Wizard Academy | BrandingBlog by Dave Young

BrandingBlog Radio: Michele Miller on Sports, Politics and F.A.R.E.

January 20, 2012 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:21 — 45.0MB) | Embed

Recording this Podcast was a blast. I’ve been working with Michele Miller for 10 years now and being able to share conversations like this is exactly why I started podcasting.

What really made this one fun is that we were face-to-face instead of on Skype. We were both in Palm Springs to have an annual meeting with a client that we’ve worked with almost as long as we’ve been Wizard of Ads partners. This past year our retail client grew 28% over the previous year. That’s a big deal any way you look at it.

In this rambling conversation, we discuss trends in societal change, sports (was it baseball or football?), politics and New Year’s Resolutions, or the lack thereof. You’ll learn about Michele’s F.A.R.E. mantra and my own twist on it.

I hope you enjoy it. I think I managed to maintain my family friendly rating on iTunes. Somehow, turning on the recorder kept us both from flinging f-bombs around the room.

This picture was from her Wonderbranding Class at Wizard Academy on Halloween, 2007. Yes, she taught the class dressed like this.

Filed Under: Customer Experience, Podcasts, Quotable, Rants/Raves, Sports, Wizard Academy, Wizard of Ads

BrandingBlog Radio: Irene Watson on Book Publishing

December 23, 2011 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:12 — 52.9MB) | Embed

Irene Watson’s media empire focuses primarily on self-published authors who need reviews, publicity and coaching for making the most of the book creation and promotion experience.

Her site, Readerviews, offers a wealth of knowledge archived over years of helping authors. Her services are priced and sized just right for authors trying to break into a bigger pool of exposure.

I first met Irene at Wizard Academy. She took the Blog and Web workshop from Paul Boomer and me several years ago.

I really had a good time catching up and learning about the many things she can do to help someone maximize the potential of their book.

Filed Under: Blogging, Books, Podcasts, Wizard Academy

BrandingBlog Radio: Year-End Tax Advice from Adrian Van Zelfden

December 16, 2011 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:23 — 27.9MB) | Embed

I’ve been getting Adrian Van Zelfden’s “Tidbits in Time” emails for several years. He’s a huge history buff and he enjoys a historical almanac to the point that he started sending out a monthly missive to share his celebration of what happened when. He started by sending it to his friends. None of that opt-in stuff, just a “hey, you might enjoy this as much as I do” kind of spirit. And, when you get an email, any email, from the smartest CPA/Lawyer around, what do you do? You open it and read it.

For his friends who also happen to own businesses, he started putting a section at the end “For Business Owners Only.”

The December issue had a 12-page, single-spaced PDF attached to it full of Adrian’s best Year-End advice to business owners. As I skimmed and scanned it, I knew that this was information that would be helpful to a lot of my readers, so I got Adrian to join me for conversation and this podcast is the result.

If you’d simply like to get to know Adrian, you could bail out after 15 minutes or so when we start to get our hands dirty in the numbers.

If you’d like a copy of his checklist, go to Adrian Van Zelfden’s Facebook Page, Tidbits in Time and click on the “Join My List” link in the left column. He’s also given me permission to send it out, so if you join my list you’ll also get a copy. A third option is to go to vanzelfden.com and shoot him an email. You’ll get a good sense of his dry humor if you google the latin phrase in the header of that page.

So…how good is he?

In 30 years of helping clients with taxes and going with them to countless IRS audits, he’s often walked out with the IRS owing his clients money. More importantly, he’s never lost a dime of his client’s money in an audit. That is, his record is perfect. He’s never had a worse outcome than having the IRS say, “Yep, this tax return is just fine. No changes.” Damn. That’s good.

I like doing interviews that get me a bit out of my comfort zone. Finances, taxes, government…you get the idea. For an example, if you haven’t listened to my interview with Pamela Yellen, you missed out on her surefire way to grow your cash without exposing yourself to risk. And now, I hope you enjoy Adrian and that you find his timely advice worthwhile as you seek to keep more of that hard-earned money for yourself while staying out of trouble with the IRS.

Filed Under: Leadership, Money, Podcasts, Uncategorized, Wizard Academy

BrandingBlog Radio: Veteran’s Day Guest – Joe Perez

November 11, 2011 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:46 — 41.6MB) | Embed

Joe Perez makes me proud to be an American. I’ve known Joe for about 6 years. We first met at an event at Wizard Academy. I always knew him as the operator of a landscape architecture company in San Antonio. We’d run into each other now and then, when we were both in Austin. It wasn’t until we attended the Awesome Sauce class this August that I found out about his military adventures and his new company.

Turns out Joe spent the last days of the Cold War chasing Soviet agents across Europe. He was in Berlin when the wall came down. When I mentioned that his resume read like a character in a Tom Clancy novel, he said, “funny you should mention that,” and proceeded to tell the story of how his unit was involved in Clancy’s research for Clear and Present Danger. Wow. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buzz This, Leadership, Podcasts, Wizard Academy

BrandingBlog Radio: Jean Carpenter-Backus on Financial Spooning

September 13, 2011 By Dave Young 2 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:05 — 24.8MB) | Embed

Jean Carpenter-Backus is gaining fame through her moniker “The Naked Accountant.”

I interviewed Jean on a beautiful Friday morning in Austin, TX out on the plaza at Engelbrecht House, the student dorm at Wizard Academy.

We talked about how she found Wizard Academy, her unique classes and her plans for new books and some ideas for preventing embezzlement in a small business.

Jean has led a most extraordinary life. We don’t go too deep into the back story in this interview because the Austin American Statesman recently did a lengthy biographical sketch. I encourage you to read it.

I hope you enjoy listening to this one as much as I enjoyed interviewing Jean.

Links:

Article about Jean in the Austin American Statesman

Jean’s web site

Wizard Academy’s Money and Cool Chicks

Filed Under: Leadership, Podcasts, Uncategorized, Wizard Academy Tagged With: embezzling, Jean Backus, Naked Accountant

BrandingBlog Radio: Roy H. Williams on The Desire for Instant Gratification

August 16, 2011 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:00 — 41.4MB) | Embed

Roy in Tuscan Hall - 2004

Roy H. Williams is the original Wizard of Ads and central hub of our consulting group. We had a good time chatting about the biggest mistake most business owners make when it comes to their advertising…The Desire for Instant Gratification.

Before we got to the subject, we chatted briefly about Nebraska and his single sojourn through the state. What do you think was his most memorable stop? You’ll have to listen to find out.

We also talked about the extensive research he’s done on the new Pendulum book, due out in the 1st quarter of 2012. There are still seats available for the class on November 15-16 in Austin.

I took this photo in May of 2004, shortly after he purchased land for Wizard Academy. He is standing in a barn that was to become Tuscan Hall. Fortunately, the barn was blown down by the wind before it could be remodeled and they had to basically start from scratch.

Filed Under: Advertising, Leadership, Podcasts, Wizard Academy, Wizard of Ads

Selling Customers Their Way is April 5-6

March 21, 2011 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

There are still a few seats left at Wizard Academy in Austin for Selling Customers Their Way on April 5-6. If you manage a sales staff, this is a great course…

Selling Customers Their Way from Wizard Academy on Vimeo.

Filed Under: Buzz This, Customer Experience, Wizard Academy

Marketing Beyond Advertising: Save enough to pay for airfare and hotel!

July 7, 2010 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

Wizard Academy just made an offer on Facebook that is so darn good, I just had to pass it along.

Marketing Beyond Advertising is listed on the Wizard Academy site as a $2,000 2-day course next week on the 15th and 16th of July. Trust me, it's worth every penny too.

Because they are trying to fill a few empty seats, they have announced a call-in price of just $500. With the money you save, you can book airfare, car rental and hotel, easily.

Check out the curriculum and pick up the phone. Call 512-295-5700 and ask for the discount. This is the best deal I've ever seen for a first time visit to Wizard Academy.

Filed Under: Buzz This, Wizard Academy

Will you be in the room when the good stuff happens?

April 1, 2010 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

There are loads of new things going on at my favorite non-traditional business school. In fact, it looks to me as if this would be a good time to just rent a place in Austin and establish some kind of semi-permanent residency.

Chris Maddock is teaching a series of writing classes under the title, Workin' It. What a great title for a series. Chris is the best non-trad teacher you'll ever get. Have I ever told you that Chris calls me several times a week, yet we rarely talk. Yes, that's the nature of our relationship.

Marketing Beyond Advertising is a revamped version of Tom Wanek and Mike Dandridge's course. Crafting policies and plans for delivering kick-ass customer experience is what you'll get out of the class.

Selling Customers Their Way is the new title for a sales course taught by Ken Brand and Dennis Collins. They've both proven their sales expertise through careers in training and coaching their own staffs.

My favorite Naked Accountant, Jean Backus is teaching Money and Cool Chicks in June.

Marketing on a Shoestring Budget is a FREE class from Mike Dandridge and Clay Campbell.

Escape The Box is downright scary. Dr. Richard Grant will spend 3 days helping you train the dragon in the other side of your head.

And, that's not all. Why don't you go check it out.

PS…For graduates, Sean Taylor has resurrected the Beagle Bugle. Keep an eye on this!

Filed Under: Advertising, Wizard Academy

Congratulations to the Bootstrappers!

February 11, 2010 By Dave Young 1 Comment

Congratulations to my friends Rich Christiansen and Ron Porter, who have sold their SEO firm, Castlewave and will now proceed to take life easy until the next business-building bug starts to itch.

You may remember me writing about their book and their courses. They started Castlewave as a living case study for their book. Here's an excerpt from their blog:

As all of you know, this business was created with $5,000 to prove the principles in the book. CastleWave indeed was profitable from day one, generated over $1MM the first year at 50% margin and this past year did apx $1.4 MM. We have offices in both NYC and Utah and presently have 23 employees and apx 30 active clients ranging from smaller companies like Bank On Youself to large customers such as OpenTable and IMax.

It's been a lot of fun and quite educational enjoying their friendship and working with a few mutual clients. I can't wait to see the next chapter in their lives unfold!

Filed Under: Books, Buzz This, Web/Tech, Wizard Academy Tagged With: Bootstrap, castlewave