The Fourth Key: Relationships – What Produces Trust? Predictability

My younger daughter is planning her wedding (as I write this).

It's never easy to tell someone how to get things "to work out" between any two people, but I found myself giving her a bit of advice the other day.

I told her how Mom and I just started taking responsibility for certain things around the house… and it's been working pretty well for 28 years of marriage.

Pam, for years, has worked OUT of the house and my office is IN the house. So I told her than no matter how much of a super woman she is, she isn't SuperWoman.

She just could NOT do all the (to some people) typical female activities around the house.

Every Monday, I do the laundry – wash and fold and put it in a basket on our bed so when she comes home, she can put her clothes away. Her pants are hung over the railing outside the laundry room next to our bedroom so she can put them on pants hangers.

Pam does the grocery shopping and when I'm here, I help her put it away.

She usually cooks one roast or chicken a week and we both then prepare our own dinners and salads (and usually eat them together). And if she cooks, I clean up (well, most of the time – especially for a dinner like Thanksgiving when we host our extended family).

I vacuum the upstairs weekly – my office, the hallway, our bedroom, our bathroom, the walk-in closet. That way any cat litter the cat has tracked into our room will be cleaned up. And any dog hair on my office carpet will be vacuumed before my computers suck it into their processors.

So… what's the point here?

If either Pam or I one day just STOPPED doing what has fallen naturally to us OR if either of us gets erratic in how we accomplish our chores, we'd lose faith in the other one and we'd lose all sense of predictability.

This doesn't mean that Pam brings home the same food every week or that I have to clean exactly the same clothes every week.

We still have choices in what we do… but we've come to rely on the other to get things done.

Makes for a good marriage, good partnership, and good client/owner relationship.

I THINK that helped my daughter understand our relationship better… time will tell!

I HOPE it helped YOU!

And now – leave me a comment here to tell me what YOU feel about this!

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
Blogging, Podcasting, Consulting

PS: You can find me here:

http://twitter.com/UltimateWAHDads

http://facebook.com/CharlesSeymourJr

http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesseymourjr

PPS: Do you have trouble writing? Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More! NOW is the time to start.

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Charlie Seymour Jr is an entrepreneurial evangelist and marketing-success coach helping individuals and companies (up to $100MM) explode their success through online and personal-touch marketing. He specializes in blogging, podcasting, photography, video, and Facebook applications. Visit his blog at http://bit.ly/24eYTO to learn more about his successes.

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Fallacies of Marketing

078 The Invisible Touch – The Eight Keys to Lasting Relationships – Trust-Predictability

Theatre Fun For Young People From Grade School Through High School

Young People's Theatre Workshop, located outside of Philadelphia, PA USA, is a place where kids can learn, have fun, and meet their new best friends. Theatre, games, fun, music, excitement: it's all here under the guiding experience of loving and talented faculty.

YPTW is about learning about theatre while learning about ourselves. Children involved in theatre learn to use their imaginations, to celebrate differences, to reach out to an audience and to one another, and to gain self-confidence through taking risks. And the classes they take in the fall and spring and the fully-stage productions in the Winter (through 8th grade) and Spring (through 12 grade) prepare them for more theater activities AND (we feel confident) for life: many of the skills they learn (team work, self-expression, projection, speaking on their feet, etc) will serve them well throughout their lives.

Many of the YPTW staff members are certified teachers who spend Monday to Friday with children yet they all recognize that their time spent with these students is somehow different.

They get to watch these children grow over a period of years. Many students start with YPTW in grade school and stay through high school. Some even come back to teach or help backstage after graduation.

But even if a student's visit to YPTW is short, they will leave with a greater knowledge and appreciation of the theatre arts and perhaps of themselves.

And then see the top of my blog by clicking HERE! See how I approach my passions with this website.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
A Work At Home Dad since 1983, succeeding in this economy

PS: You can find me here:

http://twitter.com/UltimateWAHDads

http://facebook.com/CharlesSeymourJr

http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesseymourjr

PPS: Do you have trouble writing? Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More! NOW is the time to start.

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Charlie Seymour Jr is an entrepreneurial evangelist and marketing-success coach helping individuals and companies (up to $100MM) explode their success through online and direct-response marketing. He specializes in blogging, podcasting, photography, video, and Facebook applications. Visit his blog at http://bit.ly/24eYTO to learn more about his successes.

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Marketing The Arts – Young People's Theatre Workshop

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University of Pittsburgh Shows It Pays To Be An Optimist

University of Pittsburgh researcher, Hilary Tindle, surveyed 100,000 women and then tracked their lives and health for eight years. The study group were all women ages 50 – 79, but let's extrapolate to make some general statements.

When asked, "In unclear times, I usually expect the best," people answering "yes" were classified as optimists. Those who answered "If something can go wrong for me, it will," as a "yes," they were classified as pessimists.

And truly, the "best" doesn't always happen and neither does something go "wrong" just because we think it might, but notice that both of these reflect the outlook people have on their lives. These are INNER THOUGHTS expressed in the form of answers to questionnaires.

All the women were healthy when the study began.

Interesting Results Based On Someone's Outlook On Life

After 8 years, the most optimistic women were

• 9% less likely to have developed heart disease
• 30% less likely to have DIED from heart disease
• 14% less likely to have dies from ANYTHING

After 8 years, those who scored highest in "cynical hostility" were at an even greater risk of dying.

Ms. Tindle told CNN.com: "When you look at all the risks, pessimists had everything in the WRONG direction."

She then thought out loud: "The question is, can we take these ingrained attitudes and teach that individual to modify them?"

How do YOU feel about this? I say YES… we can teach people to think more optimistically… but do some of them really want to LEARN?

How Do YOU Look At Life's Ups And Downs?

If you look on the bright side of life, your life will be brighter.

I'm not talking about just wishing for good things, I mean the deep down inside you when you think good thoughts, you life will improve.

When it rains, what do you say?

"What lousy weather it is."

OR…

"We need to rain for things to grow, so even though it's dark outside and I'll get wet when running my errands, we do need the rain."

A recent study at the University of Pittsburgh showed that those who are optimistic live longer than those who are pessimistic.

But we KNEW that, right?

So how do YOU think? And what can you do to be sure you think optimistically?

Gratitude Journal Keeps My Thoughts In The Right Place

Right before I go to bed, I write in my gratitude journal.

Some days I have TONS of things to write and some days I struggle to get all 5 that I write each night.

Some days have been like that: routine, hard work writing at the computer, lots of time exploring my own thoughts without sharing much time with others.

And some days I'm out among loving, caring people and I overflow with thoughts about how grateful I am for life.

But we each need to remember that it's the small things that add up to MAKE our lives.

My Kids Tease My About My Calendar

I also keep special, recurring notes in my electronic calendar… times when Liz auditioned for a show, when Stacie started a new job (most recently at City Year – a GREAT national organization based in Boston – City Year – Learn More By Clicking Here!), when Pam had a happy time at work or with our family, and then lots of small moments for me and friends – anniversaries, when children were born, when I photographed weddings, bar mitzvahs, or opened one of the many theater productions I've directed over the years.

OK… so I have a few things like when we received a cat, the birthday of our dog, etc. (My kids say I have things like when our dog first pooped or our cat first hid under the sofa – not quite, but amusing to look at life like that).

It never ceases to amaze me how QUICKLY time has passed from one year to the next to five years to ten years. And without this calendar, I would forget those special moments and be able to relive the happiness they brought me.

We really CAN control our own moods, our thoughts, how we see the world, and it's vital to our health that we do that.

Liz Teaches Me A Lesson About Our Moods When We Wake Up

I've known for a long time that when I go to bed happy, I wake up happy.

I saw this first-hand when my younger daughter, Liz, needed some oral surgery… even the doctor told us this: however she is feeling when the anesthetic puts her to sleep, that's how she'll wake up.

Liz was REALLY nervous about having surgery under her tongue, and wouldn't you be too? She's a singer and if whatever her problem was caused too much damage in her mouth, taking it out MIGHT affect her vocal chords and her singing. (If you've heard her singing, you'll know that the surgery came out OK – Hear Liz Seymour Sing On Her New CD – Click Here!)

Liz's nervousness turned into tears as she was put under, and when she awoke with the ranula removed, she was VERY upset and in tears.

There is a life lesson here – how we go to sleep affects how we wake up. And how we wake up affects how our day goes.

"As goes the first hour of the day, so goes the day," a marketing guru friend of mine used to preach.

Wake Up Happy, Refreshed, Grateful

Wake up happy, refreshed, grateful for what you have and you jump out of bed and into your work.

Go to bed angry, upset, down on yourself, and you'll struggle to take any positive action during the next day.

What way to YOU want to approach the world, get things done, find your dream and pursue it? Make sure you have positive thoughts, attitudes, lessons all around you. Those alone can't create the success you're looking for, but without them, you'll be mired in self-pity and stuck in the mud on the road to success.

To learn more, stay in touch with my blog – I'll keep you informed so that YOU won't have to do the heavy lifting. Charlie Seymour Jr's Blog – Click HERE To See More!

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
A Work At Home Dad since 1983, succeeding in this economy

PS: You can find me here:

http://twitter.com/UltimateWAHDads

http://facebook.com/CharlesSeymourJr

http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesseymourjr

PPS: Do you have trouble writing? Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More! NOW is the time to start.

Follow Charlie Seymour Jr On Twitter!

Keep this with this article, please:

Charlie Seymour Jr is an entrepreneurial evangelist and marketing-success coach helping individuals and companies (up to $100MM) explode their success through online and direct-response marketing. He specializes in blogging, podcasting, photography, video, and Facebook applications. Visit his blog at http://bit.ly/24eYTO to learn more about his successes.

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Lessons for Life – Optimists Live Longer Than Pessimists

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Learning To Use Email Marketing Is No More Difficult Than Learning How To Email

This next year will fly by… my 26 year old daughter Liz (LizSeymour.com) is getting married. We're very close, through up hills and down, theater projects and photography, friendships, joys, happiness.

I have to admit that when Liz announced her engagement to Chris McBride to our other daughter, Stacie, and me on a conference call, I was a bit in shock. Quickly my mind raced to when I proposed to Pam more than 28 years ago. I could see myself on one knee. I didn't know whether to jump up and down or jump through the phone to hug her. She sounded soooo happy, and after all, that's all I can ask for her: happiness HER way (not MY way but HERS).

She's bought her dress, talked with some photographers, narrowed her list of reception halls, and selected the location for her wedding: The Players Club of Swarthmore. Liz is the FIFTH generation of our family to act and direct in this well-equipped community theater (whose history reaches back 100 years) and she and Chris met there during a stirring production of Assassins in 2007.

Now she wants some engagement photographs.

Liz turned to the best photographer she knows: me, her loving dad. I've been a pro photographer since 2000 when I started my own still photography and video production company, and she's grown up watching me and assisting me.

Weeks ago Liz scheduled this time. Her teaching is over for the academic year, her Chris's teaching is over (though he started teaching at a theater day camp already), and she wants some photography to announce their engagement.

I have photographed Liz MANY times, including all the images for her large CD release (available on Liz Seymour's website – click here!). And though I'm primarily an internet marketer and consultant now, she knows that my background and skill are always available to her.

So, how did she get me to say yes? Other than wrapping her defenseless Dad around her little finger, what did she do to get me to say "Yes!"

She asked.

In email.

Using terrific direct-response techniques.

Liz emailed me, had a great headline, put a clear deadline by which time I was to respond, and included a call-to-action.

And she didn't wimp out at the end – she followed through by being very clear in her request of me.

And isn't that what we do with email marketing? Don't we want to be just like Liz? And don't we want the success that Liz had when our prospects say YES the way I did to Liz for the photography she wanted?

Use language that matches our clients and customers, ask clearly, state your case with emotional direct-response language, have a special offer and a deadline, and then a strong call-to-action.

Heck, she even used a sequence, just to make sure I wouldn't let my busy selling schedule get in the way of her engagement images.

But most importantly she just did it.

• She wrote.
• She asked.
• She followed up.
• She wasn't bashful.

Same should be true for YOUR writing… and since you probably need some help, look at my new information: Say It So They Buy It – Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More!

Use your email marketing to profit… and remember how Liz did it. Ask clearly, follow up, don't be bashful.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
A Work At Home Dad since 1983, succeeding in this economy

PS: The help you need is here: Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More! NOW is the time to start.

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Email Marketing