As a marketer who also writes about self-improvement and spirituality, this article instantly resonated with my values. I hope you enjoy it too.

Why One In Six Billion Is A Simple Marketing Formula
By Hirini Reedy

In today’s’ world, new markets are opening up all the time. With six billion plus people scattered across the globe, cross cultural marketing is vital to business success. No longer can dominant marketing practices apply globally. What works in the USA may not work here in New Zealand. And vice versa.

What works in Europe might not work in Asia. It comes back to our parent culture. Our mother tongue. Whether we speak English or Mandarin as our first language. Whether we follow Cartesian logic or Confucius thinking. Whether we use a knife and fork or chopsticks to eat our evening meal.

Smart marketing must tap into these cultural differences. Now stupid marketing is when you show photos of cheap silver cutlery to a blind Chinese person. Yet you and I know that blind people can sense vibrations. Even if they cannot see you, they can smell your energy.

Ask yourself, how many marketing messages do you believe 100% at first glance?

Not many huh? Again it comes back to a feeling. You sense either integrity or something less. You might not know all the facts and figures yet you have a funny feeling that something is not right. Perhaps a gut feeling.

Even in cross-cultural situations, your senses can pick up on subtle vibrations. These initial feelings can dramatically influence final business decisions. Here are a couple of ways to raise your energy and market yourself as totally unique.

1. You Must Find Your Soul Vibration.

You need to be selling something that resonates at a soul level. It lifts up your vibrations. It is about selling something that you believe in. It serves a greater purpose. It makes you feel good. You can sleep easy at night.

You are not ripping people off. Most of all, you are not ripping yourself off. Each time you do something lesser, you eat away at your self respect. Let your selling be noble. Come from a higher vibration. Most of all, be yourself. You are ONE in six billion.

2. Be The Greatest “YOU” In The World.

Marketing is an extension of who YOU are. Whether you are a one-person business or a 1000 person business, who you are defines your world impact. So be the greatest you that you can be.

There is no other person exactly like you in this world. For better or worse. For richer or poorer. You are absolutely 100% pure you. So start celebrating your uniqueness. Identify all the unique things that make you who you are.

For example, I am a Maori from New Zealand. Big deal. No one really knows or cares where New Zealand is? Or who Maori are? Yet what if I told you that there are only 400,000 Maori people in a world of six billion. This might interest you. That my name Hirini sounds female yet I am a male. Hmmm that’s weird.

That I come from a proud warrior race in a small country that is environmentally clean, green and free of venomous snakes and large hairy predators. That I teach Maori spiritual concepts yet most of my clients are non-Maori and all live overseas.

All these contrasts and contradictions might interest one or more people from out of six billion. Yet I must still be who I am. The more I believe in who I am, the more energy I am able to radiate. The more people I am able to attract. You can do the same as well.

So start being the greatest YOU in the whole world. Remember who you are as person speaks much louder than a lot of marketing hype. It communicates across cultures. It communicates around the world. Someone right now is waiting to hear your message.

Hirini Reedy is a Maori metaphysicist, former military officer, martial arts founder and personal coach. He combines ancient Maori wisdom with modern insights at http://www.maori-secrets.com

According to the April 2006 issue of the New Scientist, research has proven that subliminal advertising messages work… and that if conditions are right, subliminal advertising to promote a brand can be made to work. Previous experiments claiming this were debunked.

But in a recent experiment, scientists found that eighty per cent of volunteers who had been exposed to the subliminal advertising message chose that product, compared to only 20 per cent of the controls. Those are scary stats indeed.

The term subliminal message was popularized in 1917 (World War I), when the US army would sneak messages into songs and put subliminal messages in posters trying to get people to join the army.

A subliminal message is defined as a signal or message designed to pass below the normal limits of perception. Subliminal messages target the subconscious mind and may be generated in the form of an image transmitted briefly and not percieved consciously and yet perceived unconsciously.

While the conscious, rational mind acts as a filter and screens out messages not consistent with our beliefs, the subconscious mind accepts messages without filtering them - rather like the mind of a child.

The effects of subliminal television advertising could be even more powerful on children. It’s been found that for each additional hour per day that a child watched television an average of one additional request was made for an advertised product.

But then it doesn’t take a scientist to tell us what most parents know anyway. Most of us have experienced pester-power first-hand.

The researchers also found that priming only works when the prime is goal-relevant. In plain English, this means you’re likely to buy a product that quenches your thirst only if you were already thirsty anyway.

So, subliminal messages could be more useful in priming a target audience to choose one brand over another, rather than in creating an actual need for the product.

What if politicians started using it to influence our choices? Well, the fact is they probably do already.

Do subliminal messages violate the code of advertising? Will this change the way advertising is regulated? How could we detect subliminal messages inserted into creatives?

And, in our opinion, what is “wrong” - the fact that they actually work, or that advertisers would be sneaky enough to use them? I mean, if they were found not to work, we wouldn’t care either way, right?

The fact is, they do work. And that far better uses have been found for subliminal messages than advertising. In personal transformation, for instance.

As we learn more about the way our mind works, it will become clearer how subliminal messages really affect our decisions and whether they should or should not be allowed in advertising.

More claims of subliminal messages in advertising

The Fallacies Underlying “Subliminal Persuasion”

Subliminal CDs for Personal Transformation

This post is not about Joe Vitale’s Hypnotic Writing package. I think we’ve all heard enough about that already.

No, this is something even more powerful. It’s an event that can help you become a true Master of Persuasion.

On May 19 st, 20 th and 21 st, 2006,The Ultimate Persuasion Seminar event will be held in glitzy Las Vegas.

It’s led by three world-class persuasion experts who will share with you the most advanced, most powerful, scientifically proven influence tactics to let you talk anyone into anything, anytime.

• If you’re a salesperson or a copywriter, you should attend because you’ll sell better.
• If you’re a hypnotist, you should attend because you’ll do better therapy.
• If you’re a life coach, you should attend because you’ll get more clients and get them to follow you easier.
• If you’re a self-help junkie, you should attend because you’ll make faster, easier changes in your life.
• If you’re an NLP/Hypnosis fan, you should attend because you’ll discover how to put this magic in action to get your outcome.

I’m a loyal subscriber and customer of both David Barron and Kent Sayre. I’ve bought and used a few of their self-help products, and I understand the power of persuasion in self-help as well as selling.

Hell, I wish I could make it to this event!! Next year, perhaps

What you might not know that makes the Ultimate Persuasion Seminar totally different, is that these three instructors are rebel outsiders.

They defy the traditional by-the-book, boring, old outdated ideas and instead employ cutting-edge influence tactics that are sleek, covert, and so powerful¦ some of them almost illegal!

During the seminar event, they’ll explain to you every nook and cranny of all their outlaw street-smart, influence strategies. And you’ll walk out the door¦ as a master persuader.

So -

• If you want to be able to talk anyone into anything, anytime¦
• If you want people to follow you¦
• If you want to become a master of influence¦
• If you want more money in life¦
• If you want to more people to say yes to you easily and naturally¦

Register here.

But if you go, just remember that I’m going to be Jealous as Hell.

If you’re a business person, going to Vegas for this training, you should know that its a tax write-off… and it’s Vegas so a lot of things can happen. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

Register for the Ultimate Persuasion Seminar here.

In the past few months, although I’ve been working pretty hard, I’ve been blogging very little - at least about marketing. When I lost my husband in June last year, I counted on my work to keep me sane.

But in the last few months, I realised that I needed to take time out to heal and to renew myself. One of the triggers for taking it slow was my realisation that my priorities and my purpose had changed… a lot!

With a new internet marketing startup, an office to setup and clients to service, I started spending more time in the real world than the virtual one.

It’s been a new phase of personal growth and evolution for me. A new life… new goals… a new way of thinking. I started a new blog to chronicle that journey and I’m enjoying every step of the way.

I’ve been focusing to a greater extent on my personal and spiritual goals, absorbing the wisdom of some of the greatest self-improvement gurus. It took me a while to recalibrate my goals, redefine my sense of purpose and rediscover my motivation.

What now brings me the greatest sense of fulfilment and joy is bring a better mom to my daughter, helping my clients grow their businesses, and building superlative relationships with the people in my life.

It’ll take me some more time to regain my blogging momentum, but I’m getting there.

Have you ever gone through a difficult time in your life? A period when you felt helpless and powerless to deal with your circumstances and destiny? We all have.

Many of us have experienced the tragedy of abusive childhoods, broken relationships or the loss of a loved one. The easiest thing to do in times like these is to blame other people or circumstances for your life, your state of mind, your finances and career.

It’s so easy to blame an abusive parent for the way you are today, or a broken relationship for destroying your ability to love again. But blame is a very disempowering emotion.

It places on others the responsibility for your life, your emotions, your self. It disempowers you because you cannot change people or circumstances. The only thing you can change is yourself and the way you react to them.

Some people go through their lives blaming others, living in hopelessness and despair. But, with the exception of child abuse or losing someone you love, no one can do anything to you that you do not give them the permission to do.

By choosing to let things happen they way they do, you are as much to blame for the consequences. It takes a lot of courage to accept that you’re the way you are because of the choices you made. But it can be very empowering indeed.

The simple act of taking responsibility for your self and your life is the first step towards picking up the pieces and moving on. When you shift the onus of change to yourself, the constraints of the past are lifted and you can be anything you choose to be.

True empowerment is not about taking control, passing laws, fighting injustice or changing the world. Empowerment starts from within. It comes from your willingness to be responsible for what is happening to you, your life and your world.

At some point in our lives we all face adversity. Some of us blame others, while others own responsibility and get on with their lives.

The way we deal with our pain and let it transform us makes the difference between winning and losing the battle. When you realise that and act on it, you are truly the master of your own destiny.

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Copyright © 2006 Priya Shah

Priya Shah blogs on internet marketing and SEO. Read about her latest passion at the Exhilarate Adventure Sports blog.

This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.
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A few months ago, I created a site around the theme of self-improvement called Grow My Mind.

Not only is this one of my pet subjects, I also knew that self improvement products have a huge market online.

People actively searching for self-improvement courses and information online are also quite willing to spend on it.

So I was thrilled when I learned about a new Private Label Rights membership site with products related to self-improvement.

The Self Improvement Millionaires membership site is a joint venture of Mike Mograbi & Michael Lee.

I’ve already downloaded and put up the first set of products available to members. You can see a few of them here.

Goal Realization Made Easy

Boost Your Confidence! How to Succeed at Being Yourself

And there’s more where these came from.

One of the first things that struck me about the Self Improvement Millionaires site was the professional touch - the excellent quality of the products, sales materials and graphics.

While other sites expect you to create your own graphics - a time-consuming or expensive option - for their private resell products, Self Improvement Millionaires provides everything you need so you can set up your sales pages and begin selling the products in minutes.

There is a section full of products that come with master resale rights and giveaway rights.

Members also get access to 10 self-improvement related articles with private label rights every month. You can edit and use as these as your own to promote the products.

There are also discounts on self-improvement products and some very savvy tips for profiting from your products in the member’s area.

If your target audience is looking for self-improvement information online, this is one membership site you just HAVE to be part of.

Where are we going? What do we want from life? I started asking these questions of myself over two years ago when a health condition made me come face to face with my own mortality.

Since the death of my husband last month, I have asked this of myself again and again. I’m not sure of the answers yet, but I’m getting there…

For some it might be love that makes the world round. It’s certainly something all of us crave.

Not romantic love, but the sort that envelopes us all. Binds all humanity.

I’ve had a few setbacks in my business this month - things that would have upset me immensely earlier.

But because I am a little older, a little wiser than what I was two years ago, I can now shrug them off and say “C’est la vie.” Shit happens! But life has to go on…

Some of the things that I’ve drawn inspiration from this month.

The Interview With God - View the presentation. I loved it so much I bought the screensaver. My favourite line:

To learn that a rich person
is not one who has the most,
but is one who needs the least.

A friend recently introduced me to the Landmark Forum. I plan to do one of their programs this month.

Since I was a little girl, books have been my best friends. You can never be lonely when you have a good book to read.

Books that I read/am reading this month.

The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny by Robin Sharma

It’s Not How SMART You Are It’s HOW You Are Smart by Jeanne Anne Craig, Ph.D.

If you have your own grief to deal with or are still looking for your path in life, I hope these will help you as they are helping me.

Parting thoughts:

Cherish each day, every moment. The present is the only reality we have.

At the end of the day you’re not going to ask how much more money you could have made or how many more hours you could have worked, but you will wish you could have given more of yourself to those who love you.