A Different Kind of New Year’s Resolution
Archives: Daily Issues
Issue #2554
- WEALTHY: A copywriting secret that can get your property sold (Julie Broad)
- HEALTHY: The mood-improving effects of a South American herb (Dr. Ray Sahelian)
- WISE: Nietzsche on laughter
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Do you have enough Ho! Ho! Ho!? (Michael Masterson)
- The slogan that can solve all the problems of the human race
- It’s Fun to Know… about government and the cheese industry
- Add “interlard” to your vocabulary
== Highly Recommended ==
The Best Feeling in the World
Accomplishing a simple goal can have powerful, long-lasting results…
Once you finally learn to play the trumpet, or start a business, or get promoted to CEO, or get your pre-baby body back…
You’ll notice that people start treating you differently. They’ll respect you more. They’ll compliment you. They might even try to imitate your success.
And the way you’ll feel about yourself is unparalleled. You’ll have new confidence. New happiness. Some new stress, perhaps. But new pride in yourself and your abilities.
Achieving a goal you’ve had for years… There’s nothing quite like it.
It’s time for you to feel proud of yourself.
What Clayton Makepeace Knows about Selling Your House in Today’s Market
By Julie Broad
You might think that the best way to sell your house in a slumping market is to price it low and then just get it listed on every website you can. But you may find, like many of my neighbors have, that is not enough.
I live in a nice complex of 38 townhomes. Currently, 4 units are listed for sale. Each one is priced lower than the one before it, but none have sold.
Reading a recent Early to Rise article by Clayton Makepeace, it occurred to me that my neighbors’ realtors have all made the same mistake when it comes to creating the listings for these homes. Here’s the listing for one of them:
“Small complex located in the heart of Burnaby Heights. Rarely available beautiful corner unit at very desirable Red Brick Heights. Only two years old, this gorgeous three bedroom, 2 bathroom unit is 1375 square feet, also has a loft on the third floor. Oversized panoramic rooftop balcony with a beautiful view of the North Shore Mountains. Open plan with gourmet kitchen with real wood cabinets, stainless steel appliances with granite countertop and hardwood on the main floor. These high quality units do not last so be quick before it is gone. Low strata fee and well managed.”
As Clayton points out in his article, the best copywriters start their copy knowing what their prospect already feels about the product – in this case, the product is the house. And right now, the real estate market is scary. So it’s likely that many prospective purchasers’ desire for a home is being met with an even greater fear of what might happen to their investment if they buy one.
If you have to sell your house, you need to acknowledge that fear – not, as was done in the above example, try to create a fake sense of urgency. And you need to appeal to the positive emotions that might make someone want to buy a house even in troubled times.
Beginning with the features of the house and trusting the prospect to respond positively to the fact that it’s only two years old, with a panoramic rooftop view and a gourmet kitchen, is what the competition is selling. Instead, think about the prospect and how he might feel about those features (how it feels to cook for your family in a great kitchen… and open the door to see the mountains in the morning… and know your money is safely invested in this high-quality/well-located home). Then carefully craft each part of your listing to support those emotions and benefits – with pictures, maps, and words, all directed to get those emotions working toward the sale of the home.
I think that is exactly what an expert copywriter like Clayton Makepeace would do. And I bet that, in combination with the right price, would sell my neighbors’ houses.
[Ed. Note: In eight years, Internet Money Club member and real estate investor Julie Broad and her husband have built a multimillion-dollar real estate portfolio in their spare time with minimal cash resources. They publish a free monthly newsletter to help other rookie real estate investors achieve their investment goals. Get your free report for making money with real estate here.]
“Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Make 2009 Your Best Year Ever – Resolution #10: Put a Little Levity in Your Life
I’ve been writing New Year’s Resolutions for Early to Rise since 2001. In previous years, I’ve recommended that you make resolutions to improve your health, grow your wealth, become a better person, and shake up your personal life. This year, ETR’s experts have resolutions in all those areas that you can put into action.
My recommendation for you this year is a little different.
I want you to put a little Ho! Ho! Ho! into your life.
What, exactly, is Ho! Ho! Ho!? It’s a technique that will:
- reveal important truths to you about life and living well
- reduce tension and the troubles tension creates
- help you overcome obstacles, even seemingly insurmountable ones
- increase the dopamine in your system and make you feel better
- improve your blood circulation, respiration, and digestion
- greatly reduce the chance that you will die of cancer or heart disease
- make you a more popular person
- increase the speed at which you achieve your goals
- give you more personal power
And the best things about this amazing technique is that:
- It won’t cost you a dime to implement it.
- You don’t need any special education or skills to take advantage of it.
- It takes only a few seconds of your time now and then.
- It gets easier to “practice” the more you do it
Are you ready to learn more?
In 1992, during the height of the rioting in Los Angeles, Terry Braverman was driving along the Hollywood freeway during rush hour. Looking through the passenger window, he saw fires blazing in the city. The odor of smoke was mixing with the familiar scent of smog, and it was making the bumper-to-bumper drive seem somewhat dangerous. He glanced at his fellow commuters, and could see in their faces that they, too, were feeling anxious.
Their anxiety made him feel even more anxious. He felt himself starting to panic. Then he remembered a simple maxim: You can’t control what you can’t control, but you are in charge of the way you react to it.
He decided at that moment, in the middle of the most nerve-shaking traffic jam he had ever been in, to lighten up. Luckily, Braverman had a way to do that. Being a professional comedian, he had a prop bag on the seat behind him. Reaching back, he pulled out a rubber clown nose. “This is just what I need,” he thought.
Donning the clown nose, Braverman again looked out the window. At first, he said, the drivers around him were doing double-takes, as if to say, “He’s a tourist. He doesn’t know what is happening.” But when he smiled, they got the message. “I wanted them to know that in spite of the circumstances we can take a moment to lighten up and suspend the downward spiral of distress.”
Reading this story in Terry Braverman’s book, When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Lighten Up, reminded me of that wonderful movie, Life Is Beautiful,
about a father who heroically keeps up his son’s spirits in a concentration camp by playing the clown. It reminded me also of Viktor Frankl’s great book, Man’s Search for Meaning, in which he tells about his own true-life experience of being in a concentration camp, and the amazing conclusion he came to after enduring the worst kind of human loss.
Frankl says, “As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy. … Once an individual’s search for meaning is successful, it not only renders him happy but also gives him the capability to cope with suffering.”
In his book, Braverman also tells the story of Jean Houston, a philosopher and the author of A Mythic Life, who was traveling with a colleague to Washington, DC to speak at a conference that was meant to inspire attendees to be more creative. The colleague was complaining about how impossible it is to inspire creativity in government bureaucrats. “They spend their lives rearranging chairs on the Titanic. They are not going to listen to us,” she said.
“We’ll have to alter their consciousness,” Houston replied.
“How?”
Houston explained that the best method she knew was through humor. So she was going to spend the first 10 minutes of her presentation making jokes. “At the peak of roaring laughter, one exists, as in mid-sneeze, everywhere and nowhere,” she said, “and is thus available to be blessed, evoked, and deepened.”
Houston’s “method” is one that many professional speakers use. Audiences are often ill at ease in seminar situations. When you are feeling that way, you are more judgmental and resistant. But if a speaker is good enough to get you laughing, you will open up to him a little. You will feel, “Okay. I’m ready now. Tell me what you want and I’ll listen.”
Braverman tells how Rich Little saved himself from being beaten up by a bunch of thugs. “I was pretty scared, but within 15 minutes I had them laughing. I was doing my whole act. … So I turned that around I don’t remember exactly how. I think I went into Louie Armstrong. … They didn’t know who I was, but when I started doing the impressions they lost their incentive to beat me up.” In this case, Little’s humor did more than improve his own mental state – it improved his fate. At the end, he says, the thugs were applauding.
We’ve all been in situations where we allowed ourselves to be swept away by anger. Someone – minsinformed or not – calls you an a-hole or a jackass, and you respond with curse words and fury.
When I have used humor in difficult situations, it has never failed to help. At the very least, it made me feel better by putting things in context: Life is short. We live. We die. It’s the same for all of us. Lighten up.
A great movie that touches on this subject was made in 1927. It is called Sunrise. It may take you 15 minutes or so to get into it, because it is in black and white and is silent, but invest the time. It is a powerful, moving story. And pay attention to the role that humor plays in it. It will make you want to be kinder and more loving. And it will show you how lightening up is so essential to that.
One of the most effective executives I know, the CEO of a major company, is a master of this powerful method of managing crisis. Because of his position, he often finds himself listening to senior managers who are upset about some real or imagined injustice done to them by some colleague in the business.
When I have been in similar situations – and I have been many times – my response was always to take the complaints of my managers seriously and try to work them out in a serious way. But “Chris” usually employs humor as his first response. He has a gift for making you understand how trivial your complaint is in the big scheme of things. I don’t know how he does it, but he’s done it with me a dozen times, and I can tell you it works.
Chris does a great job of resolving disputes because his first reaction to problems is to look for the Ho! Ho! Ho! in them. Most problems in life, it turns out, aren’t as serious as they first seem. Those that are can still be dealt with better when you approach them with a lighter attitude.
So that’s my wish for you this year – that, in the face of all this economic turmoil and the negative impact it may be having on your life, you find time, when you are stressed, to find some lightness in your soul. It may not change the direction of the Dow (unless everybody lightens up), but it will give you the energy and flexibility to move forward with hope and happiness.
[Ed. Note: As a special thank you to our best customers, Michael has started a new VIP service in which he gives insider business-building advice usually reserved for his private clients - a twice-weekly newsletter called Ready Fire Aim: The Michael Masterson Dispatch. If you have bought an ETR product or attended a conference and are not receiving Ready Fire Aim, please let us know by sending an e-mail to Michael@ETRfeedback.com.]
Your Special Holiday Gift from Early to Rise
Michael Masterson explains the system he uses every single day to set and achieve his business and personal goals. And you get a tour of his office, too!
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Cash from the Ash
Is it possible to make YOUR fortune from the recession with virtually no cash, no risk AND ethically?
Well, if you call the $3.2 MILLION I made by helping others in distress, then I guess the answer is a resounding ‘YES’!
A ‘robot’ can help make this sort of wealth a reality for you NOW. The worse the economy gets, the more money you make.
Please, I’m not here to tell you the same ol’ same ol’ “buy things cheap in recession”! Sure, that works IF you have the cash. My method involves NO buying at all…
In a few minutes, you’ll understand.
Please read the report below without delay- you deserve to at least be informed about this amazing, low-risk cash-on-demand system VERY few people know about:
Get the Cash-On-Demand System Report
Worth Quoting: Calvin Coolidge on Persistence
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
Maca Herb Helps Women After Menopause
Maca grows in the Andes Mountains in South America. Locals consume this herb to enhance their energy and vitality. Now, research shows that it could be beneficial for postmenopausal women.
Researchers at Australia’s Victoria University gave 14 postmenopausal women 3.5 grams a day of maca for six weeks, and compared them to a group receiving placebo pills. They also checked their hormone levels before and after treatment. The women who received the maca had a significant reduction in anxiety and depression, as well as improved sexual function. The researchers’ conclusion: “Preliminary findings show that maca reduces psychological symptoms, including anxiety and depression, and lowers measures of sexual dysfunction in postmenopausal women independent of estrogenic and androgenic activity.”
Even though this study used 3.5 grams (3,500 milligrams) of maca a day, I would recommend using less – 500 to 2,000 mg a day – if you plan to take the herb for an extended period of time. Long-term studies with maca supplements are not available, so it may be a good idea to take a few days off each month until we learn more. At this point, it is not clear how maca interacts with estrogen hormone replacement therapy (HRT). If you are on HRT, you may consider using 500 mg a day of maca for a week, and then adjust the dosage up or down.
[Ed. Note: For more on the maca herb - and dozens of other nutritional supplements - visit the natural healing website of Ray Sahelian, MD, at www.raysahelian.com. You can also purchase maca straight from Dr. Sahelian by clicking here.
You can find plenty of all-natural methods for staying healthy - including the latest breakthroughs in weight-loss programs... healthful recipes... and other ideas for achieving optimal health - all from one of the largest integrative-medicine practices in the country. Learn more here.]
It’s Fun to Know: And You Thought the Automaker Bailout Was Cheesy?
The financial and auto industries aren’t the only ones getting government handouts. The Italian government is propping up one of its “native” industries to the tune of $70.4 million by buying 200,000 wheels of cheese. Half of that is Parmigiano-Reggiano, a.k.a. Parmesan cheese. The other half is Grana Padano, another “grating” cheese. The bailout cheese will go to charity.
Italian cheesemakers have been struggling to survive, because wholesale prices have gotten so low. But the government’s move is not without its critics. Some believe that the entire cheese industry needs to be overhauled, and that the bailout is nothing more than a temporary fix. Meanwhile Buffalo Mozzarella producers are fuming. They aren’t receiving similar assistance, despite having an 18 percent drop in sales over the past year.
(Source: The Wall Street Journal)
== Highly Recommended ==
Do You Need to Start Out Small ?
If you don’t have an Internet business yet, or if your company is smaller than $1 million, then you need something different… something that lets you start off small.
One man I know turned $10 into over $500,000. How’s that for starting small!
Let me show you how you could get a similar Internet income stream running for almost nothing.
- Charlie Byrne
ETR Associate Publisher
Word to the Wise: Interlard
To “interlard” (in-tur-LARD) is to mingle – especially when referring to introducing something foreign or irrelevant into the mix. The original meaning of the word was to insert lard or bacon into lean meat before cooking it.
Example (as used by Anne Fadiman in Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader): “Every night we lined up books on the floor, interlarding mine with his before putting them on the shelves.”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2009
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