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1. 4. 2008
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Mar 31
Join The Conversation Or Watch Your Business Whither Away And Die
Posted in Blog, 
Email This , by 21 Comments
Email This , by 21 Comments 
Listen friend, I’ve got a gift for you.
Q: Why am I giving you a gift?
Because it’s my way of saying thank you.
You see, at last count there were over 15 billion web pages online. And the simple fact that you are here reading this post means you consider my point of view valuable.
Better yet, it turns out you’re not alone in your opinion. At our recent conference, New Beginnings, a bunch of the speakers (Maryellen Tribby, Jeff Walker, John Carlton, Frank Kern, etc…) were hanging out in the green room when Gary Vaynerchuck asked “who are the most influential bloggers in the internet marketing community?”
As we went around the table… to my surprise… my name was the first answer given be each and everyone at the table. Turns out that the Strategic Profits blog is read by a vast numbers of marketers (rookies and veterans alike) from the core of the internet marketing world.
And I could go on with more of their flattering comments. But I am blushing already. Because, I’m actually a fairly shy guy… who was happy working behind the scenes as the notoriously-anonymous “secret weapon” business coach to the gurus.
But releasing The Internet Business Manifesto and the 7.4 million it brought in within the first 12 months changed all that.
Now, before I go any further, it’s important you realize this: My original manifesto trilogy (The Internet Business Manifesto, The Missing Chapter, And The Final Chapter) was nothing more than my successful attempt to first join and then lead the conversation of our market.
That’s why if you fully grasp the strategies and concepts revealed in your gift, you’ll realize you’ll be left with no excuse whatsoever for not growing your biz and getting rich in 2008.
But, you know what? As legendary copywriter Gary Halbert insightfully pointed out…
Getting rich doesn’t solve everything. More often than not, lots of cash actually makes things worse.
Confused? Just bear with me, because I am going to show you (with some help from Gary) why.
It’s simple really, with money comes power.
Now, the problem with power is it can easily be used for both good… and, well… not-so-good.
Look at it this way… Power is something, for example, which can be used to run an electric circular saw. A skilled carpenter can use that saw to build a glorious mansion. Yet, a mechanically challenged moron can use that same saw to accidentally cut off his leg.
It’s the same with money too. Having mounds of money gives you the power to greatly improve your life… or… it can give you the ability to destroy your life.
Case in point: Money can give you the power to hire the best doctors, nutritionists, and get cutting edge supplements to enhance your life… or… it can give you the ability to buy an endless supply of cocaine and destroy your life.
Believe it or not, it’s actually more difficult for the wealthy to use their money wisely than it is get rich in the first place.
- Left: Britney Spears appearing on the Mickey Mouse Club. Right: Britney demonstrating insane behavior.
- $300 million Powerball lottery winner, Jack Whittaker: “Since I won the lottery, I think there is no control for greed, I think if you have something, there’s always someone else that wants it. I wish I’d torn that ticket up.”
All you have to do is look at people who quickly came into gobs of money - like pop/rock stars, celebrities and lottery winners and then… rapidly ruin (or even end) their lives with drugs and other insane behavior.
So before I give you this gift that’ll take some of the mystery out of getting rich, a word of caution is in order… Money and power don’t change you; they simply exaggerate (and enable) your personality… warts and all.
The point: Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll work out some of your flaws once you “make it” – unfortunately it never works out that way. Because money and power simply add fuel to the fire.
Always remember your future starts today (right now)… not tomorrow.
Enough said… let’s press on…
As many readers of this blog know, I’m a voracious reader. During a typical week I usually easily plow through 3-5 books
I credit a lot of my success to the shortcuts that many of these books have provided me. The way I look at it is pretty simple if I can get one or two good ideas from a single book it’s well worth my time.
But, every once in awhile I read a book that has one or two good ideas on practically each and every page. Better yet, these exceptional books usually connect the dots in a way that clears away any noise and confusion surrounding the area/topic it focuses on.
Anyway, back when I was writing The Attention Age Doctrine 2, I read every single book on social media that I could get my hands on. And while most of them were good, few were exceptional.
- Join The Conversation,
written by Joseph Jaffe.But one of those exceptional books is the source of my gift to you today. The name of the book is Join The Conversation, written by Joseph Jaffe.
What makes this book even better than most, is that Jaffe stays true to his core (his marketing background) by consistently tying everything that he shares with selling more stuff to more people.
The book does an excellent job of diving deep into online communities, dissecting how everything from YouTube to blogs are changing and how you must market differently. There’s even a chapter titled “Why Are You So Afraid Of Conversations?”
I was so impressed with this book and the impact it can have for you, I had my team tracked down Joe Jaffe and secure an interview with him for you.
I have the audio and also the transcript here available for download. His passion, sarcasm, and wit are obvious throughout. Even better yet his insights, recommendations, and advice on getting started or getting better is fantastic.
During the interview Joseph explains how to join, catalyze, enrich, empower, and profit from the conversation currently happening in your market.
And make no mistake about it, he knows his stuff… Joseph advises startups to Fortune 500 (Coca-Cola, Audi, American Airlines, Starwood hotels) on how to leverage the conversation that social media is fostering.
One part in the interview you need to pay very close attention to. He introduces a new model for marketing which he calls the six “C’s”. Based on a triangle from the web 1.0 world and one from the Web 2.0 world.
But it gets even better… since I already know what this book can do for you I am ethically bribing anyone who buys the book (whether you buy it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or anyplace else) with the copious notes I took while going through the book.
I explained how you can get my notes during the interview, so I won’t bother to explain it here.
You see, at the end of the day, I know my success is directly tied to your success. So, while it takes time, salaries, and commitment to bring us all together for you – I see it as an investment in you, your business and your ultimate success.
Two concluding comments…
- first, I’d love to know what you thought of the interview and your plans on buying the book – please share your thoughts below.
- Second, I’m giving some thought to doing this on a biweekly or weekly basis. So if you’d like to see more interviews with more authors who “get it” and the notes I took while reading their books just let me know…
Oh yeah, one last thing – if you’d like to reciprocate, what you can do for me is tell anyone you know who’s marketing online today or who hopes to in the near future about this blog post and the transcript and audio they can download right here:
Download Joseph Jaffe and Rich Schefren MP3 Interview
Download Joseph Jaffe MP3 Interview now
Download Joseph Jaffe and Rich Schefren Interview Transcript
Download Joseph Jaffe Interview Transcript
Looking forward to reading your comments…
To higher profits,
rich schefren
Tags: blog, join the conversation, joseph jaffe
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21 Responses to “Join The Conversation Or Watch Your Business Whither Away And Die”
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March 31st, 2008 2:10 pm
John
I have been looking for a good structured approach to keep from getting overwhelmed blogging and responding to others’ blogs. Joe’s advice, “I don’t think that it is unreasonable to recommend that people start their day just
like maybe they once read the newspaper to spend 30 minutes reading up every single morning with their cup of coffee, even before you allow yourself to get sucked into the daily grind, to spend 30 minutes a day getting smarter and
benefiting from all the great IP especially in the blogosphere.”
Great advice. I will start in the morning.
March 31st, 2008 3:13 pm
Peter
Hi Rich,
Thanks for sharing with us this book. I’m definitely going to get a hold of this book and read it as soon as possible.
Your recommendations are always top notch so I’m not worrying about wasting my time reading something that is filled with fluff.
One questions: Is this the book you mentioned at the Orlando Seminar last month?
Peter Kolat
March 31st, 2008 3:52 pm
Rod Beckwith
Hi Rich,
Excellent information…however I really was taken aback at his tone about the “Grubby Hands” of Marketers.
Thanks,
Rod
March 31st, 2008 4:39 pm
TheWordless
You mention Sir Gary…….and I recall a promise you once made: that if you outlived him you would write the tales of your (mis)adventures together. Right? Don’t make me track it down, now!?!
P.S. I’m glad you are so active, you are one of the few who can help fill the void now. Thank you.
March 31st, 2008 6:30 pm
Rich Schefren
I never made that promise… i think you are thinking of john carlton… but i am not too sure.
i knew gary pretty well - and we had our share of late night, and early morning conversations. we were even working on a project together before his untimely departure.
but when he passed away i saw some people claim a friendship with him who i know for a fact gary despised (he told me so). i can only guess they saw it as an opportunity to position themselves or something like that.
unfortunately, at the time, their actions turned me off to writing something about my friendship with gary.
i learned a lot from gary, and when i come across something i know he would of gotten a kick out of, i am reminded he’s no longer with us - and how much i wish he was still here.
March 31st, 2008 5:20 pm
D
Hi,
thanks for the great manifesto!
D
March 31st, 2008 5:43 pm
Nathan
Wow Rich - thanks for continuing the Thank You Gifts.
Now it’s my turn — THANK YOU!
March 31st, 2008 6:02 pm
Stephen
Hi Rich
I continue to read your material and thought-provoking research, and I appreciate the effort you make to really communicate. I’ve downloaded the transcript, so that’s my day’s reading.
What about the idea that people might better start their day reading their Bible for 30 minutes, and getting anchored into God, and the real reality, rather than feeding on opinions of opinions of opinions, and some version of the virtual reality?
Your comment about Miss Spears and the lotto guy suggested that the problem was not in acquiring wealth, but in having the wisdom to spend it wisely. So what is the source of that wisdom? Surely not the 50 billion other people who claw their way over each other so greedily for more money, expensive toys, power and influence, all for themselves.
Being honest, that is what most of the IM hype is for, isn’t it?
So there’s little point feeding the frenzy and, at the same time, lamenting the lack of wisdom people display with the fruits of that frenzy.
It’d be better to leave the internet and TV off, every day, until we gained more insight into reality and Truth. I suggest it’d alert us more to the moveable feast and outright manipulatiion that is so much of internet marketing. Perhaps that’s why it’s called virtual reality.
Thanks Rich. I appreciate the opportunity to comment.
March 31st, 2008 6:22 pm
Mandrake
I hate to be picky, but that is what happens when you do proof reading for people.
Rich, you have some great articles and comments but you really need someone to check the text occasionally.
In your headline you use the word “whither” where I am sure you mean “wither” which is to shrivel and die. “Whither” is a question as to where someone might be going. “Whither goest thou?” for example.
I cannot tell you the number of emails or sales pages I see that are laden with typos and there really isn’t any excuse these days.
Have I ever made mistakes or typos? Of course I have, but I make an effort to check what goes out because I truly believe that if people don’t pay attention to the details, how do I know they really care about what they promote to or sell to me.
Keep up the good work and, if you need a proof reader, let me know :o)
I have done this for other marketers …. the benefit of a British Public School education I fear !
Mandrake
March 31st, 2008 6:32 pm
E P
Rich and team,
On the comment of Sir Gary Halbert (I presume)
“if you outlived him you would write the tales of your (mis)adventures together”, this does indeed hold great promise and would be of immense interest to your market no doubt. Any time soon?
“I’m giving some thought to doing this on a biweekly or weekly basis. So if you’d like to see more interviews with more authors who “get it” and the notes I took while reading their books just let me know”
Please Rich *give it no more thought*.
This is a *must do*.
@ Stephen,
It is indeed rare that anyone seems to stop to ponder concepts of wisdom. However this is hardly the right place to do so as you are aware that the ‘conversation’ here is one of marketing and business primarily.
Business is essentially the science of doing things successfully and we certainly need people who find within themselves the initiative and drive to achieve things without any outside force making them do so.
Neither you or I would be able to join in this conversation, virtual or real, without this taking place. Whether capitalism or another system would be the better umbrella for these drives has proven almost as complex a question as to what the point of anything is in this existance, otherwise more commonly worded as: ‘what is the meaning of life?’
If you have noticed that one can use marketing to do cool things or conversely to try and satisfy unvirtuous vices at the expense of everyone else, well then perhaps you have hit upon the universal crux of the ‘game’. I would say almost anything I know in this world has the capacity to be implemented in these two opposing ways.
Everything, physical and otherwise.
Every human seems to be empowered and completely free to choose which.
That to me seems to be the point.
The greater power is never going to interfere in your experience because the gift we all have is one of unadulterated free will.
Think about it and choose wisely. That is in one of the reasons behind this reality.
March 31st, 2008 6:52 pm
Stephen
Hi EP
Thanks for your reply, much appreciated.
My comments were an attempt to raise the idea that simply looking further into the virtual realm cannot, in itself, give us the wisdom required to handle the benefits of the virtual realm. It is self-referential, whereas pausing, however briefly, to look to the eternal for guidance, is not.
I certainly agrees with you on the purpose of the conversation, but I am suggesting that ’success’ is a relative term, as Rich’s illustration of Spears and lotto confirms. Otherwise it becomes a term that allows all things, whether vice or virtue, as you suggest ca happen.
So what is a good measure of success if there is so many instances where lots of it is destructive, or at least counter-productive? Money alone won’t do the trick…
I appreciate that you took the time to comment
Stephen
March 31st, 2008 6:50 pm
Mary Alice Tully
Rich,
Appreciate your great content, but it would be ever so much more helpful if you would just state “it” plainly UP front, so we understand it when we see ‘it’, and learn from ‘it’. So if you were going to benefit financially from this ‘interview’, something like a cleaned up version of this:
“I am tapping into you, on my lists or readers, to try to separate you from your cash by interviewing certain authors that seek a wider audience for their books. The drill is I contact the ones that seem like a good fit, and of course they love the increased exposure to my list and readers to sell their book. Hopefully you learn something during my interview with them, and your interest is piqued to buy, which is the point, for the author and I to benefit. Get it?”
That would just be so refreshing.
Thank you.
March 31st, 2008 7:17 pm
E P
Mary I am not quite certain what the ideal result that you were aiming for was, but to my eyes you’ve just filtered out this message into something crass with that paragraph.
I’m not saying you are crass, not in any way.
The resulting paragraph, I am suggesting, is perhaps an example of the output you would expect if you put this useful & sincere content-rich page through the ‘crass-only’ filter.
March 31st, 2008 9:22 pm
Mary Alice Tully
I appreciate your polite response. I did say a cleaned up version of it! My point is that that when Info Marketers teach us, they often do three things at once, one of which is selling one level down the food chain. They make money on the internet teaching other people how to make money on the internet, and many an eager and sincere consumer just doesn’t understand much of this until they are educated enough to understand this circle and the hypnotic buying copy that is presented to them as ‘education’. It is unethical anywhere else to recommend a product and not disclose that you will get a commission from it, but in affiliate marketing, it is an accepted practice that is deceptive at best, whether or not the consumer derives benefit from interim learning. When the sender is writing you a personalized letter and does not disclose that s/he will get a commission when pushing a link of a ‘friend’ ‘pal’ ‘buddy’ or ‘expert’ brought to one’s electronic door…this is not ethical. There is no way around it. Rich, after over 7M in 2 years, can take the lead to eradicate this deceptive practice. I appreciate Rich and his generosity in many areas, but if it’s not easy for all to distinguish when one is in the middle of a sales pitch that includes a freebie vs. true non-self-serving information sharing, it degrades internet marketing and those who aspire to do it with full disclosure.
Appreciate the opportunity to learn, do not appreciate if it’s not clarified if the sender will make $ on each resulting sale.
I hope this clarifies my comment. Thank you.
March 31st, 2008 9:27 pm
Rich Schefren
just an fyi mary - the amazon link i gave is not an affiliate link - it’s a direct link - the only 3 people who make money are joe jaffe, his publishers, and the shareholders of amazon.
rich
March 31st, 2008 10:07 pm
Mary Alice Tully
Rich,
Then I applaud you, and that fact should be available when the copy goes out so people can read your free offers without being distracted by the industry standard of hidden agendas, and so others may follow such a lead and give truthful disclosure in each and every case. It’s not listbuilding or cross-promoting that is at issue. So many people have been hurt due to the lack of non-disclosures. Thank you for responding.
So a question back to you central to your Strategic Profits models. Other than providing free value to your viewers, can you enlighten us on the specific benefits (other than providing a free gift-in your case the book notes to the viewer) which accrue to you now, and will accrue to us later as we provide such gifts ourselves using your model.
Thank you, Mary
March 31st, 2008 9:23 pm
Rick Carter
Mary, Mary, Mary….
In “Tootsie,” Jessica Lange told Dustin Hoffman (in drag) that she thought it would be refreshing if a man would just walk up to her and say, “You know, I could lay a big line on you and we could do a lot of role-playing, but the simple truth is, is that I find you very interesting and I’d really like to make love to you.”
So when Dustin Hoffman - as Michael Dorsey - walked up to Jessica Lange at a party and said exactly THAT to her - she dumped a drink on his head.
Mary, the role of the marketer is to introduce solutions to people seeking those solutions. So your cynical paragraph is in fact correct, and Rich does this as well as anyone - and for FREE.
I’m trying to think of the last person who did NOT ask for money in exchange for information. Let’s face it - even Jesus had a treasurer.
Rick Carter
former cynic, now just a smartass
March 31st, 2008 7:35 pm
Harley M Storey
Hi Rich
Thanks for all the great info - it is so useful I realize you could be charging for it.
It is a great interview and represents the way the whole Net / 2.0 is going.
kind regards
Harley M Storey
Free Life Coach Tools
March 31st, 2008 8:59 pm
Jenny Ford
Bless you for offering a transcript, Rich!
I can read a 1-hour interview in less than 10 minutes, so a transcript is a massive time-saver for me.
Plus, if it’s a topic I already know a bit about, I can skim for the new stuff really easily when it’s in text form.
As the internet gets more media-rich, lazy marketers are just throwing up videos and audios without transcripts. That shows a total lack of regard for the value of my time, and often negates any goodwill they might have gained from giving me the valuable content.
Kudos to you, and I hope everyone reading this blog will follow your example.
By all means ADD video and audio content to text, but don’t SUBSTITUTE it for text.
Jenny
P.S. And your content rocks, Rich!
March 31st, 2008 9:20 pm
Ted Demopoulos, Effective Internet Presence
Joseph Jaffe really knows his stuff (and doesn’t need help selling his books either!).
Rich, although I’m a big fan of yours, I’m an even bigger fan now that you’re hanging out with the likes of Jaffe
Going to get a glass of wine and listen to the mp3 now — thanks.
March 31st, 2008 10:33 pm
Rebecca Bennett
Yes iam supposed to get a free lap top computer i was wondering if it was true or not. Is it a gimmic or what?? Could some one pls tell me if it is real or not pls??