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The Joel Roberts Way to Make Profits from Problems

Written by: Michael Reining

Article Overview: Joel Roberts used to be with KABC radio in Los Angeles. He went from radio to marketing, and he now trains people on how to become direct marketers. His list of clients speaks for itself; it includes Harv Eker (Secrets of the Millionaire Mind) and Stephen Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People), and he is also the official media coach for Chicken Soup for the Soul. Chet Holmes says to focus on the market data - focus on the problem. Chet’s advice is to build the pain until they can’t stand it any longer and they have to take action. Joel Roberts has a similar but unique perspective. He answers the question: How Do You Get The Attention Of The Mass Media?

The Joel Roberts Way to Make Profits from Problems

Joel Roberts used to be with KABC radio in Los Angeles. He went from radio to marketing, and he now trains people on how to become direct marketers.

His list of clients speaks for itself; it includes Harv Eker (Secrets of the Millionaire Mind) and Stephen Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People), and he is also the official media coach for Chicken Soup for the Soul.

The last insight I shared was from Chet Holmes, and he said to focus on the market data. That again is focusing on the problem. Chet’s advice is to build the pain until they can’t stand it any longer and they have to take action.

Joel Roberts has a similar but unique perspective.

How Do You Get The Attention Of The Mass Media?

Joel used to be a talk show host, and a lot of people wanted to be guest feature on his radio station. He shared some key insights and points on things that we don’t usually think of, but it’s useful because you can learn how to leverage public relations.

If you’ve ever seen him speak at a live seminar, you’ll understand why he gets a standing ovation -he’s politically incorrect yet funny at the same time.

"When The Stakes Are High and the Moment Is Brief"

This is the basis of his positioning, because he knows that you only have a snap-second to either get people’s attention, or not. That’s how he became super successful. His experience in radio taught him that it’s all about cliff hangers and building suspense, otherwise people go to another radio station.

He says that the #1 mistake that people make is that they have the temptation to jump to a solution before they have really talked about the problem. He notices this again and again. To illustrate his point, he had 10 people come on stage, pretend they were on his radio station. They had to talk and try to engage the audience.

He humiliated all 10 of them –it was like stand-up comedy. I tried to get on stage to be humiliated, too, but unfortunately, he didn’t do me the favor.

Define the Problem

Joel really focuses on defining the problem that you are trying to solve. You should not talk about the solution before you have talked about the problem.

He also has a very unique way of peeling things back –he thinks really differently, and that’s what I really enjoyed. He gave this example:

Initially, 100 years ago, there was music...and you couldn’t get it on the go. There was just no recorded music. The problem was recording music, and that gave rise to the gramophone. That, initially, was how you had music in your home. Then, you had radio –although it wasn’t portable, you now had music everywhere, all the time. But it wasn’t your music. So along came the walkman. And then, the famous iPod.

The iPod focuses on the last problem that hadn’t been solved: recording music had been solved; having it anywhere had been solved; having your own music anywhere had been solved…what hadn’t been solved was how to have 10,000 songs –your entire music library – in your pocket. , That was the gap that the iPod came to fill – that was THE positioning.

It was the last problem that hadn’t been solved.

The most obvious lesson is this: don’t focus on the first problems that came before and have already been solved: focus on the very last problem that you haven’t solved. Why? Because the others are so obvious that everyone is doing it.

That’s how not to get attention - a class I won’t be teaching.

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Article Tags: chet holmes, chicken soup for the soul, cliff hangers, direct marketers, guest feature, insight, insights, mass media, mistake, public relations, radio station, secrets of the millionaire mind, seven habits of highly effective people, snap, stand up comedy, standing ovation, stephen covey, suspense, talk show host, temptation



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Who helped with my Aha moment - Joel Comm - One of the people who helped me out was Joel Comm. When I first started the site it was very different than it is today. I didn't know you could really make any sort of money from selling advertising. I put a few AdSense ads up when the program launched in Canada and I got a few dollars but nothing to write home about. Then by reading Joel's information on AdSense placement and optimization my numbers tripled overnight. The second thing that helped me was learning about SEO. This was not just from one person but rather a number of people through blogs, forums, and articles. I learned that by optimizing my pages I could drive more traffic. Combine that with what I learned from Joel and I had the beginnings of an online business! Great topic Martin!
Improving Cash Flow - How do I improving Cash Flow? What the best way to improve it to another 100% growth YOY? Has anyone does this or achieved this using online marketing? Thanks, Roberts
Contest Nominations - Thank you so much, Kevin, and Russell! Joel
Re: Twitter Question - Follow / Unfollow - Roberts, all the tools that do it automatically for you had to be modified and they took that feature out. There are some tools that will show you who is not following you and you have to unfollow them one by one unfortunately.
Re: Quote of the Day - "The only people witho - Thanks for sharing this Evan, there are some very powerful quotes in there, I particularly like this one:- You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully. regards, Mal.


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