Thursday, February 05, 2009

These four trends WILL affect your livelihood…

There are several trends that you might or might not have noticed that are changing the economic landscape right now. These trends WILL impact your livelihood. For those who see them and understand them and know how to use them to their advantage, the impact will be profitable. For those who are caught unaware, the impact could be disastrous.

I’m going to openly share my personal and professional strategy for dealing with these trends, but first I think it is important to expose the changes that are already affecting your business.

1) The first of the trends is the pervasive encroachment of technology into every aspect of our lives. Things that used to be too ridiculous a concept to even include in a science fiction story are now mainstream toys. Think about the computing power in a typical smart phone compared to what NASA used to get men to the moon.

2) The second trend is a shift away from owning “things” and toward “experiences”. Kids today think of CDs as antiquated and bulky. You don’t want the LP, cassette, or CD, you want the MUSIC. The CD was just the best tool (at one time) to deliver that music and now it is no longer the best tool. CDs can get lost, stolen, or scratched. But the music in a digital format can remain viable forever and transfered to whatever medium is the choice of the time. This trend goes far beyond music into other forms of entertainment and information distribution as we shall see.

3) The third trend is that of the Green Movement: regardless of your beliefs about the cause or even the existence of global warming, it is lunacy to ignore the rising trend toward having a lessening impact on the environment. There is a LOT of potential here for you to capitalize on this trend and I’ll share some ideas with you.

4) The fourth and last trend I’m going to discuss today is the ever-present concerns about the current economic situation. Again, regardless of your personal experience or your belief about what the future holds, you simply cannot ignore the concerns of most of America during this time, and the economic situation ranks #1 in the minds of most Americans right now.

Real quick, I want to share with you a strategy that I’m implementing that I think will take these four factors and use them to my advantage and by extension, you will also benefit.

I’m currently in the process of converting all my information products into digital format so that CDs have become MP3s, my books have become e-books, and DVDs are becoming .MOV files. This not only embraces the technology as it exists today, it also reduces waste, eliminates the carbon footprint involved in delivering physical products in trucks burning fossil fuels, and because there is no shipping costs, those savings are passed on to the consumer in a lower overall product price.

But there is this invisible hurdle to overcome: For those of us born before 1984 (the year 1984, not the book 1984) we still have an emotional attachment to holding physical product. I remember how much I resisted direct deposit checks because I wanted to touch the paper to know it was real. I want to HOLD the CDs to know I have purchased something even though the plastic and paper is NOT what I am really buying.

So, here’s what I am doing...I’ve created a package of some of my e-books, and some of my MP3s, bundled them together and am “selling” them at a total cost of ZERO dollars. It’s like a chance to practice the new economy from beginning to end, with absolutely no risk at all as there is nothing to pay for.

What you do is go to http://JulianSpeaks.com/freegift.html and you will see the “Add to Cart” button. Click that and you will see that it is a zero dollar item. You will also see all the files I’ve included in that bundle. Some of you may already have some of this stuff but no one has all of it.

You’ll “check out” but it won’t ask you for a method of payment. Instead you will be asked for an e-mail address where you want the link sent. This should probably be the same e-mail address you use to get my monthly newsletter, but you can use whatever you want.

Within a few seconds you will have the link in your e-mail account to download all the files. See what you think of digital products. You can burn the MP3s to CD if you really want the plastic. And you can print out the PDFs if you really want the paper. But I think you’ll like the direction these trends are taking my business.

In a few weeks I’ll be sharing more about each of these trends and how you can take strategic advantage of each of them in your own business.

But right now, visit http://JulianSpeaks.com/freegift.html and feel free to tell a friend about the site as well. My goal is to open people up to this technology and open them up to what I offer as well and I think this little “sample pack” is a good way to start.

Labels: , ,

6 Comments:

At 11:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks, Julian. Terrific idea!

 
At 7:59 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great article. Remember though, as much as us old timers like to have products we can physically hold, so will some of your clients. Have both available.

 
At 12:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

tried the add to card button but keep getting a blank page

 
At 4:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dennis: You'll sell copies on eBay anyway!

 
At 4:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tried 9 times to retrieve one of the mp3 files. Your server ALWAYs stops at 5.58MB which is exactly at 20 minutes into the download. Is there a time restriction on your server? If so, that will eliminate dialup users as customers.

Rod

 
At 3:51 PM, Blogger Contact: Steve Hart said...

We are already moving from the "Infomation Age" into the "Conceptual Age" Read Daniel Pink's book, "A Whole New Mind" there he defines six new trends which will change your world.

For you Right Brain thinkers you time is coming....

Steve Hart
"The Motivational Magiciain"

 

Post a Comment

<< Home