A few weeks ago, while researching one of these posts in which I mentioned premier marketer Jay Abraham, I came across a great story.
It was told by a guy named Andrew Wood. And it’s about the easiest, and possibly dumbest, way to make more money. The story goes like this:
Back in the early 2000s, Andrew Wood ran an info publishing business, teaching marketing to karate schools. Wood knew what he was talking about, because he had previously created and then sold a chain of 400 karate schools.
Wood’s info publishing business was pulling in good money, around $30k each month. The trouble was, Wood’s expenses — business, car, wife — totaled $40k each month. In other words, he was leaking money like a beached tanker leaks oil.
So in a moment of desperation, Wood got in touch with Jay Abraham. The two met.
Over the course of a morning, Jay Abraham grilled Wood all about his business. After each question, Abraham came up with suggestions. And Wood replied he was already doing that — or he had tried it before but it didn’t work.
As the meeting wore on, Jay Abraham grew more and more frustrated. Eventually, he stood up from the table.
“You’re so fucking smart,” Abraham said, “figure it out for yourself.” And he walked out.
Wood sat there stunned. But before he had a chance to do anything, Jay Abraham came back and apologized. And he asked Wood to run through the numbers one more time.
“What are you taking in each month?”
“$30k.”
“How much are you spending?”
“$40k.”
“And how much do you want to make?”
“$60k would be great.”
“Okay,” Jay Abraham said. “That’s easy. Just double your prices! Find something you can add to the program to increase the value and double the price.”
And with that, Jay Abraham said goodbye.
Silence. Do you think Andrew Wood sat there thinking, “What a great insight!”
Of course not. He thought it was a total lack of advice. But on his way home, he stopped for a beer. A few of his employees joined. And after the third pint, one of the employees said,
“Just imagine, if we did double the price, what could we put in the box to get them to pay twice as much?”
Wood says the ideas came slowly… but after more beer, they started to flow a bit more freely. And I guess you can see where this is going:
A couple weeks later, Wood stood on stage in front of his two hundred customers. And he announced a new monthly program.
It would cost $200, twice as much as what they were already paying. The contents were not much more than what they were already getting.
And yet, people bought.
In part, because they knew and liked and trusted Wood already. In part (I suspect), because the value of what they were getting was still much higher than the price he was charging.
Wood says that in three months, he went from taking in $30k a month to $100k a month. More importantly, he went from losing $10k each month to making a profit of $60k. By Christmas, he was entirely debt-free and owned his first Ferrari.
The end. Except, what’s the point of me retelling this entire Andrew Wood story?
I just want to point out that Jay Abraham’s idea was very simple. And that Andrew Wood was very resistant to it. And even when he and his employees started playing what-if, the ideas came slowly.
And yet, according to Wood, this one dumb idea was worth $5 million to him. So I want to leave you with a question or two to ponder:
Could making money be simpler than you think?
Could a dumb idea, probably one you’ve heard dozens of times, be all you need to turn yourself from a failure to a success?
Probably not. But just pretend for a second. What if?
Even if the ideas come slowly, keep at it. A few million dollars might be hiding on the other end.
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