Posts tagged as:

REALLY

Fun and profit with high explosives

I don’t know about you, but I absolutely LOVE the Discovery Channel.

I mean, if they used those shows to teach science and history back when I was in school rather than just textbooks, I would have passed all of my subjects with flying colors.

I dunno, maybe it’s because I’m so visual, but just SEEING the way things work with multiple camera angles, 3D diagrams, and slow motion really helps things make “complex” things so much easier to understand for me.

That makes it more interesting and fun so that I really retain it.

For example, there was one show that I watched about plastic explosives that showed a really fascinating demonstration.

Most people hear the term “C-4″ automatically think of those big-budget, big-kaboom Michael Bay flicks.  Typically the bad guys rig a building to blow up using big, bare bricks of the stuff with a pencil-shaped “detonator”.

Well, as much as I’m a sucker for those movies and gladly pay the $30 for a ticket and large popcorn, the Discovery Channel dudes showed how Hollywood completely gets that part wrong.

Here’s what they did…

They took a massive 4×4 foot steel plate 1 inch thick and laid it across two sawhorses.  Then they took a lump of plastic explosive about the size of a golfball and placed it right on top of the steel plate, attached a timer to it, and set it off.

The result?  Barely a scratch on the steel.  The C-4 made a nice, fancy, explosion, but all the energy dissipated into the air.

Next, the Discovery dudes showed how it REALLY works.

They started with a thick steel cylinder the shape of a small drinking glass called a CASING, and lined the inside with the same amount of C-4.  They then placed what looked like an miniature ice cream cone made of thin copper, called a “SHAPED CHARGE LINER”, pointy side first into the steel casing.  Finally, they secured the casing to the steel plate and detonated it.

The result this time?  The shaped charge tore a gaping hole through the steel plate the size of a baseball!

What caused such a huge difference in results?

FOCUS

Do you want to take MASSIVE action in your business? Absolutely!

But do you only want to make a big, showy fireball that barely makes a dent in your market?  Probably not.

Instead, concentrate all your efforts and energy into a strategic and focused direction so that you can make productive impact and create the results you REALLY want.

Cheers to your success!

Philipp

P.S. My book is finally done!  Woo hoo!  It’s at the publisher’s now and will be widely available for sale on April 27th.  I’m pretty excited about my new “baby” so you’ll have to forgive me for the next few weeks as I shout about it from the mountaintops and hand out cigars.  I wasn’t sure if it was a boy or a girl, so I decorated with yellow and green ;) Check it out here: http://twitpic.com/4ez373

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The most important customer question you must answer

I’m gonna get a little personal here…

Over the years I’ve noticed that I’ve drifted apart from a few of my oldest friends.

One in particular was a roommate both during and after college, having helped each other through some of the toughest times in our lives.

Yet here we are, years later, and we barely talk, let alone get together for a drink.

Sure, I could chalk a good portion of that up to juggling my businesses, two daughters, date nights with my wife, extended family events, and two dogs.

But after I thought about it and was truly honest with myself, I had to admit that I simply lost interest.

Given our history, it was perplexing to me…until he came to my daughter’s birthday party.

In between the festivities I finally got to take a breather and sit down with him and I asked, “So, how’s it goin, dude?”

He shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Eh, not much. Just the same old stuff.”

THAT’S WHEN IT HIT ME SQUARE IN THE FOREHEAD!

For the past few years, that had become his catchphrase: same old stuff.

Even when I knew there was more than that going on, he’d still say it.

To say the least, when the person you’re talking opens the conversation with that, it’s pretty much downhill from there.

When people ask, “How’s it going?” or any variation of that invitation (whether it’s asking you directly or by opening your newsletter or blog), what they’re REALLY asking is:

WHAT’S NEW??

It’s like a never-ending song playing in the subconscious mind.

And if you can’t communicate that to them in a way that gets them as excited, they too will lose interest.

Of course, I’m not so fickle and am pretty well invested in my friend and will go out of my way to make sure we keep interest in each other.

Unfortunately, customers are not that forgiving.

What can you do today to answer your customers asking, “What’s New?”

Cheers to your success!

Philipp

P.S. We’ve got a new guest speaker coming in from Las Vegas to present at our marketing meeting in Pasadena next Tuesday evening February 22nd.  If you’re in the area and would like to join us, just click the link below:

http://www.maramimarketing.com/gkicfree

P.P.S. Because I’m working feverishly to complete two books in the next few weeks, I’m running a little behind on completing my “snail mail” Marketing Mashup Monthly newsletter and I won’t get it out until March. But if you want to make sure you still get it, just submit it here:

http://www.maramimarketing.com/mmmsignup

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Marketing Jam Session: Headlines

I’m a big fan of jazz.

One of my favorite things to hear is a jam session, where the band members play their own improvisational version of a chosen theme.

There’s no sheet music, no practice… they just jam.

If it comes together, great. If not, great.

They just have a good time doing what they love.

A few months back during a mastermind session with some marketing buddies, I really felt the same thing going on with us.

We’d talk about a particular topic, and each would contribute his thoughts and ideas.

Some of the stuff we came up with was complete crap.

But most of it was actually really good stuff.

I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have others listen in and benefit from hearing all these different ideas.”

So I decided to start recording my own marketing jam sessions and sharing them with the world.

In this session, one of my close friends and colleagues Tom Osypian of Ideation Consulting and I discuss our thoughts on headlines.

  • The various “forms” of headlines
  • Direct response advertising vs. traditional advertising
  • What we REALLY think of “branding”
  • Our “go to” headline formulas

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

At the end of the session, Tom graciously offered a copy of an eBook “7 Quick & Easy Headline Formulas” to listeners.

http://www.ideationconsulting.com/jamsession/

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