A summary of things you should know about The Pumpkin Plan according to Mike Michalowicz: Introduction In this episode Mike Michalowicz takes a deep dive into his bestselling book, TheRead More
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]]>In this episode Mike Michalowicz takes a deep dive into his bestselling book, The Pumpkin Plan where he helps you implement a unique strategy for growing your business.
In his book, Michalowicz utilizes the techniques that farmers use to grow colossal pumpkins. His theory is that pumpkin farming provides some similarities in growing a successful business and he provides you all of the steps to do so.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs and business owners who are struggling to grow their business and have too many tasks on their plate. Michalowicz gives you the steps to focus on that one thing you do well and becoming a master at it so you can experience colossal growth.
I am a big believer in the stories, at the end of the day to remember 200 to 300 pages worth of stuff is impossible. In my books I wanted to paint pictures in the readers mind so instead of that one sentence, they can walk away with that one vision.
You will need to read from beginning to end.
Less is more. If you want to grow your business stop trying to do more things, the natural tendency. If you want to grow your business find that one thing to focus on and become a master at it.
The essence of The Pumpkin Plan is five significant steps.
The first step is called Seed Selection. In the pumpkin industry there are two types of pumpkin farmers, the ordinary farmer and the colossal famers. Ordinary farmers pick ordinary and cheap seeds while colossal farmers are focused on quality seeds. Colossal farmers become highly selective of their seeds and spend hours investigating individual seeds looking for indications of strength.
Many entrepreneurs are after the cheap and easy seed but the colossal entrepreneurs pick colossal seeds. There are three major components in a colossal business, firstly it has to exploit the uniqueness of the entrepreneur, secondly there has to be demand for it, and lastly is the component of systemization.
The second step I talk about is the sprout. If you are an ordinary farmer you look for any sprout. Colossal pumpkin farmers focus on strong sprouts. If you want to grow a colossal business you have to focus on the strong elements of it. The one thing I really emphasis on is being selective of your clients.
The third step I talk about is the watering process. Ordinary pumpkin farmers use a saturation strategy while a colossal farmer uses a quenching strategy. It’s at this stage that the colossal pumpkin can grow ten times faster than the ordinary pumpkin. For a Colossal Business using the pumpkin plan I recommend the strategy of quenching. Once you identify your best customers that you want to clone, your next step is to find out where they congregate and start contributing to those environments. Now you become a contributor as opposed to someone just trying to take and this will change the relationship to a much more positive one.
The fourth significant step is what’s called Rude Analysis. Ordinary farmers don’t even look at the root system but colossal farmers get tools and devices to look at the roots because it feeds the entire plant. The root system for a colossal business is the vendor network. After you find out who your best customers are you need to find out who else they work with, what other vendors they use and build relationships with them. The whole goal is to circulate with the vendor network that is serving your best clients.
The final step is the pruning process. Colossal farmers don’t prune so much as they do what is called killing and as little pumpkins come up on the vine they will kill them immediately. Every time a little pumpkin is allowed to grow on a vine it is stealing nutrients from the colossal pumpkin. As applied to business colossal entrepreneurs will focus on their best clients and turn away all the other opportunities. You grow by saying no and colossal entrepreneurs get this. They have to focus on what’s best and the only way to do that is to say no to everything else.
“He’s a very handsome young man.” – Mikes Mom
I am an author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, The Pumpkin Plan and Profit First. I write books to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses. I challenge all the beliefs that are around because I believe most of our beliefs are hurting our businesses and propose new ways to do it.
I started studying colossal pumpkin farmers and I realized that they basically follow the same process as ordinary pumpkin farmers do but change a few elements. Just by changing 5% or 10% of the growing process the pumpkin responds with explosive growth. I figured that if you can do this natural, why not do it with businesses and I put it to the test.
Influence by Robert Cialdini
Buy The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz on Amazon today
Visit MikeMichalowicz.com to learn more about Mike and his books
Follow Mike Michalowicz on Twitter and Facebook
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: How To Get Unstuck: 25 Ways to Get Your Business Growing Again by Barry Moltz | Zero To One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters | Vision To Reality by Honoree Corder
Relevant advice and tips: 5 Important Things That Every Entrepreneur Needs To Know About Starting a New Business | 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Overcome Business Failure
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]]>A summary of things you should know about Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days according to Al Lautenslager Introduction As a business owner you know you need marketing but you don’tRead More
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]]>As a business owner you know you need marketing but you don’t know where to start. Al Lautenslager and Jay Conrad Levinson give you that starting point in Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days. It’s really common sense types of things but not necessarily common practice. Wade interviews Al in this episode to discuss that path, one step in front of the other, that road map, for the marketing that you need to do for business.
What makes the book different is the fresh examples. At the end of each chapter there is an action plan that helps with the implementation, the number one problem with businesses today is implementation. Other businesses know they have to market but they don’t know where to start. I give you that starting point in this book. It’s really common sense types of things but not necessarily common practice. It helps businesses get started, gives them that path, one step in front of the other, that road map, for the marketing that they need to do for business.
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is that they know they have to market but they don’t. The take away is you have your starting point and your step by step plan. You don’t have to be intimidated or fearful anymore because you don’t know anything about marketing. You don’t have to be afraid to start with something.
The book is organized into days which are just another name for a chapter. Day one is the Guerrilla Marketing mindset. Every single day, no matter what I am doing, I think about the question how am I building the awareness with my prospects and clients through all the marketing that I am doing? I consciously think about that, which gets me in the proper mindset to start my day.
I meet a lot of people in my travels and people tell me what their job is to which I tell them to change that mindset, you are all marketers of the business that you work for. Am I biased with that mindset? Absolutely, but I have seen successful businesses become successful because of that mindset. So day one takes you through that mindset and how to develop the mindset.
In day four I talk about the target market and one of the things I suggest to people is that your best prospect is a current client. I tell businesses all the time to spend over half of your time and over half of your marketing dollars on current customers. That typically surprises and astounds a lot of businesses. A current customer already knows you, already trusts you and already likes you and that is much easier to market to rather than starting fresh with someone that doesn’t know you and doesn’t trust you yet. I also say that your second best prospect is a past customer and I give examples as to why this is true.
Day five I talk about positioning and it is probably my favorite day of all the days I talk about in this book. One very important concept in this day is that everybody is an expert in something. People like to buy from experts, people trust experts, people have confidence in experts work and that’s positioning. My second favorite day in this book is day eight.
In day eight we talk about benefits, competitive advantages and things like that. When I start talking about this day in the book I say that I probably got a little bit of bad news for you. The bad news is your customers and prospects don’t care about you. They don’t care about you, what they care about is what is in it for them. Every time they take a look at marketing they are looking for the benefits, not the features. I suggest that you make a list of what the benefits are that you offer to all your customers and prospects. After that I suggest that you make a list of what your competition offers. If these two lists are identical neither company has a competitive advantage. These are just some of the examples of some of the days in Guerrilla Marketing in 30 days.
“Spend over half your marketing time and half your marketing dollars on current customers.” – Al Lautenslager
“Put your message where your target market can see it.” – Al Lautenslager
“You’re an expert.” – Al Lautenslager
“Features tell and benefits sell” – Al Lautenslager
I’m an author, speaker and marketing consultant. I travel the world talking about various marketing strategies for those that are interested in growing a business to do so with low and no cost marketing tactics. I’ve been a business owner for fifteen years; I owned a printing and mailing business in the city of Chicago and spent time in corporate America before that. Parallel to my business ownership I started doing a lot of marketing consulting with small businesses. I sold that business in 2009 and focus today on consulting. I’m an author of six marketing books and am really passionate about fulfilling my mission of helping businesses grow with low and no cost marketing.
I’m a former business owner and coming out of the corporate world with a marketing background I had to enter the trenches and start marketing from my boot straps on day one. I did that based on my corporate marketing experience and based on my education, very successfully. I started helping other businesses do that because they saw my success and wanted to know what I was doing and how I could help them. I was asked to speak to their chamber of commerce, their franchise or their organizations and come to find out I really enjoyed that. People were walking away with immediately actionable tactics that they could use the same day they heard about it. I asked someone I knew in the speaking business how to leverage this speaking thing that I’ve just been asked to do. How do you make money doing that? He said I have to position myself in such a way that you are the absolute go to person and that means writing a book. I decided to get an endorsement from Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla marketing. That is when we came up with the idea of Guerrilla Marketing in 30 days. I asked Jay if he would co-author it with me and he agreed to.
The Autobiography of Ben Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
Buy Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days by Jay Conrad Levinson and Al Lautenslager on Amazon
Visit Market-For-Profits.com for more information on Al and his book
Download the full transcript here
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: Market Like You Mean It by Al Lautenslager | Do It! Marketing by David Newman | Guerrilla Social Media Marketing by Jay Levinson
Relevant advice and tips:5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make With Marketing and Branding | 3 Advantages of Guerrilla Marketing Every Owner Should Know
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