Bobby Wilder, the head football coach at Old Dominion University tells his recruits: "If you're in love with Twitter, go someplace else."

He has a strict ban; if you are on the team, you are off social media - period - for the years you attend the school.

The story goes that as he began his freshman classes, one lineman tweeted: "Signing off. See you in about 5 years."

If you’ve read my blog posts for any length of time, you know that I am not a raving fan of social media.

And if every business owner spent as much time working on their [...]

I recently came across a YouTube video that absolutely nailed several foundational concepts of marketing.

If this were shown in every Marketing 101 class, there wouldn't be a snoozing student in the house.

Not only did did this "Marketing-Concepts-by-Borat" inspired video effectively summarize marketing in two minutes, it highlights perfectly why we all need to nail our own sales and marketing systems.

I can't resist adding one more concept:

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: I am very rich. Marry me! She says, "Hmmm...let me think about it a day or so." Two [...]

If you've ever been to Disney's Hollywood Studios, you've probably experienced The Tower of Terror.

As soon as you enter the ruins of what appears to have once been a magnificent and glamorous hotel, you are immersed in a story.

It's a stormy night in 1939. A group of people are in the hotel elevator when lightning strikes the Hollywood Tower Hotel - and they vanish into thin air.

You experience that fateful elevator ride and feel the terror. And then the ride is over, and you're quickly led out a door into the bright sunshine of the park, right?

What’s the number #1 thing that creates loyal customers?

Giving over and beyond what they expect. Surprising them with something, anything that lets them know you value their business and you want them to succeed. In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini (by the way, every marketer should read this book once a year) Dr. Cialdini notes that subjects in a study rated other people more likable just from the simple act of buying them a can of soda.

A simple can of soda! As Cheryl and I thought about our goals for the New Year, we had to admit [...]

Easy is the new norm.

X,Y,Z is simple and FAST to learn so you can implement this information immediately.

Quadruple your income in just 30 days with this easy, guaranteed system.

Yep...easy is highly overrated. There are two scenarios where I see a need for a huge paradigm shift in thinking if you’re going to increase your sales and income in the coming year.

It never fails to make me cringe when I read or hear a sales pitch playing the “quick and easy” card when you know darn well there's going to be a learning curve.

Too many times, a prospect [...]

Sales has been in my blood for my whole adult life.  Selling investments, loans, properties.  It's all the same.

Getting results for clients who are desperate for results and who trust me to work magic on their behalf is what drives me.

And the thrill of hitting pay dirt never fails to get me excited.

So when a colleague asked me a certain question on the golf course the other day, it made me think...a lot.

He said:  "Art, if you had a son and he was following in your footsteps - you know, going into business for himself...what words of wisdom would you [...]

Put a crowd of business owners in one room.

And it doesn’t take long before their competitive natures rear their ugly heads.

Especially when they all are vying for clients in the same industry.

Everyone keeps their trade secrets close to their vest for fear of competitors stealing their ideas and potential customers.

Usually…

But not so at the inaugural conference of Infusionsoft Certified Partners (PartnerCon as it's known now.) There were only 75 of us, but there must have been more than 1000 years of collective marketing expertise in a room at all times.

During breakout sessions, meals, lobby chats, shuttle rides to the airport…every [...]

Paul Downs who runs a cabinet shop outside of Philadelphia ran into a problem, a good one at that.  He had too much business...so he paused his main advertising source.

As business owners, we all know that advertising can get very expensive.

But without advertising, odds are that you won't get enough foot traffic to your business or visitors to your website to keep your doors open.

Many new businesses will spend thousands of dollars a month to place ads in newspapers or magazines, but they see little return on investment.

Your online marketing arsenal should include these three power-house [...]

"One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do. Two can be as bad as one. It's the loneliest number since the number one."

The 60's group Three Dog Night made these words immortal, but it's the entrepreneur that feels the cruel sting of being dumped just as painfully.

If you are over-dependent an any one thing in your business life, you will suffer for this vulnerability.  One key person, one skill, one product or service, one technology.  Each leads to instability - and instability cripples.

Just using online or offline marketing strategies exclusively is a recipe for a disaster.

The worst [...]

You’re either a raving fan of social media as a viable strategy in moving your business forward or a hard-core skeptic.

There doesn't seem to be much in the way of straddling the fence.  Sorta like liver and onions 🙂

According to social media expert Don Crowther (who we have been students of for years) you're working with a 95-5 rule:

95% of everything you do in social media only makes 5% of the profits.  So you should only be doing the 5% that makes 95% of the profit.

Making social media a part of your marketing arsenal is risky business.  If not done [...]