The Odd web site that allows you to take new photos and make them look old, black and white, sepia, and share ‘em with others, Instagram, was purchased by Facebook last month for one billion dollars.

The purchased site has no income model. It might give an investor pause about giving Facebook money to buy things with, but presumably, they have wisdom I lack.

Art Linkletter was once offered exclusive rights to the photo business at Disneyland, by Walt, when Walt was raising capital—Art scoffed. Kodak later banked billions. Of course, today Polaroid and Kodak, a corpse and a zombie.

At the SuperConference, I posed with people for hundreds of photos. Taking photos can wind up embarrassing.

First Lady Rosalyn Carter is in a photo, posed, shaking hands with John Wayne Gacy, who turned out to be a serial killer of some infamy. You can Google him. Before the photo opp, he did have a felony conviction for sodomy, and should not have passed security clearance.

There is a photo of Saddam Hussein receiving “The Key to the City” at a ceremony in Detroit, Michigan in 1980.

You really never know when somebody you’re posing with for a photo may later turn out to be a serial killer, mass murderer or worse.

I give a standard caveat: “1. You can’t use this photo for any purpose implying direct commercial endorsement. 2. If convicted of an embarrassing felony, you can’t use it anymore at all. Misdemeanors don’t count.”

It’s kinda unenforceable though. Once on Facebook, it apparently stays on Facebook. In the run-up to the SuperConference, I’m told people trotted out all their photos with me all over their social media sites and I imagine I was even Instagrammed, all flattering, appreciated, and harboring peril.

All this, the nature of the beast of my life and I’ve made it.

There is always the risk of looking goofy in a photo and having that preserved for posterity and widely circulated. (The photo here), from Easter, shows what can happen to The Million Dollar Dog when I’m not around to protect her.

In nearly 40 years of being photographed, I’m sure there are photos of me looking peeved and eager to get away from the person posed with me, of me looking down at cleavage I shouldn’t be—although, if it’s on display, me with eyes closed, a spittle on lip, collar asunder, wearing a stupid hat or incredibly garish outfit, etc.

There is no Michael Phelps photo: not only didn’t I inhale, I never smoked the stuff.

Sadly, there is no video of sexual acrobatics either.

I have a few home movies converted to video and a few photos from childhood locked away that I don’t like, a couple first wedding photos, quite a few early speaking career photos with me bearing a huge head of hair (I used to get a perm) and a far bushier mustache, there are my fat-Dan photos (at 235-250).

There are photos of me posed next to famous people too, although I have worked with many I’ve not troubled to get photos with too. In a few cases, I wish I had.

There’s a photo of me with Ronald Reagan, but the damn photographer refused to just take a candid one as we talked, and the posed one makes Reagan look like a wax dummy. I have a photo of me with a wax dummy of Madonna that looks more real.

There is a photo of me on stage with Gene Simmons, but it would be way more-cool if he’d been in full KISS regalia—establishing my status as an opening act for KISS.

My office walls are filled with my win photos from driving in races, which I once religiously up-dated week by week but has now fallen 20 or so wins behind, the photos stacked, waiting to be framed; me too busy.
Perhaps too busy at the wrong things.

The win photos are important in keeping me working, ‘cuz, at this point, the only thing I am working for is oats ‘n vet bills.

Most people have enormous collections of photos spanning their lifetimes, and of their parents, kid, grand-kids, pets, houses, cars and more, and are into getting them organized in scrapbooks, looking at them with family and friends, sharing them with others, now posting them to social media.

I’m not so into this myself, but that’s just me. Most are.

Most are sentimental about their photos—and even photos that aren’t theirs. There are iconic photos from American history that many people react to very personally.

The kiss on V-Day after WWII, JFK and Jackie, those sorts of photos. I imagine this is why the right photographic image can be so powerful in advertising, something you should never forget; as a copywriter embroiled with the written word, I have to remind myself of this. A photo can get to emotional response instantly while words cannot.

I have never actually seen a photo of me I really like, and early on, I very much resisted making myself the focal point of my marketing; resisted using photos of myself on book covers, cassette album covers and the like.

I have not gotten over this, but I long ago got past it. (There is a difference.) I’m a very big “what works” and “whatever it takes” guy, especially on relatively minor matters that make possible my autonomy and independence on matters major to me.

This is something a lot of people do not understand, that could be of great benefit to them. That photo of me on the albino bull, me in a business suit, us in the Arizona desert, has been worth millions to me and to others, so I guess that’s the photo of me I do like, or dislike the least.

I spent $2,500.00 getting it done, at a time when $2,500.00 was NOT pocket change to me. There is a photo first used for the No B.S. Letter of giant, steaming cow patty in grass I did like, but Carla hated it, so it was short-lived.

There are a couple of photos of Carla and I that I especially like, one of my father in my office. Others of my father and parents I’d like to have but one of my brothers let them disappear in a storage shed abandoned, rent unpaid, moons ago. A nice photo album our daughter Jennifer made of our family trip to Disney.

There is a photo I don’t have, for which I offer a $5,000.00 cash reward or half-day consulting reward—but the photo must be authenticated, no risk of having been photo-shopped (a modern evil): a photo of Dean Martin in or with this Rolls-Royce convertible that I now own.

I have the title, his original Owner’s Card, all kinds of documents, no photo. An extensive hunt has occurred, but you’re welcome to try.

Photographers have their place in the comic book/super-hero world, of which I am both a fan and a serious student.

Superman/Clark Kent’s pal and colleague was the young Jimmy Olsen, news photographer for The Daily Planet, frequently accompanying Lois Lane, the reporter.

Spiderman/Peter Parker, a news photographer. In every way, photography is a big part of our lives, our culture, our history, and our advertising.

Most catalogs rely on photos—Peterman famously deviates. Virtually all product packaging relies on photos. You’ll pay hell trying to sell weight-loss without photos of all the great food you can still eat while on Diet X.

Politicians’ consultants and handlers work feverishly at “photo opps.” Michael Deaver, with Reagan, was a genius at it. And the wrong photo can destroy a candidate: Dukakis in the tank, Kerry wind-surfing, Kerry pretending to be hunting, Donna Rice on Gary Hart’s lap on his boat named ‘Monkey Business.’ The photo of Jane Fonda with the tank in North Viet Nam earned her “Hanoi Jane” and has never been forgotten or forgiven.

I have long had a near photographic memory for many things, including certain kinds of information, yet I have a severely dysfunctional memory for peoples’ names and ages and for dates and I rarely notice changes in peoples’ appearances.

I have a photographic ear even more so, for dialogue, for jokes and material and that has been and is very useful. I can record long conversations or stories in my head and recall and write them out verbatim and I can write in other peoples’ voices – and often do, for celebrities like Fran Tarkenton and Joan Rivers and Jennifer Love-Hewitt and Florence Henderson and of course, for copywriting and ghost-writing.

You know, The Million Dollar Dog doesn’t look that unhappy, being posed with the pink bunny ears for Easter. Maybe confused, thinking she was being tapped as a Playmate of the Month for Playboy. Or maybe just grinning and bearing it just like I do when the camera comes out.

While in Dallas at SuperConference I revealed pictures of me taken with Barbara Corcoran from the ABC hit show, Shark Tank…

The founder of The Corcoran Group, Barbara started the company at the age of 23 by borrowing One Thousand Dollars and quitting her job as a waitress.

Today, The Corcoran Group is one of the most famous Real-Estate companies in the Country. It is a Multi-Billion Dollar business, employing thousands.

The pictures were taken while I was in San Antonio at the GKIC Women’s Event that was held in San Antonio this past February. I say “revealed,” because, let’s just say Barbara had some fun and did a good job of getting my face to turn new shades of red.

It was super cool being able to spend time with Barbara Corcoran (by the way, if you are not watching Shark Tank, you must start immediately. It’s on Friday nights and is the best show on TV for Entrepreneurs.)

Barbara is a pleasure to work with. She is a consummate pro. Most of her advice is counter-intuitive to everything you’ve read in business books written by academics. And when you listen to her, you immediately know this woman is “The Real Deal.”

So while I won’t be revealing any more about Barbara or those pictures (sorry, you had to be at the event to get the inside scoop), I will follow Barbara’s lead and give you some counterintuitive Marketing tips…

Always keep in mind, the second sale is more important than the first. Sure the first sale is important, however if you are following Dan’s advice, then you are spending more than anyone else in your market space to get that first order—in fact, you might even be losing money on that first sale.

So, if you are only making one sale, you might be out of business soon. And you might also be interested to know that, a two-time buyer is twice as likely to buy again as a one-time buyer.

Plus, anyone can make a sale to a customer. But what separates the businesses that chug along just enough to survive and those that make their owners incredibly wealthy is their ability to turn the first sale into a second sale and their second sale into a third and so on.

Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. It’s extremely common for business owners to compare their business to similar businesses in their industry.

There are several problems with this line of thinking, one of which is the fact that you don’t know if what they are doing is actually working. So if you are going to compare yourself, at a minimum, you should compare yourself to the best in class companies in other industries.

Here you will find new and different ideas that will help you be fresh and innovative in your approach to marketing which will help you continue to grow.

And if you aren’t certain who to look at, take Dan Kennedy’s simple, yet brilliant piece of advice given during SuperConference. Dan said, “If you are uncertain what to do, just do what 99% of businesses aren’t doing.”

Taking care of existing customers is NOT the most important thing you should do. No matter what you do, your business will experience attrition—which means you can automatically expect to lose customers.

So while you definitely want to do everything you can to hold onto customers once you get them, if you aren’t acquiring new customers, you’ll be out of business in a matter of four to six years or so. That means even more important than taking care of existing customers is acquiring new ones.

There’s a better way to arrive at maximum profit than increasing response. Direct mail legend, Bob Stone (circa 1919-2007) said, “It is easier to increase the average dollar amount of an order than it is to increase response.” Dan Kennedy says this idea made him a great deal of money. While most direct marketers are obsessed with response, they overlook all the other ways of arriving at the same place of maximum profit.

For example, by offering upsells every time you make a sale, you will automatically get 20% to take your offer. Which do you think is easier? Getting a 20% bump in response or increasing your sales with an upsell or two?

Follow these four counterintuitive marketing principals and you’ll soon find you have a bottom line you won’t be embarrassed to share. And who knows, one day you might be sitting alongside Barbara Corcoran and Mark Cuban on Shark Tank negotiating a deal with an up-and-coming entrepreneur.

What other counterintuitive marketing principles have you learned from GKIC?

Share one of them below:

NOTE: Speaking of Shark Tank—I announced at SuperConference that next year, we will have our very own real live Shark Tank (Barbara Corcoran included) where you will have a chance to earn a spot to present your idea to a panel of serious investors. People at SuperConference were signing up left and right to make sure they are there next year—so you’ll want to watch for your chance to sign up too, cause I have a feeling next year’s SuperConference is going to sell out FAST!

During SuperConference, I gave a talk on the “Six Bullets You Should Never Leave Home Without”…

I could certainly add to this list, however if I were buying, building or starting a business today, these are the essential things I wouldn’t want to leave home without.

While I don’t have room to cover all six here, I do want to talk about one idea – because it’s a colossal mental mistake most business owners make.

In fact, it’s an ongoing fight I have with my clients—no matter the size of the company or the spending power.

What I’ve found is that when it comes to attracting a lead, a customer or a patient, they ask…
“What is the cheapest thing we can do to get customers?”

Be forewarned, if you think this way, you too are in need of a mind shift and MUST train yourself to think differently. If you don’t, you will deprive yourself of the opportunity to outspend every direct marketer in your market space thus limiting yourself in what you can do.

You see, by outspending your competitors, you can buy speed and growth and you can create discouragement to your competitors.

Here’s an example of what I mean…

A client in the martial arts arena called me a while back. A big competitor was trying to enter his market and he asked me what he should do.

My advice was to run billboards. My client said, “Billboards? I thought we tested those and they didn’t work in my market.”

My reply, “They don’t. But your competitor doesn’t know that. They’ll come to town, see your billboards everywhere, and then they’ll start running billboards too. You can stop after a couple of months and they will use up marketing money on a media that doesn’t work, causing discouragement.”

The marketer with the willingness to invest in acquiring customers—and even lose money on the first sale—with an effective strategy for maximizing customer value has an enormous competitive advantage. Including being able to use many media others cannot use.

Instead of asking “What is the cheapest thing I can do?”– The right question to ask is…
“How can I structure my business so I can do it more expensively than everyone else?”

or

“What can I do to outspend everyone else?”

Another advantage of outspending—you can give more value to a customer, which attracts more valuable customers, which gives you more money to spend per customer.

For example, you can offer better bonuses or send a shock and awe package.

The smartest marketers structure their business so they can outspend their competitors. Show up like no one else—spend the most you possibly can to get a new customer and you’ll attract more valuable customers which means you’ll minimize the number of units you need to sell to reach a million dollars.

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This real world workshop gives you the steps to create more for yourself and nine strategies for getting it all done.

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This past weekend, I followed the news of the death of Mike Wallace.
An American journalist, game show host, and media personality, Wallace is best known for his role as one of the original correspondents for CBS’ 60 Minutes.

As stories were shared about Wallace, his reputation for the “truth” stood out above all else…

CBS News chairman and Wallace’s long-time producer at 60 Minutes said, “He (Wallace) knew that everybody else knew, that he was going to get to the truth. And that’s what motivated him.”
Another “60 Minutes” veteran, Morley Safer said, “He was a kind of one-man truth squad, a man with a remarkable gift for getting to the very core of a story.”

In the mid-50s Wallace hosted the pilot episode for Nothing but the Truth which later aired as To Tell the Truth. Later he would appear on the show as a guest panelist.

On To Tell the Truth, celebrity panelists would question three contestants (two were imposters, one was telling the truth) and then try to guess who was actually telling the truth about their occupation or an experience that happened to them.

This reminded me of one of Dan Kennedy’s lessons, the Power of Truth.

The strategy of lying or deliberately misleading by omitting things about a service or product is done by a lot of advertisers. And this sometimes DOES make success easier. However, success is usually only temporary.
In contrast, when you can use truth to your advantage, it gives you an enormous, overwhelming advantage.

Dan says, “Consumers have a 6th –sense for ‘authenticity’ and very much desire something ‘real’ (that also fulfills their desires).”
When you can deliver a 100 percent true story and a compelling promise, you have something that has the potential to be very successful as well as lasting.

And like Mike Wallace and Dan Kennedy, you’ll find the search for the truth an advantage that leads to success in your business.
Some lessons from Mike Wallace and Dan Kennedy:

1) Do your research. In an article I read on Wallace, he classified research as one of his “weapons” and would spend hours preparing for an interview. You’ll also note that is one of Dan’s weapons too.

In fact, Dan will tell you that failing to do research and due diligence is one of the costliest mistakes you can make. Thorough research will help you find the one truth that will make you stand out.

Some sources for doing research are: Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS), trade associations, trade journals, magazines, competitors, trade shows, Jordan-Whitney, books and specialized newsletters.

For example, if Dan was doing an ad for “weight loss” he’d put together a statistical snapshot of the weight loss buyer using SRDS. He’d get back issues of industry publications, women’s magazines like Cosmo and Self and back issues of muscle and fitness, health and beauty magazines.

He’d pull samples of successful weight loss infomercials from Jordan-Whitney and get the current top weight loss books from the bookstore.

He’d call the top competitors of his weight loss client and play prospect to see what they were doing and how they were doing it.

He’d talk to copywriters he knows who specialize in weight loss products and services.

And he’d look for newsletters that related to his topic and subscribe to them.

Are you doing thorough research for your products and services or are you “winging it”?

2) Ask Questions. In the stories on Wallace, it was said that he “interrogated” people, “cross-examined them” and was relentless in his pursuit of the truth. Wallace had a passion for asking questions and had a knack for finding the zingers. Similarly Dan Kennedy teaches us to do the same—to ask questions to your customers, your prospects, your employees, your partners…in search of information, the truth and the story.

Fox News Channel Chairman Roger Ailes said on Sunday, “Many people who weathered a Mike Wallace interview grew to respect him greatly and, you know, have great regard for him because I don’t recall anybody ever saying to me, ‘He took a cheap shot’ or ‘He did the obvious,’ or that he was, you know, playing some kind of game. He actually was trying to serve the audience, and that’s what made him great.”

Like Wallace did throughout his career and life, always do extensive research and ask the questions that need to be asked to get to what’s true. You’ll find you’ll be able to put together a more authentic story and make a more compelling and attractive promise to your prospects and customers.

What has been your experience with using compelling 100% authentic true stories and attractive promises in your marketing? Share your story in our comment section below.

Today we are only two weeks away from SuperConference 2012.

As we make final arrangements and I finalize what I’ll be saying from stage, I can’t help but think about what speaking has done for my business. More specifically learning to speak to sell.

It’s given me the opportunity to meet influential movers and shakers that would have otherwise been difficult if not impossible to access. It’s raised my credibility and given me celebrity. And it’s moved hundreds of thousands of dollars into my bank account in as little as a day.

I’m not telling this to you to brag but rather to impress upon you that learning how to speak to sell is one of the most important skills you can master. Because it can dramatically change your income, your business and your life.

By the way, “selling” does not necessarily mean selling a product. It could simply mean selling a group of prospects on making an appointment with you or on your ideas.

Many financial advisors, estate planning attorneys and other professional services providers often do “dinner seminars” and their ability to get attendees to make an appointment after their presentation is paramount to their success.

If you’re an information marketer, at some point, you’ll absolutely need to get up in front of a group of people and speak to sell.

Think about it. The top Internet marketing gurus out there all have live, in person seminars, even though they make money in cyber-space.
When speaking to sell, four ways to sell more are:

Use a persuasion-based format. Speaking to sell is about much more than just talking and then offering your product or service at the end. You need to craft the entire presentation and the delivery of the presentation with precision, following a specific persuasion-based format.
I am NOT saying that you’re unethically influencing people to buy things they don’t need.

NOT AT ALL.

In fact, the major key to my success has to do with my unshakeable belief that what I am offering is absolutely amazing.
However, you do need persuasive speaking tools and strategies to transform your audience into customers.

Believe in the value of what you are offering. Your belief in the value of your product or service is vital to your success in selling it. You want to know and believe that what you offer is incredible and perfect for the people you are speaking to.

With that being said, you can believe in the value of what you have to offer, like I do, and still not get the results you desire.

It’s the starting point for your success. In fact, without this deep belief in what you’re offering, your sales will fall flat even if you learn the psychology of how to speak to sell.

Learn platform selling. Again, the one skill that could radically change your income, your business and your life is learning platform selling.
Notice I said, platform selling not platform speaking. They are different. Most professional speakers don’t make squat and don’t transform anyone’s lives because they don’t know how to sell people on their ideas, products or on taking action.

Practice, Practice, Practice. The best speakers deliver their speech exactly the same every time. From dramatic pauses to taking a sip of water—practicing your speech so that you have precision delivery will ensure nothing is forgotten or left to chance.

Once you learn this skill, everything changes for you. You will not just improve your business, you’ll transform it. Your business will become new, exciting and fun.

Learning to speak to sell can create money, clients, and influential contacts on demand just by talking. Imagine being able to generate $100,000 or more in thirty minutes to an hour. How often do you make that per hour in your business? When you learn to speak to sell, you can do just that.

Note: If you are looking for Dan Kennedy’s “Million Dollar Speaker” formula, Big Mouth, Big Money gives you everything Dan has learned about making money from speaking from his 25 years of speaking engagements. Whether you are just starting out or already established you’ll learn how to find hidden money in your speaking business so you can travel less, be home more and make a higher income at the same time. Learn more.

P.S. Want to know how to use speaking to sell to boost your income even more? GKIC member Sam Beckford does a once a year seminar that brings dance studio owners to him from all over the world. He uses that seminar to market his telecoaching business in the dance studio industry and from just a few days work a month telecoaching earns well over $250,000 a year. Adding coaching and/or consulting to your list of services you sell when speaking can dramatically increase your income.

To learn everything you need to know to add $100,000 to $1 Million a year as a coach or consultant, Big Mouth, Big Money and be sure to enter promotional code 45 to get GKIC’s generous 50% off discount ending this Sunday, April 8, 2012 at midnight.

Today, a story from one of my direct response copywriting students about an ongoing misdiagnosis…

Her mom who had battled a problem for more than thirty years was finally given a proper diagnosis.

Constantly falling asleep at odd times, she often brought up the problem to her doctor. The doctor, knowing she was a busy mom with children always brushed her off and said something to the effect of—“You’ve got three children, it’s no wonder you’re tired. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Finally, as the problem seemed to be worsening, she made a list of concerns about the problem.

Upon reviewing her list, the doctor said, “You fall asleep in the middle of sentences?”

To which she replied, “Yes! Don’t you find that odd?”

Finally, tests completed, a proper diagnosis of Narcolepsy, a neurological disorder that affects the control of sleep and wakefulness, was made.

Businesses often fail because of personal bias, clinging to an idea or failing to do and/or look at all the research. Therefore opinions are made without the proper facts and personal bias can skew decisions.

Opinion is not truth. It’s opinion. Fact is truth. When you base your marketing diagnosis on ALL the facts and proper research instead of opinions, you’ll find your marketing and promotions more likely to succeed.

An example from my client files, a year or so ago a client flew into Cleveland with six people from his company for a half day meeting with me to brainstorm marketing messages ideas, offer strategies, and direct-mail concepts.

One of the items we examined was a promotional book they had prepared, as a new customer gift. The purpose of the book was to stop customer refunds.

They’d invested time and money and were pleased with it.  It looked great and was well-written.

But I believed it to be a failure in context of strategic purpose.

So I asked them about the reasons new customers give up on and are quickly unhappy with their product and why they return the product for a refund.

That question yielded five chief reasons, which were based on customer feedback, surveys, and focus groups data. I pointed out that the book did not directly address any of these five reasons—which meant, if the purpose was to stop refunds—then in my opinion its title and cover should be kept but its insides discarded. The content needed to be started from scratch and directly confront these five reasons and “sell” the sticking with the product.

One person most emotionally married to the beautiful, clever little book still defended it: “Well we wanted to educate the customer about (the problem) in an interesting, easy to read way.”

I agreed that had been accomplished, nicely, but that was a useless purpose: do you want to educate or do you want to sell more of your “glop?”

That is the question.

Somewhat unhappily, she came to: we want to sell more glop.

The book was great in one context, a failure in another.

If you want to secure better clients, have more control over clients, retain clients and limit refunds, you have to train yourself to be immune from emotional attachment and instead look at all the facts.

When you do, you’ll stop making marketing diagnosis based on your own bias and create a business that makes better decisions, isn’t afraid to sell and makes real money.