Why being the “bread winner” doesn’t mean you win anything.

FRANK KERN IS KNOWN FOR BEING STRAIGHT TO THE POINT. He tells it like it is, and in my regard is doing us all a favour. If you don’t know who Frank Kern is, back up two steps and meet me on the other side.

This article isn’t about Frank Kern but he has spoken about a topic that has relevance here. He talks about people having two versions of themselves. The Shell identity (as in Bob the Builder) and the Core Identity (as in Bob the rock star)

We have all been “educated” (more like programmed) to believe that the way to the top is by climbing the corporate ladder. This, like Santa Clause, has been proven to be false.

We have also been taught that the man in the relationship should be the “bread winner” (there’s my title cleverly thrown in:). When one is winning the bread that merely means you are making enough money to avoid starving. This isn’t winning.

I believe that we can be of no value to others if we haven’t identified who we are and what we want out of life. We cannot go through life pretending to “give” of ourselves when we haven’t learnt to “be” ourselves.

So instead of spending your days being Bob the Builder, start focusing on how Bob can become the rock star.

Here is one question Frank Kern (and me) says will change your life forever…

“If There Were No Limitations Or Consequences, What Would Your Average Perfect Day Look Like?”

By limitations he means financial, geographic, health etc. By consequences he means stuff that you could get “into trouble” for. And by Average he means you could do all this stuff every day and not die or get sick of it.

Answer this question honestly. Write it down and stick it where you can see it every day. Then do everything in your power to make it a reality.

I answered this question a few years back and from the mere act of writing it down started attracting the reality of it to me.

Why continue to go through your limited days here on earth doing something you don’t love? You’re not getting a second chance.

Martin

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What You Notice In Others Lives In You

We Are All One

So many times we find ourselves frustrated, amused and simply confused by other people’s actions. We don’t understand why people do certain things that they do and we desperately want to label what they do and call it “good” or “bad”.

From the beginning of the ages many saints and prophets alike wrote philosophies on the topic of noticing something in someone else that you lack in yourself.

The Bible relates by saying, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Buddha says, “Consider others as yourself.”

I believe everything in the universe is consciousness. Space and time in all planes of reality are only projections within universal consciousness.

If this is the case we can easily relate to the concept that what lives in another person also lives in you.  The fact that you can notice jealousy in another person is only possible because you too can experience the emotion of jealousy. Otherwise you would not know what you are seeing. How would you notice something you cannot feel?

To make this more relevant to our everyday lives think of it this way. You notice someone dancing alone on the dance floor without a care in the world. You point the person out to your friends and have a private laugh about it. You only notice that person dancing and point it out because in you somewhere is a lack connected to this person’s “act of dancing.” Somewhere inside, you either feel like you lack the confidence to do something like that, you can’t dance, or you are too self conscious to be out on the dance floor alone.

Many times the hardest thing is to be Honest enough with ourselves and push our ego’s aside so we can identify the reasons we notice things in others.

Remember, everybody is a reflection of you, one way or another. So be kind to those around you for essentially you are being kind to yourself.

Martin

How to Uncover the “Perfect” Internet Marketing Business

There are certain elements a successful Internet Marketing Business has. Systems, Training & Support and a Quality Product are to name a few.

When I came across a company called CarbonCopyPRO I investigated the opportunity thoroughly and discovered it to have all the right elements for success. I believe that every person is different and has unique desires and goals. For that reason a professional company takes into consideration how different people learn through different methods and at different paces.

For me, the most important part of an online business is the system. MacDonald’s is the most successful hamburger outlet in the world because of their system, not because they make the best hamburgers! Think of it like a new mobile phone. The term “user-friendly” comes to mind. When joining an Internet Marketing Business the experience also needs to be user-friendly because most of the time it’s a new experience for the Entrepreneur. But like all entrepreneurs, new experiences are what we thrive on.

The system needs to be fully integrated and personalized. It should have detailed traffic, lead and sales tracking capabilities, so that you can monitor where your customers are coming from and why.

A professional call centre is a big advantage especially when you are new at the business and still learning the product and company setup. A call centre can welcome new customers and answer any questions they might have.

Another vital success factor when researching the perfect Internet Marketing Business is the Training and Support it provides. Training can be provided through video libraries, business leadership programs, email, phone, live chat and much more. CarbonCopyPRO has weekly educational webinars and tele-seminars as well as daily entrepreneurial and mindset training.

CarbonCopyPRO gives each member the educational tools, support and resources they require to market anything, to anyone, anywhere in the world, regardless of experience or technical expertise.

Let 2010 be your year. Take control and create true financial prosperity and wealth in your life. Achieve higher levels of personal success and optimal well-being. It is time to live a life you design.

To Your continued Success

Martin

We are Hard as Nails

Choose a Spot and Stick with It

There have been a lot of opinions floating about the air when it comes to advertising. How long should we advertise for? How do we know its working? Is it time to “pull the plug”?

When you launch a new advertising campaign, it is like hammering a nail into a piece of hardwood. Every time your prospective customer hears your ad, the nail sinks in a little more. There is only one reason your customers don’t come running into your store the first time they hear your ad. They forget YOUR ad! The reason? Sleep.

Sleep is God’s gift to mankind to help him erase the noise of the day. That includes ALL advertising. The next morning all that’s left is a little indentation on the piece of hardwood.

Day after day, this process is repeated; but ever so slowly, the hole gets deeper.

Your goal is to drive the nail through the hardwood and clench it on the other side. This means your customer remembers you and thinks of you when he needs your product or service.

Driving the nail of your unique selling position into the hardwood of the mind is like climbing a slippery slope. Three steps forward and two steps back.

The frustration is simply too much. You don’t understand why you are not getting immediate results. “It must be time to change the unique selling position, because this one doesn’t seem to be working.”

To change your selling position is to start a brand new nail in a completely new spot on the board. You lose the hole in which you invested all this time. Why do you do this? Do you think there’s a soft spot on the board somewhere? There is not.

You can sharpen the nail (with better writing), but there are no soft spots on the board.

Stay with the hole you’ve started!

Sharpen the nail.

-          Martin

No one likes the dark

WHEN YOU ENTER A PITCH DARK ROOM the first thing you want to do is turn the light on. But wouldn’t you rather have the room be well-lit when you enter? Of course you would.

When you leave your customers a message that says, “Call me back,” to them it feels like walking into a dark room. The same goes for letting somebody know there is phone for them, but not letting them know who it is. In effect, this means, be ready for anything!

Like good telephone etiquette, good advertising never asks the customer to walk into darkness. A good ad will describe exactly what the customer can expect when he walks into your place of business.

No person takes action until he has seen himself taking such action in his mind. We always imagine doing a thing before we do it.

If you can cause you customer to imagine using your product or service before they have made the choice to do so, you’re headed for a sale. A good ad artfully describes what awaits the customer.

Do your ads take your customer through the entire experience? Do your ads make your customer see, taste and feel your products? A good ad will cause your customer to “see” himself doing what you want him to do. If you’re persistent, he will someday transfer his imagined experience into actual experience.

The longer you keep it up, the better. Ads that whip a customer into immediate action work less and less the longer they run. Ever wonder why those infomercials only do well during their first week or two of being on television? Or why the hottest new diet pill never really sticks around that long (even though it was a “wonder” drug).

Do you have the patience to invest in doing it right?

Can you write ads that cause the customer to experience your products in his imagination? If not, start learning how.

It is both classy and profitable to describe to your customer what he will experience the moment he steps through your door.

No one likes walking into darkness.

-          Martin

“YOU’RE SO PREDICTABLE!”

“IT SURE IS HOT HERE IN THE CARIBBEAN!”

“Yes, but it’s a ____ ____.”

I would give you three guesses to finish that last sentence and you would probably get it right with two guesses in hand. Why, because it’s predictable.

Predictability. It’s what makes marketing sound like marketing, and it’s one of the biggest reasons marketers fail.

Age old clichés, making unsubstantiated claims, and assuming the customer is willing to believe whatever is said are classic mistakes marketers make.

Most marketers are after “smooth,” “polished,” and “clever” ads. Unfortunately the public no longer trusts “smooth,” “polished,” and “clever.”

You know you’re onto good marketing when it doesn’t sound like marketing.

Face it, your competitor thinks just like you. He also wants to lead the customer to the same conclusion. Both of you make the same claims and offer the same assurance in your marketing. The problem with this is your customer has heard it all before, and he’s not buying it!

To be persuasive, your marketing must be frank, direct, and believable.

Your marketing will become believable only when you relate to what your listener is feeling. Tell her what she already knows or suspects! Remind her of the things she has experienced. Tell her her predictions and perceptions are accurate, and she’ll probably agree with whatever you have to say. (Who wouldn’t agree with themselves?)

Build on a foundation of common perspective. See your customers need the way they do. Feel the experience with her and you may discover how to speak to her felt needs. Walk a mile in her shoes before you talk to her about how her feet feel.

(By the way, it’s a “humid heat” here in the Caribbean;)

-          Martin

Listen Up. If you want to or NOT!

SOME STATEMENTS MAKE NO SENSE but are accepted by the norm anyway.

Take the following sayings:

“No one goes there anymore. It gets too crowded.”

“A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”

“You can observe a lot by just watching.”

“My business is doing great, but my clients complain they hear my ads too much.”

Ok that last one is not a famous saying but a true one none the less. A lot of (successful) business people say that their clients complain that they hear their ads too much. Did I say they were very successful?

It’s pretty strange that people will complain about hearing an ad too often but never about reading an ad too often? Radio and television will often be recommended, but rarely newspaper: “You can close your eyes but you can’t close your ears.”

We hear even when we’re not listening, but we can’t see unless we’re watching.

That is why we are so good at remembering songs we didn’t want to memorize, but we can’t name the colour of the car that sits in the driveway just five houses down the street from ours, even though we drive past it several times a week.

There are two kinds or ads: Echoic (sound) and iconic (sight). Echoic ads are far more intrusive than iconic ads. It is because of the intrusive nature of sound that people often complain about ads on the radio, but never about those in print.

The problem with using sound is that echoic ads require repetition to be effective. With iconic ads people can choose not to read it at all.

The listener to an echoic ad is not allowed this control. But the ad HAS to be repeated.

To gain the maximum exposure you long for you have to repeat your ads relentlessly. Yes, people might claim to be sick of hearing your ads, but underneath their so called complaints lay a seed buried in their subconscious waiting eagerly to crack the surface.

(Okay it’s not quite that dramatic, but it’s true anyway.)

-Martin

Listening to Jim

JIM WAS AN OLD WAR VETERAN and liked his profanity.

Born into a middle class family with too many children, Jim grew into a sour, salty old man.

When I was fourteen, Jim hired me to do some work at his steel yard. No self-respecting steelworker would be seen doing the work I was asked to. I was known as “kid”. “Kid! Scrub the #&%@ washroom!” “Kid! Make sure the &#%* trucks are unloaded!”

My favourite job was to load a thousand gallons of water onto Jim’s truck and then drain it down a hole in Jim’s front yard whenever his well ran dry.

Looking back, I see the day Jim taught me to haul water as pivotal in my life.

We would drive north forever and come to a stop next to the road at an abandoned industrial wasteland. 

Jim parked his car under an old oak tree at the edge of the gravel, and we got out of the truck together. “C’mere, Kid! I’m going to teach you how to haul &#@* water.”

Walking behind a pile of junk at the edge of the gravel, Jim emerged with a gigantic canvas hose, which he strapped to the opening of our homemade water tank.

He then turned a hidden valve within the junk pile. I watched in amazement as gloriously bright, clean water began gushing into our tank.

On the drive home, Jim swerved into the right lane as though passing an invisible car. Being only a “kid,” I knew better than to question Jim’s driving, but curiosity got the best of me.

“Look behind us,” Jim said. “You see that big branch hanging over the road? Well, that branch is dead and is going to break one day.” As I turned to quietly stare down the road in front of me, Jim added, “And I don’t want to be under it when it does.”

Noticing that Jim was completely serious, I answered him as solemnly as I knew how. “Thanks for pointing that out, Jim, I’ll try to remember it.”

Jim turned to me as though he’d seen me for the first time. “Kid, every living person has something he can teach you. Always find out what it is and let him teach it to you. Folks are happy to teach you valuable things if you’ll only let ‘em.”

After a long silence, Jim spoke again. “Kid, if you can find even one true friend in your life, you’ll have done better than most…but you’ll never find a true friend unless you’re willing to be one.”

We rode the remainder of the ride in silence, but I understood.

Jim has shared his secret fear of the old branch breaking. I didn’t laugh but quietly listened, and a valve had opened.

The day Jim taught me to haul water, I learned that beneath even the shabbiest gravel parking lot, one can find a wealth of hidden treasure.

A Time Will Come..

-          Martin

But that’s NOT what I meant!

“I REALLY LIKE YOUR GREEN HAT. Where did you get it?”

“I’ve always liked those pants. Are they coming back in style again?”

“Are you always this funny when you’re drunk?”

Even though the speakers didn’t actually say to you, “Green hats are ridiculous, those pants are out of style, and you talk like a drunk,” you’d probably find it hard to respond favourably to those “compliments”, because you would have heard MORE than was actually being said.

Like me, people have learned to hear much more than is being said, especially when it comes to advertising. I’m convinced it was all the hype advertising that taught us to listen with suspicious ears. “Sale! Sale! Sale! 60% 70% Up to 80% off! This offer ends today at 6pm!”

This kind of advertising might have worked back in the days of our naiveté, but that day ended when we got our first Multi Level Marketing pitch or received our first letter from a time-share resort:

You have definitely won one of the following prizes: (1) A brand new Cadillac

(2) A Sport Boat (3) A $5000 Rolex (4) A home entertainment system worth $10 000

(5) A year’s worth of free flights anywhere in the United States. Please call to let

us know when you can pick up your prize. Bring proof of identification.

To be effective at advertising in today’s market we have to understand our listeners’ reluctance to believe the claims of advertising.

We must volunteer the proof they need.

The time has come to offer a remarkably better product or service. No longer will the prize go to the company who tells the biggest lies and shouts the loudest.

If you want your advertising to be productive, you must have a story to tell, and you must tell it persuasively.

By the way, I once got that time-share letter in the post and travelled 120 miles to collect my prize. After 3 hours of (unsuccessful) pounding and hard selling, they tossed me a two-dollar inflatable raft and said, “Thanks for making the trip, Sport. Here’s your boat.”

You might ask how I am so sure that people are becoming less naïve. Well the time-share people quit mailing those letters when the letters stopped working.

Want A Free Boat?

When last did you take a day off and drive 120miles to pick up a new boat, Sport?

-          Martin