Flash_EPD_Beth-Best-Selling Information Product In A Single Evening

Discover The Simple, Yet Little-Known Secrets For Creating Your Own Best-Selling Information Product In A Single Evening!

Beth may not realize this and I am not doctor, but she is in my opinion borderline OCD. Here is the story. Beth currently works as a bookkeeper for a school system in Georgia. Her personal goal is to have her own business and to work from home. Not only does she like to be extremely busy, but she had two children who will be going off to college soon and would like her business to generate the income that she would need to live the lifestyle of her dreams.

The problem is that Beth doesn’t know what kind of business she could develop and make successful. She saw my web site, www.hardtofindseminars.com , and my offer for a free 15-minute consultation. She cast her fate to the wind and called me – never expecting that I would return her call. Of course I returned her call, and you are about to listen to my consultation with Beth.

You will hear how I ask questions about her business experience, her personal goals and the income she feels she would need. I then begin to probe about her specific business skills. Beth has been in the business world for many years and has many exceptional skills. However, a few of her skills set off some bells for me:

Beth is a very rare person because when she sets out to learn software, she reads the manuals cover to cover so that she is able to utilize every feature of the software. Most people either don’t read manuals or just read enough to know how to accomplish what they need at a particular time.

Beth uses Excel in every part of her life. She uses it both at home (for budgets, credit and expense tracking) as well as at her job where she has created Excel spread sheets to track everything about a grant that the school system received from the state. Beth has left no stone unturned in the gathering of state and federally mandated information reporting for state grants.

Beth doesn’t believe she is an expert in the use of Excel – but she really is! What’s even better is that she is passionate about using Excel to improve efficiency both in her home and at her job.

My solution was for Beth to claim herself as an Excel expert and to create an information product that would teach people better ways to use this powerful software product. She could actually train people over the phone from the comfort of her own home. I gave her some ideas of tools available that would help her to do this professionally and effectively.

Sounds great – but how would Beth introduce herself to prospects who might have a need for her service? There is always cold calling, but like most people, Beth doesn’t like the idea of cold calling. She would like prospects to call her instead.

1. Do research on where the needs for her services are. Determine where the hungry market is.
2. Find case studies, perhaps on the MS Excel site itself or in a MS Excel online forum, to discover what types of typical problems people are having when trying to figure out how to accomplish a task using Excel.
3. Look at the indices of books already written by other Excel experts to develop an outline for her information product.
4. Use Google to research the potential markets for her product and service.
5. Put the frustrations with Excel into a specific format for a sales letter.
6. I offered to help her create an audio interview, perhaps with some video or at least screen shots, that would be part of her sales letter package.
7. Write her biography and explain why she is the expert that can best help people to solve their problems with the use of Excel. Within this, I advised Beth to come up with a “catchy” name for herself that people would remember – something like “The Excel Queen.”

Yes, it does sound like a lot of work, don’t it? But each step is very, very doable and, in fact, must be done to create a great sales letter/sales message to send to prospects. Once the sales message and a presentation are created, she could test her product/service using a mailing list that could easily be obtained from one of several good sources like the SRDS. For more on this resource, go to here

Beth promised to work on the steps I advised her to do before we went on to create the audio interview portion of her sales message. I’m really looking forward to hearing from her again.

The advice that I gave Beth could be used to create any information product so I invite you to not only listen to this consultation, but to pay close attention to the steps I have outlined. You only need to have the passion and a niche product or service to get started

Michael: We’re just going to talk and I’ll see if I can give the best advice I know how on whatever you’re doing. Did you jot down or take any notes or any specific things that you’re finding challenging, any ideas?

Beth: I’m kind of going two different directions without a direction at the same time, and that’s my biggest thing. Number one, I want to work from home. I want to work for myself. I have a lot of knowledge, not a lot of knowing how to apply that knowledge. So, I have to start from ground zero.

Beth: I am a bookkeeper. That is my forte. I’ve done it for 20-some odd years.

Beth: Always. Well, I didn’t while I raised my kids. Other than, yes, but even then I did home business typing and that kind of stuff. I’ve always stayed in the business world. That is what I know. I am also in a program – I don’t know if you’ve heard of them or not – but, it’s Nanotech.

Beth: The only reason I’m in that because I 110 percent support their product. To my amazement, I have one person under me which is great. Basically, what I want to do with that is make people knowledgeable. That’s my point. If it turns into a money maker, great.

Beth: Not only that, but I’ve seen what it can do for a lot of people, but people don’t know things. We are really misled and what I want to do is educate people. I can do that in a few ways. One is with this product and also with the business knowledge that I have. I am just truly amazed at how much people don’t know.

Beth: Exactly, they really don’t. They walk blindly and they think they’re doing the right thing, and I know I’ve done it myself. That’s probably why I know as much as I do know.

Michael: Where are you getting your business knowledge, just by being around it?

Beth: From the old school of hard knocks. I also have a business and a technical degree as well later in life, but primarily basically from being around. I’m from the days of when computers were not in everybody’s office. As a matter of fact, the home computer just was not even though of, and I took offices that didn’t have computers, got them set up so that everyone did have them on their desk even though I really didn’t know what I was doing just because I like technology.

Beth: I think so. I don’t know if anybody is “very”. I can do some programming. My really forte, if you will, were spreadsheets and databases.

Michael: We’ll talk about your skills and stuff, but what does Beth really want to do?

Michael: Let me ask you this – how much would you like to make, and don’t say as much as I can, where you feel comfortable? Can you set a realistic goal in dollars?

Beth: I have realistic goals set in fact. What my goals are, are this – that by March of 2006, I want $100,000 to pay off all of my debts because I have two kids getting ready to start college. I know that by May, I’m going to have to have a substantial amount saved.

Beth: My son who will be a senior this year, his primary objective is Stanford University or Duke or MIT.

Beth: Well, he’s looking possibly at Auburn as a local school, but that’s lowest on his list. I looked at his list this morning and said, “Oh, my god.” But, the thing is he can very well qualify for these schools. So, it is a real thing. It’s not just a pipe dream for him. He’s going to a preparatory school right now that he got himself into. He wants to go into law. He’s going to leave for San Jose in about seven days, and he’s spending time there. My daughter is a dance student. She wants to be a professional. She’s fifteen, and currently is in Houston, Texas, and she’s going to dance on the program, and hopes not this year but the following year go to a year round dance program.

Beth: He is an electrical engineer and travels the country, and I don’t travel with him. That’s all he knows. That’s what he’s done and that’s what he’s comfortable with, and he thinks I’m totally out of my mind. I let him think that. That’s okay.

Michael: So, you have two kids going to college. You want something to keep busy and put some time and effort and do something you enjoy.

Now, let’s talk about your skills and what you’re really good at, some specifics. And, you’ve already told me something really important that you want to teach. It sounds like you’ve got some passion behind you, and you like to teach and you have the ability to teach, and what I’m thinking for you, maybe we could find something that you’re already very good at that you could teach other people and make some good money at the same time.

Beth: That would be nice. I haven’t found something that a million other people aren’t doing.

Michael: Well, sometimes when a million other people are doing it, other than the multi-level, sometimes that means something, but there could be a million other people doing something and you could still do it, but you’re just going to do it better than any of them.

Beth: Right, and that’s what I want. I want to do something that stands out. I don’t want to just do it with every other Jack and Jill out there.

Michael: That’s right, but you know what? Those other million people doing it, you just be the best at it and all those other million people will be doing advertising for you.

Michael: On a small scale, so you can look at it that way. Sometimes the crowded places are good places to go to. But, we can talk more about that. Did you grow up in Alabama?

Beth: I was born in California, raised in Colorado, got married, left and went to the Northwest, and then I moved to the Southwest, and now I’m in the Southeast. We actually lived in Fort Worth, Texas when my kids were real, real small. Then, he got this job here in Alabama, and I said, “You’re crazy! You’re moving me to Alabama?”

Beth: Yeah, this is a long time ago. This is like twelve years ago. That’s when my son started kindergarten. I figured, “Well, that’s it. You’re on your own now. You’re not moving around.” So, this is where I’m at. This is also where I want to get out of. I’m stuck here.

Beth: I don’t know where the ideal places are to go. The one place that keeps coming back to my mind though is I want to go to Tucson Arizona because number one, I’ve got a be in the South. I have to be where it’s warm. I don’t want to go anywhere where it snows. I like to be near water, but I don’t have to be on water. But, I just want a comfortable little place where I can just piddle around and do whatever I please. I don’t need anything extravagant. I just want to be able to pick up and go when I want and do what I want. No big deal.

Beth: That all comes with time. If I can get something that generates enough income, he can get out of the rat race that he’s in.

Beth: He’s into it because he’s a workaholic. That’s all he knows. I think he was shown another way and it was proven to him especially through me, the one person in this world he actually trusts, I could probably make some changes that would healthy for us. Right now, he’s a question mark.

Michael: You’ve got enough to cover. You’ve got some mortgage or bills you have to get covered so you can survive, right?

Beth: I don’t have that. I will have it. Let’s just put it ballpark, I guess $10,000 a month.

Michael: All right, let’s talk about Beth’s strengths. You were telling me you moved around a lot. What’s some of the jobs you were doing that you were talking school of hard knocks? What were some of those hard knocks you learned lessons from that you gained experience from, that you can share with me?

Beth: Okay. Well, number one, I’ll go back to this again, I have always been into the keyboard to speak. I was never interested really in the mainframe. I wanted that user friendly, just explain simple point blank to everyone around me. So, what I would do is I would take the Lotus book for instance, and I’d read it from front to back. I’d play with it. I’d make it do what I wanted it to do.

Beth: Right, the software, and I am a software. So, I trained the bookkeeper, “Look what you can do it?” Before I knew it, I had her hooked.

Michael: So, you did what 99.9 percent of the people would never do. You actually read the book.

Beth: I read the book. I plugged in the computer, and I showed them how. That’s probably my strongest position that I left. When I left there, there was computers on every desk. When I got there, there was one lonely old computer sitting in the room all by itself.

Beth: Some kind of clerical something or other. I don’t even remember. That was many, many years ago, but I was doing clerical. I did bookkeeping and that kind of stuff. But, it was just sitting there, and I just would pick up the book. I took it home. I read it and I played with it.

Michael: The power of being able to make it work, or uncovering the power within the software.

Beth: Exactly. What can it really do? And, that’s what I like about getting my technology degree, was learning how to even create more power, and it’s not that I’m power oriented. It’s just that that’s available to use it, and people don’t.

Michael: No, they don’t. That’s a gift. A lot of people can do that and read through that book. You’d have to torture me to get me to sit down and have the ability to sit and read through a manual on how to operate a piece of software. I’ve never done it. I’ll just play around with it and just do enough just to get by, probably one or two or three percent. I’m sitting her taking notes on my Microsoft Works program that I had ten years ago, because that’s what I learned how to do. Do you see what I’m saying?

Michael: Well, what’s a piece of software you know backwards and forwards, one that’s current?

Michael: Okay, you know Excel backwards and forwards. I have Excel and I probably know about two percent of how to use that thing.

Beth: I use it for my personal budget. I use it at work. I do a lot of tracking like for instance when I make my calls to Nanotech. I track how many calls I want to make, how many calls I actually make, how many people I talk to, how many I connected with, set an appointment with, and how many were interested. At the bottom of that sheet, there are percentages that tell me exactly where my business is going.

Beth: It’s a motivator. It really is because I get on there and I watch those numbers grow, and that’s my only purpose for it. It’s just a self-discipline thing, if you will.

Beth: For instance, my home budget. I track all my monthly expenses. I know exactly where every penny of this household money goes.

Beth: Because I want to know where it’s going. I know where I need to cut back, and where I need to spend more. I also want to know how much the price of gas is actually going up every month.

Beth: I’m trying to think when I haven’t, and it’s probably been 20 years since I haven’t. I’ve always tracked it.

Michael: If everyone tracked their budget, what do you think that would do for someone?

Beth: It’s a realization check. For instance, many people that I know that eat out at least once a day, most twice a day, if they knew how much money they were spending on each meal for a month as opposed to the cost of going to the grocery store, buying preparations and compared those two, look at how much money they would save, and where could that money go. That’s just one common example. There’s a billion others.

Michael: Tell me more about the budget. You set it up categories and columns and fields for all the different categories. Does Excel already have a budget in there, like a template budget?

Beth: I don’t use one. I put it in my own because I know how. I’m sure that they might be in there. I don’t know. I’m not into tutorials. To me, when you go in and you use what is existing, I might take that and play with it on some programs, but Excel I don’t. I think I have like in email programs and stuff. I may use part of what they have, but I’m more accustomed to what I want.

Another thing I do is I also track all of our credit. I know what condition my credit is in, how much our percentage rates are, what is being paid towards principle and how much is towards interest, what the balance is after I made that payment before I get my statement. I use it for everything.

At my job, I just finished with an afterschool program. I work for the school system, and we got a grant for an afterschool program from the Federal government.

Beth: The school system did. The program was four years. I set up everything on a computer to the point where I sent hours, a couple hours a day, and I could track every student activity they were in, how many days they were gone, how many days they were there. I could track anything that you need to put in any schedule report which I don’t know if you know anything about those, but they’re really intense. Anything they needed to know, all I needed to do was click a button.

Beth: Right, and most of the programs don’t have anything as detailed as mine, and mine was probably very simple. I mean, there wasn’t anything extravagant, it was just a tracking system, but all I had to do was punch in Joe Smith, and I knew everything about Joe Smith.

Michael: For that school system, by having your detailed work, that tracking, how did the school system benefit from that?

Beth: They had everything they could every want. They not only had it on the computer, but they have it on paper form.

Beth: Why is that good? If they come back and audit us ten years from now and say, “Wait a minute. There’s no information on this. What is this?”

Beth: This is on a federal level. The chances are it will never happen, but anything on a state level can be audited at any time.

Michael: So, they want to make sure that the state is spending the grant properly.

Beth: Yeah, they have to know those funds are being spent in accordance with the grant and state and or federal guidelines.

Michael: What would you say out of all the grants that are given, how many people really have a system organized, detailed like that?

Beth: A lot of people purchase systems. They purchase software that will do a lot of their tracking for them. A lot of them seem to be keeping things up to date more than they are, just by doing a paper trail, filing everything, which I do that too.

This way I have heard that every person that was ever involved in our program is accounted for.

Michael: Tell me what else you use Excel for in your life, that makes life easier. Your budget, you used it at work for this grant. You gave me that example. You used it to monitor your interest rates and your mortgage payments. What else is really cool about Excel? How about managing a database?

Beth: I do that. I load everything. As a matter of face, I believe that I have that come in, whether they come in Excel format or not, they all get put there. I do that for downloading or uploading actually if there’s enough of them. That way, if you put it in Excel, you can transfer into any format that you want to. I use that distinct purpose especially where email is concerned or downloading and uploading because Excel can be changed into a webpage, a Word document. It could be changed into any format that you need. Whatever you need it can do that.

Beth: The thing is you can take that and upload it into a database. That’s the thing I do use it for.

Michael: What are some of your favorite things about it besides some of the stuff we talked about?

Beth: I can’t think of anything else because that pretty much covers it what it does.

Beth: It does great chart by the way too. You can do presentations. I forgot about that part.

Michael: If a business administrator or owner could operate Excel at the level you operate, which you’re probably operating it somewhere between 80 and 90 percent, would you say?

Michael: Maybe you’re operating at 95 percent. I would guess. What do you think most people operate in Excel at?

Michael: 20 percent, and look at the power. The tools that thing that can do for a business doing direct mail or email marketing or tracking all that, that’s like having fulltime employees almost.

Beth: Well, it is. It really is. Once it’s set up and it’s working, all you need is somebody to put in data or get your data from someplace else and put it in there yourself. It’s not hard to do.

Michael: Let’s say I gave you a database of 100,000 names. What could you do with that data? Could you look at that data by using some of the features in Excel? Can you learn something from that list just by having the data? Let’s say it’s not organized in any way, and I gave you names, addresses, phone numbers, street, city. I guess the more date you have, the more you can do with it.

Beth: Well, whether it’s in a database or in Excel format, you can sort it in any way you want to. If you need to know how many people are purchasing this one product, you can sort by product. If you need to know a certain area or a certain region, you can sort by that. Whatever your data contains, that’s what you can sort it into.

Michael: That’s Excel, and we’re going to come back to that, okay, because I’ve got a lot of ideas for you right there. What else are some hard knock stuff that you talked about that you learned in business?

Beth: Well, a lot of it comes with just the process of age of computers. Like I said, I’ve came from what is known as the Mag Card error. I don’t know how old you are if you even know what that is?

Beth: It was a little magnetic card that you stuck into something that now looks like a CPU, and that little card held all the data for now it would be a word processing program. That’s all it would do. That’s all it did. I came from that, which was big time when I started doing that. Like I said, I’ve always been with computers. I’ve come from where the mainframe was the big thing to a PC on every desk.

For instance, when WordPerfect first came out over 20 years ago, that was big time stuff, and it was hard to learn. It was a very, very complicated program.

Beth: Of course I did. Yeah, I was determined I’m going to learn it, and I wanted to learn it because it was more than typing. It was a program. It was a way to process information a lot more efficiently, and I’m into efficiency. Anything that makes anything more efficient, that’s what I go out to learn, and that’s what I mean by school of hard knocks. It wasn’t hard. It was fun. But, it wasn’t go to a classroom, pick up a textbook, and you’re going to learn this. It was let’s learn everything I can as fast as I can so I can make something happen. I’m that way with just about everything.

Michael: Is there anything else that you want to add besides your obsession with efficiency?

Beth: I believe in organization, efficiency, and what I call organized chaos. It seems like organization can get really boring, and I don’t do one thing at one time. My son thinks I’m crazy because I’ll sitting here and be on the phone and doing something all at the same time, but that’s how I operate. So, I keep myself constantly busy with the same boring stuff, and it’s not boring anymore.

Beth: Even when I was a kid. When I was a kid, I was basically mother of four. That may be where all of this started from. I was one of those that got four hours a night of sleep. Homework was not the priority. It was making sure I had a place to be after all the kids were picked up, and my job to go to. That was a whole different lifetime ago, but that might have been where it all came from.

That, and I have some fantastic, God bless their heart, God bless their souls, grandparents.

Beth: My mom and dad missed the train somewhere, but my grandparents were out of this world. They were from the buggy days. The first car that was the big to-do, the big Ford. But, these people were amazing people. I have to say that some of the stock was passed down because I could go right to my grandmother which I don’t have this trait myself, but she used to amaze me.

She could take two sticks from the yard, and create this masterpiece. I can’t do that, but I do it in my own way. I’m watching a lot of the things that I thought so greatly of my grandparents, and I’m looking at myself going, “I have those traits, not in the same thing.”

It’s cool watching my kids. There’s got to be something because I have two “out of this world” teenagers. It’s supposed to be the hardest time in life, and it’s wonderful.

Beth: They’re fabulous. I have done, and I don’t do boredom real well, I do unexpected exceptionally well like this call. I was no way prepared for, but I’m talking a lot more than I thought I would.

Michael: You have some great skills. So, I have an idea. You can teach. You’re definitely passionate. Now, you’ve got to claim something. What I would do – first of all, there’s nothing better than selling information.

So, look at how you were led to that process buying information. The reason why you want to sell information or develop and create your own information product based on some expertise that you have and something that you enjoy and are passionate about, and you’ve got all those.

You’ve got a clear expertise. First of all, to name it you’ve got to claim it. What are you? Who are you? What’s unique about you? So, you’ve got to give yourself a title. You’ve got to claim yourself as an expert whether it’s the efficiency expert, or the Excel expert. You’ve got to decide what is your product and what is it going to do.

Let’s say you are an expert at training $200,000 CEO secretaries on how to be more efficient operating Excel. So, let’s say you had high-end secretaries who were working for millionaires all over the country. I’m sure there’s plenty of them. You come in an train them whether it’s online or through the phone. You don’t even have to fly. It all can be done over the phone and through the Internet with some of the software programs. Do you know what I’m saying?

Michael: You can sit on your butt right in your home and be training high-end secretaries, high-end people who are using Excel to optimize it, and you can charge a lot of money for that.

Michael: Anyone who is operating Excel today whether they’re working for a trillionaire, a millionaire, a hundred thousandaire or whatever need help in Excel, and they came to you, you can help them. Couldn’t you?

Michael: How would you do that? If I call you and said, “I need help with Excel. My boss is on me.” What process would you do? Forget money. Let’s say you’re going to do it for free. What would we do first for you to train me?

Michael: Okay, so, I would tell you what I’m doing, where I’m at, and I would tell you where I want to go.

Michael: To do the technical training, do you have any tools and ideas that would allow you to do it right from your home with me right now if we both have computers?

Beth: I’d do it over the phone. I haven’t really gotten into this video thing yet. I don’t know much about that. I could and I have, I have done one over the phone and it works. They’ll call me and they’ll ask me, so I do know how to do it over the phone.

Michael: There’s a company called Glance Networks. It’s like you’re glancing over my shoulder. So, if we both sign in, you take control over my computer screen. You have your Excel open. We’re both online, and I’m watching every move you make on the computer and we’re on the phone.

Michael: And, there’s also PC Anywhere. Anywhere you have the ability to show someone what’s on your screen, anywhere in the world, and you have the phone. So, you have your tools to do training. Now, all you’ve got to do is get them to come to you and say, “I need help.” Right?

Michael: How do we get your message and your expertise to them to let them know that you have the skill that the need, and they want?

Beth: That’s where I’m stuck. I’m not into the advertising and marketing, and I’m trying really hard, and it’s like the sales person of old going, “No!”

Michael: It’s really not complicated. It’s really easy. I’ve asked you a lot of questions, and we’re recording the call. I can edit this and go through the questions that all relate to Excel, a little bit about you, a little bit about your history, and I can come up with maybe 15-20 minutes on what makes you an expert at Excel just through I’ve probably asked you about 100 questions already.

Beth: Yes, it was. You’re quick on the draw, let me tell you that. That’s the ones that I can not do. I’m too nice. I listen too closely, and that’s why I don’t make sales.

Michael: No, that’s okay. I don’t like making sales like that. It’s not something I choose to do. No one likes making cold calls like that.

Beth: I know they don’t. The people that I work they kind of help each other out anyway through this.

Michael: But, if you could do it. If it didn’t bother you, I was just demonstrating. If you’re willing to do it, this can be done. We must have been on the phone no longer than 15 minutes, and you heard them calling back. Two of those calls, we never talked to those people, resulted in orders. Do you remember him calling, “Saying, Mike I got my first order?” Do you remember that guy Abraham we talked to?

Michael: That was one of the calls we called, and then there was another call that ordered another 200 pens, too. So, the purpose of that was to show someone, “Here’s the calls.” And, then you heard Lane calling me back saying, “I’ve got two orders from those 15 minutes of calls worth $400.” I try and demonstrate in a lot of my recordings.

I did do that. When I first got started, and I was selling pens, that what’s I did. I hit the phones like that for hours and hours a day.

Beth: I can call and talk to people. I don’t have any problems picking up the phone. My problem is I can’t sell them. They have to see it. They have to believe in it.

Michael: And, that’s what good marketing is about. We were doing cold calls, the hardest selling there is.

Beth: That’s what I want. I want them calling me, and them requesting information from me.

Michael: That’s right. That’s doable, so if I called you and said, “I heard you’re an efficiency expert with Excel.” You wouldn’t have to think about what to say, would you?

Michael: You’re already passionate. It’s ingrained you. You’re excited about it. That all will come through, just as when I was talking about those people about my invisible ink pens because I know. I totally believe in the product. I’ve sold thousands and thousands of them, and it wasn’t hard for me. It just came natural.

To you, it seems like, “God, I could never do that” because you don’t have the intimacy with the product.

Michael: Just like me trying to sell someone on the efficiency of Excel. I would have no idea what to say. I don’t know it, but you do. That’s why it’s so important when you have something you know and you’re intimate about, you don’t have to think.

So, we know that you could help someone. Your marketing message is really just a story. Let me try and sum it up some way. How are you going to get clients?

Well, first of all, you have to find a prospect that you think would fit your service. So, let’s say you’re the Excel efficiency expert, and you know Excel better than almost any one in the world. You’re a top expert at it, and you can come in there and guarantee a 50 percent increase in efficiency which will result to hours in salary’s saved. You could come up with a different benefit that a potential client could gain from your expertise, right?

Michael: Good marketing is taking that message and canning and cloning it. So, let’s say you and I organize, like in the chapter of a book, an outline of a book, of Beth’s Excel Efficiency System. It would take some time. You’ve got to do research finding out where’s the pain in the marketplace, okay?

Michael: Where are they having problems? And, that takes good research, and that could be done, finding out where the problems are through good research, and then you’re the solution to those problems, but we want common problems that our market is experiencing.

So, we create a sales message. Now, that sales message could be in the form of an audio interview. Let’s say we outline this and I had all the problems that we outlined, “20 Ways to Increase Your Efficiency in Excel”, and you and I did an interview and let’s you could do – there’s a program called Camtasia.

So, you have your Excel spreadsheet open on your computer. Camtasia is a software that allows you to record audio and to record the screen shots, and the files end up being pretty small. So, it allows you to create a movie of your screen. Just like Video Professor. You know you order those CDs?

You could do a little 20 questions of ways to increase your Excel efficiency, and you can create an AVI movie or a presentation that someone can watch just like those multi-level things. You know the little movie? You can do all that, or you can do just audio where you wouldn’t need a video part, or you can have transcripts, “Ten Big Mistakes Most Excel Users are Making That’s Costing them a Fortune.”

We’d structure that, and we do it in audio, like an interview format, and we give them a lot of great advice, a lot of great tips, a lot of tools. We give them some value that they can put in their pocket right there. You know most people don’t want to take the time to learn, and then you’ve positioned yourself as an expert.

Now, the good marketing comes in. We’ve got to deliver that message to a prospect, to a potential list of people. It takes some research, “Well, who would that market be?” But, let’s take this for example, and you could do this with any piece of software.

Every person who orders Excel, that list is available on the rental market, and you can get what’s called Hotline lists. You could go to what’s called the SRDS, Standard Rate and Data Service. You can find all the recent hotline buyers, people who have purchased Excel – even though geographical location really makes no difference – let’s say you wanted people anywhere within 250 miles from you and your zip code, businesses that purchased Excel. I don’t know what the selects would be. You may be able to get million dollar corporations. Then, you have a mailing list.

I don’t know what data is available, but the whole idea is you could take your report, “The Ten Things Secretaries are Doing Wrong with Excel that’s Costing a Bundle.” Or, do it to the CEO of the company, or the President of the company. You could have your report in there. You could have an audio CD or on the CD you could have that video presentation. Then, you have a sales letter.

There’s your message that you know that if someone’s in pain and they get that, in audio format, in a sales letter, in a transcript format, or in a video presentation – you give it all different ways. It will cost you two bucks to get the package out. You get it to them, and you know if they’re in pain, and they listen to you, you’re going to have a customer. When good marketing comes in, it’s just mathematics.

Let’s say you tested that list, and let’s say the list was people who just bought a premium version of Excel. Does Excel have a high-end version?

Michael: You just have to do some research and find out who would be the best people to mail it to. Would it be the CEOs? Would it be mailing it to males? You could get the demographics.

Beth: Now, that I think about, more and more people are having to do their own. They don’t rely on a secretary or somebody to do it. They are relying on themselves to track that data, because their boss said that they have to do that.

My husband had to learn Excel because of that because there no longer is that clerical staff. They have somebody who answers the phone, but she’s worthless after that.

Michael: Well, certainly. I mean, if people are ordering Excel, they’re ordering it for a reason. In the letter, you can hit the hot buttons once you do the research. “Are you struggling with the pain of learning Excel because you’re boss is yelling?” You hit all the hot points, but good marketing is just getting your sales message to a hungry market.

Beth: Right. Now, the only concern I have, and this is one of the reasons I have not been to this direction. With anything that I know how to do is the fact you’ve got all these young kids, that anybody who’s under 25 has learned Excel through school. They are required to. So, they know it.

Beth: Yes, they do. They don’t know all the tricks of the trade. They know the basics. They can make anything happen. They have books. They’ve had the training, and it doesn’t take but one semester of training to learn Excel. It’s like learning how to type. It’s the same type of thing.They’re teaching that in school.

Michael: Well, they may learn how to use their 20-30 percent. You’re not worried about those people who don’t need your services. You’re only worried about the people who do.

Michael: Do you see what I’m saying? And, the difference between paying all your bills and living the lifestyle you want is only having 1.5 to two percent of those people raising their hand out of a hundred. With the list the size of Excel, and I don’t know exactly what it was.

Let’s just assume that they have every month for numbers like 50,000 new buyers in the United States. That’s every month, the hotline because you want to get your message to the people who just ordered is as quickly as possible. They just ordered it. It came. It’s probably loaded up on their computer or whatever. Do you see what I’m saying?

You can do a simple letter saying, “I understand you just ordered Excel. If you need some help in learning how to use it, give me a call. Call this 24 hour recorded message or go to this website, Excelhelp.com.” You make your own website, and you can have your presentation.

“I understand you just ordered Excel. My name is Beth, and I’m an efficiency expert when it comes to using Excel. When I first starting learning Excel, I had an extremely hard time, but I’m the type of person who actually read the entire book, not once, but three times, and that qualifies me as an expert. Another thing is I love teaching people how to use it. I can show you things about Excel that you would’ve never dreamed possible, and your boss is going to love you for it. So, for a free 15 minute consultation, why don’t you give me a call? Here’s my number. You’ll log in. You’ll see exactly what’s on my screen and I’ll show you ten of my most secrets tricks about using Excel to make it more efficient, to make your life easier, to make your boss like you more. It will give you the ability to relax during lunch hour and not stress over entering all this data the hard way.”

A simple letter like that could keep you busy for years. It’s just mathematics. So, you find the list of the potential prospects. I’m using this example of Excel buyers. It sounds like the most logical, but it not necessarily is. You can get into specific paths and who is using Excel. You could probably go to Excel’s website, and they probably have all kinds of case studies of who is using it.

Michael: What are they using it for? And, let’s say you find an article How Mortgage Broker Uses Excel – for some really weird, obscure thing, and you can take that story and you can use that as a promotional piece to market to all the mortgage brokers.

“My name is Beth. I just read a story about this mortgage broker in Houston, Texas who is using Excel to do this, and did you know he saves this much money per year operating his mortgage business? Well, I would like to show you how in this free 15 minute consultation.”

It’s just introducing yourself to a prospect who may have pain, just like we’re talking now. You saw my recording, and you saw one of the pages that offered a free 15 minute consultation, and we’re talking now.

You just want a chance to get in front of them whether it’s on the phone or whether they watch your presentation that’s been honed, and that has been researched and proven that if someone watches that and they’re in pain, you’ve got them.

I don’t know. I haven’t done the research, but I don’t think there’s too many people claiming that their efficiency experts in Excel. I’m saying it’s really important to niche. Pick one thing. Be an expert at one thing. That’s your niche. That your specialty. Beth doesn’t know Jack about anything else, but when it comes to Excel, you are a wizard, and that’s what people want to pay for.

Rather than being a software consultant or an efficiency expert. It’s too general. So be specific, and then people remember, “Oh, Beth, she’s the Excel expert.” Do you know what I’m saying?

Beth: Yeah, it is. I have all these doubts, but that’s me. I don’t look at myself as an expert in anything. Like I said, I have a lot of knowledge, and I’m good at lots of different things, not great at anything.

Michael: Now, here’s the real important thing. This will determine everything. There are a lot of geniuses out there, a lot of experts in all kinds of things, but they don’t believe that they’re an expert, and you just said it. It comes down to your confidence. How do you feel about yourself? If you don’t believe you’re an expert, you may not come across as an expert. I believe you are just from hearing you, just from talking to you. I’ll tell you, you can position yourself as an expert, and no one is going to doubt you. I am sure you are. If you told me you read that whole book, I’m telling you, 99 percent of the population don’t read books like that.

Michael: 98 percent of the people never get passed the first tape, and 90-some percent of the people never get passed the first chapter of their book. That is the reality in the world with people today. Most people don’t do shit. That’s just how it is. You’re a rare bird already just by the stuff you’ve told me. You are an expert. So, what’s in your head? Can you get the confidence enough about yourself?

Beth: I think in the position of doing it, it’s getting there. I think that’s where all my fears actually lie. It’s the transformation of going from what I know, taking it, and getting to the point of applying it. I know I can apply it. It’s just that huge step in between, and that’s what I call marketing. This is real. Suck it in and see what you know. It’s that kind of thing.

It’s not that I really doubt that I can do it because I don’t. I really think I could. Just listening to myself talk to you, obviously I know something. That should give me a little kicker right there, and I can do that easily with anybody. Like I said, I do it now. People call me when they want to know, “Why does this screen do this?” And I can tell them why.

I am a user friendly person. I am not from the programming side. I can program, but I come from the other side, the user end. Most people don’t understand the programming side. They want

Beth: And, that’s where I feel the confidence is the fact that okay, I can make this person understand from their point of view, not from my point of view, and not from the person who wrote the program’s point of view, but from theirs. And, that’s where my confidence lies.

Beth: Yes, and I like being there. It’s a comfortable place to be. That’s where most people like being, and I like having the knowledge to support that though. Everything you’re saying sounds wonderful.

Beth: It’s just a matter of doing it, and I guess just taking that first step.

Michael: If you want, I can direct you. I can tell you exactly what you need to do, and if you want, I’ll create an audio sales presentation with you. But, you’re going to have to do the homework. I’ll tell you exactly what you need to do.

Michael: Here’s your homework. We need content to talk about in the audio program. What we really need to do is some research on where the pain is when it comes to Excel. Now, here’s a couple of ideas for you to do. Number one – go to Excel’s website, and read some of the case stories, some of the unique ways people are using Excel, things that say, “Wow that’s interesting.” Look at who they are, and what business they’re in, and ask yourself, “Is there a large market for this? Or is it a market that has money?” Could you teach all of those type people how to do it? Do you see?

Michael: That’s number one. Number two – go to Amazon.com , and type in “The Idiot’s Guide for Excel.”

Michael: Because both those books are written by so-called experts at Excel, and on Amazon.com , you can look at the index of the subjects they talk about.

Michael: And, look for ideas, because they’ve already done the research for you in putting the book together.

Michael: You’re going to find tips in there, and I want to pull out really cool stuff that’s going to benefit someone who has Excel who’s using it for business, and it gives you ideas of things to talk about in our sales presentation, in our interview which is disguised as a sales presentation, okay?

Michael: That’s number two. Go to some Excel user groups, Excel forums, read through some of the postings, find out where some of the most common questions are coming from. This is your market talking. They’re going to tell you what they want help with in Excel.

What you’re doing is you’re researching the market. Where are the pains? Where is Excel failing in educating? Where are people frustrated? These are the questions we want to answer.

Google Answers is a place you could hire an expert. There’s all kinds of researchers. You’ll find people who type their questions in about Excel. Go to Google type in the search engine, “Help with Excel” Or “Questions about Excel”, keywords that will pull up frustrations, okay?

Michael: So, you’re going to collect frustrations. You’re going to collect unique uses for Excel with large markets. You’re just going to do some homework, and then you’re going to organize those for me.

Michael: Then, I want you to take those frustrations and put them into question form, meaning if someone says, “I can’t figure out how to use the database.” You want to give away some great value in this recording, things that are going to blow them away. If they only knew how to do that, they could’ve been saving – you may have someone who says, “I’ve been entering all my data by hand typing it into my notepad, and then I’ve been copying and pasting it into Excel.”

Michael: Yeah, you can think of this, “Ten Stupid Mistakes People Make Using Excel.” Write the ten answers down, and then when we do the interview, we write the answers in question format.

So, I can do an interview with you on these things, and we’ll organize and create an audio interview. Audio is great. We can give a lot of content with audio without showing the actual screen, but maybe we can even demonstrate with screen capture which we can do when we do that as well.

Michael: Or, what you can do, once we have the audio, you can go play back the audio, open up your Excel and just follow along as you’re listening, do that later. Beth: Yeah.

Michael: So, we can create a very high impact sales message in the form of an audio recording. I’ll edit it for you. So, we’ll clean it up so it sounds real professional. We’ll put an intro. Here’s another thing I need you to. You can write a little biography on yourself all positioned around you. You’ve got to come up with a title. Who are you? Something easy to remember.

Beth: I have a fictitious business name of “Beth’s Business Emporium” because that’s the only thing out of the million things I’ve written down.

Michael: Beth’s Business Emporium. You need something easier to remember. Beth: Yeah, I know that. That’s not written in stone or anything.

Beth: I want something that does that whatever that does for me. I don’t know what that is.

Michael: I’m thinking you need something that creates a word picture in the people’s mind so they don’t forget you.

Beth: And, that’s why Emporium is why I think I stuck with because that’s what I envision.

Michael: So, that’s going to be your first homework. You do that, organize some of these things, come up with questions, and then you get that to me. You can email it to me in an Excel file if you want, and then I’ll look at that, and then we’ll craft out and create an audio infomercial, okay?

Michael: And, then we have a little tool just like Excel to sell people on your services automatically. Once you have the audio, then you can transcribe it so you have a written report. You’ve got the audio, and then we could put some video to it and it all can be up online, on a CD, DVD or whatever.

Now, you have your sales message that’s going to sell people, that’s going to get people to call.

Michael: I do a lot of stuff for free. What I get out of it, we’ll use it as a case study. I’ll clean this up, and I’d like to use this audio recording on my website. What we’ll do is we’ll create the audio interview. Maybe I’ll just use it as a case study so to show people, demonstrate, how to create an information product, how to find someone who doesn’t know what they want to do, how to talk with them, coach them, guide them in creating and developing their own information product. If you’re willing to do this, we’ll just continue to talk. I’ll record the calls and then I’ll have a blueprint taking someone from not knowing what to do, and hopefully we can make you really successful, to getting you to your goals. I will be the guy who helps you do that, and I have a product.

Michael: So, I’ll get to use you as my case study, and then I can do whatever I want with this,

Beth: Yes, this is cool. I’m really glad you called me. I never anticipated that you would.

Michael: I do. I call people back. I really think if we do this right, we could have your phone ringing off the hook.

Michael: Maybe just for the hell of it, I’ll do a little research on my side just to see what I could find.