Do You See What I See?

Branded Email

For those of us with eyesight we live in a visual world.  Our sense of sight is probably the biggest reason we have for much of what we do yet many of us take it for granted.

When you return from your vacation the first thing people normally ask is, “What did you see?” Can you imagine taking a trip and not going to see the local sights or meeting people? Why take the trip in the first place?

Sight is a vital part of our being in work and play. Sight even makes hearing take a back seat when we go to a concert. If sight wasn’t a priority to hearing we could have just bought the latest CD and listened to the same tunes.

Before the invention of the television people listened to the radio as a form of family entertainment. As they listened they would envision in their mind’s eye the drama being played out over the airwaves.

We think in pictures too. When the word “horse” is read or spoken you think of a picture of a horse.  As for myself I “see” a brown mare. What color was your steed?

Many people have a problem remembering other people’s names. However they don’t have a problem recalling peoples’ faces.  That’s because we think in pictures.

The Wax Museum

Years ago I was at a friend’s house for a Super Bowl party. I met a man there whose family owned two wax museums, one in San Francisco and the other in Buena Park. I’ve been to wax museums and could never understand why people were so drawn to them so I asked him why that was.

His response made a lot of sense when he explained that many of the foreign tourists that come to the Los Angeles area have a preconceived idea of what to expect based on the American movies they have seen.  They also expect to see movie stars and when they don’t they look for other avenues to satisfy that expectation. Thus the wax museum is a popular destination.

Emails

Rather than dull, boring, black on white emails, imagine email with a visual explosion of color and imagery.  An email that would display your logo and company colors, your image and your contact info. An email that info would include links to your social media sites and your company web site. That would be a powerful business tool.

That’s exactly what Ace of Sales offers.  I tell people that Ace of Sales is the best $20 per month investment in my business because it is.  With Ace of Sales my emails “work” for me, they connect me to the people I want to reach.  Ace of Sales emails “draw” a picture of what I want to convey.

Talk is cheap and since you’re a visual person you really need to see the possibilities that this tool offers. So here’s my offer. Try Ace of Sales for 30 days FREE. Simply use my promo code PRUSA. You’ll get 30 days to test drive it and I’ll throw in one FREE greeting card and one FREE post card. I suggest you send them to yourself so you can see first-hand what your clients will be getting.

Send me an Ace of Sales email after you’ve signed up for the 30 day FREE test drive and I’ll enter you name in the hat to win a $50 gift card. Entries must be submitted before Christmas Day 2011.

That’s my Christmas gift to you:

- 30 days of Ace of Sales ($20)

- FREE greeting card ($3)

- FREE postcard ($1)

- Chance to win $50 gift card

If Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL can top that offer let me know I want in on that deal.

Seeing is Believing

Wednesday I am sending you a “branded email” from my Ace of Sales account. Then on Thursday you’ll get an “email greeting” from my AOS account. Friday you’ll get a holiday “email greeting”.

 

Post With Value Intent

Remember that buzz word I mentioned a few months ago? Social media, well I’m getting into it. You might say I’m in the deep end of the pool but I know there’s so much more for me to learn and do.

I’ve read the book, Social Boom! By Jeffrey Gitomer twice now. That book was written to help the novice get a working knowledge of what’s available for FREE.

Between my Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts I have connected with potential business. For example, by sending this message to an Executive VP of a local company I sat down with him at a Starbucks over coffee.

“Jeff we have 28 connections in common. We should sit down over a cup of coffee and compare notes.”

I’m Tweeting for business and I’ve learned to deliver value messages and not to deliver dribble about nonsense.  Serious business people read Twitter and the tweets you post.

I’ve got my LinkedIn account set up so that when I post a value message on it of less than 140 characters that message also gets Tweeted.  I’ve got my Twitter account set so that my tweets are also posted on my Facebook page. One post and three audiences, the more connections, friends and followers you have the more you get recognized as a person of value.

I read a tweet from a person I follow that caught my eye because she stated she was looking for an Executive Director position in Assisted Living.  A good portion of my network works in the senior care industry so I tried to remember if there were any openings I had heard of.  You see I’m always trying to connect (help) people with resources I’m aware of.

I took a look at her Twitter profile to see what value messages she may have tweeted in the past. What kind of person would I be helping?

There were several deficiencies on her profile. Her picture looked something like the one at the beginning of this story. Remember last week’s story about the sunglasses?  Only her first name was on her profile.  Her last name was hidden within her Twitter username.

These are the tweets she posted in the last year:

  • Put a real photo up!! Get a job or a hobby! You wish you had an inch of what Beth has. Get a life loser
  •  @AmazingBobP You are a mean and jealous fool with too much time on your hands.
  •  @SkipDoggy I love your tweets my husband is obsessed.
  • I hate pageant parents!! Fake teeth and nail. Feeding kids pixie sticks and calling it pageant crack to keep little babies awake!
  • Windy night in LA whacky weather here lately
  • My husband really has a handsome face. What a doll!!
  • I hate when I have a good hair day the only day of the week I never live the house
  • Can’t wait for my play date with Jenny. The kind of friend who asks where do we bury the body after you admit to murder.
  • TV is so addicting!!
  • Can’t sleep!! Thank God I can listen to Howard Stern on my I-phone
  • @Robertsucks You are terrible!
  • Kobe steak house
  • perez hilton
  • LEAVING WORK AND HEADING HOME AFTER A LONG WORK DAY

I don’t know about you but I’m not feeling any value in those messages.  What she doesn’t realize is that recruiters are now researching social media to find the best candidate for positions. If this person was applying for a job at your company, would you hire her?  I wouldn’t.

The real value with Twitter is not what you tweet but what gets retweeted. When you deliver a value message that people feel compelled to send it on again to their followers you get greater exposure. It’s like WOM (Word of Mouth) advertising.

The last retweeted tweet I posted was: When you are an example of good works credibility is poured upon you.@johnprusa

It’s not who you know but who knows you. What are people telling their friends that you said?

 

 

 

 

 

Social Media Presenter Checklist

I attended a meeting of chamber of commerce people and towards the end an announcement was made that a speaker from out of town would be presenting for one-hour on Social Media the following week. This was not a chamber sponsored event but an event sponsored by two members.

Social media seems to be a buzz word these days.  Most everybody has heard of the phrase but few have a good grasp of what it is or better yet how to apply it to business.

I attended that free one-hour Social Media presentation and discovered I knew more than the presenter.  I fired off a few questions that I knew the answers to just to test the speaker.  Afterwards one of the three presenters told me he was worried about me merely because I had so much knowledge on the subject.

Their whole presentation was a farce because they were not trying to teach anything about Social Media but rather they were trying to get you to plunk down $150 for their 6-hour seminar on how to use Facebook and You Tube.

Last week I got an email via a group I belong to on LinkedIn to attend a presentation on Saturday morning. One of the four speakers would be presenting on Social Media.  She was a bit of a letdown as she only spoke with authority on Facebook and had limited LinkedIn knowledge.

That free presentation cost 5 hours of my time and $20 in gas.  So I’ve created a personal checklist to verify the validity of a Social Media presenter.

  1. Do they have a Facebook account?
  2. Do they have a business page on Facebook?
  3. Do they have an active LinkedIn account?
  4. Do they have an active Twitter account?
  5. Have they posted any videos on You Tube?
  6. Do they have a blog post?

If they have at least 4 of the 6 then I will consider listening to what they have to say. Along the way I have learned to listen to people with fruit on the tree. In other words, people that walk the talk.

How small is your world, Cleveland?

During the 90’s in my aviation career I traveled the world. After a few 8, 10 and 14 hour flights you begin to realize how small your backyard is.

I enjoy meeting new people and making friends, worldwide.  After a brief conversation I usually discover common ground and thus a “connection” is made.   The more connections you make away from your backyard the smaller the world becomes.

Enter the Internet. Now my travels are limited and mostly within the county I live in. Once a year I do go to Las Vegas for my annual trade show and congregate with 15,000 peers (the world comes to me).

Social Networking

I enter the Facebook site on average twice a day, LinkedIn twice a day and email many times a day.  I’ve made a Facebook friend of a guy in Wyoming I’ve never met; he’s 26-years old. We have an instant connection even though we never met and there’s so many years difference in our ages.

Google Alerts

I’ve got Google Alerts set to email me when the name John Prusa hits the Internet. I got an email this morning.

On Wednesday, June 29th 2011, John Prusa was honored by his local chamber of commerce as the 2011 Volunteer of the Year. John was not present to receive the award; my guess is he was busy volunteering somewhere.

Will the real John Prusa please stand up?

  • John Prusa of Evanston, Wyoming is a Facebook friend. How many Facebook friends do you have with your name?

 

  • I also have Johny Prusa from the Prague, Czech Republic friended on facebook.

 

  • The 2011 Volunteer of the Year is John Prusa, owner of Highpoint Lawn Service in Stow, Ohio (34 miles south of Cleveland)  and one of the founders of BEST (Benefiting Everyone with Stadium Turf) for Stow.

In addition to owning a successful business in Ohio and New York for almost 20 years, Prusa is a member of the high school booster club, Rotary Club, was a former president of the Ballet Theatre of Ohio and has always enjoyed coaching softball.

Calling a tractor a second home, [Prusa] has selflessly helped transform the football practice fields and soccer fields at the Stow Munroe Falls high school complex from fields of dusty brown to shimmering green. This entrepreneur has contributed time, talent, and treasure to the construction of the bathroom, concession and storage building located by the high school softball fields.

The people you meet and the company you keep.

I sure wish I knew these guys personally. I’ll bet we’d have a great time together and find much in common besides our names.

I’ll bet if I walked the streets of Stow, Ohio or talked to the football coach at the high school they’d all not believe who I am.  But once they heard the story I’d make a connection and a new friend. What do you think?

You can send a note of congratulations to John Prusa @ Highpoint Lawn Service, 1337 Commerce Drive # 4, Stow, OH 44224-1758.  You know my policy of using blue ink in correspondence so use it. I’ll be sending a copy of this article along with my promotional items of pens, lanyards and notepads.

 

 

A Voice for Radio Beats a Face for Radio on Any Given Day.

Branded Email

Just after I sent out last week’s e-zine I got feedback from Andy Horner, a new friend.  Andy’s feedback reads:

John, You are TOTALLY kicking butt with your emails and e-zines. I’m loving it.
I feel like I’m in the Prusa School of How to Do It! – Andy

At this point I have known Andy Horner just two months. We first met when I attended Jeffrey Gitomer’s sales presentation in Irvine, CA. When we met Andy told me I had a voice for radio whereas everyone else tells me I have a loud voice. At gatherings I am often asked by my host to make announcements.

Andy Horner is the Chief Architect of Ace of Sales an email branding system.  A what?

An email branding system makes my emails look professional because they include my image (smiling), my contact info, my logo, the color of my logo and buttons to click on for my:

  • Website
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • You Tube

In other words my emails kick butt according to Andy. The Rest of the Story…………

I’ve had maybe 15-minutes of face to face time with Andy since we met and we have never talked on the phone. I consider his feedback a great compliment and I earned it through emails, Ace of Sales emails.

If I can earn compliments like that with emails then the investment of $20 per month is paying dividends already.  I’m also getting positive feedback from my clients about my new emails and I’m earning orders from my clients too!

Ace of Sales allows me to exercise my creativity in an email message by including but not limited to:

  • Pictures (photos)
  • Frames
  • Borders
  • Text
  • Font
  • Color
  • Links

Does this sound like a sale’s pitch?  It is, but then nothing gets past you.  When I get excited about a:

  • Person
  • Product
  • Place
  • Idea

I tend to share or give it to others, you included.  Remember the root meaning of the word sell?   Give

If an email branding system can help me make friends or sales, then I’m all for it.  If it can help me then it may help you.  I probably have more fun with Ace of Sales than the law allows but they haven’t caught me yet.

Within 5 days of using Ace of Sales I became an affiliate so that I could share it with you and earn a profit. Oh! There’s that dirty word “profit”.  It ain’t a dirty word to me but it is to those that don’t know how to earn one.  Everything you buy has profit built into it.  Wouldn’t you rather see your money go to someone you know, like and trust?

My reply to Andy:

I resemble those remarks, thank you. The school you speak of is

“How I Did It and It May Work For You”.       John

Quote #4
A voice for radio beats a face for radio on any given day. John Prusa, 2011

 

got Firesheep? Let’s Hope Not

I’m still living in the past when it comes to my cell phone but I feel real safe when I hear about stuff like Firesheep. I use my cell phone for wireless phone calls, I don’t know how to text, maybe next year. A new phone, a new plan hell I might even buy new clothes for my fresh new look. Read more about Firesheep and how to protect yourself with a VPN.

Is Facebook for Your Business?

I’m constantly asking people “Are you on Facebook?” The response most often is a resounding “Yes!”  But there are still a few holdouts amongst by business friends. They want to use it for business but they don’t want their business contacts to know about their private lives.

Well here’s a 7-minute You Tube clip all about ways to incorporate Facebook into your business and how you can use Facebook to your business advantage.

Watch this.