Thank Goodness It's Monday #362

UNLEASH THE POWER OF ENTHUSIASM

AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE 

Norman Vincent Peale -- is there a student of self improvement who doesn’t know that name?  (If you don’t know him, you better find out.)

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
(1898 - 1993)

His contributions to the canon are rooted in the idea of “Positive Thinking” – a concept and practice he developed, championed and seriously popularized in the post World War II era of the early 1950s. 

And today? He’s still relevant. Although his vocabulary and examples may sound a bit pre-Mad-Men dated, his ideas still work like gangbusters in the 21^st Century. 

Just one example: There’s widespread acknowledgement that the currently popular book and DVD The Secret is grounded in principles Peale espoused. 

Peale’s “job” for 50+ years was pastor of Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan. 

And more. Much more. As a prolific writer and savvy business man he, with his wife Ruth Stafford Peale, extended his influence in many directions and nurtured friendships with such prominent business giants of his day as James Cash Penney, founder of J.C. Penney & Co., Thomas J. Watson, founder of IBM, Frank Gannett, founder of the newspaper chain, Branch Rickey, General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Richard Prentice-Ettinger, co-founder of the publishing giant Prentice-Hall, Inc.

And me. Sort of. 

My first “real job” in publishing was at P-H, the publisher of Peale’s books in their heyday. And one of my first non-trainee assignments centered on the creation and promotion of a high-dollar-value “Executive” edition of one of the seminal Peale works, Enthusiasm Makes The Difference. 

I unearthed my copyright 1968 Executive Edition ($25 plus postage and handling; not a small price back in the day) recently and am inspired enough by its reappearance in my life to share with you some penciled-on-yellow-legal-pad notes I had squirreled away there many decades ago. 

TGIM TAKEAWAY: These are my notes and thoughts, not necessarily NVP’s. They are a bit rough because they are simply notes. I’ll edit them a little for clarity and to align with TGIM style, but not too much. I hope you find them worth reviewing. 

Enthusiasm has many faces. 

Your degree of enthusiasm indicates your degree of liking for people, as well as the degree of liking of people for you.

Enthusiasm is deliberately manufactured until the time it becomes an integral part of your personality. It’s a stepped-up performance, designed not only to give you a lift but to compellingly and exhilaratingly step up the enthusiasm of everyone else.

So think Enthusiasm!  It shows! 

Use the following steps to generate enthusiasm:

·         Have a desire to do things. The world is filled with wonderful things and wonderful people. They are as bright or as cheery as you see them. Find a happy side to every event. See the bright and cheerful. Leave no room in your life for the dull and the gray.

·         Turn enthusiasm on even when you don’t feel like it. One of the amazing factors about enthusiasm is that, once you turn it on, it grows.  

·         Try “pretending” if you doubt. Pretend you’re happy about some occasion or event. Build it up. Show interest. Get going; quit stalling. Play it up to see how effective it is.

·         Have many interests. See the bright side of each. Get new interests. Make each new thing you do a challenge. Let the challenge be a catalyst that fires up your desire to achieve.  Feed this challenge with interest and watch enthusiasm take you to the bubbling point.

·         Widen your horizons. “New” is good for you. Find new studies, new travel, new faces and new friends to spread the extent of your personal verve. Return to your work inspired.

·         Do what you enjoy doing. Enthusiasm is blunted by dull associates and dull occupations if you see them as such. Enthusiasm is stepped up, however, when you have a change of pace. Renew the batteries of the charm by disassociating yourself with the routine and the dull.

·         Color everything you do or say. Consciously ignite your smile, your hello, your eyes, and invest your words with the drama of the technicolor approach. Create colorful descriptive imagery. Choose your words. To all words, add actions. Accompany a warm smile with an even warmer hand clasp. Make conversations sparkle, even when you are not feeling at your best. 

·         Know what you are and saying or doing. Be sure to have all the facts before you comment. Research the things that are important to you. The more you know about any particular subject – the more you are informed -- the more informative you can be. The more you can support your ideas, the more fascinating your opinion becomes. To develop the depth of your enthusiasm, know what you’re saying and doing at all times.

·         Spread praise lavishly.  People hunger for praise, so give it freely. Remember that praise is power and empowering. Indicate your appreciation. Be warm. Be kind. Be sincere. Spread compliments in all directions. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, make someone feel your enthusiasm through praise.

·         Look for good things in and about people.  Don’t stop at simply forming first impressions. These are often inadequate and – with justification – drain enthusiasm. Walk away from idle gossip.  Refuse to listen to negative talk about people with whom you have contact. Instead, deliberately turn the conversation to the person’s good points or to another subject altogether.

·         Find interests in common with others. Deftly and delicately probe those around you to determine the area of their interests. For another person to find something in common with you is for them to find you an interesting person. Between you is rapport in a common bond called enthusiasm.

·         Offer encouragement. Nothing makes others see you as an enthusiastic person better than your ability to encourage them. Listen to people. Aid them in their problems. Make them feel better because of your presence, your interest, and your encouragement.

·         Render personalized attention. In the enthusiastic approach there is nothing better than personalized attention. This attention must be defined. It must be a planned program of action. Talk and do in terms the other person understands. Give pleasure.  Organize your attention to please a client, a spouse, a patient, or an army. Do what you would do specifically for them.  Make them feel pleasure.  Make them know you care.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Enthusiasm Makes The Difference.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Sharing is caring. I hope I’ve done that enthusiastically. Now you go make a difference and do the same.

Geoff Steck   
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

Thank Goodness It's Monday #361

UNPACK YOUR PORTMANTEAU

(CHECK WIKIPEDIA) 
AND CELEBRATE JUNETEENTH 

Any Alice In Wonderland fans out there in TGIM Land?

If so, you may know that, via Humpty Dumpty, Lewis Carroll claimed naming rights to the description of "a word formed by blending sounds from two or more distinct words and combining their meanings."

He called this linguistic blend a –

Portmanteau word. (For all you stuffers of wheeled carry-ons into overhead compartments, in then-contemporary English, a portmanteau was a suitcase. The roots of the word are French but, in this usage, it’s an English word and so isn’t italicized.)

In Through the Looking-Glass Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the unusual words in Jabberwocky, the nonsense poem within the story.

You know it. It begins – 

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

 Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

 All mimsy were the borogoves,

 And the mome raths outgrabe.

There "slithy" means "lithe and slimy" and "mimsy" is "flimsy and miserable." Humpty Dumpty clarifies the practice of combining words in such ways by telling Alice:

“You see it's like a portmanteau

—there are two meanings packed up into one word.”

Now that you’ve been alerted to it, you’ll realize we use less whimsical portmanteau words all the time: Just the other day at brunch on our Amtrak journey we were discussing the politics of stagflation and fired up our Verizon connection to check Wikipedia to see if it could refudiate the origins of gerrymander.

Got it? Good. Now here’s another portmanteau word you need to know:

Juneteenth

American Flags of Freedom
U.S. & National Juneteenth Flag

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States and has been an African American tradition since the late 19th century.

But, although it’s recognized as a holiday or holiday observance in 41 states of the USA, an amazing (to me) number of people are unaware of it. (I even had to add it to my computer’s dictionary to keep it from tagging it as a misspelling.) 

Juneteenth -- aka Freedom Day or Emancipation Day -- honors African American heritage by commemorating the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas in 1865. Celebrated on June 19, the term is a portmanteau of June and eighteenth and nineteenth.

Historical context: Although Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863, it had minimal immediate effect on most slaves’ day-to-day lives, particularly in the Confederate States of America and especially as deeply south and as far west as Texas.

Juneteenth commemorates June 18 and 19, 1865

·         June 18 is the day Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its quarter million slaves.

·         On June 19, tradition has it, while standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa, Granger read the contents of General Order No. 3: 

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor…”

Here’s one more very important point:

Note the date. This announcement came nearly two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been made official, and more than two months after General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate Army had surrendered.
 

You can read more on the decline and subsequent resurgence of Juneteenth celebrations in many places such as Wikipedia (a 21^st Century portmanteau word; wiki from WikiWikiWeb, the first collaborative website software + pedia from encyclopedia).

But just imagine: Upon receiving the shocking news of their freedom, former slaves had to grapple with the realities of their new status -- what it meant to be an "employee"  … to have the option of migrating to search out and/or reunite with long lost family members … to suddenly need to carve out a new place for themselves within society at large … and more.

Juneteenth Celebration
Austin, Texas
June 19, 1900

TGIM Takeaway: Slavery conjures up negative images and emotions for most of us. It's hardly a concept that gets people in the mood to party. However, when we can view an occasion such as Juneteenth as a Celebration of Freedom, attitudes change.

 

Welcome to the 21^st Century: The abolition of slavery marked one of the greatest moral victories in our nation's history. Not only did it begin to restore basic human rights to all our forebears, but it was a giant step in securing for all the constitutional liberties we enjoy these days.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Juneteenth is a time for reflection. It's a time for appreciating the great struggles of our ancestors to achieve freedom, no matter their ethnicity.

·         If we don’t yet live in what’s been characterized as a “post-racial” society, then it behooves us to sort through why, and quickly move closer to that resolution.

·         If we do live in that post-racial world, then it’s a great time to celebrate with friends of every color, creed and persuasion.

 

Spread the word and share the experience. Imagine if the modern day equivalent of General Granger arrived in your town this Juneteenth with such dramatic news that affected you personally. It’s easy to take freedom and liberty for granted. We can all use a reminder from time to time.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Commemorating Juneteenth with the joy and appreciation it deserves is the best way to ensure those freedoms are forever shared. Learn more about Juneteenth. Celebrate tradition. Juneteenth signifies a time when African-American families were able to be reunited. Celebrate family.

 

In addition: Any occasion that features culturally significant traditional foods, red velvet cake, strawberry soda and barbecue seems like a good idea to me.

 

Geoff Steck   
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

 

P.S. “The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation …  In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.” Abraham Lincoln declared that, December 1, 1862, in his Message to Congress on the State of the Union.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #360

NO SMALL POTATOES!

USE “SCARCITY THINKING”

TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

“You want fries with that?” These days you may hesitate to say “Yes” to French fries for any of a number of right-minded reasons, but --

Strange but true: There was a time in history when, for many in the world, potatoes were not a popular food. As not-so-long-ago as the late 1700s --

·         The French thought potatoes, fried “pommes frites” or otherwise, were connected with leprosy.

·         In meat-loving England, farmers and urban workers regarded potatoes with extreme distaste.

·         Throughout Europe, potatoes were regarded with suspicion, distaste, and fear. Generally considered unfit for human consumption, potatoes were used largely as animal fodder.

·         In the Russian Empire, Catherine the Great ordered her subjects to begin cultivating the tuber, but many ignored this order. They were supported in this dissension by the Orthodox Church, which argued that potatoes were suspect because they were not mentioned in the Bible.

In Prussia, however:

Frederick the Great
(Friedrich der Große)
aka "Old Fritz"
painted several years after
he planted his potatoes

Frederick the Great (1712 – 1786) saw the potato's potential to help feed his nation and lower the price of bread. But he too faced the challenge of overcoming his subjects’ prejudice against the plant. When he issued a 1774 order for them to grow potatoes as protection against famine, the town of Kolberg replied: "The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what use are they to us?"

Trying a less direct approach to encourage his subjects to begin planting potatoes, Frederick used a bit of –

Reverse Psychology: He planted a royal field of potato plants and stationed a heavy guard to protect this field from thieves. Nearby peasants naturally assumed that anything worth guarding was worth stealing, and so snuck into the field and snatched the plants for their home gardens.

 This, of course, was entirely in line with Frederick's wishes.

TGIM Takeaway: The human need to get in on the action and get a share of the “scarce” commodity makes us crave it even more-- especially when choice is limited or threatened.

The idea’s not “small potatoes.” Scarcity thinking can increase the value of any product or service. Scarcity thinking drives people to action.

This “Law of Scarcity” not only pertains to physical products, but also to time, information, price and knowledge.

A 21st Century case in point: Even if your head, heart and pocketbook told you otherwise, didn’t you want to participate in the Facebook IPO for fear of missing out?

It’s human nature: We don’t want to miss out on anything we might have had. We get uptight. We get all noble about “having our freedom.” We dislike having restrictions placed on us and will even act in uncharacteristic ways to not miss out.

Instead of thinking, “OK, I can do without that,” we take the opposite approach and the restricted item becomes even more important to us. Researchers call this tendency –

Reactance. Because we hate feeling restricted, we are highly motivated to resolve anything that creates that feeling. It’s like that version of the so-called Serenity Prayer that goes, “Lord, give me patience …”

“… And I want it NOW!” The Law of Scarcity works in part because it makes people feel as if they will lose all opportunity to act if they do not do so immediately.

Fear-of-Loss Thinking. The mental trigger of missing out causes such great anxiety in people that they act to prevent loss even though they may not be particularly interested in the object itself. When you feel the availability, timing or price may change against you without notice, you are driven to acquire.

It’s classic. Study after study confirms it as a consistent and constant phenomenon, even when we’re aware of it.

So, now that you’ve been alerted, what should you do with this Law of Scarcity awareness?

Use this insight wisely, grasshopper. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, no matter which side of the transaction you’re on.

►Are you acquiring? For many issues of varying importance, most of us hesitate – often out of some scarcely acknowledged fear – in making the commitment. We naturally want to put it off. We convince ourselves we need more time to think about it.

So sometimes a “scarcity” argument is necessary to help move us to a decision.

►Are you selling? As a consultative seller or people persuader, be aware that the longer prospects put off the decision, the less likely they are to make the decision for you. Yours may be the perfect solution for them, something they really can use right now, but if you let them drift, everyone loses.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Creating scarcity helps them make their decision. And faster action also eliminates the long-term drain on your time and resources.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: It doesn’t take some high-pressure, sleazy-seller, morally-questionable “moves” to create legitimate scarcity with your product or service. To create scarcity, just be sure you have some or all of four elements in place:

#1: Deadlines. We all operate on deadlines in our personal lives and in our businesses. They’re accepted and expected. No deadline means no action. So give prospects clear decision points, cut-offs, point-of-no-return deadlines.

#2: Limits. Folks are more motivated to take action when they feel they are competing for a resource limited in some manner such as quantity or accessibility.

#3: Potential loss. It’s not unfairly manipulative to state your case in a way that is more powerful for you. So create a state of emotion in which the prospect can clearly see the potential for loss.

Easy-to-grasp example: “Imagine how much money you’ll save if you make that considerable outlay for home insulation or replacement windows.” No, wait: “Do you realize how much money you’re losing by not improving your property?” Ask any home improvement seller which approach creates more urgency and closes more deals.

#4: Restrict freedom. It’s what Frederick the Great used. (Hardcore salesmanship calls this the “Take Away” close.) If you take away the opportunity for the prospect to get involved with your product or service, they reactantly want it more. If they perk up and find they’re truly interested, that’s great. If not, they will walk. Either way, everyone’s saved time and energy.

So about that burger order … You bet you’ll have the fries. Because the limited-edition, movie-tie-in toy that your small person wants is available until Friday only with the Junior Achiever Happy Meal.

No small potatoes: Now, want to Super-Size that for only a dollar more?

Geoff Steck   
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S. “No complaint ... is more common than that of a scarcity of money.” The Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith (1723 – 1790) shared that thought.

P.P.S.  How many Law-of-Scarcity reasons can you find in the pitch below? And what are you going to do about it?

Speak Like A Pro II –

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

At Park 33 in Freehold, NJ

is over 75% full

There is no additional room to expand, so –

RESERVE YOUR SEAT(S) NOW!

(It’s likely there will be NO at-the-door tickets available)

Click through HERE

for details and to secure your place

and your Early-Bird Saving

I look forward to seeing you in there.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #359

MASLOW’S HEIRARCHY

AND YOUR NEEDS (AND MINE)

The Newark Museum is the largest museum in NJ with over 80 galleries of inspiration and exploration, educational offerings, innovative family experiences, special events and musical performances.

I was born in Newark a long, long time ago. I’ve been a museum fan since my childhood and remain an enthusiastic supporter, both in the real world and via social media. And a recent Facebook post by the museum brought back old-school Marketing 101 lessons and made me consider anew some TGIM-worthy ideas I want to share. 



Abraham Maslow
(1908 - 1970)
Professor of Psychology

Here’s what the museum posted:

“A musician must make music,

an artist must paint,

a poet must write,

if he is to be at peace with himself.

What a man can be, he must be.”

~ Abraham Maslow

First, some perspective: A just-launched summer-of-2012 exhibition features the work of Romare Bearden (1911-1988) whose close connection to the musical influences of his era crossfoot nicely with the free Jazz in the Garden events the museum hosts each summer. So much so, in fact, that a Jazz Tribute to Romare Bearden with pianist and composer Geri Allen will kick things off this Thursday evening. (Details here.)

Then, early this fall, the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival will take place across the city.  

So Maslow’s “musician… artist … poet” observation has great context. 

Now, to the TGIM point: You don’t have to have the slightest interest in music, visual art or poetry to relate with Abraham Maslow’s observation. Start by considering --

Why you know the name. Maslow's “Hierarchy of Needs.”  It’s a psychological theory he proposed in a 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation." Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity. His theories parallel many other theories of human developmental psychology, all of which focus on describing the stages of growth in humans. 

Maslow used the terms— 

Physiological needs

Safety needs

Belongingness & Love Needs

Esteem Needs

Need to Know & Understand

Aesthetic Needs

and finally

Self-Actualization

Transcendence

-- to describe the pattern that he felt human motivations generally move through.

Maslow's “Hierarchy of Needs” is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the largest and most fundamental levels of needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization at the top, although Maslow himself didn’t lay them out that way.

Marketing 101 refresher: Courses in marketing teach Maslow's hierarchy as one of the first theories providing a basis for understanding consumers' motives for action. 

It works like this: 

Find a need and fill it. Marketers have historically looked toward consumers' needs to define their actions in the market. If producers design products meeting consumer needs, consumers will more often choose those products over those of competitors. Whichever product better fills the void created by the need will be chosen more frequently, thus increasing sales.

What motivates you? The most fundamental and basic four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called "deficiency needs." Maslow's theory suggests that these most basic needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the higher level self-actualization needs.

“What a man can be, he must be.” 

TGIM Takeaway: Self-actualization pertains to what a person's full potential is and realizing that potential. Maslow describes this as the desire to become more and more what one is; to become everything that one is capable of becoming.                                                            

It’s NOT “For Artists Only.” (Or “For men only” – hey, Maslow was writing nearly 70 years ago.) When applied to individuals the need is specific. For example one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent. In another person it may be expressed athletically. Maybe it’s success in business or as a teacher. And, of course, in others it may be expressed creatively in words, pictures, or inventions.

Here’s the catch: To reach a clear understanding of the Self Actualization and Transcendence level, we must first not only achieve the previous levels but –

Master them. Easier said than done? 

You bet. But there are fortunate developments that work to our advantage.

If you’re reading this, you’re well on your way. We live in a time and place and society where, despite evolving economic conditions we may view as challenging, our “Deficiency Needs” are not overwhelming. If you’ve got a roof over your head, food in your refrigerator, and a place to sleep, you are, by some estimates, “richer” than 75 percent of the world. Got money in the bank, your wallet and some spare change in your pocket? You’re among the top 8 percent of the world’s wealthy.

So we’ve got a good jump on having the Maslow fundamentals covered and can concentrate on the top tiers. 

Here’s one proven-in-action way:

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Surround yourself with success.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Maslow studied what he called “exemplary people” such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass. We can do the same. 

And with all our 21^st Century advantages and connected-ness, we can do it far more easily than any group before us.

So what are you waiting for? I hope this TGIM gives us a good start at becoming more and more of both what we are and what we are capable of becoming.

It may not be poetry, but I know I’m feeling more at peace with myself. 

Geoff Steck   
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S. It’s interesting to think of how a museum – especially one in a time and place as my Newark Museum – plays a vital role in filling needs deficiencies and stimulating the desire to move on and achieve more. That's what a great museum like Newark does. And I bet there’s an equivalent institution near you. My TGIM vote: Check it out, visit, “Friend” it up, and support it.