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.
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.
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
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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
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:
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…
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…)
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.
System 2006 is sold out.
Our seventh big System event since 2002… and our seventh consecutive sell out. Next year, we’re going to have to move to a bigger hotel.
The next two weeks are going to be a little hectic as we gear up for the biggest Internet marketing seminar and conference we’ve ever offered.
Twenty-three speakers, twenty-five specialized workshops, and attendees from around the world.
Corporate Internet events have certainy hit these numbers and then some, but System 2006 is the biggest conference for what I call "Internet bootstrap entrepreneurs" ever held.
We’re the guys who don’t have venture capital funds, scores of employees or bankers lining up to give us money. We live by our wits and are the source of much of the world’s innovation. Finally, there’s a conference for us!
The faculty for System 2006 reads like a "Who’s Who" of today’s leading Internet marketing experts.
You can read more about them here: System 2006 Blog.
I lived in San Francisco from 1990 t0 1998 which spanned the pre-Internet industry days to the heights of dot com mania.
Amazingly, since I moved back east, I’ve only been back twice, both times with a heavy work schedule that precluded fun and games.
Now I’m back for a visit and the third time is a charm…
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