Every internet marketer’s wet dream is to engineer a growth and profit spurt SO large it dramatically changes their business and their lives into something they’d never recognize…That “moment” when you plug the last leak in your pipeline and the oil just starts gushing out the other side…when suddenly all the hard work and pain becomes infinitely worthwhile!

Well… what if I told you there was something very simple most businesses are woefully neglecting which MUST be part of your plans…

Which if you ignore will prevent you from realizing this dream…

Even AFTER you’ve solved all your sales problems and oil IS gushing out of your pipeline (in fact, ESPECIALLY THEN!)

I have a friend (and mastermind buddy) who fixed that last leak in his pipeline a few years ago. All of a sudden he went from about $30,000/mo to $300,000/mo. It was a crazy sick growth… and he could have pushed this close to a million a month if he hadn’t neglected ONE THING…

But unfortunately he DID neglect that one thing…

And he only got to enjoy the income for a few months before it all came crashing down…

And it took him literally YEARS to solve the problem 🙁

Unfortunately, his is NOT an isolated story. I’ve heard it all too many times.

In this short audio interview…he’ll tell you how this could’ve all been prevented if he had just more thoroughly prepared himself for growth in this ONE critical area which virtually every entrepreneur neglects. And the best part is, the ONE THING he’ll tell you how to take care of not only prepares you for mega growth and profit spurts in your business, it actually MAKES you money with very little time and NO financial investment at all.

Are YOU really prepared for the mega growth and profit spurt you’re working so hard to achieve?

I did the ONE THING my friend recommends… and you should too!

Skip this one at your own risk.

Ever since we took “The Naked Truth About Internet Marketing” off the market (my first A to Z primer on how to productize your expertise and sell it online so you could escape the dollars per hour trap) people have been asking Terry and I when we were going to come out with an update…

Well, I’m happy to say Terry’s taken care of that FOR me… and there’s nobody I trust more.  Listen to this full length, content packed interview to discover the multitude of reasons just about every entrepreneur (and especially coaches and consultants) needs to include information products in their arsenal.

G 🙂

PS – If you’re interested in the product, Terry’s offered a special discount for MY list through February 19th, 2016.

You might not know it but I’m a fully recovered binge eater…

There were times when I used to ‘dislodge’ my jaw and devour the entire contents of the refrigerator. So I had to come up with a system to ween myself off binge eating. And that system worked so well for me, I decided to write a book about it.

At first I thought that if I could just help one or two other binge eaters with my system that would be enough.

But…

One of my friends and partners, Yoav, developed a publishing system designed to help authors not only successfully launch their books, but also to turn them into a client-generation system for coaching and consulting businesses.

And in a very short span of time (less than three months), and for less than $100 in advertising, this little book has already built up my mailing list and generated 17 weight-loss coaching clients that pay me a monthly fee for weight-loss group coaching.

In the following video, Yoav and I explain exactly how YOU can position yourself as an Authority in your field and generate a steady flow of customers into your business with a book.

If you’d like to do the same thing under Yoav’s tutelage, please visit www.BestSeller-Club.com

About two years ago Terry Dean, myself, Doberman Dan, and two other partners
sold about 500 copies of a program called Joint Venture Fast Track.   It included
an ill-utilized bonus where one of the partners and I helped facilitate joint ventures (and JV readiness).  We’re going to be revamping this training and more aggressively publicizing
the webinars shortly… so I thought you might want to listen in on a particularly interesting
sample from November.

PS- Joint ventures are kind of like free income for most businesses once they get going,
and for others they’re the only way to get profitable.  The Joint Venture Fast Track is
really an incredible value and if you’re planning a marketing project of any sort you’d
be silly not to get it at this price.

WARNING: I’m going to use the F-Word today.   Yes indeed, I’m going to drop some big hairy “DOUBLE F-BOMBS” all over this blog post.  And I promise you not only won’t be able to do anything to stop me, you’ll actually THANK me for the profit-enhancing experience!

In fact, I’m going to introduce a DOUBLE F-BOMB which is viewed as sacrilegious by most internet marketers, so I’m going to have insist that anyone under 21 years old leave the room and read no further.  If you continue to read please be informed this is your legal notice that you’re doing so at your own risk.

OK, here we go…

That “DOUBLE-F-BOMB” for internet marketers is…

FINANCIAL FORECASTING.

It’s true.  Most internet marketers I know just jump into the game and hope for the best.  Sure, they measure opt in rates, sales rates, number of visitors, etc.  And they might spend hours staring at their Analytics account…

But how many of them have an exhaustively detailed spreadsheet with every last variable they can think of which impacts their financial model?  I’m talking about things like…

• Refund rates detailed for all your products and services…
• Up-sell rates (for not only existing products, but those you have planned for future dates)…
• Anticipated affiliate sales take rates and commissions (along with their refund rates, etc)…
• Cost of goods detailed for every product in your catalog (if you even have a catalog)…
• Taxes…
• Fixed costs…
• Customer service costs…
• Legal costs…
• Credit card and Paypal processing costs…
• Anticipated revenue from additional products and services purchased by people who did NOT purchase the front end…
• List growth prediction, asymptotic limit, etc…
• Retention rates…
• Ongoing costs of monthly delivery…
• Labor costs to maintain the product and develop new ones…
• Etc.

The ultimate goal of this kind of model is to forecast Cash Flow (not just how much you make per visitor but WHEN you expect to realize the income as compared to WHEN you expect to incur the expense) Cash Out (how much you’ll have to go negative before the system starts to produce for you), Break Even Points (when do you stop losing money on a given customer AND when do you stop losing money overall), and Profit Levels.

To date I’ve found it’s literally one in a hundred entrepreneurs who are willing to think
this all out and take the time to arrange the financial forecast.

Most assume that if they can make back the advertising costs in one or two months, everything
else will fall into place.  They don’t want to get bogged down in forecasting and would
rather “get to market” quickly so they can get real buyer and prospect feedback.  Moreover,
they point to the fact that such models are almost always woefully in accurate…

But although I will cede most of these points are accurate and valuable, the conclusion one
doesn’t need a comprehensive financial forecasting model is still wrongheaded.  The reason is,
it really only takes a day or so to put one together, and even though I’ve yet to develop one which wasn’t dramatically corrected by real market data as soon as I turned on the advertising,
HAVING the model still provides several incredibly important benefits…

• First, it forces me to think through every last detail of the business model, and kills any
  “happy dreaming” fantasies I may have otherwise been vulnerable to pursuing.  If you don’t
  do the math, your naturally optimistic, risk taking entrepreneurial tendency will almost always prevail, and you’ll be much more likely to get slammed when your fantasy meets reality 🙁
• Second, having the model in place allows me to quickly pinpoint WHERE the problem is, and
  what I need to work on to fix it.  Moreover, because the models I develop include so many variables, it forces me to assess the performance across the whole business model, and not
  get overly involved in and/or depressed about the failure of one piece (e.g. the opt in rate or front end sales).
• And last, the multitude of variables indexed in my financial forecasting models each function as LEVERAGE POINTS.  You may have heard Perry Marshall say “if your marketing
  system isn’t working, break it into pieces.”   Well this is as much of a mathematical truth as it is a functional truth.  If you’ve got a non-profitable system with clicks and front end sales, period, then there are really only two things you can point to in order to fix it.  The problem with that is that market conditions often make it next to impossible to get beyond a certain
  click through rate and/or front end sales rate.  And you can knock your head against the wall eternally with only minimal improvement to show for it.  On the other hand, if your system includes clicks, opt ins, front end sales, two immediate upsells, two back end sales,
  clear labor costs, delivery costs, and the multitude of other variables discussed above…well,
  then each of these variables functions as a LEVERAGE POINT you can use to make the model
  as a whole profitable.  When you come across that inevitable point of diminishing returns
  anywhere in your funnel you can shift to another leverage point.  It’s a much less frustrating
  experience, and lends itself to a much more encouraging and optimistic outlook in your
  entrepreneurial life.

So there you have it.   The cost is an extra day or two of hard thinking and detailed planning
in Excel or a Google Spreadsheet.  The benefit lasts the lifetime of the project…

Kind of a no brainer, don’t you think?

SO… who’s with me?  Who’s gonna start dropping more DOUBLE F BOMBS in their
marketing now?

Onwards and Upwards!

The Very Good Dr. Glenn 🙂

PS – Terry Dean and my Growth Acceleration System is the only marketing certification program I know of where extensive financial forecasting for eCommerce is taught in this way.   If you’re a marketing consultant, business coach, or have plans to be… read through what we’ve got to offer and get on the priority notifications list as soon as you can.

PPS – It’s been almost THREE full years since I’ve taken a new business coaching client.  But because I’m feeling a little rusty with NEW clients (and because I feel a responsibility
to stay FRESH with them given that I’m training and certifying business coaches as part of my core mission at this time) I’m going to open up for ONE DAY ONLY on January 1st, 2016.  Read about how I work here please, and if you’re interested, get
on the priority notifications list at the bottom of the page.

Here’s a strange question for you… do marketers eat too much protein?
And does it sap their energy, intelligence, and profit making abilities?

Well, if said marketers live on this planet there’s at least a 90% chance
they do, according to what Howie Jacobson, Ph.D. and his co-author
Garth Davis say in their new book Proteinaholic.

Could you be addicted to protein?  Have a listen and find out.

Thirteen things you never knew about the Very Good Dr. Glenn Livingston:

1. Money isn’t that important to me.  I know that’s a strange thing to say for someone who focuses on business and helping others to earn it, but it’s true.  I’ve never been very motivated by material things.  Instead, I’m driven to educate the masses, and to, like…NOT be yelled at by people I owe money to.   But as long as I have a roof over my head, Sharon to cuddle with, a computer with internet, some organic food to eat, a gym to exercise in, am close to the outdoors, and have some project to get all excited about, I’m happy.  (Also, I must obsessively watch “Nathan for You.”  I absolutely, positively, can not live without that show!  Thank God it’s back tomorrow.)
2. I regularly conduct upside-down business calls.   That’s not a metaphor…literally, I’m upside down when I’m conducting them.  I have an inversion table from Hang Ups which I love more than chocolate.  It’s great for my sciatica so it’s not uncommon for me to grab my iPhone to make some calls and respond to emails while I’m almost completely inverted.  I can now even attend a webinar (though not conduct one) in that position.
3. I DESPISE appointments because they sap my productivity and creativity.  I have a small circle of friends and colleagues for whom I’ll pick up the phone, but when I have to make appointments I try to ONLY schedule them for Mondays and Fridays.  This isn’t always 100% possible, but when I can do it, it leaves me with long stretches of time to write, make products, THINK, and sometimes to get out in the woods for a day.  (I’ve found if you only have one day in the week free the odds are about 50/50 the weather’s going to screw you over…but if you can leave three free at least one of them almost always works out, and the other two you can use for major projects)
4. I was born in an army hospital during a hurricane.   My Dad was an army psychologist who worked with PTSD in veterans returning from Viet Nam.   He was a Captain at Walter Reed Hospital, and sometimes in charge of the whole psych ward when the General was away.  My Mom was very worried they were going to ship him overseas in 1966 before my sister was born.  I think this background drove me to be conflict averse and spend too much of my energy seeking stability and security… absolutely the wrong goals for an entrepreneur!
5. I illegally bugged my father’s psychotherapy office when I was 9 years old.  He had been on the radio a few times before that, and my mom explained it was because he was good at making people happy when they were sad.  I was insatiably curios how he did that and decided I had a really good way to find out.  OK, so that was WRONG.  Thankfully later in life I channeled this drive into more professional aims!  But whenever I’m listening to a research interview, sitting with a coaching client, or talking to a patient, I still go back to the exciting intrigue and “figuring out the puzzle” feeling I had when I was 9.  (I hope the NYS statute of limitations is up on that or else now I’m screwed!)
6. I have a small wart on my right hand pointer finger.  It’s been there for at least 40 years.  I’ve seriously thought about getting it removed, but in my childhood each time I removed a wart ONE popped up elsewhere.  It’s like the wart-monster in my body says “just give me one and I’ll leave you alone!”  So I’ve always been scared to remove it and have it end up god-knows where.  There’s an analogy in business… sometimes there’s a small wart you decide to put up with.  A less than perfect shopping cart.  An A- employee.  A merchant account which will process $200K/month but won’t let you do forced continuity.  Lunch catered by Taco Bell… you know what I mean.  Sometimes it’s just the right choice so you can focus on the rest.
7. Neither Sharon or I like Lima Beans.  We think they are totally disgusting.  And since we are adults, doctors, and successful business people we have sworn a solemn oath to never eat them again.  I hope if you’re reading this, you’re not part of the Lima Bean board or anything like that.  Sigh.
8. In my early 30s, I had a patient who told me she was going to get up from her chair and bitch slap me if I didn’t answer her question.  After scrambling in my head to remember what the text books said I should do in that situation, I just went ahead and answered her question.  She became one of the best patients I ever had.  I remember this in business sometimes: You can’t plan for everything no matter how much research you do. At some point you’re gonna get bitch slapped if you don’t improvise.  Live with it.
9. When my dog gets tired he falls asleep with his tongue out.    (Me too)
10. Just after graduate school I seriously entertained the possibility of bolting from both my psychology and marketing research careers to compose jazz music for the piano.  I actually submitted several tapes to Polygram and got all the way to a meeting with the President.  Thank god I didn’t go through with it however, because although I was talented, I really didn’t have the training or experience to shape that talent into a professional career.  Passion is a necessary but not sufficient reason to go into a business!  Most people have multiple passions… the trick is coordinating with the ones that can actually produce money so you can support the rest.  Anyway, here’s a little recording from about 10 years ago (when I was still fat!) with me playing something I wrote, just in case you feel like listening.  (Plenty of mistakes in this – oh well)
    
11. Once, when I was 7, I once punched a hole in my sister’s wall when I got really mad.  Rather than getting upset, she asked me how come I never told her I was Superman.  I just went with it.  I think she still thinks that.  (My sister is the blonde in the video above)
12. I can’t get contact lenses in my eyes.  Seriously, I’ve spent hours with very gentle eye professionals who swear they’re going to be the one to fix the problem… but whatever I do my eye closes when the stupid contact is at least an inch away.    Oh well, I guess it’s good for us all to know our weaknesses.  (If you spend too much time trying to strengthen your weaknesses you’ll wind up weakening your strengths!)
13. This Friday, October 16th, 2015, Terry Dean and I are going to open up the Business Coaching Certification for just a few more enrollments before we plan to significantly raise the price.  Click here to read all about it and get on the priority notifications list if you’re interested.

Today I’ve got a little guest post from my partner in the Make Them Buy Conversion Club,
Michael McCarrell:

What’s the biggest mistake advance marketers – let alone beginners – make?  It continues to surprise me, but over and over I see people focusing on traffic instead of conversion.

And I have a theory about why – bear with me for just a minute here – it has to do with biology versus technology, and the fact that technology is evolving much much more rapidly than our biology.

Why should you as a marketer care about biology? Because it’s unavoidable. As much as we like to think of ourselves as rational beings, we are much more emotional and ACT much more instinctively than many of us like to admit.

(In case you don’t think *you* are instinctually driven, try this experiment: try NOT to not jump when a black belt karate expert feigns a kick to your crotch. I don’t care how many times you are told, I don’t care how much rational explanation you get, how many diagrams, how many charts, how much experience he has, or how many times I tell you you’re not going to be touched, you ARE going to jump.)

The Painful Crotch Kick of Marketing

Our evolution from apes has taken millions of years and yet the Industrial Revolution began only 300 years ago.   Personal computers are, what 40 years old?   The Internet is what, 20 years old?  Can you see an issue with divergence going on here?

So why do advance marketers still focus on traffic even though they *cognitively know* that conversion is more important?

Because conversion looks, and in many cases is, tougher than getting more traffic.

And your biology dictates that it’s better to be doing something than nothing because

If you’re doing Nothing you’re a ‘sitting duck’, you’re helpless prey and…

The feeling of helplessness is one of the *most intolerable* of all human emotions

Meaning, at a biological, instinctual level – it’s better to work on traffic then to feel helpless – it’s better do something than feel helpless – even if that something is of little value.

And human nature makes us choose the seemingly easier route (with less work) unless we pause to seriously consider the alternatives.

So how do you overcome biology and get yourself focused on the things that will really do you good?

One – study conversion principles, and…

Two – and this might be more important – surround yourself with like-minded marketers (like us!)

We’re all very instinctual, emotional animals.  Successful marketers accept and even embrace this on a deep level, but they also put things in place to compensate for it…

What feels right isn’t always right…

Sometimes you have to feel worse to do better.

And what seems sexy isn’t always good for you.

I rest my case!

Won’t you join us? It’s ridiculously affordable for the moment.
Ridiculously!

Here’s a different kind of video interview I did with “Debbie the Office Doc” about a few pretty cool tricks for saving time in Excel and MS-Office.  Thought you might all enjoy!

To contact Debbie, please visit www.DebbieTheOfficeDoc.com

To join Glenn’s live site review webinars, please visit www.MakeThemBuy.com