1 Secret of the Watermelon

Transcription

Secret of the Watermelon
Copyright 2008
www.YourBusinessGPS.com
A Jon Goldman Solution
1
from the desk of Jon Goldman
Dear Reader,
You are about to embark on one of the greatest journeys as you turn the pages of my new
manifesto.
But first, I want to personally thank you for signing up to receive my e-letter. It really is a labor
of love. From working with business owners numbering in the thousands (I stopped counting
years ago!) and from my own experience as owner of one of the country’s largest promotion
agencies and from some other twists and turns along the way, I share with you what’s working
and what’s not every week in my e-letter.
It’s sometimes fun, sometimes controversial and quite often very informative. I even go back to
the archives for guidance! And if you ever have ideas or comments, just send me an email
because I’d love to hear what you have to say.
Now, you’re probably wondering about this strangely-titled book I sent you. I admit it’s quite
unusual, but after I explain it to you, it’ll all make sense as you discover the Secret of the
Watermelon.
Don’t let the title fool you. This is truly the most powerful business secret ever told. Imagine if
you were to study all of the great thinkers from history and you discovered that there is one
central truth to all of them – and it’s been proven successful over and over in every type of
business – wouldn’t you get excited about that? Well, that’s exactly what happened to me. But
it just didn’t happen either. It was a slow pain-staking process that finally came together just
recently. And when it did, even I was blown away!
Why am I giving it away if it’s so valuable? Because I’ve dedicated my life to helping others
actualize their greatest potential and I see this book as just one more way to do that. So read it
with a pen and highlighter in hand and get ready to take action.
The pages in the book show how many others have already used the Secret of the Watermelon,
but I’d love to hear your story too. Send me an email at [email protected]
and let me know how the world’s greatest business secret is helping you.
For more business and marketing guidance, be sure to check out my website at
All the best,
Jon Goldman
Business GPS
Copyright 2008
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Chapter 1:
The Secret of the
Watermelon Revealed
What does a watermelon have to do with turning around and
growing your business?
Plenty!
As you’ll see in a moment, inside every watermelon is a secret
so profound and so counter-intuitive that you’ll never run your
business the same way again.
The Secret of the Watermelon will have a far reaching effect
on your life and your business. It will make you more money and
give you the balance between work and family you’ve always
dreamed! In fact, you’ll work less than you ever have.
The Secret of the
Watermelon will
have a far reaching
effect on your life and
your business. It will
make you more
money and give you
the balance between
work and living
you’ve always
dreamed!
Don’t take my word for it. See what others have had to say
about their amazing results after using The Secret of the
Watermelon in their businesses:
“It’s made an immediate impact on the business. Our
sales were up 65% last month.”
John Tarr, State Financial Services, Phoenix, Arizona
“We helped people invest billions of dollars in real
estate. I was very skeptical at first of the process … the
movement that took place in our company has been
astounding. I put our company on a totally different
level.”
Adiel Gorel, CEO, International Capital Group, Los Angeles
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The same secret that I’m about to reveal to you also increased
sales 65% for Michael Gray at All-American Check Cashing in
Canton, Mississippi … Realtor Eric Ondrick calls it the best
investment he’s made in years … and it helped boost revenues
60% for Dr. Alvin Schamroth who has an office in Baltimore but
runs his business from overseas.
It’s what made Paul Johnston the unlikely hero of shed owners
all over northern California. Most shed manufacturers sell a shed
based on its utilitarian purpose. Not Johnston’s Shed Shop.
He has a passion for
marketing sheds to solve
the challenges his
customers are facing such
as what to do when they
run out of space for their
tools in the garage. Or their
pottery is taking over the
living room. Or they may
need a room of their own to
teach trumpet lessons. He’s
even credited with saving a
few marriages with his
sheds!
The Shed Shop used the Secret
of the Watermelon to become
one of the most successful
shed distributors in the U.S.
He tells all about it in a
fabulous book of letters
from customers called “83
Ways a Shed has Changed
People’s Lives”. Can you
imagine 83 different ways a
shed can change someone’s
life? I’ll tell you more
about his incredible story in
a few minutes. Johnston
understands the Secret of the Watermelon.
… And I’m about to reveal it to you FREE in this report!
A breakthrough 20 years in the making
But first, I think it’s important for you to understand how the
secret came about. My breakthrough discovery began more than 20
years ago when I won Harvard University’s Achievement Award
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for creating the world’s largest student-run advertising and PR
agency.
You see, I was raised in a family of advertisers and marketers
so that business is near and dear to me. Some people were brought
up to be doctors and lawyers. I was somehow brought up to be in
advertising and marketing.
I made a name for myself with some crazy ideas running the ad
agency. To help advertise the college bookstore’s book buy-back
program, I brought in several junker cars that students could hit
with a sledge hammer after they had sold their books back to the
bookstore following a grueling week of final exams.
Some professors hated it. The students loved it! And the
national media ate it up. In fact, it was the most successful book
buy-back program the bookstore ever had.
When the last car was smashed, I graduated from college and
set out to work in Atlanta. I received lots of offers to work at ad
agencies, but turned them all down. I decided to travel the world
instead. I said to myself, “The corporate world will still be waiting
for me when I get back.” (And guess what? It was.)
From sleeping out of my tent in Europe to living
with “blindness” on top of a mountain in Spain
What an experience I had! Three friends and I agreed to meet
at the Acropolis and go to Tanzania to buy a Land Rover, then
drive along the Nile and Sudan and drink blood with Zulus.
But instead I choose the “Eastern
path” and bought a one-way ticket
going east around the world. From
there I went on to tour Europe. I had
a crazy rule – if I didn’t get invited in
by locals I would sleep outside in my
This is one of the lava
tent. I woke up in some scary places
beaches in Greece where I
such as on a divider in the middle of
narrowly escaped with
my life.
a highway in Brussels, a lava beach
in Greece where a man wanted to
stab me with his pitchfork because I was sleeping in his fishing
spot and I narrowly escaped getting my head crushed by a
stampede of horses one early morning at the base of a mountain
while still in my sleeping bag.
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I worked at a grocery
store in Spain … taught
marketing at the university
in Barcelona … lived on
the island of Stromboli
with seismologists who
were studying the island’s
volcanic activity …
managed teams of orange
pickers in Greece …
Here is the island of Stromboli where I
played Ultimate Frisbee
lived for a time amid one of Europe’s
for one of the Dutch
most active volcanoes.
national teams and
managed a health and personal development center in Spain where
I heard about a Buddhist monastery.
Although I was very
successful running
one of the largest ad
agencies in the world,
I was frustrated. I
learned that there
was much more to
fixing a business than
simply creating better
marketing. My real
passion was helping
businesses to
turnaround and grow.
So I borrowed a motorcycle and made my way up the
mountains to the monastery, called O Sel Ling. While there, I
helped them build a summer camp and learned to meditate. I
changed my name to Tenpe Chopill and became a devout Buddist
under Lama Zopa. I continued on my journey through Spain and
fasted for a week … lived with a friend in a cave for a week. Next,
we climbed a remote mountain at the top of a waterfall where we
went on a speech fast for a week and blind folded myself for
several days to experience what it would be like to be blind.
I learned how to “Alpine” ski on the hard morning snow …
practiced Tai Chai at sunrise … and sailed a falukha up the Nile to
an island in Egypt that was ruled by a 400-pound primitive man
who looked at me and ordered, “white boy eat salt fish” and I
proceeded to some type of disgusting sardine.
After returning to the states, I traveled back to Israel where I
spent several years and studied Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
Ultimately, I met my wife to be there while I was working and
teaching (even though she was originally from Philadelphia).
We returned to America and the corporate world hadn’t
changed, but I had. I didn’t know it then, but the secret of the
watermelon was beginning to take shape.
There was still more to learn. I went to work in advertising and
promotions and eventually sold my share as co-owner of one of the
largest promotion companies in the country. At the time, the
company was #26 out of 24,000. I saw a lot of businesses come
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and go during that time and I got a front-row seat as I saw what
was working and what was not. Although the business was very
profitable and we were enjoying great success, I was frustrated. At
the agency, the solution to every problem is restricted advertising
and promotion.
That was the nature of the business. But as I had grown, I saw
that advertising wasn’t always the solution to a business owner’s
problems. My adventures overseas had forced me to look beyond
what was needed at the moment. I saw there was much more to it.
I sold out of that business so I could create Brand Launcher and
Business GPS to offer business owners a total transformation of
their business using the secrets I’ve learned. Since then, I’ve
worked with thousands of business owners helping them increase
sales, add more prospects and achieve a balance between work and
family.
The most valuable secret revealed …
And the most valuable secret I learned is what I call the Secret
of the Watermelon.
Let me explain. With most fruit you can simply bite into it and
work your way towards the center, like an apple. Not a
watermelon. To eat a watermelon, you first have to cut it open and
actually eat it from the inside-out.
To effectively turn around a business, you must begin from the
inside – just like you would eat a watermelon. You see, at the
center of every business should be the leader – you!
______________________________________________________
The Secret of the Watermelon revealed … Just like
you eat a watermelon from the inside-out, you too
should turnaround and your grow you business from
the inside-out. At the core, is you and your business’
competency. That is where you begin to build. Then
work your way out to build the systems and teams
that will support you.
- Jon Goldman, “The Watermelon Guy”
______________________________________________________________
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Your business begins with you as the business owner.
Everything else in the business revolves around you. Your
marketing, your sales force and your teams and systems that will
give you the freedom to leverage your talents are all designed to
support you as the owner. Using the Secret of the Watermelon you
can finally work on your business – not in it.
That’s the Secret of the Watermelon. To grow your business
you must first start on the inside – you. Then work your way out to
build the systems and teams that will support you.
Imagine, if you will, an archery target. In the middle of that
circle is you and your core competency – the one thing you do
better and more easily than most other people and gives you joy.
This is the sweet spot where you make the most money and where
you’re the most happy. I’ll talk more about this in a moment.
Surrounding the center circle is another circle. This illustrates
your marketing architecture, what I call your “market-tecture”. It’s
the sales engine that drives everything.
The Secret of the Watermelon
The most important element
of your marketing is what I call
your “Big Zig”. Remember I
was telling you about how we
smashed cars in college to
promote the book buy-back
program? That’s a Big Zig!
While everyone else zags in the
market, you want to do
something so different and with
such bravado that everyone will
have to stand up notice. So
while others zag, you zig.
The outermost circle is your
business system, which is there
to support you and the business.
I call them Freedom Teams and
Freedom Systems because they
give you the freedom to
concentrate on the things that leverage your core competency and
bring the greatest value to the organization. And just like you eat a
watermelon one bite at a time, you build your Freedom Systems
Picture an archery target and you’re in the middle. Everything else – your
marketing and sales teams, your staff and your systems – all revolve
around you. The secret is that the business begins with you and
everything supports you.
Copyright 2008
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and Freedom Teams one step at a time. This way, you can work on
the business, not in it.
Using the Secret of the Watermelon you change your business
from a liability to an asset.
Most businesses are a liability. To make money, you have to
work in the business. That’s called a glorified J-O-B! And if you’re
not working and you’re on
vacation or playing golf,
Using the Secret of the
most likely you’re making
Watermelon you can turn
little or no money at work.
your business from a
As long as your business
isn’t paying you, it’s a
liability into an asset in
liability.
just 3 steps.
Instead, think of your
business in terms of owning
stock or a rental property. If
you don’t do anything with
your stock will it still pay
you? Yes. As long as it’s
increasing in value, you get
paid and don’t have to do
anything. Your rental
property also pays you every
month. It’s an asset because
you get paid even if you’re
not actively involved in it.
Step 1: Start building or
rebuilding it from the
inside-out so that it
leverages your core
competency.
Step 2: Develop a Big Zig
in your marketing so it
reflects your core
competency.
Wouldn’t you like your
Step 3: Create teams and
business to be an asset like
systems around you so the
that? You can. It starts from
the inside-out. Do what you
business works for you.
love, by discovering your
core competency. Develop a Big Zig in your marketing that
reflects your core competency. Then create teams and systems
around you so the business works for you.
The Secret of the Watermelon is truly a breakthrough and
counter-intuitive to how most business owners think.
Most think they have to first determine the needs of the
customer or find a market before they can begin. But that won’t do
you any good if you’re not able to leverage your God-given talents
and skills. That’s what I discovered running the agency. Although
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it was one of the largest in the country and it was very successful,
after a while I wasn’t happy. I was only using a small portion of
my talents and skills.
My real passion is helping other business owners get unstuck
and transform their businesses and their lives. The marketing and
advertising I had learned was only a piece of that transformation
entrepreneurs need to succeed.
How I got the name “The Watermelon Guy”
Don’t get me wrong, I love marketing and advertising! It’s how
many people came to know me as the “watermelon guy”. I had
made a name for myself mailing lumpy packages – promotions that
included give-aways, baseballs, fake dynamite tubes, mini trash
cans, etc. to get prospects’ attention.
What better way to get someone’s attention than to mail a
watermelon?! I saw it as
the ultimate test. Every
time, we mailed something
we tried doing something
more radical than the last
time. And no one had ever
mailed a watermelon!
A watermelon will
certainly get you
noticed. But using
the Secret of the
Watermelon will
change your life.
Copyright 2008
So I mailed
watermelons with letters
attached to them to
Mailing watermelons to prospects, which
marketing executives at
had never been done before, quickly
large companies. We
earned me the title, “The Watermelon
pitched our promotional
Guy”. The post office used other names.
services offering them Tshirt printing, Frisbees with their logos on them, water bottles, etc.
that we could create for them for their next company picnic. We
got the highest response rate ever at just under 100% and sold tons
of promotional products as a result.
The experiment made a big point about how effective creative
packages like that can be – and now everyone knows me as the guy
who mailed a watermelon and they call me the “watermelon guy!”
The mailman uses other names.
Whatever you do, do it big!
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Mailing a watermelon was a Big Zig. I didn’t send a
professional flat letter. I sent a BIG MAMA – a real watermelon
with stamp on it. That’s big thinking that gets big results! Most
will love your big idea. Some will disapprove. But everyone will
say, “wow”!
A watermelon will certainly get you noticed. But using the
Secret of the Watermelon will change your life.
Now that you know the secret the next step – and the most
important – is to put that secret to work for you.
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Chapter 2:
It’s all about you
Remember, the Secret of the Watermelon is that the turnaround
begins with you. So we have to start with helping you get yourself
unstuck.
The way we do that is by first discovering your core
competency. It’s part of your DNA. These are the gifts you’ve
been blessed with and do better than most other people.
What’s your core competency?
Each of us are blessed with unique gifts that give us our unique skills and
talents which enable us to do things better than most other people. These
traits and skills make up our core competency.
There are four requirements for something to be a core
competency. It must be something you can do:




Nearly perfect every time.
Consistently.
Passionately, so much so that it launches you out of bed in
the morning.
And you get paid well to do it because you’re providing
value.
The first element of a core competency is often the most
overlooked. There are plenty of things you may enjoy and may do
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There are plenty of
things you may
enjoy and may do
well, but for a talent
or skill to be
considered a core
competency it must
be one that you do
with near-perfect
performance.
well, but for a talent or skill to be considered a core competency it
must be one that you do with near-perfect performance.
Someone like Tiger Woods, for instance is a great example.
Tiger Woods is an awesome golfer and he does it nearly perfect
every time. When he is playing his game, he is so on. Even though
thousands of people are watching his every move from the gallery
and there’s millions of dollars riding on a putt, he doesn’t pay
attention to any of that. And he’s the best in the world at it.
He also does it on a consistent basis. It’s one thing if you go
out golfing and get an eagle on the first hole. That doesn’t
necessarily mean that you can do it on a regular basis. So, what
makes him great is that he can do it on a consistent basis and with
near-perfect performance. And for someone who works as hard as
he does at his game, he expresses his passion for what he does and
gets paid very, very well to do it. Obviously, golf is his core
competency.
But not everyone can be like Tiger Woods and there are many
more examples of people who work in their core competency that
you’ve probably never heard of before.
My friend Dave, for example, is a speaker who is one of the
best in the business. He can consistently close anywhere from 15%
to 35% of the room selling a $6,000 product. And he does it with
near perfect performance.
Here’s the problem Dave found himself in; he wasn’t able to
leverage. In other words, if he wasn’t speaking and selling, he
wasn’t making any money. Personally, I’m a leverage-aholic. I
work with all of our clients to develop processes so they can
continue to do the things they do best with the least amount of
effort. But before I go any further …
Pssst! Here’s another secret:
Simplify ,codify and multiply
The key is to leverage your talents and skills is follow my three
step process: simplify, codify and multiply.
Let me explain. Simplify it so others can do it too. Codify it by
putting the process in a manual, on video or in some other format
that others can refer to later. And multiply it. Distribute your ideas
for others to use.
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Let me use my friend Dave as an example. He simplified what
he was doing, because he did it over and over and over again. And
then he codified it. He put it down on paper, and then he multiplied
it. Since then, he’s hired several people who can give him leverage,
and give the same presentations he used to give. Their closing
ratios may not be as high as his, but they’re still very good and the
business is still very profitable.
This is important. Because when business owners get stuck, I
often hear them say, “Well, no one does it as well as I do.” That
may be true, but that’s okay. It’s okay if other people express your
ideas a little bit differently because you are leveraging and getting
freedom.
One client who I worked with whose name is also David, is a
real estate investor. After working with him, we determined that
the one thing he does better than anybody else is analyzing a deal.
He just loves the art of the deal.
The one thing that he can do really, really well is analyze
properties quickly and accurately. He can know, just by looking at
the numbers,
The key to leverage your core competency is to simplify…codify…and
multiply. Simplify it so others can do it too. Codify it by putting the process
in a manual, on video or in some other format so others and refer to later.
And multiply it. Print and distribute the reference for others to use.
the specs, comparable properties in the market and other data, he
knows right away what kind of offers to make on the property. No
one can take a large number of deals and do it faster and better
than he can.
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Other people don’t have that same core competency. Using the
Secret of the Watermelon we determined his core competency and
put him in the center of the circle so all he does now is analyze
deals.
Now, he’s not so great at the selling process and he’s not so
great at the negotiating process. Those things are done by other
people. But that’s okay, because he’s got a skill that’s
tremendously valuable. He sets up the parameters for the deal and
he says, “Look, if they accept the deal, here it is. Go work it out
with them. If they don’t, then this is the deal-breaker and the dealmaker.” He can set those parameters quickly when other people
can’t.
It’s one thing to be able to do something well. It’s another
thing to be able to do it on a consistent basis.
I was recently speaking with a friend of mine, Wade Harmon,
who is a coach for the Baltimore Ravens.
Wade was telling me about one of his players, who was one of
the all-time best wide receivers in the NFL. “Every day, after
practice, he would do the same things,” Wade told me. “He would
go right to the throwing machine. And he just practiced for 15 to
20 minutes every single day for 2 or 3 years just doing the same
thing over and over; just catching, catching, catching, catching to
become near-perfect on a consistent basis.”
Richard Kner was able to do a pretty amazing thing too. You
know what his core competency was? He was able to spot fun
ideas that people love. Some people think, “How do you make a
living being able to spot fun ideas?” He did and turned it into a
multi-million dollar business as founder of Wham-O.
Not many people know this story. But one time he was on a
safari in Africa where a flash rainstorm filled a dry lake bed. In a
very short time, he noticed fish swimming in the lake. There was
no stream or river flowing into the lake. One day the there was
Instant fish? You bet. While on safari in Africa, Richard Kner saw a dry lake one day, and after a rainstorm the
same lake was teaming fish. That experience spawned a new business idea.
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nothing but a dry crater. A few days later, it was teaming with fish
and he wondered, “How on earth did that happen? It just rained,
and now there are fish there? Where did these things come from?”
It wasn’t until he returned to the states that a zoologist
explained to him that a certain type of fish lays its egg in the soil
and when it rains, the water allows the eggs to hatch giving birth to
the fish. It just happens instantly.
He said, “Oh, my
gosh, that’s incredible!”
The zoologist didn’t think
much of it. But Kner had
other ideas. “Do you
know what that means?”
Kner asked him. “Do you
know how incredible that
would be, to be able to
have instant fish? You just add water and you have a live fish.”
That was his core competency: to spot an idea and turn it into a
business. Now, he took that idea and he actually did something
with it. He went to a toy fair back in the 1960’s, and took orders
for his Instant Fish. Toy store owners could ship the eggs to
customers who would just have to add water and like magic – they
would have instant fish!
He was
overwhelmed with
$10 million worth of
orders. People were
slipping orders under
his hotel room door
Richard Kner presented his idea for selling Instant Fish at a toy fair in the 1960’s and he was flooded with
orders. People were even slipping orders under his hotel room door!
during the fair. It was unbelievable.
He imported the fish he needed to lay the eggs and everyone
was excited, except the fish. He couldn’t get them to lay eggs fast
enough. Something was wrong. He tried serenading them with soft
music, mood lighting and he tried warming the water. Nothing
worked.
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He invested a huge amount of
money in it, but he eventually
refunded everybody’s money.
Sounds like a failure, right?
Kner was someone who was
always willing to try something
new and not give up. It was that same drive that made him buy the
rights for a toy in Australia called the bamba-hoop and renamed it
the hula-hoop.
Within two years
the company
generated more than
$45 million in profits
and they’ve sold more
than 100-million
hula-hoops.
What was his core
competency? He had an ability to recognize ideas, such as the
Pluto Platter. Again, Kner bought the rights to the discs and
renamed it the Frisbee.
What did we learn? First, always look out for new ideas.
Second, find your core competency and be willing to test. Be
willing to fail. Fail quickly and fail a lot.
F doesn’t mean failure in my grade book!
3M allows their
staff to spend 15%
of their time on
testing new ideas.
That means they’re
expecting to fail
15% of the time.
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Somehow, we’ve come to believe F is for failure. F is for
finding out what works and what doesn’t. It’s okay to try and fail!
The more that you try and the closer you can get to finding your
core competency, the more success you will eventually enjoy.
Some of our most innovative companies actually encourage
testing and failing. 3M allows their staff to spend 15% of their time
on testing new ideas. That means they’re expecting their
employees to fail 15% of the time. This is the same company that
has come out with everything from the Post-it Note to life-saving
surgical instruments. As a company, their core competency is
innovation and because they budget time and money for it, they’re
able to launch breakthrough products on a consistent basis.
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A woman I work with, Jill, owns an art gallery. What’s
amazing is that she has nearly a 100% closing ratio. She takes art
to people’s homes and she makes the sale in customers’ living
rooms. If she can take the art into a person’s home, she closes the
sale nearly every time.
She knows that. So what did she do? She built her entire sales
system to create an irresistible offer and to make it easy for her
prospects to have her come out to their home with the art. She tells
them, “I understand you think there’s going to be pressure to buy,
but there’s no pressure. It’s fun. I love doing this.”
So, she takes the art into their home and most often, she not
only sells them one piece, but she ends up selling them several
other pieces and comes away with several referrals.
So far, we’ve talked about the first two criteria you need to
operate in your core competency: (1) do something with near
perfect performance, and (2) do it on a consistent basis.
What’s your passion?
Here’s the third criteria: you must be passionate about it. Your
passion is what will get you through the rough times and
challenges you’ll eventually have to go through.
There’s risk involved. And many people don’t take the risk to
get involved with something they’re deeply passionate about. Most
people think, “You know, I’ve got to make a living.”
We’re blessed
because if you’re
running your own
business or you’re
even working for
someone, you do have
the ability to do what
you love and get paid
very well for it.
Copyright 2008
That’s true, you do have to make a living. But we’re blessed,
at this particular stage in history, at this particular place
geographically in the world because if you’re running your own
business or you’re even working for someone, you do have the
ability to do what you love and get paid very well for it.
For example, speaking is something that I love doing. My
particular core competency is I’m pretty good in front of a room in
a live presentation. I’m a change agent. And I’m pretty good at
doing facilitation. So, I’ve built my business around doing those
three things that are in my core competency.
When I speak and I’m selling a product from the back of the
room, I do very well. I’ve closed as much as 73% of the room
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selling a very expensive product. At the same time, I’m passionate
about working with our clients here at Brand Launcher and helping
them transform their businesses and their lives.
I’m totally passionate about helping others actualize their
greatest potential. These are things I can do with near-perfect
performance, on a consistent basis. To me, I can’t believe I get
paid to do this. It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.
Howard Schultz is just as passionate about coffee. He loves it!
It’s what led him to start Starbucks. When he goes to Italy, he has
the sort of palette that can discern the difference between a good
coffee and a great coffee.
I, on the other hand, am not much of a coffee drinker and
couldn’t tell you the difference between a good cup of coffee and
bad cup of coffee. I’m lousy at it. It’s not my core competency.
Schultz is awesome at it. And he prides himself on making the
very best coffee. However, he was tempted to diversify and began
to sell chocolates. But he doesn’t have the same competency. Their
coffees are great but their chocolates are just good. They’re not
great because they’re not experts in chocolate. Their expertise is in
making great coffee. Never lose sight of your core competency.
What can a few baristas teach us about passion?
I recently spoke at the International Coffee Fest, which was the
largest gathering of people who brew, import, manufacture, pick
and sell coffee and tea. It was a remarkable experience. Talk about
people who are really passionate about coffee!
Every year, they hold a barista competition to see who serves
the best cup of coffee. I didn’t know there was such a thing as
barista competitions. The event is overseen by the Mid-Atlantic
Board of Judges, each of whom is certified to judge this prestigious
event.
Some people would probably say, “That is the most ridiculous
thing! A competition to brew a cup of coffee? Just pour in some
hot water and some coffee grounds, and you’re done.”
That’s not what this was about at all. They had seven judges
and three baristas competing. The national barista champion was
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19
there too and it was like a rock star had showed up! Everyone was
crowded around her in awe!
During the competition, the judges closely watch every move.
They’re judging how well the baristas tamp the coffee into the
machine and how well they brew the coffee so it’s not too oily or
foamy and it doesn’t taste burnt. After they finished, crowds of
people gathered around the competitors, fawning over them and
saying, “You’re awesome! … Oh my gosh! Did you see that?!”
And the judges hovered over the winning cup saying, “Look at
the oil here, and look at the design, the taste, the aroma. Wow!” It
was amazing to see that kind of passion. What could you do with
passion like that in your business? Imagine the possibilities.
Whatever you do, be the best in the world.
Show me the money! Show me how!!
Let me address the question everyone asks me: “How do I
figure out if I’m going to be able to make money from my core
competency?”
Before I answer that, you have to find what I call your “sweet
spot”. It’s one thing if you’re great at golfing or you’re great at
throwing a party. But the question is: Does it have any commercial
value? Can you make money from your core competency?
Before you can find your sweet spot in the market, you have to
get a clear handle on who and what you are really about. Try The
Core Competency Wizard below to help.
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20
The Core Competency Wizard
To help you find your core competency, answer the following
questions:
1.
When you walk into a bookstore, what part of the
bookstore do you naturally gravitate to? Do you naturally
gravitate to the cooking section? The self-help section? The travel
section? The business section? Where do you find yourself
naturally gravitating to?
2.
What conversations do you naturally gravitate to? When
you’re at a party or talking with friends, what topics of
conversation do you naturally engage in?
3.
What kind of advice do you give or what kind of advice do
other people come to you for? Are they looking for help with their
marriage? Business? Finances? Are they coming to you about some
sort of subject matter expertise?
4.
What activities energize you? How can you make money
doing it?
Your core competency really operates on two levels – what I
call your Subject Matter Expertise (SME) and you’re your deeper
modality.
If you’re in landscaping, for instance, you probably have a
subject matter expertise in landscaping. Or, if you work in an art
gallery, you may have a subject matter expertise in art. If you’re at
an accounting firm, you’re subject matter expertise may be in
accounting.
But you also have a deeper level of understanding and a deeper
sets of skills, which is where you’ll find your core competencies.
When you’re in your core competency, time flies by for you. It’s
enjoyable. And it seems effortless to you.
In the landscaping world, there are a lot of different aspects to
the business. One aspect is planting, mowing, raking and trimming.
Another aspect is designing and building patios, decks and walls.
Another aspect may be selling your services. And finally, another
aspect is managing the crews.
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21
You have to determine which parts of the business you love
doing. And when you start to discover that, that’s when time flies
by and you can’t believe it and you tell yourself, “Wow, I feel
really appreciated, I feel really valued and I’m providing real
value.”
“How can I be so sure I’m going to get paid?”
It’s one thing to
pursue a passion,
it’s quite another to
get paid – and get
paid well – for your
passion. The key is
whether the market
finds value in your
core competency.
This brings us to our fourth and final section on discovering
your core competency. Is the market going to pay you well? It’s
one thing to pursue a passion, it’s quite another to get paid – and
get paid well – for your passion.
The key is whether the market finds value in your core
competency to pay you for it. The more unique and the more
valuable it is to others, the more you’ll get paid.
I’ll share an idea with you.
One of our clients, Aaron who is a landscaper, really believes
the best way to take care of your lawn and your plants is to use
organic fertilizers and treatments. He’s always preached this to his
clients, long before it became trendy.
He understands how to help a homeowner use organic
solutions.
So, when all of the other landscapers are competing over
pricing, he doesn’t have to because he’s created a niche with very
little competition. And because other landscapers are now trying to
give customers more organic options, he’s teaching his colleagues
how to use natural solutions and offer them to their customers.
He’s positioned himself as the guru of organic landscapers.
This is something he does with near perfect performance and
consistently. It gets him up out of bed every morning and other
landscapers are paying him well for his knowledge.
Another one of my members is a Chinese restaurant owner who
used the Secret of the Watermelon to create a restaurant unlike
any other in the market, which is hard to do today. Competition is
tougher than ever. There are twice as many Chinese restaurants in
the country than there are McDonald’s. Many have become totally
ubiquitous. The truth is most are virtually the same – they just
operate under a different name and in a different location.
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22
But one owner leveraged her passion for tea, in particular
flowering tea, to create a one-of-a-kind tea bar.
“What’s a flowering tea?” you may ask? A flowering tea is
similar to a lotus flower that’s served in a glass teapot. When you
place the lotus flower in a
teapot filled with hot water, it
begins to open like a flower,
right before your eyes. It goes
through a metamorphosis. And
the teas themselves have
healing properties.
The owners have enjoyed
tremendous success by
launching this very unique tea bar. By sending news releases to the
local newspapers throughout the year, they got attention from the
media. If it’s allergy season, they have teas that will help. If you’re
feeling blue, they have a tea that will help. If you need a pick-up in
the morning, they have a tea for that too.
It all started with an owner who loves tea, and capitalized on
her passion for tea. As a result, the market has paid her very well
for it.
A woman in Nebraska, Lisa, is amazing when it comes to
making offers and negotiating deals. Everything else is delegated.
Her goal then, is simply to get her in front of people to make
those deals. Her entire marketing system is designed to give her
more deals that she can close – and she gets paid well to do it.
Another guy in Texas is one of the best at barbequing beef on
the grill. He’s even created his own seasoning that’s world-famous.
He now owns one of the largest barbeque restaurants in the state.
As you can see, it all begins with your core competency and
pursing your passion. But as you grow, you’ll find yourself pulled
in a lot of directions – away from your core competency. The
secret is to build a team around you that will support you so you
can continue to leverage your skills.
Again, we start with you in the middle. Your core competency
is in the middle of that circle. The second circle around you is your
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marketing – your Big Zig. Outside of that circle, is your freedom
systems and freedom teams.
But it all starts with you.
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Chapter 3:
What’s your Big Zig?
Now it’s time for you to learn about “market-techture”.
Market-techture is what is known as marketing architecture. In
developing your message to communicate with the market, you
must first develop the architectural blueprint that will diagram your
flow of communication to and from your prospects.
The primary flow of communication is first and foremost, lead
generation. Second is lead development and conversion. Third is
promise fulfillment.
Your goal is first to generate leads; secondarily, to develop and
convert those leads; and finally, it’s up to your organization to
fulfill on the promises that you made in the marketing architecture.
Here’s what the ideal Market-tecture looks like
Every successful
business must have
a system to convert
leads into sales and
ultimately generate
referrals. What
does your system
look like?
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25
This is also called the sales funnel. Why is it a funnel? Because
as you go through the process your pool of prospects narrows.
There will be many leads that will go into the top of your funnel,
but as you refine your offer and create the sale, only a few will
come out. The key is to constantly replenish your funnel.
And that brings me to my most important point. If you don’t
remember anything I’ve told you so far, remember this next point.
It is probably the single biggest thing you can do in your marketing
that will reap huge dividends.
Circle this section. Underline it. I’ll even highlight it for you.
But do whatever will help you remember this point …
Create a Big Zig for your business that makes you so dramatically
different than the competition and stands out and shouts, “I’m
different and better than all the rest!”
We talked earlier about a Big Zig. This is the one thing that
makes your business unique. While others are zagging and doing
the same old thing, you want to zig.
Why is this important?
You’ll at least triple your chance of success
with a Big Zig
Companies with a Big Zig have a 370% higher chance of being
successful, according to Harvard Business Review.
Remember, we’re in the age of advertising resistance, so you
must make your offer radically different from everything else
that’s in your industry. For some companies, this could mean
gaining more visibility for your product by being more flashy and
unique. For other companies it could be looking very plain and
simple when everyone else looks glossy. In other words, if
everybody is zagging, then you’d better zig. Otherwise, you’ll fall
into the “me too” world and get lost into oblivion. The worst thing
is to fall into the dusty attic of your prospect’s mind.
How important is the Big Zig?
 Companies that have a low zig only have a 14% chance of
probability to succeed.
 Companies that have a medium zig have a 40% chance of
success.
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26

Companies with a Big Zig have a 53% chance of
probability to succeed. That means that the bigger the zig –
the more dramatically different can make your offer – the
better your chance of success!
And what does “dramatically different” mean as opposed to
“sort of different”?
Dramatically different means that it's a major shift from what's
currently being offered and what’s expected. Incremental
improvements never produce the dramatic bottom line growth,
profits and potentials that Big Zigs can generate.
What’s your Big Zig?
While your competition may have higher price, quality and service, you can
differentiate your product by offering a simpler solution for customers.
While others zag, you can offer a Big Zig.
Copying somebody else won’t cut it either. Dr. Robert Cooper,
a professor of marketing at McMaster University in Hamilton,
Ontario, Canada, an authority in the field of marketing and says
80% of all copycat efforts fail.
In his report, “Selecting Winning New Product Projects,” he
says the company’s uniqueness is more important than its market
size, or growth rate. The study actually gives a score based on
importance to the following factors:




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Superior benefit/uniqueness (BIG ZIG) – 218
Fit with company’s overall skills – 142
Market size and growth rate –100
Fit with company’s technical skills – 43
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One Way To Zig: Go Where The Competition Isn’t
A marvelous book came out in 2005 that illustrates the concept
of the Big Zig very well called Blue Ocean Strategy by Chan Kim
and Renée Mauborgne. It highlights the need for companies to
differentiate themselves within the crowded marketplace of ideas.
Instead of fighting for market share in the “red, bloodied
waters” of industry competition, the authors advise companies to
find attractive “blue oceans” where competition is minimal or nonexistent. How can a company do this? By redefining the arena of
competition.
By creating a Big Zig that will not only differentiate your
company from others but radically alter the playing field, your
______________________________________________________
“If at first the idea is not absurd,
then there is no hope.”
Albert Einstein
______________________________________________________
company can decide where and when it wants to compete. It gives
power and control back to you, rather than letting industry
standards dictate the way the game is played.
Challenge the bedrock assumptions in your industry! Look
around and determine where everyone else is zagging – and then
zig. What is your entire industry doing? What is your industry’s
“sacred cow”? Does your industry really need to work this way or
have the lemmings taken over? (Remember – as Mark Twain said,
“Sacred cows make the best hamburgers”.)
Richard Kner of Wham-O understood the power of a Big Zig.
So did my client Paul Johnston of the Shed Shop.
Johnston created a Big Zig selling backyard sheds of all things!
He also realized that more people are outgrowing their homes
and looking for a separate space to house their hobbies, teach
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music lessons, create office spaces and places to work on their
projects without creating a mess in their living rooms. Self-storage
is one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. We simply have
too much stuff. So he showed how his sheds can help people
change their lifestyle!
He even has a contest every year for those with the most
unusual and original shed uses on his website,
www.shedshop.com. See below.
He shows how his
business is creating a
better lifestyle for his
customers, which is
highlighted in his
testimonial book, “83
Ways a Shed Has
Changed People’s
Lives.”
Wait. Read that
again, “83 Ways a Shed
Has Changed People’s
Lives.” Come on.
You’ve got to be
kidding. I mean it’s just
a shed! But he was able to create excitement and emotion out of
sheds!
Paul dug up incredible real life stories. He took simple blackand-white photos of his customers and told their stories about how
they were using their sheds. This allowed people to identify with
the people in the stories. That’s extremely important. Your clients
must be able to look at the testimonials and model examples and
see themselves also using your product or service.
One of the biggest mistakes most people make in marketing is
using pretty models and ideal situations that the average person
can’t relate to. But you don’t have to do that.
It’s not a shed; it’s a castle!
Listen to some of the different people he wrote about and
pictured in his book. There was a woman who said that when she
was growing up, she remembered having space to act like a
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29
princess. She now has grandchildren and a small house in
California. Instead of building inside space, she built a shed in the
backyard that’s truly a home for her granddaughters to enjoy their
“castle”. Her grandchildren come over and put on performances.
The shed houses more than dress up clothes; it houses imagination.
Next, he showed a woman whose marriage was saved because
of a shed. Why was her marriage in jeopardy? Because this woman
was a school teacher and she had so many supplies and papers
spread out all over the house. Her husband was getting fed up with
tripping over them and having no space to breathe. But now, her
husband is no longer stumbling because she’s able to keep all of
her supplies neatly organized and safe in their shed in the
backyard. There’s peace in the home again. All because of the
shed! That’s incredible! A shed saving a marriage.
The other thing that Paul does is he instills a sense fear if you
use one of those other sheds on the market.
He talks about corrosion and rust, and how moisture will seep
in and ruin your belongings if the shed isn’t built properly. These
are the things that the other shed makers will never tell you about!
As he tells the story of his high quality wood sheds, he gives you
insider tips and tricks that you wouldn’t know to ask. He’s able to
charge premium prices and is one of the fastest growing shed
dealers in California.
What’s so different about a beauty shop?
Here’s another great
example. QB House isn’t
like any other beauty shop
in Japan. Quick Beauty
House as its full name
implies is about serving
people fast and making
them beautiful when they
walk out.
While the vast majority
of the haircutting industry
in Japan focuses more on
the emotional aspects of
quality and care in a
haircut, QB House decided
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QB House created a Big Zig in Japan where
the company is much more functionallyoriented that its competitors. As a result,
it’s changing an entire culture.
30
to become much more functionally-oriented. They don’t provide
the normal Asian routine of hot towels, shoulder rubs, and tea and
coffee, which normally extends the haircutting procedure into an
hour ritual. Instead, QB speeds up the process, and focuses on a
quicker, quality cut.
By looking at the market from this entirely different
perspective, QB House chose to take a no-nonsense, practical
approach. They eliminate all the extras which made haircutting a
big process, and now offer a quick, 10-minute haircut.
In doing so, they are much more efficient with using resources,
and can charge one-third to one-fifth of the regular price, and earn
a greater profit. This idea has caught on, and is spreading
throughout Asia, slowly changing the cultural perception of what a
haircut is meant to be: a beautiful cut, which can be done quickly.
Ask yourself: “What can I give up? What can I elect NOT to
do?” Asking these questions, will help you narrow your niche and
focus on what’s most important to your business.
Does YOUR marketing have a Big Zig?
Your goal is to dominate a small, narrowly defined market. To
do that, you’ll need to stand out. So should your marketing and
advertising.
For example, everyone sends out what’s called “flat mail”.
These are flat envelopes that typically carry letters and you open
over the trash can and separate the bills from the junk mail. Well, I
told you earlier that I’m known as the “The Watermelon Guy” but
what I didn’t tell you is that I’m also known as the “Lumpy Mail
Guy”.
You see, I love to mail Lumpy Mail. These are packages sent
to prospects that are usually oversized, oddly shaped and carry
something inside that makes it “lumpy”. Why? Because people
open them! They’re so unusual, they stand out from all the other
mail everybody gets and as a result, they increase response.
Usually, the more expensive the package, the better they do.
I’ve mailed mini-trash cans, bank bags and even coconuts just
to name a few to grab the attention of my hungry fish. I used all
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31
three in a multi-step promotion campaign for the NBA that pulled
in a 50% response rate (see example).
Within the world of advertising and direct marketing, there are
three major problems that you have to overcome. They are the
Three R’s: rip it open, read it and respond.
These are things that every direct marketer wants, and in reality
the better marketing pieces achieve all three. I'll show you how.
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Let me clear, most direct marketing never gets opened, so the
main goal is just to get a person to overcome that first “R” and rip
it open. The second problem is that even if it is opened, most of
those people won’t get past the second “R” and actually read it
because it does NOT grab the reader’s attention.
The third R is “Respond.” Many offers don’t actually motivate
a person to pick up the phone and call, to click on a link and sign
up, to fax in an order form or to mail in a business reply card.
Take the recent Super Bowl ads, for example. Everyone gets
caught up in the hype of which ads were more enjoyable to watch.
But the fact is most are waste of money because only 6% of them
had a call to action. SalesGenie.com got slammed by critics for
having boring ads, but it was one of the few that asked people to
go to its website to get 100 free sales leads. SalesGenie.com was
criticized last year for it "dull" ads and it brought in $54 million in
revenue from its $3 million per ad investment.
Your goal is to make money -- not to win awards!
Your job is not to entertain! Leave that up to the Madison Avenue
ad agencies that are more interested in winning awards than
anything else. Your goal is to gently and elegantly lead your
prospects to a specific call to action and ultimately make money.
But if you don’t overcome the 3 R’s your offer will end up
where most of the stuff falls, “out of sight, out of mind.” That file
can usually be found in the trash. Advertising and marketing guru
Dave Oglevy once said, “If I knew exactly who was ready to buy
and when they were ready to buy, I’d save 75% of my advertising
expenses.”
Unfortunately, people aren’t necessarily ready to buy when
you’re ready to sell. The question is how do you stay in front of
them for three hours, three days, three weeks, three months or even
three years? (Hint: It has to do with you Big Zig!)
I have one client who called me after four years and said, “I
just want you to know that I just got another response from that
mailing we sent out.” A year later, he tells me again, “I just got
another response from that mailing we sent out.” For four years,
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33
he’s been calling me and saying, “I’m still getting first-time
responses from that mailing we sent out.”
What’s been working so well? It was a magnet. We made an
irresistible offer, sent it to a group of people that were motivated
and they actually put it up on their refrigerator. Later, they’d call
the client up and say, “I’ve been looking at this thing for four years
and I’m ready now.” That’s how simple it is.
The first challenge in the 3 R’s – get your prospects to rip it
open is one of the toughest. It’s no wonder. From the moment we
wake up in the morning to the time we lay down to sleep, we’re
bombarded with advertising messages.
Most of us wake up to a clock radio with advertising. I have
four children, thank God. When I grab my toothpaste in the
morning, I see more advertising on the back – a joint venture they
did with “Rugrats.” You get dressed and grab your box of cereal.
There’s more advertising. You sit down to read the newspaper.
More advertising. If you turn on the TV and see what’s going on in
the morning news, more advertising. Finally, you get in your car
and you start driving. You turn on your radio and there's more
advertising. You see a bus go by, more advertising. You get to
your office and open the mail and find even more advertising.
How to stand out from 3,100 ad messages/day
Did you know that if you were to take all the direct mail and
lay it end to end, it would wrap around the globe six times in the
course of one year? According to Silver Research, the average
person gets over 3,100 marketing messages per day.
People have become immune to advertising and marketing. It
used to be that there were three types of cereals on the grocery isle.
Now, there are 300 types of cereal. There used to be three major
TV stations. Now there are 3,000 stations you can get from all over
the world.
Therefore, the real question is, “How do you get past that?”
Lumpy Mail, of course!
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5 "Lumpy Mail" ideas to get your offer opened
There are so many fun and wonderful strategies that you can
get it opened. One thing that you can do is, as we say, “Add a lump
and get a bump in response.” You can actually make the carrier
unusual. Here are five of my favorites:
1. Send your marketing in a “dynamite” tube.
There are several different things you can do with
a tube. You can make it like a dynamite stick and
have a little wick sticking out with a message that
says: Get ready to see your sales explode! We
actually got a call from this right after 9/11. It was
very funny. I was giving a seminar and it was a
week and a-half after 9/11. This guy stood up and
said, “I just used your stuff,” and 250 people
turned to the back of the room. “I sent out a
dynamite stick last week after 9/11.” Jon, I have to tell you, it’s the
best response I’ve received in my life.”
2. Tie it to a balloon and watch your response rate soar.
We once did a mailing that got a 31% response for IBM. It was a
pre-show mailer to sell exhibit spaces. One of the things that we
sent was a box that was about 18 inches wide. When you open the
box, a helium balloon rises up tied to a string and a package of Red
Hots candy. (If you’re interested in doing this, check with us first.
When balloons are shipped over the Rocky Mountains, all the
helium deflates so we have two distribution centers on both sides
of the Rockies to handle the shipments.)
3. Put your message in a bottle and send it out.
Another popular promotion
is what we call, “Message in
a Bottle.” The package looks
like a wine bottle. The
message is rolled up inside
and attached to the cap so it
can be pulled out easily by the prospect. The message begins by
saying, “Don’t get left stranded…” or “Enclosed is your treasure
map…” I’ve seen this get 60% response rates for seminar mailings.
4. A briefcase makes a terrific high-end package.
5. One client, Info Now that has products with an average sale of
$100,000, actually sent a metal Halliburton briefcase to CIOs,
CEOs and CFOs at Fortune 500 Companies. When you opened the
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35
briefcase, a laptop inside automatically started running a video
presentation. Next to the laptop was a Nokia cell phone. At the end
of the presentation, it said, “Press send.” The promotion generated
a 55% response rate and of those, 50% converted to a sale.
5. Handwritten address with a live stamp ... simple, but
effective!
Simply address the envelope with what looks like a handwritten
address and add a commemorative stamp – not a bulk mail stamp.
The problem with handwritten addresses is that they can be slow
and expensive, but after nearly two years of searching we finally
found software that looks just like the real thing! This is important
because 83% of your prospects will open a hand-addressed
envelope. Tip: don’t include a return address when you use a
handwritten address. It will be intriguing enough that people will
have to open it.
Try anyone of those ideas and I guarantee you’ll stand out from
the crowd and more importantly, you’ll see an increase in
response. For more, go to www.LumpyMail.com.
The story of the “Big Zig Master”
There was one man who was a master of using the Big Zig to
his advantage. His name was Robert LeRoy Ripley, creator of
“Believe It or Not.”
He was one of the most famous men of his time. He was as
well known as Walt Disney and P.T. Barnum. According to the
United States Postal Service, he received more mail than Santa
Claus and perhaps
more than anyone
in history.
Sometimes he
received over a
million pieces of
mail a year.
He grew up in
Santa Rosa, a small
town in Northern
California, dropped out of high school his senior year and signed
on as a pitcher for a semi-professional baseball team. But he was
also a good artist. He started to draw postcards for his baseball
team. He left baseball, worked at several newspapers before
landing a job at the New York Globe.
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What’s important about this progression is when planning a
career, the steps that you take to advance your career aren’t always
linear. So stop expecting them to be. You’ll be much happier once
you accept this imperfect path. Ripley focused on developing his
core competency over time. Eventually, his core competency,
which was reporting on what was interesting, unusual and odd
became his full time (and very lucrative) career. He was the master
of the Big Zig. He knew how to differentiate himself by finding the
unique and weird in other people.
When he worked at the Globe, his job was to draw cartoons of
sporting events. One day, in 1918, there wasn’t anything to draw,
so he started to draw weird comics about sports odysseys. He drew
about a man who was able to hop 100 yards in only 11 seconds.
Next he drew about a man who held his breath under water for 6.5
minutes. Finally, he drew about another man who had jumped rope
11,800 times without stopping.
Champs And Chumps (Ripley’s First Oddity Foray)
He originally titled his cartoons; “Champs and Chumps,” but
the editor didn’t really like the title. They really weren’t champs
and chumps. So he changed it to a wonderful name; he called it
“Believe It or Not.”
By December 19, 1918
his cartoons became so
popular that the editor
asked him to draw all sorts
of other things. The Globe
began occasionally
featuring Ripley’s cartoon,
and as it grew in popularity,
it increased in frequency. At
first it ran on a weekly
basis, and then daily. It
started in the world of
sports and moved onto
other subjects. Over the
years, he created over 340
categories.
Ripley received so much
mail that it was like he had
Copyright 2008
What began as a regular sports
cartoon turned into Ripley’s
“Believe it or Not” with a Big Zig
that made him millions.
37
enlisted millions of people to work for him. He ran contests, he
challenged and rewarded people. And what were the rewards?
The rewards were fame and recognition; being part of
something larger than themselves. He promised that when good
ideas came, they would be published, and people would be
recognized. He received such weird letters that they were signed in
Morse code, in confederate civil code, in sign language, some were
written on tin, wood, turkey bones, and once even a grain of rice.
The more outrageous – the better.
The way that he lived his life was a reflection of his innate
understanding of the Big Zig. He relished in gaining others’
attention. He dressed wildly and colorfully. He had two-tone shoes
and he would wear batwing ties. One person described his
appearance as a “paint factory that got hit by lightning.” His
flamboyance extended to his homes as well, including his house in
Florida, his Manhattan apartment with 13 rooms and his 28-room
mansion on his own island that he called BION (short for Believe
it or Not).
Challenge your audience … and create a following
Ripley used his articles to put challenges out to the world. He
claimed that nobody had been able to invent a machine that could
twist a pretzel into the shape that bakers have been doing for
centuries. A company called the Redding Pretzel Machine Corp
created a patent on the first pretzel twisting machine. This little
company from Pennsylvania broke the barrier doing what no one
else could ever do. Redding Pretzel Machine Corp. did that
through his challenge.
Are you challenging people? Or are you simply stating facts in
your marketing and on your website like a dictionary?
Ripley was also very bold. He boasted that he had never made
any mistakes in his column, and for years he was able to prove the
truth of every item.
Nevertheless, Edward Mier, president of Ripley Entertainment,
said there were maybe one or two false claims a year. “Ripley
sincerely believed that if something had been in print, it was
gospel,” Mier said. If Ripley didn’t have it in writing, he would try
to get a photograph. And he challenged his audience to prove him
wrong!
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38
There was a very unusual postmaster in Iowa named Leon
Harbour, who was so completely convinced that Ripley was a liar
and that his columns were full of bunk, that he made disproving
Ripley’s column the center of his life. For more than 26 years, he
wrote nearly a letter a day. Every time Ripley mentioned someone
in his column, Harbour took the time and energy to track down
these people and write them a letter asking them to verify Ripley’s
claim. He wrote to more than 22,700 of them. 10,363 wrote back;
not a single one ever contradicted Ripley’s claim!
By the 1920s, Ripley’s column appeared in dozens of papers
around the country, but his big break came in 1927. This is a great
message of the Big Zig. Charles Lindbergh made his famous solo
flight across the Atlantic and the world was in love with him,
except for Ripley.
Ripley was willing to
put his neck on the
line and say
something that was
controversial, something that was
different. He was
willing to zig when
everyone else was
zagging.
Ripley took a different approach to Lindbergh, claiming that
“Lindbergh is the 67th man to fly non-stop over the Atlantic
Ocean”. Lindbergh was simply the “first to go alone”. This made
readers crazy with anger! 170,000 people sent letters denouncing
Ripley and criticizing him for picking on their hero. However,
here’s the instructive point: this publicity made his book, Believe it
or Not! a best seller and it turned Ripley into a celebrity of
awesome status.
He was willing to put his neck on the line and say something
that was controversial, something that was different. He was
willing to zig when everyone else was zagging. Everybody was
talking about how great Lindbergh was and Ripley took a different
angle. What can you do in your business that’s different from
everyone else? Can you find an enemy? How about the evil IRS
henchmen?
Remember I told you how he received tons of mail? He
received more mail than any other person in human history.
Sometimes he would run contests, which is a very important rule.
Learn to run a contest when you have a group of people responding
to you. He would receive on average 3,500 letters a day. That’s
more than 1 million per year over 30 years. (One contest that he
ran received 250,000 letters in less than two weeks.) Many of the
letters he received made it into his writing. What’s the operative
secret here? He was letting other people do the work for him.
That last point brings me to my final ingredient of the Secret
of the Watermelon …
Copyright 2008
39
Chapter 4:
The Final Ingredient –
Freedom!
How do eat a watermelon?
No, this isn’t a trick question. You eat a watermelon one bite at
a time.
The same is true when building or re-building your business.
You build it one step at a time – one piece at a time.
We’ve already talked about starting first with you and your
business’ core competency. Then, you develop a Big Zig you can
promote in your maret-tecture. Finally, you need to build your
Freedom Systems and Freedom Teams. These are your systems
and teams of people that will implement your vision.
Why do I use the term “freedom” to describe them?
Because when you put the right systems and teams in place,
they’ll free you from your business so you’re not working in your
business all of the time. It’s day-to-day operations are no longer
dependent on you. Instead, you’ll have the freedom to work on the
business and use your core competency to focus on the things you
enjoy so you can grow the business.
Your job is to perform the mission – not the tasks
Your freedom team should
support you as if you were a
fighter pilot. As a fighter pilot,
your job is to fly and command
the plane at lightning speed.
Your job is to successfully
complete your mission. That's
all that you need to focus on.
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40
In order for you to do so, you need to have an entire team of people
on the ground doing what they do best to support you. You need
an army of people in engineering, maintenance, accounting, human
resources, logistics, safety systems and communications. It’s a
completely interdependent system.
Just like there’s only one fighter pilot, there’s only one
business owner or leader. And it’s your right as the entrepreneur to
claim your core competency and claim the spot that’s best suited
for you.
As you continue to increase your revenue, add staff that will
either make sales for you or increase your sales. Every position
_____________________________________________________
Your freedom team should support you as if
you were a fighter pilot. Your job is to
successfully complete your mission. That's
all that you need to focus on.
______________________________________________________
must do one or the other; either increase sales or free someone else
up to increase sales for the company.
Use the money from those additional sales to build your
freedom teams and systems, one block at a time.
When your Freedom Team is in sync together, your business
becomes more effortless and it will naturally attract the right
people and produce the results that you desire.
It’s also your responsibility to manage the team. It’s important
to recruit people who want to be in those support positions. When
you find a person to perform a support role in accounting that’s
great. Don’t think, “poor guy” stuck in accounting. Know that each
of us have complementary skills and strengths totally different
from our own. It’s his core competency and he's doing what he
loves.
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41
The choice is yours …
Without a Freedom Team in place you have two options –
grow or die. The reality is that harsh. The natural order of
business is either to grow or die. There is no such thing as staying
the same. Things are always moving and changing and evolving.
Your company is either going forward or it's going backward. It
cannot simply remain static. You're now at a turning point in your
business where you must decide which one is best for you, because
you can no longer maintain this state of being in between.
The ultimate question facing all business owners
Here’s a question that often stumps business owners: What’s
the actual goal of business?
Serve customers? Meet a need? Make money? Make a
difference in the world?
The ultimate goal of
any business is to
convert it from a
liability to an asset.
Those are all valid answers, but I gave you a hint earlier … The
ultimate goal of any business is convert it from a liability to an
asset and provide value to your customers.
What do I mean by that?
Let me give you an example of a liability that most people
consider an asset. Most people consider their house an asset.
Why? Because it’s something they live in, they've put money into
it, and they've made payments on it. But the reality is that their
house is actually a liability because they owe money on it and it
doesn't produce any wealth or revenue for them.
As long as the bank owns it, you’re continually pouring money
into it and it's not an income generating asset. It's simply a liability
that takes money out of your portfolio and sticks it into something
that is not performing.
Most businesses are liabilities because they're set up with a
large amount of expenses and obligations. And they are set up to
require your time, a further withdrawal against you and your
personal resources.
If you don't work in your business, it will go down the tubes,
right?
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42
Then, in that case, your business is a liability!
You may argue that the business has a lot of value to it.
You've got customers, inventory, a good reputation and so on.
That may be
true, but as long
as you are
obligated to work
in the business
every day, then all
you have is a
glorified job and
you don't have a
true asset in your
business.
WARNING! As long as you’re
obligated to work in your
business every day, you really
just have a glorified job. The goal
is to turn your business into an
asset that is paying you.
The goal is to set up your business so that it provides you with
a residual passive revenue stream without you having to be there
and do all the work.
Your business should work for you, like a stock or a rental
until like I talked about in Chapter 1.
You should invest in your business the same way, so that it
increases in value and pays you, as opposed to you constantly
having to work in the business. Good real estate investments are
also a good model for the right thinking. If you buy a small home
for $100,000, put down a $10,000 deposit, your mortgage will be
$500. Then, if you rent it for $950 per month you now have an
asset. Once your initial investment of $10,000 is paid off, you are
getting equity and this asset is paying you.
What can you do with your business so it’s paying you?
The world's worst business is something that demands that
you're there and on-call all the time.
Unfortunately, many businesses are like that. Unless you're
there to open the door, the doors don't open. Unless you're there to
constantly monitor everybody or push sales, things fall apart.
Every retail operation demands that you are there as long as the
doors are open. If you’re running a service business such as a
financial planning firm, mortgage business, real estate agency or
Copyright 2008
43
sales office, they all depend on you. Being a doctor, lawyer or
computer programmer all depend on you.
But here is another secret I’m about to reveal. Every one of
the businesses I just mentioned can become assets with the right
Freedom Team and Freedom Systems in place.
You just have to build the system and remove yourself from
the equation and the regular flow of most of the day-to-day
business activities. Begin to work on your disappearing act little by
little. Eventually you will retrain your staff and your customers.
Here’s how you benefit from a Freedom Team
Your goal is to set up a system that works on autopilot and
simply requires checking and managing reports and results.
As the business
owner you want to
put your company on
autopilot. It should
have checks and
balances built into
the system to prevent
entropy from
happening. It should
be a system that also
allows the Freedom
Team to move the
ship forward, even
without you being on
deck at all times.
Autopilot means that it has checks and balances built into the
system, to keep things from falling apart when you’re not working
in the business every day.
It should be a system that also allows the Freedom Team to
move the ship forward, even without you having to be on top of
them at all times.
Here’s another benefit: You get a balanced life.
You will be able to have a balance in your life between your
personal and professional roles. You see, most people who are
entrepreneurs, experience “the death of an entrepreneur,” which is
complete chaos as their business takes over their personal life.
Most business owners never strike that balance.
Entrepreneur Jim McQuaig has created such a balance for
himself as owner of a mortgage company.
In a profession where the average loan officer is constantly
responding to phone calls on his cell, always on the run, gulping
down meals while falling behind, Jim created a system so he is
able to eat dinner every night with his family, find time to go
golfing and traveling, and work only 10 hours a week. How did he
do all that? He uses something called the “two-call system.” Jim
manages his team so that they would only get two types of calls:
1. a thank you, and
2. a referral.
Copyright 2008
44
His team gradually built up a very strong service network that
generated referral calls naturally and abundantly to the company.
If any other type of call came in, then Jim would continue to
retool the system. In setting up a system like that, Jim was able to
lead the company to exponential growth, into the billions of
dollars, because he could provide such systems for other loan
officers that joined his company.
Another example is Michael Forrester. He’s built a business
that is built primarily on the Internet. He’s an author and also
offers personal coaching and counseling to business owners.
Forrester created a Freedom Team and a system that allows him to
spend more time with his family, and to come and go as he pleases.
One of the things that he created is a series of ongoing teleseminars. After he did them a couple of times, and mastered them,
he then recorded them and set them to play on an ongoing weekly
basis, so that now he doesn't even have to be on the calls.
He also set up systems that deliver the content to his customers
without him actually having to provide the service. This program
gives him literally an extra 2-3 days per week of free time.
Tips to build a Freedom Team
Here's the $1 million question: How do you go about building a
freedom team?
The first thing you must do is develop a plan and create a
system. Unfortunately, most business owners never do this. Why?
Because they are busy living to work instead of working to live.
______________________________________________________
“Your goal is to design a life for yourself.
It is your right and obligation as an
entrepreneur to create a system that works
for you and your freedom team.”
_________________________________
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45
You’ve probably heard the expression don’t put the buggy
before the horse.
In your business, the “horse” in your business is your sales and
marketing. They’re like the horse. Without them, there’s no
business. The “buggy” in your business are those things that
support you and the business – your freedom teams, staff and
operational systems. You are
the driver. You guide the
horse and the buggy and give
them direction.
So what’s more
important? The horse (sales
and marketing) or the buggy
(freedom teams and
operational systems)?
The answer: The horse –
sales and marketing!
Without them your business will be gone. But without your teams
and systems, you will quickly fail, make empty promises and lose
your customers.
Where do big payoffs come from in business?
How many times
have you met smart
and talented
business people who
have a great service
or product, but don't
have a great
business? How about
all the times that you
meet people who
have great
marketing and an
average product
who have been very
successful?
Copyright 2008
For most entrepreneurs, the first quantum leaps always come
from breakthroughs in sales and marketing. How many times have
you met smart and talented business people who have a great
service or product, but don't have a great business? How about all
the times that you meet people who have great marketing and an
average product who have been very successful? You may even
think to yourself “My products and services are better than theirs!”
Look at companies like McDonald’s. They have a very average
product, but they have extraordinary marketing positioning. Or
Domino’s Pizza. It has very average quality pizza, but their brand
promise and guarantee of getting it to the customer within 30
minutes or it's free, is extraordinary. (Some even say that their
pizza is lousy. But they would be missing the whole point.)
Unfortunately, many people have this backwards. They think
that the initial quantum leaps come from improving the operational
system. In reality, the first quantum leaps come from creating
marketing systems that drive the operations. Nevertheless, your
46
overall company will never be able to make a quantum leap, unless
your operational systems are set up correctly to support your
marketing promise.


First comes the promise;
then comes the fulfillment of the promise.
Here’s the key: Set up your business so that you can make the
world's greatest promise and then have the world's greatest
fulfillment system deliver the promise.
The 4-step process to developing your system
Here is the secret to have others do the work for you. Take all
the processes you’ve developed for yourself and turn it into a
system so you can teach others how to do it.
It may seem daunting at first. Most business owners get
frustrated with this process and never do it. They simply don’t take
the time to do it and remain stuck working in their business. But if
you do take the time to document your systems, it will eventually
pay for itself 100 fold!
Document the steps
needed in your
processes so you don’t
have to continually
train new employees.
Simplify the steps and
then codify them in a
manual. In doing so,
you'll release yourself
from your team and
start to gain freedom
because they now have
a system that they can
follow.
Why? You see, if you try to teach each person separately how
to do it, you'll never have real leverage. You should assume that
many of the people that you hire will eventually leave or will move
on to other positions, and therefore all the time you spent on
training them is not leveraged. By creating sound, documented
training, you will have invested your time wisely, leading you to
greater leverage.
I mentioned this earlier. The key is to simplify, codify,
multiply – and satisfy! Otherwise, you'll never achieve leverage.
Step #1: Simplify everything you do. Start out by looking at
the beginning of the day and by writing down all of the different
processes that you go through in order to accomplish each project.
As you go through the different processes, break them down into
manageable steps and define who is responsible for getting each
step done. Be sure to take lots of notes.
Step #2: Codify your processes. Create your documentation
with screen shots of the computer screen, if that's necessary, like a
manual. You’ll want to create two types of manuals: An
operations manual and a sales manual. Basically, you’re creating a
Copyright 2008
47
gigantic checklist for your business. In doing so, you'll release
yourself from your team and start to gain freedom because they
now have a system that they can follow.
Be prepared to lose time and money at the beginning. But once
it’s done, you'll start to see the beauty of the system work for you.
Step #3: Multiply your system. Put your processes into a
format, such as in a binder or on a disc that you can give to a staff
person to use as a training tool. Your system should be designed so
someone can follow along without you being there. It should be
instructional so be sure to draw attention to mistakes to avoid,
common errors and helpful tips someone would need to know to
perform the job. Next, you should multiply by sharing your system
and promises with the world via your sales and marketing
machine.
Step #4: Satisfy you end-user by continuing to update your
documentation with more useful tips and explanations. As your
staff begins to use your documentation, they’ll come up with
questions and work-arounds you may have never even thought to
address. So be sure to make changes to the document as needed.
Your goal as CEO
The goal is for you to work on things which are important but
not urgent. Freedom Teams and Freedom Systems will give you
more time to leverage your skills and spend more of your energy
on the most important things, which by nature are generally not
urgent.
If you’re always dealing with the crisis of the day you’ll never
be able to see the big picture and break through the glass ceiling
that is holding you back.
Look, are we here to work to live, or live to work? We’re here
to do both, in a certain sense. You’re here to live to work. That
means that as long as you’re required to work and spend most of
your waking hours doing it, you better make it a valuable and rich
experience. But you’re also here to work to live. Life is not just
about working. It’s about sharing your personal life with loved
ones and having a meaningful life outside of your job.
And you are blessed, right now, to be able to do what you love
and get paid to do it. So, you can live with integrity and develop
Copyright 2008
48
the most important thing, which are the relationships in your
business, and have some freedom to do what you love.
None of this happens overnight. Don’t get discouraged if
you’re not doing the things you love to do right now. That’s okay.
Start to get a handle on the part of it that you do love doing and
that you’re really good at, and little by little you’ll be able to start
to outsource or even forego those things that you don’t do as well.
Then people will actually support you in it, when you say, “You
know what? I don’t really do that very well, but I do this really
well. This, you can really count on me.”
You’ll be able to start to make a shift. And in doing so, you’ll
actually see better results.
Your next step …
I know I’ve given you a lot to chew on. (My editor is
constantly telling me I’m giving more away than I have to, but
what does he know?!) The fact is, I have a ton more advice based
on my experience of working with thousands of business leaders
over the years.
And quite frankly, there aren’t too many things that excite me
as much as helping people turn around their businesses and their
lives. It’s my passion and I hope that the advice here will help get
you started.
The Secret of the Watermelon really can transform your life
just as it has done for so many others. Now it’s up to you …
1. Determine your core competency and figure out how you
leverage your talents and skills so you can focus on the
things you do best.
2. Create a Big Zig and sell it using big, bold powerful
marketing messages.
3. Build your Freedom Teams and Freedom Systems to
support you.
And if ever need any help with any of those steps or just need
someone to talk with about attract more prospects or increase sales,
just give me a call at 800-805-1220. As part of this special offer,
your initial consultation is FREE!
For more information or help turning around your business and your life, visit
YourBusinessGPS.com or BrandLauncher.com.
Copyright 2008
49
About Jon Goldman
A few years ago, Jon sold out of his $24 million promotional company to pursue
his passion — helping entrepreneurs turn their ‘stucking’ points into launching
points for success.
Jon’s frustration at seeing creative, intelligent business people ‘stuck’ propelled
him to create a company focused solely on supporting the entrepreneur/leader
to retool his or her business and life – Jon calls it the Brand Launcher Center for
Unstucking™. The Center was built to help business people actualize their
greatest potential through a meticulously crafted and honed Unstucking™ &
Launching system.
It takes one to know one…
Business renaissance man Jon Goldman is a successful entrepreneur, rainmaker,
personal development coach and mentor. He brings many skills to the table -most notably a rare combination of marketing savvy, business process
engineering and deep personal insight. Jon’s fresh, unconventional approach has
made him a direct response superstar.
In the direct mail world, he is recognized internationally as The Lumpy Mail
Man. His advice and expertise have helped clients increase their direct mail
response rates by 10 times!
Clients, direct marketing professionals, associations and business owners around
the world have repeatedly begged Jon to teach them what he knows. He is the
author of The Million Dollar Lumpy Mail ™Marketing System. It’s the world’s
largest and most authoritative how-to kit and resource for supercharging any
direct marketing campaign. Jon is the originator of T.O.P. (Top Of mind
Positioning) and author of The 18 Secrets of Niche Marketing and The 90 Day
Launch System – How to Crank Up Your Business & Simplify Your Life.
Jon currently owns several companies in the marketing industry, including the
Brand Launcher Center for Unstucking™. He currently lives in Baltimore,
Maryland with his wife and children.
Copyright 2008
50

1 Secret of the Watermelon

Transcription

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