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What makes a hero?

Some say that you’ve got to save an airliner by jumping on a terrorist who’s about to blow up a plane.

Others think it’s the person who gives up their life so that others can live.

Yes, these people can be considered heroes. But, everyday, we have heroes among us and do not even know it.

Eric Paul was a hero. He died on Dec. 30, 2009 after a long battle with cancer. He was only 45.

He wasn’t a hero because he fought the deadly disease that killed him. Many people fight this scourge and lose.

He was a hero because of the way he lived.

Before the cancer even started it’s rampage through his body, Eric overcame some of the most fearsome obstacles anyone could face… And he overcame them through his faith in the Almighty and an optimism almost unheard of in today’s world.

Eric knew who he was on this planet and what he wanted to do. Not even cancer kept him from making his mark.

When Eric knew that he was fighting the battle of his life, he went into overdrive to set things in place… compressing a life’s work into short weeks.

I was fortunate to record an interview with Eric just three months after he went full-time into his performing career…. long before his final battle began. In it, he explained what he did to grow in a few short weeks to a full-blown profession. We talked about passion, giving more than expected, keeping focused.

Eric kept focused until the very end…. on other people.

I never once heard Eric say, “Why me, Lord?”

On Eric’s last video, from his hospital bed, {check it out on facebook www.facebook.com.ericpaul} Eric talks about helping others three days before his death.

No pity parties. No tearful regrets.

He fought a good fight. He kept the faith. He looked death in the face and didn’t waver.

Eric knew that death was just a doorway…. and he was ready to walk through.

Like everyone else, I’m thinking about 2010 and what I want to accomplish.

I want to help more people!

With that focus in mind, I am starting an Inner Circle or Mentoring program, if you will, to help teach others what I am doing.

Most everything I have been doing of late concerns using internet marketing for offline business.

That is to be my focus.

The bottom line in almost all marketing is the relationship you have with your customer or prospect. How do you develop rock-hard relationships that don’t go sour?

How do you get your first clients when you have no track record?

How do you get prospects to say yes to you?

You’ll find out these answers and more on a teleseminar I am holding shortly.

On January 9 at 1 PM Eastern, I’ll be interviewed by Gina Gray, an expert in Online marketing for Offline businesses.

Here’s a link for the webinar:

It’s that time of year again.

You know the drill.

Get stuffed on turkey.

Go shopping.

Send out Christmas cards.

Have some holiday cheer.

Etc., etc., etc.

You then make plans for a really smashing new year…. you hope.

But with all the plans, all the ideas, all the stars in your eyes…. You wonder if this is the time you really are going to have things come together or fall in the dust.

It can get depressing.

But getting depressed is not the answer…. it never is.

We are made to win.

We just haven’t realized it.

Everything about us, from our powerful brain, to our self-replicating body, was made to win and to live.

Our Creator made  us with abilities to overcome and to move forward, every step of the way.

Many of us just don’t get it.

In future posts, we’ll investigate some successful strategies you can use in your life and business.

Business owners and marketers are forgetting some simple facts.

We’ll get into them next post.

When getting ready to launch a new service with a client, we started to check out some stats. This client has a very high-end service as well as lower-priced products. After running the numbers, we found that concentrating on the high-end service would be extremely cost-effective.

Here’s why.

The vast majority of my clients who bought products, bought small, five dollar to ten dollar items. The rest of the clients purchased higher-priced, more profitable items. Now, with the new service being offered at close to one hundred dollars, which takes only 20 minutes (It is a health assesment)… The profit matrix is very good.

Therefore, my client is quickly going to change focus to providing this service and all support functions.

This reminds me of something, an associate once told me… It is easier to sell a few high priced items, than to sell a bunch of lower-end chaff.

This has proven true to me over and over again. Unless you have deep pockets to get the word out or are savvy enough to use all the resources of the ‘Net to sell a gazillion copies of your product, it is better to look for a higher priced product or service that is WANTED, rather than trying to sell to the masses.

On a personal note: I’m planning a seminar about using the ‘Net and other resources to move your business forward, no matter what happens in the economy…. watch for it.

Don, the postman, died this week. The weapon was not a gun, but cancer.

Don was my uncle.

At the wake, from the moment the doors were open, until the wake ended, five hours later, there was a constant line through the chapel, winding down the hall, to the doors outside. From friends and family, to co-workers, and even uncountable throngs of people on his route, the crowds came.

Hundreds and hundreds of people came to pay respects to this “simple” postman.

How does a “simple” postman garner such love and respect?

Don was not a hero.

Don did not have millions of dollars he gave away.

Don was not a celebrity.

Don did not have friends in high places.

Don was an ordinary man who cared for people.

He loved his family. He loved The Beatles. He loved classic muscle cars.

He had the ability to make you laugh within 1 minute of meeting him. You loved him after talking to him for an hour.

Don was a man who believed everyone could be a friend. Everyone needed to be touched inside by someone who cared.

At the wake, I overheard someone say that if anyone met Donald and didn’t like him, then something was wrong.

Don was faithful.

He loved his wife. He loved his daughter. He never faltered.

Day after day he delivered his mail. He talked with folks.

Can one man doing ordinary things make an impact?

As the hearse carried Don’s body to the church, dozens and dozens of US Postal vehicles lined the street, with postal carriers standing with their hands over their hearts in a silent tribute.

The postal vehicles then followed the crowds to the church. Hundreds showed up there as well. As the coffin was carried up the steps, a shout from the postal carriers rang out, “We love you, Don!”

This act gave me a new image of the post office. If these “common” delivery people would come out with love and respect in this manner and serve as an example of everyone that loved him … then “Going Postal,” has a whole new meaning for me.

My uncle Don was not a “blood” uncle, but was my wife’s uncle. However, from the first day I met him, I loved him. He became “my” uncle, too.

Are the people you touch every day made better for having known you?

After seeing and hearing what an impact my uncle Don had on people, and not just his coworkers, but the people from the homes he visited daily, to the people that shared their mutual admiration for cars, to the people he met at the grocery store, I know now, everyone makes a difference. Everyone should “Go Postal.”

Donald E. Schlosser

1950 - 2009

It was one of those days…

Meetings with associates ALL DAY LONG to clear up “little details.”

The first meeting was breakfast with several associates who proceeded to chatter and chat about various concerns and day-to-day problems that weren’t useful to the business at hand, but made for conversational fodder.

Next was a meeting with the VP which dragged for 75 minutes with half the attendees wishing someone had brought pillows.

On to another meeting.

Have you ever gone to a BNI meeting that dragged on as long?

Final meeting lasted 160 minutes with a break for lunch.

Everything that was covered FOR THE DAY could have been covered in about 40 minutes, at home via conference call or webinar.

Why do I mention all this stuff?

There is a LOT of time wasting in business. And I have a suspicion that it is about two things:

POWER and CONTROL

As long as a boss has you in a meeting to cover X amount of points or has you sitting listening to umpteen reasons why skinning kettlefish is good for the soul, the boss is in control.

Sidebar: Don’t get me wrong, if you are an owner of a company and you want your employees to listen why you wax eloquent on a topic, that’s fine. But when it comes to productivity, you need to get meetings going quickly.

In my businesses, the goal is profits. My people are paid for production.

More about time wasters in the next blog.

When Gutenberg introduced his press to the masses, the world was changed forever more.

No longer would a select few have the know-how to control information and therefore control the populace.

Has the emergence of video blogging, uploading to YouTube or a dozen other video sites had the same effect on our communication? It’s true that with everybody and their cousin uploading video content, you’d think there would be NO secrets anymore.

Everything would be available right?

Not exactly.

When the fast desktop computers arrived a few years ago, everyone thought the publishing industry was doomed. What happened then is happening now with video.

Namely, when desktop publishing first started everyone started printing and publishing to beat the band. Unfortunately, just because you have the ability to design a brochure yourself and print it on your own high-end printer, does not mean you will have a GREAT brochure. If you were not a good copywriter before you had all the equipment, then you did not suddenly change when you had the ability to design and print.

With video, it’s no different.

We have the ability to create video quickly. You can use a program like Keynote, add music, add photos, export to Quicktime, and viola, you are a producer!

But who is going to look at your video? Is it any good?

How are you going to distribute the video? Can you do it effectively?

Can you place the video on your website? Do you want to?

What’s the purpose of your video? Are you making a statement?

I think video in the hands of everyone is a good thing. However, as time passes, the cream will rise to the top.  Good video will help promote what you will and the bad will fall away.

Like any new technology, it can be used for good or evil.

The impact continues to increase.

This tool will always be available in one way or another.

How are you going to use it to increase your profits?

I was thinking the other day about a client I had who just didn’t get it.

We had spent quite a bit of time looking at the way he ran his business. He had experience in the promotional arena, but was now in a completely different field. When he brought me onboard, he agreed to listen and take my advice to heart.

It worked for a while.

He sang my praises instantly in the beginning. What I showed him was remarkable in his eyes. He saw himself building a large business. He saw himself hiring more people. He saw himself moving ahead.

Then we hit an impasse. Instead of doing what I advised, he wanted me to do it all for him. He didn’t have the time.

I said OK. But, I added, it would cost him XXXX for me to do it.

Here is the bombshell.

It wasn’t worth it to him for ME to do it at that price.

We discussed the fact that doing the things he asked me to would bring in X more clients at X more profits, for X more dollars in the bank.

What the real story was…. After I had made some money for him, he did not want to KEEP paying me!

Most of the business owners do not see what a silly mistake that is.

It’s like the old story of a full line of machinery breaking down and a tech comes in and taps a little place on the machine. Everything working now, so the tech wants $250.

For a little tap, you’d think that was high. But for getting a large machine back in order, it was cheap.

My former client didn’t think I should be paid to do some valuable business development work for him (He said he could do it himself.)

Where is he now?

Still locked up in his small plant, unable to get out, because he hasn’t grown.

Paying the price now, pays off big time later.

My wife and I were at the pool today. This is a public pool and for our small town is quite large. It was about 11 am and we were the only adults in the water.

The local park district had a busload of youngsters at the pool so they could enjoy the summer cooling off.

As I got in the pool, 5, 6, and 7 year olds made a point to tell me that they could swim. “Hey, watch this,” they cried. One boy jumped into the pool near me and said, “I can do cannonballs. Want to see me?”

As I laughed at the excitement of the kids, my wife took me aside and told me to watch out that I didn’t get too close to the youngsters because their teachers were watching. She didn’t want the teachers to think I was some sort of pervert.

Later as we were talking in the pool, she mentioned that she would keep close, so I wasn’t alone “with the kids.”

I remarked to her how silly it was, but got to thinking about it for a long time.

Isn’t it interesting that society has made ANY male suspect if he is alone with a child?

It doesn’t matter if the child is his or not, all men are pigs, you’d hear some say.

My wife loves me and truly wants the best for me is the reason she made mention of the kids to me in the pool. She did not want people to get the wrong idea.

It really shook me to the core because I have spent a good portion of my life educating kids, performing for kids at schools, and working with families for years. I know how precious children are to their families. I’d sooner lock myself in a room somewhere than hurt one of these young ones.

But, you see, the children did not know this was going on. The kids blissfully played, jumped, laughed and did what kids do.

They smiled and ran.

A lot.

Young people don’t remember when kids walked to school with no fear of being taken. Young people don’t remember a time when mothers just whistled outside the door for them to come in, no matter how far afield they had run.

Let the kids run. Let them dance.

Soon enough, they’ll learn to be afraid of every little thing.

Sad.

I was talking with a nice young lady who was trying to sell me a little advertising so I could tap into my local market. In the course of the discussion I told her that almost 100% of my clients were from out of state or out of the area.

She plowed on.

Then I asked if she could tell me how many clients she had who could state that they got X amount of customers from a listing, banner ad, or radio promotions.

She couldn’t tell me.

She plowed on.

Then I mentioned that I have a systematic referral program that brings clients to me, so I didn’t need her services AND BTW, almost everyone I talk to is out of town…

She plowed on.

It was if I was speaking another language or just plain gibberish.

She didn’t understand.

Finally, after my publishing a new book came up, she said she wanted one. I told I would personally bring it by.

That seemed to break her pattern of plowing through whatever a prospect says to get to the sale.

After I hung up, I remembered the times when in the beginning of my career where I wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept plowing ahead.

Anything other than a “yes” was gibberish to me.

Since then, I’ve had to learn to slow down and really listen to what someone is saying without loading my guns behind my back, ready to fire.

A lot more gets done that way and i have a lot less egg on my face.