Yea right and to top it all off who really cares?  I'm telling you the truth and if you're not careful you'll wake up like a lazy boy napping and wonder what the heck happened and where did all my income go.  It's only, or maybe I should say say already, February and 2009 is moving at a steady clip.  Since I specialize on helping the old guard bridge the gap between the ways of yesterday and the new ways of today I've noticed a few common trends in what I'm hearing out there:

1. I've been a top producer or number one in my office consistently in the past years and I pretty much know everything.  Okay, so it doesn't come out word for word like that, but most chew up my free 30 minute consultation trying to pump their egos and bang on their chests and folks....I gotta say....I don't care!  Believe me your customers and clients don't care either!

2. FEAR!  Plain and simple.  Fear is the ultimate equalizer and usually the hurdle that most can't get over.  Think about it for a minute.  So you're a top producer or whatever you call it in your industry and now all of a sudden you're not or worse yet your entire industry has tanked.  How are you going to survive?  There's always going to be business out there, but how are you going to position yourself to scoop it up?  Keep this statement in mind: "The generations spending money in this economy are technology savvy and demand information immediately".  I'll get back to this later.

What to do?  Ask for help.  There are two ways you can go about doing this.  First, you can pay for it and hire somebody like me to jump start your marketing in about five hours or you can look around and ask your community for help.  Talk to your kids or younger relatives and ask them what they look for online, in a mobile phone, in print ads or on TV and the radio.  You'll begin to find some common threads in your responses.  Watch the big networks like CNN and Fox News.  Here's a free tip and something you should pay attention to....these guys spend crazy money on marketing and you better believe that if they're depending on Twitter and Facebook as information vehicles you should too and I mean today!

The New Generation Shift

I could write a whole article on this but I'm just going to touch on it today.  I'm at the tail end of what we call the "80's" generation and the Gen X, Y and Millennium generations are right behind me.  All of us in the 80's & Hippie generations along with any baby boomers still working are at a huge disadvantage.  Simply because we really weren't raised with today's computers and technology.  Sure some of us have embraced it but there's a huge point that is often overlooked and one that will cripple most of us if we don't acknowledge it first and second change the way we think....especially in this economy.  We were raised by generations that believed and were living proof of the philosophy that you went to school or specialized in a trade, got a good job with a company, were loyal to that company, retired and collected a pension.  So what did we do?  We graduated from High School or got our Good Enough Diploma (GED), went to college or trade school and jumped into the work force for what we thought would be the next 40 years at probably at the same company.  What's going on now is a rude wake up call that hurts and can be a very scary place to be.  So many of my friends have lost their jobs and don't have the necessary skills that companies are looking for because most everything revolves around computers and technology.  Couple that with the fact that most of us are around 40 or older isn't a great position to be in.

I look at some of my friends and business associates that are just four years younger and they are the tip of a huge iceberg that's wedging it's way into our professional world.  They are having a huge impact in shifting the matrix into something that might be completely foreign to older generations.  These are or will be the new rich and should be any salesperson's target market.  That little five year old girl you knew in High School is now out of college, making money and looking for a place to spend it.  Remember this when you're thinking about marketing yourself or your business and jump in with both feet.

Final Thoughts

Embrace the new and get over yourself and what you accomplished yesterday....I mean really?  Really!  It's a whole new exciting world out there and you will survive and join the new rich once you become self aware.  After reading this you should now be plugged in and moving in the right direction.  Happy Hunting!