Singer Built a Better Sewing Machine But Nobody Bought It Until…
They couldn’t sell it. The industry was very conservative. Singer realized he needed to do something different.
Building Business Resilience: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Maintaining a Positive Mindset
Resilience isn’t about avoiding failure; it’s about bouncing back from it.
THE WIZARD (bi)WEEKLY
Twice a month we’ll send our best advice, no strings attached.
Let’s grow your business.
No spam. No nonsense.
Paradise Won’t Be Found By Your Dashboard’s Light
What are you monitoring and why? Because you can only monitor the outputs, but you CAN control the inputs.
The Magic of Belonging – How Spotify Kickstarted Patreon
When Spotify interrupted his revenue stream, Jack Conte found a way to to help all creators.
Partner Book of the Month
Latest Monday Morning Memo
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Never Train On The Nerve
Leave some in the tank. All that extra “messaging” you want to stuff in the ad ends up trying the patience and goodwill of your audience.
Project Management 101 For Businesses: Don’t Solve Problems. Prevent Them.
Project management is all about making obstacles have less impact on your ability to deliver results.
Thinking Outside the Jar: Peanut Butter’s Surprising Origin Story For Two Top Brands
Lightning strikes twice. Rosefield invents one new product & TWO top brands.
Unleashing the Power of YouTube FAQs: Cultivating Customer Loyalty
Optimized YouTube videos rank higher in search results, attracting new customers seeking answers you have.
Ryan’s 2024 Predictions for Residential Home Services
Last year, I predicted 3 things that all came true. Now let’s talk about obstacles and opportunities in 2024.
What to do When Google LSA Stops Giving You Leads
Sudden drops often have identifiable causes, and with the right approach, you can get those leads flowing again.
Playing the Long Game: How Patience and Openness Led to Tetris’ Triumph
He built a video game, gave it away, waited, and then became wealthy.
How to Attract Local Customers in the Age of Online Shopping
74% of consumers prefer to buy locally but you have to make it worth their while. Here’s how to connect and bond.
How Audiences & Influencers Drive Your Online Success (Without Breaking the Bank)
Micro-influencers (10k-50k followers) can be surprisingly effective and affordable.
CFO or CEO? Who’s Really Responsible for Your Company’s Finances?
The CFO’s job is to answer the WHY questions relating to financial health — not to magically ensure financial health.
From Mild as May to Marlboro Man: How to Reposition Your Brand for Success
They initially focused on women and struggled before pivoting towards men and becoming dominant. How?
Brand Like a Wizard, Market Like a Mouse
What makes Disney World magical? Here are 3 lessons you can apply to turn customers into loyal fans.
Soup Up Your Marketing: Find Your Unique Superpower And Trust Your Team
How to use your secret ingredient if you can’t read the label when you’re inside the bottle.
The Irresistible Power of Belief in Sales: Lessons from Phil Knight
Conviction and confidence in his product drove the former encyclopedia salesman into the stratosphere with Nike.
Tax Loophole to Beer Empire: How Jim Koch Brewed Success with Samuel Adams
He paved the way for craft ale to become a thing, and his lessons go beyond beer.
10 Most Common Digital Marketing Mistakes
Keyword-stuffed AI-generated content won’t cut it. In today’s digital world, trust is hard to earn and easy to lose.
How To Get To YES Faster Than Ever
Daniel Kahneman introduced the concept of System 1 and 2 thinking. Tiny tweaks can shift buyers to the easier system.
No Such Thing As Neutral: How Every Employee Shapes Your Business Legacy
The adage “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link” resonates with undeniable truth.
Weird Branding Wins: Lessons from Wolfman Jack on Standing Out
From gas station attendant to radio icon. How can you build a brand like his?
Your Company Is in a Relationship, And It’s Complicated
The customers won with a single flashy pick-up line often don’t stay long.
Benefits Package Evaluation: What Really Matters To Your Team?
How to structure your perks to attract, engage, and get your desired return.
The Unseen Zamboni: Why Your Best Marketing Assets Might Be Hiding in Plain Sight
Frank had a big problem, but he saw an opportunity.
Why Do Salespeople Ask Too Little and Talk Too Much
Salespeople should speak for just 30% of the time, yet they can’t stop themselves.
9 Dangerous SEO Myths
MYTH 5: META KEYWORDS ARE CRUCIAL. Nope. At worst, they can actually get you marked as spam by search engines.
(Anti)Predictions in Marketing for 2024
We love stories of the next big thing. But the “thing” is rarely next…or big. So what will be true next year?
Griffin Service – Pt. 2 – Turd buckets beware!
He received complaints from his very first ad. You have to stick your neck out a little bit and get them, or you blend in.
People Buy People, Or Do They?
What’s more important? Establishing trust & rapport with customers, or the actual quality of your product?
Love Letter to the Forgotten: Intimacy of Analog
We miss the vinyl era because music back then was relational, not transactional. So what can we learn?
Post-Hire Interviews: The Only Way To Discover Crucial Insights
Employees generally set their priorities based on reactive factors that are hidden from management.
Griffin Service – Pt. 1 – Tom Casey is an S.O.B.
Most companies send 1 piece to 100,000 people. Tom Casey would send 10 pieces to 10,000 people. It made all the difference.
Practicing With A Purpose – Lessons Learned From Top Gun
Sales training often fails to deliver tangible results. The real life Top Gun school shows us what’s missing.
Customer Loyalty Is a Two Way Street
I wish I could just call “my guy” and get it over with. But all too often we are let down after the service.
Beyond Tenure & Attitude: Building a Team To Keep Up With Your Growth
Some employees find a specialization and excel as the company grows. Many don’t.
Understanding the 4 Customer Languages for Remarkable Sales Results
When you match your customer’s social style, you see a surge in sales.
Just Do It – Nike – The everyday athlete anthem
Facts tell, but stories sell. Nike needed to relate to the everyday athlete.
Personal Touch: REQUIRED
AI can create content for you. But it can’t reach out and create meaningful bonds with relational buyers.
Google Ads: the tax you pay for not having a strong brand
When people think of you first and like you the best, the rest of the list becomes irrelevant.
I Hate a Roman Named Status Quo!
Mr. Status Quo preys on people and makes them fearful of failure. He even takes the shape of friends and family.
Avoid This Mistake To Convert Deal Hunters into Loyal Customers
How to attract word-of-mouth referrals and repeat customers.
Jenga – Take a block from the middle…
Her mom sold the house. Car has been towed away. Sold 0 units. Then she learns to demonstrate it being played.
Candy Lady Secrets: How to Make Customers Feel Like They’re Winning
It was always her line that drew a crowd. Why?
You May Have a Sales Problem If…
When you notice a steady decline in sales, it’s too late to respond. The hurricane has already hit your shores.
Why You Need to Rethink Your CSR Department
If the people speaking to customers are mere “Order Takers” with no empathy, you’ll damage your brand.
Kayak – The lifetime value of a customer
They made billions with a referral strategy while losing 80 cents of every dollar spent on a visitor’s first click.
The Overlooked Strategic Value of Processes, Procedures, & Standards
With business, unlike art, variety is the enemy of success.
When you exist to serve, all you need to do next is invite people.
What a book I read at age 7 can teach you about business growth. It starts with connection.
PIT – Pit Crew Training to Business Training
Ben Cook describes how brilliantly trained NASCAR Pit Crews inspired an amazing business consulting division.
How to Make Sales Training Stick
90% of your training investments are typically wasted, $9 out of every $10 out the door. But there’s a solution.
So can you handle the truth?
The truth is built on what the data actually tells us about your business’ performance. But most owners don’t trust theirs.
Poo-Pourri – 100,000 5 Star Poops
This is the part that everybody ignores when it comes to campaigns where there’s a viral video.
Specialized skill recruitment: How to find that perfect person
Shrug off the responsibility to take the time to hire the best of the best, and your bottom line will suffer.
Unveiling 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Salespeople
We love to talk about ourselves! But a good sales conversation should be 70% customer, 30% salesperson.
Why you should shield your ads from pesky bots
They’re nearly 40% of all internet traffic and giants like Google, Microsoft, FaceBook, and LinkedIn benefit from bots clicking on your ads.
Brand & Branding – Feeling and Supporting that Feeling.
With a mass media campaign the click-through rate on Google Ads improves. You’re now cutting the line.
Story, Culture, and Experience – Align all 3 to become a world-beater.
According to Jonathan Haidt, the human mind is best suited to be a story processor, not a logic processor…
Think your employees understand your vision? Think again.
Just about everyone stops effectively communicating their vision shortly after hiring the fifth employee.
Beauty Blender – A million little sponges.
HDTV made it tough on the make-up artists. Rea Ann Silva created a solution with over 100 million sales…
Cracking Google Ads: The 22 Immutable Laws Every Home Service Business Must Know!
20. The Law of Acceleration: Successful programs are built on trends, not on fads.
Increase Your Sales Conversions: The Power of Building Trust
It’s assumed in today’s world, according to Michael Maslansky, that there’s an ulterior motive behind everybody’s action.
Who Is Your Customer?
Your customers are not all the same. It’s your job to determine how to appeal to all of them.
Brand identity is like personal style. Upgrade your wardrobe and find your tribe.
We buy stuff because it feels like it already belongs to us or we really really wish it did.
Birdseye Frozen Food – Always Looking for a Better Way
An 11-year-old taxidermy teacher somehow develops 168 patents and revolutionizes frozen food.
I hope I can turn you into a fan!
The best advice I’ve received on social media is that you’re talking to one fan at a time. It’s much more intimate.
9 Golden Nuggets to Measure Your SEO in Google Analytics
The only rankings that matter are the ones that turn into real, live customers who put money in your pocket.
Core Strategy: First Step in Creating a Great Ad Campaign
Most businesses fail not because they’re reaching the wrong people but because they’re saying the wrong thing.
Revenue Blind Spots: The Importance of Everyday Improvements
Every dollar saved by refining internal processes is a dollar earned.