The Expert Interviews Podcast

My expert guest today is Kathy Colaiacovo, founder of Pepper It Marketing, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Kathy is also a Leadpages Conversion Marketing Certified professional. I’m really excited to share with you Kathy’s Conversion Marketing Certification success story. But it’s more than that. It’s more than learning and applying proven conversion marketing techniques to grow your business and help your clients succeed. It’s a story of what Kathy did with the opportunities that were presented to her, despite having to deal with some of her biggest fears. It’s a story about hearing a knock on the door and opening the door to see where it might take you. It’s a story about listening to what others think you could do...Doing your homework...and then implementing a plan to give you the best possible opportunity to succeed. It’s a story of seeing what works for your own business and then applying it to help your clients business succeed It’s a story of gradually, but surely evolving your business model over time to take advantage of the opportunities presented, and to hone your craft. It’s the story of how Kathy Colaiacovo grew a marketing business - one knock and one door at a time. Show Soundbites "If opportunity knocked, I would always try to answer the door and see where it would take me." "As someone who dropped out of the university because of social anxiety, participating in bi-weekly networking events was my big terror barrier." "I'm here in Nova Scotia and 75% of my clients have been, from day one, from the States. And out of hundreds of clients that I've dealt with over the years, I've probably only met, in person, about 5% of them." “One of my pieces of advice to anybody going through the training is to be really clear about setting aside definitive time in your schedule...to sit down and do it, do the work of the course.” “The growth that I’ve seen in my business has been fabulous. For example, my email list has grown by over 200%, and I’ve achieved a 30% conversion rate of post-webinar offer sign-ups.” “A lot of the work I do now with people is about helping them put their marketing plans together so they know and understand what they need to do and how to do it.” Connect with Kathy Pepper It Marketing website Kathy's Conversion Marketing Certification profile Pepper It Marketing Facebook page

This is the journey of Carlos Aguilar of Conversion Surge and his quest to find out what it takes to grow a business online. It's also the story of Gina Horkey of the Horkey Handbook to discover how to sell more freelance writing courses online. Carlos and Gina meet at the intersection of Conversion Marketing by Leadpages and they or their business hasn't been the same since. Listen to their story. Check out the resource links below. Plus, read more about their journey and the 16 tips they share on how best to unleash the power of marketing partnerships on ConvertedU. Carlos Aguilar's Conversion Surge website Carlos's free lead generation course based on conversion marketing Carlos's Conversion Marketing Certified Profile on ConvertedU Gina's Horkey Handbook website

Have you ever struggled with low levels of confidence because you just couldn't seem to reconcile your real-world experience with marketing theory and the myriad of techniques you saw in use by prominent digital marketers? Have you ever wondered what's going to really work for your business - your clients? Well if you have, you're in good company. These were the very issues Colin Scotland of Logical Fox Marketing grappled with when trying to synthesize and make sense of a lifetime of experience and learning with sales and marketing - from the market stalls of Liverpool to a successful stab at e-commerce and an online marketing consultancy to brick and mortar shops - this is the story of finding clarity, purpose, and a value-driven approach through Conversion Marketing Certification from Leadpages. Colin Scotland, Logical Fox Marketing It's the story told by Colin Scotland of Logical Fox Marketing and how he overcame uncertainty and confusion to establish a thriving online marketing consultancy serving brick and mortar businesses in and around Liverpool.  His passion for helping brick and mortar businesses succeed online involved not just any type of business, but some of the ones that traditionally have been slower to adopt and succeed with online marketing. Businesses in the education sector such as secondary schools needing to increase enrollment; optician businesses who needed to grow their clientele and expand locations, these are the ones Colin focused on. Colin, who once suffered a crisis of confidence found his way forward since becoming Conversion Marketing Certified with Leadpages. "I go into client meetings now, but I'm brimming with excitement, confidence, and passion about the potential of what we can do to massively transform these brick and mortar businesses with the conversion marketing techniques I learned from Leadpages." The results Colin was able to achieve with his real-world experience, knowledge of marketing and Conversion Marketing techniques are truly remarkable. This episode will inspire and give you hope in a better way forward for achieving better and ongoing results with your online marketing. Whether you're a business owner looking for better online marketing results, or a digital marketing consultant looking to improve your techniques, Hendrik's methods, and what he reveals in this success story, may be the very thing you need to take that next step to achieving your own success and doing your best work, ever. Check out and download a copy of Colin's success story at ConvertedU.com, and visit Colin's Conversion Marketing Certification Profile on ConvertedU by Leadpages.  

This episode includes excerpts of Mingle Media Marketing's success story using the techniques of conversion marketing, together with their Relationship Method of engagement to boost the online marketing and business results of their clients by 10x and more! Mingle Media Partners Johnathan Tebeau and Hendrik de Vries (not pictured, partner Clark Buxton) It's the story told by Mingle Media's co-founder, Hendrik de Vries, of what bothered him most about how every client they'd come in contact with had been burnt by other agencies. And, what he set out to do to overcome these issues and win them over, restoring confidence and trust in the process. It's also the story of how Leadpages Conversion Marketing Certification training equipped Hendrik and Mingle Media Marketing to find a better way forward with their prospective clients, thereby giving them the space and confidence needed to focus on what Hendrik calls the Relationship Method and being extremely transparent in giving them access to everything: knowledge, conversion marketing education, tools and much, much more. The results Hendrik was able to achieve with the Relationship Method and Conversion Marketing techniques are eye-popping. They were in fact so amazing that it often led clients to have Hendrik slow down or even shut down highly successful campaigns, and on more of a few occasions, find it necessary to fire Mingle Media. But it's all good. Hendrik doesn't mind. One client fired him twice actually, and referred 6 clients over the course of their relationship! This episode will inspire and give you hope in a better way forward for achieving better and ongoing results with your online marketing. Whether you're a business owner looking for better online marketing results, or a digital marketing consultant looking to improve your techniques, Hendrik's methods, and what he reveals in this success story, may be the thing you need to take that next step to achieving  your own success and doing your best work, ever. Check out the full story at ConvertedU.com, Hendrik's Conversion Marketing Certification Profile, and the website of Mingle Media Marketing.

Conversion Marketing Certified members Colin Scotland and Ken Kelly are two very good examples of why you should not give up on investing in educational programs to increase your marketing skills and grow your business. Go to the FREE Conversion Marketing Preview Lesson Page >> Both Colin and Ken have taken the Leadpages Conversion Marketing Certification training program, passed it, have become listed in the Certified Directory, and, most importantly are experiencing breakthrough business success because of it. In this episode I ask them about their unique experience with the training... How they felt it differed from other digital marketing training Key learnings and light bulb moments Their early results from applying it to their marketing approach Things they discovered they did not expect...and more! Their story will inspire and encourage you to not give up on improving your skills, but to find the kind of training, like Colin and Ken found, that will deliver a sizable and rapid return on your educational investment. Here are a few highlights of what you'll hear in this episode, plus some info on Colin and Ken. Colin Scotland of Logical Fox Marketing "The information in the course is presented in such a succinct and easily actionable way that you can go step by step through the things you cover and apply it to your business." "Over the years many different people tell you to do many different things, this course helps you filter that through to a more results-oriented outcome.” Lightbulb moment: The lead nurturing and marketing automation lesson. Results achieved after applying the techniques: Traffic of unique website visitors have increased by over 30% Session duration increased by 181% (user engagement with site content) Bounce rate in the low 20s "Results speak for themselves. I found it really actionable. Too often you hear too many different people tell you to do so many different things, it’s really difficult to filter what to do, and it can be confusing even for people knowing what they’re doing. Having that step by step, concise, holistic view of the way you should be thinking of this and acting upon it in your business was fantastic.” View Colin's Conversion Marketing Certified Directory Profile   Ken Kelly of Conversion Marketer "Consuming information can often leave you dissatisfied. That’s because you’ll hear a topic covered in depth on one single thing (like putting together an autoresponder series of emails), you listen, you consume, take notes, you implement it, and maybe you find it works a little bit or maybe it doesn’t work. And maybe you read another blog and it says to do it another way. And now you don’t really know. You’re confused." "But what I really loved about the conversion marketing course is, yes you’ve got the tactics, and yes it shows you what you should be doing and how to implement that, but it’s more than that. It gives you the framework of the why, and that framework of the why for me was the missing piece.” Results speak for themselves: I increased the number of lead magnets over the past 3 months and now have 593 opt-ins that would not normally have gone onto my list from the other channels I was using. 593 is a cracking number. That’s on a list size now of about 5,000. One of the lead magnets is converting at 68%! That’s insane! Another result is from the consulting I did with a customer. The customer had worked to put together a phenomenal course and it was over a year in the making. He put it out as a test to a section of 500 people on his list, and he sold 3. He was so downhearted. He thought they just didn’t like the course he had made. I consulted with him and used pretty much what I was taking directly out of the course and implemented it within his business. We launched to the same people, same 500 person list and sold 26 courses. 3 to 26 by taking the information I had learned and sharing that with one of my clients. And you know that is valuable stuff...that’s what you call a return on investment. Mentioned on this podcast: The appearance Ken made on Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income Podcast on how he developed a successful affiliate/partnership program to offline (brick and mortar) businesses: SPI 221. View Ken's Conversion Marketing Certified Directory Profile Get a Free Preview Lesson See what Conversion Marketing Certification training from Leadpages can do for you. Choose one or more free preview lessons. Click to Get Your Free Conversion Marketing Lesson  

This is a very special episode of the Expert Interviews Podcast for me. It involves a conversation with two colleagues (Erik Ullanderson and Peter Lowles) about a conversion marketing certification program we’ve had the privilege to help create and deliver at Leadpages. It’s special because I believe this training program is the premier conversion marketing training available in the online marketing training marketplace. And that’s not because I had a hand in it, it’s because of the value and return on investment so many of our students have realized learning and applying it to their marketing consulting - whether it be to grow their own business, the businesses of their clients, or both. I’m extremely proud of the program, the team who developed it, what our students have been able to achieve, and I wanted to share the nuts and bolts of it with you in case you are looking to improve all aspects of your online marketing, or just a piece of it. As you’ll hear in our discussion, this program covers the following topics How the program came about in the first place The idea behind it and who is it a good fit for. The different elements and topics of the program and how it’s structured We play and discuss an audio portion of a popular learning segment, and finally, The path to becoming Leadpages Conversion Marketing Certified and listed in the public directory of certified professionals. This episode will not only inform you about a training program, it will give you many actionable insights and tips to help inspire and equip you to do your best online marketing work ever - that’s what this show has always been about, and this episode is no different. Click Here to Receive Your Free Preview Lesson Links and resources: Leadpages Certifications and Learning Services Website - ConvertedU Conversion Marketing Certified Directory Conversion Marketing Certification - Course Details 

This show is a story of how one RV park in the Santa Cruz mountains wows their tribe, continues to build community and a deep, lasting connection with their target market. (And they do it without a modern website, digital marketing, landing pages, lead magnets and other fancy tools and practices!) It's the story of Smithwoods RV Park of Feltion, CA, and my experience camping with them over several years. Ultimately, it's the story of why you should narrowly focus your marketing and customer service interests on a super tight and niche market (the tighter the better!). You're not for everyone, but the people you are for will find a meaningful connection and will be forever loyal to you. The key to a narrow market focus is to be true to yourself, what you stand for and how you like to live your dream. Seeing and experiencing that can be contagious to other like-minded (and hearted) people - your tribe! Stop trying to be all things to all people. Give up your scarcity mentality. 99.99% of the time there's enough of a niche audience that will get you better than anyone else. You can't please everyone, but you can care and be generous with those who do and will get you. Now, doesn't that feel better? 

This is the second part of a discussion with Stu McLaren on membership sites. Listen to part 1. What does it take to start a successful membership site? Create the site  Market the site Manage the site - take care of your members Use cases for adding membership site software to a new or existing business destination (URL), and operating them as a free or fee-based model: Andrew Warner's Mixergy is an example of an existing site going from a completely free-based to a fee-based model by adding membership site software Michael Hyatt's Platform University is an example of adding membership site software to a brand new destination, separate from his blog Stu talks about 5 mistakes people make with their membership sites and how to avoid them: Recreating existing content Not communicating with members A focus on getting new members vs. keeping existing members Creating too much content (at the expense of building the community): "People come for the content, but they stay for the community." Not having a monthly (content/theme) plan along with a plan to promote it A site for people to join and learn how to successfully run membership sites:WishList Insiders   What does the future hold for membership sites? Membership sites have the capability to help us build a business that serves us vs. us being a slave to the business Use skills to generate money for our use, but to also have the freedom and flexibility to support the causes we want to support - examples include: Stu and his wife build schools in Africa through WorldTeacherAid.org Noel Meador's StrongerFamilies.org Other Links: Stu's blog at Stu.me WishList Member Membership Site Products Tweet your key membership site takeaway, idea or action item using #MembershipSites  

In part one of membership sites with WishList Member founder, Stu McLaren: Stu shares the story of how WishList Member got started What memberships sites are and how to use them Examples of membership sites, and much, much more! About WishList Member - Now over 71,688 installations! More about Stu McLaren Follow @StuMclaren on Twitter Follow WishList on Twitter    

“Don’t spend another dime on marketing until you read Hug Your Haters by Jay Baer. It will forever change your mindset on customer service, and how you can transform customer service into marketing while boosting customer advocacy and profits!” Greg Elwell, Host of the Expert Interviews Podcast Do you answer every complainer every time and in every channel? Or do you pick which issue to answer while ignoring others, or the channels they complain in? A study by Forrester Research revealed 80 percent of businesses believe they deliver “superior” customer service. But, as NYTimes Bestselling Author, Jay Baer points out in his new book, Hug Your Haters, “that same study shows that just 8 percent of customers agree that service is superior.” It’s often said marketing influence has shifted from the brand to the power of the prospect - to research and decide when, if ever, to engage in the sales and marketing process. Well, things have gotten more daunting on the other end of the customer lifecycle. Brands of all sizes are now faced with the challenge to retain customers, boost advocacy and increase profits while the ability to manage and control the customer experience has shifted to the power of complainers (haters) to be heard, answered, and satisfied in whatever channel they choose. Jay, writing in what’s been viewed as the first modern book on customer service, Hug Your Haters: How To Embrace Complaints And Keep Your Customers, said his goal is “to help all business owners and managers understand how to turn customer service into marketing, and use it as your true competitive advantage.” What you’ll hear in this podcast may surprise, challenge and encourage you to improve your customer service. Topics discussed: What inspired Jay to write a book on customer service in the first place The book he thought he set out to write, but how that changed after extensive and downright shocking research What is meant by the term “haters” and how Jay uses it in answering, not ignoring complaints The book’s most popular highlight on Kindle reader Why and what it means to answer every complainer in every channel, every time How importance of a speedy answer for satisfying today’s customer - the findings will surprise you! The rise of onstage haters and how customer service is now a spectator sport The “Hatrix” (a powerful infographic that’s in the book which covers the two main types of complainers, who they are, what they expect, how and where they complain, the positive or negative impact on customer advocacy from answered and unanswered complaints, and the opportunity to increase profits without spending more money on marketing!) A playbook for answering onstage haters: F.E.A.R.S. An example of an onstage complaint from Greg (via Twitter) and Jay’s take on it Why it’s essential to unify your data and the future of customer service Leadpages market lens approach to gathering customer feedback and being proactive Resources and links shared in this episode: Leadpages (Leadpages main website where Greg works as a copywriter/content developer) ConvertedU (Leadpages conversion marketing program and directory of certified professionals) Convince and Convert (Jay Baer’s business website) An in depth and encore two-part Expert Interviews Podcast (Part 1 and Part 2) with Jay Baer on his NYTimes Besteller: Youtility Hug Your Haters (the Hug Your Haters book site - scroll down for bonuses) Keep Your Customers Course (the new training course for going deeper into the principles of hugging your haters as taught in the book)

Links mentioned in this episode: Help Scout Social Crawlytics Sparring Mind Gregory Ciotti on Twitter

This interview will transform the way you think about writing copy and creating effective lead magnets, once and for all. My expert guest is Jessi Honard of JessicaHonard.com. You'll hear about her background and what led her to create one of the most remarkable lead magnets (free offer to generate leads through highly useful content) I've ever seen. Plus, hear why it's more important to understand your voice and how to use it than it is to spend lots of time trying to figure out your ideal client and what you think they want to hear! What I love about Jessi's approach in creating the Copy Character Quiz lead magnet is that it's remarkable for a number of reasons: It's highly useful to her ideal client It represents a slice of her actual product (copywriting and positioning services) It's delivered in her true voice, The Scholar Listen to the interview then take her Copy Character Quiz. Are you... The Rebel The Artist The Nurturer The Scholar The Architect How will you use your copy character voice to attract and serve your ideal client? Reach out to Jessi if you want help creating powerful copy for your website, opt-in lead magnets, follow-up email sequences and more - all in your unique copy character voice!  

Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute fields questions from friends and colleagues in this condensed version of the original show. Jay Baer of Convince and Convert: How did you originally embrace the color orange...how did orange become your signature color? Steve Lazuka of Zerys: How much epic vs. non-epic content should you create and publish for your audience? Greg Elwell: You mentioned the term story and storytelling 259 times in your book, why is story telling so important to you and content marketing? Mark Levy of Levy Innovation: How can you know the top questions of your ideal audience? Doug Kessler, Velocity Partners: What content services, if any, can larger brands outsource to agencies vs. doing in house? Kristi Hines of Kikolani: How can a brand build authority with freelance content marketers/creators? John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire: Should podcasters provide a transcript of their shows? Bernie Borges of Find and Convert: What are some ways to source content from the employees in your organization that you can use in your marketing? Jay Baer (bonus question!): How can you win more by marketing less? Check out the Epic Content Marketing book information page   Subscribe, Rate and Review on iTunes | Stitcher | Google

This is an encore release of my October 2013 podcast interview with Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute (CMI). It's a deep dive conversation with Joe about his thoughts on what epic content is and why it matters. One of the fascinating topics we discuss is how CMI was born and grew largely due to its content marketing strategy and execution. I also bring in 7 of Joe's friends and former guests of my show to have Joe answer the following questions: Jay Baer of Convince and Convert: How did you originally embrace the color orange...how did orange become your signature color? Steve Lazuka of Zerys: How much epic vs. non-epic content should you create and publish for your audience? Mark Levy of Levy Innovation: How can you know the top questions of your ideal audience? Doug Kessler, Velocity Partners: What content services, if any, can larger brands outsource to agencies vs. doing in house? Kristi Hines of Kikolani: How can a brand build authority with freelance content marketers/creators? John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire: Should podcasters provide a transcript of their shows? Bernie Borges of Find and Convert: What are some ways to source content from the employees in your organization that you can use in your marketing? Jay Baer (bonus question!): How can you win more by marketing less? Joe answers all these questions and more! I found over 250 mentions of the term story or storytelling in the book and asked Joe what is the significance to being a storyteller to content marketing, and what does it really mean to tell a different story? The insights, ideas and strategies Joe talks about in this interview on epic content marketing are as valid today as ever before. Enjoy!

This is the second half of my interview with Jay Baer of Convince and Convert on his book Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is about Help not Hype. Catch part one here. This episode picks up right where we left off: talking about the importance of "radical transparency" - ways marketers can remove friction and barriers to purchase in highly proactive and useful ways. One way to approach being useful with radical transparency is to be more methodical about content creation for your blog. Seek to find and fill information gaps instead of blogging only when you feel inspired. Jay also talks about being "real-time relevant," that is to be massively useful in a very specific circumstance or time when your customer is highly receptive and in need of something you can supply. We then go to the Lightening Round, a six-step process to create Youtility. (Complete with sound effects - you've been warned!) Pick up a copy of Youtility wherever books are sold. Check out Jay's book page on Youtility here. Later this summer (July 2016) I will be interviewing Jay on his latest book: Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers. (Click that link and get in the know before my interview with Jay!) :-) Are you subscribed to the Expert Interviews Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play? Don't miss an episode. Subscribe today! And while you're at it, please leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Until next time, thanks for listening! Greg  

Greg Elwell, host of the Expert Interviews Podcast interviews Jay Baer of Convince and Convert on Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is about Help not Hype - Part 1. In this episode, Jay talks about the need for turning marketing upside down, three approaches and what's challenging for marketers in today's fractured and information-rich marketplace. Hear Jay's case for marketing sideways by creating friend-of-mind awareness, aka: Youtility.  We then discuss a couple approaches to creating Youtility by marketing in a self-serve environment and providing radical transparency to remove friction and the barriers to purchase. This episode will leave you challenging your approach to common tactics such as lead nurturing and the effort you're putting into the top of the funnel to drive awareness and generate leads. What if your ideal customer already knows more about you and your business solutions than you think they do? Then what? How do you market to today's B2B (or B2C) customer who already has 70% of the information they need to make a buying decision? What kind of content should you then be providing in your emails, blog, website to fill the gaps and give them what they need? Sites/Resources Mentioned: Convince and Convert Website Books by Jay Holiday World Website What are your thoughts on mixing some Youtility into your marketing at the top, middle and bottom of your funnel? Could you do me a favor and help others discover this podcast? Subscribe on iTunes and give it an honest rating and review. Thanks! 

Greg Elwell interviews Doug Kessler of Velocity Partners in the UK about an epic piece of content that went viral called Crap: The Content Marketing Deluge. In this episode we go behind the scenes of Crap to examine how it went viral, the ripple effects and 6 principles of becoming a great content brand. Here's your link to Crap and other Velocity Partners content resources Crap on Slideshare (now up to over 2.5 millions views!) Six Principles of Great Content Brands (Doug's post on MarketingProfs) Behind the Crap: What it Feels Like to Go Viral (Doug's post about the experience and ripple effect) "A great content brand is one that's famous for producing intelligent, useful and entertaining content that's always worth consuming...The work of a great content marketer is the work of building a great content brand." Doug Kessler Formula: Useful Content X Entertaining Content = Effective Content Marketing The Six Principles of Becoming a Great Content Brand: Be the buyer Be authoritative Be strategic Be prolific Be passionate Be tough on yourself

This is part 2 of my show with Demian Farnworth and Barry Feldman. We talk about resources used in creating headlines along with best practices involving formulas, templates, swipe files and more! Also discussed are taking risks, Barry's axiom for writing great headlines, and the process each of us goes through when writing headlines. Resources mentioned: Advertising Headlines that Make You Rich by David Garfinkle Jon Morrow's Headline Hacks (Cheat Sheet for Writing Blog Posts that Go Viral) Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples Great Leads: The Six Easiest Ways to Start Any Sales Message buy Michael Masterson and John Forde (Includes Gene Schwartz's audience awareness line)

Expert guests include Barry Feldman, founder of Feldman Creative and Demian Farnworth, chief content writer at Copyblogger and Rainmaker Digital. We discuss: Purpose of headlines, characteristics of great headlines and expert tips on creating them. Little known fact on Demian: Digs vacuums, dancing and books. (Dancing books that suck up dirt are the best!) A common characteristic of good copywriters is they have a sense of humor. Headlines are forever: The importance and permanence of headlines to content over social media or other shinny things. Be a relaxed, confident writer when you write headlines because you have to take some risks if you want to get attention. You have to be bold, stand out, have a sense of humor. Need to consistently do it. Point of headline is to get them to read the first sentence. Headlines are everywhere and used everywhere as hooks to the reader.  They’re the first thing you read and if they suck they’re the only thing you’ll read. The challenge we face: people are on information overload. Imagine your reader is walking down a busy New York City street and your job is to clothesline her to get her to pay attention to you. Your headline must be meaningful and believable to her. The only way you can do that is by knowing her inside and out: fears, what keeps her up at night, what are her hopes and dreams? Social media has changed the way we write headlines in big ways.  Look at sites like Gawker, Business Insider and Upworthy. They all write headlines to get the click. But your content must deliver on the promise or you will fail to earn more clicks – you’ve taken a n emotional and relational withdrawal - you’re not going to win them over next time. Your content must deliver on the promise of the headline. Barry: “A really good headline selects its audience.  In other words, you need to say something in your headline the reader things, ‘This is for me.’” Demian: “Don’t be afraid to disqualify people with your headline. The narrower your target the higher your conversion is going to be.” Your headline is not for everybody, so don’t try and please everybody. Safe example of a headline that’s probably going to under deliver because it’s for too broad of an audience:  5 Essential Ingredients of the World’s Greatest Recipes. Better: 5 Essential Ingredients of the World’s Greatest Guacamole Recipes. There’s risk there, but it’s more engaging and selective to those who are interested in making great guacamole. Characteristics of great headlines: Add urgency to your headlines by including a deadline and a benefit to acting on the promise, or a consequence for not doing something important. Useful headline: How to Wash Dishes. More attractive: How to Wash Dishes with Vinegar. Make it ultra-specific: 4 Ways to Wash Dishes with Vinegar. Take on the urgency element: 4 Ways to Wash Dishes with Vinegar Before You Die of Cholera. Barry’s article on HEADLINES as an acronym for writing headlines: H = Helpful, E = Emotion, A = Ask, D = Do’s and Don’ts, L = List, I = Inspire, N = Nightmare, E = Empathy, S= Success. We talk about putting emotion and empathy in your headlines.  And to do that we must realize the most important thing is to understand the problems of the person you’re trying to reach. Books and articles mentioned: Influence: They Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini The Copywriter’s Handbook, Robert Bly 12 Writing Exercises That Will Transform Your Copy Today, Demian Farnworth Headlines: A 9-Letter Cheat Sheet for Writing a Winner Every Time, Barry Feldman Your Headlines Suck. Here’s What You Can Do About It, Erik Deckers Two Ways to Add Urgency to Your Headlines Right Now, Demian Farnworth In Part 2 of Eyeball Grabbing Headlines: Using templates and formulas for writing eyeball grabbing headlines. Why you should take risks when writing headlines Demian’s favorite dog-eared book for getting inspiration on writing headlines Barry’s axiom for sticking your neck out.

Mark Levy of Levy Innovation talks about what it means to forget your audience in order to know your voice and how you matter to them. Mark talks about how the art of freewriting generates thought and meaning, thereby helping you become an Accidental Genius. Mark gives an in-depth and fascinating description of the art and practice of freewriting and how he uses it to generate new and meaningful perspectives for positioning statements, blog posts, book writing and really any business problem or need. He concludes with a story of how he used freewriting to add something entirely new to a project he participated in that made him stand out above all the other contributors. Learn more about Mark's work at LevyInnovation.com.