Larry Wilson's Extensive Marketing Career Prepared Him Uniquely For The American Baptist Foundation

Larry Wilson and I go back a LONG time.

We both earned our MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1975. We worked closely on a huge theater production in the Harold Prince Theatre of the Annenberg Center on the University of Pennsylvania campus and the great Broadway Producer-Director, Harold Prince, came to one of our rehearsals and spoke to the cast after.

The production was Company, by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, which Harold Prince had directed on Broadway. It was being produced and directed by me with Larry as Music Director and Conductor in the Harold Prince Theatre – and it was the first of the many shows he produced on Broadway that was presented in the theatre bearing his name.

Larry and I took two very different paths after Wharton, but always stayed in close contact. He played the organ at my wedding to Pam and sang a song from the piano in the sanctuary. I have been to his home on several occasions and followed his business career with great interest.

With Larry now in the Philadelphia, PA USA area (as I am) we see much more of each other. And when he had a need for a new electronic marketing campaign, he called me for advice and then hired me to consult with him and his board.

Here is Larry in a relaxed way talking about the exciting career he has had. We will be certain to do this again so that he can speak much more in depth about all the great things the American Baptist Foundation is doing under his leadership as President.

Best,

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

PS: Larry Wilson's new website, ABCofGiving.org, will be open soon.

Work At Home – Get Some Help And Your Dream Can STILL Come True

Successful Entrepreneur – It's been your dream for SO long.

Remember your parents saying, “If you work hard enough, you can have anything in this life.”

As you were graduated from high school, then college, and pursued that six-figure job, “work hard, play hard” became your mantra.

Nothing ever got in your way as you pursued the American Dream.

Until now.

And with the World-wide Economic Meltdown of 2008 – 2009, it's gotten pretty tight around your place.

That pink slips in your friends' paychecks were like an electric shock to your heart. People down the street. Those you see in church. One of your grown children.

And fewer people are now on the golf course and tennis courts as they've stopped paying the fees to belong.

Sure, you knew the economy was lousy. You knew thousands of other people were losing their jobs.

But it wasn’t supposed to happen to you or people you care about.

What do they say: It's a recession when someone else is out of a job; it's a depression when YOU are out of a job.

And you know exactly what they mean as you see the scared look deep in the eyes of your friends.

Your life was all planned out! Get an education, get a great job, marry a wonderful woman, and raise a terrific family. Take memorable vacations to exotic locations. Send your kids to top colleges, and enjoy all the sentimental, inspiring moments of your childrens’ budding lives while simultaneously saving for your retirement, where you and your wife would slow dance off into the sunset of old age, reflecting on the deep meaning of your lives together.

SPLAT@*#+! Dream over! Vanished. Where did it go and what went wrong?

That trickle down economics you heard about for years was finally trickling down… and it was blood of vanquished employees and businesses heading your direction.

And this is personal.

What do you tell your wife and family? What about your mortgage, your health insurance, your retirement fund? How can an entire lifetime of blood, sweat, and tears be destroyed by outside forces like this?

Where did the dream go? Worse yet, how can you recover in this difficult economy?

Did you see the CNN.com report, “Employers slashed another 598,000 jobs off of U.S. payrolls in January, taking the unemployment rate up to 7.6%… The latest job loss is the worst since December 1974, and brings job losses to 1.8 million in just the last three months… the biggest 3-month drop since immediately after the end of World War II. The unemployment rate is now at its highest level since September, 1992.”

CNN went on to say, “The report also showed that 2.6 million people have now been out of work for more than six months, the most long-term unemployed since 1983.”

And they're talking over 10% unemployment in the West until deep into 2010 – and who knows if California will completely implode and fall off the Left Coast.

And that number only counts those unemployed who are still looking for work! All those discouraged sitting at home aren't even counted.

Like so many other successful, capable, hardworking men thrown callously onto the heaping human landfill of unemployed Americans, nothing could be more frightening. And though you have your own business, you can feel the wolves nipping at your heels.

You have no answer for your wife when she looks at you with fear and panic in her eyes.

The thought of not-making-it-on-your-own almost makes you sick to your stomach. You can't turn back and work for "the man" with that long commute, doing things "the way they've always been done" simply because someone with a pencil behind his ear tells you to.

What can you do to pick up the pieces created by so many others?

Experts suggest those who have the innate ability to recalibrate their goals and dreams have a better chance for survival. Think about it. You have incredible skills and a lifetime of achievements! Maybe you simply need to rethink how to use your talents.

Working from home is the right answer for millions. According to the New York Times, “Democratic pollster Mark Penn’s book, Microtrends, notes that 4.2 million Americans now work exclusively from home (a nearly 100 percent increase from 1990).”

But as we know from the rapid evaporation of the American Dream, you need a realistic plan.

If you’re ready to think about a new journey toward personal and financial freedom, look here: http://TurboChargeMyWorkAtHome.com.

Help is out there. Refocus. Get some outside help to have you see how you can succeed. Let me know how we can help.

And then let NOTHING stand in your way.

Best,

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

PS: Do you have trouble writing? Maybe you just simply haven't learn the tips, tricks, and secrets that others have kept from you. Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More! NOW is the time to start.

Follow Charlie Seymour Jr On Twitter!

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Successful Entrepreneur – Work At Home

Even Old-Line Companies Are FINALLY Seeing The Value Of Social Marketing

OK… so they love to tease me. And I talk about marketing ALL the time.

One time, I even noticed that others at the table were each lifting their glass to drink at the same time. A bit odd until they did it over and over. And then I noticed that I was the drinking game – every time I said "marketing" or "Dan Kennedy," they took a drink.

So to have my two grown daughters (and my future son-in-law) teasing me at dinner wasn't odd… but they sure did overreact to what I had written.

We like to go out for dinner to celebrate, share time with each other, and welcome home a relative. This time it was Stacie's return from Boston (on her way to spend a few days in Washington, DC). So, we agreed to meet on a night when Liz and Chris weren't involved with The Sound of Music at Young People's Theatre Workshop (Liz helped direct and choreograph the production and Chris helps run the backstage area – and with EIGHTY kids in the show, the backstage NEEDS to be run!).

I sure took grief from them at dinner the other night. You'd think I had suggested PORNO by the way they reacted to one of my posts when I wrote on Facebook. We all cut short our posts to Twitter and our status on Facebook, but even acknowledging that, I don't see what is wrong with what I wrote.

Here's what I wrote before – see what you think:

Talking to 13 year old girls through Social Media http://bit.ly/8JCz6 3min video – more effective than regular tv ads

Proctor and Gamble is finding how powerful Social Marketing is for them when they present their feminine products through social networking and social marketing, and being a Social Marketing Expert and Consultant, I like to use real-life examples when I can. This stuff really works, and big-old-companies are finally coming around.

So that's why I published the Tweet to tell the thousands I have on my several accounts.

• Like when Ford was just highlighted for changing people's minds about their hybrids… see the article here: http://bit.ly/s4hZh My comment is there in their growing list of comments and I suggest that people write to Jim Thomas who owns Springfield Ford in Springfield, PA 19064. Write him about the best deal you can get and tell him Charlie Seymour Jr sent you: Jim.Thomas@Springfieldemail.com
• Or when I blog about all kinds of examples at http://bit.ly/24eYTO I spend a lot of time blogging, and people now know, like, and trust me and seek me out for advice.
• Or in this P+G example when they aimed all their marketing at 13 year old girls to speak their language, talk about their issues, give them a voice in the Social Networking arena. They didn't push their products… they "pulled" the girls into discussions on topics the girls were having already and then let them discover the products that were right for each girl. And dollar for dollar their results are smashing records for them.

So I told my family (which teased me to no end over dinner about my post) that P&G is doing terrific work and I hoped they will watch the short video at http://bit.ly/8JCz6 which explains it fully.

Please see that video now. And then come back here to leave comment.

If I can help you, too, with your Social Marketing, let me know. And if I can help you Turbo Charge your work at home, let me know that too.

Best,

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

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If Oprah was angry when an author lied to her about his credentials, imagine how she'll feel when a major company promises to feed people for FREE and then turns down the coupons it distributed

Do you remember "New Coke" and the marketing fiasco it created.

Welcome to KFC's attempt at retraining our taste buds to like GRILLED Chicken instead of deep fried.

There's a marketing lesson here, so please pay attention!

Lesson 1. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Lesson 2. The way to get a man angry is to promise him food, let him smell it, and then tell him it's not for him!

Lesson 3. It's much more difficult to recover AFTER a problem than it is to CAUSE the problem.

KFC Blows It – Simply Put: They Weren't Ready For This

I never saw the Oprah show when KFC offered its coupons for a free GRILLED chicken meal. I did see, however, that you had a short window to download the coupon and then about 10 days to redeem them. (Mothers Day was clearly marked as NOT one of these days.)

But when I went today to a suburban Philadelphia, PA USA KFC (the Friday BEFORE Mothers Day), I waited in line with lots of people. Sure looked like the marketing campaign worked! Lots of people were standing there, printed coupon in hand.

Wow! Very successful, it seemed.

The chatter was hushed (I guess people were hungry by 1:12 PM) though I did hear a bit of grumbling that it always takes so long to be served.

Looking behind the counter I saw why: one person cooking, one person at the service counter, and one person at the drive-through window serving the 11 cars in line.

Oh… and one person sitting out front on the sidewalk (I guess that was for a break, even though the line was long) and another slowly clearing off tables in the restaurant. (Bad enough when people take a break when the crush of the business's traffic arrives, but then don't do it so all of us can SEE that you are present but not waiting on us.)

Why is the sign so small when the news isn't good?

After waiting in line for 27 minutes and finally working my way up close to the counter, I happened to see a note that said something like:

We can't honor your coupons – please turn them in for a rain check.

WHAT?

They HAVE to know that a large number of people in the restaurant came to use the coupons. Oprah had hawked them and the Internet was jumping (I know Twitter was jumping) with the news.

The best they can do is a sign that is taped to the flat horizontal surface of the counter?

Did they think we'd just proceed to the front of the line and order something else and pay them for it?

Did they think that we didn't make a special trip just to try their new product (which was slowing becoming that "evil product" because of the way this was handled)?

I just left and drove to a KFC / Taco Bell near my home. THEY would serve me.

Trouble strikes again at a different KFC

Several of us standing in line at this KFC / Taco Bell were talking about how poorly KFC had handled this situation. I mostly listened because I was studying the marketing effort and wasn't getting angry the way some of these folks were.

Business people; teachers; mothers with small children; blue collar workers on a break: all wanting to try the new product in what was one of the largest and most successful "get out the news" marketing efforts I have ever seen.

"Excuse me," I asked the young man cleaning up in the restaurant – asking him because the line was too long for me to ask the woman at the counter, "are you taking these coupons here?"

"Yes, sir… just step up to the counter."

Except they weren't.

Two minutes later a woman in a loud voice became quite agitated. The woman right in front of me had been turned away from a KFC yesterday. And I had come from one only a few minutes earlier.

The woman behind the counter at THIS store (and it's not HER fault – seems like this is what is happening nationally) started to tell one person what to do… but someone spoke up and said, "We're all here for this, you might as well tell all of us."

It seems that KFC, in a stroke of marketing suicide, decided to tell everyone to fill out ANOTHER piece of paper and either WE could mail it in for a rain-check coupon or the STORE would mail it in for us.

"Can we eat here today, try the Grilled Chicken, and not pay for it?" someone asked.

"No, you must fill this in, send it in, and they'll send you a coupon."

Three of us left, and the other two were really squabbling about KFC, Oprah, anyone connected to this promotion.

How could such a Web 2.0 way of marketing go so wrong for KFC?

How could KFC blow this so badly?

• You KNOW they had marketing meetings about this.
• You KNOW that they took the idea to Oprah and got her to wave her magic wand.
• And you KNOW that SOMEONE must have thought about the consequences of giving out hundreds of thousands of coupons.

Did they think they were only in the coupon-distribution business and would never actually have to fulfill the meals?

Last I checked, they were in the restaurant business… a business that has been lack-luster at best.

They had everything going for them: Twitter, emails, Oprah, news reports telling about Twitter, emails, and Oprah. It was the "perfect storm" of marketing genius and it was magnetically attracting thousands into their restaurants.

Especially during this economic meltdown when people are stretching their budgets as far as they can: this was a perfect message (come eat free at our restaurants) to market (people having a tough economic time) match.

Now will people go back to try the Grilled Chicken? KFC better home so – this has already cost them millions is negative publicity.

And now it all came crashing down on them.

They'll wonder what hit them when all these hungry people bare their fangs and get nasty.

Kind of makes you long for the good ol' New Coke Days!

Marketing Lesson To Learn

Could this ever happen to you?

Perhaps not on this SCALE, but if you have ever placed an ad in a newspaper and NOT told the people working in your store, sent out an email and not have the website ready, or used Twitter to send a notice but your sales page hadn't been updated, then YOU have committed the same marketing suicide as KFC.

Communication. Left Hand knowing and Right Hand knowing.

And then follow what the Boy Scouts have taught for years: Be Prepared.

Clearly KFC wasn't prepared for the crush of people. And it may take them a long time to recover.

How am I feeling after today's experiences?

I sure don't see a reason to rush back to a KFC, and still I think of it as fried chicken, honey-barbecue wings (hey, love them!), and sides.

Wonder if I'll ever get back to try the Grilled Chicken.

Hey, give me credit: I tried twice today!

Good luck to KFC. You'll need it to recover from these blunders.

Oh, and Oprah: thanks for helping with the marketing. KFC sure let you (and us) down.

Best,

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

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Twitter, When Used Correctly, Is A Great Part Of Your Marketing System

Too many people don’t understand how to use Twitter for business, but that hasn’t stopped them from blogging about it.

Twitter, the micro-blog that lets you send 140 characters across the Internet to anyone who has followed you (and then be resent (ReTweeted) by others), is a highly-targeted tool for marketers – and it works well with other social media marketing tools.

For those of us old enough to remember party-line telephones, it’s like listening into the conversations of your neighbors and then adding to their chat only when you have something that applies to them. No need to send messages about photography to people interested in politics or television. So in THIS way, Twitter lets you laser-target your messages.

For me (and I admit there are other ways to approach this), I have 10 Twitter accounts, each based around specific keywords. For some of my accounts I’m building a list of followers who are interested in businesses I already have operating. For others, I’m building lists around topics that interest me and will figure out later how I will monetize them.

After all, having a LIST of interested prospects is the most important part of marketing and running our businesses.

So, with that as prologue, here are my top 37 steps you should take immediately to use Twitter for your business.

Twitter: Get Set Up

1. Set up an account at Twitter.com, using a keyword phrase as your username. You have 14 characters, so be succinct. (Two of mine are UltimateWAHDads and PhotoCharlie)

2. Add some personal information to it – people like to do business with people they like and they like people who are like them.

3. Add a photo – not one of you and you cat, not one that twirls around (I guess those folks are trying to attract more attention, but most people find them distracting), but one of YOU that shows you clearly.

4. Add your business’s website URL (you DO have a website, right? If not, stop this, find another blog about setting up your own website that includes a lead generation name capture form, and come back to this one!).

5. Step away from your computer, grab a pad of paper, and write down at least FIFTY keywords someone might use to describe what you do and use when they search for someone like you in Google. Most people skip this step and never come back to it… and then wonder why they aren’t successful.

6. Purchase this very inexpensive but VERY helpful product so that you can speed up the growth of your list. Bill’s Twitter Traffic Machine http://budurl.com/fnhm You’re reading a post about using Twitter for Business, so you must have interest in it. Why take the next three weeks to begin to build a list when Bill shows you how to do it mostly on autopilot. I use it, I recommend it, and I’ve gotten to know Bill. Do this now. OK, so it will cost you a little bit: get over it. I just upgraded my screen capture video software today and it was $149 (and it’s the 6th version I’ve used!). Bill’s is WAY less than that: check here: http://budurl.com/fnhm

Twitter On Steroids: Once Bill’s Twitter Magic Is Setup, Now What?

7. Bill shows you how to find people who share your interests – and it’s all done on autopilot. Oh, sure… you can use Twitter Search if you want to find a few people and manually follow each one, but Bill’s system will do that for you. So… use the system, input your keywords so that potentially you have 50 or more keywords working for you to increase the size of your list.

8. Now that you’ve found people who share your interests and you follow them, you need to set up your system (SYSTEM, it the key to all of this) for it to automatically follow those who follow you. And can still manually add more and you can manually UNfollow those you find out you don’t want to connect with, but set up the autofollow so that you add as many people who share your keywords.

9. Now that you found people who share your interests and have auto-followed those who choose to follow you, it’s time to set up your system to send out messages for you automatically. Yep, Bill’s system does that too. He shows you how to find great blog posts that fit with your keywords and send them out to Twitterville automatically. This is key to letting people know what your interest are.

10. You can set up messages in advance when you have specific messages you want to send that contain links to products you have. Do NOT do this often. People use Twitter to get information, not be bombarded with advertising messages. But when you have products that people on your list will like (because you share common interests), sent out Tweets to tell them (and set those up to go out now or some time in the future). By the way, Bill’s videos show you how to set all of this up. OK, so it may take you two hours to set it up initially, but it will pay dividends over and over.

Twitter Zooming: Once Bill’s Twitter Magic Is Bringing In Followers, Now What?

11. Watch your @(yourname) section on Twitter… when someone tweets your name (for example, one of mine would say @UltimateWAHDads and you say that “At UltimateWAHDads), reply back. It’s pretty clear how to do that… you’ll see where the @ message came to you a way to click a little arrow that will put the other person’s “@name” in the tweet box so you can reply to that person. Know that EVERYONE on your list of followers can see that message (which is one of the HUGE powers of Twitter – you hold conversations with someone like ME and others pick up on it… when THEY are interested, they will tweet “@” you and me!

12. Look at your DM location (the location of the Direct Messages that are seen JUST by you). You can reply directly back to the sender from there OR copy the person’s @name and use the regular tweet box so that everyone on your list sees your reply. (Keep private things private, but tell others when it helps you).

13. Find a few people who look interesting (from the information you read on their Twitter home page – just click their little photo and you’ll go to their home page) and start to @chat – chat with them, but so everyone can read it. This is a great way to strike up some friendships with people who share your interest in the keywords you’ve chosen. After all, this IS supposed to be Social Networking, so now that you have some people on your list, get social with them!

14. Remember, you don’t have to chat just about business topics either… maybe one of your followers is a songwriter and you want to chat about that, even though YOUR keywords are about Internet Marketing (for example). None of us is unidirectional – we each have MANY interests, and it’s great to share them here.

15. Be sure to share links of things you find interesting. OK, so Bill’s Magic will do this too, but you can add other off-topic things like photography, cooking, singing, vacations, etc. Knowing you as a more-complete person will attract people to you.

16. When you blog, be sure to include a reference to it in a tweet. I certainly will send Tweets about THIS post, attracting more people who are interested in using Twitter for Business.

17. Ask lots of questions, take polls, get people to reply to you off of Twitter. Money isn’t made ON Twitter, it’s only made when people are interested in you, like you, trust that what you tell them is correct, and then you send them to other links including your website.

18. When you see someone sending tweets and you go to their homepage to learn more about them, remember that you can manually follow more people from anywhere in TwitterWorld. And it’s usually as easy as clicking one button: Follow. And if those people happen to have LOTS of followers, you’ll gain from them whatever system or information they use to stay in touch with their followers.

19. Often you’ll find a ReTweet button (as I have on this blog post): USE them! USE Mine! Let people who follow you know the type material you focus on and they will become drawn to you as an expert.

20. Use @Tweets to people you don’t even know! That’s right… if you see someone who shares your keyword interest and he or she has LOTS of followers, send an @Tweet (using their name after the @-sign, of course). Like sending one to me if you didn’t know me – “@UltimateWAHDads – I read your blog post at http://bit.ly/qA32s and agree that Bil.ly is powerful” People will just assume that you know me, and that gives a mystique about you because they THINK you know people will lots of followers.

21. You can manually resend tweets several times a day. It seems that MOST people are on Twitter around the same time every day. So if you send a tweet at 8:00 AM, a person who only is on Twitter from 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM will miss it (unless you send it as an @message directly to him or her). So… retweet your OWN messages 2 – 3 times a day to attract more attention to them.

22. Though there is no way you will be able to read EVERY tweet that comes your way (once your list grows through Bill’s system), but work hard to reply to every @Tweet so that you can build a relationship with people AND so people will see you replying to others in your TwitterWorld.

23. Be sure to pay attention when Bill shows you how to grow quickly and get past the 2000 follower hurdle. So many people do this wrong, but Bill pointed out to me how to avoid the pitfalls of this artificial limit placed by Twitter. And sometimes that means UNfollowing people you have been following, and Bill’s clear about how to do that. I’ve had to do it several times, but it’s like pruning a bush – trim away those who aren’t productive for you so new growth can occur.

Twitter For Business: Pros And Cons About

24. People will say it takes up a LOT of time. (Just chuckle to yourself – those are the people that are doing it by hand or using one or two of the free tools out there. Bill’s system will get you just nodding your head in agreement, because you won’t want to give away your money-making secret!)

25. Twitter takes so much time that you won’t have time for other productive work. (Chuckle again – and you know why). But when I posted a tweet about a new product, I watched the metrics that Bit.ly was giving me IN REAL TIME and I saw 37 people click on my link within 3 minutes. They were going to see this video about generating leads online: http://bit.ly/72nFU I was a bit giddy to see how quickly people saw my tweet and clicked on the link. Fabulous and instantaneous!

26. If you don’t have a great strategy, it’s just a waste of time. Definitely AGREE with them, even if you don’t give away the strategy you’ve learned here!

27. Those Twitter builds big lists, it doesn’t replace your Opt-in Email List. AGREE AGAIN. That is SO right. It’s not meant to. Do your blog posts replace your sales pages? Do you direct-mail campaigns replace your email campaigns. Each has its place and as part of a SYSTEM, it’s very powerful.

28. Twitter, while only using 140 characters, is meant only for computer nerds. HUH? I represent that statement! Well, I mean, OK… so I know how to use computers, the Internet, direct response marketing, etc, but that doesn’t mean that others can’t be taught how to use Twitter for Business correctly. Once you set up Bill’s Magic Machine and follow my directions here, YOU will be marketing in a system and using Twitter as a part of it.

29. Twitter, especially when connect to Facebook (and it’s easy to post a tweet in Twitter and have it get added to your status in Facebook – Facebook has an App that lets you do that once you get Twitter set up), is a very powerful way to communicate around the world (which is especially useful for people like me whose products aren’t restricted by geography). And I remember on the evening of the US National Elections that I was sending tweets (also to my Facebook profile) and hearing from people around the world who were excited for the USA. The news travels VERY fast this way.

30. Did you see what happened to Twitter once Oprah had a show about it? It seemed that EVERYONE was trying it… but not too many were taking the time to learn how to use it correctly. At least YOU have take THOSE steps already and are MILES ahead of others who are just plodding along PLAYING with Twitter.

31. Here’s a suggestion now that you have your main system working – set up ANOTHER Twitter account for your personal use. You can use the same photo and information, actually. But only follow those people you really want to learn from. I have such an account with under 1000 following me but I only follow about 53… that way I can track better what they are tweeting. These are important information marketers and I want to stay on top of what they do and say. They are also following me (and I follow them) on my UltimateWAHDads account, but I can’t follow their every move the way I can with my personal account.

32. Remember who you are and why you are here. Don’t lower your standards about WHAT you say and HOW you say it. If you’re short and abrupt with people in your business, OK, that can work on Twitter. But don’t get that way if that’s now the person you want to project on Twitter.

33. Those who LIKE and those who do NOT Like your products and services will chat on Twitter – great way for you to learn BOTH sides without being obvious about it.

34. Even if your present clients and customers aren’t online or even if you have a very local business (say, perhaps, as a bricks and mortar store), you should use Twitter to learn what others are saying about your industry. Best to be forearmed and forewarned, right?

35. Use what’s called Hash Tags. Here’s an example: #ttm. See, it’s a number sign (called a Hash Tag) plus whatever you follow up with – in this case I selected 3 letters to represent Bill’s Twitter Magic product. I also set up a URL for that: http://UltimateWorkAtHomeDads.com/ttm which also works the same way as http://budurl.com/fnhm But with several free tools dealing with Twitter, you can search for anything that starts with a #, so those wanting to find out all the messages about #ttm search for that Hash Tag and will find any tweet – from me, you, or anyone else. Can be a powerful way to use it.

36. Spent at least 15 minutes every day on your Twitter account. I can’t tell you why because it’s something you have to experience yourself. By watching tweets fly by (hit your F5 key to refresh you Twitter home page to see how the tweets keep coming), you’ll get a sense of what is happening in your market, what you should tweet about, and even what products people want. And when you create a product that people want, you’re able to sell it MUCH more quickly than one YOU want that you are working to convince people they should have interest in.

37. Have fun. This isn’t drudgery. It isn’t brain surgery. Loosen up, show your personality, and let people in to see who you really are. And then go make money!

Best,

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

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You never forget that time you've been fired – but I HOPE you can make things easier for someone else

The Philadelphia Inquirer is probably like a lot of newspapers in the world – understaffed, losing money, trying to stay afloat.

And as it does, it features a series of articles about Being Fired. Well, that's not what THEY call it; their title is Jobs At A Loss – Upheaval in the Region's Job Market but believe me, those PEOPLE who are listed as statistics know what it is: they've been fired.

The Headline is:

The ax falls, and then what?

The article by Inquirer Staff Writer Alfred Lubrano is filled with statistics and anecdotes. And it's filled with one more thing: pain.

Human pain.

Human suffering when 13.2 million people in the USA are unemployed (that only counts those still looking for work – those who have given up don't count, it seems) and 210,000 in our immediate 8-county area.

"But while the Philadelphia region is papered with pink slips, a layout can still hit with the potent surprise of an unforeseen meteor."

It has been known for a long time by psychologists that being fired is as difficult on the individual as a death in the family, divorce, or other traumatic, stress-producing situation.

And what goes deeper is what happens to the individual, and it's repercussions are long-lasting.

"Shame, fear, and panic can barge into a person's head after the initial trauma."

People have pointed out that in this Great Recession people who thought they were recession-proof are now

on the unemployment lines – in Philadelphia, as an example, a major law firm collapsed and closed. (And when I was selling investment real estate in the 80s and 90s, this was THE real estate law firm.)

Where Did The Dream Go?

I've often written about and created a video about The Dream – Where Did The Dream Go? It's gone for many people.

We were told to grow up, do well in school, select a major carefully, specialize, earn a good living, get married, raise 2.5 kids, help them grow well, get married, and the circle continues.

We did that, but things have come crashing down for many people.

Savings, Never Done Well By Most Americans, Evaporate

401(K) accounts are half what they were only 8 months ago. A friend say he now has a 201(K) and my good friend Neil Radisch (with whom I wrote "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" as a major musical) wrote me on Facebook that he now has a 4.01(K).

I know the pain there, with my own IRA dropping 50%.

The Dream may still linger, but the funds to make it happen are gone. (For now, at least.)

Personal Memories Never Die

The reason I started this website (and the business to support it) was because of the terrible crushing pain that many people feel when they are fired. I want to help.

Having faced it twice myself, I know the lasting, deep-seeded pain that lingers.

I still have images of my younger daughter, while she was in middle school, crying with covers pulled up over her head when I arrived home having been fired and saying, "They stole your dream, Daddy."

That's the last time I worked for someone else.

Oh, sure… being a Work at Home Dad has it's tough parts too, but never again will my family suffer like that.

Shame, Pain, And The Lasting Upset Of Being Fired

This part of The Inquirer's article really got to me… a huge lump in my throat and tears in my eyes as I read it because I've been there and understand the pain of both the child and the parent.

"One recent day, he [Dan Perry, the subject of much of the article] stalked the rooms of his modest house decorated with family photos, no kids or wife about. 'It's eerie, weird,' he said. 'I'm used to hubbub. It's just a house, not a home, when I'm here alone in the day.'"

That will change… at least it has for me. In fact, I thrive being here by myself for most of the day.

"One evening not long ago, Perry say his daughter, Rebekah, 16, typing up the lesson plans of her advanced-placement history teacher.

"'What's this?' he asked.

"'I'm typing her notes for $80,' Rebekah said.

"That was the price of a class trip to Washington. Rebekah knew her father had lost his job and was loath to ask for money. So she asked her teacher for some work.

"Later that night, Perry lay awake in bed at 4 AM, the small and desperate hour when, many unemployed people report, they are alert and anguished. He contemplated Rebekah and the $80.

"'My heart was heavy with sadness for how my daughter was regarding this,' Perry said. Children's reactions are often profound."

And believe me, they never forget the pain of seeing their hero, their leader, their rock and support suffering.

"Perry cannot not worry. 'At night, I go to this secret place in my soul, and it's like I'm standing in front of a mirror alone. I have no one to hold to account but myself. And I look at myself and ask, 'What am I going to do?' There's a mortgage and cars and other things to be paid, and no one's hiring. How am I going to help my family?'"

Men Often See Themselves AS Their Jobs

Men and women look at this situation very differently, with us men basing much of our self-image on our jobs.

I remember in the very early 1990s having had a nightmare that woke me up in a cold sweat. I dreamed that I would no longer be a Vice President of Jackson-Cross Company (then a huge commercial real estate brokerage firm in Philadelphia, where I sold $247,368,657.97 of Investment Real Estate and marketed more than $1 billion for others in the first as the company's VP of Marketing and Planning). I'd been there for 13 years, done very well, was respected throughout the industry as a top salesman, but my mind was already playing games with me as the economy was rocked at that time, though not as much as now.

I wasn't fired, I went to work for myself. And I had been doing most of the work from home already (since 1983 when Liz was born). But the self-image was rocked and my whole body knew it.

The Only Way To Get Through This Is Together

Those who survive times like this find help in others. Others who have been through it. Others who can steer them in the right direction for new job skills. Others who are supportive, upbeat, have the energy for two people… since the fired person has lost much of the energy needed to prosper.

Mastermind groups. Small business support groups. And yes, even a group like the one found here on UltimateWorkAtHomeDads.com where we support Dads now working at home (or looking to work from home).

We're here. We hope you'll let us know how we can help.

And though we can't erase the burned-in images and the pain caused by your being fired, we're here to get you back on your feet as quickly as possible and make the transition to working from home a smooth one.

If this information resonated with you, perhaps this short video will too: Where Did The Dream Go?

The Dream? It changed. And now it's time for YOU to change and come up with a new Dream.

And we're ready to help.

Best,

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

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Sharing With My Mastermind Group, I Want To Be Sure To Share With You Too

Thought I'd follow up about Bit.ly since I'm using it extensively and it has taken me a while to figure it out.

1. Did you see that TweetLater is now using Bit.ly? Nice endorsement for this sweet F*R*E*E product that shortens your links AND lets you track the results!

2. I was confused about HOW I could FIND the metrics once I shortened a link and used it in Tweets, blog posts, etc. Then I discovered the SEARCH capabilities – if you put your Bit.ly link in the Search box and press Enter, you get the graphs of how well you've done. HOWEVER, that is only what has been done on TWITTER. Still good info, but not all the info I want.

3. THEN… probing further, I found out how to find ALL the results. Just add a "+" after the link and you get all the info. Really sweet.

For instance, if you click http://bit.ly/me7q, you go to my Lead Generation Video on Lead Generation. (It's a Lead Gen free giveaway magnet designed to show people some of my knowledge and trade this 68 minutes of jammed-packed info for their name and email address.)

HOWEVER if you click http://bit.ly/me7q+ (notice the "+" at the end), you go to the page of all the metrics. And they can be VERY helpful.

I used to use Ad Trackers in 1ShoppingCart all the time so that I could see how well my campaigns were doing. HOWEVER, when 1SC would screw up, not work properly, fight with Comcast (my ISP) and blacklist a whole section of the US (which I used to discover even when even they didn't know it had happened), I couldn't find any metrics AND my site would shut down because my links wouldn't work. I'm hoping that Bit.ly (without the possibility of email blacklisting since it doesn't send emails for people) will be much more reliable.

Now… how do you know what your Bit.ly link is when you have HUNDREDS or THOUSANDS (as I now do)?

Let's face it, not everything you post to the web, Twitter, a blog needs to be tracked – you'd be drowning in follow-links and never be able to find any of them.

I just want to find important links that I want to keep track of (like who goes to my blog posts, my Ezine, my offer of great products I've discovered): I just keep a simple Notepad file open and keep those important links list there. I keep them in blocks by category (like Charlie's Blog, Ezine, LizSeymour.com, etc) and then list the Bit.ly link, the full link, and a note about it. Like this:

http://bit.ly/10UEzs – Marketing Power – Stand Out To Shine and Think Big (created April 23, 2009)

Well… that's it for now! Hope after reading all of this you learned a bit (or is that you "learned a Bit.ly")!

Best,

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

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Marketing Power – A Good Theater Background Helps!

I was six and it was my first theatrical production. OK, so I sat quietly licking a lollipop in one courtroom scene at the local Little Theater, but I must have done something right because they asked me back year after year and I went on to create a musical theater group at Tufts University (Torn Ticket, now with the name Torn Ticket II) and worked professionally in theater after earning my MBA from Wharton Graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Theater – that team sport of people in the spotlight. And whether directing or acting, it taught me some very important lessons that I use in my marketing today.

Sing Out, Louise

That classic line from the Broadway Musical, Gypsy, is instructive for all of us:

You must stand out for people to notice you!

Have you ever taken the Sunday newspaper (well, it's like that here in the USA) and flipped to the real estate section. Squint a little so it goes out of focus and what do you see?

Nothing.

Everything is exactly the same. It's as if no one wants to stand out and get noticed. It's just a blur of black and white with no stars singing out.

If you make a presentation along with other people; if you give your 30-second "Elevator Speech" of introduction at a business meeting; if you make a proposal to earn some local business and you look like everyone else you will get what everyone else gets: normal results.

Normal. The norm. Average.

And who the heck wants THAT?

Timid you say? Then ACT the part of someone who is not.

Hey, I really don't care that Donald Trump jumped all over one of his Apprentice candidates who said something like "fake it" until she was ready to make it.

Create a character for yourself if you are timid. LIVE through that character. Hey, be true to yourself in what you do and the ethics that guide you, but to blend in, to be a wallflower, to get no attention means you'll get no business.

How Do You Stand Out From The Other Marketers

Dare to be different.

If everyone is presenting his/her Elevator Speech and starting off (as way too many people do) by stating their full name and company (as if anyone cares until they learn something about you), start off with a question!

"Do you know how people visit a website and give their name and email address when they feel they can like and trust the person who owns the site, well… I create such websites. My name is…"

Try it.

See how a question engages your audience (even a very small audience). People stop listening when other people drone on, but asking a question connects with their ear and brain and gets them to pay attention.

And before you even open your mouth, know what outcome you want to achieve. WHAT do you want people to know about you.

STOP…. OK, so you can tell them your life story and bore them.

Don't.

Select one or two main points and present yourself in an exciting way. Just as if you were writing a novel and describing the main character, that attractive, talented, clever person that you are!

Are You Saying I Have To Be Entertaining?

I didn't say it because YOU already thought it.

Yes. Entertain, educate, inform, question.

And do it through the persona of the character you want your prospects to see.

What do you want them to remember about you? How do you sound? What words do you choose?

And never waste any opportunity, because you don't know when you'll get another one.

Were You Ever Told To Fit In?

Did you use to work at a corporation where they told you to "fit in"? Be like everyone else? Tone it down a bit?

Those days are over for us entrepreneurs. People must remember us or they'll never call again.

So if you left the Rat Race of the corporate world, don't jump right back into it by mirroring all the things you used to do and didn't like!

Take some risks. Find the kind of work you love and make money with it. Don't set up a corporation, get yourself an office, parade around the same way you used to when someone else was calling all the shots.

When you make it as a successful entrepreneur, you'll do so because you left those old habits behind and took the road less traveled… the path in the wood you've always wanted to take.

And Think Big

Have you ever seen someone accomplish Big Goals by thinking small?

How do you grow your business to a million dollars a year if you are just starting out? I can assure you thank thinking small, thinking incrementally will NOT work.

Think Big. Think multiples, exponential growth. Dream, Plan, Scheme and always think, "What is next."

No billionaire ever achieved success by doing things the way everyone else did things, right?

Think through what you want to accomplish, make your own road map of how you will get there, and then let no one stand in your way.

Share your ideas, your goals, your vision with trusted advisers. Mastermind with people smarter and more experienced than you are (that is IF they will have you – they, too, want people smarter and better than they are).

It's been said that we are the average of the five people we spend most time with – is it time to break away from your comfortable friends and seek others who will stretch your thinking?

Get moving. You won't achieve your goals at the dining room table, on the couch, in front of the TV. Forget those who say "it's easy" to do all of this and know that Nike has it right: Just DO It.

Focus, Focus, Focus. Do one thing REALLY well and get known for it. (I admit I don't do well with this one: there are SO many things I enjoy doing and have abilities to accomplish. But you must get people to think YOUR NAME when they have a need.)

Create a name for yourself like this: Charlie the ______________. Make it short and sweet. If you can define yourself this way, others will be able to do that too. If you CAN'T, neither can they.

Like Charlie the Social Marketer. Charlie the Photographer. Charlie the Marketing-Success Coach.

Charlie the guy who does marketing for individuals, corporations, and nonprofits will NOT get me noticed and remembered. See what I mean.

And then select the best "title" depending on the circumstances.

If you are great at copy writing, web marketing, and photography, choose which label you will use depending on the audience to which you are speaking.

And then NEVER give up.

It's ALL In Your Attitude

Your mindset – THAT is what is most important about the way you project yourself and deal with difficulties and assignments not gained.

Some people, if they don't get that next, prized assignment, feel they have failed. Others take it as feedback and learn from what they just went through (and are back "at it" as soon as they can be).

So… stand out; create the character you want to project; dream, plan, scheme about what you want to achieve; and then let nothing stand in your way.

And I'll see YOU at the top!

Best,

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

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How Many Of The Millions Of Unemployed In This Economy Will Begin To Work At Home?

Are you unhappy at work? Do you find yourself daydreaming about working from home? You are certainly not alone.

Millions of successful, professional people are finding that working at home is the answer, whether they have been downsized, rightsized, paradigm-shifted, or simply couldn’t take hearing another buzzword.

Of course, the work at home industry is not without its own buzzwords. Like freelancing, outsourcing, virtual assistance, consulting and others which continually overlap, making the whole work at home concept very confusing for first-timers.

Perhaps even more mind-blowing and confusing than these word games, though, is the pervasive concept that everyone who works at home does so in their pjs, coffee in one hand, sugary treat in the other, and both slipper-clad feet up on the desk.

Enticing as this image may be, only Hugh Hefner gets away with this trick. For the rest of us, pajamas simply won’t work, and here’s why:

Wearing pjs or gym clothes may interfere with your productivity.

Choosing a blend of casual comfort and professionalism creates the best work at home wardrobe. Our clothes define how we feel and, to a great extent, who we are.

Remember that time you ran a quick errand in a pair of old sweats and a slightly ripped t-shirt? Remember how you ran into Sue from across the street and avoided her like the plague?

The same thinking applies to working at home. Sure, no one is going to see you. Sure, you’re only talking on the phone. But you can see you.

When you dress for the job, you feel prepared to meet the day’s challenges, ready to present yourself as a competent professional. Must you put on a full suit and tie? No. But pajamas aren’t going to cut it either.

If you’ve ever tried it, you know what I mean.

These four tips will help you remain comfortable and productive:

1. Always go for comfort, but not too much. No highly-starched shirts, ties, or wool that drives you nuts. An Oxford-style or Polo-style shirt is great looking, comfortable, long-wearing, (and you’re half-ready for the golf course, just in case).

2. Sweats are for the gym. Pajamas are for bed. Your office is not where you work out or take a nap. Feeling too comfortable and casual may spill over into your demeanor, and this can translate into unprofessionalism.

3. And remember your shoes. Shoes impact work attitude, believe it or not. Barefoot feet say “Relax! Take a load off!” and, while you don’t want to be a ball of nerves, a workday is not a day at the beach.

4. Shave and shower to begin your day. Grooming has a psychological effect on mental preparedness. You simply “feel” ready after a nice hot shower and a shave.

Still believe you can work at home in your pjs?

Not if success is part of your master plan. The concept is simply more sales pitch than professional reality. At the end of the day, reality is what pays the bills.

Best,

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

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Marketing, Branding, Image Building – What Do They Mean To Entrepreneurs?

I'm not a huge fan of "branding" or doing marketing to "build a brand" for an entrepreneur.

Those who have millions of dollars to throw at building a look, offering television commercials, and hope that when you stand in front of the refrigerated case you will remember what you are to purchase can build a brand, but not you.

We all remember "New Coke" and the near disaster that Coke worked its way through several years ago when it changed its formula to make it sweeter and taste more like Pepsi. Hey, if I want Pepsi, I'll ask for Pepsi. Millions of dollars were lost as they admitted their mistake (hey, it's not failure, it's feedback… and believe me the market gave them plenty of feedback!).

And now there are the marketing and branding changes from which PepsiCo (the owners of Pepsi and Tropicana) have done an about-face for the top-of-the-line orange juice, Tropicana.

Tropicana Sales Nose Dive: Marketing Changes Are To Blame

As reported on AdAge.com, "Tropicana's rebranding debacle did more than create a customer-relations fiasco. It hit the brand in the wallet.

"After its package redesign, sales of the Tropicana Pure Premium line plummeted 20% between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22, costing the brand tens of millions of dollars. On Feb. 23, the company announced

it would bow to consumer demand and scrap the new packaging, designed by Peter Arnell. It had been on the market less than two months.

"Now that the numbers are out, it's clear why PepsiCo's Tropicana moved as fast as it did. According to Information Resources Inc., unit sales dropped 20%, while dollar sales decreased 19%, or roughly $33 million, to $137 million between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22.

"Moreover, several of Tropicana's competitors appear to have benefited from the misstep, notably Minute Maid, Florida's Natural and Tree Ripe. Varieties within each of those brands posted double-digit unit sales increases during the period. Private-label products also saw an increase during the period, in keeping with broader trends in the food and beverage space. "

Marketing Lessons For Entrepreneurs

Here are some points for Entrepreneurs to remember:

• 1. A Confused Mind Always Says NO. If a consumer is confused, doesn't recognize what is being offered, can't find what he/she is used to looking for, s/he will say NO and move on. When Tropicana looked like something else but the consumer recognized MinuteMaid (for example), the shift was easy even if the product wasn't perceived as being as good.
• 2. Don't Mess With Your Proven Sales Success. I drink Tropicana every day. It wasn't until I drank the third glass that the watery consistency and "odd flavor" hit me and I asked my wife (who does most of the shopping for us) about this new smaller packaging (narrower, fewer ounces, different look) style of OJ. It took both of us carefully reading the packaging to "discover" that the 50% Lower Sugar style of Tropicana replaced the sugar with an artificial sweetener. WHAT!? The brand that prided itself (and told all of us) that it was never made from concentrate (not that I know why that is a bad thing to do) now replaced the natural orange sugars with a bad-for-you artificial sweetener!? (I make NO medical claims here about this sweetener, but general consensus is that no artificial sweetener is good for us.)
• 3. Learn From Others – The Wheel Has Already Been Invented, You Don't Need To Reinvent It! Does the term "New Coke" not send shock waves still? Changing the packaging and logo is one thing (and it clearly hurt sales): but messing with the formula, changing the "never from concentrate" image of the top of the line product, changing the taste and natural health benefits… I thought we all learned those lessons from New Coke and other products that messed with success.
• 4. Test Your Changes On Small Groups First. It seems that this new direction was rolled out without sufficient (some say NO) testing. My wife pointed out that in HER store, anyway, this new product wasn't even displayed with the regular Tropicana – was that to mask the different size packaging? to keep the "artificially sweetened" product away from the "real product"? OR was the store confused by the look and didn't know to put all the same product together? Hard to tell.
• 5. Never Cut Corners Or Change What People REALLY Buy From You. Entrepreneurs must never do a quick and easy product when people expect top of the line from them. We must never take the easy route when people expect the best from us. We must remain true to ourselves and our clients and customers or they will leave us and never return.

Put Yourself In Your Clients/Customer Shoes First

It's times like now that I work hard to put myself in the shoes of the consumer and forget my Wharton training or any of the other advertising and marketing work I have done over the years.

How would I recognize the new product – just by a name or does the whole "look" hit my emotional buying habits? Will I be confused and say "NO" or will I still purchase?

I have to admit that the only way I can stand to drink this new version is by mixing it with the "real stuff," which I have done. (My upbringing just wouldn't let me throw it away, so I have to hide the bad taste of the new drink by the delicious flavor of the "good stuff.")

Are people so taken with themselves, so cocky, so self-righteous that they feel that they can improve the world on a whim?

At least in my family we can go back to the regular Tropicana (I prefer mine without pulp) no matter what the branding is: but for those who hated this new version and didn't realize that it was simply a marketing mistake, are those customers lost forever?

Keep that in mind for YOUR products!

Best,

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

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Wall Street Journal chronicles that finally they figure out that men have some say about the food we eat!

The Wall Street Journal article starts with a subheading that says that the new Post Cereal campaign aimed at men marks a departure for cereal advertising campaigns.

(Now let's make it clear: the type advertising being talked about here is what I call "Teaching Frogs How To Drink Beer." I won't go into the whole topic (you can listen to what I said before on my GetThemOffTheRaftMarketing.com site:

This is NOT the type marketing I suggest for most entrepreneurs, but it is what car companies and even cereal companies use.)

But we're told that to revive the crunchy Post Foods Grape Nuts, marketing geniuses have come up with cheeky commercials aimed at men.

"That Takes Grape Nuts" is the catch phrase as if the cereal were ubiquitous and we'd all know what that meant. We don't. And I wonder how many people will be lured to a magic website where lots of 2-minute videos will show how many circumstances call for "That Takes Grape Nuts" fortitude.

And to butch up the site to be sure that real men will feel comfortable watching videos about and talking about cereal, they pack the website with tips on restoring vintage cars and other macho topics.

And the print campaign will run in Sports Illustrated featuring men fishing and golfing.

HOWEVER… as silly as it all sounds, learning that this is the first time cereal isn't aimed at Mom and her kids made me wonder:

What the heck have they been waiting for?

The article points out that Grape Nuts is mostly eaten by men, but there has never been an advertising campaign reinforcing that – like all the other cereals, advertising has been aimed at women figuring that they do most of the grocery shopping.

What – I can't make up my own mind about what I want to eat and either write it on the grocery list or ask my wife to shop for it when she goes weekly after church (and visiting my folks for lunch at their retirement community) each Sunday?

And if the reason for my eating it were compelling enough, I'd stop myself to get some.

"Men will be entertained by the ad, but is it going to influence their purchase if they aren't the ones doing the shopping" asks Kristi Faulkner, a principal at Womenkind, a specialist New York Marketing firm.

Grape Nuts sales dropped 15% during the year ending February 22, 2009 while for the same time frame All Bran saw sales rise 30%. (But they admit that marketing was way down – estimated at $1.9 million in 2008 vs a projected $5 million in 2009.)

See that's the problem with Teaching Frogs How To Drink Beer marketing – you need millions to get people to remember you.

What strikes me here, other than institutional advertising doesn't work much of the time, is that advertising executives feel (or their "research" has shown them) that men have NO influence over what they eat for breakfast.

Hey – if you want me to eat something, tell me about it, let me taste it, smell it, see how good it makes me feel and I will be the one to decide that I want to eat it.

My wife can decide for herself and I will decide for me.

Wow – A whole article on the front page of the Media & Marketing section of the Wall Street Journal telling us that for years men have eaten breakfast according to what someone else told them to eat.

Hey, it's the 21st Century. Let's respect men, let them eat what THEY want, and let's see if your pleasing them will generate money for you.

We're big boys now – we can decide important things like "what cereal am I going to eat today" by ourselves.

Best,

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

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Opportunities Abound For Work At Home Dads, Even In THIS Economy!

How often do we have to hear it from or read it in the news? The economy is the worst since our parents (and for some of us it's our parents' parents) were young. It's really awful.

All indicators are down. My personal retirement fund has shrunk by about 50%. Unemployment is rising (about 6.5% in my county), and if it hasn't touched your family, you KNOW a family it has struck.

What do they say: it's a Recession when your neighbor loses his job: it's a DEPRESSION with YOU lose your job! It sure feels that way! (Seems to me the only time you feel worse is when everyone tells you that the economy is GREAT but you just lost your job – that happened to me once and that feeling is burned into my brain and heart, still searing my insides.)

And the effect ripples through our town, county, state, country, and world. You can't escape that we're part of a SYSTEM, not a series of individuals. Someone losing a job in Maine doesn't buy as many groceries so the farmer in Texas doesn't plant as man crops and the family in California has to pay more. And on and on and on.

And Bernie Madoff can only account for about $67 Billion of this, so there are many other factors at work.

And when I was a kid, I remember my Dad talking about the economy (he later ran a major real estate firm and was on the Board of the Philadelphia Fed… so he had learned a thing or two).

And if there was one major lesson I learned from him it's that OPPORTUNITY is just as great in any part of the cycle (for indeed, economies are cyclical).

So… that means that there are opportunities abounding right now.

And if you follow Internet Marketing (especially Information Product Marketing), perhaps you just witnessed Frank Kern (one of the really good guys) sell more than $4,000,000 worth of CDs and booklets, teaching people how to succeed in today's economy. And this was in about 26 hours.

But For Many, Where Did The Dream Go?

But for people watching their 401(k)s being drained or their IRAs tumble, it certainly must feel like the sky has fallen. And if you're sitting at home instead of going into that job in an office, store, warehouse, or factory, the pain can be intense.

Or Perhaps You've Been Saying, Take Me From The Rat Race

Or, perhaps you still have a job but are nervous that you might be next to go. Here in the Philadelphia, PA USA area, apartment developer Steve Korman has pleaded with companies (many of which he owns stock in) to remember that firing people leads to more firing. He'd like to see a corporation earn less, but keep all of its people working.

Not many corporations share his thoughts.

Or, You're Already Working At Home And Think, How Can I Turbo Charge My Work At Home

You know how it is to have the freedom of working from home. No commute. No expensive lunches out. No boring meetings that take up so much of your time.

But with the way the economy is now, you really need some help to turbo charge your results. Going back to an office job just isn't in the cards for you, even if the economy had any jobs available.

I've Been There Too

As a Work At Home Dad since 1991 (longer, really, since from 1977 – 1991, I sold $247,368,657.97 worth of Investment Real Estate and though I worked for a large real estate firm, I did much of my work from home), I recognize each of these stories… and each of the opportunities they bring.

Oh, it may not FEEL like an opportunity when you're faced with being fired or the potential of a layoff, but it can be.

So, I've dedicated myself (with the help of some of my very smart friends) to help Work At Home Dads.

Dads Have Been Forgotten – But NO MORE!

When you search the Internet, there are all kinds of opportunities for Stay At Home Moms, but the Dads have been forgotten. And with the economy the way it is, we Dads can use all the help we can get. It's said that 82% of all the recent layoffs were to men!

I have created several family-centric sites (RaisingGreatFamilies.com, ILearnedItAllFromMyKids.com, FathersAndTheDaughtersTheyLove.com among them) and my professional photography business was all related to families (Family Portraits, Weddings, Bat and Bar Mitzvahs, Theater).

Over the next few months, I will openly share information to help Work At Home Dads. The site just starting, so be sure to enter your name and email address and I'll be sure to let you know when those resources are available.

Time We Banded Together, Men: Form Our Own Mastermind Group!

There's nothing like the power of when creative and hard-working men join together. Hey, not being sexist – my wife would smack me if I did that (to say nothing about my two successful daughters), but it's time for us men to band together to make the family economy work for each of us.

I look forward to hearing from you – hearing your ideas, your greatest concerns about working from home, hearing about some of the solutions you have come up with. Let's share this information to help all of us.

Best,

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

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