About 4 years ago, when I decided to sign-up my kids for piano lessons, of course the first thing I did was to start thinking about which keyboard to buy.

I did extensive research online for keyboards: I did Google searches, visited an insane number of web sites, musician forums, read reviews on Amazon and other e-tailers, and even called up several music stores and asked for recommendations.

To make a long story short, it came down to two products: the Yamaha Motif XS and the Korg M3.

And I was really, really torn between the two, unable to make up my mind… until I saw this free video on YouTube…

Yup, literally one free video on Youtube sealed the deal for Yamaha, and they literally reached into my pocket and sucked $3,200 out of my credit card (it costs like $2500 now!)

So yes, video does help you sell better.

And actually, it’s not just about “selling”. Video basically helps you “persuade” and “close” better – regardless of what the goal is.

So video rocks whether you’re selling a product, building a brand, building a reputation, or simply trying to make a very cool viral video…

And creating such videos is a LOT simpler than you can imagine.

Andy Jenkins, a marketer whom I admire and am a big fan of, has released 3 spectacular videos that show you how easy it is to create videos that work.

Yes, the videos are free.

One thing I can guarantee you: If you’re not totally impressed by the production quality, humor, fast-paced and multiple-sensory-stimulating narration in the videos, then I will let you smack me silly and call me “Ravioli”

So click here to watch them all for free before they get taken down when the actual product launches in 2 days…

And don’t forget to leave a comment below about what you thought about this post (or Andy’s videos).

Cheers!

- Ravi Jayagopal

Smartphones are evolving at such breakneck speed, thanks to Apple and Google, that they’re killing a whole range of gadgets…

The demise of the legendary Flip camcorder says it all.

Is your product (or company) geared to deal with such an incredible onslaught of change?

Seth Godin talks about attention deficit. And he also talks about attention surplus

And weirdly enough, they both conclude the same thing: No one is paying attention. Including yourself.

I’ve always been intrigued by the psychology of persuasion (yes, and am a big fan of the book by Cialdini too). And one of my favorite past-times is reading random stuff about “Ninja” copy-writing and persuasion and marketing techniques, as I’ve always been (and will be) a student of marketing.

And one of the techniques I love, is a NLP Technique called “Pattern Interrupt“.

This is where, you do something so different from the rest of your competition, that it completely throws your audience off-balance, and lowers their guard just enough for you to make your presence felt – and grab their attention for a few fleeting seconds (now what you do with that next is a completely different story).

This technique can be used in many aspects of life…

Stand out from other typical web sites…

…by say, offering a free report, without asking for their email address.

Stand out from the other males all vying for the attention of that beauty in the bar…

…by acting totally un-predictable, being a bad boy, and never being a “gentleman” (Eben Pagan, mega-marketer and super-nice dude, who runs DoubleYourDating under the pen-name David DeAngelo calls it the “Wuss” factor).

Stand out from the thousands of marketers crashing your prospect’s inbox with “offers”…

…by offering just honest-to-goodness, *awesome*, instantly usable, valuable content.

Stand out from your competitors…

…by putting your personal phone number on your web site.

Stand out from most other bloggers…

…by generously publishing outgoing links to all kinds of posts and pages and sites (like this blog post) without worrying about “losing your readers” (an awesome technique I learned from… you guessed it… Seth Godin )

But I digress…

Now you might have already heard about Roy H. Williams, the “Wizard Of Ads”, and one of my “Guru Drona’s” that I pay tribute to in my book.

Here’s an excerpt from his newsletter, that I eagerly wait for every Sunday midnight.

Here, he talks about asking people to volunteer ridiculous, over-the-top subject lines, and how he ties it to their marketing, in front of a live audience…

“The stagecraft begins when I ask everyone in the room to write a statement that would catch the ear of any person who overheard it. “The statement doesn’t have to make sense,” I say, “It just needs to be larger than life, evocative, difficult to ignore. The kind of statement that would make a passing stranger turn and say, ‘Huh?’”

I then ask 6 volunteers to bring their statements onto the stage. “I’m now going to craft real ads for real businesses using the statements written on those papers as the opening lines for the ads. Do I have any business owners in the room?” Six business owners take the stage. I randomly pair them up with the colorful statement-holders. I have no idea what businesses are on stage or what statements are written on those papers.

I owe Tom Robbins (not to be confused with Tony) for this little bit of stagecraft. In a magazine interview that accompanied the release of his novel, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, Tom said, “Everything in the universe is connected, of course. It’s a matter of using imagination to discover the links, and language to expand and enliven them.”

“Business owner number one. Tell me about your business.”

“I have a plumbing company.”

“Name a profit center you’d like to improve.”

“I’d like to get more calls for our 24-hour emergency service.”

“Crazy person number one. What did you write on your paper?”

“I came home and the dog was bald.”

The room roars with laughter as I walk to the front of the stage and balance there – my toes hanging over the edge – as 2,000 people hold their breath.

“I came home and the dog was bald. I haven’t been that surprised since I woke up at 2AM to pee and stepped out of bed into an inch of water. Thank god Martindale Plumbing never goes to sleep. At 2AM they were just sittin’ there, hoping someone would call. They fixed the problem while I made coffee. Great guys. Thank god for Martindale Plumbing, 24 hours a day. But I still got no idea what to do with a bald dog.”

I started laughing so hard at 3:45 AM in the morning while reading this newsletter on my iphone, on my bed, getting ready to fall asleep, that I literally became wide awake, and couldn’t fall asleep for a 1/2 hour after that. That’s how much it tickled me, inspired me, and got my juices going.

Remember, it’s not just about writing something ridiculous, larger than life, and simply shocking for the sake of shocking. That usually ends up like a bad joke.

The key is to start your copy (email subject, blog post, book title) with something ridiculous, outrageous, and even shocking, and somehow tie it all together with your main story.

That’s when you make people laugh in a dark room at 3:45 AM in the morning and inspire them so much that they lose their sleep!

Oh, and don’t forget to go sign up for the free Monday Morning Memo, written by one of my favorite people in the world.

A Mini Headline/Subject-Line Challenge

Imagine you’re sending out an email to your list… something to do with your product (any product or service, or yourself).

I challenge you to come up with a “pattern interrupting” headline, and also tell us, if you would, how you would tie it in to your story…

Go on, give it a shot in the comments section below. No one’s reading my blog anyway

Cheers!

“It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times”, wrote Charles Dickens.

That’s exactly how it has felt for the last couple of years.

On one hand, my wife’s father, and both my parents – all passed away in a span of 3 years, leaving our kids with no grandparents, and leaving us utterly devastated.

And on the other hand, my career has gone from good to Great to UNBELIEVABLE! (including the ALL CAPS & “exclamation point”). My wife and I both have been able to quit high-paying jobs, become full-time entrepreneurs, move to beautiful and pleasantly sunny San Diego, California. We work full time from home, we’re always there when the kids come home from school, we eat lunch together as a family every single day, we basically do whatever the heck we want, whenever we want – all while we grew our business by 1,000% (yup, one thousand percent) in less than 1.5 years.

So yes, it has been the best of times, and it has been the worst of times. A very big roller coaster ride.

And as the year comes to an end, I have been reflecting on where to go from here.

From a career perspective, I do have a best-selling book under my belt, a successful online business together with my wife, and am part of a wonderful community of customers, associates, partners, peers, and fans (yup, I apparently have some fans too!)

I am looking to take my personal brand to a new level this forthcoming year: I plan on doing more blogging, more speaking, more consulting and more coaching. And it was during this time that I happened upon a course called “Experts Academy” being promoted by a person named Brendon Burchard.

I was first introduced to Brendon’s products earlier this year when all of the big marketers in the industry were promoting his product. I received an email from at least 20 different people pitching his product “in my face”.

To be honest, I was a little turned off at that point. Plus I was in a different place in my life at that point, and did not give it further thought.

Over the months to follow, after the hype had died down and the launch had ended, I somehow kept running into Brendon’s videos, audio and other content from time to time, and the more I watched and absorbed his material, the more his brand grew on me. And I found the stuff he was teaching to be something not too many people taught (or taught like he did), very powerful and eye-opening – even for me, someone who has “been there, done that” in the online marketing world.

So this time around, when I found out that he’s re-opening the doors, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

I’m in a place right now where I am looking to actively and aggressively go into the “Expert” space, and launch more products in the coaching, consulting and seminar space.

This is exactly what the doctor ordered for me. And I have already decided to buy the course. Most people would consider it “expensive”, but for me, it’s going to be pretty “cheap”, because this is exactly what I’ve been wanting to learn, courses like this from someone who has proven themselves are rare to come by, genuinely good people like Brendon are even rarer, and the value I’m going to be getting from this is going to be so immense, that it is going to be the best gift I’ve bought myself in a long time.

Going by his free videos, his reputation, and his results, I predict this is going to be the product of the year. And if you could purchase just one thing over the next entire year, then let it be this one.

Even if you don’t buy the course, it would be crazy not to at least check out the bucket-loads of amazing free coaching that he’s giving away as part of this product launch. And as you watch each video, be sure to study the whole launch strategy – especially the “12 positioning tools” video that teaches how to market yourself as a a high-value, highly-paid expert starting starting today.

I have never, ever watched any “how-to” video for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time – ever. But I watched the first video which is like 45+ minutes long, in one sitting, completely mesmerized, furiously taking notes, while my brain was going so nuclear with all of the possibilities, that it could’ve probably powered my entire San Diego neighborhood!

Oh, and use this free FireFox plugin (one of my favorites) to download the launch videos, as even the free information is just too good to be skipped and forgotten. You will be watching them many times over, so make sure you save them to your computer for offline viewing.

- Ravi Jayagopal

P.S: So Where You At? What have you planned for 2011?
Do comment below.

PPS: Some of the links in this blog may result in an affiliate earning for this web site. We do not recommend products for the sake of earning a commission. Rather it’s the other way around. When we want to recommend something, we check if they have an affiliate program. If not, we recommend it anyway.

… and so does “music” – especially when it comes to just about any kind of video online.

When your mother admonished you when you were young for dressing like a bum to your first job interview, you probably didn’t realize how important “presentation” is. But you’ll be even more surprised how much it matters, after you see these videos.

Artifact 1:

An original video what will knock-your-socks off from Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod. The video has been watched more than 11 million times (at the time of writing this).

And don’t miss watching it in full-screen mode.

Artifact 2:

Here’s a copycat video, with much different music, and a much different style. See if you can tell a difference in “impact”.

Artifact 3:

Completely different video, nothing to do with the above two – but simply had to include this in the conversation about using great editing and great music in an online video. And the beauty is, you could’ve done this too for your web site, with a not-very-expensive tool like Camtasia, but you didn’t . And neither have I

Oh, I’m very much a Hunter!

But being a Gemini, I do have a kind of split-personality. So, occasionally I chill out and become a “Farmer”. Not for too long though

Well, almost free. Paid $15.95 S&H.

Charge enough for Shipping & Handling to cover the cost of your shipping and your actual product (printed reports).

And in return, they’re getting my email id (of a paying customer), and also my mailing address.

There are a few one-time-offers along the way. And they’re 1-click. So be careful about what you click on the upsell pages.

And I’m guessing my shipping address would be generously shared with direct marketing companies to send me “Internet Marketing” junk. But that’s not too bad. There’s no law against sending junk offers by regular mail, and I can always opt-out of those if I wanted to.

Anyway, here’s the link if you want to get the free videos and the report (yup, I will be compensated if you go through that link .

And I did get it myself too

Enjoy.

I believe it is critically important to have role models, teachers, mentors, gurus, leaders, spiritual guides – from whom we can draw courage, inspiration, enlightenment, guidance – in times of need at various stages of our life.

So here’s a short list of my role models, who have all tremendously inspired me, taught me, and given me courage in difficult/tough/desperate/sad/challenging times.

Times when I ask myself…

What would Nick Vujicic do?

What would Seth Godin do?

What would Steve Jobs do?

And of course, I never stop thinking this….

What would my beloved Father do? (And what is he doing now?)

- Ravi

Did you know that the incredibly famous Nike “Swoosh” logo was created by a graphic design student desperate to pay for a dress for an upcoming party, for a stunning total of $35 (at $2/hour)?

I watched a Nike documentary recently, where they interviewed  Philip Knight (one of Nike’s Founders), “His Airness” Michael Jordan, and the legendary designer of all (or most?) Air-Jordan shoes.

Knight talks about how when he first met the folks at Wieden+Kennedy (the media company that helped launch Nike as an international brand, with mainly remarkable marketing), he told them that he didn’t believe in advertising!

There is a clip at the end where LeBron James, one of the highest paid basketball players in the world today, says he grew up watching Michael Jordan, and how he and every single kid he knew felt that if they wore the same “Air Jordan” Shoes that they saw Jordan wearing in the commercials, they too could “soar in the air” and make all sorts of magical moves on the court – Just Like Mike.

Did the kids know deep, deep, deep inside that just wearing a specific brand of shoes won’t make you a better player? Of course, they all did.

But did they still convince themselves (and their parents) against reason and common-sense, that the shoes were really what counted? Of course, they all did!

How much did the association with Michael Jordan help Nike become the sports-wear-juggernaut that it is? Probably a LOT.

That just proves one thing: When you have a really strong brand (remarkable shoes, remarkable computers, remarkable prices, remarkable advice), people are much more likely to  buy your products – AND your recommendations – without thinking too much.

My hero Seth Godin recently recommended a book called “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions“. All he wrote was, (paraphrasing) “It’s remarkable, just go buy it”.

Had never heard of the author. Didn’t read any reviews. Didn’t care about the price.

I just went and bought it  – just because Seth Godin thought it was good (yes, he has worked hard to build that level of trust, and I’m sure he knows better than to dilute it by recommending purely in return for money (say, commercial endorsements?).

If you read only one book this year, then make sure it is this one.

The difference is pretty simple, actually

Quit Smoking
Simple: We all know the health benefits of not smoking. Quit smoking, live longer.
But Not Easy: The actual act of quitting is really hard.

Losing Weight
Simple: Do it and you will look good, feel good, and have more energy
But Not Easy: Working out frequently, cutting down on your favorite fatty foods, and eating healthy, is the hardest thing to do when you’re overweight.

Raving Fans
Simple: Take good care of your customers, and address their questions and concerns quickly.
But Not Easy: The amount of time and effort spent and processes you need to put in place. And sincerely caring about your customers.

Creating Something “Remarkable”
Simple: Build something that people want or need with a unique twist, go really deep in features, and address all the benefits.
But Not Easy: Think Microsoft. All the money and resources and clout in the world, yet they give us Windows ME and Vista.

Earning A Recurring Income
Simple: Build a membership site, add great content, price it well and market it well.
But Not Easy: Implementing the right membership software, creating great content consistently, doing the research and testing on pricing, implementing solid marketing.

If you just looked at what needs to be done, a lot of things in life are actually quite simple.

But the act of just doing it, doing it well, and continuing to do it well, is never ever easy.

Hope you don’t settle for the easy in life. Because nothing worth doing in life is ever easy.

Simple, may be, but never easy.