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The Marketing Alchemist Who Turned Lead Into Gold
"Gene Schwartz was a genius, a marketing alchemist who routinely turned the lead of his typewriter keys into rivers of gold. If I had to pay $10,000 for this information, I'd do so in a heartbeat - though I confess I'm relieved I don't have to."
That’s how Gary Bencivenga, one of the world’s highest paid direct mail copywriters, credits Gene Schwartz for much of his success.
Schwartz teaches that marketing creativity does not have to come from you. It's already in your product - you just have to dig it out. The mastery of these methods can be worth millions in increased sales for your business.
What’s stopping you from taking advantage of these secrets? Here’s how to get started today:
http://www.isecureonline.com/Reports/700SGSBA/E700G1H7/
The Attributes of People Who Have Personal Power, #12 of 12:
They don't manipulate better performances out of people
"Rather than resorting to feel-good incentives (awards, T-shirts, retreats, etc.) to manipulate your employees into working harder and smarter, motivate them by spurring their inner desire to do better. Create an inspiring vision, set high standards, give employees power, make them accountable, offer feedback, and establish a sense of momentum."
- Michael Masterson
[Ed. Note: Since January 10th, we have been excerpting highlights from Michael Masterson's new book Power and Persuasion. This is the final excerpt in that series. If you would like to learn no-B.S. secrets for commanding success in your personal and business life, based on Michael's 40 years of down-in-the-trenches business experience, you can pick up a copy here.]
"Women do not win formula one races, because they simply are not strong enough to resist the G-forces. In the boardroom, it is different. I believe women are better able to marshal their thoughts than men and because they are less egotistical they make fewer assumptions."
- Henry Ford
Women in Business: Glass Ceiling? What Glass Ceiling?
By Michael Masterson
There has been a good deal written about the difference between men and women in the workplace. Men are said to be more decisive, more logical, and better able to make tough decisions. Women are said to be more intuitive, more communicative, and more compassionate. Popular books like Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus and Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps support these perspectives.
A new book on the subject by Leonard Sax, Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know About the Emerging Science of Sex Differences, provides some interesting scientific evidence that there are differences hard-wired into our brains.
I don't believe that women are more compassionate, more intuitive, or better communicators than men. Nor do I believe that men are more logical, stronger, or more decisive. There are obvious differences in how the sexes behave socially - and some of those differences (how we compete and how we communicate) may seem like inborn qualities. I don't think they are.
I believe that women are generally better than men at dealing with details. And I believe that men are, in general, more imaginative. I doubt that this is hard-wired. It seems more likely that it's learned. But this I know for sure: The really good business leaders - men and women - are constantly striving to improve themselves in all the critical business skills:
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Logic
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Intuition
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Attention to detail
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Communication
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Decisiveness
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Compassion
If I had the opportunity to advise a young woman on getting to the top, here's what I'd tell her:
1. Find a mentor. I've said this before, but there's nothing like a mentor to help you get ahead. Find a woman in the position you're aspiring to, and ask questions about how she got to where she is.
2. Be a mentor. You will not only develop your own leadership and communication skills, you will also get a fresh perspective on your company by seeing it through your protege's eyes.
3. Always present yourself as confident and professional - in the way you dress, speak, and carry yourself. .
4. Make up your mind to work hard. There are no shortcuts to success. Get to work early and stay late. Meet all deadlines. Exceed all promises that you make. Ask for extra work in areas that could advance your career. And stay up-to-date on your industry.
5. The business comes first - before your feelings, before your frustrations, even before your personal ambitions. So long as you are taking paychecks from your company, be loyal to it.
6. The office is not a battleground. You can't get to the top simply by killing off your competition. Respect your colleagues. Help them. Trust them. Focus on the work. Learn valuable skills. Become extraordinary and then become invaluable. You will accomplish much more by becoming more and giving more than you ever will by being competitive.
7. Stay away from office politics. Politics is a system that is based on power. Business is based on profits. Sometimes, the two can work hand in hand. But, ultimately, they have different ends.
8. Use your charm, not your sexuality. If you get your ideas about business ethics from television, you may believe that it's perfectly okay to use your sex appeal to achieve your goals. It's not. Be strong. Be pleasant. Be positive. But don't be seductive. Whatever short-term favors you get for trading in your dignity will be more than offset by the ill will you will create among both men and women in your workplace.
9. Don't cry. Martha Stewart says it. So does Donald Trump. There is a reason why crying has never been acceptable in the workplace, and it has nothing to do with glass ceilings or gender barriers: Crying is an emotional response to a problem that has to be solved with brainpower.
10. Don't try to be a man. Some women believe that to be successful in business they need to be tough - a quality they associate with masculinity. In fact, most of the successful men I know in business are very seldom tough.
Conventional wisdom has it that women in the U.S. work under a glass ceiling, that they get paid less for the same work, and that the really good jobs go to the men. Fact is, more and more women are making their way to the top.
A recent cover story in Forbes magazine surveyed 50 women who are running some of America's biggest and fastest-growing companies, including:
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Meg Whitman, 49, chairman and CEO of eBay
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Anne Mulcahy, 52, chairman and CEO of Xerox
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Brenda Barnes, 51, president and CEO of Sara Lee
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Oprah Winfrey, 51, chairman of Harpo
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Andrea Jung, 47, chairman and CEO of Avon
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Pat Woertz, 52, EVP of Chevron, Global Downstream
These are not sinecures. These are positions of real authority. The 50 named on Forbes' list of America's Most Powerful Women are in charge of maybe a trillion dollars worth of business. (The top six, above, account for $240 billion.)
So much for the glass ceiling.
My prediction: This trend will continue. In another 20 years, women will have as many top-of-the-food-chain positions as men do. Maybe more. Here's why:
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Except for the well-publicized but relatively small fundamentalist groups in America, our society is becoming increasingly more open to not just women in the workplace, but women in charge. Polls seem to bear this out. And my experience confirms it. I know six or eight women who, as CEOs, are the primary income earners of their families. Television, movies, and magazines - the media is full of images of women in charge. It's no longer controversial.
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Big businesses are behind the trend. Fortune 500 companies that aren't already run by women have plenty of women working on the second (vice presidential) tier. Those women, like their male counterparts, are doing much of the critical thinking and making many of the tough decisions, as well as developing networks of power and influence. In other words, they are ladies in waiting.
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Fast-growing smaller companies will be even more open to female leadership (or less resistant to it). When you can see how - with the right leadership - your company could double in a year and then double again, you aren't going to play gender politics when it comes to picking your next CEO.
But the single most important reason why women will continue to populate the top spots is this: They are good at business and getting better all the time.
Are they better than men? Who knows? But they are good. Good enough.
Today's
Action Plan
As a woman in business, you will encounter people who will think that you slept your way to the top. That you will never last as vice president/president/CEO/CFO. Or that you must be a cold, ruthless bitch to have gotten to where you are. But despite the prejudices of some, women are succeeding - more so than ever before.
The only limit to your success is the hard work you're willing to put in. So ignore your detractors and prove them wrong. Work hard, be the best at what you do, and companies will be wrestling one another to get you on their team.
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The Great Real Estate Bull Markets Of The Next 5 Years
Homeowners and investors alike are cashing-out of the most over-priced real estate markets in the country.
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How to Choose a Good Personal Trainer
On Saturday, in message #1632, Michael Masterson talked about the harm that many misguided personal trainers do to their clients. I asked Craig Ballantyne, ETR contributor and a fitness expert, for his thoughts on the subject. Here is what he said:
"MM is right. The state of the industry is shameful. Because personal training can be a relatively well-paid profession (trainers often charge over $100 per hour) and the educational requirements are a bare minimum (you can get certified over a weekend or on the Internet), this has produced a lot of unqualified trainers.
"Combine a trainer's lack of knowledge with his desire to impress you with fancy (yet irresponsible) exercises, and you'll end up wasting your money - or, worse, getting hurt.
"Here's how to choose a good personal trainer:
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"First, get a referral from friends and family.
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"When you contact the trainer, ask about his background and certification. Every trainer should be certified and have an (ongoing) education in health and fitness or exercise science.
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"Ask the trainer to explain his philosophy of health and fitness. This should coincide with what you want from a program.
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"And, finally, have the trainer take you through a complete fitness assessment before you begin. If he simply wants to start you on the advanced exercise program that he uses with all his clients, kindly decline. Look for someone else who has your interests in mind."
- Jon Herring
Make Sure Search Engines Can Find Your Website
Graphics are fine for headlines, but don't use them for entire blocks of text. If the text on your website is rendered as a graphic, it is both unsearchable (by users who may want to search for a particular word or topic) and unindexable (by search engines that control where you come up in their rankings).
For optimum usability, the majority of your text should be rendered as html text, not as a graphic. How do you know? Right-click on the text. If it says "View image" or "Save image as ..." it's a graphic.
If you're not sure what all this means, the question to ask your designer is this: "Is there enough html text on my site (especially the homepage) to make it searchable and indexable?"
- Ilise Benun
[Ed. Note: Ilise Benun is an expert in the art of self-promotion. Sign up for her e-mail tips from Marketing Mentor here: www.marketing-mentortips.com.]
Quick Tip: Keep Cliches Out of Your Writing
A cliche is a saying or idea that's been used so often it has lost its punch. At one time, it may have sounded fresh and clever. But, through overuse, all of its power has drained away.
Getting rid of the cliches in all of your writing - business and personal - is one way to make it better. For a list of hundreds of tired, trite phrases to avoid, check out this website: www.clichesite.com/index.asp.
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240 Pages That Will Make You Almost Automatically Powerful
When you discover the secrets to developing two essential traits of every successful person, you will hold they keys to massive personal power...
...and everything you long for will immediately come within your grasp.
Michael Masterson reveals these secrets and more in his new book Power and Persuasion: How to Command Success in Business and Your Personal Life.
Power and Persuasion will show you;
- how to almost instantly become a “highly effective person”
- how to instinctively know how to burst through roadblocks and obstacles that leave others stumped and stalled
- how to recognize good ideas and ACT on them
In Power and Persuasion you’ll learn the art of getting people excited about your ideas…wanting to see them through to the end…and happily doing whatever is necessary to make your vision a reality.
Order Power and Persuasion today!
Word
to the Wise: Sinecure
A "sinecure" (SI-nih-kyoor) is a position or office that requires little or no responsibility or work but provides a salary. The word is derived from the Latin "sine cura" ("without care").
Example (as I used it today): "We have a country where women are in charge of maybe a trillion dollars worth of business. These are not sinecures. These are positions of real authority."
