I would guess everyone is getting hit with it at the moment...

I took a look at it.

And while I thought parts of it were good it certainly didn't match the hype-- not in my view anyway.

Maybe it's because I was already pretty familiar with everything Rich was talking about.

But I give Rich lots of credit in a couple areas...

1. He put it together. That in itself is something that most people fail to do-- complete a project.

2. He has marketed the living daylights out of it! God bless him for that! He knows it's all about the marketing. The product can be good, bad or indifferent but you have to market it properly and he has.

But overall I thought it had a decent compilation of thoughts but certainly nothing I haven't come across many times before.

What to you think?

Well, as you know - I'm good friends with Rich
and I see what's going on and who he's working
with.

Even if you know every single item in the
Manifesto, the only question is -

Are you having the same success his clients
are?

I spoke to Mike Filsame.

He believes Rich is responsible in a large
part for his growth from 15K a month
to 184K a month.

If you aren't there yet, you need to
take a look again...not at the manifesto
but at what you aren't doing.

I agree with you completely, Michael. It's nothing that I haven't seen before, and certainly nothing earth-shattering to anybody who's run a bricks-and-mortar business for any period of time. I didn't learn anything new, and I can't say the perspective/approach to the ideas was any different from what I've studied previously. But, I have studied a lot of business stuff, and am very active in bricks-and-mortar business owner forums, etc. I'm probably not his target market.

That said, I do give him a LOT of credit for putting it together. I like how he put it together... where printed business books have made a dry discussion of the matter, his use of supplementary graphs, diagrams and pull-quotes was excellent.

I also find his marketing approach interesting, and will be going back for a closer look @ the marketing side of things to study it.

Bailey

I can see where Harlan is coming from. I've LEARNED so much over time, but learning and doing certainly aren't the same. Only when I applied what I learned did I start to see some positive changes.

Why does it take so long to put things into motion? Well, for me, it's like I'm always hopping trains. I get going in one direction, then I learn something else, and I eagerly want to test that out, so I hop another train and head in a different direction. All that train hopping leaves you going in circles.

Only when started putting the new things I was learning aside to revisit after I completed my current tasks did I start to see real progress. It's so obvious, but I'm curious how many others run into the same issue?

John

Yeah, I learn about things, get excited, and before I can implement the idea, I've learned something else and I want to do that. Meanwhile, I've got clients who deserve my attention (and a son who deserves my attention!).

I wish I had more discipline so that I could focus on one thing at a time, set aside some time for it so it doesn't interfere with client work, parenting, etc., and stick with it before I go on to the next thing.

Janet

Of course Harlan is right!

It is the application of what you learn that is more important than continuing to "learn more".

Like it or not this is an 80/20 world and most what we learn isn't going to benefit us that much once you reach a certain point.

Take copywriting for instance... how many copywriting courses are there out there? Books, audio seminars, videos, bootcamps, websites, manuals, courses... my God you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one-- my shelves are filled with the stuff.

Once you reach certain point of competence all the rest of it will give you some improvement but probably not the huge jump many assume they'll get. Heck you master headline writing, know the difference between features, advantages and benefits, learn how to create a little story behind your sales message and you're off and running.

The fact is courses on how to find clients are probably much more useful at that point. Speaking of which how many, "How to find clients" courses do you see being offered by the copywriting experts out there? Not many. Because they know themselves the real money isn't in learning copywriting but finding the right clients. And that's knowledge you aren't going to see be shared too often. That is the "20% that will lead to 80% returns"... and again it's not copywriting.

But it does all come down to application. We would all be better served cutting back some on our learning and spend more time applying.

I did that myself 17 months ago. The result was a ecommerce/mail order business that has grown to be a $65,000 a month venture. And I didn't apply any great "copywriting secrets" or did anything special that no one else couldn't have done. But I was what Woody Allen suggested is a key to success-- I just showed up and did the little basic things that are needed to grow a business.

Now I'm at the point I need to step back and again start doing those things all over again and create another business or develop another profitable wing to this business. I've become too wrapped up in the day to day nonsense-- in other words the 80% that isn't really making a lot of money for me. You have to be very disciplined to succeed.

Finally I'll maintain the true lesson of the Rich's work isn't the manifesto but the way it was marketed-- that is something everyone should be taking notice of.

Just left a meeting with Rich.

Watch your email boxes...

It's gonna be wild.

Can someone give me an example of the strategic entreprenuer with vision. I want to grasp this concept because I see it as the most important thing in the report... thanks!

maxjohan

Outstanding question!

In a world consumed with "tactics" it's truly "strategy" that is far more important (in my opinion).

I don't think it's a coincidence that the truly great entrepreneurs seemed to spend far more time thinking about strategy than most entrepreneurs.

A strategist is someone that decides before hand exactly what they want to earn per year and then creates a plan featuring many details and contingencies on how they are going about achieving this goal.

A tactician decides they are going to write an ebook and sell it on ebay.

A strategic copywriter will figure out before hand how much they want to earn per year, how many hours they want to put in, how many clients they need and will then devise a complete marketing plan (with realistic marketing investment level) and will then put the plan into action.

A tactical copywriter will declare they are a copywriter, put together a website, submit it to a 1,242 search engines and directories, and then wait for the phone to ring (they'll also come to a forum like this 6 months later lamenting how lousy a career copywriting is because they aren't making any money).

Gates, Dell, Trump, Branson, Martha, Opra... all great strategic entrepreneurs.

Here are some books that I highly recommend for digging deeper into the issues of strategic thinking as it applies to business and life...

"Smart Strategy" by Richard Koch
"The Natural Laws of Business" by Richard Koch
-- just a side note, when it comes to understanding business and how to succeed at it, Richard Koch, the author and consultant from UK quite frankly is one of the most brilliant people I've ever come across.
"The Entrepreneur's Manual" by Richard M. White Jr. has a section on "Gap Analysis", which is a major component of strategic thinking, that is just amazing. While the book is almost 30 years old this one section makes it priceless IMHO.
"Purple Cow" & "Free Prize Inside" by Seth Godin. Thinking about and creating a product that is unique, has apparent value and pleasantly surprises the end user is very strategic.
"33 Strategies of War" by Richard Greene is an powerful book that shows how the strategic lessons of war can be applied to life and business for ultimate benefit-- a great read!
"Winning Through Intimidation" by Robert Ringer. Teaches you how to be realistically strategic when dealing with others.

OK... OK...

Yes! I've read it now...

And I'll admit -- pretty much everything in the report has been said or written. Heck, I frequently speak on that exact topic at conferences.

I consult my clients on that VERY information. I've invested hundreds of hours with my own clients coaching them through the process of thinking strategically FIRST... and optimizing their business and life to produce the maximum return on investment of time, money and other resources.

BUT...

(and this is a very big BUT)

If you don't pay attention to what's being said in this report, you're fooling yourself.

This is simple, straightforward, business-building gold.

Yeah, yeah... I know you've heard it all! But, are you DOING IT?

I think the greatest weakness in this report is that it's so simple that most people will miss it's significance.

But, really... great business is built on simple principles.

It'll be fun and interesting to watch this thing unfold.