The Viking and the Samurai
Published: Fri, 01/15/16
We are all good at some things, and pretty rubbish at others.
Me, I am pretty good at practical things (I make most of my living as a Handyman), I am quite good at face to face teaching and speaking, I can write reasonably well (even though I am probably dyslexic, thank God for spell checkers).
But I am rubbish at a lot of other things, music, languages, choosing appropriate clothes for formal events and marketing.
Lets qualify that slightly, I can build a website, set up an auto responder system (the one bringing you this email for example), design a sales funnel in the technical sense. I know the difference between prospects, leads and customers and why the AIDA formula matters. However, that is back to the practical side of things which I can do. The bit I hate is working out what to say to get people’s attention. There is a practical process for doing that too, it is called split testing using Google adwords. However you still need an idea to test and it can work out pretty expensive running a big enough sample to actually prove anything.
I have not been well this week (bad cold) so I have had some time to think and I remembered this morning that the words that brought me into Stav about 23 years ago were. “The Viking and the Samurai.”
If you have not heard the story before, in 1991 Ivar came back from Japan and settled in East Yorkshire. He was introduced to a Martial Arts Journalist called Harry Cook who wrote a long article about Ivar which was published in Fighting Arts International. On the cover was a picture of a Chinese gentleman pulling a very strange expression, two smaller pictures, one of a rather hairy Australian chap in a red tee shirt and another of two Japanese men wrestling over a Jo staff. Then, right at the bottom of the page, in not very clear red type, a list of the Plus articles, the second one being The Viking and the Samurai. I wasn’t looking for this magazine in particular but somehow I saw it, bought it, read it and followed up. It turned out that Ivar’s home and mine were only a few miles apart and I began training under Ivar a few weeks later.
It still seems strange now, I guess it was a ‘racking the shotgun’ moment (as Perry Marshall puts it, I deal with this principle in the 5th email in the iceandfire list auto responder sequence, subject line ‘Driving on Autopilot’) On the other hand, subconscious recognition usually only happens with things you are already familiar with. When I responded to ‘The Viking and the Samurai’ it was more like a pre-recognition, pre-cognition?
Just goes to show that getting people’s attention is a highly unpredictable business.
That is why I hate marketing, I like the practical and predictable.
I also have to admit life would be boring if everything was practical and predictable so, anyway:
If you are reading this message then something got your attention and you opened it.
And another marketing principle, there is no point in getting someone's attention if you don't then have a 'call to action'. (AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.)
So, how about getting some actual training in Stav? If not this week then at least this year? Classes and courses in Somerset at Somerset Stav Martial Arts in Crewkerne. Seminar coming up this next Saturday (the 23rd) and courses in Salisbury, next one on the 6th of February and 3 day seminars in the USA in May and Somerset, UK in June. Dates, places and links here http://iceandfire.org/calendar.html
regards
Graham
PS If you want to hear Perry Marshall tell the 'Racking the Shotgun' Story you can find it here http://www.entrepreneur.com/video/234777