Cracking the USP Code with Bill Schley

The peak performers in anything do the fundamentals better than anybody else. If you're going to give somebody a microscript for living a peak performance life or achieving peak performance, what is it? You have to want something. Okay? And you have to be honest enough with yourself that you want it. When you can see that mountaintop in clear focus, you're going to get there. I guarantee you and you can lead other people there. Just do it. Now the CP no people I tell people better fast your seat belts. You know what just do it means? Nothing. A USP is an offer of of a benefit. It's got to be specific to you. It's got to do something that no one else does. Just do is it's not even it's not even an aspiration. In this episode, legendary adman, branding expert, uh, best-selling author, the man that cracked the code on USP, unique selling proposition, Mr. Bill Schlle. It was an honor to have him on. Welcome to the show. So, Bill, let's let's start with Sure. Um, you and you know, like the podcast is the pathway to peak performance. The pathway to peak performance. Great. And I think there's so many things in your career that are so interesting. Thank you. So I think for the viewer um you know it's important for them to understand sort of the genesis of where where did this passion for for excellence in figuring things out uh come from. Okay. Well that gives me a lot to work with actually. Um all right there. Well, there's there's I think that I was always a passionate person. I think that I was I was lucky a gift. I was born being born being excited about things which is the biggest gift I think you can have and so and also born you just things fascinated me. I liked a lot of things. Um, and and so you know, when I was a when I was a little kid, one of the things was I always like to be I I I decided it was good to be funny because when I would say something, I didn't know why, but my parents would laugh and I like that. So I would, you know, and I started liking funny things and wanted to try to be funny. Um, some of it, you know, I I always liked writing. Um, well, I liked stories, but I didn't like to read very well very much. um my mother because my mother was such a good story reader that reading by myself just it didn't do it for me. I wanted my mother to read to me. So I I it's interesting I didn't I've written a lot of books that but I but I I didn't I didn't read that much or that many books back then. Um and I found I had a little bit of a reading a little bit of dyslexia, right? Which made it a little bit hard for me. I think it made it a little hard for me. I was a slow reader. But anyway, so I was born I was lucky enough to be born excited, but I also had parents that, you know, nurtured stuff. They never told me I couldn't do or have ideas or do anything I wanted to do. They never said, "You can't do that. You're not good enough." So, he always encouraged it. Um, another thing was that I watched other people around me that were accomplishing things. See, my dad was an entrepreneur. So, I was around entrepreneurs. So, as a little kid, I realized, boy, it's just natural. Everybody's dad was an it's natural to be one. And I can do that. I can be an entrepreneur. Whereas a lot of people get the opposite thing when they're growing. Oh, you can't do that. Entrepreneurs just you just you have to be the smartest. You have to be richest. You have to have the go to have fancy education. You have to some killer idea. None of that's true. None of that's true. You just have to decide you you you have to want to you you have to want to see a dream that you have made real. You have to want to make something or build something. And and it's kind of like a little bit of a creative yearning. When you study little kids, you find out that little kids are like the most creative naturally little animals on the planet. They they they they have no sense of what they can't do and they will invent anything. And if they don't have something to work with, they'll invent and they'll fantasize and make it. But they can and they their minds will connect anywhere to anything. And it's just this natural exuberance for life little kids have. And creativity is kind of like in a way it's like giving life to things. What seems to happen though is that by the time they go through school and they get through I don't know how many grades, so much of that has been washed out of them. Right. it wiped out of them so they can conform, right? So, I don't know. Maybe the reason why I had it was because I it didn't get taken away from me, you know? Right. But anyway, I that's going all the way back. For whatever reason, when I was a little um kid, I used to watch TV commercials and I liked them. I just liked them. I mean, I remember, you know, Bucky Be, we had all these characters. Bucky Beaver. I don't know if you guys, you know, for I pan a toothpaste and and less toil and all the things and uh the the Wonderbread build strong bodies 12 ways and Colgate with the invisible shield, all of those things. And so, you know, this this was at the beginning of TV, but for whatever reason, they used to amuse the hell out of me. So, I kind of had an affinity. I like the idea of creating that kind of thing. Um and then let me say that I failed at so many other things because you know I do believe you fail your way to success. So I thought I want to be a rock and roll star but I failed at that. You know I thought about other things. I fa but I realized okay but maybe I could make commercials. And so that's how I got to trying um after I had failed as a a songwriter. I failed at being what's his name on? Um, James Taylor. But I the good is I tried everything. But I I realized I was never going to be James Taylor. I but I did a lot of things. We even got people to make demo tapes of us, but I knew I wasn't going to do that. And I I got to the point I got married and it was actually time to get a job. And I graduated from college. It never occurred to me to work in an office doing a job job. But I realized I needed I needed to actually get serious and I I thought, well, advertising's a job and I think I can write I think I can write commercials. And so that was that was when I was boy, I was in my late 20s, but I was done. I just finished cuz I was going around writing songs and playing and doing those things. I had a little duo and all that, you know. I I tried stuff. One of the thing about trying stuff, I realized that daring pays dividends. If you try something, anything, and if you put yourself in motion, this is the law of motion. See, I have a lot of laws. A lot of laws. The law of motion. If you put yourself in motion and you try something, you may not get to where you think you're going to get. As a matter of fact, 90% of the time you start a business and it isn't where you thought it was. It turns out to be over here. But when you try and when you dare and you do the things put yourself in motion and and it's a little scary always to do that. Good things always happen. It doesn't mean that you may not again you're not going to get and it's always not apparent in the beginning but get yourself in motion and start trying things and things and things will happen. And by the way I wrote a book about entrepreneurs. We're trying to see could they be made. The biggest thing the biggest difference we ever found about what entrepreneurs were is the they all they did was they did. Everybody else didn't. I'm not kidding. What how simple things are. All an entrepreneur did is he actually said, "I have this idea and I'm going to start stepping toward I'm going to do it." And he might fail and fail and fail and fail. But each time he fails, he gets a little bit closer because he starts to see clearer and clearer and clearer. Closer you get to that you start to see it clearer and clearer. You might see it's a little bit over here. Everybody else had three beers, talked about it, went home, went back to their job, and had a million reasons why couldn't work. They just didn't didn't. And the entrepreneur did. The other thing is the entrepreneur didn't quit swinging. And if anybody's listening and wants to know cuz it it really comes down to something that's that that freaking simple, right? But that's how that happened. It's kind of like Edison, right? Fail forward. I found, you know, 399 ways to not make a filament, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, well, and the other famous guy is the Dyson guy. Right. Right. Who said, well, and he went to the vacuum cleaner companies. They called him. He said, "Oh, we don't want this. This is terrible. How could anyone have a vacuum cleaner without a bag?" So, he didn't listen to them. Went back and he he he claims he failed, you know, a thousand times. But, you know, every time, right, he said each one is not it's uh each try is a prototype. It's not a failure, right? You get back and you really do fail your way to success. If you look at the highest performers in the world, the Navy Seals, we met a lot of those guys when we were trying to do the entrepreneur book, figure out how they dealt with fear because the other thing that stops people from entrepreneurship is fear. Most the fear of taking a risk, the fear of what happens in all those kinds of things. What they said was that we fail that we we purposely go out and we fail a thousand times so that we don't fail in the most important time. It's you can't succeed without it and you have to reframe what it is. You know, it's not like you go out planning to fail. Just have to understand that when you do fail, if you're trying to get some place that matters, that failure is learning. Yeah. Really interesting. But see, this is not these aren't cliches. This is real stuff. The real deal. Yeah. It really is. Yeah. It's so true. And I saw it firsthand um my entire life growing up. Yeah. I I want to ask you, we've got so much to cover probably. You know, I'm going to ask you to come back um and and and do a refresh because the first guy that just wants you to know if you ever asked me to come back, this guy says that's a that's a world record. I My mother in heaven, you see, someone asked me back. Okay. I love it. Yeah. Um so, let's go to um Ted Bates. Let's talk. You know, so you the the music thing doesn't work out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And here you find yourself at really I mean this is a special time. You're saying special time of which in in advertising Madison Avenue what's happening. I mean you know they're really fashioning the shows that people know about what's going on. So right take us there. Well okay so you know New York was sort of like that was the big leagues if you could to get a job in New York and I was lived in Boston. Um, and I went down to New York because a friend of mine knew someone that worked and it happened to be at Ted Bates. Um, so what I did was this. I decided what I found out what you had to do to get a job in advertising copywriting is that you had to write what's called a spec book. And and so what that was, you know, in other words, you had to come up with uh prospective ads or ads that you for products you think you like and make ads for them and then show them. So if you could get get seen by a copywriter and they'll look at it as good or bad guy have any talent or whatever it is. Um, so the first thing I did was I got a job um, I got a job in Boston cuz Boston had a lot of advertising agencies. Um, but not not world. One of them get pretty pretty big and pretty famous. But anyway, um, and I got a job there at a place called Hill Holiday and I lasted for in about six months and I got fired. Okay. Now, the thing about getting fired or advertising is like everybody gets fired. Hey, but I wasn't that happy about it at the time because I was newly but but the point was um and what they did those agencies in Boston at that time, they were all doing just very creative, but they were trying to be more creative than they were trying to sell a product. They really was all about how creative and clever that they could be. That's what they were really into. And they and and because then they made ads that people loved. Oh, those are great ads. And then they won awards. They won advertising awards. And the advertising awards were based on you how how creative the commercial was. So Hill holiday was had unbelievably creative guys coming up with certain they did some pretty good stuff. But they but that's what it was all about. That's what I thought it was going to be all about. But anyway, for whatever reason they, you know, I came in and and anyway, there were various reasons why they they decided they let me go in about in about six months. Now, the thing was, so I was pretty bummed out. I said, "Okay, but now I'm going to go to New York." It was good because it got me to go to New York. I walked into Ted Bates where my friend knew a guy that was a copywriter there, a guy name Mark Schwattka. I still know him. Uh, and I found out that I wanted to make funny dog and cat food commercials, you know. So, it turned out I found Bates was the opposite. Bates was the Roser Reeves agency. Now, they had invented the USP, but Roser Reeves, they did all the kind of commercials that they weren't funny and, you know, clever and all that. They were all about selling. And Rosaries was like so serious about selling. So like the Andison commercials where we see the hammer, you know, I don't know, but all those things like Wonderbread all came out of bait, but also the it's a tagline agency. So I had my little spec book and I'm opening it. I'm talking to Schwatka. Well, there Bob Frolic walks in. Now Frolic was the big boss of the creative department. He was 40 years old. That's how long ago. And by the way, this was at the very very end of the madman era. The guys, the mad men were there, but they were all in they were all in their 50s, gray hair. They all had ulcers, heart attacks. They were keeling over left and right. They all chain spoke eight packs a day. They were walk drinking, guzzling, literally they walk around the halls with open bottle of scotch. You didn't even have the cap on it. And they all, you know what? They even even have Zantac then or or or you know Pryloac. It's like Kepto. No, all they had was No, they had KO. They had Mocks. They were they all had little white rings around their mouth from swinging mailocks. I am I making this up. But boy did they know how to do this stuff. So Frolic walks in and I've got my little spec book open and he said, "Give me that. Let me see that." He smoking a cigarette. Let me see that. Goes flip flip flip. I want that. And and there was one in there for Boni Canned Ravioli, which I happen to love. And they have a book called Europe on $5 a day back way back when. And the commercial was a little kid. All it was was a little kid. I got someone to draw this for me. A little kid holding up a plane of a plate of this canned ravioli and it just said Italy on 19 cents a day. And Flo, I said, "Okay, you're hired. Hire him." And I didn't even know why. What he liked about that, what he liked was that it was an idea. Okay. He liked that there was a selling idea in that little piece of creative. I didn't even I didn't even know by but so that's what happened. I stayed at Bates. This is interesting. So Bates was Ross Reeves had who wrote reality and advertising invented the USP. He had been the chairman of Ted Bates and the and obviously the head copywriter um really a genius. So they did M&M's Melt Your Mouth Not in Your Hand and all those great Rolades Spells Relief and uh Get a Piece of the Rock. All those things were Ted Bates. Um so when I came in, so Schwaka told me about this guy Ross Reeves, right? He said, "Oh, Ross Reeves is legendary guy and they're going to give you his book, read his book, you know, and the whole thing." And they did give you that when he came because Ted Bates was a USP agency and they wanted you to do USPS. They gave you the roster's book. You read about how good it was. I wow. He goes and I said, "Well, what happened to him?" Goes, "Oh, he got fired." See, every it was kind of funny, right? But so there I was. What happened was I started to learn something which and Frolic said this to me. He said, "Listen, this whole story, anybody can write a cra this idea. Anyone can if you you write a clever commercial, that's the easiest thing in the world. You know, put put a bear and a pink tutu on dancing a jig on the roof of your house. The whole place is going to watch, but no one's going to buy the house. What we do is sell the house. Our job is to make denture cream, to make deodorant, to make whatever the hell we're selling. Our job is to make that the most exciting things you've ever seen in those 30 seconds. And that's hard. But when you do that, you watch from whole markets change. That's exciting. That's what we do. That's what we're paid to do. And it just made so so much sense to me. And then I watched those guys do it. I watched Hall's menalyptus come in this little I tell this you know no one has that many stories but I so I tell but you know Halls it was a little obscure cough drop from England and no one had ever heard of it right well in two years it had a 50% share of the market 50% every time in America a person reached across the counter to pull out a cod they pulled for a hall every sec every other time and it came from this USP thinking that they did. And so I realized I realized how powerful of that thing was this USP thing and it stands for by the way unique selling proposition. So and you think about in those three words because the economy of language unique means only you can say it right has to be something only you can say everyone else says it's not unique. You want to be unique. Selling means it has to it has to have a reason to buy. Sell. It has to be selling. And the last thing has to be a proposition. You're making a promise. You're saying buy this product, get this benefit. And so you could see that that you know the way Rosar would invent those three words were perfect. And they also the acronym was so easy to say USP you know rolled up. We talk about the USB also, you know, in the last few years, you know, working with certain clients and now they're um but I'm hearing people are using that term more than I ever realized. I've seen agencies user generated content digital agencies and they're talking about, oh yeah, we got to get these USPs and I I think they they think it means like the key benefits or something, but but that's okay, but that's not what it is. So the thing is that I at Bates the thing was they they didn't tell you how they did it. They didn't tell anyone in the world. Braser's amazing book said here it is. This is good. This is what it looks like. But he never explained how to do it because that was their trade secret. They want to tell everybody. And to tell you the truth, I don't think they'd ever worked it out. They just they just they they knew what it was. They had the talent for it. And uh they were making it for clients and they were you know they wanted you know giant corporation to come in they would do the USP for you. They never show you how and and then and those guys they died. They gone. And the thing is that you had to follow them around and if you sort of got it you wouldn't get fired. That's how it worked. And I I didn't want to get I didn't want to get fired from bass. So I started writing down what was going on, what I was seeing, what they were doing. Every now and then they gave me a little nugget of information. I put it I started writing down how the formula worked. I started making notes. I started doing it for myself so that I could replicate it. I really did. I And I don't know that anybody else ever wrote it down because I've never seen it. I've never seen anyone anywhere explain what it really is, what the real thing is. And so and then I I got good enough and I won the I won an award. Then I went out cuz I'm the entrepreneur in me saying, "Well, I'm going to go do my own thing." And then I went off to do different kinds of things. Eventually realized that I was what I really needed to do was I was a marketing strategist. What I like to do. So um my brother was starting a company and he had two people and I came in um to help him with that. Okay. And I said, "Well, let's see if we can take a little startup and apply these great principles." So, we're only for big corporations. And we did. We did. We gave them a a USP named they had this very easy to use software. We It looked kind of like an ATM screen. So, we named it Home ATM. So, we gave it a name, which is a, you know, evocative, interesting, memorable name. And then we came up with three little slides for it. We said now to the bankers, now you can have an ATM in every home. It's so easy to use. You don't even need a manual. We don't have a manual. And if you know how to use an ATM machine, you already know how to use the software. So that's it's the easiest software. Now until we came up with that, we couldn't get a meeting anywhere. We realized that banks didn't want to talk to three guys in a taxi that banks like banks, you know, want to talk to other big, you know, they're corporate. They want to talk to big lead. But once we had this story and we started telling them we never didn't get a meeting again. We never didn't get a meeting again because we had this little this little USP idea. We said, "Hey, so easy. this thing called home ATM. And these guys could explain that to their boss and their wives and everybody else. And it had this magic and the and the company, believe it or not, went from nothing, it was sold for 175 million bucks in like four years. And I realized how much this thing works. So then I from that point on, that's when I really started doing I I'm just going to keep doing this for other companies. And this was all the way back in 2000. I hadn't written a book yet. So then when it was time to write a book because you're a consultant, you got to be smart. You need to have a book. And I had something to say, but I had all these friends in the business and I didn't want to write just another vanity book that they would say, "Oh, come on. This is this is just dumb typical stuff." I really wanted to say something original. Um, and that was hard. And so I was collecting all the information. Now remember, there's a pattern here. So I start I'm procrastinating. Okay. Most of what I've accomplished is through the positive power of procrastination. Remember I told you you get going some good things happen. So I'm sitting there collecting all the information for the book but not starting this book on on on branding. And uh but what was happening I found out how somebody was doing have an exercise um technique in New York. They were doing it where you could do one uh workout 20 minutes once a week and be the best shape of your life. And I said wow I could write a book about that. So I I found the people the guy who was doing it. Turned out he already had a book contract with Harper Collins. He said I can't write a book and I said okay let's wrote the first but what happened from that is I learned how to write a book by writing the book on it was called the power of 10 and and then the book was a bestseller and stuff you know because I did that now I could write the branding book. It was called a Why Johnny Can't Brand. Um, rediscovering the lost art of the big idea. And this is where I really endeavored to deconstruct what a USP really was and how it really worked. And I mostly got it right. When you start writing a book like that, you know about half of the things when you start. But the other half you don't know and you have to you have to sort of figure them out while you write it and figure out like figure out scenes if you're writing a movie. You have to actually think about how do these things work? I mean sometimes it's you know it does you have to how are we really doing this thing? But that book and that was a pretty good book and it won an award. It won one of the top five marketing books of of uh when it came out uh all the way back then. And I I found out that it was, you know, given it was given to copywriters at some of the big agencies in New York, but it wasn't a bestseller. It was it just it just it was it was about it was it was pretty dense and it was but it was, you know, it's a really good book. Um,

fast forward, um, we got to 2008 and we and I had partnered then. And so we got this consulting work and we're doing we're doing this we're branding and doing USPS but I was calling it the dominant selling idea yet the but it's still a USP because I figure out there were five parts to it you know has to be a USP is an idea has to be superlative something you're best at the only the best or number one there something you do that you can plausibly claim you do better than anybody else has to be important something they really want can't be oh we have biggest selection of brown eyes and you know nobody wants you know you know our our men's store no one wants that has to be something they really want has to be believable coming from you believe it or not uh these big arrogant corporations they think their brand can sell anything you know Colgate toothpaste Colgate palm olive they came out with Colgate bacon at one time Colgate bacon now you that's how you react as everybody else but the geniuses who were paying paid $600,000 a year to come up with that stuff came up with the Colgate bacon and it was a total failure because people said, "Oh, I don't believe that they can make bacon." As a matter of fact, it's gross. So, it has to be believable coming from you. The next thing has to be measurable means you have to be able to prove it. I have to be able to see it working. And last thing, is it ownable? Because if somebody else already owns that USP, you know what? You really should try get another one. It's too hard to knock somebody off. It's already lodged in the mind. But anyway, 2008 the big crash, you know, the big great recession and um so I have I have book this book was going to be called the war room marketer and it was going to be about how at times like this you got a circle of wagons and it's more important than ever to really get down to what it's really about and don't stop branding and don't stop differentiating. See, it's all about differentiating. Difference to do better. Yeah. the whole thing differentiating what sets you apart from everybody else. It's the difference. But here's another thing. Remember when you get going, you find out. So microscripts, which are these little phrases that people love to remember and repeat, okay? Uh that that people use to remember, inform, and persuade other people, right? And the little microscripts like like the tagline said M&M's melts your mouth on your hand or Splenda is you know made from sugar so it tastes like sugar or you know all through history right ask not what your country can do for you or we're going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade or things like the domino theory little phrases that no one can forget how about fake news okay we're going to you know I'm going to build a wall in Mexico and they're going to pay for it these are little microscripts that people remember. You see them enough times. Well, but they but they also grab you pretty quickly. That was the third chapter. It's called microscripts. And as I started writing it, I'm realized, wait a minute, that's the most important damn thing. That's what the book should be about. I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't started writing something called the war room marketer. But that was the idea, you know? But I only found it because I started started. And then we realized, I was actually on a radio show in politics and I was talking to this guy about why the Republicans were so good at this. The Democrats give you a paragraph and a white paper. The Republicans give you a tagline. And we realized what they're doing is they're giving their people little micro scripts. It's a script means so the people can repeat the idea word for word. They're giving those things to their people. So now their people can talk about it, defend it, you know, even know why they're doing it. So like the flip-flopper, I'm not a flip-flopper. Those kind of things. I realized and we said they're giving them little microscripts. And then when I started talk to other people about micro scripts, they would also say that word back to me. So I realized a microspit, it's not important what people hear, it's what they repeat. That's the most important thing because that's the thing that sticks. That's the thing they like to remember and that's the thing they're going to tell others. It's not important what people hear. It's what's important is what they repeat. Okay? And so the point of the microscope, you know, it was a micros if people start repeating and talking about it. So you look at all these memes that come look at a meme like cancel culture. Cancel culture. A microscope can be a it can be a it can be a title. It can be a two-word concept like domino theory or or cancel culture, right? or it can be, you know, a six or eight word sentence. But see how those things work? They they stick because they they have a rhythmic to them, rhythmic quality. The brain loves that. Often they they rhyme. Um uh takes a lick and it keeps on ticking. You know, the brain likes that because it brain brain likes it help and likes that rhythm. Uh and they have a they have this imagery in them and they and they do what they do is they trigger a bigger story. So when you said that in back in the days of Vietnam war, the reason why that war happened and literally millions of people died needlessly and then the war was over and we lost and everything else was because of an idea called the domino theory. And everybody in America from a sixth grader to an 80-year-old person knew tell you the knew the domino theory and that and that if one communist country fell in Asia all the rest were going to fall like dominoes until it got to got to uh tibberon because see it triggered this entire movie in your head. That's the power of those things. So what I realized with microscripts was he had the whole USP theory of all you he did, but you had to be able to focus it down to an idea that was so sharp that you could say it in six or eight words. You could trigger it in six or eight words. If you couldn't do that, the idea wasn't sharp enough. A USP is about it's it's it's it's a core idea. It's the center. It's the most important idea that you stand for or that you're doing for someone. It's all about finding the center, the most important thing. But then so and that and so what they were doing is they were going through the process of finding that thing and then they were all having they were always creating these taglines. The taglines were microscripts. It's made from sugar so it tastes like sugar. Well, that's a later one. That's a whole elevator pitch. It's made from sugar. So that means must be the most natural. I because I don't want to put artificial sweeteners. I don't like the chemicals. So, oh, this one's made from sugar. That's a natural thing. So, that gives me the reason to believe when I say it's the most natural tasting of the artificial sweeteners. It's made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar. It's eightword magic genius. Another one was, see now the OJ Simpson trial happened what, 20 years ago? Yeah, at least. People still remember. Once you hear these things, you never forget them. And your brain can remember an infinite number. It is designed to remember an infinite number of ideas when they are packaged in like this way in these six little words. the the one the one for OJ was if the glove doesn't fit you must have quit. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Now there was uh what's call it the uh the OJ was the great football player. People don't remember. I think we're out here probably do. Um, the prosecution had 9 months of testimony and 9 trillion ideas and reasons why no rational person that in the world could possibly fail to um convict OJ. And Johnny Cochran instinctively said, "Well, listen, you can remember all that or I'll save you the trouble and just remember one thing." OJ was framed by the by the racist cops. And so to remember what you need to do tomorrow is just remember this. If the glove doesn't fit, you must quit. If the glove doesn't fit, you must quit. Now, not only the jury did that, I was speaking in India is before the internet. And I say I would say to people, I'm going to say the first part of a sentence, you complete it. I'm in India before the internet. I say if the glove doesn't fit the whole place goes you must have quit is that's the power of these freaking things. So then you realize okay if you so that was the last piece of the puzzle which was really the USP we kept refining and making the formula better but the it had to come down you had to be able to express it in these kind of microscripts and microscripted tag anyway and so and and then often your elevator pitch you only have one floor to do an elev p elevator pitch nowadays. So so the fact if you had three or four microscripts put together you had a micro it's a micro elevator pitch but that's what you did. You said, "Hey, it's called Home ATM. It's so easy. It doesn't even have a manual. If you know how to use an a ATM machine, you you already know how to use our software. And now, Mr. Banker, you can have an ATM in every home." That was four things. Four little microscript. And you know what? Boom. Yeah. Boom. So, we're, you know, microscripts so powerful. Let's relate it back for the uh the the average user uh and let's help them get there. Well, okay, the average user depending on what you want to do. Microscripts are are the are the most powerful way to communicate any idea to anyone. So, it doesn't matter if you're a teacher, if you're a politician, if you're someone trying to persuade anybody, if you're an advertising or branding, this is it's the key. And and let me tell you, all history was written six words at a time. All leaders know knew that and that's what they did. Okay, if you look at the history um everything from give me liberty or give me death. They um uh and they of the people by the people and for the people um I have a dream today workers of the world unite. All of history is written just and that's all anyone remembers going out back to ancient Rome. Carthage must be destroyed. Um but then and then up to the famous you know Winston Churchill we will fight on the beaches we'll never surrender. Look at the foundations of uh the western you know Judeo-Christian you know which is do un others as you have others do unto you. A rabbi once said that's the entire Bible in six words. All the rest is commentary you know do un others as you have others do unto you. So those kind of things our father who art in heaven you realize how powerful these things are. Now when it gets down to branding, my business is branding which is and what branding is is differentiating a company. Okay. Now people most a lot of people do not understand what branding is. They think it's logos and color palettes and spirit animals and mood boards and what do you call brand architectured style guides. That stuff is that's you that's good down the line. But that's the signage. Signage is important, right? When I see the sign says Best Buy. Okay. Hey, I know there's Best Buy. Okay, but before it can be that in one sentence, uh this is what it is. A brand is a difference attached to your name. Period. And I mean a selling brand. I mean as I mean a real selling brand. A brand is a difference attached to your name. Um, what a USP is is a difference that only you offer that gives me an advantage that I can't get anywhere else. Okay? It's a difference that no one else. So, it's a difference. It's something that no one else does. Difference no one else does for advant for an advantage that no one else can give me. It's a difference that gives me an advantage. That's what a USP is. And the thing about it is it's not and it's not for big corporations. And by the way, I mean, they had the famous ones because they were on TV, but small companies do it so much easier, faster, and better than the big companies. Most of the big companies are out there with with tagline say a passion for possible. Yeah. What does that mean? Yeah. How about um just do it. The CP No, people I tell people better fasten your seat belts. You know what just do it means? Nothing. A USP is an offer of of a benefit. It's got to be specific to you. It's got to do something that no one else does. Just do it. Is it's not even It's not even an aspiration. It's on nothing. It means nothing. Ju just do it could be the the the tagline for a strip club, okay? Or or or a plumber. Anything else in the world. And the reason that people think it's so good is because they had $500 million a year to put it on TV. But you don't have that. You can't just say come to uh you know Jack's framing shop just do it. You can't say that because you don't have 500 million. So you actually need a USP. You need an idea like Jack and call it same day framing. That's that's the one I that's a you'll be the name in the USP you know can be one five five hour energy right the name of the USP in one die hard batteries never get stuck again the name the name of the USP that's that's the ultimate the gift that keeps on giving right is that I can't say the name without the elevator pitch right five hour energy built in yeah descriptive names but so the point is that just about any good business can do this if they know where to Okay. And sometimes businesses and and and what it is, if you look at the US Flee formula, we figured out the most important thing at the beginning are the questions that you ask because the questions are more important than the answers in the beginning because the questions lead to the answers, right? The most famous one at Ted Bates, they'd walk in a room, they'd say, "Okay, what do you do that no one else does?" That's the way they they talked to New York. Simple. What do you do that no one else does? But there's actually a lot more questions than that that lead that lead and you ask those questions over and over. But once you find out that um and what a USP is, you find a thing. Hey, this is a difference we think we can own. Then we put it up to this thing, the DSI test. Now we call it the dominant the DSI test, which is is it superlative, important, believable, memorable, and ownable. If it's all those five things, I guarantee you it's a USP. It needs to be those five things. Now, a lot of people say, "Oh, but I don't have that. My business just isn't extraordinary. You know, I own a pizza shop or I mean really, it's like all the other ones." Well, the fact of the matter is, okay, maybe it is now. But when you understand how USP works, you realize, okay, I need to find a difference. you can start to say, "Okay, how can I build a difference into my business that I can afford to do and that I'm capable of doing?" Because here's a position that nobody else owns, but people want it. Okay, so here my favorite example. Now, this was a $6 billion company happened to do this, but it's also done. This was that I worked for. Um, and Graham Weston was the chairman. So, they had data centers. They were renting computer space. They had tons and tons of competition in those in the early days. It was all techies and they had no none of these things had any kind of customer service. And the VCs and all the geniuses, you know, they're sitting there with their MBAs and they never work, but they just tell everybody else what to do. We say, "Oh, it's" and Graham said, "We think we we want to stand for something. Maybe it can." And here's why we think it could be this ultimate customer service. And and by the way, customer service is the is the oldest. It's not a USB by itself. Because everybody says they have customer service until you do it a certain way or you do it in an industry that never had any customer service. So, so all all Graham West was saying when we give this great service, we and we solve the problem. Someone owns a website and the website's down, they're business, they're going to go out of business in 24 hours and we solved that for them in the middle of the night. You know what happens? They buy 20 more servers from us the next day and they tell everybody they know. So, you know what, V Mr. VC, that's fine. But we're going to we're going to we are going to stand for the most ultimate customer service in the world in an industry that has none now. Okay. But remember, everybody has customer service. So now what do you do? You can start to invent your facts of the difference that prove it. We call them the facts of the difference. Right? We didn't have this. We don't have these only. We call them the onlyies. But now we can make them. So, here's the first thing. We're going to tell people that when you call Rackspace, day or night, we answer the phone on one ring. Now, no one else sent anything close to that. No one did that. Well, half the time they didn't even have the the customer service department for closed in the middle of night, but they said at Rackspace on Christmas Eve there, we a human being will pick up the phone in one ring. Our team will be there and we're going to get you out of your problem in one ring. If you don't believe it, call us on Chris perceive. And you wouldn't believe Helen Keifa did just to try this. But you know what happened then? Then you know you you did and it cost a little money to do that. Of course. But your but in the end but they became the biggest independent data center company in the world. We're going to answer the phone in one ring. Now you keep but now you keep building because that's your positioning, right? So you see the positioning over here. Well, I want to go there and I don't quite have it. I now that I understand how the how the positioning the the USP works and microscripts. So now I can build toward that thing. So then because you've asked what does a category want? What do people want they're not getting now, right? Or conversely, what do customers hate about the category? That's a great question. They hate the fact that that they can't get through when their computers are down. So we answer the phone, one ring. The next thing they did is our customer service, our people are so crazy about providing this service. They're fanatics. They're fanatical. We can't even hold them back. They're so crazy. They and they and so he named his service fanatical support. They see this is this is where you do a microscripted name and it's m unforgettable. And then remember you're building out this now once a month. the rep that they had that were that you know won the rep of the month, they got to wear the fanatical jacket and it was an actual straight jacket and they used to put him on stage at Rackspace and they win the fanatical jacket and that is a guy and I put this straight jacket on and walk around all day and they were thrilled to wear the fanatical jacket and they used to put that on their website too the the guy with the fanatical jacket. But the point is you see all the things they're doing with once they decided that that was a position they could own now you can build your own leies what are the what does everybody else do what only you do and and but you have to give these facts where people can see it they can feel it they can touch it those facts are the difference this is how you build out a USP and that's why so if you you're worried I don't think we have it we you realize there's so many ways to do is you can own a c you can have a category. Design a category. You can own that. You can have a subcategory, right? If people are making trucks, you can make dump trucks, right? If people make tires, you can make, you know, racing tires. So, yeah. What? You can own a category, you can own a subcategory. You can own an attribute of an important attribute. The ultimate driving machine. They didn't change their category. They said, "Hey, we're German cars. We're German luxury cars, but we're the driving guys. right now as that meant a lot of things. It's one of the greatest USPS of all times. They're the driving ones. The ultimate driving machine. And it's to this day, the say at at BMW, we only make one thing the ultimate driving machine. Isn't that lovely? One other thing, by the way, is once you have, you got to be consistent. You got to pound on it in every way. And you got to build it out to the whole company. The point is that any company either has ownies that they haven't pulled out or haven't highlighted or they decide they can own a position that people want and we can we can go and grab that position if so there's an attribute another thing is like I said to to invent your we call them these big symbolic proof points so there all these different ways you can build it out if you if you don't think right now we're not there the point is understand how it works and now really like an entrepreneur like starting a company and saying you know what we want to have a USP brand here's how we make one any company who wants to has the moxy and the desire can do that and then these little microscripts are just they're they're you know it's a great great technique so when you have that you know you'll come up you write what's called a brand story as you write that story these little microscripts come out that's how it's done and that's what is relevant to everybody that's out there Well, I think it's so relevant to this to what we're talking about with this show. The pathway to peak performance. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? That if you if you were to break it down, what we've talked about is the pathway to peak performance for a company right now. For a brand, for a brand, remember a brand difference attached to your name. Yeah. When I think of when I think of Volvo, I think safe car. Yeah. It's attached to your name. That's what you're going for from that idea. It's idea first. everything else comes after. Okay. What motivated me? I obviously I was a little bit I like doing creative things or you know I had this yearning but there's another thing I I for whatever reason I think people lie about stuff. It kind of ticks me off. I I you know I kind of I'm always trying to find the truth. When we discovered the USP and microscripts this is the truth about branding. This is the truth about differentiating a company. There isn't any other truth differentiation. There's nothing else. There's there's no other alternative to being differentiated. The way you differentiated was an idea, a benefit that by a benefit that's that other people don't have. It can't change as long as we're humans. And it happened to be invented in 1961. The idea of a USP. What I always say is technology changes every day, but the truth never does. So find out what that truth. So this is all about the truth. If you want a brand, if you want to if you want to express, if you want to communicate somewhere and it's really the center of what you're looking at. Yeah. It's interesting because the you sort of do it in for different companies, different brands, different uh people and lots of different ways and you really have to think. You got to think a lot. practice helps because you know I've seen I've see I've done I've done so many that I have I can see the patterns very quickly and say you know here I think you know these ideas I think they want over here but at the same time though that when you knowing these these this basic formula when people know it they u because no one's ever really talked to them this way and about branding about business till they see this and it changes people's point of view um they start look at brands they start looking at their product they start looking all a new way whether they're going to come up with a great tagline and you know that I don't know cuz you know sometimes you go you go to smart creative people that do that kind of thing but the point is you're going to think about your brand differently and you think about what your the idea of finding that difference find that difference and then keep building it building it building it building it building it focusing focusing focusing focusing um because that sets you apart in a world where there's 500 million messages going by a sec it's crazy right but this is still the answer. So, because if all of a sudden you dropping all those million uh all those, you know, millions of messages and you drop a USP in the middle of that, right? You know, it cures your headache in five minutes and it wakes you up. Um Yeah. So, how do you when you're working with a client um that isn't getting it,

how you overcome that? Well, see, it depends. It depends whether I'm doing it for them, which is what I used to do. That's what my business was. I'd go in as a consultant and actually hire me to do it. Um, but just to do it, I'd also to really do it, I had to get them to understand what I was doing, right? And um, spend a But if they're really not getting it, um, that's a that's a good question. I I guess it's true. Not everybody not everybody always does. Man, I just think when we look at Yeah. some people have a certain set of training and I see it every day and they don't really understand. Uh even though it seems so simple. Oh yeah, it's so simple, they don't understand. I think, okay, I think the only way to get someone to really understand something and or to ever change their mind, see if they don't get it, it may be that they've got what? Another understanding that won't break in. What that means is they have another story. There's a story running in their brains. Every one of us, we didn't get to the power story here, but um you know, we every one of us, human beings wake up every day and we we start telling ourselves a story. We say, "Here's who I am. Here's what I know. Here's what I come from. Here's what I think is true." Right? We have to tell ourselves a story because the unknown is so terrifying to not have a story. It's human beings without a story are so terrified. This is why, you know, you look at our politics today, it's so split because one side is a a story that's so baked in and and they don't they do not they they will literally put their life on the line not to have their story changed. That's how what psychic need it is. The only way to convince somebody in that situation is you have to tell them a different story. I'm serious about this. I thought this is how the only way to change your mind. You cannot give them facts. A change of mind. I can't just saying I can't give the facts and statistics because any fact they can bend to whatever their story is any fact. You watch politics today what you can do. So they're running that story and all you can do is bring your story alongside. Okay. And saying I get your story. I understand your story. Right? I'm going to show you but I'm I believe in that story but I'm going to show you how that your story can have even better outcomes never wrong cuz if it's wrong I tell you it's wrong all defend primitive primitive they're it's blocked but when you when you bring in a the you know and so here's here's our story my story me is sort of converge with yours I'm going to show you how yeah your story is great I'm going to show show you how it becomes even better. That's the only way you can change a human minds. That that's an that's wisdom. And I I don't know if I made that up or not. I I but that's that's what it is. So when somebody doesn't get it, I think again you have to figure out what sto why they keep thinking the same thing and try to show them a story why why it can what they thought was something is really something else. That's kind of what metaphors do. By the way, telling a different story is well it's kind what you know we talk about framing we all a frame a different frame is a different story with the same set of facts. So you're kind of so you're kind of doing so famous one is like to one side. So somebody comes out, you know, Middle East and he's all dressed up in guns and, you know, pullets and machine guns, you know, standing there looks all and they said that to that one person that's a terrorist. But to another person, that's a freedom fighter. The same thing, same guy, same different set of facts, you know, different story. So I'm getting to you ask a very it's a difficult question because most people most people do get it when they see that it's such common sense. They kind of get this. This is just about value, you know, just about um and benefits. But I think that's that's what you do. And if you still can't I mean, look at like anything else, you just got to go. You can't you you just can't. No one can bat bat a thousand in anything they do. Well, so what? Let me I'm curious. When you get into uh flow in a flow state. Yeah. And you do get into flow state, it happens. I've seen it. I've seen I've seen I've seen you on stage get into a flow. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Where you're really you're really hitting it. Yeah. What does that feel like? It's always nice to be feel like you're in sync with yourself. Uh what you're trying to say. Uh it feels it feels good cuz you know it's you're um you know you're solving problems let's say in your head. you know, you're you're if you're trying to express something, trying to make someone understand something that's in your head and they're understanding it, that's a very that's a very gratifying thing. So, it it does it feels good, I think. Um, you know, getting into a flow like like I think Zach was asking, you know, how the hell are you concentrating and you know, when you're to get do something creative, right? I mean, how you actually get down to that point so that you can get in that zone or at least start doing it? Um, especially when you don't feel like it. There are people that the kind of people that um, you know, they've got an assignment in school and they a teacher gives to them a month in advance and they start working on it, you know, a month in advance doing their research, working on it, you know. Uh, I don't know too many creative people that that ever do do that. There's a tendency to like do it all the less the last day. Yeah. I mean to be disciplined to actually make the time to actually focus on it to go through the process, you know, right? If you're writing a book and you have a deadline, let's face it, you you can't I can't write this the night before, right? But when you're coming up, but still, you know, you h you do have to make yourself get down and do it, you know, one step at a time or just it just won't get done. But I think the thing is that you know you you learn to just get started like we said you know believe it or not you literally start typing even if you don't have anything to type and your brain will start to engage but um one of the biggest motivators I'm not am I kidding you talk about creative people some of the most creative people in the world a lot of the comedians they will tell you that they they have nothing until the last day I mean and the part of the reason for that is that their mind is churning and unconsciously they're thinking and churning and churning and churn unconsciously and the computer is doing in the background um thinking and thinking and thinking putting together pieces and parts like like a computing it's computing but it's not coming up with the answer but but believe it or not when you you get to a point at the end where now the deadline is here and you and and and not showing up the meeting saying what happen is not an option in other It's fear

fear. But the thing about fear is that fear it actually works. Anxiety and fear they they there's they there's an edge. They give you an kind of an edge and they're never going to go away. You have anxiety and fear about doing something because it's important because you want to succeed at it and you're scared and you're always everyone's insecure. You know, am I going to be able to do it again? Am I going to be able to do it this time? and there's a lot writing on this and on and on and on and you get to the point where you don't have any choice but you got to start putting stuff like that on paper. What's happening is the fear is actually giving you an edge. it is actually giving you this the power and then all that stuff that was going on it comes out and it's it's just remarkable and so I used to agonize over the fact oh you're doing it again you're procrastinating it's all these days you've been working on that speech you're not doing it you find something else to do and I finally realized you know what it's going to be this way I'm going to get close to the end not I'm going and I just got to live with it and accept it because that's how my brain's not going to let me do any other way. But it's going to work because and and by the way, you get to the point where if I don't have fear, I'm worried. I'm not quitting you, right? I'm worried because you know what? I'm going to be flat. I'm not going to have the edge. I'm, you know, if I'm not a little bit nervous before you go on stage or anything else, it's not good. And so you realize, you know what? It hurt. Fear hurts. Not comfortable, but you know what? It has energy and power in it. So, isn't that interesting? Fear is in your pathway to peak performance. Oh, yeah. Because look, peak per No one gets to peak performance without if it was easy, everybody could do it. If peak performance was easy, peak performance takes um it it takes time, it takes effort, sometimes it takes fear, sometimes takes risk, okay? It takes all those kind of things because the reward is so great. and and you put a lot of pressure on yourself because I might not hit peak performance. It Yeah, it is absolutely just like failure is also on that pathway when you think about it. Also, when you're an individual, it's a lot different than also working in a team or a group. And many people don't know the difference between a team and a group. Mhm. Um and so that fear of hey will my teammate execute their component, their portion of this that we need to be successful, right? It's pretty interesting. Um well, but also but the so the psychology of the team thing cuz that's you know the Navy Seals and stuff the ultimate team guys in the world. They don't call themselves Navy Seals. They they call themselves team guys. Oh yeah, that was a guy. Oh, that was a team guy. I used to be a team guy. That's how they talk to themselves. The team is everything. But when you have a true team, a true team is a very special thing. True team are people that you admire. You have to admire them. Just like you can't love anybody you don't admire. You have to admire them. You have to trust that they uh admire you, love you as much as you love them. and know that they will do anything in the world to make the team succeed but also to protect anybody on that team. And you know that's going to happen. You there is no question no questioning that. Um when you're in a group of people like that the synergy that can come from that is beyond anything that any individual could ever do the multiple. So but one of the so and then new things come into play. For example, sometimes the only reason that they can do the superhuman things that they do is not for themselves because they don't want to let the teammates know. They don't want their teammates to fail or get hurt and they are immensely proud that that that those guys would have them on that team that a true team that that's you know those are extreme teams cuz you know what you had to do to become a SEAL. But yeah, when you have that, that's why, you know, I talk about these corporate team building and stuff. They're not building anything close to a team. They're just building a bunch of people with a doing the same job in a, you know, in a in a group. But it's a real team is a special thing. Yep. You know, it's really true. It is. Right. So, tell me what's what's happening with you next. I mean, you know, the interesting thing here's the here's the secret that most people don't know about you is that you're the guy that a lot of people call. Um, it's sort of like you're the secret operative. You mean to mean they want a USV? Well, I mean, there's some things I know that maybe some other people know, but one thing I do know is there are some pretty important people that call you. Yeah. And they want information. I know. I'm telling you, I'm I'm I'm I'm honored, you know. Um the biggest thing gratifying for thing for me is that like you said that that people more and more people are starting to understand what what this stuff really is. What that this stuff really is the truth, the power that it has. And my mission is to keep these principles alive because I'm watch them. I mean, I've seen agencies think of these things, but people don't have any idea. They're going away. and people are getting ripped off and they're they they need this for their businesses. So it's it's wonderful the fact the fact is you have more people. So the platform to get to get these principles out the real USP principles out there which include the micro and get them out to the world the world of business and keep this stuff alive so that other people want to practice it. That's pretty gratifying. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, they're calling me. They'll call me if they But we're doing a lot of things. You know, we create I wrote the books, but there's also the brand titans program that we, you know, during COVID, we went out and shot the master course because I I wanted to have a magnum opus to preserve the things. So we shot this 15 course video, which is already it's great, but um but then it's also uh you know, there's also changes to it as we go along. So we're updating it. Has to evolve. It evolves. Yeah. talk a little bit about the you know there there are three there's some really in the unstoppables one of your books there are some really interesting I know that thing that I know I I say I because that thing is a it's a personally there's a big disappointment there for me because that it's really it's a really it's a great book that never got marketed and there's a reason why um but one of the things it's one of my last things on the bucket lit here is to get that thing um recognized for what it should be. It hit we got it on the new tide bestseller list very quickly. Um and then but then for reasons because of what I was doing, who I was doing it with, we had to just go off and uh how do I I had to help Rackspace survive. Anyways, but so but it is go ahead go ahead because so I mean there there are three key tenants. Can you take us through the three key tenants? Well, one of them I started talking about with those true teams. The tenant was we were trying to figure out can entrepreneurs be made or are they only born? So if we knew how it really worked, could we make more of them? And I think we came out with the idea I think maybe is another 10% maybe that you could if you um you could train people a certain way or make people aware of certain kinds of things. And the 10%'s a lot of people because we the we think as entrepreneurs we keep you make this country. They made this country. They still make this country. They do they um they're the backbone of so many things and we need them. Um uh and so that was with the unstoppables was figure out we uh and we started to look at what is entrepreneur what is it really what what is entrepreneurship and how does it work? One thing we figured out was it wasn't it wasn't the mechanics like the business mechanics that anybody can learn in business school. It was emotional mechanics. It was the ability to have an idea and then to do that thing and go out and try it. You know the thing about daring pays dividends and to take risky even when you want to not not uh reckless ones but you have to you have to risk some things. You have to go into the unknown in some ways. And that's scary. And that that is that is unnatural. You know, the amygdala, the fear part of your brain wants you to either run away or hide behind a rock. It does not want you to try thing new things, invent new things because inventing new things gets you into the unknown. I've lived it my whole career. Right? But you would but there would be no human adventure if the amydala, which is the most primitive part of the brain, which lizards have. If that thing, if we didn't evolve the frontal lobe, which is where the executive function is, the executive function can actually outsmart the fear center, which is where you say it's the fear is fast and it's dumb. The little it's walnut. The fear center is a walnut right in the middle, right on the brain stem there. Fear is fast and fear is dumb. And and the exec, you can outwit it, right? You could talk yourself out of it. You could tell it a story. you can you can beat it or you know can also embrace it as part of the process which you we have done you well sure that but that's another way to um just say uh I mean to say look I know you know fear is here it's okay it's not it's not just okay but what I want to do is so much more important than the fear the the fear is the fear I'm not going to the fear is not going to stop me and so you're going to deal with the fear the Navy Seals when they're on these missions they just tell me we we even talk to But this is but this is extreme fear. I mean you're going to go out on a mission where you're going to know right guys would said to me I would I would say look tell a fear literally look you stay here. I'm going to get out of the helicopter now and do my job. You stay here. I know you're going to be here when I get back. They would literally talk to the freaking fear because they could they could but they knew it was there and they just were but they also knew it was important because again give them that edge and that adrenaline that Right. Got to have it. Yeah. Um, so what do we figure out? Couple of big things. We figure out the law of accelerated proficiency, which I can teach anybody to do just about anything. There's three or four rules, fundamental rules to just about any important thing. This is huge. So let's get So, so if you were because it also came down to like um what entrepreneurs did and what they know and you know business people um you talked to a guy who's been a successful business his whole life and ask him he probably has three or four things he can tell you that he did you know but um so accelerated proficiency was um the thing about learning anything is you the all the most important things you learn are the things you teach yourself when you're doing it and practicing it not what that someone else teaches you. So the law of accelerated proficiency said if someone can teach me to do it really fast so that now I can solo do it myself that puts me in position now to become an ace. So accelerated I can teach you to fly in in three hours. They they figured out how to teach someone to fly in three hours in World War II. They need 50,000 pilots. Once a guy can they can get someone up in the air. They can take off and land. Now the guy can become an ace because now he can fly and practice and he can teach himself. You have to get at that point where you can start doing it. So that was it. I mean I can teach you to sail in three in with there three big rules. I know what the rules are. Teach you to fly. There's three rules and flying the same thing. I can teach you to fly in in 15 minutes. Now you might need a little practice landing but I'm not I'm going to take I'm going to teach you just air aim and air speed, right? Just um So many things like that they come down to these you know anyway so the law of three or four no less no more that's usually how many rules or how many critical things there are not five not 10 by and it was why we had these very simple rules and then in branding you know the same thing there's three or four like like fundamental fundamental the fundamentals are the most important thing all of us the peak performers in anything do the fundamentals better than anybody else. They don't do magical thing. They do the fundamentals. They're the best skaters. You know, if they're playing hockey, they're the best throwing foot. It's the fundamentals. They practice them forever. Yeah. It's like uh Steph Curry, how many shots, right? It's going to take them. But this is this though, you know, it's about we're trying to be trying to crack the code on branding. We're trying to get down what are the fundamental fundamentals. We're always trying to simplify it. So that's why it came down to it. A brand is a difference attached to your name. So Bill,

if you're going to give somebody a microscript for living a peak performance life or achieving peak performance, what is it? You have to want something. Okay? And you have to be honest enough with yourself that you want it. You want to go someplace or you want to make something, you want something. So that's the first part. My dad used to say, you have to have a yearning. I want something. And then you have to say if I'm I'm going to actually take a I'm going to act I'm going to I'm actually going to um act on that. Meaning I'm going to try I'm going to start doing it. I'm not going to try to do it. I'm gonna start doing it. I'm gonna start moving. Remember the law of motion. I'm gonna get in motion. Even if I don't know exactly where I'm going, even if where I'm going is a little bit blurry because the more you the closer you get to anything, the more the more in focus it gets. And the more in focus it gets, the more you're going to get there. When you can see that mountaintop in clear focus, you're going to get there. I guarantee you. And you can lead other people there because you can also show people see that mountaintop and how focused it is and they'll f they will follow that. So you have to dare a little bit. Daring pays dividends. It doesn't mean just take risks all the time. It just means go for it. You have to you have to uh you have to get in motion and start and and start moving toward what you want. And when you do that, things will open up. Something good is going to happen. But nothing ever happened. Nothing by sitting there and wishing you had done it or thinking about it, right? Nothing is going to ever happen. And then those pitfalls, those pitfalls, you can't get there without pitfalls. Accept them and take what you learn from those pitfalls. You can't learn without having falling down. You cannot. Don't beat yourself up when you fall down. Keep going and realize that that's falling down is part of it. It's mandatory. Failure mandatory as you get there because then you get better. You get better and better from failing. And fear mandatory. You're going to have it. Okay? And so you accept those things. And that's not to say, "Oh, I'm in a conscious day of fear." No, you're not. I'm just saying to get yourself going. Just remember, dear, and it's amazing how often that works. It just leads to everything. So, oh god, I learned there was a great quote recently. Someone said to about great sailors are not made on calm seas, right? They're the guys that have been through stormy seas, right? You're not going to get anywhere without some stormy seas. So what's what's happening for you next? What's the big project? I want people to be able to learn more. The microscript book is a great place to start. The great news is I'm spinning uh we have a third edition of this book coming out. Um but the one right called the microscript rules. You can get it on Amazon or anywhere. Um the other thing is that um we have uh my organization my website is called the brand titans brand titans.com branditans.com um and what we do is we have you know we have the USP programs that we do the master course that we do um so we have different programs for for different kind of people to to learn this thing and you know I engage with people in a whole different myriad bunch of ways. So I mean if a big if a if a company wants to hire me actually I still do I actually do do personal you know real consulting engagements but that's obviously not everybody and not everyone's willing to not everybody can afford that. Well well no look it's it's only it's only $200,000 a day. No come on. You'd be surprised. But but but the thing is that everybody everybody can read the book. Everybody can take the course. Um, and we've got a whole bunch of programs. So, come to brandtitens.com. There's also um you can get if you you get I you can get the book for free there. Okay. And and we're also we're finishing up. We have a webinar that you can watch. So, you can start learning about the USP and what we do. Uh, and yeah, I'm doing some speaking. I you know, I uh I have a lot of fun speaking about it because, you know, it's telling people the truth and it's fun. You know, I'll just say since I I have had the uh experience of seeing you speak, it's fun. You know, you I love the way that you engage people in the audience and you kind of get this rhythm. You do this thing. It's kind of it's a unique thing. It's unique and to you and uh it's fun. It's fun. Well, when you you know, I like to speak um and I but I didn't to get to do enough of it because I was actually doing it. I was just talking about I go into companies and you know that I would help them get their USP. So I was actually doing it but so I hadn't done it for a while and I thought I was a little bit rusty but I found out how much I like it. I think that when you really connect you're connecting with people in the audience you can feel it and um and it could be fun but I'll tell you something before I get up there. I'm scared. Stephen I if I wasn't scared I'm telling I'm serious. I live this I I would know I wouldn't have a good speech. No, that I think you've you've that's one thing that it's really clear is you've harnessed that fear. You've you you look at that as a positive response signal or positive signal, whatever it is, positive signal that's taking you in the right direction, which is really cool. It's that's cool. It means that I care and I'm and I, you know, I want to I want to do it well because I want I want to get across to people's is one of the thing, too. I I um I've always humor has always been a thing in my life and that's fun for me. So, uh when I get up and if I can, you know, you see me, I like it if I can get people, you know, get a grin maybe or if it makes somebody laugh, which is makes it fun for me when I'm doing this the speak, you know, it's a little bit of a comedy. I had the biggest We talked I was talking to you on the phone the other day. I have to tell the story. Oh, yeah. I had the big we laughed that there was such a belly laugh. I mean, I just came off of that. It made my day, you know, just to have that laugh was so great. I think when you also when you're dealing with a lot of pressure, you're dealing with a lot of things all the time. It's you got to take the time to laugh. You got to have humor. You do because you know something, there's so many things that people take serious that just aren't that serious. They're really there's so much that's just absurd. It just are just they're funny and you know people but people take unfortunately they take themselves a lot of times too seriously. They take certain things in the fact is humor is a huge it's just an anecdote tool out of that and it it sort of helps a lot of things. All right. Last thing I want to ask you. Sure. Okay. So, if we go back, you know, one of the things I've I've I've noticed um in doing this, we go back. If people watch this episode, I'm going to say five times. Yeah. Five times, you're going to hear five different stories within this. Literally, seriously, I'm I'm counting it out as I'm going. Mhm. Um, the one thing I want to say is that you've got a really unique way of articulating the path to peak performance for a company, for an individual within that company, for teams. Uh, it's super exciting. Uh, I want to thank you so much for coming. uh you know I mean it's like hey he came from the all the way from the other side of the country to be on the show and I just really really can't thank you enough and I've really enjoyed you know all of it. Well that's well me too and I and to be continued Jock. Yeah because this is this is great. This is great. We listen you are a USP maven. Okay. You are a brand maybe. You are USP guy and we need all the ones we can get. Yeah. You know so so thank you too. It's my pleasure. Great to have you.