You, the Movie
Archives: Daily Issues
Issue #2339
- WEALTHY: Is an "Old Maid" in your future? (Andrew Gordon)
- HEALTHY: Get more antioxidants by cooking this way (Kelley Herring)
- WISE: Robert McAfee Brown on storytelling
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Your life story in 3 sentences (John Carlton)
- Was I out of line? (Michael Masterson)
- It’s Good to Know… about disappearing languages
- Add the expression "small beer" to your vocabulary
Bring Paradise Into Your Living Room (And Profits Too!)
It’s too bad you couldn’t make it to our Profits in Paradise conference, but the good news is that we’ve gotten it all down on professionally-recorded DVDs. When you bring these recordings into your home, you’ll be in the company of a very special group of experts.
First, they are all at the very top of their respective fields… whether it’s real estate, internet business-building, or under-the-radar financial and investing techniques. And second, they’ve all made a lot of money using the exact strategies they are going to teach you in their presentations.
Their “secrets” are actually proven methods based on years of trial and error and testing in the real world.
Here’s just a taste of what you’ll be receiving on these DVDs…
- Howie Jacobson will reveal the secrets behind Google Ad Words – the fastest and easiest way to make money online…
- You’ll learn how to use Marko Rubel’s little-known investment approach to generate over $1 million a year …
- Buck Rizvi and Brock Felt will show you how to tap into a multi-billion dollar market to create a business you can sell for millions … or pass on to your children…
- And much MUCH more.
When you learn these secrets you’ll be well positioned to take your financial future into your own hands.
Are you ready to see your wealth-building potential soar?
Good! Because we have an enviable offer for you today…
The Attack of the "Old Maids"
Do you remember the card game "Old Maid?" I remember playing it with both my kids many years ago. They loved it. They hated being stuck with that odd queen at the end of the game. Now they’re young adults and have moved on. But I’m still playing the game.
I have no choice. Dozens, if not hundreds, of companies are pretending they’re not holding the Old Maid. In other words, they’re hiding the full extent of their bad debt, assets, and hedges.
The practice is worse than ever – thanks to the spread of the subprime contagion. It’s shown up in surprising places like municipal bonds and Chinese banks. Right now, companies harboring Old Maids are a dime a dozen. I fear that soon they’ll be worth a nickel.
If you don’t want to get stuck with a loser, how do you invest?
- It’s more important than ever to do your homework. That means going beyond relying on a company’s statements. Just a couple of days before Bear Stearns was rescued by JPMorgan, they swore their finances were fine. Meanwhile, plenty of people who follow Bear Stearns thought otherwise… and were making their suspicions known in blogs and the financial press. Not every rumor is true, but neither should you summarily dismiss them. Keep an open mind.
- Stick with high-quality investments in sectors you trust. There’s too much we still don’t know about banks and their exposure to bad debt – so stay away. Big companies with solid track records, substantial overseas business, and low debt may not make you a bundle. But, these days, it pays to play it extra safe.
[Ed. Note: ETR's Investment Director, Andrew Gordon, is the editor of INCOME, a monthly financial advisory service that uncovers income-generating stocks that promise safety (first and foremost), along with much-higher-than-average profit potential.]
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"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today."
Robert McAfee Brown
You, the Movie
By John Carlton
Have you ever wondered where the knack for finding stories and hooks — the main ingredients of any great copywriter’s bag of tricks — comes from?
Here is my insight (after a couple of decades on the advertising front lines): It comes from observing life as an ongoing movie. With characters, story angles, plot twists, and endings that arrive like punch lines.
This is how the legendary copywriters I’ve known go through their day… seeing nearly everything in terms of a movie script. It’s an unconscious habit, and wickedly effective at keeping your writing chops chugging on all cylinders.
Even the most mundane errand can be retold as a raucous tale full of shocking revelation when you put this talent to work. Nothing interesting or weird or funny gets by a top scribe.
So, when faced with clients needing killer ads… it’s easy to find, and flesh out, the stories hidden in products, campaigns, and markets. Because it’s all a movie.
Think about your own life.
No, seriously. Think about it.
Most people have trouble "seeing" themselves in the world at all. Without a mirror, they’re not even sure they exist. Their daily experiences are like watching a "monkey cam" – the filmed result of attaching a camera to the back of a chimp and letting him wander off.
It’s not a smooth, thought-out, coherent narrative. Instead, it’s jerky, chaotic, and (unless there are "happy accidents") mostly boring.
There. I’ve said it.
Most people lead boring lives.
For any savvy copywriter, that’s a tremendous advantage. All you have to do… is be the one thing your bored-to-death prospect reads today that gets his blood moving. And you’re well on your way to closing the sale.
Again, think about your life.
Consider how it has progressed in actual chapters, or acts… just like a long-running serial flick.
Maybe your story is as straightforward as childhood, adulthood, starting a biz, getting married.
Or maybe it’s more nuanced, in peculiar ways that make sense to you… but may sound exotic to outsiders. I know one guy, for example, who catalogs his past using whichever car was in his life at the time: The ancient ‘55 Buick Special (junior year in high school), the only slightly abused ‘67 Mustang (freshman year of college), the brand-spanking-new Toyota (first full-time job), the Pontiac mini-van (first kid), etc.
This guy will fry your ear with great stories, too. All starring him and his wheels.
The more precise and anchored you can be, the better your stories will become.
And the better your OWN parcel of stories is, the easier you can spot – and use – stories from the world around you when you’re writing to influence and persuade.
I was lucky to grow up in a family of storytellers. And since I was the youngest by eight years, I learned quickly to be pithy and interesting… or risk losing the attention of my audience. (Few adults have much patience for meandering stories with no point, even from their own kids.)
The trick is to focus on short, crisp, rollicking tales that get to the payoff quickly. With a beginning, a middle, and an end. Or, like a good joke, with a premise, a set-up, and a punch line.
In fact, I suggest you start crafting your tales – both the personal and professional – in three brisk sentences.
They can be serious or funny or rueful or just hmmm -inducing snippets of action.
But they must be complete stories.
So start editing, with an audience in mind. For example: "Suzy and I, at 17, started out convinced no one had ever felt a love so wild and crazy before. However, that dizzy high of shared hormonal bliss… was cruelly followed by heartache and misery when her attention shifted away from me. And I ended up as a sad, sad boy, convinced no one had ever felt such pain before."
Set-up, plot synopsis, and tidy ending with a hook (the "completed circle" of the phrase convinced no one had ever felt...). You can go into more specifics (should your audience crave it), but you’ve laid out the story very efficiently here.
If the point you were trying to make… say, in a sales piece… was that you’ve been around the block emotionally, you scored. Any further detail would muddy up the yarn.
Here’s another one: "I interviewed for my first real job right out of college. Cinched up my tie, answered every jackass question seriously, shook hands like a candidate. Got the gig, hated every second of my life for six months, never quite caught my breath, got fired, and happily collected unemployment checks for the next three months."
Or, here’s a tidbit from my own biography: "We were vandals as kids, mostly ineffective and innocent, but occasionally stunning models of anarchy. Asked an engineer, once, how many railroad ties his cow-catcher could handle… and the next day, put all those plus one on the tracks. Derailed the train… and our genuine horror of success was deepened by the realization we’d better watch our butts if we were gonna engage with the adult world like that."
Three sentences. Yeah, long ones. But three coherent, grammatically correct sentences. A complete story, with entry point, action, and a quasi-moral ending.
Consider how looooooooooooong I could have dragged out that tale, and been absolutely justified in doing so. Because, hey, events took place over a couple of days, and there are details of our gang and the neighborhood and the derailment that are fascinating.
Just freaking fascinating.
But longer stories should be told only if you’re invited to tell them. As in, writing your thousand-page biography and selling it. Anyone buys, it’s a tacit agreement to put up with every long-winded saga you’ve got up your sleeve.
Okay… now it’s your turn.
Leave a three-sentence story from your life in the new "comments" section on ETR’s website here.
Don’t be shy. We’re all trying new stuff this year. (Or should be, because the business landscape is changing so dramatically and rapidly. The best marketers I know are trashing old limitations, stretching new boundaries, waking up and engaging the world on fresh terms.)
I promise to read every submission. I’ll even toss a few comments into the pile myself, when warranted.
And I can guarantee you this innocent little exercise will sharpen your chops as a storyteller. Some of you are already damn good, I’m sure… while others can use a lot of work. But we ALL need to remember how critical stories are for communication. (As in, communicating your sales message in a way that grabs attention, persuades, and closes.)
C’mon. Three lines. That forces you to be concise, to consider every single word carefully, and to crunch often-rambling experiences into tidy little narratives with a point.
Just like a top writer does it.
I’m not looking for funny. Not looking for tears. Not looking for anything profound.
Just a story.
For some writers, this will be a true test, because you aren’t used to pushing yourself. However, the best already do.
Good luck.
[Ed. Note: John Carlton is an expert copywriter, a pioneer in online marketing, and a teacher of killer sales copy. Get the details here on how to get your hands on the kick-ass secrets of the world's smartest, happiest, and wealthiest marketers. And be sure to read his insights, tactics, and advice on copywriting and marketing at his blog.]
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Imagine Knowing of a Casino Where the Dealer Tipped His Hand Before You Made Your Move and Didn’t Care How Many Times You Beat Him.
When would you stop going there?
This is nothing to do with games of chance, but I hope your answer to that question would be a resounding, "NEVER!!" Assuming you’re sane that is… Well, that is a virtually PERFECT analogy of the power of the insider signal!
It’s often said, "The Stock Market is just a big casino." And it’s true. But the important omission in that statement (to keep the masses out!) is the dealer in this casino tips his hand to the select few… the insiders.
Such powerful knowledge could make YOU very rich indeed… Click to learn more…
Reader Appalled by My Self-Absorption
In a recent article, I revealed the early-morning routine I’ve used to accomplish my goals. Sonja Mahs from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia wrote in, wondering where family responsibility fits into the mix:
"Read your article about what you do during the day. Sounds great, if a little self-absorbed. Where does family responsibility come in? And who cooks dinner for you? I wish you would make it more transparent that you don’t have children in your care or that, if you do, you don’t have them on your priority list. It’s irritating to keep reading about how much you achieve and, by extension, how much we can all achieve if we did what you did… while ignoring your own privilege of gender and access to resources. I think it also diminishes your message somewhat."
Sonja is right. I should have pointed out that K and I are empty-nesters now. Longtime readers of ETR and my blog know this. I talk about it all the time. But a new reader could not have known.
That said, it is entirely possible to get up earlier and spend time on yourself – on your own goals – even if you do have children and a spouse. (I assume Sonja is a working mom.)
Assuming you get up at 6:00 now, is it impossible to get up at 5:30? The simple way to do that without jeopardizing your health is to get to bed a half-hour earlier.
This ties into a question I received from Tanya Leehans in Tennessee:
"I am wondering what time you get to sleep each night in order to be up and going no later than 6:30 a.m. After dinner, baths, clean-up, and putting three kids to bed, I want to spend some alone time with my husband. That means midnight sleep at the earliest. Getting up at 6:30 a.m. would mean an awfully small amount of sleep each night. What are your thoughts on that? How do you get enough sleep and make it all work?"
My thought is that if your kids are young enough to need help in the morning, they should be in bed no later than 9:00. That was bedtime for kids in the Masterson house. And it left K and me with 90 minutes to ourselves before going to sleep at 10:30. Seven hours of sleep is what experts say is optimal for adults. So getting up at 5:30 wasn’t a problem. I kept that schedule for many years when my kids were still at home and I liked it. You could like it too.
Listen – getting up early and devoting time to yourself is about you, not me. I can understand why Sonja’s initial reaction to my message was "that self-absorbed, insensitive son of a bitch." But she should think about it some more. What’s really going on? Why is she allowing herself to accept less of her life than she can have? Wouldn’t it benefit her to get that extra time to achieve her dreams?
If she wants it, she can have it.
[Ed. Note: You CAN find time to accomplish your longest-held goals. Learn dozens of specific strategies for rearranging your day and putting your top priorities first with ETR's Total Success Achievement program. Get the details here.]
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Add Steam, Boost Antioxidants
Some cooking methods can release disease-causing toxins called AGEs (advanced glycation end products). And other methods can maximize the antioxidant ability of certain foods, unleashing their anti-aging potential.
A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition evaluated the antioxidant content of foods after they were prepared in several different ways. Based on the results of that study, here’s how to get far more free-radical fighting ability out of some of your favorites than they have when they’re raw:
- Carrots : Steaming boosts antioxidants by 291%; boiling by 129-159%.
- Asparagus : Steaming boosts antioxidants by 205%.
- Broccoli : Steaming boosts antioxidants by 122-654%.
- Green Cabbage : Steaming boosts antioxidants by 448%.
- Red Cabbage : Steaming boosts antioxidants by 270%.
- Green Pepper : Steaming boosts antioxidants by 467%.
- Red Pepper : Steaming boosts antioxidants by 180%.
- Tomatoes: Steaming boosts antioxidants by 112-164%.
- Spinach: Boiling boosts antioxidants by 84-114%.
- Sweet Potatoes : Steaming boosts antioxidants by 413%.
[Ed. Note: Kelley Herring is founder and CEO of Healing Gourmet (www.healinggourmet.com). Simple choices - like how you cook your food - can make all the difference in the world when it comes to your health. Get more easy-to-follow suggestions for improving your health by signing up for ETR's free natural health e-letter. Learn more here.]
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It’s Good to Know: Disappearing Languages
At least one of the world’s estimated 6,000 languages goes extinct every two weeks. Native speakers either die off or assimilate into larger cultures over several generations. Most of the disappearing languages are spoken by very few (in some cases, just one person) – usually tribal people who are moving into the modern world. Extinction hotspots include the Pacific Northwest, Oklahoma (home of the highest density of indigenous languages in the U.S.), several parts of South America, northern Australia, and eastern Siberia.
(Source: National Geographic)
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The Greatest Medical Discovery of the Century
Scientists have discovered a remarkable substance that has the power to prevent diabetes, stop heart disease before it starts, and kill cancer cells on contact. In fact, this substance has been shown to prevent and treat more than 20 major diseases in all!
However, more than 85% of the population is deficient in this disease-killer at least part of the year. And believe it or not, medical professionals and health authorities actually advise people to avoid the single greatest source of this vital substance.
Click here to learn why you probably haven’t heard about this revolutionary discovery.
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Word to the Wise: Small Beer
The expression "small beer" – derived from a name for beer with very little alcohol content – refers to something that’s insignificant.
Example (as used by Jerry Coyne in The New York Times): "Call me a geek, but for biologists, marvels like the parasitic flatworm are on tap every day, making the reveries of Hollywood seem like small beer."
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008
After promising myself last year that I WOULD pull my life together things are looking up, but it’s a slow process. Like watching a flower open. It looks motionless if you stare at it but with the passage of time you realize what dynamic change is taking place.
As a young woman I had such reverence for life that I would brush pesky insects away rather than slapping at them. Giving birth changed my attitude. The first unfortunate mosquito to land on my newborn son’s face was instantly and viciously annihilated.
“You know it’s bad luck to look back,” my lover said as we parted. But I couldn’t help myself – at the last moment I turned just in time to see him do the same. Our eyes met – and I knew we would never see each other again.
I was sitting in the airport terminal, watching my flight board, contemplating how I would waste a few hours after landing early for my appointment when an overhead announcement slapped me out of my open-eyed coma. “We’ve overbooked this flight, if there are any passengers willing to give up their seat, we will give you $100 plus the face value of your ticket and a seat on the next flight leaving in two hours.” I walked up to the ticket counter and put $228 of airfare into my pocket.
She was good with bees. In the fall she’d park herself under the apple tree, peeling apples into the 16-quart pot for applesauce, yellowjackets swarming over her hands while she worked. “Just move slow – they know you don’t mean them no harm,” she’d drawl as they gathered sweet juice and salt from her skin.
I fell in love with him the night before taking off to start a new life half a continent away. When he came out to visit me there a few weeks later, we got engaged – and I promptly left the country for a job in Central America. After he followed me all the way to Costa Rica, I knew it was for real – and shortly after he had to go back, I bugged out early to head on home.
I rented a room once in the slum part of town. Some nights bursts of gunfire interrupted quiet conversation, leaving a wake of adrenaline in our veins. I never felt unsafe during the day though, except in one neighborhood, where menace hung tangibly like a whispered warning in the air.
Our son was experiencing difficulty keeping his grades up. We suggested that he might benefit from having someone check in with him at the end of each school day to make sure his homework was organized.
Six months, four parent interviews, a battery of tests, observations and evaluations by school counselors, school psychologist, teachers, occupational therapist and L.D. specialists, half a dozen written evaluations and countless meetings culminating in an initial IEP preparatory interview later, the school concluded that the boy should be moved to a special study hall where someone could check in with him at the end of the day to make sure his homework was in order.
My little daughter carried her umbrella with the kitty ears everywhere, even on sunny days. One afternoon in early April an impish breeze snatched it from where it lay open beside her in the park, skipped it across the lawn and deposited it into the Wisconsin River, swollen and angry with spring runoff. We watched in horror as the beloved possession bobbed, tipped, and disappeared – an illustration of the river’s cruel power that I hope will burn itself eternally into her awareness.
One late afternoon last May, a woman – I’ll call her Judy – rushed into our store, desperate for strings. Her daughter had just broken the E string on her violin, hours before her school’s spring concert began. Judy was able to find exactly what she needed at a price comparable to what she would have paid online, in time for her daughter’s concert.
“If you tell the truth, you’ll get locked up for being a bad girl.” he said. I believed him, and created elaborate stories to hide the secrets. Years later, I realized this “rule” was the biggest lie of all.
“No work for six weeks,” commented the old Amish farmer, gazing at the western sky. We looked at each other and shrugged. But a month and a half later, having endured one deluge of thunderstorms after another, we held a new respect for his connection to the natural world.
Poor Pavlov. He grieved so deeply after the death of our other dog that we thought perhaps a new companion would restore his spirits. The new puppy Jasmine just wanted to play, but their first meeting resulted in an injured foreleg – and an air of insulted resignation – on the part of the older dog.
I leaned over the edge of the dock, drawn by the world on the other side of the water’s skin… plump! Soaking wet and wrapped in my dad’s wool jacket in the back seat of the old Chevvy, I pondered the disappointing fact that the fascinating underwater fantasy in my mind had little to do with reality. Even more, I regretted the premature end to what had promised to be a great day’s fishing.
In her last months my grandmother terrorized the entire nursing home with her tempestuous nature and imperious demands. But she had another side, eroded at the end by the aches and hardships of old age and senility. When I think of her now, I prefer to remember her in her beloved garden, eyes bright with spellbound wonder as a hummingbird, mistaking her colorful dress for a bed of flowers, hovered before her for a moment so long it seemed to stretch into eternity.
“Dos pesos!” demanded the little girl, barring my way into the Nicaraguan customs area’s ladies’ room. Her eyes betrayed no glint of childhood’s mischief or innocence. My stomach lurched as I paid the diminutive attendant, realizing that there are times and places where destitution drives society to treat children as little more than commodities.
My mind wandered as I climbed the path from Stella’s bakery, where I worked mornings, to the tiny cabin at the edge of the rain forest that served as my home here in Costa Rica. Suddenly, my eyes flew open at a sight that drove all else from my mind – an electric blue object the size of a saucer fluttering erratically between the trees. I had just experienced my first glimpse of the stunning Blue Morpho Butterfly.
I learned a few critical lessons early in life, 1. To start at the top and work my way up. 2. Life’s short, if you’re not passionate about it, don’t waste your time with it. 3 The more people tell me I’d be an ass to follow that dream, the faster I should grab hold of it. With those credos under my belt I’ve discovered and then followed my passions, creating one successful start-up company after another from a trucking company to goat cheese farm, to a restaurant and beyond. The beyond part is how I come to be scrunched down on the bathroom floor of my latest successful venture, a bed and breakfast in the Caribbean, gun in hand as bullets whiz by my head as I fight to stave off a bunch of Columbian drug toughs who want MY property to launder drug money.
I was only starting to think about our move from Florida back to Illinois since I had more than six months to pack, get there and start my new job when the call came from my soon-to-be-boss: “Jackie decided to retire early. Can you be here in 6 weeks?” I looked around my spacious apartment that was crammed with furniture, favorite things, WAY too many books, and 3-year-old son for whom I would have to find daycare (not to mention an apartment for the two of us) from 1000 miles away, and answered, “Sure! No problem!” I hung the phone up and began to panic.
It was as the golf cart flew through the air–tumbling over the bridge railing–that I realized the folly in trying to “psych out” my 13-year-old buddies with my erratic driving. That split-second before we splashed into the creek seemed like an eternity. It’s really too bad that before the golf cart slammed on top of us, I didn’t have the presence of mind to appreciate the last time I would have an un-ruptured ear drum in my right ear.
Man, I got my flat-top hair back, I’m 20lbs lighter in the rear, Duran-Duran is on the radio and I am rushing home in my 1979 Toyota 4×4. Lakers and Celtics are at it again after all these years, NBA finals together with game-closers and rabid fans. My hand rubs my hairless skull in tactile memory as I witness my smiling countenance, reflected in the TV during pre-game warm-ups
Everything meaningful in my life was accomplished before the age of 25. Travel at home and abroad, love, three college degress, awards and honors, writing and cooking contests, job offers—-were dropped in my lap (after hard work, of course)—mine for the taking. So, where could I go from there?
I was born an identical twin, back in the fifties when it wasn’t as common as today…My parents were young and surprised by our untimely arrival, growing up we shared EVERYTHING. I was the first to marry and for some reason this idea didn’t sit too well with my new bride.
HAPPY DAY! I was 12yrs old when Mr. Herbert “HAPPY’’ Day, was giving me his abandon 48 Chevrolet.Oskie, He said to his good friend ( my dad), It doesn’t run, the boy loves cars, It’s important to his life….. He convincingly pitched and sot my Dads approval. Years later I remember someone said “you are what you drive.’’ Now, 50yrs hence and privileged to have driven nearly everything with wheels, my life is as American as apple pie, a Chevrolet, and… a HAPPY DAY!
Everyday for two weeks the sight of unending piles of laundry demanded my attention, as well as the rambunctious, constantly hungry child foraging ceaselessly in fridge; cabinet and cupboard. All the while rainbows within rainbows of color patiently waited to be unleashed on a toothsome paper, pulling insistantly at the corner of my eye. I knew it time to make some decisions and finally get on with at least some of the holiday work, and it lead to better “to do lists” and better time management. (hopefully)