SOWPub Small Business Forums - The LAST Hoorah, the Swan Song and this is PART ONE of The Dylan Posts...

this post is Part ONE of a few posts I’ll be making this week.

And I’ll apologize up front for my overuse of quote marks, I know it drives some of you English majors crazy. "Oh well".

Some of you have known me as "The Student of the Masters" for well over a decade online. Others for even longer.

A few recall the NPGS UPDATE HOTLINE newsletters where I was the featured writer. This was a publication of Suarez Corporation Industries when I was employed and under contract as a Creative Marketing Professional.

A handful have seen the flyers, brochures, HOTSHEETS and letters that were created for the herbal supplement company I worked for as Marketing Director. Certain ones know of my "big mail" and mail order days.

Very few of you have seen my whole body of work, most of it as a private contractor under non-compete, non disclosure and "silence is golden " contracts.

I’m going to be giving some of you newbies a history lesson in these Dylan posts, not a DEAD History, but one on which those of you who take action, can capitalize on and prosper from. Let me start with Bob Dylan:

"Times They Are a Changing."

"Come gather round people wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth saving
Then you'd better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone
For the times, they are a changing...
Your old role is rapidly aging
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend a hand...

And the present now will soon be the past
The order is rapidly fading
The first one now will later be last
For the times, they are a changing" (edited for my INTENT)

The February, 2007 issue of Personal Success-The Newsletter is the final DAX print version.

It is the Swan Song of Dean F.V. Du Vall, Sr. I’ll have more on DAX a little later.

ONE of the few, and I mean VERY few endorsements you’ll find that I’ve made online is at DAXFAX.com and I’ll tell you the complete story of that in this mini-series of posts.

Soon, very soon, another MASTER will be launching his LAST HOORAH.
Sad for some of us, yet very exciting too. I believe these Old Masters may have saved their best for last (and I truly hope it is NOT their last, may they all be like Cher and Babs and have many, many "farewell" tours).

In 1975 I was attending Golden West College in Huntington Beach, CA. Mostly I was taking business classes and watching the girls swim team. We were studying "direct marketing" when Joe Karbo’s famous ad was in full force. I met Joe at his office in Sunset beach and this is one of those times where you just don’t know, that is, don’t recognize at the time, how special these people and little meetings are.

In the late 50s-early 60’s, I was a kid involved in a "Speech Therapy Program" at Kent State University where my path crossed Ernest "Bud" Weckesser, later of Green Tree Press fame. I find these little intersections of life to be very interesting, don’t you? One of the neat things about attending seminars and workshops is meeting people, some of whom are on their way to becoming modern masters.

I didn’t realize Joe for what he was and would become...a true MASTER of Marketing. Anyhow, it was about this time that I began expanding my already BIG collection of direct marketing "people" based on Joe’s advice and knowledge of Who was Who in "mailorder".

I was a Popular Science and Popular Mechanics junkie in the late 50’s and early 60’s and spent my hard earned "GRIT" sales money on all kinds of things in the back of those magazines.

It was the heyday of eensy teeny classified ads. And I was one of the ORIGINAL suckers for salesmanship-in-print, even if it was only a one inch space ad. I bought a "computer" in the early 60’s, which was basically an abacus with black and white beads on it, showing gates, and "yes and no" "go and no go" theory...the original binary matrix. I thought it was cool and it only cost like 2 bucks or so. Man, I was in the computer age.

And let’s not forget the 1001 things I got for Free, after I sent my 25 cents into an ad in the comic books. I didn’t get an allowance, I had to work for my money, and I did...but I spent it on all kinds of "opportunities" I’d find in the comics and magazines. I got more mail than my parents did.

Some of you reading this are modern "opportunity" junkies, chasing after the latest do nothing and collect the dough Internet Marketing op. Right?

Once in awhile, after saving up for a few weeks, I would buy one of those BIG courses that cost $3.50. By the time I was in high school, I would even buy those $9.95 courses, like Harry Lorayne’s Memory course. One of the best buys I ever made. Of course I bought it from one of the classic ads and ad writers of all time, Eugene "Gene" Schwartz. At one time I owned almost every book, course and even records that he sold.

Now then, here is how you can profit from my history lessons:

I’m going to be sharing with you some true "insider" secrets with my blasts from the pasts and how today’s Net gurus and successes have USED this wealth of tested and proven marketing materials and money making information...and how YOU can too.

Let’s call this mini series "The Dylan Posts"...cause the Times, they ARE a changing.

With that being said, there is an opportunity BIGGER THAN EVER for some real off line profits, thanks to all the online expansion and growth, and I’ll tell you what that is as we go along.

Take this Quiz

how many of these MASTERS do you recognize?

Melvin Powers
J.F. (Jim) Straw
Harvey Brody
Frank Cawood
Hubert Simon
George Haylings
Jerry Buchannan
Joe Karbo
E. Joseph Cossman

And I’d bet some of you can name several, perhaps scores of others.

Many of the MASTERS I studied and learned from are gone, but the few left have a legacy to leave and part of that legacy is the success of their students.

And this NEW crop of online successes will most likely tell you they studied the lessons of the MASTERS and their Students, who are now Masters themselves.

It is FUN for me to see some of the OLD guys working hard and LOVING it still.

Harvey Brody is still going strong, in fact guiding me through a TOLL position I’m seeking from an 80 year old inventor, who himself is like the energizer bunny...and full of ideas he’s got to get out of his head.

They may not work as MUCH...but they still WORK just as hard when their very sharp minds are focused on their "jobs".

It is also FUN to watch these guys transition to ONLINE while developing even greater off line businesses too. They are, in another era, the buggy makers who had to put a motor on their buggies if they were to stay in business.

OK. The Times They Are a Changing. But the work ethic, the focus, the determination to succeed are still essential ingredients for success. I’ll be sharing with you some ideas from the past, and some NEW ways of doing OLD businesses that could help you achieve your goals in record times.

Stay tuned.

Gordon Jay Alexander
Student of the Masters