Book review - Duct Tape Marketing

Recently, I completed the book Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch. It was a gift from a friend that I received about 4 years ago and really have just gotten around to reading it. I wish I would have read it three years ago when I made the choice to enter in to the real estate business.


This book is chalked full of pragmatic tips for putting together a marketing 'system' for your small business. I filled the front and back inside bindings with notes and ideas as they popped into my head while reading the pages.

I appreciated the author's definition of Marketing:

Getting people who have a specific need or problem to know, like, and trust you

I believe that definition is spot on for small business marketing. The book is broken out into 3 parts:

1) The Duct Tape Foundation

2) The Duct Tape Lead Generation Machine

3) Getting on a Roll - Finding out what 'sticks' and do more of it.

I implemented ideas he suggested and saw immediate results:

1)Webinars - We did a Webinar and generated three new leads and closed one in less than a week! Our average sales cycle is 4 months. Needless to say, we have another Webinar scheduled!!

2) Wake up the senses with an Image to Match Your Message - I updated the look of the header on our website and added this 'image' to our advertising, and marketing materials, and have already had comments about the improvements from potential clients. See some of the changes at http://www.whitegallagher.com/

And, I used the book to help set new measurements for Sales & Marketing including: Lead generation numbers and Lead conversion rations.

I have shared this book with team members and look forward to using it as a guide to put together our marketing plan for the future. I highly suggest this book to small business owners looking to leverage their marketing. The book was published in 2006, so it just started to delver into how to use social media as well, but as you read it, you can visualize how to make improvements via blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and other creative ways to get your message out to as many prospects as possible.

This book gets a '10' on my dogear rating system. My highest ranking. If you can't find the ideas to help you improve your marketing system in this book, I don't know where you will find it!!

Are you "Peeing in your wetsuit?"

A friend of mine, Kim Chaney, once used an analogy in a meeting. He said "This is like peeing in a wetsuit. It feels kinda good when you do it, but you KNOW it's gonna chafe later on." I don't remember the exact situation we were in at the time, but I do know that I wouldn't soon forget it!

At the time, I believe he was referring to a situation where our group was doing something that may have been easier at the time(peeing in the wetsuit), but would not be better for us in the long run (chafing!).

In life, we are presented with these opportunities all the time where we have to make a choice as to the right action to take. It gets back to 'Discipline' - Doing WHAT you need to do...WHEN you need to do it...even though you DON'T want to at that time. You KNOW you should, in essence, take off your wetsuit!

I like to think there are ways to be more disciplined. Here are a few tips that I would suggest:

1) Write down your 'want' and look at it on a regular basis (hourly, daily, weekly). It is harder to avoid when you see it in writing.
2) Look for an accountability partner to help you. Ask a friend or mentor to periodically 'check-in' on you to see how you are doing with your 'want'. It is even more difficult (and embarrassing) to tell a friend or mentor that you have not been working on your disciplines!!
3) Pray about it. Ask God for strength.
4) Just do it! - You know you are going to feel better after you have completed the discipline. Why would you not want to feel better?

I am sure there are other ways.

Did you "Pee in your wetsuit today?" - What other ways are there that you have used to be more disciplined at what you 'want' so that you don't become "chafed" in the future?

Thanks, Kim, for the inspiration for this post. I had a a couple friends who nearly fell off their chairs laughing this week when I used the analogy in a meeting.

Book Review - The First 90 Days

I recently completed the book The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins. It was a gift from my wife, Chris, for Valentine's Day. I don't know if it was a message or not - "New Leaders at All Levels" was who the book was designed to target. I had been in real estate for three years now!!!

In any event, I dove in head first and found this to be an insightful book for new leaders. The book starts out by defining the "Breakeven Point" for new leaders, which is defined as the 'Point' at which new leaders have contributed as much value to their new organizations as they have consumed from it. The average time that CEOs said was the time at which a new manager hit this point was 6.2 months (pg. 2&3).



The book attempts to outline a process whereas that time (6.2 months)can be accelerated and the success of new leades in their positions increased. When I heard there was a process, it made it an easy read for me as I tend to enjoy books that define processes to achieve a goal. This book was no different.

This book was not a one-size-fits-all either. The author identifies 4 different scenarios defined as STaRS (the a is actually supposed to be superscript!). S-Start-up, T-Turn around, R-Realignment, and S-Success and different challenges and opportunities with each scenario.

I found the book to be a little short on real life examples and the visuals to be a little complex; however, I feel this will be a good reference book for me in the future. During previous book reviews, I used my rating system based upon 'dogears'. How many pages did I 'dogear' for future reference? There were more than 10, so I would give this book a Top '10 dog-ear' rating. I recommend it to new leaders at managerial levels, AND I think this would be a good book for those who 'aspire' to move up in their organization or careers as well. During an interview, I believe MANY times you will be asked "What will you do in the first 30,60, or 90 days in your new role?" How great would it be if you could use the tips in this book as a way to answer that question?! It would impress me.

I would like to share this book with you. Be the first to a) comment on this post, b) subscribe to this blog via Reader or email, and c) commit to reviewing the book as a guest blogger when you complete it! I will mail you a copy of the book.