Thursday’s posts are about things that help us keep perspective in life.

Last weekend I went to a volunteer orientation session for the Seattle Union Gospel Mission.  A lady who works there now gave some pretty moving testimony about how she spent ten years on the streets, addicted to drugs and committing crimes to support her habit.

During those ten years she was arrested 46 times and convicted 30 times.  Can you imagine?  I’m sure I would have looked at her and thought she was a hopeless case.

But the 46th time she went to jail she connected with some ladies who volunteered at the prison doing crafts activities and a Bible study, and her life changed radically.  That was nine years ago, and since then she’s been drug-free and now works at the shelter helping other people.

So it reminded me of some things to be thankful for:

If we didn’t grow up in a family so messed up that it was easy for us to end up on the streets, that’s more than a lot of people get.

We often are given multiple chances to get things right.

We have the opportunity to help people if we want to.  (Remember after the cyclone in Myanmar, when the government cracked down on its own people for helping out victims and they had to sneak relief supplies to them at the risk of being arrested, or worse?)

On a purely practical note, the Seattle Union Gospel Mission has amazing copywriting and graphics on all their stuff, so if you send them money you’ll get their flyers, which is like taking a course in effective direct mail.  Just a thought.

The posts I’m doing on Thursdays are about things that help us keep perspective in life and appreciate what we have.

Earlier this year I read an article in the New York Times that really stayed with me.  It was about child labor in sub-Saharan Africa, and they focused on a nine year old called Alone who works in a quarry in Zambia.

This kid gets up at 6:30 in the morning to go to the quarry with his grandmother.  He spends two hours breaking chunks of rock into powder using a large bolt because he doesn’t have a hammer, then walks to school for four hours of classes.

He describes his day like this:

“I break the rocks. I get up early in the morning, before the sun rises. For breakfast, I drink tea sometimes. This morning, I didn’t eat. I’m hungry.”

Alone’s teacher reports that he and the other quarry children have trouble concentrating, partly because they often don’t eat.  Other children tease them for not having the right clothing.

After school he goes back to the quarry and pounds rocks for five more hours until sunset, when he goes home to sleep on the concrete floor in the shack he shares with his grandmother.

Can you imagine spending even one day like this?  But this is pretty much his life, six or seven days a week, for the forseeable future.  His grandmother pounds rocks as well, and Alone’s income is the difference between eating or not.

This is a sobering article, but it’s also inspirational because part of the reason I work is to be able to help out people like this who got a raw deal from day one.  I know many of you feel the same way.  So yes, times are really tough right now – let’s remember to keep in mind how much we have, and why we work.

The article is called Africa Adds to Miserable Ranks of Child Workers

It’s true, this Monday’s marketing tip is actually coming out on Friday  (see my previous post if you’re wondering why!)

OK, I’ll get straight to the point – this is a client gift idea that won’t be the right fit for everyone in your list, but for the ones that it is it should really resonate.  This year I ordered 20 for the people I knew would appreciate it.

The Product:  The Dogs Deserve Better 14 Month Calendar

The Story:

Dogs Deserve Better is a non-profit organization that works with owners of chained dogs to get their dogs off of chains and into fenced yards, or into the owner’s home.  Their calendar features before-and-after stories and photos of previously chained dogs that have been rescued and now have great lives.

I dont’ know if you can relate to this, but in rural Pennsylvania, where I spent much of my childhood and still visit to see family, I’ve seen thousands of dogs that spend their entire lives – from puppyhood to the time they drop into the dust – tethered at the end of a 6 to 10 foot chain.

I won’t go into it here, but Dogs Deserve Better says it best: ‘There’s not much life on the end of a chain.’

The Pros:

• This is a nicely done, heartwarming calendar. 
• The proceeds benefit the charity, which does work throughout the U.S.
• It’s high on emotional appeal and memorability.
• People will ask your clients where they got the calendar.
• At $8 to $9 each for 10 to 20 calendars, it’s reasonably priced.

The Cons:

• It’s not branded to you, so you have to find a way to attach your business card or some other branding if you want it to be.
• It’s probably not the ideal gift for everyone in your client list.

Shipping:  They say allow 2 to 3 weeks for delivery, but I got mine in about a week.  Call if you’re concerned about timing.

Just a thought:  If the first thing you thought when you read ‘Dogs Deserve Better’ was, ‘A lot of kids deserve better too, and they don’t get it’, I understand.  I’m giving these out to my clients with a note explaining that I also support charities that help humans – personally, on the receiving end I think I’d want to know that.

Want to see an example of a beautiful website?

Check out FreeRice.com.  It’s fabulously simple, and a great example of everything that most real estate websites are not.

(There’s no whirling, search engine-blocking flash entry page, you’re not immediately greeted with a big paragraph explaining what FreeRice does, and the page doesn’t offer you a ton of options.)

What it is, is extremely effective.

They want you to play a word definition game, and for each correct answer they donate 20 free grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger.

Here are a few reasons why it works so well:

• Your gaze is immediately drawn to the call to action (the game.)
• It’s completely clear how to respond (and it’s just one click.)
• You’re immediately motivated to take action (because you see the correct answer.)
• The headline tells you exactly what the site is about (which clearly states the obvious benefit.)
• The surrounding elements support the call to action (explanation links, a video of grain being donated.)
• Language is used sparingly and effectively (notice the grand total of 13 words in the left menu.)

What’s your call to action?

Are you asking people to do something on your website?  Do you provide motivation by stating an obvious benefit, and make it easy for them to take action without having to navigate several clicks away?

Do you keep it simple?

It’s a natural tendency to want to embellish and make things complex, but when you do, remember that FreeRice.com launched barely 3 months ago and has already donated over 16 billion grains of rice.

I dare you to go there and not add to that number.