Time flies… Whether you are having fun or not
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“The Summer “Fun Sucker”
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After nearly 25 successful years as a dentist, Dr. Michael Zuk is a DDS dichotomy, finding himself in the unique double edged position of giving his peers incredibly productive marketing advice while also, as he likes to whimsically say, “slapping them in the face.” While he maintains a thriving practice of “conservative cosmetic dentistry,” he recently published a hard hitting tell all industry expose called Confessions of a Former Cosmetic Dentist that has made him one of the world’s leading outspoken critics of the cosmetic dental industry.

How to explain the apparent contradictions? In the late 90s, after taking advanced cosmetic training courses at UCLA and segueing from being a general practitioner to a cosmetic oriented business, he began an aggressive radio marketing campaign that drew new patients in with the promise of instant makeovers. The idea was that he could quickly fix clients’ teeth and save them years of wearing braces and conventional orthodontics. But Dr. Zuk had a crisis of conscience when a gorgeous patient, who looked like Penelope Cruz, came to him and wanted a quick fix via a complete porcelain veneer over all her front teeth. Based on the simple flaw she came in with, he realized it would be something of a crime to do something so unnecessary and suggested regular orthodontic work.

“As dentists,” he says, “we are supposed to do for our patients what is best for them, as if we were treating our own family. Veneers are not bad, but they are overused. I actually judge myself now on how few veneers I do, not how many. When I started my cosmetic training I could see there was definitely abuse going on. Teeth that were crooked but otherwise healthy were being drilled down because patients were not given any other options besides long term braces or instant veneers. I was trained to do this kind of work and had the skills but found it harder and harder to sell it to patients when I didn’t believe in it. I’m still a cosmetic dentist, but I practice a less aggressive form of it. Everyone wants to look better so I came up with a way to do it more conservatively, combining different, less radical styles of treatment.

“I call myself the ‘un-cosmetic dentist,” Zuk adds. “If your general idea of a cosmetic dentist is one that does a ton of veneers, that’s not what I am. I make them look better without a heavy reliance on porcelain. Too many dentists lose respect for healthy tooth structure. I prefer to do procedures that are reversible. If a tooth is chipped, I will add composite bonding filling to it to re-tip it, rather than reshape it for a veneer. All of this attention to abusive cosmetic treatment makes many of my colleagues nervous.”

In his chapter entitled “Defensive Business Practices Prevent Decay” in The Next Big Thing, a compilation by successful business owners devoted to contemporary marketing techniques and thriving in the fast paced 21st Century, Dr. Zuk puts it this way: “The dental profession is supposed to be looking out for the patient’s best interest and this becomes almost impossible when their treatment planning process is contaminated with distorted information. As an example, porcelain veneers have become a treatment not only for damaged teeth but also as a quick fix for crooked teeth, facial wrinkles and even headaches. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail and veneers seemed to be a “cure-all.”

Since becoming the first dentist to go public with a comprehensive book on the subject, Dr. Zuk has also gone public with how his business has been attacked and sabotaged by bad former employees and vindictive competitors who are often outraged by his marketing which ruthlessly exploits weaknesses. Because his techniques are quicker, more efficient and less costly than conventional orthodontics, he’s also been getting trouble from orthodontists in his region who fear a loss of business. Dr. Zuk helps dental professionals across the world with alternative business strategies and is excited about the possibilities the dental profession offers to those who stay nimble.

More than simply a harsh critique of questionable practices and ethics in his chosen industry, Confessions of a Former Cosmetic Dentist is a chronicle of Dr. Zuk’s own disillusionment and a sensible, comprehensive guide for consumers whom he hopes will not fall for the high pressure sales tactics and glitzy presentations that hide the truth. The book gives the person seeking help with their cosmetic flaws everything they need to know to help avoid an extreme makeover disaster. When the young dentist began training to become a “cosmetic dentist,” he had hopes of helping people have the smile of their dreams. What he discovered was promotion of aggressive treatment that was often in the best interest of the dental labs and the dentist. The unsuspecting patient was a sitting duck for these tactics. While the majority of cosmetic dentists offer excellent treatment, a segment of this high profile group can cause more harm than they are worth. The dental profession has so many conflicting ideas and prefers to hide the problem from the public rather than admit there is reason for concern.

For Dr. Zuk, who is currently planning two follow up books (Ruthless Dental Marketing and Extreme Makeover Orthodontics), there is a difference between knowing your options and accepting some compromises and being intentionally misinformed. The profession has a black sheep in its flock and so far has been powerless to stop the damage to patient’s teeth and their pocketbooks by an elite group the controversial author refers to as the “Veneer Nazis.” After partial brainwashing and indoctrination, the author managed to escape the cosmetic dental revolution with enough common sense to look for a better way. You will not believe the myths that continue to dominate the thinking of many of the smile doctors in this nation. While embarrassing for the profession, the book aims to shed light on the minds of those trying to control what is literally put in a prospective patient’s mouth and snatched from his or her bank account.

“I’m not the only one in the dental profession worried about the fact that some cosmetic dentists have strayed out of line and have been doing things that are barbaric,” says Dr. Zuk. “Compared to primitive societies who chiseled and cracked pieces of enamel off for ornamental reasons modern dentists can be much more brutal. Pound for pound cosmetic dentists probably drill their own weight of healthy enamel away each year. It makes me shudder when patients still ask me if they can’t just veneer their teeth.”

“Patients should be informed about better alternatives,” he continues, “even if it means there will be a drop in our profession’s credibility from admitting we’ve been doing some pretty crazy things. It’s better to admit publicly that cosmetic dentistry has the potential to be very abusive than to keep pretending that it doesn’t happen. It’s amazing how long this has gone on with very little attention from the media. I guess it may be because patients rarely die from the effects of abusive cosmetic dentistry…even BAD cosmetic dental work can look OK from a layperson’s standpoint. A natural smile is something that has lost its meaning in North America, and nature has been replaced by an artificial looking facade that is, in fact, ugly in many ways.”

Within the Confessions book and together with insider e-reports designed specifically for readers, they will discover how to save hundreds and often tens of thousands of dollars at the dentist; a simple trick that can help you side-step an extreme makeover; why many cosmetic dentists can’t be believed regardless of their accreditation status; what cosmetic dentists would say about your smile and the smiles of your favorite movie stars; a hot tip that will freak out your cosmetic dentist and make his ears blow steam; crazy dental gadgets that are used to fool patients into thinking they need to spend a fortune on their teeth; rarely diagnosed medical problems that your dentist and doctor often miss even when your teeth are screaming out in protest; true stories about cosmetic dentistry gone wrong; and new breakthroughs that your cosmetic dentist either doesn’t know about or pretends not to know about so he/she can keep doing “old school” cosmetic dentistry.

Beyond his activism and success as a cosmetic whistle blower, Dr. Zuk has helped dentists throughout North America in other key areas of their practices. One of the biggest is cross training, whereby dentists and specialists have several skill sets so that if something happens to one (for example, a disability/death), another can serve as backup for his or her patients. If a practice only has one orthodontist and that person dies or is incapacitated, there would be no one to serve those clients—and the finances of the business would decline. More than one doctor or dentist should be able to do the same procedure; in another benefit if one practitioner can do the work of two or three, the patient can also save both time and money.

Dr. Zuk is also excited about the possibilities afforded through online consultations via www.rateyoursmile.com. Those concerned about potential cosmetic issues can upload images and video to participating dentists and receive a free smile critique. In this internet driven culture where people like to do so much of their business on the computer, it makes sense to have a site where prospective patients can seek second opinions.

“I like to say dentists are keeners…almost ‘idiot savant’ types who regurgitate the things were told in dental school,” Zuk says wistfully. “We have good retention abilities and get good marks and we often believe what our professors tell us as truth. But as I’ve learned much of the information we were taught were myths and we need to be more critical about what we are told, I am enjoying upsetting the proverbial apple cart, messing with those up on their pedestals and pointing out the shortcomings of their business practices and ethics. Despite all the challenges of staying in this business, I still love what I do. I love that moment when patients look at themselves in the mirror for the first time with their new smiles. It’s rewarding to give them more confidence and make them feel attractive without gouging their bank accounts at the same time.”

As he looks out at the gorgeous blue Tampa area lake from his breathtaking 38,000 square foot property he has dubbed the “Mastermind Mansion,” Roger Salam seems to personally embody the concept of The Winner’s Circle, the international organization he formed in 2007 to foster dynamic collaborations between top achievers in business.

Every month, the self-made multi-millionaire invites 10-12 real estate and internet marketing gurus, motivational speakers and top authors to the exclusive property located inside the most prestigious Avila Golf and Country club to participate in a forum that brings Andrew Carnegie and legendary “Think and Grow Rich” author Napoleon Hill’s “Mastermind Alliance” concept to the 21st century. Bringing together people, technology and synergy, Salam creates with his Winner’s Circle Flagship program Mastermind Forum “Powered By Potential” a sort of “Mastermind 2.0,” which–tapping into Carnegie’s timeless philosophy—is part Board of Directors, part peer advisory group, part support group where everyone shares the common goal of contributing to each other’s success.

In addition to the monthly small group gathering of Winner’s Circle members, there are quarterly networking sessions with a larger membership; once a year, all hundred members or so bring their families and get together in an exotic locale (Costa Rica and The Bahamas were the sites of the most recent retreats) for a “Super Mastermind” weekend.

“Anytime you bring high performance people together, magic will happen and if it’s in an environment that inspires you, real magic happens. Through this program, our members experience growth from a unique combination of instructional and resource elements,” says Salam.

“TWC provides an unrivaled forum that will take our members and their businesses to unexpected heights. It’s been said that your income will be the average of your five closest friends. I believe that not only is that true for your income but your health, happiness, self esteem and pretty much everything else, including your mindset.”

Salam shares his expertise as a Mastermind facilitator in “The Holy Grail of Achieving ROI” chapter of the new book “ROI Marketing Secrets Revealed,” in which over 30 of today’s top marketing experts share their knowledge with business owners hoping to crack the code and generate revenue beyond their wildest dreams. In this chapter, the veteran salesman, entrepreneur and motivational speaker shares his belief that when it comes to achieving an everlasting ROI, investing time in a mastermind group “will pay off in ways you never dreamed of.”

As successful and dynamic as life is for Salam these days leading and inside “The Winner’s Circle,” the hard tests of his mettle—and the intense financial rollercoastering–along the way are never far from the Bangladesh native’s mind. After majoring in economics and business at UCLA, he got off on what seemed to be the fast track, selling home water purification systems for the Burbank based Northland Environmental. He started as a sales rep, closing customers who attended company “time share” type seminars, and was quickly promoted to become one of the speakers and soon, the youngest branch manager ever for the company.

When Northland went out of business a few years later, Salam began selling the purification systems door to door. With his fortunes sagging, he attended a sales seminar led by guru Tom Hopkins. Inspired by one of the seminar speakers (Jim) who said, “if you want to become successful, you should take a successful person out to lunch,” he gathered the courage to ask Jim himself to lunch—although he almost let the distance from L.A. to San Jose and the fact that he was broke stop him. Jim was so impressed with the young salesman and his desire to learn from the older man’s wisdom that in the middle of their conversation, he offered Salam a job with his successful roofing company.

Thinking he’d discovered a potential goldmine, Salam moved up to San Jose, only to find that the people working for the roofing company who had been generating the leads Jim promised had quit and he’d have to develop leads on his own. Debt ridden and borrowing money just to survive, Salam didn’t think life could get any worse—until a pickup truck plowed into him and totaled his car—and during the ensuing commotion, someone stole his briefcase with all the leads and paperwork he had been working on.

“It was a defining moment of my life,” he says, “that has shaped me to as the person I am. I looked up as if to God and said, ‘I think you’re testing me.’ I got up from the sidewalk with two hands on my forehead, feeling down and out but up to the challenge. I called the roofing company and told them I needed to get back to work. They said I could take the day off but I didn’t want to sit around feeling sorry for myself. I made a sale on my next appointment and within the first month became the company’s top salesperson, making over $10,000 a month.”

Always looking to better himself, Salam went with a group of fellow salespeople from work to a seminar run by motivational guru Tony Robbins, who nearly singlehandedly changed Salam’s life with his powerful charisma and the cutting edge insight he offered. Salam later participated into Robbins’ trademark event “Unleash The Power Within: The Firewalk Experience,” in which thousands of people walk barefoot over hot coals as a means of learning to overcome fear in their lives and turn fear into power. Realizing that what Robbins taught was worth mastering rather than just dabbling in, Salam boldly went up to the guy who sold him the ticket to the event and asked how he could apply for a job.

A few calls later and Salam was faced with a formidable application process which usually frightens prospective employees off. It took him a whole month to finish the detailed questionnaire, but by the end of that month, Salam was so clear on his personal goals, values and beliefs that he was determined to see the process through. Determined to be hired as a speaker selling Robbins’ seminars, he created an attractive application package, including professional photos, typed responses and an attractive package—all delivered to HR by FedEx. The person doing the hiring was so impressed by the packaging of his presentation that he hired Salam on the spot.

For the next five years, he served as a professional speaker and trainer for Robbins’ organization; between that position and his later roles as founder of the Real Estate Web Academy and now The Winner’s Circle, Salam has delivered over 3,700 professional talks to various corporations, non-profit organizations and educational institutions in North America, Europe and Asia. With Robbins, he was on the road 48 weeks a year; within his first three appearances, he was making more than his managers, then became a manager himself and had the opportunity to introduce Robbins personally to the audience. When Salam told his personal story of living and fulfilling his dreams, he got a standing ovation.

“One of the main reasons I did well was that I didn’t see it as a job,” he says. “I was on a mission to change people’s lives and I couldn’t believe he was paying me to do that! I was also the only one giving seminars on Sundays.”

Ever the risk-taker, Salam left Robbins in the late 90s to get in on the then hot internet business boom – and became part of a company that went from noting to two billion dollars in capitalization when it went public. (Rollercoaster up!) He thought he was set for life, running three divisions and waiting for the stock to hit 100, at which point he would diversify. But then the tech bubble burst and in a single day his fortune went from, as he says, “dot come to dot gone.’ (Rollercoaster down!)

“I lost everything, which didn’t bother me,” says Salam. “I knew most great business leaders suffered great reversals in their lives which they later overcame, and I felt confident I could do the same. One night, when I was watching late night TV, I saw my next opportunity – an infomercial with a real estate guru who said you could make millions buying homes even if you had no money and no credit. And I thought to myself, ‘No money? No credit? I qualify!’

I jumped in with both feet and bought my first home for $16,000. From there, I rode the real estate train to riches, which ultimately enabled me to acquire my biggest estate yet, the 38,000 square foot mansion where I host the Winner’s Circle gatherings.”

The principles Salam brings to The Winner’s Circle—which grew out of his Real Estate Web Academy, an educational and social networking community of tens of thousands of RE investors–echo those of Robbins and Napoleon Hill, who did research in their time about what it is that separates top people from average ones in terms of achievement and income. Hill wrote 17 time-tested principals for becoming rich, the first of which is “definiteness of purpose, knowing what you want and setting goals.” And once you know what you want, the second principle (of Hill’s 17 time-tested principles) is the principle of “Mastermind” which is the fastest way for achieving your goals. One of the keys to achieving this is hanging around with successful people, because who you listen to and associate with will determine your destiny. The definition of Mastermind is when two or more people come together for a common cause or to reach individual goals by joining their efforts.

The largest mastermind organization of its kind, The Winner’s Circle—which costs from $25,000-50,000 to join—is founded on a unique code of ethics whose principles include: conducting business as a professional at all times; absolute honesty and integrity; not taking on tasks you can’t perform; respecting the time of other members; understanding that every collaboration (joint venture) must be a win/win scenario; treating other members with respect and courtesy; contributing to build and encourage other members and confidentiality in all that is shared – these principles are not mere statements on paper, but is taken very seriously by The Winners’ Circle and all its members.

The organization began with Salam’s contacts from his real estate business and last year diversified to include many non real estate gurus as well.

“The quality of your life boils down to quality of your relationships,” he says, “and along the way, I’ve tried to build quality relationships with people who have helped me and hopefully I’ve been able to help them as well. The journey is the reward, and along this journey, we shouldn’t wait to be happy, we should be happy in the process. If we don’t enjoy the ride, once we get to our goal, it will be empty. They say it’s lonely at the top but not if you take the people who helped you along with you there. We should always spend time with people we care about the most in a chain I like call ‘one hand up, one hand down.’ There are always people helping to pull us up to the next level and in turn, we should be reaching down to help those just below us. This process helps foster our own individual masterminds.”

Roger Salam is co-author of two books on Marketing and “Secrets of the Real Estate Millionaires” and “The Greatest Success Principle: Mastermind,” due out soon, as well as another in the works about the “Board of Advisers” effect.

“Delivering Happiness: A Path To Profits, Passion, and Purpose”
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One of the country’s leading innovators in the field of experiential branding, Rajiv Kapur, Founder and CEO of the Apopka, Florida-based firm, Configurations, has developed his company into an industry leader over the past 21 years by bringing comprehensive strategic, creative, and tactical thinking together for numerous corporate clients in a unique process he calls “The Art of Creative Integration”.

Beyond simply producing powerful immersive experiences in a wide variety of face-to-face marketing venues and helping his customers realize the best ROO (Return on Objectives) and ROI (Return on Investment) in the industry, Kapur strives to create transforming experiences for both his clients and employees.

He shares his years of expertise creating these experiences in his “Improving Results at Trade Shows” chapter in the new book “ROI Marketing Secrets Revealed,” in which over 30 of today’s top marketing experts share their knowledge with business owners hoping to crack the code and generate revenue beyond their wildest dreams.

Normally when we think of someone leaving a legacy, it’s in relation to a famous person or historical significance in the world of the arts, sports, politics or business. But Kapur extends his use of the term to mean anyone—even down to a company’s entry level employee — who strives to make a difference in the world.

“I have a statement that I share with all of those hard working people who have helped make Configurations thrive every day,” he says. “I tell them, ‘Come to leave a legacy every day.’ Some people come to work just as a job or just to make a profit, but I want them to come here to leave a legacy. I want them to approach every one of our clients and every problem that comes up as if they are part of that legacy. We affect every person we come in contact with and can transform them with the way we do business with them. This philosophy can apply to the way our clients approach the internal branding of their businesses as well. Our lives should be about creating legacies, not just about making money. You can leave a legacy every day and every moment is important. The question is, ‘What would you want to be remembered as?’”

Kapur’s personal answer to that question begins with his successful (and at times, unexpected and happily surprising) evolution from semi-pro tennis player during his college years to successful entrepreneur and founder of two companies, beginning with Visual Resources in the 80s. After being a top-ranked player in his age group in his home country, the Chennai, India native emigrated to the U.S. on a tennis scholarship, attending Anderson Jr. College in South Carolina before transferring to Mercer University in Macon, Georgia and finishing at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

While studying marketing and international business, Kapur played as a semi-pro until an injury forced him off a tour and into coaching. He and several pro athletes he knew in South Florida, including members of the Miami Dolphins, invested in Visual Resources. While still coaching tennis, Kapur decided to check out how things were going with his investment. Realizing the company’s need to develop its marketing division, he decided to go to work for it full-time.

Much like Kinko’s does today, Visual Resources provided high-end graphics, design, and production services, focusing on high-end presentations for large Fortune 500 corporations, major advertising agencies, and architectural firms. The company came to specialize in mobile marketing and trade show presentations. Observing the way most companies on the trade show floors would use large scale versions of 8″x11″ ads they already had to capture people’s attention, Kapur had an epiphany.

“I realized that trade shows provided the time and place to attract attention by tapping into people’s emotions with key images and words,” he says. “I saw that the messaging was in the wrong place, that emotion was where the eyes go, and the movement of people in these venues necessitated a more striking visceral experience than an enlarged print ad could provide. More innovative campaigns were needed for trade shows because of the sensory overload and intense visual competition, and that would involve creative use of textures and different materials. We needed to improve the imagery to create attention in that environment. It was all about communication at the peripheral level.”

Although the work of Visual Resources began attracting strong attention, Kapur felt the interaction between his clients and their potential customers was not complete. So he founded Configurations, a company that is more strategic in its process of creating a programs for clients participating at trade shows. The goal of the new venture was to create strategies that drive creative environments and interactions that produce the desired response—moving a client’s target audience from brand awareness to brand adoption by differentiating the company from its competition. Recognizing that the #1 mistake companies make is failing to create a strategy to show how and why they stand out from the pack, Configurations began to teach clients about doing more than simply making claims. As Kapur says, “It’s about being the difference rather than simply claiming the difference.”

Over the years, Configurations has worked with top corporate clients in Technology (Fiserv, Convergys, Knowcross Solutions), Agriculture (Sun Belle, Inc. Sunnyridge Farms), Consumer Products (Colomer USA, Johnson & Johnson), Defense/Military (Northrop Grumman, Harris Corporation, AFAMS, U.S. Navy), Healthcare/Pharmaceutical (Stryker, Liberty Medical) and Travel/Tourism (Norwegian Cruise Lines).

In an effort to create an environment that would capitalize more of the use of five senses, the company created its Boothmanship© program, which is designed to train even the most seasoned professionals in the art of getting their message across in a few seconds or minutes—rather than the average 45 minutes they have when making a typical sales call. The key is to ascertain a potential client’s needs while keeping them intrigued and finding creative ways to draw them into conversation. The program taught the importance of everything from eye contact to engaging opening statements to understanding both the potential client’s primary and secondary needs.

The key was making each opening presentation relevant to that individual and, during that conversation, using the exhibit and props to develop a multi-sensory experience connected to that. Those who took the Boothmanship course learned not only to how to communicate their company’s products but also the intangible aspects of the company and a sense of its corporate culture.

“The overall idea was, ‘I’ll care about you if you care about me,’” says Kapur. “So they were giving off the feeling that not only did they provide a superior product, but also superior service and a budding relationship based on mutual respect. This training resulted in high ROI from day one because of all the newly created opportunities for business that arose from doing more than simply catching someone’s eye with colorful graphics. Our strategies were based on capturing new customers, retaining existing ones, and securing new business from old customers. We work from a five-step process: position, attract, engage, comprehend, and make memorable.”

Another aspect to Configurations’ success in ROI marketing was discovering the value of communicating with potential trade show customers ahead of time and finding out what they would want to talk about before they approached the booth. To find potential attendees, they would make clients look at their database and match names with the trade show’s list of past attendees and new registrants. They were then encouraged to create an A-list and a B-list and market to them. Kapur’s research led him to see that the average attendee comes to a trade show with an agenda, trying to find out what’s new and discover new trends in the marketplace. It was important to show them the suppliers who could best fulfill their needs.

“As we did this, we saw an ability to increase results at trade shows through interaction, and through improved interaction we realized we were communicating a brand promise to the audience we were aiming for,” Kapur says. “We found that pre-show marketing improved results by about 33%.”

Configurations’ follow-up on these interactions — Are they delivering on their promises? Are they making the phones ring? Are they bringing in clients? — quickly ensured them a glimpse into the inner workings of the company. The logical extension of this was internal branding, aka Brand Culture Development, which the company started in 2005. The idea: design interiors for a company’s office space environment to reflect the corporate culture and brand promise — in other words, living it, not just saying it,.

As Kapur explains, “It was about creating a work style out of a work space. If you want to build a good brand, it starts with the people within. It was our response to the questions, ‘How do we make the people inside live that brand promise? How do we put little reminders there that speak to that?’ What we wanted to do is, not only connect the environment to the employees but, help the entire work force connect with each other to create an exciting synergy by immersing people in the culture. A traditional interior designer might make the place nice and beautiful but wouldn’t fashion a reminder of the brand message. Details are important, down to the dominant age demographics of the people that work in a specific department of a company.”

And how does this internal process connect to ROI? Kapur adds: “We have proven that working on the interior of a corporate environment can improve morale of the employees and make the people who work there stay with the company longer. In turn, this results in greater productivity and less expense for training new people because of smaller turnover rates.”

Looking back on his unique journey from being a tennis pro whose career was cut short to becoming one of the country’s foremost leaders in the ROI marketing field, Kapur sees a few important connections between these seemingly distinct paths: “We teach our clients that the way to win customers is to get to their hearts, creating a memory that they will recall in their time of need. It’s about making those customers dear to their heart. And the heart is about one thing: passion.

“The same passion I brought to tennis when I was younger, I bring to the work I do with Configurations now. Having passion for what you do brings with it the discipline to make it happen, the integrity it takes to stay true to your heart and BE successful, and gives you the unique ability to touch people’s lives. When our clients come to Configurations for solutions, they see our passion and recognize that we love what we do. That’s the legacy we strive to create every day.”

Back in the late 90s, when Harmony Tenney began working as a consultant and sales rep for The Charlottesville Radio Group in Charlottesville, Virginia, terrestrial radio was the only game in town. Satellite Radio networks like XM and Sirius didn’t exist, and internet radio stations were years away from gaining a foothold on our listening habits.

For all the hype that XM, Sirius and web based outlets have generated these past few years, there’s a fascinating truth that Harmony likes to remind people of: America still listens to the radio—the real radio, the advertiser funded news, sports, talk and music stations that come to us free of charge over the airwaves. It keeps us company in the car, functions as a soothing or inspiring soundtrack at work, helps us chill out at home and still sounds great coming over the loudspeakers at the mall or when we’re laying on the beach.

She adds a few noteworthy stats to this: XM may have 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional traffic and weather channels and 23 play by play sports channels—but it only has a 3% market penetration. Meanwhile, terrestrial radio reaches 96% of Americans every week and 92% of them listen through the commercials.

“One of the enduring appeals of terrestrial radio is that it’s free and we can have it on at work, in the car, in stores, anywhere,” says Harmony, whose clients advertise on the Charlottesville Radio Group’s five regional stations 1070 WINA, 97.5 3WV, Lite Rock Z95.1, 1450 WVAX and 106.1 The Corner WCNR. “It’s pervasive and expected, and like direct mail, advertisers can choose the target audiences they want to advertise to. Different formats have different audiences they attract, and as a business owner, you can pick and choose who you talk to by age, gender and behavioral patterns. My role as a consultant is to help people grow their business and show them how radio can help them with customer attraction and retention. I come up with a plan to help them achieve their goals, I write and produce the ads and get them on the air. The challenge is to keep meeting the needs of these businesses even through different economies.”

Harmony shares her expertise in a chapter on Profitable Radio Advertising in the new book “ROI Marketing Secrets Revealed,” in which over 30 of today’s top marketing experts share their knowledge with business owners hoping to crack the code and generate revenue beyond their wildest dreams.

When the Columbus, Ohio native was an adult student studying for her undergraduate degree in organizational management and development at Bluefield College and studying for her MBA at Averett University (both in Virginia), her classmates voted her “Most Likely To Appear on the Cover of Business Week.” Once she had established herself in the Charlottesville marketplace, she tapped the same entrepreneurial spirit she showed back then to apply her radio advertising skills to the global marketplace.

Inspired and empowered by her mentoring with Alan Weiss, “The Architect of Professional Communities” and “The Million Dollar Consultant” whose clients include HP, GE, Mercedes-Benz, The Federal Reserve and the New York Times, Harmony launched several websites to help sell advertising all over the U.S. and Canada, from Newfoundland to California and New York. Generally, she begins penetrating a specific market by contacting business owners and finding out where and how they want to develop. She then surveys the local radio market, develops relationships with sales managers from local stations, designs schedules and writes and produces the ads—truly creating what turns out to be a turnkey situation for her clients.

One of her favorite research sites is Radio Ad Lab (www.radioadlab.com) – funded by radio industry companies to further understand how radio advertising works, to measure radio’s effectiveness and to increase advertiser and agency confidence in radio. Radio Ad Lab’s largest study to date addressed the core issue of advertising—Return on Investment (ROI). The results confirmed Harmony’s intuitive theories: Radio’s ROI was 49% higher than was observed for television. When compared to their partner advertisers’ historical TV ROI averages, radio’s ROI was approximately 17% higher than television!

While still in the process of setting up www.radioformainstreets.com (geared around the concept that governments and towns can partner with radio to make beautiful things happen in their communities) and www.radioadvertisinggenius.com (to promote her new book), she has established www.radioforlegal.com, a comprehensive site dedicated to servicing the radio advertising needs of the legal community. Harmony’s creation of this site grew out of the attorney contacts she made through “The Millionaire Maker” Dan Kennedy who were looking for help with direct response advertising. She is a Gold member in the Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle, which connects entrepreneurs seeking fast and dramatic growth and greater control, independence and security.

Harmony’s 7 Step Radio for Legal System attracts a steady flow of new clients, increases referrals from prior ones and secures steady lead generation in any economy, guaranteed. The site explains that no other radio advertising rep has offered this kind of “insider” insight into harnessing the power of sending specific calls to action over their airwaves—or been able to

delve past the “half-remembered, self-taught crap” that gets repeatedly passed down thru the years to get to the golden nugget secrets of building powerfully profitable prominence via radio.

“All of these experiences I have with the clients I work with nationally and internationally really help me dig in even deeper when I serve my local clients in Charlottesville,” says Harmony. “They help me understand how other stations try to bring in business, what business owners need from their reps, and help shape my perceptions of the market. It’s been further education for me on radio’s massive potential to change the lives of business owners. I want to be a one person ambassador for radio across the world. That goal begins by sharing my skills and expertise with specific niche markets and helping more and more businesses develop their own abilities to become more profitable.

“From a business owner’s standpoint,” she adds, “they can’t trust just anyone who walks through their door. So it’s all about developing a relationship, giving them a foundation for their trust. Over time, and especially once they see their profits increase, they understand my point that human beings don’t have ‘earlids,’ and our mind is always awake. Even if we’re engaged in some other task, the messages we hear on the radio get through and the brain is cataloguing all we’re learning about these companies. Trust also extends between the listener and the stations and their on-air personalities, who are like family. Listeners come to feel that the businesses advertising on these stations are, in essence, being recommended to them.”

Harmony’s background is unique in that she earned her Bachelor’s Degree and MBA going to school at night while building a strong reputation in sales and marketing via her work with global telecommunications company GTE Wireless. Earlier in her career, she received top state and regional recognition for success in retail sales (#1 ranking in seven states, % above quota) and retail store management (#4 in 7 states for stores of her size). Working in the corporate setting provided vital experience in the corporate setting, excellent training and opportunities for leadership.

Two main projects secured her future. The first was the GTE Wireless Mobile Van Team, in which approximately 24 persons from six different departments and every level (with Ms. Tenney being lowest on the totem pole – a retail sales rep) came together to decide if the Mobile Van Service Team should be disbanded. No other GTE Wireless in the nation had one, and it was costing the company to run it. There was a four month time limit, and only four meetings to come to a decision.

Harmony facilitated the entire group, took ownership of the project, and provided the calculations for pricing structures and profitability models for the group to decide on. The outcome was that the Mobile Van Team was shown to be invaluable and given a pricing structure that made it profitable, while meeting all the needs of each group’s vested interests. As a result, GTE Wireless Virginia saved over a million dollars.

The other project: Upon becoming a Retail Manager, she documented the path and skills required for a retail rep to train for and become a retail manager – breaking down the tasks of retail manager into specific areas and then expanding them into a program where the necessary management skills would be taught in specific modules over a set period of time.

Harmony is also a past president of the Waynesboro/East Augusta Rotary Club, which she helped grow by 50% her first year as a member and for whom she created numerous service projects, including one on teen pregnancy prevention.

While continuing to build her reputation as a top radio sales consultant both in the U.S. and overseas, Harmony is also the mother of eight year old twin girls, one of whom battled a rare form of cancer as an infant. Despite having an active sales and family life, she has made personal and professional development a top priority, along with sharing her expertise with others.

Harmony, who also mentored with Nido Qubein (chairman of an international consulting firm and president of High Point University), started a consulting company to begin serving in a global capacity. International Business Empowerment Consultants, Inc. is dedicated to identifying and implementing improvement strategies for customer acquisition, retention and ascension, increasing cash flow both immediately and long term and fueling the passion levels each member carries for their organization.

Drawing from over 25 yrs experience in consultative sales, in a variety of business settings (corporate, small business, non-profit, retail and entrepreneurial), industries and sizes, IBEC, Inc. provides businesses with the foundation, resources and abilities to continually exemplify market leadership in any economy.

“My greatest satisfaction is seeing someone smile when I have done a great job for them and helped bring them to the level of business that they hoped for,” Harmony says. “It’s wonderful when business owners appreciate what we’ve been able to accomplish together.

My clients gave me the nickname Profit Panther, because that’s what I’m doing for them: demonstrating that it’s not some magic pill, but the proven vehicle of radio advertising that will help them get where they want to go.”

Although the U.S. economy is showing signs of slight improvement in the stock market and retail sales, the unemployment statistics remain depressingly high. It’s almost like a daily tease—it seems for every positive bit of news, i.e. “people are starting to spend more,” there’s a balancing snippet of doom, like the job market won’t return to normal till 2012 or beyond.

Even under normal economic conditions, the average American is sick of the rat race, tired of sitting in traffic, worrying about layoffs and the grind of climbing corporate ladders. He or she no doubt fantasizes about being what entrepreneur Chuck Mullaney calls a “Pajama Executive”—an industrious, driven soul who can double, triple, quadruple (and more) their regular salary with a little internet marketing savvy and a few well placed mouse clicks.

Drawing on his own track record of success in this arena, the 41-year-old Ocean City, Maryland based internet marketing whiz is firmly committed to helping similarly goal-oriented business people discover the freedom of a stay at home career that can generate income beyond their wildest dreams. Pajama Executive is Chuck’s flagship company offering top level mentoring and coaching for those who want to make money from home on the internet.

Over the past six years, as he’s built his own successful online ventures, he’s learned that most people that try to make money online fail; the best way to avoid this is to work with an experienced mentor. Since launching the Pajama Executive VIP program in 2005, he has worked with over 1,000 aspiring entrepreneurs and conducted over 600 “webinars.”

Concurrent with his flagship program, Chuck in 2006 developed Keyword ESP (www.keywordesp.com), a PPC (Pay-Per-Click) doubling software application designed to help individuals and businesses boost click thru rates and customer traffic with higher quality scores and lower bid prices, using the program with Google AdWords advertising. His most recent innovation is The Premiere Joint Venture Social Network aka JVME (www.jvme.com) a free social network for internet marketers to partner with each other. Built on Facebook’s base software and operated by Intenet Marketers, this free website is the perfect tool to connect with other internet marketers for fun and joint venture deals. Launched in late 2009, the site already has 3,000 members.

Although things tend to happen quickly (and sometimes overnight) in the viral marketing/social networking age, Chuck still marvels at the speed of his early internet success which ultimately led him to share his wealth of knowledge and experience. The old adage about necessity being the mother of invention applies. He was working from home as a mortgage broker (a position he likens to “full time salesman”) when he married a woman with three children. A new extended family (which includes a child of his own) was a wonderful blessing but also meant higher living expenses—when the mortgage industry started going down, he decided to translate his wealth of marketing skills to Ebay. A proud “closet internet nerd,” Chuck “crushed it,” selling nearly a half a million dollars of products on eBay by the end of 2004, his first year.

“I got involved in selling information,” he says, “obtaining the resale rights to programs like the Information Marketing Bootcamp, a four day workshop that proved very popular. I learned that I could sell the CDs to people and keep the money once I had the rights. It might cost $400 to buy the rights to the discs and I could sell them for $97 over and over again. I immersed myself into learning about resale rights, master resale rights, private label rights and began working with all sorts of information products. One of the things that kills your profits on Ebay when you are selling products is shipping, but CDs are relatively inexpensive to ship.”

Chuck soon realized that he had tapped into a potential goldmine and that people would pay to learn about the ways he was able to make so much money online. Switching over to marketing himself as the product, in 2004, he came up with a mentoring package, offering ten online group “webinar” sessions to individuals for $3000. Interacting with 30-40 people per session, he would instruct them on how to make money on Ebay and Google, create joint ventures and drive traffic to their websites. Before incorporating his business as The Pajama Executive VIP Program in May 2005, he enrolled in the “Education Specialist Trained by Ebay” program, a joint venture Ebay does with an outsource company. He finished first out of 584 new “specialists” who took the test.

Even as Chuck began generating substantial income as a mentor, he was frustrated at the low success rate his initial students encountered as they put his instruction to use. “I quickly realized that being a mentor was not simply about unloading everything I know on them, but to use what I know in a more focused fashion to get them to their first successes,” he says. “The statistics I encountered were sobering—99.7 percent of those who try to make money online fail and the few who do make money only succeed in replacing the income of their regular job. I had to stop my students from working solely on blind faith, which proves to be a handicap. I took many of the things I realized they didn’t need to know and removed them from the syllabus, in addition to teaching them limited tech skills and creating templates for them to change and use.

“There are always limitations like the fact that it’s not up to me to generate an email list of customers for them,” Chuck adds. “But the scaled down, more focused version of my next classes generated much better results and I am pleased with the way Pajama Executive has evolved. I help them put blinders on, so they can focus, and teach them that the only way to find stability in this online world is to develop strong relationships with those on their email lists. My business model centers on extreme customer service and building trust with the customer. Some of my students come in with unique moral standards that are all about doing anything, even ethically questionable things, to make money as long as it’s legal. But I teach these folks that if you build a trusting relationship with your clients, they will buy more from you. It’s great to win these students over to the reality that integrity matters. That’s how I succeeded in the mortgage business and that’s how I created my initial success online.”

Guiding students into successful modes of thinking is, for Chuck, an exciting process that brings out the same enthusiasm as he felt when he first realized he was actually thriving as an online marketing entrepreneur. “You don’t realize it’s freedom until a while after the money starts coming in, and then it’s truly an amazing feeling,” he says. “When I got up to $4,000 a week solely from online marketing and sales, it was one of the most exciting times in my life. I had customers to please but no boss and I could work whenever I wanted to! In mentoring, I am able to relive that joyful energy over and over, taking people from zero to the potential to generate thousands of dollars.”

In creating his software application Keyword ESP, Chuck once again proudly put on his “marketing nerd” cap to create what his website touts as “the surprisingly quick and easy way to get more traffic, higher conversions and more sales from Adwords.” The program guarantees that its users will triple their AdWords conversions in 48 hours or less with a breakthrough software that turns PPC ads and landing pages into cash pulling monsters. The app is geared towards making the customer’s landing pages look like they were custom written for each prospect. Below an easy to follow, four minute simple instruction video of how the program works, the home page features testimonies from multiple successful internet marketers and newcomers alike.

Chuck says, “I was working with a software app where I was putting together four different programming languages, bandaiding them to create some wild effects with my marketing. I realized that most of us search on Google, looking for free information. If you’re looking for a digital camera, you’re not out there seeking a specific product but gaining info that can help you make your decision. I thought it would make sense to write ads that had this kind of information and put a code in to paste into PPC Ad words. Placing the codes in those ads makes it look like the ad was written specifically for the customer who is searching. I’m excited that Keyword ESP’s success led to its becoming a massive joint venture for me, with over 450 partners when I started.

“This, of course, led to the social networking site JVME.com,” he continues, “which has quickly gotten me in many different doors with people who want me to help them get the word out on their own products and launches, so that they in turn can find their own partners. There are a lot of benefits to owning what is essentially an integration marketing playground.”

Chuck’s success in the “webinar” format has naturally led to numerous in person seminar opportunities, including being guest speaker this past January in London at the “Ultimate List Building Master Class.” Looking back on his extraordinary journey, it’s all heady stuff for a guy whose parents, well educated, hard workers who worked in corporate environments, disapproved of his chasing dreams until it actually started “paying the bills”.

“Now that I’m getting out there and doing live seminars,” Chuck says, “I can see myself segueing into the next phase of my career and becoming a full time speaker and mentor in that setting. Nothing thrills me more than the ‘thank you’s I get from those I have trained who are now on the road to their own success stories. I really enjoy empowering people from all walks of life—from those tired of climbing the corporate ladder to others whose options might include making $15,000 a year working at McDonald’s—and showing them they can make money online, even if they lack a formal education or a fancy resume. I’m there to show them it’s not about dreaming, but about taking action in their lives and control of their own destiny.”

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