Russel Ray's Blog

See something you like? Make it yours! Own it!

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:42:00 -0600

It never fails to amaze me when I start working with someone new in an industry that is so much, in my opinion, a personal relationship industry.

Real estate isn't like selling Green Giant Green Beans for 65¢ a can or 70¢ a can.

Real estate agents are asking both buyers and sellers to help them deal with hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes millions, changing hands, a decision that can have an impact for thirty years or more.

Many new agents who come to me tell me that they are not having the success they want, and when I dig a little deeper, I often find that they are doing everything their broker tells them to do. Therein, I think, lies part of the problem.

Certainly brokers want their agents to succeed. No one can argue with that, I hope. But many brokers simply take what their franchise offers, or develop a list of what their most successful agents have done, and then offer it to the newbies. That's a great place for newbies to start, but you still have to make it yours. You have to own it. If you say, "This is how it's done in my office," or "That's how Paul McCartney does it, and he's the most successful agent in our office," then you'll lose them. Why should they not be working with Paul McCartney or anyone else in your office?

Doing exactly what the most successful agent in your city does doesn't mean that it will work for you because you and s/he have different body language, different vocal inflections, different cars, etc.

Marketing is many thousands of years old, maybe even millions of years old. My wise old grandmother told me that there is no such thing as new marketing, only new ways to do old marketing.

If you see something on ActiveRain that you think can work for you, make it yours! Own it! That means adapting it to fit your company, your city or state, your personality. Failing that means that you would rather fail, and I don't believe that.

Part of Guerrilla Marketing is being you in everything you do.

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Fifteen recent blog posts

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The ActiveRain History Station: Am I, or am I not, the President?
The ActiveRain History Station: Ford didn't need a bailout
The ActiveRain History Station: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion....
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The ActiveRain History Station: Four score and seven years ago....
The ActiveRain History Station: M - I - C, K - E - Y, M - O - U - S - E
Wordless Wednesday: If only I had just 100,000 more points
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The ActiveRain Nature Station: Can you hear me?
"I'm a Loser! And I'm not what I appear to be."
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Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station
ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station
ActiveRain History Station
ActiveRain Library Station
ActiveRain Nature Station
ActiveRain Symphony Station
ActiveRain Travel Station

First impressions: Just how carefree is carefree?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:52:04 -0600

I went out for a long 14-mile round-trip walk a couple of days ago to see what I could see in the early morning light.

One of the things that I always enjoy looking for is first impressions of businesses that might want me to use their services or buy their products.

I like to take the junk mail that I get each week, note the address, and actually go by to see what kind of business they are running.

Sometimes I'm pleased, and other times I just have to wonder how carefree, carefree might be.

One could make the argument that they are so busy doing auto repairs that they don't have time to do common building maintenance.

On the other hand, though, if one were to make that argument, then the other side might argue that if they are so busy, then they should have enough money to hire someone to do common building maintenance.

Part of Guerrilla Marketing is taking care of the simple things, to make that first impression count.

First impressions do matter!

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The ActiveRain History Station: Ford didn't need a bailout
The ActiveRain History Station: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion....
If you don't need me, then I don't need you
The ActiveRain History Station: Four score and seven years ago....
The ActiveRain History Station: M - I - C, K - E - Y, M - O - U - S - E
Wordless Wednesday: If only I had just 100,000 more points
The ActiveRain Nature Station: Need an umbrella?
The ActiveRain History Station: Black iris, Oriental poppies, ram's head, and more
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Are you leading or following?
The ActiveRain Nature Station: Can you hear me?
"I'm a Loser! And I'm not what I appear to be."
Do you understand needs, wants, and goals?
The ActiveRain History Station: Veterans Day

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My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

The ActiveRain History Station: Am I, or am I not, the President?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:35:12 -0600

You think President Obama has problems with these Birthers? Ha! Some people still think that President Washington wasn't the first president of this great nation!

The problem stems from confusion about just exactly when the United States of America was born and when the presidency came about. Many think that it was born on July 4, 1776, but that is only partially true. There was a new nation born on that day, but the United States of America as we know it came about on March 4, 1789, the date that the current United States Constitution became effective after having been ratified by the required three-fourths of the States on June 21, 1788.

The first President of the United States under the current Constitution was George Washington, but what about the years from 1776 to 1789? Ah, that's where John Hanson (1721-1782) comes in, but it does get confusing.

From 1774 to November 1781, there were various Presidents of Congress, that Congress being the First Continental Congress
(September 5, 1774 - October 26, 1774), the Second Continental Congress (May 10, 1775 - March 1, 1781), and the Congress of the Confederation (March 1, 1781 - March 4, 1789):

Peyton Randolph, September 5, 1774 - October 22, 1774 (1st)
Henry Middleton, October 22, 1774 - October 26, 1774 (1st)
Peyton Randolph, May 10, 1775 - May 24, 1775 (2nd)
John Hancock, May 24, 1775 - October 29, 1777 (2nd)
Henry Laurens, November 1, 1777 - December 9, 1778 (2nd)
John Jay, December 10, 1778 - September 28, 1779 (2nd)
Samuel Huntington, September 28, 1779 - July 10, 1781 (2nd)
Thomas McKean, July 10, 1781 - November 5, 1781 (2nd)
John Hanson, November 5, 1781 - November 4, 1782 (Confederation)
Elias Boudinot, November 4, 1782 - November 3, 1783 (Confederation)
Thomas Mifflin, November 3, 1783 - June 3, 1784 (Confederation)
Richard Henry Lee, November 30, 1784 - November 4, 1785 (Confederation)
John Hancock, November 23, 1785 - June 5, 1786 (Confederation)
Nathaniel Gorham, June 6, 1786 - November 3, 1786 (Confederation)
Arthur St. Clair, February 2, 1787 - November 4, 1787 (Confederation)
Cyrus Griffin, January 22, 1788 - November 15, 1788 (Confederation)

John Hanson, then, was the first President of Congress to be elected under the terms of the Articles of Confederation, but the Articles of Confederation were then superseded by the United States Constitution in 1789, which created the United States of America as we now know it.

So if someone tells you that there was a President before George Washington, tell that person that there were sixteen Presidents before George Washington.

John Hanson died on this date in 1782.

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Sixteen recent blog posts

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The ActiveRain History Station: Four score and seven years ago....
The ActiveRain History Station: M - I - C, K - E - Y, M - O - U - S - E
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The ActiveRain History Station: Veterans Day
The ActiveRain History Station: Where is YOUR Big Bird?
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Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

The ActiveRain History Station: Ford didn't need a bailout

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:22:01 -0600

Arguably one of the most exciting car debuts in history was that of the Ford Mustang.

The Mustang was introduced to the public on April 17, 1964, at the New York World's Fair. As a 1964½ model priced at just $2,368, Ford sold 417,000 Mustangs in the first twelve months of production, although Ford was projecting sales of only 100,000.

The Mustang started the "pony car" generation, and the pony car wars morphed into the muscle car wars between Mustang, Camaro, Firebird, Javelin, and Barracuda. With cheap gas, muscle cars continued to grow in size, including the size of the engine, with many cars having cubic-inch displacement engines up in the 400s.

The rarest of all production Mustangs was released on this date in 1970: the Boss 351 Mustang. It made its first showing at the Detroit Auto Show.

What makes the Boss 351 the rarest Mustang ever released was its single production year, 1971, and the fact that only 1,806 units were manufactured. Sadly, only 591 Boss 351 Mustangs are known to exist today.

The Boss 351 featured a powerful 8-cyclinder engine built on Ford's new "Cleveland" block, and had a factory rating of 300 horsepower, although it was known to produce 330 horsepoer and 370 lbs-ft of torque. It came with a 4-speed transmission with Hurst shifter, a 3.91 geared Traction-Lok rear end, "Ram Air" induction hood, power front disc brakes, "competition" suspension, full gauges, HD cooling package, dual mirrors, driving lights, high-back bucket seats, sport rims, and F60 Wide-O-Oval tires.

If you'd like to own a 1971 Boss 351 Mustang, there is a beautiful black and "grabber yellow" one for sale for just $59,900 at carsonline.com:

If you have a 1971 Boss 351 sitting in your garage, don't be selfish. Please take some pictures and share them with our ActiveRain community.

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If you don't need me, then I don't need you
The ActiveRain History Station: Four score and seven years ago....
The ActiveRain History Station: M - I - C, K - E - Y, M - O - U - S - E
Wordless Wednesday: If only I had just 100,000 more points
The ActiveRain Nature Station: Need an umbrella?
The ActiveRain History Station: Black iris, Oriental poppies, ram's head, and more
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Are you leading or following?
The ActiveRain Nature Station: Can you hear me?
"I'm a Loser! And I'm not what I appear to be."
Do you understand needs, wants, and goals?
The ActiveRain History Station: Veterans Day
The ActiveRain History Station: Where is YOUR Big Bird?
How can you get emails if your email box is full?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

The ActiveRain History Station: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion....

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:28:04 -0600

As soon as the United States Constitution went into effect on March 4, 1789, Congress proposed twelve amendments which would become known as the Bill of Rights.

Of course, American history afficionados know that the first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights, not the first twelve.

So what gives? Ah, I'm glad you asked.

The original 12 Articles were proposed on September 25, 1789, and just six weeks later, on November 20, 1789, New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights, although it rejected Article II.

It would be another 25 months before Virginia became the eleventh state to ratify the Bill of Rights, thereby putting them into effect.

Article I and II of the proposed amendments were not ratified by three-fourths of the States, so they did not become part of the Bill of Rights.

Article II, however, concerning congressional pay raises, was eventually ratified in 1992 as the 27th Amendment, 202½ years after it was submitted.

Other interesting facts about the Bill of Rights:

Connecticut, Georgia, and Massachusetts did not ratify the Bill of Rights until 1939, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of their original ratification.
George Washington had 14 handwritten copies of the Bill of Rights created, one for Congress and one each for the original 13 States. Georgia, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania copies are missing. New York's was destroyed in a fire, while Pennsylvania's "went missing" in the late 1790s. Georgia's and Maryland's copies are believed to be in the New York Public Library and the National Archives but can't be definitively identified.
North Carolina's copy was stolen by a Union soldier in April 1865 and returned to North Carolina in 2005, 140 years later by the FBI's Special Agent Robert King Wittman. He got his 15 minutes of fame. The copy is valued at $30 million.
Virginia's copy is the one that made the Bill of Rights Tour in 1991 to celebrate the bicentennial.
Originally, the Bill of Rights restrictions applied only to the federal government and not to the several state governments. Interesting. How could that be? Several states had established state churches up until the 1820s, and, beginning beginning in the 1830s, several Southern States banned abolitionist literature. In Barron v. Baltimore, 1933, the Supreme Court ruled that the Bill of Rights provided "security against the apprehended encroachments of the general government-not against those of local governments." In Gitlow v. New York, 1925, the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868, could make certain applications of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states: "For present purposes we may and do presume that freedom of speech and of the press - which are protected by the First Amendment from abridgment by Congress - are among the fundamental personal rights and 'liberties' protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from impairment by the States." The Court also held that, "It does not protect publications prompting the overthrow of government by force." The Supreme Court has cited Gitlow v. New York as precedent for many decisions that made most, but not all, of the provisions of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states under the doctrine of "selective incorporation." Wow! I never knew.

The Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

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If you don't need me, then I don't need you.

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:46:54 -0600

This post was inspired by Gary Woltal's post, "The role of chemistry in selecting an agent."

I've bought and sold many a house in my life, particularly when I was doing a lot of property renovations and flippings.

Whenever I was looking for a Realtor to help me buy or sell, I never chose the #1 Realtor. Didn't matter how much experience s/he had, how many homes s/he had helped people buy or sell, or anything else.

My purpose was to help those who needed help, and most #1 Realtors didn't need my help. However, that doesn't mean that I didn't give them the chance to earn my business. It was how they attempted to earn my business that showed me whether or not they really did need my help.

Whenever I needed a Realtor, I simply asked "Why should I hire you?". If they personally came by my office to tell me why I should hire them, I put them on my short list. If they sent an associate or even a clerk in shorts, tank top, and flip flops (a true story) to give me a printed presentation, they went on my "nope" list.

In other words, if they didn't at least care enough about my business to want to meet me initially and then hand me off to an associate, then I perceived that they didn't need me.

If they didn't need me, then I didn't need them. It was that simple.

I think it's still that simple, perhaps even more so as companies continue to send customer relations jobs overseas or replace them with these circular phone systems.

We use technology as a fishing reel, casting that line and hook out there in the wild hoping that a prospect will bite, but you still have to reel them in, and you can best do that if you're willing to talk with your prospects, to meet them in person, to use your associates and clerks as support, not as the point of first contact.

It doesn't matter the industry, marketing research continues to show that people like doing business with other people, not with robots, automatons, or circular phone systems that sound like recorded voices. So why do big businesses continue to do the opposite?

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Fifteen recent blog posts

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The ActiveRain History Station: M - I - C, K - E - Y, M - O - U - S - E
Wordless Wednesday: If only I had just 100,000 more points
The ActiveRain Nature Station: Need an umbrella?
The ActiveRain History Station: Black iris, Oriental poppies, ram's head, and more
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Are you leading or following?
The ActiveRain Nature Station: Can you hear me?
"I'm a Loser! And I'm not what I appear to be."
Do you understand needs, wants, and goals?
The ActiveRain History Station: Veterans Day
The ActiveRain History Station: Where is YOUR Big Bird?
How can you get emails if your email box is full?
Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

The ActiveRain History Station: Four score and seven years ago....

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:58:11 -0600

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate ... we can not consecrate ... we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

What you just read is the complete text of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863, and although he thought that "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here," the Gettysburg Address is not only remembered, but it is, at 272 words, one of the most memorable and quoted speeches in American history.

Delivered at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln eloquently reminded the war-weary nation why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought four months earlier, was the single bloodiest battle of the Civil War, with more than 45,000 men killed, injured, captured, or missing. It was the turning point of the war as General Robert E. Lee's defeat and retreat from Gettysburg marked the last Confederate invasion of Northern territory and the beginning of the Southern army's ultimate decline.

Reaction to Lincoln's three-minute speech was initially mixed, although divided strictly along party lines. Sound familiar? Nothing's changed in 146 years. ☺☺☻☻☺☺

Although Lincoln considered it a "little speech," it is now considered by most historians to be the most eloquent articulation of the democratic vision ever written.

I memorized those 272 words
back in the Fall of 1973
in order to get extra credit
for my freshman American history class
at Texas A&M University.

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Wordless Wednesday: If only I had just 100,000 more points
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The ActiveRain History Station: Black iris, Oriental poppies, ram's head, and more
Is it time to let go?
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The ActiveRain Nature Station: Can you hear me?
"I'm a Loser! And I'm not what I appear to be."
Do you understand needs, wants, and goals?
The ActiveRain History Station: Veterans Day
The ActiveRain History Station: Where is YOUR Big Bird?
How can you get emails if your email box is full?
Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

The ActiveRain History Station: M I C, K E Y, M O U S E

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:22:21 -0600

M - I - C

K - E - Y

M - O - U - S - E

Why?

Because we like you on this day in 1928, Mickey Mouse was born on the ship, Steamboat Willie, or at least, that's the official version from The Walt Disney Company.

True Mouseketeers know that the first animated cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse was Mickey Mouse in Plane Crazy, a silent film released on May 15, 1928.

Steamboat Willie was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon with sound. Now why that makes a difference in the age of Mickey Mouse, well, only Walt Disney would know, and he died in 1966.

Other interesting facts about Mickey Mouse:

Mickey's voice was none other than that of Walt Disney himself.
Disney had a soundtrack added to Mickey Mouse in Plane Crazy in December 1928, and when he copyrighted the soundtracked cartoon in 1930, he shortened the name to Plane Crazy.
In Plane Crazy, Mickey Mouse used force to try to get Minnie Mouse to kiss him. Seems times haven't changed, have they.
Felix the Cat also makes an appearance in Plane Crazy.
Steamboat Willie is actually the third Mickey Mouse cartoon made. The Gallopin' Gaucho was the second cartoon made, but it was released after Steamboat Willie.
Steamboat Willie premiered at New York's 79th Street Theatre, playing ahead of Gang War, a long-forgotten film.
Steamboat Willie has had its copyright repeatedly extended by acts of Congress. Recent evidence, though, suggests that it might be in the public domain due to technicalities in the original copyright notice.
It is preserved in the National Film Registry, maintained by the Library of Congress.
Voted #13 of the 50 greatest cartoons of all time in 1994.
Over the years, several scenes were removed from Steamboat Willie, although restored in recent years in the interest of historical accuracy. Such scenes include Mickey pulling a cat's tail and then swinging the cat by the tail above his head, picking up a nursing sow and "playing" her babies like an acccordion, and using a goose as bagpipes.

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The ActiveRain Nature Station: Need an umbrella?
The ActiveRain History Station: Black iris, Oriental poppies, ram's head, and more
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Are you leading or following?
The ActiveRain Nature Station: Can you hear me?
"I'm a Loser! And I'm not what I appear to be."
Do you understand needs, wants, and goals?
The ActiveRain History Station: Veterans Day
The ActiveRain History Station: Where is YOUR Big Bird?
How can you get emails if your email box is full?
Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

The ActiveRain Nature Station: Need an umbrella?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:29:08 -0600

My wise old grandmother had a house full of plants, all of them quite common among houseplants, but all of them beautiful because she lovingly took care of them.

One of the plants that I liked the most was her Umbrella Tree (Schefflera arboricola). I knew it simply as a schefflera, but here in San Diego they call them Umbrella Trees.

I was so proud when I finally got one of my own for my dorm room at Texas A&M University, and I had it from 1973 until 1993 when I moved to San Diego. It had grown to about six feet tall in twenty years, which made me even prouder since I do believe I had the tallest one in College Station and Houston.

Alas, I come to San Diego, and they grow as outdoor plants, get about 30 feet tall, and they bloom! The leaves do look like umbrellas, and I've always liked the symmetry that they offer. Here is a schefflera leaf stalk, looking quite pretty:

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The ActiveRain Nature Station: Can you hear me?
"I'm a Loser! And I'm not what I appear to be."
Do you understand needs, wants, and goals?
The ActiveRain History Station: Veterans Day
The ActiveRain History Station: Where is YOUR Big Bird?
How can you get emails if your email box is full?
Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
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My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

The ActiveRain History Station: Black iris, Oriental poppies, ram's head, and more

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:37:51 -0600

Who would you think of if I mentioned a black iris, Oriental poppies, a ram's head, the Lawrence tree, ladder to the moon, a cow's skull, and calico roses, all in the same breath?

This is a series of ActiveRain History Station programs using United States postage stamps as our history book.

For other programs in this series on the ActiveRain History Station, simply click here.

How about Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (1887-1986)?

Georgia O'Keeffe, recognized as one of the greatest American artists of the twentieth century, was born on this day in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

O'Keefe is best known for her paintings of animal bones, flowers, landscapes, rocks, and shells, often combining them in unusual ways to create abstracts and representations.

She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in the early 1900s, had her first art exhibition in 1916 at Gallery 291, owned by famed photographer Alfred Stieglitz, whom she married in 1924.

Other interesting facts about Georgia O'Keeffe:

Her parents were Wisconsin dairy farmers.
Her maternal grandfather, George Totto, was a Hungarian Count who came to America in 1848 and Georgia Totto was his namesake.
She is descended on her mother's side from Edward Fuller, a passenger on the Mayflower and a signer of the Mayflower Compact.
One of seven children.
She found inspiration in the rural Southwest, particularly New Mexico, where she moved in 1946, although she had spent a great portion of each year there during the preceding ten years.
When Alfred Stieglitz exhibited ten of her paintings at his Gallery 291, he did so unbeknownst to Georgia. After confronting him, she decided to let them remain on display.
Stieglitz and O'Keeffe maintained an affair for about six years before Stieglitz divorced his wife and married Georgia.
In 1928, six of her calla lily paintings sold for $25,000, the highest price ever paid for a group of paintings.
In 1946, the Museum of Modern Art, in Manhattan, held a retrospective on Georgia O'Keeffe, the first ever for a woman artist.
President Gerald Ford awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.
Upon her death, her will was contested by the O'Keeffe family because many codicils had left everything to Juan Hamilton, whom she had originally hired to do odd jobs around her home. Hamilton eventually became her closest friend, confidante, and business manager. The settlement became a famous court case involing estate planning.
The Georgia O'Keeffe Home and Museum in Abiquiu, New Mexico, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998.
Other well known works of hers that you've probably seen: Cow's Skull With Calico Roses; Petunia No. 2; The Lawrence Tree; Summer Days; Above the Clouds I; and Black Cross, New Mexico.

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Fifteen recent blog posts

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"I'm a Loser! And I'm not what I appear to be."
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The ActiveRain History Station: Veterans Day
The ActiveRain History Station: Where is YOUR Big Bird?
How can you get emails if your email box is full?
Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
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My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

Is it time to let go?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:31:01 -0600

Occasionally I'll read a blog post from someone who is questioning how to expand the business since s/he is a hands-on person, or can't find quality people, or whatever.

The first thing to do in that situation is to first realize that no one will do as good a job as you will. This is easy to do.

The second thing to do is to realize that you have strengths, and then to write them down. This is also easy to do.

Next, realize that you have weaknesses, and then write them down, too. This is difficult because no one wants to admit that they have weaknesses, much less write them down.

Once you have accomplished that, hire the best people you can. Surround yourself with people whose weaknesses are complemented by your strengths, and whose strengths complement your weaknesses. The best might cost a little more, but if you can....

....let go and let those people do their jobs, you'll find that they are worth every penny. The only caveat is to trust them, but check up on them. People trusted Bernie Madoff but apparently no one checked up on him.

Is it time to let go?

♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪♪♫♫♫♪♫♪♫♫♪♪

Fifteen recent blog posts

Are you leading or following?
The ActiveRain Nature Station: Can you hear me?
"I'm a Loser! And I'm not what I appear to be."
Do you understand needs, wants, and goals?
The ActiveRain History Station: Veterans Day
The ActiveRain History Station: Where is YOUR Big Bird?
How can you get emails if your email box is full?
Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
ActiveRain Group name changes
Does it work?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

Are you leading or following?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:35:43 -0600

Leaders have an ability to get results. Sometimes it's an innate ability that many people wish they had, and other times it takes many years, many companies, and many seminars and leadership workshops to develop.

As with problem solving, though, where the first step to solving a problem is identifying it, the first step to leadership is simply accepting full responsibiliity for yourself, your job, your life.

Leaders refuse to make excuses or lay blame on others, even if doing so might be legitimate and easy. Leaders simply look at a problem, devise solutions to resolve the problem, take action to implement the solutions, and then move on.

Even though you might not think you are a leader, or you might not have employees to lead, you do have to lead your Clients to the right house or the right mortgage. You analyze your problems (you need money), your Clients' problems (they need a house or a mortgage), devise solutions to resolve them, take action on those solutions, and move on.

Followers simply implement the resolutions of their leaders.

So, are you leading or following? They both have their places in business, but you'll find that leaders make more money. They also have more responsibility; it comes with the job.

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Fifteen recent blog posts

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"I'm a Loser! And I'm not what I appear to be."
Do you understand needs, wants, and goals?
The ActiveRain History Station: Veterans Day
The ActiveRain History Station: Where is YOUR Big Bird?
How can you get emails if your email box is full?
Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
ActiveRain Group name changes
Does it work?
Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

The ActiveRain Nature Station: Can you hear me?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:35:55 -0600

In conjunction with my post about the victory by the seals in the California courts and legislature, I thought we'd switch for a few moments from history to nature on our United States postage stamps and look at the Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina).

And just for my Canadian friends, I'll note that an alternate spelling is "Harbour Seal."

Of course, if one is north of the border, maybe "Harbor Seal" is the alternate spelling. ☺☻☺☻

The Harbor Seal is a true seal that is often confused with fur seals and sea lions. The main noticeable difference is that the true seal does not have external ears.

They thrive along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, as well as the Baltic and North seas. With a population of about 500,00, they are not threatened anymore, mainly because seal hunting, once very popular, is illegal in most countries. There are subspecies that are threatened in specific habitats, and in the United States they are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

Harbor Seals are pinnipeds, or fin-footed semi-aquatic mammals. They grow to about six feet in length with a weight of almost 370 pounds. Harbor Seals can stay under water for up to ten minutes and dive to depths of 1,500 feet.

As with humans, the female Harbor Seal outlives the males. Females bear a single pup, which is able to swim and dive within hours of birth.

The Pacific Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina richardsi) population numbers about 30,000. You can find their California rookeries at the La Jolla cove in San Diego, Cannery Row in Monterey, Moss Landing on Monterey Bay, Bolinas Lagoon in Marin County, the Channel Islands, and along the central California coast at Carpinteria and Big Sur.

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Fifteen recent blog posts

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Do you understand needs, wants, and goals?
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The ActiveRain History Station: Where is YOUR Big Bird?
How can you get emails if your email box is full?
Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
ActiveRain Group name changes
Does it work?
Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

"I'm a Loser! And I'm not what I appear to be."

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:14:53 -0600

People get their inspiration from different sources. Some read The Bible each day, others look for inspiration in the simple words of any good book, others look for inspiration in the lives of the people around them, and still others....

"I'm A Loser," by The Beatles

I'm not prejudiced. I'll take inspiration anywhere I can find it -- books, newspapers, magazines, people, music, Mother and Father Nature....., and I'm always on the lookout to find that inspiration.

Yesterday, well, I'm not sure I found inspiration, but then again, my wise old grandmother always told me that "sometimes the truth hurts."

Caution: Do not read any further if you cannot accept the truth.

☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺

Shouldn't that be "Whomever reads this"? ☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺

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Fifteen recent blog posts

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The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
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Does it work?
Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor
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ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

Do you understand needs, wants, and goals?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:04:19 -0600

I was reading a blog post this morning about the two secrets to success, which the blogger stated were (1) know what you want, and (2) be committed.

While I understand what she was saying, I also think it's vitally important to be able to distinguish between one's needs, wants, and goals.

Lots of people during the past several years got into trouble because they wanted a house with a plasma television in every room, including bathrooms, garage, laundry room, kitchen, etc.

They wanted what their neighbors had, even though their neighbors might have gotten what they got under totally different circumstances.

My own life believes that wants (those plasma televisions; a new car every year, etc.) are not necessary to life, while needs (food, clothing, shelter, etc.) are, and while goals, whatever they may be, are necessary to make something out of life.

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Fifteen recent blog posts

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How can you get emails if your email box is full?
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The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
ActiveRain Group name changes
Does it work?
Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor
Where are the ActiveRain point dogs?
Do you make friends by commenting, subscribing, or associating? Or all?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

The ActiveRain History Station: Veterans Day

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:38:54 -0600

I'm firmly convinced that there will never be peace in the world during my life time, nor during any one's lifetime, as long as we have people fighting over religious beliefs and patriotism. John Lennon's song Imagine comes to mind.

This is a series of ActiveRain History Station programs using United States postage stamps as our history book.

For other programs in this series on the ActiveRain History Station, simply click here.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Today is Veterans Day. Sure, we all know about the famous Veterans: George Washington, George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy. And even some infamous ones like Benedict Arnold.

While many calendars and people use the singular possessive Veteran's Day or the group posssessive Veterans' Day, and they are grammatically correct, the United States Government has declared that the attibutive Veterans Day is the correct spelling.

Veterans Day is called Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world and remembers the signing of Armistice by Germany to end major hostilities of World War I, signed at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918.

President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day on November 11, 1919, and an Act of Congress of May 13, 1938, made November 11 an annual Federal holiday.

Originally meant to recognize just the veterans of World War I, it was 1954 when President Eisenhower signed into law a bill declaring that Armistice Day recognized all Veterans. Congress amedned the Act on November 8, 1954, renaming Armistice Day as Veterans Day.

There are several ActiveRain posts available today about Veterans Day, as well as information available everywhere on the Internet, so I won't rehash what has been rehashed many times. Instead, I leave you with the following slide show of 50 United States postage stamps that have been issued to recognize our Veterans. If the slide show here doesn't work on your computer, click on "View All Images" to watch it at slide.com.

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The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
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Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor
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Do you make friends by commenting, subscribing, or associating? Or all?
Have you ever deleted a post at another Member's request?

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My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

The ActiveRain History Station: Where is YOUR Big Bird?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:31:55 -0600

Is Big Bird really 40 years old?

Does Big Bird know what kind of bird he is yet?

Are you a Sesame Streeter?

This is a series of ActiveRain History Station programs using United States postage stamps as our history book.

For other programs in this series on the ActiveRain History Station, simply click here.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

On this date in 1969, Sesame Street debuted on PBS. It is the longest running children's program on television, and has been watched by 74 million people (I'm not one of the 74 million-could be why I don't know my alphabet-qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm). Eight million people continue to tune in each week in over 120 countries.

Sesame Street offered short segments featuring puppets, animation, and live actors, a format that was immensely successful. Over the years, though, some critics have blamed the show and its use of brief segments for shrinking children's attention spans. Whatever.

Other interesting items about Sesame Street and Big Bird:

Sesame Street muppets were created by Jim Henson (1936-1990).
Because it debuted on PBS, 67% of the nation, yet 1.9 million households tuned in.
"If you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them."—author Malcolm Gladwell. This seems to be a common theme each year if you watch the various local, state, and national "Teacher of the Year" awards.
The different segments of the show were originally called "teaching commercials."
Many songs have become classics, even to the extent of being recorded by music stars:
♫ "Rubber Duckie" was written in 1970, recorded by the Bostop Pops in 1971, and became a hit in Germany in 1996.
♫ "Bein' Green" was written in 1970 and recorded by Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles.
♫ "Sing" became a hit for The Carpenters in 1973.
Sesame Street has received 118 Emmy Awards through 2009, more than any other television program.
At the end of the first season, the Educational Testing Service reported that children who watched Sesame Street regularly were 62% more likely to recognize a rectangle.
Most people think that Big Bird is a canary, but in an episode of Sesame Street Big Bird, he said he was "more of a condor." On Hollywood Squares in 1976, he said he was a lark. After 40 years, other than being old, does he know yet what kind of bird he is?

Did you watch Sesame Street?

♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪♪♫♫♫♪♫♪♫♫♪♪

Fifteen recent blog posts

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Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
ActiveRain Group name changes
Does it work?
Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor
Where are the ActiveRain point dogs?
Do you make friends by commenting, subscribing, or associating? Or all?
Have you ever deleted a post at another Member's request?
Are you doing your part to help ActiveRain?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

How can you get emails if your email box is full?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:09:13 -0600

After regularly admonishing Clients, family, friends, business associates, and anyone else who would listen about regularly checking their email boxes so that I don't get bounced emails saying something like "email box full," well, I'm embarrassed to say that it has happened to me.

I have many web sites and many email addresses, but they all forward to my main email at russelraypc@aol.com. I know, I know. I've still got AOL. Yep. I've been with them since 1994 and won't be leaving anytime soon.

But my email box at AOL is never full. The worst I've had was when ActiveRain quit sending email notifications for a few days and then sent them all at one time. I had something like 172 email notifications in the space of a couple of hours.

No, it's not my AOL email box that was full, it was my primary web site email box that was full. Little did I know that even if you forward emails somewhere else, the originator of the email forwarding also keeps them. So even though I have a quota of 500 MB for my email box, which I never in my wildest dreams thought I would use, well, I opened my CPanel and found 132,839 emails that have been forwarded to me, and kept, since I created that web site back in February 2008.

Not only do I have an overload of emails, but I can't figure out how to delete them all, and neither could technical support. So my situation has been kicked up to technicals support's technical support.

Moral of this story. If you have other email addresses that are forwarding to somewhere else, check those email boxes that are being forwarded to make sure they are not full and that you are not losing business.

I shall now go hide in the closet.

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Fifteen recent blog posts

The ActiveRain History Station: Were you born around August 9, 1966?
Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home
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The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
ActiveRain Group name changes
Does it work?
Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor
Where are the ActiveRain point dogs?
Do you make friends by commenting, subscribing, or associating? Or all?
Have you ever deleted a post at another Member's request?
Are you doing your part to help ActiveRain?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

The ActiveRain History Station: Were you born around August 9, 1966?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:34:17 -0600

If you were, I think I might know what your parents were doing on November 9, 1965! LOL

This is a series of ActiveRain History Station programs using United States postage stamps as our history book.

For other programs in this series on the ActiveRain History Station, simply click here.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

The full blame for your parents doing the naughty, naughty can't be laid on their bed (or anywhere else) since on this day in 1965, the Northeast Blackout affected 30 million people in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Ontario, Canada.

In some areas, people went without electricity for up to 13½ hours. And what do YOU do when the lights go out?

According to Wikipedia,

"The cause of the failure was human error that happened days before the blackout when maintenance personnel incorrectly set a protective relay on one of the transmission lines between the Niagara generating station Sir Adam Beck and Station No. 2 in Queenston, Ontario. The safety relay, which is set to trip if the current exceeds the capacity of the transmission line, was set too low."

The misset relay caused a domino effect when it shut down, forcing electricity on to other power transmission lines and overloading them, causing them to shut down. As transmission lines shut down, power plants, with no place to send their electricity, also shut down to prevent damage. On and on and on....

Other interesting facts about the Northeast Blackout of 1965:

Many people were trapped in elevators for several hours.
Fort Erie in Ontario did not lose power because it was using older 25Hz generators rather than newer 60Hz generators.
WABC radio host Dan Ingram in New York City reported that he thought the music seemed slow. Analysis afterwards revealed that electric frequency up to six minutes before the blackout had fallen to as low as 51Hz, causing things tuned to the 60Hz frequency to run slower.
UFO reports increased over the blacked out areas.
Holyoke, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut; and parts of New York City and Bergen County, New Jersey, did not lose power because they were using gas turbine power generators.
A full moon lit up the dark sky.
Only five reports of looting occurred in New York City, the lowest crime total for any night in the city's history.
Popular culture about the blackout:
♪ "Where Were You When the Lights Went out," 1968 movie
♪ "Massachusetts," a song by the Bee Gees
♪ "The Short Happy Circuit of Aunt Clara," an episode of Bewitched.
♪ "Double Identity," an episode of Quantum Leap.
♪ "Double Drick," an episode of Green Acres
♪ "Sports and Leisure," an episode of Wings
Even though episode #4 of the first season of Monk mentions one of the character's conception during the blackout, J. Richard Udry, a demographer at the University of North Carolina, did a careful statistical study of birth rates in the affected areas and found no increase. Drat. So much for the title of my post here. ☺☺☺

So where were you on November 9, 1965?

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Fifteen recent blog posts

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The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
ActiveRain Group name changes
Does it work?
Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor
Where are the ActiveRain point dogs?
Do you make friends by commenting, subscribing, or associating? Or all?
Have you ever deleted a post at another Member's request?
Are you doing your part to help ActiveRain?
Did you know there are still unpaid internships in today's world?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:39:12 -0600

I was cleaning up the place while I was cooking supper and found an old Kellogg's box from Costco that Zoey the Cool Cat hasn't used in quite some time.

Remembering that I had moved a box a few weeks ago, and the simple act of relocating it piqued Zoey the Cool Cat's interest again, I decided to see if that was just a fluke, or if location really does make a difference.

So I moved the box from the garage to the bed in the home office. Following are the results of my experiment.

♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪♪♫♫♫♪♫♪♫♫♪♪

Fifteen recent blog posts

The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
ActiveRain Group name changes
Does it work?
Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor
Where are the ActiveRain point dogs?
Do you make friends by commenting, subscribing, or associating? Or all?
Have you ever deleted a post at another Member's request?
Are you doing your part to help ActiveRain?
Did you know there are still unpaid internships in today's world?
Have you considered taking down your web site and just relying on ActiveRain?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:32:03 -0600

My, my, my, oh my.

I posted to my blog (Developing your contact list), went to visit a past Client who is now a nursing mother, and came back to find sixty ActiveRain emails.

On a Sunday!

Must be a Featured Post.

Nope. (Drat! ☺)

Judging from the number of emails I got after my most recent post, seems I struck two nerves, a positive one with those who left comments, and a negative one with those who didn't leave comments but chose to email me instead.

Here are some of the comments I received by email:

"You're an idiot."—Short and sweet. Concise and to the point.
I can't believe a marketing/business consultant is telling realtors [sic] to drive or walk around neighborhoods and then send postcards. dumb [sic].—The word Realtors is registered by the National Association of Realtors, and while they say that you don't have to use the ® symbol, you do have to capitalize the word.
I hope your list isn't in order cause #1 should be #100.—They are not in order, but it's amazing how many homes one can sell in one's neighborhood or farm when one takes the time to get out there and actually meet one's neighbors.
That's got to be the funniest post I've read in a long time.—Laughter is the best medicine, but a good marketing plan that one adheres to persistently and consistently is the best road to success.
Why are you at Active Rain if you're still propounding snail mail?—ActiveRain should be a part of your marketing plan, but not the only part. (I had to look up the definition of "propounding" even though I understood the context, just didn't know the word -- love learning new stuff.)

I always enjoy it when I get feedback to anything that I do, and I would remind you Realtors that you are in a personal relationship industry. Buyers and Sellers are asking you to trust them when it comes to making or spending tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars, either immediately or over the course of the next thirty years with a home mortgage.

Whatever you do, and I don't know of anything that's negative as long as what you do is legal, ethical, and moral -- and two of those three are up to you to decide -- make it personal, and do it persistently and consistently. If you do, you'll see long-term success.

I'll remind you of what Warren Buffet said in the Summer of 2008 about his greatest secret for becoming the world's richest person: "If everyone is doing something, do something else." For those who don't know about his biggest acquisition this past week, he bought himself an entire railroad, the BNSF Railway. We're in the Internet age and he's buying 19th Century technology?

Think about that, and then get busy. In my next post, I'll show you how to really make another piece of 19th Century technology, snail mail, work for YOU!

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The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:29:50 -0600

This is part of a series of posts that I'm doing about Guerrilla Marketing based on the book Guerrilla Marketing Weapons, by Jay Conrad Levinson.

Previous Guerrilla Marketing posts can be accessed by clicking here.

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The very first sentence in this chapter is very telling and should be taken literally: "Do everything short of illegal activities to compile a gigantic list of people...."

I often get asked how to create a database, so following are a few of my favorite ideas that many of my Clients have had continued success with.

The first place is your own neighborhood or farming area. Walk or drive around, record the address, make notes about each house -- flowers, paint color, trees, car in the driveway, children, whatever, something that catches your attention because of your own interests or your own family. Then when you get back to the office, send them a little postcard: "Howdy, Neighbor. When I was driving down your street today, I noticed your beautiful flowers. I just wanted to let you know that I'm a Realtor right here at 1234 Penny Lane, so if you or your family, friends, and business associates have any questions about real estate or need help selling or buying a home, please let me know."
Remember to have a sign-up area on all pages of your web site, not just the home page. I would recommend against the window that pops up every time someone goes to a different page on your web site. You'll lose them after three times. Just put a link at the top and bottom of each page: "Click here to register" or "Click here to sign up for my monthly email newsletter."
Don't neglect the sphere of influence (SOI) that you already have. This SOI includes your own family, friends, and business associates, even if they were former family, former friends, or former business associates. Hopefully you didn't burn any bridges with that divorce....
Contact your favorite title company representative (TCR). Many TCRs here are only too happy to provide a list of property owners in specific zip codes, or even as detailed as specific streets. Occasionally, you'll see in these lists a note saying "DO NOT MAIL." Although there is a DO NOT CALL registry, there is no such thing as a DO NOT MAIL registry, so feel free to mail if you'd like. What I do when I find a DO NOT MAIL request, though, is revert to #1 above for that address.
This is my favorite: Carry postcards with you so that if when you strike up a conversation with someone at the grocery store, gas station, or beach, you can give them a postcard along with your business card. The postcard is simply an invitation to visit your web site, your ActiveRain blog, and mail the postcard back with their email address to sign up for your monthly email newsletter. Make sure you include the URL to your web site and your ActiveRain blog. I can't tell you how many marketing pieces I see that say, "Visit my web site/blog" and don't provide the URL.

Feel free to contribute by leaving your own idea in a comment.

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Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:39:36 -0600

This post is one of a series based on the book, Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned About Life In School — But Didn't.

This book is a very powerful inspirational and self-help book without being pretentious about being powerful, inspirational, or a self-help book.

If you're interested in doing something about your life and don't have the money right now for a life coach, try this book.

There are used copies at amazon.com for pennies on the dollar.

Maybe something here, or in this series, will be the inspiration that can help you through a particularly tough day or time in your life.

Previous Life series posts can be accessed by clicking here.

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The chapter in this book about death is quite interesting, and even enlightening if one can tolerate reading about death. Therein lies the quandary.

One section is about a child's view of death since many children, if not most children, are exposed to death when grandma or granddad dies, or a favorite pet dies. Life goes from having a loving pet or family member is now a cold, silent corpse.

The more people a child asks, the more conflicting the answers might become. Perhaps only sex is cloaked in more mystery than death.

Adults cry, or withdraw from the family. Visits to the hospital. Unpleasant sights and smells. Religion provides a list of sins by which, after death, there is fire and brimstone, burning sulphur, and hell. Death must hurt. Death is terrible. I'm going to hell.

Is it any wonder that children put death on hold after their first experience? If they don't have to think about it, they won't. Just another unpleasant task that can be put off, like homework.

What kind of homework are you putting off? Analysis of your business, income, expenses, marketing, time with family? Is it time to sit down and think about things that you don't want to think about. Time to do your homework?

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The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:52:27 -0600

This is a series of ActiveRain History Station programs using United States postage stamps as our history book.

For other programs in this series on the ActiveRain History Station, simply click here.

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Since the first week in November has been election season for many decades, the next stamp and person we'll look at here is a 5¢ denomination issued in 1882 featuring James A. Garfield (1831-1881), the twentieth President of the United States:

Garfield was born in what is now Moreland Hills, Oregon. After studying at Hiram College in Ohio and Williams College in Massachusetts, he worked as a preacher, classical languages teacher, and high school principal before being admitted to the Ohio bar in 1860.

He had seven children with his wife, Lucretia Rudolph, whom he married in 1858. Unfortunately, as far as I can determine, he was also the first politician, and a Republican at that, to admit to an affair while married. His wife forgave him.

His military career saw him join the Army at the onset of the Civil War and rising quickly to the rank of Major General. He served in the House of Representatives and the Senate before being elected President.

He was the second President to be assassinated, after Abraham Lincoln. He had been in office only four months when Charles Guiteau, disgruntled over his failure to be appointed as United States Consul in Paris, France, shot Garfield in the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C.

President Garfield was passing through the station on his way to deliver a speech at his alma mater, Williams College. With him was Secretary of State James Blaine and Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln's son). The old railroad station is now the site of the West Building of the National Gallery of Art.

Although most historians consider his death an assassination, some also consider his death to be the result of medical malpractice. He died two months and seventeen days after being shot due to increasing illness from infection, blood poisoning, and bronchial pneumonia. His final cause of death was either a massive heart attack or a splenic artery anuerysm. Many historians and scientists believe that Garfield would have survived had his doctors been more capable.

Other interesting facts about James A. Garfield:

You'll always find his middle initial used because his son, James R. Garfield, was also a noted politician, serving as Secretary of the Interior under President Theodore Roosevelt.
Was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity at Williams College.
His 199 days in office is the shortest presidential tenure, after William Henry Harrison, who died of pneumonia 31 days after taking office.
The only person to be a Representative, a Senator-elect, and a President-elect at the same time.
The only sitting member of the House of Representatives to be elected President.
Although he never served in the Senate, technically his election to the Senate at the same time as his election to the presidency also makes him the first Senator to be elected President.
John Philip Sousa led the Marine Corps Band at Garfield's Inaugural Ball.
President Garfield's only official social function made outside the White House was a visit to the Columbia Institution for the Deaf (now Gallaudet University) in May 1881.
One bullet grazed Garfield's arm while another one lodged in his body and was never found. Historians currently believe that it was lodged near his lung.
Alexander Graham Bell developed a metal detector to find the bullet but was unsuccessful because Garfield was lying on a metal bed, which were relatively rare, so its influence on the metal detector itself went undetected.
Part of Charles Guiteau's preserved brain is on display at the Mütter Museum at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (Hmmmmm. I suppose so.) Guiteau's bones and more of his brain, along with Garfield's backbone and a couple of ribs, are kept at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. on the grounds of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Garfield is buried in a huge mausoleum (at right) at Lake View Cemetary in Cleveland, Ohio.
The James A. Garfield monument in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 1887
One of only three presidents to be survived by his mother, the other two being James K. Polk and John F. Kennedy.
The United States twice has had three Presidents in a single year:
► 1841—Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, and John Tyler)
► 1881—Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur
Johnny Cash recorded a song in 1965 titled Mister Garfield (Has Been Shot Down)
Stephen Sondheim's musical Assassins includes the story of Charles Guiteau and features the song, "The Ballad of Guiteau."
The Twilight zone episode, "No Time Like The Past," revisits Garfield's assassination.
Garfield the cat is named for creator Jim Davis's grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis, who was named for the President.
Jon Stewart (yes, that Jon Stewart) portrayed Garfield in the audiobook version of Assassination Vacation, by Sarah Vowell.
Garfield, Kansas, with a population of under two hundred people (2000 Census), is named after the President.
Garfield was an active minister and elder for the Church of Christ, making him the only member of the clergy to serve as President.
Garfield is also claimed by the Disciples of Christ since the two churches didn't split until the 20th Century.
Garfield discovered a novel proof of the Pythagorean Theorem using a trapezoid in 1876.
Garfield was ambidextrous with left-handed dominance.
Garfield was a descendant of Mayflower passenger John Billington, who was convicted of murder in 1630.
Some quotes which might still be relevant in today's world:
► "The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787."
► "There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen."
► "The spirit should not grow old."
► "Nobody but radicals have ever accomplished anything in a great crisis."
► "If hard work is not another name for talent, it is the best possible substitute for it."
► "Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Let everyone know that you have a reserve in yourself; that you have more power than you are now using. If you are not too large for the place you occupy, you are too small for it."
► "[N]ine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim for himself."
► "The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people."
► "The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves."
► "Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up."
► "All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people."
► "Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained."
► "The colonists were struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but against the settled opinions of mankind; for the world did not then believe that the supreme authority of government could be safely intrusted to the guardianship of the people themselves."
► "It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their successors and fit them, by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance which awaits them. In this beneficent work sections and races should be forgotten and partisanship should be unknown."
► "We may hasten or we may retard, but we can not prevent, the final reconciliation."
► "The President is the last person in the world to know what the people really want and think." (Attributed to Garfield but unsourced.)
► "A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck."

__________
Sources:

"Garfield: A Biography," by Allan Peskin
"Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of James A. Garfield," by Kenneth Ackerman.
"Gangrene and Glory: Medical Care During the American Civil War," by Frank Freemon
"Assassination Vacation," by Sarah Vowell
Encyclopedia Britannica's Guide to American Presidents
Wikipedia
Arago: People, Postage, and the Post
1847USA: Knowledge is Power

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Does your little kitty have the swine flu?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:58:53 -0600

Zoey the Cool Cat has been under the weather this past week, beginning last Monday.

She was not eating, nor pooping, nor cleaning herself (which she loves to do!), nor in any mood to roughhouse with me or even let me pet her.

A lot of coughing and sneezing, and no interest at all in chasing her little red ring.

All she was doing was sleeping.

I think she lost a few pounds, too.

Today, she is back to normal. She's been eating in the office, jumping up to the window sill, relaxing on the printer cleaning herself, playing with her little red ring, and letting me hold her upside down and give her a tummy rub.

I've had a busy week and only just now got to an email from my mother-in-law about the cat in Iowa that was documented as having a case of the swine flu. Symptoms are coughing, sneezing, and lethargy. Dehydration results. Hmmmm.

Some diseases are capable of being spread from humans to dogs and cats, and from dogs and cats to humans, but it's uncommon for a flu virus to jump from humans to cats.

Veterinarians are concerned about the ability of the H1N1 flu to cross species, as well as a possibility of our pets becoming vector species.

If your pets show signs of sickness, get them to a veterinarian. I didn't. I might have gotten lucky.

**********

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ActiveRain History Station

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ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

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