“This is the one and only
full-fledged Digital Marketing & Sales Certification Training
program to be funded by the government,” exclaimed Paul Tobey with a
flashing smile as he introduced his company to students at their
headquarters, located at 25 Lesmill Road in North Toronto.
“The
Canada Job Grant Program has over $1 Billon in Grant money to fund
training programs like this one.” He then looked around with more
smiles, as if he were planning to play more jazz tunes. “And that is why
many of you are here now!” he added, spinning on his heels, to write
notes with a marker on the flipchart behind him. As a matter of fact, at
the end of the day, this flipchart paper would cover the room like
wallpaper. He would make it a point that all of the attendees refresh
themselves throughout the course of what they’d learned using the
flipcharts as a reference point.
Paul Tobey was born on a farm in
Owensound, Ontario. He is the son of a United Church Minister. His
father not only owned a moving company to help raise a family but he
also at one time dabbled in politics, running for local elections in the
Joe Clarke Government in the late 1970’s. But that is all water under
the bridge.
In what he calls his former life, Paul Tobey played
the piano for 42 years, becoming an award winning jazz concert pianist.
He toured 21 countries and created a body of work that included 7
albums. It was a fun life but it barely paid the bills.
Due to
constant practice and discipline, this artist had the chutzpa to score
an 8 record deal stateside with Arkadia Jazz, the largest independent
record label in the USA. While he was generally successful at finding
gigs, it was still an artist’s income. And when September 11th, 2001
happened, the jazz label located in close proximity to ground zero,
would go silent. This already fragile jazz business suffered and Tobey’s
career in jazz didn’t survive.
Without the label’s support,
Tobey’s career also plunged. Consequently, Tobey lost his home and had
to move back with his family, living in the spare room. Feeling defeated
by the onset of this reality, Paul slipped into depression. However,
“with every new challenge comes two solutions and 1 opportunity”. This
industrious man then did something he never thought he would do, he went
to self-help books to reset his brain and heart. It did not take long
for Tobey explore the opportunities that evolved out of .com craze, and
set his mind at redefining himself, mastering the blue ocean that was
the internet.
Tobey went back to the drawing board. He learned
everything he could about internet marketing and completed his Train the
Trainer Certifications. He read books by Joe Vitale, originator of
hypnotic copywriting and motivational books like John Assaraf’s “Having
it All”.
Through the help of digital marketers in Australia and
Texas, Paul experimented with online conversions. Through more trial and
error, the jazz man then practiced the art of Search Engine
Optimization, or SEO. In September 04, 05, and 06, he began by selling
Christmas sheet-music, and his newfound SEO skills made him the number
one web site on Google for keywords such as Christmas sheet music.
After
several ventures of varying levels of success, he grasped the value of
developing a list. He redefined his goal: rather than trying to sell
someone right away, he made it his goal to attract a larger amount of
leads and capture the customer data of everyone that went to his web
site.
Paul built a site which promoted “Advanced Online Piano
Lessons, coming soon!” He had people opt in to a list where they would
receive a discount when the lessons were ready, in exchange
recommendations for song selection they would like included in the
downloadable jazz piano lessons.
Production took time. Paul had
to hire a film crew to film the 10 piano lessons. He wasn’t satisfied
with their editing, so he had to scrap what they did and try again. Then
it took him six months to learn how to edit video and sync perfectly
with audio. Finally, the courses were ready.
“I went to a Tony
Robbins event, but before I left, I sent out an email to the list,
thanking everyone for their patience. I cut prices and gave everyone a
deal. I was on my way to the car…my phone buzzed. I pulled up at the red
light, it buzzed again. 48 hours passed and my 30 thousand initial
investment was returned. "
Fast forward, Paul became one of
Canada’s leading digital marketers. With his wife he co-founded Training
Business Pros which went on to train over 50 thousand businesses, with
thousands becoming loyal tribe members.
The Tobey team grew
quickly and they site this growth due to their #1 core inside advantage
“we stay fresh, current and relevant”. The team is deeply committed to
staying on top of what is new in the world of digital marketing. “We
only train on what we can prove with metrics. If we only read about it
or heard about it, we don’t train it. Only if we get real world results
with the digital marketing strategy do we train it.”
He dropped a
bomb at one point when he said, “SEO is dead, and User Experience
Optimization is in!” To all of the trainees, this seemed to unlock a
hidden growth opportunity. Training Business Pros prides itself on
printing their manuals the day before, to ensure their students get the
most up-to-date information.
In the Digital Marketing and Sales
Certification program, be prepared to take notes, notes, and more notes!
You also learn by doing. Bring your laptop and start implementing in
the classroom.
Training Business Pros also differentiates itself
by edu-taining. Their presentation style is the exact opposite of a
university lecture. TBP will give you the energetic presentation from an
award winning concerto jazz pianist, which produces an energetic
response from its attendees.
Sessions are broken up with working
exercises, and collaborative assignments where participants shuffle to
different tables, and team up with other professionals where networking
and new connections are encouraged.
"I work in the beauty
industry,” says Dee Sarwan, during one moment at the seminar, “I am not a
techie, but I need to keep up to date with my website. I shouldn't have
to rely on someone else for this. All I need is a refresher course. So I
don't have to pay someone to do my website."
Nick Longo, TBP’s
Small Business Advisor said “We have two types of clients; business
owners who take advantage of our 5-year tuition, and the employees who
are sent on behalf of their company through the Canada Job Grant”. With
professional enthusiasm, Tobey guides attendees through strategies on
how to capture new leads, where to place conversion triggers on eye
catching blogs, how to rank better using social media and PPC
strategies. He also promotes Customer Lifecycle Marketing, how to use
nurture campaigns, data-mining strategies and re-targeting campaigns.
At
Training Business Pros, one will learn original content is important.
Like the FBI in a flower van on the outside, Google watches reader
reaction.
For example, a Blog Post needs to engage. Google can
see the scroll rate, time on page, bounce rate, including grammar and
spelling, placement of keywords in the title, description, inbound
links, relevant images, social shares, captions, and author authority.
Do the people who reach your site click it, read it, and engage with it?
Do they believe it!?
There was no end of information dispensed
at this training. He also suggested business books for attendees to
read. Robert Bloom’s Inside Advantage, Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up and of
course his own “Brain Dead Offer #1”. Back to the flipchart, with a
marker Tobey would scrawl critical business intelligence to help
businesses own their digital marketing strategies.
Training
Business Pros does not hold out. If you hope to learn you’re inside
advantage and leverage this for your digital marketing strategies, this
may be for you. And the government would pay up to 83.3% of this course!
For more information, go to https://www.trainingbusinesspros.com/.
Paul Collins author of Mack Dunstan's Inferno/Mystery of Everyman's Way
Buy Paul Collins books at http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Collins/e/B003LRE5F0/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
See Paul Collins videos at
https://www.youtube.com/user/pollywolly77
Friday, September 25, 2015
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