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Rejection: The Poison to Enthusiasm
Learn to deal with rejection. (My own hardest lesson.) Don't over-analyze when you lose one. Don't feel too over-confident when you win one. One of my mentors said you never really know why you get 'em or lose 'em most of the time. Never mind. It ain't personal. The fit wasn't perfect. To hell with it. Soldier on.

To this day, I don't "accept" rejection. I reject it. I pity the poor fool who couldn't perceive the Great Deal I was about to deliver to Make His Life Perfect. Maybe he'll be back.

And you know what? Often they do come back after other people taught have them painful and expensive lessons. Lincoln was right.

Now you get to skim the cream, all prepared for you. Now you get to make a Quality Sale, and a loyal client who respects your expertise and class. (And who will now be a rich source of referrals.)

That, my friends, is a sweet drink....


Postcards
We keep people aware that we exist by periodic postcard mailings. Why postcards? Think about how you sort your own incoming mail each day. In the act of classifying a postcard as junk before tossing it out -- GOTCHA! -- YOU HAD TO READ IT! (If it was brief and punchy.) Message delivered. People are very forgetful. You gotta give 'em a swift kick in the pants periodically. They'll literally forget you're alive. Nothing personal. They're just people. Everybody's busy... one gave 'em a chuckle.

Feature some new service or feature. (Or create one.) Shine the spotlight on an old reliable capability from a new angle. If you can't think of fresh ideas, start bringing your resume up to date and go get an honest job in CorporateWorld. YOUR BUSINESS IS MAKING UP FRESH IDEAS!

Look at the stuff that tickles you. Find a derivative fresh idea all your own. People are bored by the usual pompous "digitalstateoftheartcomputerizednonlinearmultimedia" babble. Everybody's Digital. Everybody's State-of-the-Art. (For another week, anyway.) Everybody's got a Big Fast Computer. But nobody's got a YOU!

No matter what is said or done, no matter what "boxes" anybody owns, the only real product is your skill and creativity -- -and to a slightly lesser extent, your special knowledge and interests and style. Highlight those in your postcards. Take risks. Not crazy risks, but push the edge a little. We all remember such people. They're fun.

"Papers Direct" is a company that supplies a wide range of artsy pre-decorated paper stock for laser printers for letterhead (which we don't use), for business card stock (which we do use), and postcards -- to name but a few.

Get their catalog 1-800-A-PAPERS (800-272-7377). This will stimulate your "creative juice" production. It may sound silly, but you'll be amazed at the bang you get for the buck. Nobody needs a print shop anymore except for very special items.

Buy a good laser printer. Color printers are still kinda slow; but plain old black ink on the colorful paper stocks will have a lot of impact. We've had a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4L for a couple of years now. It's always worked perfectly without incident. Don't scrimp on this. A crummy printer is its own punishment. Like Nike, a good one will, "Just do it."

Postcards work.

Object Mailings and Promotions
A closely related mail-based promotional is an "object mailing". An object mailing is a thing. A keeper. A calendar. A credit-card sized calculator with your logo on it. Baseball caps, coffee mugs -- the list is endless. Obviously, this can get expensive if you send everybody Cross pens. So we make them highly selective. And we apply far more creativity than just sending calendars or some other crappy stupid little ugly trinket.

Recently, we sent out maybe 300 child's alphabet blocks -- one to a name -- in a small cardboard box.Each recipient was a writer or a "prime creative" type.There was no packing material. It rattled wonderfully, delightfully.Each one was painstakingly selected to be therecipient's last name initial. (Some even noticed, and got some extra value to the joke.)

Inside was a short funny note that said in part, "This is no ordinary child's block you hold. This block has been treated here, at our Studio One Secret Mountain Laboratory, with an intense beam of special ionizing radiation, to grant this block the ability to absorb the dreaded "Sub-Atomic Block-A-Trons", which everybody knows are the actual source of writer's block. Keep it in your creative workspace, and it will recharge itself from exposure to light. DO NOT PUT IT IN A DRAWER OR OTHER DARK PLACE!"

Over a year later, nearly everybody still has our block prominently placed on their desk. It is their initial, after all. Would you throw it out? Our logo is not on the item. They have memories. They know where it came from. Be classy.

People really got into it. I got more than a few fanciful replies -- including one very complex corporate mail-room, x-ray, bomb squad, police department, nightmare, "so-I-got-fired" satire one. Great Stuff!! Great Energy! Great Referrals!

Soon, we'll be sending out some nice little doll-house furniture tables. The pitch will be about table-top photography.... The tables will cost us about a buck-fifty each. Are your hundred best clients worth a buck-fifty?

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