Clayton Makepeace is probably the best marketer out there alive today. Probably learned more by putting ideas from his free site into use then from most things I have purchased. Anyway today he wrote this on his site, and I wanted to share it with you guys as I think it's very good. Dear Business-Builder, Right now, our prospects are experiencing some of the most intense and contradictory emotions theyâve ever had in their entire lives. By day, they rail against others for creating their financial problems. The saner ones point the finger at the long line of economic idiots and criminals who have occupied The White House, Congress, the Treasury and the Fed for the last couple of decades. Others â those with a more tenuous grip on reality â blame âthose greedy bankersâ for having the unmitigated gall to actually approve every loan and credit card application they ever submitted. But regardless of who our prospects may blame in broad daylight, itâs not so easy to escape the real villain as they seek the sweet release of sleep. In the privacy of their own bedrooms each night, theyâre confronted with the humiliating truth that they and they alone created their own, personal financial crises ⦠By spending more than they should have. By saving less than they should have. And by accumulating far more debt than they should have. They regret scoffing at old-fashioned admonitions to be prudent with money. To live sensibly, modestly and within their means. To accept debt sparingly or not at all. And to save extravagantly. They marvel at how much money theyâve earned over the last decade or two ⦠at how fast it vanished ⦠at how pathetically little they have to show for it. And they torture themselves, thinking how much better life would be if they had that money now. They excoriate themselves for plunging into debt to buy more house than they needed and then borrowing even more to create the illusion of success: The fancy furnishings, the expensive cars, the designer fashions, the lavish dinners out, the trophy vacations and all the other now-worthless crap they bought to impress others. So every night, in bedrooms around the world, billions are teaching themselves timeless lessons ⦠Theyâre learning that â despite politiciansâ false promises to the contrary â the law of personal responsibility is as intractable as the law of gravity. Just as no law or government program ever penned or signed by the hand of man could repeal the law of gravity, no legislation has ever provided permanent escape from the consequences of our actions. And when entire societies consisting of billions of individuals lose their way, no government ⦠not even all the governments on Earth combined ⦠can save them from the inevitable consequences of their actions. Because governments have no resources other than those that have been earned and retained by its most successful citizens. And because even if all of those resources were confiscated, they would pale into insignificance compared to the debts amassed by the other 90% of the population. We â all of us â sowed the seeds of this financial whirlwind with profligate spending, with excessive debt and with a dearth of savings. And now itâs time for us, our children and our childrenâs children to reap the inevitable hurricane. This, too, haunts many of our prospects each night as, in their mindsâ eyes, they stare at the pile of bills awaiting them on the kitchen table â scraps of paper demanding the payment due for past pleasures. And they wonder and worry about what will become of their families in the weeks and months ahead. Some are even doing the math; calculating and recalculating how long they could survive if their income suddenly stopped; if their governmentâs actions extend the crisis for years or even decades ⦠what they will do if they suddenly find themselves among the 15 million who are now unemployed in the U.S. alone. How can I know our prospects are feeling all this guilt, regret and fear? Simple: Iâm feeling it myself! No, Iâm not pleading poverty, here. By working back-breaking hours all my life ⦠enduring the hard times without giving up ⦠and by trying to make prudent decisions with my money ⦠Iâve become one of the âluckyâ ones. Plus, Iâve taken my own advice; Iâve focused my business on niches that tend to do well in tough times. So not only is my income still in the top fraction of the top 1% of all Americans, Iâm actually earning more than I did this time last year. Better yet, I saw this crisis coming two years ago and began curtailing my spending, paying down my debt and building up my savings as if my life depended on it. But now, as I contemplate everything Bushama and Congress are doing to guarantee this crisis will be with us for a decade or more, I canât help but worry anyway. And frankly, I often kick myself for self-indulgent purchases Iâve made over the years and for failing to sock away millions more in the salad days of the 1990s and early 2000s. Because at a time like this, thereâs no such thing as having âtoo muchâ money saved for the rainy days ahead. And I know in my heart that if Iâm having wim-wams ⦠foregoing all but the most essential purchases ⦠and saving every dime I can lay my hands on ⦠millions of our prospects are, too. This is the greatest sea change of our careers What we are now seeing take place in the hearts and minds of ourselves, our customers and our prospects is nothing less than a massive, global reversal of attitudes ⦠A convulsion in how our prospects view reality that will have an enormous impact on the kinds of products we develop and the way we market them for the rest of our lives. Because we are now witnessing the rapid demise of the spendthrift mindset that has grown so many companies for so many decades ⦠And weâre witnessing the birth of a new generation of far more rational, cautious, thinking consumers ⦠Consumers who have suddenly realized that the âold-fashionedâ virtues of common sense, prudence and thrift are time-honored for a reason: They have been proven to be lifesavers over many millennia. Consumers who have learned the hard lesson their parents and grandparents learned during The Great Depression: That the only thing thatâs more important than saving money for a rainy day is to use money to make more money that will see you through tough times. Now, even I get it: These are the depression-era lessons that caused mom to save every scrap of string and every rubber band in big tangles under the kitchen sink. These are the lessons that made my dad go ballistic when I left the lights on in an unoccupied room or when I blew my allowance money on some useless do-dad. This is the financial Judgment Day they so often warned me about; the day of paying the price for scoffing at their stingy ways. Somewhere, Mom and Dad are nodding their heads in grim agreement. And somewhere, my dadâs gloating: âSo what are you going to do if this crisis outlives your money? Huh, smart boy?â Cool your jets, Dad; I get it! But since, unlike all you dead people, I canât travel in time, itâs not going to do me one damn bit of good to cry over spilt milk. What I can do, though, is to expend every ounce of energy at my command to make as much money as is legally and ethically possible, every hour, day and working week. Because only more money can get my family safely through a decade or more of this. That means recognizing that every promotion I write must work even harder to prove the value my product brings to prospectsâ lives ⦠to demonstrate as graphically as possible that the price is the bargain of a lifetime ⦠and to create guarantees that make buying it ⦠from me ⦠NOW ⦠an absolute no-brainer. I also need to vastly improve how I spend my workdays â to find new ways to get more work done ⦠better work done ⦠more profitable work done every hour I spend at my desk. And it goes without saying that I need to review my client list â make absolutely sure Iâm working ONLY with clients whose products and services are likely to do best as this crisis intensifies. Most importantly, I need to find ways to structure more productive working relationships with those clients â relationships that make them more money so they can pay me more money. How about you? Iâm willing to bet that if you give this little âdepression survival checklist,â a few hours thought, youâll have taken a big step towards coming through this thing smelling like a rose, too. Iâll even help you do all this and more: By revealing for the very first time ALL of the business techniques that have caused both Bob Bly and AWAI to name me âAmericaâs highest-paid marketing consultant and copywriter.â So be sure to watch your inbox for a major announcement later this week! In the meantime, why not scroll down and post a comment to show us your personal survival plan? Yours for Bigger Winners, More Often,
btw, I'll have a website up in a few hours. I'll be using it as a template to show you guys how to go about lead generation, creating landing pages blah blah blah blah. I hope to have a lot of following the same steps with me, that I wont be the only one making $10,000 over the next two months, because I'm sure that if you follow what I'm doing you can too. Btw, this involves YOUR OWN PRODUCTS as well as some affiliate marketing stuff. Brandon
Hi Brandon, Wishing and hoping for the best for you. Hopefully what you're doing here is helping you take your mind off things and helping you out with the boredom as well. Don't let it drain your energies for what's more important right now. Hang tough, bud.
It's a lot of that. I figure though that really I got nuthin but time, and a lot of it too boot. So, instead of being bored (There are only 11 TV stations here) and complaining about the crappy situation I'm in I figure I might as well try to do something. I'm also hopeful that when I'm successful with it, then it will show people that they can do any damn thing they put their mind too. Kinda like..if that poor sucker can do it..imagine what I can do. I suppose it does not always work like that, but I hope it can in a few cases.
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Staph is one of the most lethal underground killers IMO. Few people realize how devastating this infection can be if left untreated. A few years back I got a small reef cut while surfing in the carribean. The cut was just above my knee - literally a 1 cm poke from some live coral - nothing to be worried about, right? I've had so many reef cuts over the years that I gave it a quick cleaning and forgot about it. 3 days later I was on a plane back to the US and kept having to scratch my inner thigh. Two days later a golf ball size growth gradually appeared on my inner thigh and I immediately thought I got bit by some nasty bug. Anyhow, I stupidly ignored it for another day and then, after I started get red streaks along my leg, I made into the hospital... I was a stubborn person who didn't think anything serious was going on. Low and behold I had to get the whole thing (imagine a tennis ball size growth on your inside thigh - swollen and red) removed as it was literally eating my leg... most painful experience I've ever had, they gave me local and it didn't do anything to numb the area as the infection was immune to local. F--k it hurt. I've broken bones, had a few hundred stiches here and there, however, nothing I've ever experienced compared to the pain I felt when that doctor started cutting this POS out. I watched the doctor cut a nasty puss filled ball/cyst off my inner leg and stuff it with gauze. I passed out for a few minutes when it was over. I bled everywhere I sat for the next week as the gaping hole had to flush itself, the abscess had to be left open in order to properly heal. Anyhow, that's my staph story. I had never even known how lethal it was. Turns out after doing some research, it is one of the most prolific killers out there as it is found mainly in hospitals. Make sure everything you touch is sanitized... once you get staph, your system is forever vulnerable. Be extra careful especially during the next year as staph reoccurs most often when your immunity is low (as it will be following this experience). Extra sanitary with everything (no matter how trivial) is mandatory - especially other people (avoid touching unwashed hands). Problem is, staph lives all over our bodies (a lot lives in your nose), hence you're pretty much always at risk... don't pick your nose!!! Also, whenever I travel now I bring GSE (grape seed extract). I've heard GSE has some preventative properties, you might want to look into it. Anyhow, good luck and congrats for surviving that shit. Mike
Yeah basically no more eating buggers for me! If it aint one thing it's another I tell ya. Staff is though a very serious ordeal. It's also MUCH MUCH more common in the United States then it is anyplace else, even in 3rd world countries in some cases. The reason for this is very simple: In most countries THEY ASSUME YOU HAVE STAFF until your test results come back showing that you don't. That means isolation, gowns etc etc for 48 to 72 hours when the results come back. Might seem like a lot to go through until you realize that nearly 20,000 people die per year from Hospital Staff..most of them came in for "routine" surgery and where otherwise healthy when they got it. You are right about the pain, just off the charts. I had a kindey stone a few years ago, and this was worse. Anyway thank you for sharing your story Mike. It's kind of sick, but it makes me feel better to hear that other people have been through this as well..that I'm not alone I suppose. It's been miserable but I know that I will come out on the other side of it. Brandon
Nah - its not sick. Shit happens. One ought to at least find some humor in these types of ordeals if possible. Also, I made a typo in my prior post - its GSE: *grapefruit* seed extract (not grape seed extract). Regards, Mike