Free and inexpensive marketing secrets that works - part 1

Free and inexpensive marketing secrets that works - part 1. This vidoe contains stories of how people creating free marketing secrets to grow their business. the contents is based on the book 49 Marketing Secrets (THAT WORK) to Grow Sales

7 Secrets to Overcoming Adversity in Business

There are seven secrets to overcoming adversity in business. Listen as Ron Finklestein discusses these 7 secrets.

The Global Downturn and the Imperative for Blue Ocean Strategy

Despite the pain, recessions are historically times of enormous creativity and breakthrough business launches. Microsoft, General Electric, FedEx, CNN, and Apple are among the hundreds of companies that created blue oceans during an economic downturn.

Counterintuitively, innovation goes up when the economy goes down. Yet most companies choose to cut spending on innovation during a recession and shift their focus from growth to reservation, waiting out the storm until the economy picks up again. All companies have to cut costs, and invariably one of the early victims is often spending on innovation activities such as R&D, training, or education budgets. Long-term projects are shelved, hiring is frozen, and workers are made redundant. Worse, risk capital evaporates. This is akin to medical patients deciding to reduce their expenditures by not spending money on medication. Innovative thinking is stifled when it is most needed.

Yet, good ideas are not expensive. As buyers are forced to make better choices within limited means, businesses also must make better strategic choices within their limited means. When times are lean both consumers and companies must make smarter decisions. Real customers continue to face real problems. For companies this means they must find ways to create new value, while reducing costs. This is also called Value Innovation: the cornerstone of Blue Ocean Strategy. To achieve value innovation, it is the ideas that matter, not your resources. It's about taking existing market elements and systematically reconstructing them to create significant new value for your customers and your company. As a result, lean times create innovation that is smarter than the innovation that springs from fatter times. They are "smarter" because they are based on ideas - not big budgets, R&D, or technological breakthroughs.

As Stanford economist Paul Roemer has been telling us for years, great advances come from great ideas. Yet ideas do not fall from the sky; they come from people. Every new thing that gives pleasure or productivity or convenience, be it an iPod or tweaks in a manufacturing plant, is the result of human ingenuity. To reiterate, it is during difficult economic times when we are forced to think more creatively how we create growth. Fortunately, Blue Ocean Strategy provides a proven and practical approach to create the ideas that will lead to breakthrough growth through value innovation: dramatically higher value and lower costs.

Professors Kim & Mauborgne have spent the past decade developing a set of analytical tools and frameworks to make the pursuit of blue oceans as methodical, codified, and executable as competing in the traditional competitive landscape. They studied companies around the world and developed practical methodologies in the quest of blue oceans. The ideas, tools, and frameworks used have been further tested and refined over the years in corporate and public sectors practices in Asia, North America, and Europe.

Blue Ocean Strategy, with its actionable frameworks and tools for both strategy formulation and execution, provides companies with a risk minimizing and profit maximizing approach for companies to grow their way out of the this economic downturn. Blue Ocean Strategy applies across all types of industries from the typical suspects of consumer product goods to b2b, industrial, pharmaceutical, financial services, entertainment, IT, and even defense.

(CNWG)

Inspirational Speech by Dr. Randy Pausch On the Oprah Winfrey Show

The Formula For Failure And Success

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event.

by Jim Rohn

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.

Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every day? The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters.

On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape from any immediate consequences of our deeds.

If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety days, this lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn't seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that it matters!

Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter. Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor choices year after year after year... because it doesn't seem to matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only been delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices - choices that didn't seem to matter.

Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don't seem to make any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives. Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.

But we must become better educated than that!

If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated again. Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner despite his parents' warnings, we would have had an instantaneous experience accompanying our error in judgment.

Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once did. This is why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be able to make better choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy guiding our every step, we become more aware of our errors in judgment and more aware that each error really does matter.

Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every day.

Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change the errors in the formula for failure into the disciplines required in the formula for success? The answer is by making the future an important part of our current philosophy.

Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is true, why don't more people take time to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it doesn't seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow.

But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to look a little further down the road? We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would be able to take the necessary action to change our errors into new success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old.

One of the exciting things about the formula for success - a few simple disciplines practiced every day - is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines.

The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend our thinking. If we were to start today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more and observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future. If we were to start today to try harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a life of existence — not once we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!

(Success)

Winning Friends and Influencing People - Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie proved that nice guys can finish first.

Act enthusiastic, smile, become genuinely interested in other people, and don’t criticize, condemn or complain. When Dale Carnegie put those simple principles in a book called How to Win Friends and Influence People, he not only became a guru to millions of people the world over, he made publishing history. Since its first publication in 1936, the book has sold more than 15 million copies, is one of the all-time best-sellers, and is still popular today. Before there was an entire industry devoted to self-improvement, there was Dale Carnegie and his desire to let people know their success depended largely on their ability to win friends and influence people.

Missouri Values
In 1888, Dale Carnegie was born into a life of hard times, hard work and failure. The Carnegies farmed an area in northwest Missouri that frequently flooded, and foreclosure was a constant threat. But Dale’s parents made it clear his future would be different.

The driving force in the Carnegie household was Dale’s mother, Amanda. A dynamic personality, she served as his mentor and personal-improvement coach. She saw great potential in his abilities and made it clear his destiny would not be the farmlands of Missouri. She knew the importance of confidence, good speaking skills and education, and encouraged Dale to give speeches in church.

At 16, Dale enrolled in the Missouri State Teachers College in Warrensburg, Mo. To save money, he lived at home and helped his father with the chores every morning before putting on his only suit and walking to school.

After his junior year, Dale heard there was big money in sales, landing a job in South Dakota with Armour & Company earning $17 a week. But when he was offered a management job, he turned it down, and decided to leave the Midwest for the big city lights of New York.

His dream was to become a novelist, working days selling Packard cars and trucks and writing at night. After struggling through his fi rst book, which he declared a disaster, Carnegie decided he wasn’t cut out to be a novelist. At 24, it was time for self-reflection. He decided to do the next thing that came natural: teach public speaking.

Finding His Niche
In 1912, Carnegie got a job at the YMCA in Harlem teaching public speaking at night school. With no curriculum, he improvised, bringing students to the front of class to speak while he and the rest of the group offered encouragement and advice. Soon Dale Carnegie’s courses were filled to capacity with people looking to conquer a fear many people say is greater than that of death—that of public speaking.

Carnegie said his courses were designed to train adults, through experience, to think on their feet and express their ideas with more clarity, effectiveness and poise. But as time passed, he realized these people also needed training in the art of getting along with others in everyday business and social situations. Industry was exploding; small businesses were turning into large enterprises. And along with this growth came a new breed of businessman: the middle manager who needed what Carnegie taught.

Carnegie’s own research revealed about 15 percent of one’s fi nancial success is due to technical knowledge, and about 85 percent is due to skill in human engineering, personality and the ability to lead people. “One can always hire technical ability, but the person who has technical knowledge plus the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership and to arouse enthusiasm among people—that person is headed for higher earning power,” he said.

Putting Principles on Paper
Teaching courses on human relations, Carnegie searched in vain for a working handbook on the subject. So he started writing one for use in his own courses.

In preparation, he pored over newspaper columns, magazine articles, the writings of the old philosophers and countless biographies of great leaders to see how they dealt with people. At the same time, Carnegie started compiling a list of the core principles he taught in his courses, such as don’t criticize, condemn or complain, among others.

From this material he prepared a short talk, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” For years, he gave this talk in his courses, urging his students to test it in their business and social settings and to report back at the next class. Carnegie said his students loved these assignments and were fascinated by the idea of working in the first and only laboratory of human relationships for adults.

What started as a few principles on a notecard grew to leaflets, then to a series of booklets, each principle expanding in size and scope. And after 15 years of experimentation and research, his book was ready.

Skills for Better Living
The timing for How to Win Friends and Influence People couldn’t have been better. Following the Stock Market crash in 1929, businesses and factories were shutting their doors and millions were out of work. Carnegie offered people a way to differentiate themselves by learning additional skills that would either open doors to new opportunities or keep them from being laid off.

Both Carnegie and publisher Simon & Schuster had modest expectations for the book, printing just 5,000 copies. Then an executive who had previously taken Carnegie’s course came up with the idea of selling the book to his seminar graduates.

Soon How to Win Friends and Influence People was flying off the shelves, selling an astounding 5,000 copies a day. The book moved to the top of the best-seller list and remained on the list for an unprecedented 10 years. Dale Carnegie had provided a road map to show men and women from all walks of life how to connect with people and to influence others with dignity and respect.

Although he had critics who thought the book was filled with simplistic hyperbole, these attitudes were shared mostly by literary scholars—not mainstream America. The book sold so well it was translated into 30 languages and became a best-seller around the world. Soon “How to Win Friends and Influence People” became a catch phrase, even used in cartoons and lampoons.

Humility in Success
All of this newfound fame and fortune was a little overwhelming for the farm boy from Missouri. When his first royalty check for $90,000 arrived in the mail, he left it on his desk for a few days until his secretary prodded him to take it to the bank and deposit it.

With his success came more income-producing opportunities, including a syndicated column that appeared in more than 70 newspapers. He also had his own radio program broadcast nationwide.

Dale Carnegie was recognized throughout the world, filling giant concert halls with people looking to learn from the master teacher on human relations. His humility and Midwestern appeal made him a crowd favorite.

In the years following World War II, Carnegie penned another book, titled How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, which reached No. 2 on the best-seller list. Carnegie spent most of his time at home in Queens, N.Y., with his wife, Dorothy, whom he met on one of his speaking tours years earlier. The couple also bought a large farm near his boyhood home in Missouri. Then, in 1951, Dorothy gave birth to a daughter, Donna Dale. At 63, Carnegie was a very wealthy man and a father for the first time.

It was just a few years later when Carnegie started to grow frail and began to forget things. In the summer of 1955 Dale returned one final time to his beloved Missouri, where he was awarded an honorary degree from his old college in Warrensburg. Just three months later, Dale Carnegie died at the age of 66.

Humble Even in Death
For his final resting place, Carnegie had chosen the place he was born, the farm country of northwest Missouri. Shunning the spotlight even in death, it was Carnegie’s wish that not much be made of his passing. His gravestone simply reads “Dale Carnegie, 1888-1955.”

Long after his death, his legacy lives on. Carnegie’s work continues to attract some of the most successful people in the world. Auto executive Lee Iacocca took the course, as did legendary investor Warren Buffett and Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan. They are among thousands who take his course each year. And 70 years after it was published, How to Win Friends and Influence People continues to reach millions who want to learn the principles that can help them live better lives.

(Success)

Napoleon Hill's 12 Steps on True Riches

The Courage - Les Brown

10 Best Books to Rekindle Your Business

The number of layoffs is staggering.

Although the bottom of the economic recession is nowhere in sight, there are opportunities. There are always opportunities if you can see them. Some examples: marketing the unemployed; developing products that will save companies money by taking over functions handled by people; and providing sites that match the unemployed with full- and part-time work.

To improve your chances of identifying opportunities that will allow you to survive the financial tsunami, I recommend you read the following books.

1. "The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization," by Peter Drucker. The book, put out by the Leader to Leader Institute, provides advice on how to focus your organization by starting with a self-assessment through developing and implementing a plan that matches today's reality.

2. "Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing," by Jay and Jeannie Levinson. Every company needs to spend money to keep their name out there so business clients will give them consideration. Reading this will provide you with ideas on how to position your company against rivals as well as inexpensive marketing tactics.

3. "From the Bureau to the Boardroom," by Dan Garrison. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is one of the most adaptable and well-organized groups. The reader learns how the FBI has developed its management skills to train and turn out the best police investigators in the world.

4. "101 Ways to Turn Your Business Green," by Rich Mintzer. President Obama has made energy and the environment a top priority. The book is focused on what companies should do to be greener, but it is really a great book to learn about the products and services that will be in demand for the next four to eight years.

5. "The New Elite," by Jim Taylor, Doug Harrison and Stephen Kraus. The book was written before the stock market crashed and wiped out many millionaires, but there are still people with wealth and money to spend. This book provides insights into how to market to this group that goes beyond designer names.

6. "Reinvention," by Brian Tracy. Tracy is a master motivator and this book is a good read for anyone whose services are no longer marketable or is tired of what they are doing. He writes about how to reinvent yourself.

7. "Napoleon Hill's Golden Rules," by Napoleon Hill. The author is known for his book "Think and Grow Rich." "Rules" is another motivational book, the type that gets readers' creative juices flowing. It is made up of a series of interviews of rags-to-riches success stories.

8. "Investing in a Sustainable World," by Dr. Matthew Kiernan, founder of Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, which focuses on sustainable investment research. The book looks at money managers who have become experts in this area, which I don't care about because I don't have the money to invest in the market. What I do find interesting are energy and environmental trends the author writes about.

9. "Instant Appeal," by Vicki Kunkel. Obama went from a relatively unknown Illinois state senator to the leader of the free world. Facebook went from an idea in a dorm room at Harvard to an international phenomenon. The book provides insights into how to create demand for you, and your product or service.

10. "Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins," by Annette Simmons. Have you ever noticed that most successful people are good story tellers? Look at Obama. Was he smarter than his opponents? Maybe, but we all acknowledge that he is a better communicator than perhaps any president, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, in the past 100 years. The ability to communicate your concepts increases your chances of success.

The correlation between reading and success is uncontested. Think about the successful people you know and read about. You will find they are all readers.

(by Marc Kramer/The Street.com)

Brian Tracy: If You Could Achieve One Goal in 24 Hours

Self-made millionaires have been studied extensively throughout the years. The good news is that success is not an accident. Success can be learned and it leaves tracks. The great news is that you can follow the tracks of successful people to arrive at your ultimate destination. In this upbeat presentation, Brian shows you: Ways to get off Someday Isle and move your life in the right direction; How to develop a sense of control and sense of coherence in life; 16 qualities or learnable skills that will virtually guarantee your success; The 20-idea "mindstorming" method to find your self-purpose.