johan horak's energy flow - "Whenever we can, we must seek out a new road to travel"

21 Jul 2010

Ideas On How To Sell Coffee News Adverts

I just received an email from Coffee News Paarl/Wellington asking for advice on cold calling, doing a better selling job and books to read on the subject selling in general. All though the idea is written for Coffee News, other businesses can also benefit from giving away apparent high value gifts.

Here's my answer that I would like to share with you:

I start at Amazon.com. I search for books that I am interested in. I then read the reviews. As I read the reviews the reviewers recommend the book in question and others that may be better.

I had a book Cold Calling Techniques That Really Works. Please read the reviews. If you like it you can buy it in South Africa from www.loot.co.za

Here is my advice on selling:

Never make an appointment to sell.
Make an appointment to give; advice or a free gift.....
Write down what you expect to gain from each appointment. Here's what I suggest:

Selling of a Coffee News advert is a bonus. If you follow my suggestions and have a website/newsletter and Facebook page, then the appointment will pay off over time.
If you did not get the bonus then ask them if the advertiser would like to receive your newsletter, get the email address, or ask the person to join your facebook page or follow you on twitter.

Never give advertising space away. Rather create a Coffee News marketing Tips book, print it and give it as a gift. When you phone for an appointment, tell him that you are from Coffee News, that you would like to bring him a free local marketing book published by Coffee News. Ask if you can see him for 15 minutes. Take it from there.......

Another idea, that is controversial, is to send a sms marketing tip once a week. You can use a service like www.smsmalls.co.za

Hope this helps.

Please continue asking questions. The answers are free

Have fun

Johan

17 Jul 2010

2010 Soccer Well done SA

…. and MADIBA was there

We’ll ignore Graca Machel’s “controlling”tendencies.

Trophy arrives in its Louis Vuitton Bag..

Whatta closing ceremony, well done South Africa! This was awesome!

Click here to download:

2010_Soccer_Well_done_SA.zip (940 KB)

Click here to download:

02010_Soccer_Well_done_SA.zip (84 KB)

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17 Jul 2010

Images 2010 Soccer World Cup South Africa

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15 Jul 2010

RUSHING THROUGH LIFE . . . .

THE SITUATION

In Washington, DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about an hour. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About 4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At 10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was

Joshua Bell,

one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theatre in Boston where the seats averaged $200 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

This experiment raised several questions:

*In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*If so, do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made,
how many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

Thanks to our friend Jean Spence for sharing this with us....

1 Jul 2010

Using Social Media In The Wild: Video On 3 Female Wild Dogs in a Boma

The three females in this boma, are next to six males in an adjacent boma. They will be released with the males as soon as the Wildlife Act Scientists decide they are ready. [This snippet was taken with a cellphone and emailed to Facebook]. Become Wildlife Active and share your encounters with endangered animals here. Johan Horak

(download)

I am busy helping an endangered wildlife monitoring company implementing a social media strategy. I will tell you more later. At the moment we are trying to get visitors to gameparks to collaborate by publishing video to social media sites. I have been trying out Facebook's email video function and get an error messages.. I am now trying Posterous and will then republish.

19 Jun 2010

You and your Mayan Sign

Hi

Hope you are having a great time

Here you can calculate your mayan stuff

This is one of the most influential sites on Mayan info

http://www.mayanmajix.com/TZOLKIN/index.php

If you have checked your mayan sign then go here and get a little more info

http://www.dr-rock.biz/MayanDateCalculator.html

Just enter your Gregorian birth date and hit apply. You should get all the info applicable to you including the following:

I am White Overtone Mirror. Copy this name and search for it in google

You should get to this site if you searched for White Overtone Mirror
http://www.astrodreamadvisor.com/M_white_over_mirror.html

Here you can read all about your Mayan sign and the meaning of it.

Have fun. It's easy and very effective.

Johan Horak

1) Learn how to Stay In Touch consciously with self and other by subscribing to my Free Newsletter.
2) Join Spirit Pathways Foundation in its quest to create a global network of like minded individuals, organisations, business and companies searching for sustainable solutions that are both simple and effective for the challenges we face.
3) Would you like to publish News To Amuse in your community?

Tel: 027 012 786 4028
Cell: 0027 82 870 2004

3 May 2010

Its a Spring Awakening @ The Little Theatre ...Cape Town

Dear Friends of the Little Theatre

The UCT Drama Department Present: SPRING AWAKENING

Christopher Weare directs a production of Spring Awakening for the UCT Drama Department. The play is a lively and provocative examination of adolescent sexual awakening in a repressive and sterile society.

Written in 1891 by German playwright Frank Wedekind, whose primary belief was in the necessary expression and liberation of the human body from the bondage of society’s stifling conventions, it is a work of expressionist theatre. Spring Awakening is concerned essentially with the inner conflicts of the teenagers confronted with the experience of altered adolescent awareness. Wedekind strongly criticises archaic educational and correctional institutions and their protagonists, whose destructive attitudes to the natural instincts of youth cause shame, frustration, and anger and perversity. The relationship between the two boys, Melchior and Moritz, forms the central core of the play, which looks at the various decisions faced by, and options open to, young adults.

This topical play is performed by an exciting and large class of final year students. Costumes are designed by Leigh Bishop and Lighting is by Daniel Galloway.

Spring Awakening runs in the Little Theatre from the 6^th – 15^th May 2010 at 20h00 Monday to Saturday. Tickets cost R50 – R30 and can be booked by dialing 021 480 7129. There is plenty of free, secure parking and Societi Bistro across the road from the theatre offers patrons an excellent dining opportunity before or after the show.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

This e-mail is subject to the UCT ICT policies and e-mail disclaimer published on our website at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/emaildisclaimer/ or obtainable from +27 21 650 4500. This e-mail is intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. If the e-mail has reached you in error, please notify the author. If you are not the intended recipient of the e-mail you may not use, disclose, copy, redirect or print the content. If this e-mail is not related to the business of UCT it is sent by the sender in the sender's individual capacity.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 Apr 2010

Why Are Your Great Ideas Not Making You Money? Did You Ask?

You may have asked but you did not ask 10 000 people. Or you may have asked 10 000 people but it was an expensive task.

In the past small businesses owners would wake up with this great idea. You may be one of them.

You had this dream!

You cannot stop because the energy is high. You design the dream stuff (calling it products or services sounds so boring). Then you create the promotional material and you buy expensive advertising. And you hope, in vain, that the ad will not be a waste again. Then, for some or other reason, your newly designed stuff fails and you cannot define the reason.... why did the people not queue up for your magic stuff? Have you ever walked up to a beautiful guy and asked him for a kiss? The fact that you want to maybe do it is another story. This is no different from your exciting, failed and out dated marketing approach.

The marketing world, as you know it, will never be the same anymore. Because........

I am bombarded with your useless ads wherever I go. I choose to ignore you. I choose to find information and I choose to ask my friends, because the ads you are sharing are bull dust and I had enough. You have trapped me in the past. I will not be trapped again. I don't care about big brands. Stuff them.

I go for word of mouth?

I trust my social network.

Where do I go?

I go to my online social networks and I ask them for advice? I go there because it's easy to ask a 10 000 people. They can and will answer me in minutes. And they will tell me if you are a crook or not.

Here I am trying to show the link between e-word of mouth (in the electronic word-of-mouth sense. Seth Godin calls it called viral marketing) and social networks. When you setup online social networks to allow e-word-of-mouth you have an amplification ability. This is critical for any small business marketer to understand, what is meant by "amplification ability." By The Way: As you know; you also get off line social networks that will give you word-of-mouth ability. Off line word of mouth is the traditional way of spreading a story and but it has a decaying function rather than an amplification function).

That's why I am asking and begging business people to start using social media to create their own social networks. (I call these social groups or places cultivation pools).

When you start creating cultivation pools, filled with eager and willing fans (obviously fans are people in your cultivation pools), you will find that they will.... gladly.... assist you in designing your new stuff. If you start discussing a new idea, you'll find that your fans will be asking you for more. This must be a confidence booster.

Now you have no risk or you'll have very reduced risk bring your idea to the market. You have people or fans from your cultivation pools co-creating your stuff ....or is it their stuff ......with you. And the same people will then spend money buying your stuff. Because you have made them an integral part of your feedback and product or service design system.

Let me summarise:

Advertising is an expensive and easy way to make you feel good because you are doing something ..... even though it may in vain.
Advertising can be seen as intrusive and that it creates separation between you and your potential clients
Creating products and services without a fan base is an wasteful activity
Creating a online fan base (cultivation pools) help you create friendship and long term trusting relationships.
Creating an cultivation pools takes time but it's not expensive. It's effective if you do it well.... meaning the correct intention.
Creating an online fan base is not a choice. You either do it or your business will drag along until it's eventual death.
Start designing and improving what you do by asking feedback from your fans.
Your clients are not interested in what you want, they are interested in co-creation...allow them. Give them the tools to talk to you.
Most advertising does not make you more money, and creating cultivation pools takes to long. Both are right. You have only one choice; the easy road or the long road.
Start creating a foundation for your cultivation pools and invite your potential clients and clients to become fans.

Johan Horak

P.S. Leave your baggage in 3D - you won't need it where we're going.

All my business and marketing coaching ideas are always published here.

If you rather want to follow me somewhere else then check my profile.

You Should Become A Facebook Fan

Contact me: Google Talk/

johanhorak Skype/

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3 Apr 2010

Paulo Coelho Quotes

We wouldn´t worry nearly as much about what others thought of us if we recognize how seldom they do. -Paulo Coelho
"Don't allow routine to transform you in someone you are not. " -- Paulo Coelho
“Trust and start walking. We are not alone in the dark; our path will unfold as we move.”--Paulo Coelho
"For the warrior, there is no "better" or "worse"; everyone has the necessary gifts for his particular path".~Paulo Coelho
"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." — Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)
“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” - The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure." ~ Paulo Coelho quotes from The Alchemist
"Courage in the path is what makes the path manifest itself." The Warrior of the Light issue 221 http://bit.ly/kkKkf# PauloCoelho
"Sometimes the wrong train can take us to the right place" - #PauloCoelho
if I fall I fall...I wil be landing soft or hard, but I will be landing...the fear won´t control me anymore...#paulocoelho
Sometimes the sea sends you the grandest wave you have ever experienced. Don't ask where it is taking you. #paulocoelho

Johan Horak
P.S. I sometimes break rules you make. Is that a problem?

Contact me:

johanhorak Skype/

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31 Mar 2010

Have You Created A Marketing Trap?

Calling it a trap does not sound so nice. But hang in there. Using the trap analogy will help me explain the following marketing idea.

I met with a great tourist guide, operator and booking agent and business man. This guy has great products and amazing routes. He has contacts in the industry. He has a nice looking website. He gets paid premium rates because he is well known in the industry. But business is tough.

He showed me two articles, in globally distributed magazines focusing on tours. The target market was spot on. These articles shared his story and had spectacular images, but he got one booking from it. One measly booking. Why? We are working on the solution but let me share with you an idea.

Let's assume the story makes the grade, the target market is spot on, the website looks great.... what is the problem?

In order for a trap to be effective you need to:

Decide where your target market exist. (Position of the trap).
Decided who you target market is. (An elephant trap will be different to a bird trap)
Know what they want. (The bait).
Create bait for those ready to eat (Those who will buy your product or service today)
Create bait for those who only want information. (These are the ones who are planning to use your service or products but are not ready yet).
Keep those you trapped, fed with regular samples of what you do and how it can resolve their issues. (In my short marketing ebook I call these trapped-areas cultivation pools. Basically you create places like your blog/newsletter, facebook, youtube and twitter as cultivation pools. These are places where you cultivate relationships until people in your pool spend money with you. And then you send them back to the cultivation pool again. Now you have a place where you can ask and test.
Many business people want to make the big catch, that they never catch and if they do they have no clue what to do with it. You have seen those dogs chasing the-big-bus. They do a lot but they achieve nothing and when they catch the bus they are so tiered they can do nothing with it.

Let's get back to this excellent guide. When you read compare this guys appraoch to your own. I bet you that most of you are doing more or less what he does:

With the articles, in the fancy magazines, he focused --- correctly --- on where to positions his trap and who he wants to trap [(1) and (2)].
His focus is on catching hungry people. In other words his marketing systems are designed to cater for people who want to book a trip today. He focus on hungry people.
Looking at his website he does not cater for people who wants confirmation, for people who wants to know if his the expert, for people who wants to know what other people are saying about him, for people who wants social proof, for people who wants more info. In other words he spent a lot of energy bring people to his website....his business. But they left him forever. Because at any one time very few people are hungry in comparison to the people who are searching for info. This must stop!
This website does a dedicated pool where people can get involved in a discussion.... with the expert and other searchers. This website does not have a tool for visitors to easily stay in touch with new developments. In other words this website does not provide small portions of bait on a regular basis to keep the searchers interested. This website, like most I encounter do not have an integrated system or integrated cultivation pools.

As I have said: This is an example of most website I investigate.

Read more and see this image explaining cultivation pools.

Johan Horak

johan horak’s energy flow

Ideas On How To Sell Coffee News Adverts

2010 Soccer Well done SA

Images 2010 Soccer World Cup South Africa

RUSHING THROUGH LIFE . . . .

Using Social Media In The Wild: Video On 3 Female Wild Dogs in a Boma

You and your Mayan Sign

Its a Spring Awakening @ The Little Theatre ...Cape Town

Why Are Your Great Ideas Not Making You Money? Did You Ask?

Paulo Coelho Quotes

Have You Created A Marketing Trap?

Johan Horak's Posterous

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