Top 7 Reasons Why This Recession Is a Great Time to Start a Green Business

An article from Scott Cooney (author of Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill)). He hopes that someday the green economy will simply be referred to as...the economy.

While counterintuitive, a recession is actually a terrific time to start a business. Sure, credit is tight, and venture capital is definitely hard to come by, so startup ideas requiring large amounts of up-front capital are perhaps best left to the drawing board for the moment. But for many entrepreneurs with a dream, startup capital requirements are small, and other elements of the economic outlook are very favorable.

As far as timing, for most businesses, it simply takes time for their product, service, or brand to become recognized, trusted, and sought after. Estimates vary widely, but it is simply a truth that average customers have to see your product or company several times before they make a purchase. This makes a recession a great time to get your name out there while most other companies are cutting back and the competition for people's attention is less. Your company will be in good shape when the economy rebounds.

So while recessions can be a good time, and historically have been a good time for businesses to get their start, this particular recession is a great time to start a green business. Here's why:

to continue reading this article CLICK HERE

To Beat Recession, Indies Launch Buy-Local Push

Business week online

Small business owners are banding together to encourage consumers to
shop nearby independents. Would such a campaign help your business?

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/feb2009/sb20090226_752622.htm

Ten Steps to Sustainable Marketing in an Uncertain Economy | GreenBiz.com

January 29, 2009

Here’s a terrific article from GreenBiz.com that deserves repeating, and your time to read:

There’s a standard journalistic trope that abounds during times of crisis: take the hot topic du jour, mash it up with something you know about, and you’ve got an instant article. For example: “Peanut Butter Preferences during a Global Recession,” or “Sparrow Migration Patterns during the 2008 Wall Street Collapse.”

Now, after nearly a decade of build-up, sustainability and “green” were the issues du jour for much of 2007 and 2008; but with the recent market crash, the national dialogue has turned more toward keeping a roof over your head than keeping a green roof over your head. So what’s a sustainable brand to do? Here are a few strategies to keep you afloat during these tumultuous times.

TO READ MORE CLICK HERE

Should I use online video?

Online video is becoming the new website.

Pretty soon every business will be using it (or desperately exploring how to).

Should YOU use it?

Well . . .

My basic suggestion is: yes.

You might not need the level of quality Erica Ross has in her video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDxM9IAe4eU&feature=channel_page

but consider this . . .

I'd be willing to bet that when people meet you they like you.

I'd be willing to bet that your marketing materials will never be as powerful as meeting you in person.

Sure, your website and brochures and ads might sound good, but people are going to doubt them - after all - you have a vested interest in them buying.

I'd be willing to bet that when you really have a chance to explain how you do what you do and tell your story - that people are impressed and far more likely to do business with you.

Isn't there something about meeting someone - and getting to read their vibe - that matters a lot?

How many times have you heard of people meeting celebrities and telling their friends, "Wow. He was so down to earth. He wasn't pretentious at all."

I doubt most celebrities are that pretentious.

But most people are naturally suspicious.

And, sad to say, they're suspicious of you too.

Which is a shame.

After all, you're nice. You have integrity. You'd never try to lie, cheat or steal from them. But, until they meet you in person, they just aren't really going to trust you.

People trust their experiences, not your rhetoric.

I can't tell you how many times I've had folks come to my free intro sessions and come up to me afterwards to tell me, "You know, I've been to so many marketing sessions and I thought, 'Hmm. This sounds good but maybe he's just another hype filled marketing ass****.' But you weren't. You were really down to earth. I like you and I think I'll be coming to the weekend."

How can you create this personal connection?

This can mean:

1) Teleseminars
2) Speaking at events
3) Running free intro sessions
4) Meeting with people one on one

But all of the above are very time intensive. You have to actually be there in person.

What if there was a way for people to 'meet' you that required almost none of your time?

Wouldn't that be useful?

I recon it would.

Before I tell you what I did - let me come at this from another angle and then tie it all together.

Word of Mouth is powerful, right?

But, why?

Because, instead of people having to take the time and energy and risk of meeting you in person (and being trapped in a two hour seminar that ends up sucking) they can hear about your experience. And since you're someone they trust and since you're independent of the business you're recommending - you can be trusted.

But sometimes, this isn't enough.

After all, can't you think of times when you have recommended some workshop or seminar or restaurant to someone only to have them never act on it?

Of course you have.

Why?

They hadn't experienced it for themselves yet.

They weren't sold on the relevance or value or the product or service for themselves (and maybe you aren't as credible to them as you thought you were - owch).

Imagine you're at an ice cream shop with a friend.

You want them to try the Mango Tofulatti. They shrug. You tell them it's the most delicious thing you've ever tasted. They seem unimpressed.

"Think I'll just stick with strawberry."

You keep trying to convince them but you are afraid to push it too far. After all, if you push them too hard they might decide to never try it just out of principle.

So, why don't they try it?

Well, if they spend five bucks on the cone and they don't like it, they're out the money and they know they could have spent that money on something they know they would have liked. Right?

But, what if you said, "Here, try this little pink spoon."

They do. They're curious after all, they just don't want to have to commit their whole five bucks.

Pink spoon marketing is powerful.

You give people a sample - not enough to satisfy - but enough to let them make an informed decision about whether or not they want more.

Do you have any of these for your business?

What are YOUR pink spoons?

Your pink spoons should fit a few critical criteria.

1) It should contain enough to let them know if it's a fit.
2) It should be something that your existing clients will actively WANT to pass on to their friends.
3) It should be low risk (or ideally NO risk) for people to try out.

Now, there's lots of different things you can do:

- Offer people a free buyers guide or special report on a critical topic
- Free downloadable audio files
- A Blog

etc.

But there's a relatively new medium that's available to you now - for almost NO money.

Online video.

It's a powerful way for people to learn about you, who you are and how (and why) you do what you do.

Instead of simply reading words - they can see you, read your body language and get a sense of who you are.

Again:

I'd be willing to bet that when people meet you they like you.

I'd be willing to bet that your marketing materials will never be as powerful as meeting you in person.

Online video fits the criteria below extremely well.

1) It should contain enough to let them know if it's a fit.

An online video can give them a chance to get as much or as little information as you want.

2) It should be something that your existing clients will actively WANT to pass on to their friends.

A link to an online video is incredibly easy to send. Youtube.com has made it brainless. And it's becoming more and more common to do. People are sending each other videos all the time. Remember: your clients probably love you. They want to support you. They want to spread the word - but you almost certainly haven't given them the tools to do so.

And your website likely isn't exciting or novel enough to warrant them sending it to folks.

But a cool online video?

Why not create one about your business.

I know - you don't know how. I'll address that in a second.

But, imagine the email from your client to a friend of theirs . . .

"You remember that organic restaurant I was telling you about? Check this link out."

"You remember that practitioner I was telling you about? Check this link out."

"You remember that eco-friendly house cleaner I was telling you about? Check this link out."


3) It should be low risk (or ideally NO risk) for people to try out.

Is there anything less risky than watching a video on your computer? No pushy salespeople. Nothing to print off. You can stop it (and restart it) anytime you want. No obligation to buy.

And it doesn't have to be perfect.

You don't have to spend thousands of dollars. It can be a quick 7 minute video shot on a friends camera of you giving a tour about your restaurant or your clinic.

The point is that people get to meet YOU before they take the risk of meeting you in person. And, right now, YOU are likely the critical piece to your businesses success. People are likely buying YOU as much as they are your product and service.

Online video gives YOUR clients an easy way to introduce you to their friends.

It gives you something you can send to someone you meet briefly so they can 'get to know you better'.

**How can YOU put up your own online videos?**

To be honest, I have no idea.

But Gurbeen Bhasin from Meow Films does. She made Erica's video.

Why not drop her an email to see if an online video might be a fit for you?

gurbeen (at) meowfilms (d.o.t.) com

www.meowfilms.com

And feel free to drop me a line with any questions you might have.

--
warmest,

tad
radical business

P.S. Please consider the environment before printing this email - Thank You!



FREE 195 PAGE "THE WAY OF THE RADICAL BUSINESS" EBOOK: www.tadhargrave.com (sign up on left hand side)

FREE 'CONSCIOUS MARKETING' ARTICLES: www.radicalbusiness.blogspot.com

FREE RADICAL BUSINESS VIDEOS: www.youtube.com/radicalbusiness

Offer Makeover – Case Study Summary #2 - Hayley Rothenberg - http://backyardclothingcompany.com/

CORE FOCUS OF THIS MAKEOVER:
Making your business an authentic expression of who you are.

This makeover is hard to summarize – you really need to read it to ‘get it’.

To read your free copy of Hayley’s 17 page Offer Makeover go to:
http://www.tadhargrave.com/backyard.pdf

Hayley came to a recent weekend workshop I did in Edmonton.

She had this idea of starting a clothing store – all second hand – but collecting the particular kind of clothes that she loved to wear. She wanted to create a collection of clothes that was wild, eclectic, colourful and fun. Clothes she usually had to spend hours searching for herself.

What became immediately clear was that Hayley had a great idea. Whenever I shared it with women their eyes widened. They just ‘got it’. And, in marketing, the most critical piece is the core concept. Is it a good idea? Sometimes you’ll hear an idea and, for some reason you just know it’s good.

But where could she sell them? How could she find a space?

In the end, she made the brilliant decision to sell out of her backyard in women’s only clothing events – and the name of her company was born. “The Backyard Clothing Company”. The name captures a lot of who she is. And it invites her story. It raises the question, “what’s the backyard piece about?” And that allows her – whether or not she continues to sell from her backyard – to tell her story of being a scrappy entrepreneur with a good idea but a shoestrong budget trying to make things happen.

The ‘backyard’ element also speaks to her desire to make shopping a fun, intimate, social experience for women – not just some sterile process in a chain store. She’d grown up in the markets of London and wanted to bring that experience – in some small way – here.

In marketing lingo – the ‘backyard’ is her USP. It’s the heart of her story. It speaks to her authentic self. And by bringing that to her business – it’s infinitely more attractive.

Before this name, she was playing with “Perfect Fit” (i.e. these clothes will fit your style perfectly). It’s a good name – but, ironically, it wasn’t a perfect fit for her.

Another issue raised by this makeover is really clarifying what people are buying. What’s the result they want?

Every business must identify this. And it’s always something simple like, “more money” or “live longer” or “better communication”. There’s always something simple at the core of it.

Consider these examples:

FEDEX – When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
DOMINOES – Hot, fresh pizza to your door in 30 minutes or it’s free.
CLEARASIL – Visibly clearer skin in three days – guaranteed.

And I think we captured hers well in the headline below:

psssst - Eccentric Edmonton women - revealing one of Edmonton’s hidden gems:

“Everything on the rack screamed my name.”

How you can snag more fabulous, wild, eccentric, outrageously colourful and inspiring clothing in one hour than you did all last year (and at a fraction of the price you’d expect to pay).

To read your free copy of Hayley’s 17 page Offer Makeover go to:
http://www.tadhargrave.com/backyard.pdf

Candid feedback from Hayley on how the process was for her:

How valuable was the process from 1-10?
The process was a great big 10 that is how much I got out of it. The process gave me confidence to go for what I wanted with Tad standing on the other side of it cheering me on. If you have any doubts, contact me at: hayleyrothenberg@gmail.com or 780 819 4636.

What would it have taken to make it a 10?
An even bigger 10 would have been to understand the questions in more depth to begin with. This would have helped me a lot because I spent hours trying to understand what the questions meant! Although none of this was really a waste because it becomes part of the process in becoming clear, it was very time consuming within a very short time frame. I suggest having a guideline for the questions, a guideline to the offer, make it even clearer that it is a lengthy process to get it all clear. That there will be a lot of back and forth’s, which is a lot of work with amazing, results at the end.

Roughly how many hours did you invest?
Not sure, as we went back and forth for at least 2 weeks! Perhaps have time sheets available to note how long we spent on this process.

If money were no option - what would you like to have paid for this?
Wow what a question, the back and forth’s were worth their weight in gold, without that process I would have not got to where I am today so quickly. Tad deserves the going market rate for his consultations in the back and forth’s.

What was hardest?
The questions and defining those questions with my answers.

What was most valuable?
Becoming very clear that I had something to offer which I did not need to change to fit into what is considered normal for success. But most of all it was that Tad believed in me which helped me in moving forward and NOT holding back. Part of the back and forth’s is you get to really see where you could be resistant to moving on and I loved that Tad would stretch me by asking a bit more of me, which is ultimately what I wanted.

What did you think it would be like before and how does that?
Compare to how it actually was? I had no idea what it would be like, I had only the willingness to go for it , a vision and Tad’s enthusiasm. In reality what it is actually is, is a lot of good wholesome work and the more you put in the more you get out of it, to me that’s the key.

When you look at what you first sent me vs. what we created in the end - how do you feel?
Its great, I love it, when we first started it was all an idea which became a reality, one of the things that struck me the most in the process was the more I dived into tads back and forth’s the more I became clear and could define my vision. One of the things that also startled me the most is that I started to remember as a child being involved in a lot of bargain shopping experiences, going to Markets etc, I forgot most of this which is what gave me the natural ability that I have today in what I do!

Was there a good balance of loving encouragement and honest challenge?
Absolutely, that was the best part for me

To read your free copy of Hayley’s 17 page Offer Makeover go to:
http://www.tadhargrave.com/backyard.pdf

The Small-Mart Revolution Talking Points

The Small-Mart Revolution Talking Points
- Michael Shuman


• The Small-Mart Revolution represents a major new trend that thus far has largely escaped public notice. Local businesses in the United States suffered setbacks during the era of globalization but still make up more than half the economy—and they are now on the verge of a huge comeback.

• More than a half dozen trends are increasing the competitiveness of small business. The rising price of oil, for example, makes local production and distribution more competitive against Wal-Mart production in China. Local businesses are enjoying advantages in mastering local markets, delivering the best services, and bypassing inefficient global distribution systems. The imminent decline of the U.S. dollar also will benefit local business.

• This is good news for communities that have been told by their economic development departments that “there is no alternative” (TINA) to attracting or retaining global businesses by paying millions in incentives and reducing labor and environmental standards – policies which studies and experience are
• showing to be dead-ends.

• A growing body of evidence shows that local businesses are the best promoters of good jobs, high environmental standards, economic stability, smart growth, the “creative economy,” social equality, and political participation.

• Local businesses actually have improved their competitiveness in recent years, but these improvements haven’t registered yet, because public policy has foolishly favored of global business. Global businesses get more than $113 billion in subsidies each year, while local businesses get almost nothing. And a variety of other laws – such as banking, trade, tax, securities, and antitrust – increasingly disfavor local business.

• These policy biases mean that for the Small-Mart Revolution to take hold, waiting for the “invisible hand” of the free market is not enough. Instead, concerted actions by consumers, investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and organizers are necessary.

• Consumers should buy local wherever possible. By shopping smart, they can localize most of their expenditures at no increased cost and even realize significant savings. Replacing the use of nonlocal oil with local energy efficiency measures can save a U.S. household several thousand dollars per year. Around the country are directories, labels, campaigns, and local money systems that help consumers to buy local effectively.

• Even though most of the competitive economy is made of local small business, it receives very little equity investment. Even Americans who are committed to buying local have no way to localize their pension funds. One reason is that securities laws have effectively kept small businesspeople separated from small investors. A new generation of securities laws are needed that promote local stock markets, local hedge and venture funds, and local mutual funds.

• Local businesspeople are pioneering a number of strategies to beat global competitors. They are tapping consumers’ growing interest in local goods and services. They are working together through small-business associations, small-business emporiums, producer cooperatives, and flexible manufacturing networks. They are launching successful local businesses that promote local purchasing, local investing, and local entrepreneurship.

• Public policymakers are beginning to realize that smart reforms of their economic development can save millions by ending incentives, bribes, and payoffs to nonlocal business. Some of that money can wisely be spent instead to support municipal programs to buy, invest, hire, or train local. Also urgent is to press national policymakers to remove the vast number of imbalances facing local business.

• Around the country communities are organizing residents to develop comprehensive strategies for localization. Local First campaigns can be found in three-dozen cities, from Bellingham (WA) to Philadelphia (PA). In upstate New York and Maine, organizers put together hundreds of community members to envision a local economic future, to assess unnecessary imports and dollar “leakages,” and to create new local businesses that could replace those imports and plug the leaks.

• The Small-Mart Revolution is not just for the United States – it’s actually happening throughout the world. It has a new vision of globalization—to protect the local, globally. Communities are giving away technology, policy ideas, and technical assistance to increase the self-reliance of their partner communities. Global networks of communities are forming to promote fair trade, corporate responsibility, global small-business networks, global funds of local funds, and global exchanges for local currencies and barter.

• The Small-Mart Revolution offers communities worldwide a fundamentally new approach to reducing poverty, solving global environmental problems, preventing conflicts, and reducing uncontrolled immigration.

• The politics of the Small-Mart Revolution are inherently multi-partisan. Conservatives like the focus on small business, free markets, and local government, while progressives like the emphasis on community empowerment.

Free "Offer Makeover Executive Summary" #1

** Offer Makeover – Case Study Summary #1**

Renaissance Life Coach, Katie Curtin - www.katiecurtin.com

CORE FOCUS OF THIS MAKEOVER:
The Importance of Clarifying Your Niche and Being True to Your Own Voice

The core lesson of this makeover was about the importance of a clear niche or target market.

Katie came to me needing help with her offer.

She was feeling confused, frustrated and helpless

She knew that she needed to focus - to pick a niche. She couldn’t very well go around saying, “My coaching can help everyone.”

But she couldn't seem narrow it down.

"Tad, there's so many target markets I’m interested in. I don’t want to have to give any up! There's activists, artists, social entrepreneurs . . . I hardly know where to start."

After a few minutes, I suggested that, "Maybe your niche is people like you who are struggling to weave together all the parts of their life. People who don't want to live the mono-cultured existence that we're sold. Modern day renaissance people and 21st century nomads." And I encouraged her to dial UP to volume on her political views – instead of toning them DOWN out of fear of offending people.

Something clicked in her. She loved it. And that became the basis of articulating her work.

*

To read your free copy of Katie’s 31 page Offer Makeover go to:
www.tadhargrave.com/katie.pdf

*

- KATIE’S CANDID FEEDBACK
ON THE ‘MAKEOVER’ PROCESS -

KATIE GAVE THIS PROCESS AN OVERALL GRADE OF: 10/10

HOW DOES SHE FEEL WHEN SHE LOOKS AT THE BEFORE AND AFTER VERSIONS: "It’s so much clearer who I am orienting to, and what exactly I have to offer. I just love the end result. It feels very ‘me’. I was actually nervous about sending it to some of my clients, as I wasn't sure how they would react to my whole spectrum of opinions on the politics, spirituality, activism and the world etc.

But the response was so heartfelt and enthusiastic from some of my most treasured clients and friends. I feel reassured that I can be my most edgy self and have a fulfilling and thriving practice-- in fact being daring and "out there" is the key to this!"

WHAT DID SHE THINK ABOUT THIS PROCESS BEFORE IT STARTED: "I thought the process would be faster and involve less work on both of our parts. And I had no idea I would be able to unite so successfully my diverse ideas for my niche."

TIME SHE SPENT: 25 hours.

AMOUNT OF MONEY SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN WILLING TO SPEND: "I would love to give the market rate for people at your level of expertise. I am not sure what that is, but probably well in the thousands, given the amount of time you spent with me.”

WHAT WAS HARDEST FOR HER?: "Getting away from jargon and vague wording, and really addressing in detail the problems of "modern nomads" and "renaissance souls". Also in a sense honing it down to a subniche among this group, of people who were both creative, spiritual and social activist types who really want to make change both personally and globally."

In a sense this experience was not just about "marketing" (a word I don't particularly like) but about really identifying in what ways I can serve others and the planet, going to the edge of what is safe, and expressing in my own voice how I see things and what my personal vision is, and through this attracting my ideal clients, those creative, versatile souls who want to make a difference.

WHAT WAS MOST VALUABLE FOR HER? "Getting crystal clear on my niche and what their needs and problems were. Articulating what I had to offer which could help them with these challenges. It makes everything I do for my business, so much clearer now, not just the promotion of my services and products, but how I design what I have to offer, and what my clients needs are."

WHAT KATIE HAD TO SAY ABOUT WORKING WITH ME: "Tad’s a wonder-- every time I work with him, I’m delighted with the results, as I find he’s on the same page as me, warmly guiding me to find my authentic voice in promoting my services as a coach. Last, but not least, in my books, he’s a fun caring guy to work with, has a great sense of humour and a very creative approach.

I highly recommend his workshops and consulting services to my clients, and to any socially conscious practitioner, or business owner whose looking to market their services and products. If you have any questions about Tad’s work - I’d be happy to take a few minutes to answer them - you can call me at 416-656-6455 or email me at katiecurtin@mac.com." - Katie Curtin, Life and Small Business Coach, Toronto, Ontario, www.katiecurtin.com

*

To read YOUR free copy of Katie’s 31 page Offer Makeover go to:
www.tadhargrave.com/katie.pdf

BOOK: The Green Collar Economy - Van Jones

The Green Collar Economy:
How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems - by Van Jones

* * *

This book explores the central question:

"Can we fight pollution AND cut poverty at the same time?"

If you want to believe that we can - keep reading.

I've met author Van Jones many times.

He's one of the most inspiring and visionary people I know.

He travels around the country giving a powerful presentation weaving together issues that have - for decades - seemed at odds - social justice and the environment.

Van often jokes that, "this is the presentation Al Gore would give if he was black."

Most environmental groups seem to be full of . . . white people.

And yet the communities most impacted by the issues are communities of colour.

Van argues passionately that 'green collar jobs' - trade jobs working in solar panels, wind energy etc. may be the very tool to get great jobs to those who need them most, cut poverty AND , at the same time, helping our environment.

He has just launched it and he's hoping to sell 5000 of them by Tuesday, October 7th.

This would make publishing history.

Why?

No African-American author has ever written an environmentally-themed book that became a best seller. Strong sales will pave the way for other vital new voices in the environmental movement!

warmest,
tad
co-founder
e-sage

* * *

"Van Jones demonstrates conclusively that the best solutions for the survivability of our planet are also the best solutions for everyday Americans." - Al Gore

NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman quotes Van Jones, saying, "It's time to stop borrowing and start building. America's number one resource is not oil or mortgages. Our number one resource is our people. Let's put people back to work — retrofitting and repowering America." (9/28/08)

Green For All founder Van Jones has proposed a powerful green cure. His first book, The Green Collar Economy, hits bookstores on October 7th.

Answers to these tough questions are between the covers of The Green Collar Economy:

* How can the next U.S. president create millions of new green jobs?
* How can we lower energy prices without drilling our shorelines and burning up our planet?
* How can the government help create energy independence – at practically zero cost to the tax payer?
* What is eco-apartheid? What is eco-equity?

Buy your copy of the Green Collar Economy now and find out the answers to these and other critical questions of our times. See how people's lives are changing with green pathways out of poverty and into prosperity.

* * *

Please order it from your locally owned bookstore:

But here's the amazon.com link for more info . . .

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Collar-Economy-Solution-Problems/dp/0061650757/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222903011&sr=8-1friends.

The Four Things Most Entrepreneurs Need:

An excerpt from my ebook "The Way of the Radical Business":

to get a copy for yourself go to - www.tadhargrave.com (sign up on left hand side)

The Four Things Most Entrepreneurs Need:

I find that there are three things most of the entrepreneurs I meet need. Maybe you can relate to this:

First is Empathy: Hell, being an entrepreneur can be hard. We can work so hard and take failure or rejection so personally. We can work so hard for so little money.

Second is Context: They need a map to help them understand where they are. They need to understand where they’re strong and weak. They need a clear diagnosis that helps make sense of their symptoms. All they know is that some things just aren’t working. But they don’t know why. They’re lost and they don’t know where they are. They need someone to help them understand where they are and why.

Third is Options: Once they feel heard and understand where they are - they need to understand the various options for getting to where they want to be. This is where more information, reading books, listening to audios can be helpful. It’s a general level of solutions. From this they can begin to pick and choose what feels relevant. This level is about learning the language in a certain arena. They start learning the general principles of marketing, some of the core strategies and tactics and maybe even hear a lot of examples.

You can start to feel really powerful, like you now know how to navigate the terrain. You walk a bit taller. But at a certain point it becomes clear that the more you learn, the more you know you don’t know. You become increasingly aware of where you’re still ignorant. And you start to suspect that you need more than just guidance.

Fourth is Guidance: In many ways, this fourth level is what they were really after when they were looking for options. At the end of the day, they can get too many options. So many that they feel overwhelmed and immobilized. “Overwhelmed by insurmountable opportunity” as Pogo said. I find that most people are silently begging to be led. They’re craving for someone to take their hand and walk them from where they are to where they want to be.

They don’t always want this guide to make the decisions for them (though often they do), but they do want someone who can not only explain the options but also give them their best advice and opinions on what would be best. And guidance can only be done one on one - in a personal relationship.

You just can’t get guidance by reading a book or listening to some audio or watching a video. That just becomes more information. And more overwhelm. In fact, all of these levels are more powerful when it’s person to person. You can get a general level, a surface level, of all of these through books and online - but working with a coach or mentor will be, obviously, far more powerful.

After they’ve absorbed enough information (and for some people it’s more than others) a question begins to surface: “How does this apply to me?” They understand that it works - and why - but they are still struggling to make that principle fit into their business.

But you need to go through these four stages in order. You’ve probably experienced this where someone tried to give you guidance without any real empathy or diagnosis and it felt awful.

If all you do is get empathy - you’re still stuck.

If you get empathy and context but no new information - all you know is what’s wrong but you feel lost about how to solve it. A lot of flailing about can happen here.

In terms of empathy - I hope this ebook provides a little for you.

In terms of context - there are two diagnostic tools (‘The Horrible Hundred’ + and ‘The Radical 180’) you can use to give you an overview of where you are.

In terms of options and information - there’s a lot here to start you off.

In terms of guidance - I’m afraid this ebook won’t be of very much help at all. Isn’t that rotten news? Ah well. It’s a start.

In fact, let’s start off with one of the core principles I base all my marketing and marketing coaching on.

People Want Guidance, Not More Information

People don’t want information. Ultimately, they want guidance.

If you think you’re selling them a product or a service - think again. You are selling them a point of view a perspective.

Let me explain: they are suffering from whatever symptoms they have (e.g. not enough clients, lower back pain, an angry wife threatening divorce, inability to get pregnant).

But - why do they have this problem? And what will it take to fix it?

Does it make sense to you that there are a myriad of ways to solve any problem? Dozens of lenses to even put on it? And, does it make sense that the lense you put on it might shape the treatment you offer?

Let’s take the general example of ‘illness’. There’s many theories on what causes it:

An inconsistency between the will of the soul and the will of the personality:

o Karma
o Genetics
o Bad diet
o Stress
o Excessive acidity in the system
o Fear

Etc. I know some people who think that what you eat is almost irrelevant to your health. I know others who think that food is the only thing that matters.

Here’s the point for you: what is YOUR perspective on why your clients are struggling with their challenges? What’s your point of view? What’s your opinion and perspective?

Here’s what people want:

1. empathy and understanding for their symptoms
2. a clear, well thought out point of view on why they have these symptoms that doesn’t cause them to feel ashamed and stupid. Something that makes sense to them.
3. clear and personalized guidance on what to do about it.

Your job is to do those three things.

Your job is to make your case as to why your perspective is correct. Not to convince them - but just so they understand where you’re coming from and what kind of help they’re likely to get from you. You can’t just say, “Take these pills.” First they need empathy. Then you need to explain your understanding of how things got the way they did. Then you need to share exactly what you think they need to do to resolve it. And of course, engaging them in this conversation is critical.

They don’t want to have to read through hundreds of pages of books and e-books. They don’t want to have to listen to hours of downloadable audios. They don’t want to sit through a weekend seminar. They want someone to give them insight into their own situations. They want you to hold their hand. They want personalized, customized advice.

Always remember this: People don’t want information. They want guidance.

Toronto: Radical Business Participants - May 2008

I know that before I go to any damn event I always want to know one thing:

"who's going to be there?"

So, if you're like me - I encourage you to browse the following bios and check out who you'll be having the chance to share the weekend with.

Only 11 spaces left.

For more info or to enroll in the weekend:

http://www.tadhargrave.com/RBI

Here they are:

Ann Phillips:
Martial Arts Wellness Instructor

I have a PhD in environmental studies and before that studied Human and Medical Genetics. I have a diploma in Acupuncture and am a certified Reiki Master, Reflexologist, Niei Chi Instructor and have black belts in several martial arts. I have apprenticed with various practitioners of traditional medicines and have reached a basic level of understanding in energy healing. I am starting a socially responsible business which aims at using 'martial arts training technology' to train people to improve their health using natural methods, and inprove the health of their community and the earth.

It's purpose is to train people to achieve physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being to heal and empower themselves and to heal the earth.

*

chloe shackelton:
Eco-Friendly Clothing.

I am new to the eco-game and a brand new business. I am a sales agency representing three eco-friendly clothing lines with fabrics including organic cotton, bamboo, soy and hemp. All companies I represent must be fair trade or Canadian made. I am selling to retailers that are eco-conscious.

I work out of my home office, so i definitely walk to work and reduce waste by never eating out. I primarily use email and the telephone as my contact methods, use only recycled paper if i need to. i am using all used office equipment and display items. I have donated merchandise to the local upcoming art festival and will be donating to the Halton eco-festival. I spend my days researching new ways to improve the environment within my community and i am looking forward to being a part of environment Canada's Earth Week by providing a fashion show and sale to over 700 employees and will likely be doing a presentation for them on the benefits of eco-responsible clothing options.

*

Gurbeen Bhasin:
Progressive Film Production Company.

Has her educational and professional background in Social Policy and International Relations. She has been practicing Social Work for over two decades. During that time she has focused on the areas child welfare and mental health. On a creative level, Gurbeen has been writing as long as she could hold a pen and has over the last couple of years used film to further her artistic expression and capture that of others. She has lived in Iran, India, Canada and the United States and has traveled extensively and this helps her to tell the untold story in unique ways. Gurbeen has taught communications and other courses to help others learn to live the lives they love and do so powerfully! Toronto is her home, where her heart has grown roots and soul attachments. Her love for Rumi and the spirit that connects us all inspires her to stand of truth and justice in art, in life, in all.

Aangen: is the Sanskrit word for the front yard of a home where community members gather to give each other comfort, support, and nurturing. We are... a Supportive Community Centre; a non-profit organization that proposes to facilitate independence and cause community. We also aim to provide personalized emergency relief to those in disadvantaged life situations, by providing unconditional support and wraparound services. Our philosophy... is that in order to help our community members facilitate independence, we must facilitate our own, As such, we do not count on government or external funding, we raise our own funds. This is our definition of independence. We are committed to providing educational workshops for everyone that are easily affordable and promote self-reliance whilst causing community.

Meow Films: is an independent production company specializing in event coordination and promotions. Meow Films is here to understand your media and marketing needs and offer solutions that get attention and desired results whether product or service related. Our other services include a full array of film production, film/event/festival coordination, personalized documentary video memoirs, training workshops, industrial video solutions for promotions and training/education. Meow Films is a production company that cares about your marketing needs and want to work with you to meet your goals.

*

Laurie Varga:
Green Design Pro
http://www.anatomycommunications.com
http://www.divineonadime.ca

Anatomy Communications is a full spectrum design and marketing firm committed to helping our clients communicate clearly and powerfully in the marketplace. We deliver innovative solutions with ecology and social responsibility in mind.

Is it possible to be good in the world of business, you ask? We stay true to our values in this crazy world by practicing serene business.

I'm just an average person doing my best to live a sustainable lifestyle and run a small, green business. I'm also an activist, working to encourage other people to understand that more does not equal happiness.

I work from home and do everything possible to keep my business operations eco-friendly and low impact. I provide green design and marketing services to socially conscious businesses and I'm working to encourage other designers to do the same in an effort to transform the industry.

*

Beatrix Montanile:
Yoga instructor.

My principal objective is to “help others gain optimum health and well-being through the practice of yogic sciences”. Three years ago I initiated an out door program called PARK YOGA in order to make Yoga accessible and fun for the community. From June through October, free classes are held in 4 different parks in East Toronto; Withrow Pk., Riverdale Pk, Greenwood Pk. and Leslie Grove Pk. To date approx 300 students have attended these classes. During the winter months, classes continue in St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Riverdale and at my home in Leslieville where students can attend on a “pay-what-you-can” donation basis. Every winter I also host a 30 Day Yoga Retreat to India where participants have the opportunity to safely experience India’s culture and study under the tutelage of accomplished yoga masters.

Recently I registered myself as a company, Atma Shakti Yoga, in order to expand my ideas to include specialty workshops and additional affordable yoga retreats to rarely visited global destinations such as Cambodia and Croatia. I plan to also partner with other organizations or teachers that share my vision.

*

Leehe Lev:
Personal trainer and lifestyle coach.

I go to clients' homes and help them reach their fitness and healthy lifestyle goals. I use a wholistic approach to my fitness training, which mean providing nutritional consulting, stress management etc. to make sure they are balanced in the mind, body and soul. Check out my website at http://www.wholeself.ca

The business is just me for now. I bicycle to my clients and am a huge bicycling advocate. I'm a minimalist and constantly find ways to cut my carbon footprint. I also do a ton of eco-related volunteer work for the Toronto Bicycle Union, Green Enterprise Toronto and Green Neighbours 21.

*

Marla Gold:
Nia Instructor

I am a Holistic Practitioner and a Nia Instructor. I am trained in several modalities from Reflexology, Acupressure to Energy Psychology techniques. I balance my practice between treating clients in my office and facilitating weekly Nia classes and workshops about Energy Medicine and movement. My goal is to help people get back in touch with their bodies and how they move through life in order to feel happy and full of energy!

The energy exercises I teach to my clients helps keep them happy and energized. They are easy to learn and I encourage them to teach their friends, family and colleagues to pass on the joy! The Nia Technique is all about joyful movement and moving from a place of authenticity. My participants experience a release of stress and an inner sense of peace and happiness after taking a Nia class and they get the benefits of getting physically fit!

*

Jaclyn Sherry:
Wellness Centre manager & Business Consultant.
www.CAISH.ca

My focus is on building loyalty programs to keep existing clients and attracting new clients to the wellness centre.

The Wellness Centre is an Ayurvedic Centre with Ayurvedic Doctors. The philosophy of Ayurveda healing system is to live consciously-mindfully and in harmony with each other, nature, the Divine Creater and ourselves. So we promote living consciously in every aspect of life. Within my marketing initiatives/strategies I promote spiritual marketing a conscious way of doing business. I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to learn how you implement conscious marketing strategies.

*

Jennifer Hicks:
Nia Instructor
www.jennhicks.ca

I have been teaching Nia for the past 2 years. Learning how to share my skills and expertise with the right target market is my objective for 2008.

Nia combines dance, martial arts and healing arts. It provides an inspiring cardiovascular workout that is suitable for everyBODY. Not only does it help develop strength, flexibility, mobility, agility and balance, but it teaches people how to be healthy by "dancing through life".

*

The Waking Up Syndrome

by Sarah Anne Edwards and Linda Buzzell

“Humankind cannot bear very much reality." — T. S. Eliot

Just dealing with our daily lives keeps most of us too busy to worry about whether or not the sky is falling. We focus on getting to and from work, paying our bills, doing our errands, and, if our time-stressed schedules allow, enjoying a little time to relax with friends and family.

But we’re deluged of late with dire pronouncements from high-profile newscasts, documentaries, and scientific reports about global warming, melting ice caps, dwindling oil supplies, and a looming imminent economic collapse. Closer to home, we’ve experienced climate-related disasters: floods, wildfires, hurricanes, wildfires, and severe droughts.

While the sky may not be falling, this day-after-day onslaught of alarming news is making it more difficult simply to overlook the triple threat of environmental, climatic and economic concerns. It’s leaving many of us feeling like Alice in Wonderland, being sucked down a Rabbit Hole into some frighteningly grotesque and unfamiliar world that’s anything but wonderful.

Few of us are eager to contemplate, let alone truly face, these looming changes. Just the threat of losing chunks of the comfortable way of life we’re accustomed to (or aspiring to) is a frightening-enough prospect. But there’s no avoiding the current facts and trends of the human and planetary situation. And as the edges of our familiar reality begin to ravel, more and more people are reacting psychologically. A noticeable pattern of behavior is emerging.

We call this pattern the Waking Up Syndrome, and it unfolds in six stages, though not necessarily in any particular order.

Stage 1 - Denial.
When we first get an inkling of the shifting environmental reality and its potential impact on both the national economy and our daily lives, most people begin by denying it. We slip into one of four common ways to discount things we’d rather not deal with:

“I don’t believe it.”
We simply deny the existence of any such concerns and refuse to consider them. This might include latching eagerly onto any few remaining naysayers for confirmation and comfort. But as the number of reputable naysayers dwindles, more people are forced to face the fact that “something” is happening.

“It’s not a problem.”
We may admit there’s a change taking place, but deny that it’s significant, seeing such things as climate change and economic fluctuations as part of a normal pattern that is nothing to concern ourselves with. Or we may incorporate the changes we see happening into our spiritual and religious beliefs, regarding them not as a problem, but a test of faith, a sign of a global spiritual awakening, or evidence of a long-awaited Apocalypse. Some may believe focusing on such problems makes them worse and that we should instead visualize, meditate, or pray for the world to be as we want it to be.

“Someone will fix it.”
We may admit major problematic changes are underway but conclude that there’s nothing we personally can do about them and we needn’t worry because technology, scientists, the government, or some expert authority will come up with a solution in time to save us.

“It’s useless.”
We may believe there’s nothing anyone can do about macro-problems, so why do anything, except perhaps eat, drink and be merry. What will be, will be.

Stage 2 - Semi-consciousness.
In spite of the various ways we may try to discount what’s happening to our environment (and consequently to our economy and whole way of life), as evidence mounts around us and the news coverage escalates, we may begin to feel a vague sense of eco-anxiety. Some express this as virulent anger at all this discussion about global warming. Others dissociate from their growing concern and misdirect their feelings toward other things in their lives, perhaps blaming family members or jobs for their undefined discomfort.

Stage 3 - The moment of realization.
At some point we may encounter something that breaks through our defenses and brings the inevitability and severity of the implications of our collective problems into full consciousness. We might read a particularly compelling article, learn more about the aftermath of Katrina, hear a news broadcast about polar bear deaths or rampant fires and flooding, see a documentary like “An Inconvenient Truth” or “The End of Suburbia.” Or — most dramatically – we might experience a natural disaster ourselves with all its personal and economic costs.

At such moments, suddenly we realize no matter how we try to explain away the changes that are happening, they are and will be accompanied by huge challenges to life as we know it and cause considerable pain and suffering for many, including ourselves and those we love.

Even if we believe all these disruptions are leading to a global spiritual awakening or a long awaited Apocalypse— even if we think some helpful new technology is going to emerge (hopefully soon)— we nonetheless begin to understand on a visceral level that the changes taking place will have dramatically unpleasant implications beyond anything we’ve faced in our lifetimes. In fact, we realize many of these uncomfortable changes are already underway and will be growing in coming months and years, affecting most of the things we love and cherish.

But like the character Neo in the 1999 movie The Matrix, even at this point we still have a choice. We can choose to swallow the metaphorical red pill and find out just how deep this rabbit hole goes and where it leads. Or we can take the soothing metaphorical blue pill and choose to “escape” from the nightmarish Wonderland of the rabbit hole we’ve fallen into by slipping back into the comfort of our favorite form of assuring ourselves that all is well.

But if, like Neo, we take “the red pill,” we wake up to the reality of our individual and collective situation. We get that the triple threat challenge facing us is a real Medusa monster. Once we’re awake, the problem is full-blown in our consciousness. It’s right in our face. It won’t let us turn away, and the force of it makes “waking up” incredibly painful.

The moment we realize — even briefly — that we’re slipping into a dangerously threatening new world that no longer makes sense according what we’ve always believed, our genetic wiring kicks in with predictable physiological and emotional threat responses that can take many forms.

Some of us become obsessive newswatchers, documentary filmgoers, internet compulsives or book readers, wanting to know more and more about what’s really happening. Loved ones may think we’ve gone nuts. Spouses may consider divorce; kids may decide mom and dad are hopeless cranks.

The more fragile or vulnerable among us may get depressed or experience panic attacks. If something about this current eco-trauma retriggers earlier traumas in our lives, we may have a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) reaction. Even the more resilient may throw themselves obsessively into save-the-planet and other activities, soon to become exhausted and weary from trying to do what no one person can.

Others, once they realize what’s happening, see it as a new business or political opportunity. These green business ventures can sometimes be helpful and productive, but at other times can actively circumvent or sabotage the efforts of those who are trying to solve the problems.

Stage 4 - A Point of No Return.
Once awakened, especially as economic and environmental changes intensify, most of us find there is no turning back. We find ourselves traveling deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. Whatever methods we’ve used to avoid facing the coming changes is no longer successful to quell our personal concerns. We can no longer help but notice the continuing rapid progress of the bad trends – more expensive energy, higher costs of living, a weaker economy, more species in trouble, rising temperatures, more devastating severe weather events, increasing political, economic and military competition (wars) over remaining resources, etc. It all starts to make a dreadful sort of sense as we let in the enormity of the situation.

One of the most difficult aspects of this stage is the profound but unavoidable sense of isolation and disconnection we may feel when living in a different world from most of those around us, a world we can no longer escape from, but one few others seem to notice. The result is a bizarre sense of surrealism. Interaction and communication can become a challenge. How do we relate to a world that’s no longer real to us, but is business as usual to most? Do we try to reach out to others about the ugly new reality and endure their defenses? Is it better to indulge those who don’t yet see the reality we’ve stumbled into and act “as if” nothing has changed just to get along? Or might it be easier to withdraw from life as we’ve known it and turn into a hermit?

5. Despair, guilt, hopelessness, powerlessness.
The realization sets in that one person or even one group or community can’t stop the effects of such things as climate change and peak oil and their economic consequences from impacting millions of people around the planet and at home. We see this thing spiraling out of control and realize that our species, and even we individually, are responsible for much of what’s happening! As the mayor of Memphis said to the Los Angeles Times when a major heat-wave hit his city and most of the Midwest and South last summer, “This is pretty akin to a seismic event in the sense that there is no solution that we here in this room can come up with that will take care of everybody.”

Some have suggested that this stage is similar to the traditional grief process, and indeed, this is a time of grieving. But there is a significant difference between this awakening and the normal experience of grief. Grief that occurs after a loss usually ends with acceptance of what’s been lost and then one adjusts and goes on. But this is more like the process of accepting a degenerative illness. It’s not a one-time loss one can accommodate and simply move on. It is a chronic, on-going, permanent situation that will not only not improve, but actually continue to worsen and become more uncomfortable in the foreseeable future, probably for the entire lifetime of most people living today. This is what author James Howard Kunstler calls “The Long Emergency.”

Our grief and sorrow are also amplified by having to bear the pain of upbeat acquaintances who go merrily along in their denial, discounting their own uneasiness about what’s happening and wondering why we’re so “negative.”


Stage 6 - Acceptance, empowerment, action.
As we come to accept the limits of our general powerlessness, we also find the parameters of the power we do have in this strange new situation. We discover we no longer need to resist our current and emerging reality. We don’t need to feel compelled to save the entire world or to hold onto a world that no longer makes sense. We are freed, instead, to pursue what James Kunstler calls “the intelligent response, ” seeking and taking whatever creative, constructive action will best sustain those aspects of life that are truly most important to us in the context of the changes unfolding around us. At this point our curiosity and creativity kick in and we can begin following our natural instincts to find what is both feasible and rewarding to safeguard ourselves, our families, our communities and the planet.

And indeed, growing numbers of people are beginning to respond with a plethora of creative, socially and personally responsible actions along four paths that are similar to those identified by Joanna Macy in her book World as Lover, World as Self: Courage for Global Justice and Ecological Renewal and Richard Heinberg in Peak Everything: Waking up to the Century of Declines. We are finding individual and collective ways to:

Resist making matters worse.
What’s going on may or may not be inevitable, but we don’t have to speed it along. We can do at least one thing to ease or lessen the negative impact of these changes. We can join an environmental action group, plant a tree, bike to work, help with a protest march or write letters to our congressperson. Just doing our little bit to limit the damage eases the psychological distress we’re feeling, even if we’re not “saving the whole world.” Taking even a small stand for what Macy calls “the life-sustaining society” (as opposed to the life-destroying one) gives us back our dignity and sense of agency.
Raise our level of consciousness so we can maintain some serenity and not burn out in the midst of all this change. We might adopt a spiritual practice of some kind, take up meditation, expand our understanding of ecology or history, or spend time reconnecting with nature, learning to live our lives in harmony with the rest of the earth.

Build a lifeboat for ourselves and our loved ones.
Many people are already taking steps to create a richer yet more sustainable way of life better suited to weathering the new economic and environmental realities. Some are moving to less vulnerable or expensive locales. Others are simplifying their lives, starting to lower their energy use, or creating personal and community permaculture gardens. Still others are changing into more sustainable careers, joining relocalization efforts to safeguard their local economy, or adopting alternative ways to exchange needed goods and services. Learning more about these positive possibilities is vital. Until we can see that there are options, there’s no way out of despair except to return to dissociating or denying, which only makes us more vulnerable to the difficulties around us.

Join with others in small communities
for support and understanding. Don’t try to cope with this enormous challenge alone! Find others who share your concerns and views. Some people have formed reading or study groups around books like David Korten’s The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, Richard Heinberg’s Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World, Cecile Andrews’ Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life, or Middle Class Life Boat by Paul and Sarah Edwards. Others are becoming active in relocalization efforts like those described on www.relocalize.net . Still others are joining together to turn their neighborhood into a sustainable “eco-hood” or exploring options for co-housing or eco-villages.

Taking some action in each of these four areas prevents us from getting stuck in panic and paralysis. It energizes us and re-establishes a sense of confidence and security in life. Does it mean we will no longer be plagued with concerns, doubts or even fear at times? No. The threat of what we face is huge and relentless. There’s never been anything like it in human history. All who awaken to the enormity of the challenges before us still slip and slide somewhere along this continuum at times. One day we may feel encouraged with our forward action, the next we may be back to despairing. Or we many need to take a mental holiday altogether for a few days or weeks so we can come back refreshed and reinvigorated, ready to work again on the survivable future we’re creating for ourselves and our loved ones.

When asked in an interview with The Turning Wheel if there are times when she ever thinks “Oh, no! This is impossible,” even Joanna Macy, who has been a leader in championing ways to address these changes, replied, “Every day.” But she goes on to explain that while she does think this at times, such times pass because she can’t think of anything more engaging and enjoyable than addressing the most pressing issues of our time.

Such wisdom seems to be the secret to living positively while navigating the painfully difficult stages of awakening until we get to the point where we can enjoy the daily challenges our dismaying situation presents to our imagination, our creativity and our deep and abiding love for the most valuable aspects of life.


To Learn More

Books

Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life by Cecile Andrews.

World as Lover, World as Self: Courage for Global Justice and Ecological Renewal by Joanna Macy.

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community by David Korten.

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change and other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century by James Howard Kunstler.

Middle-Class Life Boat, Careers and Life Choices for Staying Afloat in an Uncertain Economy by Paul and Sarah Edwards.

Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren

Peak Everything: Waking up to the Century of Decline by Richard Heinberg.

Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World by Richard Heinberg.

Reconnecting with Nature by Michael J. Cohen.


Documentary DVDs

The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream. www.endofsuburbia.com/previews.htm

Escape From Suburbia: Beyond the American Dream

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

What a Way to Go: Life at the End of the Empire. www.whatawaytogomovie.com/

Crude Impact

Organizations

The Post-Carbon Institute www.postcarbon.org

Sarah Anne Edwards, Ph.D., LCSW, is an ecopsychologist, author, and advocate for sustainable lifestyles. She is founder of the Pine Mountain Institute (www.PineMountainInstitute.com ), a continuing education provider for professionals seeking to empower their clients to respond to today’s challenging economic and environmental realities.

Linda Buzzell, M.A., M.F.T. is a psychotherapist and career counselor in private practice in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, California. She is the founder of the International Association for Ecotherapy (http://thoughtoffering.blogs.com/ecotherapy ) and the co-editor of Ecotherapy: Psyche and Nature in a Circle of Healing (in press, Sierra Club Books).

Beyond the Green Economy

BEYOND THE GREEN ECONOMY: COMMUNITY, LOCALITY, AND INDIGENOUSNESS

In an interview, Tad Hargrave speaks about the web of life needed to make a sustainable world.

Joshua: I’m very excited about this interview. I’m speaking with Tad Hargrave (tadhargrave.com), a green marketer and personal hero. He is one of the major people to inspire me to start InspiringWebCopy, and he generously agreed to be interviewed for Inspiring Newsletter.

Because of technological problems the interview could not be recorded, but I was taking furious notes.

JOSH: Tad, you’re “the marketer who works with hippies.” Are you a hippie? What was your journey, were you a “hippie” first or a marketer first?

TAD: A mix. I went to a Waldorf school, was raised with politically progressive values, and environmentally conscious. Then in high school I read Anthony Robbins and got really into that—seminars on personal growth, New Age, Steven Covey—and they are pretty capitalist, on the more progressive end of the suicide economy but still a part of it. Even the idea [in Tony Robbins] that you need to be always growing, that you are either growing or dying, that dying is bad, is a part of that I feel is problematic in personal growth. The perspectives around money are capitalist. I led Tony Robbins seminars and was really into that.

At the same time,I went to a YES! Camp in Oregon – Tony Robbins is really yang, and then I was at this YES! Camp which is really yin, and it was bugging me. I wanted to say "stop whining and telling stories and making excuses". But I felt changed, and loved. And it made me question my whole world-view really deeply.

I spent a few years doing both. I’d say to campers, “I’m a capitalist, capitalism works, it’s just misunderstood.” But I started learning more about [the politics of] environmental issues. I was still in the leadership-within-the-system model, I led Tony Robbins seminars at schools to build school spirit, then spent time at YES I out grew that model started to think well, the system works, but there are some pretty big problems with it and that there need to be some major lifestyle changes.

In 1999 I started YouthJams. I started having deeper conversations with more seasoned activists, some challenging conversations, about the IMF and WTO. I went to protests, I met anarchists. My politics shifted. I was no longer feeling that it was possible to make change within the system—now I believed the system is fucked.

And then I began to get the itch to train and facilitate things. At YES, it’s a very yin space, and I like to talk, to coach, to give advice. I was feeling bad about that, I thought I should be “holding space” more. But then I realized I didn’t have to make myself wrong about that—I like to train and facilitate. I had started a business at 18, leading the Tony Robbins workshops in high schools, and learned a lot about marketing (some of which I feel I’ve recently recovered from)—but a lot of it is very simple and commonsense. And I also began to realize that there’s a big difference between the local, mom-and-pop, green business and the multinational corporations. I thought, I’ll teach this stuff to green businesses.

I led my first green business workshop, and it was just awful. Three people showed up, it was just me pontificating and with only a few real life examples. One person left. Ugh.

Then they got better.

JOSH: How’d you learn about Stephen Covey?

TAD: In junior high school, on PBS. I was fascinated by this idea that natural law and princple could be the center of things, integrity. Leo Buscaglia was the first person I read, he had a book called Love. He was a teacher at UCLA and taught a class on it, how to be more loving, since there wasn’t any other class like that in the curriculum, and it was packed. There were assignments like go tell your parents you love them.

JOSH: What in your view is sustainability?


TAD: A sustainable world is something that can be sustained, and that means an entirely different way of living from what we see now. Way beyond “the green economy” I which I think is not sustainable. If we all did everything suggested in the Al Gore movie, we’d have a %21 reduction in carbon emissions, that would not be enough. I see that we need to get away from a) nation states, with so many modern conflicts being started based on artificial borders (e.g Iraq, Israel, the USA, Canada), and b) cities, requiring importation of food: if you’ve outstripped the land’s capability to support you, that’s not sustainable. We must challenge the centralization of power.

A friend of mine recently went to a women’s empowerment group, and she spoke her vision, and that was be a billionaire. I’ll be a billionaire, imagine all the good things I could do with that money, she said. I looked at her and said, “Show me the way you’re going to make a billion dollars without exploiting the environment or people.” And is that the answer, putting greener people at the center of power? I don’t really think if Obama, or Edwards, or even Kucinich got in office that would solve everything.

Tolkien had it right. When Boromir wants to take the ring from Frodo, claiming he can protect them with the help of the ring, Frodo sees how the ring is already twisting [boromir[. The only way is to destroy the ring, to destroy the power center—and recreate a web of life.

Martin Prechtel says in the modern world, if you want a knife you go to the store. In his village, you have to talk to spirits first, you have to get it out of the ground, you have to take everyone’s needs and opinions into account. It’s very easy to have a fast social movement and a revolution of white, male, land-owners if you all the think the same, but if you include women, people of color, nature and animals—then things need to slow down. This web of life is the real green economy. At the same time it’s true that the present green economy is bringing us some things that will help us get there, The Internet is horrible and violent, but does decentralize communication and power. We’re seeing a shift in energy production also, where individual’s homes have solar arrays that feed into the grid.

I believe the way of the indigenous is the only sustainable way.

JOSH: What can your clients—green businesspeople, holistic healers, mom-and-pop—do to be more sustainable, more indigenous?


TAD: I think the first thing is to have a new conception of wealth—the assumption of wealth is that it’s an individual thing, not a community thing. Even New Age books, while they b.s. that it’s really gratitude or health or relationships, talk about those things in a way that is really individual, I feel. One reason the green economy is crucial is in setting up the community—we’re seeing BALLE, living economies.org, growing tremendously.

The key word here is local. [] [Meetings of people in circles] are the most important thing I think now, not because it’s the most radical, but because community is formed. The entrepreneurs are so grateful to be learning about each other. Obviously there are ways to become greener and more sustainable and take more of a stand—that’s not what I teach but I think there are a lot of ways, from what they sell to where they source materials) but the main thing is the new organic not going to be 'super organic' it's going to be local. I’ve started seeing “Don’t buy organic, GROW organic" bumper stickers. Business can focus not only on their own growth but focus on the growth of the local economy.

It’s about not seeing ourselves as isolated, but as part of the re-weaving of the economy as a different thing.

BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) http://www.livingeconomies.org) is growing incredibly quickly, their conference sells out every year.

Also, people are starting to see that all the many issues — racism, sexism, classism, colonization, civilization, all are part of the same package. These words all describe who’s in the center and who’s not; white people, men, people with money, the colonizer, those who live in the city versus country; all have the common dynamic of centralizing power, and people need to stop taking it in the first place.

JOSH: What’s your spiritual stance, on the spectrum of materialist to “out-there”?


TAD: The animist philosophy resonates with me the most; I feel there are different levels of reality, and that if this world is extremely diverse the spirit world must diverse too. I haven’t had any direct experiences; I don’t feel qualified to comment. Some days I feel as though I can’t give a shit about spirituality but I do know thatempathy is really important. I see someone watching The Secret and then their friend goes through a tragedy, and the person who saw The Secret asks them “How did you create this? What are you learning from this?” without extending to them basic compassion for what they’re going through. I think the re-humanizing, re-“indigenizing” is important, not the fascination with bells and whistles of spirituality. Everyone wants big vision questions, and fireworks. No one in their past lives was the guy who shoveled shit. Everyone was King Arthur.

Recently I’ve been interested in Marshall Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communication work.

I have seen at the rainbow gathering scene, while there are progressive elements, I’ll see very young people leading workshops, someone in their mid-twenties. I don’t see experience and groundedness. One workshop about "Spiritual Experiences" was just a guy talking about his various drug trips. A weird ego gets into it. Sort of a "who’s got the biggest spiritual dick?" thing. But then a lot of them will come to people like me to wrestle with what’s going on in their lives, and they seem to get nervous around me. They realize they need to get real about what things they're doing to make money, the consequences of the development deal they’re a part of. They’ve rationalized these things to themselves and to other people around them, and now they feel they need to stop. They crave more of a human realness versus importance. People dealing with their issues---those conversations are so beautiful. But at a conference I went to recently people began to talk in New Age speak and I felt myself fly away, I just had to leave the room. They were not speaking from experience; they were wsying things to 'sound' loving and wise. I find myself getting bored or disgusted.

JOSH: What about holistic healing, if anything, contributes to sustainability?


TAD: Holistic practitioners are definitely important. They’re very connected to the whole green economy; the medical/pharmaceutical industry is horribly violent; alternatives are super-critical.

The healthiest thing, though, is community. There have been studies, one says that if you have a shitty relationship with your parents that’s a bigger factor in shortening life expectancy than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

[In terms of holistic practitioners I’m working with currently in helping them re-word their descriptions of what they offer] I see a common problem that they need to be conscious of what language they are dropping. Platitudes, New Age-speak, it’s true in any kind of business, but I think it’s especially a challenge for holistic healers. You’re talking about “raising your consciousness,” but what does that really mean?

JOSH: What projections do you tend to get, if any, from your clients?


TAD: I don’t get a lot. I’ve worked a lot to cut through and to name most of the pretenses that show up in this industry. But a lot of marketers are actively courting the projections and crafting the elaborate pretenses, wanting to be viewed as experts. As worthy and powerful. Deana Metzger writes that healing is a community event; and points out that, in many ways the whole doctor-patient relationship, the professional-patient relationship, is part of the problem. It struck me that in marketing this is true as well. If I make myself 'seem' like my time is scarce or a like I'm a genius, that can be a fun game, but at the same time. . . .I see a lot of holistic healers who don’t want to talk socially with their clients. It’s a mentality of professionalism and protecting oneself. But I also think it's a way of them not needing to admit they human. They get to pretend that they're all healed and enlightened by not dealing with people outside of their sessions. They get to keep it from being a real human relationship. There is a similar thing in marketers. Trying to keep a distance and seem to be very powerful.

One projection I do get is that I’m all about the green economy. I don’t talk about indigenous life in my workshops. People assume I’m all New Age-friendly and compact fluoreseents, maybe.

JOSH: What are you doing now?


TAD: SAGE—Socially Aware Green Edmontonians, is about a local living economy, local business members meeting and community members meeting. We have had four or five meetings so far. There’s been lots of information gathering, meetings twice a month. Green business entrepreneurs and sustainability. We’ve had meetings about how to grow a business and meetings about how to grow a garden. Also about nuclear power and Sari, the exploitation of oil in Northern Alberta that is presently the largest oil deposit in North America and would be an extremely resource-intensive extraction process. We’re looking at meeting with the city and how to get people together around these topics. www.e-sage.ca

JOSH: Thanks so much for your time and for sharing about your work and your visions. Tad Hargrave (www.tadhargrave.com)

Is Localism Just a Fad?

We all know that the new organic is not 'super organic', it's local. The new mantra is not to 'buy organic' but to 'grow organic'.

But is this newfound passion in localism just a fad? or is it here to stay? James Kunstler explores . . .

LOCALISM,
By James Howard Kunstler
Wednesday, 05 March 2008

At the moment, the ideas bundled under the rubric of “localism” are regarded as a lifestyle choice, which is to say a fashion statement of environmental concern, practiced by those with the time and means for following fashions. “Locavores” who make a point to eat locally are represented overwhelmingly by college-educated, high-income Baby Boomers who buy those $6 pint baskets of boutique blue potatoes at the farmers’ market as much to make a statement of principle (and derive moral comfort from doing so) as to eat nutritionally sound, good tasting food. Meanwhile, the rest of America keeps driving to the Shop Rite for tubes of frozen ground-round, jugs of Pepsi, and bags of Cheez Doodles made (grown?) God-knows-where. So, the stylishly fit locavores end up looking like stuck-up moralistic snobs while the majority follows the mindless corporate programming du jour like the overstuffed lumbering TV zombies they have become. By the way, locavores also overwhelmingly drive to the farmers’ market, (as I have observed in my town) and usually in motor vehicles the size of medieval war wagons.

Localism, in this sense, is very much related to the current craze for styling one’s endeavors as “green.” Tom Friedman cheerleads for “green” globalism in his New York Times column while Time Magazine runs “Greencast” programs on its website, and all kinds of specialists design green cars, green light bulbs, green toilets, green campuses, and green corporate headquarters (all the better for hawking those Cheez Doodles). Much of this activity can be described, to borrow a locution from public relations, as blowing green smoke up our own collective ass. Such, alas, is the sorry state of our culture nowadays that just pretending to mean well, for most people and institutions, is good enough.


A reality-based view of all this suggests that localism and “green” economic practices will be taken up more broadly and earnestly only when we don’t have a choice about it, and can no longer manage our bad old ways. My personal serene conviction is that we are much closer to reaching that point than most Americans realize. The romance of Climate Change currently holds the nation’s attention because it’s more like a made for Hollywood horror movie plot. Plus, there are a lot of secret side benefits. Will Connecticut become more like South Carolina? Surely some of the denizens of Fairfield County, CT, wouldn’t think that was such a bad deal. Will the grain belt move 800 miles further north into Canada? Very well, then, Canada’s our bitch, anyway. Will there be more tornadoes in Nebraska? Who cares – God made the place only so they could show movies on airplanes.


What’s roiling backstage, itching to shove climate change out of the spotlight, is Peak Oil, which is currently poorly understood at best by the public. For one thing, it’s not about running out of oil. It’s about the complex systems we depend on for everyday life in this country becoming unstable and failing as we enter the slippery slope of global oil depletion – a point which, arguably, we are already at. By complex systems I mean the way we produce our food (oil-dependent agri-business), the way we do commerce (Wal-Mart, et al), the way we do transportation (extreme car dependency), the way we do finance (Ponzi-style), and so on. The oil markets themselves are just another such complex system – and a year-over-year price hike of about 100 percent for a barrel of oil is certainly a manifestation of instability.


Price hikes are one thing. ; There is plenty of evidence that the American public can keep sucking up increases a while longer. What will probably bite harder is spot scarcities, when your favorite convenience store hangs a cardboard sign on the pump that says “out of gas.” This is liable to resolve out of a growing export crisis combined with a new oil nationalism – phenomena only recently acknowledged even by experts in the trade. It now appears that exports, in nations with surplus oil to sell, are going down at an even steeper rate than production declines. A country like Saudi Arabia may have produced X percent less oil in 2007 over 2006, but their exports actually declined X+5 percent. Why? They are using more of their own oil. The population is growing robustly. The Saudis are building the world’s largest aluminum smelter and many chemical factories. Russia, another big exporter, saw its car sales jump by 50 percent in 2007. Mexico is depleti ng so rapidly, and using so much more of its own oil, that it might be out of the export game altogether in three years. The new oil nationalism is prompting countries like Norway and Russia to husband more of their own resources as the awareness hits that they are past peak and might want to keep their own motors humming further into the future. They are also trending more toward selling oil on the basis of long-term contracts with favored customers rather than just auctioning the stuff off on the futures market.


All of this ought to be bad news for big importers like the USA – more than half of the oil we use. These days, we are not such a favored customer among other nations, in particular those of the Islamic persuasion. And when Mexico stops exporting we will lose our number two source of imports. Imagine that? Few Americans have imagined it so far, which is why we are about to be bl indsided by this set of problems.


As they gain traction we’ll be forced to make very different arrangements for virtually everything that constitutes everyday life in our society. Living much more locally will increasingly be the only choice. We are utterly unprepared. We’ll have to grow food differently, at a smaller scale, closer to home, with fewer oil-and-gas-based “inputs.” It will surely require more human attention. National chain discount shopping will shut down as its economies-of-scale dissolve and formulas like the “warehouse on wheels” and just-in-time inventory lose viability. Happy motoring will fade into memory and the entire suburban equation will wilt along with it. And just about everything else you can name from centralized high schools to professional sports will be cruelly affected by problems of scale and energy.


Where arc hitecture and urbanism are concerned, there are several major issues in my view pertaining to local outcomes. One is certainly counter-intuitive. Our big cities will contract, not grow. The fortunate ones will densify at their old centers and waterfronts, but overall the trend will be severe shrinkage, really a reversal of the 200-year-long demographic movement of people from farms and small towns to mega cities. (Places over-burdened with skyscrapers will prove to be exceptionally troubled. The skyscraper is an endangered species that will, like the Baluchitherium of yore, soon go extinct.) The overall trend will benefit the smaller cities and towns, in my opinion, but only the ones that can maintain a relationship with productive farming hinterlands and/or trade-via-water. The implications for land-use regulation are obviously huge. Rural land will no longer be valued for suburban development. Those who chose to live in rural places in th e decades ahead ought to be prepared to follow rural vocations. The end of suburbia will be the end of urban lifestyles lived in rural (or ruralesque) settings.


I happen to believe that our zoning laws and land use codes are un-reformable. Instead, they will simply be ignored. We’ll return to traditional modes of inhabiting the landscape by default, as it were, because we’ll no longer have the choice of doing it 20th century style. We’ll discover the hard way that the New Urbanists won that argument. It will just not be called “New” Urbanism anymore because it will no longer stand in opposition to other practical ideologies like suburbanism or Modernism. We’ll just have plain urbanism – and design disciplines to go with it.


Architects ought to prepare for a return to traditional local materials. Modular snap-together panels and frame syst ems will be increasingly unavailable due to the prohibitive cost of fabrication as well as the cost of exotic metals such as Frank Gehry’s favorite, titanium. It is hard to say how severe this problem may become – a whole new industry will surely arise dedicated to the disassembly of old structures and salvaging of materials – but personally I’d say that we’re headed back to mostly masonry for the best new construction. It will necessarily be regional or local in flavor and it will require traditional tectonic methods of assembly – which necessarily implies at least a return to a kind of methodological classicism.


What remains for now is a terrible grandiose inertia among people who really ought to know better: our culture leaders. The cutting edge has become a blunt instrument unsuited to fashioning the patterns of the future. Everything we do from now on will have to be finer in scale, quality, and chara cter. Exercises in irony will no longer be appreciated because there will no longer be a premium paid for declaring ourselves to be ridiculous. The localism of the future will not be a matter of fashion. It will be in the food we eat and the air we breathe, and we’d better start paying attention.

The New Danger of Greehushing

A great article about why you should tell the world about your green efforts . . .

Greenhushing Doesn't Help Anyone: Why Green Business Should Speak Up

Greenwashing is the corporate image version of money laundering − a way to maintain the status quo under a shiny thin veneer of change. One of greenwashing's negative effects is that it dissuades genuinely green companies from promoting their own far more substantial green practices. Companies that are authentically doing good stay silent, for fear that they'll be tarred with the same brush as those who are carrying on with business as usual. We hereby christen this unfortunate phenomenon "greenhushing." Although its intent is admirable, its effect is almost as negative as greenwashing. Here's why:

To read the rest of the article . . .
CLICK HERE

*The* Key Factor in Your Offer

2. The Customer Values Question: What things are most important to your prospects when buying what you sell?

IMPORTANT POINT #1: This isn’t what is most important to people in buying from YOU. It’s what is most important to them when buying the generic product or service you sell. This is about their experience of buying as a customer - not yours as a seller. You must put yourself in their shoes. You must learn, above all, to see the world through their eyes.

IMPORTANT POINT #2: We’re asking what is most important to your ideal client - whether or not it’s something you provide yet. If what’s most important to your customer is 24 service but you only have 8 hour a day service, still write it down.

IMPORTANT POINT #3: Remember, there are two parts to any business interaction - there’s what they’re getting and how they’re getting it. There’s the product and then there’s the process of getting it. And they are both equally important. There are things that are going to be important to them about the product they’re buying but there’s also going to be things that are important about the salesperson.

IMPORTANT POINT #4: This question includes not only the value they want to get but the values they hope or expect your business will embody. These values are what makes them feel good about themselves for doing business with you.

Example #1: What things are most important to your prospects when buying a new car?

I want the car to:
o be fuel efficient
o be a nice colour
o have a good warranty
o not have too many miles on the odometer?
o not have too much wear and tear
About the salesman:
o is the sales-person slimy and manipulative or trustworthy?
o can i trust that they have my own best interests in mind?
o no hidden fees?

Example #2: What things are most important to your prospects when buying a new fence?

o I want the fence to: look good, not turn brown quickly, not sag or lean, last at least ten years and be of high quality.

o About the fence contractor: I don’t want any hidden costs, I want the fence to be completed in a reasonable time frame, I don’t want the workers to be scary drug users, I want a reasonable price.

Example #3: What things are most important to your prospects when hiring a life coach?

I want to know that my coach . . .
o will be on time for calls
o is able give me templates, quizzes and other materials to help me
o has made significant, positive shifts in their own life dues to life coaching
o is aligned with my life values
o asks questions vs. doling out advice
o is committed to their own growth
o is certified by a recognized coaching organization
o is not going to pressure me to do things I don’t want to do

Example #4: What things are most important to your prospects when hiring a web designer?

I want to know that my web designer . . .

o will be able to respond quickly to any changes i need to make to my site.
o will ask me a tonne of questions upfront to make sure that they really understand what exactly it is I’m wanting and needing
o can explain to me, up front, their process for designing a website.
o has designed other sites that I like
o will deliver their work on time and on budget

Example #5: “British Airways wanted to keep customers happy, so it asked regular customers on the transatlantic run what they most wanted. The answer was an overwhelming "Leave us alone and let us sleep!" Passengers wanted their own comfy universe, and they got it. British Airways first-class passengers currently dine on a five-course meal with fine linen and candlelight in the waiting lounge before they board the aircraft, and then it's to sleep right after take-off. The seat reclines almost to horizontal - as close to a bed as you can get. The airline lends you a two-piece running suit that is like a nice pair of pajamas and provides you with a comforter and face mask. If you don't want to sleep, you have a choice of movies at your own seat and an in-flight banquet.” - Marketing Without Advertising



Then Identify What They Don’t Want:

“When you identify what is broken among you competitors, you've found a free prize. Your growth will come instead from the dissatisfied and the unsatisfied.

The dissatisfied know that they want a solution, but aren't happy with the solution you've got. The minute they find it, they'll buy it. Yahoo!'s best customers weren't Google's first users. Nope. The happy Yahoo! customers weren't busy looking for a replacement. Google focused on dissatisfied Web surfers.

The unsatisfied are the folks who don't even realize that they've got a problem that needs solving. The question you ought to ask first is, "will people dissatisfied with what they're using now embrace this, and even better, will they tell the large number of unsatisfied people to go buy it right away?”

Yahoo! changed its focus from engaging the dissatisfied and the unsatisfied to trying to maintain it's hold on the satisfied.

Go find some people who hate what you've got and who hate what your competitors have but still have a problem they want solved. Those are the folks that want the free prize.” Seth Godin

Dental Office Example of Industry Frustrations:

“Just fill out these forms and hand them back when you’re done…” say the medical receptionists handing you a clipboard with the pen on a string.

I don’t know about you, but I hate when I hear these words, and I get them a lot. I don’t like them for several reasons.

o I look at forms and go bug-eyed – literally I find most of them difficult to comprehend and a pain to fill out. Apparently I’m not alone in this regard!
o Questions on medical forms are often complicated or difficult to understand – ie they’re often poorly written and confusing … and seemingly irrelevant!
o There’s rarely enough space for the questions that matter, as if I can figure out which ones do matter.
o I just “KNOW” that no one will look at these forms ever again. I “know” that because no one ever seems to mention that information again, and I’m often repeating the same answers verbally later.
o It seems that even though I’m on time for my appointment, I only get my place in line after I complete the forms – anyone who comes in while I’m writing gets in before me.
o Now, because I’m writing so fast, I’m certain my already scratchy hand- writing is doubly illegible! Nobody ever asks for clarification. Nobody seems to care.

(Can you tell I’ve been to the doctor a lot with my kids recently!)

I think completing forms is one of the most obviously frustrating customer service problems that exist in the world today. Big statement, but more so because it’s so obviously unpleasant and yet no one seems to want to do anything about it!

Well Paddi did, and how he fixed the problem is so simple and seamless that it’s admirable and worthy of specific mention.

~~~~~~~~~~~ Back to your Walk Through of Paddi’s practice ~~~~~~~~~~~

You rang the doorbell and were personally greeted by Merilyn, your Care Nurse. Merilyn showed you to your Personal Lounge, and she has just poured you a cup of Special Blend Tea from the lovely Royal Doulton china and silver tea service.

As you chat over your cup of tea, Merilyn is affable and genuinely interested as she asks about you and shares a little about herself (mutual disclosure is another of Paddi’s principles of building trust). You already have a few things in common because of your friend who invited you to the practice.

In the first few minutes Merilyn explains, “As it’s your first visit with us today, as we get to know each other I’ll be asking a few questions about your medical history that might be important for us to know.”

At this stage, Merilyn draws your attention to the laptop computer on the coffee table in front of her that you noticed as you sat down.

“I’ll just take a moment every now and then to type the important information directly into your file. Please don’t think me impolite, but we think it’s better than giving you forms that we’d have to type in later anyway. Is that ok with you?”

“Hmmmmm,” you ponder. You might have to think about that one for a moment!

And that’s Paddi’s answer to the problem of forms. They don’t have them. His Care Nurses have wirelessly networked laptops they carry around with them so they can update client’s records in real time, even in the dental surgery.

It’s perhaps a little detail, but it makes such an impact on anyone who dislikes forms as much as I do. The pain that once was filling out forms has been transformed into a pleasant conversation with a very likable Merilyn over a lovely cup of tea and a fresh baked dental bun.

And it’s a much more efficient use of everyone’s time:


o Merilyn doesn’t have to find time later to decipher your handwriting – let alone another admin nurse who doesn’t know you at all.
o The data is recorded accurately the first time, no additional questions later or mistakes from mistyped information.
o As your Care Nurse, Merilyn is with you your entire visit – in the Personal Lounge and in the dental surgery –you’ll never have to repeat information to Paddi that you’ve already told Merilyn.
o Hence, you only have to share the information once, enjoyably and accurately, in less time than it would take to write the same history.
o And the privacy of the Personal Lounge is so much more appropriate for these somewhat personal conversations than the conventional all-in-one waiting room. As Paddi likes to say, “Treat in public, communicate in private.” (More on this in an upcoming issue.)

People really seem to open up when they’re comfortable and in control, in their personal lounge talking with their Care Nurse. It’s an important part of building faith and trust in Paddi’s expertise.

And because it’s enjoyable, customers are quite happy to spend the time chatting – anyway, they were told in advance that they should set aside 90 minutes for their first appointment, so no one is watching the clock wondering how long all this will take.

For more on the importance of addressing key customer fears and frustrations, see Paddi’s Advanced Manual, “Training Customers to Treasure Your Business” at
http://www.solutionspress.com.au/page.asp?nid=dwzltpp&name=TrainingCustomers

~~~~~~~~~~~ What this means to you? ~~~~~~~~~~~

If you’re in professional practice where new patients fill in forms, you might consider how Paddi’s solution to this key customer frustration might work with your service systems. Paddi has found it a far more simple and effective way of doing things, and the extra 20 minutes or so that Merilyn spends chatting is time and money well invested in the future business relationship.

But even if you’re not in a medical related business, you might consider these points:

o What key frustrations do your customers experience when doing business with you? (ie what are your businesses “Forms & Clipboards”?)
o How can you change your service systems to turn those frustrations into enjoyable parts of the service experience? (If for no other reason than your obvious care in addressing an otherwise common problem in a creative way.)
o How can you integrate your new process into your systems, procedures and checklists so that the problems never arise for your customers again?

Why not make a list of what you think are the most common key service frustrations in your industry and send it to me by e-mail. I’d be interested in comparing notes.

Coming up in the next issue, we’ll visit the one room in Paddi’s practice that has the most impact on how customers perceive his business.

Until then,

Fletcher Potanin
Managing Director
Solutions Press Business Publishing
www.PaddiLund.com

* * *

A COUPLE MORE EXAMPLES:
If you can address the common industry frustrations - you’re going to be ahead of the game.

DENTISTS: No one likes to go to the dentist because it’s such a painful experience.
Potential Irresistible Offer: ‘Sedation Dentistry, the safe, pain free way to healthy teeth.’

REALTORS: People are wary of letting real estate agents sell their homes because the don’t believe the agents will aggressively try to sell them fast enough.
Potential Irresistible Offer: ‘Our 20 point Power Marketing Plan gets your house sold in 30 days or less.’

PLUMBERS: They show up late (or give you an all day timeline, don’t fix it right the first time and charge more than the initial estimate)
Potential Irresistible Offer: ‘We will give you an exact time and guarantee to have some there at that time. If we’re more than an hour late - it’s on us. We guarantee to never charge more than the initial quote and, if we have to come back to fix a job we were already working on - it’s on us. You shouldn’t pay for our mistakes.’

Robert Boduch of the website: www.makeyoursalessoar.com has this to say:

“The best system I’ve seen for developing a strong USP, comes from Marketing guru, Jay Abraham. He suggests taking out 2 sheets of paper. On one sheet write, “You Know How...” and on the other write “Well, what we do is...”

HOMECLEANERS: “You know how most home cleaners only work to schedules that suit them. Well, what we do is send a crew whenever you want, anytime of day or night, 7 days a week, including holidays, 52 weeks a year. When you want your home cleaned, we’re there fast, guaranteed!”

CONTRACTORS: “You know how most contractors promise a hassle-free renovation, then... they’re always behind schedule, leave your house a mess... and they even have the nerve to charge you 15% more than their estimate! Well what we do is ensure your job will be completed on time and at the initial price quoted – 100% guaranteed! And, our crew understands that you’re living in your home throughout the renovation, so we promise to take extra time at the end of every day, just to clean up any mess. We help you create dreams... not nightmares.”

Is green business doing enough?

Here's an interesting interview with Joel Makower that explores the new report on “The State of Green Business 2008” is just out from GreenBiz.com.

here's some of the questions they ask Joel.

Click the link to read the whole article . . .

http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi?sfArticleId=2462

Bill Baue: The report seems to reach two seemingly contradictory conclusions: pessimistic optimism or, more precisely, optimistic realism. On the one hand, you say that green business has passed the tipping point on many indicators you consider, shifting from a movement to a market. On the other hand, the positive changes seem woefully inadequate to the crises that we face, like climate change and water scarcity. Say more about this tension between the positive growth of green business and the daunting task at hand.

Francesca Rheannon: The stock markets have been incredibly roiled lately. There are fears of a recession, perhaps even of a depression. Could this throw a monkey wrench into the kind of positive developments you're talking about?

BB: You say that "while carbon intensity represents improvement of sorts, it also obscures the fact that overall carbon emissions need to decrease significantly, not grow more slowly, in order to avoid what a consensus of scientists predict will be the worst impacts of climate change. According to many scientists, greenhouse gas emissions need to decrease 80% by 2050. At current rates, the US will never get there." That is a really dire prediction. Can you talk about the problem that carbon intensity creates for creating environmental solutions?

BB: Describe the impetus behind creating the Green Index and what impact you intend on green business practices.

BB: Explain the rating system that you created: “swimming”, “treading water” and “sinking”. How did you come up with that rating system and what are the implications in terms of where we are right now and where we're heading?

BB: The report also includes what you consider the ten biggest stories from 2007. What are a few of the big stories to take away from 2007?

FR: There's the issue of green washing and green marketing. On your blog and podcast you covered the report, The Six Sins of Greenwashing, by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing. Could you discuss the tension between greenwashing and bona fide green marketing?

BB: Recently, Bob Langert of MacDonald’s posited a list of the “Six Sins of Greenmuting” — when companies choose not to communicate their green initiatives for fear of being accused of greenwashing. What are your thoughts about that?

BB: You mentioned Clorox earlier, and they just bought out Burt’s Bees. Can you talk about what Clorox is doing in greening their business?

Going It Alone

An article I think you'd like:

Going It Alone

In a recent poll by Small Business Guru, 66 percent of small business owners said they were not involved in any sort of peer group. It’s all too easy for small business owners to feel isolated.

http://biznik.com/learn/articles/business-networking/going-it-alone

16 Key Irresistible Offer Making Questions

1. What’s the product or service or special promotion you’re offering (in plain english)? If it’s a service - how many sessions and how long will each one run? If it’s a product - how many, how big etc?

2. How much does it cost?

3. Who is the target market (if any) you’re trying to reach?

4. What are the major problems this product or service solves? What happens that makes them start to think about buying what you sell?

5. What is the major result/benefit/outcome that this product or service gives?

6. What is most important to your target market when buying the type of thing you sell? In terms of the product/service - but also the process they have to go through to buy it. What do they want and what don’t they want (again - not just in buying from you but in terms of buying from your industry - buying the kind of thing that you sell)?

7. What do you do to give your clients what they want (see answers to the above question)? What are your standards, policies, procedures and processes you use to maintain a level of excellence in what you do? We often assume far too much here. Tell me all the details, all the lengths you go to.

8. Is there any evidence you can show to prove all of this?

9. What are the common frustrations, annoyances and hassles people have when buying the kind of thing that they sell? What are the horror stories people have about dealing with your industry?

10. What are the 5 biggest risks that people perceive about doing business with people like you? Are they afraid they’ll look stupid? people will laugh at them? that it won’t work? That you’re a cult? This is the time to get real and honestly assess what fears (realistic or based on myths) might stop someone from taking the step to do business with you.

11. What are the values that you seek to embody as a business? Prove to me that you’re in this for more than the money. Where do you go above and beyond to live your green, ethical, spiritual or community based values? Why should I feel good about myself for doing business with you? Be specific. Do you manufacture or sell sustainable products or services? Do you give preference to suppliers that create positive social and environmental benefits (e.g. local companies, certified organic ingredients, fair trade partnerships, ethical manufacturing, renewable energy), demonstrate a commitment to responsible business practices (e.g. pay employees a living wage, donate a percentage of profits to local charities, minimize environmental impact)? Are you concerned with employee safety, work/life balance and development (e.g. Living wage, benefit programs, telecommuting)? Do you affirm a mission that includes sustainability? Do you wish to educate the public about the economic, social and/or environmental impact their choices have?

12. What is it that you think most people don’t see or appreciate about your business that you wish they did? What are the tiny details they don’t get to see? What’s the extra effort you’ve put in that seems to go unnoticed?

13. What do they need to know (see or hear) in order to feel confident that they making a good decision when buying what you sell? If your best friend in Australia was buying what you sold - and couldn’t get it from you - what would you tell them to look for to protect them from an unpleasant buying experience? What questions would you have them ask? What are the telltale signs of an excellent or a very bad business in your industry? What criteria should they use to determine whether what they’re about to buy is of good value?

14. What else is it that makes it so irresistible? Why is it more than worth the money? What makes it better than the competition to your clients? What’s so different about it? How do you give them what they want but not what they don’t want? I want you to convince me, make your case, show me the evidence, tell me a story etc. Help me understand why I would want to pay you my hard earned money for this.

15. What are the three best testimonials you can send me for this offer?

16. What are the three best one paragraph long stories or case-studies you could provide for this offer?

The 10 Biggest Offer Blunders

Why don’t other people love your business as much as you do?

Why don’t you get the kind of response you’d like to your emails, ads or mailings?

Why do you get only mild interest or blank looks from people when they ask you what you do?


I want to make two bold claims. Here’s the first:


As it stands right now, your offer is - almost certainly - resistible. It’s easy to say ‘no’ to. When you tell people in your target market what you do, when you place ads or try to market your services - you’re met with either confusion, blank faces, mild (read: polite) interest, ‘That’s nice,” followed by a change of topic or . . . absolutely no response at all.


Here’s the second:


Radically (not moderately) improving the irresistibility of your offers is the simplest and most powerful action you can take to grow your business - pretty much at any pace you want. Literally like a faucet you can turn on or off at will.


That sounds like hype.

And of course there’s more to it.

Having an offer won’t do everything.

You still need to know where to find your target market.

And you still need to have a plan on how exactly you plan to introduce your offer to them.

It’s important to make sure you have the business systems in place to make sure you can consistently deliver on what you promise.

You still need to think about the mechanisms, incentives and excuses to make it easy (and desirable) for people to talk about what you do.

All true - but consider this:

What good is it to know where to find your target market if you have nothing to offer them. Or - more to the point - nothing they are excited to buy?

How can you possibly create a strategy around introducing your offer - when the offer isn’t that good?

What’s the point of creating some really whizbang word of mouth strategy if all it’s going to do is let people know that what you’re offering is actually pretty mediocre?

But let’s go back to the first . . .


People just aren’t that excited about what you have to offer. Let me tell you exactly why your offer hasn’t been pulling even a fraction of the response you secretly know it could.


You don’t want confused faces when you tell people what you do.

You don’t want polite interest.

No, you want them to say, “Hell yeah!” or “Wow! How do I get one?”

Your offer must - at the very least - get their attention and engage them to want to know more. It must at least strike the chord of relevance.

Your offer must be crystal clear. It must give easily understandable answers to the following questions:

1. What are you offering me? (in plain english)

2. What’s the return on investment (ROI)? If I give you my hard earned money - what do I get back? Why is this worth it to me?

I’d be willing to be that you aren’t answering these questions as well as you might think you are.

In fact, let me tell you the logical reasons why people aren’t as excited about your offer as you wish they were. There’s 10 likely culprits to the disinterest you’re getting from the marketplace. I think they’ll make a lot of sense to you.

Big picture: It’s because there are certain core elements of your offer that aren’t ‘right’. You can look for all the bells and whistles and fancy new marketing tactics but - at the end of the day - if you’re missing these things your offer is much more likely to fail.

In fact, if you are suffering from too many of the following the problem may not be that you have a ‘bad’ offer - but that you have NO offer.


The 10 Biggest Offer Blunders


1. Unclear or Non-Existent Target Market: I’d say that I see this in about 90% of the cases of resistible, moribund offers. When I ask “who is this for?” I get answer that translates as “everyone. this product/service can help everyone.” But targeting everyone doesn’t work. You can’t do it. When you narrow your focus to just the communities you most love and are best able to helps you will be shocked at how the floodgates of creativity open up. You will find yourself in a place to create offers that pull many times the response of our current ‘do-nothing’ offers.

2. No clear problem being solved. This is directly related to #1. Your inability to articulate - with crystal clarity and profound empathy - the experience, problems and needs of the person your marketing too stops everything dead in its tracks. The first filter that your product and service has to make it through is the filter of relevance. People look at everything product or service and silently ask themselves, “can this help someone like me?” And if they don’t get an immediate answer of yes - the game is over - no matter how great your product is. Hard but true. They must see themselves in the product. It must be immediately apparent - with no need for guess work - that this can help them with a problem they are currently experiencing.

3. No clear results being promised. This is the flip side or mirror image of #2. You can’t just give empathy for the problem they experience - you need to paint a picture of what life would be like without the problem. You need to tell them exactly what sorts of results, benefits or changes this product will bring. You need to articulate the experience they’ll have once they own it. Most businesses don’t do this - instead, they drone on ad nauseum about how great they are.

4. Wrong Package: If you’re really clear about the three above (and I can tell you that you probably aren’t even if you think you are) and there’s no response still - then it could be a few things - almost certainly you haven’t identified the right mix of products and services. If you have a core product and service - that product or service can be made far more relevant by choosing a target market and far more valuable by adding other products and services to it. It can be made more valuable by thinking through the whole experience people will have with you from booking the appointment to the appointment itself to them leaving. From them buying the product to using it. With a few simple tweaks and additions your offer can likely be twice as attractive. What to add? What to tweak? This depends 100% on who your target market is and what problems they’re dealing with.

5. Wrong articulation: To correct that - people just aren’t that excited about what they understand of what you’re offering. You’re using a lot of confusing jargon. You’re speaking in platitudes.

6. Too much too soon: You’re trying to sell them on the whole farm on their first visit. You aren’t taking the time to build a relationship. It’s as if they come into your ice cream shop and ask to try a taste of the pistachio gelato and you try to sell them a quadruple scoop waffle cone. You haven’t thought through you marketing strategy from meeting to buying.

7. Selling your methodology before promising a result: When people ask what you do - what do you tell them? What is it that you highlight in your ads or on your website? For most people it’s their company name and logo. This is the first thing that people see. Hard truth moment: no one cares. But the next place a lot of people go to is straight to how they do what they do. The classic example is someone at a cocktail party saying, “Oh, I do a unique combination of trager, shiatsu, the reconnection, quantum healing and rebirthing.” Eyes glaze over. Awkward silence ensues. No business occurs. What just happened? They jumped to far ahead. People don’t actually care how you do what you do until they know what you do and who you do it for. I don’t tell people, “I do workshops and one on one consulting.” That’s how I do my work - but it’s not what I do. What do I do? I work with green, community minded and holistic entrepreneurs who are struggling with their cashflow and not attracting enough clients and what I help them do is to craft strategies that allow them to attract more of the kinds of clients they’re looking for.

8. No empathy for or understanding of ‘industry frustrations’: In every industry there are certain things that piss people off. Cell phones? The way they lock you into unbreakable contracts. Plumbers? The show up late, don’t fix it right the first time and charge you more than the initial quote. Web designers? You always have to go to them to make updates on our site, which they charge you for, and you have to wait til they get around to it. Make sense? The point is that it’s not just one company that does these things. It’s the whole industry. And here’s the golden question - do you know what these are for your industry?

9. Not understanding why people are really buying what you’re selling and not speaking directly to those needs and desires: This one is shockingly difficult to wrap one’s mind around. We spend years becoming experts in articulating the features and benefits of our products and services - but we’re still novices at articulating the experiences, problems and needs of our target market. Remember, they aren’t buying your product per se. In their minds, they’re buying relief from pain. They’re buying a solution to a problem. But what is that problem or pain? Can you articulate it better than they can?

10. No case being made: credibility. It’s not enough to make wonderful, huge claims about what you can do. You must be seen as a credible source of the solution they need. They must trust that you can produce the results you say you can. You must, in short, make your case before the jury of your target market. You must show them the steps you would take them through, give them evidence (e.g. testimonials, case studies, certifications, articles written etc). Without credibility - they will not buy. Period.


Before you add any bells and whistles you must have your core information figured out. You must know what it is that you’re offering to whom - and why exactly they would find it irresistible.

Six Sins of Greenwashing

Do you know that your competitors aren't as green as they SAY they are?

Are they misleading the public?

Sure they are.

A lot of big companies are.

Arm yourself with this information on the 6 major types of greenwashing. To get it - just click on the link below.


http://www.terrachoice.com/files/6_sins.pdf

Traditional Sales is A Cult

Hey there,

One of the most brilliant people I've ever met is Ari Galper.

He's the only person I've ever known to so powerfully articulate the notion of removing pressure from sales (and to point out that pressure is THE problem in sales).

Read these words from his blog (and then go read the whole article) . . .

Dear friend,

During my teen years, my father who is a Psychologist, dedicated a few years of his career as a specialist helping parents get their adult children back from being brainwashed into cults.

He was one of a handful of experts who was skilled at “deprograming” these cult members and helping them transition back into a normal family environment.

I remember in vivid detail the amount of emotional energy my dad put into helping the parents of these kids (I call them kids, because their parents always talked about them as their children) cope with the dysfunction caused by the powerful “pull” that these cults had on their members.

My dad would spend hours, sometimes around the clock, helping these people break loose from the mantras and destructive thinking that was preached by their cult leaders.

As you can only imagine, it was a gut wrenching experience for these parents to see their kids lose themselves into a group that teaches breaking away from the people who care about them most.

Well, one thing my dad used to tell me, was that these cult leaders would indoctrinate their members with the same mantras and messages that have appealed to members in the past year after year.

Same messages, same thinking, same results, year after year, without awareness of the harm that it does to others.

The uncanny thing about all this, is that I see myself in very much the same role as him -- helping people who sell, that have been “indoctrinated” into old school sales thinking, break away from the same messages and old thinking that disconnects them – not from those who care about them – but from themselves.

You see, many of the old and newer sales “gurus” continue to pitch these same tired dictums: “Go for the close”, “Rejection is a normal part of selling you have to accept” , and “If you’re pitch isn’t working, it’s YOUR fault and you aren’t cut out for sales.”

And that type of thinking is what creates a wedge between how you’re “supposed” to communicate with a prospect and how you normally communicate with another human being.

It’s a new business environment out there, and if you’re not building trust, being completely authentic and helping solve others’ problems, then you’ll continue to be disconnected from true success.

Take a look at this article I originally wrote about four years ago, “7 Ways to Cut Loose From Old Sales Thinking”, it’s just as relevant today, as it was then:

to read the article click HERE.

You Irresistible Offer Should Solve a Problem

Some people make the huge mistake of just trying to come up with clever things that make them different.

Again - the question is, “Why should I buy from you vs. the competition?”

People will buy from those who are best equipped to solve their problem or get them out of pain. So your USP should center around that and speak to it directly.

Your business cannot and should not attempt to create a need that consumers do not already have. No matter how great your USP or marketing schemata, if your product ultimately does not satisfy your customer, then your product and consequent business will fail.

You need to do plenty of valid and reliable research on your target market in order to understand which emotional responses will drive them to your product instead of your competitors.

Simplicity. A great product. Combine these two entities together to form the perfect USP for your company and product/service line.

To quote Rosser Reeves from his book Reality In Advertising:

"Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each product must say to each reader: ‘Buy this product and you will get this specific benefit.'"

* * *
Again, from Matt Hockin’s website:
www.interactivemarketinginc.com

The following are 6 powerful USPs that alleviate the "pain" experienced by the consumers in their industries..

Example #1 - Package Shipping Industry

Pain - I have to get this package delivered quick!
USP - "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight." (Federal Express)

Example #2 - Food Industry

Pain - The kids are starving, but Mom and Dad are too tired to cook!
USP - "Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it's free." (Dominos Pizza)
(This USP is worth $1 BILLION to Dominos Pizza)

Example #3 - Real Estate Industry

Pain - People want to sell their house fast without loosing money on the deal.
USP - "Our 20 Step Marketing System Will Sell Your House In Less Than 45 Days At Full Market Value"

Example #4 - Dental Industry

Pain - Many people don't like to go to the dentist because of the pain and long wait.
USP - "We guarantee that you will have a comfortable experience and never have to wait more than 15 minutes" or you will receive a free exam."

Example #5 - Cold Medicine Industry

Pain - You are sick, feel terrible, and can't sleep.
USP - "The nighttime, coughing, achy, sniffling, stuffy head, fever, so you can rest medicine." (Nyquil)

Example #6 - Jewelry Industry

Pain - The market hates paying huge 300% mark-ups for jewelry.
USP - "Don't pay 300% markups to a traditional jeweler for inferior diamonds! We guarantee that your loose diamond will appraise for at least 200% of the purchase price, or we'll buy it back."

The Secret to Being as Radical as We Want to Be

A powerful article by Michael Shuman:

The Secret to Being as Radical as We Want to Be is to Finance the Revolution Ourselves

Adbusters
March-April 2006
Michael Shuman, author, The Smallmart Revolution


If Mohandas Gandhi were a typical North American activist these days, he would probably be wearing a three-piece suit and working in a plush office with his law degree prominently displayed. He would have little time to lead protests, since every other week would be spent meeting with donors – and those power lunches would hardly go well with fasting. He would be careful to avoid salt marches or cotton boycotts, so as not to offend key donors. To sharpen his annual pitch to foundations, he would be constantly dreaming up new one-year projects on narrowly focused topics, perhaps a one-time conference on English human-rights abuses, or a documentary on anti-colonial activities in New Delhi. To ensure that various allies didn’t steal away core funders, he would keep his distance and be inclined to trash talk behind their backs. In short, there’s little doubt that the British would still be running India.

The problem with activism today is that it is largely funded by grants and gifts from rich foundations and individuals. The long-standing assumption that you can take the money with few strings attached, and then run, needs to be fundamentally reexamined.

Building a philanthropic base of support can cripple an organization’s mission and wreck it altogether when the well runs dry. Most nonprofits have engaged in a kind of fundraising arms race in which our best leaders focus more time, energy and resources, not on changing the world, but on improving their panhandling prowess to capture just a little more of a philanthropic pie that actually expands very little from year to year. Armies of “development” staff spend as much as a third of an organization’s resources, not to advance the poor, but to cultivate wealthy donors. Significant numbers of our colleagues create campaigns, direct-mail pitches, telemarketing scripts, newsletters and other products exclusively to “care and feed” prospects and to frame positions that will not offend the rich.

Nonprofit structures dictated by this mode of funding also burden organizers with the heavy regulatory hand of the state. To qualify for tax-deductible contributions, for example, US nonprofits must agree to limit lobbying and not to campaign for political causes of candidates.

We believe it’s time for North American progressives to break free from the philanthropic plantation. Those of us serious about social change increasingly must get down to business, figuratively and literally. Every social change group may not be able to generate all its funding through revenue-generation, but every nonprofit certainly can generate a greater percentage than it is doing now. In other words, we should become our own funders. Once we start generating our own resources, we can invest them politically – as corporations do now – largely without limitation, without wasting our time on fundraising appeals, without worrying about that next grant, without apologies.

To get a sense of the possibilities, check out Cabbages & Condoms, a popular restaurant in Bangkok. As your senses become intoxicated by the aromas of garlic, ginger, basil, galangal and lemongrass, you cannot avoid noticing the origins of the name. On top of each heavy wooden table is a slab of glass, under which are neatly arranged rows of colorful prophylactics. Posters and paintings adorn the half-dozen large rooms, all communicating the restaurant’s central message: the AIDS epidemic afflicting Thailand can be checked only through the unabashed promotion and use of male contraception. With balloon animals made from carefully inflated and twisted condoms and the after-dinner candies replaced with your own take-home “condom-mints,” even teens cannot escape the message prominently framed on the wall: “Sex is fun but don’t be stupid – use protection.”

What makes the five “C&C” restaurants unique, along with an affiliated beach-front resort and numerous gift shops, is that they are all owned by the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), a rural development organization that has been a leader in promoting family planning and fighting aids in Thailand. Seven out of every ten dollars spent by the PDA on such activities as free vasectomies and mobile health clinics are covered by the net revenues from its 16 subsidiary for-profits. Were the PDA dependent on funding from the Thai government, the World Bank or even the Rockefeller Foundation, it no doubt would be told to tone down the message. Jokes on its website – like “the Cabbages and Condoms Restaurants in Thailand don’t only present excellent Thai food, the food is guaranteed not to get you pregnant” – would certainly be discouraged.

The cash flow gives the PDA a measure of confidence and boldness. The founder, Mechai Viravaidya, has no qualms about his decision to employ for-profits:“Unlimited demand is chasing limited supply [of charitable donations]. No longer are gifts, grants or begging enough. From day one, thirty years ago, we have been acutely aware of sustainability and cost-recovery.”

Consider some US examples of social entrepreneurship:

Housing Works in New York uses its Used Book Café to generate more than $2 million annually for its work, which prioritizes advocacy for homeless people with HIV. The organization runs clinics, conducts public policy research, lobbies federal and state officials, even leads sit-ins. It is fearless, aggressive and stunningly effective – and its $30 million of annual work would be impossible were it not for its vast range of real estate, food service, retail and rental companies that help pay the bills.

Pioneer Human Services is a community development corporation based in Seattle that assists a wide range of at-risk populations, including the unemployed, the homeless, ex-convicts, alcoholics and addicts. The organization serves 6,500 people a year and generates nearly all its $55 million budget through a web of ambitious subsidiary nonprofit businesses: cafes and a central kitchen facility for institutional customers, aerospace and sheet-metal industries, a construction company, food warehouses, a real-estate management group and consulting services for other nonprofits. Most of the jobs in these businesses are awarded to its at-risk clients,
allowing it to further its mission to integrate clients back into society.

The Rocky Mountain Institute, a leading promoter of alternative energy technology in Snowmass, Colorado, created E-Source in 1986 to provide in-depth analysis of services, markets, and technologies relating to energy efficiency and renewable energy production. In 1992 RMI secured a program-related investment from the MacArthur Foundation to move the work into a for-profit subsidiary. By 1998 it was generating about $400,000 for the parent nonprofit, but rmi decided it could do even better under new management, so it sold the company to Pearson plc in Britain for $8 million. Today, RMI assists and benefits from other for-profit spinoffs, such as Hypercar, Inc., which aims to create a lightweight body architecture to improve the efficiency of the entire US automobile fleet.

Judy Wicks’ White Dog Café in Philadelphia is as much a community organizing center as a restaurant. Radical speakers from around the country provide a steady stream of public lectures. An adjacent store sells fair trade products and will soon be introducing a line of locally made clothing. The White Dog itself embodies principles of social justice and environmental stewardship by paying all employees a living wage, insisting on humanely raised meats and eggs, using locally grown ingredients and running on wind electricity. Twenty percent of profits from the restaurant go to the White Dog Café Foundation, carrying on the café’s mission through nonprofit
activities.

These examples embody many possible models. A for-profit subsidiary can generate money for a parent nonprofit. Or, better still, a for-profit can become the change it seeks, by producing and selling socially important goods and services. While we reject the libertarian argument that every human problem has an economic solution, many social-change issues clearly have economic dimensions that are susceptible to creative business plans. Hate nuclear power? Launch energy-service companies to spread conservation measures, or build local wind farms to take control of your own electricity future. Concerned about the poor, minorities and women having equal access to credit? Create more community banks, credit unions and micro-enterprise funds. Troubled by pharmaceutical prices that make life-saving drugs unattainable for impoverished people across the globe? Start, as several companies based in the developing world did, companies that mass-produce affordable generic versions of high-priced American drugs.

Socially responsible business should be not just a boutique sector of the private economy, but its mainstream. We have been impressed in recent years by the growing number of local businesspeople who not only “walk the walk” of social justice in the small details of their operations and products but also tout the virtues of local ownership. This third generation of entrepreneur-organizers is being led by groups like the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and by the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA). Each promotes local ownership of business, champions social justice and neighborhood revitalization, and pushes for new public policies that remove the tilts in a playing field that favors badly behaved
big business.

Sooner or later, the concepts of social-change organization and of social-responsibility business should become indistinguishable. Truly responsible businesses would be owned by all members of a community (rich and poor), hire locally, expand local skills, comport with local labor and environmental standards, produce goods and services that meet urgent local needs and become allies of social justice movements. What better way to help the poor than to transform them into the captains, worker-bees, shareholders and customers of community-friendly business?

If foundations and donors had never existed and professional panhandling had been outlawed, social-change groups would have been forced to turn to creating and running new enterprises or new networks of local businesses, and our movement would be considerably healthier than it is today. Progressives have become the classic 20-something kid still living at home, expecting an allowance from deep-pocket parents for a few basic chores, while agreeing, as a condition for the chump change, to obey someone else’s rules on social change. It’s time to grow up and strike out on our own.

Here’s a challenge to activists (one we take seriously ourselves): let’s try to wean ourselves from the charity habit, say by three percent per year. Think about just one piece of your agenda that could be framed as a revenue generator, dream about it a little, develop a business plan and give it a try. If you lack the skills, skip your next fundraising class and instead attend one of thousands upon thousands of entrepreneurship programs around the world. Or hire someone who might start the entrepreneurial subsidiary of your nonprofit.

Gandhi understood that the key to freeing India was to transform his fellow citizens into economically productive agents by spinning their own cloth and taking their own salt from the sea. Martin Luther King Jr. implored African Americans to form their own credit unions and community development corporations. The secret to being as radical as we want to be – and as radical as we need to be – is to finance the revolution ourselves.

* * *

Michael Shuman is the vice president for enterprise development for the Training and Development Corporation. Merrian Fuller is a managing director of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. This article was adapted from “Profits for Justice,” which first appeared in The Nation.

Seven Secrets To An Irresistible Offer

Seven Secrets To An Irresistible Offer - Dan Kennedy

www.dankennedy.com

#1: The offer must be clear. People must be able to understand it instantly. Confused people do not respond. For example, half off is better than 50% off and a lot better than 35% or even 60% off. People have difficulty understanding percentages. Two for one is usually better than half off.

“Is your product positioned as part of a general class, then differentiated on the basis of it's most needed attribute? That's the way people hold things in their heads: "the dandruff shampoo that doesn't dry out your hair". The cereal that adults have grown to love." "The luxury four wheel drive". If you can't state your product in such succinct terms, chances are your customers will not be able to describe your product either. And if your product can't survive word of mouth, it probably can't survive at all.” - The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, George Silverman

“Always remember - The confused mind says ‘no’. If there’s too much information, consumers get overwhelmed and they don’t know what to do. What happens is they stop, dead in their tracks. We find if you offer people more than 3 options, they won’t make a decision. They’ll just sit and look over and ponder the information.” - Colette Chandler, www.marketing-insider.com

#2: The offer must be a good value. It has to be understood as a good value. That's why percentage off coupons doesn't usually work well. People get suspicious. They think as soon as they see I have coupons they'll just raise the price to recover the discount. Percentage off coupons work well where there are known published prices.

#3: The offer should involve either a discount or a premium or preferably both. Sometimes premiums work much better than discounts. A premium is something you give away as a free gift to someone who comes in or who makes a purchase. Bill Glazer in his retail store meticulously track results of all his offers and has found that by adding a premium he will average a 30% increase in response.

#4: There should be a logical reason for the offer. If you discount or give something away without an explanation you create skepticism and suspicion. People have been told all their lives there's no such thing as a free lunch. You have to explain. We're doing this to introduce ourselves to the neighborhood as an introductory offer in celebration of opening our new store, as an anniversary sale, a clearance sale, customer appreciation week. Just about any explanation will do but there needs to be an explanation.

#5: There should be a reason for immediate action - expiration dates, limited availability or a bonus for fast response. These all work well in creating a sense of urgency on the consumer's part.

#6: There should be a strong, clear, direct call to action. Tell the person exactly what you want him to do. Do you want him to pick up the phone and call? Go to a website? Come in to a business? When? What will happen when he does?

Here's a good call to action, for example. Cut this coupon out of your newspaper. Bring it in to any of our locations any day of this week from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. Take it to the cashier at the counter; she'll give you your free travel alarm clock a gift for just coming in while the supply lasts. Then feel free to browse through our unique travel store. Take advantage of the huge mark downs and sale prices and get a second travel clock free with any $50.00 purchase to give to a friend.

#7: Consider mentioning or even emphasizing your guarantee. Guarantees are not tired, not worn out - they still work. They're still important to people. If you offer any kind of guarantee I think it ought to be an integral part of all your advertising.

Raising Prices Makes People Like You More

Afraid to raise your prices?

You might not need to be . . .

Want the public to like your product better? Raise the price.
Published: Monday, January 14, 2008 | 11:43 AM ET
Canadian Press: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - Want people to like your product more? Raise the price.

That seems to be the lesson from a new study in which people were asked to taste wines marked with different prices. Researchers scanned the brains of the testers and found that the part of the brain that records pleasure lit up more for the more pricey vintages.

And that was true even when - unknown to the testers - they were sipping a wine that they had liked less when it had a lower price tag.

Antonio Rangel and colleagues at California Institute of Technology thought perceptions of higher price meaning higher quality could influence people, so they decided to test the idea.

They asked 20 people to sample wine while undergoing functional MRI's of their brain activity. The subjects were told they were tasting five different Cabernet Sauvignons sold at different prices.

However, there were actually only three wines sampled, two being offered twice, marked with different prices.

A $90 wine was provided marked with its real price and again marked $10, while another was presented at its real price of $5 and also marked $45.

The testers' brains showed more pleasure at the higher price than the lower one, even for the same wine, Rangel reports in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In other words, changes in the price of the wine changed the actual pleasure experienced by the drinkers, the researchers reported.

"Our results suggest that the brain might compute experienced pleasantness in a much more sophisticated manner that involves integrating the actual sensory properties of the substance being consumed with the expectations about how good it should be," they reported.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

BSR: Now Greenwashed!

just got an email from my friend kate holloway today:

I went to a huge dinner last night for Robert F. Kennedy. While the hosts was legit - the Toronto Region Conservation Authority - and the speaker was totally legit - Bobby Jr. is the real deal -- however it was drearily obvious that some of the event sponsors flashing on the ballroom screens, were just big corporate names that were simply greenwashing.

Read on, MacDuffs, anyway, read this gripping tale of our own Laury Hammel (co-founder of BALLE), from 2005 and learn a little more about how and why BALLE came to be. We don't want ever this to happen to BALLE Canada, and it won't, because what we're doing is the real deal.

//kmh

Published on Thursday, November 3, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Hijacked: Business for Social Responsibility
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman


We've just returned from the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) conference being held here in Washington, D.C.

We picked up maybe five pounds of propaganda being handed out by the sponsors -- ExxonMobil, Chevron, AstraZeneca, Walt Disney, Pfizer, General Electric, Altria/Philip Morris (remember: altriameanstobacco.com), McDonald's, Edison International, Starbucks, Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola, Abbott Labs, Microsoft, Monsanto, KPMG, Chiquita -- among others. The news -- what these giant multinationals don't want you to know -- is that they hijacked Business for Social Responsibility from its founders.

In 1991, the founders, a group of small businesses, wanted to counter the voices of the giant multinationals -- the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable -- in the public policy arena.

Enter Robert Dunn, stage right.

Dunn is now chairman of Business for Social Responsibility.

At the time, Dunn was a vice president at Levi Strauss, one of the large corporate members of the group.

Dunn said to his colleagues -- the only way we are going to change large multinational corporations is to bring them into this organization.

And the only way they will come into this organization is if we vow never to engage in the public policy arena.

Dunn said that the focus of the organization would be on changing big corporations from within.

Translation:

No talk about government regulation.

No talk about national health insurance.

No talk about a living wage.

No talk about war and peace.

No talk about law and order -- for corporate criminals.

In 1994, Monsanto, purveyor of genetically engineered foods, wanted into the group.

One member, Gary Hirschberg, chairman of Stoneyfield Farms, said -- wait a second.

Do we want a company that makes pesticides and herbicides and genetically engineered crops to be a member of a socially responsible business organization?

Yes, came back the answer -- how else are they going to get better?

Well what about tobacco companies?

How else are they going to get better?

What about oil and chemical companies?

How else are they going to get better?

What about nuclear companies?

What about military companies?

The reality is that Business for Social Responsibility has become a public relations organization for big corporations.

The only criteria for membership -- you have to be big and loaded.

The hijacking is now complete.

Laury Hammel knows what happened.

He was present at the creation.

Business for Social Responsibility was his idea in the late 1980s.

Hammel owns a string of health clubs in Boston.

Hammel wanted BSR to help business become more socially responsible, but also to engage in the public policy debate.

"We were sick and tired of having the Chamber of Commerce being the voice for business," Hammel said.

So, he started the group, and brought in such luminaries as Arnold Hiatt, former CEO of Stride Rite.

But at a board meeting of Business for Social Responsibility in 1993 in Cape Cod, there was a showdown between those who wanted the group to remain a voice in the public policy debate and those who wanted to stay out.

Dunn told the board that he would become president of BSR if the group stopped taking public policy positions.

"Dunn didn't want anything to do with influencing government policy," Hammel said. "Dunn believed that we would never change the world if we didn't get big corporations behind us. And we would never get them on board if we kept our foot in the public policy arena."

Hammel lost the battle with Dunn over allowing big corporations into the organization.

Dunn then asked Hammel to resign from the board.

Hammel refused.

So he was forced out.

"Dunn said he wasn't going to renominate me to the board because I didn't have money or stature -- I wasn't a big corporation," Hammel said.

Hammel is very fond of Arnold Hiatt, the former CEO of Stride-Rite, and a founding member of BSR.

Hiatt is still a member of the board of Business for Social Responsibility.

"He's an icon, one of my heroes," Hammel said. "But he's not in charge. It's Robert Dunn who is the driving force."

Hammel believes that Dunn's strategy of trying to change large corporations from within is bound to fail.

"Dunn has an incorrect analysis," Hammel said. "Take Wal-Mart for example."

Wal-Mart is a member of BSR.

"The only thing you can do to Wal-Mart is to do what they did with Standard Oil and take it apart," Hammel said. "There is an inherent flaw in the way they operate. When you make a change in Wal-Mart, you make a difference. But ultimately, you are going to fail because the business plan is flawed."

After being forced out of BSR, Hammel continued to organize local BSR chapters around the country.

Back then, the local chapters still had a voice in the national.

"But in 2000, the national BSR sent us a letter. There was no discussion. They just said -- we are eliminating all local chapters," Hammel said. "They told us that BSR was going to spend all of its time on big corporations."

Hammel has gone on help jump-start a new organization -- the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (www.livingeconomies.org).

The message -- buy local, buy independent.

"When I first formed BSR, I thought all businesses had the same interests in common," Hammel said. "Then I realized that big corporations didn't want to be with us. And we realized that our interests were different."

"The first allegiance of big public companies is to their stockholders," Hammel said. "Most of these big companies have to cater to the whims of the stockholders. That puts them in conflict with the consumer, community and the environment. Very few big companies can buck that stockholder dictatorship."

"Second is -- where do you live? Are you locally owned? If yes, then you are connected to the community," Hammel said. "Companies like Starbucks (a BSR member) are creating a homogenized culture. They are homogenizing cultures all over the world. We want to see locally owned coffee shops."

"We have done several studies showing that for every $100 spent at a local independent company -- $45 goes to the community," Hammel said. "If you spend the $100 at the corporate chain like Starbucks, only $13 goes to the community."

The last BSR conference that Hammel attended was in 2001 in Seattle.

This was 10 years after he founded BSR as his dream.

"I sat down at a table and noticed three guys with name tags that said Philip Morris and Company," Hammel said. "I asked these guys -- you are not with the cigarette company, are you? And they said -- 'yes, we are with the holding company.'"

"I said to myself -- these guys are members of BSR? They make products that kill people. What is this?"

That was the last conference he attended.

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor. Mokhiber and Weissman are co-authors of On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and the Destruction of Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press).

Pay what you want zine subscriptions?

Pay what you want magazine subscriptions?

Yes.

Check it out:

http://www.springwise.com/media_publishing/paywhatyouwant_magazine_subscr/

Articulating Offers Powerfully

Hey there,

I got an unexpected email last week from my
friend Tom.

I've talked about him before.

I've pasted the email below as it's contents
could honestly be exactly what you need to
take your marketing to the next level.

No joke.

But do me a favour and don't skip ahead. Just
keep reading because . . .

MY response led to HIM sending me another
email.

THAT email led to me calling him a
'sonnovab*tch'.

No joke.

But more on that in just a second . . .

This email has an awfully irresistible offer
in it. I think you should take advantage of
it.

It's at the bottom (don't peek yet!).

Here's your main lesson (and then more about
Tom) about Irresistible Offers for this week.

The first key to crafting irresistible offers
is coming up with the idea. The second part is
ARTICULATING it in a way that people immediately
'get it'.

Let me put this to you: you may ALREADY have
an irresistible offer - but be articulating it
in the wrong way.

As Dan Kennedy talked about last week - clarity
is key.

You can articulate the SAME idea in many
different ways - some ways will have more impact
than others.

Here's an example from marketing guru Jay
Abraham (read it carefully) . . .

* * *

"Here, I'll give you a couple of examples.
Years ago, I worked with a brokerage firm
that was selling precious metals. They ran
ads in the Wall Street Journal and happened
to have a relationship with a bank that was
bank-financed.

They ran ads for bank-financed purchases of
silver and gold. Their headline said,

"Two-Thirds Bank Financing on Silver and
Gold."

When they ran the ads, they pulled okay.

They brought back a profit, the sales people
made commissions adequate enough to stay,
the owners made salaries, the overhead was
paid and they had money left over to keep
running the ads. They were happy. But they
hadn't questioned, "How high is high?"

This company had never tested headlines.
They were doing great -- or so they thought.
I said, "Let's try three other permutations
of our offer."

We tested three small headline changes. One
did a little bit better, about 10%.

One did about the same -- the improvement
was negligible.

**And one improved the yield of the ad they
were running by five times -- or 500 %.**

This was back when gold was not selling very
high. The market price for gold was about
$300 an ounce and about $6 for silver.

Remember, their headline read,

"Two-Thirds Bank Financing on Silver and
Gold."

Keep in mind, my question is always,
"What does that mean to me as the customer?"

That headline meant nothing -- so I changed
it. All I said was,

"If Gold Is Selling for $300 an Ounce, Send
Us Just $100 an Ounce and We'll Buy You All
the Gold You Want."

And I had one for silver also.

"If Silver is Selling for $6 an Ounce, Send
Us Just $2 an Ounce and We'll Send You All
the Silver You Want."

It was the same statement, but more powerfully
denominated in the context of what's in it
for the ultimate consumer. That one simple
change -- of all about 12 words made in the
same amount of space they were already buying
and using, and the same body copy (which was
90% of the ad) increased their pull by 500%.

* * *

Back to my friend Tom.

The sonnovab*tch.

Here's the story . . .

My good pal (and Toronto's resident marketing
wizard) Tom St. Louis received the offer for a
90 minute pay what you can consultation (the
same one that hit your email inbox on October
4th).

Well he loved it.

He asked permission to use it.

I told him he was far too gracious - and of
course he could.

Then he emails me HIS articulation of it.

And I, frankly think he did a better job than
me at articulating the whole pay what you can
thing.

Sonnova . . .

Mine's here: http://tadhargrave.com/consulting

His offer is below - is his articulation
better than mine?

You decide.

Warmest,
Tad

p.s. You CAN'T book a PWYC session with me
right now. I'm going on the road for two months.
In fact, I had to push two I'd already booked
for today to happen in December because I'm so
busy.

He was only offering this to his own list but
I asked him if it would be okay to send it to
my list as well and he agreed.

If you're wanting up to $1000 of to-die-for
marketing handholding from a real marketing
genius - for whatever you want to pay -
well you should keep reading.

Yes. You should.

p.p.s. Tom, you're a sonnovab*tch.

* * *



FROM THE DESK OF: Tom St. Louis.

Special "BUSKING OFFER"
for Marketing From the Heart Subscribers ONLY

Get up to $1,000 worth of Live, In-Person,
One on One Marketing Consulting . . .
For Whatever YOU Decide to Pay

Dear Tad:

A lot of people commented on my recently related
adventures busking in the streets of New Orleans. (If
you missed that installment, see it here: http://www.zerald.com/downandoutinneworleans.doc )

Definition: "Busking" is the act of providing a service
without a fee agreement in place. After performing the
service -- like singing a song for a stranger on the
streets of the French Quarter, for instance -- the
customer pays whatever THEY think it is worth.

What I liked about remembering my busking
days -- and I have busked in many places including
Montreal, Toronto, Amsterdam, Paris, Vancouver
and New Orleans -- is that if I didn’t perform well,
I DIDN’T GET PAID!!!

I found that I performed very well with my feet to
the fire.

So today, I’m going to make you the most
provocative and potentially profitable proposition
you’ve received all year -- maybe ever. I have my
friend Tad Hargrave to thank for the idea. A day or
two after sending you the most recent Marketing
From the Heart, I saw Tad making a "Pay What
You Can" offer to his database, and I thought,
"What a great idea!"

So I got permission from Tad to make a similar
offer to you.

This is your chance -- perhaps your only one --
to get a better than guaranteed consultation up
front even before you decide what you want to
pay for it.

Here’s the bottom line:

You will get a 90 minute breakthrough marketing
coaching session with me on a "pay what you can"
(PWYC) basis. You decide AFTER the consultation
what it was worth to YOU. I will accept whatever
you decide it was worth, with no hassles and no
guilt trips.

That’s it! I will go ahead with this for the first ten subscribers who let me know they are interested.

"YES! I want to Book a Session!"
Send an e-mail to:
moistlotus@gmail.com and let me know
what it is you want me to help you with.

THE 7 STEP PROCESS:
Here’s exactly what will happen, step by step

1) After receiving word from you, we will
schedule a call at a mutually convenient time.

2) You will immediately receive my marketing
consultation questionnaire. This allows me to
examine all the major dynamics in your
marketing and messaging. And, answering
the questions will help you get totally focused
on your marketing challenges and aspirations.

This process was created for delivering Marketing
Audits for larger organizations, but I promise you
will find the process illuminating.

3) You will e-mail me any and all materials
pertinent to our discussion. They could be ads,
scripts, presentations, web pages, copy to
improve -- you name it. I will spend up to 30
minutes reviewing your materials prior to our
call.

4) You will receive 60-90 minutes of my time
in a coaching call by telephone. We will address
your greatest challenges and create concise action
sequences to help you get to where you want to go.

5) Within 24 hours of your consultation you will
receive the full audio from the call to review as
many times as you’d like to get every last drop
of value from the call. You can download this
to your computer, iPod, burn it to a CD etc. and
listen to it whenever you want. Remember: You
get all of this before I receive a penny from you.
It’s in my best interest of course to provide
phenomenal value -- to hold nothing back
-- because what I’m paid depends on it!!!

6) Within 48 hours you will receive a follow up
email that will include my reflections and guidance
on next steps. It may also include additional materials
and resources that I think could be useful.

7) On the day you receive your e-mail
recommendations from me, you will indicate to me
via e-mail what you have decided to pay me. I will
then send you a bill via pay pal for half of what
you are committed to paying. The balance will
be paid in 30 days. And, again, this is based on
the value you have received ñ from your own
perspective -- and what you feel you can afford.

"YES! I want to Book a Session!"
Send an e-mail to:
moistlotus@gmail.com and let me know
what it is you want me to help you with.


Let Me Be Very Clear on What This
Consultation Could Be Worth For You.

First of all, many marketing consultants charge
between $200-$5000 per hour for their
consultations. When I do consultations by the
hour, which is rare, I charge $300 an hour with
a four hour minimum.

When you consider how many business owners
have attributed huge revenue and profit
breakthroughs to the advice they have received
from me in these sessions, you will realize that
it is a steal. Remember, you only pay what YOU
think it’s worth to you! All the others had to pay
in advance based on what I wanted to receive.
This offer is based on what you want to pay but
only AFTER you get all the value.

7 Reasons Why You Should
Jump on This Offer Right Now
With Both Feet

1. You will receive your own, one on one,
intensely focused coaching session from me
to you when the heat is on -- and I love to perform
when the heat is on! This is very different from a
seminar where you are only one person in a large
group. In these calls, everything is focused
towards your needs and challenges.

2. You get $500+ worth of my time (30 minutes
of my time prepping for the call and 90 minutes
on the call itself) with no obligation to pay me a
penny more than you can based on what you
thought it was worth.

3. You will receive a full audio of our consultation.
You can listen to it in your car or in your office or
wherever you want. You will discover that when
you get me "in state", I am able to articulate your
key messages very powerfully. The value of this
"hot copy" could easily be worth a serious multiple
of what you decide to pay.

4. You will get clear answers to your toughest and
most intractable marketing problems.

5. You will get specific, explicit step by step
directions from me on EXACTLY what you
need to do to flatten your challenges and increase
YOUR cash flow and attract more clients.

6. You get to pick my brain about any marketing
or positioning or messaging issue and take
"ethical advantage" of me for an hour and a
half. In fact, forget the ethical part. You will
be able to steal me blind if you want to. I’m
betting that you will pay me at least a fraction
of the value you receive.

7. You get the chance to try me out at my risk.
I have never made an offer like this before and
may never do so again. Frankly, before I saw
Tad’s offer, I’d never heard of or thought of a
Marketing Busker offer -- and when I first saw it,
I thought it was a bit loony. But upon reflection,
it just made sense. The bottom line is you pay what
YOU think it’s worth. And I promise to accept your
assessment of the value of what I have delivered to
you.

"YES! I want to Book a Session!"
Send an e-mail to:
moistlotus@gmail.com and let me know
what it is you want me to help you with.

The Catch.

You have to honestly tell me what you think the
session is worth to you and PAY that. This is not
free. You cannot take and not give back. I only ask
that you pay what you think it was worth to you.

If you wish, you can pay in two installments -- one
on the day you received your report and the second
thirty days later.

* * *

Radioheads Pay What You Want Album

Radiohead Releases a Pay What You Want album.

Have they taken the whole Pay What You Can thing too far? You decide.

http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/an-album-that-costs-what-you-want-it-to/?ex=1191988800&en=aa34a60c66c588e2&ei=5070&emc=eta1">CLICK HERE

Green Market to Hit $500 Billion in 2008

Some people think the green marketplace is set for a big surge next year. Don't believe it?

Click http://www.environmentalleader.com/2007/09/28/consumer-spending-on-green-will-double-reach-500-billion-in-2008">HERE to read more.

Your Irresistible Offer - "The Four Letter Word of Marketing" - Part 7 of 19

Hey,

I hope you've been enjoying this series of
email on how you can craft "Your Irresistible
Offer". If you've missed any - you can find
them here on this blog.

The subject of this week's email is all
about one, four letter word: RISK.

GASP!

Did he just type that?!

It's the dirtiest four letter word in
business. And it's likely costing you
more than you'd care to admit.

You're likely losing a lot of money right
now - I can promise you - because you aren't
addressing and dealing with the risks people
perceive in doing business with you.

Reducing, eliminating or reversing the
risk is probably the most powerful single
secret of making YOUR offers more irresistible.

In fact, to illustrate my point, I'd
like to make YOU an offer.


http://tadhargrave.com/consulting


I think you're going to like it.

I think you'll agree that it's one of the
most relevant, valuable and risk free
offers you've ever seen.

Crossing my fingers - I hope that you
might even find it irresistible.

But . .

I only have time to offer it to yourself
and two other people. There's only three
of these available. Once they're gone,
they're gone.

And it might not be right for you. It
might not be a fit.

This offer is only for you if you are:

1) In a place where you want to grow your
business.

2) Are open to honest, constructive
feedback on your marketing

3) Committed to living your values.

4) Ready to do two to three hours of
highly focused homework.


If that's not you, you might as well stop
reading now.

But if you're willing to put in a little
Effort to get a lot of reward - then keep
reading.

* * *

HERE'S YOUR OFFER:

WHAT: I would like to offer you a 90
minute marketing coaching session with me.
It's worth at least $500 (and that's if you
only count my time).

You will also get the full, audio recording
of that call. You will receive an executive
"coaching summary" of the call.

But there are only three of these available.


For more info:

http://tadhargrave.com/consulting


HOW MANY: Only three. I only have time to
do your call in the first two weeks of
October. After that, I'm on the road for
two months.


COST: Pay what you want. Ten days after your
session I will ask you to send me two cheques
for whatever you want to pay. There's no
minimum and no maximum. No pressure. No games.
No joke.

* * *

HOW CAN I AFFORD TO OFFER THIS?

Well, you can find the full answer at:

http://tadhargrave.com/consulting

Isn't there a lot of risk to me in doing
this?

After all, couldn't someone just get
everything and then not pay me at all? Or
what if they only paid me like $2 for my
time?

But here's my explanation - and maybe the
most potent marketing lesson on creating
offers that I can give you.

Most entrepreneurs are silently scared of
getting screwed. And that fear is not
serving them.

- Maybe you fear giving big guarantees in
case you have to offer refunds.

- Maybe you're scared to teach people how
you do what you do in case someone steals
your info or uses it but doesn't hire you.

- Maybe you've given your clients incredible
value - even free stuff - only to have it
taken for granted and drain your time,
energy and cashflow.

- Maybe you're afraid to get the short end
of the stick.

So, you learn to protect yourself.

You learn to value your time. You tell
yourself that your expertise and information
is worth a lot and that you deserve
compensation for anything you give out.

Maybe you also tell yourself that if you
just gave away information that people
wouldn't really value it.

And of course - you would have a point.

Maybe you've figured out all sorts of ways
to reduce your risks in doing business and
protect yourself.

And while this all might meet your need for
self respect and safety - and it's far better
than letting yourself be taken to the cleaners
- it's not the whole journey.

What if I told you that there are ways to be
100% safe and yet outrageously bold in lowering
the risk of your offers?

Here's a counter intuitive thought to
meditate on: to succeed in business you
must learn to love getting the short
end of the stick. To grow your business
you must learn to assume the lion's share
of the risk in any interaction.

And yes, there are ways to do this where
you're also protected. I'll cover them in
a later email to you.

**Put another way: you have no idea how
much money you're losing every year because
you are silently asking your prospects and
clients to take on the risk of taking the
next step in the relationship with you.


THIS IS A CRITICAL MARKETING PIECE:
Lowering the risk of the next step.

How can you lower the risk?

Here's some simple, tried and true ways:

1) Iron clad, No Hassle Guarantees.

2) Testimonials & Case Studies

3) Free Intro Events

4) Spelling out the process you use in
detail so there's no mystery of the unknown
about it and they can begin to appreciate
why your process works.

5) Your credentials, awards etc.

6) Becoming a well known figure (hosting a
radio show, writing magazine columns)

7) Writing a blog that shares your honest
perspective about the issues you help
clients with. What causes the problems?
What are the best solutions?

* * *

A primary way I do this is by offering
many of my services on a pay what you can
basis.

Meaning you receive the full consultation
or weekend training and then - when it's
all done - you pay me whatever you thought
it was worth based on what you can afford.

No catch.

This does a number of things:

1) It lowers the risk for people to take
the next step. This makes is much more
likely that they will raise their hand and
say 'yes'.

2) It makes my life far easier. I don't
have to sell so hard because there is
zero possible financial risk. A ridiculously
high percentage of people who come to my
intros sign up for the full weekend.

In short, it makes me a lot of money.

For less effort.

Could you use a PWYC consult?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But ask yourself, are you feeling:

- 'stuck' in your marketing?

- Not sure what the most important next steps
are for you to take in your unique situation?

- Like you could use an outside perspective?

http://tadhargrave.com/consulting


WHY ACT NOW?:

But this will be about ten times as hard to
book in three weeks.

Because, as of Oct 17th, I'm starting on my
tour and I'll be on the road - almost non-stop -
for two months. During that time I will do
very few consultations. If any.

I did a ton of them this summer but I know
that some of you are new on my list and may
not have heard of this. So, this is just a
little courtesy reminder.

If you'd like to book one you can just click
reply and email me here.

If you have any questions - check out:

http://tadhargrave.com/consulting


Warmest,

Tad Hargrave
Founder
Radical Business
"helping conscious folk make more money"
tad@tadhargrave.com
www.tadhargrave.com

P.S. Please consider the environment before
printing this email - Thank You!


P.P.S. REMEMBER: I am offering three pay
what you can consultations worth $500 to
the first three people who respond.

To get more info:

http://www.tadhargrave.com/consulting

.

The 57 Top Web Business Tools

I just got this email from Stu MacLaren. Very cool guy.

If you know you need to get your computer, website, and business systems up to snuff but have no idea where to start - start here.

warmest,
tad

*********************************************
I've got a video and a fun training for you:
http://www.myideaguy.com/57tools.htm
*********************************************


Dear Tad,

New Products...

Big Launches...

... and a Wedding!

What a week so far!

There are so many exciting things happening
right now (personally and professionally)
that I'm finding it hard to keep pace with
everything.

First John Reese launched BlogRush on the
weekend and then Jason Potash launched his
website with non-stop "deals" all year long.

Then to top it all off, I'm hitting the
homestretch before my wedding so it's
"wedding madness" around here... YIKES!

Does life always seem to speed up as soon as
September hits?

Anyway, a while back I started doing a series
of teleseminars called "Saturday Trainings".

They have always been a HUGE hit and I've
decided to do another one this Saturday.

However, this one has a unique twist because
I won't be "teaching" anything... I'll just
be giving you TONS of free stuff :)

Curious?

Check it out:
http://www.myideaguy.com/57tools.htm

It's taking place this Saturday so register early :)

See you soon!

Take care.

Stu McLaren
Your Idea Guy

The Almost Perfect, Pressure Free Sales Letter

I just got this email from Ari Galper of www.unlockthegame.com.

He's a genius.

His work on removing the pressure and hype from sales is really the only thing I ever recommend to people.

He just sent me an email that describes an almost perfect, results producing sales letter written with warmth, empathy and profound relevance to the reader - but no hype.

Read on . . .

Hi Tad,

Mark Coudray, a client of mine, sent me this email a few weeks ago about a breakthrough sales letter that he wrote (which I'm going to share with you) based on the insights he learned in the Unlock The Game mastery program.

Mark's letter is here:

https://utg.infusionsoft.com/in/i493e0/tad!tadhargrave.com/186a00/

The interesting twist about this letter is that it's designed to generate a phone call back to him (not forcing them to buy anything from the letter)....here's Mark's email he sent me:

------------
Ari,

I talked to you briefly at the System Seminar in Chicago to let you know how well Unlock The Game is working for us. I have attached a copy of the sales letter we use to bring in new clients. This letter is currently pulling 40% response with a perfect 100% conversion of the responding companies.

In our first year of testing the program with 20 randomly selected test companies, we increased our revenues almost 1.1 million dollars. This was with 20 companies. The annual revenue per client was just under $56,000. There are 1850 companies that meet our demographic profile in California alone.

I know a good part of our success is based on the low key, non sales pressure approach you teach in your Unlock The Game program.

We are currently preparing to move into 16,000 sq ft new building and production facility. This is triple what our current space is. We have doubled our production capacity and we are about to double that again.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the letter and I am always looking forward to your insight and observations.

Warmest regards,

Mark
----------------------------------

You probably get sales letters in the mail all the time, or see them on websites.

You know the kind, really long text pages, yellow highlights, oversize headlines... you can almost feel the sale pressure jumping off the page at you.

Which of course is exactly the opposite feeling and approach that my clients and I work so hard not to be associated with.

Putting pressure on your prospects, whether it's over the phone or in writing, breaks the opportunity for you to build genuine trust with that person. And trust is what's at the core of long term sales success.

Mark's letter is a testament to not "hard pitching" his solution, but instead focusing in on the problems his prospects are experiencing.

In a moment, I'm going to share with you:

1. His sales letter with my written comments in the margins, to explain what Mark did
so well (Mark, the gracious guy that he is, gave me permission to share his letter with you.)

2. A 45-minute "audio briefing" where I explain, in depth, the key elements that Mark incorporated from Unlock The Game that makes this letter a true breakthrough

3. A word-for-word written transcript of the 45-minute "audio briefing"

Here's your access link:

https://utg.infusionsoft.com/in/i493e0/tad!tadhargrave.com/186a00/

(After you click the link, you'll be taken to a page that confirms you're one of my subscribers and you'll see the link to access Mark's letter)

To your success,

Ari Galper
Unlock The Game

P.S. I'd love to hear your feedback, just reply to this email. And if you have any written sales materials that have worked for you that minimize sales pressure...please do send them over. I'm creating a collection of these to make available at a later date.

Free Coaching Call Download (hosted by Katie's Club)

Hey everyone,

Yesterday, I was interviewed by Katie Curtain of Katie's club in Toronto.

It was a really powerful, jam packed call that got into some real nitty gritty detail. More info below on how you can listen to or download the call

Dear Friends,

I am getting rave e-mails about last night's Katie's Club teleconference with Tad Hargrave on "How to Grow Your Business Without Selling Your Soul". If you missed it, I did a recording of the evening.

Just click on here and you can listen
http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/WfCQb3JQ

Or download it to to your computer or MP3 player.
http://coachkatie.audioacrobat.com/download/TadHargrave1.mp3

The topics Tad covered included:

* tips for people setting up a holistic or green business
* five mistakes that social entrepreneurs make when running their businesses
* the importance of establishing a niche
* the two critical elements that make up a niche
* the three ways you can tell if your niche is any good or not
* the power of educational marketing
* the power of empathy in your marketing (including a secret all women know, but men don't)
* the power of 'stay in touch' marketing (and the 80/20 rule of how to do that)
* the four levels of how to make your business irresistibly attractive


Participants also had the chance to discuss some of their own business challenges.

So enjoy listening and if you get a chance, e-mail me what you found most useful. Also take a look at Tad's website. He has lots of free material, including a marketing self assessment test. Go to : http://www.tadhargrave.com

As well, Tad is coming to Toronto and is doing a workshop the first weekend of November, where you pay what you can. If you are running a small business or practice, you got to get out to this. The information and resources he provides are priceless. As well he's a real fun kind of guy, and very creative in his approach to marketing and business for the socially
conscious.

I'm doing an introductory evening for Tad at Ellington's Cafe, 805 St. Clair Avenue West, on Tuesday, Oct 30, 7-9PM. There's limited seating, so sign up as soon as you can by going to Tad's website, at http://www.tadhargrave.com/freeintro, or by e-mailing me.

Also keep your eyes peeled for upcoming Katie's Club teleconferences. I have one coming up on October 9, with Cherie Carpenter on Body Talk which is an extraordinary system of holistic healing.

Warmly,

Katie Curtin

Katie's Club
Helping women serve themselves and the world
Katie's Club is a club for women dedicated to creating positive
planetary change through the arts, holism and social action.

Want more information about becoming a member, please e-mail me at katiecurtin@mac.com or phone 416-656-6455.

"Your Forgotten eBook" - 111 Page, 100% 'On the House', Three-in-One ebook

Hey,

Can't believe I forgot to tell you
about this. Unreal.

Here's the scoop . . .

A few months ago I created an ebook.

It was born at 90 or so pages long,
but has since grown to a whopping 111
pages long.

Of course, *I* think it's the most
beautiful ebook in the world.

Ended up very pleased with it all.

I created it to use as an incentive to
get people to sign up for my email list.

I wanted to them to be surprised and
delighted by this great thing they got -
just for giving me their email.

So, now, when people sign up - they're
immediately emailed a link to this beautiful
bouncing, 111 page baby ebook that I'm
really proud of.

* * *
HOW YOU CAN GET YOUR OWN COPY?

1) Go to www.tadhargrave.com
2) Fill in your name and email on the
left hand side of the screen where it says:

"FREE!
Marketing Self Assessment
Find out what might be holding your
marketing back"

3) A link to download it will be
instantly emailed to you.
* * *

It's already gotten me rave reviews.

(though I fear it will one day grow up
and quit college on me too)

It occurred to me - a month or so
after creating this ebook - that I hadn't
told you about it and it's absolutely
the clearest and most up to date summary of
what I teach these days.

I just forgot to send out the word.

. . . What??!

Expect me to live what I teach?

(Don't you judge me . . .)

Anyway, there's no charge for this ebook.

No catch.

What is it?

It's basically a three in one package:

PART ONE:

An edited and expanded version of my live
two hour intro. The only thing missing is
my card tricks.

If you haven't been to my intro, here’s a
sneak preview of what you’ll learn:

o the difference between your inner
marketing game and your outer game (and
which one 90% of businesses totally ignore)

o the three critical criteria to
developing a strong target market or niche

o how you can craft an irresistible
offer that will compel your ideal clients
to buy from you in ways they never have

o the massive importance of identifying
‘hubs’ for your business (and the three
critical criteria of a good one)

o the difference between active and
passive word of mouth (and how you can
create substantial, positive word of
mouth for your business)


PART TWO:
The Horrible Hundred+

This might just be my favorite thing I've
ever created.

It's basically a diagnostic for the
conscious entrepreneur to see where they're
strong and where they're weak.

But from a particular angle.

I created it because I saw one too many
good-hearted conscious entrepreneurs
completely mis-diagnosing their situation.

They came to me thinking they needed
marketing help - but their real problems
lay outside the realm of marketing. Often
they were in the wrong business entirely,
they were addicted to urgency, they had
no goals etc.

I've gotten rave reviews on this thing.


PART THREE:

The Radical 180

This is a 180 point checklist that focuses
almost entirely on your marketing game plan.
It's divided into what i consider to be the
five most 'mission critical' areas of your
business.

It should give you a good birds eye view
of where your marketing is strong and where
it's weak.

* * *

HOW YOU CAN GET YOUR OWN COPY?

1) Go to www.tadhargrave.com
2) Fill in your name and email on the
left hand side of the screen where it says:

"FREE!
Marketing Self Assessment
Find out what might be holding your
marketing back"

3) A link to download it will be
instantly emailed to you.
* * *

That's it.

I hope you're well.


Warmest,
Tad

P.S. PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS: The only
thing I ask is that instead of emailing
people the direct link to it, you send
them the following email (feel free to
modify) or some such thing.

* * *

"Hey, Just came across this free 111 page
ebook on marketing for green, holistic
and community minded entrepreneurs.

It's pretty amazing. Well worth your time.

It's got three different parts to it.

The summary is below but to get it

1) Go to www.tadhargrave.com
2) Fill in your name and email on the
left hand side of the screen where it says:

"FREE!
Marketing Self Assessment
Find out what might be holding your
marketing back"

3) A link to download it will be
instantly emailed to you.

Here's what's in it . . .


PART ONE:

An edited and expanded version of my live
two hour intro. The only thing missing is
my card tricks.

If you haven't been to my intro, here’s a
sneak preview of what you’ll learn:

o the difference between your inner
marketing game and your outer game (and
which one 90% of businesses totally ignore)

o the three critical criteria to
developing a strong target market or niche

o how you can craft an irresistible
offer that will compel your ideal clients
to buy from you in ways they never have

o the massive importance of identifying
‘hubs’ for your business (and the three
critical criteria of a good one)

o the difference between active and
passive word of mouth (and how you can
create substantial, positive word of
mouth for your business)


PART TWO:
The Horrible Hundred+

This might just be my favorite thing I've
ever created.

It's basically a diagnostic for the
conscious entrepreneur to see where they're
strong and where they're weak.

But from a particular angle.

I created it because I saw one too many
good-hearted conscious entrepreneurs
completely mis-diagnosing their situation.

They came to me thinking they needed
marketing help - but their real problems
lay outside the realm of marketing. Often
they were in the wrong business entirely,
they were addicted to urgency, they had
no goals etc.

I've gotten rave reviews on this thing.

PART THREE:

The Radical 180

This is a 180 point checklist that focuses
almost entirely on your marketing game plan.
It's divided into what i consider to be the
five most 'mission critical' areas of your
business.

It should give you a good birds eye view
of where your marketing is strong and where
it's weak.