Managed Print Services and World Domination

It has been a long time since I have had any desire or perhaps any reason to write about MPS. I have felt that talking about the subject is beyond the dead horse.

I have always believed there are those who do it right and those who do it wrong.

That it is essentially simple.

For months now I have not chimed in about this industry or the players within it and for the most part, I had no intentions of doing so.

In light of reflecting on the past year, this has changed.

I can not ignore the fact that chaos is breaking out across political, military and social dynamics in many of the worlds super powers and smaller countries alike. Terrorist attacks and the horrors of gun related tragedy are commonly found in the headlines of both mainstream and alternative news networks daily content.

Need a Managed Print Services Program?

The world is burning...

So what does this all have to do with managed print services?

Control and dominance.

As MPS evolves, the enterprise level players push BPO, print volume caps, excessive monitoring and auditing and various other dynamics on end users so that the share holders and CEOs of massive corporations can squeeze every last cent out of a previously ignored element of these companies expenditures.

While this is not always the case, nor is it always done with an iron fist, I can not help but to notice how some of these tactics have a very "police state" feel to them.

Treating end-users like commodities that can be regulated like products tends to create a tense work environment...

I for one have quoted a few software's that allow end users weekly printing volumes to be capped or limited to monochrome only. When I quote such a product I ask the decision maker how comfortable they will be as the point of contact to the angered and frustrated end users who's jobs have been complicated by their actions.

This always tends to prevent a purchase of said software because all the clients who asked for the quote quickly back pedal after this question is asked.

Buy Recycled Toner Cartridges 

As an MPS provider who's foundation are built upon high quality re-manufactured toner cartridges, my company's CPC rates are enough to save large accounts thousands of dollars.

The aformentioned surveillance state like elements that create a dictator out of a CEO or VP of IT tend to strike the heart of my clients and so far, none have gone so far as to place these restrictions on their end users but I wonder about the enterprise accounts of some of the OEMs...

It is clear that large corporations are largely in control of various elements of the united states government and that money above all else (including people) is the driving force for these problems.

It is the same force that leads the hand of men and women in powerful positions of corporations who would become the gestapo of the printing environment in their company.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand that end users occasional printing of full color photos of their kids birthday to post in their cubicle, coupons, emails, etc. is something that should be brought under some control...

That being said, I personally think a company wide proclamation from the president via email (or other form of communication) to the employee base as a whole (the content of which puts emphasis on environmental sustainability and financial effect) would be more effective and less likely to cause strife.

Some may think these ideas are extreme and that it is nonsense to assume this is happening on any level of concern what so ever. This is not what I have found...

What I have learned from watching humanity from my perspective as a human being is that once a tendency for a dynamic is enacted in one part of a system, you can expect the same dynamic to appear else-ware. Now, should the motivation of that dynamic be the all mighty dollar, you will most certainly find that dynamic spreading across the system as a whole should the decision maker in charge of said system be primarily concerned with profit over all else.

Need Printer Repair?

The managed print industry has been a catalyst for many things. I am under the opinion that it can be used as a lens to view the world...

From where I sit I will say this, If the elite of both the world and the MPS industry take control of the majority of either...

Endgame...

This is why I would implore customers more than ever to do business with small providers as much as possible. Choose the local companies who care more about people than pennies. Support small business even if it must be multiple small businesses to cover your fleet across states or countries. Even if it means some logistical challenges.

At the end of the day if all you are doing is saving is money, your not really saving anything. In this respect, I would suggest a revolution in dividing the MPS market across smaller providers rather than consolidating them through larger corporations.

There is enough opportunity for everyone and there needs to be change in the system otherwise it will collapse.

In closing I will repeat my sentiment...

MPS can be used as a lens, what do you see when you look through it?

Expert Laser Man: THE MOVIE?

Play A Video Game, WIN $500?

From Expert Laser Services:


We are beyond excited to release our VIDEO GAME, Expert Laser Man!

You can play for free, as many times as you want… CLICK HERE TO PLAY.

Everytime you beat the game, you will be prompted to enter your full name, e-mail and company name. By doing so, you will be entered into a sweepstakes for a cash prize of $500.

The more times you play and beat the game, the higher the probability that you will win the $500...

The sweepstakes will be open to all players in the USA from March 16, 2018 until June 15, 2018. The winner will be notified via email on Monday, June 19, 2018. The game is open to play for free internationally, but the sweepstakes is limited to players in the USA.

Here is the synopsis of the game:

“Rogue printers, copiers and scanners become sentient through artificial intelligence gone awry and begin to attack people in the office building where they work. The protagonist, “Expert Laser Man”, is the head of the IT department. He bravely arms himself with a laser blaster and works his way through the office building, destroying the sentient printers until finally he fights a giant mechanized copier boss at the end of the game.”

So, grab your laser blaster, and get to destroying some printers!

Video Game Controls:
A-D moves Left-Right, S Ducks, Space Jumps, Left Mouse Click Shoots.

Expert Laser Man: The Video Game!

MP-YES PODCAST #1: Nathan Dube interviews Greg Walters

Click the link...

MP-YES PODCAST #1: Nathan Dube interviews Greg Walters

Silicon Valley 2016: Unicorns, Psychedelic Drugs and Disruption

The company I work for Expert Laser Services, is a technology company in south central Massachusetts, just a stones throw from the quiet corner of Connecticut.

We are by no means as large or productive as the silicon valley giants listed below.

• Adobe Systems.
• Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
• Agilent Technologies.
• Apple Inc.
• Applied Materials.
• Business Objects (acquired by SAP)
• Cisco Systems.
• eBay.

Just like any other tech company, we are looking to grow and become a major player in our industry as well as the technology sector at large. We look at companies like those listed in the bullet points above and consider their success, hopefully learning from their success in an effort to replicate it on some level.

When looking into the current habits, ideas and theories of some of the larger tech company's CEOs however, I have to ask, what the hell is going on?

From the Washington Post:

Wall Street's top regulator went to the heart of Silicon Valley this week to defend the public markets and warn tech startups of the perils of staying private too long.

Mary Jo White, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, took particular note of the world's 150 so-called unicorns, tech companies valued at $1 billion or more, but still in private hands. 

"Beyond the hype and the headlines, our collective challenge is to look past the eye-popping valuations and carefully examine the implications of this trend for investors," White said in a speech at Stanford Law School late Thursday.

 "These are areas of concern for the SEC."

White did not mention any specific companies, but investors are patiently waiting for Uber, Airbnb and Snapchat to all go public. They are worth $62 billion, $25.5 billion and $16 billion respectively, according to Fortune.

They are among a growing group of Silicon Valley tech firms that are eschewing tradition and staying in private hands, rather than joining their brethren in the public markets where mom and pop investors could buy shares in the company. By stubbornly staying on the sidelines these companies are helping suppress the already dismal initial public offering market this year, critics say. And now they're starting to catch the attention of the country's chief financial regulator.

Unicorns?

With that in mind, let us consider why this information above is a problem...

From The Secret Sun:

Many see the entire enterprise as a house built on sand and call the high-flying startups there "unicorns", a reference to their sense of financial unreality. And Internet-based companies are sitting on the powder-keg of recent revelations that digital advertising simply doesn't work as promised. 
 
Despite hosting the Valley and Hollywood, California is now the poorest and most unequal state in the nation. Once the dream destination of many Americans, a mind-staggering five million people have migrated out of California in recent years, predominantly middle-class taxpayers.

This is the model Silicon Valley wishes to export to the rest of America. Atlantic columnist Sam Kriss:

Wealth is being concentrated in fewer hands, we own less and less of our own lives, and meanwhile these brave entrepreneurs are automating ever more decent-paying jobs, turning humanity into an ungrateful sea of surplus flesh, to be connected and quantified but not necessarily fed, because that’s what progress looks like. 

And why stop there? Why not declare war on reality itself? Kriss writes further that, "the tech industry is moving into territory once cordoned off for the occult. Why shouldn’t the fate of the entire cosmos be in the hands of programmers hiding from the California sun, to keep or destroy as they wish?"

What Kriss is referring to is based on a New Yorker profile of a Valley hotshot, who reports that to some movers and shakers in the tech industry, Creation itself needs to be hacked:

Many people in Silicon Valley have become obsessed with the simulation hypothesis, the argument that what we experience as reality is in fact fabricated in a computer; two tech billionaires have gone so far as to secretly engage scientists to work on breaking us out of the simulation.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the secret sun is an alternative media blog with a focus on the paranormal, occult and metaphysical side of the topics it covers.

So you may be thinking to yourself, this is all nonsense...

I can assure you, it is not. The Author of The Secret Sun, Christopher Knowles is absolutely on. point.

Not convinced? Let's take look at some more main stream media outlets and consider the strange topics presented above from another perspective then, shall we?


From Business Insider:

The theory that we might all be living in a computer simulation has gotten so popular among Silicon Valley's tech elites that two billionaires are now apparently asking scientists to help break us out of the simulation.

That's according to a new profile in The New Yorker about Y Combinator's Sam Altman. The story delves into Altman's life and successes at the helm of the famous boot-camp and investment fund for tech startups, and doesn't shy away from the quirkier aspects of Altman's character.
In the piece, Altman discusses his theories about being controlled by technology and delves into the simulation theory, which is the idea that human beings are unwittingly just the characters in someone else's computer simulation.

The simulation idea has gained popularity among Silicon Valley's elite — it's so popular that even Elon Musk is tired of talking about it. But now, a few of the tech industry's billionaires might be doing something about it. 

For those of you who are having an hard time understanding what is being said here, let me clarify things for you. There are very rich and powerful people in silicon valley who actually believe we are living in the matrix...

These people are paying scientists copious amounts of money to find out how to break us out of the matrix...

This is not science fiction people, this is actually being considered as a reality by some of the technology sectors biggest and brightest minds and money is being spent on this endeavor.

Now in light of the US election consider this, again from The Secret Sun:

Hillary Clinton has the advantage of the support of the entire Establishment (even major sectors of the GOP Establishment), which has now come to include Silicon Valley and its tributaries. Yet, like so much of the Establishment, much of Silicon Valley is actively at war with most of the country, even those with whom they ostensibly might ally themselves with.

It's a war of attrition, a sustained and unrelenting attack, not only on the American middle class (an enterprise the entire global hierarchy is devoted to) but on the socioeconomic, political and communication infrastructures of the entire planet.

Why? Because they can. Atlantic columnist Sam Kriss writes:

Silicon Valley's) culture is pathologically fixated on the notion of ‘disruption.’ Tech products no longer feel like something offered to the public, but something imposed: The great visionary looks at the way everyone is doing something, and decides, single-handedly, to change it. 

Propped up by an endless front of Deep State money, the Valley thrives on an almost completely artificial environment devoted to the global program of radical culture-change, through supply-side economies built practically in defiance of consumer demand. Companies are valued almost hilariously in relation to their actual worth and burn through capital like drunken sailors on liberty. 
 
With all this in mind, let me ask you, what is the inspiration for silicon valley to go from building innovations such as the iphone, to spending money on escaping the matrix?

Psychedelic drugs apparently...

Consider the following article from FORBES and also this one from Rolling Stone Magazine...

From the article(s):

"Are things so dire in the workplace that some persons are now turning to microdoses of psychedelics in order to reach new heights in creativity?

Microdosing refers to taking a much smaller dose, about 10-15 micrograms or about 1/10 the standard dose of LSD –and is thought to confer a much weaker effect on your body, just the amount to produce mild euphoria, energy lift or added insight, without allowing you to feel like you are “tripping.”

So to reiterate, the biggest technology companies in silicon valley are housing unicorns, who are composed of young twenty somethings micro-dosing on psychedelic drugs while paying scientists to find a way to break us out of the matrix...

All of this is happening while Elon Musk and Jeff Bezo's compete to start the first successful independent space travel company...

From CNN:

Elon Musk is the founder of SpaceX, Tesla Motors and PayPal while Jeff Bezos is founder of Amazon and Blue Origin. Both SpaceX and Blue Origin are privately held aerospace companies whose goals are the privatization of space exploration.

Of the two, Musk is the more flamboyant and entertaining. He's like a real world Tony Stark, minus the flying Iron Man suit and weapons. Bezos is known to be more private. Judging by the number of their tweets -- Musk's 1,500 vs. Bezos' 5 -- we know who likes to talk.

But when it comes to passion, the two are an equal match. Both of them want to bring humanity into a new era of commercial spaceflight. 

Musk's plan is to build a heavy lift rocket that would make spaceflight more economical. His big idea is to send humans to Mars in a decade or two. Once the heavy lifting technology is reliable, the next step is working out the issues of interplanetary travel. 

Perhaps his grandest vision statement was revealed when he said that he'd like to die on Mars and preferably not on impact.

Bezos holds his plans a bit closer to his chest, but his company's successes seem to be aimed more at the suborbital tourist market. 

By now you are probably wondering, what is the point of this blog post?

My goal is simply to illuminate some of you to the fact that all this is happening and to suggest that 2017 is likely going to be a very, very weird year... 

With that being said, what is your take? I would love to hear your opinions.

New Blog...

Hello, everyone.

Just making a quick post to notify you that Expert Laser Services has a new blog hosted on our brand new website. You can visit the new blog here.

I will continue to post here with a more stringent personal opinion on the imaging industry and the technology sector as a whole.

stay tuned...

Acquiring MPS, Page After Page...

Well I am just going to cut to the chase with this one.

We here at Expert Laser Services are super happy to announce that we have acquired our competitor Page after Page, essentially doubling the size of our company.

The acquisition was set in stone last Thursday and we are now integrating their employee base with our own. We are excited to bring Expert Laser Services and Page after Page into a new age of managed print perfection.

Exciting times are ahead as we move into the future with this endeavor.

Revisiting A Myth

Back in 2010 I wrote this post. It was an attack on the idea that the paperless office was ever to become a reality and I stand behind that post and the perspective which inspired it. A week or so ago, I came across this blog post which reiterates my opinion that I was right in my convictions. 

Based on the facts presented in said article I must reiterate, since the inception of paper people always have and always will have an intense emotional connection to paper. Granted it may be more subtle to the printed page in the office space but, take it away from your employees against their will and behold the sh!t-storm!

From the Article:

"As Publishers Weekly puts it, “the 2014 figures are further evidence that print books are selling better than they have since sales of eBooks exploded in 2010.” The paper tome apparently hit rock bottom in 2012, but has since rallied in categories from children’s books to adult non-fiction, and formats from trade paperback to hardcover.

Students, too, are rediscovering paper. Several studies – including one by tech-centric Hewlett-Packard – find a strong preference for printed textbooks, notably among those in college who have tried both types. In the HP survey, 57% preferred print; only 21% preferred an eTextbook."

Read the whole article here.

AIOI Makes DOTC: The Book!

Guess who's back?

It's me, the suddenly reclusive (and now shamelessly self plugging) Dubious Monk!

That's right folks I, Nathan Dube have returned! (at least for the moment and possibly longer). So where have I been you ask? Selling MPS and (GASP) copiers! Crazy eh, Greg? Well to be fair, it's mostly A4 MFPs which are selling like hotcakes....

So why post now? Do I have new industry relevant prophetic views of the times we live in and the times to come? Am I returning from the shadows to destroy more printers? Well...

No.

I am simply popping in to say hello and THANK YOU to the man, the myth and legend himself Mr. Greg Walters! I must admit, I only just purchased his book (pictured above) recently and was charmed to find that my blog is listed as suggested reading and I am listed as a "Leopard" which if you are familiar with DOTC you will understand, if not... BUY the book!

No really, buy it. Greg's content always has been cutting edge and ahead of the curve while also being quite hilarious, provocative and borderline offensive (at times). All things that drew me to the death of the copier blog in the first place.

Greg is by far one of the (if not THE) greatest minds in MPS and the realm of office imaging professionals in general. If you are currently in and/or are planning to enter the MPS industry, this is a must read. End of story.

As for me, well... I said everything I wanted to about MPS in the content of this blog in posts past and until something new comes along I will not simply write to just meet the expected three posts per month that "professional" bloggers are called to manifest.

When I have content worth sharing, it will pop up. Furthermore, you may see posts from additional authors here should things proceed the way I think they should.

Hoping you are all well and wishing you a happy holiday season!

Music for Healing?

More info > HERE.

We Closed The Loop

From the Telegram and Gazette:

"SOUTHBRIDGE — Expert Laser Services, based in Southbridge, has long been an environmental champion since its inception as "Expert Laser Recycling" in 1990. But, until recently, there has always been a missing link in the recycling chain.

"Our process always made us 'the greenest of the green' when it came to toner cartridge recycling," claims company president Mike Carpentier. "Cartridge cores are routinely turned 8 to 10 times in our system. Most programs—even global manufacturer-based programs—get only a single re-use of cores, then they are shipped off to a landfill."

"Still, like every remanufacturer, we eventually found ourselves having to toss cartridge cores into the trash. There was simply no way to recycle them. Konica Minolta's Clean Planet Recycling Program changed that. They've closed the recycling loop for us. Now we can recycle all major consumables — including toner cartridges, imaging units, waste toner bottles, developer units and drums." 

Read the whole article here.

It's Not Easy Being Green!

Kermit sang that “It’s Not Easy Being Green”. Businesses, homes, organizations, and even countries are discovering that Kermit was right. It’s not easy being green. Does that mean that being green isn’t worth it or worse, is it counterproductive? Well, let’s consider the options.We can make a concerted effort to make our homes, workplaces, and world greener. Or, we can continue to waste and throw away whatever and whenever we choose. Certainly the option to do whatever, whenever, sounds better. It also sounds more American. It sounds more like freedom. It sounds more carefree. Surely this is the correct choice. Not at all, and don’t call me Shirley.

Landfills are growing. The Earth is groaning from waste and decay. The resources we want for our very livelihood are dwindling. We really should make every effort to reduce waste. But Kermit’s right. It’s not easy. After all, if it was easy, wouldn’t everybody be doing it? So, how do we make it easier on ourselves and others? There are thousands of small changes that each of us, businesses and individuals, can do to be greener. The first is to spread the word, not so much with dialogue but with knowledge about actions and techniques that actually work. The verbage out there says that we need to reduce our carbon footprints. 

Great! How?

Well, one way to insure that your business is reducing its footprint is to stop wasting so much in the way of office imaging equipment and supplies. Simply put, start recycling your toner cartridges. Don’t just throw them away. Better yet, don’t return them a local retailer that is going to bulk ship them across the ocean. That’s not recycling. Think about it. You bring 3 cartridges to the local retailer. They are stored there, until the retailer has reached his capacity. Then, the retailer packages them on skids and ships them across to who knows where. This “recycling” procedure is incredibly wasteful too. It uses amazing amounts of shipping fuel, not to mention all of the plastic wrapping around the skids and such, just to move the empty cartridges. How do you avoid that? It’s pretty simple actually. 

Call a company like ours, Expert Laser Services. We will pick up your empty toner cartridges and bring them to our local operation, right here in Southbridge, MA. Wait, that’s not all (I always wanted to say that). You don’t have to pay us a collecting fee. In fact, we will give you credit, for each cartridge, towards your next purchase of our 100% guaranteed quality cartridges.

So basically, you save money on supplies. You save expenses on staff time and effort. Best of all you help save the planet, all at the same time! Just by making one phone call, you have made your business greener. Then, you can sing with Kermit…

            When green is all there is to be

            It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why

            Wonder, I am green and it’ll do fine, it’s beautiful

            And I think it’s what I want to be

He Returns

I am sure many of you (at least those of you who still follow this blog) are surprised to see this post. It has been almost a year since my last one. This is for many reasons. I had decided to take a break from bloging around this time last year and resume the craft within a few months. Around the time I had intended to start again, one of my most beloved friends died in a car crash.

While I won’t go into details, those of you who have lost people very close to you know this is a debilitating experience. By the time I had begun to get my head together months later, I simply had come to the conclusion that I was tired of writing about MPS. Everything I wrote up to that point could be condensed in a short sentence. “Either you are doing it right and succeeding or you are doing it wrong and are failing.

This has not changed and considering the fact that in addition to being my company’s social media manager I am a major account manager with many contract customers, I simply had less time to focus on the blog. Furthermore, the content I created with the destroy your printer contest is timeless and very effective in the sales process as I can drum it up on my smartphone in real life and show my prospects during initial sales meetings.

I simply came to the conclusion that for the time being the blog would remain “asleep”. I suppose I am writing today to let any interested parties know that if all goes right I hope to have some new content up within the year and a few promotional videos based on the lord of the rings type of mythology and a spoof on the Ghostbusters.

Now, you will notice there is a second author on this blog who has yet to post. Bob Chernisky, Jr. the son of our marketing manager also wears multiple hats in this company and is bravely battling through personal struggles in the same way I have while balancing his other responsibilities in the company.

It is our hope to bring life back to this blog in the coming months however I must point out… I will not be driven by the cliche admonition that I should writing three to five posts per month. I will write when I feel inspired and only then.

You see, I accomplished everything I set out to do when I entered B2B social media back in 2009 and I set a standard in managed print services in that respect, one which does not touch the mighty echelons of folks like Greg Walters or Art Post but I never wanted to get that deep in the waters anyway.

I wanted to create something magical and something fun that reminded people that we are human and even in the staunch and ultimately grey atmosphere of B2B industrial workings that we can still find that fun and that magic and use it within such a context to connect with other human beings.

While I did use social media to sell MPS, I don’t need it to do so. That being said, I do want to stay connected and will use this medium as a device for such ends.

Transmuting Failure Into Philanthropy

I had a most unpleasant correspondence over the phone with a prospect today...

Let's call this gentleman "Bret". I found Bret on linkedin. He was listed as a salesman for a large local company of which I thought would be a great candidate for an out-of-the-box approach to prospecting.

I noticed that Bret placed the role of "Philanthropist" before his role as a salesman...

"That is awesome!" I thought to myself as I am currently working on making regular donations to charities and non-profits with the hopes of getting more and more involved with Philanthropy and just generally helping people in need.

However, my idea (which I thought for sure was a good one mind you) how to approach this man failed horribly...

Despite this fact I stand behind my actions as mentioned below....

I thought to myself that Bret's company would likely be a perfect candidate for a managed print services contract and I figured that if I did in fact sign them, I would donate my FULL commission to his non-profit organization which is called Saving Teens In Crisis and is a non-profit that upon reading about, found to be truly awesome.

I called Bret and told him about my company, who we are, what we do and said that I was hoping he could put me in touch with his IT manager so that I might do a free managed print analysis for his company with the knowledge that if we ended up doing business together I would donate all of my commission from sales with his company to the non-profit he runs.

At this point Bret was clearly using intense restraint as he basically accused me of being the absolute worst kind of human being on the planet...

I was shocked, confused and tried to reply as he explained to me that using philanthropy to garner personal gain was a great evil (which I agreed with) as I went on to explain that the motivation for this call was again to donate in full my commissions from business should it transpire between our companies to his non-profit.

He bocked at me and said "yeah that's a nice angle", Click...

In retrospect I can understand what happened  He works in sales and knows there are in fact super low-life, scumbag people who work as sales professionals. I am sure there are in fact people who actually scam non-profits with similar tactics.

I was absolutely horrified, hurt and at a loss for words.

I took twenty minutes to think things over and regroup my mind and spirit. I then texted an explanation to him as well as a justification for my approach (which I stand behind because my intent was fully in the right place) and notified him that while I understand we will likely never do business together I was going to donate to his non-profit as a sign of good faith, imploring him with many words to give me the benefit of the doubt and listen to me as a human being rather than a salesman.

I do not doubt that he will likely never speak to me again however, I promptly donated to his organization through their website and volunteered to donate time as well if needed (as I had planed on doing anyway before this debacle occurred).

So as a believer in emotional alchemy, I sat and pondered all that had just transpired and meditated on how I could transmute these negative emotions and actions into gold....

This is what I came up with:

I have decided that from here on out I will donate 100% of my commissions from managed print services contracts signed with non-profits/charities (who do not discriminate against any social groups of any kind) to said non-profit/charity.

While this was a highly negative experience it has lead to what I believe is an answer to how I can help more people which is something I have been pondering as of late.

It is my hope that this post will serve as both a reminder of caution in how one approaches a prospect (even when the intentions are good) and also as a catalyst for a seed which will grow into financial benefits for multiple non-profits and charities.

Please share this post if you have read it and thank you for reading. 

Qabalistic Sales

The above diagram is the tree of life, taken from the Jewish mystical tradition of Qabalah. The original use of the diagram was to help one "know thyself" and unite with God via the meditation and visualization of different aspects of God as they divide into the ten sephirot laid over three pillars connected by twenty two paths. 

In the above presentation of the tree, you will notice that I have transposed my own approach to the sales process in place of the traditional God names associated with each Sephirot.

While gazing upon the tree one day, I began to imagine the tree with the left pillar (severity), the middle pillar (mildness) and the right pillar (mercy) as a template for the sales process. Over the past two years, I have developed my own style of sales which being mostly the product of psychospiritual introspection, found the tree would make for a perfect visual representation of my approach.

 I believe that sales is first and foremost a game of intentions rather than one of numbers. It is this distinction within my perspective however, that has allowed me to win within the numbers game that sales is...

Via the combination of creative visualization, cold calling, sigilization, emotional alchemical marketing and a continued drive to serve others with the intent of helping and improving the lives of other human beings, I have been able to sign two companies that have eluded my sales team for over twenty years over the course of a one week period.

What am I doing differently? 

I am looking at the sales process as a psychological and spiritual/emotional pursuit rather than that of a financial goal. It is not the commission or the size of the sale that I focus on, but rather how well the customer is being taken care of. 

By showing a level compassion inherent within my elevator pitch, daily cold call routine and mannerisms when in a live meeting, I have found that in light of hard work based upon an intent of love projected towards prospects, I am able to naturally attract business to my client base.

I hope that this graphic is of some use to your own endeavors.

Sigilize For Sales Success!

Sigils are a tool used for bending reality, that is to say, increasing the probability of a statement of intent (desire) to manifest.

I suspect that I have peaked the interest of those of you who work in sales and marketing and for good reason. Bending reality (also known as magick) is an art form which heavily parallels modern marketing and sales psychology/practice.

The technique of sigilzation which I use for my own sales endeavors is a take on artist and magician Austin Osman Spares version of said craft.

That is to say that by way of a created symbol, made from the letters of a written statement of intent, one advertises a desire to their own subconscious mind with the intent of changing ones own psychology to alter ones decisions throughout the day in a way which will increase the probability of ones success in achieving said desire.

It should be obvious to those of you who work in advertising that sigils are almost synonymous with logos. Indeed, it has been stated that logos are simply viral corporate sigils which work heavily upon the subconscious mind of consumers on a daily basis.

From the fourth article linked above:

  

In “Pop Magic!” – Morrison’s manifesto on how to be a modern magician – the author writes about the power of viral sigils. He writes, “The viral sigil also known as the BRAND or LOGO is not of recent development (see ”Christianity,” “the Nazis” and any flag of any nation) but has become an inescapable global phenomenon in recent years.” He further goes on to write, “The McDonald’s Golden Arches, the Nike swoosh and the Virgin autograph are all corporate viral sigils.”

More Examples: Coca-Cola, Burger King, Disney, Pepsi.

I am willing to bet that you are able to vividly recall what each of the logos of the aforementioned companies look like in your minds eye. I am also willing to bet they produced very specific emotions when thought of.

The difference between spares techniques of sigilization and that of corporations like those mentioned above, is that those done in the style of spare are used by the individual person to change their world via crafting their own subconscious feedback where the viral corporate sigils mentioned above, are made with the intent of  manipulating the masses subconscious with a desire based upon that corporations intent.

Basically, corporate logos are long-term attempts of a small group of people to manipulate the decisions of people en mass, where spares work is focused on an individual using their own personal symbology to subconsciously affect change within themselves and by extension, the world as it relates to them and their needs.

As there has been much written on modern sigilization techniques and while I could write my own guide, I would like to point interested parties to an advertising professional and blogger who has written an exquisite guide that far transcends the need for any additional perspectives on such matters (at least from my point of view) which can be found here. 

I would also advise further research on Grant Morrison's (the biggest name in comics today) work and perspectives regarding sigils, from one article Grant states:

Corporate sigils are super-breeders.They attack unbranded imaginative space.They invade Red Square, they infest the cranky streets of Tibet, they etch themselves into hairstyles. They breed across clothing, turning people into advertising hoardings. They are a very powerful development in the history of sigil magic, which dates back to the first bison drawn on the first cave wall.
The logo or brand, like any sigil, is a condensation, a compressed, symbolic summoning up of the world of desire which the corporation intends to represent. The logo is the only visible sign of the corporate intelligence seething behind it. Walt Disney died long ago but his sigil, that familiar, cartoonish signature, persists, carrying its own vast weight of meanings, associations, nostalgia and significance. People are born and grow up to become Disney executives, mouthing jargon and the credo of a living corporate entity. Walt Disney the man is long dead and frozen (or so folkmyth would have it) but Disney, the immense invisible corporate egregore persists.

The thing about many of the corporations who have been using this technology for so long is that they don't really want these ideas available to the public. The archetypical salesmen of the world would prefer you don't open your mind and express your will so much as they hope for you to gladly consume theirs.

The intent of this article is to provide knowledge and information of this technology so that you can as a customer/consumer be aware of what kinds of subtle attacks happen to you on a daily basis and how you can flip the script on such attacks and begin to craft your reality with your own symbolic expressions of self.

If these ideas resonate with you I would invite you to consider furthering your studies to include the concept of the hypersigil which is essentially a story or work of art which by way of its fictional universe creates changes in the authors reality.

Grant Morrison's comic series "The Invisibles" is an example of a hypersigil. In this tradition, I have also created a comic series based around my "Destroy Your Printer Contest" which acts as a hypersigil to some extent and can be found here.

Great Cause, PLEASE HELP If You Can.

The text below is from a dear friends blog (Mark Schaefer of GROW) .

Please read and then head over to his blog for the full story and consider helping if you are able.

Thank You!

In the spirit of the holiday season, I would like to tell you a little Christmas story.

For the past three years, I’ve mentored a bright young boy named Elijah.  Elijah is growing up in small, crowded house with his three brothers and a sister (all by different fathers — none of them are around). There is also an unrelated 12-month-old baby from another unwed mother being raised in this household.

I started working with Elijah through an organization called Amachi, which pairs adult role models with at-risk kids who have at least one parent in prison. Elijah’s father was murdered when he was two.  His mother was serving several years in a federal penitentiary when I became involved with the family.

Elijah is fortunate in many ways. He is being raised in a loving home by his grandmother. His clothes are always clean and he’s never hungry. His grandmother Patsy suffers from a variety of health problems but manages to get those kids to school every day. She often works until 2 in the morning cooking and cleaning and is almost always exhausted.  When I asked her where she would want to go on a vacation some day, she said it would not matter because all she would do is sleep. In my book, she is a true hero...

Read the whole post here.

Destroy Your Printer (A Web Comic) Issue #5

Destroy Your Printer (A Web Comic) Issue #4