Empty Bragging, Noxious Excuses

I promise not to obsess on using The Apprentice as my main subject in this blog… but, gosh, it’s just so damn juicy with great story lines.

You don’t have to even watch it to fathom the main lessons, either. Just listen in to the water cooler chat, and you’ll get the gist.

Couple of quick insights to how ego and self-delusion can destroy you: First, last week the obnoxious beefy guy got the axe. Not much of a surprise there — he’d alienated his entire team, and was clearly in the midst of a personality breakdown.

What I found interesting was his “guarantee” of not getting fired. He said, to the camera, “I guarantee I will return from the boardroom.” And he said it so emphatically that spittle rained toward the camera. (“I… WILL… RETURN… etc.”)

Emphatic. Believe me or else.

This effort to twist reality by sheer impotent force of will echoed in the ad created by his team for the cereal product project. Now, these apprentices can be forgiven for not having advanced marketing chops — if they were already drop-dead experts, they wouldn’t be dancing for a spot in Trump’s hierarchy.

So I don’t fault them for being lame. Rather, I want to point out that, as utter advertising rookies, the copy they came up with is dangerously close to efforts I see while critiquing my Insider’s ads: Introducing The Next Generation… Finally, The Cereal For Everyone.

Honest teachers will immediately try to beat the urge to use “introducing” type headlines out of you for good. It’s weak copy, and makes Barnum (the guy who really knew how to introduce something to a gullible public) roll in his grave every time it gets dragged out.

Rookies get confused. They’re told the company is introducing a new product… and after hours of banging their heads against the wall trying to be “creative” and “clever”, they end up trying to bull their target audience over with the force of being emphatic.

The beefy guy’s emphatic promises were hollow, despite his vehemence. And the team’s ad was stupid, despite their delight in pretending to be a circus ring-leader.

As kids, I remember many times betting someone a million dollars that I was right about some minor point or another. It was supposed to carry the power of a double-dog dare, and blow him away — who, after all, could withstand the confidence of a boy willing to bet a million dollars on something?

Didn’t work then. Still doesn’t work in the adult world.

Second interesting point: A couple of shows ago, a team member lost the project by insisting they could cross Manhattan in twenty minutes to reach a crucial meeting in time. The irony was that the guy actually lived in Manhattan, and should have known better. They missed the meeting by forty minutes, and the fed-up executives they were supposed to interview just split.

That guy got fired, as well he should have.

But there’s a deeper lesson there, too. Namely, professionalism.

This is a serious point of contention for me, because I hate having my time wasted, and I took the trouble to discipline myself not to waste anyone else’s time, either.

It ain’t that hard.

My idea of professionalism is simple: You are where you said you’d be, when you said you’d be there, having done what you said you’d do.

In school, you can get out of being graded harshly when you fail if you have a good excuse. That’s a piss-poor fall-back position to bring into the business world, though.

You miss a deadline, and it can cost vast sums of very real money. And ruin your reputation in very real ways.

Some people are chronically late because they relish the power. It’s a passive-aggressive thing… and if you suspect someone is chronically wasting your time for the small thrill of holding you hostage to their sick need for control, leave now.

Other “late people” are just victims of thier own delusion. They remember the one time they got across town in twenty minutes, and ignore the four hundred times it took longer. There’s a reluctance to summon the energy required for the trip, and a reluctance to begin gearing up for whatever new kind of thinking the meeting will drag out of you. So you put it off as long as possible… and often longer.

If you’re chronically late, you need to change your behavior NOW. And you cannot accomplish this by simply being emphatic with yourself about it.

Even you won’t listen to your bullshit promises.

No, you need a plan. It sounds simple, but it escapes a lot of people just the same.

If you must be somewhere at 4 pm, you will be late if you start getting ready to leave at 4 pm. Yet, I know people who do this.

In fact, if it takes forty minutes to get where you’re going, you are late if you’re still in the office at 3:20. The Theory of Relativity does not bend just because you’ve got rotten planning skills.

Here’s the pro rule: If your meeting’s at 4, you are not walking into the room at 4, nor pulling into the parking lot at 4, nor sitting at a traffic light a block away at 4. At 4 pm, you have already been sitting calmly in the place you’re supposed to be for at least five minutes, with your thoughts gathered and your friggin’ shit together.

You do not “lose” the time you spend waiting for a meeting to start. It’s still your time. Meditate, read, work on notes, or just sit and enjoy being alive. But do it where you’re supposed to be… not back in your office or home getting ready, pretending you can navigate forty minutes of traffic in ten minutes this time.

Figure out the worst time it’s taken you to get across town. Then add ten minutes.

This way, you won’t have to watch for cops as you speed, you won’t be a menace trying to blow lights you’ve missed, and you won’t arrive with an adrenaline level through the roof.

Remember: No matter how good your excuse is, the people waiting for you don’t want to hear it.

If you’re late, you’re going to have to rely on your history. If you’re chronically on time, you’ll be forgiven. If you’re a “late person”, all you’ll ever get are eye-rolls as you waste more of their time trying to make your boring tale of wrecks, detours and slow tourists sound believeable.

This kind of simple discipline is not hard to pull off.

It’s just rare.

Stay frosty…

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

‘Nother Glitch

Quick note: If you have emailed me in the last three days, there is a good chance your missive was sent into “Nowhere Land” by ghosts in my machine.

Despite having backup behind backup — fortified by multiple firewall, virus and cookie protection — some sneaky ass little application tunneled into my hard drive and is happily chewing up my productivity. Massive tech help is on the case, and I expect things to return to normal this afternoon… but be advised that any silence on my end probably means your email never arrived.

It’s like the old Silk Road, back during the days when info and goods had to travel by caravan. No matter how smooth the ride would be in a perfect world, it’s a dangerous adventure in the real world. Thieves, con men, viruses and the perverse humor of Nature all conspire to keep anyone from reaching Grandma’s house without incident.

Keeps life interesting.

Stay frosty.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

Lessons From The Donald

Okay, I’m now completely sucked into this round of The Apprentice.

By the laws of Hollywood, it should have jumped the shark already… I at least expected the show to start obsessing more on the personal relationships of the group, to amp up the “soap opera” element for viewers too dim to follow the business lessons.

But the producers have resisted doing that… and good for them. They’re right to gouge deep into the “personalities” of the participants, because that’s a huge part of real business life. And this is a competition, with a lot at stake.

And yet, show after show somehow manages to present actual marketing lessons, interspersed with the mayhem and back-stabbing.

I like the whole approach. It’s riveting for a marketer.

This past show was good on several levels. The wonderful woman I share my life with — who is a marketing expert in her own right (but in the corporate world, not the entrepreneurial realm I lurk in) — noticed last season that the producers were “fore-shadowing” during the show… so, if you paid attention, you could actually predict who got it in the end.

Not so this season. There’s a tasty element of the board game “Clue” here — it’s nearly a murder mystery type of plot, with each character playing their role to the hilt. It’s Grand Guignol high theater.

And yet, it’s also real life. These people weren’t assigned roles, and aren’t reading from scripts. These are the types of deliciously-perverse characters that you can only hope populate your slice of the business world at some point or another.

During a dinner I hosted for the experts at my recent seminar, the table was packed with one of the strangest cast of real-life characters ever seen in one place. It was a legitimate version of the Algonquin Table… with all the clash of egos and flash of genius wit you only get when you’re really, really lucky.

I’m used to it, but it was refreshing to be reminded how lucky I am to have such larger-than-life people in my circle.

Let me tell you — it’s never boring when your colleagues include brilliant nut-cases and charming drama junkies.

And the current Apprentice cast isn’t boring, either. It’s like watching a good novel being written, and the characters evolve. There’s the arrogant smart guy (who gets his ego handed back to him in a bloody mess the first show)… the stout guy with the social skills of a chimpanzee (targeted as “must go” by the rest of his team, despite his proven ability to survive and see his enemies crushed instead, ala “Art of War”)… the sociopathic woman (shocked, shocked to discover her looks aren’t keeping her safe in this raw environment, and coming to terms with being out of control for the first times in her life)… the innocent kid, the jaded Israeli soldier, the scheming lawyer, the brewing emotional basket case…

It’s just fabulous theater.

Last week, hubris again won out. That seems to be standard operating procedure early in the show, because it’s happened a lot — project managers obsess on getting rid of someone they hate, and refuse to put their “friends” at risk in the boardroom (forgetting this is a game first)… and Trump tells ’em to take a hike, based almost entirely on the stupidity of not bringing the right people back in front of him to be fired.

God, it’s Shakespearean.

After the first few rounds of blood-letting, we no longer get to see the stunned faces of people who have never been told “no” in their lives before coming on the show… they all seem to get culled early.

Coming from humble beginnings myself, and surmounting a fair amount of adversity to get where I am, I cherish those moments of the privileged running face-first into a nasty life lesson like that. If they’re smart, they’ll allow the lesson to help them grow.

However, in the cab ride out, given the opportunity to have the last word, most choose to exonerate themselves, blame everyone else, and refuse to acknowledge they could have possibly been wrong about any decision they made.

Sounds like our current political landscape. The country is overflowing with hubris these days.

The Apprentice wannabe’s who survive to fight another round get to examine their belief systems more closely than at any other time in their careers. You can believe you’re an “idea guy”, or that your mere presence in a brainstorm meeting is magic because that’s what you’ve been told, or that “attitude” is what it’s all about… until those beliefs get shaken.

This group is lucky. They’re getting their belief systems rocked, hard, often and early. The opportunity to learn massive lessons in business are in their face every day.

Back when I was a slave to The Man in the corporate world, I would sometimes imagine myself being a character in a movie… just to survive the inanity and bullshit of the average day in the office.

I realize now that the tactic is actually a clue on how to live well. Count yourself lucky if you are surrounded by interesting characters, and your business presents a little drama now and again.

Life is about challenge.

So, if you’re gonna waste a few hours watching the boob tube, why not watch “deep” and learn more about the game of life. The Apprentice — for all its faults (including the jackass Trump, bless his larger-than-life heart) — is a giddy, exciting, real-time mystery novel I can’t wait to watch again.

And remember: The personalities you despise the most are likely reflections of your own personality. Maybe the dark side, maybe the side you’re just oblivious of right now. Pay attention to your reactions — your emotional response gauges only go ballistic when they recognize familiar behavior.

Something to think about.

Stay frosty.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

PS: I see that someone, in a past comment, defended The Donald as being “real” or something. I never said he isn’t real, and he’s certainly a success. My warning is about his ideas on business — he really doesn’t have much to say in the way of useable advice, because he’s so full of his own platitudes (which he never actually follows himself). Maybe you could pick up a few good tricks from him, but mostly he’s about leveraging money and using inside contacts.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just that most entrepreneurs aren’t in a position to leverage money. They’re more about making it in the first place.

No. My beef is that Trump is just the ringleader of a great circus. He’s amazing entertainment, but not the reason the shows works like it does. The genius belongs to the producers, who set up the circumstances and games, and and stock the show with fascinating characters.

Martha Stewart is just as savvy as Trump… maybe more so, considering she actually did rise from nothing (where Trump was a privileged guy handed a headstart)… but her show bombed because she isn’t entertaining. She spouts the same platitudes as The Donald, but without the venom and viciousness.

Trump is almost a cartoon character, bullying and alpha to a ridiculous degree.

But, as a character, he shines.

I don’t like the man, but I love the character.

Done. Next.

Yawn…

Finally got a full night’s sleep here, after all the rigamarole and anxiety of putting on such an intense event like the Hot Seat Workshop last weekend.

It was a blast, and by all incoming accounts a fabulous success. Glad I did it, had fun, and no, I don’t think I’ll do it again. Sorry if you missed it.

I want to publicly give out a big, sloppy “Thanks” to all the world-class experts who attended and lent their savvy and insight to the Hot Seats: Dean Jackson, Harlan Kilstein, Sam Fishbein, Stan Dahl, Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero and of course my good friend David Deutsch. In that amazing group, you have top copywriters with controls for the largest mailers in the world, recognized salesmanship gurus, consultants to huge companies like Exxon and Wells Fargo, and cutting edge marketers who for years have been the first to exploit the most advanced online tools available.

It was a stunning two-day display of insider secret-sharing, and going deep with the good stuff that makes marketing outrageously exciting and embarrassingly profitable.

Easily the most fun I’ve had in a seminar… and I’ve produced and co-produced something like fifty of the suckers in my career. This was something special.

And now, for my next act… another nap.

These events are exhausting.

Stay frosty.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

Important News For Snow Wimps

Two quick points:

1. All the slots in my big damn Hot Seat Workshop are filled. I couldn’t wedge anyone else in if you bribed me — in fact, it’s so full because the last guy I accepted had the good sense to bribe me to get squeezed in.

So, please — no more attempts at bribery for this event. She’s locked up tight.

2. Now… about those hysterical reports of an incoming storm. This is for all the attendees coming in from overseas and across the continent: THE STORM IS A BUST.

It must be a slow news day. I just fielded a call from my pal Dean in Florida, who was wondering how many feet of snow he’d have to plow through to reach the hotel.

Answer: Zero.

The storm is a total loser, folks. There’s some brisk (okay, icy) air swooping down from Canada as a lame-ass low pressure system attempts to stumble across the Sierras. But any snow we get will be a light dusting.

It’s no big deal. Check www.weather.com for Reno, NV before you leave home, if you need an update. And relax already.

Heck — I moved to this little patch of high-desert, nestled in the bosom of the gorgeous Sierra Nevada range, because of the mild, but still vivid, actual seasons. The spring and fall around the valley is just stunning, the summer appropriately toasty, and the winter cold and wet, like God intended.

Before the move, I lived on the beach in Los Angeles during a ten-year drought, when the temperature seldom went above eighty or below fifty-five. Yuck. It’s nice for a vacation, but boring longterm.

Give me a little raw, invigorating nature once in a while.

Not too much, mind you. Enough to keep the mountains snow-capped and the air bracing.

Real weather.

If you’re coming to Reno, prepare yourself before walking out of the air terminal — the sight of the Sierras in front of you will take your breath away.

Just wear a coat, okay?

Okay.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

Shut The Hell Up Already

I honestly tried to stay away from the latest round of The Apprentice. The Donald continues to remind me how easily money can turn you into a fuzzy-headed, sleazy jerk… and his ideas on business are almost absurdly infantile.

Hark unto this: He did NOT earn his wealth with savvy business decisions. He cheats.

Anyway, that’s what the latest best-selling expose of the man says. And Trump is suing the author for saying it… which not only boosts sales of the book and gets the author on all the talk shows (smart move, Donny), but also leads one to believe there must be at least some truth to the allegations to cause such an over-reaction.

And yet… I have been sucked into the pathos of the show once again.

It’s like junk. One glance, and you just gotta see who gets fired.

Tonight was yet another great unintended business lesson, as it turns out. If you didn’t catch the show (and really, I only perk up during the last half hour, when the blood-letting begins in earnest), the zaftig princess talked her way into getting the boot. Donald was working up a lather over the incompetence of the self-annointed “Mensa genius” boy wonder sitting next to her, so close to firing the twerp that the “f” was burbling in his throat… when the princess piped up, trying to wedge some not-very-clever back-handed compliment into the ring.

Donald told her to shut up. She persisted. He tried to quiet her again. She simply could not close her yap.

And so he fired her. Just to shut her up. Was pissed off she made him do it, in fact… and he snarled at the boy wonder on his way out, threatening him with future abuse. Trump really, really, really wanted to fire the boy… but the princess forced his hand.

The lesson is just a bit deeper than the old “Art of War” saw about not interupting the destruction of an enemy.

When I was coming up the ranks, I sought out older salesmen who had honed their chops in the street, doing door-to-door sales. These guys — a vanishing breed — understand human behavior better than most psychotherapists.

And here is what they taught me: The biggest problem rookies have is not saying enough to make the sale. My friend Jeff Paul is a natural salesman, and he tells a story about his own training — when he was sticking to a script during his first face-to-face sales session with a prospect… and his gut just insisted that he add a final piece of salesmanship to the pitch.

He said — after delivering the memorized script of the “standard” pitch for the product — this: “Now, got get your check book and a pen.” This almost caused his trainer to have a coronary. It was too ballsy for most salesmen.

Not for Jeff. He sensed, correctly, that the pitch needed just a bit more oomph. And he provided it. He got the sale, and used that line forever after.

Most rookie marketers are way too timid about asking for the sale. They clam up too soon, and hope the prospect will fill in the blanks of the pitch — or just take certain things for granted. But that’s a piss-poor way to make a sale.

This is why long copy works. It’s a sales pitch. You have to establish a lot of things, like credibility, proof, features and benefits, plus lots and lots of urgent reasons why you should buy this stuff right now.

Skip the critical stuff, and your prospect simply doesn’t have enough ammo in his brain to make a buying decision.

But there’s another part to this equation: Once you have covered all your main points… and countered all the large objections to the sale… shut up.

Even if the silence seems deafening.

Even if every nerve in your body squirms, and you have to choke back words.

Even if you think you’re “losing” the sale by remaining quiet.

Just shut the hell up.

Here’s why: No one buys because a salesman talks them into the sale. You can’t sell by arguing, or by badgering, or by overwhelming the prospect with information.

Ultimately, the decision to buy happens inside the prospect’s head. Beyond your control.

All you can do is make the best pitch you can, and present your case as powerfully and urgently as possible.

Then, you have to let your pitch percolate in his internal juices.

If he buys, it will be because your pitch answered the main questions in his mind. You cannot predict what those questions will be (which is another reason you need long copy, or a long sales pitch). Often, I’ve discovered that out of several dozen bullets I’ve put into a piece… just ONE made the sale with most folks.

It might be the price, which you’ve justified in a way that he knows his wife will understand. It might be the opportunity for him to show up an arrogant brother-in-law you don’t know about. It might be the vague sex appeal, or the dream of telling his boss to go stuff it, or any of a thousand other reasons.

And guess what? Even if you were clairvoyant and KNEW what that “clinch it” reason was… you still couldn’t use that knowledge to force your prospect to buy.

Because he’d still have to go through that inner conversation deep inside his noggin.

Tonight, the princess believed she had something to say that would force The Donald to do what she wanted.

It was a rookie mistake. All she needed to do was note the laser focus Trump had on his target, which wasn’t her. And shut the hell up.

She couldn’t pull it off.

Hey — it wouldn’t be a good lesson if most people intuitively understood it, and did the right thing.

In the real world, this is advanced salesmanship.

Live and learn.

Stay frosty…

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

The Rest Of Your Friggin’ Life

I caught some of the Olympic games, here and there, over the past two weeks. Kinda hard to get excited about curling, and it seems they’ve sucked most of the fun out of skiing, even… but the snowboarding chaos has some real promise.

I watch more for the unfolding human drama.

Not the drama of the games. Rather, the drama of the network coverage… which gets more hysterical and over-the-top each broadcast.

It’s a great lesson in human behavior.

I grew up wanting to be a journalist. I created “pretend” newspapers as a kid, and was on the newspaper staff in both high school and college. (Although, once it was known that I could draw cartoons, that became my “job” at both publications… which isolated me from the reporters.) Some of my favorite writers have been newspapermen — Mark Twain, H.L. Mencken, “Red” Smith, Herb Caen.

But, geez Louise, I can’t imagine a kid wanting to be a reporter today. Writing well and getting to the bottom of things is, like, last on the list of what newspapers do now. It’s just ridiculous how little actual insight is provided into anything the media touches (“60 Minutes” excluded).

If I were growing up now, I’m have dreams of being a blogger — the only writers left on the planet who can escape censorship and actually think for themselves.

Anyway, the “story lines” invented by the media about the Olympics are getting very, very, very boring and predictable. That’s the fault of the reporters and the media overlords, who struggle to find something to please the “mass viewing audience”. In almost every human endeavor, pleasing “most people” means downgrading the quality to abysmal levels.

What’s worse, to my mind, is that the people doing the reporting (Bob Costas included) seem to regard athletes as alien species, so impossible to understand that all we can do is… well, make up stuff about them.

It’s just horseshit. I have the same problem with music critics who have never attempted to master an instrument. Or film reviewers who have zero acting experience. Or, on a more serious level, politicians who have no life experience dealing with people or bureaucracies or law.

I once read a smug, arrogant review of a Dire Straits concert by a woman who wrote — as if this were a fact everyone on the planet just of course agreed with her on — that Mark Knopfler was “never very good at playing the guitar”. Uh, okay. This would be same Mark Knopfler who was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame as a guitar player, and whose jaw-dropping masterpiece “Sultans of Swing” has been cited by other guitar greats as probably the best solo ever performed using a Fender Strat?

I read that review years ago, and it just stuck in my craw. Who hired that idiot writer? What small, ego-centric world did she live in that allowed her to hold such insane thoughts in her head without being challenged… and where the hell did she get off putting that nonsense into an article?

You can fill in your own examples for film review and politics, I’m sure. And I’m too tired tonight to get into the specifics of all the equally bone-headed stuff touted by false “experts” in marketing and advertising.

It’s one of the inherent problems of the Information Age — as more and more conduits for spreading info arrive, more writers are needed, and the ranks of good ones are alarmingly thin. The New York Times has to fill a thousand pages with words, even if their best thinkers and journalists are home sick with the flu.

The real trouble, as I see it, is that no one seems to give a shit anymore. Most people still get their news from television, which is pretty much like relying on your grandmother. There’s no punishment for writers who get the story wrong, no matter how much it riles people up. There’s no follow-through, no fact-checking, no editing at all. (In the publishing world, manuscripts now often go out the door as “finished” novels and books without so much as a grammar check.)

There are no adults in charge anymore.

Which, interestingly enough, actually makes for some very interesting situations.

Apparently — and I hope I don’t shock you here — most of the athletes at the Olympics are driven competitors who will accept nothing less than the gold medal. The silver or bronze is a humiliating insult… and not getting any medal at all is just inconceivable.

This, according to the reporters covering the events. One of the commentators said, in reference to the aging Russian ice skating star who choked during her event and had to “settle” for the bronze: “I cannot imagine what she will do with the rest of her life, now that her dream of Olympic gold has been shattered.”

Oh, please.

Now, I’m not a high-performing athlete… but I do know something about being driven. Y0u need basic drive to become an accomplished musician, to become a world-class writer, to get good at anything, really.

And I understand what high achievers mean when they say they will “settle for nothing less than total victory”… whether that victory is dominance in a market, marrying the prettiest girl in class, or winning the top prize.

That kind of hard-core self-motivation is necessary to squeeze out the best performance. Much to the chagrin of non-musicians, non-writers, and non-politicians, it takes a very disciplined dedication, for a very long time, to acheive great results. You don’t hit a home run the first time you pick up a bat, no matter how much you wish that was the way reality worked.

But most reporters, and most reviewers, and most critics in all fields never experience that kind of dedication. They believe they can “get the general idea” by dabbling around the edges of true expertise, and that’s plenty enough to give them the right to judge everyone else.

This, my friend, is misinformation. It just ain’t true.

You know what really happens when high achievers fail to reach their “dream” goal, whatever it might be?

I’ll tell you, because I happen to know.

They dust themselves off. They look for the next logical or possible step — whether it’s retirement from the ring, or diving back into practice.

And then… they keep on keeping on.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard came from Richard Nixon (of whom I am no fan). He said, early in his disaster-filled political career, that if you were going to fail… make sure you fail spectacularly. Don’t hold back.

In other words, go for the gusto… even if you come up short in the end.

Now, some athletes, ten years from now, will be bloated alchoholics boring the shit out of everyone about the good old days. I’ve been to several of my high school reunions — I’m a glutton for examining and rehashing the past — and while there are a dozen or so people I really enjoy seeing… I get the most kick out of checking up with the jocks and social elites for whom high school was the highlight of their life.

Those aren’t the high acheivers. Most of the truly successful types had it pretty miserable during high school (and most have no intention of ever going to even a single reunion). They nursed their wounds, learned their lessons, and moved on.

For people who feast on life, the goal isn’t to “win”, whatever the hell that means. No. The real goal is to live large, and attempt to pull off the grandest and most exciting adventures you can conceive of.

And, if you fail, you fail spectacularly.

My hat is off to the Russian chick. She went for it. I believe she’s going to be just fine through the years, despite not going home with the gold.

No matter what else happens in her life, they can never take the fact that she went for it away from her.

Stay frosty.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

P.S. I have — count ’em — two spots left at my upcoming Hot Seat Workshop here in Reno on March 11-12. To get the details, rush over to www.john-carlton.com/Hot_Seat_Seminar.pdf and read the letter I’ve posted. I will never hold another event like this again — it’s a LOT of work for me. But the payoff for the handful of attendees savvy enough to come is going to be earth-shaking.

If you’re at all interested, hurry.

The Unforgiving Human Funk

Insight Alert!

While scouring the press on this slow news day, I came across one of those “hmmm” items that get a little initial attention in the talk shows, and then fade away.

As a marketer, however, this is the juicy stuff that can help wake up your slumbering Inner Salesman.

The news came from a study by the Certified Financial Planners Board of Standards… and if you can’t trust them, who can you trust in America today?

Okay, I have no idea who they are, but I know a number of financial planners, and they’re all pretty hooked into the varieties of greed that exist in the human heart. Their job, mostly, is to take chaos and create order… in the lives of people they otherwise would have nothing to do with.

You have to be worth some serious bucks before a planner will return your call. If you’re a rookie in business right now, one of your long-term goals should be to become the sort of financial mess a planner will deign to help straighten out.

Anyway, what this Board of Standards just released is a report verifying what most people who study human behavior have long suspected: Over 70% of lottery winners sqaunder it all away, eventually. A third have to declare bankrupcy.

We’re talking about people who score lottery wins of hundreds of millions here.

And they just do not have the skills to handle the windfall.

Psychologists will tell you that most people have a comfort zone they like to maintain. They crave routine, they crave the same things over and over (like eating in the same restaurant every week), they crave a daily life they can predict.

But they aren’t aware of these cravings. In fact, they will complain about the routines.

If you’re young and full of piss and vinegar, you may have experienced the opposite need — a drive to break free of the predictable and familiar, an urge to throw yourself into the strangeness of the wide world and test your ability to survive. This is why small towns in middle America continue to get smaller — the young-uns are leaving in droves for the bright lights.

But for most people, that urge drains away… replaced by a longing for the familiar and the predictable. If you’re lucky, you retain a taste for danger and newness… at least a little bit. In my experience, people who get to travel a lot in their youth continue to yearn for travel as they age. However, they want that travel to be a little less chaotic.

The world turns on routine. People get up to alarm clocks that never get changed, drive streets so familiar they blur in passing, perform duties at redundant jobs that require a calendar to remind you what day it is. And, for the bulk of the population, they like it that way.

Most of my readers are entrepreneurs. The successful entrepreneurs need to be reminded of how the rest of the world operates… because successful entrepreneurs are fidgety folks, always screwing around with their lives so that routine barely has a chance to settle in. The wannabe entrepreneurs hover at the doorway to this world, astounded at the amount of unpredictability required to move to each new level of success.

Easy test: If the idea of working without a safety net thrills you, you have entrepreneur blood in your veins. Welcome to our world. If the idea causes an anxiety attack, you may be better off with a desk job somewhere, getting a paycheck.

For entrepreneurs, it is imperative that you understand human beings better than they understand themselves. This can cause some painful self-evaluation, but in the end you become a better person for your insight.

And what you learn also helps you become a killer salesman. You cannot sell well if you are blind to the motivations, desires, and weak spots like greed in your prospect.

Thus, the importance of this lottery infomation.

People buy lottery tickets because their greed gland kicks in. They think they want a life filled with cash. It’s a hazy, vague kind of thinking, but it opens their wallet.

Yet, winning often stuns them. I live in a town filled with casinos, and when friends visit, we almost always trek down to the gambling floors. People will pour cash into machines and throw it across felt for hours… and yet, if they win big, they almost exhibit a sense of altered consciousness that makes them act silly. “I never win anything,” they often say.

So why do they continue to gamble?

I will tell you this — many people who regularly buy lottery tickets will hear about this study, and believe it totally. Regular guy wins the lotto, wife leaves, friends hate him, he ends up in the gutter, broke. It’s the kind of story that would circulate even if it was bullshit… the fact it’s often true will just amp up the rumor factor.

But no one will stop buying lottery tickets. Think about that. What does that tell you about human behavior?

If you sell information — or if the main benefit of your product or service is a better life — then you, too, are selling dreams. Most people believe they want a “better life”… and believe that more money can help deliver it. People who have been there know this to be untrue, mostly… but other folks still want the opportunity to find out for themselves.

You cannot get hung up on the idea that many of your customers will not follow through with what you offer. They won’t read what you write, won’t watch your DVDs, won’t act on any of your advice. This doesn’t mean you aren’t filling a need in their life — it just means that, no matter how much you push and cajole, you cannot force them to become motivated to move forward.

With most information, the reality of moving forward is very much like the reality of suddenly becoming wealthy. Your life becomes so different from what you were comfortable with before, that you get discombobolated. Lose your sense of balance, of who you are and where you fit in your circle of friends and family.

Climbing out of your comfort zone requries a little skill at redisovering who you are and what you want. It also challenges everyone around you, and that can cause emotional havoc. What do you say to friends when the conversation turns to complaining about rich people, or about trouble paying the bills? How do you handle that first pitch from an in-law to borrow a bunch of money… only to discover they have no intention of ever paying you back? What happens to your self image when you catch people talking about you behind your back… because you’re no longer “one of them”?

It’s not the money that ruins lottery winners. It’s the sudden collapse of their comfort zones. When you no longer need to go to a job, you have 40 hours a week to fill up. If all your friends are from the job, you’re now a stranger in a strange land.

Consider all these implications. If what you sell requires any kind of change — even if it’s just a small change — then no matter how excited you get your prospect, he will resist buying if you take him too far out of his comfort zone. He probably won’t even understand his own resistance.

This is one of the biggest obstacles you will encounter. I consult with people all the time who have a great product, but can’t make the sale because they are simply flabbergasted when rational prospects hesitate to buy.

No matter how good your product is at helping people create better lives… often, unconsciously, they are just happier in their familiar funk.

Know your obstacles. Don’t try to sell in the dark.

Stay frosty.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

Whose Experience Is It, Anyway?

One the reasons I’m a good teacher… is because I suck at being a good student.

I have to re-learn my lessons over and over… and over again. Painfully, sometimes. That’s good for anyone wanting to learn from me, because my repeated “take overs” mean I know the territory better than most… and I have “experimented” with the learning curve so much I understand every obstacle you will encounter trying to weld the most important principles and lessons to your brain.

I’m not stupid (in spite of what anyone else may have told you). And I love the learning process. My problem is being too generous — I’ve always had a “can do” attitude, and I really enjoy helping people. So, sometimes I let my enthusiasm for sharing and teaching overwhelm the “rules” I’ve developed over the decades that have been the foundation of my successful career.

Here’s a good example… one that I think holds a great overall lesson for all of us.

Here’s the story: The “marketing model” I use involves lots of straight-ahead “content”… meaning, I give out oodles of good, useable info and only occasionally (and gently) pitch anything. For years, my newsletter mailed out with just the newsletter — it was pure information, with no selling whatsoever.

This blog, too, is mostly info-dense. (I’ve been reminding people of the upcoming workshop because it’s such a rare event, and almost upon us.) People rely on me for delivering the goods, and I do my best to comply.

Part of the reason for this “lots of info, very little selling” model is because what I offer people is — there’s no other way to describe it — deep. It’s not paper-thin theory, and not surface-level crap ripped from other people’s experiences. What I share are the proven tactics, concepts and insider savvy from my many years in the front line trenches of the advertising world. This is what I do. This is how I earned my rep, project by project, over decades of success and trial and error.

A larger part of the reason for this model, however, is that I’m clearly not everyone’s cup of tea. I’m not going to change my attitude, my teaching style or my quirks (especially not my quirks) in order to be “more accessible” to a bigger audience. Screw the “bigger audience” out there. I’m after hard-core marketers who are aggressively seeking major success, and come looking for just the kind of insider advice I offer.

I don’t want the many problems inherent in trying to appeal to “uninitiated” crowds. My refund rate for the “Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets” course is so miniscule, it doesn’t even show up as a whole percentage point. If I were my own client, I’d advise myself that I’m not pushing hard enough — a good marketer should be getting around 7%-to-15% refunds. That’s normal, and from my experience, the average. Even with a super-killer product, some refunds are unavoidable.

But I’m not approaching my teaching gig as a normal marketer. This is a side project with me — my main gig is still as a freelance writer, and I still service a core group of clients who rely on me for that. The teaching is something I’m doing to, yes, earn extra money from… but more important, it’s my way of giving something back to the industry that has given me so much. Like the guy on “My Name Is Earl”, I learned long ago that karma is a very real component of the universe. Also, I enjoy the way I feel when I share my expertise with others.

Now, by avoiding the “hard sell” with my teaching gig, I seldom encounter anyone seeking private consultation who isn’t hip to what I’m about. Everyone I do critiques for is an Insider with me, well-schooled in the basics I teach, aware of my reasons for insisting on certain tactics and concepts, and willing to put their precious ego aside and learn.

Long ago, in fact, I made a rule with myself that I would avoid, at all costs, directly dealing with anyone who was not completely and thoroughly initiated to the ways I operate. (That’s why it’s so much more expensive to attend any event I have if you aren’t already at least a subscriber to the Rant newsletter.)

Because, as I said, I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.

Every once in a while, I’ll speak at a someone’s seminar, and discover the crowd is packed with neophytes who refuse to believe that long copy works better than short copy… or that having a specific call to action is necessary for a sales pitch to succeed… or that Madison Avenue’s idea of ads (lots of irrelevant graphics, gratuitous ironic comedy, an embarrassed refusal to even attempt to sell) is just plain wrong, wrong, wrong.

And that almost always signals a major bummer for me. I don’t mind teaching the raw basics… but I know from brutal experience that just the building-block concept of long copy versus short copy is something that most businessmen have a very hard time believing. Even with proof. Even when the proof shows up in their bank account.

And when you can’t get past that basic concept, you’re really not gonna understand the advanced stuff.

Most of the marketing world will never “get” the basics of classic direct response salesmanship.

Which is fine. It’s also the reason I don’t push too hard to get people into my world. If you get hung up on the basics (which veterans know from long experience is as close to gospel as you get in business), then none of the advanced stuff I teach is going to make a difference to you.

Still, as I said, I have a glitch in my internal operating software that makes me violate my own rules over and over.

Yesterday, I did a phone consultation with someone who was not initiated into my teaching substance or style. I agreed to it, because one of my older clients insisted on it, and I’m a sucker for a heartfelt pitch.

And — no big surprise — the call went sideways from around minute number two.

Now, if you’ve done a phone consultation with me before, you know that I let you control the call however you want. You can interupt me, go off on any tangent you like, pepper me with questions or sit back and join me in a long, story-filled rant on whatever subject hits the table.

This works fine with almost everyone.

And the reason it works fine with almost everyone is that I normally refuse to do phone consultations with anyone not inititated.

The client who set this consultation up is a big fan of mine, and a terrific marketer. He unabashedly credits the single hour consultation he did with me a few years ago as launching his business — he received a massive payload of specific tactics, concepts and techniques during his call that immediately propelled him to the head of the class in his market.

And so, when his friend encountered a marketing dilemna, he urged this friend to do a consultation with me.

There’s a very important lesson here: When I teach salesmanship, I talk about “waking up your inner salesman” by doing something as simple as trying to convince a friend to go see a movie you know he’d enjoy (but wasn’t planning to go see).

I do this because of the incredible lesson in human behavioral psychology that occurs.

Try it. What you will encounter is the phenomenon of “resistance”. The more enthusiasm you show, and the more you insist your friend go to this movie… the more he will resist. This illuminates the basic mistake rookies make when trying to close a sale — believing that your enthusiasm will influence your prospect’s decision. It won’t. In fact, it can interfere.

This is why a world-class sales pitch is not a straight-on assault of bullying, but a nuanced progression of overcoming obstacles to the exchange of money. You must allow the prospect to make his own decision — and you do that by giving him reasons to do it. Not by insisting he do it, and not by trying to bowl him over with enthusiasm.

In fact, in the movie example… if you DO get him to go see the movie, guess what? He will very likely hate it. It’s very rare that he will have the same amazing experience you did. People do like to be led, but they don’t like to be forced to do anything.

That’s what happened with this botched consultation. The caller was pretty much just doing it to get my former client to shut up already about how much I’d helped him. He came to the call with a “I already know all this” attitude, had a totally unrealistic preconception of what to expect… and, as he anitcipated, had a bad time.

It wasn’t his fault. He had some notion built up in his head of how the call was going to go, and this notion was not based on knowing me, or knowing anything about what to expect from me. It was very much like going to a French restaurant wanting Mexican food, and being disappointed when you can’t get it. No matter how clear you are with the waiter about what you “want”, you’re not gonna get it if it ain’t on the menu.

I gave the guy a million dollars worth of advice, but it didn’t penetrate. Again, not his fault. The call should have never happened… at least until after he was initiated.

For you, and anyone else involved in marketing to humans, the lesson is the same. You cannot close the sale if you must rely on educating your prospect — to bring him up to a certain level of understanding, or to initiate him to a way of thinking. If what you offer involves education, you need to follow the marketing model of building a list with free or low-cost content, and nurturing it carefully so that when the major buying decision is made, it’s gonna stick.

I imagine I’ll have to keep relearning this lesson, too… because I’m kind of a soft touch when it comes to agreeing to help people. I set up rules both to protect my time, conserve my energy, and keep myself somewhat sane.

But I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t violate these rules once in a while.

And I wouldn’t be the teacher I am if I didn’t appreciate the opportunity to re-learn the lesson again, and incorporate the new input to refine it.

Stay frosty.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

Motivation

Interesting story going around about motivation. Researchers discovered that “planning” to quit smoking or lose weight — as in New Year’s resolutions — was almost a guaranteed way to fail.

The only sure-fire way to quit, or lose, is to have a health crisis.

That was my experience. I smoked for ten years — my idol was Humphrey Bogart, and I was under the delusion that having a cig hanging from my lips made me look debonair or something. And I only quit after suffering severe bronchitis (headed for pneumonia).

Two years in a row. Got sick, quit… started again… got sick again… and finally quit for good the second time. That was over thirty years ago. I still have the occasional craving for a smoke — there’s nothing that replaces the joy of flooding your system with nicotine during a break from writing. Nothing.

---

Want to learn to be more proactive in life & biz but are not sure where to start? Start by getting my free report “11Really Stupid Blunders You’re Making With Your Biz & Career Right Now.” All actionable stuff that will get results in the real world. Get it free right here.

---

And yet, I never indulge.

Apparently, people who plan their escape from bad habits and/or unwanted weight the most obsessively…

… are the ones to bet on to fail most spectacularly.

I remember many friends trying hypnosis, counselling, and lots of tricks (like wrapping their packs of cigarettes in rubber bands, so it was a hassle to get one out). Nothing that involved forced discipline or avoiding cold turkey worked very well. My friends who tried the craze diets — like the Atkins — became insufferable bores on the subject… and the evangelism lasted until the day they fell off the wagon with a thud.

I’ve been studying life-change for decades.

I am living proof that you can change your life radically, almsot overnight… using nothing but a few tools like a pile of self-help books (such as “Think and Grow Rich“), a glimpse at the path you want to take, and a “gun to the head” attitude that refuses to recognize failure as an option.

And yet, even friends who have watched the transformation refuse to see it as something they could repeat themselves. They stop talking to me about their problems the second I interupt their whine and offer concrete steps to take.

They really aren’t ready to change yet, you see. They just want to wallow in misery, and they resent any attempt to remind them they have choices..

I was thinking about this while talking with an old friend who suddenly has to change his ways… because he had a heart attack. Two stark choices: Lose the Type A behavior patterns and live… or get back on the workaholic treadmill and die soon.

And I have another friend, who had one of those birthdays that hit him like a brick. He’s suddenly no longer young and full of potential — he’s middle-aged, with dwindling opportunity to “grow up” (as he calls it) and either do what he wants to do with his life, or continine the drudgery of his “life on hold” habits.

He’s depressed. It’s bad. Something’s gotta give… and it could very well be that he merely comes to terms with never going after what he truly wants in life. That will be a shame… but it won’t be an uncommon choice.

They’re not asking me for advice, mind you. They know what I would tell them:

• Quick dicking around, and jump into life with renewed purpose and motivation.
• Go after what you want.
• Stop pretending life comes with a “do over” switch, or extra chances after time has elapsed.

I mean, if you’re a Type A workaholic, and you haven’t yet had your little face-to-face with eternity moment… why not change now, while you’ve got extra energy, and won’t have to spend a couple of years recuperating?

Just skip the heart attack part, and change now.

And if you’re avoiding changing your life, and it’s bothering you because you just know you won’t be happy if you find yourself on your deathbed without having written that novel, or travelled to India, or gotten a tatoo, or whatever… why not skip the coming depression and just change now?

I’m serious. Why not?

Your biology is set against you. All your plans will likely go for naught, because we aren’t wired to change without drastic motivation.

Then again, it’s not a hard and fast rule.

Many people DO change without a health crisis or nervous breakdown.

And they’re not lucky, either — they’re just done with walking around like a zombie, waiting for Fate to intervene.

No one gets out of here alive. What you do during the time you’re given is completely up to you. What you’re doing now is the result of choices you’ve made in the past. You can’t undo many of them, but so what?

• People travel with kids in tow.
• Novelists finish great works while holding down a day job.
• Entire families have changed entire lifestyles, leaving the suburbs behind.
• Broke and clueless people have tapped into the Information Age and become rich and clued-in.

Pursuing another path may not immediately bring you oodles of happy moments and the dream life you want. However, it’s for sure you won’t find what you seek if you don’t take that first step.

It really is all about motivation.

Stay frosty.

John Carlton

PS: If you’re looking for some motivation to up your marketing game, you’ll find a massive  treasure trove right here.