The Little Words Mean the Most

Someone I deeply trust asked about condiments on Memorial Day

 

I don't know what I said.....

yeah, this:

Summer is mostly about condiments. Simone and I rhapsodized about "the condiments of summer."

 

The dog is the carrier (maybe the buttered and brown-singed bun, too ... though I have gluten-free friends for whom buns are like clouds passing aloft looking like ... wha? Mississippi paddleboats?)

 

Tastes vary. No one's wrong.

 

A good hot dog is a delivery system for condiments.

 

Love hot dogs not war dogs.

 

On this 2022 memorial day, with a flourishing graveyard....

 

 

~ tom

 

 

My webinar producer remarked: "Hope you're doing well..."

 

Written in response (then stuffed in a bottle floating down the Thames):

 

I'll be doing well when we pass 200 registrations [that's the minimum for making a good living: mortgage paid, taxes paid, utilities paid, and meals out].

 

At 200 registrations, I'll lift myself out of bed and give myself "the daily talking to." Like I was my own child; with a pillow crushed over my head. It's pathetic.

 

The person weeding my garden right now could run for governor: she's that smart, savvy, informed; any intelligent voter would say YES! ... and she'd do far more good than the current scarecrow in power. And yet here she is, on this land, digging weeds, inviting ticks to run up her legs....

 

I'm no longer sure: Am I ready to explode ~ or implode ~ or just -plode.

 

Is hope just for fools like you and me? Simone didn't subscribe to my optimism. She'd fight like hell. She didn't hope. She didn't trust "We, the people...."

 

And now I see she was SO right re: gender rights in America.

 

 

To a MGO I love and admire ...

 

"X," I love you like a brother ... but have you looked at the stock market today or lately?

 

Discretionary spending is tough when your entire portfolio is underwater. Yes, one supposes: this, too, will pass. And the stock market will be off on another insane romp: once Biden cures inflation, Putin surrenders, and COVID isn't savaging opened schools.

 

You're compelling. Libraries are compelling. The detail about Billie Jean King's tennis dress was compelling. But many people who rely on their savings to live the good life [incl. giving to charity] (as I do) are bunkered down until this latest storm clears.

 

Here's some comparative data from Forbes:

 

The 2008 Great Recession

Start: December 1, 2007

End: May 31, 2009

This recession brought the worst economic contraction since The Great Depression. Precipitated by a housing bubble which burst, U.S. stocks were only 2.7% overvalued when it began. Nonetheless, stocks proceeded to sink, ultimately losing 53.78% from peak to trough. By the time it ended, stocks had recouped about 14% of the loss, ending the recession down 40% from its October 9, 2007 peak. It then took four years for the Dow to fully recover from the crash.

 

Understandingly yours, tom

 

 

Working on my newsletter super-webby for June

Your internal audience (boss, other staff, board) is NOT your true, real, target audience. Internal critics are guessing about what will happen next … when, in fact, results are all that matters.

If everyone on the inside hates what you’ve done with the newsletter, that can be a really good sign. Just saying.

FYI: here

 

Fundraising has NO magic wands

 

Your ED might not accept this.

Your board chair might blow spit in your face ... and doubt you back to the 3rd grade.

But fundraising is hard. It works best when there's a plan. With successful models/templates to follow. And WAY less guesswork and untutored opinions.

I have a client that makes a half-million U$ in extra donations every time they mail a print newsletter to their donors ... in 2022. That is not an accident. It was a planned response, built on a proven model.

What made that kind of result possible? 3 decades of experience, among other things. A grasp of marketing fundamentals, for another. A willingness by bosses to say, "I'm clueless." And a firm belief that "Fundraising has NO magic wands."

You hope to make real money from "shiny NEW things"? That will take work.

You want to make real money from "shiny OLD things"? That will take work.

FUNDRAISING takes work. Success in this vital trade has no "just add water" shortcuts.

 

 

The most useful thing I did in my career?

 

I tracked results.

I went back to clients and asked for data: "How did it do?"

Fundraising can't grow if it remains mostly a "guess-to-nation."

 

Dr. Jen Shang, psychologist boxer

 

Jen and I have collaborated on various things.

Lately she's taken up a new way to settle disagreements.

The big bag on the right is known as Tom's bright ideas. You see the thrust from the hips, right?

 

Chin up, Roe v. Wade supporters: What would a 10% improvement in voter turnout mean in America?

 

It would be enough.

It would make the difference.

Mark your November calendars.

 

Where we are re: the assault on Roe v. Wade

 

The US Supreme Court will do what it will do. The majority of justices will prevail.

That's the battle.

The real war happens in November 2022, with America's mid-term elections.

If the usual soft turnout occurs >>> then anti-women, anti-women's healthcare, anti-women's freedom to choose GOP con-men and -women (sad but true) will likely win enough seats to rule as they see fit ... for quite awhile.

And 50 years of steady progress on women's (and other individual) rights will be lost overnight.

Everyone: vote.

The goal in any contested district? ZERO Republican victories.

It's attainable, studies show ... but ONLY if you vote.

Many local elections these days are decided by 500 votes or fewer.

DO VOTE! That's all you have to do ... to defeat America's extremists.

FUN FACT: When everyone in America votes, extremists DON'T win.

That's a good thing in your opinion, right?

 

 

New acronym? YSCF

 

YSCF

 

You

Supreme

Court

Fuckers