In a rare interview, mega copywriter John Carlton shares his thoughts on the video versus copy debate.

Listen to it here:

Here’s a link to get in on John’s Simple Writing System and get tons of free content.

John Carlton\’s Simple Writing System

Ultimately, if you buy from this link, you’ll get free audios and transcripts of two $1200 coaching sessions I had with John at the beginning of my career. I paid $2400 for these calls but they are yours free.

Be sure to email TACTIC7 AT GMAIL DOT COM with your receipt for your bonuses.

The best businesses and business people plan for the bad times.

In fact, they use the “boom” times to plan for the next down times.

You have two choices: prepare and prosper OR lay down and die.

If you want a 7-figure business, chances are you’re not ready to lay down and die. (And if you are, you’re in the wrong place. Stop reading now.)

Here’s the thing: Because of and also in spite of a recession, some businesses will fail. They will fall flat and die. Meanwhile, others will thrive and boom like never before.

The difference?

Attitude.

Knowledge.

The ability to plan and take action on those plans.

Did I mention attitude?

Period. Plain and simple.

So let’s talk a little about attitude. As Napoleon Hill, the great positive thinker and inspiration to millions said, you must cultivate a “PMA,” or a Positive Mental Attitude.

As Hill said, “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” And it is true.

The best and the brightest and, most importantly, the most successful know they will succeed, let nothing deter them and are willing to do whatever they need to do to survive, move forward and thrive.

Folks, the most successful people don’t develop a “PMA” the day they make their first million or become successful. Their PMA is born and cultivated from the beginning Their PMA is what gets them there in the first place.

So don’t go around with this attitude that you’ll be happy when this or that happens. Get it now. Feel it now. Work it NOW. Because the recession and the economy will do their thing no matter what you do. Your choice lies in how you react and, ultimately, in how good you are at creating and acting on an attitude and a vision for success.

What have you been doing to not only stay positive, which is nice, but to use your attitude to move you forward toward a 7-figure business?

* Take a look at where you are now and what the goal is. Things have changed. It’s a different time, a different landscape. Opportunities are still around, more than ever, but they are different opportunities. Revisit your goals and know how you will reach them.

*Write it down. It may feel strange, but it works. You bring about what you think about. Thoughts become things and all that. Focus your mental (and physical) energy on what you want and where you want to me.

* If it doesn’t make money, DON’T DO IT. Commit to what works and stop doing what wastes time and energy. You know those things you do all the time but don’t know why? Those things are sucking the life out of you and your business. If what you’ve been doing lately is not yielding the results you seek, come up with a new plan of action.

*Take a look at what’s around you. Your work space. The information you digest. The people around you. Are they all positive? Do they lend themselves to your positive mental attitude and, ultimately, to your success? On the other hand, do the people, places or information around you drain you? Get rid of whatever does not work for you. Now. Your business success literally depends on it.

Guess what?

The business and life you have always wanted are within your reach.

And to get there from here, you must – I REPEAT MUST – get rid of this silly fear once and for all.

You know why?

Because there is no better time to start a business than during a recession.

Feeling your customers’ pain, providing them with solutions, setting yourself apart from the competition – all of this is sound business and marketing advice that goes during any period.

Here’s what else I need you to do RIGHT NOW:

1. Resist, at all costs, the very natural temptation to freak out, to panic, to stop spending money, to want to talk with everyone about the crappy economy. When the economy is in the toilet, people talk about it everywhere you look or listen. People tell you to stop spending money. Don’t go with the pack on this one! (If you’re really committed to this one, stop watching the news altogether. Read a book or listen to a CD instead.)
2. Do not, not, not, not decide that your cost-cutting measures will include your marketing. The businesses that make money – more money – during a recession are those that understand that no matter how scary it might feel, spending money on marketing is a necessity (not a choice) at all times.
3. Be consistent. Know what your business goals are and make sure everything you do, every little step, every day is done with your eye on that prize. Take action daily and plan for consistency –while always remaining flexible and open to new opportunities or choices that might arise.
4. Know that pricing is a big deal for lots of customers. While you shouldn’t necessarily lower prices on your big-ticket items (their value is as high as ever), you should offer products or services for all budgets. Listen to them and serve them well. Get new customers in at a variety of levels – WOW them and they are your customer for life.

You’re not going to believe this.

Latreassa Goodman isn’t happy with Ronald McDonald.

In fact, she may go to jail because McDonald’s ran out of Chicken McNuggets.

Here’s the story.

Last Saturday, Latreassa ordered a Chicken McNuggets meal.

The restaurant was all out of Chicken McNuggets.  They offered her a huge deal on anything else on the menu.

Good enough for most people but not for Latreassa.

She flipped.

She was in crisis.

And what do you do when you are in crisis?

Call 911. Now.

So she did.

Three times.

To listen to Goodman’s 911 calls, click here, here, and here.

When cops responded to the restaurant, Goodman told them, “This is an emergency. If I would have known they didn’t have McNuggets, I wouldn’t have given my money, and now she wants to give me a McDouble, but I don’t want one.”

The Fort Pierce police weren’t amused.

They gave her a misdemeanor citation for mis-using the 911 emergency number.

But they failed to account for her fondness for Chicken McNuggets.

Even after being issued a misdemeanor citation, Goodman contended, “this is an emergency, my McNuggets are an emergency.”

Wierd huh?

But I cite this story because of an interesting fact.

We’re in a recession.

The banks are failing.

The stock market just made a flushing sound and…

McDonalds is doing better than ever.

Because of their agressive pricing with their “Value meals”, McDonalds is setting sales records.

What can your business learn from McDonalds?

Aside from make sure you have Chicken McNuggets in stock.

Watch for a number of inciteful posts starting next week showing you how to turn the recession into the best year you ever had.

Right here on Tactic7.

Peace.

When Groucho Marx took the stage for the last time at Carnegie Hall in New York, he leaned over the edge of the stage and said,

“I don’t think the dammed thing is safe.”

I wish I could have seen the look on President Obama’s face when he saw for the first time how really bad the economy is.

There’s bad - and there’s horrible.

We passed horrible last week and we’re boldly going where no one has gone before.

And small businesses are dying out there in a daisy chain of failure.

My mom called me this morning to tell me her gardener dropped by yesterday.

His business is way down.  He doesn’t think he’ll make it.

Guess what.

If you don’t think you’ll make it, you’re not going to.

These businesses are about to drop off the map and start dying like flies.

Unless they get some help quick.

Most business owners don’t have a clue to turn to.

Like my 82 year old mother was really going to be a valuable help.

But the smartest businesses owners I know pick up the phone and call for help.

Know how you spell help?  R - E - N - O.

In case you don’t know it, Reno is the home of John Carlton.

When push comes to shove, he’s the man the insiders turn to when
their business sours.

And, now that most businesses are beginning to look like it’s time for the Tidy Bowl it might just be time to pick up the phone and call for help.

John Carlton is doing one of his rare hot seat seminar.

And I’m not recommending it because I’m an affiliate - I’d mail without the link but it gets him pissed - but because unless your business gets help now…

It may not be there tomorrow.

This isn’t bs.  Wake up. Smell the coffee.

And while some people fixate on the price, let me ask you a question.

What could it cost you if you DON’T come?

I’ll be in San Francisco at John’s Hot Seat seminar.

And I’ll do you one better.

If John’s seminar doesn’t turn your business around and make it more profitable …

I’ll give you five hundred bucks out of MY POCKET if you put into place the strategies he recommends.

So get your keister over to San Francisco.

This seminar is going to be THAT GOOD.

Here’s the link:

https://m190.infusionsoft.com/go/cws/hkilstein/

Peace

Harlan

PS. A lot of great places for yoga in San Francisco. Who’s in?

Yesterday, on a secret covert ops trip, I sat in a traffic jam.

In Florida, I don’t have the problem of traffic jams all that often unless I run down to Miami from Boca.

Traffic jams are annoying especially when it boils down to something dumb like rubber necking at an accident. I hate when that happens.

But there’s a traffic jam happening online today and it’s getting progressively worse.

It has to do with product launches.

Every day it seems there is the newest and best product coming out that’s going to make you a gazillion dollars overnight.

And there is an endless supply of buyers.  Endless.

But it’s numbing with the number of requests I get to pound my list.

I don’t know about you but I don’t know what to say.

There are some peoples’ products I honestly believe it like John Carlton, Frank Kern, and Eben Pagan.

And then there are those of questionable means and tactics.

I think we are going to so overload the system, the product launch is going to twindle down and people are going to become immune to it.

Did you know what’s happening to email open rates on the gurus lists? It’s way down.  

But they aren’t planning for the future.

I hope you will.

Peace.

I recently presented at Ed Dales “Over The Edge” Seminar in Orlando.

My presentation was called “The Seven Deadly Sins of Internet Marketing”

The first sin is building a series of websites but not building a true business.

IM people liked to be the rebels.

While big businesses built brands, we shunned it.

We wanted people to recognize our names.

While big businesses used HTML emails (like LL Bean, Lands End, or Bass Pro Shops)
we used text.

We told ourselves it had higher deliverability and laughed at the big businesses.

They made millions.

We made a few thousand.

When Amazon launched, everyone laughed at their choice of font, their layout, their use of short copy.

We knew when they lost money every year that WE in IM could have done better.

They made millions and millions while we made????

You get what you build towards.

Are you building a business or a niche site?

Yes you can make some money with niche sites,

but you can make much more money with a business.

I’ll be back with the second deadly sin in a few days.

Peace.

Harlan