This is a great idea to raise funds for charity. I share ideas like this with you to show you that when you adopt Exponential Mindset Thinking™ you can and will become more creative and innovative. Exposure to new and different ideas stimulates your Reticular Activation System (RAS) so it gets easier and easier with time. Like a muscle, your brain can be trained to seek out new ideas. Enjoy this video and let me know which one you think won the race.

Monica and I were in Perth recently for an event we staged for engineers, called Slide Rule Thinking In The Internet Age. We had difficult getting a taxi and walked over to a hotel lobby and asked the concierge to call us a taxi. That’s when limousine driver/owner Graeme Main showed up offering a free ride to the event venue. Of course we accepted. He explained he does this to promote his service to a discerning clientele, with no strings attached.

I was blown away by his sincerity and authenticity which is why I wanted to blog about it. If you’re in Perth and need a hire car or limousine, Graeme’s your man. He can be reached on his mobile on 0414 392 226.

Moral of this story – “pay it forward” and you’ll be amazed what people will do to reward you!

Thanks Graeme!

If you haven’t seen this video, it’s a great metaphor for Exponential Mindset Thinking™, coming up with great solutions to apparently “unsolvable problems”. We have an event coming up called Etch-A-Sketch Thinking In The iPad Age that introduces you to this idea of coming up with fresh new ideas that get you out of trouble quickly and easily!

We’ve all heard of the classic money back guarantee, but where else have you heard of someone guaranteeing results? That’s exactly what we’re doing for our next 2 programs – Etch-A-Sketch Thinking In The iPad Age and Become The Next Corporate Rockstar.

Everyone gets to a point where they run out of fresh new ideas. What if there was a way to always have ideas ready to be deployed? What if these strategies were proven to work? How about is they were GUARANTEED to work?

That’s the premise of this unique event. We’re GUARANTEEING that you will produce at least $5,000 in the next 12 months as a result of attending the program. There is no legal fine print, no strings attached.

We can and are putting our money where our mouth is. No hype. No exaggerations. No smoke and mirrors. A simple iron-clad Results-Based Guarantee.

You can click on the image or this hyperlink > Etch-A-Sketch Thinking In The iPad Age. When all is said and done, if we’re willing to GUARANTEE $5,000 in the next 12 months, you can only imagine how much we expect you to make!

As you know, great customer service is rare which is why you want to reward it each and every time you come across it via a referral or testimonial. Today’s post is one such case study – Magnetite, a company dedicated to sound proofing homes and offices. We’ve been living in Sydney’s CBD for over 10 years, in a sub-penthouse unit with a clear and unobstructed view of Sydney Harbour clear to the heads with a spectacular city view. The last thing we want is to have to move because of ambient city noise.

A few years ago, several buildings around us have created ‘echo chambers’ that focus and concentrate ambient city noise thus amplifying it substantially – to the point of disturbing our sleep at night. We searched high and wide for someone to solve the problem, seeking out sound specialists, consulting a specialist architect… To no avail.

That’s when Adrian Lafleur of Magnetite came into the picture. We were armed with acoustic readings of the noise we were experiencing – we had a noise expert leave a meter overnight to capture the different sounds and frequencies. Noise is all about two things – decibels or volume and frequency – high (dolphin squeak) versus low (whale sounds).

The solution was a double glazed enclosure that was colour-matched to the existing window frame which was installed in one day with no mess and no damage to our unit. This is important because every other tradie that’s come into our unit has left an unwanted mark/reminder.

The reason this is a great customer service case study is because: Read More »»

Every year, we stage the Exponential Business Building Bootcamp which is 3 full-on days where entrepreneurs and business people get together to learn the best strategies that are proven and tested to work. Each time it’s staged, there is new content, examples and case studies from real Australian businesses just like yours. Case studies that defy the odds and in some cases are so astonishing that unless you met the business owner face-to-face to ask him or him how she did it, you’d never believe it was possible let alone THAT EASY.

That being said, HUNDREDS of people have attended Bootcamps, but only DOZENS have attended more than once. Most people think once the box is ticked, that’s it. “They know it all.”

That’s like thinking one tennis lesson is enough to make you Roger Federer or Serena Williams.

Today’s post is two examples from multiple Bootcamp attendees…

Business Growth Strategy Case Study #1: Bree Robbins of Paddington Pups

At the Bootcamp, I use antimimeticisomorphism examples that show how thinking differently can trigger innovative and creative ideas. One of the images was appropriate for Bree since she owns a doggy day care in Brisbane. The day after the Bootcamp, I sent her the impossible dog photo along with some links and voila! We both optimised our search engine rankings.

On the last night of every Exponential Business Building Bootcamp there is a session on Internet Strategies where participants can ask any question to increase their online traffic, sales and/or conversions. The Internet Marketing Strategies we teach are proven and tested for real brick and mortar businesses – not the spam0like ‘link building’ and other affiliate marketing strategies associated with get rich quick schemes. The strategies we teach are based on leveraging my 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine.

Business Growth Strategy Case Study #2: Gavin Buckett – The Gourmet Guardian

Another Exponential Growth Strategy, among the HUNDREDS covered at the Exponential Business Building Bootcamp is the strategy of preeminence. We spend all morning of day one covering all the tips and techniques to make sure you become the ultimate source of information, knowledge and expertise in your industry or market. The reasons you want to do this are beyond today’s blog post, but what I wanted to show you is how a multi-award winner takes action.

As part of  the Exponential Business Building Bootcamp there is Pre Program Preparation™ and Post Program Planning™ that ensures participants get the maximum out of the event. Today, Gavin responded to message #9 with the following:

“The statistic I found WHILE AT THE BOOTCAMP is that out of 2070 members of the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST), only 25 (1%) have a cooking qualification/ experience. That means that 99% of my professional competitors have not worked in kitchens and food businesses.

Bare that in mind when you next go to the supermarket and try something new – 99% of food technologists have no practical cooking experience.”

Gavin Buckett is The Gourmet Guardian – an Australian Food Safety Specialist. You have to admit that with a quote like this (which he has started to use in his advertising and promotional material), you are positively predisposed to consider him more of an expert. That is one of the many reasons his business is growing by more than 200% per annum. He has attended the Exponential Business Building Bootcamp 4, maybe 5 times and each time gets additional distinctions to take his sales and profitability one level higher.

These two case studies show you first-hand how quick, easy and inexpensive these strategies are – that is the beauty and elegance of Exponential Marketing Strategies. You don’t need a multi-million dollar advertising budget – you just need to THINK and ACT EXPONENTIALLY. Contact us to find out how you can join the Platinum Program – it’s not just a great program, we guarantee that for every $1 you invest, you’ll make $3 – GUARANTEED!

This is a classic advertising story that is worthy of repetition. It’s not just funny, but exceptionally valuable when you extract from it lessons that you can leverage from it. Enjoy!

A barber had been noticing that his clients had been dropping off slowly over the last eighteen months or so. He blamed the economy and people moving on and such things and just kept plodding on as you would expect.

The last straw for him was when,  just two doors down from his barber shop, someone opened up another barber shop! His competitor put up signage all over the front of the store windows announcing “hair cuts $5” .

When they opened, there were people spilling out the door lining up for haircuts. This went on for days and as you can guess his clients dropped off dramatically to the point that he decided that he would rather sit at home watching Oprah than do hair cuts for five dollars. He even decided he would close down his shop at the end of the week.

That afternoon, a gentleman walked in and asked if he could get a hair cut. The barber warned him that he charged fifteen dollars. The gentleman said that’s fine as he did not have time to stand in line and wait two hours for the barber two doors down .

After he finished the gentleman stood up looked and thanked the barber for a really good haircut. He also said he would be back next time he needed a trim because he was very satisfied with his haircut. That’s when the barber advised him that he was going to close his shop because he couldn’t compete with $5 hair cuts.

The gentleman looked at him smiled and asked “If I can increase the number of clients, would you be willing to pay me two hundred dollars?” The barber said he would only have two days to do it since he was going to close the shop on the third day. The gentleman confidently said that would not be as issue. The barber could not help but like this cocky guy in a suit and since it was only two hundred dollars, he thought he really didn’t have much to lose.

The next day, when the barber showed up, there were people waiting for him to open his door! They continued to stream in all day his phone was ring hot taking bookings! He was so busy that by the end of the day, he was exhausted. He could not remember ever being that busy.

The next day the same thing happened and about lunch time the gentleman walked in smiling and asked how things were going. The barber told him about all the clients and bookings and asked him what he did to change things around so quickly -  hoping he hadn’t done anything illegal. The gentleman smiled and assured the barber that everything was OK and that after work there would be something out the front of the store for him.

That night, the barber walked out the front of his shop and saw an A frame – he could not stop laughing when he read what was written:

FIVE DOLLAR HAIRCUTS FIXED HERE

This is a totally exponential strategy – but here are a few questions I have for you.

• How can you use this story to your advantage?
• How can you leverage someone else’s efforts in a legal and morally acceptable way?
• How can you make the most of your marketing budget to get the very best results?

A lot of people have either heard this story or others similar to it. They get a laugh and move on to something else.

Very few learn the lesson. Very few learn HOW to leverage something like this.

That’s what I teach my clients to do, as their business coach, adviser or mentor. I explain to them that this is not just a funny story. It’s a lesson to be learned and applied. I then usually explain via one of my case study examples or one from a client.  In this case, I heard this story and used it to close a $250,000 sale to a top 50 ASX company.

I know you’d love to know how I did that, but sorry – I keep that information for my Platinum Members!

The thing about having an Exponential Mindset is not just thinking differently, but making sure you walk the thought. That only happens when you’re taught how to translate a great story like this one INTO a practical system and process that you can use in your own business.

Otherwise, it’s just another fun story to tell mates over a cold beer at your local.

If you want someone to help you turn things around, like the barber – contact us and we’ll show you how to get people lining up at your shop front door, into your business or if you’re online – visiting your website.

COIMBATORE KRISHNARAO PRAHALAD, universally known as C.K., was the most creative management thinker of his generation. He revolutionised thinking on two big subjects, business strategy and economic development, and made a significant contribution to a third, innovation. His admirers were legion, including bosses of some of the world’s biggest companies, heads of NGOs and founders of scrappy start-ups, not to mention MBA students the world over including yours truly.

Mr Prahalad burst onto the management scene with two path-breaking articles in the Harvard Business Review, “Strategic Intent” (1989) and “The Core Competence of the Corporation” (1990), and a bestselling book, “Competing for the Future” (1996), all co-written with his former pupil, Gary Hamel. “Core competence” remains one of the most frequently reprinted articles ever published by Harvard Business Review.

Click the URL to read the Economist Magazine’s summary of his stellar career and contribution to management thinking.

If you have never heard of C.K. Prahalad, it’s a shame because he’s given countless entrepreneurs the ‘keys to the vault’ – I integrate his teachings and methodologies within my Platinum Program curriculum.

I will be revealing some of my secret strategies at an upcoming series of events in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, I call it the Exponential Extravaganza because of the smorgasbord of stuff that I’m going to include… It’s the only chance you can get exposure to what and how I can guarantee RESULTS for my top clients.

I actually guarantee that for every $1 invested, my clients will make $3. I can’t do that unless my strategies work. They work because I not only learn stuff that most people never come across, but I APPLY what I learn in real-life situations. To learn more, come to the Exponential Extravaganza.

Ian Faulkner sent me this YouTube link – everyone says to think outside the box, but when you’re antimimeticisomorphic, you want to consider thinking INSIDE the box! This video is self-evident, but the lesson for YOU might not be. What can you do to turn the proverbial box inside-out? What can you do to attract attention to your product/service? What is your ‘box’?!?!

I call this Twisting The Kube™ and it’s one of the Exponential Mindset strategies that I teach my clients.

It’s easier said than done. I get that.

If if was ‘easy’ everyone would do it.

But here’s the thing – it can be learned.

The fastest, easiest way is to get your hands on my Marc-Ka-Ching Kube™. Within the first few days of Twisting The Kube™, you’ll start to recognise that your thinking is shifting – faster and more easily than you thought possible.

But I have to be honest with you… Read More »»

If you’ve seen one car wash, you’ve seen ’em all, right? Well, not quite.

Consider the dynamic duo of Tiki and Alice, a pair of African elephants at the Wildlife Animal Park in southern Oregon. This pair of pachyderms is currently doing double-duty as car wash attendants. Actually, Tiki and Alice are the car wash.

Car Wash - Elephant

Simply roll up your vehicle and these elephantine employees will blast away the grit and grime via high pressure water emanating from their trunks. Then the 39-year-old elephants adroitly finish the job with sponges. (Turtle Wax, alas, is not available.)

For motorists, the elephant car wash is a sure-fire way to get up close and personal with animals that actually dwarf a Chevy Suburban. Meanwhile, Wildlife Animal Park is using this new revenue stream to weather the tough economy: an elephant-rendered car wash will set you back US$20.

Park organizers say another motive behind the scheme is to promote conservation through education. As well, the elephants’ handlers claim Tiki and Alice are actually having fun washing cars. (Did we mention they’re charging 20 bucks per vehicle?)

Still, hats off to Wildlife Animal Park for coming up with such a novel way to bolster the bottom line – especially considering Tiki and Alice work for peanuts.

Whenever I ask most people what business they’re in, I usually get an incoherent rambling about what they do (and they wonder why they’re struggling for new clients… but that’s a discussion for another day!) Then I ask then what’s important to their clients and 9 times out of 10 they have no clue. If only they understood it as well as this restaurant does -> it’s not about the food!

Go on and click on the hyperlink (they don’t allow it to be embedded) and then ask yourself, one simple, yet exponential question:

What’s MOST IMPORTANT to my clients?

If you can answer that question, then you know where your focus should be.

I know this sounds too simple , but watch the video again and just listen to what the clients are saying and the RESULTS it’s producing.

Case closed.

Regardless of what you thought of Michael Jackson’s ‘lifestyle’ and peculiarities, his passing leaves us all with the awe of his talent, expression and  ability to entertain across boundaries of colour, race and generations. That brings up the question – what will your legacy be? What are you creating that will be left behind when you depart this world/existence/reality?

What will YOUR legacy be?

The reason this is important to think about now is because the NEW YEAR is upon us in a few days…

When would NOW be a good time to start planning to make 2010 You Best Year Ever? Hmmm

When you’re in business, you can create an on-going legacy, one that survives you – most don’t achieve that goal – but you can, if you PLAN FOR IT.

Start by THINKING ABOUT IT…

If you’re looking for advertising ideas, check out this website that has a growing collection of great advertising concepts. I promise you they are way out there – totally original and yes, absolutely positively EXPONENTIAL! Just click on the hyperlink and be amazed!

Watch this short video that reveals how retailers unknowingly throw away as much as 28% of their sales – that is one customer for every 4 walking out their shop door… This is one of those rare videos that hits you across the head like a two-by-four… As it should! WHAM!!!!

The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us

I recently competed in the 2009 Australian Masters Squash and World Masters Games Competitions reaching the top 12 and 18 National and International Rankings respectively. I tell you this so you know I am qualified to make the statement that squash players make terrible referees. But here’s the thing that boggles my mind. They don’t know they suck.

At the 2009 World Masters Games, I had a match that was horribly refereed – I mean it was absolutely horrendous – it wasn’t biased – the calls were bad for me AND my opponent. But the calls were just plain wrong. The referee and the marker BOTH had NO CLUE how to referee a match EVEN THOUGH they were 50 to 60 year olds with 30+ squash playing experience.

How can that be?

Then it hit me, like a beginner’s exaggerated follow-through on the back-hand swing across the head…

Read More »»

If you don’t already know, I am a competitive squash player, now ranked in the ‘top 20′ in the world in the Men’s 45-49 age category. I learned to play squash less than 10 years ago, have only played competitively for the past 5 years and have competed in less than 10 tournaments in my entire playing career. The reason I tell you this is because it’s an ‘easy’ analogy to use to explain what I call Management By Metrics.

Management By Metrics

Management By Metrics is about tracking and monitoring the things that change in your business that influence your results.

The squash analogy is that at the recent 2009 World Masters Games, where I achieved my personal best world ranking of 18, I filmed all my matches, analysing them and statistically assessing the winners and unforced errors I committed. In the 2009 Australian Masters Games where I reached a National Ranking of 12, I was playing too ‘safe’ – not making errors, but not playing enough winning ‘kill shots’.

With that in mind, I spent the last couple of weeks making sure I improved my shots and guess what? The difference was astonishing – I went from a ‘Top 50′ world ranking last year to the ‘Top 20′… In all my matches, more than 25% of my points won were winners – in one match it was more than 50%, from less than 10% in the previous competition less than one month prior.

The business lesson of this squash analogy is that by KNOWING what METRICS you want to manage – your ultimate success will be easier and much faster than you ever imagined.

On my Mindset Of A Champion Blog, I publicly stated that my goal for the 2009 and 2010 World Masters Squash Championships were a top 32 and top 16 finish – I achieved a ranking of 18 in 2009 and now am aiming at a Top 10 for 2010 – well ahead of my own expectations.

Management By Metrics is what it’s all about – tracking and monitoring what’s working and what’s not. By so doing, you can determine your Next Best Step and optimise your Pathways To Profits much more quickly and easily.

Want to learn to become a champion of business? Click on the hyperlink to atten a 3-hour Boardroom Briefing session to learn how Management By Metrics can help you get more out of your business – by working less than you are right now so you too can get back to your favorite sport, pick up a new one, spend more leisure time with friends and family or whatever fuels your spirit.

In a recent BBM Magazine, I came across this article  that stated that the underrated Hollywood hotty Naomi Watts is apparently the world’s most bankable actress.
The 41-year-old, who’s hot scene in Mulholland Drive, helped the box office rake in an estimated $44 for every $1 she was paid for her last three major films. That means in terms of bang for your buck, she’s the actress producers and directors turn to. What does this have to do with Management By Metrics?

Everything. If you’re in business, what metrics are you managing? What are you tracking to make sure you get your optimal return on investment? You’d be surprised who’s on the Hollywood’s MOST BANKABLE LIST and who’s not…

Naomi Watts - Most Bankable Actress

The list’s top spots are notably filled by many actresses willing to accept a lower salary than A-list stars like Angelina Jolie – who was named Hollywood’s highest-earning actress by Forbes earlier this year.

Jennifer Connelly, 38 – who previously won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe for her role in 2001′s ‘A Beautiful Mind’ – took second place making an average $41 per dollar she was paid. Meanwhile, Rachel McAdams finished third by turning low-budget films like ‘Red Eye’ and ‘The Notebook’ into hits.

Forbes.com’s Top Ten Best Actresses for the Buck:

1. Naomi Watts – made $44 for each $1 paid
2. Jennifer Connelly – $41
3. Rachel McAdams – $30
4. Natalie Portman – $28
5. Meryl Streep – $27
6. Jennifer Aniston – $26
7. Halle Berry – $23
8. Cate Blanchett – $23
9. Anne Hathaway – $23
10.  Hilary Swank – $23

This blog is all about seeing your business from a different perspective – which is called antimimeticisomorphism. When you come across different metrics in other industries, jot them down and consider using something similar in your business to determine what’s actually working versus what’s really not.

Sure Angelina Jolie may be prettier, sexier and more famous, but if you were INVESTING in a movie, who would YOU hire?

Hmmm….

That’s the point – sometimes in business we make the decisions we LIKE to make, not the ones that are the most profitable…

And you thought this was a lightweight blog post… Gotcha!

Gotcha thinkin’!!!

First of all, your RAS is your Reticular Activation System. The way I train my most elite clients – Platinum Members, is with my Daily Distinctions that are part of my Advanced Business Coaching System that include a DAILY e-mail, every day of the year – WITH NO DAYS OFF.

The e-mails are designed for you to CHERRY PICK THE BEST and stick to 1% improvement every day – JUST THINKING about them is enough…

The Reticular Activation System does the rest – for example, I watch squash videos EVERY NIGHT before I compete to direct my RAS for the next day’s match.

Read More »»

Sometimes people think that retail businesses have limitations when it comes to Exponential Marketing Strategies. They do and they don’t. It’s just a matter of how you Twist The Kube! Andrew Powell of Montreal Canada knows this only too well and sent this link to a Canadian retailer who has taken the Exponential Marketing Strategy of risk reversal to an extreme… Check out this short article that proves that an Exponential Mindset still wins the game!

Retail Risk Reversal

Click on this link -> Retailer reverses risk to below zero!

If you are not a subscriber to my Internet Mastery Blog, shame on you. That means you missed out on this amazing YouTube video on the Social Media Revolution that I published a few weeks ago. Click on the hyperlink now and make sure you watch the video – it will shatter your preconceived notions that the Interweb is just a fad.