Super Bowl XLII is right around the corner and I’ve got front row seats! Well, not really. My front row seat will be on my nice, soft couch watching the game in high def on my Samsung DLP. You see, even though the game is just a few miles away from my home here in Phoenix, Arizona, I just can’t swallow $4300 PER TICKET! And that’s just the average going price. According to an article on Yahoo tickets are going for as high as $19,446!!!

It doesn’t take long to figure out who’s attending the Super Bowl these days. Like the local country club or golf course, the Super Bowl has has become a place where clients are schmoozed and deals are made.

So, what does the Super Bowl have to offer the rest of us? Half-time ads, of course! I’m sure we’ll see the typical beer ads and I’m betting our neighbor down the street, GoDaddy.com, will show their latest version of ’skin selling domain names’ (I guess it’s the only way to make registering a domain name interesting).

What I’m still waiting for… and hoping to see this year (or someday) is a great Super Bowl TV ad with a solid call to action. Successful small businesses almost always have a solid call to action in their marketing & advertising. Somewhere along the way, the big boys forgot or stopped caring about direct response marketing. Make sure as you grow your small business that your marketing and advertising doesn’t go the way of million-dollar TV spots that are viewed simply as ‘entertainment’.

I’m a big fan of conferences and events. Not the touchy-feely, rah-rah ones, but the events where you convince your spouse that it’s going to be good and then you travel forever to get there… and within the first hour you think to yourself, “I could go home right now and it would have totally been worth it!”. During 2007, I experienced a number of these events including Michael Gerber’s “In The Dreaming Room“, Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle “SuperConference” and “InfoSummit”, and a handful of others.

Recently, I had the opportunity to exchange emails with Ramon Ray with Smallbiztechnology.com. He has a an event/summit he is putting on in February that appears to be one of those ‘killer conferences’ every small business should attend. The lineup of speakers is impressive (Brent Leary, Anita Campbell, and many others). Michael Gerber told me once, “we are leaving the information age and are now entering the age of the entrepreneur.” Events like this are helping facilitate this new age and helping entrepreneurs and small businesses become more successful.

For more info about the event: www.smallbiztechsummit.com.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a flash of insight about a perfect domain name that is sure to bring instant success… …And keep your hand up if you’ve ever spent (wasted) a significant amount of time at your favorite registrar (mine) searching over and over until you find one that’s available. OK, if you’re hand’s not up, I know you’re lying :). The Google Story (thank you Pat Sullivan founder of ACT! for turning me on to the book) tells the story of the original search for Google.com When Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided that BackRub (the original name for their search engine) wasn’t going to cut it, they settled on Google, a “smaller” version of Googolplex (a very large number). The domain name was available, so Larry Page registered it and wrote it on the whiteboard: Google.com Someone else in the office came in and added ‘You misspelled it. It is supposed to be G-o-o-g-o-l.’ Googol.com had already been taken. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Google has suffered from it’s “less-than-perfect” domain name. Appropriate thought was given, a decision was made, and an empire was built. I agree that BackRub needed to go. But I also believe that had the brainstorming conversation that night taken a slightly different course, the empire that we know today as Google could have easily carried a different name. Different name, different domain name perhaps, but it would have been the same great search capability, and had the same impact. The success isn’t in the domain name… the domain name just gets to be part of the success. And for all those small businesses out there angsting over finding just the right domain, let Google’s story be a lesson. P.S. Today, Googol.com is just a redirect to another site.

Baltimore… Lee Milteer and I joked during breakfast one morning that each of us vaguely remember having stayed at the Baltimore airport Marriott. Funny how business travel is so numb - no real opportunity to venture out beyond the confines of the hotel doors. Every now and then, you catch a glimpse of the city or surrounding area from your hotel window or the cab as it takes you back to the airport.

Where Baltimore lacked in scenery and balmy weather, was made up one hundred fold by the coaching, learning, and “rightening” of the head during my first Peak Performers meeting with Bill Glazer and Lee Milteer. Another 70-80 members were present and the vast majority would agree with me.

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-Lee Milteer, Me, & Bill Glazer

There’s just something about mastermind groups that guarantees success. It’s a virtual buffet of ideas, networking opportunities, deals, discussions, and opportunities to reflect on what/how you’re doing. I met a few dozen folks who I’ll be able to help… and they’ll be able to help me. The ideas & relationships formed during the event have more than ‘paid’ for the membership fee of the coaching program for the year. And that was just our first meeting!

One of the most significant benefits of the event was that it forced me to think about my goals & aspirations… and to write them down on paper. I’m a goal setter. I love achieving my goals. It’s amazing how quickly you can forget your goals if they are not staring at you each & every day. I’ve committed myself to post my goals in a couple of places… and to create a vision board with imagery of things/events/opportunities I want to achieve & obtain.

After the first day, I realized that almost half of the members were Infusionsoft customers! Almost all were lovin’ Infusionsoft, the application, the service, and doing REALLY well in their businesses. It was a really great feeling to know that our software is powering successful small businesses and that it’s making business SO much easier for them.

I have no doubt that Infusion needs to be in the hands of every successful marketer, entreprenuer, and small business because we help them grow quickly and profitably.

Just got back from Miami for the commissioning ceremony‚ and reception for the USS Gridley, the Navy’s newest Destroyer (it’s an IMPRESSIVE ship!).

Having lived in San Diego, I have an affinity for our Navy & military, so when our good friend and client, George Vallejo contacted me to discuss sponsoring the commissioning‚ events, I jumped at the opportunity.

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George is a long-time client using our mortgage CRM software and has done amazing things with his business. His brother-in-law, Steve Shinego, is the commander of this new ship and involved George in the fundraising efforts for their public debut in Miami. George used Infusion CRM to manage the fundraising, follow-up, contacting & involving prior Gridley ship mates, planning activities, marketing, and more. The event was a HUGE success and I’m proud to have participated in such a patriotic weekend!

George even arranged for a private tour of the ship!:

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After the tour, my wife and I attended a special reception for the Gridley officers, government officials, sponsors, and other supporters. The reception was held at the beautiful Vizcaya Museum & Gardens.

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Thanks for making this happen George!

Had the amazing experience of going to “The Dreaming Room” in beautiful Sonoma, CA last weekend.

Our founder, Scott Martineau, and our VP of Development, Marc Chesley, and I made a great‚ trip out of it. Personally, I learned new things about myself, my own dreams, and my dreams for Infusionsoft. It was an intimate event with Michael Gerber speaking, sharing, dreaming. Without anesthesia, he cuts‚ open your chest, cracks your rib cage apart, & tears out the sleeping‚ entreprenuer & dreamer‚ within. Seriously! The event had such impact, that I couldn’t return to work for a couple of days until I got all my thoughts down on paper. I met a LOT of wonderful entreprenuers & dreamers at the event. We were also able to forge a great relationship with Michael Gerber & his organization.

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Most of all, the event helped me clarify what we do here at Infusionsoft. It’s best‚ told through a story‚ a true story, which occurred about three years ago.

It was late afternoon on a Friday at the Infusionsoft office, time to start packing it up for the weekend. Pizza had just been delivered for a late lunch. Just as we were about to tear into the piping-hot pizza, the office phone rang. The temptation to take a bite of that pizza rather than pick up the phone was strong. (TGIF, right? WRONG! What a stupid saying to live by!) But, we put the pizza on hold and picked up the phone with, “Infusion Software”.

Without hesitation, a man blurted out on the phone line, “I HAVE PAIN!!! CAN YOU HELP ME!!!???”

Now, when you receive a call like this, it immediately makes you wonder, “Is this guy nuts?”, “Did WE create the pain?”, “Is this a crank call?”‚ “Who IS this guy?”

Well, the response to his question was, “Ummmmm, can you tell me about your pains?”

The man continued, “Well, I sent out an e-mail to thousands of my prospects about a huge discount I was offering on some products. Not long after, I started getting calls from ticked-off customers insisting they get a refund equal to the huge discount I’m offering now. Turns out I totally screwed up and sent the e-mail to all my existing customers instead of just prospects and it is going to cost me THOUSANDS of dollars!!!

The guy on the other line, Reed, was actually a brilliant man. He was (and still is) a top-rate gentleman, an expert marketer, and an entrepreneur who runs multiple small businesses. He also coaches countless mortgage professionals how to market effectively. He’s a big believer in systematizing the business and had created dozens of systems for lead generation, testimonial and referral capture, lead conversion, client fulfillment, billing, collections, and on & on. However, through years of creating systems, he continued to add more and more databases, technologies, and software to manage the systems. In all, he had over 18 databases & pieces of software to manage all his systems!!! How do you run a small business with 18 different databases to handle your systems?! You can’t. Chaos reigned.

The conversation continued on the phone & we asked, “So, what are you looking for? What do you want us to do?”

He replied, “I need help straightening everything out. I need to keep my customer, prospect, & lead lists organized. I want to be able to segment my lists. I want to know how many leads I generated last week. I want to know where my leads are coming from & which leads sources are most profitable. I want to know which of my sales reps are performing best & which ones are cherry-picking. I need to know where my leads are slipping through the cracks. I gotta know how much money the business made last Tuesday. I want to know which affiliates are producing. I wanna know how profitable the mail piece I sent six weeks ago was. I want to know which of my clients are referring new customers. I want to know how to better manage my complex multi-step follow-up systems. And, I want ONE place where I go to do all of this stuff!

The pain this guy was experiencing was brutally clear. His systems were so successful, they were creating a logistical nightmare and a new level of chaos for him.

To make a long story short, this call was a life-changing event for Infusion. We realized that ALL entrepreneurs and small business owners faced the exact same challenges Reed was facing. Anyone serious about systematizing and growing their business was going to run into this.

At that time, we decided to take on the challenge and find a way, through technology, to help Reed and countless other small businesses.

Fast forward to the present. We did it. We solved Reed’s pains & removed the chaos. His customer & prospect lists are organized. He’s able to slice & dice his lists and perform laser-targeted marketing. His lead acquisition is systemized and automated. He knows exactly where his leads are coming from, which sales reps are responsible, and who his best sales performers are. His leads no longer slip through the cracks because there ARE no cracks. He knows how much revenue the business made on any given day instantly. Product fulfillment has been automated. Each day, customers are being invoiced and charged without any human interaction. He knows how to treat affiliates based on their productivity. His ultra-complex multi-step marketing sequences or drip campaigns are on auto-pilot and send personalized marketing pieces and nobody has to keep track of what to send & to whom. Finally, he has one place to go to monitor the growth & success of his business.

Not only have we done this for Reed, but we’ve also done it for hundreds of other small businesses. As we move forward, we envision tens of thousands of small businesses doing the same thing using our software.

So, what does Infusionsoft do?

WE HELP SMALL BUSINESSES GROW QUICKLY & PROFITABLY

How?

BY ENABLING THEM TO (FINALLY!) CENTRALIZE, ORGANIZE, AUTOMATE, AND MONITOR
THEIR LEAD GENERATION, LEAD CONVERSION, AND CLIENT FULFILLMENT. (Or… MARKETING, SALES, and CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT).