Seven Levels of Communication

Jon Perry  00:08

Never trust a good looking ambitious lawyer. Ladies, that is the number one takeaway from our book this week the Seven Levels of Communication. I am Jon Michael Perry, the Reach Architect today with

 

Derek Egeberg  00:21

Derek Egeberg, Branch Manager with Academy Mortgage the Approval Coach,

 

Jon Perry  00:25

and welcome to the very first episode of the Master Mind Library.

 

Derek Egeberg  00:29

Love it. And this number one episode of the Master Mind Library is dedicated to the memory of Mary Lou Perry, who passed away just this last week and our condolences from the Master Mind Library to you, your father and the rest of your family.

 

Jon Perry  00:44

Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

 

Derek Egeberg  00:46

So with this number one episode, Master Mind Library presents Seven Levels of Communication going from referrals to relationships by Michael J. Maher. Now. What? What this book mean to you back when you first read it? Because this book is not new? It’s been out for 25 years now I think isn’t that amazing that it’s it’s been around that long. And yet most people, I don’t think you’ve heard of it. But tell me what you thought of when you first read this book. Other than apparently, there’s a good looking somebody or other in the book. What did you take from this book originally? And how do you view it now, in your position as a business owner,

 

Jon Perry  01:28

I thought there was a lot of good pieces of information about it. I like the story. It’s a parable. So I liked the story aspect that helped keep me engage and follow along, I liked the lessons it taught because some of them I thought were very practical. I didn’t grasp them all at the time, because there’s a lot of impact in this tiny little book, there were a lot of takeaways and exercise I thought I could do with my business. And I did implement pretty rapidly a couple of them. And I was just really impressed with how much information was in this tiny book, and how easy it was to absorb and digest. And it’s something that I’ve come back to over and over again, over the last, I think six, seven years since I was first introduced to it by you that I’ve implemented more and more. And I’ve come to the realization that I just think that this is just about the most important book on my bookshelf.

 

Derek Egeberg  02:19

Okay, so let’s talk about bookshelf. So you and I both have a tiered system of our bookshelf. So how many books are on the top shelf,

 

Jon Perry  02:27

there are 10 books on the top shelf. 26 books are on the second shelf 52 books are on the third shelf, okay,

 

Derek Egeberg  02:33

is there a fourth shelf,

 

Jon Perry  02:34

there is a fourth shelf, a fish shelf and a bottom shelf bottom shelf, there are books I’ve read, but I would probably never recommend to anybody. And unless somebody brought it up to me, I’d probably never acknowledged I’d never advocate for them in the first place.

 

Derek Egeberg  02:48

Okay, so this also is on the top shelf of my 13. So again, it’s interesting that we’re starting with a book that is is one of the top 13 most influential books in our perspective. And yet at the same time, it’s such an easy read, like you talked about, it’s a it’s a parable story. That is just, you could you could chew through this book in a day. But if you actually studied the book and really put some time and effort into it, it may take you six months to a year to actually get comfortable with doing all of the things that the author suggests. And yet those little things don’t really cost any money. But those might be the most influential things to make your business a lot of money. Now, why? And I introspectively? Why don’t more people listen to these things that don’t take a lot of money. They do take some effort. But they’re they’re simple to do. Why is it so hard for most people to implement this book?

 

Jon Perry  03:52

Now, I’m not a psychologist, I’d have to lean on though. pride and ego sets the pace for everything. Most people who graduate high school never pick up a book again, the rest of their life. Those who’ve gone through college, once they get out of college, very few continue reading for pleasure and growth. They’ve hit that pinnacle, because possibly because of our education system, we are requested to read and learn and memorize and do these things that at some point in time, the joy of reading the joy of learning kind of gets beaten up out of us a little bit and so we go once we’re done, we’re done. End of the school vacation. Or I know best I know my business. I know what I’m doing. I can do it a lot. There’s a lot of videos out there that help people these days videos are usually much more enjoyable media consumption than books. I like audiobooks personally, and I think that that helps bridge the gap. It makes it easier for me to consume my books. I can still sit down and read a book But it’s just for my schedule and what I do in my life audiobooks seems to be the easier quicker consump consumable product, where I can still garner this knowledge and then process it and implement it in my life.

 

Derek Egeberg  05:13

So that leads me to two things. Number one, I think one of the other things that I view it as a lot of people are lazy, you know, is is an American society we’ve looked for, give me the pill, so I’m not fat, give me the magic bean for something give me the secret sauce. And yet the the amount of work that it takes, it’s, it’s not that much more work, but it is work. And, and so there’s a process to it. And one of the concepts which we’ll get to in a minute, is the author talks about a stacked lunch, a networking lunch, where he builds on something, so it actually takes him less time. So for you, you’ve done something in your life where you actually take your exercise and your education. And you do both of those E’s at the same time. So for the audience, you know, maybe it’s part of the stack, maybe it’s just the only way you could do it, but how do you consume the educational materials that you do?

 

Jon Perry  06:10

Back in 2020, during the pandemic, our Greyhound puppy started waking up at about 4:35am. So I went downstairs and let her out of her crate and tried to keep her calm. So she didn’t wake up the rest of the house. Eventually, that didn’t work. So I took her out for a walk one mile at a time, two miles at a time. Eventually, it got to the point where I was walking the dog jogging the dog about two to three hours a morning, somewhere between six and 15 miles a day. And instead of listening to music, I chose to listen to audiobooks. And through another book, it inspired me to try some things. And now I listen to audiobooks at three to 3.5x speed to

 

Derek Egeberg  06:54

well, don’t get crazy on us.

 

Jon Perry  06:58

And I go through on average about 25 books a month.

 

Derek Egeberg  07:01

So again, it’s not necessarily in the book. But for most people, you know, it’s the thought of I can’t do it, it just there’s no way I can do it. But sometimes it’s shifting things in your life where you chose to do it while you’re walking your dog. So you’re killing several birds, you’re taking care of your dog, you’re exercising, which in that time, you’ve lost how many pounds, probably about 30-40 pounds, amazing. So your dog is better taken care of you’ve lost weight, and you can listen to books as well. I know, Zig Ziglar calls it the the College of your automobile, it’s the educational University on wheels. Some people listen to books that way, there’s ways to do it. So if you really want to find a way you’ll find a way. So going back to the author, it’s interesting that he has this pyramid that splits into seven different levels. Correct. So the bottom three levels for everybody’s benefit are the informative levels. So the the informational zone, then there’s the very center section, which is neither one or the other. But the top three levels are then the influential zone. So the influential zone, the author talks about their one on one meetings, their personal phone calls, their handwritten notes, things that really don’t take people a whole lot of effort and money. They just take time, they take time. And they take brain power, because you actually have to be genuine. The bottom three levels are where you get to things like advertising and mass marketing media, that if you think about it, there’s this secret hot button pill that everybody wants to take hey we’ve spent a lot of money on advertising. But when when somebody says, Hey, Jon, I’m going to do a mailing campaign because you want to print a print house. If I wanted to do a major mass marketing campaign, what would you expect my return to be and for everybody returned not necessarily closing. But people just to raise their hand say, I want to learn more about that massive postcard.

 

Jon Perry  08:59

With an effective campaign, you can expect a one to 3% return on your expenditure as far as volume of direct mail.

 

Derek Egeberg  09:09

Okay, so that’s where the author is trying to make the point, in my opinion, that these things, they really don’t get a lot of return. But it’s easy to throw a lot of money at marketing and think you’re doing really well. As opposed to let me make a phone call. Let me go see somebody. Let me send them a handwritten card and doing doing it with genuine authenticity and consistency. Yes. Now, with that in mind, here’s this story of two people. It’s a real estate agent who is not doing well and thinking of getting out of the business. And it’s a mortgage banker, who is come to find out at the end of the story was at one point like him but turned it around because of these concepts. And so that’s the other take for me is that that piece where she admitted in the story, she was ready to give up too. And she learned the concept. We all judge everybody, based on where they are at that moment, we don’t judge people on the amount of work that they’ve had to put in to get there. So at this point, I may see Jon Perry, the Reach Architect who is an owner of several businesses, who has his message message crafted, and he’s doing super well in the community. But was that always the case? Oh,

 

Jon Perry  10:26

definitely not always the case.

 

Derek Egeberg  10:28

So how did that change?

 

Jon Perry  10:31

Investing in myself, investing in the process, investing in my business, not just with money, time attentiveness, working with our clients and our friends to make them better be more observant of my surroundings, and what’s works in our market and other markets just like it. There is several things in this book that I think are probably my top two takeaways. And one of them is hiring a coach, if you would have asked me on my first several reads, if that was my top takeaway, I’d have been like, no, no, no. At the end of it, though, after this many years hiring and coach hiring someone that holds you accountable. Now, I know you’ve given me a ton of advice over the years and tried to help me even when I couldn’t see that you were trying to help me.

 

Derek Egeberg  11:19

And you didn’t listen to me because you didn’t pay me. That’s why you weren’t being held accountable? Well,

 

Jon Perry  11:24

it’s one of those things where it’s like, like I said, ego and pride. I knew what I needed at that time. And I guess I didn’t knew what I needed at that time. And that was not to be as successful as I could be. Do some of your advice was was very spot on some of it, you said it said it in a way that I interpretated probably not in the intent that you meant it to be, I couldn’t figure out how to get it from how you would take that advice and apply to you. And versus how I should take that apply advice and apply it to me. I’ve hired a mentor over the last couple of years, and he has helped change certain perspectives, he’s helped line certain things up. And I think I’ve been more open to other concepts because of it. And I think that this book, really hammers at home, because that has been the guardian guiding the protagonist from the shadows along the way, it’s very much the Obi Wan Kenobi to the Luke Skywalker. And I probably was just as whiny at the beginning too.

 

Derek Egeberg  12:21

So but now one of the concepts that he talks about is a DISC profile. And so I think what you’re saying though, is sometimes when I say it, I revert to my natural state, which is a high D, which is a bullet point, short, quick to the point now your your normal is a what?

 

Jon Perry  12:42

I think it’s a high s low or low i

 

Derek Egeberg  12:45

Okay, so for everybody’s benefit a high s is a what?

 

Jon Perry  12:50

I’ll be honest, I can’t remember the terms. Okay.

 

Derek Egeberg  12:53

So it’s steady, it’s more the safety. It’s the security type thing. So again, sometimes I’m speaking French, and you’re listening in German. But the DISC profile is one of the things that he talks about is how do you DISC profile, your customer, your relations, everybody that you come in contact with? And for those that don’t know what a disc test is, it stands for d i s c, do a little Google search and do some some legwork on that. But that’s been very influential, I think to both of us just to realize, hey, sometimes the way you say things sounds really kind of low indulge me compared to the way I would want it. And sometimes the way I say it probably sounds like a megaphone yelling at you. And both of us don’t necessarily understand that other perspective, until you dig into what the DISC profile is. Now, for me, it’s it’s going back and saying, Okay, Michael has crafted a story that teaches you and I had to sell through referrals and relationships, which is the most profitable, the most fun, because I’d rather hang around with people that I like and know and turn into friends and great referral sources. So I think you and I met under a different circumstance. We were both part of a networking group. And this networking group you attended, and at the very end of the networking group, you said, Hey, Derek, I do graphic design. I would like all of your business. Can I help you with your business? It’s something short of that. Yes. And for the benefit of the audience, it felt like premature solicitation Absolutely. Had no idea who you were, what you were capable of. But it just sounded like, Hey, throw me money. And I’ll do some work for you. And what were you thinking at that point?

 

Jon Perry  14:50

I was thinking that I absolutely could help you. I have worked with other mortgage professionals in the past. And if you give me the opportunity to show you my work, it would speak for itself. Yeah, I didn’t qualify that with time, place location, moment, building a report at all, caring about what you cared about, you know, Zig Ziglar says you can help you get everything you want in the world, if you only help other people get what they want. I wasn’t caring about what you wanted out of that group, life, anything, I was only looking after myself at the time. And so

 

Derek Egeberg  15:25

now coming back at it, though, it’s been, what, a dozen years, at least. So coming back to it, I know the position your heart was in, you just genuinely wanted to help. I didn’t know you’d ever helped anybody before. I didn’t know what you are capable of. We had nothing with an R in it, there was no relationship, no relief at all. It was a cold call. And so all of sudden, it’s that immediate turnoff. But fast forward a dozen plus years later, you become one of my best friends that I trust in can use as a sounding board. And everything we’ve done in our business has been crafted through you by you, or wholly your product. Why does it take so long? And I know that’s rhetorical. But why does it take so long to build that trust, because trust takes a long time to build, which is really what the author is saying here is, here’s how you develop a process to build a relationship that’s built on genuine trust and authenticity.

 

Jon Perry  16:27

Absolutely. You know, there’s a lot that goes on in the system that they present to make sure that everybody knows what’s going on with you that you are actually showing that you’re caring about them, the process of them, and how that cycles through the whole book. There’s people who treat the services astir commodities. And by doing that they are shortchanging themselves. And they’re shortchanging their potential, and they’re shortchanging their community. And there’s other people who try to sabotage the whole process, all the way through. Part of the book even talks about something called Success sabotage. And that’s where just when you think you’re on the verge of taken off, just when you think you’re on the verge of having that major breakthrough, life throws you a major major curveball, and like you mentioned, at the beginning of show, I just lost my mother, the weekend before that, my whole family was laid up in bed sick, the week before that my baby was sick. You know, it’s it was one thing after another after another, and then here, we are still starting off this inaugural episode of the Master Mind Library, to hopefully share what we’ve learned and share our perspectives and see if this resonates with somebody else. Because primarily, yes, we’re doing this for us, we’re doing this to help hold each other accountable to gather knowledge from these books. By talking about them, we are reiterating points that will become more sticking points in our minds. Hopefully, that will resonate with somebody else out there. And they will also join in the conversation with us, maybe bring up points that we never considered, bring different perspectives to our mind front so that we could then explore these other options of these tombs of knowledge, and we can then more rapidly grow progress succeed, you know, I don’t want to be like Edison and have to fail 10,000, or, to find out 10,000 ways not to solve a light bulb, just to find one way that does, I’d rather be like Tesla, and get the metal detector and stick it in that stack of hay to find that needle. To do it a little bit more methodically.

 

Derek Egeberg  18:47

Kudos to both of those gentlemen, for actually getting it done, though, did. So what I appreciate is Edison did do it 10,000 times. There’s a lot of people who would stop at 9999 and go, Man, this just doesn’t work. And they were one step short of figuring that out. When you talked about continue continuing the conversation. So for everybody who’s watching, leave comments down below, let’s start a comment whether it’s just on this book, or it’s in the message boards. I mean, this is a discussion to to continue, because I’ve read this book no less than a half a dozen times. And every time I read it, there’s something new that I take away that I go, Oh my gosh, I didn’t read that before or I didn’t take that away before. And it’s no different than I read it coming from a high D perspective. You read it coming from a high s perspective. And sometimes it’s just the rose colored glasses we individually wear that that say whether it’s a great book so for me when I go through the book, the takeaways are you know what he talks about his power hour he calls it his first and 10 He’s doing what are the most important things every day that he’s got to do. his phone calls his purposeful relationship building things. It’s sending handwritten thank you cards. It’s, it’s thanking people in a way that he even explains to people how to write a thank you card, how not to use the word I in there, because it’s not about me. It’s about the receiver. He talks about things that we should know. But most people don’t use blue ink. So it looks original. So it doesn’t look like it was just printed on a printer to the point that, you know, He even talks about should you smudge the, you know, does it look like it’s real ink? Yes. He talks about simply when he he uses the stack lunch term. But how do we as as Americans build relationships, food, it’s going out? It’s time. And that that stacked lunch, which I know you’ve effectively use in your business? So for the audience, what is the stack lunch? And how did it work?

 

Jon Perry  20:58

So the thing that he talks about in seven levels for a lunch, and this actually starts off near the beginning of the books, you just don’t realize it at the time, is that you find a restaurant, you make it your home base. And at that restaurant, you get to know the staff so that they get to know you. You’re kind of like a VIP there. So then you invite three to five people back to back to back in different industries that may complement each other to dine with you at these restaurants. You invite them there to get to know them, what are their challenges, what are their struggles? What are they have going on in their life, because nobody cares how much you know, until he knows how much you care. So genuinely, be authentically investing in them and what they’re doing. And during that hour, get to know them if they ask a little bit about you Sure. But the point is to get to know them and see exactly if there’s anything you can do to assist and help them. And then as the time is up, you’re the server’s who know, you introduce bring the next lunch date. And if one person is a mortgage broker and another one’s a real estate agent, you can be the matchmaker and introduce them. Maybe they know each other, maybe they don’t. I’ve had some very interesting moments where people knew each other, and it’s great to see each other and where they knew each other. It wasn’t so great to see each other and then where they knew each other. And they decided to both sit for another time. Because they wanted to get to know what each other did a little bit more as well. It’s always been a very interesting thing to have that energy kind of come together at that point.

 

Derek Egeberg  22:37

But that’s because you were being genuine about it. There was nothing slimy about it. It wasn’t underhanded, it was it was you taking the time to learn about their business. So not to interrupt. But one of the things in the book is he is introduced to those people or she is because as the person who understands the system, she’s looking for referrals from other people, and because they’re good referrals, she then connects with them. So as an example, he says, A Do you have a good CPA or financial advisor? And if the answer is yes, then would you introduce me to them? If it’s no, may I introduce you to mine? But if it’s a yes, would you introduce me to him? That’s one of the people that he or she then takes to the stack lunch. So I know the people that you were networking with? Were not just cold calls, but they were people that you were referred to you in one sense or the other.

 

Jon Perry  23:31

Some are cold calls. Well, okay.

 

Derek Egeberg  23:34

Now, how did the cold calls work compared to a personal introduction?

 

Jon Perry  23:38

Cold calls were not as effective. Some of them completely misinterpreted the request for lunch, because I just genuinely want to know, because how, what else would I get to know about other businesses in my community unless I go and talk to other businesses in my community. Some of them thought that there was something more devious behind it. And that really wasn’t the case. That was their perspective, and I couldn’t change it. So

 

Derek Egeberg  24:04

and that’s okay. Because again, I think those people are operating out of a fear and mistrust perspective, where, again, the author here, it’s relationships, and relationships are genuine, authentic for the betterment of really both people again, you go back to Zig Ziglar, talking about a win win scenario. But the relationship of the recipient, whether it’s a call, whether it’s a card, whether it’s the stack lunch, maybe it’s maybe it’s passing on a book, it’s about that person hoping that they get something out of it. You’re not doing it with the thought of getting anything in return. And that’s one thing that again, in business, you say, Okay, I’m going to send out 1000 postcards. What’s my return on investment? You’re actually expecting things in return. Instead of hey, I’m gonna go do a lunch, I’m gonna go do a thank you card, I’m gonna make a phone call, just to see how I can be helpful. And you know what if I get something back from it great. But if nothing else, you’ve built a relationship, because I know when you went to go spend time with your mom, it wasn’t because you were expecting anything in return. You genuinely just cared about your mom, and you wanted to spend time with her. Why don’t more people operate the way the author says, That is such a refreshing thing in business that we could all do that.

 

Jon Perry  25:33

I wish I knew. I mean, I think one other thing that I emphasize that we’ve heard in other books and whatnot is the 80/20 rule. 80% of your success comes from 20% of the things you do. And He’s emphasizing what we should be doing more of in that 20% to grow that even more of our time, instead of the other little fires that we could potentially delegate out or, or move on. And, you know, in this book, The protagonists are a mortgage broker and a real estate agent doesn’t mean that the knowledge from this book is limited to just those industries, I can find ways of applying so much of this to just about any industry that has any sort of out, reach to the community or public. So if you have a sales division at all, whether you’re a multi level marketer, or a solopreneur, or a business owner or a marketing manager, as long as you’re not in a cubicle 24/7 And that’s your job, this book has so much that can apply to you and can help out. I understand that some people like just being on the assembly line of Ford, putting in their eight hours a day is coming home and turning on the TV and they are completely contented happy with that. Don’t think that this book would be for them.

 

Derek Egeberg  26:55

I agree. However, I will say and you’re 100%, right. It doesn’t have to be somebody who is a real estate agent, a mortgage banker, but it’s really anybody whose business is needing to generate money, who is responsible for the selling perspective. Now when I say selling, you could be a restaurant General Manager? And were you did your staff lunch? Could that owner General Manager send you a handwritten thank you card? Sure. Could they have taken the time and effort to learn when Jon Perry’s birthday is and do a birthday call, which is one of the things suggested? Could they call you a month later, just to thank you for all of the business that you have brought in and ask if there’s anything that they could have done differently to benefit you while you were there? Absolutely. So that restaurant tour, who is not really individually saying hey, I’m gonna go sell to this person, bring them in for lunch. But restaurants are are notorious for TV advertising, mailers, radio advertising, but they could do one on one marketing. Now you talk about the guy on the Ford assembly line? Well, what if it’s the manager to that line, who sends a thank you card to his staff, who does a birthday call to his staff, you’re selling your staff to do a good job. So I do think there’s a lot of takeaways that it’s not just the selling for the dollars, but it’s selling for the relationship that is going to benefit both parties in the end. And again, you go back to everything in the book, such an easy read, but such a difficult time to implement everything if you really wanted to do it effectively and in completely

 

Jon Perry  28:39

absolutely, I actually developed a I was inspired by this book to develop a day planner based upon book and I had a little box at the bottom of it that if I had everything done I think there was like 100 and something or maybe 80 Something things that should be done in a day. I don’t think when I was beta testing it that I ever got more than 60% because it’s just tough to to actually implement everything it is it is an absolutely phenomenal book I don’t even have references to other books you know like the Go Giver by Bob Berg and the secret and handwriting

 

Derek Egeberg  29:20

just reading can change your life

 

Jon Perry  29:22

you know so all these other resources even expand upon the Rainmaker, you know so that you can further expand your knowledge on what it’s trying to come across with its message and as I mentioned before, there’s two things I took away one is the coach the second one is do it now. You know the talks about you know tapping the wrist you know multiple times to make sure that you just do it now because so many times we start things and we think about it and then we don’t do it we don’t act

 

Derek Egeberg  29:51

okay so for everybody’s benefit, you kind of went through that quick what is the tapping the wrist part of the bus

 

Jon Perry  29:56

so part of it is so is the habit of tapping the wrist saying do it Now with a band band that says do it now. And it’s just to remind themselves to actually act to actually do it. One of the points that make up is that there was a point where the protagonist didn’t make it wasn’t there, or didn’t make a phone call. And he’s like, I don’t know, you know, it’s like, I feel that it’s just not right, or whatever it’s like, that is very selfish of him, it is selfish of him, because he is retaining knowledge that he thinks may be beneficial to someone else, versus the fear of being rejected by calling so but he doesn’t even get the person to react. And I feel that in general in life, a lot of people are fearful of rejection. mockery, we let these fears override our lives. And yet, sometimes we just got to do it. And we can be very surprised by the outcome of doing it. Because then at least we try. We tried, you know, if we’re trying to help someone, you know, we help them going back to the cold call lunch that didn’t end up well, you know, what I wouldn’t have known had we not reached out to him, his perspective, his side and what it was, equally, I wouldn’t have been able to help out dozens of others if we didn’t call. So by doing it, you’re, you’ve got to be prepared for some negativity, yet. Overall, you’d be some, it’s better than wondering what if.

 

Derek Egeberg  31:23

So, you talked about a couple of your takeaways, couple of my takeaways are number one, the gratitude journal, or the gratitude book, starting out your day with with the mindset of being grateful. Now, you talked about losing your mother, your family was being sick, your baby was sick for a while, you could start all of those days and weeks with such a negative mindset. It’s kind of like, you know, you stub your toe, does that turn your whole day into a negative spiral? Or is it just something that happened and you move on, so the gratitude journal of just finding something that you’re grateful for, and it could be, hey, I’m grateful that I have a cup of coffee and have a roof over my head, and I get to watch an amazing sunrise in the morning here in Yuma, Arizona, where the weather is really good. You know, I’m grateful that my family is healthy. And that, you know, I did have parents, and you know, those kinds of things. Now, the second thing is, and I’m a math guy, but talking about his sales math, you know, he was just uses different numbers. But how many people know 100 people, most people would know 100 People, okay, so his sales math is, if you concentrated on in use 100. For me, since the math is easy that way, if 100 people you know, and they know 100 People, 100 times 100 is 10,000 people, that’s a lot of people. So if that’s your influential zone, you really have the ability to make a difference with about 10,000 people. Now, in my world, the average person buys a new home about every five years. So I have the ability to finance every five years for that database. So if I was doing my job, my career, I would have about 2000 Because 20%, one every five years, I would have about 2000 at bats per year. Okay, that is way more than almost every mortgage banker and broker in this United States can do. So that’s all you need to do. Now I know again, let’s say a car salesman, how often do most people buy a car? Weirdly enough, it’s about every five years. Why do you think they came out with a 60 month loan because the average person paid it off over five years? And then turn around bought a new one? You know, how often does somebody need to create a new marketing campaign in your perspective? Much different timeline, but how often, let’s say a company wanted to rebrand themselves and really dig into their image again,

 

Jon Perry  33:58

it starts look through his target as an example. They had an upstanding campaign for the last 20 years. It really starts with one idea that they permeate throughout and then about your two to three it evolves it still feels very much like their brand yet there are differences there’s there may be went from illustrated to photorealistic there’s some aesthetic perspectives yet it all still feels very much like the brand. So when it comes to marking an event, a brand needs to evolve over time. And also keep touch points as with the audience. Think about McDonald’s. You know, Ronald McDonald is no longer front and center of their children’s lives.

 

Derek Egeberg  34:45

Do I think they just brought back the Happy Meal?

 

Jon Perry  34:47

No, the Happy Meals, well, they just brought out for an adult they just came out within a day they’ll have meal but the meal itself was just a smile on a box and that replaced. You know McDonald, Ronald McDonald They have pop celebrities in music, endorsing their products, you know, something that’s current and at the time, they’ve had athletes who are popular at the time, promote their, their stuff, their or their restaurants have been remodeled for a more modern aesthetic, because that is what’s more prevalent at the time, then the kiddy playhouse that it was what I think when you and I were growing up, so

 

Derek Egeberg  35:23

So for for everybody’s benefit, then businesses evolve and grow. And if you understand that lifecycle, you and your industry would know how often that that you have those businesses coming back, it’s the sales math to go, Oh my gosh, here’s how often X number of customers will come in. So if you go back to the restaurant, that you did your stack lunch? How often would you or I assume that a customer would go there? Is it once a week, is it once a month is it once every two weeks, if that owner knew that sales, math, they would know how many customers to keep in their database to really build the relationships. And again, the author Michael talks about rank your your relationships, A’s, B’s, C’s, and DS and the DS, cut out, throw away, start concentrating on your A’s your ambassadors, and really start moving your B’s and C’s up to the ambassador champion level. And so he again, systematically talks about, hey, here’s how you should contact about 20 B’s at a time, because you don’t want to do everybody who you think is a bee because then you’re gonna get flooded, and you’re gonna be overwhelmed, and you’re not going to be able to respond to them effectively. But it’s building the relationships one at a time or 20 at a time, whatever it is, to then top grade your relationships. And those people that you’re not really in relationship with, let them go. And it’s, it’s nothing against them or you it’s just not a good fit. So go back to when you and I were at that networking meeting, there was a choice that here’s a premature cold call solicitation, let it go or dig in a little bit more, I dug in a little bit more, you dug in a little bit more. And that’s turned into a friendship that I genuinely cherish. So I hope this Master Mind Library continues for a very long time. Absolutely. But it’s also one of those things that I now would do a lot for you. I don’t care if I get anything in return. And I know you’ve done a lot for me not caring if you do anything in return. But turn in the prison from a business perspective. I’ve paid you a significant amount of money over the years, and you’ve paid us a significant amount of money. And nowhere in there. Have you ever said Derek cut your cost? And nowhere in there have I said, Hey, Jon Perry, do this one for free? Because that’s not what a genuine relationship no is the person who comes to you and again, for everybody’s benefit. Having print zoom and imaginary friends, I could go to you and say, Hey, can you get me some cheap business cards? Absolutely. And you can find those companies online all over the place. Is that your ideal customer, it is not my ideal customer. Okay, so cheap, cheap, cheap business cards that are run of the mill is not going to build anybody’s brand. It’s this all encompassing thing that Jon Perry wants to, and I know your your internal dialogue. What do you want to do for rural businesses? Oh, I want

 

Jon Perry  38:35

to help them reverse the big box effect. I want to help them find other ways to bring in income that they may not even know or understand to open their eyes to and there’s multiple ways of doing it. You know, one way is finding out are they is their ideal customer local? And if so how do they touch those local points? What points do they need to show that they’re competitive on to grab, grab the look. But the bigger thing that most of them don’t take the time or the energy is to explore larger dollar markets to see how they can potentially penetrate them systematically and bring in revenue into their shop which would then be able to be shared in their community. We hear that when people shop local that 80% of the money stays local when people shop at a big box that only 18% 21% above my paygrade stays local because yes, it does pay for some of the local employees that are working. But it goes off the corporate is there ways that that can be reversed and we’ve devised methods of how to actually do that and to assist these and to do feasibility, feasibility studies for companies to see if that is a viable option for them to go forward with

 

Derek Egeberg  39:53

now here’s where I was going with that though. I do get my business cards from you. Now. I don’t care. I can’t here, but I don’t care what the cost is, I’m not gonna go, Hey, Jon Perry, this online companies five bucks cheaper for a box. No, because I know what you’ve done and I know where your business heart is that you want everything to connect together. So if you looked at it our image, the business cards match the footer, which matches the concierge package, which matches all of the print advertising, which then also matches all of my online advertising. There’s a seamless feel to it. So people may assume they see things more often. But it’s just because it has the same consistent messaging, that’s way more impactful than a $5, cheaper business card box. Now, again, there are businesses that succeed on the $5 a cheaper box, that’s their business model, that’s not yours, you want to genuinely help people in the community, which is why you get other referrals, which again, going back to the author, it’s building the relationships with your ambassadors and your champions, and you’ve been a ambassador and champion for our mortgage business for a long time. And I hope we’ve been a champion and an ambassador for your business for a long time, because of that our word called a relationship. And again, the number one thing is, when I read this book, the first time, there’s so much information, it was like drinking out of a firehose, but having read it no less than six times and listen to it a few more times, you start realizing there’s so many nuggets that if you just pulled this out and implemented it a little better worked on your scripting, a little bit more tactfully. And he has, he has scripts, he has processes, he has days written out, he literally gives you the roadmap to go from referrals to the relationship, most people just will never implement fast enough to get there. And I think that’s my takeaway is, whoever implements the fastest This book will succeed beyond their wildest dreams. And those that, you know, again, some people have the best of intentions, but we grade ourselves on our own intentions, and everybody else by their actions. So I go, man, Jon Perry, I really wish you would have implemented that whole book like 10 years ago. But I intended to do the whole book, and I only maybe did 60 or 70% of it. No, let’s just implement the whole Gosh, darn thing because I promise. Everybody who reads this book that implements the entire book, will will be successful beyond their wildest dreams in their businesses. That’s pretty much my takeaway.

 

Jon Perry  42:38

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think that anybody can actually go through this book, even if they only implement 50% of it, you will be amazed by the growth that you’ll have because of that 50% implementation, go back again, find a couple more nuggets, implement it 60% implemented 70%, do as much as you can, and you will be blown away by how it will impact you, your life and your business entity. And just to finish up, so the good looking lawyer actually tries to cheat on his fiancee. That’s the end all of the book. So spoiler alert, spoiler

 

Derek Egeberg  43:17

alert. So your your moral of the story is never trust, a good looking

 

Jon Perry  43:22

attorney is that who’s who’s ambitious, who’s ambitious, who’s ambitious and single.

 

Derek Egeberg  43:25

So, you know, again, from all of us in the Master Mind Library, I really want to thank Michael Maher for authoring this book. And, again, the amount of time and effort I think is, is taken to create something like this. What do you and I spend on a book

 

Jon Perry  43:44

$20.20 bucks $40, because we probably get the audio book if we really as well as the physical copy.

 

Derek Egeberg  43:50

Okay, so you and I, kind of, again, we, we buy the audio book, we buy the physical book, because I’d rather listen to it like you do fast. So, you know, I’m not quite as fast as you I’m about two to two and a half speed most of the time. But again, that means I can get through a 12 hour book in six hours, you’re at, say three times speed. So you’re getting through that 12 hour book in four hours. But I buy the book as well.

 

Jon Perry  44:13

Absolutely. It’s great for referencing when you have the book, because going into it and wanting to go to oh, let me look about the tombstone exercise, or the eulogy exercise, you can just go to that page record,

 

Derek Egeberg  44:24

you haven’t told anybody on this, this about that.

 

Jon Perry  44:26

They’ll have to read the book in order to find out about it.

 

Derek Egeberg  44:29

But that you talk about those things, and you say wait a minute, we’re giving the author, not the author, we’re giving the publisher 40 bucks, maybe. And some of that goes to the author, some of it goes to the print house, some of it goes to the distributor, etcetera, the producer, you know, whoever is involved, but the amount of money that I’m sure most authors get, not all because some of them are very, very successful with their endeavors. But the amount of money most authors get, I don’t know Is I would really want to go that way to spend years of your life to go back and do that. So, again, hats off to Michael Maher and you did the tombstone. So one of the reasons if you read the preface to the book, he does this, because of a life emergency. He has a medical issue. And he also does it because he wished his father had written his memoirs. Yes. And so he talks about this book, he believes he wrote with his father, and his influence through the book. So you know, I would challenge both you and myself to write some things for our kids and our friends and our families going forward, and maybe write the Jon Perry story along with his mother. So again, from all of us here, and you can certainly sign off as well. But I greatly appreciate what Michael Maher wrote for us. And I greatly appreciate you allowing us as the Master Mind Library to dedicate episode number one to Mary Lou Perry.

 

Jon Perry  46:04

Thank you, Derek. Thank you all for listening again. Love to hear some feedback from you. So please, post your thoughts in the comments below. This is our inaugural episode. And thank you for joining us. I’m Jon Perry. Derek Egeberg Master Mind Library. We’ll see you next time. Bye for now. Bye for now.