Are you a business owner or CEO, who still believes you have to maintain a strong, almost perfect image in the market place, in order to
WIN approval of your customers?

I don’t think that’s a good strategy at all — in fact, I think it’s a losing one!

First of all, people are people. So, in our professional lives, we’re still people and our colleagues and customers are also just people.

People, human beings, are NOT perfect. And, to the extent that business owners and CEOs REVEAL their true selves to others, the more accepted, respected they will be. And the more apt the market (real people) will respond by trusting you, which will lead them to do business with you, which means buy what you have to offer.

As Craig Ballantyne suggests in a recent Early to Rise article, Turning Defeat Into Victory,

“I believe that everyone would be better off if they stood in front of a crowd and admitted their biggest mistakes and embarrassments. Then with that out of the way, they could get on with being completely comfortable with themselves and confident around others”

And Robert Ringer (one of my favorites) goes on with a poignant story about turning defeat into victory, which I highly recommend you read.

So, back to why it’s a good business idea to let it all hang out!

A marketing legend, Dan Kennedy, let it all hang out in his autobiography, Unfinished Business.

In this book, Kennedy airs his dirty laundry — from his divorce,bankruptcy, alcohol problems, financial hardships and even a stuttering problem.

The idea is this: Get Real. No one likes someone who comes across as Mr. or Ms. Perfect. I know this from my personal experience because I grew up with this insane notion that it was my job to be perfect … or God wouldn’t approve.

That’s nute. We’re all flawed human beings. It’s the human condition, so to try to pretend we’re anything but flawed is a fool’s game.

The trick is to admit the truth of how it’s been, but have the courage to keep on moving, by taking ACTION toward our goals. Those who are repelled by the truth are not the ones you want to know or do business with in the first place.

Market to those who get you. Work with those who count. Let it all hang out, while not using it as a crutch, and scale the wall of doubt, while fear whispers in your ear — all the way to the top.

Feel the fear, and do it anyway! Let fear come along for the ride because after a while, it’ll cease to control you, if you just let it come along.

My friend, Rob Christie, used to say, “Our fears never really go away. They just become our fellow-travelers.”

As I get older, I’m able to see the perfection of my imperfections a lot better than I used to. I realize now that I don’t have to be perfect or have all the answers.

I feel that we’re all SO valuable. And, by sharing who I am (warts & all) with you and with everyone, it makes me more human; more approachable and more understanding of myself and everyone.

In closing, here’s one of the most poignant sayings I’ve ever heard. It goes … “The more I conceal, the sicker I feel. And the more I reveal, the quicker I heal.”

We’re really all in this together, ya know!

Carolyn Permentier
www.KickAssCopywriter.com

Hello,

According to a Washington Post article today , some psychologists have concluded that too much happiness can cause people to lack the drive and ambition to succeed!  And they say too much cheerfulness can make you gullible and selfish, too.

According to June Gruber, a psychology professor at Yale University, we should only experience “positive moods” in moderation.  What, you mean it’s good to feel good and positive when you mix it up with some negativity sometimes?

The article goes on to say that, like food, happiness is necessary and beneficial.  But, just as too much food can cause problems, happiness can lead to “bad outcomes.”

“Research indicates that very high levels of positive feelings predict risk-taking behaviors, excess alcohol and drug consumption, binge eating and may lead us to neglect threats,” she says.

OK, now it gets interesting and ties up the corollary between being too happy and lower income.  Are you ready for this?  Another renowned psychologist, Edward Diener, famous for his happiness research  – analyzed a variety of studies, including data from over 16,000 all over the world, and discovered that those folks who reported the highest life satisfaction early in their lives, reported LOWER incomes years later than those who felt “slightly less merry” when young.

Adding to the poor, happy souls’ dismal demise … they also dropped out of school earlier!

And then there’s the merits of sadness …

Yes, wouldn’t ya know more studies show that feeling sad helps us think in a more systematic manner, which helps breed more success.  Sad people are “attentive to details and externally oriented, while happy people tend to make snap judgments that may reflect racial or sex stereotyping.”

Psychologists point out that emotions are adaptive:  They make us change behavior to help us survive.  Anger, they say, prepares us to fight.  Fear helps us flee.  So, I guess happy people don’t get angry, fearful or sad enough to be successful.

So, you be the judge.  If you’re successful, monetarily, are you angry, fearful or sad?  If so, maybe this would further prove their point.

For me, though, I’m sticking with happiness.  I’d rather have to try hard to try harder at success than to give up being happy and have it come easier.

Oh well, that’s just silly ole, happy me!  What about you?

I wonder how many business owners really understand the value of a lifetime customer?

Most of us know that it costs a lot more to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing one, but I really wonder if most business owners fully appreciate our customers’ lifetime value.  The chances are more likely, I think, to take our existing customers for granted and spend most of our time and marketing budgets going after new ones.

I once worked with a very well known CEO of a large, successful company.  He fell into this trap, in fact, and wasn’t really interested in serving his existing, loyal customers. He really didn’t seem to have a lot of respect for them, while they were making him rich.

Fortunate for him, he had a very dedicated customer service director, who cared about their customers like it was her own company!  In fact, she was accused of caring too much, if you can imagine that?

To me, she represents the epitome of great customer relations.  And if I ran a big company, serving thousands of customers every day, I’d want someone just like her.  She is the heart and soul of the company in my view.  Unfortunately, she isn’t seen that way by the company owners.  Very myopic, indeed.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this is as atypical as one might think — which is terribly backward to me, what with all our new, enlightened ways of treating customers (or just because we know they’ll stay longer) — how could a hip, savvy business owner fail to understand that his prized customers should be treated like royalty!

I know you’ll think I’m making this up, but I promise I’m not.  He actually told me once that he “follows shiny objects.”  Meaning that he’s too busy, following the next, exciting, techno-toy or some other distraction and so has to be reeled in, cornered and/or confronted with dwindling numbers before he’ll pay real attention to customers.

There is a phenomenon existing in the corporate world where some very attuned, genuine employees care more about customer care than the ones at the top.  It’s so myopic I still have a difficult time getting my head around it, yet it’s true!

So, if you have a company, I urge you to care about your customers.  And make sure you know how they are being treated, by your customer care department.  It could very well mean the difference between success or failure.

Insist on doing the right thing by your customers and your staff.  It’ll pay off in spades!  In fact, you can read about some startling statistics here.  One of which is that it costs 6 to 7 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.

Here’s to more caring and smarter marketing,

Carolyn

www.KickAssCopywriter.com

Hello,

I hope you’re never the victim of identity theft, accomplished over the Internet!  We never think about it happening to us … those horror stories we hear about the ‘other’ guy, right?

Well, lemme tell you, it’s just happened to me, and it has been a nightmare!

For all the good it’ll do, I want to at least share what happened to me and, maybe, it can help someone.  I wouldn’t wish this kind of punishment on my worst enemy, if I had one.

A trusted friend, an IT pro, was able to determine the virus came through my Android phone and attached to my gmail accounts.  The hacker was then able to SEE everything I did online.  And, as I changed passwords on various accounts, they came in right behind me and changed them again.

Try proving to Google that you’re the real owner of one of your accounts when the criminal has access to the same information as you do.  The hackers confiscated both of my accounts and, while I’ve been able to get one of them back, the criminals STILL control the other one!

Time and time again, I’ve tried to give them sufficient  information to prove that I’m me.  And all of the ‘normal’ ways to prove one’s identity don’t matter to Google — like driver’s license, social security number, birth certificate, passport — no, they’re not interested in that!

Google just wants to know the month and year you do everything.  Who remembers exactly when you opened your gmail accounts, anyway, when you’ve had them so long!

Well, if you didn’t write it all down, anticipating you may have to PROVE that you are you and your account belongs to YOU … someday you may need it if a hacker steals your accounts.

With the discovery that the Droid was the vulnerable path for the hacker, I got rid of it and bought an iPhone, instead.  My IT friend says Apple does a much better job than Google in the security department.

But, this is Google!  The Internet Giant can’t be trusted to build secure cell phones and email accounts?  That’s insane!  But, it’s also true.

The hackers were able to move thousands of dollars from my bank to my PayPal account.  Next, while they were under investigation, they managed to PAY the money to themselves!  Thankfully, PayPal sends an email when there’s been a transaction, so I was able to stop it.

The first time it showed up was on oDesk, when a payment was authorized to a contractor I’d hired for some web site work.  I was able to reverse the charge.  But the point is that they were able to SEE my password and use it, in order to accomplish this.

The email address for the fraudulent activity at oDesk is the same one used for the attempts at PayPal, attempts to buy things on my Amazon account and also to steal my gmail accounts.

I hated to get rid of my Droid, but I knew I was vulnerable.  I also loved doing business online, paying my bills, buying stuff on Amazon, PayPal and other places.  Now it’s very scary.

I’ve cancelled all my financial accounts, changed passwords numerous times, created new gmail accounts and managed to stop these goons from getting any money.  But, I might not have been so lucky.

Oh, there is a 2-step security measure you can take with gmail accounts.  So, if you use them — do it NOW.  Don’t wait till you’re hacked.

My entire life has centered around fixing this debacle.  The negative energy surrounding it is best described as ‘being invaded.’  It’s like storm troopers banged down my door and rushed in, with machine guns, while I was blissfully unaware they even knew where I live.

You know the ole saying, “Only the paranoid survive”?  Well, I’m quickly becoming one of the paranoid.  It changes you, it really does.

So, a word of warning … if you have an Android phone and gmail accounts … BE CAREFUL!  Watch all your accounts like a hawk.  And definitely get the 2-step security for gmail.  Because everything is written by techies, it’s not exactly ‘in plain sight,’ so you may have to dig around to find it.

And, I’ve also hired a security company to watch my web site because it was compromised also.  Real nice guy, Tom Raef.

Everything that you do online can be grabbed, if these guys get in.  So, please be careful.  I have NO stock in Apple, and was not happy about giving up my Droid.  Though I do have a Mac desktop and love it!  (Still have a PC laptop for now.)  But until and if Google fixes the vulnerabilities in the Android phone, I know it can’t be trusted.

Only the paranoid survive.  On the wild, wild, web — it pays to be protected.

To being secure,

Carolyn

www.KickAssCopywriter.com

Fellow marketer,

Creating a bond between a local business and their local customers is a MUST.  Otherwise, there’s no loyalty to do business with you over the same kind of business down the street.

You must create a bond between you and your customers that keep them coming back again and again.  And not only them, but you want them to tell all their friends and relatives, right?  Of course.

In Dan Kennedy’s new book, No B.S. Grassroots Marketing, he compares local business owners with political campaigning.  He says that every morning the business owner should get up and organize/act as if he is running for mayor.

Even in today’s political campaigns, they still rely heavily on grassroots campaigning — getting out and meeting people on the local level at every opportunity.  Yes, even in our high-tech world of Facebook, Twitter, web sites and other online marketing, there is no substitute for getting out in the community and meeting people, looking them in the eye and shaking their hand.

To compete with the big box retailers and online giants, like Amazon, local businesses must be unique — and personal!  You have to give people a reason to keep coming back … once they find you that is.  It’s relationship marketing at its core, which never, ever goes out of style.  We all like to be treated like a real human being, instead of a number.

The online world tries to simulate the ‘in person’ world, with every effort.  The objective in every word that’s written and every technique or delivery system that is used is to make it personal.  Every online marketer knows they must connect with their audience in a meaningful way.

The difference between trying to connect with the masses is that their faces are all blurred into one.  They really aren’t individuals, with names and families they can actually meet in person.  Even in my work, I rarely get to meet my clients in person because they’re everywhere.  So when I have a local client, it is such a treat to actually look them in the eye and shake their hand.  And, even actually speak to them on the phone occasionally!

It’s all about generating a bond of trust with your customers on the local level.  It’s a return to the simple.  Most people are quite starved for a return to simple and genuine. Afterall, your customers, clients or patients are just people.  And, after the shine of the new media wears off or becomes 100% dominated by the BIG advertisers, local business owners, who have created a relationship — a bond — with their customers will have a chance to survive and even thrive.

I think we’ll be seeing a return to simple, which means a return to our local communities for support of all kinds.  And buying local from people we know will also become more and more important.

Our world has become so fragmented.  For all the wonderful blessings we derive from global connectivity, it also produces a bit of a schizophrenic, ‘not-sure-what’s-what or who’s who’ kind of existence.  So I think now is a good time for local businesses to beef up their local relationship-building efforts.

These efforts don’t have to be expensive, either, when you know what to do.  So many local small businesses are disappearing by the day.  We all know about the demise of Borders, but other bookstores are going the way of the dinosaur and many hardware stores, restaurants, clothing stores and even some professional practices have also closed their doors.

Of course, we can point to the survival of the fittest (unless you’re a big bank or Greece) in a competitive landscape, the recession and other endless Washington DC-imposed restrictions as the culprits.  But some of the responsibility must rest on the shoulders of local business owners.  We’ve lost touch with our real-life customers and communities.

What can we do?  I believe we can join the ranks of those local businesses that have thrived, during these difficult times in spite of the recession, government interference and the distant online discounters and big box retailers.

I suggest we get back to the basics.  Like successful political campaigns, you need to be SEEN in your local community.  Isn’t it amazing that in our current high-tech world, we still see political signs stuck in every ounce of green space they can find.  And, shock of all shocks, they even meet with the locals and call people on the phone.  That’s pretty grassroots.

To your local business success,

Carolyn

The KickAss Copywriter

Hello,

It’s a Terrific Tuesday, and I’d like to talk about how we can ‘attract’ more business, customers or clients, instead of dragging them by the hair and forcing them to buy what we’re selling.  Or begging and pleading with them.

Put another way:  How NOT to be a used car salesman.

You know the type?  They’ll hammar you, bargain and berate if they have to.  And, at the end, they’ll bring out their ‘finance man,’ who has lots of almighty powers to wave a magic wand and shave off a few hundred dollars maybe.  Or if he’s really good at manipulation, he’ll try a few psychological ploys to get you to come around.

Gone are the days when businesses can brow beat a prospect, a customer or a client into doing business with them, wouldn’t you agree?  And what would you have, anyway, if you dragged someone — kicking & screaming?  OK, maybe they’d buy from you once, but who needs once?  The real money is in repeat customers, as we all know.

It takes a truckload more money to get new customers/clients than it does to nurture existing ones.  I think everyone knows that

So, how do you ‘attract’ the right customer/client to WANT to do business with you?  By now, you’ve probably heard this a thousand times … that’s because it’s true … it starts inside YOU!  If you’re putting out negative vibes, people will pick up on them and feel ‘repelled,’ instead of feeling attracted to you.  I’d say at least 90% of the responsibility is on the business owner’s shoulders.  (Or in their head and heart.)

Slow down.  When you were dating your wife (or hubby), you didn’t go from first meeting to a commitment, did you?  Didn’t it take a while to get to know each other before you both even knew whether there was enough mutually-beneficial reasons to take it to the next level?

There are a lot of choices for folks to choose from.  They want and expect the best.  So, if we want to attract the BEST customers/clients, we first must BE the best.  So, I’d say take a ‘top-down’ analysis of yourself and how you treat your customers.  And that starts with you.  (And me.)

Once you’re coming from a place of genuinely intending to serve, instead of ‘get,’ then you’ll want to reevaluate everything you’re doing.  Change anything that doesn’t scream SERVICE.  For example, if your customers have to wade through an automated voice mail, they’re already having to work too hard just to talk to someone.  Think about doing something really different and totally unexpected … have a real person answer your phones!  How novel.

If the order of the day is to extend a 30-day guarantee, then do it for 60.  Whatever you do, add a surprise.

And, do it all with a smile.  Everyone in your organization should be smiling and happy to come to work for you.  If they don’t, you have one less ambassador and one more negative vibe for people to pick up on.

If you deliver stuff, ask the driver to give your customer a tiny gift of some sort. (That you provide, of course.)  They WILL remember.  Same with any service business, give your customers/clients something little occasionally — a card for their birthday or an entry in a contest.

And make your online presence unique in some way, too.  You must stand out to get noticed.  And when you DO stand out, send the most positive, caring vibe possible.  And keep doing it over and over.  Not everyone will do business with you right now.  But, eventually, with enough in your pipeline, more customers will come to you.

It’s all just common sense, I know, but sometimes we get so caught up in high-tech that we forget our customers are human beings, just like us, afterall. And everyone likes to feel they’re dealing with someone who genuinely cares about them, right?

If you’d like a free 30-minute consultation, I’d be delighted to discuss your business and how you may start to attract more customers to you, instead of browbeating or begging.  With the proper marketing strategy and expert copywriting, your customer-retention and customer-acquisition will grow … as you attract more of the right customers to you and nurture the ones you have.

To your success,

Carolyn

The KickAss Copywriter

Fellow marketers,

Are you following the herd in your marketing?  If you are, then you’re just one more dumb follower, instead of a ‘stand-out’ leader and innovator.

If you’re like a lot of small businesses, you simply don’t have the money to stand out online.  Like most everything, the Internet has become so crowded that you’d have to spend a truck-load of money to get anyone to see you often enough to make an impact.

You’ve got to blog, keep up your Facebook and LinkedIn presence, pay for advertising there, maybe radio spots, PR, You Tube videos, Adwords … who’s got the time OR the money to do all of these things!

I’m still a big believer in direct response — online and good ole snail mail.  If you have a customer or prospect list (or can rent a good list), and you have a great product or service, then you must find ways to talk to these people directly.  And in a way they can feel.

I do a lot of direct response both online and in snail mail for clients.  We both love it because we can quickly determine if something’s working or not.  I’m not talking about branding.   Or a scatter-gun approach to advertising.  No, this is a no nonsense, “Knock on the door of people you already know want what you’ve got to sell” kind of approach.  With the purpose to SELL something right now.  (There’s a real skill in doing this right.)

I think a lot of small business owners aren’t familiar with the beauty of this kind of marketing.  It takes you out of the herd and makes you stand out!  You can create your own voice, your own personality and also build a relationship with your customers or prospects.  And, best of all, you can do it directly, without talking to people who don’t even want your product or service.

In fact, Dan Kennedy, the grandfather of ‘direct’ selling is doing a teleseminar I thought you may like to attend.  It’s on Feb 22nd at 2pm EST.

The title is “Tactical Grassroots Marketing Ideas and Systems that will Increase Your Customer Retention, Generate Greater Referrals, and Build a Thriving Business Today, Tomorrow, and Far into the Future!“

Go here to register:  http://dankennedy.com/grassroots

Till next time, break out of the herd!  And, if you’d like a free, 30-minute consultation, give me a call or send an email to carolyn@KickAssCopywriter.com.

Carolyn,

Copywriter Extraordinaire

Valentine’s Day is a lovely day to me.  It’s a day to remember the ones we love and, hopefully, to let them know.

Girls and women, of course, want to receive something lovely and tangible on V-Day.  For me, forget the candy, and send flowers and take me to dinner.  

I also feel another feeling on V-Day, which isn’t love in the particular … but just a feeling of love, acceptance, connectedness with everyone.

Until I go unconscious, I’m pretty aware of this thing we ‘loosely’ call love most of the time.  The reason (or beyond reason) is that I feel connected to all life and inside that connection is where love lives.

No, I’m not talking about the romantic-kind of love that one feels toward just one person (usually).  I just mean the recognition, knowing that we’re all interconnected (inner-connected).

Everyone’s essence is love, I think.  So, to the extent I can be in touch with my inner essence, I’m able to see, feel the inner essence of others.

Aside from the obvious, then, love can be experienced as a much broader feeling, embracing everyone and everything.  We are all ONE, I feel.

There’s no difference in business, either.  Everyone I do business with is also part of the enormous fabric of life, operating with whatever degree of awareness they have.  My job, then, is to accept them where they are.

Operating as a copywriter, I attempt to SEE my clients and their customers as love … to see beyond the apparent reality and SEE to their core essence.

So even when I get frustrated or stressed, if I can catch myself quickly enough, I can see how I’m showing up is affecting others around me.

So, on this day that we celebrate love, let us all strive to love/accept ourselves first and out of that ‘love vibe,’ we’ll telegraph love to others.  They’ll actually feel it and respond to it.

Try it.  When you’re frustrated, stressed or angry with someone … just breathe in love and breathe out hate (or fear, hurry, ambition, etc).  And practice seeing the other person as love — just like you.

Lovin every minute of it,

Carolyn

www.KickAssCopywriter.com

Marketing Partner

No matter what business you’re in, you’re really in the business of marketing.  If your business depends on the acquisition of customers and the continued service to existing customers … your business is marketing!

It doesn’t matter if you sell chiropractic services, ‘get skinny quick’ diets and exercise magic or automobiles — your business is still marketing.

Granted, the face of marketing has changed BIG time, with all the social media putting the cart before the horse, hasn’t it?

It’s an interesting phenomenon to say the least. And, the proliferation of web sites, offering a gazillion choices and so much ‘free stuff’ — marketers have to be pretty savvy just to let anyone know they exist!

Having a web site, which used to be somewhat of a feat, is no more than opening a brick/mortar office, with a shingle on your door.  Big deal.  Who cares?  But the bigger questions, as we all are painfully aware is, “how to get people to visit my pretty store?”

No one’s gonna know you exist and, therefore, will never get to learn how wonderful you are and how your products or services are so much better than your competition … IF they don’t see you everywhere!

And, if you’re not giving enough FREE stuff, FREE content, back linking like a crazy person and writing articles, till your fingers fall off …  and spending thousands with Queen Google, so she’ll find you worthy — forgetaboutit!

And if enough folks on Facebook don’t “Like” you and build a buzz around your business — are you done for?  But how much real business do you get from FB and LinkedIn, anyway?

Somehow, some way, every marketer (business owner) MUST drive enough traffic to his/her site and give away sufficient amounts of FREE stuff/content, so you can develop a relationship with the people, who grace you with 5 seconds of their coveted time.

And, when they get there … you better wowie them FAST or … click!

Does your marketing do that?  Do you have so much traffic to your site, begging you to let them buy your goods or services?  If you don’t, you may want to think about doing something that most of your competition isn’t doing.

Remember the days of snail mail?  No, not email; but snail mail — like using an envelope, with a stamp on it — remember those days?

To many of us, the use of direct mail never went out of style.  While everyone’s clamoring over Internet marketing, SEM, SEO, email marketing, affiliate marketing, social marketing … the voices are cacophonous … the lowly letter is a welcome relief!

Now, I’m not saying you should abandon your online campaigns.  Not at all.  But I AM strongly advocating you do some ‘out of the box’ thinking and send things to your prospective customers in the mail — in an envelope, with a stamp on it.  (And something lumpy inside that will BEG to be opened.)

It still works.  I know this because I’m using it with clients today in our super-sophisticated, hyper-high-tech society.  Yup, the lowly mail still works.  And, when done right, it stands out and gets noticed a LOT easier than all the online strategies you use.

The grandaddy of all direct response still preaches the use of mail.  And, of course, all the BIG publishers still use it with great success — in the financial space, real estate and health/fitness to name a few.

I actually talk about this in my latest report, which you can download from my home page at www.KickAssCopywriter.com.   It’s called “How the Internet Produces a Hyper-Volatile Society … and How That Affects Your Business.

Well, that’s enough for today.  What do you think about the over-crowded online market place?  And what are you doing about it?  Comments welcome!

And, if you’d like a FREE consultation (see that beautiful word) with me to discuss your  marketing challenges, just fill out the questionnaire.  And we’ll tawk!

At the end of this post, you can ‘Like’ me on FB … if you DO like me, that is.  And subscribe to get every, single post delivered right to your already over-crowded mail box.

To your marketing success,

Carolyn

www.KickAssCopywriter.com

If you haven’t bought Eckart Tolle’s new book, “A New Earth,” you’re missing the most valuable piece of writing to come along for a long time.

Mr. Tolle, and his new book, has turned into an “Oprah World-wide Webinar.  It’s attracting millions of people around the world … live every Monday night.

His other book, “The Power of Now,” was a New York Times Best Seller.

To fully understand where I’m coming from, you’ll need to consume the book, like a ravenous lamb.  It IS life-altering.  It embodies the highest truth available to us all.

That truth is that we already ARE that which we seek.  There really is nowhere to go outside ourselves to find it.  That “it” is the truth of our own identity.

It is found, without seeking.  It’s as near to us as our next breath.  It is beyond thought.  In fact, the very act of thinking is what separates us from a direct experience with this IT.

He expresses thoughts or the mind as many spiritual teachers have done, throughout the ages, as EGO.

For today, to attempt to focus on a take-away-lesson to be applied to our business lives and, more specifically, to our marketing, here’s the question …

Do you think too much about your marketing, instead of ‘allowing’ the way to just bubble up for you?

That bubbling up is the inspiration or direction that comes from a much deeper, more dependable place (awareness/consciousness) than from thought.  (mind)

This may sound quite contrary to many people, but I know many others will ‘get it.’

Many others are getting it around the world.  And, to the extent to which we use this amazing principal in our marketing efforts, the efforting will actually disappear.

What do I mean by that?

I mean there is a higher/deeper intelligence available to us, when we get out of our own way … out of our egoic minds.

Being in a state of ‘no-mind,’ one can tap into (connect) an intelligence that is running the show.  We, also, are that same intelligence; but rarely recognize it.

As you can imagine, when you are able to access infinite intelligence, it’s no longer you (ego’s idea of you), but the information is coming from a very BIG source, through you.

It doesn’t matter whether you call it Source, God, Atma, Alla, Jehovah, The All That Is, Divine Energy, Infinite Intelligence, etc.  It’s all the same.

It is beyond thought. It’s just the “Is-ness.”

I’m suggesting to you today that each of us is able to tap into this intelligence, but without the vehicle of thought.  In fact, you can’t get there from here!  (Using thought.)  

OK, you may be saying, “How do I do that and what does it give me?”

Good questions.

The simple answers are:

1.  How do I do this?  You do it thru by-passing the mind/thought and by being awake, aware and open to the answers from the depths of your being.

2.  What does it give me?  It gives you answers that your mind could not find.  They’re dependable, because they come from the unfiltered, direct repository of truth.

Because this repository of truth is the same for everyone, you don’t have to wonder if you can trust it or not.

Assuming, of course, that your business actually does provide a beneficial product or service, then you need only to genuinely and authentically ASK to know what it is, exactly, that your prospective customers want from a product or service like yours.

This is like tapping into an inner gold mine of revelation.  The long-awaited gems are right there for the taking/embracing.  They aren’t even outside of you … they’re right there, inside your very being.

The answers to your marketing questions are ever-present … hiding in  plain sight, when you know where to look.

Ask your inner guidance this question:  What do I really need to know, do or be for my customers to respond to me?

EXPECT the answers.  And they will come.

Don’t force the answers.  Don’t think and logically predict the answers because the mind is too slow, too dense, too filtered to ‘get it.’

If this doesn’t make sense to you, don’t feel bad.  It’s a little esoteric to some, but becoming more mainstream as a result of those like Eckhart Tolle and his forerunners, like Jesus, Buddah, et al.

Said another way, don’t force-feed your prospects or customers what you ‘think’ they want or need.  Connect with them, genuinely, and sense what they want/need.

May I humbly suggest that if you’re open to knowing more about how to be one of the quiet leaders in this “forward-non-thinking marketing mode” … find a marketing person, who is practicing these concepts in his/her everyday life-work.

Marketing, advertising and the copywriting that gives it a voice has always strived to touch the heart-strings of the people they seek to sell to.

But from my marketing/copywriting experiences there’s always a hint, if not a heavy handed, mind-manipulation.  This has never sat right with me and still doesn’t to this day, even though I’ve fallen prey to it as well.

In light of higher truths of who we are … that being the same as everyone else … I feel there is a higher ground presenting itself that we, as marketers, can embrace.

Higher Octave Marketing … are you open to operating from a higher, more conscious and all-embracing state of being in your personal, business and marketing lives?

I sense this is the time for business, as well as personal lives, to transform and transcend mind-based (egoic) behavior.

Will you join that leadership?

Will you grow your business, by feeding your customers what they genuinely want & need – rather than trying to convince them they want something just because you have it to sell?  Just do the right thing for the benefit of your customers.

Will you vow to discover their real wants/needs from the inside out, (their perspective)rather than from your mind-focused, external place?

If, indeed, we’re all ONE … then, doing bad things to each other actually hurts the perpetrator of harm as well as the harmed.  We’re all familiar with the old refrain, “what goes around comes around.”  It’s true.

For enlightened business, marketing and copywriting, let us all commit to a Higher Octave, in our dealings with self and other?

Yours in higher octave marketing,

Carolyn
http://www.kickasscopywriter.com