The Blog At ChrisKrimitsos.com

If you missed Shawna’s interview, make sure to view it at TWBAvault.com.

Shawna shared with us her life’s story of how she was able to overcome crippling health issues, financial obstacles and a declining market place to become a business builder and eventually, a media personality in the area of Political Strategy. Here are 7 takeaways I grasped from Shawna’s story:

#1. Choose the time to fight your battles. When Shawna won student body President on a lark for her college, she was told by the college president that she had 2 choices – to graduate or take the position. She couldn’t have both and seeing that she was out-gunned, she chose to graduate.

#2. Where there is pain, there is profit. When Shawna’s college professor locked up the notes of an examination behind a glass wall for students to tediously copy, she realized quite quickly that she could charge students $25-$50 for a set of her notes by distributing copies. The college quickly passed a “Shawna Rule” outlawing such cooperative collaboration.

#3. Fight for your reputation and make sure to control your image before others try to do it for you. Shawna stated as an employer the hardest thing she had to do was fire under performing members of her company and make sure to do damage control in order to manage her reputation each and every time.

#4. Understand that in a global world of connectivity, we must become more tolerant of cultures and customs. Shawna had programmers from all over the world working for her. At one point a project was not moving the way it was suppose to because someone from a lower caste was put in charge of someone of a higher caste. Understanding these differences were crucial to effective leadership.

#5. Evaluate what you want. After losing quite a few of her husband’s family members in a 1 year window, Shawna had to take stock in what she really wanted out of life and re-evaluate what was important.

#6. Make sure to speak up. As one of Governor Jeb Bush’s advisors, Shawna made sure to speak up and put her two cents in when important questions where being asked by the Governor. This helped make Shawna a trusted advisor to Governor Bush.

#7. Blogs that have been monetized are super powerful. Shawna advised the entire Annex to find a blog within your niche of business that has a strong following and offer to write content as a guest blogger or become active by posting comments to that particular blog.

Most of all, Shawna made it clear that life is too short not to do what you love!

Here are 10 key factors that Rick McIntosh follows to ensure he is successful in Direct Response Marketing: Market what people want to buy not what you think they should have! Rick talked about how early on he had an invention that he invested well over $17,000 that went nowhere. He currently says that ONE out of 150 products he looks at has the potential of going national.

Make sure the product you have is demonstrable, meaning it can be demonstrated and has a wow factor that makes people want to buy it!

The more simple and direct the USVP, the better! When marketing a product you need a one line Unique Selling Value Proposition or simple.com name that gets the point across quickly and simply!

Don’t hang out with Cry Babies!!! Rick has many contemporaries in the business cry that the economy is tough and there is no money to be made. He quickly made a decision not to be a part of that group and proceeded moving forward. He now has the #1 product in the country with the fushigiball.com.

It’s not usual for an invention that Rick creates to be inspired by another invention. For example, in the case of the Snuggie, he created the Dreamie. So don’t be afraid to be inspired by others ideas and create a variation that fills the needs of the consumer.

The changing effect of the Internet: Rick markets his products on TV. However it’s not unusual for products to go viral through the Internet creating a higher profitability than originally thought. Such is the case with the Fushigi Ball. He literally cannot supply enough to keep pace with the demand!

Different channels of Distribution: For every one item sold through TV direct marketing, Rick and other Direct Response marketers get 6 sales through venues like Walgreens, CVS, Target, Walmart etc. Different channels of distribution increase the profits exponentially.

Focusing on what you know: Rick was asked why he doesn’t sell info products (ebooks etc…) and his response is that he is focusing on what he knows.

In order to make money in the direct response marketing industry you need to have 6 time mark up to profit on a $19.99 price point.

Rick will always do a test on any product to know that it truly is a winner. In one instance, he had kids calling his sales hotline and hanging up costing him thousands of dollars in call center charges! This has allowed him to change up the marketing message to avert this possible career ending disaster!

Lesson: Fill needs that people want, not what you think the want and focus on your core business relentlessly. Rick attributes the book 7 Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra as one of his guide books to success.

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, I was an employee for a small company by the name of Geico. It just so happened that their regional offices were located 2 miles from my parents’ home. At the time, Geico had just recently been bought out by Berkshire Hathaway, making many employees that had stock millionaires overnight! It became a wholly owned subsidiary of a man that has been called the Oracle of Omaha. His name was Warren Buffett and his philosophy has been to invest in great companies and stocks. He rarely ever sells a stock or company he owns.

As I worked for Geico, I saw first hand how efficiently they were with their capital as well as how efficient they were with their customer service and sales processes. At the time I was invited by another employee to go out to see Warren Buffett for myself at his annual shareholders convention in Omaha, Nebraska. As a person that loves traveling and learning I said “Sure”! When I arrived I was amazed to see a small mid western city overflowing with people from all over the world to see the Oracle of Omaha. They packed the entire stadium to hear him and his partner speak about the economic times and the future of Berkshire Hathaway. It was 2003 and the economy was recovering from the tech bubble and 9/11. Here are a few things I learned from Warren Buffett that day:

Lesson #1: He truly loved investing, filing his first income tax return in 1944 at the age of 14. Buffett took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route.

Lesson #2: Never sacrifice integrity… He had a saying “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Lesson #3: He loved letting other people manage his assets. Commonly referring himself to a bat boy for the legendary Yankees. All he did was supply his CEO’s with the right bats, he would often say!

Lesson #4: Wealth is a game that takes time. This quote illustrates his point quite well: Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.

Lesson #5: When you are in love with what you do, the world becomes your playground, as Warren Buffett proved to me that day!

It was a pivotal moment in my life to see that wealth can be accumulated with integrity and responsibility by focusing on what you love and do well. I learned that if you truly believe in yourself and apply integrity to all you do, you will become a success.