Interview with the Creators of "FestuSization" By Cort McCadden Apr 12, 2006

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Cort: Today I have with me Brother Paul and Miz Kathy who have become dear Internet friends that have one heck of a USP - “FestuSization” which Brother Paul will explain later. I know that you two are new “hotshots” in Internet Marketing; however I would like to know what you two did before your Net involvement. When was this? What got you two interested in the Net?

Brother Paul:

I have sold everything from large appliances to cars to cemetery plots (which you would think people are “dying” to get into, but it turns out that’s not the case, because they were the toughest sale to make) until we moved to North Dakota in 1996. At that point, I became a Circulation District Manager for a newspaper. I have also been a blackjack dealer, a preacher, a magician, a fiction writer, a convenience store clerk, and worked in rent to own. More recently, I have worked in various aspects at a call center for a Fortune 500 company.

Miz Kathy:

I went to college to get my degree in rehabilitation. Due to my having been stricken with multiple sclerosis, I have been pretty much “home bound.” So, I took care of the house, the house repairs, gardening, crocheting, taking care of our three dogs (a border collie, a Doberman-shepherd, and an American Staffordshire Terrier), yard work, took care of my parents, raised my children, love my grandchildren and went hunting and fishing when I can. I also help those that come to me for advice (around here, most of the teenagers call me “mom,” and come to me with their “problems.”) I also have worked on finding ways to keep the house going, when we were “broke,” (I’ll let Brother Paul explain that a little later), and found many inexpensive ways to cook, clean, repair, and do whatever was needed for our survival, which is going to lead to a later work, which I am taking the lead on, called Living Large In A Small Town On No Budget.

Brother Paul:

In 1999, I fell in love with the Internet. There was so much good information, and I discovered you could find out anything. I knew that Miz Kathy and I had to be a part of it.

I started our first “failed” venture, (the reason I say “failed,” is because there are no such thing as “failures” only “lessons"). A Guide To Complete Freedom was created to show people how to become free from their jobs, their troubles, and everything. Because I knew little about how to properly market, I got tired of not making any money, and gave the entire list away to another marketer!

We then built “Stark Raving Christianity,” which drew about thirty people and provided daily Bible Readings and little bits of “Christian” wisdom until in March of 2001, when our computer died.

As Miz Kathy and I were too broke to replace the computer, (not poor, because “broke” is a temporary state, where “poor” is permanent, because it creates a state of mind that drives you down) I spent hours and hours reading everything I could get my hands on from the library. I studied real estate, mail order, self-improvement, and anything that would help me better myself or make money.

We got enough money together to get a new computer in October of 2004, and this time I was going to study to get the Internet marketing down right. In March of 2004, I stumbled across As A Man Thinketh by James Allen and The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles. Since both of them appeared to be written in “high tone” language, I decided to “re-write” these classics in the “simplest” of terms. That’s when I created “FestuSization,” which is the art of making everything sound like it was said by “Festus” the deputy from Gunsmoke because although Festus sounded un-educated, he had hidden inside of him, a whole lot of wisdom.

But, I knew, this time, I had to market it right. So, we bought our first actual domain: cureforbeingsickandtiredofitall.com. We loaded these and other e-books up to the new website, and started marketing by giving away the e-book, and notifying the free e-book websites they were for sale.

We then realized that cureforbeingsickandtiredofitall was waaaay tooo long of a name, so we are now at our current website of http://www.foundsecrets.com.

Cort: What a moving story! Did you see the value of Email Marketing almost immediately after it appeared? What made you get involved with Email Marketing?

Miz Kathy:

I knew that we were getting a lot of e-mails, and I told Brother Paul, if he was smart, he would find out how to do what they were doing. As usual, he did not listen to me until much later.

Brother Paul:

No, Miz Kathy and I did not see the value of Email Marketing until last year.

That was why we went down the “wrong” Internet marketing road not once, but twice.

We thought everything was in those Free For All Links and Banner Ads. Our first two ventures into Internet marketing was even on “free” web hosts, with “free” hosted mailing lists, just to show you how “wrong” we were.

Eventually, through learning enough “lessons,” notice I did not say “mistakes,” we finally realized that we had to get an opt-in list of targeted subscribers. That was why I first created the two “FestuSized” works of As Ya Think and The Exact Way Ta Git Rich hoping to hone into a targeted market of people seeking new ways to read Public Domain works. Miz Kathy and I decided that if we gave away enough of these free e-books, that we would start building a bigger and bigger base of opt-in subscribers!

We saw that was bringing in some subscribers, but not as many as we wanted. So, that’s when Miz Kathy reminded me of a piece I had started for our first venture A Guide To Complete Freedom.

The piece she was referring to had come about when I was working in the newspaper business, and I blurted out, “I would bet there is a dozen ways to make money just by using the newspaper.” So, Miz Kathy and I began assembling the different ways to make money, but never finished the piece. But, we did note that there was more than a dozen ways.

So, out came the work to be re-done. But, because we had learned about the importance of a proper headline, it would no longer be titled: 12 Ways To Make Money With Your Newspaper. The new title would involve the reader: Open Your Daily Newspaper & MAKE MONEY!

Cort: That was the Ebook that got me interested in learning more about you two. So did this lead to your fame and fortune on the Net?

Brother Paul:

Heavens no! Interest was there but sales were slow. We had built our list to a little over 500 people, but we needed more!

That’s when I figured out how to put a form on a page that not only subscribed the visitor to a mailing list, but also re-directed them to a landing page. That way, we could “kill two birds with one stone”: we could get them subscribed and give them a gift more quickly. One of the major marketers advised us that we needed to create a landing page from the form, so we had to learn how to do it, if we were going to succeed.

Once, we did that, we could then join up with other joint venture marketers and GIVE away copies or access to our new work: Open Your Daily Newspaper & MAKE MONEY! The more we gave it away, the more the sales came in from the back end offers! So, if your readers want to know the basic key to success in Internet marketing, Cort, it is this: learn the proper art of e-mail marketing!

Cort: You bet, Brother Paul! What are your feelings about Plain vs. HTML Email Marketing? What about the Audio and Visual Email?

Brother Paul:

We try to keep things as simple as possible. That’s why we stay with Plain Marketing.

Plain marketing still allows people to access websites by clicking on a link in their e-mail, but it doesn’t bog down the download. You can HTML code to your heart’s content on your website, but I try to leave it out of the e-mails.

Ditto on the Visual and Audio e-mail. To this date, we have not added either to the website, although we will be doing an audio recording of Open Your Daily Newspaper & MAKE MONEY! that’s going to be released on CD via “snail mail” delivery. And, if we add video, (and yes, we are contemplating works on video, such as step by step methods of magic tricks), we will also deliver that via snail mail.

Miz Kathy and I try to keep it as simple as possible. Simplicity, in our opinion, not flashy presentations, or heavily loaded graphics pages on web pages, or in your e-mails, brings in the crowds.

Miz Kathy:

If you spend more time on providing quality content, the search engines will love you more, your visitors will appreciate you more, and you will find success quicker, in our opinion. Focusing on the other, in our opinion, unless you first know how to do those things well, they are going to look tacky and amateurish, so it’s best left to the few who do it extremely well. We will stay with our simple style, until we see a need to change.

Cort: What have been your biggest successes in your business and why? Failures? What would you do differently if you could do things over?

Miz Kathy:

I’ll let Brother Paul elaborate on the successes. If we were going to do things differently, I would have had Brother Paul start working on this ten years earlier!

Brother Paul:

To date, our biggest success has been Open Your Daily Newspaper & MAKE MONEY!

Cort: I have been involved in advertising for over 30 years and let me say your Ebook opened up my eyes!

Brother Paul:

Thanks, Cort. We are getting people raving about how good this little e-book is.

But, the reason we think it is such a success is because it doesn’t focus on “online marketing.” Don’t get me wrong. There is a lot of good information out there from many great marketers. But, the problem is that a lot of this information gets lost in all the “garbage” that’s sent out by those who try to copycat, but don’t take their readers the entire length of the field.

We also think that the first two e-books that started out this whole venture, The Exact Way Ta Git Rich and As Ya Think took a different path. Some people have misunderstood why I wrote those as “FestuSized” works, thinking I was poking fun at two of the greatest classics of all time. Nothing could be further from the truth. I wrote those so they would stand out. You might laugh at “Brother Paul’s FestuSized” way of writing, but the information was there, and if it was different enough, it might stand out in your mind how to apply it.

Cort: So true, Brother Paul. I had read the other version of Wattles’ book and your book is much more FUN to read. I laughed until my sides split with some of the “FestuSization”!

Brother Paul:

FUN, that’s exactly what Miz Kathy and I want people to do – enjoy these classics as you learn from them. I remember in college being forced to read an extremely dull book called “Stoner,” that was not, to my surprise about a hippy from the 1960s, but was about a college professor from the 1920s and 1930s. Despite the dull read, he had his best successes when he “went against the norm.” That’s what Miz Kathy and I have tried to do with Found Secrets. Go against the norm. You could call it our own Unique Selling Proposition (USP), but we have found it works.

Now, where our “lessons” have come, (remember, Cort, they are not “failures,”) was when we tried to do everything without going legit. Legit means getting our own domain name and paid web host. I would have learned how to automate more quickly, because it took a long time to handle unimportant details that were better handled by automation.

It also took us a long time to learn that we had to collect our visitors e-mail addresses when they come to get their freebies. Once we did that, we went from 20 subscribers over four months to 300 subscribers in one month.

But, you have to remember this, you are where you are because of the choices you make. If Miz Kathy and I hadn’t learned these “lessons,” we might not have been mature enough to handle where we are right now.

Cort: What would be your advice to Internet newbies concerning Email Marketing?

Brother Paul:

Even though we consider ourselves unique among marketers because of our style, you still need to learn these things:

1. Get your own domain name. This can be done for under $10.00

2. Get your own web host. The one we use is currently under $100 per year.

3. Use your web hosts tools, or learn how to install php scripts for automation, (or, if you have to, pay someone to install it on your web site) so that you can gain your visitors permission to be sent e-mails. If you do not collect their e-mail legitimately, many visitors will up and run after they collect their freebies, before you get a chance to provide them value from your back end products.

4. Provide more than just the product you sell. As we teach in Open Your Daily Newspaper & MAKE MONEY! You have to give more in value than what you sell. This is a lesson we learned from Wallace Wattles The Science of Getting Rich and which we also relate in The Exact Way Ta Git Rich.

5. Stay honest about your business dealings, as you should in all things in life. You can’t build trust, if you are trying to be greedy, and “rip people off.” We know that a lot of people go for the fast buck, but it’s those that follow ethical business principles and build trust among their subscribers, who end up truly successful

6. If someone has been where you want to be, then listen to him or her. Don’t criticize them, even if you think they are wrong. They are ahead of you because of what they have done, and if they are willing to teach you, then learn. If you can do it better later, then do it, but until you can, learn.

Miz Kathy:

1. Make sure you have a partner who can handle the responsibilities of the house, so that the webmaster can focus on doing the things that are needed to make it a success. Support each other in what you are doing, and always have open communications about the business.

But, make sure you leave time to focus on each other, when it is all done.

2. Also, if you have a dream, make that dream a reality by setting your goals, and following up until it happens. It doesn’t matter whether it takes one month or ten years, keep going!

It’s nice to have a partner that believes in your dreams to make it happen. If you run up against those who say you can’t, get away from them, like RIGHT NOW! They aren’t going to help you get what you want, so surround yourself with those who believe in you and what you are doing.

Cort: What do you two see in the future for Found Secrets? What are your plans and goals?

Miz Kathy:

As I mentioned, we are currently working on “Living Large In A Small Town On No Budget which will show people how to live inexpensively, but good, regardless of money.

We are also expanding the website to include various topics about a wide range of subjects.

Brother Paul:

We have a new project that broke in December that shows people how to internalize material from “self-help” books more quickly. It’s called the “I’m Making It Mine” process.

We are also hoping to release the audio CD of Open Your Daily Newspaper & MAKE MONEY! and are including tools to help accelerate the learning of the reader quicker on a separate CD, which will include a lot of free software, and e-books that we feel will help the reader cut through some of the “learning” that Miz Kathy and I had to do.

But, if your readers would like to know more about us, we have a way to let them do that. They can access Open Your Daily Newspaper & MAKE MONEY! at the following address:

http://www.foundsecrets.com/hereitis/index.html.

Also, they can get more free e-books, including the aforementioned Exact Way Ta Git Rich and As Ya Think and a whole lot more by going to:
http://www.foundsecrets.com/freebooks.html.

Plus for a sample of The “I’m Making It Mine” e-book, they can download it Here.

And, as always, they can always check out what our latest is by checking out our home page:

http://www.foundsecrets.com.


Cort, it’s been a pleasure!

Make it a great day!

Cort: Thanks, Brother Paul and Miz Kathy for brightening up our day with your thought provoking insights and “FestuSization”!

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Cort McCadden also known by his real name Hugh Simpson is a former consumer investigative reporter for Post Newsweek TV and the co-founder of the website http://www.moneywiselife.com and the new blog http://moneywiselife.blogspot.com where he shares up to date consumer awareness tips for especially seniors since he has reached 60 this year. He is also an emergency preparedness consultant and he encourages you to download the FR** Emergency Preparedness Guide at http://www.usprepared.com offering tips for preparedness on both man made and natural disasters.

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