Marketing From The Heart: Issue # 34
Copyright © Zerald Communications Corporation 2003
http://www.zerald.com and www.profitmachine.net
All Rights Reserved. By Tom St. Louis -
Canada’s Marketing Wizard November 20, 2003

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Being in Marketing

How it’s actually your inner self that
decides your business outcomes every time

When I first started in marketing, I was a compulsive
junkie for marketing “how-to” information. Anything I
could get my hands on from Jay Abraham (the greatest),
Dan Kennedy (great) or Jay Conrad Levinson (also great),
I would get, study and devour obsessively. I must have
believed, and these wizards led me to believe it,
that I was always one tactic away from a huge breakthrough.

Books like Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins or
My Life in Advertising by David Ogilvy were revelatory
for me. I just couldn’t read them enough.

But, after investing thousands of hours of study, dozens
of successful and unsuccessful marketing campaigns and
many thousands of dollars spent, I had an insight that
startled me. Here it is:

People who succeed have the mindset of success. People
who don’t have the success mindset don’t succeed.

Is Marketing Irrelevent?

The revelation dawned on my while attending a marketing
conferences in the US. One after another, business
owners with a very poor grasp of marketing stood up to
ask the most rudimentary questions about marketing.
“How”, I asked myself, “Could these guys have a ten
million dollar business and not understand
‘Risk Reversal’, the ‘Lifetime Value of a Customer”
or the difference between features and benefits?

But then I observed their attitudes. They expected
to succeed. Marketing was simply a way of getting
them what they decided they were going to have. I
began to see more and more evidence of this troubling
truth.

A client of mine in the seminar business said
one day, “I absolutely refuse to go under 100 attendees.”
His conviction and passion were unmistakable. I asked
myself “Will his thinking make any difference? Will his
conviction turn the tide?” Perhaps not surprisingly,
without doing anything different externally, we did
manage to maintain more than 100 attendees. The only
factor that seemed to make a difference was his
internal state!

Another client, a prominent American lawyer loves
to tell the story of how, in their early days, his
dream—along with his partners—was to achieve $1 Million
in annual billings. This would require tripling their
revenues. The middle of December of that particular
year rolled around and the partners held a meeting
to take stock of their revenues to date. They were
just under $700,000. One of the partners was elated
because they had more than doubled. But my client said,
“Wait a minute! We said we were going for a million.
Let’s stick with it!”

What did he mean by that statement?

All he meant when he said, “Let’s stick with it”,
was that in the domain of thoughts, attitudes and
beliefs he would remain firm and consistent with
achieving $1 Million in sales and wanted his partners
to do the same. You see, he was trained in goal
setting and in the science of manifestation. As far
as he was concerned, attitude and expectation meant
more than any of the busywork they were doing to grow
their practice. On one of the last working days of
that year, a large settlement cheque arrived they
were not expecting. It brought them up to $1.1
million for the year.

A cynic would hear a story like this and quickly
conclude, “That’s just a coincidence or an anomaly”.
My experience with clients and in my own business
tells me that the mindset, beliefs and attitudes
of the entrepreneur dictate the outcome every time.

The “magic bullet” mentality of so many business
owners produces endless disappointment. The idea
that some external tactic is going to deliver a
new life, a profit breakthrough or a treasure
trove of great new clients is, upon examination,
downright silly. As Napoleon Hill said in
‘Think and Grow Rich’, his never equaled classic
of success literature “Your thoughts determine
your results”.

For years I read Forbes and Fortune magazines
looking for clues. Every month, the latest
billionaire or highflying profit innovator
was asked to account for his or her success.
It was always their attitude, their mindset,
their philosophy, and their beliefs that were
discussed. Do you think these people do not
know why they are succeeding?

Is “Experience” Important?

If I had two clients to work with: one with
a total expectation of prosperity and no marketing
savvy and the other a very bright, well educated,
savvy marketer with conflicting thoughts, I would
without hesitation put my money on the first
entrepreneur. If experience is a great teacher
it is only because, through experience, we
(hopefully) learn to adopt the habits of mind
consistent with success. If we could have
started with the right mindset, we would be
one of those wizards you occasionally read
about with two or three successful business
under their before the age of twenty.

If you have the right attitude, the mindset
and beliefs, you will attract everything else
you need including strategy, support and the
will to act. In the absence of those inner
qualities, the best marketing strategy and
tactics can’t save you.

Celebrity Endorsement

I wanted to tell you about my friend and coach,
Samy ‘the Soul’ Chong. I first met him when he
was in the restaurant business. His restaurant
was called ‘The Blue Begonia’ on Yonge Street.
He had a love affair with his customers that I
was in awe of. It was unique, unmistakable and
very magical. You just wouldn’t believe the
letters he used to receive from people describing
the transformational effect the dining experience
had on their lives. And you wouldn’t believe the
way the people with glowing faces would hang onto
Samy, who they’d just met, to effusively thank him
for the wonderful evening. I experienced the same
effect on many occasions.

You may think I’m exaggerating. I’m not.

When Samy left the restaurant business and went
into the coaching business, I volunteered to be
one of his clients. I told him I wanted to be
a business owner and not just a consultant.
Samy has helped me to strike out in a new direction.
I have set and reached some pretty audacious goals
with his help. Our revenues are way up, I’m adding
staff and adding clients.

I owe a lot to Samy. The thing that is amazing to
me is that he is so present and committed to what
I said I wanted to do and be. He takes his work
very seriously.

So, if you have ever wondered about working with
a coach—a powerful, committed person who wants you
to live your dreams almost more than you do, I
suggest you give Samy a call. I know he would be
happy to talk to you. And, as he’ll tell you, he’s
not attached to any particular person being his client.
He will help you to find out if coaching is right for
you and if his coaching is right for you.

I know he has a few spaces in his practice. I honestly
think that one day I will be bragging that
“I knew Samy when” and had the good sense to work
with him. Here’s your chance: don’t let it go by
without at least checking him out.

His phone number is 416-347-2814. His amazing
website is at:

http://www.corporatephilosopher.com/

P.S. If this issue of Marketing From The Heart has been
inspiring, useful or thought-provoking, please take a moment
and forward it to your friends and associates.
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