Introduction to Your 17 Step Success Marketing System

In 2009, America had a problem.

One year later, it’s 2010, we still have a problem.

We stopped believing in ourselves.

We forgot that we as a nation have struggled and suffered
much more in the past –
than we ever could today –
and we have overcome all our past problems.

There is an answer to our problems, we just don’t see it yet.

As Alex Goumakos put it in “The $3 Secret to Success”

“The one quality which turns the ordinary
into the extraordinary is ideas.

And here is the great news…

Whatever challenges you currently face…
money, marital, spiritual,
occupational, business, personal…
the solution — in the form of an idea — already exists.

You simply aren’t aware of it yet.

The question is not,

“Is there a way out of my predicament?”

but rather…

“When my solution comes,
will I be prepared to receive it?”

I believe — as do many others —
that all possible outcomes exist right now, simultaneously,
in the present moment.

That answer is to find a “Bus Ride Out of Hell,”
when no escape seems possible.

There is self-help, success and prosperity available to all.

This is a story of a journey –
a journey from the bottom of the basement
whatever basement you might be in now
to the top of the Grand Canyon –
to the achievement of the craziest goal you might have.

This is the story of helping you make that journey.

And marketing yourself plays a major role in this journey.

You might just “hate” marketing and its evil twin “sales”

Maybe somebody had done the marketing and sales for you –
and you just had to do the “real” work.

Here is my offer –

What if you could have “Instant Marketing” –
no need to put on a tie and a salesman’s face and attitude –
but you could sell yourself and your services
to the prospect, customers and clients who need those services?

This is what “The 17 Steps to Your Success” is all about.

Instant Marketing.

Quick, easy and painless.

Hopefully fun.

See, we sometimes lose awareness of how lucky we are –
we stop being grateful.

I had been looking for the secret to success for over 30 years.

I hope you will not have to search as long or as hard as I did.

I spent over 30 years marketing something in one way or another –
usually marketing something for somebody else,
for somebody else’s company –
every now and then marketing myself.

I read all of the books and listened to records, yes vinyl records,
then audiocassettes and then CDs, DVDs and MP3s –
wondering how to be a better marketer –
how to sell more –
how to earn more money -
and I saw the need for the skills I was trying to learn.

Guess what?

I needed to package these skills and present them to my customers –
you being one – and this is the real purpose behind the 17 steps.

By marketing myself – I show you how you can market yourself.

And have a purpose.

And make money.

And feel better.

We sometimes feel that life sucks, that the best times are long gone –
that our prosperity will never be the same again –
and this is what I am setting out to dispel.

The man who has arguably made more millionaires than anyone else in history – Napoleon Hill – has 17 Steps to Achievement.

I am including one in each chapter.

I have 17 chapters also.

I am writing to explain how I took these 17 steps and went from the bottom of the basement and how I traveled to the top of the Grand Canyon. Figuratively and literally.

I wrote this 17 Part Program, designed to help any Skilled Trades person achieve marketing success.

By following this training program that takes a Skilled Trades person through a series of 17 steps – you will be able to market yourself.

I have found that the people I help are extremely qualified and capable in their field – whether that field is Automotive Mechanics, Electrical Repair, Home Building or Home Remodeling.

What I provide is the Marketing.

Marketing is the one skill that these craftsmen lack.

So as I turn my life around – by leaving broke and heading towards rich –
there is a set of instructions that will help anyone interested and motivated.

There is a book called The Science of Getting Rich.

It was written one hundred years ago.

It claims to have the system for getting rich.

Dr. Robert Schuller, the TV Minister was asked

What is the key to your success?

and he answered :

“Anybody who succeeds is helping people.
The secret to success is
find a need and fill it;
find a hurt and heal it;
find a problem and solve it.”

Providing marketing to those who have a way to heal a hurt,
solve a problem – that is what I am best at doing and this is my heartfelt desire.

You might currently be broke.
I was there myself, not so long ago.

I had no one to blame but myself –
since I had not followed a course of action that lead me to prosperity,
to wealth and to my goals.

That is why I am writing this series of steps –
to help you find success at what you are good at -
to help you share your skills and abilities with others.

You see, in many parts of the world – times are tougher than here -
much tougher.

We Americans don’t see outside our own shores.

We see only ourselves.

In 2010, America had a problem -
the world was turned upside down
for workers of all ages
in almost every industry.

Millions with formerly “guaranteed” jobs -
now no longer have the security of a pay check -
and perhaps never again will.

At the beginning of January 2009,
134.3 million people were employed, 11.6 million unemployed.

At the start of May, only 132.4 million Americans were working,
14.5 million were now unemployed.

John Rich is a country music star and has written and sung a song called “They’re Shuttin’ Detroit Down.”

Here is a link to the music video of the song and the lyrics:

“They’re Shutting Detroit Down”

That’s sort of depressing, isn’t it?

Believe me, America has gone through much worse.

In the depths of The Great Depression, when almost 25% of Americans were unemployed, 75% still had a job.

And that was when a “Job was a Job.”

Today, we have more options and consequently more hope.

My goal for this program is to present a proven marketing plan,
for skilled workers who are currently unemployed or underemployed -
reveal how to offer your services to your target market -
using 17 time tested ideas that can be quickly learned
and successfully implemented at low cost.

The 17 steps presented here provide a road map to success,
enable you to use your existing skills -
and add two “secret” ingredients to do so.

These are Personal Marketing and Success Visualization.

I am always surprised when I mention the book “Think and Grow Rich!” and discover that not everyone knows about it, much less has read it.

In “Think and Grow Rich!” – there is a hidden “secret” that Napoleon Hill alludes to, a secret I had been searching for and could not find for over five years.

Each of the 17 chapters in this book begins with one of Napoleon Hill’s principles.

I am well aware that not everyone reading this is going to be impressed.

Some will call this Pollyanna, wishful thinking, bromides and whatever other dismissive word or phrase they wish to use.

Let them sneer and laugh and deride.

These laws work – you don’t have to use them if you don’t want.

However, if you are in a situation where you could use some good advice, some helpful coaching and step-by-step instructions in the use of today’s technology to make a better life for yourself, will you make an effort?

None of the ideas I am about to present are new -
some are a century old,
some go back several thousand years.

You may have heard of all or none.
These are time tested and proven.
It is my mission to explain the complicated and make it interesting and clear.

My hope is to reduce the reading and learning you need to do –
and just give you a summary that you can immediately use.

Sometimes, the summary is not enough and I am providing links or the actual text to the actual works – by the authors as well as longer summaries.

As I mentioned, in 2010, America had a problem.

There is a proven solution.

Before I tell you what it is – let me ask you a question:

What if a strange secret were revealed to you –
the exact steps you need to take –
their order, sequence and timing –
the steps to follow in order to succeed for the rest of your life –
and live a life of fulfillment and abundance -

What would you think?

What words come to mind?

Great? Crazy? Wonderful? Impossible?

Maybe all of the above.

One more question – let’s say you are in a bad spot right now –
maybe jobless, broke and depressed –
would you even listen?

There is good news and bad news.

The good news is the solution does exist.

The bad news is, you could have found it already and applied it –
but you probably haven’t. Not yet.

Why not?

The solution goes back 3 years and 70 and 100 and 3,000 years – and here it is:

“You become what you think about”

Is that too cryptic?

How about

“Whatever the human mind can conceive and believe it can achieve”

And finally,

“As a man thinketh in his heart so is he”

Yes, in 2010 America had a problem – so what about the solution?

Are things really so bad now as the newspapers and TV would have you believe?

So, review the 17 Success Principles.

See how you can apply them in your life.

And if you feel, as I feel – that you have a skill that can benefit other.

“If only you could package that skill
make it available in a presentation,
and find those who are in need of it.”

You will be finding the need that Dr. Schuller mentioned.

You will be finding a solution to a problem.

And let’s say you knew all of these secrets and more –
that is like asking for the secret to fitness and health.

If I answered “Eat less and exercise more” – would that help?

That is like giving you the ingredients for the recipe for lasagna.

Unless you are an expert chef, these ingredients would not bring you closer to a finished dish of lasagna – they would just sit there in front of you.

A step-by-step recipe is what you need.

The 17 secrets are the same – unorganized ingredients – until you put them together in a useful way – it doesn’t matter how wise you or whether they are “bromides” and “cliches”

We say every word and every sentence with 26 letters.

I am going to show you how to use these principles to help your skilled trade business succeed.

You have already supplied the skill.

You are motivated to read through this introduction.

Now, the first step, which seems basic, but after all, every step is basic.

You will develop your business idea.

Step #1 – Your Business Idea