Welcome back to this series of articles where we’re explaining how our brand-new “7 Ideals” methodology works in detail.

This is article #3 in the series, and so far we shared the main framework of the methodology and the basic principles that are infused in everything we do and giving us direction going forward.

Today we’ll be discussing the story of how I got here. What exactly happened? How long was I developing this method?

I’m also going to share my influences, key events, and so much more.

So, let’s dive right in!

7 Ideals | The Story

The Early Days

It’s important that we go on a little journey here and take things from the start.

This method was not born in a day rather it is the end result of 30+ years in business and marketing.

I got influenced by so many people and learned a lot along the way.

All these experiences formed my perception of doing business and fueled the creation of the “7 Ideals” methodology.

As a teenager, I was working part-time at my family’s manufacturing company, which was founded back in the 70s employing more than 50 people at its peak in the 80s.

This is where I learned a lot about businesses, management, organization, public relations, and sales.

We mainly exported our goods (women’s clothes) to Europe, the United States, and Australia.

At some point, we turned into the local market and I was traveling the country promoting our clothing line to local stores.

This is when I got immersed in sales.

The beginning was very hard as I was young approaching middle-aged business owners who mostly did not want to waste their time with a salesboy.

For more than 2 months, I did not make any sales, at all.

But I got organized, I learned how to enter the stores more confidently, and I was experimenting with my scripts.

And…I remember a day when everything changed. 

It was in Athens, downtown. Heat, crowded streets, clothing stores everywhere, and me carrying a bag with our samples.

After a few failed attempts, I entered another store and quickly looked around for any good signs.

The store was full of visitors and I recall the owner, a 65+ man approaching me.

What can I do for you young man? 

Hi, thanks for the warm welcome, I am a clothing manufacturer and I’d like to show you our latest collection, it’s a new style that is very close to what you already have, and I strongly believe that these designs will become a trend in a few months.

(something like that)

But am I interrupting you? Is this a bad time? 

No, don’t worry, show me the designs.

He started looking at the samples, he asked for the prices, and boom…he ordered right away and I thought he was joking.

I can’t remember the exact number of clothes that he ordered but it was significant, and I remember myself ecstatic for the first time since I became a salesman.

Why did this owner order those clothes immediately without even asking for any details?

Hard to tell, but he was so confident, sure about his business, decisive, and experienced to pick up the designs he liked the most at a glance. He knew he could sell those clothes with no problems at such a location, he knew it was a good deal. And maybe he liked me.

He was an ideal client for me.

Later, many years forward, I realized that it was me who made the difference that day.

…

I kept on visiting stores for quite a long time, but after this incident, I had become a real salesman, I had momentum, and I knew that our clothes were damn good.

It was not my dream to sell stuff, I did not look for it, I was forced to do it, but now I feel blessed for this experience.

In 1992, I got into the Business  Organisation & Administration University. 

My education Curriculum:

• Business
• Marketing
• Production
• Economics
• Sociology
• Mathematics
• Accounting
• English

And this is when I realized how important marketing is. It’s the lifeblood of any business. It’s what keeps a brand alive and thriving.

1998-2014

During this period a lot of things happened. I founded, co-founded, and run various traditional, brick ‘n mortar businesses.

But the economic situation in Greece was getting worse since 2009 due to the European financial sanctions against my country and many businesses, even established ones, were shutting down.

We were still doing OK but not as we used to. I knew I had to do something and in 2014, I started researching online for opportunities.

2014-today

After a few months of research, I decided to start a marketing blog. It was an experiment to see how things work online.

At that time, this was my plan; getting started with affiliate marketing, one of the most straightforward business models, where you promote other companies’ products and services for commissions.

It did not require almost any investment and it was also very promising, with high potential, and countless other benefits.

My ultimate goal was to transform the blog into a marketing agency.

And so I dived deep into the world of online marketing.

An amazing journey had just begun. 

I started studying affiliate marketing and my first mentor was Jay Neill, a highly-experienced marketer and educator at the Wealthy Affiliate University.

I was influenced by a big number of people and marketers, members of the WA community, and other networks.

During the first year of studying and practicing the affiliate marketing model, I realized that my goal to transform the blog into an agency was absolutely viable.

Because what you do as an affiliate partner to promote other companies is not much different than running promotions for your own products/services.

You research the market and the competition, you apply direct response marketing tactics, copywriting and storytelling, content marketing and SEO (search engine optimization), email marketing, paid advertising, video marketing, social media marketing, guerrilla marketing, branding, and a host of other marketing techniques.

On top of that, there’s another layer of difficulty. You have to presell the product to your visitors.

Then, the company you are promoting has to convince those visitors again to purchase their products.

I also learned a lot about affiliate marketing from networks like Affilorama, Afflift, and other marketing forums.

The blog was getting traffic and I was making connections on social media channels, forums, communities, and other properties and people start noticing me in an extremely competitive marketplace.

At some point, in 2016, someone named Matt McWilliams discovered my blog and invited me to become a partner for his marketing consulting firm.

He was an award-winning affiliate manager running product launches for industry leaders and respected names in the industry.

It was a key relationship that helped me connect and partner up with many of those leading names and brands and as a result, scale my business faster than I ever thought possible.

And the main reason was not the commissions from these promotions.

Here’s what happened; as I was partnering up and promoting these brands and entrepreneurs, I learned so much by analyzing and putting into practice their strategies, techniques, and frameworks.

I studied the way they were doing marketing and how they organize and run their product launches.

I read their emails, watched their videos, listened to their podcasts, participated in meetings and training lessons.

I also learned so much about affiliate marketing from Matt by going through his “No Product No Problem” training (a masterpiece).

All this collected knowledge was invaluable, it was the key that opened the door to the creation of the “7 Ideals” methodology (at that time only in my subconscious).

I mean, I wanted to transform the blog into an agency but I did not know back then that my own marketing methodology would be the key to this transition.

I’ve partnered up with Ray Edwards, my copywriting mentor, and started applying his frameworks to my business with phenomenal results.

I learned the importance of building a tribe by Jeff Goins.

I studied the famous “Product Launch Formula” by the legendary Jeff Walker. A system used by thousands of brands worldwide that works like crazy. A method that builds trust, authority, and most importantly anticipation for your next product or service.

Do you see what I mean? It builds anticipation. People are getting excited BEFORE you launch the product.

In some cases, business owners are getting paid in advance to create their products.

Since then, I’ve seen this specific formula in action a thousand times by so many brands in various industries and verticals.

Many brands are using variations of this method and other entrepreneurs have developed similar systems but they are all based on Jeff’s formula.

We have the “7ID Quick Launch Framework” in the “7 Ideals” methodology which is based, again, on Jeff’s formula and variations of it.

I got connected with Kevin Harrington, the inventor of the infomercial, and I’ve learned so much about sales.

I’ve partnered up with Mirasee and Danny Iny and I’ve gone through the “Business Ignition Bootcamp”.

It’s a short, intensive program that challenges your thinking, opens your mind, and enables you to see your business in a whole new light. It’s an experience where you’re getting insight and clarity into exactly where to focus your efforts for dynamic business growth. 

I got connected and promoted brands like Click Funnels, Systeme, all marketing platforms where you can build sales funnels and automate parts of your business.

I studied the “Ask Formula” by Ryan Levesque, marketing innovator, and went through the “Quiz Funnel Masterclass” training that shows you how to build highly-successful sales funnels based on quizzes and other questionnaires.

I was also influenced by Armand Morin, a marketing veteran, and his Marketing University.

I learned a lot about lead generation at OptinMonster University.

I came across innovative social media marketing and other techniques taught by Chad Nicely and Daven Michaels.

I discovered how to run successful online challenges by Pedro Adao.

I learned everything I know about running membership sites by Stu McLaren and his masterpiece training program, the “Tribe”.

I was influenced by Steve Olsher and his training programs, and I realized how important podcasts and social audio channels are and how to use them properly in my business.

I honed my entrepreneurial skills with the help of the legendary Tony Robbins.

I learned a lot from Dean Graziosi, another innovative business owner, that helped me realize the true potential in the information industry and how to use information as a vehicle of growth, change, and impact.

I was influenced by Kim Walsh Phillips and her remarkable social media strategies.

I discovered new ways of doing business by watching Dr. Patrick Gentempo and his partner Jeff Hays deploy their innovative docu-series model.

I came across the innovative reverse sourcing wholesale method taught by Dan Meadors and Dylan Frost, two ultra-successful eCommerce sellers. 

I honed my writing skills with the help of Hope Writers, a community of authors and I discovered how to publish books with the help of agencies or on my own.

I’ve connected with Nick Stephenson, founder of the training program “Your first 10,000 readers”, and I learned how book launches work.

I’ve also connected with Eben Pagan, one of my mentors, a respected name in the industry, a highly successful entrepreneur, marketer, and coach. I’ve gone through the “Virtual Coach” training program that helped me launch training workshops and  I’m slowly building a coaching practice in the background.

I’ve also partnered up with hundreds of software and multimedia companies and I’ve watched how they run their promotions and do their launches.

Additionally, I learned a lot by attending online events, summits, webinars, masterminds, and conferences and by watching documentaries, interviews, and other material.

It’s hard to mention everyone, this list would be huge.

Books

I’ve read so many books that I could not mention them all right here. I will mention only the books that influenced me the most and played a role in the creation of my methodology.

• Dr. Trevor Blattner – Redefining the top 1%
• Donald Miller – Building a storybrand
• Ray Edwards – How to write copy that sells
• Ben Settle – Super-villains of persuasion 2
• Mark Miller – Smart leadership
• David Ogilvy – Confessions of an advertising man
• David Ogilvy – How to create advertising that sells
• David Ogilvy – Ogilvy on advertising
• Steve Olsher – What is your what
• John Mullins & Randy Komisar – Getting to Plan B: breaking through to a better business model 
• E. M. Goldratt – Critical chain 
• E. M. Goldratt – The goal
• P. T. Barnum – The Art of Money Getting: Golden Rules for Making Money
• Charles Haanel – The Master Key System
• Napoleon Hill – Think and grow rich
• T. Harv Eker – Mindfrick – master your inner world to succeed in the outer world
• Anthony Ulwick – What customers want
• Anthony Robbins – Awaken the giant within
• W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne – Blue ocean strategy
• Russell Brunson – Expert secrets
• Russell Brunson – DotCom secrets
• Dan Kennedy – The ultimate sales letter boost
• Dan Kennedy – Copywriting mastery
• Dan Kennedy – The NO BS guide to brand building
• Dan Kennedy & Kim Walsh Phillips – The NO BS guide to direct response social media marketing
• Eben Pagan – Opportunity
• Eugene M. Schwartz – Breakthrough Advertising 
• Jay Abraham & Carlos Dias – The CEO who sees around corners
• Jay Abraham – Getting everything you can out of all you’ve got
• Jay Abraham & Carlos Dias – Find the motherlode of wealth in your business
• Jay Abraham – The sticking point solution
• Robert B. Cialdini – Influence
• Robert Kiyosaki – Rich dad poor dad

The Idea of the “7 Ideals”

At some point in late 2020, early 2021, I knew I wanted to develop my own methodology.

Now, have in mind, that in December of 2019, I had reached my first goal of transforming the blog into an agency.

As a result, I had already created a business & marketing plan, a roadmap that I used to communicate with clients and provide my services. 

And this plan was meant to give birth to the “7 Ideals”.

So, I started working in the background but with very limited free time to devote to this direction, I was moving very slowly.

During the summer vacation with my family, I had time to relax and see things from another perspective.

I had built a skeleton, the main framework for the method that consisted of 7 phases, but I did not have a name.

I brainstormed a few terms but nothing impressed me enough.

But then, one day, I woke up remembering this combination of numbers and letters: 7ID.

I could not remember where I saw this but my inner voice was shouting out loud that it was important.

ID…idioma? identity? ideology? idea? ideal?

When I came back from the holiday, I was pretty busy so I could not devote time to think of the name.

And then, one day, out of nowhere again, or was it? I had an idea.

As I was studying the 7 phases of the framework on paper, I noticed that these 7 phases were making up a complete, autonomous, and fully scalable brand.

So, these phases would represent the stages where we craft and cultivate brands.

7 ideal phases that make up the perfect brand.

7 Ideals.

Having decided on the name, it was way easier to give a name to the 7 phases as well.

• 7ID Zone: the phase of research, evaluation, testing, preparation
• Big IDeas: developing a brand’s unique voice, copywriting, storytelling & branding
• IDeology: product development (our products/services is a system of ideas and ideals that people would relate to)
• IDentity: building a LIVE brand, communicating and interacting with the market
• The 7 Ideals “Machine”: marketing, automation, sales
• IDiosyncrasy: building a movement
• The 7 “IDols”: expansion

These are the 7 Ideals, the 7 phases that make up a perfect brand.

Beyond the main framework that describes the 7 phases, I’ve developed dozens of independent frameworks that work as shortcuts.

The method is huge. It takes months to implement it in its entirety.

These frameworks help us go through the 7 phases quickly and test the market instantly before we decide to go all in.

They are also designed to create more depth and add to the method new dimensions.

The way I’ve developed the method gives me the freedom to adapt and refine it at any given moment.

Was it easy?

The marketing plan I created in December 2019 was the forerunner of the method.

After one whole year, I started working on the method and gave it a name in the summer of 2021.

It took me months to organize and collect everything on paper.

I’ve gone through many of the books I’ve already read including those from the university.

I studied and saw in action so many methods throughout those years that made the whole process a lot easier.

If I had to summarize it up, it was not as difficult as I thought it would be.

But again, it’s due to experience.

What makes the method unparalleled?

It’s a holistic approach that looks at businesses as a whole.

We’re not just promoting products and services.

For that matter, I recommend that you go through the basic principles and the main framework of the method to get a better understanding of how things work.

I describe everything in detail but here’s an overview of what the method does for any brand.

First of all, we are in it for the impact, not the money.

We respect everyone, the market, consumers, our partners, vendors, suppliers, team members, affiliates, partners, and the environment.

Every operation we undertake is strategically organized.

We identify our target audience, we analyze the market, the competition, and our business itself.

We define the platforms that we are going to use to boost our presence, and we develop our first series of info-products and temporary marketing funnels that we’ll use to test the market and people’s responses.

We help you become an unstoppable entrepreneur and give you unparalleled momentum.

We deploy and shape an overall strategy. A roadmap that will help our brand evolve and thrive in the competitive marketplace.

We develop our own unique voice by using a combination of branding, copywriting, and storytelling.

We cultivate the language we are going to use to communicate and interact with the market in real-time, 24/7.

We develop high-qaulity products and services to solve problems, help people with their challenges, educate and entertain them, relieve or soothe pain, cover needs, wants, desires, and aspirations.

We add quality to people’s lives.

We deploy amazing crushing offers that the market begs us to create.

We communicate our brand’s standards, values, expertise, and vision and address customers’ problems, needs, and wants.

We interact with consumers, engage with them, entertain and educate them, and provide superior customer service.

We deploy tested and proven content marketing techniques and frameworks to attract, educate, nurture, entertain, and retain a targeted audience.

We are building awareness, trust, credibility, and authority and we start adding value at every stage of the buyer’s journey and we convert strangers into prospects, customers, loyal fans, advocates, and promoters of our brand.

We use a host of marketing channels: our website, social media and social audio channels, forums, communities, networks, offline channels, video channels, podcasting directories, and so on.

We organize and deliver memorable live events (our secret weapon).

We organize and run product launches, online challenges, workshops, webinars, training masterclasses, Q&As, and on and on and on.

We build a well-oiled, strategically organized, flexible, and adaptive machine. It’s a system that transforms our business into a machine.

With a series of proven, time-tested frameworks we create a snowball of events that take your brand from unknown status to a leading name in our industry.

We utilize all the available and non-available business resources to maximize sales, create a competitive advantage in the market, and increase customer satisfaction.

It’s also a method that is constantly evolving as we’re coming across new challenges inside a competitive landscape and we test people’s responses.

We automate parts of our business, constantly trying to calculate, monitor, and improve marketing actions and tactics and reallocate a company’s resources so that it grows as much as possible in the shortest period of time.

With a very powerful framework, we attract only the right, best-fit customers who have the potential to become loyal fans and part of our movement, and we repel those we don’t want to work with.

We form strategic partnerships, joint-ventures, and we take advantage of the flexible affiliate marketing model to boost our presence with the help of amazing partners worldwide.

And so much more.

I am using all the cutting-edge strategies and techniques that work today.

I studied and continue to study the best of the best, perform millions of tests, constantly develop my own strategies and techniques and experiment with new methods.

As I partner up with more awesome brands and as I study new authors, marketers, entrepreneurs, and various approaches, the “7 IDEALS” will grow and evolve, too.

What’s Next

This is the story of the methodology. 

It’s the end result of years in business and marketing. 

Now, we have a long way to go.

The next article will be released soon.

So stay tuned for this.

Thanks again for joining me in this journey and I look forward to working with you privately.