So you came here today to pull another business lesson straight out of an everyday life experience?! You came to the right place then. The lesson is as simple as it is timeless and powerful: always put delivering value first. Do what you do exceptionally well, over deliver, time and time again, and you will have success. Don't compete with others. Just don't be content with what you delivered in the past and continue to re-invent, progress and push boundaries of value creation. When people are thrilled with what you do, they will tell others about it!
With this said the article is done right? Lesson is over...🤓
Unless you care to read about the everyday experience that reminded me of this valuable lesson. In case you are afraid of the dentist, a fair word of warning - this story will end up in a dental clinic. If you’re curious to dive deeper, I guess you’re just going to have to grit your teeth and go on reading 😬But first things first...
One day, my wife had a serious health problem. It started out with a little ache and irritation, which would just not disappear and gradually worked up to an unbearable pain. Ouch for her and sleepless nights for us.
Just go to the doctor and get the job done, right?! Except that it wasn’t so simple in this case. First it began with radiating pain from her neck. Then it moved to her eyes - she was getting vertigo. The severity of the symptoms kept shifting from ok to bad and then seriously problematic and then back to manageable - sometimes within very few hours. We were confused; my wife was understandably scared.
The most annoying part of this: The symptoms seemed to get worse right before bed time in the evening - when no normal doctor’s office is open. Also, because of the seemingly scattered symptoms - neck pain, tooth pain, eye pressure, vertigo, belly pain … - we did not know what we were dealing with yet and who to ask for help.
So off we went on a journey through different hospitals for several evenings with no real results to show for it. Orthopedics, cardiologists, internists, dental clinic... we received only half-baked assessments and prescription pain medications. Thanks for nothing! We continued our search. After extensive web research of the symptoms, we felt like we were starting to solve the mystery. Everything seemed to point in the direction of "craniomandibular dysfunction" or CMD for short.
Powered up by this fresh lead, we kept knocking on the doors of orthodontist specialists and dental clinics, just to see shoulders shrugged and the so-called "experts" in their fields telling us they could not help. After several more days (and sleepless nights) of this we were beginning to feel desperate. Right then and there it was when we finally found this CMD specialist's number online - there was even a number to call in case of emergency. We called her up immediately, as my wife was in severe pain again - even though it was a Saturday. The miracle worker answered on the spot and talked to us in her soothing voice, and gave us an appointment for the following Monday. On top of that, she shared a tip on how to work on the symptoms immediately and survive the rest of the weekend - and guess what...it worked! 🙏
She wasn’t just any dentist - this professional provided us with tons of care, a holistic approach and simply the best dental service I have ever witnessed. Two results:
1) Relief for my wife (thank goodness)
2) Free promotion! During the following days I shared, with anyone who cared to listen, about this incredible dentist! Not one day had elapsed since our visit and I had already shared with 4 people about her, happily singing her praises.
Word of mouth still is the best and most direct marketing tool out there. That’s simply because word of mouth recommendations bridge the trust gap quickly. People trust the opinions of the people they know well. It really is that simple.
I know you yourself have examples of when you’ve purchased from companies that provided exceptional products or services that you loved. You raved about them to your family and friends until they got tired of you. You’re so happy about this exceptional person or thing that has changed your life for the better. The business you purchased from couldn’t ask for a better boost. Why? Because word of mouth still is the best and most direct marketing tool out there. That’s simply because word of mouth recommendations bridge the trust gap quickly. People trust the opinions of the people they know well. It really is that simple. If you don't trust us on that piece of intel, feel free check out the work of Rachel Botsman and enjoy reading her book "Who can you trust" and while you are at it maybe continue reading our article about the importance of integrity in business, wherein we already recommended her work 😉
To sum it up: Make providing value your no. 1 priority. Provide the most value possible. Do it with a sense of purpose and the other aspects of your business will fall into place naturally.
P.s. Believe it or not, it turned out that my wife’s tooth problem was directly connected to eating an overly-acidic (vs. alkaline) diet! If you want to read more about this, you can start with this article, otherwise let me just shift right into the following reminder...
P.p.s. “Eat your veggies, folks”!! I mean it. Although I am not a trained doctor - ok, to be frank, even trained doctors rarely have a holistic view of this human system called the body - in my humble experience the number one thing you can do to optimize your energy flow is to eat alkaline. Taking care of your body is your No.1 priority as an entrepreneur - just because we don't jump and run physically across a playing field all day long, doesn’t mean we get to ignore our bodies' needs.
