Our School system is geared to help people use linear thinking to process the world around them.  Linear thinking is the type of thing that made assembly lines so popular. Creating the assembly line took some non-linear, creative thinking, but once Ford put it into practice, it just made sense for everyone else to follow. The assembly line is the epitome of linear thinking. Each person along the line does one thing, and they do it over and over again in hopes of moving up to management. What is management of an assembly line? Checking certain parts of the assembly line over and over again to make sure everything is working the way it’s supposed to. Linear thinking at it’s best.  Which is a perfect tool for an industrialized nation… Which we no longer are.

This type of linear and hierarchical thinking in America today will only lead to a long, slow and dull death.

Non-linear thinking isn’t always scalable, or even practical; look at the Rolls Royce, or the Indiana Jones Lego set.  However, sometimes it is scalable and even more practical than before.  The point is, that we live in a country that allows non-linear thinking, and that gift will generate bountiful fruit in your life if you use it.

Linear thinking : you know a certain process works, so you always stick to it.

Non-linear thinking : you know a certain process works, so you intentionally push it to it’s limits until it breaks so that you can build a new and better process.

Non-linear thinking suggest that you can increase the size of your comfort zone and boost your creativity in non-linear ways.

As the Father of a 2 and a 4 year old, I have the luxury of hearing, “But I don’t want to!” quite often.  Not that it’s a bad thing, but it’s what you’d expect from a child.

Curiously enough, I meet many grown adult business owners who use this phrase all the time.  They just use  different words or actions to say it.  “That’s not my job,” “Well, I did my best,” “Well, when the market crashed…”  As adults, we’re really good at making our child-like comments/behaviors sound logical and justified.

There aren’t very many things we can’t do in our country if we really wanted to do them.  It’s usually just a matter of actually WANTING to do it.

Yes, even in this economy there are more options available to people than they care to admit.  It just takes a certain level of ambition, willingness, and some hard work, which would mostly come in the form of education.  By education, I don’t mean attending a university, rather, I mean learning by doing. If you’re willing to take a risk to learn a lesson, you’re ready for a real education.

You don’t like your job?  Create a new one, without even leaving your current job!  Be creative enough to figure out what would make your job come alive for you, and then start doing it… at the risk of getting fired.  Most people who are willing to take that risk end up with a job they actually like doing, either where they were, or someplace else… the point is that they start doing something they like, instead of settling for what they’ve got.

You don’t like your spouse?  You can have a whole new marriage without ever getting divorced.  Just like with the job, it’s going to take some personal risk on your part, and a lot of hard work.

You’ve got very entrenched habits and thought patterns that have made your job and your marriage the way that it is.  Stepping out of that groove is far easier said than done.  As a Warrior, I’ll never promise you easy, I’ll only promise you “worth it-ness.”   Do you want a risk worth taking, or do you prefer to arrive to death safely?

It all comes down to you!

Are you willing to step out of your own head long enough to see what other people’s objectives really are?  To realize that you’re not the only one with objectives that matter?  Are you willing to take personal and emotional risks?

OR, HAVE YOU JUST COME UP WITH A REALLY CREATIVE AND CONVINCING WAY TO SAY “BUT I DON’T WANT TO!”

Look at some of the areas in your life where you might be saying “But I don’t want to.”  Job – Marriage – Education – Network – etc.

You  can create a whole new “X” without changing your “X.”

The only thing in life that really needs to change is….YOU.
“You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”

~Dr. Seuss

And anyone as brainy and footsy as you,
can make a whole new life in whatever you do.
When things get so tough you don’t want to fight through,
you won’t be the one who says, “But I don’t want to.”
~Yours Truly

Ok, so what does marketing have to do with the rest of your life? Great Question! You are always marketing to people, you just don’t think of it that way.

When you tell your employees that some process is changing in their normal workflow, or when you talk to your spouse about plans you have in mind for the backyard, you’re marketing.

Just because you are not making a financial transaction, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to market and sell.

As we have already discussed, the purpose of advertising isn’t to sell, but rather to draw people to your Magnet. Yet, often times, when we are talking to our employees or family members, we think that we can go straight from the idea to the sale. Wrong!

My suggestion: if you’ve got a place you’d like your company or family to go, don’t just tell them what it is and then say, “This is what we’re doing.”

Advertise it first!

See how many of them you can ‘draw to your magnet.’

Make sure you have a good magnet and then follow-up until they buy!

Just as you wouldn’t intentionally deceive your customer into buying something that wasn’t in her best interest, you wouldn’t create a marketing plan to deceive your employees or family into doing something that wasn’t in their best interest.

Imagine the freedom, power and joy you will have in your life, when you learn how to persuade the people closest to you to continuously move forward towards your common best interests.

That is why marketing is so interesting to me. It has an influence on every part of our lives. The better we get at marketing, the better our lives get.

It’s not about cold hard numbers, and churning customers through our process. It’s about being authentic, and living to become the possibilities you create for yourself and the people closest to you.

“Wellll, they never taught me THAT in marketing class.”

We’ve talked about what marketing is: The Art of Conversion. We’ve talked about the critical conversion measuring points:  Advertisement to Magnet, Magnet to Follow up and Follow up to Purchase.  If we don’t know where and what to measure, then we’ll just be spending money on hope.

Now I’d like to talk to you about who you’re marketing to.  Understanding Target Marketing is critical for small business owners with a finite budget.

I’m sure you have heard of Geoffrey Moore’s Model of Diffusion, as diagrammed below.

A quick explanation: when a new idea, product or technology comes along, the vast majority of the people will ignore it, or even go as far as to violently oppose it.  However, there are the few who embrace the idea: the ‘Innovators’.  Consider the internet back in 1995.  It was not easy to create a web page.  The innovators were the ones who spent high prices to have a site and did the hard work to create them.  Today, you can make and host a website for free without doing a single line of code with companies like Weebly.

After the Innovators come the ‘Early Adopters’. These are people who keep their ear to the ground and know what is new in their industry.  They aren’t the first to try things out, but, once they see proof of the innovators using it successfully, they join in as well.  By this point, the prices are usually a little lower and the product or service is usually a little easier to use.

Finally, for this discussion anyway, the ‘Early Majority’ show up when the product is so easy to use that there is very little learning required to use the product successfully.  By this point, the price is set for mass consumption as well.  Chances are, you run a small business that sells a product or service that has already reached the early majority.   Which means that there is an industry leader who is dominating the market and you’re just hoping to get a small percentage of the market share.

If you were to hit the market with the same mass-marketing techniques of the industry leader, a few things are likely to happen.
1. You’ll probably gain far less than 1% of the market share.
2. You’ll probably spend far more than 50% of the industry leader’s marketing budget.
3. You’ll probably make your product and service pretty boring.

Instead, you need to find a Target Market, a ‘niche’. If your product isn’t new, you must find a new way to view, use or sell your product and do something that no one else is doing. Yes, this requires risk, creativity and care.

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, you can select a Target Market and grow to become the market leader. If you ask me, shoes, books and coffee are some of the most boring products on the planet.  If I were going to create a break-through business, I surely wouldn’t pick any of those mature industries.   However, if you look at Zapos, Amazon and Starbucks, they have revolutionized those industries entirely. Here is how I think they did it, and how you can do it too.

First, care about what you do! Care about your business, the industry you’re in and your customers.

Second, you need to find the Innovators in your market. As tempting as it is, FORBID yourself from marketing to the masses that live in the early and late majority.  It took innovators and early adopters years to convert them to do what they are doing now.  Those people don’t like to change.  Innovators are people who have an infatuation of sorts for your industry.  The Japanese call this ‘Otaku’. Go to a comic book convention, you’ll see first-hand what means to have an otaku.   These are the innovators.  When a new insurance product comes out, there are some investors and business owners who are so driven to be on the edge, that they purchase them instantly.  What’s your otaku?  Mine is Buffalo-Style Chicken Wings!  (You can read more about Otakus in Seth Godin’s Purple Cow.)

Next, you need to find the Early Adopters. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Tipping Point describes a type of person he called a “Maven.”  A maven is an expert or connoisseur.  Someone whom you might turn to when you’re getting ready to make a major purchase of some sort.  They are the people who just want to know things. They may not be the first to buy things, but they always want to know what’s new, what’s better and why.  These are the people whom companies like Zapos, Amazon and Starbucks catered to in the beginning.

What are the people who have an otaku for your industry looking for?

What are the Mavens saying about you?

Do they even know you exist?

The success coaches and non-script-reading customer support team are a huge part of Infusionsoft’s success.  This is also as big a part of the company as the software itself.

What can you do that would get mavens and people with otakus talking?

Start with people who want to change!

We have seen that Marketing is the Art of Conversion. Now we need to know where the conversion points are, and know exactly what conversion we are trying to make.

A critical observation before we go on:  If you don’t have a target market, none of this works!

A target market allows you to have a targeted message.  A targeted message is what really allows you to get someone’s attention.  A broad message for everyone is boring and won’t get anyone’s attention.  If you use a targeted message, you’ve got something to measure.  If you have something to measure, then you’ve got something you can influence!  Marketing isn’t magic; it’s art, backed up by a lot of testing!

So, here are the critical measuring points you want to isolate:

Advertising: The purpose of your advertising is not to sell your product.  The purpose is to earn people’s attention and draw them to your Magnet. If people click on your ad to see your magnet, your ad has done its job, it converted a look into a click. The small fraction of people who are ready to buy today, will.  But if you want to see any of the rest of those people again, you had better have a magnet.

Magnet: The purpose of the magnet is to give you a CHANCE to follow up with all the people who are not ready to buy from you today.  The Magnet is something that the prospective client will find valuable.  In many cases, it is an educational webinar or report of some sort that teaches the client how they can solve their problem on their own.  Then, it usually presents some compelling reasons why it would be in their best interest to have YOU, a professional, do it instead. If people opt-in for your magnet, then it has done its job and converted a lead into a prospect.

Follow up: The purpose of follow up is to turn the prospect into a happy client.  Some of the most effective follow-up messages build on the message that you put in the magnet.  They will say things that support this idea, “In the magnet I gave you all the basics, now here is an advanced feature that would further reduce your pain or increase your benefit.  As a professional, not only can I do the basics for you, but I can also do the advanced things as well.  Let’s talk.”  If the prospect becomes a happy customer, then your follow up has done its job, it converted the follow-up communication into a purchase.

Remember: when you are marketing, you need to measure your Ability to Convert. When you advertise, there is almost always some way to measure the number of people who have seen your ad (if you are using advertising that you can’t measure, stop immediately.)  Take this number and compare it to the number of people who converted, that is, the number of people who went to see your magnet.

You must do the same thing at each stage.  If you don’t do this, then you’ll have no way of knowing what your influence is on your conversion.

If you’re not influencing your conversion, then it’s pretty tough to get good at marketing.

Have I ever mentioned that marketing is the only real way to grow your business significantly?

That is such an interesting question… What is marketing?

I find it so interesting because when you see it the way that I do, you see that it makes all the difference in just about everything in your life.

So, let’s review some answers to that question.

- The Cost of Customer Acquisition – The money spent for advertising and then following up with prospects. You take the amount of money you spent over the number of new customers you have as a direct result of the money you spent, and you have the bookkeeper’s definition of Marketing.

- All Communications by any part of your company to any of your company’s stake holders – your advertising, your receptionist answering the phone, the copy on your invoice, the change memo’s to your employees and your financial reports to your investors would all fall into this category.

- Being remarkable – or, as Seth Godin might say, “Doing things that are worthy of making a remark.” Providing timely quality service is expected; running down the block and around the corner to return a wallet that someone left on the counter is remarkable.

- All the ‘Touchy Feely’ stuff that everyone says I have to do – this is what my first thoughts were of telling stories, making my copy less ‘professional’ and more ‘relatable,’ smiling while I was on the phone and using ‘good’ colors.

Well, my current answer to this question includes all the above (in fact, none of the definitions above work, unless you care.)

MARKETING is The Art of Conversion

The bottom line is that the sole purpose of marketing is to Convert people, meaning, to get people to do something.

No one makes a piece of art to NOT influence the viewer. Even if the art was delivered for free, the intent is still to influence the viewer and change their life in some way.

The more clarity you have on how you want to influence people, the more effective you can make your Call to Action in your marketing.

Your Call to Action in one piece of communication might be “Buy Now!”, while the Call to Action in another piece might be, “I feel what you feel. Take this gift as my outward expression of empathy – I appreciate your positive attention.”

Now that we know what Marketing is, Part Two will show you the critical measuring points to influence your Conversion.

The invention of the electric telegraph was a revolutionary event.  For the first time, people were able to send and receive information over long distances in real time.  This was also the first time people really had to process and thus filter real-time information that had come from some distance away.  For example, people in Michigan in the 1840’s really didn’t care much to know that there was a hurricane in Florida right at that very moment.  But people were still fascinated by the novelty of the technology.

When you think about it, why would someone in Michigan at that time really need to know about a hurricane in Florida?  Well, I can think of a few reasons: the person had relatives in Florida, the person is studying to be a meteorologist, the person runs a business that is dependent upon some infrastructure in Florida or the person is a philanthropist who has a heart for helping victims of natural disasters.  I’m sure there are a few more, but, baring those few reasons, why would a person need to know that information?

Imagine if your life could be tracked on a balance sheet, like the one a financial advisor would use.  Instead of tracking your financial assets and liabilities, they tracked your ‘information assets and liabilities’.  According to your goals in life, how much of the information you get from the news would end up in your ‘information asset column’?  How much of what you learned in college would end up there?

I’ve found that most of the things that build my information asset column came from real life experiences.  Most of which were experiences where I had something to risk, and I lost it. Maybe it’s just me, and some strange coincidence, but I found that I started experiencing much more ‘life’ once I unplugged from main-stream media.  I found that I started getting some of the best ‘information assets’ in my portfolio after I stopped watching all network media. (yes, I’m an odd ball, I don’t even have cable TV in my house).

One thing that it certainly helped me do was maintain a focus on what Steven Covey calls my “Circle of Influence.”  Compared to what I used to be like, I’ve almost lost sight entirely of my “Circle of Concern.”  Your circle of influence is described as the things that you have direct influence over.  Your circle of concern would then be things that you are concerned about, but don’t have any influence over. The conclusion to his circle concept is that our circle of influence may never get as big as our circle of concern; however, if we focus on our circle of influence, our circle of influence will get bigger!

Almost everything you read or see in the news lives out in your circle of concern.  It covers things that you have absolutely NO influence over. For example, look at the popularity of national politics talk shows.  They go on and on for hours at end about things that you and I have absolutely no influence over.  It’s 100% designed to get you emotionally charged.  Talk about an information liability!  My 2 cents on influence and politics.  Unless you’re willing to start some nation-wide protest or political support rally or drum up a few million dollars for a great lobbying lawyer, getting emotionally charged on a daily basis about national politics is a waste of valuable resources.  Rather, I think that the biggest influences in politics, in creating change that matters, start with you in your community. If you can get your local community to make relevant changes, then you can have an influence on your larger neighborhood. If we’re not willing to invest time and get our hands dirty for our own neighbors, what makes us think that we can have an influence on national politics (or even have the right to).

Of course, this can be applied to everything you’re doing.  If you want to have influence in whatever your doing, start making a difference right where you are.  The news will certainly not help you do that.  The one major goal of ALL MAJOR MEDIA is for you to do ONE THING… Sit right where you are, and watch more commercials! That’s it!  And, at least in my viewing history, there wasn’t anyone I saw in network media that had an agenda designed for the viewer to go out and experience more of ‘life,’ take risks and really add valuable assets to their “life balance sheet.”  Instead, I heard a lot of, “it’s dangerous out there, stay here and I’ll show you all the places you shouldn’t go and all the ways to play it safe with your money and your life.  If you sit and watch me, I’ll guarantee that you show up to death safely!”

Be A Warrior! Take account of your information balance sheet!  Start cutting out the things that aren’t assets!

Yes, brace yourself, it’s another Army Story.

So, there I was, on September 16^th, 2001, sitting in an aircraft hangar at Ft. Drum New York, with the 10^th Mountain Division, waiting for a military plane to pick us up.  We were in the middle of an EDRE, Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise.  This is when you do a full-dress rehearsal of a deployment.  We were locked down on post since the 13^th, getting our pre-deployment equipment, vaccinations, etc.  All of our equipment was palletized and ready to be loaded on a plane.  We even renewed our wills and powers of attorney.  Along the way, we found out that there was a unit on post that really was deploying.

In the hangar, they had two big-screen TVs.  They were both tuned into one of the national news channels.  As I was watching, a report came on.  The reported started by announcing, in a calm professional voice, “The 10^th Mountain Division is deploying to Afghanistan today.”  I thought to myself, “Wow, these guys are pretty good.  We didn’t even know that one unit was deploying until yesterday.”  The reporter continued, “The part of Afghanistan that they will be fighting in is very rough and mountainous terrain.”  This was a fairly neutral comment to me, but what came next put an end to my “news-watching” forever. The reporter said, “The reason the Government chose the 10^th Mountain Division to go is because of their specialized Mountain warfare training.”  This comment sounds pretty good doesn’t it?  Unless you’ve ever been to Ft. Drum New York, you’d never know that the place is almost as flat as Kansas! There isn’t a mountain within hours of the place, and there certainly isn’t any ‘specialized mountain warfare training’ going on there! (The 10^th MTN DIV name is a historic name that comes from the unit that was started in Aspen Colorado.  In fact, if you go to the base of the most famous mountain in Aspen, you’ll find a statue of a soldier with mountain gear dedicated to the 10^th MTN DIV.  The unit had left Colorado long before that news reporter was ever born.)

Ok, so maybe you don’t see that as a big deal.  I can understand that, but consider this:  they reported two facts, 1. There was a unit from 10^th Mountain Division that did deploy that day.  2. Afghanistan is very tough mountainous terrain.  The offence is that they weaved these two facts together with something that was 100% fabricated.  To me, it doesn’t matter if the fabrication was by design to push some agenda, or whether it was just a stupid mistake that a reporter made by making an assumption about something that seemed obvious.  The point is this, most of the information that we get from the news contains details that sound good or obvious, but aren’t easy to verify.  Thus, the ability for a network to fabricate details between facts is far too great.

My first thought after watching that report was, “Holy Toledo, I’ve been letting them spoon-feed me this ‘explicative’ for years!”  Although I was thoroughly disgusted by the event, it wasn’t until years later that I finally asked the question, “Where else have I been letting people spoon-feed me misinformation?”

That’s when I came to the realization that most of my information diet was actually just for entertainment.

Where do you get your information?
What information are you getting?
What productivity can you actually attribute to that information?

The news, and most other forms of media, are only a distraction, or at best, entertainment.  If you want to increase your ability to influence, make use of your time by focusing on things that you can actually have influence on.

One of the best soldiers I met during my time in the Army was First Sergeant Zackary.  He was my First Sergeant during our deployment to Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

I’m sure you remember when we invaded Afghanistan and then, a short time later, we declared war with Iraq.  My unit deployed the day we declared that war, March 19^th, 2003.

This story takes place during the 3 weeks that my unit had from notification of deployment up to the day we actually deployed.  As the commander of this unit, I can share with you the kinds of things that go through soldiers’ minds during a time like this.  The first thoughts for most were reminiscent thoughts of the first Gulf War, which was fought to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi oppression, back in 1991.  That war was essentially over in just a few days.  Our soldiers, now, started thinking about the awesome power of the M1A1 Tank and how fast it was able to command the battlefield.  This brought a feeling of security, superiority and some form of ‘machismo’.

Then, reality of the deployment started to sink in.  The idea that we were going to be away from our families with no communication for some unknown time started getting heavy.  The only thing they would know about us is what they would see on the news.  Then we started getting our deployment issue equipment, which included: First Aid Kits, Gas Masks, Chemical Suits, Anthrax Vaccines and Bullet-Proof Plates for our vests.

As we went through the cattle-line to get our equipment and shots, the reality of war was clear and present.  Getting this equipment and going through all the pre-deployment briefings made us start understanding some potential ugly realities.

We started realizing the biggest difference between this war and the first Gulf War.  Back then, the dictatorship knew that we were not going to attack him, rather, we were just going to push his troops out of Kuwait.  This time, he knew we were coming for him.  We all believed that he had chemical weapons and, at this point, he had nothing to lose by using them… liberally.  Images of WWI soldiers tangled in barbwire, suffering the inhuman effects of mustard gas flashed through our minds.

Keeping my unit’s imagination in check, dealing with multiple family issues, getting our vehicles and payload equipment to deployment readiness, receiving and conducting strategic briefings, setting up systems for the families in case the worst happened to their solider and creating/conducting wartime readiness training made things a bit chaotic.

As I was driving at full speed in circles, First Sergeant Zackary came to me and said, “Ya know, Sir, I had a good friend in Special Forces.  He always said that when there were too many things going on at once and things seemed to be getting out of control, he would stick to their motto, ‘Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.’” As a good Sergeant does, he always had the right words at the right time.

First, I slowed down the hurricane of thoughts whipping through my mind.  Then, I determined what the priorities were.  Finally, I was able to give a detailed priority list to my troops.  It was amazing to see how my unit changed from being a hive of busy bees to a well-oiled war machine in just a few days.

The one qualification I’ll make is that I had a unit of well-trained soldiers, who knew how to do what needed to be done.  First Sergeant Zackary and I had created an environment where they had a lot of autonomy and trust.  Once I stopped trying to make everything perfect, everything started moving much faster.  I did what my job required, and I did it well.  Then my troops stepped up to the plate and did the same thing.  I was amazed at how much faster things went, when I slowed down.

The rest of the pre-deployment and deployment went very smoothly.  First Sergeant’s cool demeanor was a great asset to the unit.  By slowing down, it was far easier to get everyone focused on opportunities rather than the question, “What’s coming next?”

What’s going on in your life, business, job, marriage, etc.?  Is there any place that seems like too much is going on or is just out of control?  Some place where you just can’t get things done that you want to get done?

Slow down!
Make things smooth!
This will make space for ideas. Use that space wisely!
Don’t use that space to just ‘stay busy’.

If you can find a good source of blogs, books and associations, you’ll be amazed at the ideas that you’ll find to implement in your business. You’ll be amazed at how that will speed things forward in a far more predictable and controllable way.

A gift can be something as simple as a genuine smile, or as massive as the Statue of Liberty. In either case, the intent of the gift is to somehow influence or change the recipient for the better.  Creating and giving a work of art is the highest form of gift-giving there is.  A work of art is a product of freely-given emotional labor that was created specifically for you.  When a hotel concierge gives you a genuine smile, it’s for you.  When the French gave America the Statue of Liberty, it was for you (plural).  When Picasso started the style of cubism, it wasn’t for people who valued the traditional rules of painting; it was a gift for those ready to create new rules.

Today, there are many examples of people who are freely giving the emotional labor of their art. By doing it, they get better.  Because they get better at their chosen art, their value in contributing to others goes up as well.  The higher their value, the more choices they have when deciding where and how to contribute.

Here’s a great example. Joey Sampaga was running a mortgage business.  In his spare time, he made video devotionals for his church.  He poured his emotional labor into producing a gift for a specific group of people.  Surely, he got better at  making videos.  He then decided that he could give this same gift to people in his business network, so he started making video-interviews showcasing the talents of the people in his network as a gift.

This is the essence of art.  He did something designed to make positive change in the lives of a specific group of people.  He didn’t do it for payment or reciprocity. He did it because he’s an artist.  The second (and just as critical) part of the equation is that he published it.  He didn’t make the videos and say, “This is terrible, people will laugh at me, there’s no way I can put this out in public.” No, he put it out even though he was embarrassed at first.

Now he’s the co-owner of a fast-growing company called Video N 5.  I don’t think he’s embarrassed by those videos anymore.

SO WHAT!?

You, are an artist!  You have something to publish! You have something you would freely pour emotional labor into!  Don’t fall into the trap of, “Well, what am I really an artist at?”  The question is, How can you be an artist right where you are?

Make something! Publish it! Repeat!

Artists take risks and stick their neck out for the sake of the art.  Turtles keep their necks in for the sake of their jobs.

Be a Warrior! Paint the world!

Or, as Seth Godin might say, “Be a Linchpin! Deliver your art!”  (linked is his book, Linchpin, which inspired this post)