The Dash Of Life

I co-authored an ebook!  Check it out here!  Opening A Beauty Salon

Last night the voters spoke and re-elected President Obama, and regardless of how you feel about the outcome there are some very important marketing lessons that any and all local businesses can learn from the Obama campaign. The Presidents team was up against a competitor that was extremely qualified and better funded. So how did they did win? They won with superior marketing!
1. They clearly identified their “ideal prospects” (middle class women) this allowed the Obama campaign to lock in on their prospects with a laser like focus. The words middle class and women’s rights where used over and over again in the debates, the ads, the interviews etc.
2. The Obama campaign created a Unique Selling Position that converted all the things that made them different into a message that was easy for their ideal prospects to remember and to embrace (Forward). By creating the meme (Forward) it implies that any idea or strategy that your competitors come up with is (Backwards). This creates Apples to Acorns comparison in the minds of their ideal prospects Apples and Acorns are both foods that grow on trees but that is where the comparison stops.
3. Governor Romney and his Super PAC supporters spent close to 100 million dollars more than the Obama campaigns and its Super PAC supporters, however the Presidents media buys where a lot more targeted. They put their money in places that they knew their ideal prospects frequented. They bought specific programs on local broadcast TV stations in swing states and then used social media and digital marketing to re-target their ideal prospects. The Romney side took more of a “machine gun” approach with their media placement.

I recently had a conversation with a friend who is a media sales rep. She was very frustrated that she was not getting trained and that she could not really afford to pay for training herself! That conversation compelled me to create an affordable media sales training program! Media Sales Training How to Close 5x more new business in 90 days!

My friend Carol Coots wrote a book called “Stop Wasting Money”. Carol is an expert in this field and has help companies and individuals save millions of dollars! I am very proud of her because she did what me and others have been talking about for years. She actually wrote A book. Not talk about one day when she writes her book, she actually did it.
Congrats Carol. Check out this video about one of the topics in her new book!Cost Savings Ideas on How To Stop Wasting Money

Here is a presentation that I did on sales training to a group of entrepreneurs in Indianapolis!Sales Training Presentation in Indianapolis on Closing when you open.

Indianapolis Dog Daycare

Check out my video blog about Onesole Founder Dominique Barteet

One year from today I will be in Florida with my family preparing to bring in the new year at Disney World! As my family and I leave our Gulf View Suite at the Tradewinds Island Grand Resort in St. Pete Beach and travel on I4 towards Disney, I begin to reflect on what an amazing year 2011 was! In the 1st qtr. of 2011 I released my 1st audio cd training program “The R.E.A.L Entrepreneurs Guide to Explosive Revenue Growth”. The program was promoted successfully via the internet and with several lucrative joint ventures. In 2nd qtr. 2011 I released a second audio cd training program “Funny Motivated Selling How To Laugh Your Way to the Bank with out Tricks, Manipulation, or B.S. By 3rd qtr.2011 I had delivered the Funny Motivated employe engagement workshops to some of the most influential companies and organizations around. In 4th qtr. 2011 I released my 1st book titled “Get R.E.A.L how grow any business fast”.
Heres where you come in my friend! I need you help me be accountable to my vision. That means that each time I see you, each phone call, every lunch we share etc. instead of asking me the usual non-descriptive pleasantries. I would like you to ask me specifically about the status of the projects that I listed above. So feel free to bug, persuade,annoy, whatever, in a way that only you can. I am also sending you my dream 10 list! This is a list of organizations that I would l love to do business with this year. If you have any contacts or advise that could help me. I would truly appreciate the information!

NCAA
Disney
Indiana Black Expo
May’s Chemical
Emmis
Indianapolis Colts
Pacers Sports and Entertainment
Eli Lilly
Roche
National Association of Broadcasters
Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors

So there it is, thats what I will be doing exactly one year from today! Please feel free to send me what you are planning on doing exactly one year from today! Have an unbelievable 2011!

I have two friends that got their jobs at about the same time. Lets call them Kim (not their real name) and Jennifer (is their real name). They work in similar companies and had very similar responsibilities to start. They both work very hard and are very good at what they do, however Jennifer has been rapidly promoted while Kim is still doing the same job with little recognition. The reason for Jennifer’s climb is that her company considers her a problem solver, while Kim’s company considers her a problem finder. A problem finder is someone who spends countless hours creating what if scenarios for everything that comes across their desk, “what if the client says this, what if the boss does that”. This type of thinking increases both the stress level and the work load of the problem finder, and anyone else who is a stake holder in the project including the problem finders boss. The problem solver on the other hand spends little to no time trying to map out the many different scenarios that could happen once an action is taken and spends more time focusing on ways to accomplish the task at hand. Both the problem solver and the problem finder are capable of achieving the desired result however, supervisors will often make a mental link to the process that went into getting the task done. If a project was successful but the process was a pain, that supervisor will not be overly excited about giving the problem finder more responsibility.

So if you are not climbing at the rate that you think you should, or if others are being promoted ahead of you, ask yourself, am I a problem finder or a problem solver. And to Jennifer congrats on the new promotion!

As a manager or business owner one of the most time consuming and energy draining activities is to try and turn around an underperforming employee. Its time consuming because there are so many things that you have to make sure that you do in order to cover yourself legally. Its emotionally draining because deep down you realize that the employee is not the only one at fault. As their manager a significant level of blame has to fall back on you. You either hired them, or you trained them, or when you took over you chose to keep them.