Sleep is important…way important…but we don’t as a culture place much emphasis on it.

There’s even a “macho” attitude that those who sleep the least are somehow better than the rest of the population.

Good theory. Poor reality.

The reality is sleep is so important to mental and physical health that sleep deprivation is the #1 favorite tool of torturers. Not only that but many “mental disorders” (depression, irritability, anxiety) are actually nothing more than symptoms of sleep deprivation.

If you’re not sleeping well, is there anything you can do about it?

The good news is yes. The even better news is simple things have a huge impact on how well you sleep.

#1. Take sleep seriously.  Make it a priority. It’s not something you “squeeze in.” It’s essential to life, health and happiness.

#2. Watch what you eat and drink in the evening. Obvious, but easy to overlook. Instead of consuming stimulating food and drink, there are all kinds of things (like lavender and camomile tea) that will help you wind down.  If you need more, try valerian root.

#3. Start winding down early.  If you’re not heading to sleep by 11 PM, many people get a “second wind” that keeps them up until 2 to 3 AM in the morning.

#4. Light keeps you awake. People vary in sensitivity to light, but basically light tells the body: wake up. Late night TV watching can be keep certain people up.

Also, is light streaming into your room at night? Ever notice how you can sometimes sleep late in a hotel and have no idea what time it is outside? That’s because of the thick, light-blocking curtains good hotels have.

#5. The body loves habit and is happy to create a sleep habit. If your hours are all over the place, it makes it impossible for your body to set a natural sleep cycle.

Bottom line:  We’re not machines. We need sleep to function best and you’ve got to finesse yourself to sleep, especially in our “modern” world which places little value on it and does all kinds of things to interfere with it.

Bonus: Sleeping between 7 AM and 9 AM is a great thing to do if you’re schedule permits. In Chinese medicine that’s kidney time and the kidney is the root of health.

Comments(0)

The view from the the Sky Ranch Lodge above Sedona

I never thought I’d visit Sedona.

I’d heard of it, but nothing that I heard moved me one way or the other.  There’s plenty of stunning natural beauty within an hour of my home so why travel a few thousand miles just to see some sights?

But life’s full of surprises.

Earlier this year, my doctor announced he was moving to Sedona. Bad news for me because he’d been helping with a lot.

I’d made a half-hearted pledge to visit him “someday,” but, as I said, life is full of surprises.

Twists and turns

About a month or so ago, not much more than a week after I arrived in New Orleans for my winter visit, I stepped on some unstable pavement and torqued my left ankle. “Boy, that’s going to hurt later,” I thought.

Surprise. My ankle was fine, but later my knee was not. Pretty soon it became clear that if I was going to walk around, I was going to need a cane.

“OK. I can live with that. I’ll use the cane until the knee gets better and then back to normal.”

That was the plan and the knee did get better and I was walking fine. Great.

Then about a week later, it went out again and a few days after that it stopped taking any weight at all. The cane didn’t cut it any more. To further complicate things, I had a pre-existing problem with my right arm so crutches were out.

That fast I found myself in a wheelchair less than a week before I had to get on a plane to run five full days of seminars. As if that weren’t enough, I’d also taken on a “mission impossible” type project for a very worthy and very needy non-profit in New Orleans.

The consolations of philosophy

There’s only one thing to do in a situation like this: become a philosopher. There’s not much else you can do.

First, I marveled at how easy it is to end up in a wheelchair. Two bad legs or one bad leg and one bad arm and you’re in.

Second, I consoled myself with the idea that it was a temporary condition.

But neither of these ideas helped me deal with the practical problems that kept me up the night I realized that the wheelchair thing was not going to resolve itself quickly.

Practical questions like how I was going to get from New Orleans to Chicago and then from O’Hare to the hotel reared their ugly head.

And so did the big one: How was I going to cope with needing to be wheeled around in a wheelchair for five days at the System Seminar? Would it freak people out? Would it freak me out?

Normally, I do a lot of standing and walking at my seminars. Now I would be able to do zero.

Normally, running the seminar takes a lot of of me physically. Now I was running the longest seminar I’d ever attempted and I was going into it already exhausted and stressed out.

Suddenly not being able to walk before your biggest event of the year can do that to you.

“Conditions are rarely ideal”

The night before the seminar starts I always have insomnia. In fact, I pretty much have insomnia for the whole seminar.

Usually that’s fine. I just deal with it.

But I needed every bit of rest I could get so I did what most human beings do: I worried.

I worried about it being 3:45 AM in the morning and not being able to go to sleep. I worried about how I was going to keep my energy up for five days. I worried how I was going to keep my mind sharp since normally I literally “think on my feet” and I wasn’t going to be able to be on my feet.

I worried and worried and worried.

Then I got a message. Where it came from I do not know, but it popped into my head clear as day and it made me laugh.

The message said: “Conditions are rarely ideal.”

I had to laugh because it was such a profoundly true and obvious statement.

Tell me when in anybody’s life conditions are ever perfect.

Sure, occasionally you catch a wave and everything is smooth sailing for a while, but how often does that happen? 5% of the time if you’re lucky.

The biography of every living person (and every person who’s ever lived) is full of screw ups, set backs, massive inconveniences, with the occasional disaster thrown in for good measure.

It’s called life and it happens to everybody all the time.

Conditions are rarely ideal…so what are you going to do about it?

I chuckled and went right to sleep.

New plan

Realizing that not only are conditions rarely ideal, they were certainly not ideal now, I changed my focus.

Instead of thinking about all the things stacked up against me, I focused on one thing: How I was going to do what I had to do with excellence regardless of the obstacles and, equally as important, how I was going to use every second of downtime in between presentations to maximum effect to recharge my batteries so I could hit it again – and again – and again – for five days in a row.

One thing that helped enormously: instead of engaging in idle chit chat with every person who wanted to shoot the breeze, I left the seminar room immediately when I was done and rested.

Small thing but it helped a lot.

I also enrolled a lot of people to help me, something I normally never do. I’m big on being self-sufficient. Big mistake when you’re running a complex operation.

So I assembled a team of people I knew I could count on.

Teamwork and necessity

Chef Mark Garcia, a member of my System Eagles Club, prepared me exquisite, healthy and delicious meals so I was always well fed and not dependent on the whims of the hotel kitchen and room service.

Dr. Andrew Colyer, another System student, worked on my leg and back on the breaks to not only keep them from seizing up, but also to promote their healing.

Thad Winston, a colleague of super System grad Lloyd Irvin, wheeled me through freight elevator and maze of the hotel kitchen so I was able to get to the stage without going through the lobby and seminar room in a wheelchair. Instead, I popped out a door next to the stage and made the last ten feet on crutches.

Then, for practicality’s sake, I did something I’ve never seen any seminar leader ever do. I sat on the stage for the entire five days of training. (It was a lot easier to do that than get up and down the stage stairs every time a new speaker came on.)

The result was that System 2010 was one of the most focused events we’ve ever done. I always knew exactly what was going on in the room and was able to keep things on track at all times.

At first I worried how I was going to keep my attention “on” eight to fourteen hours a day (Saturday started at 9 AM and ended and 11 PM.) Then I made an important discovery: worry consumes energy I couldn’t afford to spare. So I just dealt with things one minute a a time, taking great care not to waste energy on anything unnecessary and to make sure I had ample time to recharge my batteries on the breaks.

Adaptable plans

As the seminar wound down, bit by bit my knee got better. So much so that on the final day, I was able to put some weight on the knee and actually walk in my room a bit.

Nonetheless, it was clear that the knee was still in bad shape.

Once it was clear I was going to make it through the seminar, I allowed myself to start thinking about what I was going to do after the seminar.

Back in New Orleans, I had a gorgeous apartment waiting for me. A classic place with its own private courtyard right in the heart of the French Quarter. In a few minutes, I could walk to one of my favorite places on earth, Frenchmen Street, one of the last spots in America where you can see ten or more great bands in a one block area without paying a single cover charge.

Just one problem: I couldn’t walk to Frenchmen Street and New Orleans, God bless it, has some of the most messed up sidewalks in the world. Normally it doesn’t matter, but my knee could not afford another twist.

So, what to do?

Back home in the Hudson Valley, my home has lots of stairs and going up and down stairs is still a killer on my knee.

I was beginning to worry and then I realized: “Hey, why not just head west to Arizona, get a place near your doctor, and work with him for as long as it takes to get better?. You have the time. You have the money. Why not?”

The practical problems of getting to O’Hare and then Phoenix and then Sedona (a place I’d never been) and finding a place to stay all the while on crutches (after the seminar, I graduated to crutches) were solved and the next thing I knew, I was in a comfortable room in a peaceful spot with a view to die for.

Just down the street there’s s little restaurant that’s good enough for now.  (I can walk there without crutches as long as I don’t step on uneven ground.)

Monday, I start the next round of treatments for my knee.

Meanwhile, I’m reading, watching TV, napping, eating – just generally taking it easy, something I too rarely do.

Could messing up my knee actually turn out to be a good thing?

Maybe.

I’m going to withhold judgement until I am walking again normally, but in the meantime, I’m enjoying the peace and quiet here and thinking it might not be a bad idea to get more of this (minus the knee problems) in my life.

Conditions are rarely ideal, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get things done and even enjoy yourself in the process.

Good luck with your challenges.  I hope this story helps with them.

Comments(43)

Win, lose, or draw I wanted to be with my friends in New Orleans and this was what it was like last week.

Shot with my Flip camera and edited by my friend Matt Lipscomb with big assists from Steve Goyette, Steve O’Keefe, and Chuck Perkins.

Comments(5)

You can’t control the outcome of anything 100%.

But what you can control 100% is to have heart. And dedication. And loyalty. And that sums up New Orleans people to a “t.”

Four and a half years ago, their city was nearly obliterated by the biggest engineering failure in American history. Scorned by the ignorant and bigoted, they were blamed for their own misfortune.

Media pundits and Congressmen alike had the gall to suggest the city be bulldozed. Government promises of help didn’t come when they were needed and all this time later, few have been fulfilled.

But New Orleans people came back and amidst frightening, gut-churning wreckage rebuilt their homes and neighborhoods and businesses one nail at a time.

You can’t always control the outcome of things, but you can control what you do.

Finish strong.

As long as you’re alive, there is always hope.

Go Saints! Go New Orleans!

And God bless all the brave people in this world who fight to the end against all odds.

Comments(10)

The fights were fun…the mastermind went great….the seminar was super…and the poetry tour was a big hit.

The poetry tour?!

Yes, the poetry tour.

When I travel on business, I like to pack as much production as I can into a trip.

So not only did we go to the UFC fights at Manchester Arena…

…And organize a private mastermind of some of the world’s top Internet marketers…

…And put on a fantastic seminar on blogging for business…

…We also arranged for New Orleans jazz poet Chuck Perkins to perform at Manchester’s top jazz club, Matt and Phred’s, in the city’s Northern Quarter (it looks like Soho in NYC.)

All this took place in just five whirlwind days.

Poetry for Internet marketers

Poetry doesn’t pay well. There’s no way around that. Going into poetry for the money is not a good idea, but…

Marketers can learn a lot from poets.

Poetry can be a great promotional tool and it’s something worth paying attention to by all serious marketers.

For example, what do you think an advertising slogan is? It’s a phrase that packs a lot of power and meaning into a short, memorable phrase. Poets are experts at that kind of thing.

It’s no coincidence that Drayton Bird, to my mind the most accomplished living direct marketer, is a big poetry fan and sometimes draws on poetry to make a point in his trainings.

Poets can pack a punch too

Among their other skills, poets also excel in dramatizing situations and making them larger than life. Another skill every marketer can profit from.

The great boxer Muhammad Ali used poetry to promote his fights which contributed mightily to the huge audiences his fight drew – and the huge purses he won.

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

It doesn’t get much better than that.

Manchester is a big poetry town

Folks in Manchester are huge poetry fans.

When I was Googling to find potential places for Chuck to perform and people for him to meet, I came across scores of pages devoted to local poetry groups, performance spaces and individual poets.

The other reason I decided to bring Chuck to Manchester is the city’s historical links – the back story – to New Orleans.

The New Orleans-Manchester connection

At one time, Manchester was the textile capital of the world.

Making clothes from cotton may not seem very sexy, but it was and still is a huge industry and back in the 19th century, Manchester had a lock on it worldwide.

Walking around town and looking at some of the old buildings, it’s easy to see that it was once a very, very rich city. Right up there with New York, London, and New Orleans.

New Orleans?

Yes, New Orleans. For a while in the mid 1800s century, New Orleans was as rich as New York City.

Why?

Cotton.

It was the cotton that left the Port of New Orleans that fueled the mills in Manchester.

Reviving an old link to help New Orleans

As you may already know, I spend every winter In New Orleans.

I advise levees.org, the organization that’s fighting to make sure the levees are rebuilt correctly. I also work with individuals – mainly musicians and other artists – and non-profits on their positioning and marketing. It’s my contribution to helping rebuild the city.

One of the most important ways to help any cause is to keep it in the public eye. You can’t get action without attention – and you can’t count on attention, you have to create it.

New Orleans is a tourist town. Tourism is the city’s second largest industry after shipping. A lot of folks pay their rent and put their kids in school uniforms with the money they make working for hotels and restaurants.

However, in spite of the city’s many charms – its great winter weather (spring starts in February), its incomparable food, and its unequaled live music scene – not many people from the UK visit.

It’s not because they don’t like to travel. English people love to travel and spend a lot of their free time and money seeking warm, sunny places.

My thought is that if just a small fraction of the masses of people in the UK who visit Florida and the Caribbean each year were to visit New Orleans, it would make a noticeable impact on the city’s economy.

Greasing the wheels

To help this along, I’m working with musicians and poets in the two cities to help bring New Orleans music and culture to Manchester.

The Manchester people love the idea because, wonderful as it is, Manchester is a dark and drizzly place in the winter and even just talking about warmer, brighter weather gets instant appreciation.

That’s why we brought Chuck Perkins over and he’s been a hit. Just in Mancheser for a few days and he’s already won a flock of fans, especially among the city’s musicians.

Artists are trend setters and thought leaders

Earlier I mentioned that Manchester’s Norther Quarter looks a lot like New York City’s Soho neighborhood.

Well, when I was a teenager, Soho was just a bunch of empty industrial lofts. It was the artists who pioneered it and turned it into what it is today.

Now, if you want to live in Soho, bring your millions, because even a modest place is going to set you back a million bucks. Getting what people in most part of the country would consider just a basic apartment starts at around $2 million.

I have no doubt that with a little support and encouragement, a thriving New Orleans-Manchester cultural connection can be formed and that it will turn into a bump up for the city’s tourist revenues.

In fact, it’s already started.

I’ve spoken with several Manchester musicians who, as a result of Chuck’s visit, have started saving their pennies (or pence) to visit the legendary city and see it for themselves.

Where the artists and musicians go, the rest of the world is sure to follow.

So what’s the point?

Marketing is not just for making money.

It’s also a tool to make things happen.

I’ve found that doing a little bit of both is a great way to keep your skills sharp.

You see the truth is, after you’ve applied yourself to it for a while – with the right kind of training – selling things is not all that hard. It’s work, to be sure, but it’s not rocket science.

Therefore, I make this suggestion at every System Seminar and it’s worth repeating.

Every person – every normal person that is – has a cause that means something to them beyond their own personal profit. It might be your church, or your children’s school, so some social condition that needs reform.

If you’re a marketer, don’t just sit on the sidelines writing checks, helpful as that is, it’s only a fraction of what you have to offer. Consider rolling up your sleeves and contributing your skills and experience.

Yes, it will suck up huge amounts of time and energy and at times you may wonder why you’re adding further aggravation to an already busy schedule, but it can be great fun and you might find that the ultimate satisfaction you’ll get from marketing doesn’t come from “stacking it.” it comes from helping positive things happen.

For folks interested in poetry, jazz, New Orleans, and how all those things come together in a single person, here’s the first ambassador of New Orleans culture we brought to Manchester as part of our New Orleans-Manchester Connection project.

Click here for Chuck Perkins poetry and music.

- Ken McCarthy

P.S. This year’s System Seminar will be in Chicago, April 9, 10 and 11.

For more info: The System Seminar

================================================

Comments(0)

We’ve talked a lot about Google over the years, so it’s great to see them talk about us on one of their official blogs.

Tom Leung who is product manager for Google’s Website Optimizer tool was kind enough to come to Chicago to System 2008 and walk us through this extremely powerful and relatively new testing tool.

It’s the same one Google uses in-house for its own testing – and it’s free.

One of our faculty members Sean D’Souza, who is a wizard of info marketing, happens to have been a professional cartoonist in an earlier career and drew some cartoons illustrating big points in Tom’s talk.

I’m thinking of making Tom’s entire talk at System 2008 available for free to everyone in the Internet marketing world. Since it’ll take an investment of time and money on my part, if you’re interested in this, definitely let me know by posting below.

Meanwhile, here are Sean’s System 2008 cartoons on Google’s blog: click here for the cartoons

Comments(58)

Howie Jacobson and I did a one day master session for marketers to raise money for a New Orleans rebuilding project.

Every attendee got their money’s worth (it was $1,000 a head for the day.) At least one guy got advice that I know when he executes on it – and he will – will be at worth 1,000 times his investment.

Life’s not always a straight line. Not everyone gets dealt the same hand.

The purpose of entrepreneurship is to strengthen your own position and lend a hand where a hand is needed.

This small church which has lost 80% of its members still manages to provide material help to church members and neighbors alike; runs an after school homework center; and a home for teenage mothers and their children, so the mothers can get job training while their kids are cared for during the day.

I think that individuals like Bruce Davenport who is keeping this community going are the most impressive entrepreneurs there are.

Some home movies of what we saw:

Comments(0)

One of the most useful business experiences I ever had took place when I was just in my late teens and early twenties.

What was my business?

I sold experiences…

(more…)

Comments(1)

Two big things happened this month.

First, the launch of Sacha Cohen’s movie “Borat” which is on track to possibly become the highest grossing comedy of all time.

Second, the first live meeting of StomperNet, a year long training created by Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins which has set the standard for intensive Internet marketing education…
(more…)

Comments(0)

Lots going on this month… I’ll be in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Chicago.

This coming week I’ll be in New Orleans on a two-fold mission…

First I’m doing a benefit workshop for small business people in that city. That’s on the 8th.

The next day, the 9th, I’ll be hosting a rare small group brainstorming/networking/group coaching session with David Bullock, one the sharpest marketing minds I know – and I don’t say that lightly.

If you want to be involved, there may still be a few seats left. Here’s the link for more info:

http://www.amacordfoundation.org/neworleans/fundraiser.html

That coming weekend (November 11 – 13), I’ll be at the StomperNet Meeting in Atlanta. DOZENS of System grads and customers will be attending so I figured this is a good chance for me to see everybody and since I’m already on the road, what’s another flight?

November 17, I’ll be at the Perry Marshall and Ari Galper’s meeting in Chicago. They’re doing some very interesting stuff that is boosting conversion rates like crazy. It’s a private meeting.

The following day November 18, Rob Goyette and I will be presenting a workshop in Chicago on how to get custom programming created for your business fast, afforably – and without losing your mind. That one is open to the public and there may be some seats left by the time you read this.

The fact is custom programming is the secret sauce that makes it possible for a lot of online businesses to be as efficient and profitable as they are. The problem is software development is brutally difficult (and expensive) if you don’t know what you’re doing.

If you’re interested in attending, it’s free for System Club members and $995.00 for everyone else. (Again, it pays – and pays very well – to be a System Club member.)

If you want more information about the workshop contact Bettina (bettina@amacord.com) We don’t have a big sales letter for this workshop. If you understand the enormous value of getting first class training on this subject from a world class pro, then you get it. If not, that’s fine too.

Bottom line: The people who go through this program will emerge as software development wizards (whether they can write a line or code or not) and are going to be in the position of being able to eat their competition alive.

Ken

P.S. If you’re interested in joining the Sytem Club, you can write Bettina about that too. It’s mostly a private group so I don’t promote it, but there’s always room for a few sharp new members.

Comments(3)