30th Anniversary of the GJA SQ1 SQUARE ONE WORKSHOPS

[GordonJ]

Thinking how to celebrate.

30 years ago, beneath the Lake Worth Pier, the smell of Benny's lunches wafting through the air...

A guy named Manny, drew little pictures in the sand. He told me they showed how life worked, and how I could once again get my life working (at the time, it wasn't).

For a couple of months before this I was in a manic state, writing for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week and by May 10, 1993 I had written over 1200 pages, almost a case of paper, most of it single spaced.

After Manny, I threw that "manifesto" in the trash and ended up with 12 PICTOGRAMS, or Diagrams...later to be called PictoGrigms...and whatever they are called, they look like something from a very untalented second grader.

In fact, I'd bet most second graders can do better.

But those chicken scratches I had put down on paper matched the pics that Manny drew in the sand with his walking cane. This old Greek (god looking, silver hair, statuesque build, dark tan) millionaire, who looked like a cross between Aristotle Onassis and Charlton Heston, gave me the swift kick in the butt I needed.

On May 20th, the SQ1 MASTER PICTO-GRIGMS were complete.

More would be added later like the POP (Pyramid of Persuasion) and POA, Plan of Action, but all were based upon the original 12.

For me, the biggest takeaway at the time was...GET BUSY LIVING or keep busy dying. RESPONSIBLITY.

Pure, plain, simple with no sugar coating. Manny said I was the only one responsible for what happened next.

So coming off major disasters; failed marriage, loss of business to unethical partners, loss of health to bad habits/thinking...I came back home to Akron, OH and started digging out of the grave my rut had been carving out.

And it didn't take long either. Not once I had ACCEPTED the responsibility AND daily went over the SQ1, getting to see the hidden layers, the secret codes, the beneath the surface messages he had given me.

To say a light bulb went off is like saying ol Phil of Punxsutawny came out of his hole and had a 1000 camera lights go off at the same time.

In a matter of months, I was back to where I was before all the stuff hit the fan, and in the next couple of years, had explosive growth.

So, that is the brief history of the GJA SQ1, they have been posted here for two decades until covid, I took them down, but here is a link to them, for now, to see what you've missed out on.

After Bob did such an excellent job with the POP, I may have all the PictoGrigms updated, at least from the second grade to middle school.

Don't want to get too fancy.

Anyhow for NOW, but not for long:

https://www.sowpub.com/sq13/

Gordon Jay Alexander

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

Thinking how to celebrate.
Gordon Jay Alexander

Open to ideas for the 30th anniversary.

In the meantime. SQ1 gist= responsibility.

You want something. GO GET IT.

The GJA SQ1 are a set of TOOLS which aid you in reaching goals, getting what you want and helping you to live the life you prefer to live.

TOOLS. For setting GOALS. Planning. Execution. Adjustment. Identifying.

TOOLS. But they are not the roomba, self mowing lawn mowers, or do the job for you type. They have to be used, same as a hammer, a saw, or any power tool.

Tools to help you get to where you want to GO.

I like the GO space on a monopoly board, a starting square pointing you in the right direction.

And so the first part of any START is, where are you going? Or what do you want? And then, WHY?

The GO square may be the most important, yet often, the most overlooked.

Too many of us begin, start and jump right in without a clear idea of where we are going, or how we are going to get there.

Harvey Brody was a tremendous help for my metaphor tool kit, the VIEW FROM THE ROOFTOP is a higher level version of the GO square on the board.

By elevating the view, we can foresee some hazards, roadblocks and avoid them with better planning.

But the best power tools in the world, can't build the house for you...you need a plan, or blueprint.

How do the GJA SQ1 tools help you?

It answers questions.

But you have to ask them first. All the how to information is there, you just have to bring along the right questions and be willing to do the work.

You have to be willing to use the tools.

So, tomorrow, the 20th is a somewhat finish date of the original PictoGrams, and about a month of tweaking until I brought them home from FL to Ohio and put them to work.

Bob's beautiful rendering of the PICTOGRIGM OF PERSUASION, as told about here
https://www.angelfire.com/biz/gjbiz/itf3.pdf

has me excited about the GJA SQ1 and have shown me some potential for making them more public and user friendly.

Gordon

[GordonJ]

When it comes to PLANNING.

Over the years, I've added Harvey Brody's VIEW FROM THE ROOFTOP, along with his pre-flight checklist as part of my planning strategy. They help to see obstacles which may (probably) pop up.

Now a bit of a story about getting RICH QUICK. After 5 years of struggle and near bankruptcy, Ben Suarez finally listened to Gary Halbert and sold something people actually wanted. See, prior to this, Ben was selling things HE wanted to sell and had the false belief that they were wanted.

Lose all your money doing it your way, it opens ears and lets you listen to others.

So, not at all loving the idea of selling ASTROLOGY reports, Ben bit the bullet and put his mind to the task and came up with ASTROLOGY TODAY ad, which was a breakthrough, revolutionary piece of copy.

HOWEVER, even when it was rolled out, after extensive testing...he had PLANNED for the backend, the REAL MONEY maker. Selling 3 dollar reports was mostly a break even proposition, but selling 10 dollars for a few pennies worth of paper, that is what made him RICH almost overnight, after the 5 year struggle.

Today, with INTERNET marketing especially, most successful marketers have, what they call FUNNELS...and it is an acceptable term.

The question to ask yourself when first starting out is, WHAT IS THE LIFETIME VALUE of my customer, and how will I get that from a large % of my buyers?

So there are mechanisms.

We talk of LEAD GENERATORS, we Infopreneurs like a free thing to get an email (name) on a list...but then what?

We have used most of the software, I think Dien settled on Aweber (correct me if wrong) and I have used all of the continuous contact software. These are called email marketing tools.

Getting an email onto a list is the first step, but then you have to have the software DO some work for you. This is where CRM, Customer Relations Management COMES into play.

My advice is to START. Get something, anything, into the marketplace quickly, and then see what you don't know, or what you need from there.

I like to use Gumroad as a quick starting point. But some prefer having their own sites and many use Wordpress. All of these things have learning curves, of course, but that curve BEGINS when you do, if it takes a year to get everything in place, then that year begins when you start, right?

The GOAL, or the intent, IS the thing that determines the action. On the GJA SQ1 PictoGrigms, we see the life line is a moving line, everyday taking us closer to our end.

But say we set a goal of making 100k with our IM in the next year? What does that plan and process look like? It begins with the WHY? The why will always dictate the how, unless you stumble upon something.

Money is an easy goal to work with, because we know what it is. And what it will do for us.

We know money is one form of a VALUE EXCHANGE, not the only one, but the main one for most. What are we going to exchange?

What do we have to offer to the marketplace? The hard way is seen in Ben Suarez' first five years of struggle, trying to sell stuff he wanted to sell...whereas, when he started to offer things the market wanted, much to his chagrin, that is when he started to profit.

But the BACK end WAS there. He didn't just leave it at a 3 dollar front end, he had an offer included with the fulfillment of the ASTROLOGY TODAY ad.

So, I like to start folks off with a 3 dollar GUMROAD offer, and encourage them to build a family or a bigger product, something they can then offer to their BUYERS, if they have any at all. And even only one or two buyers are enough to begin to ask the questions which will lead to the goal down the road.

What is the back end? What is my funnel? What else do they want? (Ask them, with a gift, a bribe, Glenn Osborn has given sowpubbers a Master Class in doing this)...so you sell a 3 dollar HOTSHEET what else do you have?

And if you have a lot of areas, they all work the same...what are you doing within that marketplace.

Many of you old timers know of S. Rob....

https://www.ebay.com/str/solarvision...mis&media=COPY

One of my fav. eBayers. S. Rob offers ON DEMAND reports, and does several thousand dollars a year, just from ebay, and he/she also advertisers off line too.

You have to admit, those are some pretty silly titles he offers, once again proving Gary Halbert right...sell what people WANT TO BUY, and solar vision seems to have found his groove.

I mention S. Rob, because he could be Mark Twain for all I know, maybe a 50 year old grandma...the point is, YOU don't have to be the face of a business, especially in publishing or INFORMATION. I know some of you also like to fly low and collect the dough.

So, yea...I am somewhat oxyMORONIC, in that I want you to get off to a fast start and BEGIN, but also so you can make those adjustments along the POA, and make sure you don't get off at one of the 7 exits before you reach the goal.

You learn best by doing, within, a PLAN OF ACTION, a view from the rooftop, with a clear goal in mind and learning and DOING as you progress. The GJA SQ1 are simply tools which can help you see clearer and plan accordingly.

Gordon

Originally Posted by GordonJ

Open to ideas for the 30th anniversary.

In the meantime. SQ1 gist= responsibility.

You want something. GO GET IT.

The GJA SQ1 are a set of TOOLS which aid you in reaching goals, getting what you want and helping you to live the life you prefer to live.

TOOLS. For setting GOALS. Planning. Execution. Adjustment. Identifying.

TOOLS. But they are not the roomba, self mowing lawn mowers, or do the job for you type. They have to be used, same as a hammer, a saw, or any power tool.

Tools to help you get to where you want to GO.

I like the GO space on a monopoly board, a starting square pointing you in the right direction.

And so the first part of any START is, where are you going? Or what do you want? And then, WHY?

The GO square may be the most important, yet often, the most overlooked.

Too many of us begin, start and jump right in without a clear idea of where we are going, or how we are going to get there.

Harvey Brody was a tremendous help for my metaphor tool kit, the VIEW FROM THE ROOFTOP is a higher level version of the GO square on the board.

By elevating the view, we can foresee some hazards, roadblocks and avoid them with better planning.

But the best power tools in the world, can't build the house for you...you need a plan, or blueprint.

How do the GJA SQ1 tools help you?

It answers questions.

But you have to ask them first. All the how to information is there, you just have to bring along the right questions and be willing to do the work.

You have to be willing to use the tools.

So, tomorrow, the 20th is a somewhat finish date of the original PictoGrams, and about a month of tweaking until I brought them home from FL to Ohio and put them to work.

Bob's beautiful rendering of the PICTOGRIGM OF PERSUASION, as told about here
https://www.angelfire.com/biz/gjbiz/itf3.pdf

has me excited about the GJA SQ1 and have shown me some potential for making them more public and user friendly.

Gordon