The “BIG IDEA” Whose Time Has Come

vsu-logo1Impossibility only defines a task’s degree of difficulty. Do you  believe in that premise? I know I do …

The truth is, I only look for strategic alliance partners who believe that difficult tasks can be done immediately and seemingly impossible tasks take a little longer ;-)

The VSU Story: In the Spring of 2008, a strategic alliance partner of mine, who also shares the impossiblity premise above, chose me to help her execute a BIG IDEA.  It was truly an idea “whose time had come” and one we had both independently thought about many years earlier.

The BIG IDEA was to find and secure a new and sustainable distance learning channel to teach micro- entrepreneurs (0 – 10 employees) how to boost their productivity and profits with practical, duplicable and low-cost tactics that are easy-to-implement regardless of economic conditions.

Deb Shaw is that strategic alliance partner and co-founder of VSU.  For her, the BIG IDEA meant to democratize business intelligence and make marketing  best practices available to all entrepreneurs … without having any bias to their ethnicity, creed or socio-economic status.

For me, the BIG IDEA meant [Read more...]

“Outer Circle Marketing” Target Exposed

bow-and-arrowPicture yourself with a bow and quiver full of arrows.  You aim at one of the five circles or rings on your target that graduate inward from WHITE to BLACK to BLUE to RED and finally, YELLOW.

The biggest outer circle is WHITE and directly surrounds the smaller BLACK ring closer to the middle.  (Please refer to the picture to the left to see the five colored rings).

The BLACK circle surrounds a smaller BLUE circle, which in turn, surrounds an even smaller RED circle.  That RED circle surrounds the fifth circle which is YELLOW and in the center of the target known as the “bull’s-eye.”

Why am I telling you this?

I’m telling you this because it is a useful analogy of how your prospects take aim at your marketing offers, whether they want to become first-time customers or multi-buyers.

The way I see it, the WHITE outermost ring represents your “get-to-know-you” offer such as a free Teleseminar, eBook, audio eCourse or video.

This is your opt-in email offer.  To continue the analogy, it is that defining moment when a new prospect has successfully hit your target by aiming and shooting their imaginary arrow at your outermost WHITE circle.

“Outer Circle Marketing” is Time-Tested: Please realize that what I’m talking about here is not just another clever marketing analogy that’s untested.  It is tested and it is time-proven.

OCM = “Outer Circle Marketing” and that’s also the formal name I’ve given to this new breakthrough strategy.  If you want to experience it first hand, join my AskAlexToday Teleseminars scheduled on the first Thursday of each month.

I’ve utilized OCM for the past 2 years with [Read more...]

Rediscover The 100-Year Old AIDA Formula

aida1Pop Quiz:  Of the many advertising formulas around, which one has been time-proven for over 100 years and involves only 4 simple steps?

Answer:  The A-I-D-A Formula.

The 4 steps are simple to remember:  First, you grab your prospect’s Attention (A) about your offer.  Second, you elicit their Interest (I) about your offer. 

Third, you amplify their Desire (D) to purchase your offer.  And fourth, you influence them to take Action (A) and descriminate in your favor with their wallet.

Here’s a quick recap for your review:

A = Attention

I = Interest

D = Desire

A = Action

Easy right?  Not exactly. My experience with the time-honored AIDA Formula is that it’s simple to learn, but not easy to implement.  

Over the years, I’ve observed dozens of veteran marketers [Read more...]

Discover the Learning Power of “Content Diving”

acapulco-cliff-diverI often enjoy cold pizza the “morning after” more than the piping hot version the night before :-)

What does the joy of devouring day-old pizza have to do with your info marketing content or your success as an entrepreneurial CEO?  

Two things, actually …

1) Principle centered content never gets stale, it only gets better with age.

You can return to it again and again to see it with new eyes on YouTube, hear it with a new ears on a Teleseminar or visualize it with a new mind when reading a blog post like this one

2) Deep diving into familiar content doesn’t breed contempt, it breeds more success!

As a student, your one and only path to mastering anything I teach you is through the path of familiarity

If you are an info marketer, the only way [Read more...]

Here’s Why “Progress” Exceeds “Perfection”

In this video I argue why “Sloppy success is always better than perfect mediocrity.”  Wouldn’t you agree?

Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach often says: “Choose progress, not perfection.”  I encourage you to take Dan’s advice (in the New Year) and watch my video (below), so you too can become more productive faster, better and with less effort.

Watch this video and then please post your comment. 

What To Do Now: Think of ONE project you’ve wanted to start – or finish – during the past year, but your perfectionism has crippled and even paralyzed your progress

Whenever you find yourself paralyzed in a perfectionist moment, remind yourself why “Sloppy success is better than perfect mediocrity. 

Here’s what I have written on my PC’s screen saver that assists me to blasts through my perfectionist moments … it’s a declarative quote I once heard from Tony Robbins:  ”If I can’t, I must.”

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