Today’s message is a guest entry from my good friend, David G. Johnson, founder of Epiphany Marketing.

Do you see a man diligent and skillful in his business? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.” (Proverbs 22:29 AMP)

You may be one of the many skeptics who has yet to see the promotional power of social media. If so, I want to be the first to commend you: you’ve probably seen many fads come and go, and you may have even wasted significant time or money once or twice before on something that was going to be the, “next big thing.”

On the other hand, there comes a time when something has actually caught on. Radio and television were once the target of similar detractors, not to mention the “online services” that morphed into our utter dependence upon e-mail and the World Wide Web.

Is it possible to jump in too early and not see the return on your investment you’ve hoped for? Absolutely. On the other hand, with the help of someone who’s paid the price to learn how to make things work, you can avoid the expensive tuition of the school of hard knocks.

Two of my favorite examples from among my own clients who have begun to dominate their marketplace using social media are Christian parenting author, Rick Osborne, and Tom Ziglar, son of Zig Ziglar and President of Ziglar, Inc. Rick, who is worth following on Twitter and “friending” on Facebook, went through our 21st-Century marketing training program and was kind enough to pioneer translating our methods to Twitter (where he dragged me kicking and screaming). Tom Ziglar, who executed a now-famous Twitter strategy after our consulting engagement about 8 months ago, now has a consistent audience of 21,000 and counting!

“But I’m Not A Bestselling Author and My Last Name Isn’t Ziglar!”

True enough. But when you break apart the essence of the strategies that are working for them and for local businesses like the now-famous LA taco truck, there’s no reason you can’t grow your revenues, build relationships, and increase exposure for your business.

Let me assure you: this “passing fad” has become the new PR, advertising and marketing outlet of choice for those looking to achieve “bang for the buck.” The key is understanding how these environments work and how to sustainably and effectively engage them. I look forward to sharing these crucial components with you tonight!

Special Note from Michael Pink: You’re invited to join David and me tonight (Thursday, August 13th) at 9PM Eastern for “How to Dominate Your Marketplace Using Social Media.” This special educational webinar will help all of us learn how social media can be used to grow your business, and advance your message. Click here to reserve your spot right now!  Can’t make the time? Please register anyway… if a recording becomes available, you’ll be the first to find out!

Are you working hard, but producing little? Does your day seem to get away from you? Do you have a lot of things working, but very little coming to fruition? I’ve got some great news for you!

Scientists in the Panama Canal planted 35 pairs of young plants in an opening in the rainforest. They covered ½ of them with fine mesh to protect them from pests and checked back in 20 months. The ones protected from pests were growing 10 times faster and were already 5 ½ times bigger than the unprotected plants.

Pests… You know… the things that distract us and keep us from being productive… email, phone messages, coworkers, etc. Time magazine did a study and found that the average worker loses 28% of their time due to interruptions and, in fact, only gets an average of 11 minutes of concentrated work before being interrupted. What if there was a way to set up a No Pest Zone and keep the pests at bay?

If you knew the rainforest strategies for dealing with pests you could create significant blocks of uninterrupted time and accomplish far more than you presently do. In fact, you could increase your productivity by up to ten fold! But you’ve got to think differently and act differently if you’re going to experience a different result.

For that you need knowledge or information which is the rainforest equivalent of water. It’s a scientific fact that a tree given a constant drip of water can grow 13 times faster than one left to the elements alone. Combine good information with great pest control in your life and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Get a complimentary copy of Rainforest Strategy now and learn all about the best business model on the planet. All we ask you to do is cover the shipping and handling and consider the offer for our printed newsletter (The R.A.I.N. Report) when you’re done. But first get your copy of Rainforest Strategy

My fellow marketplace warriors…
Here is the invitation I promised you to join me for a meeting this week.  If you’ve been with us for a while, you’ll recall that we held a meeting with David (whose marketing thoughts you’ve probably been reading recently) just a few months ago and had an overwhelming response.

If you’re a newer subscriber, you may not yet be aware that our mission is to help believers worldwide build successful businesses so they can in turn (with their profits and influence) make a significant and lasting impact on the culture within which we live. How you make that difference is up to you. Helping you succeed in that calling is our privilege and our mission.

20-Fold Increase…
Recently, I was evaluating some statistical information related to our business.  It seems like it wasn’t all that long ago (in fact, it was just a couple of years ago) that I was getting excited about the 1,000 or 2,000 visitors coming to our website every month.  When I saw the more recent information, I found out that we’re averaging 10,000 visitors to our site every single week!  This has been due, in large part, to the efforts of David Johnson from Epiphany Marketing, who we retained just over a year ago to help us expand our reach.

Even more than multiplying the number of visitors, what has excited me is when I found out why they’re finding us… David showed me how to view the terms that people are typing into search engines like Google in order to find us.  Wow!  It’s amazing how well-targeted the results are.  We are connecting more than ever with the people who need what we have to offer.

David wants to share information with you…
…about how you can experience similar results.  And, more importantly, how to apply timeless marketing strategy to every facet of your business so that you’re best prepared to create relationships with the people you are reaching out to.  In fact, David would also like to introduce some of the people he’s been training for the last couple of months so you can hear directly from them about what they’ve been learning.

David and I have set aside several time slots Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to discuss specific strategies to help you experience similar results. This is not for everyone, but if you want to grow your business using 21st-century strategies, you are welcome to join us. Register here now so you can be sure to reserve your spot on one of these conference calls. (As always, we are limited on the number of callers we can have on each conference call, so it’s a first-come, first-served basis.)

Warmest regards…

Michael Q. Pink

P.S. I know you probably checked your calendar previously, but I urge you to choose your best meeting time now… these calls will fill up quickly!

My fellow marketplace warriors…
I want to invite a few of you to a special conference call at the end of this week. Let me tell you why and then please let me know if you can make it. As you may know, our mission is to help believers worldwide build successful businesses so they can in turn (with their profits and influence) make a significant and lasting impact on the culture within which we live. How you make that difference is up to you. Helping you succeed in that calling is our privilege and our mission.

A mere 18 months ago…
Our business was dependent on me going out somewhere in the world and doing consulting or training. Product sales were minimal and not much of a focus. The revenues generated through our website were limited to five or six hundred dollars per month. Insignificant. I began applying some of the rainforest lessons to business and it grew substantially. Then we retained on a consulting basis, David Johnson of Epiphany Consulting to really help us establish a long term, reliably growing stream of income using the internet.

Last quarter what used to be less than a couple thousand dollars per quarter, was over $100,000 using the internet. That’s 50-fold increase! Our ranking on search engines has also improved significantly, our number of e-mail subscribers has more than doubled, and many good things are occurring. I know there are many of you who could benefit from his knowledge so I asked him last week if he would be willing to get on a conference call with me and share some of his wisdom and experience with you. He agreed with one stipulation…

He wants to focus his input…
…on folks who have an established business or who are responsible for generating leads or demand for an established enterprise. For example, one of his clients is a specialist in the medical profession who got virtually no business off his website and was skeptical that people would come to him via the internet. But… he was wasting money on ineffective advertising and he knew it. About a year later, over 50% of his patients find him from the internet, due to the help David was able to provide.

David and I have set aside several time slots this Thursday and Friday to discuss specific strategies to help you experience similar results. This is not for everyone, but if you want to grow your business using 21st-century strategies, you are welcome to join us. Register here now so you can be sure to reserve your spot on one of these conference calls. (As always, we are limited on the number of callers we can have on each conference call, so it’s a first-come, first-served basis.)

Warmest regards…

Michael Q. Pink

P.S. Get your calendar out and choose your best meeting time now… these calls will fill up quickly!

“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the armor of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut asunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:1-3)

Okay. Here it is early in the New Year and I’ve been expecting to find some treasures in darkness and hidden riches in secret places. I found one that we expect will dramatically impact the endowment we are raising for the Christian Business School some of you know I am heavily involved with. Although the endowment grew by tens of millions of dollars in the last two quarters of 2007, we expect that to pale in comparison to 2008. If I told you the goal for 2008 you would not believe it, but that’s not important. We do.

We need the endowment to launch the school and we intend to eventually take it internationally to help lesser privileged people groups have access to first world, kingdom class business training. Naturally, to raise hundreds of millions of dollars takes a combination of God’s favor (without which we would be nowhere), diligent work, tremendous vision and insightful strategies. One of those strategies opened up to us as the New Year began and I really want to share it with you so you can apply it. Here goes…

Remember the Parable of the Sower? Besides the intended message, it also teaches us something about High Probability Selling. When it was all said and done, less than 20% of the seed in that story produced over 80% of the return. As 2007 came to a close, we evaluated what the profile of our high returning opportunities were and in 2008 we are able to filter out the hard ground, the stony ground and the thorny ground opportunities, despite the fact that they contain millions of dollars of potential revenue for us. By knowing what the good ground looks like and directing our efforts exclusively in that field we can now increase our result by a factor of 5 in the coming year. (God willing)

You have to be willing to let some opportunities go to others while you focus on High Probability Targets. Remember, time is of the essence. We are told to redeem the time and make the most of every opportunity. Moses told us in Psalm 90 to number our days that we might apply a heart of wisdom. One way to do that is to recognize that time is ticking and ask the Lord to show us the High Probability Targets for developing the vision He has given us to bring to fruition.

I have been discussing the seven strategies God built into the rainforest to deal with “pests” and how they relate so effectively to work. So far, we have discussed the following: (1) Eliminate the unnecessary (2) Automate the mundane (3) Delegate the routine (4) Designate your work and last week was number (5) Procrastinate the undefined.

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The Tabernacle of Moses reveals three distinct levels of Christian living and those three levels are easily relatable to business. Cooperating with them and knowing how to flow with each level will dramatically impact your business.

The Outer Court is Level 1 and is about practices. It is the place where character and competence are formed. It is the place of preparation. It’s about functioning based on what you see, what you observe, what you can grasp based on your own acquired skills. I call it the place of the 30-fold increase. We have spoken a lot lately about outer court concepts. They include processes, systems, common sense practices and they are essential. Most people never progress past this level.

The Inner Court is Level 2 and is about principles. It is the place of strategy, where God opens His Word and by His Spirit reveals His Way of doing things. These are not natural strategies deduced with natural wisdom, but rather God inspired strategies derived from Godly wisdom. (See James 3:17 for details). Think 60-fold increase.

The Holy of Holies is the third level. It is about the POWER of God working on your behalf to accomplish what you could never do on your own, with any amount of wisdom. Accessing this power is possible, but it is not a game, nor is it something to be taken lightly. Think 100-fold increase. We need to operate on all three levels. Stay tuned as we develop this a little further during the week.

By the way, in case you missed it, we have offered the CDs of our seven-hour teaching with PowerPoint on this subject for FREE to the first 500 folks who download the series called, The RainCatcher’s Secret: 7 Ancient Paths to Wealth, Wisdom and the Wonder of God. Beat the rush. On Friday that offer goes out to hundreds of thousands of folks. Click here for details.

Hello Friend,

Even though we worked hard to provide as many convenient opportunities as possible to participate, I recognize that many of you might not have been able to participate in this week’s meetings with Eric Beck.

We have extended a very special offer on a business tool that Eric has made available, and I felt like you should have the opportunity to take advantage of it if you’d like. The offer expires later today, so for just the next few hours, we’re making a replay of one of this week’s calls available. You can listen to it online here.

Why listen?
Hundreds of people this week picked up some strategies that will help their businesses prosper for generations to come. Also, I think you’ll really enjoy hearing Eric explain more about the concept of “Manna” vs. “Mammon.”

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Let me help you recall the premise of this series of 7 lessons for increasing your productivity… On Barro Colorado, in the heart of the Panama Canal, a test was done with 35 pairs of young plants. Half were protected from pests and half were not. The protected half grew 10 times faster and was already 5 ½ times larger in just twenty months. The only difference was being sheltered from pests.

We have already discussed four natural strategies rainforest plants use to minimize the impact of pests. Today, we look at the fifth. It’s called, “leaf production when plants are rare” and it is highly effective. Some types of plants actually delay putting out new leaves (which are the most vulnerable) until the dry season when many of the pests have died off or gone elsewhere. With fewer pests, they have faster and more complete growth.

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As I write this blog entry, I am flying home from Seattle to Florida. It’s been a busy week with doing a Get Motivated event with Zig Ziglar on Tuesday, visiting family in Canada and staying on top of several business priorities. Did I mention this was a “red-eye” flight arriving home at 6:30 am? The good news is that flying is an excellent “no-pest zone” for me.

You see, in the rainforest, there are 7 strategies built into the ecosystem to help plant life erect a barrier to pests. The more effectively they keep pests at bay, the faster they grow and the more productive they are. The same is true for us. Trees are most vulnerable when their leaves are fresh and tender. (Our projects are most vulnerable when they are in the formative stages.) Some trees utilize a defense strategy called, Rapid Leaf Expansion where they shoot out their new leaves at a remarkably quick rate. By the time pests discover the new leaves, they are already grown and tough.

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