Training Business Pros with Paul Tobey

“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

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