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Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant

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Learning something new... - Happy Columbus Day!

10-12-09
Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant

My owner is a marketing & business consultant in San Diego.This is part of my "Learning something new...." history series using United States postage stamps as our history book.

To read previous posts in this series, simply click here.

We already learned about Christopher Columbus and some not-so-virtuous things that generally are not known. One of the comments that post received was from Carole Provenzale:

"Goodness, Russel, I knew about Native Americans but not about the Slavery or epedemic he and his men spread.  I believe our history books need to be updated and include some of this information!"

Funny you should bring this up. There are several stories on the Internet and in the newspaper about how today's children are being taught about the not-so-virtuous actions of Christopher Columbus and others of the world's great historical figures.

Since we're already learned about Christopher Columbus, let's spend Columbus Day learning about the first commemorative stamps issued by the United States Postal Service because it has everything to do with Columbus Day. Previous to this issue, United States postage stamps featured people or things, but none of  the 229 stamps issued from 1847 to 1893 commemorated an event.

We all know that Columbus is given credit for discovering the New World in 1492 when he "sailed the ocean blue," and to commemorate the 400th anniversary of that event, Chicago beat out New York City, Washington D.C., and St. Louis for the honor of hosting the World's Columbian Exposition, also known now as the Chicago World's Fair or the Chicago Columbian Exposition.

The Exposition covered 630 acres, and over 27 million people attended, making it in scale the largest world's fair, and in attendance, by far the most successful world's fair. The fairgrounds were designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted, and the Exposition proved to the world that Chicago had risen anew from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Although the Exposition was dedicated on October 21, 1892, it did not open to the public until May 1, 1893, and continued through
October 30, 1893, making it one of the longest running world's fairs.

Other interesting facts about the Exposition:

  1. Inspired L. Frank Baum's Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz
  2. Inspired Walt Disney's vision of Disneyland
  3. Construction and operation of the Exposition brought much needed money to Chicago at a time when the country was in the midst of a recession.
  4. Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr., was assassinated two days before the closing, and closing ceremonies were canceled in favor of a public memorial service.
  5. Only two buildings from the Exposition still stand where they were built: the Palace of Fine Arts and the World's Congress Auxiliary Building. The Palace of Fine Arts is now the Museum of Science and Industry, and the World's Congress Auxiliary Building is now the Art Institute of Chicago.
  6. Three other buildings survived the Exposition:
    The Norway Pavilion, preserved at the Little Norway Museum in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin
    The Main State Building, which was moved to Poland Spring, Maine
    The Dutch House, which was moved to Brookline, Massachusetts
  7. Much of the fair grounds were destroyed by a fire in July 1894.
  8. Electricity was a major theme at the Exposition, with major exhibits by General Electric (backed by Thomas Edison and J. P. Morgan), Westinghouse (backed by Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse), and Western Electric. Westinghouse won the bid to light the Exposition, which marked the beginning of the electrical revolution.
  9. The first Ferris WheelThe Exposition introduced the first Ferris Wheel, built by George Ferris. It was 264 feet high and had 36 cars, each of which could hold 60 people. The Ferris Wheel was moved to St. Louis for the 1904 World's Fair.
  10. The term "midway" comes from the Exposition's Midway Plaisance where "sideshows" played daily, including John Phillip Sousa's marching band.
  11. The Zoopraxographical Hall was the first commercial movie theater.
  12. The "Street in Cairo" featured Little Egypt, who introduced America to the "hootchy-kootchy" belly dance.
  13. Buffalo Bill Cody was denied a Wild West Exhibit at the Exposition, so he set up his show at the edge of the Exposition, drawing many people away from the Exposition itself.
  14. The John Bull locomotive, 62 years old at the time, and the first locomotive acquired by the Smithsonian Institution, ran under its own power from Washington D.C. to Chicago, and back. In 1981 it was the oldest surviving operable steam locomotive in the world when it ran under its own power again.
  15. Food firsts and introductions at the Exposition: Cracker Jacks, Juicy Fruit gum, Quaker Oats, Cream of Wheat, Shredded Wheat, Aunt Jemima pancake mix, the hamburger.

 

Following are some historical items from the Exposition, as well as a look at the sixteen stamps that made up the United States Columbian Exposition commemorative issue.

Entry ticket to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition:

Entry ticket to the World's Columbian Exposition

 

Official Souvenir Postal Card from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition:

Souvenir Postal Card from the World's Columbian Exposition

 

Card announcing the nation's first commemorative stamps:

World's Columbia Exposition commemorative postcard

 

Following is a slide show of the 16 stamps issued by the United States Postal Service as the 1893 Columbian Exposition commemorative issue. If the slide show doesn't work on your computer, simply click on "View All Images" to watch it at slide.com.

HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY!

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

  1. After 54 years, I now know my personality type, courtesy of Margaret Rome
  2. My Top 10 marketing tips
  3. Life 101: You ARE going to die!
  4. Just for the *&^%$#@ of it
  5. Learning something new.... - Alexander Hamilton
  6. Here are all the entries in the ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest
  7. The U.S. Supreme Court gets its feet wet with the Establishment Clause
  8. Guerrilla Marketing: How do you set the right price for your services?
  9. How would you like an $11,000 fine for blogging? - Featured
  10. Learning something new.... - Winfield Scott
  11. Learn to think like your prospects
  12. Speechless Sunday: The power of flowers
  13. A simple ten-question psychological profile test
  14. Speechless Sunday at the San Diego Zoo: Spread those wings!
  15. Persistency and consistency

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

  1. How to get 500 points with your ActiveRain success story
  2. Free help for Active Rain newbies
  3. 10 ways to get a featured post at ActiveRain
  4. How to keep people from reading your Active Rain blog
  5. How do you get people to comment on your blog?
  6. Using Active Rain more effectively by finding Power Partners
  7. Quit putting huge, gigantic, monster pictures in your blog. Now! (Help on resizing them)
  8. Using YouTube videos without slowing down page loading
  9. How to use the Active Rain system more efficiently

Subscribe to my blog

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

12 Comments
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My Top 10 marketing tips

10-11-09
Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant

My owner is a marketing & business consultant in San Diego.I had a Client ask me this week what my Top 10 marketing tips are.

I've never put together such a list because it would depend on the industry, on where the business was in its life cycle, the marketing budget, the expertise of the person owning the business, the goals of the business owner, and many more subjective variables.

Nonetheless, I took it upon myself to sit down to see if I could come up with a general Top 10 that might fit any business, and here they are, in no particular order:

  1. Market yourself, in good times and bad, but especially in bad times. This means that you have to properly capitalize your company because some of the worst times that a company will go through are those first few days, weeks, months, and possibly years in business. If you want to be in it for the long term, you have to be able to survive the short term.
  2. Do whatever works, as long as it is legal and meets your own moral and ethical standards. Some people don't want to be pushy like a used car salesman, but if it works, why not? Some people don't want to be the low-cost leader like Wal-Mart, but if it works, why not?
  3. Create your unique selling point that will help you develop your niche market. This means that you might actually have to think about what you want to accomplish with your business, other than make money, of course.
  4. Create two commercials, a presentation, and an infomercial. Your two commercials will be 30-second and 60-second commercials. Your presentation will be five minutes, and your infomercial will be 30-minutes. This allows you to meet the needs of any person or group asking "What do you do?"
  5. Ooops. Wrong kind of track. SorryTrack everything you do. Everything! This means that you might need to either learn how to use Excel or hire someone who does. Perhaps you have a child who knows Excel or has the innate child computer ability to pick it up very quickly. For my Clients who are Realtors, I advise them to track everything about their open houses -- holiday weekend, weather, time, traffic, television competition, outdoor competition, etc. I do that because I want them to be in it for the long term, so next year when they are considering an open house to compete against the Chargers, or Padres, or the Over the Line tournament, or whatever, they'll have a good sense of whether it is worthwhile or not. After four or five years, you'll have a great indication of what works and what doesn't work, regardless of what you're doing.
  6. Be persistent and consistent. This is probably the most difficult thing for people to do, especially those who are self-employed because one of the reasons why they chose to become self-employed was because they got tired of the same old, same old in the office every day. It's that same old, same old that made the office and the business work efficiently, and it's the same with your business. Whatever you choose to do, do it persistently and consistently.
  7. Never assume you are the best. Prove it to each and every Client. This comes right back to being persistent and consistent. If you prove it each and every time, it will become a habit.
  8. Jane GrantPeople prefer buying from people, not automatons or businesses. This means that you need to work on your speech and actions so that you can converse appropriately with prospective Clients. One of the reasons why I have such a wide variety of interests is because I want to be able to talk about anything with anyone. I don't have to be an expert; I just have to know what's going on in the world around me. That world is my world.
  9. Listen to your Clients. Ask them about their needs, wants, and goals. And then listen! Once they are finished talking and you are finished listening, you can explain how you can help them obtain those needs, wants, and goals.
  10. Find your Power Partners. That is, surround yourself with people who can help you. Your Power Partners probably have the same target audience as you do -- for Realtors, that would be people buying a home. Power Partners, then, would include roofing contractors, heating and cooling professionals, electricians, plumbers, door and window installers, painters, etc. To find your Power Partners, all you have to do is decide whom you would call to work on your own house. Would you decide based on price? Proximity? Time frame? How big the Yellow Page ad is? Referrals from friends? Your Power Partners know as much about your business as you do about theirs, and reciprocal referrals are plentiful.

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

  1. Life 101: You ARE going to die!
  2. Just for the *&^%$#@ of it
  3. Learning something new.... - Alexander Hamilton
  4. Here are all the entries in the ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest
  5. The U.S. Supreme Court gets its feet wet with the Establishment Clause
  6. Guerrilla Marketing: How do you set the right price for your services?
  7. How would you like an $11,000 fine for blogging? - Featured
  8. Learning something new.... - Winfield Scott
  9. Learn to think like your prospects
  10. Speechless Sunday: The power of flowers
  11. A simple ten-question psychological profile test
  12. Speechless Sunday at the San Diego Zoo: Spread those wings!
  13. Persistency and consistency
  14. Learning something new.... - Daniel Webster
  15. Do you have some spare time? Try updating your contact information

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

  1. How to get 500 points with your ActiveRain success story
  2. Free help for Active Rain newbies
  3. 10 ways to get a featured post at ActiveRain
  4. How to keep people from reading your Active Rain blog
  5. How do you get people to comment on your blog?
  6. Using Active Rain more effectively by finding Power Partners
  7. Quit putting huge, gigantic, monster pictures in your blog. Now! (Help on resizing them)
  8. Using YouTube videos without slowing down page loading
  9. How to use the Active Rain system more efficiently

Subscribe to my blog

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

71 Comments
Blog_tag

Learning something new... - Alexander Hamilton

10-08-09
Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant

My owner is a marketing & business consultant in San Diego.This is part of my "Learning something new...." history series using United States postage stamps as our history book.

To read previous posts in this series, simply click here.

The next stamp in our history book is the 30¢ denomination featuring Alexander Hamilton 
(1755-1804), issued in 1870:

Scot #154, Alexander Hamilton

Along with being a Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton founded the Bank of New York in 1784 and was the first United States Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington. He was one of America's first Constitutional lawyers and co-wrote the Federalist Papers with James Madinson and John Jay. As a New Yorker, he was a driving force behind the Philadelphia Convention, now known as the Constitutional Convention, which resulted in the Constitution of the United States of America as we know it. However, he was the only New Yorker to sign the Constitution.

Interestingly, historians are not sure about his birth date although it seems that a majority now say that he was born in 1755. Not knowing the birth year of such a historically significant person certainly leads one to wonder about "facts" about other leading figures in history, such as "facts" supposedly contained in The Bible.

Alexander HamiltonOther interesting facts about Alexander Hamilton:

  1. When asked his age, he was never definitive.
  2. Graduated from King's College, now Columbia University.
  3. Served as General George Washington's Chief of Staff during the Revolutionary War.
  4. Many historians now believe that Hamilton had homosexual feelings and/or relationships with the Marquis de Lafayette and his good friend John Laurens.
  5. During the Constitutional Convention, he was considered a monarchist because of his support for having a President and Senators who were elected but served for life.
  6. Although he wasn't totally satisfied with the Constitution, he signed it because it was a significant improvement upon the Articles of Confederation.
  7. Hamilton also had a significant role in founding the United States Mint and the United States Coast Guard, then known as the Revenue Cutter Service.
  8. He convinced Congress to pass a whiskey tax which led to the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794.
  9. Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel with Vice-President Aaron Burr. The two of them had never gotten along because of their widely divergent political views.
  10. Hamilton was a proponent of a strong Federal government and was instrumental in establishing a national bank, a controversial decision that was affirmed by the Supreme Court and resulted in the Supreme Court's doctrine of implied powers which rules to this day.
  11. At various times, Hamilton's portrait has been on the $2, $5, $10, and $50 currencies.
  12. Hamilton's second wife founded the New York Orphan Asylum Society, New York's first private orphanage.
  13. As early as the Fall of 1781, Hamilton supported government intervention in favor of business. Hmmmmmm......
  14. The main classroom building for the humanities at Columbia University is named Hamilton Hall, also the name of the main administration building at the United States Coast Guard Academy

__________
Sources:

  1. "The Young Hamilton: A Biography," by James Flexner
  2. "Was Alexander Hamilton a Christian Statesman?", by Douglas Adair and Marvin Harvey
  3. "Age of Federalism," by Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick
  4. "Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America," by Thomas Fleming
  5. "Alexander Hamilton," by Broadus Mitchell
  6. "Alexander Hamilton and the Founding of the Nation," by Richard Morris, ed.
  7. "The Federalist Papers," by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
  8. Wikipedia
  9. Arago: People, Postage, and the Post
  10. 1847USA: Knowledge is Power

 

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

  1. Here are all the entries in the ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest
  2. The U.S. Supreme Court gets its feet wet with the Establishment Clause
  3. Guerrilla Marketing: How do you set the right price for your services?
  4. How would you like an $11,000 fine for blogging? - Featured
  5. Learning something new.... - Winfield Scott
  6. Learn to think like your prospects
  7. Speechless Sunday: The power of flowers
  8. A simple ten-question psychological profile test
  9. Speechless Sunday at the San Diego Zoo: Spread those wings!
  10. Persistency and consistency
  11. Learning something new.... - Daniel Webster
  12. Do you have some spare time? Try updating your contact information
  13. Clients' morning at the San Diego Zoo
  14. Look what I just did!
  15. Here they are Folks! The winners of the ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest!

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

  1. How to get 500 points with your ActiveRain success story
  2. Free help for Active Rain newbies
  3. 10 ways to get a featured post at ActiveRain
  4. How to keep people from reading your Active Rain blog
  5. How do you get people to comment on your blog?
  6. Using Active Rain more effectively by finding Power Partners
  7. Quit putting huge, gigantic, monster pictures in your blog. Now! (Help on resizing them)
  8. Using YouTube videos without slowing down page loading
  9. How to use the Active Rain system more efficiently

Subscribe to my blog

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

6 Comments
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Here are all the entries in the recent ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest

10-08-09
Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant

My owner is a marketing & business consultant in San Diego.I would like to thank everyone again for participating in the ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest.

To see the Finalists and the winners, click here.

After trying many eBook software programs, including paying for a couple of them, I didn't find one that I was happy with.

The free ones were either crippleware, spyware, annoyware, bloatware, or buggy, and the two that I paid for didn't do what they claimed to do and certainly were not easy to set up, to use to create an eBook, or to use the end product.

Thus, I'm back to Adobe Acrobat.

So here are all the entries that I could find from the contest. Look through them because I'll bet that many of them can give you some ideas on new and innovative things to do with your own marketing that might set you apart from your competition.

Interestingly, I was relying on the two groups -- Inspired by Nature and Guerrilla Marketing Tactics -- to go back and retrieve all the entries, but it turns out that apparently groups are limited to ten pages, so there is the possibility that some entries are not there. In fact, I believe eight entries are missing, so if you don't see yours, let me know and I'll add it in.

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

  1. The U.S. Supreme Court gets its feet wet with the Establishment Clause
  2. Guerrilla Marketing: How do you set the right price for your services?
  3. How would you like an $11,000 fine for blogging? - Featured
  4. Learning something new.... - Winfield Scott
  5. Learn to think like your prospects
  6. Speechless Sunday: The power of flowers
  7. A simple ten-question psychological profile test
  8. Speechless Sunday at the San Diego Zoo: Spread those wings!
  9. Persistency and consistency
  10. Learning something new.... - Daniel Webster
  11. Do you have some spare time? Try updating your contact information
  12. Clients' morning at the San Diego Zoo
  13. Look what I just did!
  14. Here they are Folks! The winners of the ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest!
  15. Marketing is just like politicking but you don't have to kiss lots of babies

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

  1. How to get 500 points with your ActiveRain success story
  2. Free help for Active Rain newbies
  3. 10 ways to get a featured post at ActiveRain
  4. How to keep people from reading your Active Rain blog
  5. How do you get people to comment on your blog?
  6. Using Active Rain more effectively by finding Power Partners
  7. Quit putting huge, gigantic, monster pictures in your blog. Now! (Help on resizing them)
  8. Using YouTube videos without slowing down page loading
  9. How to use the Active Rain system more efficiently

Subscribe to my blog

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

11 Comments
Blog_tag

The U.S. Supreme Court gets its feet wet with the Establishment Clause

10-08-09
Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant

My owner is a marketing & business consultant in San Diego.Many of you might have heard about the United States Supreme Court weighing in on the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution as it might apply to a large cross in the Mojave National Preserve.

The cross was built after World War I to honor the fallen soldiers. Since a cross is internationally recognized as a symbol of Christianity, and since I'm sure more than just Christian soldiers died in World War I, I've never understood why a Christian cross was used to honor all soldiers. If I remember correctly, the military uses boots, rifle, and a helmet to honor its fallen, which seems much more fitting for soldiers of all religions, or no religion.

Personally, I like the Establishment Clause because I really don't want to live in a religious theocracy like Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and others. I love my religious friends, and if they want to build a huge cross on their land, as long as it meets the zoning requirements, go for it. But when any religious symbol shows up on public land, to the exclusion of all other religious symbols, I do have a problem with that.

In the case of the Mojave cross, a group wanted to build a Muslim shrine near it but was refused by the National Park Service, which resulted in the lawsuit.

Here in San Diego, we have our own version of the Mojave cross called the Mount Soledad cross.

Mount Soledad cross in San Diego

The land used to be city land until a lawsuit resulted in the City giving just the small piece of land that the cross actually sits on to a private veterans group. Courts found that to be an end-run around the Constitution and voided it. Since 1994, San Diego citizens have voted several times on what to do with the Mount Soledad cross, and each time the Court found the decision to be less than satisfactory.

Finally, a few years ago, a couple of our Congressional representatives got legislation passed transferring the city land to the federal government, which doesn't really resolve the issue with the Establishment Clause and the separate of church and state. All it does is make it a federal issue instead of a city issue, a good thing since the City of San Diego cannot afford the legal fees, what with a $2 billion pension deficit and an annual budget deficit now over $200 million.

The end-run tactics to save the Mojave cross are exactly the same as those used to save the Mount Soldedad cross, so it might be interesting to hear how the United States Supreme Court rules next Spring.

Of course, there is a very easy solution to this problem: Simply remove the cross arms and make it a memorial obelisk, similar to the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.

Those are my thoughts, and my solution, and I'm sticking with them. For views of forever from the top of Mount Soledad, click here.

 

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

  1. Guerrilla Marketing: How do you set the right price for your services?
  2. How would you like an $11,000 fine for blogging? - Featured
  3. Learning something new.... - Winfield Scott
  4. Learn to think like your prospects
  5. Speechless Sunday: The power of flowers
  6. A simple ten-question psychological profile test
  7. Speechless Sunday at the San Diego Zoo: Spread those wings!
  8. Persistency and consistency
  9. Learning something new.... - Daniel Webster
  10. Do you have some spare time? Try updating your contact information
  11. Clients' morning at the San Diego Zoo
  12. Look what I just did!
  13. Here they are Folks! The winners of the ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest!
  14. Marketing is just like politicking but you don't have to kiss lots of babies
  15. Don't have time to get all your weekly blogs done but still need (want) the points?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

  1. How to get 500 points with your ActiveRain success story
  2. Free help for Active Rain newbies
  3. 10 ways to get a featured post at ActiveRain
  4. How to keep people from reading your Active Rain blog
  5. How do you get people to comment on your blog?
  6. Using Active Rain more effectively by finding Power Partners
  7. Quit putting huge, gigantic, monster pictures in your blog. Now! (Help on resizing them)
  8. Using YouTube videos without slowing down page loading
  9. How to use the Active Rain system more efficiently

Subscribe to my blog

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

15 Comments