What Can I Do For You?

How can I help you? How may I be of service? What might you need that would make your life easier, more productive, more profitable or more fun? What keeps you awake at night?

These are the kinds of open-ended questions that are designed to get to the root cause of a person’s needs, wants and desires so that you can help them — either personally, professionally or with your business product or service.

Years ago, when I was selling pianos and electronic organs in my father’s music store I learned the value of open-ended questions. If, for example, you ask someone “Can I help you?” there are multiple possible answers other than the “Yes” that you are looking for. “No,” “Not now,” and “I’m fine” come to mind.

Not very conducive to furthering the conversation — or the sales process. And if you can’t “sell” someone you can’t help them. I am a believer in what is often called education based marketing. That means that I promote the idea that you provide enough up-front valuable information to your prospective clients or customers to establish yourself as a “trusted advisor” so that WHEN they need what you offer that they choose you.

My work in helping my clients identify their true target markets, crafting messages that will resonate with the people in those markets and selecting the right media for delivering those messages led me to develop an infographic call “Probiotic Marketing.” The name came from watching a TV commercial for yogurt of all things, but the idea is to get to the guts of the client. Yes, it’s a play on words, but hopefully one that will be remembered. And the “gist” of the method is illustrated in the three drawings below.

The idea is to map your messages about your product or service to the right levels in the hierarchy of needs and to craft those messages using words that will resonate with the emotional (e.g., gut level) level of the prospective buyer. Pretty simple. But not always easy.

When you think about your marketing it might be useful to consider how asking the right questions can help you learn to map your messages to your markets.

I hope you found this information helpful and I welcome your feedback.

October 12, 2015

A Choice Between Two Things vs. Two Choices

Pardon me, but I get really ticked when I hear someone misuse “choice” and “choices.” Capital One comes to mind immediately because the ads are so pervasive. Samuel Jackson is always telling you that you have “two choices” when he really means that you have A CHOICE between two things!

Two choices means two separate sets of decisions, each with two or more options. YOU HAVE A CHOICE between the credit card he is hawking and some other brand of credit card. You DON’T HAVE TWO CHOICES!

If you wanted to have two choices you might need to choose, number one, whether or not to have a credit card at all and two, whether or not to have the credit card brand he’s selling. That’s two choices.

If you were buying a piano from me, I would tell you that you had A CHOICE between walnut or mahogany, not two choices. If you were buying a piano from me, I would tell you that you had A CHOICE of delivery dates — Tuesday or Thursday.

If I want to give you TWO CHOICES I’d tell you that you had two choices — one regarding the finish — walnut or mahogany — and one regarding the delivery date — Tuesday or Thursday.

Now you have A CHOICE. You can choose to ignore this post or you can comment on it. That is your choice. You actually have more than one choice here. If I give you TWO CHOICES your first choice involves whether or not to ignore it or to comment on it and your second choice involves whether you comment positively or negatively.

Got it? Thanks for reading. I hope you choose to comment!

July 22, 2015July 22, 2015

Celebrate Your Successes

Celebrate Your Achievements & Successes

Don’t wait until you’ve reached your final goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take toward reaching that goal.

You’ve read seven chapters. Congratulations! Give yourself a pat on the back. Do your “happy dance.” Take ten minutes to do something you really enjoy. Tell someone how proud you are of yourself. Give someone a hug (with their permission, of course!) and ask them if there is something you can do for them that will make them want to do their happy dance.

As important as it is to celebrate success, it is also important to analyze the not so successful things that inevitably occur in the course of your journey toward accomplishing your goals – of achieving your dreams and desires. Let’s deal with those. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is one of the most admired and one of the most hated people in the world. He says, “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

This from a guy who is responsible for the creation – and perpetuation – of the dreaded “blue screen of death,” where your work disappears for no apparent reason and can never be recovered! This from a guy who knows there will be bugs in his software and accepts that as an OK state of affairs. This from a guy whose virtual monopoly on business operating systems lets him ride roughshod over the people who have and continue to contribute to his billions of dollars of net worth.

Totally off-topic note:When you are working on something on your computer, make sure to use “CTRL+S” every few minutes! “CTRL+S” is your friend.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not bad-mouthing Bill Gates personally. Or event Microsoft (although I bet some of you do)! I’m not suggesting that we not learn from our setbacks and “failures” – a word I hate to use. Certainly we need to say to ourselves “OK, self, what can we learn from this less than optimally successful outcome? What can we do better next time?” Then we need to celebrate the success we did accomplish!

We actually did something that no one else has ever done. We made progress toward realizing our dreams and goals even if that progress was, in Bill Gates’ terminology, a “failure.” I like Mia Hamm’s advice much better: “Celebrate what you’ve accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed.”

Many of life’s “failures,” according to Thomas Edison, “are experienced by people who didn’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Napoleon Hill agrees, saying “Most people have achieved their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.”

Celebrate what you accomplish, but raise the bar each time you succeed. – Mahamm

Success doesn’t come easily as I’ve pointed out before. It’s kind of like reaching for heaven. You have to work to get there. So celebrate your accomplishments, no matter whether they are huge successes or, more likely, successful steps along your way to the ultimate goals.

If you aren’t sensing some common themes as you read this book then either I’ve done a less than adequate job of presenting them or you are really obtuse. J

Winston Churchill defined success as the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. Taken in the abstract, outside of any specific goals, success can be considered as the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out, that move us toward our ultimate objective.

You know you’re on the right track when you become uninterested in looking back.

How will you know that you are on the right track as you move toward your goals? For one thing, you will find yourself “in the zone” more often than not. You’ll find yourself visualizing the end result you are pursuing so vigorously that you’ll stop looking back and really concentrate more and more on looking forward. You’ll begin to adopt thinking patterns and action habits that will consistently propel you forward.

Celebrate the small successes as well as the large ones. A great life isn’t necessarily about great huge things. It’s about little things that can make a big difference.

When your self-doubter begins to try to undermine what it is you are doing to achieve your dreams and desires – to become truly happy – then remember that how you think and act will have a significant impact on how well you perform.

Unsuccessful People:

Fear change
Blame others
Think they know it all
Are Transactional
Talk about people
Hope others fail
Never set goals
Horde data and information
Exude anger

Do you want to attract people who fear change and blame others for their every misfortune? To be around people who think they “know it all,” avoid forming close and lasting relationships and talk about others? People who take perverse pleasure in hoping that others fail, never set goals for themselves, horde data and information and exude anger all the time?

Not me. You can have these kinds of people – if you want them in your life. But these types of people will suck the life out of you. You want to surround yourself with positive people. People who will lift you up, help you move forward, celebrate your successes with you as if they were their own. People who will continuously encourage you to grow and excel in whatever it is you’ve decided to do.

Successful People:

Embrace change
Accept responsibility
Continuously learn
Are relational
Talk about ideas
Hope others succeed
Keep “to-do” and “to-Be” Lists
Share data and information
Exude joy

I want to be around successful people. People who accept responsibility for their own situation, who learn continuously and who embrace change. People who value relationships and who talk about ideas instead of people. People who share information, hope – and help – others (me! you!) succeed and exude joy as we celebrate our successes.

Your celebrations don’t always have to be loud, grand or raucous affairs involving multiple people. If you’ve had a good day with a success or two you might just look in the mirror, smile, and nod at the person looking back. Sometimes the best way to end a great day is with a silent acknowledgment of achievement and, more important, fulfillment.

One activity that I’ve found very valuable is to build up a storehouse of favorable outcomes and their accompanying feelings for use with future challenges. If you use, for example, the physical techniques that Amy Cuddy suggests, you can couple those physical actions with the feelings of success that are associated with overcoming past challenges to build your confidence in overcoming future challenges.

You can also simply try smiling for ten minutes before entering a meeting or an interview. The act of smiling will change your brain chemistry just as Amy’s techniques have been proven to do. I do this before joining networking meetings and it works wonders.

Rather than letting your self-doubter undermine your confidence you can use positive self-talk to increase it. So when life is sweet say, “Thank you,” and store those times away for times when life is not so kind to you.

When life is sweet say “thank you” and celebrate. When life is bitter say “thank you” and grow.

You can use even the not so nice times to make life more pleasing in the future. As Oprah Winfrey has been known to say, “The more you celebrate in your life, the more there is in your life to celebrate.”

Promise yourself also to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

There is magic in celebrating your achievements and successes.

####

The above material is from Chapter 8 of Inspiration Now! Order your copy now at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RQT1BLK to read the other 8 chapters!

July 15, 2015March 11, 2016

Visualize and Plan

Visualize & Plan – Chapter 2 Excerpted from Motivational Magic

Beginning the process of growth requires you to ask yourself a lot of questions. What is it that you’d like to accomplish in your life? What would you like to be doing as a career? How would you like to look? How would you like to be contributing to your own good, the good of your loved ones and the good of society? How do you want to be viewed by those who you care about? By those who you leave behind?

What is your fondest dream? How does it look when you visualize it? If you are not currently living it, and I can only assume that you are not or you wouldn’t be reading this book, how does it feel when you imagine that you are living it?

Regrettably, I can’t answer any of these questions for you. Only you can imagine how things should be, how you want them to be, how they will be once you’ve done what’s needed to make them happen.

What is your dream? How important is it to you? How willing are you to pursue it? What risks are you willing to take and what sacrifices are you willing to make to achieve your particular dream? Sometimes life is about risking everything for a dream that no one can see but you!

Change begins with a vision. A picture coupled with an emotion – how things feel when you’ve done what needs to be done to make reality as you experience it match reality as you have envisioned it. We’ll talk much more about the details of using the Visual Image Formation technique in Chapter 9, but the concept is essential to any and all changes that you’d like to make in your life.

If you can create a vision, and you most certainly have the power within you to do so, then you can constantly remind yourself of that image. You can use affirmations, notes on your bathroom mirror, schedule messages to pop up on your computer, tablet or smartphone. You can do whatever you need to do so that the vision remains in the forefront of your conscious mind so that it can be continuously transmitted to your subconscious mind.

Your subconscious mind – mainly the right brain hemisphere – is designed to keep reality as you experience it in harmony with reality as you envision it. In other words, if the reality as you’re currently experiencing it does not match the reality as you visualize it, then your subconscious mind will go to work to make you do the things you need to do to make reality as you experience it match reality as you envision it. Or it will change your vision. But more about that later.

Once you have successfully implanted your vision in your brain, you won’t be able to stop thinking about it. And if you can’t stop thinking about it you won’t be able to stop working on it – or for it. It’s a simple, but not necessarily easy, matter of putting your mind to work on making you do the things you need to do to make the vision a reality.

What will it make you do? Let us count just some of the ways:

It may prompt you to get answers to questions you hadn’t thought of before;
It may provide you with “aha” moments or answers – particularly after “sleeping on it;”
It may cause you to be more aware of something or someone around you;
It may encourage to gain new knowledge or new skills.

I have no clue exactly what will happen for you since I have no clue as to who you are, what you want, who you want to become or why you want the dreams you want. But you do! Or at least you can begin to find that out.

Identify what you want – creating a vision or mental picture as clearly and in as much detail as possible – enables you to plan to make that vision a reality. And it is in this planning phase where special care is needed.

Let’s say that you have a relatively short term dream of walking across the stage of a prestigious university in a cap and gown to receive your college degree. Visualize yourself doing that. Imagine, in great detail, how that will feel. Think about how much pride you will feel when that degree is hanging on your wall in your home, your study or your office. Imagine the things you can do now that you have your degree that you couldn’t do before.

Are you with me so far? And isn’t something else happening as you go through this exercise? What is it? Isn’t it your brain telling you that you can’t? That you don’t have the time, the intelligence, the money or something else to make this dream a reality?

This is where you really need to watch out. When you create a vision that is different than reality as you are currently experiencing it, then your subconscious mind will go to work to help you resolve the disharmony that is created when reality as you envision it doesn’t match reality as you experience it. So it will either help you do the things you need to do to make reality match your vision or it will change or corrupt your vision! But it will resolve the disharmony!

We all have the self-talker inside of us. It’s usually negative and left over from our earlier experiences as children or early in our careers. The “Well, I can’t because…” syndrome: I’m not good enough, I’m not handsome or pretty enough, I’m not smart enough, I’m not blah, blah, blah…”

When this happens, we need to recognize it and tell this inner voice to shut up! Tell that doubting voice that those excuses are in the past and are no longer inhibitors to new dreams and plans. Those were the bad old days and those were the bad old ways. You are good enough and, by golly, if you aren’t yet you soon will be! The strongest factor in achieving success is self-esteem: Believing you can do it, believing you deserve it and believing you will get it.

If you fall victim to this inner voice and begin to say to yourself “I can’t…,” then you will achieve nothing except the ability to say that you are always right. For if you say you can’t then you won’t and you should probably stop reading here.

Keep in mind as you visualize and begin the process of goal setting, strategy development and tactical implementation of your plans is that you’ll want to learn to develop a sense of urgency for achieving your goals. Life is short, and if there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that really matters to you, then the moment to get started on that passion is NOW!

Another thing that we’ll talk about further in future chapters is letting going of other kinds of baggage besides the self-doubter and the I-can’t-er. It is hard to keep a sharp focus on your vision of the future if your eye is stuck on the past or even sometimes on today.

This is not to say that the vision and the plan should become so all-consuming that we go overboard and ignore our day-to-day duties and responsibilities. Moderation in all things is the watchword.

We want to keep our vision in the forefront so that as we set goals, develop strategies and implement tactics we are making sure that each action we take contributes in some way, shape or form to the overall plan. We want to make sure that we make the rest of our lives, starting from this moment, the best of our lives.

I said in the beginning that there is magic in this book.There is also magic in believing – believing in what you want, what you visualize, what you need, what you desire or want and, most importantly, believing that you will get it!

####

Get your copy of Motivational Magic on Amazon.com or from Kindle at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0112ODGD. Order or download your copy now.

June 18, 2015August 15, 2015

Networking Necessities, Niceties and No-Nos

Networking Necessities, Niceties, and No-Nos

If networking is part of your marketing strategy mix, and for many if not most of us it should be, are you really good at it or is it something you do because you’ve been told that you should do it – like I just did? If you are selling a commodity product, you may not consider networking as an important element of your marketing strategy. Things, after all, should pretty much sell themselves if they are useful and provide clear benefits to the buyer, right? Well, maybe… It might depend on the kind of things you are selling.

Food storage bowls come to mind. You wouldn’t normally think of increasing your sales of these via networking as an important element of your marketing strategy.

But even with the Internet my spouse had a heck of a time finding some help selecting new bowls until I met someone at a networking event who sold them. How about auto insurance? Sure you can buy it over the phone or the Internet if you don’t believe in the value that an agent you know, like and trust can add to your purchase. Having an accident, of course, can change your point of view on this and insurance agents who network know this to be a fact.

I’m a believer in networking because it works for me and for a great many of my clients. The Networking Tips topic in my monthly newsletter is one of the most popular sections. But you have to do networking right if it is going to work for you. So here are some tips on doing it right.

Necessities

The first necessity is a positive attitude. If you dread networking activities it is going to show. You are going to be more of a wallflower than a winner, you are less likely to meet as many people as you could and the impressions you make may not be stellar. The next necessity is a set of goals. How many new people do you want to meet at a networking event? What kinds of people do you want to meet? These goals will help you to select the right networking events. If you sell garden hoses, for example, a home and garden networking event will be much more productive for you than a meeting of condo owners where gardening is done by the association’s hired help.

Niceties

Once you have the necessities covered, it’s time to consider some niceties. Wear a name badge so that people know who you are when you come up to them to ask them what business they are in. Invest in a permanent badge with your company logo on it and wear it on your upper right side to make it easy for people to read as you approach to shake hands. That way you won’t spend your time wrestling with a generic paper badge that will dislodge itself several times during an event. And be confident but considerate when shaking hands. No one likes to have their hand crushed so don’t try to show your dominance of others by doing that to them.

No-Nos

This list could get pretty long but here are the top first few. Mostly talking coupled with little listening is a no-no. How will you find out how you might be able to help someone if you don’t find out what they need? And why waste your own time talking to someone who might never need what you offer. Don’t interrupt an ongoing conversation between others. It’s rude. Wait for your opening while listening to the conversation. You never know – you might learn something! Don’t monopolize. A networking event is not the place to present your entire company and product or services story. It is a time to establish enough rapport so that you can arrange a meeting at a later date given that it makes sense for both parties.

Photo credit: Phoenix Lotus Productions, APACC Mega-Mixer.

New! Your Personal Networking Consultation! Watch the video!

Book NOW at jonturino.youcanbook.me !

– See more at My Website Home Page

NEW Banner for Inspiration Now for web — Order or download your copy now!

Article credit: The A to Z Blog Book and Inspiration Now! (both by Jon Turino and available on Amazon and Kindle).

May 23, 2015May 23, 2015

Your APATHY Is Killing Your Future!

Warning! This post is not politically correct!

Hey, you! Yes, you! Listen up! I’m talking to you! Pay attention!

Your future depends on it! Don’t make me take you by the shoulders and shake you to get you to listen to me! READ THIS and act upon it!

If you don’t, you are part of the problem I am talking about in this post. So goodbye. Don’t complain to me or to anyone else about your lot in life if you are too apathetic to read this post and act upon it. You deserve what you get. What other people deign to give you.

Are you happy with the way things are going in your life, your job, your city, county, state and country? If you can answer “yes” to that question I would really like to meet you and find out how you have achieved such peace, success, happiness, prosperity and nirvana.

If not, what are you doing about it?

I think that many of the so-called “leaders” in this country have gone nuts. They send people to foreign countries to die. Then they refuse to take care of them when they come home wounded and damaged. What are you — yes you, personally — doing about it? My guess is nothing. Because you are apathetic.

Our “leaders” have this country spending huge amounts of money on weapons — many of them unnecessary and unwanted. Half of those amounts could wipe out hunger and poverty in this country in a day! What are you — yes you, personally — doing to make that happen? My guess is nothing. Because you are more interested in how you might get some of that money than in the larger picture. You’re not apathetic when it comes to getting some for yourself, are you? But your apathy sure comes into play when someone you don’t know is affected.

We send money to our “enemies” so that they can buy weapons from us to start wars with our “friends” who also buy weapons from us. Then we lament such terrible losses of life. Bullshit, I say! Stop the hypocrisy! Stand up and say “enough!”

But are you doing that? You don’t know these people tens of thousands of miles away who’ve been killing each other for thousands of years and are, frankly, never going to stop. They breed, preach and practice hate, for heaven sake. They always have and they always will!

Why are we sending them money for weapons without building a wall around them? Then they can kill each others to their heart’s content. And, hopefully, there won’t be enough of them left to hurt the rest of us. When was the last time you stood up and loudly told our “leaders” that enough is enough? My guess is that most of you answer that question with “never.” You’re just plain too apathetic.

Maybe you’re just too enthralled and engaged with the latest high-tech gadgets, or the fanciest cars, or the newest fads to worry about tomorrow. Or your fellow human beings. If that’s you, enjoy it while you can. Because your apathy is eventually going to kill that lifestyle. And your future.

Or maybe, like many of us, you’re just very busy urgently trying to scratch out a living in this crazy world to make time to do the important things that will benefit us all in the long term. I can empathize with that, even while I’m ranting about all this other stuff. But it doesn’t mean you get to be apathetic when it comes to the political, economic and environmental issues that are going to affect your children and their children. We need to pay attention to both the urgent and the important, no matter how difficult that is!

We have people in positions of power in the federal and state governments who are just plain nutso (a non-politically correct term for out of their “f-ing” minds)! They are convinced that making sure that we are all armed with automatic weapons will lower the rate of deaths by bullets. In Colorado, for crying out loud, you can be made to pay for damages to the gun and ammunition sellers if you sue them because one of their customer’s guns or bullets killed your kids!

The governor of Texas thinks that the federal government is getting ready to invade the state and then sell it to Mexico — or China? What kind of people elected this kind of idiot? Crazy people. What kind of people can get rid of this kind of idiot? Sane people. But the sane people are totally apathetic! So they don’t vote these kinds of fools out of office. They simply suffer and complain. And a lot of good that does. And this kook wants to run for the office of the President of the United States! Maybe we should send them overland in big boats to China as the former Governor or Alaska once suggested.

Don’t even get me started on women’s rights! Some of “our” people in the US Congress and the Senate don’t believe that women should have the right to methods to prevent pregnancy. Nor to abort unwanted pregnancies — even those caused by rape. Some of these people actually think that there is such a thing as “legitimate” rape! Where do these people come from and why are they still in positions of power? Because we — and I include myself — have been too apathetic to throw the bastards out!

They pay for Viagra so that men can screw women for hours on end, whether the women want it or not. But they don’t want to pay for birth control. And they don’t want to pay for care for the illegitimate children that result from these kinds of activities. They don’t have a clue that their own votes as supposed representatives of “the people” are so screwed up as to classify them as psychopaths! But have we gotten rid of them? Nope.

APATHY IS KILLING OUR FUTURE!

We have got to put a stop to the craziness! We have got to begin to speak the truth again — political correctness be damned! We have got to reject bullshit in the media when it is clearly biased bullshit! We have got to reject religious zealots who pervert the preachings of their “Gods” to justify hate and genocide! We have got to stop letting people who wish to live in America continue to bad-mouth it and try to destroy it. We have got to get our leaders to stop giving money to these fanatics.

Standing up, saying “enough is enough,” voting out the crazies and the greedy and the pocket liners — and their corporate backers — may mean some short-term pain. But it will certainly lead to some long-term gain! If WE — YOU and ME — stand up and force the needed changes to happen. If we can find a way to overcome our apathy.

We have got to stop people in Congress from betraying the Social Security contract with the American people. This contract IS NOT AN ENTITLEMENT! We who have worked all our lives, and who continue to work — voluntarily or out of necessity — have paid, and continue to pay, billions of payroll dollars into this fund so that we will have something to support us when we are forced to retire. SOCIAL SECURITY IS NOT AN ENTITLEMENT and the irresponsible misogynists current in power need to be made to understand that or they need to be removed from their offices.

THERE ARE SOLUTIONS TO THESE PROBLEMS! This country was built on creating and implementing solutions that increased productivity and prosperity. We’ve done it before and we can do it again. If we can get rid of the impediments — many of our current “leaders.” But voter turnout is at all time lows. Why? Because we are simply apathetic! Or too burdened but what these “leaders” have done to us to have the time, energy and money to stand up to them and say “NO MORE!”

The 1% have the money and the power to keep these people in power. They own our elected representatives. They own our economy. They own us! If you’ve never listened to George Carlin, may he rest in peace, you should do so now. Unless you don’t care. Unless you think someone else should or will solve these problems. But if you don’t do it, who will? Nobody.

AND YOUR APATHY WILL KILL YOUR FUTURE!

On a personal level, are you saving enough money to support yourself when you are too old to work? Or when you are forced out? Or when you are replaced? The time to start taking care of that issue is now! Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month and not next year. NOW! Because I don’t think that we’re going to find a cure for apathy anytime soon. And that means that we had all better start looking out for ourselves. No one else will, especially those who run our country and our economy. The vast majority of these people are only out for themselves.

Do you have enough life insurance to support your loved ones if you get hit by a bus — or a beer truck — tomorrow? If not, you should probably rectify that situation. And not tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. NOW! Because safety nets from our government are going to continue to disappear.

Do you have disability insurance to replace your income if you are injured or become seriously ill for a long time? I don’t mean group disability from your company, which may pay for injury but not for sickness and will maybe pay for 60% that will be taxed so that you are forced to live on 40% of your normal take-home pay. I mean disability insurance coverage to fill that 60% gap that YOU OWN!

Have I got your attention yet? I really don’t mean to be a “the sky is falling” kind of guy. But at my age — 68, by the way — I’ve seen way too much and, according to my spouse, spent way too much time yelling at the television when I hear about what is going on. I don’t consider myself a conspiracy nut, but I sure do wonder what is happening behind the scenes when our attention is directed to the trumped-up crisis or disaster of the day.

I know, there are many who will say that we can’t do anything about that. Why should we try? As individuals, is it true that we don’t have the resources or the power to fix things? Is the system too big and destined grind us down? Does that mean that we just shouldn’t try? I don’t think that it has to be this way! I believe we can make things better. It will take work but it can be done. To believe otherwise is to surrender. To become totally apathetic.

So I say it this one last time in conclusion: YOUR APATHY WILL KILL YOUR FUTURE! Please don’t let that happen. I have decided to fight in every way that I can and I hope I can inspire you to do the same. Let’s not let the bastards grind us down. Let’s register to vote. Let’s vote! Let’s expose the crazies for who they are and get rid of them. Let’s insist that our leaders work for us and not just for themselves. Let’s insist that they honor the commitments this country has made to us — and especially to the members of our armed services who defend us.

Let us seize each day by doing at least one small thing to make the world a better place. Because if I don’t do it nobody else will. And that goes for you, too.

May 17, 2015May 17, 2015

What’s In It For You?

What Is In It For You?

I had an interesting set of short conversations a couple of weeks ago at a mentoring event that it turns out was for women only. I was the only male, besides the host of the event, in a field of 250+ very intelligent women and the 35 female “mentors” they were there to meet. Needless to say I got a considerable amount of attention and even a fair amount of praise for participating at the event.

I guess I knew that it was a women-only event, but I didn’t really think about it that way until I arrived at the venue. The young lady who greeted me asked me, very nicely, why I was there. So I told her I wanted to ask some questions of the mentors, several if not all of whom seemed like very bright people. She thanked me for being there and for appreciating the people I was going to meet and talk with — female though they may be!

I wasn’t at the event to network or to try to sell something to the people participating in the event. I did strike up conversations with several of the women while standing in line to speak with my chosen mentors, and we had good giggles about my presence as the only male participating in the event. I had a ball! And I got to talk to the three women mentors that I wanted to speak to.

My question to the women I spoke to was pretty simple and pretty specific: How do I attract more readers for my new (2015) book Inspiration Now!? Two said they had no idea. Book promotions weren’t their thing. Fair enough. Number three, however, had a good question: “Why your Inspiration Now! instead of anybody else’s?” I think that was a pretty good question. But I didn’t like her suggestion for personalizing it, even though people have made money — and maybe a lot of money — “repurposing” the same material over and over.

Her thought was that I create a whole series of ersatz titles: Inspiration for Dummies, Inspiration for Accountants, Inspiration for Smart People and Inspiration for yadda, yadda, yadda specific audiences. Same basic book, a few tweaks and wow — an instant empire of books.

What do you think? The book is designed to inspire people regardless of their profession. I give even “dummies” the benefit of the doubt. If they think they might get a good idea from reading it, and they turn out to be right, are they dummies? I don’t think so! Is an accountant or a “smart person” too obtuse to figure out that even one inspiration from the book might double or triple his or her practice unless I “package” it specifically for them? I don’t think so.

But OK, let’s play devil’s advocate. I’m supposedly a marketing guy after all. I know the book could — should? — be repackaged into a big series. But I just don’t like the ethics of it. And I’d like some additional opinions. Yours, if you please.

The book is at Amazon — http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RQT1BLK — and it’s a whopping $2.99 in the electronic version for Kindle — and other — eBook reading smartphones and tablets if you want to read it before rendering your opinion. You don’t have to do that, of course. I’ll respect your opinion either way. But please do let me know via a comment to this post about the strategy you think I should use.

If you don’t, I may have to replicate it as “What’s In It For You?” for Dummies. And I really don’t think my readers are dummies. Please don’t prove me wrong! As an incentive — What Is In It For You? — I’ll send you a free copy of the new “Presentations That Persuade!” ebook — a $4.95 value — in return for your comment.

Come to think of it, you might want to read Inspiration Now! at $2.99, make a comment on this post, and get the $4.95 Presentations That Persuade! book in return. Make sense?

I look forward to hearing from you either way. Thanks!

April 1, 2015April 1, 2015

What Price Wisdom?

I am, at age 68, by many standards, old. I am, in many companies, unemployable. Because I am old. Because I am overqualified. Because I am worth more in compensation than young, inexperienced new people entering the job market will accept — although I’ll actually accept less than most companies think for the privilege of sharing my experience and earning a living wage.

That’s not to say that I am destitute. I have a satisfying career helping people — young, middle-aged and yes, even old, make the best choices in terms of their risk management and wealth accumulation strategies. For those who will listen. And there are not nearly enough of those. Far too many spend more time planning vacations instead of their financial futures.

Many young people today have never seen a telephone that required a wired connection. Many have never seen computer applications that used word commands instead of pointing devices. Virtually none remember the BETA vs. VHS video recording wars. They can’t even fathom that content wasn’t always streamed over their smartphones and tablets and once upon a time required physical media and equipment for playing it. And many who can text at multiple thumbstrokes per second can’t carry on an actual conversation with another person.

In “the olden days,” where multiple generations interacted in family and business situations, the wisdom of the “elders” was passed on to the younger generations so that mistakes could be avoided and so that past experience could be applied to new situations. But today’s “elders,” at least for the most part in the business world, are discarded and ignored. And thus their wisdom and experience is lost so that new generations are given the opportunity to make the same mistakes again and again.

Imagine, if you will, a situation where a finance VP decides that the sales people are making too much money and decides to cut their commission rates. If you look at the spreadsheet you’ll see that the savings in commission will make a big improvement to the bottom line. What you won’t see is how the top line will drop dramatically to offset any calculated gains and begin a downward spiral of the business. FYI, I lived this experience!

Who could predict that? The technology supported the decision. But experience tells us that this is faulty thinking. Uh Oh… What experience? There isn’t any. We got rid of that to “save” costs and “improve” productivity. We did that at the same time we eliminated human contact with clients and customers with new phone tree answering systems. Press 1 to…Press 2 to… Want a human? Sorry, that’s not an option.

Then there’s stuff the other way around. Us old folks, while having a lot of experience in a lot of things, don’t necessarily know that we need WiFi to use our tablet devices or to make sure that we’re not overcharged for smartphone data usage because we don’t know that we need to connect to it. We have the Internet, don’t we? What is this Wifi and why is my 4gLTE bill so high?

I heard a great suggestion at a networking meeting a couple of months ago. How about we put retirement homes next door to pre-schools and elementary schools? Imagine what the oldsters could teach the youngsters and vice versa! I’m computer literate for the most part, but I still have to call my sons for help with operating systems and website development tools. In the “old days” when we needed help with some newfangled electronic device, we called a teenager!

I guess the point of this diatribe is that I think it’s a shame, and a tremendous waste of talent, experience, and wisdom, to dump the old folks and bring in the (cheaper?) new folks. We need both! Too many CEOs listen to too many CFOs who put spreadsheets together based on inaccurate assumptions and build presentations to show how smart they are. And too many CEOs fall into the trap.

But they don’t care. They slash and burn the business and move on to the next one before anyone realizes what they’ve really done. With multi-million dollar bonuses — for being fired! — while thousands of workers lose their jobs, their pensions, and their dignity. What a travesty.

It doesn’t have to be this way, people. We can fix it. But it will take work, inspiration, and education. Will it happen quickly? Not in my experience. It took me 20 years to make Design for Test happen in the electronics industry. But I did it. The device you are using to read this is easier to test than it would have been had I not written a 77-page book in 1979 and “preached and teached” its tenets all over the world for two decades.

I changed the world and I think you can too. At the risk of seeming self-serving, I suggest you start by reading my new book Inspiration Now! It may give you some insight into why I think the way I do and to why you might want to ask yourself why you think the way you do. And whether or not you want to do anything about it..

Because you have that power, no matter what your age, profession, employment status or position in an organization. You have the power to change a great many things, not the least of which is your own set of visions, feelings and actions. No one can stop you from changing yourself. You don’t need anyone’s permission. You don’t need to do anything but decide that you will use your personal power to accomplish your personal dreams and goals. Because you can. You have that power.

Comments, compliments, brickbats and lambasts are all, of course, welcome as always. Thanks for reading.

Go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RQT1BLK to order your copy of Inspiration Now!

February 15, 2015February 15, 2015

Presenting Yourself Properly

Networking is Business!

At recent networking events, I’ve been seeing men standing up to introduce themselves and I’ve actually felt embarrassed for them. Dressed in dirty jeans. Wearing ratty t-shirts. Belt tails hanging down. Shirt tails hanging out. Day old beard growths.

Not standing up straight. Looking almost apologetic for being in the event. Mumbling when introducing themselves. Being inarticulate when trying to say who they are, what they do and who they might be able to help. If someone would want help from someone like them.

OK, I get it. This IS Portland, and lots of people want to keep Portland weird. But, c’mon, guys — get it together! And yes, I’m picking on guys in this post because the women, although some of them can be inarticulate, apologetic or painfully shy, are usually at least dressed properly for a business event. Usually, but not always. So just because you are female doesn’t mean you can ignore the advice that follows.

I’m not going to pull punches here. If you want to be presenting yourself properly at a networking event, or any other business function for that matter, you must follow some basic rules, even if you think they violate your personal freedom to look like a street person or a wanna be actor in LaLaLand.

Bathe! Yes, I mean wash! Comb your hair! Shave! Show some respect for the people who have made that effort.

Wear clean clothes! They don’t have to be fancy. But they ought to be clean. I certainly don’t want to even shake hands with people who looks like they’ve slept in a dumpster. Do you want to repel potential clients during your first impression? It couldn’t hurt to pass an iron over something that’s extremely wrinkled, either.

Wear appropriate clothes. It doesn’t have to be a suit or even slacks, a nice shirt, a nice tie and a sport jacket. Although that would be nice. It could be just nice slacks and a nice shirt. Not a t-shirt. Not a muscle shirt. Not something with inappropriate sayings or images on it. You might be able to get away with a “brand” look like Steve Jobs’ trademark turtlenecks or Jim Teasley’s trademark Hawaiian shirts that his wife makes for him. Depending on the way you carry yourself. Some people can pull if off; others can’t. Know yourself!

Speaking of which: Stand up straight! Put your shoulders back. Try to look like you are awake, alert and ready to interact with people instead of slouching over with your shoulders hunched as if you aren’t worth being paid attention to. Move with at least the appearance of purpose. Posture counts.

Speaking of speaking: Speak up! Let people hear you. Speak clearly. Practice what you are going to say at each event so that it is relevant and will attract potential partners to you. If you stand up straight you will find it easier to speak up. If you are wearing something nice you’ll find it easier to stand up straight because you’ll feel more like you are worth something when you are wearing something that says you have some self-esteem. And some respect for others.

Respect event formats and time limits. If the moderator or meeting leader says 30 seconds, do 30 seconds — or less, not more! You should have “canned” 30, 60 and 120 second self-introductions if you are serious about business. You should know your “elevator speech” by heart. You should articulate why someone would want to meet with you after your self-introduction. Trying to cram your complete life, company or product story into a self-introduction is counter-productive. That means that it won’t work, so don’t try to do it!

Don’t apologize! As it says in my book Inspiration Now!, never think that what you have to offer is insignificant. There will always be someone out there who needs what you have to give. Make yourself attractive to those people at every opportunity.

Follow the advice I’ve given here and I’ll look forward to meeting you. Ignore it at your own peril. There are others out there who feel as I do! :-)

For more on networking, please see Networking Necessities, Niceties and No-No’s on LinkedIn. And if you haven’t read the book yet, what are you waiting for?

February 9, 2015

Make A Difference

Do you know of a non-profit organization that could use some monetary help?

Would you like to find ways to achieve things that you never thought possible?

You can do both of these things right now and throughout 2015.

Each week this year I will be donating 33% of all royalties I receive from sales of my new book Inspiration Now! to charities suggested by people just like you. One charity per week. For the entire year.

All you need do is buy a copy of Inspiration Now!, something you’ll thank yourself for doing as soon as you’ve read it and begun to apply your new learnings to your personal and professional aspirations.

I was inspired to embark on this donation campaign by a combination of people and events that really got me thinking about “giving back” and “paying forward.” Great buzz phrases, of course, for things we should all already be doing to help our less-fortunate brethren and to encourage others to do likewise.

You can make a difference in the lives of a great many people and organizations by simply buying Inspiration Now! for yourself. And maybe for your friends and colleagues since the book makes a wonderful gift. Amazon will keep track of the dollars and I’ll do the rest. For the rest of this year.

Will you make a difference? You may never know who you will help, or whose lives may be changed for the better thanks to your generosity, but chances are you will be helping someone local since those are the groups I’m looking for. Qualified 501(c)3 groups that provide services to our neighbors, our friends, and our loved ones.

I hope that Inspiration Now! makes a difference in the lives of all who read it. I wrote it to encourage people to strive to achieve their most desired dreams and goals and to help others do the same. For we each have the power to make a difference — to make things better in this world. To stop the violence, hurt, deprivation, mediocrity, and many, many other ills that negatively impact each and every one of us. If we become inspired to do so. If we act upon that inspiration. If we use the power that we have for good and to help each other.

Will you make a difference?

Thank you.