Tag Archives for " Gary Halbert "
Who’s Watching Your Back?
Thursday, 7:41pm
Reno, NV
“Please allow me to introduce myself…” (Stones, Sympathy For The Devil)
Howdy…
This is one of those lessons that arrived accidentally…
… and I had to stop and ruminate about it for a while before it made sense.
I’m lucky I learned it early, too.
It’s provided me with a home base of sanity when the chaos has reached shuddering crescendos and it was hard to think straight (let alone make snap decisions when crisis loomed).
You may find it obvious.
That’s fine. Just don’t go thinking it’s obvious to the rest of the mean ol’ world out there… cuz it ain’t.
Here’s the story: One of my first jobs working for Gary Halbert was to fly to Detroit… and interview a guy who’d just lost 750 pounds.
Yeah, you read that right.Read more…
How To Murder Your Business In 2010
Wednesday, 4:48pm
Reno, NV
“Shake the hand, that shook the hand, of PT Barnum and Charlie Chan” (The Grateful Dead, “US Blues”)
Howdy…
You know what the first thing many entrepreneurs and small biz owners do on January 1st (right after gagging down Excedrin with a warm dollop of “Hair o’ the dog”)?
They despair.
You know why?
It’s because… for all the “promise” a new year holds…
… for most folks in business, the months ahead are just shadows in a dark fog.
When times are good, maybe — maybe — you can stumble over some tasty opportunities as you wander.
When times are bad… you know, like our current recession-shackled economy… that fog of uncertainty gets thick enough to choke you.
Would you like to know what the UNCOMMON entrepreneurs and small biz owners do when looking ahead to 2010?
They smile. They yawn at the recession. And they feel damn good about their nice, clear, unobstructed view of the coming months.
No fog. No murderous pitfalls hidden in the shadows.
They are uncommon, because they are PREPARED.
They have an action plan… and they know how to implement it.
You wanna commit business suicide? Stumble into the coming year without a clue how you’re going to grow or get better results.
You wanna join the Feast, where the Smart Few are enjoying floods of traffic, maxed-out conversions, and the kind of almost-ridiculously-abundant free time (like a vacation every month) that “most” biz owners can only dream about?
Then get hip to the amazing magic of putting together a simple action plan.
And make sure it’s a plan you can easily (and even joyously) implement right away.
I’d like to help you, if you think getting some honest, hard-core, proven mentoring can get you off your duff… and into your seat at the Feast.
Here’s what’s up: There has always been a stark contrast between those who plan, and those who don’t even know how to plan.
For nearly 30 years now, as a high-paid consultant, I’ve been helping entrepreneurs and biz owners figure out the critical first steps to take to get moving in a new, profitable, easier (and more fun) direction.
Having even a simple plan (with just a few steps to take) will change your life forever.
But only if you are confident (and know the easy tricks) of putting this simple plan into action.
I know how to do this. And I hang out with masters of simple-but-insanely-lucrative planning.
So…
… I’m holding a live workshop-seminar in San Diego the last weekend of January…
… where you can come and get direct help putting your own killer action plan together.
Plus learn the tricks to implementation. The key to making your plan a reality.
We’re gonna fill you up with proven, easy step-by-step actions to take immediately… to:
- Blow away all constraints on flooding your biz with fresh, super-qualified traffic…
- Put yourself in the “go to guy” spot in your market, with all the influence and swag that gets heaped on honest authority figures…
- Maximize your ability to convert leads into happy sales…
- And finally learn the “lazy man’s way” to put your productivity in high gear.
Best part: The powerful simplicity of this kind of planning…
… means that veteran business owners will immediately benefit, as well as raw rookies.
Most people absolutely suck at planning.
And if you insist on trying to do it yourself, without expert help…
… you’re headed down a rabbit hole that can trap you, confuse you, and murder your business while you’re fighting self-created emergencies.
The top marketers (including any competition now cleaning your clock) ALL know how to map out a simple action plan… and put it in motion.
Even the best plan in the universe is worthless, if it never gets implemented.
This, by the way, is the problem with most seminars: You get a mountain of ideas dumped on you, with no hint of how to execute any of them.
The advanced stuff (which you shouldn’t be touching yet) gets all jumbled up with soon-to-be-obsolete stuff, which buries the easy stuff…
… and you’re left with zero “real” plans.
Just a lot of notes and wishes and dreams again.
Well, screw that.
We’re even calling this unique event “The Action Seminar“.
And it is populated with the best teachers and planning wizards I know. Including…
Mike Koenigs, the uber-talented genius behind “Traffic Geyser”… who specializes in getting the most stubbornly-resistant people to quickly (actually immediately) use his simple-yet-awesomely-effective video secrets to carpet bomb the Web with a killer sales message. (The cheapest camera you can find will do the trick, too.)
James “Schrakmo” Schramko… the brilliant Aussie who came out of nowhere last year (knowing squat about the Web), to dominate search engine rankings and generally crush all competitors in any market he chose to conquer.
He understands what it’s like to be a rookie looking for a clue… and he has made a huge name for himself helping entrepreneurs zoom to dominance with minimal skills and very little investment.
The simple plans that are easy to master, and simple to implement, is the way to get rich and happy as fast as possible.
Oh, and check this out: Teran Dale (my personal favorite PPC advisor) has the inside track on Google. He’s managed as much as $1 million dollars a day in pay-per-click advertising in huge, super-competitive niches.
The kicker: The competition in these niches are paying $7 – $12 dollars per click… while Teran’s clients are only paying $0.21 cents.
If you suspect that everything you believe about PPC is dead wrong… you’re right.
Teran will be working directly with select folks at this seminar, while we watch and learn. And he’s gonna be sharing ALL the good stuff… brought down to doable, simple and easy steps. (You’re invited to join the pool of attendees we’ll choose Teran’s subjects from.)
Oh, yeah.
This is just a small taste of the Feast you’re about to share in.
We’ve also got the globally-respected Les Brown (to get your head straight about planning for success)… Melanie Benson Strick (to help you finally get off your butt and start being massively productive) (with more time off)…
… my hilarious (but deadly serious about profits) colleagues Travis Miller and Jimmy Vee will show you how to become a social media MONSTER (even if you can’t yet spell “blog”)…
… and I’ll be joined by copywriting legends Harlan Kilstein (still the only guy around who can show you how to hypnotize readers into following you anywhere) and Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero (of “She Factor” fame — and remember, the ladies still control 90% of the money out there, guys).
Plus: The entire faculty of the Simple Writing System mentoring program will be there, for you to corner and suck every shred of sales-boosting secret out of their super-talented brains.
Let’s drop names: Kevin Rogers (my head writer for The Stable O’ Copywriters)… “Million Dollar” Mike Morgan (a top freelancer with tremendous chops)… Tony Flores (head writer for The Arbitrage Conspiracy)… Scott Haines (a killer writer and old pal of mine and Gary Halbert’s)… Jimbo Curley (the star writer who replaces me at OHP Golf)… Tina Lorenz (easily the hottest copywriter in the “launch” game right now)… and two “under the radar” (for now) writers I’ve personally hired to write for me: Robert Gibson and Mark Landstrom.
Special guest stars include “A List” copywriter David Deutsch (who recently had 6 million-dollar controls for Boardroom, Inc)… Gary Halbert’s sons Bond and Kevin (who I’ve been working closely with while they restructure Gary’s legacy)… and some Mystery Guests who should blow your mind.
There’s just one catch:
This event is coming up soon… and there are VERY limited spots open.
To get the details, just check out this info-site:
www.marketingrebel.com/action-seminar
There’s quite a bit more to the fun and seriously-lucrative stuff you’ll encounter at this rare, totally unique event.
And… I am personally making sure that you get at least 12 action-steps, customized to your situation, that are simple enough for you to implement as soon as you get home (or back to your room).
If you can handle more, you’ll get more.
But the main thing is this: This ain’t a “talk at you” event.
It’s interactive… and it’s all about helping you put together a freakin’ PLAN to go out and put into action NOW.
So you can get back to your office and start demolishing your evil competitors and dominating your market.
While earning more, and having more time off, and generally being happier and staring down the economy and every obstacle in your life…
… and winning.
Oh, this is gonna be good.
For the few who get their act together and score a spot, that is.
For the rest… well, good luck out there in the fog.
Seriously — go check out the info-site now. (You’re gonna faint when you see how CHEAP it is, too):
www.marketingrebel.com/action-seminar/
Stay frosty,
John
P.S. Just in case it wasn’t made crystal clear: No prior experience or skills or hidden “insider” advantages are necessary to make ANY of this stuff work like crazy for you.
Just hurry, okay? It’s coming up fast, and won’t be repeated.
DIY vs. Mentoring
Thursday, 12:15pm
Reno, NV
“It’s too hard. You’ll never figure it out.” (What the first copywriter I ever met told me about writing ads.)
Howdy…
I’m going to tell you about two promises here.
The stories behind them may help you chart out the rest of your life… as they did mine.
Harken:
Promise #1:
The above quote (“It’s too hard. You’ll never figure it out.”) are the exact words that a professional copywriter said to me when I innocently asked for advice.
They are burned into my cerebral cortex, because it was one of the first times I had ever nurtured a small ember of actual hope about my future in business…
… and she crushed it like a bug.
All I’d wanted from her was a smidgen of advice. Maybe point me in the right direction. Or offer a small word of encouragement.
I was lost at the time. Trapped in the drudgery of a dead-end J.O.B. that sucked big-time.
And I was genuinely clueless about the process of writing anything for business. I’d never met a real copywriter before, and was very interested in finding out more.
I didn’t even know what the word “mentor” meant at the time… but I suppose I would have squirmed with joy if she had said, instead, something like “Let me help you learn how to do this.”
Still, she did me a HUGE favor by being such a miserable, hateful bitch.
As I stood at her desk, burning with shame for having asked for something and been so brutally refused…
… I promised myself that I would prove her wrong.
And I used that promise as motivation whenever I needed some extra oomph in the next year or so, as I figured out — on my own, without help from anyone — how to write killer sales messages.
So I owe her one. She did me a proper by igniting my until-then-dormant ability to Do It Myself. Literally with a vengeance.
I launched my solo career as a freelance writer entirely on my own. I took the Do It Yourself ethic and ran with it…Read more…
Avoid The Void
Monday, 11am
Reno, NV
“Facts are stupid things.” (Ronald Reagan, ’88 GOP convention)
Howdy…
Well, that was fun.
Over 650 comments on that last quiz so far (with a bullet). Some really good responses, too.
Also some really out-there ones, which always makes for giddy reading.
The main thing, of course, is that so many folks put on their Thinking Caps and went for it. As I’ve said before: You win just by trying with this kind of brain stumper.
Anyway…
… we have a winner. I’ll let you know who it was in a minute.
First, let’s relieve the tension and reveal the answer already.
Or at least head in that direction. It’s probably worth noting that only a tiny handful of the comments were on the right path.
The question was vague, on purpose. This is high-end street-level psychology…
… and one of the main features of this kind of advanced salesmanship is that it is NOT easily understood by most people.
In fact, you’ve likely encountered the answer to this quiz before in your life… but because it didn’t “fit” with your intuition and belief about “how things work”, it didn’t stick.
Most of what classic salesmen know about people runs counter to what the majority calls “common sense”.
This is startling to rookie marketers. Confusing. Disorienting. Challenges long-held beliefs about the nobility of human endeavor and the lofty inclinations of the human brain.
Thus, we saw long sub-threads in the comments that ignored the entire concept of a “glitch” in people’s thinking…
… and instead dove into all kinds of elaborate explanations of how a successful sales pitch might smoothly proceed with dignity and logic.
It’s good to have these discussions, if you desire to get anywhere in marketing.
I, too, had trouble getting into the minds of my prospects at first.
This is why I jumped on every opportunity that arose, early in my career, to hang out and grill every “street wise” marketer I ran into.
Cuz those guys knew how to SELL.
No theory. Just experience (and the bank accounts to prove it).
This group included:
… Jay Abraham and Gary Halbert (both of whom had door-to-door selling experience where, if they didn’t make the sale, they didn’t eat that day)…Read more…
Kickin' Ass and Forgettin' Names
Monday, 8:24pm
Reno, NV
“… and in the early mornin’ fog, I looked into those Mystic Eyes…” (Van Morrison, with Them, “Mystic Eyes”)
Howdy…
Had a little extended email exchange with our old pal Shawn Casey today.
See, he’s about to turn the Big Five-Oh… and I offered him the same gift that Gary Halbert offered me when I turned 50: An open invitation to hear about all the horrific shit he has to look forward to as his body slams full-force into official middle age.
Halbert used to absolutely delight in detailing for me some of the more evil indignities of waving bye-bye to youth.
Let’s just say your days of indulging in a bar brawl, and sleeping it off so you can do it again the next night, too…
… are over.
(Bonus insight: However, you can still have fun minus the dangerous stunts and life-threatening bravado that used to cap a good night out. Who’d a thought?)
I’m still laughing from that exchange with Shawn.
In truth, if you’re healthy, it ain’t all that big a deal sliding into your fifties. If you’ve spent the last four decades thrashing yourself, then yeah, you may be looking at getting your ticket punched early.
But if you listen to your body, keep the stress under control, get some freakin’ exercise once in a while, and avoid chunking out like Jaba The Hut…
… well, it’s actually kinda nice being a grizzled, older ape.
The real pleasures of life are just as intense… and you’ve pretty much identified which ones you want to focus on. (I spent my youth sampling almost every forbidden fruit in the feast… which I felt was my duty as a buddng writer. Many of those experiences were just downright awful, and yet they’d looked so good from a distance…)
And — even if you dinked around a lot for the bulk of your youth (as I did) (and, boy, was I good at dinking around) — you can’t help but have gathered a ton of experience.
And stories.
And whatever mangled philosophy of life that got you this far must have something going for it… or you wouldn’t have made it.
Now, the reason I’m writing this post…Read more…