If your gut had a megaphone…

The other day I talked with a gentleman who had grown his business, profitably, to more than $60,000,000 in sales. But then he decided that to grow further, he should bring in a professional management team. And so he did. It didn’t take long before he had this gut feeling that he had made a…

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So how should a consultant charge? Hourly or project based?

A new consultant on a forum I belong to posted this question: I’m getting started with my first consulting clients and my main focus is email marketing but I also have experience with content marketing and I can advise on web page layout and design in terms of visitor experience and conversion. The general gist…

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A sucker’s game.

Walking into my regular coffee shop this morning, I saw Jonathan, another regular, reading a copy of “Mastery” by Robert Greene. “Oh, I just finished listening to the audiobook,” I said. “Excellent book. Did you read his other books?” Nope. This was Jonathan’s first Robert Greene book. My first was “The 48 Laws of Power,”…

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The Count of Monte Cristo was a page turner. Did you read it?

The Count of Monte Cristo was a page turner. Did you read it? Edmond Dantès. Now there was a man with power! He made things happen. I admit that I loved the book because I was awed by, and jealous of, his almost super human power. Who wouldn’t want to be like him? With elaborate…

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Sometimes the best way to increase your fees is…

One of the ‘implementors’ in my Plenty of Clients Implementation Program posted the following in our private Oasis Forums yesterday: — Hi Dov, A quick note: During our initial chat, you asked what I charged clients for the [xyz] projects that I do. $1500 was my flat fee for this service. You commented that you…

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Kim Ki-hoon earns $4 Million as a teacher.

Kim Ki-hoon earns $4 million a year as a teacher in South Korea, says the Wall Street Journal. While shocking at first, it becomes less so the more you learn about how he does it. First, he’s not working in the public school system. He works in the private after-school tutoring system where there’s no…

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Philip Nickerson called four company presidents and got four meetings.

Let me tell you about Philip Nickerson. In just the last week Philip scheduled meetings with four of his ideal clients. They are all company presidents in his niche. He’d never spoken to any of them before. As recently as a month ago, Philip never thought to aim that high. His hope was to reach…

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Jumping at the next exciting thing vs. focused mastery of your craft

Dale reached out to me a couple of weeks ago. He’s an entrepreneur who’s had some success, but in a business that constantly changes. Why is he in that business? Well, it looked good at the time. It was hot. Growing. Everyone was doing it. But it’s unstable for all but the most dedicated players.…

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A decision made in 1953 snowballs and buries good people in 2013

And so the City of Detroit filed for bankruptcy. According to the Wall Street Journal, public services in the city have declined to where it now takes 58 minutes, on average, for police to respond. And it has one of the highest violent crimes rates in the country. One third of the city’s ambulances and…

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Book agent says “No, too intelligent.” Amazon customers say “Yes!” and buy the book.

When I logged into my Amazon account yesterday, they were featuring an article about an author who had been “discovered” by Amazon customers. “Before Amazon customers helped make her young-adult novel an award winner, agents told Regina Sirois her book was ‘too intelligent.’” H. L. Menkin famously said “No one ever went broke underestimating the…

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