- 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 [...]

- August 27, 2018 -

Napa Valley is one of my favorite places to visit...because you know, in wine country it's 5 pm all day.

Just kidding, people!

One of the things that always gets to me traveling between the East and West coasts is jet lag.

I've found that it usually takes a good day to adjust.

And that traveling East to West messes less with my internal clock less than going West to East.

There's all kinds of CRAAZY "cures" (i.e., theories) claiming to trick your body into not feeling the effects of jet lag:

- wearing the Ostrich Pillow (Google it - I swear [...]

- August 23, 2018 -

It was a blazing hot New Jersey day – and humid as hell.

One minute I was cruising down the Interstate from Philly to Cherry Hill (where I was living at the time) and the next minute, my car sounded like the engine was ready to blow up.

I was in my 20’s, a young, aggressive stock broker and had recently bought the car of my dreams – a BMW 328i.

I’m no car expert, but I knew that when the needle on the “RPM” meter shoots up to the top of the red zone, something is really wrong!

Fortunately, [...]

- August 22, 2018 -

Rebranding your company can be risky business.

Good news is it can be done...and in a bit, I'll share a very cool story of a colleague that pulled it off in spades.

But for every one rebrand success story, there are ten flops.

Case in point...the Comcast-Xfinity disaster.

Comcast had a bad reputation of high prices and abysmal customer service and one day someone came up with the idea...

...to just rebrand with a slick new name in hopes that everyone would come down with a serious case of amnesia and forget how much they hated Comcast.

It was an attempt to [...]

- August 21, 2018 -

She was an icon.

A legend.

She was the Queen of Soul.

She was Aretha Franklin.

Last week on the 41st anniversary of Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll's death, Aretha Franklin died.

And on the 70th anniversary of Babe Ruth, the King of Swing's passing.

All royalty in their own right.

Do you know the story behind her biggest hit R-E-S-P-E-C-T?

Otis Redding actually wrote and recorded it first...or at least his version.

But it was Franklin who flipped it on it's head and added the now famous cliche "Sock it to me, sock it to me."

In short, Aretha had TCB.

- August 20, 2018 -

If you’ve ever been pitched the “Anybody can do this” line while being sold the next shiny object…

Put away your checkbook.

I don’t buy into the “anybody can do anything” theory.

At least not to a level that's gonna bring the same results the people touting its praises are getting.

This weekend, I found out about the death of one of the founders of a company (which shall remain nameless) that Cheryl and I were a part of years ago.

Really great guy. His partner, the other co-founder...not so much.

And the company was an MLM.

I cannot (and won't) throw all [...]

- August 15, 2018 -

I just finished the book The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom.

Fascinating read!

It's the gripping account of a Polish officer's torture and imprisonment in 1940 by the Soviets, his escape (along with six other inmates) from a 25-year forced-labor sentence in a Siberian Gulag (prison camp) and...

Their year-long 4,000 mile trek on foot across Mongolia in sub-zero temps, across the scorching Gobi desert, through Tibet, and finally over the Himalayan mountains to India where they're rescued.

The half-staved but determined motley crew started out with no supplies except for a knife, an axe, [...]

- August 15, 2018 -

Before I got off track with Cheryl's ticket dodging escapades in yesterday's email, "assuming the sale" was supposed to be the topic du jour.

If you've been reading the Contrarian emails for long, you've heard me say that anyone can be a marketer - but being a marketer is not the same as being a businessman.

And you won't stay in business long if you don't sell.

ABC...Always Be Closing.

At some point somebody's gotta ask for the sale.

Back in my broker days, we were taught to "assume the sale." And it's become a part of my DNA.

Assuming the sale [...]

- August 14, 2018 -

"Timid salesmen have skinny kids."

Zig Ziglar, you speak my language buddy.

I remember the first time (years ago) Cheryl called me and announced, "It works! I 'assumed the sale' just like you said to do."

"That's great! So who bought which service?

"No, it was the police. I got out of a ticket! I used the techniques that you always talk about - and it worked great! Easy peasy."

"God, Cheryl - what did you do?"

"Well, I went through a stop sign. But I calmly explained to him that it actually seems more logical for it to be a YIELD [...]