This "ONE Word" will help you in EVERTYHING you do!

I won't keep you in suspense;

The ONE Word you MUST keep in the back of your mind in EVERYTHING you do...your daily life....your Family Life....your Emotional Life....Your Social Life....your Business life...EVERYTHING about YOUR life

That word is called...."PAIN"!

You get a sore throat....or something on your body starts hurting, you call a doctor to "relive the pain".

A tooth starts hurting...you make an appointment with a dentist to...RELIEVE the "pain".

And....there's other kinds of "Pain"....not actually, "Physical PAIN"....I call it "Emotional PAIN".

Ya wanna find a "Girl Friend" or a "Wife"....to accompany you thru your life... instead of being alone....think of "your" emotional "pain" of being without a female companion. (This is why "Dating sites" are popular)

or....You've just lost HALF of your 401k...money you've been saving for years... THAT....is SERIOUS, "emotional Pain"! So...youare "motivated" to look for ways to "get it back"...or keep from losing more of it!

or...You've invested ALL your savings into an "Antique or Gift or Book" Shop and few people enter your shop!...or.....those that do come in, look around and walk out WITHOUT buying anything! You think ALL your "decisions" on starting the biz...have been for nought!

I know how that "feels"...and it doesn't "feel" good. THAT is "True Emotional PAIN"!

So....here we were...took ALL the money we could save for 2 years...bought Antiques and stuff for our Shop we dreamt of opening...."some day".

Then, the day came where we made a decision to "Go-For-IT"! Went and talked to the manager of a retail space...signed a binding Agreement to pay X$ per month for 12 or more months....moved the stuff we loved from storage into our space... hung up a sign in front ("ANTIQUES")...paid a guy to paint our front windows with the name of our shop ("Yankee Connection Antiques")....went to the local newspaper and paid for a Display ad and....sat and waited for people to enter our door....and sat....and sat...and sat!

THAT....is "Emotional" pain!....bordering on abject FEAR!

So....I "pulled an idea off one of my Memory Hooks" and ran an ad that started getting people to enter our shop.

However....when they entered, we asked if we could help them find something and their standard answer was, "No! Just Browsing!"

THAT....is REAL "Emotional Pain"!

So...I asked myself, "Self! What if there was a way to get the folks who enter our shop to...instead of just "browse"....what if they had a Reason to LOOK SERIOUSLY at our stuff?

1) Seriously LOOK at our stuff
and
2) BUY something?

That's when I came up with "Browser Bucks". And...just this ONE idea, not only allowed us to "Survive" but...."THRIVE"!

Thus....right now....June of 2009....I am betting there are thousands of retail shop owners experiencing "Major Emotional Pain"....wondering if they will have to close their doors this year.

So....I'm going to see if I can put together a "Package" to help these shop owners to also...."Thrive"!

Anyway...have a great weekend.

Don Alm

I forgot the MAIN REASON for posting the above article;

When people are suffering, they will spend money if it means that suffering will be relieved. Nowadays, people (individuals looking for extra income, business owners, professionals) are tightening their belts and pinching pennies.

HOWEVER....if YOU can offer something that could relieve the suffering (and pain)....people are willing to give up almost any amount of money to get that pain to go away.

OR....another word is "FEAR"!

If you have something that can "Relieve Emotional Pain and FEAR"...YOU HAVE A WINNER!

Don Alm...."Pain Reliever"

Hi Don,

Your are right. People will do almost anything to stop their pain except face their fears. Example: A couple of years ago I sold an aspiring photographer my simple system of how to flood her studio with all the portrait business she can handle. It generated thousand of leads for her! All with names, addresses and phone numbers, all lived in her city. All interested in booking a session but she refuses to pick up the phone and call them because of fear. She has been active on a popular photography marketing forum and she along with 99.9% of the people there complain that their phones aren't ringing off the wall with customers. Yet every single person whom I taught my system to that has overcome their fear of picking up the phone and calling their leads has been able to book dozens of session each and every week.

Now she and several others on that forum just threw away $500 to $1000 each on placing ads that failed to generate a single call but did generate tons of request for more information. However, most of these starving artist are still starving because they let fear stop them from doing the simple things that really work.

When I bought your Video Case Ad program back in 1990 I almost let my fear of talking to strangers stop me from taking action but hunger finally motivated me to just do it and it worked like a charm. It's funny how these same photographers don't have a problem talking to the few people who call them first but they let fear stop them from reaching out to anyone else. When I point this out to them they just come up with one excuse after another while complaining how bad business it. Yet I just did over $10,000 in sales from a one day shoot that would have never happened if I did not pick up the phone and call my leads first. Some live in fear and recession - Some don't - Why is that?

Cheers,
Steve Shulenski

The World's Coolest Email - Send email and video that self destructs. Did I mention that it's FREE?

Wow! You reminded me of one of my greatest successes. It's been almost TWENTY YEARS since I did the "Video Rental Case Ad" program! Time flies, when yer having fun.

That program is what got me into "Nationwide Marketing" and one that I made a LOT of moolah with.

To recap;

I got the idea for that program one night while watching tv with the family.

A few weeks before, I bought a "Photo Business Card" dealership (Full Color Photos on business cards) I was having a tough time selling the cards, even in glitsy Aspen mainly because they were a lot more expensive than regular, plain, cards.

However, I did manage to sell 8 orders and had just received them that day.

I had rented a movie and while I was sitting there I was doodling with the 8 boxes of cards on the coffee table in front of me. Also on the coffee table was the clear plastic the video came in.

Without thinking, I happened to place one of the cards on top of the Video Rental Case and WHALA! It HIT me! I discovered 3 cards would fit on each side...6 cards to a case.

I then realized that...instead of trying to sell the cards alone...what if I were to offer to place someone's cards on 100 Video Rental Cases?

So....I put together a sample and went to the Video store the next morn... showed him my sample and asked him if I could provide him with FREE Video Cases with my cards on them.

He thought it was a great idea and I found selling the Photo Cards on Video Rental Cases to be VERY EASY. And...with each order I'd give my customers 100 of the cards to hand out AND....just about every customer came back for MORE! ....because they found out themselves how IMPRESSIVE they were.

I then went to other video stores and did the same thing. And, one afternoon I decided to call Entrepreneur Mag and see if they knew of anyone else doing this. I didn't think I could be the originator of this program.

I got to talk to one of the editors...told him what I was doing and asked if he knew of anyone else doing this. He said, "Hold On! I'll check with the others here."

A few minutes later he came back on line and told me neither he nor any of the editors had ever heard of such a thing....and he asked me to take a photo and explain what I was doing.

Which I did and then proceeded to forget about it (I didn't know that it takes about 2 mos before a magazine to be put together, printed and distributed)

Well...one afternoon I went into my home office and noticed my answering machine blinking..."40 - 40 - 40". This meant there were 40 calls waiting.

I clicked the first one; "Hello! This is Max from Toledo. I saw your article in this months Entrepreneur Mag. Send me some info on how I can do this in my town!"

ALL the calls were like this. I cleared the calls and another 40 came in.

I then figured I had better put some kind of "Starter Kit" together.

Thus...I sold these packages for the next 3 yrs and it was the beginning of my "Starter Kit" programs....all from an "Accidental Idea"!

So...point is; "Keep Yer Mind Open! Ya never know WHEN you'll get that "Hot Flash" that could change yer life".

Thanks Steve. Hope all is well with you and yours down there in OZ.

Don Alm....still getting "Hot Flashes"