I was browsing in the bookshop at Salts Mill in Bradford recently, when for some reason, I was drawn to one book sitting spine-out on a shelf. It probably had something to do with the brightly coloured cover, but if you’re of an ‘air head’ disposition, you might call it fate.

Anyway, the book turned out to be written by a philosopher by the name of Julian Baggini, and is called ‘Welcome to Everytown – A Journey Into the English Mind’. Now philosophy titles aren’t what I would normally gravitate towards. There are no pictures of semi-naked women or fast cars for one thing, and it’s hard to escape the conclusion that you’re going to be expected to think. But as I read the cover notes, I realised that this was something I had to read…

You see the book sets out to explain and define the broadly-held philosophy of the British people. In order to do this, the author decided that he needed to move away from the cultural enclave he occupied at the time, to somewhere more typical of the way most Britons live. So he set out to find a place that was representative of the country as a whole ~ a microcosm if you like ~ and found it in S66, the postcode where I live.

Apparently S66 is as close a match to the national demographic as any postcode you’ll find. The breakdown of the national population ~ its age, wealth, health, housing, occupational status, etc – is mirrored more closely in S66 than any other area in the UK. It’s the Everytown where Baggini set up home for six months in 2005 – less than a mile, as the crow flies, from my house.

When I first read about this – that the area where I live had been chosen because it was just like everywhere else – I was a little miffed, if I’m honest. I think we all like to feel that there’s something unique or unusual in our existence, but here was a guy who was saying that this aspect of mine was about as far away from unusual as it’s possible to get. But then I realised two things:

1. I’m unusual enough ~ or so I’m told. (That’s what ‘weirdo’ means isn’t it?)

2. For someone who does what I do, there couldn’t be a better place to be.

Baggini needed to uproot, move and integrate to get an insight into what makes people tick. I’m already here. His motivation is a purely academic one, mine is a little more pragmatic – if I have my finger on the pulse of what people are thinking, feeling, needing and aspiring towards, I have a much clearer idea of what products, services and promotional appeals are going to hit the target.

So in that respect, I’m in the ‘right place’. But I regularly receive letters and emails from people who are clearly in the wrong one – if they want to make some money, at least. They want me to publish their manuscript or help market their product, but the concept has been developed and honed a long way away from Everytown.

Often, it’s been fashioned from the perspective of someone living in a rural idyll or a cosmopolitan metropolis or an academic/professional haven ~ and it shows. I’m sure I don’t have to labour the point, but although these are physical locations, the impact is in the thought processes, behaviours and attitudes they engender in the people who live there.

The end result is something that wouldn’t sit well with the people in Everytown, and that’s where the bulk of the market is.

Now I’m not suggesting that you have to live where your market lives to understand and serve it, but you do have to accept that if you live somewhere else, the values, wants, needs and motivational triggers of those around you will not necessarily be universal indicators. You create your products and promotional appeals around them at your peril.

So what’s to be done?

Well if you can’t live in Everytown, the next best thing is to expose yourself to the same opinion-forming influences as the people who do live there. That may mean opening yourself up to aspects of popular culture, literature and media that wouldn’t normally be your ‘cup of tea’.

If you’ve read ‘The Money Making Magic Of The Funfair Goldfish’ (and if not, why not?) then you’ll know that I’m an avid daily reader of The Sun and the Mirror. If you want to know what people are thinking about, talking about, worried about and aspiring towards, you’ll get massive pointers here – although I’m never sure in which direction the causal relationship works.

It doesn’t matter though. The end result is the same. The impact on what they want to buy and how they’ll be persuaded to buy it is the same, irrespective of the causality.

And it’s the same with mainstream TV. You might only watch documentaries and the news, but the people in Everytown don’t. They watch Big Brother, I’m a Celebrity, Britain’s Fattest Teenagers – and a whole host of similar programmes too horrific to describe. But if you ignore their popularity and place in popular culture, you’re missing a trick in learning what real people want, and how you can make money by supplying it to them.

There’s no place for snobbishness in philosophy ~ Baggini’s book is very measured and non-judgemental ~ and there’s no place for it in marketing either. Back in the 1930s, HL Mencken said: “nobody ever went broke underestimating the tastes of the American public”, and as cynical as it might appear, I think you could insert “British” in place of “American” and it would still hold true today.

Overestimating the tastes, though? Well that’s a different matter. But you’re unlikely to make that mistake if you make yourself familiar with Everytown.

Kind Regards

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

“Here’s One Way To Make The Best Of This Crisis-

And Make A Healthy Ongoing Profit Into The Bargain!”

Dear Streetwise Customer,

If you’re anything like me, you’re totally sick of hearing about Covid-19. 

And yet even if you’re not directly affected, it’s impacting on all our lives…And apart from a few people in the ‘right business’ it’s costing everyone money.  

And yet there is a possible silver lining to this very ugly cloud.

What this current crisis has given a lot of us, is time…

Time to think, time to prepare and time to implement money making strategies which are totally immune to the mayhem going on.

Are you free during the evening between about 6.00pm and 9.00pm…’Soap Opera Alley’ when the TV is full of rubbish you don’t want to watch and you can’t really escape to the pub anymore?

Well if you are, I’d like to introduce you to a way to make £100-£200 an evening at home from your computer screen which  anyone can learn fast – all while the masses are  overdosing on Weatherfield and Walford doom and gloom.

 As if we don’t have enough of that at the moment!

Let me just repeat, this method is immune to the financial mayhem we’re all currently experiencing. Not just immune…it actually thrives on it.

For full details, take a look HERE

This could be exactly what you need to fill both your time and your bank account in this very challenging period.

There’s no reason why you can’t come out of all this financially stronger than you went in, and have a money making strategy you can use for life.   

  Click HERE for more information

Kind Regards

P.S This Strategy works just as well in good times as it does in bad. Take a look today…

www.streetwisenews.com/sos

I just opened an email from a reader of my online newsletter, which gave me cause to think consciously about something, that up until now has been active on a sub-conscious level. Here’s what he said:

“I think the fact you present your public face ~ and also in your newsletter, you outline the fact that you are also human and aren’t afraid to present your vulnerable side when appropriate~  helps.”

I think what he meant – but was perhaps too polite to say – is that I’m prepared to let everyone know what a plonker I really am. And when I think about it, he’s right. Let me tell you why…

When I was growing up, and in the period before I started to have some business and financial success, I didn’t know any millionaires. I didn’t even know anyone you could describe as wealthy. Everyone I knew was just like me – or not far from it. The richest person I knew ran the local greengrocer’s. That gives you some idea of what I’m talking about.

Today, I know a lot of wealthy and successful people, and there’s definitely an important lesson there. But it’s one for another day. Because, today I want to talk about something else.

You see, because I didn’t actually know anyone who had accumulated wealth, ‘the rich’ were a bit of a mystery to me. And there’s not a great deal of difference (both literally and linguistically) between mystery and mystique.

The information and impressions I had came from newspapers, glossy magazines and TV. And when presented in these selective environs, you don’t really get a true or accurate picture. Everyone who’d achieved financial success seemed impossibly sophisticated or charismatic or glamorous or educated or skilled or…or…some other thing that I wasn’t.

And it was all a bit off-putting and demotivating. When you aspire to something, the first stage is to believe it’s possible. If you see other people who’ve already done it – people who share your background, imperfections and insecurities ~ then that’s very powerful in persuading you that you can do it too.

If you see people with whom you have little in common, well then it makes it seem all the harder and more distant.

Once I started to achieve some success, and got to meet others who’d done the same, I realised that like me, there was nothing intrinsically special or unusual about them. The difference was in what they’d done. How they’d played the cards they’d been dealt, rather than what they were.

And so when I got the opportunity to communicate with people who were looking to move forward with their lives, it just seemed natural that I would present things as they are, rather than perpetuating myth and mystique. If you want to give people the best chance of following in your footsteps, why would you do any other?

I wouldn’t want to mislead you though ~ there are limits to my honesty…

If you think that what I reveal in this book represents the extent of my inability, ineptitude and failings, you’re wrong. I do retain a modicum of self-respect which I fear would disappear forever with full disclosure. And if I told you everything, I don’t think you’d bother reading a damned word I wrote, ever again.

And that would never do.

Kind Regards

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

       

Dear Streetwise Customer,

Imagine this…you load up an amazing piece of software on your PC or Laptop. It takes about 10 minutes. And then you wait.  

Every now and again – perhaps two or three times a week – an icon flashes up on the screen, and when it does, that’s your signal to collect £100. Simple. No rush. No dramas.

Sound interesting?

You’re probably in a significant minority!

Believe it or not 99% of readers will pass up on this because it’s doesn’t sound like it makes enough money. It’s hard to resist the promise of tens of thousands of pounds. But give me five minutes now, and I’ll show you how these small ‘hidden’ amounts can really add up.

Matt Shaw, the guy who discovered this reveals HERE.

Kind Regards

P.S. This comes with a 100% cast iron money back guarantee. There is absolutely no risk to you to take a look.

www.new-report.com

Ever wondered what it takes to create a hit record?

According to Taio Cruz, who wrote Umbrella, which was a chart-topping hit both here and in the United States, it’s very easy to explain. He argues that the two key ingredients are simplicity and repetition.

If you analyse the most successful songs they are choruses of four or five words and three notes, repeated.

To quote Cruz: “The audience can easily be distracted, so you want something they can sing along with immediately. It’s not rocket science.”

He was talking about writing a song, but he might just as easily have been talking about writing an advertisement.

Analyse any successful advertisement and you will find simplicity high on the list of attributes. The words used are simple and easy to understand.

The message and offer will be clear. It will be readily accessible through an enticing headline which immediately draws readers in and stops them becoming distracted by something else.

Once they’re there, it will retain their interest by repeating the ‘hook’ which got them there in the first place. Maybe the words will change a little (this is an advertisement after all, not a song) but the underlying message will remain.

It won’t attempt to confuse them by going off at a tangent, or changing the message ~ any more than a hit song is likely to divert off into a second chorus.

In an increasingly complex world, simplicity is like a breath of fresh air to overloaded brains. Simplicity works in music and it works in marketing. But simple and easy are not the same thing. Simplicity rarely comes easily… 

Which is why in just about every field, a fortune awaits anyone who can create simplicity from complexity.  

Kind Regards

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

       

Dear Streetwise Customer,

Imagine this…you load up an amazing piece of software on your PC or Laptop. It takes about 10 minutes. And then you wait.  

Every now and again – perhaps two or three times a week – an icon flashes up on the screen, and when it does, that’s your signal to collect £100. Simple. No rush. No dramas.

Sound interesting?

You’re probably in a significant minority!

Believe it or not 99% of readers will pass up on this because it’s doesn’t sound like it makes enough money. It’s hard to resist the promise of tens of thousands of pounds. But give me five minutes now, and I’ll show you how these small ‘hidden’ amounts can really add up.

Matt Shaw, the guy who discovered this reveals HERE.

Kind Regards

P.S. This comes with a 100% cast iron money back guarantee. There is absolutely no risk to you to take a look.

www.new-report.com

As far as I know, Marie Antoinette never had cause to dirty her hands with the sordid matter of commerce. Well, when you’re queen, you don’t do you? But if she had, I think she may have had a head start (no pun intended) on a lot of others setting out on the same path.

You see, there’s one thing that an enormous number of would-be entrepreneurs waste time on – even today. It’s something that rarely bears fruit. But it distracts so many from the real task in hand. In fact for many, it becomes the task in hand.

Anyway, here’s what Marie Antoinette said, sometime in the mid 1750’s…

“There is nothing new, except what has been forgotten.”

Marie Antoinette realised that there was nothing new back in the middle of the 18th century, but if the communications and correspondence I have with people in the early 21st century are anything to go by, this isn’t a commonly-held view – even today.

Everyone seems to be looking for something new ~ a new product, a new service, a new sales technique…a new something. Now I’m not quite as unequivocal as the cake-promoting former queen of France. I wouldn’t agree that there is ‘nothing’ new ~ but what there is, is little and far between. What’s more, fully exploiting and protecting it, is way beyond the wit and resources of the lone entrepreneur.

If, by chance, you do stumble across something truly new and ground breaking, it will be copied, stolen, ripped-off ~ call it what you will ~ faster than you can draw breath. And there’ll be very little you can do about it. The search for something new is almost always fruitless – whether you happen to find it or not. 

A far better approach is to look at what already exists, but has been forgotten, overlooked or undervalued. It’s there in abundance, and yet there’s very little competition in the race to discover it and convert it into cash. You might not be able to use it exactly as it is.

It may need a little fettling. But it’s a lot easier than trying to find and exploit something new. And when you do it that way, you operate under the radar of the sharks who are lying in wait for anyone who does strike lucky, and discovers something genuinely innovative. 

So forget the new and remember the forgotten. It’s worked for me on many occasions, and I’m certain it can work for you too.

Kind Regards

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

This is not illegal. Perfectly legitimate. It’s all perfectly above-board.

Why isn’t everyone doing this?

I have no idea. Anyone can. You just need to be bothered. Anyone could, but most people don’t, because they either aren’t motivated, or don’t know how, or are too sceptical by nature to believe it’s possible.

If you find yourself having to live and work a little more remotely in the coming weeks and months then now is the time to take a look.

Available now for the first time as a fast digital download.

For more information on something that’s simple, and easy to use from the comfort of your own home CLICK HERE.

Kind Regards

P.S. This comes with a 100% cast iron money back guarantee. There is absolutely no risk to you to take a look.

www.streetwisenews.com/NARDL

A little while ago, a number of newspapers, radio stations and TV programmes reported the result of some research which I found pretty astonishing…

Apparently, people who speak with a Yorkshire accent are perceived to be the most intelligent – beating even those using Received Pronunciation…the Queen’s English.

Now I said that I found this astonishing. You see I’m the proud owner of a Yorkshire accent and I have to say that my experience is not that it conveys an impression of great intelligence to the world at large. In America – for reasons that I don’t understand – it gets you identified as an Australian. In most of Europe, it gets you stared at blankly. But in England…

Well it gets you treated as a little bit thick…

And if not thick, simply fair game for reference to every regional stereotype under the sun from cloth caps, to whippets, to tripe and onions – none of which I have worn, owned or eaten. 

I don’t want you to think I’m complaining though, because I don’t mind any of this one little bit. It’s all harmless fun, and being underestimated can have distinct advantages. I only mention it because of the research reported in the media, that doesn’t fit with my experience. 

Anyway, this morning on the way to work, my local radio station ran an interview with the academic who carried out the research, and he was asked how he’d arrived at his conclusions. Here’s what he did:

He got a photograph of a 20-year-old girl and then showed it to respondents. At the same time, he played a tape of ‘the girl’ speaking a prepared script. Respondents were all shown the same photograph, and heard the same words, but they were spoken by people with different accents: Received Pronunciation, Yorkshire and Birmingham. As a control, one group of respondents was just shown the photograph with no voice.

They were all then asked to make an estimate the girl’s intelligence based on what they saw and heard, by giving a mark out of ten. The result was that the ‘Yorkshire girl’ was seen as most intelligent, followed by the girl using Received Pronunciation. The silent girl was considered more intelligent than the Brummie!

Suddenly it all became clear. The headline summary – the Yorkshire accent is perceived as the most intelligent – came from this very flimsy research survey, which I’m sure the average 10-year-old could pick enormous holes in. Very briefly… 

1.     It only tested three accents.

2.     It only tested reaction to a young girl’s accent

3.     There are dozens of different ‘Yorkshire accents’.

4.     Voices have an impact, as well as accents. It’s perfectly possible to find someone who sounds intelligent or stupid with exactly the same accent.

I could go on, but the purpose of this isn’t to criticise the research. It’s to demonstrate how easy it is to get the results of some research or a survey, into the mainstream media – provided the subject matter is interesting enough.

The media weren’t really interested in the methodology. They were simply interested in a result that flew in the face of conventional thinking. If RP had come out in front, I doubt anyone would have reported it.

The lesson for you and I, is that if we can come up with a unique piece of research connected to our business, which throws up some interesting results, there’s a good chance of getting it reported in the media. No scientific or research knowledge required.

The key, I think, is that the results need to be both interesting and surprising. If you manufacture toothpaste and find that 7 out of 10 people prefer your brand to a rival, that’s hardly newsworthy. It’s not interesting and it’s not particularly surprising.

But if you found out that 7 out of 10 respondents to your survey had used someone else’s toothbrush without telling them, then I can see that getting some coverage. It would be surprising and interesting because of the human angle, which anyone could relate to. It’s all about asking the right questions, or testing the right things, in the first place.

This is definitely worth thinking about. It’s cheap and easy to do. All it takes to get a big publicity pay-off, is a little imagination.

Kind Regards

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

This is not illegal. Perfectly legitimate. It’s all perfectly above-board.

Why isn’t everyone doing this?

I have no idea. Anyone can. You just need to be bothered. Anyone could, but most people don’t, because they either aren’t motivated, or don’t know how, or are too sceptical by nature to believe it’s possible.

If you find yourself having to live and work a little more remotely in the coming weeks and months then now is the time to take a look.

Available now for the first time as a fast digital download.

For more information on something that’s simple, and easy to use from the comfort of your own home CLICK HERE.

Kind Regards

P.S. This comes with a 100% cast iron money back guarantee. There is absolutely no risk to you to take a look.

www.streetwisenews.com/NARDL