Curious about Opinions - How Strong Are Yours?

Benjamin Franklin wrote, “For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.”

Even though I feel that I have strong opinions, I have also always prided myself for the fact that I am flexible enough to see both sides of an issue, discussion and/or a belief.

This past week has been what I would term an “opinion-testing” week. I am a member of several lists and discussion groups. There is one discussion group that even when I am as busy as I have been, I still visit daily and also read most of the postings. This is because I not only enjoy the members of the group, I also learn many marketing ideas from the intelligent and sharing participants.

What started as a question from one of the members about a critical e-mail she had received and how she should handle it, escalated into a rather heated discussion about the New Hampshire woman who is suing her doctor for telling her that she is obese and that she should lose weight for her health.

Of course, there are always three sides to every story and situation and we don’t know all of the facts. I made the error of voicing my fitness instructor’s opinion about the importance of disciplining oneself to exercise and watch what we eat. After all, I felt that the doctor should warn her about her growing size. Wow! You wouldn’t believe the angry responses!

Then, I also saw a man at the post office I hadn’t seen for many years. He is a fine storyteller and I remembered him as a fun and upbeat person. In the twenty minutes we spent talking, most of the time was devoted to his negative comments about what the world, the economy, the youth, the family and storytelling are coming to - all downhill and bad.

He did not want to hear my positive opinions. Yes, I certainly don’t agree with everything that is happening today, but I do feel that there are a lot of good and exciting changes taking place. I am so pleased to be in contact with several global communities - even when we hold different opinions. I love my life and the fact I get to work out physically every day and can make a decent living with my Portfolio Career.

But before I bore you with positive opinions, I do want to share some of the great opinion quotes I gathered. Great food for thought:

• Robert G. Allen and I agree heartily, “Don't let the opinions of the average man sway you. Dream, and he thinks you're crazy. Succeed, and he thinks you're lucky. Acquire wealth, and he thinks you're greedy. Pay no attention. He simply doesn't understand.”
• Edward F. Halifax wrote, “Men who borrow their opinions can never repay their debts.”
• Josh Billings (1818-1885) wrote wisely, “Most people when they come to you for advice, come to have their own opinions strengthened, not corrected.”
• Georg C. Lichtenberg (18th Century Physicist) even earlier said, “One must judge men not by their opinions, but by what their opinions have made of them.”
• And, really early on, Chuang Tzu (386-269 BC) stated, ‘We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.”

And, to bring a smile to your face and heart with this serious and volatile subject, here are a couple more:

• The great Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!”
• And, my favorite - Bryan Miller is right on, “Contrary to popular notion, truck drivers know nothing about good restaurants. If you want a reliable tip, drive into a town, go to the nearest appliance store and seek out the dishwasher repair man. He spends a lot of time in restaurant kitchens and usually has strong opinions about them.”

So, send me your strong opinions - and the reasons for them, if you can remember! I love getting comments (hint).

Curious about Getting the Word Out - Advertising, Marketing or Buzz?

A truism that we often hear or read goes something like this, “You can build a better mousetrap, but if people don’t know about it, they will not beat a path to your door.” Even though a great product in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s time (the 1800s) would cause people to “beat a path to your door,” there had to be some way that those people found out about it.

Imagine that you just launched a new website, or created a unique and perfect product, or wrote the how-to book of the century, or … you fill in the blank. Just because you build it, they won’t come. We not only have to let people know about it, we also have to grab their interest enough that they want to visit, and, hopefully, buy or commit to what we have to offer.

Some people are saying that “advertising is dead.” Others swear by certain methods of marketing that many feel are manipulative. And, the latest term and method of converting prospects to clients and/or customers is called “buzz.”

In this blog, I decided it would be fun to visit all three methods, share some quotes from each and offer a few suggestions.

Advertising quotes were endless, so I picked a few that I thought were interesting and also from well known names in the business:

• William Bernbach hits home with, “Today's smartest advertising style is tomorrow's corn.”
• Leo Burnett speaks to our emotions, “Advertising is the ability to sense, interpret... to put the very heart throbs of a business into type, paper and ink.”
• As does Erich Fromm, “A vast sector of modern advertising... does not appeal to reason but to emotion; like any other kind of hypnoid suggestion, it tries to impress its objects emotionally and then make them submit intellectually.”
• Well known and well thought of David Ogilvy says it all succinctly, “The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.”
• And Dick Wolf sums advertising up, “Advertising is the art of the tiny. You have to tell a complete a story and deliver a complete message in a very encapsulated form. It disciplines you to cut away extraneous information.”

When I looked up “marketing” I was surprised to find many quotes that either mentioned or hinted at manipulation. Is that the impression we marketers are giving?

Here, I am including those that spoke to me in a more positive way:

• I do like Roy H. Williams’ take on it, “In marketing you must choose between boredom, shouting and seduction. Which do you want?”
• John Romero offers the following advice, “In marketing I've seen only one strategy that can't miss - and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last.”
• And the wise and revered Peter F. Drucker wrote, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

Now, the latest method suggested for “getting the word out” is buzz. And it is working big time. “Buzz” is the old and successful “word of mouth” endorsement of a company, person and/or product. Not only do we create buzz by giving such incredible service, providing a terrific product or using the latest technologies and media that others talk about us and what we have to offer.

Buzz goes even farther in recommending us than the tried and true testimonials that can be sprinkled throughout our websites and printed collateral material It can now be presented in audio interviews of us and our “raving fans.” Check out what Bill Metcalf is doing to create buzz by clicking HERE.

Getting the word out should be an on-going project for all of us who want to promote ourselves, our businesses and our products. In the words of Gerard Butler, “There was certainly a beautiful buzz going on last year, and now it feels like, as you say, we're having to kind of get that momentum going again.”

Don’t let that happen to you! Keep up the continual work! And let me know how you are creating “buzz.”

Curious about Assumptions: What Do You Assume to Be the Truth?

Robert Ringer wrote in today’s e-zine, Early to Rise, “Now, here's the sticky part. The reality is that most of your life is based on information and assumptions you have never verified. For you control freaks out there, you may find that hard to accept. ... I'm much more rigid than most people when it comes to taking everything with a proverbial grain of salt. My motto is: Assume nothing. If your mother says she loves you, check it out! Even so, on occasion I still find myself assuming things that I have no sound reason for assuming.”

What I enjoy and look forward to in this daily e-zine is that it makes me think. The above statement from an article by Ringer stopped me in my tracks.

I have been working and writing diligently on my new e-book, How to Leave Your Audiences Begging for MORE!, and in several sections have repeated the phrase, “Always confirm. Never assume.” In this book that will help you to become an “Outrageously Powerful Presenter,” I am referring to all of the different details that accompany speaking.

But, after reading Ringer’s article, I suddenly realized that I have many assumptions on which I base my life, my actions and interactions, my goals and my beliefs. Some of these are time tested, but others aren’t at all - and horror of horrors, may be completely false.

So I am curious to know what others’ assumptions are, how you test your assumptions and how valuable testing and questioning may be.

As you have read in my past blogs, I usually assume that the majority of people are honest. This caused me grief when I was recently taken in by a con artist. I am surprised daily by the number of hackers and other schemers on the Internet, along with the fraud that seems to abound in corporate America.

And, yet on the other hand, as Ringer also mentioned, I have come to believe and trust in many of the mentors and gurus on the Internet, along with some fabulous authors. When I made the decision to cut back on the number of e-newsletters that I was receiving - I tended to read them all - I had to ask myself which ones were worthwhile enough for me to make an investment (of time and/or money). Which ones did I trust the most?

I think and feel that this takes time, because we tend to assume that the written word is true and holds weight. I like to make the assumption that someone is knowledgeable and telling the truth. Now, however, I take my time before believing everything I read. How about you? Do you jump right into buying all of the products that promise you success and fame? It is easy to do.

I am so interested in this topic that I am planning to use it as the theme in this upcoming week’s e-newsletter, Portfolio Potpourri. Therefore, I investigated www.brainyquote.com for some interesting thoughts on “assumption.” As a teaser, you will find a few below:

On the never ending argument on the differences between men and women:

• Richard Ford wrote, “My assumption as a person who writes about moral issues is that women and men are alike. And in terms of their consequential acts, they have to be responsible for what they do in pretty much the same way, and the differences that are perhaps inspired by gender are subterior to what is more important to me - how men and women treat other people, how they act in ways that bring about consequences in others' lives.”
• And Barbara Ehrenreich stated, “The feminist anti-pornography movement, no less than the feminist movement of a century ago, encourages the assumption that male and female sexuality, and possibly morality, are as unlike as yin and yang.”

How fitting that Orville Wright wrote, “If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance.”

Lots to think about. How about you? Have you checked your assumptions lately? Leave a comment (hint, hint).

Curious about Volunteering - Should We and How Much?

Gillian Anderson summed up the number one reason to volunteer, when she wrote, “Be of service. Whether you make yourself available to a friend or co-worker, or you make time every month to do volunteer work, there is nothing that harvests more of a feeling of empowerment than being of service to someone in need.”

When we volunteer, however, we are not always helping someone in need. There are many other opportunities to volunteer for groups and organizations - and, yes, they are all in need of help - but will this give you and me a “feeling of empowerment” or just take time and energy away from other important endeavors?

If you are a natural volunteer like I am - when a group asks for someone to volunteer, my hand shoots up almost automatically - I think we need to reconsider our volunteering efforts. In the past, I have always recommended volunteering. It is a terrific way to meet and work with other people. You will find all of the reasons I feel an independent professional and business owner should volunteer by reading my article here .

It has always served me well as I have served others. By doing a good job, we not only learn a lot, we also develop a good reputation for being dependable and more than competent.

Alexis Herman sums it up beautifully, “There is no substitute really for learning about the world of work and being in the world of work. You can do that through internships. You can do it through summer job experiences or even from volunteer jobs in your local community. Strive early to get some kind of practical work experience.”

Now, I am going to discuss the downsides. As my business has grown, I have been forced to focus on how I am spending my discretionary minutes. I have realized that the percentage of time dedicated to volunteer efforts is too high. This doesn’t mean in any way that I will stop volunteering. It just means that I need to think it through thoroughly before committing to any new volunteer opportunities.

What has solidified this decision - and actually pushed me into writing this blog - is a volunteer job that I accepted in early July. I was called by a woman whom I count as a friend to ask if I would be willing to be a member of the nominating committee for a group to which we both belong.

At one time, I was the editor of their bi-monthly e-newsletter, but had to pass it on because of my time limitations. She told me that the job would just “consist of a few phone calls.” So, I broke down and said “yes.”

Another woman, who is now the chairperson of the nominating committee has had the idea - and an excellent one too - that when we call members, we also find out if they would like to be on a committee and ask them for their suggestions for making the group better.
This is an international group, and our leader (there are only four of us on the committee) has decided that we will call 22 to 23 members a piece. I have told her, “no way” and that I could manage 8 or 9 calls tops, but, of course, I feel guilty.

Ron Burton puts it in perspective and quite succinctly, “In the business world and the volunteer world, each job has certain requirements that must be met in order for that job to be done properly and for that organization to survive and prosper.”

I have learned a lesson. Don’t say “yes” when you know in your heart-of-heart that you already have enough volunteer and business jobs on your plate.

Yes, it is difficult to find volunteers - let alone “good” volunteers who do the job properly. But, we don’t always have to be or should be that volunteer.Do let me know what you think. I would love some comments (hint).