Razvan Rogoz

Author: RazvanRogoz

  • Why You Should Tell Your Story – Even If You Don’t Believe It Is Interesting Enough

    From the desk of Razvan Rogoz,

    I have realized that the 80 – 20 distribution and the TOC (Theory of Constraints) are largely related. This means that in any I/O system, the 20% that generates 80% of the results comes in the form of eliminating the most important system-wide bottleneck.

    Life is made out of I/O systems. It is what you put in (input), you get out (output). Everything in human existence can be abstracted to some form of I/O. It is true if you go to the gym – how much you exercise and how much benefit you get from that given exercise. It is true when watching TV, when reading a book, when dating, when running, when eating. Everything in human existence can be summarized to a simple formula “you put effort in and you expect some benefit out of it”.

    The 20 – 80 distribution simply states that 20% of what you do creates 80% of the outcome. This is not always true and it can be 30 – 70 or 10 – 90 or even 5 – 95. The key principle is that there is an uneven distribution between cause and effect and a small part of what will do will be highly efficient in obtaining your desired outcome while a large part will be system waste.

    The TOC is something not known by most people in the self-improvement field as it is an industrial management concept. It states that a system is always limited by a major bottleneck and that the output with which a system functions is always limited to that given bottleneck. TOC states that bottlenecks needs to be either removed or the systems reconstructed around them in order to achieve a high efficiency without waste.

    So how does this combine together? Any system, be it a business, dating, self-improvement, spiritual growth, improving your body is bottlenecked by something. This means that at some point, the effort you put in is reduced to the amount of that bottleneck. Imagine that you have a freeway with cars on all three lanes. At some point, it all converges into a single lane. That’s a bottleneck. The number of cars that can go on that one lane is equal to 1 / 3 of the number of cars that could go before. The entire system is reduced to the bottleneck, therefore reducing efficiency by a factor of 2X or 66.7%.

    At that moment, most people take the most lackluster approach, put more input. This means putting more cars. But putting more cars won’t reduce the bottleneck, because a bottleneck is never about input but rather, about how input is dramatically lost to output. Eliminating cars is not a good idea either because yes, if you eliminate 66.7% of the cars, the bottleneck is gone as input equals output but the efficiency is exactly the same as before. This is one of the facets of the TOC, rebuilding the entire system to fit the bottleneck in the case that the bottleneck can not be fixed, as eliminating input costs is just as good as increasing output profits.

    The only solution towards improving results is eliminating the bottleneck. This means making that bottleneck a three lane road so I/O once again.

    How does this apply to real life? Let’s take the example of a salesman. He calls 100 people a day but he makes only $500 in sales. His conversion rate is only 10% which means 10 out of 100 people buy what he’s selling. Now, an unsuccessful and not so smart sales manager would say “work harder, you don’t want it hard enough, hoooraaaaaahh” as most inspirational and rhetorical blah blah goes. A smart one would simply say “you’re putting enough effort but you’re bottlenecked by your ability to sell. Take a few days off, improving your pitch dramatically, come back and you will get better results”.

    This is why I despise most self-improvement posts on Instagram nowadays. They lack any common sense. In a system, your output is not represented by what you put in, but simply by anything under your biggest bottleneck. You’re limited not by your effort, but by your global efficiency and putting 20 hours instead of 10 hours into an inefficient system will give you the same ROI as putting 10 hours. Yes, it will give you more results, because I’m using ROI (return on investment) as a metric and not revenue but the focus for a smart person must always be ROI, what you get in for what you put out.

    Bottlenecks are the reason why you’re failing in your life right now. You’re failing because your entire system is limited, is struggling in one key point. Now, you have two solutions. If you can rebuild the system without that key point, then your bottleneck is gone. In some cases, you don’t need to fix the bottleneck, you simply need to eliminate it as a critical step from cause and effect. This means rebuilding the “production line” so the bottleneck is not a required part anymore.

    In most cases though, the bottleneck is important and the 20% that will generate 80% of your return is always looking at and fixing that bottleneck. It is not doing more of what you’ve done by taking a hard, critical look at what is keeping you in place and then actually solving it.

    So when it comes to setting life priorities, on a day to day level, ask yourself this simple question:

    “What is my major bottleneck right now in me achieving goal X?”

    “What can I do to either increase this bottleneck (increase I/O ratio through the bottleneck) or eliminate it altogether from the system while obtaining the same results?”

    Keep asking yourself these questions day in and day out and you’ll achieve system wide optimization where 1 unit of energy = 1 unit ot desired output in no time.

    Are you interested in discovering in finding your bottlenecks when it comes to marketing and conversion? Then let’s have a talk together. I’m offering you a complimentary 30 minute session in which I’ll ask you some key questions about you and your business. After this session is done, I can tell you with a high degree of certainty how I can help you and what you’ll get out of it. Please use the link below to get started.

    Click Here For Your Complimentary 30 Minute Call!

    Best regards,
    Razvan Rogoz
    The Self-Improvement Copywriter
    www.razvanrogoz.com

    Click Here For Your Complimentary 30 Minute Call!

    What’s your story?

    I’m asking this almost every person I meet. In most cases, I get blank stares as it is not quite the type of question to start a conversation with. In some rare cases, I do get an answer. This answer comes in the form of a journey that the other person experienced. It is with ups and downs, with moments of courage and cowardice, with joy and pain. In that moment, I know that I’m connecting with that person no matter what, because there are few things more intimately than sharing your story.

    And … this is exactly what you need to do with your market. You see, if you’re trading time for money or even if you’re selling information products, your market is not only buying the asset (service or product) you’re delivering. They’re also buying a part of you, your personality, your time, your identity. Selling an eBook or a seminar is a far more personal experience than selling a laptop. They are buying for who you are just as much for what you’re offering. The product may contain the functional benefit, but you’re the charm behind it.

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  • The Value Of Emotional Pricing

    Dear friend & reader,

    There is one thing you can do right now which will boost your conversion rate. It is almost guaranteed. It taps into the basic human nature and I’ve used it successfully both for myself and for others.

    It is simple – add bonuses to your offer.

    When it comes to sales, bonuses alone won’t sell your product. However, bonuses are directly correlated with your closing rate, in other words, decisions to buy. The more you add of them, the more valuable they are to your market, the easier you are going to close the sale.

    This is because we, as people, love getting free stuff. We like to pay for something and get something extra. This is present everywhere – be it that we get a Cola with our burger, headsets with our new iPhone or a free dinner at a fancy restaurant when you participate to a workshop.

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  • Why You Should Charge More For Your Products & Services.

    From the desk of Razvan Rogoz
    Dear friend,

    I’m writing this post for self-improvement authors, trainers and coaches that have been in this field for a while already but are disappointed with their results. If you are just starting out, this may help you but my primary focus is on those that already put a minimum of one year in this field.

    This world taught me something not very empowering. This is that you’re supposed to accept who you are, what you can achieve and be happy in your small box. It taught me that “you must” accept faith and that if things have always been in a certain way, things always must be in that way. I’ve learned that consistency for many is a virtue, even when consistency is actually the biggest obstacle that keeps you back.

    I’ve learned that most people expect you to be the same, year after year, to tell the same story, to have the same level of success and achievement and generally, to not progress. This is especially true in the solopreneur / coaching industry when it comes to price. If you start at $50/hour, then in the view of most people, this is the rate at which you must stay for the rest of your life. After all, you’re supposed to be consistent.

    This belief is what keeps most entrepreneurs down. The truth is that you’re not supposed to be consistent. If you’ve been charging $100 per seat at your seminar and tomorrow you want to start charging $20.000, that’s perfectly okay. What you need to understand is that your value as a coach / speaker is not determined by how much you are charging now but by the value you produce and most people I’ve met over deliver value and undercharge. In other words, they are masters in their fields and yet they charge just as much as complete beginners.

    If today your average sale is $100, tomorrow you can change the price to $500 or $1000. Yes, you can do that. There need not be any relationship between your old prices and new prices. There is no one that regulates how much you should charge apart from the market. If the market pays, perfect. If the market doesn’t pay, then you’re offering too little and you’re charging too much.

    I know a copywriter who five years ago was charging $1000 per letter. Do you know how much he charges now? A 10% improvement? A 20% improvement? A 100% improvement? He consistently charges and gets between $20.000 and $40.000 for a single sales letter. He knows that what he’s offering is very valuable for the right people so he charges 40 times more now than five years ago.

    You need to stop thinking of prices as constant. Your prices increase as you increase your value. If you go to a workshop, read a book, achieved good results for your customers, your value increased and you can charge more. You can give yourself a raise every single time you feel like you want one. Yes, some customers are not going to be satisfied but it is fair to you to charge the same now as you did two years ago? Well, many people do that and worse.

    You have the right and the obligation to price yourself based on the value you deliver to the marketplace. The relationship between value and price must always be a constant. You don’t want to be the “best deal” because you’re not WallMart. You’re a professional that is helping change lives and if today you are worth ten times more than one year ago, then charge ten times more. Don’t be afraid of the criticism that this will bring – because there are customers for every price level.

    How would it be if Brian Tracy charged as little as he did when he started his career? I don’t know how much he actually charged but I can bet it is not $50.000 per presentation as I’ve heard he’s charging now. How stupid would it be if a Fortune 500 consultant charges as little after ten years of experience as he did after finishing school? It’s not logical and yet, people do it all the time. I see trainers who became amazingly better and haven’t increased their fees. I see writers who improved tenfold and yet, serve their customers at the same rates as when they’ve started.

    This is scarcity based thinking! It is saying that you’re afraid that your customers are going to leave you and nobody else will come to your business when you refuse to charge what you’re actually worth. Yes, again, some people are going to be mad and upset about this but the vast majority will be simply be replaced by customers at a new price level and some of the old ones will make the jump too. You need to be brave and say “this is what I’m worth now, this is what I’m charging” and not ask the money of last year with the value of today.

    Air carriers use dynamic based pricing. This means that the price constantly changes based on internal and external conditions. They aim to maximize their profits by constantly increasing and decreasing the price. ROI is their goal. I’m not saying to be as dynamic as an air carrier as there are few industries in which that model works well but you can update your fees every six months, three months and maybe even monthly! The only thing that is holding you back is just your fear of being judged for constantly increasing your prices but then you need to ask yourself – if you deliver better services, isn’t it only fair to be better compensated? After all, you are paying the price to improve yourself. Isn’t it only fair your customers pay the price too?

    I can’t stress as how important this is because at least half of all life coaches, trainers and speakers I know charge fees as old as one year and in some cases, three to five years. Leaving aside inflation and that $1000 five years ago was a lot more valuable than $1000 is now, they have invested hundreds, thousands of hours in improving their craft and they’re asking for fees for someone that is far inferior them.

    I know that you want to serve your customer but there must be a balance. There’s no incentive to get better if you are actually punished for becoming better. It is like a writer working on a hourly fee. If ten years ago, it took me five hours to do something and now it takes me only one, does it make sense to charge for one hour because I’ve improved five times my skills? No. It doesn’t. It’s actually punishing performance. Any improvement in productivity means a lower fee for the customer which may work great when there physical products but it is the worst thing you can do for yourself when you’re trading your time.

    Performance should be rewarded, not punished, but you’re the only one that’s in a position to do this. Your customers will pay you what you ask. If you ask $10/hour for your time, there are people who will pay you that. If you ask $1000 per hour, there are people who will pay that too. Your only job is to deliver that value. If you feel like what you’re creating for your customers is worth $5000/hour, then charge $5000/hour. There are psycho-therapists in places like Beverly Hills that charge ten times and even fifty times more than someone in a place like Southern Italy. Your skills, your ability to create value determines what you get paid, not your market. If you feel like you’re worth more, then charge more and go to the people who are going to pay more. It is as simple as that.

    That being said, my advice to you is to double your rates, whatever they may be. If you’re charging $25 per hour, double it to $50. If you’re charging $500 per speech, double it to $1.000. You’ll see that you’ll get paid the new fee just as easily as the old one and they’ll be just as satisfied with your services now as they were in the past.

    Click Here To Book Your Complimentary 30 Minute Call

    I’m here to help you. As a marketing and copywriting expert, I’m in the position to help you with persuasive materials designed to sell your products and services. Let’s have a 30 minutes complimentary talk over Skype to see where are your bottlenecks and how my expertise of direct response copywriting and marketing strategy can eliminate them.

    Click Here To Book Your Complimentary 30 Minute Call

    Best regards,
    Razvan Rogoz
    The Self-Improvement Copywriter

  • How To Position Yourself In An Authentic Manner.

    From the desk of Razvan Rogoz
    Dear friend,

    When it comes to launching your products or services, there are two schools of thoughts. The first one is follow your passion, doing exactly what you feel like doing. The second one is to come with a highly specialized positioning, something that nobody in the market is offering. Neither are true or very valuable, as I’m going to explain below.

    Let’s start with the most common advice – follow your passion. This is a good advice. The reason I’m in this niche now, helping self-improvement entrepreneurs is my decision to follow my passion first even if I’m in a less profitable market compared to before. However, your passion must provide commercial value to your marketplace. If your passion is something that nobody is willing to buy, then you have an hobby but not a business. You know what is another passion of mine? Video game development. I am not very keen on playing video games but I enjoy coding and building interactive stories through video games. However, as my skills are not at the level where I can do this competitively, it is just a hobby and not a business.

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  • How To Maximize Your ROI By Eliminating Wasteful Marketing

    From the desk of Razvan Rogoz
    Dear friend,

    I’m sharing with you a secret now that if you understand, it is going to earn you millions. It will cut your working time in half, it will make your self-improvement business effortless and it will bring you a sense of satisfaction that you’ve never experienced before.

    This is the most important and most obvious secret in marketing. It is no rocket science and yet, nine out of ten entrepreneurs fail this simply rule.

    The rule is … Go to where your market actually is!

    Let me put it this way. Most entrepreneurs try to pitch to everyone except the people that want to buy. They try to convince their friends, their relatives, their network to buy when they’re not interested in buying … while ignoring a huge army of people that have the money, have the interest and actually are aware of the problem you’re trying to solve.

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  • The Two Factors Required To Succeed As A Self Improvement Author

    From the desk of Razvan Rogoz
    Dear friend,

    Look, being a self-improvement coach or trainer is very popular nowadays. It doesn’t require a lot of accreditations (or any) and anyone can do it. This means that the market is very competitive and to be honest, everyone and his grandma is now a self-improvement coach. Most are broke and have nothing to actually show, in terms of results, but that’s another story.

    My point is that you need to find a way to stand out. This is a field where you really must know what you’re doing when it comes to marketing. Most are oblivious to this fact. They think that if their heart is pure and just want to help people, millions will flock to their website and place orders. These are the first to give up this field and start searching for another job.

    From 100 people, 90 bring nothing but good intentions. There is no positioning, there is no strategy, there is no USP (unique selling proposition). Most entered this field because someone told them “you’re really good at motivating people, you should build a business out of this”. This is true. If you like people and you’re good at inspiring them, then this is a good field for you. But getting thanks and appreciation is very, very different from getting paid. It is easy to say “you’re great”, it is a lot harder to get $100 instead.

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  • Make Your Customers Happy. Don’t Worry About The Others.

    Dear reader,

    I’ve got a problem with most self-improvement marketers and digital marketers in general. They’re playing it safe. They don’t want to offend their marketplace. They feel like if they’d promote more aggressive, people would be mad.

    I think, in all honesty, that this is stupid. The people who need your stuff and who want to buy are happy to hear from you. You can mail them ten times a day. Believe me, when I’m on a mailing list that is of actual interest to me, I’m reading all the emails that are being sent. I’m looking forward to them. I’m saying to myself “I wonder what this guy sent me this time”. I don’t care I’m being mailed twice or three times a day. I’m his ideal prospect and that’s what you should target.

    Look, let’s get something clear. When you’re launching something, be it a service or a product, you’ll get four categories of people. The first category are your ideal prospects. They want to buy. They know that they need your stuff. They’re very close to pressing the “Buy Now” button and they’re going to press it, either on your site or your competitor.

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  • Why Recurring Income Is The Only Approach That’s Viable

    From the desk of Razvan Rogoz
    Dear friend,

    Here’s the question I’m asking you to ponder today – are you having a job or are you having a business? I’ve met quite a lot of solopreneurs, people who work by themselves. Some are very successful. They live the life of their dreams. They are enjoying all the perks of showing the middle finger to their boss. Others are more stressed and pressured than when they were working for someone else.

    And now I’m asking you this – as a coach, trainer or self-improvement entrepreneur, are you owning a job or are you owning a business? To make this clear, I’m going to ask you where are you spending most of your time, earning money now or earning money in the future? This is a trick question though so don’t rush with an answer.

    Let’s say I’m starting a new business. Selling on customers, giving coaching sessions, trading my time for money is all a way to earn money now. It is cash-flow. It is a J.O.B. no matter if I want to name it like this or not. It may be a high paying job but I’m eating what I’m hunting. If I’m making the sales, I put food in my belly, if I’m not, then I guess it is time for fasting. Most coaches and trainers are in this category. They are getting paid by customers for services delivered, paid at point of delivery. This means that I’m coming to you, I’m getting one hour of coaching and I’m paying you $100 at the end. Simple.

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  • The Difference Between Real Entrepreneurship & Play

    From the desk of Razvan Rogoz
    Dear friend,

    Some time ago, I’ve worked with a self development coach. She is an amazing person. She had some great materials in which she put a lot of energy and love. She created more content than most people I’ve seen. Yet, the problem was that she wasn’t making any sales. Her focus was on helping her market, creating quality content but there was almost no cash-flow whatsoever. She was so focused of building the best things out there that she forgot the purpose of a business, to generate income.

    I have been in this situation too. On my old version of this blog, I had over 300 blog posts. On my Facebook page, I’ve posted at least 1000 high quality posts on self-improvement and self-development. I must have gotten at least 10.000 likes from my interactions but I’ve never linked them to cash-flow. I’ve never promoted an affiliate product or a service.

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  • Selling Involves The Risk Of Some People Disliking You

    From the desk of Razvan Rogoz
    Dear friend,

    I’ve met my fair share of authors and trainers in the self-development niche. Most were copywriting customers. In one case, I’ve dated a young lady owning such a company. These people come from all walks of life. Some are established entrepreneurs who want to make a difference. Others have no track-record whatsoever but decided to make a career as a personal coach.

    In the photo above, I was just returning from a free seminar where the content was amazing but the speaker had zero skills in actually selling. You’ll see in a second why this is the most important message you’ll have to read.

    I’m okay with both options. While my coaches and trainers have always been people who have walked the talked and their own life was a perfect example of what they were preaching, anyone has a chance to make it big into the self-improvement field.

    Background doesn’t make a big difference or a difference at all. What does make a huge difference is how they see themselves. All successful ones sold with confidence and conviction. All unsuccessful ones sold from their heels. This means that they were scared in pushing for the sale and rather sell from a place of uncertainty and insecurity.

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