We are already dead.

When our end comes – and it will come – we will either die in agony or by surprise.

It will probably involve a loss of dignity and bedpans. Even if science is somehow able to press the snooze button on life, it’s still finite.

What is there to fear? You know that you’re going to meet a grim and unfortunate ending.

Why stay in bed? Why worry about approbation?

We are already dead.  As we postpone death with life, let’s not do it in a fearful way.

The worst case scenario is a certainty. It’s a virtual guarantee. All we can do is live with passion and dignity.

Just a quick list of the tools I favor right now:

• Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Scripture.
• WordPress (blogging/writing)
• Google Reader: Following up and stalking everyone.
• Spotify – Music
• Google Docs
• Batchbook – CRM (highly efficient/lethal)
• Evernote – notes/writing/todos later.
• evernote – taking pictures of goal progress
• Boomerang – emailing later.
• Genesis – WP theme.  I’ll change to Headway 3.1 shortly.
• Macbook Air 13″ : writing.
• RescueTime – accountability
• Dropbox.
• Chrome – Gmail Notifier.
• Twitter/TweetDeck (narcissism relief)
• iPhone – communications/music/isolation
• iPad- Reading books.
• Text Expander
• Screen-flow - light movie editing

This is what I’m using now.  Besides Google Docs and WordPress more or less anything can and probably will change.

I’m not gonna run from my own mediocrity-  I’m simply going to get better.

Instigate.Me was my own desire to run from my own mediocrity.

We’re about to make some moves that are going to hurt the other players in our industry.

I expect blowback and hostility before I expect a “warm reception” to this. I saw other people trying to organize the market – folks like 50 grove and other places like Startup-Videos.com.

Everyone’s trying to be the one that organizes explainer-type videos.  Because that’s where the power is.

But nobody’s bold enough to say that there are some crappy ones getting made.

And there are. And they are getting made by some “Brand-Name” studios.

Time to call it out.

So, recently…really…

I’ve discovered the secret to success. It’s not easy, and I don’t yet have the vocabulary to properly describe it.

I don’t really plan to, keeping the tension and magic within me is more important than describing it to you all.

I think that this is the way with most things. You learn something that’s sacred and a part of you, and you can’t break it down into a step by step format – nor would you want to.  You can only live it.

I used to be kind of obsessed with the idea of personal analytics. This blog originally was meant as a place where I’d (A) get popular and famous with Realtors and (B) a place to share my progress.

I would track things, use Jott to record my notes and  stuff. I would try hard to have accountability kludges.

I never kept it up very well. I never stayed on the horse, despite “setting myself up to.”

Because I hated my job.

The analytics was a coverup of sorts for the fact that almost everyone with sanity hates the job of being a Realtor.

So I self destructed time and time again.  Boom and bust.

Because who wants to be a Relator?  Even Realtors don’t.  It’s an easy, shitty, stressful job.

I had the ability to make it, but I knew that if I made it, the life I had was trapped.  didn’t want to be like Delena Ciamacco, aging fast with a 12 year old picture (and a city full of rumors) that she can’t get away from.  So I blew it up.  Great month, shitty month.

The IRS hounding me was a symptom, nothing more. I had no goal I was working towards with the extra cold call, the extra effort I was spending.

So it didn’t matter what was next.

I became delusional. Tried to use “easy money internet BS” as an escape hatch.  I did OK at some affiliate marketing–but that was a scam.

So despite the fact that I had big ass Google Forms to track the crap out of everything, none of it mattered.  Because I was in a job that I hated. I saw that the future was bleak.  Every Realtor had 3-4 years to go. It was a trap.

Anyway, that said, I love my job.  I know that it’s not going to look like the same job in 3-4 more years.  I know I’ll have to evolve, but I love it now.

I am increasing my fitness as fast as I can.  And the tools are much better than they were 5 years ago.

So I’ll give another go to personal analytics.  I’m doing a job I care about, I’m working with people I respect and admire.  More coming.

I’ve almost quit this blog about 30 times.

I hate most of the content on it.  Most of the thoughts are insipid and pabulum.

Hardly necessary.  The most popular – and searched – posts have little to do with where I’m at now.

Most of the ideas are embarrassing, the grand announcements I’ve made simply boring (and worse).  The bold proclamations I never stuck with.

I’ve had dumb idea.

I’ve somehow hung in there, grinding out a living as something of a journeyman marketer.

But – I just went through my old comments – 700 different bloggers linked or commented here over the years of my on-again, off-again relationship with this blog.

What do I learn?

Well, simply put, most of my commentors are nowhere to be found.  Either they don’t post, or the links are now broken.   Or something.

They are gone.  Emails at dead domains.  Gone, daddy, gone.

I’ve nearly quit and hung on by a thread.  But the quitters all convinced me to get better, stick with it.

I’ve quit too many things.  Nobody likes a quitter.

There are two irritants in my life as a salesperson. Neither of which quite merits an entire blog post and all that hat entails, but since I made this a personal blog, I have the space to get this off my chest.

First: That cold calling is somehow the last ditch effort of a bad business.  I’ve heard it a million times, even from good people “I’d never resort to cold calling,” or some such.  ”IT sucks, we all know it.”   Even Chris Garret misapprehends what it’s about.   It’s not an act of aggression of despair.

It’s instigating and solving a problem.

When we look at places – like Facebook, Twitter, wherever, and follow the keywords: “know anyone wordpress”  we find people struggling with WordPress:

This person is all but asking for help.  They need to be engaged somehow, by any means necessary.  We engage on Twitter, we call on the phone.  After people are initially taken aback, they are grateful.  Because I am calling to help.

Yes, ultimately we have to make business arrangements.  But I’m  calling to help them out.  I’m calling with their best interests at heart.

Social media should have made cold calling different- there’s no need to call a street/phonebook/whatever anymore.   You just call the people that need help.  End of story.

Second: That the target of a targeted call is somehow special.  I call 20 people a day.  One of my clients believed that I was lucky to get him.  That somehow, he was my meal ticket.  Like I’m not calling another 99 people every week.

Calling 99 people a week builds a business.  It does, no question about it.  Especially if about half are follow up calls.  However in the our narcissistic society, people fall for the Yossarian Fallacy (or the Narrative Fallacy).  A certain class of person that may be a good customer believes I’m now in bondage to their whim because I had to call them.  They don’t get that as soon as I hang up my phone my CRM will inform me of the other 95 or so people I’m due to call, and that they are no more than a fraction of my time.

An entry in the book.

And because I initiated the calls, they presume they have leverage that doesn’t exist.  That somehow, i’ll say or do anything to get them to buy.  That I’m desperate.  It’s funny, even some CEOs figure that this is my one shot, and I’ll say whatever to get the sale.  I’m no more emotionally invested in them than I am in say, paying my electric bill.  It’s a simple negotiation, an entry in a book.  Nothing more.  I’m happy to help, eager to help, but I’m no more bound to take shit from them than I am from the rest of the people on the call.

When you generate, you needn’t tolerate.

The second principle is the purpose of the cold call/prospect.  It’s only to gauge interest and raise awareness.  Nothing more.  I’m calling to see if this is a fit.  I’m no more offended if it’s not than if you wear a different pants size or have a different color.  If it is something you’re interested in, then yes, I’ll tell you we’re booked till October and that you should get something working now.  But otherwise?    Let it go.

The less I talk during a cold call, the better they are.

Ruby Johnson Loves Her Routines

Putting my daughter, Ruby, to bed takes effort. Each night, she must have a hug and a kiss, she must be prayed for, she must have the Sitta-ma-rink song sung (with the ending).  She must have her drink of water, she must have something to cuddle with.  She then has to have the sound machine turned on, and the sheep projecteed on her celling.  If this standard isn’t achieved, then the natural law is broken: we have let her down and she cries instantly.

I don’t resist this, it’s kind of fun, and it’s good for me, too.   She expects things to go down in a certain manner, and feels loved when this happens.  Sometimes it feels weird to be waiting on a two year old, but I get the point.  This is just the way things are to her.

The natural law, you know, this is how bedtimes are, and why fight it.

Now, if I had the same commitment to my schedule, to my objectives that Ruby does, life would be better for me.  I would get more done – truly.   I would help more people – truly.  She’s committed to doing what she believes matters. For me, I need to be producing, finishing all day.

More blogging, less skype, less email.

More planning – and next actions.  Less other stuff.

More screenflow.  More public use of “rescue time”.

Try to spend less than -50 – total – hours a week in front of a screen.

More doing things to make Heather/etc have an easier life.  Less nonsense.

Less recreational internet surfing.  More work.

Like Page.Ly says: Work More, Talk Less.  We like that.

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A routine would include a 6am or so wakeup/coffee/prayer/meditation, some writing, a trip to the gym around 7, a return around 8:30.  We have to really want the routine – for its own sake.  Desire the aching muscle mass – for its own sake.