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 [...]

I was recently given the task by our team to shoot the videos for our newest product CyberFunnels...total failure. I stunk.

My suit shirt was sticking to my back...

Evidently I was talking too fast and waving my hands...

And supposedly rolling my eyes as the teleprompter script ordered me to say words I've never heard of.

Finally I stopped the video guys and shouted, "Who wrote this stuff!?!"

Our amazing copywriters wrote the script - but I was so bad that we had to hire a professional actor.

And guess what? Same script, killer results. The words flowed like buttah.

My point? Using videos in your [...]

One of the biggest concerns we hear from our clients is that their emails are not getting delivered to the contacts on their lists.

And that's utterly frustrating when a large part of your marketing model comes from email marketing.

Now ‘fess up…we all want to brag a little (ok, a lot) when we have big lists.  Nobody wants to broadcast their list size to their peers when their list is tiny.

Folks, here’s where size don’t mean a thing when your list ain't clean – it doesn’t matter that you have 40,000 contacts when 75% or more don’t even open your email.

In fact, [...]

Combine growing up in the 6o's and being a marketer...and the television drama Mad Men holds a certain fascination.

Set in the 60's, the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City focuses on everyone's favorite television ad executive - Don Draper.

You know...the guy who said, “You are the product. You feeling something. That’s what sells. Not them. Not sex. They can’t do what we do, and they hate us for it.”  (from Season 2, episode "For Those Who Think Young")

Draper is the quintessential ad man (and ladies man) and key player who lives for the next [...]

When we first entered the Internet marketing arena, we were so wet behind the ears that it's almost embarrassing what we didn’t know.

And we were prime bait for the "make money online" carrot dangled in front of us. And boy did we swallow it...hook, line, and sinker.

For 5 years we gave it our all (literally wiped out our savings accounts.) We trusted our "mentors" while they basically exploited our ignorance.

When we finally saw the light, we vowed we'd commit ourselves to helping other regular guys like ourselves realize the error of their ways and bring them over from the dark side.

Joking [...]