Now, I just got back from a run and I wanted to shoot this quick video because it’s a topic I had earlier with a client of mine I was working with. The two words that came up were just and only. In this conversation, he was telling me, “Doug, I’m just doing this,” or, “It’s only one time.” It’s only one time I’m doing it, or only one cookie or whatever it was. So in our conversation, it happened to be around the area of business. The words just and only kept coming up in this conversation. That’s when I stopped him. Let’s just say his name was Rick. I said, “Rick, it’s not just, and it’s not only. Take those words out of your vocabulary.” So what would you say if you took out the word ‘only’ in that sentence?
The other morning, I was driving to the gym, it was 5:30 in the morning. And as I was driving down, I came up into a roundabout, and suddenly another car entered the roundabout going pretty quick. I hit the brakes to slow down and found myself on a patch of black ice. Now, to give you some reference, I’ve lived my whole life by the beach. In fact, the coldest place I’ve ever lived is Santa Barbara California. Now, recently, my wife and I moved up to beautiful Bend, Oregon, and we live by the base of the mountain, ’cause we love the mountains and the outdoors, and all it brings to us. So I hit this patch of ice, and I course-correct instantly and immediately to avoid the car.
Now, I coach coaches and high-end entrepreneurs, the best of the best. And often times, what this results in, is them not calling me out because they think I have all my ducks in a row, all the time. Well, I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret. I simply don’t. I’m always on my journey. That’s why it’s a journey. There’s not really a destination. There are places I’m trying to do, go to, and I’m always trying to improve myself.
As many of you listeners know I own two different marketing agencies. Often times when we meet with a client we ask them, “What is your statement of value?” We get blank stares, probably like you’re feeling right now. But a statement of value is simply a formula. It’s not a unique selling proposition, it’s really what value does that product or service bring to the marketplace. The formula is very simple. It’s product enables the customer to do what? We actually answer that question, then the client can almost have a one-liner. We use that across all marketing platforms.
I was speaking to a business owner earlier this morning, and the topic kind of went off the rails, as they typically do with clients that I work with.
Now, what we started talking about was plant medicines, right? Maybe you’ve heard of these. Some of the most popular plant medicines that people seem to be talking about now, are Ayahuasca, and other people call it yagé, right? Now, these are plant medicines that have been used for thousands of years by indigenous tribes down in Central and South America. Most notably Columbia, Peru and Brazil. Now, what we started talking about is, this business owner was telling me, “Hey Doug, you know, I’m very successful.” And he wasn’t saying, “I’m very successful,” but he is, and I already knew he was. He’s got a nine-figure business, he’s doing well.
