The 4 Best Kinds of Leverage in Business (2 of 2)

Welcome back to the Magnetic Marketing Podcast. Today we're going to continue where we left off in the last episode. So if you missed the last episode, definitely make sure to listen to part 1. This is part 2 of 2, and we're going to be finishing off the 4 best kinds of leverage in business. Now we already covered the first 2. We're going to go ahead and cover the last 2 in this episode, but of course it wouldn't be Dan Kennedy if we give even more value on this episode. So we're going to go on a couple of other big rocks. Now imagine you have a lever, you're putting rocks on the lever. Dan Kennedy's given you one big lever and four specific ways that you can leverage. Now we're gonna give you not just the ending of those two, but we're gonna give you four other rocks that are going to magnify each step on a whole other level. Let's jump in. I don't think there's anybody that has had a bigger impact in the field of direct response than Dan Kennedy.

The legend of Dan Kennedy should be ignored at your own peril. They're not really lessons, they're kind of laws that you live by. Dan opened my eyes to what small business marketing looks like. Dan teaches strategic direct response that is timeless. His ripple effect touches people who don't even know his name.

The world as we know it was changed because Dan Kennedy became obsessed with marketing.

Welcome to the Magnetic Marketing Podcast with your host, Dan Kennedy. Okay, third point of leverage. The greatest leverage is in who you know, and in who they know and their cooperation. Now a lot of people, a lot of success authors don't like admitting that, 'cause a lot of people use that as an excuse for not doing well. Oh, it's all about who you know. You know, they say it that way, as like a criticism of the successful person and an excuse not to be successful. Oh, it's all about who you know. Well, it is a lot about who you know, but there's nothing stopping you from getting to know somebody. Nobody said you couldn't go get to know the people you need to know. And here's the little inside thing about that. I was told— it's funny, 4 of our guys just came up to me to get a picture taken out in the hallway before this session. They all want a picture. They all came up and they're like, oh, we got good news for you. We've all got together in a joint venture and we're going to get rich. I said, that is good news. It is good news. Because I was told, like, when I was starting out, here's something I was told that was pretty useful. I was told, setting out to make $1 million, now today we'd make the number bigger. You know, but look, 30 years ago, a million bucks was a lot of money. Setting out to make a million dollars is difficult, complicated, hard to figure out how to do that. You may have starts and stops, et cetera, et cetera, right? But if you instead become a driving force or a major contributor to 100 other people who make a million dollars, you will never have to worry about where yours is coming from. You will never have to figure out where yours is coming from. Now all that is is a monetary way of saying Zig's famous quote, which there's a whole bunch of people who have Zig's quote memorized, but they've never really analyzed its practical applications, right? So Zig's quote is what? You can get anything in life you want if you help enough other people get what they want. But what exactly does that mean. So one of the most brilliant marketing strategies that I've seen, an application of this, is a— we've had him speak once before some years ago at one of my conferences, you've heard him on a gold tape maybe, Summers White, who's in the consulting business. And Summers gets a lot of his business either from or through professional speakers. So Summers does like no marketing except two things, he only does two things., and it's kept his book of business full for decades. Every year, immediately before the National Speakers Convention, the trade— it's our trade association— Summers puts on a rogue event outside the purview of the association. He puts on this magnificent, 5-hour-long— the Europeans call it a salon, Marty Edelston in New York calls it a salon— a by invitation only dinner. It's suit or black tie, and so guys are in suits or tuxes, which the important thing about that is that gives the women an excuse to dress in gowns. So they all want to go, because they all want an excuse to dress in gowns, and they don't get that very often from most of the guys that they're married to. So they want to go. Well, you look kind of silly in a gown, don't you, at Applebee's? You know, I mean, so the girl I dated for 2 years when I was in high school and a year after high school, her father was an executive at Goodyear Aerospace. He took his wife out twice a year. On their anniversary, he took her to Bob's Big Boy every year. No, listen, I swear to God. Well, look, let me just paint the picture. I'll paint a picture for you. The guy owned an AMC Pacer. He found Wall Street Week exciting, and he was the most rigid guy, you know, you've ever seen. I mean, you could set your watch by when the back of his head appeared in the picture window of the house every day at the end when he sat down to eat his TV, you know, the guy was hopeless. So he took his wife out twice a year, once on their anniversary to Bob's Big Boy, and once on her birthday to the Brown Derby, which is like a mid-range, kind of an Outback-level steak place, okay? I made this guy's life hell in a hurry, because even when I was broke, I lived really well. And so I'm taking a daughter like 4 times a week to really good places. You know, I ruined this guy's life, marriage, for the rest of his life, right? I mean, you know, I did my best. But anyway, so they want to dress up in the gowns, they want to go to the dinner, so the guy's put on the tux. So Summers throws this huge by-invitation dinner. And he has it outside the hotel the meeting is in, so you have like 300 people all coming down, being seen by everybody else in tuxedos and gowns, getting in cabs and limos, going to this thing, and then like 4, 4.5 hours later, they're all coming back and everybody else is in the bar, and in comes this troop of people, and of course they're kind of noticeable, and everybody now is curious about what went on at the dinner. Now here's what goes on at dinner. Summers goes around like between the courses, gets people up and briefly interviews them, he shows them off to everybody else that's at the dinner. So he's connecting people who can help each other, who can do JVs with each other, who one can hire the other, one can, so he goes around and he interviews, doesn't interview everybody that's there, but interviews a lot of the people there. So the first thing everybody wants to do is get in. The second thing everybody wants to do is be one of the ones who gets stood up And he prepares ahead of time so he asks you like 3 questions that allow you to look smart and demonstrate your particular expertise. Now this is, now it's very expensive. He spends a lot of money on a dinner. But he never has to do any other marketing all year long. Why? Because he helped enough people get what they want that he automatically gets what he wants. He created good guilt, great obligation by hooking a whole bunch of people up in productive and profitable ways that they would not have gotten gotten hooked up with otherwise. He essentially gave them his blessing as somebody of credibility and authority, so he bypassed, now that person bypasses all kinds of trust building and how do I get to this person, you know, and whatever. And so he helped 300 people get what they want. Now 300 of them find a way, so how are they gonna reciprocate? How are they gonna make that good? They're gonna refer somebody to them. They're either gonna do business with them themselves or they're gonna refer somebody to them., and they're going to make a point of referring somebody to him. So he concocted this leverage, you understand, out of whole cloth. Nobody appointed him as the host of the annual dinner. He made it up. Nobody certified the annual dinner. He made the whole thing up, and it has served him well. Over 20 years. So who do you know and who do they know? So you can get to almost anybody you want to get to one way or the other that's a way. There's a Disney story, and I'm going to tell it very quickly, so I'm also going to butcher it, but the first animatronic— so I don't remember any of the names, but The first, the Abe Lincoln animatron thing that you see if you go to Epcot in the Hall of America, that's like the first one they did. They couldn't get it right, and so Walt insisted that they go get this number one guy, the most famous anatomical doctor wizard, you know, I don't know what the correct terminology is, but the guy, right, to come and help them make this thing appear to be human. So Walt sends his people over there to meet with the guy, and the doctor is very flattered by being asked, but you know, I'm busy and I got more important things to do, and it's a major project and it would take a ton of time. And so he sends Walt's people back with a polite but gentle no. And the question Walt asked was, did you find out what he wants? And they all looked at him, you know, like a tree full of owls. And Walt said, look, there's something he wants that we can do or get done for him through somebody we know easier than he can get it, but we can't do this thing that he can do. So your mission was to find out what it is above everything else he wants. Then we'll go figure out how to do that, and then he'll do this. Everybody wants something. Everybody. And often you can get what you want by helping them get what they want. Fourth point of leverage: investment in self. Here's the ultimate fool's gold: trying to get financial improvement without proportionate personal improvement. So the person who makes $50,000 a year and wants to make a million has to figure out how to become 20 times more valuable. And that ain't years on the planet. That's not hanging around. And this is a little truth. We need to tell everybody. A bunch of you brought your kids. I think we have more teens and kids here this year than any other year, although of course we have more people, so maybe it's, but it's noticeable and it's great. And it's probably Simmons that brought them out, and that's fine, and that's great too. But we need to tell our kids, and we need to throw out the demagogue politicians who won't tell people this truth, 'cause here's the truth. The truth is that a job or a person in it does not deserve raises based upon number of days, weeks, months, years doing the same job the same way. The job is only worth X amount of dollars to get done, okay? And so, see, that like is from 1950. 1950, and we gotta start telling everybody 1950's gone, in case you haven't noticed. It's not here anymore in any way, shape, or form. We may wish it was, but it's not. And so we keep hearing this, oh, manufacturing jobs, and well, that whole system's gone. Forget the jobs, the whole system's gone, right? If you want more money, you've gotta figure out how to make the job you do, the business you run, the service you render to your customers, your clients, or your patients, as well as yourself, proportionately more valuable to the money you want. And you don't get there just by putting in the time. If anything, the truth is, if you're doing XYZ for 30 years, you run the risk of being less valuable, not more valuable, 'cause you develop all kinds of bad habits, you get set in your ways, you stop thinking creatively about it, but you certainly don't get more valuable. Now that's sad, and I understand it's sad, you know? You see these stories all the time, like every time Walmart comes to town, or now they're starting to show 'em as recession stories. So get ready, okay? 'Cause now you're gonna see 'em on TV, Mom and Pa who've had the same ice cream shop, they've had the same bookstore, they've had the same furniture store for 30 years, and now they're going out of business. And the TV reporter's down there and the tears trickling out of the eye, and the customers who've known them for 30 years have all hobbled down there on their walkers and crutches. And this is on the evening news, and how sad it is that after 30 years in the same location, in the same business, doing the same thing the same way, they have to close their doors. It is sad, but inevitable. 'Cause they didn't get any more valuable. The market became more competitive, the market demanded more value, the market kept saying you gotta figure out a way so you could be more valuable to your customers here, or you're gonna die. And we gotta tell that truth to people. So if you want financial improvement, you gotta have proportionate personal improvement. If you want 10 times your income, first of all you gotta 10 times your knowledge. Your applicable, usable, actionable knowledge. I have friends who are here who are in this business, but teachers, trainers, coaches, consultants for longer than I have. Pay to be here? Hey, wiseass. Did you hear him? Who was it? Who was it? Did you have— have you bought anything yet? And your name is? Gordon Fox gets that 30% jackass surcharge added to his credit card bill back there, okay? Just take that 30% discount away, charge him full Whole retail, okay? Anyway, they've been in my business longer than I have, okay? Paid to be here. More importantly, told me this morning when we met, they bought Derek's package. Why? They got a warehouse full of stuff because they're after the next new piece of knowledge that can make them more valuable, okay? If you want 10 times the income, you gotta figure out a way now to deliver 10 times the value to your constituency, to your customers, your clients, your patients. How do you make what you do for them 10 times more valuable, right? You gotta figure out how to be 10 times more influential, 'cause influence is everything. You gotta be able to be 10 times more productive. Earl Nightingale is one of the people I studied early, and Bill and I spent half a day or so not too long ago with Diana Nightingale, the late Earl's wife and business partner, and they're in business with Sherman Ragsdale, who's here. One of the things about Earl was, and he said it, and Diana said it the other day, is he was never content just to get an idea. As soon as he got a good idea, he became a serious student of the idea. What does that mean? I've always prided myself on being a serious student. Well, one is I want to meet that person. I want to meet these people associated with that idea to tell you, since you were a wiseass, just how long I have been at this. Most of you know the Chicken Soup for the Soul thing, right? If not, and so most of you know who Mark Victor Hansen is. And Mark and I have been friends for many years. There is an old book of Mark's called Dare to Win, if you find it around somewhere, and in that book, and it's an old book of Mark's, Mark, there's a long list of people that Mark made early in his career that he had a goal to meet. One of the people on the list is me. So that tells you how thick the cobwebs are underneath this suit. But see, how many people have a list associated with a good idea of the people they want to meet who are using that idea? See, that's a serious student, right? I want to hear from that person. So you're here, you get credit for that. Look, there are people, everybody who came here from, Bill may already have done it, but it's still a great object lesson, everybody who came from off our shores, stand up real quick. All right, guys, you can sit down. Now, let me tell you something, we got members in Nashville who aren't here. They couldn't be bothered to drive across town. These guys have traveled, you know, a full work week just to get here because there's— was somebody they were determined to hear. That's a serious student. Study that person. Serious student studies people. When I started in the advertising business, David Ogilvy, I mean, you got to study David Ogilvy. Ogilvy. Name doesn't mean anything to you, by the way. If you're interested in advertising, it should. So now I'm like getting everything I can get my hands on from David Ogilvy. I get into an Ogilvy and Mather office and I steal the little book that Ogilvy only has for their internal people of the principles of running an advertising office. I go to Disney, I made it a point to get my little grubby paws on the internal Disney employee newspaper. Not supposed to have it, but you know, I mean, I'm sitting at the concierge lounge and there's the— they send out a memo to all the concierges by fax, because there's so many of them, 4 times a day, 4 daily updates. Of stuff that's going on, stuff they want to know, right? So I'm sitting there, I see, I say, "Can I look at that?" "No, no, no, no, no, you're not supposed to see it." Great. So as soon as he turns around, you know, I'm looking at it because I'm a student of Disney. I mean, I'm a serious student of Disney, you know. How serious are you? I will trace its history and roots. Are you a true historian of the ideas you use, of the businesses you're in? See, so if you're using direct response, are you a true historian of direct response? Have you traced these ideas all the way back to their roots? You know, are you that serious about what you're doing? Have you amassed the literature on the subject? Have you sorted and organized and made that information useful? Do you do the work? I started as a copywriter. Early in copywriting, Gary Halbert said, if you want to get really good, because there's an internal rhythm to copywriting, not as in mechanics, but there's an internal rhythm. The only way you get the rhythm is over time. The only way to accelerate the rhythm is to use Maltz terminology, with synthetic experience instead of actual experience. One is as good as the other. So take good direct response ads and write them out word for word by hand like 21 times for every ad, and pretty much you begin to internalize the rhythm. If you'll do that with 200 or 300 ads, you'll have the rhythm. It's like 200 ads times 21 times written out longhand on yellow legal pad, that's 4,000 and some odd ads, okay? Now I'm not the only guy he said it to, he said it to everybody. How many people do you think, seriously, have ever done it? I'll bet there aren't a dozen on the planet, right? With rare exception in the last couple of years, I haven't been paid less than $100,000 to do a copywriting job. That ain't coincidence, okay? I did the work, see, of a serious copywriter. Student, right? So here's the second big rock. First one was leverage. Second big rock. There are other paths. I can only really speak with authority to the one that I've used and seen used by the overwhelming majority of my clients and the people I've studied. And here it is. It's audience. It's another way to think about customers, and it's an important different way to think about customers. So very quickly, I will remind you of my resume, because I've done pretty good. High school education, started with no money, did not go mentor anywhere, not brought up through a corporate ladder, never had an angel investor. Never had a godfather, no connections, no family inheritance. Figured it out, got it all myself. Where'd I get it from? An audience. The key is having a direct relationship. Now again, don't be doing the, my business is— I don't care. Pizza, plumber, industrial flanges for the vroom vroom industry. I don't care. This is still a big rock. Developing and having direct relationship with an audience committed to you and happy to support you. Right after 9/11, the Disney Imagineers told us about this when I had my wealth group down there. Disney had over 100 major projects underway, remaking attractions, building hotels, fixing this, redoing that, whatever. A lot of people obviously employed doing those things, attached to those jobs. There was much— at every other hospitality company, every other amusement park company, every other kind of company that sort of has some kind of piece of a Disney business was, you know, in trauma. Travel dropped like a rock. If you don't remember, airplanes were empty. Nobody wanted to go anywhere. Even the seminar business was affected. So everybody's upset. The CEO of Disney at the time, Michael Eisner, who for most of his tenure was a great CEO, had a big video conference with all the employees, and he made such a powerful statement. He said, all projects are We're proceeding as scheduled. We're not delaying. We're not stopping. We're not changing anything because we, unsaid, everybody else can't, we can trust our customers. They'll still come. 9/11 or no 9/11, we can trust our customers. And they were right. They barely had a 90-day dip, and it wasn't a severe dip, because they have an audience. They have a direct relationship with an audience that is happy to support them, that is eager for what is next. The Martha Stewart case, one of the most interesting things. I will concede I missed it myself. I wasn't sure. That was a great stock buy the day she got convicted, because people didn't understand the strength of her connection to her audience. So think about this. This is a convicted felon, right? She goes to prison, and she emerges with wealth and opportunities intact. Why? Well, anybody who thought about uncoupling from her didn't dare. Not board of directors, not stockholders, not joint venture partners, not distribution sources. Why? Because of the strength of her relationship with her audience. Gene Simmons. See all those licensing deals. Most of them unusually advantageous to Simmons. His licensing deal with Visa is different than anybody else's licensing deal with Visa, for example. Got a better deal than anybody. Why? Because of the strength of his direct connection to his audience. And so if you want a big rock for any business, It is audience. Who is the audience for you and what it is that you do? And you need to think about your customers, your clients, your patients. You need to think about them as an audience. That then tells you many things. It tells you you have to entertain them, because audiences demand being entertained. It tells them you have to keep them interested and involved. Audiences demand that you keep them interested and involved. The guy that's logged more time on television than anybody else, holds a Guinness Book of World Records, is who? Regis Philbin. Regis Philbin. More camera time than anybody else. More than Johnny Carson. More than Bob Hope. Bob Hope is a guy who used to— eh, screw it. Hey, look, there's at least 100 in here who don't know. Sherry, Bob Hope is a guy who used to— Okay, next big rock. Your business ought to be about something. Yes, businesses can be just about selling things, but they tend to be not the most profitable, not the most successful, not the most interesting businesses. Better businesses are about something, and the best businesses are about something meaningful to that audience. See, Starbucks began not about coffee, but very quickly about third place, homework, Starbucks. It's about something meaningful to the audience. Forbes magazine began and still is What's Forbes magazine's tagline? "The capitalist tool." It is the magazine for unabashed, unashamed capitalists. It's about something. It's a business magazine with a philosophy. It is the most successful business magazine, more successful than Business Week. Why? Because Business Week has no philosophy. Forbes is about something. Disney, from the very beginning, was about something. The happiest place on Earth. I had a client some years ago start a chain of restaurants in the middle of the recession. The chain was called Steak and Ale. What was it about? It was about the upscale steakhouse experience at recession-friendly prices. He caught the downstep of the low part of the affluent. FedEx, what was it about? When it absolutely, positively had to get there overnight. Victoria's Secret, what were they about? Frederick's of Hollywood classed up, made palatable and acceptable to women. Domino's was about something, right? Delivery of carbohydrates when you needed it most. Now, it's easy to lose your way. Victoria's Secret sales are off 8%. Why? Doesn't take rocket science. Get their catalogs from 5 years ago, get their catalogs from today, and get Frederick's catalogs, lay them side by side. Victoria's Secret has ever so slowly started to look like Frederick's, in part because they went and got a bunch of executives from Frederick's. Kind of stupid, don't you think? Now they're They're fixing it. Starbucks, in the interest of full disclosure, when Howard came back, I went and got myself some Starbucks stock. They lost their way. Howard has had to return to get them back to being about what they were about and not about anything else. Disney's dark years before Eisner, they lost their way. The best thing is if you have a business that is really about something. Businesses to watch: one of the most interesting ones right now is Cadillac. Cadillac, for the first time, for the first time, is directly trying to sell cars to women. Never have tried it before. They're trying to be about something different by being for someone different than they have ever been before. Ameriprise Financial, on its fourth go-round, the least successful financial services company ever concocted by man, is finally trying to be about something. Watch their spots, right? If you pay attention, you will notice in our business that the Glazer Kennedy family We try and create businesses that are about something. Peak Performers is about something very specific, right? InfoSummit, about something very specific. No BS Marketing to the Affluent, about something very specific. Next to last big rock, I think. A little thing called performance. Here's a question everybody asks every day. How was your day? You get asked it at the end of the day, right? And the vast majority of people on the planet, their answer to how was your day is governed by several things. It's governed maybe by their health. How do they feel? They feel okay today, they feel like crap.? They get enough sleep? Got a headache? It's governed by pleasure. Did they find a quarter in the payphone? That's kind of dated, isn't it? Every once in a while you can still find a payphone. Bus stations have payphones, although in San Francisco they're giving all the homeless people cell phones, so that's— they're not going to be at taxpayer expense, by the way. So, but you know, did you find— did you find buried treasure? Did you have fun, right? Did somebody else pick up the tab? Pain— were you aggravated? Were you stressed out? Did some unexpected good thing happen? Did some unexpected bad thing happen? So that's like how most people kind of figure out the answer to that question, how was your day? Consequently, most people say the answer to the question is what? Yeah, not good, not bad, okay. Exceptionally successful people figure out the answer to that question a little differently, okay. They kind of determine how their day was based on their own personal performance, all right. The greatest ranking of how their day was is on how they judge how they performed. Because we're all about performance. Highly successful people are very demanding of themselves, and we're all about performance. Now it's easy to find performance in a car, it's easy to define performance in a product, it's easy to define performance in a racehorse. Real easy in a racehorse. First place, second place, third place. How much money you're making per month. If you're eating more than you're making, you're going to get 8. It's sort of a pretty simple formula, right? Not so easy to define performance in a person, in yourself, but it must be defined. You must be able to measure it. You must be able to hold yourself accountable on an hour-by-hour, day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month basis, exceptionally successful? People do. They don't just get up and show up, and they don't end the day without a way to measure. I knew a guy many years ago. At the time, he was the most successful door-to-door pot and pan salesman in the country. That still exists, by the way. There's still guys out there knocking on doors selling pots and pans. And he was exactly what you would expect from that business. No offense to our vacuum cleaner guy here, but you know, one suit, the plaid three-way reversible, you know, thing, cigarette burns all over it. Big fat out-of-style tie, you know, sold a set of pots and pans every single day. People always want to know, how do you do that? He said, very simple. He said, I pack a meal, I put it in the trunk, and I don't let myself eat until I've sold the first set of pots and pans. He said, and if by nighttime I haven't sold a set of pots and pans, then I let myself eat, but I don't go home. So I have to sleep in my car, and then I have to sell 2 sets of pots and pans tomorrow, and I don't have any food to eat until I can sell 2 sets of pots and pans and go home and get some more food. That's how I sell a set of pots and pans every day. And he said, every once in a while I have to sleep in my car and go hungry and I don't like it. So I sell a set of pots and pans every day. Now this guy had like a 6th grade education, you know, he wasn't the most sophisticated person on the planet, but he had set up a structure that guaranteed performance. Most people do not have a structure that guarantees performance. Set out to get something done and, well, if we're running out of time today, all right, we'll get it out tomorrow. Unacceptable. So you have to find a way to rigidly manage your own performance. It's a big rock. See, a lot of people want to talk about, you know, the fastest way to get an entrepreneur, you know, burying his unhappiest soul is talking about trying to manage his people. But actually, the bigger problem is managing yourself. All right? So good news, bad news about being your own boss. Good news is you're your own boss. Bad news is you got a really shitty employee, right? I mean, that's the deal. So, I mean, well, think about it. In most cases, the reason you are the boss is because you're unemployable. That's how you got there in the first place, right? So now, so the very first thing the first day you become your own boss, what's the first thing that happens? You got yourself a crappy employee. Congratulations. And worse, you got one you can't fire. You're stuck with them. So managing self for performance, very big issue. Okay. Here's— give me my clicker. Next to last, next to last. Here's a question. It's one of the most important questions you should ask yourself all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time. Where's the profit in that? Sometimes just blowing off steam with friends, there's profit in that. You know, I don't know, you may Those of you that are in Peak Performers, I don't know if she's taught you this particular method, but Lee Miltier has a particular stress reduction strategy. She goes outside her house and throws glassware against the side of the house. Well, where's the profit in that? Well, it's less costly than like killing someone. It appears to be pretty efficient, time efficient. It doesn't have to do it very long before it gets tired of it. And, you know, so where's the profit in that? So your conversations— I'm always fascinated on breaks, you know, at events to listen to conversations. See, every entertaining thought, every conversation, every meeting of two people, either there's profit, there's loss, there's nothing accomplished, right? But, you know, where's Where is the profit in what it is that you're doing? If you're going to choose something to watch, you can watch fiction and find profit in it, but you ought to be— where's the profit in that? And in business, you have to remember what business's purpose is. Business's purpose is profit, right? And you must not be swayed by criticism from others or self-criticism about adherence to this simple principle. Business is about profit. Your first responsibility if you are in business is to maximize profit. If there is insufficient profit in it, whatever it is, fix it or fire it. Out fast. Swift sword better than a long, slow, painful process. If there's insufficient profit in it, fix it or fire it. And being in business for any other reason but profit is a dangerous and hazardous thing. You want to start a church, by all means go start a church. Different rules apply. You want to start a charity, by all means start a charity. Different rules apply. You want to go do pro bono work? By all means, go do pro bono work. Different rules apply. But if you're put in charge of a business, your responsibility is profit. Just like if you're the captain of a ship, your responsibility is to steer it where it needs to go without running up on a rock. So there's a responsibility here. The responsibility is to maximize profit. So big rock, question you ask yourself all the time, where's the profit in this, where's the profit in this, where's the profit in this? Okay, last big rock, exposure. And again, for starters, you're to be congratulated, but listen, the most successful people expose themselves to the most quantity, quality, and diversity of information Ideas, experiences, observations. So I've always said most people, the first problem they have in marketing their businesses is they like act Amish, you know. I mean, they live in some kind of closed community of their industry and they act Amish. They only pay attention to what each other are doing? They got the wagons in a circle. They're looking at each other. They're only talking to each other. Oh, it only applies to me. See, I'm in the cemetery business in a small town. We don't do cremations. We only bury people standing up. So nothing applies to me unless it's at a funeral convention, and then I only go sit and talk with the other 8 people in the country who have cemeteries in small towns, who don't do cremations, who only bury people standing up. That's the way most people go through life. They narrow and narrow and narrow and narrow their focus. You read the Wall Street Journal? Nah, nah, I don't have any money to invest, so I don't read the Wall Street Journal. Best way to never have any money to invest? Wait to read the Wall The Wall Street Journal until you have a bunch of money to invest. You gotta read the Wall Street Journal before you got any money to invest, okay? You gotta have exposure to a lot of stuff, and then you gotta be alert all the time to great ideas. So Mark Burnett, okay? The Apprentice, huge hit. Why does it exist? 'Cause he's filming for one of his other shows at a Trump facility. And he's alert for ideas. Survivor in New York, business survivor. Katie Holmes, the actress, just started a children's clothing line. She got the idea when she noticed baby Suri outgrowing all of Tom's hand-me-downs. She's alert. She's alert for ideas. The Dan Kennedy on a bull photo. We need us a lot of money. Where'd it come from? A car commercial. All the small group coaching groups that everybody has, 12, 18, 20 people around a table, like my Platinum Group, where'd the idea come from? Conversation backstage with Henry Kissinger. A casual idle conversation, okay? So it's exposure and then being alert. Old speaker friend of mine, Charlie Jarvis, used to say every time that— he had an old ugly mutt dog. Every time a dog show came to town, always took his dog down to the dog show. Not that they were going to let him enter it, but he just thought having the dog see and hang out a little bit with a better class of dog, you know, it's a good thing to do. So, you know, look, what you hang out with is everything. What you hang out with physically, mentally, mentally, intellectually, it's everything.

Thank you for listening to the Magnetic Marketing Podcast with Dan Kennedy. If you love hearing in on these lost Dan Kennedy talks and speeches and calls, then please let someone else know about this podcast. That's how you can help it to grow, and the more it grows, the more free Dan Kennedy we can bring to you. Also, Dan would love to give you the most incredible free gift ever designed to help you make maximum Make Some Money in Minimum Time. This free gift comes with almost $20,000 in pure money-making information for free just for saying maybe. You can get this gift from Dan right now at NoBSLetter.com. Not only do you get the $20,000 gift, you also get a subscription to 2 marketing newsletters that will be hand-delivered by the mailman to your mailbox each and every month, one from Dan Kennedy and one from me, Russell Brunson. To get this gift and your subscription, go to NoBSLetter.com right now.