Mr. Brausch just offered his blog readers an awesome deal: just buy 5 copies of his Life Management CD for a measly $60, and get a subscription to his $300/year newsletter for FREE!
Great deal, but how are us boobs who forked out the regular price of $300 feeling right now? I for one am feeling a tad gypped. The newsletter is definitely worth the dough, but $240 is still $240.
Things are going to change around here. The title of this blog is going to be changed to more accurately reflect what the true purpose of this blog is: to chronicle my attempts to stop being a “wage slave”, as James Brausch puts it. I’ve been taking action, and I think its a good idea to write about it a bit. It should provide myself with some perspective. If anyone else likes reading about it, fine.
If anyone has an idea for a new title, I’m all ears. And no, I’m not moving this to its own separate domain. No slagging please; I have my reasons.
In his blog today, James Brausch describes a new script he’s authored: a PayPal-Kunaki interface that has two great strengths: it allows a customer to purchase a physical product from Kunaki by just filling out a normal PayPal screen, and integrates with JB’s MuVar script. If there is enough interest, JB will make that script available. As I’ll be selling several products via Kunaki this fall and thru the winter, such a script would be real handy indeed. Could SuFaq integration be far behind?
I have a chance to win Jay Abraham’s Mastermind Marketing Audio Series consisting of 35 audio CDs and tapes which Terry Dean originally paid $2,000 for. Mr Dean prefers books when it comes to learning, and therefore is willing to part with the audio part of this package. That’s great for me, since my daily commute lasts nearly an hour(round trip), and I do find audio CD’s to be a particularly effective way of utilizing the time, assuming I can’t find suitable content on the radio. Tip of the hat to James Brausch for pointing this out.
In his blog today, JB is giving away a comedy CD. He mentions in the post that of late he’s been studying the promotion of entertainers like comedians. That surprises me a bit, since it seems obvious to me that he has been doing that in the past. By running a site called JamesBrausch.com he has been branding himself in a way distinct from the software tools he has authored. He’s got the pic with the spiky hair and the Hawaiian shirt, he signs off each and every post with his own name(whether or not he actually wrote it), he has shared considerable personal detail of his own story, etc.
Given the overall arc of the site’s rise to prominence in recent months, one wonders whether entertainers ought not be studying HIS techniques.
Apparently my posts here are so objectionable, that now James Brausch won’t even post my trackbacks, for fear of polluting his blog. I’m guessing then that the first post, the one that served as the entry to his contest, was merely allowed so as to serve as a negative example. Okay, that’s cool. There could be only one winner.
But it is just a tad disingenuous to make a plea like this one for more entries – having at that point received only one – implying that his audience was full of cowardly 98%’ers unwilling to take a jump into the water, and then in the end select as the winner the very guy who responded first and looks most like the 2%’er JB already is.
You browbeat the 98%’ers with a stick, dangle that carrot out there, and in the end give out the prize to the guy who already had the gold star on his forehead – the guy who made the original entry. Who also looks most unlike the vast majority of us 98%’ers. I just hope that next time something in this vein is offered, it isn’t implied any of us wannabe 2%’ers actually has a shot at winning the prize.
Yup, it figures. I did not win a cruise with James Brausch. My cunning attempt to portray myself as a perfect Pygmalion 98%’er for his Henry Higgins 2% machinations went down in flames. But at least it was a spectacular disaster, not unlike that ski jumper featured in the opening of that great old TV show, Wide World of Sports. My entry was so bad I managed to get mentioned, if not by name:
“Some entries were just plain scary. They said “I’m a failure and I’m just going to whine the whole time if you invite me”.
This was clearly a reference to moi. Is it true? Would I have spent the entire time whining? No. It is true that my skin is so pale that the cruise line would likely issue a medical warning to fellow passengers advising them to wear dark sunglasses for fear of being temporarily blinded. Its also true that my table manners have been compared unfavorably to those of a starving, rabid badger.
But no, I’m actually pretty interesting dinner company. Once I get that nasty drooling habit under control, I can actually hold a decent conversation, often stringing multiple syntactically proper sentences together into something resembling coherent thought. On rare occasions, usually under heavy sedation, I can even engage in what some might call “repartee”.
I simply thought that James was looking for a 98%’er in his intial stages of striving to become a 2%’er. I mean, how better to demonstrate the superiority of one’s approach to success than if you take some misbegotten, malodorous wretch and turn him into a Shiny Happy People?
But no, James actually wanted someone much closer to his own two-percentness. In the end he chose Eric Graham, an up-and-coming copywriter. Why? Let’s take a look at JB’s own words:
Only Eric Graham though wrote a couple of entries that just plain made me say “I want to have dinner with this guy. I want to talk to him. I want to add him to my friend list. He will be a pleasant dinner guest and someone I really want to get to know.”
Apparently, James wants to enjoy his cruise, and not spend his time playing Dr. Fronkensteen with someone possessing an “Abby Normal” brain. JB then mentioned he’d be doing this again in the future, and that readers should study the winning entry for clues. Heck, from reading both his entire blog and the above, I think I know precisely what James wants in a perfect cruise guest: a version of Noel Coward who can prove he has smashed his television set.
Well then, shall I continue this blog? Should I continue to document my efforts at becoming a 2%’er for all to see, read, and laugh/cry/cringe at? Leave a quick comment and let me know.
I thought maybe I should expand on the previous post, which once again I’m doing to fulfill James Brausch’s contest rules for sponsorship on a cruise.
I think its worth mentioning that while I have certainly failed thru inaction(seeing that I’m pretty lazy), I’ve also managed to fail when taking action too. Even while being mentored by someone who has managed a considerable degree of success. So, in the words of Carl Spackler, I got that going for me. In other words, I’m a multi-talented failure.
Ok, I built this blog specifically to fulfill James Brausch’s directions to get sponsored on a cruise he’s taking in the middle of March.
Why should he sponsor me? I’m not sure really. I don’t know what he’s looking for in a candidate. I suppose he’s looking for a potential “2%’er”, as James puts it.
What I most certainly am is an abject failure in my serial attempts to get rid of my J.O.B., as JB puts it. Quick aside: what are the odds Brausch’s middle initial is “O”?
There are many reasons I’ve been a biz failure: inaction, overanalysis, lack of focus, failure to take the right action, yada yada yada. You name it and I’ve screwed it up. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if I screwed up the link in this post to JB’s blog so that he’ll never see it and I won’t be considered for the cruise sponsorship. Now THAT would be an impressive failure, no?.
But I do have a few things in my favor: I’m pretty smart; I can write a sentence. I have expertise in a product area that JB himself has written should be a fertile hunting ground for sales. I’m a programmer, albeit somewhat hackish.
Of course, all of my good traits only serve to put the spotlight on how spectacularly unsuccessful I’ve been. But I am willing to take action. Is that the kind of candidate he’s looking for? We should find out soon.
Doing What James Brausch Told Me To Do!