We all know about the funnel approach to marketing, but even more important for me was the wheel approach, truly the filter I made every single decision through.

Each product should have a purpose. Some are for viral marketing, some are to create best-sellers, some are to identify particular niche audiences, some are to appeal to the high end user, some are to get as many people involved as possible, some are for branding purposes, some for collaboration, etc and so on. Know what you need next and why you need it and then how best to package and market it.

I use to hope that delegating would free me up. Eventually I learned that not just delegating but rather training, mentoring and accountability allowed me to create better long lasting systems, to where eventually almost everything was being delegated to and through my top three leaders.

Rule one of online marketing - web guys and IT guys are NOT marketing guys. Hard lesson I see every day for so many companies!

NEVER create an event for the sole purpose of just to make money. They are simply too time intensive. Have a list of at least 5 things you can accomplish from any event you create. Customer acquisition through advertizing, creating a new product, building a speakers brand, etc….

Early on way too many people focused on selling online versus customer acquisition to their wheel. In the 90’s and early 2000’s online search was more about research than buying. But if you acquire the email, then you can follow-up with the offer. Unbelievably many still don’t understand the value of a subscriber.

Opportunity proceeds personal development. Once someone sees the vision of opportunity (a new job opportunity, sells, mlm, new business), now the light starts to shine for setting goals, keeping a journal, listening to cds, reading books, time management, etc.

Brian Tracy impressed upon me in 1992 to give 100% for 3-5 years and create momentum that could carry me the rest of my life. Much like a airplane uses much more fuel going 80 miles an hour down the runway than it does on cruise at 400 mph in the air. The challenge is most people never give that last 10%-20% for a sustained period of time to get the plane off the ground, thus spending most of their financial lives still on the runway going 80 mph.

I finally had to learn to say no to the people who wanted to use my time, money, influence, staff and customers to build their idea and/or dream. The reality 95% of the time was that I was sitting on a list of my own ideas we didn’t have the time to execute on, much less getting involved in someone else’s new idea that we had already learned the hard way through our own experience would not work. Once you get focused on your own filtered list it is amazing what you can then get done.

People love stats! But nothing more valuable than being at the game. First pass goes through the receivers hands and is intercepted for a TD. Second one receiver turns wrong way and is intercepted for touchdown. Third one the receiver falls down and is intercepted for a TD.  Headline reads QB throws 3 interceptions all for touchdowns. Same can happen with your business. Read the data but also be in the game so you know the real story!