Ahhh… hearing stories of how I am able to help transform someone’s life (for the better) makes me feel good about myself

To learn how Adam was able to literally create $21,000+ for his family in 4 1/2 months using what we taught him in SEO Networker, go check out:

To Helping Others,

Raymond

I get a kick out of seeing TOP-Notch-ACE-Uber marketing schemes like this one:

Earn 6 Figures My Pinky Toe...

I mean seriously?

Now now… before we all jump on this person’s case and list of everything that’s wrong with this picture, let’s think of the positive possibilities.

1. The person may really be filthy rich and just hired a bunch of 12 year olds to make up signs and run around town posting these things (oh, and the number OF COURSE goes to some sophisticated automated system…)
2. The person wants to bridge the gap between his wealthy self and the poor folks who are going to call him, that’s why he devised this devious marketing strategy – you know, so folks can relate to him/her better
3. The person does this as a favor to the unsuspecting folks who do call – you see, the person may be actually a Samaritan who lectures those folks who call on the important lesson of being wary of “Get Rich Quick Schemes”

Ahhh who am I kidding, odds are…

The person is nowhere close to making six figures and will NEVER make six figures doing this type of stuff.  Poor soul – someone should show him/her Attraction Marketing

Raymond Fong

P.S. On another note, a buddy of mine did call, left a message, but the person never called back.  Maybe it's because...»

the person can tell there were 3 other guys in the car at the time giggling like school girls

Here’s a video that goes to show that just about anything has a chance at being a “good idea”… even if it’s a horrible and pointless idea (like “show off what you bought” ).

Enjoy

Raymond Fong

Ya know… clichés are cliché for a reason – there are elements of truth to them.

Here’s one, “It’s not how many times you fall down but how many times you get back up.”

In business and in life, it’s always those who choose to get back up, no matter the cost, that find ultimate success, and… dare I say, happiness?  Those are the folks who rise above mediocrity – never mind the amount of ridicule and pain he may have had to endure striving to be exceptional.

The fact that he failed doesn’t phase him – he does not dwell on the failure and does not define himself by those failures.  In fact, he defines himself by how he overcomes those minor setbacks and focuses on how he can learn and grow from them.

Much power is it to the man who’s able to humble himself during those times of weakness and darkness, during those times when nothing seems to be going right and all hope seem lost.  Much power to the man who’s able to look within himself for the cause of those failings and to grow from them.

Self awareness must take place before self transformation can take place.

And believe me, we should all strive for self transformation – like a caterpillar to a gorgeous emperor butterfly – from who we are today, to somebody better tomorrow.

But also believe me this… while many of us may understand the need and desire for self transformation, few of us understand the need for self awareness – the uncanny and scary process of looking ourselves in the mirror and seeing the ugliest side of us, the side we are ashamed of, the side that’s holding us back from success, the side that’s been lying to us, that’s been hiding the ultimate truth from us.

So I implore you, when you fall, get up.  And beyond that, understand why you fell, understand what you did to contribute to that failure as opposed to looking for excuses and casting blame on other factors.  Learn from your failures, grow from them and you shall prosper.

Raymond Fong

My sister just shared this with me the other day… gotta love it.

So you may or may not know that I went to a tiny little engineering college out in Claremont, CA called Harvey Mudd College.  Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of this school.  More people are familiar with Stanford University, Harvard University, and that a “zygote” is a biology term used to describe the first stage of a new unique organism when it consists of just a single cell.

Most of the time when upon being asked where I got my Bachelor’s from, I reply, “Harvey Mudd Colleg.e”

Folks give me a quizzical look and go, “Oh, Harvard?”

Yeah… my Chinese accent is THAT heavy, riiiggghhht.  !!!

Anyway, suffice to say, my parents are uber proud of the fact that I got my computer engineering degree there  and that my younger sister is also pursuing a degree there – with it being a “prestigious” school and all.  So they are always on the lookout for any HMC related news.

Well, a few days ago they gleefully shared this nifty little article with me done by the New York Times: “Do Elite Colleges Produce the Best-Paid Graduates?”

In it, the artile shared two key graphs demonstrating the top earning powers of graduates with undergraduate degrees and also the top paid majors.

Here they are:

As you can see, the top chart ranks Harvey Mudd College in the top 5 of the highest paid graduates in the nation.  And you can also see that in the second chart, that aerospace engineers are among the highest paid within this context Even though...»

Not Telling the Whole Story…

While the article and the charts do help illustrate what a great school Harvey Mudd College is, no matter how many people confuse it for Harvard, it’s not telling the whole story.  So I took the liberty of putting together the final pieces.  Here it goes:

See, I’ve been an “graduated-from-Harvey-Mudd-College-engineer” so I can attest to the charts New York Times reported.  I’ve also had the fortune of LEAVING that engineering career behind me and going full time into entrepreneurship, which is what I am doing now, so I can tell ya the second set of charts are true as well.

As engineers/jobbers, someone ELSE control how much money you make, as an entrepreneur, YOU decide how much you make.  The choice is yours   For me, the choice was obvious and simple – infinity here I come! 

Raymond Fong

P.S. I am thinking of submitting it to them so they can make the correction on their next issue…

Here’s a great clip of Seth Godin commenting on networking online and how to distinguish between worthwhile “real” networking and waste of time “fake” networking.

It’s great observing the internet marketing field right now and seeing how many “superstars” (and wannabes) who have thousands upon thousands of “friends” (this is especially prominent on Twitter with the whole “Twitter autofollow” nonsense) are finally coming to their senses about all this social media activity/distraction.

You’ll find folks who auto-followed literally 10s of thousands of “followers” who are now cleaning house… all the way down to the double digits.

I never hid my feelings on this whole fake relationship stuff.  I guess it just feels nice to have held strong to something I believed in (while other teeter-tawter on this issue) and be vindicated

Raymond

P.S. Of course… having said that, I do have a bunch of “Facebook” friends whom I don’t really know… so maybe I should rethink my “strategy”.  I will say this though, if someone spams my wall, invites me to WAYYYY too many events, or tries to engage (*ahem* distract me) with fruitless and spammy crap, they are outta there.

Hmmm, wonder why I make a distinction between Twitter followers and Facebook “friends”.  Maybe because it’s harder to be “fake” on Facebook and harder to do automated following/spammy?  Food for thought.

This is one awesome video about how just by adding a little bit creativity, with the help of hype through the internet and social media, can go a long way to helping pad your wallet.

See, people don’t want “just another item”.  They want to buy into something they believe in, something that’s fun, unique, different…  Something bizzar-o.  Something “Rad to the Power of Sick”.  They want what others want, others care about.

So if you add some creativity, some care, some loving, get some hype built around a product, folks will want to buy it not necessarily for the product but for the recognition.  It makes them feel like they belong, feel like they got what EVERYONE else desire, or at least think is cool (which then helps them feel cool).

So there ya have it.  A little creativity can go a long way.

Raymond

P.S. Notice how the ad wasn’t done with any fancy graphics, HTML, or other eye-candy.  It was just some darn good copywriting – take heed
P.P.S. Also, notice all the social buzz that happened… NATURALLY!  Don’t under-estimate the power of social media.  This is why it’s an integral part of SEO Networker.

So fair warning: you can either find the following post to be highly entertaining and get a good kick and laugh out of it (while learning some valuable lessons on my dime), or it can be a complete waste of your time…

The bottom line is that the events that took place reminded me of two things:

1. The validity of Frank Kern’s idea of “Core Influence”.
2. I should never waste time emailing back and forth with an illogical and ill-mannered person.

This is How It Began

So as you may know, I am a promoter of CarbonCopyPro and as such, have my own autoresponder series where people can opt in and get to know more about the opportunity, myself, and the awesome bonuses Fernando and I offer (SEO Networker, personal coaching, etc.). And in that autoresponder, on day 6, an email goes out with that title, “But who the ___ are you?” The gist of the subject is that there are tons opportunities out there, lots of teams to join, and leaders to follow… So one of the questions on prospects’ minds is, “Who are you and why should I join your team?”

The email goes forth and addresses that, telling them briefly who I am, where I come from, and how I can help them.

This is What I Get One Night…

I get an email that reads:

Ray,

All the talent you or I may have are from G-D. Don’t let it go to your head, nor have I or will I. Your email Subject “But who the ____ are YOU?” is not a very nice way to begin a business relationship.

If you actually want to know more about me, visit my site www.____.Us I invite you to call me directly on my cell.

And then this is followed by some pitch for some business and then a whoooolllleee slew of domains for sale. I kid you not. Here’s a shrunked version of the email this guy sent me, I assume all that garbage at the end is his email signature.

This is his email signature. Seriously.

Two Choices – The Red Pill or the Blue Pill

Now, at this point I had two choices, ignore the email like I usually do or try and set the guy straight. Given that it was fairly late at night, my patience and tolerance weren’t exactly at an all time high. And frankly, like my buddy Jim Yaghi, I am sick and tired of having to just “take it” because I’ve managed to be a large target given what Fernando Ceballos and I have been able to humbly accomplish and continue to do.

So I went for the Red Pill. This is what I wrote back:

From reading your response, I’d wager that you didn’t read my email… otherwise you’d understand the subject was directed at myself (from folks such as yourself who may be looking for a team to join).

The point is, in this industry, there are tons of options, tons of opportunities, tons of folks you may choose to join, so most people, when they decide if they want to join a team or not, are asking the question of, “Who would be my ’sponsor/upline/team leader’?”

That’s the gist of the subject line.

For you to not read my newsletter, misconstrue it, and come back at me alluding to it “getting to my head”, preaching to me about “G-D”, and then trying to invite me to look at YOUR business… and then lecturing me about how to “begin a business relationship”?

Wow. Talk about irony eh?

Raymond

I really think my email says it all, and things started to snowball from there.

I get this back from him:

1. I wasn’t looking for a fight. If after reading what I have to say in this email, you can’t send a positive reply, don’t bother contacting me again. I hope you decide to be positive.
2. I spent quite a bit of time on your lead capture page already and have just enough of an idea to give you my contact information. If I spend the time reading every PRE-WRITTEN thing in my In Box, I wouldn’t get anything done (you should know how that is).
3. If you don’t see your mistake in sending a new lead an email entitled “But who the ____ are YOU?” than I have a very valuable lesson to share with you, and hope you have some for me.

Okay… so not only did the guy NOT read my email, after what I responded, he STILL didn’t bother going back to read his email. Oh, and he expected me to send a “positive reply”… WHHHAA???

At this point, it was REALLY late at night and Raymond’s patience was wearing thin:

You throw the first punch and say that you aren’t “looking for a fight”? Nice.

You didn’t bother reading my email and jumped to conclusions as to what it’s about and decided to send an email containing some baseless accusation…

I have two lessons for you:

1. Don’t jump to conclusions. Which really goes along the same line of don’t judge a book by its cover (an email by its subject line).

2. Meaning is contextual (take my subject line out of context, and you can go buck wild coming up with all sorts of stories like you have).

I took the liberty of unsubscribing you from my newsletters. Best of luck in your a endeavors.

Raymond
P.S. Honestly, again with the irony… you send me some negative baseless email, and you are preaching to ME about being positive? You subscribed to my email list, I didn’t subscribe to yours.

His True Color Comes Out

This is where it gets fun

I threw the first punch?

You send an email with the subject that reeks bundles of insults (a book with dog shit all over it, no thanks I wouldn’t pick it up, and I have no time to clean it so I can read it, especially when I ALREADY got to know you AS I SAID when I SPENT TIME on your capture page.

If you get anymore email marketing from me, just ignore them, it would be accidental.

Good luck in life with your NEGATIVE attitude. DON’T EVER send me an email again.

Advice: Don’t send emails with insulting subject and expect people to READ the content. Healthy people are not masticates and choose not to spend time reading a MORON’s letter with an INSULTING subject line, all which is after he acts as if he is all that in marketing but makes such a big mistake to attract attention (or whatever you were thinking) has the MOST NEGATIVE Ora plus has no sense to admit his fault…. a sign of NOT BEING OPEN TO LEARNING.

Good luck buddy, you will need it with your attitude. Don’t ever write me again & ignore any emails from me, but just in case. I will take you off my email list.

Turns out, he’s a 52 year old seventh grader who thinks he can get to “know someon” by their capture page… a capture page about a business opportunity no less! And this is coming from a guy who OPTED-INTO my autoresponder while I never opted into his! Heck, I don’t even know if he has one so what’s the deal with him taking me off of his email list? He talkes about “negative attitude”, “not being able to learn”, yadi yadi yadi.

Wow.

So I started to respond:

Haha.

You act so high and mighty (preaching about G-D and “not letting it get over my head” nonsense…) but when it really comes down to it, you have to resort to 7th grader insults. Not to mention you think you can get to “know someone” by reading their “capture page”. Oh right… and again, thinking you know what an email is about by reading the subject line, not to mention that you think it’s insulting YOU and then daring to shoot back a confronting email without getting your facts straight first… how sad.

Again, before you point fingers at other people, take a good look at yourself.

Rethink your attitude, if you had one of an optimistic one, would you jump to conclusion that the email is about insulting YOU? That’d be like me taking a look at all that garbage in your email signature with all those links and going, “Man, this guy is obviously a spammer and have no idea what he’s doing.” and then preaching to you.

The only difference is, I’d be right.

But Then I Stopped Myself, and Here’s the First Lesson

You will NEVER “win” an argument with an illogical person – so why waste your time? See, my first mistake was dignifying this guy with a response. While it was fun pointing out all the faults this guy is exposing, at the end of the day, it accomplished nothing – and it ended up costing me some time Time I could've spent...» He refused to listen, to reason, and to examine himself, despite my efforts to convince him to

So my last email never got sent – I can only imagine how much more umm… “interesting” his email will get I wonder if»

And Here’s Lesson #2

I do have to give this guy credit, he made me re-exmine that email subject line and made me ask myself, IS it offensive? IS it insulting? And that’s when I am reminded of Frank Kern’s concept of “Core Influence”. It’s pretty simple really. There is no way will you be able to please everybody and attract everybody to you and your business. And just as importantly, you wouldn’t want to. Why? Because it wouldn’t be fun!

Frank basically says that you really want to attract people that you like and will like you back – said it another way, people you can and will connect with. If you are a laid back surfer dude, you’d probably have a horrible time trying to do business with say… the Amish +/-»

Odds are, they won't enjoy doing business together...

You have to be true to yourself and not try to please everybody, and certainly not operate out of fear of offending people.

So I ask myself this, do I care to do busines with someone who’s going to get take an email subject line out of context, jump to conclusions, get offended by it, and write some baseless email? NAHHHH.

I say let those folks go elsewhere, because frankly, we wouldn’t get along.

From Me to You…

So next time you get an email similar to the one I got, my advice to you is this, don’t do what I did and dignify it with a response. Simply delete that email, and go into your autoresponder and delete that person from your list. Done and done and done.

In conclusion Dan Kennedy says that if you aren’t pissing somebody off with your marketing, you are probably not doing it right. Guess I am on the right track

To “But who the ___ are you?”,

Raymond

Not that I have anything against the Amish… or surfer dudes, so relax