- February 28, 2019 -

I'm sick of my kitchen.

It's over thirty years old. There's nothing wrong with it - it's just outdated and needs an upgrade.

So I brought in one guy. He wanted to rip out drywall, change the whole flow of the kitchen. Great ideas. At the tune of...well, lots of zeros.

I'm visual guy. I need to see a blueprint and some idea of what the finished product would look like.

It's been two months...nada, zip from guy #1.

On to guy #2. A cabinet maker who came with excellent recommendations. He even traveled across the state just to talk with [...]

- January 15, 2019 -

...that I've won the Pennsylvania Powerball lottery.

...or that my investments have made me a billionaire.

...and that Cheryl and I have ditched Pittsburgh for Bora Bora.

But that wouldn't be entirely truthful.

(I'm still planning on hitting Bora Bora one of these days, but that's besides the point.)

The point is that our two businesses have blown up to the point where it's getting increasingly difficult to carve out the time for my rants and ramblings about life in general and business in particular.

I guess that's what happens when you eat your own dog food and drink your own Kool-Aid [...]

- November 14, 2018 -

The holidays are just around the corner.

If you're in online retail, Black Friday is front and center.

Our team has had their heads down for the last 6 months finishing up proprietary CyberFunnel software that will allow a sales team to avoid having to even log into Infusionsoft to manage their leads.

+ Each member of the team (admin, sales reps, managers) sees only what they need to finish a task or update a stage outcome.

+ Each member has their own internal calendar to schedule appt's with their leads that syncs with their Google calendar (or whatever they [...]

- October 31, 2018 -

Bonus points if you knew that the 1981 movie is a remake of the 1946 black and white film with Lana Turner.

No...I've never watched the '46 version. I'm no spring chicken but I'm not quite that old, people.

And no...we're not chatting about the Postal Service today.

We're talkin' email delivery...currently one of the hottest topics.

There's a lot of blame flying around:

...Infusionsoft has crappy email deliverability.

...Mail Chimp has better Open rates.

...my list is telling me my emails end up in their Spam boxes.

...what the heck? How hard can it be to get a darn email into an inbox?

Well, [...]

- October 16, 2018 -

First, cross-selling. Not cross-dressing.

Now that we're on the same page...

Ask your local spa owner for a list of customers who've come in for a facial...

...but have never had a massage.

Or ask your jeweler on Main St. which of their shoppers have bought a gift for their wives for Christmas...

...but never for a birthday or anniversary.

Ask your insurance agent how he's handling people who've purchased car insurance with him...

...but not homeowners insurance.

Ask the owner of your favorite restaurant how many customers have come in for dinner...

...but never for lunch.

- September 20, 2018 -

Most marketers are concerned with ROI (Return on Investment.)

Not a bad thing.

But if freedom is what you really want...

Freedom to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want.

If freedom is what drove you to start your own business...

Then ROMH (Return on Man Hours) is where you should really focus.

You know I'm all about doing as little as possible to get the biggest, baddest results.

...less (but more qualified) phone calls takin' up my time.

...less (but more qualified) staff to handle what I should not be doing.

...less software doohickies (but more robust) to automate what [...]

- September 13, 2018 -

The quickest way to go out of business is to be sentimental about how you made your money.

...sounds weird, but it's too easy to get all romantic about what's worked in the past and want it to keep working the same way forever.

You start making a few bucks using a certain strategy or tool - and you don't want it to go away or change.

But that's not how marketing work.

What worked with Google Adwords five years ago is totally obsolete today.

Facebook advertising? It changes more often than the Kardashian clan's next wacky commotion trends on social [...]

- September 6, 2018 -

Technology is a catch-22.

...can't live with it.

...can't live without it.

...if developers aren't constantly updating their products, they're laggards.

...if they are constantly updating their products, we're forced to adapt or die trying.

Across our two businesses, we use a lot of tools: Infusionsoft, WordPress, Podio, Zapier, TeamWork...and a mess of others that I pay for because Cheryl says they're important.

But to be honest, when she starts talking about our tech stack...

All the plugins and what they do and why we need them...my head feels like it's going to explode!

And then I reach for either a golf club or [...]

- August 29, 2018 -

No funny stuff today.

I'm going to layout a scenario (totally unrealistic...but as things unfold, it'll make sense) and then I'll give you a directive.

Ready?

+ You only have one prospect - and the fate of your business depends on how you treat this one person.

+ You have NO restraints - unlimited budget, unlimited technology/plugins, unlimited man power.

+ Don't focus on the technical side of things.

Now, here's what I want you to do:

Design the most amazing experience you can think of for that ONE person... from lead optin to customer.

The entire customer journey.

Just forget about automation for now.

And [...]

- August 28, 2018 -

I'm still getting replies from an email I sent out a couple of weeks ago about Cheryl's traffic ticket eluding antics.

Same question over and over. "Is this for real?"

Same answer every time: 'fraid so. Unbelievable, isn't it?

(In case you missed it, you can check it out here.)

Oh, it gets better.

Remember the TV show LA Law? It was popular back in the mid-80's to mid-90's.

Remember the character Grace Van Owen played by Susan Dey?

Hold that in your head...

Cheryl's always had a bit of a lead foot and on one particular day, she flew through a section of [...]