It has been so wonderful Howie that you would create a blog that allowed us to speak from our Soul’s essence! I actually spent the day contemplating on a deep level …. just from this blog and the invitation to look within that it has provided… and to see how readily everyone was to go deeper than Adwords…. ;) Much needed…. it is indeed a pioneering effort in itself, is it not? I don’t think we all realized how thirsty we were…. until we saw the clear fresh water of opportunity! RESULTS: Very Refreshing! Mucho Thanks! Looking forward to more!

To appreciate the passion I feel for your work, you’d have to know that I “met you” while working in an extremely high-pressure corporate paid search environment. As threats about the workload came down from on high, people stopped eating and sleeping, and under extreme pressure they began hitting the wall.

When it was my turn to hit the wall I spent nearly a week in bed. Even the effort to take a shower exhausted me. I started taking B vitamins, juicing, and through prayer was led to books about cognitive behavioral therapy by a psychiatrist/author named David M. Burns. As you may know, the idea behind CBT is that by changing the way you think you can change the way you feel.

From David Burns I learned how to write down my thoughts one by one and use logical thinking to essentially put myself out of my misery. The CBT exercises are pretty basic, and I was skeptical at first, but I found out by doing that they work.

By doing the CBT written exercises I became aware that my mind was a bullying monster. And here’s the thing: I had no idea. I thought I knew what I thought. I thought I knew what I believed. For years I’d tried everything I could think of to escape the pain I was in.

And here’s the other thing. Because I finally had a tool for changing the way I felt, at the office I began to see things differently. People around me were still suffering, and management hadn’t changed their tune. But I began to feel somewhat removed from it.

It was around that time that I did a search for a For Dummies guide and found you. You had an authentic, uplifting voice that I could clearly hear. At work, I would block out everything and sit peacefully at my desk reading Adwords for Dummies and giggling. Later, when the company closed its doors, I made a beeline for you and joined your Ring of Fire coaching club.

Howie, as a child, I wasn’t taught how to think. If I were a teacher, the first thing I’d teach my students is how to think, or put another way, how to monitor/improve their thoughts (oh my gosh, that’s Adwords!).

Thank you for opening up the conversation Howie. You do have a lot to say, and I look forward to the book, the movie, the press conference, and the world tour.

Thank you for your thought provoking communication, the winds of change are gathering momentum here in the UK, so many of us have become weary of chasing our tails at an ever increasing speed with outcomes being measured in money rather than fulfillment …. keep up the good work and THANK YOU for the giving.

X

To go into everyone’s living room with a 30 minute or one hour PITCH… the rates were dirt cheap, a tiny fraction of today’s Media costs… so the profits were through the roof. Client’s made an easy 10k profit off one airing – an entirely different story today. [Rates are so high, can't make it without a strong back-end.] I wrote a book last year… How to Negotiate in an Email World… sharing my negotiation techniques to help lower rates… they are so crazy high… Really a problem… but I digress…

There are a few things I would like to share with you about that industry in response to your response. Howie… it is THE MOST AMAZING MARKETING PRINCIPLES!!! I KID YOU NOT!!! TRULY BRILLIANT! And the true stock market of advertising – the daily reporting is so impeccable!

A successful infomercial actually answers the consumer’s REBUTTAL in a MONOLOGUE!!! That truly turns me on… that you can answer every consumer’s question in a monologue as IF it were a dialogue. Answering their rebuttal at just the same moment the questions come up in their mind!!! Brilliant – when done right!

The best part of being in the industry, is that for 25 years, I have analyzed consumer response. We are not talking about a few clicks… we are talking about millions of dollars per ’show version’ and I got to analyze/see what the consumer is saying. How they respond to the show, the telemarketing script, the fulfillment, the telemarketing (800 number service) etc…… is sooooooooooooo fascinating. For me, it has always been a TOTAL AND COMPLETE NOVEL. Can’t put it down! Volumes of viewer communication is in those reports!!!

At points of my career, I have done 15 year history analysis of product category of shows – in sequence… what worked what did not… in every case, the breakthrough show was something that was inherently AUTHENTIC… was represented authentically, and had it’s own acorn that needed to be expressed, and it’s time was right … then of course… after that… the ‘owner’ just adds a handle to it, so you can drag it around the living room, put it under the bed… and it is suppose to be a new product! ;0 [tee hee].

Early in my career, when everyone took every new show, and every new product quite seriously… and as media buyers we called every TV station in the country, pitching the product… Well… one day I was talking to a TV station and like everyone, they asked me… (very seriously) “And What Does the Product Do?” My answer really mattered, as shows were not so easily ‘approved’ back then. This one day, I said, “Well, it does what every product does… it raises your grandmother from the dead!” Me and the TV guy laughed so hard. After that… I simply could not take it so seriously again. :) Way too true!

But my absolute favorite part of the Infomercial Industry is our tracking… really… just so brilliant and fascinating! It transcends the client and even the product itself… as well as all the service providers connected to running a campaign… I have ALWAYS told my clients… I work for the consumer, and all of my goals on your behalf are solely in their interest.

I mean that too. For me… it is ALL about the consumer, and to answer your question… how do I feel about the consumer? I love them!!! I respect them! And I do not want me or my clients to deceive them in any way!!! I really do work for the client, because…. through the reporting, I get to hear what they have to say… what they like and dislike… quite thoroughly and clearly… it really is … very very cool! ;) And for any client that listens, they will understand, their marketing efforts, are ONLY about the consumer, and the consumer soooooooooo needs to be respected with good products, and respectful messages in their advertising. Respectful means honest, and not manipulative. It also means… Jeeza Louisa Mr. Advertiser… do some homework… are you really offering the NEXT advancement to an old product category, or because you did not do your homework on the trends of your product category… did you just offer an old product with a new price? Wondering why your product offer did not work? I really feel the biggest mistake infomercial advertisers make… is UNDERESTIMATING the Direct Response Consumer! They KNOW their product categories!!!

I think the Direct Response Audience is very misunderstood and unreported statistically, as the DR product owners own their results and they are, of course, confidential. There truly is a segment of the market place that watches and buys infomercials… and it is … in and of itself.. it’s own demographic.

If you have a product that is good… target your niche, and let the rest of the demographic go… why try to manipulate a larger audience (with lies and bullmahogy copy cats), when your product does not really extend to that demographic? Let your product be what it is… and really, it will sell to the people who it really is for – if it is a worthwhile product!!! Isn’t that enough??? If you want to sell to more people, then come up with an authentic product for MORE people, heh?

And yes…. there are infinite great war stories and success stories… but for me personally; mostly I regret I did not understand my influence as a pioneer, and did not start and own the association for the industry so that I could have influenced it to be authentic and honest and not so greed based.

But it is what it is… and things evolved as they did…

Not to pitch myself… please… no desire here… but if you are interested… I offer the first two chapters of my book for a free preview, which is actually the history of the infomercial industry… from the media buyer’s end… of course I think it is fascinating, and think you may also… http://www.greatmediabuyer.com – it is the story of greed from the TV stations end, and how, as an industry, we also abused the TV stations… causing them to ultimately disrespect us back… with the same unfair business practices we engaged them with…

Whew! Sorry if this is too long… I think I just got something off my chest… thanks for the blog opportunity! ;)

On a personal note, me and my family have gone through many of the things that everyone hears about in the news, yet we still stand with our head held high using this as a way to ’start over’. We’re finding the opportunities instead of wallowing in self pity or blaming others. Besides, everyday I wake up and realize if I’m not out there making it happen, it only brings the whole family down. It’s really made us realize what is truly important in life, and we’re moving forward stronger than ever.

Anyway, enough of that. Thanks for the article and the seminars that you’ve been putting out lately too. As I’m exploring these ‘new opportunities’, I’ve found the information extremely useful and helpful.

I love AdWords, but sometimes I think there’s more to life than impressions and conversions. (Actually, those are two pretty spiritually loaded terms, now that I think about it.)

And Boston Fan, what a great story. If anybody from the music industry is reading this, I would be happy to appear on stage with any of the following musicians and groups:

Bruce Springsteen, David Broza, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Tracy Grammer, The Dixie Chicks, Doc Watson, Paul McCartney, Styx, Leonard Cohen, Bearfoot Bluegrass, Kansas, the Broadway cast of Into the Woods, Greg Brown, Deva Premal, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Joe Cocker, Supertramp, and the Roosevelt String Band.

Oh wait, I am performing with the Roosevelt String Band! May 1 and 2, Roosevelt Boro Hall, Roosevelt NJ. Come out and support the finest string band in the entire town :)

http://www.music.columbia.edu/roosevelt/string_b/

Have you heard of a guy who ended up as a lead singer of his favorite band? That’s even more amazing! Click on my link for the story.

Dave, how amazing that you were able to bring Mary back into courageous consciousness and feel the lessons that have been lying dormant for all these years. What passes for empathy in the world of marketing is too often pseudo-empathic manipulation. For me, true empathy is love without judgment. And from my own experience, whenever I feel the need to judge another, it’s because they’ve done something to trigger some unhealed part of myself.

So the more I face myself and allow myself to feel the true pain of my past (as opposed to the anesthetized armor that I’ve built to keep it at bay), the more my judgments dissolve and the more I can truly empathize with the deep longings of others.

And thanks for the amazon vote of confidence ;)

Jessica, thanks for your deeply kind words. Knowing your writing skills first-hand, I’m quite touched by your reaction.

Sam, right on. The crisis is the opportunity.

Jorke, my brain has done such a good job of drowning out heart and soul for so long, I had almost forgotten those other sense organs. It’s a beautiful thing when the brain remembers its place…

Larry, you’re absolutely right. The two factions are definitely skirmishing for supremacy in my own head. Partly, I write to feed the life-affirming voice, and to keep the cynical, sniveling victim at bay.

Vicki, I hear and agree with your litany of the corruptness of modern civilization, and strangely, I no longer get bent about it. I’m studying the Inka medicine wheel (that may be a bit too much self-revelation in a business blog, but what the hell;), and the first practice is to self-reference to break the spell of consensual reality. As Tom Stoppard hilariously observed in Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead, “England is a conspiracy of cartographers.”

So much of what’s “out there” is a conspiracy of unexamined agreement. The deeper I go inwardly on my journey, the less I concern myself with those energy currents, and the less I need to feed off them.

And Gabriella, wow, what a story! I’d be fascinated to hear all the war stories and love stories from the early days of the infomercial business. It reminds me of the current wild west of the internet – as is evidenced from the surprise people express when they discover that I’m not a total scumbag sleezeball, even though I’m an internet marketer :)

Infomercials have always fascinated me – see http://howieconnect.com/infomercial_bondage.htm for an early article on the persuasion principles at work. Partly they’re cool just as case studies in manipulation. But partly they’re amazing as tent revival meetings, stoking the fires of our better natures and promising us salvation, a world where hope lives, where second changes are common, where magic is three easy payments away.

The line between glory and perdition is a razor’s edge, indeed. Do you love the customers, or sneer at them?

Thanks for sharing your own story so steadfastly and courageously.

Howie