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The Truth About You and Me

Sunday, June 1, 2008

H.L. Mencken once said…

“No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people”

Now remember, this isn’t a slight on America’s education level.

It’s just a mathematical statistic that most people relate better to Homer and Marge Simpson than a pair of PHD’s.

It’s actually something to keep in mind when marketing.

The truth is, most people in the US enjoy drinking Budweiser from the bottle and watching baseball or Nascar on TV rather than reading a book.

Because yes, the most popular team sport in the US is baseball, and the most popular individual sport in the US is Nascar.

And if they’re reading anything at all, it’s usually not the Wall Street Journal, Time, or Newsweek.

It’s the National Enquirer, which sells more copies weekly than all three of the above “smart” periodicals put together.

When you understand this concept you begin to understand how to talk to your prospects.

And it’s not in high falutin’, corporate, industry jargon.

It’s in simple, easy to understand language that anyone can understand.

It’s this “everyman” kind of feeling and style that the great marketers and copywriters have perfected.

Read any of Gary Halbert’s letters and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

It’s like Perry Marshall says… “Short sentences, simple concepts, primal emotions. If people have to work to read what you’ve written.. they won’t read it.”

Because even your PHD friends are human (aren’t they?).

And it’s by tapping into the simple, but deep emotions of the human psyche that you can make your sales message truly effective.

-James D. Lee

Popularity: 14% [?]


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Napoleon Hill Talks About his Meeting with Andrew Carnegie

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Have you read Think And Grow Rich yet?

Think and Grow Rich is quite possibly the most famous and influential business philosophy book ever written.

It is literally the bible of the business world, and many a business person owes their success to this groundbreaking book.

The story behind the book is fascinating, and since I can’t tell it any better than legendary marketing guru Dan Kennedy, I’ll let him tell it.

On a dark and stormy night in 1917, a young man was invited to the mansion of America’s first billionaire, Andrew Carnegie. In front of a flickering fire, the young, ambitious reporter, at the time contributing to a tiny, obscure magazine, quizzed Carnegie about his ‘principles of success’. The crusty Carnegie was impressed by the earnest young fellow, and suddenly offered him a shocking proposition:

“On your behalf, I will use my considerable influence to arrange opportunities for you, Mr. Hill, to personally spend time with over 500 of the greatest achievers of our time. These will include my fellow industrialists, inventors, entrepreneurs, merchants, as well as statesmen, artists, and others. You will have as much time as you desire to interview and observe them. Your mission will be to validate my belief that success is a matter of principles, of universal laws, which can be enumerated, taught, learned and adhered to, then used as skills to deliver predictable results, just as man might learn the laws and skills of making steel. You will accomplish this mission by identifying the beliefs and behaviors that all these great achievers share in common. No money or stipend shall be paid to you by me. You must find ways to support yourself while working on this project. Your goal will be the publication of some sort of ’success encyclopedia’ enumerating the laws. Whatever the financial rewards arise from that are yours. You now have just 60 seconds to accept or reject my offer…”

And Carnegie opened his pocket watch, held it face up, and waited.

Napoleon Hill said yes, with a second to spare.

–20 years later, the no-longer-young Napoleon Hill had his book, THINK AND GROW RICH, published, summarizing his interviews and investigations into the lives of over 500 of these extraordinary achievers and leaders”

In this short, 7 minute video, Hill talks about his fateful meeting with Carnegie, and some of the most important principles of success he discovered as a result.

If you haven’t read Think and Grow Rich, I’d recommend going to Amazon right now and ordering it.

The principles of success are waiting for you.

-James D. Lee

Popularity: 12% [?]


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The 3 Pieces of Advice from the Dying Buddha

Friday, May 30, 2008

I am not Buddhist.

What I am though, is a humble seeker of knowledge.

So when I saw that Lama Ole Nydahl, one of the greatest teachers of Buddhism here in the west, was here in LA for an evening, I had to check it out.

Lama Ole talked about Buddhism in the Modern World, and it was an intellectual, yet simplistic overview of Buddhism, as well as its modern implications in today’s culture.

He started with a brief history of the historical Buddha, and that is what this blog post is about.

After a long search in deep meditation, the historical Buddha recognized the nature of the mind and reached enlightenment.

His teachings are now the main religion in several East Asian countries, and he is seen as the timeless mirror of the mind’s inherent potential.

Here is the interesting story.

On his deathbed, this legendary figure dispensed 3 pieces of advice to his followers.

The reason why I share this is that I believe any true teacher or “alarm clock” (the literal translation for the word ‘Buddha’) embodies all three of these qualities.

1. Every ounce of knowledge he had, and all the methods he used to attain enlightenment… he shared freely with anyone who would ask.

He left this life with a clear conscience because all that he knew was out in the open.

2. However, he urged his followers NEVER to take his word as the truth, but to check, recheck, and discover the truth for themselves.

3. And finally, to trust in their guiding instincts and inner light. Within every human being is the potential for true greatness, so why not trust that instinct?

The message was so clear and simple that it made perfect sense.

Every teacher or “alarm clock” that has ever given me some enlightenment has always had these 3 qualities.

If you are learning from anyone, be sure that they have these 3 qualities.

Further, if you are TEACHING someone something, be sure to embody these 3 qualities.

In either scenario, this will make for a happier, more fulfilling relationship.

-James D. Lee

Popularity: 10% [?]


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Twittering Fools…

Thursday, May 29, 2008

In my last post I told you about the networking dinner I had with some Internet Marketing friends at Flemings Steakhouse in El Segundo, CA.

Well my buddy Simon Leung actually had the waiter take a picture of us at dinner, but like the IM mutants we are, we all pretended to be Twittering instead of actually conversing. (Geeky chuckle)

You can check out the picture over at Simon’s blog at http://www.SimonLeung.com

By the way, if you don’t know who Simon Leung is, you will soon enough. Simon was actually one of the original team who started Google Adwords. Talk about being an authority in Adwords, right? He helped CREATE the system!

But Simon left Google in late 2006 to teach people like you and me the truth about succeeding with Adwords. Plus he’s a helluva guy to just hang out with.

The lovely lady on the far left is Rachel Rofe. Rachel is a copywriter, marketing consultant, and information marketer. You can find her at her blog at http://www.RachelRofe.com

Next to her is my mentor and friend Mark Widawer who you can find at http://www.MarkWidawer.com

On Mark’s right it’s Simon, who I already talked about.

That’s me on Simon’s right. (I gotta start posting more pictures on this blog…)

Then we have my friend Alejandro Reyes who I spoke about in my last post.

Alejandro is a social media expert about to make some big moves in the next few months.

Finally, we have Chuck Yockey who Alejandro actually met on Twitter, and invited him to have dinner and join in on the networking.

Talk about a testament to the power of social media!

Anyhow, just thought it would be fun to share.

By the way, if you are on Twitter, be sure to follow me. My screen name is JamesDLee.

-James D. Lee

Popularity: 7% [?]


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Networking, Connecting, and Creating Win-Wins with Social Media

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Just a quick note.

I had a great dinner last night with some sharp, sharp Internet Marketers.

One of them was Alejandro Reyes, who, despite his best attempts to not look it (just kidding Alejandro!), is one of the brightest and most talented social media experts I’ve ever met.

He’s such a natural Connector it’s not even funny.

You can find him at his blog at http://www.SuccessFool.com

However, the real treat for you is the eyebrow raising webinar he did with social media guru Michelle MacPhearson on using social media specifically for internet marketing.

Seriously, this is worth watching with a pen and pad of paper at your elbow.

You can check it out here:

http://michellemacphearson.com/alejandro.html

If you’ve ever wanted to discover the most cutting edge social media strategies geared specifically towards your online business, you’ve got to take the time to watch this.

You’ll be glad you did.

-James D. Lee

Popularity: 7% [?]


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A Blackout at UPS Causes Pandemonium

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

An interesting thing happened today at my local UPS store.

While I was standing in line to get a package overnighted, the power went out at this particular store, and in a few stores on either side of it.

I figured that the employees would simply turn on an external generator, give customers directions to the nearest sister store.

You know, what you’d expect from well trained employees.

I wasn’t prepared for the utter chaos that ensued.

Seriously, you’d have thought that there was a bomb threat on the store.

Employees were running around, screaming into their cell phones, and just dropping what they were doing to walk outside to see what was going on in the adjacent stores.

Of course this behavior got the customers upset as well.

Imagine asking an employee quietly, “So can we still make the overnight deadline?”

And the employee’s response being (wild eyed while waving her hands) “I DON’T KNOW! The ELECTRICITY’S OUT! Oh my gosh…”

Soon, these bad vibes infected the entire store, and people either left because they had better things to do, or because they were turned off by the craziness of the store.

It was both breathtaking and terrible to watch the place fall apart after 10-15 minutes, tops.

Because then, the lights turned back on.

Suddenly, employees were in their right minds again, and order was restored.

Of course there was the “you’ll have to wait a few minutes because the computer’s rebooting” speech, but other than that, it was equally mind boggling to see how quickly things returned to status quo.

Weird story, right?

But what’s the lesson here?

First, I believe that there is a rather depressing dependence on technology that exists in our culture today.

Hey, I’m definitely not one to cast stones here.

I have 2 laptops and a desktop, an Ipod, a Twitter account, a Facebook account, a MySpace account, I blog, and have a Treo (and many more gadgets than can be listed here).

But I also have times when I COMPLETELY unplug, JUST so I don’t have to feel the buzzing of my phone in my pocket, hear the ping of my email, or check to see if a friend messaged me back on Facebook.

It’s just necessary sometimes to shut down.

Second, what do you do when your computer crashes or when you lose your cell phone?

I was reading a Twitter ping the other day from a woman who claimed to be out of commission for 7 days while she got a new laptop.

I mean a couple of days MAYBE, but seven freakin’ days?

(The point is, not that you can’t unplug for seven days, but that she made the choice to be helpless for seven days…)

Human nature is so interesting.

When something like a laptop breaks down, some people equate that to their whole LIVES breaking down.

There are a couple of ways to combat this.

Number one, do the backup thing.

So when the crash happens (and it WILL happen), you’ll be back up and running in no time flat.

But second, why not some time out once in a while to see what it feels like WITHOUT your cell phone or laptop or desktop?

It won’t kill you.

Just unplug for a bit and get used to the feeling of not being entirely dependent on technology.

Then when you’re REALLY in that situation, it won’t feel as alien and uncomfortable to you.

Crazy right?

Or maybe not.

-James D. Lee

Popularity: 10% [?]


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A Handy Tip for Entrepreneurial Insomnia

Monday, May 26, 2008

If you’re anything like me, the excitement and possibilities that surround the online business world stimulates your brain at all hours of the day… and night.

To the point where sometimes it’s hard to fall asleep.

Honestly, sometimes I’ll toss and turn for hours, then just give up, turn on the lights, and get back onto the computer.

It’s fanaticism at it’s finest, but it’s not very healthy.

Throw into the mix that I’m a biological night owl, and sometimes it’s only when the light of dawn breaks through the window do I realize I better get some sleep.

And talk about suffering the consequences in the morning.

The rest of the day becomes a hazy fog, and many times a nap is required if I am to function even semi-coherently.

I talked to one of my friends about this, a wealthy entrepreneur who has more energy than almost anyone I know.

And he told me something very interesting to try.

Whenever he gets the entrepreneurial jitters, and he knows he HAS to get some rest before a big day, he simply takes a notebook and puts it next to his bed.

Then he lays down at a decent bed time and tries to go to sleep.

As all of those thoughts and ideas rush through his head, he simply turns over, turns on the light, and writes them down.

That’s it.

So why is this helpful?

According to him, the reason why we get so excited is twofold.

First, bedtime is probably the first chance in the day that a million things aren’t going on all around you.

That is, you aren’t on the phone, you aren’t writing copy, and you aren’t tweaking your website(s).

So your subconscious mind takes this time to relax… and push a torrent of ideas into your head.

And then you get excited and can’t sleep.

Second, these ideas are “open loops” (to use Neuro Linguistic Programming terms) because the ideas are not immediately actionable.

Literally, you are lying in bed thinking about all the things you COULD be doing.

It’s no wonder you can’t sleep!

By writing these ideas down on your notebook, you are effectively closing that loop, allowing your mind to say, “okay, jotted it down, and we’ll take care of that in the morning… you can sleep now, dude”

Sooner or later, your mind will begin to calm down, and you will be able to get that deep, restful sleep you deserve.

So you can implement all those great ideas in the morning!

Hope this helps.

-James D. Lee

Popularity: 7% [?]


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Ripping Headlines from the Most Ripped Off Copywriter Alive

Sunday, May 25, 2008

This is a small sample of John Carlton’s headlines that have brought in millions of dollars for both his clients and himself.

So, NOT sharing them would be a crime.

To be honest, I’m not sure if every single one of these headlines is actually John’s, but I do know that almost all of them are.

The main point to bring to light here is that John almost always uses long copy headlines.

There is a huge debate in copywriting circles whether long copy headlines or short copy headlines work best.

But John has cheerfully made a fortune for the past 2 plus decades with his long copy headline formula.

And of course, in our world, results rule.

So check it out:

“How does on out of shape, 55 year old golfer, crippled by arthritis and 71 pounds overweight, still consistently humiliate PGA Pro’s in head to head matches by hitting every tee shot further and straighter down the fairway”

“Crippled golfer stuns LA Open crowd by crawling from deathbed to beat 110 pro golfers with a 67 (using a short backswing) and qualify for the last spot in the famous 2002 tournament”

“How a blind golfer stumbled onto the simple secrets behind David Duval’s swing that can give anyone unbelievable distance with total accuracy”

“World Famous Street Fighter Will Give You a FREE GUN… Just to Prove He Can Take it Away from You Bare-Handed as Easy as Candy from a Baby”

“Why does one man succeed where another man fails, getting the same information under the same circumstances?”

“Creating Your Dream Job Without Leaving Your Current Job”

“The Naked Girls All Laughed Behind the Little Pudgy Guy’s Back… Until He Got Into a Knife Fight with 3 Enormous Bad Assed Bikers…”

“What Women Secretly Wish You Knew About Sex… But Will Never, Ever Tell You to Your Face…”

“How you can profit from the coming stock market crash and financial bloodbath caused by cash-rich drug dealers and other criminal scum”

“How a Skinny Little Golf Genius from CA Accidentally Started Hitting 425 Yard Tee Shots.”

“Your Brain is Trying to Kill Your Golf Game”

Try and see how YOU can take these headlines and swipe them for your own marketing.

John doesn’t mind.

In fact, his moniker is “The Most Ripped Off Copywriter Alive”.

Many a young copywriter has made his bones dissecting Carlton’s copy.

Now you can do the same.

-James D. Lee

Popularity: 8% [?]


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Unlocking Your True Potential - with Tony Robbins

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Do you know what the TED talks are?

According to the website…

“TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free.”

Famous figures like Bono, Bill Clinton, Richard Branson, JJ Abrams, and Malcolm Gladwell have all given their most enticing life lessons… in 18 minutes.

This particular clip features Tony Robbins, the world famous speaker, coach, and peak performance trainer.

Here are a few of the points that are covered in Tony’s talk:

* Effective leaders have the ability to consistently move themselves and others to action because of the “invisible forces” that shape us (he explains what these forces are!)

* Most people believe that biography is destiny. Your past equals your future. The truth is, the ultimate power is CHOICE

* It’s not the lack of resources that shape your destiny, it is the power of your resourcefulness that shapes your destiny

* You can gain significance in a variety of ways but it is a different matter altogether to be SIGNIFICANT

*Life’s not about “me” it’s about “we”. The reason we grow is so that we have something to give to the world. To contribute beyond ourselves. And if you’re not giving, you’re dying.

Here are some humorous scenes:

* Tony high five’s Al Gore for a VERY funny reason

* Tony is a MASTER of the cliffhanger, and actually gets more than 18 minutes because he has the audience (and us) spellbound

* Tony is a storyteller extradordinaire and keeps the audience riveted with his captivating ability

Enjoy!

-James D. Lee

Popularity: 8% [?]


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A Powerful Lesson in Human Psychology

Friday, May 23, 2008

Do you know who Pete Godrey is?

Pete is a master copywriter and has a blog over at www.PeteGodfrey.com.

In his most recent post Pete talks about the strange, but powerful psychological trigger that makes fear of loss a greater motivator than the hope for gain.

Not only does Pete give actual examples of this phenomenon, he gives a practical example at the end of his blog entry.

Here’s a brief snippet from the post:

You know in reality, people would much rather save something they’ve already got, than get something they want. It’s hardwired into our heads.

So if you’re a student, you know this already.

But do you really get it?”

It’s interesting because I was actually going to write about this exact same topic recently, but Pete did such a great job (he IS known as the Wizard of Words…) I’m just going to direct you over there to read it for yourself.

You can find it here.

-James D. Lee

Popularity: 7% [?]


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