Grandma's Wisdom

Last week my Grandma passed away. Fortunately we had interviewed her last summer and Francois did a lovely job making this awesome video of her.

Listen to my Grandma C talk about when phones were on the wall, and when cars had no trunks, and when Doctors told you to smoke to lose weight. She shares the dangers of credit cards, and how business was simply something you did to trade for money. She shares her opinion on business, voting, politics, staying in school, and how you can pretty much buy whatever has priority for you to buy. Good words. She lived a good life. Today I am reminded that I come from good stock as I share the gift of my Grandma's wisdom with you all.

ONE Is The Loneliest Number

One Is The Loneliest Number

You are a solopreneur. You start your business doing what you love and you figure out how to get people to pay you for your talent. For a while it is a blissful and rewarding experience. You get up every day with a passion in your heart and a quickness in your step.


Then the days get longer and longer as you figure out how to look after your books and do your taxes. You try to get your own social media marketing done. You hire someone to make your website but you don’t like it so you try to do it yourself. You look after customer service and it takes so much time, you don’t have time to get your marketing done. You are the chef, cook and the bottle washer in your business. You are doing it all. You are all alone. You are going to get tired, eventually.


This is a critical place for you. Do you stay here all alone? That depends, is it working? Are you profitable and happy with that profit? If you are, and you are saving and investing, then maybe this is where you want to be. Maybe you make a choice to stay solo if you are doing well. What if you want more though? What if you want to reach a higher goal? What if you want to take it to a whole new level? Can you do this by yourself? Who is the first person that you should hire?


One of the simplest things that you can do at this point is sit down and do an analysis of your time. Take a small wired booklet around with you for the next two weeks and write down everything that you do all day long. Don’t make any judgements, just write. Find out where you are spending your time. After two weeks, then get out a highlighter pen and highlight the items in your list where you make the most money. There is a good chance that those things take up about 20% of your time and they are producing 80% of your income. 


Look at the other items on your list. If you hired one person to take even half of the mundane tasks off your daily to-do lists could that give you the time that you need to double your activity that is bringing in the most money? If that is true, then this is a good time to hire someone at least part-time to help you do the menial tasks on your list. This will double the money you are bringing in. Then you won’t be all alone anymore. You will have a helper and a helper is a good thing. You will have a reason to get up again every day.


This person helps you with administration and it goes well for a while, but still you want more. Over time the two of you are getting stretched for time. You know you should hire someone else and you are thinking about it being a salesperson, but is that the best answer? Do you have enough work for a salesperson? Are you ready to train a salesperson? Have you created a sales manual?


We all get to this place where we struggle to get new business in the door, while we are looking after existing customers. Is a salesperson the next step though?

When Do You Hire a Salesperson?

First, you need to figure out how to automate some things. You need to create a few systems. Make marketing programs that work because you need to bring in leads to support a salesperson or a sales team. Where will you get these leads if not from marketing? 


The first person to hire in this scenario is not a salesperson. Bring on someone to help bring in leads first. Think about how you currently get leads. It is hard to train a salesperson first, think about the lead generation. You are likely doing that yourself right now. What are you doing? Can you train someone to do just that? Is that easier than training a salesperson? Start there. When you have too many leads to follow up with yourself, that is when you start looking at a salesperson or a team. Once you have a steady stream of leads and you know where to get more by scaling up the process, you can safely bring on a salesperson or possibly even a team.

How Will You Train Salespeople?

Everything must have processes. We need things like operational manuals, training manuals, training videos, and steps that can be managed and repeated. 


It takes time to train a salesperson. Then they quit. Every minute you are training, you are not selling. Therefore, you need money in the bank before you start, or some way to get a quick win, to keep yourself afloat as you go from zero to hero. This requires thought and planning before you dive right in there.

Make a plan. Get as much as you can on video to train these people. If you have videos for them to watch, then you can continue to sell while they are training. If you are doing all the training, then all income stops while you train people and that will become painful.

Is It Worth It?

To build a business that you can walk away from during a four week vacation, you will need to get to a place where you don’t have to be there anymore. It means you do need to duplicate yourself. To have a business that you can sell, there must be products or services being purchased, whether you go to work or not that day. If your retirement is based on selling your business, then you will need to build employees or some kind of team into the plan. 


If you don’t want to be a lonely ONE, then eventually you will need to go to TWO, and then THREE and so on. It is not easy, but it is doable, and YES it is worth it, in the long run. It takes a team to build an empire. You can't do that alone.

Start with baby steps, but get started...

The Wisdom Or Lack Of Wisdom Of Changing Branding

Changing Your Branding 

Making a change in branding can be expensive so one should think it through first. Why do you want to change your branding? Do you just want a change or is there a purpose to it?

I often lament over people who buy a business and change the name. Why? You bought a bar called Poofies it because it was profitable. It was profitable because it had clients who recognized that name, even if it was a crazy name like Poofies. If it is a small business, it is likely they are coming because they know the owner. So you buy it, then you change the name to Muffies because you like it better, or because that is your name, or your cat's name. Don't be stupid. That just made a huge declaration that the bar has changed ownership and all of your current clients that you paid for are not coming to Thursdays wing nights anymore. The cost is HUGE. Now you have to change the sign out front, and get a new logo, and change the menus, and remake the website and buy a new URL. You lost 60% of business overnight by making a name change. Seriously if Poofies was working, why do that?

Here is a better idea. Spend some time asking questions and doing some research first. Ask your existing customers what drew them to you? What are they expecting more of? Is there something you could do to make you more attractive to people like them? Then look at your existing branding and give it a facelift. Go with a little different theme or extend the existing them. Then you may not have to change everything that went with that name.

A little over a year ago I was looking at one of our programs called mastermind. This was successful for the members who participated. Over the years we have had some great stories come out of our mastermind of people who built an empire, others who profitably sold their business, and more who grew their bottom line revenue. But over time things changed. Coaches started using the term mastermind a lot, and "experts" from the US had better access to selling their programs to Canadians (due to CASL giving them an unfair advantage) and these things were causing our prospects to diminish. Our new sales people were having trouble explaining why we were different. The program was still working for those who came but the intrigue was being compromised mainly by new competition in the market.

The answer - We did a branding facelift. A few pictures on the website were changed and we made some test videos. We went back to an idea that worked well in the past and this time really capitalized off it because of recent trends. The number one show on television is "Game Of Thrones," and the movie series for "Lord Of The Rings" has been a huge hit in recent years. We realized that adults now read books and play video games that are focused around kingdoms, castles, and don't forget that one of the best business shows on television is "Dragon's Den."

The Excalibur MasterMind was reborn. We had used the term before, but now we really went to town on it. We added some really cool paraphernalia to the mastermind meetings which made it seem more old world, with a knights of the round table theme. We changed some of the wording on the website. After the initial test videos were put up on YouTube we did not see too many numbers sharing it or watching it, but we did not need to. Our existing mastermind members started attending with more fervor. Our new Sponsors showed an increased interest immediately. Most importantly, the phone started ringing. People were asking about the video they watched that came out in an email. These were the signs we were looking for. One year later, we have a robust Excalibur MasterMind Program or EMP for your business.

What Can We Learn About Rebranding?

A small business needs to think branding through before they begin. If you already have made significant investments in a name, a logo and a look, try instead to brighten things up. What pictures can be added? Can more blogging be done to make if found better by Google? What videos could we make that got our point across clearly? What pieces of marketing can we create, that we can use, and use again and again?

We get ideas thrown at us every day and we need to count the cost before we begin. Rebranding is expensive. If we are not yet billionaires then we shouldn't experiment with anything that has such a huge increase to immediate costs.

There are a few good reasons to rebrand such as:

• You are going through a divorce and your business is named after your spouse.
• The business you have purchased has a bad name in the community.
• Your name no longer reflects what your services are.

There are some really bad reasons to rebrand:

• You want to name your business after your kids or your pet. They would rather you had the money to spend on them than the name on a business they don't understand.
• You change the name of your business on a whim every year.
• You are making too much money and it is time to sabotage your business.
• It is time for a change. There is no good reason for one. You just want a change. Try Tinder instead, and save your business.

Just think it through. Why are you wanting to rebrand? Is it really necessary? What if you just sharpened things up a bit and saved yourself a lot of trouble and costs?

Why You Need Email Marketing

Why You Need To Be Email Marketing

I don't hear too many people talking about email marketing these days. It is like they think it is no longer relevant. The chatter is always about Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram. Fun Fact - According to HubSpot research - Email marketing brings in at least 6 times the revenue of any of those. I would agree. There is nothing better if you are:

• Trying to keep your raving fans raving about you in a positive way.
• Getting one time lookers to be long term buyers.
• Turning one time buyers into consistent users.
• Wanting return business.
• Training your clients to use your products or services better.
• Training your sales staff to do the right things every day.

Maybe you are a little confused, so let me explain further...

Real Email Marketing Is Not:

• A nice monthly email newsletter.
• An email blast.
• A sales letter.

What Is Real Email Marking?

Real Email Marketing is an opportunity for building relationship. It is a beautifully designed communication system that blesses you with the ability to live in the hearts and the minds of your followers. You can be creative. You can win their affection, devotion, and loyalty through life, laughter, colour, and fun. It is a tool like no other, because it goes right into their in-box and if your marketing piece is good, it can stay there in a special place, called a saved file where it will be viewed again and again and again.

Most people never get to that place with their email marketing, and that is because they are viewing it like a sales tool or worse yet, an unwelcomed interuption.

Email Marketing Is Measurable

One of the reasons I love email marketing is because it is so measurable. It is an exact science. You can tell if it is working. You send out an email to 100 people and if 20 of them open, you have a 20% open rate. You work on it a bit and you get the subject line better so next time you have a 40% open rate. It is satisfying.

You send out a series to train your clients how to use your products. You make your automated series fun and colourful and you include video. The open rate goes up to over 100% because they keep it in a file and watch it over and over again. You can see what people are clicking on and what is giving you a return. You can count the clients who come in and ask a question about what they seen, or those who upgrade because they saw something that they liked in your video. You watch the subscribers go up on your YouTube Channel based on how many times you asked your email list to subscribe. It is rewarding.

You collect names and email addresses at networking events and ask those people if you can send them information, or you put up a draw box in your store where they subscribe. You watch those numbers go up. Then you create a lovely series for your prospects. Your series includes tips, videos, pictures, gorgeous backgrounds newsletters and the occasional offer. You can see how they are responding. Some email you back. Others call. You can put a code on your offer so you can be absolutely sure where every customer comes from. It is so measurable. It is perfect. It is profitable.

Every Business Needs Email Marketing

I highly recommend every business owner to use email marketing. We all have prospects we are trying to get to buy. There is nothing like sending something directly to their in-box. We all have clients that we want to buy again, and there is nothing like sending them tips to their in-box to get that to happen again. We all have followers that we want to lead in some direction. There is nothing better to get folks to walk the path behind you.

Every florist should be sending out beautiful pictures of their arrangements and fun facts about the flower of the month in ongoing monthly campaigns. Every business coach should be sending his coaching clients the quick tips he has that reinforce the exercises he gave us so we actually get that stuff done in auto-responders. Every accountant should be sending out tips to their clients about keeping track of mileage and putting those receipts in the right place for next year. Every car dealership should be keeping in touch with us with maintenance tips for our new car. Do you get a sense of what kind of loyalty this can bring?

Email marketing is permission based marketing. They have given you permission to send, so send something valuable and well-thought-out. Send it regularly. That is what they signed up for. Then enjoy the responses..

Getting People To Sign Up

Don't say "Get My Newsletter." Nobody wants that. Nobody is signing up for email either. Get them to sign up for tips. or offer them a white paper for signing up. Give them a reward. This works better.

Below you can sign up for Biz Tips from The CIBN and Kerry George. We have quick tips that will help you grow your business. You will also get information about networking events that we put on, and occasionally something from one of our Sponsors that will help you in your life and business.

Sign Up Now

For Email Marketing you can trust.

Building A YouTube Channel

My YouTube Story So Far...

I have been thinking about building a YouTube Channel for my company CIBN for probably 5 years. Then Google bought YouTube. That made up my mind. Google is the largest search engine in the world and YouTube is the second largest. Google bought YouTube, and that is just more proof that they love videos. It is well known that they love fresh content, so videos will be the next big thing.

Before we started our YouTube channel Francois Alphonse, my beloved who is a videographer and I did a lot of research. We could see YouTube had made huge strides at the end of 2018 to make their platform more desirable. One can actually edit videos right in the channel now. We watched dozens of videos on how to build a channel. We followed some big players to see what they were doing. We read books, and we subscribed to some gurus. We could see that some local people were making money from having ads on their pages after only 18 months. We could also see that most people were doing nothing with video and that would create a huge opportunity for those who did something.

Our plan was to launch our CIBN TV YouTube Channel and get 100 subscribers as fast as possible so we could customize our URL. The CIBN has a few thousand people on an email list so a few email announcements got us up to 100 in no time. Step 1 accomplished.

The second 100 came over time. People found us, they liked us. We shared videos, it was not that difficult. We would really like 1000 though, and that does take a concerted effort. So we are still working on that.

Why YouTube Is Better Than Facebook

If you have put in the effort to make a YouTube Channel, you have to take the time to also populate it with more content. There are lots of good reasons to do so, including improvements to your business bottom line. The fact is, on Facebook or LinkedIn you can now do live videos, and you can post videos you made there as well. However, people don't watch long videos on those channels. They don't go to Facebook to watch videos; they go to YouTube and they watch videos there for hours. I was not the only one who figured this out. Social Media Examiner had a huge following of over 300,000 on Facebook and in the Spring of 2019 made an announcement they were moving all video to YouTube even though they only had 20,000 followers there. Why? People watched the whole video and they bought things. That was not happening on Facebook. Not that they are looking for my approval, but I totally agree.

We have not made much money in our B2B business from Facebook. Occasionally if we can get someone to sign up for the email send outs from one of the Facebook Groups we get a member but that only accounts for about 3% of our marketing return. LinkedIn still gets the highest at over 80% of the return but we can see YouTube is coming in as a player. All we need is the 4 Cs of marketing that I am always going on about: Content, Connections, Consistency, and Call-To-Action.

By the time we had a mere 200 followers on YouTube we were exceeding our Facebook returns, and I have over 15,000 followers on all of our Facebook groups and pages.

How To Get Weekly Video Content

That pesky second C is Content. That is important. One must have content and it must be consistent on YouTube to get any traction. You can do it yourself, but generally that will look like crap, even if you think it doesn't, and it won't be consistent. It also is going to take your valuable time as a business owner to get it done.

I use Francois at Exposure Video. He has a great plan to do 4 videos a month for only $1000 a month. He makes sure they all have a phone number and website and a call to action. He also posts them to your YouTube Channel and keeps the channel updated. Then even if I do get creative I can add more, but at least the basics are covered. It is a great deal! Now we put out new videos each week, usually on Monday and that really helps keep new people subscribing. Every month now we are getting a few calls because of the videos, so it is bringing in a solid return on our efforts.

What Is The Point Of Having A YouTube Channel? 

Of course we want more business. That is the main reason we have a YouTube Channel, but there are lots of other reasons:

• Our company The CIBN is getting found more.
• Our online offerings and masterminds are getting found more.
• My personal name Kerry George is getting found more.
• Our members are liking the extra material. It is a value add for them.
• We feature our Members and our Sponsors on this channel giving them more reach and exposure.
• The sales team is liking the videos, because it is making their job easier.
• I am repeating myself way less often because now we have a video that describes all of the things that I had to keep saying over and over for our team, our members, and our prospects. That is worth it all by itself. If one is trying to build processes into their business, I don't know how you will do it without creating videos.
• When we reach 1000 subscribers we should be able to monetize the whole thing by allowing YouTube to sell ads on our channel. In no time it will pay us back all of our investment of time and money.

Don't Wait To Start A YouTube Channel

Seriously, don't wait. Right now, many of your competitors are having a video made. Most however, do not have a YouTube Channel to post their videos. If they do, they have only created a graveyard where they parked their one or two projects. It is empty. Remember those Cs. That is how you get any marketing to work. Your competitor is not making ongoing content, posting consistently, to a growing number of connections, while using a call-to-action. The sooner you do, the sooner you steal the market!

Here are a few different kinds of videos that Exposure Video has done for me. We have had a lot of fun doing this and using different tools, but best of all, it has been profitable.

Some Video Examples

This video was filmed in front of a green screen. Sometimes I have him put a very nice lead in on the front of these or use nice music. This one however, was created with the intent of educating the network and/or our sales team to be able to network properly at a large event, so I had him not use so many bells and whistles. It gets it done and it is nice and simple.

This video is done with a drawing tool. It is mesmerizing. Even my 3 year old grandson is captivated for the whole thing.

This is called a Promotional Video. It is short and sweet. It runs nicely on Facebook as well when people are scrolling and don't want the sound on.

There are lots more on our YouTube Channel. Please Subscribe while you are there and ring that bell thing so you get notifications when our new videos go live.

Salesperson Wanted - Just Like Me - Kerry George

Salesperson Wanted - Duplicating Kerry George

Have you ever been told in business, you should just duplicate yourself? If you are someone who gets stuff done, then that is a great idea! If you are not that person, probably not a good idea. I remember years ago when I was building a network marketing business, my upline said "What would happen in your business if you had 12 people just like you?" Most would have to admit - NOTHING. I was not one of them then, and I am not one of them now.

I get sh!$ done. Lots of it. If I could duplicate myself, it would be so cool. I work 12 hour days on a short day. I can do marketing (that works). I am a speaker (that people seem to enjoy - that, or they are good at lying about it). I run an organization and I am good with people. I am kind of multi-talented. I am thinking, I am not finding 12 of me. So I am going to settle for just finding 12 sales people. Maybe we will stick to just one thing I can do, and see if I can get any duplication there.

I tried running ads that said "Shark With A Heart Wanted!" Nobody answered that. People just don't get me. Then I tried "Relationship Managers Wanted," and changed nothing in the description but that got me some real candidates.

Now I have been thinking of running an ad like this, but I feel it needs work. What do you think? These are the traits like me (Kerry George) that I need.

Salesperson Must Have:

• A winning personality. You read that right. Not a whining personality. That is not the same. People should like you, when they meet you. They should be okay with spending an hour with you without thinking about dousing themselves with gasoline and lighting themselves on fire to escape.
• The ability to talk, but not talk too much. You know what I mean right? You should be able to explain our services when it is time, but not monopolize the conversations and make it all about you. Interupters need not apply.
• Listeners with two ears. Yes, and they should know where to find their ears and have them turned on at all times. Listening for when business owners have needs. Listening for who needs what service so they can bring members collaborative relationships. Listening to the answers to the questions they ask and not just good waiting skills so they can blurt out what they were thinking about while they were supposed to be listening.
• Care for others. Yes. I want salespeople who actually care about entrepreneurs and business owners. I am hoping for those who want to build relationships and not burn bridges. It is a bad idea to return to current clients and say bad crap about your personal stuff, our stuff or any stuff. The right candidate should actually care about their customers, themselves, their family, and even us the organization of The CIBN. That would be really awesome.
• The willingness to eat and drink. They should like to drink water, coffee or tea, wine, beer or juice. They should enjoy eating food. We eat a lot of food at The CIBN. My business coach Rael Kalley says I feed more people than the food bank, so they should definitely like to eat.
• A desire to make lots of money, but not an overwhelming love of money that drives them to rape, pillage and plunder in the name of profit. No Vikings please. Just honest, hard-working folk, with good work-ethic. Farmers would be nice...
• A smart phone and fingers to dial with. They should love to dial and make it a habit every day to call at least 20 people who actually answer the phone. Leaving phone messages is a cop out and ineffective at best.
• Social media experience. We use a lot of internet tools and marketing so if one has a Facebook account and a LinkedIn account and knows where the "ON" button is on their laptop, this is good. I can work with this.
• The ability and heart to have fun. Our catch phrase is "Happy Capitalism!" No sour pusses please. You should be happy, and your face should show it. I crack myself up, and you should be enjoyable too. I am non-negotiable on that point.

For those of you reading this who think that I am full of myself, I wish to inform you, I simply know what I am good at. I also know that I am bad at many things. To preserve my self-confidence I have left those things out. Be assured, the list is significant.

For those who know me, you will get the humour of duplicating me - Kerry George. I am sure that you can think of some ways you would like to be duplicated too, and if you are honest, probably a few ways you are sure that would not be a good idea...

Oh and if you know someone who qualifies for the above have them call or text me immediately. I want to meet them. 403-397-1909 Even if they don't join my team, I think we will end up being long-term friends!

Using A Mastermind

Using A Mastermind 

When we first got started building The Canadian Imperial Business Network we wanted to help business owners, but really we did not know much about what they needed. We needed help as much as anyone. The Masterminds that we started back then we asked other people to lead because it would have been the blind leading the blind to ask us for any strategy. Every couple of weeks we would get together with people smarter than us and piece by piece we began to build an empire.

We worked on marketing, sales, structure, processes and more. Every time we met we would try to add just one more thing to our business. We couldn't do it all, but if we could do ONE THING maybe it would make a difference. Guess what? It did!

In those early days we made great friends and some of them had big plans too. Velda Paynter who owned Velda's Grower Direct was preparing to sell her business. She learned a lot in our mastermind group and was able to apply marketing and processes that yielded her a big return when she sold her business. It was remarkable to watch it all come together.

Today the masterminds are growing and we are gathering more and more members who are eager to see change in their businesses.

A mastermind is different than a referral meeting. Nobody is looking for a referral. They are there working "on" their business, and not "in" it. They are collaborating and building strategies. In a weekly referral club a member can get a good lead that will feed them for a month. In a mastermind they can create a process that saves them $20,000 a year or have an idea that makes them $80,000 a year. It is a masterful, life-changing experience every time.

We have 2 live ones every month and now online ones for those who can't attend them live. The sky is the limit.

As for me, I will still apply one idea from each time, and one brick at a time increase my empire.