Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
June 28, 2010
Issue #954
- What that quart of mush perched at the top of our shoulders really IS good for …
- Two core beliefs you must have to succeed in life …
- Four visual images that power-up your sales copy, rocket your response and make you richer, quicker …
- Much more
Dear Business Builder,
Despite what parents, teachers and cable TV have told you …
Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, alien UFOs, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster are NOT real …
Politicians, televangelists, Oprah and Dr. Phil are NOT more qualified to dictate how you live your life or how you spend your money than you are …
The CIA, FBI, Mafia or the Klan did NOT assassinate John, Bobby or Martin … NASA did NOT fake the moon landing … and the Pentagon did NOT attack itself on 9/11 …
Jesus did NOT paint his own face on that insurance building in Tampa and that is NOT the Virgin Mary gazing up at you from the toasted cheese sandwich that sold on Yahoo for a bazillion bucks.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, it’s only fair to tell you that these are only my opinions. And as we both know, opinions are like (lessee … how can I clean this up?) they’re like necks: Everybody has one.
So, as long as I’m sticking my neck out, here’s another opinion for you:
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
January 8, 2010
Issue #232
Dear Business-Builder,
TGIF … The weekend is here and I am, doing my dead-level best to give you a thought or an idea or an inspiration or something that will make the few minutes you spend reading this the best investment of your week.
So what do you want to talk about?
What’s that you say? You want to talk about money?
What a coinkie-dinkie – that’s what’s been on my mind, too…
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
July 17, 2009
Issue #508
Dear Business-Builder,
Not long ago, The Redhead and I hopped into the 911 and went tear-assing down the mountain to Atlanta for Carline Anglade-Cole’s Copywriting Boot Camp.
The object of the exercise was twofold: 1) To spend an all-too-rare evening with Carline Anglade-Cole and her amazing family and 2) To rub elbows with a gaggle of Total Package readers who happened to be in attendance.
We had a ball.
Not only did I get lots of nice, warm hugs from my friend and her daughters Milan and Tiara … a manly hug and a slap on the back from Mick … and a hearty handshake from their son Chatham … I also got to meet a bunch of other family members (all drop-dead gorgeous, of course).
Plus, I also got to spend time with some of our readers. And as you might expect, to answer some of the most pressing questions they have on their minds now. Since we also get these questions in our feedback box almost daily, I figure it might be a good thing to tell you what I told them.
For instance, one attendee who was still training to become a copywriter was already thinking ahead …
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
June 29, 2009
Issue #463
- The hard truth "get rich quick" gurus never tell you …
- What it really takes to hit the big time …
- Why what you do the rest of today matters …
- Much more …
Dear Business-Builder,
My mom’s cousin married Ty Cobb’s son, Herschel. Since I’m not good at math, I can’t really tell you what that makes me. Ty Cobb’s grand nephew once removed? I dunno.
But still, I’ve always been proud to be related — even distantly — to the man who invented modern baseball. So a few years ago, I read Cobb: A Biography by Al Stump and later, watched the movie starring Tommy Lee Jones.
Great book; good flick. Not because they heralded Cobb’s exploits on the field, but because they painted a crystal-clear picture of the man behind the legend.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
June 11, 2009
Issue #196
Dear Business-Builder,
In April of 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt confiscated all gold coins, ingots and notes owned by Americans. Anyone caught with more than $100-worth of non-jewelry gold would be slammed with a $10,000 fine – about $143,000 in today’s dollars.
Fast forward to the early 1970s: Huge federal deficits from the Vietnam War were coming home to roost and inflation was raising its ugly head. The value of the U.S. dollar was plunging. Our cost of living was beginning to soar.
And because owning gold – the world’s most time-honored store of value and inflation hedge – was still a crime, American consumers, savers, investors and retirees had little choice but to watch helplessly as inflation robbed them blind.
That’s when an obscure Louisiana school teacher decided to force the mighty U.S. government to legalize gold ownership.
He didn’t care that he was “just one man” and that he’d be challenging America’s mightiest financial institutions and most powerful politicians.
Nor did his lack of funds to mount such a daunting national campaign faze him.
The fact that a horrendous automobile accident had left him paralyzed from the chest down and confined to a wheelchair didn’t even begin to enter into his thinking.
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