Success in the Sun: How to Succeed in Business and in Life

Success in the sun: How to succeed in business and in life

This was the title of a conference I attended and spoke in Tampa, Florida this past weekend.

One hundred and fifty entrepreneurs came to the beautiful Tampa Convention Center to hear Ted Nicholas, a fellow who has sold over a billion dollars in information products, Bob Bly, considered one of the world’s experts in book marketing with over 75 books written, Matt Furry who has sold $400,000 dollars worth of product in one speech and myself. Ted wanted me to share the Marshmallow story.
It was very disappointing not to have one single Hispanic in the audience.
I want to tell you what I did to sell all the books I had with me, so you can learn a very valuable marketing trick and also as background for the article.

I met Ted Nicholas years ago when he and I were on the speaking circuit in the US with a group of marketing gurus.
On a particular seminar in Key West after Hurricane Andrews, twenty of us were asked to donate our time and give a speech during a weekend seminar and all the proceeds were going to the American Red Cross to help Hurricane victims.

I was the opening speaker on that very successful conference (one million dollars were collected and given to the Red Cross) and Ted spoke on the last day.
When he ended his speech, he was asked by someone in the audience, what was the secret to his success. When Ted was going to answer, the master of ceremonies stood up and told him to shut up. He then gave him a piece of paper and an envelope and was told to write the secret in that envelope. Ted did so and the master of ceremonies proceeded to auction off the secret. It was sold for $1,500 dollars.
I of course, had great curiosity to learn what was written in that envelope. butI lost sight of the gentleman that bought it and left that seminar with that question burning in my mind: What was that secret?
A couple of years later, I was hired to work in a consulting project in a company in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I recognized the owner of the company as the gentleman that bought the secret.
At the end of the day, I met with him and before leaving for the airport I asked him for the secret. He smiled, opened his right hand drawer, took out an envelope and handed it to me.
I read that secret and in my book Don’t Gobble the Marshmallow Ever, I am telling the world the secret.
This is how I closed my speech.
As soon as I stepped off the stage, a mob went after me handing me twenty dollar bills to buy my book. I sold out of every single book and could have sold a dozen more.
I share this with you because what I did is called a “hook”. In other words, I created a need for people to learn what that secret is all about and since one guy paid $1500 for it, and by just buying the book, you can read what someone else paid that much money for, makes it a very attractive situation.

If you are in business, what kind of hook can you create that will bring clients to your company?
What can you do to make your prospects want your product or service?

Domino’s Pizza had a hook. Delivery of your pizza in less than thirty minutes or it would be free. That was their hook.

You don’t even have to be a master innovator to be able to do this. The reality is pioneers have arrows in their backs. Copying pays better than innovating. You are better off by modeling success.
Sam Walton, who build Walmart into one of the biggest companies in the world, said,

“Most everything I have done I have copied from someone else”. So true.
The secret to financial success is not being in a business with a high profit margin. A far better formula for success is to find something you love to do and then figure a way to get paid for it.

It would be far more profitable for all of you, my dear readers, to concentrate on what you can do during these difficult times instead of listening to all the negative hogwash in the radio.
Listening to negative people during this difficult period, will confuse you, inhibit you and paralyze you.
If you decide not to listen to the nay sayers, you will then figure out ways to attract clients that companies that are now cutting their advertising, firing people and reacting to this economy are losing left and right.

In difficult times, companies that know how to play their cards right, will come out smelling like a rose, stronger than they were before.

To close, smart readers might already be thinking about the secret. If I told you, I would defeat the purpose and the lesson would be lost, don’t you think?