Can You Be The Circus Trainer?

Most of us are not entirely comfortable being the circus trainer.

Think about it: The lions can rip the guy apart in seconds. But they don’t. Why? Because it’s mind over muscle.

It’s a question of brain over brawn. The nature of the circus trainer’s ascendancy is psychological. Foreign surroundings, the trainer’s erect posture, calm demeanor, steady gaze, fearless step forward, strange roar – these are so many factors that will fill the animal’s mind with doubt and fear, and make it clear where it stands, the very thing it wants to know.

Satisfied, Number Two will back down and Number One can turn to the audience and shout, “Let the show go on! And now, ladies and gentlemen, through hoops of real fire…” (From “The life of Pi” by Yann Martel.)

Lest you breeze by these important lessons, let us go through them one by one:

Foreign Surroundings: It’s always better to do the sales presentation on your territory, not theirs. Wherever possible, make them come to your office. Make them organize their iTunes with your software.
Trainer’s Erect Posture: One of the very best books I’ve ever read on the subject of sales is Winning Through Intimidation by Robert Ringer. I hated that title the first time I heard about the book. I always say, people who hate that title are the ones who most need to read it.
Calm Demeanor: The secret to winning the entrepreneurial game is standing on the tracks staring down the train until it flinches. Strapped to the wing with the engine running, and baby, you’re not flinching. Not even [visibly] sweating. Like a duck in a pond, paddling furiously under the water, calm and serene above.
Steady Gaze: The circus animals will test you to see if you’re jumpy. They’ll throw you curve balls. In some situations they might even cast insults or lie to you, observing how you’ll react. If they detect a chink in your armor, they’ll pounce on you like a pack of hungry jackals. Circus Brimstone. But… nothing unnerves them like a stoic, unflappable opponent who knows his position inside and out.
In 2005 I took a debate position on a discussion board (totally unrelated to business), the topic highly controversial and deeply emotional. Twenty of them, one of me. The board was theirs, not mine. Them reactive and vitriolic; me in complete control. It was very much like the circus trainer scenario from The Life of Pi. In fact when one guy wandered in, sided with me and then started making snarky remarks to them, I spanked him, apologized to them for his behavior, gagged him and resumed control. It was immediately clear who was in charge of that discussion board – not the forum moderator, not my 20 infuriated opponents. It was me in charge, me and my Steady Gaze. (This was only possible because I knew my facts cold before it even started. The battle is won or lost before the first shot is fired.) If you can get your opponent emotional and angry, and if you can stay calm and serene because you know what you’re talking about, he loses. Badly. Imagine ravenous predators circling and pouncing on you, but then, maddeningly, grinding their teeth on hard steel. Reeling from hard blows. Slinking away one by one in search of handier prey. Remember the Vice-Presidential debate between Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle in 1988? Bentsen sank Quayle with one terse, stoic, confident phrase: “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” After that it was curtains for Mr. Quayle.
Fearless Step Forward: This one’s a big one. Here’s a note I got just a few days ago from a guy in the UK who bought my Marketing System Toolkit almost three years ago. Observe his recognition that my method is not just a bunch of marketing techniques, it’s backed by an underlying attitude:

Subject: Your work helped me change everything!
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2005 07:35:00 -0600
From: Terence Dove
To: Perry S. Marshall

Hi Perry, I bought your marketing toolkit and subscribed to your newsletter a long time ago, maybe 2 years…I’m not even sure! My name is Terence Dove, and I used to have a transport business, we talked a few times but you maybe won’t remember.

Anyway, I thought I would write you a thankyou note since your work has been a great influence on how things are working well for me, and loads of people around me are benefiting…. Right now I have some pretty sweet things going on in my life, and looking back hand on heart, I can say it all started when I hit perrymarshall.com for the first time. And thinking even harder, I would say that it wasn’t just the marketing skills I learned from you that made things happen, it was the absolute paradigm shift in my attitude!

Really, I learned that I can pretty much start any business I wanted using Your guerilla marketing tactics! And after a short time playing around in a Business that I thought was sensible, I suddenly decided to hell with it, I’m gunna Start a business that I truly love to do.

So I dumped the nice little transport business, and started a race driver school. I made the decision and acted on it immediately, I literally stopped the transport business and started the driver school overnight! And I had the courage to do that because I had your skills to back me up, and I knew that I could write in the ‘Perry Marshall style’ about my passion, become an industry expert and sell my service to people.

Now, I had zero experience as a race driver coach, and people told me I was crazy…received wisdom says you can’t walk into one of the world’s most attractive industries (everybody wants to work in motorsports!)and just set yourself up as an expert…from nowhere, no experience, no qualifications, nothing.

Well I did just that, and it happened in no time…and really there is no Way I could have done that without Perry Marshall, no way!

So you can see where I am now by looking at www.evenflow.co.uk and www.karting1.co.uk So thanks to you I am working at something I really love to do, and it’s successful.

Too many people are living grey and mediocre lives, and I hope you help lot’s more guys escape from the dilbert cube and get out there and kick some ass…

Kind regards,
Terence

Carpe Diem – Seize The Day.

Perry Marshall