business tips

Fame Comes Second But Not First

March 5, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Playing baseball at a professional level is not as easy as it looks. There’s more to it than swinging a bat and catching a baseball. Few people get to make the cut. Many others don’t get as lucky.

There are over 2 million kids who play little league. Then, the numbers get crunched. About 471,025 of those 2 million kids end up playing baseball in high school. That 471,025 gets reduced even further to 31,264 athletes playing at the college level. To top it all off, only 806 people get chosen as draftees out of the 31,264 athletes. Just like that, 2 million becomes 806. Not all of the 806 draftees even get to make it to the big leagues. Some of those people only get to play in the Major Leagues for 1 game and then get sent back down. Other players become back-ups, and there are the every day players that are under average.

Sure, we get a bunch of really good players like Dustin Pedroia and Derek Jeter (I happen to be a Red Sox fan who admires Derek Jeter). However, the process of playing at the professional level is slim to none. So, how does it happen?

The answer is that the fame of being a baseball player is not the focus. There are many kids who dream of being baseball players, basketball players, or play another professional sport. The problem is that many of these people dream of the fame–the ability to make millions of dollars, sign baseballs, and go around the country.

In addition, there are baseball players who play for a few years, then have a bad year or two, and then gets sent down. That’s because some baseball players think about the fame they just got. Fame becomes the centerpiece of attention which results in bad performances.

Who wouldn’t want the fame? The problem is that we focus on fame. We don’t think about doing the things we love. We don’t think about the work that is involved to get the fame. You don’t accidentally end up in the World Series, and you don’t accidentally end up becoming a professional baseball player.

Fame is not a priority. Fame is a by-product.

The One Thing About The Spotlight That People Mix Up

March 5, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

It seems as if more people than ever want their own product. Whether that product is a book or training course, more people want their own. A big reason this happened is because creating these products suddenly became a lot easier. You no longer need to pursue a publisher to write a book or get a degree so you can teach in school.

There are countless examples of people who are remarkable because of their products. With this success has also come a lot of confusion of how that success happened in the first place. Many people think that once they create the product, the spotlight is on them. People will come and buy the product.

The problem is creating the product does not give you a spotlight. A product is a product, and there are millions of them to choose from. You don’t get to go under the spotlight just by creating a product. Many people have created products.

You get under the spotlight when you get people to care about your product. There are millions of products out there, and no one knows why your product is so special. The only way for people to know about your special product is by telling them about your product. The product does not guarantee going under the spotlight. The market is noisy, and most people don’t get noticed.

The spotlight comes after people realize why your product is important and necessary. If you created products just to become famous, it’s not going to work. If you create products because you enjoy the process, enjoy seeing better results, and firmly stand behind your products, it can work. All you would have to do at that point is get people to know about your products.

Once enough people know about your product, and the ripple effect allows more people to know about your product, the spotlight will be shining down upon you.

Why You Need To Have Bonuses

March 2, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Imagine your customer got everything he paid for. It is an accomplishment to give your customer everything that he paid for. However, giving your customer more than what they paid for leads to more connections and better results. Imagine getting a training course with 20 videos, and then the trainer decided to surprise you with 5 bonus videos.

We want what we pay for, but when we get something extra, we remember that extra gift. Mike Michalowicz has a great marketing strategy for his books. Instead of waiting for people to buy his books, he distributes them to right people who are likely to give him a review. For his book, The Pumpkin Plan, Mike decided to contact people who review business books on Amazon. He asked these people if they were interested in getting the book for free in return for an honest review.

Mike Michalowicz decided to ship out his books with personalized letters and a copy of another one of his books, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. While customers were only expecting to get a copy of The Pumpkin Plan, they ended up getting a personalized letter and a copy of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur to go along with it.

Offering his books for free and giving his customers a bonus resulted in Mike’s books getting hundreds of reviews on Amazon, and most of them are 4 and 5 star reviews. Giving away his Pumpkin Plan book for free was a starting point, but the added bonuses resulted in customers who read and reviewed his book right away.

The “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” sales always attract more customers. That’s because the 1 free thing is a bonus. People flock over to stores with big deals in order to get the bonus. By having bonuses for your business, whether the bonus is an extra hour of services for free, 5 extra videos, or a free report, you will have more customers eager to buy your future products.

Why The Olympic Games Are Popular

February 28, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Sochi resulted in NBC getting a big increase in views, and that big increase in views has also been eating away at Fox’s viewers and other channels’ viewers as well. What makes Sochi, and the Olympics in general, as popular as they are today?

The primary way the Olympics became popular is through word of mouth. People said things like this: “The guy can run fast.” “That girl just broke the record for skiing.” “That athlete just got the gold medal.” We also get to hear incredible stories when the media tells us what certain athletes do outside of their respective sports.

This word of mouth catches on, and people flock over to see the Olympic Games. When they see the Olympic Games, the first thing they notice is that the athletes are the best in the world. This leads to more word of mouth. Centuries ago, word of mouth meant people going from town to town telling people about the Olympic Games. For Sochi, word of mouth resulted in it trending on Twitter. Other people on various social networks told their friends about Sochi as well.

Another reason the Olympics are very popular is because they take place every four years. If the Olympics took place every day, they would become boring. All of the stunts and records you see would become normal. The stunts and records we see as remarkable would not be as remarkable if the Olympic Games took place every day.

Once every four years, many sporting events become more important. I never watch skiing or snowboarding, but I made an exception for Sochi, and I’m glad I did. There were some wipeouts and many excellent performances. We only get to see the wipeouts and performances every four years.

The fact that there is a four year wait builds suspense. When Sochi ends, I’m sure there will be a countdown clock on the web for the next Olympic Games. That cycle will most likely continue. As the date of the Olympic Games gets closer, more people start to look at the countdown on the web. Then, some news about certain athletes and countries trends on social networks. This builds more suspense for the opening ceremony. Then, the opening ceremony does happen, and millions of people become couch potatoes for a few days and watch the Olympics unfold.

How To Use Curiosity In Your Business Strategy

February 27, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

One thing that makes us human is our curiosity. We wonder what is wrapped in those presents we open on our birthdays and other occasions. As a result, many of us open those presents quickly or play a guessing game before opening the present. We want to know what is inside of the mysterious envelope addressed to us. Sometimes, it’s an unexpected gift while other times, it’s the taxes.

Few entrepreneurs are implementing the human nature of curiosity into their business strategies. These entrepreneurs are well ahead of their competitors because they make their audiences curious. Instead of giving everything away, these entrepreneurs tell people what they are creating, but nothing more than that. Simply saying you are creating a training course about social media creates curiosity. Then, giving your members access to one video every week will build the suspense for when the next video will come out.

By building suspense, you will be able to grab your audience’s attention. That’s why the suspense of many TV shows happen at the end of the show. The audience knows when the suspenseful part is going to happen, but they watch the entire show just so they see the suspenseful part.

We are very curious. We wonder when certain authors are going to come out with new books. We wonder what the second video is for the training course. You may be wondering what video I will be publishing YouTube this Saturday. By building curiosity in your audiences that lasts, the suspense will be unbearable. This suspense will make the audience pay attention to everything that you do.

Is Your Message Clear Or Foggy (And How To Tell)?

February 9, 2014 by Marc Guberti 3 Comments

Entrepreneurs create powerful businesses by having clear messages. Startups and people who just begin to get into the entrepreneurial spirit quickly learn how important it is to have a message. However, there are too many people who forget about having a clear message.

Having a clear message equates to more traffic, sales, subscribers, and everything else that a business wants more of. Having a clear message gives people a reason to come back and buy your other products. Most people have a foggy, or even worse, an undefined message. These messages do not equate to an increase in traffic, sales, or subscribers. In fact, these kinds of messages make it harder for people to find you. When people do find you, having a foggy message makes the visitor less likely to stick around.

Instead of playing by chance, there are some ways to tell whether your message is a clear or foggy one. If you are able to tell that your message is a clear one, that’s great. If it’s foggy, you need to work on your message so more people learn about you and decide to stick around.

In order to tell whether your message is clear or foggy, the first thing you have to do is look at your message and make an honest decision about whether your message is clear or not. Some people will be honest with themselves and realize that their message is foggy. Others will lie to themselves and say that their message is clear. There will also be the few who have a clear message for their target audience.

The fact that some people will not be honest with themselves is the reason this process has two steps. The second step will allow you to know the truth because you lose some control in this step. This step requires you to ask your friends what they think is the message of your business.

This part is very important. Here is the question that a lot of people ask, which is a big mistake (I used myself as the example), “Did I do a good job at telling people that one of the messages is that teenagers can do more than they think?” Your friend is going to say yes because they don’t want you to feel bad. Saying no would break the code of friendship. Then you and your friend don’t talk for a while. That’s why your friends will say yes to that question to avoid that fate.

Friends also say yes just to make you feel good. When you hear a friend say yes, that gives you the reassurance that your message is a clear one. Friends have said yes in the past so they don’t hurt the feelings of other friends. Asking the wrong question will taint the truth.

Instead of asking a question, just say, “Tell me what you as the consumer think the message of my business is.” This is not a yes or no question. They either go in detail about how clear your message is or how foggy your message is. Some friends will try to say that your message is clear when it is not. You will be able to identify most of these people because they will have a shaky voice when telling you how ‘clear’ the message is.

When you ask your friends, make sure you choose the friends that will take the time to come up with a good answer. Getting better answers will allow you to take more action.