Michel Fortin | Local Business Marketing Consultant

Get in Touch With The Future

An interesting thing is happening lately, and it’s giving me a lot of fodder. I wanted to share a few opinions with you.

First off, as you know I love predictions and making some of my own. For example, I wrote a controversial white paper several years ago, called “The Death of The Salesletter.”

In it, I predicted that more and more salesletters will become shorter, more dynamic, more targeted, and more engaging. The explosion in video salesletters being one of them.

And that was over three years ago!

Recently, I wrote about another big upcoming trend, and that’s the explosion in cloud computing and how it will change the future of online business. I even blogged about it here in a post entitled “The Future of The Internet is Cloudy.”

For example, I downloaded Xmarks, a nifty online-based bookmark synchronizer that also synchronizes my native bookmarks on IE, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari using the cloud. It even synchronizes passwords and form fills, although I use LastPass for that.

But recently, a new product hit the market that reminded me of something…

We’re seeing a huge change in the way we work with computers. In my white paper, I talked about “multisensorial salesletters” where salesletters will increasingly engage all three modalities of communication (i.e., visual, auditory, and kinesthetic).

For instance, print media is a tactile medium. It’s mostly kinesthetic. The radio is auditory, while the TV, which may be both auditory and visual, is predominantly visual.

The computer, on the other hand, with the help of your keyboard and mouse, are all three. They help engage more senses. They’re visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense that sales messages online should be multisensorial. Significant statistics prove that, the more senses you engage, the more sales you will make. Which is why I predicted that video salesletters would explode — as it has.

But one thing struck me.

While we use a mouse and a keyboard, the kinesthetic component is somewhat indirect. These tools enable some tactile interaction, but they are more or less guides. (The Wii video console is a better example of having a bit more direct tactile engagement.)

Now, enter the new iPad.

iPhone and iPad are definitely more direct forms of kinesthetic communication. Sure, touchscreens have been around for years. But Apple helped touchscreens to penetrate the mass-market by making them easy, practical, and of course cool.

When I first heard of the iPad, I thought to myself, “This is the future!” I thought that more and more computers will become like that — direct contact with the message.

(Marshall McLuhan was dead-on, if not pretty darn close.)

iPad is not just a larger iPhone. It’s much, much more than that. Better said, its introduction means a lot more than what most people care to give it credit for. Some people don’t like it. A lot of people say it’s just a bunch of hype. But I say it’s the future.

And now, I see this article in Mashable, which underlines exactly what I thought — in that research shows that all computers will be eventually touchscreen-based.

By the way, as I’m sure you have guessed, I love visionaries, futurists, and predictions. John Naisbitt’s “Megatrends” is one of my favorite books. I often mention “high-tech, high-touch” in my work. Faith Popcorn is another visionary I admire a lot.

Speaking of Marshall McLuhan, other than his most famous quote (i.e., “The medium is the message”) he is mostly known for, here are a few more of his fascinating quotes. Read them, and you’ll see how ahead of his time this guy was.

Anyway, ’tis all food for thought.

The important thing in all of this, is this: how do we mold our businesses, products, and services to fit these upcoming trends? More important, how can we monetize them?

Bottom line, keep your eyes peeled. Just sayin’.

How to Become a Recognized Authority

by Michel Fortin Leave a Comment

Next month (in mid-April), I’ll be speaking at Armand Morin’s Authority Event in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is part of the Brave The Wave series of specialized events.

(And yes, that website was designed and the copy written by yours truly. And yes, those are my affiliate links.)

Of course, Armand will be speaking mostly, covering topics like branding, positioning, public speaking, and a lot more. Watch this video to see what he’ll be revealing at the event.

I’m accompanying three other guest speakers, including Brendon Burchard who will speak on how to become a highly paid expert, Jim Howard on how to become a successful author, and Rick Frishman on how to attract massive publicity.

So what will my topic be?

Not copywriting. Not web design. And not positioning. In fact, this will be the first time I will be speaking on this topic. I’ll share things I’ve never revealed before. And that’s…

… Blogging and social media.

Now, hold your horses. Before you go off telling the world I’m claiming to be a social media expert, I’m doing no such thing. I’m far from being a social media expert.

(So many claim to be “experts” when they know less than my teenager daughter!)

However, having a blog with close to 80,000 subscribers without any paid advertising, and social media sites with maxed out friend limits without any kind of autofollowing or friend-scraping software, I guess you can say that I know a thing or two.

I don’t know what the other speakers have planned (although I have a pretty good idea), but here’s what I’ll be revealing at the event. It’s one of my most requested topics, too.

First, I’ll share how I attract close to 80,000 subscribers to my blog, and how my blog makes a decent four-figure monthly passive income without any heavy lifting, and without regular, frequent, or (what most would consider) “pro” blogging.

In fact, I’ll dive deeper into my content repurposing process that drives close to 70,000 visitors to my blog each month without any external marketing. Plus, I’ll be going through my plugins and personal, hand-coded tweaks I use to accomplish this and more.

In other words, I will be pulling back the curtains and reveal the backend administration on my blog. But more important, I will explain how I use my blog for expanding my reach — such as reprinting and distributing articles, and writing and posting blog posts.

Also, I’ll share my social media strategy on how I interconnect several platforms so they all work seamlessly, in tandem, which only takes me a few minutes a day.

Social media can be a huge distraction. It’s the web’s water cooler, so it’s easy to deviate from doing more productive activities. I’ll share with you how to avoid getting distracted or pulled into the social media madness, and how to use it less but more effectively.

I’ll reveal which platforms have provided the best results, and how I build, connect with, and engage my friends, followers, and fans on these networks.

(It’s more than just sharing affiliate links or tweeting what I had for lunch.)

Now, I’m going to do something a little unorthodox.

I do plan on delivering over an hour of solid content you can walk away with and start using after the seminar. At the end of my talk, I will be inviting you to join one of my programs if you’re interested, which you can purchase at the back of the room.

Regardless if you buy anything I offer or not, I promise to deliver great, usable content.

But here’s what I mean by doing something unconventional. I say “unconventional” because I’ve never done this before, and I haven’t seen other speakers do this. In the interest of being a bit more transparent, let me share with you what I will be offering.

(I may change my mind, although if I do it will be to make this program even better.)

It’s going to be a series of in-depth webinars on blogging and social media. I envision about 4–6 webinars (or as many as it takes to deliver the content I have planned). Each webinar will last a couple of hours, delivered weekly, and will consist of three major parts.

The first part will be training. I will go into greater depth on the topic of blogging and social media, reveal a few tips and tricks, and even dissect some of my other blogs.

The second part is the best. For each and every person who joins my program at the back of the room at the event, I will spend time on the webinar series to critique their blog, blogging strategy, or social media strategy. Whichever they feel is most pressing.

Want me to go over your plugins? Your design? Your list-building process? Your copy? No problem! Everyone who joins my program will get a critique. Plus, this will be done on the webinar so that other students get to watch, learn, and even pick my brains.

Speaking of which, this leads me to the third part…

I will be offering a question-and-answer session during the webinar series. I will answer any questions, or cover anything about blogging or social media you want.

Incidentally, I will be including a few cool bonuses. I don’t want to reveal those here, not because it’s some “secret” but because I’m still figuring out what I will be throwing in.

Finally, a couple of things to keep in mind. I don’t personally offer these critique consultations to the public anymore. I only offer them to established clients. And when I do, I still charge a hefty minimum fee per critique consultation.

I will only offer this program at Brave The Wave: Authority. This is the first time I will be offering this program. Unless I speak at future events, it will likely be the only time, too.

So if you want to learn how to become famous as a recognized authority and do in less time; if you want to learn my blogging and social media strategies; and if you’re at all interested in the program I am offering at the event; then I invite you to come join us.

This seminar is a full, three-day intensive training event unlike anything Armand Morin has ever given before. I’m really excited about it, and I hope to see you there.

Admission is only $497, and you can bring a guest (i.e., it comes out to less than $250 per person). This is pretty reasonable when you consider other high-priced seminars.

(To be clear, this does not include my program, which I will offer at the end of my talk. And my presentation is not some disguised, hour-long “pitch,” either. You will walk away with a lot of great, usable information, whether you decide to join my program or not.)

Click here to get more information about the event.

How to Capture and Captivate Attention

by Michel Fortin Leave a Comment

One morning, you go into your mailbox and discover there’s an envelope waiting for you from an unknown source. You bring the package into your living room, tear open the envelope, pull out what’s inside, put on your reading glasses, unfold the letter, and begin to read the contents.

After completing all of these steps, you then quickly glance at the letter to decide if the letter is worth reading.

If not, you throw it in the garbage.

But if the envelope looks like junk mail, there’s copy on the envelope and it screams “hype,” or the printed address label just says “dear occupant” as the addressee, chances are you won’t even think about opening it and you’ll just throw it away.

However, let’s say the envelope works, curiosity takes over, and the letter does get opened at this point. Once unfolded, though, if it looks like some kind of sales pitch at first glance, not even a single word will likely be read. So into the round file it goes!

Your website is the envelope. What does it say about you?

In offline direct mail marketing, the message is not the first element to be read. There are several extra steps one must go through in order to finally reach, react to, and ultimately read the sales message. However, all of these occur in a matter of seconds.

Actually, studies show that it’s less than one.

There are many aspects, beyond copy, that will cause a letter to be opened and read. Does it look “cartoonish,” with garish-looking typestyles and colors? Does it look like a typical salesletter? Does it seem to come from a trustworthy source?

In other words, is there a logo? A real address? Maybe even a picture of the author? Is there any eye gravity, such as attention-capturing photos or graphics? How does it make you feel? Does the letter make you feel good? Or does it make you feel uneasy?

All those things are important in a direct mail salesletter.

But once you’ve passed that hurdle, then in order to capture and keep people’s attention, one of the important elements of direct mail copy is the headline.

Albeit a crucial component of sales copy, the headline is the last in a series of attempts to get the reader’s attention and “pull them in.” Scientific tests have proven that people make a decision (often called the “halo effect”) within a quarter of a second.

It means that, within literally a fraction of a second, people will make a decision whether to open, read, believe, and buy from your sales message. And that’s true, regardless if the letter is targeted, the copy is topnotch, and the offer is fantastic or not.

That’s why the envelope, the label, the picture, the fonts, the quality of the letter, and any “grabbers” (such as any inserts, liftnotes, gifts, etc), even the overall appearance of the package, are all elements that often precede that all-important headline.

Online, those things are still there.

It’s more than just the look of your website. It’s also the “feel” of it. When people say “the look and feel,” people don’t quite appreciate the latter. Looks are important, true. But how does it make people feel the moment they hit your website? You can’t ignore this.

People make an unconscious decision about you, your website, and your products based on many things — from the logo, the photos, the layout, the color scheme, the typography, even the loading time, to the ease of navigation. And everything in between.

I’m not saying copy is not important. Of course, it is. What I am saying is that the headline, which is the first element to be read and the most important element in copy, is really the last in a series of things they see in this brief attention-getting process.

But when people click on a link or visit a website, and after they’ve gone through this extremely rapid appreciation process, then they immediately see the headline. If you’ve managed to keep them there to this point, then and only then is the headline important.

Online, it happens even faster. There are no mailboxes to go through, no envelopes to tear open, and no unfolding to do before reading it. These steps are nonexistent. The sales message and especially the headline are right there, in their faces.

Those same tests I mentioned earlier discovered that the “halo effect” occurs not within 1/4 of a second, as originally thought, but on the Internet it happens within 1/20 of one.

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense.

Look at websites as newspapers instead of unsolicited direct mail pieces. Most often, you actually seek the newspaper out. You see it on the newsstand, glance at the headlines, and make the effort to pick it up. The web is the same to a large extent.

Whether you’re visiting a website by intentionally clicking on a link or entering the address into your browser, you are directly visiting the message with the full anticipation of reading it once you’re there. You’re eager if not at least curious to digest it.

You’re in a different state of mind when reading the newspaper than when reading a direct mail piece. (Even when the piece is solicited, the steps one must go through, from mailbox to sales pitch, is the same. In other words, there are more of them.)

A newspaper, on the other hand, is already open, with the front page, above-the-fold message right in front of you. It’s filled with photos and bold news headlines, ready to grab your attention, build your interest, and persuade you into buying it.

Like the newspaper, if the first-screen, uppermost section of a website’s home page doesn’t pull you into the copy (or cause you to scroll further), you will click away.

And you would do so faster than you would throw a direct mail piece into the garbage!

And like newspapers, you don’t read websites. Instead, you scan. If you’re like most people, you skim through the newspaper to look for stories that interest you. And you do so by quickly checking the headlines, pictures, and any headers the newspaper contains.

Plus, you can manipulate a print publication in order to fit your reading style. You can spread it out on a tabletop, where stories that interest you are easily and quickly accessible. That way, you can scan an entire piece or newspaper at a single glance.

Online, to read further you can only do one thing: scroll. So the desire to skim and scroll a website is greater than a printed piece. Therefore, once you’ve passed that important “envelope” hurdle, the need to capture the reader’s attention is exceedingly faster.

Crafting a great headline that immediately captures the prospect’s attention is critical to your message’s success. It may be the last in a series of attention-grabbing steps, but since there are less of them it is therefore important your headline works harder online.

In other words, online the headline’s role is ostensibly greater.

If the prospect hits your front page and does not immediately “feel” a need to read any further, she’ll leave at the single click of a mouse. No second thoughts. No wasting time. No hesitation. The rest of the AIDA formula goes straight down the tubes.

Writing headlines is the most important — and oftentimes the hardest — part of salescopy to write. There are as many ways to write great headlines as there are salesletters. So for the sake of brevity, let’s stick to the top three most important ones.

They are three sets of human qualities to which you can cater in order to increase the attention factor in your copy. Use them, and your readership will increase. They are…

The Three Greatest Human Goals

Everybody wants more time, money, and energy. From the headline to the opening copy of the letter, one effective way to capture attention is to focus on three core goals almost all humans have, which are to either save or make 1) time, 2) money, or 3) effort.

If your headline instantly communicates something that can help your reader to make money, save time, work less, make things easier, get things done faster, spend less energy, and so on, your chances of having your copy read will be greater.

The Three Greatest Human Desires

This should be the most important one of the three, but it’s second since it may not appeal to everyone. However, this particular set of “three’s” is very potent. And that’s not an understatement at all. Reason is, it appeals to dominant emotions, desires, and fears.

For example, take supermarket magazines. You’ll notice headlines on the cover or front page almost always cater to any of these three. Take a moment to read the cover of Cosmo, Men’s Health, Vanity Fair, National Enquirer, etc to see what I mean.

Headlines and even ads in these types of newspapers, which are often long copy advertorials, more often than not cater to the three human desires. They are 1) greed, 2) lust and 3) comfort. If you incorporate any of the three, you will boost your attention-factor.

Here are some examples:

“How to make $1,678 with my system!“
“How to save thousands usually wasted on utilities.”
“How to melt away those ugly, unwanted pounds fast!”
“How to make him/her fall in love with you all over again!”
“How to build a web business in only 14 days.”
“How to write breathtaking copy in minutes!”

By the way, you may ask, “Mike, isn’t ‘comfort’ similar to ‘less effort’ you mentioned earlier under ‘goals’?” In terms of desires or feelings, look at comfort as the opposite of fear. Avoidance of fear is a powerful desire. Think of it as a need for security and safety.

Your aim is to instill fear in the minds of your readers, or to bring it to the top of their minds, in order to offer them a solution that will comfort them and allay those fears, such as the fear of loss, the fear of death, the fear of failure, and so on.

Granted, there are other core desires. These are simply the top three. Plus, these three may seem somewhat general and categorical, but there are also many variations, too. Don’t limit yourself the direct definition of these three. Think about what they imply.

For example, “greed” may not necessarily involve money. It may include prestige, ownership, pride, options, etc. “Lust” may be to feel good about oneself, such as a lust for life and not just sex — like health, well-being, advancement, sociability, esteem, etc.

Nevertheless, if your headline contains a hint or a slant of any of these three, you’re a step ahead. You can cater to any of these three in a number of different ways. If you want some help, simply think about Maslow pyramid of human motives to get you started.

Finally, the last three are…

The Three Greatest Human Teasers

Of all the attention-capturing devices out there, these three are often the most effective. Why? Because the first three cater to human needs, and the next three to human motives. But these three cater to human nature. Good ol’ human psychology.

I call them the three provokers or arousers, if you will. These three elements stir. They pique, push, and prod. They mesmerize and hypnotize. They fire up hormones and tug heartstrings. Why? Because they cater to three fundamental human characteristics.

They are: 1) curiosity, 2) controversy, and 3) scarcity. Try to add an element of any of these three and you will boost your chances that the reader will be sucked into your copy will increase substantially. Even better, mix them with any of the above six.

In terms of curiosity, don’t mention everything to your readers at the beginning — give them ample information to pique their curiosity but not too much so that it pulls them in. People are intrinsically curious. So use this to your advantage.

Leave some interesting tidbit out or keep them on the edge of their seats, hanging onto every word, eager to read further. Be intriguing, fascinating, puzzling, etc.

For instance, say, “Discover these nine most closely guarded secrets for tripling website sales in less than 26 days!” People will then wonder, “What are these nine secrets? I want to know what they are!” And they’ll read your sales letter, intently, to find them.

Second, controversy is something that works extremely well. If your copy addresses something that stirs people’s emotions or causes certain “lights to go off” in their heads, you can pull them into the copy just as effectively as any of the other elements, above.

Howard Stern, a well-known radio “shock jock,” was one of the first to break many of the rules while on the air. In his semi-autobiography, “Private Parts,” the story goes that people who loved him had a tendency to listen to his show for about an hour.

But people who hated him listened up to two or three hours, or more.

Maybe it’s because they wanted to see what he’ll say next. Maybe it’s because they wanted more ammunition to bring the guy down. But whatever the reason is, Stern’s highly controversial approach undoubtedly made him extraordinarily rich and famous.

While you may want to stay away from the more sensitive topics (politics and religion come to mind), you can use milder forms of controversy — such as piggy-backing on current events, hot issues, popular trends, newsworthy topics, etc.

Using a bit of controversy in your approach will help build your case and create an almost instant desire to read your copy. You can add a shocking news item, make an outrageous claim, offer an unique twist, or make an unbelievable statement.

There are many ways to be controversial without being rude, condescending, or unethical. The key is not to make people hate you or love you, but to get people to read your copy. The body copy is where you can substantiate, explain, clarify, etc.

Often, brilliant copywriters will tie their copy to a recent event or some controversial subject. Sometimes, the angle they choose has nothing to do with the overall topic discussed in the letter. Not directly, anyway. But it’s quite effective to pull them in.

Now, I’m not talking about those infamous ads that start with the headline that says “SEX!” And the first line goes on with, “Now that I have your attention, keep reading…”

No. I’m talking about a headline that’s relevant but not necessarily the focal point.

Not long after 9/11, many ads, commercials, and websites have surfaced that capitalized on that recent, tragic event to sell security equipment, self-defense products, public transportation other than air travel, home alarms, and the like.

Another caveat: I’m not talking about profiting off the misery of others. I’m talking about using copy ethically to take advantage of your market’s current level of awareness about a certain hot topic. As the blacksmith says, you hit the iron while it’s hot.

Controversy can also be something significant or slight, or simply funny or different, such as with the use of a personal story, a unique angle, or an original twist.

Think of the times you’ve seen a story about someone starting an online business. While that may sound a little trivial (and usually, it is), it isn’t if that person suffers from some kind of disability or is raising 10 children at home. The odds seem to be against them.

Years ago, a client of mine, an inventor, was trying to promote a backpack with special straps he created. These straps made carrying backpacks a little more comfortable, distributed the weight more evenly, and were less strenuous on the shoulders and back.

After some research, I realized that his invention was born from a personal need. He was an amputee and lost one leg in a car accident. But he didn’t want that seeming disadvantage to hinder his love of hiking. So he created his special backpack straps.

I told him to use his lack of one leg as being the inspiration behind his creation. So, the copy’s headline opened with: “One-legged man lightens people’s loads!”

Finally, adding an element of scarcity to your copy is to somehow limit the offer by making it time-sensitive, quantity-bound, urgent, or scarce in some way. Naturally, the easiest way to do this is to add a deadline or put a cap on the number of sales.

But don’t just limit yourself to quantities or time. You can even make the offer something that’s secretive, exclusive, unheard of, inherently scarce, or otherwise unavailable to the general public, which can arouse stronger motives in the psyche of your readers.

It’s about adding a realistic sense of urgency, and not making it urgent in itself.

But in order to give your added sense of urgency some credibility and believability, never just leave it as a plain limit. Always back up your deadline, limitation, or scarcity with some kind of logical, commonsensical justification, lest it make your claim suspect.

Ultimately, remember that your headline is the most important element in your copy. Try infusing it with any of the three elements above, and you will improve the attraction factor, instill credibility, and increase your copy’s readership and response.

The Real Problem With The Flaw of Attraction

by Michel Fortin Leave a Comment

Last night while watching TV, my wife and I had an interesting debate on the whole “The Secret” phenomena. And we came to the very same conclusions.

I believe in the law of attraction. I also like the premise behind the book, which is largely influenced by Wally Wattles’ 1910 book, The Science of Getting Rich.

But with all the “new-wage” gurus out there giving it a bad rap, the law of attraction is getting an undeserved reputation. Some people even call it the “flaw of attraction.” However, the real flaw isn’t with the secret in itself, as some suggested.

It’s with how some people have bastardized it for their own selfish greed.

Here’s the problem…

Your chances of getting what you want is higher when you’re focused on it. Absolutely. And it’s not just some metaphysical, woo-woo thing. Quantum physics aside, which is something else I also believe in, let’s take a more practical look at the law.

You become what you think about. It’s true. But the twist is, you already are what you thought about all your life. So how can some book magically switch your state when your mindset is still on that which made you who you are in the first place?

A mindset that took years to acquire?

Simply, if you think you’re a loser, then chances are you’re a loser. If you truly believe you deserve wealth, then you’ll get wealth if you’re not already wealthy. But it isn’t as automatic as so many of the new-wage gurus want you to believe.

And there lies the rub. And it ain’t some genie lamp, either.

When you focus on something hard enough and long enough, you will eventually change your belief system. And once your belief system has changed, then your consciousness will open itself to notice all the possibilities and opportunities related to it.

Doors that previously seemed closed will open for you. Were they really closed before? No. You were simply oblivious to them. Now, they just jump out at you. As if by miracle.

But it’s no miracle.

Has this ever happened to you? You buy a brand-new car, and you think to yourself that not a lot of people have that same car, much less in that same paint color.

So you buy it, and wouldn’t you know it? As you drive it home, you start to notice that exact same car all over the place. Everybody seems to own one, now. In the same color, too! As if it was some conspiracy to follow you around and copy you.

Funny, isn’t?

That’s the real secret behind the law of attraction.

Here’s the problem with the way this law has been abused of late. People who are vulnerable, gullible, and desperate are seeking a magic pill. A quick-fix solution.

So their mindset is now focused on getting help. They are thinking about getting rid of their financial pains. Once they see a course, program, training, or seminar that purports to teach them on how to cure their money ills, they jump on it like bees to honey.

(Or better said, like flies to excrement.)

Greedy new-wage gurus know this all too well. So they package their rehashed, embellished version of the secret, overprice it, and sell it to the unsuspecting masses.

And guess what? Most of the people who will buy it are those very people who don’t need it. These naive hopefuls will spend the remaining cash in their bank accounts just for some magic pill — and the gurus walk away with their money.

Sure, sell a book or course on how to use the secret. It’s your take on the law. Like an opinion piece of commentary. In it, you perhaps even share some of your observations on how well it’s worked in your own life and those of others around you. No problem.

But when people buy it, they are — better said, they should be — buying it for the educational or entertainment value, just like someone’s book of theories on TV’s Lost.

But don’t promise that this book is the panacea they were looking for, especially when they’re in a vulnerable state. That’s misleading, unethical, nonsensical bullshit.

The best line I’ve heard on the secret came from another movie called “What the Bleep?” I liked the movie because it explained the secret in less philosophical but more scientific terms — such as neuroscience, quantum physics, quantum mechanics, etc.

(Although, some of the people on the show were a little too “out there” for my taste.)

The line came from an interview with a University professor, who said that you can’t overcome years upon years of negativity with just a thin veneer of positive thinking shoved on top of it. You still have this huge underbelly of negativity that’s still there.

It’s the same as weight loss. You can’t lose overnight what often took years to gain. In the same way, you can’t change your thinking overnight, because it took years to build and condition, be it through experience, education, expectations, etc. Even genetics.

Focus on the positive, yes. But you must take action. And that’s the point. People expect the secret to be a magic pill. And they take no action believing the secret will magically save them. They look at the law of attraction as a cure rather than as a tool.

Those types of people are scary, if you ask me. Because the moment something good happens to them, which might have happened anyway either by pure happenstance or as the result of their hard work, they will have a tendency to blame it on the secret.

When the secret had nothing to do with it.

There’s nothing much you can do about these folk, unfortunately. But there’s a second, more sinister category of people who are “attracted” to the law of attraction.

To take action, you need to want to do it. You need motivation. Or desperation, in some cases. Sure, the secret can help you find the motivation you need to take action. It can inspire you. But it’s not and should never be a substitute for action.

Motivation can take time, too. Sometimes, years or even decades.

But the problem is that it’s not sold as a motivational tool. It’s sold as a solution.

And the people who sell the secret as such are the worse of the bunch, in my opinion. Those greedy vultures are masters in the art of repackaging material in a way that caters to a specific market in need of the package — and not the thing being packaged.

Why do you think credit repair products, particularly credit repair scams, are so rampant, especially during tough economic times? Because there’s a market for it!

The secret is just the same. The reason so many people are buying it is because there’s a market for what it promises — not for its educational or motivational value.

First, you shouldn’t be in a position where you would need credit repair if you had the right mindset to begin with and took action on it earlier. It’s about planning, taking responsibility, and most of all, taking action. Before it’s too late.

Of course, accidents happen. Stuff happens over which you have no control. So I’m not talking about people who have no control over their financial dilemmas. I’m talking about those who didn’t take control over their finances before their finances went out of it.

In short, the secret would have been best used before you decided on doing the things that had negative consequences. Consequences that would have put you in a situation where you would need any solution, much less a secret one.

The secret is not remedial. It may be palliative, at best.

Sure, it may be used as a remedial tool. It can motivate you into taking action to remedy your situation, just as you took action that put you in the bad spot you’re in now.

But it is best used as a preventative tool, particularly when you took actions with negative consequences. Or better said, when you had the wrong mindset that led you to making the wrong decisions and taking the wrong actions in the first place.

Or at the very least, the secret can help change your mindset to avoid the negative things that, if unchanged, may keep you in constant need to seek out quick-fix solutions.

Self-help is exactly what it means. The law of attraction can help you to help yourself. But too many people buy into it thinking it’s going to save them. So they fail to take action.

For example, why is it that books on how to make money are more popular than those on how to save it? Because saving money is a sacrifice. It’s work! You need to take action.

But trying to sell a preventative to vulnerable people who are desperately hurting — such as people who are suffering from terminal illnesses or facing bankruptcies — is like trying to sell them a course on how to save money when there is none to save.

Using the weightloss example, you can learn how to change the way you think about food to stop gaining weight, instead of buying a book on how to lose it when it’s too late.

The law of attraction can help steer you in the right direction, and motivate you to make the right decisions and take the right actions, that will prevent you from going to a place where you would need to lose the weight you shouldn’t have gained, anyhow.

(By the way, my apologies to those who are battling weight problems. My intent is not to denigrate people in tough situations but to focus on those who take advantage of them.)

My wife said it best on her breast cancer blog. She said that she wouldn’t focus on battling her breast cancer because it would be very difficult to “fight darkness.”

I mean, how do you conquer darkness?

Do you stab it? Do you pull out your gun and try to shoot it? Do you meditate, pray, and positively think that it will simply go away through some miracle? Of course not.

Really, the only way to fight the darkness is to turn on the light.

You must take action. Do you need a self-help book for that? Maybe, if the self-help book shows you where the lightswitch is, or how to build a lightsource, or how to make money to buy a flashlight, or cheers you up as you patiently wait for the sun to come up.

So is there really a “flaw of attraction?” Not with the law itself. The real flaw is in the way it’s unscrupulously pushed onto innocent souls who don’t know any better.

It’s like pushing drugs onto addicts.

Some of these new-wage gurus are no different than drug dealers, in my opinion.

The issue I have is with those who prey on vulnerable people by selling a preventative as a cure — and worse yet, to mislead them into thinking a preventative is the cure — and to give them false hope only to line their own pockets. Drug pushers, indeed.

Self-help is self-help. You actually need to help yourself to make any “self-help” work.

But to help yourself, you need to act. Because if you buy a book on self-help thinking it will save you miraculously, you might as well leave the book on the shelf-help.

Two Shining Stars in an Age of Darkness

by Michel Fortin Leave a Comment

One of my favorite shows on TV of late is Shark Tank.

The show centers on aspiring, brave, and sometimes downright idiotic inventors and entrepreneurs who pitch their ideas in front of a group of merciless, seemingly heartless multimillionaires, begging for investment capital.

Some of the advice that come from these “sharks” are pretty obvious and commonsensical, especially to people who’s been in business for as long as I have.

But a lot of it is brilliant. Brilliant, but also brazen, unabashed, and brutally honest. It’s not for the faint of heart. If you don’t like seeing people, along with their hopes, dreams, and business ideas being shred to pieces on TV, then this show is certainly not for you.

The more I watch that show, the more I learn. It’s not just a fascinating program, it’s a million-dollar education in just one hour a week. And for free to boot. If you ever get a chance to watch that show, do it. You’re going to learn so much. It’s an amazing show.

If an idea or business is dumb, dead, or downright dreadful, they will say it. Often, in no uncertain terms. They have to. After all, their money is on the line.

But then again, so should it be with you.

One line from the show, from shark Barbara Corcoran, was absolutely dead-on in one case. She said to one fledgling, near-bankrupt businessman with a poorly researched idea in which he invested almost all of his family’s savings (and I’m paraphrasing, here):

“It takes a lot of courage to be as passionate and persistent about a business idea, but it takes a lot more courage to know when to quit, and to let it go and move on.”

And this got me thinking about how some people online are like that. I’m not just talking about businesspeople who needlessly cling to a losing idea or business, which are many. Too many to count, I’m afraid. The Internet is filled with them.

But I’m talking about sharks. Experts who really know their stuff, and who may say the most unflattering things that might kill your pride but may very well save your butt. That is, if you let go of your ego for a moment and truly listen to what they have to say.

Many a guru come and go, and the people I’ve followed over the years have changed. Change is a part of reality. I’ve changed. We all do. But some people I’ve stopped following because their philosophy no longer fits with mine or into what I find acceptable.

(And with all that’s happening in our industry these days, with all the crackdowns, letdowns, and putdowns, I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way.)

But that’s OK. That’s how the world turns.

I guess that, as I’ve grown older, wiser, and more battle-worn, with a dash of cynicism and mistrust added to the mix, I’ve also become pickier and more prudent in who I follow and listen to. That’s why there are just a handful of select people I follow today.

There are two fellows in particular from this group of people who I’ve followed for a long time, ever since they were members of my now defunct copywriters discussion forum. The thing is, they are not as well-known as what you normally call your typical “guru.”

I followed them on their blogs and newsletters. For years, I’ve digested their tips, insights, and sometimes incisive commentary like they were part of a endless buffet served as a starving death-row inmate’s last meal. Licking the plates along with it.

So who are these guys?

These two men are none other than Jason Leister and Ricky Breslin.

Their brilliance shines. Their philosophy is flexible enough to adapt to changes, but solid enough to remain unwavering and unaffected — no matter how the economy swings, and no matter how many new marketing methods come and go.

Their occasional insights and sometimes slap-in-the-face advice on business, the Internet, and even life have always struck me as amazing. To some, they appear as oddball contrarians, and that’s probably why they are not as well known as the usual suspects.

There are not a lot of people who are that real. I mean, really real. I mean, “I don’t care if this hurts your ego but it’s going to save your business (or make you money)” real. They are down to earth and personable, but seriously sharp and dangerously savvy.

These are two guys to watch out for.

Now, there are not the only ones, mind you. A few others I’ve known for a while personify these qualities already. Such as Paul Myers, Jim Edwards, Terry Dean, Lynn Terry, Larry Winget, just to name a few. (Including my brilliant wife, Sylvie Fortin.)

But Jason and Ricky are in that group I would categorize as real experts.

For example, Jason just blogged about the future of information marketing.

And he said something I’ve been saying for a long time.

And that’s the idea that marketing, particularly Internet marketing, is no longer about communications but about conversations. It’s no longer about content but about context. It’s no longer about copy that sells but about the connection with the people who buy.

In short, the gold is not “in the list” but in the relationships.

Nevertheless, they are marketers who are not afraid to tell it like it is. But also, they are guys who understand relationships. People. Trust. Ethics. And above all, sales and business. They are sharks. And I think that’s what the Internet needs right now.

I’m not talking about “those” sharks. The Internet has been filled with the wrong kind of predators for too long. No, I’m talking about the kind of sharks who are willing to take a bite out of bad ideas, bad businesses, and bad marketing practices.

Be a shark with your business. Your money. Your clients. And especially your integrity and your reputation. More important, be a shark with yourself, and the people you follow and whose advice you listen to. If not, any of these will be the ones eating you alive.