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JoeMTurner.com Corporate Magic Update |  |
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Greetings! It's hard to believe that May is already upon us! If your organization is planning spring or summer meetings, trade show appearances, banquets or even employee picnics, we need to talk soon before all the good dates are booked. By the way, thanks for your warm responses to these newsletters. Remember, you are receiving this because you are one of my clients or business contacts. If you are receiving this, then we have corresponded before. I will not spam you or the people you refer to me. As always, I appreciate your referrals and encourage you to share this newsletter with others. Have a wonderful May! God bless!  Joe M. Turner
In my January newsletter I mentioned that I would be appearing at the Magic Castle in May. It seems impossible that it's here already, but I will be leaving on May 8 for my week of appearances in the close-up gallery. If you or a friend would like to come to a performance, let me know. The Magic Castle is a private club, but I can get you a pass. Make a dinner reservation and enjoy a whole evening at the Castle -- I promise you that you'll have the time of your life. In addition to close-up shows, you can enjoy slightly larger magic in the Parlour of Prestidigitation, and you'll also enjoy a full-scale stage show in the Palace of Mystery. An evening at the Castle is an experience that you will never forget. Make a point of visiting The Magic Castle on the web, where you can take a virtual tour of much of this amazing place: http://www.magiccastle.com
When I need to get word out to the masses about a new product, service or idea, I don't have a public relations department or consulting firm to turn to. I'm it. Thankfully, I have found a useful tool to help me, and I'm going to share one of my secrets with you. PRWeb is a free online service that can help you generate media coverage for your business. I have generated increased traffic to my website AND improved my positioning on search engines by sending out press releases on PRWeb. Your news can often get picked up by other services, further increasing your coverage. You can pay for better placement and additional features on your press releases, but even the freebie service is valuable. It's reasonably easy to set up an account, and I'll be happy to answer any questions I can for you if you email me personally. And I think you'll be surprised to see some of the large corporations that use PRWeb to help broaden the reach of their messages!
"How did you do that?" It's certainly one of the most common questions that I hear. Some of the people receiving this newsletter have asked me that literally dozens of times. The question isn't always intended as a sincere request for knowledge; sometimes it's just a gut response to seeing the impossible. I always consider it a compliment. So -- I've decided to share a few secrets with you that you may be able to use in your office or at home. Give some of these a whirl. When they ask, "How did you do that?" just tell them, "With a lot of practice!" This month, I'd like to teach you something you can use in your own office almost immediately. Consider this: You ask three people to each name a number from 0 to 9. On the back of an envelope, you write down the numbers and use them to generate a larger number -- at least 4 digits. Call that the "target number." The first 3 digits will represent a page number, and the last digit represents a line. Now you ask someone to pick up a book or binder, and turn to the page number represented by the first 3 digits of the target number. On that page, they count down to the line number, identifying a line of text in that book. You ask them to look inside the envelope... there's a note that predicts exactly those words. This can be a fun way to use magic to call attention to information in an annual report, a catalog, a directory, or any other publication. It can also be used with any book or magazine with at least 150 pages. Start by looking at the 9th line of text on page 108 in your target publication. That will always be the predicted information, because the math which follows always gives the number 1089. You predict text or photos instead of the number in order to draw attention away from the math. Write your prediction down somewhere... or put it in an envelope to use in your presentation. Have your audience generate a 3-digit number where all 3 digits are different. This is pretty easy to manage by asking 3 people to name a digit from 0 to 9. You now have a 3-digit number -- for example, 358. Reverse the digits to create another 3 digit number. In our example, it would be 853. Subtract the smaller from the larger. In our case, it would be 853-358 = 495. (If you get 99, call it 099.) Reverse those new digits to create another 3 digit number. In this example, it would be 594. (If you had 099 before, you'd have 990 now -- your explanation is that you needed that zero in order to make a larger number.) Add those last numbers back together: 495 + 594. This will always be 1089. Have them locate the page and read the text on the 9th line. It will match your prediction! Alternately, you could use this as a mindreading demonstration -- they turn to the line, read it silently, and you tell them what they are thinking. This clearly demonstrates your total mastery of the annual report or product catalog you are using! Have fun with this. It's just one example of how you can take a simple trick and use it to produce a magical, memorable, relevant experience. I hope you enjoy it.
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