How to Make March a Leap Month

Today is March 1, not February 29.

So it's not a leap month right?

Wrong.

You can make March -- or any month -- into a leap month, by adding another day to it.

All you need do is recapture 24 hours of lost time this month. It's like giving yourself an an extra day to do whatever you want.

And I'll pay you $50 if I'm wrong ;-)

Let me explain.

First, take a look at the graphic below ...

It's a screen shot of my cell phone's screen time for the week of February 20. For those 7 days, I used my phone for a total of 32 hours and 55 minutes, or 4:42 a day, on average.

And I'm sure you'll agree: We all use our cell phones too much, right?

To be blunt, every hour spent on your cell is an hour you're not living in the real world.

In my view, every hour of cell phone use I can recapture is an extra hour of real life -- not a virtual (fake!) life watching viral videos, reading politicized "news," checking social media for the 17th time today, etc.

Anyway.

If you agree that an hour offline beats an hour staring at your phone, then the task is simple: Replace screen time on your phone with time in the real world.

It's easier than you think.

Here's how: Simply measure your screen time for one week, then reduce it by 6 hours next week.

When you save 6 hours a week over 4 weeks, you recapture 24 hours to live in the real world.

You add an extra day of real living to this month.

You create your own leap month, on demand.

Bonus: That extra day is 33% more valuable, because you're not sleeping for 8 hours. You're alive for the whole 24 hours.

But don't believe what I say.

Watch what I do.

Come back to this post on Sunday, March 6 and see my updated screen time for this week.

If my Total Screen Time isn't 26 hours 55 minutes or less, I'll PayPal $50 to each of the first 5 people who call me out here.

Meanwhile, if this idea of replacing virtual time with real time intrigues you even a tiny bit, you can start tracking Screen Time on your phone today. Because what gets measured gets improved, almost automatically.

Until then, I hope you accept this "Leap Month Challenge" and recapture 6 hours from your cell phone this week ...

UPDATE: Today is March 6 and my little experiment was a success. Take a look ...

Instead of the planned 6 hours, I reclaimed 11 hours and 30 minutes of time from my cell phone last week. Which puts me on pace to get back an extra 46 hours in March -- nearly two full days of life.

Now, you may ask yourself: What's the big deal? 

What did I do with that extra time? 

How did I benefit? 

My answer is simple: How does it feel when you stop banging yourself in the head with a hammer?

Better. 

That's how it feels to reduce my screen time by 11:30 for a week. I feel BETTER about every single area of my life -- from fitness and personal relationships to productivity and my self-esteem.

From a financial perspective, I know for certain that I made more money last week. It's axiomatic. Because I value my time at work at $1,000 an hour. And of those 11:30 I saved, at least 5 of them were working hours. Which adds up to $5,000 of time that I didn't throw away reading news headlines or checking email on my phone, to name just two.

Meanwhile, I quickly finished a sales letter for my business that had been stagnant for weeks, in part of those reclaimed 11 hours and 30 minutes. And that's just one project. There were others.

I certainly did make March a "leap month" for myself. I hope you found this experiment helpful, too.

Now, may I ask a quick favor?

If you'd like to go deeper on this subject of getting more life from the same hours each day ...

... would you comment below and say YES?

Here's why I'm asking.

If someone stole your wallet, you'd be angry, right?

You would also call the cops.

So ... why don't people get angry or call for help when they're robbed of something much more valuable than money -- their time?

You can always make more money.

But you can never make more time.

That's why I wrote this article on making March a "leap month." To help you recapture 24 hours of lost time from your cell phone this month.

This idea of living a "leap life" is something I've been researching and working on since ... 1994. You might call it an obsession :-)

Anyway, I'm putting together a pilot program, at NO cost and NO obligation, to help busy people like you recapture an extra 24-48 hours every month.

If you're at all interested in the program, which is FREE and at NO obligation, please write YES! in the comments below ... and I'll send you the details.

A wise teacher once told me: "If you live the same day twice, you've just wasted one day of your life." Why not live today differently? And avoid wasting another day of your life? 

It's as simple as deciding to reclaim the hours that your cell phone is stealing from you every day. Just reply YES! in the comments below ... and I'll send you the details.

Word-of-Mouth Advertising Made Simple

You're looking at extraordinary marketing ...

It's an ordinary admission ticket, transformed into an extraordinary word-of-mouth advertising device.

Here's the story: Back in 2016, I visited Japan with my daughter. We went to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. (Studio Ghibli is an animation film maker, led by Hayao Miyazaki, who's been called Japan's Walt Disney.)

As you can see, the admission ticket included a slice of film from a Studio Ghibli movie. Although I still can't figure out which movie it is, that's not the point.

The point is that I haven't stopped talking about and showing this ticket to people since I returned from Japan. It's an extraordinary souvenir of my visit that's produced a whole bunch of free advertising for Studio Ghibli.

Which, when you think of it, is remarkable.

By combining two ordinary items -- an admission ticket and movie film -- Studio Ghibli created an extraordinary keepsake, one that will generate word of mouth for years to come.

Now, think: What ordinary items can you combine to create an extraordinary word-of-mouth marketing device in your business?

• If you're a financial adviser, you could print retirement investment calculations on a bookmark.
  
  
• If you repair appliances, you could print DIY troubleshooting tips on your business card.
  
  
• If you're an author, you could put the big ideas from your writing on a granite coaster, like my friend Mike Sciortino did for his excellent book, Gratitude Marketing. See below ...

The formula is this: Combine two ordinary things in your business -- and make them extraordinary. 

You'll know you've succeeded when your word-of-mouth advertising picks up and your clients start telling others. 

One more thing. 

If you found this idea helpful … and you want more clients like your best clients ... claim your Free Client Cloning Kit at www.clientcloningsystems.com

Never Advertise Again?

"I have no idea why everyone’s interested in new clients."

So said Bill Bain, founder of Bain & Company, as quoted by author and former Bain partner, Richard Koch.

"We don’t need new clients. We should have built-in growth from existing clients if we’re doing our job correctly," said Bain.

In an interview with Tim Ferriss, Koch went on to describe Bain & Company as "a fantastically well-run organization. And it grew at 40 percent a year for 20 or 30 years."

Note well: 40% is more than *twice* the annual growth rate of billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

Not shabby.

Takeaway: You may never need to advertise again, if you can delight your clients so much that they stay forever and refer their friends and colleagues.

That's the promise of Client Retention, one of 3 ways to grow your business from the inside out. 

Want another example?

My clients, The Team Training Institute, deliver a high-level coaching service. But they knew they could do better. So, instead of chasing after new clients (as most businesses do instinctively) I helped them launch a new, top-level service at $79,999 a year.

So, I created a two-part promotion to deliver their new offer:

Part 1: a Direct Mail Sales Letter sent by FedEx to a list of 30 qualified prospects. 

Part 2: a Sales Script to sell the new program from the stage (variations of this script are now used to sell it by phone and webinar). 

What were the results?

In only 21 days, they sold $639,992 of their new program. To clients they already had.

Here's what they said: “Needless to say, we are pretty happy! Kevin has worked for clients in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, including a number of Dan Kennedy's Titanium Mastermind members. He’s an expert at taking your marketing from good to great. If you get a chance to work with Kevin, take it!”
- Darcy Juarez, Director of Marketing, The Team Training Institute

That's the promise of Client Retention, one of 3 ways to grow your business from the inside out.

The other two, Cold Reactivation and Conversion Rates, are explained here 

One-Word Shortcut to Success in Business

Want a shortcut to success in your business?

Try kaizen.

Literally, the two Japanese characters in kaizen mean "change" and "good."

But for our purposes, let's use this definition: Small, daily improvements.

It's a simple concept that produced a small fortune for me a few years back.

Here's the story.

In a nutshell, I spent 60 minutes a day trying to add $10 net profit to my business. Day in, day out, like clockwork.

At first, the gains were ... small. A buck a day here, $20 there.

After about 3 months, however, I found a sweet spot of lead-generation promotions and Google AdWords ads that produced $2.1 million in revenue.

Here's the thing: Had I spent my time looking for a single $2.1-million jackpot, instead of many tiny revenue streams ...

... I would probably still be looking. And no closer to success.

But, by searching for small, daily gains, I discovered a huge breakthrough.

I'm convinced that kaizen worked for me then for the same reason it can work for you now -- buy-in from your brain puts your butt in gear.

Because my brain bought into the idea of adding just $10 a day in revenue ("That's easy. I can do this!") it put my butt in gear ... and I did it. Again and again, until the results really added up.

So: What small improvements can you make to your business today -- and every day?

Ideas for you:

* add $10 in revenue, or find $10 in savings -- or both

* add one email to your autoresponder series

* write one short blog post (which add up to articles, which add up to books)

* call one client to ask how they're doing and how you can help

* write and mail one thank-you note to a client, prospect, vendor, or referral partner

* send one article to one prospect, with a note that says: "Saw this and thought of you"

Those aren't big ideas, are they? That's the point. They're small. But done every day, they can produce big gains for your business.

Caution. There's no getting around the two essential parts of kaizen:

  1. small improvements
  2. every day

If you can't commit to that simple process for never-ending improvement, your butt may never get in gear and you'll just keep doing what you've been doing. Are you okay with that? 

One more thing.

If you want more clients like your best clients, go here

Real Entrepreneur, Worried About Coronavirus?

Yesterday, April 15, was Tax Day.

Except ... it wasn't.

Because the IRS pushed the date to file and pay taxes back to July 15, due to Coronavirus.

Now there's a silver lining, eh?

I'm not joking.

If you're a real entrepreneur and you (like me) work for yourself because you CANNOT work for anyone else ...

... you are hard-wired to look for silver linings in dark clouds.

It's what you do.

You are a solution finder.

A problem solver.

Or else.

That's why I hope you request my new playbook, "7 Ways to Protect Your Business During Coronavirus and Thrive When it's Over."

If you're not the kind of person to take this pandemic thing lying down, this is for you.

Download your free copy now ...

Coronavirus Self-Care for Entrepreneurs

Did you know?

There's an easy way to help yourself NOW during the Coronavirus scare.

How?

Box breathing.

Box breathing can help lower blood pressure and provide a nearly instant sense of calm. Which can reduce stress and protect your immune system.

Box breathing sends a message to your body that "all is well," even when the world outside is frantic.

Box Breathing is an easy, effective way to beat stress

It's easy. Breathe in for 4 seconds. Hold your breath for 4 seconds. Breathe out for 4 seconds. Hold again for 4 seconds. Repeat up to 4 times total. That's it.

It's a proven way to feel better fast. So you can do more for your business and your family. Try it now or anytime you're stressed.

If you find this useful, please comment below and share!

With my best to you and yours,

Kevin Donlin
Client Cloning Systems

Don't Be a Dick

Brian Tracy once told a small coaching group I was in words to this effect: "The higher up you go in any good company, the nicer the people are, generally speaking."

I've found that to be true.

Talking today to a very successful CEO who is both a client and a business partner, I was struck by an offhand comment he made, describing his management style: "Don't be a dick."

And I realized that, "Don't be a dick" is a personal version of the Google corporate code, "Don't be evil."

Which makes you think ...

... especially when you see how much success Google has had at not being evil -- and not always succeeding.

So, try it.

Don't be a dick.

If you're currently not a dick, I'm sure you'll agree -- it's a way of life that pays.

If you are a dick, however, try going "dick free" for the next 7 days and see where it takes you.

And if you found these ideas helpful, claim your Free Client Cloning Kit at www.clientcloningsystems.com