My How the Year Has Flown

Already this is July, a time to celebrate and rejoice in our freedoms, and reflect on the greatness that makes the United States of America so great. A country unlike so many others. A country that is an experiment in the making for 235 years now. Yet I am appalled by the destruction of the very foundations of our Republic by those who believe in a different ideology. I am appalled at those who are looking to "fundamentally" change all the things that brought this country to greatness.

This past week I looked on at the circus of spectators waiting to hear the verdict of a woman, Casey Marie Anthony, accused of committing a heinous crime, and then when the verdict came back that circus almost became a mob. Why? Because these people disagreed with the verdict of not guilty by a jury of this woman's peers, is why! The media had almost 24x7 coverage of the trial, the media sensationalized the trial as if it were a sporting game, and the media had this woman convicted even before she came to trial.

Then the media in their coverage had expert after expert who all testified to the power of the prosecution's case, and the weakness of the defense's strategy in defending this woman. When the verdict came back NOT GUILTY (different from innocent) everyone was shocked, dismayed, angered, to the point of despair. Except those of us who used logic and common sense. First we did not get caught up in this media hype. Second, we did not personalize, and internalize the death of little Caylee Marie Anthony. Third most of us had other more important issues to attend to than to sit 24-7 and obsess over whether Casey Anthony, killed Caylee. It was not until the last week of the trial, that I even really became aware of this case. I followed it only peripherally because of someone in my households obsession with the case. As I listened to both prosecution's, and defense's summation of testimony during the closing I was struck by several questions that if answered could have changed the outcome of the trial. First question: Was Caylee Marie in the custody of her mother Casey Anthony's care at the time of her death? If not whose custody? Second: Did Casey Anthony actually cause Caylee's death intentionally, or by accident, or negligence? Third: Why did, if George and Cindy Anthony smelled human decomposition in the car, why did they not immediately call police and turn over the vehicle for forensic investigation? Fourth: Why did investigators not do a better job of determining cause and manner of death, before turning the case over for prosecution?

The burden of proof in a murder trial is a high standard, that of "beyond reasonable doubt" when presented to a "reasonable individual."  The defense's job is not to prove innocence, but to defend the accused to the best of their ability, and to the extent that the law allows. That means to put "reasonable doubt" into the minds of the jury of "reasonable individuals." The verdict in the Anthony case was not a verdict of innocent, but NOT GUILTY, based on the evidence presented by the prosecution. The defense presented scenarios that lead to reasonable doubt.

My personal feelings, just based on common sense, is Casey Anthony MAY have had something to do with the death. I'm not angry she was found not guilty, but disappointed that Caylee's death happened in the first place. Why did the little girl die? Where the reasonable doubt in my mind comes in to play is was it intentional, or accidental?

Though our legal system may have flaws, and may not be perfect, it is still one of the most fair, and impartial systems in the world. It strives to first protect the innocent, not to punish the guilty. It is there to determine matters of law, not morality, which brings me back to our country. It is a right and a protection afforded to every single one of us under the laws of this great country. If I were to ever be faced with a similar circumstance, and I hope the same for you, that the law would be applied fairly and equitably. What I hope is that there is no MOB mentality wanting to lynch the judge, jury, prosecutors, defense, or accused.

Finally I want to tie this all into Marketing since this blog is primarily about marketing. From a marketing stand point, the lesson here is to not over-hype and under deliver. The media in it's fervor to cover both the investigation and trial, sensationalized so many aspects of the whole sad affair. In doing so the media led many to conclusions that just were not true. Case in point; the chloroform searches. In evidence the facts came out that only 1 single search for chloroform was made, not 84 as speculated in the media. I blame this sensationalism of media on the case being brought to trial prematurely. Same thing should apply to your products and services. Never over promise and under-deliver, always, always, always, UNDER PROMISE, and OVER DELIVER to exceed expectations.

Thanks for your attention, and please if you are ever called to be on a jury don't shirk your responsiblity, serve. One day you may be accused, and need a fair and impartial jury.

Diet, Diets, Dieting, what is the truth?

Every New Year begins with people all over making resolutions to "lose weight", "get healthy", "eat healthy", and "work out more." OK, that all sounds good but how many folks stick to the resolutions? Roughly 68% of all adult Americans over the age of 20  are overweight to obese according to FastStats on the CDC website. That is people who are just overweight, to morbidly obese. So what about losing weight, what is the truth? Unless you have a medical reason for weight problems then the facts are hard to pinpoint why so many are overweight. Diet, Diets, and Dieting is a huge industry here in the US, and accounts for an estimated $40 Billion spent chasing the elusive ideal weight. Yet the rate for obesity, and weight related diseases continue to increase. Diabetes is the number one weight related disease, and heart disease a close second. 

So what is one to do? First don't approach losing the weight as something that you are going to do for a few weeks, then go back to the same old ways. Don't "diet", learn to change your attitude towards foods you eat. Learn to read the labels on foods, become aware of the foods that are good for you, and the foods that give you nutritionally empty calories. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), starchy vegetables, foods high in sugar all appeal to our taste buds, but according to research and studies are behind the obesity epidemic. So we need to begin to go back to more natural unprocessed foods. Buy more fresh fruits, and vegetables. Find the organic ones if you can, but buying the canned, and processed products add sugar, preservatives, and other ingredients which appear to cause weight retention. Convenience food items really should be avoided. Snacks like potato chips, corn chips are full of empty calories. For instance a popular brand of potato chips have 140 calories per serving. But exactly how much is a serving?? In this case for this particular brand of chips it is 1ounce, or roughly only 14 chips. So if you eat the whole bag ( not uncommon) which is 8.5 ounces you are consuming 1190 calories. Average daily caloric intake for women is about 1500 to 1800 calories, and 1800 to 2200 for men just to maintain current weight. That is also about128 grams of carbohydrates or roughly 43% of your daily recommended carb intake.  But it is not that simple. There are good carbohydrates, and those that are not so good. The good one are the complex variety, the ones that are not quickly converted into sugar. The not so good are quickly metabolized into sugars, from HFCS, starch, and sugary foods. When you are taking in the bad carbohydrates over time it causes the body to either not produce insulin or the cells to ignore the insulin leading to diabetes. Part of the problem with this whole food issue is that the better foods are more expensive, and economic issues creep into the factors of obesity, and food choices. Plus the advertisers in media telling you how good some of these products are for your health. Don't believe what you hear or read or see. Do your own research on nutrition, and make better choices in selecting food products. Start a garden in your back yard where you can grow your own fresh green veggies to save money. Plant fruit trees in your yard for fresh fruit, you'll be amazed at the difference in the taste of a tree/vine ripened fruit over store bought produce. 

The truth about diets, & dieting is that weight loss is simply consuming less calories than you use, or using more calories than you consume. It is about the combinations of the foods that we eat, and what we eat. It is about nutritional education. If we are knowledgeable and we make good choices then we can win this battle of the waist line, but the choices are between how much and what we eat, vs. how much exercise or calorie burning we accomplish. There is no simple quick fix to the long term problems of poor eating and exercise habits we have developed in life. There are programs, & diets that will help you lose the weight, but if you want to keep it off, you must have a paradigm shift, an attitude adjustment to make it permanent. 

Marketing Alternative Health Products

Alternative health care products abound everywhere now days. I have seen everything from pills and potions that claim health benefits, to magnetic water treatment and filtration systems. In my opinion the majority of these products do nothing more than drain your bank account. Many are scientifically proven ineffective hyperbole. A few I have looked for scientific evidence include the bracelets that mysteriously provide balance and renewed energy by changing your body's energy field. OK, first let's discuss body's energy field. Yes your body has an energy field of some sort, scientifically you can view the heat signature of your body's energy via a thermal imager. I have not seen a legitimate image of the "change" that these devices should make if they are actually working. You could also measure electrically the energy field of the body, but this would require extremely sensitive measuring devices, which none of the "manufactures" have used to prove the effectiveness of their products using scientific methods. Scientific method after all is a way proving or disproving a hypothesis. Scientific method allows for duplication of testing which would remove doubt that something either does what it says it can do, or proves that it does not. None of the manufacturers have provided this evidence to my knowledge, and when challenged by skeptics like me, only the "distributors" of such devices respond. Their response is basically nothing more than the sales pitch promotional stuff. So enough, if there is hard scientific evidence supply it to prove your products do what they say they do. Period.

Another scam in my opinion is the magnetic water filtration and treatment systems. Once again, prove they work.  If you search the Internet for information on them you will be inundated by distributor sales hype, with little evidence that it works. When you do run across scientific evidence you will also find comments by the "distributors" of these products, not proving the products work, but you find attacks on the individuals who put the scientific evidence up. Let's talk about magnetism on water. Have you ever passed a magnet over water? No, well I have and guess what, nothing happens. Using even the strongest permanent magnet I could get my hands on nothing happens. Even microscopically looking for something to happen to the trace amounts of chemicals and minerals in the water to somehow change or be attracted to the magnet, NOTHING HAPPENED. Only if the water has magnetically attractive particles such as metals does it do anything. If that is the case a simple low cost water filtration system takes the metal out, such as rust. Some of these magnetic systems cost $thousands and only make the distributors wealthy at the expense of the ignorant. Please don't get suckered into buying something that just eats more energy. One of the systems in particular supposedly replaces the water softener system that uses salt water softeners. The only way to remove minerals in water that cause the hardness,  is to send it through a system which chemically removes those water hardening minerals. In fact the minerals in hard water may even be more beneficial to your health if left in, than if taken out. Our bodies need the calcium, and magnesium which are part of the minerals that cause hard water.

Also one of the biggest scams in my opinion is the magnetic therapy products which claim to provide healing, and relief for a multitude of ailments. It has been scientifically tested for years now, and has been proven to be non-effective. What the studies have found is the placebo effect was just as effective as the magnetic therapy. So they have deduced that the relief comes not from the magnetic therapy, but from the placebo effect on believing that you are somehow being helped through magnetism. The human mind is an amazing organ, which if we believe strongly enough in something, can produce or eliminate pain, or control pain at varying degrees. Which is what the sellers of these magnetic therapy products understand, and their distributors are taught miracle testimonies that only serve to support strongly the results of healing that the individual is seeking.

I'm not saying don't look for alternative treatments, or health care products which are outside the normal health care treatments by professionals in the health care field. I am saying do your research before putting down your hard earn money on things which may be modern day snake oil, by modern day snake oil salesmen. Their is enough fraud out on the Internet, and being presented as opportunities to get into the wellness revolution. Don't become a victim, use your common sense, and do a little research before buying something that sounds too good to be true.

Are you an Internet Marketer??

There are lots of Internet Marketers out here, but are they truly marketers, or just wanna be's? You can get Internet Marketing secrets from thousands of so called Guru's if you just allow your email in-box to fill up with all sorts of Spam, or opt-out messages. Each Guru has his/her own secret they are willing to give you for a price, and you can wind up spending yourself into failure. Let me give you a synopsis of what they are all saying.

Do you really want to be an Internet Marketer? If so then just simply market your service, product, or whatever using proven, tried and true methods.

1. Get the message out. Period, end of sentence. The more exposure you give your message the more people will see it, and the more business potential you have. 
2. Make it compelling. Give your potential client a reason to purchase your goods. Buyers, buy what you have not because of you, they buy because of an emotional, internalized factor. So find a way in your message to trigger the WII-FM, "What's In It - For Me" emotions of your target audience.
3. Be consistent in your efforts. Do what you need to do to move forward, and get the word out every single day to as many people/clients as possible.
4. Be persistent. Resolve yourself to the fact you will not stop until you have achieved your goal. 
5. I have a mantra, "Today I will be persistent in my path, and I will be consistent in finding those who want to learn how to duplicate my success." I suggest you find something to remind you daily of what you need to do to be successful in your business. In my business it is finding those who want learn how to build a business, and build a team structure through duplication of what others have done. 
6. Find a mentor. Find someone who will, number one coach you, number two push you to new heights, and number three tell you when you are being dumb and not giving it your all. But, you have to be coachable, and willing to be mentored. 
7. With your mentor, set a goal you can believe in. If you have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) in the beginning, you may fail to achieve it, and set yourself up for repetitive failure. So start with small goals, things that are achievable, but stretch your abilities to go beyond what you think you can do. For example, if you believe you can contact 10 people a day to tell them about your products, why not go just beyond to 15. 10 may be easy, but 15 will make you have to stretch a little to reach that goal. Your mentor will be there to encourage, and push you to your success.
8. You must schedule your day. There are ton's and ton's of books, tapes, CD's and time management Guru's out there also. But let me tell you a little secret...pssssst!!! There is no such thing as time management!! Everyone has 24 hours in their day, you can't change the laws of nature. But you can control what you do with the hours you use for your business. So sit down every morning, or every night and plan what you intend to do either that day or the next. Make a master schedule of events, meetings, or presentations you will attend. The objective is to know in advance how you will move your business forward each and every day. Every single task or meeting should be a money making event, or move you forward to making the money. But, having said that you need to add in time for your family, time for meals (a lot of folks forget this), time for personal growth and development, reading about new ideas, and recreation. You need to have time to have fun.
9. The last tip is keep things simple. When you try to do everything it just won't work. Find what works best for you, and focus on just those things. Too many people try to do everything, webpages, blogging, social media, SEO, PPC, GoogleAdds, etc..... there is simply  not enough time to do it all. If you can afford it then outsource what you can't do, or don't know how to do. Focus on the shortest path forward.

Marketing Nutritional Products

It has been awhile since I posted on the blog, I just have so many different projects going, but I want to talk about marketing nutritional products.

There are tons of nutritional products in the market place that are all demanding buy me, buy me!!! So how do you know which ones are safe, which ones are effective, which ones have known health related concerns, and just who can I trust to be honest about what is in the products.

First let me tell you I am a network marketer, and in being authentic I do have a product line that I sell, and sponsor. Second, I got into it because of my search for better nutrition and health, and a lifetime of battling my waist line, and my waist line was winning no matter what "diet" I tried.

In my search I studied every nutritional product out there. If you have seen it on television, heard it on radio, read about it in a book, word of mouth from friends, I have been there done that in pretty much all of them. They all work to some extent. But at what cost to your health, and to your body?

You want to lose weight, but more importantly, you do not want to lose muscle mass. By retaining muscle you turn up the body's furnace called metabolism. Muscle burns more calories than fat, so you want to keep you muscle and get rid of the fat. Another thing to consider is "cleansing." Cleansing is something I now believe necessary to help clear out the toxins in the body, which are partially stored in the fat cells. Not colon cleansing. You can have that done next time you need a colonoscopy, thank you.

The human body is a marvelous machine, and if it is fed the right nutrition, in the proper amounts of nutrient dense foods, it will amazingly heal itself, and improve your overall health conditions. Our body is made up of different systems, about twelve of them. They are the skeletal system, the circulatory, nervous system, endocrine system, Immune system, reproductive system, digestive system, excretory system, respiratory system, lymph system, and integumentary system. There are overlapping organs that may work across and with the various systems. Heart, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, gall bladder, and so forth. Your body has natural toxic elimination, which only works when it is freed from the clogs we have created over time. One system that really has been slowed and made less functional is the lymph system. It has pushed so much of it's work off onto the liver, and kidneys because of the garbage we put into our bodies, and we are seeing increase kidney, liver, and pancreatic diseases as a result.

My point is this. If you don't have all these different systems working together, harmoniously as one, then your body will become sick, toxic, and eventually it becomes diseased. It takes all systems doing their functions to clean out and rid the body of destructive germs, parasitic cells, and toxins accumulated through our environment which we cannot control completely.

If you use a great nutritional product you will improve your health. Too many testimonials to deny the facts. So what is a great nutritional product?? It is one that is first and foremost all natural, not synthetically, or chemically engineered. It should contain a nutritional ration of about 40% protein, 30% carbohydrates, and 30% fats (the good ones, not trans-fats or hydrogenated fat products).

Getting nutritional information, and understanding if it is good or bad takes effort on your part. Do NOT be sold on a product because of fancy advertising or that it is sitting on the shelf in a "Nutritional" store. Some of the worst for you are in grocery stores, and nutritional health food stores in your local malls. Become a label reader, if you don't know what something is, look it up, research it. Look for warning labels, or scientific studies that are not connected with the manufacturer or company selling the products. Also do not by a product just because it is LOW COST!!!! Low cost usually indicates it was made the cheapest way possible, which is synthetically via chemical processing, and you want to avoid any additional chemicals in your body which can impact your bodies natural systems working to their fullest. Always look for organic, natural sources for the ingredients.

Also be aware that taking some supplements could interfere with any medications you are on, so always talk to a doctor or pharmacist about any interactions with medications.

Beware of anyone calling themselves a nutritionist. Yes there is a certification for nutritionalist, and apparently there is no one who really oversees the use of that term. Even total neophytes like myself could add that tag to their business card, and not be questioned. Always ask for credentials, and proof they are what they say they are.

Also there are many network marketing companies who sell nutritional products. Some good, some not so good. All I ask is that if you are considering joining one, don't join one that requires you to stockpile and resell their products retail, or  sell directly to your down-line. Make sure the products go to the consumer fresh, and not out of expiration date. Over time depending on storage, and shipping environments they can lose their efficacy and you are just waisting your money (pun intended).

One more thing before I quit my ramble. There is a difference between a "diet" and "nutritional system" that leads to weight loss. Diet has a negative connotation. Everyone hates to diet, because that means they are admitting to being overweight, and they have to reduce their food consumption to lose weight. Whereas a nutritional system provides all the right proportions of nutrient dense food that satisfies hunger. The way nutrition should work The formula to weight loss is simple, reduce the number of calories consumed, and increase the burn rate of caloric output. That can only work nutritionally when properly balanced through any product you choose. The other side effect is that on a nutritional system like the one I am on, if you ever go off your body doesn't try to bounce back to that heavy weight and you maintain it easier.

I have been on my nutritional system now for 5 months, I've lost 32 pounds, and feel great. I don't starve, I still eat everything I did before. The difference is I have a great product delivering what it says it will do, naturally, and without chemicals or toxic processing involved.

Before

Do your research, you'll find it, and come to the same conclusions I did. 

After

My friend after 3 months, and 68 pounds.

 You choose, you decide. 

For More Info on what I am using, fill in the info below, if not interested that's OK,  and I hope you luck on your journey. 

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Are you a fearless marketer?

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."  Marianne Williamson

Marketing is nothing more than getting a message out, and getting it into the hands (or minds) of people who need or want your products. Many of the folks who have goods to sell do not understand marketing. They think it is some mystical magical thing that only "specialist" can do, and that it is expensive. Well if that is what they choose to believe then they are right. But you and I know that it isn't difficult. Just spend 5 to 10 minutes a day writing something down, and putting it out on the internet, in emails, and viola you have marketing. What's so difficult about that? That is how you become fearless in marketing. Just putting words out and seeing what response you get. Then tweaking them to increase the response you want.  You will never achieve it if you don't try. 


Find out how to improve your marketing through TrafficWave.

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Careful Marketing Thoughts on Nutritional Products

As a marketer, and internet marketer specifically, I can't help but wonder why in the world some people actually try to sell the products they do? With all the weight loss products available on the market today, people are still marketing products that are questionable in the safety of the consumers.

I've run across so many products that claim weight loss as their primary benefit, only to read further to discover that these products contain substances which are considered to be unhealthy. Take for instance Hoodia. Here is just a partial list of side effects that a site provides all the while supporting the use of Hoodia.

• "Some people experience an upset stomach after taking hoodia.
• Hoodia may also cause headaches.
• In a few cases, hoodia is known to affect the functioning of liver negatively, due to an ingredient p5 present in it.
• According to some researches, hoodia affects the part of the brain which controls appetite, which can prove to be a severe hoodia danger. Thus, consumption of hoodia, in any form, acts as a appetite suppressant.
• Hoodia suppresses thirst, which can have a negative effect.
• It is also said to interfere with medicines.
• Hoodia, also, increases the heart rate.
• At times, hoodia suppresses the hunger signals because of which the body might not respond to hunger. This is especially dangerous for diabetic patients, as their sugar levels may get affected. It also suppresses the signs of thirst. Hence, the amount of fluids required by the body might not be consumed, thus affecting the body.
• Hoodia is also said to reduce the metabolic rate, as the body does not get the required calories. Low metabolism results in slow calorie burn.
• As it suppresses one's hunger, a person will be deprived of the vitamins that he gets from eating.
• Some people might experience drowsiness.
• Hoodia can also cause kidney problems."*see footnote.

Why on earth would one want to take a risk with a product that carries a chance of doing more harm than good? Sure the FDA doesn't prevent it from being sold as a diet "supplement" because it isn't a drug or a food. All the while people take it, and have the risk of kidney problems, caused by the suppression of thirst, or sugar levels bouncing all over the place. That's no way to intelligently reduce weight.

Most beneficial will be programs that use a balance of nutrition with cleansing, and exercise. And NO I am not talking about a colon cleansing. If any of you are familiar with Dr. John Gray, author of "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" he has an excellent video that absolutely details why nutrition and the right product will change your health, and your life in ways that are easily understandable. He has a book entitled "The Mars & Venus Diet & Exercise Solution-Book" in it he goes through the whole him/her nutritional thing, and why it is different for both sexes. 


So please before you spend your hard earned money on "weight loss" products, research them throughly to find those hidden ingredients that can possibly do harm to your body. It is the only one you have and we definitely need to take care of it. 

*excerpted from

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/hoodia-dangers.html