Last week I told you my good friend, Daymond John, was gifting you both of his top-rated business books-gratis, as a big favor to me. I suggested that you watch last week’s episode of Shark Tank last Friday to “get” the flavor of why it has been the runaway, smash reality TV hit show in its category.

Again, if you didn’t (or haven’t) watched it – the concept is powerful and insightful.  Entrepreneurs present their operating or start-up business proposition to a panel of hard-nosed, no-nonsense, super successful business legends…to try and raise funding. Most people get shot down.  But the questions and issues the panel of “sharks” pose to each presenter are exceptional lessons in critical thinking, business building and success thinking.

My friend, Daymond, is probably one of the more intriguing “sharks” on the panel (which includes Mark Cuban, real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran, technology whiz Robert Herjavec, and mega-mogul Kevin O’Leary).

Daymond, you may not know, took a tiny cottage industry of selling hats and transformed it into a billion dollar, worldwide fashion dynasty.  He’s since branched out and has interests in over 50 companies.  He has advised or partnered with everyone from pop icon Kim Kardashian, to International superstar Pitbull, and countless others.

And…he’s written two important books.  The first chronicles his rise from obscurity to fashion brand dominance on four continents.  The second book shares Daymond’s rather impressive strategic philosophies, business building methods – and a treasure trove of advice and strategic instruction on branding your company and/or yourself.

Reading both books will provide a broad-based understanding of how to hurtle your current business or career into a stratospheric place above all those you compete against.  He’s giving you both books-gratis.

Go here to get them: http://bit.ly/avAW4B .  
To download just use REFERRER CODE: Jay Abraham, and PROMOTIONAL CODE: JA-TBW-810

There’s nothing being sold afterward.  It’s merely a gesture of faith and belief from one supremely successful entrepreneur (Daymond) in another up-and-coming entrepreneur (you).

Also – and this is important.  I purposely awaited sending this out to you until today because I want to get you hooked on watching Shark Tank every Friday on ABC.  Why?  I think you can learn more from watching this hour-long business reality show, than from purchasing many seminar or training programs you’d ever attend.

By the way, both Stanford and Harvard business schools use excerpts from Shark Tank episodes and perhaps successful or unsuccessful funding presenters – as case study material for their grad students.

Read both of Daymond’s books – in this order:  “Display of Power” first, then “The Brand Within” next.
Friday night/tonight, ABC – watch Daymond, Mark Cuban and all the other sharks “slice & dice” the theory away from the propositions people make them.

You’ll learn more watching this business reality show than just about any other real-life situation you could experience.

Also – I love watching the show with my wife and kids.  Two of my sons in college – one at Cal-Poly and the other at Santa Cruz, love watching.  Invite your spouse and teenage or older kids to watch with you tonight.  It’ll be a giggle for you all.

Again, to read both books online go here: http://bit.ly/avAW4B .  To download just use REFERRER CODE: Jay Abraham, and PROMOTIONAL CODE: JA-TBW-810  – and enjoy with Daymond’s best wishes.

This article is a serious one. It deals with legacy, purpose,
possibility…and passion: Your Legacy. Your business’ (or life’s)
purpose. The possibilities for your business’ future. And, finally, the
passion, emotional conviction and “grit” to make outrageously wonderful
things REALLY happen for yourself or business.

Confused? That’s OK – work with me, here, for a minute.

So, I’m reading last week’s Huffington Post “Celebrity” section on AOL,
right? (Right!) It features a story about an actor who’d just died. That
story was interesting. But MORE interesting was the story that followed.
It was a listing (and description) of 121 other celebrities who had died
in 2011.

Now in case you think I’m trying to take this discussion down some dark,
macabre road – I really am NOT. (Stay with me here…) My purpose is
actually uplifting, inspiring, energizing to both your heart and soul!

So, I’m reading all 121 listings and I got to thinking that — each one
of these men and women dedicated their lives, their careers, their sense
of possibility, passion and purpose to their various business, sports,
political, medical, and/or arts/entertainment and academic careers – AND
they achieved mammoth accomplishments.

They each changed people’s lives with their work, efforts, vision,
convictions and passionate purpose. Let’s quickly scan a few dozen of
these impressive icons — so your emotional juices will get “goose
bumps,” too (like mine did).

Dick King-Smith, children’s book author; Peter Yates, director; Don
Kirshner, music promoter; Sargent Shriver, former Peace Corp
Director/Vice Presidential nominee; Major Richard Winters, decorated
WWII veteran and leader of the “Band of Brothers;” Jack LaLanne, fitness
pioneer; Tura Satana, actor/exotic dancer; George Shearing, jazz piano
legend; Duke Snider, baseball player; Mikhail Simonov, Russian Sukhoi
fighter jet designer; Geraldine Ferraro, first female Vice Presidential
candidate; Betty Ford, former First Lady/founder of the Betty Ford
Clinic; Sidney Lumet, director; William Nunn-Lipscomb, Jr., Nobel
Prize-winning chemist; Pietro Ferrero, Jr., CEO of Ferrero Chocolate.

Let’s continue the list: Chris Hondros, photojournalist; Phoebe Snow,
singer; Orlando Bosch, anti-Castro freedom fighter; Sir Henry Cooper,
boxing legend’s Jackie Cooper, actor; Arthur Laurents,
playwright/director; Lidia Gueiler, first female president of Bolivia;
Burt Reinhardt, CNN President; Derek Boogaard, professional hockey
player; Severino “Steve” Ballesteros, professional golfer; Harmon
Killebrew, Hall of Fame baseball player; Joseph Brooks, composer, Xavier
Tondo, cyclist; M.F. Husain, artist; Lucien Freud, painter; Elliott
Handler, co-founder of Mattel; Ralph Marvin Steinman, Nobel Peace Prize
recipient/immunologist; Stephen Paul Jobs, co-founder of Apple; Norman
Ramsey, physicist and Nobel Prize winner; Bill Keane, cartoonist; Ted
Forstman, businessman/philanthropist; Joe Simon, comic book writer;
Christopher Hitchens, author journalist; Boris Chertok, Russian rocket
designer; Michael S. Hart, inventor of the e-book.

Do I really need to continue?

Bottom line? Lesson? Implications? Moral?

IT’S THIS:

None of us are victims. No one needs to be constrained in their pursuit
of possibility, purpose, passion. Doing is NOT thinking. Or restated,
thinking about something is NOT doing it! “Doing” is all about taking
passionate, meaningful, committed Herculean action.

Purpose is having an “ideal” that’s infinitely more auspicious and
transcendent than merely making money. It’s about doing things that are
meaningful, transformative and impact the marketplace or society in some
positively evocative way.

Passion is the joy, vision, hope for others and animated reality — you
focus all your efforts on manifesting.

Soooo…my concluding thought is THIS:

Have you really, truly, honestly put EVERYTHING you could, EVERYTHING
you should, EVERYTHING possible into making your business/career pursuit
the most successful, impactful, distinctive, value-based contribution of
benefit it could truly be to your market?

Remember that…reading things like this, attending
seminars/conferences, purchasing courses, books, videos, CD’s – that’s
all mere “preparation.”

The key to achieving anything/everything is what Einstein said -
“Nothing happens until something/someone moves forward.” Action,
forward, purpose-driven action is what makes great people great!

You can probably do a lot more with who you are, what you’ve got and the
possibilities before you. Think about it.

Regards,

Mistake #1 -  Not testing all of your marketing ideas.

Corollary:   Test all your marketing.

Mistake #2 - Running Institutional Advertising.

Corollary:  Run Only Direct Response Advertising

Mistake #3 - Not articulating and differentiating your Business.

Corollary:  Develop a powerful USP and use it in all your marketing.

Mistake #4 - Not having back-end product or service.

Corollary:  Create a profitable and systematic back end.

Mistake #5 - Not understanding your client and their needs and desires.

Corollary: Always determine and address the real needs of your clients and prospects.

Mistake #6 - You must ‘educate’ your way out of business problems…you can’t just cut the price.

Corollary: Always recognize that you must educate your client as a part of the marketing and sales process.

Mistake #7 - Not making doing business with your company easy, appealing and fun.

Corollary: Make doing business with your business easy, appealing and fun.

Mistake #8 - Not telling your clients the “Reason Why.”

Corollary: Always tell your client the “reason why.”

Mistake #9 - Terminating marketing campaigns that are still working.

Corollary: Don’t stop marketing campaigns that are still working just because you are tired of them.

Mistake #10 - Not specifically targeting your marketing.

Corollary: When you prepare your marketing, focus on the intended prospect and no one else.

Mistake #11 - Not capturing prospect & addresses, email addresses as well as pertinent contact information.

Corollary: Capture everything on a prospect or client that you can in an organized, retrievable system.

Mistake #12 - Not being strategic.

Corollary: Always having a strategy which tactical actions and methods are integrated into.

Mistake #13 - Not having a marketing or sales system.

Corollary: Have a marketing and sales system in place and refine it continuously.  Using letter/call/letter call or email/letter/call strategies.

Mistake #14 - Not taking advantage and integrating the Internet into every aspect of you marketing and sales efforts.

Corollary: Integrating the Internet into all your Marketing and sales activities.

Mistake #15 - In sales situations, shooting from the hip.

Corollary: Constantly using and refining a sales script.

Mistake #16 - Being stuck doing “what works.”

Corollary: Always be willing to change.

Mistake #17 - Not reinvesting your profits.

Corollary: Always parlay your success and momentum into greater achievement.

Mistake #18 - Not knowing and leveraging the lifetime value of a client.

Corollary: Always understand the lifetime value of your clients.

Mistake #19 - Not maximizing your assets, relationships, opportunities, resources, etc.

Corollary: Always explore and maximize your resources, assets and opportunities.

Mistake #20 - Treating marketing and sales as operational “silos.”

Corollary: Do your best to integrate marketing components into all your operational and backend processes.

If A Tree Falls In The Forest and There’s
Nobody Around Does It Make A Sound?

(OR—Is There ANYBODY Out There Listening/Hearing Me/You/YOUR CLIENT?)

So ok, when a tree falls in the forest it still DOES vibrate, right? Well when a prospect or client, fan, follower evokes the need to be heard—do you feel their vibrations?

Still too abstract? Ok, how about this…. Nearly twenty years ago I started showing people how to “feel and hear” their market’s pain. Those that put their marketing ear to the ground (figuratively) and listened—connected at unimaginably deep levels with their prospects—who rapidly transformed themselves into loyal, passionate buyers/clients.

It worked “majestically” in every other form of marketing; So, why then is it so terribly hard to comprehend that a market—in any form, be it online or offline, be it social or insular—every human being merely wants to be understood, appreciated, acknowledged, respected, recognized and made to feel important ( as they are.) we are all relevant, important, significant pieces of this amazing puzzle we all call life.

So today—without purporting to be THE greatest social media maven in the cosmos—I’d like to offer up some universal truths that should serve each and every one of you as a set of ideals, distinctions, guidelines and ideological/purpose-driven standards for communicating, connecting, interacting with your fellow man and woman.

Be it via Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Linked-in, and every other form of human contact, communication and direct verbal, written or visual interaction you and your business ever shares—consider these thoughts:.

By the way, this short-course primer is NOT specific. It’s up to YOU, personally——to translate it specifically to your various applications. My intention today is to shift your paradigm, animate your thinking and teach you function over form, quality over quantity—and purpose over profit.

Buckle-up, ‘cause I’m going to do this quickly and simply:

You may be too young to remember the movie, “What’s It All about Alfie?”…But here’s what the meaning of business life is ALL about in any/every form of positive impact you ever express—no matter the media form.

Show people authentic empathy for their situation, Make them know they have relevance. Recognize THEIR perspectives and situation, too! Always sell one thing: Authentic, purposeful leadership. Demonstrate truly, clearly that YOU genuinely feel what they are feeling. Show people you clearly understand their problems, challenges, frustrations, goals, hopes/dreams.

Don’t give people information,. Render well-reasoned ideas/advice/perspectives they can believe in/trust. Help provide people with true focus. Focus is clarity. Clarity gives people power. Power gives people understanding. Understanding gives people confidence and certainty. Certainty gives them the ability to trust.

Without trust people will never take meaningful action—or believe. So always, always give them viewpoints they can trust. (See Stephen M. R. Covey/Greg Link and their wonderful books on trust building). Since most people don’t have total focus, when YOU help provide it to them—that leads to true/authentic “connectivity”. Connectivity is the fuel that allows people to take the next step-forward.

You need to cultivate the ability to put into words what people want and don’t want. Show them you understand them so well, you can clearly/crisply/dimensionally verbalize what’s been gnawing at them so long.

Always sell a point of view –but selling does not mean manipulating, Machiavellian-like. It means strongly, passionately, emotionally advocating your beliefs, viewpoints, thinking.

THIS is a “biggie”… ALWAYS make YOU—the prospect, you the fan, you the follower, you the member of the community—THEY are who is  REALLY important. You the vendor– are NOT the center of their universe. Make them the center of yours and you’ll have a raving…no, make that near-rabid fans for life!

Demonstrate real hopefulness for your marketplace.. the hope that they understand, the hope they have a better day, the hope that they gain benefit and value from what you are saying, writing, posting, tweeting etc.

Think–how can you have the most positive impact in those few moments or sentences when you are in their life, today? Remember too—no message, communication or interaction has any value to the other side—UNLESS it has an impact.

People need to recognize your communication as a solution, elixir, to a problem, void, uncertainty, gap they feel—emotionally, not merely rationally. Provide people with reassurance, motivation that you truly DO care about them, their life, their issues, their relevance.

You can communicate result-inducing ideas—or merely provide them with a better feeling about themselves and what they either are already doing—or should start doing.

Always question your purpose/intention for doing anything and everything communication-wise! Ask yourself—If I were on the receiving end of this communication—would I be positively impacted? Would I be eager to either anticipate the next communication—or better still, take the next step you are after from me?

Most people, when trying to communicate with another– fall in love with their message, or themselves or their product/service. Try falling in love with the person your communicating to/with, instead—not romantic love, but appreciative, empathic, respectful love for who/what/where/why they are where they are in their lives/business.

Your goal here is to interact with people in a meaningful way that enhances their lives because you—and your message were in it. Every time you communicate/connect—make people better off because of what you did, said, shared. Better off can mean happier, more stress-free, laughing Etc.

A mistaken belief in communication is to ask, “What do I have to do or say to get people to buy into my proposition?” WRONG QUESTION TO ASK!

The right question is merely… ”What value, contribution, benefit, or fulfillment do I have to give them?”

That’s enough for now… I’ll provide lesson two/installment two in one of my next posts.

Think deeply, meaningfully, reflectively about what you’ve just read.

Jay

Here are measurable and tangible results of the same principles you will find upcoming on this website:

We express our appreciation for your work and its results. You launched a strongly “innovative test marketing” program for [our] newsletter in February. As of December, we had acquired approximately 25,500 new subscribers through that effort — all at no cost to us. — David Sanders, Circulation Director, Jerome Smith’s Investment Perspectives

Chase Revel, Founder of Entrepreneur Magazine says: Fifteen years ago, Jay taught me how to turn underutilized, intangible assets into cash overnight. The first year, I made $100,000 from his advice and have continued to do the same practically every year with every business I own. That means I got over $1.5 million from just one thing Jay taught me. He’s one of the best market conceptualist in the country.

“After a mailing went out, I started following up (as Jay advised) with telephone calls and that really made a difference. I got 800% more orders after the mailing just by following up! The first month I applied your ideas to my high-priced software, we sold about 20 companies as opposed to the four or five before we learned your methods. It’s made me, personally, over $90,000 more this year. Plus, I took my whole staff to Hawaii because we had such a profitable year.” — Dr. Larry Andrews, Magnolia, AR

I told Jay, “This is ridiculous. People aren’t going to respond…” We netted $55,000 on that promotion. Last year we had a 32% increase in our gross sales which meant about $400,000 in extra profit. — George Zangas, San Pedro, CA, Vitamin Wholesaler

Our industry typically grows at 5% to 10% a year…our sales are up 95% over where they were two years ago (before I learned Jay’s techniques). We went from $2 million to $4 million in a city of 18,000. — Chappel Dew, SC Hardware and Appliance Wholesaler

Our company sells document imaging systems. Our systems start at $70,000 and go past a million dollars. I haven’t been able to measure everything Jay’s concepts made us, but I know we had three sales were people asked us computer questions that Jay taught us to answer, up front — one sale was $70,000, one was $180,000 and one was $1 million. In addition, the first time we listed our training schedule (like Jay taught us), we took in $24,000 in training revenues which paid for six months of sending out our newsletter. We just did a very large trade show, the biggest trade show we get 300 leads if we’re lucky. Using Jay’s techniques, we got 1,893 leads at this trade show. That, alone, should be worth about $75,000. — Audri Lanford MD, Computer Imaging Company

Furniture Store Increases Sales 900 Percent: We were able to sell eleven leather lounges in one day for a total of $45,000. That’s unheard of in our business! A normal Saturday would be approximately $3,000 to $5,000. — Chris Gouson, Australia

Pier Tsui-Po of Body Challenge, a huge health club operator, redrafted his sales letters in and brought in 600% INCREASE in memberships. For every 1,000 letters he mails, he now generates $7,056 in membership fees. He also validated Jay’s instructions on testing when he tested two membership offers and increased his return by 450%. He has put on three, new, full-time sales people to cope with the volume!

With Jay’s advice, I’ve been able to accomplish quite a bit with my client Advil. I proved that the average patient will probably spend $8.00 a year (forever) for our product once a doctor recommends it. So working backwards, they quickly realized that the programs I developed that cost a million to two million dollars would require an average doctor to increase his recommendations in a year by two patients. Using our programs, doctor’s recommendations were up 22% last year, which is the equivalent of six to ten million dollars extra, at retail. Now our goal is to triple that in three years. It’s very gratifying to me. — Mark Merriman, NY, Medical Advertising

Roger McKee’s computer company doubled their sales, going from $4 million to $8 million. This year, in the midst of the recession, they will double that again, growing to $16 million in sales…..

“After applying just one of his techniques, we sold $643,000 worth of products in two and a half months! That’s a 900% increase in sales from just one technique.” — Michael Quinn, Simi Valley, CA

“Jay Abraham is the finest marketing mind on this planet. His work for others was so wildly successful, I decided to get to know him. I paid Jay Abraham $600,000 one year because he made me $2 million and all the money I paid him came out of the profits his concepts made me.” — Howard Ruff, financial publisher

“Jay is an abrasive, annoying, genius of marketing. He ‘sweet talks’ you into trying seemingly absurd marketing tests — and you end up with multiplied profits. He combines two unprofitable deals and you get one very profitable three-sided deal. And lots more. The net/net is that Jay opens your eyes to powerful marketing possibilities that are just sitting there in front of your nose where you can’t see them. In one year, Jay used one of these ‘improbable’ concepts and provided $16 million in immediate sales for us. I paid him for $500,000 for his efforts.” — David Hall, Numismatic Investment Group, Inc. Magazine Entrepreneur-of-the-Year Award Winner

“One year I paid Jay $670,000 and over the past few years over $2 million. Before Jay came along, our sales were just a few hundred thousand dollars annually. Since teaming up with Jay, our sales for those years were $500 million annually.” — Jim Cook Investment Rarities, Inc..

“Jay came to us with a new idea for utilizing our customer names. I was skeptical initially; however, this program provided us with additional income in excess of $400,000 during the 20 months that it ran. I enjoy working with Jay because I both trust him and respect his marketing expertise.” — R. Kent Tipton, former President of Target, Inc.

“Even a single hour with Jay Abraham can offer mind-boggling insights and revelations that will change your life forever! His suggestions cost me just $18,000 to pull off, and that included everything. Less than one day later, the phones started ringing off the hook, and when the dust settled just three weeks later…I had earned over $476,000 in profit! That’s what? Almost a 26-to-1 return? Yeah, I’d say Jay’s idea worked… In my opinion, Jay’s still the best man in the country to brainstorm with. He is also my number one choice when I need to talk to someone outside of my staff about marketing and advertising.” — Gary Halbert, one of America’s top-paid copywriters and Editor, The Gary Halbert Letter

“Since taking Jay’s advice, I’ve realized a 30% increase in revenues in my business (Chinese longevity art) within about six months, which resulted in increase of profits of 25%.” — Paul Galagher, Guilford, VT He once took an unknown product that was originally doing less than $100,000 a year in gross sales – and helped turn it into a $13-million-a-year household name in only 18 months! (It’s the analgesic balm, Icy Hot.)

Michael Quinn of Fillmore, California, took an idea Jay taught him and made $643,000 in his computer peripheral business. He later sold the company for millions and retired to Rio in his mid-30s.

Another man who used one of Jay’s simple “postcard” ideas made a $476,000 profit and got a two-page feature article written about him in Inc. magazine.

He taught an attorney a concept that made an extra $15,000 on the first try and generated so many new clients, the attorney had to recruit half a dozen associates to help him. At last count, it added $400,000 to his annual income.

Jay took a start-up business totally devoid of capital and created a marketing strategy that in 6 months generated $750,000 in gross sales and $280,000 in net profits.

Jay generated $100 million in gross profits for two dozen of the top investment advisory newsletters in America.

He produced nearly 6 million leads for Merrill Lynch, John Neveen, Dreyfus, The Wall Street Journal, Citicorp, Forbes, and Fortune.

Vic Conant, the President of Nightingale-Conant, the world’s largest publisher in business and personal achievement audio tapes, says:

George Culp Made $565,000 from a Single Idea He Got from Jay Abraham. I Made $900,000 from Another!

There are few guarantees in life. In business, there are next to none. Most people find it hard to believe that ideas can be turned into money, success, wealth, power, happiness or business advantage – with relative ease. I’m writing to tell you it’s absolutely true.

But not just any ideas. Jay Abraham stands out as the pre-eminent idea man in the business arena. We at Nightingale-Conant use Jay for strategy, ideas and breakthrough business concepts. And we are not alone. Literally thousands of business owners and entrepreneurs have turned to Jay, too! Here are just a few:

Michael Montore reports that after attending one of Jay’s programs, his sales were up over 300%. Vincent Giaquinto wrote that his leads increased over 250% and his business skyrocketed from $8 to $14 million in a little over a year from implementing just two of Jay’s ideas. After attending one of Jay’s Marketing Programs, Craig Hane’s business went from $700,000 to $2,000,000 in a little over 18 months…Stewart Cruse’s insurance business grew almost 400%…Roger Howson immediately increased his sales by over 30% when he implemented ideas from the pre-course material…Kevin Parks states that his ancillary sales increased by a multiple of four times in one year…

He’s the only self-improvement author I’ve met (and I’ve met hundreds) who actually promises to give you an immediate financial gain. Of course, the real reason to learn what Jay teaches is not just money. The knowledge he can share gives you greater quality of life all around. He will liberate and inspire you to come up with profitable new ideas you never thought yourself capable of creating.”

Jay has come up with “block- buster” money-making or profit-boosting business ideas for over 10,000 separate clients. Among them are business owners, professionals, managers, entrepreneurs, high-level executives, seekers of business opportunity – and a wide variety of other fascinating and success-driven people.

Jay’s methods have made himself and his clients (like me) nearly $420 million in the last 12 years.

He’s made as much as $500,000 in a single month and earned over $2.5 million in a single year by turning other companies’ hidden assets and overlooked opportunities into windfall profits, then sharing generously in the rewards. Over 100 unassuming men and women have become millionaires by using Jay’s methods. Thousands of business owners and professionals have seen their incomes soar – and their net worth grow.

He’s the only self-improvement author I’ve met (and I’ve met hundreds) who actually promises to give you an immediate financial gain. Of course, the real reason to learn what Jay teaches is not just money. The knowledge he can share gives you greater quality of life all around. He will liberate and inspire you to come up with profitable new ideas you never thought yourself capable of creating.