If You’re Trying to Impress Me, Don’t Do This

Issue# 2719

• WEALTHY: Are you speaking nonsense? (Michael Masterson)
• HEALTHY: The world’s simplest fat-loss plan (Craig Ballantyne)
• WISE: William Safire on exaggeration

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• 3 ways to drive traffic to your website (Marc Charles)
• Do you feel lucky? (Rich Schefren)
• It’s Good to Know… about brand loyalty
• Add “vacuous” to your vocabulary

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“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times: Resist hyperbole.”

- William Safire

If You’re Trying to Impress Me, Don’t Do This

By Michael Masterson

He had been strongly recommended for the job. And so, when I got on the phone with him, I was expecting a sharp, take-charge guy. Instead, I got this:

“I’ve been involved in strategically important roles with communications companies for 25 years. Throughout, I’ve focused on my core competencies, building brand recognition and interfaces with key personnel.”

To which I responded: “Huh?”

He went on…

“It’s been a personal paradigm of mine that quality control and dynamic leadership are essentials in today’s globalized business environment, and that’s what I feel I can bring to any company I work for.”

I had already made an initial assessment: This guy was a fraud. But to give him a chance to redeem himself, I tried to keep the conversation going.

“So,” I said, “what, exactly, have you been doing all these years?”

I could almost hear him thinking, “What kind of dummy am I dealing with?” But this is what he said:

“Bringing in a bottom line and achieving optimal results have always been goals that resonated with me.”

“That’s enough,” I thought. “I can’t take any more.”

“I’m sorry to do this,” I said. “But I have to jump off the phone now to handle an emergency. I enjoyed talking to you. I’ll be sure to look at your resume and get back to you if something comes up that meets your qualifications.”

And with that, I bid farewell to this young man and any chance he had of ever working for me.

In their book Why Business People Speak Like Idiots, authors Fugere, Hardaway, and Warshawsky say there are three reasons executives – and people applying for management positions – sometimes speak like this.

1. Their focus is on themselves, rather than on the person they’re speaking to. “When obscurity pollutes someone’s communications it’s often because the… goal is to impress and not to inform.”

2. They fear using concrete language, because saying exactly what they mean can make it hard to wiggle out of commitments. “Liability scares [some people], so they add endless phrases to qualify [their] views, acknowledging everything from prevailing weather conditions to the 12 reasons we can’t make a decision now.”

3. They want to elevate and even romanticize their thoughts and deeds, because they are afraid they aren’t impressive. They do so by using lofty language that disguises the mundane truth.

They are afraid to appear ordinary. Their solution is to attempt to bamboozle everyone they speak with – and particularly those with power.

This is a very bad strategy.

In a job interview, it makes the interviewee look pompous and vacuous – two traits any sensible employer wants to avoid.

When applying for a job, only two things really matter: what you know (your skill set) and who you are (your integrity). Pretending to know things you don’t is a waste of your time, because you will soon be found out. Getting tossed into the street after only a few weeks on the job is both embarrassing and an ugly blemish on your work history.

You can demonstrate your good character by being honest from the outset. Be candid about what you know and what you have done. But make it clear that you are confident you can quickly learn to do anything that is required of you.

In granting you an interview, your future employer is trying to find out if you can help him solve his problems and grow his business.

He isn’t looking to be impressed. He’s looking for someone who can make his life easier by doing a great job. Your job during the interview is to sell yourself as being that person.

And the first rule of successfully selling yourself is to make sure you’ve got the basics down pat:

• You must be good at something – really good.
• That something must be useful to the success of the business you are attempting to work for. If you’ve been reading ETR – even for a short time – you already know what I mean by that: It must be some financially valued skill. Generally speaking, that’s one of four things: marketing, selling, creating profitable products, or managing profits.
• You must prove that you are good.
• And then you must deliver.

[Ed. Note: One of the most valuable skills you can learn is how to persuade others to take action. Power and money decisively travel toward those who are persuasive. Master the art of advertising and promotion, and the world will beat a path to your door. You will not only have success convincing people to buy your products, but also your ideas, concepts, and beliefs. Early to Rise can help you become a bona fide expert at this skill. Simply read on here.

Get more of Michael's surefire strategies for getting ahead in business and in life in True Path to Profits: A Master Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Success. Find out more - including how you can get a bonus subscription to Michael's VIP newsletter, Ready Fire Aim - right here.]

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Making Money With AdSense

By Marc Charles

With Google AdSense, you can run Google advertising on your website or blog – and get paid every time your visitors click on those ads.

There are hundreds of ways to drive traffic to your website. Some of them are free, and others cost money. The trick is to get “targeted” traffic. By that, I mean visitors who are likely to be interested in the content on your website and in the Google AdSense ads you’re running.

My favorite ways to do this are as follows:

1. Targeted e-mail newsletter advertising. Preferably using deep discount or remnant ad campaigns.

2. Keyword advertising on discount ad networks like Advertising.com, 7Search.com, ExactSeek.com, Kanoodle.com, and AdBrite. You can purchase keyword advertising “clicks” on these networks for as little as 5 cents.

3. Building your own search engine or directory, and redirecting traffic to your website that’s running Google AdSense. A search engine or directory is simply a website with a database and a searching mechanism. Most programmers can easily build one for you.

The best part of Google AdSense is its “auto pilot” feature. If you have a website running Google AdSense ads, and you have targeted traffic coming to the site, the ads run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – without requiring any maintenance or babysitting on your part.

[Ed. Note: These tactics for driving highly targeted website traffic to boost AdSense revenues were originally published in the Liberty Street Letter, a monthly publication dedicated to under-the-radar business opportunities and investments. To find out if you're eligible to receive regular profit alerts that could help you boost your income, click here.]

3 Simple Strategies for Increasing Your Luck

By Rich Schefren

Do you know somebody who seems to have the best luck in the world?

It’s like everything they touch turns to gold. And it doesn’t matter if it’s in their business or their personal life, they just seem to have luck on their side all the time.

I can add myself to that list. Because I consider myself to be EXTREMELY lucky.

I’ve built an eight-figure business, married the woman of my dreams, and have two beautiful daughters who are healthy and happy.

And along the way, I’ve had lots of lucky breaks – things that just sort of “happened” and ultimately made me become more successful. But I just didn’t wait around for luck to find me. I went out looking for it.

Here are three things that have always helped me increase my luck:

1. Get out there. I’ve found that luck stems mostly from opportunities, and the more you put yourself in front of others, the more opportunities you’ll have. So don’t be an introvert. Meet new people. Shake their hands. Look them in the eye and find out more about them. This will increase your luck exponentially.

2. Go with your gut. I can’t count how many times I’ve made an important decision based on a gut feeling and it’s turned out to be the right one. So follow your instincts and go with what you feel is correct. More often than not, you’ll see your luck increase.

3. Grab the silver lining. The most successful people I know don’t wallow in misery when their luck goes sour. They find something positive in the situation and focus on that. And guess what? They always turn their fortunes completely around very quickly. You can do the same.

Those are a few of the strategies I use to bring more luck into my life. Apply them to your life… and watch your own fortunes rise.

[Ed. Note: Rich Schefren - one of the world's best small-business strategists - knows a thing or two about what it takes to be successful. The businesses he coaches have done over $500 million every year - piling up more than $1 billion in sales every two years. Visit his blog to learn how to streamline your business while skyrocketing profits.

For more strategies and techniques for "making" your own luck, check out the Early to Rise Total Success Achievement program. Success mentor Bob Cox will help you achieve all you want in life - in just minutes a day.]

The Best Diet for Weight Loss

By Craig Ballantyne

Most diet “plans” are really complicated… or downright confusing. But the truth is, eating for fat loss is simple. Just avoid junk food and eat more whole, natural foods.

If you need proof, take a look at this…

European researchers studied 89,431 men and women from five countries in Western Europe for 6.5 years. They found that the more fruits and vegetables someone ate, the greater their chances were of losing weight. It’s as easy as that.

So if you want to lose fat, make sure you increase your intake of fruits and vegetables.

[Ed. Note: Eating the right foods is just one part of slimming down and firming up. To burn fat and build muscle, check out fitness expert Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training program right here.

For more easy-to-implement ideas about how to live longer and feel better, get your free subscription to ETR's natural health newsletter.]

It’s Good to Know: Brand Loyalty Goes by the Wayside

Consumers who are usually loyal to certain brands when it comes to food, cosmetics, and other products are increasingly shifting to lower-cost alternatives.

A new study from Catalina Marketing Corp. showed that among customers classified as “highly loyal” in 2007 to brands like Coca-Cola, Crest, or Green Giant, 33 percent had switched to other products in 2008. Meanwhile, grocery stores have been expanding their lines of generic brands.

(Source: Reuters)

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They’re not any better than you… smarter than you… in fact, these four men came from such humble beginnings NO ONE ever thought they would amount to anything.

One was a factory worker, the other began as a file clerk, and two others toiled as a grocer and shop-assistant.

And yet, against all odds they all became billionaires. (yes, with a “b”)

What was the “X” factor that made the difference and allowed four ordinary men to enjoy the financial freedom that most people could only dream about?

Well, one man knows exactly what it was… he had front row seats and experienced first hand how these “Average Joes” went from ordinary to extra-ordinary.

He should know… he personally mentored them to billionaire status!

Not only that, but this shrewd businessman (a former insurance salesmen himself) went onto become mega-wealthy himself when he became the co-founder of the first TV shopping network.

So how does this help you out with your money problems?

It’s simple: This mentor boiled down every tactic, trait, and “secret wealth attraction strategies” these four billionaires remarkably possessed… and swears he can give you a “mind over money make-over” in just 30 days that’ll allow you to attract gobs of money like bees to honey.

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Word to the Wise: Vacuous

“Vacuous” (VAK-yoo-us) – from the Latin for “empty” – means lacking in ideas or intelligence.

Example (as used by Michael Masterson today): “This is a very bad strategy. In a job interview, it makes the interviewee look pompous and vacuous – two traits any sensible employer wants to avoid.”

[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 Words to the Wise CD Library.]

Similar Articles:

• Making Money With AdSense
• Word to the Wise: Vacuous
• 3 Simple Strategies for Increasing Your Luck
• If You’re Trying to Impress Me, Don’t Do This
• It’s Good to Know: The Google Way to Promote Your Non-Profit