I’m sure you guys know, I’ve talked about this a few times in my weekly e-letter (see the sign up box on this page).

We even had a full chapter on it, in the book “Great Leads,” which I wrote with copy mentoring great, Michael Masterson.

(I swear to you — it’s *finally* going up on Amazon.com, sometime this week. I’ll get you a link as soon as there’s one available.)

I had a great time doing the interview. Enough that I kept thinking of things I wanted to add, long after finishing the call.

I’d just come across a few great tips, for instance, from a semi-surprising source (though not so surprising when you think about it): Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of the cartoon South Park.

Parker and Stone popped in on a freshman writing class at NYU –where yours truly also studied some screenwriting — to talk for a few minutes about how they keep their story ideas compelling.

One secret they offer is… get yourself a deadline. A hard, serious one that drives you. Stone and Parker write an episode per week. “We’ve got a scary deadline every Thursday morning.”

Another tip I’m sure you’ve heard before, which is to put your ideas out there quickly. Don’t wait until they’re fully baked. And when they get out there, make sure you’ve got a roomful of critics who understand they need shaping, rather than critics who will just shoot the idea down.

First ideas are rarely amazing.

And here’s the tip I like best. When you’re writing out a story to sell, to tell, or whatever… look for what writers call the “story beats.”

These are the spots where you plot twists and turns, the angles on which you frame an outline.

Once you have those beats, read through and see if you can put the phrase “and then” between each beat.

If you can… that’s a problem. Every “and then” is a moment where you could lose your reader (or viewer) to some distraction.

Better is writing that turns on the phrases “therefore” or “but.” That is, every moment in the story either forces the next one, creating continuity, or flips away from the last “beat” in a way that creates tension.

In selling, the stories you’re telling are usually short, just long enough to illustrate an idea or sneak in a proof or promise.

But this is a good way to think about your copy throughout, too. That is, is your sales letter just one long string of disconnected sales points? Or does it follow a flow that your reader can’t swim against?

And just when they think they know where you’re headed, are you waking them back up with a rhetorical explosion or “twist” of their expectations?

Something worth thinking about.

©2012 "Learn to Sell or Else...". All Rights Reserved.

“It’s a Wonderful Life”

“A Very Monty Christmas…”

Something to Dance To…

Enjoy!

©2012 "Learn to Sell or Else...". All Rights Reserved.

And yet, like a plump uncle, the customers sidle up to the table for more. Should we give it to ‘em?

Sure, why not.

Without further ado — and all the microwaved gravy you can stand — please enjoy the second half of our “14 Ways to Thank Your Customers Like You Mean It” article from last week.

(And numbered accordingly…)

8 ) THANK-YOU “COUPONS” FOR THE NEXT PURCHASE – Okay, this one is a little self-serving, you might say. Your customer places and order and what’s his prize? Other than your excellent product, he also gets an offer for the next great deal.

Maybe it’s a half-off future purchases, maybe a break for his friends and family, maybe an invitation to get a free “refill” of some kind or some kind of free servicing agreement.

This, of course, encourages them to come back to you again. But it could also help them feel good — justifiably so — about being loyal to a company that believes in its own product (and why wouldn’t you?)

9) THROW IN FREE SHIPPING - Awhile back, my wife signed up for “Amazon Prime,” the club-like service from Amazon.com that gets you free shipping.

It’s a great deal if you shop a lot online (we do). And it always feels like a “thank you” reward, even though we pay to have that perk.

But even more importantly, guess where she goes first now for most of our online shopping? Testing by other businesses too also show that “free shipping” is a powerful addition to offers.

Even better, try a phrase like, “As my way of saying thank you, I’ll even cover your shipping costs. You’ll pay nothing.”

10) MAKE IT PERSONAL – If you’re open to giving a big discount anyway, why not ‘translate’ the savings into a thoughtful thank you gift?

That is, instead of mentioning the discounted sales price, offer the lower price plus a gift of equal value. Depending on what you’re selling, that could be anything.

A small gift basket with a thank you note, a bag of gourmet coffee, a corkscrew in a fancy case, or something else that matters to your prospect.

If it’s a really big-ticket item or you have a small but big-spendin’ client base, you could make the gift even nicer or more personal.

I recently read a note about a real estate broker who gave a house buyer some fine wine glasses. He says the realtors name comes up — and gets praised — every time he and his wife have friends over for dinner.

(For an even more complete example of this idea at work, see today’s “Second CR” article later in this issue.)

11) THANK THEM PUBLICLY – I don’t know what it is about the human animal, but we do crave our fame.

So why not give weight to a thank you by doing it publicly? Honor loyal customers on your website, honor success stories that feature your product, and just brag generally about your customers like you like them (as you should).

Try posting video interviews of customers on your website, feature them in ads, and just generally be proud like a parent, hanging their proverbial ‘work’ on your public refrigerator.

12) SURVEY WITH CARE – If you’ve read past CR issues, you know I’m not crazy about customer surveys.

They have their uses, for sure. But they’re often as confusing as they are useful, especially when the questions are written poorly.

However, there IS a way to send your customer base a survey that can make them better customers.

How? Simply by making it clear the survey is not about how to make them buy better, but how to give them a better product or service to enjoy.

In short, show you care. And follow up on that display, when you can, by finding the prospects that reply with unsolved problems… and solve them.

13) INVITE THEM OVER – Here’s an interesting way to “thank” loyal customers. Find out who they are and invite some of them over, specifically to celebrate their loyalty. Done right, there’s a good chance they’ll buy from you again. But the pictures you take at the event and post online could help show other prospects what a friendly business you are.

14) GET THEIR BACKS – In times of urgency that relates to your product, like say a financial meltdown or anything else newsy, put together a timely “summit” of your house experts.

Then record what they talk about and give it to customers out of the blue. Make it a surprise, to show you’re looking out for them and anticipating their questions and concerns.

You could tailor this idea for just about any kind of information product and plenty that aren’t.

And one more…

Bonus Idea – GIVE THEM WHAT THEY PAID FOR+ – What business would purposely deliver less than they sold? Sadly, plenty. And that’s partly why new customers are often a tough sell… because they’ve been jaded before.

But what better way to thank your customers for doing business with you… than by insisting on doing business with them at the highest quality level?

It’s the deal we make when offer something to somebody and ask for money in return. Better still if you can over-deliver.

So there you go.

Do these things or even some of them, and you could end up with some seriously grateful customers.

And isn’t that where you want to be?

©2012 "Learn to Sell or Else...". All Rights Reserved.

Yes, it’s Thanksgiving week, where my American compatriots are prepping to stuff turkeys, stuff themselves, and welcome family and friends into their homes.

And while we’re at it, why not take the opportunity to talk about another kind of ‘thanks giving’ in this week’s CR — the thanks you should be giving your customers for, well, being your customers.

Why thank customers?

The short answer, of course, is “why not?” Unless you were raised by wolverines, it’s a common courtesy you’re proud to offer… am I right?

The longer answer is that it’s practically money in the bank for future business, because customers that feel warm and fuzzy come back tenfold for more (give or take a fold or three).

So, in the spirit of the season, let me give you at 14 ways to make your customers feel appreciated.

We’ll start with these seven…

1) SEND A NOTE – I once dated a girl who sent thank you cards almost as automatically as breathing. I swear to you, the girl would pen notes of gratitude in the car, as we pulled out of driveways from dinner parties. “Because that’s what you’re supposed to do,” she would explain.

Why not do the same for your customers? Not in the perfunctory, here’s an auto-reply “thanks for your order” email (which you should also probably do) but an actual note that gets mailed as a stand alone message. “I just wanted to thank you personally,” says the owner of the business in the card, “for giving our [specific product name] a try. Welcome on board and please enjoy.”

2) MAKE IT A B-DAY CARD – There’s a story I’ve heard floating around, about the world’s best car salesman. Seems he took the time to note the birthdays of all his past customers. And every year, he would send a birthday card.

No cloaked sales messages, no ‘special inventory’ hype… just the birthday greeting. And he personally signed each card.

Result? He had a referral business like you wouldn’t believe. Not to mention customers that came back to him over and over again when it was time to buy a newer model.

These days, I get lots of automated B-Day wishes from online sources. And admittedly, it loses it’s specialness when it’s a computer sending it automatically. But even then, I admit, it feels at least a little flattering to be remembered.

3) GIVE A JUMPSTART - When your customer comes on board, what’s the first thing he gets? If it’s the product, that might be fine. But consider, you’ll have an even happier customer if he knows how to use what you’ve just sold him.

What more considerate way to make sure he can do that than by ‘thanking’ him with a simple well-guided tour around what he just purchased?

Maybe it’s a ‘user’s manual’ or maybe it’s an online video that walks through the steps. Maybe it’s just a brainstormed presentation on ways to use the product he might not be aware of.

Bottom line is, this kind of thorough start-up advice not only helps but back on early cancellations, but it also gives prospects that warm and welcoming feeling you’re hoping for.

4) GO “GINSU” AND GIVE MORE – I’m sure you know the “but wait there’s more” line from the “Ginsu Knife” commercials. To thank you for buying the knives, the sellers kept throwing in gifts.

If you weren’t spurred to action early, the extra bonuses would help seal the deal. Or so was the intent.

But imagine how grateful the buyer was every time he used one of those extra gadgets (I’m assuming they worked). “And,” he reminds himself, “I got this thing for free!”

5) SURPRISE ‘EM - What’s better than the gift that comes with your order? How about the gift you weren’t expecting.

If you bank on repeat business, thank a customer with a little extra, unannounced somethin’-somethin’ that shows up not too long after the actual product gets delivered or starts arriving (if, say, it’s a subscription product).

By the way, gifts to subscribers don’t HAVE to be high end. In the days of easy info delivery, a helpful e-book or the like can be a great way to deliver value on their end while keeping costs low on yours.

Along these same lines…

6) DELIVER 11th HOUR “TWIST” ON THE DEAL - Try making a customer feel appreciated by coming in, after the deal is almost done, with a last-minute deal, as in “Just to thank you for considering this offer, let’s do this…”

And then you can follow with a special break on the price you just used to close the sale, put a buy- one-get-one-free deal on the reply card, or throw in a donation to a popular charity.

All will seem like more sweetener for the offer, but these too will increase the warm and fuzzy factor, helping your prospects to feel appreciated.

And here’s one more…

7) HONOR LOYALTY – Ever since credit cards, airlines, and donut shops started rewarding repeat customers with visit stamps and reward points, the customer loyalty program has become ubiquitous. And this is a good thing.

But there are lots of other ways you can also thank customers for coming back. For instance, my main client once invited long-time customers to a gala party. Out of this came special “reserve” and “alliance” clubs, with other perks for long-time members only.

If you can, put your long time customers on a special list and send them occasional notes. Create special services, either free or a good but paid deal, that come with special “club level” designations and VIP treatment. Give them a special hotline number for customer service, no waiting.

The point is, they’re family. Make them feel it.

I’ve got more of these ideas, which I’ll share with you in the next issue.

Meanwhile, let’s close with this: If you set out to try any of these, do it with the right mindset. And that mindset is, of course, gratitude.

Nothing sells better than sincerity. A “thanks” that’s delivered with only manipulation in mind is no “thanks” at all.

Okay, more coming in a week.

Until then, best wishes to you and yours for Thanksgiving if you celebrate it… and hey, the same wishes even if you don’t.

©2012 "Learn to Sell or Else...". All Rights Reserved.

©2012 "Learn to Sell or Else...". All Rights Reserved.

“So there I was reading my favorite newsletter writer and I come across, ‘For career success: lather, rinse, repeat.’ A cliche!

“Say it ain’t so. You’re beyond trite phrases and careless writing. So please don’t do it again. I can’t stand to be disillusioned.”

In my defense, this was my reply…

“Me, beyond trite phrases? Never!

“I admit that I agree — we need yet another hackneyed piece of writing like we need a hole in the head. There’s nothing worse, after all, than phrases as worn out as an old shoe. As writer and grammarian extraordinaire, William Safire, once said, ‘last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.’

“But please, when it comes to the ‘rules’ on using cliches, let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater, shall we? That is to say, with this knee-jerk critique, I fear you might be barking up the wrong tree.

“After all, while I know it’s never too late to learn something new about writing (better late than never, I always say) the tradition of using cliches in copy is about as old as dirt and not always the refuge of the village idiot, as you make it seem.

“In short, never say never.

“Because sometimes, frankly, a well-worn cliche can actually be just what the doctor ordered, especially when you’re caught between a rock and a hard place at the end of a piece and you want to convey an idea both quickly and maybe with a little irony.

“To put it simply, the point of the article is to look at new challenges with innocence and new ideas, rather than falling back on the tried and true… and shopworn.  With the irony here being, that’s a piece of advice we’ll have to return to over a lifetime of writing, much in the same way a dog returns to his own vomit. It is an  insight that can only come from, well, experience.

“It is what it is.”

To which my reader wisely replied, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” And so it is. Except when it isn’t. But that’s for another time.

©2012 "Learn to Sell or Else...". All Rights Reserved.

This has almost nothing to do with copywriting, but if you don’t mind — and even if you do — I’m going to continue anyway, yes?

See, these days, you’ll already seen and heard some heartbreaking tributes to the Twin Towers and, well, all that. I’d like to kick in for a second with a slightly alternate point of view.

First, let me say that… 9/11 happened.

When it did, I was just as deep in the moment as anybody We were in Paris at the time. With the time difference, it was already afternoon when the news crackled in over an office radio.

My French wasn’t good enough yet to understand what my French colleagues were wide-eyed and crying about. But knew it was something big.

“Excuse me for asking, John” said Luc, sounding a little more than panicked, “but where is your wife?”

My wife had been singing New York on the night of September 9. Her flight out was in the early afternoon the next day. So by the time the time that last “normal” morning dawned on Europe, she was already sleeping off jet lag in our apartment.

A plane, he explained, has hit one of the World Trade Towers. And then, “I’m sorry to say, but another plane has hit again.” I don’t know if Luc even knew anybody in Manhattan, but he looked close to tears as the newscasts came pouring in.

Just two months earlier, we’d moved to Paris, from a rented apartment in the Manhattan’s West Village. We had friends worked in or near the Towers.

All escaped injury except for one, a childhood friend of my youngest sister, who worked in a financial firm on a high floor. I hadn’t seen her since she was a little girl, maybe five or six years old. But at 25, apparently she ran marathons, always smiled, and was considered an “angel” by her friends.

She never made it out of the building.

Over the next few days, we stayed glued to CNN. Less than two weeks later, we were back in New York and in our apartment — we shared it with a part-time sublet — cleaning caked-up ash from the air-conditioner filter.

My mother sent an email message. “We’ve crossed a bridge,” she said. And there was no way to go back to the way it was just one day earlier. Of course, I had no idea then how right she would prove to be.

Over the next few years, anniversaries of 9/11 came and went. So did the news coverage, replete with montages and music, the amateur videos, and the purple prose. Fear and anger rose and fell, but never quite faded, eventually lapsing into a dull ache that would not go away.

And now, I too am tempted to sift through my pictures from that time. I had some shots I’d taken while we were visiting — of “Still Missing” posters, of piles of flowers, and of the withering wreck at Ground Zero.

I found some.

But I found something else too. Other photos from that same year, and a growing sense that there was a lot else subsumed by the shadows of that event. Other things well worth remembering. And it seemed only right that the best tribute to getting on with life, as one should after any tragedy, was to draw those memories back up to the surface too.

For instance, it happens that 2001 was the same year I started the e-letter behind this website. And 2001 is the year my wife and I got married, too. We had a great wedding and a gorgeous Italian honeymoon. Months later, when we moved to Paris, armed with less than 10 words of French. But we made do.

On the more painful side, 2001 is the same year my wife lost her father. This was also not long after 9/11. We flew over in an almost empty airliner and went from the airport to his hospital bed, where he had gone into a coma after heart surgery. He died less than two hours later, surrounded by the family.

That same year, my father had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. It was too late for conventional surgery, the doctor told him. But my mother found a breakthrough new procedure online. With radioactive iodine seeds and computer-mapped blasts of radiation. Only one center in Atlanta performed it and he would have to move their for eight weeks. They did and it managed to buy him another 10 years.

In that time, he met all three of his grandchildren, took over a scholarship fund for fatherless boys in Philadelphia, and went on more than a few adventurous trips with my mother, including two visits to Paris. He stayed in touch with other patients in the center. Some didn’t survive as long. Others did. And today the procedure is a standard treatment.

It was spring of 2004 when our son was born. Our daughter followed two years later. We also added two more nieces and a nephew. Family members got married. And we took multiple great trips to London, Lisbon, Vienna, San Francisco, Barcelona and other places.

We made progress in French and made several friends in those same years. Tragically, we also said goodbye to two. (Cancer.) We learned enough of the language to get dangerous, but not enough that our bilingual don’t fail to correct us. Yet, somehow they still remain adorable.

In those ten years, I also wrote a few good promos, some books, and gave a lot of pretty good seminars. My income tripled and my savings grew tenfold. And we have, knock wood, stayed healthy.

But then, more terrible things happened too. From a heatwave that killed 40,000 in the EU… to the Boxing Day tsunami that killed over 200,000 in Asia… to earthquakes, Katrina, and two endless wars, the world took a beating. And we passed milestones of every shape and tenor.

One thing, though, you could not miss. That, while all tragedies remain tragedies, it was quickly clear that none exist in a vacuum, least of all 9/11. For awhile, it was the thing that sucked the life out of us. But now it seems different, like it’s life that’s overdue to absorb the event.

I say all this not to forget what happened. No doubt there’s pain that remains immediate to the 9/11 families. No doubt it’s altered the course of everything, in an infinitely more complex exercise of the butterfly effect.

But as we look back and dig into the photos and stories, as we re-open the old wounds, the question seems to present: at long last, is it time to place this one big memory in it’s space, relative to all those other things, rather than isolate it the way we have these year’s since?

Perhaps, I’m saying, it’s time to finish crossing that bridge; to step boldly, if greatly changed and more complicated, onto the other bank. Not to forget, but not to stop exploring whatever else there is.

©2012 "Learn to Sell or Else...". All Rights Reserved.

Study after study shows it, a good night’s sleep makes for a sharper, more productive mind. And yet, your average worker gets 6 hours and 55 minutes. With half of those saying they were doing work up until an hour before going to bed.

A badge of honor worth wearing?

Hardly. Those hard-working types, it turns out, are hardly working… or at least, hardly working at true capacity. Despite delusions to the contrary.

Scientists have yet to figure out how sleep restores your brain function. But they have no doubt that it does. So ye sleep-deprived, if we get a lot done now… imagine what we could accomplish well-rested.

Maybe because I’ve always been an undisciplined sleeper myself, I’ve both collected and written plenty about sleep and how it fits into a creative life calling.

Rather than try to thread them all together, let me just hit you with a burst of some of what I’ve got on hand…

* Per Popular Science, when you zonk out after just learning something, you’re more likely to wake up with an even stronger memory of what you learned than when you went to bed. Why? REM sleep, when your eyes are darting under your eyelids, somehow reinforces and sorts the information. And non-REM sleep gives your neurons a chance to repair a day’s worth of free-radical damage.

* Per the same article, go jogging. Not only does it lead to deeper sleep at night, which is just as key to whatever the brain does while you sleep, but it also builds brain cells faster. In one 1999 study, lab rats had double the number for new brain cells after running (no, I don’t know how they got the little sneakers on their little rat feet).

* In a 2004 study from the University of Luebeck in Germany, 106 volunteers showed they could do three times better on a simple test than those who had piled up LESS than 8 hours of sleep.

* Think TV helps you get to sleep? Maybe. But it might make your sleep less restful. Studies show television disrupts sleep even if you shut it off hours before your head hits the pillow.

* Go easy on workaholic behavior. Working until 10 pm every night might feel righteous and good, but it’s not only hard on family life, you deny your body time to ‘untighten.” Studies show disrupted sleep for those who work until they drop, no matter how nobly they manage to do so.

* That said, a 15-minute review of key work details is enough to get that “wake with the solution” result so many crave. Be sure to keep that notepad on your nightstand.

* Have trouble sleeping? Try the counter-intuitive. Like exercise in the morning. And loads of sunlight. Plus a short afternoon nap (emphasis on short: 10-15 minutes at lunch time is nothing to feel guilty about).

* Eat a protein breakfast. Yes, zero carbs. No toast. No bagel. Definitely not doughnuts, fruit juice, or anything with sugar. It will buy you an extra few hours. It may even get you through the day. You’ll be even better off if you do the same for lunch. Or skip lunch entirely and take a walk instead. Whatever you do, do NOT eat big in the middle of the day.

* In a real pinch, drink coffee but drink it right. Which means sipping it slowly — cold if you have to — on the hour or half hour. The longer you make the cup last, studies show the longer you can last. Not a substitute for sleep, but a fail-safe when you can’t get any.

* Forget, by the way, trying to make up for a week of not sleeping enough by “sleeping in” on the weekends. North of nine hours or more, it turns out, can make you just as tired and even age you just as fast as too little sleep.

Try this.

For one week, go to bed at 11 pm at the latest. Even if you have “lots to do.” And wake up when you wake, if you can, which should be around 6 am or 7 am. If you need to get up earlier, move the bedtime to 10 pm.

Then come back and tell me how you feel… and how much more productive you are.

©2012 "Learn to Sell or Else...". All Rights Reserved.

I’ve also given a few copy critiques, too. And I’ve discovered that when I’m on the handler side of the red pen, there’s one essential element to making those recommendations more effective: “ego butter.”

Let me back up.

Some years ago, I was part of a conference call with a freelance copywriter. He’d been commissioned for a small job, which was tweaking the lift letter on a much larger, longer control (one I’d written, in fact).

Leading the call was friend and mentor o’ mine, the inimitable Michael Masterson. The letter was, well, weak. Michael took control of the call and made a series of what I thought were brilliant suggestions. We all concurred, except for the freelancer.

After the critique was over, the receiving end of the call went conspicuously silent. “Hello?” we said, thinking he’d slipped on a kumquat or something equally plausible.

“Mail it,” he said. “Mail it and see if it works? Then I’ll revise it.” Clearly, he was peeved. Not, dear reader, the protocol of a copywriter seeking much repeat business.

This guy, no matter how slighted by the review, clearly lost his cool. And with that, he also lost a repeat client. It was really too bad, because I distinctly remember plenty of high-paying work to go around. With some guys, there’s nothing you can do. Their skin is so thin, you could pop it with a tossed marshmallow.

But here’s the thing…

While I despised that copywriter’s behavior, it does occur to me now that, at some level I couldn’t help but sympathize.

See, while not all copywriters are the egoists and temperamental “artistes” like this guy might have been, there are reasons why — if you’re on the critiquing side of a creative exchange — you might want to take the writer’s position into consideration.

First, remember we’re only human. Remember too that good copywriters put a lot of work goes into what they produce. They spend a lot of time with it too.

By the time we’re finished the first draft, we’re connected with the result. In such a way that criticism — even the good kind — can’t help but set one back at least a little bit.

Again, if you’re a great writer and a smart one, you’ll take even the sharpest comments with a smile. But on the flip side, if you really want results from a hired gun copywriter, there’s a step you could take to get much better results. And it won’t cost you a dime.

Very simply, start with the positive. Not excessively so, not insincerely. But clearly and immediately.

Example: “I liked the headline. And oh wow, the typing was nice. And hey, is this scented paper? Nice touch. Now, let’s talk about your lead. I think I see a way to make it even stronger.”

Okay, of course I’m kidding here.

The point is, if the copy is salvageable, there’s something in it you like. Don’t save it for last. Talk about it up front. You can be honest about the stuff you don’t like to. But lower the resistance to your suggestions first.

Is that pandering? Perhaps.

But ask yourself, in any situation alike this, what’s the goal of the critique? Is it your aim only To toughen the writer’s skin… or are you out to get the best possible copy you can get?

The latter, I’d assume.

©2012 "Learn to Sell or Else...". All Rights Reserved.

But there’s a third kind, a sort of wisdom corollary, they didn’t have access to but you do: refrigerator wisdom.

Yep, i’m talking about the kind you pick up somewhere between the other two, then print out and slap on your fridge with a magnet.

The following fits in that category.

No, it’s got nothing to do with copywriting. But it’s good advice for copywriters and everybody else, just the same. Besides, it’s springtime dammit. Just the right season for this kind of message.

How so?

I picked this up the following from an email sent by the good folks over at www.inspiringlife.co.uk. It’s reportedly a note from an 85-year old man about to leave this world behind.

Here’s what he said:

“If I had my life to live over again, I’d try to make more mistakes next time. I wouldn’t be so perfect. I would relax more. I’d limber up. I’d be sillier than I’ve been on this trip. In fact, I know very few things that I would take seriously.

“I’d be crazier. I’d be less hygienic. I’d take more chances, I’d take more trips, I’d climb more mountains. I’d swim more rivers, I’d go to more places I’ve never been to. I’d eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I’d have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones.

“You see, I was one of those people who lived prophylactically and sensibly hour after hour, day after day, year after year. Oh, I’ve had my moments, and if I had it to do over again, I’d have more of those moments – moment by moment by moment.

“I’ve been one of those people who never went anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a raincoat and a parachute. If I had it to do all over again, I’d travel lighter next time.

“If I had it to do all over again, I’d start out earlier in the spring and stay away later in the fall.

“I’d ride more merry-go-rounds, I’d watch more sunrises, I’d play with more children… if I had my life to live all over again.”

Sounds like a good idea, don’t you think?

If you’re sub-85 and reading this, I suggest you put down the copywriting stuff for just a moment, close your laptop, and take some of his advice.

Because God knows, if not now… when?

©2012 "Learn to Sell or Else...". All Rights Reserved.