Things got all stirred up here in Ray-land this past week, what with my post about the “gurus”. In today’s podcast I talk about what that was really all about…

As always, if you have feedback or suggestions I’d really like to hear from you.

Call in your questions or comments to our new, fancy “request line” at (509) 713-2679

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I got a royalty check from a client in my mailbox. That always makes me smile.

And as I was looking at that check, it made me think about how much fun this particular client is to work with — and I was reminded that I had an audio interview with this guy somewhere in my archives.

I found the interview, listened to it, and realized it’s just as relevant as it was the day we recorded it. So I’m giving it to you today.

This interview is a case study from one of my clients. I present it for inspiration and education only, and there is nothing for sale (not that there’s anything wrong with sellin’ stuff, mind you).

I worked on this Product Launch with Real Estate teacher Jack Bosch back in 2008. That was almost two years ago. Jack remains a client of mine (he’s still paying his royalties, like clockwork). This interview was recorded the day after we closed the cart on the launch.

It’s worth noting that, on day two of our launch…it seemed luck was not with us.

On the second day of the launch, a massive US Financial Collapse began.

The largest bank failure in US History was in the headlines. And yet…

We brought in over $1.12 million in 7 days. (Please note: I’m not claiming you can do the same. Most launches don’t do these kinds of numbers – this is definitely atypical… which is what makes it worth studying.)

Click Here To Listen To The $1.12 Million Launch Case Study With Ray Edwards

Listen to this case study interview and learn…

• How a penniless immigrant with no money and no English made $1.12 million in just a single week.
• The secrets that allowed Jack to create a massive info-product… assemble a team… and do a $1.12 million dollar launch in less than 3 months.
• If you think you have no experience, no expertise, and no chance of success… once you hear Jack’s story you will NEVER let those excuses hold you back again.
• How Jack learned the secret of rapid product creation, and how it changed his life (his first ebook took him 5 months… while his massive 26-CD course and 400 page manual only took 8 weeks!).
• The simple, easy-to-duplicate tactic that allowed Jack to create a 400 page workbook… without writing a word!
• What gets people “stuck” in creating their own product, and the magic that dissolves those mental blocks and makes things happen.
• Why Jack was shocked at my $30,000 retainer… and why he’s now GLAD he paid that amount (and more).
• Why copy is so important to JV partners — and it has NOTHING to do with the sales letter!
• The power of having an organized approach to doing a product launch… and which pieces are critical to your success.
• The “unexpected benefit” that brought in new JV partners like bees being drawn to honey… and it happened totally by accident (but from now on, Jack will be doing it on purpose).
• How to develop content for your videos and other marketing pieces using the power of persuasion in print to make your VIDEOS and AUDIOS more profitable.
• Why Jack was able to pull off a seven-figure launch even though disaster struck on Day 2… the largest bank failure in US History! (The secret tactic that allowed us to bring in 60% of our sales AFTER the bad news about the economy…and how you can apply this same secret in your own marketing).
• The one critical element that accounted for $400,000 in sales that would not have happened otherwise (how much money are you leaving on the table right now because you’re not doing this?).
  
• The deadly pitfalls that can stop your launch (or your business) in its tracks… and the simple steps you can take to avoid them every time (the secrets of how Jack picked a launch date 3 months in advance and actually launched on that day!).
• Why it’s okay to start even before you “know what you’re doing” — and why it might even be crucial that you do in fact “start before you’re ready”.

Click Here To Listen To The $1.12 Million Launch Case Study With Ray Edwards

Wow, I got a lot of feedback on my last podcast about thinking bigger. And not all of it was positive.

So in today’s podcast, I address some of the biggest questions that keep cropping up.

Two main topics today:

1. A tool to help you breakthrough to bigger thinking.

2. A way to overcome your biggest limitation (it’s probably not what you’re thinking).

3. Our very first Q&A session!

As always, if you have feedback or suggestions I’d really like to hear from you.

Call in your questions or comments to our new, fancy “request line” at (509) 713-2679

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Don’t you think it’s time you started getting the most out of life? Out of your business?

So do I. And today’s podcast is about how to do just that!

Two main topics today:

1. How to solve any marketing problem
2. How to think bigger (for the right reasons)

Resources Mentioned In The Show

• Feedblitz

As always, if you have feedback or suggestions I’d really like to hear from you.

Call in your questions or comments to our new, fancy “request line” at (509) 713-2679

Click for the Podcast Audio:

Click Here

It’s another “On The Road” Edition of the show… recorded “live” in the Copywriting Motorhome somewhere in the hills of South Carolina.

Today we talk about the “BS Lies That Hold You Back”, “Loser’s Limp”, and my favorite new internet gizmo.

Resources Mentioned In The Show

• Web Copywriting Explained
• Apple iPad

And once again, if you have feedback or suggestions I’d really like to hear from you.

You can call in your questions for next show at (509)624-2220 … just tell my receptionist you need to leave a VOICEMAIL message for Ray.

UPDATE: Call in your questions to our new, fancy “request line” at (509) 713-2679

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This is the “On The Road” Edition of the show… recorded “live” in a coffee shop. Wow.

Hey it just goes to show you: imperfect action beats perfect contemplation, every time.

For those who are interested, here’s the microphone I’m using – I wrongly said in the show it was a Logitech, but it’s actually a Plantronics headset.

Resources Mentioned In The Show

• Product Launch Formula
• Market Samurai

And once again, if you have feedback or suggestions I’d really like to hear from you.

What would make the show something you would NOT miss? What would make it a MUST-LISTEN?

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The Story: Follow up to the initial episode of Ray Edwards Show podcast — all about marketing and productivity.

The Point: Know what drives me bananas? People who spout off about how  you should stop “trading time for dollars”. I think it’s virtually impossible to avoid “trading time for dollars”. And I think I do a pretty darn good job proving it in this podcast.

And once again, if you have feedback or suggestions I’d really like to hear from you.

What would make the show something you would NOT miss? What would make it a MUST-LISTEN?

The Resource From “Tips, Tools and Tactics”: Linx Boss Backlinking Service

Click for the Podcast Audio:

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The Story: Brand new Ray Edwards Show podcast — all about marketing and productivity.

The Point: Getting the podcast off the ground, despite being on the road in the RV and despite slightly crappy audio. We’ve got two episodes in the can, and the audio turned out to be not as good as I would have hoped. BUT… in the spirit of getting things done, I’m releasing them anyway. Audio will get better, I promise.

And if you have feedback or suggestions I’d really like to hear from you. What would make the show something you would NOT miss? What would make it a MUST-LISTEN?

The Resource From “Tips, Tools and Tactics”: Unique Article Wizard

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Most of us work too hard to really get anything done.

There are many studies that demonstrate that multimillion dollar CEOs spend less than 30 minutes per day doing the work they’re actually paid to do.

Why is this?

It’s because the higher we go in our levels of responsibility (and this is especially salient for entrepreneurs) the more likely it is we will be interrupted throughout the day by concerns, people, and tasks that are urgent (needs attention from someone immediately) but not necessarily important (needs high-level attention from the entrepreneur, CEO, or manager).

This applies even if you are a freelance worker (or perhaps you started your own online business in your “spare time”).

The key to success on a massive scale is to focus on revenue-generating activities as much as possible.

Here’s how you do that…

Focus on Revenue Generation

If you were to analyze your day, you would no doubt discover that less than 20% of your daily activity produces 80% or more of your total revenue.

Another way of looking at this is to realize that 80% of what you do doesn’t really contribute to your income in a directly measurable way.

You may be familiar with this as Pareto’s Law: “80% of the results typically come from only 20% of the activity”.

Instead of expending a lot of effort trying to change that 20% number to a higher percentage-save 50 or 60%-it might be more useful to consider simply eliminating the 80%.

Sound almost impossible? In fact, you already know how to do this…

Day Before Vacation Phenomena

Have you ever experienced “the day before vacation phenomena”?

You know what I’m talking about.

You’re leaving for vacation on, let’s say, a Thursday. Have you ever noticed how that Wednesday becomes the most efficient work day you’ve had in many weeks (perhaps months)?

Have you noticed how, on the day before vacation starts, you get 10 times the work done in a single day?

You’ve probably also noticed the wonderful euphoric feeling you experience when you walk out of the office on that day… how you feel that everything is in its place, each task is handled, each responsibility delegated to a team member, or at the very least deferred until you get back.

On those days, don’t you feel more at peace, in control, and effortlessly productive then on 99% of the other days of the year?

So there it is: your proof that you’re actually capable of eliminating the 80% of normal time-wasting, revenue-depressing, stress-inducing activity that makes up most of your days.

Dan, The “No Email Man”

I have a colleague named Dan who doesn’t do e-mail.

I don’t mean that he does “very little” e-mail… I mean he doesn’t do e-mail at all. Doesn’t have an e-mail address.

Dan also doesn’t have a cell phone. If you want to talk to Dan, you have to call him at his office; his phone is answered by his assistant who deftly protects Dan from time-wasting phone calls and appointments.

In fact, Dan has very few appointments. Yet he is very productive, very receptive and open to talking with people, and runs a multimillion dollar business. He somehow manages to do it while living a sane, orderly, and peaceful life.

So what excuse do the rest of us have?

My 3-Month Experiment

Just a few weeks ago, I wrapped up a three-month experiment.

For three months, my wife and I traveled the United States in our motorhome.

We ran our business in our “spare time” from that motorhome-using laptops, WiFi Internet connections, and UPS stores.

While I will admit it was challenging at times, I can also tell you that on average for that three-month period, I worked about three hours a day (weekdays).

Normally, my work day is anywhere from 8-10 hours long.

It was startling to realize that I could maintain (actually not just maintain, but increase) my net income while working around one third fewer hours.

Now that I’m back in my “normal” environment, I am remaining very conscious of how much time I spend working-versus how much time I spend “being busy”, giving the APPEARANCE of work.

You see, I already know it’s possible to maintain my income working only three hours a day.

I should be clear: some days are 12 hour days, and some days are zero-hour days.

It only averages out to three hours per day-it’s never as neat as exactly 180 minutes each day. But that misses the point. The point is: what on earth have I been doing with those other 7-9 hours each day?

How bout you?

What could you do with an extra 7-9 hours of discretionary time every single day?

Think about that.

Going Cold Turkey

Last weekend I decided to experiment with my colleague Dan’s lifestyle.

My wife and I got in our motorhome once again, and drove about six hours to a lake in Oregon. We visited a state park… where there is no Internet service, and no cell phone signal.

That meant I wasn’t able to “sneak in” an e-mail scan, or send out “tweet” on Twitter.

Going cold turkey was interesting.

The first day I was a bit jittery. I experienced some “withdrawal” symptoms.

The second day I experienced a feeling of relaxation I haven’t felt in a very long time.

By the third day, I was ready to continue the experiment for another two or three months-however, it was time to come back home!

These “free days”, as Dan Sullivan calls them – are days where you have absolutely no contact with anything work related (cell phone, voice mail, Internet, files, business reading, etc.).

In my experience, “free days” have almost magical powers to renew and revitalize your spirit, body and mind.

Since getting back from my three-day “cold Turkey” experiment, I’ve been more productive or energetic and more efficient than I have been for a long time.

So those “free days” are now on my calendar every single week; Friday through Sunday are work-free zones.

Having this space to let my mind unwind, to let my spirit relax, allows me to bring back more creativity, energy and enthusiasm to the work I do Monday through Thursday.

I benefit, my family benefits, my clients and their customers all benefit.

Try Your Own Experiment

So what does all this mean to you?

After all, you may or may not have the luxury of spending three months puttering around the USA in your motorhome (we were very blessed by God in being allowed such a privilege).

You may also find it seemingly impossible to take three days a week “off”.

But certainly you could take a single day, couldn’t you?

After all, most of the major spiritual traditions of the world include some form of the “day of rest”. I think that is for a very important reason: we were designed to require such a day of rest each week.

So this week-just for this one week – take a single day that is totally free from any work.

For that 24-hour period put yourself on a diet or you don’t take in any e-mails, Twitter messages, voice mails, cell phone calls, meetings or work of any kind.

You’ll be forced to find other things to do.

Some suggestions that might help you:

• Take a long walk with someone you love
• Spend some time over coffee talking
• Go see a play or movie, read a good (non-work related) book
• Play a game
• Go visit an old friend or loved one

While this kind of “slowing down” might be difficult for some of us, I believe the benefits are extraordinary.

But don’t take my word for it.

Try it and see for yourself.

An Advanced Experiment

If you are “all in” for taking a single day off in the next week, perhaps you’d also like to try the advanced part of the experiment.

Two ways we fill that 80% of wasted time each week is in doing things that we either (a) don’t like to do or (b) are not good at doing.

My suggested “advanced experiment” is to choose three of those things (things you either don’t like to do, or that you are not good at) and find someone else to do them for you.

Your three items that you are going to “delegate” or “out-source” could be small and insignificant, or they could be large and important items.

They could be as simple as dusting the bookshelves, or as complex as creating the project plan for a major new initiative in your company. That’s up to you.

I’m only asking you to follow some simple directions:

1. Pick something that you’re either not good at, or that you don’t like to do. And if you want extra credit pick something that fits both of those criteria.

2. Pick something that definitely falls in the “80 percentile group”; something that is not directly revenue-producing for your company or your business.

3. Pick three such “somethings”.

4. Select someone else to take care of these three tasks on your behalf. It can be someone you know personally, who does it simply as a favor to you; it can be someone on your staff to whom you assigned the task; or you can “outsource” the task to someone in another state (or even on another continent) using the Internet. It doesn’t really matter who you get to take care of it, it simply matters that it isn’t you.

By the way, if you’ve never outsourced a task using the Internet, you might find it valuable to join Kirt Christensen and I for our one-dollar (yep, $1) webinar this week which is on the subject of outsourcing:

http://DollarWebinar.com <– Register Here

It’s no coincidence that outsourcing is the subject of this week’s webinar – this subject has been very much on my mind recently (for obvious reasons), so that’s why we’re doing the webinar.

We’ll show you some interesting ways you can outsource just about anything in your life – from getting your laundry done, to making travel arrangements, to creating crucial reports for your business, designing websites, setting up “little income streams”, and just about anything else you can dream of.

We’ll also show you our tools, websites we use to find outsourced workers, and software (much of it free) that we use to manage all this.

In the meantime, try your own experiment (as outlined above) – and let me know your thoughts below.

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Funny story.

Back in my radio days, one of the shows I was in charge of was a morning radio team.

And this particular morning team had a regular feature where a couple of psychotherapists woud come on each week.

When I say a “couple”, I mean it. They were actually a COUPLE, and they were both actually THERAPISTS (can you imagine the dinner table conversations?).

Anyhow, I knew this couple only as characters on this particular morning show. “Judith and Jim” was how I knew them. And I knew only their voices.

Fast forward a few years later.

I had left the radio business, and was at an Internet Marketing seminar.

During one of the presentations, I noticed this couple sitting near the front, and I noticed  they were asking lots of questions. And their voices sounded familiar. And their names were… Judith and Jim.

We connected for the first time in person, and we’ve been friends ever since. (Okay, so it was “funny” as in “coincidence” and not funny as in “LOL”).

To continue my story…

I discovered that Jim and Judith ventured into online marketing just four years ago. Along the way, they had to overcome their technical deficiencies and learn to make friends with their computer. Even more so, they had to, in their own words, “open our minds to an entirely new way of being in the world, a whole new and very different mindset-a marketing/business mindset”.

But there was a problem. As they attended lots of marketing conferences, they felt something was wrong.

According to Judith and Jim, “We always felt a sense of displacement, a feeling of not belonging, of somehow being outsiders.”

As they connected with people at those same  conferences they learned that others had the same complaint. And they noticed a pattern: All those who voiced this kind of discomfort were service providers, care-givers, change agents of some kind, men and women who had dedicated their lives to helping others-heart-to-heart.

“It became clear that there was a segment of the Internet marketplace that was not being served,” says Judith.

Jim chimes in, “That segment is peopled by soft sell marketers-all of us who are care-givers and life-change artists as distinct from accumulation artists whose focus is money first and foremost.”

And now these two friends of mine have written a book on the subject of soft sell marketing for service providers… and for people who don’t like hard-sell approaches. I recommend you get a copy of The Heart of Marketing.