Twitter vs Rollerball
Did you catch any of the CNN/Ashton Kutcher Twitter race at the end of last week, as they both raced to one million followers?
Was it just me, or was anyone else reminded of the movie Rollerball from the mid 1970′s — the violent, full-contact “sport” on TV set in 2018, where as things got more gory, the ratings soared?
The follower numbers, jumping 1000′s per hour… is Twitter the 2009 web equivalent of mass crowd behaviour? Voyeurism? Do one million people really want to hear what Ashton Kutcher has to say? Or are they fascinated by the “drama” and drawn in like motorists who slow down to check out a car accident on the other side of the road?
Or is it, as in the speech Kutcher gave when he hit the million mark first, about media democracy, public control of what is reported, without the filters of the big networks? The “new guard” of information publishing, uncensored and in our control?
I’m sure many theories will come forward over coming months.
The Mental Intensity of Golf
I love watching the big golf tournaments, and seeing the “mental game” play out on the world’s best golfers.
It proves time and time again that golf — at that level — is still 99% played mentally.
Right now I’m watching the closing holes of the 2009 US Masters at the Augusta National Golf Club (on television, not live unfortunately).
Kenny Perry played a huge few holes to end up with a brilliant tap-in birdie at the Par 3 16th. That gave him a 2 shot lead over Chad Campbell and Ángel Cabrera.
All he needed to do — assuming the other two played to par (which they do) — was to have a bogey and a par to finish one shot in the lead and win the Masters.
And they flashed up a statistic on the screen that he’d played the preceding 22 holes without a bogey.
So two more holes without a bogey… should be easy, right?
After all, he just walked off the 16th green after an incredibly good birdie. He’d be “pumped” about that.
But this is major championship golf. For many players it is “the tournament” of all tournaments. To win the coveted green jacket and be crowned Masters champion. As Gary Player says, the Green Jacket is a symbol of massive achievement.
And that intense mental pressure showed yet again how big a factor it really is, especially at the money end of the tournament.
Because Perry not only took one bogey in those last two holes — but two. For fans, it was excruciating to watch. His first two bogies in 24 holes, happened to be the last two of regular play for the 72 hole event.
An outright win was not to be.
A play-off is now underway. Campbell, Perry and Cabrera head back to the 18th tee.
Perry shows great mental courage by playing the same club as he played in regular play, which put him in the bunker. This time it puts him in a great place on the fairway. Cabrera will need a miraculous save to get out of the trees — he goes for it, but rather than finding the green, still finds the fairway, but a long way back.
Perry’s approach finishes wide of the green.
The mental pressure is at it again. As Faldo says in the commentary, that’s the first time all week that Perry has “lost the ball right” as he did.
Campbell’s turn. He finds the sand. Head down, he’s feeling the intense pressure too.
Of the leading three players in arguably one of the world’s greatest tournaments, not one could find the play-off green in regulation. It gives Cabrera a chance to stay in the tournament — his 3rd shot lands well, giving him a chance to one putt for par.
What will mental pressure do to Campbell and Perry for their third shots on this sudden death play-off hole?
Can they hold the mental pressure together to hole it?
Perry goes VERY close. He’ll make par for certain. That might be the winning shot.
Now it’s up to Campbell from the sand … he must hole it to win, or get it “up and down” to stay in the play-off. He misses, but both he and Cabrera have makeable putts to stay in it — both putts are under six feet.
But this is the Masters, and what will the mental pressure do?
Will they putt it in to stay in the play-off? What is racing through their mind? What visual and mental processes do they employ to stay on focus?
Cabrera sticks to his routine and nails the six footer. He’s still in the play-off. Campbell’s turn. This put to stay alive… … … he misses. He’s out of the play-off, it’s down to just two.
Campbell’s tournament was interesting. His first round and a half rocketed along, and then his golf stayed steady after that (his score near the end of round three was not much different than the end of round one). Not enough of a rocket boost to really break away.
So Cabrera and Perry move on to the 10th. They nail their drives. The play-off continues.
This is no better demonstration of the mental intensity of golf. From making a run of birdies to the bogies that cost Perry an outright win. The stories are tumultuous.
Whether you’re a regular club player, a weekend hacker, or one of the world’s best, it’s the mental game that makes such a difference. Sure, you need a consistent, repeatable swing to reach the top. But whatever your level, you need a strong mental game to make sure you hold up to the pressure.
I know from what I’ve learned from giants like Tony Robbins that it really is the mental game that makes the difference. I wish I had that knowledge when I used to play regular club golf and pennant through my school years. Work got in the way of golf … it’s my goal this year to be out on the fairways again more regularly (plenty of Rotary golf tournaments will help with that!) — and mentally enjoy it much more.
And the Masters play-off? The pressure gets to Perry again — his approach to the second play-off hole, the 10th, misses way left. Cabrera hits the putting surface. He’s on in two. Perry’s chip stays on the green, but several metres past where he’d like it. His turn to putt, for par. A miss will give the Argentinian Cabrera two easier puts to win.
Perry misses. Cabrera’s turn. It’s interesting to look back on the first play-off hole, from the trees, when Cabrera struck a tree and ended up on the fairway, a long way from the green, he didn’t look dismayed. He was wide eyed and alert. His mental game was fine tuned and focused enough to see him still make a par from adverse circumstances.
Cabrera comfortably two putts, and wins the tournament. The first Masters winner from Argentina (erasing Argentinian world golfing champion Roberto DeVicenzo’s misfortune from 1968). Not the crowd’s favourite like Americans Perry or Campbell, but he deservedly gets a rousing ovation. The Green Jacket is now his, adding to his first major win at the 2007 US Open (20 seconds later, the win is already part of his bio entry on Wikipedia!).
Winning here comes from holding your nerve to simply make par. No explosive birdies or eagles, just par. Golf played in regulation format, against all of the mental pressure going on around you.
Perry’s television interview — he admits he was nervous, and said he had a lot of fun … but he admits too it was his tournament to win, and his golf wasn’t in control after the 16th when he walked off the green “juiced”. Impressively, he shows his true character by graciously congratulating Cabrera on his win — Perry is a wonderful ambassador for golf.
That’s the mental game on a world stage. Golf might look to some people like watching grass grow, but when this kind of mental pressure comes into play, it’s incredible to watch.
PS: What’s a marketer/copywriter talking about golf for? If there’s a marketing lesson here — it’s the ability of a golf tournament to get the attention of the sporting world — how it stands apart from its competitors (both other golf tournaments and other sporting and leisure activities). But what’s most evident, with my marketing “hat” on, is the stories that capture the imagination of the target audience… the emotions of golf, the trials and tribulations, the roller-coaster mental ride each player lives through on our screens. For me, it’s watching with much interest how golfers tackle the intense, mental pressure — now that’s exciting.
Business Stimulus Opportunities
Whatever your politics on the issue, Australian taxpayers start receiving their “stimulus package” payments from today.
If you’re in business … what are you proactively doing to encourage and attract that spending?
One of our clients already has a special sale in place — launched yesterday — to encourage spending in her direction. She’s got a range of holidays in place that consumers can buy — and several for less than the $900 to $950 stimulus payment.
The payments of up to $950 start going out this week (according to this Herald Sun article).
Here’s how it gets distributed …
Single-income families who receive Family Tax Benefit B will get $900 one-off payments under the economic stimulus.
And families who receive Family Tax Benefit A will get a $950 back-to-school bonus for each child aged 4-18.
Carers, disabled pensioners, students and drought-affected farmers will also get $950 cash payments.
Taxpayers earning less than $100,000 will receive further one-off bonuses of up to $900 from April.
So that’s a LOT of $900 to $950 payments going out. So what have you done to get ready? What will you do?
Doing “nothing special” is not a profit-generating strategy!
Ideally … have a Stimulus Sale.
What can you package in the range of $900 to $950 per person (or $1800 to $1900 per couple)?
Products? Services? Consulting? Information Packages? Business Opportunities? Lay-By for higher priced goods? Memberships? Subscriptions? Stimulus Bonus Offers and Upsells?
While people might want to make one-off purchases, such as for leisure/recreation goods and services, electrical and entertainment goods, one of the more promising ways you can attract buyers in this market is with the opportunity to make more money from their initial investment.
Business opportunities.
Products people can use to start a rewarding/income-generating hobby or part-time venture.
You want to present solutions that can generate constant additional income — so prospects can turn their stimulus payment into ongoing cash!
Psychologically, it’s not their money, so the logical reasons to buy now (LRBN) are tipped more slightly in your favour. You could liken it to the prospect winning a small lottery prize … money to spend that they didn’t have in the first place.
The emotional reasons (ERBN) can also centre around the need to find ways to make more money, especially in an unstable or recessionary economic climate. A way to “keep ahead”.
Of course, you would still be making an irresistible OFFER to your prospects, using URGENCY and a strong GUARANTEE … all the components of a good direct response package need to be included at any time.
If you already have a client list — get that sale into their hands quick smart. Your existing clients already know you, so they’re the best initial source of revenue. You have a good reason to get in touch — to announce your new Stimulus Sale … so make sure you do!
You know the saying about “making hay” … time to get to it!
Company Loss More Than Double Entire Australian Stimulus Package In 3 Months
I get daily emails from Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D. in the USA, who runs the free investment email newsletter called Money and Markets.
Aside from some great copywriting — and apparently some quite accurate predictions (I don’t follow it that closely or invest yet because of it) … the news that Martin and his team reports is quite staggering.
It’s run just like Clayton Makepeace’s Total Package — daily emails from a team of expert contributors (that’s not surprising of course, as Martin Weiss’ company is a client of Clayton Makepeace). Good concept that works for both of them!
Anyway, I got this in today’s email:
This morning, Washington announced that AIG, our nation’s largest insurer, lost a staggering $61.7 billion in the last three months of 2008 …
That’s the single largest loss ever suffered by a U.S. corporation, larger than the record losses at Bank of America and Citigroup COMBINED!
Worse: To keep AIG from going belly-up, Washington is giving the company another $30 billion, bringing the total bailout for this one company to a staggering $180 billion.
That’s equivalent to nearly HALF the U.S. government’s entire budget deficit for all of 2008!
Worse still: The company’s stock, which sold for nearly $50 per share last May is now only 49 cents. Any investor who bought $10,000 of AIG stock eight short months ago now as a meager $98 left. The rest — a whopping $9,902 — is gone with the wind.
(the bolding is mine).
And that 3-month $61.7 billion loss by a single company — in Australian dollars (AUD $97.95 billion, according to Google currency calculation today) — is more than DOUBLE our entire $42 billion stimulus package announced by the Australian Government (233 per cent).
(Let’s not have nightmares considering the US$180 billion bailout so far is 6.7 times bigger than our entire stimulus package, for one company!).
Now in the email Weiss goes into more about what lessons aren’t being learned, and his emergency briefing to investors about succeeding in a bear market … but that’s not why I’m posting … if you want to find that out, subscribe for free yourself.
There’s Good News
The good news is, I’m confident from a business point of view there are still masses of opportunity, and giving people the opportunity to make money with proven business systems is as likely as ever to resonate with prospects because that “hungry crowd” is growing virtually daily. And as happens at any time, different industries are affected in different ways.
One of the most important things a business can do right now is get better at marketing — especially if competitors are closing the shutters. Have specific strategies to attract customers, retain them, sell them more (and more often), build referrals and reactive old customers — there’s plenty you can do (and should be doing regularly) with your existing customer list before you even go out looking for new leads and prospects.
(If you’re interested in how I can help you with that, contact me. Given my current workload, I wouldn’t recommend waiting too long to do so).
On the flipside, what is most frightening is that there is no end yet in sight, and the amounts being bandied around in the US are in the TRILLIONS of dollars … at some stage someone is gonna have to pay for all of this! What kind of debt bills are our governments leaving for future generations?
“A billion trillion here, a billion trillion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money …”
Good To Be Home
After a week away at coaching and mastermind meetings, it’s good to be back home again.
Whilst I love the networking, catching up with friends and clients, learning and discovering new skills and tips from the discussions and presentations (and as usual I had several big chunks of improvements that will help make things better than ever) … there really isn’t much that competes with the concept of the mastermind group and the chance to get face-to-face with mentors, fellow “students”, speakers and presenters.
Yet after six solid intensive days, it was also good to finally get on the plane and head home.
Flying down from Sydney late last night, we could unfortunately see the bushfire lines in the darkness below … a rather grim reminder of a week of tragic events. But it was impressive to see the generosity of the monetary donations from passengers as the Virgin Blue crew came through the cabin with a collection bag — with all proceeds going to the Red Cross bushfire appeal and passenger donations to be matched dollar-for-dollar by Virgin Blue.
Even the smokey smell on the breeze and the yellow smoke-filtered light is evident today now we’re back at home. My heart goes out to those who have lost friends, family, neighbours and loved ones. I am sure our Rotary Club will be just one tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of volunteers who’ll be focused on different parts of this task for many many months to come.
Like what Jennie Armato commented on my Facebook status (“Dean is quite moved watching the rescue stories of loved ones, and also of Sam the koala in the bushfires“) yesterday …
It’s so great that in such adversity, people are being so amazingly generous and helpful. This is true devastation but out of the ashes rises the phoenix of mateship … and compassion for the poor wildlife too. That koala is adorable.
The Koala is Sam — rescued from Mirboo North bushfires last week after accepting a very welcome drink from a CFA volunteer.
While we were away, I gave a presentation at Mal Emery’s Platinum2Mastermind on Branding and Positioning — and five positioning tools. It was great to get lots of positive feedback afterwards, especially for members who said they’d be following the content of my “2-minute Business Card Workshop” and improve their own cards for their business.
(I’ve gotta say I was happy that my 60 minute presentation ran exactly to schedule — at the 1-minute notice, I literally only had one slide and concept left to present!)
So now we’re home there’s a few follow-up notes to take care of (a great tip from Daryl Grant — put time aside in your schedule after the event to implement), then it’ll be back into client projects, visiting friends, Rotary activities and life at home … lots of projects “on the go” for this year.
And I’m also looking forward to a return to regular publishing of the 101 Copy Tips … lots more great info to share!