Clayton Makepeace is probably the best marketer out there alive today. Probably learned more by putting ideas from his free site into use then from most things I have purchased. Anyway today he wrote this on his site, and I wanted to share it with you guys as I think it's very good.
Dear Business-Builder,
Right now, our prospects are experiencing some of the most intense and contradictory emotions theyâve ever had in their entire lives.
By day, they rail against others for creating their financial problems.
The saner ones point the finger at the long line of economic idiots and criminals who have occupied The White House, Congress, the Treasury and the Fed for the last couple of decades.
Others â those with a more tenuous grip on reality â blame âthose greedy bankersâ for having the unmitigated gall to actually approve every loan and credit card application they ever submitted.
But regardless of who our prospects may blame in broad daylight, itâs not so easy to escape the real villain as they seek the sweet release of sleep.
In the privacy of their own bedrooms each night, theyâre confronted with the humiliating truth that they and they alone created their own, personal financial crises â¦
By spending more than they should have.
By saving less than they should have.
And by accumulating far more debt than they should have.
They regret scoffing at old-fashioned admonitions to be prudent with money. To live sensibly, modestly and within their means. To accept debt sparingly or not at all. And to save extravagantly.
They marvel at how much money theyâve earned over the last decade or two ⦠at how fast it vanished ⦠at how pathetically little they have to show for it.
And they torture themselves, thinking how much better life would be if they had that money now.
They excoriate themselves for plunging into debt to buy more house than they needed and then borrowing even more to create the illusion of success: The fancy furnishings, the expensive cars, the designer fashions, the lavish dinners out, the trophy vacations and all the other now-worthless crap they bought to impress others.
So every night, in bedrooms around the world,
billions are teaching themselves timeless lessons â¦
Theyâre learning that â despite politiciansâ false promises to the contrary â the law of personal responsibility is as intractable as the law of gravity.
Just as no law or government program ever penned or signed by the hand of man could repeal the law of gravity, no legislation has ever provided permanent escape from the consequences of our actions.
And when entire societies consisting of billions of individuals lose their way, no government ⦠not even all the governments on Earth combined ⦠can save them from the inevitable consequences of their actions.
Because governments have no resources other than those that have been earned and retained by its most successful citizens. And because even if all of those resources were confiscated, they would pale into insignificance compared to the debts amassed by the other 90% of the population.
We â all of us â sowed the seeds of this financial whirlwind with profligate spending, with excessive debt and with a dearth of savings. And now itâs time for us, our children and our childrenâs children to reap the inevitable hurricane.
This, too, haunts many of our prospects each night as, in their mindsâ eyes, they stare at the pile of bills awaiting them on the kitchen table â scraps of paper demanding the payment due for past pleasures. And they wonder and worry about what will become of their families in the weeks and months ahead.
Some are even doing the math; calculating and recalculating how long they could survive if their income suddenly stopped; if their governmentâs actions extend the crisis for years or even decades ⦠what they will do if they suddenly find themselves among the 15 million who are now unemployed in the U.S. alone.
How can I know our prospects are feeling
all this guilt, regret and fear?
Simple: Iâm feeling it myself!
No, Iâm not pleading poverty, here. By working back-breaking hours all my life ⦠enduring the hard times without giving up ⦠and by trying to make prudent decisions with my money ⦠Iâve become one of the âluckyâ ones.
Plus, Iâve taken my own advice; Iâve focused my business on niches that tend to do well in tough times. So not only is my income still in the top fraction of the top 1% of all Americans, Iâm actually earning more than I did this time last year.
Better yet, I saw this crisis coming two years ago and began curtailing my spending, paying down my debt and building up my savings as if my life depended on it.
But now, as I contemplate everything Bushama and Congress are doing to guarantee this crisis will be with us for a decade or more, I canât help but worry anyway.
And frankly, I often kick myself for self-indulgent purchases Iâve made over the years and for failing to sock away millions more in the salad days of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Because at a time like this, thereâs no such thing as having âtoo muchâ money saved for the rainy days ahead.
And I know in my heart that if Iâm having wim-wams ⦠foregoing all but the most essential purchases ⦠and saving every dime I can lay my hands on ⦠millions of our prospects are, too.
This is the greatest sea change of our careers
What we are now seeing take place in the hearts and minds of ourselves, our customers and our prospects is nothing less than a massive, global reversal of attitudes â¦
A convulsion in how our prospects view reality that will have an enormous impact on the kinds of products we develop and the way we market them for the rest of our lives.
Because we are now witnessing the rapid demise of the spendthrift mindset that has grown so many companies for so many decades â¦
And weâre witnessing the birth of a new generation of far more rational, cautious, thinking consumers â¦
Consumers who have suddenly realized that the âold-fashionedâ virtues of common sense, prudence and thrift are time-honored for a reason: They have been proven to be lifesavers over many millennia.
Consumers who have learned the hard lesson their parents and grandparents learned during The Great Depression: That the only thing thatâs more important than saving money for a rainy day is to use money to make more money that will see you through tough times.
Now, even I get it:
These are the depression-era lessons that caused mom to save every scrap of string and every rubber band in big tangles under the kitchen sink.
These are the lessons that made my dad go ballistic when I left the lights on in an unoccupied room or when I blew my allowance money on some useless do-dad.
This is the financial Judgment Day they so often warned me about; the day of paying the price for scoffing at their stingy ways.
Somewhere, Mom and Dad are nodding their heads in grim agreement.
And somewhere, my dadâs gloating: âSo what are you going to do if this crisis outlives your money? Huh, smart boy?â
Cool your jets, Dad; I get it! But since, unlike all you dead people, I canât travel in time, itâs not going to do me one damn bit of good to cry over spilt milk.
What I can do, though, is to expend every ounce of energy at my command to make as much money as is legally and ethically possible, every hour, day and working week.
Because only more money can get my family safely through a decade or more of this.
That means recognizing that every promotion I write must work even harder to prove the value my product brings to prospectsâ lives ⦠to demonstrate as graphically as possible that the price is the bargain of a lifetime ⦠and to create guarantees that make buying it ⦠from me ⦠NOW ⦠an absolute no-brainer.
I also need to vastly improve how I spend my workdays â to find new ways to get more work done ⦠better work done ⦠more profitable work done every hour I spend at my desk.
And it goes without saying that I need to review my client list â make absolutely sure Iâm working ONLY with clients whose products and services are likely to do best as this crisis intensifies.
Most importantly, I need to find ways to structure more productive working relationships with those clients â relationships that make them more money so they can pay me more money.
How about you?
Iâm willing to bet that if you give this little âdepression survival checklist,â a few hours thought, youâll have taken a big step towards coming through this thing smelling like a rose, too.
Iâll even help you do all this and more: By revealing for the very first time ALL of the business techniques that have caused both Bob Bly and AWAI to name me âAmericaâs highest-paid marketing consultant and copywriter.â
So be sure to watch your inbox for a major announcement later this week!
In the meantime, why not scroll down and post a comment to show us your personal survival plan?
Yours for Bigger Winners, More Often,
Dear Business-Builder,
Right now, our prospects are experiencing some of the most intense and contradictory emotions theyâve ever had in their entire lives.
By day, they rail against others for creating their financial problems.
The saner ones point the finger at the long line of economic idiots and criminals who have occupied The White House, Congress, the Treasury and the Fed for the last couple of decades.
Others â those with a more tenuous grip on reality â blame âthose greedy bankersâ for having the unmitigated gall to actually approve every loan and credit card application they ever submitted.
But regardless of who our prospects may blame in broad daylight, itâs not so easy to escape the real villain as they seek the sweet release of sleep.
In the privacy of their own bedrooms each night, theyâre confronted with the humiliating truth that they and they alone created their own, personal financial crises â¦
By spending more than they should have.
By saving less than they should have.
And by accumulating far more debt than they should have.
They regret scoffing at old-fashioned admonitions to be prudent with money. To live sensibly, modestly and within their means. To accept debt sparingly or not at all. And to save extravagantly.
They marvel at how much money theyâve earned over the last decade or two ⦠at how fast it vanished ⦠at how pathetically little they have to show for it.
And they torture themselves, thinking how much better life would be if they had that money now.
They excoriate themselves for plunging into debt to buy more house than they needed and then borrowing even more to create the illusion of success: The fancy furnishings, the expensive cars, the designer fashions, the lavish dinners out, the trophy vacations and all the other now-worthless crap they bought to impress others.
So every night, in bedrooms around the world,
billions are teaching themselves timeless lessons â¦
Theyâre learning that â despite politiciansâ false promises to the contrary â the law of personal responsibility is as intractable as the law of gravity.
Just as no law or government program ever penned or signed by the hand of man could repeal the law of gravity, no legislation has ever provided permanent escape from the consequences of our actions.
And when entire societies consisting of billions of individuals lose their way, no government ⦠not even all the governments on Earth combined ⦠can save them from the inevitable consequences of their actions.
Because governments have no resources other than those that have been earned and retained by its most successful citizens. And because even if all of those resources were confiscated, they would pale into insignificance compared to the debts amassed by the other 90% of the population.
We â all of us â sowed the seeds of this financial whirlwind with profligate spending, with excessive debt and with a dearth of savings. And now itâs time for us, our children and our childrenâs children to reap the inevitable hurricane.
This, too, haunts many of our prospects each night as, in their mindsâ eyes, they stare at the pile of bills awaiting them on the kitchen table â scraps of paper demanding the payment due for past pleasures. And they wonder and worry about what will become of their families in the weeks and months ahead.
Some are even doing the math; calculating and recalculating how long they could survive if their income suddenly stopped; if their governmentâs actions extend the crisis for years or even decades ⦠what they will do if they suddenly find themselves among the 15 million who are now unemployed in the U.S. alone.
How can I know our prospects are feeling
all this guilt, regret and fear?
Simple: Iâm feeling it myself!
No, Iâm not pleading poverty, here. By working back-breaking hours all my life ⦠enduring the hard times without giving up ⦠and by trying to make prudent decisions with my money ⦠Iâve become one of the âluckyâ ones.
Plus, Iâve taken my own advice; Iâve focused my business on niches that tend to do well in tough times. So not only is my income still in the top fraction of the top 1% of all Americans, Iâm actually earning more than I did this time last year.
Better yet, I saw this crisis coming two years ago and began curtailing my spending, paying down my debt and building up my savings as if my life depended on it.
But now, as I contemplate everything Bushama and Congress are doing to guarantee this crisis will be with us for a decade or more, I canât help but worry anyway.
And frankly, I often kick myself for self-indulgent purchases Iâve made over the years and for failing to sock away millions more in the salad days of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Because at a time like this, thereâs no such thing as having âtoo muchâ money saved for the rainy days ahead.
And I know in my heart that if Iâm having wim-wams ⦠foregoing all but the most essential purchases ⦠and saving every dime I can lay my hands on ⦠millions of our prospects are, too.
This is the greatest sea change of our careers
What we are now seeing take place in the hearts and minds of ourselves, our customers and our prospects is nothing less than a massive, global reversal of attitudes â¦
A convulsion in how our prospects view reality that will have an enormous impact on the kinds of products we develop and the way we market them for the rest of our lives.
Because we are now witnessing the rapid demise of the spendthrift mindset that has grown so many companies for so many decades â¦
And weâre witnessing the birth of a new generation of far more rational, cautious, thinking consumers â¦
Consumers who have suddenly realized that the âold-fashionedâ virtues of common sense, prudence and thrift are time-honored for a reason: They have been proven to be lifesavers over many millennia.
Consumers who have learned the hard lesson their parents and grandparents learned during The Great Depression: That the only thing thatâs more important than saving money for a rainy day is to use money to make more money that will see you through tough times.
Now, even I get it:
These are the depression-era lessons that caused mom to save every scrap of string and every rubber band in big tangles under the kitchen sink.
These are the lessons that made my dad go ballistic when I left the lights on in an unoccupied room or when I blew my allowance money on some useless do-dad.
This is the financial Judgment Day they so often warned me about; the day of paying the price for scoffing at their stingy ways.
Somewhere, Mom and Dad are nodding their heads in grim agreement.
And somewhere, my dadâs gloating: âSo what are you going to do if this crisis outlives your money? Huh, smart boy?â
Cool your jets, Dad; I get it! But since, unlike all you dead people, I canât travel in time, itâs not going to do me one damn bit of good to cry over spilt milk.
What I can do, though, is to expend every ounce of energy at my command to make as much money as is legally and ethically possible, every hour, day and working week.
Because only more money can get my family safely through a decade or more of this.
That means recognizing that every promotion I write must work even harder to prove the value my product brings to prospectsâ lives ⦠to demonstrate as graphically as possible that the price is the bargain of a lifetime ⦠and to create guarantees that make buying it ⦠from me ⦠NOW ⦠an absolute no-brainer.
I also need to vastly improve how I spend my workdays â to find new ways to get more work done ⦠better work done ⦠more profitable work done every hour I spend at my desk.
And it goes without saying that I need to review my client list â make absolutely sure Iâm working ONLY with clients whose products and services are likely to do best as this crisis intensifies.
Most importantly, I need to find ways to structure more productive working relationships with those clients â relationships that make them more money so they can pay me more money.
How about you?
Iâm willing to bet that if you give this little âdepression survival checklist,â a few hours thought, youâll have taken a big step towards coming through this thing smelling like a rose, too.
Iâll even help you do all this and more: By revealing for the very first time ALL of the business techniques that have caused both Bob Bly and AWAI to name me âAmericaâs highest-paid marketing consultant and copywriter.â
So be sure to watch your inbox for a major announcement later this week!
In the meantime, why not scroll down and post a comment to show us your personal survival plan?
Yours for Bigger Winners, More Often,
