If you know me at all, you know I am a huge Star Wars fan. Like massive. So much so that I made sure my wife watched all six of the first two trilogies with me while we were still dating. Our son’s room now has Stars Wars artwork hanging on the walls.

 

I’ve talked about my love for the saga on my show before, and I still think that it would be sweet if Lucasfilm came out with a spin-off show about a rogue Jedi!  

 

All that to say, I doubt there are very many people out there who would not know who Yoda, the Jedi Master, is. 

 

The little green guy talks funny and walks with a stick, but he has an insane knowledge of the Force and epic lightsaber skills. His character can be found in countless memes and gifs while Baby Yoda has made his way into all of our hearts. 

 

 

Yoda is the best of the best. He is the Master Jedi, and without him, Star Wars would not be the same. 

 

 

I dare say that the Yoda of marketing is Mr. Jay Abraham. 

 

The world of marketing is vast. We hear the term “marketing” and we think of the broad world of buying and selling. The American Marketing Association defines marketing as the “activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

 

The force of marketing in the entrepreneurial industry is powerful, and the Master of Marketing is none other than Mr. Jay Abraham, the highest paid marketing consultant in the game. 

 

I had the privilege of sitting down and talking with him about his journey in marketing and some of the most important lessons he has learned and desires to share with others. 

 

So read on you must if to learn more you desire! 

 

Learn from the Hypocrisy You See Around You

 

Jay grew up in a modest, uneventful town. He had a somewhat normal childhood without a lot of money but a family filled with love.

 

School did not come easy to Jay. He was easily distracted and his mind would wander, and he would have to read any subject matter three times before comprehending the concept.

 

Jay even joked at the irony of failing his Creative Writing class his senior year. But school was also interesting for Jay in another area.

 

He learned rather quickly that people judge the book by the cover. Until his senior year, Jay had not been given the time of day by many of his peers. However, he talked about losing weight and gaining recognition from others that caused him to pause and learn a valuable lesson.

 

 

In life, there will always be people who care about the superficial and physical more than the depth and meaning of life. Even at a young age, Jay knew that he wanted to be authentic and have a deeper level of understanding of everyone he came in contact with. 

 

There is hypocrisy surrounding us. Learn from it, and rather than allowing hypocrisy to be the excuse for why you are not doing something, let it be the motivation to better yourself and your life as a whole. 

 

Learn to Pivot Quickly

 

At 18, young Jay was thrust into adulthood and the workforce without a formal education or working skill. He commented that it was difficult to find a “real job.” So he did what he had to do to provide for his young family.

 

He would be given opportunities by crazy entrepreneurs to create whatever he could for their business. Jay even jokes about how he became the marketing expert by accident!

 

Jay said it best when he said, “When you only eat when you earn, and you only earn when you produce- you find out what works and what doesn’t pretty quickly.” 

To pivot is to turn or rotate around a point. In life and business, when we are faced with a problem or an outcome that was not in our favor, we must learn to pivot in three areas.

 

Our thinking. When a problem arises, do not allow your thinking to go down the road of discouragement and doubt. Ask yourself two questions: “Why didn’t this work out the way I wanted?” and “What can I do better in the next scenario?”

 

Our action. Do not allow less than desirable results to put your action on pause. Jay did not wait for the perfect job or perfect opportunity in order to take action. When something did not work, he looked to solve it or found something else to provide for his needs.

 

Our perspective. This one is key. When faced with an obstacle, one of the best ways to find a solution is to pivot your perspective. Come at it from a different angle or viewpoint. Open your mind to the possibilities that may arise. 

 

Jay was able to pivot quickly and productively. This also fed into the next valuable lesson he learned in his journey to becoming the Master Marketer. 

 

 

Have an Insatiable Curiosity for How Operations Work

 

Jay was working for several different industries at one time, and he observed that institutions did not have an understanding of how their competitors or even differing organizations worked.

 

He was curious about each of their business models. What their thought process was, and how they communicated. How did they market and distribute? When he realized that different industries were unaware of what was going on in other circles, he decided to take what he learned from each and apply it in one massive way.

 

He would take common approaches to the business and integrate into hybrid practices.  Jay gave a couple examples of unique techniques he applied in his marketing before they were well-known.

 

1. When growing the Icy Hot brand, he and a partner used the Marginal Net Worth Lifetime Value principle to understand that for every ten customers that spent $3 one time, eight of them would continue spending the $3 regularly for the product for the foreseeable future, and they would average about $50 over the course of the year for every customer.  Jay and his partner took this knowledge and asked radio stations, tv stations, and publications to allow them to use their unsold advertising space and to run their product, and the station could keep the money from the initial purchase. The stations thought they were crazy, but for every $3 the station would keep for a product sold, the Icy Hot company gained a customer that they would continue to see revenue from over the course of the year. This helped them build their 500,000 buyer base in the span of twelve months.

2. Entrepreneur Magazine was originally a members association when Jay arrived on the scene. The members paid $100 a year, and you received a magazine-formatted publication every month that would have a 20-30 page article on a new small business start-up opportunity. These articles would end up in an archive at the end of each month, and when Jay arrived at the company, he said there were about 100 articles in the archive. These start-up articles would include the risk, reward, and the investment for each of these relevant businesses. Jay saw an opportunity to turn these into  procedures for start-up manuals to sell. In the first year alone they saw $9 million in sales of these start-up manuals that was nearly pure profit!

 

Jay’s curiosity led to an expertise in his ability to see correlations, implications, and anomalies. His curiosity became an asset in his marketing toolbox. Allow yourself to be curious about the industries around you and your business! Albert Einstein once said, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

 

Practice Deep, Concentrated Thinking

 

When I ask Jay about the amount of time he spends thinking and coming up with these ideas and solutions, he said his process has evolved over time.

 

In the beginning, his thinking was very intuitive. Over time, as he grew older his thinking process was developed into methodologies. He was able to develop a way of thinking that could help in any business situation. Overall, his ability to come up with marketing strategies and ideas grew the more familiar he came with different industries. There’s that curiosity coming into play again!

 

Deep, concentrated thinking is not for the faint of heart. It requires discipline, and often we do not want to go below the surface. It takes thinking to a deeper level and uncovers more than sometimes we like to see. 

 

Jay would often take a scenario and think about every angle, every element, every possible outcome, every input, every output, and every minute detail of that scenario. This allowed him to capitalize on missed opportunities or open his eyes to new approaches.

 

 

He encourages people to break out of their routine and learn to think differently. If you have a routine, change it up. If you take the same route to work, go a different way. What are the observations you make? What are the feelings you have as a result? 

 

Take some time this week to practice deep, concentrated thinking in whatever field you are in. If you have a problem or element to your business that needs attention, take quiet time away from distractions to dig deep and peel back every layer to find a new strategy or solution!

 

Build Valuable Relationships

 

Jay agrees that relationships are the lifeblood of your network! Jay’s career has given him the opportunity to form powerful relationships, and he had a few strong opinions on how to connect with others successfully.

 

First, do not start off the conversation by asking “How can I add value to you?” While our business is fundamentally about serving value, there is nothing more frustrating than having to answer this question at a networking event. Jay even says the fact that you have to ask is a mistake in and of itself. 

 

So he gave what he considers the two greatest abilities to form a powerful connection rather than starting off with “How can I add value?”. 

 

The greatest ability is to ask the right questions. Is the question you are asking meaningful? Is it relative? Progressive in nature? Rather than jumping someone with a request, connect with them on a deeper level by getting to know them.

 

Jay said it best when he said the biggest misunderstanding in networking takes place when we think it has more to do with ourselves rather than the person we are trying to form the relationship with. 

 

The most interesting people in the world are the ones that are the most interested...me telling you all about me isn't gonna be as powerful as me learning all about you. - Jay Abraham Click To Tweet

 

Jay is a huge fan of Socrates, and he often applies the Socratic questioning method to his interactions with people. He is disciplined in his question asking to go to a deeper level of connection. This way, he does not have to ask “How can I add value.” He can know who they are and what they truly need and be the value they desire!

 

The second ability to form connections goes hand in hand with asking questions, and that is the ability to listen and acknowledge.

It sounds simple, but the truth is most people- when listening to someone give an answer- are only thinking of their response. They want to talk, and they did not truly acknowledge the other’s remark. 

 

One thing I have always said is you want to leave every relationship better than when you found it. And Jay agrees. He believes that your responsibility in every interaction is to better the other individual’s life. When a true connection has been made, value has been added.

If you are interested in learning more about the Socrates Method, click here to see what it is all about!

 

Conclusion

 

The Master of Marketing has spoken! And I don’t know about you, but I feel as though the Force is strong with him.

Learn from hypocrisy. Learn to pivot quickly. Broaden your curiosity. Deepen your thinking. Build Valuable Connections.

 

I believe that whether you are in marketing or not, the applications that can be made are numerous. Jay is such an inspiration to me, and I hope something you read from this interview struck a chord with you. 

 

Curious to learn more from the Master? Click here to see all the valuable resources he gives.

 

Let me know below something that stuck out to you! And if there’s someone you know that could benefit from this as well, share it with. It’ll help build a valuable relationship 😉