Last summer, things took a turn for the worse. I heard a lot of twitterings back then about Mercury in retrograde – apparently I wasn’t the only one – but that may be moot now that the planets have been realigned. Anyway, nothing was going my way.
First, I broke my foot. Then my car died.
The medical and repair bills were way beyond my means. So I did what any good flake on crutches does: I panicked. I asked advice from entrepreneurs who were actually making money online about how to earn a bundle of cash, fast – without an actual product to sell. The response wasn’t encouraging.
Then I saw this link posted on Twitter: Make Them Love You. THEN Ask For Money. I clicked and found the answer to my problem. Naomi Dunford seemed to be speaking directly to me. She said, if you need a big chunk of money – in, say, 29 days – spend the first 28 days being insanely awesome and make your customers love you so much they can’t WAIT to buy your product on day 29.
Well, you know the rest. I tweeted, “Anybody want to join me in a challenge based on this post?”
People fell in love with the idea.
And even though she didn’t know me from Eve, Naomi graciously tweeted about the #customerlove challenge, agreed to do an interview with me, wrote the introduction to the Customer Love ebook [pdf], and allowed me to write a guest post for Ittybiz – all of which sent even more people my way (including my new BFF, Colin Beveridge).
And a business was born, handed to me on a silver platter by the amazing Ms. Dunford. And her gift keeps on giving by helping to boost even more businesses through the #customerlove challenge. The ripples just keep spreading.
Colin and I were talking the other day about how Naomi has changed our lives. He has his own story of her amazing effect on his life, and we just knew there were more stories out there. We thought, wouldn’t it be awesome if a whole slew of us blogged on Naomi’s birthday about what she’s done for us?
No surprise – everybody we contacted with the idea was delighted to take part.
So, Happy Birthday, Naomi – we owe you!
LaVonne Ellis
Colin Beveridge
David Crandall
Johnny B. Truant
Roger Lodwig (@FloorElf)
Sarah Marie Lacy
Peggie Arvidson
Jenny Thomas
Phyllis Nichols
Ali Luke
Birdy Diamond
Do you have a story how Naomi changed your life? Share it in the comments, or blog it and post the link in the comments!
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*Puts on party hat and yells SURPRISE!*
Mark Benjamin also has a lovely post here: http://bit.ly/e7fkwt
I sent my link in late – so here it is. Happy Birthday!
http://soundadvicesales.com/2011/03/happy-birthday-naomi-dunford-ittybiz-goddess/
PS LaVonne – Thanks for including me in your surprise!
Happy birthday, Naomi!
Before I discovered you, I hated marketing and the people who made it their careers. I didn’t think they were evil, but every experience I had with a marketing person was bad. Frankly, they didn’t seem to know what the hell they were doing.
And then I found Ittybiz.
My goodness. Marketing information presented in a way that even *I* could understand. Useful tips. Funny stories.
Just brilliant.
When you opened the SpeakEasy, I had to join. It was wonderful. So many cool people. So many interesting conversations. I learned a ton, and it was stuff I use to this day.
So I just want to say “thanks!” Thanks for being awesome. Thanks for all your great advice and wonderful stories and having an attitude and a vision that speaks to so many people.
We love you.
I sent my link in late too! Oops 🙂
Here’s mine:
http://smlacyart.com/how-one-woman-who-swears-a-lot-changed-my-life/
Happy Birthday, Naomi! xox
Happy Birthday to Naomi! I’ve never met Naomi or worked with her directly (yet) but my all-time favorite message from her was her post Getting People to Hate you for Fun and Profit. She gave me permission to not give a rat’s ass about what the other people think of me. It’s the best marketing advice I’ve ever EVER! gotten. For that, Naomi is AWESOME and I can’t wait to work with her sometime. This is more than just for marketing, I find this useful in other parts of my life as well. No more tippy-toeing on eggshells, whew!
Happy Birthday to Naomi! I posted my story (and ninjas) here:
http://antemortemarts.com/2011/03/naomis-ninjas/
LaVonne put Johnny’s post right above mine. Jesus. For once I try to be serious and Johnny writes a story about dragons.
Fuckin’ dragons?!?
Well done, Johnny.
shit.
I’m sure there’s some lesson there about standing out from the crowd, but I’m damned if I can figure it out.
You guys are so awesome it’s ridiculous.
Thank you. A billion times thank you.
Thank YOU, Naomi – we wouldn’t be here without you. 🙂