Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
September 22, 2005
Robert Channing is one of the most amazing people I met at internet marketing conferences over the last three years. He partnered with Joe Vitale to create the Spiritual Marketing Super Summit. He coordinated the entire conference. He was outstanding as the Master of Ceremonies for the entire event.
Also, Robert was the main entertainment at the Awards Banquet. I was astounded at Robert's ability to use the amazing powers of his mind. He has created a brain-expanding, mind-blowing training program for students and companies called "Your Gold Mind System."
Robert also owns two talent agencies that book all the celebrities, movie stars,
sports heroes, politicians and entertainers. They are
Power Performers and College
and
Power Performers.
He performs his incredible mind-reading and mental-motivator program for over
150 college, universities and corporations every year. He is the perfect person
to demonstrate the incredible powers of the human mind.
We decided to work together to create a training program for students to use
more of their mental powers. Also, his talent agencies will promote the local
and international heroes discovered through the In Search Of Heroes Program.
Robert Channing's In Search Of Heroes Interview by Ralph Zuranski
Ralph Zuranski: Hi, this is Ralph Zuranski! I’m on the phone with Robert
Channing. He is one of the most amazing people that I have ever met. I met him
at Joe Vitale’s seminar Spiritual Marketing Super Summit. He had coordinated the
entire seminar, complete with the speakers and virtually everything that you
could possibly imagine that goes with a seminar - maintenance and just creation.
Robert also is one of the most impressive people that I have ever seen, using
his mind to bend spoons, to remember things and to know what people are
thinking. It was incredible. I’ve never been more blown away by somebody’s
presentation than Robert’s when he did a special presentation at Joe’s seminar.
So Robert, how are you doing today?
Robert Channing: I’m doing phenomenal, Ralph, and thank you very much for
inviting me on this. I’m very honored and I really appreciate you having me on
today.
Ralph Zuranski: You know, your company is called the Power Performers and I know
that you work a lot with scheduling movie stars, business leaders and some of
the most important people in the world today to speak at conventions and events.
Perhaps you could tell us a little bit about your company.
Robert Channing: Power Performers was created around nine years ago. How it came
to fruition is I have been a performer since I was five years old. I started
studying magic, mind reading, ESP and hypnosis. I studied with David
Copperfield, Harry Blackstone Jr., some of the top mentalists and magicians in
the world. I learned by actually watching them do what they do.
I learned from the best and I learned from the worst. I made it my life’s goal
to be a performer, to be a mentalist, a mind reader, ESP motivational person. I
studied Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
The first book I ever read on motivation was by Glen Bland. It was called the
Glen Bland Method for Success. It just taught me how you can change your life.
You draw a line in the sand and by just taking that step over; you can change
your life by changing your attitude and your strategies with your mind.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
When I was a child, Ralph, I learned how to do magic tricks and it brought
attention to me. I didn’t have that; I didn’t crave that. My mother was
fantastic, my father worked all the time and I never saw him. He was a great
guy, never made a lot of money but I never knew that. I was a happy guy who
played Army and Cowboys and Indians.
But as I grew older, I was into sports, and I was always into magic, how the
mind worked and I became an entertainer. I performed at birthday parties for
$15. For my first birthday party when I was 11 years old I performed for $15 and
I learned I could make money doing it and people loved what I did.
Then I began to performing all over the world. I performed for different
Presidents. I performed for corporations and for a lot of colleges and
organizations. At that point, the people at the organization said to me, “Hey,
Bob. Your mind reading ESP show is phenomenal. Do you have anybody else that can
entertain at our event or speak?”
At that point, I said, “I have a friend of mine that can do human calculations.
I have another friend of mine who is a rock star, Alice Cooper. He can come in
and talk about, for colleges, drug awareness. He can perform.” Then I created
the company Power Performers. So that was my unique selling proposition.
These were powerful people but are the best in their industry, just like you are
doing, Ralph. You’re interviewing the heroes in different industries that are
the best at what they do, the top 1%. And that’s what I did.
I created the speaker’s bureau, or an entertainment agency which is both. I
promote the top speakers, entertainers, sports stars, and business leaders in
the world to corporations, associations, colleges, private functions and
organizations throughout the country. So hopefully that answers your question.
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, it definitely does. Since you are working with the
top people in the industry, one of the major things I’ve realized with doing the
interviews of my heroes is the real heroes are people that actually provide a
quality service to society.
They help put people to work and the true definitions of those people are
entrepreneurs who are not afraid to step out on their own to follow their dream.
What is your definition of heroism?
Robert Channing: I just spoke to my wife about that this morning; because I told
her I was going to be on the line with you, Ralph. She said, and we agreed, it’s
the people that make a difference in one person’s life.
If I can make a difference in my neighbor’s life that morning or that afternoon,
maybe once a day and bring somebody up that’s been down or helped somebody, like
I know you are doing with your family, that’s a hero.
To me, if I can change one life, I don’t know who quoted this before, but it’s a
quote from somewhere. If you can change one person’s life, and make them happy,
make them feel better about themselves or help them in any other way, you’ve
actually helped humanity itself. That’s my definition of heroism.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: That’s so true.
Robert Channing: Helping one person at a time.
Ralph Zuranski: I totally agree. Did you ever create a secret hero in
your mind that helped you deal with life’s problems when you were young?
Robert Channing: Yes, I did. Well, God was my hero. I was brought up Catholic. I
was an altar boy for 11 years.
Ralph Zuranski: So was I.
Robert Channing: I remember sitting in a small church. I came from a little town
called Newport, New York. There were probably around three people in our little
town, one blinking light, one Catholic Church and one Methodist church.
I remember doing my services in the evening, the Stations of the Cross. There
were maybe like five or six people in the church. I’d be there myself before the
mass would start. I’d be there, present with a Being and that’s what I believed
that yes, there is a God, there is some Higher Power.
I think that by being by myself in that big open church and just thinking and
being open to thoughts in the Universe and to God, is what opened my mind to
reality and what I could do. I can’t describe it any more than that, it was just
a feeling that I had come over me.
Ralph Zuranski: What is your perspective on goodness, ethics, and moral
behavior?
Robert Channing: I know everybody has struggled with that. I have. I would say
that I’m 90% ethical and moral. There’s that 10% where sometimes you get tempted
by money or greed or temptation of any kind.
Sex, drugs, rock and roll, whatever you want to call it. I think my integrity is
up there with the top people in the world.
I think integrity is very, very important. If you cheat someone, you are
cheating yourself. It’s a multiple effect. If you want to track that in
business, if you do something well for someone, I’ve heard this, they are going
to go out and maybe tell one or two people.
But if you would hurt them in any way, or take advantage of them, it’s going to
multiply over 100 times backwards. You can track that as well, Ralph.
A friend of mine, Scott Holm that I hired as a business coach taught me that and
we tracked it one day. It’s better to do well than it is to do badly. I’ve
learned that all my life, you learn by trial and error as well. I think
integrity is the number one pursuit of happiness in a balanced life.
Ralph Zuranski: You know, it’s funny that you’d say that about the 90%
doing good and the 10%. One of the heroes that I interviewed is Gregory Allen
Williams. He’s the black cop on Baywatch; he actually saved a man’s life during
the L.A. riots. He said there is a little bit of bad in the best of us, and a
little bit of good in the worst of us.
When anybody steps up to help someone, they too can be a hero at that
moment in time. So he was willing basically to sacrifice his life if he had to,
to help others that were in difficulty during the LA riots. What do you think
are the principles that you are willing to sacrifice your life for?
Robert Channing: The principles that I’m willing to sacrifice my life for? I’ve
been struggling with that. Only because I give so much; I give, I give, and I
give, Ralph. It seems a lot of the time that it doesn’t come back to me by the
people I give to.
I’ve learned that you should not ask for it back. Or expect it back from the
people you give it to, although you would love to have that back. I’ve learned
from studying different books and the Bible as well is that if you give it to
someone; don’t expect it back from them.
It will come from somewhere else. It could come from a baby’s smile that you
just had, a newborn baby of yours. It could come from, someone gave you a kind
word on a plane or a smile or a thank you. Maybe you just won the lottery, you
don’t know. But it’s going to come somewhere else.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: When was the lowest point in your life and how did you change
your life path to win a victory over obstacles?
Robert Channing: The lowest point in my life? You know what? I’m an optimist.
There were two low points in my life. One was when I became a professional
entertainer, and I was very optimistic. I studied all the best people in the
world, and then I performed my show and I had another gentleman that was
jealous.
I was probably only about 18 years old and this gentleman was 36. I was in the
same market that he was in. He would try to shut me down and put me down,
because he saw how strong I was when I was performing. People were attracted to
me and they loved what I did.
It was the same type of mentalism that he did. Although it was different, it was
my personality and he had a different personality. He was jealous. Actually, it
hurt me. My own true feelings, I didn’t want anyone to feel bad about me. I
didn’t want anybody to look down and say this guy was bad, or this guy is doing
something wrong.
I almost felt guilty because I was doing so well for myself that people become
jealous of what I’ve done. Ralph, have you ever dealt with that before? Have you
done so well that people get jealous? How do you deal with those people?
Ralph Zuranski: Well, again, what you have to realize is that, what you
said earlier, the consequences of their actions and their personal integrity.
They are providing service to their client, realizing that you only succeed to
the level of quality of your products and your service to your customers. The
greater the service, the greater the quality, the greater your success.
When people strive to spread evil or not spread good, that has its own
consequences because it’s their thought process. If you have negative thoughts,
it’s going to ultimately generate negative in your life and it’s the seeds that
you sow.
Negative thoughts, negative actions will always reap a horrible harvest
somewhere down the line. Positive thoughts and positive action, you get rewards
but it might not be from the source where you actually did those positive
things.
But the universe is impeccable, it never fails and good will always be rewarded
with good, somewhere down the line or maybe immediately. Evil will always be
rewarded with evil; it’s an exponential type thing.
Robert Channing: I agree. It just came to my mind that when I was a child, when
people got mad at my mother, when people had something against her for some
goofy reason, or somebody said something, she would always wave to them. She
would always say hi. She would always have a kind word to them. My mother, I
call her a saint, she was phenomenal, and she still is. She always does well.
And that’s what I’ve learned to do, even when these people are trying to tear me
down in some way, I’ve always come back by being nice to them and have a kind
word for them. Even though, in the back of my mind, I’m like, I’d really like to
do something.
But by forgiving them and having peace with yourself, you’re actually helping
yourself as well as them. Because they don’t have anything to go back on, they
can’t keep their momentum going with trying to get feed off of your emotions.
Just let it go and keep working with it.
But what I learned from that experience is to keep moving ahead. I became
stronger from that, and I got into Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It
says; don’t ever mind what they’re thinking, because they don’t know what you
can do. You only know what you can do.
Don’t mind the people that are pulling you down or are trying to. Just ignore
them and have your own schedule of events. Schedule your time. Schedule your
goals, what you want to do in this life.
They can pull at you all you want, but at the end of that, if you draw a line
from here and 100 yards from now and saying that’s the end of your goal, in
between you are going to have all the obstacles. But remember; keep your eye on
the target, at the end, because you will get there. It makes it easier.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: What is your dream or vision that sets the course of your life?
Robert Channing: My dream and vision that sets the course of my life would be to
create, plant seeds, grow trees that I could shade my family and friends with
when I pass on. So they can live off the fruits of my labor.
Also to provide information and success and knowledge to people like you are
doing. That’s why I’m on the line with you as well, is for the people that
struggle all their life, not knowing where they want to go.
I’ve performed for hundreds of colleges a year. People come up to me after my
program and always say, “What do you see in my future? What should I do with my
life?”
Tony Robbins always says, “If you don’t know, pretend that you do know.” What
would you do? And most people will come up with the answer. At that point,
that’s the toughest part in the world is trying to find out what you want to do
with your life. Once you know, you can plan your course of action.
So, by planting those seeds in these students’ minds or the minds of people that
are listening today, it’s probably one of the toughest questions. Wouldn’t you
agree, Ralph? What do you want to do with your life?
Ralph Zuranski: I absolutely agree. I’m just listening to Earl
Nightingale in The Strangest Secret of the Mind of Man. That’s what he says, 95%
of all the people who strive when they are young to become a success end up
failures because they never set any goals. They are not working for anything or
in any direction.
Robert Channing: They are like a ship without a rudder. If they don’t have a
rudder, they are just going to wash up upon the shore or the rocks. If you have
a rudder, you can steer your ship. You can steer your way through the seas and
as you coast along, the winds blowing your sail, you have learned to work for
that. Then you are going to get into some rough waters again and you steer your
way through there.
Ralph Zuranski: It’s interesting that you say that, because the next
question is, is it important to take a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes
and mistakes?
Robert Channing: It definitely is. Believe me; even the most positive person in
the world has their setbacks. You can be a positive thinker but you have to take
control. You have to say to yourself, you need time to grieve if something
happens.
I forget the steps in the grieving process, but you need to get back off the
floor. If you get knocked down, you’re into martial arts, Ralph, and I have been
too. When you get knocked down, you need to pop back up.
It’s going to take some time after you get the wind knocked out of you to get
back up, but the reason you have to get back up is if you don’t, you stay down.
You’re going to lose.
Don’t ever give up. Always get back up, dust yourself off, and keep moving
forward. You will get ahead, you will. You will learn. You will take the bumps
and bruises.
Just study as well. Keep the positive, motivational talking coming through your
mind. All the videos and audio courses that I have taken in the country meaning
like Dreams Don’t Have Deadlines by Mark Victor Hansen, has a great audio
course. Where you are reading right now and listening to Ralph now, is
phenomenal as well. Think and Grow Rich.
There’s a lot of information that you need to keep filling your mind with, and
the top 1% of the country, the people who are top in their field keep trying to
get better, better and better. CANEI, Tony Robbins says the acronym for CANEI is
Constant and Never Ending Improvement. You just have keep working and moving
ahead.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, you know that is so true. A lot of times I sit
down, I wake up in the morning and sit down at my computer and just think, gee,
how many new software programs do I have to learn today?
It’s hard to do it. Sometimes you just don’t feel like doing it. I know that you
probably agree with this, it takes a tremendous amount of courage to pursue new
ideas. What do you think about that?
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Robert Channing: I agree. I would say there is another way to look at it. I get
excited about new ideas. I’m excited, I know we spoke before this interview
about a marketing plan that I’m working on. I’m so excited about it. I think
that if you work up that fire in your belly and the excitement about it, it is
challenging. You get a little afraid sometimes.
But once you get into it and you see it starting to work and the fruit comes off
the trees that you planted, that’s what makes me move. That gives me juice,
Ralph. It makes me feel like what I’m doing is working.
But also, Ralph, I study the top people in their industry. If I know someone in
marketing, if I have to learn marketing, I will go and find the best marketing
people in the world. I’ll call them up and go to their conferences, just like
you do, Ralph. That’s what we are doing right now on the phone.
If I need to know something in the medical industry, well, you just told me
today a few doctors that could help me out with some blood pressure problems
that I have. So I’m going to go and search them, and track them down, the top
1%.
So always strive to find the answers from the top in their field. You don’t want
to learn from someone that’s just starting out, although you can learn by their
mistakes. You want to take that learning curve and cut it in half, if not more
and learn from the top people that have been studying all their life. Would you
agree?
Ralph Zuranski: I totally agree. I know that you have done a lot of
different things in your life. A lot of the time it’s very uncomfortable to
pursue your dreams because of people in your peer group, your life and even in
your family that don’t want you to change.
They don’t want you to make transformational decisions in your life that may
leave them behind. Do you think it’s important to realize that you are going to
be uncomfortable a lot when you are making quantum leaps in your growth in every
area of your life?
Robert Channing: Oh, sure, Ralph. I remember when I was getting out of high
school, my father told me, “Why do you want to make a career out of this? Go out
and get a real job!” I understand that he came from a narrow minded search,
because that’s how he was brought up. He was brought up to go to work, work
hard, come home and feed his family and provide.
I thought to myself, I was working, in the summertime I worked at a drapery
company in Newport called Reynolds Draperies. They are still there. They service
all the east coast for stage and scenery curtains.
I was working there. I probably earned $150 a week and I probably worked 50
hours. I would go out and do a show and earn $150 for a 45 minute show and I
would say to myself, “Why would I work 50 hours a week if I could just do a
show?”
That was my dream, that was what juiced me too was saying, “This is my passion.
This is my dream.” No matter what, if anybody said stop to me, it gave me more
juice to keep moving. I’m the type of person if someone says you can’t do it, I
want to do it even more. I love it, I like when people say it to me.
I guess it was the way I was brought up. My mother was always supportive, my
father was always trying, he was a supporter, but he tore me down a little bit,
and I think that was a good thing. That’s what created who I am today.
So, you are going to have times that people knock you down. You are going to
have it during the day and during the nighttime. You are going to have it when
you are on the road, you are tired, you are exhausted, and you don’t want it to
happen.
At that point, you have to look at yourself and say, you know what, here are my
goals, and read them every day. Write them down. Put them in front of you, put
them on the mirror.
Read them before you go to bed, when you wake up in the morning. At lunchtime,
when you are just relaxing, you are going to feed your subconscious mind the
direction you want to go in.
It’s going to move you. Ralph, you and I spoke before about the four principles
that you went over, how the mind works. The mind works on what you concentrate
the most on. You will get that in your life. So if you can plant positive seeds
and positive emotions, you will reap those.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: Everybody has doubts and fears. It seems that’s an inevitable
part of life. How do you overcome your doubts and fears?
Robert Channing: Also I have a confident in my wife. I ask her some things and
she is my psychiatrist/psychologist sometimes. I have friends like you. I have
mentors, peers and coaches. Also, I go inside myself, because education means
you learn from the outside, but you bring it in. You translate it and it comes
out of yourself as a process.
So, by learning to be with myself, to pray, to ask God to take my concerns, my
heartaches, my wishes and give them to Him, that’s the release process that you
have to do. It comes back to you, just pray and have faith. Does that make
sense?
Ralph Zuranski: That does make sense. I think probably one of the hardest
things in the world to do is forgive those that upset, offend and oppose you.
How important do you think that forgiveness is?
Robert Channing: Very, very important. That was my second challenge. You asked
me before, what was one of my toughest challenges? Well, the company Power
Performers, I hired a few people to help me out, top sales people in my industry
and I hired consultants to come in and train them in my office.
I respected them. They asked me to be in their weddings, they asked me to be
part of their families, and I have generously given to them. Over given. I would
buy them lunch every week, almost three or four times a week.
I would take them on trips, give them bonuses, and buy them color televisions
because they did so well. What they loved to do was selling entertainment and
speaking to celebrities, and I gave them bonuses them because we would have
monthly goals, weekly goals, yearly goals, they would hit all the goals.
After three years, they decided to, two of them, I won’t mention their names
because I don’t want this to get out, but two of them actually stole all my
business. They stole my company and downloaded all my information. They put up a
website while they were working for me.
They came in on a Friday afternoon and both gave me their resignation and said,
“Bob, we loved working here. Thank you so much for the opportunity. It was the
best job that we have ever had but we are going to go work for my father in
another industry.”
This other gentleman who was a friend of his left as well. They gave me this big
story Ralph. I found out a week later from one of my clients who said, “Did you
know, Robert that they have their own website and they are in competition with
you?”
At that point I had a 24 page employment agreement that every word in the
agreement, Ralph, they went against and they just totally raped and pillaged my
company. I was depressed. I was down because these were friends of mine that I
lived with for three, three and a half years, every day.
We laughed, we cried. We went through 9/11 together. Different things, one
gentleman had eye problems; I went to the hospital to see him. Two weeks before
this, the other gentleman was having a baby and I brought gifts to them. You can
tell, it hurts me right now talking about it, but that was about a year, a year
and a half ago.
Since then, Ralph, my business has tripled. I’ve hired more people, and I’ve
learned that these people were planning and plotting against me and I had that
faith. I believed in them. I gave. I was blind.
What I learned form that was yes, give, but to leave my eyes open a little bit,
to protect myself. Like I said before, when people say I can do something that’s
what inspired me to motivate this business, to move higher and further.
I’ve gone further, and it’s going to go further. I’m going to build this so that
people who work for me can benefit from the fruits of my labor. I hope that
answers that question.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: Did you actually forgive those people for what they did to you?
Robert Channing: I have forgiven them. It’s a challenge, because from day to day
I’m in competition with them. Although we are in a lawsuit because my attorneys,
friends and mentors said you can forgive them but it’s like, for example, Ralph,
if you had a child, or if my child, God forbid, got hit by a drunk driver and
was killed, I could forgive the drunk driver.
It would be hard but you have to serve due diligence and justice, so they
wouldn’t do it again. That’s the reason for the lawsuit. That’s to hopefully
stop them or make them feel…
Ralph Zuranski: What they did was wrong.
Robert Channing: Exactly.
Ralph Zuranski: There are consequences for actions. You always need to
stand for the right thing. If people promise and say they are going to do
something, they need to be held accountable and you can forgive them for the
offenses. But still, they are consequences for actions that don’t have
integrity, that’s for sure.
Too many people that should be held accountable are not. I respect that you are
doing that, because people that do that, if they continue to do it and nobody
calls them to accounting, they just continue on and on. They do it to more and
more people, that’s what I’ve found.
Too many people, once they get screwed by somebody they don’t say anything and
people that they know wind up getting screwed by that same person. It’s hard to
tell the truth about people that aren’t doing their jobs with integrity and
honesty which is what the Heroes program is all about.
It’s to show people just from asking hard questions what type of attitude and
what type of mind process the people that I recognize as heroes actually have.
The neat thing about those heroes is a lot of them experience service to others
as a source of joy. Do you experience that also?
Robert Channing: I do, I do. Let me just go back to that last question for a
moment about forgiveness, and here’s what I have learned. By forgiving,
everybody has their own sins that they have committed, if you want to call it
that, or the mistakes that they have made that they need to be forgiven for.
So what you forgive, you can’t expect to be forgiven for some of your things
that you have done if you can’t forgive the people who have sinned against you.
It’s a double edged sword.
By forgiving, you do two things. You help yourself by forgiving them and you
help them, because they need to be forgiven too. You have to forgive yourself
for things that you have done. What was the question, again, Ralph? I apologize.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s okay. How do you experience service to others as a
source of joy?
Robert Channing: Oh yes, there’s nothing more than going in and for me, if I can
bring it back to my ESP mind reading show, I go in and read people’s minds. I
make them laugh, I’m a comedian. One thing that I do is I always surprise my
clients with doing more.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
When they see my program, my ESP Robert Channing show, motivational talk, I will
deliver to them an experience that they will never forget. How I do that, here’s
one of the things that I do, Ralph. I’m the only one in the world that does
this. I’m known as the world’s foremost mind reader and motivator.
I will mail you a prediction at your event of what three people, including
yourself, will be wearing the night of the show. I will mail it out a month in
advance; you give me the names that are going to be at your key event. This is
the climax of the whole show.
I’ll mail it out; you will hold it in a sealed prediction. I’ll never touch it
again. At the end of my show, I’ll say, “Ralph, do you have the envelope that I
mailed you a month ago?” “Yes, I do. Robert, I have it right here.”
You are 100 feet away from me. “Ralph, would you stand up a few minutes? Would
you hold the envelope up? Ralph, have we pre-arranged anything?” You are going
to say no.
Because I give $100,000 away to anybody in the audience who proves that I used
stooges, meaning that I planted people from the audience to help me out. I don’t
do that. I’ll say, “Ralph, just to prove that, I want more people to randomly
stand up in the audience. They are going to randomly stand up, doesn’t matter
who they are, four people.”
I’ll also say I also predicted in an envelope what these four people are going
to create in their minds as a dream vacation. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a show.
It’s entertainment. I’ll say, “Sir, if you were to go anywhere in the world on a
dream vacation, where would you like to go?” That person might say Hawaii, or
Bermuda, or Tahiti. Whatever it is, I’ll say thank you.
The next person, I’ll say, “Young lady, if you were to go with a special person,
give me the name of the person.” They can make a name up, or they can say their
husband, wife, or boyfriend. They’ll say John. “Okay, John, terrific!”
Next person, day month and year. “When would you like to go?” “March 28, 2098.”
“Fantastic.” “Young lady, how much money would you like to spend? You like to
spend money, I can tell.” They will laugh a little bit. She’ll say, “$10
million?” I’ll say, “Make it something really cool up. They will say
$10,000,428.67. “Terrific. Ralph, would you open that prediction?”
You open it up and it will say, “Hi, this is Robert Channing. I’m sitting in my
office in Hartford, New York in July 21 writing this prediction for Ralph. The
conference is coming up in January of 2006. I predict the following to be true.
Four people will create a dream vacation. Given this chance, they will select
the following.”
And you are reading this, I’ve never touched it. It’s live on the spot. It will
say, first person will say Tahiti. The second person is going with John. The day
month and year is March 28, 2098 and will cost $10,000,437.67. Whatever they
said, people just drop their drawers, jaws. Not their drawers, their jaws!
You’ve experienced it at the conference.
Ralph Zuranski: It was incredible. I almost dropped my drawers there.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Robert Channing: And on the back of that, I’d say Ralph, turn the piece of paper
over and I predicted what those three names that you have given me, maybe the
VIP of the conference, or the medium that I am performing for a corporation or
association. They will say, “Jane Reynolds will be wearing a red blouse with
polka dots and she will have on gold shoes with a gold ring.”
Whatever it is, I get right to the details. If I don’t get that prediction
correct, down to the color of the sock or stripe in the shirt, I give my whole
fee to them, my whole paycheck, which is substantial.
Ralph Zuranski: It’s amazing; I don’t know how you do it. I was impressed
when you bent that spoon just by running your finger over the top of it. I
thought, oh my God; don’t let him near my mother’s silverware.
Robert Channing: That’s funny.
Ralph Zuranski: That is astounding. I’ve never been more impressed with a
presentation than your presentation that I saw at Joe’s. It was one of the
highlights of my life of being at your presentation. It was incredible and
working with you at Joe’s, I ran the computers and photos.
Robert Channing: You did a phenomenal job Ralph; and we became instant friends.
Ralph Zuranski: We did, it was just astounding, and I’ve never been more
impressed with any live entertainment that I’ve ever seen. It was just
incredible. I know that you maintain an incredible sense of humor, especially in
the face of serious problems. How important do you think humor is in your life?
Robert Channing: I think it’s very, very important. Humor actually is the proven
fact, I think you know this. When you laugh, it actually creates endorphins in
your brain that stimulate your mind to be happier. When we laugh, you have to
laugh.
I remember being depressed when these people left me. I popped a DVD in, Jeff
Foxworthy and a couple of other funny comedians. I just laughed and laughed, it
brought me up. It just brings your emotional state up. If you ever get a
depressed mood, just put a smile on your face if you can, those endorphins will
make you in a better mood.
Try to get out, relax, laugh with your friends, it just brings that blood
pressure down, brings the reality of life back to you. Look around you, go out
in the woods, go out in a stream, go out with your family, your dog or if you
have a cat.
Be with that person, just look up in the sky and say do you know what? Life’s
not that bad, there are people in this world that are dying, that are going
without food and my little problem is nothing. It feels like a lot, but it
really isn’t.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s so true. Who are the heroes in your life?
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Robert Channing: The heroes in my life, one that comes to my mind is Reverend
Russell Little. He is a gentleman that taught me how to do magic and a little
ESP and mind reading when I was a child. I used to walk to school in the morning
and pass his house.
He used to use magic in his sermons to get attention, to make people pay
attention to the Word of God. He used to make his thumb disappear. He would put
sugar in his hand and make it disappear as I was on my way to school.
He’s the one that I had to write a report about, that my teacher gave me in
third grade. What did I want to be when I grew up? I didn’t know. I want to be a
magician. I went and I did some research, I went right to his house and said...
That’s the key, Ralph, anybody that wants to know what they are doing, don’t be
afraid to ask for advice, because people will give it to you. Ask and you shall
receive information that you are looking for. Remember to ask.
So that’s what happened, I asked, and he brought me up to this room upstairs, I
remember to this day, I walked into his house, up the stairs, and this whole
room filled with magic props, magic cool stuff, and my eyes, it was just
unbelievable.
He was a mentor of mine. He was someone that I respected. He put a foot in the
door when I was leaving his house. Robert, he said, “See my foot?” He opened his
door and put his foot in the door and said, “What I just did for you, I put your
foot in that door, now it’s your job to open it for yourself.”
From that point forward, I’ve been opening it for the rest of my life. It’s
brought me to meet spectacular people. It has brought me all over the world to
see different people and different cultures. To do what I wanted to do, perform,
entertain, to make a great living performing, and have a great speaker’s bureau
and entertainment agency.
The reason that I opened that was I had my second child; I was on the road a
lot. I told my wife I need to make some more money not being on the road so I
can spend some time eating popcorn with you at home and still make some money.
That’s what I did, I opened a bureau and I book people and at night, when I’m on
the road and not at home, I’m still making a decent living and booking people
that I respect and admire.
Ralph Zuranski: Who do you feel are the real heroes in society today that
aren’t getting the recognition they deserve?
Robert Channing: The mothers, the teachers. You and I were speaking before that
in a school, the teachers are phenomenal. They are teaching how to have a job,
and to go in the world and work for somebody else.
But I think the Heroes program that you are working on now is going to bring a
different dimension, a different philosophy to the schools and to kids that
don’t work for somebody else.
Although it’s a great opportunity, try to work for yourself and try to grow
yourself to rely on yourself. For example, you can rent a lifestyle, meaning you
can have a job at IBM making $100,000 a year, have a beautiful home, a BMW, a
car, two children and all of a sudden BMW lays you off, I mean, IBM lays you
off.
Who are you working for? Now you are scraping, trying to find a job, minimum
wage, a lot less than you made. But when you work for yourself, you have
investments; you invest in yourself in your mind, and your opportunities.
Meaning real estate, your business meaning when you go out and work, you are
being compensated for your own mind, not by working for somebody else to make
them a millionaire. Work for yourself to make yourself get ahead in this life.
Does that make sense?
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: Boy, that’s good advice, that’s what all the other
heroes have said. It’s so important to become an entrepreneur and be the captain
of your own ship and direct it to where you want to go. Just working for other
people, you never will be able to attain the dreams that you have, maybe
retiring down in Florida when you get to be 65.
And you forget all the things that you could have done that you wanted to do
that you should have done. It’s the difference between having a dream and having
a life.
Robert Channing: I agree. Robert Kiyosaki in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I learned this
from him by reading his books. Books unlock the secrets of the universe, Ralph,
and I know you know this. I teach my children this.
My daughter, I ask her all the time, “Gabrielle, tell your teacher what we
talked about!” She says to the teacher all the time, “Books unlock the secrets
to the universe.”
They really do, the books, they have studied different subjects. If I have an
ailment, I’m not going to go to school to be a doctor to find out how to fix my
own ailment. I’m going to go to the top surgeon or top doctor in the world and
I’m going to get fixed.
Robert Kiyosaki has studied how to become a successful person by investing in
real estate, and investing in yourself.
Here’s the point I wanted to bring across. Even if you have job and you are in
the job right now, and you are sitting and working for somebody else, that’s
okay. You can be wealthy, and have a comfortable lifestyle.
I think it’s a great lifestyle sometimes Ralph, because my friends are teachers
and they make a comfortable living. They have summers off. But also what you
want to do with your time off. When you go to work, that’s your time to work but
that’s your living.
But when you come home, if you are going to work every day, that’s when you make
your life. That’s why Robert Kiyosaki says, that’s when you go out and you find
real estate, or you find your business that you can open. You can have the best
of both worlds.
I’m not putting down going to work for somebody else because 95% of the people
in this country do that. The top 10% of people, entrepreneurs, they are doing
for themselves and providing these wonderful experiences and jobs for people.
But you can do both, that’s what I’m saying. I’m not putting them down, I’m
giving the opportunity to open your mind that if you work for somebody else on
your off time, when you go home instead of watching television or doing
something not productive, go and look at a property. Invest in a property,
invest in real estate. Study commodities; study how to be a marketing person for
internet products. So that’s my point with that.
Ralph Zuranski: Why are heroes so important in the lives of young people?
Robert Channing: Well, first of all, a hero, people look up to different heroes
nowadays. There are some bad examples of heroes meaning there are some sports
celebrities and stars that are smoking cigarettes and doing drugs and
anti-depressants, things along this line.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
I remember watching Tom Cruise, a few weeks ago being interviewed by Matt Lauer
on the Today show, talking about psychiatry and how he thought it was a pseudo
science and all this. I believe a little bit of that, but I believe heroes are
people that have done it before you that are successful.
You want to model success and duplicate results. That’s the reason you have
heroes in your life. You see something that they are doing that you would love
to emulate, that’s a positive in your life that you know if you could attain,
you would be happy.
How you do that is just model what they are doing. You become that much
successful in your learning curve. You will get there that much faster. Does
that make sense?
Ralph Zuranski: It does. The next question is, how does it feel to be
recognized as a hero? I know a lot of the people that I have interviewed don’t
consider themselves heroes. But I think it’s important to accept the good that
you are doing and the benefits that you have in the lives of others and not be
ashamed to be recognized for the good things that you do. How does it feel to be
recognized as a hero?
Robert Channing: I’m very flattered, first of all. It’s flattering to even be
considered being a hero. The place I always thought I was a hero was in raising
my family. I never thought I was a hero in anything else, other than I love
doing what I do.
I’m passionate about what I do, and I try, whoever I come in contact with is
bring and build them up. So if that’s being a hero, thank you for knighting me a
hero, Ralph.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, how are you making the world a better place?
Robert Channing: Making the world a better place, I’m providing my experience of
how to get into the industry. For example, when I book somebody in my company,
or my sales reps book somebody, we are doing a service to our client by giving
them something they want.
We are doing a service to the speaker, because all we have to do is call the
speaker and the speaker picks up the phone and says, “Hello.” We say, “Hi, we
have a date for you!” So it makes their life easier, it makes my life easier,
and our client is happy when they experience a stellar performance.
Also the people that work in my office, I try to give them an opportunity to
improve themselves with goals. I also try to build people, not just teach them
how to make money but build them. If you can teach them to fish, they will do
that much better in the future.
You can show them how to do something, but if you don’t teach them and implement
the information in their minds and take consistent action with that information,
they are not going to be able to do it on their own.
I guess what I’m saying is that I provide an atmosphere to the people in my life
to benefit from what I can do in my own experience. I hope I made sense with
that, I tried to.
Ralph Zuranski: You did. Do you have any good solutions for the problems facing
society today, especially racism, child and spousal abuse and violence among
young people?
Robert Channing: That’s a tough question, Ralph! Because there are so many
stereotypes, there is so much racism still. To solve that, the solution would be
to do what you are doing right now. To give the young kids in this world
mentors, heroes to emulate themselves by.
Let them know that if anything they are going through now, there are people in
the past that have gone through things as bad, if not worse and they have made
themselves through it. They have grown stronger and more successful in their
lives because of that persecution in their life.
Ralph Zuranski: If you had three wishes for your life in the world that
would instantly come true, what would they be?
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Robert Channing: Three wishes. One would be to the drug industry, first of all,
not to have so many drugs to fix people but to have holistic solutions and the
world to be a better place. This is going out on a limb here, our government,
whether people want to believe it or not is one of the biggest mafias in the
world.
We control the world but we do it for a reason because we have to protect
ourselves. But I would love to have the world be a utopia like John Lennon used
to sing about, that would be my wish to have a utopia. Almost like heaven.
The second wish would be that the young people in this world could be educated
and know how to model success when they are younger.
And the teachers that are teaching them will learn how to teach them how to
manage their life, not so much as how to do the sciences and mathematics but how
to manage their life with the relationship with themselves their family,
financially, emotionally. I think they don’t teach that in school now, Ralph.
Ralph Zuranski: I agree. What do you think about the "In Search of
Heroes" program and its impact on youth, parents and business people?
Robert Channing: I think everybody in the world should benefit from this and
will benefit from it. I think the word has to get out. I think I mentioned to
you before that I want to do something with you Ralph, with my Power Performers
and I’m going to promote "In Search Of Heroes" in everything that I do. That’s
one of my life goals.
Ralph Zuranski: What are the things that parents can do that will help
their children realize that they too can be heroes and make a positive impact on
the lives of others?
Robert Channing: Giving, learn that it is better to give than receive. Don’t you
feel better, I feel better, anyway. I know that a lot of people love to get
gifts. I love to get gifts but it’s always hard for me when someone gives me a
gift to say “thank you.”
I would not feel like I deserved it, I don’t know why, something in my psyche
but I have learned to say thank you and to appreciate it. By them giving them a
gift, you are giving them a gift. So be giving, you will receive 100 fold.
Teach your children to give, to help, to praise and to praise them. Just
something that I learned by some statistics, I think there is a lot of validity
here, is that if you are a parent and you have a daughter, you as the male
person will influence your daughter’s life, her emotions and her self confidence
more so than the mother will.
And it’s true of the opposite sex, meaning the mother will dominate and
influence the child’s psyche because it’s the opposite sex. If you learn this
when you are growing up, if you have children, to also compliment, to support,
to bring them up, not in a false way. Of course you have to correct them, but in
a delicate way. Does that make sense?
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, that really does. Robert, I just really appreciate
your time. I know how incredibly busy you are. I was just so impressed with your
presentation and just the humor. It still blows my mind on how you can read
people’s minds. I don’t know how you do that, but it is incredibly awesome.
I just really encourage you to do the Power Performers and do interviews on
those guys to just spread the knowledge that they have. Excellence is such a
fine thing, it’s such a great role model for young people, for those that are
giving service above self, that are providing quality and integrity in the
fields they are in.
That’s what young people need to know, they need to find out how these people
that are attaining the level of success they want to attain, and listen to the
people that they become. I’m sure that you would agree with this, you have to
become a person that is worthy of incredible wealth and fame before it ever
shows up, or it will completely go down the drain.
Just like a lot of people feared success, once it arrived they completely dumped
it down the drain by their actions. You’ve had a lot of impact with very famous
people. What do you think about that idea?
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Robert Channing: What I think is you are absolutely right. When I was younger,
just to make a point back to what I was doing was I did very well when I was 18
or 19 years old and I was at the top of my field performing in what I did.
People used to say to me, “This guy is going to get involved in drugs, he’s
going to do this or he’s going to do that.”
But I didn’t do that. You have to pay your price. You have to do your diligence.
You have to learn. There’s a way, yes. You can go from to zero to one hundred
and cut out that curve. But most of the time you have to go through the bumps
and bruises. Once you go through those bumps and bruises and you do obtain your
success, you will learn how to keep it.
If something is given to you, if somebody gave you one million dollars, there’s
an old expression, you can spread out all the money in the United States, put in
one lump sum and spread it out between all the people in the United States
equally. At the end of the year, 10% of the people would have all the money
back.
That’s because they learned how to control their emotions their life and learn
by their actions. Meaning, having their goals, accomplishing them, going through
the struggles. Going through struggles is good. When you go through a struggle,
you are teaching yourself a lesson in life.
When you do that, if something was given to me, you won’t appreciate it as much
as if you worked for it. So work for what you have, appreciate what you have,
and here’s something else too.
Teach your children to work for what they have, because you as a person, if you
decide you want to build your life up to make a fortune in wealth and riches
with everything that you do, don’t give your children everything because that
generation will lose it.
The next generation, their children will have nothing, and they will have to
rebuild it themselves. So teach the children that you do have, and the young
people listening today, or reading this interview, is that you don’t get
something for nothing. Work for it. When you work for it, you will appreciate
it, and you will keep it. That’s all I can say on that.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s so true. I just really appreciate your time and
just the wisdom that you shared with us. I encourage anybody listening to this
interview that if you ever get an opportunity to see Robert perform in person,
it will be one of the high points of your life.
Again Robert, I appreciate your time and I appreciate what you do in making such
a difference in the world today. So thanks again.
Robert Channing: Thank you, Ralph. You are doing a wonderful service. Thanks so
much.
Ralph Zuranski: Bye!
Robert Channing: Bye!
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
"Joe Vitale's In Search of Heroes Interview" by Ralph Zuranski
Ralph Zuranski: This is Ralph Zuranski and I’m interviewing Joe Vitale, one of the most famous copy writers in the world. Joe, I wanted to ask you a couple of questions. Did you ever create a super hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
Joe Vitale: Well, first of all, I love the question because nobody has ever asked me that before. The reality is yes, I have, and that was something that helped me get through a rather difficult childhood. I haven’t written too much about it because it was unpleasant. You often turn inside and you often turn into your own mind looking for comfort, looking for solutions, and looking for inspiration.
I did a whole lot of that. Yes, I did. I was, like many people, into comic books and that was my first introduction to super heroes. And then creating a type of super hero for myself to be inspired by or to try to model was something I secretly did. Just like I’ve never been asked the question before, I’ve never talked about this before. But yes, indeed, I did. I mean, do you need to know or would like to know what some of the super heroes were?
Ralph Zuranski: I would love to.
Joe Vitale: Obviously, Superman was there because I would imagine that every kid growing up admired him and wanted to be him. I also knew that being Superman was a bit of a challenge. He was actually from another planet. So it was more realistic for me to follow Batman because he was human and just had a lot of gadgets, a lot of talent, a lot of persistence, a lot of will power and a lot of commitment to making a difference in the world for doing good.
Then the lesser super heroes that were still important to me were ones like Flash. Flash was one of the super heroes who was able to run around the world in eight seconds because he could do it in a flash. I always thought you could be incredibly productive if you were able to do what Flash could do. So those were some of the ones who come to mind.
Ralph Zuranski: Did you create a secret hero of your own based on the qualities of those heroes; one that you actually internalized in your own mind that you could always rely on that secret hero for help.
Joe Vitale: I created a version of that. I don’t think it would be in the comic book area, but I pulled qualities and traits from them and from a lot of people that I admired. This goes back to the other thing I did and that was read a lot. I was reading biographies like Harry Houdini who turned me onto magic. For the longest time as a teenager I thought I was going to be the world’s greatest escape artist just like he had been.
I even had a name. “Harry Excello” was my stage name when I was 15 or 16 years old. This was a major thing for a teenager to be going through. So I would look at these heroes. I would look at Houdini and Superman and Batman and Flash, and I would look at their qualities to try to create a version of that in me. I don’t think I created an individual character who was somebody I then idolized. I think what I did was idolize a lot of these different super heroes, the living ones as well as the fictional ones, to pull out the qualities within me that I admired within them. That’s really the important statement.
Ralph Zuranski: What were those specific qualities?
Joe Vitale: That’s a good question. Boy, okay, one of those was serving. I’m looking at this now being 51 years old looking back on what was turning me on as a kid and so forth. I don’t think I would have said serving at that point. But I can say it now because that is what these people were doing. When I looked at Superman, Batman, Flash and even Houdini, these people were providing a service in one way or another.
The comic book heroes were, of course, trying to save the world and save the day and save victims and all of that Harry Houdini was providing people with entertainment which is something I’ve learned that is profoundly important to the world. I’ve done books on P.T. Barnum and research on a lot of people who lived through the Civil War and the Great Depression and very turbulent, sad times.
They were able to find ways to entertain people and to serve people and to help people.
That was a big quality that I really admired because, and again this is me speaking today trying to reflect on when I was a kid and growing up, they were getting out of their ego. Of course, their ego was still involved in all of this. I mean, they are human and I’m human.
But they were doing something bigger than their ego. They were doing something bigger than self-gratification. It was trying to be gratified by helping others. And I would say that is the number one biggest trait that I recognized and have tried to idolize and use.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that those characteristics come from the non-dominant brain hemisphere of individuals? I know you are well aware of how the brain works with the left brain which is the logical, the judgmental, the mathematical and verbal skills orientation and time, competition and judgment; where the other side is the creative side. Do you feel that the ability to serve comes from the emotional side of the brain?
Joe Vitale: What a wonderful question. I think it actually comes from something deeper. Let’s look at this for a second. Yes, there is the brain and it does have both halves and both of them are assigned different duties even though research shows that there are crossovers in those duties.
But something deeper than that seems to be the heart. And the heart is more like the soul, it’s more like your spirit, it’s more like your connection to the divine, your connection to the universe. It’s where we are all connected. It goes deeper than the brain. It goes deeper than the thought process.
It goes deeper than the conscious mechanism that is keeping us going, or even the unconscious mechanism that is keeping your blood pumping and regulating your body temperature and doing things that, consciously, would drive you batty. You cannot handle it all. So I would say this desire to serve is coming from this deepest soul connection of the universe itself.
I don’t know how to explain that in more specific, scientific terms. I actually believe that the research is still probing in that direction. They are not going to come back with conclusive evidence for a while. But I’m really talking about the spirit. I’m really talking about coming from deeper than what we would get on a brain x-ray.
Ralph Zuranski: I know that a lot of times when people have low points in their life, when they start serving others and start focusing on others the lowest point in their lives seems to dissipate on its own.I wanted to ask you the question of when was the lowest point in your life and how did you change your life back to one of victory over all obstacles?.
Joe Vitale: Wow! Well, to confess my own past history, at one point I was homeless in Dallas. I struggled in Houston and was in poverty for almost 15 years. I was just telling friends yesterday when we were meeting for a Mastermind meeting and totally supporting each other. The lifestyle I have today and the lifestyle I had then are so incredibly, dramatically different that it almost feels like it was a different person that went through each one.
In many ways it was a different person. So the lowest points for me were probably those struggling years in Houston when I starved at times. I took on jobs; I was a car salesman for a while; a reporter for a while; a cab driver for a while; a laborer for a long time; worked for a big oil company for quite a few years doing work I absolutely hated. I would drive to work crying because I was so unhappy and drive home crying.
I remember being on the freeway in Houston with tears coming down my face. This was repeated. It was a very turbulent time; very unhappy time; a starvation, strife, struggle type of time. How did I get through all of that? I kept looking forward. I kept going for my overall dream which in my case was to be an author. I wanted to be a writer since I was a teenager. I met Rod Sterling, the creator of the “Twilight Zone” series.
I met him when I was a kid and it was a turning point in my life. I realized he was human and I was human and if he could do it, I could do it. I started to pursue this goal of being an author. My God, it was not an overnight success by any means whatsoever. The scratching and worrying and crying and concern, all of it took many, many years. I kept looking forward.
I would read the positive thinking books. A book that really changed my life was a book by Claude Bristol, The Magic of Believing. The Magic of Believing is still in print. It came out in the ‘50’s and it is still a classic book. I read books by Catherine Ponder. I was feeding my mind positive information; in a way trying to brainwash myself into being much more positive and optimistic in my life.
I also found ways to listen to audio tapes. I was a big Nightingale-Conant junkie. I was listening to Nightingale-Conant audio productions long, long, long ago. When I was driving in my car making those long rides in Houston on the freeway it was a university on wheels because in that car I would listen to those tapes. I would borrow them from the library. If I could afford them I would buy them. I would find ways to get them.
Again, I was feeding my mind with all of this positive stuff. Then I would look for the role models. I’ve had role models since I was a kid. I mentioned some of the comic book ones. I mentioned Harry Houdini. But whenever I was interested in something I looked for role models there. For a while I was interested in boxing. I was a big fan of Floyd Patterson and James J. Corbett and, even for a while, Muhammad Ali.
I was interested in being an attorney at one point. This is during teenage years when you are trying to find your way and I was fascinated by Clarence Darrow, one of the most famous attorneys. I studied him. I actually drove and went to his birthplace in later years and did some research on him trying to absorb his best traits and put them within myself. Then, of course, the biggest and final thing that helped me to come out of the quicksand that I was in was having a coach believe in me.
I tell about this in my new book, The Attractor Factor. That is coming out in a week or so. I worked for about ten years for a healer by the name of Jonathan and he really supported me and encouraged me. He even worked for me without charging me for a long, long time knowing, of course, that I couldn’t pay him at that time.
I was just totally in poverty.
So all of these things were things I was doing to pull myself out of this poverty mindset that was a quicksand that was keeping me dragged down. I was trying to pull myself up while also being pulled down and I had to use books, tapes and support in order to get out of it.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: Was your hating what you were doing and not seeking after your dreams the impetus that sent you down that trail to being homeless and having nothing and hating your life?
Joe Vitale: Interesting. I would say that focusing on my goal to the exclusion of all other things made it difficult for me to proceed. What I mean by that is that there are opportunities around us all over the place.
I wrote a book about Bruce Barton who was the founder of a big advertising agency, B.B.D.O., and the book is called, Seven Lost Secrets of Success. In it there’s a quote that said, “He’d been out of work many times in his life, but he was always able to find work as long as he was open-minded about what he was willing to do.”
So by being so focused on, “I only want to be an author and that is the only way I want to make my career; that’s the only way I want to make money,” I was dismissing a lot of the good that was around me. Today I can look back and say, “Wow! It is fantastic that I was a car salesman for a while.” I mean, I hated it. But I look back now and I think I had the best training in human psychology you ever could have had.
I look back and hated that I was a cab driver for a while. That was a job I despised. And I look back and think, “Wow, it was wonderful that I was able to learn the city of Houston and got paid to do it for a while because I was driving a cab and was forced into knowing the streets.” Now I can look back and see the positive in what looked like a very negative experience. So having a bit of blinders on probably kept me from realizing the positive that was right around me.
Ralph Zuranski: So when there are difficult things going on in your life and you just don’t know what to do or how to handle it, you believe that there’s a silver lining around every dark cloud?
Joe Vitale: Yes, absolutely and, again, I didn’t know that a long time ago. It is absolutely true. One of my phrases, and I wrote an article about this that is on my web site at MrFire.com, is “turn it into something good.” I write about this little phrase in The Attractor Factor.
No matter what happens to you that seems to be throwing a wrench in your life or it seems like Murphy’s Law was at work, look at it and say, “How can I turn this into something good?” There’s a quote from a book that I like by Kurt Wright; I forget the title of the book. I also mention it in The Attractor Factor.
I’ll paraphrase it and it is so profound. He said, “Have you ever noticed in your life that you’ve gone through periods that were really bad, really down, really unhappy; and they were experiences that you just wish you could get out of? But a year later you look back at that experience and you were able to see the good that came out of it?”
Almost always that’s the case. If we are really open-minded, if we’re conscious and aware, we can look back after a year or so and say, “Yeah, I can see the good that came with that now. I can see that whatever took place that I thought was nasty at that time lead to something that’s truly wonderful.” Well he said, “If that’s true, when something happens to you at the moment that looks like negative, look for the good in it that you’ll see in a year.
Ralph Zuranski: So you believe that it is important to take an immediate positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes that happen.
Joe Vitale: Absolutely, without any doubt, without any hesitation that is true. You know, you and I heard Ted Nicholas speak recently at the event, and he was talking about all the experiences, these failures or what people call failures. He looked at them and saw that they were the most educational experiences of his life.
It isn’t the successes for the most part that teach you things, it is the failures. If that is the case, then a failure really isn’t a failure. A failure is an educational success. So it’s looking in each moment for the good, realizing it is always there. It is your eyesight that needs to be cleaned, your glasses that you’re looking through, your mental lens, your perception.
You see that there is positive in this moment. You may really resist looking for that because in the moment your ego is saying, “This isn’t going the way I want it to go; this isn’t what I had in mind; this isn’t the plan.”
But that’s your ego. Step aside from that and kind of look at it from a universal perspective and say, “Oh, maybe this is part of a puzzle and I don’t see the whole puzzle yet. But I’ve got to trust that it is a really good puzzle.”
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that it is good not to be judgmental about the things that are happening in your life, whether positive or negative? Just accept them for what they are and try to react to them?
Joe Vitale: Absolutely, and respond to them is more the word. We often react unconsciously to events that happen to us. If we respond to events that happen to us, we are much more aware of our choices. I have a ring that I don’t wear all the time because it is priceless.
It is a ring that is 2,000 years old. It’s from ancient Rome. On the ring is inscribed the word “Fidem.” That word is Latin and it translates to faith. I wear it as a reminder to me that no matter what is going on, have faith or have trust that this is all happening for the good. Again, if you had told me this when I was homeless in Dallas and I was in poverty in Houston, I would say, “Yeah, that sounds great, but where is the catch?”
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to be an optimist?
Joe Vitale: It is incredibly important to be an optimist. And it is important for me to explain something about that because I am today an optimist. I remember being in college in the early ‘70’s and a friend of mine at the time said I was a natural born pessimist.
Today people look at my life, they look at my writings, they look at my web site and listen to my audio program and they say, “Wow, Joe’s a natural born optimist.” Which is it? Was I naturally born a pessimist or was I naturally born an optimist? The truth of the matter is you’re a choice. You choose which one you want to be.
I have now chosen, because learning from experience that it is a wiser choice, to come from optimism. Look for the sunny side. Who wants to go through life being depressed? You don’t see your opportunities; your energy is low; nobody wants to work with you; nobody wants to be around you; you drag. But if you come from optimism, then you start going in the direction of fulfilling your dreams.
Ralph Zuranski: Who are some of the heroes in your life? I know that you’ve had some tragic times and some difficult times. Were there any real heroes other than the coach you’re talking about and who are the heroes in your life now?
Joe Vitale: There have probably been dozens of them. One name that comes to mind is Bob Bly. He is an author and a copy writer out of New Jersey who mentored me without fee, without obligation, and without asking anything in return when I was first starting out.
That was back in the Houston days when I wanted to be an author and he was coming out with a lot of books. Presently he’s written 50 books. He had a dozen or more books at that point. This was before the internet, of course. I would write him snail-mail letters and ask questions. He always answered them. He gave of himself totally, freely.
Today we’re friends; today we’re colleagues; today we’re peers. In fact, when he wanted to go on the internet, he came to me and asked for advice. This was so comical just because I was able to give back to one of my heroes. I finally met him one time when he came to Houston and I came to hear him. I told him it was like meeting one of my super heroes because Bob Bly had so influenced me. He was one of the heroes and still is in my life.
Paul Hartunian is another one. Paul Hartunian is the guy who sold the Brooklyn Bridge. He is a publicity expert and a fan of P.T. Barnum. He sat down with me 12 or more years ago, again, back in Houston. I was starting to come up for air and publishing books and doing fairly well. He spent a three-and-a-half hour dinner with me in Houston. He was giving a speech and he invited me to come over after he was done. I met with him, we went out to eat and I spent three-and-a-half hours with him and all he did was give.
He gave of himself; he gave information; he gave advice; he told me what I should be doing; he told me what I needed to change. I took pages of notes and I implemented almost everything the next day. Paul Hartunian gave and we’re friends today. I’m going to see him actually next week. I don’t see him very often, but I do see him from time to time. So he’s another one who has greatly helped me. There’s a whole long list of them. And many who are heroes to me are long gone, people whom I’ve never met. Bruce Barton, whom I wrote about, is one.
Another one is P.T. Barnum, the great showman, the great circus promoter. I so think he is a hero in my life that he is like a spirit guide for me. He’s somebody looking over my shoulder all the time. I wrote a book about him entitled There’s a Customer Born Every Minute. I went to his grave site; I went to his home; I went to his old stomping grounds, and I did research on him.
I feel very much akin to that man. I haven’t met him, but he is still one of my heroes. So I greatly believe in having heroes. They help pull the best out of you. They help inspire you to go forward. This is one of the million-dollar tips that people don’t talk about very much, but having heroes is one of the ways to dramatically change your life.
Ralph Zuranski: In copy writing I think the word is mightier than the sword; the pen is mightier than the sword. Being one of the top copy writers and just having unbelievable success and generating income for yourself and for others, how important do you think having a concept of yourself as a hero is when you are actually doing writing?
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Joe Vitale: Interesting. I don’t know that I’ve ever looked at that question before. As I sit here and kind of think about it, I am aware when I am sitting down to write that I’ve got a built-in fan base. And I don’t mean that as an ego trip saying, “Oh, Joe’s got a fan club.” I mean that my work influences people.
That is profoundly powerful and that makes me pause and realize, “Joe, be careful what you write.” Not that I’m going to write anything negative, but I am going to write something people are going to read and they are going to be influenced by it. Knowing that guides me to be sure that I write the most inspiring, informative and, hopefully, noble words that I can write.
My book, The Attractor Factor, I hope is going to make a difference in people’s lives. As I was writing it I kept thinking, “These are the secrets I wish I knew 30 years ago when I was homeless and starving and struggling. This is the material that I want people who are looking around for answers to find.”
So as I’m writing my copy, my books, my ezine, my newsletters or my emails, I’m very aware that I have a certain amount of power here. I don’t know that people look at me as a hero; I guess some of them do. But I am aware that I have that certain level of power and I want to use it wisely.
Ralph Zuranski: I know in life that people come across our path, and I’m thinking especially of women. I know that recently one of your best friends passed away and I’m also thinking of your good friend, Nerissa. I wonder if you could share a little bit about just how important the female element or the quality of having a female friend is.
Joe: Well, we all need to have support. The friend who passed away was my wife of 25 years. We’d been separated over the last six years, but we were still best friends. I totally took care of her and supported her. She had been in a near-fatal car accident several years ago and never really recovered from it.
She had gone through a tragedy of her own that I talk about in The Attractor Factor. And she also, of course, being married for 25 years and friends for six years, was part of the journey that I went through when we were in poverty. She was right there with me. And that’s important. She was right there with me. We supported each other.
Those were not easy times. I’m so sad that she’s gone because the loss is profound, but also because she can’t benefit from the success now. She was with me during those poverty years. Having that support is incredibly profound because without it you really feel like you are one person against the world.
That’s not the case, but that is what it feels like. So having support from a loved one is priceless. I don’t know how to put any more words to it than that. Marian totally supported me; I totally supported her; it was this win-win relationship that created an extra set of energy or more additional strength than even two people together. Nerissa is the same way. Nerissa and I are supporting each other. We love each other and we are together out here in our country estate now. She knows what I do for a living.
This Saturday as we make this phone call, this interview, she would probably prefer that we go do something fun because we’ve been working night and day. We just got done with that seminar that you were also at in San Antonio.
Ralph Zuranski: That was intense.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Joe: But here we are. She’s totally supportive and she nods her head and says, “I know you are going to go do the interview. Go do it; go break a leg; go have a great time and inspire people. And say hi to Ralph while you are on the phone.” It is amazingly beyond comprehension how important it is to have support from a loved one.
Ralph Zuranski: I think that people who go to the internet seminars are looking for people they can model their lives after, people who have had extraordinary success like you. Are there any people in the internet industry at this point in time that you look up to?
Joe: Interesting. I love the internet because there are so many good people doing good things. There’s a lot more sharing that goes on through the internet than it does off line. That’s one of the things I learned from Mark Joyner many, many years ago.
Mark Joyner introduced me to the whole world of ebooks when I didn’t think anyone would buy an ebook. He talked me into selling my first one and I tasted blood because it sold so well. I’ve ended up coming out with 15 ebooks and digital products and digital video and a home study course called “Hypnotic Selling Secrets” at this point.
So, even though Mark Joyner has retired and he’s moved to New Zealand, I still am in contact with him. I talked to him just yesterday. So he is still an internet hero to me. I admire the people who are doing things like Joel Christopher and Ted Nicholas. Ted’s not been known to be on the internet so much, but Joel is putting him on the internet and Joel is bringing him to do workshops.
I’ve known Ted Nicholas from a distance for a long time. Now, thanks to Joel doing this wonderful event, we just did the double birthday bash for Ted’s birthday and Joel’s birthday. I got to know Ted even better and I absolutely love the guy. You talk about somebody to look up to; if you want to find a hero to model, do Ted Nicholas.
There is a guy who on all levels is a class act. Joel Christopher is the same way. Joel is an honorable, hard-working, loveable guy. He’s mostly heart and that’s what I love about him. He’s come to my house a few times. He and I did this project together that is probably worth mentioning.
He came to my estate one time just to visit shortly after his father died. So Joel was going through a grieving period and he was fairly depressed. He wasn’t working as hard at that point; didn’t feel like it. I certainly know the feeling after having lost Marian.
While Joel was here I said, “Do you ever get emails from people that really break your heart? They tell you they are on disability or they just got laid off or they are confused by all the internet options or they’ve got $50 to their name and they need to make money?” He said, “Oh, my God, I get emails like that and they just tear me up.” And I said, “Well, we need to do something.
What can we do about that?” And right on the spot he and I agreed to create a teleseminar series totally free. We went to our respective homes. I wrote a sales letter and we sent it out and we got 800 questions from people. Then Joel and I went on a teleseminar that was supposed to last two hours over two different days; one day one week and one day the following week; two hours total. But because there were so many questions, we ended up making this thing last eight hours.
This was an eight hour marathon of giving, giving, giving; free answers and free information. Then we recorded everything and we put it up and anybody who wants to hear it can go to www.MakeMoneyFromScratch.com. Now, I love Joel! How many people would do something to that extent? It helped him get back on his feet, so I guess I helped him out in this particular case.
He was grieving at this point and needed a little kick start to get going back into the internet business. But he and I did something that helped both of us. We feel wonderful about that project we did! And whenever anybody asks us for advice now, we can say, “Look, we give you eight hours of advice. Go to MakeMoneyFromScratch.com.” So Joel is another one of the internet heroes out there whom I greatly love.
Ralph Zuranski: I know when I saw you do that I was very impressed that you guys put that project together. That basically cemented my respect for you guys as heroes and you were one of the first people at the big seminar in Dallas, the first one, when I told you about my project you volunteered to help. I’m extremely grateful for that. Ted Nicholas is also one of the great heroes along with Joel whom I’ve met. I remember I was at his seminar on May 23rd when my dad had a catastrophic stroke and was paralyzed on one side. I didn’t find out until later in the day. Ted had just recently said that you can’t be a great copy writer unless you can cry. That really struck home. I just wonder, do you feel that this is true, that you really have to be able to cry, to express your emotions, to be a great copy writer?.
Joe Vitale: You need to feel. You need to feel. We heard Brian Keith Boyles give his talk at the double birthday bash. Did you hear that by the way?
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, I did.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Joe Vitale: It was incredibly moving. The man stood on stage. I guess I should say for people who don’t know, Brian Keith Boyles is a very famous copy writer. He gets paid $25,000 and up to write sales letters for Gary Halbert and Jay Abraham and many other people who are legends in their own right. So he is the quiet copy writer behind the scenes. He is a big guy; he’s like 99% heart.
He’s all emotion; he’s all feeling; he’s all giving. And he got onstage and was basically crying 90% of the time. He was saying it was so incredibly important to love your customers, to feel for your customers and to express your concern for your customers in your copy. I totally agree. He sent shivers through a whole bunch of people in that audience.
He got some people to cry. He got me choked up listening to him. It was a very moving speech. But the whole thing came down to what Ted Nicholas said. You have to be able to cry. I say you’ve got to be able to feel. You’ve got to feel your own emotions and you’ve got to, by extension, feel the emotions of what your readers are going through. So when I’m writing copy, I’m incredibly sensitive to what people are going through in their lives when I’m writing to them.
Too many copy writers write a letter that is just trying to sell something. I’m trying to write a letter that is trying to make a difference in the reader’s life. I’m trying to share something, not just get their money. Ultimately, they are going to be paying me something if they see a connection, if they see the value in it.
But my focus has to be what is in it for them? How does it help them? The best way for me to do that, the best way for me to communicate that, the most hypnotic way to do that is for me to feel it first. So you must be in contact with your feelings in order to touch the feelings of somebody else.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that that is the thing that separates the greatest copy writers from the also-ran’s is their ability to really care about the people who are going to be reading the copy and also be involved in high integrity and just truthfulness; telling these people the truth about what is in it for them rather than lying to them?
Joe Vitale: I would say that is absolutely it. The only addition, and it is the smallest part, is the ability to communicate with words in a clear and direct way.
Ralph Zuranski: It seems that you and Ted and Joel are creating a very powerful dynasty of interactive seminars where the people that attend actually become a part of the internet marketing family that you guys are creating.
Joe Vitale: I love that. You know I put on the spiritual marketing super summit that you attended a year ago January, a year and a couple of months ago, and I still hear from people who attended it.
This is really an important distinction. The people who went there were not attendees. They were becoming part of a new family. That is what is going on in the best of these seminars, even the one with Ted. I feel like I’m a stepson or brother or something of Ted Nicholas now. Of course, I feel like a relative of Joel Christopher and I feel that way with you.
That is what is happening. You create these relationships that become deeper connections than, in many cases, with your own blood relatives.
Ralph Zuranski: I know when we go to these conferences it really is. You spend an intense amount of time learning and just emoting. I have to say I have never been to any other seminars where people actually cry on stage.
Joe Vitale: I would say the same thing. That’s an important point too. When I do my spiritual marketing seminar, at the end of it I ask people to come up and tell what they got. Several people came up and were balling.
I did not expect it. I still get shivers thinking about it. The same thing happened at Ted Nicholas’ event and I’ve seen the same thing happen at Joel’s other event. It’s breathtaking. People are moved not on the intellectual level. Certainly they are getting the intellectual information they came for, but their heart is being opened.
Ralph Zuranski: And you think that is incredibly important to help them transform who they are and where they are going?
Joe Vitale: Well, it is the ultimate goal. That is the best way to put it. It is the ultimate goal because opening our heart allows us to open to our connection to the universe and the universe is trying to guide us all along to our better good and our greater riches.
I firmly believe that as the optimist that I am; that is the direction we are all going in. We resist that connection when we are locked into our brain and we’re closed off from our feelings. So opening our heart opens us to the richness of the human experience. It opens us up to new relationships, but it opens us up to that connection to the universe that guides us to what I’ll call the ultimate goal.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that when we go to the conferences that it is the connections we make with other people that are the primary factors that determine our success in the future?
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Joe Vitale: That’s exactly it and very few copy writers mention that when they are trying to sell a seminar. I think that is a mistake. When we go to promote a seminar almost everybody, myself included because I’ll fall into this trap, will focus on who is going to speak and what is their topic. We almost forget that what is more important than who is going to speak and what their topic might be is the meeting of new people, the interaction, the networking and the new family. That is more important.
Ralph Zuranski: Look at the cost of the seminars. I think the one that is coming up is the marketing cruise where millionaires are going to be on there and it is going to be expensive, something like $10,000. People are sitting there and thinking, “Gee, that is an incredible investment." Do you feel when you have a higher price for a seminar that people actually put a greater value on going to it than what they learn there; that it is more ingrained in helping them to use that material to be successful rather than something that they get for free.”
Joe Vitale: Believe me, if somebody pays $10,000 to go somewhere, they are incredibly alert the entire time they are there. If they pay $5 to go on it, they are going to goof off, they are not going to go to all the events and they are not going to network much. They are going to play more. They haven’t valued it.
If they pay $1,000, they will do a little bit more in valuing it. If they pay $10,000 and they are not an independently wealthy person so that $10,000 isn’t pocket change they just throw away, if $10,000 is important money to them, they will look at it, like you just used the word, as an investment.
They will look at it as an investment and they will be acutely aware of every opportunity that takes place. So it is profoundly important that they go to these kinds of events because it forces you to pay attention, to open your heart, to make the connection, to do all the things you should do at these events anyway.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s true. With the “In Search of Heroes” program, one of the primary goals is to help kids find their own hero within and then go in search of local heroes and publicize those individuals. It is the people who are really giving back to the community who deserve to have their businesses elevated in the community for people to come where they know they will get good value. What advice could you give young people about writing about heroes in the local community?
Joe Vitale: I would say to definitely write about them for a couple of reasons. First of all, they can all use the publicity. When somebody is doing good out there, tell other people. Let’s pass it around like the old pass it forward type of thing. Let’s get attention to the good that is going on in the world because the mass media, for the most part, focuses on what isn’t working.
Let’s focus on what is working. So this is a contribution to the universe itself. It is a contribution to the planet to write about the people who are making a difference, who are influencing you, who are influencing others. When I say write about them, write about them. Write an article for a local magazine. Write an article for the newspaper. Write an article for your ezine or your blog or your web site or whatever that happens to be. You can also even distribute news releases which I’m a great fan of doing. I learned it from one of my heroes, P.T. Barnum and, of course, another one, Paul Hartunian.
You can get the media directory from any big city; whatever the biggest city is close to you. I’m near Austin and San Antonio. I would call the chamber of commerce in both cities and say, “I would like to have the media directory or the media guide for the city.” They usually cost under $15, sometimes $50 bucks, but it is still affordable. It will list all the media contacts: radio, T.V., newspaper, the weeklies, the monthlies, and the whole bit. Send them news releases and say, “I’ve found a hero in my area. This is what they are doing and I’d like to do this story.”
Or even propose they do the story. This will serve you because you are going to feel good. You are going to become a hero to the community, maybe in a quiet way, but you’ll feel good because you’re giving to the community. The person who is already giving to the community about whom you are doing the story is going to feel good and it will reinforce their continuing to do good. And when the story is broadcast, printed or distributed even more people will hear about the good that is being done. This is the kind of ripple affect we want to go out into the world. Let’s create more heroes by talking about the heroes who are already out there.
Ralph Zuranski: If you had three wishes for your life and for the world that would come true instantly, what would they be?
Joe Vitale: Holy smokes! Well, the very first one, which is almost a cliché, I would ask for peace. No war, just peace; I would ask for peace. The second one that comes to mind is maybe tied to the first, but I’m doing this spontaneously. I would say peace in our hearts. Of course, peace in our hearts would probably lead to peace on our planet permanently.
But I’ll go with that. The first is peace with wars stopping; all the violence that is going on. And the second one is peace in our hearts. The third is I would love for people to connect to the universe through their heart. I would love for them to just instantly wake up to the connection to the universe through their heart that is virtually already there, but they haven’t maybe acknowledged it.
Ralph Zuranski: You’ve written a lot of books. What would you recommend as far as say your five best titles for young people to read to help them achieve the same level of success that you have?
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Joe Vitale: Well, the most obvious is The Attractor Factor. The Attractor Factor is, hands down, the manifestation handbook that I worked very hard on to be clear, to be easy, to be effortless in helping people achieve their dreams. The subtitle says “Five Easy Steps for Creating Wealth or Anything Else from the Inside Out.”
So The Attractor Factor is the number one book. I wrote another book called The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History. It’s all about giving and I find it inspiring. I mean, I wrote the book so it is a little uncomfortable to say I find my own book inspiring.
But I do, so I would really encourage people to check it out. It’s a thin little book, The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History. Then, of course, I have many books on copy writing. So I would say probably get Hypnotic Marketing. Hypnotic Marketing is an ebook at HynoticMarketing.com. It talks about publicity. It talks about my three-step formula.
It talks about hypnotic writing. I think that would be a nice primer, a nice introduction. Even though you mentioned books, I’m going to mention my audio program with Nightingale-Conant, “The Power of Outrageous Marketing.” “The Power of Outrageous Marketing” has been a best seller with Nightingale. It’s at www.Nightingale.com. Just search for it by my name or by the title, “The Power of Outrageous Marketing.”
It’s been a best seller for six years. It has been transforming businesses. I recorded it maybe seven years ago and it was the best of everything I knew about marketing at that time. Probably the only thing it is missing or weak in is internet marketing. It is all about marketing in general and about the ten things the tycoons did throughout history to create businesses from dirt, from nothing.
They were born with nothing and still created empires. That course shows you how to do it. Then, I guess if I had to mention one more book, I would say my P.T. Barnum book, There’s a Customer Born Every Minute. It’s a little hard to find now because it is out of print. It does come with my home study course, “Hypnotic Selling Secrets,” which is at HypnoticSellingSecrets.com. So I would say, Ralph, that those are the titles that come to mind.
Ralph Zuranski: I bought your copy writing program, the software, “Hypnotic Writing Wizard,” and it is spectacular because you have all the different swipe files in there that you can choose from to put into the text you are creating. I use it all the time and it really has made a big difference in stimulating my imagination and having all the great headlines in there.
Joe Vitale: It also has in it Hypnotic Writing, my first ebook and Advanced Hypnotic Writing, the second ebook. Thank you for acknowledging “Hypnotic Writing Wizard.” That is available at HypnoticWritingWizard.com.
Ralph Zuranski: That was a great program. I really appreciate your time Joe and your ability to open your heart to everybody in this interview. I was wondering if you could leave us with one parting thought.
Joe Vitale: Yes, I can. State your intention for what you want in your life and go for your dream, not allowing anything to slow you down or stop you. Always pause to reflect that if something seems to be stopping you or slowing you down, there is a good reason for it. Take a look with faith, with trust and keep going forward.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s a beautiful thought. Thank you so much for your time.
Joe Vitale: Thank you, Ralph.
HypnoticLibrary.com
By Joe Vitale
This is a complete collection of Joe's most popular products.
HypnoticMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale,
This ebook book shows you techniques on how to make your publicity, emails and websites hypnotic. It also includes Joe Vitale's 3-step marketing strategy called "Guaranteed Outcome Marketing," which can increase your business by 70% -- in less than 90 days
HypnoticWriting.com
By Joe Vitale
This course, by Joe Vitale (recognized by many as the best copywriter in the U.S.), shows you how to use "hypnotic" tricks in your writing to get people to more easily agree with you. A must for anyone who wants to write persuasively.
AdvancedHypnoticWriting.com
By Joe Vitale
This ebook is the unparalleled sequel to Joe Vitale's blockbuster "Hypnotic Writing." It reveals how to use the phenomenon of hypnotic suggestion to turn your words into cash.
HowToWriteHypnoticArticles.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This ebook tells you how to get free publicity by writing hypnotic articles for e-zines and Web sites -- in 7 minutes or less.
HowToWriteHypnoticEndorsements.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This ebook shows you how to write persuasive endorsements that can help you increase sales.
HowToWriteHypnoticJointVentureProposals.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
An ebook that tells you how to get free advertising for your business by writing hypnotic joint venture proposals.
HypnoticSellingTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Learn how to influence your prospects' subconscious minds with these 1739 hypnotic words, phrases and sentences.
HypnoticWritingSwipeFile.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
This is a collection of over 1,550 copywriting gems that took Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson years to compile. This is their personal swipe file that they use to create world famous sales letters responsible for generating millions and millions of dollars of revenue.
ImpulseInternetMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale and Dr. Scott Lewis
This ebook tells you how to use 49 psychological tricks Las Vegas casinos use, to make your business pay off like a slot machine.
SubconsciousInternetMarketing.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Learn how to bypass your prospects' unconscious minds and get them to buy anything you sell
CreateAdvertisingThatSells.com
By Joe Vitale
An interactive online video advertising course featuring book, workbook, and video instruction that has been one of our bestsellers. And since we can all learn from the masters, it also features several reproductions of hugely successful ad campaigns.
HypnoticTrafficTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Hypnotic SellingTools.com
By Joe Vitale and Larry Dotson
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
July 28, 2005
"Perry Marsahll's In Search Of Heroes Interview Was Amazing" by Ralph Zuranski
Perry Marshall is unique in the internet marketing community. His products teach you how to make money on the internet through Google Adwords. His brilliance in this area is unmatched. His courses are worth every penny. If only people knew the truth about Google Adword campaigns they could save massive amounts of money. Their bottom line could increase dramatically if they just knew the facts and followed Perry's sage advice. His heroes interview was awesome. You need to listen to it so you can learn how to become the person that deserves to attain your financial goals.
"Perry Marshall’s In Search of Heroes "
by Ralph Zuranski
A radical departure from the usual business / marketing / make-money banter, Ralph asks very personal questions about faith and ethics; success, freedom, social responsibility and values. Perry talks candidly about his father's death, his philosophy of life, travels in developing countries, racism, and views on spirituality. Listen to or download Part 1 - Part 2 (1 hour 40 minutes total).
Ralph Zuranski Hi. This is Ralph Zuranski. I’m speaking with Perry Marshall. He is considered the king of AdWords, of working on Google and generating income for his clients.
He has written many courses to teach people how to gain the same success that he has and minimizing the amount of investments that people make in pay per click advertisements and maximize the gain. How are you doing today, Perry?
Perry Marshall I’m doing great. It’s good to be on.
Ralph Zuranski: Well good. The reason I chose you to be one of the heroes is your desire to provide quality service and products above and beyond the call of duty. So maybe you could explain a little more in detail what it is that you do.
Perry Marshall: Well, in the bigger picture I’m a direct marketer. I help people sell at a distance, sell through media. That’s become more and more and more important compared to decades ago or a century ago.
Before telephone and television and radio and everything, all selling had to be done face to face. Before the post office it had to be hand delivered at best.
But technology has brought about a whole completely different way of people doing business with each other. Of course now you can stick up a web site and anybody in the world can access it.
With tools like Google you can pay them $5 and start advertising on their Ad-words program and people can find out about it almost instantly almost anywhere in the world. The communication tools that we have now are so incredibly powerful it’s really bewildering to people.
There are two aspects to that. One is more of the technical aspect which is constantly changing but is usually something you can hire somebody to do for you for not a huge amount of money.
But the other aspect of it is how do you actually communicate this to people? How do you persuade people?
When I left my job four years ago I started consulting with sales people, for the most part, on how to not do cold calls any more. I told them how to advertise in such a way that people come to them instead of them chasing the customer.
Then later that year Google AdWords came out and I became intrigued with it really quickly. About a year later I started publishing courses on it.
But basically AdWords is Google’s advertising system. It’s the right side of a page on a Google search where you see the little sponsored listings.
Those ads are triggered by keywords. An advertiser pays when a person clicks. That became a fascinating microcosm and it’s turned into a very, very important thing on the entire internet.
I don’t remember the exact numbers but it’s a good healthy double-digit percentage of all internet advertising. It’s one of those things where you can lose your shirt if you don’t know what you are doing or you can have enormous leverage if you do.
It’s an exciting time to be alive.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: I was particularly impressed with just your quality and your style and your integrity. I was curious what was your definition of heroism?
Perry Marshall: I guess it’s doing the right thing regardless of the consequences. That suggests that there are principles that are above and beyond the immediate concerns of safety or expediency.
Usually the word “hero” refers to someone who saved someone’s life. Such as the men at Pearl Harbor who helped others get out of the boat and got stuck there and drowned. That is what heroism is.
In today’s business I think there is a very pervasive culture in the marketing world that says that whatever B.S. you have to make up to get the transaction done is okay. And even a more subtle belief that truth itself is a very relative thing. ‘What is true for you is not true for me.’
So what you end up with is, you have a lot of people who really don’t have any appreciation for the Golden Rule and don’t really treat customers the way they would want to be treated. It makes people cynical and untrusting.
I think the biggest thing that anybody in the marketing profession deals with is cynicism and distrust.
We have all this stuff about Deep Throat in the news today, right? 30 years ago Richard Nixon lied to the American public and everybody was just shocked. Now you have Bill Clinton lying about the Lewinsky thing.
You have the Bush administration obviously fabricating things to get us into the Iraqi war. I’m not going to get into the politics of any of this. But nobody is particularly shocked or surprised today if somebody is lying to them.
So it creates this cynicism inflation in the world that becomes harder and harder to overcome. If you make things up and couch them in very believable language in order to overcome somebody’s skepticism, then when they find out the truth, all you have done is you have contributed to cynicism inflation. You have made it harder for them to believe anything you say later.
On the other hand, if you are exceptionally truthful about things then your customers over time will discover what is true of you and they will believe you when they don’t believe others. That’s kind of a long answer to a short question but I think it is important.
It’s interesting you are asking me all this stuff because these topics rarely come up. Everybody wants to talk about tricks and techniques and clever ways of saying things and clever ways of getting internet traffic.
But let’s talk about some really simple things here. That’s what we are talking about today.
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, it’s important to know who people are and what they actually believe. That’s one of the reasons for the heroes program, the people that I’m interviewing.
People can learn a great deal when you hear the people who are trying to market this stuff answer questions that have real depth and meaning. So the next question I want to ask you is did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
Perry Marshall: That’s a great question. It triggers all kinds of possible answers. I think everybody has what might be called alter egos. People you envision in your mind. Like what would this guy do, or what would that lady do, or whatever.
I think in the midst of all this chaos it’s kind of interesting that people wear a little armband that says, “WWJD, what would Jesus do.” I think the truth be told the average person doesn’t have a huge amount of knowledge about Jesus.
But even people who have only a passing familiarity with Jesus somehow intuitively know that he was a guy who would not advocate violence but is someone who would advocate honesty. He is someone who would be a hero and would sacrifice the immediate safety or convenience for a larger purpose.
That is really what the whole Jesus story is about. Certainly for me, Jesus is in the forefront when I think about things like that.
There are other things, too. I was thinking not too long ago about my parents. My dad died almost 20 years ago.
But when I was a teenager my parents went through a horrendous period in their marriage. My mom had a psychiatric disorder and it caused her to behave very strangely.
Anybody who has had a person with a psychiatric problem living at home would relate to this. It can be very weird and very stressful.
I remember me and my brother and sister having a little pow-wow with my dad. We told him we thought he should just leave her and her silly perception of what is going on and go have a real life.
He steadfastly refused to do that. He said, “No, I stood up in front of God and a whole bunch of people and said I would stick with her till death do us part and that is exactly what I am going to do. Because when you make a promise, you keep it.”
When things like that happen at the time it is like, “Okay, I guess Mom and Dad are going to grind through this.”
But later, when I got into college, I majored in Electrical Engineering. It didn’t take too long to see that I was on a very steep learning curve. The first couple of years the freshmen and sophomore classes were weed-out classes where 40-60% of the class would fail.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
You would stay up all night just to get a C, not to mention a B or an A. And on top of that, it was really rudimentary material like Calculus and all that.
I didn’t really find much of it particularly interesting, either. It didn’t get interesting until my junior and senior year. It was just a big grind and I wanted to quit.
But for some reason I didn’t. There was some part of me that would not give me permission to go do something easier. Because I knew deep down that I really belonged there.
I really needed to master the stuff and get the hard stuff out of the way to do the fun stuff later. But you had to master the basics before you could do the more creative things.
I think my dad’s persistence in the face of adversity probably had a lot to do with me sticking it through. And today I’m very glad.
What I was thinking at the time when I was in college was I would much rather be majoring in English or something. That stuff came a lot easier to me than the math and the science did.
I was very interested in the math and science. I had some very specific reasons why I was there. But it just did not come as naturally to me as writing papers, which I thought was a lot more fun.
But I stuck with it. Today I don’t spend most of my time doing math problems. I spend most of my time writing copy and being a communicator and really operating in my talent zone.
But one of the reasons that I’m good at what I do as an internet marketer is I developed the analytical side. I’m very glad today that I ground through all that engineering stuff.
I can pick up a physics journal or a math book or something like that and understand it. I understand what it’s talking about. Some of my marketing projects get me into more advanced mathematics like the Taguchi Method and stuff like that.
It’s really nice when you have something under your belt and you have mastered it. You don’t use it every day, but when you do need to use it it’s there.
In business, it differentiates me from others who do what I do who maybe don’t have that analytical capacity.
Again, another long answer to a short question but I think at the root of everybody’s life is certain principles and values that you either believe in or don’t believe in. Things that you subscribe to or don’t.
They definitely affect everything else that you do. But most people never directly see those. And most people never ask about them or talk about them but they are there.
Ralph Zuranski: I agree. Your dad gave you a great example of what true commitment and being a person of your word. That is so critical to have any integrity in the businesses that you are involved in.
Their integrity seems to be one of the major considerations that I had when I chose people who I thought were heroes. Do you believe there are certain principles that you believe people should be willing to sacrifice their lives for?
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Perry Marshall: Yes, I do. It’s very interesting you would ask me that question. Just last night my wife and I went to a play. I think it was called “Big Time.” I’m sure it’s kind of obscure.
It was about this guy, Paul, who works on Wall Street. He has the big office and works in the big company. The world bends to his will because he is wealthy and powerful. He’s a young, successful guy.
All the characters in the play are in this category. They are all living this kind of shallow existence and they’re all kind of petty.
Paul has these fights with his girlfriend that shows this pettiness. If he doesn’t get his way he tells her that she is the loser.
She decides that she is not sure about him and tells him that. He bursts out in this tirade about what a loser she is and if she wasn’t such a loser she would realize how important he is and how much he is helping her.
This is proof positive that she shouldn’t be with this guy. And proof positive that he doesn’t love her at all, because if you love someone you don’t call them a loser and treat them that way.
In this story Paul has dealings with a Minister of Finance from somewhere in South America, Venezuela I think. And the country is in turmoil. It’s a big deal and there is a lot of money involved.
The implication is that this is all tainted money that was probably stolen from poor people and it is all corrupt government slush fund. But of course Paul doesn’t really care about that.
So he goes down to Venezuela. He goes down there to meet with this guy and in the middle of this meeting the government caves in. One of the rebels who helped overthrow the government kidnaps Paul.
So Paul is in this room with the kidnapper who is wearing this military uniform and is pacing back and forth. So now you have this young business man dude in a shirt and tie, locked in a concrete cell in Venezuela.
It turns out the guy who kidnapped him went to school in the U.S. and is probably a lot smarter and more educated than most people would assume. This rebel had his reasons for being part of a group that overthrew the government. The government was corrupt and was oppressing people. The rebel says to Paul, “I’m fighting for freedom. I’m fighting for what I believe is right and I’m willing to die for it.
“Is there anything you are willing to die for?”
Paul just stares back at him like he is speaking gibberish. So he repeats, “Is there anything you are willing to die for?”
Paul came down there to do a financial deal, right? So what is his life all about?
So he asks again, “I said, is there anything you would be willing to die for?” And Paul says, “No.”
I think that line was the whole point of the whole story. That if there wasn’t anything you would be willing to die for, if there wasn’t anything you would sacrifice for, it’s because you believe that you are the center of the universe. And everything is supposed to revolve around you.
That’s why everyone in this play acts like the world revolves around them, which is why no one can get along with each other because there is no sense of higher purpose. There is no sense of honor. There is no sense of decency. There is just me, me, me, me, me.
The only reason we live in a free country is because people paid with their lives believing that the freedom of their children, the future of their country, was more important than they themselves were.
Ralph Zuranski: That is so true. I think that a lot of people don’t ever get to that point where they think of what would they die for. Or even more importantly, what would they live for? Not until they have experienced the lowest point in their life.
What was the lowest point in your life and how did you change your life and how did you change your life to win a victory over those obstacles?
Perry Marshall: That’s a good question. Everybody has different hard spots in their life. They are always hard for different reasons and lots of times you can’t compare one to the other.
My dad died when I was 17. There was a three year process of fighting cancer and the emotional roller coaster of “Dad is going to be okay, Dad’s not going to be okay, Dad’s going to be okay” and all that.
Most people, by the time they are well into adulthood have probably experienced that with somebody. I remember being really upset about that.
I remember having this conversation with my mom where I said, “Well, I guess God gave me a dad and if God is going to take my dad away then God can do that.”
Later on – it would have been about a month after my dad died – I was a senior in high school and I was taking this class. We had this interesting assignment to write a philosophy of life. By virtue of having been through the wringer with this I had given those questions a lot more thought than probably most kids do at that age.
I hope I remember this correctly – I wrote down three things and I turned this in. I said, “Nothing is worth living for unless it’s worth dying for, because to live for something is to spend time which you can not get back in pursuit of it.” That was the first one.
I didn’t make up any of this stuff myself. I got it all from other people. The second one was “The difficult things you deal with in life will make you a stronger, better person, but only if you let them.”
The third one I think comes from the Westminster Confession. It says, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
That was my philosophy of life at age 17. And I don’t think I would change that now. I think that was pretty good. But being forced to confront a lot of hard issues is, I think, the only way you really figure out what is important and what is not.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: So you really think that it’s important to have a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
Perry Marshall: It’s very important. It’s one of these deals where you can have it either way.
Which way do you want it? Do you want to look at the tragedy in your life like life sucks and then you die. That it’s all meaningless?
There are a lot of people that do. They look at life exactly that way. And they actually resent people who don’t.
There’s a saying that goes something like this: “People who dance are considered crazy by those who can’t hear the music.” And I think it’s really like that.
Is tragedy just tragedy? Is that all that it is? Or is there music somewhere, is there purpose going on somewhere?
This really gets into the deepest aspect of what your philosophy of life really is. These are all very religious questions. I think we have this sort of taboo in Western society that you aren’t really supposed to discuss that kind of stuff.
But the fact is, everybody is going to have to wrestle with it some time or other. And when they do, they are either going to be equipped to deal with it because they have been discussing it, or it’s going to blind-side them.
Then they are going to be forced into this new train of thought that they never learned about in school and nobody was supposed to talk about in polite company.
They end up going through it alone. And doesn’t that make a person all the more cynical if they think that life sucks and then you die?
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that it is important to have a dream or vision that sets the course of your life?
Perry Marshall: Absolutely. When you talk about dreams and visions and stuff sometimes I think you can trivialize it.
For example, “What’s your dream?” “My dream is to drive a Mercedes.”
Well, I hope your dream for your life is bigger than that. And I don’t mean more expensive, either. I mean more substantive.
But even in the mundane sense it always helps if you know what you are working for. When I was a kid it always helped if I knew why I was doing the paper route. It was never enough to just think that I was saving up some money for some day.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think it takes courage to pursue new ideas? It seems that in everybody’s life, other people are comfortable with the way that you are and if you start changing, they are either going to have to reject you or they have to change also.
Perry Marshall: I think courage is the king of all virtues. If you asked, “What are the greatest virtues?” you could talk about love and honor and trust and all that.
But none of those things really have any dimension to them unless you have the courage to pursue them. It always takes courage to do it. You are always at odds with most of the rest of the world when you embrace virtue.
It’s always easier to fudge a little bit. It’s always easier to make it up. I’m certainly not saying that I’m perfect in those regards.
But what I can be is aware. Or if somebody calls it to my attention that I said I would do something but never did, well then I need to agree and fix that.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: One thing that everybody experiences is doubts and fears. They fear injury, failure, rejection, and some even fear success. How do you overcome your fears?
Perry Marshall: When I feel trepidation about something I’m planning to do it’s usually because it is important. You usually don’t feel fear about doing trivial things. Some people don’t even feel fear about getting on a motorcycle and going 100 miles an hour.
I know a lady who got in a very compromising sexual situation with somebody. It happened years ago and it was just kind of sitting there, simmering under the surface.
Nobody knew about it. She had to deal with this all the time but it was too taboo to really bring up.
Finally she was talking to my wife and I about this and we told her that she needed to talk to the other person about it and confront them about what happened. This is something you would categorize as abusive, she being the victim.
She was afraid of wrecking the guy’s life. And if you think about it there is something honorable about that, because even though the other person had hurt her very deeply, she was still concerned for his well-being.
But we told her that she simply could not keep trying to sweep this under the rug. We told her it would not get better until she dealt with it.
Well, eventually she did, and it took an enormous amount of courage to bring it up. But that opened the door to making the situation something they could deal with and begin to solve the problem.
Things like that are really scary. But again, the fact that it is scary tells you that it needs to be done.
A lot of times it’s things that are a whole lot less onerous than that. It takes courage to take out a small business loan and hang out your shingle. You know that the odds are against you and that you could fail.
One of the things that I learned in my 20’s was that if I fail, if I get rejection, if people say no, if they don’t take me up on my proposal, or if I get an F class and have to take it over, guess what? It’s not the end of the world.
Life did not come to a screeching halt when I flunked this test. Life did not grind to a screeching halt when I flunked the class and I had to take it over. And it didn’t make me a bad person. It just means that I didn’t make it that time.
Successful people of any stripe learn to look at failure as a corrective force in their life. That it’s something that kind of shakes the slag and the garbage off of you. It weeds out the trivial stuff and focuses you on what is important and eventually you figure out the formula.
Ralph Zuranski: It’s interesting that you would say that and that you would tell that story about that lady. There is always the question, as far as the importance of forgiveness, of those who offend and oppose us. And on the opposite side of that there is accountability of people who do offend us.
Where do you think is the balance between having people be accountable for the bad things that they do or the wrong things and actually forgiving them for the things that they did to you personally?
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Perry Marshall: That is a really great question. I think it’s more important than it might sound on the surface because everyone of us has people that we have forgiveness issues with.
Each of us has done things to people that were wrong and that we need to be forgiven for. But that doesn’t really help very much until we realize that is the case.
You can’t just live in denial thinking you have gone your whole life without hurting anybody or doing anybody wrong. All of us have hurt others.
On the other side all of us have little grudges, or sometimes big grudges, that we hold against other people. I don’t think you can be healthy while walking around with those things. I think it’s impossible.
Everybody talks about how if you eat peanut butter and the peanuts had insecticide on them or something, are you going to get cancer? Does this cause cancer, does that cause cancer?
I would be willing to bet you every penny I have that things like anger and grudges and stuff like that cause more diseases and mental health problems than any of those other things.
I have a friend who is a minister. He likes to say there are a lot of churches where if they caught the pastor smoking they would throw him out in a heartbeat.
But if that same minister bickers with people and fights with people and spreads rumors about people and has these little fiefdoms and wars for 30 years, they never throw him out for that. I mean, which is worse?
I’d rather live with a smoker who is at peace with himself than a non-smoker who is contentious. So there are all these things that are surface level. But everybody has to deal with that stuff.
If you ask, “Is there anybody you need to forgive?” All of us can think of somebody that we need to forgive that we only partially did or maybe didn’t at all. Maybe we’re still swearing that we are going to get even with them.
You just have to let go with that. I interviewed one of my customers and he told a very interesting story.
He worked at some company, one of his vendors. He kind of knew this guy who worked there, but not very well. One day that guy just disappeared.
It turns out what actually happened is he molested a child or something like that and was put in jail. He was in jail for three years and then they let him out.
So now the guy has a probation officer and he has this thing around his leg. He has to come to the office and plug it in.
The thing around his leg lets the probation officer know where this guy is 24/7. He has 20 minutes to get home and plug the thing in.
He has maybe 1 ½ hours on Saturday to go to the bank and go grocery shopping and then he has to be home to plug it in again, just like that.
So he comes to see John one day and tells him his story. He says, “John, I knew you way back when. I was working at this company and then I got in trouble. I lost my family, my wife divorced me, I lost my job, I went to jail, and my entire life fell apart.
“John, would you give me a job?”
Well John gave him a job. Later, John ends up hiring another one like this, too. Now he has two former sex offenders working at his company.
John was raving about both of these guys because they always show up on time every single day. They work very hard. He doesn’t have to pay them as much as he pays other people because they are thankful to have any job at all.
They are so appreciative of John for giving them a chance. If John gives them a problem to solve they figure out how to solve it. They are great employees.
This is a strategy for finding an employee. Now obviously John does not run a daycare center. There aren’t any kids there so that’s not an issue. But this was a strategy for getting a good employee, and we all know that really good employees are very hard to find.
So I interviewed John and John told this whole story on one of my CD’s that went out to my subscribers. Then I got this angry email from this guy that says, “I can’t believe you are advocating that we take these criminals and give them jobs.”
I said, “I can only give you my opinion. First of all, the information you get from me is a cafeteria. You can take it or leave it. Not every idea applies to you.”
I told him, here’s how I look at this: Those two guys went to jail and as far as society is concerned, these men have paid the price they are supposed to pay. These men are still on probation.
The Lord’s Prayer says “Forgive us our sins as we forgive others who sin against us.” I told him that if a person has done their penance to society and they want to be forgiven, then as a Christian, my obligation is to forgive them.
It doesn’t mean that I have them run my daycare or that I do anything stupid like that. But it’s a two-sided coin. All of us have bones in our closet. We all have things that we are ashamed of.
We all hope that other people will give us some slack. So we have to give other people slack, too. It doesn’t mean you are to be stupid.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
I had a tenant steal from me. So we evicted her. She was sorry and she cried and apologized. We told her that we forgive her, but that she needs to find another place to live.
I did not think it was appropriate to not have a consequence. She needed to learn.
After all, it took us awhile to figure it out. It had become a pattern, which almost always there is. There is never just one cockroach.
Just because you forgive somebody doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences. I did forgive her and I’m not angry at her.
She never even paid us back, but I’m not going to go after her. That’s just going to be unnecessary time and money and headache.
Ralph Zuranski: It’s easy to forgive somebody if they have offended us or stolen from us, but the harder part is to hold them to accountability and make sure that they realize there are consequences for their wrong actions.
Perry Marshall: Right. And there are consequences. Consequences are the only way that people learn to straighten themselves out.
If somebody is coming to work drunk every day, you better make sure there are some consequences because the problem isn’t going to solve itself. That’s for sure.
So a lot of times the most loving thing you can do with somebody is to have a harsh consequence. And that’s the reality of living in an imperfect world.
Ralph Zuranski: I think that’s the true definition of love. That if someone is going down the wrong path to actually try to steer them to a better path or help them find a better path.
Perry Marshall: Absolutely. You remember Jerry Garcia, the guitarist with The Grateful Dead? I listened to an interview with his drummer, Mickey Hart.
It was a radio show and someone called in and said, “How come you didn’t keep Jerry from overdosing on drugs?” And Mickey goes, “Dude, have you ever had a friend with a drug problem? You ever tried to get him to stop? It’s not like we didn’t try.”
Jerry did what Jerry was going to do. Who knows what they did to try to stop it? But obviously it didn’t work.
And obviously the consequences for Jerry along the way were not bad enough. If the consequences had been worse when it was a less onerous problem, Jerry Garcia might still be alive and would still be doing Grateful Dead concerts.
Ralph Zuranski: You can just do your best and leave it in God’s hands. There is only so far that you can go.
You have to realize that when you try to help people going down the wrong path the first thing they are going to do is to hate you and blame you. It takes a tremendous love for that person to be willing to accept their anger and to accept that abuse.
Perry Marshall: Yes, and I’ll even go further. I’ll say that most people with a big problem blame the problem on the solution.
Ralph Zuranski: Can you explain that?
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Perry Marshall: If some guy has an alcohol problem and his wife tells him that he needs to get help, he is probably going to tell you that the reason he drinks is because of her.
The truth is she is the one who loves him the most of anybody in the world. That is why she is telling him to get help. But because she is telling him and no one else is, he is mad at her.
He might be really, really angry at her. And really, if you aren’t willing to deal with the consequences what can you blame but the solution?
Ralph Zuranski: I think the answer and one of the big solutions is just serving others.
Perry Marshall: Right. About six years ago my wife’s brother lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We went down to visit him. He had been there a long time and we had never gotten down there because of the time and expense.
But we scraped together the money and we went. He had this friend named Paulo who took me and her to the slums of Sao Paulo.
It was shocking. We have nothing like that kind of poverty in the U.S. After I came back from Brazil, I thought to myself, “Bill Clinton is an honest president and we don’t have any pollution. We don’t have any poor people and we don’t have any violence.”
I can truthfully tell you that aside from a gated community, the best neighborhood in Sao Paulo is more dangerous than the worst neighborhood in Chicago. And it gets worse from there.
Paulo knew his way around and knew where he could go and where he couldn’t. So we trusted him and he took us around and we met all these people and saw how they lived. It made us very thankful for what we have.
He had this program where he was helping kids get off the streets and keeping kids off the streets in the first place. And we decided after that, whenever we get a chance we are going to go see how the other half lives.
Because of that, in the meanwhile I have been to Mozambique, which is the 18th poorest country in the world. Last fall I was in Nairobi, Kenya, and saw a bunch of orphans.
In various different ways we have been able to help people in those kinds of circumstances. That is a whole lot more fulfilling than driving a new car off a parking lot.
Because when you do that you are honoring the fact that some things are more important than ‘my little agenda.’ You are getting outside of yourself.
When you spend a day meeting kids or parents who are dying of AIDS you don’t come home and say, “My Latte is too foamy!” It totally gives you a different point of view.
Here in my daily life, if my kids are sick we take them to the doctor. It’s good to get reminded every now an then that not everybody has that luxury.
I met a seven year old boy who was dying of AIDS for lack of a $1 bus ticket to go get a free shot. He was already too far down the road to be helped.
I’m not going to try to describe to you what he looked like or what it was like. But suffice it to say it was very sad.
But you can do things about that. Matter of fact, if I had a few wishes one of them would be for every person who can afford it to go to Africa just once.
Go to a place like Nairobi and see how other people live. Spend a little bit of time thinking about what we can do about this.
People need medical skills, education, business skills and all this kind of stuff. We have things. Not just money, but skills and helping hands.
What could people do? If people did that it would solve those problems and we would live in a much better world. People are very slowly solving those problems but it sure would be nice to see them get solved faster.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s so definitely true. What power does prayer have in your life?
Perry Marshall: It’s one of my core disciplines. I think it’s one of the most important things. Most of the time I think the biggest role that prayer plays is not so much getting what you want or having some wish granted or whatever.
It’s more like saying, “Well God, I don’t know what you want me to do today but to the best of my ability I’m going to align myself with that. I’m going to try to follow where I’m led.”
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
There have been a handful of situations where I wouldn’t know any other way to describe what happened other than to say a miracle happened. Not often, and it’s few and far between.
I have this friend in Ohio named Geri and she had Lupus for years. She did all the stuff you do for it. I don’t have time to go into all the details, but basically one day someone prayed for her and it was gone, never to come back.
It was very sudden, too. It didn’t happen over a period of three months or something. Now if you look up Lupus, “Lupus” and “cure” do not usually go together in the same sentence.
So sometimes, things do happen. There is certainly no question in my mind that prayer changes things. But the thing that changes the most is me. And frankly, I’m the one that needs to get changed.
Ralph Zuranski: Sanctification is a long process. Salvation comes as a free gift but sanctification is much harder and it takes a lifetime. There’s no doubt abut that.
That’s why it’s important to have a sense of humor in a serious problem. You have a sense of humor?
Perry Marshall: I have a friend who says that his purpose in life is to make God laugh. That’s his little thing. I’m quite sure God has a sense of humor. I see it every day.
Ralph Zuranski: Who are the heroes in your life, Perry?
Perry Marshall: That’s a hard question to answer because I think I’m old enough to realize that nobody is perfect. It seems that most of the people who have influenced my life in extraordinary ways also have extraordinary weaknesses.
If you meet a person with really great strengths, they almost always have really great weaknesses to go along with them. People that I know who are alive today, I don’t know if I would categorize them as heroes but it would be interesting to do: Make a top ten list of the most influential people in my life.
Ralph Zuranski: Who would be those people who have had that major positive impact on your life? I know your dad would be on the list.
Perry Marshall: My dad would be on the list. Another guy that would be on the list is an English Professor in college. He pulled me aside one day and said he had been reading my papers and would like to talk with me sometime.
So a few weeks later I went to his office and he starts telling me all this stuff that he had figured out from reading the papers I had written, that I hadn’t figured out about myself. It was amazing.
He really saw way further down the road than I ever did. He was a great, great teacher. He would definitely be on the list.
I think different people affect your life in different ways. For example, and this is a weird example, about seven or eight years ago I went to a Rush Concert. It was three hours of the most extraordinarily executed musical performance that I had ever seen.
The drummer stole the show. I have never seen musicianship like that. In the musical arena that guy is definitely a hero. It changed my awareness of music.
A definitely big influence in my business life is Dan Kennedy. I first heard Dan Kennedy speak in 1997. He coaxed $300 out of my pocket and I bought some of his books and tapes and it transformed my understanding of sales and marketing.
I actually know Dan pretty well now. I’m in one of his coaching groups and I talk to him every month.
Is Dan like a hero of my whole life? No, but he is a luminary in business.
When there are people who change the way you think about things, people who influence you that way, a lot of times it’s worthwhile to dig all of that water out of that well that you can. You don’t just skim it from the surface.
Like with Dan, I was just at a group meeting for two days just last week. Why do I go to that? Because Dan consistently brings insights into situations that I would not come up with myself. And it continues to happen.
Now if the time came where I wasn’t really getting anything new that I hadn’t already gotten, then I would stop. But as long as you continue to learn something new, you keep going back. We had a discussion about one topic that was very illuminating that no one else in the room had really fully considered.
There are other people. I would have to sit down and think about this. But you get the idea. There are authors, people who you may never meet. There are very influential thinkers.
Any direct marketer has been enormously influenced by Claude Hopkins whether they read his stuff or not. It would be a very good idea for anybody in marketing to read Claude Hopkins because he is one of those true luminaries.
When somebody is one of the really first people to figure a whole bunch of things out it probably means that they are brilliantly smart. And that what they tell you about other things is equally valuable.
Ralph Zuranski: Why do you think heroes are so important in the lives of young people?
Perry Marshall: I think everybody is going to have heroes one way or the other. The question is whether they are good ones or bad ones.
If some basketball player thinks he is not a role model he is sadly mistaken. At any given time there are thousands of guys shooting hoops dreaming about being an MBA basketball player. A few of them actually make it.
Well, how many of them are consciously aware of the fact that there is another part of their job description that they never really thought about. No, you don’t just play basketball. You live a certain way and kids want to be like you.
That’s an important part of the job. Is that basketball player going to influence them to be more responsible and to be a better citizen? Or does he think he is only teaching them how to shoot hoops?
The other day somebody sent me a link to a web site where the guy had made his web site look exactly like mine. It wasn’t a copy, but the format, the colors, the layout, the writing style, everything was exactly like mine.
I don’t think he crossed any legal boundaries or anything. I suppose I’m sort of flattered by that. I hope it works for him. But the point is, like it or not, I am obviously a role model for other people.
Anybody in a public sphere is. And so that means that how I conduct myself in public is more important than I would like to think. It means that I am teaching people simply through my actions at any given time whether I realize it or not, because I am in the public eye.
That’s kind of scary. You have to be careful about zinging off some email to somebody. They are upset with me so I’m going to be upset back and be belligerent or whatever – that just adds to the negativity.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Ralph Zuranski: I agree with that. Do you think there are any heroes in our society today who aren’t getting the recognition that they deserve?
Perry Marshall: Oh yes. Oh yes. What I think of when you said that is when I was in Mozambique two years ago. Her name is Robin Perry. She was about 55-60 years old.
She and her husband were retired and they decided to spend their retirement years helping very poor people in very poor countries, including Mozambique. So for a couple of days I just followed Robin around.
So I’m just trailing around behind her and she marches into a village with a box of medicine under her arm. She marches into a mud hut with all her stuff and all these women and children line up.
She has this guy that is translating from Sena into English and the impromptu medical clinic begins. I saw everything. I saw AIDS, malaria, protein deficiencies, scabies, burns, malnutrition, infections, everything.
I’m just sitting there watching this. And it’s not like they have some privacy form that everybody is going to fill out or anything. I’m just watching all these people come on through.
With the supplies that she had and the knowledge that she had, she did what she could to help them. I swear that if she had sat there for four days straight, that line around the hut would have been coming and coming and coming for four days.
There was like this inexhaustible supply of need. That was quite an experience.
She died a little over a year ago. I went to her funeral in Iowa where she and her husband were from. She had gotten sick and they came home. We knew this could be coming; in fact I remember a conversation with her. She’d had some surgeries and it looked like the problems were taken care of but everybody knew it could come back and it did.
So I’m at her funeral and at the end of the service they had this open mike where people could tell stories, and one after another after another got up. It was amazing. Robin was a hero.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that the people who are really the heroes are the ones who reach out and help others? Those people that basically want to make a difference in the world and in the lives that God places along their path?
Perry Marshall: Yes, and everybody has a different kind of opportunity to be a hero. I don’t think everybody is supposed to go to Mozambique, although it would be nice if more people did.
I have a friend who was on that trip. She was just like me. She was just visiting and seeing what was going on.
But she decided to go back there and live there and she is living there now. And that’s her calling.
For almost 20 years it’s been my feeling that it’s my job to be a regular business guy, but to be interested and involved and supportive of things like that. To tell other people what is going on.
It’s just like any other marketing problem in the world of inventors and inventions and new technologies and those kinds of things. The guy that can invent the better mouse trap is often not the person who is talented at telling the world about it.
The world doesn’t beat a path to his door unless he figures out how to be the marketer of that mouse trap. That’s also true of people who go do good things.
Take for example my friend, Jeanine, who decided to go live in Mozambique. Does she have any particular fundraising skill, or communication skill, or letter writing skill or ability to make television commercials about all the stuff she is doing?
No, she is just using her talent and she is exercising it to the best of her ability. But everybody has talents.
I’m helping out Children’s Relief International, the organization that is sending Jeanine and who sent Robin over there. I can help them communicate better. I can help them raise funds better and help them find people to sponsor children and stuff like that. That’s my skill.
Then every year or two, I can get on a plane and go over there and be reminded that I have the easy job. And really it’s true. I kind of joke that in the next life it’s going to be me doing the work and they’re going to be doing the fundraising.
Ralph Zuranski: That may be so. There are so many people out there who say, “Look at the great things I’m doing for God.” Yet they don’t look around in their own families and their own communities and see what God is already doing and join in. I know that’s what Jesus did. He said he did the work of his Father.
It’s important to just look at your family, your friends and the people in your community that you are involved with. That’s where I think the hardest work is ever done because that’s where our greatest joys come from and our greatest sorrows.
Perry Marshall: Charity begins at home.
Ralph Zuranski: Isn’t that the truth. Well I know you are making the world a better place by just the things you have shared with us so far.
Do you have good solutions to the problems facing society, especially racism, child and spousal abuse and violence among young people?
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Perry Marshall: This gets me into another story. A long time ago, way before we had kids, Laura my wife one day mentioned to me that one day we should have foster kids.
I looked at her like, “You want to do what???” Like this is totally out in left field and is something that I would never think about.
When you say “foster kids” the first thing I think about is that some kid is going to come live with you for a few months or a few years and then leave. You will never see them again.
That’s too hard. Especially after you get to like them and have a relationship with them and then they just get sent off somewhere. So that was really foreign.
It took a long time, but she slowly warmed me up to this idea. After our oldest was born we decided to take a foster baby for a few months. We would be the interim solution for just for a little while. We would stick our toe in the water.
Everybody knows that this is not going to last for very long. It’s just a temporary situation. We are just going to try this out.
Sure enough one day the agency has a 1-week baby girl named Drea. “Do you want her?” “Well, okay, we’ll take her.” So I come home from work and we get this little black baby from the West Side of Chicago.
While she was living with us I felt like a glorified babysitter. To me it was just temporary and I wasn’t going to get attached to her. Laura was, but not me.
As far as I was concerned it was just a lot of work. With our own kids Laura nursed them. But you don’t nurse a foster baby so guess who gets to get up in the middle of the night and get the bottle? Me.
So I kind of do not like this. I’m muttering to myself, “How come Drea’s mother has to be into drugs and all this stuff and can’t take care of her?” I’m being kind of gripey.
Well finally we get another phone call and Drea’s grandmother is going to take her in so they don’t need us to be doing this any more. So 2 ½ months later Drea disappears and I figured that we would never see her again.
Laura is kind of depressed and I was probably a little relieved. I’m just being honest with you.
Ralph Zuranski: Oh, I know. I grew up taking care of foster kids. My mom was a nurse so she took the most severely damaged children into our home. I had to change the diapers like you did, but at an early age. So I know what you are talking about.
Perry Marshall: We thought that was the end of things. But a couple of weeks later we get this phone call again. It’s the case worker and he says that Drea’s grandmother wanted to know if we would like to be Drea’s godparents.
She didn’t know anything about us. But she decided that, so we said we would. I had never been anybody’s godparent before. That hadn’t been a tradition in our family. Other people do that but not us.
So we truck on over to The Old Ship of Zion Church of God in Christ on the West Side of Chicago. We are the only white people there.
Now I have to explain something about Chicago. There is a lot of racism in Chicago and it’s all kind of under the surface. It’s kind of an icy, nobody-talks-about-it kind of racism.
When we first moved here 12 or 13 years ago it seemed very hard to make friends with black people. Later I came to understand there are a lot of good reasons for that. There is an unbelievable amount of discrimination that goes on in the workplace.
I was a manufacturer’s rep selling stuff to manufacturing companies in Chicago. I want to say that in two years, except for an automotive plant and a steel mill, I’m not sure I ever met an African American person who was in a management position.
In Chicago it’s like black people get the crummy jobs and white people get the good jobs. And white people are oblivious to this. They just don’t know what is going on. They probably don’t think about it.
So there has always been this kind of icy feeling that I felt around black people. They didn’t really want to talk to me. It wasn’t that they were mean or rude, it was just that they weren’t interested and please don’t bother them.
It became apparent that whatever racial barriers there were with most people suddenly did not apply to us with Drea’s grandmother and her family. And ever since then, and I see them every week, it’s like we are their white cousins from the suburbs. And they are our black cousins from Chicago.
With them and us, whether someone is white or black doesn’t matter. It’s a non-issue. It’s not like there aren’t differences. It’s not like we don’t joke about them or talk about them or whatever, but they aren’t a barrier.
Of course their culture is different. It is completely different. But that’s okay. We are all people. I definitely learned that if people do things like take in foster children that can break down racial barriers.
You mentioned violence. There is a lot of violence in the inner city. Drea has three brothers and they are all older than her. One of them is 13 and he is getting into that teenager zone where you are hoping that he stays on track.
I look at it like I can’t fix all his problems. I can’t solve all the problems that you have when you live in the inner city and all that.
But I can be a steady, unwavering person in his life. I can be an example that not every guy is hanging out on the street corner or doing whatever people do in the inner city.
I think in the long run that will make a difference for him and the direction he goes. I can’t solve every problem but I can do what I can do.
Ralph Zuranski: So you believe that the way that we can change a lot of problems in society is being good role models for others and also being involved in their lives. Being a source of support and inspiration and being examples of integrity.
It’s just doing the right thing. As you said earlier, the definition of a hero is just doing the right thing when no one is looking.
That seems to be a common theme of all the hero interviews that I have done. A lot of heroes had wishes for the world and their life.
If you had three wishes that would come true for the world and for your life, what would they be? I know you already expressed one wish, so you have two more.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Perry Marshall: I’m not sure exactly how I want to put this, but maybe one way to put this is that I would wish that everybody would have the persistence and the opportunity to discover that God really does hear us when we pray.
Matter of fact I think that the whole idea and that whole personal experience of spirituality is really at the root of a lot of things. That includes people who insist that there is no God and that all that stuff is made up.
I think at the root of that is usually a personal experience: “I tried praying. I was in a hard time and my prayers just bounced off the ceiling.”
I know what that feels like. I think all of us do.
One thing that I consider to be self-evident, needing no further proof or discussion, is this: I do not judge God. God judges me.
I think there is a world of difference between believing that the world is a senseless, crazy place and believing that there ultimately is some order to everything.
If I had another wish, maybe one of those wishes would be that every kid could grow up in a family that’s kind of like my parents were. Even though everything was really tough and really brutal at times, they stuck together anyway.
Again, at the time I did not look at my dad as a hero. To me it was like a stubborn policy he had that I wasn’t sure I agreed with.
It was only later that I realized that it was a heroic choice. For a little while, at least, it would have been easier for him to renege on his commitment. How are those for a couple of wishes?
Ralph Zuranski: Those are good wishes. And I understand what you are talking about. Trusting God and leaning not on your own understanding and acknowledging Him in all your ways and letting Him direct your paths.
That takes a tremendous amount of faith. Looking to see what He is doing in your life or in the people around you. Probably one of the hardest things in the world to do is to let Him direct your path.
Just having that faith and seeing everything as a part of His plan for you and more importantly a plan for everybody in the entire world because nothing can happen to you that doesn’t affect everybody else.
Perry Marshall: That’s true. In the 1960’s a guy came up with the term “Butterfly Effect.” At MIT he was studying weather patterns when he discovered that the tiniest little change could potentially cause an enormous change somewhere else.
The wings of a butterfly here could cause a hurricane there six months later. There was literally no way to know or track all the cause and effects down to the granular level but that’s how nature really works.
I think when you make a right choice or a wrong choice, if you do the right thing you decide to be a hero even if nobody is paying attention, or not to. It’s the same thing. You just never know.
You don’t have to know how things are going to turn out. You trust that there is a plan and you do the right thing in the interim simply because it’s the right thing.
Ralph Zuranski: What do you think about the “In Search of Heroes” program and its impact on youth, parents and business people?
Perry Marshall: I think if you are asking these kinds of probing questions of business people you are certainly bringing out a whole dimension in business. Business people hardly ever get asked these kinds of questions.
You are trying to create some air time so younger people are hearing from business people and different leaders and getting the inside story. I think if the inside story gets heard it can only help.
Ralph Zuranski: The good thing about these questions in the heroes program is that it’s based on the philosophy of Earl Nightingale and his program “The Strangest Secret of the Mind of Man.” It’s the realization that people will only achieve the level of success that they desire until they actually become the type of person who has excellence and integrity. Until they begin providing a service to humanity that is worth the financial gain that they desire.
By letting people listen to these individuals like you who are very successful in the business world they are given role models. They learn from listening to the interviews.
They learn what type of people you have become and what you think about. They learn how your mind works and about testing those areas with difficult problems.
They learn how that will give them the role model that they need to basically become the type of people that will allow them to achieve the level of success that they desire. It’s going to be a lasting success.
Like what you were talking about earlier regarding those people who take the short cut and anything that is expedient. Rather than being like those people they learn to be like those who do the right thing when nobody is looking.
To be like those who provide quality service and that are always seeking to provide a service that goes above and beyond everybody’s expectation.
They learn that this is the true model for success. And they learn to not only to follow this in their personal and financial life, but in every area of life.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Perry Marshall: I think it is possible to be successful in a whole bunch of areas of life. I think a lot of people have this idea that they can be successful in business or help poor kids somewhere or do whatever but that they certainly can’t be successful in all the spheres.
Well you certainly can’t do everything. But at the same time I think you can be successful in all the arenas of your life, at least in some measure. It’s not like I have to be a loser in this department and a winner in this other department.
Ralph Zuranski: What do you think of the things that parents can do that will help their children realize that they too can be heroes and make a positive impact on others?
Perry Marshall: Well, I think it starts with taking responsibility to be a hero yourself. There’s the old phrase, “What you do speaks to loudly, what you say I cannot hear.”
We aren’t perfect and we don’t have it all figured out but we can do what we know we need to do. And sometimes when those tough decisions come along our kids need to see us make the tough decision and do the right thing and not take the easy way out.
This is a little bit of a rabbit trail, but another thing. I think the best success manual for a business person is the book of Proverbs in the Bible.
I think that in Proverbs there is more useful, practical wisdom about how to deal with other people and the kinds of people you deal with than just about any other place that I could name. I know every entrepreneur has his list of books that had a big impact on him. For me that one would be right at the top of the list.
What is Proverbs about? It’s all of the fundamental differences between wise people and fools.
I don’t know of any other kind of discernment that would be more valuable than being able to go into a crowd and have conversations and start working with people and quickly figure out who is wise and who is foolish. Who is honest and who is not.
The way that you learn to frame the world from that book is absolutely priceless. You can’t really appreciate it until you really read through it a couple of times.
You could read the whole thing, probably, in about an hour. But that’s not how you read it.
There are 31 chapters so my favorite way to read it is to read one chapter a day. If today is the 21st then you read the 21st chapter. And it has something for you.
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, and it always seems to have different information each time you read it depending upon what is going on in your life that day.
Perry Marshall: Right.
Ralph Zuranski: Well Perry, I really appreciate your time. I know how busy you are. Thank you for sharing all the things that you did.
It is really profound all the information that you provided. Is there some parting information that you would like to share with the young people listening to this interview?
Perry Marshall: Pursue wisdom. It’s an elusive thing but it’s out there. Proverbs is a great place.
Be a hero. Whatever circumstances you are in and whatever skills you have, there is a way that you can harness those and be successful and do the things that are going to be important to you in your life. I think life is just a process of discovering what that is.
Ralph Zuranski: That is so profound. And again, I really appreciate your time.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Other resources & courses by Perry Marshall:
Spirituality, History and Science:
7 Great Lies of Organized Religion – an unusual perspective on church history, a response to skeptics, and thoughts on genuine spirituality
Where did the Universe Come From? Latest results from renowned astronomers, physicists and the Hubble Telescope have significant bearing on the relationship between faith and science
The Atheist's Riddle and the Case for Intelligent Evolution - "So simple, any child can understand; so complex, no atheist can solve." Naturalism's gaping hole, a revised view of Darwinism based on Google AdWords (which is an elegant example of Darwin's ideas), and radical new implications for evolutionary theory
Business and Marketing:
5 Days to Success with Google AdWords - Google has a new system that makes it possible, for the first time in the history of the world, to deposit five bucks, write a couple of ads, and instantly get access to over 100 million people - in less than 10 minutes
How to Write and Promote Your White Paper - If you sell any kind of complex service, technology or sophisticated product, a White Paper is the best way to educate your customers about that technology. You can use a white paper to build your credibility, get free exposure in the press, attract new customers, and drive new technology into change-resistant, conservative markets.
Posted by isoh at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)
"How to Craft Cash-Creating Climactic Copy" by Michel Fortin
Have you ever picked up a book off the shelf at a local bookstore, read the cover, opened it up and, after reading a few pages... Couldn't put it down?
Do you remember how you flipped each page with an almost excruciating curiosity because the story was so tantalizing, you became increasingly riveted to the book with each subsequent chapter?
Copy is, or should be, the same.
Good copy makes a good case. But great copy tells a good story. A great copywriter is also a great salesperson. But all great copywriters AND all great salespeople also have one thing in common...
... They are also great storytellers.
The closer your copy reads like a compelling story — keeping the reader interested and engaged, hanging on to every word — the greater your chances she will read your copy until the end and, of course, buy.
Your "story" should tickle the reader's curiosity and pull her into the copy. Each new idea introduced should build on the other, pulling the reader further and deeper into the salesletter. The copy should almost mesmerize the reader to the point she's in a trance-like state.
Each header, each paragraph and each word crescendos and prepares you, step-by-step, for the climactic "twist" in the story's plot.
The climax, of course, is the offer.
And the plot, in copywriting, is called the "platform."
Your platform is the major concept or "storyline." It's possibly a core benefit, result or key topic that creates the foundation upon which your entire "story" is built. It's one powerful idea with which your entire copy will hinge.
The platform you choose to present your offer is critical to the offer's success — hopefully the offer is good, but getting there is the job of the platform.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
The concept of the "greased chute" is one in which you keep the reader hanging on to every word you write — up until they buy. They simply can't leave. They're glued to your copy. They're compelled to keep reading.
Copy is telling a good story that involves the reader so they can see in their mind's eye the benefits of your offer, as if they owned your product already. The platform is the "pivot," if you will, you choose to build your story on.
It could (and often should be) be your USP. It could be what copywriter John Carlton calls your "hook." It could be some major advantage or benefit.
Ray McNally, a programmer and friend, offers a neat software program that complements an affiliate marketer's efforts by helping them capture the names and email addresses of traffic they generate to an affiliate link.
This program sets up a doorway page (not the search engine kind) that, before the affiliate's generated traffic is sent to the site being promoted, it capture's their name and email addresses for future follow-up.
Why? Because once they click on an affiliate link, they're gone. But that affiliate has worked hard or spent money on generating that traffic. They own that traffic. So why not capture it in the process?
If they DIDN'T end up buying that affiliate product, no problem. That list can now be followed-up with, or even monetized in other ways!
What has that got to do with copy? Here's my point.
Originally, Ray had one of those hackneyed headlines: "Discover how to explode your income... Blah, blah, blah." Bland. Hypey. Boring.
After talking with Ray, I said, "Ray, this is your USP! Your hook. Why not capitalize on it?" So the platform I told him to use was this ability affiliates will gain with this software to make far more money with the traffic they generate.
The result is here: http://AffiliatePageCreator.com/. Check the headline out and you'll understand what I mean. Also, you'll notice another strategy I used.
Before I explain it to you, let me backup a little to "set the story."
A great way to learn how to write mouth-watering copy is to read fiction. Take a popular book and read it through once. Then go back, read it again and take notes. List the nuances, twists and storylines that grabbed you. And why.
In other words, try to look beyond the story.
Pinpoint where certain characters, ideas and phrases were introduced in specific locations of the book — and see how they relate to the whole plot.
Look at the flow of ideas. Is there a crescendo? Are there small "valleys" along the way (until you reach the "summit," i.e., the climax)?
What do I mean by "small valleys?" Copy should build on the reader's intrinsic curiosity. But it needs to do so multiple times throughout. In fact, incorporate what copywriter David Garfinkel once told me are called "nested loops."
A nested loop is when you begin on an idea but, before you complete it, you introduce another idea. And guess what? People will read every single word more intently and intensely, and remember more what is being said in the process, until you close the loop and finish the idea.
In between the nested loop is therefore a great place to insert a key idea or critical point you want to drive home.
Why are "nested loops" so powerful?
In 1927, Bluma Zeigarnik, one of the early contributors to Gestalt Psychology, found that people have an intrinsic need for closure. Often called the "Zeigarnik Effect," he discovered that we remember interrupted tasks best.
We either passionately attempt to complete something that's incomplete, or feel a certain discomfort, uneasiness or disconcertedness, until it is. The tension created by such an unfinished task helps us to concentrate more.
For example, have you ever watched the news on TV or one of those tabloid shows, where they begin with the following introduction:
"Tonight, Hollywood superstar escapes blazing fire while filming her new mega-budget movie. More on that later. But first..."
That story aroused your curiosity. So you remain glued to your TV set until... They air that particular story at the end of the show! Now, do you think they did this intentionally? Of course. They did so to force you to watch the entire show. (And of course, all of the commercials in between.)
Look at all the TV shows that keep you hanging with each show to the next. (Look at the hit show "24" as a perfect example.) Even commercials use this strategy brilliantly. (Remember the "Taster's Choice" soap-opera-like series?)
Once you close the loop, their concentration level goes down somewhat, which is why you want to use multiple nested loops, or "valleys," throughout the copy. Once they finally "climax," there's no more "Zeigarnik Effect." And you stand a great chance to lose your reader.
(Take, for instance, the show "Dallas" in the 80's with the famous "Who Shot J.R.?" plot. After the show's culmination when they finally revealed who did it, ratings dropped dramatically.)
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
In copy, include nested loops to not only keep the reader reading but also to build on the reader's level of concentration until the very end. And use them to introduce new or critical ideas in between them.
Look at soap operas and cliffhangers as an example. As an aside, even a few Internet marketers are doing exactly that. For example, check out the "Joe And Mable Show" at http://www.joeandmable.com/.
Continue reading ""How to Craft Cash-Creating Climactic Copy" by Michel Fortin"
Posted by isoh at 01:14 AM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2005
"Perry Marshall's In Search Of Heroes Interview Was Incredible" by Ralph Zuranski
Click Here to listen to Perry's In Search Of Heroes interview.
Perry Marshall is an author, speaker and consultant in Chicago. He is known as "The Wizard of Google AdWords" and is one of the world's leading specialists on buying search engine traffic. His company, Perry S. Marshall & Associates, consults both online and brick-and-mortar companies on generating sales leads, web traffic, and getting maximum advertising results.
Prior to his consulting career, he helped grow a tech company in Chicago from $200,000 to $4 million sales in four years, and sold it to a public company for 18 million dollars.
Like direct marketing pioneer Claude Hopkins, Perry has both an engineering degree and a love for persuasive copywriting. He's published dozens of articles on sales, marketing and technology, and his books include Guerilla Marketing for Hi-Tech Sales People and The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords.
He’s spoken at conferences around the world and consulted in dozens of industries, from computer hardware and software to high-end consulting, from health & fitness to corporate finance.
Perry Marshall is a Google marketing expert and spoke at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference.
The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords
Google has a new system that makes it possible, for the first time in the history of the world, to deposit five bucks, write a couple of ads, and instantly get access to over 100 million people - in less than 10 minutes.
It's called Google AdWords and it's hot. In fact it may be the first and best thing to do to get traffic to your site. But it's not always as easy as I just made it sound - AdWords has some nuances, and most people have a rough time at first.
Perry Marshall has written a very helpful e-course called "5 days to success with Google AdWords" and there's no charge for it. You can find out about it here.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
The Definitive Guide to Writing & Promoting White Papers
If you sell any kind of complex service, technology or sophisticated product, a White Paper is the best way to educate your customers about that technology.
You can use a white paper to build your credibility, get free exposure in the press, attract new customers, and drive new technology into change-resistant, conservative markets.
Most white papers are either too technical (boring) or too commercial (thin and cheesy) - but Perry Marshall has written a guide that shows you how to strike the perfect balance.
But what's most important of all, though, is promoting and publicizing your white paper - because the best white paper in the world is no good unless somebody reads it!
How to sell my Marketing Toolkit for Hi-Tech Sales
Most sales people spend all day dialing for dollars, chasing prospects who are mentally if not physically backing away from them, and they waste most of their time chasing deals instead of closing them.
At the same time, most companies spend all kinds of money on advertising and don't get nearly enough bang for their buck.
Perry Marshall's "Guerilla Marketing for Hi-Tech Sales People" is an information-packed audio CD that discusses 21 principles that you can use to eliminate cold prospecting and wasted advertising dollars in today's fiercely competitive B2B marketplace. You can get your copy here.
Posted by isoh at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)
"Forget Benefits, And You Will Sell More" by Michel Fortin
What's the single, most important element in copywriting?
Let me say it another way.
You've done your research. You found a starving market. Your product fills their needs. And your sales copy shines with benefits. If so, then why is your product still NOT selling? Is it the price? The offer? The competition?
Maybe. But not necessarily. The fact is, these things are not always to blame for being unable to sell an in-demand product, even with great copy.
It has more to do with one thing: FOCUS. (Or the lack thereof.)
In fact, the greatest word in copywriting is NOT "free." It's "focus."
And what you focus on in your copy is often the single, greatest determinant of your copy's success. Similarly, the most common blunders I see being committed in copy is the lack of focus in a sales message on:
The individual reading the copy; and,
The value you specifically bring to them.
In my experience as a copywriter, I find that some people put too much emphasis on the product, the provider and even the market, and not enough on the most important element in a sales situation: the customer.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
The individual reading the copy at that very moment.
Don't focus your copy on your product and the features of your product — and on how good, superior or innovative they are. And don't even focus on the benefits. Instead, focus on increasing perceived value.
Why? Because perception is personal. It's intimate. It's ego-centric.
Let me explain.
When you talk about your product, you're making a broad claim. Everyone makes claims, especially online. "We're number one," "we offer the highest quality," "it's our best version yet," etc. (Often, my reaction is, "So what?")
And describing benefits is just as bad.
Benefits are too broad, in my opinion. You were probably taught that a feature is what a product has and a benefit is what that feature does. Right? But even describing benefits is, in my estimation, making a broad claim, too.
A claim always looks self-serving. It also puts you in a precarious position, as it lessens your perceived value and makes your offer suspect — the opposite of what you're trying to accomplish by making claims in the first place.
Therefore, don't focus on the benefits of a certain feature. Rather, focus on how those features specifically benefit the individual.
There is a difference. A big difference.
The more you explain what those claims specifically mean to the prospect, the more you will sell. It's not the features that counts and it's not even benefits. It's the perceived value. So how do you build perceived value?
The most common problem I see when people attempt to describe benefits is when what they are really describing are advantages — or glorified features, so to speak. Real benefits are far more personal and intimate.
That's why I prefer to use this continuum:
Features Advantages Benefits
Of course, a feature is what a product has. And an advantage (or what most people think is a benefit) is what that feature does. But...
... A benefit is what that feature means.
A benefit is what a person intimately gains from a specific feature. When you describe a feature, say this: "What this means to you, Mr. Prospect, is this (...)," followed by a more personal gain your reader gets from the feature.
Let me give you a real-word example.
A client once came to me for a critique of her copy. She sold an anti-wrinkle facial cream. It's often referred to as "microdermabrasion." Her copy had features and some advantages, but no benefits. In fact, here's what she had:
Features:
It reduces wrinkles.
It comes in a home kit.
And it's pH balanced.
Advantages:
It reduces wrinkles, so it makes you look younger.
It comes in a home kit, so it's easy to use at home.
And it's pH balanced, so it's gentle on your skin.
This is what people will think a benefit is, such as "younger," "easy to use" and "gentle." But they are general. Vague. They're not specific and intimate enough. So I told her to add these benefits to her copy...
Benefits:
It makes you look younger, which means you will be more attractive, you will get that promotion or recognition you always wanted, you will make them fall in love with you all over again, they will never guess your age, etc.
It's easy-to-use at home, which means you don't have to be embarrassed — or waste time and money — with repeated visits to the doctor’s office... It’s like a facelift in a jar done in the privacy of your own home!
It's gentle on your skin, which means there are no risks, pain or long healing periods often associated with harsh chemical peels, surgeries and injections.
Now, those are benefits!
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Remember, copywriting is "salesmanship in print." You have the ability to put into words what you normally say in a person-to-person situation. If you were to explain what a feature means during an encounter, why not do so in copy?
The more benefit-driven you are, the more you will sell. In other words, the greater the perceived value you present, the greater the desire for your product will be. And if they really want your product, you'll make a lot of money.
It's that simple.
In fact, like a face-to-face, one-on-one sales situation (or as we say in sales training, being "belly to belly" with your prospect), you need to denominate as specifically as possible the value of your offer to your readers.
In other words, express the benefits of your offer in terms that relate directly not only to your market, but also and more importantly:
To each individual in that market
And to each individual's situation.
Don't focus on your product. Focus on your readers. Better yet, relate the benefits of your offer to the person that's reading it. And express how your offer benefits your prospect in terms they can intimately relate to.
Look at it this way:
Use terms the prospect is used to, appreciates and fully understands. (The mind thinks in
Continue reading ""Forget Benefits, And You Will Sell More" by Michel Fortin"
Posted by isoh at 01:13 AM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2005
"Blogs, Vlogs, Wikis and Pods...Oh My, What In The World Are These Anyway?" by Ralph Zuranski
Perhaps you've heard about blogs - the hottest communication story of last year. Commentators from Newsweek to the Wall Street Journal, from CNN to PBS have devoted time to the phenomenon. Blogs are just one of the new technologies that are changing the way politicians communicate with voters and businesses communicate with customers.
For marketers, these changes mean more direct interaction with customers and potential customers. By speaking and listening directly with the customer marketers are able to reduce the expense for public relations and advertising. Of course, these developments are worrying some in the pr and advertising industries, as well as the news media.
Many things about marketing communication won't change, of course: you still need to have something to say. And the best way to apply all these technologies is still within a business niche. With that said, here are some of the other ways communication is changing:
1. Podcasting is the hottest idea on the internet. Starting in 2004, people began downloading homebrewed radio shows to their iPods. So instead of "broadcasts" they're "podcasts". Unlike streaming audio, podcasts require the file to be downloaded. The advantage of podcasts versus streaming is that you can take it with you when you're not on the net. The disadvantage is that streaming audio is much easier for a customer to play at his or her computer. The solution is to do both - create an audio file for streaming, and an mp3 for podcasting. The same recording can be used for both.
2. A vlog is a video blog. Unlike podcasting, vlogging can refer to either streaming video or downloadable shows. Combined with the rapid development of internet video delivery, vlogging seems poised to take off. As with audio, you can prepare your video file in both streaming and downloadable formats. Also like audio, you can begin with very low-cost tools and work your way up to full blown professional equipment. Remember that people like good production quality, but they like watching something interesting even more.
3. Wikis are websites that are editable by the site users. Content becomes part of a dialogue among the users, instead of something fixed. This interaction can build strong communities, and produce large sites with enormous information. Up until recently, wikis have been difficult to use, and limited to techs. New approaches to wikis are making them easier to use, and reinforcing the next trend:
4. Social software. Community sites that encourage sharing and conversation are springing up in many areas. Photography and music have been drivers of this trend, in addition to political activism. Interaction builds community, and community is where the market is.
5. Almost all of these tools involve RSS, a technology for feeding information to people who want it. Unlike email, which is "pushed" by the sender, rss feeds have to be "pulled" by the user. While still not completely mainstream, rss is a rapidly growing delivery system.
For the small marketer, the price of reaching customers directly has dropped. Large corporations, though, are picking up on these technologies rapidly. To truly gain an edge, the small business person needs to develop a strategy for these channels before the big companies figure them out.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Posted by isoh at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)
"Triple Your Response With This Google Adwords Trick" by Michel Fortin
I have some absolutely fantastic news.
One tip I use to increase my clickthroughs from Google AdWords is to use dynamic headlines in my ads so that the keyword searched for by a user appears in the title of my ad.
It's proven that, when the keyword searched for appears in your ad, it increases your CTRs (e.g., clickthrough rates).
Thus, here's how you do it. Type ...
{KeyWord:Default Title}
... Exactly as shown. "Default Title" is the default title that appears if the keyword isn't an exact match to your list of keywords, is a variation or if the keyword/keyphrase makes the title longer than Google's limit of 25 characters.
Plus, type it exactly as shown -- KeyWord, not keyword, or Keyword, or KEYWORD -- because "KeyWord" will capitalize each word in your title ("Keyword" will only capitalize the first letter), since first capitalized letters increase CTRs, too.
Now, that may be good news to some of you, but it's NOT the news I wanted to convey. As a test fanatic myself, I wanted to try to see if {KeyWord} works in the ad itself -- either in the ad content or, more important, in the display URL.
Why the display URL?
Because the display URL can be whatever you want (and the real URL is the one people are sent to when they click) ... As long as the display and real URLs are in the same domain, it meets Google's editorial guidelines.
Since I was in the middle of writing copy, I didn't have time to check this out. So I made a request -- and The Copy Doctor member, Eric Graham, was gracious enough to try it out.
The result? You won't believe this! (And you certainly won't believe the tremendous boost in conversion it did, too! Hint: It tripled ... a 328.1% increase! ... the CTRs!)
See http://copywritersboard.com/viewtopic.php?p=2258#2258
for the whole story.
Continue reading ""Triple Your Response With This Google Adwords Trick" by Michel Fortin"
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Posted by isoh at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2005
"How To Create Unblockable Popups" by Michel Fortin
Whether you love them or hate them, pop-ups are powerful and produce extraordinary results. But since some people overuse them, they have become an annoyance, which has led to the emergence of anti-popup software and pop-up blockers now pervading the web.
However, there are unblockable pop-ups. Some people sell software to create them. But there are also free scripts available on the Internet. Here are a few links to help you create "unblockable" pop-ups I use on my many websites.
Granted, they are not 100% foolproof, as pop-up blockers are becoming more and more sophisticated. However, not everyone has them, and therefore your chance to take advantage of these response boosters are immense -- at least for the time being.
There are 3 types...
1. Window Layers (Or "Pop-Overs")
The first is to create DHTML (dynamic HTML) windows, which uses layers (also called "pop-ins" or "pop-overs," and sometimes called "hover ads" or "drop-in windows").
These windows are not windows per se but in fact are actual HTML mini-pages created "on top" of regular HTML. When they close (such as by clicking the "X" in the upper righthand corner), they don't really close. They simply become invisible.
These scripts are free.
ScriptAsylum.com
DynamicDrive.com
CodeLifter.com
You can also use their cookie function to disallow pop-ups from showing up with returning visitors, thus reducing annoyance.
Let me show you some examples.
There's my client Chet Womach at BirdTricks.com (notice the "close window link" in the window, which I discovered by myself .) There's my own website at SuccessDoctor.com.
2. Modal Windows
The second one is the same as a standard pop-up window. But instead of lauching the window when the page loads or closes (traditionally using the body tag "onload" or "unonload" function), this script launches the window within the code itself -- rather than when page loads.
These scripts are also free.
forums.HotScripts.com
Here's the same one but in a downloadable zip file.
PageResource.com
WebReference.com
Let me show you a more specific example.
There's my own website at TheCopyDoctor.com (you may have seen the "exit" survey that pop-ups when you leave the website, asking for your feedback as to why you didn't order today).
3. Scrolling/Draggable Layers
The third is somewhat like #1. But instead of a window, you can create a linked image or a set of links (with no frames) that follow you around on a web page.
This one is becoming more and more popular. It was once used for providing feedback, but with the advent of pop-up blockers, this technique is fast becoming the "pop-up" of choice.
These scripts are also free.
EchoEcho.com
Codelifter.com
Dyn-Web.com
(Click on gliding "layers always in view.")
Here are some examples.
For links, you can purchase a software that creates them for you, like Dave Brown's WebsiteResponseBooster.com (not an affiliate link). But when you visit the site, look in the corners of your browser window.
Continue reading ""How To Create Unblockable Popups" by Michel Fortin"
Posted by isoh at 01:11 AM | Comments (0)
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
July 18, 2005
Basic Tutorial On Split-Testing"" by Michel Fortin
This is pulled from my post on CopywritersBoard.com.
A script (like SIMA or Split Test Gold, etc) serves 2 versions of the same page. The 2nd version should be a carbon copy of the first page (your control), but with one variable changed -- perhaps a change in headline, price, graphic, copy, offer, guarantee, etc.
So page "a" may be your existing control while page "b" is exactly the same with one slight change. (Always test just one variable at a time.)
Scenario of "a" versus "b" split test.
The script serves one page, alternately, with each visitor. It measures the response rate per page. Say, page "a" gets 100 hits, 2 sales (2% response). Page "b" gets 100 hits, 3 sales (3% response). The difference between "a" and "b" gives me the change. It's a 1% difference. Based on the original 2%, that's a 50% increase.
Let me show you a more specific example.
First, you install the script. You then set your 2 pages. Page "a" is your current control. Page "b" is an exact carbon copy of page "a," but with a slight change. One variable, whatever it may be. Now...
Page "a" 213 hits, 2 sales, 0.9% conversion
Page "b" 188 hits, 3 sales, 1.1% conversion
Increase from "a" to "b:" 1.1 - 0.9 = 0.2% difference
To calculate the increase 0.2% represents:
Multiply it by 100, like 0.2 x 100 = 20
20 divided by 0.9% = 22% increase
Thus, page "b" with the slight change represents a 22% increase over page "a." Thus, 0.9% (page "a") x 1.22 (22% increase) = 1.1% (page "b"). In other words, add 22% of 0.9% to 0.9%, which equals 1.1%.
Now, is this empirical? No.
The amount of traffic above is very small. This example should not be considered as across-the-board numbers. But, it gives you a good indicator. (Don't forget that a modification to your control may decrease your response, too. That's fine, since it gives you the knowledge of what DOESN'T work -- and not repeat it.)
Here's a great site that teaches it to you is http://testandtrack.com/.
Continue reading "Basic Tutorial On Split-Testing"" by Michel Fortin"
Posted by isoh at 01:08 AM | Comments (0)
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
July 17, 2005
"Use Scarcity To Sell, Not Scare" by Michel Fortin
Takeaway selling, for the uninitiated, is a way to limit the supply of a product or service in some way to increase scarcity of an offer. Because it's a proven fact that scarcity sells. It's the age ol' law of supply and demand. The less the supply, the greater the demand, as people don't know how much they want something until it's about to be taken away from them.
As Jim Rohn once said, "Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value." Why? Because procrastination is the biggest killer of sales -- particularly online where the chances of a prospect staying on or returning to a website (in order to think about buying), in today's click-happy world, are scarce.
It's like the time you walk into a department store and check out a new shirt you're interested in. Since there's none in your size, you ask the sales representative if one is available. The clerk goes into the backroom, and emerges a few moments later, saying, "I found one in your size, but it's the only one we have left in stock."
Now, how much more desirous are you in that shirt?
I'm a firm believer, and I've grown even more convinced over time, that great copy is not meant to induce action, especially online -- it's really meant to prevent procrastination. Why? Because copy should not sell people and pressure them per se. It should help them buy what you sell and prevent them from making a wrong decision.
And procrastination is a decision in itself -- a bad decision at that.
Online, people find your site through research, searching for specific information. Or they were propelled to visit your site through some affiliate promotion, ad or offer made elsewhere. So to a large degree, and unlike the offline world, they're pre-qualified. They're interested. They're in the market. (Granted, not all the time. But again, they are to a great degree -- at least to a greater degree than a bunch of people on a direct mail list you have no knowledge of, other than some basic demographic data.)
Nevertheless, as the saying goes, "People don't like to be sold. But people love to buy." So scarcity, used properly, helps them buy -- and not pressure them to act.
Look at it this way: if you give a chance for your prospects to procrastinate, they will. Guaranteed.
So use takeaway selling in order to stop people from procrastinating rather than getting them to take action now. In other words, shape your offer -- and not just your product or service -- so that it is time-sensitive or quantity-bound. More important, give a reasonably logical explanation to justify your time-sensitivity or else your sales tactic will be instantly discredited as it appears disingenuous.
How do you do that?
I've always used one of three ways...
In my experience, there 3 types of takeaways you can use:
Limiting the time
Limiting the quantity
Limiting the offer
The first is done by adding a deadline on the offer. A realistic deadline, and not some script that changes everyday. For instance, how many times have you come across a salesletter where the offer had a deadline, which seemed to "magically" bump ahead each time you visited the website? That's what I mean. (People are not stupid!)
This is done very well when the product or the price is changing after the deadline, or simply no longer available or temporarily inaccessible. Take Thomas Pierce's BlogMasterSecrets.com, for example, which is no longer for sale. Well, for now at least.
(By the way, Thomas reported on an interesting take on the use of takeaway selling. There's a site that's holding a rabbit hostage, on its way to a slaughterhouse by a certain date -- unless you donate money or buy merchandise, the rabbit will die. Personally, I'm not too keen on the approach. It's crude. But creatively, and as an example of takeaway selling, it's brilliant. See Thomas' blog post here.)
The second is limiting the number of units (stock) or openings (clients) available. Again, back it up with a realistic reason. Something logical. Something justifiable and real. Perhaps it's "fire sale" (products discounted because of minimal cosmetic damage, for example), or perhaps it's a way to deplete old stock and to make way for the new.
Whatever the reason, as long as it's credible and logical, scarcity can become a powerful too. Remember, people buy on emotion first and then justify their decisions with logic. In fact, if you give them logical explanations in your copy further down, many will actually use your suggestions -- whether consciously or unconsciously -- as a way to back up their purchasing decisions.
You make the excuses for them. You make them feel as if they "own" your reasons for buying now, in other words.
In terms of services, this is done by limiting the number of people for a number of reasons -- such as a service provider who can only take on a certain number of clients because there are so many hours in the day, or because it would dilute the value of the service. Etc, etc, etc.
Also, even making the offer something that's secretive, exclusive or otherwise unavailable to the general public, can arouse stronger motives in the psyche of your readers. People are intrinsically curious. And people always love to get some kind of "insider's edge" over the rest of the world.
Take my friend Ryan Deiss' Nicheology.com private site, for example. They currently have an extensive waiting list and only open their "doors" every so often for a very specific number of new members. Once they've reached that number, the offer is "closed."
The third is the offer. And this is done through limiting other elements that are part of the offer, such as the guarantee, the bonuses/premiums, the price (not a discount, but perhaps an imminent increase in price, perhaps to cover the extra costs in dealing with more customers), the packaging (perhaps since the product is bundled with other products or components that won't be available after "X" amount sold), the extras (perhaps as in free support, free installation or free shipping, etc), and so on.
I like them all, especially when the product is truly limited, such as Frank Kern and Ed Dale's recent Underachiever Mastery course I wrote the copy for, which was strictly limited to 700 packages, and the site was taken down once they've reached the limit.
(The reason? The course helps people make money with tiny, ultra-targeted niches, where very little competition if any exists. But if too many people bought the course, then chances are that the competition in any given niche will grow and thus lessen the potential profitability of people buying and applying the techniques in the course.)
But for convenience and flexibility, I prefer the "fire sale" as well as the third (which is limiting the offer, especially with bonuses and extras). Because often, bonuses can be limited and changed, without limiting the sales of the core product or service.
This not only creates more believability (because it reduces the perception of the owner's "control" over the limitation, which may appear as self-serving or manipulative), but also reduces skepticism as the bonus may actually have been sold elsewhere or is currently being sold elsewhere, and therefore the 3rd party may put a limit on the quantity to distribute.
For example, I did this with Stephen Pierce's copy I wrote, where Stephen was giving away a software program that complemented his infoproduct he was selling -- one that was truly being sold by someone else on another website at a real price. Stephen managed to secure permission to distribute only a certain number of copies from the 3rd party as a free bonus to his infoproduct, making the offer truly scarce and valuable.
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
In negotiation skills training, they call this approach the "higher authority" or "third party" gambit, where the limitation is outside of the owner's control -- making the takeaway truly a takeaway, and not some manipulative ploy.
This is crucial, because too many people use takeaway these days as a tactic, not as a reason.
So add a deadline to your offer, limit the number of products you sell (or the number of new members you allow to join), or shape your entire offer so that one of more elements are limited.
Again, there is a caveat: to make sure that people believe your need to limit the offer, give a reasonable and logical explanation to justify your time-sensitivity, or else your tactic will be instantly discredited.
Here are some examples.
If you add a deadline or limit the number of members you accept, you must explain why you're doing so. But you can also be vague, too. (Although a real, tangible deadline is best.) Here's an example of what I put on some sales letters I've written -- they sell memberships to private sites and offer personal consulting to their members:
Example #1:
"To be candid with you, I don't know how long I'm going to keep the doors open to new members since this information is extremely sensitive and limited. I don't want to dilute the value of this information for my paid members. If you were a member, wouldn't you want the same, too? So, I must restrict the number of users for quality control purposes."
(In the above case, it is very true. The author sells access to a limited number of "hot" real estate opportunities that he finds through his unique system, which he also teaches his members. If too many people join and get their hands on the opportunities or the system, it will surely lower the value of the information to the member-base, and contradict the whole purpose of the site, which is to gain access to hot, insider's information. Otherwise, why would one join?)
Example #2:
"We're only human, and there are only so many hours in a day and so many people we can physically attend to! So, in order to limit the number of hours of coaching we do provide, we must put a cap on the number of new members for obvious reasons. We can only guarantee that people who sign up through [date] will qualify for membership, completely custom-tailored support and this incredible set of free bonuses worth over $[amount]! 'You snooze, you lose'. So, join today. I'd hate to put you on a milelong waiting list!"
(This example demonstrates the importance of the support they offer private members and, at the same time, drives home the idea that such a service is limited. I'm sure the owners can hire part-time help, if the need ever arose. But nothing can replace expertise that comes from straight the experts -- the more people join, the more individualized coaching they must provide, and the less time they have.)
Example #3:
"If you act by midnight, Friday on [date], you will get the 3 bonuses included with your special offer. But keep in mind, however, that these bonuses come from various third parties, including [3rd party name], over which we have no control, and can be removed at any time without notice. I've only secured permission to give away [amount] copies of this bonus bundle. So the time to act is now!"
(The above is an example of the 3rd approach, where the offer is limited through a bonus. You can also accomplish this by tailoring your offer, or even making a special backend or alternative offer to an accumulated list of non-buyers, after they've seen the original offer.)
So, add some kind of constraint, such as a time-limited or quantity-bound offer. Such limitations implore at some unconscious level, "You better read this and take action now!" But above all, always make sure to back up your limitation with a logical, genuine and easily justifiable reason in order not to appear misleading or disingenuous.
For the more you make them feel that procrastination is a bad decision, the more people will feel compelled to buy of their volition -- and not pressured into buying.
Continue reading ""Use Scarcity To Sell, Not Scare" by Michel Fortin"
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Posted by isoh at 01:07 AM | Comments (0)
"Richard Merbler's In Search Of Health Heroes Interview Is Thoughtful and Insightful" by Ralph Zuranski
Richard Merbler has been a dear friend for a long time. He is one of the top rolfers in the world today. He transformed my life for the better after I was injured when I was crushed between two elevator doors that closed prematurely. Click Here to hear his interview.
Rolfing works with connective tissue, which forms a web-like structure throughout the body.
From superficial to very deep layers at the core of the body. Connective tissue, or fascia, envelops every structure in the body, all the muscles, bones, nerves, blood vessels and internal organs. Because of injury, stress, illness, repetitive use or simply the aging process, this tissue will shorten, thicken, become more rigid and twist according to the pattern of strain to which the body is subjected.
Rolfing works to release the restrictions, strains and adhesions that create pain, inflexibility and general discomfort and fatigue.
Then, the body is a freer and more balanced and there is a sense of inner strength because the body is working as a whole rather than disjointed segments. After Rolfing, there is a sense of aliveness. Energy levels usually increase. Daily chores simply take a lot less effort. Body parts are working together rather than against each other. (think of a car performance after alignment and tune-ups.)
Spirits have been known to soar after Rolfing.
There is pure joy and delight as we move toward greater integrity of body, mind and spirits as we merge with ourselves, that blending is a true homecoming.
You can learn more about rolfing by Clicking Here.
Posted by isoh at 12:34 AM | Comments (0)
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
July 15, 2005
"Are Your Prospects Ready To Take An Oath?" by Michel Fortin
One thing in copywriting that I often see as a problem is the fact that the audience is not targeted for the offer. An untargeted, unqualified prospect won't buy, no matter how good the copy is. (Or at the very least, they will ask for a refund once they smell the coffee.)
But that's not the topic I want to discuss.
It's the second biggest copywriting problem. And that is, the copy doesn't speak to the customer at the stage of awareness at which they happen to be. This is pivotal to ensure that the copy is long enough, or strong enough, to qualify, educate and sell the prospect.
What are these "stages of awareness?" There are four.
I've used these before I ever learned about their existence. (Mostly unconsciously through researching a target market while writing copy.) For example, I know that Eugene Schwartz talks about this at great length in his amazing book, "Breakthrough Advertising."
But I prefer to use my own version of these stages, and an acronym so it is easier to remember and follow.
I call it "OATH." As in, "Is your prospect ready to take an oath?"
Here's what I mean.
You see, depending one where your reader is at, the level of education, credentialization and agitation you need to do (and the length of copy you need to write, to a certain extent) depends very highly on how knowledgeable and aware your market is.
Maybe they're hurting right now. Or maybe they're not there yet. "Not there yet" means not only how much are they hurting but also how much do they KNOW they are hurting.
That's what their awareness level of the problem means. And it's also how educated they are about the solution -- let alone your solution.
Granted, this is answered to some degree by how targeted your audience is. The first problem I mentioned earlier. But the copy should flow from, and follow with, that stage of awareness in order to bring them to a successful outcome.
I like to look at it this way...
To me, if they're ready to take an oath, meaning they're ready to buy, is based on any one of those 4 stages. Here's what "OATH" means...
O - They're oblivious.
They're unaware about the problem let alone a need for a solution. They don't know they're hurting or could be hurting (i.e., that there's a potential problem they don't know about and should prevent with your solution).
So in this case, you need to educate them a lot -- educate them about the problem or potential problem. You need to bring it to the top of their minds. If you hit them too hard and too fast with the solution and particularly the benefits of the solution, without knowing they have a problem in the first place, you're going to confuse the heck out of them.
Often, this is what happens with copy that's too short or too presumptive. Do they really know they're hurting? Even if they simply have an unmet desire for something (and not really a problem), they're still hurting at some other level.
As my friend and copywriter Craig Perrine once said, "An unmet desire is also a problem to be solved."
A - They're apathetic.
They know they have a problem, but they're indifferent about the solution. Any solution. They simply don't care for whatever reason. Perhaps the problem is not important enough in their minds. Perhaps the problem is not urgent enough. Perhaps they're not hurting enough.
So you need to blow up the problem (or the risk of the potential problem, which is a problem in itself). You need to aggravate it. Make it more real, more present, more urgent, more vivid.
You need to make them feel the consequences of their inactions. Because, you see, good copy doesn't really induce action. Good copy, in reality, is meant to prevent procrastination -- the biggest killer of sales!
And this is even more true with the subsequent stages of awareness, since the more aware they are and the less they act, then the more it's about procrastination than it is about the lack of desire.
T - They're thinking.
They know they have a problem and that there is a solution, but they don't know about your solution. They're shopping around, they're considering other offers or they're just thinking about whether they should be doing something about their problem in the first place.
So at this stage, you don't need to sell them too much on the problem or the solution. But you need to sell them on YOUR solution.
What is it? Why is it a good solution? Why is it important to them? What makes it so unique, different, valuable? What makes your offer so compelling above over all other choices, including unrelated ones?
With the latter, I mean indirect competitors. For example, an indirect competitor maybe a totally different solution -- even a totally different product or service -- that soothes the same pain. So you need to build value in your solution, too.
H - They're hurting.
They're desparate! They know they have a problem and how bad it is, and they even know about your specific solution. But they haven't gone ahead for whatever reason.
Perhaps they don't know how to go ahead, why they should go ahead or why they should go ahead now. Perhaps they've used other solutions unsuccessfully in the past and are afraid. Their inaction, in this case, is because they've seen other offers or been burnt by other, substandard solutions.
Think of it this way: if they're desperate, then they're already 60-90% sold. So why haven't they bought yet? What do they need to get over the remaining "hump?" What's stopping them from going ahead? What objections do they have left or what questions remain to be answered?
So here, you need to increase proof, urgency and the value of your specific solution. No need for a lot of education here. Just sell them on reasons why and getting your solution now. Build perceived value, proof and scarcity.
At this stage, procrastination (more often than not, based on fear) is the culprit. You need to allay that fear. And to do so, you really need to look at your copy and your offer; to understand your customer at a deeper, more intimate level; and to learn why they haven't gone ahead yet or what they need to go ahead. (And finally, to give it to them.)
In a nutshell, that's my OATH formula.
So bottom line, your audience may be more in the oblivious stage, the apathetic stage, the thinking stage or the hurting stage.
This will tell you a lot about not only how much information you need to gather and provide, but what kind of information, and what kind of offer, that will stimulate them and transition them into buying your solution.
And remember, it all starts with knowing your audience and helping them to buy, more than it is about knowing your product and selling it.
Continue reading ""Are Your Prospects Ready To Take An Oath?" by Michel Fortin"
Read
the latest heroes interviews and benefit
from tips on how to write better, improve
your attitude and market your products
successfully in the
In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Home|Affiliate
Partners|Brain Balancing|
Posted by isoh at 01:06 AM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2005
"Imagine What It Would Be Like To Work With Someone Like Frank Garon Who You Know, Love and Trust And Who Treats You Like Family?" by Ralph Zuranski
Frank Garon Is a Very Successful Internet Pioneer Who Quickly Learned That Establishing a Good Personal Relationship With Your Newsletter Subscribers Is the Pathway To Great Riches and Emotional Fulfillment
His In Search Of Heroes interview was amazing.
Ralph: Hi, this is Ralph Zuranski. I’m on the phone with Frank Garon. He’s an outspoken webmaster of the widely successful Internet Cash Planet. He is a former bankrupt truck driver and he pulls no punches about what you need to know right now to make your internet business a success.
Frank treats his readers like family, going out of his way to help them any way he can. He’s got a great newsletter and I’ve been a subscriber for a long time. It’s just like conversing with a friend. I’ve had the opportunity to listen to Frank at a number of different seminars that I’ve taken photos at.
Frank really lays it on the line and tells people in a straightforward simple way on what they need to do to be successful on the internet. How are you doing today, Frank?
Frank: Hey Ralph, I’m doing great. Thanks for having me here and I’m looking forward to help get the message out to your people.
Ralph: I really appreciate you taking your valuable time to answer the Hero questions. I wanted to ask you the first one. What is your definition of heroism?
Frank: I probably have two different definitions. One, heroism would be anybody that does the right thing under any circumstances without seeking any reward, just because it’s the right thing to do. In today’s day and age, it is kind of heroic when people stay the course and do the right thing without any gain or without anybody watching them.
I think that is heroic, because day to day we face challenges that test our spirit, our strength, and in reality, our soul. And every time each one of us comes back with a great way to treat another person or the right thing to do, even if it causes us a little bit of trouble to do it, I think that is something to be celebrated and recognized in some way as heroism.
The second way I would define heroism is anybody that overcomes adversity in their lives and remains positive and optimistic. I’d also like to combine that with somebody that – I mean obviously, the standard definition of heroism is somebody that lays down their life or puts their life in jeopardy to help or save somebody else.
So I don’t know if that is two and half definitions, Ralph, or three, but it’s a little bit more than the two I promised.
Ralph: Yeah, well that really covers the spectrum of heroism. Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
Frank: I guess one way of answering that is to say my grandmother on my mom’s side was my hero, my role model in life. She raised a total of five kids on her own. She had two husbands. The first one got stabbed to death in front of her. The second one was a drunken bum. And this was in the forties, going into the fifties that she had to deal with all this.
She kept the family together. She kept a house. She kept the kids together. One daughter died tragically. Another son died and a third son has been institutionalized most of his adult life. Yet, she always smiled. She always had a kind word. She never really complained, even though she had more reason to complain than a hundred other people.
She was awesome to her grandkids. She was supportive and understanding right up until the bitter end. So her and maybe to a little lesser extent, my grandparents on my dad’s side - those are my heroes. I prefer real life heroes rather than sports figures or Hollywood heroes or whatever.
Did you ever create a secret hero inside your mind? A lot of times people go through difficulties in their lives and they develop what I call a right brain hero or character inside their brain that’s always encouraging them and telling them that they can be successful and overcome di