During economic downturns, advertising expenditures are the first to be slashed from company budgets. As the in-house copywriter, I have the pleasure of sharing with you our Sales Letter that helped us weather the storm.

Dear CEO,

Five years ago, two small businesses began trading. They were very much alike, these two businesses. Both became profitable, both offered quality products and both – as start-ups – were filled with ambitious dreams for the future.

Recently, these two businesses became aware of each other’s existence.

They were very remarkably similar. Both were operating in the same industry. Both had the same profit margins. And both, it turned out, offered an almost identical range of products and services.

But there was a difference. One of the companies had mediocre sales figures. The other was the market leader.

What Made The Difference

Have you ever wondered, as I have, what makes this kind of difference for businesses? It isn’t always management, leadership or customer service. It isn’t that one company wants success and the other doesn’t.

The difference lies in what each business knows and how it makes use of that knowledge.

And that is why I am writing to you and to businesses like yours about Asia Media TV. For that is the whole purpose of Asia Media TV: To give its viewers knowledge – knowledge that they can use in their buying decisions.

A Medium Unlike Any Other

You see, Asia Media TV is a unique medium. It’s the country’s largest and only Transit-TV available on most major transportion network. Each business day, it is viewed by thousands of your customers.

Each business day, Asia Media TV includes a broad range of information of interest and significance to business-minded people, no matter where it comes from. Not just entertainment and lifestyle, but anything and everything in the whole, fast-moving world of consumerism… Asia Media TV gives you all the publicity you need when you need it.

Knowledge is Power

Right now, I am watching Asia Media TV. It is shown in high quality audio-visual format in a captive environment onboard our public transportation system which gives the added benefit of close proximity to the market. Asia Media TV has the highest recall rate of any medium and combines mass market reach with cost effectiveness for any campaign.

Every category of TV is covered, from documentary, news, science to lifestyle, entertainment and comedy. 

Asia Media TV’s 3 Es – Educate, Entertain and Enrich

And there is programme after programme shown on Asia Media TV filled with fascinating and significant information that’s useful to you. A clip on best bargains in town helps you get the biggest bang for every buck. Promotions that help you become a smarter saver, and wiser spender. There are weekly programmes on sales, marketing, technology, regional developments. If you have never watched Asia Media TV, you cannot imagine how relevant it can be to you.

Much of the information that appears on Asia Media TV appears nowhere else. Asia Media TV is shown on thousands of screens across Malaysia, so that you reach out to the mass market.

GREAT INTRODUCTORY PRICE! – RM XXX for 4 weeks

Put our statements to the proof by promoting your company on Asia Media TV for 4 weeks. This is the shortest campaign term we recommend – and a perfect way to be seen by your customers. Or you may prefer to take advantage of a longer advertising campaign for greater savings: a six-month campaign starting from RMYYY saves you RMYY off Asia Media TV weekly price. Our best buy, one year for RMZZZ – saves you RMZZZ!

Simply fill out the enclosed interest card and mail it in the postage-paid envelope provided or email info(at)asiamedia.net.my and we will contact you and take care of the rest. Asia Media’s guarantee: Should Asia Media TV not measure up to your expectations, you may cancel this arrangement at any point with a 7-day notice and receive a refund for the unaired portion of your campaign.

If you feel as we do that this is a fair and reasonable proposition, then you will want to find out without delay if Asia Media TV can do for you what it has done for millions of our viewers and hundreds of our clients. So please register your interest now so we can begin serving you immediately.

About those two businesses I mentioned in the beginning of the letter: They started trading at the same time, operated in the same industry and together offered the same products and services. So what made the difference?

Sales and Brand Awareness. The knowledge and its application to achieve both…

An Investment in Success

I cannot promise you that success will be instantly yours if you start advertising on Asia Media TV. But I can guarantee that you will find Asia Media TV always interesting, always relevant, and always useful plus it will help raise your brand awareness and sales.

Sincerely yours,

Asia Media Sdn Bhd

P.S. It’s important to note that your message on Asia Media TV is watched by over 500,000 viewers daily.”

At the 2008 New York Comic Con, I was fortunate to come upon a surprisingly understated booth manned by the co-creator of Reboot, Gavin Blair. All too happy to talk to us despite the insane degree of fangirling we were doing (I can’t help it that I loved Megabyte), he told us about the future of Reboot and the fact that it wasn’t over despite having ended on a cliffhanger and lost Megabyte’s incredible voice talent, Tony Jay, who passed away in August 2006.

I was more than excited to read more about these developments over at the Official Reboot Fansite and followed the comics and the news closely. And as much as it helped to fill the Reboot-shaped hole in my heart, I was never truly satisfied.

Until now.

Rainmaker Studios has announced that 2010 will see the release of a brand new Reboot film! They had this to say about the movie:

Season 4 of ReBoot ended on a famous cliffhanger. While some aspects of that cliffhanger were resolved in a three-part web comic series, the theatrical feature film will be a departure from the series in this regard. It is our intention to create a new ReBoot adventure that seasoned fans will enjoy exploring while simultaneously introducing the rich world of Mainframe to a whole new audience.

Now here’s a look at the teaser…

Ok, now it’s time to solve the mystery. (Final Post) [see previous here]

In 1978 Jimmy Carter reorganized the government with this order, and this took the issue of retirement account prohibited transactions away from the domain of the IRS and gave it to the Department of Labor (DOL).

This fact was unknown to (or possibly ignored by) the ROBS promoters who claimed the IRS ROBS letter confirmed the validity of the ROBS strategy. The truth is that the IRS letter did not say whether or not the ROBS strategy creates a prohibited transaction because the IRS didn’t have the authority to say it. It was the authority of DOL. Ah, what fun bureaucracy can be.

Speaking with the Proper Authority

Now, I’ve known about this transfer of authority ever since the creator of the IRA LLC (late attorney Debra Buchanan) told me about it back in 2004. So I’ve been in close contact with DOL employees for several years. Here’s where the bureaucracy gets funny (or scary, depending on how you look at it).

A couple of weeks after the IRS ROBS letter came out, I called my friendly DOL contacts to ask, “What do you think of the ROBS strategy that the IRS just wrote a letter about?” They responded with, “What letter? What is ROBS?”

[If my friends at the IRS and DOL are reading this now, don't take offense. Everyone knows that government agency intercommunication is kind of like Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster. It's not your fault.]

So I faxed the IRS ROBS letter over to DOL. I was happy to do this for the IRS because I know they are really busy.

Finally… the Meeting

My annual trip to Washington, D.C. was scheduled for about six weeks later. So this gave DOL plenty of time to review the letter so we could discuss it at our meeting.

When the meeting came in December, all of the mystery surrounding ROBS collapsed with a couple of straightforward sentences out of the mouths of the decision makers at DOL (paraphrased):

The ‘qualifying employer securities’ exemption means that transaction of the plan acquiring stock from the C corporation is exempt. BUT, this exemption doesn’t throw the rules out the window for looking at the whole strategy. This whole strategy generally provides an ‘outside-of-the-plan’ benefit to the participant, who is a disqualified person. Thus this strategy creates a prohibited transaction.

Bear in mind this unofficial conversation is, well, not official. What would make it official is if I (or anyone else) submitted a written request for a DOL “Advisory Opinion” letter that explains whether the ROBS strategy is a prohibited transaction.

These DOL guys indicated that such a request would be met with an Advisory Opinion declaring ROBS illegal.

Don’t Kill the Messenger

There it is, folks. End of story. ROBS is a prohibited transaction. Many people and attorneys can disagree, but it comes down to 4 guys at this government agency in Washington, D.C. to provide the interpretation of the prohibited transaction law. In other words, it doesn’t matter what anybody thinks except for them. And they think you owe the government a 115% tax (on the amount of money involved in the scheme) if you do a ROBS.

Up until this meeting, I was just as hopeful as anyone that ROBS would come out of the gray area in a favorable conclusion. I don’t want to end this topic on an disappointing note, so I will be throwing out some ROBS alternatives in a future post.

If this is correct we may be seeing a movie version of the CGI TV show, ReBoot.

I used to love the show. It was on in the last few years of the 90’s and in a Tron kind of way it was set inside a computer in a city called Mainframe. It had villains called Hexidecimal and Megabyte and heroes called and heroes called Bob, Enzo and Dot. In most episodes a game would be downloaded and the characters would become part of the game and adventure would follow.

The animation was a bit ropey, but this was back in the day and it did get better. It also got a little darker in later shows with creatures from the Web going all nasty on the denizens of Mainframe, plus Bob was sucked into the Web and character development ensued.

Now good old Topless Robot came across this teaser trailer and I must stress the word teaser.

Apparantly Rainmaker are developing a movie trilogy for ReBoot that is supposedly beginning next year.

I for one am very excited. Anyone else remember the show? What did you think of it and are you looking forward to returning to that world?

[This is a continuation of a previous post. You should read that one first so this makes sense.]

The IRS Responds

For the first time ever, the IRS actually addressed the “financing a small business with an IRA or 401(k)” strategy. They called it “ROBS” for “roll over business startup,” and issued a letter on October 1, 2008. This letter basically stated:

• We know about the ROBS strategy
• We are concerned about it for several reasons

Celebrate and Ignore

Most ROBS promoters spun the IRS ROBS letter as a long-awaited government blessing for the strategy. They said that the concerns that the IRS listed were administrative errors, such as not filing the plan’s annual valuation report, not telling the corporation’s employees that they can also participate in the plan, and not ever launching a bona fide business in the first place. “These can be avoided. Read between the lines here.”

According to ROBS promoters, what was between the lines is that the IRS implied that the ROBS strategy was legitimate in the first place.

You would think my quest for a final answer to “Is the ROBS strategy legal or illegal?” would lead me to the IRS building in Washington, D.C… Not so. What ROBS promoters were ignoring (or unaware of) is that a strange, mostly unknown Presidential move from the 70s placed this matter outside of the IRS and onto a different government agency. In fact, the IRS letter talked around the core ROBS issue and never faced “Is the ROBS strategy legal or illegal?” head on—because, after the move in the 70s, they actually don’t have the legal authority to comment or decide on the issue.

What Now?

Determined to get to the bottom of this, I went to the other government agency.

Oh yeah, let me tell you why this matter is so important: If the ROBS promoters are wrong, everyone who believed them will be subject to a tax of at least 115% of the amount of funds involved in the strategy. OUCH!

[to be continued]

MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS OF THE MODERN AGE:

A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases and the Cure of Advanced Cancer. – Max Gerson. M.D.
Audition. - Michael Shurtleff.
Autobiography of a Yogi. – Paramhansa Yogananda.
Cosmic Voyage. – Courtney Brown. Ph.D.
Hands of Light: A Guide To Healing Through The Human Energy Field. – Barbara Ann Brennan.
Hatha Yoga Pradipika: Light on Hatha Yoga. - Swami Satyananda Saraswati.
Hero With A Thousand Faces. – Joseph Campbell.
Man’s Search For Meaning. - Viktor E. Frankl.
Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance. – Abraham Maslow.
Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing. – Jed McKenna.
Stranger in a Strange Land. – Robert A. Heinlein.
Tantric Quest. – Daniel Odier.
The Bible Code. - Michael Drosnin.
The Holographic Universe. – Michael Talbot.
The Lost Teachings of Atlantis. – Jon Peniel.
The Only Planet of Choice: Essential Briefings from Deep Space. - Phyllis V. Schlemmer.
The Starseed Transmissions. – Ken Carey.
Who Am I. – Ramana Maharishi.

SOME FAVOURITES (An introduction to the Author):

A Man For All Seasons (A Play) - Robert Bolt.
Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown.
Duino Elegies – Rainer Maria Rilke.
I Am Jackie Chan - Jackie Chan.
Illusions – Richard Bach.
Life of Pi – Yann Martel.
Lion of Macedon & Dark Prince - David Gemmell.
Microcosmic God – Theodore Sturgeon.
Perfume – Patrick Suskind.
Rainmaker – John Grisham.
Red Dwarf & Better Than Life – Grant Naylor.
Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie.
Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts.
Siva – Ramesh Menon.
Switch Bitch – Roald Dahl.
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho.
The Bourne Identity – Robert Ludlum.
The Celestine Prophecies – James Redfield.
The Doomsday Conspiracy – Sidney Sheldon.
The Godfather – Mario Puzo.
The Lost World – Michael Crichton.
The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett.
Twelve Angry Men (A Play) - Reginald Rose.

Guidant calls it Audeo. Benetrends calls it Rainmaker. SDCooper calls it ERSOP. It goes by many names and it’s gotten a lot of attention from the franchise industry and, as of about a year ago, the IRS. The IRS calls it “ROBS” for Roll-Over Business Startup.

What is it?

It’s a strategy where a person with retirement funds:

1. Forms a C corporation.
2. Uses the new C corporation to adopt a 401(k) or profit-sharing plan.
3. Performs a rollover from existing retirement funds (IRA, 401k, etc) into the new 401(k) plan.
4. Directs the new 401(k) plan to invest into the new C corporation by purchasing shares of stock.
5. Now this person has a C corporation with some or all of their retirement funds in it, and they are told they can use the funds to run the corporation, launch a venture, buy a franchise, and even pay themselves a salary.

Special Powers – For Good or Evil?

This is a tremendously powerful strategy. The problem? Many attorneys think it’s illegal because of the prohibited transaction rules. Those rules say that the accounthoder (a.k.a. plan participant) is classified as a “disqualified person,” meaning that the retirement plan can’t transact with him or do things designed to benefit him outside of growing the plan.

To complicate matters, many other attorneys think it’s legal and on very solid ground. Why the disagreement? The pro-ROBS attorneys say that a special exemption throws the prohibited transaction rules out the window when you classify the transfer of the C corporation stock as “qualifying employer securities.”

A Quest for the Final Answer

About a year ago, my phone was ringing off the hook from people saying, “Some say it’s legal, some say it’s illegal. What’s the truth? I don’t want to risk my retirement fund on something sketchy!”

So I set out to get to the bottom of it, and the outcome will surprise you. Stay tuned for the tale of my trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with the guys with whom the buck stops.

“Methods of Understanding” will get what you need done in your business.

No matter if it is working to build a “Company Culture”, or becoming a sales “Rain Maker”, or “Marketing Positioner” of the next Widget… you will get further if you apply the toolkit of how individuals use “Methods to Understand”.

You may know Sales Methodologies, but the “Rain Maker” applies Systems of Understanding. Most natural “Rain Makers” unknowingly identify how others are using these various types of Understanding Methods, they just identify these throughout all aspects of their lives… without even knowing they are using them. By identifying what individuals use when they try to understand can enlighten the situation. 

WARNING! This is not for everyone. Some people are so locked into their individual method that if you are a “hammer” everything looks like a “nail”! The “Rain Maker”, the “Corporate Motivator”, and the  ”Customer Requirement Aggregator” ” all must identify which “Methods of Understanding” is being used and how to adapt to it. 

We all instinctively lean toward some of these approaches rather than others, but the key to applying these principles  is to internalize the different constructs so we can better communicate. The different types are:

• Attribution – we need to attribute cause, that supports our ego.
• Constructivism – we use constructs as perceptual categories.
• Framing – mental combinations that affect perception.
• Schema - structure to organize and interpret the world.
• Personal Constructs - constructs represent understanding.
• Symbolic Interaction  - we derive meaning around symbols.
• Objectification –  we simplify complex things into concrete images.
• Story Models – We piece together complex situations into stories to build understanding.

Lets first cover the first four in this article and try to identify after reading how you and others are using them in your professional and personal life.

Attribution

We all have a need to explain the world, both to ourselves and to other people, attributing cause to the events around us. This gives us a greater sense of control. When explaining behaviour, it can affect the standing of people within a group (especially ourselves).

When another person has erred, we will often use internal attribution, saying it is due to internal factors. When we have erred, we will more likely use external attribution, attributing causes to situational factors rather than blaming ourselves. We will take credit, due to the good business skills that were applied. And vice versa. We will attribute the successes of competitive rivals to external ‘advantages’. 

When a football team wins, supporters say ‘we won’. But when the team loses, the supporters say ‘they lost’. Our attributions are also significantly driven by our emotional and motivational drives. Blaming other people and avoiding personal recrimination is a very real self-serving attributions. We will also make attributions to defend what we perceive as attacks. We will point to injustice in an unfair world. 

In practice, we often tend to go through a two-step process, where we start with an automatic internal attribution, followed by a slower consideration of whether an external attribution is more appropriate. Key to this is, if we are hurrying or are distracted, we may not get to this second step. This makes internal attribution more likely than external attribution.
Example of Use: I have no support and no budget there for I cannot do a good job.

Using it: Beware of being a complainer (i.e. making internal attributions about the situation). Also beware of making excuses (external attributions) that lead you to repeat mistakes and leads to Cognitive Dissonance in others when they are making internal attributions about you.

Defending: Watch out for people making untrue attributions.

Constructivism

We try to make sense of the world by making use of constructs, which are perceptual categories that we use when evaluating things.

People who have many different and abstract constructs have greater flexibility in understanding the world and are cognitively complex, whilst others are cognitively simple. Cognitively complex people are better able to accept both complex and inconsistent messages. They also have a greater need to understand things and will question deeply anything that is new to them. However, once persuaded, they stay persuaded and are less likely to change their minds as their new constructs will support the argument.

Example: Some people have a construct about being fat that says fat people are lazy and greedy. Others may perceive it as a medical condition. 

Using it: Help cognitively complex people to build new constructs that support your argument. Do not bother with this detail for the cognitively simple.

Defending: Do not let others take charge when building new constructs.

Framing

A frame is the combination of beliefs, values, attitudes, mental models, and so on which we use to perceive a situation. We effectively look through this frame in the way we would look through tinted spectacles. The frame significantly effects how we infer meaning and hence understand the situation.

Example: I see a holiday in the hills as an opportunity for outdoor exercise. My friend sees is as a chance for a quiet read. My son sees it as a long period of boredom.

Using it: Change elements of a person’s frame (reframing) and hence how they view the world). This is a powerful persuasive technique. 

Being able to see things through many frames yourself gives you a broader perspective and able to understand more of how others think.

Defending: When people ask you to look at something from another viewpoint, be aware that there are many viewpoints, many of which are valid and legitimate. 

Schema

A schema is a mental structure

Schemas are also self-sustaining, and will persist even in the face of disconfirming evidence. This is because if something does not match the schema, such as evidence against it, it is ignored. Some schema are easier to change than others, and some people are more open about changing any of their schemas than other people. Schemas are also known as mental models, concepts, mental representations and knowledge structures(although definitions are different–for example some define mental models as modeling cause-effect only).

Schemas affect what we notice, how we interpret things and how we make decisions and act. They act like filters, accentuating and downplaying various elements. We use them to classify things, such as when we ‘pigeon-hole’ people. They also help us forecast, predicting what will happen. We even remember and recall things via schemas, using them to ‘encode’ memories.

Schemas have inferences and appear very often in the attribution of cause. The multiple necessary cause schema is one where we require at least two causes before a ‘fit’ to the schema is declared. Schemas are often shared within cultures, allowing short-cut communications. Every word is, in effect, a schema, as when you read it you receive a package of additional inferred information.

We tend to have favourite schema which we use often. When interpreting the world, we will try to use these first, going on to others if they do not sufficiently fit. 

Example: Some people dislike police because they have a schema of police as people who perceive everyone as guilty until proven innocent. Other people feel safe around police as their schemas are more about police as brave protectors. 

Using it: Find people’s schemas around the area of interest, then either create trust by utilizing their schema or reframe to change their schema.

Defending: Become more self-aware, knowing your own schemas and why there are useful for you. When people try to change them, you can then more rationally understand whether your or their schemas are better.

This is a lot to absorbs,  so look for these in your every day business or personal life and check back for the second part of this Article after I try this myself!

- Jeffrey J. Fox

How to Become a Rainmaker, chapter 17.

Attorneys Donna Pugh of Foley & Lardner Chicago and Stephen Furnari of NYC’s Furnari Scher contributed some of their marketing tools to my column, The Robe Report, which appeared in the online version of the Wisconsin Law Journal today.

Many firms lack structured, ongoing training programs for attorneys to develop new business. In fact, if firms are not asking why attorneys newly knighted as rainmakers are leaving their firm, they might be surprised that it has to do with the lack of training to help them achieve new expectations of bringing in the clients.

by Sheryl Tuttle

I love my job and at times I feel like the luckiest person alive. I get to work from my home office, pitch the services of some top-notch companies, and talk to all kinds of interesting people. And what a charge I get when I set an appointment, especially when I obtain lots of detail that will help the Sales Executive win the business! It’s exciting, I’m enthused, the client is happy, everything is upbeat!

But sometimes, I just don’t feel like calling prospects.

Not to worry – it happens to even the most seasoned of rainmakers. Here are some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned to help get me out of this funk and to recharge myself. This list is not even close to all-inclusive, so I’d appreciate hearing your ideas in the comments section.

• Warm it up – Like a car that needs to run awhile to warm in the winter, calling prospects can also require a warm-up. And it’s simple. Review your pitch points, even practice out-loud, then tackle your easy calls first. By the time you get to the more challenging calls, the pitch and ensuing conversation flows naturally.
• Put on a smile – even if you don’t feel like making calls. Your tone and enthusiasm carry over into your message, whether to a human or voicemail. A smile makes your voice sound more warm and friendly. Plus, you just naturally feel better when you smile.
• Mix it up – In times that your pitch begins to feel stale, even rehearsed, change it up. Add new or updated information, use the latest industry jargon, say what you need to say in a different order.
• Enjoy a cup of java – or tea, or whatever your favorite caffeinated beverage.
• And finally…Maybe you’re talking too much. If you’re really tired of the “same ole same ole,” then perhaps you’re talking too much and not listening enough.

I am a lover of good poetry.

Performance is important as well, but I am more interested in what is being said,
than how it is said.

Both writing and performance are important elements to the craft of Spoken Word.

So, when you could do both, you are hot shhh like a Patricia Smith or a Marty McConnel & etc…

Anyway, July has just past and even though New York has had more rain than sunshine, there has been great poetry and performance events around the city, particularly in Harlem.

The Last Poets are infamous for their contribution to hip hop and to Spoken Word. They are world renowned artist and healers. Truly juju-poets Many may criticize them for their excessive use of the n- word, but it was all done in good intention. I will not get into how I feel about the word “nigger” but I promise I will in a later post. They are healers because they are a huge outlet for the injustices of Amerikkka, especially during and after the Vietnam “War”.

On Saturday, July 18, 2009, the Harlem Book Fair (hosted by Brother Earl and jessica Care moore) honored Abiodun Oyewole for his open house that he has been running for twenty some odd years. FINALLY! It is really a humbling thing to be a Last Poet and to be so accessible to your community. He opens his home, his sanctuary for us. To discuss and to debate on current issues in our lives; to share our writing; and to share our hearts. We eat, drink, and smile smoke signals to one another. There should be more places like this all over our lives, in all different mediums. But, nonetheless here are some images from the event… here is Dun, watching it all…Redefining Freedom reminding woman of their divine power!

Ngoma tuning us in to our chakras

Autumn Ashante breathing her ancestorsjessica Care Moore rocking the fro and her new book, “God is Not an America”Brother Earl molding wings on his words…

I also gave a little speech about Dun’s crib and performed one of his poems entitled, Sun People. Rainmaker performed and so did Louis Reyes Rivera. It was really a beautiful afternoon in Harlem… Here is a video of jessica Care moore reciting a piece for King and the folk who asked her why would she name her son so… 

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Then, on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 jessica Care moore rocked it out at Marcus Garvey Park with a full band. Her words were inspiring, sincere, and peroxide to the cuts and scrapes of our falls and tribulations. She read poems, rocked us out, and invited us into her personal story. Thanks for Caring Sis. A magical Sister: a juju-poet. Here are some pics…

j.C.m, juju, and zi

She read a poem about how black women deserve their own national holiday, since we created this whole damn thing. (She didn’t say it like that, but if you know the power of us then you know what I mean She performed a piece about light skin girls and her experience in South Africa and their caste system based on color gradient. She talked about her struggle with raising her son by herself and trying to support him and write (girl, I know).  All in all, her devotion has not changed. She is here to inspire, empower, heal and educate people like her. Human.

On that note, I will like to thank the people, poets, and trees that made those days and this day possible. All the events were priceless and free. Harlem is the gift that keeps giving.

Be Well in Writing (Change a life or Two),

Judy

I just posted a new Daudi Rainmaker story – Through the Desert. It is part 2 of a multi-part set. Over the Mountain is part 1. There is also a stand alone short introduction to the character called – beloved trickster. I am still trying to catch up on posting all of my past stories here, so you do not get a neat header and all that yet. For some reason I like to keep that stuff in order.

But I thought you might like to know.

Plus, a photo review of Cameron Grant.

I went into shock today in the men’s department at Nordstrom. At first it just felt kinda numb. Then I could feel some dull sensations in my hands, but they felt miles away. The edges of my vision had completely blurred like I was looking down a tunnel and I trembled uncontrollably. Then BAM! BOOM! (as if John Madden were commenting) color flooded back into my world, air rushed into my lungs and my blood thundered in my veins. What. The. Fuck. Did. I. Just. Do.

2 t shirts. $60. That’s all I needed. Instead, I’d sliced open my bank account and bled money all over three different departments. It was like I blacked out, went into a seizure and woke up with loaded shopping bags. Even my bank couldn’t believe it. They called me shortly afterward to report suspicious activity on my card. And I was informed by a coworker that I am a woman for having that impulse. Felt just like Pac Man Jones after he made $80K rain in a strip club and then tried to pick it up again.

I like Nordstrom. I like that it doesn’t look like a guy went over the tables and racks with a leaf blower. That way I can find stuff quickly, get the right size and get the hell out. When I go to the mall, my main concern is getting the hell out as quickly as possible with the coolest shit possible. And the people are paid to be nice and they usually have hot sales girls. They didn’t disappoint in the sales girl department today.

In this case, I avoided both a potential date and completely flat-lining my debit card by rebuffing the first absolutely gorgeous sale girl’s offer to help me.

“Can I help you find a size?” At this point, I was just looking at well organized t shirts and had found all of the sizes I needed.

“No, thanks. I think I have everything I need. I’ll just look around a little more,” I told her generous cleavage. Actually, I did a good job of only glancing at it briefly. I was still under the delusion that I was just about done.

But I went into some kind of hypnotic trance where my brain starting making connections between this shirt and those jeans and those shoes…my eyes rolled back in my head and flickered like the possessed Sigourny Weaver in Ghost Busters. A sales dude, sensing my weakened condition asked if he could put some things in a fitting room for me. Distracted, I agreed. After maniacally grabbing some more items, I headed for the fitting rooms where the same gorgeous sales girl asked me if I needed her to open a room for me.

“I…I already have one.” Dammit. My face drooped like a basset hound. Instead of spending the next hour traversing the store with her in that curve hugging dress (she was wearing the dress, not me), I would walk around with the sales dude. He was a nice enough guy and very helpful, but still.

So after puking the guts of my wallet out, I walked to the door shocked and dejected on many levels, already making a list of what I might return. My mood perked up a little, though, when I realized I would probably have spent twice as much and had to continually wipe drool off my chin if I’d been shopping with that delightful sprite of a sales girl.

At least I will be an absolute pimp in Italy for my sister’s wedding.

Foxwoods.  The world class resort casino, conveniently located in the Connecticut woods.  Foxwoods is a World Class Casino.  It’s World Class Entertainment.  It’s Award-Winning Dining, and a Resort Hotel.  All nestled in a serene New England forest, perched above the scenic Mystic River.

Foxwoods is more than a World Class Hotel.  It’s two hotels.  One is the magnificent 312 room Resort Hotel, with shimmering waterfalls, swimming pools, a shopping concourse, museum quality art collection and the incredible “Rainmaker.”

Foxwoods is Entertainment.  With stars like Kenny Rogers, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra.  It’s Championship Boxing.  It’s Cinetropolis.  With its 1,500 seat Fox Theater.  Turbo Ride.  Cinedrome. Dance Club.  And all the excitement of Broadway, two hours away.

Foxwoods is New England’s place to meet for Conventions.  For Meetings.  And for Award-winning Dining.  Foxwoods has it all.  Eleven fabulous restaurants, from gourmet to buffet, and room service 24 hours a day.

Foxwoods is the only gaming in New England.  Two glittering Casinos.  With Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat, High Stakes Bingo, Poker, Keno, Craps, Race Book and over 3,900 exciting Slots.

Foxwoods’ Two Trees Inn embodies all the charm of a quaint 280 room New England Inn.  Where you can take moonlight walks, where the country meets the sea.  The Wonder of the Connecticut Woods.  1-800-Play Big.  Located in Southeast Connecticut. Exit 92 off I-95.

Photo courtesy:  golfersguide

Dean has worked with some of the most recognized brand businesses, including Landor, Michael Peters and Wolff Olins and some of the world’s biggest brands.

Dean has always had a passion for brands and communications and has spoken around the world espousing on the value of brands for well-known institutions including the Zell Institute, The Estonia Business School, Miami Ad School, J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Wharton School of Finance and the Google Speaker series.

He has earned a reputation as a phenomenal advisor, rainmaker, pitcher and storyteller. He has written published articles on timely current events including Trust, Brand Building in a Recession, It’s Time for CMOs to use the 7S Framework, The Power of Branding and the Convergence of New Media and The Almighty Dollar. He also provides expert insights for publications, recently including Advertising Age, Adweek, Business Week, The Deal, The International Herald Tribune, Newsday, The New York Times, New York Post, PR Week, The Seattle Times, The Wall Street Journal and appearances on Bloomberg TV and BBC World.

Brands are stories well told and Dean believes the language of the new consumer has changed. Today’s consumers admire brands that enable them to participate; it’s much more of a reciprocal relationship. Therefore, brands need to embrace freedom and relinquish some power and control to the consumer by adopting narrative based brand and marketing strategies that can impact multiple platforms to engage consumers: creating brands that are more magnanimous, malleable and functional. Equally important is the need to improve the dialogue between marketing and finance given the commercial significance of brands and their inherent long-term asset value to a business.

International experience with brands around the world has led Dean to develop a strong belief that brand is not marketing it is what you stand for. With this belief, he urges the use of creativity and innovation to push boundaries and bust categories with brave thinking that can create new ways for brands to shape the future and help build a better world.

Let the thunder crash and the lightning strike,
And the sky cave in today,
Only You can wash my sins away.
Let the thunder crash and the lightning strike,
I’m down on my knees to pray,
Only You can wash my sins away.

Rainmaker

No doubt the banks are getting pretty stingy with capital these days and it looks as if the days of low interest loans are also numbered.  What is a future business owner to do? 

BeneTrends is the nation’s leading provider of small business retirement plan solutions.  The firm’s most popular retirement plan design, the Rainmaker® Plan, is structured to enable the rollover and investment of retirement money into privately-held company stock as a source of business capital for business acquisition, franchise purchases, business start-up or existing businesses.

Seems a little complicated but it’s really not.  It makes great sense when one considers the near and long term future of the stock market.  Remember, I am not a financial adviser but I do understand what trillions of dollars in debt, a weakening US dollar, and increased government taxation on pay, fuel, and health-care benefits is going to do to the investment outlook in the US.  Oh yes, and let us not forget about paying for carbon credits and the inevitable spike and sustained inflationary cycle just around the corner. 

What do you think the tax rate will be when you eventually tap that 401k?  In Great Britain and much of socialized Europe tax rates already exceed 50% so maybe that tax exempt 401k investment will not turn out to be such a great deal come cash out time.  Maybe it makes just as much sense to access that capital penalty and tax free now and use it to fund your own business, especially when bank lending rates are about to skyrocket.

Again this is just my view and I am not a financial adviser by trade, but if considering a 401k funding option makes sense to you, let me help you with the Benetrends Rainmaker program.  joe@franchiseadvocate.com or visit my website at www.franchiseadvocate.com for information on individual franchise opportunities.

LAW FIRM MARKETING TIP: “DELEGATION” IS KEY TO FINANCIAL SUCCESS FOR LAWYER” by Stephen Fairley, The Rainmaker Institute
http://www.TheRainmakerInstitute.com
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(Outhouse Paralegal says: Embodied in Fairley’s article re law firm marketing success, and the imperative of “delegation” is “The Broady Principle” [that’s over 50 years old and is addressed in a prior blog of Outhouse Paralegal] ). If you didn’t read Outhouse Paralegal’s blog concerning “The Broady Principle”, please retrieve it in the archives, entitled “What’s a Paralegal? Everything Minus 3.” It’s another “good read”.
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“Law firm marketing is a struggle for most small law firms. I was recently working with three partners in a general law practice on the east coast. In creating their law firm marketing plan, I was explaining to them how delegation is the key to their financial success. Here’s what I mean.
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As an attorney in a small law firm or a solo practice you cannot and should not try to do all your law firm marketing by yourself. In any full blown legal marketing plan there are many moving parts, there is an expertise that must be applied to get the results you really want. There are five keys to delegating when it comes to marketing your law firm.
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Key 1. Delegation is a learned skill. Attorneys must learn how to delegate certain parts of their law firm marketing plan, whether it’s sending out letters, making follow up phone calls after a seminar, sending out your monthly newsletter, or building your website.
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Your job as an attorney is not to send out letters or build your law firm’s website. It is to do two things: bring in new clients (be a Rainmaker) and bill them for your services (make money). Everything else is ancillary and should be secondary.
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Key 2. Delegation is not abdication. Delegating responsibility for a specific marketing project does not mean you completely abdicate responsibility. It doesn’t mean you can’t check in on their progress or hold them accountable for the results. I am not a proponent of abdicating responsibility for any major part of your law firm, especially one that makes you money like marketing.
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Key 3. Trust is developed and must be mutual. In order to delegation your law firm’s marketing plan you must have someone you can delegate to and you must trust that person. You may not have anyone at your practice whom you trust enough to give them the task of marketing your law firm. If not, then you have two choices, either find and hire someone or outsource your legal marketing to a law firm marketing consulting company that specializes in helping small law firms generate more referrals and find new clients fast.
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However you decide to proceed you must realize that trust is something that is developed. It doesn’t come all at once and it must be mutual. You must believe the person entrusted with marketing has your best interests at heart and is competent and they must believe you will support their decisions and will not try to undermine their authority to make progress.
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Key 4. Delegation is about control. Ultimately when an attorney says they can’t delegate marketing to someone else I know it’s about one thing—control. They have a need to control. To create a seven figure law firm you must start to give up control. I have yet to meet a financially successful law firm where the partners micromanage everything. They have hired people they trust, they have trained them well, and they have implemented written systems to run the major parts of their law firm.
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If you’re a “control freak,” like a lot of partners, start with something small, like selecting the pictures on your new website (leave this to your website designer) or revising the copy for your law firm’s brochure for the third time (hire a professional copywriter to assist). Hire great, competent people, train them, and then let them do their job.
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If you feel the need to control something, here are 3 areas you should focus on: 1. Getting more prospects in the door. 2. Signing up more clients with higher retainers. 3. Decreasing your overhead.
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Key 5. Your lack of ability to delegate is your biggest obstacle to success, both personally and financially. Please read this again. It is critical you understand that you will kill any chances of achieving true and lasting success if you are unwilling or unable to delegate important tasks to your key people or outsource them to trusted law firm marketing consultants.
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I have worked with over 6,000 lawyers and have seen great attorneys limit their financial success because they were not willing to give up control and focus on what they do best: serve their clients. As the old saying goes, sometime we are our own worst enemy. When it comes to law firm marketing, delegation is the key to your success.”

If you think this is a review of John Grisham’s book, think again. My daughter Nissa brought this home from Palawan, a piece of bamboo about three feet long, probably filled with small pebbles or sea shells and sealed at both ends, with small holes all over. When it is overturned and the pebbles fall, there is a uniform sound like that of flowing water or a splatter of heavy rain. I was fascinated! It feels like having an inexpensive toy that you can play with. It surely is an ingenious way of making a rain effect. I don’t know if this is considered a musical instrument. They call it a rainmaker.

I have a wind chime made of various sea shells which I put in my garden. It was given as a gift from one of Nissa’s friends. It also came from Palawan. When the wind blows, the shells create a sound like someone frying on a hot griddle. And this instrument reminds me so much of a cowrie sea shell that I used to play with when I was a child. Don’t you just love the sound of the sea when you place it close to your ear?