We Are Marketers

We are NOT career counselors. We do not find jobs for people (but we wish we could). We are not Career Coaches. We are, in fact, award-winning marketing specialists who pioneered direct and data-based marketing, beginning in the late 70s and early 80s. Over three decades we have helped businesses sell over $4.5 billion worth of goods and services . . . everything from airlines to tow trucks (and even toilet paper).

We are now semi-retired and our focus is on products and services which have genuine and redeeming social value. Helping you search out and “sell” yourself into a lucrative new position seems to fit nicely with these goals.

You can learn more about us at The Marketing Machine. Joseph Krueger and Virginia Nicols

What we do here is put our knowledge and experience to work helping people who are out of work. We specialize in providing information in the form of a dynamic training curriculum that we hope will be of specific help to more seasoned managers, executives and professionals who are increasingly being displaced in the new, emerging global economy. Designed for talented people who are finding their experience to be less of an asset – and sometimes even a detriment – to their future work career than they might have expected, the course is currently provided at no cost to the participant.

If Your Career Advancement Isn’t What You Thought It Would Be . . .

A great many people in their 40s, 50s and 60s find themselves in something of a vocational state of shock at how the working world has changed out from under their experience, expertise and, tragically, their expectations. Many of the changes predicted in the 1970s book, Future Shock, by Alvin Toffler, have come true in spades.

We have observed the effects of societal and working world transformations -- some massive, others subtle -- on people and the institutions they have faithfully served. All too often this loyal service to the corporate world has turned out to be more like servitude with few of the rewards that were implied or even promised.

More Change is On The Way . . . And The Pace of Change is Quickening!

The old adage that nothing endures but change becomes more evident every day. The reality is that more new jobs and their required skills are created every day by the forces of innovation and necessity. As old disciplines and jobs disappear a great many people find themselves lost and confused by the new realities. Worst of all, the qualities of loyalty and dedication to a company are all too often going unrewarded.

Your Loyalty Needs To Be To Yourself.

Coping with the rapid and relentless pace of change is a skill that was never taught in the schools of the twentieth century. And realizing that loyalty in the working world of today is first and foremost to oneself has been a painful learning experience for too many people, including even highly-accomplished executives and managers. In military parlance, "Adapt and Overcome" is the best advice we can think of. And we are committed to providing you with the tools to do just that.

The Reward for Loyal Service to a Company is a Paycheck. Period.

This was brought home to Virginia in the mid-to-late 80s when she found her training skills (she started life after UC Berkeley as a teacher) useful in her financial planning career. A published author (Your Retirement Benefits – John Wiley & Sons), Virginia was being retained to help early retirees, from major corporations like IBM and Lockheed, cope with their sudden displacement from the future they thought they were working towards. It was traumatic for her as well as for the hundreds of people she was trying to help. It was a bittersweet interlude in her career. She was helping people who needed her help . . . but it was sad that they found themselves in this position after years of service.

Every Decision in Life is a Moral Decision (Voltaire . . . at least, according to Pete Shugart)

At the same time, the financial institutions which were increasingly utilizing data-based marketing (and for which we were writing advertising and conducting direct marketing campaigns) were busy re-writing their internal operations and customer care rulebooks. We watched in horror as people we worked with – many of them very capable managers -- and their staff who had been responsible for the growth of their employers’ business success, were cast off as they matured and began to question the real value proposition of the financial products they had helped to build and promote.

Greed had become the underlying driver of much of the banking and financial world and the rewards at the top had mushroomed. People who raised legitimate concerns about the “morality” of their employers' tactics were either fired or marginalized. Rising through the ranks required a careful balance of ambition and ethics that became ever more difficult to navigate.

We opted out in 1995, refusing to do any more work in the financial community. It was a major financial decision for us, but one we decided we had to make. Despite the extraordinary track record we had in selling financial services, we no longer felt we could do it and maintain our integrity. The Marketing Machine began to adjust our client base accordingly.

The Principles We Are Presenting Here Are Proven to Work.

Our original introduction to the Job Search Process was in the mid ‘80s. The appeal of “turn-key executive packaging” seemed to make sense for people with senior-level management experience . . . until we saw the price tag. Typical costs ran from $5,000 to $10,000, with modest training and no guarantees. The more we investigated, the more we came up with referrals to a non-profit group called “Forty Plus.”

Started (supposedly anyway) in the 1930s by a distinguished group of members of the Sales & Marketing Executives Club of New York, the concept had spread to dozens of locations around the country, from San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles to Washington DC and many cities in between. The average cost of membership (depending on how long it took to get placed) ranged from a mere $750 to $1,500 and included a great many benefits to assist people in transition.

We became Sponsors, volunteer instructors and we worked to update instruction material to keep pace with technological advances. Unfortunately, by the middle of the decade (2002-2005), most of the offices around the country were forced to close due to lack of financial support and dwindling membership. While we were experiencing considerable success in helping candidates get placed within weeks of joining, many were being forced to drop out and take lesser positions to maintain their families’ health care and other financial needs. Frankly, the business model depended on corporate support and there was no national infrastructure to generate it. All staff positions were filled by members (themselves in transition) or volunteers.

This Material Will Be Continuously Revised and Updated.

We are presenting instructional material here that we were (and still are) in the process of refining, rewriting and updating. As it proves to be well received, we will seek out and add additional information from reliable, committed experts in the field and include their work as appropriate. For the time being -- and for the foreseeable future -- this course will be made available at no cost to participants.

We will be offsetting the costs of creating, publishing and maintaining this course material by accepting donations and income from appropriate advertising. And we receive compensation in the form of referral fees from some of the products and services we suggest in this website. When you purchase as a result of our referral (which does not result in any increased cost to you), it helps us to maintain and expand the course material. You can be assured that we will only recommend products or services that we know or truly believe will be of value and we will attempt to point out limitations wherever appropriate. We will never refer anything that is inappropriate. Our hope is that we can continue to expand and maintain this website course at no charge to the users.

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