Christopher L. Hedges's Blog, page 10

We don’t want you until you don’t need us (10/2/14)

“Sorry we don’t do book signings with authors who aren’t local unless they’re like James Patterson, or they have some connection to the community. We don’t invest any real money into the promotion, but it isn’t worth our time.”

After 25 unanswered emails, and three responses like that I have decided to call off attempting to contact any more bookstores for book signings. That statement isn’t limited to this book and this book tour. That statement is from this point forward. The rational I was given is that it feels awkward for us so we don’t do it, but if you were famous we would accommodate you.

I actually used to resent Amazon because of its Walmart on steroids model. Amazon is so efficient, convenient and cheap that it is gradually putting everyone out of business. However, I have changed my tune. Once upon a time I would get into the car to ride down to a store and pay the premium prices just to support my local community. NO MORE! Now if I can get it online I will. Brick and mortar stores only have one distinct advantage on their virtual counterparts, the personal touch, and they seem to be less inclined to defend that advantage.

It’s sad because I wake up now a days looking at the way things are, and asking myself what happened? What took place over the last twenty years to cause this country to regress into this state of complete and utter apathy. When exactly did we abandon our identity as dreamers and doers? So far on my journey of writing I have become disappointed and disheartened with the current state of affairs. Things really have gotten off on the wrong foot for a journey that was supposed to be filled with discovery, potential and promise. Although I’m looking forward to things getting better as time ticks along.

You Catch More Flies with Honey (10/1/14)

I got a random email a few months back from a gentleman who was curious if I would be interested in writing a book. Initially I felt a little flattered to find his correspondence in my inbox, but those positive feelings didn’t last long. I sent him a thank you letter explaining how I had just finished my first book, it was published by Morgan James Publishing, and I probably wouldn’t be looking at another project until I finished my first book tour.

My opinion did a complete 180 the second this publishing house representative responded to my email. His response was one attacking my publisher with no real substance for his points. His response is taboo in my books. I’m loyal to a fault, and this individual chose the wrong tact when communicating with me. Everything he said could be 100% accurate, but I would never work with him or the company he represents because his character will always be tarnished in my eyes.

Had he listed all the things his publishing firm would do, and provided me with a list of New York Times Bestsellers in his catalog I may have entertained further discussion. Unfortunately he decided to use negative recruiting. He didn’t focus on the strengths of his arguments. Instead he chose to attack what he perceived as the faults in his competition. I get enough negative campaigning in an election year, I don’t need an extra helping from someone whose trying to pitch me on working with him.

My point is that if you can’t sell me based on the merits of your product or service and have to resort to attacking your competition then what you are offering can’t be all that good to begin with. You may find people who won’t be put off by these negative tactics, but I tend to believe you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Positive Paradoxical Situations (9/30/14)

I love finding positive paradoxical situations. I’m sure you have heard of the movie Super Size Me where an indie filmmaker named Morgan Spurlock put on 25 pounds in a month. He chose to single out McDonald’s as he attacked the nutritional value of fast food nation. I don’t think anyone in history has said that fast food was health food. Fast food is convenient, and for some it’s a guilty pleasure.

My problem with Morgan is he chose to base his movie on an argument that no rational human being would qualify as logical, that being willingly living off of a 5000+ calorie a day diet at a fast food restaurant. There are people whose diet is primarily picked up at the drive through window, but that has more to do with lifestyle and socioeconomic status than conscious dietary decisions. Honestly, to look at his social experiment, it appears like Morgan only wanted to get his five minutes of fame at the expense of someone else.

On the flip side a guy by the name of John Cisna thought Super Size Me was based on such a ridiculous premise that he set out on his own social experiment. In turn John wanted to show that by using a little restraint and common sense you could actually maintain a healthy lifestyle while living on a fast food diet. He even managed to maintain consistency by using the same fast food giant. Where Morgan gained 25 pounds in one month, John lost around 40 pounds in three months. John debunked any notion that Fast food is the enemy that Morgan may have been trying to personify it as. In fact based on what John accomplished it would appear that Morgan’s documentary is more of an attack on society than on McDonald’s.

I heard about John’s story on the internet, and I thought it was a great, but I didn’t know the complete scope of the story until my friend Bob told me about it. You see Bob works for a legacy McDonald’s franchisee locally. This family has been in the burger flipping business for three generations, and to this day they maintain the same values Ray Kroc instilled in the company when he bought it from the McDonald brothers in 1961. When Bob’s bosses heard about John’s story they were so impressed that they invited John down to Florida. They even helped him publish a book on his McDonald’s diet, appropriately titled My McDonald’s Diet.

McDonald’s may not be the healthiest diet on earth, but it is the most convenient way to eat. You can almost stand outside any McDonald’s restaurant and look down the road and see the next golden arch on the horizon. McDonald’s convenience is why I’m so excited about this positive paradoxical situation, where a fast food company actually produces a healthy diet. Going by John’s numbers by the time time I finish my 10 month book tour, while on my McDonald’s Diet, I should end up losing over 40 pounds and find myself at a lean and healthy 190 lbs. Added Bonus: three squares a day from Mickey D’s still costs less than one meal at a sit down restaurant when you add in tip, and for a broke author that’s priceless!

Take the time to find the positive paradoxical situation because they can be worth their weight in gold. For me the McDonald’s diet will result in a savings of at least $10,000 in food costs.

Don’t Confuse Social Media with Internet Presence (9/29/14)

Do you need a social media presence? One of the first things my publisher told me after signing on the dotted line was that I needed a social media presence. I had to be online.

I’m not an expert on being an author so I didn’t resist the requests of the team that was put together to help me succeed. I bought a domain name for my website, and created a blog. I expanded my Facebook account by creating a page for my books. I have started posting to my google+ account. I created a twitter account so that I could post whatever was on my mind any given second of the day. I already had a LinkedIn profile that was updated to list my new endeavors in the wonderful world of writing. I went to the extreme of creating a YouTube account to host a video blog for my book tour. Finally there are the author pages I have on Goodreads and Amazon. I think I have developed a very well rounded internet presence.

However, I don’t think we should confuse having an internet presence with it being social media. To tell you the truth if I didn’t honestly believe that I needed an internet presence I wouldn’t even bother; maintaining my digital footprint is like inviting a time-bandit in to rob me on a daily basis.

I want to try and prove my point that an internet presence isn’t social media. Recently there was a young lady who was censored by Facebook because some animal activists didn’t like her pictures. Now one of two things transpired; either the brain-trust at Facebook is completely and utterly spineless or they are a collection of Fascists that believe that they have the authority to censor what people have to say when they don’t agree with it. Let’s be clear this girl wasn’t promoting hate and genocide. She wasn’t displaying gory pictures that would leave a casual viewer scarred for life. In fact she even gave explanations as to the importance of each kill. The hunting license for this pays to support these animals. By participating in select population control you give the offspring the opportunity to survive. However, in the progressive mindset, that is supposed to be about inclusion and acceptance, you are permitted to freely express yourself up until the point that your opinion comes into conflict with mine. Once we have a difference of opinion you’re no longer permitted to express yourself. For the record I don’t hunt or fish, nor am I a fan for say, but I support the fact that this young lady does have the right to express herself freely. Personally I find Facebook’s decision to censor her freedom of expression to be reprehensible.

Although, I guess you can say Facebook is a social platform, after all it’s management chose to run a social experiment on 700,000 of their customers without acquiring the customers’ consent. Facebook has chosen to screw with the minds of innocent bystanders. You know a guy in Germany was performing social experiments on innocent bystanders without their knowledge or consent nearly 80 years ago. That man even went so far as to say what he was doing was for the good of the country, just sayin’.

How about the fact that social media platforms have tried to claim ownership over intellectual property that just happened to be posted. Yeah, Facebook is guilty of that one too. Buried in the small print you don’t see that your information will be kept against your will and farmed out for profit even after you have decided to severe any connection you may have had.

So you are going to censor me, perform social experiments to further your personal agenda, and steal my intellectual property. I could have continued to elaborate on how social media is in effect antisocial, but I have to get ready for Argentina vs Germany in the World Cup final. My point is that having an internet presence is not the same thing as social media. Social by definition means we interact freely. I can say whatever I damn well please, and you can choose to walk away if you don’t like what you hear. Social is wanting to interact, but not forcing me to be included against my will and stealing my identity when I choose to walk away. There are several terms that when you combine with “Digital” fit that description very nicely, and funny thing is they are all felonies: false imprisonment, kidnapping, and theft. I will maintain an internet presence because I have to, but don’t lie to me and tell me it’s social media when it’s social only when you find it convenient to be social.

A Destructive Mindset (9/26/14)

I almost find it depressing that I would have to travel 2,000 miles for my first book signing, and I would need a valid passport just to get there on top of it.

Up until this point I had put off contacting bookstores because of the experience I had with the five I had previously dealt with. I really don’t have a problem with rejection, I have experienced more than my fair share in life. What I can’t take is the inconsideration and what appears to be complete professional apathy.

I contacted a handful of bookstores ranging from indie stores to mega chains with similar results. I contact the store, find the person I needed to talk to, leave a message, and then follow up. In one instance it was three phone calls and two emails. For all five bookstores it was the exact same result, me sitting in front of the computer with my phone in hand waiting for a return call that never came and crickets chirping in the background.

Professional apathy is the mentality of just doing the bare minimum. It’s an attitude of just walking through the motions looking busy without ever being productive.  Is that what happened when I contacted these specific bookstores? Possibly, but it also could have been a business decision. The person in charge could have very well said, “Author signings by nobodies like you aren’t very successful for us; so we aren’t interested.” Personally, I don’t see how holding an author signing negatively impacts a bookstore. I can’t rationalize how the decision to decline having an author do a book signing makes sense, but if it’s a business decision I respect it. However, if it was a business decision then someone should have had the common courtesy to say no thanks we aren’t interested, and there’s my gripe.

No one could even bother to say we aren’t interested. No one could take five minutes out of their day to compose a ten word email or leave a quick voice mail to say no thanks.

This is a much bigger issue than an author trying to set up a book signing at a bookstore. Professional apathy and a basic lack of common courtesy have infested our day to day lives. It happens when you pick up your to-go order at a restaurant, and you’re served up a helping of “yeah whatever” when you try to get a problem fixed. It happens when the kids leave a sink full of dirty dishes, a trail of muddy shoe prints, and an I’ll get to it later because I’m watching TV attitude in their wake.

It’s a problem because this attitude has gradually eroded some basic core values that are essential to be successful. Is it really a question of inequality in society, or is it possible that a mindset of mediocrity in the masses has let a minority of the population stand heads and shoulders above the rest? I think it’s the latter, and I think we need to invest the time and energy to eliminate this destructive mindset.

Basic Sales Communication (9/25/14)

In what is currently my favorite book on the subject of sales there was a quote in the area of communication that in a nutshell said “Find your message, keep it simple, and repeat it often.” To that I would like to add find you connectors. Malcolm Gladwell lists three key types of personality types you need to locate if you are hoping to create a tipping point (Salesman, Mavens, and Connectors). Creating a tipping point is what it takes for anything to go viral.

These people are essential to your success because they create the market for you. Of the three categories I’m always desperately searching for Connectors because they are like walking, talking announcement boards. When a connector finds something that moves them they will make sure the whole world knows about it, so try not to get on a connector’s bad side.

Starley and I were passing texts back and forth about some tweets I posted. Like any good coach she was just checking in to make sure I didn’t actually need to talk. I really didn’t have any questions for her; I was just lobbing up some social media meatballs for her to swing at.

In the middle of our conversation she asked if I had a couple dozen books I could include in her give away bags. My book cost is probably about $7 per book, or about $175 in product cost. First, I’m putting my book in front of 25 people who are all looking to build their brand and/or image that may never have picked up my book in the first place. So I have 25 potential book reviews. Second, I build some goodwill with Starley because she looks great with her clients by providing them with some additional value. Then if, God willing, one of those 25 people is a connector he or she will tell all of his or her friends how cool Starley is for giving away great door prizes like Average Joe’s Story: Quest for Confidence. Based on their personality Connectors have huge lists of friends. However, even if they aren’t naturally connectors every person who works with Starley is trying to to develop that skill set. So my odds of someone spreading the word about my book just skyrocketed.

My logic may not make sense to you, but I’m always looking for potential out of the box opportunities like this. My success in this scenario is based purely on potential, but my potential return to cost  ratio is too great to turn a blind eye to. If you are looking to find a way to truly increase the repetition of your message locate some loyal connectors, and let them do the heavy lifting for you.

Are Honor and Integrety Dead? (9/24/14)

I remember back in the day when a man’s word stood for something. If you extended your hand and shook on it, the deal was done. You didn’t need a team of lawyers and a forest worth of legal documents to say, “Here’s the deal!”

I would still like to operate under the let’s just shake on it model, but that isn’t reality any more. Now honor and integrity have taken a back seat to, among other things, bottom lines and greed.

I was talking to a senior executive once who told me a story about an experience he had. This executive made a deal with one of his major suppliers. The supplier was going to eat some serious front end production costs, and offer a great price for his product. In turn the supplier didn’t want his client to come back and try to renegotiate when the supplier’s margins got better in later years. The senior executive and the supplier shook on the deal, and that was that.

Several years later a bean counter in the C-suite, back at the corporate office, was running the numbers and saw that the supplier was now making a hefty profit. So the senior executive got a call and the voice on the other end said, “Your supplier is making too much. You need to go back and renegotiate his rate.”

To that the senior executive replied, “I gave Hall my word we weren’t going to play this game with him. If you want to renegotiate with him than you do it; I won’t!”

Personally I’m doing everything within my power to meet obligations I committed to. I siphon off a little money every month to put towards the philanthropic donations I said that I was going to make. I manage my health to the best of my ability to keep myself out of the hospital so that I can complete my ultramarathon book tour, and I would work my way right into the ER if I had to in order to keep my word.

I would kill myself to keep my word, and I think that is why I am so upset when someone I work with can’t live up to theirs. That happened with a sponsor I was working with. The sponsor said they were going to do something then all of a sudden they backed out, and ceased communication.

Is it just me or are honor and integrity truly traits of the past?

Boy do I Feel Stupid Today (9/23/14)

I didn’t realize how dependent I had become on technology until today. I know that I haven’t used a map to navigate since the early 90s thanks to my trusty GPS unit. I know that my phone on top of making calls has replaced my watch, calender, camera, note pad, video camera, and voice recorder. After misplacing/breaking my phone I have actually gone into panic attacks that compare to the feeling of going cold turkey off of Oxycodone, which I have done on three separate occasions while dealing with Cancer.

I knew that I had become addicted to technology, but it wasn’t until I was getting some work done with Starley that I realized how bad things had gotten. I’m planning on pitching to a few local TV markets for my book tour (Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Tampa, Miami, and New York). Starley has contacts in a few of them, but she doesn’t have any in Boston so it was up to me to track down the appropriate producer. I spent a couple hours going over video archives, looking at personality bios, and contact information. I googled and binged  Fox 25 Boston Morning News in an assortment of different variations and couldn’t find the information I was looking for.

When I finally decided to stop pulling my hair out I checked in with Starley. Her answer was very nice and to the point, “Did you try calling the station’s main phone number and asking for the producer’s name and email?” Okay, now I feel like an idiot. There are some areas in my life where I have become so dependent on technology I can’t function without it; I have in some cases, like today, forgotten how to think altogether.

The reason this is so embarrassing is because I wrote Average Joe’s Story: Quest for Confidence in such a way that I gave the readers all the answers, but I camouflaged them just enough so that the reader had to read between the lines from time to time to find them. I wrote that way because I think there are too many books that just tell you this is what you need to know, and this is how you do it. By design these types of books cause us to stop thinking for ourselves. That style of book conditions us to be lazy and say just give me the answers already.

This event was a little bit of a shot to my ego and it tarnished my pride ever so slightly, but it was good for me. My embarrassment was a reminder to why I wrote the book the way I did, and why I committed to this project in the first place. Thanks for the wake up call Starley.

The First Decision I had to Make as a Writer (9/22/14)

I have heard other “experts” tell me on a consistent basis that one of the beautiful things about being an expert is that by design you are free to work wherever, whenever, and with whomever you so choose. That is a lot of truth to that. I know people who only work 4 hours a day in their board shorts poolside. I know a few people that make seven figures off of three major events a year. That’s a career track that I’m currently working towards now, having just published my first book. I know all I really need to work is electric, wifi, and cell reception.

The beauty of being an “expert” is that you have the ability to create whatever kind of reality you choose. However, there is a downside, you never get to turn it off. The minute I embarked down the path to the mysterious world known as “expert status” I never stopped working. I went from clocking in my 40-80 hours a week for a corporate employer to working 24/7 for myself. I couldn’t turn off my brain. When I worked for the Bank of New York the minute I walked out the door I checked out until I swept my ID badge across the digital scanner the following morning. There is no magical barrier that frees me from work now.

I’m usually trying to figure out creative ways to create and close sponsorship opportunities, researching potential media outlets, setting up book tour stops, and if I’m lucky I get a little writing sprinkled in too. For example I drove from Tampa to Orlando and back on the 4th of July because I was going to pick the brain of my buddy Jim who is a commercial developer. He has connections in a roundabout way to Walgreens, CVS, and a list of banks, gas stations, and other major corporate retailers. Does this guarantee I’ll set up and close a deal with one of his corporate tenants? No, but it is an inside track that has more potential than submitting a general email inquiry that may never even get looked at.

The beauty and the curse of becoming an “expert or any form of entrepreneur for that matter is that your success is primarily only limited to how hard you are willing to work. So if you are choosing between setting out on your own or continuing to collect a check you have a decision to make: stability, time off, and a regular check or stress, long hours, and the potential to create the life of your dreams. It’s not an easy choice, but you need to be sure if you choose to walk the direction I’ve chosen; it’s a challenging path to walk down.

The Perceived Difference Between Us and Them (9/19/14)

I was trolling through the internet news feeds when I saw an article about how celebrities were different from you and me. It went into what they bought, where they lived, how they traveled, you name it.

Personally this is one of those myths that I absolutely despise because it actually handicaps people by creating a false barrier. The power of suggestion can be so powerful that merely eluding to someone’s superiority can cause a mental block. I’m not saying that you and I are identical to the movers and shakers of the world, but I am saying that we aren’t any different than they are.

It really just comes down to a matter of perspective. If I’m making minimum wage I might go out to Five Guys every once in a while. If I’m clearing six figures I may frequent Ruth’s Chris Steak House once every blue moon. If I have more money than I know what to do with I may go so far as to fly to Italy for a pizza instead of picking up the phone to call in a to go order from Domino’s.

At the end of the day we are all going to pursue the best options available to us. Whether it’s food or working out we are all going to gravitate to the best available option. I was listening to a couple of women talk about an article featuring a celebrity who regained her cover girl image overnight. They were remarking how easy it must have be when you can afford a trainer, daycare, and housekeepers. They’re right it is easier, but that doesn’t make that celebrity any different.

The idea of the celebrity being different would be accurate if she regained her figure and dropped the baby weight while sitting on the couch eating bonbons. However, if she went to the gym sweating off the inches and resculpting her physique like the rest of us then she is no different.

Unfortunately we as a society want to propagate a myth that there is a certain class of people that are different, special, and better than the rest of us. They are elevated above the rest because they run fast, are recognizable, or they have deep pockets. If you find yourself blinded by this myth you will have handicapped yourself until you are prepared to say they aren’t different they just appear to be.