Seth Godin www.sethgodin.com just turned me on to a cool service:
It’s an online way to send text message reminders to your cell phone.
I just tried it and it works beautifully (but only in the USA and some parts of Canada, for now).
What you do is go to www.ohdontforget.com/ and enter your mobile phone number, the day and time you want your reminder, and the text message you want sent.
For example, I’m going to be on Wendi Friesen’s www.wendi.com radio show later today. While I doubt I’ll ever forget something as important as hanging out with the beautiful hypnotist Wendi, I thought I would test www.ohdontforget.com with a reminder to call in to her show at 6 PM Central.
The tool is a breeze to use. My only question is, what time zone does it operate in? It appears to adapt the time zone by checking the area code you enter, but I could be wrong. If you enter a a request for a call from a Pacific time zone, and it uses a Central time zone, you’ll miss your appointment. Other than that, the service is cool. And free.
Note: I just wrote my time-zone question to the programmer, Jason Stirman, and he instantly replied, saying, “Ohdontforget.com automatically knows your time zone and schedules reminders accordingly.”
WAY cool.
Ao Akua,
Joe
www.mrfire.com
PS – The “I love you” audio by Pat O’Bryan and myself has become a runaway bestseller. If you haven’t looked into it, why not right now? See www.milagroresearchinstitute.com/iloveyou.htm Or send yourself a reminder to look at it later.
Here’s a question I get asked a lot:
“Does anyone ever buy you an Amazon gift certificate?”
The question refers to the note above and below every entry here on my blog. Take a look above (or below) and you’ll see this statement:
So, does anyone ever buy me an Amazon gift certificate?
I got the idea to add that line after hearing about people adding similar lines, usually saying something like, “If you like this website, buy me a beer.”
You’d then see a link where you could Paypal the person a few dollars. I used to wonder if the idea actually worked, until I heard about people receiving hundreds of dollars a month this way.
I still didn’t think it would work for me or anyone else, though, until I went to one of my favorite sites at www.askdavetaylor.com/ I saw Dave has a button where you could buy him a chai if you liked his blog. Well, I love Dave Taylor’s blog. The guy amazes me with what he knows or can find out. One day, after reading his blog and feeling impressed, I sent him some money as a gift.
And that’s when it dawned on me: maybe this “buy me something if you like my site” idea would work for me, too.
I don’t drink beer, rarely drink chai, and I have plenty of coffee in the morning, so I didn’t want any of those.
But I do spend a great deal of money at Amazon. I shop at Amazon every day and buy something almost every other day. An Amazon gift certificate would be appropriate for me. In fact, it’s my favorite kind of gift in the entire world. (Unless someone wants to buy me a 2007 BMW Z4 M, of course. If you do, I prefer the color Interlagos Blue Metallic.)
So I added the “buy me” line to my blog. I figured it wouldn’t hurt and maybe somebody would actually click on it and do it.
To my amazement, the very next day after adding the line, someone sent me an Amazon gift certificate for $100.
I loved it.
Two days later someone sent me a gift of $20.
I loved that, too.
Things were quiet for a month or more until yesterday, when someone else sent me $100.
Yes, I loved it, as well.
I had a great time shopping at Amazon yesterday, feeling like a kid at Christmas, with a hundred dollars burning a hole in my cyber-pocket.
All of these gifts were joyously received. And from what I can tell, they were joyously sent.
People were glad to do it. It made them feel good. And as I explain in my book, The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History, this giving will lead to them receiving. It’s just the way the universe works.
So – Does adding a leading statement like “If you like the free articles on this blog, let Joe know by buying him his all-time favorite gift – an Amazon gift certificate. Click Here! “ work?
You bet it does.
If you’re truly inspiring or informing, entertaining or educating, people may want to thank you. A “buy me something cool” link gives them a fast and easy way to do just that, at the very moment they are feeling the most grateful for you and your writing.
I suggest you add one to your site today.
Ao Akua,
Joe
www.mrfire.com
PS — I know, I know. All of my “hypnotic marketing” products — all the e-books and audios and courses — have been taken off the market. People keep calling my office and saying the links aren’t working on www.mrfire.com That’s because all of my products sold through Nitro Marketing, Inc. are off the market. But, as a consolation, you can access some really good training I’ve done on hypnotic marketing (all yours free) here: www.hypnoticmarketing.com/goodstuff.o/10386 You’ll find some audios and more, including my “3 Minute Money Magnet” program. I had forgotten about it. I tried it and still love it. Go check it out. If you like it, buy me an Amazon gift certificate.
I just received a check in the mail for $125,689.58.
I didn’t know what it was for.
It looked real.
I wanted it to be real.
But was it?
A letter with the check began, “The enclosed check is a real check. But you can’t cash it or deposit it. It’s non-negotiable.”
Huh?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was instantly aggravated.
Why send me a check I can’t use?
Why make it look real?
Why get me excited and then dash my hopes against the rocks?
I was all set to go buy my BMW Z4 M when I realized this check, which I thought was unexpected income, was a lie.
What a dirty trick.
I went back to the letter that came with the check. I read it. Turns out the woman who sent it created a service to do what she did to me: send real-looking fake checks to people, made out for colossal amounts.
Now why would anyone want to do that?
I looked at her site and figured it out.
You send yourself an authentic looking check, made out for a huge amount, to get yourself imagining what it would feel like to actually have a real one for that amount.
It’s a new way to program your mind to attract money.
I started to get it.
This is a cool way to bring to life the fourth step in my book,The Attractor Factor.
And I liked the idea so much I went to the site www.getbigcheck.com/joevitale.html and ordered a tycoon sized check for myself and a surprise big check for Nerissa.
I’m going to put mine on the wall and look at it every day.
And one day soon, I’ll receive a real, cashable version of the check.
After all, it all begins in your mind.
This is a way to embed your desire in your brain’s control center.
Obviously, this service could be a terrific direct mail attention-getter, as well.
Imagine sending a prospect a large, real looking check, with their name on it, and then beginning your letter to them with something like, “Note the million dollar check attached to this letter. I’m writing with a million dollar idea for you…”
Get yourself a check.
Expect wealth.
Ao Akua,
Joe
www.mrfire.com
PS — I still wonder if people who receive these checks unexpectedly will be excited or miffed. It’s a little like telling them they won the lotto and then saying, “Ha! Got YOU!” I’ll be curious to see how well received the checks are. But from a mental programming standpoint, I think getting a check for yourself and people you care about is a wise idea. Do it.
I get questions.
Here’s a recent one:
I started in insurance three months ago. I was given the ‘old school’ speech about cold calling: being told that I would probably have to make around 600 cold calls per week; if it’s not working, ‘just increase your number of calls”; go out and hand out business cards by the hundreds; etc. I’m still getting nowhere. Everytime I bring it up, I’m told that it’s all a ‘numbers game’. Then I’m reminded that ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome! Cold calling six, 600, or 6000 times without a result is not a numbers game, it’s insanity.
How do I get out of the ‘cold calling’ rut? I’m not making enough money yet to pay for a full-out advertising campaign structured by a professional, so what do I do? How do I stop struggling and going deeper into the ‘quicksand’ and start selling? What is the key? How do you make the transition?
There are so many things to comment on. Here are a few:
If you are handing out hundreds of business cards and getting no where, I can’t help but wonder what is on those cards, what are you saying right before or as you hand them out, and who are you handing them to?
If you hand your business card to people without them wanting it, you’re moving too soon.
If you are handing your business cards to the wrong audience, you’ll never get a response.
This is a little like going to a cafe and suddenly seeing some customer there run around the room, shaking hands and handing out business cards. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll care, or keep his or her card, or call him or her later. The whole scenario is un-natural.
Personally, I hate cold calling.
That’s why I don’t do it.
Instead, I use the principles in my book,There’s a Customer Born Every Minute, and in my Nightingale-Conant program, The Power of Outrageous Marketing, to get people to call me.
Here’s a sample of what I mean:
Most people go to business events and paper the room with their business cards.
Then they wonder why no one calls them back.
What I do instead is arrange to be a speaker in front of the room. After people hear me, they all want my business card. They ask for it. And when they ask for it, they almost always call me later. I don’t have to sell them. I don’t have to “cold call.” All I have to do is answer the phone.
You can do this, too.
I can’t explain it all in this blog entry, but you get the idea.
Make the fish come to you.
Ao Akua,
Joe
www.mrfire.com
PS – Frank Rumbauskas has a new book on this very subject that you might want to get: Never Cold Call Again: Achieve Sales Greatness Without Cold Calling. I think his offer is still going on over at http://www.franksonetimeoffer.com/
Last night I held a “secret” showing of the movie The Secret.
The movie isn’t really a secret, of course, as by now most of the online planet has heard the buzz about this amazing film.
And last night’s showing wasn’t really a secret, either, as the local city was papered with flyers about the “secret” showing of The Secret movie.
I’m in the movie, along with a long list of great teachers and friends, from Esther Hicks to Mike Dooley to Bob Proctor to Jack Canfield to John Assaraf to Bill Harris to — well, you get the idea.
I held a Q&A after last night’s showing. Because I wanted to give my private audience a little behind-the-scenes inside information, I contacted the woman who created The Secret and learned the following news:
Stats approx……..in 10 weeks ………tens of thousands of DVDs sold to over 50 countries, and about the same in Online viewings at www.whatisthesecret.tv
300 to 400 people a day are subscribing to The Secret Scrolls and growing
A giant publisher has contacted us and want to publish The Secret book to be on the shelves in November.
Spiritual Cinema Circle wants to include The Secret to send out to their members.
Discussions are taking place with several satellite television services for The Secret to be included in their group.
We are now being contacted by various networks around the world re broadcast.
In Europe we have been approached by one of the biggest film distributors who distributed What The Bleep. What they thought would be a 4 week run in theatres, has now turned into 26 weeks and it is still going. These distributors see The Secret as being even more successful, and so we are currently doing a deal with them to send The Secret through cinemas throughout Europe – translated into German and other languages.
Our team is currently working on translation versions – about 7 to 9 to begin with.
We have been asked via a contact of Rev Michael Beckwith’s, if The Secret can be broadcast nationwide in a third world country. It will be broadcast four times to 9 million poverty stricken people there.
We are being approached by various networks around the world, and are following through on each one of them.
There are big discussions with contacts that have come to us, for Japan, China, Malaysia …… and so the doors are opening to these countries in a big way.
We are drawing very big contacts in Hollywood………
My team will be moving forward on the sequels in August/September……of which we have so much footage already filmed.
We are being approached by universities, schools, hospitals, health clubs, doctors, churches, sports clubs, large companies and organizations across the United States and the world, requesting publicly screening The Secret.
Secret parties are happening everywhere………..people who receive the DVD are so inspired that they are gathering friends and family and screening within their homes to large groups. We get emails from people saying they have shared The Secret in their home with over 100 people.
The stories of “miracles” happening in people’s lives are beyond anything I can describe. You name it, the miracle has happened!
As you can see, the movie is making history.
And with sequels being planned, the momentum is not going to stop any time soon.
My own feeling is that this one single film can awaken humanity in a way not done before in thousands of years.
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you can watch it online or you can buy the DVD. Everything is explained at www.whatisthesecret.tv
I buy multiple copies of the DVD and give them to family, friends, libraries, shelters, and more.
If nothing else, at least go watch the hypnotic teaser on the site.
Tell the world.
Expect miracles.
Ao Akua,
PS – Last night after the movie, during the Q&A session, some excited, well-meaning soul stood up and urged me to run for political office. He tried to get the crowd to rise up and join him. I didn’t give him a chance. When it comes to politics, I’m a Transcendentalist. While politics and politicians can make a difference, I don’t see it as my role or calling, at least not at this time. If you’re interested in politics, I strongly suggest you find a copy of the book Spiritual Politics by Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson. It reveals the hidden causes for world events. You can get details at http://www.visionarylead.org/spirit2.htm