Hello beautiful peeps. I wanna share something from the heart, that might be useful. I sure hope so. So anyways, Im lucky enough to be here in Vietnam giving a Big Hearted marketing master-class to a group of small-business owners whove spent their whole lives trying to serve the community, right? Its the kind of talk I now give all over the world and have been for some years thanks to my love-project Big Hearted Business, except it occurred to me today that for some reason, I very rarely share my insights from this work with you. Well, from time to time, I will, because like me, most of the people who listen to my music appear to have a tiny little part inside you that actually wants to save the world, or make it better, even just a little bit, and in my life-time of research I have not found a more (potentially) powerful force for the doing of good than business (a conclusion that took me some years to prove, but I do believe were now proving it: you watch!). So, today, allow me to tell you a short modern-day story of how David really can beat Goliath, regardless of what everyone says. So, Im in Vietnam, talking with these generally-community-minded peeps who struggle to stay profitable as small-businesses in a bloated global economy; an economy that is forcing them, as it forces all smaller players in all fields, to either adapt their old business model, or die. They feel theyre being asked to compete under impossible circumstances, where the Goliaths of the world not only undercut them on availability but also on price. Its a commonly sung song, and although these chaps could in fact be you or I but they are, Ill now reveal, community pharmacists; the owners of corner shops, of modern-age apothecaries. So I ask them this very simple question, applicable to anyone whos ever felt the heat of competition under their collar; what is it you offer that the larger behemoths (the cookie-cutter/price-cutter businesses of the world) cannot offer? And I ask them this: what is it we all crave for in every product weve ever bought? What is it we crave for in every interaction weve ever had? What is it we VERY RARELY feel in those large behemoth super-malls? (Do you know the answer? Im curious: I wanna hear from you). Then I ask them to think about this for a minute: why, oh why, if you had the opportunity to put something beautiful and revolutionary and gorgeous and inspiring and artful and attractive or funny or interesting in your front window (which is effectively your face to the world), WHY instead would you choose to use that space to display enormously magnified pictures of rotten toe-nails (you know the ones?) that make us do a little sick in your mouth each time you walk past? Why have you aligned yourself with that? Why have you squandered your opportunity to delight me? Sure, tell me the truth, but tell it slant. Show me beauty, think long-term about me, show me you care about me just a little bit, offer me a deeper cure, see me as a human who counts, have the GUTS to do it differently, shake up the goddam model, go BEYOND what you once considered professional and instead, re-invent the term in a way that includes HEART. I dare you to actually care about me, care about where your products come from, about who made them, and to be smart about it - know the limitations of those products and how to counteract those limitations or compliment them, involve YOUR personality in your marketing, your story-telling, include YOUR intelligence and heart and humour in the exchange and THERE, my friends, youve found the secret of how to survive as a David in a world of Goliaths; show me that you care, and then, actually care. Keep doing that over a period of time, and baby, Im all yours. Feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might benefit. And for more of the same, come join me and the many thousands of other change-makers on our mailing list over at bigheartedbusiness
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 06:54:48 +0000
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