Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

One way to sell: "Listen to me, I`m an expert and I know the answers."
Another way to sell: "I`m in your shoes, and here`s what I`ve learned. Maybe what I`ve learned can help ease your way."

I prefer the second way. :-) I`m just not getting it that way in the writing....yet.
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Are you a parent or have friends that are parents? Tell them about The Appreciation Station... the most innovative system to help parents be the best they can be through positive discipline. When you notice what`s right as opposed to what`s wrong, you begin to see dramatic results in your household.

Craig, My apologies for messing up your quote. The frustration comes from the fact that I have been there. Yelling, nagging, punishing, none of it feels good. It`s deflating, as a parent. The moment I began using positive reinforcement (which by the way, was the only thing I had not tried) my life changed completely and honestly, quite quickly. The Appreciation Station didn`t change my home, I did. However, TAS made it easy to do and the mere presence of it in my home reminded all of us to celebrate the "good" in each other on a daily basis. TAS is not a recipe for success (that`s positive reinforcement & positive discipline and a balance of natural consequences.) Rather, TAS is like having the recipe and being handed a bag of carefully measured out ingredients as well as all the supplies, to ensure your a success in your home! Does this make sense?

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Are you a parent or have friends that are parents? Tell them about The Appreciation Station... the most innovative system to help parents be the best they can be through positive discipline. When you notice what`s right as opposed to what`s wrong, you begin to see dramatic results in your household.

:-) I`ve been there, too, with a daughter, and also raising cats. In fact, growing up we had various au paire girls, and my mom talks about one of them who brought order out of chaos, back when we three kids were young. When asked how she did it, this lady from Indonesia explained that she just looks at little children the same as training animals.

I have no argument with TAS being an excellent product. Where I`m seeing a sales opportunity also is presenting to me with a deeper conflict. It`s that on the one hand, the way it`s being sold now is a sort of "take this pill and all your discipline problems will go away."

On the other hand, and generally speaking, I think parents in the Boomer generation and likely the Gen-X group tend to want an instant fix, instant solution, and "take a pill" type of thing.

But raising kids ends up creating adults who are around for awhile. To that end, I just think it would be a more elegant proposition to sell TAS *slightly* differently---as a tool, not a quick-fix.

I guess it comes down to whether you want to sell parents a pill for keeping the kids quiet, or do you want to sell them an educational product to teach kids the value of being less noisey. Does that make sense? It`s a perspective and positioning shift, not a product change.

If so, I also believe that with the right positioning, TAS can enter the whole educational "toy and learning materials" market, which I think is huge.

So right and I agree completely. Actually, our sales indicate it. 65% of our sales, thus far have been to educators-including those who work with special needs. I think it`s because they have been trained in the effectivness of positive reinforcement. Ya` know Craig, when a child does something wrong, we don`t say that if you do that 5 more times you`ll be in trouble on Friday. We understand the necessity of immediately teaching that what they`ve done is wrong. It blows me away that we have not been taught to react, respond or reward, when we see a moment that makes us happy. Many parents will say nothing when their child is sitting still. It`s expected behavior, but it doesn`t get the attention that kids need and crave. When we talk to our children, their brains grow, plain and simple. Thanks Craig, Diana

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Are you a parent or have friends that are parents? Tell them about The Appreciation Station... the most innovative system to help parents be the best they can be through positive discipline. When you notice what`s right as opposed to what`s wrong, you begin to see dramatic results in your household.

I think it`s because we, Baby Boomers, haven`t been taught that children have to learn everything. We were taught by parents who understood a parent`s position, job, and reason for being a parent. But we took it all for granted, then began to see children as "little adults." And so, "expected behavior" applies even to a toddler.

The worst possible assumption anyone can make is that a child is a "little person," or a "little adult." And yet, that`s the apparently overwhelming perception of children. It`s why they`re not rewarded (thereby educated) for good behavior, and punished mostly for bad behavior.

I think many adults do understand that children need training in everything. It`s why I believe that if there`s a message on the main page, letting those parents know that this product is intended to help them and reinforce their belief about how to raise children, it`ll strike a chord.