Monday, November 16, 2020, Delray Beach, Florida


From My Work-in-Progress Basket

No Comments

 “A weak currency is the sign of a weak economy, and a weak economy leads to a weak nation.”

– Ross Perot

 

Scary but True: China Paves the Way for a US Digital Dollar

On November 6, I said that I could imagine the US creating a digital currency one day to fend off the threat of Bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency) replacing the US Dollar.

It would offer all the conveniences of other digital currencies (which is what most concerns the average user), but it wouldn’t have Bitcoin’s most important benefit: the built-in protection against its own devaluation because of its strictly limited supply.

Our politicians don’t know much about economics, but realizing that such a feature would severely limit their ability to spend money, they’d make sure the US Digital Dollar would come with counterfeiting provisions.

The second major benefit of Bitcoin is that it’s a cryptocurrency, which means it allows users to transact their business anonymously. That, too, our government wouldn’t allow, because it would make it near impossible to crack down on income (and other) tax evasion.

The US Digital Dollar would come with some patina of privacy – perhaps limiting access to transactions between users. But the government would make sure it had full and easy access to all such transactions. It would sell this idea by pointing out that it would put an end to illegal drug and sex trafficking. However, it would surely be used by the IRS to eliminate tax cheating. And eventually, it would be the perfect tool for the government to know just about everything every one of its citizens was doing.

I know that sounds like an idea from some dystopian novel. But assume for the moment that you were the dictator of a big, powerful country with more than a billion citizens. How could you resist using a tool like this? How could you say no to being able to know exactly what all those people were doing – every place they went, at every hour of the day?

As with so many things these days, China is several steps ahead of the US in the move towards a government-issued digital currency.

China’s president, Xi Jinping, in announcing the new digital yuan, said that it was going to “accelerate the digital economy, digital socializations, state and industry digital developments, and updates.” And that it would move China “ahead of our competitors.”

According to my colleague Tom Dyson, writing in “Postcards From the Fringe,” China’s “pull together” should be considered an advantage in the digital currency race – an advantage only further solidified by Jinping’s words. The president’s push for advancement in the field certainly will impact China moving forward with the digital yuan, but it had an impact on Bitcoin as well. Following his speech, the Bitcoin/US Dollar parity jumped from $13,300 to $14,000.

In preparation for promoting the use of the digital yuan on an international level, China has tasked smartphone developer Huawei with stateside implementation. Huawei’s new phone, the Mate 40, is expected to have all the latest technology and features as well as its own proprietary digital yuan wallet. This will ensure that China’s new digital currency will find its way to the US. And the timing couldn’t be better. Due to recent supply restrictions, the Mate 40 might be Huawei’s last phone to be sold in the States.

If their new digital yuan succeeds, it would be a massive accomplishment for the Chinese Communist Party. According to a Reuters report, Yi Gang (governor of the People’s Bank of China) claimed that 4 million separate digital currency transactions had taken place since the start of the “human trials” last month.

And it’s not just China. From my friends at Tradesmith:

“The Bank of International Settlements, BIS for short, is known as the central bank for other central banks. In January 2020, the BIS published a new research paper – not its first one – on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

“Eight months ago, the BIS found that 80% of all the central banks they surveyed were investigating CBDCs, and 40% had moved from the research stage to the concept and design stage.”

China is definitely the front runner in the race. BIS and the European Central Bank (ECB) are trailing. Right now, the US is behind. But if China does succeed, you can bet that the US will be looking to follow.

 

Sources:

https://www.somagnews.com/digital-currency-statement-by-xi-jinping/
http://www.qstheory.cn/dukan/qs/2020-10/31/c_1126680390.htm
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/04/investing/china-yuan-us-election-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/02/huawei_mate_40_digital_yuan/
https://www.reuters.com/article/china-currency-digital/spending-with-chinas-digital-yuan-around-300-million-pboc-says-idUSL1N2HO0B1

This essay and others are available for syndication.
Contact Us  for more information. 

Continue Reading

Saturday, November 14, 2020, Delray Beach, Florida


Worth Reading

No Comments

Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe

by Bill Bryson 

Paperback, 254 pages

Published March 28, 1993 by William Morrow Paperbacks (first published 1991)

 

I was in a shallow, prompted in part by the decision to trash an essay I’d spent half a day on, and I needed something to lift my spirits. I looked up from my laptop and there, on top of one of the stacks of books on my credenza, was the pleasant image you see above: the cover of my old copy of Neither Here Nor There, by Bill Bryson.

I’ve re-read Bryson’s books before. (I read this one for the first time about two years ago.) They were all Heath-bar pleasurable and chock full of interesting facts. Neither Here Nor There, published in 1991, turned out to be considerably lighter on the interesting facts. But it was fully satisfying in giving me the pleasure I was seeking.

It’s both a travelog and also a collection of wry observances. But most of all, it’s a comic novel about a smart and funny and ultimately very charming character named Bill Bryson.

Bryson grew up in the heart of America, and then spent 15 years living in and writing about England before he set off on a partly nostalgic, partly adventurous journey from Hammerfest, Norway to Istanbul, Turkey. In between, we learn in Neither Here Nor There, he got into all sorts of small jams and pickles, half of which were due to the discrepancy between a large and spirited appetite for romanticized adventure and a relentless habit of penny pinching his every commercial encounter.

It’s a very funny book. I was barely three chapters into it and I could feel my mood moving up from a 5.9 to a 7.9, which is almost impossible even with the most precise combination of drugs and alcohol.

One of the particular pleasures of the book, besides the Scrooge-precipitating mishaps, is Bryson’s relationship with a second fictive character, a friend who reappears in flashbacks to earlier adventures in Europe, the pseudonymous Stephen Katz. (Katz reappears prominently and hilariously in several later books.)

As mentioned above, the distinguishing difference between Neither Here Nor There and the earlier Bryson books that I’ve read is that it’s short on facts. It’s also skimpy on the comical conversations that so many of his other works are rich in. To compensate, there is a plenitude of hilariously prejudiced observations about the cultural characteristics of every nationality he encounters.

This last bit was not much commented on when the book was published, but has been widely criticized in recent, more politically correct, years.

For me, that made the experience of Neither Here Nor There even tastier.

From Good Reads: Bryson brings his unique brand of humor to Europe, whether braving the homicidal motorist of Paris, being robbed by gypsies in Florence, attempting not to order tripe and eyeballs in a German restaurant, window-shopping in the sex shops of the Reeperbahn, or disputing his hotel bill in Copenhagen. Bryson takes in the sights, dissects the culture, and illuminates each place and person with his hilariously caustic observations.

From Kirkus Reviews: Bryson’s crankiness could have proved amusing – after all, Mark Twain’s did in Innocents Abroad – but the humor here is meanspirited and juvenile.

Continue Reading

Worth Watching

No Comments

Just Mercy (2019)

Netflix and Amazon Prime 

The books and movies I like best are those that change me – those that are able to change the way I think or feel about an issue or motivate me to take action on an issue I had cared about in the past.

 

Just Mercy had such an effect on me. Written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, this 2019 movie dramatizes the story of Brian Stevenson, an African-American, Harvard-educated civil rights lawyer that sets up shop in Alabama to defend death row inmates in 1989. The movie is about one of his triumphs, securing the exoneration of Walter McMillian, who spent 6 years on death row for a murder he very obviously didn’t commit.

 

Although the movie was touted by some to be about Black Lives Matter, I saw it as an indictment of the criminal justice system and the way it is systemically opposed to reversing any convictions, regardless of the race of the convicted.

 

It stars Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx. Foxx’s performance is riveting.

 

From Rotten Tomatoes: Just Mercy dramatizes a real-life injustice with solid performances, a steady directorial hand, and enough urgency to overcome a certain degree of earnest advocacy.

This essay and others are available for syndication.
Contact Us  for more information. 

Continue Reading

Friday, November 13, 2020, Delray Beach, Florida


Worth Considering

No Comments

Justin Goff on the “Chain of Belief” 

The first important skill I studied when I began my career in publishing was how to write a sales letter. Back then – in the early ‘80s – there weren’t any expert teachers available. (Today, there are hundreds. Probably thousands.) There were a few great books on brand advertising (Ogilvy on Advertising and Scientific Advertising come to mind), but I wasn’t aware of them. I learned by reading copy, imitating it, and having my work repeatedly torn up by JSN, my marketing-genius-but-nonwriting boss at the time.

 

My first sales letter made me a millionaire. That gave me the confidence to keep going.

 

In the mid ‘90s, I began working with BB. He had an entirely different (and more sophisticated) approach to copywriting. I learned from him. And we began what I think was the first school of copywriting in our industry. We spent a year teaching about a dozen smart young people what we knew. In teaching, you often take your learning to another level.

 

In the late ‘90s, I joined up with former protégés and started AWAI (American Writers & Artists Institute), a business devoted to teaching copywriting to beginners. That, too, was a terrific learning experience. It helped me understand how to explain some complicated concepts clearly, but it also gave me the opportunity to work with some of the best copywriters in the world at that time.

 

All of this to say that I am still surprised and delighted to be learning new things at this late period of my copywriting career.

 

Here’s a post from Justin Goff, a copywriting coach whose blog posts are always insightful, based on something he learned from Dan Kennedy, one of the most influential copywriting coaches of our time.

One of the most profitable copywriting tips I’ve ever learned from Dan Kennedy is called the “chain of belief.”

It goes like this…

Let’s say you’re selling a course that teaches people how to make money with an ecomm business.

And in your sales letter, you have a bunch of promises that if they buy your program, they could make 6-figures a year.

That’s a pretty standard promise.

However the first step in the “chain of belief” is NOT to convince them that your course could help them do all that…

 

Your first goal starts much further back.

Because before you can convince them that they can make 6-figures with your ecomm course, they have to believe the following…

1.  Their current situation isn’t great, and they need a different income source.

2.  If they’re going to try a different income source they need to believe that ecomm is the way to go (and not real estate, MLM, or whatever else they’re thinking).

3. And after that, you need to convince them that it’s actually possible to make 6-figures a year (without winning the lottery or inheriting it).

All of that stuff comes first in the chain of belief.

Because if they don’t believe those three things, then you don’t have a chance at selling them your course.

Does that make sense?

And here’s the issue – a lot of copywriters skip these steps in the chain of belief.

For example, you might assume that your reader knows that it’s possible to make 6-figures a year.

That seems pretty normal to you and I.

But this would be a big mistake.

Cause your average person making $40k a year doesn’t really believe it’s possible to make that much money.

He thinks that everyone who makes 6-figures probably hit the lotto, or they had rich grandparents.

Seriously.

That’s how normal people think.

So one of your main jobs is to get your reader to believe it’s possible for a normal person to make that kind of money.

And that’s what the “chain of belief” does.

It simply shows you what the reader needs to believe in order to buy your product.

Cause if you know what they need to believe…

Your chance of making that sale goes up tenfold.

That’s the power of the “chain of belief.”

BTW… big kudos to Dan Kennedy for teaching me this.

It’s one of those things I’ve never heard anyone else talk about.

But it’s had a big impact on my copy.

And made me a lot of money over the years.

– Justin

 

This essay and others are available for syndication.
Contact Us for more information. 

Continue Reading

Thursday, November 12, 2020, Delray Beach, Florida


From My Work-in-Progress Basket

No Comments

“Ultimately, there is no such thing as failure. There are lessons learned in different ways.” – Twyla Tharp

 

12 Things I’ve Learned About Living a Full Life 

I’ve got a thousand ideas about how to do things better. That’s because I’ve made ten thousand mistakes that I later realized I could have avoided by making a different decision or taking a different approach.

Most of those are small. But here are 12 big ones…

 

  1. Work your job with purpose.

 

Increasing your personal income is a purpose. A valid purpose. But so is growing the profitability of the business you work for. And so is working to improve product quality and customer service. If you start with serving the customer and link that to the company and then finally to you, you’ll have found a way to stay motivated by and satisfied with your work for the length of your career.

 

  1. Be generous – with your money, your time, and your words.

 

Generosity is not a one-sided virtue. It’s a behavior that enriches not only the recipient but also the giver. The repayment is seldom direct. And seldom in kind. But if the giving is done without the expectation of repayment, the first reward – emotional satisfaction – is immediate. And other rewards – which are many and varied – continue almost indefinitely throughout your career.

 

  1. Make plans and set goals. But don’t attach yourself to them.

 

Satisfaction in life doesn’t come from accomplishing goals. Anyone that has achieved any goal of significance understands that. And although many goals can be reached by effort and endurance, not all can be reached. Some are thwarted by forces beyond your control. In setting goals, you should begin by accepting the possibility of failure, but then commit to pursuing the goal nevertheless.

 

  1. Make quiet a part of your daily life.

 

The beneficial effects of mindfulness are well documented. Mindfulness does not mean achieving a higher state of consciousness. Quite the contrary, it means allowing yourself to be fully conscious – in the here and now. And to do that, all you have to do is listen to your breathing three or four times during the day.

 

  1. Do one thing at a time.

 

Multitasking is a skill that can be developed, but almost always with detrimental effects. Rather than doing two or three things simultaneously, learn how to focus on a multitude of things sequentially, giving full attention to each one.

 

  1. Ignore what is annoying.

 

Life is – or can be – full of annoyances. And if you allow them to take hold of you, they will drain your energy and halt your forward progress. It may seem impossible, but you can learn to ignore almost every kind of annoyance. It takes practice, but it can be done.

 

  1. Accept the little disappointments.

 

Like annoyances, life can be jam-packed with minor disappointments. If you get upset about them, you will eventually blame and punish yourself each time they occur. Instead, accept the fact that minor disappointments are an inevitable part of life. In fact, the more you try to accomplish in life, the more of these small disappointments you will encounter. Learn to shrug them off. Learn to say, “I guess that didn’t work.” And move on.

 

  1. Respect danger. Do not fear it.

 

Most things we fear are not worthy of the stress they cause. They are ephemeral things like shame and embarrassment that come with failure. They are ineluctable aspects of living a full and rewarding life. Learn to distinguish between real danger and this other sort. Respect the first and overcome the second by exposing yourself to it.

 

  1. Welcome the new.

 

As we get older, we become more comfortable with the routine and less welcoming of new experiences. This is understandable. What is new is often unknown. And what is unknown can often create new challenges, which means more work. Keep in mind that it is only by welcoming the new that you can take best advantage of it. Some caution is fine. But the dominant emotion should be delight.

 

  1. Embrace challenges.

 

Some small portion of your daily life will be emotionally or physically challenging. Don’t run from it. Distinguish between the challenges that will make you stronger or take you farther and those that have no beneficial potential. Do not shy away from beneficial challenges, for doing so will make you weaker and will reduce the scope of your experience. Develop the habit of taking on a challenge as soon as you possibly can.

 

  1. Forget Attila the Hun strategies.

 

When it comes to making deals – either in business or in your personal life – don’t try to come out “on top.” Forget all the Look-Out-for-Number-One BS that’s popular in some success circles. Look for win-win deals. Win-win deals make good relationships flourish, which means less work, less stress, fewer ugly breakups, and more benefits later on. If situations change during the course of the relationship and you find yourself at an advantage, adjust the relationship first. Don’t wait till your partner asks you to.

 

  1. Forgive but don’t forget.

 

If you follow #11, your chances of getting screwed by your partners will be seldom to none. But if someone does take advantage of you, refrain from lashing out. Do what you can to work yourself out of the relationship as equitably as you can. Don’t fight for the small stuff. Try, if possible, to have the other person feel like he got out on his own terms. You may find, as I’ve found, that you can even have good though distant relationships with these people afterwards. But don’t be tempted to get back into another relationship with them. If you do, you will definitely regret it.

 

This essay and others are available for syndication.
Contact Us  for more information. 

Continue Reading

Wednesday, November 11, 2020, Delray Beach, Florida


Worth Watching

No Comments

My Favorite Doctor on COVID 

I read a dozen regular services on COVID-19. Half are data services and some are commentary.

Of all that latter group, this is the one I like the best.

I think you’ll like him too!

PS: Notice that he says that actual cases can be as much as 10 times reported cases. This has been my hypothesis since I first wrote about the pandemic in March. Here

 

Continue Reading

Tuesday, November 10, 2020, Delray Beach, Florida


Worth Considering

No Comments

Response Boosting Tip for Digital Marketers 

Here’s a potentially powerful way to boost eyeballs and click-throughs on your internet advertising.

Create a teaser that capitalizes on a popular current news or social interests story. It must be something you can connect to your product or service. But there are many more such opportunities than you may think.

Here’s an example: An estate planning attorney that put out a video connected to the hugely popular Netflix series “Tiger King.”

 

I like the idea of producing a “Famous Estates” series. And although it was clear to me that the video would link me to a pitch, I couldn’t resist clicking on it to see how the transition was managed.To do this properly, the transition must be smooth on both an emotional and intellectual level. You can’t allow the viewer to feel like he’s been suckered into a bait and switch.

In this case, the gimmick is unlikely to result in sales because the video itself is as bad as it could possibly be.

The connection with “Tiger King” and titling the video as part of a Famous Estates series evokes the expectation of tabloid-like sensationalism with the appropriate visual effects. Instead, you have this static presentation of an attorney reading obviously and poorly from a very amateurish script.

Had it been done properly, the viewer would have been entertained – both in his emotional satisfaction of the drama and the urgency of the claims about the danger of bad estate planning – and a confirming click-through to a landing page would have been almost impossible to resist.

Nevertheless, the core idea is very good. I’ve suggested this approach many times to marketers that I consult with. More often than not, they don’t understand how important it is to make an emotionally and intellectually consistent transition. But those that have done it right have gotten tremendous results.

Give it a try, and let me know if it works.

 

This essay and others are available for syndication.
Contact Us  for more information. 

Continue Reading

Monday, November 9, 2020, Delray Beach, Florida


Worth Considering

No Comments

What I’m Doing With My Money 

On July 24, I said I was putting a good amount of my stock into cash until I have an idea of what the election will bring us. On November 4, I made some predictions about what will happen regardless of who wins.

 

Now, with Biden 99% secured as president and the Senate and Supreme Court in relatively conservative hands, I don’t see any major regulations or tax hikes on the near horizon. But I do see (as I said) continued trillions of fake dollars issuing from Washington at rates much like we’ve been seeing.

 

That means more money into the stock market and the resultant upward pressure.

 

The stock market is already responding to that and to some other good news regarding the economy. As my colleague Alex Green reported last Friday:

 

* The US economy grew at a galloping 33.1% rate in the third quarter.

* An accompanying report revealed that new jobless claims declined by 40,000 in one week, to the lowest level since March 14, when the economic lockdown was about to begin.

* The economy has already recovered about half of the 22 million jobs lost in March and April.

* Consumer spending – 70% of all economic activity – rose an astonishing 40.7% in the third quarter.

* Much of this consumption was on big-ticket items like new homes, furniture, cars, home exercise equipment, and other durable goods. (Consumers don’t make major purchases unless they feel optimistic about their income and job security.)

* The personal savings rate was a healthy 15.8%, indicating that there’s still plenty of consumer spending capacity.

* And all of this happened without another federal stimulus package.

 

So I’m putting back half of the money I pulled out of the market immediately, and then gradually putting the rest back over the next several months – just to be safe.

Continue Reading

Saturday, November 7, 2020, Delray Beach, Florida


Worth Watching

No Comments

Night Crawler on Netflix 

I came across this on Netflix, surfing for something grim, stark, and disturbing. After watching it for a few minutes, I realized that I’d seen it before. But I kept watching, partly because my memory is terrible these days, but also because it was well photographed in a dark and moody sort of way.

The topic is American popular culture. And the theme is America’s morbid fascination with social and commercial vulgarity, and our existential preference for avoiding anything meaningful in life.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Renee Russo give mesmerizing performances.

If you like elevator pitches, I’d say Night Crawler is Network meets Taxi Driver.

Continue Reading