Foundation Building
Setting up the systems, processes, and infrastructure for business success.
26 posts
Message. Market. Media.
In 1997, I met Dan Kennedy for the first time. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting Dan, you know what a lovable, approachable, huggable kind of guy he...
Freedom to say no
In 1997, I wrote a page in my journal called: Rules for Good Listings. I had ten of them. Geographic limits. The house had to be at least neutral in conditio...
The Ferrari Mind Tuneup
One of the most interesting things I found in my 1997 journals is a two-page exercise from my friend Jerry Ballinger called the Ferrari Mind Tune-Up. At firs...
Where ideas come from
Thirty years ago, I was sitting around a pool in Encinitas with Eben Pagan and Joe Stumpf, trying to work out an idea. Looking back at my journal today remin...
Design Your Days
One thing I wish I’d done differently in my early journals… I wish I’d written the date, time, and place every single day. Now I always do. It’s amazing how ...
Not a diary
One of the unexpected gifts of looking back through 30 years of journals isn’t just remembering what happened. It’s seeing how I used them. People often ask ...
Storyboard imagination
Put a pen in your hand. Take out a blank piece of paper. And at the top, write down one specific thing you want to think about. That simple act does somethin...
Turning ideas into reality
One of the things you’ll discover if you keep a journal is that ideas aren’t the hard part. The hard part is getting them out of your journal and into the re...
It all started in my journal
This year I turned sixty. I'm re-reading my journals from the beginning… The ones I started writing nearly thirty years ago. As I turn the pages, I'm noticin...
Stop trying to convince people...
Stop trying to convince people. Just tell the TRUTH and watch what happens. In the summer of 1996, I learned one of the most important lessons of my career. ...
The Problem with Checklists
There are 2 basic types of people in the world. People who like to follow checklists — and people who like to make checklists. The problem is when you expect...
The Psychology of Scorecards
Profit Activator 3 is about educating and motivating your prospects to get started with you. While people generally understand the educating part, most are a...
Novelty and Security
Fundamentally, people can be divided into two groups. In the first group, some people are interested in novelty. They’re the ones who want to figure stuff ou...
Clear Outcomes
In business, everything comes down to economics. What I mean by that is Whatever it is you can provide for your customers in exchange for their money, it sho...
Three Steps
There are three steps to a sustainable business. You have to: Make it up, Make it real, And make it recur. That’s the basic progression of it. Making it up c...
Free Results
It seems to me there’s a recurring theme on my More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast and every time I hatch "Evil Schemes" with people. And it is this... The con...
''Evil Scheme'' Foundation
Do you know what’s the foundation of an “evil scheme”? Picking a single target market. But do you know what the foundation of a GREAT “evil scheme” is? Picki...
Winning Avatars
A big part of having a successful business is getting crystal clear on who your target market is. Unfortunately, it’s also the hardest thing to do… because t...
Capital Investment Mindset
It seems to me; The more I’m playing this marketing game, the more I document everything. It has become crystal clear that all the money is in the long game....
Your Next 25 Years
Sometimes you find yourself in a situation where you’ve got all this specialized knowledge acquired over a lifetime in your industry, and you’ve realized you...
Deadlines
Deadlines are an interesting "beast". Nobody likes them, yet nothing gets done without deadlines. A quote (I forgot by whom) says, "No book has ever been wri...
The Hamburg Years
I saw a great documentary about The Beatles recently. It was about their early years up to the point where they stopped performing live. One thing that’s rea...
Connecting The Dots
Do you know what the real beauty of 8-Profit Activators is? They are universally present. They’re in every business. Whether you consciously recognize them a...
Hero Making
Ever since we started playing the cooperation game and banding together in tribes, it’s been important to demonstrate our value to the group. The things we d...
Scale ready "hits"
There’s a list of songwriters who've had the most number one songs in history of modern music. First place goes to Paul McCartney, then there’s John Lennon, ...
The difference-o-meter
I’m a firm believer in focusing on delivering results for people. And there’s no better way of doing it than to create an experience that delivers those resu...