Don Hammond and Frank Crosby taught me PMA. It’s sorta like a religion except there are no prayers, churches, ministers, or services. In fact, it’s all in your mind because those letters stand for Positive Mental Attitude. When I was teaching at Virginia Commonwealth University in the early 1970s, I had the summers off with nothing really to do and my then neighbor and friend Don Hammond suggested that I go on the road with him in the Deep South where I could make $500 a week, easy. “I’m not going to hold up 7-11 managers or rob small banks,” I told him. “Don’t worry,” he said, “this job is completely legal even if it sounds fishy.” Being bored and semi-broke, I took the bait. “What is it?” He grinned. “Selling Radio Bingo by going door-to-door in small towns with a flip-card presentation.” I told Don that I was a university instructor and knew nothing about sales. “No worries,” he said. “I’ll teach you.” And he did. The first lesson: Making a sale begins with PMA because if you don’t have it, people detect that immediately. Radio Bingo was rock-botttom, hardcore selling but I’m glad I did it. It wasn’t selling refrigerators to Inuit people, but close. Later, I moved to Albuquerque and met Frank Crosby, who was the only event producer of note in the entire state and his shows, the Albuquerque Home Show and the New Mexico Sports Show, were highly successful. Frank, who called himself “Mr. Terrific,” also had an educational endeavor, the Institute of Positive Thinking (I’m not making this up!). He, too, said that every successful person had to have PMA. I had it then and I have it now. I had it back during the lottery draft for the war in Vietnam when the low numbers got drafted and mine was a 356. I had it during the four years of the Trump administration. And I had it in 2021 whenI learned that it’s difficult to produce a show when all the possible venues are shut down. And I have it now while producing a show during a pandemic that won’t go away. And neither will PMA!
How I Got PMA
