<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>The RANT &#187; What To Do When You Don&#8217;t Know What To Do</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.john-carlton.com/2008/01/what-to-do-when-you-dont-know-what-to-do/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.john-carlton.com</link>
	<description>Free &#38; damn good insight, advice, cross-talk &#38; mutterings from the most respected &#38; ripped-off marketing guru alive…</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:10:45 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1</generator>
		<item>
		<title>What To Do When You Don&#8217;t Know What To Do</title>
		<link>http://www.john-carlton.com/2008/01/what-to-do-when-you-dont-know-what-to-do/</link>
		<comments>http://www.john-carlton.com/2008/01/what-to-do-when-you-dont-know-what-to-do/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:57:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Carlton</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[entrepreneur]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freelance copywriters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General Archives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[long copy websites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[salesmanship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[small business marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.john-carlton.com/2008/01/06/what-to-do-when-you-dont-know-what-to-do/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sunday, 6:09pm Reno, NV Howdy&#8230; Here&#8217;s a question for you. It&#8217;s something that &#8212; once you know the answer &#8212; you sorta want to smack yourself upside your head, cuz it&#8217;s so obvious. However, it&#8217;s NOT so obvious until someone with experience reveals the answer to you. It&#8217;s simple, but most folks never &#8220;stumble&#8221; upon]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sunday, 6:09pm<br />
Reno, NV</p>
<p>Howdy&#8230;</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a question for you.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s something that &#8212; once you know the answer &#8212; you sorta want to smack yourself upside your head, cuz it&#8217;s so <em>obvious</em>.</p>
<p>However, it&#8217;s NOT so obvious until someone with experience <em>reveals</em> the answer to you.  It&#8217;s simple, but most folks never &#8220;stumble&#8221; upon it on their own.</p>
<p>I hate these kinds of questions, myself.  Except for, like, situations where I&#8217;m the one holding the big damn secret, and I get to do all the teasing and torturing.  It&#8217;s <em>fun </em>being the one in control.  All humans have at least a small sociopathic sadist hiding deep inside, you know&#8230;</p>
<p>But never mind about that.</p>
<p>What&#8217;s interesting here &#8212; and very, <em>very </em>important to marketers looking to earn the Big Bucks &#8212; is that despite the &#8220;obviousness&#8221; of the answer (which you&#8217;re very close to discovering)&#8230; fewer than one <em>professional </em>copywriter in a hundred has a clue to the solution.</p>
<p>And that&#8217;s the pro&#8217;s &#8212; the guys making a <em>living </em>at this.</p>
<p>For rookie entrepreneurs and flustered small biz owners&#8230; it&#8217;s like the Holy Grail of advertising.  They&#8217;ve <em>maybe </em>heard rumors about it, but harbor little hope of ever finding the answer without some serious help.</p>
<p>Still, it&#8217;s worth wracking your brain about, because (as top marketers know) all the really good wealth-producing secrets are <em>hidden </em>from most people.</p>
<p>This is the advanced stuff, folks.</p>
<p>So here&#8217;s the question&#8230; and I want you to <em>really </em>try to answer it for yourself before you peek at the answer:</p>
<p><em>Ahem</em>.</p>
<p>&#8220;What can a marketer do&#8230; when he <em>desperately </em>needs a money-making ad <em>fast</em>&#8230; and yet finds the &#8216;formal&#8217; process of writing a &#8216;real&#8217; sales pitch (or getting one written by others) too daunting to complete?&#8221;</p>
<p>In other words, you need to post, print or mail something (with wolves at the door)&#8230; and no way is a &#8216;real&#8217; looking ad gonna get completed in time.  So what do you do?</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll give you a hint:  The answer is NOT &#8220;do nothing.&#8221;  Or &#8220;crawl back into bed and curl into a sobbing fetal position.&#8221;  (A very common response, by the way, to this very common problem.  It&#8217;s why so <em>many </em>new businesses wither and die every year, too.)</p>
<p>The key words in this question are &#8220;desperately&#8221;&#8230; &#8220;money-making&#8221;&#8230; &#8220;fast&#8221;&#8230; and &#8220;real&#8221;.</p>
<p>Consider those words as you try to figure out the answer.</p>
<p>The need for results-getting ads is never-ending for <em>all </em>business owners&#8230; and most <em>never </em>adequately solve the problem of getting &#8220;real&#8221; ads created (either by using agencies or freelancers)&#8230; even when deadlines are loose and money&#8217;s no object.</p>
<p>Worse, though, is that neither entrepreneurs nor small biz owners ever come close to solving the problem of giving birth to &#8220;emergency&#8221; ads that need to get posted or published or mailed <em>right friggin&#8217; NOW</em>&#8230; especially when there&#8217;s no agency or freelancer available to help, or no money to hire them.</p>
<p>So what do you think the answer is?</p>
<p>Wracked with anxiety, under a cash crunch, with the hammer coming down&#8230; and no time or resources available to pay someone else to do it&#8230; or to create a &#8220;real&#8221; ad, with superscript, headline, subhead, bullets, guarantees, graphics, etc, <em>yourself</em>&#8230; what do you DO?</p>
<p>I&#8217;d love to hear your suggestions in the comments section.  I promise not to make fun of anyone&#8230; especially rookies who just want to give a stab at the answer.</p>
<p>Again, the question (re-phrased):  &#8220;What do you do, when you&#8217;re under the gun to create a money-making sales piece&#8230; and you simply don&#8217;t know how to create (or are overwhelmed by the requirements of) a &#8216;formal&#8217; type ad with all the bells and whistles?&#8221;</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll post the veteran&#8217;s short, elegant solution Tuesday evening.</p>
<p>Stay frosty,</p>
<p><strong>John Carlton</strong><br />
<a href="http://www.carltoncoaching.com">www.carltoncoaching.com</a></p>
<p>P.S.  C&#8217;mon.  Give it a go &#8212; leave a suggestion in the comments section here&#8230;</p>
<div class="fblike" style="height:25px; height:25px; overflow:hidden;"><iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.john-carlton.com%2F2008%2F01%2Fwhat-to-do-when-you-dont-know-what-to-do%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allow Transparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px;"></iframe></div>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.john-carlton.com/2008/01/what-to-do-when-you-dont-know-what-to-do/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>34</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

