i’m watching your video right now… (been looking forward to seeing it)

you can also identify writers from online publications too!
Very good website.

I want to thank you for the last two weeks.

I can’t pinpoint the one thing that’s been the most important but do know that I’ve been following you for years and gotten so much from your free reports and Constraint Interviews.

Since you started this dialogue, I’ve gone back and read the Attention Age stuff and downloaded the Maven report for the first time.

This is the first time I’ve ever commented on a blog like this so thanks for motivating me over that hurdle.

I wanted to share with you and everyone that I’ve found it really easy to collect ideas, comments, statistics, social proof and testimonials by doing surveys before and simple evaluations after I work with either individuals or groups.

The last few years I’ve been directing plays at a small Catholic All Girls High School here in Savannah, GA.

And because I’m also a writer and a copywriter and a problem solver, when I see something that doesn’t make sense I want to do something about it.

I kept hearing from the seniors that they got stressed out and really stuck when they had to write simple essays. Which seemed odd. So I started asking questions and doing simple surveys to see what they meant and then ask why they thought this was so.

Even with only 37, six question surveys I learned a lot quickly, asked follow up questions like you are doing with us and after asking teachers if the kids answers were true, and why the teachers thought they were, I was able to see 10 big problems they were having and why they were having them.

So I put a few ideas together and started testing them in a couple of classes. And each time, I’d learn how my material worked but more important, I’d do a simple evaluation after where I asked if something was helpful, let them answer “yes, no or sorta” and then ask “If yes or sorta, Why?”

And they’d say why and I’d go home and learn even more. And kept tweaking until I had set of essay planning questions that worked really fast and solved most of the problems.

I know this is getting long but I just wanted to share how easy it was to get the info. I needed to get clear on the problem, make up a first stab at a solution and keep refining it until I created a little book for teachers and teens to work with.

And I did it mostly using all the direct response stuff I’ve learned from you and Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer and John Carlton over the last 9 years.

Any one of us who’s been reading this blog and the comments the last week can do this. It’s easy. Especially if you do it in a place or niche where you have access to the people you want to help. In my case, teachers and students.

I even created a little free blog a year ago and then got too busy to go back to it but it’s still there and this conversation you’ve been having with us has made me see the value of a conversation on a blog.

For anyone interested, especially if you have kids who don’t like to plan, write and edit essays and papers, take a look.

http://www.GradeRaisingEssayWritingTips.wordpress.com

I’ve even got 15 testimonials, all collected from the people who tested it out over a couple of years. All I did was ask for them when something worked and they were happy and grateful. Sometimes I tape recorded them, sometimes they wrote stuff on evaluations sometimes they just said something and I asked if they’d mind if I used that for a quote.

When we discovered it raised grades, I added that to the title.

Obviously, I have a lot to say but I just want to let everyone know that this is all doable, no matter what your market is.

Thanks again Rich for all of this and to everyone for your comments.

I’ll explain more when I’m in front of a computer.