A Midwest Journal

There is an old joke you must first puzzle out:

How do you get down from an elephant?

You don’t, you get down from a goose.

Let’s go back to our simple basics:

• Most people run on semi-automatic. Meaning they are letting their subconscious do the work for them. They only answer the telephone when it rings. These are the factory workers, the cubicle hourly workers, the warehouse and set-wage people who contribute a fixed part of their wages to the Government every week, on an increasing scale the more they make. This is about 97% of the world’s population.
• Of the remaining 3%, most are in incredible action to get things done. They either run corporations or start them and sell them to others who do, then starting another. Most of these are self-employed or own the company and work either on dividends or in as many low- or non-taxable ways as there can be invented. Politicians and government leaders are in this bunch (and their staffers are in that first group.)
• And there is a micro-fraction of the whole – about 3% of 3% who really run the world’s wealth. Or they are independent otherwise in the extreme and create the inventions you use all the time. They may work for salaries, but they don’t necessarily depend on these. More often, they are independently wealthy, or have other support systems which allow them an independence from day-to-day necessities of living.

Most of your buyers are in that 97%. And that’s where all your taxes come from as well.

And since those 97% run on the subconscious patterns (mostly), they are relatively easy to offer goods based on “wants” and “needs”, and to get purchases. Meaning they work all week so that marketers can take their money at the end of it. Or, as in credit cards, they set it up for these people stay in hock until they die. And then go after their relatives for that debt.

The 3% think they are running the show – however, they are also running on mostly semi-automatic. They are simply in action instead of stuck in a rut of expecting things to be handed to them when they work long and hard enough. While these few are the task-masters of the world. They also don’t have a clue on what is actually going on.

That 3% of 3% do actually understand the systems, or at least the bulk of them. And they can concentrate on exactly what they have to operate to get the other 99.9% (+/-) to do what they want, more or less. They think they have the tiger by the tail. But they only succeed to the degree they stick to the system they have and that system is mostly complete. Bill Gates, Warren Bufffet, Sam Walton, all these guys. They concentrate on a system that works.

So selling to any of these bunches is quite simple. Know how the subconscious works and pander to it. Offer systems to that 3% who are in action. But use those same psychology-buttons to get them to buy. Even that .09% will settle to some degree based on your offerings. In most cases, they make or control such vast sums it doesn’t matter if they waste some of it here and there. Plenty more where that came from.

And the write-ups on the systems to market and sell goods to people exist widely on the Internet. Even available as free downloads. Again, you only have to concentrate your attention on finding them, proving them, and using them.

What they will buy:

• 97% will buy stuff. Material things which temporarily satiate their desires. As instant a gratification as possible.
• 3% will buy into systems to control or run other peoples’ lives – especially the ones that make that stuff.
• .09% will buy the copyrights, trademarks, and patents to those systems and license them. Plus buy that company itself.

There is only one rule: You can’t sell something they don’t actually think they need or want. And if you work to deceive them into momentarily thinking they need something when their subconscious says they actually don’t, you’ll wind up paying them more in return than the sale was worth. Almost all of their thoughts are semi-automatic, and their wants and needs are pretty much pre-ordained. (Just reverse engineer my anti-scam checklist and you’ll find them.) This rule holds top to bottom. No real exceptions.

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There is a very, very small minority – about 3% of 3% of 3% – or .0027% who are actually immune to the whole system.  They don’t actually need or want stuff. Because these are an enlightened few who don’t work either reactively or pro-actively. They operate intuitively.  And while the wealth they accumulate (and they are usually very wealthy if they put any attention on it at all) comes through the “normal channels of industry and commerce”, you’ll find that they don’t work very hard to make it show up.

These extreme minority few don’t actually work at all. They intuitively know what actions they have to take, but it’s a game to them. They have fun at every single thing they do. Life is unending joy.

And the rest of these guys above would pay just about anything to know and understand and be able to simply do those actions for themselves.

But there’s a trick to this.

Money can’t buy it. And there’s no way to market it or sell it.

You can only earn it.

And these rare few don’t even consider that it’s their job to package this system up and tell people about it, or offer it on any market. Sure, some write books, some make DVD’s or CD’s, or lecture, or hold seminars. But they do this for fun.

They know that only a very, very, tiny handful of people out there are ready to get what they are offering. Because that is how many people are actually ready for it.

To the rest – they are selling a system. And when you study the above, you know exactly what they will do with whatever you offer through your marketing. You’ll know who your clients are, and who your consumers are, and who to sell out to when you intuit you want to do something else.

But they also know that only a handful (as in: you can count on one hand) will actually get what they are saying and put it to actual use in their lives.

So: “To those who have ears, let them hear…”

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Or – buy a book from my “Go Thunk Yourself” bookstore.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashevillein/

Somebody ought to give these guys a clue: put a sock in it so the rest of us don’t have to listen to your hysterical death moans.

While on the Internet the other day (my chief form of both livelihood and information), I was visiting right-of-center Real Clear Politics – who I adopted during the last three years of campaigning because they were the only ones who averaged all the polls.

I was astonished to find, after Tax Day, how many disparate and desperate opinion (not factual) pieces their were about what had happened. It went from twisted support to knife-twisted-in-back denial. Even commentary on commentary where Keith Obermann had used reportedly sexual innuendo to describe it.

Who cares? No, really – WHO CARES?!?

There is a reason that the NY Times is estimating a 30%+ loss in advertising revenue for the next year. There is a reason for the “Big City” newspapers going under at a record pace. There is a reason that people who watch the Network news are fewer and fewer by double-digit percentages. There was even a rumor that one of the two people who watch MSNBC and CNBC (they take turns) – actually fell asleep…

Relevance.

The mainstream media can’t get used to the fact that it’s dying. A very slow and painful death (at least for the rest of us.)

It’s not that people don’t care. They don’t care for the slant, the diatribes, the couched phrases, the unabashed support of certain liberal senators.

People don’t care who is the anchor for the evening news or what sex they are – they don’t watch it anyway. (Except for the reviewers and those employed by NBC, CBS, and ABC. But these are the mourners, not the rest of the passer-bys outside the cemetery on the sidewalk.)

People do care about what is going on and what is really happening. And they know that there is more than two sides to every story – and that anyone who thinks they are some sort of expert officiator is full of more manure than any herd out there. (And they are thinking about taxing farmers for cow gas – what about newscaster and politician gas?!?)

While the mainstream media is dying off, why are local papers (and local banks for that matter) doing just fine and even – gasp – expanding in this economy?

Relevance.

What’s on the local newspaper front page? What happened locally that day. What’s on page 3 or page 5? National and World News. Oh, there is a blurb which runs at the bottom if something important is happening. But covering the election – it’s how the local voter turnout went.

Some used to say that there were bubbles on each coast (probably connected by a very long tube) where all the “really important” stuff happened. And we in the middle were lucky enough just to capture bits and pieces and overviews of it – that we should feel honored that there were three news agencies who would digest it all and present it in half-hour segments each night at dinner.

Let’s get something straight. They’re nuts.

I watch TV for the weather and get my news from the Internet. And this means that I try to avoid the National News, since they don’t carry local weather. My family likes to catch the sports as well. But that’s it.

And our TV has to be propped up when any “Network News” is on, because they are so slanted, the TV would fall off the stand if it weren’t supported.

Impartial? Look, my dogs are impartial – as long as I feed them something they can eat and they have a dry spot to lie in. My cows are impartial – as long as they have plenty of pasture or hay and water (and I keep the dogs from chasing them). Try treating a “news person” that way.

But is that a fair comparison? Well, how do the news people treat me? “This political party is horrible; that political party is saving the day.” The government did this nonsense thing today, but when the business do the same nonsense thing yesterday, they covered it as some horrible sin against humanity. Some politicians and candidates are held up on pedestals, some others are held up to thinly veiled scorn.

Do I need real facts that I can judge for myself? Yes. Do I need to put up with noise and pandering and slanted diatribes couched as “fair, impartial journalism”? Hell, no.

So around this house the TV goes off except for the morning and evening weather. We get the local “big city” paper on Sunday. I have one favorite comic strip, my brother-in-law likes the want ads, my mother likes the opinion section and the recipes (only one of which soothes the stomach – guess which…)

What’s entertainment? Nothing on TV. What’s the commercials for their “hot, new shows” — people dying, getting killed, being investigated after being killed, investigations into killings that happened years ago, specials on people who are trying to save the planet (which is being killed….) And so on. Ad nauseum.

Or there are “reality shows”. Nope. People on remote islands and deserts doing stupid antics and trying to act like the TV cameras aren’t there. Do you see any camera in a trailer park seeing people raise their kids while they hold down two jobs and their grandmother makes sure the kids’ homework gets done? Nope. We see millionaire bachelors fooling around with 20 or more women and deciding to “marry” one of them. Yeah, that’s real. Or game shows where 20 or so girls with amplified bosoms and barely dressed holding briefcases so a bald guy can tease a person into saying and doing really stupid things to “win” something in those empty cases. That’s real high-brow.

How about comedy. Go ahead – find some. Most of the half-decent comedy reruns used to fill afternoon slots and now has been replaced by “Judge Jerky” and “Judge Korky” and ‘Law & Order” reruns from five years ago.

OK, there is one show we watch when we can get it – a game show where the host is actually polite and funny at times and people do nothing but win money if they can guess the words right. Nobody dies, no one gets investigated, no one’s in prison. No sex, no violence, nobody dies (some of the jokes fall flat, but that’s no crime…)

Sure, there’s plenty of all that on the Internet as well, you could say. But there is also a lot of everything else as well – tons more. And the choice itself is relevance.

And yes, we used to watch Fox News and the Discovery Channel and even CSPAN – until some boobs decided to take it off the big dish – and we tried the small dish for awhile and got tired of paying for 20-30 channels of stuff we didn’t want for the 2 or 3 we did.

It’s cheaper to just watch what we want – local news and local weather – then turn it off the rest of the time.

Why, oh why do I have to listen and watch what some cock-eyed TV or newspaper executive – someone who has probably never had to change his own flat tire, or grow his own vegetables, or raise chickens for the eggs and stew them when they got too old – much less rescue a healthy calf that was born in an unseasonal blizzard, and raising them to a good weight only to sell them off at auction a year later.

No, most of these guys grew up in some suburb and then moved into a condo or apartment where they don’t even have a yard – working in another high-rise across town (so to speak) where they listened to other people in suits who spoke from “on high” about what advertisers thought people wanted to hear on those magic boxes in their living rooms.

And the “down their nose” attitude toward the rest of the country is infectious and spreads like the plague up and down the halls of those palatial boardrooms and studios.

Does anybody really care that Keith Obermann pouted until he got a door with a window in it for his new office? Hell, no.

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Here’s a reality show I’d like to see: get all those newscasters and TV personalities and line them up in front of a series of “pre-owned” cars. No, get some real used ones. You know, the ones where nobody cares to wax them any more because it would point out the rust spots worse.

Make sure they are dressed up in their usual suits and blouses and whatnot. Give them all a wireless mic so they think they know what they are doing. Then tell them it’s a contest and they have to change that flat tire on the car behind them, get it started and drive it to the filling station 5 miles away. Good luck.

I’m often talking out loud to my Senator or the President or one of these news anchors as I’m on the third day of fixing a section of fence the rain took out last fall and the wind dropped a couple of trees on during the winter. Do any of these guys look like they could even start a chain-saw, much less run one for a few hours? How about splicing barbed-wire? Know how to herd cattle just on your lonesome and two half-trained dogs without spooking them or losing any calves? Do they know what to do with a steer who’s got bloated up from eating too much wet clover in the spring?

I’ll swap them for their job almost any day – for awhile, anyway. I could do what they do with no problem. Write some stories and read them off in front of a robot camera. Nothing to it. Really. But it would be harder on me, because I know they wouldn’t take care of my herd and I’d be way behind when I got back because they wouldn’t know how to get the equipment ready for this season’s planting.

AND – they’d get all the good food, while I would have to make do with a bunch of stuff shipped in from thousands of miles away and was about as fresh as the bottom of my boots. (Would smell nicer, though…)

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Yes, I’m the same Dr. Robert C. Worstell who has a PhD and 7 other degrees. So don’t get all snooty with me. I’ve written, edited, and published around 4 dozen books and keep up with (more or less) another two dozen blogs – that I personally post to, not some scriptwriter down a long hall somewhere. I’ve given speeches, podcasts, videos – been there, done that.

But I also know how to drive a dual-axle 10-speed transmission, a John Deere tractor with a couple less (and two of those are reverse) – and which cover crops will bring back soil fertility in a worn-out flood plain.

And I know better than to take a tour bus into the middle of a corn field in Iowa in order to “get a story” about a combine and corn harvest, only to get stuck in soft ground (not even mud.)

Oh, come on. Same folks who got a corn picker and a combine mixed up last year (“reporting” some tragic accident from the year before). Heard the same story all day, about 5 or 6 times – somewhere in there it was corrected, at least by dinner. This was on national news – not the local channel. They’d have more sense.

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Do I know about big cities? Sure – I lived in L.A. for over 20 years. Right downtown Hollywood – not in those suburbs. So I’ve seen the crime, and the pimps, and ho’s, and “bruthah’s”, and the rich and famous as well. Porn peddled on the street corners and dirt almost everywhere (except when there is a premiere where they sweep it up and hose it down and put some red carpets over it.) The bums are back the next day, just as soon as the crews take down the velvet ropes.

Which do I prefer? Guess. Where did I make more money? Guess. Does money buy happiness or accurate news reporting? Don’t even have to flip a coin on that one.

So these news guys and gals should take a hint or two:

1. Get a real job, get a real life.
2. Go do something nice for someone for a change. Quit talking everything and everyone down because your ‘spozed to’.
3. Get a real yard and plant a real garden. Raise some tomatoes and lettuce, maybe some sweet corn.
4. Meanwhile, put a sock in it and j-u-s-t – s-h-u-t – u-p, would you?

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Thanks for visiting my blog and reading this entry.
If you’ve found it valuable, please consider donating via PayPal to enable my continuing research.

Or – buy a book from my “Go Thunk Yourself” bookstore.

Our latest upcoming release, “Freedom Is — (period.)”

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While I’ve literally written (compiled) the book on Mystic Marketing, I ran across some interesting data in Burt Goldman’s “Mind Box”, which has had some success on the Internet, far more than it would have had he only pitched it to his seminar attendees or his personal mailing list.

Burt mentioned the “7 Laws” almost as an after thought, with reference to “Hermetic teachings.” Curious, with the Internet always on, I checked this out and found it to be an old, public domain book, which I already had in my own files.

The interest here is that this has everything to do with Marketing as it is practiced , and will open up new ideas for you as you study it.

I am not going to delve into this in detail, just mention a few illustrations. (And unfortunately, this is running to nearly a couple of thousand words, which is horrible blog etiquette – so you might want to print off this page and save it for reading with your favorite beverage while relaxed on an easy chair or couch…)

I. Principle of Mentalism

This is not a new concept, but it perhaps didn’t even start with Hermes Trimestigus (or Thoth). It’s found in the Huna teachings, which Max Freedom Long said were even older than Egyptian.

The idea, while stated as “All is MIND” are easily explained to be, as Earl Nightingale, “We become what we think about.” He attributed that idea to Napoleon Hill. In Huna it is, “The world is what you think it is.”

Here you see Ryes and Trout’s “Positioning” concept. By inviting your viewers to think about your product in a certain way, you also invite them to create that item in their world. The more they create it, the greater possibility for it to exist, i.e., they will buy it or some version of it sooner or later.

(On the Internet, they may download it first and then later get an actual CD. If you are prepared, you will make low-cost downloads of individual MP3’s available as part of your initial promotion.)

II. The Principle of Correspondence

Goldman is fond of repeating this one, “As above, so below; as below, so above.”

An easy application is that when you plan a marketing campaign for the long-tail niche, it has the same elements as one you would plan for a large “big-head” campaign (taking over one of the few bestseller spots in the NYT or B&N or Amazon, for instance.)

So you would test-market your new product in a small area and carefully analyze each part of it for effectiveness in converting customers to clients, leads to sales, viewers to buyers.

Internally, you will also pick your best execs and project managers in this way. As they treat their immediate staffers, so will they treat their accounts.

You’ll also see in this the Golden Rule and also the Law of Attraction.

III. The Principle of Vibration

Essentially, everything has vibration, motion, movement. Nothing stays at rest.

This is obvious on any marketing plan – you have to “re-charge” it at intervals with new material. And with social media, you can see how some items “go viral” while others are ignored. Everything has a pattern of motion it follows (or introduces).

Copywriting is in this league. Study the greats such as Shakespeare and people who followed him such as Louis L’Amour. You’ll see that while they have scene shifts and cliff-hangers, the story is moved along with a certain pace – ever quickening, dragging the unsuspecting audience along. Star Wars and other hits are of this type. “Boring” films (compare John Wayne’s hits with his “B” movie duds) don’t keep a regular, quickening cadence. Music is another element in this. John Williams’ scores were key to the Star Wars’ series success – as is the continuing use of a common theme in all the Star Trek ensemble of  movies and TV series.

Your copy-writing can be staccato, such as the famous VW ads (“Ugly.” “Still Ugly.”) or they can run on for a solid text of pages like the Robert Collier ads.

There is a vibration to all promotion. When these are sympathetic to the vibration of the viewer (or listener), you have increased want and sales.

IV. The Principle of Polarity

The universe isn’t simply hot or cold, but a wide variation of temperatures in between. Every extreme has its opposite, but is actually a description of a working scale of every position in between.

There is no Perfect or Good ad. Some are very bad. And your best promotion is not one which is the glossiest or academically perfect. The old “Clio’s” were a study in this. Like the Academy Awards, it was some sort of inbred purity at work with the judges. Their track record was that every PR agency which won a Clio was out of business the next year. Because they were works of art which didn’t sell products.

Huna has this principle, “Effectiveness is the measure of truth.” So it is definitely with promotion and advertising. Consider the independent movie, “Blair Witch Project”. On a per-dollar expense in marketing and production, this was an outrageous success. But the film, “Rocky Horror Picture Show” has attained a cult status and substantial returning revenues to small independent movie houses which show it to midnight viewings on a regular basis. “Deep Throat”, for all it’s porn, was a promotional success.

All these were not high-dollar epics. And you’ll see many other independent and low-budget entrees which never make their costs back. While on the other hand, there have been huge investments by major studios which never returned costs.

Box office popularity is perhaps the best measure of quality – what are the sales. But then often a “flop” by major studio standards will set the stage for a later success, achieving name recognition that can be later parlayed into a profitable production.

Of course, your released campaigns fit into this, as you develop a series of spots which keep a regular appearance in front of your potential viewers. This of course combines several of the above principles.

V. The Principle of Rhythm

Now you can appreciate the pluses and minuses of rhythm to promotion and advertising. Everything swings and cycles between extremes. Our two last presidents are of this mold. Both extremists and polarizing.

This is not a common use in marketing, as it is apparently not well known. The Star Trek franchise has been worked to be a regular presence in front of it’s viewers. So it is working from the “is there, isn’t there” type of polarity. (And one of its most famous original shows had a comment on racism, where two surviving people off a planet were constantly trying to kill off the other – one was black on the right, white on the left; the other reversed. Both considered the other their enemy just because they were differently colored.)

Some savvy Internet marketers have realized the natural phenomenon and licensed affiliate sales people to take up the negative positions to their positive spiel. Like this site, where I can find people coming to find all about “Burt Goldman scam” when I don’t consider or write about that being a fact. (And, with any luck, I’ll be approved for affiliate sales of his products shortly…) The more they promote Burt, the more people come to my site to find out if (or how) it’s an actual scam.

Polarity and Rhythm. Don’t be stingy with affiliate accounts – set them lose to pick up all the reverse-polarity marketing campaigns you can’t do yourself.

And you’ll also see rhythm show up in the copyrighting on a blog – as well a longer ad campaign with several short releases (again, see the VW campaign by example.)

VI. The Principle of Cause and Effect

“Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law…”

Most of marketing has the consumer as the unwilling/willing effect to the Marketer’s Cause. Arrogant marketers are reminded of this fact (as well as arrogant politicians) when the customer quits buying their products (or votes for the opposition.) More common on television (especially cable) where people vote with their remotes.

Most people (around 95-97%) simply go with the flow around them, and this is what Marketing is based on – appeal to the subconscious mind which runs their lives with routine. This is the factory worker, the warehouse operator, the sales associate on the sales floor, the cubicle denizen in white-collar jobs, the government-job “worker”, the union member. Their bosses call the shots, and are often just another cog themselves.

Independent entrepreneurs and company founders are those who remain at Cause most of the time. These are the Doers, not those who are stuck on the receiving end, hoping that their pensions and “social security” will still be there when they retire.

Marketers market, consumers consume.

VII. The Principle of Gender

Having nothing to do with sex, the action of giving (Male) and receiving (Female) are necessary to every marketing approach. While the marketer gives in order to receive, the customer receives in order to give.

A key use of this is where successful marketers give value before the person is asked to buy anything. Because they give something away, the potential customer wants to reciprocate. This is one indicator of a scammer, since they will give something of very cheap value and then hit up for something very pricey (also of dubious value). Traditionally-accepted marketing practice is always to give away something fairly valuable, but always also give a final value in excess of whatever someone pays. This then turns one-time consumers into returning clients, as they “always get a good deal.”

This is also the point of turning your clients into Affiliate sales points. Receivers now turn into Givers. They can say that they honestly got a good deal when they contact other people they know – and are rewarded with a small stipend for the referral.

“One-shot wonders” in the music industry violate this right, left, and center.

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So this overlong treatise is just a shallow over view of what can be gained by studying the Mystic classics. The term “mystic” has the meaning of both initiate (learner) and also teacher.

It is expected that as you master your own studies of life and living, you’ll “pay it forward in advance” to help others. The reasoning behind this is found in the 7 principles above.

And the interplay and interaction you’ll find as you go along this line can be fascinating in the extreme.

For more information, check out the Kybalion as you can find it online, as well as my Mystic Marketing book. Don’t say you weren’t warned…

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Thanks for visiting my blog and reading this entry.
If you’ve found it valuable, please consider donating via PayPal to enable my continuing research.

Or – buy a book from my “Go Thunk Yourself” bookstore.

Our latest upcoming release, “Freedom Is — (period.)”

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