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Roundtable in Orlando was packed. We combined groups 1 and 2 and Michael, a new member whose business has exploded in the last 18 months, was on the hot seat.

He sells a commodity service in the $1,000 range. It’s a brutal, “please quote me a price and show up on the day you promise” market. It’s possible to have a USP but everyone in that biz still circles the “low price” drain.

He has a strong USP, his Google account is in top shape, he has his sales team in place; and his operations and delivery systems are solid.

“What next?” he asked.

Today I’m hosting a 4-Man Intensive and before members come, they get a questionnaire. One of the questions is: “List 5 topics you know a lot about, that most people don’t know you know a lot about.”

I ask this question for a very specific reason: Cross-pollination between fields. I want to know what strengths they bring from other areas of life into what they do now.

That’s because the easiest way to innovate is to bring knowledge and strategies from one corner of the world to some other, completely different corner, where they can be directly applied and everything is brand spankin’ new.

WARNING:

When you do this, somebody ain’t gonna like it.

If you look at everything you do as a science experiment – instead of “Custer’s Last Stand” – you’ll never fail again. You’ll just test your way to success.

Failure = testing. Sure was a revolutionary idea when I first heard it.

Last year, Benji Rabhan at age 26 was honored by President Obama. He made the Empact100 List one of the 100 top young entrepreneurs in the US. Benji is one of my esteemed Roundtable members.

Quoting from Benji’s book, “Failure is Obsolete”:

My friend Andrew sent me “Facebook’s Business Model is a Dead End” on Business Insider. The author complains that many of Facebook’s users are fake accounts, advertisers have generally abandoned Facebook. GM for example, who yanked $10 million cuz Facebook wasn’t working. Well I’ve got bad news and good news. First, the bad news: Facebook has acted irresponsibly to both … Read More

About 5 or 6 years ago on Easter Sunday morning, I walked into church and heard a voice.

“Oh, Happy Day!”

A majestic, powerful voice bursting with joyful soul. It took my breath away. Brought me to the verge of tears. Stopped me in my tracks. I looked up to the stage and thought, “Whoa! Who is THAT?!”

I found this article about PhD’s who are too proud to work:

Let’s say your website gets 100 leads a day and you’re spending ten bucks a lead. That’s $1000 per day of ad spend – a respectable budget for a small company.

But you want 200 leads a day. And it seems almost impossible.

Why?

Here’s why:

When I was in Amway I never missed the monthly rally. Afternoon session, then dinner. The evening session would commence with “recognition” where all the Pin-Winners got standing ovations and thunderous rounds of applause.

My insides ached as I sat there envious of the achievers. I almost never hit any goal I ever set. Ever.

I would vow to myself:

My 8 year old, Z-Man, got a science kit for Christmas. It’s got petri dishes, so yesterday we started growing bacteria.

We put sugar and gelatin in the dishes. The instructions said to take a cotton swab and get some bacteria from wherever you want. So we rubbed our cotton swab in…

-Dirt

-Dishrag

-Lint from between Z-Man’s toes

-Boogers

Charles Tillman is a cornerback for the Chicago Bears. My colleague Pat Donohue pointed out that Tillman has a very interesting claim to fame: