How To Not Let Email And Other Ducks Peck You To Death

Bad Ducks

As an Entrepreneur, we are all usually faced with too much to do and too little time to do it. I am sure that you know what I mean.

In the past year, I have gotten off track with letting the Ducks peck me a little by little until I realized because of some family matter that demanded even more of my time, that they were literally beginning to peck me to death.

Now the things is that I know better and point in fact point this out and hammer it home with my customers and even have a whole chapter devoted to this in my Book, Start On Monday.

There are however easy fixes for this and I have had to implement them because of literally some life and death matter.

The kicker is, that I should not have waited to that point to put a stop on it. Because it takes an unnecessary toll not only on you and your business, but your customers and loved ones as well.

Now this may meet resistance from not only your subconscious, but your customers as well.

The first area is emails. I have gone back to checking my emails to twice a week following the lead of Tim Ferriss in his book, The 4 Hour Workweek.

I am going to cover the three major ones and give you their Scientific Names as well.

The Email Duck – Quackus Alotus Toomuchus

And here is what I put in my auto responder:

This is an auto-response. I am now checking my email account on Monday and Thursday of each week.

This is due to a dramatic increase in high priority demands on my time. For my friends and clients, you know specifically what I am talking about.

If you require urgent assistance (please ensure that it is truly urgent and by urgent that involves more than $25,000 or someone is in the hospital and only I can provide the transfusion) and cannot wait until this time, please contact me for any matters that require my personal attention by im on Skype.

Thank you for understanding this move to more efficiency and effectiveness. It helps me accomplish more and to serve you better.

Sincerely,
Andrew Anderson

Now you may have some backlash at first because it is in our nature to want instant gratification. But, if you want your sanity to stay in check and make your business thrive, you need to do this.

The other things is to not check your email the first thing in the morning. You should spend that time on much higher priority projects. I would wait until after lunch to do so.

It will take a while to get used to, but your clients will understand and you will be amazed at how much more you get done during the day.

Every time you check your email, it takes you 20 minutes to get back mentally to where you were.  So, figure that out by how much you think your time is worth per hour. The same goes with Text messages and the like. Crackberries and iPhones are the same breed of Duck. Check them at most twice a day and better yet only once a day.

The Appointment Duck – Lateus Cancelus

When you set up appointments, make sure you tell people  give you at least 24 hours notice if at all possible they are going to cancel.  You can use a calendar program or phone call for this. Although, I swear this is true, I had the President of one of those Calendar companies use their own Calendar programs to set up the appointment, and it sent out an email confirmation and everything, and they missed their own appointment to talk about their own Software…  LOL

If they do this more than three times, then you have to put your foot down and then schedule it at your own convenience. Trust me on this one, it costs you far more than you know if you continue to put up with this. Because you are losing money by being frustrated, not working on something else that you could have brought money in on and you are going to bump something else to reschedule the meeting.

If there are multiple people involved with the meeting, the direct costs and lost opportunity costs can mount rather quickly. I added this up on two recent projects this happened with and it was in the thousands of dollars.   I about had a freakin Cow.

Which brings up another point about having a running total in a Dashboard on the costs associated with a project. I will show you how to do this in a later post.

If you are working on a big or even small project, it can cause a virtual train wreck of epic proportions and I have found the the offending person will then often to totally clueless as to why blowing one or two meetings can cause weeks or months of set backs by starting a change of other scheduling conflicts. They think (as we all often due) that their project is the most important one and that they don’t realize the havoc or damage they are causing to their project and everyone else’s.

I must admit that I used be be guilty of this myself.  Now it is your job to point this out to them upfront. The vast majority of people are just not aware of this is all.   So it is your responsibility to point this out to them. 99% of the people out there will have a V8 moment and get it right away.

Because I have tendency to want to pour oil to calm the waters, I have not enforced this in the past, but no longer.

I am going to make everyone on my new clients (and old ones too) read this post and it should help.

The Lack Of A Next Day Plan Plan – Runus Amuckus

This is one of the biggest ones that very few people do and yet it is one of the easiest and fastest Ducks to get rid of and believe it or not, it is one of the most dangerous ones as well.

Before you go to bed or quit work, you need to write down no more than three important things that you have to get done the next day. And, they should directly involve bringing in money ASAP as a priority.

Things such as billing someone, or getting out a proposal. Everything else should take a back seat to this.

The reason for doing this is that your subconscious mind will focus on that and give it something to do overnight, and you come up with a solution for it.  You will be amazed at how well this works if you have never done it before.

I have noticed a lot of people that I have gotten started doing this say that they are much more calmer and less stressed by doing this. Plus, it pushes all of the other Ducks out of the way and gives you a sense of accomplishment. Not to mention making sure the money comes in to your pocket.

As I said when I started this, I have been forced into going back to these recently and I did not have a choice.

You do have a choice and you should be doing this anyway. You owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and your clients.

And I want to add one other Duck that can be a dangerous as well.

Social Media and Blogs – Alots Timeus Wastedis

This is an easy Duck to tame as well. If you use HootSuite, see me interview with them, you can set up posts to your Twitter account and Facebook page weeks in advance. I spend at most 30 minutes once a week to set up my tweets for all of my accounts. If I have time, I will drop in for a comment or two but that is it. I am down to less that 45 minutes a week on these now. Go check out HootSuite.

As far as Blogs go, I can dictate a blog like this in less than usually 5-7 minutes. I send it off to be transcribed and poof, there it is. And if you are using WordPress, which you should, you can set posts to be published days, weeks, or months in advance!

So, there is no need to let the Ducks do you in. But if you don’t take charge they will bleed you badly or possibly even to death.  Don’t let it happen.

Cheers,
Andrew Anderson

PS – No, my editor has not looked at this yet..

If you have ever thought about starting your business, do it now.

Don’t Talk It About It Any Longer. Here Is Why…

Why? Well, one reason is that it often takes less time to actually do it than to talk about it. Secondly, taking action and gaining momentum is the best way to increase your chances of success.

Plus, there are some huge Economic and tax reasons coming in 2011 that are going to make it far more difficult to get started.

The largest tax increase on small businesses and people in general is going to take effect in January. And when I do say huge, I mean increases by 25% in some cases or more.  I have not heard much about it in the LameStream Media but it is coming.

This is the sunset of the Bush Tax reductions that helped get the economy back on its feet after 9-11 when we went into a temporary depression. Do you remember how bad that was? It got unemployment down to under 5% and raised overall tax revenues to the Treasury to the highest levels ever recorded. But that is not reported in the press.

Well, the logic with not continuing the tax reductions is much like leaving a baby on the rail road tracks when the train is coming and not doing anything about it. The Politicians are trying to say well, we did not put it there so it is not our fault and we are not going to take action. Just as assuredly as the tragedy that is predictable in that case is going to happen to small business start ups and to the Economy in general. This is not to mention the health care regulations and the Energy Tax bills and the new financial regulations that just passed. You are going to see financial fees go through the roof and credit to businesses dry up even more as well. Not to mention dividend taxes and as well as capital gains taxes.

What drives me nuts is that every single time the government lowers taxes, overall tax revenues increase. And every time when they raise taxes, the economy slows down and overall revenues decrease. This is beyond debate by the way. Anyone that says differently is saying your stupid by the way.

Dr. Arthur Laffer was one of the key proponents of tax cuts during the Regan years that helped create 30 million new jobs proved this with the Laffer Curve.

Think about it, when WalMart wants to make more money they have a sale, they don’t raise their prices.  Duhhh.

Which is why the stimulus plan is a bust and has not worked at all.  In fact, it has made things worse as the real unemployment rate is closer to 20% by many estimates.   They quit counting those people that are no longer eligible for unemployment.  In essence they are cooking the books.  But you are smart and I am sure you already know that.

Did you know that 100% of the money in the stimulus plan went to Government Agencies? Not one cent went directly to small or medium sized businesses.  Yea, the ones that actually create jobs.

Anyway, by raising taxes in January, it has the possibility of a train wreck caused by the Feds even worse than what they did to cause the Great Depression.

So, if you have ever thought about starting a business, do so now. Get going, talk to your accountant about the tax consequences of waiting or not waiting.

You can get a jump on things now before the storm hits. Owning your own business will at least give you some control over you own future and while everyone is running for cover, you can be making money. Because there where there is chaos, there is opportunity.

Cheers,
Andrew Anderson

So you think you are going to do well with your next Marketing Campaign?  This is good because if you don’t, it impacts the outcome of your campaign, believe it or not.  Read on and you will find out why.

Every once in awhile, a light bulb goes on for me (incandescent ones, I don‘t do fluorescents. Hey the Air Force banned them for a reason) when thoughts come together that have been brewing for some time.

I happened to be going through some of the piles of books that I have and came across “The Power of Positive Thinking In Business” by Scott W. Ventrella.

I had read and own a first run copy of Norman Vincent Peal’s classic, “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Good book indeed and runs along with “Think And Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.

I had casually read through it before and it had not tripped my trigger, although I had lent it out to several people and one person in particular gave it credit for changing the course of her career and leading her to go back to school for her Masters Degree.  Still, I had not revisited it.

But as I opened it up it this time I came across a section that I think sums up one of the keys to business success, and success in most areas of our lives: this is called the Pygmalion Effect.

For those of you that do not know what it is, here you go. In mythology, there was a sculptor who sculpted a beautiful woman.  He poured his heart, soul, and all of his skill into the sculpture. It was so perfect that he fell in love with it and he wished it were a real woman and named her Galatea. Well, the Goddess Venus saw this and actually made Galatea into a real live woman. Thus arose the Pygmalion effect, where you get what you wish or expect.

Spring forward several thousand years and we end up with one Dr. Rosenthal of Harvard.

He did a famous experiment where he went to a school and pulled the names of three teachers out of a hat at random.  He also pulled the names of some students at random.  He then told the teachers that they were the three best teachers in the school and that they were going to be getting the best students to see how well they could do with them.

At the end of the year, on average, the students’ performance was 20 to 30% higher than the rest of the school.

This experiment was conducted over 300 times with similar results.  In essence, when the teachers thought of themselves as stars and that their students were gifted, the teachers treated the students as gifted, and both the students and teachers performed up to these expectations.

For me, this was mind blowing that such a simple thing could increase results dramatically. But, then again, it does seem to fit in the realm of common sense and from what I have observed over three decades working with people.

In fact one in one of my early sales job I had a sales manager name Robert that demanded that when he asked you how your were doing, that you always replied with something positive such as ” I am doing GREAT” or ” I am doing Fantastic”.

At first I really thought he was a nut job as I saw him fire and literally take out Jim, our 2nd best salesman on the spot one morning when he said he was having a crappy morning and he started to go off on a tirade about Robert and his dumb be positive policy.  Robert told him to shut up and right then and to take it out side I said whoaa…   Well, Jim got about 4 more ” non-positive words out” and it never made it outside because Robert had a wicked right hook and dropped him like a rock and said he would not tolerate it at all.   Guess what, he meant it.  No whishy washy mamby pamby HR policy there.

He would not tolerate any negative talk at all amongst the sales people and he meant it. No whining or complaining, no bitching or moaning.  If you had a complaint or issue, you had to frame it in a positive fashion.  He knew how important that it was to do this.

The proof was in the pudding as it were in that our sales group out sold all others by not just 10 or 20% but by a whopping 1,500%.  No one else was even close to our group.  It made me appreciate and respect that whole policy.   Perhaps this is why I have such a low tolerance for negative and whiny people.  I know how truly destructive this seemingly innocuous poisonous behavior can be to all people around that person.  The only exception to this rule is if I think the person is worth redeeming.  Otherwise, I let them wallow in their own self-produced misery of a life.  Stay away from me thank you very much.

Now back to the Teachers and the phenomenal results that were produced.  What was funny (OK, perhaps not)  is that rather than this being embraced and implemented on a wide scale in schools across the country, this caused a flurry of criticism within the teaching community as they said results are irrelevant.  I am not kidding or making this up.

They felt that children should feel good about themselves and not be compared to others and that there must have been something else going on.  So rather than being implemented on a larger scale, they did not adopt it.  Got to love Liberal Progressive Teachers Unions, but then again not.

Professor J. Sterling Livingston also did experiments with management in business with, as you may have guessed it, the same results, and those results were published in the “Harvard Business Review.”

Even Peter Drucker seems to weigh in on the subject as well.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
— Peter F. Drucker

I think if you look, you see this with a great many of the successful entrepreneurs and companies out there.

Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Richard Branson, and Ashley Qualls (more on her later) all have one thing in common. They expect success from themselves and those around them.

Now how can you implement this in your own business?

• Make sure that everyone buys into what your are doing.  Do not tolerate negativity about what you are doing from anyone, even if they are just joking.  Talk to the person and tell them that you do not want to hear it nor can they talk to anyone involved that way.  If they don’t get it, get rid of them.  Seriously, your business may depend on it.  While this may seem harsh, the subconscious mind is a funny thing and picks up on the smallest things and tends to expand on them.  Good, bad, it goes to town on them.  One negative person in an organization may be costing you thousands and thousands of dollars or more.
  

• Plan for success by making sure that you think through what is going to happen once you get there.
  

But perhaps more importantly, there is a lesson in this for all of us.  Now do you have to be sickeningly sweet and Politically Correct all of the time?  No, and point in fact being PC all of the time can also have a negative effect on profits as well.  But of course just use common sense.  Don’t allow people to share being in a bad mood, or making negative non-productive opinions.  Make them couch their speech in a positive fashion.  This can take months to break bad habits but you will notice not only are people more productive, but they feel better about themselves.

Your expectations also play a large role in our own performance as well.  You need to start expecting success in your business and in the rest of your life. Your outlook plays a large role in your conscious and subconscious actions whether you realize it or not.  That is a reason why you should avoid negative people like the plague.  Especially when you are in start up mode.  Actually, you should avoid them all of the time.  I put a link to it in the PS below.

That is not to say that thinking “I am going to do well” in your business  is going to take the place of research and educating yourself, and work, but your expectation of doing well or mediocre may have a much larger impact on your success than you ever thought.

Thinking and expecting that you are going to get 8% returns versus 21.5% could be the difference between actually getting either result.

It might just be worth “thinking” about.

Have a wonderfully profitable day.  And, I have faith in you. Now we just need to make sure you do as well.  Plus, it can and will make a huge impact on how Happy your are in the future.  Happiness is not a destination, but a choice we make.

Cheers,

Andrew “Easy” Anderson

PS  Here is a link to another post talking about other people that have a negative attitude and why you need to avoid them. Money Magnet Or Crap Magnet

MASS MEDIOCRITY AND THE MOTIVATION PEOPLE PATTERN™

“Human nature is such that if we are relatively content, then we are not going to be motivated to do anything to change our comfort zone, whether it be now or later.” Marilyne Woodsmall

This is more on Personality Language(tm) from Marilyne Woodsmall.  I will say it again, grab the book, it will help you better understand people and make you a lot more money. – Easy Anderson

Why is this so? It is because when people have already gotten all the carrots and sticks they think they need to lead what they believe to be an acceptable lifestyle, then they no longer have that fire burning within to move any farther. Life is okay as is, nothing more nothing less, no bells and whistles; yet this is satisfactory to them so they don’t care to budge one bit. These are the very people who end up staying in jobs for years and are quite content to do so.

Most people are mired in mediocrity. All too sad yet true. These are the so-called masses. And these are precisely the people who don’t want to change even if they have the opportunity to do so as I’ll explain shortly.

This has major implications regarding motivation in the workplace. There are basically four reasons why people aren’t motivated:

1. People who are move toward in orientation and have nothing towards which to move.

2. People who are move away from and have nothing from which to move away.

3. People who are move toward and who have reached their set goals and have nothing else to get them out of their satisfaction zone.

4. People who are move away from and who have somehow managed to move away from all the things which they would like to avoid.

The last two types are the most challenging elements in any workforce because they don’t want to move in any direction. These people are a nightmare to any team, to any manager, to any organization, to anyone who wants to get ahead because they are indifferent to change. These people are the masses, the people who are content to live their lives in mediocrity.

Once again, the Motivation People Pattern is the basis of everything that we do in life, or don’t do for that matter. Imagine the possibilities if we could move people from relatively content to ecstatic and beyond! Tune in for more next time.

Claude Hopkins, one of the first Profit Consultants

If you want to improve your Profits, then here are 4 books and 1 report from Google that I am making available to your for Free. You should download and read them right away.  These are my gift to you at absolutely no charge. You do not have to pay anything, nor sign up for another list. And I am also going to show you one of the books that you can get for free for 14 days read it, use it to make money, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to pay for it.  But if you do like it, you only pay for it after you have read it.  How is that for an Author that thinks his material is good? This guy is one of my favorites and you will soon see why. The other 3 books and Report is yours for free forever.

The technique of giving things away is called a reverse risk factor and it is very effective as you can imagine but, most people are afraid to use it.  Which is good because it makes it even more effective for those that do.

Why Am I Giving These To You?

The reason why I am giving them to you is because I know that no matter where you are in your Business, they can have a huge impact on your profitability. Plus, it makes me feel good that I can give something of really high value that most people have never heard of before that can dramatically improve their life for the better. It is a complete kick in the pants. Plus, it is good Karma.

If you are an old hat at the online game, or are just starting out, these can help you immensely.  They will even help you in your Brick and Mortar business as well. You don’t have to sign up for an email list or anything as I mentioned.   How is that for a change? Just click on them and save them and you can start reading them right away.  They are all in PDF format except for the last one.

If you are trying to sell anything and have to write copy, Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins is a must read. It will dispel the myth about long copy that I see ignorantly bandied about these days.  It  shows you why it is good and how personal stories focused on your niche can really help sales.  The things that he talks about in this book  still work today.   Most people don’t have a clue as to who he is or use his techniques.  Now you don’t have to be one of them.

The Art Of Money Getting by PT Barnum is about as a good of a self-help book for business people there is.  You will note that it is the basis for many of the new ones that have been written recently.

Words and Phrases that sell is a handy guide you can use when writing any sales copy that you have.  Imagine having words that compel people to purchase your product at your fingertips!  This one is edited by yours truly.

Then there is the Google guide to Search Engine Optimization.  Read it, learn it, use it and it will help with traffic to your site.

Let me know what you think.   I hope these help you as much as they have helped me.

These are also the books are referred to in  Start On Monday by Andrew “Easy” Anderson, hey that is me.    I have just released it and it is on building your business online and how to find a JOB if you must.  You can check it out by clicking on the cover and you get to keep it for 14 days before you decide if you want to pay me for it. It has what I have learned in 20 years of being online, plus advice from some of the best Marketers in the world who have sold billions of dollars worth of products and services.

Even if you don’t keep  “Start On Monday” I suggest that you go snag it.  There really is valuable information and resources in it.  And you definitely need to get the other 3 books and reports.  Remember, often times it is just one small idea that takes you to a whole new level in your business and life.

Cheers,

Andrew “Easy” Anderson

OK, dang 420 character wall limits on Facebook. Seriously. I am all about chunking down but 420 characters? Can you tell that I am not an in the box kind of guy? Just another reminder that you need to have a Blog if you have a Business or want to make money. Or to explain anything in detail which brings me to one of my points.

Anyway, I was reading a Post over at a Women’s Entrepreneur site last night by an “Expert” Marketer/Web Designer. And no, I am not going to link to a bad article or their website. Whoops, kind of gave it away a bit huh?

Now I am sure she, the Authoress, is a nice lady and all but… Oh heck, I don’t actually know that, she could be a Harpy, but let’s give her the benefit of the doubt anyway and say she is a really super duper nice lady and she probably is. Regardless of her demeanor however, I have to point out that she is just plain wrong about some things in her article.

So, good guy that I am, I tried to post a comment addressing the error several times yesterday and today. No joy, apparently they do not like dissent in their comments that is factual.  Another rule, make sure you have smart people on your team and especially as gate keepers for you Blogs and Social Media.  Stupid mistakes can cost you big time there.

But to be fair, it could be some intern that does not know squat about Blogs and marketing that they have as the gate keeper (see above)  that could be costing them thousands of dollars every day by not managing their Blog correctly. Again, having smart people on your team pays way more than they they cost.

Dissenting Comments On Your Blog Are Good For Business

Which brings up another point. Dissenting comments are great as long as they are business like and well thought out.  In fact they are good to have on your site!  They can help make you money.   It allows you to to point out your case or, correct yourself if someone brings you new info and it gets people involved.  Either way it is a win.  So, do not be afraid to post dissenting comments on your Blog.  Well, they never posted my comments.

But the Silver lining is that I can give you a couple of Profit Consultant tips from good old Easy Anderson here on my Blog. That, I do control. Yea for me and it should be Yea for you too.

Well first off back to the Authoress, she said basically that Long Copy or rather Lengthy Text does not work as well as Short Copy on Websites because the Web is different than printed text. Oh really??? Hmm…. Alarm bells went off right then and I started laughing.

Two things went through my mind. Wow cool, another competitor who’s clients that if they listen to her, are going to have their butts kicked by my clients. Cool, cool, cool !

Then I thought, awe darn it. There are going to be a lot of people, well OK, a few anyway, that may read that aritcle and believe and implement what she is saying and hurt their business and it is bad Karma for me not to point it out to at least them and perhaps her.  That I do believe.  Pointing out and trying to fix things that you know are wrong are one of the things that make America great as a habit.  In most other countries, it is frowned upon to point out errors or to even make mistakes at all.  Which is one of the reasons why most everyone wants to still come to the US.  Back to making mistakes.

Lord knows I have been ignorant about things in my past as well. Heck we all are for that matter until we learn otherwise.  I know I learn something new every day but, if you are going to be in business and especially Marketing and offering advice, bone up on the basics and learn from the people that have been doing this for a while.

Anyway back to Long Copy, here is the scoop.

Long copy when done right can outsell short copy by over 1,000 %. That is not a typo! Now do you still have to have catchy headlines and bullet points that grab attention? Absolutely.

Just think about any subject that you are interested in for a few seconds. If it is interesting, do you want to read once sentence about it or more information that explains what you are interested in and read details?  My point exactly!

If you get a chance, go buy the book, Ogilvy On Advertising by David Ogilvy. Great book on marketing and the other book you should get is, Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins, which if you go to my contact page above and request it by typing in Scientific, I will send you a complete copy of it in PDF for FREE.   But you have to make the effort.

Both go into factual evidence why Long Copy works.

And while I do pride myself on my marketing skills,  Go friend Drayton Bird who is on my friends list on Facebook and read his content and you will learn a lot about Long Copy and Marketing in general.

I like him because he is way more irreverent than I and makes fun of Ignorant people in Adverting and Marketing and does it with a rye sense of humor.  Plus, he is a much better speller and better a grammar and punctuation too or is that as well?

He is truly one of the worlds best Direct Marketers for sure and which reminds me I owe him an email on the Twitter and Social Media experiment. (it has been one crazy month but I digress) You can follow the experiment on Twitter Here and over at www.CommonSenseMarketing.org. Drayton has some serious marketing chops and is one very sharp guy.

So, out of curiosity, I went and looked at the authoresses site and low and behold true to her word, I do not see any long copy at all but,…. I do see Flash. Arghh….

Here is a Flash on Flash for you. You should avoid Flash like the plague on your Website. I have been saying this for a couple of years now but, put in on your site now at your own peril. Especially now.

Steven Jobs of Apple has said they will not support Flash on any of their systems.

There are a couple of reasons why. One, it royally sucks for SEO or Search Engine Optimization purposes. Two, it is not all that elegant from a programming stand point, Three, several million iPad users won’t be able to view your site, nor will 50 million iPhones as a general rule and all new Apple systems will have to find outside resources to use it. How is that for a bunch of reasons?

It is kind of like Bell bottoms except Flash will not make a comeback or cost you business.

Anyway, hopefully you have learned something here. And just to give you some Short Copy in an appropriate manner. Long Copy is good, and Flash is bad.

OK, it is almost 1:00 AM and I had better put this post and myself in Bed misspellings and all.  My old editor starts back next week thank God.  Those of you who care greatly about spelling and grammar and such will be tortured less.   

Have a Profitable Day!

Cheers,
Andrew “Easy” Anderson

ARE ALL TYPES THE SAME?

PEOPLE PATTERNS™ VS MEYERS-BRIGGS – PART II

In the first part of this discussion, we discussed the two points: 1) the concept of typologies from a perspective of formal logic and 2) the different forms of typologies. As mentioned, Meyers-Briggs presents immutable boxes or preferences, whereas we know that types can be changed, given our work in behavioral change technologies. Second, we discussed how Meyers-Briggs and People Patterns™ are what we refer to as horizontal typologies.

Now we are going to present the third concept that relates to typologies, that of contextuality. It is critically important to realize that all behavior is context dependent. This is one of the fundamental principles of NLP. In fact, all behaviors change depending on the context in which they occur. What this means is that you may behave or act in a particular way, for example, in a work context, while at home, you behave totally differently because it is a different context. So in one context, you’ll behave one way, and when you shift contexts, your behavior shifts as well. With People Patterns™, we constantly emphasize that they are context dependent. Myers-Briggs does not take this into account.

The notion of context and contextuality in our typologies (in this case, People Patterns™) is critically important. It is a concept that is a vital component to all behaviors, and thus, to typologies. Context, for our People Patterns™ takes into account several elements:

1. Where you are (for example in work, at home, at school, driving, etc.)

2. What are the circumstances in which you are behaving a certain way

3. When are you behaving a particular way

Now let us consider the fourth concept regarding typologies, that of deep structure and refinement. What we call People Patterns™ that make up one’s Personality Language™ goes beyond what the four Meyers-Briggs categories cover in their scope. People Patterns™ take the types to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of what is involved:

Sensor/Intuitor: our Tangible/Intangible People Pattern™ is more refined.

Introvert/Extrovert: our Internal/External People Pattern™ is more refined.

Judger/Perceiver: our Structurist/Free Spirit (through time/in time dichotomy) People Pattern™ is more refined.

Thinker/Feeler: Our Decision People Pattern™ (looks right, sounds right, feels right and makes sense) is more refined. Also, the Chunk Size People Pattern™ clarifies this Meyers-Briggs preference.

Now, our People Pattern™ Profile is different from others that are out there in that we are not looking for content based responses. Our work is based on decoding what I refer to as the deep structure (as in linguistics), and here, the deep structure of the psyche. In this case, it is the deep structure of your thinking and of your behavior, rather than the specific content.

At another time, we will discuss the deep structure differences between the two typologies a bit more.

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Marilyne Woodsmall is one of the most sought after Human Modelers in the World.  She and her Husband, Wyatt Woodsmall have worked with some of the most successful companies and Athletes out there.  They help businesses and individuals reach the highest performance levels possible.  You can find more information about them and what they do at www.TheScienceOfidiots.com.  Their book Personality Language ™ can help you and your business go beyond where you are now.

I made these to remind you of what was made possible by our Founding Fathers in the United States of America like no where else in the world.  Have a safe and Happy 4th of July.  And remember what the Founding Fathers and millions of others have fought for so that you can enjoy the day.  Be Happy and Grateful!

Cheers,
Andrew “Easy” Anderson

This is why you need to make use of Social Media.  And guys, if you were not thinking about catering to Female clients, you are nuts!

And yes, MySpace still rocks if that is your demographic. But Twitter seems to rule if you want people that make over $100,000.

It is why we push it with our clients. Contact me if you want to learn how to super charge you Social Media for as little as little as $70 per month.

Can you really afford not to?

Not sure where to start, check out the Blog post, Twitter Explained in 5 Minutes.

Cheers,

Andrew “Easy” Anderson

A Profitable Website

I will be doing another video going over the basics of what you need and of course, WordPress is the only content managements system that I recommend these days.

WordPress currently powers 8.7% of all Websites.
WordPress currently powers 56% of all Websites that have CMS or a Content Management System.

You need to be using CMS and WordPress. This should be your Website if you want to make money. If you don’t have a Blog and update your content on a regular basis, you are losing customers, money, and you are getting killed on Search Engine Placement.

Here is the link to the Tour Page with the Buttons That I speak about in the Video as well as a few other sites.

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And if you are willing to be a Guinea Pig, you can pre-order the Software that we used to build the sites for only $77 a month and you get a 30 day free trial. No contracts, no commitments. Not only that, but you will get a Shopping Cart, an Affiliate Program, and an Auto-Responder built in as well. Plus other great good surprises. (and yes, I will get around to putting in a fancy button here too, but the most important thing is to have a way for people to give you money.

OK, I am going to go over some of the basics that you need to have no matter what, as well as a number of things that I see big companies and even well know Web Gurus are doing wrong with their Websites in the next video.

These are easily correctable but often overlooked.

Also, for those of you interested, if you don’t feel up to doing a site like the ones I show you in the video, we can do ones like them from turn key (you have to provide the content, although we can for more money) from $499 to about $2,470 for most small business sites. Larger sites are more of course. But typically, we are 1/2 to 1/3rd the cost of other solutions. We can also provide turnkey solutions on a monthly basis as well. If you are interested, just contact me and we will get you taken care of for sure.

Cheers,
Anderson

The Answer And A Video Explanation Of Your Most Valuable Asset

So, what do you think your most valuable asset in business is that you have?  If you are like the rest of the go getter’s out there, we have a tendency to think that if we work a little harder, a little longer, and put in more of ourselves we will solve the issue of of the moment.

Now you would think that if you just could put a little more time in, you could get it done.  Well guess what?  No matter how well you manage your time, it won’t matter.  Will you get more done for a while? Of course but you can’t run effectively day after day at full tilt for 16,17, 18 hours a day.

Your most valuable Asset In Business is your energy levels.  If you go after a problem after you are well rested and healthy and your head is in the right place, then you can solve many problems or issues that come up in a manner of minutes.  Yet you try and do the same high level task when you are tired and it could easily take you hours to come up with the same quality of solution.

In the book ” The Power Of Full Engagement” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz they bring up some very good statistics and examples of why this is true.

You know what I am talking about.  Where you are tired and even the words won’t come out of your mouth right and the simple things are a pain.  Well, guess what, when you are like that and the extra hour that you put in would be better spent resting.

As a recovering, oh heck, who am I kidding, active Workaholic,  I have to watch out for that myself.  The only reason that I do is that I do like what I do so much that I find myself taking things to the enth degree sometimes with projects.   Yet I know that I would be far better taking the time off and sharpening the Axe as it were.

The kicker is sticking with that philosophy even though I know it is true.  What does it for me is that I have people the depend on me now to make the right decisions and I know that burning the candle at both ends only should happen once in a while and not all of the time.  It is not effective at all.  It is also a symptom of a simpleton.  I already have one of those T-Shirts and I do not need another thank you very much.

Now that is not to say you should not have tight deadlines.  But you need to plan on taking time off to keep your energy levels as high as possible.   Take at least one day of the Weekend off.   If a project has you burnt out, then spend time on another one, step away from it for a few hours, days, or even weeks.   It can make a huge difference in your profits, and your quality of life.

Here is a video of Tony Schwartz speaking at Google about this subject.  Also, learn why multi-tasking does not work.  I have been following him for several years now and his stuff works and it makes sense.   Actually, it is common sense which is the least common of all senses.

Work With Your Competition And Make More Money?

While this may sound crazy, this is one of those counter-intuitive techniques that I see very few businesses using that is one of my top 5 Profit Secrets.

First off, most people don’t even consider it.  Their competition is their competition.

But for those that do, there may not be easier profits to be had.

For one, it is truly free.  It usually just involves a phone call or an email to get the ball rolling.

Secondly, in many cases, your competition is not really your competition anyway.  If you are in a decent sized niche, if you pick the right company, you both end up coming out so far ahead of the game it is not even funny.

I find this in the Consulting end of things especially but, it is true no matter what you are selling.  You both have a customer base and you may even be selling the same products, but at any given moment, that customer base may not want to buy what you are selling, so why not offer them your competitions products or services and make money from them?

If you are limited pie type of person you won’t get this.  But if you are not, and you know that the pie is ever expanding you will and you can trounce those people that don’t get it.

Right now for instance, I get calls on a regular basis from other consulting companies to do Marking, Social Media, or SEO work for them.  And guess what, that is fine.  I am happy to do that for them.

And upon occasion I will call them if they have a field of expertise.  They are happy because they make money, my client is happy because they get the best service, and normally the can’t believe that I would be honest enough to tell them I want to bring in someone else to handle a specific part of their needs.

I usually end up with clients for life. Why, because I am honest with them and I never worry about the other consultants stealing clients.  One, because I am honest with my client, they would tell me, and two the consultants I work with just don’t do that.

And if the client or the consultant were to do that, then they both did me a favor by pointing out that they are scumbags in the first place and I know longer have to work with either of them ever again.

If there is other work they they end up doing for the client, guess what?  I get a piece of the action on that.  Everyone wins.

There are other ways to to do Joint Ventures as well that are beneficial to all parties.

Perhaps you can share mailing lists, do joint advertising, do joint presentations, sell each others products that are not in your line, make use of under utilizes facilities or capacity, or even employees or contractors.

There are dozens of way for you to work with the competition and in turn, trounce your competition.

Think out of the box about your “Competition” and both of your will be glad you did.

Cheers,

Are you staying local in your business and being a Local Yokel?

I have seen this quite a bit recently with many businesses when it comes to searching for talent or opportunity for their business.  Be it Web Design, SEO, sales, or Consulting Help, and even new customers.

The businesses that do this are seriously shooting themselves in the foot.  In fact to use yet another gruesome analogy it is like throwing a Frog in a pot of cold water and turning on the heat until it boils.  The Frog won’t jump out, but if you put him in Hot water, they hop right out.

In other words, you won’t know you are cooked until it is too late.

Just think about it.  There are now millions of people that you can reach on the Web and just from a statistics standpoint, the guy or gal down the street is not going to even be in the top 5% best at what they do but, the person that you can snag on the Internet is?

So why would you want a second string player when your competition is playing with All Stars?

Can you imagine any sports team from College on up just getting players locally?  Well of course not.  So you should not be doing it either.

If you do, you are just making my job easier when your competition hires me.    Perhaps I should say thanks in advance if you are one of the Yokels.

Cheers,

Andrew

Do you want more sales no matter what you are selling? Be different. Seriously as more and more competition is out there, the one thing that stands out is being different.

But be different in a good way, Be smart about it, but sometimes even being just a little different can mean a lot of money ending up on your bottom line.

Here is an Noodle Jolt. An easy way to come up with ideas is to look at your competition and see how White Bread boring they are? Don’t be like that, get out of the box, get out of the rut.  Do anything different than what they are doing.

You will be glad you did.

Cheers,
Andrew Anderson

Believe it or not, you really can get a complete eCommerce website done for under $2.500 these days.  And no we are not talking about those out of the box template monstrosities that you only pay $5 per month for or are from a template that 10,000 other business have that look exactly the same.

I am talking about having a full blown custom design that does not look like it comes from the 80′s.  I am not talking about a Website that is not centered in your browser.  That is the surest sign I know of these days to quickly ascertain if a company has their act together on the web.  If it is left justified and not centered on your screen, be careful about doing business with them.    Just saying… 

Today, you really need to have the following.

1. A Centered Website that lets people know how your product or service can help solve their problem or pain, or make their liver easier or more enjoyable.
2. You need to have an integrated design to the site which include a look and feel that is consistent throughout the site.
3. You must have a Blog, even if you don’t want to write in it, have someone else do it.
4. You must have RSS feeds and social media integration.  While I have not heard too much about this from the so called Gurus, your RSS feed can be your most important traffic source.  The same goes for your Social Media.
5. If you have products or services to sell, ( I mean why else would you be in business) then you need a way for your customers to purchase them. You need buttons and a shopping cart.   Here are some examples of some pretty cool buttons. Note the buy now button and the sign up for twitter button.

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Most companies can get a great looking Website, Blog, online Social Media Framework, and Shopping Cart/Way to collect money, Video Integration, and all done for your including graphics for $2,477. Where? Right here with www.21to21.com and www.MadFunMarketing.com.

So what are you waiting for? It does not matter if you are a just starting out, or need a serious rehaul of your Website. You don’t need to spend more in 85% of the cases.

In 99.99% of all of the sites that we have looked at, most can be done for under $10,000 using our new tools. 94% can be done for under $5,000 and of those, 88% can be done for under $2,500.

And putting money in your Web Presence is by far the best money you can spend for Marketing/Sales and in practically any other category you can think of for sure. Simply because in case you have not noticed, people go to your Website First!

Plus, you can keep it up-to-date and humming for less than $200 with hosting and fresh content for your blog. You don’t even have to write it yourself!

Why are we doing it so inexpensively?

Well, because we are tired of seeing crappy looking Websites for one. Secondly, we are tired of coming in after the fact when a client has spent $5,000 to $50,00 and still has a site the will not make them money and then having to convince them that it can be done form $2,400 or in the larger ones, for only $10,000 and that it can bring in 5 x the business they are bringing in now. It is painful to watch. And frankly, just silly and totally unnecessary.

If you would like to take advantage of this offer, and get access to our new tools, plus a whole lot of other bonuses such as marketing and SEO assistance then just click on the Button below to get started.

Oh, and you will be able to easily maintain, change, and update your site as well. Complete training on how to do this is provided as well.