“Gentlemen, this is a soccer ball.”
-Vince Lombardi
Dear friend,
I know a little about weight training.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to do much since I tore my L-5 vertebra in my lower back last year and ruptured three discs.
But I know how to gain muscle and lose fat. (I hope so. I’ve been working in the muscleman niche for 15 years!)
It’s a strange niche.
The truth is that building muscle and strength is not that complicated.
You need to lift heavy weights and eat lots of proper foods.
It’s pretty simple.
I didn’t say easy…just simple.
But you can’t sell a bodybuilding system that says “lift heavy weights regularly and eat a lot of food.”
People don’t want to hear that. They want to hear that there’s some kind of sexy new secret, shortcut, magic pill, etc.
Launching my first Doberman Dan product last week has been a learning experience. I really didn’t expect to find myself in the same mindset as the bodybuilding market… but it’s there.
I found that the niches of internet marketing, direct response marketing, copywriting, and “how to make money” have a lot in common with bodybuilding.
In both markets, what REALLY works are tried and true principles. But apparently the market doesn’t want to hear the truth.
That’s why all these internet marketing gurus have to INVENT new techniques with catchy names in order to sell more and more products.
Another Gary Halbert story…
One of Gary Halbert’s other protégés told me this story. (Was it Caleb O’Dowd or Scott Haines…can’t remember).
Halbert attended a seminar a couple of years ago with a bunch of different breakout sessions. There was everything from initial mail order sessions to ultra-complicated direct mail regression analysis.
Guess which one Halbert went to?
The initial class of mail order.
Now, Halbert had been writing copies for almost 40 years at that time. He had written some of the biggest winners in all of mail order history.
Why would I go to a beginners mail order class?
Gary said that if I was forgetting something, there was a 99% chance that it was the basics.
The great Vince Lombardi
The great football coach Vince Lombardi began each new season with a lecture for veterans and rookies on the basics of football.
He literally held up a soccer ball and said, “This is a soccer ball.”
He talked about his size and shape, how he can kick, charge or pass.
Then he would take the team out on the field and say: “This is a soccer field.”
He took them around the field, describing the dimensions, the shape, the rules, and how the game is played.
He did it every year, apparently…even after the Green Bay Packers became NFL champions and won the first two Super Bowls ever played.
Can you imagine how “basic” and boring that must have sounded to his veteran players?
Lombardi apparently believed that no matter how advanced his veteran players were, they still needed to be trained in the basics.
Perhaps that explains why Vince Lombardi was one of the most successful managers in soccer history.
Do you really KNOW?
You see, there are many “experts” on the web who share their “knowledge”.
Their “knowledge” consists of repeating things they have heard other people say… or things they have read in a book.
Or even worse, repeating what they have read online from other person repeating things they have heard other people say.
Everything I share with you on this site are things that I have LIVED. I have the battle scars to prove it.
Sure, I originally discovered the principles and concepts from books, seminars or other people. But I didn’t really start learning until I started DOING IT.
Whenever I hear someone say they already know what I’m teaching… that almost always means they may have heard or read it before… but actually HAS never DONE.
And if you haven’t… you don’t know.
A lot of people in this niche think they know the basics, so they go looking for the next newest and biggest “secret.”
And there’s no shortage of people willing to sell you their “marketing fantasy” for big bucks.
Unfortunately, these poor souls are chasing fantasies that are never going to work out.
If Gary Halbert spent his career focusing on the basics, what makes you think you don’t have to?
The 3 ways to earn money
As I said in my “Master Formula for Success”, there are really only 3 ways to make money and build your business.
97% of business owners only focus on one of the three. The few who “get it” and focus equally on all three experience a quantum leap in revenue.
But let me be totally transparent with you…
The master formula for success is not sexy. It is not a “magic pill”.
It is based on decades of tried and true principles that just WORK.
The bad news is… it takes work. (gasp!)
Yes, you have to implement the master formula for success (or any basic marketing principle) if you want to get results.
If you only read it or study it, then not really know that.
I’ve noticed that a lot of the youngsters and newbies in this niche (especially the ones who are guru IM disciples) don’t really know the basics of direct response.
They are always chasing fantasies in search of the newest “secrets”.
The truth is that there are very, very few new discoveries and secrets in direct response marketing.
In fact, you can learn the basics of direct response in a weekend.
And it will only take you a lifetime to master it.
So stop chasing fantasies and buying into the “magic pill” myth.
Focus on the basics of direct response. They will take you where you want to go.
If it’s good enough for Gary Halbert, it’s good enough for the rest of us.
All the best,
dan doberman