We’ve had number of people tell us that they went to www.HTTLAM.com at the appointed time (noon, Pacific time, today) for the launch of our How To THINK Like A Marketer home study course, but they got an error message.

That’s because Murphy’s Law struck us. So many people we’re trying to get on the site in the hour before the noon launch moment that our server went down, and it took an additional half hour to get it back up.

We are so sorry for the inconvenience. We should have planned for a lot more traffic–but who knew?

The course is officially available now, and they’re flying off the shelves. If you want one, go get it now, at www.HTTLAM.com.

Also, a hacker did something to disable the pledge page (www.HTTLAM.com/pledge) and a lot of people who wanted to take the pledge (a requirement for getting the free telephone consulting we added to the course) couldn’t do so. That’s being worked on now and that page should be up soon, if it isn’t fixed already.

Brad and I look forward to working with you and helping your business really take off!

If you want one of the 483 copies of the course we’re releasing, go get one now.

Be well.

Bill

Earlier today, I posted a photo and description of the How To THINK Like A Marketer Home Study Course.

Remember, we’re releasing it at noon tomorrow (less than 15 Hours from now).

Anyway, a few people wrote to me expressing concern that they may not be able to afford it.

Believe me… That’s not the case.

In fact, you’re probably going to be blown away by how reasonable it is.

Remember, go to www.httlam.com as soon after noon as you can to get your copy.

The post with the photo and description is below.  Check it out. 

As of this writing, that’s how long you have to wait to completely change your life–your business life, at least.

Yes, we’re working like crazy to have everything ready for you tomorrow, Tuesday, February 13th at noon.

That’s when we’ll release the How To THINK Like A Marketer Home Study Course everyone has been talking about.

Hey, do you want a sneak peek?

Wanna see a photo?

Really, nobody has seen this yet…not even the people on our Priority Notification List (that’s because I couldn’t attach the photo to an email in our mailer).

Well, OK, here it is…

Pretty impressive, huh?

The material in the course you’re looking right now will transform you from an entrepreneurial Clark Kent, into a Marketing Superman.  OK, that may be a little over the top, but you get what I mean.

This course is it.  Truly.

And if you’re among to 483 people who get their hands on it (starting in 18 Hours, 24 Minutes, & and 23 Seconds), you’ll soon see a dramatic increase in your business. 

Now, that’s understating it.

Take a look at what you get:

The entire DVD recordings (17 DVD’s) of our 4-day How To THINK Like A Marketer II live event.  It was held last June in Phoenix.

Plus, the entire CD recordings (29 CD’s) of the complete event as well.  We’re doing this because we really want you to get the most out of the course. 

We’ve designed it for you to watch the DVD’s first and follow along with the note pages.  The note pages are from digital photos of the actual multi-colored flip charts we used in the seminar.

Then, after you’ve gone through it the first time, you can put the CD set in your car and listen as you drive around town.  Or, you can listen on a portable CD player, or transfer them to your Ipod (don’t ask me how) and listen to them anywhere.

You also get my complete Marketing MBA on A Silver Platter course–another 10 audio CD’s plus one amazing data CD including my complete manual and all my valuable special reports in easy-to-use pdf’s.  Oh yeah, when you open to pdf for the MBA course, you’ll notice it has a clickable table of contents and index, so it’s easy to go back and find anything you need. 

What you don’t really see is the 293 page manual that comes with it…

On top of all that, you get the complete set of back issues of the Antin Marketing Letter.  This was one of the most highly regarded marketing newsletters around when we were publishing it.  In fact, we enjoyed a 92% renewal rate over the live of the newsletter–pretty good considering it cost $197 a year to subscribe. 

The newsletters alone are another 500 pages or so of pure dynamite, and they’re worth about a thousand bucks by themselves.

But wait, there’s more…

You also get to listen in on four (that’s right, four) special teleseminars over the next year.  These aren’t the typical lead-generating teleseminars you’re used to seeing–they’re pure content–designed to help you apply everything we teach to your business.

And finally, the best part…

You get us!

That’s right.  You’ll get FREE consulting (as long as you sign our promise page at http://www.httlam.com/pledge/) from Bill and I.  This is huge.  We normally get $3,000 or more when we do private telephone consulting.  But you’ll be able to talk to us–and never receive a bill.

So, as I said, we’ll release the course to you (or at least start taking orders) at noon Pacific Time tomorrow, Tuesday, February 13th.

That’s in 18 Hours, 23 Minutes, & 52 Seconds. 

Set your alarm clock and don’t miss out.

We thought we’d touched a nerve with Brad’s Psychic Vampires post, but I guess our post about making sure the customer actually gets the benefits REALLY got your attention! Thank you to everyone who posted a comment in response.

I want to clarify one thing about
that post, though, and it’s important.

I might be wrong about this, but the impression I got as I read all the comments is that people thought I was saying, “Give great customer service.”

Partly true, but this misses the BIG point I was making–and I want to make sure you get it.

Yes, of course, always give great customer service. Over-service your customers. If you do that, you’ll stand head and shoulders above your competition, and your customers will love you.

However, I was making a little bit more sophisticated point:

If your customers really get the benefits you promised, they will tell others, and they’ll buy more from you.

In fact, they’ll tell LOTS of people, and they’ll buy lots more. Doing this will increase your bottom line so much…

…you’ll hyperventilate when
you see the numbers.

So in addition to giving good customer service, which you should always do, also go whole-hog to make sure the customer: 

         1) actually opens the box and uses the product (don’t assume that they will just because they bought it)…

         2) that they use it correctly (again, don’t assume)…

         3) that they keep using it (they probably won’t unless you do something to make it happen)…

You want to make sure you head off every way you can think of that your customers might not start using the product at all, might not use it correctly, might stop using it, or might not notice the benefits even if they get them.

This looks like “customer service” (and it is), but it’s really much more. It’s getting the customer to the finish line, where they say…

“Wow. What a product!
What a company!”

My whole point is that people who don’t use the product, or don’t use it correctly, or don’t keep using it long enough, or who somehow do get the benefits but for some reason don’t notice them will never say those words.

If they don’t, they aren’t going to buy more, and they aren’t going to tell all their friends.

So, you want to do the kinds of things I mentioned in my last post specifically to make sure the customer makes it to the point where they actually get the benefits they wanted–and, to prevent anything from happening (whether it’s your fault or theirs) that might keep them from getting them.

Your job is to think of every thing that could keep them from getting those benefits, and…

…prevent that from happening.

Lots of marketers teach their students to give great service, and we’re obviously in favor of that. This, though, is a new and more sophisticated wrinkle, because the goal here isn’t just to get the customer to like you, or think you give great service, but rather to make sure that nothing prevents them from benefiting, because when they benefit they buy more and they tell others.

I hope you get the distinction.

Be well.

Bill

PS: WOW! Tons of people have promised to use the How to Think Like a Marketer info only to help their customers (not to take advantage of them), and to not ask for the free consultations we’re providing as part of the course unless you actually have gone through the course and are willing to DO something with the information. If you haven’t yet made this promise, which which gets you free personal consulting with the course (if you’re one of the 483 people who get a copy), go to www.httlam.com/pledge.

Okay, fasten your seat belt. I’m going to teach you something that, as far as I know, NO other marketing guru teaches–despite the fact that it can, quite literally, double your sales–or more.

I’d say that this one thing alone contributed AT LEAST $6,000,000 in sales to my company in 2006.

This is so simple and so obvious, you’ll kick yourself when I tell you what it is.

Here it is:

Make SURE that your customers…

…get the benefits you
promised them.

That’s it. Figure out what you need to do to make sure your customers get all the benefits that caused them to buy from you in the first place.

This is assuming, of course, that your product or service really does deliver benefits. If it doesn’t, you need a different product. Don’t laugh–this is probably the biggest reason people struggle to make money in a business–their product has limited value to others.

Think about it. If your customers really do get all the benefits your product offers, will they buy more products from you?

You bet they will. They’ll buy…

…everything you offer them.

If they really get the benefits will they tell other people? No doubt about it. They will enthusiastically tell everyone. If your grass seed saved their lawn, they’ll tell all their neighbors. If your e-book changed their life, they’ll tell everyone.

These days when someone buys something and actually gets what was promised, they are so surprised, and so pleased, that they can’t wait to tell people. If the subject of whatever your product does comes up in conversation, they will tell others about you…

…with evangelistic fervor.

So, what do I mean when I say “make sure the customer gets all the benefits”? And how would you do that? I mean, aren’t you already putting the product in the customer’s hands? Aren’t you making sure he gets all the stuff you listed in your offer.

Sure. But I’m talking about making sure the customer gets all the BENEFITS, which is something else altogether. So what does that mean, and how do you do it?

First, as I said, your product has to actually have benefits. If people are buying it because it LOOKS like it has benefits, but it doesn’t, or the benefits are trivial, or they’re buying because you convinced them it has benefits when it doesn’t…

…get another product.

You can’t build much of a business around a half-assed product.

Okay, assuming your product really is good, what’s the main reason why a customer would fail to benefit?

That’s right! If they never use it, they’ll never benefit! So, your first job is to make SURE they use it, This could mean doing something to get them super-excited about trying it for the first time before they get it. Maybe you could send them a letter (I’d use surface mail rather than email, because it will have more impact and be more likely to be read) re-selling them on the benefits and actually TELLING them to immediately…

…take it out of the
box and use it!

Trust me, if you specifically tell them to do this, more people will. If they do, they’ll be more likely to get the benefits.

In fact, you could call them a few days later, or write again, just to check in and see how they’re doing, and to answer any questions they have about getting started. If you do this by letter, include a phone number they can call to ask questions.

Maybe you could send something in the mail (or post it online and give the url in the letter) giving “helpful hints on how to get the most from your new widget.” Always work the benefits into anything you send, because that’s what they want, and that’s why they’ll actually go to the trouble to use the product.

Maybe you could send something to them every couple of weeks for the first six months, reminding them of the benefits and encouraging them to actually use the product.

Now you may think I’m nuts, but did you know that most people who buy something either never use it, or use it a few times and then forget about it? Few people open the books they buy, and of those that do…

…few read past the
first few chapters.

People who buy exercise equipment rarely use it after the first couple of weeks. And so on.

I’m sure you know what I mean.

If your product is a service, you might have to point out the benefits to the customer. If you paint houses, take the customer around and point out the care you took on the window sills, the special little detail work you did, the special way you made sure not to get paint on the window, and so on. You might also check back every six months to see how the paint job is holding up. Or, better yet, call and say you’d like to stop by and make sure it’s holding up.

Do you see how different this is from what most people expect? Do you see, if you do these sorts of things…

…how good you’ll look?

I thought you would!

Now, what’s another reason why people might not get the benefits of your product?

Yes, right again! Because they quit using it! Good for you. You’re starting to think like a marketer.

So why would they quit? Well, that would be different for different products, but couldn’t you find out by ASKING your customers? “Are you still using your widget? No? Well tell me, why did you stop?” Find out. Then…

…figure out how to solve
the problem, whatever it is.

Maybe they quit because they ran out of a key part, or something broke. If you contacted them right about the time when you know this might happen, and then made is super-easy to get the replacement part to them, or made it easy to get the repair done, you’ve solved the problem and they keep using the product.

Or include the spare with the product, with a tech support number they can call to have someone walk them through how to install it.

Or whatever.

If you think it through, you’ll figure out why your customers might quit using the product. Then, figure out a way to solve the problem.

Centerpointe’s main product is Holosync, an audio technology which, when listened to over stereo headphones, places the listener–instantly–in states of super-deep meditation, delivering all the mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits of meditation in a hugely accelerated manner. One reason people sometimes quit Holosync is because as you use it, unresolved emotional material can surface for some people.

Give your customers
an education!

So, I make sure they know this might happen, why it’s happening (it’s actually a very beneficial thing), and what to do about it. I show them the benefit to them of going through this process. I also show them how to minimize any discomfort.

And, I do this through a series of Follow Up Support Letters, which they receive every two weeks for the first six months.

I also send them a free copy of my book, Thresholds of the Mind, and a multi-CD set of my talks at a Centerpointe retreat. Both have information that motivates them to continue to use the product.

And, I have a staff of people who do nothing all day but talk to customers and help them understand whatever is happening.

In other words, I educate them and hold their hand in order to…

…make sure they keep going!

Another reason they might quit is because of the time it takes to use the product. If someone looks like they might be thinking of quitting for that reason, we have several solutions, and of course we continue to remind them of the benefits they will receive by continuing, and how much more valuable those benefits are than the little bit of time it takes to use the program.

Or, the customer might quit using your product because of how they feel after using it, or some other “side-effect” of using it. Figure out what these side-effects might be…

…and figure out a solution.

Another reason people might not benefit from your product is that they don’t use it correctly, or somehow sabotage themselves from getting the benefits. So, figure out how a customer might do this, and then figure out how to keep it from happening.

If there is a way a customer can screw things up, some of them will think of it.

Make the instructions SUPER clear. Assume that the customer will figure out how to get confused, or use the product incorrectly–or even not notice the benefits even if they are receiving them–and do whatever you can to minimize that confusion, the incorrect use of the product, or the failure to notice the benefits.

Have someone standing by from whom they can get help by phone. Remind them that that person exists and do it often.

A confession…

When Centerpointe was just beginning, and I added the support letters and the telephone hotline, and the other things I do to make sure people get the benefits, everyone told me I was crazy, that all the letters would cost too much, and that talking to customers by phone would be way too time consuming.

I didn’t care, though, because I was so stoked about Holosync and what it did that I passionately wanted everyone to get the benefits. I wish I could say that I did all of this for business reasons, but I didn’t. Only later did I discover…

…what a brilliant
BUSINESS
idea it was.

How did I discover that it was a brilliant business idea? Well, at a certain point I noticed that HALF MY SALES were from referrals–and I wasn’t even asking for referrals (though I do now, and so should you).

And, when I told other business owners what percentage of my customers bought more stuff from me on the back end, they were blown away! (I didn’t know what was “good” so I just thought everyone had so many back-end sales.)

Believe me, doing what I’m suggesting here is SO worth doing, and hardly ANYONE does it.

It will make you a ton of money, I promise.

Thinking this way about your business and your customers is a great example of what Brad and I mean by “thinking like a marketer.” Do you see how this isn’t just a “technique”? It’s long-range job-security, And it will give you…

…a totally unfair advantage
over your competitors.

A lot of people don’t see it this way (unfortunately), but your job as an entrepreneur is to provide benefits to your customers.

The marketing part of your job is to show them what those benefits are, convincing them that you really can deliver them, and prove that they are worth as much or more than the price they’ll have to pay to get them.

But can you see how easy this becomes when you do everything possible to make sure they really GET the benefits?

When your customer tells someone else about the benefits he got, it’s WAY more credible than when you tell them. And, when you tell the customer about another product you have, and you really delivered on the first product…

…that sale becomes
a slam dunk.

So please, sit down and think this through for your business. Figure out how to get more of your customers using the product. Figure out how to keep them from quitting using it. Figure out how to keep them from sabotaging themselves from getting the benefits. Figure out how to keep them from failing to notice the benefits when they get them.

If you do this, you’re beginning to think like a marketer, and your business, and your profits will expand…

…like Brad Antin’s ego!

Be well.

Bill Harris

PS: The actual launch of our How to Think Like a Marketer home study course happens next Tuesday, the 13th. If you aren’t on the Priority Notification List yet, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go sign up at www.httlam.com right now.

Wow! Brad and I had no idea that his “Psychic Vampire” post would generate so many replies. I guess this problem really struck a nerve. After thinking about it, I think I know why.

When Brad and I give marketing consultations we’re always struck by the reluctance of many clients to TAKE RISKS. (I’ll describe the difference between taking a reasonable risk and “being risky” below–there is a very important difference you MUST understand if you want your business to make serious money.)

Despite the fact that we KNOW that our advice will dramatically increase sales and profits, clients are often reluctant to do something new, to boldly try a new approach–or even, sometimes, to do anything other than what they’re already doing…

…no matter how much
sense it makes!

Then, when someone close to them–a friend, a spouse, a colleague–pours cold water on their idea, what little confidence they have completely disappears.

Over twenty years ago a mentor told me that people fear disappointment more than anything else. Often they’d rather do nothing–and get no results at all–than risk disappointment.

Then, when they consider a new marketing idea, their mind goes to avoiding disappointment–and their confidence dissolves.

I can tell you right now that focusing on what you don’t want is sure to do two things: 1) it will cause you to feel bad and lose your motivation to act, and 2) it will attract the very thing you’re trying to avoid.

Your Evil Twin

No wonder so many posters are bothered by psychic vampires. But are you, without intending to, acting as your OWN psychic vampire? Are you your own evil twin?

All the successful business people I’ve ever known (and I’ve known a lot of them) share a common quality–they’re willing to take risks. They take action. They try things. And, by trying things, they LEARN. Even if the idea doesn’t work, they get valuable feedback. Then they tweak the idea so it works the next time.

The Basics Always Work

• Clear, tangible benefits always attract buyers.
• Giving customers something free always creates reciprocity–and more sales.
• Having lots of back end products–and a plan for marketing them to your list–always puts more money in your pocket.
• Asking your prospects what benefits they want before you pitch them always gives you an advantage.
• Sweetening an offer with bonuses always creates more sales.
• A compelling, benefit-laden headline always draws more people into reading your copy.
• Reversing the risk felt by the customer by offering a powerful guarantee always creates more sales.
• Going the extra mile to make SURE your customers actually enjoy all the benfits you’ve promised creates HUGE profits, generates great testimonials, and causes your customers to become nothing less than evangelists for your company–which creates tons of referral sales. (In fact, this one is so important it’s made my company, Centerpointe, at least 20 MILLION additional dollars. I’m going to teach you more about it in another post.)

My point, though, is this:

Mastering the basics is the first step in learning to think like a marketer, and…

…you aren’t taking a risk when
you think like a marketer!

Uncle Charlie might think so, but is he a marketing expert?

Most entrepeneurs, unfortunately, don’t know and aren’t using the basics, and aren’t thinking like marketers. Believe me, if you add a dozen or so of the basics to the way you do business, you really WILL double your business in six months or less.

And that’s before you even fully master what we call “thinking like a marketer.”

In fact, you might just grow your profits by ten or twenty times! My company revenues have grown by 50 times since I learned how to think like a marketer, and there’s no reason yours can’t do the same.

And all those fancy techniques you see in a lot of marketing products are nothing more than the basics in new clothing. Once you know how to think like a marketer…

…you’ll think of these kinds
of ideas yourself!

The difference between a good company and one that churns out HUGE profits is almost always great MARKETING. And when it comes to marketing, there’s a big difference between doing something RISKY and taking an intelligent, calculated risk. 

Marketing, done right, isn’t risky.

It’s PROFITABLE.

Here’s what’s RISKY: 

1. Running a business without knowing how to describe your product’s benefits in a tangible and specific way that causes people to see themselves having and enjoying those benefits (this is an art, but you can learn it, and once you do, you’ll immediately see more sales)…

2. Not knowing how to write a good marketing letter that effectively communicates those benefits to potential customers (you’ve got to keep them reading, and there are specific ways to do that)…

3. Not knowing how to frame a “can’t refuse” offer that compels prospects to whip out their credit card (this is SO easy, and creates a ton more sales, but so few do it)…

4. Not knowing how to write a great headline that grabs your prospect and gets them to want to read your web page, ad, or sales letter (we’ve got this one down to a formula a chimp could use)…

5, Not knowing how to convert web visitors into buyers (traffic is useless unless they buy–and big lists of non-buyers might be good for the ego, but they don’t buy your baby new shoes or get you that new Mercedes S550)…

6. Not knowing how to get your customers to buy more, and to buy more often (the real profit is on the back end, but so few people know the secrets to creating a profitable back end).

7. Not understand how to use off-line marketing to explode your on-line products (another $20 Million concept for Centerpointe).

I could list a lot more, but here’s my point:

Forget about what your wife thinks, or your neighbor, or uncle Charlie. Are they great business people? Are they marketing experts?

Instead, do the things that successful people do, and you’ll be successful, too. Take the time to learn what works…

…and then DO IT.

When I started Centerpointe, I knew almost nothing about marketing or running a business. But I sought out the best marketers, and started buying and reading their material.

But here’s the key: Every time I found something that fit my business, I immediately ADDED IT.

Since these were basics that had worked for pretty much every other business that used them, they worked for me, too. Over time, all these little things added up to make Centerpointe into a ”money machine”…

…that now cranks out $1,000,000
or more every month!

This isn’t pie in the sky. You can do it, too.

I was making $30,000 a year when I started Centerpointe, and I was selling a fringe product (though an amazingly good one).

What, then, made Centerpointe so successful?

1) Making SURE than my customers really got all the benefits I promised (which I will explain in another post, as I promised),

2) being willing to seek out expert marketing information,

3) being willing to USE IT, and

4) learning to think like a marketer, so I eventually generated my own ideas, my own promotions, by own techniques.

You can do this, too. Your business can also be a money machine. That’s why Brad and I created How to Think Like a Marketer–to save you tons of money and lots of time by…

…putting all the information in
one place, and making it
easy for you to implement.

We’ll be launching our How to Think Like a Marketer home study course in just a few days. Please get your name on the priority notification list if you’re at all interested in having this course (just go to www.httlam.com).

We’re only selling 483 sets. If you’re ethical, and if you’re willing to take action to create a screamingly successful business, we want you to have this information.

Remember, though. Don’t listen to those psychic vampires, and please don’t be one to yourself. Don’t be your own evil twin. Be willing to take the actions that will allow you to create your own profitable marketing machine. Learn the basics, and be willing to add them to your busines.

And most important, learn to Think Like a Marketer.

If you do, your business will take off like a rocket–I promise. And boy is it fun when that money starts to roll in!

Be well.

Bill Harris

If you’ve been reading the posts and comments here, you may have noticed several comments from people offering suggestions to solve a problem we have.

They were in response to an email we sent to our Priority Notification List.

We’ve just about come up with an answer, but before we finalize it, we thought we’d ask for a few more suggestions from the people new to our list.

Here’s the content of the email we sent.

And at the end, I’ve pasted the responses to it (from lower down in the blog).

Bill and I love to do marketing.  It’s just about all we ever talk about–and it shows. 

Our marketing obsession has Bill’s company, Centerpointe Research Institute, now doing over $12 million a year and 
growing at an almost scary rate.

Anyway, over the years a lot of the other big shots in the personal growth business have come to us with marketing questions.  And frankly, we’ve had a blast doing countless speakerphone consultations.

Then we came to three realizations.

First.  The biggest problem most entrepreneurs face isn’t that they can’t use various marketing techniques–it’s that they really don’t even think like marketers.  Second.  We love teaching entrepreneurs how to think their way through virtually any marketing problem.  We both get a real thrill from watching the light bulb finally go on over their heads.

Third.  We had to find a better way to handle the first two realizations than an occasional speakerphone consultation.

That’s why we created the How To THINK Like A Marketer (HTTLAM) program.

The HTTLAM program started as a very intensive, once-per-year, 4-day training (limited to a fairly small group) during which we spilled our guts.

The HTTLAM attendees really begin to master the entire thought process that’s part of a marketing mindset. And along the way, we train them in about a zillion specific marketing concepts, techniques, tips, and tricks.

Now we’ve decided to publish the home-study version of the program.  It’s the complete home version of the $7,500 live event in print, audio, and video.

We’ll tell you more about it in the next week or so, but for now let’s get back to our problem.

The thing we most love about doing our live event is that we get to personally work with people and teach them how to create marketing machines.

So, we’re thinking about adding some
telephone consulting time to the home-study course.

We normally get $3,000 and more for telephone consultations.  We have a standing 100% guarantee, and not one person has ever asked for a refund on a consultation–not one.

Anyway, if we do (and if we can solve this problem, we will) add some consulting to the home-study course, it’ll raise the value of the course tremendously.  In fact, I suspect we’ve already underpriced it.

The problem is…

If we’re going to have to be available to consult with anybody who gets the course, I’ve got to have a couple of built in safeguards.

One.  I’ve got to know that the people we end up working with are honest and ethical and not using these powerful
concepts to sell shoddy or otherwise BS products or services.

I’m simply unwilling (and Bill is, too), to work with sleaze-balls, losers, or other smarmy characters.  Remember my
“Psychic Vampire” post (check it out here)?  I’m serious as a heart attack about it.

The other part of the problem deals with our egos.  I’ve been a marketing guru for over twenty years, and the biggest frustration of working with clients is when they waste your time. 

I absolutely hate it when I invest my time helping someone and they never do any of what I tell them to do.  Even though the pay me dearly for the privilege, I find it truly insulting to have my advice completely ignored.

And it’s even worse with home-study courses.  Do you know how many people buy courses only to put them on a shelf for later–unopened?  And later never comes.

So, I don’t want to waste my (or Bill’s) time consulting with people who aren’t going to do anything with what we help them with–that don’t even bother to go through the course.

That’s the problem in a nutshell…

We’d like to add the telephone consulting to the home-study course, but…

One.  We need a way to eliminate the sleaze-balls, losers, psychic vampires, or other smarmy characters.  

And two.  We need a way to make sure we only talk to people who have actually gone through the course and are committed to actually implementing what we teach them.

So, we need a way of getting those undesirables to self-select themselves out of our program.  Or, conversely, getting the honest entrepreneurs who will profit by our help to self-select themselves into the program.

Please add your comments to those below…

Thanks

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Zebulun Duane wrote:

In response to your call for suggestions on Feb 2, the best way to eliminate or cause the “sleaze-balls, losers, psychic vampires, or other smarmy characters” to self-select themselves out of your program is to have done as you have done-to call these characters out. By calling them out, some of these will to elevate their thinking and not be as they were, and thus you will be rid of them.

A passage in Allen’s essay As a Man Thinketh which reminds us that a weaker man cannot be helped by a stronger unless nor until he becomes strong in and of himself. Keeping this in mind, not all of the undesirables will disappear automatically; however, they will begin to fade, some by way of attrition, and some because they will be less smarmy.

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Michael Vajgert wrote:

Brad and Bill sent an e-mail about a problem that they have about communicating with those who have actually gone through their course and are committed to implementing the plan ( like Zig Zigler says, “Plan your work and work your plan”) while also wanting to keep the parasites from feeding off of them like a host.

The best way that I know of to get the honest entrepreneurs the help that they need while keeping out the undesireables is an internet tool called Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Instead of an open forum type chat room that is a free for all the IRC can be a controlled forum. IRC’s work through channels that are titled by channel operators known as “ops”. The channel is then controlled by the “ops” inside the room and is known as the Moderator. To use IRC’s companies use one of various client IRC services like mIRC, Virc or Pirch and have a world wide interactive classroom.

Let me give you an example. I write screenplays and there is a website known as Screenwriters Online run by a man named Tony Greco. Tony sets up what he calls Screenwriting Masterclasses that are scheduled in the evenings for 3 or 4 days of the same week and usually once a month. He arranges for a different Class Master for each night of the Series and sends out e-mails to his subscribers as well as posting on his website the Class Masters for the upcoming series. The Class Masters are usually producers and executives from motion picture production companies and it is a rare thing to have access to such an industry insider. Tony charges a fee to access the IRC channel and participate in each upcoming MasterClass. When the time comes for the classes people from all over the world who have registered for the classes connect to the IRC server used by Screenwriters Online (which is mIRC by the way) and enter the “classroom”. Tony usually opens the channel a few hours before the class begins so classmates can communicate with each other in open forum about anything (within reason). When the class begins the Moderator closes the room and introduces the Class Master, lets say it’s screenwriter Paul Haggis, and the class begins. If anyone has a question of Paul during his disertation they send them to the Moderator who may or may not present them to Paul for his answer. The class consists of the Class Master and the Moderator bantering about the subject and presenting their information over a 2-3 hour period. After the presentation the Moderator opens the room for the class to chat with the Class Master for a short period of 15 minutes or so and then everyone says their goodbyes and the channel is closed. I have met people in some classe from Japan, Australia, Italy, England, Spain, Chile, Kuwait, Russia and Hong Kong as well as all of the United States. The open portions generally stay on subject although topics vary widely because we are all ther for the main purpose of advaning ourselves as screenwriters.

After the week’s classes are complete Tony and his assistants at Screenwriters Online take the transcripts of each class and send them out to all the subscibers via e-mail in PDF formatted files that are password protected (and you get the password too).

The bottom line is that those of us who consider ourselves as serious screenwriters throughout the world pay a fee to subscribe to a Masterclass online; we communicate with other writers and network with Hollywood insiders at the same time; and receive transcripts of the event afterward. There is no telephone calling and the environment is controlled.

This may be the way you would like to conduct your Marketing classes as well. You could have various Class Masters in Marketing with a group of like minded participants from anywhere in the world join by paying a fee beforehand and that group will have the ability to ask questions through the Moderator and chat in an open forum at the end while learning what the Class Master has to present in the class.

I hope this helps offer a solution to your problem.

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Alice C. Bateman wrote:

Thanks for the email about your blogs, Bill and Brad. Maybe coming here to read what you all have to say will help to splice the materialistic/marketing gene with the overwhelming amount of creative ones.

I’d pay attention to what Ramona said at the end of her post, I had the same thoughts as I read your email.

I’ll be back.

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