Hello. We're 25 minutes away from launching our first podcast over on our sister site at Tailored Podcast.

The work that goes into setting everything up for launch has been pretty extensive and just when we thought we had everything organised we discovered a fantastic little Flash player that allows you to stream in the audio without having to download the entire file.

This is one cool bit of software so, in pursuit of providing the best and easiest solutions for listeners, we have purchased the software and have been busily figuring it out so that when the podcast launches in a few minutes you can hit 'Play' and have the audio stream in (you can subscribe to it as well of course).

It's very groovy.

Anyway, I'd better get back to it.

Check out Tailored Podcast in the next 25 minutes or so....and remember, if you listen you can enter our competition to win a Mini iPod. It's drawn Friday.

Cheers

Brendon

 
 

 
 

Why You Might Pay More....And Why Beautiful Models Earn Their Money

I had a brief conversation with a client today where we set up a meeting for next week. The client has received 3 quotes for his web project and we're the most expensive by far. The client is a savvy business guy and understands that quality sometimes costs more.

So he's keen to meet and discuss our proposal and why it is so much more than the others.

What My Job Is

My job is to demonstrate to the client our value. To justify paying more. Now I'll do that via testimonials, guarantees, examples of previous work, etc.

I'll discuss our experience, our contacts and our expertise and then quantify what that means to him and the impact all of that will have on his sales.

It's The Same Reason I Never Begrudge Models Their Money

As a marketer, over the years I've worked with models. We source models for various projects and it's fair to say that many people seem to baulk when we quote the hourly rate for a model.

But I think all models earn every single cent.

Let's say you pay $150 for a model for an hour. He/She doesn't just show up and stand about for an hour.

To look as good as they do they requires a whole lifestyle, not just an hour:

 
 

 
 

 
 

I know, I know. I'm not exactly giving fresh information here but it never ceases to amaze me.

I'll give you 2 examples. 1 long, 1 short.

# 1: I was in a football tipping competition against a friend of mine. I lost. At the end of the season I owed him 7 cartons of the best beer here in Australia. $350 worth of beer. Damn!

Anyway, this friend lives 2,000 kms away. I don't know him real, real well but in the same city I have my oldest friend (since school days buddy, camping buddy, diving for crayfish, drinking buddy, in his wedding buddy).

So I called up my old friend, I'll call him Dave (after all that's his name....... an oldie but a goodie!), and asked Dave to drop over the 7 cartons of beer.

A week or 2 later Dave and his wife came up to my city for a few days R & R. We went out to dinner as we always do. Now Dave and I, being the oldest of friends, cannot offend each other. We're blokes. It's an impossibility here in Australia for old, old male friends to offend each other.

"Let's Flip A Coin"

Dinner came to $150 and Dave said" Let's flip a coin for it." So we did. And I won.

We went out for some post-dinner drinks. Another $50. Another flip of the coin. Another win to me! Woooohoooo.

My Wife Was Horrified

My wife was horrified! She couldn't believe that Dave paid for the beer and delivered it. And she couldn't believe that Dave and his wife Elanora came to our city and we went out for dinner and I flipped a coin to see who pays.

My thinking with Dave was the exact opposite: My thinking was "Sucker!"

(After all this is a guy who crashed into my little Gemini car in his Landrover 20 years ago when I was stopped at a red light. He then proceeded to keep accelerating and trying to push me into the middle of the intersection!)

I was thinking that my $350 was down to $150. $200 in just 2 flips of the coin - did I say Wooooohooo already???! And the fact that I hadn't paid Dave the original $350 I owed him for a couple of weeks was even better!

Anyway, my wife wouldn't hear of it. She has applied pressure like only a wife can (all the married guys reading this blog are going "Yep, Brendon, I hear what you're saying.").

And get the upshoot of all this: I paid Dave his $350 for the beer. And the $200 for the dinner and drinks!

Dave rang today when he got the money in the mail. The only word he left on my voicemail? "Sucker!!"

# 2: When my wife is away I don't make the bed. I figure it's only going to get messy again as soon as I get back in. That drives her insane. Even though she doesn't have to sleep in it (I so don't get women!).

It's an unmade bed that she doesn't know about. And it drives her crazy!



Shouldn't Women Figure Out How To Market To Women?

Shouldn't women market to women? Of course they should.

When I look at a marketing strategy the first thing I do is try and understand the market. I check out what influences the market. I immerse myself as much as possible into the target's culture. And that's usually okay.... except I look terrible in a dress so I have a lot of trouble with the immersion thing there.

If you are one of the market you are trying to target then you have a big, big advantage over a guy like me. A guy who isn't in sync with the target market.

Even though I have tons of marketing experience, don't discount your experience. After all, no one knows you better than you.

Regards

Brendon

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Yet agents continue to spend upwards of $40,000 per year on newspaper advertising which is "completely inverse to where their listings are coming from" according to Stephen Sharry, CEO of franchise chain Raine & Horne.

I don't know why that is - I'd guess because they don't understand the web, are scared of it, or just don't know where to start.

I proposed a blog for a local real estate agent a few months back. he's still thinking about it.

I think a personal blog would be a fantastic place for an agent to get a taste of the effectiveness and power of the web.

Cheers

Brendon

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

I play tennis every Thursday against 2 friends - Alister and Greg (pictured left). We play a Round Robin - it's the first person to win 15 games.


Last Thursday they got the better of me and I had about 8 games when they both had 12. Then they both got to 13 games each.

We were the last people scheduled on the court and the Tennis Court manager had automatically set the lights to go off at 9.30 pm.

At 9.20 pm Greg and Alister had 14 games each. Then they were playing each other. Alister got to 30-15. Just 2 points away from victory (and $50 from Greg and I each!).

He Tossed The Ball Up.......

He tossed the ball up to serve and at that precise moment everything went black. That meant 1 of 2 things.



1. I had shut my eyes
2. The timer at the tennis court controlling the lights was a bit dodgy

Bad luck for Alister - his $100 win had just been snatched away! The tennis court lights were off and staying off. Greg and I did a little jig (that no-one could see) and walked off the court very happy.

We ignored Alister's calls of "It's not too bad. We can play by noise......

Alister Was Leading By 6 Games

Alister was leading by 6 games at one stage. But he didn't take his chances. He didn't take any risks. He decided to play safe (he choked basically!).

If there is a business parallel here it is this: don't always play safe. There are times when you have to put yourself on the line and take the risk.

Business can be a risk. Minimise the risks as much as possible but don't be afraid to take the bold and daring step that could mean the difference between winning and losing.

Cheers

Brendon

 
 

 
 

 
 

Why You Should Enter Competitions, Awards, Etc

I did a couple of speeches last week to 120 people at a business seminar. The speeches seemed to go well but now I think I may have sucked. You see, I gave people a page to visit for more information.

The page was full of resources (links, white papers, etc) related to my talks. At the top of the page was a request to complete a short survey to give me some feedback on how they thought I did. The incentive to do the survey was that you then went in the draw to win $100 worth of books from Amazon.

The photo here is the names of the 3 people who went into the draw to win. Yep, only 3 people did the survey. Not many more people looked at the page.

Always enter competitions, enter your work/self for awards, etc.

You never know how many other people have entered - and you just might win $100 worth of books from Amazon like Jenny did.

Regards

Brendon