Tag: Southern Oregon

Business Hacks For Chaotic Times 💈💼 (G St. Barber Co. in Grants Pass)

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Brian talks about the attention a local barbershop (G St. Barber Co.) received from offering free haircuts to those looking for work.

link to article – https://www.kdrv.com/community/free-haircuts-for-those-in-need/article_2a1c3528-a654-11ec-a5f9-e30b527f5a1d.html

Transcription

Business hacks for chaotic times.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Check out this article I found. I also found a video regarding something happening right here in town, you may have something like this happening where you live also, where we have a barbershop that’s offering free haircuts to anyone that is looking to get go out and get a job interview and is looking to move themselves up in the world, but they can’t afford it.

This is just a helpful leg up to be able to help out but what it also is, is an amazing marketing tool is you’re using a situation that everyone’s aware of the crunch of money and everything else and tough times and using it to your advantage by offering something.

I mean, think about a barbershop think about all the time in a barbershop, where you have an empty chair. There are tons of periods of time where there’s just nobody coming in and we’ve nobody’s coming in, no money is being made in most cases, as smarter barbers may have a subscription program or something like that setup but if you don’t, then chances are you need it.

You need all the help you can get even if it’s a free person, because it’s one of those businesses. That’s very special in the fact that people don’t like switching up.

Especially men don’t like switching up where they go to get their hair done. Once they commit there, they’re there for life.

So you get you get somebody to come once or twice to the same barber. If they’re happy with the results, they’ll keep coming.

If they’re even partially happy with the results. They will keep coming, which is a which is a really cool deal.

Congratulations to this fella for setting up this program here locally. It’s something you can do even if you don’t have a barber shop. That’s not even if you don’t even have a local retail shop.

Find ways to offer to make an offer that’s tied to the news that’s tied to the conversation already going on in people’s heads and you’ll go far. It’s a nice quick tip for tonight.

Go check out, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business my book that’s all about how to overcome competition works in into any industry whatsoever. If you purchase this read it and you say it can’t work in your industry. I would love to interview you and I will give you double your money back. So reach out today.

Go go pick up your own free copy. If you don’t want to pay for it, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business. Free copy at AmazonProofBook.com.

AmazonProofBook.com, all one word.

You have a great night. We’ll see you tomorrow.

In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.

Expect Nothing, Appreciate Everything 🤔

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Brian talks about a quote he saw while driving around town.

Transcription

Expect nothing, appreciate everything.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I saw this quote, when I was driving down the street. There’s a local, I believe it’s an insurance company. Now I got to look it up, I apologize to them for not remembering who they are, where they have the Wendy’s marquee signs.

They switch the letters around to put up interesting sayings. And this isn’t the first one that I’ve written down, I may have even done an episode on this on these guys before because they have interesting quotes.

This is another one that is very interesting to me because I agree with the general spirit of it. But I disagree with the exact nature of it. Okay, and I’ll get into it in a second.

So the first half of this is expect nothing.

And that is the part that I have a little bit of issue with.

Here’s what I mean, in English. I’m quite certain that I’ve seen this in other languages where there are different words, for very different things. But in English, we tend to use a lot of the same words for all the same thing, but for very different things.

Expectation is one of those words that we use to explain a whole lot of different things. And I’m going to talk about two of them right now.

First, there’s very much a difference in the human psyche. When you’re talking about any emotional expectation, versus an almost factual expectation. I heard this the other day, this analogy and let me try and use it here and see if it fits, I’m thinking of it as we’re sitting here.

If you turn on a light, and you’ve been in the room a million times, you know, the electricity is on because other lights in the house are on. But you go in this particular room, you turn the switch on, you expect the light to turn on, it’s not an emotional expectation, you expect it.

If everything’s working properly, the light will turn off. And if the bulb has burned out, whether you know it or if you don’t know it, or if something if a mouse chew through the wiring or something it won’t turn on.

The expectation doesn’t do anything different because you have a very factual it’s a very straightforward expectation. It’s just direct.

When you get emotional about your expectations, I mean, even the emotional, the term emotion, and emotional have been twisted quite a lot through the years.

When I’m saying emotional, I’m talking negative, emotional. So it means you put your self-worth and you’re very being into the idea of what happens in life.

That type of emotional expectation where if something doesn’t happen the way you want, you’re crushed.

As opposed to just saying, this is the way it’s going to be this way I expect it to happen. And I’m moving forward under that expectation.

The emotional expectation and the way I’m describing that type of emotional expectation, I think is one of the most damaging things to people’s lives. Because they expect something not based on reality, but based on this false emotional reality that we create on the inside.

When you do that, you can see that happen over and over and over again with people’s lives who get their hopes up about something get all wound up about something and they build up this almost this intensity of I’m not sure if I can think of the word but its entitlement in a sense.

There’s an entitlement that comes with that type of desire, that type of expectation and that sense, expecting nothing, I think is the right thing.

That’s the right answer for that but also, all the greatest things in life come from proper expectation.

If you don’t expect the plane to go up in the air, and land properly, like it’s done 1,000 times before. It’ll most likely do every time even if you flew a plane from now until the end of your life, and you’re on a plane for every second.

More than likely statistically showing you can expect that plane to go up and land properly. But if you don’t have that factual expectation, and you get caught up in the, in the emotion, the opposite end of emotions.

If you’ll never do anything in life, if you don’t expect the right thing, if you expect that plane to crash, even though all the facts say that it probably won’t. If you expect that plane to crash, it’s going to keep you from doing the wrong thing.

So we no matter what you can’t help from having expectations, if you don’t have the right expectation, it’s more of whether you have a good expectation or a bad expectation.

Expectations are just a part of life you have to have, you have to expect that your house is still going to be there. When you open your eyes in the morning.

It’s not even something you even think about.

It’s an automatic thing, expectation is part of the process, you have to expect certain things. And the people who really have amazing things happen in their life, you’ll see that they set things up to expect it that way. And by expecting it allowed them to go beyond their comfort zone.

Beyond the normal, everyone that’s ever built a business expected it to function properly.

Now, that doesn’t mean it will, it doesn’t mean it did everything they wanted it to but they expected good results, otherwise they wouldn’t have done it. And that type of expectation is absolutely necessary.

So we use the same word for almost two completely different things. So in that sense from that quote, expect nothing I disagree. Expect everything.

It was how I would change that quote, expect anything is really what it should be expect anything. expect anything can happen. Expect World War Three can happen.

Expected a wonderful outcome for your life can happen. Expect anything is possible and can be possible expect anything and appreciate everything.

I don’t think I can come off with anything wrong with that.

I think appreciating everything is an absolute necessity to having a good life.

The book, Victor Frankel’s Man’s Search for Meaning. I think that’s kind of a huge point of that book is you appreciate is a guy that went through the concentration camps and everything and came out appreciating life more after having his wife and children killed by the Nazis and him.

A hair’s away from being killed by them but a couple of times in that story of his life. Incredible stuff so I don’t get well deeper today, a little out there.

Hopefully it’s helpful to you.

I’ve got a book, 9 ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business is not as deep but it does kind of take you outside of the realm of your business. If you own a business or if you’re an executive in a business.

It’d be helpful to you, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business. You can get a free copy at AmazonProofBook.com or purchase it wherever books are sold.

That’s all I have for tonight. You have a good one went back tomorrow.

So get out there and let the magic to happen.

Don’t Be The Last Snowman ☃️

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Brian shares a sad picture of a snowman in his local area of Grants Pass, Oregon

Transcription

Don’t be the last snowman.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Lately, we’ve gotten quite a bit more snow than we normally get in most winters here in Grants Pass or some winters that we don’t see any other than on the surrounding hills.

But when we do get it tends to not stick around too long. But we’ve had quiet we’ve had two big, good-sized snowstorms where we had some snow that sat on the ground for a while.

I know a lot of those you who are in more snowier areas are going, Ah, I wish I had that good. But I mean, I so reason why I picked to live around this area. It’s a nice, really nice climate.

We had a situation where, during Christmas, we were out of town. And when we came back, the snow was still just starting to melt and it was kind of cool. But one thing I noticed this trend, and it was a trend that you would see the entire eventually you’d see the entire yard of somebody’s yard.

No snow except for one snowman just hanging on and I got to take a picture of this one snowman here that you can see, if you’re watching this, if you do not imagine a very pathetic looking snowman, with a baseball cap on and a stick hold partially holding him up. An even empty beer can or soda can next to him.

It’s just, it’s a sad thing. And it kind of reminded me of it as an analogy for a lot of people in business nowadays.

They will be so stubborn to stick with doing something the same way they’ve always done it.

Even though everything’s melting all around them, their entire industry is falling around them or their competitors are falling down, and they’re just gonna hang in there, they’re gonna be the last one to melt, as if there’s any good side to be in the last one to go down.

The last of the snow people, you know, snowman, snow woman, I don’t know what the official term is anymore, but let’s just say snowman for now.

It’s sad to see that and if you’re a person that’s in business, and you consider yourself kind of stubborn, you kind of have to be stubborn to get into business, to begin with.

Then if you’re gonna stick with business a long time, you can’t, you’re gonna have to be stubborn. But you got to be flexible in the areas that determine the principles of why you’re doing what you’re doing.

You know, what’s the reason behind it?

Is it just a hobby?

Now, if it’s just a hobby, I understand, okay, you’ve got money coming in somewhere else. And this is just a fun thing on the side, and you’re going to stick to your guns and be the last be the last one standing. But it’s not that useful.

For most of us, most of us get caught up in the wrong things when we’re in the Battle of business, get caught up in the wrong areas.

It’s important to catch yourself and realize that you’re really the last snowman. And what you need to do is get up and move to a colder climate, you need to get out of town right away, or you need to to change, you need to become something other than a snowman, if that makes sense.

So these are these are some of the ideas that I I talk about a lot with business owners as I as I love asking people about their stories and where they came from. And it’s a common theme to be the last one to melt and make sure that it’s not you or anybody that you know.

And if it is I recommend them check out my book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business. You can get go purchase a copy wherever you get books, or you can go get a free copy. Free digital copy at AmazonProofBook.com. AmazonProofBook.com.

That’s all I have for tonight. You have a good one.

We’ll be back here tomorrow. In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.

Secret Zoom Hack 💻

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Brian talks about tips he uses when on local Chamber Greeters calls on Zoom.

Transcription

Secret zoom hack.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Let’s talk about zoom, shall we?

I have a lot of meetings that I have on zoom, sorry about the shaky camera work, I’ll get it stable here. There we go.

I’ve got a lot of meetings I do on zoom. Most of them are one on one meetings with individuals but I have a number of meetings that I do with large groups of people, a lot of them that I don’t even know. And here’s a fun thing to do.

This comes in real handy if you’re would normally go to something like a public meeting but this is now because of a certain situation, you may be stuck on zoom.

So a lot of mixers and things like that right now a lot of them are contained to zoom meetings. And so I go to a what they call a chamber of commerce meeting that’s called greeters.

Sometimes they’re called mixers, or that there are other terms for him. But it’s the basic ideas that everyone has a chance to speak real quick about their business. And it’s just a way to get to know everyone. And a lot of the stuff happens.

While before and after the meeting, it’s getting to talk to everyone before and afterward, that’s really where the magic happens, you don’t have that on zoom.

So what you’re left with is a little bit of chatter going on in the chatbox and you just kind of have to get bits and pieces here and there.

So here’s a little hack that I’ve been able to come up with and it’s extremely simple, and you may already be doing it. But if you’re in a situation like this, here’s what I recommend you do.

While it is going on, you either sit there with your phone, or another device connected to the internet and you’re looking for the things that people are bringing up, or you’re writing down their information, you’re writing down their names, and the names of their businesses, so that you can then connect with them in other sources.

So I check LinkedIn, I check Facebook, I check Instagram, any other places that you think you could connect up with these people. And if in a situation like Chamber of Commerce, you’re kind of expected to be able to meet and be able to connect and all these different places.

So it’s not that big a deal, I throw out a connection on LinkedIn pretty easily out to these people, because they’ve already heard from me, so they know me from there, I know them from there, whether we’ve had a one on one conversation or not, I do try and connect with people.

If you’re in a situation where you’re not quite sure if they know who you are, and everything else, you could just say, Hey, I saw you in the meeting this morning. just figured I’d see if you’d be willing to connect here.

Or if you want to be friends or whatever, if you’re talking to Instagram, and but places like Instagram places like Twitter, you can follow them without them having to follow you.

You’re just tossing it out there you’re putting, you’re putting everything out there. But at least from that point forward, you can start to pay attention to them.

If I don’t get somebody connecting with me on LinkedIn, I’ll follow them, it’s a very common way to be able to still connect with someone without them having to connect back with you.

Then you can learn more about them over time and start a conversation sometime later. It’s not that big of a deal. But it’s a start, it’s a start to, if you’re looking to reach out more and meet more people, it’s a great way of doing it. Now here’s the reverse side of that hack.

The reverse side is you’ve got to make sure that you yourself are able to be contacted easily. So you got to make sure that you put your name out there. In my particular greeter’s meeting that I’m thinking of we’re allowed to post our stuff in the chat.

So I’ll post my name and I’ll post my company and I’ll post out specific link one, I give one place to go to every time one specific place to go to time so I’ll post a live link in the chat. If you’re using zoom or any other type of video chat, oftentimes they’ll have that option.

So put it out there make it easy for people to find you and invite them say hey, if you’re on LinkedIn, connect up with me because I can’t find everybody out there and be able to connect with them.

If I haven’t connected with you connect with me on LinkedIn, toss it out there. Find ways to get to know more people, it’s only going to help your business.

Business is about people. It’s about relationships.

Hopefully, that makes sense. I have a book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business stuff short one, easy read, go get your own free copy at AmazonProofBook.com.

It’s all I got for today. You have a great one.

In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.

Advertising Advice & Expectations 📫 (Mail Review)

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Brian breaks down some mail advertising pieces and gives some tips as well.

Transcription

Advertising advice and expectations.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I want to talk really about how to apply the principles that we’ve been talking about over this past week. All the last few videos and podcasts I put out had to do with a plot had to do with really the basic principles.

Now I want to take some of that and apply it and show you how so much comes down to both expectations and tracking. So first off, let’s talk about expectations you have to know what you expect to get off of your advertising.

Otherwise, you can determine whether it was successful or not.

You can just wait and see what happens but if you’re doing anything more than that at all in regards to either advertising or word of mouth or anything else, it sometimes it’s tough to be able to track it and know where one started and the last one ended and to really know if it was worth your effort and money to do it.

So I’m going to give you an example that direct mails are a fun one because it’s one of those that really can be tracked. And you can really good a good get a good idea as to whether it worked or not. Or my favorite things to send out as postcards.

Here’s a postcard, this is from a local lady who’s doing real estate and I don’t get that many real estate postcards or letters or anything.

There are hundreds of it and probably close to 1000 Real Estate people that cover this area and it’s a small area but there are tons of them there’s everyone in their brother’s a real estate person but very few of them advertise directly.

So I got to first off give her name is Suzie. Give Suzie props for putting this out now we’re going to talk about what worked in this and we’re going to talk about what didn’t work but once again this has to do with expectations.

You know and whether you’re tracking it if you’re tracking it and you’re getting back more than it was necessary to be able to constitute it working then you keep doing it you find a way to keep getting it out there or get it out to a broader audience or what have you.

I don’t know why I was placed on the list but here it says thinking of selling your home.

Okay so there’s the headline, it’s not super clear yet. I’m not sure if you can read it from where you’re at. It’s not super bold white on a dark background doesn’t do as well as a dark color or black on a white background.

The little picture of a teacup and some flowers, there’s not a chair but there is a little watermark symbol.

I just happen to know that I believe this is dream time the website that you can purchase and if you don’t purchase it there watermark stays on there so that’s that doesn’t look that hot. I’ve just noticed that now for the first time I didn’t notice it the first time.

Not that that’s going to deter whether people are interested or not but doesn’t say anything about a home I mean obviously this is on the inside of a home but besides that, and it’s a little beat up.

One of the letters fell off here but it says call for your complimentary market analysis. So that’s the basic pitch that’s what they’re going for. They want you to make a phone call.

See what your home is worth today, John L Scott real estate. So this is the main site and then you’ve got the address side and the rest of the copy here which is interesting.

That says if selling your home is on your mind, or you just want to know its current value, I would be happy to help.

I believe in old-fashioned customer service call me to receive your no-obligation market analysis and her phone number.

Suzy Matney PC broker-owner license in the state of Oregon or phone number and her website, there she is right there. And then it says something about you know, some offices are independently owned and operated.

If your home’s currently listed with another broker, please disregard this letter, all this type of thing that you probably have to do legally, if not ethically.

So pretty typical yet typical picture name of the real estate company. And that’s it. It’s a very straightforward pitch. And let me talk about what works or what does work.

She’s got a call to action, she’s got more than one way to contact her. If you don’t want to use a phone, you go to her website and go specifically to her. Not just someone else at the real estate office, which is good.

And I didn’t go to the website to see what the presentation is there that can matter to you got to make sure you are asking for something very specific. But this is specifically asking for people who want to sell their homes.

Now, what are the chances that she’s going to get my business versus all the other people that never asked me?

If I was interested in selling my home, if she caught me on the day or week, this might pique my interest?

If I paid attention to it long enough. There’s not a whole lot drawing you in here. It’s pretty boring, pretty straightforward.

There’s no glitz or glamour, but maybe that’s all that’s needed.

Once again, expectations come to, does this produce the results?

Is she getting people contacting her because of this piece or does she have to send out multiple amounts to be able to build up familiarity?

This is the first time I remember seeing her now maybe we’ve been I apologize if that were the case. But this is the first time I recall seeing her in regards to real estate and selling homes.

There’s a lot of things you could do you could do, you can have a little bit more standout pictures. It could be it could stand to be a little uglier.

Honestly, I mean, if it were more ugly, bolder, you will get more attention that way. If you offered something for free to be able to, I mean, seeing what your home was worth, for the most part, I would think that most people would know that you’d be able to look online to get a lot of estimates like that.

Maybe they don’t and maybe this works great. Once again, it comes down to expectations or tracking. And what are the results are what you want them to what I would test against this is maybe a little bit more to the offer, maybe offer, you know, see all that off the top of my head, I can’t come up with an offer right off the top.

But there are so many more different ways of doing this. This is very bland, but don’t throw off bland. bland may get the job done.

That’s the real question, in the end, is whether it gets the job done and what you expect back from it. And whether you’re planning to do more than just one so I’ll let you know if we see more from Suzie.

Suzie, I recommend continuing your direct mail out there to the community because you’re one of the only ones that I’ve seen this certainly in the last few years.

So hopefully that’s helpful to you in kind of taking some of those principles that we talked about and kind of reverse engineering them based on a piece of advertising that we saw, hey, I want to also recommend my book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business if you have a business if your business owner or an executive in charge, and you want to make things completely competition proof is my book.

You go get yourself a copy off amazon.com or anywhere books are sold or you get a free copy at AmazonProofBook.com. AmazonProofBook.com.

We’ll be back here tomorrow night. In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.

Personal Experience Not Necessary 🌲🐟🐻

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Brian talks about a book on places to go in Southern Oregon, written by some dude named Richard Emmons. 😃

Checkout Interview with Richard here – https://grantspassvip.com/richard-emmons-josephine-county-eagle-joco-eagle/

Transcription

Personal experience not necessary.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

We talk about business concepts here. We talk about principles, strategies, and tactics that you can use.

And one of the most hotly debated topics that I hear over and over again, especially in the expert arena, is the concept of people teaching what they have not gone through.

I have a very interesting perspective on this, I think, and I’m gonna give you a great example.

This is a book by my friend Richard Emmons. It’s called 52 Things To Do in Southern Oregon.

Okay, Richard’s a marketing expert. There’s a reason why he put this book out.

It’s an interesting thing.

So I live in Southern Oregon, so does, Richard. And he mentions why he came out with this book on this podcast on this very specific interview that I did with him with Grants Pass VIP, on my local-based podcast.

I’m going to have the link in the description. So go check that out to be able to listen to why he put this together. But this is a very simple book, it’s a very interesting book. And it’s nothing more than a list and descriptions of things that you can do in Southern Oregon, and just kind of the top ones, and it’s got links to special sites.

It doesn’t have a whole lot of pictures or anything else. It’s just it is what it says it is, it’s 52 things to do in Southern Oregon. And so if a person were visiting here or moving here, it’s a great thing to be able to pick up.

I like having it because I’ve flipped through it and there’s a whole bunch in here that I that, that I and my family have never done. We’re always finding new things.

So anytime we get something like this, plus he sent me a free copy because I advertised in his newspaper.

So this is a great, really great deal.

But I’ll tell you the interesting thing about this, why I’m bringing this up, he wrote this book without having gone to all 52 places without doing all 52 things, all right.

Does that make him a liar?

Does that make him misrepresenting what he’s promoting?

Or would it only be that case if he said, I’ve been to all these places and done all these things, that’s why you should go there?

I personally recommend all these place places. He’s not saying that in this book.

He doesn’t say that in person. If he did, then he’d be a liar. He’d be misrepresenting.

So there’s a lot of experts out there that give off the error, that they’ve done everything that they are advising other people to do and that’s wrong.

It’s wrong to mislead in that way.

But if they’re not misleading, I can make recommendations to a millionaire, a person that has millions of dollars coming through their business. I can make recommendations to them, even though I don’t necessarily own a business, in the same field making millions of dollars, write it does that make my advice less useful?

It doesn’t make it wrong. It only makes it wrong if I say you should do this because I’ve done it. And this is what you’ll get that I can’t say that.

So that this is the thin line, I think where things are have been drawn. But people make a really big deal about well, you should never advise someone to do something that you haven’t done yourself.

Well, that’s absurd. Nothing would ever get done anywhere if that were the case.

I’ve had advice for many people to do many things. I don’t care whether they’re done or not. I care whether the advice is solid or not.

I care about whether that person has a perspective similar to mine has perspective over the situation is emotionally distant enough from it, they can give me better advice than I can give myself because I’m too far in it.

Those are the type of things that I’m looking for in the long run and I don’t care whether Richards did all these things. I don’t care if he’s done a single one if he has heard about them if he has advice from other people if he’s gone and done the research and found this stuff online.

That’s all I care about. I’m happy to have the book.

If you don’t want the book, you don’t go out and get the book. And if you don’t want someone’s advice, you ought to be able to test them out ahead of time to see whether they’re trustworthy to see whether they’re a good fit for you.

And there’s no reason why you can’t take advice from somebody that hasn’t done the exact thing that they’re giving advice about.

Here’s another right example.

Anyone that’s familiar with professional sports knows that. And I think that’s this is the case among a whole lot of the sports that I’m familiar with some of the greatest coaches of all time, were not professional athletes themselves.

I mean, you can have a person or a wheelchair, and who can be an amazing coach in football, some of the best coaches in football were not professional football players.

Well, think about before there was professional football.

The first coaches, none of them had done professional football, because it hadn’t existed up till that time. That’s irrelevant. Okay, it’s absolutely irrelevant.

Some of the best greatest generals weren’t necessarily in the field doing the exact same thing that they’re commanding their officers to do. And they’re the people on the ground, the soldiers that they weren’t necessarily doing all those jobs, but they have a different perspective.

They can pass along information that that person doesn’t have, and be able to lead them with strategy, be able to lead them with the principles that work in any situation, as long as it as long as it’s applicable, of course.

So hopefully, that makes sense that that’s I really believe that the experience is not absolutely necessary isn’t the key thing.

The key thing is the character of the person, the ability of the person to be able to communicate the idea clearly and be able to offer another option to you, whoever that person is, whether you’re talking to an advisor, mentor, a partner in an organization when I go into partner up with businesses I’m looking for.

I’m not looking for a top-down, I’m not looking to tell them what to do when they do it. I’m looking for a back and forth, be able to look straight in the eye, see myself as a human being that has a perspective, and I see them as the same.

Okay, that’s what I’m going for.

And hopefully, you’re looking for that, too.

If you want to find out more about some of these concepts, especially in the long-term strategy field, how do you build out a long-term strategy that’s actually going to take you somewhere, I wrote a book about it, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business.

I didn’t do everything that’s presented in this book. I’m in the process of doing most of it. But I have not succeeded in every last piece, but I point to examples of people that have succeeded.

And all it takes is us stepping back and looking and acknowledging that what I see as being true is also something that you could see as being true.

So you can get a copy of this book. If you go to AmazonProofBook.com.

AmazonProofBook.com. Type the entire thing into your browser, AmazonProofBook.com with no spaces, okay. If you try and type it in with spaces, you’re not going to get where you want to go. Which is an interesting thing that I’m going to bring up tomorrow is an interesting piece of search engine optimization that failed me on this particular URL, but I’m going to show you how we’re going to get around it.

We’re going to talk about that tomorrow. That’s all I got for tonight. In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.

Phonebooks, Yellow Pages & Your Business 📒

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Thoughts on the phonebook and the impact of google search on local businesses.

Transcription

Phonebooks, yellow pages and your business.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I have a really interesting story that goes along with my business story and the phone book. When I was younger, telephone books for how you found people, okay, they were how you found people that you knew through the white pages of the phonebook.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with telephone directories, the pages that are white, we would normally refer to those as the white pages, because those were the ones where you had most residential, people being able to be found.

So if you knew somebody’s last name, you could find them in the white pages in most cases, okay.

Then the yellow pages were the pages where all the businesses were, and specifically businesses that paved this phone book a little more to be highlighted on the yellow pages.

And so you have larger ads there and everything else and those are separated by subject. Now, this is for people that aren’t familiar with phone books.

In the old days, you get a handful. Actually, when I was just starting out in business, there were three or four phonebook companies, and they were very thick, large manuals, and you would get from and even in a small area, you would get really large books delivered for free.

Because so much advertising went into it and so much money, it was a very lucrative thing. And it was something that entire businesses thrived off of paying for one advertising source, and that was the phonebook.

So this is a phone book. This is the latest one from the yellow book company, one of the only phonebook companies that I see out there anymore. And these guys, this one’s for Medford and Grants Pass here in Southern Oregon, also includes Ashland, Central Point, Rogue River and White City.

And I remember when I first started out that they’re not as thick as they used to be, they’re a lot thinner, there are not as many advertisements very few people are willing to pay for the advertising in back in the day. It actually cost quite a bit to get into the phonebook because you’re paying once and this is going to sit on somebody’s counter or somewhere where they can reach it, it’s going to sit there for a very long time.

Oftentimes way past the date in which, as widgets labeled that this is labeled for 2021, and 2022.

So we’ll see how long these exist, I would predict that you’re still going to see phonebooks into the future, they’re just going to have a different flavor and they’re going to go in a slightly different direction.

Because nowadays, as we all know, if you search into Google, it’s easier, quicker, faster than going into a phonebook. Google has been able to kind of develop its own phonebook algorithm as long as you’re typing in something that can be seen in a phonebook.

Oftentimes, a local section in Google is going to pop up with all the people that fit that category, based on where you’re searching for. But also, if you put the name of the town, you’re going to see that real quick.

Now, when I first started getting involved in business, this started becoming a thing and phonebook started losing power. And one of my first clients was telling me that they got all their business via the phonebook for years and years and years, 20 plus years, they had been getting all their business via a phonebook ad. And now they’re at a point where they’re getting less and less.

They know they weren’t paying enough attention to online work. So a lot of my early work was helping typical business brick and mortar businesses get over on to the online space.

What I ended up learning is, the phone book was still useful, and it might be in your market. Also, there are a few things you want to look for.

Are you playing toward an audience that would pick up a phone book and look for the subject line that you’d be under?

Are you in a subject line that’s typical or could you be in a subject line?

That is something that somebody would be looking for in a phone book, you may not fit everybody that’s in that subject. But if you can find a way to squeeze into there, is that worthwhile to you?

And then are you in an area that still has phone books?

We’re in an area that has a whole lot of retirees and an elderly population, people that still use phonebooks. Intensely, and a lot of people that just aren’t online or aren’t actively online.

But believe it or not, that that’s still very, very common. And so you can still see, I can flip through this phone book. I haven’t looked through this one much.

I can still see subjects and you can always tell it’s the ones with the biggest ads. Okay, so on the back you’ve got Direct TV. Oh, There’s a large company that can afford large advertisements like this. In the front, you’ve got the locksmith, the local locksmith.

The other ad is for the phone book itself. Not as many ads as you used to, you used to see a lot of ads for lawyers. That used to be a very common thing that you would see very large ads for all let’s say, we still have a lot of restaurants, plumbing ads, still a lot of very large plumbing ads, full-page color, plumbing ads.

But there’s a way you can find out a lot about an area by flipping through a phonebook. And whenever I’d be traveling, I’d go and I’d be in the hotel room, one of the first things I grab is the Yellow Pages and flip through and see what you know, what industries are paying for advertising in the phonebook here and it’s an interesting thing.

But the one thing you can learn from phonebooks is that technology changes. And so often people get caught up with one type of technology, one type of advertising, one way of delivering an item, and they get really scared about losing that format, instead of realizing that formats come and go.

That styles of advertising come and go that that that’s just technology that’s always going to change you know, books are never going to go away. They just changed their function because of other things, pick up the slack.

With the onset of digital with the onset of mobile phones, you’re getting a different flavor, you’re getting competition that didn’t exist before. And you have to realize this when you’re working on any type of advertising. I heard somebody talking about it the other day, and let me see what was it?

It will and I probably won’t even be able to come to my head. But I remember the conversation very clearly.

It had to do with the fact that people were it was a format that people just they refuse to give up on Oh, I know what it was. It was people saying that they it was auto dealers that years ago, these auto dealers refuse to work with internet ads because they were scared of losing their position as specifically the sales staff have lost their ability to do anything because the internet was taken over instead of taking advantage of the internet and making their jobs easier.

And finding the people that are looking for them and delivering them there. They let themselves be gobbled up and there are still ones out there, there are still salespeople out there that are allowing the internet to take over and apps to take the place of salespeople.

There’s no reason why that needs to happen. Because a human can always bring another level to things. But you can have somebody that is fully educated on what it is that you’re selling, and know exactly what they need and are, and have money in hand ready to buy. If you take advantage of the pieces of the internet that are useful to you.

And then add the thing that the internet can provide, which is human contact, back and forth question and answer that will always be needed. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, realize what you’re good at and what you’re not good at and let the rest go. This is a technology and it will never stop. It’s our entire lives.

The internet is not the last thing. Mobile phones are not the last thing. Just like these yellow pages when they first came out. They were not the last thing.

They’re just the next format of technology and it’s going to constantly change from here on out. So get ready for it. Don’t be scared of it. Learn it, figure out what you can do best and what the new technology can do best, and move forward. You’ll be out of the competition for sure.

Other ways to be out of the competition I talked about in my book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business. You can get a free copy by going to AmazonProofBook.com. We’ll be back here tomorrow night. You have a great night. In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.

Is Offline Content Marketing Possible? 📰 (GKIC NO B.S. Marketing Letter / JoCo Eagle)

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Brian shares some of his paid and free newsletters he’s gotten over the years to show examples of offline content marketing.

Transcription

Is offline content marketing possible?

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Today I want to talk about content, I mean, we talk a lot about content marketing here.

It’s kind of the growing term, to refer to a lot of the things that I teach companies how to do. And so I wanted to kind of bend your mind a little bit and think more about the broad sense of what content marketing is all about.

Can you do something that’s mainly referred to just on the digital end of things, right?

Can you do that offline?

Well, of course you can, it all started offline.

Content Marketing has always been around, what is content marketing?

Content marketing, is having some type of content that provides value unto itself. And then on top of that is a marketing message.

So a whole lot of what you’re watching on YouTube is content marketing, guaranteed one way or the other, they’re trying to sell something, they may not be selling to you directly. They may be getting paid by YouTube.

But in general, it’s content marketing for somebody, since everything’s content marketing, even if you think it’s just entertainment.

But here’s a great example.

What I’m holding here is one of the first newsletters, paper newsletters that I received, from what is called the NOBS Marketing Letter. This is what I received, what at the time was called GKIC, now is the NOBS Inner Circle, and this is from April of 2012.

When I first came in contact, this was really the first time I had really thought about direct response marketing being a separate thing.

I’ve always known about it to some extent, because I’ve experienced it in different advertising and everything else out there. But when I read one of Dan Kennedy’s books in January of 2012, January and February of 2012, it changed my life.

And in a very short period of time, I became an acolyte, I guess you would say, and subscribed to his newsletter, became part of the club.

Now in this newsletter, you can see it’s good size, I mean, you pay for this, you get you got 24 pages back in that day. It’s very simple. It wasn’t very flashy back then, and it’s got an article by him.

It’s got advertising.

Well, here’s that table of contents.

It’s got some more little smaller articles directly from Dan Kennedy. Examples of advertising where he discusses kind of the principles marketing principles that are shown throughout.

He has ads for here’s that here’s an ad for one of his books, but it’s built into the content. So it’s content, it’s useful stuff, and you can see the highlighting and everything is all done by me.

It’s all useful, fabulous information.

But at the same time, it’s selling you other things.

Here’s another article by another guy as Dave Dee, who was working with them at the time, and a whole article by him. So he’s got other people writing articles.

There’s one by Doc Nielsen, here’s one by Rich Schefren one of these people still out there quite a lot, Alex Mandossian.

So you had a whole lot of other people writing articles Lee Milteer, fabulous stuff.

Whoa, here’s one by Ryan Deiss. Those of you who are familiar with him from Digital Marketer, boy, Yannick Silver, all these so many of these names still very present out there, Dr. Charlie Martin.

And so one thing after another, all fabulous content at the same time, I mean, at the very end page, here’s all the different things that you can purchase the value ladder that you can build your way up within the gcic system. Ways that you can go further and further by paying more money on a monthly basis, right?

I mean, that’s what it’s all about.

If you’ve got any type of club like that, you have to allow people to pay more if they want more.

And of course, another article on the back I mean, value on top of value on top of value for people.

For someone that isn’t interested in this. This is as good as toilet paper, right?

For someone who is interested. It’s like gold, I still have it. I don’t throw it away.

It’s valuable to me. It’s useful to me, not to everybody, but for me, it was worth what I paid for it and more.

It’s not just about newsletters, newsletters are fabulous, you could do newsletters on a monthly basis on a quarterly basis.

That’s a way of physically getting out information still to this day print still works.

You have to know your market, you have to know if they be up for it. And you have to have information that makes that makes a solid point by being in print, right?

Here’s another one newspaper.

This is not an average newspaper.

This is a, this is one that goes every door, direct mail. So it hits every door within a particular area. I’ve talked about this guy before. Richard Emmons created the Josephine County Eagle, fabulous little piece that goes out monthly.

What’s it have, it’s got advertising in it. And it has just local political information and stuff, both from politicians and editorials.

It’s still content marketing of some form, in a different way than we’re used to. Yeah, it’s got a newspaper, it looks like the old style newspaper, what we’re all familiar with, or most people are.

And for at the same end, it’s coming in through the mailbox, it’s coming in a different way.

You can do this in the same way that you would do on a newsletter, a book, I’ve got a book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business.

What do I do with this most often I mail it to people, quite often, sometimes I’ll give it to them physically. But more often than not, I mail it to people, and it’s content marketing, to offline market, the whole thing is full of a great a huge amount of value to you.

In terms of if it’s the type of thing you’re looking for, if you’re a business owner, or executive, and you’re looking for ways to make your business, basically competition proof by standing out, by showing yourself as being completely different from the competition.

This is the book for you, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business, you can get a free copy at AmazonProofBook.com, so you get a digital version.

You can also buy a physical version there after you after you’ve gone past the free digital version. Or you can go to amazon.com and get one still content marketing I have offers in there for people to go the next step and find out more about the other tools that I offer businesses.

Content Marketing is virtually could be virtually anything at the same end. Digital allows us to do it for free.

Social media allows us to do it for free, not completely free, still takes time, if you’re really going to are going to want a lot of eyeballs and you really want to hit a specific crowd that you don’t already have access to. It’s going to take money.

It’s going to take a little bit of advertising here and there.

But there’s ways to get to people, there are hungry crowds out there that want what you have one way or the other.

If you’re already selling a product or service, you need to be using content marketing, to get your message out there more and more often, it’s going to be worth your time and effort.

If you’re doing it right.

And we talk about that here and I’m going to be offering more opportunities on how to learn how to do this.

How to train somebody to do it on your staff. So stay tuned or to check out more start with my book. Start from there, it will take you the next step, step by step.

It’s a short book, like I said, free copy AmazonProofBook.com.

You have a great night, we’ll see you tomorrow.

In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.