The following transcript looks at moving from invisible to memorable featuring Clay Clark, US Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year, Business Coach and Arthur Greeno at Thrive15.com, the best Ohio business college.
The following transcript looks at moving from invisible to memorable featuring Clay Clark, US Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year, Business Coach and Arthur Greeno at Thrive15.com, the best Ohio business college.Clay: My name is Clay Clark, and I am the CEO of Thrive15.com and your business coach. I’m also America’s “Most Pale Man.” You might have seen me in such feature films as … there’s too many to name, really, but I am joined here today with Arthur Greeno. This is a two-time Guinness World Record setter. He’s a venture capitalist, he’s a father of six, and he happens to be a branding guru, and he’s going to be teaching us specifically how we can move from invisible to being memorable with our branding.
So as you’re watching today’s episode, you really have to pay attention, because he’s going to be teaching from very specific moves that we can apply in our business, to make our company stand out and to break out of that clutter of commerce. Because, if no one knows our business exists, it’s hard for people to pay us.
Take it from me as a business coach so as you’re watching today’s episode, make sure you’re paying close attention, because the principles in today’s episode can absolutely change your life. If your business is stuck in that clutter of commerce, and you’re invisible, and people don’t know you exist; if you’re that business no one’s ever heard of, if you’re that product that no one’s ever seen, it’s going to be hard to sell something. So, today’s episode could be worth millions and millions of dollars to you.
Clay: All right, so, Arthur, we are here today talking a little bit about marketing a business, how to really brand a company. I have a green pen, I’ve got a digital pen, you have a pen–
Arthur: I do.
Clay: I’m excited to see you, so let’s just dive on in here, my friend.
Arthur: I’m in.
Clay: Okay. Here we go. We’re talking about how to move from invisible to memorable. Now, Arthur, Seth Godin, this is a best-selling author, he wrote a book called “The Purple Cow.” In this book, he explains that the idea is, if you’re driving down the road … I don’t know if you ever drive down the road with your kids on vacation, or something, but …
Arthur: I do.
Clay: So, you’re driving down the road, and then you look out the window and you see a bunch of cows. As a general rule, unless you own a Chik-fil-A, you probably don’t stop and pay homage to the cows. Is that right?
Arthur: Yeah.
Clay: Tell this business coach, you just keep on going?
Arthur: Yeah.
Clay: But if you see a purple cow, as a general rule, you’d probably stop and go, “What is this cow? It’s purple.”
Arthur: It’d be awesome!
Clay: Yeah, and like I have a nine-year old, so she would say, “Dad, we need to pull over and see it.” So, we pull over, and then my five-year old is like, “Oh, my Gosh! We have a purple cow!” And we pull over, and then other cars would pull over, and then pretty soon there would be a huge line of people to look at the purple cow.
Arthur: Yep.
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Clay: And in business, the same sort of phenomenon happens. When something stands out, it breaks out of the clutter. So Seth Godin says if you’re offering isn’t remarkable, then it’s invisible. In your mind, in terms of branding and marketing, what does that mean?
Arthur: One of the terms we use all the time is, when things are remarkable, it’s something you’re going to remark about. So, we use that term remarkable. It’s a big word for us. It’s how do we make the experience at Chik-fil-A remarkable? Or the advertising remarkable? It’s absolutely about what makes people stop and go, “Huh.” Even if that’s all you get, they still stop. There’s plenty of other places that they’re going to just pass on by.
Clay: One of the things I wanted to ask you, is that regardless of what best practice marketing case study that you read, or I read, it always talks about breaking out of the clutter of commerce. It always says you got to get noticed, you got to get attention, you got to get … I feel like … I work with small business owners all over the country as a consultant, and I feel like there’s a lot of companies … If you’re watching this and your name’s Roy, and your company is called Roy, LLC, I’m not trying to offend you; I’m just giving an example.
But, there’s a guy out there probably right now named Roy’s Plumbing, LLC. Or Dave’s Roofing, or something like that. And there’s all these companies that are not noticeable.
Arthur: That’s right.
Clay: Why is that in your mind? Why are companies not breaking out of the clutter? I feel like everybody knows we need to do this, but why are we not doing it, in your mind? Why do most companies not do this? You know business owners, why aren’t they doing it?
Arthur: Absolutely. And the business owners I know that don’t do that, it’s because, frankly, they like to do lazy marketing. When you do lazy marketing, you get what all other lazy marketers get, and that’s just to be right in the middle of the herd.
Clay: So you think it’s kind of just a lazy marketing decision? Tell me as a business coach.
Arthur: I do. I think it’s easy. It’s … yeah.
Clay: It’s the safe move. It seems safe, but it actually pays you less. It’s more risky, I guess, because you get paid less.
Arthur: Yeah, it is. But a lot of people don’t get that, because they just see everybody else doing the same old things. It’s kind of like the reverse of the purple cow. Everyone else is doing that, so they do the same thing, but yet, it’s not being remarkable.
Clay: At Chik-fil-A, you guys have a lot of purple cows.
Arthur: Yes, we do.
Clay: You guys are closed on Sunday. You have a cow as a mascot. And your customer service is absolutely legendary.
Arthur: Right.
Clay: Let’s kind of break it down here. So, you’re closed on Sundays. Now logically I would think, you know, pragmatically, you guys are probably killing about 1/7 of your sales. Does it hurt your sales to be closed on Sundays?
Arthur: Since we’ve never been open on Sundays, it really doesn’t hurt our sales.
Clay: Oh, that’s a good point.
Arthur: But, if we did … Could we make more money if we were open on Sundays? Absolutely. And it would probably be better than 1/7, because Sunday is a high-retail day for a lot of people.
Clay: Yeah, because more people are home from work.
Arthur: Correct.
Clay: Does being closed on Sunday ever offend customers? Do you have customers who are offended? “I’m offended you’re closed on Sunday. Why aren’t you open on Sunday, man?”
Arthur: The only time that’s ever happened is if I’m up there on a Sunday, sometimes if we’re up there on Sundays, it’s the only time we get painting done, or something like that, because of how busy we are, and customers will literally get in the drive-thru and start honking at each other, trying to get in the line first, when there’s no other customers in line. There have been times when I’ve walked out and they’ve started yelling at me, like “Your people are really slow!” And I’m kind of going, “Well, sorry, they’re off.”
Clay: We’re super slow on Sunday!
Ok, speak truth to a business coach, ave you ever had a customer tell you they didn’t appreciate you being closed on a Sunday?
Arthur: Never. Not once.
Clay: Have you ever had a customer tell you “Thank you” for being closed on Sundays?
Arthur: I’ve had tons of customers send me thank you’s.
Clay: Can you tell this business coach, what kind of things do they say?
Arthur: We’ve had them say, “We appreciate you standing up for your beliefs; I think it’s a wise business move.” They think it’s wise for us as business owners, because one of the things you talk about in your wheel of wealth is balance, and really, being home with your family on a Sunday is very balanced, and it really helps keep you focused.