The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
870 BIG pages of practical, nitty-gritty tips, tricks, and tactics including 167 proven business building secrets Learned From the Guru’s that will Help you Achive your Life and Business Goals, Dreams, and Desires!
Dexter Abraham and Nerd #2
Published by FastPencil, Inc. Copyright © 2010 Dexter Abraham
Published by FastPencil, Inc. 3131 Bascom Ave. Suite 150 Campbell CA 95008 USA (408) 540-7571 (408) 540-7572 (Fax) [email protected] http://www.fastpencil.com
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First Edition Dedicated to Nerd Nation. Our Blog Followers. Thank you for helping us create something Special! ❧
Contents
CHAPTER 1: Productivity Tools: The Kitchen Sink, The Kids, The Wife, and Oh…Just Take the Whole Damn House… 1
CHAPTER 2: Productivity Tools Part Two: The Kitchen Sink, The Kids, The Wife, and Oh…Just Take the Whole Damn House… 3
CHAPTER 3: Productivity Tools Part Three: The Kitchen Sink, The Kids, The Wife, and Oh…Just Take the Whole Damn House… 6
CHAPTER 4: Productivity Tools Part Four - Take Out The Trash - The Kitchen Sink, The Kids, The Wife, and Oh…Just Take the Whole Damn House… 9
CHAPTER 5: Sunday a Day of Rest! Uh Uh I Don’t Think So…. 11
CHAPTER 6: What Do Doyle Brunson and This Young Poker Player Have in Common? The Slight Edge! 14
CHAPTER 7: I Got Caught With My Pants Down and Nobody Would Help Me Pull Them Up! 16
CHAPTER 8: Introducing My Number One… Note Taking Nerd2 19
CHAPTER 9: Dan Kennedy’s Wealth Attraction Part 1 22
CHAPTER 10: The $20 Insurance Plan Seinfeld Says Is Responsible For His Becoming A Millionaire. 24
CHAPTER 11: “I’ve Never Had An Original Idea In My Life” - Dan Kennedy 27
CHAPTER 12: Do You Want To Live Life On Your Terms? 31
CHAPTER 13: Are You Sabotaging Everything You Write By Not Doing What Ted Nicholas And Other Super Star Writers Do Before They Even Touch The Keyboard? 32
CHAPTER 14: If You Haven’t Mastered This Professional Stand Up Comedian Skill Yet… You’re Making It Harder Than It Should Be for People To Give You Money. 38
CHAPTER 15: The Law That Makes “The Law of Attraction” Work 41
CHAPTER 16: Are You Unconsciously Repelling People? 44
CHAPTER 17: Part 1 - Are You Unconsciously Repelling People? - 4 Steps of Cultivating A Magnetic First Impression 46
CHAPTER 18: Part 2 – Are You Unconsciously Repelling People? 5 Steps To Cultivating A Magnetic First Impression 49
CHAPTER 19: Three Steps To a New You! 52
CHAPTER 20: Part 3 – Are You Unconsciously Repelling People? 5 Steps To Cultivating A Magnetic First Impression 54 vi Contents
CHAPTER 21: Part 4 - Are You Unconsciously Repelling People? 5 Steps To Cultivating A Magnetic First Impression 57
CHAPTER 22: Part 5 - Are You Unconsciously Repelling People? 5 Steps To Cultivating A Magnetic First Impression 60
CHAPTER 23: Three Time Frames That Will Transform You For Better or Worse! 64
CHAPTER 24: The 66 Questions That Will Catapult Your Business To New Heights 66
CHAPTER 25: Do You Use The Blunt Force Trauma Of A Jackhammer To Sell? 69
CHAPTER 26: The Secret To Taking Your Business From Where You Are To Where You Want To BE! 73
CHAPTER 27: The Exact Wrong Way To Write An Email That Sells And How Rush Limbaugh Can Teach You The Right Way To Do It 75
CHAPTER 28: You Don’t Get This Right You’re Screwed! 78
CHAPTER 29: Are You A Wussy When It Comes To Asking For The Sale? 83
CHAPTER 30: Can You Craft A Solid Sales Letter Without A Swipe File? 84
CHAPTER 31: The Best Way I’ve Found To Spike My Energy When I Write 87
CHAPTER 32: Do Your Paragraphs Have Race Car Momentum Or Are They Clunkers? 89
CHAPTER 33: The One Skill You Must Learn To Succeed In This Recession Or You Can Just Get Your Place IN Line At The Soup Kitchen Today! 92
CHAPTER 34: “The Top Ten Mistakes You Are Probably Making In Business And What To Do About It…Part One” 95
CHAPTER 35: Part Two - “The Top Ten Mistakes You Are Probably Making In Business And What To Do About It…” 99
CHAPTER 36: Have You Ever Missed Something And Wished You Hadn’t? 102
CHAPTER 37: How Long Does It Take The World Class To Become World Class? 104
CHAPTER 38: 5 Small Things You Can Do To Improve The Quality Of Your Life Today 109
CHAPTER 39: Are You Merely Interested Or Are You Committed? 112
CHAPTER 40: The Fun, Quick and Easy Way To Get An Unfair Advantage In Your Ability To Persuade In Pixel Or Print? 117
CHAPTER 41: Ten Strategies From Frank Kerns Mass Control Program 120
CHAPTER 42: Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty Story 123
CHAPTER 43: Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty Story Part 1 1/2 126
CHAPTER 44: Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty Story Part 2 129
CHAPTER 45: Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty Story - Finale Part 3 133
CHAPTER 46: Super Bad Ass Stuff You Can Use To Make Your Life Dreamier 137
CHAPTER 47: Long Haired Mexican Pot Head Shocks This Marketer With His Common Sense Sales Persuasion Tactics 140
CHAPTER 48: Is The Story Behind What You Sell Potent Enough To Convince Your Customers To Risk Death To Get It? 145
CHAPTER 49: Are You Coming Across as Too Much of a Smarty Pants To Your Prospects And Customers? 154 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One vii
CHAPTER 50: Predictions For 2009 Part One 160
CHAPTER 51: If I Could Hear The Questions You Ask Yourself Would I Think I Was In The Presence of a Leader Or a Victim? 161
CHAPTER 52: “Kids Always Take The Chocolate or Cheese Coated Option. Do You?” 170
CHAPTER 53: Do You Have Rickets of the Brain? 174
CHAPTER 54: Are You Limiting What Is Possible For You? 176
CHAPTER 55: 10 Million Dollar Secrets of Renegade Millionaires From Dan Kennedy 179
CHAPTER 56: Baby Severely Burns His Hand On Stove … Yet Tries To Touch The Stove Again!! 183
CHAPTER 57: Sometimes The Best Gifts Come In Small Packages 185
CHAPTER 58: 5 Strategies to Help You With a Mass Control Launch 186
CHAPTER 59: The Real Story: Boobs Sell? 187
CHAPTER 60: Are You Using This Magic Formula To Explode Your Profits and Achieve Your Dreams? 191
CHAPTER 61: To Hell With The Gurus: How GoDaddy Broke The Rules And Got Away With It 195
CHAPTER 62: 7 Key Questions You Must Know About Your Business 200
CHAPTER 63: Your Most Deadly Enemy Revealed 202
CHAPTER 64: Do You Deserve The Respect of Your Customers and Prospects? Maybe Not. Find Out Now. 212
CHAPTER 65: 5 Principles Of Marketing Strategy You Must Know 223
CHAPTER 66: Part 1: Two Words That Allow You To Get Anyone To Do Anything You Want. Gun and Mask Not Required… 225
CHAPTER 67: Are You Spending All Your Time Stringing Your Instrument All The While A Masterpiece Resides In You? 233
CHAPTER 68: What You Can Learn From a Poor Little Nerd Boy From Po Dunk Gooding, Idaho? A Lot… 234
CHAPTER 69: Part 2: Two Words That Allow You To Get Anyone To Do Anything You Want… Gun and Mask Not Required 241
CHAPTER 70: A Couple of Lessons Learned From An Aging Bad Ass Italian Mobster and Young Punk Boxer About Pre-Framing 252
CHAPTER 71: Are You In Control Of Your Demons? 258
CHAPTER 72: The Nerd Beginners Kick Ass Guide To Becoming Like Oprah On Twitter Part 1 263
CHAPTER 73: “Why Can’t You Just Be Normal?” 265
CHAPTER 74: The Death Of Brands and The MBA….THE RISE OF MAFIA WARS.. 273
CHAPTER 75: Hey, Oprah’s on the phone asking if you want to be on the show. Whaddya want do you want me to tell her? 276
CHAPTER 76: How To Stack Trust & Desire Into Every Claim You Make About What You Sell 282
CHAPTER 77: Could It Be Possible That the Smoothest Way Known To Man To Get A Woman Open To The Idea of a Threesome Would Be The Same Technique You Could Use To Get Maximum Money From Your Ideal Customers? 294 viii Contents
CHAPTER 78: How To Succeed In Business Without Getting Your Ass Kicked!! 305
CHAPTER 79: Creativity Is Waaaaay Overated 311
CHAPTER 80: The Secret The Guru’s May Shoot Me For Sharing With You! 317
CHAPTER 81: The Truth About The Software Running Every One Of Your Ideal Customers Thinking 322
CHAPTER 82: Manifesto To Myself! 334
CHAPTER 83: How You Can Make Moola With Webinars… Even If You’ve Never Done One Before 346
CHAPTER 84: The 7 Reasons Why Webinars Melt Your Prospects Resistance 353
CHAPTER 85: One Sure Fire Way To Lose Sales In a Tough Economy 359
CHAPTER 86: A Rant From The Chief Nerd About Today’s Kids And A Promise To My Little Girl… 370
CHAPTER 87: “Why Is It That Reasons Come First, Answers Come Second?” 375
CHAPTER 88: Sex, Drugs, …..Salesmanship and a little Psychology 381
CHAPTER 89: Get Real Deep… 385
CHAPTER 90: Your’s Free: $500,000.00 Clayton Makepeace Checklist 387
CHAPTER 91: A Kick Ass Article By Dan Kennedy 397
CHAPTER 92: Dan Kennedy’s Most Valuable Piece of Advice 400
CHAPTER 93: 5 Strategies To Help Get You Off Your Ass and Start Moving 406
CHAPTER 94: Online Video is the craze… Go To Mike Koenigs For Advice On How To Do It Right 409
CHAPTER 95: Clayton Makepeace’s 14 Crucial Elements of Outstanding Subject Lines 411
CHAPTER 96: Be Known as a Good Starter and an Outstanding Finisher 415
CHAPTER 97: “What a Stripper Taught Dan Kennedy When He Was 16 Years Old” 417
CHAPTER 98: Notes From Eben Pagan Modern Marketing Mastery 421
CHAPTER 99: Ryan Deiss And Perry Belcher’s 43 Proven, Brain-Dead-Simple Tweaks You Can Make To Your Site, So You Can Make More Money 430
CHAPTER 100: Do You Take A Fearless Approach To Life? 441
CHAPTER 101: Love Stinks 449
CHAPTER 102: Notes From Yanik Silver’s Latest Underground Seminar 457
CHAPTER 103: Life Isn’t About Dying a Peaceful and Calm Death. It’s About Skidding Sideways Into the Casket Yelling “YEE HAW!!!” 468
CHAPTER 104: Dan Kennedy’s Worst Nightmare 473
CHAPTER 105: Selling With Emotional Impact - Maximizing Your Prospect’s Buying Experience 484
CHAPTER 106: Part 2 - Selling With Emotional Impact - Maximizing Your Prospect’s Emotional Experience 496
CHAPTER 107: Beware The Tricks Money Can Play On Your Mind 505
CHAPTER 108: Why People Don’t Buy From You and What to Do About It 511
CHAPTER 109: Could the Answer To This Question Reveal Why You’re Either Damned or Blessed? 518 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One ix
CHAPTER 110: Are You Good Enough To Write Your Own Content? 522
CHAPTER 111: How To Rule Your Brain With an Iron Fist So That You Get The Results You Want 527
CHAPTER 112: How Ryan Deiss Writes, Produces and Publishes Video Salesletters and How You Can Do It Too 534
CHAPTER 113: Dan Kennedy’s Path To Zero Drama Relationships With Your Consultant, Copywriter or Clients… 545
CHAPTER 114: BEWARE: What You Focus On Expands Faster Than a Horny Dog’s Lipstick 554
CHAPTER 115: Hitler Wants To Share His Message With YOU? 558
CHAPTER 116: The Definitive Guide To The Games People Attempt To Play On You 562
CHAPTER 117: Vice President Joe Biden Is Gonna Help You Get Wealthy 572
CHAPTER 118: The Story of Why You’re Either Happy Or Unhappy About How Much Money You Let Yourself Deposit In The Bank 575
CHAPTER 119: Is Your Income Under Attack From Someone You Know Personally? 579
CHAPTER 120: What Would You Buy With A Million Bucks? 583
CHAPTER 121: All News Is Good News 585
CHAPTER 122: The Free Method To Grabbing The Internet By The Balls And Making It Serve You 587
CHAPTER 123: Disobedience: The Breakfast of Champions 604
CHAPTER 124: Life’s Golden Rules One and Two! 613
CHAPTER 125: Don’t Read This If You Don’t Like Getting Shit Done 617
CHAPTER 126: Are You A Master of This Free, Yet Massively Potent Renegade Tactic That Has Proven To Make You Not Only Wealthier But Also More Attractive To the Opposite Sex? 623
CHAPTER 127: What I Learned From Anthony Robbins And A Great Friend That Changed My Life Forever… 628
CHAPTER 128: Is Traditional Education Responsible For Mediocrity? 635
CHAPTER 129: Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program: Session 1 639
CHAPTER 130: Notes For Session 2 of Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program 646
CHAPTER 131: Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program - Session 3 659
CHAPTER 132: 11 Offline and Online Strategies From The Guru’s 672
CHAPTER 133: Strategies Learned From Anthony Robbins Ultimate Business Mastery Program 681
CHAPTER 134: One Key Business Strategy That Allows You To Impregnate Another Business With Your Good Seed 693
CHAPTER 135: 11 Resources From My Internet Marketing Toolbox 699
CHAPTER 136: Chet Holmes at Ultimate Business Mastery - Becoming a Marketing Master – Secrets of the Super Strategist and How To Build a Core Story 704
CHAPTER 137: 40% of a Person’s Decision to Hand You Money Depends On This One Factor 710
CHAPTER 138: Business Lesson’s Learned While Eating In San Fran and The Secret To Amazing Pancakes… 715
CHAPTER 139: Why Women Are Dominating Household Income, Yet Are Unhappier Then Ever…And The One Strategy I Learned From This That You and I Can Use To Provide Almost Instant Stress Relief 716 x Contents
CHAPTER 140: Chief Nerd Has Heart Problem…Lesson’s Learned.. 727
CHAPTER 141: What’s The Purpose Of a Relationship? 733
CHAPTER 142: Five Traits of the Best of the Best Star Salespeople (and how to attract them to you) 738
CHAPTER 143: The Power To Nurture; The Power To Destroy 742
CHAPTER 144: Kill Relationship Drama Before It Begins 744
CHAPTER 145: What If The Person Causing All Your Problems is YOU? 753
CHAPTER 146: Will The Winds of the Recession Ruin Your Marketing Efforts? 757
CHAPTER 147: Why Will These 5 Questions Get You Outstanding Reviews? 759
CHAPTER 148: The Master “SECRET” To Productivity 763
CHAPTER 149: How To Bond With Your Customers Like You Never Thought Possible. The Power Of Authenticity!! 766
CHAPTER 150: Note From Eben Pagan’s Modern Marketing Mastery Seminar - Part One 768
CHAPTER 151: The Instant Way To Get IN The Conversation Your Customers Are Having… 776
CHAPTER 152: Marketing Lesson’s Learned From a Scary Movie… 778
CHAPTER 153: 5 Things You Must Do To Build And Then Enhance A Unique Relationship With Your Clients!!! 781
CHAPTER 154: How To Earn The Right To Sell Something To Your Customers 787
CHAPTER 155: The Difference Between Knowledge and Wisdom 789
CHAPTER 156: It is better to ask and appear ignorant than to remain ignorant 790
CHAPTER 157: The Ugly Truth About Making Money On The Internet! 797
CHAPTER 158: Gary Vaynerchuk - Turning Your Passion Into a Successful Business 801
CHAPTER 159: Beware Following The “Marketer of The Decade” 811
CHAPTER 160: Freedom From The Need To Be Right 815
CHAPTER 161: How To Never Be Told, “Get To The Point!” While Presenting In Pixel, Print, or Person 821
CHAPTER 162: Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program – Session 4 824
CHAPTER 163: Don’t Give Up On Your Dreams; Unless They Ask You To Intentionally Give Yourself a Concussion 838
CHAPTER 164: Owning Happiness is Either Impossible or Simple 839
CHAPTER 165: Pepe Le Pew: Lose The Drama And Find Your Balls 845
CHAPTER 166: Pepe Le Pew: Losing the Drama and Finding Your Balls – Part 2 849
CHAPTER 167: What I Learned From Anthony Robbins Time of Your Life Program…Part One 857 CHAPTER 1
Productivity Tools: The Kitchen Sink, The Kids, The Wife, and Oh… Just Take the Whole Damn House…
Hey, It’s been a hectic week. And wow in hindsight I’ve gotten a lot done this week despite being overwhelmed with “too much to do”.
This got me to thinking.
I’ve gradually gotten more and more productive over the past year and I’m going to share a just about every single productivity tool I’ve picked up that enables me to do more then I ever thought possible.
“The Whole Damn House” Productivity Tool Set from MyNoteTakingNerd.
Today I’m Going to Talk About a few of The Basics: • • Get online and practice one of those Typing Programs to increase your speed. I know a lot of you are in front of this Glaring Mind Numbing Machine a bunch so increasing your typing speed is one of the fastest ways to get more done. • • • Read the Wake Up Productive Report and start chunking your time into Time Chunks your body and mind was built to handle. Do this followed by periods of renewal and your life will change I promise. Dang it.. I’m given the Report to you so please download Wake Up Productive Today. • • • Use a digital DVR or a File Sharing site to start saving your favorite TV programs and movies in one place so you can schedule your viewing times in when convenient, not to mention the time you save by not having to watch the commercials. 2 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
• • • Make Sure you’re using the fastest, reasonably priced, broadband connection that you can get. Yes this sounds simple, yet you can’t believe how much time you’ll save not waiting for pages to load etc.. • • • “Recharge Right” … Yep there is a secret here and it’s in the Wake Up Product Report. In short… If you are working on something at “Work” then every hour or so take a ten minute break and do something physical or just lay down and breath for a moment. YES… Do this every hour and your productivity will shoot thru the roof I promise. Give it a shot. • • • Download a little tool called Temptation Blocker at http://sourceforge.net/projects/temptblocker/ This simple little tool will allow you to block you from using anything else but the programs you need for a pre-determined amount of time. Until you realize and admit that we all have ADD to some extent you won’t realize how powerful this tiny little program is. Go get it … it’s free. •
Tomorrow or Later on tonight will be Part Two of The Basics, then I’ll get deeper into tools for gathering information, doing research, managing projects, and whole bunch more…. so drop back in from time to time and I promise this stuff just keeps getting better.
In Success,
MyNoteTakingnerd
P.S. O.K…. I’m gonna try again… take two seconds and post a comment for us here at MyNoteTakingNerd and for those that do I’ll send you a a Process Map of all the productivity tools I use here at the office. It’s really cool and useful. Thanks for readin. CHAPTER 2
Productivity Tools Part Two: The Kitchen Sink, The Kids, The Wife, and Oh…Just Take the Whole Damn House…
Hey, Kinda funny writing this post today. I just spent the last 20 hours trying to figure out some stuff on this *$% $@ Blog and accomplished absolutely nothing. Well… I’m assuming I learned something but I’m not real sure.
Anyway… I got frustrated and dissapointed but .. after a bit of sulking and punching a few walls (yeah.. i got a bit of a mean streak in me, but I’m more of the Rocky 25 version if you know what i mean) all i got was a sore hand and emotional distress which leads me to todays blog.
You see our lives, in general, are built around chaos. We are constantly pulled from one thing to another and yet we somehow manage to BARELY SURVIVE. That makes me think about the very first thing I want to talk about in ….
“The Whole House Part Two: The Basics”
You must have a value on your time and you just have to let someone else handle the stuff that isn’t high leverage, high dollar. I should have found someone else to do what I was working on today, after about 3 or 4 hours of mindless internet surfing and “do it yourself” manuals, yet the “man” in me just wouldn’t let the task go.
However, that bein’ said, if you’re anything like me, you’re sick and tired of those damn Guru’s telling us to farm this stuff out as they sit up there in their $5,000 suits with the money and resources to do so. Some of us can’t afford the 2 cents it takes.
So here is where you’ve got to “Hustle”. Yep, if you can’t afford to get some of those agonizing tasks, that never seem to get done, accomplished then you gotta start bartering. Maybe you can trade your services in exchange for someone else gettin’ those accomplished. Get yourself a “Time Credit Card”! What the heck 4 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One do i mean.? I’m not an advocate of being in debt… but if by farming that 50 cent an hour job out, i can free myself up to do $20 an hour work then I know I can pay the AMEX or Visa back at the end of the month.
So what I’m sayin here is ATTATCH A DOLLAR AMOUNT TO YOUR TIME AND THEN GET OUT AND HUSTLE TO GET THAT &*$#$ TAKING CARE OF BY SOMEONE THAT VALUES THEIR TIME LESS THEN YOU DO!
Once you’ve PLACED a dollar amount on your time, find a way to manage yourself. This is a new term to me and probably you as well. I picked it up from Eben Pagan in the Wake Up Productive Program (Down- load the report if you haven’t already… come on for the love of >>>>> DO IT NOW!) he makes a simple point… time moves no matter what and we can’t change that fact.
By the way, if you’ve figured out how to stop this thing we call time please email me immediately and let me know how.
The only thing we have control over is ourselves!!! I know that sucks. I wish I could blame my lack of self management on McCain or Obama but they have about as much control over me as I do over time. So here’s the next, BACK TO THE BASICS, step… find yourself a self management system and start taking control of this. I do not believe that anyone has a lock on this deal. Dan Kennedy’s been scribbling barely legible daily schedules on notebook paper for 30 years and It looks like he’s doing o.k. One of MyNoteTa- kingNerd Associates, who’s a little weird by the way, uses a 50Cent notebook as well and has very produc- tive day’s. Me on the other hand, well I prefer the Super Advanced Mega Deluxe King of All Self Manage- ment Systems (at least that’s what i think) called the RPM Planner put out by Anthony Robbins.
I’ll post a detailed article on this another day but in the mean time just understand that you need to find “something” that works for you to get your day organized on paper or in your super cool blackberry in neat little time chunks so you’ll be more productive and happy which will hopefully lead to Hot Chicks, Handsome Hunks, and Money. So after all that here’s one final Tip for today. Learn to forgive yourself.
What do I mean? Well as you might have guessed I didn’t “plan” to spend the last 20 hours the way I spent them but I did. So I can either beat myself up and run head first into a wall or just look at it as a learning experience, find someone to help me move this blog to my server, and get my Super Mega Best in the World Day Planner ..oops i mean SELF management planner out and plan tommorrow and start executing.
So here is a tool for today: Next time you let chaos take over your life… go grab a bottle of tabasco sauce and hold it in your right hand, gently open it with your left hand, hold it about one foot above your right eyeball and with your eye wide open… pour. Yep, you damn idiot, you deserve it….AHHHH Just kiddin.. In all seriousness next time your day gets out of whack just take a deep breath, Eben refers to this in the Wake Up Productive Report, Relax your body, Forgive Yourself, get back to your plan and Take Action. Good luck! Productivity Tools Part Two: The Kitchen… 5
Almost forgot …. In Part One I promised ya a Process Map of all my Productivity Tools if you make a comment on this blog. Well, come on .. make a dang comment will ya already. I’m practically beggin to give you something that made me One Billion Dollars in just the last week alone. O.K. maybe closer to $50 but you get the point. Believe me…. you want this process map and remember in less then a week I’ll never offer it for FREE again. Get it while you can. CHAPTER 3
Productivity Tools Part Three: The Kitchen Sink, The Kids, The Wife, and Oh…Just Take the Whole Damn House…
Part One Part Two
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Hello Nerd Crew,
In part two of this series we learned about the importance of putting a Value on our time and then learning to manage ourselves.
Today I want to talk about what might be the most important word in Self Management.
It’s two simple letters, yet we do not use it enough.
NO!
Once you’ve Woke Up and realized that Time is a diminishing resource and you MUST have a value on it. You then have to understand that everyone else will try to steal that time from you.
Small talk, emails, meetings, solving other people’s problems, phone calls, friends that want to “play”, …
These are all things that will try and steal the most precious resource you have. YOUR TIME!
So now that you know what your time is worth. Begin to gradually spend more time on the High Leverage, High Dollar activities and find a way to have other people do the things that pay you less then your time is worth.
Here is a list of things you can do: Productivity Tools Part Three: The Kitchen… 7
• • Say NO to anyone who wants to steal your time with small talk. Politely ask them to come back during one of your scheduled breaks or when you are done with “work”. • • Say NO to long meetings. Begin to plan your meeting agendas and stay the course. Meetings, in general, tend to take 3 - 4 times longer then they should because of lack of direction and focus. • • Say NO to email and internet surfing. Start to schedule daily email and internet surfing blocks of time. Do not start the day with an email Time Chunk. This usually leads to you being on someone else schedule. I suggest you check email after lunch when you’ve already gotten most of your A priority tasks done. • • Say NO to other people’s agenda. You can and should live your life as you please. With your standards, as weird as others may see it. So define how your life will operate and start to live it. This might mean never returning phone calls until someone has jumped through hoops proving they are worth your time. Dan Kennedy speaks of doing this when he was dead broke. He’s done it ever since and seems to be doing o.k. • • Say NO to unorganized planning. Begin to break your projects down on paper. Step by step and put a deadline on them. Without deadlines we will accomplish very little. Procrastination is in our nature. If left to ourselves tasks will usually take 2 - 5 times longer then needed and more often then not … may never get done. • • Say NO to your cell phone. In part Two we talked about scheduling your time in 50 minute segments. During your focus times turn your dang ringer off. Leave a message that says something like; “Hi this is Nerd Boy, I do not answer phone calls during the work day. However, from 3 - 4 during the weekdays I answer all incoming calls. To reach me before then please email me at [email protected] as I check my email 3 times per day.. thank you and have an outstanding day” … Again Your Agenda Not Theirs. • • Say NO to laziness. This one may sound stupid but it is probably the most important thing we can take control of. As entrepreneurs and those of us still working for the man and yearning to get out on our own. We have to take control of our Will Power and Discipline. We must set our own agendas, plan our days, and then make things happen. •
This week practice saying NO.
It’s not as easy as you think. So don’t give up and when you find yourself off track and on somebody Else’s agenda just say NO and begin to get back on yours all over again. 8 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
In the next few days I’ll be adding part 4 and 5 of this series and I’ll be giving you some really cool produc- tivity resources.
In Success,
My Note Taking Nerd CHAPTER 4
Productivity Tools Part Four - Take Out The Trash - The Kitchen Sink, The Kids, The Wife, and Oh…Just Take the Whole Damn House…
Hello Nerd Fans, I’m back with a segment on Self Management.
Remember, I promised to to Give You Everything Including the Kitchen Sink! Well, without this one tool, everything you do is like having a Ferrari but being stuck in the mud.
It just seems like no matter how hard you try or how motivated you are you just can’t seem to get started or finish the job.
What is this one tool.
I call it “Taking Out The Trash”
We all have unfinished business or unresolved conflicts in our lives.
What we don’t realize is how much these things hold us back from success.
Right now answer these questions. • • Is there a nagging OVERDUE personal issue you haven’t taken care of? This could be a ticket you haven’t paid, a tax issue you haven’t faced, a bill that’s late but you haven’t called to speak with anyone, OR anything that is causing you stress because you haven’t dealt with it. • • Do you have someone you may have gotten into a fight with but you haven’t taken the time to bring resolution. • 10 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
• What projects are you not putting on paper and starting. • • What are the simple tiny things you haven’t gotten around to? This could be cleaning your house, painting a room, clearing out the garage, etc… •
So if you haven’t already, take out a piece of paper, begin to write down all the little and big things that may be nagging at you on a daily basis.
Prioritize the importance of getting them done and start by taking one small action every single day to get this TRASH out of your lives.
As you begin to eliminate this stuff from your life you will feel much more emotionally free.
I gotta go guys.
I’ll go deeper into this topic another day.
In the mean time Take Out Your Trash
In Success,
My Note Taking Nerd
Dig deeper in this blog and you’ll find parts One, Two, and Three. CHAPTER 5
Sunday a Day of Rest! Uh Uh I Don’t Think So….
It’s Sunday… Yayyyyyyy…. a Day of Rest!
Well as my Friends 14 year old Daughter would say, as she stood there hands on hip and shook her head…
“Uh Uh I Don’t Think So!”
Today I want to talk about what may be the single biggest mistake, we as entreprenuers, make. Also, below I’m giving yet another Small but Powerful Report to ya, on this very topic, from a Genius.
Let me ask you a question. Are you really ever present anywhere? Are you ever focused on one single thing? For years… I was your typical Entrepreneur on Crack and Steroids. I had the next great Idea, to rule the planet, about once a week and I’d grab my makeshift Team of Associates and race off to the promise land… Only to quit or lose focus about 1/4 of the way to the finish line.
There are three reasons for this. One, I didn’t have the proper skill set to get what I wanted done. Two, once the initial motivation of the Idea wore off, I lost traction and the “will” to make it happen. Finally, I was overwhelmed with the day to day chaos of this life we live.
Today I want to talk about how you can make a difference in this area.
WHAT’S THE SINGLE BIGGEST THING WE DO THAT CAUSES THE CHALLENGES WE HAVE WITH FOCUS AND FOLLOW THRU? …. (drum rolllllllllll) We do not take time off for renewal.
If you find yourself not being able to focus, concentrate, or follow thru then I’m going to suggest you start taking some time off. Yep.. You heard me.
What happens to a car when the battery dies? Do me a favor… go outside and turn the lights on in your car. Go back inside and in about 6 hours or so GO see if your car is willing to “take” you to the store.
You’re probably saying, “well no *&^% Nerd Boy”. Of course, the battery is going to be dead. 12 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So let me ask you a question. “If you work all day, feed yourself junk food, go home stressed because you’re behind at the office, KICK the dog, fight with the Wife because you’re never “Quite There” or distant, and then move into your cave and work till you fall asleep at the desk……… What’s going to happen to you? As my Friend’s 14 year old would say to me .. “No Duh Nerdy Boy” of course you’re gonna burn out.
And for the Lovely, Smart, Talented, and Way Superior Then Me Ladies out there. Please understand that when I tell a story and it refers to “Us Guys” I’m not a man pig .. just tryin’ to write without the filters of political mandate. So please hang in there with me.
O.K. .. we’ve established that we’re burning the candle at both ends. Our “Batteries”, metaphorically speaking, have been Fried for years and we are running on shear will power.
That’s the equivalent of running out of gas on a hill, getting out and pushing the old clunker yourself on a Hot Humid Day
I hope ya got the point I’m trying to drive home here. Our bodies and minds are screaming for some Gas and Renewal.
So here ya go. Five Easy Steps to Recharging, Massively Increasing our Productivity and Quality of Life. 1. 2. Start Managing Yourself Better. As you plan your day tommorrow I want you begin to think of the two most important things you could get done. Next, plan a fifty minute focused session for each one. Follow Each Fifty minute session with a ten minute Renewal Break. I got this directly from Eben Pagan and he credist it with transforming his life. Your day tomorrow should look like this. One 50 minute focued session on Important task #1, followed by ten minutes of relaxation, then another 50 minute ses- sion on important task #2, followed by another ten minutes of relaxation. Do this every single day for a month and WHAMO.. you are going to be shocked at the changes. 3. Start to make some simple changes to your diet. I’m not writing this blog to preach about “diets” but I just can’t let this post go without adding this. So here are two things to do for next thirty days. First, drink one glass of water every two hours. Two, replace one of those nutritious Whoppers with a salad each day. And, as a bonus but only if you find yourself, obsessing about it,… maybe right now .. begin to read articles or books on taking better care of your health and fitness. 4. Next… Be present for One Hour each night with your friends or family. What do I mean? When you arrive home or just hangin’ out with friends in the evening,…. be “there”. Give yourself permission to forget everything else in life and give your full attention for one little, tiny hour to the people you care about. Believe me this will be hard and I’ve got a whole set of issues, with this myself, I’m currently working on but that’s for another day over at the “My Note Taking Nerd’s one Screwed Up Dude” blog. 5. This week take a 4 hour chunk of time to just relax and have fun. This might be reading a good book outside. It might be going for a hike. It might be going to a movie you’ve wanted to see with your friends or “better half” and then sneaking in to a double feature (I’ve never done this myself of course.. alright you caught me… maybe once.) My point is to take sometime to just recharge and let your mind release from the stresses of life. Sunday a Day of Rest! Uh Uh I Don’t Think… 13
6. Finally, Get yo’ hiny on down this page and download the Wake up Productive Report and read the dang thing already. It will change your life.
As Britney Spears would say.. Happy Sunday Ya All
My Note Taking Nerd
P.S. Here’s the report I promised you. It’s Tony Schwartz speaking at the Get Altitude Conference. Powerful stuff…. get it now. get-altitude-7-tony-schwartz CHAPTER 6
What Do Doyle Brunson and This Young Poker Player Have in Common? The Slight Edge!
Big Hello To The Nerd Soldiers, You might be thinking to yourself. Why the crap do I want to know about a winning poker player?
Hang in there. This isn’t an article on the fine art of Poker Playing but the Story of the Slight Edge.
I’ll admit I Love Poker and to my fellow Nerd Followers out there that enjoy the game as well, may you get Pocket Aces every day of your life.
What is the Slight Edge?
The great, pioneering, motivational Speaker, Jim Rohn calls it the art of doing one simple discipline day after day.
If you want to lose weight. Which approach will work better? Running, at high intensity, for 10 minutes a day for a month or running for 60 minutes for five days then taking 25 days off? The answer is simple… Right?
So back to Poker.
In my little world of Poker… the player that wins the most, over time, is not the player who has the biggest wins.
This bright young player, named Josh, is perfectly happy to book a 2 or $300 Dollar win. Yet day in and day out, when playing, he consistently chips away with “little” wins.
At the same time the other players in the game, that are good (and some great) in their own right, stay at the table too long waiting for the “Big” win. They never leave with the “little” win, they are always waiting What Do Doyle Brunson and This Young Poker… 15
for the Hand that will make them a $1,000 or 2 or 3… but more often then not, in their quest, they end up losing it all.
You See… Josh understands the principle of the Slight Edge. He’s perfectly happy to get up from the Table after a “small” win and be on his way. Leaving behind a trail of angry poker players that call him names for leaving so quick. All the while, they dream of the “big win” and more often then not, go home empty handed.
So at the end of the day, while Josh is booking wins at an 70% rate or so, those “Big Win” players are occa- sionally making the “Big Score” and then losing over and over again. This, of course, causes a swing in their bankroll bigger then the stock market ups and downs of today.
The funny part is that many of these, very good players, end up going to Josh to borrow money.
They will swear they are better players. But in the end it’s Josh to the Rescue.
So what’s my point?
Start putting the principle of the Slight Edge to work in your life.
Heck! I did it right here with this blog. I’m no expert in Internet Marketing. So i had a choice. I could wait until I “knew” everything or i could practice this principle and learn and implement one simple thing everyday or two until I’ve Mastered the skills needed and at the same time build something really cool for you and I.
Like Josh, next time you want to start exercising. Start with little amounts and be happy with the little tiny improvements day in and day out. Gradually over time you will see that you are much further ahead then you ever thought possible.
10 Minute Walks, Small Wins, a Glass of Water every hour, really listening to your significant other for just 15 minutes per day, going on a weekly date, gradually reducing fast food, reading something useful just 10 pages per day, listening to great information while in your car…… THE SLIGHT EDGE!
In Success,
MyNoteTakingNerd
P.S. Do me a favor! Make one comment, make a small donation, read one post, fill out one poll, refer this blog to one friend… do something to help move this blog forward one small step at a time.
Thanks Friends
CHAPTER 7
I Got Caught With My Pants Down and Nobody Would Help Me Pull Them Up!
Hey Nerd Friends, Today, I’m gonna share with you something personal.
Give me the next 7 - 12 minutes of your life and this may be the most important thing you’ve ever read.
For my entire life I’ve been an avid student of just about everything you can think of to improve your life or business.
At one point I’d read over 500 books in a period of five years.
Yet, not so long ago I almost packed it in, took up residence next to the guys on skid row, and gave up on my dreams.
Why? Because I had all the answers and couldn’t seem to get myself to ACT.
At the time I’d just had my first, lovely little angel, baby girl. I had a woman that wanted to love me. I had Big Dreams and was on my way to accomplishing them.
Since then I’ve been hammered by the IRS, facing Jail, my business was declining, I was facing tremendous inner demons, my behavior was insane, my business partner, of 15 years, and I decided to split ways, and I felt as though I was empty.
Yet I still couldn’t get myself to turn things around. Knowledge is worthless without the ability to make it useful in your life.
I was scared. I was in pain. I was confused….. Why?
My Pants Were Down… I was screaming for help… Yet No One Would Help Me! I Got Caught With My Pants Down and Nobody… 17
That’s the funny thing about life. If you want things to change then you have to do it.
Damn, that sucks. I wanted the magic bullet. I wanted the instant result. I didn’t want to work. After all… I’m older now. Am I not entitled to something?
Nope. Life owes us nothing but what we are giving to it in the present moment.
Just because I fed hungry children last year or worked hard two years ago doesn’t mean I’m entitled to any- thing today.
We are accountable to this very moment in time. We will get out of it what we put into it.
Yes, there is the Law of Delayed Gratification.
But, understand that if I go out and run hard today, then quit and want the results to stay with me throughout the future then I must continue to do something on a consistent basis.
So Here is the power in this story. Things are better, I’m happier, and … Oh did I mention I’m Super Cool too!
Yes… I’m still a work in progress. If you were to see me on canvas I’d look more like Homer Simpson but the artist would swear to you he’s trying to draw a Picasso.
Today, I’m happy to say. I’m on the right path. I’m back on the horse and riding in the right direction.
Yep… I pulled my pants up myself. Although my bum crack might still be hangin’ out!
What’s the answer to all this madness?
First it’s the Slight Edge principle I wrote about a few post’s ago.
Second, and this is powerful, is that you’ve got to work harder on yourself then you do anything else in life.
You can read all the books, take all the courses, go to all the seminars and receive all the knowledge in the world…. But if you don’t work on the Inner Game of life every single day then much of what you learn will never get put into practice.
So what did i do?
I’ve set goals and got clear on what I wanted. I put the law of attraction to work.
I started devouring and acting on the very best Inner Game programs available.
I began, and continue, to work on my beliefs, values, and life strategies. 18 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I’ve started looking at the Story I’d created for myself and began to change it.
I’ve learned about Lies and Truth and began to act on changing those things in my life.
I started excersicing on a regular basis. I began to eat well. I got out in the Sun.
I focus on one thing at a time. I gave myself time for renewal.
I’ve began to “really” connect with friends and family.
I quit “selling” the vision and started to “live” it and people are slowly beginning to believe in me again.
Guess what? Things have and are continueing to change dramatically. Things like this really cool blog and website here.
Today! BEGIN TO WORK ON YOURSELF AS MUCH AS YOU WORK ON YOUR BUSINESS!
Yes this blog is supposed to be about business, marketing, sales, etc.. but I’ll continue to focus on the Inner Game because that’s the Engine that fuels yours success.
If you run outa Gas….. you are screwed!
So.. Next!
A big Holla and thank you to all my Nerd Soldiers out there. Let’s take this blog to the masses. Let’s create a Nerd Revolution.
Why should the best information in the world be accessible by only those few that can afford the Thousands of dollars needed to obtain it?
So send an email to a friend, digg someone, or just do something to get the word out about this resource. It will only survive if “we” make it happen.
In Success,
My Note Taking Nerd
P.S. Come on already… Get a comment on the blog and download everything you may not of gotten to yet before it’s gone. CHAPTER 8
Introducing My Number One… Note Taking Nerd2
Anybody out there remember Star Trek Enterprise? With Captain Picard and his right hand man Riker? For those of you that don’t.
Captain Picard called Riker his Number One. Riker was the man left in charge when the Captain had to leave the ship. He was the man that the Captain always went to for advise. And… most important… Riker was a man of action, dependability, and high character.
We all should be as lucky as Captain Picard and I. My Note Taking Nerd2 is my Number One, my biz partner, friend, and confidant.
You guys are in for a treat.
First, I want to say… that as I’m pecking away here at the Blog. Number One is feverishly pounding away in the room next door to get the copy ready for the Big Site we plan to launch real soon.
I’m gonna make a Big Fat Claim here. This may be the Greatest Copywriter Alive. As a matter of fact, when you see some of the copy we start posting real soon I’m certain… AS GEORGE BUSH SAID, when we invaded Iraq, You Will Be Shock and Awed!
He’s been secretly kept from the world by a client who wanted him all to himself.
The good news?
Number One will be sharing all his Top Secret strategies for churning out Piece after Piece of Amazing copy.
He, of course, as I, will be giving you a peek behind the curtain of his life as well.
AND THAT IS WHERE I GOTTA WARN YOU! 20 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Why? ummmmm. Well…. He’s a bit weird.
You ever wondered why the great minds like Einstein, Howard Hughes, Picasso, etc.. were just a little “Bent”?
Me Too.
Number One falls into this category.
He’s definitely got some Einstein in him. Every time I get frustrated, when I feel as though I might have wasted my time trying to figure something out bout this Blog. I can hear him Yelling from the other room … “What ya learn Nerd Boy?”…. Damn I’d like to throw something at him .. But
He’s also got a whole lot of the Recluse Mad Genius of Howard Hughes in him as well.
I think it’s been a month or so since I’ve seen him.
The other day he peeked his head out and I could feel an intense stare. I looked up and out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of his overgrown beard and Mohawk. He streaked from his room to the kitchen and hid behind the counter. I could hear heavy breathing but no site of Number One.
I, as usual, put my head down and started back to work.
Somehow Number One got back to his cave before i could catch a peak. So yeah.. he’s a bit of a recluse like Howard Hughes. I just hope I never need to get him outta here for anything.
And He’s got a whole lot of Picasso in him.
He’s an artist and I believe will create a New Renaissance. He can weave words like no other. He’s unique in style. He’s a master at weaving words.
Oh… don’t want to forget.
Number One is a Master Chef as well.
It’s a great deal. Whenever I leave the house… I can’t wait to get back, because there always seems to be some gourmet dish he’s whipped up while I’m gone… waiting for me in the Fridge.
As you might have guessed. Number One and I are rooming together while we and The Nerd Soldiers create a Note Taking Nerd Revolution. We liken it to the days when Steve Jobs and partner were holed up in a garage makin’ the first Apple Computer.
There, of course, are some Perks to this. I Love Friday Nights! WEEEEEE Introducing My Number One… Note Taking… 21
Usually after I’ve taken my Girlfriend out or went to hang with friends… I’ll arrive home to a plate full of perfectly plastic wrapped Friday Night Spaghetti in the fridge.. My taste buds Dream of this all week long.
So be on the lookout.
I’ve passed instructions under his door on how to get on here and say hi.
I’m sure you may find yourself eagerly awaiting his next post day after day.
So, let me know about a Number One in your life.
In Success,
My Note Taking Nerd
P.S. I, of course, am exaggerating, a bit, for Drama. But, only a little bit. I’m tellin ya.. this guy is a Weird Mad Genius and I don’t have to worry about it cuz he won’t come out of his room to Kick My A**%. And I may just be under estimating his Copy Writing ability. He might just be the best in the Universe.
Leave a comment, Download a report, spread the word, make a donation… come on do something already. CHAPTER 9
Dan Kennedy’s Wealth Attraction Part 1
Note Taking Nerd#1 WEALTH ATTRACTION - PART ONE
Discover The Little-Known (and never talked about) Success Philosophies, Beliefs, Thinking And Per- sonal Behaviors That Allow Millionaire and Multi-Millionaire Entrepreneurs To Attract Maximum Money and Create Maximum Wealth in Record Time That’s what the World Famous Dan Kennedy has to say about Wealth Attraction……One of Dan’s all time best selling program.
Napoleon Hill was completely broke at one point. W. Clement Stone helped to rescue him toward the end of his life. Napoleon ended up broke, while Stone became amazingly rich. Why? Because Stone put the philosophy to work in an environment where it had a chance to succeed. Understanding of Abundance
Fire alarm salesman goes into a home and makes the assumption that he is in the house of poor people. He see’s hand me down clothing, springs out of the couch. Etc…. The salesperson becomes increasingly uneasy on closing these people on the $1,700 system. In many cases the salesman will not close the sale. They unconsciously throw the game. The queesiness about your decision to make the decision as to whether others have the money tell much more about what is going on inside of yourself. Remember, if you do not take the money, if available, somebody will take it. This same phenononom happens when you’re selling a $40,000 program product to a Doctor.
There is plenty of money to go around. There is always plenty …. Money is all around you. You need to get past the zero sum idea. Meaning, that when someone give you money there is less money … Money just keeps cycling. Some “poor” people have pool sticks worth more than their car.
There is mountains of dumb money. One company sells amusement park rides for $200,000 and more. Nokia sells phones made of gold and platinum for $20,000. Dan Kennedy’s Wealth Attraction Part 1 23
There is an incredible commonality between the hugely successful entrepreneurs whom went bankrupt or broke and then went on to unimaginable success.
The first impediment to getting money is that there is a limit. You must have an abundance mentality.
We learn that we must “work hard for our money” and that “money doesn’t grow on trees”. PAY ATTEN- TIOIN TO THE BELIEFS YOU HAVE ABOUT MONEY AND HOW TO OBTAIN IT!!
EAT THE RICH
Everybody is getting caught up in the idea of EXCESS PROFITS. You can not compare Michael Eisner with the guy pushing the broom. Eisner’s worth is determined by marketplace value, the broom pusher has a finite value, Period. Push the broom 20 times faster makes you more valuable. Just because you’ve pushed the broom for 20 years doesn’t mean you’re inherently worth more.
The next topic of ignorance is that of the “Less Fortunate”. A lot of people have there money making capa- bilities suppressed because of GUILT. It’s economically impossible for the poor to get less poor without the rich getting richer. Why? Because the rich will provide more jobs and spend more money. CHAPTER 10
The $20 Insurance Plan Seinfeld Says Is Responsible For His Becoming A Millionaire.
Hey fans of the nerd revolution, This is the 2nd half of the Note Taking Nerd Duo here to share something I learned from the Jewish King Of Comedy, Jerry Seinfeld.
First of all I’m grateful for the opportunity to connect with a person such as yourself, who’s as dedicated as I am to finding ways to improve themselves.
I look forward to building a business friendship with you.
With our formal intro off the table, lets get down to bidniz.
What’s a business skill you’d like to improve?
You think of one? Good.
Jerry’s Secret Unveiled
One time Jerry Seinfeld was asked “What’s the one thing an up and coming comic could do to improve their chances of hittin’ it big like he did?” by a fledgling comic.
The rookie was looking for the secret he could apply once and hit a home run with but he was in for an answer most people, maybe even you, might not like.
Jerry told the wanna-be to go to an office supply store and buy himself a calendar.
One of the ones you can put on the wall and see every month, everyday of the year at a glance.
And a red marker. The $20 Insurance Plan Seinfeld Says Is… 25
Jerry Conquered The Sitcom Kingdom With A Piece of Paper And A Sharpie
He told him “The answer to your question, is to write everyday. Not every other day. Not once a week. EVERY DAY.”
“After you’ve logged your writing for the day, you can face your calendar, marker in hand and put a fat red X through that day.” He said
“Don’t break the chain. Doing this got my routines razor sharp, kept my creativity flowing when I needed lots of it and this insured I was on when opportunity knocked at my door.”
It was like a policy he had that guaranteed he’d be taken care of no matter how gruesome things looked at the time.
Ever since I heard this story I’ve followed Jerry’s advice and the picture below is what I answer to every night before I go nighty night.
I get to study marketing or copywriting for at least 1 hour a day.
I get to meditate for at least 15 minutes a day.
And I get to do something that’ll make me flexible and strong everyday.
Notice I didn’t say have to. I said I get to because I see these simple actions as rewards I’m giving to myself that make my life easier and more pleasurable.
What’s one easy thing you could do everyday that would make your life better?
I remember my hero Gary Bencivenga saying at his seminar something to the effect of…
“If you can only improve 1% a week, that 1%, multiplied week by week compounds into a huge percentage.”
Don’t underestimate the value of little actions taken consistently.
Get your ass over to Office Max and pick up a calendar if you want an accountability coach who will get in your face and help you get what you want out of life… without shouting at and spitting all over you.
Start out simple. Set yourself up to win by doing something you could do even on the busiest of busy days anywhere on the planet.
And do it for at least 10 minutes. I know there’s 10 minutes somewhere in your life. Use it and start snow- balling this into something you’re proud of.
I fell in love with this simple process and I’m sure you will too. 26 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd 2 CHAPTER 11
“I’ve Never Had An Original Idea In My Life” - Dan Kennedy
What is it… that is… up in the house…., yo!
That’s my nerd way of saying, how you doing?
Note Taking Nerd 2 — The Proud Unoriginal — Back To Share With You High Powered Ideas From People Who Get Life Enhancing Results.
Are you creative?
I’m not.
Not if you judge creativity by the standard legendary copywriter Eugene Schwartz does.
In the presentation he put on for Rodale, he states that only God has the power to create.
Since none of us mortal beings are God, we do not have the power to create.
We just merely connect and reassemble ideas and material.
What do think about that?
Jay Abraham openly expresses his power lies in accessing from his memory, examples, lessons, and break- throughs he’s stored away through the years.
Stuff he picked up and filed away from doing deals or… from legends like Eugene Schwartz, Claude Hop- kins and Bob Stone.
In the Renegade Millionaire System, Dan Kennedy admits that if you’ve got a couple years worth of his newsletters and Magnetic Marketing… you’ve got everything he knows. 28 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
He’s simply an expert at re-packaging and re-freshening his stories and content so that it fits with the cur- rent affairs of business.
He is also world re-known for his steal, run and distribute philosophy of just copying what works and adapting it to your needs.
I believe all three of these Marketing Titans super powers stem from this philosophy I laid out for you here from one of Dan Kennedy’s Gold Plus hot sheets.
Here it is…
YOU MUST READ A LOT TO SUCCEED!
Here are the reasons:
1. Varied, diverse input of ideas, viewpoints, life stories, examples, all the essential raw material poured into your subconscious mind, for it to sift, sort, try matching up with other puzzle pieces it already has, so it can occasionally yell “Eureka!” and hand you something profitable or life changing… Without the new stuff it just sleeps and you wander aimlessly through life. Wealth Secret! You can’t manufacture anything without raw material.
2. Without exposure to others’ thinking your own range of thought shrinks. Soon, you’re a mental midget. Your range of thought narrows, like your range of motion shrinks if you don’t move and stretch.
3. You can’t stay current. You must read a monstrous amount and you’ll probably still be behind. You should be reading a book or two, half dozen magazines, a few newspapers every week. If not you become a dinosaur.
4. If you want to influence anyone, including your children, they need to see you advancing and reading. They need to hear you talking about and acting on what you read.
-Dan Kennedy
It was years ago that I received this but as soon as I got it I plunged two ugly blue tacks into the wall right next to my reading chair to serve as a reminder of how to never get writers block.
If you write an ezine, content for a membership site, blog posts, newsletters, emails for your customers and prospects, salesletters… Dan’s credo will do the same for you.
Having your writing flow like 3:45 AM traffic is awesome. And it all usually starts with one idea.
But if you’re feeding your brain all this stuff and ideas keep burbling to your conscious mind but you let em’ vanish like a fart in the wind… how’s that supposed to help you? “I’ve Never Had An Original Idea In My… 29
Remember our little talk in my last post about the starting a commitment chain of red X’s on the calendar?
Think about this…
If you made the decision to log at least one idea a day that you could write about you’d never be staring at a blank page.
You’d never have to hope ideas of what to write about come to you because you’d have this fat stack of ideas to rifle through.
Every marketing wizard I know of snags their inspiration from out of thin air and captures it on paper or audio.
If you listen to programs while driving or exercising, always keep note cards, a cheap little note pad or hell, even use the voice recorder or voice mail on your cell phone so that you can snag the slippery fish of an idea that will spark your next piece of content.
I am not creative.
And I don’t have a Kevin Trudeau Mega Memory either.
I just jam a shit load of stuff into my mind, jot down ideas that come from my subconscious and magi- cally I’m never stuck for something to write about.
Every sales letter I’ve ever written had to be cut, not added to. Even while writing this, I’ve had three sepa- rate ideas come to me for future posts.
You can do this too.
Are all your ideas gonna pan out?
Nah.
But if you train yourself to take that little voice in your head seriously, instead of ignoring and discounting what it’s dishing out to you… you’re gonna thank yourself whenever you sit down or like Eben Pagan, stand up to write.
I have a lot more to say about this topic but I’m curious as to what you can tell me and the rest of our community about what you do to keep yourself from coming up empty when you write.
That means you Yann, Martin, Tim, and Nick!
I look forward to seeing your ideas and talking with you again. 30 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd 2 - The Proud Unoriginal CHAPTER 12
Do You Want To Live Life On Your Terms?
Live Life On Your Terms!
Learn the Secrets That Tony Robbins Has Used To Transform The Lives of Millions of People
Qualify to get your FREE Anthony Robbins Time of Your Life Program Super Report Now! • • This takes you step by step through the Rapid Planning System Anthony Robbins has used for Decades to manage his extraordinary life. •
Here is how to get your report. Right Now do just ONE of the following: 1. 2. Make three posts on seperate blogs or forums with a mention of this blog & send me the liinks to the post. 3. Send an email to three (different if you’ve already done this, I will check ha ha) friends, associates etc.. recommending this blog and CC ME. 4. Make a comment on this blog anywhere titled “Why I Love My Note Taking Nerd” and explain in a minimum of 250 words how Nerd Reports help you!
You can send everything to [email protected] CHAPTER 13
Are You Sabotaging Everything You Write By Not Doing What Ted Nicholas And Other Super Star Writers Do Before They Even Touch The Keyboard?
How you doing, Note Taking Nerd 2, man who never tries to re-invent the light bulb, back with more strategies and tactics for how to make your life easier and more profitable.
Today I just have to share with you what I learned this morning listening to Ted Nicholas’s “Magic Words That Make Your Business Grow.”
For anyone using direct mail in their sales sequences, this program is a must have.
This man has banked millions of dollars through mail order and is massively respected for his direct mar- keting prowess.
As a matter of fact anyone who wants to sharpen their ability to sell in print & pixel will love this seminar.
First of all it totally blew me away with what a natural, dynamic and funny presenter he is.
I mean, I knew he had the goods but I dove in not expecting it to be prolific as well as entertaining.
Another thing that made this seminar so valuable was that the group was so small that attendees could jump up and ask questions of Ted at will.
Have you ever listened to or been to seminars where people ask stupid questions that derail the momentum of the event?
Not here. Are You Sabotaging Everything You Write… 33
Every question asked enhanced the content. It seems like these people are the kings and queens of their industry and are looking to get their game up another notch so they can keep wearing the crown.
Something I suspect you of being too.
Here’s what I’ve got for you:
I’ve jotted down notes here for Ted’s process of preparing to write.
Play along and imagine this with me first…
A special agent from the IRS calls and says they’re gonna do a full audit of both your personal and corporate records and not to worry… they’ll only be up in your face for about a month.
Next, your most productive employee gives their notice that they’re quitting because they want to start their own business that competes directly with you.
And then, your child comes home with an F on their report card.
What has just happened to you?
Life.
After life happens is when you gotta write so you can make the cash register ring-a-ding-a-lang.
Writing copy in a weakened state of mind is hazardous to your business’s health.
Here’s what Ted Nicholas recommends you do to get yourself ready to deliver winning copy, emails, arti- cles, any kind of writing you need for your business.
Ted’s First Suggestion: Be rested. Don’t try to force words onto the screen. Time spent writing tired is time wasted.
John Carlton will take a nap for however long he has to or… take a shower to conquer any fatigue he has in his body before he’ll even consider writing.
Eben Pagan talks about in Wake Up Productive, how most of us need about 8 hours of sleep to be at our peak.
Doing the 60-60-30’s have absolutely transformed my writing productivity.
They give me permission to rest and ensure that when I am writing I’m doing so on a full battery.
Try it for yourself. I’m sure you’ll love the results. 34 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Ted’s Second Suggestion: Eat Sparingly before you write copy. You don’t want your blood pressure to put you to sleep when you need to be on.
Again, referring back to your Wake Up Productive notes you’ll see where Eben talks about eating every 2 ½ hours, the 30 part of the 60-60-30 so your energy stays vibrant.
Ted’s Third Suggestion: Cut off Distraction. When you get interrupted it breaks your emotional state and you lose the momentum you’ve built up.
There’s a quote tacked up on my wall that reads:
“What are the chances that 2 of the best copywriters are up at 4 o’ clock in the morning.”
Gary Bencivenga
This was the gist of what Gary said in an email he sent to Clayton Makepeace after he sent him message at 3:56 A.M. and got an instant reply.
Do you think these guys are insomniacs or do they know the secret to getting shit done is to not let leaf blowers and people with time to waste bog down their train of thought?
If you want maximum productivity in minimum time you won’t let people, animals or machines throw you off your game.
Do what Dan Kennedy recommends in his time management book and get a purple stuffed dragon and tell everyone in your environment that when the dragon is in front of the door, no one is to come a knockin.
No money for stuffed purple dragon?
Write on a note card “Working! Do Not Distract” and post it on the door with a piece of masking tape.
And then, like Kennedy and Eben recommend, you can schedule your interruptions by letting people know they can come to you with questions at such and such time.
Ted’s Fourth Suggestion: Exercise Moderately before writing.
This doesn’t mean going balls to wall at the gym if that’s not your thing.
A brisk walk, the unsung hero of exercise, in a pleasant setting will do just fine.
Eben has exercise built into his morning ritual and he either does yoga or runs (I don’t think sprints) up down the stairs of the condo he lives in.
Don’t do something you dread though. Are You Sabotaging Everything You Write… 35
You know, like those guys you see running down the street with the look of despair written across their face.
I used to just roll out of bed, and clank my stiff body straight to keyboard. It took me some time to really get the juices flowing.
Now that I exercise or loosen up my body before I sit down to write, I’m wide awake, even without coffee.
Maybe it will do the same for you.
Ted’s Fifth Suggestion: Count Your Blessings.
You can give gratitude for your family, friends, clients, customers, prospects, the opportunities placed before you, your health, your five senses, whatever works for you.
Doing this just plain makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Writing from this state of mind is a thousand times more resourceful than sitting down and pouting about having to do this.
Ted’s Sixth Suggestion: Get Yourself Into A Peak Emotional State.
John Carlton says he works himself up to lather and kind of paces back and forth and only after he’s psyched himself up and is ready to tear the head off this mutha… does he pounce on the keyboard and let the salesmanship flow.
Stephen King in his book “On Writing”, a must have for any aspiring copywriter, says “Don’t approach writing lightly, God damn it.”
Ted Nicholas stands up, raises his hands and in a booming voice reads aloud a list of his positive affirma- tions, ending every sentence with yes!
Tony Robbins says that if you don’t spend a minimum of 10 minutes a day incanting what it is that you want, then you are absolutely not using what he teaches.
He talks about this in depth in his “Power To Shape Your Destiny” Nightingale Connant Program, where he speaking to people attending his Date With Destiny seminar.
When you go to his weekend event he has you yell these incantations at the top of your lungs until you’re vibrating with energy…
“I am the voice”
“I will lead not follow” 36 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
“I will believe, not doubt”
“I will create, not destroy”
“I’m a force for good”
“I defy the odds”
“I step up”
Hey, I’m about as shy as you can be when it comes to doing extraordinary stuff in public but recalling the memory of this experience at the seminar makes me yearn for that surge of power I felt after doing it.
He tells the people in the audience straight up that if they don’t do this, they have no reason to leave and say “Oh I went to that Tony Robbins seminar and it doesn’t work.”
It’s the fundamental of everything he teaches.
Yes, I admit I’m a die hard Tony fan but I’ve always shouldered the blame for not making his stuff work for me.
I know I didn’t act on it, but I will now.
As a matter of fact 10 minutes a day of doing this is going on chain of commitment calendar.
No drooling on my pillow till this is done.
When you’re attempting to persuade someone in print, if you don’t convey emotion and passion you end with a piece that’s about as compelling as a letter from your bank.
Let people either be repulsed by your writing or head over heels in love with it.
Just don’t let them be indifferent to you because you bored them to death.
These 6 tactics are used by the best of the best.
Just say “maybe”, try them for yourself and see if indeed, they work a miracle for you too.
Please share with me whatever ideas you have that are working for you or questions you’d like me to dig into my notes to answer for you.
Wishing you speedy and spectactular success,
Your Business Friend, Are You Sabotaging Everything You Write… 37
Note Taking Nerd 2 CHAPTER 14
If You Haven’t Mastered This Professional Stand Up Comedian Skill Yet… You’re Making It Harder Than It Should Be for People To Give You Money.
What is it…that is… up in the house…yo! Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 here with a challenge for you.
Read these paragraphs and see if you can figure out what they have in common.
In the United States, anyone can be president. That’s the problem.
—George Carlin—
-
That silver medal at the Olympics, that’s something isn’t it? You get gold, you’ve won. You get bronze, “Well, at least I got something.” But silver is basically saying, “Of everyone that lost, you were the best. No one lost ahead of you. You are the very best loser.”
—Jerry Seinfeld—
“If I ever had twins, I’d use one for parts.”
—Steven Wright—
So, what’s similar about each of these? If You Haven’t Mastered This Professional… 39
Besides being funny, they all…
Communicate one thought.
None of them ramble on.
They have no unnecessary words in them.
Every sentence is tidy and compact.
They all use simple language.
All the punctuation helps the sentences flows.
Short one word or one sentence paragraphs give your readers eyeballs a rest.
This is part of what makes reading fiction so inviting. Lots and lots of white space.
Will Strunk, author of “The Elements of Style” had deep sympathy for the reader.
He said,
“The reader is in serious trouble most of the time, floundering in a swamp, and that it was the duty of anyone attempting to write English to drain this swamp quickly and get the reader up on dry ground, or at least to throw a rope.”
“The Elements of Style” is a book that deserves to be studied by anyone attempting to influence with their writing.
If you don’t, you might end up victimizing your family, customers and clients by writing paragraphs like the one below.
Here is an example of how not to write a paragraph. This is exactly how it looks on website I pulled it from…
NxLabs Inc. is proud to introduce the biggest breakthrough in bodybuilding history - ANAVOL. It is the most advanced and effective creatine product on the market - better than creatine ester and all other crea- tine products! The combination of Creatine Alpha-Ketoglutarate and Glutamine Alpha-Ketoglutarate work synergistically to pull in more water than ever before, creating a phenomenal anabolic environment for muscle growth! ANAVOL also contains Citrulline-Malate which helps regenerate ATP faster than previ- ously thought possible. Together, the combination of Creatine Alpha-Ketoglutarate, Glutamine Alpha- Ketoglutarate and Citrulline-Malate is phenomenal! When combined with regular exercise and proper nutrition, ANAVOL delivers unprecedented gains in muscle size and strength! To maximize ANAVOL’s effects, NxLabs Inc. has developed XTEND24, an advanced time released technology that delivers a steady 40 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One supply of ANAVOL all day long! Best of all, ANAVOL uses easy to swallow capsules instead of large caplets. ANAVOL is manufactured in our state of the art facility to ensure the highest quality, purity and potency.
Whewww! I hope you can handle all the excitement coursing through your system after all 5 of those excla- mation marks.
Did you power through every word?
I didn’t.
I’m an athlete looking for an edge in my training and I know nothing about this product and guess what?
I won’t.
The structure of this paragraph is making it harder than it should to get money out my wallet into theirs.
The quality of the copy is a whole other subject.
Please…please…please don’t do this to your readers.
Remember, conscise sentences composed of one thought.
A good rule of thumb is to keep your paragraphs to at most 4 sentences.
Break them up if they’re longer so you relieve your readers eyes and make your copy inviting.
Do yourself a favor and go get a copy of “The Elements Of Style” authored by Will Strunk and E.B. White.
This book gives you all the basic rules of writing silky smooth in 122 tight, easy to read pages (including pictures at least every 5 or so pages, in my version).
Compressed knowledge. Just like your Note Taking Nerd reports.
Professional comics axe every word that kills the flow of their sentences. They can’t afford to flubber on stage.
Neither can you when trying to influence people with your writing.
I’ll talk to you again soon.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 15
The Law That Makes “The Law of Attraction” Work
The other day one of my friends said to me; “Wow, Nerd, those goals you set are really working!” “What do you mean?” I said.
“I’ve just never seen you this focused, and you’re making progress on everything you told me you were going to accomplish.” He said.
“Ya know… I’ve had these same goals for many, many years.” I said.
“Really” he said
“Yes, I had the intention of achieving these very same goals for many more years then I care to admit. I finally figured out the one thing I was missing from actually achieving them.” I said.
“What was that?” he said.
“Let me ask you a question?”
“If you are truthful. Haven’t you had many of the same goals for many years?” I said.
“Ummmm… yes i guess you are right.” he said
“Why haven’t you achieved them?” I said.
“I guess cuz I haven’t had the time.” He said.
“Here’s the secret that Makes the Law of Attraction Work.” I said.
“Yes you need to get your goals clearly defined, attach a supporting set of beliefs to them, have a realistic plan of action… but” 42 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
“The Law that matters most is the “Law of Action” I said.
“Everyday you must have a plan for the day and within that plan there should be at least one action that you take for each of your most important goals.” I said
“This is so simple but yet it’s so easy not to do.”
“Wow, you are so right.” He said.
“What’s the opposite of action?” I said
“Well… I guess not taking action?” He said.
“Yes! or an easier way to say it, is Procrastination.” I said.
So there ya have it Nerd Fans.
I’m not a believer that you can just wish yourself all the things you want in life.
I’ve let too much time and to many goals pass me by thinking I can do this.
It doesn’t work. Yet, most of the “Law of Attraction” books leave this simple law out of the equation.
So if you find yourself procrastinating start taking simple actions every single day that will advance you in the direction you want to go.
The funny things is that when you do this….. IT ‘S LIKE PUTTING THE LAW OF ATTRACTION ON STEROIDS!
The actions get easier and all the “things” you need to achieve your goals seem to appear out of nowhere.
There’s something about taking action versus just “thinking” about it that seems to speed up the universe.
Speaking of procrastination.
Today! In less then 12 hours. The Greatest Offer Ever expires and will never be back.
If you have any desire for any of these 15 reports you may want to pick them out, make a small donation, and get them now.
Because tomorrow you will have missed out on something never to be offered again.
Today start taking action. One simple thing to advance you in the direction of your dreams. The Law That Makes “The Law of Attraction… 43
In Success,
My Note Taking Nerd #1
P.S. Less then 12 hours left for…. THE GREATEST OFFER EVER! CHAPTER 16
Are You Unconsciously Repelling People?
First of all I’d like give a shout out to Yann, Tim and everyone else for posting on this blog. Thank you for your awesome comments. They are valuable contributions to our community.
Today Mr. Numba 2 is back at you with a confession.
I’m a guy who’s handsome, fit, financially stable yet is scared to talk to women.
As a result of my being wussified in this area of life, working my ass off, and studying while not working… it’s been a looong time since I’ve been on a date.
I am putting an end to this.
You know what my first step is?
Condition my mind to expect life enhancing women to come into my life starting with one baby step.
Dan Kennedy conditions his mind for success in horse racing by keeping an empty picture frame on the wall next to all the pictures of his horse after it won a race.
The empty presupposes there’s gonna be another.
The first action I can take to condition my mind set is to maintain a living space that’s inviting for women to be in.
This is pretty easy for me being I’m not a slob anyways, but I can do better.
Because I know women are repelled by filth, one of the most important things I’ve got to focus on keeping spotless is the bathroom. Are You Unconsciously Repelling People? 45
Incense, fluffy fresh towels, sparkling clean shower. And of course, an abundance of toilet paper.
I don’t think there’s a woman alive who would walk into a pristinely managed single man’s restroom and not jump to the conclusion that if it’s clean here that your WHOLE body is scrubbed with care and that your sheets are gonna be fresh.
Ladies, correct me if I’m wrong.
If you’ve read the marvelous book, Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell you might remember the dorm room study he talked about.
Some group did a study where they had stranger walk into a dorm room while the person who lived there was gone for 5-15 minutes and then make a snap judgment about that person.
Startling Results.
These people ended up knowing more about these peoples real personality from only being in their room for a short time than if they’d actually spent that time with the person.
Hey guys, I work to the clock & my timer just went off so I gotta scoot to my next project but before I sign off though I’d like you to think about…
What are your actions and habits unconsciously communicating to others and to the most important person in your life… you?
Tomorrow I’ll continue this thread and until then I’m …
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 17
Part 1 - Are You Unconsciously Repelling People? - 4 Steps of Cultivating A Magnetic First Impression
esterday you and I ended our discussion on the note that it’s possible for people to make snap judg- Yments about you without even having met you in person.
And I asked you to think about what your actions and habits unconsciously communicating to others and…
…to the most important person in your life… you.
Did you? What you find?
Today I’d like to talk with you about 5 easy steps I took to transform a strangers first impression of me from “dork” to “A man I’d like to get to know”.
These are practical actions you can do right away that my dad or mom never taught me, but should of.
They are going to seem like common sense but remember common sense isn’t too common.
I flat out guarantee that if you’re using these 5 simple steps the next time you’re at Starbucks, the mall or a networking event you’ll notice people responding to you in a respectful manner.
First Step To Cultivating A Magnetic First Impression: Wrap The Package
What are you saying to yourself and to others when you’re dressed bummy or in clothes that don’t fit or match?
Let’s take a look into how ladies read into these cues.
Say a woman spots the guy who’s about to approach her is wearing white socks with a suit. Part 1 - Are You Unconsciously Repelling… 47
First, she might think “If this guy is too stupid to know he should be wearing black socks with that outfit then he must be a few cards short of a deck which means…
If he’s an idiot, he doesn’t sleep with or hang around sexy intellectual women like me because I would never allow this kind of fashion disaster to ruin my tasteful image in public…
And if he can’t afford a pair of black socks he must be a financial disaster…
And deeper and deeper it goes.
All this happens before you’ve even opened your mouth. She could be dead wrong.
Maybe you flew in from out of town, got to the hotel with only 30 minutes to shower and change into your suit before you had to be at the event downstairs in the ballroom.
But in your haste to make your flight you left your Chinese silk black socks laying on the bed.
Doesn’t matter because perception shapes reality. You my friend are starting off your interaction with her in the hole.
You’re not trying to influence a woman, okay. Think about this…
Dan Kennedy found that when he didn’t wear a suit when selling from the platform, he sold less during his Success tour days.
Most of these people didn’t know him so they couldn’t see past how he was dressed.
Just the fabric hanging from his body made a difference in whether they decided to give him money or not.
Nobody’s kidding nobody here.
When I walk out of the house and I’m clean shaven, wearing a suit and smelling mighty fine (guys and gals, you can’t go wrong with cologne or perfume from Marc Jacobs), I radiate a whole different energy than if I go to the store in my pj’s, without brushing my teeth or taking a shower.
I click a switch in my mind that says “Yes. You should act confidently because you’re dressed sharp.” And whalahh, I strut.
You can be confident in yourself and sport a robe everywhere you go, but doing so puts up a hurdle for you to overcome in the other persons mind.
Think about your clothing and grooming as the wrapping a present comes in. 48 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You’ve got one package wrapped up in newspaper. And another, who’s package is a hand tooled, gleaming, aromatic cherry wood box.
Which appears to you, to have a gift inside that’s more valuable?
Don’t wrap your package in a way that makes it harder than it should be to ignite instant attraction?
My timer just went off so tomorrow you and I will continue with the next 4 steps of Cultivating A Mag- netic First Impression.
Your ruggedly handsome business friend wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 18
Part 2 – Are You Unconsciously Repelling People? 5 Steps To Cultivating A Magnetic First Impression
n our last discussion you and I talked about how it sucks that we can’t just troll around in our favorite t- Ishirt and pajama bottoms and not have people judge us negatively for it.
Now let’s talk about The Second Step To Cultivating A Magnetic First Impression - Smiling
*
For years and years now my financial bread has been buttered from doing business over the phone or online.
I’ve hauled in a lot of money for myself & others selling over the phone, in print and pixel.
I’ve never persuaded nose to nose, toes to toes to make a living.
Do you do most of your business over the phone or face to face?
Smiling will help you in either instance.
Ted Nicholas in his Magic Words That Grow Your Business seminar recommends you smile while you dial and that you also have desk top mirror to make sure you’re actually doing it.
In his telemarketing room he also makes sure that everyone is dressed as if they were meeting the President Of The United States in person.
Next he encourages people to — eek — stand while selling over the phone.
I think Tony Robbins recommends this in his Power To Influence sales program he did also. 50 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
By the way, if you want a sales approach laden with the persuasiveness of NLP strategy in it, get Power To Influence.
The content within this product has helped me sell more in print and over the phone and I’m extremely confident it can do the same for you.
Kenrick Cleveland’s stuff would also have the same effect.
Ted’s theory is that people can hear a smile over the line and that when you’re dressed to kill you feel better about yourself and it transfers through to the people you come in contact with.
Ted will only allow people who radiate a pleasant vibe to come in contact with his customers and prospects.
I don’t know about you but when I’m in the heat of a riveting phone convo I pace.
It’s almost impossible for me to do anything else at the time because I’m so drawn in.
A couple days ago, I was talking to my dad while picking up only 3 items I needed from the store.
One of them was something I’d never bought before so I didn’t know where it was and because I was so enthused about the conversation I walked past the item 3-4 times.
Have you ever done that?
After bumbling around I made the decision to stop cheapening our conversation by not giving it my full attention and told my dad I’d call him back.
When I was telemarketing and droning off the same pitch to a freezing cold list of rushed business owners… the urge to lounge with my feet up, day dream and multi task were eagerly welcomed diversions.
None of which contribute to an effective presentation.
Both of us have had the pleasure of talking to a $2.00 an hour employee with a boring job and an even more boring life who’s been chained to their computer monitor for 8 hours.
You and I are expert at sensing when someone is eager to help us and when they feel like we’re bothering them.
Change The Way You Think Of Customers And Prospects
In Tony’s sales program he reframes cold calling by saying “I don’t cold call, or bang the phone all day. I reach out and make new friends.”
What if you reframed prospecting into friend finding? Part 2 – Are You Unconsciously Repelling… 51
This corresponds with Eben’s suggestion in Get Altitude, that you start looking at your customers as busi- ness friends.
You want to make sure your friends are taken care of don’t you?
We wouldn’t dream of pushing something onto a friend that wouldn’t help them, right?
So smile while on the phone with people who can help you provide your family with all the luxuries they’d like and…
…prestige in your company.
You’ll feel better and they will too.
Also remember that smiling while walking through a crowd or approaching groups of people will most def- initely telegraph to them that you’re a confident and happy person.
This perception is always a plus.
My timer just went off so I gotta scoot to my next project so I’ll be back with the Third step of Culti- vating A Magnetic First Impression.
I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 19
Three Steps To a New You!
*I got asked a question via email the other day I thought would be worth sharing here on the blog.
Someone asked me what I was doing to make the changes I wanted in my life.
Ummmmm….
I thought about it and have narrowed it down to Three Steps. I first learned about these from Anthony Robbins and Joe Vitale many years ago.
I hate to tell ya. No SECRET here, but very powerful.
So after getting the email.
I wanted to put down in writing what I believed the few things that were going to make the biggest changes in my life as well as yours.
*
*
*
So here ya go: 1. 2. A Constant Chaninging of Beliefs. Clearing out old one’s and adding new meaningful, powerful ones. I now believe we are robots. NO! Not Will Smith I-Robots. I mean we are acting out our lives with scripts given to us by other people. It’s these beliefs that are causing us to see the world as we do. We must take control of our scripts by reading, listening, and seminars. This is our way of changing the programming Three Steps To a New You! 53
for a higher cause and purpose. Look at all the things that are holding you back and I promise there is limiting set of beliefs attached to this that if changes will catapult you to places never thought of. 3. As Tony Robbins say; “You Must Take Action!”. If you take care of step one this become a whole lot easier. However, right now, begin to plan your days into manageable chunks of time. Focus your efforts on things tied directly to your goals. Get the highest leverage, priority items done first thing in the morning. 4. Finally, everyday, look in the damn mirror and be honest with yourself…..BE HONEST! Most of us have created a Bulllsh*&^ story about why we do things, why things are the way they are, and have cre- ated a false reality. Are you creating a B.S. Story to be safe? To not have to face the hard crap in life? Either way, begin to clear out the fairy tales and start being ruthless in honesty.
So there ya have Nerd Fans… Three Steps, if taken, to make dramatic changes in your life.
In Success,
My Note Taking Nerd
P.S. Talk about taking action. Get your but on up to the top of this page.. if not already too late and get the 50 Page Report I’m giving away for free if ya just take 15 minutes of action! CHAPTER 20
Part 3 – Are You Unconsciously Repelling People? 5 Steps To Cultivating A Magnetic First Impression
Hey fellow nerd fans, Numba 2 back with your next step for how to convey the cool and interesting person you really are without saying one word.
First, I need to ask you something.
When you stand in a line of people are you comfortable or tense?
While in a crowded area do people give you space or press into you?
Will people bump into you more often than walk around you in public?
If your nervous, have your space imposed on and are nudged in public by strangers it more than likely you’re gonna love my next suggestion which is…
The Third step to Cultivating a Magnetic First Impression is to take up as much space as you need to feel relaxed.
This was something I used to never do. Now I couldn’t live without it.
Here’s what I mean when I say take up more space.
Try something real easy, real quick with me.
Stand up and slump your shoulders forward, tilt your head down and take shallow chest breaths.
How does that make you feel? Part 3 – Are You Unconsciously Repelling… 55
For me it feels constricted and wimpy.
When people see you standing in public with this kind of posture… you unconsciously give ‘em permission to bump you aside, ignore you and even worse, see you as creepy.
Everyone knows confidence when they see it. This ain’t it.
When you go out into public again notice how many people project this weak body language.
Now stand with your feet shoulder with apart with your weight evenly distributed between your heels and toes.
From here you should have a tallness to your legs with a slight flex in your knees so your lower body feels relaxed, yet dynamic.
Next hunch your shoulders up and then let them drop back. This should push your chest out and after releasing the hunch, your arms should hang naturally at your sides without any signs of tightness.
If your chest is bursting out like a wanna be tough guy you’re doing this wrong.
It’s all about ease.
Hunching your shoulders up and then rolling them back automatically should pull your head up which should make breathing fully to your belly a lot easier.
How do this feel? I can’t hear what you said but for sure can tell how you look.
You look cool, calm and certain of yourself.
Try this the next time you go out and feel it for yourself. You just might absolutely love it.
If you find yourself feeling tense or nervous in any situation, ask yourself these three questions I learned from Dan Millman, the author of “The way of the Peaceful Warrior.”
Am I breathing to my belly?
If you aren’t your muscles tighten up and you’ll tend to feel stifled instead of charismatic.
Am I relaxed?
Right now take up more space in your chair, lean back and spread out. Doesn’t that feel comfortable?
Get comfortable by releasing any unnecessary tension in your body.
Am I doing what I’m doing gracefully? 56 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Grace is another word for ease. It means you’re letting things flow instead of forcing them. Whatever it is that your doing ask yourself “How much more gracefully or cooler could I be doing this?”
If you don’t know what it means to move gracefully, maybe you could take a dance class, Tai chi or some- thing that helps you get into your body.
Maybe you could do Yoga like Eben.
Remember, experts agree that physiology accounts for 80-95% of all communication.
So pay attention to what you’re saying with your posture.
Remember to dress to impress, smile big and use what I showed you today and it can pay off with a level of warm and friendly receptivity from the people you come in contact with like you’ve never experienced.
I’ll see you to tomorrow and we’ll uncover the 4th step to cultivating a magnetic first impression.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 21
Part 4 - Are You Unconsciously Repelling People? 5 Steps To Cultivating A Magnetic First Impression
Hey guys and gals, Note Taking Numba 2 back again with Part 4 of our conversation on how to avoid giving people a reason to misjudge us in public.
This one is short, sweet and powerful.
What does your walk communicate to people who see you in public?
More important, how does your walk make you feel about yourself?
I used to walk like a loser. I didn’t want to be noticed so I walked to blend in.
No one ever taught me how by just changing the way you put one foot in front of the other, you can change how you feel inside and what others feel inside about you.
Actors know this secret. Especially the actors who play powerful roles.
Look at Al Pacino. He stands 5’7”. That’s it. But he walks like he was a Nordic Viking standing 6’7”.
If you remember him in Scent of A Woman he walked with a swagger despite being blind.
He also commanded his space and was always impeccably dressed.
He would not let the world see him as anything less than the bad muthafucker he knew he was.
This is one of the tricks that any military uses to turn kids into warriors ready for battle.
How often do soldiers march in the battlefield? 58 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
They don’t.
Marching is all about drilling into these soldiers minds what walking tall can do for your confidence.
It’s harder to be afraid when you walk tall.
Tony Schwartz talked about this at the Get Altitude seminar.
When Jim Loehr and Tony were studying what helped people perform under pressure they sought out bull- fighters.
Pretty stressful occupation right?
Tony said that when they went to bull fighting school the most important lesson aspiring Matadors were instructed on was their walk.
Walking tall like they were the man. Like they owned the stadium, shit like they owned the bull. Like the bull was beneath them.
The instructors have learned after 300 plus years of lessons being handed down that how you walk tells your mind how to perform.
Here’s a few easy steps to take while walking that communicate to the world you’re money.
Slow down. If you’re out at a networking event, at a party or just walking into Starbucks, shift down to a saunter.
Like you actually want to be seen.
None of that herky jerky slithering through the crowd or apologetic for taking up space tip toeing.
Walk in like you own the joint. Calm, cool and relaxed.
Now while walking slower, practice walking deliberately heel to toe with your shoulders back and head held high.
Do this and you’ll definitely get someone double takes.
Could how you walk really make a difference in how people treat you?
You’ll never know for yourself until you try.
If it’s good enough for matadors, movie stars and the military it’s good enough for me. Part 4 - Are You Unconsciously Repelling… 59
As soon as I started walking like a champ I noticed a drastic difference in how people responded. I’m sure you will too.
If I missed any important tips about this topic, please post a comment so everyone reading this will benefit from your expertise.
Talk to tomorrow,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 22
Part 5 - Are You Unconsciously Repelling People? 5 Steps To Cultivating A Magnetic First Impression
Hey guys and gals, Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 is back to hand you the 5th and final step to being seen as a person who deserves respect until you’ve proven otherwise.
Before we dive in I want to recap.
The first step we talked about was Wrapping The Package.
If you look like a million bucks, you’ll feel like a million bucks. Wrong or right, people judge us based on what we cover our body with. So, why not have it be an amazing first impact you make on someones mind.
The second step was to smile more in public.
Especially when approaching people and when talking over the phone. No one looks forward to engaging in conversation with a person with a scowl on their face or talking to someone on the phone who sounds like they just woke up.
Especially if they’re in a happy state of mind because negative energy kills a positive vibe in person or on the phone.
The Third Step was to take up more space wherever you are.
When you’re tense and feel real nervous in public shrug your shoulders up and then let them drop back.
Your arms should be hanging loose. Not only will this make it easier to breathe deep relaxing breaths but it will also pull your head up instead of sagging to the floor.
After taken these steps ask yourself these three questions… Part 5 - Are You Unconsciously Repelling… 61
Am I breathing to my belly?
Am I relaxed?
Am I doing what I’m doing gracefully?
When we stand tall and don’t make herky jerky movements we can be seen as the cool confident person we really are.
The Fourth Step is to walk slower.
If you asked yourself the three questions above while on the move you’ll be walking like a king or queen.
No more Elmore Fudd plundering about or little mousey “Hope no one notices me” skittering.
Walk like you own the joint and everyone should feel lucky for having the chance to have spotted you in public.
Or be ignored. It’s up to you.
Our Fifth and Final step to cultivating a magnetic first impression is Tractor beam Eye contact.
If you’ve ever seen the movie “Dumb and Dumber” you’ll remember the scene when Jim Carrey’s is telling Jeff Lloyd about his first encounter with the red headed woman of his dreams.
He says “Yeah, Harry, she even talked to me. We had a connection. It was like a tractor beam whrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”
As stupid as Carrey’s character was in this movie he nailed what magnetic eye contact does in an interaction between two confident people.
It pulls you together like a tractor beam.
How attractive is it when a member of the opposite can spark white hot sexual tension by softly holding your gaze for a longer than is normal?
But too much eye contact can have the opposite effect.
Too much eye contact can be awkward or communicate you’re trying to punk someone.
What do you say with your peepers?
For a long time I unconsciously was very nervous about eye contact. 62 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
When I finally made the decision to get this handled I started consciously paying attention to what I was doing with my eyes and how I felt about it.
I remember one of our loyal fans, Tim mentioned a Richard Bandler program where he spoke about manip- ulating the feelings that come up in your body when you’re anxious.
And Tim, I have that program along with a bunch of other Bandler stuff and I don’t think anyone can go wrong with his material.
What worked better for me though was Larry Crane’s spin of the Sedona Method where instead of holding those feelings you open up an imaginary door where they’re churning and let them go.
Release the tension instead of holding it.
One of the exercises he has you go through is to look yourself in the eyes in the mirror and release whatever feelings come up.
When I first did this my first reaction was to look away within seconds of doing it. Why?
It’s just me. I was scared of looking myself in the eye.
Until I sought out resources to help me battle this, I suffered through the embarrassment of never coming across to potential business partners…friends and lovers as who I really was at my core.
How did I fix this?
Here’s three solid suggestions my dad or mom never taught me that would’ve helped me avoid presenting myself as a chump.
One of the first steps you can take is to get comfortable looking yourself in the eye.
I practice this daily by holding eye contact with myself while flossing and brushing my teeth.
I used to floss and brush in the shower and really regretted giving that up but it was for the greater good.
This started out being tough but got easier and easier as I kept doing and releasing whatever tension started rolling inside.
The second suggestion I got was from Eben Pagan in his dating stuff. He knows eye contact is huge problem for guys who are afraid to approach women.
So, he has guys go through the exercise of going to the mall or store and holding eye contact with women until they look away. Part 5 - Are You Unconsciously Repelling… 63
Any women young or old.
Now this doesn’t mean turning on the Manson Lamps and leering.
Just softly hold eye contact and you’ll start rooting out confident women and not so confident women.
Doing this was an amazing confidence booster for me.
The last suggestion is the 5 second triangle rule.
If you look into someones eyes too long it gets weird right?
So practice going from one eye to the other for 5 seconds and break by looking down at their mouth.
You can also look to the side if you want to break eye contact so you avoid looking at the ground and seeming nervous.
That’s it. I’ll see you tomorrow and please post any other suggestions for the community of things that have worked for you.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Notetaking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 23
Three Time Frames That Will Transform You For Better or Worse!
I’m inspired. Yep, feelin’ pretty, …..pretty, damn good today.
Bout to head out the door and watch one of my young friends, i’m mentoring, play his accordion in a Mex- ican Band. Should be interesting!
Speaking of this. There is nothing more rewarding then giving back what you have learned in life. So if you learn something from these reports please share it and help others.
By the way… give Note Taking Nerd2 a holla at his post. I’m pretty sure he’s lonely as I haven’t seen him for a week. He’s about 10 feet away in the other room but not a peep. I put one of those doctor doo hickeys up to the door the other night just to see if there were signs of life. I heard a few mumbles and was relieved he hadn’t took off for the Himalaya’s to hide out in a cave or something.
Anyway, I just extended the offer for him to head out the door to the Mexican Fiesta with me and he silently responded; “Will there be other Humans there?” I said “yes” and he hasn’t answered yet so i’ll let you know how that goes. ohhh….. I was listening to Eben Pagan talk last night and got a Nugget I gotta share with ya.
I mean this is some Grade A, Corn Fed, Super Steroid Injected Stuff!
Don’t miss this..
Eben was talking about the Three Time Frames. I’ve since put these words on the front banner of my phone for constant reminder.
I’m not saying that now would be a good time to make a post it note, poster, or other reminder for yourself, as you probably wouldn’t want to do that. Three Time Frames That Will Transform… 65
Eben say’s, that whenever we are eating or doing anything, you need to think consciously about these three things.
First is Why am I Doing This? Are you doing it for? 1. 2. For Instant Pleasure. This could be eating a Big Mac instead of a healthy salad, laying down instead of going for a walk, reading mindless crap instead of feeding your mind, etc… 3. For Entertainment. Now this isn’t necessarily bad if you don’t over do it. This could be rewarding your- self with a Meal after a hard fought week, going to a movie with friends, reading a mindless work of fiction, or anything else as long as you think in terms of balance. 4. For Health or Long Term Benefit. This is planning, working on goals, reading & listening to Nerd kinda stuff, eating a salad or yummy bowl of raw broccoli, exercising, ….anything that serves you and your goals long term.
So begin to ask yourself “why” you are doing things. This is some simple, yet powerful, stuff guys.
Next is the Three Time Frames and There Effect On Your Life! 1. 2. The Now Time Frame. This is when you eat something because it’s pleasurable now. You do something because it’s pleasurable now. The sad part about life is that we all know that instant pleasure rarely relates to something that’s good for us long term. 3. Next is the 2 - 3 hour time frame. This is how the Food you are eating will make you feel for the next few hours or if you are focusing on tasks tied to goals which will inspire, build momentum, and push you to more productive days and achievement. 4. Finally, there is the long term time frame. This is accepting 4’s and 5’s, in the form of pleasure, (food, exercise) RIGHT NOW in exchange for the 10 it will give you long term in the form of Energy, Happi- ness, Joy, Passion, and Self Esteem.
So on my phone i have these words.
Now? Next 3 Hours? Life? - A constant reminder to help me in my quest to be the King of Nerd Land
Alright ladies and gentleman let’s create a NERD REVOLUTION!
Spread the word.
In Success,
My Note Taking Nerd #1 CHAPTER 24
The 66 Questions That Will Catapult Your Business To New Heights
“He Who Knows Most About People Who Are Likely To Want What He Has To Offer, and Have Money To Buy It, Wins”
Ancient Chinese Proverb
Hey Nerds and Nerdettes,
Numba 2 is back but not with part 4 of our “Cultivating a Magnetic First Impression” conversation.
I’ve been meaning to write to you about today’s topic all week but I let myself get sidetracked. Today I finally wrestled it down to mat and have a mighty concept for helping you get a leg up on your competition.
Don’t forget to download the PDF at the bottom of this post.
Have you ever known someone who was slicker than Vaseline when it came to sparking up conversation with strangers?
I have.
He was a person I worked with while telemarketing. This guy was cold calling rushed business owners and busting open dialogue with them and their secretary’s that amazed me.
I, on the other hand was always stuck for something to talk about outside of my script. If I ever strayed from my blankie I’d bumble and stammer like an idiot.
Although he was a great conversationalist, he wasn’t genuinely interested in knowing about the prospects. He just wanted to be seen as a friend, get their money and go get high with it. The 66 Questions That Will Catapult Your… 67
So while I admired his ability to schmooze, I recognized that’s all it was. Schmoozing. Just saying enough to get what he wanted and when he did, he was gone. This guy could talk himself out anything.
This is how finely tuned his mouthpiece was. He was missing both of his front teeth, was fat and had a bird nose and he still always had women clinging to him, buying him clothes, letting him live with them, pretty much taking care of his every need.
And here I was a pretty boy and was struggling to get a girlfriend.
I didn’t get then. I do now. His certainty is what conveyed confidence over the phone and to his women.
He was what you’d call a smooth talker, but not a smooth doer. He told a lot of lies that he was always trying to cover up. This was something I was raised not to do. And I always resented it.
Part of it was the belief my dad drilled into me as child that went “Never trust anyone who talks faster than you.”
I know now that everyone who can talk a good game isn’t out to get me but I still keep my eyes wide open when I encounter it.
If you’ve ever been stuck for stuff to talk about with clients to build rapport with business connections this post is for you. It could even help the shyest person on the planet.
I wish I would have had it back in my cold calling days.
And if you can’t use this build a profitable sales letter, sales presentation or polite conversation with a pros- pect or customer… nothing will and should pack up your tent and move on to another career. Maybe one where you only interact with machines.
I picked up this Intelligence report from Harvey Mackay’s book “SWIM WITH THE SHARKS Without Being Eaten Alive. It’s his famous “Mackay 66” that he makes sure his staff finds answers to.
You can rest assured your competitors either don’t know about this or are too damn lazy to implement it into their bidness.
Protect the answers to these questions with your life and study them as carefully as you did so you could get your very first license to drive.
Knowing these details about your clients and customers is your license to drive your sales through the roof.
Now I proudly present to you the…
Mackay Envelope Company 68 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
66-Question Customer Profile
mackay-66 PDF CHAPTER 25
Do You Use The Blunt Force Trauma Of A Jackhammer To Sell?
If You Missed Part One Go Here Hey You,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 back at you with the conclusion to how to use the “Mackay 66” to put yourself at the top of the mind of anyone you do business with.
Maybe you’ve seen it, maybe you haven’t but in the NBC T.V. series, The Office there’s a character named Dwight Schrute on it.
He’s a paper salesman and he’s the biggest asshole in the office. In one episode he’s quits and is trying to get hired at the competing paper companies.
During one of his interviews, he claims one of his outstanding features is that he’s relentless when it comes to pursuing a yes. No play time. No being buddy buddy. He tells the potential employeer that he is a JACK HAMMER.
Do you like to buy from some guy who’s just looking to churn and burn through prospects so he can be the winner of the office’s sales contest?
I don’t either.
When you and I use our “Mackay 66” list we’ll never be seen as a “Dwight Schrute.”
Remember we all love talking about the most important person on the planet, ourselves.
Just as long as we don’t come across like we’re interrogating them.
When I was working in Los Angeles I was doing business with a man who graduated from the USC, (Uni- versity of Southern California for my abroad friends) in April of 1992. 70 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So, in our first conversation he brings up this fact, and after he did I noted this in his file.
If you’re familiar with L.A. you know USC is a pearl right smack in the middle of the one of the roughest neighborhoods in the United States.
Somehow I worked USC into our conversation when I called him a year later and he ends up telling me the story of how the Rodney King Riots were in full swing on the day he was to graduate.
People burning buildings down right down the street from the campus. Holy shit!
Well Riot or no riot, this graduation ceremony would not be stopped. USC used some of it’s high dollar pull and actually had the National Guard Army protecting the campus.
What was hilarious was him telling me about the picture he had on his wall of him, his father, his mother, his teeny Italian grandmother… and a soldier in full battle gear with his M-16 Rifle grandma pulled into the pic.
We had a belly laugh together about this and talking business was soooo much smoother in this state of mind.
And it all came from a note I made about his life.
Harvey Mackay is world famous for his finding out details about people he wants to do business with.
Clayton Makepeace brought him to speak at his first Power Summit. Note Taking Nerd Number 1 was there and he told me the story of how Harvey had access to the list of the attendees and plucked out the name of a man who owned a big mail order business.
You see, just in case you don’t know what Harvey’s business is, he sells envelopes. So this was a guy who he knew he’d like to business with.
So as Harvey’s chugging along in his speech he gets to this “Mackay 66” concept and he finds the guy in the crowd and starts telling his life story.
Where he was born… where he went to elementary school… what sports he played in junior high… when he got married… what his first dog’s name was… at what age he stopped wetting the bed… and even more.
He was bringing up facts you don’t find in public records.
Check this out.
Note Taking Nerd 1 happened to be sitting next to this guy and he could see he was paralyzed with aston- ishment. Note Taking Nerd 1 asked him if what Harvey was saying was right and he said “Oh yeah and I don’t know how in the hell he knows it.” Do You Use The Blunt Force Trauma Of A… 71
I don’t know if Harvey ended up getting that account that weekend but I sure do know the recipient of his due diligence was thoroughly impressed.
How can you use the “Mackay 66” to make selling easier for you and how can you get started on this quest today?
Here’s a short list of where to finding answers to the questions…
Customers
Suppliers
Banks
Internal data base
Colleagues
Conventional media
Internet - Google
General Press
Financial Press
Trade Press
Trade Association
Special Reports
Assistants
Receptionists
Local Newspapers
Wall Street Journal
The New York Times
You want to constantly be on the hunt for information that’s valuable or relates to your top 20 cus- tomers. 72 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Because of the moving parade of life we need to be updating our “Mackay 66” list on a steady basis. And with the private information revealed on these forms make sure they stored in a secure place.
Please feel free to share with everyone here, any additional places or ways to find answers to these questions on the “Mackay 66” list.
Use this and you’ll be guaranteeing yourself smoother selling interactions.
Imagine, no more impersonal, stilted and dull interactions with your clients, customers and prospects.
Remember, you’d rather give your money to a friend rather some robot any day of the week. Let people you do business with feel like they’re doing the same.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note taking Numba 2
Part One is Here CHAPTER 26
The Secret To Taking Your Business From Where You Are To Where You Want To BE!
Download This Report Right Now!
You might be thinking. “Hey Nerd, don’t tell me what to do”
Look .. I’ve busted my but to Gift you guys some of the best information available.
This Report I’m giving away today is THE best book and program available to provide a structure and system for your business that will enable you to grow easily, effortlessly, and consitently.
THE BOOK IS “MASTERING THE ROCKEFELLER HABITS”
Learn: • • Core Ideology—bring core values and purpose alive to energize your employees and simplify human resource systems • • Annual and Quarterly Focus—discover the most critical short-term decisions an executive team can make to drive alignment and performance • • Rockefeller Habits Checklist—adopt 10 habits that will reduce the weekly executive time needed for managing the business from 50 hours to under 15 • • Meeting Rhythm—establish daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual meeting rhythms and create the specific agendas that make them effective • • Metrics—drive your business on a daily and weekly basis using three metrics • 74 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
• Themes and Priorities—identify period-specific themes and use them to make your priorities memo- rable while adding energy and focus to the organization •
Mastering The Rockefeller Habits PDF
Rockefeller Habits Checklist PDF CHAPTER 27
The Exact Wrong Way To Write An Email That Sells And How Rush Limbaugh Can Teach You The Right Way To Do It
Hey didly do, Why do the stupid behemoth corporate companies think this kind of email I rummaged out of my spam box would sell anything?
Here’s copy from one of these more money than sense corporations exactly as it was seen in my browser: Help protect your family with a Prudential Financial Company Term life insurance policies are issued by Pruco Life Insureance Company except in New Jersey and New York, where it is issued by Pruco Life Insurance Company of New Jersey. Both are Prudential Financial companies and located in Newark, NJ. The Credo Group is not affiliated with Prudential Financial. Each is solely responsible for it’s own financial condition and contractual obligations. Visit prudential.com for more information. Huh?
This robotronic disclaimer is supposed to inspire me to give you my money? What I’m about to share with you today will can help you write emails that sell instead of repel. Contrast the above email with this one. Hey Pei: You can get more fight tips right now at… http://www.trsdirect.com/fightguide/cde-day03.html This is where we really get into some “meat and potatoes”. You’ll discover how to deal with fear and avoid “brain freeze”, (there’s a very easy to learn and simple technique you can learn, so you don’t want to miss this).
I also have a special lesson from Gabe Garcia — a guy who became one of East LA’s most feared and respected street fighters. When it comes to surviving the streets and winning, 76 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One this guy knows the ropes better than just about anyone. It’s not pretty, but you’ll want to hear what Gabe’s got to say at: http://www.hypertracker.com/go/ohpdirect/MS199/ Til next time… Dr. Russ Horine Prez, TRSdirect.com Oh, and Pei, if you haven’t got the “Ultimate Guide To Fighting And Winning” in book form, you can get it now at: http://www.trsdirect.com/goto/pdf08.html
But hurry… the above links all go dead in just 24 hours.chat with people. you write emails to bring people to your site are they
This comes from one of John Carlton’s favorite clients TRS Direct. I don’t know if John wrote the email but I do know that if I’m interested in beating the shit out of people who want to do harm to me or my family this would grab my attention.
Especially the part about avoiding “brain freeze” when the doo-doo hits the fan. The lesson: Write emails like you talk. Write sales letters like you talk. Not like you write. Like you talk. This is why reading your copy out loud isolates all the unnecessary or misplaced words in you letters. Read the TRS email copy again and see how smoothly it flows. No big words, No unnecessary text and most importantly no bore.
This email also promises you’ll be going on a mini-adventure when you click because you’re going to hear the story of one of East LA’s most feared and respected street fighters story.
You, I and everyone breathing loves stories. Can’t get enough of them. No matter how sophisticated your crowd is, fascinating stories will keep them interested in what you have to say.
When you dress your copy up like a sheep it won’t be seen as a wolf and spark a panic in the herd. What Rush Limbaugh can teach you about writing kick ass emails. During Rush’s radio talk show nothing is scripted. The whole show is just you and him having a conversation about how the nations going to hell in a hand basket now that the democrats are in total control.
Rush Limbaugh keeps his fans loyal by letting them in on the stories of his superstar lifestyle. Newscasters are easily replaceable. Rush ain’t. If Rush just got on the show and simply stated factoid after factoid he’d have been off the air long ago. But he’s the king because he’s got stories to tell and opinions he isn’t afraid to put out there. The Exact Wrong Way To Write An Email… 77
I don’t listen to talk radio but I don’t have to. I just transfer what’s working over there into what I’m doing here and it works like gangbusters. You can do the same.
Do your emails express your personality or are they as lifeless and cold as Prudential’s?
As soon as an email like the Prudential one at the top of this post hits my box, I can’t click delete fast enough.
Does your email copy send people bolting for the exit or does it suck people in like the scent of the cookie stores in the mall?
Be nice to your prospects, customers, and clients. Write like you talk in a conversational tone and make it easy on yourself by telling tight concise stories to make your selling points.
I’ll talk to again tomorrow,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2
P.S. If you’re one of the sharp pencils following this blog, please share any resources you’ve come across that helped transform your copy from just the facts… into an action packed journey people love to let themselves dive into.
CHAPTER 28
You Don’t Get This Right You’re Screwed!
Ihave a personal confession to make and a bold promise. The confession is too come. I promise that if you read on you’ll learn what you need to do to reach your goals and the potential you’ve always known you have.
And I promise I’ll give you a front of the line pass to receiving all the tools necessary to take your life from where you are to where you want to be. So take 7 - 9 minutes right now and read every word in this letter.
Also Nerd Fans. If your life is perfect and things are going exactly as planned. Don’t read this.
If you’re interested in knowing the difference between your true potential and why you’re not achieving it then read on.
My confession? I sucked at Goal Achievement for the most part of my life.
Yet I’ve read well over 1,000 books in my life.
I’ve listened to just about every damn High End Guru program there is.
I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars to attend the Very Best seminars available on building business.
I’ve walked across fire with Anthony Robbins and Meditated with Wayne Dyer.
I’ve done it all. Literally.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve cruised the world, seen the sights, had nice things, and achieved much.
Yet, in the end, i’ve crapped away half my life, not doing the things I should have.
Maybe you’ve been where I’ve been, maybe not. You Don’t Get This Right You’re Screwed! 79
Maybe you’ve sat, by yourself, asking how? why? What the f*&^?
You know you’re ten times smarter then the Dumbass that’s ten times more successful then you at the office or down the street.
You listen to some of these mumbled, make no sense at all speakers and think to yourself how in the world did this guy become so successful?
Me to.
I began to believe shit might be pre - ordained. What a joke, of a thought, that was.
Once I let go of all my B.S. (Belief Systems) about the past and why I wasn’t where I wanted to be.. things began and continue to change dramatically for me.
I’m attracting things into my life at Warp Speed.
What’s the One Secret?
It’s so damn simple, yet it’s why i’ve chosen to spend so much time on this very topic here on this blog.
I care about you guys. I want to see you achieve. I want to think I can make a difference in somebodies life.
Here it is…..(Drum Roll)…..
WORK HARDER ON YOURSELF THEN YOU DO ON YOUR BUSINESS OR ANYTHING ELSE.
Yep.
The Inner Game is where all the juice is at. All the reward comes from this one thing.
Until I’ve began to work on my beliefs, values, goals, and then work on the strategies to actually make those things real in my life… well…. the 1,000 books, the seminars, etc.. meant nadda.
Without the ability to put into action the knowledge you learn it’s useless.
But here’s the exciting part.
Once you understand WHAT to work on things begin to change dramatically.
It’s like time stands still for a minute and all the stuff you wanted catches up to ya.
So here is the deal.
I’m going to be holding a tele -conference in about 7 - 10 days. 80 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
A short while back i posted a poll to have you guys share with me what you wanted me to share.
I got some feedback.
Guess What. The Number one thing that most wanted was the Inner Game Strategies of the Guru’s.
During this call I’m going to go Deep into the Inner Game Strategies.
I’m going to share exactly what I’m doing that I learned from the Masters. The guys making shit happen.
Not only am I going to share tactics but I’m going to give you the exact blueprints for my Goals. The exact sheet I use to achieve Mastery in anything.
My promise to you is this.
You join me on this call.
At the end of the call if you don’t think I’ve given you 50 times more then the ridiculous price I’m letting you on for then email me .. don’t explain yourself, and ask for your money back.
Not only will I give your money back but I’ll give you Twice your money back.
Yep, that’s how positive I am that I’ll deliver the goods.
So here is the deal.
I can’t give you the MindMap of the Call, the recording, or the Report because I’m only giving that to the people who fill out the poll.
However, you will receive the exact blueprint for creating Ideal Goals. The exact blueprint for achieving mastery in anything you do. The exact sheet I use everyday to monitor that I’m doing the “Right” stuff. And I’m gonna throw in a bunch of extra tools for you to use.
This is not crap I’ve made up. This is the Best of the Best from the Guru’s. What they are using in their lives to achieve all the things most think impossible.
Remember, this is just part of what I’ll be teaching. 1. 2. I’m also going to share with you the Best Strategies for Time Management and Productivity the Guru’s use everyday. 3. And the Best Offline and Online Strategies for building a wildly successful business. 4. Next, I’m going to throw in, as a bonus, the simplest way to systematize your business. You Don’t Get This Right You’re Screwed! 81
Look. You can go to Five different seminars to learn this stuff and literally spend $2,000, $3,000, $10,000 and you might not get what I’m going to share with you.
Not only that but sticking to my Report Theory and why I do this. I’ll cut through the fluff. I’ll get right to the meat. You will learn more in the Two - Three Hours we spend together then you get at some entire weekend seminars.
Don’t worry. I won’t be up-selling you into nothing. No selling here. Just the goods.
What will I charge. Well initially it was going to be $39.95.
After looking at the amazing curriculum I’ve set up. No Way!!
It’s going to be $59.99 and that’s almost embarrassing for what I’m giving away.
But if you send me an email right now to [email protected] and just put Front of the Line in the subject line. You’ll qualify to get this Tele-Seminar for $24.95. Yep less then Half the price I’ll charge others.
However, you only have 48 hours to do this.
Remember, I’ll give you the best of the best strategies and provide, as a bonus, the exact tools I use to make things happen.
Send me an email right now and get on the Front of the Line list.
This does not mean you HAVE to send me the ridiculous price of admission. It just means you’ll qualify for a more then 60% discount.
Alright Nerd Fans… that’s it.
Now get of your butt and start working on yourself harder then anything else and watch the amazing trans- formation.
In Success,
My Note Taking Nerd
P.S. To qualify to receive the Inner Game Strategies of the Guru’s, The Best 11 Offline and Online Strategies to Catapult Your Business to New Levels, and Time and Productivity Secrets of the Guru’s email me right now at [email protected] and put Front of the Line in the subject line. 82 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Pss You Risk Nothing. And if you just want to make a buck. Get on the list, listen to the call and tell me I suck. I’ll send you twice what you paid back. My partner thinks I’m an idiot. I don’t. I know I’m going to hit a home run. I know what this can do for you. Email now and get on the Front of the Line list.
Enjoy your day. CHAPTER 29
Are You A Wussy When It Comes To Asking For The Sale?
Beautiful day today. Just got my middle aged, overweight butt in from a light boxing workout, followed by 16 minutes of High Intensity, Heart Pumping, aerobic exercise on the bike, and a Full Body-Weight Workout.
I gotta tell ya .. I was dreading heading out the door but I managed to do it and i’m a better person for doing so.
I tell ya those first steps in just about everything seem to always be hard.
BUT
Once we get going it seems as though it gets easier and easier.
It’s a lot like selling.
The thought of doing it seems daunting at times but the more confident we get and the more we “DO’ it, the easier it becomes.
So today, to help you overcome any Wussiness you might have with selling, I’m pulling some old notes I took on an older sales book and ONE really Kick Ass new book that just came out.
So enjoy Nerd Fans.
Consultative Closing PDF - Simple Steps That Build Relationships
Yes! 50 Persuasion Tactics PDF - Robert Cialdini CHAPTER 30
Can You Craft A Solid Sales Letter Without A Swipe File?
Hey fellow fan of the Nerd duo, Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 back again with the key to every sales letters success.
One thing I started doing years ago but never finished was putting together a swipe file that was broken down by the different components of a proven sales letters.
I have files that are full of just P.S.’s. Another For Bullets. Another for Opening Paragraphs.
I don’t use it. I’m little different from other writers and I’m probably a little slower for it.
I know Lorrie Morgan Ferrero recommends you warm yourself for writing by going and reading hot pro- motions.
She says it primes you and gets your mind in a selling mode.
This is an awesome idea. I know if I do this my mind definitely starts raring. My only fear is my mind copying what I’ve just looked at.
I know writing goes faster if you swipe concepts. I could short cut my writing process by 2/3 if I did it. It’s really easy for me to do this but I don’t want to be the same as everyone else.
I pride myself on coming with a fresh angle especially if I’m going to a market that’s really hip to all the classic formulaic headlines…
“They all laughed when…
“What doctors do when they feel rotten…
“Give me 10 days and I’ll… Can You Craft A Solid Sales Letter Without… 85
If you’re new to writing sales letters you should swipe. This is what builds a neural pathway in your mind to know what a good sales pitch is.
As original as I think I might be coming I know all the classic headlines are stuck somewhere in the back of my mind and I use hybrids of them.
And if you’re in a virgin market and you’re clients and prospects have never been exposed to these old school tried and true formulas, knock it out of the park.
The classics even work on people who know you’re just copying. What works, works and that’s all that matters.
More important to me than focusing on pick up lines is focusing on fitting into my letter the hardcore structure of a winning argument.
Here’s the one I use that I got from Clayton Makepeace…
He calls them the 8 preliminary sales he has to make before the phone rings
or the check gets mailed.
They are …
1. The ATTENTION sale: I’ll have to sell my prospect on looking at my ad, direct mail piece or listening to my TV or radio spot.
2. The READERSHIP sale: I’ll have to sell my prospect on reading what I have to say, and then, on con- tinuing to read.
3. The BENEFIT sale: I’ll have to give my reader every single reason why he should buy: Every benefit he’ll get, every fear that will be assuaged, every desire that will be fulfilled.
4. The CREDIBILITY sale: I’ll have to convince my prospect that my product really will deliver the promised benefits.
5. The VALUE sale: I’ll have to convince him that the price I’m asking in return for doing all these things for him is a pittance - hardly worth thinking about.
6. The SAFETY sale: I’ll have to convince him that there is no downside to accepting my generous offer.
7. The CONVENIENCE sale: I’ll have to sell him on how simple and convenient ordering my product is.
8. The “DO IT NOW” sale: I’ll have to convince my prospect that acting now is more than just “in his best interest” - is absolutely, positively the single most important thing he could do today. 86 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I can start a letter with nothing but this check list and no product and actually be snug as bug in a rug. It helps to have the product but I don’t have to have it to start.
Ted Nicholas says you should write the salesletter for an info product before you ever produce it.
His thinking is that if your idea isn’t any good you’ll find out quick because you’ll be stuck for how to sell it. And if the idea is hot you’ll come up with an amazing promotion.
This promotion then serves as the outline for your info product. All you’ve gotta do is follow it and you’re on the way to a blockbuster success.
Using a swipe file is definitely faster than starting with a blank slate. And if you’re not concerned with making a name for yourself as a copywriter go full steam ahead. No one at the bank is gonna ask you how original the copy was that brought in the money you’re depositing.
If you’re swipe file is flimsy just focusing on these key sales you have to make can carry you a long way.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 31
The Best Way I’ve Found To Spike My Energy When I Write
Hey Guys And Gals, What do you do to beat writer’s block when you sit down to write an ad, or an information product, or a newsletter, or blog post?
Do you ram up against it?
Do you write every day?
What I found to help me was to script my day and schedule in time where I was locked into writing.
When you’re sitting in front of computer at the assigned time what’s next?
Eugene Schwartz talked about setting up a digital timer and punching into it 33:33 and then not letting himself move from in front of the computer until the timer had gone off.
He told himself he didn’t have to write but he couldn’t do anything else for that block of time.
Eben’s Wake Up Productive system promotes 50 minute chunks. I’ve explored both and I’ve found the circadian rhythm factor in Eben’s system keeps me sharp because in his system you’re keeping your blood sugar from crashing which makes you worthless.
And you’re giving your mind a rest by disconnecting every 50 minutes.
If you haven’t read your Wake Up Productive report yet, try doing this.
Focus on one project for 50 minutes, then take a ten minute break. Crank on another for another 50 minutes and then take a 30 minute break to eat and rest. 88 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
One thing that will really help is eating light and having your food already prepared so you don’t end up spending the whole 30 minutes cooking and cleaning up.
For me a hand full of almonds or cashews or broccoli has sent me back to computer rarin’ to go.
I don’t ever end up crashing when I do this. I used to eat till I way over full and would get drowsy about a half an hour later. You know the Thanksgiving dinner syndrome.
Ever since I’ve stuck to this plan I haven’t taken a nap.
I used to plan like 45 minutes to an hour into my day for a nap.
I had hypnotized myself into believing I couldn’t function without one.
On this plan the closest I get to a nap is laying back and resting for maybe 20 minutes. I don’t knock out but I do get relaxed. If my timer goes off and I’ve started going out I awaken fast, not all groggy and pissed off.
There were plenty of times I turned my timer off and said I was just gonna lay there for a sec and I’d wake up and it be night time. I’d usually feel like like shit because I woke up in the middle of sleep cycle and I had slept when I needed to be working.
If you write I can’t recommend this process highly enough. It’s been amazing for me.
Try it out and let me what you think. Also tell me if you’ve been doing the 50/50/30’s already and how they’ve been working out.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 32
Do Your Paragraphs Have Race Car Momentum Or Are They Clunkers?
Hey guys and gals, Numba 2 here with a question.
Why are we as a society so fascinated with the number 3?
Look at all these examples where the number three is a recurring theme…
3 Greek Gods: Zeus-Air, Poseidon-Water, Hades-Earth
The Holy Trinity: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
Witness Stand Truths: The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth.
3 divisions of school: Elementary, Middle school, High school
On the count of three, everybody pull! Why not on the count of four?
The Three Stooges: Larry, Moe and Curly.
Three blind mice
The Three Musketeers
Traffic lights
And too many other examples to notes here.
Can you see how we are trained to love the cadence of three? 90 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So one thing you want to pay attention to when you craft any kind of sentence or paragraph is not hitting the pause button in someones mind while trying to get your point across.
One definite way to halt someone from reading your copy is to have run on marathon sentences in your copy.
Look at this. I pulled it from the world famous chef, Emeril’s cooking website…
Emerilware
PRO-CLAD
Tri-Ply Bonded
Cookware
Take your cooking to the next NOTCH!
Features an aluminum core bonded between two layers of stainless steel for optimal heat conductivity and oven-safe performance up to 550 degrees.
This for me is a clunky paragraph. The “Features an aluminum core bonded” part froze me and had to read the paragraph and then re-read to make sure I got it.
How can you use the power of three to make this paragraph more powerful?
Here’s what I came up with…
Tri-Ply Bonded Cookware has an aluminum core, secured in between two layers of stainless steel. This makes sure you get even heat distribution while cooking. Which means less stirring, less time cooking and food that is always cooked all the way through.
Your Tri-Ply Bonded cookware is also oven-safe up to a scorching 550 degrees. Now you can use less pans to cook, which means less time cleaning up and ultimately means more time enjoying the company of people you cook for.
Using these professional chef tools will definitely kick your cooking experience up a notch by ensuring your meals are prepared faster, and that taste exactly the way they are meant to which means you’ll get rave reviews for your efforts almost every time you cook. Do Your Paragraphs Have Race Car Momentum… 91
Same pans. Same features. Different experience.
Can you see how the power of three used in these paragraphs and sentences carry you through the copy on a wave of momentum. They build to a climax.
Using the power of three also comes in handy when your explaining the self-serving benefit your product will bring to your prospect.
Like the last paragraph of my copy above. Emeril’s copywriter just says you can “Take your cooking to the next NOTCH!” This is just a claim. A pretty lame claim at that.
Why will it take my cooking to the next notch? Even that expression, “the next notch doesn’t rub me right.
In my last paragraph I subtly added the word up to the sentence like Emeril actually does in his show. I linked to the familiar so I don’t de-rail my reader.
I also tell you why it’s going to go up…by ensuring your meals are prepared faster and that they taste exactly the way they are meant to which means you’ll get rave reviews for your efforts almost every time you cook.
Use the Power of Three in your sentences and your copy will speedily bring people to the conclusion of whether or not you’re product is right for them or not.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 33
The One Skill You Must Learn To Succeed In This Recession Or You Can Just Get Your Place IN Line At The Soup Kitchen Today!
King Nerd (in my mind) here with VERY BAD NEWS! Look we are in uncharted territory here. In case you’ve been sleep walking the last couple of months or live in some fairy tale you’ve created to make yourself feel better.
We are not in bad times or a slight depression. This economy is looking more and more like a full on depression day after day.
Look… Nerd Fan’s. I don’t have a chrystal ball.
I can’t say for sure things will stay this way for any period of time or if I’m 100% certain this isn’t going away but part of what I’ve been studying over these last 2 1/2 decades is what makes the economy tick and right now from what I see…. the economic “Heart” has had a heart attack and is about to stop ticking.
Give me a second and I’ll tell you what you’ve got to do to make sure you don’t end up at the local Soup Kitchen and Five N’ Dime store with your family asking for help.
Home sales are DEAD, retail is drying up, the B.S. Bailout won’t work, credit is gone, and people are scram- bling to find their last “creative” strategy to pay the bills and buy one last shiny object before it all comes to an end.
So here’s the deal.
You can be a victim and cry like a two year old that just got candy taken from them or you can learn the ONE thing you’ve got to do to survive.
What is the One Thing? As always it’s not a new word, secret sauce, or golden key. It’s as old as that old Oak Tree you’ve seen since you were drooling and running around in diapers. The One Skill You Must Learn To Succeed… 93
YOU’VE GOT TO BE RUTHLESS IN YOUR FOLLOW UP!
Getting clients right now is going to be like pulling teeth.
Who’s going to get them? The businesses that try the hardest. Simple as that. Gaining and Keeping cus- tomers has never been so important.
Here is the Secret Map on how to capture your prospects, gain their trust, put a Prison Style wall around them, throw away the key, and gain their trust so they have blinders to the competition.
Create a capture device that is so compelling they can’t say no. This could be your landing page, what you offer in your direct mail pieces, or the first thing you say face to face. • • The Free Line is working right now and will continue to work in the near future. So find a part, and it’s gotta be good, of what you sale that you can Gift your prospective clients. I’ll be discussing this in detail on my “33 strategies” call on December 2nd. • • Next create a System of Relentless Follow Up. I’m not talking a monthly newsletter. Use Auto-Res- ponders, blogging, direct mail, telephone contact, face to face interaction, faxing, etc… • • Be brutal in the questioning of your clients. Know the answer to these questions: •
Are they ready to buy now?
If not when will they be ready to buy, specifically?
What do they want from you that would move them closer to the purchase date?
7 other questions I’ll share on the “33 strategies” phone call. • • Next… Segment your list into Hot (buying now or in the next week), Green (will buy at a specific date in the near future, Info’s (no commitment from them, they need more..), and Dead (move these guys off the list. they just aren’t responding or won’t interact with you). • • Finally Relentlessly focus on moving these groups closer to the sale or onto the next one. •
Alright Nerd Fan’s. I could go on for 12 more segments on this one topic. I hope you get my point.
You absolutely, must be relentless in your follow up with your prospects and clients and give them what they want. 94 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Become so damn valuable they just wouldn’t think about going anywhere else. Be the Guru in your area for them.
So with that here’s my Shameless Pitch of the day.
If you want to know in detail, exactly how the Guru’s are going to prosper in the coming economic collapse and want to ensure that you and your family can and will survive then….
CLICK HERE FOR THE “33 STRATEGIES THE GURU’S DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW” TELE-SEM- INAR!
I’m offering a Ridiculously Low Price and a Double Your Money Back Guarantee.
Hey I’ve been working on this “33 Strategies” seminar for awhile as the picture on the right shows. I’m doing the work so you don’t have to. Wheeeewwww this has been a lot of work.
With all the Gloom and Doom I’ve just poured on ya…
Hey go have a wonderful and Bright day.
Love Ya Nerd Fan’s
Chief Nerd of the My Note Taking Nerd Clan CHAPTER 34
“The Top Ten Mistakes You Are Probably Making In Business And What To Do About It…Part One”
ere Are The Top Ten Reasons Most Businesses Fail And How To Make Sure You Avoid Every One Of HThese Deadly Common Mistakes… MISTAKE #1: Not Working On Themselves As Much as They Work On Their Business.
Have you ever sat back and realized how much you are working in your business.
Have you ever worked 60 - 90 hours a week and get to the end of the week and feel as though you accom- plished very little. Not only that but you feel overwhelmed.
What is the problem here?
It’s actually very simple.
You are spending too much time focusing on putting out fires, so called urgent matters, and just trying to survive.
Most business owners have no clear idea of what it is that they want to accomplish.
They have no idea what their personal goals are and have not chosen a set of value and beliefs to guide them.
Therefore their life is controlled by outside influences the majority of the time.
I REALIZE that you may think you have no time left to work on yourself.
Until you accept the fact that you must work on yourself as hard or harder then you work on your business, you’ll NEVER have the success in your business you want. 96 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So right now begin to work on your goals, values, beliefs, leadership skills, and other skills you need to take yourself and business to the next level.
MISTAKE #2: Having No Understanding Of What “Time” Really is and How to Take Control Of It.
What do you think about time?
If you’re like I was not so long ago or many of the business owners I know then you probably never think of time at all. It’s just a Word with very little meaning.
Yet it’s the single most important thing you have. Without it … well…. life ends.
Time is a limited resource. So..
Let me ask you a question. If you had a Million Dollars Cash in your home. Would you leave it out in the front yard for everyone to see and take as they please?
My guess is no. As a matter of fact, I’d bet you would go out of your way to protect that money.
Why don’t you do the same for your TIME?
It’s much more valuable then a Million Dollars and your losing it everyday.
The challenge is that most of us do not put a value on our time.
Because we live in the information age with access to email, fax, myspace, facebook, etc… we are constantly at the mercy of an outside system.
Why? Because we have no system for controlling our time.
So I suggest today you begin to put a value on your time and create a system for managing it.
Some suggested resources would be anything by Dan Kennedy on time management, David Allen, and Anthony Robbins RPM System.
MISTAKE #3: Focusing on only ONE way to grow your business.
What I’m about to say may shock you!
Most business owners put limits on how much business their prospects and clients can do with them.
It may not happen by design but it’s devastating. Countless numbers of sales are not made and opportuni- ties are overlooked and never acted upon therefore stunting the growth of your company. “The Top Ten Mistakes You Are Probably… 97
Your Customers are your number one asset. I want to do everything possible to ensure you don’t miss the opportunity to gather more clients or get your current ones to buy more frequently.
There are only Three Ways to Grow Your Business.
You can Find new customers, or… you can have your current customers buy more frequently from you, or… find a way to get your current customers to increase the size of their purchases.
I picked this up from Jay Abraham many years ago and to this day find it to be one of the simplest yet profound focus points in business.
I may be wrong but many of you are probably only focusing on one area of your business.
For most it’s getting new customers.
However, you may want to design a system for making sure you are focusing on ALL three ways to grow your business.
That’s it for this morning Nerd Fan’s.
I’ll be back tonight with Part Two and three more mistakes…
Oh and One More Thing…
I don’t want to sound like a late night infomercial but I’d be cheating you if I didn’t urge you to be on my “33 Strategies The Guru’s Don’t Want You To Know About” Tele-Seminar December 2nd.
I’ve done the work so you don’t have to.
I’ve bought the courses, attended the seminars, put the strategies to work, and will be bringing you the very best strategies to take your business and life from where you are to where you want to be.
Believe me. This program will dramatically increase the quality of your life and business immediately and I’m offering you a Double Your Money Back Guarantee.
I’ll be covering, in depth, very specific answers to all ten mistakes you may be making in your business.
If you want to learn how to manage your life and the very best marketing and copy writing strategies of the Guru’s then don’t miss this event.
“I’m In Nerd… O.K. I’ll Check out the Site Here..” Talk Soon,
My Note Taking Nerd 98 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
P.S. I’ll be back sometime tonight with Part Two of this series. Also look this afternoon for another segment of Live With The Nerd.
P.S.S. Hey we are trying to create a Nerd Revolution here.. .Leave a comment somewhere will ya? Thanks
CHAPTER 35
Part Two - “The Top Ten Mistakes You Are Probably Making In Business And What To Do About It…”
ere Are The Top Ten Reasons Most Businesses Fail And How To Make Sure You Avoid Every One Of HThese Deadly Common Mistakes…
Mistakes 1 - 3 are located HERE
MISTAKE #4: Not Taking the Time To Really Connect With Your Prospects and Clients One on One.
Can you tell me who your client is? I mean in detail? What is his/her name? Where do they live? How many children do they have? What are their fears and frustrations? What are their dreams? etc..
When you write or are selling to your clients, the more you know about the answers to these questions and more, you will not only make more sales but develop raving fans.
Eben Pagan talks of building a customer avatar and writing to that person individually.
I agree. When you are interacting or writing with your clients speak to “who they are”.
Most business owners do not do this.
They speak to them as though they are them or in general terms.
So get to know your prospects and clients. Begin to write to “them” and not just a generic fuzzy abstract.
MISTAKE #5: Reverse The Risk Your Prospects Take. If You Are Going To Perform Then Don’t Be a Wimp. Put Your Ass On The Line.
Reversing the risk of anything your prospects and clients are going to buy from you is the Number One way to overcome Buyer Hesitation. 100 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Find the Two or Three things that are most important to your clients and put an amazing guarantee around those things and see your sales explode.
To some up this simple yet powerful tactic I’ll share a story Jay Abraham tells at his seminars:
Father wants to Buy a Pony for his Daughter on her 12th birthday.
Daughter is extremely excited but Dad is hestitant about a number of things.
He searches the city and never quite feels confident he’s making the right choice in Pony or Company.
Finally he comes to a gentleman at a small little Pony shop on the edges of town. This shop seemed to be beaming with energy and full of happy customers.
The Father expresses his concerns and the shop owner says:
“Pick the Pony you think your daughter will like the most and on the morning of her Birthday at the exact moment you want us there we will deliver the Pony to your home”
“I will take your credit card but will not bill it for 21 days”
“During the 21 days I will have one of my employees stop by your house three times per week to clean up the Pony manure and mess”
“He will bring a fresh supply of Hay to feed the pony every time he comes”
“Once a week while there he will gently wash and comb down your pony so she looks healthy and good”
“At the end of 21 days if you do not want the pony we will come to your house, load up the pony, clean up the mess, and take her back with us”
“If you are satisfied, and only then, I will bill your credit card”
Now who can compete with this shop?
Can you see the power of an unbelievable guarantee?
So right now begin to look at how you might incorporate such a guarantee in your business.
Hey don’t forget I’m offering a MY ASS IS ON THE LINE.. DOUBLE YOUR MONEY BACK GUAR- ANTEE at the “33 Secret Strategies Tele-Seminar Here”
MISTAKE #6: Not Mastering The One Skill That Will Give You The Ability To Legally Print Money!
If you could master just one skill only in your business this would be it. Part Two - “The Top Ten Mistakes You Are… 101
COPY WRITING! The ability to sell in print is incredibly powerful.
What else gives you the ability to take something you are already doing and increase the ROI by 500% or more? Nothing….
If you want to skyrocket your selling ability do the following: • • Get a world class Swipe File including modern works and those of the past. • • Everyday, for 20 - 30 minutes, sit down and hand write one of those masterpieces. This will instill the writing style and thinking of the masters into yourself. • • Get any copywriting program by John Carlton, Clayton Makepeace, Ken McCarthy, Etc.. and/or some of the great books from the all time greats such as Caples, Schwartz etc.. • • Listen to these programs while taking notes 20 - 30 minutes per day. • • Go to the book store Twice Per Month and hand write some of the headlines off of the magazines you see on the shelves. Keep this as a secret swipe file. Remember, these magazine pay a lot of money to have their copywriters grab your attention. •
There ya go. Simple? Yes!!! Easy to not do? Yes!!!
So take 40 - 60 minutes everyday to master this Vital Business Skill.
Mistakes 1 - 3 are located HERE
See ya guy tomorrow for Part Three of the 10 Mistakes You Are Probably Making Series”
Hope you are enjoying the blog.
Don’t forget I gotta get comments or I’m not writing another thing.
Hey.. I love this stuff so help me out and write something will ya…
OOOPPPPS .. almost forgot In One Week I’ll be sharing the top 33 secrets you’ve gotta know to go to the next level in your business so go here now: http://www.mynotetakingnerd.com/gurusecrets.html CHAPTER 36
Have You Ever Missed Something And Wished You Hadn’t?
Hey Nerd Fans, One week away till the inaugural Guru Secrets Tele-Seminar.
Alot of people have been emailing and asking what I’ll be sharing.
Well…. in short I’m offering a Double Your Money Back Guarantee because i know what I’ll be sharing.
It’s going to transform your life and revolutionize your business.
Today I’m going to Share what I’ll be speaking about during the first segment.
*
“33 Strategies The Guru’s Don’t Want You To Know About” Seminar Outline - Part One
11 Strategies The Guru’s Use To Manage Their Lives And Achieve Their Goals The 1. 2. Secret Formula Eben Pagan Learned From Tony Schwartz that is responsible for his success - The power of Rituals. “How to use them to catapult you to surpass even your best expectations” 3. The Most Important Number in Time Management – How to find it and use it everyday. Dan Ken- nedy says learning this was a turning point in his life. 4. I’m going to teach you how to read twice as fast, listen 30 – 50% faster, and a system for using what you learn. Rich Schefren says these tools transformed his use of information. 5. What Rich Schefren learned from old school factory management that is helping his clients achieve their goals easier and faster then ever before. Yes! A new and better way of achieving your goals. 6. The phylosopy I learned from Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach fame that has made me happier, more focused, and a better person then ever before. Have You Ever Missed Something And Wished… 103
7. The Frank Kern Master Strategy Key he says is responsible for all his success. 8. The Time Management System of one of the most productive, prolific, and famous Guru’s on this planet. It’s the “Thinking” that will transform your life. Do not miss this. You’ll even get a set of tools to put this to work in your life immediately. 9. Seven Strategies Dan Kennedy Uses to Get More Done Then Thought Humanly Possible! 10. How to make success invevitable with this strategy taught by Eben Pagan. 11. The one thing you must do before you are every going to achieve the Things you want. It’s the Bullshit Dozer Theory and you may not like it but It’s going to shake you to your core. 12. How to dig Deep and Find The Roots of your problems. Stop wasting your time working on the things that will not create lasting change. I’m going to show you what the Guru’s do to go directly to the source and solve the things in their lives that are holding them back.
**I’ll be sharing 11 Strategies for Writing Compelling Copy and 11 More Marketing Strategies the Guru’s use to Grow their businesses to a new level day after day. I’ll share more on this tomorrow.
I’m offering a Double Your Money Back Guarantee GO HERE TO GET MORE INFORMATION AND SIGN UP NOW! CHAPTER 37
How Long Does It Take The World Class To Become World Class?
Nerd Numba 2 is back. Have you ever suffered through an open mic night at a comedy club?
If you haven’t, consider yourself lucky.
When I used to work in L.A., I made it custom of mine to drop by the Comedy Store over there in Holly- wood, right off Sunset Boulevard.
This is the club where anybody who’s anybody in comedy has rocked the stage from Robin Williams and Steve Martin, to Richard Pryor and Chris Rock.
If you arrived before 9:00 on Sunday night you got in free. Well, there’s a two drink minimum but hey, listening to comedy buzzed is always fun for me so I never minded buying drinks.
So, I’d usually go to Miyagi’s at 8:00 for sushi, zoom North, park in the Hyatt’s garage and run down the steep ass Hollywood Hills ramp so I’d barely make it in the door at 8:57 without having to pay a cover and without having to suffer through any of the open mic’ers.
The reason you didn’t have to pay to get in from 7:00 to 9:00 was because it was Open Mic Night.
This is where they’d let anyone who had the cajones, hop up on stage for 5 or 10 minutes and give it their best shot.
Comics call this working out your routine.
These men and women were raw. Real raw. So raw in fact that almost everyone of them referred to the notepad of ideas they schlepped up on stage with them. How Long Does It Take The World Class… 105
Every comic you admire has been this wet behind the ears but you’ve been fast forwarded to when they were polished.
As you can imagine most of these fledgling comics were stifled, nervous and were insecure.
They didn’t own the room. It owned them.
What makes the difference between the person who quits and the person who goes on to become a superstar in comedy?
Is it self esteem?
Is it coaching?
Is it being in the right place at the right time?
Yes. Yes. And yes.
But without this next factor I don’t think any of those would’ve have been enough to push them through the tough times.
10,000 hours.
Yep. 10 large. In Malcom Gladwell’s newest book “Outliers: The Story of Success” I learned that this number is one of the common denominators in any super successful person he studied for the book.
He found out that Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems had logged more than 10,000 hours of com- puter programming while still in college.
At peak he was programming 8 hours a day while going to school.
Same story with Bill Gates.
This meant that when huge opportunities arose in the field of computing, these guys were primed for action.
No learning curve. Just balls to the wall.
Does this 10,000 just apply to the tech field? Nope.
The Indra Club, where The Beatles first played on arriving in Hamburg, as it appeared in 2007.
Before the Beatles ever rocked Ed Sullivan’s stage they had logged over 10,000 hours playing to rowdy crowds in little dive bars like the Indra in Europe. 106 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
In Hamburg there were times when they played for 8 hours straight, 7 days a week.
Did you know that most bands never even come close to approaching 50 hours of live performance time let alone 10,000?
No wonder they took the world by storm.
Malcolm found the same 10,000 hour wall of practice had been climbed by students who went on to profes- sionally play instruments in symphonies.
Practicing their craft for as long as they had was only one factor that led to these mega superstars success but it was a HUMONGOUS factor.
I can virtually guarantee you our friends who quit comedy after getting zero response from the crowd never wrote and performed for more than even 100 hours.
Most stand up comedy is writing. I’ve seen some guys do a shtick where they just make fun of people in the crowd and roll off of what kind of response they get but that’s like 1 out of 100.
Everyone else pieces together anecdotes and funny stories line by line, word by word.
Then they work that same routine over and over again until it’s shines and flows effortlessly.
They, not unlike people who sell face to face, get to see how their words are landing on their crowd.
Along with the crowd’s feedback, fellow up and coming stars give dedicated students feedback so they can go back to pad and make sure EVERY word counts.
If you only write copy you have it easy compared to professional comedians and people who sell knee to knee.
You just have to get one component right. The words.
They have to get the words, the vocal expression of those words and the memorization of precisely how to say them so they have maximum influence on their audience.
Have you logged at least 10,000 hours doing any specific skill?
I’ll bet Jay Leno had before he took over for Johnny Carson. Wanna know why I think that?
First off, he was cocky enough to state openly that he was going to take over Carson’s job long before Carson retired.
I don’t think he’d be doing this if he hadn’t put in the hours. How Long Does It Take The World Class… 107
Leno has stated that he saves all of his income from The Tonight Show and lives solely off his income from stand-up comedy.
I’ve heard you could see him working out routines on his only night off, Sunday, at comedy club in Cali- fornia.
That’s discipline.
I know he’s been called the hardest working man in show biz. And even though Conan O’ Brien is taking over his spot in March of 2009, he is still #1 in the Nielsen Ratings.
But 10,000 is a lot.
I know.
Professional salespeople along with professional comedians are tough as leather.
Film actors are wussies. They get re-do’s. You and I don’t.
If you’re one of these special snowflakes who has decided to write their own copy to sell your own product or service or…
…have taken it upon yourself to learn the anatomy of powerhouse salesletter/sales kit…
You know it ain’t no stroll in the duck park.
But remember these words in your time of toil…
“If I am through learning, I am through.”
John Wooden
Here’s 4 Action steps you can take to improve any skill you’d like, with only expending 20 hours a week.
I learned this process from Michael Masterson of Agora Publishing.
They were applied to becoming a copywriter but if you use your naugen you’ll see how these steps are easily transferable into any field.
1. Devote 3.5 hours a week (30 minutes a day) to drinking deeply from outstanding books or audios about the subject you wish to master.
2. Spend 10 hours a week working on developing your copywriting skills. 108 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
3. Spend a half-hour a day (3.5 hours a week) studying a successful direct-mail or e-mail package or promotion.
4. Spend 3 hours a week learning the mechanics of having a copywriting business (scheduling, produc- tivity, selling yourself, etc).
This model would allow you hit your stride in your chosen field in a little over 10 years.
And that’s only putting 20 hours a week of attention toward something.
But I’ve got a question for you.
Are you functioning at a mastery level already but you don’t even know it yet?
Or do you secretly know it but are holding yourself back out of fear of failure?
I hope not.
I’ll talk to you soon.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 38
5 Small Things You Can Do To Improve The Quality Of Your Life Today
I’m Hey fans of the nerd revolution, Numba 2 here.
For a couple weeks now my computer’s been acting weird some times and at other times it’s fine. I kept hoping for the fine to overwhelm the weird. I kept avoiding this problem and eventually the screen stopped coming on.
So only after the computer was completely useless to me did I get off my “hoping” ass and do something about it.
Now my 12 pound Dell baby, Monikita, is at the computer doctor’s office today. She’ll be there till at least tomorrow afternoon.
Her motherboard needs to be replaced. Simple enough process. Take the computer to doctor and pay the man for fixing. Not for me.
For many a year I’ve avoided problems. Even stupid problems like this. I distracted myself because I always looked at what I “had” to do which was usually something that I imagine would be hard or impos- sible.
My new friend Steve Chandler, in his Re-Invent Yourself book (which I highly recommend), handed me the exact remedy to this victim thinking the night before my computer finally died on me.
His thinking is that we get pushed around by our problems when we think there’s nothing we can do or when we become overwhelmed by how much we imagine needs to be overcome. 110 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Therefore before you go to bed, he proposes getting a sheet of paper and writing on the top of it the problem you’d like to resolve in your life. Then, underneath the problem write ”5 Small Things I Can Do About This Today.”
Then the next day you fulfill this list and don’t go to bed until you’ve completed it.
Look at my example.
Computer Being Poophead
5 Small Things I Can Do About This Today 1. 2. Get off ass.
1. 2. Pull up list of shops.
1. 2. Find product-offer I’d be willing to trade someone for fixing my computer.
1. 2. Call to ask people about bartering product in exchange for servicing computer. (Jay Abraham secret).
1. 2. Take Computer To Shop
This incredibly simple technique helped me notice I was making a mountain out of a mole hill. I went through my first three steps and guess what? It only took me one call to find someone who was willing to barter with me.
Now my computer will be back in my arms in no time flat for almost no cost to me. All because I focused on small things I could do rather than what I couldn’t.
Today on our conference call the subject of the slight edge, doing small things daily that slowly but surely compound into massive positive momentum in your life, was brought up.
This little list fits perfectly into that mindset.
Let’s look at a problem that will take longer to conquer. Weight loss.
Too Fat To Feel Comfortable In Airline Seat 5 Small Things You Can Do To Improve The… 111
5 Small Things I Can Do About This Today 1. 2. Read 15 minutes about health and vitality.
1. 2. Walk/Exercise for at least 10 minutes.
1. 2. Eat smaller meals every 2 ½ hours.
1. 2. Drink ½ liter of water before I eat.
1. 2. Make sure 80% of the food I take in gives me energy rather than drains my energy stores.
Each of these steps are easy to do and easy not to. But I guarantee you, anyone who can read and move their limbs on planet earth is capable of pulling this off. And I also guarantee that if you do these steps you’ll start losing weight. Overnight, no. Over weeks, yes.
What’s a problem you’ve been putting off for fear it will take too much time or effort to handle?
Put together a list tonight and don’t go sleep tomorrow until you’ve knocked all the items off your list and you’ll be proud of yourself for doing so.
Wishing You Speedy and Specatacular Successs,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 39
Are You Merely Interested Or Are You Committed?
Hello Nerd Fans, Hey Tim….Both you, I and Number 1 have done the Robbins program. I might go back. Might not.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Anthony Robbins’ Living Health program revolves around the premise of eating live food like raw vegetables and sprouted grains rather than dead food like animal flesh and pro- cessed junk food.
Eben also promotes a similar diet in Wake Up Productive.
When I was committed to this plan, people who were not interested in health looked at me like I was crazy when I was having salads rather than pizza. Or when I was drinking grass juice rather than a refreshing coke.
You and I both know that unless healthy food is masterfully prepared and seasoned by a chef who knows what they’re doing… it tastes pretty shitty.
But we all know deep down that healthy food will give us the energy we need to kick ass and take names in our life.
In Tony Robbin’s Living Health program, he talks about how scientists can measure the amount of energy a food possesses. Raw vegetables rated the highest and dead/processed stuff like meat and chips rated the lowest.
Back in the day he learned from Dr. Robert Young that you could cleanse your blood, where all disease begins, by flooding your body with alkalinity.
The first step with this program was to cleanse your body. With Dr. Young’s program you could buy this detox pack of herbs and colloidal liquid drops that would help your body rid itself of all the demons within like parasites, yeast and candida. Are You Merely Interested Or Are You Committed… 113
Part of this cleanse process was not eating for, if you were tough enough, 10 days. Well, you could eat but the optimal food on the cleanse was a homemade vegetable soup that tasted worse than food served in jail.
No sugar, no salt, no meat, no yeast.
I made the mistake of doing one of my cleanses during the NFL Football playoff season and suffered through torture watching all the TV commercials streaming video of melting cheese flowing over slabs of beef and velvety ice cream with choclate syrup being drizzled all over it.
No fun.
The main supplement you needed to use in this cleanse was a powder made up something like 40 different minced up grasses (grasses being super alkaline) that you would pour into water and guzzle down.
Tony called this swamp juice. Anyone merely interested in health, rather than committed to it would tell you there’s no way in hell they’re drinking something that tastes and smells like hay.
I did this cleanse a couple of times for 3 days at most. While my body was de-toxing I didn’t feel so hot but I felt amazing after.
And for something like a year to a year and a half I stayed away from dairy, sugar, yeast and animal flesh and felt really good. I was committed to my health and what helped me stay on track was listening to that Tony Robbins program “Living Health” over and over again.
This habit has been my savior. Constant reminders help remain conscious in my life. Whether it be in writing copy, managing my state of mind or making choices in what I feed my body with.
You and I both know that a cuccumber will give us more energy than a bag of Doritos will. We don’t need a scientist to tell us that. And if you follow Eben’s rule of eating little or no processed food and you avoid anything with white flour or sugar in it, you’ll be better off for doing so.
But what stops people from doing this?
No commitment.
Without commitment we are either avoid or are merely just interested in conquering our problems.
You can hear interest in people’s language when they talk about things they want out of life. “I’ll try” is a very common statement in the interested’s language. In fact I have a personal example of this playing out in my life now.
I know two people who are starting a new business after retiring. Him and his wife are operating it. They both have retired after 25 years of years of school teaching so they have checks coming in from their retire- ment plan. 114 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
They don’t need the money from their business. It would just be nice to have.
The man in this scenario is my dad. The woman is my step mother.
My dad has asked me to help him grow this business and I’m doing what I can to help without doing it for him. I keep reminding him of the core fundamentals he needs to make this business take off but the ideas are contrary to what would be easy and comfortable for him.
He’d prefer to have all this “marketing stuff” done for him and just be able to just show up and teach his classes. But he doesn’t have money to pay anyone to do so.
This is where I sense he’s only interested in having a successful business rather than committed to making it wildly profitable. One of his challenges is that his idea of retirement is kicking back and doing nothing. “I already put in my work all those years, I just wanna do nothing now.”
I subtly remind him that this level of thinking will not lead you to having a business that serves you and I believe by my not trying to muscle him into changing his beliefs overnight he’s coming around to the idea that if it is to be it is up to me.
I didn’t quite know how to label what I felt about my dad’s situation but after listening to Mindshift by Steve Chandler, he defined what I was wrestling with.
In the part of the program I was listening to today he’s talking about how once we commit to something we find a way to do it. We make it happen.
One of the stories he told was about John F. Kennedy. When President Kennedy was a child he went to a school where they had to wear little uniforms. If they didn’t wear them, they were sent home.
These uniforms included a little hat.
Everyday while walking home from school young Kennedy and his friends would pass a wall that they all thought was impossible for them to climb.
Well, one day John was fed up with all this talk of this undefeatable wall so he took his hat off and threw it over the wall.
What had he done? He used what we talked about the other day on the teleseminar, the power of inevi- tablity thinking, to force himself into finding a way to get over the wall.
He communicated to his mind that getting over this wall was not just something that’d be interesting or cool. He had to or else he would be in a world of pain.
And guess what? His mind came to his aid and helped his little body do the impossible. Are You Merely Interested Or Are You Committed… 115
As of now my dad is just interested, not committed to having a massively success business. And you know what? I sense the same thing when I talk to him about health.
If you and I merely express an interest in our health our body will never provide us with a pain free, high energy existence.
When we follow and are influenced by the 80% of the population who abuse their body we invite problems to whack us upside our head.
But if we follow a champion mindset to commit and use inevitablity thinking we will give ourselves the gift of pride, courage and accomplishment.
Now by combining the idea of inevitability thinking with the list of “5 small things I can do today” list this will be a huge leap forward for us.
Here’s an example:
If you wanted to lose weight you could let 5 people you look up to and are not personal friends with know that you’re committed to losing 20 pounds in the next 5 months.
If you show up on a specific date and you are not 20 pounds lighter than you are today they can cash a check you’ve written to them for $5,000 dollars.
It’s important that these people not be willing to let you slide. Might even help if they want to see you fail. If you know a specific person would like to see you fall flat on your face, thinking of them laughing at you failing might inspire you to do what’s necessary to stay on track.
Now when it comes to your achieving this goal you could put together a list like this.
Lose 20 Pounds Of Ugly Fat Off My Body
5 small things I Can Do About This Today
1. Read 15 minutes about health and vitality.
2. Walk/Exercise for at least 10 minutes.
3. Eat smaller meals every 2 ½ hours.
4. Drink ½ liter of water before I eat.
5. Make sure 80% of the food I take in gives me energy rather than drains my energy stores. 116 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
And of course you can modify these 5 to whatever you discover works best for you. The important thing is not to follow what I’ve plugged in to this equation word for word.
The vital part is putting together a list. And owning your list so you feel a sense of pride knocking each item off of it before you go to bed. Feeling like you’re moving forward rather than back.
The reason the list of 5 things is so powerful is because it wraps your mind around what you can do instead of what you can’t. Also look at the language of “can” rather than “Have to”.
Which feels more empowering to you?
Try this for yourself. I’d love to hear and see your results.
Thank you Tim for your awesome feedback. You made it easy for me to decide on what to write about today.
Wishing You Speedy and Spectacular Success,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 40
The Fun, Quick and Easy Way To Get An Unfair Advantage In Your Ability To Persuade In Pixel Or Print?
Hey guys, I heard a really cool story about Frank Sinatra today.
In one of his biography’s an author debunks the myth sparked by critics and fans that Ol’ Blue Eyes was a natural born singer.
Back in 1935 after being expelled from high school after only 47 days of attending, Frank got his first break when his mom talked the “Three Flashes” into letting her boy join their band.
He stayed with them for almost a year, but then he started looking for greener pastures. While on the prowl he noticed that he didn’t really have a unique presence that distinguished him from all the other boys wanting to do what he did.
What made him different from everyone else wasn’t quite clear to him. But he knew he wanted to succeed. So he sought out a way to stand out from the crowd.
What’d he do?
He went to YMCA and started swimming laps. After he built up his stamina he swam laps underwater. He did this until he could go lap after lap without coming up for air.
His thinking was that if his lungs were strong enough to hold a note from line to line instead of having to gulp for air after one, his voice would sound amazing. People would expect his line to end and the words would keep flowing.
People thought God blessed Sinatra with golden lungs. People didn’t know Frank blessed himself with this gift. 118 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Because he focused on what he could do to give himself an edge over his competition instead of whining about what others had that he didn’t, almost no singer had a chance when they’d audition against him.
In his own way he made a list like you and I talked about in my last post, “Small Things I Can Do About This Today” and this high school drop out took action and the rest is history.
What can you do day to day that would give you an unfair advantage in your ability to persuade in print or pixel?
Here’s a suggestion. Write. Write every day for a specific amount of time. Nothing will substitute for this. Second behind writing would be reading but it won’t do nearly as much for you as actually writing.
It’s no new idea that hand writing winning ads will help infuse your mind with how a salesletter is supposed to flow. You’re imprinting salesmanship into your subconscious by doing this.
Years ago when I got started writing ads I’d find myself getting frustrated when I’d be re-writing an ad and it’d be 10-20-30 pages long. Sometimes I’d only end up writing the first part of it before I quit for a while and came back to another ad.
I was attracted to re-writing Robert Collier letters because they were so short.
The Lazy Man’s Way To Improve Your Copywriting
Somehow, someway I stumbled upon the idea of re-writing key sections only. Openings, closings, P.S.’s, guarantees, value build ups, bullets, order form copy, testimonials, price justification copy, credibility state- ments, offers, sidebars and headlines.
I’d spend my ½ hour to an hour just focusing on one of these critical components from certain writers. One day I’d hang with Joe Sugarman, the next I’d chill with Gary Bencivenga and the next day I’d spend with Max Sackheim.
I’d bounce all over because I wanted my writing to be a blend of mastery and I knew from past experience of spending all my time rewriting the whole long letter of the same writer every time… I’d ended up writing in a watered down version of their style. Not mine.
I didn’t want that. I never wanted to neglect the structure of a pitch but I never wanted to sound like I just copied someone.
“What if I don’t write ads?”, you say. Doesn’t matter. You email don’t you? Do you text? You leave notes for people, once in while, right? Whenever you reach out to someone with your writing it’s having an impact on them. What impact does your writing have on people?
Are they bored? Are they inspired? Are they confused? Are they amused? The Fun, Quick and Easy Way To Get An… 119
If you don’t write ads here’s a way to improve your print and pixel conversations.
Find some legendary screenplays online and hand write intriguing pieces of dialogue in them. Make sure the characters lines fit who you’d like to emulate.
Remember, every single word that comes out of an actor’s mouth was written first.
With the exception of an improv show like Curb Your Enthusiasm, writers painstakingly pecked away at their keyboard for hours on end splicing and connecting sentences for dialogue that infuriated you, made you cry or got you laughing to your belly.
You can take bits and pieces of whatever writing you favor and inject that into your unconscious so that it flows out of your conversation in person and print.
These are two ways to give yourself an unfair advantage. Try them out and I’m sure you’re writing will massively benefit for doing so.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd Numba 2 CHAPTER 41
Ten Strategies From Frank Kerns Mass Control Program
I’m about to embark on a “Live With The Nerd” Blogging adventure with the Mass Control Program. To get your appetite wet I’ve rounded up a small report to get you grounded in the Mass Control Philos- ophy.
I’m gonna ask you a favor in return. I think that’s fair enough.
Enjoy.
1. It’s far more powerful when people decide for themselves that they want your stuff, than when you “convince” them to buy it.
Having studied the psychology of selling, and having been a direct salesperson myself, I can say this is abso- lutely 100% true.
It might sound counter-intuitive that salespeople would know this stuff (aren’t they the guys that pressure you into buying things?), but actually some of the best salespeople I worked with were the ones who did exactly this… they helped the customer to maketheir own decision to buy.
You see, when you “convince” someone (which is how most sales letters work), the customer is always aware (even if it’s only at a deeper level) that the decision was triggered primarily by some outside pressure. (“OK, you convinced me”.) Plus, there’s always the subconscious desire to “prove them wrong”, or rather, to prove themselves right.
That’s just human nature - we don’t particularly like to be proved wrong, do we?
On the other hand, when a person decides for themselves that they want your stuff, they own that decision and will defend it (because of the principle of commitment and consistency).
It then simply becomes a question of, Will you let them buy it? Ten Strategies From Frank Kerns Mass Control… 121
2. You do that by giving them really cool valuable content that helps them to conclude that they want something.
Part of the reason you’re reading this report now is because Frank shared lots of valuable free content with people, in the form of videos, tele-seminars, blog posts, reports and so on.
Some days ago I decided to go through as much of it as I could, for the benefit of my MyNoteTakingNerd Blog Readers, so I could show them exactly how and where Frank is using his own techniques, and what he’s doing (and why he’s doing it) at each stage of the launch.
I’ve spent the better part of the last five days (often staying up
until 2am) studying as much of it as I could, and…
My motivation.
First, since not many people nowadays have the time to spend 3-5 days going again through all of Frank’s videos, reports, emails, and so on (that’s assuming you went through them the first time!), I thought I’d save you the time by summarizing all the essential points I could find, in this short report.
I’d like to think, however, that this report is a good example of putting Frank’s material into practice.
By reading this report, and sharing this PDF with others, you have what I consider to be a great summary of much of the free content Frank put out there before his Mass Control launch.
3. The Internet allows “seductive selling” to occur.
This is Frank’s term, which I don’t think he was too happy with himself, but basically seductive selling is like a courtship, or
getting to know someone.
The way he puts it, the old way of selling is like going up to someone in a bar, and asking them to sleep with you. If you’re
lucky (and exceptionally good looking like me), you might get a
“conversion rate” of 1% or 2% (although I guess it also depends
on how you ask!) 122 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The “seductive selling” way is like dating or courtship, where you get to know each other, before asking whether they’d like to “take it to the next level” as it were. This is, after all, how people “buy” into each other, all the time.
(Personally, I don’t think it’s quite as black and white as it’s put here, but I’m giving you what Frank teaches. Sometimes putting things into black and white contrast is a good teaching method.)
The Internet allows the natural process of seductive selling to occur, because you can build relationships, and get feedback inreal time, such as by email, and from blog comments.
In other words, you can get into the mind of your prospect, and then tailor your next message, and even your entire product, based on what your prospects are telling you.
NOW THE FAVOR To Receive the Other Seven Strategies!!
**I’ll send you a Fresh 10 Strategies Report If you send the answers to the following questions?
1. What do you think of the “Live With The Nerd” section of the website?
2. What is one really cool idea or section I could add to this website/blog that would increase the value to yourself and other readers?
3. Are you enjoying the original content blog posts by Note Taking Nerd #1 and #2?
4. What can we do to make the experience of coming back to the blog daily more enjoyable for you?
Please send the answers to these four questions to [email protected]. Put mass control in the subject line and I’ll get the report to you. CHAPTER 42
Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty Story
In a book I’ll give you the title to at a later date I came across the story below. While reading it I saw a theme woven into it that anyone selling anything could use to massively increase the power of their sales copy or sales presentations.
Anyone well versed in NLP, like Tim will see the language patterns within this story.
Pay close attention, don’t blink or you’ll miss it…
One evening in the 1770’s, a young man went to the Paris Opera to meet his lover, the Countess. The couple had been fighting, and he was anxious to see her again. The countess had not arrived yet at her box, but from an adjacent one a friend of hers, Madame de Terri, called out to the young man to join her, remarking that it was an excellent stroke of luck that they had met that evening-he must keep her company on a trip she had to take.
The young man wanted urgently to see the countess, but Madame was charming and insistent and he agreed to go with her. Before he could ask why or where, she quickly escorted him to her carriage outside, which then sped off.
Now the young man enjoined his hostess to tell him where she was taking him. At first she just laughed, but finally she told him: to her husband’s chateau.
The couple had been estranged, but had decided to reconcile; her husband was a bore, however, and she felt a charming young man like himself would liven things up. The young man felt intrigued: Madame was an older woman, with a reputation for being rather formal, though he also knew she had a lover, a marquis.
Why had she chosen him for this excursion? Her story was not quite credible. Then, as they traveled, she suggested he look out the window at the passing landscape, as she was doing. 124 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
He had to lean over toward her to do so, just as she did, the carriage jolted. She grabbed his hand and fell into his arms. She stayed there for a moment, then pulled away from him rather abruptly.
After an awkward silence, she said, “Do you intend to convince me of my imprudence in your regard?”
He protested that the incident had been an accident and reassured her he would behave himself. In truth, however, having her in his arms had made him think otherwise.
They arrived at the chateau. The husband came to meet them, and the young man expressed his admira- tion of the building: “What you see is nothing,” Madame interrupted, “I must take you to Monsieur” apart- ment.”
Before he could ask what she meant, the subject was quickly changed. The husband was indeed a bore, but he excused himself after supper. Now Madame and the young man were alone. She invited him to walk with her in the gardens; it was a splendid evening, and as they walked, she slipped her arm in his.
She was not worried that he would take advantage of her, she said, because she knew how attached he was to her good friend the countess.
They talked of other things, and then she returned to the topic of his lover: “Is she making you quite happy? Oh, I fear the contrary, and this distresses me… Are you not often the victim of her strange whims?”
To the young man’s surprise, Madame began to talk of the countess in a way that made it seem that she been unfaithful to him (which was something he had suspected).
Madame sighed-she regretted saying such things about her friend, and asked him to forgive her; then, as if a new thought had occurred to her, she mentioned a nearby pavilion, a delightful place, full of pleasant mem- ories.
But the shame of it was, it was locked and she had no key. And yet they found their way to the pavilion, and lo and behold, the door had been left open.
It was dark inside, but the young man could sense it was a place for trysts. They entered and sank onto a sofa, and before he knew what had come over him, he took her in his arms.
Madame seemed to push him away, but then gave in. Finally she came to her senses; they must return to the house. Had he gone too far? He must try to control himself.
As they strolled back to the house, Madame remarked, “What a delicious night we’ve just spent.” Was she referring to what had happened on the pavilion? “There is an even more charming room in the chateau,” she went on, “but I can’t show you anything,” implying he had been too forward. Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty… 125
She had mentioned this room (“Monsieur’s apartment”) several times before; he could not imagine what could be so interesting about it, but by now he was dying to see it and insisted she show it to him.
“If you promise to be good,” she replied, her eyes widening.
Through the darkness of the house she led him into the room, which to his delight, was a kind of temple of pleasure: there were mirrors on the walls, trompe L’ oeil paintings evoking a forest scene, even a dark grotto, and a garlanded statue of Eros.
Overwhelmed by the mood of the place, the young man quickly resumed what he had started in the pavi- lion, and would have lost all track of time if a servant had not rushed in and warned them that it was getting light outside-Monsieur would soon be up.
They quickly separated. Later that day, as the young man prepared to leave, his hostess said, “Goodbye, Monsieur; I owe you so many pleasures; but I have paid you with a beautiful dream. Now your love sum- mons you to return… don’t give the countess cause to quarrel with me.”
Reflecting on his experience on the way back, he could not figure out what it meant. He had the vague sensation of having been used, but the pleasures he remembered outweighed his doubts.
END OF STORY…
What was the marketing/copywriting secret you pulled out of this story?
I’ll be back tomorrow with the rest of this chapter which might reveal more than you think of while dreaming up the answer tonight. CHAPTER 43
Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty Story Part 1 1/2
Hey, Note Taking Nerd #2 back with your next installment of this saga.
April you’re too funny. Push up Bra! Ooooh Wee. (Read this goof ball’s comment in the Unfair Advantage post) What about chicken cutlets?
I should’ve known one our most active female fans would gravitate to this “naughty story” theme. And for all you beer bonging, head butting, 2 second shower taking manly men out there who want to learn how to write more persuasively I’ve got a suggestion that will definitely hone your chops and shrivel your sack.
Only a dude secure in his manliness will take on this John Carlton recommended step to enhancing your writing game.
You ready for it.
Score some Danielle Steele novels. This is where you get a peek into how women talk. You’ll see how emotion and feelings are artfully transferred to print. Those books aren’t showcased front and center at the book store because no one buys em. There’s gold in them there pages if you have the balls to purchase and then read ‘em.
I buy Cosmo and swim around in a 18-35 year old woman’s mindset there. Plus, I get all the awesome bullet writing examples not only from the cover but also from the table of contents. My favorite one from this month’s issue is…
HAVE AN
ORGASM
EVERY Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty… 127
TIME
(Cosmo Coaches You!)
A close second is…
Everyday Things That Can Wreck Your Fertility
What women don’t want the answer these two bullets promise? Hell, I want to know em.
If you swipe the bullets from scorching hot magazine covers, don’t just copy the phrase. Look at how they broke the sentences apart. In the first one the font was larger. They could have shrunk it and made it all into one sentence but they choose to bold, capitalize and then blow it up. Why?
I don’t care. These mad scientists have done the hard work for me of testing these layouts for decades now and they know what gets people to snatch these babies off the checkstands and take ‘em home with them.
If your target audience isn’t grizzly bikers (not doctors in leather riding Harleys), mixed martial arts brawlers or construction workers… there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be depending on women to give you money.
So why would you make them feel left out? Tom Peters wrote some years ago about a study that showed women were behind some 70 or 80% of purchases that are made.
Men inherently know this some are afraid of admitting it. Even when a guy isn’t married and handed the checkbook over to the wife, most of his decisions are influenced by women.
Men want cars women will think are hot. Men want clothes women will think are hot. Men want a pad women will think is hot.
Ignoring this reality will doom you to less than optimal performance.
The marketers wet dream for maximum response would be knowing exactly who the prospect is who’s looking at your letter now.
Eben Pagan knows this and he created his Psychic Salesletter Software which gives the reader a little survey to fill out and depending on what they filled in they get a certain letter that talks to their problem but I don’t remember if it divided by sex.
But, I haven’t seen that script popping up on any sales letters I’ve visited lately. Not even the Wake Up Productive one.
And I haven’t tested the software on any of my sites so I can’t give you a real world endorsement for it working or not. 128 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If you have a list of buyers where you definitely can segment the list and are not at least testing one version written specifically to men and one just for women I say you’re being lazy.
Some guys, out of wanting to defend their lack of effort might say “Core emotions are core emotions. My sales are fine without having two separate letters.”
I’d bet you the fattest lobster in Maine that if diced up your list, pulled out the women, and sent a promo- tion to them I crafted in “women speak that my letter will trounce your testosterone slathered copy any day of the week.
And you women writers are guilty of this too.
I’m beating up on guys right now but you chick-a-dee’s need to do the opposite if you are trying to get guys to lift their right butt cheek, pull out their wallet and hand you moola.
Find yourself some of the stuff Homer Simpson would dig by checking out this… Ian Fleming’s James Bond books, Maxim magazine and if you really want to get your hands dirty help yourself to a hefty serving of some that fake wrestling bullshit.
Just like romance novels, men strutting around in speedo’s and boots don’t haul in millions and millions of dollars every year because a few backwoods hillbillies are watching this on T.V. These organizations are filling up professional sporting event arenas. This means there has to be tons of closet wrestling fans out there keeping this stupidity alive.
Wrestling is the equivalent of your soap operas. A big macho man play world. That’s all it is.
Watching this is similar to hanging out in a men’s locker room. You’ll be drenched in the core caveman mentality driving most “gentlemen’s” behavior.
I dare you guys and gals to take the leap into either of these worlds. I guarantee you’ll come out the other side a better marketer for it.
Damn, I went off on a rant and didn’t get to continue the post like I planned. Oh, well. I trust you’ll be happy with this and there’s always tomorrow.
Watch out for the Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty Story Part 2.
Wishing You Speedy And Spectacular Success,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 44
Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty Story Part 2
Hey guys, Note Taking Nerd #2 back with the rest of this chapter I promised to give you so you’d have an interpreta- tion of the magic worked by this Madame the Mischievous Cougar.
Here we go…
…Madame de Terri is a character in the eighteenth-century libertine short story “No Tomorrow,” by Vivant Denon. The young man is the story’s narrator. Although fictional, Madame’s techniques were clearly based on those of several well-known libertines of the time, masters of the game of seduction.
And the most dangerous of their weapons was insinuation - the means by which Madame cast her spell on the young man, making him seem the aggressor, giving her the night of pleasure she desired, and safe- guarding her guiltless reputation, all in one stroke.
After all, he was the one who initiated physical contact (#2 note: Take away selling), or so it seemed. In truth, she was the one in control, planting precisely the ideas in his mind that she wanted.
That first physical encounter in the carriage, for instance, that she had set up by inviting him closer: she later rebuked him for being forward, but what lingered in his mind was the excitement of the moment. Her talk of the countess made him confused and guilty; but then she hinted that his lover was unfaithful, planting a different seed in his mind: anger, and the desire for revenge.
Then she asked him to forget what she had said and forgive her for saying it, a key insinuating tactic: “I am asking you to forget what I have said, but I know you cannot; the thought will remain in your mind.” (#2 note: That’s one hell of an embedded command.) 130 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Provoked this way, it was inevitable he would grab her in the pavilion. She several times mentioned the room in the chateau - of course he insisted on going there. She enveloped the evening in an air of ambi- guity.
Even her words “If you promise to be good” could be read several ways. (#2 note: what’s missing about this comment are the all important five remaining words in the sentence that gave it the punch… “If you promise to be good,” she replied, her eyes widening.” With only five words the author helps us See/feel this extraordinarily power packed non-verbal.)
The young man’s head and heart were inflamed with all of the feelings - discontent, confusion, desire - that she had indirectly instilled in him. (#2 Note: While listening to the NLP practitioner Michael Breen talk about story telling he speaks of never beginning a story until you know the desired state you wish to bring about in the person you’re telling it to.)
Particularly in the early phases of a seduction, learn to make everything you say and do a kind of insinua- tion. Insinuate doubt with a comment here and there about other people in the victim’s life, making the victim feel vulnerable. (#2 note: In this book the author use’s the term victim for the person you wish to influence. I say this language pre-supposes - insinuates you wish to take advantage of them. This is a no-no if you wish to have your client, customer or prospect see you as their protector… their advocate.)
Slight physical contact insinuates desire, as does a fleeting but memorable look, or an unusually warm tone of voice, both for the briefest of moments.
A passing comment suggests that something about the victim interests you; but keep it subtle, your words revealing a possibility, creating a doubt. You are planting seeds that will take root in the weeks to come. When you are not there, your targets will fantasize about the ideas you have stirred up, and brood upon the doubts.
They are slowly being led into your web, unaware that you are in control. How can they resist or become defensive if they cannot even see what is happening? (#2 note: Jay Abraham is fond of the term “People are begging to be led.” If where you’re leading people is to freedom, wealth and an empowering identity, stand proud, shout from the rooftops and shine your light . If you’re doing the opposite may you roast in hell.)
“What distinguishes a suggestion from other kinds of psychical influence, such as a command or the giving of a piece of information or instruction, is that in the case of a suggestion an idea is aroused in another person’s brain which is not examined in regard to it’s origin but is accepted just as though it had arisen spontaneously in that brain.
—Sigmund Freud
Keys To Seduction Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty… 131
You cannot pass through life without in one way or another trying to persuade people of something. Take the direct route, saying exactly what you want, and your honesty may make you feel good but you are prob- ably not getting anywhere.
People have their own sets of ideas, which are hardened into stone by habit; your words, entering their minds, compete with the thousands of preconceived notions that are already there, and dissolve to nothing. Besides, people resent your attempt to persuade them, as if they were incapable of deciding by themselves - as if you knew better.
Consider instead the power of insinuation and suggestion. It requires some patience and art, but the results are more than worth it. (#2 Note: Today I was looking at well respected marketers blog. The post was coming to defending a product that was launching today against slander being spread by some key figures in the internet marketing world.
Now I don’t know for sure if the stirring of controversy was planned or if it was genuine but let’s look at how this gentleman was overcoming the objection. He rode in on the white horse and told us folk not to fear.
Then he proceeded to tell us he knew one of the guys selling the product personally and that he was trust- worthy. Next he talked about how he was in the room where they unveiled what you’ll learn in this product and he’s actually about to use one of their tactics on a campaign.
And for the final objection of whether he was just promoting this product for a commission he told you that even if he didn’t get a commission on this he’d be promoting it. He was emphatic about making this point.
What’s an indirect way he could’ve insinuated this point and let you as the client come to this conclu- sion yourself?
D’ya think of one? I did.
“The Lady Doth Protest Too Much, Me Thinks”
What if he would’ve scrapped all the overt “I’d never sell out for a commission” talk and simply put two links below his video. One that clearly said this was the link that would pay him a commission and another specifying it was an anonymous link that wouldn’t pay him anything.
How does that land on you?
Doesn’t it sub communicate “I’m not worried about getting paid on this. The only reason I’m talking about is because I’m genuinely concerned with you having access to this one-of-a-kind product?)
Meanwhile… 132 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The way insinuation works is simple: disguised in a banal remark or encounter, a hint is dropped. It is about some emotional issue - a possible pleasure not yet attained, a lack of excitement in a person’s life. The hint registers in the target’s mind, a subtle stab at his or her insecurities; its source is quickly forgotten.
It is too subtle to be memorable at the time, and later, when it takes root and grows, it seems to have emerged naturally from the target’s own mind, as if it was there all along.
Insinuation let you bypass people’s natural resistance, for they seem to be listening only to what has origi- nated in themselves. It is a language on it’s own, communicating directly with the unconscious. No seducer, no persuader, can hope to succeed without mastering the language and the art of insinuation.
I’m back.
In my next post I’ll reveal to you the title of this overlooked marketing/copywriting resource, I’ll finish the chapter and bring a surprise with me.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Awesome job Tim of plucking everything you did out of the story. You probably already know your certification is your unfair advantage when it comes to writing copy or selling face to face. CHAPTER 45
Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty Story - Finale Part 3
Hey guys, Number #2 back with the final installment of our series on insinuation.
Today you and will see for ourselves how a professional seducer in print uses this technique.
Here is the surprise I promised you.
After spending hours in the Barnes & Noble Café hunting for and dissecting ads in my billion dollar digital swipe file… I plucked this gem for you.
It’s a letter from Jay Abraham’s Best Winning Ad collection. In this copy Phillip’s publishing was selling “one-of-a-kind” historic collectible 1789 newspapers.
A silky web of insinuation has been spun here. Let’s see how many of the points you detect…
Available In A Handsome Hand-Crafted Oak Frame
Although these papers are remarkably sturdy given their age - you can actually handle them carefully without causing harm - I worried about shipping and your first handling. After all, these are valuable and irreplaceable original (not copies) historic artifacts.
So we consulted a master art framer in Wilmington, Delaware, (naturally, one of the original thirteen states). This man does work for the Duponts and their art collection, and for many of the famous museums in Philadelphia and elsewhere. He custom designed a frame system for these 1789 newspa- pers that is extraordinary.
ü This frame itself is natural burnished English elm. The company that makes it is the same one that custom crafts dashboards for Rolls Royce. 134 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
ü The acid free matte is the same used by the Winterthur Museum. The matte is matched by a hand cut marbleized decorative border.
ü The paper itself is covered by expensive UV3 Plexiglass - to refract and protect the document from harmful sun and/or fluorescent rays.
ü Finally, a completely unique two-sided framing system was designed, so the documents are framed flat, with pages one and four on one side and pages two and three on the reverse.
This way, the entire paper can be read and admired and hung in a place of pride and honor in your home or office. The framed paper measures approximately 25” by 21”, a convenient size, worthy of a place of honor in any home, office, den or private library.
This writer worked some real magic here.
In only three paragraphs and three bullets he has assured you that if you buy this “YOU’RE MAKING A SMART DECISION” and “THESE ARE AUTHENTIC”.
What if he’d called it good after this paragraph?
Although these papers are remarkably sturdy given their age - you can actually handle them carefully without causing harm - I worried about shipping and your first handling. After all, these are valuable and irreplaceable original (not copies) historic artifacts.
A lame writer would’ve done so. And even if he’d stopped here thinking he’d said enough to ease your mind, this block still has genius woven into it.
Look at how it presupposes you’ll be buying these papers layered in.
In his infinite wisdom, the writer knew this wasn’t enough. So, he followed this with a reason-why block of copy so it would subcommunicate you’re in good hands and what you’re getting is in fact the real deal without setting off the “Lady Doth Protest Too Much” alarm.
And don’t ever doubt the unconscious persuasion that goes on when you use specificity in your copy. “approximately 25” by 21”, “hand cut marbleized decorative border”, UV3 Plexiglas” “The company that makes it is the same one that custom crafts dashboards for Rolls Royce”.
These nuggets paint pictures in your mind and stir up feelings and when they’re backed up with why these features are important, they’ll keep your reader in the buyers trance.
And at the end we drive home another presumption… Marketing Wisdom Discovered In Naughty… 135
This way, the entire paper can be read and admired and hung in a place of pride and honor in your home or office.
Ideal prospects might at this time start scanning in their mind which of their walls would best accommo- date this purchase.
As awesome as this copy is, there were two words slipped in that I felt weakened the tractor beam of insinu- ation we had holding our readers attention.
Here’s the sentence they were in. What are the two words?
After all, these are valuable and irreplaceable original (not copies) historic artifacts.
Did you find em?
Did you pick (not copies)? I did. Why? They’re too in your face. This copy didn’t need any backup. It had the situation handled.
I also thought the flow of this sentence wasn’t optimized. Too many words.
It could’ve made an emphatic point simply saying… After all, these are historic artifacts.
When you think of historic artifacts, do you need to be educated on the fact that this means irreplaceable and original? Neither do the 2-5% of the market in heat for this product.
This was a waste of these words. They could’ve been used later in the copy to make the point again in a different way.
Beware words and sentence structures that trip our buyers up and out of the buyer’s trance.
This is why it’s so important to always keep in mind that unless you’re the prime target audience your opinion doesn’t mean shit. It’s worthless in this context.
All the details and indirect persuasion used in this block of copy is masterful and I imagine it was the high- light of the day of any of the prospects who ordered this. The ad was that good.
I believe the last paragraph of the book that sparked this whole series serves as a crescendo to our intimate discussion here…
Finally, the reason insinuation works so well is not just that it bypasses people’s natural resistance. It is also the language of pleasure.
There is too little mystery in the world; too many people say exactly what they feel or want. We yearn for something enigmatic, for something to feed our fantasies. 136 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Because of the lack of suggestion and ambiguity in daily life, the person who uses them suddenly seems to have something alluring and full of promise.
It’s a kind of titillating game - what is this person up to?
What does he or she mean? Hints, suggestions, and insinuations create a seductive atmosphere, sig- naling that their target is no longer involved in the routines of daily life but has entered another realm.
The book I pulled this provocative wisdom from is called: The Art Of Seduction by Robert Greene.
When I saw this in the bookstore I recognized the author as the same person who wrote The 48 Laws of Power and The 33 Strategies of War.
This man is a master at distilling the life lessons hidden within stories about the behavior of extraordinary people throughout history from every corner of the world into behaviors and thinking we can step into that will separate us from the average.
What I most love about these series is how they’re story driven. Not just an accounting of facts.
Dr. Gene Landrum’s books “Profiles of Power and Success”, “The Superman Syndrome” or “The Eight Keys To Greatness”, take you inside the minds of mega successful business people and leaders but the story telling is nowhere near as hypnotic.
You should still snatch every one of these up though. Dan Kennedy turned me onto them and I’m grateful he did. The insights buried in them are fascinating.
Robert Greene’s books are must haves for the library of anyone who wishes to understand what influences people to do what they do.
You may find that resources like these plant seeds in your subconscious mind that ordinary copywriting/ marketing courses don’t. They enrich the soil where your ideas come sprout from.
I invite you to stray from text book material once in a while and go on an adventure with books like these.
You’ll be glad you did.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Please let me know what you thought of this series (good or bad) and if you’d like me to start another based on a different chapter of this book. CHAPTER 46
Super Bad Ass Stuff You Can Use To Make Your Life Dreamier
Hey Guys, Number #2 here with a list of toys I think you’ll be pretty excited about.
I read Dr. Joe Mercola’s blog and today I was glued to his site ogling the list he called…
10 Useful Web Applications You Don’t Know About
He pulled it from a site called Lifehacker which from the list that follows tells me you might wanna check ‘em out. Some of the links below go to their site.
Like I said, I spent more time on this site today than I usually do and by the time I had followed 3 of the links below I was sold on the idea you guys needed to see this.
So I copied it and pasted here for you. Enjoy, and let me know what you think…
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Don’t go directly to the site first. As usual tech geeks don’t do the best job of explaining benefits but the links inside the paragraphs go to the life hacker blog and they do an awesome job of showing you how pow- erful this is.
10. Qipit
Cameraphone image scan to PDF via email 138 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Snap a photo of a whiteboard or document with your cameraphone and email it to Qipit.com, a webapp that scans your photo to a PDF document and stores it online automatically. You can also fax images of documents from Qipit, too.
9. Ning
Social network creator
Build your own social networking community site with Ning, a WYSIWYG web site creator that offers user registration and profiles, polls, blogs, photo albums, and boards at your own URL for free.
8. Jott
Voice to text reminders, blog posts, and calendar events
If you ever call your answering machine to leave yourself a reminder message, Jott’s for you. Call Jott to leave your message instead, and get it transcribed and sent to your email address. You can also call Jott and send your voice message to your blog, Twitter account, or add events to your Google Calendar via Jott as well as other services.
7. Anywhere.FM
Music library hosting and web playback
Stop toting your iPod or entire iTunes library around on your local hard drive: instead, upload unlimited MP3’s to Anywhere.FM and listen from your web browser from anywhere.
6. Doodle
Group polling for scheduling large events
When organizing a recent reunion event that involves upwards of 80 people trying to figure out what the best date was for everyone, Doodle’s group polling app saves the day. Set up a Doodle poll with possible dates and times for any kind of gathering with lots of attendees, and email out the Doodle URL, where each person can enter what times they can make it, and see who else is available when.
5. Netvibes
Browser start page
Set up your web dashboard at Netvibes, a sleek, drag and drop, customizable start page that gets all your crucial information in one place the moment you launch your browser. Here are a few ways to trick out your Netvibes. Super Bad Ass Stuff You Can Use To Make… 139
4. Zoho Suite
Web-based office suite
While Google Docs seems to be the first product people think of when online office suites come up, the lesser-known Zoho Suite offers more apps and features. See how Zoho stacks up against Google Docs.
3. Meebo
Web-based instant messenger
Chat with your buddies across multiple IM services without installing a thing using the Meebo web-based chat client. Great for folks in IT lockdown, Meebo lets you log in and chat with buddies on AIM, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, and Jabber/GTalk.
2. TiddlyWiki
Personal, one-page wiki
While TiddlyWiki isn’t a hosted webapp like the others, it uses a web page to store your information locally. TiddlyWiki has to be seen to be believed, and it’s also spawned many offshoots like GTDTiddlyWiki. See how to get organized with GTD TiddlyWiki.
1. Remember the Milk
Task manager, reminder system, personal organizer
Among the slew of web-based task managers that have flooded the internet in the past couple of years, Remember the Milk stands head and shoulders above the rest: its modern interface and deep feature set make organizing your to-do’s actually fun. Here’s how to organize your life with Remember the Milk. CHAPTER 47
Long Haired Mexican Pot Head Shocks This Marketer With His Common Sense Sales Persuasion Tactics
Hey Guys, #2 back writing to you from Gate D of the Phoenix International Airport.
In this flurry of holiday season travelers I had to plop myself down in a chair and write because I just had an experience I’d like to share with you.
As any of you in the United States know, all of our major metropolitan cities locate their international air- ports in the ghettos of town.
You can’t very well have jumbo jets screaming over million dollars estates can you?
So before I go to the airport today I need to fill my car up with gas. As I’m pumping I see a man coming in my direction. My first thought is… “Homeless dude wanting some change.”
I started cringing inside because I hate this marketing tactic. Yes, homeless people asking you for money is a marketing tactic. And an effective one too for the few people who have the balls to do it congruently.
Why?
Because out of the people who pass, you’re guaranteed to encounter the poor souls who submit to the powers of other people’s opinions of them.
When a homeless person is able to look this person in the eye and ask them clearly and concisely for money, they’re gonna get it.
These people cave because they fear this homeless person they might not ever see again will think they’re an asshole for not giving them any money. Long Haired Mexican Pot Head Shocks This… 141
Have you ever cared for a moment, maybe a couple of moments what a homeless person thought of you? I have. I’ve given money, bought food and given rides because of it.
And when I got hit up too many times in row I’d lie and say I didn’t have any money. Why should I feel guilty? Why did I feel like I had to lie? Why didn’t I just look the person in the eye and say no?
Because I lent value to their 35 second impression of me. This person would only remember me for less than a minute. After this time their memory of me would fade to nothing. Especially if they were blasted at time of their request.
I still give money to homeless people once in a while but not nearly as much as I used to.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’d been betraying myself all those years by giving when and where I didn’t want to. Giving out of fear, rather than on purpose depleted my self esteem.
And guess what?
This fear of what other people thought of me surfaced in every other part of my life. Because of this I never stated my preferences and was living a lie. I spouted lies to give people the impression I was something I wasn’t.
And while being fake, both the person I was attempting to mislead… and I knew the deal. We both kept a silent agreement that they were in control because they could see through my paper machete front. If they could get something from me the relationship lasted long. If not, I was ditched and dissed as soon as I was found useless.
My cup was always empty and I was looking to others to fill it.
If you’ve ever felt like this before and overcome it you know that one of the major steps to clearing this issue up was to address your beliefs and values. The way we give meaning to our experience shapes our experi- ence.
Throughout my years of reading personal development material one of the best pieces of advice I heard was from Jack Canfield of “Chicken Soup For the Soul” fame. The advice was to state your preferences. Be radically honest.
This Christmas one of my brothers gifts to me consisted of a T-shirt, a DVD with a homemade bracelet package revolving around the “Invisible Children” theme.
I had never heard of “invisible children” till I opened my gift. If you haven’t either here’s what I gathered from my dad and my brother in a 3 minute discussion about it. 142 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If I remember right, a group of Americans went to Uganda to shoot a documentary and ended up stum- bling upon a trend going on there where the military were forcing very young children to strap on machine guns and go to war for their cause.
That’s about all I know. It’s about all I care to know.
I love kids. And I believe anyone who mistreats them should be horrifically tortured for weeks on end. But for me to walk around with this bracelet and t-shirt on would be false advertising.
I’m not a fan of charities.
I’m honest with myself and you in my admitting I’m not willing to do anything of substance for anyone but kids in my reach. And I don’t even feel good just writing a check. I have serious trust issues with charities so it’d have to be something I felt would 100% benefit the kids.
If I really cared about what happens to children in Africa, Russia, or in Mexico, anywhere but my very own backyard I’d be engaged in the trenches doing what needed to be done.
For me, giving money to people who claim they’re gonna put an end to another country’s wrong doings is totally out of the question.
It’s my personal opinion that 99 % of charities are poorly managed. They spend more money than is neces- sary on administrative expenses. Their marketing dollar is usually squandered on horrid advertising which leads to very little money getting where it’s meant to go.
Don’t even get me started on the swindles.
So unless I’m actually on the front line for a cause I blank it out. Most people on earth do. Most don’t admit it verbally but they do so with their actions.
It’s like the Andrew Carnegie quote “The older I get the less I pay attention to what people say and the more I watch what they do.”
I have zero interest in giving unless I see, feel and touch what I’m impacting. Dan Kennedy has been a pivotal person in my life in helping me to see there’s an empowering way to do this. A win-win strategy where both the giver and the receiver benefit.
In his Wealth Attraction book and seminar he talks about setting up a giving account. This money can only be used for donations to whatever cause you wish. Dan loves the idea of spending his over tipping excellent service.
People busting their ass with a pleasing demeanor makes your life easier and pleasuable. Why not reinforce this amazing behavior and mindset? The ripple effect can be stunning. Long Haired Mexican Pot Head Shocks This… 143
If you’ve worked for tips before you know this to be true. Someone appreciating your adding value to their life makes both of you feel awesome.
Whenever I get the opportunity to do this I’m over-joyed. Jim Rohn talks about engineering this kind of experience by greasing the skids before you get the service to ensure you’re taken care of.
What Way Of Giving Back Feels Best To You?
I love helping people but not out of obligation or guilt. Recently I gave a friend all the precious metal I had collected to sell so he could get himself out of a tight jam. And I did this with no contract or agreement. I don’t even care if he pays me back.
Why? Because he didn’t try to guilt me into helping him.
Now coming full circle to the man coming at me when I was pumping my gas before going to the airport today.
My mind went into defense mode because I was preparing to shoot this guys request down. But when I could see the man’s clothing I could tell he wasn’t homeless. And what came next surprised me.
When the hockey jersyed, pony tailed Mexican got about 20 feet away from me he asked “You wanna buy some weed?”
I had to do a double take. As he got closer I asked him “What?”
He said, “You wanna buy some weed?” Then he pulls out his baggie and shows it to me. This was awe- some.
I told him “Nah, man.”
He said “I’m just trying to put some cash together. Hey, man I’ll give you a dime for five bucks.”
I told him “Nah man. I don’t party anymore.”
He said “You know anyone else who wants to buy some weed?”
I said “No.”
He said, “Do you have any kind of change you can help me out with then?”
He never told me why he needed money and I suspect it was so he could supplement his weed high with a beer, but he didn’t need to say. He brought down my defenses by proposing first to add value to my life. 144 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Does your marketing land on people and feel like you’re trying to get something from them rather than give something?
If it does you’ll get the “Oh, yuck…” response.
This man presented his proposition to me at the wrong time of my life but never the less, I liked his direct approach. I loved how he was up front with me and didn’t try and make feel guilty because he was a vet or had imaginary kids to feed or supposedly hadn’t eaten for days.
So, I gave him five bucks. His eyes bulged out as he looked at the money in his hand. He thanked me profusely and walked away. I enjoy interactions with straight up people and it felt good rewarding this man for his honesty.
If the way you give back isn’t fulfilling on the deepest level I suggest you re-evaluate why you’re giving where you do and seek a cause or method that’s a sure fire 100% guaranteed win-win for you and the person or animals you’re helping out.
It’s my opinion that no one gives for totally selfless reasons. At bare minimum we always get a feeling from our giving. Why not have that be an empowering feeling?
I instantly started feeling better about myself when I stopped giving out of guilt and obligation. If you haven’t already, maybe you will too.
Happy holidays!!! I’ll talk to you again soon.
Wishing you a speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 48
Is The Story Behind What You Sell Potent Enough To Convince Your Customers To Risk Death To Get It?
Hey guys, Number 2 is back with a doozy of a post for you.
If you are easily offended by R rated content please stop reading this now.
Seriously.
The topic of our discussion comes from someone I consider one of the greatest living storytellers on the face of planet Earth.
Quentin Tarantino.
And one word comes to me when I think of his movies. Raw.
So if explicit language gets your blood boiling, distracts you from learning and keeping yourself in a resourceful state of mind… skip today’s lesson.
This post is about presenting your product or service in a way that makes your ideal prospects lock eyes on you, listen with their ears perked up and then feel like they’re betraying themselves if they don’t take advantage of what you have to offer.
As much as the lazy part of my mind wanted to drag the tired ass Claude Hopkins Schlitz Beer example out to express this point I thought I’d spare you what several older copywriters haven’t.
For those who haven’t heard the story here it is microwaved. Back in the early 1900’s Schlitz beer was get- ting it’s ass kicked in the beer market. They sought out the advertising genius Claude Hopkins. He requests a tour of the their beer brewing facilities and after seeing for himself the elaborate process they go through to get you drunk he finds what he needs. 146 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
He tells Schlitz that the angle he’s going to take is to let the world in all the gyrations they go through to make beer. The owner of Schlitz tells him “Everyone does what we do.” And good ole’ Claude tells em, “But no one talks about it.”
And when they started running beer ads that went into depth talking about “Why” Schlitz beer was good they went to number 1. End of Story. Jay Abraham tells this better than I just did but you got the point right?
I love me some Claude Hopkins just as much as the next guy but my mind whails ”Again. You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me” when I hear someone roll this aged fable out on stage in it’s wooden wheelchair.
This is one thing I respected about Gary Bencivenga’s Seminar. He went out like a champ. He spoke about the core fundamentals of persuading in print and did it with his own fresh analogies.
This means he actually put some thought into his presentation instead of puking up examples talked about by everyone and their sister already.
Some people rationalize a good story is a good story and if it works don’t break it. I have a different take. And that is… people are lazy. Thinking isn’t easy. Recycling is. This is why people don’t look at the hun- dreds of other examples you could use to bring home your point.
Like I did today.
I plucked this nugget directly from the wild fired bosom of the Pulp Fiction screenplay.
Folks this is writing. Every day and every way I aspire to write copy this sprited.
Remember when I mentioned a few posts back the idea of re-writing the money-shot parts of ads and screen play dialogue to get an unfair advantage when writing?
If you ever write dialog in any of your copy get your ass some Tarantino screen plays. Dialogue is this man’s gift from God.
As a favor to you I’ve attached a copy of Pulp Fiction for you here. If you’ve seen the movie you’ll be trans- ported back to this very scene saying the lines in the same cadence as Christopher Walken did.
So in the name of a fresh perspective… Here’s my take on what aFoul Mouthed Vietnam Vet Can Teach You About Presenting What You Sell Provocatively.
33. FADE UP:
ON THE CARTOON “SPEED RACER.”
Speed is giving a detailed description of all the features on Is The Story Behind What You Sell Potent… 147
his race car “The Mac-5,” which he does at the beginning of every episode.
OFF SCREEN we hear a WOMAN’S VOICE….
WOMAN’S VOICE (OS)
Butch.
DISSOLVE TO:
BUTCH’S POV
We’re in the living room of a modest two bedroom house in
Alhambra, California, in the year 1972.
BUTCH’S MOTHER, 35ish, stands in the doorway leading into the living room. Next to her is a man dressed in the uniform of an American Air Force officer. The CAMERA is the perspective of a five-year old boy.
MOTHER
Butch, stop watching TV a second.
We got a special visitor. Now do you remember when I told you your daddy died in a P.O.W. camp?
BUTCH (OS)
Uh-huh.
MOTHER
Well this here is Capt. Koons. He was in the P.O.W. camp with Daddy. 148 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
CAPT. KOONS steps inside the room toward the little boy and bends down on one knee to bring him even with the boy’s eyeline. When Koons speaks, he speaks with a slight Texas accent.
CAPT. KOONS
Hello, little man. Boy I sure heard a bunch about you. See, I was a good friend of your Daddy’s.
We were in that Hanoi pit of hell over five years together.
Hopefully, you’ll never have to experience this yourself, but when two men are in a situation like me and your Daddy were, for as long as we were, you take on certain responsibilities of the other. If it had been me who had not made it,
Major Coolidge would be talkin’ right now to my son Jim. But the way it worked out is I’m talkin’ to you, Butch. I got somethin’ for ya.
The Captain pulls a gold wrist watch out of his pocket. Is The Story Behind What You Sell Potent… 149
CAPT. KOONS
This watch I got here was first
purchased by your great-granddaddy.
It was bought during the First
World War in a little general store
in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was
bought by private Doughboy Ernie
Coolidge the day he set sail for
Paris. It was your great- granddaddy’s war watch, made by the first company to ever make wrist watches. You see, up until then, people just carried pocket watches.
Your great-granddaddy wore that watch every day he was in the war.
Then when he had done his duty, he went home to your great- grandmother, took the watch off his wrist and put it in an ol’ coffee can. And in that can it stayed
‘til your grandfather Dane Coolidge was called upon by his country to go overseas and fight the Germans 150 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One once again. This time they called it World War Two.
Your great-granddaddy gave it to your granddad for good luck.
Unfortunately, Dane’s luck wasn’t as good as his old man’s. Your granddad was a Marine and he was killed with all the other Marines at the battle of Wake Island. Your granddad was facing death and he knew it. None of those boys had any illusions about ever leavin’ that island alive. So three days before the Japanese took the island, your 22-year old grandfather asked a gunner on an
Air Force transport named Winocki, a man he had never met before in his life, to deliver to his infant son, who he had never seen in the flesh, his gold watch. Three days later, your grandfather was dead.
But Winocki kept his word. After Is The Story Behind What You Sell Potent… 151
the war was over, he paid a visit
to your grandmother, delivering to your infant father, his Dad’s gold watch. This watch. This watch was on your Daddy’s wrist when he was shot down over Hanoi. He was captured and put in a Vietnamese prison camp. Now he knew if the gooks ever saw the watch it’s be confiscated. The way your Daddy looked at it, that watch was your birthright. And he’d be damned if any slopeheads were gonna put their greasy yella hands on his boy’s birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide somethin’. His ass. Five long years, he wore this watch up his ass. Then before he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch. I hid this uncomfortable hunk of metal up my ass for two years.
Then, after seven years, I was sent 152 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you.
Capt. Koons hands the watch to Butch. A little hand comes into FRAME to accept it.
Now that’s what I call a sales presentation.
If you haven’t seen the movie here’s why Tarantino felt this story was critical to the success of the movie.
When you’re brought into the present day, Butch has grown up and become a prize fighter. In his next bout he’s supposed to lose the match and has been paid thousands and thousands of dollars by a junkyard dog gangster to do so.
He didn’t.
Instead he had a buddy spread the money he was paid off with around town to several different bookies. He bet on himself winning the fight.
Long story short, he wins the fight, jumps out of a 4th story window into a dumpster and hops into a waiting cab. Down the road he has the cab pull over to a payphone so he can confirm with his friend that all the bets were placed.
After he’s told everything went off with a hitch he knows all that’s left to do now is get out of town on the train tomorrow.
Meanwhile the Junkyard Dog gangster has made a declaration… “I’m prepared to scour the earth for that mutha fucka. If he goes to Endo China I want a nigga ready to hop out of bowl of rice and pop a cap in his ass.”
When Butch gets to the hotel room where his girlfriend is holed up, he makes love to her and knocks out. In the morning as the two of them are getting ready to scat town and live the good life he starts looking for his father’s watch. It’s not there.
He asks her where it is and she says she packed in the suitcase. It’s not there. When he doesn’t find it he goes absolutely ballistic with fear and rage.
After calming himself down he makes the decision to go back to the apartment where killers are staked out waiting for him to show up. Is The Story Behind What You Sell Potent… 153
On his way there he says to himself…
BUTCH
Of all the fuckin’ things she
coulda forgot, she forgets my
father’s watch. I specifically reminded her not to forget it.
“Bedside table — on the kangaroo.”
I said the words: “Don’t forget my father’s watch.”
Had Tarantino not told the story of the gold watch in such a compelling way you wouldn’t feel empathy or at least get why he’d be willing to chance being murdered on sight.
This was no ordinary watch. This was to be his son’s birthright. This watch was to stay in the Coolidge family till the end of time. His ancestors had gone through hell and back to make sure he got it and he was obligated to do the same.
Is what you sell valuable based on the story you tell about it? How valuable? Are you exploiting the story behind what you sell provocatively?
Don’t think too hard about the answers to these questions. Just dream about ‘em tonight as you sleep. Then when we talk again, we’ll check out some examples of business people like you unveiling the hidden asset most people keep locked away in the basement of their mind.
Till Then I’m wishing you a speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 49
Are You Coming Across as Too Much of a Smarty Pants To Your Prospects And Customers?
Hey Guys, Number 2 back in the house. Been buried in a clients project. A financial investment product.
I sent him a creative overview which asked all the questions meant to pry out all the details about what we’re selling. But while reading through the answers I kept stubbing my tongue on “corporate speak.”
You know, stuff like this blurb I just pulled off of Forbes.com…“General Motors moves higher as its finance arm gains bank status and eligibility for TARP funds.”
As elementary as this may sound to somebody in the finance field, it’s over my head. I know if I really had to know all the jargon terms used here I could google them and find out their meanings in no time.
But if I’m busy, I might not even finish reading a sentence like this.
While continuing to slog through all the documents this client sent me, the very first and only salesletter he had written emerged. I think he used Dan Kennedy’s “The Ultimate Salesletter” as a guide.
To my surprise, I read every single word of the ad.
Not out of obligation to the research but out of pure interest. The ad has tons of opportunities for improve- ment but this man did an absolutely fine job of keeping the tone intriguing, conversational and jargon free without sounding dumbed down.
That’s magic.
And he did this while talking about an investment which gives 20 lucky investors the privilege of ponying up $400,000 to be included in this fund. Are You Coming Across as Too Much of a… 155
Immediately after reading this letter I zipped him an email commending him for his effort and telling him that this may have been the most important document he sent me.
Do you lace your copy with sentences chock full of important sounding gobbeldy guuk?
The GM sentence above was an oh-so-sophisticated way to talk money and now I want to show you an example of a master making the complicated, easy.
This copy comes out of Gary Bencivenga’s famous “Simplify and Grow Rich” promotion he did for Tom Phillips years ago.
Look at this copy at the front of the magalog…
“Here, at long last, is a remarkably easy and effective wealth-building program for those of us who DON’T want to spend three hours a day following the markets, competing with professionals, and wor- rying about our money.”
Now if you don’t believe this Andy Griffith simple idea would appeal to rich people, look no further than Bernie Madoff. He’s the guy behind the latest multi-million dollar investment swindle.
Investors who lost money in this deal loved the idea of putting their money in the hands of someone besides themselves; a wizard who would spin their investment into gold while they watched movies on the couch.
From what I hear the majority of the investors were all part of the same country club. Word traveled quick and next thing you know this guy’s managing 100’s of millions of dollars; most coming from referrals from club members.
There’s a secret fundamental you want to remember about people handing over their money to someone else to manage. When you shift the responsibility for your wealth over to someone else — there’s two beliefs people might adopt.
One is the belief you’re a genius or you’re special because you know a guy with the Midas touch and you’re the one who found and picked him to grow your nest egg. This belief usually thrives when returns are coming in fast and furious.
The other belief is one that let’s you off the hook when you get snockered and lose all or most of your money. “My money managers an idiot. That’s why I’m broke. It’s his fault.”
People love the idea effortless wealth and blaming others for their problems.
So here’s this genius Gary who rides on this understanding by appealing to the idea that we don’t want to complicate our lives. We want the exact opposite. 156 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Look at this bullet of contents. Oh yeah, I said bullet. Gary is expert at making his table of contents sell by making them core-of-sun hot bullets.
You know who else does an amazing job of this? Cosmopolitan magazine. The bullets on the front cover are money but their table of contents are the cracker jack surprise buried within.
The editor knows a person standing in line at the grocery store only has a couple of precious moments to burn while waiting to checkout. In this time most people can’t read any articles so the next best thing to do is go straight to the table of contents, breeze through and see if this issue has enough juicy topics to force them into tossing it on the conveyor belt.
Here’s one of Gary’s bullets designed to get someone to dive into his ad:
Safest stock you can own - and yields 8.3%…………………………………………………Page 19
Simple, yet titillating. Secure yet productive. Tell me more.
Look at what you get when you go to page 19…
The Safest Type of Stock
You Can Own
Do you know the safest type of stock you can own? It’s preferred stock. Since the great majority of stock is common stock, not many people know much about the preferred variety.
That’s a pity, because properly chosen preferreds can be one of the most powerful weapons in your
Simplify and Grow Rich arsenal.
In fact, they can give you the most Are You Coming Across as Too Much of a… 157
attractive features of BOTH stocks
and bonds.
For example, in your free report,
I’ll tell you about the preferred stock
of one of America’s ultra-blue-chip corporations, a world famous leader in it’s field…and a financial Rock of Gibralter.
Just look at the unmatched combination of advantages you gain with its preferred stock:
You enjoy a delightful 8.3% yield no matter what happens to the stock market or the price of this company’s common stock.
To put that assured 8.3% yield in perspective, it’s currently about four full percentage points higher than money markets yield, giving you in effect a 90% higher return on every dollar you invest. As we saw earlier, if you want every dollar to multiply into many future 158 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One generations of dollars for the rest of your life, you just can’t afford to pass up a safe 90% difference in the amount of interest you can earn with a portion of your money.
You gain complete protection against all the usual volatility and threats that affect common stock.
Yet you can still participate in significant capital gains if interest rates fall (boosting the value of your guaranteed yield). This is important at this time, since lower interest rates are virtually guaranteed.
…………………………………………
Does “Financial Speak” usually bore the hell out of you? It does me.
I used to like reading Investors Business Daily for one section. The Leaders & Success article. As soon as I finished this I’d put the paper down. On occasion I’d scan for other articles but the jargon jungle was too thick to keep my attention.
The copy Gary wrote above gives even a rank beginner an easy to understand reason why you might wanna check out preferred stock. How many daunting words or terms did he wedge into what could easily be con- sidered a “high brow” topic? None.
Even this “Finance Speak” phobic effortlessly read every sentence of this section.
Your beliefs may hypnotize you into thinking you need to “sound professional and savvy.” You do, but when you over do the “important sounding words and insider language” your copy sounds hoity toity, boring and try hard. Are You Coming Across as Too Much of a… 159
When this happens you run the risk of blowing the circuits of peoples “microwave” mindset.
I want to be like Gary. For this promotion I’m working on I’ll be asking him for help via his finance letters. Without a treasure trove of sales letters I might’ve thought my ad had to sound like the Wall Street Journal to be taken seriously. Now I know better.
This yet another unique way your swipe file can come to your rescue. All the masters are great at trans- forming boring topics into entertaining ones and brain surgery into brain dead simple.
If what you’re selling is complicated please do your readers a favor and don’t ask them to work to give you money. Even the geekiest of us know how to explain something so anyone can “get it.” Make it easy for people to understand how you can help them and they’ll reward you for it.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 50
Predictions For 2009 Part One
Hey Nerd Fans, After a bit of a set back in a number of ways We are back and have a whole lot of cool stuff coming your way in the next little while.
Prediction #1: This Recession is here to stay. Yep, I believe we are headed toward a very turbulent near future.
I suggest if your hanging on to a piece of real estate or that stock you think is going to rebound you take the opportunity to get out while you still can and that opportunity may present itself in;
Prediction #2: Sometime in the early part of this year the stock market may rebound. It will not last for a very long time. Maybe a month or up to three. Whatever it is take this opportunity to get out of any stocks you may be stubbornly holding on to.
Prediction #3: The Commercial Real Estate market will finally collapse. Over the last few years as the resi- dential market collapsed, and continues too, the commercial market has held up fairly well. This will stop sometime this year and we will see many of those strip malls you saw sprout up over the last decade file bankruptcy and many will become bare of any tenants at all. My suggestion is that you get out of commer- cial real estate unless you are renting to tenants with world class credit.
Prediction #4: The Residential Market will continue to decline rapidly. Yes, the worse is not here yet. Many people have done everything possible to keep paying there mortgages and that will end very soon as they will have no choice but to give up there dreams. So if you think we’ve hit bottom I suggest you wait just a bit longer and see how things work out.
Tomorrow I’ll be back with Four More Predictions for 2009. CHAPTER 51
If I Could Hear The Questions You Ask Yourself Would I Think I Was In The Presence of a Leader Or a Victim?
Iwas cruising Dr. Mercola’s site again today and I came across a post about productivity. It gave a list of questions you could ask yourself to get your act together. The questions were plucked from David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” program.
This man is highly revered for what he’s done to transform people like yourself into lean mean productive machines.
The questions below are great but I’ve spotted a flaw in some of them.
What you say to yourself is the most important factor when it comes to your success. Everything you do is a result of the conversations you have with yourself. Everything.
Some people’s dialogue allows them to live life on their terms. To do what they want, when they want, with whomever they want, for however long they want and wherever they damn well please.
Some people’s self talk is so rotten they’re convinced themselves there’s no way out of this problem, things will never get better and they should commit suicide because of it.
Think of the movie Shawshank Redemption.
Tim Robbin’s character “Andy Dufresne” is wrongly imprisoned. For years he was beaten, tortured, and taken advantage of. Circumstances that are prime breeding ground for suicide chatter.
But did Andy give up? No.
The questions he asked himself allowed him one at a time to get juiced in with the captain of guards, the warden himself and to cultivate an unbreakable bond with Morgan Freeman’s character “Red.” 162 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
There’s more.
The quality of questions he asked himself allowed him to escape prison, become rich and save his best friends life.
This movie moves me to tears every time I watch it. Especially these parts…
RED (V.O.)
Those of us who knew him best talk about him often. I swear, the stuff he pulled. It always makes us laugh.
A wild burst of laughter. PUSH IN on Red. Feeling melancholy.
RED (V.O.)
Sometimes it makes me sad, though,
Andy being gone. I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged, that’s all. Their feathers are just too bright…
269 EXT — FIELDS — LATE DAY (1966) 269
Convicts hoe the fields. Guards patrol on horseback.
RED (V.O.)
…and when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice…but still, the place you live is that much more drab and empty that they’re gone. If I Could Hear The Questions You Ask… 163
A DISTANT RUMBLE OF THUNDER. Red pauses, gazes off. Storm
clouds coming in, backlit by the sun. A light drizzle begins.
RED (V.O.)
I guess I just miss my friend.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
This is the part of the movie that touches me most. The language of this metaphor is so beautiful I don’t even need the music, the visuals or Morgan’s voice for this to choke me up.
I didn’t think it’d matter. I should’ve known better.
Do you hear how Red talks himself into a un-resourceful state here? Listen to this next part…
………………………………………………………………………………………………
INT — SHAWSHANK HEARINGS ROOM — DAY (1967)
Red enters, sits. 20 years older than when we first saw him.
MAN #1
Your file says you’ve served forty
years of a life sentence. You feel
you’ve been rehabilitated?
Red doesn’t answer. Just stares off. Seconds tick by. The parole board exchanges glances. Somebody clears his throat.
MAN #1
Shall I repeat the question?
RED
I heard you. Rehabilitated. Let’s see now. You know, come to think of 164 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One it, I have no idea what that means.
MAN #2
Well, it means you’re ready to rejoin society as a—
RED
I know what you think it means. Me,
I think it’s a made-up word, a poli- tician’s word. A word so young fellas like you can wear a suit and tie and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?
MAN #2
Well…are you?
RED
Not a day goes by I don’t feel regret, and not because I’m in here or because you think I should. I look back on myself the way I was…stupid kid who did that terrible crime…wish I could talk sense to him. Tell him how things are. But I can’t. That kid’s long gone, this old man is all that’s If I Could Hear The Questions You Ask… 165
left, and I have to live with that.
(beat)
“Rehabilitated?” That’s a bullshit
word, so you just go on ahead and stamp that form there, sonny, and stop wasting my damn time. Truth is, I don’t give a shit.
The parole board just stares. Red sits drumming his fingers.
CLOSEUP — PAROLE FORM
A big rubber stamp SLAMS down — and lifts away to reveal the word “APPROVED” in red ink.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
How’d you like the takeaway close here?
His conversation landed on anyone who heard it as genuine and from the heart. Taking on the identity of a wise man who realized he wasn’t his mistakes is what made his statement so congruent.
In this next piece listen to how he has to talk himself out of being a quitter…
………………………………………………………………………………………………
288 INT — RED’S ROOM — NIGHT 288
Red lies smoking in bed. Unable to sleep.
RED (V.O.)
Terrible thing, to live in fear.
Brooks Hatlen knew it. Knew it all too well. All I want is to be back 166 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One where things make sense. Where I won’t have to be afraid all the time.
He glances up at the ceiling beam. “Brooks Hatlen was here.”
RED (V.O.)
Only one thing stops me. A promise
I made to Andy.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
You might have had conversations similar to this. You mind is telling you to quit. This isn’t working. Go get a real job. You’re afraid because you don’t know where the rents gonna come from.
But there’s the part of you that doesn’t care because what you’re doing now makes you feel alive. You’re days fly by because you love your work. You haven’t made it yet but you’ve promised yourself you’d do whatever it took to make it.
In this next section, you can listen to Andy sell Red on the idea of living…
………………………………………………………………………………………………
ANDY (Voice Over)
Dear Red.
If you’re reading this, you’ve gotten out. And if you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town, don’t you? I could use a good man to help me get my project on wheels. I’ll keep an eye out for If I Could Hear The Questions You Ask… 167
you and the chessboard ready.
(beat)
Remember, Red. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you, and finds you well.
Your friend. Andy.
By now, tears are spilling silently down Red’s cheeks. He opens the other envelope and fans out a stack of new fifty- dollar bills. Twenty of them. A thousand dollars.
293 INT — RED’S ROOM — DAY (1967) 293
Red is dressed in his suit. He finishes knotting his tie, puts his hat on. His bag is by the door. He takes one last look around. Only one thing left to do. He pulls a wooden chair to the center of the room and gazes up at the ceiling beam.
RED (V.O.)
Get busy living or get busy dying.
That’s goddamn right.
He steps up on the chair. It wobbles under his weight.
294 INT — BREWSTER — RED’S DOOR — DAY (1967) 294
The door opens. Red exits with his bag and heads down the stairs, leaving the door open. CAMERA PUSHES through, BOOMING 168 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
UP to the ceiling beam which reads: “Brooks Hatlen was here.”
A new message has been carved alongside the old: “So was Red.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Andy made Red question his belief that he couldn’t make it on the outside as a free man.
Andy and Red made it to their glorious ending by asking themselves a better quality question.
So did real life redemption artists like Viktor Frankl, Ghandi and Nelson Mandela.
Everyone with a fully functioning mind has this power. Especially you. You’re being here reading this tells me that. You could be reading a tabloid rag now but you’re not. And for this I commend you. You’re a rare and special being.
Below is the list of 11 questions David Allen says you can use for a weekly review.
I’ve listed his questions and re-mastered the ones I felt could be better in blue. Use whichever you wish. Ask yourself these question at the start of your week to maximize your effectiveness and lead yourself into a productive week:
What do you have to work on the next few days? What do I get to work on the in the next few days? I don’t like to feel forced into doing something. I love it when I “get” to things.
What deadlines do you have coming up? What deadlines are going to be conquered by me?
Are there any new projects you have time to start working on? Where is the extra time in my schedule I can use to work on new projects? You get what you look for. It seems to me it’d be easier to say no to the first question. The second one presupposes there is time and I just need to find it.
What went wrong over the past week? What lessons can you learn from that? How am I a stronger, smarter and an even more sophisticated person from what I learned from mistakes I made or others made this week?
What went right over the past week? How can you make sure more of that happens?
How well are you keeping up with all my duties and obligations? Duties and obligations are ugly words to me. This question smacks of the parental/authority language I’ve shunned my whole life. I like… Who or what is depending on my kick ass expertise this week and how can I maintain the impeccable reputation of a man who does what he say’s he will?
What is coming up that you need to be prepared for? Once again a word that can be transformed; need. Need here seems like I’m being sentenced to dreadful work. Being prepared when an opportunity is any- If I Could Hear The Questions You Ask… 169
thing but dread. It’s magnificent. Instead I’d ask myself “What do I get to do to prepare myself to make this upcoming project my bitch?”
What kind of help do you need? Here again need sounds whiny. I’d ask “Who’s my go-to-guy or gal I get to share the glory with of making this project our bitch? What resources can we use to grease this process?
Is everything you’re doing contributing to your advancement towards your goals? What can you do about the stuff that isn’t? What’s the list of things I can do this week that will contribute to the accomplishment of my goals? What allows me to focus the majority of my time on these activities?
Are you happy with where you’re at? What would you like to change?
What are your goals for the next week? Month? 90 days? What are you most happy with in your life now? What part of your life can you change to make yourself even happier? Meeting what goal will make my up coming week a week to be proud of?
David Allen is a bad mofo. You should definitely use what he has to offer. But just because he’s a bad mofo doesn’t mean you should relax and accept everything he tells you.
I know I don’t have to tell you this but I will anyway.
Be a bad ass bouncer for your mind. Screen out the trouble making loser language and ideas that want to come in and ruin the party.
Just because someone has guru status doesn’t mean they’re perfect. I live by this belief and that’s what made me question these questions. They didn’t gel right with my thinking.
So, I modified them to suit me. You should do the same if you don’t agree. And then tell me in post here on the blog so I can consider adding them to mine. I’ll be looking forward to hearing what you liked and didn’t like about this post.
I’ll talk to you soon.
Wishing You speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 52
“Kids Always Take The Chocolate or Cheese Coated Option. Do You?”
Note Taking Nerd 2 back once again. I’ve got a question for you.
Did you eat an entirely different diet than your parents did growing up?
I didn’t.
I ate and drank exactly what they did. Hamburger Helper, Cheetos, Tamales, Frozen Food dinners, Red Vines, Microwaved Popcorn, Fish Sticks, Ice Cream, Fried Tortillas, French Fries, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza, 32 oz Cokes bigger than my head etc, etc.
My mom died not ever diverting from a steady diet of garbage like this. My dad still indulges but as his body is starting to give him problems he’s opened up his awareness to the importance of eating healthy and exercising.
I’ve taken a different path.
I’m the only person in my entire family to have ever stopped eating meat and sugar for years at a time. The only person who has done a colon cleanse, a heavy metal cleanse, a liver cleanse, a parasite cleanse, a yeast and candida cleanse and a whole body cleanse.
They poked fun at me when I’d be eating salad on Thanksgiving instead of plowing my face full of turkey, stuffing and pie.
I didn’t give a shit.
The reason I didn’t was because I knew better. I studied health and shook myself out of the instant gratifica- tion hypnotic trance most of society ignorantly wallows in. “Kids Always Take The Chocolate or Cheese… 171
As of now, I’m eating junk every once in while, say 25% of the time, while focusing on getting solid nutri- tion in my body the rest.
And after reading the article below at good ole’ Dr. Mercola’s site today, I know it’s time for another cleanse…
Are Parents Killing Their Kids With Kindness?
Britain is attempting to tackle its growing childhood obesity problem. Recently, British officials started a new campaign to warn parents that they may be “killing their children with kindness.”
Parents who indulge too many of their children’s desires, says the campaign, may be unwittingly setting them up for problems with heart disease, diabetes or cancer.
This is not the first time Britain has tried to curb childhood obesity. Critics say the British government’s past initiatives to fight the problem have failed. A quarter of all four- and five-year-olds are currently overweight in England, and about one-third of children age 10 or 11 are also obese.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
You may or may not agree with me on this but I’m gonna say it anyway.
If kids get fat it’s all the parents fault.
I have a 2 1/2 year old niece. Her name is Kloe. When it comes time to eat lunch if I give her the option between eating a salad or an ice cream cone, guess which one’s getting chose every single time.
The other day we were at the grocery store and I made the mistake of not strapping her into a cart. While cruising around on foot she was grabbing everything within eye sight.
We cut through the chips/crackers section to get to the soymilk and I cringed at what happened next.
She was lagging behind and I look back and she had a lard ass family size bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos in her hand. She looked at me and her little baby voice said “I like these.”
Egh.
This is sooo telling into what she see’s consistently at home.
And guess what? I had her put em back and later guess what hit her at eye level “surprise, surprise” those Pepperidge Farm cheese flavored goldfish. I bought them.
She probably ate only around 20, maybe 30 of those teeny crackers because I jumped on the grenade. 172 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I ate the rest of them. I understand this little girl depends on me to protect her. And monitoring what she eats is one of the easiest ways to prevent her from a painful disease ridden existence or worse… death.
Junk food is a patient killer. It’s in no hurry. It’s got nothing but time.
Some people might tell you stressing out on what you eat is dangerous and this is what leads to failing health and diet abandonment. “It’s all in your head.” is what they say. If you make a big deal of eating some junk it will hurt you. If you don’t you’ll be ok.
Then they throw out the cigar smokin’, booze swillin’, meat eatin’ George Burns living til’ a hundred and whatever example.
I don’t argue. It’s not worth my breath. You know why? Because I agree with this on some level.
Stress kills. Probably faster than diet alone.
If you don’t manage your emotions you can have the healthiest diet on earth and still bore a hole into your colon with cancerous thoughts and beliefs and values.
But most small children don’t have stress and cancerous thoughts and they’re still getting fat. Fat kills too. Might have something to do with what they’re eating.
I’m not perfect. I actually liked chowing down on those crackers I bought for my niece. And I know being super anal about every single thing I eat may lead to stress.
But if I swing in the total opposite direction and just barrage my body full time with worthless food, I’ll pay for it and my family will too.
Food has the power to drastically affect how we feel in every moment of our lives through the lifting or crashing our blood sugar. Most people don’t have the discipline to say yes to food that gives them energy rather than fatigue (broccoli vs. Twinkies).
Children don’t have any other choice but to follow our example. Why would we sentence them to life of pain because we can’t control our own eating habits?
Are we following the same dysfunctional programming passed on to us by our parents?
If so we are lucky because we have the power of choice. We don’t have to follow the crowd. We don’t have to follow our parents. We can lead our children to health and vitality by making better eating decisions.
Isn’t that cool?
Start looking into healthier diet alternatives as soon as you’re ready to. Some of my favorite authors on the subject are… “Kids Always Take The Chocolate or Cheese… 173
Dr. Jeffrey McCombs
http://www.mccombsplan.com
Andrew Weil
http://www.drweil.com
And Dr. Robert Young
http://www.phmiracleliving.com
Check these guys out. They’ve changed my life. Maybe they will yours too.
Wishing you speedy and spectacular success,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Please let us know of any authors or programs that have transformed you into a lean mean healthy machine that everyone here should know about. CHAPTER 53
Do You Have Rickets of the Brain?
or Years I prided myself in reading as much as a two books a week sometime. I was always listening to Fsomething to help improve myself or my business.
Lately I’ve been a Slacker.
I wish I could at least say I was out suring some real killer waves or hiking the hymalayas but no…
The best I can give you is the latest on the Michael Jackson case or Celebrity gossip from TMZ.
These last few days i’ve gotten back into the swing of feeding my brain with some much needed mental nutrition.
Last night I listened to Frank Kern’s latest Mass Control 2.0 Live Seminar he recently held. Wow some really cool stuff.
However, it made me realize a few very important things.
I remember many years ago when the Great Personal Development Author Jim Rohn said many people suffer from “Rickets of The Brain”.
That’s how i felt the last few days as I struggled with unconcious conflict. My brain literally fought with me listening to this stuff. It was screaming for some more TMZ or sitcoms. I mean come on .. why not. It’s easy to take in for hours at a time and projects you into a world of delusion and false pretenses.
I’m not sure if your like me or maybe just struggling just a bit to get in a few pages of a good book or 10 minutes of an excellent audio program that could change your life forever. But if you are i encourage you to get back up and start to create a daily ritual. DO NOT LET A DAY GO BY THAT YOU DON’T FEED YOUR MIND WITH SOMETHING THAT WILL HELP CATAPULT YOU IN THE DIRECTION OF YOUR DREAMS AND DESIRES. Do You Have Rickets of the Brain? 175
Rickets of the Brain is as deadly as Cancer. Heck.. it may even be worse… because you become the living dead. No purpose or direction in life with no fuel to drive you forward leads to a life with no meaning.
So I encourage you to go back to yesterdays blog post and begin to look at setting your goals and also begin to create a Personal Development Goal that includes reading, listening, and watching something every single day that will provide you with the necessary fuel to overcome your daily challenges and you trium- phantley march toward your greatness.
That bein said … look for more later today or tommorrow morning.
Remember, we’ve got lot’s more cool stuff coming to help you grow your business. So be patient and keep coming back. We love you guys.
Also, look out for the Business Growth Report we got coming out sometime tommorrow. It’s one of our best ever.
In Success,
My Note Taking Nerd CHAPTER 54
Are You Limiting What Is Possible For You?
want to ask you a question that has plagued most every business owner, entrepreneur, and marketer at Ione time or another. “Are you limiting your own success?”
Because let’s face it—we’ve all got things that are holding us back from success and keeping us from rising to that next outstanding level.
But no matter how hard you try, sometimes it seems like you’re always taking two steps forward and three steps back.
(Sound familiar?)
Well, I’ve got great news for you today because you’re going to discover a way to overcome all those road- blocks in your path and move swiftly and easily towards the success you’ve always dreamed of and that you are FULLY capable of.
In nature, as in your own life, if you don’t water the roots the Tree Dies.
If you are anything like me then you have probably spent countless nights with “Grand” thoughts in your head about what you are going to do tomorrow to achieve your dreams only to wake up and find yourself stuck in a Mental rut and not able to get going.
Do you feel motivated? Yes!
Are you Mentally Willing to do the necessary things? Yes!
But do you do anything? No!
Why is it that you can be motivated and willing yet not be able to make things happen? Are You Limiting What Is Possible For… 177
Well this comes down to overcoming the internal conflict between your Goals, Values, and Beliefs.
You see… If you don’t have the necessary Beliefs and Values to support your desire then it’s like being stuck in mud.
If you don’t want to be Free of this and learn why it is that you may not be moving forward as fast as you thought possible then join the list to get the Nerd Transformation Report for Free.
You can do this by sending an email NOW to [email protected] and putting NTR in the Sub- ject line.
You will Learn: • • How to effectively and quickly create Power Beliefs that fully support all your goals and desires. • • The proper method for goal setting that will literally have you bolting out of bed with excitement. • • Why having a clear set of Values will change your life forever. • • Why most people never achieve any of there top 10 goals. • • The Dirty Secret the Guru’s don’t want to tell you about Goal Achievement. • • And Much More Including …. How to be “Realistic” truly means when it comes to Goal Setting. •
For now realize that you ARE limiting yourself, you ARE sabotaging yourself, and you ARE NOT achieving all you can because the majority of us do not have the Proper Mental Alignment.
Just like a car that pulls hard right because the tires are out of alignment.
I encourage each and every one of the Nerd Fans to really go to work on this.
Why?
Because as we move forward I want you to get as much as you can out of all the information I’ll be sharing with you.
I want us to create a Nerd Revolution.
To do so we must be able to Take Action and Follow Thru.
After all I want an Army of Doers, creators, and REVOLUTIONARIES. 178 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So….
If you don’t want to be Free of this and learn why it is that you may not be moving forward as fast as you thought possible then join the list to get the Nerd Transformation Report for Free.
You can do this by sending an email NOW to [email protected] and putting NTR in the Subject line.
MyNoteTakingNerd
P.S. If you haven’t gotten your hands on our New Business Growth System Report then hurry up as we only have 11 copies left…GET YOUR REPORT HERE NOW!
CHAPTER 55
10 Million Dollar Secrets of Renegade Millionaires From Dan Kennedy
Below I’ve given you the 10 Secrets of Renegade Millionaires from Dan Kennedy’s newest program.
Enjoy and please comment and let me know what you think.
10 Million Dollar Secrets of Renegade Millionaires
1. They turn ordinary businesses into extraordinary businesses. • • There wasn’t a shortage of coffee before starbucks • • There wasn’t a shortage of pizza before dominoes •
The formula is they turn a mundane ordinary business turned into an extraordinary business…not an incrementally better business. This is a shift in thinking. You leave the core business there ‘we’re in X’ but now what are all the radical things you can do that nobody in X would ever dream of doing?
2. Defy industry norms
Industry norms is average results. Conforming to be accepted. Everyone making good money defies them, everyone making average money conforms to them.
Make a master list of everything that is a norm in your industry everyone conforms to ie how things are priced, sold, delivered, advertised, marketed, contracts used…there should be 100’s.
Now defy as many of them as humanly possible. You will transform your income in direct proportion to the number you manage to violate. Seriously. ‘Show me the wall’. There is no wall. It’s a belief. 180 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
3. Positioning
You need to carve out some territory in the marketplace you can own.
A piece of space in the market you can own.
Sometimes you need to completely reinvent your business to do it. Ie. Subway taking a fast food business and making it a weight loss business.
Stake out territory your competitors don’t have and thus making it difficult for your competitors to get into it with a radical positioning approach.
Same business, different positioning. Carve out a different place in the market. Ie positioning as extreme specialist but doing the same ‘stuff’, positioning in a cluttered field in terms of what you’re NOT about, positioning as reverse of norm / reverse position (‘women approach you’)
4. Process change
How can you do it better or perhaps substitute an entirely different process for it etc. Ie having people pay in advance (lay away plans) rather than later in installments, 1 step selling to relationship lead gen, single sale to continuity as in you can’t just buy one thing of acne goop as you need to sign up for acne goop proactive for life to get it and you need to stop it if you don’t want it (still selling goop and simply changed process from ‘you can join the club if you want’ to ‘you ARE joining the club’), bundling versus cafeteria style, options in the second sale after the sale
5. Price
PRICE CHANGE (ie offer a premium option of what you sell and also getting to $1 million using 1 transac- tion or 2 at $500K and so forth - PRICE - starbucks did not get to $8 a cup of coffee by looking at Denny’s and averaging out coffee prices), Price elasticity
6. Immunity to criticism
Some people when criticized don’t recover.
The antidote is: renegade millionaires don’t care what anyone thinks except those who give them money. That’s the only vote you get. Not your mother in law, brothers, sisters, not even YOUR opinion counts…the only thing that can count, is results.
They don’t care what anyone thinks about what they do except the people who respond to what they do. What they care about is the people who respond to them. Immunity to criticism. Complete immunity. People that make the most money ARE. 10 Million Dollar Secrets of Renegade… 181
7. Systems
Reinventing 67 wheels in your business and business can’t function if they aren’t there and day to day emer- gency stuff versus McDonalds. Most successful of all of them with the worst food. FAST food business - everyone has a poor shadow of a system while McDonalds has a system for fast.
Everywhere one guy can’t find a box for something, a girl can’t find the cups, etc McDonalds has a system. Operational systems are easy. But assembly line approach to handling customers when they come is what most people don’t have…a MARKETING system.
8. Macro / Micro
Micro - yes or no versus a or b, changing 1 word in a phone script for 10x result…micro adjustments yielding big results Macro - ‘what’s the big vision? what’s the big idea? How do we take the core business and wrap 5 businesses around it?’ You need both to pay attention to big ideas and pay attention to tiny nitty gritty detail stuff.
9. Economics
Adjusting economics. Competitors ask: ‘how can we spend and do less?’ But Snyder selling to recently bankrupt people sends FEDEXS while everyone else uses direct mail.
You know: the ultimate competitive advantage is being able and willing to spend MORE to acquire a cus- tomer than anybody else who is talking to them.
Change the economics to allow you to spend. You can now do things nobody else talking to your prospects are doing. Strive to spend MORE not less. The question is: ‘how can I spend more than anyone else who’s talking to my prospects is spending?’ They’re sending mini trash cans on direct mail pieces? How can you send a full sized walmart trashcan handcuffed to the messenger so somebody needs to sign for it with the sales letter inside the full sized trashcan? The gatekeeper cannot throw it out and even if she wanted to what would she throw it out into? 100% get the sales letter, half call in, a third book appointments. It’s expensive and people think the guys an idiot - but he’s doing VERY well.
10. Personal behavior
Business is driven by YOU. It’s not so much about positive thought and attitude etc That’s all nice. Positive and dead broke. Truthfully, it’s behavior.
Behavioral congruency. Ask any leader how they think - and you find big philosophical differences and simply differences in thinking. Big thought differences. But there’s a few key behavioral commonalities. They DO certain things the same. Not so much what they think…it’s about what they DO. Not so much about attitudes…it’s about BEHAVIOR. 182 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Look at the behavior of people who are getting what you want. People envy other peoples businesses, then go back to doing nothing resembling the behavior these people have.
Identify the behaviors of the people getting the results you want. Behavioral commonalities of enough of them that you can call it a principle or strategy.
Mimic the behavior (you don’t even have to believe it), but if you mimic it almost magically the results happen. If you have behavioral congruency you get results congruency.
Find out 10 people who are doing what you want to do and find out what they do all the same. Get in sync, perhaps mentally and emotionally, but most importantly behaviorally with the people getting the kind of results you want so you can get those results. This is called MODELING. “I saw a rich guy walking with a limp so I walked with a limp for 4 years” —> this is more right than wrong. That’s what modeling is. You got to look at how do they handle opportunities, problems and crisis, how to do they do advertising and marketing, how do they approach their business differently…all the different things they do to build a model you can follow CHAPTER 56
Baby Severely Burns His Hand On Stove … Yet Tries To Touch The Stove Again!!
remember many years ago hearing the saying “The Pain of Regret Costs and Hurts Ten Times More IThen The Pain Of Doing Something Today”
I’m here to tell you that this may be an understatement.
As human beings we are driven by pain and pleasure. The problem is that, in general, we usually wait till we are in severe pain to take action. And sometimes it’s too late.
I’m currently ramping up my personal and business “Transformation” for all the world to see. (or the hun- dreds of Nerd Fan’s lol)
I’m reminded during this time of the statement above. Why is it that we must learn over and over the same F’n lessons. Isn’t the pain enough the first time?
I’m reminded of reading countless stories of Heart Attack Victims who have multiple Heart Attacks prior to finally dying.
Why after suffering the enormous pain of a Heart Attack would you go against the Doctors orders and eat a Big Mac mere days after leaving a hospital?
I’m reminded the pain many of us feel when we neglect a relationship yet are surprised when we are left in a heap of emotional distress when the ones we supposedly love leave us.
I’m reminded of the countless days I’ve missed with my beautiful Three Year Old Daughter because I’ve put “other things” ahead of our relationship and time together.
I’m reminded of the many people who’ve left this very website list because of neglect.
Do you Suffer from the Pain of Neglect and Procrastination? 184 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If you are suffering in your life or business and have the Gut Wrenching Pain of Regret then I suggest you start to begin today to overcome this.
When we don’t follow thru on our personal goals, neglect relationships, and fail to follow thru on our busi- ness plans we become a tangled weave of frustration, overwhelm, and regrets.
To begin to move forward like the champion Entrepreneurs I know we are I suggest you Clean Out Your Mental Closet.
How do you do this? 1. 2. Get Clear again on exactly what it is that you want. 3. Break all your goals down into very specific Quarterly, Monthly, Weekly, and Daily steps. 4. Make a list of everything that you have been procrastinating or neglecting. 5. Every single day take one or two steps to mark something off that list. it may be something as simple as making a much needed phone call to a friend or associate that you have neglected. As you begin to clear out your mental closet you gain momentum you never thought possible. Your mental clarity is much crisper and clearer. 6. Finally, remember to not be a “Pie in the Sky” dreamer. Set goals that stretch you .. yet are realistic within the realm of where you are currently in life. Set yourself up to be challenged yet with a realistic chance of “winning”. I was given this gentle reminder from someone who loves and cares for me very much yesterday. My immediate reaction was to think they were attacking me but know they were only trying to get me centered again.
I write this today with a Optimistic View for all of us.
You see….
I’m a believer in the human spirit and our abililty to overcome almost anything. I believe we always have a chance to write the next chapter in our Lives. We are in control of our destinies by the actions we choose to take today.
So as we begin our Journey together, here on this blog, I hope that what I share with you inspires you to make the necessary changes within you so that you may be able to achieve all the Business Success we aspire too.
I would like to see some comments below of changes you are going to make or stories of personal triumph.
Let’s Create a Nerd Revolution CHAPTER 57
Sometimes The Best Gifts Come In Small Packages
I’m just feelin good today. And I’m damn grateful that I’m where I’m at today and it got me to thinkin.
One of the most influencial books I ever read was Maxwell Maltz “Pshyco Cybernectics”. What an Amazing Life Changing book.
A while back I made myself a one page document to remind me of all the great tools Dr. Maltz taught.
I’ve shared this with many of my friends and they have all love it.
So please download this and I’m sure it’s gonna be one something you will probably hang up next to your desk.
Enjoy and don’t forget to let me know what you think. psycho-cybernetics-daily-weekly-program-notetakingnerd1
MyNoteTakingNerd CHAPTER 58
5 Strategies to Help You With a Mass Control Launch
Hello, Just put Together a Report Titled “5 Most Important Strategies For A Mass Control Launch”.
Grab it before I take it down.
And if you want this Super Report which breaks down the entire Mass Control 2.0 Program CLICK HERE TO ORDER IT NOW
The 5 Most Important Strategies For a Mass Control Launch CHAPTER 59
The Real Story: Boobs Sell?
Hey you, #2 here with a revelation.
Well endowed females = Money in the bank.
Here’s what I mean…
Last night while unpacking my library (just moved), I played the first DVD of Yanik Silver’s Underground Seminar 5. The first speaker featured was Bob Parsons of the infamous domanin registrar, GoDaddy.com.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this guy but he’s the polar opposite of my vision of a CEO & Founder of a tech company. He’s built like an former NFL Lineman… has the voice of the biggest trucker in the bar… and has his hair cropped high & tight to the skull just like a military man.
Everything becomes clear when he tells you he’s a Vietnam vet. Now all the pieces fall into place. Tell me more about how this red neck lookin’, machine gun toting guy raided the internet for billions…
Turns out, after Bob came home from beatin’ the bush, he became an accountant. Whaaat? Another par- adox. When you see & hear this guy on video talking for any extended period of time you’ll know exactly what I mean. When I worked as a apprentice carpenter doing commercial construction, this is the kind of guy I’d imagine telling the dirtiest jokes, cracking everyone up in the job trailer.
He’s just got that vibe about him. The guys bravado kinda reminds me of Bluto from Popeye. And I’m sure this is why he was giddy & gung ho about shocking the planet with his first Super Bowl advertisement.
Bob went from being an accountant to running a company called Parson’s Technology. Please forgive me for not remembering what they actually sold for I was neck deep in books & paperwork at the time. I’m surprised I’m recalling all that I am. 188 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
After struggling to make the business profitable, he turned things around to the tune of him selling the business for $64 Million dollars.
As soon as his non-compete agreement expired after a year, he immediately started GoDaddy.com.
Because of his lack of marketing know-how his $64 Million dollar nest egg was slowly but surely being chipped away at. And it was at this time that he asked himself the question, “If my product is so great, why is my business losing money?”
He didn’t have an answer. So, he hired a market research firm to poll customers of his competitors about why they weren’t using Godaddy.
Guess what they came back with…
After all the interviews, the conclusion the firm layed on him was to change Bob’s destiny. No one com- plained that their service was bad. No one used price as an excuse. The reason they cited for not using Godaddy was because they didn’t even know Godaddy existed.
So, in his infinite wisdom, he decides to test out advertising on the biggest stage possible. Superbowl Sunday.
While brainstorming what kind of angle he wanted to go with, he saw a commercial for “Mike’s Hard Lem- onade”. It was the one where there’s a guy sitting at a bar by his lonesome. His beer is empty and the indirect suggestion made is that “Mike’s” is so tasty that this guy swabs the inside of bottle clean with his “bottle length” tongue to the sheer astonishment of a group of women down a few stools.
The punch line comes when the bartender walks up and ask the ladies what they’d like and in their aroused state they point at dude and say “I want one of those”.
The warrior, all- American, good ole’ boy inside of Bob spoke and said this is the approach that was gonna attract web site owners to his business.
Crazy right?
If you’ve been indoctrinated with the Direct marketing/copywriting education I have from Dick Benson, Ogilvy, Hopkins, Eugene Schwartz, Bob Stone, Caples, Kennedy, Abraham, and on and on… you know being cute with your ads is the kiss of death.
Bob never waded through any of those authors material. He had no clue he was about to commit Direct Marketing Suicide. He went with his gut.
If you’re like me you probably assumed that GoDaddy was pissing away their money on these ads just like any company that lets Madison Avenue talk them into “Entertaining” advertising. The “More money than savvy argument”. The Real Story: Boobs Sell? 189
Kinda like the Nissan car campaign with the “Wanna-be Toy Story” theme that started during the Super Bowl, won a Clio Award and was eventually scrapped because research revealed it was actually suppressing sales.
Well, this story ends a lot different.
Bob was dead set on having Godaddy’s logo; in his words “across the chest of well endowed brunette.” Not a blonde because he was dating one at the time. How the agency worked this into an ad was up to them.
The year before was when the whole Janet Jackson “Wardrobe Malfunction” went down. Instead of avoiding anything to do with all the controversy stirred up there… he plowed head first into it by using the tank top string snapping… under the bulging pressure of “Candi’s” bodcious breasts… thus blasting the faux commission board in the face with both barrels.
This ad drove millions of visits to the site.
Most of it, we both know, was shit traffic. But hey, it wasn’t Cost Per Click so maybe it didn’t matter because out of the millions there had to be some potential clients, right? I can’t imagine how many more visits there would have been if more people had access to the internet in their home back then.
Bob’s $3 Millon dollar investement in his commercial brought back $12 Million dollars in business. It took GoDaddy from the brink of closing down… to slowly but surely… year by year man handling 64% of the domain registering market share.
Not too shabby for a guy who let his animal brain guide his ad budget.
In his mind, a run down of the plain facts for 30 seconds about what he sold was too boring to even attempt. He went for shock and awe and it paid off big time.
When Fox cleared his ad to air, they pulled a Mickey D’s and asked if he wanted another ad with that one. He accepted, wrote another check for a Million Bucks and took the space that was supposed to play during the 2:00 warning. When the score was tied at that point in the game, he thought he’d hit the jackpot.
Not quite.
Fox received so many complaints about “Candi” that they replaced his ad with a Simpson’s spot where Homer is featured stabbing a baby. I won’t even comment on that retardation.
I have a overarching premise on why I think Bob’s ad killed which has to do with something I’ve been pounded with from hanging out with Eben Pagan (watching the Guru Homestudy Summits).
What I’d like to hear from you is why you think this renegade rule-breaker’s idea worked.
Fluke or Genius? 190 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
For what I deem the clearest, most consise and thoughtful answer I will reward you with a copy of our brand spankin’ new set of “Mass Control Notes” that has recently become available to the public.
This is every detail layed out by another anti-conventional marketing super star, Frank Kern, about how he breaks the million dollar mark every time he rolls out a product now and how people like you are doing the same with his system.
On Thursday I’ll reveal the winner and the answer I believe made this ad campaign a homerun.
Until then have fun telling me what you think.
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 60
Are You Using This Magic Formula To Explode Your Profits and Achieve Your Dreams?
What i’m about to share with you is a bit longer then normal. However, I promise this may be one of the most important things you do all day. Enjoy!
As many of you know I’ve been going through a bit of a Transformation recently.
I’ll be filling all of you on my progress and sharing much more in the days to come.
This has led me to rethink and scour my massive Library for answers.
Answers to the question many, if not all of us, have about Life and Success.
What’s the difference between those of us who seem to “Glide” there way to victory and those of us whom struggle mightily to take baby steps toward our desires?
I’ve spent countless hours trying to find this answer and I believe I found it summed up in a recent letter I read.
What is the Magic Formula?
Leverage + Resistance + Time + Resistance + Speed =’s Success
Let’s talk first about Leverage.If you worked 8 Hours per day, 300 days per year… you would work 2400 hours and need to make $416 an hour to reach the Million Dollar mark.
Here’s the challenge. Is it possible to spend a complete 8 Hours per day only doing the activities that bring you the $416 an hour?
Studies and statistics show us that’s just not possible. 192 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
As a matter of fact quite the opposite. Many of us are lucky to spend One Hour Per Day doing the High Leverage work that brings us the LOOT.
So as a matter of choice and philosophy the first thing we should do is do everything possible to spend more time doing only the things that bring the most money in the door.
BUT … Much more is needed if you want to reach Your Number.. what ever that may be. For today I’m sticking with the all illusive Million Dollar Year many seem to want.
THE MOST IMPORTANT AND NUMBER ONE KEY TO EXTREME SUCCESS IS … EXTREME LEV- ERAGE!
I’m talking about leveraging talents and abilities, opportunities, information, Time (yours and others), con- tacts, media, technology, and Other People’s Money, Resources, and Customers.
This synergistic-ally creates multiple sources of income so that every $1 spent or hour spent feeds multiple income sources.
You must get adept at leveraging everything you do.
You do this by starting on the little things you do right now.
For instance can I use this article to drive traffic some other way. Could I use it in a Report or Book?
If you write advertising … could you create it in a way so that it’s a template you could use over and over again?
You need to begin to think with a Leverage Mindset? How can what I’m doing right now earn me money over and over again?
You must get Full Value out of everything you do.
In the days and weeks to come I’ll be exploring the many ways you can leverage time, people, and assets.
Next is the most important part of the equation.
If you can’t master this you have no chance at all. You might be saying come on Nerd not true. NO… I’m absolutely correct.
You must master the Internal Reistance you have about Leverage, Time, and Speed.
Most of us have Two Lives!!
The Live we live and the unborn life of dreams inside of you. Are You Using This Magic Formula To Explode… 193
Between the two stands Resitance.
I absolutely know that I’m as smart or smarter then many of the Millionaires and Multi Millionaires I’ve met or studied throughout the years.
I bet you probably believe the same thing.
Yet, why is it that they, with seemingly much less intellect, can achieve so much more?
Because they’ve mastered the ability to overcome there own Resitance to change.
I’m going to discuss in detail in my Transformation Report very soon about the many tactics and strategies you can use to overcome your resistance.
First though, you need to admit that you have a problem in this area. Many of us want to believe that we are “OK” or that the problem is “Out There”.
That, simply, is not the truth.
Begin, right now, to examine the Bullshit Beliefs that you may of created to help you live with the fact that you are failing or not living up to your potential.
What is stopping you from using this incredible tool called leverage?
Next …. we must understand and use the most valuable commodoty we have as human Beings.
TIME
You must spend as much time as possible on the things in your life and business that create the most lev- erage and bring in the most money and happiness.
You must gradually reduce the time spent in areas that suck the life out of you.
There’s not much more to say about this all important thing called TIME.
Finally you must learn that in today’s New World you must Maximize Speed.
Whatever you choose to do in today’s marketplace you must do quickly.
Why? Because it’s the one thing that will set you apart from everyone else.
Because if you don’t you’ll be the Guy sitting on your ass ..saying….”That was my idea”.
If you have the greatest product on earth, in a certain category, but wait till you have the perfect packaging to release it to the public, you’ll get eaten alive by the guy who doesnt give a shit that his product is “Pretty”. 194 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
He just gets it to the market as fast as possible and improves as the market calls for it.
Remember that throughout history, first mover, in the marketplace has been more important then anything else for securing the biggest market share.
So quit coming up with reason for not “DOING”, throw your ridiculous beliefs as to why you can’t do it in the F’n trash can, and make things happen.
So There ya have it.
Leverage + Resistance + Time + Resistance + Speed =’s Success
Remember the most important part of this formula is your ability to breakthrough resistance in the other areas.
That’s why i spend so much time hammering away here at this blog on this are.
I do it because I care and I want you to learn from my mistakes, mishaps, and everlasting thirst for Wisdom.
So right now put this formula up on the wall in front of you and begin to banish all the Resistance that may be holding you back.
Good luck and I hope your continue to join me as I go on this incredible journey called Life.
In Success, Your Chief Note Taker
P.S. Talk about leverage. That’s what this website is all about. One of the hottest and Highly Leverageable reports we have is the Mass Control 2.0 report. We are selling these for just of few more days. The program originally cost $2,500 but you can get the Nerds take on it for just $77. YES NERD I WANT THE MASS CONTROL REPORT BEFORE YOU PUT IT BACK IN THE VAULT CHAPTER 61
To Hell With The Gurus: How GoDaddy Broke The Rules And Got Away With It
Hey you, #2 back as I promised with the answer as to why I believe GoDaddy.com’s ignorance of Direct Marketing 101 led to a Grand Slam ad that cost them a cool $1 million dollars to produce… and brought back $12 mil.
As I told Brian in one of my replies to his comments to the previous post… Once you own this secret, and put it to work for you… your ads will stomp and shame any and all of your greedy competitors.
First let’s you and I take a look at why this ad is a backhand slap to face of all the Guru’s preaching the gospel of Direct Response advertising.
Dismissed Rule #1: No Message to Market Match.
I imagine if you pulled up the stats they’d tell you that the majority of online businesses are run by men. Especially 5-7 years ago when this ad stormed the scene. Remember, this was before main stream America had been sucked online by the triple threat vortex called Myspace, Youtube and blogger.com.
That stat, however, does not mean any and all testicle wielding humans, which is who this ad spoke directly too, are your target market.
Look at this spot, in contrast to current weight loss promos that start out with… “Do you have trouble losing weight?”
Dismissed Rule #2: Right Media for the Right Market.
If you asked me, my educated guess would be that the majority of geeks who can build websites and are in love with e-commerce are not sports fans… are not spending vast amounts of time watching T.V., and even 196 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One though their animal brains are attracted to gorgeous babes… they know how to find all the hard core porn sites to satisfy those urges.
So, the allure of going to a site to might show you a little more skin than you could see on T.V. is hardly worth their time.
Dismissed Rule #3: Right Message to the Right Market in the Right Media
There was ab-s0-lute-ly no message in this ad that reached out to the internet savvy people and screamed ”This is for you, the person who makes money or wants to make money online.” In that first ad the only indication you got that GoDaddy had anything to do with the internet was that the name of busi- ness had .com at the end of it.
I don’t believe for a second that if Bob Parsons hired Dan Kennedy, THE man paid millions for his Adver- tising/Infomercial expertise, to put together his Super Bowl commercial for him… a bulging, bumbling bru- nette would have been “The Secret Sauce” he’d have pulled out of his bag of tricks to make the ad pay.
Nor Brian Kurtz (Newly ordained titan of Direct Marketing commercials) of Boardroom Reports…
Nor Greg Renker of the infamous “Guthy Renker” infomercial Goliath…
Nor the late great Billy Mays, the Legendary Pitchman for Hire. And yet this ad killed. Why?
While studying Mind Mapping with Tony Buzan I learned that our mind is drawn to organization & beauty. This is why Tony advocates you’ll remember the info you wrote about easier if your map is aesthet- ically pleasing to the eye rather than a scribbled caveman drawing.
And then, you have to weigh in the fact that pictures of sexy women whether in print or pixel, draw more attention from men and women. More than shots of men, animals or even babies. And this lead to the premise, I believe. popularized by Halbert, that by just sticking a picture of gorgeous woman in the top left corner of any ad you write will increase your response.
The ad could be about ant farming, moose dung or a quantum physics course on DVD and it would pull better. Hot chicks equal greater response.
And I believe the stunning air heads in the GoDaddy ads play a factor in response… but not ”THE X Factor”.
Copping out to that impotent thinking on my behalf and would leave you with nothing to take away and plug into your marketing today. But the secret I’m about to reveal will.
“2 Words Your Prospects Hear, Feel and See That Determine Whether They’re in The Right Place Or Not When They Land on Your Sales Page …” To Hell With The Gurus: How GoDaddy Broke… 197
Within 5 seconds after you’ve read the headline below, tell me whether or not you get the sense that it’s going to give you something or… if it’s looking to take something from you..
The Real Reason Why Men Cheat It’s not you, it’s him. No, seriously. Many of the things that prompt men to stray — and about half eventually do — have little to do with you, and everything to do with what’s between their ears and legs. By Ky Henderson
For me this is a definite “Give”. This is a headline for an article in Cosmo but I’d bet money that if a woman saw this headline on a page for a dating advice product… it’d have grabbed her full attention.
Now look at this… Take or give…
Even, though they’re giving away a sample, the “5 Second Impression” I get is that they’re gonna want something from me like my email, my name and address.
For people who don’t collect junk mail and hate spam this’ll freeze them right in their tracks. Their atten- tion will flee to the safety of someone who wants to genuinely help them. Especially if they’ve been burned by one of these ads before.
What about this…
5 Annoying Things Guys Do on Facebook Forget the “poke.” Where’s the “bitch-slap” when you need one?
Once again, an ad you have to read whether you a man or woman who uses Facebook. How hard would it be to give away the five things and then present a product for how to double the dates you get from Face- book?
What about this winner from the money machine Netflix…
Once again, instead of giving me the feeling that they’re helping make my life easier… I have to be on guard for what’s gonna happen when I click. Not very condusive to building trust, eh?
And Last but not least…
Why You Should Leave The Lights on During Sex It helps you get the mood, orgasm easier, and feel like a bed devil. Lamps, where have you been all our sex lives?!?
For anyone selling anything related to dating, sexual performance or anything to do with relationships this could serve as what Gary Bencivenga calls a “Trojan Horse”. Making it worthwhile to a person who’s spending this sliver of their life with you will open far more doors than just coming out and saying… 198 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
“Finally! A Video Series That Teaches You How to Have the Steamiest Sex You’ve Ever Had. And It’s Guaranteed for 90 Days. But Don’t Wait, There’s Only 99 Copies Available. Get Yours Before They’re Gone”
The lesson I want you to come away with here is always strive to have “Give” to be the first thing that comes to anyone’s mind who sees your ads. Look for ways to make your ads valuable to your prospects & clients. They’ll reward you for it.
My educated guess would be that the reason the GoDaddy ad thrived was because it was totally focused on “Giving” you something. The first “Give” was the whole “Stick it to the Man” warm feeling you get when you get to voyeuristically see someone be naughty where it’s completely inappropriate in the eyes of the squares.
The second “Give” was potentially getting to see some butt-neked action just by going to the site.
And the Third “Give” was seeing a little more skin and then noticing you could buy a domain name for only $7.00. “Bob’s not out to gouge me. Hell, it’ll cost me less than a value meal from McDonalds to start my web empire.”
Please do yourself a favor and don’t watch his “Only for the Web” commercials. You’ll come away stupider for having done so.
All in all, I believe the angle of using barely legal teen run-a-way’s or self-esteem deficient women to sell your non-porn - Non penile dysfunction stuff is lame, un-imaginative, and the easy way out. Even if you’re selling this stuff, I believe telling someone’s story and creating a picture in the guys mind can have more impact than just a photo.
People are just lame when it comes to writing. They’re incapable of painting a word picture for you so they settle for giving you a second hand experience. And if all an ad agency has to do is phone their favorite call girl service to round up talent for the spot, have the kids do a strip tease and earn a million dollars for doing so… they’ll gleefully take your money every day of the week.
This kinda reminds me of my “Anti-emoticon” stance.
Frank Sinatra once said, “Anyone who needs anything more than a microphone and a spotlight is a punk” or something to that effect.
I feel the same way about writing.
Think of all the books written before camera’s, T.V.’s or computers were made. Back then, as well as now, a writer who hones his craft can move people to tears, rack their body with tension and make them burst out with laughter with just the 26 letters of the alphabet, a sheet of paper and ink.
Society wants to dumb us down to the level of cartoons to express what you’re feeling. Geesh. To Hell With The Gurus: How GoDaddy Broke… 199
I know everyone’s not capable of penning powerhouse prose so if you can’t, make sure whoever you sub it out to knows their shit. Dan Kennedy makes an excellent point though in his “Influential Writing” pro- gram when he says that the writing for your newsletters, faxes and emails is something that’s best fulfilled by the business owner because you know yourself, the business and the clients better than anyone else.
Everyone in business needs this program. It’ll make sure people who can’t write, at least have a checklist of what should be in every touch to their list so that they get maximum impact out of every communication. And it’ll give the already decent writer a massive leg up on anyone else in their niche.
If there’s a big enough demand for it here, I’ll take notes and make them available for you guys. Let me know. After spending almost six hours writing this, I’m wiped. Time for a Sam Adams Summer Brew. NEVER FORGET TODAY’S LESSON: Make Sure Your Ads Register As “Give” In The Minds Of Your Prospects & Customers. Like Eben Says, When Your Marketing & Your Content is Hard To Tell Apart, That’s When You’ve Nailed It. Talk to you guys soon, Note Taking Nerd #2 P.S. Studly Brian is the winner of the Mass Control 2.0 Notes. Congratulations!!! I look forward to you sharing more of your wisdom with everyone here again in the near future. CHAPTER 62
7 Key Questions You Must Know About Your Business
Do You Know The Answers To These Questions ?
1. What business am I really in? How can I put words into feelings?
2. Who are my customers? Who should they be? Which one’s are the most profitable?
3. What does my customer consider value? Why do they buy what we sell? Your idea of value may be something completely different then that of your customers. The only way to find this out is to ask your customers. People usually focus on just one or two things that really matter to them. What are some ques- tions you could ask your current clients after or as they are sold? Find the most universal and strongest reason people want to buy from you and use it.
4. What is my Unique Selling Proposition? Demonstrate, telegraph, and get them at the selling point and show your customers that you have the exact offer they are looking for and that it is better then anyone else, and that you are the Only Viable Option.
5. What are the 20% of the activities that account for 80% of our results? Analyze what you are doing right now that accounts for your biggest results. Learn to do more of that and a lot less of what isn’t working. When you analyze the sources your clients are coming from and the effort it took to get them… you will find some extremely important facts. Hone in your most profitable and repeatable clients and then generate an extremely efficient referral system. FIND OUT WHERE YOUR BUSINESS IS COMING FROM. Most of us are aimlessly wandering through our days. DO A FORENSIC ANALYSIS. Get the maximum results from the minimum time, energy, and commitment.
6. What are our critical constraints? Where am I wasting time and how can i delegate? Learn to create money by trading your low money activities for high money activities. Most people dream abstractly but if you continue to do things the same way you can not get new and different results. Change your thinking. You can’t do 10 times more then you are already doing. You need to come up with higher performing 7 Key Questions You Must Know About Your… 201 opportunities. Jim Collins, of “Good to Great”, says great companies get excellent at asking the brutal ques- tions. Go deeper and deeper all the time, looking for the constraints in your work and finding the easier more eficient way.
7. What actions am I going to take immediately as the result of my answers to the first six question? The greatest Entrepreneurs are intensely action oriented. More is accomplished by movement then meditation! Think in terms of constantly testing. CHAPTER 63
Your Most Deadly Enemy Revealed
Hey You, It’s #2. I was thinking of you while laying in bed last night.
And, I’m thinking of you now and my thought is… “You probably shouldn’t read this.”
Anyhow, an evening capped by an enormous stein of “Blue Moon” garnished with orange slice and three heaving slices of Meat Lovers pizza at our local pie joint, “Barros” had this 140 pound hulk ready for bed by 11:00.
I was all but asleep when my dear friend, Lenny popped into my room to ask me some retarded question. This jarred me awake enough to mumble to myself… “What am I going to share with you today?”
This inspired me to fold up to 90 degrees in my bed and finally start taking notes on Ken McCarthy’s System 2009 Seminar for you. After finishing Ken’s first session at around 2 AM I clocked out and let myself soundlessly snooze.
You’re gonna love these notes by the way. More on those in a sec.
After I woke up at around 10:30 (a luxury, internet marketing has afforded) and read through my goals, I decided to whip up some of my gourmet sandwiches before putting these notes up on the blog for you. While doing so I was listening to Steven Pressfield’s “War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles” through my Bose headphones.
Using my NET (No Extra Time) like while cooking, shaving, cleaning etc. allows me to upload primo infor- mation into my mind that generates top notch self talk. You might want to try it.
While hanging out with Steven this morning, I slammed head first into the conclusion that at this point in my life…I’m letting “Resistance” clobber the hell out of me and steal precious life experiences away that are mine for the taking if I’d only have the courage to stand up to this punk. Your Most Deadly Enemy Revealed 203
Having all the notes for all the programs on the planet would does me little to no good if unconsciously I’m looking for ways to sabotage myself.
If you haven’t been blessed by having this book make love to your internal dialogue with it’s message… do yourself a favor. Download it or go buy it at the bookstore today.
If you own a copy, maybe it’s time to pull it off the shelf and see how it touches you once again at this particular stage in your life.
It’s my personal belief that NO ONE who follows this blog should be without Steven’s wisdom. This topic and the way he presents it are that potent. So to get you started, I’ve typed out some key points directly from the book that I found on Google Reader.
BEWARE! While reading this, there’s a very good chance you’ll come face to face with your own worst personal enemy. Now’s the time to wuss out if that’s not something you’re ready to conquer….
RESISTANCE’S GREATEST HITS
The following is a list, in no particular order, of those activities that most commonly elicit Resistance:
1) The pursuit of any calling in writing, painting, music, film, dance, or any creative art, however marginal or unconventional.
2) The launching of any entrepreneurial venture or enterprise for profit otherwise.
3) Any diet or health regimen.
4) Any program of spiritual advancement.
5) Any activity whose aim is tighter abdominals.
6) Any course or program designed to overcome an unwholesome habit or addiction.
7) Education of every kind.
8) Any act of political, moral, or ethical courage, including the decision to change for the better some unworthy pattern of thought or conduct in ourselves.
9) The undertaking of any enterprise or endeavor whose aim is to help others.
10) Any act that entails commitment of the heart. The decision to get married, to have a child, to weather a rocky patch in a relationship.
11) The taking of any principled stand in the face of adversity. 204 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
In other words, any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integ- rity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower. Any of these will elicit Resistance.
Note Taking Nerd #2) Don’t know about you, but I’m dealing with varying degrees of resistance, some massive; some mild, in each and every one of those categories. And, throughout my life if I think of every high & low point, at least one of these themes was the dominant flavor of the month.
RESISTANCE IS INVISIBLE
Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It’s a repelling force. It’s negative. It’s aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.
Note Taking Nerd #2) The technology that’s been revolutionary in my life for helping me manage this energy field in our Somatic (body) mind is the Sedona Method originated by the late Lester Levenson. Another protege of Lester’s by the name of Larry Crane has produced his own spin on this. Either of them in my experience, are amazing. Check ‘em out.
RESISTANCE IS INTERNAL
Resistance seems to come from outside ourselves. We locate it in spouses, jobs, bosses, kids. “Peripheral opponents,” as Pat Riley used to say when he coached the Los Angeles Lakers.
Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-per- petuated. Resistance is the enemy within.
RESISTANCE IS INSIDIOUS
Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.
It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole. Resistance is protean. It will assume any form, if that’s what it takes to deceive you. It will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stickup man.
Resistance has no conscience. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. If you take Resistance as its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.
Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North— meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.
We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action that we must follow before all others. Your Most Deadly Enemy Revealed 205
Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.
Note Taking Nerd #2) This goes right in line with the saying, “Whatever you resist, persists.”
RESISTANCE IS UNIVERSAL
We’re wrong if we think we’re the only ones struggling with Resistance.
Everyone who has a body experiences Resistance.
RESISTANCE NEVER SLEEPS
Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance, even when he was seventy-five. It other words, fear doesn’t go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.
Note Taking Nerd #2) Do you remember the “No Fear” sticker and T-shirt fad of the 90’s and early 2000’s? I couldn’t ever wear one of these shirts and feel any kind of integrity. I knew I was scared of all kinds of shit. And you know what? Even the toughest, balls-to-the-wall, dare devil wearing them, is too.
He just manages the fear differently than most people do. He says, hears and sees things inside his mind in an empowering way, so when faced with the seemingly impossible or crazy, he acts despite being afraid.
Changing the way you respond to disasters dumped in your lap is what our Transformation report will center around. Keep your eyes open for it.
RESISTANCE PLAYS FOR KEEPS
Resistance’s goal is not to wound or disable. Resistance aims to kill.
It’s target is the epicenter of our being: our genius, our soul, the unique and priceless gift we were put on earth to give and that no one else has but us.
Resistance means business. When we fight it, we are in a war to the death.
RESISTANCE IS FUELED BY FEAR
Resistance has no strength of it’s own. Every ounce of juice it possesses comes from us. We feed it with power by our fear of it.
Master that fear and we conquer Resistance. 206 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Note Taking Nerd #2) In Tony Robbin’s program “Power to Shape Your Destiny” he says that when we re- frame; change the way we see challenges and view them not as problems… but as worthy opponents for us to overcome, we get the opportunity to be the hero starring in the movie of our life.
He talks about how all the greatest stories, true or not, are the ones of redemption. The stories where a person, a person maybe not to unlike yourself, meets an enemy who seems impossible to overcome and through blood, sweat & tears… triumphs over their oppressor and goes on to experience a walk, talk and surge of pride never felt before.
Tony also quotes Ken Blanchard when talking about this topic… “Life is like the game of Monopoly. When the games over, it all goes back in the box.”
Who you become is all that you get to take with you when we back out of this garage of a body that houses your spirit. Who you become directly influences what kind of value you provide while here, the relation- ships you cultivate, thus the legacy you’ll be remembered by. Who are you gonna hit the road as?
RESISTANCE RECRUITS ALLIES
Resistance by definition is self-sabotage. But there’s a parallel peril that must also be guarded against: sabo- tage by others.
When a writer begins to overcome her resistance—in other words, when she actually starts to write—she may find that those close to her begin to act strange. They may become moody or sullen, they may get sick; they may acuse the awakening writer of “changing,” of “not being the person she was.” The closer these people are to the awakening writer, the more bizarrely they will act and the more emotion they will put behind their actions.
They are trying to sabotage her.
The reason is that they are struggling, consciously or unconsciously, against their own Resistance. The awakening writer’s success becomes a reproach to them. If she can beat these demons, why can’t they?
Often couples or close friends,even entire families, will enter into tacit compacts whereby each individual pledges (unconsciously) to remain mired in the same slough in which she and all her cronies have become so comfortable. The highest treason a crab can commit is to make a leap for the rim of the bucket.
The awakening artist must be ruthless, not only with herself but with others. Once you make your break, you can’t turn around for your buddy who catches his trouser leg on the barbed wire. The best thing you can do for that friend (and he’d tell you this himself, if he really is your friend) is to get over the wall and keep motating.
The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.
Now, let’s consider the next aspect of Resistance: symptoms. Your Most Deadly Enemy Revealed 207
Note Taking Nerd #2) I have two stories of overcoming this demon. One mine. One is my mentor’s.
First I’ll air my dirty laundry. Years and years ago, I made the conscious decision to separate myself from my friends who I couldn’t bring up with me because even if the we’re willing, I didn’t have much to offer.
These were friends who partied any and everyday of the week. Cruising for loose women, alcohol and enor- mous bags of weed was their full-time agenda. I was one of the only ones who worked full-time. This ensured that when I did join in on the rolicking fun, I was freshly dressed and had pockets that were breaded.
Then, I met Note Taking Nerd #1.
He was and still is a friend of the family and came over to house quite often. I guess he saw there was hope for this booze swilling, bong-blasting, ladies man because he decided to invest his time in taking me under his wing & mentoring me. This was the person that slowly but surely changed my entire life for the better.
As you’ll learn in our Transformation report, people never change when they don’t want to. Or, when they have zero relationship with the person seeking to influence the other. Change happens fast, but only under the right conditions.
Note Taking Nerd #1 himself is a re-formed wild man.
I can still remember him telling me the story of a moment that impacted his metamorphosis from aimless street brawler to a man who was a force for good.
Nerd #1 was known as one of the roughest men in our city because he was always ready to fight and when he did, most of the squabbles never lasted past one punch. Fighting Golden Gloves as a child, along with overcoming huge obstacles allowed him to steam roll any and all wanna-be tough guys.
Then he met Marty & Eric. If Nerd #1 was Mike Tyson, these guys individually were Mike Tyson on ste- roids and PCP. Put them together and they were almost indestructable.
What made this duo so menacing wasn’t any formal fighting lessons. It was an abusive childhood that taught ‘em violence was the answer to any kind of resistance you get. Not just pushing and wrestling con- frontations but put-you-in-the ER kinda of violence.
Here’s an example of how loco one of these brothers was…
On one of their adventures they challenged a guy who had luckily brought along in the car with him, a baseball bat pierced with nails. Marty was hard. Hard enough to survive the encounter with both arms broken and punctured. 208 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Days later, my friend meets him at party where he’s got both arms propped, hanging out to his side, bent at 90 degrees held up by two support braces coming from a rig around his waist that supported his plastered clubbers.
Just being who he is, he starts talking shit to somebody and is all in their face like an angry coach. Guess what happened? Marty ends up headbutting the guy into submission. Yeah.
The dynamic duo spoke Nerd #1’s hard nosed language and for years they partied like rockstars and fought anyone on the street who thought they were tough enough… just about every day of the day of the week. Yes, partied and fought Sunday through Saturday. Not one or the other. Both.
I can’t imagine too many other situations that build as unbreakable a bond with another man than having him be by your side while facing death, slugging it out with knife-wielding truckers, gang bangers and drug enraged heathens.
Not because duty calls and they’ll get in trouble from superior officers if they don’t. Because they want to.
So, when Nerd #1 serendipitously met his mentor that believed in him… he came to the realization that he had potential to do something with his life.
But if he kept hell raising with his “Brothers”, he’d have zero chance of turning his life around.
Scared shitless, tears ready to drop, he went to his friend Eric, (think Marty was in prison at the time) and told him that the only opportunity he had to make something of his life was if he had to stopped hanging out with him.
Fully anticipating a guilt trip or a tirade or a throw down… he got the polar opposite reaction. His “Brother” was happy for him, admitted that he was right, hugged him and wished him well on his journey.
I’m grateful to Eric now because I’m seeing that had he not been this understanding, I’d probably be dead, in jail or holed up in the projects in Denver, Colorado. I’d also like to give a shout out of gratitude to my friend #1 for believing more in me than I did myself all those years ago, all the way through today.
You’re world class #1 and I’m a lucky guy to have you on my team.
Do you have any relationship with a person you aren’t as appreciative of enough? If so, take a moment today to call, write a note to or tell them in person how grateful you are for their sticking by your side.
RESISTANCE AND PROCRASTINATION
Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it’s the easiest to rationalize. We don’t tell ourselves, “I’m never going to write my symphony.” Instead we say, “I am going to write my symphony; I’m just going to start tomorrow.” Your Most Deadly Enemy Revealed 209
The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don’t just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed.
Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny. This second, we can turn the tables on Resistance.
This second, we can sit down and do our work.
RESISTANCE AND SEX
Sometimes Resistance takes the form of sex, or an obsessive preoccupation with sex. Why sex? Because sex provides immediate and powerful gratification. When someone sleeps with us, we feel validated and approved of, even loved. Resistance gets a big kick out of that.
It knows it has distracted us with a cheap, easy fix and kept us from doing our work.
Of course not all sex is a manifestation of Resistance. In my experience, you can tell by the measure of hollowness you feel afterward. The more empty you feel, the more certain you can be that your true moti- vation was not love or even lust but Resistance.
It goes without saying that this principle applies to drugs, shopping, masturbation, TV, gossip, alcohol, and the consumption of all products containing fat, sugar, salt, or chocolate.
Do you regularly ingest any substance, controlled or otherwise, whose aim is the alleviation of depression, anxiety, etc.? I offer the following experience:
I once worked as a writer for a big New York ad agency. Our boss used to tell us: Invent a disease. come up with the disease, he said and we can sell the cure.
Attention Deficit Disorder, Seasonal Affect Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder. These aren’t dideases, they’re marketing ploys. Doctors didn’t discover them, copywriters did. Marketing departments did.
Drug companies did.
Depression and anxiety may be real. But they can also be Resistance.
When we drug ourselves to blot out our soul’s call, we are being good Americans and exemplary con- sumers. We’re doing exactly what TV commercials and pop materialist culture have been brainwashing us to do from birth. Instead of applying self-knowledge, self-discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work, we simply consume a product.
Many pedestrians have been maimed or killed at the intersection of Resistance and Commerce.
RESISTANCE AND VICTIMHOOD 210 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Doctors estimate that seventy to eighty percent fo their business is non-health related. People aren’t sick, they’re self-dramatizing.
Sometimes the hardest part of a medical job is keeping a straight face.
As Jerry Seinfeld observed of his twenty years of dating: “That’s a lot of acting fascinated.”
The acquisition of a condition lends significance to one’s existence.
An illness, a cross to bear… Some people go from condition to condition; they cure one, and another pops up to take its place. The condition becomes a work of art in itself, a shadow version of the real creative act the victim is avoiding by expending so much care cultivating his condition.
A victim act is a form of passive aggression. It seeks to achieve gratification not by honest work or a contri- bution made out of one’s experience or insight or love, but by the manipulation of others through silent (and not-so-silent) threat. The victim wants others to come to his rescue or to behave as he wishes by holding them hostage to the prospect of his own further illness/meltdown/mental dissolution, or simply by threatening to make their lives so miserable that they do what he wants.
Casting yourself as a victim is the antithesis of doing your work.
Don’t do it. If you’re doing it, stop.
RESISTANCE AND THIS BOOK
When I began this book, Resistance almost beat me.
This is the form it took. It told me (the voice in my head) that I was a writer of fiction, not nonfiction, and that I shouldn’t be exposing these concepts of Resistance literally and overtly; rather, I should incorporate them metaphorically into a novel. That’s a pretty damn subtle and convincing argument. The rationaliza- tion Resistance presented me with was that I should write, say, a war piece in which the principles of Resist- ance were expressed as the fear a warrior feels.
Resistance also told me I shouldn’t seek to instruct, or put myself forward as a purveyor of wisdom; that this was vain, egotistical, possibly even corrupt, and that it would work harm to me in the end.
That scared me. It made a lot of sense.
What finally convinced me to go ahead was simply that I was so unhappy not going ahead. I was devel- oping symptoms. As soon as I sat down and began, I was okay. Your Most Deadly Enemy Revealed 211
Note Taking Nerd #2) Be on the watch for our transformation report. The stuff #1 and I learned while applying what’s in there is what has allowed us to be as wildly successful as we have… despite us not having fancy pants guru status.
Once again, I’ve spent over 5 hours on this post so with that said, go get this book. YOU WILL THANK ME SOME DAY FOR BRINGING IT TO YOUR ATTENTION.
In the words Steven Pressfield used right after he typed “THE END” for his first novel he actually followed through on all the way to completion… “RIP motherfucker.”
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Thought I forgot about your Ken McCarthy notes, didn’t ya? Well, I haven’t. They’ll be in my next post for you. CHAPTER 64
Do You Deserve The Respect of Your Customers and Prospects? Maybe Not. Find Out Now.
Hey You, It’s #2 back with what I promised you…
What Ken McCarthy (Man who’s been successfully teaching internet marketing since 1994) Would Pass on to you While Lying on His Death Bed to Ensure You Earn the Respect & Loyalty of Your List…
The 12 Things You Must Absolutely Know About Internet Marketing… Listed in order of importance just in case he dies quicker than is expected.
WARNING: There is some serious meat packed into this post. Another solid 6 hours of my dedication put forth for you. Enjoy.
1. Internet Marketing is Direct Marketing
T his has been the secret to his success since 1994. With all the tools you can use on online Direct Marketing is measurable.
This is why Google is so powerful – Ken ranks these guys as possibly the mightiest direct marketing compa- nies on the planet. Everything is geared toward the ultimate user experience.
And, everything they do is measurable.
And when you see the segment where Trevor Claiborne, the hired gun brought in directly from Google, show you results from testing the shit out of all of their pages where they’re attempting to get you to take Do You Deserve The Respect of Your Customers… 213
action, ie…starting an adwords account, downloading Google chrome (Googles web browser), trying out Website Optimizer, getting a gmail account and so on.
HUGE TAKEAWAY HERE: Payvery close to, and swipe any and all of these pages. Before today I never knew that Google was running tests on all their pages using the flood of traffic they get everyday, I used to think of them as just web geeks who did stuff just because it looked “Cool”.
I was horribly mistaken. They test everything from bullet copy, to headlines, to buttons.
Any page of theirs you see that is the same two weeks (a week is their standard for a test) in a row is that way because it’s the winning layout.
Why Your Offer Can Make or Break You
The conversion of your offer always lets you know the effectiveness of your messages.
If your actions are measurable, then you can test. No guessing or thinking you’re a genius. Being a direct marketer means you have to wear both a sales person hat and an accountant hat.
If you can measure, you can test, then you can improve. Direct marketing is adaptable
Measuring helps you instantaneously counter ups and downs of a free market.
This makes your business improvable.
Ken tells the story of a billboard he sees everyday riding the 7 train to queens that only said MORTGAGE LOANS 1-800-000-000. When our economic meltdown cut into the response to that message, they changed it to… MORTGAGE HELP 1-800-000-0000.
Pretty slick, eh?
These are books Ken suggested the crowd and you to read…
My Life in Advertising - Claude Hopkins
Tested Advertising Methods - John Caples 4th Edition or Earlier (secret unknown to me that it was altered for the worse after the 4th printing.)
Gary Bencivenga’s Secret Weapon (Also Marty Edeslston’s of Boardroom Reports, favorite): How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling - Frank Bettger
2. Let’s You Automate and Leverage
This is where the money is. 214 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The principle of Salesmanship Multiplied through direct response advertising allows you to reach more people from more places all over the globe whom you might not ever have the chance of ever starting a relationship while trying to meet them one on one.
Selling online offers you Leverage Without Risk because you measure. Now you know right away when response drops so can change now.
One guy Ken knows takes 7 days to test a product. If it doesn’t take off, he tosses it.
WATCH OUT FOR THIS MAN: You may or may not know, there’s a man by the name of Robert Plank who is a beast when it comes to getting products to market. He sells Internet marketing stuff.
I just looked and I own 7 of his products. And I believe most of these products have been released in the last two years. I’m guessing there’s about 5-10 I don’t own yet including his Product University program.
Even if you couldn’t get access to PU, which I don’t think you can, look him up not just to learn his kick ass strategies but also to dissect how he puts his products together. There’s a tested system there to model.
The System Model is Traffic + Conversion = Profit
Get traffic & test your conversion machine always watching & seeking optimization
3. The Path to Optimization…
Step One: Other People’s Direct Marketer’s Experience is a handy to save you time & grief. It’s enough to build a fortune. But what’s going to be even more valuable in the long run will be…
Step Two: Your Own Testing.
Running your own tests presumes you’re actually doing something which is the number one key to success. Knowing specifically what rings the bell of your clients is a thousand times more valuable than what works in another industry. The info you gather testing gives you the power to create money machines at will.
Note Taking Nerd #2 Tip: Fancy pants guru’s are invaluable. But when we blindly trust every word that comes out of any authority’s mouth without running it through the meat grinder that are results & real world experiences in your actual business… we might be led astray.
It kinda reminds me of this passage from a John D. MacDonald (Fiction Mystery/Thriller Author Dan Ken- nedy & Gary Halbert turned me onto years ago-Two Thumbs way up by the way), Travis McGee novel from back in 1965…
“The bell ringers and flag fondlers have been busily peddling their notion that to make America Strong, we must march in close and obedient ranks, to the sound of their little tin whistle. Do You Deserve The Respect of Your Customers… 215
The life-adjustment educators, in strange alliance with the hucksters of consumer goods, have been doing their damndest to make us all think alike, look alike, smell alike and die alike, amidst all the pockety-queek of un-serviceable home appliances, our armpit astringent, nasal passages clear, insurance program ade- quate, sex life satisfying, retirement assured, medical plan comprehensive, hair free of dandruff, time pay- ments manageable, waistline firm, bowels open.
But the other vitality is there, that rancorous, sardonic, wonderful insistence on the right to dissent, to ques- tion, to object, to raise holy hell and, in direst extremity, to laugh the self-appointed squad leaders off the face of the earth with great whoops of dirty disdainful glee. Suppress friction and a machine runs fine. Suppress friction, and a society runs down.”
Trust your own empirical data produced through your action most. You know more about your busi- ness and your customers than 98.9% of guru’s. Learn to Trust yourself and your team by testing.
4. What Is Business?
It is Not Selling Products. It’s about creating a following.
Ken recommends you look up the book “Tribes” – by Seth Godin talks about this topic.
Side Note: Last night, I listened to Jay Abraham interview Seth Godin during the Brain Trust Seminar Jay hosted at the Los Angeles Convention center in April of 2008.
I was floored. For years I’ve avoided this guys books thinking he was just a watered down version of Ken- nedy. While I know that there’s nothing new under the sun, this guy seems to me to be a man who knows his shit, keeps a pulse on what’s new/hot and uses his own fresh stories to illustrate his points (at least he did here).
Even though I’ve heard DAYS worth of material on the topic of marketing, he put enough of his own world view into his thoughts to make even the “beat to death” topic of permission marketing refreshing to hear.
But what impressed me was the way his mind worked so fluently. He was working with Jay and the crowd without a net and his he was “ON”. I guarantee, if the crowd wasn’t a fan of his for the reason I stated above, they were after that 67 minutes of conversation.
***Priceless Gem*** The function of creating products is to create your following
Sales Generate profits. Repeat sales generate wealth. You wanna get out of the “Make a sale so you can eat mode”
Super successful people who get customers for others, flame out really fast.
Winning Formula: Sell the right thing to the right people to get the right following 216 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You want people who are loyal to you because you’re loyal to them.
Peter Drucker’s Definintion of Bidniz: Create Customers. Innovate. Everything else is an expense
5. It’s All About the List…
Size…
Who’s on it?
The quality of the relationship.
If you’ve got a big list, with the right people on it and you’ve cultivated an amazing relationship with them… you’re sitting pretty.
How to Build a List…
No Whining. Everyone starts at zero. EVERYONE. The difference between them and the loser who uses excuses for failure is just that. Successful people don’t make excuses. They make money.
Get Started.
Accept small numbers in the beginning. Ken is happy increasing his list 1% a day. Not trying to hit hom- eruns. Depending on how fast you want to boost the numbers of your list, you may or may not want to commit to Doing Something Everyday.
Dumb ideas better than nothing
Dan Kennedy Quote: I don’t know “THE” 1 way to get 100 leads. But I do know a 100 ways to get 1 lead.
Remember the Pareto Principle here…80% of your traffic is going to come from 20% of the sources you tap. So, plant seeds all over so can mine hidden opportunities.
Ken favors having clients tell others about him thorough asking them to “Please share these video’s with your friends.”
He’s happy as a clam growing his list just 1% a day.
6. The Secrets of E-Mail
Everything starts with the opt-in.
If the offer is congruent, the opt-in is automatic. Do You Deserve The Respect of Your Customers… 217
A store selling women’s shoes offering women a chance to get first notice on when their stock is going on sale is pretty much guaranteed to get ladies to hand over the email with little to zero resistance.
Always want to be refining the three R’s… Right offer, Right person at the Right time
If your opt-ins suck, you need to work on how you’re presenting whatever someone’s supposed to get by joining your list. That’s it. If they’re opting out, then you want to look at fixing whatever comes after that.
What can offer people for free that would make them ecstatic?
Nerd #2 Thought:
The best fisherman on the planet are the best because they think like a fish instead of a fisherman. This was a timeless, invaluable lesson taught by Gary Bencivenga in his seminar. One I sometimes forget at my own peril.
Don’t think like a marketer. Think like a consumer. Think like your ideal consumer and this way, what- ever you offer will be coming from where they are, instead of where you are.
One of the best examples I can think of is for this site and the service we provide for you.
I’ve never written any of the sales copy you’ve seen on this site, but when I do, I’ll take myself back to the place where I treasured the free ezine’s & reports. As a matter of fact, I used to save them all and print them off because I couldn’t afford to buy the guru’s products.
I could buy $20 books, but this was the closest I was ever going to get to these gurus.
Nowadays, the only reason I download tele-seminars, webinars, or reports is to study how they are struc- tured. I own pretty much all the elite of the elite programs, new and old. So in my eyes I don’t value free samples because I know I’ve got access to the whole enchilada.
Where this works in your favor is if you don’t have access to these seminars and systems or… if you do own them and haven’t found the time to go through and take notes on them are incomplete and almost illegible.
If you like what you’ve bought and gotten here free on this site… just you wait. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Mail when you have something exciting, interesting, new to share.
This is what inspired me sit up in my bed and type these notes for you. While writing for this blog my mind is always on the hunt for topics to talk to you about.
Ken just plucks stuff from any and everywhere 218 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Mail More. Most people don’t stay on the radar of their list. If your market is highly competitive you’ve gotta be militant about looking for ways to show up with gifts for them.
Remember what I told you I learned from Eben: When your marketing & your content is hard to tell apart… that’s when you’re gonna raise your conversion rates.
7. Your Challenges
True of False? Your subject line has more influence than the sender line when determining whether your email will be looked into or not?
Answer: For this to happen the name they see in the sender tab has to be someone they know, like and trust. The Subject line is nowhere as important as this.
Think of how you cruise your email list. Maybe, if you’re like me you seek friendship first, maybe checking for Facebook messages or family names. Then, you scan for extended friendships. People who consistently make your day.
Pro’s who do this strive to make everything you send worthwhile.
Help people feel grateful for having opened your email. Don’t waste the equity built up in your prospects & clients “trust” account by selling Jackhammer “Dwight Schrute” style. Lead with the giving hand and you’ll find it pays off.
Eben Pagan, Frank Kern & John Carlton are three examples of people who do this masterfully. Surprise, surprise they’re all friends with each other. Birds of a feather, flock together.
Curiosity subject lines work very well for email where as they don’t so much with envelope teaser copy on physical mail.
Nerd #2 Observation: Start with a bang. Or as Dan Kennedy talks about in his “Influential Writing” Sem- inar Make a big entrance. Here’s a recent favorite Big Entrance from the first paragraph in the first chapter of the same Travis McGee Novel I quoted earlier…
A smear of fresh blood has a metallic smell. It smells like freshly sheared copper. It is a clean and impersonal smell, quite astonishing the first time you smell it. It changes quickly, to a fetid, fudgier smell, as the cells die and thicken.
When it is the blood of a stranger, there is an atavistic withdrawal, a toughening of response, a wary reluc- tance for any involvement. When it is your own, you want to know how bad it is. You turn into a big inward ear, listening to yourself, waiting for faintness, wondering if this is going to be the time when the Do You Deserve The Respect of Your Customers… 219
faintness comes and turns into a hollow roaring, and sucks you down. Please not yet. Those are the three eternal words. Please not yet.
That my friend, is bona fide King Kong Goddamn Entrance. This is the level of word picture/time machine/experience writing I aspire too. All buried in a “trash” fiction novel.
Don’t take long to get to your point. Like sprinting, you can’t meander and still be in the race.
Get Action.
Show the link early. Above the fold. Show it often. Give a reason why they should do what you want them to do.
Explain what great things are gonna happen when they go there
Never Send an Email Until You’ve gone Through This Checklist
7. Market Selection
Play in a rich playground. Golfers tend to spend more & make more money than bowlers. This is every- thing. 80-90% of the reason for success.
Make sure they’re buyers, not just researchers.
Make sure you can reach them - Media
Make sure you can bring them something uniquely valuable. If you can’t, roll up your tent, go home and find something else to sell. You don’t deserve their attention or money.
Now make sure you meet these criteria…
Repeat sales – What makes more money? Flu shots or athletes foot medication?
Premium & super premium sales- Always look for ways to have good, better, best options built into what you offer. Some people only buy the best/most expensive. Don’t keep them from buying that from you because it doesn’t exist.
A woman in China paid $1.2 million for immediate access to a certain Salsa instructor.
Word of mouth sales (includes PR) - Don’t bother with a product that can’t make this happen.
Endless loop - Martial arts is a perfect example of this… One level of advancement only makes you aware of even more ways you’re vulnerable to attack so when you master grappling, you know that’s not enough to keep you from getting stabbed so you learn knife fighting and the vortex is endless. 220 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Financial advice & Health Advice are two marvelous examples of businesses that are endless loops. They both encourage constant & never ending learning.
8. Sell to a Hungry Crowd
What Gary Halbert really meant
Gary created his starving crowd with “Influential Writing” and Direct Marketing. That’s what we should aspire to as marketers with inspiring and useful things and by doing so we shore up the confidence our list has in us.
9. How to Start a Business
The Road Repair Method of product creation.
Roads always need maintenance. Markets always need maintenance. There’s always something wrong with the products in a market.
But remember, always focus on your market first, product second.
Products are ways to get your methodology into the marketplace and start a following.
You want ask the question… “What would pull people to me?” and look for your point of entry. Launch. Then repeat.
This is where Bettina, I think this is his wife or assistant, gave him the chop. He ran over his time so somewhere in the other 4 DVD’s he’s supposed to finish last 4 points.
Just following these 9 guidelines will put you waaaayyyy in front of the masses.
And remember it’s not about having the biggest list. It about having a list of people who you can bring value too and whom you can connect with. List pimps who are out to spam people remind me of guys who think they’ve earned “Man” status because they hunt animals.
Once again my buddy John MacDonald, puts this into words so much more eloquently than I can today so I’ll let him help me make the first comparison with big game hunters here…
I do not like the killers, and the killing bravely and well crap. I do not like the bully boy, the Teddy Roose- velts, the Hemmingways, the Ruarks. They are merely slightly more sophisticated versions of the New Jersey file clerks who swarm into the Adriondacks in the fall, in red cap, beard stubble and taut hero’s grin, talking out the side of their mouths, exuding fumes of bourbon, come to slay the ferocious white tail deer. Do You Deserve The Respect of Your Customers… 221
It is a search for balls. A man should have one chance to bring something down. He should have his shot at something, a shining running something, and see it come a-tumbling down, all mucus and steaming blood stench and gouted excrement, the eyes going dull during the final muscle spasms.
And if he is, in all parts and purpose, a man, he will file that away as a part of his process of growth and life and eventual death. And if he is perpetually, hopelessly a boy, he will lust to go do it again, with a bigger beast.
They have all their earnest rationalizations about game control. It is good for the animals to shoot them. If may serve some purpose to gut shoot them with a plastic arrow. We have bitched up the various ecologies in all our areas, game control is a necessity. But it should be done by professionals paid to do it, the ones who cherish healthy flocks, the ones who do not get their charge out of going bang at something thrice the animal dignity they can ever attain.
I do violate my own concepts by slaying the occasional fish. And eating him. But spare me the brother- hood of blood sports, the hairy ones, all the way from Macmillan and his forty grouse a day to some snot nose kid who tries to slay every species of big game in the world, with the assistance of his doting daddy.
There is one thing which strikes me as passing strange. Never have I met a man who had the infantry mem- ories, who had knocked down human meat and seen it fall, who ever had any stomach for shooting living things. I could not imagine Paul Dominguez (Bad ass in the story) ever shooting a marauding crow. He would need no romantic fantasies about himself. His manhood would need no artificial reinforcing.”
I’m not a person who crusades for wild life. I just recognize that killing an animal doesn’t make you a tough guy. Any punk can pull a trigger.
Just like any punk can build a list.
Maybe everyone, including you, should take a shot at wham bam, Thank You maam list building/mar- keting/selling. Just so you can experience what a heartless, unfulfilling experience it is. So you can feel what it’s like to kill trust, the lifeblood of relationship, in another un-suspecting person.
It doesn’t take a genius to build a list. All the tools and guides are out there. But it does take compassion/ discipline/skill for you to build a following of people who cheerfully hand you money year in year out.
People who go to war and defend you on-line or off. Raving fans who buy from you when they understand they already know everything you have to teach them. Friends who choose to do business with you over a cheaper competitor.
Animal hunters out to prop stuffed heads on their wall aren’t as special as they think they are. Neither are first name/email address hunters otherwise known as spammers, out to build massive lists of faceless sub- scribers and one-time buyers. 222 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Use the guidelines Ken & I have laid out here and aspire to be a true leader who brings massive value in your prospects/clients/customers eyes and you’ll see results like you never dreamed possible.
Do the opposite and look forward to a jail cell or a blah miserable existence.
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
Share this Post CHAPTER 65
5 Principles Of Marketing Strategy You Must Know
Hello Nerd Fan’s .. Chief Nerd Here Been busy as crap over here .. wish I had 13 Arms, 7 Brains, and 22 Legs. (Imagine what this guy would look like)
I got so much I want to share with you guys. I’m gettin there though.
I’ve been Tearing Through some of my old notes from various Seminars I’ve attended.
Just came across some Kick Ass stuff from a Jay Abraham Seminar.
Talks about the 5 Principles of Marketing Strategy.
Check this out. Super Cool Stuff..
Principle #1: Specialization - What areas do I specialize in? You can not be everything to everyone. The more specialized you are the more appealing you will be to your market. Everyone Wants to work with a specialist. The more you can identify, quantify, and compare what you do the more you will own your market. People will always seek the highest level of expertise they can afford.
Principle #2: Differentiation - In what ways am I both superior and different than my competition? What areas am i excellent in? Maybe we are more discriminating in what we do (look at 1,000 before we choose), maybe our staff has ten times the training, maybe we are just the first people to educate the market on something everyone does but no one else explains…
“If you don’t have competitive advantage than do not compete” - Jack Welch
Principle #3: Segmentation - Take your areas of specialization and explain what you do better in that area. Then begin to segment your market. Find out who are your best customers. How can we find someone who 224 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One already has our customers? If you described your perfect customers who would they be? What are dif- ferent categories of customers worth to our business? Only then can you know what you are willing to pay to attract those customers.
Principle #4 - Concentration - In what areas of activity should we focus our time, money, and effort? How do we get these customers to buy even more? Find out what different forms of media work the best. What words do we want to own in our customers minds?
Principle #5 - Positioning - How do you want to be talked about and described by your customers? Again.. What words in your market do you want to own in the minds of your customers?
Do you know the answers to these questions in detail? If not then get to work… See ya next time.
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Part 1: Two Words That Allow You To Get Anyone To Do Anything You Want. Gun and Mask Not Required…
Hey you, It’s #2. Today I’m going to share with you the most powerful way to influence your prospects & customers.
Last night I spent a few hours on a detailed note taking session to put this together for you. The program I dove into was Tony Robbins’ “Creating Lasting Change” product which, by the way, is my favorite out of any of his others.
Now, you and I are gonna look directly over the shoulder and listen to a story in the voice of someone who’s internationally respected for his ability to influence.
Here we go…
If you’re gonna create a change in anyone, i.e. exchange little blips of numbers from their bank account to yours or take action on what you ask them to do… you gotta remember they only want to change one of two things…
…How they feel… or what they’re doing, which is their behavior.
Those are only two things people want to change.
Everything comes down to state, “What’s the state of mind they go into in a certain environment?”
What’s the state they’re in right now?
The two basic ways of changing state are changing someone’s physiology or… their focus, the way they’re representing things. 226 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If someone’s got a bad association to “authority figures” you’ve gotta change their feeling toward that or what “Authority Figures” mean to them. That’s all it takes.
Changing the meaning for people is a primary skill you’re already using in life.
There 3 ways to do it…
1. Pre-Framing
2. Re-Framing
3. De-Framing
Today you & I are only going to talk about Pre-Framing.
The purpose of changing the Frame of Reference that someone’s using is to change what something means to them.
Here’s What a Pre-Frame is…
When you tell someone in advance what to pay attention to and what it’s gonna mean when they notice it (when they see, feel or hear it).
Pre-Framing is the most powerful way to influence the way people think that Tony knows of.
Most people spend most of their time, on how to structure their request, how to ask for things, not on the way they set things up in advance of the request.
If you’re gonna help someone change, before you actually do the change work, is where you’re going to influence them most.
How Can You Pre-Frame People
So That They Have Tremendous Expectancy For Change?
Do Doctors do this even if they don’t know they are?
Yes.
We’ve all heard of a placebos. You know, where you give someone colored water and make them believe it’s a medicine and their body heals.
What’s even more exciting is when you give somebody a REAL MEDICINE and you tell them it’s a DIF- FERENT MEDICINE and their body responds… as if it were a different medicine. Part 1: Two Words That Allow You To Get… 227
There’s been a tremendous amount of research studies done where they take people and they give them amphetamines, medical students, but they gave it to them in the form of a capsule that looked like a downer, a barbiturate.
Amphetamines are a chemical that must speed up your metabolism.
They give it to the doctors & say, “Now, these are some of the best downers (Barbituates) that we’ve ever created. These will relax your patients in a heartbeat. They’ll just drop them right to the floor.”
In every case during the study, every single person’s, pulse dropped, body dropped, they responded exactly as if they were barbiturates when they were given amphetamines by a doctor who believed they were barbi- turates. So guess what they did?
They did the opposite.
With a different group of doctors they said “Look, this stuff will hype your patients up. If they’re out of it, you give them this and they’re gonna have the energy they need” and they gave them barbiturates.
And in each case, even though the body has been drugged to slow down, the person’s physiology sped up.
It’s Not Just That Our Beliefs Affect the Drug…
Our Beliefs ARE the Drug.
So what you & I have to know is that to influence a potential client or customer it’s not so much about what we do during our actual presentation.
The Pre-Frame you do before will probably mean more to that person than even the interaction you have with them.
It creates an expectancy in people.
So whenever you’re looking to get a customer or prospect to do something think in terms of Pre-Framing.
The Best Way to Pre-Frame…
Pre-Frame things so that when you communicate something, say if you take someone who’s skeptical, you immediately say what they’re thinking.
Say, “You know what, I don’t know if this really makes any sense for you, it’s very basic. But you know, what the heck, why don’t we try it.”
You do that with someone who skeptical, and you can bet your ass it’ll build rapport with them. 228 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Or…
If you know someone who wants to change and they’re not skeptical, you’d say something like… “You know what. What I’m going to do with you right now is the most powerful pattern I’ve ever developed. There’s not one person who hasn’t changed. You’re gonna love this. This is gonna change your destiny.”
They’re ready for the drug.
This will affect everything about the way they perceive you. If you don’t tell people what to notice, there’s unlimited things for them to. Some of them probably don’t work in your favor.
You want to teach your clients what things are gonna mean in advance, “And when that happens here’s what that’s gonna mean.”
Create the meaning you want them to. This is your job, to direct the meaning for them.
Otherwise they go all over the place.
Can people take an experience that’s very positive and interpret it in a way that’s very negative? Absolutely.
Remember that movie, Me & Marley that starred Owen Wilson & Jennifer Aniston adapted from the best- selling book?
During my last trip back for Christmas to the frozen tundra that is Salt Lake City, Me, my brothers, my father, step mother and I went to go see it. I’m a total dog fan and so is everyone in my family.
There has never not been multiple dogs in my dads home for 25 + years now. Inside the house.None of this leave the dogs outside, all day chained up bullshit.
WARNING: If you’re as serious a dog lover as me, and you’ve got a macho man ego, don’t go see Marley & Me without being prepared for the battle to fight back some serious tears.
Jim Rohn talks about in one of his speeches, how he hates movies that don’t touch him. He says, “Make me laugh, make me cry, just don’t leave me the same as when I walked in.” I feel the same way.
Whoever produced Marley & Me pin-point precisely nailed the dog lovers tear jerking button.
My dad didn’t like this one bit. He said, “I hate it when people try to jerk your emotions around like that.”
Yeah right. Only when they’re emotions that affect his tough guy ego. He loves laughing out loud, but get him in a theatre where he’s surrounded by other people and make him feel the opposite, and beware.
Two men. Two entirely different ways to interpret the same exact situation. Part 1: Two Words That Allow You To Get… 229
Tony believes he can get anybody to do anything because he knows how to Pre-Frame it. He frames it in a way that relates to their benefit. And he asks rhetorical questions he knows they’ll answer.
When you’re one on one you can totally ask questions. “Does that make sense to you? Do you follow me?” If I were to do something you may be wondering “Why are you doing this?” “Well, let me tell you why we’re gonna be doing this.” And then you’d tell them why, and then you’d do it.
The Story That Brings This All Home…
Years ago, Tony was brought in to work with the San Antonio Spurs.
For the non-sports fan or my people across the big pond, the San Antonio Spurs are a Professional Basket- ball team in the NBA.
They have not missed the playoffs in 19 of the last 20 seasons. They now have 4 championship titles. Before Tony showed up, they had none.
Now Tony walks in & knows they have a different frame of reference about him than he wants them to have. So he’s gotta come in & break that pattern & establish the frame from the very first moment.
He’s supposed to be talking to just the players and management decides, “Hey, we got Tony Robbin’s, we may as well take advantage of it and bring in all the office employees in our organization.”
So, they move the meeting from the locker room to a bigger space. Then, they figured they’d get it all on camera so they could use it in the future.
Now, you have a bunch of white people in the room while the team is all African-American and of course this makes some of these guys uncomfortable being outnumbered like this.
The team has just won a bunch of games in a row and they only have one day off. And, Dennis Rodman’s in the group. Right, so Rodman walks in, sees this little workbook that Tony’s put on the chairs, he takes his, rips it in half, throws it on the floor, slumps in his chair and puts on sunglasses so you can’t see his face.
Tony thinks, “Okay, I probably gotta do something.”
So when he got up there one of the first things he did was remembered part of their model of the world. He’d done his homework so he found out that many of them we’re extremely religious, right,
He found out that they often do a prayer before a game even though everyone’s mindset wasn’t there. So, Tony gets up and he was supposed to get this great framing introduction from the head coach but at the last minute he bailed because he didn’t want to be seen as the guy who brought them to him on their one day off.
Tony’s Supposed to Have 3 hours and At the Last Second 230 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
He’s Told He’s Got 1 Hour.
The coach tells him, “You can keep them for 3 but the NBA only allows us to hold them for an hour.”
And then, with all the cameras on, they take and give Tony a Spurs jacket to wear just like the ones the guys on the team do as their warm up gear. They want this to be all part of the video.
So one of the players is supposed to introduce him and he’s a really nice guy but he’s freaked out because he’s not used to speaking in front of a crowd.
Everyone’s sitting in their chair with their arms crossed.
To make it easier on the guy, Tony tells him to just share three specific things about him so he at least has some social proof.
Dude gets up, forgets everything and says, “Uh, the dude we’re bringing up today is…really sincere… and he’s a… good man. Here’s Tony Robbins.”
He walks in and all the white people in the back of the room are clapping which makes all the black players not want to.
Tony didn’t want to wear the jacket but they insisted, so he walks up wearing his Spurs jacket like the ones they wear and he walks up to the front of the room of dead people in the very front. And in the back, all this happiness, bouncing around, happy white people.
Here’s Where The Magic Begins, Pay Very Close Attention…
He gets up introduces himself & says, “You’re probably wondering why you’re here.”
First thing he says. Very first thing. “You’re probably wondering why you’re here. You just won 9 games in a row. You haven’t had a day off, it’s your first day at home, you’re supposed to have the day off and now you’ve got some white guy standing in front of the room who’s never played basketball in his whole life trying to show you how you can play better when you just won 9 games in a row. You’re probably won- dering why you’re here. You’re probably wondering why “What’re you doing wearing a Spurs jacket that you never earned. Right?”
You could see the heads nodding up & down. And you can even see Rodman looking up now.
Then he says “Those are good questions you should be asking at this point & I’m not here because I earned this jacket & we’re gonna talk about that in a second. And I’d be real unhappy if someone took my one day off.”
Then he said, “I don’t have anything to do with that but I am here and I’m responsible to deliver for you and you only have to be here for an hour. You’re gonna be here for three.” Part 1: Two Words That Allow You To Get… 231
He said, “You may say that’s bullshit and you have the choice to do that but you won’t and I’ll say why. Because I’ll deliver results to you that you’ve never seen before, in three hours. And I’ll deliver enough in the first hour that you’ll stay. Because you’re gonna see that while I may not play basketball, I’ve worked with the finest athletes in the NBA, PGA, Olympians, Tennis, Hockey.”
“But more importantly, I don’t believe I have all the answers. But I really do care and I really can deliver and there’s another reason why you gotta be able to listen to me. Because you’ve never been able to make it past the first round of the playoffs.”
And everyone looks at each other.
He said, “I’m not suggesting that I can get you beyond it but I know that you can get yourself beyond it and I know there’s only a few things keeping you from breaking through so it’s not like you’re miles away. There’s only a few little things, but if you don’t stop to look at them, you’re gonna be in trouble and what happens is that when we succed we tend party and when we lose we tend to ponder. And the worst thing that’s happening to you is that you’re succeeding, So, before we start, I wanna say two things. First of all, I know that prayer is an important part of your team so I’d like to see if we can be guided in this session and I’d like to know if you, Avery (One of the players who was also a minister) would get up and do a prayer.”
He’d heard they do these resounding, blow the roof off the mutha, emotional type of prayers. So Avery gets up and eeks “Lord, please guide us to an effective day.”
Tony thinks to himself “Oh, my God.”
Has Tony Created a Frame By The Way? Yeah, he created the frame that he doesn’t have all the answers and he’s got answers.
He created the frame that I don’t deserve to be here and that he does.
He framed several things. But then he finally said, “Here’s the bottom line. Now, I’ve heard your prayers are a lot more resounding than that Avery, so maybe you don’t think we have much of a prayer of achieving anything.” And he got a little bit of a smile.
Then he said, “The second thing I want to do is this.” And he rips off the jacket. “Because I don’t deserve to be wearing this jacket.”
He went to the team captain and handed it to him and said, “at the end of this time if you feel I’ve added so much value that I deserve this jacket, then you can come bring it back to me. And I’ll be happy to wear it with pride. But I shouldn’t be wearing this thing until I earn it. And at the end, if I haven’t earned that thing, you need to get in my face on top of it for taking your time. That won’t happen. Let’s begin.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Be sure to catch my next post to find out what happens. 232 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Also, do you remember in the email I mentioned that you print this out. Do it, because I’m going to show you how I modeled this exact pattern to introduce a wet-behind-the-ears, African American to the Good Ole’ Boys Billion Dollar Private Equity investment market.
If I can do it against all odds there, I’m positive you can do it in your market.
Who Gives You the Most Resistance When It Comes To Selling What You Offer? Cold Prospects.
I’ll show you how you can take Tony’s presentation and use it to massively lower the barriers people have when they first meet you. This is priceless.
Stay tuned.
Talk to you soon,
Note Taking Nerd 2
P.S. If You Want To Learn How To Build Your Online Business From A to Z and Develop Deep Relation- ships With Your Customers Then Check This Out Now
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Are You Spending All Your Time Stringing Your Instrument All The While A Masterpiece Resides In You?
Watch This Video. Become a Man or Woman of Action. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x1ddBJ3kiY&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmikesvault.com %2Fvault%2Ffiles%2Frobin_sharma_leadership.html&feature=player_embedded#t=476]
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What You Can Learn From a Poor Little Nerd Boy From Po Dunk Gooding, Idaho? A Lot…
Mom Someday I’m Going To Buy You A House Like This One and Aunt Regina .. I’m Gonna Buy You “ A Harley”
- Chief Nerd, 7 Years Old
Wealth Wound Story #1
That was a mighty big statement from a 7 Year old from a small town in Idaho.
A Kid who was definitely on the bottom 20% of the economic class in America.
One of the very few memories I can recall from my youth was this very day.
I was at a Safeway grocery store and had taken off by myself the minute we entered the store.
It was my ritual to go to the magazines and grab a copy of Success Magazine.
I’d try and read as much as I could before my Mom came calling.
I remember looking through as many magazines as possible to look at any picture I could find of Big Houses, nice cars, exotic locations, or the Big Cities.
This was my “Little Place” I’d go. Not only when I was on my treasured trips to the grocery store, but when I was back at home by myself in my room.. dreaming of those far off places and cool things.
This day may have left an equally yet maybe more compelling imprint on my life as well. What You Can Learn From a Poor Little… 235
Before I do so.. I have a secret to tell you. I hid those times I was in the store looking at those magazine.
As I was looking through those magazines I’d be constantly checking over my shoulder to make sure nobody was looking.
I was embarrassed someone might see me doing this “evil” thing.
As I look back I’m sure I wasn’t even aware as to “why” i didn’t want someone seeing me do this.
However… sadly, as is the case for many kids in similar environments, I was soon to find out why I didn’t want anyone to dare catch me do this.
One evening on one of our 2 -3 times per week trips to the store I was over reading the magazines when…. My Aunt came behind me.
It was during a moment that I was lost, in my imagination, looking at a picture of an Incredible Mansion.
There happened to be a picture of some kind of Harley looking motorcycle on the page next to my man- sion.
Just as I was deep inside my little world I heard a giggle come from behind me.
It was my Aunt.
I looked up and she said: “Hey Chrystal (my Mother) take a look at what your little boy’s looking at over here”
I was terrified because I knew I was about to get in trouble. After all, what was a Poor little boy like me looking at something like this.
Mom came thundering over to us (yes, Mom was a very big woman and when I say Thunder .. I mean it)…
She looked down at the magazine and ripped it out of my hands.
She said: “Why are you wasting your time looking at this shit?” “Are you not Fucking happy with what you have” “Quit dreaming, get your head out of the sky, and get your ass out to the car”
I immediately began to cry and i grabbed the magazine and told my Mom.. “I’m gonna buy you a House just like this someday and Aunt Regina I’m gonna buy you a bike like this”
The funny thing is I didn’t say it to impress them but I was actually saying it like it was some type of revenge.
I can remember it just like yesterday as they both laughed out loud and my Mother sent me out to the car. 236 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I of course did….
I don’t tell you this story for sympathy.
The Chief Nerd is just fine.
I’ve since learned that My Mother did the best she could with the resources she had. In Other words .. she knew no better. She was actually just trying to protect me.
She’d lived a very rough life and didn’t want her little boy to live through any of the broken dreams and horrible heartaches she had to go through.
** Quick Thought. One of the dominant traits that was an absolute necessity for anyone to be knighted the elite status of ‘Renegade Millionaire’ by Dan Kennedy was that the person had to have been a first generation millionaire. This means they earned all their money from scratch. When you look deeper into the history of these guys and gals, you’ll discover their past was checkered with events not to unlike the one I just let you in on. This is why I believe I connected so deeply with Dan & ‘Renegade Million- aire’ . If you’ve never heard it before or it’s been a while since you’ve gone through it check it out here. You’ll be grateful you did… Click Here To Support This Blog and Get Your Copy Of The Renegade Report! **
Wealth Wound Story #2
One Afternoon Mom and I went to the grocery store.
This time it was the little locally owned store at the other end of town.
I liked going to this store because it had a few video games and the Safeway didn’t.
So, as i always did, I begged Mommy for some quarters as we walked into the store.
Mom eventually gave in and gave me a few quarters.
I played Joust and Space Invaders for quite some time when my Mother hollered at me from a few isles away asking me to go out and retrieve her wallet she had left and instructed me to meet her in the check out.
I immediately ran outside to do as Mom said.
On my way back in I kinda tripped over something only to look back and notice a brown bag laying on the floor.
I opened up the bag and was shocked at what I saw. What You Can Learn From a Poor Little… 237
There was more money then I’d ever seen.
I combed through the money in amazement.
However… something innate inside of me told me what to do next.
I quickly moved back into the store and spotted Mom as she was moving items thru the checkout.
I walked up to the checker and Mom and said to the Checker…”I think someone dropped there purse out- side”
I didn’t know this little bag was a banking bag with the deposit from the night before in it.
Thousands of dollars were in it.
The Lady, who worked there, paged the manager.
He came over, looked at the bag, and instantly began to tell me what a good little boy I was.
He praised my Mother for having such a good kid and then told me I could have any piece of candy from the candy Isle I wanted.
Wow… I was so happy. I leapt over to the candy Isle and pondered my decision as to what candy I’d choose.
I remember that I couldn’t choose between two things and the Manager let me keep both of them.
So I went back over to where Mom was at.
However, when I looked up at Mom she kinda half smiled at me but I could tell from Veins in her head that something wasn’t right.
I intuitively knew when Mom was mad.
After a few minutes Mom and I headed out to the car.
As soon as we reached the car I noticed that Mom looked around a bit then she reached down toward me.
I didn’t see what was coming next.
Before I knew it I was getting a harsh ass spanking.
As I was getting spanked I remember Mother telling me: “Do you know what we could of done with that money?” “What the hell is wrong with you” “Why did you not show me first” 238 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Here I was.. A little boy.. A Hero one second with Candy as a prize and an ass beating the next for the very same thing.
Why’s The Nerd Is Sharing This With You?
As you may know by now It’s my life mission to help others through my experience and blessings.
Many of us want to put the “dirt” of our lives in the closet, close the door, and forget that it was ever there.
I did this for many years and paid a hefty price for doing so.
I’m going to suggest you may be paying that very price today.
Why?
Because we think that just because times goes by that our Wounds of the past just magically heal.
However, that’s just not the case.
Some things do heal with time but not just because time has past but because as we grow older and wiser we learn to connect the dots and learn from things that may have happened in the past. We begin to “under- stand” things and therefore we can move past them.
Many of you may not have such severe wounds as The Chief Nerd endured during my youth.
But I promise that if you’re finding yourself not able to follow through or achieve certain things in life it’s because of one thing only.
The beliefs you tie to what it means to accomplish the things you want.
For years I’ve struggled with issues I can relate directly to the two Major Events I spoke of in this article.
One such struggle was my inability to enjoy Money.
I learned to make money. I made hundreds of thousands.
I ‘d sit in my office late at night and count my money.
I remember one night counting $100,000 cash I had in my safe and taking a picture with the money.
I remember having over $20,000 in change. Yes pennies, nickles, and dimes.
However, I just couldn’t get any enjoyment out of it.
I horded it, buried it, hid it, kept a strangle hold on it. What You Can Learn From a Poor Little… 239
And like all things you hold on to as if it might be gone the next second I found a way to chase it all away many times over.
Now… during this time and since I’ve read upwards of 700 - 1,000 books, listened to thousands of hours of the best self help and business programs on earth, been mentored by the elite coaches possible, and exposed to a different society then that little boy who gazed into the future through the eyes of those magazines.
I still struggle but have been blessed to educate myself and provide myself with the tools to move past these problems.
So here’s the deal.
If you are currently struggling with a vicious circle of Knowing but not Doing when it comes to your goals or desires …
I recommend that you look deeply at the events in your own life that may be contributing to some negative beliefs as to why you can’t achieve something.
Look closely at the beliefs you have that are attached to the actions you must do daily to achieve what it is that you want.
Begin to look at the Wealth Wounds in your life and overcome them.
Everything is possible to those that are willing to overcome the limitations and obstacles that are put in front of us.
Sometime in the next Week I’ll be hosting a free teleconference on Goal Setting the Nerd Way.
A big part of this process is looking at the Beliefs you may have in each category of goal you want to ach- ieve.
So if you’d like to be a part of this teleconference just send me an email [email protected] and put Goal Tele in the subject line. I’ll send you the details.
I’ll be going over Wealth Wounds and some specific strategies to overcome them in the near future.
In the meantime please leave a comment about one of your wealth wound stories or just some feedback. Thanks..
Love Ya
The Chief Nerd
MyNoteTakingNerd 240 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
P.S. remember that if you’d like to learn some very specific ways to overcome what may be stopping you from Doing Your Goals then join me on my tele-conference next week by emailing me at mynotetaking- [email protected] and putting Goal Tele in the subject line.
**If you have any Wealth Wounds like me, Dan Kennedy, John Reese or Frank Kern you’re really gonna love hearing Dan talk about how people like you and I overcame our demons, defied the odds, and make some real money. I’ve taken concise notes from this program and every detail Dan discussed of how this can happen for you waits here… Click Here To Support This Blog and Get Your Copy Of The Renegade Report! **
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Part 2: Two Words That Allow You To Get Anyone To Do Anything You Want… Gun and Mask Not Required
Hey You, It’s #2, back to finish the story I told you in the previous post about how Tony Robbins used the power of Pre-Framing to kick down the door of resistance he faced while working with the San Antonio Spurs.
And today is where I walk you thorough how I did this for an entrepreneur breaking into what many would consider hostile territory… the financial sector… specifically Private Equity Investing which with the help of Bernie Madoff, has raised skepticism to an all time high.
Remember how I said you should print off the last post? You did? Good.
Because you’re gonna wanna do the same with this one because with Tony’s template along with mine, you’ve got two prime examples of how to talk to a cold prospect/market who doesn’t know you and this is vastly important because…
Nerd #2’s Law of Influence: You Must Buy the Messenger Before You Buy The Message. Yes, Must, not should, not might. Must.
Dan Kennedy talks about this in his “Influential Writing” program which was done right in the middle of America’s last presidential debate.
He says people are really at their core making a decision on whether or not to vote for someone based on the answer to this question: ‘Would I want to have a beer with that person?’ for men and for women ‘Would I trust them watching my kids?’
Not their qualifications. 242 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
As proof of that, he says that one of the only president who’s actually had a track record that supported the chief commander title was George Bush 1.
Me, I don’t care. They’re all yutzes if you ask me. All just puppets serving the real master. But that’s nei- ther here, nor there.
What you and I are after is how to generate a favorable impression in the eyes of a stranger.
Here’s a quick re-cap of where we left off in our Robbins story…
The Spurs management brought Tony in to help get the team over a slump they’d never been able to over- come… making it past the first round of the playoffs.
The head coach is supposed to give him a glowing introduction but after seeing and sensing his team would feel anger & resentment toward him for serving them up to this “Motivational Guy” on their only day off… he slinks out on Tony at the last second.
None of the players are Tony’s champion but one of them agrees to introduce him and totally flubs the introduction by saying “Uh, the dude coming up is a real nice person, and he’s sincere. Here’s Tony Rob- bins.”
The fuel that’s fanning this fire is a man by the name of Dennis Rodman, one of the toughest, roughest, bad boy forwards to have ever played the game. Even though he’s not the captain of the team, his energy is so potent that it affects everyone else’s perception of Tony.
Dennis, in an act of defiance, walks into the room, picks up the workbook Tony laid out for him and rips it in half, plops his shades on, and sits with his arms crossed.
What’s Tony To Do?
Meeting the players where they are in their minds instead of where he is, Tony deftly creates the frame that he doesn’t have all the answers, and that he does. That he doesn’t deserve to be there, but yet he does.
He’s created an opening. A sense of awe from the guys. A “This guys got some elephant sized balls” kinda of respect.
The NBA by law can only hold the players there for an hour, but Tony needs 3 to make an impact. But first to win over the “Rebel Without a Cause” Dennis Rodman.
If Tony can’t win over Dennis, he’s gonna lose 85% of the players at the end of the hour.
So, Tony just being Tony, after he’s set up his frame says, “I know about you Dennis. I watched you last night. You’re one of the only guys who took time to sign autographs for all the kids. I saw that” Part 2: Two Words That Allow You To Get… 243
Tony had brought along a group of kids that are in his Champions program. Kids he sponsors a college education for, that he’d flown down the night before. It was the first time they’d been on an airplane.
He brought the kids to a “Big Time” NBA game and after the last buzzer most of the team just blew by them but Dennis didn’t.
“Everyone talks about Dennis is a problem. I know you want to be totally unique & separate, on your own and I know you’re as good as they get. And I’m not here to blow smoke up your ass. But what I saw out of you though, is I saw you take time for those kids. I know who you are inside. I’m really grateful that you did that.”
After doing this, Tony says to the group he’s telling this story to, “You should’ve seen Dennis. It was like he was saying to himself ‘Somebody really knows I’m a good guy.’
This was the same person who was crying on national T.V. talking about how nobody loves him. Everyone’s got the fear of not being loved, including Dennis Rodman.”
After this, Dennis sat up, took his glasses off and started participating. And for the next hour he’d gotten the group up to about a 7 out of 10.
Not good enough for Tony.
At the end of an amazing hour, he demanded everyone but the team to leave the room because he and the boys had to have a talk.
When everyone was gone he told them they’d only scuffed the surface of what was possible and that the real results were yet to come. And that if they did come back they had to agree to play full out with him or don’t even bother coming back in 15 minutes.
15 minutes comes and no ones there. 20 minutes comes and two players he assumed would be back, stroll in. Then Rodman walks in and the next thing you know, the whole teams there and they end up rocking the house with Tony, ending the session with Greg Popovich, the coach who leads San Antonio to their 4 championships after this, breaking wood up on stage.
Tony made the impossible, possible with
Two words. Pre-Frame.
You can do the same.
You can get anyone to do anything because now you know to frame it before you do it. And you know to frame it in a way that relates to whom? Them. To their benefit. 244 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You don’t want to speak/write/sign language without a frame. Always control the frame that’s where the power to influence lies.
Here’s how I made the impossible, possible for a client of mine.
It’s a pretty safe assumption to make that unlike the NBA, the world of multi-million, billion dollar invest- ment arena is ruled by Jewish & white people.
I was charged with introducing a black man who was a raw rookie seeking to raise $8 Million dollars for a private equity fund to the market. Of course, no one but an affluent person could qualify to because he would accept nothing less than $50,000 to be in the deal.
African American, zero experience in running a private equity fund, requesting no less than $50 G’s. That’s an uphill battle.
When I asked him who his target market was, all his marketing guy and him could tell me me was that they wanted to go after affluent investors. This meant taking their inexperience and bite-sized marketing budget and going heads up with some of the most well funded experts on the planet.
To me that sounding like it’d lead straight to a blood bath.
I told them why not target affluent business owners rather than the tagged affluent investors all the big dogs were gunning for.
After all, investing in private equity is nothing but the act of taking a sizeable piece of a business and reaping a reward after it’s starts spinning off a profit and when the company sells or goes public.
Both of these gentleman owned multiple business themselves so they could talk the Affluent Business Owner’s language, so when it came time to do tele-seminars, events and meetings face to face… kindred soul speak would effortlessly flow.
Presented to prospects in a way that said…
“Why invest in something that could take years to master like ETF Trading or the Forex market? You’re already an expert at running profitable businesses. When you invest in private equity you’re investing in something you know like the back of your hand so you can be assured there’ll be no funny stuff going over your head. You know, with the jargon, market timing, Obamanomics wreaking havoc on the stock market. Plus by lending your expertise you get to help make this venture succeed faster and fatter. This can’t happen while trusting a money manager who’s on commission & who has no skin in the game to make your moves for you.
My client agreed. Part 2: Two Words That Allow You To Get… 245
So this was the way I set out to Pre-Frame our audience (names have been changed to protect the privacy of this client).
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
M
y name is Mr. Tony Marcus. You may be skeptical of what I have to say right now because you don’t know if private equity investing really makes sense for you.
It probably doesn’t.
What I’ll be revealing here is very basic, but you know, what the heck, let’s try it.
If something stupid like the color of my skin doesn’t cloud your judgment and you have an open mind… you’re gonna absolutely love this.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
“Note Taking #2: The reason I wrote the previous line was based on what I learned from Kennedy in “Influential Writing”. He sites an example of the theme the first black Mayor of a major U.S. city, Cleve- land, Carl B. Stokes, used:
DON’T VOTE FOR A NEGRO
Vote For Man. For ability. Character.
Vote for a leader who can attack problems and solve them.
Vote for the man who can rally all the people of Cleveland.
Vote for the man who believes.
Carl Stokes.
Kennedy calls this the principle of transparency. And in his word says… ‘It is usually a mistake to attempt hiding or disguising either your real motives or your “negatives” when writing to influence. In face to face settings, people have opportunity to raise issues they want response to or care about… and gives you the opportunity to respond. Printed word delivery gives no such opportunities. The person raises the issue in his mind but you offer no response. Instead, the courageous influencer “paints the elephant in the room neon purple”, puts it on parade, and discusses it openly.’ 246 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
————————————————————————————————————————————————————— -
Because within these pages, I’ve laid out the foolproof method professional full time venture capitalists and full blown angel investors use to peer into the soul of any private equity venture and judge within 5 minutes… whether it’s worth sliding a check across the table at or… sliding off the desk into the trash.
Maybe you’re wondering if you should be here.
You’ve got meetings to prepare for, phone calls to return and mountains of paperwork to sift through to ensure the success of your company.
And now, you’ve got this guy standing in front of you saying he’s the one who can show you how to give yourself bragging rights when it comes to your investment portfolio at a time when everyone else is getting their head handed to them on a stick.
You might be wondering…
“What is this All-Seeing-Eye System that allows the pro’s who use it… to detect the private companies that defy the odds and not only survive the 5 year hump, but thrive…74.9 – 79.8% of the time (that’s 398.3% greater odds than the average entrepreneur who can’t keep the doors open for more than 5 years), thus making them almost bullet proof when it comes to investing in private equity?”
Those are all great questions you ought to be asking at this point.
Look, I’m not here proclaiming to be the black Warren Buffet and I’d be real unhappy if someone took 7 precious minutes of my life to make me empty promises.
I have nothing to do with that and I’m responsible to deliver for you. You only have to stay with me up until now. You’re gonna stay with me until the end of this guide.
You may be saying that’s Bull Shit and you have the choice to do that… but you won’t and I’ll tell you why.
Because whether it’s a $25,000 dollar deal or $5 million dollar deal… whether or not the financial section of the paper confuses the hell out of you… whether or not you’ve got any spiffy alphabet soup degrees… this All-Seeing-Eye B.S. detector goes to work at showing you in plain English whether you’re the casino with the house odds… or if you’re the gambler in any private equity investment… in less time than it takes to fill your car with gas.
So, I strongly urge you to print this gift out right now and read it immediately.
Who Are You? Part 2: Two Words That Allow You To Get… 247
You’re gonna see that while I may not be Peter Lynch or one of the talking heads on T.V., I’ve built my fortune in my own businesses through the discipline, honor and
wisdom instilled in me through my experience in each of these categories… • • As a United States Army Special Forces Green Beret… • • • As an in-demand consultant given the highest level U.S. Government clearance, entrusted with classified and national security information in order to instruct intelligence agencies (CIA,DIA), bureaus (FBI) and military intelligence units on surveillance detection, escape and evasion, trade craft, hand to hand combat, etc., etc… • • • As a Master Mason since 1987… • • • Becoming a 2nd degree Black Belt in Judo Jujitsu, graduating to Red Sash in Southern Shaolin Kung Fu (Red Sash holds same prominence as a black belt), and while earning a Black Belt in Kuk Sool Won (the comprehensive study of all Korean Martial Arts)… • • • As a licensed private detective… • • • As a Federal Police Officer with the Department of Energy (the guys who protect all of America’s nuclear secrets, sites and materials – the only federal police agency with permission to kill without prejudice)… • • • And, I’ve guided my companies Skyline Investments Inc. and Inspections, Inc. to $33.9 million dollars in profit last year alone. •
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Note Taking Nerd #2: This guy couldn’t lay claim to being a private equity wizard but everything I’ve listed here definitely implies he’s a man who’s been trusted by some of the highest authorities in our country to do the right thing. To me this was more credible track record than what most investment firms can say for themselves. And it was all I had to work with, so I worked it. 248 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Remember, if you’re new to market, do the same.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
I hate mentioning all this stuff. I guess it’s just the part of me who’s hell bent on keeping to myself and minding my own business.
As hokey as it sounds I’m the kind of guy who gets joy out of spending time out at the bee farm on a Sat- urday with my fuzzy black and yellow buddies, my wife and a couple of friends.
Up until now, very few people knew all of this about me.
Not Being A Jerk, Just Cautious
By the way, when you and I do speak in person, please don’t take my reluctance to give detailed stories about any of my government or military intelligence missions as being rude.
Friends of mine who claim to have lived “boring lives” ask me from time to time to tell them a tale of one of my adventures, but I can’t.
Well, I guess I could but there’s a night and day difference between the high suspense, thrilling, death defying story in my mind and the neutered version I’d have to relay.
In my eyes it’s not worth taking a chance on letting a detail slip out or putting you to sleep with a dull, lifeless account.
I’ve been sworn to secrecy and my life, my wife’s safety along with our nation’s security lie within what I’ve seen, heard and felt.
You understand, right? Ok. Let’s keep moving.
Due to defiance of authority (reason I left the regular army to become a Special Forces Operator as fast as I could), I’m pretty much un-employable.
Don’t You Hate Taking Orders From People?
I’ve found that people like us have this in common.
This is why we strike out on our own and mold businesses that fit our personal preferences. Part 2: Two Words That Allow You To Get… 249
The wealth of world class, elite level leadership training I’ve received allowed me to hit the ground sprinting in my own business after a crushing knee injury prevented me from ever performing at peak in a combat situation again.
After leaving the military I became a serial entrepreneur who now runs 3 companies along with a nonprofit organization… simultaneously… profitably… all with very low levels of stress on my behalf.
But more importantly… I don’t believe I have all the answers.
But I really do care and I really can deliver and that’s another reason why you’ve gotta be able to listen to me because you’re looking directly into the eye of one of the worst economic storms our nation has ever felt.
And I’m not suggesting that I can get you beyond it, but you can get yourself beyond it.
Also, I know there’s only a few things that can stop you from succeeding with investments in private equity, so it’s not like you’re miles away.
There’s only a few little things but if you don’t stop to look at them, you’re going to be in trouble.
Hero to the Affluent Business Owner?
A certain highly respected professional who shall go nameless here, upon reading this guide, started refer- ring to me as a “Hero to the affluent Business Owner”.
Next thing you know, it spreads like wild fire in my circle of influence. People, maybe not too unlike your- self, are telling me this message caters to them in a way no other does.
Being a guy who shy’s away from the limelight, when I heard someone refer to me this way, I cringed.
And the, a picture bubbled up in my mind. The memory of being a kid sitting on floor with a bowl of cereal watching the Kung Fu flicks they used to play every
Saturday on T.V. or… being sprawled out on my stomach in bed reading comic books and lusting for the day when I’d be strong enough to serve justice to the wronged just like my hero’s in these stories did.
Well, I stepped into that vision as a defender of our freedom and now I’ve channeled it towards freeing fellow business owners, like you, from that terrible feeling of being held hostage by “so-called-experts” to grow your wealth.
As I see it, I don’t deserve the “Hero to the Affluent Business Owner” status these highly regarded professio- nals have given me. 250 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Yet, at the end of our time together if you feel like I’ve added so much value to your life (like they did) that you feel I should have this title, well, I can’t stop you from giving it to me.
And I’ll happily wear it with pride but you shouldn’t hand it over until I’ve earned it.
And if I haven’t earned it, you need to get in my face for taking up your time. That won’t happen.
Let’s begin…
- ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Can you see how I took Tony’s introduction and made it work for a completely un-related field? You can do this to. And you want to do this with any prospect who isn’t familiar with you because it makes everything you say after that much more believable.
It allows your prospect to actually hear you instead of shutting you down. It makes them want to start a relationship with you. Contrast mine and Tony’s approach with this…
“It’s never too late to learn – and bleepyoutrade is ready to teach you!
It’s back-to-school time, and bleepyoutrade wants to teach you how to invest in your success. Right now, we are offering our complete trading package, including our software, training and support, as part of a free 30-day trial to you.* There’s no better time than now to start working toward a more secure financial future.
Tools, Training and Support to teach anyone to trade
Since 1999, bleepyoutrade has taught over 130,000 people from all walks of life to trade the major markets using its powerful software. Whether you’re looking toward retirement, saving for your children’s educa- tion, or just looking to put extra cash in your pocket, bleepyoutrade can help you further your education by learning to trade the market of your choice: stocks, options, commodities or currencies. From our round- the-clock support, to bleepyoutrade TV, our flagship trader’s network, bleepyoutrade has the resources you need to learn to trade the major markets. Want to learn more about bleepyoutrade? Watch our product demonstration below, or catch our live broadcast of bleepyoutrade TV.”
WIMPY PRE-FRAME OR STRONG?
To find this copy I just googled “Investment Firms” and went to the second listing that showed up.
The copy above was what starts off the page. Remember how we talked before about whether you get a “Give” or a “Get” vibe from a page… This copy’s attempt at being my advocate is about as see through as a silk wet t-shirt. It screams to me they want my money, and they want it now. Part 2: Two Words That Allow You To Get… 251
I don’t get the feeling I’m having a conversation with someone who’s an authority and only wants to help me if it’s in my best interest. It’s the faceless bleepyoutrade.com corporation who wants to get me started on a trial* right away.
I didn’t tell you this yet, but the 45 pages of copy that come after my Pre-Frame above was a detailed check- list for the 17 key things you need to know to succeed in any private equity investment.
Whether the person worked with my client or not, we served them an honest to goodness gift. And within the gift, if I do say so myself, I did a wonderful job of selling the idea of investing not only in private equity but investing their money with my client.
This method served to show my client was A) selfless in their approach to the prospect and B) Well versed in the subject.
Both of those together pave the way for trust. The content I unloaded on the client in another way was multiplying the strength of my Pre-Frame.
Use these templates and customize your own Pre-Frame for your cold prospects and tell me how it’s made a difference in your conversion rates.
I’ve spent 4+ hours writing this for you and I have to leave now so please feel free to ask me any questions you have about Pre-Framing in the comments below or by emailing me at [email protected].
Talk to you soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
Share this Post CHAPTER 70
A Couple of Lessons Learned From An Aging Bad Ass Italian Mobster and Young Punk Boxer About Pre-Framing
little addition to the Kick Ass article my Trusty Numba 2 wrote the other day bout Getting Whatever AYou Want - No Mask or Gun Needed.
For those of you that may not of read the article. Stop right now and get your butt on over there and read it.
In summary, Numba 2 made compelling argument that what you do to Pre-Frame yourself before you do anything is much more important then what you do after.
Today I’m going to give you a couple of compelling examples of this.
Compelling Pre-Frame #1 - Knowing Who You Are
How An Obese, Balding, Man, Near Fifty Years Old Can Make A Young, Athletic Mean Son Of A Bitch Cower In Fear!
Throughout History the Mob has been chock full of men that the “Infamous” Tony Soprano portrays on the HBO hit SERIES Soprano’s.
For those of you that may of missed this show.
Tony Soprano is the Mob Boss of a powerful Mob Family from the East Coast.
Tony symbolized an average Mob Boss that we’ve come to know.
He was maybe 6 foot, 280 pounds, and not much muscle on his body.
A body built by countless “Family Dinners” at the local Italian Restaurant and good home cooking. A Couple of Lessons Learned From An Aging… 253
Yet, here was a man that when he entered a room .. men twice his size in stature and muscle would do anything asked of them and not even think about doing anything stupid.
Why?
Because in his world everyone knew who he was and what he stood for.
They knew that if they disrespected a man like this that getting “Whacked” was just around the corner.
But most importantly to you and I is the very fact that Tony knew who he was and every ounce of his 280 pound physiology (body language) screamed this to anyone who was watching.
Why is this important.
Simple Fact.
Most people have no idea who they are.
They are one guy in front of a particular group of friends, and someone else in front of another.
One guy to their Wife, and another in front of their co-workers.
They have no certainty as to who they are. No conviction. Therefore they have no power.
You see… In the end, The person with the most Certainty always wins.
This is true in anything in life.
Tony was Certain that he ruled his Fucking World. That no one could screw with him.
So right now begin to ask yourself. Do you know “Who You Are”?
Are you certain in your beliefs, values, and goals.
Because if you’re not, you will be constantly pushed off track by guys like Tony Soprano.
Guys that know who they are, what they stand for, and what they will and will not stand for. Guys that know their place in the world.
If you want to have any type of influence on your customers, family, and friends then I suggest you get real clear about who it is that you are and where you are going.
Remember that Pre - Framing is rooted in one word….CERTAINTY 254 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
**If You Would Like To Learn A Complete System, Created By One Of The Most Powerful and Successful Internet Marketing Companies On Earth, That Will Pre-Frame You As The Logical Choice To Do Business With And Buy From Over And Over Again Then You Have Less Then 24 Hours To Purchase the Formula Five System Report! HURRY UP.**
Compelling Pre-Frame #2 - Environment
That brings me to another very important aspect of Pre -Framing.
Environment.
Many of us are Certain of ourselves within our own little worlds.
Around Our family, friends, associates, and clients. Yet become the proverbial “Deer in Headlights” when taken out of our environment.
This is because we are not constantly working on ourselves. Etching our Values, Beliefs, and Goals into our very being like Stone.
Our current environment is set up to support “who we are”. We may have purposely done this through earlier work but have grown lazy as our environment allows us to.
This Reminds me of my younger years as a boxer.
I was a Six Time State Champion Silver and Golden Glove Champion by the time I traveled to the National Golden Glove Championships in Portland, Oregon.
In my town and my State I was known as a Bad Ass, Bully, and Champion.
If you saw me walking down the street you instantly knew this 13 year old kid had some confidence.
At 5”5 112 pounds….I wasn’t afraid to whoop the ass of a 30 year old if i wanted to and did so on a number of occasions.
Boxing was at the center of my very being. It was “Who” I was.
In my State and My Town I was a champion and I knew it.
Then one spring we left our little town in Idaho and began our trip up to Portland.
I remember, as we got closer, I began to feel more and more anxious about what was awaiting me.
Did special Hybrid Boxers exist outside of Idaho?
Was I about to get the shit kicked out of me? A Couple of Lessons Learned From An Aging… 255
Oh my gosh… what was awaiting me?
So what had happened?
See…back in my town.. .my State… I “knew” I was the best. I had the evidence to prove it.
My Pre-Frame was already set for me and Like Mike Tyson my confidence and reputation scared many of my opponents before I threw my first punch.
So here I was doubting myself before we arrived in the arena.
Then something happened that set the stage for the rest of my First National Golden Gloves Tournament.
We walked through the doors of the Auditorium we were boxing in and ….
There standing in front of me was….
A group of Black Boxers.
Yep, as naive and retarded as this may sound now .. Remember I was from Idaho in the late 70’s and early 80’s.
I had never seen, nor boxed a black man.
Sure I’d seen them on television. But never in a boxing match with myself.
I immediately began to ask my teammates what to expect.
They told me that black boxers were naturally lightning quick.
That they were stronger then me and that I should hope that I don’t draw a match with one of them.
As I began to wrap my hands and prepare for a warm up before we went to bed for the night the worst possible thing happened.
My coach came up to me and pointed at one of the young black men standing to the far left.
He said “Nerd” … that’s who you will be fighting tomorrow.
Holy Shit!
I was frightened.
All night I tossed and turned. 256 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I had visions of lighting fast hands, getting beat to a pulp.
Visions of my teammates laughing at me.
Visions of defeat.
The next day I wish I could’ve seen myself walking to the ring.
Walking as if I were a man walking to the Gas Chamber.
Just as I’d envisioned the night before I got my Ass handed to me.
I was no longer the State Champion. I was no longer the Bad Ass from my home town.
I’d been taken out of my environment and convinced myself that I didn’t belong.
That these Black Athletes were superior then me.
So what was the difference between that day in Portland, Oregon and the previous Six Years in my home town and state.
The Pre-Frame I had set for myself.
When I first started boxing and for my first few years I constantly envisioned myself as Rocky and the many great champions I Idolized.
Over time I got proof that those visions were true.
I got Mentally Lazy and stopped the daily visualization.
Not because I “knew” what I was or wasn’t doing, but because my environment allowed me too.
I got comfortable.
When I traveled outside my environment my “little world” came crashing down around me.
The Lesson?
You should constantly be educating yourself and visualizing Greater things and a better future for yourself.
So that when opportunity on the Bigger Stage comes knocking, you will be ready.
In Success,
MyNoteTakingNerd A Couple of Lessons Learned From An Aging… 257
P.S. If you haven’t already done so get your butt over and read Numba 2’s Amazing article on Pre-Framing Here.
P.s.s. Watch out in the next few days as I share something incredibly powerful with you that I learned from Tony Soprano and other Mob Bosses that will help you to influence anyone you come into contact with.
**If You Would Like To Learn A Complete System, Created By One Of The Most Powerful and Successful Internet Marketing Companies On Earth, That Will Pre-Frame You As The Logical Choice To Do Business With And Buy From Over And Over Again, Then You Have Less Then 24 Hours To Purchase the Formula Five System Report! HURRY UP. **
Share this Post CHAPTER 71
Are You In Control Of Your Demons?
Hey Nerd Fans… Need to get something off my chest.
Really just writing a little note to myself here but thought you might enjoy listening in.
Anybody here a Rescue Me fan?
If not .. you should be. Excellent show on character development.
The shows about a group of Firemen in New York and their everyday lives.
This morning I was reading an email from one of my favorite marketing guru’s Craig Garber.
He touched on the subject of how he deals with his demons.
Not only did it hit home with me but I read it at the exact time I needed it.
Back to Rescue me.
One of the story lines in the show is that of Tommy and his struggles with alcohol.
I relate to Tommy because I’ve dealt with my own Demons just like him.
No I’m not an alcoholic .. as a matter of fact I choose not to drink.
Addiction is an evil fucking thing.
It hides out in the tiniest of cracks of your mind. Are You In Control Of Your Demons? 259
Lurking like a vulture.
Just waiting for the exact moment of weakness to swoop in and devour you.
Addiction has a lot to do with stress and how you deal with it.
On Rescue me when Tommy’s down and out, he goes to a meeting to get back on track.
Or he gives into the silent call of his favorite Whiskey and relieves stress by drinking.
Reminds me of the recent death of DJ AM.
A bright kid with an incredible future ahead of him.
He was the House DJ for the Palms Casino in Vegas.
He was known worldwide as one of the greatest DJ’s alive.
He was just a kid.
However there seemed to be two things that led to his death.
He had recently been filming a reality TV show that had him helping other addicts get sober.
In one of his last interviews he talked about grabbing a crack pipe (his drug of choice) from one of the show participants.
He recalled how his entire body began to sweat just from having the Pipe in his hands.
Said he’d been sober for 11 1/2 years yet that one moment brought him right back to where he’d been so many years ago.
He had to put the pipe down and gather himself.
(**Side lesson: a very wise man I’ve known for many years, with about 20 years sobriety, told me this; “If you hang out in the barber shop long enough you’re going to eventually get a hair cut”….LESSON? pay attention to your environment and control it as much as you can as to not enable the worst of you)
Just a few short weeks later they found him dead in his apartment with a crack pipe near his body.
There’s something else that has surfaced as well.
They found numerous love letters and pictures, from his girlfriend, around him as well.
Rumors are abound that he’d been having troubles with his relationship and was heart broken. 260 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you about an alcoholic and drug addict.
Asking yourself: “What the F… Nerd? .. I don’t have an addiction or drug problem”
That’s the point.
We all have demons. No matter how small they may be.
The question is how do you deal with them?
Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, James Belushi, Chris Farley, DJ AM…Etc…Etc…
They didn’t have a mechanism in place to deal with the stresses of life.
They all have left Warning Signs for us as to the dangers of not facing and controlling our demons.
So what is it that I do or suggest you do?
For me one of the great things I do is exactly what your reading.
I write.
I find it therapeutic and relaxing. It grounds me and gets me back to ground zero.
I like to take walks or workout.
You can workout, run, read a fiction novel, spend time with family, be with your children, ….
There is no “one” answer here.
Just find the things in your life that get you out of yourself and put you back into a better state of mind.
I want to point something out.
This Blog is and will be about sharing information from Today’s hottest Marketing and Business Guru’s.
But I have a secret to share with you that many of the Guru’s don’t want to talk about.
I can give you every single marketing program on earth but if your not prepared mentally to do something with the information then it’s rendered useless.
Which sadly is the case for the majority of people who keep buying the next “Great” program.
Learning to control our demons may be one of the biggest challenges of all. Are You In Control Of Your Demons? 261
That’s why as we grow here, together, in our little Nerd World we’ve created.
I’ll be spending a lot of time working on the Inner Game of business.
The stuff nobody wants to talk about because it’s a Tough Sell.
I don’t give shit. I care and want to help.
Even if that means a few less sales or dollars in the bank.
So I ask you this question?
What are your demons?
Do you eat to much when your stressed?
Do you dress up as Pippy Longstocking and prance around your house? (hey I’ve heard of weirder things)
Do you drink a “few” drinks every night and fool yourself into believing it’s just a reward for a hard days work?
Do you verbally abuse those around you?
Do you just go lay down and hide from the world?
What is it?
Right now get real fucking honest with yourself.
Because this could be the answer that turns your business and life around.
No matter how big or small your demons may be (we all have them).
Now ask yourself the most important question.
What can I do in these moments to get myself focused and back on track?
Make a list of all those things and begin to do them when you find yourself falling victim to that Slimeball Vulture Demon when he raises his head and streaks toward you during your moments of weakness.
Next time grab that little fucker by his stringy little neck, toss him aside, and go on your merrily way as you exercise or enjoy the company of your amazing wife or significant other.
Hey guys .. 262 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Do me a favor and share a comment or two below about some of your struggles and how you work through them.
The Chief Nerd….
P.S. By the way … I’m starting my Nerd Ultra Product Launch Mentoring Program next week and one of the core parts of the program is going to be working my ass off to help you execute. I’ll be giving you every- thing I have learned to take action on all the strategies and tactics I’ll be teaching you. I’ll be giving you the gift of my experience (the real shit… not the rosy “end story” crap a lot of the other so called guru’s out there shove up your bung hole). So if you’d like to join me on a 7 Week Journey, where i’ll be giving you the very best of what I’ve learned on how to launch a product, develop a deep relationship with your customers, and most importantly figure out how to “DO” something then CLICK HERE NOW …. OH .. I’m literally giving this program away and I’ve also offered a Screw This Recession Payment Plan that makes it afford- able to even the poorest aspiring millionaires among us.
Share this Post CHAPTER 72
The Nerd Beginners Kick Ass Guide To Becoming Like Oprah On Twitter Part 1
witter seems to have come out of nowhere to become one of the world’s most popular online social Tservices behind Facebook and MySpace. Twitter now has millions of users, and even Oprah got on it, putting it in the minds of millions more yet (and irking thousands of existing users in the process). Celebri- ties and CNN are all about Twitter now, it seems. But most of the people on twitter are your peers and your clients and customers.
Simply put, if you’re not using Twitter, you’re missing the party. Not just a party but “the” party. The party that keeps going 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, and I don’t think it’s going to die down very quick.
Twitter should be seen as the single biggest opportunity you have outside your blog.
Twitter Terminology
One of the fun aspects of Twitter is its jargon. If you’re going to use it successfully, you need to know the lingo. People love to take the words twitter, twit, tweet and combine them with other words to make up fun new words, like tweeple.
Autofollow - Automatically following other users who follow you. This is a setting in Twitter, but tools which integrate with Twitter may also automatically follow other users–a practice which has met with much scorn, because of its use by spammers and over-zealous marketers who don’t understand the value of rela- tionship-building.
Block – If you don’t want to ever see anything another Twitter user says, you can block them. This is com- monly done when people are spamming or offending you on Twitter.
Direct Message/DM -Â Private messages sent to other Twitter users who are following you, and whom you follow. Mutual following is what makes DMs possible. 264 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Follow/Followers/Following – When you want to read what another Twitter user posts, you follow that user. Your followers are all the people who are interested in what you have to say and in interacting with you on Twitter. When you are logged into the service, you can follow others with the click on a button.
Hashtags – Hashtags are a keyword prefaced with a “#” sign. If I tweeted about SEO, for example, I might put #seo in the tweet. There are services online which scan for these and people can also search on them and see all the tweets that contain a particular hashtag (the # is also called a hash sign).
OH - An abbreviation for “overheard” followed by something funny or entertaining which the tweeter overheard someone say. This is what happens when people are out and about tweeting with mobile devices– life all around us can be quite entertaining at times.
Reply - A tweet that is a public message to another Twitter user. These tweets begin with @username.
Retweet/RT – Copying another Twitter user’s tweet and adding the letters RT plus their Twitter username. This allows you to spread great tweets by others and credit them.
Tweeple/Tweeps – Tweeple is a combination of twitter and people, meaning twitter followers. Tweeps is a similar combination of twitter and peeps (already slang for people).
Tweet/Tweeting – What you call a post on Twitter. Tweeting is what you’re doing when you’re writing posts on Twitter.
Twittering/Twitting – Another way to say you’re creating posts on Twitter (it means the same as tweeting).
Twoosh – A tweet that uses exactly 140 characters.
URL Shortener – A URL is a web page address. Because of the character limit in Twitter, long URLs would destroy any chance of sending a link to your followers along with a message. A URL shortener service redi- rects your long URL to a much shorter one that goes to the exact same address, saving space. Twitter does this automatically with URLs that you type or paste into the message window, provided that even with the URL, the message is still less than 140 characters.
Tune in Tomorrow as I show you how to set up your twitter account for maximum effectiveness.
**Join Me Next Thursday, September 10th as I share all the secrets I’ve learned to turn yourself into a Social Media Powerhouse. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS!**
Share this Post CHAPTER 73
“Why Can’t You Just Be Normal?”
Hey you, It’s #2 fresh out of the dense jungle that is Formula 5 by Stompernet/Paul Lemberg.
Just finished plowing through 52 of the 70 videos in that program and all’s I can say is “God dammmmn, it nice to be done.”
Instead of planning things out and going about taking the notes incrementally like a “normal” person, I made it a last second marathon sprint to the deadline.
I hope you were one of the people who got a copy of this “Info/strategy/tactic Intense” guide on the cheap because after all that typing, re-typing, editing, designing 67 pages (3 of the 5 modules I worked on) of these notes… I was kinda pissed off that I’d agreed to let them go for so little.
Never again.
Yeah, I got paid to learn, but at the price the pre-order people got these for, I was compensated at the level public education teacher and this is no sub-standard text book bullshit. This is more liken to the super common sense, not often thought about knowledge, Bill Gates has in his Leonardo DaVinci personal note collection that he paid millions for.
Yeah, I said it. I compared these notes with the super intellect of DaVinci. And I stand behind it.
If you can’t improve the 5 key segments of your business by 15% across each area with these notes, you have serious brain damage or you don’t want to succeed bad enough.
****If you want to get a super dee duper discount on this work of marketing/business optimizing guide, you’ve got less than 48 hours before that A-hole Cheif Nerd jacks the price up by another $50 bucks. Don’t snooze on this… click here to instantly claim your own copy of this steeply discounted gift now**** 266 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Enough about that.
While typing these notes I kept thinking about you. Thinking of how I been neglecting our relationship. And it bugged the hell out of me.
So, I want to share with you a taste of the wisdom directly from the Formula 5 Guide, I’ve been chewing on for the last few days.
Have you ever felt like you were an outcast or a weirdo because you don’t like getting up at the crack of dawn and going to sleep at dusk?
I have.
Especially after listening to all the success audios that I have that say “People who succeed, are early to rise”. Fuck that.
I’m one of those guys who loves sleeping yet hates the idea of going to bed. You know what I’m talking about? I dread waking up if it isn’t naturally and I’m rarely ever ready to call it a night.
And since I broke free from the “Normal, 9-5, Robotronic ” way society wants me to be, I’ve been a lot more productive and fulfilled. Providing value in a way I actually enjoy.
While hanging out with Paul Lemberg in his Formula 5 Magnum Opus, he told me that I’m not “Broken” because I like to stay up late. I’m just different. And then he told me about the research on Chronotypes prove this.
What the hell is a Chronotype? Let me show you through the notes from this section of the Formula 5 Guide…
Chronotypes
Recognition is the first step to the road to recovery.
Everyone has natural chronotypes; energy alignment with the daily cycle of day and night
Based on what yours is, you perform better at that certain time of the day.
“Derrrrrrrr! No duh, retard.” I can sense you might be thinking that after reading that last sentence, but stay with me. Paul’s gonna back this up with scientific research.
Scientists who study this call people who work better during the day larks and people who work better at night owls. “Why Can’t You Just Be Normal?” 267
The dregs of society have trained you to think you’re nuts if you’re most productive 3 in the morning. You’re not. You’re just different
We all have cycles throughout the day which makes working a straight 8 hours impossible. Paul actually talked earlier about a study that revealed that the majority of entrepreneurs only get 2 ½ hours of actual productive time out of the ten plus hours they spend “Working”.
A big contribution to this is fighting your natural chronotype. Once you know what type you are you, can totally create your productivity around it.
Here’s how to determine the type you are…
Grab a pen and paper and write down the number that best fits you.
If you were entirely free to plan your evening and had no commitments the next
day, when would you choose to go to bed?
8PM to 9PM (5)
9PM to 10:15 PM (4)
10:15 PM to 12:30 AM (3)
12:30 AM to 1:45 AM (2)
1:45 AM to 3 AM (1)
You have to do two hours of physically hard work. If you could plan your day anyway you like, when would you do the work?
8 AM to 10 AM (4)
11 AM to 1 PM(3)
3 PM to 5 PM (2)
7 PM to 9 PM (1)
For some reason you have gone to bed several hours later than normal, but have
no need to get up at a particular time the next morning. Which of the following is
most likely? 268 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Will wake up at the usual time and not fall asleep again (4)
Will wake up at the usual time and doze thereafter (3)
Will wake up at the usual time but will fall asleep again (2)
Will not wake up until later than usual (1)
You have to take a 2 hour test which you know will be mentally exhausting. If you can take the test whenever you like, when would that be?
8 AM to 10 AM (4)
11 AM to 1 PM (3)
3 PM to 5 PM (2)
7 PM to 9 PM (1)
If you had no commitments the next day of any kind, what time would you get up?
5 AM to 6:30 AM (5)
6:30 AM to 7:45 Am (4)
7:45 AM to 9:45 AM (3)
9:45 AM to 11 AM (2)
11 AM to 1 PM (1)
A friend has asked you to join her in the gym but the only time she can make it is between 10pm - 11pm. Bearing nothing else in mind other than how you normally feel at that time, how well do you think you will do in the gym?
Very well (1)
Reasonably well (2)
Poorly (3)
Very Poorly (4) “Why Can’t You Just Be Normal?” 269
You’ve heard about ‘morning’ and ‘night’ types of people. Which of these types
do you consider yourself to be?
Definitely morning (5)
More Morning than evening (4)
More Evening than morning (2)
Definitely evening (0)
Lark - Owl Scale
Major Lark 32 - 28
Moderate Lark 27 - 23
Neither Lark nor Owl - 22 -16
Moderately Owl - 15 - 11
Major Owl - 10 – 6
What type are you? My test revealed I’m in the “Moderately Owl” stage.
What you can do to get the most of what Chronotype you fall into?
Larks: • • Start work early in the day • • Schedule most important work and meetings before noon • • 6-8 hours after you wake up plan on some kind of 20-45 minute mid-afternoon nap or • • meditation. • • Use End of the day for B (moderately valuable) & C (support stuff) work • • Forget about caffeine later in the day, it will totally thrash your sleep. •
Owls: 270 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
• • Start work day in the late morning or later • • If forced to, do B (moderately valuable) and C (support stuff) work early • • Schedule important meetings later in the day • • Find Larks to cover you in the morning • • If you have to start early a late afternoon snooze can re-charge you •
Because you don’t want to seem abnormal, maybe you’ve defied your true nature of being a moderate or full blown owl. Screw that. Own what you are and at least test the suggestions above and see what kind of results you get.
Whatever you are, use the above guidelines to work around your chronotype to ensure maximum produc- tivity.
How to Use an Energy Map to Find Out How to Best Plan Your Productivity
On a Excel spread sheet run the 24 hours of the day down the side of the page in half hour blocks (4:30, 5:00, 6:00).
Across the top, make tables for Monday through Sunday and below those two boxes - one for Energy and one for Accomplish
After each 1/2 hour you log and note your energy level and creativity and/or your accomplishment.
During the past 1/2 hour evaluate whether your energy and and your creativity/accomplishment on a level of 1-3.
High is 3, Medium is 2, low is 1
Did you get a lot done? -3 a lot, 2 is so,so, -1 not very much
Were you very creative?
Very creative (3) So, so (2) Not very creative (1)
Log these stats for the time you’re working for a minimum of 5 days, optimally
3 weeks and it’s gonna shine a flood light on when you’re at your best and when you drag ass. “Why Can’t You Just Be Normal?” 271
Look at the peak times and start scheduling all your prime time, most valuable activities during those times.
Make your schedule revolve around what you’ve discover here. When you find where you crash, don’t ever try to warrior through that time unless it’s an absolute emergency.
Stop working and just dis-connect.
Take a nap, eat a light snack, exercise, meditate, Break away. Try re-charging by
doing 500 jumps on a mini trampoline like Paul does.
The philosophy of Chronotypes as a scientific studied art was new to me and it jives with my common sense. It also can be magnificently adapted well to the Eben Pagan “Wake Up Productive” methodology. If you don’t own the guide on this program that the chief nerd put together, get it. Or just go buy the full system from Eben. It’s outstanding.
In that program Eben tells you about the research discovered that reveals we have a rhythm within our body that makes our energy spike and plunge throughout the day.
Eben promotes what he calls 50-50-30’s. These are blocks of time in which we would work, snack and rest. The basic premise is that we work, uninterrupted on one single project through it’s completion or until we reach 50 minutes.
Then we’d take a 10 minute break to completely break our focus from work and zone out.
When 10 minutes is up we repeat another 50 minute stretch as above. Then when the timer goes off, we take a 30 minute break to eat something light and healthy and then we can use this next part Paul Lemberg talks about in Formula 5…
Don’t underestimate the power of a nap
NASA has found that “An afternoon nap increases productivity and decision making ability by up to 50%”
This was research done with astronauts. And the research demonstrated that naps usually serve this pur- pose best if taken 6 - 9 hours after you’ve risen and that 20 - 45 minutes has proven to be refreshing. Of course you want to experiment with how long of a snooze leaves you vital.
Team your Chronotype discovery along with the hours of productivity notes included in Module 5 of For- mula 5, along with the “Wake Up Productive 50-50-30” and I don’t dare get in your way. You big ole’ results producing machine.
I’m outta here. Have a blast this weekend.
Talk to you again soon 272 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. I’d be interested to know what your results were in the Lark – Owl test. Feel free to post ‘em below.
P.P.S. ****If you want to get a super dee duper discount on this work of marketing/business optimizing art, you’ve got less than 48 hours before that A-hole Cheif Nerd jacks the price up by another $50 bucks. Don’t snooze. What I’ve given you here is just a snapshot of the 70+ hours of content distilled for easy viewing and implementing, waiting for you to instantly download once you click here to claim your copy of this steeply discounted gift now**** CHAPTER 74
The Death Of Brands and The MBA….THE RISE OF MAFIA WARS..
Sunday Afternoon here in Sunny Phoenix, Az. What a great f’n Day.
Just watched a video that inspired me to write to you guys.
I’ll include the Video down below so make sure you watch it.
You’re gonna have to if you want to know what you have in common with the guys who Make Porn Bal- loons. You know just like Balloon Animals only…. with a Porn theme …LOL
Anyway there’s a new Buzz word out there that I think may be the most important NEW marketing term in decades.
I believe it’s where we are going in our lives and business.
It’s the concept of Tribes.
Yep… We’ve reverted back to the cave man days.
If you don’t believe me and you haven’t already then take a look at what’s going on over at Facebook and Twitter.
Anybody here been watching this dang thing called Mafia Wars?
I seriously think I’ve gotten too old and outdated cuz I just don’t get it.
Millions of people living in this virtual world pretending to be Gambino Crime Families. 274 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Trading stuff, building Empires, along with the occasionally “Doing” somebody. They’ve gotta take out on their good friend. (Forgetta Bout It… The rat bastard deserved it!)
Seriously, I’ve got multiple friends that spend countless hours on this damn virtual video game…all the while making new friends from around the nation and world.
Heck..one of my close friends just traveled halfway across the continent just to go say “hi” to one of his Mafia War Friends.
So What is all this bout?
It’s about our innate instinct to want to BELONG.
We all want to be a part of something.
You’ve seen it in our Society throughout history from Radicals like Jim Jones, Notorious Gangs, The Elk’s Club, and Yes …Churches.
WE ALL WANT TO BE SPECIAL. WE ALL WANT TO BE HEARD. TO FEEL AS IF OUR EXISTENCE MEANS SOMETHING.
However…Never have we had access to the technology that make all of this as possible as it is today.
You want to be part of a group that likes one legged midgets, with 8 toes, cross - dresses, and only watches Anime Cartoons?
No Problem just jump on the net and within 5 minutes you’ll probably find a Tribe to join and prosper in.
We no longer live in a society driven by Big Time MBA’s pushing their brands upon us through mass media Television and Print Advertisement.
The Tribes now come to us.
We Just Got Through with what may be our Most Important Report Yet.. The MyNoteTakingNerds Report On The Tribal Marketing Formula…The latest $2,500 program given to you by the Nerds for Pennies On The Dollar! CLAIM YOUR PRE-ORDER COPY RIGHT NOW @ a 37% DISCOUNT.
They set the rules and we’ve got to give them exactly what “They Want”.
It starts with permission, the understanding that the real asset most organizations can build isn’t a HUGE brand but is in fact the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to asked you to send them to their home or inbox. The Death Of Brands and The MBA….THE… 275
It all comes down to the FACT that all anybody really wants is the ability to connect with people with whom they perceive are like themselves….NOT companies.
So permission is used to build the tribe.
Permission is where you start. It’s where that one individual raises his or her hand as say’s; “Yes… I want to hear more about what you have”…and collaborate and learn from other people just like me.
Once you start to build your tribe. YOUR, the Tribal Manager’s, only job is too feed, Grow, and Satisfy the Tribe.
Instead of seeking out customers for your products, you seek out products for your tribe.
Nerd Fans..I Have An Urgent Notice… You Aren’t In Charge Of Shit Anymore! We Are On The Cusp Of A Major Change In The Way We Do Business And You Are Either Moving Your Business Into This New Model Or Silently Waiting To Be Kicked Aside By The Next 16 Year Old Kid, With An Internet Connection, That UNDERSTANDS THIS NEW WORLD WE LIVE IN.
Her’e the Video I told you I’d include for you to watch. It’s only 18 minutes. Don’t miss it. There’s lesson’s here way too important to miss.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQGYr9bnktw]
Thanks For Being Part of My Tribe…How May I Serve You?
The Chief Nerd - MyNoteTakingNerd
P.S….We Just Got Through with what may be our Most Important Report Yet.. The MyNoteTaking- Nerds Report On The Tribal Marketing Formula…The latest $2,500 program given to you by the Nerds for Pennies On The Dollar! CLAIM YOUR PRE-ORDER COPY RIGHT NOW @ a 37% DISCOUNT.
Share this Post CHAPTER 75
Hey, Oprah’s on the phone asking if you want to be on the show. Whaddya want do you want me to tell her?
Hey you, It’s #2 here with a question for you.
If you could meet the perfect influential customer, Joint Venture partner, the “Oprah” of your industry who would make you famous overnight, right now, would you want to?
I can’t think of business that wouldn’t benefit from saying they were on the “Oprah Show” but if I had to answer this question today, the answer would be no.
Someone I know went on vacation and one of the things they did was go horseback riding.
It was an interesting experience because they asked him if he’d ever ridden horses or not and his girlfriend said ‘No, I’ve never ridden a horse’ and he said, ‘Well, I’ve ridden a horse but it was a long time ago.’
And because he was so vague they took it like he was trying to be humble like ‘I used to ride horses but I haven’t in a long time’ when what he really meant was that he rode a horse once a long time ago.
He has the understanding that horses can read energy so he knows it’s important to get on the smoothly. He swings and he gets on and the horse bolts over to these bushes and starts eating.
Right away, he said to himself, “You can’t ride this horse.” And he doesn’t know about horses, but he knows the importance of the first impression and could feel and see this horse didn’t respect him. He knew that trying to overcome a horrible first impression is a painful battle.
If he’d of stayed on that horse and said ‘NO, I want to master riding a horse that thinks I’m an idiot’ it would’ve been a disaster leading to embarrassment and maybe an injury. Instead, he knew he should crush his ego and change horses. Learning to ride horses would be the easier approach. Hey, Oprah’s on the phone asking if you… 277
When the ranch hands saw what happened, they tell him, ‘Whoah, get off the horse’ and he’s happy to. Now what happened there? Did he get worse at riding horses? I don’t think he did. I think what happened is that when he rode the horse a couple of years ago, when they asked him if he’d ever ridden a horse, he said ‘No.’ And they gave him the easy horse.
And because he was on the easy horse, he formed the idea in his mind that he could ride horses.
Bullshit.
Bullshit. He thought he could ride horses but he could only ride that horse.
Maybe this reveals a little of why I don’t want to meet my dream client today as a result of being on the Oprah show.
I’m open to opportunities with whoever I meet and I’m capable of giving lots of value. More than 85% of people can, but I know more is possible. I know there’s some destructive habits I have now that I need coaching through.
Nothing that’s gonna put me in the slammer or in rehab but destructive habits that left unchecked, can ruin my peace of mind, my evolution and contribution to the world nonetheless.
One of those habits is avoiding confrontation and tension.
I’ve conditioned myself to be extra cautious at the idea of disappointing people or doing anything that could possibly lead to embarrassment.
What’s crazy is that I can still remember going to 3rd grade in the ghetto with a bunch of pretty tough kids. I can see in my mind the comment that Mrs. Cannon made on my report card… ‘M.G. is the life of the class. He’s our class clown’ and putting a smiley face there to let my parents know she meant the clown part in a good way.
I was the guy who’d could make the room laugh. Now, it’s hard for me to speak out in public. What’s happened?
Well, my mom got evicted from our apartment, the power was shut off and so we ended up homeless for a few months crashing in one of her friends’ place.
My mom needed housing because she had the belief she couldn’t handle working for “The Man” due to her drug addiction and I guess overall laziness/unwillingness to get her shit in order.
For those of you who’ve never been on housing before, it’s a program where the government helps pay a part of your rent so that if you have little to no income, you still have a roof over your kids head. 278 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Well, due to nice & peaceful communities wanting to stay nice & peaceful, 99.9% of the places you can get on housing, rest on the wrong side of the tracks. By a stroke of luck, my mom ending up finding a “Wrong side of the tracks” place to live, in a decent middle class neighborhood.
I call it “The Dungeon”. It was an old brick duplex with a rear basement entry. The basement is where we lived for something like $200 bucks a month. It had 2 bedrooms, one teeny & the other big enough for a queen bed, a dresser with a dresser with a few drawers that didn’t work and a T.V. stand.
The concrete walls were dressed in wood paneling and the floor draped in a maroon shag with no pad. We loved it.
What was different for me was being surrounded by white people in this neighborhood and in school. I adapted because I had the fear of not fitting in and having people like me. I stopped swearing, spitting and dressing “South Side” style.
Not my brother. He was born a rebel. This is a kid who was one year younger than me and went into 1st grade having the same teacher that absolutely adored me and yet made this woman’s school day a living hell.
He infuriated this woman to the level where she gave this little 7 year old straight “U’s” on the part of his report card that rates not your grades, but your behavior. If you’re one of my friends from across the ocean a “U” on our report cards is the worst assessment you could get. It stands for “Unsatisfactory.”
Has this kind of Dr. Jekyl, Mr. Hyde dynamic happened in your family?
This would perplex teachers because they all talk to each other and they knew I was a dream kid to have because I was eager to please but no one wanted to have brother in their class. In each & every grade there- after he pretty much told any adult besides my mom & dad to go fuck themselves.
And eventually, he ended up telling my dad that too.
He was gonna do what he wanted, when he wanted. I think he lived and lives to this day for adventure, for the excitement of un-certainty/surprise/the unknown. If his attention were channeled towards creating value he’d be the poster boy for a Dan Kennedy’s Renegade Millionaire. He’s driven to do the opposite of what “the establishment” wants him to.
I’d love his energy and maybe one day he can work with me but let’s just say he’s slightly detained for the time being, if you know what I mean. We’re friends when we see each other but if we didn’t see each other it wouldn’t matter. I hope to reach him & re-direct his focus in the future.
When we moved to the dungeon I was going into 4th grade. To fit in through out my younger years I made a few total transformations. Not baby bro. Danny stayed the horse no one was going to ride. Hey, Oprah’s on the phone asking if you… 279
I hope he does till the day he dies, only in way that gives him more freedom instead of less. And until I get comfortable asserting myself any and everywhere I feel like I’ll squander opportunities that come before I’m ready and may very well be repelling money as I speak.
Do you guys see why I would turn Oprah down today? My business is in no shape to capitalize on this massive opportunity. I’d totally piss away the chance of a lifetime.
It be the same for meeting the woman of my dreams. If I had a choice to meet her today or in the future, I’d opt for later. I’ve got issues I’m going to overcome that would spoil a great thing now.
But like my friend and his horse riding experience, I can ride the horse I’m on now but not the Oprah one.
So when the guy I was talking about gets a different horse he can control it so he knows he’s gonna have a good ride now. But his girlfriend gets on her horse and it trots away from where she wants it to go and starts eating. They’re telling her what to do and she keeps saying she can’t.
He thought to himself “She’s gonna have trouble the whole time riding the horse.” And it was. It was a constant struggle.
And on the way back, he was making fun of his girlfriend telling her how lame her horse was. And the lead guide stopped him and said “You can’t talk about the horse”.
He was like “What?”
The guide says, “No, you put someone else on that horse and the horse will do anything. It’s one of the fastest horses we’ve got. This horse can jump over stuff in one leap. Your horse can’t.”
The truth is, you can’t talk about the horse without talking about the rider. You can’t separate the two. Horses are like influential people in that with all the power they wield, they gotten great at making split second evaluations on you right when they very first interact with you.
They have to because so many people want something from them. And those decisions affect all their future interactions with you. Malcolm Gladwell talks about this in “Blink” quite a bit. If you aren’t quick to make a person feel good about you, you have a huge problem. You can’t ride that horse. That’s it. It’s that simple.
I don’t know about horses but I do know that if I get good with ‘em the horse will know right away. The same is true for evolving as a person and becoming what the world re-known business philosopher Jim Rohn calls “A Person who’s glass is full”.
When you consistently focus on how to become more valuable and then put yourself in the flow of money and opportunity that’s when I believe you’ll attract everything you need and more. 280 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If you turn your glass upside down and nothing can go into it because you already know everything, it’s gonna be a rough ride.
My expert opinion is that the majority of people don’t think their personal issues are holding their business hostage. Now, let me ask you again… If you could meet the perfect influential customer, Joint Venture partner, the “Oprah” of your industry who would make you famous overnight, right now, would you want to?
Would the pressure of the flood of traffic coming to your business bury your production, shipping, cus- tomer service, etc. etc?
You have an opinion on this and I’m eager to hear it. Tell me what you think when you finish reading.
I’ll never be perfect and I know that this journey isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress.
In the back of my mind I know there’s a fuck load more stuff I’m capable of learning and doing which are going to lead me to experiences that are going to mature and wizen me to a whole new level.
This level of thinking might be holding me back but I don’t think so. What’s holding me back is not facing my fears. When I stop letting those fears hold me back, I know the floodgates will open.
Now, because you’re here, I know you’re someone who’s looking to grow, expand your influence and bring massive value to your customers, clients, friends, families universe. I commend you for this.
And the next question you need to ask is…
“What kind of person do I get to transform into in order to fully maximize that opportunity?”
And then, keep coming back here.
Join me and the chief nerd on our mission to become this person. Keep reading the blog and if you’ve got the money to do so buy the programs we rave about here.
If you already have the programs but haven’t made it through them yet, buy the notes we put together for the ones you own so at least you’ll have at-a-glance access to all the breakthroughs & potential currently trapped inside of that box sitting on your shelf.
And if you can’t afford to buy the programs do yourself a favor and give yourself the gift of getting a copy of the notes we put together for you. They’re opportunity, simplified.
Kinda of like the difference between buying ready-to-eat chicken breasts at a restaurant vs. buying a whole chicken and going through all the rig-a-marole of de-boning, filleting, preparing and then cooking it.
I prefer ease and simplicity. Maybe you do too. Hey, Oprah’s on the phone asking if you… 281
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
Share this Post CHAPTER 76
How To Stack Trust & Desire Into Every Claim You Make About What You Sell
Hey you, It’s #2.
I’ve got a gift for ya. It’s actually a piece of the un-released bonus I put together for the studs and studettes in the super fantastic Ultra Product Launch program but first…
Can I ask you a personal question about your business? Go ahead? O.K., here goes…
…Do people roll out the red carpet for almost any request you make of them on your landing/squeeze pages? Or…
…Do the majority of people get kinda creeped out or bored to death and bail outta your sites?
If the former applies to you, and like a Tellman Knudson, you’re getting a 53% opt in rate, you’re gonna love what I’ll be revealing today and…
…if you fall into the latter category, you’ll definitely want to give me a bear hug or a smooch after you’ve read this because I’m gonna show you how to fix this.
The landing pages that are kicking ass like the one I mentioned above are nothing more than a headline with a just a dribble of copy about what you can expect once you opt-in.
I know after watching the webinar last night where Carlton ripped Tellman’s second page offer (the place he sends people right after he gets the first name and email) a new A double S hole… that he could use what I’m dropping in your lap today.
It’s that solid. How To Stack Trust & Desire Into Every… 283
Carlton didn’t want to even talk about the landing page because it’s converting so well but after you and I get finished talking today and from now on, you’ll be thinking to yourself…
“Most of The Bullet Copy I See Sucks,
Especially on Landing Pages”
Mark this 8 minute conversation we’re having down in your calendar as the day your bullets stopped being anything less than great.
Maybe not outstanding yet, but for sure great.
And not because I’m so awesome, but because the person I’ve learned this from is. I’ve studied days & days worth of copywriting programs and I’ve yet to hear this explained the way this man has.
He’s not even a copywriter. But he is one of the greatest salesman alive which is a pre-requisite to being great at influencing in print or pixel.
And who knows, maybe if you’re like Yann Vernier (Loyal Nerd Fan since day 1) and study the hell out of copy and fly your ass across the ocean to learn at the hand of a master, our little talk today can take your game to a whole another level.
By the way, what I’m revealing today about bullets can improve what Carlton teaches and both of us know his lessons on bullet writing are the gold standard.
With that said, let’s go…
Old School, Yet Timeless
I’ve pulled today’s lesson off of a tape I must’ve listened to no less than 25 times riding back and forth to work in the Gremlin (Toyota Tercel named after it’s color which through years of snow and sun oxidation had morphed into a dull baby shit green).
The tape helped me go from being a high school drop out ex-construction laborer to the number one sales- person for a credit card company in just a matter of weeks.
It all began one winter when, once again the Chief Nerd stirred up an idea that would change my life.
You see for going on 6 years I been a laborer/apprentice carpenter for a commercial construction company in Salt Lake City, Utah. We built banks, grocery stores (lots of them), baseball stadiums, everything but houses. 284 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You had to be tough, gifted at working with tools or just stupid to be a lifer in this trade in that climate. In Salt Lake, it’s blazing hot in the summer and in the winter it’s freezing (“Greatest Snow on Earth” is on every license plate there).
Around the six year mark of my toughing it out doing this “Man Work” I’d become homeless. The Chief Nerd took me in and for all of those years I’d been taking the bus in the snow & heat everyday to work.
Not too long after I’d moved in, Chief sold me the Gremlin which had been left idle in his back yard for something like 3-4 years.
The Profession Everyone Uses Daily & Hardly Ever Masters
It was after I got the car running that he brought up the idea of me changing jobs & looking for a field where I could learn how to sell.
In his infinite wisdom he knew this was a skill no person should be without.
With absolutely zero office working or sales experience I applied to be a salesperson for Capital One Credit Card. I was actually supposed to be a stealth salesman operating under the guise of a customer service person.
As you can probably remember happening in the not too distant past, I would answer any kind of questions people had about their accounts when they called in and was charged with responsibility of segueing into a pitch for a couple of services they offered.
Let’s just say that their sales training blew.
When the Chief Nerd put a tape from one of Jay Abraham’s Mastermind Marketing Seminar, the telemar- keting session conducted by a business named MIT (Maximum Impact Telemarketing), I was floored.
At first, I thought, ‘Why the hell don’t my trainers know any of this stuff?’ and then I felt like the one eyed guy in a kingdom of blind people.
This along with Tony Robbin’s 1987 version “Power to Influence” sales program helped me go from broke ass construction worker who’s only sales experience was as a 9 year old, telemarketing with my dad to earn just enough money to buy an M.C. Hammer concert ticket (story I’ll tell you another time) to the #1 sales- person on the entire floor off 95 salespeople.
My little Gremlin had a stock tape deck in it that worked surprisingly well. And while the Chief Nerd would’ve freaked if I’d walked out of the house with his precious $200 Abraham tape, “Power to Influence” was laying dormant in the cars glove box.
So, I jammed the hell out of it. And this is what I learned to do… How To Stack Trust & Desire Into Every… 285
Stack Trust, Believability, & Desire Into Your Bullets
What I’m sharing with you today is not about telemarketing but about the power to, as Frank Kern would say “Stack the Cool” anytime you state a benefit about what it is you sell.
These are adapted and updated notes of Tony presentation on how he did this. Enjoy.
The only purpose of a presentation is to convince someone that we can meet their needs.
Until you know who your market is, until you know who your prospect is, until you have their interest and until they trust you, there’s no need to make a presentation.
When you create conviction, you give the person enough reasons to justify buying.
One way people use to try to create conviction is to give benefits. Most salespeople like to share a lot of facts. “The fact is our product is the #1 product in the whole U.S.”
Prospects don’t buy facts. They buy benefits.
The first thing you want to work on to help yourself create more conviction is your congruency. Meaning that your voice, your body, and your mind are all basically saying the same thing.
What you’re saying on the outside is matching what you’re saying on the inside.
How do get congruency? You gotta condition yourself to have absolute conviction about your product. You must absolutely feel in you gut that you are being a giver and not a taker.
You gotta walk in and feel and believe in your core that what you are offering is worth ten times what you asking back.
Selling is the transference of emotion. People buy using emotion not logic. People have to feel certain that what they are doing is going to give them what they want.
You can’t give to someone that which you do not have.
You can not influence someone unless you’ve been influenced.
“I Don’t Sell Face To Face”
I know.
If this is you, you might be interested to know that John Carlton (world famous salesman in print & pixel) talks about stalking the computer. He will not key stroke a word of copy until he’s gotten himself all lath- ered up about what he’s gonna write about. 286 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
And it’s no wonder that whatever you read of his whether it’s an email, his blog posts or his website copy… it’s ALIVE and kicking like a 3 year old.
Website owners or salespeople lose their power because when they start they go out with all kinds of con- viction and make all these sales but then they have some problems with their personal life, or they learn that they product isn’t perfect and these factors start chipping away at their belief in their product or service.
Or, they just talk about it so much that they get bored.
The law of familiarity. If you’re around anything enough you begin to take it for granted. Happens in almost anything in our life. Same thing happens with your product.
Tony works everyday on creating conviction about the value of what he’s doing, otherwise it would just be words that go into your head and then out again.
Jim Rohn Unleashed The Power Within Tony Robbins
If you’ve heard Tony Robbins “Power to Influence” program, you know that Tony earned his keep as a salesman from very early on in his life.
And once the illustrious Jim Rohn, America’s foremost business philosopher, got a hold of him and instilled his philosophy into Tony, it was as Jim would put it, putting good seed to good soil.
Going back to the early 80’s Jim sold books and audios and was also hosting seminars.
Well, Jim made his fortune in Multi-Level Marketing so he naturally thought who better to sell your product & promote your seminars than the flock.
Tony being Tony at the hands of a master took some of his previous sales experience and fused it with the momentum he was building by actually using all the personal development stuff he was studying and…
Shazzam!!!
Tony stepped on the scene as a teen with no money, minestrone soup acne, a two-piece leisure suit he got at the salvation army and a couple of fake gold chains and face to face… sold every single person Jim Rohn put him in front of for some period of time I can’t remember.
He ran out of leads and asked the other salespeople to give him theirs and he’d let them keep the commis- sion. Of course, they see he’s on fire and accept his irresistible offer.
They started the funnel with tapes and were putting people into an evening seminar and then from there they’d pitch them on about $1,200 worth of programs.
Tony’s problem was that he hadn’t even been to some of these programs. How To Stack Trust & Desire Into Every… 287
The Power Of the Conversation Going On In Your Head
To make up for all of his shortcomings, on the way to the appointment Tony’d drive himself into a frenzy of conviction doing incantations, pounding the shit out of his steering wheel yelling…
“I now command my subconscious mind to direct me in helping this person to better their life by giving me the strength, the emotion, the persuasion, the humor, the brevity, whatever it takes to show this person and get this person to invest in this product, today.”
He would say this over and over for 30 minutes screaming it at the top of his lungs while he was driving his little VW bug on the freeway. By the time he got to the appointment it was like the guy didn’t have a chance.
This process generated more conviction in his little finger than the other guy had in his whole body.
If you’ve been to a Unleash the Power Weekend or any other of Tony’s seminars, you remember these feel- ings. I hope you’ve carried this process into your everyday life so you keep on receiving the gift of experi- encing these super human emotions.
If you don’t know about incantations, and it sounds like something you’d like to know more about, go get Tony’s “Power to Shape Your Destiny” program from Nightingale Connant.
In it, he does a whole session on incantations and tells the crowd flat out that if they aren’t using them, they’re not doing what he teaches and they can’t say “This Tony Robbins stuff doesn’t work.”
To this day he does a slight variation of the one he used as a kid selling Jim Rohn tapes every time before he goes on stage.
Witness The Presentation Of A Master
When two people meet & they discuss anything, the person who is most congruent and has the largest amount of conviction about what they’re saying will end up influencing the other person in the long term.
BEWARE: This principle can be used for good or for evil. There’s a line from the movie “Scarface” that makes me think of this.
At one point in the movie someone’s confronting Tony Montana (Al Pacino’s legendary character in the movie). Tony, being a no bullshit kinda guy, tells him “Jou callin’ me a liar?” And I can’t remember what happens after, only the immortal punch line that follows…
“I Always Tell Da Trut. Even When I Lie.” 288 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Robert Ringer talks about this kind of person in “Winning Through Intimidation” or what some people know as the wussified, re-titled version “To Be or Not To Be Intimidated. That Is the Question”.
In the book he tells the stories of his getting bludgeoned because he wasn’t able to read people who had this level of certainty in EVERYTHING they said.
Business people kept screwing him over because his good natured personality couldn’t comprehend someone being able to tell the “Bill Clinton, hell every politician, Big Lie” with a straight face.
I just might be the worst liar on the face of the planet.
I can’t do get away with shit. I cringe at the thought of having to remember a story and put on an act to make it stick and it shows. So, I avoid it all costs.
Some people must lie
It can be about stupid, insignificant stuff and they’d still lie. Those are people I’m afraid of catching that new kind of AIDS from.
What kind is that you ask? Hearing AIDS. You get it from listening to assholes who run their mouth trying to prove themselves and get approval from others every second of their life.
Be on the lookout for people like this. Trust your intuition when it starts churning in your gut, your back gets stiff or the hair raises on the back of your neck.
Your conviction is the single most powerful thing you can convey to another person. They need to feel cer- tain that if they invest in your product they are gonna get what they want.
This technology can be used for good and evil.
But if you use it to screw people, I hope you roast in hell. I trust you won’t but I just wanted to scare away the one random person reading this who might not be on the same page as you and I.
People need conviction to buy for their reasons, not yours
Ideally, people should relate that buying/opting inmeans a lot more pleasure than pain and that notbuying/ opting inwill lead to pain and little or no pleasure.
Most people don’t wanna feel like they’re buying/opting in for emotional or sentimental reasons cause that’s not being intelligent for a lot of people. Instead they wanna believe they’re doing it for logical rea- sons.
Here’s how to build what Tony calls a Unit of Conviction. How To Stack Trust & Desire Into Every… 289
Big fat claim: State a fact or a feature. You immediately tell these people that you’re gonna be able to give them something they want.
Example computer system:
“Our computer system can save your accounting department over 30% efficiency immediately.”
Designed to grab their attention and to open up the buyers mind to a new possibility.
Then you gotta back it up and so then you use the word “because” and then you state a fact.
“Our computer system can increase you’re accounting departments efficiency by 30% immediately because we’ve done that for many companies and because of our patented xyz dumafludge microchip we use… which really means to you (state a benefit) that it’s gonna save you a lot of time and a lot of energy and you’ll be able to get the information you need a lot more rapidly and that really means that just like (specific companies or people), you’ll(state another benefit) stop wasting thousands of dollars and have an accounting department of people that are happy and are actually producing the results you want instead of getting caught up in the busy work.”
So what we’ve done is we’ve made a claim and then we backed it up with the word because and a fact and then we sold two benefits out of it.
Normally we just try to give a plain feature, a reason to buy and sometimes clients just turn it around on you. Don’t just state facts and features.
A unit of conviction is this - You state a claim but then you back it up with two benefits. Let’s say you’re product is more expensive than anybody else’s…
Do not try to avoid this feature. You know it’s gonna come up. Use it as a way to convince them that this is the best product.
“Our product is the most expensive out there and it’s also the best because we’ve spent and spared no expense in producing the finest materials.
This means you’re gonna get what you really pay for instead of having some piece of shit break down on you all the time. Which really means you’re gonna make a lot more money on your investment and gonna get it back in a very short period of time.”
Make this real by giving them evidence of it.
“And the evidence of it is that we done so with this company, that company and this company.” Specif- icity in results here will make it stick. 290 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Now you add the permission question. “Right now my only purpose is to get your answers to a few ques- tions. Would you be willing to do that for me?”
Here’s where the real conviction is created…
“In you’re opinion do you feel like being able to save that much money and have your people be that much happier would be worth looking into or making a commitment on?”
Now you’re beginning to create a commitment.
A Unit Of Conviction has 7 parts:
1. Claim
2. Fact to back up the claim
3. Benefit
4. Secondary benefit that really affects them personally and hopefully emotionally
5. Some evidence that’ll back up what we said
6. Permission to ask some questions
7. Start asking questions that by answering them get the customer to create and confirm commitment for themselves.
You’ve gotta chain link benefits so that it creates momentum and dimensionalize them so people feel like they’re really true.
Here’s how Tony did this selling 6 Jim Rohn cassettes and 2 workbooks for $295.
How the hell do you walk in and sell six pieces of plastic and some paper for $295? You gotta believe the value is there which he did.
The Cost doesn’t matter. Value does. He got real clear on what those tapes could do for somebody because of what they were doing for him.
He took each tape and created two or three units of conviction for each one, reasons to buy now.
Pay Closer Attention Now…
“The diseases of attitude” was the title of one of the tapes. How To Stack Trust & Desire Into Every… 291
Here’s the copy of a landing page I just opted-in for, not because I was compelled (as you’ll see below it’d be hard to be) but because I wanted to start getting his email to that account…
Here’s just a sampling of what you’ll learn:
* A concrete roadmap to build a multi-million business in 5 years or less!
* How to magnify the value of your company so you can sell for millions!
* 12 suggestions to guard you cash flow and increase your bottom-line!
* 5 time mastery techniques to free up one full day a week to work on your business!
* 6 sources to fund your business startup or expansion!
Just below the copy was where you entered your info. You might know who’s page this is because you’re on his list.
Maybe I don’t know shit and this page is killing it but I’d bet green money that if you’d wired each of those claims to a unit of conviction, you’d get a whole lot more opt-ins.
To me the copy above is about as smooth as Tony just saying “This is a really great tape and you’re gonna find it valuable.”
Instead Tony would say…
“The most important thing that you’re going to do in you’re life is learn to manage your emotions. And if you don’t do that, every dream you have will be something that won’t come into reality. You’ll eventually miss out on your dreams.
And the reason that I say that is because so many people think that their life is gonna work out, but it doesn’t. And the reason it doesn’t is that these diseases of attitude stop them.
I say this because by using this tape, what it can mean to you is (benefit) that for the first time you’re really being able to create consistent attitudes that support you.
(Second benefit) Which really means to you money in your pocket as a sales person because if you don’t manage your state you and I both know that you’re gonna lose out on money don’t ya?
(Evidence) “Have there been times when you’ve done that? When you’ve sabotaged yourself?” (And then he gets their personal evidence from them. Asking these question online still make a person answer them if they like what you promise) Have there ever been times that you didn’t manage your state and it cost you money? How much money did it cost you?” And then they’d tell him. 292 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The best evidence is when the customer gives it to you because you asked them a question that reveals what the truth is for them.
(Permission) My purpose right now is to get your answers to a few questions, is that o.k.? In you’re opinion do you feel that if you were able to consistently be able to manage these attitudes that have stopped you that you would in fact be able to create the results that you’ve always dreamed about?
Difference between a test close (using a barometer, seeing how close they are now) and a close is that a closing question is basically by a person answering it means that they have or haven’t bought.
A test close is an opinion asking question. You can make anything a test close by adding “in you’re opinion, do you feel like…”
“What should you do?” is a close.
“In you’re opinion, do you think this would make a difference in you’re life or not, What do you think, generally?” Now it’s just an opinion and you’re more likely to give me more feedback.
Test closing is most important skill you have to help you know where you’re at and to help you know when to close. How to close is easy, when to close is the question.
(Using a service like clicktale.com that shows you where people are clicking or bailing on your site can tell you if these test closes are hitting or not)
“In your opinion do you feel making more money and having the opportunities that you want would really occur if you were able to consistently manage you’re state through a tape like this?
Well, how much do you think that would be worth in you’re life? Do you think it worth a thousand dollars in you’re lifetime or the next couple of years, five thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand?”
They’d usually say “Well I don’t know.”
“Well do you think it’d be worth at least one thousand?”
And they’d say “Sure.”
He’d ask, “Really, are you just saying that or is it really worth a thousand?” And they’d say “Of course it’d be worth a thousand.”
Now he has a unit of conviction that one tape is worth a thousand dollars by itself.
When he was done he would add up all the possible value these tapes could bring into their life and they’d have told him it’d be worth $12,000 dollars. How To Stack Trust & Desire Into Every… 293
He’d ask them, “Realistically is that true? He would get them to convince him.
And he’d close by saying, “Well guess what, it doesn’t cost $12,000, the tapes are only $295.”
If that isn’t salesmanship at it’s finest I don’t know what is.
This is where I gotta let you go today. I’m running into my 12th page of a word document and I know you’ve stuff to like going and fixing your bullets with this formula I’ve handed over to you.
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Announcement: As of today, I’ve decided to commit to spending at least One Hour of my time responding to any thoughtful question or comments made about posts I’ve written. I’m not perfect yet and after spending hours writing this I’ve had to leave some stuff out. So feel free to point out anything I wasn’t crystal clear on. What you say might exhaust the whole hour (if you’ve seen my responses in previous posts you’ll see I don’t wimp out here). And, if it’s of the ” ‘Great’ or ‘Shitty’ post” type, it may not warrant any further elaboration. I’m here for you and I’d love to hear your voice. Just let me know what you have a question about in today’s topic. Deepen our relationship today by talking to me.
P.P.S. If you want to learn some of the core reasons why Tony Robbins has been able to sustain a cult-like following among the peak performers here in America & abroad since the 80’s… Don’t miss out the soon- to-released Tribal Formula Report. Get your copy by clicking here
P.P.P.S. And if you want to learn the latest & greatest strategies Tony just implemented for his “New Money Masters” Interview Series launch given to him by his new found friends Frank Kern, Mike Filsaime, Eben Pagan and Jeff Walker CLICK HERE
Share this Post CHAPTER 77
Could It Be Possible That the Smoothest Way Known To Man To Get A Woman Open To The Idea of a Threesome Would Be The Same Technique You Could Use To Get Maximum Money From Your Ideal Customers?
Hey you, It’s #2 with a naughty yet world class post.
The other day, I guy I know told me about his fool-proof way of giving women the magical experience of a ménage a trois and I thought of you. Crazy right? After you read this you’ll see why I deemed this valuable enough to talk to you about it today.
If the topic of sex weirds you out, no problem. Just skip this and we’ll talk later on this week.
But if however, you get that the process of relieving the fear and earning the trust of a woman who’s never been sexually intimate with another woman into a threesome is one of the hardest sells a guy will ever encounter, you’re going to be anxious to see how this gentleman’s sales process works so effortlessly…
…and excited about how you can plug this over-arching strategy of dissolving peoples barriers to new ideas directly into your business.
Here’s the story…
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“Don’t Bring Up Threesomes To a Woman Unless You’re Ready For ‘em,” He said. Could It Be Possible That the Smoothest… 295
“Your game has to tighter than booty cheeks to pull this off. It’s a lot easier to get women on board than you probably think. And it’s harder to reliably get threesomes than maybe you’d like. But the process I’m about to lay out makes it really easy to close.”
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As you’re reading every word of this be thinking now, “What’s one of the toughest sells I’ve got to make in my life/career and how can I adapt this process to there.”
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The guy who was telling me about this had so many missteps, so many missteps and then he created a reli- able system to where he could really consistently get results. He got consistent results with getting women open to this idea way before he was able to get the results of an actual threesome.
For over a year, he could get women to embrace the idea, maybe closer to two years, he had women who wanted it and he just couldn’t make it happen.
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Is there a super high end part of your sales process that you haven’t figured out how to crack the code on yet? A premium, high dollar service/product you could offer that once you figured out how to sell it would make you feel like a champ because your income sky-rocketed and your clients were getting a greater outcome? Keep on reading…
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And he’s not alone because he’s talked to women and there’s a lot of them out there who’ve been in that same situation. And there’s a lot of guys out there who have this idea about threesomes who’re in the same boat.
He said “Now, with threesomes, the higher the risk there is for an embarrassing situation that’s going to make her feel uncomfortable, the more she needs to know she’s in the hands of a complete expert.”
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If you don’t think some of your clients/customers aren’t buying what you have to offer because of some fear of embarrassment, you’re nuts. Let’s see how he resolves this…
————————————————————————————————————————————————————— - 296 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
He said, “If you want to do something and it’d be the first time you’ve ever done it, don’t tell her that. Don’t tell her you’ve never done it before. She won’t ask you. Don’t lie to her. If you’re in a relationship with a woman, you should never lie. Ever.
And if you do what I tell you, she’s not gonna stop and say “Wait, you haven’t done this before have you?” It never occurs to her. She’s like “Well, holy shit, I have no idea what’s going on but this guy seems to know what he’s doing.” That’s what you want women to think… ‘This guy knows what he’s doing.’ That’s what’s gonna make her feel comfortable.”
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Isn’t this what you want customers/clients to think? Especially if you’re rolling out a brand new coaching program or taking on your very first consulting client. This guy had trouble with threesomes for a long time because he admitted he didn’t know shit about threesomes.
Have you ever done this before with a potential client, just spilled your guts, un-provoked, telling you were basically unworthy of their business due to your inexperience? I have. Read along to discover how to fix this…
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And this was his easy out. He’d say, “I don’t really know what I’m doing but let’s figure this out together and it’ll be fun.” And now you’ve put all this pressure on her, and she’s thinking like “Let’s figure this out, isn’t that his job?”
Big mistake.
He says, “So, the first step is to own completely and fully that you’re an expert on threesomes and you are because you’re listening to me now, there’s nothing out there like this. I’ve seen some threesome products and they suck.”
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This falls right in line with the belief “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Just by you being here and reading my posts, buying notes from some of the most expensive info products known to man about how to optimize your business and using them… this puts you light years ahead of your competitors.
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He said “Threesomes are kinda scary to women especially if they don’t know you’re an expert. Could It Be Possible That the Smoothest… 297
It’s really scary because there’s a bunch of attempted threesome horror stories floating around. There really are. So if you want to have a threesome with a girl when do you want to tell her?
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No one wants to be the first patient a brain surgeon operates on all by himself but there’s always a first. Just the same, no one wants to be your very first consulting/coaching client. This is why you keep your mouth shut about it. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————— He said, “When do you want to tell her this is a part of being in your world? The earlier, the better, right? I think it’s absolutely your responsibility, if you haven’t told her by the time you have sex, it should be the next thing you talk about. Absolutely.
Because right after physical intimacy what’s going on in her mind? “What’s next?” She’s like “What’s next? He got me, what does he want to do with this? Because I’m in his hands now more than I’ve ever been, more than I ever will be. This relationship is up to him.”
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Do you believe your customers/clients are vulnerable after they’ve given you money? How can you esca- late the relationship so they feel comfortable giving you even more money? Pay attention.
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He said, “And if you haven’t had this talk, you wake up in the morning, and I’ve done this a million times, there’s no excuse not to do this and I’ve coached a lot of guys through this and I tell them “You have one job. When you wake up in the morning, say this.” And they fuck it up, somehow. Over and over.
If you fuck this up, it’s your own damn fault. This shit works. Follow this, it works.
Wake up in the morning and you’re like…
‘So what’s the freakiest thing you’ve ever done?’ She’s more ok to tell you now, than she’s ever been. You just had sex and you’ve said this in a relaxed way. She’s not gonna wanna tell you because either it’s too dorky or even worse… she’s horrified that’s it’s more freaky than anything you’ve done.
Really, because then she’s being insulting and rude to you. She’s not gonna do that to you so she’s not gonna tell you.
She’ll say ‘I don’t know.’ 298 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
And you can playfully say ‘Cmon, Cmon, tell me. You’re such a brat. O.K. I don’t even want to know. Nope. Don’t tell me. Ssshh.’
And she’s gonna come back with ‘What’ve you ever done?’
You can say ‘I don’t know, I’m not really into like, freaky stuff, I don’t know it used to be like I wanted to do it everywhere in the house.’
She’ll be like ‘Tell me.’
So, you say ‘I don’t know. Well, you know what I love? Sex is really about power. I love like when sex really changes people.’
She’ll be like ‘Really?’
“Yeah.”
She’ll say, ‘What do you mean?’
‘O.K., like I had this girlfriend like 4 years ago and you know what Burning Man is right (Big crazy hippee/ artist party/festival here in America)?’
She says, ‘Yeah I’ve heard of Burning Man.’
‘So you know what it’s like then. Crazy, crazy, crazy. You know that time in Burning man when it’s day 3 and you’ve just been partying so hard for the first two days that you can barely stand?’
And she says, ‘Yeah, I know, I know.’
‘It’s day 3 and I’ve been picking up girls like crazy for 2 days straight, doing everything, and we were up all night the last night, and it was like ‘I just want to sleep’ but this cute little tiny girl with this huge guy walk into camp and it’s like I saw this coming and so I thought ‘That’s her type,’ And I looked at her and I said ‘No.’
She grabs my arm and says ‘Baby, you have to talk to her.’
And I’m just at my wits end. She wouldn’t stop. And she’s all like ‘Oh, you’re the man who can get any girl and now you can’t get this one.’ And she thinks it’s funny but I’m so tired that’s it’s not.
What’s crazy is that this woman in her business, is assertive. She’s in sales, she knows what’s going on. You put her at work and she bosses people around. She owns the place.
It’s funny because whenever we’re picking up girls and whatever, she just stands there and giggles and rubs up against the girls. That’s all she can do, is giggle. It’s kinda weird. Could It Be Possible That the Smoothest… 299
She never does any of the work, never does any of the approaching the woman and I just flipped and I said, “You know what, I’m telling you what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna go and fucking grab that girl and pull her sweet ass away from that fucking meat head. I’m gonna be in the tent.”
And she looks at me and says “ok” in a quiet, obedient, excited tone. What’s amazing is that she did it. I’m there in the tent and I’m wondering what happened to my girlfriend. Where’s Giggles? Where is she, you know?
So she comes in the tent with this girl and they’re both sitting there and they’re both looking at me and we hear this voice from outside “Cheryl. Cheryl.” and they’re both looking at me.
And I know that if I move at all, that whole moments lost. So, I’m quiet as the “Cheryl” noise moves away in the distance and I look at the girl and I say “You have 2 choices. You can leave or… you can strip.”
What’s funny and crazy is that after that when we’d pick up chicks my girlfriend still giggled but it was kinda weird because everything shifted because I knew what she had made a transformation and became more certain of herself. I never looked at her the same way again.
So, there’s a couple of elements of this story that are important you can take these elements and put ‘em in your own story. You can even tell your story during your first interaction with a girl.
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Is there a strategy you and I have talked about that’s resurfaced here in this story of overcoming a high level of resistance? That’s right. What’s going on here is a Pre-Frame.
It’s what you say before you ask someone to do something that sets up the possibility of your getting a mutually beneficial outcome in business or life. What’s a story you could tell early on in a business relationship that lets people know they’re in the hands of a master?
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He said. “You can’t do this late. You can’t already be in a casual relationship with her and then lay this in. You want to set up a first impression of what the relationships gonna be like. Something dramatic like this, you gotta set up right away.”
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With your business, the story you tell the clients/customers is gonna teach them how to treat their rela- tionship with you. For example, I’ve heard Dan Kennedy’s favorite Biz Op copywriter, T.J. Rohleder talk about taking people from a $30.00 sale to a $3,000.00 sale almost instantly.
It’s the Gary Halbert story Dan tells. You know from the seminar in Key West back in the day when Dan’d would speak at his events. 300 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Just in case you haven’t heard it, Gary, undoubtedly one of the worlds finest direct response copywriters is hosting his $7,000 per person seminar and he strolls up on stage (Late) wearing a fish net see-through shirt, shorts, flip flops and a cap that says “CLIENTS SUCK”.
Then, Gary goes on telling story after story about how clients are a pain in the ass and no one there should even think about asking him to work with him because he’s fed up.
Kennedy can’t believe this because Dan’s the king of selling from stage and Gary’s here doing the oppo- site of what he’d do if he were trying to get business.
Well, at a break Dan’s talking to Gary and asking him if it’s true that he doesn’t want any clients and Gary says “Oh, no. I really need ‘em right now.”
And it’s here’s where Dan plays witness to the magic unfolding. Potential clients are flooding to him during the breaks, surrounding him at the urinals. Mission in-directly accomplished
Halbert was the guy who introduced Kennedy to the idea of getting a fee and a piece of the action for any copywriting project so during this seminar Gary’s taking people from spending $7,000.00 with him to possibly working an arrangement with him that’d pay him $70,000.00, all from Pre-Framing.
This doesn’t happen in an ordinary business. If your funnel is set up to where you want people to ascend to the most expensive product/service you offer you need a story of why this idea isn’t crazy, why it makes sense and gives them the feeling that it “normal and customary” behavior.
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Then he told me, “I used to open with a story like this ‘Burning Man’ one and it was better. It wasn’t scary. You meet a guy in a bar, he makes you laugh and he tells this crazy story about threesomes or whatever. And her friend says are you serious? She says ‘He’s a cool guy.’
She doesn’t really think, ‘If I get with this guy I’m gonna have a threesome.’ She doesn’t really think that. The earlier you do it the better.
If you wait until after you sleep with her and after you’ve dated her three months and then you drop this story on her, first of all it’s totally incongruent. It’s like ‘How could this be a part of his world, when I’m just hearing about now? That doesn’t make any sense.”
And now the other thing is that she might get scared because she thinks “I didn’t sign up for that.” So, again, the earlier the better.
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Do you do business on your terms or are you lead around by nose by customers? Could It Be Possible That the Smoothest… 301
By you telling the story of clients moving light speed to your most expensive/highest valued products or services, they won’t think this either if it’s a “Normal & Customary” way of working with you.
This reminds of the way Dan Kennedy gets his 100% of his copywriting fee upfront and a royalty agree- ment because he frames everything as “This is the way people who do business with me behave”, while the guys on the lower rungs get significantly lower fees and hope they can get 50% up front and 50% upon completion of a letter.
If you read his books or listen to his seminars, they’re loaded with stories that teach people how he’s to be treated and what to expect when you get the privilege of doing business with him.
None of this is by accident. Everything is done consciously.
In his course “Influential Writing” he talked for 2 days just about this stuff. Once you sign up for the Product Launch Formula by CLICKING HERE, now, you’ll have access to the principles he makes sure to insert into everyone of his communications that cultivates an urge in people to get on a waiting list to give him $15,000.00 dollars a year to be in his Platinum Coaching Group. Click here to get every- thing he knows about making this happen… even in a recession.
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He said, “Here’s the elements that make this story work…
It happened a long time ago. It happened 4 years ago so it’s not like this new thing I’m just playing around. It’s part of my life. And I’m an expert. I’ve got at least 4 years experience under my belt.
I did this with a girlfriend. I didn’t pay to make this happen with prostitutes. I’m not one of those guys that just swings with random women.
This story isn’t really about threesomes at all. What’s the story about? Change, transformation, evolution of her character.
And I even say sex is about power. So it indirectly demonstrates sex isn’t a big deal to me but the transfor- mation of my girlfriend is really cool and that’s why I’m telling the story. You don’t wanna be the guy who just comes off as bragging saying ‘hey, let me tell you about my threesome’, you know?
And frankly if you’re having a lot of threesomes in your life, you actually have a bunch of stories to share. You should create your own story. You’ll hear great stories from women and even if you didn’t have one you’d have endless material to pull from there.
I’ll tell you why this story’s so powerful. 302 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
It gives her a pure look into my world. You can’t reveal the story without revealing pieces of how your world operates. She knows what it’s like but it’s far away. And the concept of ‘If I date this guy I’m gonna have threesomes, is just so far off that it’s not scary. Yet women know exactly what they’re walking into.
Now when she wakes up in bed with you and your behavior has been the polar opposite of the “normal” guys she’s dated and she feels really good about the experience she’s gonna be thinking, “If I see this guy again, “Wow.” She won’t even complete the sentence.
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Do people say “Wow” about your sales process or your product launches?
Compare this approach with times in your life when you’ve been creeped out by someone trying to rush you into buying or doing something vs. nurturing you along and planting the idea in your mind so that when the time came to make a decision it feels like you decided to buy instead of being sold.
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And then he said, “I don’t say anything else. I never talk about it. Just like I never talk about any of the sex things I like to do. Normal guys ask for it, or they scared to death to even have her think they want it.
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Have you ever been scared to ask a client to buy your premium priced service or product?
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But there’s some interesting things going on in the back of her head. She’s absolutely, completely prepared now for a threesome. And without us sitting down and seriously, logically talking it out.
If we’d just talked about it and look at it layed out she’s just gonna freak out. “She’s gonna ponder “What would my friends think? Does that mean this isn’t a serious relationship? What other freaky stuff does he do?” you know all these things are gonna come up if she logically thinks about it, but that never happens because I never bring it up.
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Sound familiar? People don’t buy for logical reasons they buy for emotional ones.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Could It Be Possible That the Smoothest… 303
He said, “She’s not gonna bring it up is she? But when it finally comes up she can’t be surprised. She’s prepared and that’s really important.
But it’s still not really clear. I never say ‘Hey, I have threesomes with all my girlfriends.” I’ve never said that. And it’s on purpose that I’ve never said that.
So where are we, we’ve had sex and she’s heard that story right now. And next, we set up a time to meet again.
She comes over on a Saturday night and I’m like ‘Sweetheart, how you doing?’ give her a hug and a kiss and then she asks ‘What’re we gonna do?’
I say in a playful tone, ‘I don’t know. Let’s go out & pick up chicks. Come on let’s go, it’ll be fun.” She’s gonna stop. What’s going on with her? She’s saying ‘Oh my God, it’s real. He wasn’t kidding.’ That’s what’s going on.
And I sense it.
So, I say, ‘Oh, you don’t want to, that’s cool, that’s cool. Well, uh, we can see a movie. She’s like ‘He senses that I was uncomfortable and he’s okay with that and he just wants to see a movie.’
While looking at movie listings I say, ‘Yeah, I already saw this movie but this one supposed to be Okay but I’m not really in the mood for a drama but it’s supposed to be good.’
She’s like ‘Wow, he’s serious. And if this girl has any ounce of fun in her at all she’s like screaming inside ‘I don’t wanna see a fucking movie’.
So I say, ‘You don’t look too excited. And she’s like ‘Nah.’ So I say let’s go out’ and she says “O.K. let’s go out.”
Has she agreed to have a threesome with me? Has she agreed to go out and pick up chicks? Yes & No. Right? She never said yes. But now she can rationalize in her mind that “it just happened”. When re- telling the story she can say ‘He wanted to go out and see a movie and I was like I don’t want to see a movie on a Saturday!’
Now it’s not her fault. Who see’s a movie on a Saturday? So you lead to a bar, spend time with her and then say “Hey, I’ll be right back.”
You don’t point out, I’ve done so many things wrong here before so listen, I used to bust out the proof that all women are bi-sexual here, and there is proof, but that route doesn’t work.
It didn’t work for me. I forced it a few times but who wants friction from pushing instead of pulling. This way is easy. Anything you have is worse than this. I’ve tried every idea, really… 304 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I could go on to tell you how this “Success System That Never Fails” plays out, but you and I have already got the marketing lesson. If you really want to know the end of the story, email me at notetaking- [email protected].
Besides this post isn’t about sex but about the art of persuasion. I wanted to show you a powerful demon- stration I learned in way that you wouldn’t get from any other “normal/ordinary” marketing guru.
The most powerful lesson you can pull from this Un-orthodox magnificent story is that the way you pre-frame your clients will make the biggest difference when it comes to your ideal prospect ascending to the highest priced product and service you sell… effortlessly.
Remember, the women that my friend has threesomes with have gone through a sales funnel. They’ve been qualified six ways from Sunday. That’s why he knows the threesome “irresistible offer” is gonna be a slam dunk.
Not all of your clients you put who buy through your product launch or normally are going to qualify to pay you premium prices but you at least want to indirectly lay into their mind that this is where the ultimate pay off is.
Once you’ve enrolled in our Ultra Product Launch program, you’ll see exactly how to do this and not just from one guru’s perspective. This is the best of the best from several (Mass Control, Product Launch Formula, Dan Kennedy’s “Influential Writing”, Tribal Marketing, Formula 5, and many others) peoples vantage points so CLICK HERE to make sure you’re getting all these gems from these programs for pennies on the dollar.
Talk to you soon,
Note Taking Nerd 2
P.S. Remember… I’ve decided to commit to spending at least One Hour of my time responding to any thoughtful question or comments made about posts I’ve written. I’m not perfect yet and after spending hours writing this I’ve had to leave some stuff out. So feel free to point out anything I wasn’t crystal clear on. What you say might exhaust the whole hour (if you’ve seen my responses in previous posts you’ll see I don’t wimp out here). And, if it’s of the ” ‘Great’ or ‘Shitty’ post” type, it may not warrant any further elaboration but yet will be oh so appreciated. I’m here for you and I’d love to hear your voice. Just let me know what you have a question about in today’s topic. The doors open so go on ahead and deepen our relationship today by coming on in and talking to me. CHAPTER 78
How To Succeed In Business Without Getting Your Ass Kicked!!
Many of you may recognize from a few of my past stories that I’m not your typical Nerd. I’m more of the …”Tough Kid Turns Nerdy” story..
Yeah a bit weird.
A lot of people ask me questions.
One of the one’s I get over and over again is.
“What’s the easiest way to succeed in business?”
The short answer is….There isn’t ONE easy way. But I will try to share some of the biggies.
But before I do I want to share a story.
I spent a good portion of my teenage years in Salt Lake City, Utah.
You may recall that I was a Boxer and because this formed a big chunk of my identity… I was a self pro- claimed Bad ASS.
In Salt Lake, we have a Holiday you’d never know about if you didn’t live there.
It’s called the 24th of July. Kinda our Independence day.
Just like the 4th of July it’s celebrated with very big firework displays.
We also have a Parade that marches the entire length of the city.
People camp out all night and wait for the parade the next morning. 306 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
It’s also a night of hell-raising for teenagers looking for trouble like me.
So I was out walking around with my best buddy Aaron when he happened to bump into a bouncer at one of the Nightclubs for adults.
Now.. we were just passing by.
The next thing I knew this guy had my best friend dangling, mid air, by his throat.
Found out later this guy was a defensive lineman for the University of Utah football team.
Before I tell you what happened next let me pre-frame it by saying that I was already a Hot Head.
But you screw with my friends, you’d better have the entire football team to stop me cuz one probably wasn’t gonna do it.
I wasn’t no Bruce Lee but I had the energy of an Angry Incredible Hulk when I got pissed.
So here’s my friend hanging in the air.
I say; “Hey why don’t you fight someone your own size fu….er?”
He dropped my friend to the ground and stepped toward me.
Having 13 Years of boxing experience behind me, I threw a picture perfect right hook that literally put all 300 pounds of this guy horizontal.
He was out.
However, by instinct, he started to grab at air trying to figure out how to get up.
I then booted him, like a game winning field goal, and put him back to sleep.
(Note: I’m in no way condoning nor recommending violence. It’s gotten me nothing but trouble in life. Just sharing a story)
The next thing I know I hear screaming for someone to help this guy.
Apparently nobody saw that this guy was 100 pounds bigger then I and it was more then a fair fight.
Cuz… the next thing I know, like cockroaches at night, guys were crawling out 0f their cars and sleeping bags running towards my friend and I.
We managed to get a few blocks away before I spent the next 10 minutes getting my head, ribs, legs, stomach, and just about every other area of my body pummelled. How To Succeed In Business Without Getting… 307
My friend didn’t find it as fun as I did.
Hell… I was a brawler.. I LOVED this shit.
As a matter of fact the mob was beating on me so bad that I could hear female watching telling the guys ”Stop, You’re Going to KILL him,” and just to show how tough I was, I laughed and in a girlie voice said, “Stop, you’re going to kill him.”
I’ll spare you the stupidity of my mentality at that point of my life for another day.
The point I’m trying to get across is this.
All I got that night was another story to cement into my legacy as a bully and bad ass.
I’ve learned the hard way that’s not the way to get through life.
That part of me still lives underneath my New Nerd exterior. It comes forth more often then I’d like some- times and guess what?
I always learn the hard way that I solve nothing through violence or anger.
I’ve also learned the hard way through credit card debt, IRS problems, embarrassment to my family, lost time with my Baby Girl, and just about everything stupid a guy could do.
Learning the hard way, some people like to believe, helps build character. Sure, maybe it does, but if I could’ve, I wished I’d used my money even more so to leverage my business knowledge, investing in more business coaches and mentors.
You don’t have to be in the line of fire to become a 6 Figure or More Successful Business Owner. So, let me tell you about the many ways I got my ass kicked in the business world and how you can learn from it, so you too can quickly become as successful as you’d like.
Lesson #1: You Make The Rules. YOU CAN LIVE LIFE ON YOUR TERMS!
I learned this one from Dan Kennedy.
You don’t have to open early or stay late. You don’t have to wait for anybody to pay you. You don’t have to work on the weekends.
If you set the rules up front then your clients and customers will conform to you and most importantly the ones who don’t will wander off to a pasture where the New Guy will do everything for them until he can’t handle it anymore.
Your clients will try and sell you on why you must do what they demand. 308 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
This may come in the form of a please feel sorry for me story or a you are the bad guy story.
You just can’t bend.
In the end you have a choice.
Become a Renegade or a Moron.
Which one do you choose?
Kennedy call this process “Operating your business as if Money were not an issue”
Hard as shit to do when your dead broke.
But like investing in a stock with solid fundamentals.
It may seem like your losing the game in the beginning.
But…
In the end this mindset will pay HUGE dividends.
If You Would Like To Learn How to Live A Life Of Autonomy Then I Suggest You Grab A Copy Of Our Renegade Millionaire Report … One of The Chief Nerds Favorites
Lesson #2: Create Simple Systems
Your goal should be to have a system in place for just about everything in your business so that if you brought Homer Simpson in to run things for a day while you were gone he’d be able to do so.
Remember, the key here is that your systems need to be as simple as possible.
If you make them complex your asking for trouble.
Everything I’ve studied, read, or seen suggest that you have a written ABC type format and a Process Map for each system in your business.
So today begin to make things easier on yourself and start documenting “how” to do everything it is that you do.
Now…One Caveat
Don’t document things that you SUCK at. All your doing is creating a system to Clone Dumb actions. How To Succeed In Business Without Getting… 309
Wait and model the process from someone in your business that does it well or until you’ve found the cor- rect and proper way to do it.
ALL SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES HAVE SYSTEMS IN PLACE.
I know of No Better Resource For Creating a Successful Business Top to Bottom Then the Stompernet Formula5 Course ($2,500 program)..YOU CAN GET THE NERD REPORT RIGHT NOW BY CLICKING HERE
Lesson #3: Become The Place
We now live in a world of infinite possibility and choices.
So you must make sure that everything you do is setting you up to BE THE PLACE that people in your chosen niche want to be.
You must provide an experience not just a product.
People must feel cared about and connected to you.
You can do this through Blogging, Tweeting, etc. etc..
It’s all about developing that one to one relationship with each and every new customer you get.
So begin to ask yourself…..”How do I become the Place” my potential customers want to come to.
People spend most of their day (and sometimes their life) doing stuff they dislike or hate.
If you can build a place that gives them a great time, an AWESOME time, you will have a customer for life, regardless of how expensive you are!
Lesson #4: Quit Making Excuses. Your Not As Smart As You Think. Even Michael Jordan Needed a Coach. Get a Mentor!
As I’ve shared earlier.
I’ve gotten my ass handed to many both physically and just about every other way in life and business.
One thing I never stopped doing though.
I’ve always invested in myself or found a way to have access to the very best minds on the planet.
I’ve been in Free local mastermind groups. 310 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I’ve also been in a $50,000 a year coaching program ran by Tony Robbins.(whole story here I’ll share later bout the Power of Procrastination…umm not a good story LOL)
I remember, just like it was yesterday, when I first chose Tony as my Mentor about 14 years ago.
I remember the lessons I learned walking on those 1000 degree coals at three in the morning.
I remember Tony sharing with us the stories of all the Mentors he had.
The lesson? People with mentors succeed at a much faster rate then those that don’t have them.
You can compress decades into days by learning from the wisdom of others successes and failures.
And remember this as well.
The power is even stronger when you become a mentor and start sharing what you have learned.
I encourage you to “pay this blog post forward” by sharing it with friends, associates, and family.
I’d also love to hear from you in the comments section below.
Your Mentor and Coach
The Chief Nerd
The Nerd’s Ultra Product Launch Program is a Comprehensive course on Building the Ultimate Online Business…7 Weeks, 35 Hours, and a summary of The Very Best Programs on Earth can be yours right now. Join the UPL Mentoring Program By Clicking Here Now
Share this Post CHAPTER 79
Creativity Is Waaaaay Overated
Hey You, It’s #2.
This started out as a reply back to Brian, one of our superstar nerd fans but
I figured the topic was too good to be buried in the comment section of a post you may or may never get to.
It was birthed as a result of a post he made in regards to a comment I made about my last post… “Could it be possible that the smoothest way known to man to get a woman open to the idea of a threesome… would be the same technique you could use to get maximum money from your ideal customers.
It had to do with the idea of “Original vs. Re-purposed” Content…
Here’s what Brian said…
“Not to be controversial re Tony Robbins. I think he’s very good at what he does but most of his stuff is not original.
The difference between Tony and many of the originators like Bandler etc was that he brought it to the masses. Kind of like Ford and the Model T way back. As you can see, it’s a pretty good lesson and busi- ness model.”
Here’s what I started writing back to him…
Damn you Brian and bless you,
It’s about 1:34 A.M. on my side of the planet as I’m writing this and I’ve got some kind of cold that’s attempting to assault my throat & sinuses. Yet, with the help of Vitamin C I’m here with you. 312 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
What an awesome observation about Tony’s stuff not being original.
While listening to Harlan Kilstein’s “Value Based Copywriting” program (fabulous resource by the way), Harlan talked about how he’d found out that Tony’s secretary had called and ordered one of his Golf “Inner Game” visualization programs.
Kilstein brings this up to a guy he knows worked with Robbins’ and the guy says, “Yeah, he’s probably coming up with a new program.”
Or, what I’m thinking is he’s got some big shot Golf client and he’s trying out any new technology that can enhance his coaching by specifically learning what Harlan offers.
Whether he’s trying to enhance the experience his clients get with him or as an upstart he recognized that sitting in a room trying to be creative would be a sloooowwww process.
I can say with relative certainty that Tony’s “Six Human Needs Psychology” is of his own creation and this only came years later through distinctions made working with what he learned from the creators of NLP.
The key here is that he didn’t wait until he could create something his own to get out and start making a difference in peoples lives and making some real fuckin’ money.
Look at these guys like David Garfinkel, Mike Morgan and Ray Edwards. They’re all guys who teach copy- writing. They’re all disciples of John Carlton.
None of them bring anything ‘Revolutionary’ to the market but they’ve carved their own little niche to where they’ve all sold pretty big ticket info products selling the same info you’d get from Carlton’s ‘Kick Ass Copywriting Secrets’.
You & I have both brought up Eugene Schwartz here before.
For anyone who doesn’t know about Eugene, he is known as one of the legends of marketing. Some people would say “Legends of Copywriting” but not me. I know that to be a great copywriter you must be a great marketer.
There’s a lot of wonderful writers out in the world but they couldn’t sell “free money” even if they had John Carlton’s gun to their head philosophy.
Schwartz was an old school direct mail man. In fact he wrote a book called “Mail Order” all about making money in that business before he wrote the classic “Breakthrough Advertising” which lays claim to the “most stolen book from libraries.”
He became a great marketer running his own business back in 1954 selling books through space ads in newspapers and magazines. Knowing the ins & outs of the math that made his business hum and knowing Creativity Is Waaaaay Overated 313
that if his ads bombed he, himself, was losing money he needed to take care of his family… put the gun to his head.
He had to get good or else it was his ass on the line.
Ted Nicholas sharpened his skills this way, Gary Halbert did as well as did Joe Sugarman.
What we never see is the garbage they wrote when they we’re just finding their way as ‘babes in the woods’. I want to see a pro do this one day. Show people “If I can go from writing a piece of shit like this to writing the way I do today, you can too.”
You see, most copywriters that stay copywriters do so because they don’t have what it takes to run their own company. And this is just how it goes. I mean, look at Gary Bencivenga. Arguably one of the greatest copywriters to have lived and as far as I know he’s never owned a company that sold any info products or services besides his own & the one seminar.
Then, contrast that with the message of a guy like John Carlton, who like Bencivenga has sold tons of stuff for other companies but has started his own online empire selling basically what Gary did with his seminar plus more but also telling people he coaches…
“If you can write damn good sales copy, why the hell would you do it for someone else? Find something to sell and keep all the money.”
Some people just aren’t wired that way. Our friend Eugene is. And when asked ‘What makes you so crea- tive?’ he was fond of saying…
“God is the only one who can create. We don’t create anything. We merely re-assemble what’s already available to us.”
Pretty heavy words from a guy the Super Guru Copywriters would credit with possessing tremendous crea- tivity.
I believe Tony Robbins has mastered this Eugene Schwartz principle through the NLP principle of Mod- eling.
Modeling says you go and find someone who’s getting the result you want (Ala Harlan’s golf mind product or a winning headline/landing page) and you find out the ‘why’ behind what they do and the actions they take and mirror them and you too can get similar results.
As we both know Bandler and Grinder set out to model kick ass therapists who were actually helping people like Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson and used parts of Gestalt Therapy along with other distinc- tions they came up with on the way to making NLP what it is today.
They pulled a Eugene Schwartz. Or, as they’d say in Space Balls, they used “The Schwartz” 314 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I know Robbins isn’t original and he’s the guy that reached me when I was a young punk with low self esteem who’d never heard any kind of personal development stuff.
This guy cut through all this noise to connect with a kid who listened to at least 4 hours a day of one of the most negative messages, hard core gangster rap, you could ever put into your mind.
Had someone put my old school Richard Bandler “Building Generalizations” program or the Robert Dilts “Sleight of Mouth” videos in my hands at the time I would’ve just zoned out and been looking for the exit door ASAP.
Tony’s stuff is definitely more entertaining. Not nearly as intricate but it gets you to a productive place where grasping the super advanced stuff Bandler teaches is all the more possible.
So, like you said Brian, for anyone new to personal development coming in from the cold, damp, atmosphere of the masses… Tony’s a great first step toward greatness.
The lesson here is to use whats already out there and make it better. That’s all we can do. Improve on what exists.
Then as you’re on the path of modeling what works, you inevitably come across teeny or humongous dis- tinctions that enhance the process of what you’re doing.
One of the keys you’ll learn once you own a copy of the notes for Dan Kennedy’s “Influential Writing Pro- gram” you’ll see that one of the 31 principles he cover there is what he calls “Welcomed Prophet Status”.
Here’s one of the lessons from this report on the house…
Principle 24: Welcome Prophet Status
This really has to do with source and it fundamentally says that most of what is profitable for us to do in writing to influence is not to change people’s minds but instead to give them what they want. To appear as the prophet they hoped would appear not has the prophet they don’t want.
Selling unwelcome advice is an ugly, grimy business about the only time that it pays to do it is after you have somebody who has ascended in a relationship or maybe in a private client environment.
In terms of numbers, the sale of unwelcome advice is a losing proposition. People will simply leave. They’ll shop for the advice they like until they find somebody giving them advice they like and they’ll give him all their money.
You won’t really keep a lot of people around by ramming down their throats what they resist. Creativity Is Waaaaay Overated 315
We want to show up and appear as “X” to an audience that wants “X”. We don’t want to show up to an audience that wants “Y” and try and convert them. When you study all the cults, you find that cult recruiters do not go out and try and convert people.
They go out in search of people who are ready to join a cult. There’s a big difference in those two things. Now, you need to know your ideal customers profile and you need to match yourself up with your profile.
There’s a new weight loss Infomercial broke not too long ago. I watched half of it this morning. It’s gonna make a fortune. They built a fairly complicated product. They got this book with little tabs.
You fill out a questionnaire and you figure out your body type. When you turn it over on the back, after you put the right pieces together, it tells you what to eat.
The best thing they got in the whole pitch…
The bonus. It’s a pocket size book for 50 of the major restaurant chains in America. It’s got their logos all over it. Bob Evans, Applebee’s, McDonald’s, etc. One page for each one of them that tells you what to eat to lose weight while you’re there.
Here are the foods to eat at Bob Evans to crank up your metabolism and it’s in a book. You walk in. You open the book. You look at the menu, it tells you what to eat. I am looking at this and I’m saying “The phones are going to ring off the hook right now”.
Here’s what they did that’s so smart. First of all , everybody else is telling everybody stay the hell out of them places. If you want to lose weight, the first thing you do is don’t go there. Get your nose out of the trough and you ‘ll be better off.
That’s a prophet nobody wants.
The prophet who shows up and says “By all means eat lunch a McDonald’s, go to Outback for dinner and stop by Krispy Kreme in the morning on the way to work. Here’s a page for each one of them that tells you what to eat that will crank up your metabolism.
This guy is the most welcomed prophet yet to arrive this year for weight loss. It’s brilliant because it’s this. It is exactly what to do. No thought required. And it’s actually what they want to do.
Exercise: Two things. What do people believe in general that you can show up and agree with in order to influence them? What do the people you seek to influence believe specifically that you can show up and agree with them about?
This is what I believe Tony did so well when he modeled NLP. He understood where his market was so he knew that to become a “Welcomed Prophet” he had to come in with the approach that Joe Sixpack, the everyday man and woman could relate to. 316 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Then once you went through all of his seminars, and only then would he present the idea of his super god- dammit certification course which dissolved and turned into Mastery University.
Screw creativity. We don’t have to re-create the wheel entirely. But we have to re-fashion stuff to fit where our market is.
Thanks Brian for the conversation, talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. You’ll be hearing from me about your magnificent contest entry.
P.P.S. If you want access to the other 30 principles Dan Kennedy covered in his $12,500.00 per person sem- inar they were all divulged to the members of the Ultra Product Launch group last week. CLICK HERE to get in now and you’ll have access to these must-know secrets too. CHAPTER 80
The Secret The Guru’s May Shoot Me For Sharing With You!
Yesterday I sent an email to a select few of my top Nerd Fans. Today I’m going to share with all of you something NO GURU wants you to know about.
It’s the Dirty Little Secret in the information marketing business.
It’s the single thing that keeps launch after launch churning out Millions of Dollars.
It has absolutely nothing to do with Internet Marketing or any business strategy or tactic.
However, it has everything to do with why you may not be Doing anything with all the information that’s piled on you.
What is it.
Well…I’ll get to that in a quick second.
First let’s look at the reality of what’s going on in our society.
Today more then ever before we are exposed to information at a pace and quanity that far exceeds our capacity to use it.
As entrepreneurs we’ve become Holy Grail seekers.
I’m not saying you. I don’t know that to be true.
But I can say that the majority of people I’ve came into contact with are suffering from information over- load.
Always on the lookout for the Next Best Thing to turn their life and business around. 318 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I’m gonna go out on a limb and make a BOLD STATEMENT.
The majority of us are like Tree’s with Dead Roots.
Getting just enough water to keep the leaves alive but not enough to sustain long term growth with health roots.
If your like I was at one point and still to a lesser degree today.
You are at a loss for how to manage all the information that is coming at you.
You then fall victim to how to manage and use the information.
So here is the TRUTH the guru’s don’t want you to know.
80% of the people who ever buy their product or service will ever get past the first chapter, DVD, or Cd.
98% will ever actually implement more then one strategy or tactic.
Therefor they can regurgetate the VERY SAME information to you over and over again with a new Pretty Color and Package…New Sales Copy and keep selling you the Same Holy Grail over and over again.
This really fucking pisses me off.
Most gurus don’t give a shit if they actually help.
Now don’t get me wrong some do.
But reality is reality.
I want you to know that I, The Chief Nerd, CARES!!
If i didn’t I’d sell these reports I work so dang hard on for 3 - 5 times more then I am and find plenty of customers to willingly pay that with smiles on their faces.
Because I want to help you I’m creating what’s called THE ULTIMATE YOU PROGRAM.
What is this?
Well before I share that let me give you some practical tactics you can use to actually start using the infor- mation you get your hands on.
1. Don’t think you have to do everything. Start with basic strategies in every area of your business and begin to implement one little strategy at a time. The Secret The Guru’s May Shoot Me For… 319
2. Set goals for every area of your Life and Business.
3. Attach a meaning or reason why to every single one of those goals. The Why! is way more important then the What.
4. Take each one of those goals for your life and business and every single day try to take one little action to mover closer to it’s attainment.
5. Keep the programs you listen to and the books you read in the areas of your current goals and actions you are taking daily. That way you are reinforcing what you are doing rather then “Dreaming” of what you will do.
5. Strive for some balance in your life. Find time for Work, Hobby, Family and Fun. It could be 80% work, 10% Family, 5% Fun, and 5% Hobby. But the key is to be present while doing those activities.
6. Get on a regular sleep schedule. Two things here. One: Don’t get caught up thinking there’s a perfect time to go to sleep or wake up. Do what works for you. Two: Get 7 - 9 hours of sleep.
7. Start working in 50 Minute Chunks of time focusing on one single thing. Then disengage for 10 minutes of a completely different activity. Follow that by another 50 Minute Work Chunk, and then a 30 minute break. Start over. This is something I picked up from Eben Pagan and it Works.
Those are a few of many more tactics I’ll share with you over the next few days that will lead you to a much more fullfilled life of “Doing” rather then “Dreaming”.
Now…because of my Passion in this area I’m going to be starting a program called The Ultimate YOU Transformation Program.
The entire goal of this program is to get YOU aligned and better equiped to “Do” and act on the informa- tion that you receive. I’m here for one reason only …. * To help you get to that next level you want so badly. * However… * I struggle knowing that there is ths ONE thing that stands in your way. * What is it.. * Well…go stand in the bathroom and look in the mirror. * Because there’s the problem. 320 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Yep * It’s YOU * Think of your business as a mirror of you. * Your business will have the same symptoms of your biggest challenges in life. * If you procrastinate..Guess what.. your business won’t get a whole lot done. * If you aren’t good at X then your business will probably suffer in that area. * So here is the Master Key to Massive Success In business. * You must work as hard on yourself as you ever do on your business. The problem, i’ve found, is that many of us don’t have a plan for “US” but we have many plans for our business. * Many of you may be aware that I’ve been exposed to the Very Best teachers and mentors on the planet in the area of Inner Game. * What i’m offering you today will give you the Master Key to opening all the doors you’ve previously been unable to unlock. * I’m offering you the gift of being able to take acttion. * I’ve been coached by Tony Robbins in his $50,000 a year program… I’ve listened to the very best programs on earth for becoming a better me. * I want to share the best of all of this with you. * I can’t do this in a one hour phone call or report. * I’m in the process of creating The Ultimate You Transformation Program. * Over Five Weeks I’ll be covering the following; Week One: Understanding the Real Process For Achieving Goals. A Process, Template, and Action Plan For Achieving Everything You Ever Wanted. * Week Two: The Source Of All Procrastination And How To Resolve This Quickly and Easily. You will learn how to overcome all interal conflicts that prohibit you from taking action. * The Secret The Guru’s May Shoot Me For… 321
Week Three: A Secret Technique Used Only By A Select Few Guru’s Who Even Know It Excists That Ena- bles You To Move Forward And Take Action Like Never Before. * Week Four: The Power of Questions. Learn the unconcious process you are habitially doing every single day and how to make it work for you. * Week Five: Your Date With Destiny. Your Complete Plan to move yourself and your business * Bonus #1: The Chief Nerds Report (Notes) from his Date With Destiny experience with Anthony Robbins. THIS IS WORTH 10 TIMES MORE THEN THIS PROGRAM. Bonus #2: Tony Robbins Time of Your Life Program Report. * This program will be delivered to you as a Video and/or Audio file and PDF Report every Wendsday starting October 7th for Five Weeks. * Urgent Note: When i am done with this. I will market this course for no less then $229. * Today You Can Join For Just $89 Total. Less Then $20 Per Week * Only the select few of you will ever get it at this price. * It’s my goal to help you become an Action Machine. * Please Join Me on this journey. Your Friend * The Chief Nerd MyNoteTakingNerd
Take Action Now And Never Again Have To Worry About Taking Action On Your Life and Business Goals Share this Post CHAPTER 81
The Truth About The Software Running Every One Of Your Ideal Customers Thinking
Hey you, It’s #2.
Today I wanted to let you in on completely different way to view the way your “Ideal Customer” makes every single decision.
Once you know this, take it inside and own it, you’ll never prospect or serve your clients the same way again. Ever.
You’re about to get a super advanced revelation wrapped inside everyday language. Even if you’re a psy- chologist, therapist or NLP Certified practitioner, I’m confident you’ll appreciate this on some level.
After I rose today at around 10:30 A.M, I went to start my morning routine of Neti Potting my face (for those who don’t know what a Neti Pot is, it’s a mini teapot looking thing you use to cleanse your nostrils by pouring water into one of your nose honkers and letting the water run out the other side. Think of it as going to pool at your sink) and while doing so, I was listening to some nourishing brain food.
And it hit me. I needed to tell you about what I was hearing so you’d never make the mistake of being disconnected from what drives your “Ideal Customers”… you know, the people that’ve made it possible for you to become accustomed to the standards of living you have now and can bust open any gorgeous future vision of where you’d like to be someday.
In memory of my lead footed mom who used to tell my brother while driving, when he was a baby, “Hold on to your Pampers, Sean”, I tell you, “Hold on to your skibbies” because here we go…
Domestication & The Dream of the Planet The Truth About The Software Running Every… 323
What your ideal customers are seeing and hearing right now is nothing but a dream.
They’re dreaming right now in this moment. They’re dreaming with a brain even while awake. Dreaming is the main function of the mind. And the mind dreams 24 hours a day.
It dreams when the brain is awake and it also dreams when the brain is asleep. The difference is that when the brain is awake there is a material frame that makes us perceive things in a linear way.
When your ideal customers go to sleep, they do not have the frame. And the dream has the tendency to change constantly. Humans are dreaming all the time.
Before your ideal customers were born the humans before them created a big outside dream
We’ll call this “Society’s Dream” or the “Dream of the Planet”.
The “Dream of the Planet” is the collective dream of billions of smaller personal dreams. Which together create a dream of a family, a dream of a community a dream of a city, a dream of a country and finally, a dream of the whole humanity.
The “Dream of the Planet” includes all of society’s rules, it’s beliefs, it’s laws, it’s religion, it’s different cul- tures and ways to be, it’s governments, schools, social events and holidays.
Your ideal customers are born with a capacity to learn how to dream. And the humans who lived before them teach them how to dream the way society dreams.
The outside dream has so many rules that when a new human is born, we hook the child’s attention and introduce these rules into his or her mind. The outside dream uses mom and dad, the schools and religion to teach us how to dream.
Attention is the ability we have to discriminate and to focus only on that which we want to perceive. We can perceive millions of things simultaneously but using our attention, we can hold whatever we want to perceive within the foreground of our mind.
We’re Basically Brainwashed
The adult’s around your ideal customer hooked their attention and put information into our minds through repetition. That is the way we learned everything we know. By using our attention we learned a whole reality… a whole dream.
They learned how to behave in society. What to believe and what not to believe. What is acceptable and what isn’t acceptable. What is good and what is bad. What is beautiful and what is ugly. What is right and what is wrong.
It was all there already. All that knowledge, all those rules and concepts about how to behave in the world. 324 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
When your ideal customers were in school, they sat in their little chair and put their attention on what the teacher was teaching them. When they went to church they put their attention on to what the priest or minister was telling them.
It’s the same dynamic with mom and dad, brother and sisters because they were all trying to hook their attention. They also learned to hook the attention of other humans. And they develop the need for atten- tion which can become very competitive.
Children compete for the attention of their parents, their teachers, their friends. “Look at me, look what I’m doing. Hey, I’m here.”
The need for attention becomes very strong. And continues into adulthood. The outside dream hooks our attention and teaches us what to believe beginning with the language that we speak.
Language is the code for understanding communication between humans. Every letter, every word, in each language is an agreement. Once we understand the code, our attention is hooked and the energy is trans- ferred from one person to another.
It was not your ideal customers choice to speak English. They didn’t choose their religion or their moral values. They were already there before they were born.
They never had the opportunity to choose what to believe or not to believe. They never chose even the smallest of these agreements. They didn’t even choose their own name.
Our Mental Software, Our Most Valuable Asset, is Pre-Selected For Us
As children they didn’t have the opportunity to choose their own beliefs but they agreed with the informa- tion that was passed to them from the dream of the planet via other humans. The only way to store infor- mation is by agreement.
The outside dream may hook their attention but if they don’t agree with it, they don’t store that informa- tion. As soon as they agree, they believe it and this is called faith. To have faith is to believe uncondition- ally.
That’s how your ideal customers learn as children. Children believe everything adults say. They agree with them and their faith is so strong that the belief system controls their whole dream of life.
They didn’t choose these beliefs and they may have rebelled against them but they were not strong enough to win the rebellion. The result is surrender to the beliefs. The power of agreement.
Your Ideal Customers Are Trained Just Like Dogs
I call this process the domestication of humans.And through this domestication your ideal customers learn how to live and how to dream. The Truth About The Software Running Every… 325
In human domestication the information from the outside dream is conveyed to the inside dream creating their whole belief system.
First the child is taught the names of things, mom, dad, milk, bottle. Day by day at home, school, church and from television we are told how to live, what kind of behavior is acceptable.
The outside dream teaches us how to be a human. We have a whole concept of what a woman is and what a man is and we also learn to judge. We judge ourselves, we judge other people, we judge the neighbors.
Children are domesticated the same way we domesticate a dog, a cat or any other animal. In order to teach a dog we punish the dog. And we give it rewards.
We train our children whom we love so much, the same way we train any other domesticated animal, with the same system of punishment and reward. We’re told “You’re a good boy” or “You’re a good girl” when they do what mom & dad want us to do.
When they don’t, they are a “Bad Girl” or a “Bad Boy.
Your Ideal Customers Are Ruled With An Iron Mental Fist
When they went against the rules, they were punished. When they went along with the rules they got a reward. They were punished many times a day and they were also rewarded many times a day.
Soon they became afraid of being punished and also afraid of not receiving the reward. The reward is the attention we got from our parents or from other people like siblings, teachers and friends.
Your ideal customer soon develop a need to hook other peoples attention in order to get the reward.
Why Are Your Ideal Customers Professional Actors?
The reward feels good and they keep doing what others want them to do in order to get the reward. With that fear of being punished and that fear of not getting the reward they start pretending to be something they are not. Just to please others. Just to be good enough for someone else.
They try to please mom & dad. They try to please the teachers at school. They try to please the church and so they start acting. They pretend to be what they are not because they afraid of being rejected.
The fear of being rejected becomes the fear of not being good enough.
Eventually they become someone they are not. They become a copy of momma’s beliefs, daddy’s beliefs, society’s beliefs, and religions beliefs.
They Get Their Spirit Crushed Under The Jack Boot of Ignorance 326 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
All their normal tendencies are lost in the process of domestication. And when they’re old enough for their mind to understand, they learn the word no.
The adults say “Don’t do this” and “Don’t do that”. Your ideal customers rebel and say no because they are defending their freedom. They want to be themselves but they are very little and the adults are big and strong.
After a certain time they’re afraid because they know that every time they do something wrong, they’re going to be punished.
The domestication is so strong that at a certain point in our life your ideal customer no longer needs anyone to domesticate them. They don’t need mom or dad, the school or the church to domesticate them.
They’re so well trained that they are their own domesticator. They are an auto-domesticated animal. They can now domesticate themselves according to the same belief system they were given and using the same system of punishment and reward.
Your ideal prospects punish themselves when they don’t follow the rules according to their belief system. They reward themselves when they are a “Good Boy” or the “Good Girl”.
Play By Our Rules And No One Gets Hurt (Yeah, Right)
Just as the government has a book of laws that rule the society’s dream, our belief system is the book of laws that rules their mind.
Without question, whatever is in that book of law is their truth. They base all of their judgments according to the book of law. Even if these judgments go against their own inner nature.
Even moral laws like the ten commandments are programmed into your ideal customers mind in the process of domestication.
One by one all of these agreements go into the book of law and these agreements rule their personal dreams.
There’s something in their mind that judges everybody and everything. Including the weather, the dog, the cat, everything. The inner judge uses what is in their book of law to judge everything they do and don’t do. Everything they think and don’t think. And everything they feel and don’t feel.
Everything lives under the tyranny of this judge.
Every time your ideal customer does something that goes against the book of law, the judge says they are guilty. They need to be punished. They should be ashamed.
This happens many times a day. Day after day. For all the years of their lives. The Truth About The Software Running Every… 327
Why Telling People Their Problems Aren’t Their Fault Works So Well
There’s another part of them that receives the judgments and this part is called the victim.
The victim carries the blame, the guilt, and the shame.
It’s the part of your ideal customer that says “Poor Me, I’m not good enough. I’m not intelligent enough. I’m not attractive enough. I’m not worthy enough. Poor Me.” The big judge agrees and says “Yes, you’re not good enough.”
And this is all based on a belief system that your ideal customer never chose to believe.
These beliefs are so strong that even years later when they’re exposed to new concepts and try to make their own decisions, they find that these beliefs still control their lives.
Your Ideal Customers Gut Feelings Exposed
Whatever goes against the book of law will make them feel a funny sensation in their gut and it’s called fear.
Breaking the rules in the book of law opens your ideal customer’s emotional wounds and their reaction is to create an emotional poison because even if the book of law is wrong, it makes them feel safe.
Anything that challenges what they believe is going to make them feel unsafe.
That is why they need a great deal of courage to challenge their own beliefs because even if they knew they didn’t choose all these beliefs it’s also true that we agreed to all of them.
The agreement is so strong that even if we understand the concept of it not being true, they feel the blame, the guilt, and the shame as it occurs as we go against these rules.
All these rules exist in your ideal customers mind, they believe them. And the judge inside them bases everything on these rules. The judge decrees and victim suffers the guilt and punishment.
We’re The Only Ones…
But who says there is justice in this dream. True justice is paying only once for each mistake. True injustice is paying more than once for each mistake. How many times does your ideal customer pay for one mis- take?
The answer is thousands of times. The human is the only animal on earth that pays a thousand times for the same mistake. The rest of the animals pay once for every mistake they make. Not us. Your ideal cus- tomer has a powerful memory. They make a mistake and they judge themselves, they find themselves guilty and they punish themselves. 328 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If justice exists, and that was enough, they don’t need to do it again. But every time they remember, they judge themselves again. They are guilty again. And they punish themselves again and again and again.
If your ideal customer has a wife or a husband he or she also reminds them of their mistakes so they can judge themselves again. Punish themselves again. And find themselves guilty again. Is this fair?
How many times do your ideal customers make their spouse, their children or their parents pay for the same mistake?
Every time they remember the mistake, they blame them again and send them all the emotional poison that we feel at the injustice. And we make them pay again for the same mistake. Is that justice?
The judge in the mind is wrong. Because the belief system, the book of law is wrong.
What If Almost Everything Your Ideal Customers Knew Was Bullshit?
The whole dream is based on false law. 95% of the beliefs your ideal customer has stored in their mind are nothing but lies. And they suffer because they believe all these lies.
In the dream of the planet, it is normal for humans to suffer, to live in fear and to create emotional dramas. The outside dream is not a pleasant dream. It is a dream of violence. A dream of fear. A dream of war. A dream of injustice.
The Personal Dream of Humans Will Vary…
But Globally, it’s Mostly a Nightmare
If we look at human society we see a place so difficult to live in because it is ruled by fear.
Throughout the world we see humans suffering. Anger, revenge, addictions, violence in the streets and tre- mendous injustice. It may exist at different levels, in different countries around the world but fear is con- trolling the outside dream.
If we compare the dream of human society with a description of Hell that religions
all around the world have fabricated, we find they are EXACTLY the same
Religions say that Hell is a place of punishment, a place of fear, pain, suffering. A place where the fire burns you. Fire is generated by emotions that come when you fear. Whenever your ideal customers feel anger, jealously, envy or hate they experience a fire burning within them.
They are living in a dream of Hell. The Truth About The Software Running Every… 329
If you consider Hell as a state of mind, then Hell is all around us. Others may warn your ideal customer that if they don’t do what they say they should do, they will go to Hell.
Bad News. We’re Already In Hell.
Even the people who tell them that. No human can condemn another to Hell because we’re already there. Others can put us into a deeperHell, true. But only if we allow this to happen.
Every human has his or her own personal dream. And just like the society dream, it is often ruled by fear. Your ideal customer learns to dream Hell in their own life in their personal dream. And the same fears manifest in different ways for each person of course, but they experience anger, jealously, hate, envy and other negative emotions.
Their personal dream can also become an ongoing nightmare where they suffer and live in a state of fear.
But your ideal prospect doesn’t need to dream a nightmare.
It is possible to enjoy a pleasant dream
All of humanity is searching for truth, justice, and beauty. We are on an eternal search for the truth because we only believe in the lies we have stored in our minds. We’re searching for justice because in the belief system we have, there is no justice.
Your ideal prospects search for beauty because it doesn’t matter how beautiful a person is, they don’t believe that person has beauty. They keep searching and searching when everything is already within them. There is no truth to find.
Wherever they turn their heads all they see is the truth. But with the agreements and beliefs they have stored in their mind, they have no eyes for this truth. They don’t see the truth because they are blind.
What blinds your ideal prospects are all the false beliefs they have in their mind. They have the need to be right and to make others wrong. They trust what they believe and their beliefs set them up for suffering.
It is if they live in the middle of a fog that doesn’t let them see any further than their own nose. This fog is their personal dream of life. Everything they believe about themselves and the world, all the concepts they have about what they are, all the agreements they’ve made with others, with themselves and even with god.
The Toltecs called this fog a Metote. A Metote can be compared to a huge marketplace where thousands of people are talking at the same time and nobody understands each other. This is the condition of the human mind. A big Metote. And with that big Metote, your ideal customer can’t see who they really are.
In India they call the Metote, Mya, which means illusion. It’s the personality’s notion of “I am”. And your ideal customer cannot see who they truly are. They cannot see they are not free. That is why humans resist life. 330 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
To Be Alive is the Biggest Fear Humans Have
Death is not the biggest fear we have. Our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive and to express what we really are. Just being themselves is the biggest fear of humans.
Your ideal customer has lived their lives trying to satisfy other peoples demands. They’ve learned to live by other people’s point of view because of the fear of not being accepted and of not being good enough to someone else.
During the process of domestication they form an image of what perfection is in order to try to become good enough, in order to be accepted by everybody. They especially try to please the ones who love them like mom & dad, big brothers & sisters, priests & teachers.
Trying to be good enough for them, they create an image of perfection but they don’t fit this image.
They create the image but the image is not real. They are never going to be perfect in this point of view. Never. Not being perfect, your ideal prospects reject themselves and the level of self-rejection depends on how effective the adults were in breaking their integrity.
After domestication, it is no longer about being good enough for anybody else.
Your ideal customers feel they aren’t good enough for themselves.
Because they don’t fit with their own image of perfection. Your ideal prospects cannot forgive themselves for not being what they wish to be. Or rather, what they believe they should be.
They cannot forgive themselves for not being perfect.
They know they’re not what they’re supposed to be and so they feel false, frustrated, and dishonest. They try to hide themselves and pretend to be what they are not.
The result is that they feel un-authentic and wear social masks to keep others from noticing this. They’re so afraid someone else will notice they are not what they pretend to be that they judge others according to perfection as well.
And naturally they fall short of their expectations.
Your ideal customers dishonor themselves just to please other people.
They even do harm to their physical bodies just to be accepted by others. You see teenagers taking drugs just to avoid being rejected by other teenagers. They are not aware that they must accept themselves before anyone else will.
They reject themselves because they are not what they pretend to be. The Truth About The Software Running Every… 331
They wish to be a certain way but they are not. And for this, they carry shame and guilt. Humans punish themselves endlessly for not being what they believe they should be. They become very self abusive and they use other people to abuse themselves as well.
No One Abuses Your Ideal Customers As Much As They Abuse Themselves
And it’s the judge the victim and the belief system that make them do this. True, we find people who say their husband or wife or mother or father abused them. But you know we abuse ourselves much more than that.
The way they judge themselves is the worst judge that ever existed. If they make a mistake in front of people, they try to deny the mistake and cover it up. But as soon as they’re alone, the judge becomes so strong, the guilt is so strong and they feel stupid or bad or unworthy.
In their whole life, nobody has abused your Ideal Customer more than they have abused themselves. And the limit of their self abuse is exactly the limit they will tolerate from someone else.
If someone abuses them a little more than they abuse themselves, they’ll walk away from that person. But if someone abuses them a little less than they abuse themselves, they’ll probably stay in the relationship and tolerate it endlessly.
If your ideal customer abuses themselves very badly, they can even tolerate someone who
beats them up, humiliates them and treats them like dirt. Why?
Because in their belief system they say, “I deserve it. This person is doing me a favor by being with me. I’m not worthy of love and respect. I’m not good enough.”
They have the need to be accepted and be loved by others but they cannot accept and love themselves. The more self-love they have, the less they’ll experience self abuse.
Self abuse comes from self rejection. And self rejection comes from what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal. Their image of perfection is the reason they reject themselves. It’s why they don’t accept themselves they way they are and why they don’t accept others the way they are.
There are thousands of agreements your ideal customer has made with themselves and with other people, with their dream of life, with god, with society, with their parents, with their spouse, with their children.
But the most important agreements are the ones they made with themselves.
And in these agreements, they tell themselves who they are, what they feel, what they believe, and how to behave. 332 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The result is what you call their personality. In these agreements they say “This is what I am, This is what I believe. I can do certain things and some things I cannot do. This is reality and that is fantasy. This is possible, that is impossible.”
One single agreement is not so much of a problem, but your ideal customers have many agreements that make them suffer, that make them fail in life.
If they want to live a life of fulfillment and joy they have to find the courage to break those agreements that are fear based and claim your personal power. The agreements that come from fear require them to expend a lot of energy.
But the agreements that come from love, help them to conserve energy and even gain extra energy.
Each of your ideal customers is born with a certain amount of personal power that they re-build every day after they rest. Unfortunately they spend all their personal power, first to create all these agreements and then to keep all of them.
Their personal power is dissipated by all the agreements they have created and the result is that they feel powerless. They have just enough power to survive each day because most of it is used to keep the agree- ments that trap us in the dream of the planet.
How Can Your Ideal Customer Change The Entire Dream of Their Life When They Have No Power
To Even Change The Smallest Agreement?
If they can see that agreements rule all of their life and they don’t like the dream of their life, we can help them change it.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
I’ve culled this entire passage from one of my favorite books I’ve come across in a very long time, called “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz.
If what you’ve read has been to your liking I’m sure you’ll love the rest of the book. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
For me, this was more valuable than looking at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs or John Caples list of desires people have.
Obviously, in this passage I exchange the word “you” for your “ideal customer” so you’d see how once you step out of your own world and think about what people you’re attempting to influence are going through on a day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute basis… you can shut down any of your amateur “hey look at me” marketing, step into the big leagues and start talking to what really matters in your ideal customer’s life… The Truth About The Software Running Every… 333
…their feelings about what you can potentially do for them.
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Remember… I’ve decided to commit to spending at least One Hour of my time responding to any thoughtful question or comments made about posts I’ve written. I’m not perfect yet and after spending hours writing this I’ve had to leave some stuff out. So feel free to point out anything I wasn’t crystal clear on. What you say might exhaust the whole hour (if you’ve seen my responses in previous posts you’ll see I don’t wimp out here). And, if it’s of the ” ‘Great’ or ‘Shitty’ post” type, it may not warrant any further elaboration but yet will be oh so appreciated. I’m here for you and I’d love to hear your voice. Just let me know what you have a question about in today’s topic. The doors open so go on ahead and deepen our relationship today by coming on in and talking to me.
P.P.S. Business is nothing but psychology & math. Knowing this, Dan Kennedy makes sure he uses 31 spe- cific tactics pertaining to the nuturing of the mental state of his ideal customer every time any word comes out of his mouth in a speech or onto a keyboard. He credits this 31 point checklist as the reason why people are on a waiting list to give him $15,000.00 a year to be in his coaching group. CLICK HERE and you’ll find the secret to his success.
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Manifesto To Myself!
MANIFESTO TO MYSELF
The Chief Nerd
Inspired by Dan Kennedy, Matt Furey, Chris Hunsicker, Robert Ringer, and Jeff Paul
Below is a summation of some of the best Phylosophy of Life i’d came up with as of a few years back.
I think this little article contains some amazing stuff. enjoy.
This is not a manifesto about the great things I’ve done or will do. It’s a letter to me about what I know to be the “Truth” in life. It’s a wake – up call to myself. An inspiration that should be a catalyst of change. I have always believed that the difference between success and failure – in any area – is not nearly as great as most people might suspect. As the famous consult, Jim Rohn, has said, “Success is practicing about a half dozen things over and over again”. In other words practicing certain success habits that are based on common sense.
With this in mind, here are some of the key factors in success. All these pillars of success must work in conjunction with the Master Key to success. This is the one thing that has hurt me more than anything. What is it? TAKING ACTION!
PILLAR NUMBER ONE: NOTHING HAPPENS UNTIL SOMETHING MOVES “Nothing happens until something moves” are the words of the greatest scientist mind of the twentieth cen- tury, Albert Einstein.
While his observation is an indisputable fact, there is no doubt in my mind that it applies to all other aspects of life, not just Science. Ideas, preparation, knowledge, and wisdom are all but useless without Manifesto To Myself! 335
action, because action is the starting point of any and all progress. In other words an Idea by itself has no intrinsic value.
I can assure you that many people thought of an operating system for computers before Bill Gates did an online superstore before Jeff Bezos, or overnight delivery before Fred Smith. A lot of people could have done a lot of things but did not take action. These great minds took the necessary step for success that very few ever take – ACTION!
As I have narrowed my obsession with this thing called success it’s never been more apparent to me that the very essence of life is action. Inertia is anti-life.
Here is an enlightened and motivating parable about the importance of action.
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows that It must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows that It must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle; when The sun comes up, you had better start running.
As human beings, we find that we, too, had better start running at the crack of dawn. The worst feeling in life is knowing this very fact and not acting on it. I’ve suffered from this delusion that I could skip this basic rule of life. I suspect other’s have as well and I urge everyone to understand that this is the essence of failure and success. A stress – free life sound nice in theory. However, life is a struggle by nature. Sitting around the house doing nothing feels good for the moment, but there is an inherent urgency too life. For one thing, life is finite, and you don’t even have the advantage of knowing when your supply of time will run out. I’m feeling my mortality more than ever. I’ve wasted this precious resource as If I were going to live forever.
There are two basic kinds of actions. One is Proaction, which put you on the offensive and in control. The other is reaction, which puts you on the defensive and relegates you to a position of weakness at all times.
Inaction often yields consequences by default. Nothing happens until something moves, so if you wait for something, or someone, to act on you, you likely will be unable to control the consequences and generally are not please with the results.
Homeostasis is the tendency to live with existing conditions and avoiding change. This is ironic because the only constant in life and the universe is change. However, with this glaring me in the face I’m still stubborn enough at times too believe I can overcome this. The weather, law, economy, and your age change every second of every day. We justify not changing and remaining in this state with the famous “someday” lines.
At times I think I’ve believed in the fantasy of someday and the story of the moving train. The story states that some people believe that they are on a train and that it is constantly moving in the direction of their dreams. They believe that regardless of circumstances that by chance or destiny they will arrive and 336 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One people will line the streets with banners and applause. Nice thought but pure fantasy. There is no station. The perfect moment never arrives and the train never arrives to pick us up. We have to create our own way through what Tony Robbins, calls massive action.
The best day to take action is today! If you’re waiting for everything to be right before moving forward then you have the fool proof excuse for failure. Perfectionist are often worse off then people who do nothing at all. They do a lot but never get out of the starting gate. I’m not sure where I heard it. Maybe in the Art of War, but someone once said “A warrior lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will do when he has finished his first action, a warrior lives in the now”.
Do not sit and wait for the Grand Slam or the Home Runs. Success comes in the singles and doubles every single day. Life is the sum total of many successful years; a successful year is the sum total of many suc- cessful months; a successful month is the sum total of many successful weeks; a successful week is the sum total of many successful days; and so on with days, hours, minutes, and seconds.
JOIN ME, THE CHIEF NERD, IN MY CREATING THE ULTIMATE YOU PROGRAM
PILLAR NUMBER TWO: GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES
To discuss the concept of God is a futile matter at best when talking with others. Since everyone has dif- ferent views on the subject it’s guaranteed to cause a lot of anger. The truth is that the majority of the popu- lation is not rational when it comes to discussing God.
Though I am well aware that too do any justice to this most important subject would require thousands of pages, I ask you to indulge me as I attempt to abridge my own thoughts in a matter of a few pages or para- graphs.
There are people that believe in absolutely nothing, some believe their fate and destiny is pre-determined and out of their control, some believe that human beings are in total control of their destiny, and on and on. As the years have passed, I have become increasingly impressed with two things. The first is the remarkable capacity I possess to determine the outcomes of my life and secondly the ability to bring outside forces into my life at just the right time just by taking action. The bolder and more precise my vision, the more pow- erful these actions seem to be. If I believe that I have the power to play a major role in controlling my own destiny, then logic would dictate that I also have a power source. Some people refer to this power source as “God,” “Allah”, and a variety of other names. Because I have no explanation for this power source, I choose to refer to it as the Grand Architect. I do believe the Grand Architect predetermines some events but not all. And because I possess free will, I can make choices that alter those events. In religion this is called “free will” and the debate on this will go on until human cease to exist.
Why the Grand Architect intervenes in some events yet leaves others to our own free will probably always remain a mystery to me. I would suggest that you not spend a lot of time worrying about which things are predetermined, I would suggest that you not spend a lot of time worrying about which things are inevitable and which things are within your control. It makes much more sense to me to just pitch in and help the Manifesto To Myself! 337
Grand Architect work his wonders – from this comes the saying, “God helps those who help themselves.” Or “God helps those who take action”. I believe the Big Guy IN the SKY or whatever you want to call him is always right here next too us waiting for us to do are part, and then he always comes through on his end.
I Am Going To Be Sharing All The Secrets I’ve Learned For Creating the Ultimate You Here…Click Now
PILLAR NUMBER THREE: THE LAW OF AVERAGES
The Grand Architect has blessed us with a powerful universal principle hat provides an accurate method for projecting results. The principle I’m referring too is often call the Law of Averages and like other universal principles it never fails to work.
This law is passive in nature; it’s not driven by action. It just sits invisibly in our background and operates without us even knowing. Insurance uses this to compile accurate assumptions, sports teams use it, and of course Casinos use to make a fortune.
However, the more action you take, the better the Law of Averages will work for you.
If I were to sum up what I believe to be the Sacred Rule of Success it would be to ASK. Yes that simple. Ask, then ask again, then ask again, …..
So too sum this up I will add one thing. You must also factor in Time when using the Law of Averages. You must always make sure that the actions you are taking are paying you in a sum that is what you desire. If you are using the Law of Averages in your selling career and making as many sales calls as possible but not making the income you desire, then you must apply the Law of Averages to another activity that will.
PILLAR NUMBER FOUR: ACTION PRODUCES AN ENLIGHTENED STATE WHICH LEADS TO EVEN GREATER SUCCESS
When you take action it produces an expanded mental paradigm which leads you to the people and things you need to grow to even greater level of success. By constantly taking massive action and bolder steps you will inevitably surround yourself with better people, knowledge, and opportunity. This leads you to think beyond your normal system of thinking and beliefs and taps into the infinite intelligence of the universe. This is nothing more then the term “thinking outside the box”. When you expand your mind and associa- tions, your mind is open to new ideas, new concepts, and new possibilities. A rigid mental paradigm equates to what Jim Rohn calls “Rickets of the Mind” or a closed mind or dead universe of intelligence. In this state nothing can be changed. We must constantly be challenging our own beliefs and philosophy to grow. Growth is the essence of life. 338 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
When you are growing and learning, the atoms in your body and brain are vibrating at an enormously high speed, which often results in what some people call “coincidences” or “luck”. This heightened state of awareness often produces the people, things, and circumstances you need to accomplish your dreams and goals.
Finally once you take action and this phenomenon takes place you develop momentum and power. We see the effects of momentum in sporting events all the time. However, as I have learned all to well, momentum usually stops much faster then it began. So it is important to maintain this momentum once you have began. I can say without a doubt through observation, reading, and my own life that the success cycle starts with action, which leads to more intelligence, which creates coincidences, that all lead to power and momentum which leads to motivation and motivation leads to more action. There you have it. The Ultimate Success Formula.
If You’d Like To Stop The One Thing That’s Holding You Back From Your Dreams Click Here Now
THE SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH
With every action comes a result. Simple but profound. A person who refused to work and goes on welfare gets a result. A person who is rude gets a result. A bank robber gets a result. But these are not the kinds of result I want to get. What I’m after is positive results. I’ve tried every kind of action possible and spent a whole bunch of my life trying to cut corners but in the end Truth has hit me square in the face. Truth based actions will lead to lasting results. Delusion and false premises lead to negative results.
While I believe the whole world is losing its collective head, I’m still trying to live my life searching for the truth. Truth is the foundation for rational thought and action. Unfortunately lies, deceit, and falsehoods are winning the war in our society. Truth is not an easy thing to live. For one thing most people will hate you for it.
The foundational principle of the universe is that Action Have Consequences. Most people including myself convince themselves that their actions may not have a consequence. This is only a fool’s game. Why else would someone drive intoxicated? Or commit crimes? In the end you can’t escape reality. Universal Principles do not care whether you had good intentions either. If you have good intentions but violate truth, you tend to get bad results. Good intentions mixed with ignorance is a tragic mix. This is why it is so important to continue to grow and learn. The world is changing and what may be truth today may not be tomorrow.
What causes perceptions, false truth, and wrong conclusions are flawed conditioning, false premises, false beliefs, and false assumptions. Unfortunately the majority of false conditioning is learned in childhood and carried through life. Manifesto To Myself! 339
This leads me to a story I once read about two tribes that lived on a small Island. They were coming up on their annual sacred holiday. This time of year usually resulted in a war and many deaths over the way the ceremony was to take place. One tribe believed that it had to take place at exactly noon and 5 virgins must be sacrificed. The other tribe believed that it had to take place at exactly midnight and 7 virgins must be sacrificed.
Both tribes are passionate. The tribes are divided. They call a peace meeting and you find the two tribes inside a hut looking at ancient drawings of this ritual arguing over what is to be done. Imagine that you are there and they both turn to you and ask you to cast the final vote as too how the ritual must be done.
What do you say? Obviously, you don’t think the virgins should be killed at all, but how can you possibly make them see that the error is in their perceptions and beliefs? They have been hypnotized from birth to believe in this ritual.
While this may sound stupid or like a crazy story, in truth you and I have been cast ashore on just an Island. On a global scale billions of people are engaged in a bitter debate, whose belief systems vary wildly.
On a personal level your personal search for the truth and success should be paved with correct premises and assumptions. This will ensure long term success.
DO NOT FALL PRAY TO THE TWISTING OF TRUTH
Politicians and our own government are notoriously known to twist the truth. I am not in any way anti – America or anti – government. I love this country and know that this country is 100 times better than any other alternative. However, that being said I’m also a realist. While politicians work hard to try and make us believe they are acting in our own self interest, their real purpose is too achieve their own objectives most of the time.
Such lies condition our minds and lead us to false premises, which are cemented into place by television, our education system, etc… To the extent we all truth twisting to impact our thinking, we are less likely to do anything to change our lives.
Through the magic of slow progression, government has succeeded in getting people to accept a wide range of false – often laughable – premises. A classic example of this is the notion that the president not only has the power, but the ability to “create jobs” and “get the economy moving”. This explains why a majority of people felt it was in their best interest to overlook Bill Clintons dishonest behavior. They truly believe he was responsible for the economic boom in the United States.
In reality of course, the president can do nothing to positively affect the economy other than try to get the government out of the economy. In reality thousands of hi-tech entrepreneurs produced the booming economy of the nineties and created millions of jobs. In reality, Apples Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates 340 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One have created more legitimate jobs than all U.S. Presidents in history combined. In fact if you own a hot dog stand you probably have created more legitimate jobs then all U.S. Presidents combined. Why? Because a government created job is usually forced upon a company and takes the job of a much more qualified employee. This however is another topic that would take many more pages to debate.
The message of the movie The Manchurian Candidate is that evil – intentioned human beings can capture the thinking of other human beings and direct them to take actions that violate their personal moral codes. Depending on how broadly you wish to interpret brain washing, it can include mind – dulling advertising to cult – leaders.
Beer commercials, for example, seem to want us to believe that if men will just drink more beer, they can spend the remainder of their lives playing volley ball on the beach surrounded by beautiful naked women. Fast food ads appear to be telling us that if we eat more of their fat laden foods and feed this too our chil- dren as well, we will be giddy and happy and we should not be concerned with little matters such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. I’m not even sure what the majority of automobile ads are trying to tell us. Don’t even begin to get me started on television. Just one example is the hugely successful sitcom the Simpson. Are you kidding me? This program only goes to show how stupid America really is. It only suc- ceeds in making people feel better about their pathetic lives. It appeals to the lowest common denominator in human intelligence. It succeeds in persuading people to be lazy, ignorant, and shortsighted and feel good about it. I AM ALL THIS AND MORE AT TIMES BUT I DO NOT ALLOW MYSELF TO WATCH OR PARTICIPATE IN ACTIVITIES THAT TRY AND MAKE ME FEEL BETTER ABOUT MY WRONG ACTIONS.
Rational action and brainwashing are at the opposite ends of the self – determination spectrum. Rational action requires, first and foremost, that a person be in control of his mind. To the extent that someone or something else does your thinking for you – whether it is television, commentators, politicians, or leaders – you are likely to take actions based on someone else’s interest rather than your own. Our greatest gift as human beings is the ability to learn, think for ourselves, and act. We are not dogs even though some people act as if they were.
LEARN TO LOVE THE TRUTH
Most people do not understand nor want to know what the truth is. This is the central theme of everything I’m trying to teach myself and others. Most people try to make true that which they love. To have lasting success and peace of mind you must learn to set aside your desires and not twist truth to achieve them. You must always succumb to reality. To put this another way is to day that your commitment to truth must be greater than your desire to make your dreams and goals come true.
Truth can often be harsh and painful. The reality is that our nervous systems are hardwired to gravitate toward less pain and more pleasure. You must learn to put aside short term gain or instant gratification for that of long term pleasure. I’ve fallen into the trap way too often of not worrying about what’s coming down the road; just to feel good today. The reality is that we have to be willing to experience the discomfort often Manifesto To Myself! 341
associated with truth if our objective is to take rational actions that will lead to solving the problems we have caused by not following truth.
The failure to follow truth is why you and I have such a fun time shooting messengers. Messengers are the bad guys or coincidences that deliver us the truth of our actions. We try to kick all those people and conse- quences aside and crawl over them, but in the end truth always finds a way to deliver its consequences. Some people call this Karma. The consequences of ignoring truth can be severe. The greater the length and repression of truth, the worse the consequences will be. I’m still paying the consequences of ignoring truth today and have many to be worked on. How many truths are you ignoring?
Just this last week I violated these truth’s, yet expect my life to be better;
I went to a second movie without paying for a ticket as I’ve done numerous times before thinking I would get away with it. Will I? Absolutely not. I’ve actually tried to make one of my best friends feel bad because they wouldn’t do it. Great example! What about you?
I told the same movie theatre my girlfriends son was three when he is really four to get him in for free? What am I teaching him? What about you?
My integrity at stake and life altering examples for a little boy all for $5. Interesting how we fool ourselves.
THE ULTIMATE SELF – DELUSION: IMMORTALITY
Most people do not admit it, but I truly believe that most people believe that they will be the first human beings to live forever. Why else would someone smoke, take drugs, drink alcohol, or eat a diet loaded with saturated fat, salt, sugar, and processed foods? I ask myself this question? What about you?
I remember watching a video once and the host asked the audience who was the biggest mass murderer in history. Most people responded with Adolph Hitler or Joseph Stalin. “Wrong”, said the host. “The greatest mass murderer in history was Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s.”. Ruthless dictators use violence. There’s no fun, no clown on television telling them happiness awaits them. The fast food folks however maintain fun, colorful looking killing machines throughout the world – serving food weapons that turn people’s bodies into medical time bombs. Cancer, Heart Disease, and Diabetes suc- ceed year after year in killing millions of people.
The sad part is that we blindly herd ourselves into these restaurants day after day knowing what it does to our bodies. Even more, we happily take our children and feed them biggie size meals and help them develop the very same habits that will someday kill us. As I’ve said in the beginning I’m writing too myself as much as anyone and hope this little pep talk leads too action which leads to a better life.
In fairness, don’t blame the fast-food executioners if you should get killed by a deadly burger, taco, or piece of pizza. They know full well they couldn’t do it without their customer’s willingness to delude themselves. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and blame nobody but myself. You probably will not find me joining 342 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One the next law suit accusing McDonald’s of making me obese. I could go on about cigarettes, etc.. but I hope you get the point. Take some responsibility for your life. Ultimately you must be vigilant when it comes to eliminating any self – delusions you may be harboring about your own mortality and what you may be doing to your children, then live accordingly.
IS THERE LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS?
Whether or not you believe in Aliens or UFO intelligence, the evidence for it certainly exists. In fact, I have long suspected that aliens from another galaxy are walking among us, right here on Planet earth. These aliens apparently don’t want to kill us; they want only to enslave us to their benefit.
They appear to have organized a conspiracy that includes granting favors to humans who cooperate with them. The conspiracy revolves around a device whose purpose is to dull our senses and steer us away from thought that might inspire us to take action. The code word for this incredibly powerful device is SHITBOX.
We have long referred to this devise as a Television Set.
Some of the more effective Crap that the television networks have created for the aliens includes such worthwhile offerings as:
Advertisements that would have us believe the three most important words in the English language are “Hey Beer Man”.
The mindless and debilitating chatter that is standard for daytime television talk shows.
Sitcoms so dumb and asinine they insult the intelligence of a retard in a coma.
Nonstop college and professional sporting events seven days a week 24 hours a day. There are people who know absolutely nothing about life but know the roster of their favorite team dating back 40 years. And they are praised for knowing it. What the hell?
Reality TV Shows that are not “reality” at all.
Wrestling that teaches such virtues as swearing, sloth, lying, beating women, etc…
My life is nothing short of a disaster as times, but too the millions of people who are entrapped by this mind – dulling conspiracy, I feel compelled too offer my unqualified advice. GET A LIFE!!
More specifically, it means getting up out of your chair or bed and saying, “No, I don’t have to flood my brain with SHIT today. I can devote my time and actions to things that have the potential to better my life and bank account. I DO HAVE A CHOICE. Manifesto To Myself! 343
BUT YOUR SHIT BOX is only one of the many mind – deadening temptations that continually beckon you. There are movies, amusement parks, bars, dance clubs, and trips to the fast food restaurants that are killing you. There is the DOG SHIT they call music, called rap, that has grabbed the minds of middle and upper class White American children who now actually believe they have been beat by cops, pulled over for no reason, and can’t wait to get home and beat on the HO at home.
If any of this sounds at least vaguely familiar to you, it may be time for you to face the truth squarely in the eye. The truth is that you can’t expect to change your life for the better if you continue to spend more time on wasted activities then improving yourself and your future. There is nothing wrong with entertainment and relaxation. As a matter of point, I now believe them to be a must part of your life. The fact that you are surrounded by brain dead people is no excuse. Step up and have the courage and self – discipline to rise above the walking dead and start taking action.
THE X – FACTOR IS SELF DISCIPLINE
How many choices do you make a day? 10? 20? 50? 100? …. In reality you make many more decisions than you could ever imagine. When the alarm clock goes off in the morning. What to eat or not eat for breakfast? What to wear? To shave or not?
As you can see, most of these choices are not that important overall. But others, such as decisions about love, your career, making investments, or what to do in your business today can have dramatic effects on your life. This is why it’s so important to apply self – discipline to your actions. To the extent that your actions are based on emotion and impulse will determine your level of success. When you allow your deci- sions to be made out of emotion you are a slave to your emotions.
Regardless of what you think, the fact of the matter is that everything you do throughout the day is based on choice. Many, if not most, of your choices are made unconsiously. To the extent that you put yourself on auto pilot and make decisions this way, you are doomed to have bad consequences. By making conscious, accurate, and rational choices, you dramatically increase your chances of achieving long – term success.
When I say unconsciously, I mean that we don’t make a conscious effort to make rational decisions based on accurate premises and data. When we operate on impulse, we are acting more like dogs or cats. Regard- less, of the dumbing down of society by the mindless TV programming, we do have intellect.
This one understanding is probably the greatest trait and understanding to ingrain into our children, because a single impulsive action can be fatal or have life long consequences. Self – Discipline, then, is about restraining your actions and not acting impulsively in favor of taking rational actions that will produce long term success versus decisions that only bring instant gratification. This could be the simple action of deciding to wake up every morning at 6:00 versus staying in bed. This could be not drinking the night before work days or important events even though the “crowd” is doing so.
The most important thing to remember is that whether or not you are in a place you want to be in life is and has been your choice. You are responsible for everything that has transpired. You have chosen to do 344 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One wrong or right. From this day forward begin to apply rational thought and self – discipline to your daily actions and watch as your life radically changes.
Long – term thinking is a vital key to taking rational action, because short – term pleasure can be self – destructive if not weighed against the long – term consequences. For example, you may choose to be unfaithful, it may bring you short – term pleasure, but the long – term results could mean a lifetime of pain. Unfortunately, most of the time those actions that provide the greatest amount of immediate pleasure are the very actions that are most detrimental to our long – term health, happiness, and financial success. This is why learning to reprogram your mind so that it view long – term success as pleasure is so important. Anthony Robbins teaches powerful methods but very few people actually take the time to use the technolo- gies he has created in their lives daily.
Be Know as a Good Starter and an Outstanding Finisher
“Do Not Be Known As a Good Starter
But a Poor Finisher”
“Be Known as a Good Starter
and an Outstanding Finisher” We live in a “Instant Gratification” society. The catch phrases of today are “Six Second Abs”, “Incred- ible – A Miracle”, “Fast and Easy”, Ect…
The reason so many Goal Achievers do not become Goal Achievers is because of the “This is supposed to be easy” mentality.
We all set goals. We all fail to meet many of them. Why? Urgent!
There are FOUR CHALLENGES that we mistakenly assess: Time: “This is taking longer than I thought It would” or “I don’t have time for this.”
Effort: “This is a lot harder than I thought it would be” or “I’m tired, It’s not worth it.”. This is because we get caught up in the inspiration and motivation of the moment in the beginning phase of setting the goal and do not think it through rationally. Manifesto To Myself! 345
Competing Goals: “I had no idea I would be so busy. I will have to wait until later.”
Maintenance: “After I got in shape, I celebrated by indulging in some of the actions that forced me to set my goals in the first place. Now, for some unexplained reason, I’m back to where I started. What do I do now, go I some diet for the rest of my life?”
IT TOOK YOU MANY YEARS TO DEVELOP THE HABITS YOU CURRENTLY HAVE. CHANGING BEHAVIOR REQUIRES A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF SELF WILL AND TIME!
Lasting Leadership and Character Development is a lifelong process. A temporary change in behavior to “look good” or “feel good” in the short term will only create personal and interpersonal cynicism if you do not stick with it.
TO ACHIEVE MEANINGFUL GOALS, YOU’LL HAVE TO PAY THE PRICE. NOTHING CAN MAKE YOU BETTER, UNLESS YOU MAKE THE DECISION TO DO IT YOURSELVE .THE MOTIVATION MUST COME FROM WITHIN.
Join Me In My Ultimate You Transformation Program By Clicking Here
Share this Post CHAPTER 83
How You Can Make Moola With Webinars… Even If You’ve Never Done One Before
Hey you, It’s #2.
Today I’m giving you the notes that I took on Ray Edwards’ (Guy who writes copy for Frank Kern, Armand Morin and Tony Robbin’s latest launch) & Kirt Christensen’s(Pay Per Click wizard) April 2009 Internet Marketing Mastermind video on the in’s & outs of producing webinars that serve as extraordinary salesman multiplied.
I’m taking these notes to go with this weeks “How to Give Valuable Information Away That Simultaneously Sells” installment of our “Ultra Product Launch” program and I’m making them available as a gift from me to you.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with what a webinar is, you probably have seen one but maybe didn’t tag it with that name.
A webinar is just like a teleseminar in that it’s a way give away valuable information to a prospect or cus- tomer and while you’ve got their attention, you can or not present a product/service they can avail them- selves of to get the full in-depth understanding you didn’t have time to go into with just an hour with them.
With webinars, you don’t need a phone because the people who sign up can hear you through their com- puter speakers and the added bonus is that they can see a video you put together for them or the power point presentation you’re going through, on their very own computer screen.
It’s my personal belief that these “Videos” have a higher perceived value than teleseminars in the minds of potential buyers. Here’s how to do ‘em right…
Here’s the Tools You’ll Need: How You Can Make Moola With Webinars…… 347
Powerpoint (Less than a $100) or mac version of this – Highly recommended. People are comfortable with seeing this format. You can insert video or audios into your presentations.
Or… you can use the Slide Decks you get for free inside of Google Docs.
GotoWebinar.com ($97.00 a month) – For everything this site can do, this is an incredible bargain. Goto- meeting is also included with this. That’s the service where everyone is on the same phone line and you as the moderator can switch around who’s computer screen you see. Mostly used for collaborations or meet- ings with employees.
With GotoWebinar, people with shitty internet service can call in and listen over the phone and still hear you.
You can edit and record your events with this service with PC’s, not with Mac as of April 2009. So if you have a Mac and this is still in effect, you’ll want an associate with a PC to record the event on his computer.
You can use recordedmoments.com to also work around this issue. They’ll record the event & upload it in whatever format you want to whatever site you want them to. When you go to their site, you’ll see their list of testimonials is mighty impressive.
The files created by GotoWebinar are wmd files. These aren’t the best for streaming video online so you want to be able to get them into the Flash (FLV) format. Flash loads fast so people wont be annoyed that you video keeps stopping or takes forever to start.
The service he uses to convert these videos for Mac is Any Video Converter Pro… http://www.any-video- converter.com/products/for_video/ .
For PC, the best they’ve found was Allok Software… http://www.alloksoft.com/flv_converter.htm.
You want to convert to FLV because it’s the best format for streaming online.
From here you want to store it here http://aws.amazon.com/s3/ . You want Amazon.com to host your little bit of video code. Not your website, just the video code.
You can use a program called Easy S3… http://ezs3.com/ to generate this code. This program integrates with your S3 account to make this process brain dead simple. You go there, select upload, pick a file, pick a folder to put it into and you hit transfer and it uploads it through your server.
Then you go to the folder it put it on ezs3 and you pick a player to show the video on you site. Then it shows you the video ready to play and below it is the code that you just copy and paste into your website.
There’s a ton more you can do to customize this but as I’ve explained it is how Kirt went through and made one. It’s really simple. 348 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You can also use Camtasia… http://www.techsmith.com/ to capture this video instead of worrying about converting the video and worrying about wmd format not playing.
Just these having the links to these sites is worth the price of admission and your visit to this post. You won’t believe how much time & grief these resources are gonna save you.
What To Present on The Webinar
When you’re looking to sell with a webinar, rather than just present, the only difference would be that after you’ve presented your content there’d be an offer at the end.
Make sure that if your trying to sell, that the title of the webinar and the promise has not only what you’re teaching but also ties into what you’re selling.
His example: “Zero to Hero: Build a $100k/Year PPC Advertising Biz in 90 Days or Less”
He likes to establish credibility at the start of the presentation… The whole “Why you should pay attention to me” shtick. Here’s where you show any and everything that makes you an authority on your topic.
YOUR WEBINARS MUST HAVE CONTENT. The last thing you want is for anyone to show up and feel they’ve been tricked. You should never be ashamed of selling on a webinar but you should be embarrassed if you don’t offer people any value in the content you provide on your webinar.
Everyone should walk away from your presentation with something of value whether they’ve bought or not. Make sure you aren’t doing the whole “When you buy my ______you’ll be able to do this,” bullshit.
Error on the side of giving away too much information.
He believes your last 15-20 minutes of your webinar should be spent on your close. Most people are hesi- tant to spend that much time doing so because there’s still some part of them that’s afraid of asking people for money.
The easiest way to get around this fear is to insert as many case studies/testimonials as you can into your presentation.
Do this at the end when you go into your close. He uses video testimonials he got. You always want some part of your presentation to have the social proof in it of “Here’s what other people have done with X” in it.
Once you’ve given over an hour of content you’ve earned the right to offer your services. Never cheat the close. Give at least 15 minutes to talk about what your product or service can do for them.
Important: He takes people through his browser to the order form and explains everything the see there. Basically reads it because he doesn’t want to leave anything out. How You Can Make Moola With Webinars…… 349
On his order forms he has two guarantees. One unconditional and one conditional. His conditional is brilliant. Here it is…
“Get your first 5 paying clients in 90 days, document everything, and let me use your story to promote the course and I’ll give you your entire investment back as a “Thank You” for helping me with my mar- keting!”
He’s never had anyone take him up on this even though he’s had people succeed with it. It’s his belief that once people feel like you’ve given them massive value, they’d feel like a cheapskate asking for their money back. Almost like they were cheating you.
And most people never get to completion anyway so they don’t qualify but they’re still happy because they got some result.
Just make sure that if you do this you don’t set the bar too high.
Also they have everything set up to where if someone did qualify and ask for their rebate, they ask them if because this product worked so well for them if they want their $2,000 back in the form of other products they sell.
Pretty slick, huh?
Formula: He likes to teach an entire process of how to do something by hand and then sell the automated way of doing it. This way everyone gets value and understands that faster usually costs money.
Then he makes the transition by saying “How would like to work with me directly and I’ll show you exactly how to do this… Then he goes into testimonials, then to the offer.
Always do at least an hour of content.
Landing Pages:
GotoWebinar can generate opt-in/registration pages but they suck.
Here’s the sample page he gives to go check out: ppcmanagementtraining.com/sample/
This page is getting between a 50-60% opt-in rate so make sure you save it to model your pages after in one of your tests.
He likes to use the count down along the top of the page of how many lines are available to lead people into believing there’s a demand here. You want to adjust this by hand periodically to the real number.
Eric Graham, the conversion doctor designed this page for them so you might want to go look up some of his product, The Ultimate Conversion Booster. 350 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
He just shot the video on his laptop camera. Likes to use the countdown timer. Make sure your web geek or you know how to change the one piece of code you need to make sure all this info’s going to the id of your specific GotoWebinar.
In his form he asks for the phone number and doesn’t require but gives a reason below as to why he wants it…
“Call me ‘old fashioned’, but I like to follow up with everyone who attends the webinar. I do this to make sure you get the most out of it & have a chance to answer any questions you have. If you’re open to a brief follow-up please enter your phone number below.”
He gets tons of numbers by doing this.
What’s cool is that Gotowebinar keeps stats of everything that happened for your call. You get attendee, registration and performance reports.
What you want to look at is the registration report. You can get the info in html or in excel which is really cool. Now you can import anyone who registered and didn’t attend who are not already on your list, into your own list without having to double opt them in.
He uses List Mail Pro to do this… http://www.listmailpro.com/
A service like aweber wants confirmed optins so you can’t import them here.
In GotoWebinar people have the ability to type questions during the event and your attendee report will show you who asked what question, tells you how long they kept on the main screen, how long they stayed on.
This webinar is focused on mechanics of what programs to help you make this process easier. The sem- inar you really want to get your hands on in order to know how to write all the copy and what kind of copy to write to maximize the money you haul in would be Clayton Makepeace’s “ONLINE PROFIT MULTIPLIER” program. It amazingly detailed about all the how many times to mail, writing your webinar script, writing email invites, everything that works for him and what doesn’t. It’s a can’t lose purchase if you want amazing results from the webinars you host. What’s great about what you’re get- ting is that none of what’s here was covered in the 12 module course that is Online Profit Multiplier.
He always takes questions in the middle of the call, never at the end when trying to sell. The last thing you want to do is de-rail your sales process.
Follow Up By Phone
He uses phoneburner.com to export the names and phone numbers. He loads in everyone who attended the webinar and calls them. Phone burner automates most of this. It automatically dials the numbers and leaves a message at the push of a button. How You Can Make Moola With Webinars…… 351
So, you have a pre-recorded voicemail and you have an email that’s going to go out to everyone. The key is that your voicemail isn’t some long winded deal trying to sell something. You’re simply directing these people to check their email for the message you sent to them.
When you call and get a v mail you click a button and it leaves you v-mail. When you get someone you just say the same thing to them and say your sending the same email them because your busy, they’re busy and it’ll give them more details.
He can do like 200 dials in 2 hours with this system. NO ONE DOES THIS. When’s the last time you heard from a guru, even if was for less than 2 minutes, after you registered for a webinar and watched it or not? NEVER.
This works great for him. You can even do the emails through phone burner. It only costs $70.00 bucks a month for 7 hours a month. What’s cool is you can use your own caller id for this instead of ‘unknown’
You can also import the person’s questions from GotoWebinar. This makes it seem like you’re really paying attention.
You can even have a virtual assistant do this with a few changes in what they say.
Important: When he talks to someone he stays away from trying to sell. He just asks for feedback about the webinar and he lets the website do the selling for him.
Alright, that’s it for those notes. What a pain in the ass. This video was jam packed with content. It took me almost 3 hours to get the notes out of an hour and six minute video. I gotta get faster at typing.
But hey, now I have a documented process and sites for how to get that amazon thingie going along with all the other cool video converter sites.
I’m going to shoot some hoop.
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. If you want access to the other 2 plus hours of content that made up last nights Ultra Product Launch module on how to create desirable content to give away to people in order to build their trust in you as a guru, CLICK HERE
P.P.S. Remember… I’ve decided to commit to spending at least One Hour of my time responding to any thoughtful question or comments made about posts I’ve written. I’m not perfect yet and after spending hours writing this I’ve had to leave some stuff out. So feel free to point out anything I wasn’t crystal clear on. What you say might exhaust the whole hour (if you’ve seen my responses in previous posts you’ll see I don’t wimp out here). And, if it’s of the ” ‘Great’ or ‘Shitty’ post” type, it may not warrant any further 352 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One elaboration but yet will be oh so appreciated. I’m here for you and I’d love to hear your voice. Just let me know what you have a question about in today’s topic. The doors open so go on ahead and deepen our relationship today by coming on in and talking to me.
Share this Post CHAPTER 84
The 7 Reasons Why Webinars Melt Your Prospects Resistance
Hey you, It’s #2.
The insights I’m about to share with you come from one of the finest marketing minds on Planet Earth. The man who’s genius I’ll be passing on to you today is named Clayton Makepeace.
He’s world re-known as The Highest Paid Living Copywriter. This is a man who’s hauling in over $100,000.00 a month just from the marketing prowess he weaves in his webinars. And as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I believe his ability to produce amazing results comes not from his writing ability but from his vast marketing intelligence.
The writing is an outpouring of everything he knows about influence. Not about English grammar and sentence structure mechanics. I’m telling you this because I’m not entirely certain as to whether you feel in your heart of hearts you’re capable of writing copy that sells.
I’m here to tell you the ‘writing’ part of ‘copywriting’ is the least important factor. It’s the engineering, the structure of the key points that matter most.
You don’t have to be as witty as Clayton or as prolific as a Danielle Steele selling 580 million copies of her novels. I just bought one of her books and while reading it let’s just say I’ve been asking only one question when I think of how many books she’s sold vs. the 65 Million my favorite fiction author, John MacDonald has and that question is…
Why?
The thought put into her expression of life situations, descriptions of characters and the dialogue don’t even compare to MacDonalds. While reading this book I could say it’s so basic, not just in language but also 354 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One plot, that a sixth grader could flop from the elementary reading level of Judy Blume directly into this and feel likes there’s no difference. So far.
I haven’t gotten to any steamy sex scenes yet but I’m betting MacDonald smacks her down there too. As you can tell, I’m a fan boy of John’s.
Maybe that’s Danielle’s secret. She focuses less on depth and makes sure there’s a structure there any idiot could follow. This could be said to be the winning formula for writing copy.
You don’t have to be a great writer to sell in print or pixel. Just make sure you follow a structure that allows people to flow through your promise, your proof, and your proposition without stumbling and you’ll be fine.
One of the areas of marketing I’ve feared for the longest time was hosting webinars.
I used to tell myself “You can write sales copy but you kinda blank out when you’re put on the spot, like on the phone or in person. So obviously trying to communicate over the phone while streaming a video for people might lead to embarrassment.”
And then I saw some guys seminars where they just read the slides word for word and thought “Eccch, I don’t want to be the slide-reading-guy.”
Not anymore.
I Found The Answer To Never Being Afraid Of What You’d Say On a Webinar
My last post talked a little bit about what to say to influence during a webinar but it was mostly focused on the mechanical tools to streamline the process.
As I mentioned in that post, Clayton Makepeace’s product called “Online Profit Multiplier” is the ultimate resource for knowing what to write, when, and how often to make your webinars bring home maximum dollars.
I looked today at Clayton’s webstore to see how much this program sells for but you can’t even buy it there. It’s completely off the market.
This is unfortunate for you in an economic turn like this because this program shows you step-by-step how with minimal resources and a little bit of sweat… you can make some real fuckin’ money.
You can thank Clayton for making this one of the only places available for you to get this information now. You can’t buy it from him and you maybe, just maybe could scrounge a copy on ebay.
I’ve already started putting the notes together for this program and I can have them ready for sure by the end of the month. The 7 Reasons Why Webinars Melt Your Prospects… 355
The thing is I want to be sure you want these before I mind map the whole 12 module program, transform it into a word doc, clean up all the errors, highlight, bold and enlarge key points, and then re-transform it into a snazzy PDF for you.
For all the notes I have that I don’t offer you, I just leave them as mindmaps. Just doing that part is enough work for me. So, you’ve gotta post below to let me know if I should hit the books or not.
Post a comment below that simply says “I’m in” or email me at [email protected] the same note and I’ll know whether you’re open to this or not.
Please understand that when you go to Clayton’s webstore and look at his product list… I OWN IT ALL.
So, when I tell you this program is GOLD, I speak from direct experience. If you can find somewhere to buy it, you should. It is unbelievable how deep he goes into the strategy behind his making 6 figures a month himself and over $5 million dollars for the clients he doing these online webinar events for.
Today I wanted to talk to you about… The 7 Reasons Why Webinars Melt Your Prospects Resistance.
1st Reason: Produces Enormous Engagement With Prospects And Customers.
Clayton had nearly 40% of his list attend the conference he put on to sell Online Profit Multiplier.
What happened on the event?
You got to hear Clayton talk for 90 minutes giving valuable information that could make you money. No fluff. Just uncut, raw breakthroughs.
During this time you could hear his concern for you was genuine and he did such a marvelous job of selling the event that if you were the ideal customer, you came away from it excited about what you were about to do with this coaching program.
And, feeling closer to him because you understood his motivation for offering it and because you’d spent the time with him at the event, you’ve been able to hear his voice, ask some questions, and you received things of value from him absolutely free.
2nd Reason: Establishes You As a Spokesperson, As Your Prospect’s Champion
Instead of being the salesman in this confrontational arrangement, Clayton was able to move around the desk and sit next to you and say…
“Let’s do this together. I’m not here to sell you something. I’m here to take you by the hand and show you something that’s making my clients tens of millions of dollars every year. And it’s making me 6 figures 356 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One every single month. And because I’m concerned about you and what you’re facing in this economy in your business today, I’m giving you this free.”
Then he moved on from there and gave a lot of value in that period of time.
Anyone with minimal resources could’ve taken what he talked about there and run with it, without buying a thing from him. They got tremendous value.
3rd Reason: Eliminates the drumbeat of daily promo’s
You’ve had the experience of signing up for an ezine and then getting hammered with “buy, buy, buy” emails.
With OPM you spend a good amount of time doing nothing but asking them to accept something of tre- mendous value for free.
You set up big pay days with events instead of having to go out and chase everyday and risk coming across to your customers and prospects as a needy desperate jack hammer.
4th Reason: Extends Average Customer Lifetime and Value
People will stay with you longer because they see you as a champion who’s trying to help them through the challenges they face.
The emails you’re sending them are invitations asking them to please register, please come to this event, don’t miss it. What’s great is that you can mix it up and offer webinars every once in a while that don’t sell anything which will keep people from assuming you’re only out to pitch.
5th Reason: Produces High Response Rates
Think about this. What if you created one of these 90 minute webinars and made it your front end offer tied to all of your Pay Per Click advertising?
When you use this system the way Clayton shows you how you’ll only be putting together either timeless material or timely material that addresses an issue of the moment.
You get the double benefit of not only extending the longevity of customers on your list but also have one more sexy attraction mechanism to pull people into your world.
And your list loves it because…
6th Reason: Never Gets Old The 7 Reasons Why Webinars Melt Your Prospects… 357
Clayton’s been providing this service for his clients file now for a year and almost every month they break their attendance record for previous events.
The more people attend these things the more they want to register for the next one, when you know the right way to structure them.
Someone who’s doing a magnificent double agent job of this is Eben Pagan.
Lately, when people have been doing a launch instead of just sending out affiliate emails to make money, he steps it up a notch, does an interview with the guru, uses the classic direct marketing urgency classic of a deadline, and tells you when and where to go to get a gift.
He brings value first, then if you liked what you got, you can get more by clicking on the link provided.
7th Reason: Can Be Used To Sell Products Or Services Or,
To Qualify Leads For a Two Step Sales Cycle
Doesn’t matter what you’re selling or if you have multiple step selling process, for the reason stated before when you’re hosting a webinar you always ask for their email so you can send them their registration details.
This allows you re-contact new prospects or people who demonstrated and interest in the topic of discus- sion.
If you’re selling a smaller ticket item you can just send them to the sales letter after the presentation.
And this is probably the ultimate method to use for a big ticket item that’s gonna need a live salesperson to close on. When you do these webinars right, it makes who ever asks for an appointment a white hot pros- pect so the resistance is almost nil. No more hard closing or trying to convert zombified dead leads.
There you go. 7 Awesome Reasons To Embrace The Idea Of Using Webinars
Now, I mentioned earlier that my last post gave you the resources to facilitate this webinar process. Use everything listed there. Those sites and tools are gonna streamline that end of the process for you.
And don’t forget to post a comment below that simply says “I’m in” or email me at notetaking- [email protected] the same note and I’ll know whether you’re open to dissecting this program for you or not.
Talk to again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 358 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
P.S. Whether or not you’d like me to put notes of this program together for you, you’ll be head and shoulders above the pack once you understand the 31 principles you want to touch on during your webi- nars that turn plain prospects and customers into raving fans. To find out the 31 secrets Dan Kennedy uses to do this, CLICK HERE
P.P.S. Remember… I’ve decided to commit to spending at least One Hour of my time responding to any thoughtful question or comments made about posts I’ve written. I’m not perfect yet and after spending hours writing this I’ve had to leave some stuff out. So feel free to point out anything I wasn’t crystal clear on. What you say might exhaust the whole hour (if you’ve seen my responses in previous posts you’ll see I don’t wimp out here). And, if it’s of the ” ‘Great’ or ‘Shitty’ post” type, it may not warrant any further elaboration but yet will be oh so appreciated. I’m here for you and I’d love to hear your voice. Just let me know what you have a question about in today’s topic. The doors open so go on ahead and deepen our relationship today by coming on in and talking to me.
Share this Post CHAPTER 85
One Sure Fire Way To Lose Sales In a Tough Economy
Near the old highways of America pass businesses that have gone broke. End of the dream. The spoor “of a broken marriage can be kept in a couple of cartons on a shelf in the garage. Broken lives can be tucked neatly away in graves and jails and sanitariums. But the dead business in a sub-marginal commer- cial strip stays right there, ugly and moldering away, the frantic advertising signs of the final convulsive effort fading and tattering over the weeds. For every one of them was the big dream, the gala opening, the last dusting and arranging before the doors opened. “We’re going to make it big, honey. Real big.” Then there is a slow slide into doubt, into confusion, and into the terminal despair. “So we’re going to make it real big, were we? Ha!”
Hey you,
It’s #2.
The words of wisdom above are from back in 1968 from my man, Best-Selling Author John MacDonald, spoken through his rouge character, Travis McGee.
When I read this it made me think of the abandoned, closed down, lifeless corpse buildings that previously housed… ‘Linens & Things’, the ‘Ultimate Electronics’ mega store and the ‘Wendy’s’ fast food restaurant I passed today driving here to the office.
All of them in fabulous locations. All of them with spectacular brand awareness. All of them successful once upon a time.
I don’t know what ‘excuse’ each of the locations cited for having to shut their doors but I do know one thing for certain. Each of those companies talks to the masses in their advertising. Their marketing always speaks to the public, to America. Never to you.
If companies these previously untouchable, well funded, “Big Time Operations” are feeling the pain hor- rible marketing has inflicted on them… what’s the little guy got in store if he makes this mistake? 360 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Then, I come here to the office and while cruising 24/7 Wall St.com’s site and I see this…
“The American Bankruptcy Institute reports that the September 2009 consumer filing total reached 124,790, a 41% increase from the 88,663 consumer filings in September 2008. The number is also up 4% from August.
The news is bad for both retailers and credit card companies, particularly as the holiday shopping period approaches. Last year the drop in consumer spending in the fourth quarter a number of retailers closed led by national electronics chain Circuit City. Weak sales between Thanksgiving and New Years would like cause another wave in lay-offs in the retail sector.”
More bad news for the idiot’s who are above talking to you like a regular person.
You know, the retards who run the DEEP VOICED, blaring, mile-a-minute radio ads that scream, “ABC Nissan is having the Thanksgiving Special-of-The-Year. 2007 Pre-owned Maxima ONLY $13,995. 2008 Altima’s ONLY 18,500. Come down and buy a car now and you’ll be thankful to ABC NISSAN. Come now. Come Now COME NOW. Prices are UNBEATABLE. ABC Nissan, ABC Nissan, ABC Nissan on the corner of Camelback and 24th St.”
Followed by the hi-speed fine print weasel clause contradicting everything they just told you.
This actually reminds me of the Nissan and the Masserati dealerships that’re right across the street from each other on McDowell Road here in Scottsdale… that closed almost 8 months back.
Big empty vacant lots with weeds sprouting out of them.
At peak, hell even when times were just plain OK, these companies should have had plenty of cash flow to pour into finding out exactly who their ideal prospect and customers were so that they could build relation- ships with them and ad campaigns that attracted people just like Starbucks has, hypnotizing the coffee snobs like me.
I can’t imagine how much money Starbucks saves by not falling for ad agency’s slicker than Vaseline sales spiels about how they’d be doing sooo much better if they had radio & TV spots working for them.
Howard Schultz knew who he wanted to attract and then built a place where those people would feel at home. Principle 13 of Dan Kennedy’s “Influential Writing” is entirely dedicated to how you can do what Howard did for Starbucks with your online business or brick and mortar store. Click Here to get access to this secret and much, much more…
To create a place where people feel like they’re right, approved of, and in control, a place where people have maximum situational confidence… you’ve first got to know who they are.
How Do You Find Out Who Your Ideal Customer and Prospect Are? One Sure Fire Way To Lose Sales In a Tough… 361
A friend to the nerd cause (you know who you are) recently steered me into the genius program that is Rich Schefren’s ‘Founders Club’.
All I’ve got to say about this is, GET IT. Rich’s revelations here are nothing short of amazing.
Today I want to share with you the notes I took from the first report in this program about knowing who your ideal customers are… and what they really want.
Let’s roll.
There is nothing more important than truly understanding your ideal prospects and customers.
Rich uses this Dan Kennedy quote which states… “I do not believe in ‘generic’ persuasion. In fact, my con- tention is that truly understanding the targeted prospect/customer is more important than any other ele- ment in your marketing success.”
Not only will knowing your prospects and customers make your marketing convert higher but it will also make the products you produce have a more significant impact in your customers lives because they’ll be zero guess work into what they want and need.
Rich advocates that you should know your market cold before you even design your business.
You Have An Obligation To Yourself and Your Ideal Prospect To Become A Detective
Jay Abraham says, “Most entrepreneurs fall in love with the wrong thing. They fall in love with their own company, or their product or service instead of falling in love with their clients and prospects. Your whole business success, your whole passion, your whole connectivity, your whole positioning, the way you’re seen, embraced, respected, will change massively when you conceive your business as interacting and enhancing people’s lives.”
If you believe this to be true for you, then you’ve gotta know your ideal customers Core Complex.
The business titan Michael Masterson passed this concept on to Rich and here’s what it is…
The Core Complex of your ideal customers are the emotions, attitudes and aspirations that influence all of their decisions.
A Core Complex is made up of… • • Beliefs: What does audience believe is true for them? What is their attitude about the result your product or service promises to produce? • • 362 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
• Feelings: How do these beliefs make them feel? Are they confident and brash or are they paranoid and fearful? How does their current situation, you promise to improve, make them feel? • • • Desires: What results do they want? What means success/peace of mind in their eyes? •
There are ways to find this but it needs to be you that does this work. If you sub this out you dilute the effect of getting a real gut feeling and understanding of what makes this person do what they do.
You get to know their problems better than they do so when you talk to them they feel like you’re one of them instead of some faceless corporation who want all the benefits of the customers money with none of the “Dirty work” of actually knowing, talking too and relating to the people that make their business run.
Approaching Your Research So You Don’t Waste Your Time
The few people who even attempt to do research to find out what turns their ideal customer on, totally drop the ball.
Rich talks about looking for clues and then reflecting on them by putting them through a set of questions.
One of the places to find clues is in the Q + A Sites or Q + A sections of your markets forums. Once you find these questions and you sift through them you want to be asking yourself… • • What’s definitely true • • • What might be true • • • What’s definitely not true •
Remember, there have been beliefs you may have had in the past that you thought with your whole being were true that turned out to be completely false. Especially ones about what you’re capable of as a person.
Your prospects and customers are no different.
This process helps you become conscious of what to say so you meet people where they’re at so you can potentially take them where they want to be.
Here’s what to be on the lookout for while doing your detective work… One Sure Fire Way To Lose Sales In a Tough… 363
Product ideas
Biggest frustrations
Problems consistently experienced
Biggest competitors
Popular websites & blogs
Topics of interest
The words they use and any special lingo they use
Their likes and dislikes
Level of sophistication
Common enemies
Recurring themes/topics
Demographics (age, sex, education, occupation, income, marital status, children, etc.)
Psychographics (hobbies, lifestyle choices, purchasing behavior, media habits, values, etc.)
10 Steps To Finding Everything You Need To About Your Prospect
Build a Strong Keyword List
What keywords represent 80% of your market? If you don’t know, now you will.
Rich’s two favorite resources for finding keywords are…
Google’s free keyword research tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and http:// www.keycompete.com/
First go to Google and put in your most popular keyword to see what Google recommends and what kind of traffic it receives. Then, pick the ten most popular/relevant ones and go over to keycompete.
Here’s what to do now… 1. 2. Type in the keywords you got from Google into the search box 3. Then, you’ll see all the domains bidding for that keyword 364 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
4. Click on one of the top sites listed and peep the keywords being bid on. 5. Write down all the interesting keyword phrases they’re using. 6. Now, click on one of the best phrases you hadn’t thought of before to see who else is advertising for that term. 7. Do the same thing from step 3 on.
Look Over The Shoulder of Your Competitors
Just by going to competitors sites, you’ll learn a ton of stuff.
Go to Google and type in your primary keywords (one at a time) and check out the pay-per-click ads streaming down the right side. What are the common themes? Write down any thoughts that come up.
Now, cruise over to your competitors sites. You’re lucky if you’ve got a smart competitor that either knows how to write brilliant copy or is astute enough to know investing in great talent will lead to success.
When you read the salesletter a few times you can start to reverse engineer the beliefs, feelings and desires the writer was trying to arouse, instill and tap.
While here you can also skim the link texts, scan their blog and soon you’ll get a good idea of what the owner of the site believes to be true about their visitors.
Now, go over to compete.com and do a site profile and check out their search analytics. Then, head over to quantcast.com to find out the sites demographics.
And of course, you should be opting into their list and studying their emails and sales process.
Put Amazon To Work For You
Amazon has earned the trust of almost anyone who buys stuff online. This means lots of your prospects probably hang out there. Which really means Amazon is your ally in the quest to find out more about your prospects.
Go there and use your keywords to search for the best selling books in your market. Skim through the pages they allow, paying very close to, even copying the table of contents of the book for bullet copy ideas or article ideas.
Then, make sure you’re copying and pasting customer reviews of the books (good and bad) because this gives you emotional language your prospects use to express themselves about your topic.
Make Your Analytics Sweat For You
If you’ve got a site that gets traffic and has great content on it you’re visitors are talking to you without saying anything. One Sure Fire Way To Lose Sales In a Tough… 365
Your analytics can tell you what content is repelling first-time visitors and what content sucks virgins into your vortex of value. Check your new visitor segment and look to see what the most popular pages are in order of bounce rate.
Obviously you should fix the pages with the highest bounce rate as soon as possible. And you should model the ones on the bottom of the list that people are parking on.
Your analytics are also gonna tell you what pages people keep coming back to see. This lets you peer in on what excites them.
You can also see which keywords bring you the visitors who are ideal for you by sorting the most popular keywords of return visitors and compare them to the most popular keywords used by single visitors.
Make sure to also watch you keywords report for the keyword phrases that tell you what your visitors are looking for and the language they use that brought them to you.
Also be sure to check out the referring site report so you can see where visitors are coming from? Is most of your traffic coming from search engines, other sites or directly?
Find Forums and Plunder Them
Here’s how to do this fast, easy and profitably…
Find the most popular forums in your niche by going to Google and typing in “your primary keyword and forum”
Next you want to get the visitor profile of each of the forum sites you find. This is how you get it. But first, make sure you keep the individual profile on each forum because you find out what each segment of your market wants and what their frustrations are that they want help with. You’ll see how this info differs from forum to forum. Then you can create a complete marketing message. Or, this info may tell you need to talk entirely different to one group than the other in order to connect with them.
Now, go to http://www.quantcast.com and there they’ll give the profile of each forum. There’s going to be a tab on the left and it’s going to tell you the demographics of each forum.
Make sure you prints these out and cut and paste them into a word doc. Summarize the visitor and then put everything you discover underneath the summary.
When you digging around in the forum you want to find the threads that get the most action (views & posts). You can even swipe the thread titles and use them for subject lines for your emails.
What you should find by doing this… 366 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
By seeing their most frequent questions this is going to tell you their sticking points. When you see these you now know you better answer these questions with whatever product you want to bring to them.
Look for posts that talk about goals. Here’s where you’ll see in their own words what they think they’ll get once the achieve their goal and what they want to be different about their life. Pay attention to all the ‘feeling’ words because those are anybody does anything for, to change the way they feel.
Make sure you’re plucking all the lingo they use to refer to themselves and the actions and steps involved in whatever the forum is about.
Haunt the Hottest Blogs
As dumb as it sounds, people overlook this step all the time. A popular blog that masterfully gets their followers talking to them is money in the bank for you. You get to see people express themselves with gut reaction comments.
Find the most popular blogs on your topic by going to http://www.technorati.com and typing in your main keyword in the search box. There’s a green box where you can filter your results by changing the first drop down menu from “Search posts” to “Search blogs.
Then take the names of the most popular blogs and plunk ‘em into http://www.quantcast.com again and do the same detective work here that you did for the forums.
Next go the blogs you selected and find the old posts with the most comments. Within these posts is a goldmine about what turns your prospects on and how they express their excitement.
Make sure to pay attention to the worst ones too because it will teach you what to avoid.
Mimic Magazines
Every month the covers of magazines in your niche provide you with awesome, timely, email subject line copy.
The benefits promised to this crowd is on the top of their mind because the magazines has put it there. Take full advantage of this. They’re telling you what they’re telling the market to focus on.
Rich goes in and takes pictures of all the covers related to his niche once a month. Not a bad idea. You could also do this at the library.
What Sites Do People In Your Niche Not Want To Lose Track Of?
Delicious is a site that keeps track of it’s user’s bookmarks, sites they fell in love with, lets other people see a list of the most bookmarked pages for specific keywords. One Sure Fire Way To Lose Sales In a Tough… 367
Go to delicious.com and search under your main keywords. It’s that simple. Think about it, if you see a page about your topic on there that’s been bookmarked 1,391 times, you think there’s the possibility it’s got something to offer you?
Now, The Ocean Of Insight… Q & A
Here’s a list of places your ideal prospects probably go to when the want answers to their questions…
www.askyahoo.com
www.faqfarm.com
www.answers.google.com
www.oyogi.com
www.expertbee.com
www.wondir.com
www.askbar.com
www.pointask.com
www.askfreddy.com
www.yahooligans.yahoo.com/content/ask
www.freepint.com/bar/
www.healthanswers.com
www.answersthatwork.com www.catholic.com www.christiananswers.net www.answeringenesis.org www.anzwers.com.au/ www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ www.vrd.org/locator/suject.shtml 368 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One www.answerbag.com www.invisionfree.com www.askdrz.com
Go to these sites…treasure awaits you.
I Spy With My Little Eye
Maybe you know about it, maybe you don’t but there’s a feature on your computer where you can invite a friend of yours to take control of your computer to help you fix something or show you, virtually, how to do it… from their computer… anywhere on the planet.
There’s a service called clicktale that lets you see every action each and every visitor who comes to your site does while there. While clicktale doesn’t allow you to take over their computer it allows you to watch what they read, what they blow by, what gets to pass over and then come back and at what point they start scrolling and at what speed.
Go to http://www.clicktale.com to see all the details about this spy tool that will tell you what like and don’t like about your site on their unconscious level, which is the best kind of info you can get.
That’s all for today folks. We’re at 10 pages of a word doc and I know you’ve got stuff to do so I’m not keeping you any longer.
But now, I hope you’re ready. Ready for business and selling to be easier. Ready for higher conversion rates. Ready to talk to prospects the way that makes them feel understood. Ready to fall in love with the people who are going to fund your lifestyle.
Not being ready for all of this could cost you business. So take advantage of the gift I’ve posted. Start using these 10 ways of finding out who your ideal prospect is and you’ll be grateful to yourself for doing what the losers won’t.
Once again, thanks to my fellow nerd who turned me onto Rich Schefren’s Founders Club report and inspired this share today.
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Remember… I’ve decided to commit to spending at least One Hour of my time responding to any thoughtful question or comments made about posts I’ve written. I’m not perfect yet and after spending hours writing this I’ve had to leave some stuff out. So feel free to point out anything I wasn’t crystal clear on. What you say might exhaust the whole hour (if you’ve seen my responses in previous posts you’ll see I One Sure Fire Way To Lose Sales In a Tough… 369 don’t wimp out here). And, if it’s of the ” ‘Great’ or ‘Shitty’ post” type, it may not warrant any further elaboration but yet will be oh so appreciated. I’m here for you and I’d love to hear your voice. Just let me know what you have a question about in today’s topic. The doors open so go on ahead and deepen our relationship today by coming on in and talking to me. CHAPTER 86
A Rant From The Chief Nerd About Today’s Kids And A Promise To My Little Girl…
f you are Not a Parent or have no interest in the direction of Families in our society then this post is not Ifor you.
This past weekend I took a little vacation and had some time to think about some stuff I’d put in the back of my mind.
This Blog is supposed to be about giving you the secret strategies and tactics of the Guru’s.
This Post is as far from that as could be.
It’s a note to myself.
I wish I could say that I had a Leave It To Beaver childhood.
I DID NOT
However, being raised in a hostile and unstable environment followed by raising myself for most of my Teen years has motivated me to study and observe what makes a great Parent and Family.
In doing so I’ve become a bit jaded.
There’s a huge difference in the way families operated thru the 1960’s.
And it’s my belief, there’s been a steep decline since.
Until the advent of the Credit card and luxury society we live in most people would go shopping for the family groceries once, maybe twice, per week.
Today people have so many choices. A Rant From The Chief Nerd About Today… 371
The average family may go to the store 2 -4 times per week and still stop at the convenience store for a snack or a “changed my mind” dinner on the way home.
Lesson to children was you worked all week and only when you had earned the Money did you get to go get Food.
As a child you did your chores around the house, eagerly awaiting your allowance to spend during the Weekly Grocery Store visit while in town.
Today’s children are not only not receiving this lesson but are receiving things for nothing. No lesson given. No reason given. “Just Because We Can”
As Parents (I have a beautiful 3 1/2 year old little girl) I believe it’s in our best interest to get back to leading by example.
Remember children learn many of their key life lessons through observation and experience within the Family.
Television is another Beast in and of itself.
I prefer to call it the Shit Box.
What happened to Leave it to Beaver, Bewitched, The Flinstones, Roy Rogers, Western Movies, etc. ?
Very clear story lines full of American Family Values.
Turn the T.V. on today and your child will be exposed to numerous “Alternative” lifestyles, Million Dollar 16th Birthdays, shows that seem to think it’s o.k. to date and have sex with 16 Guys or girls at the same time, Violence is Cool, and a list so big it would take an entire whole post just to name the Complete Shit our children are exposed to.
What happened to Dinner together? Does it even happen anymore?
Remember when Families had one television? Now everyone’s got a Flat Screen in their room and just in case they can’t make it back from commercial break you Just Have to have one in the bathroom.
I’ve heard numerous stories from my friends (35 - 40 year olds) stating that their parents only allowed them to watch one show a night.
And even that ONE was monitored as to what it was.
Remember when you could only make one maybe two phone calls a night and it was usually right in front of our parents? 372 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Now our children have a phone in their room and two cell phones.
Who are they talking too? What are they talking about?
I’m told Sunday Dinner at grandmas house was tradition.
“Over The Hills and Through The Woods To Grandmas’ house We Go”
Today that seems to be an afterthought on “Some” holidays.
Maybe i’m too old or jaded.
But I’m determined to find a way to give some of this to my little girl.
The number one show on MTV this past decade was Ozzy Osbournes House.
Let’s see… both kids in and out of rehab numerous times before they were twenty.
Dad so messed up by drugs he can barely speak audibly anymore.
Complete and utter Bullshit.
We live in a dumbed down Homer Simpson Society.
Look…I like a good laugh like the rest of you but I truly believe that a part of us love shows like the Simp- sons or Family Guy so much because it makes us feel just a little O.K. with the standards we have set for ourselves.
If you can’t tell… I’m a bit calloused and pissed off about all this.
Why?
Because without the re installation of some decent values and character into our children and the next gen- eration we could be in for some serious trouble.
I’ve been to friends homes and seen children sit in front a Play Station for hours at a time and occasionally switching to a show to watch.
All the while the entire conversation between Father and Son or Mom and Daughter could be summed up as….
“Hey turn that down” or “Why don’t you get your brother something to eat”
And how about the New Social Media System we live in. A Rant From The Chief Nerd About Today… 373
I know of one teenager that has 1,600 Friends on Facebook, follows 400 people on Twitter, and has hun- dreds of MySpace Buddies.
Each page filled with sexual inuendo and disgusting vile remarks.
All the while, her parents, turn on “To Catch A Predator” (the show where they catch child predators in the act) and are in shock at what they are seeing.
All the while they are completely oblivious to the fact that their lovely child may have a Sicko Lurking int their virtual world.
I gotta be honest here guys I’m embarrassed and ashamed.
I’ve fell victim to ignorance and stupidity.
I had a chance to become a Healthy and Positive influence while dating my last fiance, to 2 incredible kids.
I failed miserably.
I don’t share this post to shame anyone.
I’m front and center as the bad guy.
But, as Tony Robbins, says; “The Past Does Not Equal The Future”
This is the Nerd’s Shout Out To Nerd Nation.
Let’s bring back Leave It To Beaver.
We might have to do it the handicapped way as single parents.
We might not think we can.
But it starts with each of us.
So here’s my Promise to My Little Girl.
Baby Girl..Daddy Promises… • • To Always Listen To You. • • To Never Put My Life In Front Of Your Needs. • • To Eat At Least One Meal With You Each Day and Give You My Full Attention. 374 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
• • To Let You Be Yourself. • • To Not Allow the Shit Box (T.V.) To Be Your Babysitter. • • To Always Make It My Business to Know Your Friends and What You Are Doing. • • To Keep Open Eyes Always to Your Virtual World. • • To Fill Your Mind With Movies Full Of Wholesome Values. • • To Read With You Everyday. • • To Spend Quality One on One Time With You Daily. •
What are some of the things that are pissing you off about families today?
Share some of your thoughts below.
Hey maybe you could sell me on the Idea that The Osbournes got something going that I missed.
Who knows maybe I’m just too dang Old School.
Love ya
The Chief Nerd
Make a Comment Will Ya Already…
P.S. If you’d like to learn The secrets to “becoming a better you” then I encourage you to study Dan Ken- nedy Renegade Millionaire Report. Dan spent years drilling down to find the key traits that over 100 Suc- cessful Renegade Millionaires had in common. CLICK HERE TO GET THIS REPORT NOW
Share this Post CHAPTER 87
“Why Is It That Reasons Come First, Answers Come Second?”
The truth is that there is no “happy ending” in life, because any type of “ending” implies stagnation. “People never stop being called upon to evolve, never stop being called upon to weed out their lesser characteristics, never stop being forced to advance as individuals by the challenges they choose to under- take. It’s just whether they choose to step the fuck up, or sit the fuck down.”
Owen Cook-aka- “Tyler” of Real Social Dynamics
July 13, 2009
Hey you,
It’s #2.
After I read the quote above, it made me think about the service the Chief and I are providing for you with this site.
Yesterday, after we sold out the personal coaching program in minutes with one email (no fancy pants launch, no mega list, no super sales letter), the nerd came in said we had to talk. Shit.
I knew what was coming. It was the “Grown Up” talk. The talk where he used the “O” word. Organized.
We talked about how if we stopped dinking around, taking care of this site on a part-time basis and instead give it our full attention we could radically transform the quality of your life by giving you more. And, how by not doing this, we were doing you a disservice.
We talked about how with only having spent at most, $500 bucks total, way back last year, on adwords to drive traffic, of which $479 of it was probably flushed down the toilet due to us jumping in half cocked seeing what’d fall out the other side, and how with using ZERO SEO strategy, no article marketing, no banner advertising, pretty much doing nothing but giving you content and a few reports to purchase, we’ve 376 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One managed to build a list of dedicated buyers who wow us with their comments on the blog, emails and spending of their protected dollar/pound here.
For This, I Thank You
Thank you visiting, making us one of Wordpress.com’s fastest growing blogs due to our Alexa ranking of 210,152 (this means that out of the billions & billions of web sites available on the internet, we’re 210,152ndplace). Thank you so much for your comments, personal friendly conversations and feedback. Thank you for buying like crazy and showing us we can do more for you by taking even more notes on programs than we do now.
Thank you for challenging us to “Step the Fuck Up”.
In lieu of the Chief’s post yesterday about parenting, I want to share with you another hunk of sweetness from the stern but loving advice of the Responsible Business Parent’s Parent, Rich Schefren and his Founders Club Program
This report by itself is dramatically changing the way this site is evolving.
And if you missed the whole launch for the product here’s the essence of it boiled down to a quote…
“You Read A Book From Beginning To End, But You Build A Business From The End To The Begin- ning.”
Just like the way a child is raised helps determine what direction they take as an adult, so it is with raising your business.
I talked about this during our last Ultra Product Launch Mastermind Meeting and promised them I was going to write this out and because I think this topic is so important I’ve decided to share it with everyone.
What Is The Ultimate Purpose Of Your Business?
The textbook definition of purpose is: noun. The object toward which one strives or for which something exists.
What’s the purpose of your business?
Without a purpose you can’t know and neither can anyone who works for you know what your business is striving to achieve, or more importantly why it even exists in the first place.
When your business is purposeless everything feels a bit chaotic, maybe even meaningless.
Your Business Tells You and The World What Business You’re Really In “Why Is It That Reasons Come First, Answers… 377
Most entrepreneurs can’t clearly state, in one sentence, the business they’re really in. When you know your business’s purpose you can do this.
The thing to remember is that you always define your business from the point of view of your customers… the end result your customers will enjoy from using your products or services.
Maybe you’ve heard this example, maybe you haven’t.
As we all know railroads dominated cross-country transportation once upon a time. Because they defined themselves a being in the business of running railroads and didn’t have a big picture purpose they got their ass handed to them by bus companies, trucking companies, shipping companies and eventually airlines.
If they’d asked themselves the questions I’m about to reveal they might’ve come up with a purpose like this… “To move people and freight over long distances in the very best way possible at the very best prices.”
Because they didn’t, they missed out on the most profitable segments of the market like moving people and packages.
6 Reasons Why Purpose Gives You House Odds
In my last post I talked about how to get detailed research about your market and customers. If your pur- pose is based on this knowledge you’ll be talking to the real needs of the market and it will drive everything you do.
Here’s a list of reasons this is true…
Purpose improves your performance – It gives you the criteria to judge the effectiveness of everything you undertake.
Purpose attracts A-Player employees and Outsourcers – People are passionate by nature and when not stimulated we revert to boredom or distraction towards something that does offer a hit of passion. Espe- cially in the work place. When your purpose is compelling the best employees and outsourcers want to be in your world because you offer meaning to their life.
Purpose deepens employee engagement and increases their commitment – Employees who work in the service of something they feel true devotion to bring the most energy and vitality to what they do. Work stops being a 9 to 5 chore to be endured so they can have money to do what really juices them. And it becomes a source of fulfillment and satisfaction. Your purpose can tap into the hearts and minds of your team and make the impossible, possible.
Purpose drives successful innovation – Without a purpose, a business invents more than they innovate because there’s nothing driving meaningful innovation. Innovation is something new that succeeds while 378 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One invention is merely something that’s new. Innovation for innovations sake often results in wasted time. Innovation designed to meet business’ purpose is where meaningful progress is made.
Purpose gives your business flexibility – Products, services and practically everything else in your business eventually changes. If your purpose is clear you’ll know when it’s time to shift direction, change what you offer or your strategy. The only thing that won’t change is your purpose which keeps you flexible enough be ready for what the market tells you they want.
Purpose builds your brand – Your clearly defined purpose let’s people pigeon hole you into a position in their mind. It tells them how they should see and feel about you. If you leave this definition up to them, you might not like the results.
Focus On Coming To The Rescue
If you want your purpose to be etched into the mind of your customers make sure it’s stated in a way to relieves them of pain, frustration or challenges they face.
Why?
Because people spend enormous amounts of money, time and energy avoiding pain. They avoid con- fronting their neighbors, bosses or spouse to avoid emotional pain and they gulp down pills to suppress their physical pain.
Make it Short, Sweet, & Memorable
You should be able to tell someone your business purpose in one or two sentences. It should be broad, fundamental, inspirational and enduring.
Don’t confuse purpose, which should last at least 100 years, with specific goals or business strategies, which should change many times in 100 years.
You can achieve a goal or complete a strategy but you can never fulfill your purpose… it’s like a perfec- tion… forever pursued, but never reached.
What’s cool is that it doesn’t have to be unique. The primary role is to guide and inspire, not differentiate. It can set you apart but two companies can have the same purpose.
Examples Of Compelling Business Purposes
Google – To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Facebook – Giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected
Walmart – Saving people money so they can live better. “Why Is It That Reasons Come First, Answers… 379
Disney – Keeping alive the magic of childhood.
Strategic Profits – To guide, advise, and nurture entrepreneurs to work less, make more, while building the business of their dreams.
Finding Your Business’s Purpose
This is the step where you can create a company capable of making a difference, making money and maybe, just maybe making history.
Now you should find it obvious how useful finding all the dope on your customers was using what we talked about in our last conversation. Now we’re plunder that data for the deep seeded, un-met need that you can find a way to be passionate about fulfilling.
And it all begins with asking “What do people need or want that we have (or could create) that no one else is offering?”
Reasons Come First, Answers Come Second
Here are the eight powerful questions that lead you right into a legendary purpose… and here’s what I came up for My Note Taking Nerd off the top of my head.
What does your business provide?
We provide the pure, refined essence of the world’s most expensive business building programs.
Why is that important?
Because it’s possible to get results from these programs without having to sit through the entire thing for 20 plus hours or more.
Why is that important?
Because once you have fast & easy access to answers your mind thinks of the task as easier to accomplish and doesn’t sabotage your efforts.
Why is that important?
Most people have spent thousands and thousands of dollars and not seen results of buying them.
Why is that important?
Because if they don’t get results they slowly erode their self esteem which is the beginning of a slew of bad decision making that ultimately ruins their business. 380 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Why is that important?
If they don’t make wise decisions then the quality of not only their life but of their families is drastically affected (anyone who’s been laid of or gone bankrupt knows this all too well)
What would the world lose if you we ceased to exist?
They’d lose out on a source on a friend who wanted to see them get everything they were meant to get out of their investments in these seminars and programs.
So, our purpose is:
We chomp away at the elephant of information overload one program at a time so that you can spend more time making money and less time ‘learning’ about making money.
There You Have It
Doesn’t that seem simple? It is. Answer these questions and you’ll immediately put yourself in the top 20% of leaders of who actually know why they’re doing what they’re doing and are in love with it.
I’m leaving with that. Time for me go shoot some hoop. Thank you once again for inspiring me to step the fuck up.
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd 2
P.S. What I shared today was just a teeny piece of what was discussed in our Ultra Product Launch Master- mind Meeting. Our last call I believe was over two hours long and while interacting one on one with the participants it pulled the marketing wizard out of the nerd and I and led to the people on the call coming away with solid, actionable solutions to their problems. CLICK HERE to find out how to join in the fun… CHAPTER 88
Sex, Drugs, …..Salesmanship and a little Psychology
Here’s a reality check: Your hottest prospects don’t care a bit about how hard you work, your most loyal customers will abandon you for a better bargain, and you will not make a single sale in business or in life based on the idea of “helping someone else”.
When it comes to understanding salesmanship and the behavior of your fellow human beings, just remember “It’s all about me”.
Learning how to “see” the underlying reason and motivations for behavior of people you deal with can be chilling and just plain gut wrenching, at first.
Most folks live on the surface of life. They either don’t know how to look deeper, or don’t want to know what’s going on.
Jus give me my MTV and shut up already about all that complex shit. I’m just chill ling! And please don’t make me think.
This is why it’s lonely to be one of those rare breed of aliens that actually want to think for themselves.
Do you know that almost all advances in the human race and as individuals are all about war, sex, or vanity?
I’m in the fund raising business and it’s taken me quite some time to understand this very idea as applied to what I do. You can appeal all you want to the higher ideals of your audiences – whether it’s to save the children or the whales – and it won’t raise squat. Until you put in some solid benefits that affect the pros- pect directly.
“It’s Still All About Me”
Most people don’t go to charity balls because they give a rats ass about the rain forest or whatever. They go because they get to dress up and be seen. And eat a good meal with some heavy hitters. Be part of a unique and special group. 382 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Or they give money to cover their own guilt.
Or they give because they have been personally affected by the problem or organization.
It’s important as individuals and salesman to understand the mostly unconscious motivations behind people’s behavior. Because… if you think they’re going to buy from you because you’re cute, or you really, really, like them, or because you really love your product or ….. because you “need” them to help you… well you have another thing coming.
I’m not a cynic nor am I a people hater. I just understand the things that drive human being.
Yes, this includes my very best friends and the people I respect the most. I have no illusions. It’s still all about them. Best friends are quite capable of stealing your girlfriend or stabbing you in the back. Or aban- doning you in a crisis. Or even secretly agreeing with your enemies that you had it coming after the fact.
I’ve been in all types of situation in life. I’ve watched my biological Father blows someone’s head off in front of me. I’ve been shot at. I’ve stole and been stolen from. I’ve cheated and been cheated on. I’ve felt healthy and felt like I was going to die tomorrow. I’ve broken hearts and had mine crushed beyond repair. I’ve felt the wrath of friends who did not want to see me succeed and have had a twinge or two of jealousy when others achieve success. It’s been a soap opera. Yes, I’ve been on all sides of situations that rival a Shake- spearian play.
All this goes into the mix in qualifying me to understand human nature and psychology. No book can sub- stitute real human emotion and actual participating in the events that cause them. This, I believe, helps me to understand other people’s experience. And, because I’ve tried to pay attention and study the motivations hidden underneath our actions, I have learned to understand other people’s desires.
You can’t be a good salesman if you ignore the reality of human behavior and desires; which include; Greed, hunger, sex, popularity, bargains….the almost overwhelming desire to be richer, happier, and healthier than everyone else.
Most want their kids to be smarter and better looking, and we want to stay young forever.
We want to have the sexual mojo of Austin Powers with the sexuality of Elvis Presley.
And, we want this to happen fast, without risk. Oh… Almost forgot… we don’t want to have to break a sweat either. Please just give us a pill.
No person or customer is different. Ask the great marketing consultant Dan Kennedy says: “A customer is a customer is a customer”.
Good marketers and salesman and students of human psychology react quickly to changing conditions. Sex, Drugs, …..Salesmanship and a little… 383
But Great and Outstanding ones do some crystal ball gazing, and learn how to predict the profit curve a little ahead of everyone else.
In today’s world there are a lot of Wine and Beer connoisseurs. They like fine wines and complex beer.
This love takes them far away from the bland stuff at the local 7 – 11. Let a die hard Bud Fan takes a gulp of that fancy $200 bottle of wine and he’ll puke. And he’ll look at you like you’re some kind of alien.
He’ll ask you if you’re French or one of those other Aliens, you know….. The Rich.
As a salesman you’ve got to stay in touch with the Bud Guy. Why, because if you believe you’re above the uncivilized habits of the masses they will feel it and in the end you will not be able to fool them.
This, by the way, is why I laugh when guys in three piece suits, that never say a swear word, and talk with proper language try to “get through” to local troubled youth. This just isn’t going to happen. You’ve got to get down in the dirt and get a little yucky before you can bring them out of there with you.
Never forget this: Get over yourself and stay grounded in the masses. Know who they are, how they speak, and what they want.
The profile of our current and next generation of consumers in this country have never voted in their lives, don’t have a clue how they are going to pay rent, sink every single penny of expendable income into “Pimping Their Rides”, few of them can name a book they’ve read, and they can’t identify the vice president of the United States
This may be a bit of dramatization but…
These are your customers, your clients, the people you share the roadways with, the people who work next to you, and move in down the block.
They’re good people, too, mostly. They’ll stop and help you if you’re stranded on the side of the road without expectation of a reward.
My entire family lies at the bottom of this pile. I’d probably be happy there as well.
But, eventually, I get a little bored with small talk and Jerry Springer and … I have to say it… the lack of awake – ness in the general population.
Remember this Mr. Salesman or if you just want to get along with your neighbors better: Half of em don’t vote, most don’t read much, they don’t like complexity and thrive on simplicity, they want it now or faster, and they don’t entirely trust anyone who’s too wealthy or talks too fancy.
Like it or not these are the demographics. 384 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Get hip, to get rich. It’s all about them.
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Get Real Deep…
Get Real Deep I’ve spent most of my life in what I’ll call Shallow Blundering. After reading something of interest today I’ve come to the conclusion that you and I don’t have to go through life like this. Rather life or business, there is a lesson in this…..I promise.
What is Shallow Blundering? It means that you don’t take the necessary time to prepare yourself to suc- ceed at the highest level. This could be a new project at work or a vacation you’re about to take.
You can go on a vacation or start a new project – without really knowing a thing about it. And you might even survive to a degree, if you know enough to stay out of harms way. If however, you are not cautious you may get in trouble.
Just like going on vacation to Los Angeles and “accidentally” finding yourself driving down a dead end street full of gang members and getting shot at or walking down an alley full of crack heads.
This type of blindness will eventually get you in trouble.
Next, you can prepare yourself for the adventure. By reading, looking on the internet, asking friends.
Get a map and travel guide or go to the library and get all the books about your project.
This is not hard with the advent of the internet. Hell…. It’s even free. Just a little time and your vacation or project becomes something completely different and much more satisfying.
I can’t tell you how many times I went on Vacation or out to eat only to find myself driving in circles and eventually just calling it a day because of my inability to make a decision because I didn’t have any informa- tion.
Finally, you can Go Real Deep. 386 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Once you’ve educated yourself and done the proper research you now know how to go deep. All you have to do is find the people in the area you’re doing work in or on your vacation in and ask questions. You see…..the locals and insiders can lead you in the right direction and give you an education you can’t get anywhere else.
Have a new project? Call the company and speak with the janitor, engineers, salesman, and accountant …. That’s going deep. Once you’re on vacation get out into the local vibe and begin to ask questions about the things you’ve read and then once you’ve verified the facts you’re on your way to an adventure and fun rather then frustration and grief. Next time I’m going on Vacation…. I’m going Deep so that I can have some fun for once
Hey if you want to get Real Deep in your business and learn the exact strategies that my mentor and busi- ness Genius Clayton Makepeace is using to Kick Ass then get the Online Profit Muliplier Report we’ve done for you
Share this Post CHAPTER 90
Your’s Free: $500,000.00 Clayton Makepeace Checklist
Hey You, It’s #2.
Has the idea of idea of making a video sales presentation ever scared the shit out of you?
It has me.
For years, I was clueless about what to say, when, and for how long. And then, I met up with Clayton Makepeace’s Online Profit Multiplier program. Now I know.
So do you.
Today I’m giving you step-by-step checklist Clayton goes through to make sure his webinar scripts pro- duce results like these…
“Every month, this kind of event, attracts up to 40,000 prospective customers for my client. And com- bined with my proprietary follow-up strategy tactics and copywriting techniques, generates sales of up to $5 million … and pays me royalties of up to $500,000 sometimes more. And I want to show you how these powerful tools can do the same for you.”
—Clayton Makepeace—
Taking The Mystery Out of What To Say, In What Order
The quote from above gave me the idea to coin this post the $500,000.00 Checklist.
As you’re probably aware, the next nerd release will be on the Clayton’s OPM program. And while what I’m giving you today doesn’t cover the pre-event strategy, follow up strategy, all the copywriting techni- 388 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One ques… I’m giving you all 10 of the items that are the backbone that make it possible for Clayton to make himself upwards of $500,000 in royalties from his webinar scripts.
If you’re flat broke and can barely afford to buy peanut butter and Ritz crackers to keep your belly from rumblin’, let alone buy the OPM guide so you can have all the details, please know that by just having this script outline, along with my other posts on webinars, you’re well on your way to making some serious dough.
Might be as much as $500,000. Might be more. Might be nothing if you don’t use it.
As you’ll be realizing soon, this checklist is THAT powerful.
I believe Clayton can so seamlessly put together these grand slam webinar events because he’s been trained in making his marketing valuable by way of the magalog.
You know, if you’re lucky enough to be on the right mailing lists, the magazine looking things that show up in your mail box that promise on the cover to unveil…
“Forbidden Cures! Medically Proven Remedies That Heal Without Drugs or Surgery! Remarkable Cures CENSORED By Knife-Happy Surgeons and Greedy Drug Companies!
What’s you’ll notice is that these steps are not all that different from the steps you’d take to write a magalog or what Gary Bencivenga coined as a “Trojan Horse, a salesletter offering value before asking for a sale. As a bonus, to make this post even morespecial…
I’ll illustrate each point with a block of copy from Clayton’s magnificent swipe file… his “Forbidden Cures” package who’s headline is above, that was mailed to 50+ million people and generated over a million sub- scribers.
And it all starts with…
Step One: Establish The Spokesperson’s Credentials
If you’re new to the blog or were out of the country and missed my post about the Two Words That Allow You To Get Anyone To Do Anything You Want. No Gun & Mask Required. Go here to absorb it… http:// mynotetakingnerd.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/two-words-that-allow-you-to-get-anyone-to-do-anything- you-want-gun-and-mask-not-required/
Part 2 can be ravenously consumed here… http://mynotetakingnerd.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/part-2- two-words-that-allow-you-to-get-anyone-to-do-anything-you-want-gun-and-mask-not-required/
You never ask anyone for anything unless you’ve positioned yourself in the light that allows them to be receptive to you as a person. Reading this post above will make give you black belt training on how to do this. Your’s Free: $500,000.00 Clayton Makepeace… 389
Here’s the way Clayton worked this kind of magic…
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
“Who Can You Trust?”
“More than 500,000 people have found an answer in Dr. Julian Whitaker.
As a graduate of both Dartmouth College and Emory University, Dr. Whitaker got the best medical educa- tion money can buy. But even as a young medical student he was appalled by the unfeeling arrogance of doctors who use toxic drugs, painful tests and dangerous surgeries when gentler cures work better!
He set out on a personal search to find “no-side effect” ways to heal. And that search led him to hundreds of foods, herbs, dietary supplements and new medicines that not only heal, but can help your body resist disease – without side effects!
Like so many health pioneers before him, Dr. Whitaker was attacked by the medical establishment.
They tried to silence him. Drug companies tried to buy him off. When that failed, they did their best to ignore him – hoping he’d just go away.
Instead, he created HEALTH & HEALING – a monthly newsletter dedicated to alerting all of us to this better way to heal.
Dr. Whitaker is the best selling author of five books on “no-side-effect” healing, including, Reversing Heart Disease, and he is in high demand internationally as a speaker on alternative health care.
In addition, Dr. Whitaker has helped hundreds of thousands of patients reverse and prevent illness at his clinic in Irvine, California, in monthly issues of his Health & Healing newsletter, and in his recently pub- lished 129 Amazing Medical Secrets.
Now as good as that quick bio was I believe what you’ll learn in the posts I gave you links to above goes to next level of effectiveness. Especially if you’re going to cold prospects.
Step 2: Dimensionalize The Problem
There’s always a problem.
Even when you’re speaking to a desire. The best always want to be better, the models always want to look hotter, the rich always want to get richer.
Make sure you’re identifying the problem they face, what it means, how it limits his life, his happiness, his success. 390 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Let’s dig into how Clayton did this in this piece…
Why Medical Racketeers Want These Drug-Free Cures BANNED!
Foods That Unleash Your Body’s Remarkable Healing Power!
DOCTORS mean well. Sure, there are a few scoundrels, (see page 12 of this magazine) but most doctors were never taught about anything but drugs and surgery. And frankly, they don’t have the time to keep up with all the latest studies – let alone tell you and all their other patients about them.
DRUG COMPANIES aren’t so innocent. They’re in the business to make money. And that means pushing drugs – even if those drugs aren’t necessarily good for you. If that wasn’t bad enough, they use their enormous wealth to CENSOR safer, better ways to heal.
SURGEONS know one way to heal. If you talk to a brick mason about building a house, you’re going to get a brick house. If you talk to a surgeon about getting well, he’s going to start sharpening his scalpel. Unfortunately some greedy surgeons couldn’t care less whether the operation is safe or will do you any good!
Step 3: Identify the Enemy
As you can clearly tell, the above step was killing two birds with one stone. Here you want to answer the question as to why this problem exists or hasn’t been solved.
Witness Clayton work his more of his mojo here…
VITAMINS & MINERALS
That Heal and Protect You
From Illness
MEDICAL LABS and HOSPITALS don’t make money until you’re sick enough to see a doctor. Helping you stay healthy is the last thing on their minds! But that’s only the beginning of the scandal – see page 12 for more! (Nerd #2 note: “Page 12” Great device to create anticipation of more “gifts” to come within the ad)
NEWS REPORTERS try to tell you, God bless them. But often they just add to the confusion. They’re not doctors.
They don’t understand the significance of new medical findings. That’s why their stories are so inaccurate, contradictory and confusing. I’ll begin clearing up that confusion, starting on page 6 of this report… Your’s Free: $500,000.00 Clayton Makepeace… 391
THE GOVERNMENT may be your worst enemy of all. Congress and the Food and Drug Administration have actually made it a crime for vitamin makers and health food stores to tell you about these amazing new therapies. Even though some of the most respected scientific institutions in the world swear by them!
Step 4: Empathize & Step 5: Paint a Word Picture
I put these two steps together because I found a block of copy that does both masterfully.
While your doing your webinar it helps for the viewer, your potential prospect, to see you as their cham- pion. You’re the one who’s found out why their horrid problem is not any of their fault.
Everyone’s out to get them. To mislead them. You want to empathize with them how their current situa- tion really limits them to. How it’s costing them time, money, rocky or loss of relationships.
Let them see you understand. Like Eben Pagan says, “When you can describe someone’s problem to them better than they can, you get instant believability and trust.
Then we want to Paint a Word Picture of how much better it can be once they know what you do. Once you come to their rescue. Deliver them from this evil & pain.
You want to show them what life is like when these problems don’t exist. Where fear and frustration is a thing of the past and what happens when their desires are fulfilled. Let them walk around in the enhanced identity they be living after you’re a part of their life.
And then you tell them why this is going to be true.
Let them in on what you’re going to do with them during this event (webinar) that’s going to breathe life into this picture of glory. They could feel more confident, more in charge and maybe certain that they know the answers now.
Watch how Clayton’s talks about this here…
A Flood of Healing Power!
The medical industry would love for you to believe that their brand of medicine is the only way to treat you.
Their treatments may not work very well… they may cause uncomfortable, even deadly side effects… they often hurt more than help…and they can’t keep you from getting sick again…
But it’s the only thing they have!
They actually expect you to believe that toxic drugs, painful tests and dangerous surgeries are your best medicine! 392 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
BALONEY! The best medicine isn’t man-made. The Creator never intended for drug company big shots and other medical fat cats to have a monopoly on healing. And they don’t! Nature’s best medicines are in foods, herbs, vitamins and minerals that are available to everyone! • • You don’t need insurance to be able to afford them! • • • You don’t need a doctor’s permission to get them! • • • You don’t have to be a genius to use them! • • • You NEVER have to worry about dangerous side-effects! • • • And you’ll be amazed at how superior they are to what you’re taking now! •
At best, drugs are pale imitations of these natural medicines. Nature’s pharmacy is filled with natural rem- edies that help coax your body back to health. They repair hidden damage in your cells, organs and arteries – something no man-made drug could ever do!
…And still others contain substances that guard against future illnesses – even heart disease and cancer. I defy any pharmaceutical company to show me an artificial drug that does all that!
When you give your body these things, it’s like a flood of healing power washes over you and through you!
In the next few pages, I’ll help you start filling every cell in your body with these powerful healing nutrients.
“90 days from now, I see you feeling better than ever!
…FINALLY LIBERATED from health problems your doctor can’t solve…
…STAYING WELL… and away from America’s money-hungry medical machine…
…CONFIDENTLY PROTECTING yourself from illness – including heart disease, stroke and cancer…”
PRE-ORDER THE MAKEPEACE ONLINE PROFIT MULTIPLIER REPORT HERE
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Your’s Free: $500,000.00 Clayton Makepeace… 393
15 Minutes Down, 45 or More To Go
You’re going to want to spend at least the first 15 minutes of your call Pre-Framing your prospects. Without this, people will be more inclined to bail and more tragically, even if they do make it to your offer at the end, never even read your salesletter.
Now we move onto…
Step 6: Now You Present Actionable Information or Content
The key here is proof.
You’ve got to find a way to demonstrate that what you say really works. You’ve got to someway help them come to the brain dead solution through and exercise of logic on the event where they can say to them- selves, “Yeah, I can do this.”
Then you can also pile on top of that the Social Proof Factor. This where you could be interviewing other people on the event about how they had problems and after they did what you’re telling them… they’re free as a lark.
Listen how Clayton weaves this into page 10 of 29 in his promo…
Spare Yourself The Agony of Kidney Stones
Ask anyone who’s had one: Nothing hurts worse than a kidney stone! Fortunately, it doesn’t have to happen to you…
In 1974, two doctors at Harvard Medical School gave 300 mg of magnesium oxide (a mineral supplement available in any health food store) and 10 mg of Vitamin B6 to 149 patients, each of whom had one or more kidney stones annually.
Exciting Results! The year before, the test group had 194 kidney stones. But when they started taking mag- nesium oxide and vitamin B6, the group had only 16 stones all year! That’s a 92% reduction!
Step 7: Present The Ultimate Solution
Here’s how to walk someone dreamily down to the inevitable conclusion that your perspective is one to be trusted…
Many Medical Tests are Hazardous To Your Health!
A seven year study of 90,000 women, ages 40-59, showed that those who had regular mammograms were subjected to twice the surgical procedures and more mastectomies than those who didn’t – and yet life expectancy is exactly the same! 394 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
This Useless Medical Test Kills 4,500 People Every Year!
Even doctors admit that 900,000 unnecessary angiograms are done every year in the U.S. alone. And 4,500 people die needlessly as a result.
PRE - ORDER THE MAKEPEACE ONLINE PROFIT MULTIPLIER REPORT NOW BY CLICKING HERE
Hospitals are Lethal!
Each year, two million patients pick up hospital infections that they didn’t have before they were admitted. Of those about 60,000 die from the infection.
The Best Kept Secret in Modern Medicine!
There is a better way! It just doesn’t make any sense to turn your life over to doctors, druggists, hospitals, insurance companies! Especially when it’s so easy to get healthy and stay that way, using the natural thera- pies nature intended for you!
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Step 8: Call To Action
This is where we veer off the traditional path.
We sell at this point in the event but we don’t try to sell our product here. It’s all about showing some leg and nothing more now. At this point we’re in the last 15 minutes of the video.
You say something to effect of “We’re about to launch a product that can really help you out with this problem but I can’t tell you about it now” and then you tell them what they have to do to find out out more about it…
“Click the link on this page to go to our special report… which in reality, is a sales page. Or “Come to this blog and I’ll tell you more about it…” Or… “Send us an email and tell us you’re interested and we’ll give you a call.”
You’re not selling here. You’ve just spent 50 minutes becoming the person’s friend so you don’t want blow all of that by going Sham Wow Guy on them. You want to keep the warm fuzzy feelings alive and get them off of the call in this state so they’re highly motivated to act.
Step 9: Present the “Horrifying Alternative”
Now it’s crossroads time. Your’s Free: $500,000.00 Clayton Makepeace… 395
You simply say something like… “Only one of two things is gonna happen here. Either we’re gonna go on together or we’re gonna go on separately. You’re gonna continue dealing with the situation you’re dealing with now or you’re gonna be proactive and take action and resolve this issue.”
Now you show them all the nasty shit that’s going to rain down on them if the don’t act.
Here’s how Gary Bencivenga’s favorite closer brings his “Forbidden Cures” package to a head…
How Many Times Can You Say “I’ll Do It Tomorrow?”
At this moment, we’re standing at a crossroads, you and me…
Until now, we’ve been headed in different directions. But I want us to go on from here together. I want to be you partner in better health.
We’ll do it as a team or… you can live with or anticipate having these common maladies sweep you off your feet…
Migraine headaches… Alzheimers… Rheumatism… Ulcers… Tendonitis… Indigestion… Back Ache… Cancer… Kidney Stones… Diarrhea… and too many others to name here.
People who don’t know what you and I have talked about HAVE TO live with these maladies. You don’t. Not anymore.
Step 10: Final Call To Action
Once again, we don’t have time to do a full spiel about what we’re selling, nor do we want to blow the good will we’ve built up so…
We merely slide into something like this…
Please let me hear from you soon. I’m looking forward to telling you what the medical industry won’t and guiding you to safer, gentler ways to heal!
Yours For Better Health,
Joe Schmoe Bambadda
Can you see how this process is different and where it can have a huge impact on the impression your pros- pects have about you and what you can do for them?
If you do make sure you don’t miss the special pricing we’re offering for the pre-release of the notes of this entire system. As much as I’ve handed you today (9 pages of a word doc), enough to get started in fact, without having the notes, there’s so much I can’t cover here. 396 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
And the system is what makes Clayton and his clients the big bucks.
WE HAVE NO BIG SALES PAGE FOR WHAT THE CHIEF NERD CALLS ONE OF THE TOP THREE BUSINESS PROGRAMS HE’S EVER SEEN…ORDER YOUR MAKEPEACE ONLINE PROFIT MUL- TIPLIER BY CLICKING HERE
So, if what I talked about today makes sense to you, and believe now that you can make money with just the $500,000.00 Checklist, you best find that email and get your pre-order in. I’m out. Going to have a couple beers and an 8” tall piece of cheese cake.
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
Share this Post CHAPTER 91
A Kick Ass Article By Dan Kennedy
This article is reprinted from Marketing Genius Dan Kennedy.
You may get information from Dan at dankennedy.com . HEALTHY CURIOSITY
I find peoples’ absence of curiosity shocking. As example, last month’s Gold+ call. Several hundred Gold+ Members were on the call with our guest, Platinum Member Chauncey Hutter Jr. This is a guy who took a 2-room “pop ‘n son” tax prep practice and turned into a 23 office chain, selling services at 100% higher prices than competitors, growing every year, employing up to 400 employees at a time, generating millions within a matter of weeks each year, and able to make all that happen based on our kind of marketing. Bill guided him through a chronology of milestones in the development of his business. He revealed a number of things he’s doing differently than most business owners. And plenty of little “hints” at things were dropped that should have aroused the curiosity of anybody listening. Yet, when it came time for question/ answer, there were, I think, six. Reverse the situation, by the way, and put Hutter and Glazer in the audi- ence, they’d have both had questions to ask. I know that for fact, from experience. Here are just a few of the questions I’d have asked Mr. Hutter:
How do you pick the towns you open offices in?
How do you compete – what specifically do you do to compete – with the big, advertised national brand chains like H.R. Block and Jackson Hewitt?
You mentioned yours was blue collar clientele and you use direct-mail, so how do you choose who to mail to, what lists do you use?
You said you mystery shop your competitors – what do you look for? What have you learned?
You run a school to get your employees – how does that work? 398 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You were at a 45% retention when you dug in to fix it – what percentage do you retain year to year now? What will be your next experiment to further improve it?
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made?
Knowing what you know now, if you had one office and decided to open 20, what would you do differently?
How do you use YOUR time? How do you manage your time?
Well, I could go on.
I am sometimes amused by peoples’ absence of curiosity, and I deliberately drop “bait” in conversation, just to see if they’ll respond. The day after consulting with Gold/VIP Member Dr. Barry Lycka, I mentioned to another doctor that Barry had over 500 people at his annual seminar, and signed 180 up for cosmetic proce- dures on the spot. I waited for the “holy cow, how’d he do that?” question. It didn’t come. In conversations with numerous businesspeople about Trump’s ‘Apprentice Show’, I’ve mentioned the fact that they had 216,000 applicants for the first show. Not one person has asked me if I knew how they created those 216,000. A few weeks ago, a client who came to me for consulting who, in part, has said he’d like to reduce the amount of travel and time he invests in going to his clients, sort of grumbled that he admired me, for being able to get people to pay and come to Cleveland, then drive an hour out into the middle of nowhere, to meet with me at my convenience. But he never specifically asked me how I do that. Since he didn’t ask, I didn’t enlighten him. You know, I invited people to submit questions to me for my Renegade Millionaire System – only 30 or 40 out of nearly 5,000 invited bothered to do so. If that situation was reversed, I’d ask me something.
For the record, I, and the Renegade Millionaires that I work most closely with, are insatiably, aggressively curious. We want to know: how did they do that? How did they know to do that? Why did they do that? How does that business work? What are its economics? And on and on and on. And we rarely let an oppor- tunity to quiz anybody worthy of being quizzed slip by The first time Joe Polish got me in private, on an airplane flight from L.A. to Phoenix after I let him tag along to a Peter Lowe event, he asked me so many questions I had to ask him to stop. Every time I’ve ever been with Fran Tarkenton, he’s quizzed me about businesses – speaking, seminars, infomercials.
One of my earliest mentors told me he couldn’t stand idle socializing or pointless conversation. He said if he opened his mouth, it was for one of only two purposes: to sell something or ask a probing question. Otherwise, he’d save his breath. He also said that you should be able to observe something, overhear some- thing or ask about something anywhere, even at a funeral, that would be profitable.
Jim Rohn has always told people: take a millionaire to dinner. Jim says most people respond: “Pick up the check for a millionaire? Are you nuts? I should buy him his steak? Let him pick up my check. He’s the mil- lionaire.” See, most people don’t get it. At all.
Share this Post A Kick Ass Article By Dan Kennedy 399 CHAPTER 92
Dan Kennedy’s Most Valuable Piece of Advice
Dan Kennedy’s Most Valuable Piece of Advice
Hey you,
It’s #2.
In the comments section of the rare article posted by Dan Kennedy here, Brian, asked “What’s the biggest lesson or takeaway you’ve gotten from all of Dan’s stuff Nerds?”
So, today I wanted to reveal to you the one distinction I’ve deemed most important to the success of my business as well as my life.
And first, to help magnify why this point is so important I’d like to introduce you to a man I’m extraordi- narily fond of, Robert Dilts.
Anyone who’s very familiar with NLP (Tim, Nick S., John Richards), Neuro Linguistic Programming is def- initely familiar with this man and if you aren’t and you’re interested in becoming influential to anyone in your life, you should be.
Here’s why.
Some of Robert’s programs are super technical and loaded to the hilt with NLP jargon that might send the beginners hand reaching for the stop button on their Ipod.
The one I’d like to introduce you to today is not. It’s a three day program called Conversational Magic.
The premise behind the title/theme of this seminar is that whenever you seek to influence anyone toward a resourceful way of thinking, doing it in a way that goes under their radar, conversationally, rather than con- frontationally, is what allows someone to change for the better, faster. Dan Kennedy’s Most Valuable Piece of Advice… 401
Even if this was the first time you’ve ever heard of NLP, this program would give you an outstanding over- view of it, while giving you tools to become even more aware of why you do what you do and why others do the things they do and how to talk to people in a way that opens them up to what you have to say instead of resisting it.
If you’re not making the correlation as to why this is important to you and your business, you might not have a pulse.
Communication is vital to all of our relationships, especially the relationship we have with ourselves. While we may work from home and only talk to 1 or 2 people a day, we communicate non-stop with ourselves from dusk to dawn.
Today I wanted to tell about one of the most dangerous ideas every human battles… The Thought Virus.
A thought virus is not a belief that you generate on your own. It’s not a generalization that you come up with because you can say “Well, I’ve had this experience, this experience, this experience, and look it all means this.”
For example, we may have some ideas in our head, for instance that we should be certified by some kind of a organization or committee before we can have authority in a niche. But it may not actually be a reflection of our actual life experience.
If anything, guys like Dan Kennedy show us the counter examples to this, people with “Zero official creden- tials” going out and self aggrandizing themselves “Experts On”, “Kings Of”, “Gurus Of” with nothing but their own belief in themselves.
But the idea that “We Can’t” still influences us even if we’ve never even tried.
Most racial prejudice is based on thought viruses. It’s not something people come up with based on their own experience. It’s something they pick up like a virus from other places.
Now what happens is these ideas are nothing more than self fulfilling viruses. And it’s this way why? Because it should be that way!”
Here’s a story that illustrates this beautifully…
A group of researchers take a group of monkeys and put them in a room. There’s five of them and there’s a stairway in a certain part of the room and at the top there’s a bunch of banana’s hanging there.
But they have it rigged up so that if any of the monkey’s go on the stairway, everybody is soaked by a water system in the ceiling. All the monkeys get wet. 402 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Well, pretty soon the monkeys figure out, hey, it’s something about going to those bananas or trying to get the bananas that leads to us all getting wet. And so if they see one of their colleagues going for the bananas they don’t want to get wet, so they stop ‘em.
Eventually they all learn, “Don’t go to the stairway and go for the bananas.”
What’s interesting is that in the next part of the experiment they turn off the water. The monkeys still aren’t going on the stairway so they never know the water is off. Then they take out one of those monkeys and put in a new one.
The new monkey’s never been on the stairs, never gotten wet and of course the waters off anyway. But if that monkey starts going toward the stairs the other 4 stop him. The harder he tries to get to the stairs, the harder the other ones stop him.
Pretty soon he figures out he not gonna try to go to the stairs anymore.
Then they take out another one of the first group of monkeys and put in another new one. Same thing happens. As the new one starts going toward the stairs, the other ones stop him, including by the way, the first new monkey who’s apparently rather enthusiastic about it.
“I don’t get to go to the stairs, you don’t get to go to the stairs.”
Of course the water is still off. Then they take out another one of the old monkeys and put another one in and the same pattern happens until they finally have all new monkeys. The water is off. They’ve never been wet. Why don’t they go to the stairs?
“Because you shouldn’t. That’s the way it is. It’s always been that way.”
And this is what Robert means by a thought virus. “It’s just that way. That’s how it is.” It’s interesting because a thought virus is also a belief that gets so dis-associated from it’s positive intention.
By the way, in the monkey’s case what’s the positive intention of the belief? Why does the new monkey finally give in? To not be ostracized, rejected, fought against. Even though it doesn’t know why.
So much about change is rooted in thought viruses, beliefs that are passed on culturally and not directly by your own experience.
I grew up with two parents who were public school teachers, government employees. So a thought virus inherent in most people who work for the state is the whole “Ladder of Success” concept. You earn authority, raises, respect with tenure, not on results.
My good friend, Chief here was living on his own and beating the shit out of grown up adult men when he was 13 years old and as a kid started doing telemarketing where his reward/status was directly in proportion Dan Kennedy’s Most Valuable Piece of Advice… 403
to his productivity. So naturally his thinking got wired up to believe that “If I assert myself, excel and bring value to any situation I can create instant authority.”
Two different mindsets. Two different scripts played out in life. All entirely subject to change, modifica- tion and enhancement if need be through role models like Robert & Dan. I can’t recommend Conversa- tional Magic highly enough.
I feel the way you offer value to people could be deeply influenced by this program. Throughout it he illus- trates how powerful language is through examples of movies, personal experience and historic speeches and he does a magnificent job of doing so.
I try to do the same while talking to you.
Go find this program. If you want to enhance your ability to leave a lasting favorable impression on anyone you’ll be grateful to me in the future for telling you about this today.
However, I’m sad to say my little hunt for the site to send you to, so you could buy it came up empty. He will, however, begrudgingly, let you buy some of his other stuff though at http://www.nlpu.com/. If anyone can find the link to a site to buy Conversational Magic, please post a link in the comment section below.
The Kennedy Concept That Had The Most Significant Impact On Me
Countless numbers of people for years and years have told Dan Kennedy in letters, during personal consults or when brought up to the stage at his events “I know this stuff works in ______industry butmy business is different.”
Years ago I listened to Dan talk about this in his Renegade Millionaire Time Management System and give an answer to in a specific, compelling way I don’t remember ever having heard before.
Don’t get me wrong. He hammers this idea dead but this time was special. Here’s what he said…
“This is unfortunately is the knee jerk excuse that pops out of everyone’s subconscious mind and then their mouth for not doing all sorts of effective things.
So, it’s exactly the same thing that’s said about the type of advertising/marketing that I teach and it’s the same thing said about the time management methodology I use.
We’re now joking about it because what happens in question and answer sessions at events, and I noticed at the last super conference three different people asked questions, and Bill had the huge “But my business is different” up on the wall, and each one began their question like this…
“I probably shouldn’t say this but… my business is different,” and from there, go into their question.
Why? 404 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Look, All Businesses Have The Same Fundamental Functions In Common…
They have either a customer or a client or a patient…
They provide either a good or a service or both…
They may go to the customer location or bring the customer to their location…
They have to have some method of attracting new ones…
They need some method that’s selling repeatedly to and keeping ones they already have…
The differences between the cosmetic dentistry practice to the manufacturer of widgets that go inside vibra- tors, to the furniture store, the differences are really very small, very nominal and the commonalities are much greater.
Most of my approach to time and to communication and to customer/client management has a lot more to do first of all the individuals attitude and the individuals decision making process and then with universal principles than it does with things that can be said to be business specific.
Everybody thinks their customers/clients can’t be trained.
Everybody thinks that in their business they have to be immediately and constantly accessible. And in industry after industry where these beliefs are religion, at least one person and in many cases many, have initially skeptically began to adopt some of the same things that I do, have proven that wrong.”
What he’s recently added to this that’s been rather amazing to me is using this concept as a pre-frame at his 2008 Super Conference Bonus Day.
He tells people that they’re gonna be tempted to sit in their chairs and come up with the 90 reasons why all of these strategies won’t work for them because their business is different.
“There Is No Money In Finding Reasons Why Something Won’t Work”
Then he says, “If you’re gonna think up all the reasons you can’t use what’s being taught here you should’ve just sent your lowest paid employee here. They’d be really great at coming up with this list. The thinking that allows them to do so is what makes them the lowest paid person in your organization.
The real money is in taking what works in another industry and adapting it, fitting it, and making it churn off money for your business.”
This, in my humble opinion, is the thought virus Dan helped me slay and helps other people overcome that allows for any of his advice that comes after to transform our lives for the better. Dan Kennedy’s Most Valuable Piece of Advice… 405
Without overcoming this thought virus, most of his precious gifts would disintegrate upon impact.
Now, what’s the most important lesson or takeaway you’ve gotten from Dan’s stuff?
Be hearing from you soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Remember… I’ve decided to commit to spending at least One Hour of my time responding to any thoughtful question or comments made about posts I’ve written. I’m not perfect yet and after spending hours writing this I’ve had to leave some stuff out. So feel free to point out anything I wasn’t crystal clear on. What you say might exhaust the whole hour (if you’ve seen my responses in previous posts you’ll see I don’t wimp out here). And, if it’s of the ” ‘Great’ or ‘Shitty’ post” type, it may not warrant any further elaboration but yet will be oh so appreciated. I’m here for you and I’d love to hear your voice. Just let me know what you have a question about in today’s topic. The doors open so go on ahead and deepen our relationship today by coming on in and talking to me.
P.P.S. My personal most valuable Dan Kennedy breakthrough came through his Renegade Millionaire System thinking. If you own Renegade Millionaire and don’t have at-a-glance notes you can refer to or… if you’ve put off getting it CLICK HERE and you’ll see where we’ve put together all the secrets in the system and made them easily accessible so you spend less time ‘learning about making money’ and more time ‘making money.’ CHAPTER 93
5 Strategies To Help Get You Off Your Ass and Start Moving
ave you taken that intimidating trek into the basement of your soul? Have you started to make those Hnecessary changes that you’ve been putting off for 5, 10, 15, maybe 40 years?
You have a choice as a human being: You can live your life like everyone else, numb and snoozing and oblivious to what life has to offer .. or you can take on the job of waking yourself up, and grap a seat at the game of life. Waking up means not using the Shit Box (T.V.) as your window to the world…and actually taking the time to read the great books of this past century…. Or just sitting outside and watching the clouds with your children for the afternoon.
You see…. If you’re not reading the good books, meeting good people, and taking time for yourself and your family then you’re for sure sleep walking through life.
So after reading some very “High End” books by some “High End” people recently I’m going to share some of the strategies that I’m going to try and weave into my life.
One: Stop Beating Your Head Against the Wall! If you are not having fun with what you are doing then you’ve gotta change immediately. One super suc- cessful consultant had an extremely successful coaching business in which he was making well over one million dollars per year from. However, it was ripping his heart out and exausting him.
It was a project that absolutely made sense for him to do.
But it was killing his will to live. He was at the point where he was just sleep walking through life.
The money coming is was irrevelant. The project was snapping his life force. The cash was a pair of hand- cuffs, chaining him to commitments that took all his time and left him lifeless. So……He got rid of it …… an act of amazing courage. 5 Strategies To Help Get You Off Your… 407
First off….Money is important and do not let anybody tell you any different. However, it should never be your measuring stick.
You and I may be stuck in what I’ll call “Starvation Thinking” … the notion that what we are doing or that every opportunity coming our way is going to be the last one we can ever count on. This is beyond stupid. If there is anything I’ve come to learn it’s that we live in a world of limitless opportunity. The need for “guys” who know how to market and bring the money in is endless.
So our first step down the right path would be to take a good hard look at our life as it is today and do some rearranging.
Sometimes we just have to move the sofa from one side of the room to the other. Meaning that we don’t have to make radical changes but just small changes to what we are already doing.
Two: Keep it Simple Stupid
This may be simple in nature but it is probably one of the most repeated success strategy I read from people who make things happen. Keep your focus narrow and limited to two or three things at a time. It’s imma- ture to believe you can “have it all” or increase your happiness by spreadind yourself to thin, trying to be all things to all people. When setting your goals remember not to be unrealistic…. And trim thins down to what can actually happen.
Third: Cut the Never Ending Back – End
No Never Ending Back – End Shit Head. I’m the Shit Head by the way.
This means not starting projects tht go on and on and on, so that you are nailed to commitments for a very long time. At least until you’ve thougth what these commitments mean to your life and your future.
By not looking at the consequences of the decisions you make today you will eventually bury yourself alive.
Fourth: Guard Your Time Like a Ravaged Pit Bull People will spend fortunes guarding their “things” but don’t give one damn thought about the only thing we really have and it’s limted by the way……our time.
This means not letting anyone take control of your time. Systematizing everything you do. Paying attention to the key numbers in your life and your business. Make others work on your schedule not the other way around.
Fifth: Never Stop Accessing Your Progress Steve Jobs, after his bout with cancer, wrote this note. “If today were the last day of my life, would I do what I’m about to do?”
In the End, here is a list I borrowed by an extremely successful business man named Dean Jackson. 408 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
These question may seem harsh and unrealistic today but they should be what you are driving for in the end.
“I Know I’m Being Successful When….” • • I can wake up every day and ask “What would I like to do today?” • • My passive revenue exceed my lifestyle needs. • • My family truly likes spending time with me. • • I can live anywhere in the world I choose. • • I’m working on projects that excite me and allow me to do my BEST work. • • I can disappear for several months with no affect on my income. • • There are no whiny people in my life. • • I wear my watch for curiosity purpose only. • • I have not time obligations or deadlines. • • I wear whatever I want at all times. • • I can quit at any time. • • I can say no whenever I choose to and never be scared. •
Now Add some question of your own or drop a comment and let me know what you think of this post.
Your Chief Nerd
Dexter Abraham
The Chief Nerd of Nerd Nation
Share this Post CHAPTER 94
Online Video is the craze… Go To Mike Koenigs For Advice On How To Do It Right
Hey you, It’s #2.
On Tuesday’s Ultra Product Launch Call, Chris asked us a question about online video, specifically what sites are best to submit them to.
I referred him to Mike Koenigs at trafficgeyser.com. I wanted you to know about him also. Mike was recently interviewed by Tony Robbins for his “New Money Masters Series”.
That video turned into a fan boy of Mike.
He built this super de duper program that allows you to distribute your web video to EVERY significant video and social media site on the internet. Mike is also a wizard at knowing what technology you need to get started, what’s the best bang for your buck and what’s totally un-necessary.
Below is a link to 28 minute free video on his blog that goes into detail about picking the right equipment for your specific situation. This video will show you how not to get screwed and also how to shine.
Go check out Mike here at… http://trafficgeyser.com/blog/?p=8
For some reason, wordpress is blanking out my hyper link button so just copy and paste the web address above, into your browser and you’ll be on your way.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 410 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One CHAPTER 95
Clayton Makepeace’s 14 Crucial Elements of Outstanding Subject Lines
Clayton Makepeace’s 14 Crucial Elements of Outstanding Subject Lines
Hey you,
It’s #2.
Today I thought I’d do something special for you.
I’m dead in the middle of finishing the notes for Clayton Makepeace’s Online Profit Multiplier program. While taking notes I came across the whole module he did on the email marketing part of OPM. Maybe you don’t remember the promotion that he did in October of 2008 for this rare program that’s not even available for sale on his website.
Here’s a few paragraphs where he’s describing it that I pulled out of the sales letter for you…
* At a time like this, tools that give you maximum online response rates and sales are worth their weight in gold.
* My Online Profit Multiplier (OPM) just caused a staggering 33% of the people on our Total Package sub- scription list to register and watch our webcast introducing OPM — and it can do the same for your com- pany or your clients’ companies.
* Every month, this kind of event, attracts up to 40,000 prospective customers for my client. And com- bined with my proprietary follow-up strategy tactics and copywriting techniques, generates sales of up to $5 million … and pays me royalties of up to $500,000 sometimes more. And I want to show you how these powerful tools can do the same for you.
*** 412 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
During the module on email marketing he makes a bold claim. He says that “80% of OPM is email.”
Here’s what Clayton calls the “14 Common Elements of Outstanding Subject Lines” directly from my notes…
1. The shorter, the Better
35-50 characters
Supposedly shorter subject lines get 2-3x as many clicks as longer
2. Report the news
Stuff on news connects with what’s on prospects minds today.
Strive to connect the news event to your event.
Clayton’s found that of all things here on this list, that news sells best.
3. Drop a name
Obama, Madonna, Osama, whoever’s hot now.
Make sure your audience cares about or knows of them and even then don’t error on everyone knowing. Give them a brief background like Jay Leno used to do with all the jokes on his monologue. He said this was what made his job harder. Johnny Carson never had to explain his jokes because we didn’t have our attention/information as fragmented as we do now with the internet and 9,000 cable/satellite channels.
Clayton recommends subscribing to newsmax.com because they do such a brilliant job of this, especially in the political world subject lines.
4. Surprise them
Challenge a myth
Challenge an authority. Maybe you can tell them that something their lawyer, accountant, their tax pre- parer told them is WRONG!
5. Deliver Info
Promise of benefit for reading… they’re gonna be able to break dance better than ever, grow pubic hair on their cue ball head, cut their taxes by 19.4%.
6. Include irony or absurdity Clayton Makepeace’s 14 Crucial Elements… 413
One-legged golfer who shows you how to hit the ball farther than anyone you know, woman shows men how to improve their driving :~P, Guy talks to dogs and gets his own TV show and humongous fees to train canines how to behave.
Use whatever you’ve got. Sometimes you’re sitting on a story that’s pure gold and you don’t even know it until you start looking for counter intuitive examples of why you or your clients succeed.
7. Try an apparent contradiction
Oxymoron’s, you know “Military intelligence” and stuff like that.
8. Pique their curiosity
One of most addictive banner ads ever to run online are those stupid IQ tests, “Are you smart enough to be president?” You wanna know why I know they’re addictive. Because they keep showing and showing and showing. If they didn’t make money they would’ve bleed the guys running them dry long ago.
Anything you can do to involve your prospects is gonna be great.
9. Include urgency
Deadlines/countdowns are fabulous movers for your subject lines. Especially if you’re speaking to your ideal prospects most desired outcomes.
10. Use a must-read element
A perfect example of this is what the FTC is looking to do to alter the way marketers can use testimonials/ endorsements. Just in case you haven’t heard about this go to… http://www.john-carlton.com/ and you’ll see what John Carlton, the world famous copywriter had to say about this and you’ll see he’s linked the FTC’s document there also.
If you’re a marketer who relies heavily on testes, you’ll be prying open a email with a subject line about this in a flash.
11. Include empathy
This is the whole idea of “I was where you are until I found out about this…”
12. Togetherness
Prime example of this embodied is Gary Bencivenga’s use of this in his famous headline and deck copy that read… “Lies, Lies, Lies” Why we investors are fed up with everyone lying to us and stealing our money.”
That sentence implies in this battle with you. I’m on your side. We’re on the same team. 414 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Look for ways to be a friend instead of a salesman.
13. Mix it up
You always want to keep people guessing. I’ve learned this having to write titles for posts. Some work better than others but if I keep going back to the same formula, I’ll burn it out.
Look to try to create a saga that unfolds daily in your prospects inbox.
Mix it up and be inventive because repetition will kill you here.
14. Add a local element
Identify where your prospects are in the country, by getting their zip codes from when they’ve ordered stuff from you and then if possible add a local element to your emails.
I think playboy.com did this with me. They’re always pitching Arizona College Girls photo shoots to me. Too bad their ads suck. Some of the teaser tastefully taken pics they send are pretty mind boggling.
Newsmax.com did this lately talking about…
“The only safe banks in Phoenix”
David Ogilvy, the direct marketing legend did this, Gary Halbert, another direct marketing legend did also. Put it to work for you.
***
So there you have it.
And what’s crazy is that as vital and powerful as all 14 of these elements are, they don’t mean shit if you don’t get one other critical piece of the puzzle right. I’ll give you a clue of where to find this. It’s on the same page of your guide right before I dive into this list.
So go to your email inbox and find the email with the subject line that reads “Note Taking Nerd #2 was dead wrong” and go to the link to pre-order your copy of this this guide or email mynotetaking- nerd.com if you deleted it by accident and just type the chief a short note that says you’d like to have one of these amazing guides for yourself.
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 96
Be Known as a Good Starter and an Outstanding Finisher
“Do Not Be Known As a Good Starter But a Poor Finisher”
“Be Known as a Good Starter and an Outstanding Finisher”
We live in a “Instant Gratification” society. The catch phrases of today are “Six Second Abs”, “Incredible – A Miracle”, “Fast and Easy”, Ect…
The reason so many Goal Achievers do not become Goal Achievers is because of the “This is supposed to be easy” mentality.
We all set goals. We all fail to meet many of them. Why?
Urgent! There are FOUR CHALLENGES that we mistakenly assess:
Time: “This is taking longer than I thought It would” or “I don’t have time for this.”
Effort: “This is a lot harder than I thought it would be” or “I’m tired, It’s not worth it.”. This is because we get caught up in the inspiration and motivation of the moment in the beginning phase of setting the goal and do not think it through rationally.
Competing Goals: “I had no idea I would be so busy. I will have to wait until later.”
Maintenance: “After I got in shape, I celebrated by indulging in some of the actions that forced me to set my goals in the first place. Now, for some unexplained reason, I’m back to where I started. What do I do now, go I some diet for the rest of my life?” 416 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
IT TOOK YOU MANY YEARS TO DEVELOP THE HABITS YOU CURRENTLY HAVE. CHANGING BEHAVIOR REQUIRES A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF SELF WILL AND TIME!
Lasting Leadership and Character Development is a lifelong process. A temporary change in behavior to “look good” or “feel good” in the short term will only create personal and interpersonal cynicism if you do not stick with it.
TO ACHIEVE MEANINGFUL GOALS, YOU’LL HAVE TO PAY THE PRICE. NOTHING CAN MAKE YOU BETTER, UNLESS YOU MAKE THE DECISION TO DO IT YOURSELVE .THE MOTIVATION MUST COME FROM WITHIN.
This is How You Finish Strong….
Diego Coralles Said He Would Go Through Hell and He did…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsEGRD1exfc]
What’s Your Excuse for Not Finishing Strong?
Share this Post CHAPTER 97
“What a Stripper Taught Dan Kennedy When He Was 16 Years Old”
“What a Stripper Taught Dan Kennedy When He Was 16 Years Old” Hey you,
It’s #2.
How you doin’? It’s been too long since we talked. This week has been crazy busy for me.
Partly because I’ve had the privilege of standing guard over my 3 year old niece.
If you’re a parent who’s running a business while taking care of a toddler, my hat goes off to you.
Toddlers need you to protect them during all their waking hours and want you to be in sight even if it’s time for you to do “the necessary.”
As a kid I carved pumpkins, and I can still remember having fond memories of the process. So, I went out and bought the little pincess (3 year old speak for princess) a pumpkin and a super goddammit pumpkin carving kit. The kind I never had as a kid.
We were just handed a steak knife and we’re told to have at it. This kit had scoops, 2 different kinds of carving knifes, pokers, and intricate patterns you could trace to make a hellified pumpkin design.
When I saw it, I had to have it. My niece deserves no less. Not on my watch.
While helping my brother watch her today so he could work, I spent probably close to 2 HOURS cutting out a kitty cat design for my favorite little 3 year old. I definitely didn’t anticipate taking that long. And this was after I spent close to an hour the day before cutting the pumpkin open, scraping and pulling out the muck, separating the seeds and roasting them for the pincess (which she loved by the way). 418 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
After spending the early part of the week finishing the Clayton Makepeace “Online Profit Multiplier” report, working on other projects, and watching her, I was highly tempted to wait till next week to talk to you but I said “Fuck that.” I miss you and had to let you in on a little bit of pure platinum I indulged in today.
Rare Footage Relayed For You About Stripper Wisdom
Today I wanted to share with you some notes I was taking on Dan Kennedy’s Bonus Day-After-The-Sem- inar Session he did all on “Increasing Price” during the 2008 Super Conference Weekend and what he learned from a red haired, long legged, “Pole Jockey.”
It all began with curiosity.
During high school Dan had a teacher who owned a bar and hired him to work there. This is what gave him the proximity to a “Dancer” as otherwise he was barred from setting foot in an actual strip club.
Naturally, with meeting a honest-to-goodness “Entertainer” the intrigue was at maximum overdrive and Dan being Dan was interested in some of the aspects of her occupation.
They got to talking and she started telling him about her 20 minute act where she comes out on stage and removes one piece of clothing at a time. And how she starts with a lot of items ultimately winding up nekked.
So, he popped the idiot/brilliant question…
“Gee, if people are there to see you naked, why don’t you come out naked for the whole 20 minutes?”
Seemingly that’s what the people are there for, right?
She said, “Well boy, they give me money for each item of clothing I take off to encourage me to take off another article of clothing. So… you do it a little bit at a time and you get more money for doing it.”
After a few minutes when his mind was functioning again because at 16, the blood doesn’t divide between both heads at all, Dan says to himself, “I’m gonna make a note to myself about this.”
So he made the note and still has it. Here it is…
If you march out there and let them see it all for free you won’t get any money.
Free is generally a bad word.
The main context Kennedy is referring to here is in the aspect of quotes. When he started running his man- ufacturing business he came to the conclusion they were in the “Quote Manufacturing” business. Every- thing changed when they started to charge for those same quotes. “What a Stripper Taught Dan Kennedy When… 419
I think he picked this up from a man he’s modeled by the name of David Sandler, creator of the Sandler Sales System. Dan turned me onto to this guy in his Renegade Millionaire System and I love him for it.
Sandler was all about doing the opposite of what traditional salesman did. Part of that mindset involved telling people there was a fee for quotes. You’ve got to pay to play.
He’d tell people he wasn’t in the quote business so that if any of his time was going to be spent putting one together, he’d have to be paid for it. And if they decided to go ahead and do business with each other the price of the quote would be deducted from the fee they agreed to.
This shut down a lot of the looky loo’s and people who can’t say no. People who aren’t serious about solving their problem at this moment. Time wasters.
If you want to learn why Dan worships the results this Sandler’s expertise can earn for you along with a truck load of other “Kennedy Wisdom” CLICK HERE.
Dan also recalls learning about charging for what most people give away by working in a bar while in high school This was a bar that had a cover charge. People paid to get in to pay.
Why doesn’t this apply to any business?
Darin Garman, one of Dan’s long time clients, sells commercial real estate to investors in the heartland of America, mostly to people not there. Most of the clients live in New York, California or Florida.
In order to buy from him you pay a $9,700 fee.
He’d recently tested a $19,700 premium fee to make the $9,700 fee seem reasonable and people are paying it. Online. And keep in mind he’s making a full commission on the properties.
Obviously these are affluent investors. The higher up the affluence scale you go, the more accustomed they are to paying for access. The lower down the ladder you go, the less they’re accustomed to paying for access.
Part of how you get premium level fees is by disclosing what kind of client you want and what kind you don’t. Who your business is for and who it isn’t for. You have to set the expectation for high quality for there to be a way for the affluent client/customer to discriminate in your favor.
The more affluent a person is, the less they want to be where everyone else is permitted to be. So this means it’s gotta be somewhat difficult to get in the door which means there has to be some clear definitions of who’s supposed to walk through that door and who isn’t.
Some version of “This isn’t for everyone” should apply to EVERY business
It doesn’t matter what your selling or what anyone else is doing. 420 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Almost everyone does something in their business that they charge for. People feel compelled to do this as a means of getting business or as a part of fulfillment. You don’t have to.
What is it that you’re not charging for that could bring you higher qualified leads, which would result in you having higher paying, loyal, rabid customers?
Something to think about.
Talk to you soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 98
Notes From Eben Pagan Modern Marketing Mastery
nderstanding the perspective of the other person, understand how they think, understand the words Uthey use to describe things, and then communicate with them using THEIR favorite communication not YOUR favorite communication
Start listening behind the words, start listening for what people are really saying - listening for their emo- tional drives, their motivations, their fears, their frustrations, their wants, where they’re trying to go…being understood and someone who really wants to understand…offering the products/services that help them get the results they’re looking for
The best products/services market themselves…people are buying buying a result, an outcome, delivery from some pain/anxiety their feeling…product/service is a means to an end they’re seeking…talk about the product/service VS “I understand the outcome you’re trying to achieve, I understand your fear/frustration/ pain, I understand what you want to be delivered from - and I’ve created something that if you use this it will deliver you, it will get you to here, it’s a means’ …and keep talking about them and their needs and how your product will deliver what they want.
It’s not about you and your product, it’s about them and the outcome that they’re seeking. Until you get that you must stop talking about how great you and your product are/is, and until you get that you must start talking about them and their needs and the results or outcome they want or benefit they’re seeking, you’ll be banging your head against a wall.
Ultimately you build the marketing INTO the product/service.
So when they see the product/service, on it’s face they see it’s what they need to solve their problem. Then marketing and selling becomes easier as all you’re saying is “I understand your needs and this is what will deliver the result you’re looking for”
Innovation - something that’s new, better, and different BUT ALSO something that solves a problem/ delivers a result/gets a customer the outcome they want that wasn’t available previously. 422 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Marketing - connecting with those people and showing them you have stuff that solves their problems, explaining it, and helping them to buy it
MARKETING AND INNOVATION ARE ALL THAT MATTER - you can hire people for the rest of the stuff
…just because you did something doesn’t mean you deserve the money
Becoming a powerful marketer that then takes what they’ve learned about marketing, psychology, under- standing the customer and uses that to fuel innovation. Because the expert marketer that innovates creates innovations people want to buy because the marketing is built right in.
Marketing russian roulette
1. copying everything from others 2. knowing what you like and creating original things you like …trying to copy others and create your own marketing and not knowing WHY you’re doing what you’re doing and copying blindly means not having a long term strategy that will get you anywhere…
…it’s not about getting your name out there, it’s about getting their name in here…yelling your name from a mountaintop is not a useful startup strategy…
Getting their name in here is about: finding your audience, finding your market, get infront of them, under- stand their needs, and then communicate clearly that your product/service/the thing that you offer will deliver them to the promise land will help them get the result/the outcome/the delivery from the fear the anxiety the pain they seek at a fair price and you’ll make an offer to do it.
(sidenote alogorithm: Find -> Understand -> Found -> Understood -> Fair Offer -> Transfer)
MARKETING IS ABOUT CONVERSION, NOT ABOUT COMMUNICATION
You’re not trying to communicate with people, you’re trying to get them to come in and convert and give you money in exchange for what it is you’re trying to sell
Your Market, Your Model, Your Strategy…these are more important than things like the words written at the top of your ad.
What is your market?
The people you sell stuff to/The target market + Products/services you sell.
Put those together you got people that need stuff and stuff they need and they’re buying it, and that creates a market. Notes From Eben Pagan Modern Marketing… 423
Narrowing your focus, creating a category, dominating your niche - very important elements, you have to understand your market
Your Strategy?
Your psychological approach. It’s not what you’re doing but how you’re doing it.
The methodology, the philosophy you’re using to get there. Are you the best in your market? The cheapest? The unique new solution that wasn’t available before?
Being all things to all people is a fundamental mistake. Talking to everyone except the person that needs or wants our product the most and talking just to them.
This Report is 4 Times Bigger Then This…30 More Pages of Genius…If you would like to Get Your Copy of the Complete Modern Marketing Nerd Report Please Click Here Now
Your Model?
How all the puzzle pieces fit together. It’s the marketing channel you market through (i.e. print, TV), how you generate a lead or a prospect, how you convert it to a sale, how you follow up, how you upsell someone to the next product/service while they’re purchasing, all these steps in a spreadsheet in a real model with metrics so you can see how they affect each other and how they influence each other, and how if you grow it will scale and how the numbers will change.
As you grow putting these together in a model you can see a diagram of and show how they all affect each other and how you pour all the leads in the top how they all come out and how the money comes out and how the ROI looks so you have a business.
Some models?
-Retail distribution (you create the product you find the distributors retail outlets you got to them and say “sell this thing and I’ll support it with my marketing and I’ll give you the product and you got a lot of foot traffic and you got the customers so we’ll put it there”)
-Subscription (i.e. magazines, book of the month - more of a long term model trying to get someone into the beginning and get them to subscribe so you can sell them many things with one sale)
-Infomercial models (not really about selling the thing on the infomercial as it’s just a loss leader designed to get you to call cause you’re hot to buy and then they sell you a bunch of other things i.e. don lapre $100 mil not making money from the toolkit but upselling to merchant accounts and biz ops etc)
-Dell computer model (get lead to come to website with all your lead gen stuff and person starts build their dream computer and selecting all the parts and psychologically in the process they weave themselves into it 424 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One and they start to own this thing that they’re creating and by the time you get to the end you’ve built this computer you want and you got it all ready and you can see it and imagine it and say ‘well I got to buy it’)
-Windows OS model (they find a distributor like Dell that sells millions of computers they make wholesale deals with them to put windows on their computer that is going out the door and they do that for several years and the next thing you know everyone is using that OS and everyone starts upgrading to get new ver- sions and new software won’t run on the old versions and rather than buying a new version they buy a whole new computer that already has the new version of windows and it’s a virtuous cycle - IT’S A MAR- KETING MODEL)
-Affiliate marketing (sell something, allow tens of thousands to be distributors and they drive leads that buy it, cut cheque to them, get third party tracking and measuring and paying the cheques and doing the whole thing, and you just get a report) -Social Networking/Social Media (places people come to do virtually what they used to do in the real world virtualizing human interaction, and they can interact with your business in all sorts of ways)
The best models typically have 1 thing in common: They’re not trying to sell 1 thing in 1 shot. There’s upsells, there’s backend, there’s continuity, there are other products, there’s a long term life time value model.
Marketing is not “I’m going to create a great ad and it’ll make all the money for me”, but marketing is “building a long term relationship with a prospect and selling them one thing after another after another after another to help them get the results they’re looking for”
Brand based marketing Direct response marketing Hope based marketing
…figure out what people want to buy and give a little of what they want to buy/result they want, give that little bit away for free, and have the next part something they buy…
To Buy The Complete Nerd Report On This Private Event ByEben Pagan Click Here Now
Strategies:
* Be the best: highest quality, flawless experience, high status, conspicuous consumption, pride of spending, image, you are the gold standard (i.e. rolex, apple, ferrari, 4 seasons, whole foods market, virgin atlantic) … you premium price/high profits as you have that whole segment to yourself and people will pay a lot more, you become visible to highest spending customers quickly and you can corner the market - but perfection is expected and your competing with the experience those other brands deliver and expensive to deliver the gold standard premium experience Notes From Eben Pagan Modern Marketing… 425
* The Cheapest/Best Value: lowest cost, best value (i.e. walmart with exploiting technology to attain effi- ciencies and just being better faster more on top of their game, southwest, home depot, staples, mcdonalds, dell) if you can achieve high volume and dominate the market then the volume can make huge amounts of money.
It’s a no brainer strategy that you can yell from the treetops and you will attract people, and it’s easy for your company and team as you just tell them ‘we need the lowest price that’s how we stay in business’ so it keeps you aligned.
But it’s a tricky game that if you compete on price and someone shows up and can do it at a better price your margin is thin and will be hard to compete (i.e. china wiping out sectors of industry i.e. importing steel even with all shipping costs is still cheaper from china than here) big companies that own the market and don’t want you taking any doing 1000x the business you’re doing can tweak the prices a bit and make it painful for you
* The New Unique Solution/The New Category: you create this new category not out in reality but in the mind of the prospect and you’re going to become a new niche expert as you will create the niche and then become an expert in it.
This is the land of zero competition and you can set your own prices because when you’re the only one offering the product as far as the prospect is concerned then they need to pay what is reasonable to pay and if you can persuade them you have the value then you can persuade them it’s worth paying whatever you want them paying…if it’s a hit you can parlay and develop it into “the best” strategy cause you created the category and you can morph or evolve into the owner of the market (i.e. Ipod, Jamba juice, myspace, google, altitude, double your dating) - google didn’t create the search engine category?
IN THE MINDS OF ALL THE PEOPLE THAT USE IT, THEY DID. Who invented the search engine? Ask the average person and they say ‘google’. Did Apple invent the Mp3 player or portable Ipod? No. Do you think most people that own them think they did? Yes. Why? BECAUSE THEY CREATED A NEW CATE- GORY IN THE MIND OF THE PROSPECT.
The challenge here is it requires you spending time to get to know your customers, finding out where they have a pain problem frustration a result they want to achieve, that they don’t feel like they have any options - and then you can address that with a new niche you can create. This strategy allows you to compete with big well funded players. It allows you to jump in, charge premium prices, and create your own category. Competitors lump you in with everything else, but as far as the customers are concerned the customers are getting something new different and better. The downside of this is it requires legwork, thinking, and experimentation. If you’re creating something new, it means you’re blazing your own trail, your on path no one has taken. You’re not walking down the trail a lot of animals have taken for 100s of years, you’ve got to find your own way.
Marketing Channels: the frequencies, the wavelengths, the pipes you’re going to use to reach a mass audi- ence. You’re going to have to reach a lot of people and use some mass marketing channel to do that. 426 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
* Cold marketing/Canvassing: outbound telemarketing, door to door
* Blind direct mail: mail to a zip code
* Traditional mass marketing/media: buying inclusion, being included with the broadcast message that’s going out to a lot of people, buying a little ad in the newyork times (it’s going out to millions of people and you know you’re going to get included and ride along) Another example might be placing an advertising on a show a million people watch - you know it’s getting to a million people, you’re just going to get in there and jump infront of them…another is a banner ad placed on a mass media site, they’ve a million people and you know it and your banner is going to show up infront of a lot of people…Broadcast… just sending it out there, PR, trade shows (lots of traffic and hoping you meet your prospect), basic affiliate marketing where you make a product and just put it on an affiliate network and hope a bunch of people pick it up, Maybe email such as coreg databases with millions of people and someone just broadcasts your message to them. All MASS MARKETING. The idea is to ride along with someone elses message and hope your prospect sees you.
* “Existing Customer Relationships Of Others” Channel: can also be a broadcast where you’re paying for inclusion or paying to be delivered, but instead of just going out to the world with a little bit of targeting, now you’re going in with some endorsement and some trust and there’s an assumed relationship in some way…
An example might be an endorsed marketing piece (this is probably the strongest version of this) where you find someone who has a successful company has a lot of customers has a good relationship with their cus- tomers and a lot of trust and you say “Hey I sell something that would be complimentary to your product or service, will you send all of your customers a communication that tells them about me and says that I’m great and recommend them to buy from me?”
So that’s like riding in on an existing customer relationship…some bundled offers can be this too like a lot of computer manufactures bundled pieces of software on the computer and they say ‘if you buy the com- puter we throw in all this software’ and the person selling that software kind of got bundled in there and are now also selling their product through an existing customer relationship channel riding in on the buying channel…targeted DM to a rented customer list, it’s someone that bought something like/related to what you’re selling you know they’re a buyer and so you’re coming in through that channel…retail - someones in there buying stuff and they can buy your thing…search marketing, either PPC or SEO, the person there is a ‘customer’ of the search engine using it to do something that can be just as powerful as buying which is typing in search phrases meaning they’re looking for the thing, so in a way you’re riding in with someone who has interest in the topic with search marketing…Endorsed Relationships the most powerful of these.
* One to One Marketing: ‘to motivate or incentivize an individual to refer or sell others’, this might be a network marketing model or a work of mouth or viral model, the internet has made the viral model easier than ever but very few can do it…On word of mouth marketing: “No one knows how to do it on purpose” - David Ogilvy. Rely on response based marketing where you go out and find good qualified prospects, sharing your offer, and asking them to convert. Notes From Eben Pagan Modern Marketing… 427
There are a ton of ways to skin a cat.
Start with a high probability model: response based marketing/a DM model…learn that, develop that, potentially start with targeted online advertising or endorsed relationships and spend a little bit of money and really see whether or not the offer works.
Maybe use search marketing or online affiliate marketing - things where you’re really able to measure and pay for results - and if you can make those work, you can then go on to tackle the bigger beasts.
If you can’t make those work, you’ll probably have a hard time making the sophistocated abstract and com- plex models work. So start with response oriented direct marketing.
2 Faces of Marketing:
* External Face (lead gen, advertising, going out and finding the people that might be interested in your prod/serv and getting their attention and getting them to look at what it is you have)
* Internal Face (conversion, once you have their attention looking at your stuff, then connecting bonding communicating the value of your prod/serv and converting them to a sale)
2 teams handle each - one if the lead acquisition team trying to get people to come in, and conversion team figures out what to do with them from then on in terms of offering them products helping them to achieve what they want to achieve in the right sequence that will get the most value to the customer and thus the most value to you
YOU BREAK THESE INTO 2 SO THAT YOU DON’T GO INTO SALES MODE WITH A PERSON WHO HASN’T GOTTEN TO KNOW YOU AT ALL AND DOESN’T KNOW, LIKE, OR TRUST YOU AND YOU’RE ALREADY TRYING TO SELL THEM. Don’t sell too soon, so you see how to link the 2 together.
Testing and Optimization:
Expect 80% of your advertising and marketing tests to fail, meaning they don’t bring in enough sales to justify continuing. “IN MARKETING WE’RE NOT TRYING TO WIN A COIN FLIP, WE’RE DRILLING FOR OIL.” We can afford to try alot of test wells because we know that when we find a good one it’s going to be worth A LOT to us.
So when you find that right combination of the right strategy, the right channel, the right marketing piece, the right conversion, the right upsell, the right backend…when you find that right combination and you find a model that works that you can then start tweaking and optimizing - THAT is when you have some- thing that’s really really valuable.
That’s when you have a marketing system that works, that’s when you have a marketing model that works. 428 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
SO USE THE MATERIAL IN THIS PROGRAM TO MAKE A LOT OF MARKETING TESTS. Keep the things that work, throw away the things that don’t, don’t get too attached to anything, and remember: YOU’RE DRILLING FOR OIL.
What is Marketing?
THE PROMISE OF FULFILLMENT OF THE NEED THE CUSTOMER HAS INCLUDING AN ACTION STEP IN THERE SO THE CUSTOMER CAN TAKE ACTION AND GET THEIR NEED FUL- FILLED AT A PRICE THAT MAKES SENSE.
10 Response Marketing Commandments: 1. 2. Show me I am in the right place immediately by giving me what I’m looking for’ - at a gut level 3. Know the emotional hot buttons or pain points that are important to me and keep saying them over and over and relating EVERYTHING to those points and the outcome/result that I want/am looking for’ - critical to line up the beginning of the communication, middle of the communication, and end of the communication when you ask a prospect to take action, they have to be lined up, they have to be con- gruent with each other 4. ‘Talk to me in a personal one-to-one conversational tone and show me that you get me’ how? by being specific, getting right to the point and not wasting words 5. Design everything in a way that’s easy and intuitive for me to understand and comprehend’ in a way that naturally evokes confidence and trust at some level 6. Leave me better off than I was when I arrived by giving me something I can use to get closer to my desired result NOW’ get them one step closer to the result they want 7. Help me to feel that you are trustworthy’ that you’re authentic, that you’re authoritative, by sharing the good the bad the ugly, be real with me, and help me feel you are trustworthy, it’s an emotion I want to feel it help me feel the emotion of trust 8. Help me get the feeling that I have discovered a wonderful secret personal resource and now I have a go- to advantage I can go to when I’m in need’ and can access whenever I need to 9. Tell me your story of how you/your product/your service came to be in a way that resonates with me on a personal individual level’ and in your story tell me about your passion for your prod/serv, tell me about your passion for helping me as a person 10. Tell me EXACTLY what I need to do in order to take the next step to get the result that I want’ and further translate or convert your methods into a currency that I can understand on an intuitive level, convert it into a currency that I understand 11. Take away my risk or better yet turn it around so that you as the business owner have more of it than me’ take away all my risk or better turn it around so you have it and not me
WOW…GREAT STUFF NERD…I WANT THE COMPLETE REPORT THAT IS 4 TIMES BIGGER THEN THIS WITH AMAZING CONTENT..I’M READY TO BUY THE FULL NERD REPORT NOW
“what are all these people trying to accomplish?” “what’s in common?” Notes From Eben Pagan Modern Marketing… 429
i.e. maybe business people who are also interested in spirituality THUS you may ask “hmm are there any online communities where business people into spirituality share enlightened business concepts?” and fig- uring out who these people are you may stumble across that and ask “how do we communicate with impact so that when one of those people sees our community or website ‘this is for business people who are also into spirituality’ and they go ‘oooh interesting that’s kind of the group I want to be in’.
Then you go in and figure out people who are business people who are also enlightened spiritual oriented people what are their needs, fears, irrational desires, motives, problems they’re trying to solve and then base your community on addressing those top 3 or 5 harddriving emotional needs and focus on narrowly what they’re trying to accomplish so when they show up you can show them exactly what they’re looking to get, you have to know the specific needs of the people by asking them. CHAPTER 99
Ryan Deiss And Perry Belcher’s 43 Proven, Brain-Dead-Simple Tweaks You Can Make To Your Site, So You Can Make More Money
Ryan Deiss & Perry Belcher’s 43 Proven, Brain-Dead-Simple Tweaks You Can Make To Your Site, So You Can Make More Money
Hey You,
It’s #2.
I know the Chief has expressed his gratitude to you for stepping up big time and getting all in Wordpress’s face like an angry coach for “accidentally” suspending our blog.
If the chief and I didn’t have loyal friends like you protesting, it wouldn’t have taken our Junkyard Dog attorney to get everything straightened out but thankfully we didn’t even have to call him.
Now I’d like to thank you by giving you one hell of a set of notes I took on Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher’s 43 Split Test Program. This is where they went through the notes they took on all the tests they ran in multiple industries (not just internet marketing) and broke down the results.
This is perfect for those of you who own this already but haven’t taken notes on it yet. If you don’t own it and you market online, you should go find it today. It’s that good.
During Eben Pagan’s “Get Altitude” seminar he asked everyone who split test something on their site, every single day, to stand up. What he found was that everyone who was standing had a site that was making them over a MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.
My suggestion, take action on at least one of the suggestions today so you can get move beyond the million dollar mark or get closer to meeting it. Ryan Deiss And Perry Belcher’s 43 Proven… 431
Enough said. Happy plundering…
43 Split Tests
#1 Guarantees
1.1 365 day guarantee increased conversion 5.6%
1.2 Reduced return rate 38% - Huge Impact
1.3 “No Small Print” weasel clause guarantees
#2 Post Sale Autoresponders
2.1 Changing your follow up autoresponder series to be sent from a “Personal Success Coach” and including 6 messages that help to teach consumption and satisfaction will reduce return rates by 17%.
2.2 Adding video instructional messages will reduce the return rate by about 24%
2.2.1 Can use the flip video for this. theflip.com or Camtasia
2.3 Instructions, success stories, what to do first - Quick Start Guide - always from the “personal success coach”. then ask them to give you feedback, NOT testimonials.
2.4 Not always good to have the “Big shot, face of company” emailing everyday, “success coach” gives a different feel.
2.5 People feel better about returning things to a faceless corporation rather than a person.
2.5.1 Most returns come from people not using rather than it not working
#3 Order Form
3.1 Placing testes on the right hand side of your order form will increase conversions 28-30%
3.2 Kennedy’s car dealership story- best car salesman he ever knew had a wall full of pics of smiling cus- tomers with their new cars in his office.
3.3 If you’re awesome you’re probably getting 80+% cart abandonment
#4 Payment Area
4.1 Placing a small video in your payment area explaining your site security will increase conversions by 12% 432 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
4.2 Get these logos on your site to help create trust in you: authorize.net, verisign, 128 bit encryption, BBB (Better Business Bureau), hacker safe.com, truste.com, honesteonline.com
#5 Payment Area
5.1 Placing seals from reputable sources like the BBB or Online Business Bureau in your buy areas, next to your buy now buttons, top right corner of site will increase conversions by 13%
5.2 Do Not use the logo or seal if you are not a member!!!
5.3 Take a look at what Amazon and those guys do
#6 Guarantee
6.1 Placing your guarantee in a text box with a seal and a red border can increase conversions by 17%
#7 Offer Look
7.1 Placing a dashed 4 pixel red border around your buy area can increase conversions by 28%
#8 Body Text
8.1 Changing all body text to Arial 12 point font can show a 31-36% increase in readability
8.2 12 point and 12 pixels (Dreamweaver) the same
#9 Headline Colors
9.1 Changing headline to rust-burgundy will increase conversions 28% conservatively
9.2 Lighter shade of blue is a close second
#10 Headline Font and Size
10.1 Changing headline to 20 pt Tahoma font and adding “Quotations” can increase conversion 17%.
#11 Headline Templates
11.1 Changing your headline to one of the following 3 best headlines…
11.2 How to, numbered headlines, 7 ways…good for subject lines, Who else wants—-almost impossible to beat… best long form “Discover how a …”
11.3 Consistently increases conversions over more “Creative” headline templates (up to 44%). Ryan Deiss And Perry Belcher’s 43 Proven… 433
#12 Testimonial Boxes
12.1 Creating a yellow (hex={ff,ff,e8}) johnson box and put all testimonials in them can increase conver- sions 16%
12.2 Never label them as Testimonials: Google hates that language. Always label as Customer Feedback and even try to use the customer review star system. Watch out for making every one 5 out 5.
12.3 Use blue (trust) border
#13 Testimonial Headlines
13.1 Make sure you place a red headline on all testimonials and you can increase conversions by 34%
#14 Headlines
14.1 Negative subject lines almost always beat positive ones
14.2 Changing your headline and supporting images to negative can increase conversions 20%
14.3 If it bleeds it leads
14.4 Look to Digg.com’s most popular articles for amazing headlines
#15 Intro Paragraph
15.1 Inserting a drop cap letter into the intro paragraph of your salesletter can increase your readership by 40%
#16 Backgrounds
16.1 Changing your background color to robbin’s egg blue (hex={64,95, ED}) triggers trust and can increase conversions 31%
#17: Pre Headline
17.1 Adding the following pre-headline before your headline: “ATTENTION: Blank Discover blank…” can increase conversion by 9%
#18 The P.S.
18.1 Placing very best testimonial below P.S. can increase conversions by 19%
#19 The Opt-in 434 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
19.1 Placing a testimonial directly below your optin box can increase optins by 16%
19.2 Not a teste for product but for what they get when they optin for
19.3 You get it from someone who bought something from you before and they subscribed from the news- letter or free report/video
19.3.1 All you do is call and ask them if you can do a brief interview with them
#20 Background Color
20.1 Changing from white to light grey (Hex={EE,EE,EE} can increase conversion by 7%
#21 Text Area Width
21.1 Changing sales letter text area from 560 pixels to 600 pixels can result in a 24% increase in scroll rate.
21.2 Perry also never has more than 3 sentences to a paragraph
21.3 95% of people coming to your site don’t buy
21.3.1 3-5% conversion is what we’re looking for
21.3.2 1 in 3 people who scroll will buy. Which is why it’s important that your opening is good
#22 Scroll Bar
22.1 Changing your scroll bar color to red increase scroll rate by 12%.
22.1.1 Works in I.E., Not Firefox
22.1.2 John Reese uses this
22.1.3 Same color is headline
22.2
See document: colour_scrollbar_generator.html
22.3
See document: scrollbar.php
#23 Opt-in Box Ryan Deiss And Perry Belcher’s 43 Proven… 435
23.1 Change your opt-in box to look like Yahoo’s email login and moving it to the top right corner of your site can increase your opt-in rate by 77%
23.2 Millions of people pre-programmed to use this format
#24: Live Chat
24.1 Products over $300 awesome idea to have
24.2 Adding live chat to your website can increase conversions by 39%
24.3 Screw yourself if someone’s not working it at all times
24.4 php live support-cheapest-least reliable
24.5 live person.com quite expensive
24.5.1 You can incentivize this person and tell them just for asking your question you can get your 10% off.
24.5.2 Don’t let them get over salesy
24.5.3 Free shipping might outperform any other bonus you can do
#25 Johnson Boxes
25.1 Five really good reasons you should act now
25.1.1 Right above where you ask them to order
25.1.2 People won’t read your letter
25.1.3 People make decision to buy based on your headline
Then they zoom to price to see if they can afford it
Then they go back and read reasons “Not to buy”
Looking for holes in your argument
25.2 Recap of offer in 5 bullet points
25.3 Placing a text box with a light blue background color on your site titled “5 good Reasons to Buy” can increase your conversions by 25%
#26 Order Pages 436 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
26.1 Adding a product image or virtual pic to the top of your buy page can increase conversions by 15% and decrease cart abandonment rates dramatically
26.2 The progress bar is something that he uses to…step 1, step 2, step 3
26.3 1 shoppingcart allows you to do this
26.4 quickpaypro.com allows this too.
#27 On-Page Audio
27.1 Adding an audio testimonial at the top of page and setting it to auto play increases conversions up to 11%
27.1.1 Can’t be just you saying to buy-sales message
27.1.2 Testes work best
Perry likes using people with less teeth than a jack-o-lantern in his.
27.1.3 Tell them if they do it they can get a gift from you
27.2 audiogenerator.com
27.2.1 gives a phone # so it’s just like them leaving you a voicemail
27.3 byoaudio.com
#28 Getting Usable Testimonials
28.1 Asking your customers leading questions can increase the number of usable testimonials you get by 100%
28.2 For example ask questions like:
28.2.1 Were you skeptical when you first ordered this product? Please explain.
28.2.2 Did you get the product on time? Was the packaging intact and presentable?
28.2.3 Who would you recommend this product to and why?
#29 Testimonials
29.1 Creating a feedback forum on your site and sending customers there can increase the amount of testi- monials your customers give you by 800% Ryan Deiss And Perry Belcher’s 43 Proven… 437
29.1.1 Make it look like ebay feedback section
29.1.3 8X more likely to fill in this form than asking them to think me up
30 #30 Buy Options
30.1 Offering customers the option to buy using a payment plan can increase conversions 32%.
30.1.1 Honesty discount if they buy even after choosing payment plan
30.2 However, only about 17% of the sales chose the payment plan
#31 Price Points
31.1 Changing your price point to end with “7” will increase conversions by 13%
31.2 Leave off cents
31.3 Wal-mart everything ends in 7
#32 Signature
32.1 Adding your signature to the top fold of your website right under the testimonial can increase conver- sions by 19%
32.2 Use for promise headlines
#33 Multiple Order Opportunities
33.1 Offering multiple (first) order opportunities right after the first testimonial can increase conversions by 31%
33.1.1 Then after the guarantee
33.1.2 Then in the order box
33.1.3 Then at the very last bottom of the page
33.1.4 Always at least 4 links to buy in logical places
#34 Price Points
34.1 Adding a retail price with a strike through and then listing a sale price can increase conversions by 14%
34.2 Will get emails asking how long it’s going to be on sale 438 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
34.2.1 Answer: we don’t know how long. just get it while it’s available
#35 Buy Area
35.1 Placing the credit card emblems in your buy area and making them a hyperlink to your buy link can increase your conversion rate by 3%
#36 Phone Orders
36.1 Placing an 800# on your site and taking phone orders will increase your conversions by 30%
36.2 Top right corner of the site
36.3 Committing suicide if you don’t have this and you’re selling something over $500.
36.4 everyone has a number they get paranoid about
36.5 Want 800 not 866, or anything else
36.6 answerforce.com
36.7 patlive.com
#37 Keyword-Loaded Domains
37.1 Buying a keyword loaded URL and sending traffic there can reduce your traffic cost by 40%-90% and increase CTR’s and conversions
37.2 Buy top phrases
37.2.1 microphonestands.com
37.2.2 coffeemakers.com
37.3 Better google quality score
37.3.1 Don’t accept superlatives in google ads but you can put it in your domain name-make sure you CAP- ITALIZE -WORLD’SGREATESTHOTDOGS.COM
#38 Action Word Domains
38.1 Buying URL with action words like “buy now” or “get rid of” and then your main keyword can increase conversions by 19%
38.2 examples: getridofmicenow.com buydomainnames.com sellyourhousetoday.com Ryan Deiss And Perry Belcher’s 43 Proven… 439
38.2.1 Should be GetRidOfMiceNow.com
38.3 Frames the buyer
38.4 helps you beat your competitors with 4 lines of copy in your adwords
#39 Print Ads
39.1 Directing prospects to an email address rather than sending them to a URL in print ads can increase your opt-ins by 1000%
39.2 By doing this you get their email without having them be stopped by your squeeze page
39.3 getresponse.com doesn’t require you to double optin these people
#40 Declined Orders
40.1 Allowing declined orders to go through and contacting the customer the next day telling them “your system made a mistake” can increase recoveries by 45%.
40.2 60% of online transactions fail.
40.3 Doing this allows you to get all their contact info no matter what
40.4 1shoppingcart.com allows this.
40.5 Most people won’t whether it’s their fault or not will only enter their info once
40.5.1 You should take the blame
40.5.2 Insurance salesman situation- say “I’m so freaking sorry. I know I was supposed to be at your house and I screwed up and missed our appointment.”
#41 Multiple Sites
41.1 Putting up a review site and listing your product as well as your competitor’s will increase branding as well as allow you multiple streams of income and cheap traffic to your site.
41.2 Put you and your two competitors on a review site you make and then sign up for their affiliate pro- grams. Then at least you get half of the money instead of none.
41.3 And he never rates his stuff as #1. Usually sandwiches in between.
41.3.1 Be honest in fleshing out the advantages and disadvantages 440 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
41.3.2 most people take middle options
41.3.3 You can make money again if they buy yours and theirs too.
41.3.4 This is how review sites make money
#42 Modeling
42.1 Giving an outsourcer your competitors site to rewrite will give you a sales letter with a different style than yours is written
42.1.1 We want to rewrite our letter. Here’s the original. I want a whole new one.
#43 Buy Button
43.1 Adding an Amazon.com style buy button to your site can increase conversions by 14%
43.2 Key elements: Orange background Blue Border “Add To Cart” or “Add To Shopping Basket”
43.3 Orange border with blue text - “Add to Cart” 58% higher click rate than order now
43.4 Over sized buttons are working awesome now…
43.4.1 almost 300 pixels on bottom of page
43.4.2 This is the time to stick it in their face
43.4.3 People want to know what you want them to do next
If you’ve seen this as valuable, please feel free to share it with your friends. And once again THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support. The chief and I greatly appreciate it.
Now go out and test something and bring home some money to spend on shiny bright objects.
Talk to you soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. If you think these suggestions are awesome and you want to enhance your testing game even more, I can’t suggest highly enough getting a hold of our notes we took on Stompernet’s Formula 5 program. That program gives you everything you need to incrementally, systematically increase the profitability of your business. CLICK HERE to see what I mean… CHAPTER 100
Do You Take A Fearless Approach To Life?
Do You Take A Fearless Approach To Life? Hey you,
It’s #2.
Quick question. How much do you let fear control your life? A smidge or a lot?
For me, I was wired up real young to be afraid of everything from what people thought of me to confronta- tion all the way to physical pain.
As I’ve evolved directly/indirectly under the wing of mentors like the Chief, Tony Robbins, Dan Kennedy, Larry Crane, Robert Dilts and other geniuses, I’ve slowly but surely began living life freer and freer of fears that rob you of a life where you’re comfortable in your own skin.
“I Was Born Alone And I Will Die Alone. I’ve Got To Do What’s Right For Me And Not Live My Life The Way Anybody Else Wants It.”
-50 Cent 442 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The quote above comes directly from the book, “The 50th Law” written by Robert Greene, the author of “The 48 Laws of Power”, “The Art of Seduction”, and “Strategies of War”.
Robert Greene is a shining example of a writer who “gets” the power of story.
Every one of the books he’s written are teaching the principles historic figures used to become icons and he does it by telling concise tales, giving you snap shots of how they embodied this principle in their life.
Everyone from Genghis Khan to Marilyn Monroe, Napoleon Bonaparte to Elvis, George Washington to Miles Davis, Barack Obama to 50 Cent.
World Famous Author Meets Thugged Out Rapper?
I’m pretty embarrassed to say that Robert’s book was on the front shelf at my local Barnes and Noble and I completely shunned it once I saw 50 Cent’s name as the co-author.
I enjoy some rap but not 50 Cent. On top of this I think I thought Robert was out of his mind joint ven- turing with a gangsta rapper. After hearing CD 1 of this program I knew I had behaved as an idiot.
My prejudice kept me from this magnificent resource. This book should’ve been in my library as soon as it came out. Thanks to the chief, it is now.
Robert had his radar open to what he could learn from anyone and so when 50 Cent approached him to do a book together, he at least heard him out. As they got to talking, they found that even though they were raised in complete opposite surroundings, they saw the world in similar ways.
“How Open Are You To Wisdom?” Do You Take A Fearless Approach To Life? 443
Today, I want to share with you a piece of a particular chapter directly from “The 50th Law” that grabbed me based on the idea of living fearlessly. You be the judge on how valuable this information will be for you…
“You came into this life with the only real possessions that ever matter – your body, the time you have to live, your energy, the thoughts and ideas unique to you and your autonomy.
But over the years you tend to give all of this away.
You spend years working for others – they own you during that period. You get needlessly caught up in people’s games and battles, wasting energy and time that you will never get back.
You come to respect you own ideas less and less, listening to experts, conforming to conventional opinions. Without realizing it, you squander your independence, everything that makes you a creative individual.
Before it’s too late, you must reassess your entire concept of ownership.
It’s not about possessing things, money or titles. You may have all of that in abundance but if you’re someone who still looks to others for help and guidance, if you depend on your money or resources, then you will eventually lose what you have when people let you down, adversity strikes, or you reach for some foolish scheme out of impatience.
“True ownership can come only from within”
It comes from a disdain for anything or anybody that impinges upon your mobility, from a confidence in your own decisions, and from the use of your time in constant pursuit of education and improvement.
444 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Only from this inner position of strength and self-reliance will you be able to truly work for yourself and never turn back. If situations arise in which you must take in partners or fit within another organization, you are mentally preparing yourself for the moment when you will move beyond these momentary entan- glements.
If you do not own yourself first, you will continually be at the mercy of people and circumstance, looking outward instead of relying on yourself and your wits.
Understand: we are living though an entrepreneurial revolution, on a global scale.
The old power centers are breaking up. Individuals everywhere want more control over their destiny and have much less respect for an authority that is not based on merit but on mere power.
“We Have All Naturally Come To Question Why Someone Should Rule Over Us, Why Our Source Of Information Should Depend On The Mainstream Media, and On, and On”
We do not accept what we accepted in the past.
Where we are naturally headed with all of this is the right and capacity to run our own enterprise, in what- ever shape or form, to experience that freedom. We are all corner hustlers in a new economic environment and to thrive in it we must cultivate the kind of self-reliance that helped push Fifty past all the dangerous dependencies that threatened him along the way.
For Fifty it was very clear – he was alone in the house he grew up and on the streets. He lacked the usual supports and so he was forced to become self-sufficient.
Do You Take A Fearless Approach To Life? 445
The consequences of being dependent on people were so much more severe in his case – it would mean constant disappointment and urgent needs that went unmet. It’s harder for us to realize that we’re essen- tially alone in this world and in need of the skills that Fifty had to develop for himself on the streets.
“We Have Layers Of Support That Seem To Prop Us Up. But These Supports Are Illusions In The End.”
Everyone in the world is governed by self interest.
People naturally think first of themselves and their agendas. An occasional affectionate or helpful gesture from people you know tends to cloud this reality and make you expect more of this support – until you’re disappointed, again and again.
You are more alone than you imagine. This should not be a source of fear but of freedom. When you prove to yourself that you can get things on your own, then you experience a sense of liberation.
You are no longer waiting for people to do this and that for you (a frustrating and infuriating experience). You have confidence that you can manage any adverse situation on your own.
Prime Example of This…
You think you’ve got problems?
Look at a man like Rubin “Hurricane” Carter – a successful middleweight boxer who found himself arrested in 1966 at the height of his career and charged with a triple murder.
446 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The following year he was convicted and sentenced to three consecutive life terms. Through it all Carter vehemently maintained his innocence, and in 1986 he was finally exonerated of the crimes and set free.
But for those nineteen years, he had to endure one of the most brutal environments known to man, one designed to break down every last vestige of autonomy.
Carter knew he would be freed at some point. But on the day of his release, would he walk the streets with a spirit crushed by years in prison? Would he be the kind of prisoner who keeps coming back into the system because he can no longer do anything for himself?
He Decided That He Would Defeat The System
He would use the years in prison to develop his self-reliance so that when he was free it would mean some- thing.
For this purpose he devised the following strategy: He would act like a free man while surrounded by walls. He would not wear their uniform or carry an ID badge. He was an individual, not a number. He would not eat with the other prisoners, do the assigned tasks, or go to his parole hearings.
He was placed in solitary confinement for these transgressions but he was not afraid of the punishment, nor of being alone.
“He was afraid only of losing his dignity and sense of ownership”
As part of this strategy, he refused to have the usual entertainments in his cell – television, radio, porno- graphic magazines. He knew he would grow dependent on these weak pleasures and this would give the wardens something to take away from him.
Also, such diversions were merely attempts to kill time. Instead he became a voracious reader of books that would toughen his mind. He wrote an autobiography that helped gain sympathy for his cause. Do You Take A Fearless Approach To Life? 447
He taught himself law, determined to get his conviction overturned by himself. He tutored other prisoners in the ideas that he had learned through his reading. In this way he re-claimed the dead time of prison for his own purposes.
“When He Was Eventually Freed, He Refused To Take Civil Action Against The State – That Would Acknowledge He Had Been In Prison And Needed Compensation”
He needed nothing.
He was now a free man with the essential skills to get power in the world. After prison he became a suc- cessful advocate for prisoners’ rights and was awarded several honorary law degrees.
Think of it this way: dependency is a habit that is so easy to acquire. We live in a culture that offers you all kinds of crutches – experts to turn to, drugs to cure any psychological unease, mild pleasures to help pass or kill time, jobs to keep you just above water. It is hard to resist.
But once you give in, it is like a prison you enter that you cannot ever leave.
You continually look outward for help and this severely limits your options and maneuverability.
“When The Time Comes, As It Inevitably Does, When You Must Make An Important Decision, You Have Nothing Inside Yourself To Depend On”
Before it’s too late, you must move in the opposite direction.
You cannot get this requisite inner strength from books or a guru or pills of any kind. It can only come from you. It is a kind of exercise you must practice on a daily basis – weaning yourself from dependencies, listening less to others’ voices and more to your own, cultivating new skills. 448 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
***One of the most important skills and entrepreneur or business owner could ever cultivate is the ability to communicate influentially…in all formats, verbally, in print, pixel, on video, on stage. CLICK HERE and you’ll have direct access to what I learned from Dan Kennedy’s Influential Writing seminar about and how he mastered this…
As happened with Carter and Fifty, you will find that self-reliance becomes the habit and that anything that smacks of depending on others will horrify you.
Do you agree or not?
Talk to me.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 101
Love Stinks
Love Stinks
Hey you,
It’s #2.
I just heard a story not too long ago and I’ve been dying to tell it to you. Here it goes. It’s all about…
The Man Who Didn’t Believe In Love
There’s a very old story about a man who didn’t believe in love.
This was an ordinary man just like you and me. But what made this man special was his way of thinking. He thought, ‘Love doesn’t exist.’
Of course he had a lot of experience trying to find love and he had observed the people around him. This man was highly intelligent and very convincing. He said that love is not real and that’s why no human being could ever find love. Even though he might look for it.
“Love,” he said, “is just like a drug. It makes you very high but it creates a strong need. You can become addicted to love. But what happens when you don’t receive your daily doses of love? Just like a drug, you need your everyday fix.”
He used to say that most relationships between lovers are just like a relationship between a drug addict and the dope dealer. The one who has the biggest need is the drug addict. The one who has the little need is like the dealer and this is one who controls the whole relationship.
You can see this dynamic so clearly because usually in every relationship there is one who loves the most and the other who doesn’t love. Who only takes advantage of the one who gives his or her heart. 450 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The drug addict, the one who has the biggest need lives in constant fear that perhaps he will not be able to get the next hit of love. The drug addict thinks, “What am I going to do if she leaves me?”
That fear makes the addict very possessive. “That’s mine.” The addict becomes jealous and demanding because of the fear of not getting the next dosage.
He completely surrenders and moves to whatever he can to do to avoid being abandoned. The provider can control and manipulate the one who needs the drug by giving more doses or fewer doses. Or, no doses at all.
The man went on explaining why love doesn’t exist. “What humans call love is nothing is a fear relation- ship based on control. Where’s the respect? Where’s the love they claim to have?
Young couples make a lot of promises to each other, to live together forever, to love and respect each other, to be there for each other through the good times and the bad. They promise to love and honor each other and make promises and more promises.
What is amazing is that they really believe these promises. But after the marriage, a week later, a month later, or a few months later, you can see that none of these promises are kept.
What you find is a war of control to see who can manipulate whom. Who will be the provider and who will have the addiction. You find that a few months later the respect they had for each other is gone.
You can see the resentment, the emotional poison, how they hurt each other little by little until they don’t know when the love stopped. They stay together because they afraid to be alone. Afraid of the opinions and judgments of others and also afraid of their own judgments and opinions. But where is the love?”
The man used to claim that he saw old couples who were so proud to have lived together 30-40-50 years or more. But when they talked about their relationship, they said, “We survived the matrimony.”
That means one of them surrendered to the other at a certain time he or she gave up and decided to endure the suffering. The one with the strongest will and less need won the war. But where is that flame they called love?
The man went on and on about all the reasons why he believed love doesn’t exist. His arguments were quite logical and he convinced many people.
Then one day he was walking in a park and there on a bench sat a beautiful lady who was crying. Feeling curious he decided to ask why she was crying. You could imagine his surprise when she told him she was crying because love doesn’t exist.
Of course, he wanted to know more about her.
“Why do you say love doesn’t exist?” he asked. Love Stinks 451
“Well, it’s a long story,” she replied. “I married when I was very young. Full of hope that I would share my life with this man. We swore to each other our loyalty, respect, and honor. So we created a family.
But soon everything changed.
I was the devoted wife who took care of the children at home. My husband continued to develop his career and his success outside of home was more important to him than our family. He lost respect for me and I lost respect for him.
We hurt each other.
And, at a certain point I discovered that I didn’t love him and he didn’t love me either. But the children needed a father and that was my excuse to stay and do whatever I could to support him.
Now the children are grown and I now have no excuse to stay with him. There’s no respect, there’s no kindness. I know that even if I find someone else, he’s going to be the same because love doesn’t exist. That’s why I’m crying.”
Understanding her very well, he embraced her and said, “You were right, love doesn’t exist. We look for love, we open our heart and become vulnerable just to find selfishness. It doesn’t matter how many rela- tionships we have, the same thing happens again and again.
Why search for love any longer?
They were so much alike and they became best friends.
It was a wonderful relationship. They respected each other and with every step they took together they were happy. There was no envy or jealousy. There was no control, there was no possessiveness.
They loved to be together because they always had a lot of fun. When they were not together they missed each other.
One day when the man was out of town he had the weirdest idea. He was thinking…
“Hhhmm, maybe what I feel for her is love. But this is so different from what I’ve felt before. I don’t feel responsible for her. I don’t have the need for her to take care of me. I don’t need to blame her for my difficulties.
We have the best time together. I respect the way she thinks and feels. She doesn’t embarrass me. I don’t feel jealous when she’s with other people. I don’t feel envy when she is successful.
Perhaps love does exist.
But it’s not what everyone thinks love is.” 452 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
He could hardly wait to go back home and let her know about his idea. As soon as he told her, she said, “I know exactly what you’re talking about. I had the same idea long ago but I didn’t want to share it with you because I know you don’t believe in love. Perhaps love does exist but it isn’t what we thought it was.”
They decided to become lovers and live together and it was amazing that things didn’t change. They still respected each other. And the love grew more and more.
Even the simplest things made their hearts sing with love because they were so happy.
Then one night a great miracle happened. The man was looking at the stars and he found the most beau- tiful one and his heart was so full of love that the star came down from the sky and soon it was in his hands.
Then, a second miracle happened and his soul merged with that star. He was intensely happy and he could hardly wait to go to the woman and put the star in her hands to prove his love to her.
And as soon as he put the star in her hands, she felt a moment of doubt. This love was overwhelming and in that moment the star fell from her hands and broke into a million pieces.
Now, there is an old man walking around the world swearing that love doesn’t exist. And there is a beau- tiful old woman at home waiting for a man, shedding a tear for a paradise that she once had in her hands but for one moment of doubt, she let it go.
This is the story about the man who didn’t believe in love.
Who made the mistake? The mistake was on the mans part thinking he could give the woman his happi- ness. The star was his happiness.
And his mistake was to put his happiness in her hands. Happiness never comes from outside of us. He was happy because of the love coming out of him.
She was happy because of the love coming out of her. But as soon as he made her responsible for his happi- ness, she broke the star because she could not be responsible for his happiness.
No matter how much the woman loved him, she could never make him happy because she could never know what he had in his mind. She could never know what his expectations where. She could not know his dreams.
“If you take your happiness and put it someone’s hands sooner or later that person is going to break it”
If you give your happiness to someone else, he or she can always take it away.
Then if happiness can only come from inside of you, and is the result of your love, you will be responsible for your happiness. Love Stinks 453
We can never make anyone responsible for our own happiness, not if we wish to be fulfilled.
I culled the story above from a book called “The Mastery of Love” by Don Miguel Ruiz and if you liked this stories message, I guarantee you’ll cherish the book.
Now, I’m not gonna profess to be marriage/relationship expert but I do know a thing or two about the rela- tionship dynamics between a business owner and your clients or customers.
Some business owners, of course not you, but people you know, hope their customers don’t share the love in their wallet with their competitors. They do everything from bad mouthing competitors to hiring ad agencies to selling at the lowest price in an effort hoard all of their attention and live in paranoia of losing it.
Bad idea.
It’s gonna happen. Jay Abraham customers are gonna buy from Dan Kennedy. Nordstrom’s customers are gonna buy from Zappos.com. McDonald’s buyers are gonna give Burger King some of their money.
You’re never gonna stop people from exploring the variety that comes with the promise of shiny new options
Breakthroughs happen when you think the opposite way that losers do.
Losers have a scarcity mindset. Losers focus on taking instead of giving. Winners know there’s more than enough to go around so they focus on spreading the love.
Look at this little gem that was revealed by Martin Weiss, of Weiss Research fame, One of Clayton Make- peace’s Jillion dollar clients. This was actually part of the interview Clayton did with Martin during his Info-marketing Superstars Series…
Martin Weiss: Most people know my dad as the man who predicted the stock market crash, as the man who helped Eisenhower balance the budget, as the man who – who was a, a very famous stock market ana- lyst, but what people don’t know is he was a very big innovator in the field of direct marketing and informa- tion publishing.
For example, back in the old days, the major financial publishers, which were McGraw Hill, Dow Jones, Business Week, Forbes, Kiplingers, they did not allow anyone to get access to their active subscriber list.
It was taboo to let anyone else mail to your list, and my dad stepped in and created a group of about half a dozen of the leading publishers, and was trying to persuade them to – to swap their lists so that everyone could benefit.
And there was tremendous resistance to that, until one day he walked into a meeting and said, “Here, take my list, with no commitments.” 454 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
And sure enough, everyone began using each other’s lists and the whole industry grew.
Dow Jones grew it’s Wall Street Journal subscriptions, McGraw Hill grew it’s Business Week subscriptions, and so on. And that’s now the standard in the industry. You – if you have active subscribers, you typically will allow other publishers that meet certain ethical and other criteria to – to mail to your list.
Clayton Makepeace: For a rental fee, it’s a profit center for your company, right?
Martin Weiss: Exactly.
By the way, if you haven’t gotten a hold of the notes I took on Clayton Makepeace’s Online Profit Multiplier program, you’re missing out. This is where he dissected the lead generating process he uses to rake in a shit load of prospects and millions of dollars for good old Martin. Do yourself a favor and find out every step to take to do the same. The product page isn’t finished for this program so just email the chief at mynoteta- [email protected] if you want to know what Clayton and Martin know about kicking ass.
I recognize the service the chief and I provide in taking notes on these programs such as Formula 5, Mass Control, or Simple Writing System as a method that increases the desire for you to go out and give Stom- pernet, Frank Kern and John Carlton more of your money.
Think about it…
A small minded person might hear about what we’re doing and think people buying the notes takes money out of the guru’s pocketss.
The stats don’t lie…
What those people don’t understand is that most of our customers ALREADY own the programs for which they’re buying notes for. They’re just so “information OVERLOADED, that they haven’t allowed them- selves to absorb into their business the outcome the product promised.
I completely and totally identify with this feeling. There’s a shit load of books, audios and DVD’s sitting on my shelf I haven’t made time to study yet. Opportunity waiting to be unleashed.
That’s the frustration that birthed this whole site. I thought, “Shit, I can’t be the only guy feeling this way.”
The over-arching theme we hear repeated over and over again is…
“If I can do something in 4 hours instead 40 hours, I’m going the 4 hour route every single time.”
The thing is, it’s pretty fuckin’ hard for any guru to sell 75 page PDF of pure marketing gold for $2500.00. Love Stinks 455
For that kind of price, people need to see some physical bulk which lead to the introduction of the 4 days worth of DVD footage, hours and hours of bonus CD’s, workbooks, slides, follow up calls, mindmaps and fat & chunky continuity program to top it all off.
You buy four of these heavy duty packages in a year and you’ve just given yourself a part-time job. That is, if you don’t get overwhelmed by everything you already have going on in your life.
Dan Kennedy talks about selling a single 45 minute audio tape for his theft-control client for $500. What’s weird is that I’ve never seen him try to do it himself. Doesn’t mean he hasn’t tried, just means I’ve never heard of him talk about making it work for him.
So while a few people choose to see us as the enemy of the guru, I don’t.
I see myself as an ally to not only the gurus, but also to you, the person who may or may not be beating themselves up for not taking full advantage of the resources they’ve already invested in.
I see myself as an ally to the guru for one of the primary reasons they teach to their clients…
When You Get People To Actually Consume Your Product And Then Implement… That’s When Retention Goes Through The Roof. This Is The Core Of Cultivating Raving Fans… And Every Guru Knows It
The short-sighted person looks at what the chief and I are doing here and think we’re taking love away from the guru’s. The enlightened individual see’s that what we’re doing only deepens the love they get from their customers because they’re that much closer to receiving the full benefit of what’s laying dormant on their shelf.
A product never consumed is never fully appreciated therefore complete and total love is withheld.
In my estimation the quality of our notes or our brand isn’t the main reason people buy from us. It is a reason, but I believe you already have a fascination with these guru’s and the topics we’ve put together guides for, not just us.
And guess what? No major gurus have come at us wielding an axe screaming bloody murder. And it’s not like they don’t know we’re here.
I assume they’ve risen to the top because they think big and they understand on some level what I just explained.
If anything, negative unconscious feelings could actually sabotage their future sales because people link pain to the marketer because of the embarrassing memory of plunking down $3,000.00 for the last product/sem- inar and never doing a damn thing with what they bought.
What we’re doing here can actually resuscitate dead customers. 456 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The point I want to hammer home here is to beware who you see as an enemy. Your competitors can be allies to you. Your customers and clients can be your greatest allies if you stop putting all of your career happiness in all of their hands.
Realize approximately 20% of people who ever buy from you will get the full benefit your product or service promises. If your product/service meets their needs, they’ll likely keep coming back to you over and over and over again.
Next, get comfortable knowing those same 20% are probably some of your competitors best customers also. You’ll sleep a lot easier when you embrace these truths.
Talk to you soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 102
Notes From Yanik Silver’s Latest Underground Seminar
Notes From Yanik Silver’s Latest Underground Seminar
Hey You,
It’s #2.
I’ve got a gift for you guys. I’ve been neck deep inside of Yanik Silver’s 5th Underground Seminar. While taking notes for this along with managing all of my other interests I’ve had little time to write up any posts.
So, to make sure you don’t think I forgot about you I want to give you what I learned from the Keynote Presentation for this event.
Yanik paid God knows what to bring out Bob Parsons, CEO/Founder of Godaddy.com to come and address the group. This guy just oozes personality and charisma. I did a post a long while ago just on one part of this speech. Here’s the whole thing…
458 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
1.1 Success Is All About Perspective
1.1.1 When you hear the word no or find yourself at a dead end, instead of thinking, “I give up or I quit”, you might want to think about taking on the perspective of “I’ll take a different approach.”
1.2 There are 2 factors that play a role in how successful we are.
1.2.1 Luck
Luck is opportunity presenting itself in the form of a break or timing or fortunate turn or events that we position ourselves through hard work and vigilance to take advantage of.
We need to put ourselves in positions where we can take advantages of breaks when they arrive.
1.2.2 Perspective
Perspective is knowing how to think about things.
If you have the right perspective you increase your resilience and you can overcome just about anything.
If you allow yourself to think the wrong way about anything placed in front of you, you’re finished before you start
He talks about going to Vietnam fresh out of high school and showing up and finding out 4 guys in his battalion had been killed and the leader was a 19 year old kid. At this point he started having a anxiety attack thinking to himself that this is where he was going to die. After he realized and accepted this truth, his anxiety went away.
The moments that followed were some of the most peaceful in his whole life. Notes From Yanik Silver’s Latest Underground… 459
Because he expected and accepted that he was going to die, when he saw another of his fellow 18 year old soldiers, on his first combat ambush, get horrifically wounded, he could be alert and in the moment enough so that later he could save another marines life. This man saved his life a few months later.
He took on the perspective of just wanting to make it through one day at a time till the next mail call
1.2.3 He came back from Vietnam after being injured and recovering and graduated college cum laude as an accountant.
Respected the profession but didn’t enjoy being a CPA so he ended up having all kinds of random jobs. Everything from selling commercial loans to repo-ing 18 wheelers.
1.2.4 Finally he got turned on to computers and wrote a program to help him with his family’s expenses. After a year or so his home accounting program got to be pretty good.
In 1984 he decided to try to sell it right out of the basement of his home and called the business Parson’s technology.
During the first two years he went broke twice trying to sell his product the same way everyone else sells theirs which led to him selling almost nothing. But he kept going. At two separate times he lost $15,000 in savings and $25,000 in savings/bonus from job/credit cards.
He actually offered his friend half of his company for $5,000. His friend turned him down and in doing so did him the biggest favor anyone’s ever done him. Even though he didn’t realize it at the time.
It was the perspective that he wanted to build something special that kept him going. 460 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
1.2.5 He believed he could find a way to sell his technology. He wasn’t working for the money. People wouldn’t work that hard for money. He did it for the dream. His dream was a big company with great products and happy customers.
His big break came when the magazine Computer Bargain Line came to him desperate to fill the front cover ad space because a company who’d reserved it, had gone broke 2 days before going to press.
They sold him the $15,000 ad for $5,000. He didn’t even have the money but he went borrowed and went forward with the perspective that if he was gonna make it, the time was now. To his sheer amazement and delight, the ad not only worked but he tripled his money.
After this he contacted all the magazines to get this same ad placed in them and because he paid his cred- itors, he was able to get $50,000 in advertising credit right away. What was amazing was that every maga- zine he ran the ad in, it worked.
Parsons Technology became a direct marketing company. This allowed him to move out of the basement, get a real office and hire 10 people. Through selling complimentary accounting software and bible software he morphed the company to over 1,000 employees and had over 3,000,000 Million customers and sales of over $100,000,000.00 a year.
That growth happened in the span of 10 years and in 94, Intuit approached him to buy his company. He decided that if they offered him $40 million dollars, he’d sell. They offered $60 million. He rejected their offer and got them to agree to $64 million dollars.
The takeaway is that it was having the right perspective that allowed him to have this success. If he’d been solely focused on making money instead of his dream of building something special, this company would never come off the starting blocks.
Bob only started godaddy.com so he’d have something to do. Notes From Yanik Silver’s Latest Underground… 461
He started with no business plan and lots of money. He tried doing all kinds of shit that didn’t work like building intranets, becoming an ISP provider, and selling software to build sites.
After all of his ideas didn’t work he realized from thinking about his website building program that the one thing that was required when you built a site was to have a domain name.
He found out that all the companies that sold domain names back then sucked. Prices were high, service non-existent, and systems were bad. They decided to become a domain registrar, sell domains as a front end and sell stuff on the back end.
Starting this venture was to take about a year and over a million bucks be he took the leap and this is the decision that made the company. They sold their first domain name in November of 2000 and by this time he was getting spooky close to going broke.
Because sales were so shitty, and he had no other investors/partners, his personal nest egg had gone from $32 million down to $8 million.
In early 2001 he’d decided to himself that he was gonna shut the company down. His epiphany showed up when he decided he didn’t really want to close the company and then he saw a happy guy, his age, parking cars at the hotel he was staying at.
That’s when it hit him… he thought “What am I worried about? This was Vietnam all over again. What’s the worst thing that could happen? I go broke and park cars for a living. This guy’s happy doing it. Shit, I could be happy doing it.”
8 months later the company became cash flow positive and they haven’t missed a month since. 462 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
When he was on the verge of closing godaddy he had no idea how close he was to being successful. It was accepting and coming to terms with the possibility that he could go broke and it wouldn’t be the end of the world that enabled him to do what needed to be done.
The thing that turned Godaddy around was the dotcom bust. What ruined everyone else, boosted them. All the noise died. No one was paying ultra high fees for ads anymore so all those guys who wouldn’t even talk to him when it was sunny, were now at his front door.
Another breakthrough for the company came in October 2004.
Their market share for domain names was about 16%. Back then he didn’t understand why a customer would do business who was more expensive, had inferior products and had poor service.
He hired a market research firm and found out that the biggest reason people weren’t buying from Godaddy was because they didn’t know they existed.
Bob found out that most prospective customers were signing up domains under the first person they found and didn’t know the difference between a good deal and bad one. The recommendation the research firm gave him was to start using offline methods to advertise - T.V., print so they could reach the people their online ads didn’t get to.
This was in September 2004 and he thought what better way to kick off their offline campaign than with the biggest media event of the year — The Superbowl.
30 second spots cost $2 million bucks, and it’d cost at least a mill to produce a decent commercial. Nowa- days it’s just $3 mill for the airtime. For this your ad has the potential to be seen by 90 million viewers who many of, are distracted by conversation or alcohol or both.
Notes From Yanik Silver’s Latest Underground… 463
So to overcome those challenges he concurred his commercial had to be edgy, controversial, make people laugh and piss people off.
After seeing a “Mike’s Hard Lemonade” commercial in which a guy in a bar uses his foot-long tongue to swab the last of his “Mike’s” out of the bottle and has an audience of a few mesmerized women who when asked what they want they want, point down the bar to the tongue dude and say, “I want one of those.” he decides his commercial should have edge like that and hires the same ad agency that put that ad together.
So he finds them, hires them and tells them to go balls to wall with shock and awe because he knew there was no way that in 30 seconds they had enough time to fully explain what godaddy does.
But what they could do was create buzz around the name godaddy.com but to do this the commercial had to immediately grab the viewers attention, it had to be in your face, and it have to be edgy.
Bob decided that whatever angle they took his commercial had to feature a well-endowed brunnette and that their name had to go right across her tits at nipple height. The Janet Jackson “Wardrobe Malfunction had occurred the year before and the ad agency decided to run with a spoof on that.
They wanted people to see it and think it was a newsbreak and have people think “What’s going on?” Fox rejected their ad. They told them that under no circumstance could they use the term “Wardrobe malfunc- tion” and told them they were flashing way too much cleavage.
They took out the term and adjusted the cleavage and one week before Superbowl, Fox finally approved. And immediately after telling them the spot was approved, Fox asked a genius question, “Wanna buy another spot?”
They accepted, and after getting their ad rejected, Fox advised them to just run the same ad again. So they agreed to that. The second ad was to air at the first break during the second half’s 2 minute warning.
464 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
When they filmed their ad they decided that they’d have an internet only version that would break all the rules Fox imposed on them. Once people came to the site they actually had time to educate them on what they did.
On game day after their 1st ad ran their servers showed a huge surge in traffic. So they were naturally excited to see what happened after the second ad aired, especially since that year at the 2 minute warning the game was tied. No blow out.
When it came time for their ad to show, it didn’t.
Instead Fox played a commercial of Homer Simpson stabbing a baby. Their ad never showed. Later their contact at fox told them that even though they had a signed contract that they’d received so many com- plaints that they had to cancel the second showing.
He looked to his chief of staff and asked, “Could we really be this lucky?”
They were the publicity storm of the 2005 Superbowl. They got discussed on all the radio and talk shows and in all the newspapers. He went on Bill O’Reilly, the Howard Stern show, the go-daddy girl went on the Today show and on and on.
The day after the Superbowl they received over a million visitors to the site.
The media value alone of their Superbowl ad was estimated to be over $12 million dollars. Their market share for new domain names worldwide immediately jumped from 16% to 25%. It now is hailed as one of the most effective ads ever created.
The next year ABC was airing the Super Bowl and rejected 13 of their concepts.
Notes From Yanik Silver’s Latest Underground… 465
3 days before the game they got their ad approved and because of all the press they’d received from the previous years ad, the media had a heyday with all the trials and tribulations they’d gone through to get this years ad aired.
As an unexpected bonus the media started showing last years ad again and again and then to lend context they say, you probably don’t know what this company does, here’s the story… Couldn’t of worked out better.
Their second ad boosted market share again taking them from 25% to 32%. In 07 they advertised during the Super Bowl and saw growth go from 32% to 38% and after the 08 Super Bowl it moved to 48% world wide. 09 same thing, more growth.
As of this showing he currently employees around 2,070 people and over 60% of them are in customer sup- port. You can call anytime day or night, holiday or not and get outstanding support free of charge and all of their customer support comes out of Arizona, right here in the U S and A.
Go-Daddy has succeeded due to the two factors he mentioned at the start, Luck and Perspective.
In conclusion here are the 16 Rules Bob Parson tries to live by that have helped him become suc- cessful…
1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone.
2. Never Give Up - Almost nothing works the first time.
3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think to succeeding.
466 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worse thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worse thing could be. Very seldom will the worse consequence be anywhere near as the cloud of undefined consequences.
5. Focus on what you want to have happen.
6. Take things a day at a time.
7. Always be moving forward. Never stop investing, never stop improving, never stop learning.
8. Be quick to decide.
9. Measure everything of significance. Anything that is watched and measured improves.
***If you’re kind mixed up on what “everything” to measure is click here to find out the finest resource for measuring and tracking everything in simple to understand language.***
10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate.
11. Pay attention to your competitors but pay more attention to what you’re doing. Everything looks per- fect from a distance.
12. Never let anybody push you around.
13. Never expect life to be fair. Notes From Yanik Silver’s Latest Underground… 467
14. Solve your own problems.
15. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
16. There’s always a reason to smile. “We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time.”
Be on the lookout for the full set of these notes. I’ve been swamped in actionable ideas since I been knocking out these notes. Have a fun Monday.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 103
Life Isn’t About Dying a Peaceful and Calm Death. It’s About Skidding Sideways Into the Casket Yelling “YEE HAW!!!”
Life Isn’t About Dying a Peaceful and Calm Death. It’s About Skidding Sideways Into the Casket Yelling “YEE HAW!!!”
Hey you,
It’s #2.
This post goes out to our loyal fan Tim Birch.
During these past 2 weeks I’ve been locking myself down taking notes and writing copy and hadn’t checked the comments on the blog since my last post, until today.
While doing so, I noticed Tim’s comment about one of his cousin’s passing away. When I read it, my first reaction was to reply but then I remembered a story and I wanted to share it with you Tim, and everyone else here.
Life Isn’t About Dying a Peaceful and… 469
This is a story I used to listen to over and over again on my walkman while working for a commercial con- struction company. At least a decade has passed since I’ve heard this but it touched me so deeply I knew you’d appreciate it too. It’s told by one of the greatest transformational story tellers I know of, Tony Rob- bins.
It was one of the rare gems trapped inside on of his discussions on metaphors buried inside his Power Talk series. The passage below is a gorgeous metaphor pertaining to the concept of death.
Here goes….
“My son Joshua came to me from school, and I think he was about six or seven at the time.
A child at school, a child he used to play with, one of his little friends was climbing on some of the play- ground equipment and fell off, broke his neck and died.
I came home and Josh was crying hysterically. And everything people tried to tell him and explain to him verbally about why it happened, what was going on, nothing would work.
So I sat down him and said ‘Honey, I know how you feel. But you know, I think the challenge is that, while you know you miss him and you have the right to miss him, you should feel those feelings, you should also realize that the reason you feel the way you do is because you’re a caterpillar.’
He said, “What?” This broke his pattern a little bit.
I said, “Honey, you’re just a caterpillar. And you’re thinking like a caterpillar.”
He said, “What do you mean?” 470 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
“Well, what happens to caterpillars at some point? There’s a point where most caterpillars think they’ve died. They think it’s over, they think life has ended. When’s that?” I said.
He said, “Oh yeah, when there’s that thing that starts wrapping around them.”
I said, “Yeah, that thing starts wrapping around them and pretty soon the caterpillar gets buried in all this mass of stuff. And you know what, if you were to open up that thing it’s buried under, the caterpillar’s no longer there. It’s just all this mush and goo and stuff.
And most people including caterpillars, even the caterpillar that’s transforming there, is thinking it’s the end yet it’s not dying, it’s transforming, you understand, it’s going from one thing to something else.
Pretty soon, the caterpillar thinks that life is over and what happens is the caterpillar comes together and what does it become?”
He said, “A butterfly.”
I said, “And can other people see that? Can the little caterpillars on the ground see that this caterpillar became a butterfly?”
He said, “No, they don’t see that.”
I said, “That’s right. Funny, he breaks out of the cocoon and what does he do?”
He said, “He flies.” Life Isn’t About Dying a Peaceful and… 471
And I said, “He doesn’t fly right away, he get’s out and the sunlight comes down and dries off his wings and then he goes out flies and he’s even more beautiful than when he was a caterpillar.
Is he more free or less free? You tell me.”
He said, “Oh, he’s much more free.”
I said, “You think he has more fun?”
He said, “Yeah, he’s got less legs to get tired.”
“That’s right, he does. He doesn’t need his legs any more, he’s got wings. Honey, I think your friend’s got wings now. It’s not for us to decide when someone becomes a butterfly. We think it’s wrong but I think God has a better idea of when the right time is.
We think summer should be here now but you know right now it’s winter and you want it to be summer, right? But God’s got a different plan. Sometimes we just gotta trust that God knows how to make butter- flies better than we do.
And when we’re caterpillars sometimes we don’t even realize that butterflies even exist because they’re up above us. Maybe we should just remember that.”
He stopped crying, and was smiling and he gave me a big hug and said, “Yeah, I bet he’s a beautiful but- terfly.”
472 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Metaphors can transform. Select them carefully. Select them intelligently. Select them in a way that deepens and enriches your life or the people you care about. Become a student of metaphors and become sensitized to them and your whole life can change.
Wishing you and your family the best Tim,
Talk to you soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
CHAPTER 104
Dan Kennedy’s Worst Nightmare
Dan Kennedy’s Worst Nightmare
Hey you,
It’s #2.
Today, Thanksgiving here in the United States, I wanted to give you a gift of yet another one of the 18 mod- ules that make up Yanik Silver’s latest “Underground Online Seminar.”
This actually has none of the super technical internet stuff in it. It’s just 10 pages of Tony Hsieh - of Zappos.com Fame, talking about what it takes to go From Zero, and Purely On The Backbone Of Customer Service, Break The Billion Dollar Mark Like He Did With His Company Last Year.
Tony Hsieh is ALL about optimizing the experience his customers get. And because he’s got 9.9 million customers, he has a shit load of employees. This is Dan Kennedy’s worst nightmare.
One employee is almost too many for Dan. Tony’s got way more than that and if you want huge results like him, you’re really gonna love what he’s got to say…
1.1 Delivering Happiness
1.1.1 He’s re-framed “customer service department” as “Customer Loyalty Team”
1.1.2 He started his entrepreneurial path in college selling pizzas on the ground floor of his college dorm
His current COO/CFO Alfred, was there at the time also. He was Tony’s #1 customer. He would come by and buy one or two large pizza’s. Several years later, Tony found out he was taking the pizzas upstairs and selling them off by the slice.
1.1.3 Background 474 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
1996-1998: He started LinkExchange (online ads) and sold it to Microsoft for $265 million
1999: Started investment company called Venture Frogs. Invested in Zappos.com and found just investing to be boring and so he ended up joining them full time within a year
Just in 2009:
#20 in Fast Company’s “50 Most Innovative Companies” list.
#7 in BusinessWeek’s Top 25 “Customer Service Champs” competition.
1400 employees, 23rd on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies To Work For” List
Powered by service – Their outcome is to provide the best online shopping experience possible with fast, free shipping, 365 day return policy, best selection, Over 1000 brands, over 200,000 styles, over 900,000 unique UPC’s.
Zappos is a service company that happens to sell shoes, clothing, handbags, eyewear, watches (and eventu- ally a whole bunch of other stuff.
Looked to model themselves after Virgin.
They have 9.9 million purchasing customers, 4 million having bought in the last 12 months. On any given day 75% of purchases made are by returning customers
Their repeat customers have higher average order size - $143.22 vs new customers $111.98
Part of this has been made possible by spending less on advertising and pouring money that would have been spent there and putting into the customer experience.
They look at the costs of free shipping and other stuff like that as marketing costs, not fulfillment costs.
Likes the idea of customers doing the marketing for them.
1.1.4 What is Customer Service?
What Customers first see when they come to zappos.com…
On most sites it’s almost impossible to find a 1-800 number. Most don’t even have one.
They take the opposite approach. They put their number at the top of every single page of the site because they actually want to talk to their customers. Dan Kennedy’s Worst Nightmare 475
The phone is actually one of the marketer’s best tools if trying to cut through the clutter. This is where you have the consumer’s undivided attention for 5-10 minutes. And if you get this right they’ll remember it right for a very long time.
Free shipping:
People might buy 10 pairs of shoes, try them with 10 outfits and send the ones back that don’t fit back. No problem.
Free return policy:
They did an internal study and found that customers that return the least, we’re NOT their best customers. They actually make more money once customers figure out how easy it is to ship back and forth. This helps them relax into impulse buys and try new stuff.
So they actually encourage people to order two different sizes of clothes or shoes to ensure they get it right on one try.
365-day return policy:
All the above are just policies. Not customer service.
They actually pour a shit load of money into their warehouse operations and focus on fast, accurate fulfill- ment.
They stock & own everything themselves in warehouses as big as two football fields and only make available for sale what’s actually in their warehouse. Doing this actually cut 25% of their revenue but they did it thinking long term in wanting to build their reputation in the mind of their customer.
They actually run the warehouse 24 hours a day which isn’t the most efficient way. Most efficient way is to let the orders pile up and then when the picker goes through the warehouse they have higher picking den- sity. But they’re more interested in getting the order to you as quickly as possible.
Because one of their locations is 15 minutes away from the UPS hub in Kentucky they can create a wow experience with highly valuable customers by giving them free overnight upgrades and getting their package there in 8 hours.
Renegade Call Center:
The people who work the phones are instructed to go to competitors sites to find shoes they don’t have and then they direct you to their site. They lose that sale but they don’t lose the memory in the customer’s mind that says these guys have my best interest in mind. 476 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Most call centers focus on efficiency and driving down average handle time, time it takes to get person off the phone. They don’t have call times. They don’t up-sell. They don’t have scripts and they ask the reps to use their best judgment as to what’s best for the customer.
1.1.5 Their #1 Priority is Company Culture
They believe that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff falls into place.
They hire and fire based on culture.
They do two sets of interviews. One is standard, fit within the team, technical experience ability and so on. Then HR does a separate set of interviews purely for culture fit.
Employees have to pass both in order to be hired. They’ve passed on highly qualified people based on them not being right for their culture.
The reverse is true as well. If someone’s performing well at their job they’ll fire their ass if they’re bad for the culture.
50% of Performance reviews are based on whether you live the culture or not.
They have a 500 page book detailing their culture that is built by the employees, the definition of what the zappos culture means to them. New edition comes out every year.
This is unedited so it reads as customer reviews like you might see on a website.
This is part of their culture that encourages people to be open and honest.
Everyone that’s hired, no matter what position you’re in whether it be accountant, attorney, warehouse guy, you go through the same training as the call center reps.
This is 4 weeks in Vegas covering company history, culture, philosophy about customer service, and they actually put your ass on the phone for two weeks taking orders from customers.
After this, they send you to Kentucky for a week where they show you all the warehouse functions that go with shipping, packing, receiving and so on.
The reason they make everyone go through this is because, first, it gets everyone on the same page. And more importantly, if their brand is gonna be about customer service, then customer service shouldn’t just be a department. It should be the entire company.
After the first week of the four week training they offer everyone in the class the chance to quit. They’ll pay you for the time you’ve already spent and in addition they’ll give you a $2,000 bonus to quit and leave the company. Dan Kennedy’s Worst Nightmare 477
If you’re a $10 and hour employee, that’s a pretty nice chunk of change. This is actually a standing offer throughout the rest of the 4 weeks of training.
They do this to discourage people from coming on board just for a paycheck. They want people who are sold on the vision and the culture of the company.
1.1.6 Tony believes Brand and Culture are just two sides of the same coin.
Your brand may lag behind the culture but eventually it’s gonna catch up.
He uses the metaphor of the brand of Air Travel being “Horrible”. No one set out for that but there it is.
He talks about how it’s almost impossible to for see all the problems that can come up with employees but that if you pour a shit load of money into making sure you’ve got the right people you save al lot of money in the end and reinforce a harmonious culture.
1.1.7 Owning the 3 C’s in the consumer’s mind
Clothing:
First, job is to make people aware they sell clothing and shoes.
Customer Service:
Next, they want them to feel safe buying stuff from them because they have nurturing customer service. This comes not so much from telling them but from their first hand experience.
Culture:
They actually want people to know about their company culture. That’s the reason they do tours of their facilities, put video’s on their blog site, gives you glimpse behind the scenes.
1.1.8 Zappo’s is really just about delivering happiness (customers and employees).
“People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.”
1.1.9 What is Zappos Culture?
They narrowed their definition down to 10 Committable Core Values
1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change 478 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
3. Create Fun and a Little Weirdness:
They embrace the idea that everyone’s a little weird in some way and encourage people’s personality to come out.
The question they ask to reveal this in an interviewee is “On a scale of 1-10 how weird are you?”
If you answer 1, you’re probably a little to straight laced for the Zappos culture where they have random things like parades going through the office and people dressing up in costumes because they can.
A 10 is little too psycho.
They’re mostly looking at how candidates re-act to that question. This really throws the professional inter- viewee for a loop. They can sniff out people who are trying to feel out the interviewer.
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
One of the interview question for this is “On a scale of 1-10 how lucky are you in life?”
1, is “I don’t know why but bad things always seem to happen to me and the opposite is “I don’t know why good things always seem to happen to me.”
They have a similar philosophy to Bob Parsons. They don’t want to hire unlucky people because that brings a bad vibe into the culture.
Being lucky more a state of mind than a classification of person. A person who feels lucky is open to opportunity and radiates joy. People who feel like they always get screwed and brood bring the energy of the room down.
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships Through Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble
The interview question asked here gets people to fail the test more than any other. They’ve had pretty senior positions open for years that they couldn’t fill because people keep giving unsavory answers here. Dan Kennedy’s Worst Nightmare 479
When you hire one person who’s super capable but abrasive and annoying, that won’t tear the culture down but if you keep making exceptions, that will. For them it’s purely a question of whether the guy is egotis- tical or is he humble.
His employees actually came up with this list. They asked them to define their culture and what should it be.
When HR interviews people they have questions that reveal how much people match these values.
Lots of companies have something similar to this but they always sound like a press release or lofty/fake. It’s something that after orientation no one pays attention to ever again.
They key word here is “Committable”. Think for yourself what core values you want to have for your com- pany.
Response he gets when he talks about this is “Yeah, I’m sure that works for Zappo’s but my business is dif- ferent.”
He tells people not to adopt Zappos’s core values but to determine their own and let them drive their company. Doesn’t matter what they are. All that matters is that you have them and that they’re com- mittable and making sure they align with your outcome as a company.
There’s a special effect that happens when everyone is on the same page.
And you’ve got to commit to them and hire and fire by them.
7 Steps For Getting To A Billion Dollars In Sales
Step 1: Decide if you’re out to build a $1 Billion Dollar company.
This requires more patience with revenues & profits in order to lay a proper foundation.
The path to do this varies from building a $100 million dollar company.
You can avoid a lot to the stuff he’s talking about if you’re only out to build a $10 million dollar company.
There’s no shortcut and no quick recipe. You’ve got to be willing to sacrifice growth and revenue. Part of that was expressed when they gave up 25% of their revenue to inventory product.
You want to decide this sooner, than later.
Step 2: Figure out your values and your culture.
Figure out your personal core values. You can make these the same as the companies in the beginning. 480 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Company’s core values:
Start early.
He started on this late and thinks they’d have gotten to a billion sooner had they gotten this wrangled. Should be started before you start the company. It doesn’t matter what the values are… ALIGNMENT is vital.
LIVE the brand
What do you want your personal rant to be?
Step 3: Commit to Transparency - Be real, and you have nothing to fear. Your culture is your brand. Don’t try to be someone you’re not.
Their culture book is one way they’re transparent to the world.
They have a newsletter titled “Ask Anything” where people can ask about the company’s financials, ask about what brands they’re gonna carry, about pretty much anything.
They work with 1,500 brands and all of them actually have the log in password to their extranet and have access to the same info that their own merchandisers and buyers do.
They can view on hand inventory, profitability, mark downs, turn ins, and so on.
When a “Normal” business does interviews or reporters come, you’re ushered by HR or a PR Person and you only get to talk to three people or whatever.
At Zappos they give you a basic tour and then say, “You basically know where everything is, go find out what you want to know and come back and find us here in the office.”
They believe in their culture so they have nothing to hide.
Step 4: Vision: “Whatever you’re thinking, think bigger.” Does the vision have meaning? Chase the vision, not the money. Or as Puff Daddy would say, “Don’t chase the paper, chase the dream.”
They finally asked themselves a vital question, “What do we want to be when we grow up?”
They decided they wanted to be about the very best customer service.
The unexpected benefit that came was that employees’ became more engaged because they were working for something beyond profit.
It also flipped vendors who didn’t want to take them on because they were an internet account. Dan Kennedy’s Worst Nightmare 481
He get’s asked at marketing conferences “What’s a good market to go into?’ He feels like it’s the wrong approach. He encourages people to figure out what they’re truly passionate about and go after that passion and figure out a vision that about more than making money.
Cited Craigslist as an example of a guy who didn’t set out to become rich and he did.
His challenge to you would be “What would you be passionate about doing for 10 years even if you never made a dime?”
If you have employees, “What’s the larger vision and greater purpose in their work beyond money or profit for you?”
People perform better if they believe there’s more to their work than making you rich.
His belief is that there’s a big difference between inspiration and motivation.
Motivation can get you to a certain point… Inspiration can accomplish so much more and what inspires is contributing to something larger than themselves.
Hard times will come and passion inside you and your employee’s is what will get you through it.
Step 5: Build Relationships (Not Networking) Be interested instead of trying to be interesting.
He associates networking events as a bunch of people just horse trading, what can you do for me?
He finds that when you go to an event without an agenda and just seek to bond and become friends with people of interest to you, that this is when the magic happens, somewhere down the line an opportunity comes up where you can serve each other, that you couldn’t foresee happening at the time you met.
He embraces the idea of talking to strangers, not trying to get anything out of it.
Step 6: Build Your Team “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” African proverb Hire slowly. Fire Quickly
You can’t build this big of a company on your own. You need to be able to build a team who intertwine with your values.
Hiring slower and firing quickly is one of the things Tony wishes he could go back and change about Zappos
Step 7: Think Long Term - Repeat customers, customer service, no ‘get rich quick’ formula. Overnight successes are years in the making both personally and in business) 482 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If maximizing profit in 2009 was Tony’s outcome, the thing to do would be to fire the 400 people in his call center, don’t answer the phone, don’t answer emails and he bets that his customers for 2009 would not go down. They’ll have a lot of unhappy customers but they’ll be a shit load more profit.
But they’re looking at long term to make sure the business is sustainable.
What is Your Goal In Life?
For a lot of people, it’s happiness.
What is the science behind happiness?
Research shows people are very bad at predicting what will give them sustained happiness. “When I get ______, I’ll be happy.” or “When I achieve ______, I’ll be happy.”
Research has shown that the “Is this all there is?” factor arrives and we adapt and become desensitized to outcome they achieved.
There’s a science behind marketing. You’re gonna spend all kinds of time studying this stuff. What if you spent just 10% of your time studying and learning the science of happiness. How much happier could you be?
Tony has found that happiness comes down to 4 things…
Perceived Control
In traditional call centers you work the year, and then you get a bump in pay. At Zappos they lay out the option of acquiring 15-20 other skill sets as a rep that each come with a small bump in pay.
Basically they show them the path and say “It’s up to you how high you go.”
Perceived Progress
They don’t care if you come in with no skills. They focus mostly on culture. For the merchandisers they broke down the steps to becoming a buyer into 3-4 month stages over 3 years. People feel they’re moving forward and can see a clear outcome.
Relatedness
They try to get their people with related values to reframe their view of what they do not as a job but as a calling.
Vision/Meaning for your life/Being a part of something bigger than yourself Dan Kennedy’s Worst Nightmare 483
3 levels of happiness
1. Rockstar happiness - You’re always chasing the next high. Works but very hard to sustain. Once the high goes away, happiness does also.
2. Flow. This is where you get so engaged doing what you’re doing that time flies by.
3. Meaning. Contributing to something larger than yourself. Research has shown this is where happiness can be sustained the longest.
Recommended Reading:
by Chip Conley
Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan, John King, Halee Fischer-Wright
4 - Hour Workweek - Tim Ferriss
Happiness Hypothesis - Jonathan Haidt
There you go, the counter intuitive approach to getting more customers. What do you think? Does this approach make sense to you? For me it does.
I remember years and years ago hearing Tony Robbins talk about how they axed the number of complaints they received, ultra significantly when they finally started figuring out who the wrong people for their service culture was.
If you want to go big, you’re gonna need lots of help. And this means hiring employees.
Dan Kennedy is anti-employee and loses money because of it. He knows it and built his business to suit his life style preferences. What do you want?
If you want to do it huge or just optimize your company’s culture start by checking out Zappo’s training on this here… http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/inside-zappos/2008/12/06/culture-class
Thank You So Much For Supporting Us Here. Talk to you soon. Happy Thanksgiving!
Note Taking Nerd #2 & The Chief CHAPTER 105
Selling With Emotional Impact - Maximizing Your Prospect’s Buying Experience
Selling With Emotional Impact - Maximizing Your Prospect’s Buying Experience
Hey You,
It’s #2.
Today I wanted to give you the presentation I planned on giving during the Nerd Rocks Teleseminar. It took me over 7 hours to put this together so I’ll be damned if you’re not gonna reap the benefit of it. Are you ready?
Good.
Have you ever wondered what makes some movies and TV shows instant classics and what makes others total garbage not worthy of a gnat’s attention?
I have and the reason I’ve become fascinated with the subject lately is because I recognize it’s of dire impor- tance that you and I not just go through the motions of marketing and selling to our prospects and cus- tomers but that we must entertain and bond with them while doing so.
That is, if you want them to happily buy from us over for the long haul and be anxious to sing your praise to anyone who should be doing the same.
So, I’ve been studying screenwriting knowing a solid script, the words coming out of the actors mouth’s and the events that make up the story, is the spine and the heart of all outstanding T.V. or Movies.
Guess what?
World Class Marketing Has More In Common With Selling With Emotional Impact - Maximizing… 485
Hollywood Blockbusters Than You May Think
Here’s what I mean…
The emotions you like to feel when watching a movie of your choice whether a suspenseful drama or a comedy are not any different from the ones people who watch your marketing videos, hear your tele-semi- nars and read your copy wish to feel.
I don’t know if this has been true for you but for years I thought I needed to go into “business mode” when dealing with customers. I felt faker than DD silicone titties when I would do this. Where I really noticed it big time was with friends I worked with. I knew how cool, calm and persuasive they were when they were just being themselves and it kinda weirded me out when they’d put on this other persona just because they were talking to a client.
This didn’t seem right and I vowed to never again “put on a show” for customers or prospects and you know what happened?
I felt a helluva lot less nervous because I was being me and my interactions with clients started being fun because I was freed from being a robot out to make deals and now I could now have an actual conversation with prospects instead of the dreaded, “How are you? Good. Uh, I was just calling to see if you were ready to buy yet? No. O.K. um, uh how about I call you again in 6 months? O.K. Have a good day,” spiel.
That was the worst.
I don’t know if you’ve ever pitched like this. If you have, you know how much different this feels than having a conversation with your friend. This is why marketing via fax, direct mail, or online is so impor- tant, it gives you the opportunity to let people into your world and either identify with you or be driven away.
When you layer yourself into your marketing and people identify with you and they call you on the phone or email you it’s a whole different conversation. Think about it. If you’ve opened up to them, they start to feel like they can open up with you or at least feel like you’re not a total stranger (remember, they’ve been programmed not to talk to strangers) and that my friend is when magic happens.
No more impersonal, awkward communication.
What Makes You Fall In Love With Your Favorite T.V. Shows & Favorite Movies?
The same thing that endears you to a friend or an idol or role model of yours…
…The show has at least one character on it who generates feelings and emotions deep inside you that you love experiencing or least dipping your toe into. 486 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You can do this for your ideal prospects and customers and today I want to show you what I’ve learned about doing this.
Horrible marketing happens when people don’t put enough thought into the prospects experience and well meaning marketers, knowing that educating your clients is vital to process of selling, un-intentionally trans- port their audience back to the high school classroom.
While text books and best selling novels are both paper and ink their similarities end there.
You Can’t Bore People Into Buying From You
Think Dan Brown, you know, the author of Angels & Demons, Da Vinci Code, and his newest addition “The Lost Symbol”. Within those books you can learn some interesting history but that wasn’t the purpose of his writing the books or what sold them. His outcome was first and foremost, to entertain, and then to educate.
That’s the formula that put millions in the bank for him.
Ayn Rand was also brilliant at accomplishing this outcome. She beautifully wove her philosophy into her riveting novels. Now, as a self proclaimed Rand fan, I can say there’s a vast difference in how I absorb her philosophy through her non-fiction work as opposed to her fiction.
“The Meaning Of Communication Is The Response You Get”
The fire hose stream of intellectual phraseology and jargon jammed into her non-fiction books make them a chore to absorb. Great for expanding your mind but I feel the only reason she became as popular as she did was because she was able to lace her potent philosophy into a compelling, emotional story where hero’s where living her dream.
Without that ability, her philosophy might not have never been published.
If you’re trying to sell a complicated process, you’ve gotta make it easy on the eyes. Most people would go bat shit at the idea of reading 1,000 pages of philosophy. Imbed this same philosophy into a story and Wah- lah, you suck people in which brings everything back to the point I want to hammer home here…
While it’s important to educate with your marketing, it’s also important that you not be deadly dull.
The outcome of my post today is to awaken some solid principles that once you’re aware of, you have an outline of what pushes peoples buttons and you can focus on inserting the steps that are really what influ- ence buying behavior into all of your communication with your list which means easier selling for you.
Here’s an Outline of What We’re Gonna Cover Today 1. Selling With Emotional Impact - Maximizing… 487
2. What Makes a Message Work For Your Prospect 1. 2. The Persuasive Communicator’s Double Task 1. 2. What Your Ideal Target Market Really Buys 1. 2. Why Emotions Are Missing In Amateur Marketing 1. 2. A Word About Your Ideal Target Audience 1. 2. Your Ideal Prospects Four Emotional Needs + A Secret One 1. 2. The Three Types of Storytelling Emotions
What Makes A Message Work For Your Prospect?
As you and I have talked about, an emotional connection, a bond with the main character is vital, which is the main reason why all communication with your prospects and customers should be person to person rather than “faceless corporation” to person.
What feeling do you think you generate when your prospect see’s your name in the sender section of their email inbox?
Frank Kern’s name creates a different emotion, than 1-800-Flowers does.
Both of them are hitting me with emails but you expect something cool, valuable and entertaining from Kern and with 1-800-Flowers you expect a blah “You, got my money yet bitch? No. Well call me when you do.” which is a shame because their front man, Jim McCann has personality and he has a great story of how his business came to be the giant it is.
It’s my belief that when he started he had to put himself out in the market to get business and make connec- tions.
His charisma is what was a massive contributor to their rise to fame. Now, they haul in so much money that it seems like they stray from doing anything that might rock the boat because they’re complacent. My question would be: How much more could they make if they didn’t play not to lose?
What would happen if your driving question in reference to your marketing was “How do I allow myself to make my marketing a pleasure to experience for my ideal target audience?”
Easier selling would be my guess. 488 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Remember: You always get an emotional response from your audience. Doing what I’m about to show you will help you avoid the 3 most common responses marketing…
Boredom
Disgust
Frustration/Anger
Remember the 80/20 - 95/5 principle is at play here…
80% of marketing in your industry or in general sucks balls. 15% of it is great. 5% of it is to be worshipped, modeled and re-formulated to fit into your market for your opportunity.
When you can get your audience to feel the power of your message, they’ll talk about it and you with their friends, rave on forums about you and you’ll grab the attention of affiliates.
The Communicator’s Double Task
Basic “copywriting courses” focus purely on putting a single salesletter together but single salesletters only give you one shot to sell.
Pro’s build marketing campaigns, sideways salesletters/launch processes whatever you want to call them because this allows for you to suck people into a saga, chip away at their resistance slowly and ramp up the anticipation for what you offer.
You’re letting people become comfortable with your concept and you before rushing them into the equiva- lent of your business’s bedroom with you.
Yeah, of course you need all the basics for your salesletter: Headline, great opening sentence, problem-agi- tate-solve, bullets, close and P.S. This is all level one salesmanship.
But what’s the second task you need to accomplish?
You need to create a compelling concept, setting that allows you to turn yourself and/or your star employees into characters that help you spark the emotional response in your ideal prospect.
The average/normal/mediocre/lazy marketers who know about salesletters just stop there and never step into this world where greatness awaits them.
When “you” are woven into your marketing you’ll be able to manipulate language to create an intended emotion or image in your prospect’s mind which is where the real pay off comes to you whether it’s more cash in the bank or deeper, enriched relationships with your prospects or both. Selling With Emotional Impact - Maximizing… 489
What Your Ideal Target Market Really Buys
Some psychologists have been said to say that movies are “Emotion Machines”.
While making “North by Northwest” Alfred Hitchcock was quoted as saying,
“We’re not making a movie. We’re making an organ like in a church. We press this chord and the audience laughs. We press that chord and they gasp. We press these notes and they chuckle. Someday we won’t even have to make a movie. We’ll just attach them to electrodes and make play the various emotions for them to experience in the theater.”
Marketing could defined precisely the same way.
If you know Hitchcock’s work, you know he was a master at creating suspense and terror. Where does this serve you? Well, the prime place is in the “Problem” part of your marketing.
This is what Eben Pagan means when he talks about explaining someone’s problem better than they can. You need to paint an emotional picture of the dire consequences and or dissatisfaction that comes when your prospect doesn’t address their need or issue now instead of someday in the future.
When we do this we demonstrate we understand how someone with this is issue is actually feeling, we understand their world. This is what creates a bond and lets your prospect know in their heart that you know what you’re talking about.
Do You Know What Business You’re In?
If you take a look at the ads for movies in the newspaper or online you’ll see quotes there from various movie critics, newspapers and magazines.
These blurbs are really promises of an emotional response.
“Will grab you from start to finish”, “Energetically funny”, “Gritty, intense and unpredictable”, “A stag- gering, haunting and intense movie experience”. “Pulse pounding”, An incredible ride”, “Packs an emo- tional whallop”…
All of the above quotes were all just for one movie.
For the promo for one of the Harry Potter movies the studio bought a two spread page in the major papers and actually highlighted and made the emotional words blue.
Hollywood Knows What Business They’re In
And if you think marketing isn’t a part of what makes those movies mega successful, you’re nuts. These endorsements are the promises that if you buy a ticket, you’re gonna feel these same emotions. 490 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
What if affiliates could say cool shit like this about you before sending out your promo’s or… what if your promos had a bunch of these emotional one liners from authorities in your niche attached to the top of the sales page or talking about the freebie you’re offering on the other side of your squeeze page. It’s possible.
You hear people talking about getting testimonials and the pro’s tell that you always go for results specific endorsements like “Ricky Bobby made me $23,309.00 in 47 hours!” vs. “Ricky Bobby’s an amazing teacher”.
They’re right. And the results specific testimonial could be enhanced by just asking the person, “Why is that important to you?” over and over until you get them to tell you the real emotional reason why $23,309.00 is a big deal for them because we do everything we do for one of two reasons… to either change our behavior or to change the way we feel.
So when you ask “Why’s that important to you?” you might get down to something like, “Ricky Bobby made me realize I’m not a loser like everyone including myself, told me I was. He helped me to see that I was capable of being the man of my household and he’s the one I credit with bringing back my man- hood. Yeah, the twenty-three grand is nice but it’s nothing compared to having my wife admire me again.”
Do you feel the difference?
There should be no doubt in your mind that emotions are what your ideal prospects buy and what you sell. You’re in the emotion delivery business!
This is what should come to mind when someone asks you what kind of business you’re in. This could even be the first line of your elevator speech.
Why Emotions are Missing In Amateur Marketing
Due to the proliferation of copywriting instruction kits on the market today, this has cultivated the attitude that copywriting is easy if you just know what tactics to deploy.
It cultivates the belief that “If I just get John Carlton’s Simple Writing System I’ll know each step to put into my salesletter and I’ll have this handled.”
And John’s system will put you eons ahead of idiots who run Goodyear blimp style image ads and wonder why they’re going out of business. Carlton also makes a point of emphasizing in his program the need to use emotionally charged words in your copy.
But there’s more to it if you want to really build a sustainable business.
Look at this anecdote. An alien ship comes down and snatches up 10 human beings with the mission in mind of creating the perfect human. If they opened up those humans, the exact same structure would be in each one. Selling With Emotional Impact - Maximizing… 491
This is similar to 97% of copywriting courses out there. The teachers tell you “Every successful salesletter has a great headline, an offer, and a strong close,” and this is true.
In the aliens instance, if you didn’t have a head, a torso, two arms and two legs you wouldn’t end up with something that looked like a human.
Same goes for salesletters. Everybody has to learn how to build a basic salesletter and what the components are. But the problem is, that most salesletters not only look the same but they feel the same.
Just Knowing Where You’re Supposed To Put Your Weiner
Isn’t Enough Win The Admiration Of Your Lover
In my opinion any and all my teen/early manhood lackluster sexual experiences were a result of not having an emotional connection with the women I was bedding.
I was an insecure punk who just wanted to brag to my friends that I’d gotten laid. Then, when I fell for a girl, I’d start acting all needy and jealous and she’d hit the road.
I’ve come to learn what’s most important to satisfying a woman in bed is that you’re genuinely interested in her and her needs and that she feels it’s an honest to goodness privilege to have you in her life. Just having those two components beats any and all of the super whoopee-whoopee stroke or finger techniques out there.
Most People Market Like They Make Love,
From Their Head, Not From Their Heart
Have you ever known a business professional who could care less if he made an emotional connection with his customers, just as long as the dollars kept rolling in came so he could keep buying toys to show off to his buddies?
I have. Actually, I’ve been that guy. Take my word for it, it sucked to be me.
You see it’s my belief that Frank Kern, Jeff Walker, Clayton Makepeace have succeeded as wildly as they have because they put together programs that focused on building a nurturing relationship before asking for any money.
They flipped the system of just cavemanning the process, showing up and bashing people with a pitch and expecting to walk out with a check, on it’s head.
I know arriving and asking for $50 bucks, $100, hell even $500 after 4,16, 24 pages of copy is what direct marketing was built on. So it works. But if you’re gunning for big money plus a meaningful connection, you gotta go for a relationship. 492 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Especially in the wild wild west of the internet.
A Word About Your Ideal Target Audience
Your target prospect is the most important person you should be focused on when putting together any kind of marketing.
Not your competitors or colleagues or anyone else including family and friends who you know will see your marketing. Not even your opinion is important. More times than not our situation, the place where we’ve become successful and can now sell a product to someone or give advice is vastly different than where your ideal prospect is now.
What’s easy for you may seem impossible to them.
If you don’t connect with a single member of your target audience, you’re probably haven’t given yourself permission to tell anyone else who isn’t your ideal prospect to fuck off in your own mind before you write, especially those voices you hear that criticize everything you write down.
The program that helped me most to overcome this challenge was Dan Kennedy’s Influential Writing, click here to check out the notes we put together for it.
What Do Readers Want? Your ideal prospect’s plight…
They want you tell them something they don’t know. Something unique, something fresh, breaking news.
They want you to tell them something they know in a way that moves them (Emotions).
There’s nothing new under the sun but no one has your exact same philosophy/viewpoint on life so if you let that shine and your life experience breathes life into a subject that may have been beat to death by your competitors, they will appreciate you for it.
And this is where it’s so important to give yourself permission to fail and permission to be criticized/cri- tiqued. To be the same as everyone else is to be normal or average. Normal or average is never memorable.
They want you to refresh them from everyday drivel.
No matter what niche you’re in, your ideal prospects see a shit load of ads everyday. Most of it is blah or annoying. This is good news for you because knowing this you can write or make videos around it.
Always keep in mind there’s no stage in a promotion where your marketing doesn’t have to be entertaining/ engrossing. Never forget this.
Your Ideal Prospect’s Four Emotional Needs + One Secret One Selling With Emotional Impact - Maximizing… 493
Donna Cooper wrote a book titled, “Writing great screenplays that sell” and in it she compared screen- writing to a rollercoaster and how each pilon in a rollercoaster is an emotional impact. And in this book she talked about the readers four emotional needs.
The need for new information
The majority is new, bright shiny object oriented. Don’t fight this. Roll with it.
The need to bond
This is why it’s so important to turn yourself into a character and a human being by writing yourself into your marketing. Once again go get our notes on Dan Kennedy’s “Influential Writing” and you’ll get a black belt lesson on how you can do this.
The need for conflict resolution
We love to see problems solved.
Most stories revolve around a problem and the reason we stick to the end is because we want to see the problem resolved. Sometimes I’ll even slog through a horrid movie all the way to the credits because of this need. A great example of this for me was “Paul Blart - Mall Cop.
We love to see people overcome setbacks and be told how it’s possible, even for little ole’ me, to do this. This is part of why case studies in your marketing are so valuable.
The need for completion
This is the famous need for closure. This is our need to make order out of chaos.
Bonus Need - The need for entertainment (emotional impact)
You’ll see a lot of salesletters and marketing that meet the first four needs but don’t hit this one and they probably make money but meeting this last need is what will help you dominate.
The late great Jim Rohn, the world famous business philosopher, said something that has stuck out in my mind ever since I heard it years and years ago. He said, “When I go to a movie, I want it to touch me, make me laugh, make me cry, just don’t leave me the same as when I walked in.”
I believe you can do this with your marketing if you’ll only give yourself the permission to.
The Three Types of Storytelling Emotions
Voyeuristic Emotion 494 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
This taps into curiosity. This could come with letting people into your world, your insider knowledge/con- nections that allow you to be the champion in whatever industry you sell to.
Vicarious Emotion
This means you’re feeling exactly what the characters are feeling. So if people are bonded with you and you’re feeling anger, they feel it too.
Visceral Emotion
This is the way they feel as a result of having spent time with you.
Reading fiction books to build my metaphor and similie repotoire sucks me into a vortex. Not just any books though. Remember I was telling you about taking the plunge and diving into a Danielle Steele novel not too long ago?
Well, that books been gathering dust. Since the time I bought that book I’ve plowed through 5 of John MacDonald’s, Travis McGee mystery novels and 4 of Carl Hiaasen’s mysteries.
That’s roughly 3,600 pages I’ve blown through all the time avoiding the supposedly emotionally superior sexes novel.
If you’re at all stuck, thinking, “How do I become a character people want to emmulate?’ you might do well to go get any of Carl Hiaasen’s mystery novels. Here’s a quote from the jacket of the book I’m reading now… “HIAASEN INFUSES HIS NOVELS WITH JUSTICE (SO SATISFYING)… What you can’t antici- pate is how much fun there’s going to be had getting here to there.” New York Daily Times.
The reason I connect with that quote and included it here is because the one key distinction about Hiaasen’s heroes is that they’re always the anti-hero.
They’re always the person that would never think themselves capable of saving the day and beyond all odds, they do. Never yet has the hero of any of the books I’ve read been pure stud or studette.
He does a magnificent job of making the person relatable and having just enough courage to overcome their problems. Does this sound like you? If you’re like the majority of people I’ve consulted with, you might not feel all that cozy with idea of tooting your own horn and turning yourself into a hero in the eyes of your audience.
When I look at Hiaasen’s characters I think it’s all the more possible to turn yourself into a Michael Jordan in your industry by just doing a little more than the average person does. Things like doing what you said you would when you would. Being on time. Telling the truth even when it hurts in the moment.
Your whole super hero status could revolve around stories of you living those principles. Selling With Emotional Impact - Maximizing… 495
This would your prospect and customer experience feelings like, “Gosh, I wish I was as brave as he was”, or “This guy’s like me, I can’t wait to meet him.”
The experience of visceral emotions = Entertainment
Interest, curiosity, anticipation, suspense, tension, humor, relief, triumph, surprise would all be examples of visceral emotions.
These are all steps to embedding emotion in your marketing. In part 2 of this post I’ll show you an example of the process I’ve been using lately implement all of these to get the ball rolling on any marketing sequence I’m developing and how you can do the same.
Talk to you soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 106
Part 2 - Selling With Emotional Impact - Maximizing Your Prospect’s Emotional Experience
Part 2 - Selling With Emotional Impact - Maximizing The Readers Emotional Experience
Hey you,
It’s #2.
As promised, I’m back with Part 2 of Selling With Emotional Impact.
(If you missed Part 1, go here to peep it…)
While you may or may not taken time in January to make a plan for your 2010, I wanted to give you a quick example of the process I’ve been using lately to get the ball rolling on any marketing sequence I’m devel- oping.
And as you’re reading this now, think about how you can use this in your own projects.
Planning For Success
Your great idea or concept… has to be either fresh, appealing, interesting, exciting, intriguing, compelling, provocative to grab your prospects attention.
This fits right in with your audiences need for new information or as I like to put it, the new shiny object. In short, it must hook you and them emotionally. Even if you aren’t your customer you should feel a rush for what they’re about to experience by seeing your marketing.
There are two absolute requirements for a great idea to be a great idea…
1. It must be uniquely familiar. Part 2 - Selling With Emotional Impact… 497
2. It must promise conflict
One of the greatest ads I’ve ever seen that met these two requirements was Gary Bencivenga’s famous Mark Skousen promo…
Just in case you can’t read the headline here it is…
Lies, Lies, Lies!
Why we investors are fed up with everyone lying to us!
But getting rich is the best revenge…
Smartest ways to do it in 1990-1991
When you double click on the picture you’ll be able to see better the smaller cartoon pics on the bottom.
One of them is of a smug looking guy in a suit talking on the phone and the caption for this pic is “Lies brokers tell p. 5”
<======Bottom left is a picture of a guy who looks like slick willy Clinton and the caption for that one says “Lies politicians tell, p. 6”
The bottom right picture is of an Anglo Saxon man wearing a suit and a turban seated behind a crystal ball and the caption below it is “Lies gurus tell, p. 3” ======>
Isn’t it brilliant how this concept met both the need to be uniquely familiar and how it promised conflict? And another very, very important point, all of these topics implied I’m showing up at the door of your mind to give you something, not to get something.
Develop a Mighty Theme
“To produce a mighty book, you must have a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can be written on the flea. Though many there be that have tried it.”
Herman Melville – American short story writer, poet and novelist best known for his novels of the sea, including his masterpiece Moby Dick.
Jay Abraham the marketing wizard, is fond of saying “Concept over Copy”. Great marketers like to come up with this before they write because everything that comes after is an exploration of that theme. It forces you to give your project purpose.
As a marketer, your offer really helps you with this. This is why some pro’s like to start their ads with the offer knowing this sparks all kinds of possibilities. 498 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Story Reveals Theme
I can imagine that after Gary had come up with the “Lies, Lies, Lies” theme, it made writing the rest of ad a lot easier. Just the other day I was watching my “Bencivenga 100 Seminar DVD’s and he talks about how once he switched from doing 100% pitch ads to doing 50% content, 50% pitch ads, he started not just barely beating controls, but crushing them like aluminum cans.
What’s amazing is that he got the green light to do this in a field where that 50% of content cost the publisher money out of pocket, up front. Hats off to boardroom for having the direct marketing savvy to a least test this concept before dismissing it which would’ve been easy to do because of the upfront invest- ment for the printing of a 50% larger format.
After taking the leap of faith, Boardroom and Gary saw the results and they couldn’t deny the extra expense because this strategy is what helped make their ads not seem like an ads but like an articles in a magazine… like something that showed up to offer you value before asking anything of you… which is exactly what led to the massive increase in response.
I’m a firm believer in this style of marketing. I’ve never much been a fan of wham-bam thank you ma’am ads that rush people to make a decision to buy. I want action pronto but I don’t want people to feel hurried because of my desperation.
Especially if I’m asking for a sizeable chunk of money.
A story in your ad exists as a tool to create situations that will reveal the theme.
And a story is not only about the theme but the experience of that theme on two levels: Rational, intellectual level, and the Emotional, where we feel it subconsciously and it either resonates or not.
And remember, your theme should resonate throughout your entire ad, not just a few sections here and there. Trust me, if you stick to your winning theme, it will make writing so much simpler and fun to put together.
Theme Moves Us Emotionally
The more meaningful the theme, the deeper the emotions.
Your theme should be emotional because emotions are what create a universal appeal. Now when I say uni- versal, I mean universal to your entire target audience. Gary’s “Lies, Lies, Lies” theme was universal to the person who’s got money to protect.
Why Not Be a Super Hero?
Character’s are the most important element in storytelling. Part 2 - Selling With Emotional Impact… 499
Without characters, there’s no story. This is what’s so magnificent about this new social media online economy. In today’s day and age you can reveal little tidbits about your character everyday on a blog or by twittering for free, where as back in the days before the internet, the ink or airtime it took to reveal char- acter cost money.
Doesn’t mean it couldn’t be done, just couldn’t be done on the cheap.
Gary’s ad was print and he couldn’t go into any kind of rich detail about what kind of guy Mark Skousen was but you soak in a lot from the tone of the letter…
“INVESTOR REVOLT! Why we investors are MAD AS HELL and not going to take it any more. And we’re sending a message to:
WALL STREET BROKERS: “We don’t trust you anymore. Your first goal is to make commissions, not give us objective advice.” A much better source of investment counsel, including the 12 best and 3 worst investments now…
THE IRS: “You take too much of our money, only to pour it down Federal Ratholes.” Solution: 7 powerful ways to slash taxes legally and retire like a king…
CONGRESS: “You cowards will never balance your budget.” But there’s a way to reap a fortune from poli- ticians’ incompetence…”
Can you see the pattern here?
This guys character is unfolding as the advocate to the little guy. The guy with the heavy set of balls that hang low to ground like frog nuts. The guy who’s gonna give you a hand and bring you out of the muck and get you up with him on his level.
And Gary got all and more of this message onto one 8 1/2” x 11” page.
The opposite of this is relying on a one page ad in a newspaper with a jumbo logo and a jangle that says “Come to Merrill Lynch and one of our highly trained financial advisors will help you retire safely and invest for you future.” Do you see the difference?
Same amount of space, totally different voice. Two polar opposite feelings stimulated.
When you’ve come to grips with the idea of becoming a character people can identify with, you’ll make it so much easier for talented copywriters to want to work with you or… for you to write yourself into your mar- keting.
If you hire out your copywriting, your guy will see they’ve got plenty of material to work from and will be excited at all the angles they can take with you and your story. And this is what sets great marketing apart 500 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One from bad marketing. People buy from people, not businesses and when they admire the person “lettting them buy from them”.
It allows people’s emotions to be aroused which creates a loyalty that being the cheapest vendor can’t.
The Simple Universal Formula For Creating a Story
This is as easy as it gets…
“You or your character wants something, and someone or something opposes him.”
See, I told you. This is what Gary’s whole ad was built around. People oppressing Mark, how he overcame it and now that he’s done it, he can show you how to do the same. Here’s a glimpse of how he did it…
“The IRS. Uncle Sam’s arrogant collection agency labors under the curious illusion that everything you earn is theirs first, and you are entitled only to what they allow you to keep. They seem completely obliv- ious to the fact that you are the source of your income and that your hard work supports them, not vice- versa.
The IRS, like all government agencies, creates no wealth at all.
But don’t fret. And whatever you do, don’t break the law. The risk is too high, and not even necessary. There are still extremely powerful ways you can slash your taxes legally and keep the lion’s share of your wealth yourself. Your accountant may not have told you about these 100% legitimate devices and strategies, but I will in a moment.”
Gorgeous.
Woven within in that passage is the essence of an engaging conflict in a story… Goal – Obstacle – Unwill- ingness to compromise.
The third one is the key. Let’s say you were using Paypal to collect money for your services. One day you go to log on and they tell you they’re doing a “routine, random” investigation of your account and while they’re doing so, they freeze your ability to pay people or be paid through their site. That’s an obstacle but what if you just said “Ah, screw it, let ‘em hold my business hostage. I’ll just take it.”
Would that make for a good story? No, not really, because you gave up. But if you have an unwillingness to compromise it leads you on a quest to do whatever it takes to overcome the Gestapo who’s oppressing your business, keeping you from serving your customers.
You need that trio to ensure you have what could be called dramatic conflict. Do you see how this works? It’s almost impossible to stop reading if you’re the target market.
HOLY SHIT! Your Story’s Main Conflict Part 2 - Selling With Emotional Impact… 501
Now to juice your story for dramatic conflict you’ve got to focus on the elements that cause visceral emo- tions:
Interest - Keeping your marketing in their face…
Curiosity - Wondering what’s coming…
Anticipation - Looking forward to something…
Suspense/Tension – Every ad/marketing piece should have this woven into it.
Surprise – All the twists
If the lead for your ad, the headline, subhead, opening paragraph and remainder of the first two pages have the first four, Interest, Curiosity, Anticipation, Suspense/Tension elements woven into it, you’ve won 80% of the copywriting battle. If you Surprise the hell out of them with one hell of an offer at the end of it, you should be doing gang busters with your ideal prospects.
The Universal Principles Of Structure: Follow this and your story is all but guaranteed to engage your audience
When you tell a story it’s real easy to get off track. This is why it’s crucial to boil down the essence of story into a clear beginning, middle and end or… a Set-up, Conflict and Resolution. This is the way we’ve told stories for 2,000 years.
In Gary’s ad, one of the stories he wove was called “The Big “Hidden Lie” Your Stockbroker Will Never Admit”.
Here’s the cliff notes version of the beginning, middle and end of this tale…
Beginning/Setup: In recent years, “stockbroker” has become something of a dirty word, even at brokerage houses! Every major brokerage house now avoids the term, calling their salespeople “financial consultants,” “account representatives,” “first vice presidents”… anything but stockbrokers.
Middle/Conflict: Here’s how one former successful broker, Thomas D. Saler, puts it, “Success in the bro- kerage business is measured totally in terms of commissions generated, not results for clients.
End/Resolution: Unlike brokers, financial planners and magazine ads, I have nothing to sell you except my advice, so it had better be good. If it isn’t, people don’t renew their subscriptions and I go out of business. I make absolutely nothing, not a penny, in any way, shape or form from the few investments I believe are strong, safe and profitable enough to recommend wholeheartedly to you (such as those you can read about elsewhere in this announcement). 502 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
This story is proof that you don’t have to get all Mark Twain and weave a spectacular yarn to draw people in. This was only one page, yet it showed you the face of the enemy/conflict, fleshed out why the enemy is dangerous and positioned himself as a savior with the solution to conquering this challenge.
No rocket science right?
Now if you remember Gary’s Cover of this magalog you’ll see he’s set himself up with ten super short sto- ries to tell you in the ad. Each one of the stories points out yet another enemy to beware of, why they’re so evil and then how by having a relationship with Mark, you can help you flip the script on the jizz bags and defeat save yourself a ton of shame and money.
Keys to Making Sure Your Story Has Emotional Impact
For your story to make an impression it should…
1) Reveal Character:
Remember, you and I don’t ever talk in the form of “We” or “XYZ company”. We always talk one on one, person to person, “What I want to share with you”. This what allows you to show your audience to dis- cover for themselves whether you’re the kind of person they’d like to know, like and trust by what you reveal to them about you.
Nordstroms is awesome but I don’t particularly have any warm fuzzy feelings about the corporation. Tony Robbins, whole different story. I actually feel like this guy has been more of “Friend” to me than people I actually knew and called “Friends” in my past.
You can do the same with your audience when you show up as a human being with all your human frailties and let people know how despite all your human flaws, you still kick ass in this particular niche.
2) Reflect Your Mood & Emotions:
Certain tone belongs to certain copy. A super charged topic like people being scammed deserves a pissed off, “Let’s go to war” kinda voice. An ad showing parents how to be their child’s the best possible first teacher asks for different approach. A guru teaching a course on “The Hidden Pleasures in Rough Sex” a whole different one.
This is why deciding up front what mood you want to put someone in before you start writing is vitally important. Where do you want to transport people too? What do you want them to experience.
Whatever you decide, make sure it’s anything but bore, plain vanilla.
3) Reveal Your Motivation:
The stories you tell should always have a point. Part 2 - Selling With Emotional Impact… 503
And the point to the stories we want to tell should lead people to the REASON WHY I’m talking to you about this, your motivation for bringing you this amazing opportunity.
This is part of why I admire any marketer, like a Frank Kern who’s mailing an affiliate promo, who will flat out tell you “Hey, I’m sending this because I genuinely like Ed. And, if you buy Ed product by clicking the link below, he’ll send me a few shiny coins that I can go spend on something cool like a fish net shirt. So, if that makes you uncomfortable, feel free to track Ed down through his own site and make sure he gets every dollar so he has the money to buy himself a pair of fishnet stockings to go with his fishnet shirt.”
4) Advance the Action:
Make sure you don’t get bogged down in the details. Keep people moving smoothly through beginning, middle and end. Otherwise, you’ll lose people to the jillion other options they could be exercising at this time. No good.
5) Foreshadow What’s Coming:
This comes in line the overall strategy of moving someone through your presentation’s beginning, middle and end. You always want to be alluding to a money shot. Now depending on how well you use all the elements you and I have been talking about in part one of this series as well as this one, will determine whether you end up with a headboard cracking climax or a pre-mature, fizzled out, disappointment.
This is why if your offer sucks, even great copy won’t help you. The offer determines 40% of the success of a promo, the list another 40% and the last 20% goes to what you’ve written or spoken.
Make sure that all your great stories aren’t getting someone excited for a let down but putting together an offer that makes people feel like YOU’RE getting screwed in the interaction. And of course give them a great reason why you’re willing to load them up with way more value than you’re asking for. You know if what you say sounds like bullshit or not so put your consumer hat on and use your best judgment here.
6) Have an Emotional Impact:
I may have mentioned this or not in the first part of the series, but just in case I didn’t I’ll leave you on this quote that stuck with me for probably over a decade now from one of my first success mentors, the late Jim Rohn:
“I like a good movie. I like a movie that touches me. Make me laugh, make me cry, just don’t leave the same as when I walked in.”
When you market using what you and I talked about here, you’ll be sure to touch your audience.
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 504 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
CHAPTER 107
Beware The Tricks Money Can Play On Your Mind
Beware The Tricks Financial Wealth Can Play On Your Mind
Hey You,
It’s #2.
My opinion wreaks havoc sometimes.
I’m a member of a super exclusive site and a conversation was started there about the movie, “The One Percent” by Jamie Johnson. Here’s the HBO blurb about the movie just in case you’re unfamiliar with it…
“This 80-minute documentary focuses on the growing “wealth gap” in America, as seen through the eyes of filmmaker Jamie Johnson, a 27-year-old heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune. Johnson, who cut his film teeth at NYU and made the Emmy®-nominated 2003 HBO documentary Born Rich, here sets his sights on exploring the political, moral and emotional rationale that enables a tiny percentage of Americans - the one percent - to control nearly half the wealth of the entire United States.”
I can’t quite remember if this was the blurb that sold me on watching the movie but it was close. I remember thinking this was going to yield some goodies, you know, uplifting “Millionaire Next Door” kind of revelations, especially when I saw who the kid was interviewing during the show…
Steve Forbes Jr., son of Malcolm Forbes, Milton Friedman, 1976 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Bill Gates Sr., father of Bill Gates, and Paul Orfalea, founder of Kinko’s, but…
…it didn’t bear that kind of fruit.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen it but from what I remember, with the exception of Milton Friedman and Paul Orfalea, it pretty much turned out to be a bitch fest, what I viewed as poor people and privileged lib- erals denouncing/tattle telling/pointing the finger at “other wealthy people’s” bad behavior. 506 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
There was one scene in particular that pissed me off.
It was the scene with Paul Orfalea, founder of Kinko’s that was in the peaceful setting outside, not far from the first Kinko’s location, where mid-interview, ‘magically’ appears a homeless person who barges in to ask Paul, not the interviewer, for some spare change.
Being that he zeroed right in for Paul instead of the pampered, pansy looking Jamie, I wouldn’t have put it past him or one of his stooges to have set up the whole thing up.
Paul handles the situation gracefully and peels the bum off some paper and gets back to the interview.
I don’t know about you but I don’t know of many people in general that have balls big enough to just bust in on someone doing an interview while being video taped and asking them for something as harmless as directions let alone money.
I don’t care if it’s the pee-on local union representative no more than 30 people know by sight being inter- viewed by a high school kid. People in general just don’t do that shit.
Yeah, if I’m homeless and I scope out a group of guys shootin’ film, my mind would say “Jackpot, mutha- fucka!!! There’s some money somewhere in that group. Daddy’s gettin’ drunk early today, (the interview with Paul was shot in the morning).” COMMON SENSE says you don’t wipe your boogers on the shirt of someone while simultaneously asking them to do you a favor!
DUHHHH! That’s like “Homelessness 101”.
My experience with being hit up by homeless people for money, and I’ve had plenty of experience being a city boy all my life and being swarmed by the world class pan handlers daily when I worked in downtown Los Angeles, is that they aren’t overzealous about doing it.
THEY KNOW THEY’RE IMPOSING so most of them are real shy and meek about it.
Yeah, you get annoying, turbo-charged homeless dude once in a while, but they’re rare.
For the movie crasher, common sense says you wait until the group is done handling their important busi- ness and strategically post up where they have to pass you and then you make your presentation, AFTER they’re done. The guy on this movie just moseyed perfectly into the shot (surprise, surprise) and crashed the party like he was totally oblivious to the situation.
I call bullshit.
Smells like they were out to toy with Paul seeing if they could get him to squirm by putting him on the spot, attempting to force his hand on T.V. and that’s not cool. This actually makes me not like this kid Jamie’s taste even more. Beware The Tricks Money Can Play On Your… 507
What’s weird is it’s been months since I’ve seen the movie and this thought just hit me. I kinda wanted to get the terrible taste of the film out my mind and I had until I saw the topic of this movie brought up.
Here’s the review I’d posted real quick…
“Watch this movie to get a voyeuristic glimpse at what being ashamed of wealth looks like.
The son is ashamed of the family fortune. The dad isn’t as vocal about his but there’s ambivalence and his repressed shame makes it so he can’t defend his viewpoint or bring himself to dismiss his piss ant son’s opinion. The dad relies on his financial advisor to speak for him and this guy’s got a slightly bigger set of balls but he’s no John Galt by any means.
Part of me was greatly disappointed in this movie, kind of like that feeling you get when you think you picked a good watermelon and it turns out to be shit, then I remembered there’s always something you can learn from people, even if it’s how NOT to behave.”
I was the only one who’d made a comment and I did so just wanting to spare anyone else the let down I’d experienced. I didn’t expect much activity but I was wrong. People came on and agreed with me. A couple of people defended Jamie’s “philosophical perspective” and they were not so gently smacked down by a bunch of people I didn’t even know and never talked to before.
This is Why Posting To Forums Can Be Hazardous To Your Time Management
I think this was my second post to the site.
What this made me realize is how easy it’d be for some Brittany Spears fan to get sucked into a 3 hour back and forth conversation on some forum defending Brittany’s “artistic” honor” while during those same three hours she could’ve been doing that didn’t make her stupider.
I had no idea my comment would generate so much interest. This prompted me to spend probably close to an hour shoring up what I hadn’t made so clear in my “Quickie” comment. If I hadn’t gotten my daily writing and a post out of it, I would’ve chalked it up as a loss but since I reaped those benefits, I win.
Here’s my enhanced review of this almost worthless movie…
“Everyone’s a liberal until they have something to conserve.”
Ronald Reagan
I’ve seen this play into action in my own family. My step sister went to college on a full ride based on her genius ability to play the clarinet. Our family had no means to send her otherwise. 508 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
After graduating college she went onto CalArts, full ride once again, (Walt Disney’s Higher Education Art School) after that. Her whole adult life she was surrounded by lots of people like Jamie, kids who’s families had wealth, and had never tasted the grit of the street.
While attending CalArts, my step sister and soon-to-be-husband were living in some shanty in the woods that didn’t even have indoor plumbing.
Taking a ride-a-long with a cop to the hood as Jamie did in the movie is a wee bit different from growing up with a poverty conscious mom who was addicted to opiates your whole life skirting on the edge of home- lessness up until the day she died, like I did.
My dad and mom were never together and were separated ever since I was an infant. However my dad was also lived at death’s door playing with the fire of addictions for a very long time, even while teaching school, up until I was about 10 when he found sobriety.
When my dad met my step mom, he was balancing a crazy addiction and she was so naive she couldn’t see all the signs and married him anyway having to finally have his addiction beat her into submission which led to her giving him the ultimatum of “Get your shit together or I’m leaving with your new born son.”
That was the day that changed his life for the better.
Now back to my step sister. She grew up with two state employees filling her head with what terrible wretches the rich were and then went onto a social circle and community filled with wide-eyed liberal lambs at her graduate school.
Well, after finishing graduate school she took the leap and skirted off to New York City to try to make something of her love of music. After years of living in rat infested apartments it turns out her music ability and technology came together like booty cheeks and her little 2 person company started making ring tones for the music division of a major, major media company.
Not overnight, but in a very short period of time she went from snoozin’ with bed bugs rodents, and roaches to becoming a millionaire. I’ve asked her only once how much she was paid by this company ini- tially and she would only say “A lot”. I didn’t bug her but I’ve gotta assume it was millions because she has subsequently purchased a condo and an office building in New York City, a cabin in Utah and god knows what other cool toys she’s bought and who she’s donated money to or helped out personally and with her proceeds. I know she’s been generous to my brothers and for that I’m grateful.
Because of her talent and perseverance, my step sister is one of my role models. She’s an inspiration to me. And through her rise to wealth I’ve watched her philosophy about money radically transform.
And I sense now, what I sense in Jamie, an ambivalence about money. She’s done some good with her money no doubt, that was not possible when she didn’t have it and made a nice home for her first child to be born into. Yet bringing up the idea that she’s “rich” arouses fierce resistance from her, almost implying Beware The Tricks Money Can Play On Your… 509
that if that tag is in any way tied to her, she’s a scumbag like the money grubbing tycoons she railed against all of her life.
Seeing this scenario unfold has been highly instructive and interesting.
Growing up the way I did, I’m supposed to be Jamie’s biggest fan boy. Unlike Jamie I’ve had brothers, parents and friends in jail and prison, addicted to drugs and alcohol, on the path to a grim & grizzly death.
Only through mentors with a balanced view of wealth (Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Dan Kennedy, etc.) was I able to grasp and sustain a concept of wealth that allowed me to appreciate what it can do in the right hands.
Dan Kennedy’s view on wealth was a breath of fresh air in my life. Especially in his Renegade Millionaire program where he spoke of the inner game aspects that put some entrepreneurs in a choke hold, feeling guilty for having what other don’t, even though they earned it. If you’re at all interested in what Dan Ken- nedy’s thoughts are on wealth click here to get the notes we put together on his Renegade Millionaire pro- gram.
My concept is that founders of companies usually have a deeper appreciation of wealth than do their chil- dren or the board of executives that show up waiting for salaries and paychecks when the company grows to be a super power like a Johnson & Johnson.
This is why I’m not all that much of a fan of “Big Business”. I’m more in awe of the founder who built the company from nothing and what he did to make sure what he passed on was so endurable. Not the leeches who live off what he or she built.
Yeah, some companies have exceptional leaders come in make the company even stronger but I’d say this applies to 5% or less of the companies ever built.
It is my estimation that most, not all, of the children of founders and the “Employees” who go on to run the company, disease the wealth that has been amassed. Their sense of entitlement and willingness to waste money that isn’t theirs, that they didn’t have to earn, has led to the destruction of some of the mightiest corporations America has ever known. And if pre-cautions like trusts weren’t set in place they’d Paris Hilton the fortune away.
I believe it is the ‘Jamies’ of the world and their polar opposite, the ruthless Shit Bags who scam investors and shareholders out of fortunes and destroy the environment for a fast buck with wanton abandonment, that are to partially to blame for America’s current condition.
The ‘Jamies’ take some blame because their bleeding hearts lead them to pissing away wealth to socialist causes/countries and irresponsible expenses like grossly exaggerated “Boards of Directors” and employee positions. Think Atlas Shrugged and Jim Taggart here. 510 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The Shit Bags carry blame for having hearts of diamond and not living to bring value to world but to suck every last drop of it into their bank account to try to fill the void that is their self esteem by dumping the wealth into symbols that “Impress” people, symbols such as homes, carcasses of exotic endangered animals, women, planes, trains and automobiles.
My view of wealth is that it can serve good to humanity but not when it’s in the hands of irresponsible people with imbalanced or corrupt intentions.
My perspective is only mine and I know there’s more than one way to be right.
With that said, I’m happy to see the sharp pencils of this community posting here and I’m proud to be a part of it.
Until next time,
You know what I think about this topic. What you think? If you’ve seen the movie, please give me your viewpoint.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Stay tuned for Part 2 of “Selling With Emotional Impact”. CHAPTER 108
Why People Don’t Buy From You and What to Do About It
Why People Don’t Buy From You and What to Do About It
Hey you,
It’s #2.
Today I wanted to share a late Christmas gift with you that an internet marketing whiz by the name of Jason Fladlien.
If you’ve never heard of Jason before now, today is you’re lucky day. I and the Chief personally own most of his products. When you type his name into Google, you’ll see his mini-sites take up every link of the first page. He knows internet marketing and knows how to get the money.
Included within his $500.00 Membership Site Course, was a special report titled, “Marketplace Mind States & The Trust Factor”. I blasted through it in no time and was grateful I’d spent the time absorbing the gems within and couldn’t wait to pass it on to you.
I feel Jason’s message will be incredibly valuable to you. With that said, have fun fixing any holes you have in your marketing by discovering…
Marketplace Mind States & The Trust Factor
Outside of internet marketing, I don’t have much of life.
I practice total market place immersion. As such, I have a pulse on exactly what the market place wants, an intuition for giving it the solutions it demands, and systems for allowing me to offer the most to that mar- ketplace in the least amount of time.
As such, everyday I gain a new valuable insight which I implement into my business. One major insight I’ve come to realize lately is Marketplace Mind states 512 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Marketplace Mind states Explained
I have identified 4 “mind states” every marketplace cycles through. Knowing exactly what “mind state” the marketplace at large is experiencing at any given moment is critical to your success, because it affects the tone of all your marketing communications.
Case in point: When the internet first became mainstreamed, any opportunity was interesting, because it was a whole new vehicle where no opportunity previously existed. Thus, the novelty factor was good enough to get leverage, and had you capitalized at that time with good fundamental marketing, you’d have made a good deal of cash.
This is the first mind state a marketplace experiences, which is “Novelty Mind state”.
Then, the marketplace shifted. Once the opportunity seekers came in and pillaged the internet, soon the novelty of offering opportunity wore off. Now, it had to be opportunity tied to very specific and tangible results.
I call this “results orientated” mind state.
A quick side point. In any market place, all four mind states exist to a certain degree. However, at any one given time one mind state will be more dominate than the others. So while novelty still has leveragability when it comes to making your sales argument, it doesn’t have as much leverage as “results orientated” com- munication, if the marketplace is in its second phase of evolution.
It’s not enough to present the opportunity of getting rich, losing weight or picking up women. You must show you how to make $100,000 in 60 days without a list and on a shoestring budget. You must show how to lose 21 pounds in 6 months without diet pills or starvation. You most show how to be able to get 3 out o5 5 women’s phone numbers every single time you go out to a club.
However, even these appeals lose their power of a while. It’s important to understand why marketplace mind state shifts occur. See, 95% of your market will never get the results they are promised. A big part is that they will never leave their comfort zone to use the information you show them. Another part is most marketers are good at marketing and little else. The result is there’s a big mess of crappy products out there that over promise and under-deliver, and a large quantity of people consuming those products who aren’t going to take any action anyway.
However, no one wants to admit this. So the marketplace lies to itself. It makes excuses.
Of course it didn’t work before, because of ______. But now that this new thing is out, I have a chance again!
That’s the typical line of reasoning. That’s why appeals change, because the marketplace gets burn out on one appeal since it almost never delivers what it promises to deliver, based on the circumstances described above. Why People Don’t Buy From You and What… 513
So after the marketplace burns out on “results orientated” marketing, it goes into the third mind state, which is “Proof” mind state Now, it’s not enough to tie your opportunity to a specific result with a reason- able amount of proof…
You need a preponderance of proof!
Preponderance means superior in weight, force, influence, numbers and power. In other words, over kill.
So now the biggest sales argument you need to make in your marketing communications is the emphasis on proof. Headlines stressing proof. The use of social proof in the pre-launch phase before you even make the offer public. Etc.
And that appeals works great for a while. But, the status quo remains the same. 95% of people still don’t get the intended results. So the “proof” mind state eventually burns out as well, and it is replaced by the last mind state of the marketplace, which is the…
“TRUST” Mind state
Right now the overall mind state of the internet marketing community is “Trust”. Now, more than ever, trust is needed if you’re really going to close the sale on the highest number of visitors.
At this point, there is more opportunity than ever. There is more “results orientated” options than ever before. More proof than ever, social or otherwise. However, the most scarce asset being offered to the mar- ketplace is trust.
And that’s one of the reasons why it’s become such an important factor in your visitor’s buying decision.
How to Build Trust
How do you get a complete stranger thousands of miles away from you who you have never talked with or dynamically interacted with to trust you?
It’s hard.
First, you need to deliver on your claims. This is an art. If you study my copy, you notice I make pretty bold claims, such as “how to write an article in 7 minutes” and “how to become a $40 an hour ghostwriter in less than 7 days”.
I know that most of my customers won’t be able to achieve this goal. However, I also have insight into buyer psychology. Most people who buy have a “low self esteem” factor that enters into the buying equa- tion.
The typical line of thought goes like this: 514 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
“Well, yeah of course Jason can do it, he’s had all the practice, knows all the secrets, has all the opportuni- ties, and probably got lucky to boot. And yes, maybe those people in his case studies did it to.
“But I probably won’t. Things usually don’t go right for me, I tend to procrastinate a lot, hesitate, or just plain be timid about it, or not understand things right away. However… if I only get a fraction of the results that Jason promises, it will still be a killer deal for me…”
I know full well that the average person who lands on my “How to be a $40 an hour ghostwriter in less than 7 days” website thinks “Well, gee if I can get there in even 3 months, that’s a killer deal”. Or they think “Well, hell if I only make $20 an hour after two weeks, that’s more than I’m making now at my day job with my asshole boss.” Etc.
And I know in my heart that a person in the right circumstances with a reasonable amount of dedication and effort can achieve my claim. I know because I did it, and I’ve taught several others to do it as well.
I don’t get trust on that initial sale. I get faith. That’s why I sell that particular product at only $17. Trust comes after they consume the product. Even if they don’t get the results, they’ll be able to see that they could get the results if they applied my stuff. The point is, they knew I delivered on my end.
So when I come through with my next offer, if it’s something that’s of interest to them, they will be more inclined to say yes to it because I have established trust with them.
So step one is to deliver on your claims. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make bold claims. But it almost doesn’t mean putting crap in a nice shiny and beautiful box.. Perceived Value should come as close to matching Actual Value as much as possible.
Do It AND Teach It
The second way to get trust is to do what you teach. You’d think this shouldn’t need to be stated, but it does. So many people sell information that they themselves don’t follow! What you get is a well researched encyclopedia on the topic, not a practical system or method.
It’s easier to talk it than to walk it. That’s why it happens. But the biggest leverage point you’re going to get is by selling experience more so than information.
Here’s what I do now: I isolate skills that I know my clients want to possess. Then I go out and create a systematic process for mastering those skills myself.
When I’m done, I have a refined system to share with them, and experiences to guide them.
I almost never do any “research” when I create my products. When I do my high end group coaching, I create the curriculum 30 minutes before the class, because it’s all in my head. I don’t have to prepare, I just have to organize. I am giving them information through experience, not from research. Why People Don’t Buy From You and What… 515
That’s the difference between intelligence and knowledge. You can be intelligent at just about anything if you read 10 books on it. But you can only be knowledgeable about something if you’ve had experiences with it.
Sell knowledge, not intelligence
Exercise Authority
The third thing you need to develop trust is to exercise authority. When my coaching clients get me live and in front of them giving them answers and solutions to their needs and problems, they know that I believe in the effectiveness of my advice 100%.
Communication is largely non-verbal anyway. Even printed communication. It’s more of the style of delivery than anything else. And the style you must adopt is 100% confidence in your ability to give your clients what they desire.
So-so advice delivered with 100% confidence and congruence is better than exceptional advice delivered with 50% confidence. By far.
Remember, there are two things that affect us when we process information: The information itself, and how we feel about it. of the two, how we feel is going to influence our behavior more.
If you feel unsure of the information, when you transmit that information, you’re also transmitting your feelings with it. These are often “caught” by your recipients, and will influence their behavior.
In the first week of my copywriting class, one of my students just saw how I carried and handled myself as I presented the information, and then “caught” that attitude and went out and closed a $21,000 consulting deal.
People trust authority. It’s human nature. Read the Milgrim Study if you really want to know how much we are dependent on authority. In it, you’ll find normal, every day people like you and I would almost shock a complete stranger to death under the right authoritative circumstances. And we would do so willingly, with no coercion or threats.
You need to be the authority if you want trust. The funny thing about authority – no one will give it to you. You have to claim it yourself.
Case in point – I’m not a certified teacher. Yet I make more money teaching webinars than 90% of all teachers in the United States. Those teachers had to go through at least 4 years of college, and earn a degree just to be legally able to attempt to teach.
Not me. I’m teaching a skill that less than a year ago I didn’t even possess. All because I knew I could. So I decided to “certify” myself as the authority. And I’m glad I did, because otherwise I would’ve did my clients a great disservice. You should see all the positive feedback I got. 516 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You’re dealing in the real world here. The marketplace doesn’t care if you’re certified or not. They are much more pragmatic. Their lives and money are at stake. The want a solution, not a certificate.
Confidence Is A Choice!
Being confident has nothing to do with past results. It has everything to do with choosing to be confident. Abe Lincoln had never won anything in his life. Every political office he tried for, he lost. His first political win was the presidency of the United States.
I love that guy. What guts he must of had. Never won a thing in his life, yet still chose to be confident instead of miserable And I’m glad he did, because he was one of the greatest presidents the United States ever had.
Sharing Yourself
The final factor for building trust is to share parts of yourself with your segment of the marketplace. I stum- bled on this by accident. People want to buy you as much as they want to buy whatever you’re selling.
It took a tragic event in my life to figure out this lesson. But when I opened up and showed people that behind the product there was a living, breathing human being who was dealing with everyday life struggles just like anybody else, it really created a deeper relationship.
First, it helped showed that I’m not perfect. Far from it. Some of the completely idiotic mistakes I make I can’t even begin to fathom. It’s only through specialized systems and carefully groomed habits that I’ve become successful. Anyone can do that. And my clients see that specifically because of all my other frailties.
At the same time, it makes the relationship dynamic and interactive. Think about it. People have given a little of themselves to you when they’ve parted with their money to get what you were offering.
They made the first step to initiate the relationship. Now it’s up to you to take it to the next level. Every so often, share something personal with them. It doesn’t have to be a deep dark secret. It could just be some- thing superficial, but that gives insight into who you are and how you live your life.
Nerd #2 Insight: Dan Kennedy wins many fans through his “Unfinished Business” autobiography. This is nothing but short essays that talk about personal lessons he’s gone through that have shaped his marketing prowess. While the book tells gives you a glimpse at how he tells stories to let you in, his “Influential Writing” program tells you how to weave these stories into every communication you have with your list so that you create a non-stop bonding machine. CLICK HERE to finally learn how to do this yourself…
In the end, we are social creatures, and we need to feel we belong to something greater than ourselves. We seek to find others who are like us, because it validates our choices, and comforts us. I love this part of the human condition. It makes our experiences all the more wonderful. Why People Don’t Buy From You and What… 517
But if you don’t allow others to glimpse into your world, then they’ll never get that validation from you. They’ll never resonate with you on a deeper level. And when someone else comes along that can offer them not only a solution to their current, outward problem (whatever that may be), but also the solution to the inner dilemma WE ALL face, then you will lose them.
Don’t let that happen. When it’s all said it done, it’s not the money you make that defines you, but it’s the people you influence.
But before you can influence them, you must first win their trust.
Something to think about.
-Jason Fladlien
I hope you enjoyed that tight bit of wisdom as much as I did.
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Stay tuned for “Part 2 of Selling With Emotional Impact”. It will definitely dive into detail of how to implement all of Part 1’s steps and what was discussed here today. CHAPTER 109
Could the Answer To This Question Reveal Why You’re Either Damned or Blessed?
Could the Answer To This Question Reveal Why You’re Either Damned or Blessed?
Hey you,
It’s #2.
Check this out…
Someone once asked Albert Einstein, “Dr. Einstein, you’ve studied the workings of the universe from the tiny atom to the cosmos. What do you think is the most important question for people to find the answer to?”
And Albert looked up into space for a while then down at his shoe laces and looked back at the gentleman asking the question and said “Well, I think the most important question for people to find the answer to is, Is the universe a friendly place?”
He said, “If the universe is a friendly place, then you’ll use your technology and tools for understanding because power will come through understanding. If it’s a friendly place then you understand that part and understand the mechanism and it doesn’t mean that it’s safe if it’s friendly, but it’s power and it’s protection will come through understanding how things work.
If it’s an unfriendly place, then you’re going to use your tools, your technology for creating walls and building weapons. You have to protect yourself from the evil and the unfriendliness that’s around you.”
I heard this while listening to a program by Robert Dilts about changing your beliefs about health. Here’s what Robert said after relaying that quote…
“And hearing this, I think asking yourself if your body is a friendly place would be enlightening. Could the Answer To This Question Reveal… 519
I believe that everyone’s view of the world around them is nothing more than a mirror for your view of yourself. In other words, the only way you have of understanding the world around you is through pro- grams. In other words, for people who think that well, ‘There’s bad guys in the world and you have to take care of it, blah, blah, blah,’ you can bet that that’s gonna be going on inside of them.
If a person doesn’t want to tell you about themselves, ask them about politics and they’ll just lay out what they think about themselves, practically, ‘Well you know, people get out of hand and you’ve got to control ‘em and the only way to control ‘em is you’ve gotta give ‘em a whack every now and then.’
That person is basically saying that that’s what they do to themselves as well. Because the world out there isn’t out there. It’s all channeled through this lump of gray matter called your brain and the way that you sort it out and make sense of it and understand why people do what they do is based on your own personal experiences.
So when you think about Iran or Iraq, and you think that evil is slowly pervading the world, you might want to take a look inside yourself as well.
I don’t mean for you to take that too seriously and go inside and say ‘If I think this then I’m bad,’ I don’t mean that at all. I just mean, you might ponder the question tonight, ‘Is the universe a friendly place?’
Again, not safe, not perfect.
I think harmony is perfectly natural but I don’t think it’s naturally perfect. That’s true about all of us. Health is perfectly natural but we don’t always do the naturally perfect thing.
Nerd 2 back.
So, is your universe a friendly place or not?
The above passage makes me think about this quote…
“I pray thee, O God that I may be beautiful within.”
Socrates
Throughout the majority of my life my inner world has been a pig pen.
Because of this it’s carved a path for me that has allowed me to taste the asphalt and kiss the sky. And still, my life is a roller coaster and every day, every hour, every minute I need to be reminded of what’s beautiful, what’s possible, what would serve my highest purpose of being a man of value to myself and those with whom I have the pleasure of encountering in my life. 520 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
There is something to having a code of conduct, a routine you can check off, preferably with pad and pen, that’s lets you know you’ve reached toward being the best you could be before you lay down to go to bed at night.
I’d never really had an inkling of what a ‘Code of Conduct’ was and what it could do to shape your universe until Tony Robbins introduced me to a man by the name of John Wooden, the man named “Coach of the Century” by ESPN, through his Power Talk interview series.
Just in case you don’t know about John Wooden, here’s a glimpse of what this man accomplished just while coaching college basketball at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles…
During his tenure with the Bruins, Wooden became known as the “Wizard of Westwood” (although he per- sonally hated the nickname) and gained lasting fame with UCLA by winning 664 games in 27 seasons and 10 NCAA titles during his last 12 seasons. Don’t hold me to this but I believe the record was 2 NCAA Championship wins in a row, this man won 7 in a row from 1967 to 1973. His UCLA teams also had a record winning streak of 88 games and four perfect 30–0 seasons. They also won 38 straight games in NCAA Tournaments and a record 98 straight home games at Pauley Pavilion.
Simply LEGENDARY!
And what does John credit his hall of fame performance to? An index card. Here, I’ll let John tell you about himself as he did in one of his books…
The Gift of a Lifetime
When I graduated (around 1920) from our little three-room grade school in Centerton, Indiana, I got dressed up in clean overalls for the big event. For my graduation present Dad gave me an old, wrinkled two-dollar bill that he probably been hanging onto for some time.
He said, “Johnny, as long as you have this you’ll never be broke,” and he was pretty close to right. Eventu- ally I gave it to my own son Jim.
Dad also gave me something that day that would shape my entire life: my work, my marriage, my goals, my entire philosophy. It was a card on which he had written a few guidelines. I still carry it with me. On one side was this verse by the Reverend Henry Van Dyke:
Four things a man must learn to do
If he would make his life more true:
To think without confusion clearly,
To love his fellow-man sincerely, Could the Answer To This Question Reveal… 521
To act from honest motives purely,
To Trust in God and Heaven securely.
The little verse was straightforward but profound: think clearly, have love in your heart, be honest, and trust in God.
On the other side of the paper, Dad had written out his creed. At the top of the paper, it said “Seven Things to Do.” It read as follows: 1. 2. Be true to yourself. 3. Help others. 4. Make each day your masterpiece. 5. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible. 6. Make friendship a fine art. 7. Build a shelter against a rainy day. 8. Pray for guidance and count and give thanks for your blessings every day.
All he said when he gave me the little note he had written was, “Son, try and live up to these things.”
I wish I could say I have lived up to them. I have tried. Over the years, as I’ve attempted to follow his creed, I’ve gained a deeper understanding of it.
Once again, I ask you, is your universe a friendly place?
If it isn’t, what would have to happen inside of you to make it friendly?
By just focusing on these 7 things daily, this man did the impossible and if you were to ask the 99 year old John Wooden or Einstein this question, what do you think their answer would be?
Talk to you again soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 110
Are You Good Enough To Write Your Own Content?
Are You Good Enough To Write Your Own Content?
Hey you,
It’s #2.
Today I was watching an absolutely engrossing interview with a man by the name of Damon Lindelof and I just had to share it with you.
It’s a part of the “Write Environment” series hosted by Greg Berman. If you don’t know Damon by name you’re probably familiar with his work because he & JJ Abrahams are the brains behind the smash hit TV show “Lost” and the recent blockbuster movie “Star Trek”.
For “Lost” alone, this guy has had to tap out thousands of pages of writing on strict deadlines for over 100 episodes and while doing so had to make sure it wasn’t just “Good is Good Enough” but he was responsible for making it riveting.
Now this plays right into our discussion we’ve been having about the dire need to make our marketing entertaining. In a way, each individual episode of a hit T.V. show, up until the finale is great marketing. The writers give you enough benefit in each episode to come back week after week so you can get your ultimate payoff at the end of the season and if they’re great, they suck you into buying the whole damn DVD set for $50 bucks.
Near the end of the interview Greg asks Damon if he ever gets writers block and what words he would give to aspiring writers. Now even if you don’t see yourself as a writer, what he says may very well be important to you as a marketer of whatever it is you sell. Are You Good Enough To Write Your Own… 523
Pay very close attention because no matter what, you’ve gotta communicate with other people if want to sell your ideas or products. If you’re a lone ranger doing this from home on the internet, you’re challenged with influencing through the written word.
If you don’t do this through email or web site copy and you’re charged with doing it toe to toe, you still would be wise to think out what the most compelling thing you could say in a conversation with your ideal customer that would help them overcome their reluctance toward what you offer.
Maybe you’ve got a foot in each pile.
Whatever the case, it’s important for you to listen to Damon because it can lead to having the biggest pos- sible impact possible in your niche and it will help you avoid being embarrassed beyond measure or scared shitless to the point that you don’t take action.
Here’s his opinion first on writer’s block…
Greg: Do you ever get writer’s block?
Damon: Of course.
Greg: What to do to overcome it?
Damon: Um, normally I just force myself to write through it. I think most writer’s block comes from not wanting to write something shitty. And you just basically have to say ‘Well, I’m just going to write some- thing shitty because right now, something shitty is better than nothing at all.’
It’s the pervasive fear that no one’s gonna like what you’re writing or it’s gonna be bad. This is what creates writer’s block as opposed to ‘I don’t have any ideas.’ I have ideas all the time, it’s just executing those ideas and making them good, that’s the hard part.
I’ve never had the kind of writer’s block where I sit in front of my computer and say, ‘I just don’t know what I’m gonna write today.’ If I was feeling that way I’d just go bowling or to see a movie. I mean there’s no reason to force yourself to write if you’ve got nothing to write.
When you’re actually in the process of writing and you’re afraid of making a bad decision and invariably it is shitty but once you have something shitty to work off, there’s only room to improve. You know, call it first draft or what have you, but then invariably in the process of writing something shitty you start figuring out which direction you want to go in. You made a wrong turn and hit a dead end but now at least you learned you were supposed to turn right.
So, progress is progress. 524 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I don’t know about you but for me that was a profound revelation, the whole idea of writer’s block being rooted in the idea of being scared to write something that stinks up the joint and that this pile of shit is my way to a great piece of content or sales copy.
The fear of what people will think of me has crashed and burned so many great articles and salesletters of mine. It was actually one of the major reasons that stopped me all these years from starting up my own site selling my services.
Here I was, this guy who wowed business professionals, whom I thought shouldn’t be wowed because I was telling them what was common sense to me and the experts I consulted with, who himself was afraid he wasn’t enough.
Pitiful.
Maybe you’ve been in the same position before and whether you have or haven’t overcome it, Damon’s response to Greg’s next question might be just what you need to hear right now…
Greg: Do you have any words for aspiring writers?
Damon: Um, you know what, I wish I had an inspirational answer to that question that was not sort of the canned, you know, ‘Don’t give up on your dreams… Keep at it, don’t listen to anybody else…’ but I think the most honest answer to that question is…
If you think you have something to say, if you feel you’re a talented writer, then don’t paint all of your hopes and dreams and aspirations on other people understanding what you’re writing.
You just have to keep writing and resign yourself to the fact that you might not make millions of dollars writing but that doesn’t make you any less of a writer.
If it is in your bones to write, then you must continue to write and allow no one to discourage you and divorce yourself from the fact that your writing is going to be understood by many.
The idea that we make our living as writers and our writing has to be geared towards millions of millions of people thinking it’s good, I think hampers us from being really, really great writers because really, really great writers don’t care whether or not millions and millions of people think it’s good. They only have to think about whether or not they think it’s good.
So, the cheesy answer is actually the most sincere, which is write for yourself. The only thing that matters is if you think it’s cool and if you think it’s good and if you think it’s something meaningful to you. And if you give something that you think is great to someone else and they say this isn’t great, that’s not true. It is. They’re just an idiot.
——————————————————————————— Are You Good Enough To Write Your Own… 525
I’ve had this happen before.
In the past I’ve had projects I worked on where I turned in multiple drafts for just the lead because the business owner felt I wasn’t connecting with the audience.
For the life of me I couldn’t see where I was missing. The only reason I’d submitted the copy was because I believed in it. However, we had a difference in opinion.
I actually told my partner at the time, once I got the feedback that the owner didn’t like the copy that, “Maybe, I’m not meant to write for other people.”
It felt restrictive to me to have someone clash with what I believed to be right. When I wrote for my busi- ness, I never had to get someone else’s approval. My word was the last word and if I failed, I failed in what I believed in, not what someone else did.
Then, my partner snapped me out of my stupor, reminding me of all the other clients I’d had great success with and told me this experience was an asset, not a liability.
People aren’t always going to agree with you but when you try to please everyone, you please no one.
Now it might be easy to misinterpret Damon’s advice as “Everything you write is perfect and other people’s opinions don’t make a difference.”
That’s not what I read into it. What I see as the greatest pitfall is putting more credence into what others think of your work than you do. People who believe in what they say can make a Nazi Germany possible, Jim Jones’ The People’s Church possible and on the flip side, Entrepreneurism possible.
I read into Damon’s advice as you’ve got to believe in yourself more than anybody else does and put your- self out there knowing there is no such thing as reality. What, you say, no such thing as reality?”
Yes, I said there is no such thing as reality.
What you have going on in your mind is only a perceptual model of the world. It’s your map of the world. It’s all made up.
Everyone has a different model of the world based upon how you filter things through your own screens, through your own belief systems, through your history, through your culture and things like that.
This is why, if you know 5,000 people you have 5,000 reputations. Everyone has their own view of you which is why it’s so deadly to try to play to everyone else’s taste.
You can’t control everyone’s perception of you. The only thing you have control over is your character. This is why the story of heroism is so enduring. People aspire to sculpt their character into that of a hero and of course, some are more successful than others. 526 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
This is why when you heroically put yourself out there and write your own content, whether it’s through blog posts or articles or emails, it pays to write from your heart and what you believe to be true for you. Just think about how good you are at sniffing out text book sounding, regurgitated shit from a real genuine con- versation.
There’s the principal of “The more personal you think something is, the more universal it is.”
Believe in that and you can take full advantage of writing content for your own niche and your own list.
Don’t believe in it and stay forever trapped in the prison of “Coulda, shouda, woulda…”
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 111
How To Rule Your Brain With an Iron Fist So That You Get The Results You Want
Hey You, It’s #2.
I made a mistake here on the blog the other day that the stud man Tim Birch brought to my attention. While tinkering with my next post I clicked publish when I meant to click update, saw my mistake, clicked un-publish and then forgot to click update.
So here’s this post sitting half naked in the wind confusing the hell out of everybody. Good thing it had a marvelous picture attached so people were entertained. The only reason I’d even posted that part of it was because of all the pictures I was inserting. On the page where I copy and paste them here from word and from how it shows up on the site is different, so I was trying to get that right when I clicked the wrong button.
And yet some good has come from all this mayhem.
Tim made a comment about a book called “Brain Rules - 12 Rules for Surviving and Thriving at Home, Work, and School”. Well, just so happens I have notes for it and have decided on behalf of Tim to share them with you in this post. Thank Tim for any value you get from them…
The author of this book, Dr. John Medina, is a developmental molecular biologist and research consultant. He is an affiliate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is also the director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University.
BRAIN RULES RUNDOWN
Rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power. 528 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The human brain evolved under conditions of almost constant motion. From this, one might predict that the optimal environment for processing information would include motion. That is exactly what one finds. Indeed, the best business meeting would have everyone walking at about 1.8 miles per hour.
Researchers studied two elderly populations that had led different lifestyles, one sedentary and one active. Cognitive scores were profoundly influenced. Exercise positively affected executive function, spatial tasks, reaction times and quantitative skills.
So researchers asked: If the sedentary populations become active, will their cognitive scores go up? Yes, it turns out, if the exercise is aerobic. In four months, executive functions vastly improve; longer, and memory scores improve as well.
Exercise improves cognition for two reasons: • • Exercise increases oxygen flow into the brain, which reduces brain-bound free radicals. One of the most interesting findings of the past few decades is that an increase in oxygen is always accompanied by an uptick in mental sharpness. • • • Exercise acts directly on the molecular machinery of the brain itself. It increases neurons’ creation, sur- vival, and resistance to damage and stress. •
Rule #2: The human brain evolved, too.
The brain is a survival organ. It is designed to solve problems related to surviving in an unstable outdoor environment and to do so in nearly constant motion (to keep you alive long enough to pass your genes on). We were not the strongest on the planet but we developed the strongest brains, the key to our survival.
The strongest brains survive, not the strongest bodies. Our ability to solve problems, learn from mistakes, and create alliances with other people helps us survive. We took over the world by learning to cooperate and forming teams with our neighbors.
Our ability to understand each other is our chief survival tool. Relationships helped us survive in the jungle and are critical to surviving at work and school today.
If someone does not feel safe with a teacher or boss, he or she may not perform as well. If a student feels misunderstood because the teacher cannot connect with the way the student learns, the student may become isolated.
There is no greater anti-brain environment than the classroom and cubicle.
Rule #3: Every brain is wired differently. How To Rule Your Brain With an Iron Fist… 529
What YOU do and learn in life physically changes what your brain looks like – it literally rewires it. We used to think there were just 7 categories of intelligence. But categories of intelligence may number more than 7 billion—roughly the population of the world.
No two people have the same brain, not even twins. Every student’s brain, every employee’s brain, every customer’s brain is wired differently.
You can either accede to it or ignore it. The current system of education ignores it by having grade struc- tures based on age. Businesses such as Amazon are catching on to mass customization (the Amazon home- page and the products you see are tailored to your recent purchases).
Regions of the brain develop at different rates in different people. The brains of school children are just as unevenly developed as their bodies. Our school system ignores the fact that every brain is wired differently. We wrongly assume every brain is the same.
Most of us have a “Jennifer Aniston” neuron (a neuron lurking in your head that is stimulated only when Jennifer Aniston is in the room).
Rule #4: We don’t pay attention to boring things.
What we pay attention to is profoundly influenced by memory. Our previous experience predicts where we should pay attention. Culture matters too. Whether in school or in business, these differences can greatly affect how an audience perceives a given presentation.
We pay attention to things like emotions, threats and sex. Regardless of who you are, the brain pays a great deal of attention to these questions: Can I eat it? Will it eat me? Can I mate with it? Will it mate with me? Have I seen it before?
The brain is not capable of multi-tasking. We can talk and breathe, but when it comes to higher level tasks, we just can’t do it.
Driving while talking on a cell phone is like driving drunk. The brain is a sequential processor and large fractions of a second are consumed every time the brain switches tasks. This is why cell-phone talkers are a half-second slower to hit the brakes and get in more wrecks.
Workplaces and schools actually encourage this type of multi-tasking. Walk into any office and you’ll see people sending e-mail, answering their phones, Instant Messaging, and on MySpace—all at the same time. Research shows your error rate goes up 50% and it takes you twice as long to do things.
When you’re always online you’re always distracted. So the always online organization is the always unpro- ductive organization.
Rule #5: Repeat to remember. 530 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The human brain can only hold about seven pieces of information for less than 30 seconds! Which means, your brain can only handle a 7-digit phone number. If you want to extend the 30 seconds to a few minutes or even an hour or two, you will need to consistently re-expose yourself to the information. Memories are so volatile that you have to repeat to remember.
Improve your memory by elaborately encoding it during its initial moments. Many of us have trouble remembering names. If at a party you need help remembering Mary, it helps to repeat internally more information about her. “Mary is wearing a blue dress and my favorite color is blue.” It may seem counterin- tuitive at first but study after study shows it improves your memory.
Brain Rules in the classroom…
In partnership with the University of Washington and Seattle Pacific University, Medina tested this Brain Rule in real classrooms of 3rd graders. They were asked to repeat their multiplication tables in the after- noons. The classrooms in the study did significantly better than the classrooms that did not have the repeti- tion. If brain scientists get together with teachers and do research, we may be able to eliminate need for homework since learning would take place at school, instead of the home.
Rule #6: Remember to repeat.
It takes years to consolidate a memory. Not minutes, hours, or days but years. What you learn in first grade is not completely formed until your sophomore year in high school.
Medina’s dream school is one that repeats what was learned, not at home, but during the school day, 90-120 minutes after the initial learning occurred. Our schools are currently designed so that most real learning has to occur at home.
How do you remember better? Repeated exposure to information / in specifically timed intervals / provides the most powerful way to fix memory into the brain.
Forgetting allows us to prioritize events. But if you want to remember, remember to repeat.
Rule #7: Sleep well, think well.
When we’re asleep, the brain is not resting at all. It is almost unbelievably active! It’s possible that the reason we need to sleep is so that we can learn.
Sleep must be important because we spend 1/3 of our lives doing it! Loss of sleep hurts attention, executive function, working memory, mood, quantitative skills, logical reasoning, and even motor dexterity.
We still don’t know how much we need! It changes with age, gender, pregnancy, puberty, and so much more. How To Rule Your Brain With an Iron Fist… 531
Napping is normal. Ever feel tired in the afternoon? That’s because your brain really wants to take a nap. There’s a battle raging in your head between two armies. Each army is made of legions of brain cells and bio-chemicals - one desperately trying to keep you awake, the other desperately trying to force you to sleep. Around 3 p.m., 12 hours after the midpoint of your sleep, all your brain wants to do is nap.
Taking a nap might make you more productive. In one study, a 26-minute nap improved NASA pilots’ per- formance by 34 percent.
Don’t schedule important meetings at 3 p.m. It just doesn’t make sense.
Rule #8: Stressed brains don’t learn the same way.
You brain is built to deal with stress that lasts about 30 seconds. The brain is not designed for long term stress when you feel like you have no control. The saber-toothed tiger ate you or you ran away but it was all over in less than a minute.
If you have a bad boss, the saber-toothed tiger can be at your door for years, and you begin to deregulate. If you are in a bad marriage, the saber-toothed tiger can be in your bed for years, and the same thing occurs. You can actually watch the brain shrink.
Stress damages virtually every kind of cognition that exists. It damages memory and executive function. It can hurt your motor skills. When you are stressed out over a long period of time it disrupts your immune response. You get sicker more often. It disrupts your ability to sleep. You get depressed.
The emotional stability of the home is the single greatest predictor of academic success. If you want your kid to get into Harvard, go home and love your spouse.
You have one brain. The same brain you have at home is the same brain you have at work or school. The stress you are experiencing at home will affect your performance at work, and vice versa.
Rule #9: Stimulate more of the senses.
Our senses work together so it is important to stimulate them! Your head crackles with the perceptions of the whole world, sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, energetic as a frat party.
Smell is unusually effective at evoking memory. If you’re tested on the details of a movie while the smell of popcorn is wafted into the air, you’ll remember 10-50% more.
Smell is really important to business. When you walk into Starbucks, the first thing you smell is coffee. They have done a number of things over the years to make sure that’s the case.
The learning link. Those in multisensory environments always do better than those in uni-sensory environ- ments. They have more recall with better resolution that lasts longer, evident even 20 years later. 532 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses.
We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information, and three days later you’ll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you’ll remember 65%.
Pictures beat text as well, in part because reading is so inefficient for us. Our brain sees words as lots of tiny pictures, and we have to identify certain features in the letters to be able to read them. That takes time.
Why is vision such a big deal to us? Perhaps because it’s how we’ve always apprehended major threats, food supplies and reproductive opportunity.
Toss your PowerPoint presentations. It’s text-based (nearly 40 words per slide), with six hierarchical levels of chapters and subheads—all words. Professionals everywhere need to know about the incredible ineffi- ciency of text-based information and the incredible effects of images. Burn your current PowerPoint pre- sentations and make new ones.
Rule #11: Male and female brains are different.
What’s different? Mental health professionals have known for years about sex-based differences in the type and severity of psychiatric disorders. Males are more severely afflicted by schizophrenia than females.
By more than 2 to 1, women are more likely to get depressed than men, a figure that shows up just after puberty and remains stable for the next 50 years. Males exhibit more antisocial behavior. Females have more anxiety. Most alcoholics and drug addicts are male. Most anorexics are female.
Men and women handle acute stress differently. When researcher Larry Cahill showed them slasher films, men fired up the amygdale in their brain’s right hemisphere, which is responsible for the gist of an event. Their left was comparatively silent. Women lit up their left amygdale, the one responsible for details. Having a team that simultaneously understood the gist and details of a given stressful situation helped us conquer the world.
Men and women process certain emotions differently. Emotions are useful. They make the brain pay atten- tion. These differences are a product of complex interactions between nature and nurture.
Rule #12: We are powerful and natural explorers.
The desire to explore never leaves us despite the classrooms and cubicles we are stuffed into. Babies are the model of how we learn—not by passive reaction to the environment but by active testing through observa- tion, hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion. Babies methodically do experiments on objects, for example, to see what they will do.
Google takes to heart the power of exploration. For 20 percent of their time, employees may go where their mind asks them to go. The proof is in the bottom line: fully 50 percent of new products, including Gmail and Google News, came from “20 percent time.” How To Rule Your Brain With an Iron Fist… 533
I know some of these notes are brief but I imagine you get the gist of what the rule meant. If you want even more details make sure to go find the book, “Brain Rules – 12 Principles for surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School.
Once again thanks Tim for inspiring this post.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 112
How Ryan Deiss Writes, Produces and Publishes Video Salesletters and How You Can Do It Too
Hey you, It’s #2. It’s been a while but I’m back with notes from one of Ryan Deiss’s newest products on the…
Video Sales Formula
3 Essential Elements
1. Headline– Needs to make a promise and give a reason to keep watching a. You need to call it a Presentation
2. Video Sales Letter Itself
3. Buy Button
Suggestions…
1. Video Length: 12 to 24 Minutes (approximately a 6 to 12 page Sales Letter)
2. Ditch the Controls on the video player. Something you can leave is to give them the ability to Pause (they do it by clicking the video).
3. Auto Play – Not Click To Play
Crafting Your Video Sales Letter Offer:
The 12 Part Video Sales Letter Outline (Originated With David Frey) How Ryan Deiss Writes, Produces and Publishes… 535
1. Attention Grabbing Greeting
2. Identify Problem AND Promise to Solve It
3. Establish Video Scarcity – This message won’t be available for ever
4. Aggravate the Problem – Twist the knife so that it forces them to take action
5. Provide the Solution (Your Product)
6. Present the Features and Benefits of your Product
7. Call To Action #1 (Desire Based CTA)
8. Present Your Credentials (Proof, results, examples, testimonials, etc)
9. Give the Guarantee
10. Call To Action #2 (Logic Based CTA)
11. Give Warnings (Deadline, Scarcity, Guilt)
12. Call To Action #3 (Fear Based CTA)
Step 1: Grab Their Attention
“You’re about to discover the one secret “trigger” that forces your body to shed all the ugly and unwanted fat that has plagued you all your life.”
Step 2: Identify The Problem
Example: Why You Don’t Have a Big List… • • You don’t have a good lead magnet •
• • You’re using OLD Squeeze Pages •
• • But here’s the biggie… You Only Use Ordinary, Obvious Lead-Capture Methods • 536 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Step 3: Establish Video Scarcity
“I’m about to share one of my most closely guarded “Trade Secrets”. I will only have it online for a short time (and for good reason as you’re about to see) so watch it now while you can…”
Step 4: Aggravate The Problem: using reference for one of his stock market businesses
“To put it another way, your current approach…
…is why you’re wrong more times than you’re right…
…is why you’re still nervous when it comes time to pull the trigger…
…is why you’re not profiting consistently and why you’re still looking for a better trading system…”
Step 5: Provide the Solution
Introducing the Undercover List Building System (Product Image)
Step 6: Features and Benefits
Example: Undercover List Building System… • • How I get killer lead magnets for free • • My no brainer 2 step lead gen process • • Info squeezes for under %50 • • My entire webinar capture process • • K.I.S.S. Sandwich and Proof pages • • The “Y” method patch selection • • My Highest Converting Offers Explained •
These are the bullets from Ryan’s video and just make sure that when you state your claims you also insert “So that…” or “This means…” and you tell them what the feature means to them. “I’m gonna show you how I get killer lead magnets for free. This means you NEVER have to worry about piling more work on your plate because I’m gonna show how to get lead magnets other people have already invested time in producing.” How Ryan Deiss Writes, Produces and Publishes… 537
If you want a super in-depth education on how to make your bullets sing make sure you read this post… http://mynotetakingnerd.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/how-to-stack-trust-desire-into-every-claim-you- make-about-what-you-sell/
Step 7: Call To Action #1 (Desire)
This CTA should be simple. You’re trying to grab all of the low hanging fruit here, meaning all the people who don’t need any more prompting, they’re in heat, ready for action. Ryan has found that orange and blue combination of button works best for them.
Step 8: Present Credentials (Proof, results, examples, testimonials, etc)
Here’s what happened when I used this system… (proof image – charts-graphs-articles-reviews)
In this part Ryan just totally avoided the idea of what you could say and couldn’t with all the new FTC bullshit. So, just know the guidelines so you don’t end up being smacked down by big poppa.
If you ask me, I LOVE the idea of being direct here by saying something like, “Hey, statistics prove that most of your colleagues or people who buy this won’t do ANYTHING with it even though they’re fully capable of doing so. They WANT to, but in the end they SHOULD ALL OVER THEMSELVES. This means that while the teeny fraction of people who actually USE this get fabulous results, the majority who won’t even take it out of the shrink wrap, DON’T. What this really means is that it’s highly probable that if you’re one of the winners, the bold, enlightened, action-oriented few who lets this program unleash it’s full potential for greatness in you’re life, that you’ll be extraordinarily proud of yourself for deciding not to be a loser who just blabs about wanting to be successful but never does what it takes.”
Step 9: Give Guarantees
Example: “Metabolism Makeover Guaranteed”
This has to work no matter your age, genetics or current level of fitness. I’ve fully guaranteed this so as you can see all the risk is on me. For only $97 I will be taking you by the hand for 4 weeks through the program.
You have another 4 weeks once the initial program is over to decide that you’re happy with the results. So you have more than enough time to see if the program works for you…
Step 10: Call To Action #2 (Logic)…
“I’ve shown you it works. I’ve shown you the value. I’ve shown you the guarantee. All you need to do now is order…”
Step 11: Give Warnings
“How will tomorrow be any different than today?” 538 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
“Like always, I’m only releasing 500 Copes of this training, and then it’s going back to the vault”
“Stop fooling yourself…the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results”
“Like my daddy used to say, The world needs ditch diggers too, son”
Don’t be timid here. If you have a good product, push it hard. Don’t sell from your heels.
Step 12: Call to Action #3 (Fear)
The Great Debate: Full Sentence vs. Bullet Points
With Full Sentence you’re just reading the words on the screen. This may seem like it’s boring but it works. Bullets are bit more interesting and you may want to have pictures, etc.
According to Deiss, the ugly, full sentence videos pull better everytime so far in their testing. Why? Maybe it’s because you’re using multiple modalities
Maybe it’s because it’s hypnotic.
How To Record Your Video Salesletter
Tools You Need…
PowerPoint, Keynote (mac) or Google Slide Deck (within Google Docs).
This is all he used to put this product together and all of his other salesletters. He’s found that the flashy videos don’t convert as well as the clunky looking ones do.
Camtasia Studio (or Screenflow for Mac)
Now you may or may not be able to afford the $300 investment to buy Camtasia but that shouldn’t stop you from using it. Why? Because you can go to http://www.techsmith.com/download/camtasiatrial.asp and use a trial version to record your first video. If your offer and product are even half-way decent one video will have paid for the software or at least given you 30 days to scrape up the cash.
There’s free open source programs that let you do this but Ryan has found that they pretty much ALL suck. So, don’t cheap out here, abstain from the strip club for a month and after you hit a home run with your video salesletter you’ll walk back through the doors with a cup that runneth over, making it easier to spread the cheer amongst your scantily clad friends.
And no, Ryan or Camtasia can’t take credit for the awesome sales job performed in the paragraph above. That’s all me baby. How Ryan Deiss Writes, Produces and Publishes… 539
USB Microphone (or a laptop with a good internal mic)
Ryan was using his MacBook Pro’s internal microphone to record this video and it sounds better than most tele-seminars I’ve heard. And it was FREE. His experience is that most of the heavy-duty professional mic’s are over kill.
Just do yourself a favor and cruise over to amazon and look at the mics/headsets there and pay attention to the reviews and use your best judgment. Worst case scenario, you buy a mic, it’s shit, you return and get one that works better. Easy.
Another resource is Mike Stewart, the internet audio guy, http://www.internetaudioguy.com/. He sells tons of stuff and shows you how to use it.
But if money’s tight, he’d rather you put the $400-$500 you might spend with Mike into traffic, get rolling and if you want to upgrade then, go ahead and do so.
The Rest is Simple… • • Are going to use full sentences or and outline? • • • Write your presentation using the 12 steps… • • • Record yourself doing your presentation using your screen capture software… • • • Export your video to flash and YOUR DONE! •
Recording Tips • • Make sure you read through it out loud for timing and to practice WHILE YOU’RE RECORDING. He’s noticed that there have been times when he nailed it while practicing and saw no point in doing it again. Try it. • • • Don’t try to record in segments. It sounds like shit if you’re not a pro. • 540 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
• • Know how to pause, Camtasia has what’s called a “Hot Key” that allows you a moment to pause quick to sneeze or hack up some phlegm or get a drink of water. • • • Make sure you have water available but just know that water doesn’t instantly revive your vocal chords and mouth, especially if you chug. Water needs to be assimilated and disturbed to your skin and tissue over time so make sure you load up at least an hour or two before recording time. • • • Make sure you turn anything that could make noise, off, while recording. No one wants to hear a retarded “Pee Wee Herman’s Playhouse” ringtone in the middle of a presentation. Save that for your me time or for when you’re in court or other municipal buildings. •
• • Shut off all your open apps, instant messengers, virus protectors or anything else that auto-updates. Which means you should know when stuff up-dates so you can plan around it or stop it before it barges in on your recording. Only thing that should be open is power point and camtasia – shut everything else down. •
Module 4: How To Host Your Video Salesletter
Video Hosting Options
Youtube is NOT a good choice to host a video salesletter on because they limit you to 5 minute videos (I thought it was 10 minutes but he’s way more internet marketing gangster than I am and that’s what came out of his mouth). 1. 2. Viddler.com more professional than youtube but still has dis-advantages.
1. 2. EZS3.com – This and the third options are the ones Ryan’s company uses the most and the both use Amazon’s massive servers to host your videos.
1. 2. Easy Video Player How Ryan Deiss Writes, Produces and Publishes… 541
To use option 2 and 3 you need to get an Amazon S3 account. What Amazon S3 really is super, ultra dirt cheap video hosting, not free.
There isn’t a good option out there that’s free unless you want to host it on your own server and if you’ve got gargantuan server capacity like Amazon, knock yourself out. If not, and you run any decent amounts of traffic to your site, be prepared for it to blow up in your face.
Trying to cut angles on your sales lifeline is retarded. Don’t do it. Just use the professional services listed here.
In Ryan’s opinion, the cost of hosting video is overwhelmed by the conversion increases he’s noticed by using video.
Viddler Advantages • • Very easy to upload and embed. • • • Inexpensive because you don’t need an S3 account •
Viddler Dis-Advantages • • Can’t remove controls. • • • Free accounts stream ads which is HORRIBLE when you’re trying to sell something. • • • If you can’t use the other options and the choice is between text or nothing, use Viddler. •
EZS3 Advantages • • The have lots of players to choose from, including ones with no controls. • • • Also allows for re-directs after video finishes. • 542 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
• • No additional installation required. •
EZS3 Dis-Advantages • • It’s a monthly service fee but you only pay for the bandwidth that you use. A massive bill means a whole lotta people watched your salesletter. • • • More complicated than youtube or viddler • • • Requires an S3 account which is kind of a pain in the ass. •
Easy Video Player Advantages: • • Least expensive option here because it’s a one-time payment but watch out for the continuity plan they try to get you into because you DON’T need it to run this player. • • • The allow you to use re-directs after video is done. • • • Better reporting than the others about stats of your video. • • • Lots of players to choose from including the one without controls. •
Easy Video Player Dis-Advantages: • • Script is installed on your server which means work. • • • Requires an Amazon S3 account to host videos. • How Ryan Deiss Writes, Produces and Publishes… 543
Ryan favors Easy Video Player as of this recording because of some of the features and likes the idea of one-time payment.
Architecting Your Page
There is no “one size fits all” solution
Ugly works better for Cold Traffic and also for consumer products because it can give the person watching the sense that “this site was made by someone just like me”.
If every one of your website looks the same though you can start running into problems.
Which One Of the Sites Below Worked Better?
Both worked in their own right!
Short Form worked better with cold traffic.
Longer Form worked better with warm traffic (customers and current subscribers)
You’ll never know until you test!
Border Vs. No Border
With…
Border-less usually beat borders in the offers they’ve tested. Sneaky little tricks that might give you an extra little bump in conversions…
The Magically Appearing Buy Button
Checkout www.metabolismmakeover.com…
When you first arrive, you don’t see an order button. This way your visitors don’t think you’re going to sell them immediately.
This is done with a simple line of javascript. You want to see Ryan’s program because he gives it to you there.
What about timing on this?
You can adjust it with the seconds input. You want to start showing it after CTA #1.
Some people don’t show it until the very end (Call To Action #3) – In Ryan’s experience, this is not the best way to do it. At Step 7 has always worked best. 544 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Trick #2
Show the print sales letter on exit. Truth about abs.com is a site that you might land on the test page that’s running this. They get an exit pop and if they click cancel, it sends them here:
You can offer them an opt in bribe here or you can offer a discount.
Trick #3: Dead Time Redirect
S3 Goes to a black screen by default (you can set it up to use an image and you should).
This idea came from the Post Office. If you don’t do anything on this page:
He starts talking and prodding you to fill it out. Options: After 1-2 minutes…
Redirect them to an even sweeter deal (trial, discount, payments)…
Redirect them to Opt In…
Redirect over to print version of Sales Letter…
Poke them like the Post Office guy does.
There you have it. If you had questions about how to structure a video salesletter, now you have a lot less or none. This has been fun but I’m running like 12 pages of a word doc here so I have to say goodbye and happy selling.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 113
Dan Kennedy’s Path To Zero Drama Relationships With Your Consultant, Copywriter or Clients…
Hey You, It’s #2.
Have you ever hired or thought about hiring a consultant or copywriter before OR… are you a consultant or copywriter? If so, the gift I’m sharing with you today could very well transform every single one of your relationships into a Marketer’s Wet Dream.
We’re talking about the path to Zero Drama Relationships With Clients Or Consultants or Copywriters.
Back in 2005, I found this gem… “Dan Kennedy’s “Insider’s Guide to the Nuts and Bolts of Running a SUCCESSFUL Copywriting Business” with Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero and I’m grateful forever for having found it. It has led to boo-koo buck lining my pockets. This wasn’t some “Free” promo call. If I remember right the price tag was around $600.00 or something like that.
Only through listening to it again, was my memory jogged when Dan mentioned how the “$600.00 dis- count” on the “Coaching & Consulting Bootcamp” he was pitching ALMOST offset the cost of being on the two calls.
Now, I have no clue of how someone could buy this today. I’m sure if you googled your ass off you could find it somewhere or… it might only take an email to Lorrie to ask her if you can pay her for it but what I do know is that it’s rare and valuable.
What I’m sharing is just a teeny weeny part of this interview yet what I’m sharing is also one of the most crucial pieces of advice that Dan laid out and he called it…
8 Criteria I Consider Before Accepting a Client 546 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
There are 8 basic criteria points when you think about who you are going to get as a client and how you are going to find them. We’ll go through the ‘who’ first. The first one has to do with… 1. 2. S ufficient Opportunity
By that I mean getting the client is real work—it is the most difficult part of the business for most people. Since it is, remember that it doesn’t take a great deal more work, if any more work, to get and develop one with a lot of potential vs. getting one with very little potential.
All the things we talked about, the ability to expand the scope of the work that you are going to do with a client, the ability to work with them continuously, or at least sequentially—one project after another—you have to keep that in mind as you begin to search for and attract clients.
2. The Ability to Spend.
There are a handful of things that have real impact on that—first is transaction size.
What is their average transaction size worth? For example, a cosmetic or implant dentist has a transaction size 3-4 times bigger than a general dentist. If you position yourself as a marketer and copywriter to the dental profession, it is better to home in on implant and cosmetic dentistry than general dentists.
The size of each of their transactions allows them to spend more to get a patient and therefore allows them to spend more on the copy—ads, sales letters, and other materials. The same thing fundamentally exists in every industry.
If you held a gun to my head and said that I have to work with restaurant owners, I would rather write copy for Morton’s than Sizzler. Their average ticket for a party of 4 is going to be over $100, the average ticket at Sizzler is probably going to be around $30—so Morton’s can spend more to get the customer.
The second issue—I have a client that owns a large commercial lending institution in California that writes loans for apartment complexes and shopping centers and those sorts of things—in the small size range, meaning a million to ten million dollar deals—he is about to license his systems to brokers all across the country so we are getting into 2 businesses, not one.
In one, the commercial mortgage side, his average net commission is $15,000, if you compare that to a resi- dential broker who might write the loan for your next house, their commission will be about $4000, so I got more than a 300% difference in the value of the commercial guy’s transaction vs. the residential guy’s trans- action.
That means he can spend a lot more to get a customer— that means he can spend more with me and I have more liberty on the things that I get him to do. Dan Kennedy’s Path To Zero Drama Relationships… 547
Profit margins are another factor that affects their ability to spend. For example, people in my industry —information products, seminars, conferences, boot camps, coaching programs—we have very high profit margins and very low cost.
If you take someone who manufactures industrial tarps for trucks, they have a very low gross margin, they are working on 20%, and we’re working on 500%.
Another factor is Total Customer Value. Overall, what is it worth to them to get or keep a customer? That has an impact on what they will spend.
And last is their resources. How successful are they? It is far better to deal with a successful to work with a successful client than one that is in dire circumstances and looking at you as some sort of a life raft. That is in the category or charity and evangelical missionary work. If you want to engage in that at least apply for non-profit status as a church.
3. Evidence of their willingness to spend money.
If I was in the business of seducing virgins that could be a real uphill battle.
I am looking to see if these are clients that are already investing in advertising and marketing. Are they already using multiple media or are they lazily only using one media? Are they running big ads, or small ads? Are they local or national?
Another good indication and evidence of their willingness to spend money is what they are spending on their own education. The worst client is a really dumb entrepreneur who never reads a book, never lis- tens to a tape, and never goes to a seminar.
That is telegraphing to you an attitude on his part about paying for expertise advice and information. I look for evidence that the client is willing to spend money.
4. Internal or External Pressures to Spend Or to Improve the Business.
Year in and year out, at least half of the clients that I end up working with are driven to action and therefore driven to spend money with me by pressures occurring in their industry or in their marketplace, in their competitive environment that forces them to do so.
I’m certain that almost nobody wakes up in the morning of their own initiative, and is eager to go out and spend their money to get consultants and copywriters and eager to spend their money.
I think most, if they have an adequate business, have their bills paid—most of them would assume go to sleep on all of this. The pressures that push them to do the opposite, for example, would be commoditiza- tion. 548 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I have a client that is spending a great deal of money with me out of extreme pressure in his industry, his margins are being erased, his prices are being suppressed, he is being put in competitive positions that he was not put in 4-5 years ago because of this commoditization in his business.
He is now pressed to spend money to cure and reinvent what he is doing. I have new client in the trade show industry, they are under enormous pressure there— attendance is declining, their ability to get exhibi- tors is declining with attendance, and everything from rising gas prices, less air flights, all sorts of factors are new pressures in their industry—they are reaching a boiling point and I am motivating them to change and improve their business, spend more money marketing to their existing base as well as to new clients.
5. Because I like to shoot fish in a barrel — I look for clients where there are obvious and evident oppor- tunities that have an impact and improve their business.
This loops around to what particular idea or project in their mind they’re bringing them to me. What’s important is what I am going to put into their mind, what I see as possible for their business.
So, the idea is that they’re doing well enough to pay me and there’s an enormous amount on the table to buy all of the things that they aren’t doing that either they have been negligent about or don’t know about but are very obvious to me.
Or, what are they doing so badly, that you can easily improve it.
I had a client 22 years ago, I call them my ideal mail order client because their customers are so rabid that they get pretty good results with bad marketing. They’re a company that many people on the call probably wouldn’t know so I won’t use it—they have about a million customers.
They’re a mail order company and the copy is horrid, their marketing is terrible and yet they get pretty good results. What that says to me is imagine what happens when you use good marketing on those same customers. I am excited about getting them because it is clear to me that without breaking a sweat, I am going to generate some phenomenal results.
6. Direct Response Appropriateness
Not all businesses lend themselves with equal adaptability to direct marketing into direct response adver- tising.
For example, manufacturers of products that are sold through retail distribution sit on shelves and generally don’t lend themselves too well to direct response marketing. That type of manufacturer is not an ideal client.
Mail order and all of the new promulgations of mail order, online marketers, people who are doing direct mail to market, these companies are attractive as clients. What most people don’t know is that they are scat- tered all over the country. Dan Kennedy’s Path To Zero Drama Relationships… 549
There are well over 20,000 catalog companies alone and they aren’t all in LA or Chicago—in every place I have ever lived, there have been a number of them scrolled away there. I live in a suburb of Cleveland and Vitamax, a very old marketer for food processors who sell all of their product through direct mail, is in Cleveland.
Just about every place somebody is—right under their nose, there are catalog companies and mail order companies. They have lots of opportunities—beat the control opportunities, company relying on catalogs and not doing several mailings, a solo mailer who is not doing any catalogs, companies that are only off line and haven’t gone online and vice versa, one’s that don’t have any continuity, these are all companies that I know I can bring something to the table to.
A direct appropriate direct response company is one that needs to generate leads for its sales people.
Insurance, financial services, real estate, mortgage, boats, planes, those kinds of businesses are in the lead business—that lend themselves to direct response copy.
Companies that are over dependent on manual labor. Over the years quite a number of my clients have been companies that are overly dependent on telemarketing. For example, recently with the do not call list, several industries including the mortgage industry, were thrown into trauma.
The vast majority of people in those industries were 70-90% were reliant on cold call prospecting to gen- erate leads and it has been fundamentally taken away from them.
So there you have pressure on an industry and you have the type of client that we can help.
I mentioned this tarp company, this goes quite far back in my copywriting career, but I did a bunch of stuff for an industrial tarp company that sold tarps for highway trucks and took them from 8 inside telephone sales people making endless outbound calls to 2 inside sales people only taking inbound calls.
So we switched the manual labor out for direct mail. That is something I have done over and over again.
A final thing about direct response appropriateness is that ideally you want a client where there are compa- rables—not necessarily competitors, using our kind of marketing. Using copy intensive advertising in mar- keting so that you aren’t experimenting or blazing new ground, you have models to show the client and you have some models to follow.
If you’re a high priced item—for example, some years ago I wrote copy for a company that sells this whiz bang coffee brewing thing that is gold plated and it’s based on a design the coffee brewing company used modeled after one that the King of Bavaria used, it sells for $6995 for this thing you have in your dining room to show off to people when you make coffee when people came over for dinner.
There is no competitor, there is no other company—they’re it. So convincing them to 550 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One do direct mail and figuring out how to do direct mail for them, I wanted to look for comparables so now you are talking about who is selling a incredibly high priced item to people with more money than brains— based on ego—by direct mail. If there are some, now this is a good client and it’s a client for which you can do good work.
7. Type of client
Here you get into your own preferences as well as practicalities.
For example, there is a big difference in dealing with a corporate client where their decisions are made by committee vs. dealing with the individual entrepreneur where you are interacting with one decision maker.
Over the years I have had some big corporate clients but I generally try to avoid them. I try to discourage them from hiring me and I tend to add to the estimate the amount of time it is going to take to do the work because when you have a committee involved in making decisions, they are a bigger pain in the butt.
On the other hand, they can sometimes write huge checks, which, to the entrepreneur, it is a large sum of money, to some big dumb company, that will spend a half million dollars to produce a 60 second TV com- mercial, the amount of money we ask them for can appear trivial.
So there are pros and cons to both and you have to decide which you are better suited for—in my case, by temperament, I am not too well suited for the corporate environment.
Another type of client factor is actually how marketing savvy and how direct marketing savvy they are.
This surprises a lot of people that I talk to because not only are people who at least understand what we are doing—so you aren’t having the long copy vs. short copy debates, and you aren’t teaching marketing 101 in order to do your work.
My best clients are ones who can actually write their own copy—They may not be as good as I am but they are good enough to get the job done.
Some may actually be better than most copywriters, they choose to hire me just because I can do something they can’t—in this case it is not true—but because I can do it incrementally better, because I will get it done and they may not get it done if left to their own devices, and because other elements of their business where they invest their time are very valuable and so my demands for compensation are comparable to their own time.
So I really like having clients who are actually good copywriters—they are useful, they help with the process and provide better raw material, their input is more trustworthy.
A lot of businesses in the industry in which I work, these companies are going to grind out so much stuff. There is no way they can actually afford to pay you or me to do all of it. So they are going to pay us to do Dan Kennedy’s Path To Zero Drama Relationships… 551
major stuff and they will still have to do a lot of the day to day stuff themselves or with rank and file employees who at best are journeymen copywriters.
They need to learn and want to learn. Any one of the clients in the room, including the one you came with, who pay to be in a seminar about writing sales letters, we know John writes quite a bit of copy of his own but also hires you to write copy.
Any one of those clients in that room would be great clients for a good copywriter because you are not dealing with long copy short copy, why is it in an envelope, etc. all of that is out of the way.
You are now dealing with at smart dog and I would rather work with a smart dog than a dumb dog. I like clients who could, if pressed, do the job themselves but instead choose me to do it for them.
Another thing about type of client is that you need a client whose time is very valuable, who has a lot going on, and is busy.
A busy client is less likely to need babysitting by you. He is no more eager to talk to you 4 times a day than you are to talk to him 4 times a day. Whereas the client without a lot going on, the sales letter that you are working on may be the biggest thing in his life—the TV show that you putting together for him may be the biggest thing in his life and it is not the biggest thing in your life—it damn sure isn’t the biggest thing in mine, but he wants it to be.
The client who is extremely valuable and has a lot going on all he wants is the job done. He wants the marketing ready to go, he wants the deadlines met, he doesn’t need his hand held and talked to, calling you at all hours with goofy ideas—he has better things to do.
Another issue about type of client is, are they manageable?
A real tip out of the gate, I used to go to lunch with clients—which I don’t anymore for the most part—I used to always make sure they picked up the check which is kind of contrary to what you think you would do, because I wanted to see how they tipped.
If they are cheap with the waitress, they are cheap with everybody.
It’s a warning bell—it’s someone you really don’t want around. If they come out of the gate trying to nego- tiate everything with you—there is one guy I’ve worked with for 20 years and he is the exception to the rule —he is a compulsive big negotiator because of the business he is in.
He cannot stand to do anything without a negotiation, it’s a psychological addiction on his part so I over- look it. But for the most part, anyone who needs to get into negotiations with me right out of the gate—if we change this would this reduce this, would you take a bigger back end and less fee, can we bust this up into 5 parts instead of 3? 552 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
As soon as I hear that kind of stuff, I extricate myself as soon as possible and run. It indicates that they are not going to be a very manageable client.
The last thing I would mention is their reputation.
Here is sort of a litmus test that I have taught in the renegade millionaire system for entrepreneurs but this one is universally applicable. If someone can’t provide 3 or 4 people that they have done a deal with, who would say that they would cheerfully do another deal with if given the chance, you aren’t going to be the first to get lucky.
If somebody has nothing good to say about anybody who has previously done work for them, you are not going to be the first person that they love.
Six months from now they will be telling everybody they know what an idiot you are too.
Their reputation which they express by what they say about themselves and others, and what you may know about them in the industry that they are in or what you are able to find out is important.
I got rid of a client about 2 years ago in the first month, it became apparent that every conversation we had he wanted to tell me about some previous well known consultant or copywriter who he had given a lot of money to that had bitterly disappointed him and failed.
It didn’t take but a few of these conversations for me to realize that soon I would be on that list—better sooner than later. So he got discharged.
8. Niches
This is a criteria factor for people to decide on their own but generally I prefer working in a market niche, a client that is niched to a market because it is really fertile ground for a client to do message to market match —or a client who can be market niched.
Some copywriters like to media niche, there are copywriters who only do magalogs or only do full page ads, or only do TV scripts and they may media niche which is ok if you are extremely adept at something than that is warranted.
It’s also wise to realize that there are niches within niches within niches again it is used by a dentistry example; there are over a dozen different kinds of dentists. There is a very successful copywriter who only writes copy for ads—mail pieces, DVDs and so forth for implant dentists—he makes about a half a million doing it.
He deliberately gets a different dentist in every market in the country and writes fundamentally the same copy for all of them and is very successful. Generally speaking, I would rather have a client who is niched or could be niched. So those are the 8 criteria that I would encourage people to consider as they go out in search of clients. Dan Kennedy’s Path To Zero Drama Relationships… 553
The 3 things that have been added that I consider now that I hadn’t before:
One is learning curve. I try to avoid situations where I have to learn a business from scratch—if you showed up on my doorstep with a big bag of money and wanted to hire me to write copy to sell bird seed to people who want to get a lot of birds to come to their backyard, I would probably pass.
I look for ease and speed.
Another thing that has become more important to me late than early is regulatory environments where you have a lot of compliance issues that add time and difficulty to a project.
Financial services for example, I still have a couple of clients in that industry but I don’t seek them out where at one time I sought them because you are always going to be dealing with a compliance department and a couple of attorneys who want to rewrite your copy.
Weight loss is also regulatory sensitive.
The third thing that is linked to that is risk.
Copywriters have liability and you can only protect yourself so much in contracts and then you have to understand that you are at risk so there are clients that I would do work for 10 years ago and today, I wouldn’t—mostly because they press the envelope so far into the gray area in which they operate.
Like a weight loss company or a business opportunity company—I work in both industries but there are clients that I did work for in those industries that today I politely decline.
Every so often they are going to be dealing with the FTC or the FDA or both, the FCC or 20 attorney gen- erals and I would rather not explain to someone why I would be exempt.
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Now whether you’re a business owner looking to hire a consultant/copywriter or you’re copywriter/consul- tant roaming the plains for bidniz… what Dan just talked about is a God-Damn, Jenna-wine list that will SAVE YOU A SHIT LOAD OF GRIEF. Fail to use this at your own risk. With that being said, you should just go ahead right now and copy & paste this and save it somewhere special.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. Stop judging me for being in a good ole’ down South mood and spelling/pronouncing Genuine as Jenna-wine. CHAPTER 114
BEWARE: What You Focus On Expands Faster Than a Horny Dog’s Lipstick
Hey You, It’s #2.
This might sound stupid, but oh well, here goes…
…I don’t watch, listen to or read the news, at all.
As a matter of fact, I pay closer attention to the juicy gossip spread by People magazine than I do USA Today. And guess what? I don’t feel like I’m uniformed, in the dark or out of the loop. Instead I feel the opposite, EMPOWERED.
There is no part of me that feels I’m inferior because I don’t know what “The Puppets” in the press and government (or the U.N./New World Order) want me to know is “Supposedly” happening in Washington D.C., England, Japan, Africa or Europe.
What would make me feel like a loser was if I spent more time focused on that propaganda/opinion/theory than I did learning about what I could do to be more valuable to myself & to the people with whom I have the pleasure of interacting with, perhaps even influencing and transforming their life for the better. Time well spent for me is focused on aspects of my life I can control — My ability to listen & communicate with intel- ligence, humor and compassion… The questions I ask myself on a minute by minute basis that allow me to put out a loving and kind vibe… and tools & techniques & examples of how normal people like you and I are bringing home some REAL FUCKIN’ MONEY despite the fact of us being in an economy that’s remi- niscent of the Great Depression.
And I’ve gotta tell you, just focusing on those three things is a FULL TIME JOB!!! BEWARE: What You Focus On Expands Faster… 555
News? Shiiiiit! I don’t have time for that, not if I want to get ahead. Focusing on what ‘s possible and right with the world takes time, work and sacrifice. So does focusing on what’s wrong. The only difference is that when you focus on what’s right, what you can do to improve your situation and opportunities for you to grow and contribute, you don’t end up feeling like a battered, hopeless, raped by the system victim, which in my mind is a dreadful existence NOT worth living. Not, when the life enhancing choice is right in front of your face batting it’s pretty eyes at you, begging for you to grasp it in your arms and take it behind the junior high and get it pregnant.
For those of you unfamiliar with the comedian, Tracy Morgan, one of the stars on Tina Fey’s show, 30 Rock, the zinger on the end of that last sentence might be lost on you. No problem, I’ll fill you in. In some phase of Tracy’s career whenever he saw something he liked, person,place or thing, he’d say, “I want to take you behind the junior high and get you pregnant.” I think it’s HUH-larious and it popped in my head here so I used it.
The Gift That Keeps On Giving
This past Christmas, I received one of my favorite gifts of ALL TIME.
This holiday season brought in a great stash, and two of the presents that really stick out in my mind was, Number 1: a Bose Multimedia Sound System and Number 2: the book “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten” by Robert Fulgham.
As weird as it may sound to die hard Bose fans, which of, I am one, my favorite gift was Robert’s book. Yet I didn’t realize the book was my favorite gift until I was sitting on the can reading it a couple of days ago and rolled into the small chapter I’m sharing with you here today.
My mom, technically, my step-mom, the only mom I’ve got left on the planet, gave me this book. It’s her original that she bought back in the 80’s complete with yellowed pages and her name written in ink on the inside cover. For two months I’d put off even opening the book and just let it sit on the stack of others adorning my counter/bookshelf in the bathroom.
A couple of weeks ago I finally relented and opened it up and I’m forever grateful for having done so. Robert Fulgham’s writing style speaks my kind of fun, loose and enlightening language. Common sense lessons in common language. If you’ve yet to give this book a chance, read this teeny chapter below and decide for yourself whether you’d like to…
“GOOD FRIENDS FINALLY PUT THEIR RESOURCES together and made themselves a child. Me, I’m the godfather in the deal. I take my job seriously.
So far I’ve introduced the kid to the good things in life—chocolate, beer, cigars, Beethoven, and dirty jokes. I don’t think he cares much for Beethoven. But he’s only a year and a half old, and he’ll get tired of choco- late, beer, cigars and dirty jokes. I haven’t told him about sex yet, but he’s got some ideas of his own 556 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One already. I won’t go into details here, but if you’ve ever had a little kid or have been a little kid, then you know what I mean.
Also, I’ve introduced him to crayons. Bought the Crayola beginner set—the short, fat, thick ones with training wheels. Every few weeks I would put one in his hand and show him how to make a mark with it. Mostly he just held it and stared at me. He had a cigar in his other hand and couldn’t tell the difference between it and the Crayola. Then we went through the orifice-stuffing phase, where the Crayola went in his mouth and ears and nose. Finally, last week, I held his hand and made a big red mark with the Crayola on a sheet of newsprint. And WHAM! He got the picture. A light bulb went off in a new room in his head. And he did it again on his own. Now, reports his mother, with a mixture of pleasure and pain, there is no stop- ping him.
Crayolas plus imagination (the ability to create images)—these make for happiness if you’re a child. Amazing things, Crayolas. Some petroleum-based wax, some dye, a little binder—not much to them. Until you add the imagination. The Binney Company in Pennsylvania makes about two billion of these oleagi- nous sticks of pleasure every year and exports them to every country in the United Nations. Crayola’s are one of the few things the human race has in common. That green-and-yellow box hasn’t changed since 1937. In fact, the only change has been to rename the “flesh” color “peach.” That’s a sign of progress.
The way I know about “flesh” and “peach” is that, when I bought my godson his trainer set, I indulged myself. Bought my very own set of sixty-four. In the big four-section box with the sharpener built right in. Never had my own set before. Seems like I was always too young or too old to have one. While I was at it, I bought several sets. Got one for the kid’s mother and father and explained it was theirs, not his.
What I notice is that every adult or child I give a new set of Crayolas to goes a little funny. The kids smile, get a glazed look on their faces, pour the crayons out, and just look at them for a while. Then they go to work on the nearest flat surface and will draw anything you ask, just name it. The adults always get the most wonderful kind of sheepish smile on their faces—a mixture of delight and nostalgia and silliness. And they immediately start telling you about all their experiences with Crayolas. Their first box, using every color, breaking them, trying to get them in the box in order again, trying to use them in a bundle, putting them on hot things to see them melt, shaving them on waxed paper and ironing them into stained glass windows, eating them, and on and on. If you want an interesting party sometime, combine cocktails and a fresh box of Crayolas for everybody.
When you think about it, for sheer bulk there’s more art done with Crayolas than with anything else. There must be billions of sheets of paper in every country in the world, in billions of boxes and closets and attics and cupboards, covered with billions of pictures in crayon. The imagination of the human race poured out like a river. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev used crayons, I bet. So did Fidel and the emperor Japan and Rajiv Gandhi and Mrs. Thatcher and Mr. Mubarak and maybe even the Ayatollah. And just about everybody else you care to name.
Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A Beauty Bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air—explode BEWARE: What You Focus On Expands Faster… 557 softly—and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth—boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn’t go cheap, either—not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharp- ener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagi- nation.
Guess that sounds absurd, doesn’t it? A bit dumb. Crazy and silly and weird. But I was reading in the paper today how much money the Russians and our congress just set aside for weapons. And I think about what those weapons will do. And I’m not confused about what’s weird and silly and crazy and absurd. And I’m not confused about the lack of, the need for, imagination in high or low places. Pass the crayons, please.
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So, what’d you think?
Like I said, this book “All I Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten” speaks my kind of language. A kind of language that focuses on what’s right instead of what’s wrong, what’s possible, not impossible and how not to take yourself too seriously.
A life spent expanding your focus in these areas is a life well spent.
Have fun making great things happen in your life!!!
Talk Soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 115
Hitler Wants To Share His Message With YOU?
Hey You, It’s #2.
No ya’ll, I’m not speaking from under a Ku Klux Klan hoodie.
I only bust out the KKK hood I bought on eBay when I go to Wal-Mart on busy Friday nights (paycheck splurging time). When I do this I always make sure to sport a half-shirt, baggy basketball shorts, and flip flops and no… not a half shirt in that it ends at my nipples but a half shirt in that it doesn’t have any sleeves.
I do this so that everyone can see my carmel skin and the pelt of black hair layered down my arms, my legs and my toes Yep, I’ve been blessed with bush on my piggies.
Every great once in a while I strike gold and encounter a brain dead moron with zero sense of humor who doesn’t get the irony of a person who’s clearly NOT white, with a cart FULL OF TORTILLAS, and MAGNUM CONDOMS. They absolutely make my day by asking me a retarded question like… “How do live with yourself“SUPPORTING” the KKK?”
I always respond the same way: In a high, gay sounding voice I say “Um, have you like… found Hitler yet?” and I end it with a Queer Eye For The Straight guy hand gesture.
Or… I drop into a Barry White tone and roll with “Lemme axe you question. Has yo ass found Hitler yet?
Everybody around usually laughs except for that person who immediately gets shamed into storming away in a huff. Sometimes I get the feeling these nut-balls aren’t actually disturbed by the false belief that I’m “endorsing” racism… but that they’re secretly disgusted that I’m desecrating their precious fraternity’s uni- form.
And then the dream ends & I wake up. Crazy, huh? Hitler Wants To Share His Message With… 559
“You need to have a book on Hitler and a book on Gandhi so you can see how low someone can go as well as how high.”
- Jim Rohn -
This week I was introduced to a site called http://www.saltydroid.info.
Salty Droid has unique positioning. Salty is known for wearing x-ray glasses that allow him to avoid getting dizzily deluded by sales presentations and see the flip side of ALL the major gurus marketing strategies. When you see this guy verbally rip the asshole out of Dan Kennedy, Frank Kern, Andy Jenkins, etc. you might just be like me and say “HO…LY SHIT!?!”
You Can Taste The Hate
This avenger goes balls to wall in slamming ANYONE and ANY strategy he perceives to be deceiving the public.
And you might think this is some teeny minority site that has no presence. Think again. As of this post Salty Droid has a 21,242 ranking on Alexa.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Alexa ratings, it’s an Amazon.com owned website that tracks the popularity of domain names. It’s safe to believe that there are at least 20 million websites in existence. In this huge of a universe a 21,242 ranking is AMAZING.
What contributes to that is his rabid fan base. When you go to the site you see 50-150 comments PER POST. Well, if the fact is true that only like, 2% of your visitors will actually leave a comment on your blog, this means he’s getting MASSIVE traffic.
The only way I even found out about Salty was that he wrote a quick 20 word blurb about our site with a link to it in his daily wailing list. When I noticed the traffic spike I sourced it back to him and was exposed to what some might call the…
HITLER TO THE A-LIST INFO-MARKETER: A.K.A. - The Info-preneur Hunter
When you hear this guy tear apart the marketing ploys of the top gurus, you may get the idea he’s out for blood, that he’s a hater out to exterminate your favorite mentors. THE “CHOSEN ONES” (GURUS) HE ATTACKS may well feel like they’re being persecuted for no good reason at all OR… just because they’re REALLY, REALLY, good at bringing home the bacon. Here’s what he said about Frank Kern today…
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“Frank and I have had our differences in the past. Like maybe I said he was a shit eating exploiter :: that he was worth less than dirt :: that the hair and the drawl couldn’t hide the parasitism in his eyes :: that he and 560 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One his circle jerking co-conspirators had caused a staggering {fucking criminal} amount of harm :: and that he should be brought swiftly to the kick-in-the-nuts justice he so richly deserves. But whatevs :: water under the decaying bridge.”
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SEE WHAT I MEAN? Anyone who’s passionately in love with Frank would cringe at reading anything like this. They’d go Red Alert and start either defending him or tattle tale to daddy Kern on Salty. But check out how he continues…
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“Frank is obviously a genius marketer :: credit where credit is due. I used to think that success in this industry was all about getting into The Syndicate :: where prices and social value could be fixed without reference to reality. But I see now that I was wrong. It’s obviously all about whatever Frank teaches in his new digital-only wonder product List Control. Frank is the #1 guy at list building :: which is why I have decided :: somewhat reluctantly :: to support this product.
I’m sure many of you sissies are going to be disappointed that I’ve decided to be an affiliate for List Con- trol. But hey :: fuck you! I’ve got to get paid too. You think it’s easy being such a totally dope Droid? Well it’s not. This product is $2,000!! Which is a hell of deal if you are ready to make an investment in your future :: or even if you just want to have a better life where everything isn’t so scary and shitty :: or what- ever. But more importantly :: I’ve used my market power to negotiate a higher affiliate commission on my sales than you average shoe shiners can get. I’m getting 50% per sale :: and you can bet your sweet naive ass that I’ll be collecting every fucking cent of that. Cause :: in case you hadn’t noticed :: I’m a scary scary BadAss.
So BUY BUY BUY List Control. It’s the best blah blah blah. And you know it! Frank is the top blah blah in marketing :: and you NEED to be in on this if you want to blah blah blah. I’m mean seriously :: you’ve got to be crazy to miss this. And Frank’s doing something he’s never done before which has the whole Internet Marketing community crying :: “Blah blah blah” :: He’s holding a special THREE DAY blah blah blah. All the top blah blah and etc. etc. Anywayz :: fuck you :: it doesn’t matter because you know you’re going to buy it anyway … so you might as well …
BUY IT WITH MY FUCKING LINK
… and then you’ll be supporting justice. Sure it’s slightly less virgin white justice now :: but it’s still justice. Tainted justice is the best we can do anyway :: GROW UP!!”
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From what little I’ve seen on this site, no one else has gotten a quasi-pass like this. Especially if in his eyes they’re blatantly pulling some sneaky shit. Hitler Wants To Share His Message With… 561
In my opinion in a buyer beware market, it’s good to pay attention to the Salty’s AND to the Guru’s. Some- times in the midst of heated romance we do stupid shit like have sex with a female clown in full dress that we just barely met, without using a condom on a mattress infested with bed bugs or… sign up for an info- product we really don’t need or.. that ends up not being all it’s cracked up to be.
Hearing polar opposite sides of a story helps you make the most informed decision. If Salty’s opinion above has been of any interest to you, go see his site and the rest of this post and the bonus he gives ON THIS PAGE at http://saltydroid.info/frank-kern-list-contol-bonus/.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 116
The Definitive Guide To The Games People Attempt To Play On You
Hey you,
It’s #2.
Today I wanted to continue our conversation we started the other day about the “Info-Preneur Hunter” and the value of having varied perspectives before making important decisions about people trying to convince you of anything.
In the U.S.A. for someone to be convicted of a crime by a jury of their peers, the person accused is invited to provide the jury with ALL the facts & evidence available and the same goes for the person making accusa- tions. Both sides make their argument to the best of their ability and then and only then is a jury asked to decide whether the defendant is guilty or not.
The system is far from perfect. Sometimes bad guys get away with murder and sometimes the wrong person ends up going to jail. But the premise of the system, I believe, is sound… “You hear both sides of the story, then and only then, is a decision to be made.”
Moment to moment in life you don’t get the chance to have long drawn out court trials that allow you to have all the facts presented to you. Some shit you need to decide on in the blink of an eye using your intuition. The direction your life takes is 100% dependent on how you respond to what shows up and if you don’t have access to key tools/distinctions, you will pay a price you may not want to.
And I’ve got good news…
…People that have come before us have made pretty much every mistake imaginable and have done a hel- luva lot of stuff right and we can learn directly from them and save ourselves tons of regret, grief and phys- ical pain. The Definitive Guide To The Games People… 563
Which leads me to my declaration:
AS OF TODAY, I CONSIDER ROBERT GREENE’S “THE 48 LAWS OF POWER” THE MOST IMPOR- TANT BOOK ANYONE COULD EVER GET THEIR HANDS ON!!!
Here’s 3 reasons why this book, NOT the religious text I was raised to believe was number one, is at the top of my list… • • Not everyone you encounter is religious or moral. As a matter of fact, some people despise religion. ALL RELIGION. And like it or not, the quality of your life can be impacted by these heathens who don’t play by “The Rules” of your religious text… • • • Not everyone who claims to be religious adheres 100% to the code of moral conduct laid out… • • • And you can bet your bottom dollar that EVERYONE has one rule they live by… “Look out for #1.” •
And as you’ll see…
Getting your hands on “The 48 Laws of Power” is like have access to the playbook of ANY and ALL of the people you interact with personally: enemies, friends and anyone else trying to convince you of ANY- THING. The lessons in this book allow you to peer into the soul of people’s motives. Having quick access in your memory to the 48 Laws turns you into the one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind… no matter what you believe in.
However, my opinion is only that, an opinion. Below I have presented Robert’s introduction to the book and after reading it and/or the book you get to decide for yourself whether this will be valuable in your life or not…
Introduction:
“The feeling of having no power over people and events is generally unbearable to us—when we feel help- less we feel miserable.
No one wants less power; everyone wants more. In the world today, however, it is dangerous to seem too power hungry, to be overt with your power moves. We have to seem fair and decent.
So we need to be subtle-congenial yet cunning, democratic yet devious. 564 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
This game of constant duplicity most resembles the power dynamic that existed in the scheming world of the old aristocratic court. Throughout history, a court has always formed itself around the person in power- king, queen, emperor, leader. The courtiers who filled this court were in an especially delicate position: They had to serve their masters, but if they seemed to fawn, if they curried favor too obviously, the other courtiers around them would notice and would act against them.
Attempts to win the master’s favor, then, had to be subtle. And even skilled courtiers capable of such sub- tlety still had to protect themselves from their fellow courtiers, who at all moments were scheming to push them aside.
Meanwhile the court was supposed to represent the height of civilization and refinement.
Violent or overt power moves were frowned upon; courtiers would work silently and secretly against any among them who used force. This was the courtier’s dilemma: While appearing the very paragon of ele- gance, they had to outwit and thwart their own opponents in the subtlest of ways.
The successful courtier learned over time to make all of his moves indirect; if he stabbed an opponent in the back, it was with a velvet glove on his hand and the sweetest of smiles on his face.
Instead of using coercion or outright treachery, the perfect courtier got his way through seduction, charm, deception, and subtle strategy, always planning several moves ahead.
Life in the court was a never-ending game that required constant vigilance and tactical thinking. It was civi- lized war. Today we face a peculiarly similar paradox to that of the courtier:
Everything must appear civilized, decent, democratic, and fair. But if we play by those rules too strictly, if we take them too literally, we are crushed by those around us who are not so foolish.
As the great Renaissance diplomat and courtier Niccolo Machiavelli wrote, ”Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.”
The court imagined itself the pinnacle of refinement, but underneath its glittering surface a cauldron of dark emotions—greed, envy, lust, hatred-boiled and simmered.
Our world today similarly imagines itself the pinnacle of fairness, yet the same ugly emotions still stir within us, as they have forever. The game is the same. Outwardly, you must seem to respect the niceties, but inwardly, unless you are a fool, you learn quickly to be prudent, and to do as Napoleon advised: Place your iron hand inside a velvet glove.
If, like the courtier of times gone by, you can master the arts of indirection, learning to seduce, charm, deceive, and subtly outmaneuver your opponents, you will attain the heights of power. You will be able to make people bend to your will without their realizing what you have done.
And if they do not realize what you have done, they will neither resent nor resist you. The Definitive Guide To The Games People… 565
To some people the notion of consciously playing power games—no matter how indirect-seems evil, asocial, a relic of the past. They believe they can opt out of the game by behaving in ways that have nothing to do with power. You must beware of such people, for while they express such opinions outwardly, they are often among the most adept players at power.
They utilize strategies that cleverly disguise the nature of the manipulation involved.
These types, for example, will often display their weakness and lack of power as a kind of moral virtue. But true powerlessness, without any motive of self-interest, would not publicize its weakness to gain sym- pathy or respect. Making a show of one’s weakness is actually a very effective strategy, subtle and deceptive, in the game of power (see Law 22, the Surrender Tactic).
Another strategy of the supposed nonplayer is to demand equality in every area of life.
Everyone must be treated alike, whatever their status and strength. But if, to avoid the taint of power, you attempt to treat everyone equally and fairly, you will confront the problem that some people do certain things better than others.
Treating everyone equally means ignoring their differences, elevating the less skillful and suppressing those who excel. Again, many of those who behave this way are actually deploying another power strategy, redistributing people’s rewards in a way that they determine.
Yet another way of avoiding the game would be perfect honesty and straightforwardness, since one of the main techniques of those who seek power is deceit and secrecy.
But being perfectly honest will inevitably hurt and insult a great many people, some of whom will choose to injure you in return. No one will see your honest statement as completely objective and free of some per- sonal motivation. And they will be right: In truth, the use of honesty is indeed a power strategy, intended to convince people of one’s noble, good-hearted, selfless character.
It is a form of persuasion, even a subtle form of coercion.
Finally, those who claim to be non-players may affect an air of naïveté, to protect them from the accusation that they are after power. Beware again, however, for the appearance of naïveté can be an effective means of deceit (see Law 21, Seem Dumber Than Your Mark).
And even genuine naïveté is not free of the snares of power.
Children may be naive in many ways, but they often act from an elemental need to gain control over those around them. Children suffer greatly from feeling powerless in the adult world, and they use any means available to get their way.
Genuinely innocent people may still be playing for power, and are often horribly effective at the game, since they are not hindered by reflection. 566 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Once again, those who make a show or display of innocence are the least innocent of all.
You can recognize these supposed non-players by the way they flaunt their moral qualities, their piety, their exquisite sense of justice. But since all of us hunger for power, and almost all of our actions are aimed at gaining it, the non-players are merely throwing dust in our eyes, distracting us from their power plays with their air of moral superiority.
If you observe them closely, you will see in fact that they are often the ones most skillful at indirect manipu- lation, even if some of them practice it unconsciously. And they greatly resent any publicizing of the tactics they use every day.
If the world is like a giant scheming court and we are trapped inside it, there is no use in trying to opt out of the game. That will only render you powerless, and powerlessness will make you miserable.
Instead of struggling against the inevitable, instead of arguing and whining and feeling guilty, it is far better to excel at power.
In fact, the better you are at dealing with power, the better friend, lover, husband, wife, and person you become. By following the route of the perfect courtier (see Law 24) you learn to make others feel better about themselves, becoming a source of pleasure to them. They will grow dependent on your abilities and desirous of your presence.
By mastering the 48 laws in this book, you spare others the pain that comes from bungling with power- by playing with fire without knowing its properties. If the game of power is inescapable, better to be an artist than a denier or a bungler.
Learning the game of power requires a certain way of looking at the world, a shifting of perspective. It takes effort and years of practice, for much of the game may not come naturally. Certain basic skills are required, and once you master these skills you will be able to apply the laws of power more easily.
The most important of these skills, and power’s crucial foundation, is the ability to master your emo- tions.
An emotional response to a situation is the single greatest barrier to power, a mistake that will cost you a lot more than any temporary satisfaction you might gain by expressing your feelings.
Emotions cloud reason, and if you cannot see the situation clearly, you cannot prepare for and respond to it with any degree of control.
Anger is the most destructive of emotional responses, for it clouds your vision the most. It also has a ripple effect that invariably makes situations less controllable and heightens your enemy’s resolve. If you are trying to destroy an enemy who has hurt you, far better to keep him off-guard by feigning friendliness than showing your anger. The Definitive Guide To The Games People… 567
Love and affection are also potentially destructive, in that they blind you to the often self-serving interests of those whom you least suspect of playing a power game. You cannot repress anger or love, or avoid feeling them, and you should not try. But you should be careful about how you express them, and most important, they should never influence your plans and strategies in any way.
Related to mastering your emotions is the ability to distance yourself from the present moment and think objectively about the past and future.
Like Janus, the double-faced Roman deity and guardian of all gates and doorways, you must be able to look in both directions at once, the better to handle danger from wherever it comes. Such is the face you must create for yourself-one face looking continuously to the future and the other to the past.
For the future, the motto is, “No days un-alert.”
Nothing should catch you by surprise because you are constantly imagining problems before they arise. Instead of spending your time dreaming of your plan’s happy ending, you must work on calculating every possible permutation and pitfall that might emerge in it. The further you see, the more steps ahead you plan, the more powerful you become.
The other face of Janus looks constantly to the past-though not to remember past hurts or bear grudges. That would only curb your power.
Half of the game is learning how to forget those events in the past that eat away at you and cloud your reason. The real purpose of the backward glancing eye is to educate yourself constantly-you look at the past to learn from those who came before you.
(The many historical examples in this book will greatly help that process.)
Then, having looked to the past, you look closer at hand, to your own actions and those of your friends. This is the most vital school you can learn from, because it comes from personal experience.
You begin by examining the mistakes you have made in the past, the ones that have most grievously held you back. You analyze them in terms of the 48 laws of power, and you extract from them a lesson and an oath:
“I shall never repeat such a mistake; I shall never fall into such a trap again.”
If you can evaluate and observe yourself in this way, you can learn to break the patterns of the past-an immensely valuable skill.
Power requires the ability to play with appearances. To this end you must learn to wear many masks and keep a bag full of deceptive tricks. Deception and masquerade should not be seen as ugly or immoral. 568 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
All human interaction requires deception on many levels, and in some ways what separates humans from animals is our ability to lie and deceive.
In Greek myths, in India’s Mahabharata cycle, in the Middle Eastern epic of Gilgamesh, it is the privilege of the gods to use deceptive arts; a great man, Odysseus for instance, was judged by his ability to rival the craftiness of the gods, stealing some of their divine power by matching them in wits and deception.
Deception is a developed art of civilization and the most potent weapon in the game of power.
You cannot succeed at deception unless you take a somewhat distanced approach to yourself-unless you can be many different people, wearing the mask that the day and the moment require.
With such a flexible approach to all appearances, including your own, you lose a lot of the inward heaviness that holds people down. Make your face as malleable as the actor’s, work to conceal your intentions from others, practice luring people into traps.
Playing with appearances and mastering arts of deception are among the aesthetic pleasures of life. They are also key components in the acquisition of power. If deception is the most potent weapon in your arsenal, then patience in all things is your crucial shield. Patience will protect you from making moronic blunders.
Like mastering your emotions, patience is a skill-it does not come naturally.
But nothing about power is natural; power is more godlike than anything in the natural world. And patience is the supreme virtue of the gods, who have nothing but time. Everything good will happen-the grass will grow again, if you give it time and see several steps into the future.
Impatience, on the other hand, only makes you look weak. It is a principal impediment to power.
Power is essentially amoral and one of the most important skills to acquire is the ability to see circum- stances rather than good or evil. Power is a game-this cannot be repeated too often-and in games you do not judge your opponents by their intentions but by the effect of their actions. You measure their strategy and their power by what you can see and feel.
How often are someone’s intentions made the issue only to cloud and deceive!
What does it matter if another player, your friend or rival, intended good things and had only your interests at heart, if the effects of his action lead to so much ruin and confusion?
It is only natural for people to cover up their actions with all kinds of justifications, always assuming that they have acted out of goodness. You must learn to inwardly laugh each time you hear this and never get caught up in gauging someone’s intentions and actions through a set of moral judgments that are really an excuse for the accumulation of power.
It is a game. The Definitive Guide To The Games People… 569
Your opponent sits opposite you. Both of you behave as gentlemen or ladies, observing the rules of the game and taking nothing personally. You play with a strategy and you observe your opponent’s moves with as much calmness as you can muster.
In the end, you will appreciate the politeness of those you are playing with more than their good and sweet intentions.
Train your eye to follow the results of their moves, the outward circumstances, and do not be distracted by anything else. Half of your mastery of power comes from what you do not do, what you do not allow your- self to get dragged into. For this skill you must learn to judge all things by what they cost you.
As Nietzsche wrote, “The value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains with it, but in what one pays for it-what it costs us.” Perhaps you will attain your goal, and a worthy goal at that, but at what price? Apply this standard to everything, including
whether to collaborate with other people or come to their aid.
In the end, life is short, opportunities are few, and you have only so much energy to draw on.
And in this sense, time is as important a consideration as any other. Never waste valuable time, or mental peace of mind, on the affairs of others-that is too high a price to pay.
Power is a social game. To learn and master it, you must develop the ability to study and understand people. As the great seventeenth-century thinker and courtier Baltasar Gracian wrote:
“Many people spend time studying the properties of animals or herbs; how much more important it would be to study those of people, with whom we must live or die!”
To be a master player you must also be a master psychologist.
You must recognize motivations and see through the cloud of dust with which people surround their actions. An understanding of people’s hidden motives is the single
greatest piece of knowledge you can have in acquiring power. It opens up endless possibilities of decep- tion, seduction, and manipulation.
People are of infinite complexity and you can spend a lifetime watching them without ever fully under- standing them. So it is all the more important, then, to begin your education now. In doing so you must also keep one principle in mind:
Never discriminate as to whom you study and in whom you trust. Never trust anyone completely and study everyone, including friends and loved ones. 570 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Finally, you must learn always to take the indirect route to power. Disguise your cunning. Like a billiard ball that caroms several times before it hits its target, your moves must be planned and developed in the least obvious way.
By training yourself to be indirect, you can thrive in the modern court, appearing the paragon of decency while being the consummate manipulator.
Consider The 48 Laws of Power a kind of handbook on the arts of indirection.
The laws are based on the writings of men and women who have studied and mastered the game of power. These writings span a period of more than three thousand years and were created in civilizations as disparate as ancient China and Renaissance Italy; yet they share common threads and themes, together hinting at an essence of power that has yet to be fully articulated.
The 48 laws of power are the distillation of this accumulated wisdom, gathered from the writings of the most illustrious strategists (Sun-tzu, Clausewitz), statesmen (Bismarck, Talleyrand), courtiers (Castiglione, Gracian), seducers (Ninon de Lenclos, Casanova), and con artists (“Yellow Kid” Weil) in history.
The laws have a simple premise: Certain actions almost always increase one’s power (the observance of the law), while others decrease it and even ruin us (the transgression of the law).
These transgressions and observances are illustrated by historical examples. The laws are timeless and definitive.
The 48 Laws of Power can be used in several ways. By reading the book straight through you can learn about power in general. Although several of the laws may seem not to pertain directly to your life, in time you will probably find that all of them have some application, and that in fact they are interrelated.
By getting an overview of the entire subject you will best be able to evaluate your own past actions and gain a greater degree of control over your immediate affairs. A thorough reading of the book will inspire thinking and reevaluation long after you finish it.
The book has also been designed for browsing and for examining the law that seems at that particular moment most pertinent to you.
Say you are experiencing problems with a superior and cannot understand why your efforts have not lead to more gratitude or a promotion. Several laws specifically address the master-underling relationship, and you are almost certainly transgressing one of them. By browsing the initial paragraphs for the 48 laws in the table of contents, you can identify the pertinent law.
Finally, the book can be browsed through and picked apart for entertainment, for an enjoyable ride through the foibles and great deeds of our predecessors in power. The Definitive Guide To The Games People… 571
A warning, however, to those who use the book for this purpose: It might be better to turn back. Power is endlessly seductive and deceptive in its own way. It is a labyrinth-your mind becomes consumed with solving its infinite problems, and you soon realize how pleasantly lost you have become.
In other words, it becomes most amusing by taking it seriously. Do not be frivolous with such a critical matter. The gods of power frown on the frivolous; they give ultimate satisfaction only to those who study and reflect, and punish those who skim the surfaces looking for a good time.
“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowl- edge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.”
THE PRINCE, Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527
Maybe you agree with me, maybe you don’t. Whatever you believe is right. But for me there is no more powerful asset to have than the ability to hone your ability to read people and this resource is the finest I’ve come across at enhancing this skill.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 117
Vice President Joe Biden Is Gonna Help You Get Wealthy
Hey you, It’s #2.
Not all politicians are worthless.
Joe Biden is gonna help you get wealthy, not on his own, but with help from Eben Pagan. This is all made possible through teamwork, Joe lending his charm, and Eben lending the brains, via my notes on the first session of his fast start program included in his Self Made Wealth program.
LET THE ECONOMIC STIMULATION BEGIN…
One of the things that robs us of wealth is worrying about the things we don’t have because we don’t have wealth.
So, take out a piece of paper or… as Eben, as well as Jim Rohn as well as Tony Robbins talks about being important, take out a hardbound journal and go through this little exercise and take this ride with Eben into what he deems as a critical process for building wealth.
Write down everything you worry about when it comes to money & finance.
This could be a whole shit load of stuff but write until you run out of things that pop into your mind. What do you worry about, what do you fear, what creates tension in your body by just thinking of it? Try to write for a least 10 minutes straight.
Yeah, when I said “exercise” your mind started wailing didn’t it, but all you need to donate TO YOURSELF today is 10 measly minutes. And you don’t have to write out full blown dissertation style answers. If you’re worried about getting your car fixed, you don’t have to write the story about it, just note “Fixing Car”
5-10 words max. Go. Vice President Joe Biden Is Gonna Help… 573
Now for the second part of the exercise that re-directionalizes (Eben’s learning from Jay Abraham & Don King about the fine art of making up words) our mind.
In Eben’s study of wealth, he’s found that people who make serious money focus on what they want to have happen, not what they don’t want to have happen.
Your Mind is The Google For Gold
When you want to find something and you go to Google and type in a word or phrase, it uses the largest private network of 100 million computers in the world and billions of dollars of research to pull up websites that match what you typed in… in the fraction of a second.
And Guess What? Your Mind Is An Olympic Athlete That Makes Google Look Like They’re In The Spe- cial Olympics
The ability your mind has to calculate and figure things out is amazing. If we’re focused on what we’re scared of WE MAKE THOSE THINGS HAPPEN. Our mind Googles that shit and doesn’t just display it on the screen of our mind but dumps these real-life experiences right in our lap.
I’m sure you’ve heard Michelangelo’s quote of…
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
He knew waaaaaaaaay back then with primitive technology that this was a governing rule of the universe and that it worked both ways.
So, on the other hand if we focus on what we want to have happen, the outcome we want, the picture we want to create, the value we want to create, the asset we want to create, the wealth we want to create, then we move towards that.
You’ve got to have a vision of what you want for your mind to move towards it, not too unlike you have to type something into Google for it to move.
Now go through your list and put a star next to the 3-5 things on the list that are the most important issues, the stuff you worry about that’s as a Vice President Joe Biden would put it, are a “Big Fucking Deal.”
These 3-5 BFD’s make up 80% of the strain on your mental capacity and the problems on the list you’ve made.
Have you got the top 3-5? Now we’re gonna turn those fears, frustrations and worries into positively framed questions that start with the word “HOW”. 574 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If you’re worried about not being able to pay your mortgage payment this month, you write out a question that reads like such…
“How Do I Make Sure That My Mortgage Gets Paid This Month?”
Can you see the thinking behind this? The worry is about something negative and if left alone at “I don’t know how I’m gonna make the mortgage this month”, it can’t help but keep you focused on the problem instead of the solutions.
Your mind is a big feedback mechanism and once you start it on a path it just keeps on going. Once again, think Google. If you enter a broad enough term it’s going to list millions of pages, thoughts, on that topic.
With you enter a negative search term into your mind, “Why is Obama, the anti-christ, ruining the country?” it starts spiraling you into pessimism, fear, worry, and then emotions start affecting the way you actually feel and can lead to headaches, chest pains, sphincter pains, you name it.
On the other hand if you learn to re-focus your mind in the direction of what you want you mind starts thinking of answers of how you can have that. This is the only way you can come up with new possibili- ties, answers to your challenge.
Now, you want to go and re-frame, re-focus those top 3-5 “Big Fucking Deals” and ask a positive future focused question that begins with the word “How”.
Then, after you’ve written it, start asking yourself the question and see the answers that come to your mind and notice the quality of them.
A way to kick this up a notch is to add one word into your question, “Allow.”
“How can I allow myself to find a way to make sure my mortgage gets paid this month.”
“Allow” is powerful word when it comes to focusing on what you want. Allow is the opposite of resistance, a counter. It takes pressure off of your mind.
Do these exercises and as always, feel free to leave your ideas about what you discovered here below.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 118
The Story of Why You’re Either Happy Or Unhappy About How Much Money You Let Yourself Deposit In The Bank
Hey You, It’s #2.
Today I’m sharing with you notes on the 2nd fast start session from Eben Pagan’s Self Made Wealth Pro- gram.
“People wish to be settled; only as far as they are un-settled is there any hope for them.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Our minds think in stories, pictures, metaphors, analogies and examples.
This is why remembering fiction books or movies is so easy. When people try to teach with PURE FACTS it’s simple for you to forget. It works this way because if we can’t link up new info to what’s already familiar in our minds, we get bored, blank out and move onto a shiny bright object either physically or in our mind.
So… what happens is that if you… keep replaying what feels like a story to you about a particular topic, that becomes “The Way It Is.”
What’s Your Story About Money?
Take out your blank piece of paper or go to your journal and write at the top “My Story of Money.”
Now, dig up all of your memories about money, everything from the first conversations you remember hearing about it from your parents, any drama that showed up related to money, what happened in the house when money was absolutely necessary.
What’s the story that was written in your mind about money? 576 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Now write. Ideally you want to do this for 10-15 minutes but anything is better than nothing. And, you don’t have to write out the whole story; 5-10 words will let you know what memory you mean.
If you heard, “There’s money everywhere, there’s plenty of money for everyone to have,” you can write, “There’s a no shortage of money.”
You get the picture, right? O.K. Pause now & write.
What insights did you come up with?
Here’s a few of mine… • • You depend on other people for your money. In my case it was welfare & child support & mom’s cur- rent boyfriend up until she got married. Money gets doled out to you by an authority little by little. • • • Expensive/Excess is bad. I can still remember going out to eat with my dad’s new family as a kid and doing whatever I could to not order something to expensive. Drinks to go along with dinner? Yeah, right, you better enjoy that water. • • • Saving/Investing Was Something Rich People Did. I don’t think my mom ever had a savings account of her own in her whole life. Let alone a savings account with piles of money in it. You only saved or invested if you were a rich white person who had plenty of money to do so. •
Maybe you’re one of the billions of people who went out and saw AVATAR on the big screen in 3D. I’m not. I saw it on my T.V.
And guess what? Because I didn’t see it in the theater I got the watered down, Good; Not Great experience. I completely missed out on the effect James Cameron meant for me to have, one that cost millions of dollars to produce that was right there for the taking.
The tough, revealing, and thought-provoking questions, not endless loop ones like “Why Me, god?” act as 3D glasses that reveal the FULL STORY of why you do what you do. Especially in the wealth department.
When I look at my story I can see why I’ve had a love/hate relationship with spending everything that came in. Looking back I’m probably lucky that my mom couldn’t get credit because then I would’ve been pro- grammed to spend MORE than I earn. That, my friend is something I’m grateful for.
Answering These Questions Serve As Your Mental Magic Glasses For Our Whole Financial Past & Present. The Story of Why You’re Either Happy Or… 577
If money was tough to come by and there were lots of fights about it in your family when you where a child, it should serve as no surprise that when you’re an adult and money becomes scarce, that you start experi- encing the same bad feelings that made your parents and elders act as they did.
As we all know, people fight over money, they steal it, they kill for it. The reality is that the money has nothing to do with all of those behaviors. People don’t want money just for money’s sake.
When you really boil it down, people do everything they do for one of three reasons: 1. 2. To feel approval
1. 2. To feel like they’re in control.
1. 2. To feel secure
Money is just a vehicle to get to those feelings.
Money isn’t the problem. Money acts as an accelerator peddle. If someone has criminal and addictive ten- dencies and they come into a lot of money all of a sudden, usually it acts as an accelerator pedal that sends them into the dark side.
Maybe they go towards drugs, gambling or some other crazy lifestyle which has lead to many a person being killed or killing themselves.
If someone is a kind soul who wants to help others and they come into a lot of money often times, if they lose it, it was in pursuit of helping other people, giving it away. And if they keep their wealth through man- aging it well they make a huge impact on the world.
Now focus on how your story serves as your pair of magic glasses.
Look at your current financial situation and ask, “How is my current situation around wealth, money, finances, debt, how is it related to my story I picked up when I could barely wipe my own ass?
Write down 10 ways you can see how your experience right now in life is connected to your story of money.
Your story might be empowering; it might not be. If it isn’t and you do this, you’ll be in a class of 5-15% of courageous people in the world brave enough to look at what isn’t pretty in their past. Avoid it and stay prisoner to a story not of your own design, not conducive to you attaining self made wealth for the rest of your life.
The choice is up to you. 578 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
See ya soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 119
Is Your Income Under Attack From Someone You Know Personally?
Hey you, It’s #2.
Don’t know if you know this or not but data has proven that retail businessemployees and delivery people steal waaaaay more from the stores they work for than “Shoplifters” do.
Insiders know all the angles which give them the best chance of getting away with the crime. Well, the same can be said for your income. Lot’s of people, who’re being egged on by the press are out to blame external forces for their money woes when in fact there’s someone far closer to home that may be to blame.
Today, I’m laying the notes for Fast Start Session 3 of Eben Pagan’s Self Made Wealth program. The focus today is on how you feel about wealthy & Successful people.
Answering the following questions for me was tongue lolling-out, stunning, experience.
Now get out a blank piece of paper or go to your super dee duper hard bound journal and write down all of your feelings about wealthy people and success but don’t just write down any feelings. The feelings we’re looking to pull come from answering these specific questions… 1. 2. When you think about wealthy people, what kinds of people do you think most of them are? 3. How do you feel when someone else has success or wealth? How do you feel emotionally when you see someone else get success or wealth, or do better than you; have a big giant success that you didn’t get any of?
And maybe it’s not “fair”… winning the lottery, inheriting money, bullshit lawsuit, someone selling their business for millions of dollars, friend of yours finds a wallet in the street with $500 bucks in it, with no I.D. and turns it into the cops and no one claims it after a week so he gets to keep the money… 580 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One whatever the scenario, when a person that’s not you catches a break, what comes up for you emotion- ally? How do you feel? And then what thoughts are triggered?
This is kind of a rough exercise to do because most people blame other people for their problems because it can be so painful to take responsibility. Also we’ve been reinforced that it’s a good idea, that’s it’s normal for us to feel bad when we witness someone else having wealth or success. Kinda like the blind leading the blind only it’s loser thinking leading to loser thinking.
Eben has found that through knowing hundreds of highly successful people, that by in large, they’re great people. They’re very kind. They’re very generous with their time and with their money. They tend to give away more of what they have than other people and some people might snap, “They should. They have more than everyone else!” That’s not having empathy and going into that person’s world.
Are You Rich?
I could only imagine that if I was making $40,000.00 a year and the people in the slums of Calcutta, India told me I should give them money because I was rich, which in their country I would be, I’d be pretty annoyed.
And one might be tempted to say $40,000.00 is barely enough to live on in this country and it is… if you piss money away. $40,000.00 a year is PLENTY to take care of needs; 3 solid meals a day, roof over your head, clothing on your body. Only when we splurge on “wants” – designer shoes, hand bags, pants, rims for our car, name brand vs. generic grocerys, satellite T.V., having other people cook & serve us our food at restaurants, 80” plasma screen televisions, Ipods, Iphones, vacations, on and on, is $40,000.00 barely enough to live on.
Leave wants out of the equation and even a “rich” person making forty grand has money to send to India.
Now I loooove nice, hell, even luxurious shit. I looove convenience. I just don’t confuse those two with necessities and delude myself into thinking “I’m poor if I don’t have them.” What helps ground me is remembering I live in a country people come to, to build a fortune.
As Jim Rohn said, “No one says, “If I can only get to Denmark, then I’ll make it big.”
Just by the fact that I have access to paved highways, drinkable water, and books makes me wealthier than a lotttttt of people on the planet.
And Eben has found that the more wealthy someone becomes the more benevolent they become. They don’t try to hoard their fortune. They just resent people telling them what they should or shouldn’t do. Just like any other person on the planet does.
Most people when seeing someone else stumble into a windfall, a raise at work, winning the lotto, winning at the casino… they usually feel like they LOST something. They feel like they should get some of that. Is Your Income Under Attack From Someone… 581
Why is it important for us to face these things?
Because we can’t become wealthy if we’re projecting bad feelings onto people who are wealthy or lucky. That’s just common sense when you step back and look at it, but in the heat of the moment when you’re neck deep in it, and you go on auto-pilot and the programming kicks in, it seems normal.
I used to be horrible at this. I’m still far from perfect. But only by mentors like Eben prodding with tough questions have I seen the fault in my thinking.
For instance, I can remember for ages hating the pretty boys, you know, the guys with perfect hair, perfect smiles, perfect clothes, that would get all the hottest girls. I wanted to pull a “Raging Bull”, and bash their face in, tussle their hair and wrinkle their school clothes so they wouldn’t be so pretty anymore. All the better if I could do this in front of the girls so they’d see what a wussbag the guy was.
It was jacked up to level 11 if the guy was “Rich” on top of being a “Hunk.”
Crazy thinking, eh? Not to me it wasn’t. What was crazy was that I’m a handsome guy, and still am, and yet I always thought these were natural thoughts and therefore, never made the connection that these programs were directly responsible for my feeling soooo needy and insecure around girls, especially the ladies who I perceived to be out of my league. DUH!!!
How Do You Overcome Loser Thinking?
Eben is a huge fan of Harv Eker, author of “The Millionaire Mind.” Harv talks about a saying that comes from the Hawaiian Huna Tradition. In Huna they say, “Bless that which you want.”
What you can do from now on anytime you see or hear about a wealthy or successful person, in your mind, is send them a blessing. Send them love and great wishes. Feel happy for them and appreciate for them what life must be like living in their shoes.
Bless That Which You Want.
For this 2nd part of the exercise what you want to do is write down a list of 5-10 wealthy people you can think of; people that you know, that have had good fortune shine upon them and then close your eyes and in your head or out loud say, “Bless You. I really wish you the best.” And feel happy for them.
Now, of course just doing this doesn’t guarantee you’re gonna get rich. It doesn’t guarantee your dream mate’s gonna come seduce you. This does nothing but guarantee you don’t feel like a jealous, insecure shit weasel when in the presence of wealth or greatness.
Do this now so you can take it for checking. Don’t believe me or Eben. Convince yourself of how easy and profound this can be. Close your eyes, go inside and think of those 5-10 people and appreciate, bless, and send them great wishes. Enjoy those great feelings. 582 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 120
What Would You Buy With A Million Bucks?
Hey You, It’s #2.
Question: What would do or buy if you had a million dollars in cash sitting in front of you right now?
It’s all yours and you can do anything you want with it.
This question is the sole focus of Eben Pagan’s 4th Fast Start Session of his Self Made Wealth Program.
So, take out a sheet of paper or go to your trusty dusty journal write for 10 or 15 minutes and just jot down quick sentences that you’ll know what they mean. Not necessary for you write a whole story. What would you do and what would you buy if there was a cool mil in cash was sitting in front of you right now?
Make your wish list now and come back when you’re done and see what your list means.
Now, skim your list and look for all the Assets; things that would grow in value over time and things that would throw off other value or wealth or cash flow.
How many of the things on your list are assets as opposed to things where you’d spend the money and you’d have nothing to show for it or would depreciate in value or are ways to get rid of the money in a way that you’d never get it back. For example: Ultra luxurious dinners, High end clothing, brand new vehicles, boats, planes, posh hand bags, $4,000.00 umbrellas, 80” plasma T.V.’s for every room in the house including the bathrooms, etc.
Look at your list and see what percentage fall into this category.
Trailer Park Mindset vs. Oracle of Omaha Mindset 584 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Warren Buffet, who as of this moment, is the 3rd richest person on the planet, lives in a home that a teacher could afford to finance himself into. Don’t know what Warren’s driving these days but back in 2006 he auc- tioned the 2001 Lincoln Towncar he’d been driving for 5 years on eBay to raise money for a charity. What’s awesome is that shortly after this, he bumped Bill Gates off of the pedestal of Richest Man On Earth. This means the soon to be wealthiest man alive had been putting around in an 5 year old sedan, a car your local bank manager could’ve easily financed his way into.
Most of the times when Eben has had people do this he’s found that 95-100% of the things listed are liabili- ties.
Something like “Buying a bigger home,” is more times than not about someone’s ego getting in the way and lusting after having a “Bigger Dick” than their buddies at work so they can show off as opposed to… looking for the absolute best value that would grow over the long term and then take this much money and dump it in mutual funds because then I could be using the yield off of that to pay my property taxes and the other fees on the home every year.
Most people just want the shiny objects so they can put on a show for other people.
So be honest. Go put a star next to the things that would actually be assets, things that would grow in value and throw off cash over time.
Our programming around money is not to go buy geese that lay golden eggs. Our programming is go buy golden eggs so we can have the gold right now. If you want to shift your wealth, you have to shift the way you see the world so that when you come into a little money, an asset or create some value in the world, that the first thing you think of isn’t “How I can I get rid of this and get an experience or something that declines in value and will never come back?” but rather “How can I take this resource and create an asset, a goose that lays fat golden eggs over and over and over?”
Now make another list by asking the question…
“If you had a million bucks in cash, how could you use it to buy 3 or 5 golden geese? What could you buy that would be assets, that would grow in value and throw off cash flow over time so that you can keep collecting that cash flow for life?”
Just asking yourself these questions separates you from 95% of population. If you don’t know the answers, you can go out and find them, preferably from people who don’t just talk about it, but actually do it with their own money, successfully and have done so for many a moon with comforting consistency.
Words to Live By: “If You Can’t Explain It, Don’t Invest In It.” Warren Buffett
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 121
All News Is Good News
Hey you, It’s #2.
Have you ever been dealt a shitty hand in life that you felt was unjustified, evil and just plain fuckin’ wrong?
Welcome to the club.
When I was very young, Napoleon Hill gave me my first re-frame, different way of looking at, disastrous events or circumstances. The belief he installed in me was “Within every adversity, lies an equivalent or greater benefit.” This is real easy to say when everything is lav, lav, lovely. But when you’re in the thick of drama, you might be tempted to tell people who quote Hill, to shove it up their ass a thousand times so they have a big asshole.
Even though looking for how the situation can serve you is probably the best advice you could get. It’s about a jillion times better than commiserating day in day out with that same person about how they’ve been royally screwed without Vaseline.
Dan Kennedy in his Wealth Attraction seminar tells the story of the Investment banker in New York City who was on top of the world one day, and the bottom the next.
This investment banker was the king of investment bankers and was living high on the hog. One of the ways he would treat his royal self was with the company of the worlds most expensive strippers. “Dancers” fit for a king.
Well, in between cup cake talk, he doled out a stock tip here and a stock tip there. Someone who must not have had any love for this guy ran their mouth to the authorities. Next thing you know, he’s strung up on ‘Insider Trading’ charges just like Martha Stewart.
Off to prison he goes. 586 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Pretty shitty event, eh? While sitting in the slammer, I can imagine he’s thinking “This has gotta be the worst thing that ever happened to me,” that is until September 11th, 2001. His luxurious office, where he would’ve been working had he not been ratted out, was located on the floor in the World Trade Center where one of the planes plowed into.
None of his former co-workers survived. All of sudden… worst thing that ever happened to me, ends up being the best thing that ever happened to me. This and many other examples like it caused Dan Kennedy to believe that “All News Is Good News.”
Below I’ve posted the video from Conan O’ Brien’s visit to Google this last week. In my opinion, it’s sheer comedic brilliance. He’s taking random questions from the google employees and is tearing the room up in laughter.
Well, as you may have seen on 20/20 this past week, Conan can now talk freely about what happened at NBC. You know, how he got “Raped” out his prestigious post of lead man of “The Tonight Show” by Jay Leno and all. Well Google didn’t hesitate ask him his thoughts on that. Did he whine like a bitch or did he man up?
Watch, laugh and hear for yourself… I guarantee there’s a mighty lesson to be found.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7TwqpWiY5s] CHAPTER 122
The Free Method To Grabbing The Internet By The Balls And Making It Serve You
Hey you, It’s #2.
Have you ever had to claw a deathgrip into another mans ball sack in a street fight so that you could end up sleeping between your own sheets instead of the ones at the hospital? If the answer is no, for which most of you it will be, my experience in seeing this done, is that it immediately dissolves any and all resistance from the formerly resistant party and they become all ears.
It’s kinda magical.
Today I want to to talk to you about a mindset and two social media sites that allow you to grab the internet by the balls so that you can either step into a new market with almost none of the drama that comes with this process or… dig up and evaporate any objections your current market has that you don’t know about, that once repaired, help you serve them at the next highest level… or, find out what they’re begging for you to give them.
And when you adopt this mindset and use these free tools… social media can be useful to the point that it helps you talk to your target market in a way that will get them to sit up and listen to what you have to say… without you having to be a “Social Networking Ninja”.
This is a killer marketing lesson from the mouth of ahhh… an ‘alleged’ killer… and his nerdy side kick.
The content I’m sharing with you comes directly from the 7th chapter of “The 5oth Law” written by Robert Greene and the world famous rapper 50 Cent. In this chapter, which I’ve painstakingly typed out for you here, there are countless examples starting from how a parent-less child, who grew up to be sent to prison and later be shot 9 times and LIVE through it… became an industry leader by grabbing the music industry 588 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One by the balls all the way to how the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt helped her husband run the country by grabbing the attention of the nation.
Let the discovery begin…
Know Your Environment From The Inside Out – Connection
Most people think first of what they want to express or make, then find the audience for their idea. You must work the opposite angle, thinking first of the public, you need to keep your focus on their changing needs, the trends that are washing through them. Beginning with their demand, you create the appropriate supply. Do not be afraid of people’s criticisms – without such feedback your work will be too personal and delusional. You msut maintain as close a relationship to your environment as possible, getting an inside “Feel” for what is happening around you. Never lose touch with your base.
Hood Economics
“I knew that the ghetto people knew that I never left the ghetto in spirit, and I never left it physically any more than I had to. I had a ghetto instinct; for instance, I could feel if tension was beyond normal in a ghetto audience. And I could speak and understand the ghetto’s language.”
Malcom X
Starting out as a drug dealer at the age of twelve, Curtis Jackson faced an unfamiliar world that contained all kinds of dangers. The business side of hustling was relatively easy to figure out. It was the people, the var- ious actors in the game – the rival hustlers, the big-time dealers, the police – who could be tricky.
But strangest and most impenetrable of all was the world of drug users themselves, the clientele upon which his business depended. Their behavior could be erratic and even downright frightening.
With rival hustlers and the police, Curtis could get inside their way of thinking because they all operated with a degree of rationality. But the drug fiends seemed to be dominated by their needs, and they could turn unfriendly or violent at any moment. Many dealers developed a kind of phobia of the fiends.
They saw in them the weaknesses and dependence that could befall anyone who succumbed to addiction. The hustler relies on his razor-sharp mind; to even flirt with drug use could destroy such power and lead him down the slippery slope towards dependence. If he was around the fiends too much he could become a user himself. Curtis understood this and kept his distance from them, but this aspect of hustling bothered him.
On one particular occasion, the fiends were suddenly avoiding him and he could not figure out why. All he knew was that he could not sell a batch of drugs that he had on consignment. Under such an arrangement, a higher-up source, or connect, had given him the drugs for free; once he sold the entire lot, he would return a specified amount of the earnings to the connect and keep the rest as profit. The Free Method To Grabbing The Internet… 589
But in this instance it looked like he would not make nearly enough to pay back the connect.
That could prove damaging to his reputation and lead to all kinds of trouble; he might have to steal to get the money.
Feeling somewhat desperate, he went into full hustling mode, working night and day, offering all kinds of discounts, whatever it took to unload the drugs. He managed to make back just enough, but it was a close call. Perhaps the quality of the batch he was selling was inferior, but how could he tell beforehand and how could he prevent this from happening again and again?
One day he sought the advice of a man named, Dre, an older hustler who had lasted and unusually long time dealing drugs on the streets. He was considered a sharp businessman (in prison he had studied eco- nomics on his own), and he seemed to have an especially good rapport with the fiends.
Dre explained to Curtis that in his experience there are two kinds of hustlers in this world – those who stay on the outside, and those who move to the inside.
The outside types never bother to learn anything about their customers. It’s just about the money and num- bers. They have no concept of psychology or the nuances of people’s needs and demands. They’re afraid of getting too close to the customer – that might force them to reassess their ideas and methods.
The superior hustler moves to the inside. He’s not afraid of the fiends; he wants to find out what’s going on in their heads. Drug users are no different from anyone else. They have phobias and bouts of boredom and a whole inner life.
Because you remain on the outside, he told Curtis, you don’t see any of this and your hustling is purely mechanical and dead.
To raise your game, he explained, you have to first put into practice one of the oldest hustling tricks in the book – the “tester.” What this means is the following: whenever you get a batch of drugs, you separate a portion of it to give out for free to certain fiends. They tell you right there on the spot whether the stuff is good or bad.
If their feedback is positive, they will spread the word through their own networks, and such reports are so much more credible coming from a fellow user, than reports from a hustler hyping his own stuff. If the feedback is negative, you will have to adjust and find some way to cut it, to offer “Illusions” (apparent two for one deals, with the capsules simply loaded with dust), whatever it takes to unload it. But you must always operate with feedback on the quality of your product. Otherwise you will not survive on these streets.
Once you have this system in place, you use it to cultivate relationships with your most reliable fiends. They supply you with valuable information about any kind of change in tastes that are happening. Talking to the you get all kinds of ideas for marketing schemes and new angles for hustling. You gain a feel for how they 590 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One think. From this inside position, the whole game explodes into something creative and alive with possi- bility.
Curtis quickly incorporated this system and soon discovered that the drug fiends were not at all as he had imagined.
They became erratic only when you were not consistent in your dealings with them. They valued conven- ience and fast transactions, wanted something new every now and then and loved the thought of any kind of deal.
With this growing body of knowledge he could play to their needs and manipulate their demand. He dis- covered something else – spending much of their time on the streets, they were a great source of informa- tion about what was going on with the police, or the weaknesses of rival hustlers. Knowing so much about the neighborhood gave him a feeling of great power.
Later he would translate this same strategy to music and his mix-tape campaign on the streets of New York. Maintaining a close connection to the tastes of his fans, he would alter his music to their responses and create the kind of sound that had a visceral appeal, something they had never heard before.
After the remarkable success of his first two commercial albums, Curtis (now known as 50 Cent) stood on top of the music world, but his sense of connection, so vital on the streets, was fading in this new environ- ment he now inhabited.
He was surrounded by flatterers who wanted to be in his entourage, and managers and industry people who saw in him only dollar signs. His main interactions were with people in the corporate world or other stars. He could no longer hang out on the streets or get firsthand looks at the trends that were just starting up.
All of this meant that he was flying blind with his music, not really sure if it would connect anymore with his audience. They were the source of his energy and spirit, but the distance separating them was growing. Other stars seemed to not mind this; in fact, they enjoyed living in this kind of celebrity bubble. They were afraid of coming back down to earth. Fifty felt the opposite, but there seemed to be no way out.
Then in early 2007, he decided to start up his own website.
He thought of it as a way to market his music and merchandise directly to the public, without the screen of his record label, which was proving quite inept in adapting to the Internet age.
Soon this site transformed itself into a social networking site, like Facebook for his fans, and the more he delved into it, the more he began to sense that this represented much more than a marketing gimmick—it was perhaps the ultimate marketing tool for reconnecting with his audience.
First he decided to experiment. As he prepared to launch a G-Unit record in the summer of 2008, he leaked one of the songs onto the website on a Friday night, then the next day he refreshed the Comments page every few minutes and tracked the members’ responses to it. The Free Method To Grabbing The Internet… 591
After several hundred comments it was clear that the verdict was negative.
The song was too soft, they judged; they wanted and expected something harder from a G-Unit record. Taking their criticisms to heart, he shelvedthe song and soon released another, creating the hard sound they had demanded. This time the response was overwhelmingly positive.
This called for more experiments. He put up the latest single from his archenemy, The Game, hoping to read negative comments from his fans. To his surprise, many of them liked the song. He engaged in an online debate with them and had his eyes opened about changes in people’s tastes and why they might have grown distant from his music.
It forced him to rethink his own direction.
To draw more people to his site, he decided to break down the distance in both directions. He posted blogs on personal subjects, and then responded to his fans’ comments. They could feel they had com- plete access to him.
Using the latest advances in phone technology, he took this further, having his team film him on their cell phones wherever he went; these images were then streamed live on the website. This generated intense traffic and online chatter – fans would never know when such moments could happen, so they were forced to check in at regular intervals to try to catch these spontaneous moments, sometimes riveting in their banality, other times made dramatic by Fifty’s flair for confrontation.
Membership grew by leaps and bounds.
As it evolved, the website came to strangely resemble the world of hustling that he had created for himself on the streets of Southside Queens. He could produce testers (trial songs) for his fans, who were like drug fiends, constantly hungry for new product from Fifty, and he could get instant feedback on their quality.
He could develop a feel for what they were looking for and how he could manipulate their demand. He had moved from the outside to the inside, and the hustling game came alive once more, this time on a global scale.
The Fearless Approach
“The public is never wrong. When people don’t respond to what you do, they’re telling you something loud and clear. You’re just not listening.”
50 Cent
“They’re smarter than you when it comes to opening their wallet.”
Brian Clark of Copyblogger.com fame 592 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
All living creatures depend for their survival on their relationship to their environment. If they are particu- larly sensitive to any kind of change – a danger or an opportunity – they have greater power to dominate their surroundings.
It is not simply that the hawk can see farther than any other creature, but that it can see great detail, picking out the slightest alteration in the landscape. It’s eyes give it tremendous sensitivity and supreme hunting prowess.
We live in an environment that is mostly human. It consists of the people that we interact with day in and day out. These humans come from many varied backgrounds and cultures. They are individuals with their own unique experiences.
To know people well—their differences, their nuances, their emotional life—would give us great sense of connection and power. We would know how to reach them, communicate more effectively, and influ- ence their actions. But so often we remain on the outside and lack this power. To connect to this envi- ronment in this way would mean having to move outside ourselves, train our eyes on people, but so often we prefer to live in our heads, amid our own thoughts and dreams.
We strive to make everything in the world familiar and simple. We grow insensitive to people’s differences, to the details that make them individuals.
At the root of this turning inward and disconnect is a great fear—one of the most primal known to man, and perhaps the least understood. In the beginning, our primitive ancestors formed groups for protection. To create a sense of cohesion, they established all kinds of codes of behavior, taboos, and shared rituals.
They also created myths in which their tribe was considered to be the favorite of the gods, chosen for some great purpose. To be a member of the tribe was to be cleansed by rituals and to be favored by the gods. Those who belonged to other groups had unfamiliar rituals and belief systems—their own gods and origin myths.
They were not clean.
They represented the Other – something dark, threatening and a challenge to the tribe’s sense of superi- ority.
This was part of our psychological makeup for thousands upon thousands of years. It transformed itself into a great fear of other cultures and ways of thinking – for Christians, this meant all heathens.
And despite millennia of civilization, it lives on within us to this day, in the form of a mental process in which we divide the world into what is familiar and unfamiliar, clean and unclean.
We develop certain ideas and values; we socialize with those who share those values, who form part of our inner circle, our clique. We form factions of rigid beliefs – on the right, on the left, for this or for that. We live in our heads, with the same thoughts and ideas over and over, cocooned from the outside world. The Free Method To Grabbing The Internet… 593
When we are confronted with people or individuals who have different values and belief systems, we feel threatened.
Our first move is NOT to understand them but to demonize them – that shadowy Other. Alternatively, we may choose to look at them through the prism of our own values and assume they share them.
We mentally convert the Other into something familiar – “they may come from a completely different cul- ture, but after all, they must want the same things we do.” This is a failure of our minds to move outward and understand, to be sensitive to nuance. Everything must be white or black, clean or unclean.
Understand: the opposite approach is the way to power in this world.
It begins with a fundamental fearlessness – you do not feel afraid or affronted by people who have different ways of thinking or acting. You do not feel superior to those on the outside. In fact, you are excited by such diversity.
Your first move is to open up your spirit to these differences, to understand what makes the Other tick, to gain a feel for people’s inner lives, how they see the world. In this way, you continually expose yourself to wider and wider circles of people, building connections to these various networks. The source of your power is your sensitivity and closeness to this social environment. You can detect trends and changes in people’s tastes well before anyone else.
In the hood, conditions are more crowded than elsewhere; people with all kinds of different psychologies are constantly in your face. Any power you have depends on your ability to know everything that is going on around you, to be sensitive to changes, aware of the power structures that are imposed from without and within.
There is no time or room to escape to some inner dreamland. You have a sense of urgency to stay con- nected to the environment and the people around you – your life depends on it.
We now live in similar conditions – all kinds of people of divergent cultures and psychologies are thrown together. But because we live in a society of more apparent abundance and ease, we lack that sense of urgency to connect to other people.
This is dangerous. In such a melting pot as the modern world, with people’s tastes changing at a faster pace than ever before, our success depends on our ability to move outside ourselves and connect to other social networks. At all costsyou need to continually force yourself outward. You must reach a point where any sense of losing this connection with your environment translates into a feeling of vulnerability and peril.
In the end this primal fear of ours translates into a mental infirmity—the closing of the mind to any ideas that are new and unfamiliar. The fearless types in history learn to develop the opposite: an open spirit, a mind that is constantly learning from experience. 594 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Look at the example of the great British primatologist Jane Goodall, whose field research revolutionized our ideas on chimpanzees and primates.
Prior to Goodall’s work, scientists had established certain accepted ideas on how to do research on animals such as chimpanzees. They were mostly to be studied in cages under very controlled circumstances.
On occasion, primatologists would research in the wild; they would come up with various tricks to lure the chimpanzees closer to them, while remaining hidden behind some kind of protective screen. They would conduct experiments by manipulating the animals and noting their responses.
The goal was to come up with general truths about chimpanzee behavior. Only by keeping their distance from the animals could the scientists study them.
Goodall did not have any formal training in the sciences when she arrived in 1960 in what is now known as Tanzania to study chimpanzees in the wild. Operating totally on her own, she devised a radically different means of research.
The chimps lived in the remotest parts of the country and were notoriously shy. She tracked them from a distance, patiently working to gain their trust. She dressed inconspicuously and was careful to not look them in the eye. When she noticed they were uncomfortable with her being in the area, she moved away, or acted like a baboon that was merely digging for insects.
Slowly, over the course of several months, she was able to move closer and closer. Now she could begin to identify individual chimps that she kept seeing; she gave them names, something scientists had never done before—they had always been designated by numbers.
With these names, she could begin to detect subtle nuances in their individual behavior; they had different personalities, like humans. After nearly a year of this patient seduction, the chimps began to relax in her presence and allow her to interact with them, something no one had ever achieved in the history of studying primates in the wild.
This took a tremendous degree of courage, as chimpanzees were considered the most volatile of the pri- mates, more dangerous and violent than gorillas.
As she interacted with them more and more, she noticed a change in herself as well. “I think my mind works like a chimp’s subconsciously,” she wrote a friend. She felt this because she had developed an uncanny ability to find them in the forest.
Now gaining access to them, she took note of several phenomena that belied the accepted data on chim- panzee behavior. Scientists had catalogued the animals as vegetarians; she observed them hunting and eating monkeys.
Only humans were considered capable of making and using tools; she saw them crafting elaborate instru- ments to catch insects for food. The Free Method To Grabbing The Internet… 595
She saw them engage in bizarre dance rituals during a rainstorm. She later observed a horrific war that went on for four years between rival packs. She catalogued some rather Machiavellian behavior among the males who fought for supremacy.
All in all, she revealed a degree of variety in their emotional and intellectual lives that altered the concept not only of chimpanzees but also of all primates and mammals.
This has great application beyond the realms of science. Normally when you study something, you begin with certain preconceived notions about the subject. (Because scientists had come to believe that chimpan- zees had a limited range of behavior, that is all that they saw, missing the much more complex reality.)
Your mind begins to process in a closed state – not really sensitive to difference and nuance. You are afraid of having your assumptions challenged.
Instead, like Goodall, you must let go of this need to control and narrow your field of vision. When you study the individual or a group, your goal is to get inside their minds, their experiences, their way of looking at things.
To do this, you must interact with them on a more equal plane. With this open and fearless spirit, you will have a much deeper appreciation for the targets of your actions or the public you are trying to reach. And with such understanding will come the power to move them.
Keys To Fearlessness
“Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.”
-Francois de La Rochefoucauld-
In the work that we produce for business or for culture, there is always a telling moment- when it leaves our hands and reaches the public for which it was intended. In that instant it ceases to be something in our heads; it becomes an object that is judged by others.
Sometimes this object connects with people in a profound way. It strikes an emotional chord, resonates, and has warmth. It meets a need. Other times it leaves people surprisingly cold—in our minds we had imagined it having a much different effect.
This process can seem rather mysterious. Some people seem to have a knack for creating things that reso- nate with an audience. They are great artists, politicians with the popular touch, or business people who are endlessly inventive. Sometimes we ourselves produce something that works, but we fail to understand why, and lacking this knowledge, we cannot reproduce our success.
There is an aspect to this phenomenon, however, that is explicable. 596 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Anything we create or produce is for the public—large or small, depending on what we do. If we are the type that lives mostly in our heads, imagining what the intended public will like, or not even caring, this spirit is reproduced in the work itself. It is disconnected from the social environment; it is a product of a person who is wrapped up in him or herself.
If on the other hand, we are deeply connected to the public, if we have a profound sense of their needs and wants, then what we make tends to resonate. We have internalized the way of thinking and feeling of our audience and it shows in the work.
The great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky had almost two separate parts to his career: in the first, he was a socialist who interacted mostly with other intellectuals. His novels and stories were relatively suc- cessful.
But then in 1849 he was sentenced to several years of prison and hard labor in Siberia for ostensibly con- spiring against the government. There, he suddenly discovered that he hadn’t known the Russian people at all. In prison he was thrown among the dregs of society. In the small village where he did his hard labor, he finally mingled with the Russian peasantry that dominated the country.
Once he was freed, all of these experiences became deeply embedded in his work, and suddenly his novels resonated far beyond intellectual circles. He understood his public, the mass of Russian people, from the inside, and his work became immensely popular.
Understand: you cannot disguise your attitude towards the public. If you feel superior at all, part of some chosen elite, then this seeps out in the work.
It is conveyed in the tone and mood. It feels patronizing. If you have little access to the public you are trying to reach but you feel that the ideas in your head cannot fail to be interesting, then it almost inevitably comes across as something too personal, the product of someone who is alienated. In either case, what is really dominating the spirit of your work is fear.
To interact closely with the public and get it’s feedback might mean having to adjust your “brilliant’ ideas, your preconceived notions. This might challenge your tidy vision of the world. You might disguise this with a snobbish veneer, but it is the age-old fear of the Other.
We are social creatures who make things in order to communicate and connect with those around us. Your goal must be to break down the distance between you and your audience, the base of your support in life. Some of this distance is mental – it comes from your ego and the need to feel superior.
Some of it is physical—the nature of your business tends to shut you off from the public with layers of bureaucracy. In any event, what you are seeking is maximum interaction, allowing you to get a feel for people from the inside. You come to thrive off their feedback and criticism. The Free Method To Grabbing The Internet… 597
Operating this way, what you produce will not fail to resonate because it will come from the inside. This deep level of interaction is the source of the most powerful and popular works in culture and business, and a political style that truly connects.
These are four strategies you can use to bring yourself closer to this ideal.
CRUSH ALL DISTANCE
The French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec came from one of the oldest aristocratic bloodlines in France, but from early on he felt estranged from his family.
Part of this came from his physical handicap—his legs had stopped growing at the age of fourteen, giving him a dwarfish appearance. Part of it came from his sensitive nature. He turned to painting as his only interest in life, and in 1882, at the age of eighteen, he moved to Paris to study with a famous artist whose studio was in Montmarte—the bohemian and somewhat seedy part of the city.
There Toulouse-Lautrec discovered a whole new world—the cafés and dance halls frequented by prosti- tutes, con-artists, dancers, street performers, and all the shady characters who found themselves drawn to the this quartier.
Perhaps because of his own alienation from his family, he identified with these outcasts. And slowly he began to immerse himself deeper and deeper in the social life of Montmartre.
He befriended the prostitutes and hired them as models, seeking to capture the essence of their lives on canvas. He returned to the dance halls often and sketched while he watched. He drank with the criminal types and the anarchist agitators who passed through the neighborhood. He absorbed every aspect of this world, including the habits of the rich people who came to the area for entertainment and to slum it.
Other painters like Degas and Renoir, who both lived in Montmartre, painted scenes of life there, but it was always with a sense of distance, as if they were outsiders peeking in. Toulouse-Lautrec was more of an active participant. And as his drawings and paintings began to reflect this immersion, his work drew more atten- tion from the public.
All of this culminated in the posters that he did for the dance hall the Moulin Rouge, which opened in 1889. The first and most famous one of all was a scandalous image of a dancer kicking so high you can see her underwear. The colors are intense and garish.
But strangest of all is the kind of flat space he created, which gives viewers the sensation that they are there onstage with the performers, in the middle of all the activity and bright lights. No one had created anything quite like it before.
When the poster was placed all over the city, people were mesmerized by the image. It seemed to vibrate with a life of it’s own. More and more posters followed of all the figures in the Moulin Rouge whom he 598 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One came to know on intimate terms, and an entire new aesthetic was forged around his complete democratic mingling with his subjects. His work became immensely popular.
Understand: in this day and age, to reach people you must have access to their inner lives—their frus- trations, aspirations, resentments.
To do so, you must crush as much distance as possible between you and your audience. You enter their spirit and absorb it from within. Their way of looking at things becomes yours, and when you re-create it in some form of work, it has a life.
What shocks and excites you will then have the same effect on them. This requires a degree of fearlessness and an open spirit. You are not afraid to have your whole personality shaped by these intense interactions. You assume a radical equality with the public, giving voice to people’s ideas and desires. What you produce will naturally connect in a deep way.
OPEN INFORMAL CHANNELS OF CRITICISM AND FEEDBACK
When Eleanor Roosevelt entered the White House as the First Lady in 1933, it was with much trepidation.
She had a disdain for conventional politics and for the kind of cliquish attitude it fostered. In her mind, her husband’s power would depend on his connection to the people who had elected him.
To get out of the Depression, the public had to feel engaged in the struggle, not merely be seduced by speeches and programs. When people feel involved they bring their won ideas and energy to the cause. Her fear was that the bureaucratic nature of government would swallow up her husband.
He would come to listen to his cabinet members and experts; his contact with the public would be relegated to formal channels such as reports, polls, and studies. This isolation would spell his doom, cutting him off from his base of support. Denied an official position within the administration, she decided to work to create informal channels to the public on her own.
She travelled all over the country—to inner cities and remote rural towns—listening to people’s complaints and needs. She brought many of these people back to meet the president to give him firsthand impressions of the effects of the New Deal.
She started a column in The Woman’s Home Companion, in which she had posted above the headline, “I want you to write me.” She would use her column as a kind of discussion forum with the American public, encouraging people to share their criticisms.
Within six months she received over 300,000 letters, and with her staff she worked to answer every last one of them. She opened other channels of communication, for instance, planting her aides in various New Deal programs who would then poll on her behalf the public affected by these programs. The Free Method To Grabbing The Internet… 599
With this system in place, she began to see a pattern from the bottom up—a growing disenchantment with the New Deal.
Every day, she left a memo in her husband’s basket, reminding him of these criticisms and the need to be more responsive. And slowly she began to have and influence on his policy, pushing him leftward—for instance, getting him to create programs such as the NYA, the National Youth Administration, which would involve young people actively in the New Deal.
Over time she became the unofficial channel of communication for women’s groups and African Ameri- cans, shoring up FDR’s support in these two key constituencies. All of this work took tremendous courage, for she was continually ridiculed for her activist approach, long before any first lady had ever thought of taking such a role. And her work played a major part in FDR’s ability to maintain his image as a man of the people.
As Eleanor understood, any kind of group tends to close itself off from the outside world. It is easier to operate this way.
From within this bubble, people will delude themselves into thinking they have insight into how their audi- ence or public feels—they read the papers, various reports, the poll numbers, etc. But all of this information tends to be flat and highly filtered.
It is much different when you interact directly with the public and hear in the flesh their criticisms and feedback. You discover what lies at the root of their discontent, the various nuances of how your work affects them. Their problems come to life, and any solutions you come up with have more relevance.
You create a back-and-forth dynamic in which their ideas, involvement, and energy can be harnessed for your purposes. If some distance between you and the public must be maintained, by the nature of your group or enterprise, then the ideal is to open up as many informal channels as possible, getting your feed- back straight from the source.
RECONNECT WITH YOUR BASE
We see the following occur over and over: a person has success when they are younger because they have deep ties with a social group.
What they produce and say comes from a real place and connects with an audience. Then slowly they lose this connection. Success creates distance. They come to spend most of their time with other successful people. Consciously or unconsciously, they come to feel separated and above their audience. The intensity in their work is gone and with it any kind of real effect on the public.
In his own way the famous black activist Malcom X struggled with this problem.
He had spent his youth as a savvy street hustler, ending up in prison on drug charges. There, he discovered the religion of Islam, as practiced by the Nation of Islam, and immediately converted. 600 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Out of prison he became a highly visible spokesperson for the group. Eventually he broke off from the Nation of Islam and transformed himself into a leading figure in the growing black power movement of the 1960’s.
In these various phases of his life, Malcom felt intense anger and frustration at the levels of injustice for African Americans, much of which he had experienced firsthand. He channeled these emotions into pow- erful speeches, seeming to give voice to the anger that many felt who lived deep within the ghettos of America.
But as he became more and more famous, he felt some anxiety.
Other leaders in the black community that he had known had begun to live fairly well; they could not help but feel some distance and superiority to those they were supposed to represent—like a father caring for a child.
Malcom hated that feeling of creeping paternalism. In his mind, people can only help themselves—his role was to inspire them to actions, not act in their name. To inoculate himself against this psychic distance, he increased his interactions with street hustlers and agitators, the kind of people from the lower depths that most leaders would scrupulously avoid.
Those from the heart of the ghetto were his power base and he had to reconnect with them. He made him- self spend more time with those who had suffered recent injustices, soaking up their experiences and sense of outrage.
Most people mellow with age—he would retain his anger, the intensity of emotions that had impelled him in the first place and given him his charisma.
The goal in connecting to the public is not to please everyone or to spread yourself out to the widest pos- sible audience. Communication is a power of intensity, not ex tensity and numbers.
In trying to widen your appeal, you will substitute quantity for quality and you will pay a price. You have a base of power—a group of people, small or large, which identifies with you. This base is also mental—ideas you had when you were younger, which were tied to powerful emotions and inspired you to take a partic- ular path.
Time and success tend to diffuse the sense of connection you have to this physical and mental base. You will drift and your powers of communication will diminish.
Know your base and work to reconnect with it. Keep your associations with it alive, intense, and present. Return to your origins—the source of all inspiration and power.
CREATE THE SOCIAL MIRROR
Alone, in our minds, we can imagine we have all kinds of powers and abilities. The Free Method To Grabbing The Internet… 601
Our egos can inflate to any size. But when we produce something that fails to have the expected impact, we are suddenly faced with a limit—we are not as brilliant or skilled as we had imagined.
In such a case, our tendency is to blame others for not understanding it or getting in our way. Our egos are bruised and delicate—criticism from the outside seems like a personal attack, which we cannot endure. We tend to close ourselves off and this makes it doubly difficult to succeed with our next venture.
Instead of turning inward, consider people’s coolness to your idea and their criticisms as a kind of mirror they are holding up to you.
A physical mirror turns you into an object you can see yourself as others see you. Your ego cannot protect you—the mirror does not lie. You use it to correct your appearance and avoid ridicule. The opinions of other people serve a similar function.
You view your work from inside your mind, encrusted with all kinds of desires and fears. They it as an object; they see it as it is. Through their criticisms you can get closer to this objective version and gradually improve what you do. (One caveat: beware of feedback from friends whose judgments could be tainted by feelings of envy or the need to flatter.”
When your work does not communicate with others, consider it your own fault—you did not make your ideas clear enough and you failed to connect with your audience emotionally.
This will spare you any bitterness or anger that might come from people’s critiques. You are simply per- fecting your work through the social mirror.
Reversal Of Perspective
Science and the scientific method are very powerful and practical pursuits of knowledge that have come to dominate much of our thinking for the past few centuries.
But they have also spawned a peculiar preconception—that to understand anything we must study it from a distance and with a detached perspective. For example, we tend to judge a book that is full of statistics and quotes from various studies as carrying more weight because it seems to have requisite scientific objectivity and distance.
Science however, often deals with matter that is inorganic or has a marginal emotional life. Studying such things from a detached perspective makes sense and yields profound results. But this does not translate so well when dealing with people and creatures who respond from an emotional core.
The knowledge of what makes them tick on the inside is missing. To study them from the outside is merely a prejudice, often one stemming from fear—dealing with people’s experiences and subjectivity is messy and chaotic. Distance is cleaner and easier.
It is time to reevaluate this preconception and see things from the opposite perspective. 602 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Knowledge of human nature and social factors, the kind that is often most valuable to us, depends on knowing people and networks from the inside, on getting a feel for what they are experiencing.
This can be best gained by an intense involvement and participation, as opposed to the pseudoscientific pose of the intellectual addicted to studies, citations, and numbers, all designed to back up their preconcep- tions.
This other form of knowledge, from the inside, must be the one that you come to esteem above all the others in social matters.
It is what will give you power to affect people. To the extent that you feel yourself to be distant and on the outside, you must tell yourself you do not understand what you are studying or trying to reach—you are missing the mark and there is work to be done.
“A really intelligent man feels what other man only know.”
Baron De Montesquieu
======
OVERRIDDING MORAL OF THIS WHOLE POST : Go Spend time in the midst of people who give you money or that can give you money.
Here’s a brain dead simple way to do this without leaving the house…
Some of you may use Facebook and Twitter purely for recreation. Some of you maybe haven’t seen the pure potential in these two resources to gain the pulse of your market.
You can use these sites to find your audience. Ask yourself, “Who’s got potential customers of mine fol- lowing them and engaged in rabid conversation?” These conversations are going to immerse you in how the market feels about what you offer, RIGHT NOW… AT THIS VERY MOMENT.
This is incredibly easy and valuable for all the reasons talked about above. What’s also awesome is that all of this super high quality info cost you NOTHING. And it’s waaayyy more accurate than 95% of focus group results or surveys. Especially if the leader these people follow has built a great relationship with their audi- ence.
Two people I can think of who’ve done this on Facebook are Jim Rome, the sports analyst behind the radio broadcast “The Jim Rome Show” and T.V. show on ESPN, “Jim Rome is Burning” and the “Hungry Girl” who is a new author and I’m guessing, built on the back of her personality which is what attracted an inter- active following on Facebook, is soon to have a T.V. show on the Food Network. These two niche celebri- ties pose questions to their followers and get 100’s of answers back.
THIS IS 100% FREE, TARGETED, MARKET RESEARCH The Free Method To Grabbing The Internet… 603
It let’s them know what their crowd wants and what they don’t. What they like and what they hate. What they’d buy or have bought and what they’d burn if they had a chance.
Now if you’re in the food preparing/selling business or the sports apparel/merchandise business you’re bound to mine some gems out of the raw unfiltered feedback these fans are freely sharing amongst their “Friends” (which is usually the place they truth tell).
So what you want to do is go to search.twitter.com and facebook.com and type in the names of the gurus of your industry and start following them.
This is where you be a Jane Goodall. You just either kick back and observe or contribute valuable nuggets of wisdom. DO NOT TRY TO SELL BANANAS TO THE CHIMPANZEES!!!
These groups are highly sensitive to insensitive douche canoes barging in and trying to heave their wares onto them before being accepted into the tribe. The biggest part of making this work, is just showing up and being cool. These people, no doubt about it, love to buy shit but they don’t like it when some foreigner comes in and fucks off the party vibe with blatant sales pitches.
By obnoxiously spamming (which is what the group will see your uninvited pitch fest as), you’ll also sabo- tage any joint venture opportunities with the guru that could’ve come had you just shown up and livened up the party… made the place more fun, more interesting, more engaging.
Parting Words: Stay flexible. Keep observing your readers (and customers), keep paying attention to their needs and wants, and keep challenging your own assumptions. This is one sure shot way to make social media pay off.
Of course there’s 97 other ways to use the interwebz for research and I’m only speaking to two here. Beware of trying to manage multiple social networking sites at once if you’re new to this concept. I’d say 2 is pushing it. My favorite two now are Facebook and Twitter.
If you guys and gals have anything else to add, always feel welcome to chime in. Like Eleanor Roosevelt, “I Want You To Write Me”. Last time I checked I don’t know everything yet so I probably missed an impor- tant point. Robert Greene, 50 Cent and I are far from perfect. Help us get one step closer.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd 2 CHAPTER 123
Disobedience: The Breakfast of Champions
Without laws and religion, one cannot imagine the degree of glory and grandeur that human knowledge “might have achieved.” ~Marquis De Sade 1740-1814~
Hey you,
It’s #2.
How big of herd do you follow?
Notice I asked ‘how big’ and not ‘if’ you follow a herd. We all follow or belong so it’s no matter of if; it’s simply a matter of the size of the group.
I believe there are two main herds that people gravitate towards: the “Scared shitless of rocking the boat because they fear change and what people will think of them” herd or… a renegade herd.
Being a part of a renegade herd can be lonely. So of course it isn’t popular because it asks you inherently to defy the majority. And yet I keep hearing from people I respect that for you to succeed on the highest level, you have to be disobedient.
Disobedient to what you ask?
Right or wrong is not one of my criteria here. There is no “The way” to live that guarantees you a disease- free, freak accident-free, flawless existence. At least I’ve never come across one. So all we have to go off of are man made edicts, formed and adhered to by large and small groups that tell us what we should or shouldn’t do and what’s wrong and what’s right.
Now something to keep in mind is that whenever you see someone behaving a certain way or saying some- thing that you believe to be wrong, at their core, somewhere deep, they think they’re right or justified in what they’re doing. This is why the saying, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still,” makes so much sense. Disobedience: The Breakfast of Champions 605
So the question of the day is “What’s right for you? And as a unique being brought here with your own special talent and preferences, how do you move towards what’s right for you and not impose on someone else’s right to pursue peace and prosperity?
Another question for anyone who believes greatness lies within is… “Do you have the courage to pursue what is right for you in the face of a massive society that tells you you’re wrong, stupid and inferior and will do so gleefully at every chance they get?”
Answering “Yes” to this question is what I believe will free you to live the life that fulfills you at the deepest level.
More times than not, the well meant, “Good” opinion of others shuts up or shouts over the voice within which in reality, is where you need the MOST approval from and from where approval is generated in the first place because the meaning you give any experience becomes the experience.
When we seek the approval of people who don’t have approval for themselves it’s like going to a bank- rupt bank and asking them for money… they have nothing to offer you. Wait. That’s wrong. They do have something to offer you and more times than not, it’s SHIT.
The majority of people can put on a show of being know it all’s but the wiring under the hood is bad. These are the people who are willing to tell you the 8 jillion reasons why what you want is wrong, scary, dan- gerous, stupid, odd, crazy, etc. Especially if it loosens their strangle hold of manipulation they’ve got you in.
Everything Is Impossible Until It Isn’t
This is why disobedience is such a dominant trait in people who used their personal achievement to make their mark on the world. The masses are paralyzed by the unknown, what they perceive is impossible. People who turned visions into realities are frightened just the same but they lean into the fear instead of shying away from it.
And that, my friend is the genesis of any fucking brilliant achievement; pushing beyond fear. Not the absence of it.
Now if you think you face a daunting task in realizing your dream, just kick on back, relax and watch some quality T.V. here for a few minutes here today and look at this example of having the odds stacked majorly against you of what Gandhi started out against.
A little background for this clip first…
In this part of the story it shows how Gandhi’s battle for the liberation of his country started in South Africa where he finally stopped letting fear being the boss of him. Here in this clip he is rallying his people join him in this fight…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3tjIiWIkAQ] 606 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I’m pretty sure if I remember right, this speech brought tears to my eyes after I saw it the first time. After I watched today, it did the same. And not because I give two shits about Indian people being oppressed. I see in this clip what the human spirit is capable of, what I’m capable of and I want to feel this level of courage vibrating through every fiber of my being.
Now of course, this clip was from a movie, but the outcome of India receiving their independence from the British through this man’s and the people of India’s defiance of the majority was 100% the real fuckin’ deal.
How to Bring Out The Little Bad Ass Gandhi Inside of You
In order to pursue what’s right for you, you have to being willing to ignore or tell the non-believers in your vision to fuck off politely, or not. But before you can do that you have to be able to tell that part of you inside, that tells you that you aren’t worthy of greatness to fuck off. Otherwise you’ll never be able to muster the strength to do it to others.
Kiss Pettiness Goodbye
One of the most important life lessons I’ve come across lately came from Eben Pagan and that was the con- cept of “Blessing That Which You Want”. Most people never break the loser connection in their mind that tells them automatically that whenever someone else gets something and they don’t, that they lose.
This kind of thinking will only push what you want away. If you use your candle to light other candles, you don’t lose anything – your candle stays lit. You want to cultivate a taste for seeing others succeed without you.
Learn to love it and celebrate it.
Realize: it’s another one of “us”. We’re related. It’s a win for us. Their win is raising the bar for humanity and tide is rising in every way. This thinking allows us to get past a lot of emotional and psychological blocks.
Celebrate a fellow being you’re close to achieved something - so enjoy it and celebrate it with them, and feel the inspiration of we humans as a species having achieved.
Defiance In The Name of What?
What do you want out of life?
How would life be if you could have it YOUR way? Well, this is where paint that picture, the all important picture that I believe all renegades who defied the odds have so they could turn their dreams into reality.
Now the following part is all Rich Schefren. This is a tiny sliver that I’ve sliced out of the forest’s worth of his material I have. I believe to my core that by my sharing this with you, that it prepares you to be a better Disobedience: The Breakfast of Champions 607
customer for him. Ground he doesn’t have to cover, you know. But the chances are high that you are one of his customers or on his list.
And if you aren’t, I’d love to take the chance to tell you that there is nothing of his that isn’t worth you going out and buying. He’s a fuckin’ champ and this is a taste of his raw brilliance.
First Steps To Your Ideal Life
Clarifying your ideal life is a three step process. Here’s a quick overview of the steps we’ll take together:
Step 1: Determine which things you definitely don’t want in your life
Step 2: Determine which things you definitely do want in your life
Step 3: Define what an ideal day would look like for you
You’ll see how these all tie together and why they’re in the specific order presented as we go through them together.
You should be very excited right now. In less than one hour from now, you’re going to have greater clarity about what you truly want out of life than perhaps, you’ve ever had before.
And that’s going to help you more than you realize (right now) and when designing and blueprinting your business.
So, what are we waiting for… let’s get the party started…
What You Don’t Want
We start the process by first thinking about all the things you don’t want in your life.
Does that sound strange? If we’re trying to determine what we want our life to ideally be, why start with what we don’t want?
Well, it’s simple really. Most of us are a lot clearer on what we don’t want in our lives than we are about what we do want.
And by surfacing those things that we don’t want in our lives, we stand a much better chance of clearly identifying what we do want. Plus, we can make sure that the life we do design for ourselves is absent all these negative things you’re about to list.
That stated, here are your instructions: 608 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Take 15 minutes to make as long of a list as you need, of everything you don’t want in your life. Try not to think too much, just write whatever comes to mind. A good place to start is thinking about the things you currently deal with that leave you stressed, frustrated, worried, embarrassed and unfulfilled.
Examples: What I Don’t Want In My Life • • Responsibilities that keep me away from my family • • Having to pretend I’m something I’m not • • A business that’s reliant on one marketing channel • • To have over half of my work-day scheduled • • To feel overwhelmed by clutter and too much information • • A business that’s overly reliant on my own efforts • • A business where I need to worry about our overall customer service levels • • The pressure that comes from a business that’s really a string of promotions •
Your turn…
What You Do Want
Now that you have greater clarity on what you don’t want in your life, it’s time to shift 180 degrees and focus on those things that you do want.
For right now, it’s important that you steer clear of money and material things. There will be time for those things later. Also, realize that those things are just means to an end and right now we’re focused on the ends not the means.
So here’s what you need to do:
Take 15 minutes to make as long of a list as you need, of everything you do want in your life. Once again, try not to think too much; just write whatever comes to mind.
A good place to start is thinking about the things you’ve experienced that have made you happy, proud, excited, blessed and fulfilled. Also, you can use the list you just created of what you don’t want to spur ideas of what you do want. Disobedience: The Breakfast of Champions 609
Examples of What I Do Want In My Life: • • A work team I enjoy spending time with • • A workday that ends at noon • • To have at least one meal per day with my family • • To feel I’m making a real difference in the lives of my clients • • Products and programs I’m immensely proud of • • Freedom to spend time learning new topics I can share with my clients, partners and team • • To be recognized as the world’s foremost authority on ______online •
Your turn…
Your Ideal Day
All right, now that you’re clear about what you want and don’t want, it’s time to use this information to construct a perfect day in your dream life.
The reason being is that an ideal life is made up of many ideal days. And you are going to be really glad you listed your wants and non-wants because it makes this exercise so much easier to accomplish. So, remember to refer to it frequently when going through these exercises.
Here’s what you’re trying to come up with: What would your perfect normal day look like if there were no limitations on what it could be?
Let’s break down this question by highlighting certain words and what I mean by them:
Perfect – a day that delivers as many of those things you’ve identified in what you want, while avoiding as many (if not all) those things you’ve listed that you don’t want.
Normal – A day that isn’t a onetime event, but a routine day in your ideal life. So, no meeting with the President, or partying in Vegas or anything other than what’s routine.
No Limitations – forget about your current responsibilities, obligations, and any and all physical con- straints (money, business, job, etc…) leave all that behind you if you could live your life anyway you want. 610 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Now many entrepreneurs freeze up when attempting to write out their ideal day – so what I’ve found is it’s easier to answer questions that lead you to having it all done. In total, it should take you less than thirty minutes to power through this.
So, it’s time to play 20 questions…
When you think of this perfect day: (Be very specific. Be extremely detailed and clear)
Overall Lifestyle
Where do you live? (city, on the water, in the mountains, etc…)
What do you live in? (an apartment, a condo, a house, a mansion, a penthouse, etc…)
Who are your friends? (What are they like, what do you do together and what do you talk about?)
What hobbies do you have and how often do you do them?
What do you do for personal fulfillment?
Describe your relationship with your spouse and child. What do you do together? How much time do you spend together?
Your Business
How many hours a day do you work?
What are your primary responsibilities? What do you do while working?
What hours do you work? When do you start and finish?
What are your clients like?
Describe your work environment (Home, office, etc.)
Talk about your team – who are they? What are they like? How do they make you feel?
What about your work makes you most proud?
Your Day
What time do you wake up?
Let’s break up your day into four separate four-hour intervals… Disobedience: The Breakfast of Champions 611
How, where, what and with whom do you spend the first ¼ of your day?
How, where, what and with whom do you spend the second ¼ of your day?
How, where, what and with whom do you spend the next third ¼ of your day?
How, where, what and with whom do you spend the final ¼ of your day?
Getting Clear On The Life You Want
By answering the above questions, you’ll be able to create a very clear picture of your ideal day. That’s important because an ideal life is made up of many ideal days.
Defining your ideal day gives you the ability to live intentionally rather than haphazardly. You’ll be living a life of design, rather than whatever life throws your way.
Make no mistake – most entrepreneurs never take the time to figure out what they want out of life. And because of it, the business takes over. Do not think you can skip this and everything will end up ok. It won’t – unless you take the time to really figure out what you want.
And it should be obvious that one of the keys to achieving a life of freedom is to define what freedom means to you being that it’s my understanding this is one of your core values.
Besides, all the great minds throughout the centuries have always said in one way or another to begin with the end in mind. Life is funny that way. Life works better when we think backwards and then live our life forward.
Think about this question: If you don’t have the will and desire to figure it out and write down what you want, what makes you think you’ll have the will and desire to go after it?
Ok it’s me #2…
If you haven’t answered these questions I’m just gonna flat out say you’re either an idiot or stubborn ass hell and not ready for this teacher to appear. I can’t help you with either of those problems. That’s Obama’s and all his buddies in the government’s work.
If you’re in the process of taking action on this or already have I commend you. You’ve demonstrated that you’re willing to do what the majority won’t which is why they embrace and languish in mediocrity. You’re a member of the renegade elite.
Also if you have anything to add to this whether it be additional resources for people to pursue to further their success or questions or any kind of comment good or bad, leave me a note below.
Talk soon, 612 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 124
Life’s Golden Rules One and Two!
ecently I’ve spent alot of time thinking about what’s important in life. I’ve gone through some very Rhard and trying times over the last year. The majority of my own making.
I began too think of all the books I’ve read, seminars I’ve attended, and knowledge I have gained.
All of them seem to have a different twist on what success is. But I thought what are the real success princi- ples in life that are sustaining and everlasting.
First, I though live everyday as if it were your last.
Second, I thought be a man of character.
This list went on and on and on. Then after a while it all came to me.
What you might be asking. Well.. Let’s get back to my very first thought. “Live life everyday as if it were your last”
With that in mind here are what I consider to be the foundational principles of life.
Rule number one; Stay Alive. Rule Number two; Stay Healthy.
I need to be hones. I SUCK at both of these lately.
By “basics,” what I am referring to are things that are often so obvious that people simply don’t bother to give them much thought.
Yet, it’s the basics that are the building blocks of success. 614 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
And Rules No. 1 and 2 are as basic as you can get. Why? Because unhealthy people tend to perform at a sub-par level, and low-level performance does not lead to success. As to dead people, they don’t perform at all.
You think I’m kidding? I’m sure you remember the very funny actor and comedian Chris Farley.
By all accounts Chris was a very good man. He would help anyone and loved to bring happiness and laughter every where he was at. However he also lived a very extreme life. He was known to go on food and drug binges. He eventually succumbed to a drug overdose but had Chris continued to live life this way he may very well of had a heart attack or any number of health issues.
James Dean, Elvis, Andy Gibb, Bobby Darin, John Belushi, John Denver, Pete Maravich, Freddy Prinze, Reggie White — the list of celebrities who died at a young age, or relatively young age, goes on and on. And they didn’t all die of the same cause.
A lot of famous people have died as a result of drug overdoses. I don’t like the odds against living a long and healthy life when you put abusive substances into your body, so I choose to pass on drugs.
John Denver, along with a number of other celebrities such as John F. Kennedy, Jr., Ricky Nelson, Buddy Holly, and undefeated world heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano, all died in private-plane crashes. I realize that the weekend pilots reading this article will take issue with my assessment, but I don’t like the odds of flying in a small, private plane, either.
But of all the things that can kill you, the one that poses the greatest danger is obesity (primarily through heart attack, stroke, or diabetes).
Since obesity is a subjective term, perhaps it would be more appropriate to just say that eating too much food and/or eating unhealthy food is an irresponsible behavior that leads to illness and death.
Keep front and center in your mind that what I’m talking about here are Rules No. 1 & 2 for making money: staying alive and staying healthy.
Don’t make the mistake of ignoring or waving aside these fundamental steps just because they are so obvious.
The reason this subject is so dear to my heart (hmm…maybe not such a good word choice) is because I have had a severe weight problem for many years. I’ve struggled with this issue my entire life. This article is as much for me as anyone.
You see I like to eat….We’re talking extra-large pizzas….. two double-double double’s animal style, two orders of fries, and two extra-thick shakes at one sitting.
Of course these moments are saved for me in my very private moments. Of course I hide these not so great moments for myself. Life’s Golden Rules One and Two! 615
Hey, Homer Simpson eats like an anorexic compared to me during a full on binge.
For years, I’ve felt lousy, and the quality and quantity of my work output has been in a downward spiral.
This is my coming out party. Why? Well like my dear friend. I don’t want to end up possibly violating rule number two. I want to stay alive.
I have the Most Amazing Four Year Old Daughter that loves her Daddy and I’ve got a much greater legacy to leave her.
With this in mind …… Here is what I know……. Overeating and Under excercising is a STATE OF MIND.
In other words, I think like a fat person. Meaning that even if I’m not hungry, I eat, because that’s what a fat person is supposed to do. It is a self image thing.
A responsible-behavior mindset is a hundred times more effective than the greatest diet book ever written.
Specifically, this means declaring war on the part of your brain that thinks fat. And understand that it’s a lifetime war.
The result is that even though I still think fat, I am going to eat thin — at least most of the time — because I’m committed to intellectualizing the problem of unhealthy eating habits.
To intellectualize means “to give something a rational structure.” And giving something a rational struc- ture leads to responsible behavior.
In other word… FROM THIS DAY FORWARD IT’S MIND OVER CALORIES. I’M COMMITTED TOO EATING LIKE A THIN AND HEALTHY PERSON WOULD. MY MAIN FOCUS WILL NO LONGER BE ON THE DIET OF THE WEEK BUT I’LL HAVE A CONSTANT WATCH OVER MY THOUGHTS AND BEHAVIOR.
Thus, if you’re one of my think-fat soul mates, take heart.
I’m willing to bet that I love food more than you do. Modesty aside, I’m also willing to bet that I can out eat you blindfolded. Having said that, what’s more important is that I choose not to do so AND I HOPE YOU DO TO.
You want to be an elite fighter, a kick ass dude, a machine but you want to have five hundred rules as too how things need to be or taste?
Get rational and ask yourself what would a champion of this caliber eat and do. Remember, guys be rational. We don’t get too pick how things should be we must have a rational and accurate view on how things must be. 616 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So There ya have it my Nerd Friends.
Here I am standing naked in front of you calling myself out.
I plan to be writing the Transformation, “part two”, of this very soon.
I hope my pain and mistakes can help you in some small way.
Share with me anything you might know to help me or somebody else struggling with this heath thing.
Peace Friends
The Chief Nerd CHAPTER 125
Don’t Read This If You Don’t Like Getting Shit Done
Hey you, It’s #2.
So… yeah, I’ve been on a mission to pull my head out of my ass and I thought who better to get coaching on this from than Dan Kennedy.
Years ago he put together a program called “Renegade Time Management” and it’s FANTASTIC. One of the highlights of my productivity in my life is when I followed just one of his key distinctions discussed here and I’m gonna share it with you today.
And no it didn’t take any fancy pants binders, markers, software or anything but a pen and a journal-book with blank pages.
Now when I had started using this, I’d just gone through Michael Losier’s “Law of Attraction” book and taken HOURS to go through and determine what I did and didn’t want to show up in my life. Using all that shit I wrote down made it easier for me to use Dan’s strategy.
And if you took my advice on my last post, Disobedience: The Breakfast of Champions, you can use those answers to help you implement this way of making sure that when you lay down to go to bed at night or… when you fuck off playing/watching sports, video games, movies or whatever, you don’t have that nagging feeling that you didn’t really accomplish much for the day.
I wanted to brush up on the methodology and mindset behind his thinking so I went through the CD’s today. And from mine and mostly Dan’s mouth, here’s what I found…
When Do You Actually Schedule And Plan Your Day?
You want to plan the night before so that your subconscious can do some prep work while you sleep and this also allows you the hit the ground running in the morning with the day totally laid out in front of you. 618 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Dan allocates time slots and focuses on sticking to the allotted time. So, if someone has a phone appoint- ment with him he lets them know that they’ve got X amount of time and that they’d better jam, no fucking about.
So for example, with his coaching clients set up 14 minute phone appointments back to back and at 15 minutes they could be mid-sentence and he hangs up to jumps into the next one. People are boggled at first at the idea of getting anything done in 15 minutes but this process ends up training people to be much more effective in the way they communicate with people on the phone.
With any kind of work, pre-determining how long it should take is a huge step to getting it done in the time it should take. The fallacy of the to-do list is that it allows most people to approach tasks without gauging how long they should take and ending up at the end of the day with a bunch of stuff on the list that didn’t get done.
How Do You Keep People From Throwing You Off Schedule?
One part of this is how much do you tolerate and sanction, and make exceptions for versus how tough you are on repelling and refusing to accept it?
If you let time vampires fuck with your time, they will. Over. Period. Done.
You’ve gotta be enough of a Son-of-a-bitch to say “No, I don’t even have a minute! Go away! We have a scheduled time to talk tomorrow at 3:00, put it on the list!”
Some people would say it took you as long to say that as it would’ve to answer the question but the behavior would’ve continued had you NOT done it.
“There can be no more crises this week because I’m fully booked.” ~Henry Kissinger~
If you’re fully booked, no one can throw off your schedule because there’s no schedule to throw off. Time can be wasted and abused only if it’s available to be wasted and abused.
Look at it like this… If someone shows up at your door saying they only need a minute of your time and you have an extremely important phone appointment with someone incredibly significant to you, the pope, the president, Snooki from Jersey Shore, your #1 client who pays you a fortune, who ever it is, who is the VIP of VIP’s in your life, coming up in 30 seconds, would you brush that person off who was seeking to impose on that?
Fuck yeah, you would!
So, why isn’t the appointment that you have with yourself to do X every bit as valuable and important to be safeguarded as is the appointment you would have with the pope or the president? When you value your time this highly, you get to be kind of tough about this. Don’t Read This If You Don’t Like Getting… 619
Dan actually scripts his days. The difference between this and a traditional day planner where you might log in a couple of appointments in there, lunch and a nap… his whole day is accounted for.
Activities are put into time blocks with a set amount of time given to them. Consequently, any interruption throws your whole list off. There’s a direct and clear trade off. Something or someone is gonna get shorted and cheated today or moved to the back of the line if I let someone butt to the front.
In some cases you script the days to the minute and certainly in little hunks of minutes.
You constantly assess and adjust if necessary where you are on your work list against where you are on the clock. So for most days there is no time to be wasted or abused because it’s been pre-assigned at the very least the day before.
And of course all of your appointments have end times. By you bailing when you say you’re gonna bail you train even the densest person that you don’t fuck around and that you’re busy so they’d better get their shit together if they’re gonna work with you.
Just as with direct response marketing, if there’s no deadline, no expiration date, there is NO offer. Similar to this, if there’s no end time, it’s not an appointment. Most people think an appointment has a beginning time and no end. This doesn’t lead to getting shit done.
What About Real Emergencies and Crises?
The first thing about “Real Emergencies”, now remember Kennedy’s makes a point of saying that he’s been using this methodology since back in the day when crises and emergencies were the norm, most people operate with an overly broad definition of emergency.
Nothing is ever as bad or incidentally as good as it first appears to be.
The corollary to this is that very few things are as urgent as they first appear or as other people think are. So, you start by being more critical about what is an emergency and what isn’t an emergency.
There was a guy trying to get to John Wayne, for those unfamiliar with this reference, John Wayne was a famous western movie actor back starting with black and white films moving into the era of color.
So, this guy keeps badgering the secretary and badgering her and she finally interrupts John and said, “So and so from the studio is calling back now every hour and he says it’s urgent.” John Wayne’s answer was, “Well, the next time he calls back ask him who it’s urgent for, him or me.”
That’s a terrific story because just because it’s urgent to them, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s urgent to you. It’s a real mistake to let yourself be stampeded into a decision or an action or into setting aside your day’s script in favor of someone else’s inflated definition of an emergency or urgency without really deter- mining there is no other option. 620 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So whenever someone appears by phone, fax, text or photo to your cellphone, or any other electrical device that you communicate with and tries to stampede you into setting aside your script and all of your atten- tions of the day and jumping into theirs, and that’s really what it’s about, comes down to show down; it’s gonna be yours or theirs.
You’re gonna defend your turf and get everyone to function the way you want or you’re gonna have no choice but to cave to them. There’s not much room in between.
How Do Stick To Your Plans Even When You’re Dealing With Personal Problems?
For most people everything goes to shit, including their business, when personal problems show up.
In the past I’ve behaved in a way that allowed my shit to impose on you. It was lame. No excuses. What helps me to be able come back and not just bury my head in shame and slink off into the shadows is owning up to fact that there’s no one or nothing to blame for my business issues with this renegade site/business with a big fat bulls eye on it and… that I’m not my behavior.
For this, I apologize.
Yes, I behaved stupidly. This doesn’t mean I’m a stupid person. It only means I need to just get back to the basics like scripting my day and scheduling into my day the daily reminders that ask of me and demonstrate world class behavior and mindset.
Now if you are a person of reasonable integrity, and you have made commitments, then you keep those commitments pretty much regardless of what’s going on. Certainly personal and family problems are the most difficult and most challenging that anyone faces but one of the prices of being an entrepreneur is that there is no one for us to call in to and take personal days.
The clients and customers at the other end of our process who rely on us and in some cases who we have literal contractual relationships with, not just handshake commitments, they’ve got to be served regardless. So again the less unscripted, unscheduled time you have, the less of an amount of angst there is in how to deal with this because you have no choice but to deal with it.
“Even on the morning after his wife’s death, the farmer must still milk the cows.” Reverend Schuller
That’s part of being an entrepreneur. Kennedy learned from Psycho-cybernetics to create a little wall of lockers in his head and each thing has it’s own little box and whatever the situation is, it can be put away in that little box and have the door closed and open the next box and totally focus on that box and go back when you like and open the shit stained box.
You essentially sort of schedule your misery. Just like you would schedule anything else.
In Kennedy’s autobiography he talks about wanting to commit suicide and having his mindset shifted after he came across a joking quote that said, “You can always kill yourself later.” That was an important enough Don’t Read This If You Don’t Like Getting… 621
shift to move him out of apathy into anger or whatever the next step just above the bottom was which, as it turns out, was incredibly valuable.
You can be miserable later. You can open the box of illness, personal angst or divorce, pretty much any- thing. You don’t need to let it, spill out and take control anymore than you let anything else spill out all over everything.
Society teaches us to do the exact opposite of this.
You end up being the bad guy if you don’t fall apart when you’re in the middle of a crises or when someone else is having one. Having been raised on a farm, Dan got this early in childhood because his family’s horses didn’t give a shit what was going on in your life. They needed to eat twice a day and have their stalls cleaned.
If you are gonna declare yourself an entrepreneur and you are gonna engage in relationships where others rely on you, be they employees or your vendors or clients or your banker, then you’ve got to face the facts that you live differently than your brother who’s an executive at Verizon Wireless and can call in sick and has 14 personal days a year.
If you’re not willing to do that, then by all means hang up the entrepreneur sack before you get yourself in a position where you really do some damage and go get a job.
A lot of people attract drama and emergency into their life because they have room for it. If there’s no room for any of that shit, then Kissinger’s line becomes a reality for you. And you tend not to attract it because there’s no place to put it.
Some of the worst days I’ve had are the ones when I just wake up wondering what’s gonna happen. Not in a good kind of way like I fucking worked my balls to the maximum to pull of some enormous feat and then scheduled a day titled “Do Whatever The Fuck You Please!” The miserable ones are usually came in streaks and start with me having zero direction and yet having a fucking list of 8 jillion things I should be doing and at the end of the day… not having fully completed anything, and on the real fucked up days, not even STARTING any of them.
Kennedy’s strategy has worked magic for me and I believe in my heart of hearts it can do the same for you. Try for yourself. Or not. It’s inexpensive on the wallet being that the only cost is you writing down on paper or inputting activities digitally that are important to you having a fun and productive day. The big cost is the price you pay for being courageous and not letting people tread on you and your time.
If you don’t already us this system and implement strict guidelines on how you spend your time, this defi- nitely be one of those acts that scares the shit out of you and yet on the other side leaves you fulfilled. You ready? 622 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Please let me know what I’m leaving out of this that can help other people like you and or if it’s good like it is.
Talk to you soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 126
Are You A Master of This Free, Yet Massively Potent Renegade Tactic That Has Proven To Make You Not Only Wealthier But Also More Attractive To the Opposite Sex?
Hey you, It’s #2.
I love Sir Ben Kingsley.
He’s a master of this renegade tactic I’m going to reveal to you today. In his little 120 pound frame, Sir Ben brings an intensity to some of his roles that is ASTOUNDING. In my last post I showed you a clip of him playing the revolutionary leader Gandhi.
Today I bring you a clip from the role he played in the movie Sexy Beast. See if you can pick out the single conversational distinction that lets him push around a man that’s 120 pounds heavier than him. Hint: It has absolutely nothing to do with the vulgar language he’s using or his insults…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VMTRdWqH3U&feature=related]
After having watched it, do you think you know what I’m referring to?
Stay with me and I’ll show you what I picked out and why it’s so important for you implement it in your every interaction with people, AND how people of influence use it everyday to become wealthy and influen- tial and how you can do the same.
Even if you only weigh 100 pounds, are unattractive and financially poor at the moment.
The First Step To Transforming Yourself From Beta To Alpha: Eye Contact
This is something we need to talk about. 624 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
It’s my belief that as a man or a woman, if you can’t stare at another person, even if it’s another man, in the eye for 20 seconds or 30 seconds, you’re not really gonna be able to get the results you want in life. I can say that with quite a bit of certainty. This isn’t arbitrary.
These two are absolutely related.
Looking into another animal of the same species eyes is very primal and it’s basically how animals decide who’s dominant. Tribal animals, they’ll walk in and they can tell right away by the dynamics, who the alphas are, and how the whole social order goes.
But when animals are roaming and they just meet one other animal, it’s a little more difficult and that’s when that mechanism, where they hold the gaze and the beta animal says “Yeah, I’m the beta by averting their eyes.” Humans are the same way.
Here’s an example of the power of eye contact…
Study finds holding eye contact is critical when police confront hysterical citizens
“Mardi Kidwell’s, the assistant professor of communication at the University of New Hampshire, research relies on police-citizen interactions obtained from the FOX TV show “COPS,” now in its 19th season.
She used footage from “COPS” because most research on police-citizen interaction does not rely on a real- time, in-the-moment unfolding of events. In addition, police departments are reluctant to provide footage of their police-citizen interactions.
In the “COPS” segment discussed in the study, two police officers are trying to calm down a woman whose grandson has been shot. The six-minute segment shows the officers arriving on the scene of the shooting, inspecting the victim, questioning witnesses, discussing the case with other officers and, finally, seeking to calm the victim’s grandmother, who herself has been shot at.
The officers are forced to use increasingly stronger verbal tactics – called directives – to get the woman to look at them as they try to calm her down. The woman repeatedly looks at the officers and then looks away, and continues to be hysterical. Finally, one officer gently touches the woman’s face and turns it toward him, forcing her to look at him. Eventually, the officers are able to keep eye contact with her long enough so as to calm her down, help her regain a normal breathing pattern and compose herself so she can drive to the hos- pital to see her grandson.
Kidwell has found that officers treat citizens’ (usually suspects’) refusal to gaze at them as resistance, and they will continue to pursue the citizens’ gaze in order to gain compliance. “In situations of someone’s extreme distraught-ness, refusal to gaze is associated with being ‘out of it.’
Kidwell analyzed more than 35 hours of footage and hundreds of police-citizen interactions as part of her research. She found that police rely on holding gaze to calm individuals in a number of situations, Are You A Master of This Free, Yet Massively… 625
including getting them to cooperate during questioning, keeping them from interfering with emer- gency workers, and gaining their compliance during arrests.”
Here’s another case study on a lighter note of how critical it is to have your eye contact running on all cylin- ders…
It’s Official: You Are More Likely to Think Other People Are Attractive If They Are Looking Straight At You and Smiling
Claire Conway and colleagues at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, UK, paired nearly identical photos of computer-generated faces, with smiling or disgusted expressions. The pair differed only in where the irises were pointed: straight at the viewer, or off to the side (see image).
Several hundred Aberdeen undergraduates, in the lab and online, rated the faces for sexual attractiveness, and for likeability, a sexually neutral quality. Both men and women found faces looking straight at them to be more attractive and more likeable, even if the faces looked disgusted though unsurprisingly, there was a greater preference for smiles.
What about cultures, common in Asia, where gazing directly at someone is rude? “The Asian participants [in the study] demonstrated preferences for direct, over averted gaze,” Conway told New Scientist. But these are private preferences, she cautions. “Whether or not such preferences are also expressed in public situations we don’t know.”
The Studies Are Out But What Do You Feel When You Check In With Your Body?
Basically in the animal kingdom when 2 animals stare at each other and no one averts their eyes, they’re either gonna fight or they’re gonna fuck. That’s how it works. Usually the fight and if they’re male and female, then they have sex.
People who look away last get laid more, make more money, command the attention of the room, basically any kind of metric in the book has probably been studied. It’s kinda like that weird thing that plays out in society with height, and how every inch adds so much to your income. Well this is actually a lot more sig- nificant.
Being able to look people in the eye.
It’s really the most important skill, the core skill. It’s basically your body’s way of asserting to another body, “I’m dominant, I’m in charge, I’m a leader.”Until you learn to be calm while maintaining eye contact, you’re gonna have major challenges in your life.
You just are. 626 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You need to build this muscle before you can be as confident as you possibly can as a human being. I’m mentioning this because like a bunch of the stuff we teach, if you only practice this when it’s show time, you won’t get good at it.
Does Your Bathroom Mirror Punk You?
One place to test how comfortable you are with eye contact is when brushing your teeth. While you’re scrubbing away, how comfortable do find it to gaze into your own eyes? Can you do it without having this tightening in your chest or stomach and the primal urge to look away? If so, I commend you. You’ve prob- ably got a good handle on this already. If not, I’ve found this to be a great place to start eye contact mastery.
Do Snapshots Show You Who’s In Charge?
Another place you can test out your eye contact muscle is when looking at pictures where the person is staring directly back into the camera. Attractive pictures of women and pictures of potentially threatening, imposing men will give you some real guttural feedback. For me, after I became aware of this concept, I found myself feeling like I was being “Busted” when looking into the eyes of woman in a magazine. Then it clicked as to why I felt the same way when I caught eyes with a woman in public. WEIRD THESE PRIMAL REFLEXES ARE, EH?
Biggest Contribution Towards Building Your Eye Contact Power
If you really want to practice, do it with your boss or the VIP in your world.
And if your boss is a good boss, he’ll do it back. And they’ll respect you and be like “Cool, this guy’s getting what I’m saying. When I tell him I want it on Wednesday, he heard it.” Or, “Wow, that guy acts like me, we should give him a promotion.”
Some people read the studies and they’re outraged, “People who make eye contact longer, make more money?!?! Corporate America is insane!” No, they’re not. Those are the real leaders. Those are the real leaders.
But don’t believe me. Check it out for yourself. And as always just check in with the common sense part of your mind and see if makes sense and feels right.
Just doing an exercise of standing with someone and staying calm in your presence while maintaining eye contact in a no pressure situation will fire off all these mechanisms. All of these things fire off in your body and then you realize that you can just stand there and you can be calm and present in the face of all these emotional things that are firing off inside.
So you need to be practicing this EVERYDAY. It’s that important. When you get to a place where you can just stare at a person for 30 seconds you won’t believe how much easier it will be to assert yourself in your day to day situations. Are You A Master of This Free, Yet Massively… 627
Now if you wait to only practice this when you go to the big meeting, you’re never gonna get good at it. The good news is that you can practice this ALL the time. The great news is that if you practice it all the time, you’ll make A LOT MORE MONEY!
Anytime you sit down with someone and have lunch with them just look at them with a little more intensity than you’re used to. Do it when you’re talking, do it when you’re listening. Kinda smile, that’s you saying, “Hey, I’m a boss. Hey, I’m a leader.”
To you bringing out your own personal sexy beast,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 127
What I Learned From Anthony Robbins And A Great Friend That Changed My Life Forever…
Last week I drove the 13 Hour Trek to go pick up my amazing little 4 year old girl. Drive really sucked as we ran into construction, lightning, slow cars, and just about everything else you could imagine to test my patience.
But as day turned to night there I was kneeling down as my little angel sprinted toward me yelling DADDY!!
Suddenly that nightmare drive was all worth it.
We spent the next few hours in the hotel room as she performed a musical and ballet for me.
I, of course, was tired as H E Double Hockey Sticks and probably didn’t give her the attention she wanted nor deserved.
The next day was rather boring as I had to wait in town and have a meeting before I left.
We watched some movies, read some books, and just hung out.
That night my daughter began to complain of back and neck pain.
She was also telling me that she wanted to throw up.
She awoke just about every hour throughout the night, trying unsuccessfully, to throw up.
However, about 7:00 in the morning she started to vomit and continued to do so three times over the next hour.
About 9:00 I decided it was time to take my girl to the doctor. What I Learned From Anthony Robbins And… 629
By the time we arrived she was back to her normal self, running, jumping, smiling, and dancing.
The Doctor gave me, what I believed to be, a funny look as she came in.
Why? Well I had said she was extremely sick and here she was spinning as fast as she could on the chair in the little room we were waiting in.
The Doctor administered some basic touch and feel test and a gave my daughter a little blood test.
Right Then My World Came Crashing Down On Me
The doctor left the room and I could see she was concerned.
I waited for what seemed an eternity and then she came back in.
She was visually shaken and had tears welling up in her eyes.
My heart was beating so fast I couldn’t breath.
I felt as though time was standing still.
The doctor said “Nerd”, I believe your daughter has Onset Childhood Diabetes and will be on insulin for the rest of her life.
Coupled with the fact that the doctor began to cry as well I began to cry uncontrollably.
They ushered my angel outside.
I was trying to ask questions but could barely control myself to get anything out.
In the end the Docs diagnosis was what it was and they told me I needed to get my daughter up to the Children’s Hospital where she would be admitted and they would be taking me and my ex through a crash course on how to take care of our girl for the next Three days.
I rushed up to the hospital.
The entire time thinking of every possible “bad” scenario I could imagine.
I was trying to hold it together for my little girl. I was failing and she was confused.
We arrived at the hospital and they admitted us immediately.
Over the next few hours I had to hold my daughter as she SCREAMED for the 5 - 7 blood test ect they performed on her. 630 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
In the end, after three days of testing, trying to find out what was going on the Doctors came to the conclu- sion that My Angel does NOT have childhood diabetes but has symptoms that could lead to some type of diabetes in the future.
Lessons Learned That Could Change Your Life Forever
Lesson Number One: MAGIC MOMENTS!
If any of you have been to an Anthony Robbins seminar then you are familiar with the concept of Magic Moments.
He teaches that as we go through life we remember moments and not what we do every single day.
And this is true.
Just for a second think about what you did last Tuesday.
I bet you can’t remember unless you did something that had an emotional impact.
I CHALLENGE EACH OF YOU TO BEGIN TO CREATE MAGIC MOMENTS IN YOUR LIFE STARTING TODAY.
You see we never know what tomorrow is going to bring.
What if the last day I had with my little girl had been when she was trying so hard to get my attention with her dancing and singing?
I was so dang consumed with what I had to do the next day, my long drive, and being tired that I gave her but 1/10th of myself in that moment.
She wants me to stare at her intently, focus on her, sing with her, dance with her…
How much extra effort does that take.
What’s the difference?
To her everything…
To our lives…a moment in time worth remembering as we anchor it in with focus and intensity.
So the next time your Wife, Son, or Daughter wants your attention plan for another time or make a deci- sion right then to make “This” moment worth remembering.
The next time you are out with your Wife at dinner, instead of surfing the net on your phone while eating… What I Learned From Anthony Robbins And… 631
Leave your car in the phone, look her in the eyes, listen, engage, and “be there”.
This moment may never come again.
You never know when what we take for granted today may be gone tomorrow.
Lesson Number Two: Re-Frame What “It” means.
When the doctor told me what my daughter had.
I was ignorant and because of her reaction and that fact I knew nothing of the disease I immediately thought the worst.
This is where MyNoteTakingNerd #2 came to the rescue.
You see not only is he my right hand man, number2 (for you trekies), and best friend but he’s also one of the True Geniuses in this world.
He’s also like a Father Number2 to my little angel.
He sent me an email that both moved me emotionally and snapped me back into reality.
Here is that email:
Our baby is not “Sick”
Hey,
I refuse to believe our precious little princess is sick or broken or damaged goods. Even if she is accurately diagnosed as being diabetic.
As I’m sitting here crying thinking about how much more precious I want to treat her when she’s here, I couldn’t help but think that at this moment in time, our little baby Kloe possesses more power than both of us put together.
You know this is true, don’t you?
She’s been given an incredibly potent “Why” that all but forces her to live a 632 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One healthy lifestyle. And because she depends on us to feed her, she lends us some of that power to help us make better decisions about what we shovel into our body. At least when she’s here with us.
In essence, she has fully stepped into the role of “Our Angel”.
Her weakness, IS her strength.
It’s what calls for her to be extraordinary and to avoid following the herd that dig their grave with their teeth.
Her strength now becomes our strength as we focus on leading by example and making sure her food keeps her alive and safe.
In this mission, I am willing to follow our little “Super Baby”.
I believe this whole situation needs to be framed to everyone around her AND in her mind that she has, not an illness, but a super power that demands greatness of her.
FUCK ANYONE THAT WILL NOT SUPPORT HER IN CULTIVATING THIS BELIEF
A Super Power that demands Super Juice be put into her body and that this is Super Juice is what allows her to outperform all of her fellow babies and be the best Kloe she can be.
A Super Power that will not allow us or her to abuse herself with Kryptonite AKA Junk food.
This belief manifested and owned to her core, at this age cannot go un-rewarded, without positive side effects.
“LONG LIVE OUR PRECIOUS LITTLE SUPER BABY!!!” What I Learned From Anthony Robbins And… 633
How’s that for a RE-FRAME!
You see i was emotionally weak at that moment and did not take control of my emotions and therfor had a negative vision for what this diagnosis meant.
Although my girl was misdiagnosed I WILL NEVER FORGET THE LESSON.
Finally I want to share one last Lesson I was given the gift of this weekend.
That is one of Family.
If you guys have been reading this blog for very long you know that This Nerd grew up, much on his own, and has had to learn most of lives lessons through my own struggle and challenges.
Family isn’t something I’ve experienced much of.
I’m shamefully a single father and because of the situation with my little girls Mommy I am not on good terms with my little girls grandparents.
My Ex was out of town when this happened and was rushing back as I was heading to the hospital.
She called ahead and asked her Mother and Father to head to the hospital.
I knew this and was dreading this encounter.
As I walked up a very long hallway to admit my little girl I could see her Grandmother up ahead.
I was nervous and tense.
However, all that went away in an instant when I arrived.
She immediately asked me if I was o.k.
I began to cry.
She touched my back and let me know that she was there to help.
Over the next few hours other family members arrived and they were all equally as helpful and loving.
I can’t telly you how much this meant to me and what I’ve learned from this.
Again, I had allowed my ignorance to override what Family will do during emotionally tough times.
So i encourage you, the nerd reader, to reavaluate the little grudges or predetermined thoughts you may be carrying around with you about family members you have. 634 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Understand that when Life comes tumbling down around you they are the ones that will be there.
Not the “Friend” you go to club with on Friday or golfing with on Saturday.
Do not carry around this anger, resentment, and learn to put yourself in other peoples shoes for proper perspective.
As always I hope my lives trials, victories, and challenges push you to breakthroughs and better understand- ings in yours.
Thank you Anthony Robbins
Thank You Nerd2
Thank You Grandma Terry
For the lessons this weekend.
May I learn and become a better person.
Remember, “In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time.”
IT’S UP TO US TO LEARN AND INTEGRATE THESE INTO OUR LIVES.
See ya next time
Chief Nerd
P.S. Talk to me by making a comment below. Peace Friends… CHAPTER 128
Is Traditional Education Responsible For Mediocrity?
Hey you, It’s #2.
The other day, one of our long time fans, Bruce Brodeen made me think about a subject very near and dear to my heart… Learning.
In a comment Bruce made on our last post he included a link to a Kick Ass Article about a young renegade valedictorian’s feeling betrayed by America’s educational process.
Here’s the brilliant story she opened her speech to her class with…
“There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, “If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, “Ten years . .” The student then said, “But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast — How long then?” Replied the Master, “Well, twenty years.” “But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?” asked the student. “Thirty years,” replied the Master. “But, I do not under- stand,” said the disappointed student. “At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?” Replied the Master, “When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path.”
Brilliant!!!
Here’s another snippet of this renegade princess’s speech that further illustrates what this means to her (and of course, she’s ONLY talking to her class because no else reading this has ever suffered an educational system, right?)…
“I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. How- ever, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only 636 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer - not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition - a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave.”
Wow! Quite an advanced level of thinking from what most of us would call a kid. THIS is a level of thinking I don’t believe most adults will themselves access and benefit from.
Does this hit home for you?
It does for me.
My brother is a brilliant guy. He graduated high school, college and grad school with no less than a 3.5 grade average all while doing close to zero studying. He was so good at knowing what the teachers wanted and knowing just what was gonna be covered on tests that I believe outside of MAYBE a few of his classes, for example, the History of Rock & Roll, he was never wide-eyed, soaking in knowledge for the sake of pas- sion.
All of his effort was poured into gaming the system and learning just enough so that he could pass tests.
Now he’s “certified” to teach but I get the sense that the only reason he’s moving in that direction is because that’s what his degrees “supposedly” give him the best shot at earning a living in the world. I feel like he dreads the idea of doing that work (never talked to him about it) and that he feels forced into a corner by the sheepskin handed to him by the business guys running the universities. Can’t very well abandon a pro- fession you aren’t passionate about after tens of thousands of dollars has been dumped into your becoming “Qualified” to pursue it, just because you aren’t juiced about it, can you?
Me, I stopped doing that kind of learning when I was in 7th grade. That’s about the time I dropped out of school. Not physically, but mentally. At the age of 16 at the beginning of 12th grade is when I finally stopped showing up to school just hang out with and get high with friends and started working.
Now while I may need to consult a calculator for advanced math I have no use for in my daily life and use google for “Trivia” like, “Who the 18th President of the United states was?” or… “What year the French- Indian war ended or began?”… I’ve never had either of those “marks of ignorance” hold me back in the real world.
Only in the opinions of people who are proud of themselves because they can answer questions on Jeopardy has my value as person been questioned. People like my dad for instance. He was a teacher.
What’s more is that I feel my real education started when my formal education ended. Is Traditional Education Responsible For… 637
This is when I started learning everything the school DOESN’T teach… persuasion, influence, why we make decisions the way we do, wealth strategies and mindset, stuff about the New World Order, humor, on and on and on. Without self-education I’d have only relied on here say from peers who I could feel wouldn’t judge me in a harmful way, who learned anything new they know from network television. Not a pretty sight.
And what this girl’s speech made me really think about is how I’d like my kids to view traditional education vs. becoming valuable to the market place. I think we all know that just because someone, kid or elder, has a piece of paper they can show you that says they’re “Declared Competent” on a topic… doesn’t necessarily make them so.
Kids start out in their professions at square one and the pro’s unless they’re in the top 5% of the elite people in their field are usually recycling the same 1-5 years of experience over and over again, never growing, never expanding.
What’s Inside of You Waiting To Be Un-caged?
This article makes me REALLY want to learn how to let my kids get in touch with what Thomas Leonard, the author of the magnificent book, “The 28 Laws Of Attraction” calls “Inklings”… you know, your intu- ition nudging you in a direction it knows to be true for you and your nature.
I wish for my children to first and foremost be proud of who they are and love themselves more than anyone else could. I wish for them to be imperturbable, immune to the criticism and praise of anyone besides themselves. Even mine and their mothers.
If we can’t trust ourselves, why should anyone else? If we don’t love ourselves, why should anyone else?
It’s my belief that only when we are free from bullshit programming installed into our minds by “Well- meaning” people in our lives, can we achieve fulfillment of the highest order.
As a man, I declare it my duty and mission to my children and anyone who values my opinion enough to ask it, to de-hypnotize them from the thinking of herd, of the followers, of the authorities, and live what they believe to be true to them down to the very core of their being… their essence.
Three of the most valuable resources in helping me discover what’s true for me have been Tony Robbins, Ayn Rand and Robert Dilts, and as an extra, Hale Dwoskin/Larry Crane (If you can’t stand the voice of man who, as my dad would so kindly say, “Takes it up the ass,” I say you should lean towards the rough, gruff voice of the native New Yorker, Larry Crane) .
If you’re unfamiliar with them, check out the links above and experience and judge for yourself the power of their message. And as always feel free to ask me any questions you have about anything I’ve talked about today, below in the comments.
Talk soon, 638 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 129
Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program: Session 1
Hey you, It’s #2.
I’ve been meaning to share this with you because I believe it’s of massive importance to the success of not only your business life but to the success of your life as a whole.
What Eben covers in his “Connected” program has shown this nerd what he’s been doing to sabotage rela- tionships throughout his entire life. For most of my life I was flying blind because I didn’t learn any of this stuff in school or from my family. Hopefully you haven’t made as many mistakes as I have and this program only serves to show you how to be an even more attractive human being.
Connected: Session 1
Being connected could possibly be the most important asset to you and your career.
Question: In any arena in life what separates the amateurs from the professionals?
Answer: Pro’s are always focused on building their assets and their resources.
The reason 95% of golf players can’t compete with Tiger woods is because he focuses and has focused throughout his life, more time than the average person building up his assets.
Question: What are the assets you need to build to consider yourself a professional in your area of interest?
Knowledge isn’t the only thing. Almost everyone you compete with or interact with has access to knowl- edge and in this day and age it’s usually free. It’s a commodity. What is an asset in this day and age are the relationships you have in your field. 640 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If you master relationship building this can catapult you into the top 1-2% of your field.
Why is this so?
One of the reasons is because we’re shifting from a physical, labor dominated culture to an economy that has been called the “Information Economy.”
In this paradigm the assets are knowledge/information and relationships. And if you’re the one with super premium information and high quality relationships, you’re gonna win the game because you can always turn assets into money and the majority of your market that you compete with are made up of people who never turn their money into assets.
Most people, as soon as they get some value through either a paycheck or a new credit card, a bonus, usually find something to spend it on(Does the expression: “Money burning a hole in my pocket,” sound familiar?). And yet what they buy is almost never an asset that appreciates in value.
What this program is meant to do is help you see that your community or connections are an asset that can be turned into any kind of value that you choose whether it be financial or friendships.
Super high end masterminds/groups usually require that you do or… have done what they’ve done to kinda prove you’re on their level. Think about the military. For the majority of people who spend years in the military, those years will mark the pinnacle of their discipline, effectiveness and personal growth.
Why is this so?
Because when they immerse themselves an environment that demands that they step up and reach for the best that’s inside them, EVERY DAY, pretty soon they’re playing at level normal/average people could never fathom.
The peers and leaders they’ve connected with hold them to an incredibly high standard. And when they finish serving and go back home, it’s likely that the majority of their small minded, normal, average friends and family will make them guilty if they pursue excellence.
People who are content with bad habits and negative thinking hate it when someone does better than they do. Some people voice this directly but the most common way this behavior shows up is the person smiles to your face and talks shit behind your back.
“DIE FRIEND REPLACEMENTS!!!”
They do so because they fear losing you as a friend or looking bad in comparison to you. And if you start hanging out with top performers, watch out. Your old friends’ll wanna scalp them evil friend replacements for poaching their buddy or contacts. Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 641
What petty people don’t understand about connections is that if you connect the right person to someone else, you don’t lose anything. If you go buy a latte, you lose your money and once you’ve downed the latte, you’ve lost that too. With knowledge and connections, the more of it you give away, the more you have.
Connectedness is your path to vast amounts of wealth/fulfillment.
Being connected is the most important factor to long-term business success now and in the future. Being connected isn’t an accident, it’s the result of a set of simple processes and actions that anyone can learn and do.
Eben & Dave believe that if they can do it, anyone can and that it’s the steps they talk about and explain that sound counter-intuitive that are gonna work best.
You must overcome any psychological blocks to being CONNECTED. Next, you must understand the systematic process of how human friendships form and then master it. Finally you’ve gotta use the CONNECETED system to connect to influential people – then create a community with them.
“The Psychology of Getting CONNECTED”
The Friendship Formula
Eben has found that a lot of the people he knew who were un-successful, were also bad at making friends and that people who were very successful were respected and admired.
Sounds like common sense right?
Mental and physical disease are all too common in our culture these days. Even though our standard of living and options are increasing, we’re still in a funk. Studies show this is in part to friendships and human relationships declining.
Research shows that in America that the average person has .75 best friends, confidants they can con- fide in. That means 25% of Americans don’t have someone to lean on. Why is this so?
Up until the 21st century people lived in small towns and your community was where you found connec- tions and as the population grew and more people were commuting, the depth of community declined here in the U.S.
The reason this is an issue is because community is the basic building block to getting anything done. With the absence of community people resort to throwing themselves into work and they see their income rise but the correlation to increase in income and happiness rising with it, only stay in sync until you hit around the $35,000.00 mark then it plateaus.
This shows up in people who make more and more money but they’re not happier. 642 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
What Is Friendship?
Friendship is a combination of 5 key elements…
Connection: Usually starts with something you two have in common. Fear in this area shows up when you ask yourself “What do I have to offer?
Self Disclosure: Taking the risk of letting someone in on something about you that you hide from 99% of people you interact with. There’s a fine line that you walk with this between revealing something that makes you sound too weird and something that’s meaningful. Fear shows it’s face in this area when we feel like we’re being judged or rejected.
The Dialogue of Giving & Getting: A back and forth of putting energy into the friendship bank and taking energy out of the friendship bank. Fear shows up here when you feel like you’re being taken advantage of or ripped off.
The Polarity of Being an Individual & of Being Part of a Group: People like to think for themselves and make their own decisions and yet when two or more people come together they’re a self organizing system and they become an entity. Kind of like a ant separated from it’s colony will die, but while surrounded by millions of other ants, equipped with minimal communication while accomplishing amazing things for a being so small. This starts happening with us when we join with one or more people.
When we go too far in one direction or the other we risk losing ourselves or the friendship. Fear shows up here when you feel like you’re losing your identity.
Creation of a Unique Shared Space Within a Group (Ultimately Creating That Group): This is where fusion happens and synchronicity begins and people start using the same words and sharing hobbies and viewpoints and tastes which leads to you creating your own little subculture. Fear pokes it’s head up here when you ask “Whoam I to launch a group?”
We all have these fears.
How Friends Both Affect and Effect Each Other:
We’re affected by the people we surround ourselves by a degree that we never thought possible.
Most of your decisions are driven by emotion, how you feel inside. What the people around you do, affects your emotions constantly. People in essence push your buttons on programs you’ve been running since you were a kid.
Effects are tied to the results achieved which is what actually happens as a result of the people you hang out with. Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 643
You become who you surround yourself with. And whether it’s accomplished consciously or unconsciously, you become them. Your personality and persona really reflects a bunch of little pieces of people surrounded yourself with or books you studied in the past.
Illusion causes you to think you chose who you are but if you take a hard look and line yourself up to the people you’ve been influenced by, you’d see that you were an average of all those people. Not only do you become those people but you also get the effects of how they live their life.
Take the 5 people you hang out with most and average out their weight, money, study habits, pretty much anything and that’s what you’ll have showing up in your life. And, this probably matches your level of self- esteem. Core Point… Whether you choose your friends or not, they are affecting and effecting you very directly the results you get in life.
What’s awesome is that it’s possible to re-invent yourself.
Most people are only born once. They stumble onto a program they grow comfortable with and they latch onto and hang onto it for the rest of their life. 5% of people are what Warren Bennis calls Twice Borners. These are people who take conscious control of who they are and re-define themselves.
If you could define yourself in anyway possible, what would it be? If this was a play and you’re the lead character, who would be in that play?
Most people believe they have no power to change or… they fear the hell out of it.
A small percentage of people believe nothing is permanent about our life and that it’s here for us to mold it the way we’d like and it might as well be as awesome as possible. This small band of people have often found it was easier to do it this way and that they’re having so much fun doing so, they can’t believe it.
Right now we’re in the third great renaissance.
The first happened in Greece where if you happened to speak the right language and we’re male, you got to experience democracy, chemistry, philosophy. But for the majority, they lived a sheltered life where they worked the farm or whatever job they had, ate, and slept.
The next renaissance was in Europe and the same thing happened where a few people got together and dis- covered art, poetry, and architecture, philosophy, the birth of the scientific method but most people had no access to any of this even if they had an interest in it.
Right now is the only time in history that no matter who you are male, female, young, old, no matter what language you speak, no matter your education, whether you’re from the right family or not, that everyone gets to play. 644 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If people today would recognize that they were born at the exact perfect time for the first time in his- tory and that it’s tippable they might experience a whole new reality and appreciation for what’s wrong or right with their life.
With this realization comes great responsibility because with great power, comes great responsibility and who are we not to exploit this gift?
Why Friendship is At Risk?
We’re down to an average of .75% of best friends. Families are breaking down. Neighbors don’t know each other in America.
With this being the case, people you work with end up being who you’re closest to. Yet, when you mix friendship and work, just as what happens with couples who work with each other, you grow tired of seeing each other so much and the relationship suffers because of it.
Social Networking Sites are helping to erode relationships also. Some kids can easily spend 3 hours or more on these sites. This is 3 hours the kid isn’t out playing with kids in person or hanging with his family.
This isn’t real socializing. It’s fake. This is the equivalent of playing a football video game and saying that you’re playing football. Not the same.
Don’t accept fake friendships. Build real ones. These sites can serve as tools but never forget that relation- ships are one to one, face to face or in groups in person, even over the phone is better than computers.
Friendships Are a ‘Tug Of War’
When you interact with a person it really shows you another side of yourself. It helps you see a lot of things you didn’t want to look at. This is good to know because when you start hanging with people who are more evolved or successful than you it’s gonna challenge you in a positive way.
Some of it’s gonna feel uncomfortable. Keep tugging. The development you go through will end up being some of the most rewarding of your life.
How People Connect With Each Other
When people meet each other we’re scanning people with an apparatus that’s developed over millions of year that allows you to figure out if a person is a friend or a foe, what they’re about.
There’s a lot of benefits to this AND obstacles because when we jump to conclusions and make these deci- sions about people in the blink of an eye, we pigeon hole them and put them in box that’s hard to get them out of it. Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 645
This means if we want to build friendships, we want to put this process aside and consciously look for con- nections. Commonality causes this, the more unusual or weird the better. This is different than someone who’s just your boss or someone you work with.
Look to connect with people on a level that most people don’t get.
Start thinking of the parts of you as the guys at Zappos.com would put it, are a little weird. Things that if you connected with another person on, would be really interesting. Dave Logan calls this the NC1701 Effect.
The NC1701 was the first Star Trek Enterprise. Only a fellow Trekkie would have this fact handy. You need an inventory of these to share with people which may allow you to end up meeting someone, sharing the same weird interest and then having that feeling like you’ve known them you’re whole life.
How To Connect With Groups of Others
First, learn how to make friends with anyone. Next, you evolve to helping people make friends with each other. Then you can help groups make friends with each other.
When this happens you become a three legged stool instead of an unstable one or two legger. You do this much the same way you would with building friendship one on one. You share a commonality, you disclose an interest, you give and get, you notice the polarity of the individual and group dynamic, which creates a whole new group.
This is the end of Session 1. Please flip the the cassette over and come back here to hear the next session. Or else…
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 130
Notes For Session 2 of Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program
Hey You, It’s #2.
Today I bring you 12 solid pages of stellar notes from Eben Pagan’s world class program… “Connected”.
Enjoy and as always feel free to baste me with questions, criticism or praise in the comments section below…
Session 2: The Social Politics of Business Success
Aristotle is known for saying “Man is by nature a political animal.”
Definition of politics: A process by which groups of people make decisions.
Most people’s desire to master politics is to avoid being “Out Politicked” ever again. Someone stabbed them in the back, undermined their authority or in some other way made them look like a fool in front of a group.
Kinda the same reason people take martial arts. They wish to avoid ever getting beat up again.
Politics is a technology, a set of processes, systems and theories you can use to achieve whatever aims you wish.
Primate Politics And How They Benefit Us In The Modern World
95-99% of what humans do, day in, day out, thinking, communicating or socializing – our closest cousins, the chimps, are doing too.
The difference between us is that we can rationalize, discriminate and tell ourselves a story about how what we’re doing is a result of choice, our individuality, not pure animal instinct. In reality we behave just like Notes For Session 2 of Eben Pagan’s “Connected… 647
primates. This is what allows both of us to utilize that whole group dynamic that tells us who’s dominant, who’s gonna run the show, who’s threatening, who’s resourceful, all unconsciously, in the blink of an eye.
We as humans are at the top of the food chain because we are the most adaptable, according to Darwin.
Primatologist turned commercial real estate broker in the big city finds that all the behavior she observed in the jungle is playing out before her very eyes in the office…
Her background allowed her to move up the chain quickly.
The quantum leap difference is our ability to use language via self-reflection, choice, in a way that surpasses raw instinct.
Your Only As Smart As Your Tribe And Most Tribes Are DUMB
You are your social group. But what is your social group? It’s not your friends, it’s not your family, it’s not your community. It’s a group of people of which you share some affiliation.
In any organization there’s gonna be tribes there. Groups of friends can be tribes. Most people are members of lots of tribes. While we tribe, most of us don’t have very close friends.
It’s hard wired into our DNA not to form groups or organizations but to form tribes. We all do it but not all tribes are equal. Only about 25% of tribes could be classified as smart: can adapt and quickly take advantage of opportunities, which leaves 75% that are dumb.
Traits of Dumb Tribes:
Griping and complaining.
Bragging about how great they are; their degrees, their pay checks, their accomplishments, their hobbies, who they’re dating, their toys and on and on.
Most people live in a reality where this behavior is NORMAL & ACCEPTED.
These are the tribes that actually run most organizations that impact our daily lives i.e.; I.R.S., Congress, Boards of Directors in Big Bidniz, Teachers unions, Police/TSA, Banking.
Traits of Smart Tribes:
Innovation, vision and mission, seeking of solutions to problems, passion. These are the tribes that make a positive difference in the world. A group of highly committed, thoughtful people. 648 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
In the experience where a smart tribe member is dropped into a dumb tribe, the group will send you messages saying/implying, “You’re not good enough to change things, who are you to come in and buck the system or make suggestions? “This is the way things are done around here!”
If you bring up the idea of changing they’ll tell you it won’t work, it never has, it never will and when you fail we’ll be here to tell you, “Told you so.”
Dumb tribes have an immune system that kills anything that goes against their reality.
If you’re in one of these groups, one thing you could do is try and change the tribe. Another thing you could do would be to is form a completely new tribe from the ground up where you screen out dumb people to make sure everyone’s smart and responsive.
Tribes tell you who you are and what’s possible.
“People don’t like it when you change because the ways they use to manipulate you stop working.” Wyatt Woodsmall
This makes it hard to defeat the tribe when it’s all of them against just you, which is why you go about recruiting a gang to support your efforts.
Why “Social Grooming” Is An Important Key To Your Success
We as humans groom each other just as chimps do.
The Purpose And Power of Gossip
Now we’re not pulling bugs out of each other’s fur but the human version of grooming is Gossip.This is the process that makes someone worthy of the tribe they’re in. Instead of going directly to the person who’s doing something that’s irritating, we go to someone else in our tribe and talk about it behind their back.
People gossip as a method of translating the rules of the tribe in a way that isn’t directly confronta- tional.
There’s two types of gossip. One is used to undermine the spirit of another. But if gossip is nothing more than a way of translating the rules of the tribe, there’s an opportunity here to positively reframe how we use it.
One way to do this is to start positively gossiping about someone we admire in a tribe. We can choose to be impeccable with our word about how remarkable this person is. This sends out a new message that repels the dirt balls and attracts people who are actually open to the idea of joining a tribe that builds people up rather than beats them down.
Here’s what’s crazy… Notes For Session 2 of Eben Pagan’s “Connected… 649
The last person to hear about bad behavior is the person being talked about. The whole tribe knows waaaaay before he does. He notices his influence and affinity in the group is going down but has no direct feedback that tells him why and in general, he’s not all that satisfied at what’s going on.
His health may even begin to suffer because our tribe’s health determines our health most of the time.
Who owns your reputation?
Is it you? NO. The group does. This means you need to go out and find out what your reputation is and this isn’t the reputation that exists inside your own head. It exists in the community.
2/3’s of all human conversation is gossip. Most of it isn’t good. 99.9% of this kind of gossip is just uncon- scious and is idle talk about social or sexual stuff to try to position themselves, get sympathy, make people think they’re cool and play out their envy and jealousy etc.
This means that if someone talks for 6 hours of the day, 4 of those hours are gossip. When you zoom out and look at this you can admit that it must serve some very important function. Gossip operates on the level of what could be called the group mind.
The group/body mind allows an ant to thrive with it’s colony and to shrivel up and die when alone. This goes the same for individuals. Most of us aren’t conscious of the adaptation power and survivability power of the group.
One theory is that humans developed out of groups of 150, plus or minus 25-50. And primitive tribes, untouched by modern culture work the same way to this day. If it’s gets above 150, internal forces start dividing the tribe.
Gossip allows us to use our human gift that separates us from the animals and start using gossip in a posi- tive way that doesn’t offend the group because even though you can’t be literally crucified or burned as witch these days, the group doesn’t take too kindly to you going against them.
You just slowly but surely start getting ignored, talked over/undermined or fired.
Most gossip comes in the form of a neutral or negative/extremely negative tone about another person. The majority of this is about their social or sexual relationships. All of this stuff is naturally interesting so if you want to embed your gossip in this same vein, you can use negative gossip about yourself.
Tell the story, not about someone else but about you doing something socially unacceptable. By you pointing out how you screwed something up, it doesn’t make anyone wrong, doesn’t make the group wrong but it helps the group see things in a new light…
“Hey, this guy doesn’t think he’s god, why should I?” 650 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Geoffrey Miller the author of “The Mating Mind” and “Spent” says we spend about a 1/3 of life as humans socializing. This means about a 1/3 of our time is spent sleeping and 1/3 of our time doing the business of life, hunting, gathering, maintenance for our bodies.
Socializing in a positive way fulfills a deep need within us as humans and fulfills an even deeper need for the group mind or tribe.
Neanderthals are dead. Homo-sapiens are still here. How is that possible?
Gossip allows for people to be ostracized who are out to do harm to the group as a whole. The way to use this today that creates influence is what Dave calls “The Power of the Unstoppable Two.”
It starts with two people forming a relationship based on integrity, respect, people who think a lot of each other. It helps if these people are in different professions or different aspects of the same profession. So, with doctors, one would be a neurologist and one would be a pediatrician.
They form an agreement that they’re gonna be very open and honest with each other and that anything that they hear about each other, good, bad or indifferent, they pass it on so the person being gossiped about stays informed. Then they go beyond that.
Here’s the power of the Unstoppable Two…
Whenever one of them is in discussion with anyone else and the other person’s name comes up, they will say something positive about that person.
This begins to inoculate that tribe against negative gossip that’s gonna get launched about that person. It also directs the focus towards whatever that person is doing that is positive and it pre-disposes that tribe to allow me to connect that person with this tribe someday.
This strategy has proven remarkably powerful throughout history.
Is there someone I can form this Power of The Unstoppable Two with? It has to be done with integrity, with respect and set up the relationship now to pre-dispose your tribe to make these future introductions and to start spreading positive gossip about someone you think a lot of and that person spread positive gossip about you.
Are You Over-Political or Under-Political?
The book “Survival of The Savvy ” identified how people, especially in corporate environments, operate on one or the other of a continuum… either they’re Over-political or Under-political.
Under-Political Type: Underestimated. People who aren’t playing the political game in a savvy way believe that ultimately their ideas will win out. They believe in meritocracy, and that they’ll succeed on their own Notes For Session 2 of Eben Pagan’s “Connected… 651
merits and that we live in a fair environment. The extreme power of ‘ideas types’ lose out to more political types when competing for power, credit, promotions or resources.
They have a low or passive profile. They take modesty and self-deprecation to levels where they’re seen as weak, inconsequential and un-deserving of respect. Their lack of self promotion comes from letting ideas and results speak for themselves which leads to diminished recognition.
These people see all the games people play as retarded and avoid them to avoid lowering themselves to that level, when in reality, there’s a way to play these games in a way that works for them.
If you don’t promote yourself and show others what you’re doing, celebrate your successes and talk about what you’ve learned from your failures, other people will never know about it.
Over-Political Type:
These people focus on Position Power.
They focus on image and perception. They focus on doing what works. They focus on relationship based decisions, private agendas and self-promotion.
This is invaluable for careers and companies until they over do it and usher in a tsunami of political risk. All risks boil down to a fatal flaw… the over-political compromises their principles to get ahead and lose their ethical balance either along the way or from the outset.
When winning becomes most important, people sacrifice themselves and start thinking everyone has sacri- ficed their ethics and start rationalizing that everyone’s doing it. This winds up costing them self-respect AND their reputation.
How “Positive Politics Can Help You Succeed…
What’s the middle ground?
The answer is Positive Politics. This is where you leave negative politics behind, but you become aware of them by reading your Machiavelli, your 48 Laws of Power, your Survival of the Savvy so that you know what’s going on when people are playing games on you.
Remember not to be afraid of the game because of the negatives. There are just as many positives going on as there are negatives in the world. The gains you get from using Positive Politics are far greater than the losses you’ll experience if you stay out of the game.
It’s not zero sum. It’s synergistic, 1 + 1 = 11. This means success for you on the inside and outside and the same for your group. 652 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
When they did their study on this and used their formula to find out who was extraordinary and who wasn’t, they found out that these people were like “What? Why do you want to talk to me? You should talk to xyz.” When they contacted people who were Over-Political they found those people were saying stuff like “I’ve been waiting for you to call me. Here’s why I’m so great…”
One of the shining examples of a balanced politician teaches a class at USC and he makes the students read Machiavelli. This befuddles them because this is they guy who proclaims “It’s better to be feared than loved.” The professor claims this is the most important book on leadership that’s ever been written.
For most people who read Machiavelli, they’re interested in their own success, period. It’s all about me. They read it trying to be better than everyone else.
Then, there’s a subset of people who use precisely the same set of techniques but in service of something greater.
He cites Douglas MacArthur here using the ruthless mindset of Machiavelli in the instance of an American soldier who raped a local Japanese woman during World War II and was sentenced to death by firing squad and instead of just doing it in the presence of Americans, he invited local Japanese dignitaries to witness the slaying.
This was unheard of in the history of warfare. Why would you ever show that your troops are weak, that your troops have done something wrong, and then almost celebrate the fact that you’re carrying out this punishment? The USC professor who told this story to Dave Logan said that at some point, every leader has to commit an atrocity.
Atrocity is a word that Machiavelli uses. The question is,“In Service Of What?” For MacArthur it was in service of the rule of law and the principle that no one is above the law. He transmitted a message to the Japanese that this tribe is serious about their word, there is no double standard.
Atrocities only need be made when an institutions depends on your needing to do that.
Crushing your enemy completely in body and soul could be seen as mafia politics.
On the other hand this exact mindset could be re-framed as Abraham Lincoln did. There’s a story of a woman telling him he should be ruthless toward his enemy and annihilate them. His response to her was, “Have I not destroyed an enemy by turning them into a friend?”
The key question to ask is… “What are my politics in service of?
When Eben hires someone to work in his company, the number one thing he has on his mind is giving them the highest leverage which would lead to the highest chance of them being successful in their integra- tion with the company being successful. Notes For Session 2 of Eben Pagan’s “Connected… 653
So, the one specific thing he recommends doing is to build powerful personal relationships with a hand- selected group of key people on the team.
He talks to the person and gives them a list of typically between 5-10 people, right around 7-8 is the sweet spot, and he tells them ‘These are the people that you need to make friends and build a relationship with in the next 90 days.’
He recommends they spend at least one hour a week in an appointment with each person. He tells them to call the person up and say ‘I’m getting started, here’s the project I’m getting started on, I’d really like to learn what you do and learn how the business works from you and learn about your challenges and what you’re doing to overcome them. Can we set up a weekly call so I can talk to you once a week and really get to know you and see how I can help you?’
What he’s found is that by giving them this single guiding directive and telling them this is the most impor- tant thing you can do for your first few months on the job, build personal relationships with the key people you’ll be working with, the rest of everything takes care of itself.
If they’re the right person, you’ll start hearing back from these key people, who of course you’ve known for awhile and have a relationship built on trust because you’ve worked together. You’ll start hearing back from them, ‘Wow. I’m really glad we brought this person on board. This person is really a superstar!” or “They really get it, we made a great choice here.’ And he’ll start hearing that as positive politics gossip.
The other benefit is that if they AREN’T the right person, very quickly, usually within a few weeks max, you’ll start hearing from your superstars, ‘You know I’m getting a bad feeling about this person’ or ‘I gave that person this simple thing to do and they just didn’t do it.’
The tribe sorts it all out. Kind of like when an organ is transplanted into a body. If everything’s a match, the organ takes, but if it doesn’t, the eject button gets pushed real fast.
A good culture that has shared values, trust, and good communication, they’ll start giving you feedback without you having to say, “Hey can you keep an eye out on ______and tell me if he starts screwing up by making one of these 7 mistakes because if he does, we have to get rid of him?”
Superstars reject scrubs coming in messing with the flow. They want to maintain homeostasis.
Action Step One:
Whenever you go into a new tribe, or start interacting with a new social group, try to identify the most important players as soon as possible and go to work over the next few months to build powerful, per- sonal relationships, personal bonds with those people.
Not work on a project with them. Not try to get them to think you’re super successful. Not try to impress everyone. 654 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Build personal relationships, one to one, individual with the influencers.
Action Step Two:
Within any group that you’re creating, encourage any new members to connect to a few key people. Pull them aside and say, “You’re joining a new group right now, here are the 3, 5, 7 key people that you need to go build a relationship with. If I were you, over the next 90 days, I would try to talk to, interact with, build personal relationships with these people. Ask them questions like ‘What’s your biggest challenge or frustration?’ and then help them get past it. Ask them what their objectives are and help them ach- ieve them. Do whatever you can to help them be more successful and show them that you want them to be more successful and that you’re committed to it WITHOUT asking for anything in return.
If you do just this one thing, you will 10-100 times the value that you invested in this program and it will happen fast – months or years.
*****If you’re already in a social group, you have a reputation, people have gossiped about you, posi- tively or negatively, and remember you don’t own your reputation, the tribe does.
Here’s the one thing you can do to manage your reputation within that one group…
Find the influencers and all the people who matter. Make a list and then you go and sit with them and for this to work they have to know you’re coming from the right place here, and you ask the question “What is my reputation here? Can you help me understand what my reputation is?”
And here’s the key… they’re gonna tell you a lot of stuff, lots of it will be positive, usually the first thing they say will be positive… you don’t argue with it, you don’t agree with it, you don’t thank them for the compliment… you just say thank you.
At the end of them talking, you say “Is there anything else?” And if they say more at the end of it, you say “Thank you.” Then you ask, “Is there anything else?” and at the end of the meeting you get up and shake their hand and say, “Thank you,” and you walk away.
Here’s what’s gonna happen automatically because you did that.
Now you have something to talk about with that person. If they hear anything negative that is different than what they told you, there’s a very good chance that person is now gonna come to you and give you that information.
Now you’re in a position of managing your reputation instead of being at the effect of it.
The second thing is that if you find your reputation is negative, then you can plan, more on this later in program, exactly how to turn that around using very concrete steps. Notes For Session 2 of Eben Pagan’s “Connected… 655
Doing this gives you power to see how you’re seen in the tribe, what sorts of things you can do success- fully in the tribe and what sort of things are gonna fail because my reputation just isn’t up to snuff.
Most importantly, it gets you in control of your reputation.
So you’re asking “Can you please help me understand what my reputation is? Can you please tell me what you think it is? What have you heard and I don’t wanna know who said it, just what is it?” Take it down, say thank you and ask if there’s anything else and if there isn’t you get up and shake their hand and walk away.
Gravitate Toward Conscious “Positive Politicians”
How do you find people that are a synthesis of both the under and over political who understand about building trust and reputation and relationships and character and integrity?
You’ll find these people don’t talk negatively about other people. They do praise people who’re performing well. And they’re not just trying to work the system.
When you look at a traditional Organization Chart that has the boxes that tier down from president to pee- on you’ll think, as a person from the outside, that this is valid.
What social scientists have proven by asking people in these big organizations, “Who do you communicate with when you need to get something done?” and they started watching without asking and they made a different map and found there was the “Corporate Org Chart” and then there was the “Informal Org Chart.”
So if you wanted to get something done or be introduced to someone or you wanna know how things really work, that it’s actually this person 2 boxes down and 3 to left that knows everyone that operates in this positive and under-political realm that are the people that really get everything done inside the organiza- tion. They’re the ones you wanna have as friends. And if you come in from the outside and look at the “Corporate Org Chart,” so that you can have “Power”, you’re gonna hit blocks and wonder why you can’t get anything done.
It’s important that when you go into any social group or are starting a new one, that you go in with two sets of glasses. One that looks at the traditional org chart with the dominant ape up top with 3 who report to him on down and then you put on the 3D glasses that reveal the informal org chart and you start asking, “Who’s the person, who when I wanna know what’s going on, I talk to them? Or “Who do you call when you need to get this thing done? Or “Who’s the person who knows how to bypass the red tape and call favors and just make things happen?”
These are the people to meet and build relationships with. 656 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You often find that it’s the person with the lowest level of authority that is actually the most credible person to get things done. In the show M.A.S.H, Radar O’Reilly was the man you wanted to know. You can tell these people are coming from the place of “In service of the higher purpose.”
In organizations you find that the most connected, respected people are like the I.T. guy. The person who works on your computers when it shuts down. That could be the most respected person in the whole com- pany, the guy who, if he didn’t show up, it’d matter.
These people don’t have titles like President or CEO.
They have titles like “Assistant to the Vice President in charge of Strategic Planning.” Or some other mean- ingless/weird titles. This totally recasts the list of people you want to be close too and the people you don’t want to know.
In every group there’s a high priest. This is the person you confess to when you’ve done something wrong. This is the person who’s the keeper of the Sacred Flame of the tribe.
If someone does something bad, they’ll go to this person and confess like they would do a friend and the person absolves you of your sins and welcomes you back into the group.
Now you can go into your social circles and think about who’s the Radar O’Reilly and who’s the High Priest. These are the two most important people you want to know. They’re also usually 2 of the easiest people to get to know because they don’t have the titles that cause people to protect them in the com- pany.
Eben in his apartment building makes sure that whenever one of the maintenance guys steps in the door, he gets hit with a $20 dollar bill. Whether he fixes anything or not. This makes sure he side-steps all the bureaucracy involved in getting one of those guys to his apartment because he calls the person directly and they come right over and fix it.
This coupled with being cool with these guys goes along way to building a relationship with them to where they’re on your side.
The “New Integrity” And how It Changes The Game
People confuse integrity with honesty or ethics.
If you look it up in the dictionary it doesn’t mean any of those things. It has to do with being whole and complete. Think of driving over a bridge. You don’t want to drive on one that’s missing anything of signifi- cance. It doesn’t have integrity.
If our relationships have integrity they’re not missing anything. They’re structurally sound.
Most people think that integrity is doing what you said you would. Notes For Session 2 of Eben Pagan’s “Connected… 657
Integrity is honoring your word which means that if I tell you that I’m going to call you at 7 tomorrow and I call at 8 then the first thing I need to do is somehow clean up the mess that I made by the fact of keeping you waiting for me. This means that sometimes I give my word to a group that I’ll do some- thing, important or not, and at some point I realize I’m not going to be able to do that. Then what I need to do is stand in front of that group and say,
“I promised I was going to do ______. I can no longer do that. So I need to withdraw that promise. And now I need to deal with any consequences that come up from it.”
This makes sure the bar isn’t set to “Perfection.” Think about how you are at honoring your word with other people. When you give your word, you do it and if you know you’re not gonna be able do it, you clean up the situation, perhaps you take back your word and give it on another issue. This is someone that can get things done in a group in a way most people can’t.
This allows you to make really grand promises. The answer to making this work is not to just to only make simple promises. The answer is to make big promises but honor your word in a way that leaves your integrity intact.
Eben thinks of integrity as alignment of thought, emotion and behavior.
If you think of this as a needle on your speedometer in your car, and the needle’s all the way to left, you’re out of alignment and your inner conflicts are showing and your behavior oozes resentment, hate, or apathy.
If the speedometer is pinned all the way to the right, you’re dealing with a person who’s comfortable in their own skin WHEREVER THEY ARE, they can actually be in the moment, they can deal with the task at hand and switch tasks easily, they behave consistently without being fake.
These people have rooted out any internal conflicts.
Being aligned allows you to stop making idle commitments that have caused you to go out of integrity in the past. You should prune back your commitments to those that truly matter to you. One thing you can do is stop making commitments completely and go on a commitment fast.
Stop making promises. Stop giving your word. Do this for a while and take notice of how often you want to make a commitment. Just like when you go on a food fast, it will teach you more about how your mind and emotions work than any seminar, any book, any product could.
When you stop making commitments for up to a month, you end up resetting the game and you teach yourself more about integrity than anything else you could do.
Always ask yourself, “Is it really wise for me to make this commitment? Am I highly likely to keep it?”
THE END OF SECTION 2 658 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
That’s it for today Ya’ll!
See you soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
P.S. To find a treasure trove of the hilarious comics/cartoons that I used in this post, cruise over to theoat- meal.com This guy is a fucking genius and I wish to some day wall paper a room with nothing but his posters. Go check him out… CHAPTER 131
Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program - Session 3
Hey you, It’s #2.
Today you and I get to talk about…
How Biases & Negative Emotions Block Your Success With People And Relationships
Man, unconsciously, is a political beast.
Yet, if we wake ourselves up, we don’t play the connection game on the default setting.
These days there’s a lot of focus in research on what’s called Cognitive Biases as well as emotional biases. What scientists have discovered is that we tend to be biased in one direction or the other.
Programming throughout our life has gone into the control room and tweaked the knobs all the way in one direction or the other of instead balancing them.
This is where Emotional Estimation and Seeing Only Validation comes into play.
Emotional Estimation is the process we go through when we guess how the future is gonna play out but instead of using rational calculation through probability and math, we just wing it and use our emotions to figure that shit out.
Turns out we suck at figuring how things are gonna turn out in the future and yet we love to do it.
When we estimate emotionally, we look at the billboard and see the lottery is up to $71 660 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One million dollars and we rationalize that we should buy more lottery tickets than if it was only at $21 million. And because we think the payoffs gonna be bigger and no one’s won in a while, that our chances of hitting it go up.
In Vegas they learned that the more reels there are on a machine, the less people think they have a chance of winning. The lower the amount of reels, the higher they believe their chance of winning. So if you see you have to line up 5 bananas vs. 3 bananas, you estimate 1 in 3 chance of winning is better odds than 1 in 5. This is where you get screwed.
Vegas loves mathmeticians who can figure out how make so many different variables that can show up on a reel that your 1 in 3 chance goes to like 1 in a 1,000. Vegas increased their profits by 60% by lowering the number of reels and jacking up the variables which makes for more combinations that can show up.
Both of these are great examples of emotional biases and emotional estimation.
The other side of this coin is Seeing Only Validation.
Being that our biggest fears are of loud noises and falling, it makes sense that we would need to be able to emotionally estimate instead of sitting and calculating in life and death situations.
Once we make an emotional estimation, we attach to it truth, simply because we had a hand in creating it. Then we start seeing only validation, no matter what the evidence is to the contrary, we somehow always figure out how to interpret it as “I was right.”
Trader Vic, world famous stock trader, teaches how this plays out in the stock market. At one time he hired a small group of 20 high IQ traders and gave them each $250,000 to manage. He told them that if they lost all the money, they’re fired… and that if they make money, they get to stay. Something weird happened.
Most of these geniuses lost all the money.
He had ask himself, “What’s going on here? I chose the smartest of the smart. Why are they losing all the money?”
It turns out that super IQ people are used to being right. They’re used to being able to outthink the situa- tion, figure it out and play it. So they’d do all their research and come to an estimation.
Then they would invest and when the stock would start going down, this highly intelligent person would look at it and rationalize that they had used good logic to make the decision, fall back on their identity of being a smart person and decide the market is wrong. And they’d ride it all the way down to zero. Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 661
Seeing Only Validation would cause them to buy more of it even when they saw it going down. And instead of seeing reality, they kept reshaping all of the information to fit their expectation that they were right.
The Need To Be Right Sabotages Us
When Emotional Estimation and Seeing Validation are combined, you get human chimps that walk through life, have a feeling spring up that triggers a need for approval, control or fear about something and they get attached to that outcome and the mind starts distorting all of this incoming information to validate and assure themselves they made a wise decision and that they’re heading in the right direction.
This is what causes the human chimp to get as many credit cards as they can, max ‘em out, blow the money on a bunch of stuff that isn’t worth anything.
They do this rationalizing that they should have a raise coming up, or that they’re gonna get a better job, and then once all this found money comes in, THEN they can pay off the credit cards and be set.
They keep running this pattern and spending the future and going deeper into debt. We do this with rela- tionships, health, everywhere and this thinking gets us into trouble.
How Negative Emotions Come Into Play
It made a lot more sense to feel negative emotions in our past than it does now.
We don’t live in as dangerous environment anymore. Especially those who are privileged. If we feel the need for approval, control or security it triggers negative emotions out of proportion to the stimulus that’s coming in.
If someone expresses interest in the same girl we’re secretly interested in, instead of just realizing that they’re just talking about it, or that it’s something they’re going to pursue, we get the same button pushed as if 10,000 years ago some rival clan was going to kill us.
It freaks us out unnecessarily. This kicks in emotional estimation and seeing only validation and create self fulfilling prophecies.
Winners who get what they want and help others get what they want start noticing their tendencies to jump to emotional states and make emotional decisions out of a paranoid need for approval, control or security.
And instead of being controlled by them, they almost see them as a surfer sees a wave, it’s something that comes in, you can ride it for a while, and then it flows out.
They let it go and don’t get strangled by it. And when they show up in social situations, they never respond emotionally. 662 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Two Keys For Unlocking The Prison Door Of Unconscious Emotional Sabotage
In Relationships
FOR MEN: Our problem is that we don’t believe it’s o.k. to have emotional relationships with other men. We can’t let the fact that we feel emotions for another man surface. We think it threatens our masculinity, or that we’re gay, and these ideas prevent from us from creating emotional bonds with other men.
We don’t show our emotions to the guys we have feelings for. Unless we have a 12 pack in us, we don’t hug our friends and say, “I love you.” This unconscious barrier prevents us from building close personal friend- ships.
FOR WOMEN: Scientists have found that while men have lots of little bickering conflict on the surface, at the end of the day, they go out with each other and have a beer or play pool, hang out and get over it.
Women will keep a superficial mask on that says everything’s cool between them and other women and won’t show that they’re disappointed or sad. They won’t get into minor conflicts because connection and bonding is so important. But the downside is that resentments build up over time and when the conflict does arise, it actually destroys the relationship permanently.
Action Step for Men: Give yourself permission and realize that you deserve to feel emotions for other men and that it’s necessary and really important for our fulfillment and for the fulfillment of other men. Express and show those emotions and get over our societal programming that says it’s not o.k. to hug another man or to say “I love you,” or tell him how important he is or show him in a certain way.
Action Step For Women: Realize this underlying wiring that causes you to avoid any superficial conflict and not work it out and stay clean in the moment instead of saving it all up and letting the dam burst and destroy the relationship long term.
This means that when an issue comes up, you go to the other woman you have an issue with and have a radi- cally honest and compassionate conversation, share where you’re at instead of sweeping things under the rug to maintain an appearance of peace and a feeling of connection that’s fake because in the long term this only hurts you.
Elementary School Yard Conditioning Drives Your Behavior
Deborah Tannen from Harvard, through research discovered that when girls are playing and one of them comes across as uppity, one of the others will pipe up and say, “Don’t be bossy!” Where as when boys play together it’s all about conflict, one boys tank is going on top of the other or one guy is kicking another guy’s ass and once the conflict is done, you’re done with it.
Where this surfaces with women in the work place is when they see another woman acting uppity, which could be expressed as ambitious, playing boss hog politics, they experience that school yard resistance. But Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 663
not as much from men as they will from women. One theory is that the glass ceiling is enforced not by men, as most people think, but by women.
3 steps to freedom
One of Dave Logan’s friends is the head of an institute of creativity and he calls himself a mythologist. One of the exercises he takes people through is to imagine they’re walking down a path, going to a destination they desire. All of a sudden a gate falls from the sky and there’s only three ways to get through it.
The first is gratitude. You reflect on who has helped you, who has invested in you, and that you are special because of other people.
The second requirement is that you find something that you’re going to leave behind. A behavior that no longer serves your highest purpose. But nature abhors a vacuum so in order to leave something behind, you either have to pick up something new or amplify something.
The third requirement is that you have to name your genius. That certain irreducible part of who you are, not just the roles you’ve tried out that have stuck, the essence of who you are.
As soon as you experience the gratitude, named the thing you’re gonna leave behind and have consciously set it down, and you name your genius, the gate opens and you’re able to continue.
You have to find something you’re gonna leave behind or else people will read into your actions and see them as disingenuous and you’ll get frustrated and say it doesn’t work. You have to find that thing you’ll leave behind.
So if you don’t get you’re cognitive biases and negative emotions handled, you will send a signal to evolved people, very early on, that will cause them to not want to connect with you.
You can’t grab opportunity with a closed fist
“The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.” Zen Master Atisha said this thousands of years ago. Eben does this by closing his eyes, focusing on the inhalation and exhalation of his breath and focusing on a mind that lets go. Then notice your own mind let go.
What we all seem to do is get attached to everything. We meet someone and if the interaction goes good, we want to stay with that and that person. When it goes bad, we’d claim we didn’t want to think about it but yet, we still hold on to it. When we have a mind that lets go of everything, flow becomes the norm.
This is when you realize food doesn’t taste good without periods of not having food. If you gorge yourself on a certain food, you lose your desire for it.
Now, out in the world and our chimp mind gets triggered, what if we thought about “What would happen if my mind let go of the situation?” Eben imagines his head and brain relaxing and the experience just flowing 664 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One through like a wave. Now, when he get’s cut off while driving or in a tense situation if he focuses on letting the primal thoughts in his mind go, it only takes a minute or so for the feeling to pass through his awareness and he no longer thinks about it.
We’re All “PTSD” Over The Same Incident!
Have you ever introduced one of your friends or clients to another friend and had them run off together and kinda leave you behind instead of the group growing?
Almost all of us have had introductions gone bad.
This causes us to hoard our friends and keep them close. Strength ends up being the amount of friends I’m surrounded by and weakness is when those friends find each other and connect because then they might leave me. We’re all in PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) over that.
There’s always a chance of this happening but the key is to recognize that we all have this negative view of connecting other people that really goes back to an origin story from our childhood or sooner. After this has happened we make a commitment to ourselves that never, over our dead rotting bodies will we ever let that happen to us again.
The proof of this shows up in big corporations with salespeople who view the contacts they have as “Their” contacts. They’d rather cut their arm off than expose any of those contacts to anyone else because they’re MINE, they’re all I have. If some of these people would start putting some of their leads together, and trusting each other, they could figure out how they could pool their assets which would increase the size of their sales but also the volume of the sales.
Unless you get over this incident you won’t be able to fuse your tribes.
“The Justice Mechanism” And How It Acts As Your Success Prevention System…
Justice mechanism is cognitive bias mixed with emotional over-estimation.
This is the system within us that doesn’t like it when things are unfair. We want justice and feel like we deserve it. We define justice as, “If I get half or more, then things are just,” not 50/50.
Social psychologists have uncovered this through experiments. One of the most revealing is where they have psychological subjects play a game that’s called the “Ultimatum Game.”
What they do is sit 2 people at a table that don’t know each other, one is A, one is B. Then they bring in $100. in cash and put it in front of A and they tell A, “You get to divide the $100. between you and B how- ever you want. But there’s a catch. And the catch is that then B gets to make the decision about whether or not they get to keep the money that has been divided by A. Or, whether neither of them get to keep the money.” Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 665
So, here’s how this plays out.
In most cases what A will do is split the money 50/50 and B will look at this and approve it, so they both get the money. But in some cases, A being a smart human chimp thinks that B’s got nothing to lose so I’m gonna keep $60 for myself and give $40 to B. Or, I’m gonna keep $80 to myself and give B $20. Or, I’m gonna keep $100. for myself and give B nothing.
Something interesting happens around the 70/30 mark.
B will take 50/50, 60/40 and in a lot of cases will take 70/30, but around this point B starts saying no and neither of them get any money.
B would rather see A and themselves come away with nothing, than to see an “Un-Fair” travesty like someone else they don’t know getting a little more money than they do. This is funny because they don’t know each other and it’s free money. If B were by themselves and focused on the question of, “Do I want a free $30 bucks or not?” they would almost always say yes.
Well, the psychologists thought, well maybe since we’re doing this in America where $100 bucks isn’t that much money, our results are skewed. So then they went over to third world countries where $100 bucks represents 3 months income for a person and the exact same 70/30 push back happened. These people would walk away from what might be a months worth of income because they can’t stand to see that other S.O.B. get a better deal than them.
Are you ripping yourself off more than anyone else could?
Each of us are keeping a detailed mental record of all the transactions we’re having with other people, emo- tionally estimating them, seeing only validation and getting attached to the outcome which drives us to always try to get 50% or more.
Can you see how this screws things up?
We just walk around robbing ourselves constantly because we can’t stand to see someone else get a better deal than us. The restaurant owner in San Francisco knew how to take advantage of this.
In his restaurant they’d bring you a pitcher of wine and set down the glasses and tell the customers to drink as much as they want and just tell them at the end how many glasses they had. Of course, people would drink more than they reported and “ripping off the restaurant.” Then a journalist came along and told the owner, “Don’t you realize these people are ripping you off?”
The owner said, “Of course I do. But look outside. There’s a line around the block waiting to get in.”
Ah hah!!! This is what could be considered an enlightened connector, someone who understands this mechanism and uses it to turn the tables and give the other person the better than 50% deal because they know how this whole deal works. 666 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Action Step: Don’t focus on what the other person is getting, focus on what you’re getting. If the other person happens to be getting a lot more than you, celebrate for them. Love them. Really enjoy when people succeed.
A habit we fall into is getting jealous and feeling like we lost something when another person succeeds or gets lucky or has a windfall. Someone wins and a little part of us dies inside. This happens to a lot of us.
There must be something evolutionarily valuable about it for it to be so universally common. The paradigm we live in is far different than our predecessors. It turns out that this “Justice Mechanism” is a huge blockade to the success of people.
If you’ll make a list of all the places this pops up for you and causes you to respond emotionally, and you systematically work on releasing this, and cultivate the ability to rejoice when others succeed, this will bring you to heaven on earth.
How Your “Strengths” Can Sabotage You…
The first level that can make this happen are de-railers.
You discover something you can do well, a strength you have and you use it over and over again. No matter what the situation, that’s the strength you use, that’s the card they play. Example… Someone finds that when they get angry, people cower and respond in their favor.
There’s a point as your life and influence grows that your strengths are simply insufficient to overcome your hurdles.
And yet because it’s worked up to this point, you have no experience of these ever failing, you continue to over use them. The Center for Creative Leadership, the greatest place in the world for studying leadership has put together a list of de-railers, here’s a few…
Over-managing:
You start managing and you rely on systems and checklists and procedures to get things done. You manage and you get results and everything’s great. This causes you to want to manage your way into success.
One guy Dave knew had this belief…
“From the day that I started my career, I learned that other people don’t remember what they say. If I can remember what they say better than they can remember, then I have an advantage.”
So the guy learned to always write down everything that someone says. Here this man is the chairman of a huge company and he’s got people who could take notes for him but this is a guy who consistently seen this as an advantage. So instead of providing leadership and presence everything you’d want out of a leader, he’s in there taking notes. Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 667
Over Dependence On a Mentor:
We start going through our career and we find this one person who always gives us sound advice and at some point we out grow the mentor. But, it’s so comfortable to do what the mentor says, because we don’t have to think about whether it’s the right thing to do or not. Mentor says it, his advice has worked before and he’s telling me to do this new thing so I’m gonna do it.
There’s a point when you have to own your own path of progress.
A Person Who’s Volatile:
Dave used to teach a class called “Managing Difficult People,” and people would send their “Difficult” people to him. What’s ironic is that the people who were most difficult were the people sending the people to the class.
What’s the definition of a “Difficult person?” Probably someone with an opinion, someone who’s stubborn, someone who thinks they’re right, someone who’s smart, and you find that the more you describe difficult people, the more you realize first of all you’re surrounded by them and secondly, they’re the people who are the most valued in an organization at certain times and thirdly, I am one of those people.
Many of us got to where we are because we’re great at debating. Some people try to debate their way out of trouble. This comes across to many people as volatile.
When I think I’m debating it comes across to others as I’m ripping their head off.
When you use these strengths inappropriately, or use them past their shelf life, they become de-railers.
The second level is what’s called a Life Sentence
Here’s how a life sentence works…
When you were a kid did you ever have an older sibling or adult tell you to just shut up when you voiced an opposing opinion, that you’re never saying anything smart and then turn around and tell you that you always do that?
In one way shape or form this is a universal human experience.
This can be a crushing experience if you admire that person at all. It can make you go inside and say, “God, that must be true. Maybe I am stupid.” Then in that moment you go inside and make a decision that man- dates you to allow other people to talk for you.
Then you start seeking out people who are smarter than you and quoting them to preface something you believe, “My teacher says ______.” Then you notice that people would pay attention to what you said when put it that way. 668 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So the decision you make is that you don’t have anything to say. If it comes from you, it’s worthless. So all you do is parrot authorities and as long as I do that, people who are cooler, will accept me.
What a person who makes this decision does is spend a lot of time in school or books. When in doubt, take another class. The person gets a 2 phd’s and a masters and ends up living out a life sentence with this belief that you have nothing to say but that you’ve got research that backs up anything you happen to say.
Everyone’s got a life sentence.
A decision you made about not being good enough, not being smart enough, not cool enough and because I’m not enough, I’m going to become this other way that’s a shell of who I really am.
How this sabotages you is that being an Authority can be really rewarding. Big time players will listen to you. And yet if you don’t have the fancy pants titles your information usually isn’t quoted or respected. And you really can’t connect with people until you overturn this life sentence.
Who’s the judge that can overturn the sentence?
You.
You’re the person that slammed down the gavel that determined your identity. Even if someone else made an accusation, you went inside, became the jury and prosecuted yourself.
You were every single role in formulating this life sentence and so you’ve effectively imprisoned yourself. Now the cell you’re in may not be horrible. You might live in nice house, have people respect you but the problem is that you can never connect with anyone in any amount of reality or authenticity if you’re con- necting at the level of your life sentence.
Because it’s not who you are. It’s a mask that you wear that’s put over your greatest fear.
So here’s the action step…
Go back and revisit that moment when you said that thing that imprisoned you. Your greatest strength right now is the life sentence you condemned yourself to. Now, you never have to lose that strength, but by overturning the life sentence, you get to use all those parts of yourself that up until now were put behind bars and made unavailable to you.
The more you examine who you are, and what critical decisions led you to become that person, the more you’ll realize how limited you are.
Fusion requires you to know who you really are and having a sense of authenticity and being able to connect and having another person say, “That person is the real deal,” and to do this you have to over- turn your life sentence. Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 669
“You don’t have to go to a psychologist to figure out what’s wrong with you. Just listen to what a person complains about and whatever it is they complain about, is the thing that they continually seek out, find and bring into their life so that they can live that story.” Krishna Murti
In romance, if your story is that your partners always neglect you, then you find people who neglect you and that’s who you’re attracted to so you get to keep your story.
It ends up being like the movie ‘Groundhog Day’ where the same scenario keeps showing up again and again and again.
“GOSSSSSHHHH!!! IDIOT!!!” This is what Napoleon Dynamite would tell himself when he messed up or when a bucket load of shit was dumped on him by another person he knew. And it’s hard for us to admit we do the same thing to ourselves.
If You’re Dependent On Someone Else To Do Something, You’re Lost…
One thing you’ve gotta give up is the idea that one person is gonna save you and be the bridge to your future.
The more reliant you are on one person, the more lost you are. Why is that? If you’re over reliant on that person, you come across as desperate. And the more desperation someone senses, the less they’ll sense authenticity in you.
The second problem is people get busy and caught up living life so when other priorities in their life come up, you feel like you have nothing.
Powell Doctrine – Based on the philosophy of General Colin Powell, this philosophy states that “You want to have enough assets to bury them 9 times over.”
This applies to your business career in that you want to build in redundancy so that if your key people bail on you, you’ve got a back up plan and contacts you can plug the hole with.
One way to get out of this box is to recognize that we need to connect with sooo many people so that we have redundancy but in order to do this we have to be able to get to know them quickly, get to know who they are and get them to connect with who we really are. This requires that we leave all the baggage behind.
How Do Great Connectors “Seem” to Themselves?
The first law of performance is that how something seems to you is exactly how you’ll behave in that moment.
If this moment seems like your picture of perfection, you’ll behave that way. And if it seems to you that it’s a crisis, you’ll behave that way. 670 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
How do great connectors “Seem” to themselves? But more importantly, ask yourself the question, “How do you “Seem” to yourself?” Most people would reply with a mediocre appraisal of themselves.
It’d be “Mediocre” in their mind because it’d be based on the “normal, average” person in their society. A “Normal” person waits till they have permission or accreditation before making a move, doesn’t see them- selves as a person who can have a significant impact on their world, not sure they’re world class, not sure they have a burning passion, more a technical, average, professional.
If this is how you “Seem” to yourself, that’s how you’ll behave. You’ll behave as someone who’s profes- sional, pretty good, not world class, not a Mandela. The thing to reflect on is that your behaviors, when it comes to connecting with other people, go hand in hand with how you occur to yourself.
How great connectors occur to themselves, first of all is as malleable, changeable. How you need to occur to yourself to do world class networking, is that you are a person who is put on this earth and given the permission to make a world changing impact.
CWC = Chimp With Choices.
We’re Chimps With Choices. How you “Seem” to yourself is something over which you have some say. You don’t have 100% say, because if right now you declared you were Jesus Christ, you’re not gonna be able to walk on water. It’s not that you can totally rewrite how you occur to yourself but you CAN see yourself as malleable and having control over the process to change.
All of this happens with a choice.
All of the influential people Dave has gotten to know have become authors of how they “Seem” to them- selves. To take everything in this program to the stars you have to have a level of courage and ability to give yourself permission to self-author your story that most people don’t have.
Cultivate A Taste For Seeing Others Succeed Without You and Learn To Love It…
If we can see when others succeed as a real win for us and realize that their win for us is raising the bar for humanity and that the tide is rising and that all boats rise with the tide, that is what allows us to get past our emotional and psychological blocks.
If you can celebrate your 50th cousin or someone you’re much closer to’s moment of achievement and drink it in and feel the inspiration they’re feeling and feel it for yourself feeling that ‘We did it again, we humans achieved something more again and that just makes it so that we’re gonna achieve even greater things, that this technique will help as much as any to take you to the next level.
This comes full circle of things you’ve gotta leave behind. You’ve gotta leave behind pettiness. No better way to say it. Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 671
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Okay, you had enough mind expanding goodness for now?
I have.
Time to veg out with some “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” :-D
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 132
11 Offline and Online Strategies From The Guru’s
Hey, I’ve recently made an incredible offer to “the list” (you guys) about the MyNoteTakingNerd 33 Secrets pro- gram.
Boy i forgot some of the Kick Ass stuff I shared with the attendees of this program.
Today I’m going to share 9 of the 33 strategies in full.
Why? Simple if you like them maybe you’ll spend the ridiculous low price I’ve set for you to get the whole program. YOU CAN GET IT HERE..
INNER GAME
1. I’ve spent the last 20 years of my life studying the self help or what I prefer to call the Inner Game industry and I’ve found that as Entrepreneurs we must “Think” differently.
We fill the void left behind by bureaucratic agencies and an outdated school system.
When I say Think differently I’m referring to: • • How we React to Change • • The willingness to learn new skill sets to set us apart • • The ability to develop new habits which keep us more positive, responsive, and open during change. •
The key to maintaining this attitude is always working on yourself more then you work on anything else. 11 Offline and Online Strategies From… 673
If you do this you should never stop learning, growing, and achieving …
You want to see a constant increase in results.
To do this you must be constantly be looking at and changing your beliefs and concepts about everything you are doing.
When we get locked into our current level of thinking we are like Race Horses with blinders on. We can’t see what we need to move to the next level.
You overcome this by constantly learning and growing.
If you are holding yourself to this standard you will eventually have two unique attitudes. 1. 2. I will rely on my own abilities to create my economic security. 3. I expect nothing in life unless I provide value for someone else.
This gives you autonomy and rids you of dependency.
So here are some Lessons: 1. 2. We are in a Waking Dream and we don’t know it. 3. We live in a simulation of reality. Meaning we are coasting through life like robots literally. Doing the same thing over and over again without reason. 4. We’ve created a myth or story which shapes our lives and we never take the time to question this story. 5. We must overcome this with radical honesty. Most of us are unwilling to tell ourselves the truth. So we must … 6. Set up a Inner Game Personal Development Plan for your life. 7. This plan should be as structured as anything else you do. 8. Constantly be asking yourself why you believe something and if you can’t come up with a good answer or realized it was given to you by an outside influence. Begin to look at those things in detail. This is where change happens. 9. WORK HARDER ON YOURSELF THEN YOU DO ON ANYTHING ELSE. 10. Quit believing in the idea of the Magic Pill – It doesn’t exist. Start asking yourself what can I do as a system that if I do on a daily basis I’ll Wake Up 60, 90, 120 days from now and be a new person?
2 & 3 So here’s something that’s uncomfortable for most people. I call it the Bullshit Dozer Theory. What is it?
We are habitual Liers!!
We delete, distort, and generalize Reality to survive. 674 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Here is a definition of lying I got from Eben Pagan:
Lying is Consciously distorting actual perspectives to make ourselves feel better or intentionally misleading someone through false omission or addition of facts.
The worst kind of lie is the Omission – “Well I didn’t actually lie” – This is just B.S. we create so we don’t have to face reality.
Here’s another kind of lie that is detrimental to our success.
Pretending to know anything at all and staying attached to one perspective.
It’s my experience that the person with the most flexibility wins.
Anthony Robbins say’s “There’s always two sides no matter how thin you slice it”
No perspective is complete they are all partial with bias based on our own B.S. because we think we are right.
Being open leads to breakthroughs and learning. We may not change our perspective but we grow as human beings. We enable ourselves to connect with a broader range of people, places, and things.
What most people do is avoid things.
So START FACING THE ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM!
QUIT AVOIDING THE THINGS YOU KNOW YOU NEED TO DO.
So What is Truth? Reporting ongoing experience as it’s happening without expectation that it’s going to stay that way.
Truth Changes Through Time.
Yes… There are some Truth’s that never change but those are the exceptions to the rule. Most things in life change and if we hold onto the age old adage of Timeless Truth’s on everything we are screwed.
So begin to look at the things in your life that you hold as Truth’s.
I promise you that many of those things are holding you back from experiencing a full life.
Right now you have a set of truth’s that create your reality.
The more truth’s or Rules you have about life and how to experience it the harder your life will be. 11 Offline and Online Strategies From… 675
You will find yourself in a constant state of Judgment of other people to make yourself feel better about your own faults and perspectives in life.
Yes.. We actually create Truth’s to cover for our own inadequacies and fears.
So again. Ask yourself WHAT IS THE ELEPHANT IN MY ROOM? WHAT AM I HIDING BEHIND? WHAT BELIEFS OR TRUTHS HAVE I CREATED TO ENABLE ME TO NOT MOVE FORWARD BECAUSE I’M SCARED?
The key is to become fully aware of your strengths, your weaknesses, and your demons. Many of us deflect seeing the truth about who we are and the things we are doing wrong. We don’t tell others and they don’t tell us. We just avoid the truth at all cost.
Dan Kennedy tells the story of how all of us have demons. He openly speaks of his alcoholism, bankruptcy, etc.. yet most people would never do that. They hide behind it and never speak of it. ……
Look yourself in the mirror and be truthful and fully aware of yourself. The more you face that, the better your life will become.
IF YOU’D LIKE THE WHOLE PROGRAM CHECK IT OUT HERE
OFFLINE AND ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGIES
1. Jay Abraham teaches the Three Ways to Grow Your Business.
This should be posted in your office in multiple places.
Why? Because as business owners, entrepreneurs, or even if we are employed by another company we get caught up in the day to day operations and forget to focus on all three areas.
Most businesses only focus on gaining new customers. When’s the last time you heard from a car dealer- ship, florist, or restaurant you frequent. I’d venture to say not at all.
So In your business you should be focusing on: 1. 2. Getting more customers 3. Having your current customers buy more frequently 4. Offer the customers a chance to increase the size of purchase. Up – Sell & Cross – Sell
2. Strategically organizing your leads into a system for selling to them.
At the point of selling to the customer ask them either through an exit pop up online or question on the telephone or face to face. 676 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If they are interested in your product or service and when would they be interested in purchasing.
Hot Cherries – They are ready to buy now just need a push or more information but are high interested.
Green Cherries – Want the product or service but have a legitimate reason for not being able to buy now. They are giving you a specific date as to when they want to buy.
Info’s – They are not specific as to when they want to buy or for sure if they will but have a vague interest.
Screw You – These people have said I don’t want to speak with you and will probably never buy. Delete these leads from your list.
You can obtain this information through surveys etc.
Once you have the information you should have a system in place for each category of lead.
** I’ll be sending you a complete system I had for one of my businesses**
3. Business Is Not Common Sense. The Four Phases of Business and How to Get From One To Three Fast.
Fact – More Then 50% of Businesses Fail.
You have to view your business like you would a Baby – In the beginning you have to do all the work, but as the baby grows it takes on a life of its own and eventually doesn’t need you. What you do when the baby is small and growing will go on for a lifetime.
Your goal should be to build a salable business.
If you approach building your business the wrong way it becomes just another job you derive income from.
Your business should run on systems so that you can receive income without doing any work.
** I’m going to send you a one hour MP3 Recording I’m doing on the Three Phases of Business and how to grow as fast as possible**
The Four Phases:
Start – Up Phase: You are doing most of the work. You have maybe one or two products or services. Most of the innovation is coming from you. Before you are ready to move forward you have 3 – 6 months of operating costs in the bank from earnings.
Initial Growth Phase: Have a fully developed strategy and executable plan and first set of systems for win- ning in the marketplace. 11 Offline and Online Strategies From… 677
Rapid Growth Phase: You have systems, policies, and procedures for everything in your business to keep your business growing and delivering on your promises.
Continuous Growth: Creating Spin – Offs, Leveraging your strengths, and buying other assets.
Right now begin to document every single thing you are doing in your business. You can put these things in a three ring binder, label them, and update them as you go.
COPYWRITING AND SALESMANSHIP
1.The King of All Copy Strategies from Jay Abraham! And it has nothing to do with writing a single word.
Jay Abraham’s first concern is NOT about the clients he works for.
He considers his real client the consumer of what his client is selling. Therefore he never sets forth to make the people who hired him any money.
He’s there to enrich the person who hires him only after he or she’s has fulfilled on their promise to give greater benefit, value, advantage, experience, enjoyment, protection –whatever the glorious outcome was supposed to be – to the end user.
This stems from his Strategy of Preeminence principle.
Here is where you radically transform your idea about who you’re writing to. If you’re simply writing to customers, as Webster’s dictionary would define as; people who purchase commodities or services, you’re setting yourself up to write like a bum.
The dictionary definition of client is someone who’s under your care and protection.
Having a feeling of certainty that you can protect someone from danger is like having a superpower.
Look at this example.
I started training to box when I was six years old and went on to win x amount of x championships.
This meant that through my whole school career I was 100% confident that I could protect myself. While this made my life easier, what was really intoxicating was being able to protect others. My brothers, sisters, mom, girlfriends, friends, kids getting picked on.
I’ve come to the rescue of people in my life and I’m telling you there’s no feeling like it in the world.
When I was a teen I was rowdy and known as a bad ass so people who wanted to make a name for them- selves would come at me. 678 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I had activated the law of attraction in this area of my life.
I always held my own fighting one on one. Lots of people think they’re tough but once they get hit right in their face with a punch that’s got 212 pounds behind it rather than a 12 pound arm punch most guys hit with when flailing about in a fight, they instantly drop to ground and ask you to stop or because they’re knocked out
Do you have the power to protect your ideal client?
If you are genuinely coming to their rescue why would you let your copy sound like you’re some limp wristed punk with a tin cup held out at arms length begging for money from your client? If you have the goods, shame on you for not standing up boldly and saying so.
Protect is an extremely powerful word and by constantly focusing on whether or not the person reading this would see you as their defender, you’ll never come across as a me-too. You’ll always be seen as The most trusted advisor this specific individual could ask for.
You will NOT get this by falling in love with your product. You will NOT get this by falling in love with being the fastest growing company. You will NOT get this thinking about what peers in your industry will say about your ads.
You gotta connect with your client.
People will NOT trust you if they first don’t feel like you know their feelings, desires, frustrations, fears, goals, hopes and dreams.
This is why if you’ve been in the person’s shoes you’re trying to sell something to at one time in your life you have a major league advantage because you’ve experienced all of these at the gut level
Your story hits home with them. You’ve been where they are and you’ve escaped. Now you’re offering to show them the way out of darkness and into the light. And once they follow you they’ll be liberated.
Think about how powerful that word is. LIBERATED.
Liberators go down in history. Moses, Ghandi, Churchhill, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and so on. When you fall in love with the vision of seeing your clients free from their problems and all your actions congruently demonstrate you are on their side and are their leader, their protector, their liberator… shit, you’ll be unstoppable.
This is the place to write from. This is where Jay writes from. And is it no wonder that people have responded to his copywriting for decades now, by sending him 5, 15, and 25 thousand dollar checks.
2. Five Crucial Questions You Must Get RIGHT BEFORE The First Word of Ad Copy is Written: 11 Offline and Online Strategies From… 679
1. 2. 1.What’s Your REAL Product? We buy emotionally and justify with logic. Products are like onions… they have layers.
Features: Size, weight, color, design
Functional Benefits: How it does what it does. The means to getting something done.
Practical Benefits: Saves you money, Saves you time, makes you healthier, produces wealth, enhances pleasure
Emotional Benefits: Excitement, relief, pride, peace of mind,
I dissected a J. Peterman ad for a weight driven wall clock. This is the ad copy for it…
______
Fascination.
A wealthy merchant’s home in Nuremburg or Amsterdam, ca. 1690.
Lot’s of rich silk and velvet fabrics, ornately carved furniture, glowing silver, all designed to impress. But it is an amazingly advanced object like the ones you see here that make visitors’ jaws drop.
Over 300 years later, they still have that effect.
Antique mechanical clocks with iron frames and exposed brass works. Fascinating to watch, to listen to – the slowly turning gears, the precise “tick-tock” sound and the clear chimes of the bells when struck on the hour.
People want to get close and touch them.
Look at how they masterfully transform before your eyes a mundane feature of this clock into an emotional benefit.
Feature: Exposed brass works.
Functional Benefit: You can see the smooth precise functioning of your clock.
Practical Benefit: Fascinating to watch the slowly turning gears.
Emotional Benefit: Objects like the ones you see here make visitors’ jaws drop. People want to get close and touch them.
You can do this for every single one of the features of your products. 680 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Don’t be like the idiots at Circuit city that let some ad agency run this copy for their T.V.,
Samsung 46” Series 5 LCD HDTV
• 1080p resolution
• HD tuner
• SRS TruSurround XT
• 2 HDMI inputs
• 5ms response time
• Picture-in-picture
I pulled this directly from their site.
This is all education I get before I’m asked to decide to punch in my credit card number and give them $1500 dollars of my money.
They ignorantly assume everyone knows what the jargon means. And if you do, they leave it up to you to figure out it specifically impacts your life.
Don’t be stupid like Circuit City and victimize your clients and customers with an attempt at an ad like this.
Make it easy and fun to buy from you like J. Peterman does.
If you’d like the other Secrets click here and read more CHAPTER 133
Strategies Learned From Anthony Robbins Ultimate Business Mastery Program
elow are the notes taken from the first few segments of the Ultimate Business Mastery Program hosted Bby Anthony Robbins.
It was co hosted by Chet Holmes and had a guest speaker list of the “who’s who” of the internet and offline marketing world.
As usual Tony Kicked Ass and took names.
Unbelievably good content top to bottom.
I hope you enjoy the notes and if you do do one of three things or ALL three…lol
Buy the notes , share via twitter, facebook etc..,and please please comment…
Thanks guys…see ya soon ENJOY
Ultimate Business Mastery System
Invincible Leadership: The Secret to Explosive Growth
Peter Drucker, a business icon, believed that all business boiled down to innovation and marketing.
Bringing the best service to the market does no good for you if no one ever hears about it because your marketing sucks.
Tony believes that the primary reason a business declines after years, decades of crushing it is when the leadership falters. If you’ve got the right product and the WRONG people; people who don’t know how to meet customers needs, people who aren’t hungry and driven and if nothing shifts for the better you can destroy a great product and company with the wrong leader. 682 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
On the other hand, there are plenty examples of business who started out by kids who had almost no back- ground or leadership training who through their passion, found a way to make the impossible, possible.
Individuals are how companies change.
The company changes when individuals find more ways to add value. Breakthroughs only come with a change in psychology. A change in someone’s beliefs, their emotions.
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Exercise:
At this time Tony asks that you stop the DVD, take 5-10 minutes and make a list of every change that you’d ideally like to make in your business; every improvement, every transformation, anything you’d like to master, ANYTHING. Sales, marketing, management, time management.
Write down any challenges that you’re having with the business that need to be solved, any goals you want to achieve and specific things that need to be changed. Also note what it’d be worth to you emotionally, financially.
Tony asks you to get involved with this program and learn it the level like you were gonna teach it to a loved one
Almost 50% of businesses die within their first year of existence. After 5 years it’s 80% who’ve died off. In 10 years it’s 96%. 500,000 businesses are started every year. At the end of 10 years there’s only 20,000 of them left. And these are the numbers from the good times.
If leadership affects the business, what affects the leader?
Your ability to master yourself is the first level of you being to impact your business. Then what influences you tends to influence whoever you’re leading which then tends to influence the business.
People don’t execute because of state. If fear takes over, ALL your decisions change. If greed takes over and you think you can do no wrong and you just start coasting this will lead to challenges too.
If you want to influence someone as a leader, you have to know what’s already influencing them. Business is a game of influence. If you can’t influence your people they can’t influence people who report to them or people they’re supposed to be selling to.
2 Forces That Influence Our Decisions:
1. State – Moment to Moment
You’ve gotta learn how to manage your state of mind if you’re ever gonna manage others. Strategies Learned From Anthony Robbins… 683
2. Your Blueprint – Long Term
Your beliefs and your values and your rules of how life is supposed to be.
If your blueprint says you can’t do something, you won’t find a way. A faulty blueprints causes you to “Should” all over yourself because circumstances or people don’t match your blueprint. You have to be able to affect people’s state and help them change their blueprint.
What Creates a Business Breakthrough?
Decision making.
Decision making is the force that shifts destiny, personal or professional. Most people don’t have the guts to make the tough decisions because they want to make the right decision.
There’s 3 decisions that making in your life and in your business moment to moment…
#1. What should I focus on…
Whatever you focus on, you’re gonna feel. If someone focuses on their needs over the needs of the customer is that gonna affect the business? Completely.
Some people focus on what they CAN’T control everyday. This leads to being overwhelmed, depressed, frustrated.
There’s a pattern of focus. Focus on increasing sales doesn’t always lead to increasing profits. At different stages of business you have to change your focus. There’s a life cycle of a business. If you’re gonna make effective decisions, you’ve gotta know where you are on that cycle.
Leaders make decisions. That what makes a leader; they have the guts to make the difficult decisions no one else has the guts to make. And they know they’re gonna make wrong decisions. Then what?
They know what they want, they see it’s not working and they make another decision to change what they’re doing and keep cycling through this process UNTIL they get their desired result.
Focusing on you what you want, instead of what the customers want gives you a job. Not having an exit strategy means you have a job. This has to be a part of your focus from the start.
The Second You Make a Decision, You’re Gonna Feel It: Focus = Feeling
So if you focus on, “Oh my god, people aren’t buying from me and my industry is going away because the economy’s gone to shit because people aren’t spending money,” this will affect your state which will affect your decisions. 684 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Now should you lie to yourself and pretend there aren’t challenges? No. What you need to focus on instead is What You’re Gonna Do.
In any marketplace there’s ALWAYS people buying.
#2. What Does This Mean?
When the market hits bottom, is this the end… or the beginning?
If you think this is the end of your business, the end of opportunity, the end of our economy, are you gonna feel differently and act differently than if you thought it was the beginning?
The difference between Joe Kennedy with $4 million bucks in 1929, and Joe Kennedy with $180+ millions of dollars in 1932… that big of jump… different focus, different meaning. When everyone else was throwing in the towel, he was focused on the opportunity and taking market share and the meaning for him was that this was the greatest opportunity of a lifetime and there’d never be another like this for him. In just those 3 years, he made enough to take care of all his heirs for decades to come. Different focus, different meaning.
Think about an intimate relationship. If you think it’s the end instead of the beginning, are you gonna treat that person differently? In the beginning of a relationship you’ll do ANYTHING for that person you love. In the beginning someone asks you to take out the trash and you do it with glee. In the end, they ask you to take out the trash and you almost bite their head off for thinking you’re their janitor.
Treat people at the end of the relationship like it’s the beginning and there won’t be an end.
What if you fell more in love with your customers/clients more than your product? More than your com- pany? If you’re entire purpose for being in business is about meeting their needs you would do ANY- THING for them.
Guess what? They’re gonna love you. Most people love their customers as long as they’re buying from them or doing what they want or respond to them. If you want clients/customers for life, fall in love with them. This is a different focus. Different meaning which leads to different decisions being made.
Is your business being punished by god? Or, are you being challenged? Or, is this actually a gift, what I’m facing right now?
Whatever meaning you give controls what you feel and what you feel controls your 3rd decision…
#3. What Are You Gonna Do?
The whole economy is driven by this, “Oh shit, this depression is gonna go on forever, I better not spend my money, better not take chances Strategies Learned From Anthony Robbins… 685
Decision making is your power. If you want to change your business, think about what’s changed your busi- ness in the past. I guarantee you what changed it was some decisions you’ve made. Decisions about people, product, marketing, location, etc.
80% of success is Why-To, 20% is How-To
If you’re gonna become a great business person, you’ve gotta become a great practical psychologist. You’ve gotta know people. How to influence yourself and others.
What was one of the worst decisions you ever made, one of the biggest failures of your business career? What did you learn from it?
When Tony asked the room if their wrong decision had to with a partner/person, most of the room raised their hand. Next most, was a decision people made within themselves. So this is why Tony emphasizes so much the fact of becoming a practical psychologist.
What was one of the best decisions you’ve ever made, one of the greatest successes of your career so far in your business career? What did you learn from it?
When asked if a breakthrough, learning something they’d never known before, maybe even after doing something wrong and seeing the right way to do it was responsible for this, most of the room raised their hand.
This means it’s our mission as a leader to extract value out of every problem. Every problem truly becomes a gift.
If you don’t do this, you start wishing for less problems.
What’s the purpose of a business? It’s a mission to answer the question of “How Do We Add More Value to other people’s lives that they’ve never received before from anyone else?”
Whoever can add the most value in the eyes of the customer, wins. The most successful companies engender some values. They get people to think a different way.
There’s only force that allows for this… LEADERSHIP
Leaders make decisions that either add value or take it away.
Great leaders add value AND profit. You can add lots of value and still go broke. Even a non-profit has to bring in profit to stay alive.
What’s the Leader’s Job? It’s 2 things…
1. They solve problems 686 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The only reason a business isn’t going anywhere is because something’s stopping it. The leader solves prob- lems. And…
2. They maximize resources
All Businesses Have Problems. Some Just Have a Higher Quality Problems.
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Right now write down one or two decisions that you could make right now before we do anything else, that would change your business immediately.
A decision that you know you should make, maybe something that you’re no longer gonna do, something you’ve been thinking about for a long time, something that you’re gonna begin doing, a change in per- sonnel, change in the way you run your time or yourself.
Pick one that’s small that you know would have a big impact. For the second one, what’s a tough decision you could make that you know would make a sizable shift in your business.
Write down what the decision is specifically, what you do to act on it and how it will affect your business.
======
YOU CAN STILL GET THE ENTIRE 40 HOUR PROGRAM NERD REPORT FOR 40% OFF
You can completely shift your business with a decision.
What will affect the decision you make is your state. Whether you follow through on your decision or not doesn’t matter if the decision is viable or not, whether or not the company or you needs it. It’s come down to your psychology as a leader.
None of the strategies and tactics to come won’t matter unless you master you.
Your state, your blueprint, your ability to make decisions, your ability to manage resources, but tot get here you’ve gotta understand the training effect.
The Path of the Dabbler:
When most people have taken training or trained others you have a period of time where results go up for a while and then they drop back down.
Results skyrocket at first and then you hit a plateau. People who dabble in life can go from learning nothing about a subject to achieving 30% mastery very quickly. Then they hit the plateau where they’re putting forth Strategies Learned From Anthony Robbins… 687
the same amount of effort and not getting the same amount of reward, not making the same amount of progress.
People don’t like this.
If you discontinue training, results drop off after time. This is where dabblers quit. They come to a conclu- sion that this the wrong ______for me. Plug in whatever endeavor they’ve taken on.
If we used a sports example, this is where a person might drop tennis and pick up racket ball. Then the cycle repeats itself and they start at zero and rapidly make progress which feels really good.
Dabblers by their nature are unhappy.
Think about this… Even with all the economic challenges that exist, most people in North America for sure, have a better quality of life than 95% of the planet. 95% of the planet is living on $2.00 a day. Your worst nightmare is most of the planet’s greatest dream. That’s the truth.
We have more opportunity, more freedom, more choices at any other time in history. And most people aren’t happy. Dabblers are people you want to stay away from and keep off of your team because they’re gonna quit anyway.
It takes the same time and energy to train a dabbler as it does to train a platinum player.
Here’s another path: The Stressor
Stressors never quit. The just stress the fuck out telling themselves they’re gonna find a way to over come their plateau when they eventually do hit it and eventually they break through.
These people continue breaking through plateaus that show up but by the time they get to where they want to be, they’re so stressed out that they can’t enjoy it.
The majority of people who achieve are stressors.
Stressors don’t like problems. They want all achievements. This is never possible so it always leads to disap- pointment.
The Third Path: The Path of The Master
The only difference between the person who’s a master and the person who’s dabbler or the stressor is this person expects the problems to show up. They’re not surprised when it happens. They go, “Oh, plateau, Daniel Son, to be expected.”
Why would you stress out about something you could expect? 688 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Masters don’t quit or fight. They seek the secrets or the pathway that takes them to the next level most effi- ciently so that I can enjoy the experience and help others enjoy it too. They look for someone who’s already achieved the result that they want. They know these people have a pathway to power.
They learn from these people rather than trying to learn by trial and error.
Modeling
Success leaves clues.
If someone is successful at something consistently they have a strategy. If you take the same steps, the same actions, you plant the same seeds, you can reap the same rewards.
The brilliant metaphor uses in the seminar is asking the crowd if they’ve ever had the humiliating experi- ence of having their ass whipped by a kid on a video game. There’s a huge response of yeses’ from the audi- ence.
Why does this happen? Is it because the kid’s smarter? Faster? No. It’s because they’ve played this game before. They know the road ahead.
If you know the road ahead, you have the power of anticipation; not reaction. Anticipation is one of the ultimate powers in life and business. Reaction will kill your business.
Kids who’ve played a video game a thousand times know where all the problems are gonna be and they can solve the problem before it arrives.
Then, you find a master and have them look at what you’re doing and they spot a flaw and show you how to correct it and then what happens? You get worse. This is where a dabbler bails. A stressor goes back to what they feel in control of.
The master keeps painting the fence and washing on, washing off because some part of them trusts that they know what their mentor is talking about. So they try and try and try and it doesn’t work, doesn’t work and out nowhere you start crushing it and your game explodes.
As it rises and rises, you eventually hit another plateau. This happens in every business, every relationship, every new skill set you take on. Then you find a master that’s beyond that level and the cycle starts over and you get worse and then surge.
This means that when you’re training someone else in your company you realize that an initial training’s gonna get someone to 30% competency and then after awhile, they’ll drop to 20%.
Now when you start again, you’re at 20% and you can grow to 60-70% then the plateau, they drop to 50%, then more training, more repetition. What results from this is that their bottoms are higher than most people’s peak. Strategies Learned From Anthony Robbins… 689
This is important because when your business is small you can almost do everything. As it grows you need to start depending on people who you don’t know to well who might not have the same skill sets you have. If you’re gonna take things to the next level, you’ve gotta know what causes things to fail.
Have you ever failed to achieve a goal? Have you ever had someone that worked for you fail to achieve a goal?
When people fail to achieve their goal, what’s the reason that they give?
Not enough time is usually the first answer given. Here’s the paradox: Work always expands to meet the time you have for it. Sometimes people will say they have lousy employees. And if can be flipped around by employees into… we have lousy management. Markets gone bad. No money. We don’t know the right people.
If you want to succeed you have to become a student of patterns, recognition and utilization. The reoccur- ring theme in excuses people give for failing to reach their goals is a lack of resources.
How many times have you seen someone who didn’t have all the resources beat someone who had all the resources?
If you look at history, resources were never the problem. These leaders didn’t have the resources but they got them. They were RESOURCEFUL. That’s how they got the resources they didn’t have.
The Ultimate Resource is Resourcefulness
Every human being has this within themselves. It’s only a matter of whether you access it or not.
The King Daddy of All Resources is Human Emotion
You can know what to do and not do it because you’re not accessing empowering emotions.
If you’re committed and determined enough can you find the people to help you? Yes. It doesn’t matter what it is that you want, you can get it if you’re resourceful. If you want to become a master of business, you’ve got to become a master of human emotion, your own first.
There is no limitation outside of the one you’re creating in yourself!!!
The Only 3 Ways to Grow Your Bidniz – How to Create Geometric Growth
Trying to have a 5 year business plan in these days is a joke. Everything is shifting more rapidly than any other time in history. All of the information that we’ve ever accumulated in the history of mankind over thousands of years now gets doubled every three years. Now it’s happening faster and faster. 690 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So today to think you know what it’s gonna be like five years from now is ridiculous. What we need is a map. A map that can answer questions for you that will lead to you growing my business by the only 3 ways possible…no matter what business you’re in.
BUT FIRST…
Have ever not taken action on a skill that you wanted to but didn’t because you were overwhelmed?
You have? Ok. You’re normal.
Learning one simple skill can help you overcome this. It’s a skill you already have but that you might not be using to it’s maximum capability.
This skill is called CHUNKING.
Chunking is the understanding that when you’re first learning something, that something feels like many things. Think about if you had to learn how to drive… on a stick shift. Today, years down the road, driving is one chunk of information… drive. All the complexities of driving have been repeated so much that it’s all just boiled down to “Driving”.
The first time you drive though it ends up being all kinds of activities you’re focusing intently on. You’re supposed to have a feel for the gas, the brake, watch to your back, to your front, both sides, steer AND then work the clutch and gear shifter simultaneously! SCARY SHIT!!!
But after a while, it all just becomes “Driving”. Haven’t you ever had the experience of coasting along in the car and your mind starts wandering for a bit and after you’ve traveled a ways you snap back to an wonder, “Who the hells been driving?”
Who’s been driving is your subconscious mind. The part of you that pumps your heart perfectly, that breaks your food down, operates the cellular miracles that keep you alive despite you trying to kill yourself with cigarettes, whiskey, cheeseburgers and diet coke.
Most people when they get past 3 chunks, they get overwhelmed.
So when we put together a to-do list that’s just flooded with individual items we have to do, your conscious mind says, “DOES NOT COMPUTE” and self sabotages.
When you clump activities together that achieve a similar outcome, you can a list of 12 individual items and break them down to 3 groups. Marketing, Sales, Personal Influence
As your business grows, it only becomes more complex. But when you chunk things down, you can make the complex, simple.
Here’s How To Grow Your Business by 33% Strategies Learned From Anthony Robbins… 691
If you’re gonna grow a business of any sort, there’s really only 3 things you can do to grow a business
The first thing you do to grow your business is get more customers (Clients)…
The Second thing you can do is get those same clients to buy more each time they buy from you (Increase the average transaction value)…
If you’re innovating you should be looking for more ways to meet your clients needs which inevitably leads to you having more to sell them.
The third thing you can do it get them to buy more often (Increase the frequency of repurchase)
THESE ARE THE ONLY 3 WAYS TO GROW A BUSINESS. NO MATTER WHAT INDUSTRY YOU’RE IN.
Let’s say you have a 1,000 customers and the average transaction is $100. and they repurchase from you twice. This equals - $200,000
Let’s say you have a 10% increase in customers (1100), 10% increase in average dollars per sale ($110) 10% increase in frequency (2.2). This would equal 33.1% growth and would equal $266, 000
The formula here is simply increasing each segment by 10% can help you grow your business by 1/3.
How many clients do you currently have? X
What’s the average value per sale? X
How often do they buy back from you? X
= What’s the size of your business?
You’ve gotta know the answers to these questions. They’re the core foundation of your business. Apply this formula to your business.
(10% increase in your customers) x (10% increase in average dollars per sale) X (10% increase in Repurchase Frequency) = YOUR TOTAL
REMEMBER THAT YOUR PRODUCT IS NOT WHAT YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH. RESOURCE- FULNESS IS. YOUR PRODUCT IS GOING TO GROW STALE AND NEED TO BE REPLACED. YOUR CLIENTS ARE SHINY OBJECT ORIENTED. FALL IN LOVE WITH MEETING THEIR EMO- TIONAL NEEDS.
One way to make sure that you install what you’ve read here and are able to retrieve it easier is something that Tony’s always done since his days back when he first learned NLP 692 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
At the end of those training days he’d sit and make a list with two columns. One column had the question at the top of, “What distinctions, principles, or stories did I learn so far that can absolutely change my business forever?”
And the second column had this question up top… “What actions can I take to implement these ideas?”
Do yourself a favor and answer these questions after going through these notes. You’ll be so much better off for having done so.
GRAB THE REPORT HERE
Please share and comment…Thanks “The Nerd’s” CHAPTER 134
One Key Business Strategy That Allows You To Impregnate Another Business With Your Good Seed
Hey you, It’s #2.
Today I wanted to share with you a blog comment of mine on this post that got rejected by the world famous Copyblogger.com site for any number of good reasons.
Maybe it got the chop because it had to do with naked strippers. Maybe it was because it was too long. Maybe it got bounced to spam and accidentally deleted because I put the link to our site in it.
I don’t know.
But because I’m an optimist, I’m going with the “too long” reason because who doesn’t enjoy naked strip- pers? Right? Right.
Well I spent almost 2 hours putting this damn comment together and after I was done with it I knew it was too precious to only expose to the Copyblogger universe. So, luckily I copied and pasted it into a text docu- ment and now I can give it to you.
The topic of the post revolved around the principle of “Cross Pollination”. Here’s a quick snippet from it that allows you to get the gist of this idea, just in case you’re new to it…
Birds do it, bees do it
The birds and the bees do this naturally, and we can, too. It’s called cross-pollination.
They fly from one flower to another, or one tree to the next, picking up bits of one plant and carrying it to the other. 694 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The plant on the receiving end of this pollination is hardier and able to reproduce with greater variety. It meets environmental challenges more successfully because it’s genetically diverse.
In the same way, when you cross-pollinate ideas, you make your business stronger. You’ll be better able to weather the difficulties that every business and brand has to face to survive.
Keeping your eyes open to sources for ideas is the first step. Having a system for gathering and using these ideas is important, too. Really great ideas can be found where you least expect them.”
======
Here’s what my mind thought of when I was inspired by this concept….
Hey Pamela,
This article speaks directly to an idea I had to help promote a live production called “The Naughty Show” out of L.A.
It’s a combination of stand-up comedy (comedians from Chelsea Lately and the famous comedy clubs in L.A.), famous Olympic-caliber pole dancers workin’ their mojo, Porn stars making cameo appearances, and crowd members getting involved in skits on stage all themed around the topic of sex.
My cross pollination idea for the producer of the show was a way to take advantage of having a room filled with people who aren’t shy about the taboo subject of sex.
It’s my guess that 80+% of those people who paid to see “The Naughty Show”, would be also be fans of seeing gorgeous women naked. Maybe I’m stretching the percentage a bit here but I don’t think so. There’s about a jillion other comedy shows in L.A. that don’t have a primary theme of “Naughty” that they could have attended that night but they picked THIS one out all the options.
So, being that the majority of the tribe you’ve assembled has told you, just by showing up, that they aren’t squeamish about nudity, why not give them what they want?
I have Sonia Simone to thank for helping me with this. *Thanks Sonia ;-)* At Dan Kennedy’s latest Info-summit where she was a guest speaker, she shared with the audience what Sean D’ Souza coined “The Bikini Principle”.
It’s probably the topic of a post here on the site but if you haven’t seen or heard of it, the basic premise of ‘The Bikini Principle’ in reference to information marketing is that there’s always a segment of your audi- ence who will pay to see the 10% that’s hidden. And that’s why giving away 90% of what you have to offer is such a marvelous idea.
Cross Pollination Concept Get’s Dropped In My Lap One Key Business Strategy That Allows… 695
One way I know for a business owner to transform ‘Customers’ into ‘Raving Fans’ is to turn a ‘Transaction’ into an ‘Experience’.
I’ve had it hammered into me by geniuses like Brian, Eben Pagan and Dan Kennedy that this is a key way to distinguish yourself by serving your tribe in a more complete fashion.
Here’s the story…
The naughty show offers no nudity. Well, except for the one show I went to where I had the famous porn star sign my balls, on stage, in front of the whole room. But that’s a whole different tale.
So here’s what I thought to do…
The producer of the show could approach a local strip club (Preferably close to the location of the event), and tell them about his show and how it’s been featured on TMZ, and say…
“I think I have a chance to help you out here. We both cater to the same audience and I see an opportunity for both of us to create an “Unbelievable Experience” for them.
My show is two hours long and during that time we get the entire room bursting at the seams with laughter with sex themed comedy. We can mosquito bite, but we can satisfy the urge for more because we aren’t in the business of scratching the itch. That’s where you come in.
I set ‘em up, you knock ‘em down.
My audience can leave my show drunk, happy and horny and take their money and spread it to any club, bar or strip joint around town. But if your club offers to extend the fun of their naughty evening, why should we let this momnetum be diluted by leaving them to their own devices; shit, some of them might limit their imagination to leaving my show and going directly home to wank it to the interwebz. :C
How boring would that be?
Here’s what I propose: I’m already doing promotions with radio stations, on Facebook and on Twitter to get people in the room. I can sell out shows just doing that. But why stop there?
We shouldn’t.
I have no problem sharing my customers with you. Sharing the wealth in essence.
If you sponsor the show (investment disclosed upon our speaking on the phone), what we can do is turn you into a hero for our crowd by creating “The Greatest Free Offer Ever”.
Here’s how it works: We’ll schedule the show on a night that’s usually dead for you so that your experiment isn’t cannibalizing a hot night’s profits. 696 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
How we make you “The Man,” is by letting you tell my audience that you’re buying their tickets for them. What you’ve done is arranged for them to be able to use their ticket stubs from the show that evening, and that evening only, to not only get in the door to your gentleman’s club FREE ($10.00 value), but also to have 2 drinks ON YOU ($20.00 value)… AND one lap dance per ticket ($20.00 value) with any lovely lady of their choice.
Of course, the fire marshal is looking out for your safety so you can only have so many people in the club at one time. But what you’ve done is set up a two hour window after the show to where when you show up, you get VIP treatment and let in before anyone else.
Both of us know you’re not coming out of pocket for any of this. But that if these people were full paying customers… all of this would cost them $50. and that’s the honest to goodness value they’re getting.
What’s cranks this experience up another notch is if we get the porn star who came to my show, to strip at your club for the audience, thus satisfying the urge to see “The Hidden 10%”… LIVE AND IN PERSON.
Now, it’s no leap of logic to think that what money the customer see’s they saved, will only be seen in their eyes as MORE MONEY THEY CAN USE TO BUY STUFF FROM YOU. Yeah, some people may come in and not spend a dime but I’d bet that’s gonna be a teensy percentage. Especially when I’ve primed their pump and your free stuff primes it even more.
People like to waste found money and your offer is giving them the chance to do that. They’ll be able to have an even better experience because they got more money to play with.
If people show up you win. If they don’t show up you also win because you don’t have to fulfill on your offer AND you got to ride on all of my promotion for the show and have free advertising for your club throughout my entire campaign. You got advertising in places you aren’t already using or are able to go to like radio shows.
Can you see how this is a win-win situation for everyone involved, you, me, the customers?
As you know, there’s a number of guys you compete with in the area who can reap similar rewards from this collaboration. If you want to take advantage of it, that’s cool. If you don’t, that’s also cool. You’ve gotta hurry up though because I’ve mailed this same letter to all these guys (list of other strip club owners here) at the exact same moment I mailed yours.
Call me at 123-345-6789 to let me know you want to be our primary sponsor.
And get on the horn quick because as the Highlander dorks would say… “THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!”
————————————
We’ll see what happens. See if this guy will let himself take advantage of this opportunity. One Key Business Strategy That Allows… 697
I’ve hogged up enough of this thread for today.
Thanks Pamela for the inspiration to use this time tested principle.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
www.mynotetakingnerd.com
======
After reading this again, maybe the part about me getting my balls autographed by a porn star was the reason it got axed? Who knows. Anyways, I have a question for you…
How can you use the example above to help you think of a way that you can take the service/product you own to impregnate another business and give birth to a beautiful opportunity/creation/result for both you and your partner?
Before you tell me that you can’t because you don’t deal in the stripper/sex trade, think again.
As I was typing this, I couldn’t help think of the “Influence” section of the notes for Tony Robbin’s “Ulti- mate Business Mastery System”. Here’s a snippet from the notes that directly ties to you getting a huge bang for you buck out of this post…
Next, become a master of influence by asking the right questions.
Questions are the answer.
If you’re not getting through to someone the answer is not to talk more, but to ask more. To influence other people as well as yourself, you go deep. You’ve got to understand what already influences them. If I tell you something, you can doubt it but if you tell me by my asking you questions, and then you tell me how it is, it’s true.
This is the basis of influence. This is fastest way to influence; is through questions. Questions are the answer.
If you want to give yourself or someone else a gift, ask the right question. We don’t experience life. We experience our association to whatever we’re stimulated by. If I start telling you a story about my senior year in high school and this girl I had a crush on, you’re not experiencing my story. You’re going back to your high school as soon as I start to tell it.
You’re experiencing someone you were interested in. You’re going for a reference point you can relate to. 698 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If I want you to think about your mother, all I’ve gotta do is talk about mine because the only the way you understand things is by references. And questions cause you to go inside and reference things.
======
So please trust that I’ve planted the seed of opportunity with my stripper/porn star story. Trust in what Tony calls, “Utilization”, the skill/mindset of seeing everything that shows up as an asset. It’s only a matter of time before I find out how I can use this to my benefit. At this place everything in life plays to you.
Once again, I’ll ask, How do you get to use this “Impregnation” principle in your business?
As always feel free to behead or bedazzle me in the comments section below.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 135
11 Resources From My Internet Marketing Toolbox
f you’ve been following along here at the Blog for any amount of time then you know that it is my goal is Itruly provide a place for you to Learn, Grow, and provide the tools for you to take action.
I’ve been on quite the Learning curve getting the NEW blog up and running.
I’ve learned so much while doing this and researching for our new “How To Build A Kick Ass Social Blog That Keeps Em Coming Back Over and Over Again” ….and I wanted to share some of the Kick Ass tools I’ve come across while on this journey.
My aim with this website is to be as transparent as I can in everything that I do, so today I want to take you through all of the tools and programs that help me to get things done. As with everything I share, I’m not saying that you have to use these, but if something looks useful or like a better alternative to what you’re currently using, then add it to your internet marketing arsenal.
Warning! These tools will help you. However, I’m too lazy to organize by category so these are just random tools with full explanation on how to use them. Enjoy..
Google Analytics
Before Google Analytics came along there weren’t that many decent tracking tools available.
It’s completely FREE and incredibly powerful. If you’ve got a blog or website you must have this.
Get Clicky
Yep…I love “Getting Click With It”…
This is another free tool that reports Analytics in REAL – Time… 700 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
This is one cool tool and I’m not sure why it’s still free but it is so go check it out.
Feedburner
If you have a blog I’m sure you are aware of of Feedburner.
If not you are missing out. (I was for a long time..so don’t kick yourself if you don’t use it YET)
You can see how many people are subscribing to your RSS feed and from which sources, and if you use the new Google Analytics integration, you can see how many clicks each individual post is getting from feed readers.
Other cool features include allowing people to subscribe to your blog via email, and being able to add email and social bookmarking links to the bottom of your posts.
Google Keyword Tool
If you need to know (which you do) the size of any market this is a great FREE tool to find that answer out.
WordTracker FREE Keywords
Wordtracker has a paid version but this will do the job for 90% of you. Yes there are courses that tell you that you need a $199 a month Super Secret Tool but truth is it’s usually overkill and you’ll be fine with this FREE tool.
Scrapbook Firefox or Chrome Extension
Did i mention I LOVE THIS TOOL!
As a Internet Marketer one of the most valuable assets you’ll ever obtain is a great Swipe File of good ads and campaigns.
Well Scrapbook allows you to capture every single image and video on the page.
So if you notice a great Launch or website just hit the scrapbook button and it’s saved for eternity to use later on.
Tweetdeck
If you’re using Twitter then Tweetdeck will help you to be organized and in another way I’m going to share with you below.
I like to keep Six Columns… • 11 Resources From My Internet Marketing… 701
• @ replies from people talking to me or people mentioning mynotetakignnerd • • Direct Messages • • My private twitter list (people I’m following) • • And Three extra columns for following the Hot Product Launches or Guru’s of the day. •
Hey here’s a Shameless plug…follow me on twitter if you’re not already. LOL
Now Here’s That Bonus I promised!! 1. 2. a. b. Here’s a Secret Formula for driving ton’s of traffic to your site from Twitter… c. Create a Special landing page for Twitter Followers only offering a FREE Report or gift. d. Create a folder in Firefox or your browser with the following tabs…mashable, digg, tweetme, Google, and your site..Now save all those tabs to that folder and call it Daily Twitter blocks. e. Now open a FREE account with socialoomph.com to auto post your Tweets in advance. f. Once per day or once per week post Three Blocks of Tweets. g. Each tweet block should contain 5 separate Tweets that include one directing them to a post on your blog, three directing them to something Trendy and Newsworthy you grabbed off of tweetme, mash- able, or digg, and finally one directing them to the download page for Twitter Peeps only! h. Again, make three of these blocks per day. (Maybe 6:00 A.M., 2:00 I.M., and 7:00 P.M.) and remember you can pre-schedule in socialoomph) …Takes about 30 minutes to do this every morning or you can schedule an entire week in about 3 hours. i. I’ll be covering strategy and more in my new Blogging course I’m producing now.
SocialMorph
This tool Kick Some Serious Nerd Ass …
Why? Well to begin with the FREE version is all you need.
Second it automates your tweeting so that you can organize your tweets on a daily or weekly basis in cam- paign format. Simply put you can now have a system for sending out your tweets controlling the EXACT time you send them out.
ALEXA SPARKY
Alexa is a tool which gives you a estimation of how much traffic yours or anyone else’s website gets. 702 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
It gives you a quick few on the toolbar you install that allows you to immediately know if a certain website is relatively popular or not.
Grab this little critter …It comes in handy.
Scribit
Never wonder what your readers want.
This little FREE tool installs a Killer tab to the far right of your blog or website screen.
It simply says “suggestions”.
You can see it at our new blog ..just look to the right when you get there.
It’s easy to install and the interface is Reader friendly.
You can use it to get your subscribers and readers interacting with you.
Awesome tool…
ColorZilla
If you do any work with graphics or just get intrigued sometimes by a certain color of text this little tool is a lifesaver.
All you have to do is click on the part of a page that you are interested in and it give you the exact Hexadec- imal value for the color.
Again a very simple little tool but sure saves time long term and gives you options that you may not of used in the past.
So there you have it…
11 useful tools that I hope help you
Remember that I’ll be sharing exact steps, strategies, and over a hundred of these tools in my new Kick Ass Internet Marketing Social Blog Course and you save over 50% right now by ordering.
Also…AND THIS IS IMPORTANT!
Please leave comments below if you liked this post.
I’ll post another 11 ASAP if you guys let me know you enjoy this type of stuff. 11 Resources From My Internet Marketing… 703
C Ya Soon..
Chief Nerd CHAPTER 136
Chet Holmes at Ultimate Business Mastery - Becoming a Marketing Master – Secrets of the Super Strategist and How To Build a Core Story
f you master the material covered here, you will be among the top .01 percent of marketers and business Iexecutives today.
Chet calls “The Clutter Factor” your single greatest marketing challenge today!!! Just as consumers, we’re bombarded with over 30,000 marketing messages a year. And if you own a business, this number is even higher because vendors are always trying to sell you shit too. This section covers the single most effective way to rise out of the clutter.
“The Clutter Factor has actually tripled the cost of marketing.
Since 1989 the cost of advertising has tripled and the effectiveness has dropped. Back then it took on average, 4 attempts to get the attention of the buyer. Now it takes 8.4 attempts to get the same attention.
It’s costing you three times more to get half the results.
Strategy vs. Tactics
The Tactical response to this problem is the work harder. The strategic approach is to work smarter. There’s three types of executives…
The Strategic Executive: This represents .8 percent, not even 1% of the population. These people are big thinkers who aren’t interested in the details.
The Tactical Executive: This represents 99% of the population of executives. This executive is really run- ning most companies. An example of a tactical solution to “The Clutter Factor” is to have salespeople call twice as much. Chet Holmes at Ultimate Business Mastery… 705
The ULTIMATE: Strategic & Tactical Executive: This is the .02% of the population. The combination of the two; the strategist who comes up with the big ideas and the tactician who implements with precision. This is where this program is designed to take you.
What’s a Tactic?
Ads, a sales call, your website, email to prospects or clients, a trade show, an article written about you for PR purposes, your brochure, customer service, etc. These are all tactics.
What’s a Strategy?
The long-range goal, the overall impact you want to have. It’s the ultimate accomplishment, or ultimate position you want in the market. It’s the ultimate perception you would like your clients to have about your company.
Just by contemplating these outcomes for your company will force your tactics to change. Most people will never go through the exercise of asking how they can do this.
Take 2 minutes now and answer the two questions below… • • What is the ultimate accomplishment, or ultimate position you want in the market? (Focused on you) •
• • What is the ultimate perception you would like your clients to have about your company? (Focused on them) •
• • How do your tactical efforts support and help you accomplish that position? •
• • What are the strategic objectives of each tactical effort? •
• • How many strategic objectives can you accomplish per tactic? Wouldn’t it be nice to get 9 times the results from tactics you’re already deploying? Keep paying attention… • 706 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If you were asked What’s the strategic outcome you want to achieve in a sales call? A sale? Is that it? What about these… • • What would make you more trusted? •
• • Respected? •
• • Have deep credibility? •
• • Be perceived as an expert? •
• • Get more brand loyalty? •
• • Pre-emptive positioning? (Not buy from anyone else) •
• • Pricing comparison dealt with? •
• • Referrals? •
• • Motivate action now? • Chet Holmes at Ultimate Business Mastery… 707
Will thinking through on how to achieve all these outcomes, improve your sales call or your ads? Yes. The strategist says, “How can I maximize every single resource at my disposal?”
Sell Your Company
What could you say about your company every time you interact with a client?
Your salespeople can do this by asking the question of “Is this your first time ______with us?” And even if they answer “No”, they still can give a brief history of the company, why you’re experts in the industry and maybe your USP inserted in a sentence.
Take a minute and answer this question and the following…
Where would you put that in your communication process?
The Stadium Pitch
Stadium Pitch: If you could gather 50,000 of your clients and potential clients you have in a stadium and you had the opportunity to present to all of them at once, what would you say? • • What would you want to accomplish? •
• • What would be your strategic objectives for an opportunity like this? •
• • LIVE WORKSHOP: Write the title of your stadium pitch, “Ladies and Gentleman, today I’m here to talk about ______… • • • The title of your stadium pitch should be focused on THEM, not you • • • It should be something that rivets their attention •
Define Your Audience 708 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
At any given time, there’s gonna be 3% of your audience who’s buying now. 7% are open to the idea of buying in the near future. 30% aren’t thinking about buying. 30% think they aren’t interested. 30% are defi- nitely not interested.
The majority of your ideal prospects/clients don’t feel like they need what you have to offer. So, the strategic thing to do here is to think of a title you could write that would even suck in a person who categorized themselves as definitely not interested?
Now if someone told the audience, right before you walked on stage, that they had to come but that they don’t have to stay? What could you offer that would keep everyone in the room?
Again, this needs to be focused on THEM, not you.
Education-Based Marketing - People will come to you way faster and stay longer to learn something (of value to them) than they will ever come to you to be sold to.”
Your title can never imply that you’re showing up to take something from me.
This is a strategy for both attracting clients faster and in greater numbers and keeping their attention longer. It’s also highly effective in many other strategic objectives.
LIVE WORKSHOP: What business are you in?
In 1907 the four wealthiest companies in America were railroad companies. In the same year Henry Ford built the first 700 trucks. Anyone of those companies could’ve bought every truck he had but they thought they were in the railroad business instead of the transportation business.
Back then 80% of shipping was done by rail. Today 80% is done by truck. Kinda missed the opportunity, eh?
Define your business in the broadest possible sense. What could be the ultimate benefit from doing business with you.
Basic:
Example: Sell Exercise Equipment – These guys run the radio ad that blares on about how such and such piece is 30% of today. They’re only appealing to 3% of their audience.
Strategic:
Example: Exercise consultant – This gives you more power because it gives you opportunity to teach me things I don’t know. This guy might offer a free report about how the 5 best reasons to exercise.
Broadest Possible View: Chet Holmes at Ultimate Business Mastery… 709
Example: Health & Fitness Expert – Much broader scope. This guy offers the free report that tells you the one thing you can do everyday to slash any chance of getting a disease in half.
To get to this, take your basic expression and ask, “What’s the benefit of that?”, “What’s the Benefit of that?”, What’s the benefit of that?”
**If you are interested in purchasing the entire (over 120 page) Ultimate Business Mastery Report with Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes you may email me at [email protected] . Put (UBM) in the subject and i’ll get you information. CHAPTER 137
40% of a Person’s Decision to Hand You Money Depends On This One Factor
Hey you, It’s #2.
Jay Abraham is famous for telling his audiences that they should fall in love, not with their business or product, but with their clients.
$3 Million dollars worth of research and studies that Chet Holmes, the author of “The Ultimate Sales Machine”, has compiled, reveals that the best sales people:
Focus on the front end of the sale which means they devote 40% of their time to this part. 40% of whether you decide to buy from someone depends on if you like them or not. The ultimate definition of rapport is that they like you and they trust you and they respect you.
Words to live by:
Maturity is when all of your mirrors turn into windows.
Henry David Thoreau
The most influential people are not thinking about themselves because that would be looking at a mirror but instead, they’re looking through the window so that they can understand, address the goals of their client.
Influential people will say stuff like, “I never met someone I didn’t like,” or “Strangers are just friends I haven’t met yet.”
Think Of Your Ultimate Client Relationship 40% of a Person’s Decision to Hand You… 711
Today I want to take you through a process I got from a ultra-rare Tony Robbins audio
that lets you create a vision for what your perfect relationship with your ideal customers would look like. Most companies or one man armies will never run a workshop like this and yet it’s 40% of why people buy. This is why most businesses fail.
The quintessential ingredient for control of your market is to have a great relationship with your clients. This is THE factor that makes you bullet proof in the good times or bad.
Where The Real Magic Happens…
Now with your eyes closed, just for a moment, what I’d like you to do, if you would, is think about what your ideal relationship would be like.
The difference in people’s lives my friends is that leaders always have a vision. A vision of the ideal. They don’t settle for where things are. No matter how good it is, they always have something they want to create. It gives them energy in their life.
There’s a driving desire in every one of you right now. Every one of us has a driving desire because desire is life. Desire is energy wanting to go someplace, to do something. Life exists because energy moves.
And the movement of energy is driven by desire.
If you’re alive there must be some desire and if your relationship is alive, it must grow. Whether you’re in one or not, it must grow. What will make it grow is when you allow your true desires to come to full expres- sion.
You must create a vision. A vision is powerful enough What makes a vision come to fruition is that it’s not just about you. The vision that’s just for you doesn’t happen. When a person has a vision that can affect millions of people for the positive it happens faster, doesn’t it?
So if your vision is not just for yourself, but for your partner and yourself and your relationship, it can be realized more quickly. We need vision. We need hunger. Hunger, a driving desire to make this dream a reality.
Hunger comes often when we stop feeding ourselves and sublimating ourselves with other forces so that we don’t need to look at our relationships because after all I feel good through my work, or I feel good through my kids, or I feel good through whatever.
You gotta get hungry.
You’ve gotta use your faith. Even though you’ve never had the experience and it seems impossible and all the people around you don’t have it, doesn’t mean you can’t. Achievers never do what other people do, they always do what’s supposed to be impossible. 712 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You all have achieved a lot or you wouldn’t be here so we’ll use those skills now.
Here’s what I want you to do, breathe deep and feel two emotions; first feel strong, say YES, SAY YES, SAY YES! Second, feel a sense of joy and happiness, make the sounds of joy and happiness out loud, whatever they are for you. Add excitement to that feeling.
And from this state of mind now, experiencing those feelings now, as if you’re guided, I want you to create for yourself, a vision for what your ultimate relationship would look like, specifically.
What would it be like? Not the person. It could be the person you’re with right now. What would your ultimate relationship look like? What would your relationship create between the two of you? Would it inspire other people? Who would smile when you walked by? What would it give to others? What would it give to you?
Your ultimate relationship, you and your partner share what in your ultimate relationship, what would you share?
If it was your ultimate relationship, the way you’d ultimately want your relationship to be, what would be the result of that relationship? Because of that relationship, what would you both experience? What would you BOTH experience?
If it was your ultimate relationship what emotions would be dominant in both of you? What would be the dominant emotions your partner would have? What dominant emotions would be yours?
In your ultimate relationship what would you talk about? What would you share in common, in your ulti- mate relationship? What would you most like to share in common?
In your ultimate relationship, what would you both value the most? What would you value the most together?
In your ultimate relationship what would you give? What would you give in your ultimate relationship? And how good would it feel to give that? Breathe as if you were giving that now… breathe… don’t just make this intellectual, bring it to your emotions, bring it to your body right now, step into that relationship as if you were there RIGHT NOW and breathe and feel as if you were there right now. Feel the love of that relationship.
Feel the caring, the compassion, the trust, the respect, how much would you respect your partner, what would you give to your partner in your ultimate relationship? What would they give to you?
What else would you give? What else would you give? What would they give you?
How connected would you be? What would you shout to the mountain tops about your lover, what would you shout, what would you say, what would they say about you? 40% of a Person’s Decision to Hand You… 713
What power would enter your body when you were besides your partner, what would you feel? What would you give? What would you share? What would you do together? What are the things you would do together? In your ideal relationship, what would you do together?
What would you tell each other? What would you laugh about? What would you cry about?
What would light you up? What would light your partner up? In your ideal relationship, get into your emo- tions, not just your head, get it into your body.
Because of your relationship, what would happen, what would your relationship create around you? Jade and I were in South Beach sitting at a little table in Johnny Rockets having a veggie burger and there were a group of children with balloons, about 15 of them, all about 8-10 years old. They didn’t know who I was. We were just together in love and they came over and they said, “Can we give you guys a hug?” And I thought, “Wow.” And later on they came over and said, “Would you like our balloons?” They gave us 15 balloons and gave us hugs, these 8-10 year olds and I thought, “That’s a relationship I’m proud of. One that inspires children. One that touches anyone.” What would your relationship inspire?
What could your relationship create? Your ideal relationship. Because of your relationship, who will you become to create this relationship?
Right now get a vision, see what that relationship will be like, describe it out loud, your ultimate, ideal rela- tionship, what will you do, what will you share, who will you be for each other, what will you give, what will you create, together who will you impact, what will this relationship be about? Ultimately, your ideal rela- tionship.
How much passion will there be? How will it be expressed? What pleasures will you share? What joys?
How will you deal with sorrow or pain, together? What greater gift from God is there than the ideal rela- tionship? There is no greater one. Create it now in your mind, create it now in your emotions, bring it into your body, feel it as if it’s here right now. Own it. Who you are, who that person is, the level of honesty and trust, feel the strength. Feel the love, feel the freedom in this relationship to be yourself, move your body if you were free to be yourself in this relationship, if there was total love, if you knew the love would never go away, if you knew the love would never go away, how much would you open, how much would you give? How strong would you be for your partner if you knew it would never go away?
How can you ensure that by giving your all? No one leaves a relationship where all six needs (certainty, uncertainty/variety, significance, love/connection, growth, contribution) are met by their partner. Give them to your partner. And receive it back in every way.
Feel it. Get a clear vision. What is your ideal relationship? What does it look like? What’s the impact of that relationship? What does it bring to your life? Save it inside and own it so that you can write it. Take it so you can put it on a piece of paper and it will trigger you to FEEL, not just know. 714 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Now as you might have gathered this was an exercise Tony took his premium seminar participants through and he had them focusing on their lovers. I heard this and thought, “Why the hell couldn’t you do this for people you want to have a relationship with in business?” So, I took out the parts about boning each other passionately because that usually causes more drama professionally than it helps, and laid the rest out for you.
Take Tony’s advice and answer these questions. They can only help you. Or, you can be like the majority and just HOPE this all important critical piece of your business just works itself out to your benefit.
Your choice.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 138
Business Lesson’s Learned While Eating In San Fran and The Secret To Amazing Pancakes… CHAPTER 139
Why Women Are Dominating Household Income, Yet Are Unhappier Then Ever…And The One Strategy I Learned From This That You and I Can Use To Provide Almost Instant Stress Relief
Women run EVERYTHING today and they’re more unhappy than ever. Why? Hey you, It’s #2.
Men, women are kicking our ass; the statistics don’t lie…
Today in our society the world is different than 2-3 decades ago.
Time magazine just did a recent cover and there have been about 4 studies that have been done in the last 40 years, around the world, in 15 different countries. And what they find is that women experience life very differently today than they did in the past.
Back in 1972, women had very few choices. Time magazine was doing a story in the 1970’s and they were comparing it to and they were saying, “There’s these new women who are empowered. Who are taking con- trol of their lives.” Well, those aren’t new women, that’s every woman today, right?
In a paragraph of the article it says, “If you are a woman reading this magazine 40 years ago, the odds were good that your husband provided the money to buy it, that you voted the same way he did, that if you got breast cancer, he would be asked to sign the form authorizing the mastectomy, that your son was heading off to college but not your daughter and that your boss, if you had a job, could explain that he was paying you less because after all, you were probably working just so you could have pocket money.”
Think about it, it’s crazy how things change slowly and then suddenly we realize the whole world has changed. Why Women Are Dominating Household Income… 717
Here’s the reality today. In 1972 there weren’t any women running corporations. There weren’t women who were running brigades in the army. You didn’t have secretaries of state that were women. You didn’t have women who were running for the president of the United States.
But today, women run EVERYTHING
The corporations, regiments of the army, their families, everything you can imagine, all simultaneously. Today, women, for the first time in history, are more than 50% of the workforce in the United States. It just happened for the first time in the history of the world.
Men are the minority in the workplace.
Because when the recession happened, men lost jobs like crazy and with women it increased. Back then in those early days, 30-40 years ago, the majority of doctors clearly were men. The majority of lawyers were clearly men. The majority of people in college were men.
Guess what? 60% of graduates today are women.
More than men now. They’re getting more education than men. The majority of people graduating with a law degree or a medical degree are women. 3 out of the last 4 secretaries of the state were women.
And you had television anchors back in 1972, you didn’t have any of them who were women. 2 out of the 3 networks now have women who are anchoring. 40% of women today are the bread winners in their family. That means they’re bringing in the majority of the money for the family.
And here’s something else…
Our world is changing so rapidly because men and women both work, that today, single mothers are 1/3 of the population. They’re not only having to be the breadwinner, but they’re having to be the full time parent, around the clock with no help from a man.
It’s a different world.
Today, 71% of women who have children, work. So imagine how difficult that is for a human being. Men have always worked, but men have always counted on women helping to raise the children or to do all of the details involved with getting those kids to school and take care of them and look out for them.
The world has changed.
Even women who have children under the age of 3, think of the intensity, if you’ve had kids, and when they are in those terrible two’s and the intensity of attention and focus of knowing where things are and what happens and the focus that goes into making sure they don’t get hurt.
60% of women who have kids under the age of 3 also work. WOW!!! 718 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So the level of stress women experience is something most men can never understand. They have no frame of reference for it. And as a result, 79% of women talk about having stress consistently. Almost 80%.
And today 61% of women are overweight. That’s 50% more than just 20 years ago to give you a sense.
I didn’t tell you all of this just to throw a bunch of statistics at you. I’m telling you this because you have unique stresses that you’ve got to deal with because if you don’t, you’re gonna have to find some way to deal with this stress and the most common way culturally besides drinking and smoking, is eating.
So how do you deal with that stress? Well, one way is to find your inner conflicts and start to shift them. I’ll tell you the biggest statistic that grabbed me, was that men used to always be more unhappy than women. 40 years ago, for as long as they’ve taken polls, men’s happiness was lower than women’s. Women were always more happy.
In the last 40 years, consistently, all around the world, in more than a dozen countries, that they’ve done statistical measurements women are now more un-happy than men. They have more choices, more freedom, more power and they’re unhappy.
So what am I saying? Am I saying you should go home and take care of your children and cook in the kitchen? No. What I’m saying is that we’ve got to address the issues that are making people so un-happy and specifically, women so un-happy. And it is, really not knowing how to deal with this stress.
We all need help finding what drives us, what makes us go. I believe in energy. I believe energy has power. Energy allows you to make your dreams a reality. If you don’t have energy it’s pretty hard to be passionate, isn’t it? Without energy there’s no intensity, you don’t have power for your kids, you don’t have the power for your friends and most importantly, you don’t have the energy for yourself. You have figure out how release the energy inside of you that’s trapped by stress or trapped by inner conflict.
The Pressure Cooker
For most people, their drive comes from pain, not from pleasure.
This is really important because pain eventually goes away and you lose your drive. And if you can get linked up with pleasure, you can keep making progress.
See, some people workout because they have to. And if you get enough of a habit, you can still do that for the rest of your life. Usually this doesn’t excite you. Some people go to the gym in the morning or they go for a walk because they love it, because they love to be out in nature or they love to go work out or they love that feeling of feeling strong again.
The more powerful way to change is called pull motivation. Why Women Are Dominating Household Income… 719
Pull is when there’s something that you want and you’re doing it because you’re pursuing something you desire. Push motivation is when you have to push yourself or someone else is pushing you to do something and whenever a push happens, we tend to have some part of us that pushes back. Don’t we?
So, think of it this way. Here’s the typical reason why people make progress and then go right back to their old pattern. I call it the pressure cooker.
Phase 1
Imagine pressure builds up in you. We’ll use weight loss as an example here. Days go by, you gain weight, you’ve eaten poorly, you’re not feeling good and finally one day you hit your pain thresh hold. Were all of a sudden you can’t get into your clothes, they’re so tight and you don’t want to get something even bigger.
Or you get on an airplane and you try to get in that seat and your waist is so tight that you can barely squeeze into it. And you get angry with yourself. Something hits you, maybe you see yourself in the mirror and for the first time you really look.
Something happens where the pain becomes so intense that at this first phase of change you now decide change is a must. It’s not a should, I must do this and I must do it now.
Have you had this, where you say “No more, not another moment, not another day, I’m going on a diet.”
This initial pressure in phase 1 makes you take action.
What happens in Phase 2?
Let’s say you really do something good, you start to exercise, you start to eat better, and you start making progress. You eliminate cakes or cookies or something. And all of a sudden you need to lose 35 pounds and you lose 10 or 12 pounds in a matter of a few days or weeks or whatever the case may be.
You’re really proud of yourself. Think about this. What made you do this? Pain. Internal pressure. As soon as you lose 10-12 pounds or 5 or 6, it all depends on the person, as soon as you lose a certain amount of weight, as soon as that happens, you start feeling good about yourself.
You start seeing that your pants are loose, and that part feels good. But there’s a point, if you’re trying to lose 30 pounds, it might be at 15 pounds, you’ve worked hard for weeks and weeks and maybe even a few months, there’s a point where in phase 2 you feel less pressure.
Do you know what I mean? You feel less pressure to have to do it. And you start to say, “Look at this, I’ve lost 5 pounds. I deserve a little piece of cake for god sakes,” or “I don’t have to workout EVERY day.” Have you ever done this to yourself? 720 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
And what happens in this phase is there’s not as much pain, so think of this way, Phase 1: pain makes you change. It makes change a must. You take massive action. Phase 2: because you take action you get great results and you make progress.
Phase 3 of the pressure cooker
The pressure starts to go down because you’re getting results.
The less pressure, the less drive to solve the problem. And what do you think Phase 4 is?
Phase 4:
Eventually because you have less pressure and because you let yourself go back, you get back some of the old habits, and before you know it, you’ve gained back all 30 pounds. Does this sound familiar to you?
So the pressure cooker can be changed by you deciding that “I’m here to create something I want. I want to feel free, I want to feel alive, I want to be able to breathe differently, move differently, I want to be able to wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and say “You sexy bitch you!!!”
You need to find something that excites you, that you want. If you’re just doing it only to get out of pain, it won’t last.
The pressure cooker never lasts. Deep desire will. Or, just doing things a little bit at a time.
One way you can end the sabotage of “The Pressure Cooker”
Now real fast I want to give you a quick technique. As long as we’re talking about pressure, we all build up pressure and before we go start exercising or dieting, most of us build up pressure and what we do? We go eat. Or we go play on Facebook. Or we go watch a movie.
But most of us will overeat because we have stresses about our children, or about our work or about some of the things we’re trying to get done, or all the stuff happening at once and we feel all this internal pressure, this internal stress, then we want to get rid of it.
So we try to change our focus or we try to change our body. Eating changes your focus and the way that you feel. I want to give you an alternative way to change your focus. A really quick way.
Here’s what the research has shown…
That whenever you get pressure or stress in your body, you do it in a predictable way. Now everyone does it little bit differently. You can try this out. Why Women Are Dominating Household Income… 721
This is how to take the arc of pain, you know how pain builds up and builds up and there’s like an arc to it, and then you get to that thresh hold and you eat or you scream at someone or you do something to get rid of it.
We want to go from an arc of stress, to an arc of pleasure. An arc of peace. That’s what we really want.
Here we go…
Step #1:
Identify a time in your life recently where you felt a LOT OF DEEP STRESS inside your body. Now don’t just think about this intellectually but physically feel it in your body. A lot of us just try to make it up in our head.
This is where we’ll notice what the pattern is that we use to create stress. There’s a location that it starts with. For most people it starts in their belly. For others, it starts in their chest. Some people in the face, the head, the legs. It’s different for everybody but we’ll find out where it starts.
Then you find the direction of that energy. Energy has a direction. It might be moving in towards you and then out or from inside you out. There’s lots of ways and we’ll find out how you do it.
And there’s a color to this pain. I know it sounds weird but let’s do that first.
Step #2: Rate the intensity of it.
You want to find out 0-10 how painful is it as you’re feeling it in your body right now. And then we’ll reverse this pattern and measure it again to see if some of that pain is reduced or maybe even disappeared.
Let’s begin…
Can you think of a time recently where you felt a lot of stress? Intense stress. Can you not just think about it intellectually but can you actually go back to that moment and put it into your body.
Where’s the first place this stress or pain starts? What part of your body? Touch that part.
Now there’s an arc to it. Does it go out and in or up and get caught in your throat? What’s the movement of this energy in your body? Maybe it goes down your body and you’re your belly or down through your chest and down through you toes, where does it start and where’s the arc?
What color do you attach to this pain or stress?
Now this is just a metaphor so don’t worry about it being right or wrong just go with your first gut reaction. 722 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Now keep feeling this, I know it’s unpleasant but we’re gonna change it, really put yourself into this feeling. Nod when you’re there. Tell me on a scale of 1-10, how painful is this stress, how deep, where 10 is totally painful and 0 is not at all.
Let’s change this right away.
Here’s what I want you to do, what’s the color that you associate to either peace or strength, a color that would change how you feel about anything?
Now we’re gonna take that color and we’re gonna reverse this arc so if it ended coming out of your mouth, now you’d feel the energy coming from the outside, in and it’s your feel good color. And make sure that it goes through your heart. Not just your chest.
Take the color that you associate peace or strength or joy to and start at where pain used to end and go in the reverse direction and end where it used to start. And make sure it goes through your heart. Feel it going through your heart and it go back out of your body or it can stay in your body if it feels good, whichever you prefer. And do this 7 times.
How does that feel now, 0-10, 10 being the ultimate pain, 1 being least amount of pain?
Sometimes people will do their 7 and go back and put another color or they’ll change the rhythm of it in their body or they’ll bring in another emotion like strength, joy or peace.
How does that feel to be able to change that quickly?
Now let’s see if we can make it feel even better. Now do your positive arc of pleasure but when you do it this time, I want you to think about the gift that this is not only giving you, but the people you love.
Because the most typical thing for women, what I’ve found about this wonderful species that I respect and love is that they’ll usually do more for others than they will for themselves.
So I want you to think about, if you were at an 8 or a 9 what would that gift be for your children, for your husband/boyfriend, for your friends AND for you. If all that could be a gift that could light up your life, and now with a light coming through you, not just a color but a light coming through you, now I’d like you to do it 7 times if you would. And you can change the rhythm if you want. Play with the pace or the rhythm or you might want to add another color or try a whole different color this time that gives you more strength or more joy or more peace.
Take your time. There’s no rush. Sometimes doing it faster feels good, sometimes slower feels good. What’s the arc of pleasure for you?
Normally what would you do to try to deal with the yucky stressed out feelings? Some women grab some- thing to eat and then they get mad at themselves for eating. And that increases the cycle. And this makes it even easier to snap at people or get upset. Why Women Are Dominating Household Income… 723
Not using a pleasure arc means you end up getting abused in the end over and over again because you care so much. This is the cycle of caring turned back into REAL caring. So you’ve gotta care for yourself and you hear people talk about loving yourself but how do you do it? Here’s a little way, give yourself an arc of pleasure and the only way to do it is to get out of the arc of pain.
How confident are you that you can do this? Right now as you do this, as you feel it, are you willing to take on this new opportunity for you life?
NO MORE ARC OF PAIN FOR YOU!!!
Of course you’ll feel pain because that’s a part of being human but now you know how to get out of it, literally, in 2-4 minutes.
If you can go from 6-7-8 level of pain and just reduce the pressure in your body, reduce the stress down to a 2 or a 3 or a 0, that’s a home run. But if you can go from pain to pleasure, now you’ve got something that’s really wonderful.
Now some women I do this with them, when I first do it with them they’ll say, “I’ve gone from a 7 of pain, down a 2.” And I’ll say, “Do you have any pleasure?” And they’ll say, “Well yeah, I actually do,” but they don’t ever look for it. So I ask “Where are you on a pleasure scale?” They’ll go, “I’m a six on pleasure,” and I’ll say, “Wait, you’re a six on pleasure and a 2 on pain simultaneously?” Only a woman could pull this off. Hahaha because you can multi-task and have different emotions going there, so start to focus so start to focus on the pleasure and you’ll experience more of it.
So, maybe today, tomorrow you start to build some stress and what you gonna do? Four steps real fast to get out of the arc of pain into the arc of pleasure.
Figure out Step #1
Identify how you’re creating the pain. Remember there’s 3 questions, Where does it start? What’s it’s direc- tion? What color is it?
Step #2 – Rate it
0-10. 10 is absolute pain, 0 is no pain at all. Where is it right now?
Step #3 – Reverse the pattern.
All you’ve gotta do is pick a better color first. What’s a color you associate joy, or pleasure, or strength or maybe peace to? Take this color and make it vivid. And then what’s the location it ended on before because we’re reversing it, right? If it started in your stomach and ended in your mouth, you start in the mouth and move down to the stomach. That’s gonna be a new arc. 724 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So, new color, new location that is the reverse of the old one, new direction – moving the opposite direc- tion. And you can play with different emotions, strength, joy, peace, or different rhythms. Do it 7 times.
Step #4: Test it. Where are you now?
From minus 10 in negative emotions to 0, all the way up to +10 in positive emotions. Where are you? Are you out of pain? You might find that the first time that you lower the pain, but not yet at pleasure, do it again. Add another color, try a different tempo, think of the people you love and how this is a gift for them, do it again.
Usually, once you’ve done this a few times, you’ll literally be able to do this in a minute and go straight out of stress, out of your mind, into a place of comfort. You’re gonna be free.
======
Now all of this came directly from a product Tony Robbin’s built called “The Path to Permanent Weight Loss”
I’m a humongous Robbins fan and I don’t think there’s a product of his that I HAVEN’T liked. But what I enjoy most about this one is the fact that it has NOTHING to do with your diet or exercise.
It has EVERYTHING to do with the “Why”, the emotions behind what you do and the decisions you make in regards to your body.
For instance Tony believes there’s 3 forces that allow you to lose weight:
#1: Emotion
That’s it. It’s the ability to get control of that mind of yours, to get control of that internal dialogue, where you believe the stuff you’re telling yourself like “I can’t do it,” or “I’m overwhelmed,” or “No one cares,” or “No one understands.” If you start believing your own thoughts like that, which most of us do, they start to control you.
#2: Diet
You can get results doing just about any diet where you become just a little conscious. You know, cutting down and not having sugar for a while or cutting it down by 60-70%, cut down the white bread or refined carbohydrates, there’s so many easy ways to do this and so many books. Do what works for you. But do take care of yourself.
Of these 3 things, that really control how your body turns out, both energy, health, vitality, and the weight, emotion is still the driver, isn’t it? Because whether you do a diet or not, is all based on emotion. You’re only gonna start dieting because something inside you emotionally shifts. Why Women Are Dominating Household Income… 725
Mentally, emotionally you want to do something about it. And why you leave the diet and go back to your old ways is either because it’s not sustainable, so it’s not an intelligent approach, or something emotional happens.
#3: Exercise
Just making the change in emotion will make you want to move. You know why? Emotion comes from motion.
It’s energy in motion. That’s what emotion is all about. And when you’re happy, you tend to move. Think about it, most people talk about how tired they are and they aren’t doing nothing. They sit around doing paperwork doing all this stuff that really is physically demanding and they’re exhausted because they don’t move.
Very often we’re exhausted because we’re bored. When we move, we feel more alive, it’s an interesting thing. Here’s all you gotta know about exercise: Do something.
Don’t think about it as exercise. Think about it as something you enjoy. Something you enjoy that gets you moving.
There’s a really cool theory called fun theory. Fun theory stems from the idea that lots of people don’t do things and it’s not because they’re not motivated. It’s because they don’t link fun to it.
In Austria they did a study in an office building that had an escalator and stairs, side by side. Only 3-5% of people would take the stairs instead of the escalator. The majority of the population is overweight in most countries. So, why wouldn’t you use the stairs? Because it’s not fun. You know, you’ve gotta be huffing and puffing and get sweaty.
So all they did was one thing. They put sound sensors, little tiny digital sound sensors on each stair, about 35 stairs. And guess what? 85-88% of the people a day started using the stairs because it looks like a piano and people walk up the stairs and it makes these little tunes as you go up and down and they loved it. They absolutely loved it.
Here’s the secret… Just do something you enjoy. That’s all you gotta do.
This is what I think…
If you’re at all interested in taking care of the root of the issue of weight loss instead of dealing with the band aids (diets, pills, creams, exercise plans), or if you know of a loved one who is, I recommend you get a hold of this program.
I’ve only gone through 2 of the CD’s so far and I can safely say that they’ve more than paid for them- selves just with what they offered, including the arc of pain and pleasure exercise given above. 726 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 140
Chief Nerd Has Heart Problem…Lesson’s Learned..
Dex (Chief Nerd) Here… Recently I’ve wrote a time or two about he trials and tribulations here at Nerd Headquarters.
Well, It seems that Life’s challenge to me to overcome, keep focus, and stick to my mission was just taken to an entirely new level.
I’m sad to say that Tomorrow Nerd Nation Rocks’ TeleSeminar will have to be postponed for a few days.
Why? Simply put I had a Heart Attack.
It was Friday night…
I was sitting at my computer when I suddenly had what seemed like a really bad case of Indigestion.
I never get this so It was a strange feeling but I continued to type away.
Suddenly I had a massive headache.
My Chest felt as though a 300 Pound Bodybuilder was grabbing and squeezing me.
I was having a hard time breathing and had a sharp pain in the middle of my back.
As many of you may know I’m an Old Time Boxer with a champions mindset.
I’m a bit stubborn. 728 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I decided that maybe I could “rest” this one off so I wondered into my room and tried laying down.
Things progressively got worse over the next few minutes and I tried walking around my room.
Then my arm began to go numb.
Being stubborn and some might call Dumb, I proceeded to self diagnose myself on the internet and decided that maybe I was just having a bad case of Acid Reflux.
After about 5 minutes I knew that something was wrong with Old Chief Nerd.
I wondered down the hallway and knocked on the door of Nerd#2 and said something’s wrong buddy I need you to take me to the hospital.
Here’s the deal…
I’m in my late 30’s and have went to the doctor a grand total of two times.
Nerd#2 knew this and immediately got up and we headed out the door.
Along, the way Nerd#2 decided that I had been drinking too many diet soda’s and that I’d be just fine. LOL
Gotta love my little buddy, trying to find the answer that would get me out of my predicament the quickest.
Always trying to find the right answer. I love this little guy.
But as we drove I was getting shorter and shorter on breath and I knew that something wasn’t right.
It’s funny because, as human beings, we tend to take just about everything for granted in life. We forget how fragile we are.
Earlier in the day I had seen Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Michael Douglas’s character said that while he was in jail he realized that we could trade money and just about everything else in life BUT one thing.
OUR TIME. A commodity that is finite. We only get a certain amount. Some more then others. But when spent it’s gone.
As I was getting closer to the hospital I began to ask that ever present energy in Life to teach me the lesson but give me more time.
We arrived at the hospital within 10 minutes and I rapidly went into the Emergency lobby.
The nurse at the counter was busy with some paperwork. Chief Nerd Has Heart Problem…Lesson’s… 729
I said I need to see a doctor NOW.
She said “Sir..wait your turn and I’ll get with you ASAP”
I snapped back…”Mam..I think I may be having a Heart Attack”
She immediately had the gentleman she was helping leave the area …
They rushed me to the back and within 45 Seconds had me hooked up to a EKG machine.
I could see by the look on the Tech’s face that things weren’t looking good.
Next thing I knew that told me not to move.
Three fairly big guys grabbed me and hoisted me onto a gurney and they rushed me into the adjoining area.
Within minutes there was at least 7 – 10 doctors surrounding me.
I was attached to 5 different machines.
And …I was scared shitless.
I looked at the Doc and said hey doc am I going to be O.K.?
He said don’t worry we are going to take care of you ..just relax.
I said, “Doc..I have a 4 year old daughter I’m not ready to leave yet”
All I could think about was my little girl.
Would she remember The Old Nerd when she got older?
Why hadn’t I done so may things?
Why Why Why?
The Doc then came over and stood over me saying that I had nothing to worry about and that If he had anything to do with it I would be going home soon.
Through the frantic action I could see Nerd2 sitting behind everyone looking on.
I looked at him told him I loved him and that I wanted him to call certain people if anything were to happen to me.
I then had him try and call my Ex so that I could tell me little girl how much she meant to Daddy. 730 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
We spoke on speaker for a moment but the phone wouldn’t keep reception so I was only able to get out a few words.
They then rushed me back to the Catheter lab where they would insert a balloon into my arteries (I had a blockage in the front side of my heart), open them up, and then decide where to put a stint.
This was frankly, the scariest ride of my life.
Nerd2 followed as far as he could and was then ushered off to the waiting area.
I felt as though I was the “Last Man Standing” walking to what might be my intement end.
Of course I kept telling myself that I was going to make it through this.
I thought of you guys (Yep I did). I’m a true entrepreneur and want to fulfill my mission here at this little blog.
I love what I do and I’m not afraid to admit it for fear of looking like a fool.
In the end I had visions of my little girl’s smiling face and for some reason I had a sense of peace.
At about this time they injected me with some kind of drug that (as they explained to me later) “made me forget about the pain.
They had the machines moving rabidly above me. All around. Trying to figure out where the exact points of blockage were.
Here’s the good news: The Chief Is Still Here!
The Bad News?
Well, as I lay here, going between bouts of feeling good to feeling horrible, I have vision of pulling my own Michael Jordan game 7 Miracle.
For those of you that don’t know. He had an extreme case of the flu and could barely walk. Played anyway, had the game of his life, and sank an amazing shot as the clocked ticked down to win the game.
Here’s the truth friends.
Michael knew what he had that night.
I believe his self awareness might of been as good as any sports Idol in the history of sports.
I too believe I have a very good sense of self awareness. Chief Nerd Has Heart Problem…Lesson’s… 731
And although I could probably deliver something that would be “good” I just know I’m not in the mental state nor have the physical energy to perform as I want to.
I don’t want to cheat you guys.
I want to perform and give you much more then you thought possible.
So I’m making the tough decision to pull the plug and do this later in the week.
I’ll keep you informed and I ask for you understanding.
I promise that when The Nerd Nation Rocks call takes place it will be something to remember.
There are some lesson’s here.
I’m, for the most part, an open book to you guys.
I want you to learn from the good and the bad.
Over the past month I’ve experienced the following: • Thought I was going to lose my daughter when she was diagnosed with childhood onset diabetes. • Had three major computer crashes and a network virus that almost set back the Nerd site for an entirely unacceptable amount of time. • And now this Major Health Issue.
I’m a different human being because of it.
I didn’t see angels, experience bliss, or anything like that.
But I have had life nail me in the side of the head and let me know that I’d better not lose focus on what’s important.
I now want to be a better friend, father, partner, and enjoy life to a much greater degree.
That doesn’t mean I won’t work any harder on this Blog or my other passions in life.
I love what I do and am ignited to bring a much bigger, brighter, and compelling message to you guys in the future.
More notes, more experiences, and a higher calling to help you guys reach the dreams and desires you have in business and hopefully share some things along the way that make us better human beings.
You will see some new posts, cool tools, etc… from Nerd2 and I over the next few days. 732 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Times have changed a bit.
You can now use your phone and computer in the hospital and YEAH!! they even have Wi-Fi.
But I just don’t have 16 hour days in me.
The type of day it would take me to perform up to my expectations tomorrow.
I’m extremely grateful that I have an audience to share with everyday.
Thank you for gifting me with what Gordon Gekko calls “YUR MOST IMPORTANT COMODITY” ….TIME!!
Nerd Nation got stronger today.
You’ll be hearing from me in the next few days and I expect our call to take place this week sometime.
Maybe some of you have had similar experiences or can share some words of wisdom.
Comment below.
Thank you my friends…
Talk Soon.
Dexter Abraham
MyNoteTakingNerd
P.S. For those of you that have a customer service issue we may be a day behind but we will get to you ASAP…Thank you for any patience. CHAPTER 141
What’s The Purpose Of a Relationship?
Hey you, It’s #2.
Last night I was listening to an interview between Ben Settle and Mike Dillard about email copywriting and picked up on a magnificent tip that I wanted to share with you.
Mike was talking about ways to use email that brought value to your list while still allowing you to sell and one of the ideas he mentioned was sharing in every one of your emails something that you were learning about that day. An idea from a book, audio program, article, whatever. Just share with them what you pulled from it and BOOM, you get to show up in their inbox with something valuable.
I love this idea.
So, in the light of putting this to use I want to share with you some stuff I’ve just picked up from the ever illustrious Eben Pagan. The course I’m going through now is called “Becoming Mr. Right and revolves completely around the idea of ending self sabotage in your intimate relationships. A lot of heavy duty looking at what makes you tick kinda stuff.
I’ve long been interested in the difference that makes the difference in life. Long ago I fell in love with the idea that success is 80% psychology and 20% mechanics. Well, since being introduced to this belief I’ve known that the way I saw intimate relationships play out in my life was far from… let’s say… pretty. I saw women AND men being screamed at, intimidated, people busted up with fists, palms, objects, people put in the hospital, people being put in jail, and all the parties involved said they *love* each other. WTF?!?
Knowing I witnessed the exact wrong way to be in a relationship inspires me to look for better ways to *Love* 734 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
And the topic I’m sharing with you today answered a lot of questions for me. Maybe it will do the same for you.
One interesting answer to the question of “What’s the purpose of a relationship?” that I heard was, “To heal childhood wounds; yours and others.”
I heard this from Eben and like many of the pro’s he’s studied, he believes that our imprinting from child- hood causes us any and all of the drama we get ourselves into for the rest of our lives and that until we go inside and become conscious of this fact; and then go on to re-wire what we feel and associate to these impact experiences and then most importantly; change our behavior, we’ll keep stepping in the same pile of shit that we have all of our life.
Especially when it comes to our intimate relationships.
In this context of this definition of the purpose of a relationship being rooted in healing childhood wounds, here’s a few things to mull over:
Think of something your mother used to do that you hated…
Now think of something that your father did that you hated…
Do you do either of these things to yourself?
Do you do either of these things to others? Do you find other people that do either of those things to others?
Do you find other people who do these things to others and then turn around and do them to you?
Isn’t it interesting that the things we hated, we do them to ourselves and to others and we find others who do these things to us?
When we do this to others and when they do this to us, it triggers a feeling of “I’m not good enough,” and it actually pushes the button on that childhood anchor tied to suffering. If you hate it and whether someone else, or you do it, you’re pushing that immobilizing button. When we push the button of pain and dysfunc- tion and hurt and “I’m not good enough,” what do we do in those moments of life?
Do we do things that serve us? Do we do things that are healthy? Or, is everything we do in those moments destructive.
Your relationship with your mother or father is the key to all of this
So when the button is pushed, we engage in unhealthy behaviors because we don’t feel good about our- selves. What’s The Purpose Of a Relationship? 735
It’s hard to look inward and see this in yourself; “When I experience challenges with women, look at my relationship with my mother.”
As a guy I can meet a beautiful woman and be talking to her and if she starts doing something that’s un- beautiful such as smoking, complaining or something of that sort I get turned off immediately. And what about the opposite? I can bump into and start vibing with a beautiful woman and she can start doing things that make her even more beautiful & sexy.
Typically when you’re attracted to woman, there’s a trigger feature that sets off the part of you that says “Wow, I really like her!”
This trigger feature is usually related to a wound that you carry from childhood. Eben’s mentor, told him that at one point in his life he felt that, “If I connect with a woman immediately and feel like I’ve known her forever, I can just stop the conversation and say, Ok, when were you abused?” He just knows there’s a better chance than not that she was abused, (and abuse doesn’t necessarily mean hard core stuff), and that they’re replaying each others childhood wounds.
How is possible that a giraffe could be attracted to a jeep?
We’re into this drama, story, triggering these emotions that we have that were set up when we were in childhood. Eben tells the story of a baby giraffe whose mother was accidentally killed by a jeep immediately after birth. The neonate, following hard-wired genetic programs, “imprinted” the first object that roughly fit the giraffe archetype - the jeep itself. He followed the machine around, vocalized to it, attempted to suckle from it, and, when adult, tried to mate with it.
Our attraction isn’t like this all the time but often it is when you feel that instant comfort with a woman that you just met. There’s a wound involved. Can you think back to a woman where it seemed so comfortable and natural and then it turned into this weird, dysfunctional thing that was like your relationship with your mom or, the relationship played out like your parents acted with each other?
And as a man, in a lot of cases you’re playing that same role out for her. It goes both ways. The way she didn’t get loved by her dad is the way you don’t give love to women. So now you two play this game of triggering each other and bringing out that side.
Do you want to transcend this game and the part of you that wants to have a story that you tell yourself about why all these things happen without having to actually to take responsibility yourself… or do you want to go to the next level?
Once you wake up, you can’t go back there anymore. You can’t deceive yourself. The imago is our imprint that we got when we were young about what the opposite sex is, what it looks like, what we should be attracted to and mate with. And our relationship with our mom, that’s what put that imprint there. Most of us are acting out of this paradigm, unconsciously. And we play this drama out and make up a story that 736 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One sounds good to us. And we cover over the pain using techniques to get into a woman’s pants without having to actually connect.
Now you can skip the bullshit and just flat out ask a woman, “Are you my mom?” or “Am I your dad?” “Are we just trying to do that?”
You can do this early. You can say, “Let’s just see if you’re my mom & I’m your dad. What was your rela- tionship like with your dad?” and you might talk and come to the conclusion, “Here we are again! So let’s just know that whatever happens from here on out, that we’re playing these dramas and let’s see if we can help heal these issues.” Some of these women you may be friends with, some you end up up being intimate with and decide you want to stay friends after the intimacy is over, or it might go forever. But when you start being upfront, it opens up a new level of freedom, of awareness, of maturity.
Maybe this is right for you, maybe it’s wrong but in the very least, I thought it was something to think about and give careful consideration to.
Beyond “What do I say to get a girls number…”
This idea of imprinting came from Eben Pagan’s “Becoming Mr. Right” program.
Maybe you know this, maybe you don’t, but Eben Pagan is the mastermind behind the $20 million dollar a year dating advice company, “Double Your Dating”. At the start of the seminar he admits that everything he’s taught up to this point about interacting with women has only served as a crutch when it came to dating more women. And, that it was counter productive to actually attracting the perfect woman for you. He knows he has to walk a fine line between giving guys what they really need and saying stuff that makes him irrelevant to the market place.
Selling this “imprinting” idea, right out of the gate, to guys who think that the only reason they can’t get hooked up with a girl is because they aren’t good looking or aren’t rich or that they don’t know what to say to start a conversation with a woman they meet at the bar… actually repels them. So, to bring these guys into the funnel, he put together the material like, “How to Meet Women in Bars and Clubs,” or “Double Your Dating” or, “Sexual Communication”.
Then when these guys get on the list and he builds a relationship with them, and they feel like they know, like and trust him, that only at this point can he can really level with them about what the “Real” issue is that’s stopping them. And that it has nothing to do with their flawed techniques and has everything to do with their mental programming.
What I’ve given you here out of the program is just a teeny, yet deeply profound part of the 7 hours of content I’ve already gone through. I have been massively impressed by this program so far and I can’t rec- ommend it highly enough to any man who’s looking to get out of their own way when it comes to dating. And this is coming from a guy who’s seen a ton of “Get your mind right” stuff from the gurus. What’s The Purpose Of a Relationship? 737
Most women have never experienced a guy who’s just being transparent, honest and straight up. This same guy also knows his vision, the path he’s on and is developing himself and wants to channel and offer a lot of value. That’s what Eben brings to men in this program and I stand fully behind it. I don’t know exactly where you can find it but if you liked what you saw here and think you need a little help in this department, I’d definitely tell you to find this seminar and devote yourself to working through it.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 142
Five Traits of the Best of the Best Star Salespeople (and how to attract them to you)
Never piss away another dollar on a bad salesperson hire ever again! Hey you,
It’s #2.
Maybe you know what makes a super star salesperson, maybe you don’t.
If you hire salespeople now, or want to grow your business using them in the future (which Chet Holmes highly recommends because person to person contact/connection has the most impact on selling), you’ll definitely want to read this.
What I’m giving you today is a hunk of notes from the “Hiring Talent - The key that makes (or costs) you millions” section of the Ultimate Business Mastery Program.
Enjoy, and know there’s a fuck load more where this came from, just on this topic alone. Get the full set of notes if mastering this topic sings to you.
Here we go with the five traits of the best of the best star salespeople…
Empathy – Sincere interest in helping clients succeed.
Ego Strength (rejection armor)/Ego Drive (Ambition) – These people don’t get blown out for the day just because you turned them down. These people have to achieve.
Superior Skills Set (Highly productive) – They write a great letter, they manage their time, they’re on top of it. Five Traits of the Best of the Best Star… 739
Market Knowledge – Most stars want to be knowledgeable beyond product knowledge. Core stories (market research and data that makes clients say “Wow”) make this easy for them to adapt to your way of doing business. They love that you’ve done this for them.
Training – Constant personal and business improvement. You cannot check a superstars ipod or trunk and not find some kind of extra curricular training they’re going through at the moment.
Because Chet knows this, one of the questions asks in an interview is, “What’s the latest personal develop- ment or business training have you gone through?”
Beyond The Resume
You really can’t hire a superstar from a resume. He used the example of Gary Vaynerchuk and all of his wild experience that looks like shit on a traditional resume of an employee but in actuality, you put him in front of something he believes in, like wine, and that muthafucker is gonna crush it.
Age and background are almost irrelevant. He’s had a nineteen year olds tear shit up before and a 73 year old who was fantastic.
Psychological profile is everything.
Chet only got into sales after someone told him he would probably be good in sales. At the time he was a movie film projectionist. He started with a furniture store while he had a weeks worth of vacation. The quota for the month was $20 K. He sold $18,000.00 worth of furniture in one week. Super star.
What about the 52 year old milkshake machine salesman Ray Kroc, the man who founded McDonalds?
Background isn’t relevant. It’s who they are, more than what they’ve done.
Get them while you can…
These people are often frustrated in most companies so they go out and form their own company and become extremely successful. Most people don’t understand them, recognize their brilliance, won’t give them room to swing the bat, and they won’t give them enough room to blossom in their environment.
You want to learn to shop for salespeople
You’re strolling through the grocery store, the mall, out to eat and you spot these people whose life you can change through giving them the opportunity to maximize their natural talents/personality/make up.
Get them while they’re young and keep challenging them and paying them and you can keep them a LONG time. Chet has a dozen level 10 salesmen working for him because of what he’s teaching here.
The Ad That Attracts These People To You… 740 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The ad must challenge them. It must scare away the unsure. Weeds them out. It does not ask for resumes. None of Chet’s ads ask for resumes.
Example: Mock Print Ad
Superstars Only, $50K to $250K
Average will earn $50K, stars will earn $250K. (For this line you have to put the varying range because the 19 year old projectionist might not be able to grasp on to the idea of hauling in $250K and just not respond to the ad. And it allows you to snag the guys who’ve already made that kind of money before)
Don’t even call unless you are truly awesome salesperson. (Only superstars and dreamers feel bold enough to respond to an ad that begins this way) You have a burning desire to succeed, are extremely client oriented, highly motivated and never say die. You develop deep and meaningful rapport with your clients, and com- municate with piercing persuasiveness. You believe you can be the best at almost everything you do, and can prove it. Don’t call unless you fit this bill. Excellent salary and commission structure, and great oppor- tunity for upward mobility. Build an empire within out fine progressive company. (Type of business here) (This is a great line because it appeals to the part of superstars that loves challenge) We don’t hire back- grounds, we hire top producers. (A lot of superstars don’t fit into the traditional background. If you want to hire someone who’s really stable, hire an accountant. The average accountant holds onto a job for 9.5 years. This won’t be the case with salespeople. Especially superstars who don’t fit in.
Call Susan Marktin at (Phone number)
Call only between (You may want to limit the hours)
Beware: In addition to superstars, this ad can attract weirdos with clown porn fetishes.
Personally Phone Screen All Applicants
At this point in the process forget resumes. They line up all the candidates to do them all at once – 5 minutes a piece. This is made possible by including the line in the ad of “Call between such and such time”.
This is the process of deciding who you DON’T want to interview. He gets on the phone and says, “Look, we’ve got 50 candidates, why do we want to interview you?” 9 out of 10 people will tell him, “Well, can you tell me a little about the job?” He says, “That’s a long conversation. The ad said don’t even call if you aren’t the best, so why do we even want to interview you?” Chet is obnoxious. Then you get 9 out of 10 who will say, “Well let’s see, I like people, my mom says I’m good at selling, and if I believe in it, I believe I can sell it.” And no matter what they say he always comes back with, “I’m really not hearing top producer.” “You’re not?” “No.” “Well, well, okay.” “OK” “Guess you would know.” “Yeah, I do.” “Well, thanks.” “Thanks” “Bye.” “Bye.”
In a HR friendly environment, you would’ve hired that guy and Chet can predict what would happen to him the first time he got rejected. Five Traits of the Best of the Best Star… 741
He’s also had someone respond to “I’m not really hearing top producer,” with, “Well maybe you’re deaf.” And then he starts rolling into what results he’s produced with other companies. Top producers will come back at you. Why? Because now they’re the product. Their sense of self won’t allow you to tell them, they can’t do the job.
Phone Screening Techniques
In the very first call:
Act busy, be gruff and to the point. Ask, “So tell me why you think you’re a superstar?” Make them sell you. Remember, you can’t intimidate the self esteem of a superstar.
If you can chew them up and spit them out over the phone; Don’t even bother interviewing them. If they can’t talk their way into an interview, what makes you think they’ll be able to talk their way into an appoint- ment with prospects?
======
That’s a wrap for today.
Even though I didn’t overwhelm you with the full load on this subject, just having the ad and the screen over the phone tactics in your arsenal put you light years ahead of 99% of your competitors. Have fun shaving your drama to almost zero by using this. :-)
There’s probably 20-25 more pages covering just this topic. And it’s all gold. I would never hire another salesperson ever, without running them through this gauntlet. And I wouldn’t recommend you to either. Get the notes if you don’t have them already.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 143
The Power To Nurture; The Power To Destroy
Hey You, It’s #2.
Have I mentioned to you that I ABSOLUTELY love women?
Well, in case I haven’t, I do. And seeing this video made me appreciate how powerful the feminine nature is. The leopard in the video below totally reminded me of my mom who actually beat the shit out of a guy in a bar with one of those trays the waitresses carry drinks on because he was bothering her.
What was crazier than that was when as a 16 year old kid I hit this 41 year old woman and gave her a black eye. Yeah, it was stupid. Yeah, there was a shit load of alcohol and drugs involved. Yeah, there’s no excuse for what happened. And that was the last time it ever did.
So, of course word gets back to this woman’s 260 pound brother and he ends up confronting me in the teeny hallway that was only a little more than 1 person wide, of our home. The hallway started at the front door and when I answered it I was meet by a foaming at the mouth drunk lunatic out for revenge.
He punched me and then as I was going back, he grabbed me and basically just used the momentum to push me down to my back. Well, I’m lucky this guy didn’t know how to fight because even though I couldn’t move, he never landed any more punches even though he was trying. I’m also lucky because my mom heard all the racket and came to the rescue. Hahaha
My mom was a warrior I’d a been proud to go to war with at anytime.
Most women might have just screamed and yelled at the guy hoping it would discourage him or give a token pull on his arm to try to get him off her boy and then race to call the cops. Not my mom. On one side of me was the wall and on the other was the washing The Power To Nurture; The Power To Destroy… 743
machine, so instinctively my mom looked for something to hit this guy with so she picked up the full tub of laundry detergent and starts laying into this guys head with it.
That slowed him down from punching me but it wasn’t getting him off of me. So, she ditched the detergent and full-on grabbed two fistfulls of hair and jerked as hard as her little 90 pound body would let her.
This REALLY got the dudes attention and stood him straight up onto his knees and when she let go and said she was calling the cops, he stood up and bolted out the door. He must’ve been a wanted man. Hahaha.
I wish I hadn’t put my mom in that situation but in the same light it made me love and appreciate her even more. And, I imagine she was proud of herself for stepping up and doing whatever it took to defend her cub.
While I’m gonna start screening out certain parts of my mom’s behavior that I didn’t like so much in women, I will always LOVE and insist on women owning both polarities; the beast AND the lover and everything in between.
See how this plays out in nature in this outstanding video here… CHAPTER 144
Kill Relationship Drama Before It Begins
“When a guy asks you where you’re from he means “When can we have sex?” ~Natasha Leggero
Hey You,
It’s #2.
Some of you may have wondered, “Why the hell is Nerd #2 putting stuff on here about ‘relationships & dating’?
That’s a valid question.
The reason I’ve chosen to do so is because I’ve personally witnessed myself and people I know, absolutely crumble to shit when their personal relationships with the opposite sex hit the rocks. Work fails, friendships suffer, hygiene screeches to a halt, diets and health crash, etc. etc.
You know what I’m talking about.
For some people this “funk” only leads to you being in a funk for a week to a few weeks to a few months. But if slack off on this stuff it doesn’t always just “blow over”. At least it didn’t for my family. As a 12 year old kid, I watched my mom get into a fight with her husband probably over money, or something stupid like that, and I can’t remember why but he called the cops.
When the sheriff showed up and went to grab my mom so they could put her in cuffs and take her to jail for old warrants, the combination of fighting with her husband and then fighting off the cops (yep, my mom was crazy enough to fight cops), made a blood vessel explode in her brain. They call that shit an aneurysm on my side of the planet.
When this happened she immediately went unconscious and sank limp in the cops arms. She avoided jail but got a first class trip to a brain surgeon’s operating table. She barely survived after having the surgeon team shave the front part of her hair off so they could Kill Relationship Drama Before It Begins 745
cut her open so deep that they actually had to use staples to close the wound.
In my perspective, relationship stuff is nothing to fuck around with and just ‘hope’ works it out for the best. Especially if you didn’t have Tony Robbins and Mother Theresa as a parents. Especially if kids are involved.
“Relationship advice is for emotional, insecure, faggots?”
I know a lot of guys who would take this position if ever presented with the idea of reading a book, listening to a program or going to a seminar that involves learning how to handle your emotions in a relationship.
Most of ‘em have probably never seen these stats… • • According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, on average, more than three women and one man are murdered by their intimate partners in this country every day. • • Of all the murders of females in 2002, family members were responsible for 43%. • • Eight in ten murderers who killed a family member were male. Males were 83% of spouse murderers. • • Almost one-third of female homicide victims that are reported in police records are killed by an inti- mate partner. • • In 70-80% of intimate partner homicides, no matter which partner was killed, the man physically abused the woman before the murder. •
As a matter of fact, I have a very close relative who actually had glass mysteriously show up in his food, not long after having one of a long list of knock down, drag out fights. This is the same “Macho” guy who in years past would have told me I was a douche bag for paying a $2,000 to show me how to bring a better me to my relationships with women.
It’s the same thinking that keeps a guy from pulling over and asking for directions if they’re lost. This stub- born caveman mindset is our default/zombie programming. We fear appearing like we don’t know what we’re doing, especially in front of women.
Satisfying Women Isn’t Rocket Science
I wear a penis and a ball sack, and I realize my view of reality is only based on my limited personal refer- ences and experiences, so I can’t speak for everyone, especially women.
But, I can say for certain, that men, if we don’t become aware of and handle at the very least, the core, any kind of mommy issues we have (for the ladies, it’d be daddy issues), it’s gonna be really hard to get our 746 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One relationships to a place where we approach women with more than our animal brain thinking like Natasha points out in the quote at the top of this article.
An approach that oozes “I’m here because I want to get some pussy,” vs. one that announces non-verbally that “I’m a man on a mission to bring out the best in me so that in turn I can bring out the best in you and to do this, I have to be very selective as to whom I let into my world, who are you and are you someone who will push me to realize this mighty vision I have?”
Two different energies. Two entirely different outcomes. I admit, that for all of my life I’ve operated out of the the first. If she ended up better for having knowing me, that was just a bonus. I’m changing this as we speak.
How quickly can you screen out a person you shouldn’t be with?
Well like Eben Pagan pointed out in a previous post I wrote…
Often when you feel that instant comfort with a woman that you just met there’s a wound involved. Can you think back to a woman where it seemed so comfortable and natural and then it turned into this weird, dysfunctional thing that was like your relationship with your mom or… the relationship played out like your parents acted with each other?
And as a man, in a lot of cases you’re playing out that same role for her. It goes both ways. The way she didn’t get loved by her dad is the way you don’t give love to women. So now you two play this game of triggering each other and bringing out that side.
Do you want to transcend this game and the part of you that wants to have a story that you tell yourself about why all these things happen without having to actually to take responsibility yourself… or do you want to go to the next level?
Once you wake up, you can’t go back there anymore. You can’t deceive yourself. The imago is our imprint that we got when we were young about what the opposite sex is, what it looks like, what we should be attracted to and mate with. And our relationship with our mom, that’s what put that imprint there. Most of us are acting out of this paradigm, unconsciously. And we play this drama out and make up a story that sounds good to us. And we cover over the pain using techniques to get into a woman’s pants without having to actually connect.
Now you can skip the bullshit and just flat out ask a woman, “Are you my mom?” or “Am I your dad?” “Are we just trying to do that?”
You can do this early. You can say, “Let’s just see if you’re my mom & I’m your dad. What was your rela- tionship like with your dad?” and you might talk and come to the conclusion, “Here we are again! So let’s just know that whatever happens from here on out, that we’re playing these dramas and let’s see if we can help heal these issues.” Some of these women you may be friends with, some you end up up being intimate Kill Relationship Drama Before It Begins 747
with and decide you want to stay friends after the intimacy is over, or it might go forever. But when you start being upfront, it opens up a new level of freedom, of awareness, of maturity. This would be one way.
Now what’s crazy is that long-time fan of ours and stud, Tim Birch actually brought up the point of screening for a relationship match with the Five Traits of the Best of the Best Star Salespeople (and how to attract them to you) post that I wrote using the notes I pulled from the Ultimate Business Mastery sem- inar.
And then I find Eben talking about something along the same lines. Great minds think alike!
Which one of these 4 behaviors belongs to you or a guy you know?
The first, “I wanna get laid” approach is usually accompanied by what Roger Allan Currie, the author of “Mode One – Let The Women Know What You’re REALLY Thinking” calls Mode 4 thinking…
MODE FOUR
When you express your real desires, interests, intentions, and harsh criticisms in a straightforward, unapologetic, and specific manner, but only AFTER you’ve already been rejected, criticized, or ignored; Your behavior is driven by resentment, misogyny, bitterness, and a desire for “egotistical revenge” towards those women who you feel treated you in a less-than-desirable manner
Big Issue: You don’t like to feel ‘egotistically defeated’ by a woman; When a woman rejects you, criticizes you, or ignores you, you want to gain a measure of emotional and egotistical ‘revenge’ in the worst way. There’s a woman that I follow in the social media/copywriting/marketing world by the name of Erika Napoletano. She runs the site www.redheadwriting.com and I am absolutely in LOVE with the mojo she lays down there.
Her raw, no fucking around style allows her to express herself with authority, humor and compassion. When I spend time at her blog I feel like the words are making love to my mind.
Recently she saw an article in her local city rag that was talking about picking up chicks and the philosophy put forth didn’t jive with her philosophy so she wrote a piece telling why it didn’t make sense to her.
Well, the guy who wrote the piece is in cahoots with a local “Shock DJ” who’s purpose for existing is to rile people up. Well, his response to her blog post sure did that. 258 comments worth, 99% of which are in her favor. To give you some perspective, I clicked on another one of her outstanding posts written not too long after and it racked up 38 comments. Tells you how charged the topic of this piece was, eh.
You can go here later to see it in it’s entirety http://www.redheadwriting.com/i-have-no-title I’ve given you the cliff notes version here… 748 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
This shock DJ that replied in defense of his buddy who wrote the original article that Erika blasted, clearly demonstrated a Mode 4 mindset. I clipped a little of the post and put it here to show you what the written form of this behavior looks like…
NAPOLETANO: “I am not a flower. Women are not flowers. We are women, …”
Well, EriKa, let me just step in for Mr. Hollenback here and say he was being polite on purpose. Of course women aren’t flowers. Far from it. They are open gashes of festering diseases and bottomless black holes of emotional need. But I felt Greg’s poetic interpretation was far prettier than the ugly, stinking, oozing truth. Look in the mirror EriKa. Look in the mirror and weep.
SKIPPED – the imaginary version of how she spends here day (because in reality, she gets up around 10am, scratches her ass, checks her email, looks in the mirror and then curses God on high that she woke up as HER again – then has a fattening snack to ease her psychic pain).
NAPOLETANO: “If children are in the mix, it’ll happen.”
Oh yeah? Dream on bitch. You’re thirty-fucking-SEVEN – and that’s just if you’re telling the truth! Any crotch fruit you spawn will have very oversized foreheads. You missed it lady – the clock ran out. While you were “being liberated,” and chasing your imaginary career, the16 year old illegals were having the HEALTHY babies. You might be able to punch out a Yuppie Puppie with autism due to the age of your shriveled womb and your worn out Cougar Jerky if you’re lucky. But it’s a long shot, and word to the wise: the sperm bank doesn’t take debit cards, girlfriend.
NAPOLETANO: “But I don’t need pollination. I’ve never met a woman in my thirty-seven years who did.”
No honey…you need IN VITRO FERTILIZATION at your age. Because no man-juice is going to make the horrid trek up your ancient withered caverns to find the goddam lost tomb, no matter how energetic his sperm cells. You’re outdated cheese woman. Face it Myrna! , FACE IT!
Again Greg, this woman obviously, desperately needs my help. But she’s a little old for my liking. I could make exceptions Greg, but only on your direct recommendation. As you know, I don’t like to waste my time on the crazies. But the Psycho Pussies? Oh yeah! Wheewww!
My way of thinking today agrees with the philosophy of “How you do anything is how you do everything,” and “There’s always some truth in jest.” Well, even if this guy was totally kidding, I find it hard to believe this was just an off the cuff, completely imagined, improv performance.
Nothing we say or write can be out of thin air because we can only think what we’ve experienced or seen or heard. Otherwise, it’s not there for us to latch on to. Kill Relationship Drama Before It Begins 749
For me, it’s not worth living a life where you feel this way about women. Yet, there’s a fuck load of men wandering the streets whose experience of women mirrors this man’s. And they wander through life on auto-pilot and wonder why they stay single or… keep attracting women who do things that they hate.
It doesn’t have to be this way. There’s waaaaayyy too many resources that can help get a person out of this head space. And once again, I’ll say that I think this behavior can play out both ways, with men or women.
And this leads us to the next level of thinking which is…
MODE THREE
When you hide, deny, and/or ‘camouflage’ your true, honest needs, desires, interests, and intentions from women; Your behavior is usually phony, hypocritical, wimpy, deceitful, and ‘wishy washy’; You have a low degree of self-confidence and self-esteem, to the point that you will typically allow women to use you, manipulate you, and even disrespect you on a frequent basis
Big Issue: You have a fear of being rejected and/or ignored; You’d rather ‘pretend’ to be ‘just friends’ with a female, in order to continue getting attention from her, then to let your real desires and interests be known, and risk being rejected or ignored indefinitely Only through working on myself and building a better me, did I graduate from this mode. While I’ve never sunk to Mode 4, it was definitely in my future had I not gotten help from some people who coached me on how to change the way I saw myself and what was possible for me.
Guys like Dexter, Tony Robbins, Eben Pagan, Hale Dwoskin, Dale Carnegie and on and on. I have to give it up most to Eben though in this category of relationships though. Until I’d stumbled into his stuff, I’d always been back asswards when it came to interacting with women.
In all my life I’d never been around a man who was constantly evolving his understanding of relationship dynamics and striving to be the very best lover/partner he could be and could talk about it and teach others how to do it.
I’d been around a couple of guys who had no problem attracting women, but the relationships were never pictures of absolute radiance and passion. They were either blah or disasters. Or, I hung around people who got married in high school and had kids and just seemed “Stuck” with each other.
In Eben’s latest seminar, “Becoming Mr. Right” he mentioned that all of his programs up until “Man Trans- formation” are actually harmful because while the information is valid, it doesn’t address the core issues that got you mixed up in the first place. So they show you how to behave differently but as soon the tech- nique is used and you’re in the next phase of an interaction, it’s the same old dysfunctional you in the room alone with the woman.
And what ends up happening is the real self bleeds through when the shtick runs out and voila, your naked insecurity sabotages the momentum you had going with woman by reverting to retard behavior. 750 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Now a step above Mode 3 is…
MODE TWO
When you express your needs, desires, interests, and intentions to a woman in a cautious, hesitant, indirect, ‘beat-around-the-bush’ manner Your behavior is usually very polite, considerate, pleasant, entertaining, and non-threatening; You’re confident to a degree, but very conscious about your image and reputation among women; You like being known and perceived as a “gentleman”
Big Issue: You have a fear of being harshly criticized and/or disliked; Your main objective is to get a woman to “like” you, and say “nice things” about you, prior to letting her know why you really want to interact with her, and share her company Not needing the approval of someone is magnetic. Neediness isn’t. Plain. Simple. Truth.
In Mode Two while you aren’t mysogo-man or being a total wimp, you still aren’t being authentic because there’s the programming inside of you that says approval from others is more important than the approval of yourself. And this keeps you from being fulfilled.
MODE ONE
When you express your needs, desires, interests, and intentions to a woman in a highly confident, unapologetic, straightforward, and very specific manner; Your behavior is usually highly self-assured, composed, non-defensive, and provocative; You don’t go out of your way to get women to “like” you, or “approve” of your behavior; You are the personification of “egotistical indifference”
Big Issue: You don’t like your time to be wasted by those women who don’t have a sincere desire to recipro- cate your romantic and/or sexual desires and interests; You don’t like to interact with women who are highly manipulative
(i.e., “game players”) When you become the greatest version of you that you can, when you get into the flow of ‘becoming your full potential’ which can start right now, you become a beacon for the most amazing woman, for you.
This, is Mode 1 thinking and I think it gels perfectly with Eben’s philosophy because it’s directly rooted in shifting and expanding your identity. In “Becoming Mr. Right” Eben talks about how…
This will be the most challenging experience in your inner world that you’ve ever had and how it’s your duty as a human to push yourself out of your comfort zone where shame and fear want to keep you locked down in a prison of your own making.
Let’s see if you can stand there in discomfort, in “I don’t like this very much.” Relaxing into and going with this is the key to becoming the next level of you and sink into the flow of becoming your potential. Kill Relationship Drama Before It Begins 751
This is where it’s all at, riding with the flow of becoming the best you, you can be.
When you get into the flow of becoming the best you that you can be, becoming your greatest self, everyone can sense it immediately. This is when you’re behaving at excellence. This is when you’re inspiring to others. This is when you’re inspiring to yourself. This is when you hit a setback and you fall down, you take an emotional hit and then you realize you’re in the flow of becoming your best self and you get right back on the track and everything’s ok.
You have a sense of grounded-ness in the belief that the universe is a friendly place to live.
This is a core piece of becoming Mr. Right because ultimately, I imagine you don’t want all women to be chasing you and you don’t want to meet all women. What you probably want is to find a really amazing woman and then be able to have a real, authentic, fulfilling relationship that helps takes both of you to the next level.
That woman that you want, when you’re in the flow of becoming the best you that you’re capable of becoming… she see’s that, she recognizes that and that type of woman that you really want, that you really want to be close to, that you really want to be intimate with in your life, that woman will recognize very clearly if you’re not in this flow.
And if you’re not in the flow of becoming the best you can be, then all you’ve got is techniques and like we talked about before, when those wear off, there you are on empty.
Women test men, why? Because they have to.
They can’t say to a man, “Do you have integrity?” and trust what he says. Most men will answer that ques- tion with a reinterpretation of “Well, it depends on how much I wanna get laid.” Some guys will dial back the integrity in the moment to get a little action.
When you’re in the flow of becoming your best self, that stuff is less likely to happen. It’s important to, as a man, be able to dive into the sticky issues within. That’s what you’re total 10 woman wants from you, for when these things show up in life, for you to be able to face them, accept them and overcome them.
And the only way you do this is by introducing yourself to new questions and ways of thinking that pull you out of your comfort zone just long enough to de-hypnotize you from the auto-pilot program you’ve coasted on your whole life.
I, as a man who’s working to become Mr. Right, cannot recommend Roger Alan Currie’s book or Eben’s program highly enough because they’ve been some of the best at doing this.
I know there’s a ton of other great resources out there and if you know of any, please feel free to let me know about them here. These are two I’ve found incredibly useful. There’s others that I might mention in the future but for now I’ll leave you with these. And as always feel free to tell me if you think I’m full of shit. 752 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 145
What If The Person Causing All Your Problems is YOU?
Ijust got off a phone call. I was making an overdue presentation to a friends list.
During the call i encouraged people to send me questions.
I saw one very disturbing pattern. No one was responsible for their plight in life.
It was their ex, their local politician, their partner, their dog, or their ______.
This didn’t upset me nearly as much as looking in the mirror after this phone call and realizing that I (Yes Me..Super Nerd) have been doing this very same thing for way to long.
I didn’t want to admit it but It was my ex’s fault or McDonald’s that I had my recent Heart Attack.
Although at the pace I’d devour a burger at times I promise you’d swear someone was helping some- where…
This reminds me of a friend of mine who’s on his fifth marriage.
He thinks all women are evil and is now convinced that marriage just isn’t for the human race.
I of course didn’t improve his attitude by suggesting that HE may be the X factor that he forgot to think about.
Here’s the question you need to be asking yourself.
Do you have something that keeps rearing it’s ugly head over and over again in your life. 754 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You know. A PATTERN?
One that may be causing you pain, lost money, broken relationships, etc…?
Do you find yourself, like I did, going from one diet to the next only to declare the “newest” one to be the holy grail and that all the rest were just bad?
Or do you find yourself going from job to job only to find that same spiteful, mean, and just plain retarded boss again?
How bout going from one Guru course to the next with no results?
If you find yourself doing anything like this then you might, just maybe, want to question your STRAT- EGIES.
Let’s assume that you have now thought of a number of these Groundhog Day type situations popping up in your life.
What do you do?
Well….change your damn strategy. or FIRE Yourself and get someone that can “Do” the dang stuff.
I mean aren’t you sick and tired of looking at the other internet marketing guru and thinking damn I’m better then him but he’s making 10, 20, 30 times what you are.
I’m not bashing anyone but a good example of this is a kid by the name of Jason Fladlien.
And for those of you that don’t know who he is. Well in my mind he’s the Pound for Pound Internet Mar- keting Champion right now. He’s the real deal. More value for your buck then anyone is giving in my opinion.
Jason’s had one of those Rags to Riches stories. Went from sitting at home (well he lived with his dad) to making over a half million dollars per year in just the past few years.
Recently I got an email from me where he signed his name “Mini Tony Robbins”.
Let me tell you something. I’ve worked very close with Tony and Jason’s no Tony.
But I’ll say this.
Jason Kicks my Ass in the department that matters. He has an undeniable belief in himself and he does the one thing that separates himself from all the rest. What If The Person Causing All Your Problems… 755
HE TAKES MASSIVE ACTION.
I mean the guy’s putting out 3 – 5 products a month sometime. Not to mention consulting, coaching, JV’s, etc…
His stuff isn’t always the prettiest.
His stuff isn’t always perfect.
But he always over delivers and has a ton of raving fans.
Why?
Because he’s constantly showing his list that he WILL perform.
And guess what. From what I’ve read if he can’t do it or do it well he “Fires” himself and get’s someone that can.
No excuses, no blaming the neighbors, just takes action and makes things happen.
So back to what I was saying;
If you aren’t getting the results you want them find a different strategy.
Do something different.
Or find someone that can do it for you.
Dan Kennedy once told a story that goes like this.
Guy walks down street and falls into a hole.
Next day he walks down same street and falls into the same hole again and is pissed off at the hole.
Next day he hurries down the same street and tries to jump the hole only to miss and fall down again. This time extremely pissed at hole.
Next day he does the same damn thing again. This time breaking an ankle.
When he get’s his cast off and heads to the same location for work as before but takes a DIFFERENT street.
Lesson Here?
We don’t have control over the holes in life. 756 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
We do control our thinking, our strategies, behavior, and changes we CHOOSE to make to all or some.
So if you find yourself stuck in a pattern and you keep falling in the same hole then make some different choices.
After all this is what separates us from the Dogs, cats, lions, tigers, and bears.
For me it’s time to make some choices about my lifestyle so I don’t end up back in the hospital.
It’s bout time to look at the Ex through some new eyes (this one will be hard LOL) and find some things I do have control over.
I just had to have a “Money” talk with a partner because If i don’t I’ll find myself in an uncomfortable spot down the road if I don’t handle it now.
Yep uncomfortable choices that relieve stress and free you up to be more productive and happy.
Next time I’ll share some simple things to do that will enable you to make these strategic changes quicker and easier. But in the meantime let me know you enjoyed this conversation by saying so below. Just a quick comment please.
Thanks …Talk Soon CHAPTER 146
Will The Winds of the Recession Ruin Your Marketing Efforts?
T he Other Day I Was Interviewing Two Squirrels in My Back Yard! Conan Obrien
Will You Be Ready For Tough Times?
Yep Times are tough out there.
Today we are seeing more and more so called invincible companies fall to this depression.
Lehman Brothers, General Motors, Holiday Inns, “The United States”….
Some Gone…others reduced to a fraction of their former selves.
Why is this?
Because it’s during the tough times that our true characters are revealed.
You may be able to “Fake it Till You Make It” during the prosperous years but when the shit storm comes you’d better be prepared for it.
It’s important as business owners and niche leaders to determine whom we are, where we are going, how we are going to get there, and what we are all about.
Success during the good times gives us a sense of invincibility.
After all i’ve been getting away with that for how long?
Well, I’m here to be the bearer of bad news. 758 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I’m a believer that this recession isn’t going to go away anytime soon.
So while we are stuck in this sideways economic condition I suggest you get to figuring out who, what, when, and how you are going to be in this market and then get to proving it.
Most importantly be who you say you are going to be.
The preacher that gives the Sunday Sermon but is out gambling and spending the week nights with hookers will eventually be “caught”.
We are no different.
Your customers and clients look to you for certain values and experience.
If you are not being transparent and true then eventually this too will catch you.
So today, as I am, I suggest you take a look at your positioning in the market.
Who are you? Who are you to your customers? What is your position in this niche you have chosen?
Set up your Strategic Cornerstones so that when the Winds of Recession come pounding down your door you stand tall and unmovable.
You become the Emergency Room for your customers and clients. Not joining them in the lobby.
Start looking at your systems, policies, structure, etc…
Do you just make money? Or…
DO YOU HAVE A BUSINESS?
A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS?
Make some comments below…Talk Soon CHAPTER 147
Why Will These 5 Questions Get You Outstanding Reviews?
Hey You, It’s #2.
I may be crazy, but it’s my guess that your raving fans have soooo much more to offer you.
And no, I’m not referring to their ability to give you more of their money if you’d only present them with more offers, more frequently.
More money is nice, but the stories they have about how your product or service has enhanced their life can be soooo much more valuable long term and leverage wise, than any single additional sale you get from them.
People trust what others say about you, much more than what you say about you. Especially if those OTHERS are big wig famous dudes or dudettes who have humongafied followings.
So if there’s so much power in the voice of your champions, it begs the question of…
Why are there so many shit testimonials or reviews out there in the market place… even for products or services that provide incredible, life enhancing experiences?
Easy.
It’s because most people don’t know a quick, yet deep way to ask questions of their customers that open up their minds AND their hearts.
All most people know how to ask online or offline is the equivalent of this… 760 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Why, if someone gets inspired enough to actually put their fingers to a keyboard to type a review or testi- monial on your behalf or… gets on the phone or with you in person… would you want to gamble the out- come against people’s improv/laziness/short attention span/fear of writing something dumb?
Stack the odds in your favor by taking all the risk of failure and embarrassment away. Give them an idiot proof path to follow that let’s them tap not just the intellectual reasons they bought, but also the emotional reasons.
Here are five ridiculously simple questions you can ask about a product/service you’re selling that lead to a compelling, transformational, “story” about a positive experience someone had with you vs. a blah, blanket statement.
To illustrate this for you, I’ll demonstrate how I’d bear my testimony for the Droid phone if only Verizon would get on the horn and ask me these questions or put a form into an email and send it to my ass…
1. What happened?
This is the question that begins your journey inside another person’s experience.
One way you can adapt it is to your specific situation is to ask… “What happened when you got your ______?” Or, “What happened after we worked together on your project?”
To get to the real answer, their true perspective, you may have to ask it a few times, especially if they’re space cadets who like to get off topic or… males who like to give one word answers or short single sentence responses, “I used it and it worked good.”
Here’s mine:
“Well, it all started with my account being eligible to get 1 Droid for free if I bought another.
For years I’d put off using any other cell phone except for the shit bird flip ones. Now I can safely say, I’ll never go back. I’d rather have no cell and use a greased up pay phone than go back to that primitive tech- nology.
And I’m not even “Techno Guy”. I just recognize a high quality user experience when it hits me.”
2. How are you feeling about it?
You want to get down to the emotion they have about your product or service. And remember, emotions are always valid, even if they aren’t justified.
Here’s how I feel about my Droid:
“I’m head over heels in love with this little black bastard!!! Why Will These 5 Questions Get You Outstanding… 761
I’m not the kind of guy who always needs to be accessible and who needs to be talking with someone if there’s any kind of quiet on the horizon. So back when I had “JUST” a phone, I didn’t even give a shit if I left the house with it or not, most of the time. With the Droid, I never leave the house without it.
And that’s because it’s sooo much more than phone…
I use mine for my 6 different gmail- email accounts, high quality texting that stays in conversation threads as per person unlike those flip turds that pile everyone’s text on top of each other… a book reader (Recently laughed my ass off reading Chelsea Handler’s full 176 page book “Chelsea, Chelsea, Bang, Bang,” on it)…. an MP3 player (recently finished listening to Tony Robbins entire 9 hour course “The Path to Permanent Weight Loss” on it)… a full on navigation system and internet provider (It recently not only sourced the locations of all of the Whole Foods stores in Las Vegas, Nevada, a city I’m a complete foreigner to, but it also took me turn by turn to the store.) and a it’s serves as my outstanding digital camera, 90% of the time (some of the shots I took with it might actually be showing up in Penthouse Magazine in the future *might tell this story later*). And oh yeah, it’s a FUCKING PHONE TOO that if I use FREE apps that I can easily find and download, I get to talk to people for FREE-ALL OVER THE PLANET using Skype or Vonage!!!
WHEWWW! And I only use about 20% of the phones capability. If I’d quit being lazy I’d find even more ways it could make my life better.
You ask how I feel about my Droid? I feel like if I don’t have it near, like I’m naked. Like I’m out of touch. Like I’m inadequately equipped. Like I’m restricted.”
3. What did you learn?
This makes people look for the benefits you can then speak directly to in any of your ads or promotions…
“With my Droid, I learned that I never want to go without a computer in my pocket ever again. It’s too nice of a luxury to be without. Especially when it’s so affordable.
I’ve learned that I like the idea of all-in-one. I used to trek around with an mp3 player, a camera, AND a phone. Now, I just pack the Droid 95% of the time and I know I’m prepared.
I’ve also learned that I hate traditional texting, you know, punch the number 3 times to get to the last letter of the number. Fuck all that bullshit!”
4. What did you learn about yourself?
This is the question where people can express to you powerful feelings of how your product or service helped shape their identity and their future in a positive way. If that isn’t a core driver that leads to future sales, I don’t know what is…
“My Droid taught me that I don’t have to fear the wave of the future. This phone was a huge learning curve for me but I picked it up FAST!!! And that’s saying a lot because I’m not super technically proficient. 762 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Motorola made the phone knowing that if they were going to convert techno-phobes like me, that they have to make it simple to learn.”
5. How will this help you in the future?
These questions help frame this experience with your product or service as tool that has served them in their life… potentially forever.
“With the Droid popping my Smart Phone cherry I’ve seen what’s possible for the future. While the Droid isn’t perfect it’s helped me imagine a future where I have a pristine camera, a rockin’ mp3/video player, a mini computer and crystal clear phone all for waaaaay less than if I’d bought each individually.”
======
In my perception I just created one of the best personal user testimonials for a Droid on the planet. And I did it with ease. I never got hung up and you fuckin’ better believe that I, someone who writes daily, wouldn’t have come up with something this good with just a blank form in front of me.
And while it was easy, there was still some pauses because after all, I’m talking about a stupid phone here.
Imagine what powerful testimonials/reviews these questions would unleash if used for something that was more than just a luxury.
Try these 5 questions out for yourself. See what happens. And always feel free to report any miraculous results back to me here or at my email address. :-)
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 148
The Master “SECRET” To Productivity
Iget asked this question probably more then anything else. What’s the difference between those that succeed and those that don’t.
I’ve searched for 20 years to the “Secret”.
I’m a bit embarrassed that the answer was staring me in the face all along.
It’s not much of a secret at all.
Do you really think Frank Kern or any other Guru is 10,000 times smarter then you?
I highly doubt it.
Yes, he’s a genius in some areas.
But in the end there is ONE SECRET that stands out above all else.
It’s not a NEW tool or technology.
It’s not a magic potion.
It’s not a Guru Product.
Yet it’s still responsible, in my opinion, for 100% of the success of all those I see succeeding on a high level.
I’ve seen guys that have their Daily To Do List on napkins succeed in their chosen niche or profession as well or better then the guy who has every single “productivity” tool available to man. 764 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So that isn’t the answer.
The answer to our success lies in our ability to get out of our own way.
The answer to your success is your ability to just “Do” rather then wait for the perfect system, ultimate lead generation system, new gadget, or until you have the perfect sales pitch or copy.
Here is the Nerd’s Ultimate Success Formula. • Make a decision you are going to do XX (this could be anything) • Set a deadline for researching X (exact amount of time you are going to allocate) • Break the process down into steps and set a specific time deadline for each step. • When each time segment deadline is reached then you use what you have. No more.
Rigorous, anal, and no compromising commitment to your deadlines regardless of not being perfect is the answer.
Entrepreneurs whom succeed all have this one trait in common.
They make things happen.
They set deadlines and do not miss them.
They know that if something is 50% of what it could be but out in the market it’s much better then the “Perfect” product on the shelf waiting for the finishing touches that never makes it anywhere.
I have a close friend whom is an absolute Genius at what he does.
Yet he rarely accomplishes anything near his potential because he has so many rules for how things “MUST” be in order for his product to get out the door.
His rules stop him from actually accomplishing anything.
Yet his talent level is 5 – 10 times that of 99% of those that do exactly what he does.
So from now on give yourself permission to just be “OK”.
You do not need to be perfect.
You do not have to have THE BEST strategy.
Decide to do something.
Set Deadlines. The Master “SECRET” To Productivity 765
Take Action.
Do this over and over again and you will eve naturally have all the success you want.
Or you can continue to wait for the RIGHT answer and achieve nothing.
That’s it for my Rant today.
Go do something and share some stories below. CHAPTER 149
How To Bond With Your Customers Like You Never Thought Possible. The Power Of Authenticity!!
Authenticity Rocks! Do this one thing with your customers and you will stand head and shoulders above the others in your Niche.
Why?
Because everyone craves true genuine connection.
Why do you think Facebook is so dang successful?
It’s also human nature to want to fit in.
When you stay centered and anchored to whom you are your customers and clients will bond with you in a way not possible without doing so.
Most people do not have the “Balls” to be real.
Share your Ups and Downs.
Tell the story of going broke. Not just the “I made a million” today story.
Tell the story of cheating on your diet. Not just the “I lost 32 pounds this month”.
Tell about fighting with your significant other. Not just the “I have the greatest relationship on earth” story.
Being this open, direct, and transparent will create a bond with your market that usually leads to more sales and prosperity. How To Bond With Your Customers Like You… 767
• When talking with your customers talk in First Person.
Be you….
Talk like you talk everyday.
Don’t be uptight and try to be perfect.
Not being you will ultimately lead to less connection. • Be Simplistic
Do not Talk Down to your market.
Don’t be academic unless that’s who you are and what your market wants to hear.
Make things as “Homer Simpson” as possible.
Speak and write in a way that does not require a Google Research session to understand what it is that you are teaching. • For Crying Out Loud….Be Useful!!
I hear this all the time!
“But if I give to much away then nobody will buy anything”
Bullish…….!!!!
In my experience it’s the exact opposite.
Nothing will Brand you in your market more then making sure that whatever you write, product, and ulti- mately sell is USEFUL.
So next time before you hit the send button take a breath and make sure you aren’t holding anything back.
Give it to them.
Help.
Be Authentic! CHAPTER 150
Note From Eben Pagan’s Modern Marketing Mastery Seminar - Part One
Ashort while ago Eben Pagan did a Private Marketing Seminar. It was called Modern Marketing Mastery. Here are the notes from Session One of Four.
Hope you enjoy. Let me know in the comments section below. ______
Understanding the perspective of the other person, understand how they think, understand the words they use to describe things, and then communicate with them using THEIR favorite communication not YOUR favorite communication.
Start listening behind the words, start listening for what people are really saying - listening for their emo- tional drives, their motivations, their fears, their frustrations, their wants, where they’re trying to go…being understood and someone who really wants to understand…offering the products/services that help them get the results they’re looking for
The best products/services market themselves…people are buying buying a result, an outcome, delivery from some pain/anxiety their feeling…product/service is a means to an end they’re seeking…talk about the product/service VS “I understand the outcome you’re trying to achieve, I understand your fear/frustration/ pain, I understand what you want to be delivered from - and I’ve created something that if you use this it will deliver you, it will get you to here, it’s a means’ …and keep talking about them and their needs and how your product will deliver what they want. It’s not about you and your product, it’s about them and the out- come that they’re seeking. Until you get that you must stop talking about how great you and your product are/is, and until you get that you must start talking about them and their needs and the results or outcome they want or benefit they’re seeking, you’ll be banging your head against a wall. Note From Eben Pagan’s Modern Marketing… 769
Ultimately you build the marketing INTO the product/service. So when they see the product/service, on it’s face they see it’s what they need to solve their problem. Then marketing and selling becomes easier as all you’re saying is “I understand your needs and this is what will deliver the result you’re looking for”
Innovation - something that’s new, better, and different BUT ALSO something that solves a problem/ delivers a result/gets a customer the outcome they want that wasn’t available previously Marketing - connecting with those people and showing them you have stuff that solves their problems, explaining it, and helping them to buy it
MARKETING AND INNOVATION ARE ALL THAT MATTER - you can hire people for the rest of the stuff
…just because you did something doesn’t mean you deserve the money
Becoming a powerful marketer that then takes what they’ve learned about marketing, psychology, under- standing the customer and uses that to fuel innovation. Because the expert marketer that innovates creates innovations people want to buy because the marketings built right in.
Marketing russian roulette 1. copying everything from others 2. knowing what you like and creating original things you like …trying to copy others and create your own marketing and not knowing WHY you’re doing what you’re doing and copying blindly means not having a long term strategy that will get you anywhere…
…it’s not about getting your name out there, it’s about getting their name in here…yelling your name from a mountaintop is not a useful startup strategy… getting their name in here is about: finding your audience, finding your market, get infront of them, under- stand their needs, and then communicate clearly that your product/service/the thing that you offer will deliver them to the promise land will help them get the result/the outcome/the delivery from the fear the anxiety the pain they seek at a fair price and you’ll make an offer to do it.
(sidenote algorithm: Find -> Understand -> Found -> Understood -> Fair Offer -> Transfer)
MARKETING IS ABOUT CONVERSION, NOT ABOUT COMMUNICATION
You’re not trying to communicate with people, you’re trying to get them to come in and convert and give you money in exchange for what it is you’re trying to sell
Your Market, Your Model, Your Strategy…these are more important than things like the words written at the top of your ad
What is your market? The people you sell stuff to/The target market + Products/services you sell 770 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Put those together you got people that need stuff and stuff they need and they’re buying it, and that creates a market. Narrowing your focus, creating a category, dominating your niche - very important elements, you have to understand your market
Your Strategy? Your psychological approach. It’s not what you’re doing but how you’re doing it. The methodology, the philosophy you’re using to get there. Are you the best in your market? The cheapest? The unique new solu- tion that wasn’t available before? Being all things to all people is a fundamental mistake. Talking to everyone except the person that needs or wants our product the most and talking just to them.
Your Model? How all the puzzle pieces fit together. It’s the marketing channel you market through (i.e. print, TV), how you generate a lead or a prospect, how you convert it to a sale, how you follow up, how you upsell someone to the next product/service while they’re purchasing, all these steps in a spreadsheet in a real model with metrics so you can see how they affect each other and how they influence each other, and how if you grow it will scale and how the numbers will change - and as you grow putting these together in a model you can see a diagram of and show how they all affect each other and how you pour all the leads in the top how they all come out and how the money comes out and how the ROI looks so you have a business.
Some models?
-Retail distribution (you create the product you find the distributors retail outlets you got to them and say “sell this thing and I’ll support it with my marketing and I’ll give you the product and you got a lot of foot traffic and you got the customers so we’ll put it there”) -Subscription (i.e. magazines, book of the month - more of a long term model trying to get someone into the beginning and get them to subscribe so you can sell them many things with one sale) -Infomercial models (not really about selling the thing on the infomercial as it’s just a loss leader designed to get you to call cause you’re hot to buy and then they sell you a bunch of other things i.e. don lapre $100 mil not making money from the toolkit but upselling to merchant accounts and biz ops etc) -Dell computer model (get lead to come to website with all your lead gen stuff and person starts build their dream computer and selecting all the parts and psychologically in the process they weave themselves into it and they start to own this thing that they’re creating and by the time you get to the end you’ve built this computer you want and you got it all ready and you can see it and imagine it and say ‘well I got to buy it’) -Windows OS model (they find a distributor like Dell that sells millions of computers they make wholesale deals with them to put windows on their computer that is going out the door and they do that for several years and the next thing you know everyone is using that OS and everyone starts upgrading to get new ver- sions and new software won’t run on the old versions and rather than buying a new version they buy a whole new computer that already has the new version of windows and it’s a virtuous cycle - IT’S A MAR- KETING MODEL) -Affiliate marketing (sell something, allow tens of thousands to be distributors and they drive leads that buy it, cut cheque to them, get third party tracking and measuring and paying the cheques and doing the whole thing, and you just get a report) Note From Eben Pagan’s Modern Marketing… 771
-Social Networking/Social Media (places people come to do virtually what they used to do in the real world virtualizing human interaction, and they can interact with your business in all sorts of ways)
The best models typically have 1 thing in common: They’re not trying to sell 1 thing in 1 shot. There’s upsells, there’s backend, there’s continuity, there are other products, there’s a long term life time value model.
Marketing is not “I’m going to create a great ad and it’ll make all the money for me”, but marketing is “building a long term relationship with a prospect and selling them one thing after another after another after another to help them get the results they’re looking for”
Brand based marketing Direct response marketing Hope based marketing
…figure out what people want to buy and give a little of what they want to buy/result they want, give that little bit away for free, and have the next part something they buy…
Strategies:
* Be the best: highest quality, flawless experience, high status, conspicuous consumption, pride of spending, image, you are the gold standard (i.e. rolex, apple, ferrari, 4 seasons, whole foods market, virgin atlantic) … you premium price/high profits as you have that whole segment to yourself and people will pay a lot more, you become visible to highest spending customers quickly and you can corner the market - but perfection is expected and your competing with the experience those other brands deliver and expensive to deliver the gold standard premium experience
* The Cheapest/Best Value: lowest cost, best value (i.e. walmart with exploiting technology to attain effi- ciencies and just being better faster more on top of their game, southwest, home depot, staples, mcdonalds, dell) if you can achieve high volume and dominate the market then the volume can make huge amounts of money, it’s a no brainer strategy that you can yell from the treetops and you will attract people, and it’s easy for your company and team as you just tell them ‘we need the lowest price that’s how we stay in business’ so it keeps you aligned - but it’s a tricky game that if you compete on price and someone shows up and can do it at a better price your margin is thin and will be hard to compete (i.e. china wiping out sectors of industry i.e. importing steel even with all shipping costs is still cheaper from china than here) big companies that own the market and don’t want you taking any doing 1000x the business you’re doing can tweak the prices a bit and make it painful for you
* The New Unique Solution/The New Category: you create this new category not out in reality but in the mind of the prospect and you’re going to become a new niche expert as you will create the niche and then become an expert in it, this is the land of zero competition and you can set your own prices because when you’re the only one offering the product as far as the prospect is concerned then they need to pay what is reasonable to pay and if you can persuade them you have the value then you can persuade them it’s worth 772 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One paying whatever you want them paying…if it’s a hit you can parlay and develop it into “the best” strategy cause you created the category and you can morph or evolve into the owner of the market (i.e. Ipod, Jamba juice, myspace, google, altitude, double your dating) - google didn’t create the search engine category? IN THE MINDS OF ALL THE PEOPLE THAT USE IT, THEY DID. Who invented the search engine? Ask the average person and they say ‘google’. Did Apple invent the Mp3 player or portable Ipod? No. Do you think most people that own them think they did? Yes. Why? BECAUSE THEY CREATED A NEW CATEGORY IN THE MIND OF THE PROSPECT. The challenge here is it requires you spending time to get to know your customers, finding out where they have a pain problem frustration a result they want to achieve, that they don’t feel like they have any options - and then you can address that with a new niche you can create. This strategy allows you to compete with big well funded players. It allows you to jump in, charge premium prices, and create your own category. Competitors lump you in with everything else, but as far as the cus- tomers are concerned the customers are getting something new different and better. The downside of this is it requires legwork, thinking, and experimentation. If you’re creating something new, it means you’re blazing your own trail, your on path no one has taken. You’re not walking down the trail a lot of animals have taken for 100s of years, you’ve got to find your own way.
Marketing Channels: the frequencies, the wavelengths, the pipes you’re going to use to reach a mass audi- ence. You’re going to have to reach a lot of people and use some mass marketing channel to do that.
* Cold marketing/Canvassing: outbound telemarketing, door to door * Blind direct mail: mail to a zip code * Traditional mass marketing/media: buying inclusion, being included with the broadcast message that’s going out to a lot of people, buying a little ad in the newyork times (it’s going out to millions of people and you know you’re going to get included and ride along) Another example might be placing an advertising on a show a million people watch - you know it’s getting to a million people, you’re just going to get in there and jump infront of them…another is a banner ad placed on a mass media site, they’ve a million people and you know it and your banner is going to show up infront of a lot of people…Broadcast… just sending it out there, PR, trade shows (lots of traffic and hoping you meet your prospect), basic affiliate marketing where you make a product and just put it on an affiliate network and hope a bunch of people pick it up, Maybe email such as coreg databases with millions of people and someone just broadcasts your message to them. All MASS MARKETING. The idea is to ride along with someone elses message and hope your prospect sees you.
* “Existing Customer Relationships Of Others” Channel: can also be a broadcast where you’re paying for inclusion or paying to be delivered, but instead of just going out to the world with a little bit of targeting, now you’re going in with some endorsement and some trust and there’s an assumed relationship in some way…an example might be an endorsed marketing piece (this is probably the strongest version of this) where you find someone who has a successful company has a lot of customers has a good relationship with their customers and a lot of trust and you say “Hey I sell something that would be complimentary to your product or service, will you send all of your customers a communication that tells them about me and says that I’m great and recommend them to buy from me?” so that’s like riding in on an existing customer rela- tionship…some bundled offers can be this too like a lot of computer manufactures bundled pieces of soft- Note From Eben Pagan’s Modern Marketing… 773
ware on the computer and they say ‘if you buy the computer we throw in all this software’ and the person selling that software kind of got bundled in there and are now also selling their product through an existing customer relationship channel riding in on the buying channel…targeted DM to a rented customer list, it’s someone that bought something like/related to what you’re selling you know they’re a buyer and so you’re coming in through that channel…retail - someones in there buying stuff and they can buy your thing… search marketing, either PPC or SEO, the person there is a ‘customer’ of the search engine using it to do something that can be just as powerful as buying which is typing in search phrases meaning they’re looking for the thing, so in a way you’re riding in with someone who has interest in the topic with search mar- keting…Endorsed Relationships the most powerful of these
* One to One Marketing: ‘to motivate or incentivize an individual to refer or sell others’, this might be a network marketing model or a work of mouth or viral model, the internet has made the viral model easier than ever but very few can do it…On word of mouth marketing: “No one knows how to do it on purpose” - David Ogilvy. Rely on response based marketing where you go out and find good qualified prospects, sharing your offer, and asking them to convert.
There are a ton of ways to skin a cat.
Start with a high probability model: response based marketing/a DM model…learn that, develop that, potentially start with targeted online advertising or endorsed relationships and spend a little bit of money and really see whether or not the offer works, maybe use search marketing or online affiliate marketing - things where you’re really able to measure and pay for results - and if you can make those work, you can then go on to tackle the bigger beasts. If you can’t make those work, you’ll probably have a hard time making the sophistocated abstract and complex models work. So start with response oriented direct mar- keting.
2 Faces of Marketing:
* External Face (lead gen, advertising, going out and finding the people that might be interested in your prod/serv and getting their attention and getting them to look at what it is you have) * Internal Face (conversion, once you have their attention looking at your stuff, then connecting bonding communicating the value of your prod/serv and converting them to a sale) 2 teams handle each - one if the lead acquisition team trying to get people to come in, and conversion team figures out what to do with them from then on in terms of offering them products helping them to achieve what they want to achieve in the right sequence that will get the most value to the customer and thus the most value to you
YOU BREAK THESE INTO 2 SO THAT YOU DON’T GO INTO SALES MODE WITH A PERSON WHO HASN’T GOTTEN TO KNOW YOU AT ALL AND DOESN’T KNOW, LIKE, OR TRUST YOU AND YOU’RE ALREADY TRYING TO SELL THEM. Don’t sell too soon, so you see how to link the 2 together.
Testing and Optimization: 774 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Expect 80% of your advertising and marketing tests to fail, meaning they don’t bring in enough sales to justify continuing. “IN MARKETING WE’RE NOT TRYING TO WIN A COIN FLIP, WE’RE DRILLING FOR OIL.” We can afford to try alot of test wells because we know that when we find a good one it’s going to be worth A LOT to us. So when you find that right combination of the right strategy, the right channel, the right marketing piece, the right conversion, the right upsell, the right backend…when you find that right combination and you find a model that works that you can then start tweaking and optimizing - THAT is when you have something that’s really really valuable. That’s when you have a marketing system that works, that’s when you have a marketing model that works. SO USE THE MATERIAL IN THIS PROGRAM TO MAKE A LOT OF MARKETING TESTS. Keep the things that work, throw away the things that don’t, don’t get too attached to anything, and remember: YOU’RE DRILLING FOR OIL.
What is Marketing? THE PROMISE OF FULFILLMENT OF THE NEED THE CUSTOMER HAS INCLUDING AN ACTION STEP IN THERE SO THE CUSTOMER CAN TAKE ACTION AND GET THEIR NEED FULFILLED AT A PRICE THAT MAKES SENSE.
10 Response Marketing Commandments: 1. ‘Show me I am in the right place immediately by giving me what I’m looking for’ - at a gut level 2. ‘Know the emotional hot buttons or pain points that are important to me and keep saying them over and over and relating EVERYTHING to those points and the outcome/result that I want/am looking for’ - crit- ical to line up the beginning of the communication, middle of the communication, and end of the commu- nication when you ask a prospect to take action, they have to be lined up, they have to be congruent with each other 3. ‘Talk to me in a personal one-to-one conversational tone and show me that you get me’ how? by being specific, getting right to the point and not wasting words 4. ‘Design everything in a way that’s easy and intuitive for me to understand and comprehend’ in a way that naturally evokes confidence and trust at some level 5. ‘leave me better off than I was when I arrived by giving me something I can use to get closer to my desired result NOW’ get them one step closer to the result they want 6. ‘help me to feel that you are trustworthy’ that you’re authentic, that you’re authoritative, by sharing the good the bad the ugly, be real with me, and help me feel you are trustworthy, it’s an emotion I want to feel it help me feel the emotion of trust 7. ‘help me get the feeling that I have discovered a wonderful secret personal resource and now I have a go- to advantage I can go to when I’m in need’ and can access whenever I need to 8. ‘tell me your story of how you/your product/your service came to be in a way that resonates with me on a personal individual level’ and in your story tell me about your passion for your prod/serv, tell me about your passion for helping me as a person 9. ‘tell me EXACTLY what I need to do in order to take the next step to get the result that I want’ and further translate or convert your methods into a currency that I can understand on an intuitive level, con- vert it into a currency that I understand Note From Eben Pagan’s Modern Marketing… 775
10. ‘take away my risk or better yet turn it around so that you as the business owner have more of it than me’ take away all my risk or better turn it around so you have it and not me
“what are all these people trying to accomplish?” “what’s in common?” i.e. maybe business people who are also interested in spirituality THUS you may ask “hmm are there any online communities where business people into spirituality share enlightened business concepts?” and fig- uring out who these people are you may stumble across that and ask “how do we communicate with impact so that when one of those people sees our community or website ‘this is for business people who are also into spirituality’ and they go ‘oooh interesting that’s kind of the group I want to be in’ and then you go in and figure out people who are business people who are also enlightened spiritual oriented people what are their needs, fears, irrational desires, motives, problems they’re trying to solve and then base your com- munity on addressing those top 3 or 5 harddriving emotional needs and focus on narrowly what they’re trying to accomplish so when they show up you can show them exactly what they’re looking to get, you have to know the specific needs of the people by asking them.
Let me know what you think below and I’ll post part two soon… CHAPTER 151
The Instant Way To Get IN The Conversation Your Customers Are Having…
f you haven’t been hiding under a rock lately then you are probably aware that one of the newest Guru I“Words” is Tribe.
What is this thing they call tribes?
To put it simply it’s our Niche. It’s the group of people who are just like us whom we want to do business with.
It’s our own little “Hells Angels” bicycle club.
However, until the last few years it wasn’t as easy to find people that were in the same Tribe we wanted to be in.
Today I’m going to share wit you a simple way to find as many people as you’d like to be in your little tribe.
How?
Use Twitter….
Twitter has changed everything. Today, right now, you can have a conversation with just about anyone in the world through this little conversation tool.
It’s powerful if used correctly.
Here is a few tactics for start engaging people in your Niche and Tribe right now.
Go to Twitter Pulse and type in the keywords you are looking for.
If you are looking for Eskimos that have foot fetishes. The Instant Way To Get IN The Conversation… 777
Well, type it in and I’m sure you’ll find some Friends to start chatting with right now.
Whatever Niche you are or want to service is just waiting for you to start talking with them.
Set it up so that you are notified when that keyword is mentioned.
Then start engaging and following those folks.
It’s an easy way to get “In” the conversation and start building a list.
Use Twitter Directories.
Directories like We follow and wallow are becoming very popular.
You can immediately go list yourself and start following people in your niche.
Begin to follow those people in your Niche that have large amounts of followers.
You can learn from what they are doing and you can also follow their followers.
So there you have it….
Get in the conversation in your market right now and begin to build your little Tribe as well.
Talk Soon.
Chief Nerd CHAPTER 152
Marketing Lesson’s Learned From a Scary Movie…
Hello, I’ve got a few words of wisdom I’d like to share with you today.
As I get older I constantly have to remind myself that I don’t “Know” anything.
The market is always the boss.
Common sense isn’t always right.
One of those little chunks of wisdom is to Remember Who Your Customer Is….
This first lesson hit me after I was bored the other night at home and stumbled across an old DVD of Scary Movie.
Now If you don’t know what this movie is then it’s ok.
It just means you’re out of touch with Pre-Teens and Teenagers these last 10 years.
Before you think I know it all.
Let me remind you that I only put this movie in because I had just devoured everything else I had during my recovery period after my health scare.
Quickly; This movie is a spoof of the incredibly popular Teenage horror flicks that were coming out every 6 months the last 10 years.
They take exact scenes from other “Scary Movies” and remake them in a funny way. Marketing Lesson’s Learned From a Scary… 779
Kid’s, I’m told, laugh their asses off at this stuff and go to see the movie on average of 2.2 times.
Take a look at this.
SCREAM #1 (source-IMDB)
SCREAM #2 (source-IMDB)
SCREAM #3 (source-IMDB)
SCREAM #4 (source-IMDB)
Four Movies and 400 Million Dollars Later…
I thought the movie was stupid…but who am I?
So HERE IS THE REVEALING PART!!
After watching this movie I went to IMDB.com and researched the old reviews.
Guess what I found?
Lot’s of this:
Los Angeles Times
Reviewed by: Jan Stuart
30
Isn’t it amazing to see just how low some people will stoop if you pay them enough?
When you think of Movie Reviewers what or whom do you think of?
My experience has been that they are a bunch of middle aged, educated, folk who don’t have a clue what the younger generation wants.
I’m guessing the producers of Scary Movie don’t give one shit about Jan’s review.
I’d say they are laughing all the way to the bank.
Why?
BECAUSE THEY KNOW THIER MARKET….Jan doesn’t. 780 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Teenagers and those in their early twenties get this humor.
Old fogies like me may not.
So next time YOU think you know your market don’t be so damn sure.
ASK your customers and clients.
Use polls, surveys, whatever it takes..
DO NOT ASSUME ANYTHING.
As a matter of fact I’ve been getting a few emails trickle in that have alerted me to the fact that I may not KNOW what you guys really want.
It turns out alot of you are getting fed up with the GURU’s and are now looking at those fringe “B” IM Players that are providing some Kick Ass Value at decent prices.
I’m going to listen and you’ll see me highlight some of those type programs real soon.
So their ya have it Nerd Fan’s ..
Another lesson that I hope you USE!
Don’t rest on your laurels and think you KNOW anything.
Stay curious and motivated. Let your customers know you care. Listen.
Go ahead and make a comment below.
Talk Soon
Chief Nerd CHAPTER 153
5 Things You Must Do To Build And Then Enhance A Unique Relationship With Your Clients!!!
Hey you, It’s #2.
Are you loving your clients and customers the way they want to be loved?
This is a very important question to address because as Gary Chapman, the author of “The 5 Love Lan- guages: The secret to love that lasts”, explains, not everyone feels love from the same gestures that you do.
Now of course we aren’t trying to romance our prospects and customers into the bedroom (unless of course, you’re running a brothel/escort service) but as you’ll see, these languages transition smoothly into maximizing your relationships with the your fans.
Here are the 5 Love Languages… 1. 2. Gifts That Communicate Love (not about cost)… 3. Quality Time 4. Acts of Service 5. Words of Affirmation 6. Touch in a Way That Communicates Love
Aren’t you relieved that these languages are so simple? Simple yet often ignored.
Now while Gary is teaching people how to get laid more, worshipped by their significant other and yelled at less in their relationships/marriages, we as business people can use these same 5 Love Languages to win the devotion of the people responsible for keeping the lights on, the car payments paid and the beer flowing like wine… our beloved customers/clients… the single most valuable asset we have in our businesses. 782 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Why Mastering These Love Languages Is Important to Your Business
I think we can both agree that a client who loves you is always more fun to work with, more appreciative of what you do for them and more profitable.
All three of these are a plus in a world where the majority of people attract or inspire behavior through their average/poor service, customer experiences they can’t stand. Here’s what the infamous Bill Glazer of Glazer/Kennedy has to say about the topic of connecting with your list…
What you want to do is build a strong emotional bond. A bond so strong your clients almost feel like family.
In today’s fast-paced cold world, if you make a client feel special, most will stay with you and refer. Some will be more loyal than you could ever believe. But since you are busy in your business, or should be, I do not recommend spending a lot of extra time with clients to achieve this bond. The best way to create fertile ground with your clients is constant and consistent contact.
In fact, this IS the #1 most common element that my most successful Members possess. They constantly and consistently communicate with their clients by using various media such as direct mail, voice broadcast, live outbound call, email, loyalty program communications, etc. This strategy of coming at your client in multiple different formats, on a regular basis, adopted and adhered to, taps into the 5 love languages. But it almost seems to me like they’re achieving most of this outcome by accident through unconscious competence. Here’s the way to do it on purpose…
How You Can Easily Use The 5 Love Languages In The Bidniz World
First we must keep in mind this fun little factoid:
If You Crunch The Data, You’ll Find That Approximately 20% of Your List, Gives You Approximately 80% of Your Profits.
This means that a rather small portion of the people you do business with are the ones you want to bend over backwards to keep happy. They’re the people who spend the most, most often.
The reason I bring this up now is because one of these Love Languages, you might only be able to fully extended to this the very top tier of your list if you sell globally. And you want to find ways to do that for these people, especially if they’ve pointed out to you that #5 - Touch in way that communicates love, is what motors their boat.
If you’ve got a platinum mastermind group, you’d be brain dead to not go to Amazon or to your local book- store and pick up a copy of this book and put together an email that has Gary’s test inside of it and ask them to fill it out and get it back to you. 5 Things You Must Do To Build And Then… 783
This way you’ll ABSOLUTELY be able to masterfully pluck their heart strings in a way that sings to their soul instead of lucking out every once in a while and hitting a note right.
EVERY ONE of your customer’s file should have this detail inside, but at the very least you want to know what the primary language of the top 20% of your list. And as you’ll see, it’s not gonna be brain surgery to deploy marketing activities/gestures that through variety, are sure to meet at least one of the 5 languages every so often in your cycle.
I’ll demonstrate this with an examples of brick and mortar locations and information marketing businesses selling a system and coaching to people who want to learn their secrets of success…
1. Gifts That Communicate Love…
For some people, if you don’t occasionally gift them with presents that they believe are tokens of your grati- tude or a way to cherish them, they won’t feel like you care and you’ll always have a .
The good news here is that what Gary has found is that just because a gift is required, it doesn’t mean small, inexpensive gifts aren’t appreciated. Bill Glazer recommends separating your client list into three categories: A, B and C.
“A” clients are your most valuable clients. “B” is next in line and then “C.” think you should send all your clients unsolicited gifts from time to time… but… “A” clients should get special attention.
What’s also a plus is that it’s very possible for you to get these gifts for little to no cost by partnering with/ sharing/endorsing another business to get. This idea made me think of how when the Chief went to Clayton Makepeace’s very first seminar, he was greeted with a ginormous bag of gifts.
But 2 of the most memorable were 2 hard bound books. One was a copy of “Breakthrough Advertising” by Eugene Schwartz and the other was “Secrets of Successful Direct Mail” by Dick Benson.
This was right around the time when Boardroom started publishing them again. What made these gifts noteworthy was the fact that for the longest time you couldn’t just get them at the bookstore AND that at one point they were out of print and copies were selling on Ebay for over $100.
Now I know that Clayton didn’t pay full price for books if he paid anything at all and I know that cost to Boardroom was not much. But it sure in the hell made an impression on the crowd.
One rule of thumb though with gifts, is that physical, something you can hold in your hands, has way more impact than something digital that you send across the interwebz.
And sending junk food like brownies or cupcakes from a local bakery, is a guaranteed success. Even if the person can’t eat junk food, they’re no more than a stones throw from someone who can and is more than willing to help out with their dilemma. :-) 784 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
2. Quality Time
In personal relationships if you don’t spend 1 on 1 quality time with your lover, where you’re 100% present with them, they don’t feel like you love them. You can pretty much neglect the other 4 languages but if they’re not getting this from you, there’s gonna be nagging and distance like you wouldn’t believe.
Now of course, in business people won’t come out and bug you about this. They’ll just leave if someone else can fulfill this need for access for them.
In the bricks and mortar world think about how a person who is driven by this language would be the best candidate for 1 on 1 sessions with a personal trainer at a gym or massage parlor or a hair salon. A “Quality Time” driven person has to be their dream sale.
In somewhere like a restaurant or a clothing store, this quality time comes in the form of the 5-10-15 minute conversation you or your super star salesperson has with them one on one about their hobbies or the family or whatever lights them up.
It gives you the perfect opportunity to work through Harvey MacKay’s 66 questions that lets your clients become friendly with you and open up to you, more than almost anyone else they do business with.
Well, what if I sell info online?
I’m glad you asked.
The person that comes to mind when I think of how to make this work in the cyber world is the Kid Dyna- mite – Jason Fladlien. It seems to me that at least once a week he gets on the phone and is doing a webinar, where he’s GIFTING people top notch info WHILE spending time at the end of the call taking questions from buyers and prospects giving them a little taste of that intimate one on one that lets them get a fix until his next call or… until they flip and buy personal consulting with them which allows them to REALLY meet their need for quality time.
This is one of the main reasons every info-marketer should offer coaching. There’s always a segment of your audience willing to pay and who wired to be unfulfilled unless they can have this kind of access to you.
3. Acts of Service
This is the whole, “Awwe you did all of THIS for ME!” factor. Washing someone’s car, cooking for them
Think of how Dan Kennedy does this with his top tier clients.
He talks about how he’ll be reading a magazine and see an article in Fortune about how one business is using a specific technique to succeed and his mind is always looking for ways to adapt ideas from one niche to another so he’ll cut the article out and mail it to one his clients and write a quick note on post it note saying, “I thought you’d be able to use this idea in your business.” 5 Things You Must Do To Build And Then… 785
Well, in a world of a person who receives almost no personalized mail, let alone personalized mail from someone they admire, this is HUGE.
How about online?
This is where having a kick ass blog can be extremely valuable.
If your blog revolves around answering the questions of your fans, THIS is an act of service, especially if you find that a bunch of people are asking the same question.
Another way to do this is in Email. Eben Pagan, through his female and male dating sites is an absolute master at doing this. Every one of his emails is selling something but just about every one of them is at least 5 pages, printed out on paper, of him doing Q&A and giving great, in-depth answers to the questions.
I can’t tell you how useful I found the information, even though it had nothing to do with a specific ques- tion I had asked. Some of the questions I’d never even thought to ask and then there’s the part of me that felt dumb for asking. I KNOW for a fact this was one of the reasons I ended up buying from him.
4. Words of Affirmation
For some people they feel most assured of your love when you encourage them.
One person once again who’s marvelous at doing this with his top tier clients is Dan Kennedy. If you get his newsletter he makes it a point to applaud marketing pieces submitted to him by clients. He talks about what he loves about what they produced and what great results were produced because they paid attention to him and took action.
I can’t imagine being one of those clients and not feeling all warm and fuzzy inside getting an ‘Atta Boy’ from the master himself. He pretty much does the same thing with his info summit when he has his “Info- Marketer” of the year contest. But think about how much more magnified this is.
In this contest people submit their winning marketing campaigns and Bill and Dan decide out of all the stuff received, who will compete. Then each person who made the cut, usually 6-8 people, go in front of the room and show and tell about their work of art.
So, if a person is wired to feel loved from words of affirmation, they get it not only from the guru’s Dan and Bill, but also from guru’s and other attendees in the audience that talk to them at the bar, on breaks, after the event, for possibly YEARS TO COME, “Hey, I say you at the Info summit back in 2007 when you were showing off your toilet seat campaign! Man was that a great idea!!! I used it and got like a 25% response rate!!! THANK YOU!”
See what I mean? 786 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
How can you encourage and affirm the worth of the people who support you in the fashion you’ve grown accustomed to?
5. Touch in a Way That Communicates Love
Some people only feel that you love them when you physically touch them in a way that says love to them.
And of course, if this were limited strictly to sexual petting, people couldn’t get this need met with 99% of people they know who aren’t their lovers. So yes, there is hope for us, using this in our chosen professions. But like I’ve mentioned before, you’ve got to have this people in front of you to accomplish this which is why if you do have the top 20% of your clients giving you money from all over the world, that you herd them into a room, together where you can put your hands all over them. Hahaha
Of course, our touching in a professional environment is limited but I can’t tell you, as a man, how valuable I found shaking Tony Robbins hand to be. It was once, it was on stage, and there were a bunch of people lined up to do it who, like me, were signed up to go to his Mastery Program.
A hand shake. It was more than enough touch for me. Shit, I’ll always remember it.
For women, this comes easy and is varied. Lots of women find it easy to be touchy feely and their intuition tells them how to do it just right with hugging, kissing on the cheek, touching of the arm, on and on. And they’re smooth at doing it with both sexes.
This is one that you have to be the judge on, person by person, but it’s definitely one that carries power and not to be neglected.
So there you have it. The Five Love Languages and a few ideas of how to use them to woo your clients.
If you have any to add, please feel free to tell me about them below in the comments.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
If you’re running a small local, bricks and mortar business this onewon’t be all that difficult to pull off. CHAPTER 154
How To Earn The Right To Sell Something To Your Customers
Iwas recently asked by a potential consulting client why his product wasn’t selling. He had world class copy.
He had a great product.
He had multiple other components of what seemed to be a home run.
Yet he was missing the one key ingredient that drives sales.
And this ingredient is becoming more and more important in this New Social World we are living in.
Below is some notes I took from a recent Dan Kennedy/Bill Glazer Phone mastermind call.
YOU HAVE TO EARN THE RIGHT TO SELL! • You need to “Sell Money at a Discount” by providing Massive Value.
It’s important that you always be thinking about Value when you are going to sell something to your cus- tomers.
This doesn’t just start when your product is ready.
This starts with your emails, blog posts, and any other interaction.
Be known as the guy or girl in your market that provided massive value all the time. • The Proper Prospect and Customer (Your Herd)
When doing your lead generation, writing blog posts, and anything else you do to attract your potential customers remember to be authentic. 788 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Make sure the prospect has a clear understanding of exactly what you do and maybe make it a little harder for them to be part of your Tribe.
Why?
Because the better qualified and connected your customers are to you and what you do the more they will buy.
Kennedy call this message to market to customer match.
Be clear in your marketing and positioning. • Develop and Deepen the Relationship.
The sell should be the start of the relationship.
Always be looking for ways to connect and bond with your customers.
We can do this through involvement mechanisms such as polls, surveys, contests, and blog commenting.
And never forget that the easiest way to have an instant relationship with someone is through transference.
Joint Ventures and Affiliate Marketing allows you to gain a relationship with someone overnight. • Be Influential
This is the “Secret” to being head and shoulders above everyone else.
Now that you have the relationship don’t just be another some.
Write and market in a way that influences your customers to think about their business and lives so that you become an expert in their minds.
More to come on how to do these things.
And I want to end by saying Thank You (my Nerd Nation Friends) for allowing me to share with you here on this blog.
Thank you for being my friends here in this Virtual World we hang out.
You Rock!!
Chief Nerd CHAPTER 155
The Difference Between Knowledge and Wisdom CHAPTER 156
It is better to ask and appear ignorant than to remain ignorant
Hey You, It’s #2.
In the last 100 years we’ve figured out that there is no matter.
You get down to the smallest level, it all turns into energy. Energy and matter are the same. They’re com- patible with each other.
They’re on some big spectrum or continuum or something.
There is no “A” or “Not A”. Aristotle’s whole logic thing, “It either is or it isn’t” got us from where we were to where we are but there’s another paradigm. We’ve got uncertainty principles and probabilities, all this stuff. We don’t know anymore.
Einstein came up with the elegant idea of relativity, which is, everything looks different depending on your perspective. You, on the street looking up at the skyscraper is whole different perspective than if you were 5,000 feet tall looking at it.
There are only perspectives and all perspectives are partial. Repeat. There are only perspectives and all perspectives are partial. Every perspective that you have, is partial. And now add to it that every perspec- tive is changing at all times.
So, there are only perspectives, all perspectives are partial and all perspectives are changing.
It’s only recently been brought to my attention to make this my primary way of living. So, instead of saying, “I believe,” I’ve been working to replace that with, “My perspective right now is…” or “The way I see it at this moment is…” It is better to ask and appear ignorant… 791
This is rough for most people because they don’t want to live in a world where things aren’t fixed and defi- nite, where things aren’t good, bad and right and wrong. But good, bad and right and wrong don’t exist. They were just ideas anyway…
Everything’s relative, we only have perspectives, all perspectives are partial to what you’ve experienced as a human and all perspectives are changing at any given time.
If you can wake up to the reality that other people see things from a different perspective you can make a lot of progress.
Here’s an example of striving to understand another person’s perspective played out in a fictional conversation between my favorite character developed by the late, great, Robert Parker, from his Spenser novel series. The main character is a Private Investigator and much more as you’ll soon discover.
This is from his book, “A Savage Place” and the gist of the story is that Spenser has been hired to protect a news reporter who’s received death threats because she’s making waves while trying to get the story on how the mob has infiltrated a movie studio and is laundering money through it.
The setting here is a conversation between Spenser and Candy Sloan, the news reporter, over drinks. Roll the clip…
“Tell me about yourself, Spenser.”
“I was born in a trunk,” I said, “in the Princess Theatre in Pocatello Idaho.”
“I know it’s a corny question, but it’s still a real one. What are you like? How did you end up in such a strange business?”
“I got too old to be a boy scout,” I said.
I could smell flowers in the soft California evening. Candy sipped her brandy. The ice clinked gently in the glass as she rolled it absently between her hands. Mingled with the smell of flowers was the smell of Candy’s perfume.
“That’s not an entirely frivolous answer, is it?” She said.
“No.”
“You want to help people.”
“Yes.”
“Why?” 792 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
“Makes me feel good,” I said.
“But why this way? Guns, fists, hoodlums? You’re laughing at me, but I will proceed. It’s why I’m a good reporter. I keep asking. Why not be a doctor or a school teacher or” she spread her hands, the glass in one of them – “you get the idea.”
“Systems,” I said. “The system gets in the way. You end up serving the medical profession or public educa- tion. I tried the cops for a while.”
“And?”
“They felt I was too creative.”
“Fired?”
“Yes.”
Candy poured herself another drink. I squirted in some soda. “Are you attracted to violence?” she asked.
“Maybe. To a point. But it’s also that I’m good at it. And there’s a need for someone who’s good at it. Someone needs to keep that fat guy from smacking you around.”
“But what if you meet someone who’s better?”
“Unthinkable,” I said.
“No,” she said. “It isn’t unthinkable at all. You’re too thoughtful a man not to have thought of it.”
“How about unlikely then?”
“Maybe, but what happens? How do you feel?”
I took in a deep breath. “Talking about myself seriously has always seemed a little undignified,” I said. “But…”
“But what?” Candy said.
“But the possibility that you’ll meet somebody better is part of” — I gestured with my right hand — “if that possibility didn’t exist,” I said, “it would be like playing tennis with the net down.”
*END CLIP* “People fear what they cannot understand.”Bruce Lee
How deep has she gotten with this man who’s almost a stranger. A man she’s known for 2 days? Pretty deep. It is better to ask and appear ignorant… 793
And all it took was being curious as to what his perspective was. Being interested in what makes him, him. People can never connect with you on a deep level until they feel that you understand them.
Check out how she does it again the morning after they’d had sex for the first time, probing to find out how he feels, not wanting to assume, but to have facts. Roll the clip…
Candy sipped her coffee. When she put the cup down, there was a lipstick imprint on the rim. Susan always did that too.
“Any guilt?” Candy said to me.
I ate a forkful of hash, took a small bite of toast and chewed and swallowed. “I don’t think so,” I said.
“What about the woman you’re committed to?”
“I’m still committed to her.”
“Will you tell her?”
“Yes.”
“Will she mind?”
“Not very much,” I said.
“Would you mind if it were the other way?”
“Yes.”
“Is that fair?”
“It’s got nothing to do with fair,” I said, “or unfair. I’m jealous. She’s not. Perhaps it’s a real recognition that hers would be an affair of the heart, while mine is of the flesh only, so to speak.”
“My God, what a romantic distinction,” Candy said. “So flowery too.”
I nodded and drank some coffee.
“More than flowery,” Candy said. “Victorian. Women make love and men fuck.”
“No need to generalize. We did more than fuck last night, but we’re not in love. For Susan it wouldn’t have to be love, but it would involve feelings that you and I don’t have: interest, excitement, commitment, maybe some intrigue. For Suze it would involve relationship. 794 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
“I can’t say for you, although I bet it had a little something to do with the agent you used to sleep with. For me it was sexual desire satisfied. I like you. I think you’re beautiful. You seemed to be available. I guess we could say that what was involved for me was affectionate lust.”
Candy smiled. “You talk well,” she said. “And it’s not the only thing.”
“Aw, blush,” I said.
“But if you tell—what’s her name?”
“Susan.”
“If you tell Susan, won’t it make her a little unhappy to no good purpose?”
“It may make her a little unhappy, but the purpose is good.”
“Easing your conscience?”
“Pop psych,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“The world’s not that simple. I tell her because we should not have things we don’t tell each other.”
“Would you want to know.”
“Absolutely.”
“And if you knew, would it be the end?”
“No. Dying is the only end for me and Suze.”
“So you’re not so all-fired wonderful. You don’t risk that much by telling her.”
“True,” I said.
“But?”
“But what?”
Candy’s hash was barely nibbled. She poked at it with her fork.
“But there’s more,” she said. “I’ve oversimplified it again.”
“Sure.” It is better to ask and appear ignorant… 795
“Tell me.”
“What difference does it make?” I said.
“I want to know,” Candy said. “I’ve never met anyone like you. I want to know.”
“Okay,” I said. “I wouldn’t do anything I couldn’t tell her about.”
“Are you ashamed of this?”
“No.”
“Would you do something that would make you ashamed?”
“No.”
She poked at her hash some more. “Jesus,” she said. “I think you wouldn’t. I’ve heard people say that before, but I never believed them. I don’t think they even believed themselves. But you mean it.”
“It’s another way of being free.”
“But how—“
I shook my head. “Eat your hash,” I said. “We have a heavy crime-busting schedule. Let’s fortify ourselves and not talk for a while.” I ate more hash.
Candy opened her mouth and closed it and looked at me and then smiled and nodded. We ate our hash in silence.
*END CLIP* “Our position determines what we see.” Ylva
Did you notice that in the above example that the woman is seeking first to understand, and never really gets to point of trying to be understood? This is rare. Most people are so into their perspective that they’re constantly trying to rape people’s minds with it.
What almost none of us are taught is process that let’s us first understand another person’s world which then allows us to recognize and perhaps value the other person’s differences so they can feel appreciated and heard which in turn opens them up to hear our point of view.
Most people behave as if the way they see, hear, feel and smell the world SHOULD be the way everyone else does too. It ain’t. Senses and meanings are one-of-a-kind and should be treated as such because we’ve all individually made customized meanings for the similar and unique events that have occurred in our lives. 796 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You see, you and I have had sex. It’s an event that we share. But your definition and meaning of sex and my definition and meaning of sex might be wildly different because of the meaning and the feelings we’ve attached to our unique experiences which are compounded by and constructed on our beliefs, values and references.
This is why it’s so goddamned important to know another person’s rules for how the world is supposed to be. Because this is where we butt heads with one another. At the level of rules.
Good News…
Even though we each have unique blueprints, we are not random. Certain beliefs lead to certain behaviors. Certain behaviors lead to certain states of mind. Patterns show up with consistency.
But you have to lead and break your own pattern first and stop saying/thinking, “You’re wrong and I’m right,” and start saying, “You obviously see things differently from me so what I’d like you to do is show me how you see it right now. Let me see if I can understand your perspective on this and let’s keep working on it until I get your perspective.”
And once you do, there’s a magic that happens. The person opens up and feels like you finally get it and asks YOU how you see things because you’ve come across the water to them.
As always, please feel free to let me know your perspective in the comments below. Help me see what’s on your mind and in your heart.
Talk Soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 157
The Ugly Truth About Making Money On The Internet!
I’m assuming you are reading this because you are frustrated. Maybe things aren’t as good as you’d like.
Let me tell ya something. If your looking for the Easy Steps To making Money On The Net…THIS ISN’T YOUR PLACE.
I don’t believe that exist.
Or maybe you were looking for Bestiality Porn and came across one of the weird ass pictures that Nerd#2 uses and added it to your collection.
Either way here we go…
Find the SWEET SPOT in your niche business and spend most your time their.
I, like many, used to believe in the Fairy Tale B.SO. that all you had to do was “Find Your Passion” and the money will follow.
As Dan Kennedy would say; “I could be as passionate as I want about being a NBA Basketball Player but it aint happening”
Doesn’t mean that you can’t do what your passionate about.
It just means that you will probably have to do some STUFF that you don’t want to do along the way.
I do, however, believe you can do your best to spend the majority of your time doing those things within your business that you Like doing.
For instance, 798 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Nerd#2 is a Rock star Copywriter.
The Kid simply Kicks F’n Ass when it comes to the written word.
He’s Creative, He’s Weird (Jesus..he has a pink hairclip in the patch of hair he left on the front of his head), and he likes to write.
Public Wimpy Apology: I have to admit I don’t “get” Nerd#2 sometimes and I take my old school Mafioso mindset out on him sometimes. Truth is I wish I had the nuts to be as cool as this kid. So for those of you out their that have geniuses like this working for you maybe we should let the noose lose a bit and let them do their thing. They are good because they are rebels. They don’t conform to societies rules. So Pink Barr- ette, patch of hair, and whatever else I’m going to try and be more understanding. Sorry buddy…be your- self, and maybe I’ll do something crazy here pretty soon too. lol
So with that in mind I’m doing my best to get this machine called Nerd Nation to the point that he spend the majority of his time doing just that.
Sitting in office, pink hairclip, painted toe nails, crazy thoughts, just pounding away at the keyboard with Killer Stuff for you guys.
Guess what….that’s attainable.
But in the meantime he’s going to have to do some shit he hates.
It’s just a fact for all of us. Me Too.
So Find that sweet spot in your business you love doing and try to spend as much time as you can their.
But realize that the other “Dirty Crap” has to be done too. Passionate or not.
Next…
Jam your head so full of The Stuff you are going to share with the world that you’d make the International Debate Team cry and leave the stage when it came to your topic of choice.
Get everything you can get your hands on and master what it is you are going to share with the world.
You want to teach people how to cross breed Donkeys and Pit bulls and properly raise Donkey Bulls then learn everything you can about it.
Be the “Man”…The go to person.
We no longer live in a society where we have to go to “School” and get the degree. The Ugly Truth About Making Money On The… 799
We can anoint ourselves as experts.
Then…BE DIFFERENT..
For us it’s being the Rebels that give the Finger to the Guru’s and bring you their info to you in a way we believe to be better and much more affordable.
For you it might be “The Cross Dressing Internet Marketer”
Maybe you show up on video teaching amazing shit in your Pink Bra and Underwear everyday.
Probably not everyone’s cup of tea but I guarantee you that you’ll stand out.
I bet you’d get a lot more hits on YouTube then most. LOL
Work as if Your Family is being held hostage by Al-Qaida and if you don’t succeed they DIE!!
How long?
Until you succeed.
If you know the market is there. You’ve done your research. You can succeed.
Yes, some will say “But some courses say i can be number one in Google in 24 seconds and dominate the world”
That’s complete and total Bullish………..
Nobody knows how long it will take for sure.
But if you keep plugging along even though it seems as though your writing for yourself or selling to the invisible man then you WILL succeed.
That’s the simple yet powerful key to success.
The difference between those of us that are Rock Stars but linger backstage and those of us that Take Action and Kick Ass Front and Center….
And finally remember this.
Be genuine, real, and giving always. Regardless of the results. Because if at any point you get jaded or hold back you are screwed.
Talk soon. 800 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Chief Nerd CHAPTER 158
Gary Vaynerchuk - Turning Your Passion Into a Successful Business
Hey you, It’s #2.
I FUCKING LOVE GARY VAYNERCHUK!!!
You know, the guy behind the www.winelibrarytv.com and the book “Crush It: Why now is the time to cash in on your passion”. For years I’ve heard this guy’s name and have seen his books in the book stores, seen that’s he’s key note speaking at seminars and finally, today, I experienced him.
The presentation I saw was him rocking the stage at Tony Robbins’ Ultimate Business Growth Mastery seminar and it was RAW and UNCUT. I think Gary cusses just as much as I do and I’ve given you the notes from this speech in full Gary effect. Including his ADD tendency to jump from topic to topic at rapid speed.
It only took me about 10 minutes to realize I wanted to find everything of his related to using online media to kill it and rabidly consume and deploy it.
Maybe you’ll find yourself doing the same if you don’t already…
Gary Vaynerchuk - Turning Your Passion Into a Successful Business
It’s Gary’s belief that if you don’t do your passion, your shit is gonna be OR stay broken.
He calls the internet “The Death of The Gate Keeper… the TV Networks, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Radio Stations, all big media.
Up until about 36 months ago there were a handful of douche bags that decided if you were “good” enough to talk to America. If Gary would’ve pitched these gatekeepers that his idea for a show was for him to sit on his ass and down 4 bottles of wine over 29 minutes, 802 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One they would’ve kicked him the fuck out.
But being that the channel he used was online, he got to side step all of “The Gate Keepers” judgment and let you decide. And you, the world, decided that he was worthy of attention, hence Wine library TV’s mas- sive popularity.
Tom Brokaw online had to compete with 3 other channels. It’s fucking ridiculous to think you’re someone special because you can beat out 2 competitors. Now with the ease of doing business online, you have to compete with EVERYBODY. There have been 1,517 wine shows that have sprouted up since Gary has started and he’s kicked every single one of them in the balls… and won!
But he has to hold them off everyday.
“Care” is the greatest business strategy you can have
He flat out says on stage that you can cross out all the other bullshit that Eben and Tony taught you. And then he caught himself because that’s actually what Tony taught. It’s his belief that if you passionately care about a subject you’ll do whatever it takes to make shit happen. On the other hand if you despise working for the IRS, you’ll find all the corners to cut and constantly look for ways to distract yourself from the drudgery of your work which leads to shit results.
What you’re doing when you’re using social media is you’re expanding your reach. We’re all building a brand one way or another and one of the best ways to do this word of mouth. Word of mouth is the game!!!
Online is word of mouth on steroids!!!
Here’s why Twitter is so important…
He feels that if you aren’t using it, you’re dead.
It’s a tool that communicates with the world. It allows your fan base to talk about you.
Content is going in the Free Direction!!!
If you’re selling content, it’s going free. Fuck itunes. Marketers by the dozens are already showing people that they don’t need itunes in order to make money selling their info products/books. Musicians on a large scale, are gonna come to that realization one of these days.
You can always monetize one thing… eyeballs.
Content is free but there is back end way to monetize eyeballs. Info products are dead. Info is being passed around soooo free that you’ve gotta understand what your freemium business models are.
Passion Gary Vaynerchuk - Turning Your Passion… 803
Passion is the game!!! If you’re pissed that you’re falling asleep, you’re winning. If you not, it’s over. Simple as that.
He believes that even the biggest Garfield the cat fan could get paid $100,000 grand a year, talking about how much the fuckin’ love Garfield and find ways to monetize eyeballs.
Gary gets paid $15,000 to drink wine with people?!? Case in point. If you have a business model that doesn’t make you happy, you need to change it TONIGHT!
You can’t win because you have to work YOUR FUCKING FACE OFF to kill it!!! THERE IS NO SUBSTI- TUTE!!! That’s the biggest problem that he sees, NOBODY WANTS TO WORK HARD ENOUGH!!!
People wanna do law of attraction and have shit magically appear in their hands. That shit does not happen.
The only way that you’re gonna work 15 hours a day and pay that sacrifice to be away from your loved ones to travel and hustle is if you’re doing something around a subject matter that you live and breathe and die for!!! Period. End of story.
Put up content around this subject matter and I promise things will happen.
7PM to 2 AM is Game Time!!! Maybe 9-2 if you’ve got kids and a family!
STOP WATCHING FUCKING LOST!!!
Talk doesn’t cook rice. Chinese proverb
If you’re not happy or you’re not doing your passion, you have time to do it at night. There’s a site called tumblr that’s the easiest blog platform to use… it’s probably harder to breathe oxygen than to use this.
He’s fuckin’ pissed that we only drink 8 wines in America!!! He wants to change that!
If you’re passionate about something you can make a difference by pumping out content but here’s where people who pump out content make a mistake… THEY CARE ABOUT THE CAMERA!!! And the lighting and all the other bullshit! It means nothing!
It’s the content. Content is King. Marketing is the queen. She runs the household!!!
If you have a business and you didn’t sell something before you were 7 years old, you need a business partner!!!
This is where the artists and creative people fuck up because they don’t know how to monetize their gifts.
Everything you do, from now on, your great grandkids are gonna be able to document and watch. The greatest focus he has is that LEGACY IS GREATER THAN CURRENCY!!! 804 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Nobody is gonna be able to hide. EVERYBODY IS THE MEDIA. The media is being nullified by this. This is the best thing that ever happened to the journalists because content is getting more of the action, more weight, more respect.
The internet is such an obnoxious platform because it’s such a direct to consumer play, that now the con- tent is going to control the show.
Gary, in the early days didn’t have Twitter or Facebook to rely on building his brand. So he just joined the conversation on every wine blog that there was. He didn’t go onto the blog and post a comment saying “Hey come watch Wine library TV,.” He would just leave a comment about the post and let his name, not link, bring people to him.
He worked Wine Library TV everyday for 18 months and nobody gave a shit!!!
Grandma watched, mom watched, some 6 or 7 of his peeps watched.
You see, he would pump out 20 minutes of content a day and that isn’t what built the business!!! It was what he did the other 12-15 hours that built that business… getting dirty and working is the ONLY chance you have. You can’t read about push ups and hope some shit happens… YOU’VE GOTTA DO IT!!!
He is FUCKING PUMPED that so much money (at this time it was $536 million dollars in ad spending) is being pulled away from radio and newspaper and TV and spent on buying ads on properties and brands, sites online.
NBC used to be big shots until they lost Seinfeld and Friends. After they were gone, they lost eyeballs.
EYEBALLS ARE THE NAME OF THE GAME, BUT NOT ALL EYEBALLS ARE CREATED EQUALLY
In every B2B business there’s information that the end consumer wants. Content and information is power and the way you put that out there, the more you put that out there, the more opportunity you have.
If you’re holding onto ANYTHING you’re gonna lose!!!
It’s become obvious to him that everybody is in deep shit!
Anyone who’s in a traditional industry (music, tv, radio, malls, etc.) and are desperately clinging to their model and they tell him, “Well, we don’t really care about the Facebook and the Twitter stuff,”. He tells them that they’re gonna care really fucking fast when they put you out of business.
Here’s a history of this kind of thinking being played out…
Aerial flight is one of that class of problems with which man will never be able to cope. Simon New- comb, American astronomer (1903) Gary Vaynerchuk - Turning Your Passion… 805
Everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize it as a conspicuous failure. Henry Morton, President of the Stevens Institute of Technology, on Edison’s incandescent lamp (c.1880)
Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. Lord Kelvin, ca. 1895, British mathematician and physicist
I am tired of all this sort of thing called science here … We have spent millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it should be stopped. U.S. Senator Simon Cameron, on the Smithsonian Insti- tute (1901)
I must confess that my imagination, in spite even of spurring, refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering at sea. H.G. Wells, Anticipations (1901)
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
If God had intended that man should fly, he would have given him wings. Widely attributed to George W. Melville, chief engineer of the U.S. Navy (c. 1900)
Radio has no future. Lord Kelvin, ca. 1897
The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera. It is absurd to go on seeking it… . Knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient. Dr. Alfred Vel- peau (1839) French surgeon
There is no need for any individual to have a computer in their home. Ken Olson, 1977, President, Digital Equipment Corp.
Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value. Editorial in the Boston Post (1865). While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming. Lee DeForest, 1926 (American radio pioneer).
Everybody can a competitor to the giants now!!! We’re all competitors.
The brands that mean something today, won’t mean anything tomorrow. Look at how everyone laughed at the emerging trends in the quotes above. They didn’t get the last laugh.
The world is changing very quickly.
Just like ecommerce exploding in 2003, 04, and beyond, the same thing is happening with content now. But it needs to be niched down. 806 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
He gives the example of paying attention to what an 18 year old is paying attention to. If you think they’re reading the New York Times or watching cable, you’re out of your mind.
MP3’s were around before the first ipod came out but there wasn’t a product that had come along and made a culture shift yet. What’s gonna happen when you can watch every video blog on your TV the same way you’d watch Lost or Dancing With The Stars ala Google TV?
What’s gonna happen you click on the info channel on your TV and type in “wine” and you get hundreds of listing for content surrounding that topic? This is gonna stretch the eyeballs out. This puts ALL the TV advertising dollars into play.
Do you feel like your end user doesn’t use Facebook or Twitter?
That was exactly what everyone said 12 months ago when studies found that Facebook’s biggest growing user is 45-55 year old women.
All of sudden Dove soap/shampoo is shoving money at Gary!!!
It’s happening. And IT’S ALWAYS GOING TO HAPPEN!!! Technology waits for no one. Culture shifts happen, with or without you.
Parents want to stay in touch with their kids. Grandparents want to see little Sammy. And grandparents are gonna have to learn what this Facebook, ustream and Twitter shit is to stay up to date. Just like their Grand- parents did with the “voice through wires thing” called the telephone.
And there is massive opportunity for us in that.
But the only way to take advantage of this is to pay attention AND to work your ass off. So go to mirror and ask yourself, “Do I love this more than anything? and if the answer is no, you’ve gotta change your game.
You’ve gotta. It’s gonna be hard. You think small business is the backbone of this country? Wait’ll you get a dose of micro-small business. You know who’s scared of this? Corporate America. They’re scared because they can see people making $45,000 a year making money from talking about hockey cards or other pas- sions and the ability for people to make money on this micro level, this platform of being a content provider outside of the corporate structure… from their fucking couch.
What if everyone starts making content?
Doesn’t matter because the same people making content are also consuming it. He feels if people start doing what they love, they’re gonna be happy regardless of the outcome.
Q & A:
What do you put on twitter, Facebook or your blog? Gary Vaynerchuk - Turning Your Passion… 807
For him, it’s about authenticity.
He not only talks about wine. He talks about life, stubbing his toe, about how Captain Crunch is by far the most underrated cereal in the world!!!
You do a video about something you love or that’s important to your space and you put that out there. The thing you need to understand is that Twitter, Facebook and Linked in are all just tools.
You know what Twitter is? A pair of fucking scissors!!! You make the content on your blog and then you use tools like Facebook and Twitter to deliver that message indirectly. Not by spamming the shit out of people.
These tools are basically a way for you enter into communication with the world. If you don’t have a Twitter account, you’re not in the “world”. Not today’s world, but the world that’s coming.
WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT TODAY?
Gary’s worried about 7 years from now. If you don’t anticipate what’s coming, you’re dead. It’s like passing a basketball to someone on the move, if you don’t anticipate where they’re going, you’re fucked and you’re gonna miss ‘em and get the ball stolen.
You put out the content and you use Twitter and Facebook to talk about it. But you putting it out there isn’t the game. It’s never about talking, it’s always about listening. The most important site at this time right now is www.search.twitter.com!!!!!
Search.twitter does this… How would you like to have the ability to hear every conversation in the world? You think you could do something with that? THAT’S what search.twitter is!!!
You can search ANYTHING!!! He talked about how tonight he’s gonna get on his red eye flight, turn his computer on and type in wine there and find someone who talks about a wine they had tonight and then follow them and send them an @reply like such… “@charliepan That is a great wine!”
He’s gonna start a conversation. Shake hands. It’s the difference between giving a presentation AND working the room. These tools allow us to work the room on a scale that has never been seen before.
This also ensures that your consumers can take your product/content and spread it. This means that good wins over evil. Word of mouth on steroids. Because if you have bad customer service, it used to be that you’d tell the person giving you bad service that they were a dick and then you’d leave the store and tell your 3 friends.
Now, you tell the 150,000 people following you on Twitter and facebook. THAT’S A GAME CHANGER!
What’s the key to getting more followers on Twitter? 808 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
It doesn’t matter how many followers you have. It matters how much they care about you.
He spends 7-10 hours A DAY TALKING TO PEOPLE ON TWITTER!!! @replying them, following them back.
When someone puts out a tweet that says “I think @garyv is douche bag” you know what he does? He apol- ogizes to them because he understands that he has a lot of energy and that he curses and that he may be too east coast and he “Gets it”. But he embraces it and talks to people about it.
KEY QUESTION: How many people are you direct messaging and @replying to on a daily basis?
The guy in the audience said he spent maybe an hour a day doing this. Gary spends 10. Who wins?
This tech stuff is so confusing. Are there cliff notes for how to learn all this stuff?
You don’t need cliff notes. Go to www.search.twitter.com or google.com type in whatever the hell it is you want to know and it’s all there!!!
And you didn’t have to pay for it.
JUST GOOGLE SHIT!!! It’s fucking 2010.
What are steps to getting started?
Get a blog. Not everyone is an extrovert. Some people are saying “Gary, you’re a freakin’ spaz, I don’t wanna be like that!!!”
Maybe video isn’t your thing. Some people have voices that will kill it. If anyone’s ever said that you should be on radio, you should definitely do a podcast audio, or maybe you’re a great writer.
But those are the 3 platforms you can use to communicate. Either you write, or talk or you video tape your subject matter.
You go to this time he was uploading his video’s to www.tubemogul.com and by uploading it once, it shares it with all 40 or whatever, video sites there are out there.
You make your content. Then you go to tumblr.com or wordpress.com and put the content up there and THEN YOU GET TO FUCKING WORK!!! You get in the trenches and if you’re doing a blog about pianos you go to google and search for all the blogs about piano’s and you leave comments on every piano blog. You go to search.twitter and you see people talking about pianos you friend them up. You start getting into the trenches.
Use your content to STORY TELL!!! Gary Vaynerchuk - Turning Your Passion… 809
This is the same way Walt Disney convinced us that animals talk. Vince McMahon built a billion dollar business around story telling using wrestlers. You tell your story as passionately as you can about your product.
Can you talk about anything besides your business on twitter or FB or your blog?
You shouldn’t always talk about your business.
DO THIS!!! Think about the stuff that you talk about with passion with your friends in real life and make this your content. Key is being who you are on camera or in the written word. You’re trying to amass an audience to monetize against.
So you’ve gotta give them stuff they want. And so it’s balance of putting out content and using these tools to bring people to see what you’re doing.
You’re telling your story and you’re socializing so that people find you out. It’s about schmoozing and not just watching the game. The person that socializes, wins. These tools make it soooo much easier to attract customers than ever before.
Everyone was convinced that Gary wanted to start Wine Library TV to sell more wine. HE DIDN’T.
He wanted to sign the 7 figure book deal. He wanted a television show. He wanted to get paid 5 figures to go speak. He wanted to charge $5,000 and hour to consult. He wanted to get paid $15,000 to go drink wine with people.
PEOPLE FUCKING LOVE REAL!!! 3RD RESULT ON PAGE 1 OF GOOGLE ISN’T REAL!!! FUCKING YOU, IN FRONT OF FLIP CAM IS REAL!!!
When you’re making content you’re giving yourself an at bat at the plate. You may not be able to hit the fast ball but you’re giving yourself a shot. Your guys/gals may not be on Facebook and Twitter today but by becoming a content provider you’re giving yourself a chance to be found.
Your prospects may not use these tools but their kids might and they might bring it to their parents atten- tion. Or the press picks up on by you sending out press release about your video library online in a news- paper or a magazine. You never know how information travels.
He did a tweet about how applesauce was underrated and within an hour he had a person from Motts applesauce wanting him to do an episode of wine library tv featuring their apple sauce. He didn’t do this intentionally.
Gary didn’t go into Wine Library TV trying to sell more wine. He went in looking to create more opportunity for himself.
Parting note… 810 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
You’ve gotta make sure that anything you want people to do… sign up, twitter, follow, fb follow is ABOVE THE FOLD. Look at www.garyvaynerchuk.com or www.winelibrarytv.com and you’ll figure out how to lay it out just by looking at it. CHAPTER 159
Beware Following The “Marketer of The Decade”
Hey You, It’s #2.
Apple has been nominated by Ad Age Magazine “Marketer of the Decade” but you best beware if you’re a small to medium sized business because following their example could very well lead to disaster.
But before we focus on what to avoid and why, let’s look at a list of redeeming qualities of this incredible company and it’s marketing. Here’s a brief synopsis of their stunning accomplishments summed up by Ad Age in their article where they awarded Apple with the title…
It seems fitting: Apple kicked off the aughts in 2001 with the iPod, an electronic device that went on to disrupt and forever change the music industry; then mid-decade it dropped the iPhone, a mobile device that changed the mobile-phone industry and added the word “apps” to the English vocabulary; and finally, in 2010 it debuted the iPad, a computing device with the potential to disrupt the media, publishing, enter- tainment and computing industries.
Stunning. Now look at these jaw-dropping stats…
Product as marketing
It’s almost hard to believe the iPod is only of this decade, with now more than 250 million of them sold, and digital music sales playing the norm. The iPhone, with more than 50 million sold, has launched a consumer-smartphone rush. While it may never grab the kind of market share in wireless that the iPod has in music, it has been a pioneer and leader with the App Store, strongly influencing mobile advertising and portable gaming. In the latter category alone, Apple owned a 19% share of the portable-gaming software revenue at the end of 2009, up from 5% in 2008. 812 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The iPad, meanwhile, with as many as 8 million already sold, by some estimates, has spurred a touch- tablet tempest in the industry with almost every major PC and phone maker adding it to their product portfolios. And this is an industry that has been touting tablets for years. Apple’s involvement got them moving. “Tablets are now expected to be a $17 billion business by 2014, according to researcher IDC. Other estimates have come in lower, but either way, it’s a big jump from the one million or so units that were sold annually before the introduction of the iPad.”
Even the Mac enjoyed resurgence this decade, in part because of the halo effect of the iPod, in part because of the addition of Intel processors in 2006, and in part due to aggressive marketing via both the “Switch” and “Get a Mac” series of ads that ran from 2002 through 2009. Apple computers now have about a 7% U.S. market share, up from around 2% early in the decade. Eben Pagan describes your company as a race car and your product as the body of your car and the mar- keting is the engine. It seems to me that these guys, as the header above states, won, up until 2006, not through any incredible marketing campaign put together by a marketing guru or ad agency but by sheer fucking blowing the minds of people with their product which drove word-of-mouth marketing.
If you’ll remember right the oh-so memorable, yet oh-so non-direct marketing silhouette ads for ipod didn’t start until 2004, 3 years after that product unleashed all hell on the MP3 player industry.
So it seems that the better mouse trap won out but without a million dollar plus bankroll to manufacture units and ship them to worldwide distribution outlets to fuel word-of-mouth, there might not be an ipod today.
Image Advertising With Some Brains
Perhaps it should come as no surprise then that AdWeek named the”Get a Mac” series “campaign of the decade” in its best of the 2000s roundup.
Here’s what the publication has to say about “Get a Mac”:
“Apple always diverged from the ’speeds and feeds’ ads associated with the computer category, but the brand really defined itself with the 2006 launch of TBWA\Media Arts Lab’s ‘Get a Mac’ campaign. That series of 60-plus ads brought some humanity into the equation by turning the machines into live-action cartoons. In so doing, the comic spots offer transparent understanding of the aspirations of its audience and how people identify—and connect emotionally—with technology.
The genius is in the casting. The Mac guy, Justin Long, is a younger version of Steve Jobs who is casual and comfortable in his skin. PC, personified by John Hodgman, as a rounder, paler Bill Gates, is a well-meaning geek with all kinds of operating problems. For Apple, the campaign managed the neat trick of making the brand look laid back and cool while it mercilessly skewered its rival.” What these ads did was entertain, WHILE showing you a picture of the biggest problems and frustrations that bothered the PC owner. And in directly showed up saying, “Would the opposite of this, which is us, be Beware Following The “Marketer of The… 813
of service to you?” These commercials actually required copy and it served in my eyes to be about 1000% times more effective than the dancing silhouette ads.
Let Your Market Tell You When To Change Your Ads
In my eyes, one campaign doesn’t declare you a Marketing Master. Consistency does. It seems to me that Apple violated a primary rule of advertising which is, “You will grow tired of your marketing, far sooner than your audience will. So be wary of changing ads just because you’re bore with them.”
This format of emotionally skewering your competition’s flaws is a never-ending process that windows pro- vides a non-stop amount of ammunition for. Any big news of Microsoft inconveniencing their customers with their ineptitude or mistakes lends itself to one of these ads. And the market will never tire of being justified in their wise decision to buy from you, or in someone voicing their frustration with their current situation (Microsoft customers on the fence).
The could have easily rolled this campaign into the ipod vs. traditional MP3 player AND iphone vs. tradi- tional mobile phone arena. But they didn’t. Why? Too cool to use the “Same” (winning) format, for too long.
While I almost never advocate directly attacking your competitor in your marketing, here, I condone it because it publicly shames Microsoft (who I’m a customer of) to get their shit together. And it makes Apple raise the bar on their product because they know they can’t commit the blunders they’re calling Microsoft on, less they look stupid.
But this news that came last week is comforting…
Apple Shares Hit $300
Shares of Apple hit a new all-time high on Wednesday morning, eclipsing $300.
At that price, Apple is now valued at $274 billion, more than Intel, Hewlett Packard and Google (), and within striking distance of the world’s largest company, Exxon Mobil, which is valued at $329 billion. Apple passed archnemesis Microsoft in valuation earlier this year. Someone’s keeping Bill Gates on his toes, eh!
Why You Shouldn’t Deploy Apple’s Style of Marketing If You’re A Small to Medium Sized Bidniz
Are you playing the game of business with this kind of dough…
“Apple retail stores have come to define the high-end, low-key, over-the-top customer-service shopping experience of the later part of this decade. And while Apple intends for all of its 273 stores to sell its wares, it also is deliberate in its use of them as marketing tools. Eleven of the stores in particular are meant to act as brand ambassadors. 814 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
According to Apple filings, those stores “have been designed and built to serve as high-profile venues to promote brand awareness and serve as vehicles for corporate sales and marketing activities.” And they spe- cifically budget expenses for those stores, to the tune of $65 million in 2009. Compare that to its overall $501 million spent in worldwide advertising in 2009, and the tally is for every $8 Apple spent on ads, they spent $1 on those 11 signature stores.” If you don’t have an ad budget of $501 MILLION dollars, my suggestion to you would be to never ever, ever, run an ad that isn’t direct response in nature; ads that ask the reader to take action. Not merely get people to say, “I like that ad.”
While what Apple has achieved is absolutely stunning, one thing to keep in mind is that they didn’t start this decade out at zero or even a teeny status. They started with big chips on the table to back their moves and if there’s one important rule I learned, it’s that if you’re a small fry trying to grow large, you want to pay attention to what a massively successful company like Apple did when they were small also; the strategies that brought them to the dance in the first place instead of the ones keeping them fed like a fat king.
But hey, this is only my perspective. You guys tell me what you think.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 160
Freedom From The Need To Be Right
Hey you, It’s #2.
Today’s story was inspired by a friend of mine who’s on a quest to prove that she was ripped off by a dirt ball mechanic in small claims court and has lost there and is faced with the ugly option of appealing the case. Have you ever done battle here? If so, you feel her pain.
Especially if the person you were suing lawyered up and proceeded to entrap you in a month(s) — year long war, flinging words and documents back at each other over a relatively small amount of money.
The story I’m telling her and you now, I’m telling in hopes that you save yourself a fuck load of drama going down this route. I racked my mind last night trying to remember what Robert Ringer story I’d heard that perfectly proved the futility of fighting such a fight and I found it!!!
It’s was in his book – “Action – Nothing Happens Until Something Moves”. Robert Ringer’s hard won advice had served me incredibly well and I believe it, along with the questions at the end of this post can do the same for you too…
Freedom From The Need To Be Right
An obsessive need to prove you’re right gets in the way of action that can move you closer to achieving your goals.
A classic example of this is a painful experience I endured a few years ago. My wife had noticed some damage to our roof, and made an appointment with a roofing company (hereafter referred to as “Stick-it-to-‘em Roofing”) to come out and fix it. More than an hour after the scheduled time, the roofers still had not arrived, and I was on the verge of being late for an appointment. 816 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Just as I was preparing to leave the house, the doorbell rang. Sure enough, standing before me were two men from Stick-it-to-‘em Roofing. They could barely speak English, and what words they did manage to utter were camouflaged by a thick Spanish accent. Realizing they would probably have trouble under- standing me, I spoke slowly and clearly, explaining that I was about to leave the house.
Then, as an afterthought, I said, “Look, if you don’t need me here, you can go up and fix the roof, but I have to leave in two minutes. The two men nodded pleasantly, and uttered some more “Spanglish” that indicated they would go ahead and do the repairs.
A couple of minutes later, I got into my car, started the engine, and began to back out of the garage. Sud- denly, I heard a loud commotion and something hitting the back of my car.
For a second, I thought it might be an earthquake. I jumped out and went around to the rear of the car to see what had happened. To my surprise, a long, heavy ladder was lying on the right rear of my car.
Then, from the roof, I heard familiar voices excitedly yelling at me in apologetic Spanglish. I was quite dis- turbed, and angrily asked the men why they had put their ladder behind my car, especially since I had just told them I was leaving. It goes without saying that I could not understand their response, but they con- tinued to address me in apologetic tones.
As they shimmied their way to the ground, I examined the right side and trunk of my car, and was dis- mayed to see that the damage from the ladder was extensive. I told the two workers that Stick-it-to-‘em Roofing was going to have to pay for the damages, in response to which they kept repeating, with apologetic gestures, “Si! Si!”
I assumed that Stick-it-to-‘em Roofing would be embarrassed over their employees’ ignorant placement of the ladder, and the main focus of my thoughts was on wondering how long I would have o be without my car while the necessary repairs were being made.
Over the next week, I placed about a dozen phone calls to Stick-it-to-‘em Roofing, continually being referred from one person to another until I was finally assured that I was talking to the individual who han- dled the company’s customer complaints (hereafter referred to as “Mr. Cute”).
Mr. Cute claimed to know nothing about the incident, but said he would check it out and get back to me in a few days. After a week passed without a call, I started calling Mr. Cute every day and left a half –dozen messages for him without receiving a single return call.
About the time I was on the verge of losing patience with being ignored, Mr. Cute (not knowing it was me calling) finally picked up the receiver on one of my calls. He told me that Stick-it-to-‘em’s insurance com- pany handled all claims, and that I should have my insurance company call them. Freedom From The Need To Be Right 817
Irritated, I said, “Look, just pay for the damage you did to my car, and if you want to collect from your insurance company, that’s your business.” Mr. Cute said he would have to check it out with Mr. Stickittoem himself and would get back to me.
Weeks later, when I finally succeeded in getting Mr. Cute on the phone again, he explained that there was nothing he could do about the matter, because—surprise, surprise—the workers who had come to my house were now claiming they had had told me that they were going to put the ladder behind my car, and that it was therefore my fault.
I was livid. Quite obviously, the workers’ new story was contrived by the company, and I would have to be pretty naïve not to assume they would be willing to swear to whatever the company instructed them to say.
“First,” I said, “these guys can’t speak English, so even if they had told me they were going to put the ladder behind my garage door, I could not have understood them. Second, nobody in his right mind would tell someone that he’s going to put a ladder directly behind that person’s garage door when he has the entire house to use. Third, I don’t for a second believe they actually told you that. What I do believe is that you told them to say it. Fourth, why didn’t you tell me all of this months ago when I first spoke to you, instead of implying that fault was not even an issue?”
I went on to tell Mr. Cute that unless Stick-it-to-‘em Roofing paid for the damage to my car within a week, I would file suit in small claims court. Danger signal: My emotions were now in total control.
Needless to say, no one from the company called me again, let alone paid for the damage, so as promised, I filed suit in small claims court. Over the next several months, I stood in lines at the courthouse, burned the midnight oil filing out legal forms, visited car repair shops and secured estimates, did a mountain of research, and spent obscene amounts of time standing over a copying machine and making copies of perti- nent documents, sorting papers, and setting up files for the case.
To a fly on the wall, it must have appeared as though I were preparing for a murder trial. Lots of action, to be sure—but it was stupid action.
What, in fact had happened was that I had inadvertently developed an obsession to prove I was right over an issue not worthy of my time. As Stick-it-to-em Roofing injected one obstacle after another into this penny-ante case in an effort to stall, I finally started coming to my senses.
I realized that I had allowed emotions to entrap me in a no-win situation.
There was no doubt in my mind that the court would order Stick-it-to-‘em Roofing to pay me $2,000 in damages, but that wouldn’t even begin to make a dent in the income I had lost as a result of my vigorous pursuit of justice. Worse the stress and anxiety I had suffered from the distasteful mess were impossible to quantify. 818 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
When the court date finally arrived, I showed up at 8:00 A.M., eager to bring the matter to conclusion. There is nothing quite as stimulating as sitting on a hard wooden bench in a courthouse and listening to small claims cases—“Mr. Smith’s dog ruined my rose garden”; “Mr. Wilson wrote a personal check for his groceries, ate the evidence, then claimed the food was spoiled and stopped payment on his check”; “Mrs. O’Neil’s son drove his car over my lawn”; etc., etc., etc.
As the hours droned on, I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or yawn.
Finally, the moment of truth – my case was called. A shyster-looking attorney (hereafter referred to as “Legalsleaze”) in a vomit-colored polyester suit came forward on behalf of Stick-it-to-‘em Roofing.
As I stood dutifully next to him before the presiding judge, the first thing that crossed my mind was that Stick-it-to-‘em Roofing had probably bartered his fees. Why else would Legalsleaze use the same stuff on his hair that the company used for tarring roofs?
The judge then asked Legalsleaze to state his position on the case. What came out of his mouth was yet another reminder of how the legal system works—which is to say that it doesn’t.
Without a trace of a smirk, he said that since his client believed I was at fault, it wanted to sue me to recover it’s legal fees, and that would entail “full discovery”—meaning depositions, interrogatories, and more.
All this would require at least a year to accomplish, perhaps two years if enough clever stalling tactics were employed, and Legalsleaze began moving in that direction by requesting that the case be moved to Superior Court for a full-blown trial.
Still reeling, I listened as the judge said that he had no choice but to grant Legalsleaze his request.
As I left the courthouse, I laughed out loud at my naivete. The next day, I dropped the suit, licked my wounds, and got back to working on constructive matters. I had been action personified in pursuit of jus- tice, but the problem was that my actions were based on emotion. It was a painful, time-wasting experience that served as a grim reminder of how important it is to be vigilant about not becoming obsessed with proving you’re right.
The best way I know to become free of the self-imposed enslavement to prove you’re right is to ask yourself if the resolution of a point of contention is really all that important in the overall scheme of things.
Two thousand dollars may have seemed like a significant sum of money when I began my Stick-it-to-‘em legal journey, but by the time I came to my senses and threw in the towel, it was a pittance compared to the hours I had wasted and the stress I had endured.
It was a great reminder of how irrational it is to spend significant amounts of time (not to mention mental energy and financial resources) trying to rectify a wrong that involves a relatively small amount of money. Freedom From The Need To Be Right 819
I should also point out that both in business and personal matters, the cost of proving you’re right often can be too high in terms of creating bad will. This is especially true if the person you’re trying to prove wrong is a customer, supervisor, boss or even a friend.
The instant gratification of flaunting the fact that you were right can prove to be fatal in the long term. At a minimum, the cost of proving you’re right usually in a loss of one or more allies. It’s the perfect example of the metaphor “winning the battle but losing the war.”
5 Questions You Can Use To Talk Yourself or Anyone You Care About Out a Funk Inspired By A Sit- uation Where They Couldn’t Be “Right” In a Situation They “Should’ve Been Right” in
It’s kinda hard to appreciate an empowering view point such as “All is well and everything is unfolding as it should,” if you believe that your challenges are, as they like to say on my favorite TV show, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia,you’re “Getting ass-blasted by an enemy” vs. “Presented with an opportunity to grow and become wiser.”
The only way that you can jolt yourself out of un-resourceful thinking is by changing the quality of ques- tions you ask yourself.
In the instance of my friend “losing?” in small claims court and being faced with having to hire a Legal- sleaze to fight another time/money suck of a battle, I’m sure questions like, “How can this cocksucker call himself a man and stand here in court and flat out lie about not fixing my car?” “Why is the judge believing him or his shit bird attorney?” “Why can’t people just do what they say they’re going to do?” etc., etc., etc.
All of those questions come from the stand point of wanting to prove someone else wrong and that lead to nowhere but self-imposed pain.
Facilitating Your Own or Another Person’s Growth
Here’s 5 questions you can ask yourself or someone you care about, that lead you out of a downward spiral, towards an outcome that encourages you to stay above staying entangled in drama…
1. What Happened?
This is the question that helps you be absolutely clear on what was experienced. It gives you perspective and you might have to ask it few times to get past fluff or anything that isn’t what happened.
2. How are you feeling about it?
You want to find out what’s the emotion that’s being felt. And keep in mind that emotions are ALWAYS valid… even if they aren’t justified.
3. What did you learn? 820 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
4. What did you learn about yourself?
5. How will this help you in the future?
This is the question that makes you look for a life lesson you would’ve never found otherwise.
These 5 questions help frame your situation in way that allows the experience to serve as a tool that you or another person can use now and forever! Use them at the risk of overcoming huge obstacles in your life.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 161
How To Never Be Told, “Get To The Point!” While Presenting In Pixel, Print, or Person
Hey you, It’s #2.
Today I want to show you a surefire method that allows you to suck your ideal prospect into a conversation with you… and steer the wrong person away from you… in one sentence.
This idea is based on Marshall Herskovitz’s Concentric Circle Art of Pitching. Marshall is famous for his work as a Hollywood producer on films like “The Last Samurai,” “Blood Diamond” and “Traffic” and a shit load of work for TV. His ability to not only survive, but thrive in a cut throat town and industry that demands you be a magnificent salesperson, helps you realize how incredibly valuable his advice is.
Here he talks about how it applies to pitching an idea for movie to be made and you’ll see just how easily this method can be adapted to make a big entrance with all of your content and presentations…
When people pitch they’re so consumed with their own anxiety that they don’t realize how anxious the other people are in the room and when people would pitch to me, they would tell the story, and by about two minutes into it I would be going, “Oh shit, now I forget the name. Now did they say that’s the main character?” or “Now wait a minute, o.k., are they related or not?” and I’m already confused about what they’re saying.
Then they’ve spoken for 15 minutes and I’m thinking, “Is this only the first act and is this going to be a 2 hour pitch or are they almost done?” Because I don’t know what it is, I don’t know if I like it, I’m just feeling lost.
And I realized, this is all wrong. You should never just start at the beginning of the story and tell the whole story which is how everyone pitches which is the worst way to do it. 822 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
So I developed the concentric circle theory. Which is to say, you walk in and say what this goddamn thing is one sentence, “This is a about a guy who dun a duna duna duns.”
That’s the whole movie right there.
You pitch the person and they say, “O.K.”
So then you tell the story in 3 sentences. “This guy grew up in Philadelphia, he dreamed this, he goes there and has all these adventures and gets what he wanted duna duna duh.”
3 sentences, O.K.
Then, they’re going, “Oh, alright.”
So then you tell the story in ten sentences and bringing in some of the color and you’re telling who the other characters are but you keep it to 10 sentences.
The truth is, that you’ll never even get through the ten sentences. You’ll have either sold the project, or NOT sold the project because it was never gonna sell because they already have a story like that or they’re not interested in that kind of story or, that’s what they like.
But in all the times I’ve pitched I’ve never had to tell the whole complete story in that meeting because they knew what it was that I was giving to them in some way.
I took away that anxiety of being lost at sea, of not knowing what this about or what I’m heading toward.
Most people come in and tell the whole goddamn story or they do a pre-amble and I think it’s just a very unwieldy way to go about it. This is the Recipe For Grand Slam Content
Now, I wanna ask you this… what if, as a courtesy to your audience and a stress reliever to yourself, you started all of your emails, blog posts, blog comments, phone or in-person presentations, webinar descrip- tions, etc. etc. etc. this way?
How often would people wonder what the fuck you’re gonna be talking about? Never.
How often would you feel rushed to get to your point? Never.
One sentence… “This about ‘What’…” Think grand slam headline quality sentence here.
3 sentences… This is where you flesh out the “Why” this important to your prospect.
10 sentences… This is where you can give the outline of “How you can go about getting this result. How To Never Be Told, “Get To The Point… 823
And then the rest of the presentation you can use to give them examples of how this can be or has been used in the real world.
Try it out and tell me what you think. Shit, feel free to tell me what you think of how I used it to get you to this point in the post!
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 162
Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program – Session 4
Hey You, It’s #2.
Today we’ll go into depth about…
Session 4 of “Connected”: Mastering Your Mastermind And Your Mentors
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If you want to catch up on the other 3 sessions or print them off to keep forever, ever, for future reference (which I highly recommend) here are the links for them…
Session 3 -
Session 2 -
Session 1 -
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We become who we hang out with.
If you average the 5 people closest to you, and you look at their weight, their level of self-esteem, or how much money they make, you’ll find that on average… you’re an average of all of them.
If you want to improve yourself, the highest leverage way to do so is to start building a group of people that affect you on the level you’d like to be at.
Eben recommends getting hands on “Iconoclast” by Gregory Berns. Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 825
Berns talks about how when we’re young, we’re naturally curious. We want novelty and new experiences and are fearless in a way. When we become adults we develop a fixed view of the world, a comfort zone, a picture of the world as we’d like it to be and become attached to it.
Our reality starts to become frozen solid in this image.
Then another interesting thing happens. We start seeking out social situations and people that fit the way we think the world is or the way we want it to be. This becomes a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
The more we want the world to be a certain way, the more we seek out situations and people that reflect this world and the further this reinforces that this is the way it is.
Most of us don’t have parents that “Re-Invent” themselves every year in a new and exciting way. Most people we work with are this way. Most of our friends are this way.
If you hang out with people who lock themselves into a static reality is it likely that you’ll become who you want to become?
Of course not. Some of these people are family members, friends that you love but at some point you’ve gotta wake up and face the stark reality that if you want to change, you’ve got to change the people around you.
It’s rough for people to get and understand the magnitude of this reality.
This isn’t easy. It’s simple, yet incredibly challenging. People don’t like it when you change because the ways they manipulate you stop working.
They also don’t like it when you get new friends because their justice mechanism feels threatened that when you start hanging out with other people, that they’re gonna lose you as a friend.
It’s gonna be hard to connect with a high powered person in your world if the 5 people you hang around with most are slugs who are never gonna create any kind of success.
In the future, you’ll find that the more high quality relationships that you have, the higher your social value, the faster this whole process works.
The more you stay attached to old, draining relationships and your fixed model of the universe and the more you try to shield yourself from new experiences, new views and cultures, the more you’ll run up against resistance and the less success you’ll have.
This from a study written about in the New York Times: “Spouses didn’t appear to have as big on effect on obesity as your friends do.” 826 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If a male in this study had a male friend who become fat, his risk doubled of becoming obese. And if his wife became obese, it only increased 37%. The researchers say that when it comes to body image, we com- pare ourselves primarily to people of the same sex. In fact, different sex friends didn’t transfer obesity to each other at all. If a man becomes fat his female friends are completely unaffected and vice versa. Similarly, siblings of the same sex had a greater effect on each other than the opposite.”
They found in this study that health risks would skip a person. If Eben and I are friends and Eben’s got a friend I don’t know, and I become obese, Eben’s friend who doesn’t know me now has an increased risk for becoming obese because Eben has a friend who’s obese.
So it’s not just that we become who we hang out with. We also become the people they hang out with. This article also cited that if you wanted to lose weight, that it’d be better to get with, not your friends, but your friends friends and form a group.
We tend to be more influenced by people we perceive to be more like us. So the more like me I perceive you to be, the more I’m going to be unconsciously influenced by you, copy what you do, do what you ask me to do, wanna repay favors you’ve done for me, etc. etc. etc.
Mirror Neurons In Your Brain “Experience” and Simulate Every Behavior You See—WTF?
Daniel Goleman, the author of “Emotional Intelligence” and “Vital Lies, Simple Truths” and “Social Intelli- gence” and in S.I. he says our brains are wired to synchronize with other brains.
We start imitating people within hours after we’re born. Scientists have discovered that we have a type of neuron in our brain that they’re calling mirror neurons. These neurons imitate every experience you see.
These are distributed through every center of your brain and if someone around you lifts up their right arm to ask a question in class, your brain, simulates and primes you to lift up your right arm. It actually fires all of the centers in your brain so that you’re running a simulation as if you actually lifted up your right arm.
The point is, we are wired to synchronize with others.
When you put yourself in the presence of another human being, that is speaking, moving, gesturing, using body language, interacting with others, even via T.V. or movies, as this info is going in, your brain is run- ning a simulation as if you’re doing it. And at some level you’re encoding it into your own experience as if you did it.
This can have a lot of benefits because if you can just watch people do things, you model and simulate what they do, then you can learn things very quickly which we do. But the challenge is that we learn quickly because we learn by association. We connect one idea to another, and as scientists say, neurons that fire together, wire together, one eventually triggers the other firing.
Great example of this is Pavlov’s dogs where he taught the dogs to salivate by ringing the bell and did this by ringing a bell every time he was going to feed them and then fed them over and over again and eventu- Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 827
ally all he had to do was ring the bell and the dogs started salivating because the neurons that fired together were wired together.
Our brains are always linking things to each other.
The problem comes when things get linked to each other that we didn’t want linked together. We learn lots of things that we didn’t want to learn, we have neurons that we don’t want wired together. One traumatic experience can make it so that every time we think the thought about a particular activity, it triggers all kinds of negative emotions and fantasies.
Car accidents can do this to you. After the accident some primal part of you screams for you to stay away from the car because it’s dangerous. Here’s the point: when two things or more get associated in the brain, when you “learn” something that you didn’t want to “Learn” it’s a challenge to unlearn it.
To change this we have to manually go in and disconnect them. This is what hypnosis and N.L.P are all built for, to go in and disconnect things that got unconsciously connected.
The brain can atrophy. It’s not designed to atrophy but it atrophies when put into a situation where you’re doing the same thing over and over and over again. When you look at people who seem to have intellectu- ally demanding jobs you’ll see people who aren’t zombies.
You want to surround yourself with people who are so vibrant and unlike you or what you’ve considered yourself to be up to this point, that it helps you to re-wire your brain. Something worth thinking about is what the people you hang out with talk about. What subjects do you engage in, what thoughts come up, what places do you go?
You want to surround yourself with people that after you’ve met with them you feel your brain has expanded because they’ve challenged and stretched your thinking.
Our Personalities Are Patchwork Quilts Of Others We’ve Experienced
Based on having mirror neurons that help us become who we surround ourselves with, if you examine your personality or persona or your self-image, or any of these aspects that point to the same general self con- cept, you start to realize that we are a patchwork quilt of others we’ve experienced.
We’ve gone through life and picked up a little thing here and there and eventually after sewing this stuff together we get what we think is us and we identify with it. This leads us to believe we’re individuals who are special and unique and because we emotionally estimate and see only validation, we look and see the parts of us that are unique.
We look through a perspective that shows us only the unique side of ourselves and we miss the 99.99% of us that is really just like everyone else. 828 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The paradox and irony is that when we do this, when we live in this myopic view, it prevents us from becoming anything different. It prevents us from actually taking control of this process and becoming the type of person that we’d like to become.
This is critically important because if we take control of the process and start becoming who we want to, in the image we want to create for ourselves, those people who are successful and evolved, people we want to connect to and mastermind with, they will pick this up instantly.
If there’s something that seems incredibly obvious to evolved people, it’s when they meet someone who doesn’t want to evolve, that just wants to take something form them.
They spot the person coming from a mile away and put on a bland version of their own personality so that they deflect that person. Eben has had experiences where someone he knows, who isn’t interested in evolving, interacts with an evolved person and Eben asked them what they thought of the person they just met and they say, “Yeah, I met him. I don’t know. They just seem like another person to me. I wasn’t partic- ularly impressed.” And for Eben it all makes sense in that moment.
This “Defense Mechanism” camouflage that evolved people throw up is their way of seeming like “Regular people” so they don’t appear as anything special so these “parasites” don’t stick to them and pursue them.
In all of Dave’s interviews he’s learned the people who are the real deal can sniff out a fellow evolving person in seconds.
People who work on themselves have some books they love, a lot of them they’ve mentioned here, and you can give someone else one of these books and they’ll flip through it and it’ll sound to them like the biggest load of B.S. in the world.
They look at the book and say, “This is just crap!”
For people who have been through the processes talked about in this program or a similar one, they look normal to someone who hasn’t. To someone who has, they can spot it instantly. It’s almost like you put on a pair of glasses and everyone who’s been sprayed with that paint glows and no one else can see it.
Average Your Five Closest Friends, And You Get YOU! And If You Want To Change You, Then Change Your Reference Group
If you want to change the people you hang out with, it’s gonna require you changing yourself too.
This makes you think of the parent who thinks they’re gonna get the results they want by telling kids, “Don’t do what I do. Do what I say.” You go first, then people will follow, not the other way around.
You do the thing you want everyone else to do, and then they do it. Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 829
Most people wish they could decide what they want done and then tell everyone to do it and just kick back while they do it and reflect on how cool they are.
Brian Tracy points out that our reference group impact us more than anyone else does.
This is the reason why self help/improvement seminars don’t work. It’s not because the information is flawed, it’s because you end up going back home to a group which more times than not, isn’t on board with the “New” you.
This is why changing your reference group/who you hang out with is so important.
Social Pressure = Performance, So Use It Pro-Actively…
80-90% of Eben’s success has flowed from 1 simple idea.
That idea is, if you want to accomplish something, plan it, promise big and then tell a bunch of people that I’m gonna do it .
Once instance where he does this is when he sells the program before it’s made and has people pay money to be involved in it. This leaves him no choice but to show up. And it’s not the kind of no-choice that makes him feel restricted, in fact it’s the kind that takes away all the confusion and vagueness from the situation.
There’s different kinds of pressure. Even enlightened people aren’t inspired by the external pressure to do their taxes.
The other kind of social pressure originates within yourself that stems from that part of yourself from which below it, is nothing; the core values you have.
Everyone values money. Money isn’t a core value. Everyone values control. Control isn’t a core value unless you’re a weird sociopath. If you find your deepest core values and transfer into an initiative of some kind, and you get other people involved, it calls you in way that it wouldn’t otherwise.
The most potent kind of social pressure is the kind that comes from within. The special kind that’s the dearest, the closest, and really is your core value and you turn it into something that other people get invested in and there is no choice other than to do better work than you’ve ever done before. That’s when genius emerges.
A leader is an ecologist. Ecologists are concerned with the environment and things put there that aren’t part of it that can contaminate it. Nothing will grow on a plot of land that’s contaminated.
One form of Push style leadership would be push, push, push to make things happen. 830 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
A Pull style let’s people have things your way. You can attract deer to a salt lick even if they’re aware of you off a ways watching them. If you want the deer, which is the purpose, don’t work on the deer, they’ll come. Pay attention to the clearing and when the clearing is sufficient, deer or the purpose will show up.
If you get a group of people that come together, there’s probably some purpose that’s going to emerge. If you push the purpose, that won’t be highest purpose that this group could engage in.
The highest purpose is going to come through a combination and a re-contextualization of things a lot of people have said. It just gels the whole group. This is the kind of purpose that moves mountains and changes the world and makes history.
When the clearing is set, that’s when you realize your purpose here in life. Many of the world famous leader such as Hitler, Gandhi, Churchill, etc had their purpose emerge as a result of conditions combined with their personality and natural talents. If you look back through history, you see this is the way it’s gone down.
“We’re always listening for our future.”
This is especially for those of us who are looking forward to the next big thing in their evolving in life.
And it’s not necessarily us sitting down and figuring the whole thing out. It has more to do with sur- rounding ourselves with people who are thinking at a higher level than us, that can see further than us and listening to what they see and how they talk.
You’ve recognized while listening to this program, one or two ideas and have said to yourself, “There it is. That’s the thing that I need to start doing right now.” It’s either something that’s holding you back or a technique you need to use or something you’ve been ignoring that allows you to deceive yourself.
When you open your mind to this idea that our purpose, the next step for us is a co-creation process, some- thing that we’re listening for, collaborating with others on, putting yourself into different situations so that you can have your purpose arise and manifest itself as a result… This is when you get into flow.
The reason Eben see’s that he did this program, Connected, goes beyond just making money.
He believes both him and Dave, had they not done this, they would have made just as much money doing something else. He see’s his reason for working on this was to build a relationship with Dave and his intu- ition that says they’re going to play in each others worlds in the future, they need to get to know each other better and hey, what better way to build a relationship AND bring value to the market than to do a program together.
Most people probably can’t articulate their purpose but they can smell it. Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 831
When you’re unwilling to accept second class and this process of putting yourself into others, in front of excellence, proactively, draws out a part of you where you’re continually reminded that there’s another level out there and it’s just as easy to pursue this path as it is to be a slug and have a butt load of inner conflict.
The people you aspire to hang with are the people you really enjoy hanging with. Tom Peters believes life should be a 24/7 adrenaline rush. So when you put together your tribe you want to focus on putting people in it that you really enjoy being with.
You want to put together your tribe so that synchronicity happens on a regular basis. The first way this happens is by cleaning up your own mind and life, the beliefs that tell you you aren’t good enough to form your own group, who am I to make an impact, no one gave me permission, my life sentence says that I have nothing to say so I should repeat other what others say, etc.
It’s nice to have a sense of awe of what can come out of a relationship.
Patch Together A New “Persona Quilt” From Patches of Success
You not only want to surround yourself with a special group for the social pressure reasons but also so that you’re able to patch together a new “Persona Quilt” that’s made from patches of success on purpose rather than by chance.
When you see a group of people who are expressing themselves via tattoos, degrees, lip piercings, so on, they’re really telling themselves a story of how they’re unique. But they aren’t. Maybe they aren’t part of the majority, but they’re just clones of themselves.
When you surround yourself with people who are like you want to become, it delivers radical results. And it’s not about you using your tribe to become successful. Your tribe begins to use you.
When interacting with a group that demands growth, you find yourself doing things and acting in a way that is unrecognizable to you as yourself. You talk differently, you act in ways that you consider inconsistent with who you are, timid person becomes bold, blabber mouths become reserved. Who you are is different because you’ve re-wired your tribe.
This is something that most people don’t appreciate.
Once you do this, you don’t need agendas or reminders or post it notes or rubbers around you wrist that you flick to remind you of a certain behavior you want to own. It’s in place, it’s locked in, change is as auto- matic as breath. Your social system will call for you to do exactly the things you want to do… all automati- cally.
The Power Of The Focused, Intentional Mastermind
Andrew Carnegie put Napoleon on mission to meet with over 650 of the most financially successful people in the world to find out what traits they had in common. 832 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
The end result of this 20 years of research yielded “The Laws of Success” and it’s condensed version, “Think & Grow Rich,” which is probably cited as one of the most prolific books on the topic of success. One of the keys of success in the book was that no great power and success can be accumulated without the master- mind.
“If you don’t use the mastermind, then you can’t achieve great power and success.”
When someone who’s interacted with 650 heavy duty successful people and says something like this, your ears gotta perk up. Eben, through his life and in discussion with people he knows has determined that this is as close to a universal truth as you can get.
Is it 100% true at all times? No. But it’s a very good bet.
What is a mastermind?
A mastermind is a group of people, usually a relatively small group, maybe 5-10, that meet regularly, that meet with the sole intention and purpose of helping each other become successful.
Think about how powerful it could be if you got together with 9, 7, 5 other people who on a regular basis met to discuss how you could become more successful.
Dave has found that boards of directors are the greatest missed opportunity in American business because they should be what we’ve just defined. The reality is that with corporations you get limoed in from the airport, have a nice meal and then you hear management talk and they go through their reports and it’s pretty much power point with a lot of charts and graphs but there’s no in-depth knowledge that allows for the really important questions to be asked because the guy who gets things done, who’s low on the org chart, is actually back home getting things done.
So most boards just end up rubber stamping what the CEO wants to do and then fly home and do the same thing next quarter. It’s shameful that boards of directors don’t act as masterminds and if you look at our economy, it’s no surprise that America is experiencing what it is because these boards are what you’d call dumb tribes.
And what’s crazy is that they aren’t filled with dumb people. They’re actually great people who are oper- ating with hindering life sentences that contribute to the tribe acting petty and dumb. The CEO of Worldcom was a perfect example of this playing out.
No one questioned him. The fundamental problem with worldcom was not an issue of integrity, not an issue of policies, it was a culture on the board that allowed anything to happen.
Find A Mentor Who Is An Expert At Developing Your Gift Into A Strength
A mentor is someone who is beyond you, someone who’s several years down the road, a master of whatever it is that you’d like to master. Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 833
An expert not only has mastered it but they’re a master at developing. They’ve also mastered developing other people with potential to become experts in that arena.
Your gift could be your inner talent. Something you were naturally born with. Some people are masters of logic, some people are social geniuses, some people are musical geniuses, some people are physical geniuses.
Your strength is when you’ve taken your gift and you’ve trained it. You’ve given it the best techniques, it’s been exposed to the most advanced models, training, experiences, through repetition and practice. To the point to where now it is something you can do in the real world and perform/produce results with.
One of the drivers to this process is excellence.
When you’re excellent at something, when you’ve demonstrated to yourself and others that you can master something and then once you’ve mastered it, you use it to contribute value to others, this is like the spark that lights the rest of the fire.
When you find a mentor who’s an expert who knows your area and they’ve developed others who have your gift, and you work with them you cultivate excellence. This ends up being your asset that you con- tribute to your group.
Whatever your gift is, it doesn’t have to be related to business specific purposes like real estate development. Your gift can be anything. The key is excellence through a mentor.
Sum Up Of First 4 Sessions of “Connected”
They’ve talked about how creating your own group is an asset in THE 21st century.
The thing that separates the amateurs from the pro’s is the pro’s are consistently focused on building their asset and resources.
Are you willing to make the decision to make being CONNECTED, the intentional, conscious creation of your tribe, a top priority in your life?
Are you willing to commit to this level of thinking and process of becoming connected and connecting others for life?
It’s important to make these commitments to yourself. If so, say “Yes, I commit to creating a tribe and to make being connected a top priority in my life.” Confirm this to yourself.
Next they talked about creating friendships with people.
Are you willing to make friendships with people who are at the next level a top priority? Are you willing to use the tools given to you here, on a daily basis, review the material, look at your notes every single day 834 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One spend at least 30-60 minutes using and reviewing this material, going out and taking action on it. Are you willing to use this to connect people with each other so that you build your network and your tribe?
If you are, just give yourself a little nod.
The next thing they talked about is how it’s important to consciously gravitate toward positive politi- cians, to surround yourself with the type of people you’d like to become and really use this to build your own integrity in life.
Are you willing to use positive politics?
Are you willing to intentionally build relationships with those people within structures that already exist, to help those people out and connect on a personal level so that you can align your thought, emotion, behavior and communication and actions so that you can create this new integrity?
Are you willing to overcome your internal and external blocks to success?
Are you willing to take an honest look at your psychology?
Are you willing to admit that you’re just another regular person and that you fall prey to all these biases and emotional responses and that your justice mechanism acts up just like the rest of us?
Are you willing to admit that your strengths can sometimes sabotage you?
Do the work required to “let go” of those old attachments and relax into emotional experiences that happen. When something shows up and pushes that emotional button, are you willing to practice taking a breath and letting it go?
Are you willing to spend 5 minutes a day in the morning and 5 minutes in the evening meditating on a mind that let’s go? And when things come up and push your button, and act as an affront to you, are you willing to relax into them, remember a mind that let’s go, breathe until it’s gone and then move forward and not hold on to any of that stuff?
If so just give yourself a little nod, maybe say to yourself, “Yes, I’m willing to work on my psychological limitations.”
Are you willing to master the master mind and finding of mentors?
We become who we hang out with.
Are you willing to face all the blocks and proactively building a new self image so that you can proactively create a mastermind around you that you participate in and help facilitate and are you also willing to go out and find a mentor who’s an expert at developing your skill into a strength so that you have something to Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 835
contribute, self esteem and confidence so that you can express yourself creatively, so that you can create value for yourself and your group so that you can add value?
If you are, give yourself a little nod and say, “Yes, I’m going to intentionally focus on creating my own mas- termind and attract a mentor who’s an expert at developing my gift into a strength so that I can contribute.”
We only do things in reality that we first see ourselves doing in our minds so this exercise here is to help us see ourselves doing these things.
You may want to let go of all commitments for a while and even let go of these commitments and let them operate on an unconscious level.
Q & A
In order to find a mentor, start asking the people around you “What is my gift?”
“No one knows who discovered water but we’re pretty sure it wasn’t a fish.”
In reality, your gift is completely transparent to you. Some people don’t think they can use their gift to make money. It’d be like cheating.
If you don’t feel like you could get paid to do it because it’s too fun, you might be barking up the right tree. Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach has people do an exercise in which they just email all their friends and say, “What do you think my unique ability is?”
He has sophisticated, high income professionals do this. Anyone can do this. Start asking people, “What is my gift, what am I naturally talented at, what do you see is my strength here?”
Listen to what people say. Don’t put words in their mouth. Don’t lead the witness.
Ask with an open mind and an open heart and you’ll be surprised at what you hear.
Q: How can you quickly know if someone’s gonna rip you off when first meeting them?
We tend to fall in love with people we interact with. We do it in relationships, we do it in business and we always look at their most positive traits.
When we look at people, we kinda look at them from one angle and people are usually showing us their best side.
The reality is that everyone has a dark side. Everyone. 836 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
If you can imagine looking at the moon, depending on which direction you’re looking from, unless it’s going through an eclipse, one side of the moon is always going to be completely lit up. You could be looking at it with the sun behind you and the whole face of the moon will look light.
But there’s another perspective you could take where no matter which direction they’re trying to show you, you would see reality as clearly as it is. That would be looking from above. Then you can see their light & dark side.
When Eben meets people, he assumes that they have a light side and that they have a dark side and that probably, as light as their light side is, that’s how dark their dark side is. Some people really feel the need to express and present themselves as a SUPER LIGHT. And they really try to promote all the good stuff about themselves.
To the extent that the person holds themselves up as being good and wonderful, here are all my accom- plishments and talking about themselves. That’s when you can almost guarantee that the darkside is just a big as the dark side.
If you meet someone that quietly goes about their business, but is amazing, they’ll still have a dark side but it will be kinda small because they aren’t trying to prove something to you overtly.
So when he meets someone that’s super charismatic or unbelievably attractive or amazing smooth talking person that makes you feel like you’ve known them a long time, or someone who’s trying to flatter you and say how great you are, the red flag goes up.
He says to himself that there’s something going on here that I’m not seeing that I have to stay vigilant to it.
In most cases this kinda works itself out when you choose the kinda people you want to be around. And then go seek them out and build relationships with them. Once you build a solid circle of people you can trust, then you can take their word for it when someone is referred to you.
Until then, you want to target the people you want to meet and put extra effort in to do whatever it takes to get around those people because your odds are so much better than just meeting random people and trying build a relationship and then finding their dark side is waaaay to much to handle.
And he also thinks that you should put anyone you’d like to get to know through the Top Grading Process. Learn everything about their past, listen for patterns because it’s a super winning formula.
When you keep working this, you’ll be able to pick out whether someone is committed to their own excel- lence. They do things that shine light on this. They stand out like a beacon.
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Hope you’ve enjoyed these notes. Going back through them has been a sheer pleasure for me and if you’re a certain kind of person, I trust it’s been marvelous experiencing them for yourself, too. Notes For Eben Pagan’s “Connected” Program… 837
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 163
Don’t Give Up On Your Dreams; Unless They Ask You To Intentionally Give Yourself a Concussion
Hey you, It’s #2.
This video is a classic demonstration of what’s possible for a human who demonstrates what Chet Holmes so commonly refers to as, “Pig Headed Determination”… Enjoy!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XI3U8eupNQ&feature=player_embedded&has_verified=1[/ youtube] CHAPTER 164
Owning Happiness is Either Impossible or Simple
Hey you, It’s #2.
Today I want to introduce you to a unique strategy that shows you how to become the boss of your mind in charge of kicking defeating thoughts in the balls, picking them up by the seat of their pants and then using their heads to open the door so you can toss their ass out of your mind and onto the street.
This vitally important because your thinking is the difference that makes the difference. Resourcefulness, not resources, are what give you an edge in any economy, especially a beat to shit one. Resourcefulness, which is nothing but a mindset, is all about finding solutions to problems which lead to a better quality of problem, which keep you growing so you can bask in happiness and fulfillment.
Just the other night I spent hours just reading and taking notes on the introduction to a book called “Happi- ness is Free” written by the creators of the Sedona Method and let me show you now, from this book, some of what absolutely kept me spell bound…
Happiness is you being you without the negativity. Not the limited self that you pretend to be, but your unlimited self.
The happiness that is you is totally independent of what you have or do not have. The happiness that is you is also independent of what you do or do not do, yet it makes your experience of whatever you do or don’t do more enjoyable.
Happiness equates to your capacity to love rather than to be being loved. Things can shift for you if you direct all your thoughts and feelings in the direction from that of wanting to be loved, to that of loving.
I got an inkling that it was when I was loving that I had the highest feeling. 840 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
I remembered the moment when publicly this beautiful, charming girl told the world that she approved of Lester, she loved Lester – and I could feel that nice feeling of approval. I sensed this was not as great as loving, it wasn’t a lasting feeling. It was just for the moment. In order for me to have that feeling continu- ously, she had to continuously say that.
So this momentary ego approval was not as great as the feeling of loving her. As long as I was loving her, I felt so happy. But when she loved me, there were only moments of happiness when she gave me approval.
Her loving me was a momentary pleasure that needed constant showing and proving on her part, while my loving her was a constant happiness, as long as I was loving her.
I kept reviewing incidents from the past , and where I saw that I was not loving, I would change that feeling to loving that person. Instead of wanting them to do something for me, I would change it to wanting to do something for them. I kept this up until I couldn’t find anymore incidents to work on.
When I saw that everything that was happening to me had a thought of it before it happened, I realized that if I could grab hold of this, I could consciously determine everything that was happening to me.
Let go of all your non-loving thoughts
And above all, I saw that I was responsible for everything that had happened to me! This was a tremendous piece of freedom, to think that I was not a victim of this world, that it lay within my power to arrange the world the way I wanted it to be rather than being at the effect of it.
So, I began digging further on how to extend this joy. I began further changing my attitudes on love. I would imagine the girl I wanted most, marrying one of my friends, or the guy I would want her to marry least, and then enjoy their enjoying each other. To me this was the extreme in loving, and if I could achieve it, it would give me more of this wonderful thing I was experiencing.
And so I worked on it. I took a particular fellow, Burt, and a particular girl, and I wouldn’t let go until I could really feel the joy of their enjoying each other.
Owning Happiness is Either Impossible or Simple
What if you could do this for your most ruthless competitor?
What if you could imagine them taking away your very best, most profitable clients and while doing so, let go of all the knots in your stomach and tension in your chest that come with seeing this in the theatre of your mind until you could actually feel joy at them enjoying their experience together?
It’s only my opinion, but I say that you’ll attract far more business operating from this mindset than if you were to wallow in a fearful, needy, paranoia that says everyone’s out to get you and that your customers are always looking for the best deal and will leave you if you don’t sell at the lowest price. Owning Happiness is Either Impossible… 841
Eben Pagan spoke to this level of thinking in his Self Made Wealth program and he called it, “Bless that which you want.”
Imagine the worst case scenario, see it, hear it, feel it, smell it, taste it, and then here’s what’s important… YOU WELCOME WHATEVER FEELINGS SHOW THEIR ASS UP. Invite them to the party instead of pushing them down like you’re probably used to doing.
And as you’re feeling all the tension in your gut and chest imagine the feeling of relief you get when you’re hoisting a bunch of heavy ass grocery bags into the house from out in the car, your fingers and forearms screaming at you in pain and you get them inside to where you’re gonna unload them and you RELEASE your grip on them.
Can you identify with that sense of relief that you get when you do that?
You do the same thing with these feelings that are swirling around in your belly and chest… open up an imaginary door over both of them and let those feelings fall, drop, evaporate, disolve out of it. Looking down while doing this helps you because it allows your focus to center on the somatic mind/The Enteric Nervous System – the brain in your gut.
And now to take this to the next level and make this even more actionable for you, lets fuse this with a story and technique Eben Pagan told during his “Becoming Mr. Right” program where he talked about a Bud- dhist, Atisha, 1,000 years ago who had a great quote…
“The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.”
Let’s you and I have an experience of this…
With your feet flat on the floor, pointed straight ahead, breathe in for 4 and out for 8. So you’re breathing out half as fast as you’re breathing in. Feel the air where it’s touching the inside of your nose and feel down deep in your abdomen as the air enters your diaphragm. Then also feel the air on the inside of your nose as you’re exhaling.
Get in touch with your body. Feel your feet, feel your hands, feel your head, and now reflect for a moment on what it means to you have a mind that lets go. What is a mind that lets go? What is a mind that holds onto? What is a mind that grasps? What is a mind that begins to loosen it’s grip? What is a mind that holds gently? What is a mind that lets go?
What if your mind let go continually?
What if instead of grabbing onto things and making meaning, connecting them to other things perma- nently, what if it saw perspectives, experienced experiences and then let… go?
I recently attended an art festival that’s called “Burning Man”. 842 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
And before I went, I’d considered going for several years. And as I researched this and had several friends say “You should check out this festival.” I saw some people saying, “Oh, it’s just a bunch of hippies that get together and take drugs and party and have sex.” Which part of me said, “That doesn’t sound too bad.”
But that’s not really my style. So I didn’t go for a few years and then finally a couple of friends talked me into it. And so I went a little bit of pilgrimage, driving hundreds of miles out into the desert to see what this thing was all about.
And I had a profound experience there seeing 50,000 people create a new community with a new ethic and a new way of relating to each other. Something I think we can learn from. And actually I saw very little of the hippies, drugs and sex.
But I did see a lot of profound things happening there. One of the most profound elements at the Burning Man festival is the theme of complete enjoyment and engagement, total contribution and complete receiving. And then, letting it all go.
The theme of ‘Burning Man’ is “Burning the Man”
The climax of the festival is when tens of thousands of people gather around the central figure that has acted as the compass and guide post for the entire city for a whole week and then they celebrate as it’s burned to the ground.
Then, many of the artists who have spent months or years of their life creating beautiful pieces of art set many of their art pieces on fire and burn them as well. And when I heard about this, I thought, “Those people must be crazy.”
But when I went and experienced it, I got it.
And I realized that these people were on to something that is profound. It’s the idea that full enjoyment, full contribution, full engagement, full receiving is not about holding onto things. And that holding on and grasping diminishes enjoyment.
Full enjoyment, full engagement is about releasing as we’re experiencing.
And the burning of the man is a symbol and one of the perspectives of this symbolic act is that the burning of the man is letting the old you die in the moment so that a new you can be born.
And so in the future when you contemplate, in those moments between being awake and being asleep, when you meditate on the idea, the concept of a mind that lets go, you might create an image of the old you being burned in the fire of creation so that you can let go of the old you every moment, realizing that by the time you sense anything, that it’s already gone, that that moment is already gone.
This might allow you to get the point of a mind that lets go, which is, that there is no point. There’s only becoming more aware and more awake and the more that you can relax the mind that grasps, and you can Owning Happiness is Either Impossible… 843
open the mind that lets go, the more you can perceive, the more you can connect, the more that you can contribute, the more you can receive, and the more that you can help this world evolve and the more that you can create the better reality that you can see in your mind.
And when I finished at Burning Man, I got back in my vehicle and I took a long drive home, looking at the scenery, thinking about the experience that I had and remembering to let it go.
Remembering that the more you let it go, the more you can make space to have other amazing experi- ences like it
And you might notice that the more you let go, and the more that you fully involve yourself, the better your experiences can get and the more you can help yourself which will ultimately help others.
And that by helping others, and helping others help each other, that you will be helping us all.
In the end there is nothing more important than helping all of us to help all of life to survive.
As you reflect on a mind that lets go, now, you might choose a symbol, a picture, a shape, a form, that sym- bolizes a mind that lets go. And this shape, form or symbol might have a color and a texture. It might be moving, it might be still. It might have a temperature, or a smell or a taste. It might be multi-dimensional and have many of these combined.
But that symbol can be your own private anchor or reminder of this moment, of remembering, experi- encing yourself, aware, alive, right now with a mind that lets go. And you might also begin to think about the experiences that you’re going to have in the future with a very special client in your life and as you have those experiences, there will be times when you are interacting with them and challenges come up.
There will times when you feel strong emotions, when you feel conflict. There will be times when you are triggered and you’ve lost the ability to reason or to do what you know is right.
And you might just go out into your future and place that symbol, picture, or shape in those moments so that when those moments come, you remember your symbol and you close your eyes and you take a breath in for four and out for eight and you remember a mind that lets go so that you can remember to take their perspective, to relax into the moment and to help both of you become closer and more integrated through the experience.
And only as fast as you enjoyed going into your future and placing that symbol in all of those future experi- ences, and only as fast as you’ve integrated, fully letting go, I’d like you take a deep breath in, let it out, and come back to now where you already were anyway.
So, there we are.
Simple but not easy but not impossible. 844 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Do what you will with this and please know that I wish you an absolutely wonderful existence where you simply own happiness through a mind that lets go of defeating feelings and thoughts.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 165
Pepe Le Pew: Lose The Drama And Find Your Balls
“Claim your own at any hazard.” ~Walt Whitman~
Hey you,
It’s #2.
As a shy kid, I always admired Pepe Le Pew. As a recovering shy adult, I still do.
Pepe let it be known what his intentions were. I believe there is something to learn from his aggressiveness and his immunity to rejection. And his feline princesses only ran from him because of his stank, not because of his self-absorbed, arrogant swagger.
In the real world, whether it be attracting a world-class lover, making high-level business connections, influencing clients to work with you instead of your competitors… the meek, do NOT inherit the earth. The Pepe Le Pew’s do.
How you do anything is how you do everything
Man is the only living species that has the power to act as his own destroyer—and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.
~Ayn Rand~ And this brings about the topic for the day:
Selfishness. A word that like the sight of Pepe le Pew, wrinkles the nose of most people who hear it or say it or are identified with it’s label. 846 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
Webster’s dictionary defines selfish as “caring unduly or supremely for oneself; regarding one’s own com- fort, advantage, etc. in disregard, or at the expense of, that of others.
Thomas Leonard, the author of “The Portable Coach: 28 Surefire Strategies for Business and Personal Suc- cess”, a book I’ve ABSOLUTELY fallen in love with, says that selfishness is a state in which you actually do what is best for you and that this in turn creates a larger contribution to your family and to the world.
Holding on to, and being ruled by, other people’s definitions of selfishness have probably created a barrier that you’ll need to break. Because fortune really does favor the brave, and the brave are guided by their own lights. This is just as true about small concerns as it is about larger ones.
Here’s what my heroine Ayn Rand, famed philosopher and author of the novel “Atlas Shrugged” has to say about the “S” word…
America’s abundance was created not by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America’s industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages, and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance- and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way.
~Ayn Rand~ Distinctions to Draw
It stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there’s someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.
~Ayn Rand~ In case you’ve never really thought about how selfishness has been bastardized in damn near every culture on Earth, here’s a few perspectives to compare against each other that shed light on another, enlightened view point…
SELFISH VS. NEEDY — Selfishness is a choice.
Neediness means you’re driven by unmet needs, without choice. A victim who won’t take control of the emotions that bubble up and the pattern of negative behaviors that come with these emotions.
SELFISHNESS VS. SELFULNESS — Selfulness means filling up your soul and yourself from the inside. It’s a good term to use if you’re afraid of selfishness.
YOU VS. YOUR ROLES — You are distinct from your roles. Selfulness often requires abandoning or restructuring of roles, so there’s room to grow. Pepe Le Pew: Lose The Drama And Find Your… 847
NEED VS. WANT — A need is something required to be yourself, fully at your best. A want just provides gratification, usually temporary. Both are terrific. Needs are more important.
WANTS VS. SHOULDS — A want is something you selfishly acquire because it makes you feel good. Wants can be very healthy and motivating. A should is something you believe you must do, or suffer conse- quences. Shoulds generally slow your development.
GENEROSITY AS A BY-PRODUCT VS. GENEROSITY AS A FOCUS – Selfishness makes you more generous, on a sustaining basis. Lack of selfishness makes generosity too costly to you, your life, and those around you.
JOY VS. PLEASURE — Joy is intellectual excitement, emotional involvement, and physical pleasure com- bined. Pleasure is mostly physical.
How Do You Start Doing What’s Best For You By Being Incredibly Selfish
Ayn Rand, through her writing left me with me with the feeling that I wasn’t wrong for pursuing what my heart yearned with her concrete stand on the virtues of selfishness vs. self-sacrifice but in none of her mate- rial did she lay out a set of actionable guidelines (some would argue that she didn’t need to), that you could implement right away that would end your internal and external conflicts and set you on a path to personal freedom.
This is where Thomas Leonard’s book has become a valuable resource to me, and if you choose, to you too.
One way of becoming incredibly selfish would be making the decision to script and time block your day and make sure it’s known to people around you that will not tolerate being interrupted during specific times of the day and if they wish to talk to you, they must wait until a certain time when you’ll answer any and all questions they have.
List at least two examples of what “becoming incredibly selfish” looks like to you…
Thomas believes that we each have a special gift or personal trait that is uniquely ours. We have to take the time to be selfish in order to uncover what that gift is and how it can contribute to our lives and to society at large.
Write down any special gifts(s) that you believe you have. If you have no idea, write a list of things that bring you the greatest joy.
Next step is where you discuss your commitment to becoming more selfish with those whom it’s going to affect: you family, boss, etc. Make a list of those individuals who you should inform of your decision to become more selfish. 848 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
One way to begin to be more selfish is to start saying “no.” Make a list of those things that you would like to start saying “no” to, and journal about any of the steps that you’ve taken toward doing so.
5. Write a list of ten things that you really want for yourself in the next sixty to ninety days to help you stay focused.
Thomas suggests that you say “no” to at least one thing each day for the next seven days.
This leads us to next powerful concept, “Extreme Self-Care”, which you and I will talk about in my next post: Pepe Le Pew: Losing the Drama and Finding Your Balls – Part 2.
Until then, if you’re open to the growth and Pepe Le Pew Swagger that taking action on these 6 exercises can into your life, have at them and let me know what kind of awesomeness comes into your life as a result.
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2
“Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations whether in music, art, poetry, mathematics, philosophy or anything else. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, then the group can take and build and extend it but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the the lonely mind of a man.”
John Steinbeck lo CHAPTER 166
Pepe Le Pew: Losing the Drama and Finding Your Balls – Part 2
Hey you, It’s #2.
Today you and I will be talking about how “Extreme Self Care” can allow you to go through your day behaving courageously, calmly and courteously. The power trio.
One of Thomas Leonard’s, the author of “The Portable Coach: 28 laws of attraction for business & personal success”, ways of knowing he was succeeding in the moment was by how nice he was being to people.
This was the same guy who advocates that you become incredibly selfish as we talked about in length in Part 1 of this 2 part article.
Pepe Embodies The Power Trio
He was courageous in letting females know what he wanted and not being a “friend zone” wuss. He always exuded a calm, assertive energy. And he was always courteous in the face of rejection. He never got flus- tered or angry or turned into an asshole just because he didn’t get his way and no one wanted to be around him. He was always chill.
In the episode where I clipped the picture above from, he spotted from land, a black cat on an ocean liner who’d snuck under a railing that’d been painted white and now looked to him to be a sexy female skunk who couldn’t wait for the opportunity to jump on his bones.
So, taking one of Thomas Leonard’s 28 laws of success into mind, he “Over-responded to this event” and dove into the water and raced along the bottom of the ocean to pursue what he wanted. When he climbed aboard the ship and people started screaming “Le Pew”, he sent everyone running for the lifeboats, thus abandoning ship. 850 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
With free reign of the vessel, Pepe makes his stop the luxurious salon on board to get funky fresh in the flesh for the pursuit of his lady friend. He takes a second to indulge in Extreme Self Care by drying himself poofy and then gives his skunk fur the 100 brush stroke treatment. Hunk City, right!!!
Extreme Self-Care
Appearance is one thing we sometimes neglect in pursuit of placing others ahead of ourselves. And it’s something I believe chips away at our self esteem when we don’t present the shiniest package possible to the world and most importantly… to ourselves in the mirror.
Thomas has a section in his “Become Incredibly Selfish” chapter that gives a list of 10 areas to focus on that help you present your best self, titled “Extreme Self Care”. I’m simply giving you this section as it’s pre- sented by Thomas because I love the way he lays out all the actionable steps.
Here you go…
Living in today’s world places many demands on your body, mind, heart, and spirit. The purpose of extreme self-care is to create a positively selfish focus on balance, well-being, and quality of life.
I started thinking this way almost five years ago, but I didn’t make a total commitment to the concept until late in 1 996-after the rewarding but physically, spiritually, and emotionally intense experience of building up Coach University to be the world leader in virtual instruction. It was an exciting accomplishment, but it also left me feeling out of balance.
The key word here is extreme.
Self-care always sounded like a good idea, but I couldn’t get interested in it until I could picture how to make a comprehensive and (for me) radical change. During the transition, I was supported by no fewer than ten health-care professionals, including a physician, a coach, a nutritionist, a therapist, and a Rolfer (deep-tissue massage specialist).
Everyone has his or her own way of manifesting extreme self-care, so please adapt these suggestions to meet your needs. Some of them may strike you as too extreme right now. But, then, your sense of what’s possible for you to attain is going to grow tremendously. So don’t be concerned, and just give extreme self-care a second look after you’ve completed this book.
By then you may find yourself much more comfortable with the notion of reaching for the best. For now, it’s okay if you want to view this section as just a glimpse at where you’re headed.
The areas you should focus on are:
I. Stress elimination 2. Environment and family 3. Pleasure Pepe Le Pew: Losing the Drama and Finding… 851
4. Well-being 5. Support and experts 6. Ingestion 7. Appearance 8. Sustainability 9. Daily rituals 10. Special-care items
1. Stress Elimination
Note that we’re saying stress elimination, not stress reduction. If you focus on stress elimination, then, at the very least, you will achieve stress reduction. If you focus only on stress reduction, you may not get enough benefit to make a difference. • • If your job, business, or profession is harming you and you can’t seem to make it completely stress-free, either quit, sell it, or change professions. • • Make a list of ten promises you have made to others that are causing you stress, even if it’s stress that you can handle. Revoke all ten of these promises and work out alternatives with the promises. •
As you may or may not know (if you’re new around these parts), I’m a fan of mystery novels and here is an excerpt from a Robert Parker “Spenser Series” book I’m basking in now that illustrates a key trait most people aren’t selfish enough to embrace…
“I looked at my watch. Quarter to eleven. She’d be here in an hour and a half, or so she had promised. Punctuality was not Susan’s strength. She always intended to be on time, but seemed to have some kind of chronometric dyslexia, which thwarted her intent, nearly always. Had she been predictably late, say fifteen minutes every time, then you could simply adjust your expectations. But she was sometimes a minute late and sometimes an hour late, and on rare and astonishing occasions, she was five minutes early. Since I had no way to gauge her coming hither or her going hence, I accepted the fact that readiness is all and remained calm. However late she might be, she was always worth the wait.”
If you know yourself to be a person who’s never gonna be on time for stuff, DON’T PROMISE THAT YOU WILL. This will help manage other’s expectations and save you shit load of stress.
Of course there’s some instances where time is critical like flights and appointments in court or stuff like that but when it comes to petty stuff, don’t stress yourself out over other people’s expectations of you. • • Identify the three sources (people, roles, expectations of others) of your current stress. Completely elimi- nate these three items. • 852 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
• Get a house cleaner. • • Have your errands run by someone else. • • Arrange to have all bills, paper, and administrative tasks handled electronically or by an assistant who handles everything automatically. • • Completely resolve any legal, tax, or financial clouds or problems. •
2. Environment and Family
We are all products of our environments. But we have the option of designing and adapting our environ- ments to best serve us. • • Revamp your home environment to make it more restful and nurturing. Be fully aware of every aspect of your physical environment and draw energy from it. Fully respond to your environment. If something goes wrong, instantly learn from the experience and grow. If you don’t like something, fix it now. • • Back up your computer weekly. • • Your spouse, your children, your partnerships, your friendships, and your pets should all add energy to your life. If they do not, pursue counseling. • • Tolerate absolutely no clutter or messes in or around your house. • • Have everything in your home and office fully and properly organized and filed. (Everything!) •
3. Pleasure
You know what makes you feel great, so please write down your top ten favorite personal, whimsical, intel- lectual, and entertainment pleasures below…
Now for each item listed above, conceive of at least three different ways to put more of each into your life.
4. Well –Being
Some of the following steps toward physical and emotional well-being will require using health-care profes- sionals, but there’s no better investment you can make. It isn’t indulgence; it’s a healthy respect for mainte- nance of a key asset: you. Greater well-being pays off in smoother, more easily sustained performance. • Pepe Le Pew: Losing the Drama and Finding… 853
• Give up the future; live in the here and now, and do not chase anything. • • Have a complete physical exam every one to three years. • • Have a complete blood testing workup and discuss the results with a licensed nutritionist. • • Exercise daily for at least 30 minutes, even if you must hire a trainer to keep yourself on track. • • If you react inappropriately to others or to problems, get to the source of the emotional reaction. • • Cultivate excellent posture, move naturally, and keep your body well balanced and integrated through yoga or through the services of a trainer. • • If you find it difficult to eat nutritionally correct meals, arrange for prepared food to be delivered twice a week. • • Be totally free of adrenalized behavior. • • Arrange to be lovingly touched or held several times per week, each time for as long as you need it. Arrange for frequent massages. • • Know what motivates you. •
5. Support and Experts
Extreme self-care is made possible by the investment you make in all areas of your life, including the invest- ment you make in the services of experts. • • Work with a personal coach who has a track record of helping others practice extreme self-care and who is a terrific example of the benefits of this program. • • Work with a chiropractor or other bodywork specialist who can remove any energy blocks. • • In addition to regular massage, learn about Rolfing or other deep-tissue bodywork. • • If needed or beneficial, enter therapy with an expert in your area of primary concern. • • Go to a dermatologist and have the skin on every part of your body thoroughly examined. • • Develop a supportive relationship with what you consider to be God, or the Divine Force (or whatever is the equivalent for you). 854 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
• • Be a source of unconditional support and love for a friend or family member and draw on their uncondi- tional support of love in return. • • If you have money concerns or problems, work them out completely, using an expert or team of experts. • • Build a Rolodex of several well-recommended experts that you can call on for assistance, from attorneys to tree surgeons, from accountants to psychiatrists. •
6. Ingestion
Open mouth, insert extreme self-care… • • Drink at least a half gallon of spring water each day. • • Take a timed-release vitamin C (500-1,000mg) daily, if recommended. • • Take a nutritionist-recommended multivitamin daily. • • Do not smoke. Drink alcohol only very rarely (if at all). • • Do not use caffeine or sugar. • • Eliminate most meat and dairy products (if medically appropriate for you) from your diet. • • Treat your body as the temple it is. •
7. Appearance
Extreme self-care applies to the outer as well as the inner you. As Oscar Wilde said, it is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. • • Toss every single article of clothing that does not make you look great. Replace them with clothing in colors that flatter your skin tone. • • Have your hair styled and/or colored exactly as you most like it. • • Have your nails professionally manicured. • • If you want or need hair removed, see a licensed electrolysis expert. Pepe Le Pew: Losing the Drama and Finding… 855
• • Have (or give yourself) facials at least monthly. • • Wear only great shoes. • • Keep your body in excellent shape, toned and exercised regularly. • • Keep your teeth looking great, and smile broadly at every opportunity. •
8. Sustainability
Part of extreme self-care is to integrate the changes that you are making. They should become natural behavior for you, not just a temporary effort. • • Restructure your finances (cut expenses, increase income) so that you have absolutely no financial con- cerns and money does not drive your decisions. • • Work through all of your parental and sibling issues in therapy so you won’t be blindly guided by the past. • • Resolve and heal from whatever damage was done to you prior to today. • • Learn to say no easily. • • Know what your strengths are. Install support systems to do for you what you can’t, won’t, or don’t do for yourself. •
9. Daily Rituals
Extreme self-care is a daily process, not just a one-time program. • • Stretch daily • • Have a relaxing pre-bedtime ritual (reading, music, touch, etc.) so you fall asleep with a smile on your face. • • Floss well, twice daily. • • Have a waking-up routine that’s nourishing and deliberate. (See Free Notes we did on Eben Pagan’s “Wake Up Productive” for a kick ass step-by-step way to accomplish this) 856 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
• • Make sure that your days are spent doing what you most want to do, not what you should be doing or what others expect of you. • • Underpromise consistently – don’t get caught in the trap of overperforming to catch up. • • Each evening have something wonderful to look forward to. • • Have a specially identified time in your schedule just for yourself. • • Stay in touch with yourself and your feelings throughout the day. •
10. Special Care Items
Here’s where you can note down your special needs or wants that you have that you seen elsewhere on this list. Use your imagination and, of course, be very specific.
======End Chapter======
Can you see how consistently focusing on some of these self-care habits would allow yo to behave coura- geously, calmly and courteously? What do you think? Me, I fell in love with these ideas and was delighted to see them displayed for me to choose from and make myself aware of.
Have fun loving the hell out of yourself!!!
Talk soon,
Note Taking Nerd #2 CHAPTER 167
What I Learned From Anthony Robbins Time of Your Life Program…Part One
The POWER OF FOCUS
In today’s complex world, we play multiple roles and we want to excel at everything. We believe that “there is never enough time”, but remember this: time is nothing but an emotion, a feeling. How long something lasts is based on how we feel, and our feelings change by a change in perspective.
Focus in the ultimate power that can change the way we think, the way we feel, and what we do in any moment. When we change our focus, we change our lives. What we focus on determines the direction we will go.
Real happiness comes from controlling your focus Those who fail to focus their time (their emotion) on the areas that really matter live in reaction to three things:
1) Anything that leads to pain. 2) Anything that leads to immediate pleasure. 3) Other people’s demands
If you want to change your life, ask better questions . RPM is a process of thinking that provides more choices, leads to a sense of balance, and moves us toward what we really want - the things that are most important.
RPM Life Management System proves flexibility and freedom . Have you ever checked off everything on your to-do list but still felt like you haven’t really accomplished anything? With the RPM system, 20% of your actions will give your 80% of the results
RPM is: 1) What is my RESULT? WHAT do I really want? 2) What is my PURPOSE? WHY do I really want it? 858 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
3) What is my MASSIVE ACTION PLAN? What specifc actions must I take to make this happen?
The way to get more time is to get rid of the unnecessary things that “steal” your time . What activities do I do on a regular basis that I really don’t have to or that someone else could easily do for me. What are two things that I don’t have a sense of real purpose for, that doesn’t give me the real “juice”, or relate to an outcome or result I want, and yet I find myself doing.
The first secret to creating a change is awareness, so let’s find out what you’re currently focusing on: What are some areas I focus on in life that don’t really serve you? Are there some things I fear or don’t want to expe- rience but often find myself thinking about anyway?
TIME TARGETS
If I had more time, what would I do with it?
I would exercise more; spend more time with Dave; read more; create beautiful counted-cross stitch items; create my business; redecorate my home; clean my home; take my cocker spaniels for a walk; get out of the house to do more with friends; Tae Kwan Do; learn fly fishing; connect with family and friends more
Time for a reality check: Where do I spend my time. TR provides a great metaphor for the time targets. Think of a dartboard. There are four dimensions of time:
1) The Dimension of Distraction: Not Important and Not Urgent (Outer Ring): This is where we go when we’re stressed and want to do something that requires no thinking. Examples: eating when you’re not hungry, watching TV. If you spend most of your time here, you are in what TR calls “No-Man’s Land” - you’re really not happy, but you’re not unhappy enough to do anything about it
2) The Dimension of Delusion: Urgent But Not Important (The Second Ring): You are constantly making “to-do” lists. You spend all of your time having a plan created, but you get interrupted by urgent demands of others around you and you get caught up in doing those items. In other words, you delude yourself into believing that you have to do all of these crazy “to-do” lists that keep you from doing the actions that will bring fulfillment.
3) The Dimension of Demand: Urgent and Important (The third ring): There are always certain things that cannot be planned for (i.e., injuiries, death of a loved one, co-worker out sick) These items are urgent and need to be dealt with. You want to become PROACTIVE in anticipating these demands.
4) The ZONE: Very Important, But Not Urgent (The Bull’s Eye): The dimension where your primary focus is on doing the things that are VERY IMPORTANT BUT NOT URGENT The “Zone” contains all those actions you all know to be so important, but you never get to because you “have no time”. TR says that activity without a true purpose is the drain to a life of fulfillment. This is the DIMENSION OF FUL- FILLMENT!!!!! What I Learned From Anthony Robbins Time… 859
People who experience lives of total fulfillment spend 40-70% of their time in THE ZONE.
TR asks us to look at another Dartboard Target. This time, it has three rings:
The outer ring are things you can’t control or influence. In this ring we have to make the decision to find an empowering meaning when events happen out of our control.
The inner ring are things you cannot control, but you can influence. You can influence opinions, but you cannot control how other people react and their opinions no matter how hard you try. You also cannot control the past - you can’t change it, why would you spend time on what you can’t control?
The bulls eye is what you can control - your emotional state
By controlling our focus, developing awareness, and eliminating the belief that stress is a natural part of life, we can reduce the amount of time we spend in the Dimensions of Distraction, Delusion, and Demand. In order to do this, we must change our beliefs on what “urgency” is - URGENT DOES NOT MEAN IMPOR- TANT!!! We have to stop living in reaction to outside demands.
TR says that more time comes not from changing your schedule, but by CHANGING YOUR LEVEL OF FULFILLMENT. When you are engaged in an activity that you love, time disappears. Make sure you spend your time, emotion, and focus on what you CAN control: your state of mind and what things mean.
TIME TARGETS
If I had more time, what would I do with it?
I would exercise more; spend more time with Dave; read more; create beautiful counted-cross stitch items; create my business; redecorate my home; clean my home; take my cocker spaniels for a walk; get out of the house to do more with friends; Tae Kwan Do; learn fly fishing; connect with family and friends more
Time for a reality check: Where do I spend my time. TR provides a great metaphor for the time targets. Think of a dartboard. There are four dimensions of time:
1) The Dimension of Distraction: Not Important and Not Urgent (Outer Ring): This is where we go when we’re stressed and want to do something that requires no thinking. Examples: eating when you’re not hungry, watching TV. If you spend most of your time here, you are in what TR calls “No-Man’s Land” - you’re really not happy, but you’re not unhappy enough to do anything about it
2) The Dimension of Delusion: Urgent But Not Important (The Second Ring): You are constantly making “to-do” lists. You spend all of your time having a plan created, but you get interrupted by urgent demands of others around you and you get caught up in doing those items. In other words, you delude yourself into believing that you have to do all of these crazy “to-do” lists that keep you from doing the actions that will bring fulfillment. 860 The Best Of My Note Taking Nerd’s Blog - Volume One
3) The Dimension of Demand: Urgent and Important (The third ring): There are always certain things that cannot be planned for (i.e., injuiries, death of a loved one, co-worker out sick) These items are urgent and need to be dealt with. You want to become PROACTIVE in anticipating these demands.
4) The ZONE: Very Important, But Not Urgent (The Bull’s Eye): The dimension where your primary focus is on doing the things that are VERY IMPORTANT BUT NOT URGENT The “Zone” contains all those actions you all know to be so important, but you never get to because you “have no time”. TR says that activity without a true purpose is the drain to a life of fulfillment. This is the DIMENSION OF FUL- FILLMENT!!!!!
People who experience lives of total fulfillment spend 40-70% of their time in THE ZONE.
TR asks us to look at another Dartboard Target. This time, it has three rings:
The outer ring are things you can’t control or influence. In this ring we have to make the decision to find an empowering meaning when events happen out of our control.
The inner ring are things you cannot control, but you can influence. You can influence opinions, but you cannot control how other people react and their opinions no matter how hard you try. You also cannot control the past - you can’t change it, why would you spend time on what you can’t control?
The bulls eye is what you can control - your emotional state
By controlling our focus, developing awareness, and eliminating the belief that stress is a natural part of life, we can reduce the amount of time we spend in the Dimensions of Distraction, Delusion, and Demand. In order to do this, we must change our beliefs on what “urgency” is - URGENT DOES NOT MEAN IMPOR- TANT!!! We have to stop living in reaction to outside demands.
TR says that more time comes not from changing your schedule, but by CHANGING YOUR LEVEL OF FULFILLMENT. When you are engaged in an activity that you love, time disappears. Make sure you spend your time, emotion, and focus on what you CAN control: your state of mind and what things mean. (This is where Days 5, 9 and 10 of PPII are important)