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Charlie Traffas
Charlie Traffas has been involved in marketing, media, publishing and insurance for more than 40 years. In addition to being a fully-licensed life, health, property and casualty agent, he is also President and Owner of Chart Marketing, Inc. (CMI). CMI operates and markets several different products and services that help B2B and B2C businesses throughout the country create customers...profitably. You may contact Charlie by phone at (316) 721-9200, by e-mail at ctraffas@chartmarketing.com, or you may visit at www.chartmarketing.com.
What's New
2008-06-01 13:45:00
Of Lee and green tea
Question: What’s new this month?
Answer: There’s a line from the Disney movie, “The Lion King” that states, “Just can’t wait to be king.” It’s also nice to be the Editor and Publisher of this publication. I get to answer wide open questions like, “What’s new?” I have two things I would like to talk about this month. The first is an excerpt from Lee Iacocca’s new book, “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?” I don’t know about you, but I remember a United States that the majority of its citizens were proud to claim and fight for. I remember sayings by those older than I, and yes, even politicians, that rang a different note on the bell than they do today. So when I came across one of these such passages, I thought you might enjoy what I call a “breath of fresh air.” If not, then at least one of us did. “Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the h_ _ l is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course”.’ “Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America not the d _ _ _ _ d ‘Titanic’. I’ll give you a sound bite: ‘Throw all the bums out!’’ “You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore.’ “The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we’re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving ‘pom-poms’ instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the promise of the “America” my parents and, yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about you?’ “I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have. The Biggest ‘C’ is Crisis!’ “Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It’s easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else’s kids off to war when you’ve never seen a battlefield yourself. It’s another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down. On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. This is one h _ _ l of a mess!’ “So here’s where we stand. We’re immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We’re running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We’re losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.’ “But when you look around, you’ve got to ask: “Where have all the leaders gone? Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense?” I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.’ “Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We’ve spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.’ “Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina? Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone’s hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn’t happen again. Now, that’s just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you’re going to do the next time.’ “Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing? Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when ‘The Big Three’ referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?’ “Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debit, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.’ “I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn’t elect you to sit on your a _ _ _ s and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity.’ “What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don’t you guys show some spine for a change?’ “Had Enough? Hey, I’m not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I’m trying to light a fire. I’m speaking out because I have hope I believe in America. In my lifetime I’ve had the privilege of living through some of America‘s greatest moments. I’ve also experienced some of our worst crises: the ‘Great Depression’, ‘World War II’, the ‘Korean War’, the ‘Kennedy Assassination’, the ‘Vietnam War’, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I’ve learned one thing, it’s this: You don’t get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action.’ “Whether it’s building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That’s the challenge I’m raising in this book. It’s a call to ‘Action’ for people who, like me, believe in America. It’s not too late, but it’s getting pretty close. So let’s shake off the c _ _ _ p and go to work. Let’s tell ‘em all we’ve had enough.” Now, on to green tea…as I have stated previously, one of the neatest things about my position as Editor and Publisher of this publication, is that I get to hear and read about all kinds of things I never knew about before. It might be why a composite roof is better than shake shingles, or visa versa. It might be how to size a furnace. It might be what actually happens when your cholesterol is out of control. Since we began publishing, we have received hundreds of answers to questions that lots of people don’t know anything about. Only because I do what I do, do I get to see or hear about them all. Well, the other day I met with some guys who have been working with green tea for the past 10 years or so. I don’t mean in their garages...but in laboratories throughout the world. One was a PHD, one was a scientist and two were in marketing and administration. They began working on this project initially because they were trying to develop an anti-aging product, which of course has been mankind’s quest for centuries. In doing so, they began to diagnose the cellular structure of green tea, which is a product that has been around for centuries. There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that says, “Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one.” It certainly couldn’t have been because of its taste. I was born and raised on a farm south of Sharon, KS. We raised all kinds of livestock and farmed. One of the things we raised for livestock feed was alfalfa. I remember one time taking some alfalfa leaves, drying them out, then boiling them and mixing the concentrate with water like one would do for iced tea. That was the most awful tasting stuff I ever drank in my life. Well, I take that back...I drank some Jim Beam straight one time when I was a kid and I had about the same reaction. So, if the Chinese had to have it more so than food, there must have been another reason other than its taste. So, you ask, what could it be? That’s what I asked these guys. They educated me on the benefits of green tea. It seems as though, “The secret ingredient divined in green tea leaves is catechin polyphenols, which are powerful antioxidants that neutralize free radicals. Epidemiological studies have shown that people who drink green tea may have significantly lower risks of many diseases, including cancer, heart disease and stroke. Green Tea may also suppress antigens, lower cholesterol, boost the metabolism, combat prostate and cervical cancer, lower the risk of high blood pressure and delay diabetes.” Two or three times, I asked, “What?” They would repeat themselves and I would ask again, “What?” I can understand, all they had been doing for ten years was working with green tea and their language was not something a normal person could follow...far too many six-syllable words. But what they told me they found is one ingredient in green tea the rest of the world has not found as of yet, that was responsible for all the benefits of green tea. Everyone thought it was the green tea. It’s actually something else. Wow! “Tell me that again?” I asked. They did. Of course I asked them again...and again. About this point in the conversation, they realized I was having a hard time following something so “simple”, so they began to talk among themselves in even a stranger language, one that consisted mostly of seven syllable words or more. I did garner enough from the meeting to know, what they found was by accident, in a laboratory in Switzerland. They were looking for something else. Once they found it, and recognized what they had found, they developed a way to increase the potency of it by 1200 times any other green tea product or supplement on the planet. Now this is right down my alley. You see, I have lived my life with the motto, “If a little is good, more is better.” I must admit though, it hasn’t been that intelligent of a motto for me. But in the case of this heretofore-undiscovered element of green tea, more is definitely better. So what these guys have is a patent-pending product that will do more to make all of the benefits stated above happen...by a long ways...than any other product on earth. I might have more for you on this subject next month…
 
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