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One night after the recent hypnosis convention, my dear friend Mark Ryan drove Nerissa and me out and away from the hypnotic buzz of a few thousand passionate hypnotists all talking at once.

We needed the break. Between the traveling and the socializing, the groupies and the interviews, the buying and the selling, there was not much time to sleep, let alone just relax. My talks were sold-out hits and my booth sold-out of all product by the second day. We were the only table with nothing on it but our elbows and a white cloth.

To celebrate, we went for a drive.

Nerissa and Mark wanted coffee, so we stopped at a Starbucks. I think we passed seven of them during one block in rural Massachusetts. One day, Starbucks will rule the earth.

I wasn’t interested in calorie-rich coffees or in sugar-infested desserts, but I was interested in finding a good cigar store.

Mark asked the spacey coffee maker at Starbucks if there were any cigar stores near by. After staring into space for thirty minutes, or so it seemed, he mumbled some directions that seemed to mean there was a cigar store someplace in New England, which gave us six states to cover.

Anyway, we went for a wonderful, relaxing ride, enjoying the tall green trees, the lack of billboards along the highway, the beautiful lakes here and there, and more. It was very relaxing.

After a while, I spotted an actual dedicated cigar store.

Mark turned around and pulled into it.

I’m new to cigar smoking and have never been inside a huge store of cigars and pipes. There were hundreds if not a thousand or more cigars to look at. We asked the manager for some guidance. Turns out the manager, Ernie, was personable and informative.

He told us the truth: All cigars are pretty much the same except for marketing.

The difference between a $50 cigar and a $5 cigar is really $45.

He went on to explain that some companies market themselves as the luxury, never-make-a-bad-cigar brand, such as David Off.

Other companies only make a limited amount of a good cigar, and then advertise the scarcity of their item.

It was all pretty fascinating.

I told Ernie I needed a lighter.

But I added that I didn’t want just any lighter.

“Pretend Donald Trump walked in,” I said. “What kind of lighter would you show him or any other tycoon?”

Ernie went over to a glass display case and pointed at several lighters inside it. They were all gold and silver. They looked stunning and luxurious. I was pretty sure they would cost $50 or more, at least.

The gold one caught my eye.

“Tell me about that one,” I said, pointing to it.

“Ah, the David Off gold plated lighter,” he said, savoring the words as he spoke them. “You don’t get much better than that.”

He pulled it from the display case and flicked the flint. Double blue flames appeared. It was a hypnotic dance of fire.

“It looks like two flames,” I noted.

“It is,” he said. “This is to light all sides of your cigar at one time.”

He then added something interesting.

“What this lighter is known for is something else, though.”

He then paused, closed the lighter, and popped it open again.

“You hear that ping?” he asked.

He opened and closed the lighter a few more times.

There was a clear crystal like “ping” that appeared in the air as he flipped the lighter open.

“People who know the brand of David Off can recognize that ping from across the room.”

I asked to hold the lighter.

It was heavy, like solid metal should be. It looked like something a King or Queen would have. It felt comfortable in my hand. And when I opened that lid, the “ping” seemed entrancing.

I opened and closed it a few more times, letting Nerissa and Mark hear the “ping.”

Mark dug it, smiling every time he heard it. Nerissa didn’t say anything one way or the other. She was looking at humidors and imagining them as jewelry boxes.

“How much is it?” I asked Ernie.

By now Ernie was helping someone else. He raised his hand to ask me to wait. While he did that, Mark looked in the display case and saw the price of another lighter.

“Looks like it’s over four hundred bucks, Joe.”

“No, that’s not the price,” Ernie interrupted.

He then reached into the case and pulled out the box for the gold plated lighter.

I read the price tag.

It said $612.

Six hundred and twleve dollars.

Six hundred and twelve dollars for a lighter.

I thought about it for maybe one minute, and then said I wanted it.

I bought it, too.

Now let me ask you this:

What do you think of my spending $612 on a lighter?

You don’t have to tell me, but you do need to tell yourself.

How do you feel about it?

Stay tuned to Part Two, where we will go deeper into this story and Your Money Test.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — I’ll be speaking at Pat O’Bryan’s next Portable Empire event. The last one took newbies to netrepreneur level. This next one will rock the house with a delightful twist. It’s never been done before. Leave it to Pat to take his own innovative program to a whole new level. All the details are at www.marketerschoice.com/app/?Clk=1554504 Show up and I’ll let you hear my lighter go “ping.”

PPS — UPI (United Press International) picked up my “Happiness Burns More Calories” news release that I told you about last week. UPI is one of the wire services that feeds news to all media. This means the entire world may eventually learn of my news release. This is very, very good. It also demonstrates the power of publicity. You need to be doing this, too. See www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20060809-032401-4800r

Nerissa and I headed to the airport early last Thursday morning, oblivious to the just implemented orange alert at all the airports.

We were surprised to learn we couldn’t take water or lotions on the plane. I rely on water to stay healthy. I take gel-like nutritional packs with me so I don’t eat the airline food. All of that had to be trashed.

No one explained why to us, or to anyone else.

When security stopped me and went through my carry-on bag, the gent examining my stuff was kind enough to tell me about the potential terroritst attacks and the new level of high security. Knowing what was happening helped a lot in reducing our anxiety and confusion.

After we got through security, we saw the television sets in the airport blasting the news out to the world. As I listened, they sure made the airport experience sound worse than what it really was. If I were planning to go to the airport, the media warnings might have talked me out of it. But I was in the airport, and everything was totally fine.

Nerissa and I got on two flights that day, and two more yesterday.

We never had a problem.

We didn’t encoutner long lines.

We didn’t hear any unhappy travelers.

And every flight was sold out.

Life was pretty much going on as usual, simply minus some water and lotions.

Again, the media focuses on the negative and distorts reality. A front-page close-up photo of a guard at an airport holding a machine gun makes you think some negative thoughts. But the truth is, I never saw a guard carrying any weapon at all.

I’m glad we are being protected.

But don’t let the media rule your experiences.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS – I have much to report about the hypnosis convention. It was a whirlwind adventure with non-stop magic and miracles. Stay tuned.

After finding $12,500.00 in an old Paypal account last week, I went on a spending spree.

I bought everything from a Bentley jacket (to start pretending I’m a Bentley GT owner) to a humidor (for my new hobby of cigar smoking) to a rare magic trick (which I can’t wait to show you one day), to a gift of money for Nerissa, and more.

One of the other things I bought was a new guitar. I have several, but you can’t have too many. If you play the guitar, you know what I mean.

This new guitar is an E-Z play guitar. It’s designed to be, well, easier to play.

The website that describes it is written beautifully. They say:

EZ-Play™ Guitars are modified by Master Guitar Luthier Denny Zager to play easier than any other guitars made. The EZ-Play modification process involves:

Lowering the strings closer to the fret board so you no longer have to press hard to form chords.

Widening the stance of the strings so there is more space for your fingers, while keeping the neck shallow so its easy for all hand sizes.

Modifying the saddle, bridge, neck, nut and bracing in harmony to amplify the tone and resonance.

The result is a guitar that is 50% easier to play with a sound that competes with guitars costing 5 times the price.

Sounds good to me.

So I ordered one.

I was telling Pat O’Bryan about it today and he asked when he could see it. I told him I hadn’t heard from the seller yet. Pat’s eye-brows went up and I smelled his concern. Suddenly I started to feel buyer’s remorse; that sinking feeling in your gut that says maybe you made a really bad decision.

I wrote to the seller and almost instantly got back an email. It had to be one of the most reassuring emails ever received after a sale. Not only did it confirm my order, but it included testimonials, which essentially made me feel excited all over again about my new guitar.

Here’s part of the email:

Hi Joe,

We’ll take care of you…no worries.

I’m showing you purchased your guitar Friday night and it went out Monday morning after Denny completed a final inspection.

Warmest regards,

Dennis Zager Jr.
http://www.zagerguitar.com/
Toll free 1-800-308-9731

Magazine reviews http://zagerguitar.com/Index.cfm?event=public.feedback.review

Customer testimonials http://zagerguitar.com/Index.cfm?event=public.feedback.testimonial

Ebay customer feedback http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?viewFeedback&userid=zager_ez-play_guitars

Try a guitar risk free
http://zagerguitar.com/Index.cfm?event=public.guitars.guarantee

Recent customer testimonial:
04-07-2006 Hello Dennis, I received your guitar today and what a great instrument it is! I really like it a lot. It almost sounds like a piano. Very crisp and articulate, perfectly in tune. A very musical guitar! I like the fact that it’s light weight. The neck is very easy to play everywhere, I can bend the strings easily and there’s no buzz at all! The sound is focused, full range, nice bottom, solid mids, rich and round highs. Plus, I think it looks awesome! Thank you so much, I really appreciate that guitar. Thank you again.”
— Andre Coutu, Lead guitarist for Celine Dion, Las Vegas, Nevada

More testimonials http://zagerguitar.com/Index.cfm?event=public.feedback.testimonial

I’m impressed.

Most sellers would write and just say, “Got your order.”

The Zagar Guitar people wrote a personal message, gave me the tracking number for the guitar, and added a lot of emotionally supportive links, including a testimonial from Celine Dion’s lead guitarist!

I need to model this approach to doing business.

Maybe you do, too.

Now I’m really excited to get that guitar!

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS – I leave for the hypnosis convention tomorrow. Unfortunately, that’s the very day the guitar is supposed to arrive. I’ll give you a report on it after the trip. Meanwhile, consider reassuring your customers with a thank you email that confirms their order, upsells them on more products, and soothes their concerns with some testimonials. It’s e-z to do.

My blog post from the other day was just turned into a wonderful news release and distributed to the national media. It’s worth looking at the before and after versions.

My “before” news release, which was the bare bones of an idea, is on my blog for August 5th.

The “after” news release, expanded and polished by PR Web Direct, and with a stunning photo added, is now online at www.prweb.com/releases/2006/8/prweb421148.htm

Study both.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — The next Manifestation Weekend will be Nov 10 – 11 in Austin, Texas. Price is just like the original one: $1,000. Only 25 can attend. If you’re interested, send an email to my assistant Suzanne at [email protected] If you want to know what the first weekend was like, see www.BeyondManifestation.com I hope to see you there.

Right now I’m busy preparing to go to the world’s largest convention for hypnotists later this week. I’m a speaker there, and Nerissa and I will have a booth, too.

Even with all the stress of preparing for that annual trip up north, I have two new books coming out within weeks (circle August 22th on your calendar), and I just completed writing my next book.

Before I turn it in to the publisher and leave for a long awaited vacation to an island in the Pacific, I’ll begin my next book after that.

And on top of all that, there’s the body and business contest Scott York and I just announced, the nutritional products I’m beginning to promote, and a TV show I’m planning to produce.

I also have two DVD projects near completion, that I can’t wait to share with you.

And I’m currently in my fifth fitness contest, which is eating my lunch with intense workouts and strict dieting. But I’m eight weeks into it and there’s no turning back.

Oh. And I just bought a new guitar, I’m practicing a new magic trick, and I’m shopping for a new Bentley (since I passed on James Caan’s used one) and I’m writing blog posts, like this one, whenever I can.

But that’s not all.

I still find time to read good books.

I’m a book addict.

I admit it.

I love them.

I buy them, collect them, and sometimes even read them.

Since you might be interested in what I’m reading right now, here you go:

What Happy Companies Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Company for the Better by Dan Baker, Cathy Greenberg, and Collins Hemingway.

I love this book. It’s inspiring. It focuses on what I’ve been saying for years: happy people tend to get more of what they want. They are more productive, prolific, and profitable. As The Attractor Factor states, the more you focus on the positive, the more positive things you create and attract. Amazingly enough, this whole book supports (but doesn’t directly address) the premise in the news release I am sending out tomorrow: Happiness helps you lose weight. Get this book.

Go Big or Go Home: How the Next Generation of Startup Companies Think BIG, Grow FAST, and Dominate Markets Overnight by Wil Schroter.

I’ve only begun this book but I love the energy and passion and message in it. Schroter is getting me to think big and act quick. I’ve often said “Money likes speed,” but this book takes it up a notch. The author urges you to look for the big painful problems that large groups of people share and then create solutions for them. He’s got me thinking. I imagine you could read and re-read this one book all year, and every time create a new money-making profit center. Read it and dare something worthy. I am.

Six Blind Elephants: Understanding Ourselves and Each Other, two volumes, by Steve Andreas.

This two-volume set shares stories and techniques for helping yourself see how you look at your life through “scopes,” a type of categorizing that determines what you see and how you feel. Change the scope and you change the experience. Andreas is an NLP pioneer. This set reveals numerous methods for shifting perception, many of them from the legendary change masters, such as Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir, and Richard Bandler. I found volume one harder to read and volume two more practical, but if I were you, I’d get both books. Read them and open your world to new possibilities. A wise, thoughtful, and often fun set of books. I think they’ll be “scoped” as classics in the field of psychology by future generations. You can read excerpts at www.realpeoplepress.com/booklist/new.html

There’s more, but that’ll hold you for now.

The above books are all available from the king of bookstores: www.amazon.com

I better get back to my packing and preparing.

Gee, which book should I take on the plane?

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS – When you come across a book that blows your hair sideways, be sure to tell me. Just post a comment here. Thank you.