Marketing Question

“How Do I Sell My Stuff?”

My "stuff" is like a Measles Vaccination. The government requires all parents to compel their children to consume this product. The government used to promote Brand A, which in some respects is similar to my brand. Over time, Lobbyists for Brand B have pressured government to compel consumption of Brand B. Court decisions in the early 1960's have banned Brand A.

I am passionately opposed to government compulsory consumption laws, even if the government required consumption of my brand. On religious grounds, I believe people should be free to consume or not consume any brand of their choice or no brand at all. Opposing coercion through threats of force makes me a "pacifist." Opposing even government coercion of every kind makes me an "anarchist."

This makes it much more difficult for me to sell my stuff: people have already been forced to pay for my competitor's stuff. Numerous studies have shown that Brand A helps people more than Brand B. A large percentage of Americans are realizing that they have been harmed, and their children are being harmed by my competitor's stuff, but they say they "can't afford" to buy my stuff, even if they agree it might be better.

In 2010-11, Americans spent $632 billion on this stuff. In 2013, parents purchased the government's brand of my stuff for 50.1 million children. Parents will buy other competitors' brands for 5.2 million more.

In my opinion, anyone born after 1957 was harmed by the government's subsidized brand. I guarantee that if they purchase my stuff, they will experience

“the most profound, beneficial, massive, and lasting
personal transformation of your entire life”

Initially, all I want is enough clients to help me pay the rent, and keep my credit cards current. About $2500/mo would make be very, very happy right now.

My mother was an Distributor of this stuff for 30 years. My first job after college was in the Distribution of this stuff. I got involved with other parents who were consuming a form of Brand A, even though it was illegal in California at the time. I went to court on numerous occasions with parents who were charged with contributing to the delinquency of their minor children for refusing to consume the Government's approved brand of stuff, and consuming an illegal brand. Their kids were demonstrably better off than kids who were compelled to consume the government's brand. So I began studying law to become an attorney to defend such parents against government's compulsory consumption laws.

By the time I passed the California Bar Exam, laws against consuming brands not subsidized by the government had been relaxed. But by this time I had also become convinced that all government coercion was wrong. Technically this made me an "anarchist," and a federal court in Los Angeles ruled that I could not be given a license to practice law, even though I was completely qualified. My case was argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco by a team of attorneys who helped me "pro bono" (that is, free for me, "for the good of the public"). My Dream Team included the current Dean of the Law School at the University of California,  Irvine, two of the authors of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, passed by Congress during the Clinton Administration, and a former California State Supreme Court Justice. They lost. The United States Supreme Court would not hear my appeal. So I am not a lawyer.

I rented a 12-room house in a bad part of town and put the word on the street than anyone who was a homeless victim of the government-compelled product could stay in my extra rooms until they saved up first- and last-month's rent on a place of their own. I had an average 19 homeless people in my home 24-7, for the better part of a decade, until my father got lung cancer. After being his caregiver, I moved to Missouri to take care of my mother, who had been crippled by a virulent case of pneumonia and some strange blood disease. Then our home was destroyed by a tornado. My mother was taken by helicopter to a regional hospital, and returned to my care on a feeding tube. For the last three years of her life, I was her full-time caregiver, and except when she was admitted to the hospital, I never got more than 90 minutes of sleep at a time, as I was required to turn her over in bed every few hours, plus tend to the feeding tube pump and her other needs. Her funeral was yesterday (May 3, 2015).

During these years, I have had no income, and have burned through several credit cards. I want to sell my stuff, and since I repudiate all government coercion, I need to make my stuff "sizzle."

I want to sell my stuff to people high school age and older who realize that their government-compelled consumption of my competitor's product has stunted their moral and intellectual growth.

I have incorporated my business as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization so that I can raise tax-deductible donations and provide "scholarships" for those who cannot afford to buy the government's compelled brand and my brand as well.

Colonial American One-Room Schoolhouse 2.0

That's the first time I've ever typed out that phrase. Just came to me.

I'm selling the education that government required 400 years ago.

Sort of.

I probably would have been put to death 400 years ago because I'm an anarchist. My brand of non-coercion and proposed abolition of the machinery of compulsion ("the State") would have been anathema in centuries past (it is still controversial enough to bar me from any government job, including public school teacher. I would not be allowed to become a Naturalized American Citizen had I been born in a foreign country.)

But there is a core similarity between my program and the one compelled by every government 400 years ago.

My education program is based on the Bible.

The entire concept of "public schools" was created by Bible-believing Christians in order to make sure every citizen could read the Bible. [Skip the evidence.] One of the first public school laws in America is known today as "That Old Deluder Satan Act" because it began with these words:

It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so that at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted...; and to the end that learning may not be buried in the grave of our forefathers, in church and commonwealth.... It is therefore ordered that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to fifty households shall forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general....
"The Old Deluder Satan Act," Massachusetts, 1647

The 1636 rules of Harvard declared:

Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17.3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of Him (Prov. 2, 3). Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein

The 1690 Connecticut law declared:

This [legislature] observing that... there are many persons unable to read the English tongue and thereby incapable to read the holy Word of God or the good laws of this colony... it is ordered that all parents and masters shall cause their respective children and servants, as they are capable, to be taught to read distinctly the English tongue.[

In the early 1960's, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the Bible* from public schools, along with voluntary prayer. One of the Justices who concurred in this secularization was honest enough to admit that removing religion from public schools was directly counter to the intentions of America's Founders:

Religion was once deemed to be a function of the public school system. The Northwest Ordinance, which antedated the First Amendment, provided in Article III that
"Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."

Many territories, when they applied for admission to the union. repeated those words verbatim in their state constitutions. Nebraska in 1875 was the last state to copy these words into their constitution.

The Government today prevents students from being taught the Bible, "religion, morality, and knowledge." Every single person who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution would say that secular schools are a threat to "good government and the happiness of mankind," and a government that imposes secularism on the people should be "abolished," just as they abolished the British government over the colonies for offenses far less serious.

By skipping "the 3 R's," twelve years of colonial American education, covering "religion, morality, and knowledge" can be covered in just 12 months by reading through the entire Bible and four other works which are among the most important works in the history of western civilization, listening to audio lessons on the commute to work and back home in the evening, 20 minutes each way. Then each week attend a live Q&A webinar for laser coaching and clarification.

Curriculum

1. The Bible: The Most Important Book in the History of the Human Race
  • No other book has inspired the building of more hospitals, schools, universities, or orphanages.
  • No other book has inspired more lasting works of art.
  • No other book has raised the standard of living of more people.
  • No other book has influenced more codes of law in more Western nations.
  • No other book from any other world religion (Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, etc.) even makes the claim that its every word was breathed out by a personal God (who is not Himself part of the Creation), through human instruments He created to perfectly write the words God intended them to write for our benefit.
  • No other book has made a greater contribution to the building of "Western Civilization."
  • No other book has inspired more symphonies, oratorios, cantatas, or other enduring musical works.
  • No other book has brought more liberty, prosperity, and virtue to the world.
  • No other book has caused more of its most faithful readers to be arrested and executed.
    Like Jesus.

* When I say the government "banned the Bible" from public schools, I mean they prohibited teachers from teaching the Scriptures the way Jesus would teach them. Teachers are not prohibited from teaching students that the Bible is a dry, dusty, archaic, primitive, irrelevant historical artifact.

2. The Westminster Standards

 • The Westminster Catechism (1646)    Was in every classroom in America. Second only to the Bible, the "Shorter Catechism" of the Westminster Confession was the most widely published piece of literature in the pre-revolutionary era in America. It is estimated that some five million copies were available in the colonies. With a total population of only four million people in America at the time of the Revolution, the number is staggering. The Westminster Catechism was not only a central part of the colonial educational curriculum, learning it was required by law. Each town employed an officer whose duty was to visit homes to hear the children recite the Catechism. The primary schoolbook for children, the New England Primer, included the Catechism.  Daily recitations of it were required at these schools. Their curriculum included memorization of the Westminster Confession and the Westminster Larger Catechism. There was not a person at Independence Hall in 1776 who had not been exposed to it, and most of them had it spoon fed to them before they could walk.
• The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646)     In addition to being the decree of Parliament as the standard for Christian doctrine in the British Kingdom, it was adopted as the official statement of belief for the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Although slightly altered and called by different names, it was the creed of Congregationalist, Baptist, and Presbyterian Churches throughout the English speaking world. Assent to the Westminster Confession was officially required at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Princeton scholar, Benjamin Warfield wrote: "It was impossible for any body of Christians in the [English] Kingdoms to avoid attending to it."

3. Capitalism/Non-Aggression

 In 1776, the same year the Declaration of Independence was signed, Adam Smith wrote the first formal treatise on capitalism, entitled, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations. The more nations are virtuous and free from the initiation force and threats of violence, the wealthier they are. We'll read a modern version on the theme, Healing Our World.

Why do we need to "heal" our world? Since I was born, the U.S. federal government has killed, crippled, or made homeless tens of millions of innocent non-combatant civilians around the world. I would say this makes the United States the most evil entity on the planet and the enemy of mankind. And most Americans, if aware of this, say the price "is worth it" to keep the cost of gas down.

4. Secular Society?

 Many will say that attempting to "Christianize" the government or society violates the "wall of separation between church and state." In 1892 the U.S. Supreme Court emphatically declared that the U.S. was "a Christian nation." The Court made a lengthy review of all the most important "organic" documents in American history. By reading the Court's opinion and the charters it cites, we will show that the modern idea of "separation of church and state" is a destructive myth, and that America was intended be a nation "under God."

5. Optimism

 There is good reason to believe that "Peace on Earth" -- the message of the angels to the shepherds on the first Christmas Day -- is possible. Too many Christians have bought into erroneous ideas about things getting worse and worse leading up to "Armageddon" and other apocalyptic nightmares. America Founders were optimistic and future-oriented and believed they were creating a "Novus Ordo Seclorum" -- the motto on the official U.S. Seal which means "New Order for the Ages."

That's my "stuff." I want to make it "sizzle."

My marketing guru's basic model is to send leads to an opt-in page where they receive a gift (free video, pdf report, or something) in exchange for their email address (to send them ads for stuff to buy), and then to a sales page to set up a sales pitch over the phone for a $500/mo coaching program.

I've never figured out an opt-in gift. Nobody gives kids one free day in kindergarten as a way of enticing them to enroll in 12 years of school. Society seems to take for granted that they can compel everyone to pay for the entire 12-year package deal. I guess I need someone to see my blindspot or see outside my box. I'm competing against the entire public school system, but I'm having trouble re-framing that outlook. Or something.