3 Main Lessons Learned at GKIC Infosummit 09

Posted by Jackie Ewing on November 24, 2009

I left Orlando early on November 6th for a drive up to Atlanta for the Glazer-Kennedy Inner Circle (GKIC) Infosummit.  This was my first time to one of these esteemed events and I was well-armed with fresh notebooks and pens, and a mind ready to soak up all kinds of information. Oh yeah, I was also the proud owner of an Acer Netbook so I could tweet and facebook as I learned!

There were quite a few speakers that I wanted to see and learn from – Mari Smith, Christ Cardell, George Foreman, Mike Koenigs, Sonia Simone – to name but a few!  I was particularly looking forward to some presentations by Dan Kennedy – his no BS style of delivery and succinct points make it easy for me to understand what he’s talking about… most of the time anyway!  He did not disappoint and I wrote a TON of notes. I had been told that Frank Kern was someone to behold and listen to.  What I hadn’t been told was that I should have brought my own booze so I could REALLY enjoy Frank Kern at his best!

Leading up to this infosummit and all the way throughout, I heard from different people that I should hunt for the 2 or 3 things that I could learn at this conference that would change me and my business.   “All that way and all that time just for 2 or 3 things?”  I asked myself, thinking I must have heard wrong.  But no, that was the clear message.  So, for whatever they are worth to you, here are the 3 main lessons that I learned at this GKIC Information Summit.

1. Think more about the WHO you are marketing to as opposed to what you are trying to sell. Care about people.
2. Use social media to supplement what is already working – blog, email, direct mail, etc. – create a loyal following by delivering great content to them.
3. Your ultimate goal should be profitability. If you remain invisible to your customers, you will not bring in any revenue.

Not major revelations by any stretch, but these 3 messages resonate throughout my notes from various speakers and presentations.

1. Think more about the WHO you are marketing to as opposed to what you are trying to sell. Care about people.

We know that the bulk of our business has been done with the people in our lists – every business should be tracking the people that buy stuff from them.  If you’re not doing this, shame on you!  You are leaving a ton of money on the table that you should be putting in your pocket.

If you know enough about the folks that have already purchased from you, you are armed to sell them something else – if you do it right.  We should no longer be thinking about our database as a wall that we throw a ton of crap at and hope something sticks.  We should be educating ourselves about our customers, our herd, our people. We should know what they like, what they don’t like, when their birthday is, what their dog’s name is… and on and on. The more you know, the more you know!

The overriding theme from this conference was the relationships you should have with your “herd”.  Frank Kern himself admitted that he simply did NOT like his customers before.  When he changed his attitude about his business, what he wanted from it and how it should provide him with the lifestyle he wanted, he also changed his attitude about his customers.  He got rid of the ones he didn’t like and went after more of the ones he DID like – what a concept! Doing business with people he liked became the fun he wanted it to be. Of course, he wants you and I to do the same!

2. Use Social Media to supplement or augment what is already working for you.

The constant roar about social media – what it is, how to use it, what NOT to do – is downright deafening at times!  How on earth is anyone supposed to make sense of it all?  Well, listening to those who have already drowned out the noise, found what works and emulating them is as as good a place to start as any!  Many of the speakers gave actual examples of how Twitter, or Facebook, or LinkedIn, or YouTube, or a combination of some or all of these, helped springboard their businesses from mediocre to money-making in a relatively short space of time.  Of course, hearing their stories with all the hindsight available to them sort of condenses it into a great story, but bottom line is – they still managed to do what you and I really want to do!

Instead of getting overwhelmed by everything that’s out there, it was recommended that we pick three or four of the main social media mediums that we feel comfortable with and use them all the time.  Communication is what it is all about and social media simply allows you to communicate with a whole lot of different folks in a whole lot of different ways! Learn a few of them and learn them well.  When you have mastered those, start adding one or two more to the mix.  No one medium will be the immediate answer, so work as many of them as you can make work well.

Thanks to Mari Smith, I have a far better understanding of how to use both Facebook and Twitter to connect with my target audience.  And the really good news was that I get to be me while doing it!  A little zany is allowed.

3.  Your ultimate goal should be profitability.

It is still very true to say that it doesn’t matter if you have  built a better mousetrap if nobody knows about it.  This message was very clear from ALL the speakers.  You can’t just wave a magic wand and have your business suddenly be ultra profitable; you actually have to do some work and then tell everybody and anybody that will listen that you have the better mousetrap and it will solve some problem of theirs that has been haunting them forever!

Most of us have information on all kinds of subjects.  If we have chosen our niche and can impart information on that niche in various mediums – writing, pictures, video – then we have a product to sell.  The goal is to make money from what we know.  Part of that is finding the cultivating the people who need to know what you know and will be willing to part with their hard-earned cash to do it.

I didn’t really understand why so many folks GIVE so much of their content away.  It just seemed to go against the grain of making money.  Well, I now consider myself re-educated and reformed!  Chris Cardell spoke a great deal about how he built his online business.  He started out giving stuff away and people just loved his content.  So, when he was ready to give them even more fabulous content – his people were ready to buy.

To sum up the Infosummit (if that’s even possible, given the HUGE amount of information that was available all day, everyday!) George Foreman put it very simply – in the three things that he instills in his children:

1. Get up early in the morning. Things happen early, be a part of them!

2. Learn from older folks (or in our case, people who have what we want). Listen to their stories and learn from them.

3. Strive to be the nicest human being you can be. Truly, honesty is always the best policy and nothing comes across better than a genuine person.

So, here I go armed with all this new, old stuff.  The ultimate key for me now is implementation.  The rest of it is only as good as the action that I take.

If you like what you read here, or not, and have comments to make, errors to point out to me, whatever – please feel free to comment below.

Comments

6 Responses to “3 Main Lessons Learned at GKIC Infosummit 09”

1. Jackie Ewing says:

   November 25, 2009 at 8:03 pm

   With a pair of ears this big, I do take in a lot. Thanks to your encouragement, I not only picked up a lot but have already implemented and still have a LONG list of things to do!
2. Nigel Worrall says:

   November 24, 2009 at 8:16 pm

   Wow Jackie! I know I encouraged you to go along but I didn’t think you’d get this much from it. Most people on their first trip get about a tenth of what you got. I’m truly impressed… now all you have to do is implement!

   (Oh…and zany is absolutely fine… you can tell all the people you don’t want to do business with to disappear…and to them you’ll just seem odd )

   Nice to have you on board the good club “entrepreneur”. It’s never a smooth ride but it’s better than being “entitled” like so many people believe. YOU are responsible for your own destiny. Giant strides have been made. Great blog.