Remember the classic movie The Karate Kid? I remember it well because it was the first movie I got to see in the theater – June, 1984. I was ten years old.
Four years earlier my family and I arrived to the United States from communist Russia, and the last thing my dad was going to let me do was go watch a movie (a waste of good money) while he worked his ass off to put a roof over our heads and food on the table. Ah yes, the joys of being poor and broke.
Anyhow, by 1984 we apparently had enough money where my sister and brother could take me to the movies. Granted it was the dollar theater, but I was just as happy to be there as I would have been had I been sitting at the red carpet premier of the movie in Hollywood. I was so excited to see Karate Kid that I couldn’t stop telling my folks all about it. Funny thing is I had no idea what I was talking about since I had yet to see the movie. But all the kids in the apartment complex we lived in were talking about it and that had me chompin’ at the bits wanting to go see this movie.
In the movie Mr. Miyagi had Daniel doing all sorts of odd stuff for his training. In fact several times Daniel went off at Mr. Miyagi because he had him sanding the deck, painting the fence, and waxing the floors. Remember “wax on, wax off Daniel son”?
Daniel was frustrated because all he ever wanted to do was to learn Karate and kick some bully ass. But Mr. Miyagi had a process in teaching Daniel the fundamentals which ultimately led to Daniel kicking major bully butt, winning the karate tournament, and getting the girl that he had the hots for.
And that leads to me to the lesson I learned last week, which is the lesson that Daniel learned in the movie – Trust The Process.
A few weeks ago I was reluctantly brought on board to a reality show that’s in production at the moment. I can’t say much more about it now other than I’m consulting the show for the whole season, it’s on a major network, and the hosts of the show are famous on TV and in movies. That’s about all I can say about the this project for now.
Anyhow, the production company really wanted me to consult the show so they made me on offer I couldn’t refuse… and here I am.
Funny how one can go from reluctant to overjoyed when the right offer is made… lol.
So far, we’ve filmed the first of three episodes, and I’ll be out here in Miami for another week still as we film episode two, and then we’ll be off to Colorado to film episode three.
I digress…
There’s a whole bunch of hurry up and wait moments in production which really bothers me since I’m all about efficiency and productivity. But apparently that’s the nature of filming a TV show. As I was talking to one of the hosts of the show about this lack of efficiency issue, he told me a story from his first movie and the lesson he learned there.
He couldn’t figure out why they had him delivering the same line over and over again, and then pausing for a while only to go back and film the same lines over and over again. He asked the director why the movie production was moving so slowly and why it seemed so inefficient. The director of the movie, Simon West put his hand on the host’s shoulder and said: “trust the process”.
The movie was a smash hit and it’s now a blockbuster franchise.
Trust the process… sweet and simple.
This reminds me of a one day mastermind meeting that Craig Ballantyne and I held a few months ago for fitness pros who wanted to create an info product and sell it online.
See, a lot of people who come into these mastermind meetings think we’re going to give them one thing, but we end of giving them a whole different set up marching orders. And those who follow the orders do pretty darn well, but from time to time there’s someone in the group who just doesn’t trust the process, the argue every point, question every idea, and ultimately do things their own way and never really get their product online, or if they do, they just can’t seem to sell it.
Frankly, I don’t even know why people like that spend good money to come to a mastermind meeting where they’re not going to trust or follow the process.
It’s the same for trainers who own boot camps or training centers.
Those who get the right advice and trust the process quickly hit their stride and see their business grow. Those who resist the process seem to struggle and just putter along at a mediocre level.
One example of trusting the process is Yorba Linda boot camp owner Bryce Henson (you can read his case study here). Bryce got on board with FBBC nine months ago. In that time he’s built his business up to 180 clients, and $16,000 a month. Even better is that he’s on pace to hit $20,00/month in the next two months.
Bryce had never owned a training business before and had no experience as a small business owner. But what he had was tremendous work ethic and the common sense to follow and trust the process.
And that’s the big take-a-way that I want to leave you with.
EVERYTHING has a process to it. And if you trust the process you’ll achieve your goals faster and with less frustration.
– Choose a niche and go narrow and deep.
– Become better than anyone else in delivering the value, service, and results.
– Make referral generation the core pillar of your marketing funnel.
– Use case studies, testimonials, before and after pics to the max to PROVE you’re the best in class.
– Build your email list, build a strong relationship with your list by adding value, and periodically make them low barrier offers.
– Forget what your competitors are charging. Be the best, and prove it to your community, and you can charge what you want.
– Get involved with your community and get them involved in your programs.
– Know your numbers (profit margins, overhead cost, lifetime value of a client, and cost of acquiring a new client).
– Sell long term 12 month programs that deliver results and make your income predictable.
– Ruthlessly manage your time.
– Be the better entrepreneur, marketer, AND trainer.
And above all, trust the process.