in different parts of the world. We have listeners everywhere now. We’re getting comments from people in countries that I’ve never even heard of. To me, it’s kind of cool, that that stuff’s out there everywhere. And I make no qualms about the fact that I’m a full-blown capitalist. We give ideas on I Love Marketing, and someone goes out, and they make a few hundred, a few thousand, tens of thousands or whatever. Hopefully, we can have some people that become millionaires out of stuff that they learn for free on I Love Marketing. It’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen, it will happen, if we do these podcasts and these episodes long enough, even when they are not called podcasts anymore. They could be called some whiz-bang technology thing that comes out.

The point is if you make someone a lot of money, they will reciprocate, and people will give you money. If you have good stuff, put it out there in as many ways as you can, for free or for a fee. I was giving away free rooms of carpet cleaning back in 1992, before Seth Godin ever wrote a book called Permission Marketing, or before Eben Pagan ever talked about moving the free line. We know this stuff works, and I ended up getting a lot of high-priced business by giving away free stuff. And carpet cleaners, every day, give away free rooms of carpet cleaning with a carpet audit. There was another question in here that I won’t answer in detail.

Dean: Quit hogging the spotlight here, and let’s let some of these people who are queued up here for questions. We’re at the top of the hour right now, so we’ll probably answer a couple more questions. We’ll keep going.

Joe: I like how you’re hurrying me up here, Dean.

Dean: Yeah, I’m trying to hurry up. I can talk to you anytime. These people here, we need to give them some attention.

Joe: Just don’t be hurtful about it.

Dean: Hello?

Caller: This is Ian from LA.

Dean: Joe, who do we have?

Caller: This is Ian, from LA.

Dean: Hi, Ian.

Caller: I was wondering. I’m not a fashion designer, but I have a friend who is, and I’m helping her with her marketing. She wants to create like an image. I know you guys promote consumer education, and that kind of conflicts with the image that she wants to portray. I know you guys are against branding and all that stuff. So, what would you suggest she gives away to build the lists and build her business?

Dean: That’s a very interesting question. Fashion is really one of those things that’s sort of almost like an art, in a way, I guess. Does she do couture or does she sell to retail?

Caller: She has things she’s developed, and she’s not in any stores or anything, so she wants to sell it online, first, to get a following, and then she’ll go from there.

Joe: If she has really cool stuff, have her submit some stuff to like Zappos, as an example, if she has manufacturing set up. But in terms of situations like that, celebrity endorsements are huge. Tying things into charity to get exposure, if there’s a charity event. If she creates beautiful gowns for women or whatever, there are things along those lines. A really well-done video. And when I say well-done, I don’t mean very expensive, I mean just a really compelling, cool video displaying her wares. Does she have any clients that will say glowing things about any of her designs?

Caller: Yeah, I’m sure. We haven’t talked about that, because we are focused on getting stuff, something that she can give away to build her list, as opposed to having testimonials. But I’m sure that’s something I can definitely talk to her about.

Joe: Yeah. Definitely, having existing clients and people that she’s worked with. Because in the beginning, you’re probably going to start this from even like a referral sort of basis, if she’s going to make one-off sort of designs. Or is this something that she’s wanting to get in stores or on QVC, or things along those lines?

Caller: She actually had submitted herself to that show with Heidi Klum on Bravo, and she got to like the runner-up, but she didn’t get on the show. So, she basically just wants to get bankrolled to start her fashion line. She tried with that, and that didn’t work out. So, we haven’t really focused on QVC or whatever. We’re just focusing on doing it online, kind of like Kid Rock, how he couldn’t get signed, so he basically built his own following, and then he named his price at a record company, once he had a following. So, that’s the kind of thing that we’re doing.

Dean: As you’re saying that, like Joe was saying how celebrity endorsement is very big in things like that, and I think that’s true in going to a national audience. But I think there’s also people who are celebrities in their circle, influencers in their own community. And I think that would probably be where I would focus. Looking at who is the person that this fashion is most appealing to. Is it for women over 50, like Chico’s? Or is it young, hip, teenage girls?

Caller: Yeah, that’s pretty much what it is, young girls.

Dean: Okay. So, in any situation like that, there are you maybe call them the “cool girls,” or the ones who are celebrities at their high school or celebrities at their group, that those kind of people are maybe influencers.

Caller: Are you saying you give them clothes for free, to wear, and then get exposure that way?

Dean: I think that may be a good way to do it. Or give them at least some sort of a VIP rate on clothes or something, with things that maybe they could give to other people. I’ve never thought about fashion, because you don’t really think about fashion as something that you would apply direct response marketing to. But I imagine you could. You look at the Jay Peterman catalogue, it all started with that one duster coat that he had.

Joe: Can I say something? Absolutely. There’s a starting point for everything. And it sounds like your friend is driven, because even getting runner-up, which you can still use. There’s a lot of marketing fodder with that. What I would encourage you to do is read the Breakthrough DNA report, especially where Dean talks about the very first one is selecting a target audience. Obviously, you’ve already done that. What I would do is something like what you could give away for free is you could give away tips on how to dress and how to be cool. And you can model it very much like our friend Gary Vaynerchuk, who we’ve interviewed on a previous episode of I Love Marketing. He started Wine Library TV. He’s now reached 1,000 episodes of it. But this guy literally gave away a video every single day. Did 1,000 episodes. We’re talking a $50-, $60-million-a-year wine business, just teaching people about wine.

Have her just do a video blog, talking about fashion. And if she does that every day, and she has really good tips and really good content and she can display her stuff and show people how to do stuff, the fact that she’s out there putting good, useful advice out to the world will create a following, and it will pick up, and that’s what Gary did. And you’ve got a model right there, by looking at Gary Vaynerchuk. Go and look at his very first episode at WineLibaryTV, and look at what he did. The guy ended up on Conan O’Brien; he ended up on all these TV shows. He’s a multimillionaire by what started out as a video blog, teaching people who to drink and select certain wines, where he was the complete opposite of what people perceived as a wine expert. The guy’s one of the top in the world, now.

Caller: I know. I read Crush. I’m very familiar with the guy. The guy is amazing.

Joe: He’s already paved that road in a different category. So, part of it is just bottle the same thing. To me, you could do the exact same thing that he did with fashion.

Dean: You just reminded me of Hugh McCloud was working with an English tailor from Seville Row, and he had a blog called EnglishCut.com. This guy would just talk about tailoring. He made $4,000-custom bespoke suits, and would fly over to the United States, and people would meet him in New York or Atlanta or San Francisco, and he would do all of their measurements and go back to England and make their suit. But look at his blog, because that may be an interesting way to do it, is to take the position of revealing what the fashion industry is really all about. Give people an inside look at the fashion world. She might have a great perspective on things.

Caller: She definitely has an opinion.

Joe: And if there’s another way to tie it into something like when we interviewed Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOM Shoes, where he has the one-for-one model, if there’s any way you can create a one-for-one model with her clothes, do it. There’s another exact model, which I think is so darned creative there. Look at how big he has built that business, and how much good in the world he has done as a result of very unique way of selling shoes.

Dean: There you go.

Caller: Yeah, it’s brilliant. A brilliant model.

Joe: Does that help, or was there something you were trying to say and we cut you off because we were trying to answer it?

Caller: No. I was going to say what did Gary do to offer for free, to build a list? I know he had the shows and all, but what did he offer for free?

Joe: That’s what he offered for free. It was literally advice. Simple education.

Caller: But those, they can go to YouStream and get it. How did he get them to opt-in?

Dean: That’s the thing. It was valuable because he has a unique perspective.

Joe: Yeah. He’s wild, he’s wacky, he’s kind of crazy, he’s animated, he’s interesting.

Caller: I know all about that. I’m just saying did he have a specific eBook or product or video?

Joe: Nope.

Caller: You couldn’t see on YouStream…

Joe: No. Quit trying to overanalyze it too much. Literally, that’s what you’re doing. You need a widget. Well, you could have a free report. If you wanted to do a free report or a whole fashion spread on the 10 ways that cool girls dress, you have it like in cartoon figures. Or if you really want to get crazy, you can do like the Ken Robertson speech with RS Animate on education. And you could have a whole animated cartoon sort of thing drawn up. You can do stuff like that. Or, you can just simply put it in front of a freaking iPhone video or in front of a webcam, holding up a shirt or a dress or whatever, and have her talk. And just keep doing it.

The widget could be the video. Free video reveals blah, blah, blah. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not trying to be rude. I’m just saying sometimes the education is the thing. And if they’re like, “Wow, I’d like to buy some clothes from this woman, this looks really cool,” then you can start getting creative with 10 girls she puts together and starts talking to them like, “Do you like it? Do you hate it?” Like it or hate it, whatever, cool clothes. And you can let people vote. And then, you get people engaged. But the best way to get started is just to get started. So, my recommendation for your friend, watch an episode of Wine Library TV, and model it as best you can, and do a video blog that teaches her niche how to actually dress, and uses her example of clothing to talk about it. While she starts building up that blog, she now has a place to send television stations, places she wants to carry her line, start building a list that way. That’s what I would start doing.

Caller: Okay, that’s fantastic. I just wanted to say you guys are brilliant. I love your stuff. I got in late, like a few months ago, but I downloaded every single podcast, and I’ve listened to every single one. You guys are really doing a good job, and putting a lot of goodwill out there. I just want to thank you guys for that.

Joe: Absolutely.

Caller: Joe, one more thing. I just wanted to know. I know you’re like great friends with Richard Branson. I just want to know, if you don’t mind me asking, what would be the most profound thing that you’ve learned from Richard Branson, that has really affected your business and your life, or whatever? But just the one most profound thing that you’ve learned from being a friend of his?

Joe: Probably just think big – not have any limits whatsoever. Don’t ever put a ceiling on what is possible, and that you can accomplish many things in this world, as long as you have the ability to really think big. He’s a big thinker.

Caller: Okay, excellent. Alright, guys. Thank you so much. You’ve been a great help. Thank you.

Joe: Thank you. Alright, Dean, who do have next?

Caller: Hey guys, it’s Josh Hallis in Lake City, Texas.

Joe: Hey Josh, how are you?

Dean: Josh Hallis! That’s my friend Josh Hallis.

Caller: Yeah, Mr. Jackson knows who I am.

Joe: Very cool!

Caller: Yeah, I dig this stuff. I’ve been watching it since day one. Really awesome. Mr. Duncan and I, John Duncan, watch them all the time. It’s just great stuff. Dean, since this is really real estate related to actually what Chuck is doing, I’ve been trying to model the reviews that Chuck is doing, the daily reviews.

Dean: This is somebody, just for everybody listening, he’s talking about Chuck Charleton, who’s one of our MoneyMakingWebsites clients, who does a daily video blog on all the new listings that have come on the market in his marketplace. Okay, carry on, Josh.

Caller: I think that, and this is probably where you guys were coming from, stop me if I’m wrong, but I think that the valuable part of what’s being offered there is Chuck’s opinion. And Chuck’s honest opinion, at that, about the homes that are being reviewed. So, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around is there some magic formula about doing them Monday through Friday, daily, or is that just a name? I’ve seen so many successful programs, including so many of yours, Dean, that are Bank Owned Weekly, Weekly Podcasts, and things like that.

Dean: And we do this once a week. I think that the minimum frequency to be taken seriously is once a week, I think. You have to commit to that, it has to be valuable, and it has to be dependable. We’ve been doing these now. We haven’t missed a single week all year. This is our 30th episode. And people get into a pattern. You’re aware that we post a new I Love Marketing episode every Sunday night, for the early birds, and it’s available for everybody on Monday. But we have a lot of people who build their Sunday night around coming to I Love Marketing; they download their podcast, they download the transcript, maybe they listen to it on their way to work the next day.

But it’s dependable, and they know what they get. They’re going to get an hour, at least, of our very best advice, our very best education that we can give, tips, things that we’ve learned. So, I think that that’s what people really want, is are you adding value. The thing that Chuck is doing for people who are looking for a home, they’re rabid followers because they are really interested in that. Now, the advantage of doing a daily is that when people are really at the point where they’re eminently going to buy a home, it’s the top thing on their mind, they’re scouring the market, they know about all of the houses that are for sale, that new information is what’s really appealing to them. And he’s the only one that’s giving it to them. You might lose a little bit of that on the weekly basis.

Caller: I was actually thinking twice a week, and I don’t know if there’s anything special about that, except I was going to do one on Monday and one on Friday, and they still get all of the homes, it’s just broken up into twice a week. My thinking behind it really was if I’m going to be sending these out to people who are possibly not moving for 6 months or later, if I start emailing them every single day, and they’re not moving for 8 or 9 or 10 months, I’m going to lose them. I’m not going to be speaking to them correctly.

So, I was trying to find a happy medium to where if somebody’s ready to move within the next few months, if I’m emailing them twice a week with this information, I still think I’m getting in front of them enough to where they’re going to be, “Okay, who is this guy? What is he doing? Let me watch this. Maybe I should call Josh or email him and ask him a question,” versus monthly and stuff like that. Monthly is just they don’t have any interest for a long period of time. You know what I mean? So, I think twice a week. And I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t something that you guys found to daily, that it has to be daily in order to be successful, because I love doing it.

Dean: It doesn’t have to be, but I’ll tell you that it is more successful. It’s the most successful. Chuck’s business is exploding, right now. And it’s all driven by that commitment to doing those daily videos. But there are lots of people who are having a lot of success doing a weekly email without the video, even. But I think it really is about how successful do you want it to be.

Caller: Right. And I would be really curious to know if Chuck actually took that same list and did it twice a week, he would probably get, I believe, because of the value he’s giving them, I believe he’d get the same results. And I would love for him to test that.

Dean: I think that you should prove that.

Caller: Maybe so.

Joe: Let me jump in here, too, because here’s the thing. You’ve got to listen to yourself, because you want to fit this model into a 2-week thing, because either that’s what you think is the right thing or that’s what you’re willing to do. However, the only way you’re going to know that is you’re going to test it. So, we can talk about it for 2 hours, and we wouldn’t know that until it’s actually tested. And secondly, you’ve really got to ask yourself, “What am I willing to do? And what am I willing to test?” Because the only way you’re really going to know this is to go out there and do it.

You have some good logic there, but there’s also an existing successful model. My take on it is if I had a gun to my head and I had to literally pick the thing to do that would give me the highest possibility of success. And there were other models that I could look at that were producing the result that I want, you bet your ass that I would go that way; because if I didn’t, the gun goes off and I die. Fortunately, we’re not in that situation. And unfortunately, some people are not in that situation because it allows them to be lazy and come up with things they’re not going to do. And when I say lazy, I don’t mean you should be doing something every day, if you hate it and it’s not going to fit in or whatever. What I’m saying is you’ve really got to test it for yourself. Dean did say the right thing. You really should be the one to prove that you can do it. Because, after all, let’s say that you did do it 2 days and you get the same sort of results, or even better. Man, you just created an invasion.

Dean: Right now, as it stands, I just had lunch with Chuck today, and you couldn’t pay him enough money to not do the daily videos.

Caller: Right. Right. And I’m will split the test on it. I’ve got a list of, unfortunately, 30 people. Now, one of the next things that I’m trying to learn is how to correctly build my list. I’ll know more whenever I can actually get more people in there. And there is a flipside to doing those reviews, because I’m still doing all of the homes. The videos are longer. So, it’s not like I’m trying to cut out the work or anything like that. I was wondering if it would actually…

Dean: I think you should narrow your focus to enough where it’s not overwhelming. You might be trying to do too big of an area.

Caller: Well, I’m doing Lake City. I asked Chuck about his population for Milton, and it’s about the same population, relatively similar numbers. I’m not trying to do Clear Lake, Friendswood, Houston. You know what I mean? I have narrowed it to Lake City. And it is manageable, and it does keep me busy, whether I’m doing it twice a week or daily. I’m still researching every single day.

Dean: I’ll tell you what. We’re going to know definitively, 100 episodes from right now, what the answer is. One year from today, you’ll have 100 episodes under your belt.

Caller: Yeah. Well, I’ve been doing it for about 6 months for daily. Granted, I have missed a couple of days here and there, but I don’t have a list. I’ve got 30 people I’m sending them to, so I need to build my list.

Dean: Yeah. You’ve got to have the audience. Good.

Caller: Well, I appreciate it guys. Thank you so much.

Joe: You’re welcome, man. Thank you. And read the “Breakthrough DNA” report that Dean just set up at ILoveMarketing.com/Breakthrough. And if you want to come to our event and go through a whole training on it, go to ILoveMarketing.com/VIP, and get yourself registered for that, because it will be awesome. I do want to mention that one of the questions that came in, Dean, it says, “Question about I Love Marketing event in Phoenix. I want to do the early bird registration, but there’s no place to add my spouse to the order. Adding 2 forces you to buy 2 complete tickets.” I don’t know if that’s still the case up there. If it is, I want to give out a phone number.

It’s probably too late in the day, if you’re listening live right now, but you can call tomorrow, my office. If anyone wants to add a second person, just call (480) 858-0008. If you forget our phone number, it’s on our website at JoePolish.com. Just say you want to come to the I Love Marketing conference. If you want to bring a guest, right now you can bring a guest for $297, if you are registered. And, there is an early bird, very special rate for everyone that is listening at ILoveMarketing.com/VIP. Get registered for it. Dean, I know we are out of time.

Dean: There’s one question left, and I’d like to do that. So, let’s do that.

Joe: Cool.

Dean: Hello?

Joe: Hello? Who’s this?

Caller: Hey guys, it’s Dr. James from DogHealth.com. How’s it going?

Joe: Awesome. How are you doing?

Caller: I’m doing great. Listen, first question I have is, do either of you have dogs?

Joe: I do not.

Dean: I do not, no.

Joe: I had one a long time ago, and my father gave it away. When I came home, after like a year of having a black Labrador named Panther, and I was devastated. I ended up, I think, getting reptiles and tropical fish afterwards.

Caller: Here’s my question. Our business, there’s not a lot of Internet marketers in the veterinary world, and I am in a very specific niche based around dogs who have had ACL surgeries. That market alone is a $1.3-billion niche, in a very small niche that is veterinary medicine itself. But we are trying to market to both veterinary professionals and consumers, at the same time. Veterinarians, in general, don’t want to change their ways. So, a year ago, we started giving our books away for free, to pet owners, and we’ve been wildly successful at that. So, my question is just on our company’s website and our presentation; it’s like we’re trying to be 2 things. I personally am having a hard time with directing my people as to how to…

Dean: You know what? You’re absolutely going to love… Have you downloaded the Breakthrough DNA report yet?

Caller: Done it.

Dean: You’ve already done it?

Caller: Yeah.

Dean: Okay. So, you’re going to see that there’s an example there, of how to serve 2 markets, but have each of those markets feel like they’re the only one that you’re serving.

Caller: Exactly. That’s what I needed.

Dean: There’s one photography company with 2 different approaches, that one has a website called WeShootCans.com, and the other one is WeShootBottles.com. And all they do, the whole thing on that website is if you’ve got a bottle that you need to have shot, you have beverages or wine or jams, or anything in a bottle, these guys are the specialists that make it look its absolute best. And then, the same thing with WeShootCans. I think that first profit activator, of narrowing your focus to a single target market at a time, is really profound, the impact that it can have on your business.

Caller: The only difference, or I guess the follow-up with that, would be that I am one company.

Dean: I understand you’re one company. But Proctor & Gamble is one company, and has 23 individual billion-dollar brands.

Joe: Right. Beautiful. Okay. I got that.

Joe: If you see all the stuff they do just for some of the big companies, like…

Dean: Laundry detergent or anything…

Joe: Crest. Crest toothpaste, it’s like insane.

Caller: Here’s the thing, guys. I followed you from day one. I don’t remember how the hell I found you. But I wish that there was value that I could return in your life. That’s why I asked if either of you had dogs. Because I couldn’t dream. I Love Marketing comes out of my mouth every day. I make all my staff listen to it, and I make all these young people that I mentor listen to it, and I just can’t even fathom. It’s just fantastic. So, I appreciate it.

Joe: Thank you. Really. That makes it so much more meaningful, as to why we actually do this, when people tell us. And we love that, and it’s really awesome. By the way, I don’t even know if she’s available, I have a friend who’s been in direct response for years, and her number one love in life is dogs and taking care of dogs, and being involved in dog shelters, adopting dogs.

Caller: I want to be her friend.

Joe: She may be available for consulting with you on stuff, or available for hire. But send an email to Gina@JoePolish.com regarding information about your company, kind of what you’re looking for, and I will have it sent over to her.

Caller: How should I address it? Just say there’s somebody that Joe knows, Joe the networker knows within the rescue world”?

Joe: Yeah. Just put, “Joe asked to email about dogs.” Just put “dogs” in the subject line, and I’ll tell Gina to look out for your email and get it to me.

Caller: Alright, very cool. Listen, you quoted me on podcast #3 or something like that, about this direct marketing campaign that I was doing to veterinarians. I picked this very targeted, high-level list of like the best hospitals in the country. I sent out what I thought couldn’t have been a better 3-step piece, and I don’t know. The veterinarians, they’re a tough group to get in through those medical hospitals. So, it wasn’t wildly successful, but it was successful enough.

Joe: As long as you’re successful enough, you keep honing, you keep honing, you keep honing. That’s the reason a lot of people never really kind of get fantastic, stellar results is because they’re not willing to go through the psychology and the testing stages. Marketing is applied psychology, and you’ve got to get inside people’s heads. I’ll tell you, if all of this was so easy, we wouldn’t be doing a podcast. It me and Dean talked about all of the failures that we had trying to think that we would actually hit one out of the park, we have a lot more misses than we have hits.

Dean: Did you have failures? I didn’t have any.

Joe: Never had a single one, huh?

Dean: Not a single one. Pretty impressive.

Joe: It’s the whole joke of in life it’s called failure, in the marketing world it’s called testing.

Caller: You know what I call it? It’s fun. I’m having a blast through the entire thing. I’m always enjoying every day, playing with it. It’s fun. It’s fun.

Joe: It’s especially fun when you actually freaking hit one. When I first got a winning campaign, I was like, “Oh, my god! You can actually rig the game in your favor, to win!” It’s like a slot machine that you’ve freaking figured out how to fool.

Caller: I’m going to write your one-page essay, and I will tell you, honestly, that since I’ve been listening to this, that from last year I’ve gone up 300% every month.

Joe: Wow!

Caller: That was obviously starting with low numbers. But I remember getting one order in my products a week, and I was psyched about it. To where now, I just had my first $1,000 day without even running a promotion. So, I’m having fun, man.

Joe: Awesome. Thank you.

Caller: I will see you guys out in Arizona.

Joe: Appreciate it. Thank you.

Caller: Alright, take care.

Dean: Alright. There we go.

Joe: Okay, that was our first live one.

Dean: That was a very successful first live episode.

Joe: Yeah, yeah. And I wish we could have covered every question here. But literally, we got so many. The good news about that is we got a lot of listeners. And we hope that we selected questions that were quite applicable to everyone. Like I said, we’re going to do a live call on Wednesday, so we will email you details about that. It will be at 5:00 pm Pacific, 8:00 pm Eastern, next Wednesday. Same phone number, if you want to put that in your schedule right now, so you don’t forget. Please tell your friends and neighbors, and even people you don’t know, especially on the bus, to go to ILoveMarketing.com and listen, and to come to our event. I hope you come to our event. If you would like to, it’s ILoveMarketing.com/VIP. Again, the last thing I’ll say on the Breakthrough, go and get the “Breakthrough DNA Report: 8 Profit Activators You Can Trigger In Your Business Right Now,” at ILoveMarketing.com/breakthrough.

Some of the comments on past episodes that were posted on Facebook have disappeared, and some people have asked, “What happened to the comments?” And there was a Facebook add-on glitch thing on our site, and we are trying to get some of the comments back up. They still exist on everyone’s individual Facebook page, but they are not all together there. So, we have literally lost hundreds of comments on I Love Marketing, at least the Facebook ones. So, in case anyone’s wondering why, that’s why. We’re trying to get them back up there. And if we can’t get them back up there, we’re going to be bummed. But from this point forward, please post, please comment, and please keep on listening. Anything else you want to say, Dean?

Dean: That’s perfect.

Joe: Okay. Goodnight and goodbye, everyone. And we will talk to you next week. And for those of you listening on the recorded version of this, do everything we just said on this call live. It’s still the same.

Dean: There we go. Perfect. Bye.

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