Getting Raw Ep# 40 Part 2 Stephen Pierce
In this episode of Getting Raw, host SPEAKER A interviews entrepreneur Stephen Pierce. Pierce shares a framework for running two businesses simultaneously – the current operation and the future‑oriented venture – emphasizing the need to constantly evolve or risk erosion, as illustrated by legacy companies like Wang Computers. He argues that information overload is a myth; instead, effective information management follows an 80/20 rule where 20% is actionable (need‑to‑know) and 80% is merely nice‑to‑know. Applying this mindset to the fitness industry, Pierce discusses how relevance (fitting into the market conversation) must be paired with differentiation (standing out), using examples such as Curves’ women‑only gyms, the ThighMaster’s targeted marketing, and the evolution from Tae Bo to P90X. He stresses the importance of understanding the market’s true desires through research and positioning products accordingly. On leadership, he admits his biggest mistake was trusting people without proper supervision, highlighting the balance between trust and accountability. The conversation concludes with promotion of his "Success Sculpting" brand – a daily‑content podcast, website, and community – and a philosophical take on purpose, death, and maintaining a big‑picture perspective to stay focused on meaningful goals.
Chapters
What's next?
What's next? What's next? Because here's the thing, you're running 2 businesses. You're running the business of today and the business of tomorrow.
That's good.
Right? You have what's going on today which you're managing. But then what's next? Because Everything is constantly changing and everything is constantly moving. And you have a position that you're looking to hold and you have positions you're looking to gain. But what ultimately happens is, is to one, to keep a position, first of all, if you have a position, it's not permanent. If you were to think that a position, when you have it and you're number one, you're going to be able to hold it forever without doing anything, then Wang Computers would still be around.
Yeah.
You know, you talk to most people today about a Wang Computer, they're like, What's that? And that's the point exactly. Wayne Computers was way out, way before everybody else. I mean, like way before, but now they're like in the archives of extinction history.
Well, I haven't heard of
them. Yeah, Pan American Airlines. You think about all these companies that, you know, they had strong positions, but what happens is, is that if you don't do something to proactively advance your position, it's going to erode because of 2 things. One, the environment itself is going to change and it's going to erode, but then your competitors constantly shifting their positions will cause your position to erode. So you have to reposition or die.
And you've consistently got to, as a business owner, you consistently have to keep educating, keep finding what the new curve is.
Right, and that's a good point because we can never respond beyond our level of awareness.
Yeah, sure.
Now people say, well, information isn't power. Information is absolute power because, I mean, think about it. If you don't have information about your health, you can die because you didn't know you had that disease. Mm-hmm. Information puts you in a position of enlightenment and awareness so you have options to do something about it. Do you have— I mean, you can never have too much information. Can you imagine the US saying there's too much information on terrorists, or Australia saying there's too much information on terrorists, or you're like, doctor, that's too much information on my health, you know, hey, that's too much information on what your lady's up to, you know? So it's really about managing the information and knowing that we're in an environment where it's coming from so many different directions, 'Cause people are like, oh, it's information overload. It really isn't. It's called information mismanagement. You need to understand how to manage the flow of information that's coming towards you.
Information mismanagement.
Yeah, it's not, and the proof of the fact that there's no such real such thing as information overload, in the history of libraries and bookstores, no one has ever passed out walking through the threshold of the door, right? And there's millions of books in there, right? But nobody goes, oh, too many books, I might hit it. No, there's no such thing. Because the thing is, when you walk in there, you have a general idea of what it is you want. So if we— but here's the thing, if you keep telling yourself, oh, overload, overload, what do you think your reality's gonna be? What do you think your experience is gonna be? Yeah, block everything out. Yeah, everything is gonna be processed through this filter of overload when it's really, okay, what's important, what's not important? What do I need to know versus what's nice to know? And that right there is where people go in error. They think everything is what they need to know. No, I would probably say 80% of information is nice-to-know information. The other 20% is what you need to know.
So it's the 80/20 rule again, yeah?
Yeah, so like nice-to-know, it's like, oh, it's nice to know information is something that's like great, but you can't do anything with it.
Sure.
Right, you can't do anything. What am I supposed to do with that? Need-to-know information is the information that is actionable, that you can act on, that's going to help you to make Continuous progress in the direction that you want to go.
That's very good information, especially as business owners. You've got to keep continuing to move forward. And so what you're getting in now is actually, you know, you've come from an internet background, but a lot of the focus that you put now to business owners and people is how to manage that mind so you can actually focus on the business and then the profits.
Right.
And by doing that, you know, that's obviously far more powerful than just giving a a topic, for example, internet or health and fitness. It's actually everything up here, then you can find out how you want to work your business and which is important and which is not important. Which is very different to, I guess, when people are looking for a specific event like fitness trainers, they may be looking for information on the fitness business, but you're actually saying first fix your mind and then you can actually find out what after that.
Right, because, I mean, without being too familiar with the fitness industry, I mean, there's a lot of different things that are just 'Cause it just seems like everybody's just copying everybody else. It's like, what's different?
In every industry, they're copying everybody else.
Yeah, so it's like, if you don't start to expand your own mind, your mind is gonna be nothing more than a carbon copy of everybody else. And if everybody is saying the same thing and doing the same thing, somebody is not necessary. What we wanna do is understand the battle between being relevant and standing out. Being relevant is like you fit in to what's going on, but standing out is being different. For example, if we had a table full of balls, they all fit in 'cause they're all round.
Yeah.
But if one was red and all the other ones were white, well, the red one fits in, but it also stands out.
Sure.
So what we wanna do is we wanna be relevant, but we want to be different at the same time. The relevancy makes us a part of the conversation. It allows us to sit down and talk, but it's the what's different, it's those advantages that we bring to the table. Like fitness trainers, like, you know, what's the scope of your business? It's like, well, I want to help people get fit. Really? In today's splintered market, that doesn't work. Yeah. It really doesn't work. You want to have an area of specialty. For example, when the market was saturated with gyms, people were like, nobody else can come up with a gym. Well, Curves was able to come in because they focused strictly on women. And they didn't just focus on women. It was like, you know, dudes, you can drop them off, but you really can't come in. It's almost like the woman's bath for them. You can't come in there, you know what I mean? Unless you cross-dress and you can slip by somebody, you just can't come in, you know? But I think a lot of trainers, it's just, you know, hey, I'm going to help you get fit. I'm going to help you do this. that you specialize in. I mean, some people probably think it's limiting. It's like, you know what, I'm not just a fitness trainer, I am the ab guy, I'm the thigh guy, you know what I mean? Yeah. I'm the bust guy, you know what I mean? Whatever it is. Now, it may be like, well, what kind of fitness trainer would want to do that? It's like, why in the world would I want to just focus on one body part? Well, I'll tell you what, if you were to sit down and you talk to enough women, you'll find out they obsess over certain body parts. Some women don't want the flabby arms. So you're like the arm guy. I got the diet program for you to help you get your arm fit. I got the arm workouts to help you get your arm fit. You want that other stuff? Hey, we can get into that, but I'm gonna help you have the best looking arms when you're wearing that short sleeve shirt or that tank top.
'Cause it's what they want.
Right. Now, if you're looking for something that has any form of evidence that says that works, all you have to do is look at the ThighMaster. Because when the ThighMaster was created by these 2 guys, the ThighMaster actually did everything. The way it was made, it was for chest. Yeah, the way it was made. You could do it for arms. You could do it for all kinds of stuff. And then they put it into the market And it failed. And one of the reasons it failed is because it was hard for the market to think, to accept as reality that this pretty much V-shaped spring thing can work that many body parts, even though it did and they demonstrated it.
Yeah.
So what happened was they sold it off for, I think, like $50 grand to some marketers, not inventors, to marketers, and they were like, okay, okay, screw this, it does everything. What is the most important thing today that women are looking to fix? So they kind of like did some focus groups and did some surveys, and they found out Women are most concerned right now about their thighs. Now there was other stuff like midsection and all this, but it was like the thighs was the number one thing. So they called it the ThighMaster, they did some research for people, got Suzanne Somers, and they put the little Suzanne Somers one-page ThighMaster workout in there, became a blockbuster hit.
Because they found the right person and they found what the audience wanted straight away.
Yeah, and if people thinking that it was Suzanne Somers, it wasn't, because the product took off the moment it was called the ThighMaster. When they first released it as the ThighMaster, Suzanne Somers wasn't like the face of it. And even when Suzanne Somers came on board, while it was selling well, it was marginally profitable. What took it over the top for profitability was a 10-cent sheet of paper, which was one page called the Suzanne Somers— it was Suzanne Somers ThighMaster workout. That one piece of paper just took it over the top.
Just with a piece of paper with the ThighMaster. It's something so simple as that, because that's what people want.
Right. But the thing is, if you're not talking to your market— and this is where information comes in at. If you're not aware of what the market is really thinking about and what they really want and they need and they wish for and what they're aspiring to, you can miss it. It's like a fitness trainer. It's like, so what makes you different? If you can't answer that question, then you're going to have a problem. It's like if you look at the fitness products that have been able to succeed in a world where you think like it was overdone with Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons, there was an evolution when you had PX90, Insanity, and all the other different ones that came out. And if you notice, Once you think there can't be any, like really when PX90 came out.
Huge.
But first of all, people were like, Tae Bo, that's it. What do you need after Tae Bo? It's like, there's Tae Bo, you know, Billy Blanks, you don't need anything after Billy Blanks. Then you have all these other things to come out and you know, you got Zumba and all this.
Huge,
yeah. But the thing is, is once you understand where you can come in at, and if you notice, all of these programs have their own unique type of identities. Many of them are from the same company, but that lets you know that the collective consciousness of thinking over there is pretty strong in understanding how to position products. I mean, think about it for a minute. Think about how many health and fitness magazines are on the rack, you know, for both men and women, and then just for men, and then just for women. That's ridiculous. And every single month, I'm like this, how many different ways can you tell a person to do a crunch? You know what I mean? Yeah. It's like, how many different ways can you tell a person less calories in, burn more calories? Yeah. You know, it's like, it's absolutely amazing, but it lets you know that it's doable. So, and people are like, oh, the market is saturated. I think that's more of a figment of people's imagination than it is something that's a reality. But if that's your thinking, that's it.
They don't want to continue and grow. Yep. It's been amazing. It's been a long Getting Raw. I guess I'd like to ask all our guests, what is the biggest mistake that you've made in your life?
Trusting without supervising. Okay. When you're growing a business, you have to let go of the reins and give it over to people. And you don't want to be a micromanager because that can prevent people from doing their job. Yep. So you really need to strike the balance between trust and accountabilities so you can basically watch the people that you're trusting. You trust them, but as they say, I can only trust you as far as I can see you or throw you. Sure. You know what I mean? I don't trust you when my back is turned. So one of the things that I think really burnt me bad was being naive and trusting, because thieves, cons, and liars and scammers, they prey and feed off of people's trust. And if you— and I'm not saying to go around, you know, with this complex of not being able to trust people. You need to be able to trust people, but you need to make sure you're trusting the right people. Because the only way you can be betrayed, the only way somebody can steal something from you that's close to you is that you have to trust them enough to allow them to get that close. And that right there is probably one of the biggest mistakes I made. I really didn't vet the people that I was trusting.
Sure. Okay, great tips. As you can see, Stephen is a wealth of information. He doesn't stop talking. This should be easy for you. It's easy. Where can people find— like, you've got a new show, you've got a new series coming up. Just let's quickly talk about that and where people can find you and hang out and just chat and see you all the time.
The Success Sculpting Show, which is really all about helping people to sculpt a more meaningful and memorable life of success because we're all being sculpted and molded. Either we're proactively doing it ourselves or we're being sculpted and molded by environments and circumstances and other people. My whole thing is, is let's take charge and sculpt who we want to be as opposed to being molded by circumstances and molded by environments. Developing that level of mental toughness to be able to have the resiliency and the intestinal fortitude to bounce back and keep going in the face of no matter the odds. Yeah. To be able to have that unwavering willingness to do whatever it takes to win because It's worth it. It may not be easy, it may not be convenient, but we know it's worth it. So really helping people to develop that hardcore type of mentality, that's a necessity to win at whatever it is you're gonna do, be it politics, business, athletics, I mean, you name it. Yeah. Academics, you name it. Just helping people to develop that level of spirit and mind and body to just absolutely crush whatever it is they're going for despite the pain, despite the setbacks, despite what may be thrown their way. That's nothing, you brush that off, that's par for the course, it's not gonna deter me This is what I'm about.
I love it. Crush. I like that word.
Yeah, crush it. That's right, just crush it. So they can go to successsculpting.com.
Yeah, I'm going to put it up on the screen.
Yeah, okay, great. It's going to be right there on the screen, something like that, like he said. Yeah, yeah. Successsculpting.com. I have a new podcast that's coming out. I just did a live video stream and I'm going to be posting some clips from that online. Lots of great content, just really helping people to just, just, you know, just crush it. If people want to actually see some of the feedback from one of the recent live things that I did, they can go to successsculptingfanreviews.com. Okay. There's a lot of feedback posted over there, and when they get over there, they can just go to my fan page. Great interaction, great community.
You're always online, you're always commenting, liking stuff.
Yeah, I love to give people something every single day that really gives them that fuel.
And the good thing about, you know, Steven's program is you give so much free stuff to people. Like, all these things are a lot of free stuff, and they just getting this valuable content off you, which is awesome.
Yep, I remember a long time ago, an old mentor of mine said, if you give something to somebody that they can't get from someplace else, they're going to keep coming back. So I don't want to give what everybody else has given, and I don't want to give it at the level that everybody gives it. I want to go above and beyond. Because at the end of the day, when everybody checks out, what's going to be the legacy? What's going to be the story when it's all said and done? Because you came in with nothing, you're going to leave with nothing. No matter what we accumulate here, nothing goes with us. We don't. So I like to keep things in perspective. I like to think about when I'm doing something, what are the internal— I'm sorry, the eternal implications on myself and on somebody else? Because at some point, there's one game that all of us lose, and that's the fight for death. Death always wins, you know? And some people don't like to go through life thinking about death, but I think that can kind of be a mistake. It's not about having this obsession with death, but if you understand it, it helps you to keep other things in perspective. Right. Because if you're going through something, it's like, But what does this mean in the scope of the big picture of your life? You know, and when it's all said and done, if you're on your deathbed, are you gonna be just thinking about this moment, this person, this situation?
Yeah.
Your life and your purpose is bigger than any small scuffles that you may have along the way, any stumbles you may have along the way. So the idea is to— while we can get caught up myopically in these moments of pain, to be able to pull back and look at it holistically and understand in the big scheme of your life where does this fit in? And if it really doesn't fit in, let's not wrestle with it. Let's let that thing pass on and let's not let it derail us, which is what a lot of stuff tries to do. Yeah. These distractions come in to try to derail you. And if we don't have a strong sense of purpose, if we don't have that vision and that beacon that keeps us on path, it becomes very easy to just start chasing all of these different rabbits called problems and people and issues and all that other kind of stuff. And next thing you know, your whole life by the time you get to the end of your life, it is nothing but this big melting pot of messes because you didn't focus on the one thing that you knew that your life would bring meaning to your life and meaning to other people's lives.
Love it. Awesome knowledge. Thank you so much.
Yes, sir.
And, uh, we'll be in touch and we'll see you around online with your show, with your live show.
Absolutely. It's gonna be fun.
Thanks, guys.
