Ep23 Stu Heinecke - How A Single Dandelion Can Redefine Your Business Strategy

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:25:25
Suzanne Taylor-King
lI am here today with the incredible, the incredible not only writer, author, speaker stew. And now I'm going to pronounce this correctly. Hennekky.

00:00:25:27 - 00:00:27:04
Stu Heinecke
No. Heinecke. Close.

00:00:27:07 - 00:00:30:04
Suzanne Taylor-King
Heinecke All right, all right.

00:00:30:06 - 00:00:33:13
Stu Heinecke
You know what you left out. I'm also a cartoonist.

00:00:33:16 - 00:00:36:00
Suzanne Taylor-King
That's right. I forget most people.

00:00:36:02 - 00:00:36:24
Stu Heinecke
You just.

00:00:36:27 - 00:00:40:15
Suzanne Taylor-King
Got us. Did you draw that drawing behind you?

00:00:40:17 - 00:00:41:17
Stu Heinecke
I did, yes.

00:00:41:20 - 00:00:42:09
Suzanne Taylor-King
Very nice.

00:00:42:09 - 00:00:44:00
Stu Heinecke
Yeah, yeah. Not a cartoon, but.

00:00:44:00 - 00:00:46:26
Suzanne Taylor-King
Throughout your boards that you draw.

00:00:46:28 - 00:00:53:15
Stu Heinecke
Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, that's how we get how we we can talk about all these crazy things. That's how we get meetings with people. Yeah.

00:00:53:18 - 00:01:18:12
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yes. All right, so let's dive in first to, the book that put you kind of on the map for me. Get the meeting. There's two things I read a lot. Obviously, you can see all the books in back of me. And one of the things that always stands out to me. I start with the table contents. And if it reads like an online course, I'm in, like.

00:01:18:15 - 00:01:42:00
Suzanne Taylor-King
And you have this way of teaching storytelling and action steps that you create in each chapter, which I absolutely love. How did this format of this book come to you with the case studies and the tips at the end of the chapter, how did that come about?

00:01:42:07 - 00:02:02:11
Stu Heinecke
Well, I, I really have to sort of, start the, the, the story a little bit earlier because that book was preceded by this one, how to get a meeting with anyone? And this one. So that was my first, my first book out of certainly my first book out on getting meetings and, and, did really well.

00:02:02:11 - 00:02:21:17
Stu Heinecke
It was named one of the top 64 sales books of all time. and I was writing about what is, you know, about getting, I don't know, but kept getting meetings. it's such a such a basic thing, a building block in our lives and certainly in our business lives. If you can't get meetings, I mean, we we collaborate naturally.

00:02:21:17 - 00:02:42:00
Stu Heinecke
And if you can't get meetings, nothing's going to happen. So it's a very basic building block of success in, in business and in life. so that book was about what are these amazing things people are doing to get meetings. And I've been using my cartoons. I mentioned about cartoons. So I've been using my cartoons my whole career.

00:02:42:02 - 00:03:07:16
Stu Heinecke
actually until recently that I'm starting to use weeds. But but I've been using cartoons my whole career because they're just incredible devices for melting the ice, getting people to pay attention, and and then immediately imparting, whatever, whatever message you want to whatever core message you want to put out there. It just goes straight in. And, and so, yeah.

00:03:07:16 - 00:03:23:23
Stu Heinecke
So that was the first book. Now the book came out and people reacted to I mean, I started hearing from readers all over the world saying, oh my God, I bought your book. And I made one of them said, I bought your book. And I made a why not use what you what you had in the book? And I made $300,000 right away.

00:03:24:00 - 00:03:44:18
Stu Heinecke
Yeah. We didn't we didn't charge enough for that copy of the book. You know, but, but I've been hearing all these stories of what? What contact marketing, which is what I call this form of marketing, had done for people. And they were saying, though, that, you know, the only pictures in that book, again, I'm going to hold it up and how to get a meeting with anyone.

00:03:44:23 - 00:04:06:04
Stu Heinecke
But I started every chapter with a cartoon. Those are the only pictures in the book. So everyone was saying, you know, I loved reading about all these campaigns, but but I wish I could have seen them. And so get the meeting. The one you held up, or just just a moment ago was my second, book. That was an answer to all the people who said, God, I wish I could see what these campaigns look like.

00:04:06:07 - 00:04:24:24
Stu Heinecke
And so that one is a that's a there are a lot of case studies in there. Yeah. Content marketing creates them or just produces the most crazy stories of things that people have done. Crazy, audacious, really clever things that people have done to get meetings. I mean, it's amazing. It's so off the scale. It's it's just crazy.

00:04:24:27 - 00:04:59:28
Suzanne Taylor-King
Well, obviously with, I had a 20 year career in dentistry before I became a coach. So you had a case study about getting in touch with a dentist. And I want to tell you, it was it it really it struck something with me because it was so true that the gatekeepers, in the medical and dental space, you know, front desk person, office manager person, you want to get past those people and get to the decision maker.

00:04:59:28 - 00:05:28:16
Suzanne Taylor-King
And it had some great tips about how to do that. And there was one other that was trying to get in touch with a CEO. And they they sent a bag full of letters. Like like a mail bag full of letters that had to be dumped out in the CEO's office. And one of the envelopes was like that color or something, I love that.

00:05:28:16 - 00:05:29:03
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah.

00:05:29:05 - 00:05:44:28
Stu Heinecke
I mean, there's so many crazy things that the dentistry is a little bit different. Actually, it was it was the card that the dentist was using. and they, they did this, the designer put this really interesting thing together that it was a, it was a card inside a sleeve. And the sleeve had a molar cut out.

00:05:45:05 - 00:06:06:09
Stu Heinecke
Nancy by the way, I saw your comment. Thank you. But so the sleeve had a, had it had a cut out of a molar. And when the card went in, you know, it just it had the dentist name and telephone. There was a little icon for the phone, and, and so the phone sort of came around like that was a but it was all done in black ink.

00:06:06:11 - 00:06:24:12
Stu Heinecke
And the interplay between the inner fit and but when the, when the card was inserted into the, into the sleeve, the corner of that phone icon appeared as a cavity in the, in the, in the molar. So when you pull the card out, the cavity goes away. And that's just what they're showing what the dentist does. Yeah.

00:06:24:15 - 00:06:30:27
Stu Heinecke
They'll give you perfect teeth instead of instead of a tooth with, with the cavity. That was a what a cool thing.

00:06:30:29 - 00:06:31:22
Suzanne Taylor-King
To really.

00:06:31:24 - 00:06:50:25
Stu Heinecke
Look for mixed in with, with a card. And there's so many uses, so many clever uses of visual metaphors for reaching out to people and, and just, I guess, capturing their attention. You really you mentioned we want to get past the gatekeepers. I would say that's not quite what we want to do. We want to, we want to recruit those.

00:06:50:25 - 00:07:07:11
Stu Heinecke
We want to I they're there. You know, if you're reaching out to a CEO's assistant, they're first of all, you've reached one of the one of the sharpest people in the in the, in the company, literally one of the sharpest people in the company. And they're, they're ready to talk to you, at least for a little while.

00:07:07:14 - 00:07:20:07
Stu Heinecke
But they'll talk to you now, I and I've called them VP's of access or also they're they're also talent scouts. Their job isn't just to keep people out. That's not all they do. They do a lot more to filter that.

00:07:20:09 - 00:07:23:20
Suzanne Taylor-King
That's really great perspective because you.

00:07:23:20 - 00:07:45:17
Stu Heinecke
Want you want to include them in the campaign. You want to dazzle them too. But or like pique their curiosity at least. So you want to work with them. Though I'm always relieved when I when I'm reaching out to someone and they have an assistant, I'm relieved. I'm. I can't wait to talk to them. I want to we'll work together sort of to to make something worthwhile happen for their executive.

00:07:45:19 - 00:07:47:29
Stu Heinecke
Facebook. Facebook. User number one.

00:07:48:01 - 00:07:50:23
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah. Facebook. User number one.

00:07:50:25 - 00:07:52:06
Stu Heinecke
That's true. Thank you.

00:07:52:08 - 00:08:21:08
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah, I love that. And I love the perspective of your you're actually enrolling that gatekeeper to being an advocate for you. And that's exactly you know that's a rapport building skill at next level I love it. I'm wondering what's been your favorite way for you personally to reach out to somebody that actually works?

00:08:21:10 - 00:08:23:01
Stu Heinecke
For that, I need to reach behind myself.

00:08:23:05 - 00:08:23:26
Suzanne Taylor-King
Okay.

00:08:23:29 - 00:08:24:12
Stu Heinecke
Reach back.

00:08:24:12 - 00:08:26:20
Suzanne Taylor-King
Here. Okay.

00:08:26:22 - 00:08:44:19
Stu Heinecke
There. Go. Go there a couple of these. I have a whole bunch of them behind me on, on my table, but this is one. So this is something I call a big board. I'm trying to get that straight. it's a big board. Here's one of my cartoons. on the reverse side, there's some you can see, Brant.

00:08:44:21 - 00:08:53:16
Stu Heinecke
It's one of mine. So it's branding and a message from sender to recipient explaining who they are, why they want to meet, and next steps. But that cartoon is the magic. So.

00:08:53:20 - 00:08:55:09
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah.

00:08:55:12 - 00:09:14:03
Stu Heinecke
now all of my cartoons, they're always personalized. They're always about the recipient. So, and you might have seen these on mailings before I mean, I started my career creating mailings with this same thing. And, and so I'm going of because it's personalized, I can't just read the caption, but you can see she's telling. They're talking over coffee.

00:09:14:03 - 00:09:31:09
Stu Heinecke
She's telling her friend, I'm going to the one that I sent to Mark Cuban. I'll fill in his information into the caption. So okay, so that one she's saying, Mark Cuban says you can tell a lot about a person just by looking at their math tickets. I tend to agree. And of course that Mark agrees, you know.

00:09:31:12 - 00:09:57:24
Stu Heinecke
So so that went that was that one up on his wall that's framed. It's up in his office. And so that's the kind of, you know, if you created that kind of cut, that kind of, let's say, impression or reaction in someone. and there's so many ways to do this. They're just so many ways. But if you create that kind of impression with someone, what they're usually saying, I, you know, I meet this person, who is this behind this?

00:09:57:27 - 00:10:18:19
Stu Heinecke
And then here's another one that I've another favorite. Here's a nice little visual, visual metaphor, okay. Seeing these coffee spills before. Right. Or just all kinds of spills, but there's a whole industry, fake food industry out there that makes you think so. But but this there's such a cool thing. I mean, if you and I. And this was done for, but for a client.

00:10:18:19 - 00:10:46:24
Stu Heinecke
So we turned that if we had the other cups custom printed. So that's his contact information. Okay. but it's a great visual metaphor for spillage risk loss loss mitigation. I mean, if you spill your coffee, you're not going to drink it. You know, soak it up and put it back in the cup. It's gone. And so, so it's a great visual metaphor for spillage, but also for saying, hey, whatever, whatever it is that they're the reason is that they're reaching out.

00:10:46:29 - 00:11:00:16
Stu Heinecke
Why don't we have a cup of coffee together? I mean, we could even drop a Starbucks. So this could be a Starbucks card in the cup, in the cups. So you could even you could use that as a you could use it as a drop off device if people were still in the office. Or you can send it to them.

00:11:00:16 - 00:11:21:00
Stu Heinecke
But either way it's it's a you just want to I you really want to just dazzle people a little bit and, but but at the same time, it's not to waste their time. You need to know that what you're doing is relevant to to what what their, what they're looking for. And it just has to be, it has to be a great use of their time.

00:11:21:00 - 00:11:27:05
Stu Heinecke
So I'm not saying just let's shoot flares at people, you know, and get their attention. It's more than that.

00:11:27:08 - 00:11:54:29
Suzanne Taylor-King
It's about moving much more than that, so much more than that. And even if we look at social media in general, reaching out to somebody, messaging somebody, it has to be personal, and it has to be relevant for the person that you're reaching out to. And I'll use how we connected at the top of my list. And somebody tagged you in a post of mine.

00:11:55:01 - 00:12:31:20
Suzanne Taylor-King
We had a couple, you know, comments back and forth and then took it to a direct message, and you gave me your assistance information, and her and I communicated it and got it scheduled for you to be here today. And but it wasn't an outreach that wasn't custom to you. It was really in gratitude for everything that you do, your books that have meant so much to me and I know will mean so much to our listeners today.

00:12:31:20 - 00:13:03:08
Suzanne Taylor-King
So if you don't, I'm going to put the links to all you stuff in in the comments. let's jump to your newest book. Yeah. So your business like a we weed a lot of the same formatting in the book. You know, pictures, case study stories. And at the end of each chapter and there's something that you call, the add a glance, you know, kind of summary of the chapter.

00:13:03:10 - 00:13:03:21
Stu Heinecke
Yeah.

00:13:03:22 - 00:13:11:06
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah, I love that, too. Thank you. so let's talk about the weeds model and how can you come up with this?

00:13:11:08 - 00:13:30:09
Stu Heinecke
You know, I, I just love you can see a this is a weed behind me. I think it's on the wall, but but, I'm I'm just. I must sound like a, like a, like a lunatic, but, But I am so impressed with weeds. I just love, I love them and, and this is how it came about there was that.

00:13:30:09 - 00:13:51:13
Stu Heinecke
So I was driving down the Santa Monica freeway in LA a long, long time ago. And, you know, it's six lanes of traffic coming one way, six lanes coming the other way. And at that time, traffic was moving. I don't think it does anymore, but but it was moving very fast. And so it's just thundering tires and roaring, you know, roaring tires and concrete and, and and then there's a 40ft wide, as I recall.

00:13:51:13 - 00:14:15:27
Stu Heinecke
It might be a little narrower than that, but a big concrete median down the middle. And, and so it's all concrete and no place for a plant to take root. But in the center median, growing from a crack was something we see billions of times. It was a dandelion growing out of the crack. And, and I, as I was by so many things, happened all at once, was like time stood still and and so I was thinking, wow, look at that.

00:14:16:02 - 00:14:34:18
Stu Heinecke
Look what it's pulling off. I mean, you know, how did it do that? Well, of course we know how it does. They have week or so. They have these specially designed seeds that they're not like acorns or pinecones. These seeds fly around and they probe every, every possible opportunity to take root, which is a great definition of an entrepreneur already.

00:14:34:18 - 00:14:55:13
Stu Heinecke
But but they probe every possible opportunity and, and and it's you know, it's significant because, you know, you don't see other plants doing that. You don't see dandelion. I'm sorry. You do see daddy lights. We don't see apple trees or let's say petunias or something like that. There are a lot of plants that don't pull that off. So what was it about weeds, I wondered, that that allowed them to do this?

00:14:55:13 - 00:15:11:29
Stu Heinecke
Is do they have a unified model that they all use to grow? And and if they do, is a is it a model we can adopt for our businesses? And it turns out they do have one. And it is. I know it's not just a model for businesses. I think it's the theory of everything about growing anything. It's they're just amazing.

00:15:11:29 - 00:15:30:05
Stu Heinecke
They're so they're so perfected in what they do. And if you think about the nature of weeds, weeds deal with what is there's a lot there's a lot to unpack here, but weeds deal with what is. It's so hard for us to do it because our emotions get in the way all the time. I know you know this because you're a coach and I know you went into this all the time.

00:15:30:08 - 00:15:52:06
Stu Heinecke
So they so they deal with what is. Thank you. Nancy. they deal with what is they, they they never do anything without an unfair advantage. Then we got to cling to these little statements here. These these are these are really significant things. But they never do anything without an unfair advantage. Those that we I mean, the seeds, the dandelion seeds are one of its unfair advantages.

00:15:52:13 - 00:16:11:21
Stu Heinecke
They never do anything alone. Or let's say they never do anything at 1 to 1 leverage. It's always a scale. And, and they always focus on what makes them win. I would call it their process, but it's really there. It's it's I guess it's their evolution, but their process is just baked into their DNA. And they run that that process like a computer runs a program.

00:16:11:21 - 00:16:29:06
Stu Heinecke
There's no there's no, I don't know, like that dandelion in the, in the freeway was I'm sure it wasn't. They're saying to itself, oh, this really sucks. I didn't see myself, you know, landing in the middle of a freeway. I kind of saw myself as living at the beach. I mean, there wasn't any of that. We do that to ourselves.

00:16:29:06 - 00:16:57:24
Stu Heinecke
But. But they don't do that. They just focus on what makes them win. And they run it aggressively and urgently. And then finally, I one of the I think one of the most amazing things about weeds is that, is that they, they thrive best in disrupted ground. And, you know, can we all say that? I mean, what our disrupted ground is, is recessions and pandemics and I next, you know, they're we're always going through through through disruptions.

00:16:57:24 - 00:17:12:26
Stu Heinecke
And they thrive best in, in disrupted ground. And they're not doing anything different. They're it's all just the same process, the same tools, the same mindset. All of which is led to think of a weed, having a mindset. You could see it. It's apparent they do.

00:17:12:28 - 00:17:39:18
Suzanne Taylor-King
You can, you can. And yeah, I think the the positive psychology references you're mentioning. So resilience and grit, they don't do anything alone. They stay focused on what the end goal is. So you know, ending up in the middle of the highway growing doesn't leave that dandelion or that other weed in like, oh crap, I didn't want to be here.

00:17:39:23 - 00:17:39:29
Stu Heinecke
Yeah.

00:17:39:29 - 00:18:14:08
Suzanne Taylor-King
This sucks. Wheeling, dealing with what is, is such a huge, huge part of being an entrepreneur or a business owner. And I think it's often mis construed that it's going to be if you follow the checklist, that it's going to be easier than you think when you get there. And one of the things I notice is that entrepreneurs are missing your perspective on this weeds model, because it's really all encompassing it.

00:18:14:11 - 00:18:30:11
Suzanne Taylor-King
It's a mindset thing. It's a focus thing. it's a strategy thing. I'm looking at your your seed strategy, your segmentation strategy, the buying strategy and the route strategy. Could you talk a little bit about those?

00:18:30:13 - 00:18:58:05
Stu Heinecke
Well, I mean, I'm thinking that actually there's another one soil strategy. And, and and I think you help your clients a lot with that, with that level of strategy, which is not the way down at the bottom. What it is is the it's the it's the substrate in which we grow our businesses and we can change that. I don't think the weeds, they're just they just as I said, they deal with what is they're very adaptive so that they'll grow in a lot of big range of, of soil conditions and so forth.

00:18:58:07 - 00:19:20:12
Stu Heinecke
They don't really have the ability to change those conditions. We do. That's that. That's the that's the culture within our businesses and outside of our businesses. We have the ability to do that. And, and, and so I know you're involved in community building. That's, that's that's it. That's the essence of it is is creating. Well, it's more than just creating favorable conditions to grow.

00:19:20:12 - 00:19:41:16
Stu Heinecke
But but certainly that's the effect. I mean, if you're if you're I don't know, let's if we talk about space for a moment, it must be amazing to be a worker. I mean, an employee of space because they're, they're they're going to make us a multi-planetary species. Wow. What a movement. They're they're they've captured. They're so so it's not just that.

00:19:41:19 - 00:19:59:27
Stu Heinecke
Well okay. Well, it's good for space. It's good for the bottom line. It is. But but it's also great for the workers got there participating in it in a moment in human history. They're going to be part of it. So so the soil conditions are really important. Root strategy is about weeds. A lot of times you lop them off.

00:20:00:00 - 00:20:14:18
Stu Heinecke
We're doing that right now in our yards. I'm sure if, if, if we're talking to people in the northern hemisphere of the of the globe, we're all doing it. We're we're lopping off the weeds every week because they're growing like crazy right now. But the thing is, if you don't get the roots out,

00:20:14:21 - 00:20:15:02
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah.

00:20:15:07 - 00:20:37:09
Stu Heinecke
They're not, you know, they're not gone because the root is a repository of all the life force in the plant and all the nutrients in the water, everything it needs. Because. So when you lop off, let's say a dandelion, it'll just grow right back there. There's no effect almost. And and so that root strategy is about what what are the what are the assets and what's the life force of the business.

00:20:37:11 - 00:20:57:03
Stu Heinecke
And, and how do you curated in such a way that you maximize its, its value and effectiveness? And so there are really interesting things that we can be doing there. I think one of my favorite levels, though, is the seed strategy. And, and that's, you know, the dandelions are popping those seeds out. Dandelions, by the way, that kind of weed light when we get them in our lawn.

00:20:57:05 - 00:21:12:25
Stu Heinecke
They're, they're they're they're there plenty to deal with and a sort of it's a losing battle. But there are weeds out there that are so extreme that you'll, you'll, you'll never get rid of them. You just they're just going to have their way with your yard. Just might as.

00:21:12:27 - 00:21:47:08
Suzanne Taylor-King
Well need strategy is definitely one of my favorites, and I want to read how you describe the seed strategy ideas, innovations, discoveries campaign and buzz to create awareness and intent in others to transact with you, which a dandelion does that so well, right? Look at how attractive they are to children to pick them and distribute the seeds for the plant.

00:21:47:11 - 00:22:11:02
Stu Heinecke
Well that's true, that's true. I mean, they're kind of they're fascinating because they are a an amazing design, we'll say. And look at look at the engineering behind it. Essentially they're, they're amazing. But but but really. Yeah. As you, as you mentioned, it's all, all manner of, of, of ideas and, and concepts and this I'm not describing it.

00:22:11:02 - 00:22:30:11
Stu Heinecke
Well, I'm a cartoonist. My cartoons, when they go out in the Wall Street Journal, that's a hell of a spread of of of seeds for me. Yeah. People get to know me that way. And and the point is, we're looking for, there. It's really it's anything that causes people to become aware of us. And from the intent to transact with us in some way.

00:22:30:13 - 00:22:31:12
Stu Heinecke
Hi, Denise.

00:22:31:15 - 00:22:36:23
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah. Denise. Denise mentioned. I haven't heard that one. Her yard.

00:22:36:26 - 00:22:40:07
Stu Heinecke
Oh, Denise, I feel for you. But they must be fascinating, right?

00:22:40:09 - 00:22:59:18
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah, it is fascinating. And and, you know, I, I love the idea that, you know, a dandelion attracts, kids who want to pick it and and blow on it and distribute the seeds, which is, you know, a community advocate or a fan. and.

00:22:59:18 - 00:23:00:22
Stu Heinecke
Yeah, yeah, that's true.

00:23:00:24 - 00:23:15:25
Suzanne Taylor-King
The root level. Right. The into the weeds of dandelions and adults don't want them. And it's so fascinating to me how kids are attracted to that. And it's almost like it was by design.

00:23:15:27 - 00:23:17:00
Stu Heinecke
And yeah.

00:23:17:07 - 00:23:51:23
Suzanne Taylor-King
I think that's that's easily translatable into business. I love having advocates for my brand. I recommend all of my clients develop advocates for their brand, and that's that's part of that strategy to spread the word, so to speak. and Nancy says, do I do I dare to mention that there are insects and bacteria with the same characteristics as weeds?

00:23:51:25 - 00:23:54:16
Suzanne Taylor-King
Oh, Nancy, you're you know that.

00:23:54:18 - 00:24:19:04
Stu Heinecke
Nancy, your darling, that, that that's the those are the follow up books. Yeah. No, I don't know if they are, but. Yeah. Look, the thing is, I guess what we're what we're talking about is a model that is isn't just actually endemic to weeds. Every we're using it all around. The thing is though that that weeds just they have there's a certain efficiency at which you could say about bacteria and viruses as well.

00:24:19:05 - 00:24:32:16
Stu Heinecke
But there's a certain insects, it's a certain efficiency that, that we just don't we don't get naturally. Yeah. And and the weeds give us this great framework. But but yeah, I guess I could, I could write sequels.

00:24:32:18 - 00:24:40:10
Suzanne Taylor-King
I'm ready for the sequel of, maybe spread your message like a bee.

00:24:40:13 - 00:25:01:03
Stu Heinecke
Well, look, here's the thing. Here's the thing about about seed strategy one. I just thought this would be a great point. If we look at the companies, let's say VCs, for one, that, that, that espouse growth in their, in their brand. I'm thinking about, oh, it's the Sequoia Group. It's one of them. Okay.

00:25:01:03 - 00:25:32:03
Stu Heinecke
Well, so if we compare sequoias to to dandelions, here's what I'm sequoias. They're impressive. They grow, they're huge. They live for a long time. So I get why they're saying that. But if you look at the distribution map of of sequoias versus the distribution map of dandelions, you will. And if ground is is market and market share, let's say that the distribution of those plants is market share.

00:25:32:09 - 00:25:54:24
Stu Heinecke
Which one is more effective? Which one is more successful? I mean, the, the, the, the sequoias only because they only grow in a couple of groves outside of Fresno. That's it. And dandelions are on six continents. They're they're covered. The all of these the only I don't think there are any weeds in Antarctica, but but that's huge.

00:25:54:29 - 00:25:57:07
Suzanne Taylor-King
Huge message.

00:25:57:09 - 00:26:22:03
Stu Heinecke
Look at how they spread. And if you look at them or, you know, Oaks or another one that, that, that, other, you know, banks and VCs and so on, the, you know that a solid oak. I'll drop those acorns at their feet, essentially, you know, their roots, but but that their feet, they don't go anywhere. And then they have to roll out, I guess squirrels take them a little further, but is that really the kind of strategy you want for the spread of your business, for the growth of your business?

00:26:22:03 - 00:26:41:26
Stu Heinecke
No. You want you want the, the, the seeds of your business that again, those things, those elements that cause people to say, oh my gosh, who who is this? Oh my God, I got to do this. I gotta I've got to buy one of those things or I've got to hire them or it's anything that causes people to become aware of us and form the, the intent to transact with us.

00:26:41:26 - 00:27:01:00
Stu Heinecke
I mean, my books or my books have seeds and or really it's they're kind of seed pods because he pods are multipliers of those seeds. If you look at the seed part of a of a dandelion, you know, those beautiful geodesic structures. And I mean, that's what the kids were drawn and you blow on them, they go, oh wow, isn't that amazing?

00:27:01:03 - 00:27:19:28
Stu Heinecke
the the seed pods are are multipliers of those seeds that they give them wings, they give them, a greater launch and greater effectiveness in the marketplace. But if you just if you just peered into those weeds a little bit, you're going to be saying, oh my God, this is this whole world of strategy here. And Jason, oh my God.

00:27:19:28 - 00:27:24:29
Stu Heinecke
Well, Jason, Jason working before Jason got a little ahead of us.

00:27:25:01 - 00:27:32:07
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah that's okay. He's all he's usually ahead of the game and he's actually the one who tagged you in my post.

00:27:32:07 - 00:27:33:24
Stu Heinecke
So yes thank you Jason.

00:27:34:00 - 00:27:41:15
Suzanne Taylor-King
Then he's responsible for this conversation happening. So how do weeds use collaboration?

00:27:41:18 - 00:28:12:03
Stu Heinecke
Well I mean that that is one of the central tenets of here's the thing, my book, it came out in June last year. So I've been applying weed strategy to both, both the growth of the book and the growth of my business. And and one of the things that that really stuck out to me was that weeds, the natural collaborators, if you if you spot a dandelion in your lawn, look up and what you'll see is not one, but you'll see dozens if you're lucky or hundreds if it's more, more.

00:28:12:05 - 00:28:31:00
Stu Heinecke
But there's probably more probably there's hundreds of them out there. And and that's where they get their power from, from collaboration. If it was just one weed, you'd pick it. You'd be done. Yeah, but that's not what makes them such a force out there. It's because they, they're they're natural collaborators. And so so I think if weeds could speak, they would be telling us a bunch of things.

00:28:31:03 - 00:28:46:18
Stu Heinecke
Anyway, one of the things they'd be telling us is you need to team up with the smartest people you know as fast as you can. And I'm saying that slowly. And I might want to say that again, because, yeah, we all need to know that you need to team up with the smartest people you know as fast as you can.

00:28:46:21 - 00:29:05:27
Stu Heinecke
And so that's what I've been doing. And I've been putting together these collaborations. Some of them are I mean, they're all coming up, but one form of them is, I'm teaming up with other authors and, it's kind of hard to describe. One of them is one of my collaborators is a, Broadway producer, but also CEO of a company.

00:29:06:00 - 00:29:24:07
Stu Heinecke
Another one is, a is a coach to scale ups, not startups, but scale ups and all kinds of really interesting people that I know, a lot of interesting people. And I've reached out to them to say, look, why don't we do a weekend strategy summit? We could do that. Let's, you know, let's say 10 to 12 people.

00:29:24:09 - 00:29:45:00
Stu Heinecke
And because this is such a small group, it's so portable. We could do this anywhere. And why don't we pick the most outrageous places to do this? So we're we're setting them up in Morocco and Iceland and Bora Bora and, Salzburg. I hope to get one set up on Antarctica. I don't know if you notice, there's actually a resort in Antarctica, so I want to do something.

00:29:45:00 - 00:30:09:15
Stu Heinecke
I want to do this. I want when people come to these, I want them to be saying, look at this. This is a this is astounding. Look where we are and what a great, great environment to to collaborate because that's what we'll be doing in the sessions, but collaborate together and come up with the most incredible ideas for creating unfair advantages in our business and driving, driving our which is driving our businesses forward.

00:30:09:18 - 00:30:31:19
Stu Heinecke
In other words, tuning our mindsets to do that. And, so but that's one of what's one of the collaborations and then there's another one really amazing one that just just sort of took flight, this week, actually, I, I, you know, I feel like I'm not letting you get a get a word in edgewise.

00:30:31:22 - 00:30:36:11
Suzanne Taylor-King
I mean, you get to talk all the time. So this is this. Okay. Well.

00:30:36:13 - 00:31:01:15
Stu Heinecke
Now so, so this other really amazing, collaboration, that has come up is, first of all, when I, when I was writing the book. And when you choose someone, when you ask someone to write the foreword to your book, you you want to choose someone that adds an incredibly new dimension to the book. And so I reached out to Nikola causing who's the executive director of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center.

00:31:01:17 - 00:31:23:13
Stu Heinecke
and, and I asked her if she would write the foreword to the book, and she said yes. And I that adds an incredible dimension to the book. And so, I was just very grateful to her for doing that. But then after the book came out, I said, Nikola, you know, the book's out. And in the book I promised to launch an award, a new award called the Total Lead Award.

00:31:23:15 - 00:31:47:23
Stu Heinecke
And, you know, just to celebrate, we'd like growth among entrepreneurs and and startups, maybe VCs or people involved in, in growing businesses. And, the thing is, I would really love, could we collaborate? Could the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center become the home of the award? And she said, yes, and I'm going, oh, I like a cool. Oh, no, that's incredible.

00:31:47:27 - 00:32:11:29
Stu Heinecke
Okay, great. So and so we, we talk a little bit further and we talked about bringing in a, a media partner, which we'll, we will be doing and, and then, cracking sponsorship and, and I think it's a nonprofit center, I think, oh, Nikola and the center a lot. And so I said to her, you know, we could attract sponsorship and 100% of it should go to the center.

00:32:12:03 - 00:32:36:00
Stu Heinecke
I don't need a part of it. So so let's make let's make this a fundraiser for the for the center. And she's saying she would say, oh, you would do that. Yeah. Of course it's a collaboration. Of course I would do this. So, we just launched the award. on Tuesday. I mean, we just had our first presentation, and the winners were, Richard Branson for most irrepressible entrepreneur and most.

00:32:36:00 - 00:32:40:05
Stu Heinecke
We'd like lunch was dandelion energy kind of poetic justice.

00:32:40:12 - 00:32:41:23
Suzanne Taylor-King
Yeah. That's cool.

00:32:41:25 - 00:33:08:27
Stu Heinecke
And then, most radical collaboration because we're still talking about collaboration here. our town, and Calendly. So Tope is the founder of Calendly, and he does this really cool thing at the end of any use of the of the platform, it asks you to join for free and use the platform. So I think that's a they collaborate with every single user and every single I what what do we call them?

00:33:08:27 - 00:33:34:12
Stu Heinecke
And if they don't they don't come in with accounts. You just you set up right an invite. And if they're not part of the platform that you're you, you are part of of pulling them in and you're part of that collaboration. It's a huge collaboration. And their their ranks have swelled incredibly because of that. So and then finally, most or most ingenious unfair advantage and do you any guesses like.

00:33:34:15 - 00:33:35:29
Suzanne Taylor-King
Oh gosh, would that.

00:33:35:29 - 00:33:44:00
Stu Heinecke
Be who has that unfair, that advantage that no one can match? Or we'd have a really IT competitors would have a hard time matching.

00:33:44:03 - 00:33:45:12
Suzanne Taylor-King
big company.

00:33:45:15 - 00:33:46:28
Stu Heinecke
Could be anyone.

00:33:47:01 - 00:33:49:24
Suzanne Taylor-King
Anything. I mean, immediately Amazon comes to mind.

00:33:49:27 - 00:33:54:00
Stu Heinecke
Yeah, they're a big one. I mean, just their size, their scale is is an unfair.

00:33:54:07 - 00:33:59:07
Suzanne Taylor-King
To compete with it when it comes to distribution and that kind of thing.

00:33:59:10 - 00:34:07:14
Stu Heinecke
I think they're one of the, one of the best examples of a total weed out there, actually. that's a good guess, but I don't want to, like you keep going.

00:34:07:16 - 00:34:08:02
Suzanne Taylor-King
Okay.

00:34:08:04 - 00:34:26:28
Stu Heinecke
But but the one that I. And I have to choose these the first time out because I'm the author and the founder of the award, and we didn't have voting or public, nominations happening. But from this point on, it's the public driving this. So the public will nominate, their favorite stories for, for these categories and others.

00:34:27:00 - 00:34:46:24
Stu Heinecke
And, and then the public will vote on these things. So that's, that's going to be I can't wait to do that. What an incredible, journey of discovery that's going to be. But, well, so the one that I chose for, for most, ingenious, unfair advantage is clear. So if you've ever gone flying, you know, and if you've ever stood in one of the.

00:34:46:24 - 00:35:11:27
Stu Heinecke
We've all been doing this. If you if you've ever stood in one of those security lines, it's, you know, some can delay you up to an hour and a half minutes, or if you just go into the general general admission line, that's a long, long wait. A lot of times, I mean, sometimes you get to the airport and you just you see this just this huge crowd jammed into that portion of the airport like, oh my God, I gotta get that's a line, but you gotta get to the end of that.

00:35:12:00 - 00:35:26:10
Stu Heinecke
So, and then, you know, you can go. TSA also has those pre-check lines and you've got to then put a little bit of, you got to pay a fee and you go and have an interview and they do a background check on you. And if the, if you pass and then you get that status as a, as TSA PreCheck.

00:35:26:10 - 00:35:29:02
Stu Heinecke
So you going into a sort of shorter line sort.

00:35:29:03 - 00:35:29:06
Suzanne Taylor-King
Of.

00:35:29:08 - 00:36:01:01
Stu Heinecke
Where has then you look over and it's like there's this, these lines for clear and and they're empty. Now the only people there are there maybe 1 or 2 gate, agents there. I don't know what to call them, but the gatekeepers there and there that you have to pay a fee. Of course, it's a it's a paid, subscription model, but, they're there to just sign you up right now and all your, all the cuz they take a, they take an image of your eyes, your or your iris irises and, and then your fingerprints.

00:36:01:06 - 00:36:21:29
Stu Heinecke
You sign up real quickly and, and then you're in and they escort you to the front of that whole line, that whole mass of people. So that the empty lines, I don't think, is who knew that there would. But you know what a not it is in the, in the airport. So who knew there would be any room for a private company to put in another line of like.

00:36:22:02 - 00:36:39:01
Suzanne Taylor-King
Who would even like think to try to do that? Like my mind immediately thought, gosh, I didn't even think that business model was an option, but how cool. Yeah, and and Denise, Denise travels all the time with.

00:36:39:01 - 00:36:40:18
Stu Heinecke
You know, I'm sure you're probably a member.

00:36:40:18 - 00:36:46:00
Suzanne Taylor-King
You know, said still, you just told everybody my secret.

00:36:46:03 - 00:37:02:23
Stu Heinecke
Well, they still have to pay a fee, so. Yeah. And you know that. Well, I've looked at I'm what an incredible. So we're talking about unfair advantages. What an incredible entrepreneur who knew you could even set up your own lines. Yeah. If another company said I want to do this, let's do this to the a lot of me too out there.

00:37:02:23 - 00:37:23:04
Stu Heinecke
So if someone said, let's let's set up ours, there's no room, you can't do it. There's no literally no room to do it. So, so I don't see them ever having competition. So that's pretty, pretty amazing. And just as a sales technique, here's this empty line. You're standing there, you're looking at your watch. You're going, I'm going to miss my flight.

00:37:23:11 - 00:37:43:01
Stu Heinecke
How did this how are they? Why are they doing this? How well do we know why they're doing it? Of course. But how are they letting it be this inefficient? This is incredible. What are they? You know, I got at least do a pre-check. I mean, get it, get my pre-check thing going. But but when you look at that empty line and you say, I could just walk up there and they're going to check me in and then, and then if.

00:37:43:01 - 00:37:45:18
Suzanne Taylor-King
I the only sales message that they need.

00:37:45:21 - 00:37:54:17
Stu Heinecke
That they don't, they don't have to convince you of anything of standing, having the pain that they, that they solve. Yeah. That's just incredible. It's just incredibly ingenious.

00:37:54:19 - 00:38:12:13
Suzanne Taylor-King
Well, I love that. I love that so much. well, this has been amazing. And thank you for being so giving to our listeners today. what do you have happening right now that we can support you?

00:38:12:16 - 00:38:28:08
Stu Heinecke
Well, you know, I tell you, I would love to have, if you like this message, particularly the message about weed strategy, and you want to apply it to your business and want to know more, I would love to have you, come to my author site. So you see my name on the screen. So you see the spelling.

00:38:28:08 - 00:38:46:15
Stu Heinecke
It's not an easy spelling, but but still honeycomb. And if you'd visit, there's an offer there for the first two chapters of of of that again, this book, How to Grow Your Business like a weed, for free. But if you sign up. Thing is, I'm working on a new report and I'm going to, So you won't even see it won't be mentioned.

00:38:46:15 - 00:39:08:16
Stu Heinecke
But, I'm working on this new report right now. How to create an unfair advantage in your business. And and those are there. We just talked about it. I mean, how do you how do you do what clear did in your business? And they're all kind of form all kinds of unfair advantages that you can create. but if you, if you go in and sign up for my list that I'd love to have you do that.

00:39:08:19 - 00:39:10:26
Stu Heinecke
and you're going to get a copy of that as well.

00:39:10:28 - 00:39:41:14
Suzanne Taylor-King
All right. I will make sure everyone who's been here live has the link to that. And we'll also put it in the comments below. We are live on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. So I'll I will make sure your link is everywhere. Thank you so, so much for joining me today on the Productive and Prosperous Entrepreneur. You've given me some really exciting things from your book to work on and, just really appreciate the connection with you.

00:39:41:16 - 00:39:45:25
Stu Heinecke
Then I just it was an honor and a blast. It was a lot of fun.

00:39:45:25 - 00:39:48:23
Suzanne Taylor-King
So welcome. Thank you for a great day.

00:39:49:00 - 00:39:49:12
Stu Heinecke
By now.