I recently read ‘The Thankyou Economy’ by Gary Vaynerchuk… I don’t really do reviews, so this is more of my ramblings and overall thoughts…

The Thankyou Economy

This is Gary’s second published book, I did a video interview with him in London for his first book ‘Crush It’, and there was a LOT about Gary that really impressed me…

Unfortunately, this book, like Crush It, doesn’t live up to the levels of content we are used to from Gary… I feel that like a great actor or great comedian, Gary is best when unscripted, instinctive,  and speaking from the heart… in book format, he loses his “X-factor” somewhat (more on that in a moment).

The Book

The book is about Gary’s belief that we have entered… that’s right, you guessed it… the ‘Thankyou Economy’… a brave choice to use the word “economy”, and I feel that Gary spent most of the book trying to justify that choice.

It is much more of a “corporate” book, which is no surprise given that his consulting firm Vaynermedia is his first real foray into the dark side… gone are Gary’s quirky, topical and controversial arguments, stories and metaphors, and in instead are well researched case studies and examples of the thankyou economy being used in the “real world”.

I am probably not the target audience for this book, but I feel that Gary’s USP was that he fought against the corporate world, he brought the wine industry out from the stuffy, old fashioned ways and made it cool again… but this book feels corporate, and for me, that made it a not very enjoyable read.

Maybe I was expecting too much, afterall, I have seen Gary live, spent an hour with him in person, and watched hundreds of his videos, but honestly, there was very little of Gary’s voice in this book. When you remove Gary’s voice and his “X-factor” you are just left with yet another smart, hard working business owner. There is nothing wrong with that, but that doesn’t mean I want to spend a few hours reading from those types.

Gary’s X-factor

The big objection I have ALWAYS had with Gary as a teacher… is that he has a HUGE amount of what I call the “X-factor”… charisma, passion, story telling, quick witted… you just can’t teach this stuff, and Gary has it in bucket loads…

I am not for one minute saying that Gary is successful because of this, but you can’t tell me that being featured on MANY major tv shows (including Conan and Jimmy Fallon) hasn’t done a LOT more for his popularity than the fact that he replies to all his emails (or used to), or has done more for him than his many hours in “the trenches” commenting on Twitter etc…

and this is the problem… as an inspirer, thought leader and entertainer, he is second to none, but when you cross that line of “ok, Gary, that is awesome, what should I do to try and replicate your success”, you are largely doomed, as there are very few on the planet who can mirror that X-factor, and those who can, don’t need Gary’s help in the first place.

Those Who Can, CAN’T Teach?

We have all heard the old (and largely false) phrase “those who can’t, teach”… I feel the opposite is true with Gary, he CAN, you don’t build a $60 million wine business or get 100,000 views per day without absolutely 100% having the “chops”… but I feel he vastly under plays the importance of his “X-factor” in his success in the online world, and all the books in the world are not going to teach you how to do that.

Summary

There is a market for this book, and I am the first to admit I am not that market… but I was certainly the market for Crush It, and truth be told, that wasn’t a great book either ( I have heard that even Gary feels that way)…

The Thankyou Economy is a bold statement, and for the most part, I agree with it 100%, but while I am sure the book will win Gary a LOT of high paying corporate clients, I honestly feel that you will get more value from his on stage videos, and frankly, the book can be summed up in one page: Care about your current and potential customers, be active in the community, listen instead of always pushing, and real businesses are doing this now, and now is the time to start doing it too.

If you want entertainment, the X-factor, passion, humour and some cool ideas and stories, or even if you just want a kick up the ass of inspiration, go watch some of Gary’s videos… if you want step by step instructions, or are looking for detailed actionable how-to info, then Gary isn’t and has never been the guy for that.

There is a reason that Gary chose video as his medium, it is his strength, it captures his X-factor, books don’t, and that is a shame.

Note; If you are an employee in a corporate company, and are looking for something to give to your boss to encourage him/her to get more up to date, then this book may achieve that goal.

Do you have to be the best to make money? Do you have to be VERY good?

I want to share with you a quick story  that challenges these beliefs..

I should have been working, but decided to check one of my favourite online distraction sites (reddit.com) instead…

One of the areas I like to check is the “AMA” section, which means “Ask Me Anything”…

This particular day there was a guy who was making a fulltime living by playing Startcraft2 (a popular video game)… WOW, I thought, this guy must be one of the best in the world to actual be making a good living.

It turns out this guy is not one of the best in the world, in fact, he doesn’t even play the tournaments (yes, there are actual tournaments)… instead, he simply plays the games, and streams them live via Justin.tv and then puts the videos on Youtube.

So in a nutshell, he does the thing he loves the most, and allows others to watch him doing it.

He gets many viewers, and says he makes around $3,500 per month in ad revenue… he has also started teaching others how to play, which nets him about $1,500 a month.

Pretty cool huh?

There are a few lessons to take from this:

1) You don’t have to be the best… this guy is clearly quite entertaining in his videos, so people check out the videos for his passion and sense of humour an fun.

2) Isn’t it awesome that we live in a world where we can make a fulltime living by simply doing the things we love!

3) Live streaming and then putting the highlights on Youtube is a great combination.

4) Many people don’t like to share with the world “until they are an expert”…. don’t wait for that to happen, just get out there and start generating content today.

Enjoy.

Dean

Sources:

The actual AMA thread on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/g7q91/iam_destiny_i_quit_my_job_to_play_starcraft_2_for/

His Justin.tv channel: http://www.justin.tv/steven_bonnell_ii

His Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/remembertomorrow0

All the above may contain adult language.

Would you like to work really hard and make no money at all? If so, you are in for a treat

Joking aside, this is something I see a lot, and something I was guilty of for a long time…

actually, it is not funny, it is frustrating, annoying, confusing and can kill your motivation…

oh, and I see people making these mistakes daily.

In this post I am going to share with you a mindset shift, and a simple technique to overcoming what I call “rocking chair syndrome”, which means that, like a rocking chair, you are moving, but not getting anywhere.

Here is the big secret: KPI’s.

Have a great day…. tip your waitress, try the salmon.

Dean

Only joking…

What are “KPI’s”? I hear you cry.

They are Key Performance Indicators… or in non corporate speak, they are the the key, measurable actions that will bring in $$$$$.

Let’s do an example using one of my businesses: My webinar training business.

My KPIs for this business:

How many opt-ins to my lists?
How many people register for my webinars? (notice that I didn’t include “How many webinars I create”, as I could easily create 100 webinars, with zero promotion, and make zilch)
How many people attend my webinars?
How many people stay on the webinar to the end? (I call this “webinar engagement”)
How many people visit my order page?
How many people purchase?

Then I look at the actions that create these results…

So, for example:

How many emails I send to potential JV partners?
How many Skype calls I do with potential JV partners?
How many emails I send to my lists?
How many people open the emails?
How many people click through?

Notice that I can measure all of the above… “if you can’t measure it, then it doesn’t exist” – Tim Ferriss

Most people don’t do this, and they either go around in circles, or spend time on things that don’t bring in money.

For example, this was my KPI from two years ago (darn you hindsight):

How many blog posts I wrote
How many ideas I had
How much more authority I got

Now, the above 3 may seem important, but they very rarely lead directly to money… they opened doors, they got the ball rolling, but they didn’t put bread on the table.

What are your KPIs?

I spoke with a guy selling a service to local businesses yesterday, he talked of his logo, his ideas, his plans, his video editing etc… but none of these were KPIs that would deliver results… instead, he should have been focusing on: How many quality prospects he targeted, how many emails he sent them, how many phone calls he got asking for a quote, how many packages he sold, how many referrals he got etc…

Still not got the message?

Ok, well in the style of Tyler Durden from the movie “Fight Club”:

Repeat after me…

You are not your plans,
You are not how many friends you have on Facebook,
You’re not the ideas you have,
You are not the contents of your blog,
You are not your f*&^ing logo.

I often tell people they are focusing on the icing, and not the cake… are you doing the same?

So here is what you need to do:

Go grab a pad and paper and make a list of all the measurable KPIs that are required for you to make money.

Then, flip the page over, and make a list of all the ACTIONable KPIs required to make them happen.

So for example:

Measurable KPI = How many Joint Venture deals I do.

Actionable KPI required to make this happen = How many Skype calls I do with potential JV partners.

Once you have all of these, hang them on your wall, and at the end of each week, fill in the numbers you achieved for each… you will find that the higher the numbers, the higher your profits.

Dean

PS: In the time it took to write this I spoke via email to a JV partner and lined up a JV webinar… remember, it doesn’t have to be hard. (that’s not what she said)

PPS: I apologise for that childish joke.

PPPS: Seriously, you are NOT your logo!!!!

PPPPS: A big thanks goes to Barry Dunlop www.facebook.com/barrydunlop he tried to instill this attitude into me a few years ago, but I simply didn’t get it back then.. I do now, so thanks Barry, and I am sorry it took so long.

What is a webinar?

I am sure that many of you already know this… but I cover this question, and a lot more, in this free (no opt-in required) webinar report entitled: ‘Stripped for Success

In this report you will learn:

How webinars changed my life,
The true story of the $10k Dr Pepper,
The three types of webinar traffic, and how to get them,
Webinar lessons from Apple and iTunes
& Loads more….

Download it for free here: Webinar Success Report

I recently read Lord Alan Sugar’s autobiography entitled ‘What you see is what you get’ WYSIWYG… below are a sample of some of the lessons I learned from one of the most successful British entrepreneurs of the past 30 years.

You either think like an entrepreneur or you don’t

At a VERY young age, Alan had spotted numerous ideas for businesses, and by young, I mean less than 12 years old. These ideas are not something you could teach, things like noticing lots of tar was being pulled up from the road during construction, and then taking the tar blocks, cutting them up and selling them to a local store and door to door as a great fire starter (everyone used to light fires in their homes back then).

What I also like about Alan is that he took massive action on his ideas, something that is essential to success.

Once you get success, people will steal, copy and snipe

This happened consistently right from his first ventures as a young child, all the way through his business career… in fact, one person followed his entire career, and would try to steal, copy and interrupt at every stage. The lesson I took from this was to expect this sort of thing, and if you managed to be first to market with something, or a pioneer in your industry, don’t sit back and expect the goldrush to continue forever, you need to always be moving onto the next thing.

Everything is negotiable

If you take the amount of money that Lord Sugar saved due to hard negotiation skills, you could buy a small island… whether it be getting $150 million for a company he would have happily took $30 million for, massive property discounts, house discounts, and buying parts and components for a fraction of what his competitors were…

It just goes to show that everything is negotiable, I have seen someone successfully haggle and get a discount in McDonalds.

Never take the first offer, and negotiate hard.

His product “lead-in” pricing never seems to fail

There was a simple formula he used here… sell a product at an entry price into the market that got people talking (he was a buzz marketer without realising it).. then, offer a “premium” version for say 25% more… he found that 80%+ of people went for the premium one anyway.

So hook them with a great price, then offer a premium version for a bit more.

Note: for my Internet Marketer friends, this is not an upsell, there were two clear options from the start… of course, in their advertising, they lead with the “lead-in” price

“entrepreneur” is NOT for you to determine

Here I will take a quote straight from the book and the man himself: “Entrepreneur is not a word to be used lightly, and it’s certainly not something you call yourself. It should be a term used by a person when describing another’s abilities”.

I have to agree, the “E” word gets thrown around a lot these days, this is a good lesson to remember.

High-ticket items are where the real profits are at

Lord Alan quickly realised that it was just as easy to sell a $100 product than a $10 one, yet he only would make say $1 on them $10 item, and would make $30 on the $100. So he sold more $100 items.

Sounds like commonsense, but MOST people did the opposite… one person mentioned in the book was actually selling everything at a loss, and while he thought his store was booming, he hadn’t noticed that he was losing money on each thing he sold (madness).

In the online business world, it isn’t quite as straight forward, as a $27 ebook also means we get a name and email address of a buyer, so we can continue to market to them… but in general, it makes sense to focus on the things that bring you the most profit, and for the most part, those will be the higher ticket items.