Business Impact 117: Driven to tears...

Why that's a good thing...

 

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Thought of the Week

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Vidal Sassoon

In this Week’s Newsletter:

Up Front: Why your message matters…This one make me cry (sob, actually)

This Week’s Quiz: Will We Stump You This Time?

A Limited Invitation: Need a Breakthrough? This might be for you!

From the Journey: A Fanboy’s Critical Lesson for You

Something Special: Financial Security Regardless of the Economy

UP FRONT:

It Made Me Cry…does that make me a wimp?

By now, you may have realized that I’m a big fan of the theatre. I travel the world to attend theatre and cabaret festivals, and I binge when I get there (you’ll get my Edinburgh Fringe final report below in today’s newsletter).

A few days ago, I scored discount rush tickets to see Your Lie in April, a musical based on the Japanese Manga of the same name, with music by the amazing Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, Victor/Victoria, and more).

It’s a beautiful story about a young piano prodigy who loses his ability to play after the death of his mother, and the young lady who inspires him to get his groove back.

Of course, with any romantic musical, there are twists, turns, and a surprise ending that left me sobbing (quietly).

Why did it affect me so deeply? Because it connected with me on a personal level. And that, my friend, is engagement in its purest form.

Connecting with Your Audience: The Heart of Engagement

Your marketplace—whatever market you’re in—is no doubt flooded with multiple competitors, each offering different messages, offers, and price points. Many of them, in their quest to scale and grow, have lost the personal touch. This is where your biggest opportunity lies.

It’s that personal touch, that unexpected connection, that can power you past your competitors.

Take VirginActive Fitness, for example. They’ve implemented “Surprise and Delight” moments in their gyms—spontaneous acts that bring people together and create lasting memories.

Or consider cabaret performer Rueben Kaye, who starts his shows by welcoming each audience member with a heartfelt “Welcome Home.” This simple gesture transforms his audience into raving fans, all because they feel personally acknowledged.

I’ve discussed Rueben Kaye’s welcome strategy before. Here you get to see him in action. Notice how he makes everyone feel special.

Yesterday, I visited an exhibition of Princess Diana’s photographs. It was a stunning experience that reinforced this lesson: Touching the hearts of your audience endears you to them for a lifetime (or until you screw things up—DON’T screw things up!). 

Diana, known for some pretty amazing hats, famously refused to wear a hat when greeting children, because she wanted nothing to come between her and a warm embrace.

Leaving the exhibition, I felt the grief of losing her all over again. Now that’s lasting influence.

How Can You Create These Connections?

The operative question is: How can you create an experience where your clients, customers, coworkers—everyone around you—feels special?

When you make it about them, you’ll make a far greater impact than when it’s about yourself.

Here are some ways to start:

  • Consider personal welcome calls to new clients or follow-up calls to existing ones.

  • Send a surprise greeting card. For example, PrideNomad Casey Eberhart is known for sending “Half Birthday” cards (sent six months before or after your actual birthday). It’s unique and keeps him top of mind.

Remember, these actions shouldn’t be about getting another order. Additional sales will happen organically—either through repeat business or referrals.

If you’re simply looking for sales, people will see right through you, and you’ll defeat the purpose of the exercise.

Celebrate your clients and customers because you genuinely want to help them reach their goals—whatever they may be. Surprise them by doing what your competition isn’t willing or able to do.

Then, they can’t help but fall in love with you. And that’s worth a fortune!

THIS WEEK’S QUIZ:

This company, known for its internet services, used to be called “BackRub.”

Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.

A LIMITED INVITATION

Ready to Break Through Your Biggest Challenges?

If you’re feeling stuck, frustrated, or overwhelmed in your business, you’re not alone. But you don’t have to stay that way.

Imagine having a full or half-day dedicated entirely to YOU and your business. During this Power Day, we’ll roll up our sleeves and dig deep to uncover hidden opportunities, untapped assets, and game-changing strategies that you might be missing.

We’ll tackle the areas of your business that have been holding you back, transforming them from roadblocks into launchpads for success. By the end of the day, you’ll have a clear plan of action, renewed energy, and the confidence to move forward with momentum.

Today, in just a few minutes, I helped a client structure her upcoming launch from a disjointed mish-mash to a finely tuned marketing message. She confessed that she was just too-close to the project to be objective. She was also shocked at how easily I was able to spot her marketing edge and capitalize on those strengths for her promotion.

That strategy change could be the difference between a massive success and a debilitating, costly, humiliating failure.

Want me to help you unlock your biggest strengths?

Don’t spend another day spinning your wheels. Let’s see if a Power Day is the breakthrough you’ve been waiting for. Book a quick call with me today, and let’s explore how we can turn your frustrations into victories.

Power Days aren’t for everyone, and I don’t offer many of them. But with so many people feeling stuck lately, I’m making time to work with just a few select clients over the next few weeks.

Is one of them you?

If you’re ready for a breakthrough, let’s set up a quick call and see if a Power Day is the right fit for you.

Our research team can create detailed avatars that will transform your marketing strategy and allow you to easily speak your customer’s language. If you’d prefer a reliable done for you solution, simply click here or the link below we’ll set something up right away.

FROM THE JOURNEY

A Fringe Fanboy’s Love Story, Part 2
And a Critical Lesson…

Last week I shared some experiences from this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This week, I’ll continue with some highlights. The full story of all the shows I reviewed is posted in the PrideNomad Blog.

The Fringe has such an abundance of performances that it’s easy to be overwhelmed. It’s also easy to “overeat” at the buffet of culture.

When you do, it can give you cultural indigestion…for real!

My biggest day had me seeing EIGHT performances. That’s a LOT!

The business lesson here is that while you may want to give your audience/client/customer tons of value and content, they may not be able to digest it all, and you may only confuse them and drive AWAY a potential sale!

Quick story—In my early speaking days, I was delivering my popular 3-day real estate investor training at the Holiday Inn in San Francisco. I was having so much fun with the audience that I continued to teach for an extra couple of hours, thinking that I was adding all sorts of value.

Quite the contrary! The next morning I had to teach it all over again, because the students were so overwhelmed with content, they had no means of processing it.

So instead of creating value, I created confusion. Giving “more” was actually giving less!

Lesson learned: Deliver your message in bite-sized pieces!

Let’s dive into some of the final fringe highlights (there’s still plenty of time to get to Edinburgh to see some of these amazing performances!)

BiCurious George: Queer Planet

What a creative hoot of a performance! Award-winning drag king and London's loveable nature boy, Bi-Curious George gave us a raucous celebration of queerness and the animal kingdom. This was a highlight of my fringe adventure, and certainly a must see!

It’s another example of how you can take what might be considered boring content and turning it into an entertaining and engaging experience.

Time to learn about snails.

The seahorse has daddy issues ;)

Aunty Ginger: Finding Splashman

Is it poetic justice when they have a drag queen performing in a parking garage?? Aunty Ginger taught us glory hole etiquette and much more, and her Ann Landers-style advice was terrific. She found a way to turn drag into more than just cheesy camp. Put her on your list and park your butt in her garage!

In order to create an audience, you’ve gotta promote. Aunty Ginger is working it by passing out flyers to her show. You can’t be shy here!

An Adequate Abridgement of Boarding School Life as a Homo

Definitely a must see! I was lucky enough to meet Lizzie Hawke, the producer, who convinced me and my friend Ryan to come see it. I’m so glad we did. This boarding school tale was well-acted and had us completely engaged from the first moment until the last. Do yourself a favor and put this on your list.

Afrique En Cirque ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (yes, that’s more than 5 stars!)

I think we need to either add another category, or I’ll have to go and downgrade many of the other shows, because this performance was the perfect way to end my Fringe adventure this year. OMG, the talent was off the charts. The music, the drumming, the humor, the acrobatics, the set, and the connection with the audience were fantastic.  Created by Yamoussa Bangoura, it was inspired by daily life in Guinea. This performance shares the beauty, youth, and artistry of African culture, and you simply must see it as a gift that you deserve!

That’s not magic. That’s an incredibly talented young man!

See you next week!

RESOURCES:

We’re big believers in diversified income generation. We want to work less and play more…so we enthusiastically advocate that you consider investing (wisely) in a variety of areas.

Two of our favorites are below (with deals just for us!)

The Crypto Mastermind. This program, by long-term friend John Limbocker, is a gift to us. John wants to get you educated about the right, safe way to invest in the crypto markets. He’s making an irresistible offer to the PrideNomad community, which he’s agreed to extend to Business Impact subscribers as well.

The Surprising Real Estate Strategy. We mentioned this one recently (above, in fact), and it’s a unique and timeless strategy to help you create significant income streams.

Incredible totally no-fee business banking. It’s who we use!

Quiz Answer

Google.

Google was initially named “BackRub” due to its analysis of the web’s “back links” to determine site importance, before being renamed to Google in 1997.

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