NEO Author/Entrepreneur Ron Finklestein

Akron-area businessman, Ron Finklestein, knows a little about success. Married for 30 years to wife Sheila, he's raised two children Aaron and Emily. Impassioned about personal improvement and growth, Finklestein sports two Black Belts in karate and is preparing to release his third book, 49 Marketing Secrets (That Work) To Grow Sales (http://www.49marketingsecrets.com).

Ron's had his fair share of stints in Corporate America: highlights from his career include stops at Xerox, Unisys and Group Bull. Not immune to the influential year of 2001, he found himself looking for work. After lengthy soul-searching, Finklestein regrouped and started his own company, AKRIS, LLC., a business coaching and consulting firm. He also lays claim to the Northeast Ohio Celebrate Success! Conference held every November in Akron.

Fourteen influential area business owners and authors accentuate 49 Marketing Secrets and its regional pride with national relevance. Time-crunched entrepreneurs and wannabes will appreciate the book's succinct approach. From planning to win to actually landing the sale, learn a competitive edge blueprint. Branding your image, working with the media, networking, Event strategies and Technology-based marketing are the anchoring text that will help you navigate today's permanent whitewater global economy.

Cool Cleveland corralled Finklestein recently to talk about the upcoming book release and a myriad of other topics. The conversation went a little something like this:

Cool Cleveland: What was the process for gathering the cross-section of marketing experts who contributed to your new book?

Ron Finklestein: The process was really quite simple. I had just finished a book with Dr. Tony Alessandra, called The Platinum Rule for Small Business Mastery. I called Tony and told him about my plans for a marketing book. I asked him if he could introduce me to some anchor authors who would provide some articles. He gave me the names of about a dozen people, with the names ranging from Brian Tracy to some other big marketing names. I was able to connect with about seven of them and they liked the concept and agreed to anchor the book. Once that was done, it was a matter of marketing and advertising. I bought ads on the American Marketing website, my website, newsletters, word of mouth. Once I had the credibility of the seven anchor authors, the rest of it was pretty easy.

Regarding marketing, what do you think are the biggest mistakes businesses, both large and small make?

The most common ones i see are the lack of discipline and lack of focus. Businesses often don't have a clear understanding of the market they're in, the pains they solve and who their primary customers are. Too many companies try to be all things to all people and are afraid to walk away from revenue. There's a misunderstanding that the broader I am, the more people will be interested and the more money I'll make. It's actually the opposite. The more focused you are, the more niched you are and the clearer you are as to what you deliver your clients or customers, the easier people can find you.

Lack of discipline is also key. They do something that works well and they get comfortable. They wake up one day and the pipeline is dry. They got away from what they do well.

You worked with Morgan James Publishing out of New York City, known as "The Entrepreneur's Publisher." Their website highlights the fact that they receive over 2895 manuscripts each year, but only publish an average of 92. To what do you attribute your project's elite acceptance?

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that most books i write aren't based on research, but rather real-life experience. They're based on proven concepts. To be honest, there's not necessarily a lot of originality. What's original is how the pieces have been put together and how they've been applied.

Why 49 Marketing secrets and not 50 or 100?

My original intent was to do 100. I didn't understand however, the maginitude of gathering 100 people. It's like herding cats. I needed to address this for two reasons. One was that getting 100 people on board in a timely fashion wasn't practical.

Secondly, the quality of the content was so strong that i needed to trim the book to highlight its message. If I had used 100 authors the book would have been 1000 pages easily. The edited manuscript now is 400 pages. I'd rather publish a marketing book with 49 marketing secrets that are practical, reasonable and workable vs. publishing 100 pared down things that don't have the same value.

Marketing research also indicates that numbers that end in odd numbers like 47, 49 or 51 sell better than numbers ending in 50 or 100.

Listening to your response, does that mean we can expect a Volume 2 containing the remaining material?

Potentially. But if I do, that's a few years down the road. I want to make sure that this book gets the exposure that it needs before I release another one. The content in this book is strong and it needs to run its course.

In addition to today's interview, how else do you intend to market your new marketing book?

We've got a pretty good marketing strategy layed out. We're planning a series of monthly seminars that feature a chapter and a Northeast Ohio contributor from the book. Fourteen of the book's authors are from the region. They run quiet, they run deep and they're doing a great job. They've all agreed to host a monthly educational seminar. We'll do six in Cleveland and six in Akron.

All of the book's contributors have agreed to submit their articles to article search engines, like http://www.articlemarketer.com. They'll also be featured on the book's website. The authors will also be doing some blogging, in effect, a loosely defined virtual tour highlighting the book.

Lastly, we'll be doing a lot of presentations, speeches and press releases. Basically, we'll be using a lot of the book's content to promote the book.

Jay Conrad Levinson, known as the "Father of Guerilla Marketing," lends an impressive endorsement for your book. How did he come to be a fan of yours?

I don't know that he's a fan of mine as much as he's a fan of the material. Jay Conrad Levinson has published 14 books and one of the authors in my book co-authored with Jay. One day they were talking about the forthcoming 49 Marketing Secrets and Jay asked to see the manuscript. He liked it so much that he wrote the book's endorsement. It's a perfect example of how to create buzz for a book.

Endorsements are often about picking up the phone and asking people to take a look at the book. And, if they think it's good, would they consider lending an endorsement-and they do. People are generally good that way. If you don't ask, you don't know.

Your adage is "Attitude is Everything." How did it come to be your mantra?

Attitude really is everything and I became aware of that in 2001 when I lost my job. I spent a year trying to figure out what was going on. I was ready to leave the area and go where the jobs were. My son Aaron was a senior in high school. The impact on him wasn't as great as it was on my daughter Emily who was a sophomore at the time. I had a discussion with my daughter and i suggested that she stay here with her mother and then after graduating, we'd be together again or she'd be on her way to to college.

During our conversation she said something that literally changed my life. She said, "I don't want to be away from you for two years." At that point I made three decisions. The first was that my problems were not my children's problems and I was foolish for subjecting them to such stess-it will never happen again. The second was that my skills are good and there's no reason I need to be unemployed, so I immediately started my company and hired myself. The third decision was that i would do something about the job situation in my hometown. I was tired of seeing my friends and family leave the region due to limited job opportunities.

I started my business AKRIS, LLC, a business coaching and consulting firm to help businesses take the next step in personal and professional development.

The transformation from losing my job to being a business owner, made me realize the only thing holding me back was my attitude- my fear, my perceived limitations. I went on a personal improvement campaign and realized that the predominant thoughts in your life are what you become. I made it a point that any limitations in my life were created by me and I was going to do whatever it took to get rid of them.

So hence, the "attitude is everything." Because if you believe you can, you can.

November 1 is the fifth annual NEO Celebrate Success Conference! in Akron. As the event's brainchild, what compelled its origination and what can this year's attendees anticipate?

The event came about as a team effort. I had been looking for some major event that I could lend my name to and work on something positive. Don Philabaum was, at the time, in charge of Canal Place Technology Group. He called me with the conference concept and wanted me to sponsor it. Being new in business I didn't have the resources to sponsor it but I liked his idea.

We pulled together many business owners who had lost their jobs and they were looking for something to contribute their name to and market themselves. Through several meetings we said "Why don't we let successful people tell us what they do right?" "Let them teach us."

The event has morphed over the years and it's always the first Thursday in November. We ask companies to tell us what they're doing right. Our judges select those top twelve companies and they're given 30 minutes in front of Conference attendees to tell their story. The Top Five are awarded as "The Best of Conference." The expectation is to attend the event and meet new people. You may get some new business, learn new things and potentially transform your company.

This year, Champion Staffing will record, gratis, 12-minute interviews of every presenter. They can then post their interviews on their website as marketing material. To do that alone would cost between $3,000 to $5,000.

The name of your company is AKRIS, LLC. Could you explain its title?

AKRIS is a made-up word. I wanted to show my commitment to the Akron area but I didn't want "Akron" in the title to avoid being geographically stereotyped. At the time, my career was technology-based. So we dropped the "on" off of Akron and changed it to "is" for Information Systems.

We wanted to change the "A" but Kurt Minson came up with a brilliant reason to keep the letter: "A" is a greek letter that means taking the high road, the summit. Consequently, I've built my whole business philosophy around taking the high road in everything I do. My watchwords are simple-"honesty," "integrity" and "common sense." So AKRIS means taking the high road in everything. If it makes sense, we do it. If it's the right thing to do, we do it and there's integrity in everything we do.

Could you comment on Northeast Ohio's business climate today and how do you see its future?

I love living in Northeast, Ohio and I think it's an absolutely great place. I like the people, the environment and even the weather. The people here are typically very generous and hard-working.

But as a culture, I think we're very risk-averse. I can't tell you how many times I present an opportunity in Northeast, Ohio and I hear "i'll think about it." I go to New York and someone will find me on the internet and they'll pick up the phone and call me and the deal's done 20 minutes later.

I think it goes back to focus and discipline. People outside of the region seem to be very clear on what they want and are very aggressive about going after it. I'm not sure people in Northeast Ohio are clear on what they want. I think they're struggling for an identity, and it's hard to identify opportunities when you don't know what you want. I think a lot of it has to do with our very conservative nature and the fact that we don't have an identity. Are we High-tech? Are we Polymer? Are we Manufacturing? We have a lot of fragmentation here in business.

I think the region's future is bright. Anytime that change occurs, there's that fear, that doubt that happens. If we embrace that as a catalyst for change, our future is incredibly bright. I have a lot of faith in the people of Northeast Ohio. They want good things for their children and grandchildren. And they want a good life for themselves. I think over time, that identity piece will become clearer.

In addition to your business coaching, you offer a series of complimentary conference calls and workshops. One might wonder why you give so much of your expertise away?

If you look at it as "giving it away," it implies that there's a scarcity there. There's a lot of people that are good at what they do. Specifically in Northeast Ohio, how do you hire a coach or a consultant unless you can see they know what they're talking about and doing? The free coaching calls I do are true coaching calls. There's no marketing, no selling going on. We attack an issue and help solve it.

It serves a couple of purposes for me, I'm not being totally altruistic here. One is that it disciplines me to create new products. Each one of those calls is recorded as podcasts which I use to promote my business. More importantly, my conference calls give people an opportunity to safely explore my style, and technique to see if it's right for them, and I've gotten business from it. Ultimately, the material, once it's transcribed, could be material for another book. Am I worried about someone using my material? No. it's one thing to know how to talk about and another thing to know how to implement it. I know only one person in a thousand will take the initiative to implement it because some of it is pretty complex. We don't get granular enough on the calls because everybody's situation is different. It needs to stay a group call so that everybody gets value from it.

Speaking of free, with the book, you offer a White paper on "Cross Selling and Up Selling" plus "Multi-Million Dollar Secrets for Selling Information Online." Could you explain what that is?

The first White paper is by Dr. Tony Alessandra on how to take your product and upsell it and cross sell it into additional products. One of the ways you can grow sales is by selling more with each transaction.

David Garfinkel is the Founder of the Worldwide Copy Institute and he's an absolute master Copywriter. He's made millions of dollars selling his knowledge on the internet. The second White paper contains the tools and techniques he used to create his million dollar business selling information online.

The Habitat for Humanity logo is illustrated on the book's back cover. What's its significance?

My publisher, Morgan James, is owned by David Hancock. He's a big believer in giving back, and has strong Chrisitian ethics. He teamed up with Habitat and a portion of the revenues generated form each book sold goes to Habitat for Humanity. I believe last year, over $300,000 was donated to the organization. That's why the logo is on the back of the book, because I support his efforts.

Can you give the Cool Cleveland audience three convincing reasons why they should read 49 Marketing Secrets (That Work) To Grow Sales?

One is that the book isn't designed to be read sequentially, page per page. If there's a specific area that you're having challenges with then you can go right to that section without missing anything. The book's content works because it was written by people who have used these very techniques to grow their businesses. Another differentiator is the book's eight chapters on Selling. After you generate leads, you learn how to generate business.

Do you have any concluding comments, Ron?

One, is that you've got to surround yourself with smart people. Business owners cannot under any circumstances, assume they know it all, because that's when businesses fail. Surround yourself with an Advisory board, and take their advice. Let them test you, challenge you so you can take your business to the next level. Use them as a testbed-are the marketing ideas good? Is this where I want to take my business? Because multiple minds and multiple experiences are far suprerior than a single mind or experience.

Secondly, come to the NEO Celebrate Success! Conference on November 1. We'll be doing the nomination process in July. If you're a successful company, and have an idea to share, contact me. I'd be more than happy to get you involved in the nomination process. Come down and learn from the people who've been there. That process alone of being with people who've been there is one of the best learning experiences i've ever had. For me, three books have come out of it, lots of business and lots of opportunities. I can't believe I'm an exception to the rule. I think anyone can benefit from the conference.

Interview by Cool Cleveland contributor, Tim Zaun timATtimzaun.com
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