Ian Thomas, my friend from O’Neil Software (who graciously sponsor the show) interviewed me about the book, writing it and more.

This interview is different for me as I am normally the one doing the interview. Special thanks to Ian for doing such a great job on the interview.

Not only was it a great surprise to see Ian Thomas, it was also my actual
Read more]]> This is a replay of an interview that I did on my podcast, the RIMproReport.

Ian Thomas, my friend from O’Neil Software (who graciously sponsor the show) interviewed me about the book, writing it and more.

This interview is different for me as I am normally the one doing the interview. Special thanks to Ian for doing such a great job on the interview.

Not only was it a great surprise to see Ian Thomas, it was also my actual birthday on that Thursday April 19th.

My arrival,
Read more]]> It was in the small mountain town of San Felipe, Chile that I embarked on this amazing journey called life. My young Canadian parents were missionaries in Chile and I was the second child to arrive during their stay. At the time of my birth, my Dad was doing a religious broadcast on the local radio station. He rushed to finish the broadcast and to get to the hospital – only to discover that I had already been born.

My arrival, though wonderfully healthy, was not without its related issues. The Chilean officials did not recognize the legitimacy of my parent’s Canadian marriage license, and as a result my Chilean birth papers clearly indicate that I was illegitimate.

I still have the actual birth certificate in my possession. I also have the telegram that was delivered to my grandparent’s home in Canada announcing my arrival. All it said was… “Tommy Arrived Eleven Bothhwell”.

You might scratch your head a little at the message, but it makes perfect sense when you consider that telegrams fees were charged by the word. So, in an attempt to say everything that needed to be said in as few words as possible, my Dad shortened it, much like a Twitter message. What he was really saying was “Tommy arrived at eleven o’clock. Both he and his mother are well.” I’m still not sure why the extra “h” was added? Possibly, it will go down as the first Tweet with a spelling mistake.

Since then, I’ve had the privilege of celebrating 46 reminders of that day along the way. This year – the 47^th.

And the more of them I have celebrated, the more I come to this marker of my own length of stay on the planet with a deeper sense of the incredible gift of life that I have been given. Despite some bumps and frustrations along the way, I am lucky to say mine is a wonderful story. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’ve seen and experienced a lot. I have accomplished many things I am proud of and more than ever, I love the life I now have. I’m happier than I’ve ever been.

But I also face the unavoidable reality that I have fewer years now than ever. As Steve Miller pointed out in his 1976 song, “Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future.”  I’m discovering that time – at this age – seems to slip faster than ever.

So my birthday is a strong reminder to me that there are unfinished chapters in my story.  I have much left to do. And even bigger things to accomplish. There are challenges I still need to face. There is a lot to learn and to share. There is more love to give and countless memories yet to make. There is another book to write. And many more speeches to give.

I want this life of mine to be a magnificent story. At this point in my life, I am keenly aware that I am the author of my story and today and every day I have the opportunity to write another new page. And I’ve decided the story is about to get better.

This “illegitimate” Chilean-born, Canadian missionary kid’s story is about to add some wonderful new chapters to the first 47. Stay tuned.

How about you? How is your story unfolding? What new chapters are you writing into it? What big things do you have left to do?

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Make it great!

Let me give you some context. Starting in January of this year, after a long hiatus, we started sending
Read more]]> These last few months have been some of the busiest months of my business life. With the completion and publishing of my book, as well as numerous other initiatives we’re undertaking here at Flourish Press, we’ve been testing a marketing principle, almost by accident – or maybe more accurately – out of necessity. But it’s one I think you would benefit from.

Let me give you some context. Starting in January of this year, after a long hiatus, we started sending targeted, sequential, multi-step direct mail campaigns. At the same time we started delivering our newsletter as a physical, mailed piece. Simultaneously, we updated our corporate website and my personal site, engaged the big five social media networks and started the process of building the marketing and launch campaign for my new book. Along with that, the RIMproReport broadcast was consistently produced, and we focused more on our client communications.

And while these activities were done out of necessity on our part, it’s worth sharing why it matters to you and what happened as a result so you can benefit and use it in your own business.

The marketing success principle I’ve uncovered through these busy past few months is actually a combination of principles:

1. Engage massive marketing actions
2. Compress these actions into a short defined period of time
3. Simultaneous marketing actions vs. single “one-off” actions or just sequential actions
4. Combine different media and tactics
5. Use different marketing initiatives, with different goals, stacked on top of each other to have the multiplied power and affect

There is a tendency to place marketing activities as the last item on our agenda. And often, when we do engage them, we tend to do a little at a time. But in my recent experience, I have seen overwhelming evidence to support the use of massive, compressed-in-time, simultaneous, multi-media and multi-initiative marketing as a secret weapon to leverage and use again going forward.

This kind of marketing is really only viable within a niche, targeted prospect marketplace. If you are trying to market to everyone instead of to a select group of “someones,” this approach will not serve you well – unless, of course, you have sufficiently deep pockets to sustain the fiscal requirements that this type of marketing demands.

So, as you consider what I have just described, the question for you is this. Are you doing enough marketing all at once? Are you creating for your business an overwhelming presence in your prospect marketplace that demands they take notice of you and what you can do for them?  Are you organizing and executing to show up like no one else?

This kind of marketing will no longer be an accident for me. I hope it won’t be for you either.

I discovered that the popular caricature
Read more]]> To the delight of my Irish friends, March is a month of celebration. A pint of Guinness and some green festivities mark their special day – St. Patrick’s Day. Within the revelry, the expressions of luck are exchanged. You have no doubt heard of the “luck of the Irish” that somehow has been connected to the jolly, little imps known as leprechauns seen on greeting cards, pub signs and the advertising surrounding the day.

I discovered that the popular caricature has little resemblance to the real leprechauns of Irish mythology. The real ones – at least as described in legend – were grumpy, alcoholic, insufferable elves in the employ of Irish fairies. They made shoes for the fairies – hence their description as cobblers. As luck would have it… the leprechauns often missed out on discovering the treasure the fairies carefully guarded, which was only revealed to the occasional human who found a pot of it at the end of a rainbow.

The luck of the Irish is not found in the 1000+ years of invasion, colonization, exploitation, starvation and mass emigration seen in the country’s history. That doesn’t seem to be very lucky to me. The real story seems to emerge from American origins in the silver and gold rush era where a number of the most successful and famous miners of the day were of Irish or Irish-American birth. These included James Fair, James Flood, William O’Brien and John MacKay, who were known as the “Silver Kings” of Comstock after they hit the famed Comstock Lode, the single largest silver deposit in the history of North America.

So it seems the real luck of the Irish is actually related to these four business people who understood that luck is the result of great effort. Ben Franklin said that “Diligence was the mother of good luck.” Ray Kroc of McDonald’s fame said that “Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat the luckier you get.”

As a younger, less experienced person, I assumed that based on their good fortune, certain people were “lucky”. Yes, admittedly, some of them had breaks along the way, possibly provided by someone else’s hard work or their own opportune encounters, but hidden beneath the surface of most “lucky” people was a significant amount of effort that fueled it.

During the last couple of months I have completed one of the most difficult tasks of my life… writing a book. Over the years I have started writing numerous books on a variety of subjects, only to have them sit, unfinished, as more pressing tasks came along. I never knew how hard it would actually be to complete one. The emotional, mental and even physical work was exponentially greater than I could have ever anticipated. Yet, despite it all, later this month, I’m going to have a book to share with you.

And this book will bring rewards to me that others may see as luck or what I might have once called luck. But I know differently now. And as I watch business owners bemoan their own luck in marketing, I am again aware that luck is not a great strategy to win clients. The Mother Lode of leads is not found in rainbow ends, it is the direct result of spending countless hours in the back breaking, important work of day-in, day-out marketing.

This month, I choose to look for luck in the same vein as the Irish Silver Kings and encourage you to the same.

(To learn more about my book, check out YouAreTheLogoBook.com)

My Answer

This is a debate that has been raging in advertising circles for ages. And the answer is clear to those who are willing to test it. More copy outperforms less copy.

Decades ago, Gene Schwartz, one of the most successful copywriters of his time noticed that “the more you told, the more
Read more]]> Question: People don’t take time to read stuff anymore. I know I don’t. Shouldn’t we make sure we keep our marketing copy a lot shorter?

My Answer

This is a debate that has been raging in advertising circles for ages. And the answer is clear to those who are willing to test it. More copy outperforms less copy.

Decades ago, Gene Schwartz, one of the most successful copywriters of his time noticed that “the more you told, the more you sold.” In other words, the more relevant, compelling information he could cram in a piece of physical mail, the more likely it was that the customer would buy. One thing we know about Gene and a long line of direct response copywriters who followed him is that they tested their assumptions. And the results are very clear. More is better.

Yes, the online world has made everything instant. And the prevailing “crowd” wisdom is pre-disposed to Twitter-sized marketing. But, if someone is interested in what you have to offer, and they want to learn more because it will shape their decision, giving them the least amount of information possible is not a great strategy. Think about it. Is that what you do when you have the perfect opportunity to sell someone something? Do you just give them three short bullets and say nothing else? No! You give them enough information to make their decision.

People do not read long copy or consume copious amounts of content when it is irrelevant to them or if it is BORING! But if it is relevant and compelling information, presented effectively, more content consistently outperforms less content.

In light of these increases, the average marketer recoils in fear and economic victimization and declares that direct mail isn’t a viable option for them anymore. Conversely, the veteran
Read more]]> In January, the US Postal Service increased the cost of a first class stamp from 44 to 45 cents. In a message to US Congress last week, they also suggested the possibility of raising the cost of a stamp to 50 cents. Packages and heavier pieces will also see a noticeable increase.

In light of these increases, the average marketer recoils in fear and economic victimization and declares that direct mail isn’t a viable option for them anymore. Conversely, the veteran marketer responds in celebration – and prepares to mail more – with more elaborate packages and pieces.

When postage prices increase, it is a great time to ramp up direct mail campaigns, because at that point there is less clutter in the mailbox and less competition for the recipient’s attention. When the herd thins… rush in! Remember, this is not about buying stamps. It’s about buying your prospective customers’ attention.

The cost of a 1 cent bump (or an impending 5 cent bump in the near future) can – at least temporarily – buy you a greater share of those who are willing to open your mail as fewer pieces arrive each day saying “read me.” The retreat of many makes it easier to aggressively grab up territory and dominate a marketplace.

This perspective on postage increases is a way of thinking about a concept in business that is often overlooked. That concept is this: What most people perceive as bad, you should examine carefully for opportunity. And the bigger the perception (that something is bad or annoying or wrong), the greater the overlooked, hidden opportunity may actually be.
Human beings as social creatures are hard wired and conditioned to conform. Most people take comfort in being with the majority, and being accepted by the majority. In fact, many seem to take comfort in knowing that, even if they are wrong, at least they are wrong with a bunch of other people. Not wanting to “raise eyebrows” limits and inhibits what many people do. Many things get accepted, believed as gospel or “right” or “smart” just because everyone else is doing it.

It happens in marketing all the time. We tend to conform to what is seen as normal. We do the type of stuff that is pretty, pleasing and perfect because it’s viewed as professional – not because it works. We jump on bandwagons because everyone else is on them. At the same time we ignore the types of marketing tactics that could create enormous opportunity because we fear what others might say.

I encourage you to ask yourself some hard questions – that may require significant thought:

1. What are you doing in your marketing that conforms to perceived industry or professional standards?
2. What are you doing because everyone else is doing it?
3. What are you doing, or more importantly, what are you failing to do because of fear of criticism, disapproval or ridicule?

Careful consideration of your answers to these questions is essential.

Choosing to boldly go against the grain and do the opposite of what others are doing might feel odd at first, but it will provide significant business advantage. I suggest you try and see what happens.

My encouragement is to be counter-cultural and buy stamps. Stick them on big, bold and daring direct mail pieces that get opened and read by your prospects.

And for the record… no one else is doing it.

Bottom line, yesterday the conference attendees got involved in the record center challenge. It was a combination of lip synch and music video. The teams were required to create a music video during the challenge. During the night, a video editor worked to make it into a finished product.

This morning
Read more]]> We’re just finishing the O’Neil Strategic Partner Conference. I’m on stage here with Ian Thomas proving how incredibly easy it is to leverage these events for your own marketing.

Bottom line, yesterday the conference attendees got involved in the record center challenge. It was a combination of lip synch and music video. The teams were required to create a music video during the challenge. During the night, a video editor worked to make it into a finished product.

This morning we saw all seven entries and a distinguished panel of judges chose the winning team video.

So, here’s the video showing the winning entry in the contest.

By the way, we raised almost $26,000 for Make A Wish Foundation in the process.

Congrats O”Neil and the entire conference attendess for a great event.

You see, I am at work in my lair creating a pretty exciting new project… one that I am extremely excited about.

It involves the whole of what I have spent years figuring out… and while I am not yet ready to share it, I am more excited about this than anything I have done in a long time.

I’ll keep you posted.