Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Well, Mike, if the system is so good, why are you having trouble selling it? Just ID the zipcodes or area codes of the people you want to sell it to and your system will take care of the rest. But then, maybe I've heard too many pitches from Amway and other so called "revolutionary" network marketing schemes.

Anyway, what I'd suggest is that you put a budget together and post a project on here for us to bid on to help you do your branding.

Best of luck,

Wayde

W

My business is making dreams come true. But hard work almost always goes farther than big talk. So, if you are ready to get in business with guys who've done it bigger than you can dream. Let me know. I am a launcher and finisher for folks that have not made the journey before. If you want to trade ideas let me know.

Steve
Think Equity

Mike, I wish you well, I love things that shake up this industry, and I know that if its half as good as you think and we all hope, then this community will be 100% behind you.

Might be worth you posting a project in the right hand column to get names of interested parties to help you out. I feel that rather than an interim consultant you will need some permanently assigned to your venture.

If your looking for someone in the UK, drop me a line :-)

Again, all the best, and if it does take off as I hope, drop back here and let us all know about it.

Mike, while you're waiting for that $500 million to start rolling in, tighten your belt. Move in with your mom, learn to love peanut butter, and stay in a position where you don't NEED someone else's money to make your venture a reality.

End of lecture from a fellow entrepreneur...



Go! And best of everything to you!

Shelley

Hi Mike,

You mention that some have told you that "you are full of it".

Two statements are undeniably true.

1) you either are, or are not, "full of it".

2) you either come across, or do not come across, as "full of it".

From reading your messages above, my quick assessment is that a) you quite possibly DO in fact have a tiger by the tail, but b) you definately come across as though you are "full of it".

If this is the case (and I have not signed a non-disclosure nor met you, and so I could be way off base) I believe you will have limited success promoting your innovative idea in such an unprofessional and "Amway-like" zealous manner. If I personally had such an idea, I would approach one or more major advertisers, either directly or thru their agency, and sell a pilot program. I would use this pilot program as a reference to sell other agencies and advertisers.

You need professional marketing help and basic professional sales training. Fortunately, you have come to the right place. Good luck, and take care.

Intriguing. I think I'm going to sit back and watch this one... HawaiiMike, all the luck in the world, but when you make such enormous claims, it comes across like a get rich quick scheme, MLM, or pyramid selling. A lot of people in business will be sceptical purely because of how big your claims are! There is a general maxim of "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

I admire your enthusiam and belief, ad hope it works. You've got the emotional side down pat. Now concentrate on the rational. Get your business plan as good and you'll have no problems securing enough funding to develop your goldmine.

Let me not respond to the specific question being asked, but instead reflect on the interaction.

To HawaiiMike:

Your enthusiasm is obvious, and that’s good. You SHOULD believe in your product – even be passionate about it. But the tone of your communication is so hyped that you’ve struck a nerve among people who are often accused of over-hyping everything.

We’re super sensitive to this kind of communication because it strikes a nerve among marketing professionals and reminds us of how many people think all we do is make wild promises for relatively mundane products.

We’ve learned to understate even the most exciting projects and to force ourselves to assess the ideas objectively (and even skeptically). That's actually a good thing, but it may not seem that way to the person with the idea.

I hope you can begin to understand why you got such an extreme reaction.

To my KHE colleagues:

Remember when you had a great idea as a junior marketing person? You wanted to be sure your boss and your peers understood what you’d come up with and share the excitement of discovery with them.

In many cases, the skepticism of experience dampened the enthusiasm and you came back to earth. But how that skepticism was expressed probably made more of an impact on your future state of mind than you ever realized.

If it was a gentle questioning that applauded your creativity and let you assess your own idea objectively, you probably learned to sleep on great new ideas for a few days before getting too excited and to go easy on the hype next time.

If it was more like “What a dumb idea that is!” you probably shut down your creative brain and became very skeptical of all new ideas – lest you hear a similar reaction over and over again and begin to believe you really are dumb.

Either way, how many of us would have been truly excited by such ideas as Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, or Google if we first learned about them in a message like HawaiiMike’s on MarketingProfs KHE?


My conclusions:

1. HawaiiMike isn’t a professional marketer with lots of dents in his helmet, so he simply shared his excitement and enthusiasm for a project that is near and dear to his heart, using the only language he has. He didn't take the time to browse prior questions and answers (and see how we communicate) because he believes what he has is really different.

2. We reacted to the envelope and not the contents. We don’t have a clue as to whether this is the next eBay or some crackpot idea that will never get off the ground, or somewhere between those extremes.


Anyway, that’s my contribution for the day.

I think the bottom line for me is Mikes obvious enthusiasm for this concept, I truly wish him every success. I love to see people really evangelise about what they believe in. After your obviously distinguished career in the military, with these two great qualities, I know we will be hearing more of you Mike.