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All Eyes On Denver
Wizard Partners' roadshow promises to be first big confab of the year |
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 The Wizard of Ads partner group is doing it again. And this time we're heading to the Rocky Mountains, specifically Denver's Qwest events Center, for the next installment of the Wizard of Ads roadshow.
This event, dubbed the Marketing Performance Seminar, again features a "Who's Who" of the Wizard of Ads partner group: Steve Rae, Michele Miller, Chris Maddock, Mike Drew, Dave Young, Jeff Sexton, Paul Boomer, Clay Campbell, Jane Fraser, Tom Wanek, Steve Sorenson, the list goes on and on and on.
What distinguishes this event from previous Wizard of ads event offerings is a strict adherence to the marketing performance equation, which is a fundamental component of the way the Wizard of Ads group does business and gets such monumental results for its clients, according to event organizer David Young.
"By a co-opting everyone's material to fit a particular plank in the marketing performance equation, we hope that this event will be useful and educational to Independent business owners," said Young.
Your humble narrator or is also one of the presenters. I'll be performing, for the second time only, a module on marketing in times of recession, and how this affects the marketing performance equation.
Registration information is available at the event website. Register today to confirm your comfy swivel chair for February 19 and 20th.
 Read About Ray Seggern |
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My Prediction for 2009
Bad News Sells-Good News Doesn't |
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I have read that as many as 8 out of 10 Americans are nervous and a bit afraid of the economic times we are in. I own a business and have 30 some people depending on my company to pay them. I don’t believe any of them feel like they are going to lose their jobs, still many of them are apprehensive of the future because of all the bad reports from the media.
Here is an example of the typical story that is reported everywhere!
"Economically difficult times are here. Worst economy since the depression.
Times are tough. We are now “officially” in a recession. A survey shows that more than 8 out of every 10 Americans are frightened about the state of the economy. Anxiety is at an all time high. You are probably suffering from the financial crises."
How’s that for a story to get your day started off right! Doesn’t that make you feel like going out and being productive? If you’re a salesperson, don’t that inspire you to go out and sell something today?? If you are a business owner, doesn’t that make you feel better about having gone in to business for yourself?
Newspapers, TV, and magazines are looking for a story to report. The worse the news is the more importance they seem put on it. The fact that they can report the coming gloom and doom, recession and depression, I believe makes them think they are doing us a great service by imparting all this important bad news to us.
They will report that an arsonist burned down a church building, but will never report that a group of people just built a new church building. Bad news sells. Good news does not.
The media will report that two guys raped a girl scout while she was out selling cookies. They would never report that my wife and I have been happily married for 29 years, that we give money to the boy scouts and girls scouts, or that we support a missionary in South America and that I help deliver free meals to poor people on Thanksgiving and Christmas, because that is not news. Millions of people in America are happily married, and do volunteer work, and help people, but that all goes unreported.
My Prediction
I predict in the coming year 2009 it will be about like it’s always been. Opportunity mixed with difficulty. Some will prosper others will go bankrupt. Some will lose jobs others will get new jobs. Some will get married, some will get a divorce. Bad crap will happen to some good people. Some evil people will commit murder and get away with it.
According to the "CIA Factbook," there are approximately 6,744 deaths in the USA every day. The Associated Press reports on July 18th 2008, that about 11,821 new babies are born every day in the land of the free and the home of the brave. It has always been like this. Warm soft breezes blow and Hurricanes come over the same ocean.
Shall all of America look to the government to bail them out? Heaven forbid. Not me. I say right with Teddy Roosevelt, “To whom much is given, much is expected!”
I am going to leave my cave, I’m going out and kill something, and drag it home, and my wife of 29 years is going to cook it, and we are going to sit down and give thanks to God for it, and eat it. And as Walter Cronkite always said, “And that’s they way it is; Good night.”
Read About Clay Campbell |
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Look in history to deal with big problems
Rebalancing the economy...per Lev. 25 & Deut 15 |
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I don't claim to be an expert of "economic" science or anything, but there's one idea from history for rebalancing our economy I've not heard anywhere in media yet. Maybe that’s because it cuts against our Western psyche of economics. But it points out that no matter how large the problem you’re facing is, somebody else has dealt with it in history. And an oft overlooked resolution for it may be gathered just by studying history.
This concept is called the Year of Jubilee (YOJ) and it was probably the most significant civil celebration in ancient Israel; it was celebrated in the 50th year.
The YOJ released one from all debts, both public and private; “…you shall proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants.”
During this YOJ there was a prohibition against more capitalistic-style bargaining; no countrymen were permitted to “oppress” one another, in the sense that you couldn’t sell less for more because of the ignorance of the buyer, and you couldn’t buy more for less because of the ignorance of the seller. Equity returned to the marketplace and equality to the country.
And because Communism seems to limit wealth accumulation to a few people, the YOJ would have rendered it obsolete too.
During YOJ the land returned to its original families/tribal inheritances and no one individual or family would accumulate too much land (b/c the land produced the wealth).
YOJ was a fixed time during the centuries and property deals could always be made with the proximity of the YOJ in mind.
So the YOJ was all about restoring family heritage and rebalancing national equity.
To me YOJ sounds something like each citizen having the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Imagine what clearing all national debts, both public and private, would do. Obviously, other countries could choose not to participate, but if they did then imagine the Global YOJ…equity returned to the world marketplace.
Or, what if just every decade or so all American creditors released all American debtors? The conscience of the debtor could continue debt payments to fulfill obligation, but the creditor could not retain the debt's balance through legal means. This would eliminate poverty in America...but it would also eliminate consolidation of wealth here too. So you’d have 10 years to grow your wealth and then every citizen would have to start over more evenly. This isn't what we're used to, and makes me a little tense to think about it. Debits and credits with other nations could continue...or maybe not.
This post shows that ancient history had solutions for dealing with similar problems as we have today. So if you’ve got a really big problem you can’t find the answer to, just look in the annals of humanity. By looking there you’ll find at least one method for dealing with it.
PS: In the decade long approach committed Wizard Of Ads’ client campaigns would bring them and their wealth to the top of their decade between Years Two-Five.
PSS: Eliminating each individual's prolonged poverty comes with a polarity; it also eliminates each individual's prolonged prosperity...dare we Westerners consider, redistribution of wealth every 10 yrs?
Read About Joshua Stevens |
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Happy Thanksgiving |
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What am I thankful for? Or, what are we all thankful for?
The list is no doubt without end, but here's also something I thought particularly relevant for an American Small Business post:
The American economy renews its strength every morning, despite bailouts and bankruptcies.
For that we are thankful.
And do you know how our economy retains its strength daily (despite debt)?
It’s because of the good habits of toil and labor present in the American workforce...which are obviously good habits to have. I mean, look at what it's produced for us, and everybody else for that matter.
For that we are thankful.
And the truth is, the United States is the most generous nation in the entire world (and do you suppose that could have anything to do with our wealth?).
For that we are thankful.
And anybody, no matter gender, ethnicity or religion can be sincerely thankful to be working here in America now, and to participate in our world driving workforce…
Happy Thanksgiving...
Read About Joshua Stevens |
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Are you becoming Internet savvy?
Are you willing to do something you have never done before? |
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Are you becoming Internet savvy? (Savvy: Well informed and perceptive, practical understanding or shrewdness.)
We may have to do some things we’ve never done before. We are becoming a more and more Internet accessing people. Read Jane Frazier’s Is Your Website Up to Snuff? I am a good example of what Jane is talking about.
I just went to the AT&T store and bought an iPhone. It is an amazing piece of equipment. At the slight touch of my finger in the palm of my hand, is access to my emails, my contact list of friends and clients, pictures of my kids, calculator, Yahoo, Google, any newspaper in the world, any movie I want to watch, a camera that takes great pictures, any songs I want to hear, a GPS System, I have access to my home computer and my laptop, my calendar and appointment book are in sync right there, and I can even make phone calls on the darn thing.
I am going online today to purchase Microsoft Office Professional so I can sync up my emails and calendar with my laptop and iPhone. I’m a guy who just 8 years ago couldn’t type a letter, or use Microsoft Word and had just got my GED in 1990. (I had quit school in the 9th grade to go to Nashville and become a big country music star.) I didn’t even know what email or the Internet was. Today my company builds websites and do we email newsletters. It’s amazing what a person can do if they are willing to change.
Now in 2008, who knew, besides Jesus, that the stock market would crash and gas would be over $5 a gallon? Even when gas was so high this summer, the Internet was booming.
The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced on Nov 19th 2008 that the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for July, August, and Sept of 2008, was $34.4 billion
The third quarter 2008 e-commerce estimate increased 5.7 percent (±1.5%) from the third quarter of 2007
The third quarter 2007 e commerce estimate increased 19.3 percent (±2.6%) from the third quarter of 2006
This may be a down time in the economy, the stock market maybe on a Six Flags roller coaster ride, and the auto makers, car sales people and dealers may be in trouble, but the use of the Internet is anything but down. I ran into a woman last week and she told me she lost her job a year ago, because her company got bought out. I asked her what she was doing now. She said, “Ebay”. I said, “How is it going?” She said she was making just as much and sometimes more, as she was before. As the media stokes the fires of fear, in the mind of the folks in our country, the self-sufficient, pioneering, hard-working, can do attitudes of some people will move them ahead and they will do very well; even if they have to do something they have never done before.
Are you willing to do some things you have never done before? Many business owners today need to go back and re-read the little book from a few years ago that sold 21 million copies, Who Moved My Cheese? By Spencer Johnson. Read about it.
Perhaps now would be a good time to have a complimentary meeting with a Wizard of Ads Partner. Links to their websites and blogs are listed down the right side of The Wizard Times. Hundreds of their articles with free insightful advice can been seen right here on www.americansmallbusiness.com 2009 would be a great year to attend a class at the Wizard Academy 21st Century Business School in Austin Texas. What is the Wizard Academy?
Read About Clay Campbell |
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Is Your Website Up to Snuff?
Stats indicate that it should be |
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It is becoming increasingly important that you have a really good website, even if you don't do e-commerce. The internet is quickly annihilating the need for service directories like the Yellow Pages. Looking for the phone number for a store? Google it. Looking for an item? Google it. Deciding on which item to buy? Google it and read about it. Here is some tangible proof.
Some good news out of Stats Canada today ... Canadians placed $12.8 billion worth of orders online in 2007 - up 61% from 2005.
This increase was driven by a larger volume of orders, which rose from 49.4 million in 2005 to 69.9 million in 2007. The proportion of orders placed with Canadian vendors declined slightly from 57% of the total in 2005 to 52% in 2007.
More than 8.4 million Canadians aged 16 and over made an online purchase in 2007, up from nearly 6.9 million in 2005. They accounted for 32% of Canadians in this age group, compared with 28% in 2005.
From a regional perspective, Albertan Internet users were the heaviest online shoppers in 2007, with one-half placing an online order.
And the Internet continues to support offline retail. 43% of Canadians logged on to do research on products, and 64% reported that they had subsequently made a purchase directly from a store. The most popular items for browsing were consumer electronics, such as cameras and VCRs; housewares, such as large appliances and furniture; and clothing, jewelery and accessories.
For more info, see the report summary over at Stats Canada.
Read About Jane Fraser |
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Look Out Arbitron
Neilsen's looking over your shoulder |
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Nielsen jumps into radio measurement
Radio Business Report
18 November, 2008 01:14:00
Look out Arbitron! There’s a new competitor in US radio ratings – and a big one. Cumulus Media has completed its RFP process for ratings in its markets ranked 100+ and announced a deal with The Nielsen Company to provide audience measurement and radio ratings in 50 small- and mid-sized US markets, beginning in 2009. Clear Channel Radio will also subscribe to the syndicated ratings service in 17 of those markets.
“Nielsen is the gold standard for television advertisers who make nearly $80 billion worth of decisions in the U.S. based on Nielsen data. This is a great development for radio,” said Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey.
Nielsen is no stranger to radio measurement. It has been measuring radio audiences around the globe for decades, but has stuck to television in the US – until now. The service, which begins in Q3 2009, will use Nielsen’s “sticker diary,” which it says is proven and easy to use/easy to edit.
Also, in what it claims is an improvement over the “status quo” (meaning Arbitron), Nielsen will use address-based sampling (ABS) to recruit sample households. That is how Arbitron recruits panelists for PPM in Houston, since it developed that methodology when it was working with Nielsen toward a hoped-for joint venture which did not materialize. Arbitron does not use ABS in its other PPM markets. Critics have pointed to that as a possible reason for the Media Ratings Council accrediting PPM in Houston, but not yet in any other markets.
“Clear Channel Radio is delighted to have the choice to move to an improved audience measurement approach in these important markets and applauds Nielsen for bringing their exemplary business practices to radio,” said Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan.
“Cumulus and Clear Channel have made it clear to us that they want to challenge the status quo in these markets by seeking new ways of measuring this important medium. Nielsen agreed to develop this service only after we became convinced there was a market need we could fill by calling upon our broad experience in media measurement,” said Susan Whiting, Vice Chairperson and Executive Vice President of the Nielsen Company.
Here are the 50 radio markets to be measured by Nielsen in 2009:
· Abilene, TX · Albany, GA · Amarillo, TX · Ann Arbor, MI · Bangor, ME · Battle Creek, MI · Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX · Bismarck, ND · Bridgeport, CT · Cedar Rapids, IA · Columbia, MO · Columbus-Starkville-West Point, MS · Danbury, CT · Dubuque, IA · Eugene-Springfield, OR · Fayetteville, AR · Fayetteville, NC · Flint, MI · Florence, SC · Fox Valley, WI · Ft. Smith, AR · Ft. Walton Beach, FL · Grand Junction, CO · Green Bay, WI · Hudson River Valley, NY · Huntsville, AL · · Kalamazoo, MI · Killen-Temple, TX · Lake Charles, LA · Lexington-Fayette, KY · Macon, GA · Montgomery, AL · Myrtle Beach, SC · New River Valley, VA · Odessa-Midland, TX Oxnard-Ventura, CA · Pensacola, FL · Quad Cities, IA-IL (Davenport, Moline-Rock Island-Bettendorf) · Rochester, MN · Rockford, IL · Santa Barbara, CA · Savannah, GA · Shreveport, LA · Tallahassee, FL · Topeka, KS · Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA · Westchester, NY · Wichita Falls, TX · Wilmington, NC · Youngstown-Warren, OH
Read About Jane Fraser |
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Doing The Right Thing |
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Even though we have the new President Elect...Barack Obama, many small business owners are struggling to keep their business going. We are in an uncertain economy, with wild swings up and down, of the stock market, and all the talk of a recession. The actual definition of a recession is: two 3-month periods of negative growth in the economy, and it looks like we may receive just that.
I did not realize at the time, months ago, when I started on a remodeling project at my business, that I was really doing the right thing. But because I am a Believer, I believe God is guiding my life, so I give credit to Him for whatever blessings or success have come my way. On the other when things don’t go so well I tend to blame myself. We have all met folks who get that turned around. They tend to blame God when things go wrong, and take credit themselves, when things are going great.
I met a wise man many years ago by the name of Jim Rohn. He told me, “Clay if you want to be successful in life, try to find out what everybody else is doing and then you do the opposite”. Jim also told me that John D. Rockefeller once said that he bought when everybody else was selling; and he sold, when everybody else was buying.That made him one of the richest men in the world.
I own a 575-seat Country Music Theatre and just this past year we went into debt for a new addition. We built new restrooms. We tore out the old ones and built a new 900 square ft addition with a badly needed storage room, and put in all new commodes, sinks, and urinals. My wife did the decorating, picking the styles, colors and matching up everything. They are just beautiful, if restrooms can be beautiful.
Where the old restrooms were, we put in 40 more seats. (I bought them on Ebay for a $1 each) We spent a total of about $65,000. This has given us tremendous good word of mouth advertising. Quite possibly more good will and delight from our customers, than if we’d spent the $65,000 on advertising. That’s because 100’s and 100’s of people have come up to my wife and I, and went out of their way to thank us for the new restrooms, and commenting on how nice they are. After being in business here for 20 years, I can tell you, even if I had spent $65,000 in advertising, it would be extremely hard to create the response we have had, with the new addition. Are you doing the right things with your money?
While the gas prices were rising to over $4 a gallon I was adding on, believing I was doing the right thing. It turns out that now, we have an economic downturn going on in America and our business is doing very well. And... we have a lot of great equity built up in the very good word of mouth advertising we have going for our business.
Read About Clay Campbell |
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Bold Statements, Sweeping Changes
Fighting the Big Stores with Policy and Personal Experience |
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We've all seen the carnage that those depots and marts can inflict in a town. Most small business owners eventually throw their hands in the air and surrender. We find them a few years later wearing blue vests and handing out shopping carts.
It doesn't have to be this way. Mike Dandridge and Tom Wanek are teaching their popular Wizard Academy course on January 20 and 21. It's called "Fight the Big Boys and Win."
You'll learn to leverage "Wanek's Six Currencies of Trust" and discover Dandridge's secrets for turning a poor customer experience into an amazing, sensory field trip that gets customers talking.
Here are a couple of the comments from the last class:
"It’s simple. Business success is battle, you and yours ~vs~ them and theirs.
Want more pie, you gotta do something different, dramatically different. For me, drawing a line in the sand began with this workshop.
Tom and Mike reminded me of Business Field Generals, they shared their arsenal of savvy strategies and guerilla tactics and more importantly, they had the talent and real world business experience to lead us to our own discovers, personal insights, market specific solutions and doable action plans. The taught us how to create, lead, leverage, broadcast, kick-ass and eat more pie.
I thank you, my competitors will not."
Ken Brand, Sales Manager,
Prudential Real Estate Services
"These two guys, Tom & Mike, & their class “Big Boys (Girls?)…..” are fascinating, fun & passionate…. natural teachers. For two days they held my attention & interest like glue. I have 30 years of business experience and have operated three companies - I thought I had heard & seen it all……until I took their class. I have been rejuvenated & armed with new, cutting edge information that is unique, fresh and makes so much sense. I could have listened to them for a week easily!!"
Jean Carpenter-Backus, TheNakedAccountant.com
Are you ready to Fight the Big Boys and Win?
Read About David Young |
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Accelerate Your Book Marketing Success |
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10/29/2008 6:25:00 PM | Read About: Tom Wanek |
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Determined to write that book rattling around in your noggin? Get up off your butt and go for it. But beware: being top dog takes more than gumption. You’ll have to win the hearts of your readers and master book marketing techniques.
A few weeks ago, I attended the inaugural Book Publishing 2.0 course at the Wizard Academy. Piece by piece, Mike Drew and his team of experts dissected the book writing process and explained how to tackle the book market.
Here’s just a sample of the golden nuggets I picked up:
- The 7 Myths of Book Publishing Industry
- A sock-you-between-the-eyes book outlining process
- Methods to identify and target my audience.
- Building and launching a marketing platform
Yes, Mike is a partner and a friend of mine. But that didn’t give him a free pass. Actually, it made things harder for him. In fact, I thought I had this book marketing thing licked prior to attending. A unique topic and a little elbow grease was all I needed. Puhleese.
With nearly 300,000 new titles being released each year; tackling the book market takes having Mike Drew on your team. Yes, you’re gonna work your butt off for three grueling days - but you’ll be rewarded with insider take-aways and ah-has at each and every turn.
Do yourself a favor: avoid a book marketing meltdown. Seize the opportunity and sign up for the second installment of the Book Publishing 2.0 course in Salt Lake City, Utah on November 6 - 8th. And let me know how it works out for you.
Read About Tom Wanek |
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