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For retail fun, you only need to get your foot in the store door.

Now the rest of you’s in without a beep!

Do 66: Newspapering on Your Route for Instant Ins

Interview ins will pop off the page by the time you’re done with this Do!

The very best printed source for instants is the community newspaper. Usually these interviewing treasure maps are free and available on racks in supermarkets, walkways, and other high-traffic places around town. Most are weekly. Get the latest ones instantly. Newspapering should be a part of your routine as you’re out the door doing your daily appearances (Do 1).

Pick up the paper and scan it as you mark the areas with your pen. Then tear off the pages with what you marked, discard the rest, put them into your left back pocket, and go on your next interview. You should be able to do this in around five minutes. While you’re walking and interviewing, your subconscious mind will be filling in the blanks (Do 42).

By the time you get home, you’ll have ideas on hooks to use when you stop into the places mentioned.

I’m walking in a nearby city right now, so I can show you how it works.

Here’s a rack outside a convenience store. There are two local papers.

First I go right to the masthead of one—that part of the paper with the names of the publisher, editors, address, and phone number.

I’ll use that address to stop into the office and interview (Do 1). I may also use it to write a letter to the editor about something that might have people calling me (Do 48).

Let’s see what news they printed. This is great! Here’s a headline about a skills center that’s opening and it gives the names of the companies sponsoring it. I’m circling that one as we speak.

Next there’s some VP who just got a promotion with a real estate company. I’ll circle that too.

Here’s a piece about a campaign to clean up graffiti. Four local businesses are involved. Circle that.

Not bad for the front page.

Now turning to the inside—I’ve already circled the masthead—there’s the editor’s column. She mentions the annual fiesta that’s coming up in a nearby town. I’m circling the first date and will get there early. I’ll follow the job-fair technique for sure (Do 51).

Then the editor mentions that some developer is trying to take over a whole block of stores that have been serving the community for years. The merchants’ association has asked other businesspeople in the area to attend. Circle that one for sure.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

I never close these papers without looking at the page with the little display ads from the entrepreneurs who provide services. I look for the “no job too small or too big” words. Those are my kind of people. Junkyard dogs.

So here we have two or three pages I zipped through, circled, folded, and stuffed in my right back pocket. I could have spent a full day at the library reference area when better information was right there screaming “Here I am!”—instantly!

If you do that a few times, you’ll find that there are 10 categories of news you can use:

1. A job promotion (a job opening and a contact)

2. A retirement (a job opening and a contact)

3. A site is purchased by a business relocating to the area

4. A local business announces it is expanding

5. A contract has been awarded to a local business

6. A new product is being introduced by a local business

7. A local business is acquiring another business

8. A city ordinance or other law has been passed requiring a change in the way local businesses operate (parking and smoking bans are perfect openers to meet every business in the area)

9. A business expo, convention, job fair, chamber of commerce meeting, city council agenda item, marathon, or other gathering is being held

10. A notice indicates a business is growing

Newspapering once a week for a month will convince you the local paper is the in thing to read!

Do 67: Remembering Your Lines Instantly Like a S-T-A-R

You make your entrance. There’s a hush in the audience. Here comes