I make it a point to go to a couple of educational workshops per year – there are lots of people doing new things with marketing, the media are always changing, and it’s great to get fresh insights. A weekend of marketing with Dan Kennedy was incredibly enlightening.
This is the first event I’ve taken with Dan Kennedy – he hosted an event for American Writers and Artists International, and I’m sure it won’t be the last course I take from Dan!
Dan Kennedy has a well-deserved reputation for being a grouch, (at least on the surface) and he’s certainly not easy on his clients or his students. Just the reading was almost more than I could lift at one time. But Dan delivers first-class advice and had answers to questions that had been bugging me for years.
In addition to the main attraction – marketing with Dan Kennedy – I also had the opportunity to see some of my AWAI colleagues again – I met Katie Yeakle for the first time, saw the always delightful Denise Ford and Mindy Tyson McHorse and Joshua Boswell. I met Al Helisig of Alansa International LLC (who has some great ideas about Business to Government sales) Tony Contreras of Phoenix, who’s working in the healthcare/hospice specialty, Kristi Hyllekve who does global language and cultural translations (it’s more than just translating words!) and Zac Nelles who came from Australia for the conference. His schedule was 19 hours off his usual time zone.
Not sure that I would recommend Cleveland as a tourist destination, but as an added treat after the course, we were treated to an evening at Northfield Park, Dan’s home racing track.
We met Dan’s beautiful racehorses (who were much friendlier than Dan, and much cleaner than most of the horses we have out West – Each of these guys gets daily massages and pedicures!) and watched harness racing over dinner and more great conversation.
Altogether, it was a VERY productive weekend. I came home with SEVERAL pages of notes of ideas for each of our clients. Time to get to work!
Book Club Discussion – Marketing to the Affluent by Dan S. Kennedy
Book Club Discussion – Trust Based Marketing by Matt Zagula & Dan S. Kennedy
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Cool – I’ve spent most of the day watching a live event with the Californian Doug Richard, he is also excellent and a grouch as well.
Maybe it’s a restless need for success and the need to challenge existing norms that makes them so.
Sounds excellent – not being able to meet him face to face, what’s the best book you’ve read from him? – I know it’s a poor substitute Paula, but you have got to start somewhere.
Roy
Hi Roy –
Dan’s working on a new book on Pricing Strategy – we had a preview during the conference but that’s an area that we get asked about all the time and that I’ve never been able to find a good textbook or reference for – just bits & pieces in other marketing textbooks that are outdated or not really relevant. . .
Otherwise, I would say any of his “No B.S.” books give great information on a given topic (marketing to the affluent, information marketing, and so on.)
I think we all need to be accountable, and being accountable to a grouch is much more effective than being accountable to a doormat. I’m working on developing some appropriate and constructive grouchiness.
-Paula
Hi Paula,
If Donald Trump is The Donald, then Dan Kennedy must be The Dan. You bumped into some of the same folks I did, but my venue was that AWAI Boot Camp last Nov. in Delray Beach. I’m a great fan of Dan’s info, and he’s done that excellent work with Bill Glazer as well. After listening to him speak, my guess is that if you hook up with Kennedy, you’re either gooing to run forward or get dragged. The guy is amazing. You mentioned Joshua as well, and he and I are good friends. I owe a lot of where I am in copywriting to his help and direction. P.S., I knew Dan was a horseman, but he’s really crazy about ’em, isn’t he? P.P.S., Would like to ask you about your work in Aviation.
Dave Kent
[…] – John and I are part of a Dan Kennedy networking group, so we end up using a lot of Dan Kennedy books in our Book Club – at least two a year. Let’s just go around the table, and if you […]
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