Tag: Book Reviews

Business Hero’s Journey 📚 (Tell Your Story)

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Brian touches on various books and examples to help get you mind going to discover you companies “Hero’s Journey.”

Books Mentioned today

The Hero’s Journey – by Joseph Campbell

Expert Secrets, by Russell Brunson

Building a Story Brand – by Donald Miller

Transcription

The business hero’s journey.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I want to talk a little bit about the hero’s journey and how it applies to business.

What is the hero’s journey, the hero’s journey is a concept that was really made popular by a guy named Joseph Campbell.

He wrote a handful of books, including one called, The Hero’s Journey. And you find out more about that you can also watch the old PBS interview that Bill Moyers did with him, which is an interview slash documentary, because, they show a whole bunch of the things that he’s talking about as he’s talking about them.

What Joseph Campbell talks about, is that in all mythology, regardless of what country it comes from, regardless of what culture or how long ago it was, every form of mythology eventually goes back to a very simple structure, and a number of different stereotypes that that end up coming out.

But its goal goes to a story structure, he calls the hero’s journey, which is all about a hero starting along a process, having guides to help him beginning in one spot and ending up in a better spot, and going through all this conflict in order to get there and meeting up with all these interesting characters along the way.

And that every myth out there, and I know I’m not doing it justice, just by explaining it, but if you understand the hero’s journey, that’s the simplest way to understand it is through the original Star Wars trilogy, with Luke Skywalker going through the hero’s journey.

That’s a great way to do it and it’s one that he used over and over again, and that what’s funny is that the Star Wars story was based on Joseph Campbell’s ideas, and how and applying it to a space opera.

And so how does that apply back to business, though?

Well, there’s been a lot of people a lot smarter than me that have already taken these ideas and apply them back to business. And if you understand that, when it comes to human psychology, and it comes to ideas that are kind of ingrained and built into our brain somewhere, that it doesn’t, it really doesn’t matter.

Whether it’s art or anything else, it comes back into business, because business is about psychology, it’s about explaining something to a human, and you got to go through the brain material to get there.

Then one of the best ways to do it is via story, especially if the hero is the person who you’re talking to the potential customer or the potential client.

One of the I’ve got two really good sources for this that I’m going to recommend. And I’ve recommended these before, this is expert secrets by Russell Brunson.

The entire book is basically about the hero’s journey, and something that he calls the Epiphany Bridge, which is the point at which the hero was going through and has an epiphany, and then decides to do something in a different way.

He talks about he actually got lots of little stick drawings here where he shows that hero going from one point and going through conflict and eventually ending up there in desire and that all business can be explained this way.

In some way you’re providing a product or service to somebody and you are having them go through a process to where they end up at their desire.

That’s the reason why they’re purchasing it is an in-desire benefit. So that’s it. Russell has a great way of doing it.

It gets very intense, a little complicated. It’s one of these things, this is almost like a textbook that I love to go back to I’ve mentioned before having references, books, a lot of Brunson stuff, or like reference books because he puts so much into it, that it’s not easily unpacked on the first reading.

And something to go back to a lot of how-tos in there. And a lot of depth behind the How To principles. It’s principle-based how to so its good stuff.

Another one I’ve mentioned before, Building a StoryBrand. This is Donald Miller’s book.

This is a great one because this whole thing he really pulls it back and simplifies it. Also something I’d consider a textbook but he finds a way to really make it easily digestible. This is a good book, I’ve got the whole flipping book is highlighted. I mean, it really is. I go back through this all the time for ideas.

But also, it’s a good audiobook, the way he reads it. It’s one of those that when the author’s reading it, you’re actually getting something off of it from the author.

And it’s a clean one. It’s a nice good solid read and he kind of proves the point via the book because he uses so many story examples.

The whole idea is using you’re using a story to build your brand, putting your customer in the place of the hero, and taking them through the process of the hero’s journey.

It could certainly be overcomplicated. But if you could find a way to simplify this within your marketing, to begin with, you can always add more over time.

But if you can show that transformation, no process of a person having a lack, and then looking elsewhere, not able to find it. But finally coming across your product or service and having that fulfill something for them and be able to draw the picture of where they’re at in the end. That’s ideal.

You can’t get much better than that. There’s a lot of great people out there talking about this nowadays. And it’s one of those subjects I never get tired of because it’s not something I at least for myself, it’s not something that I consider to be instantly intuitive.

It’s something when I hear it, I go, Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, but it’s not something I do naturally.

It’s something you got I think you got to build over time. I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong.

What do you think about the hero’s journey, and how have you been able to use it in your business?

Obviously, we all kind of see ourselves as a hero in a sense, especially if you’re an entrepreneur, if you own a business or businesses, you may see yourself in that view.

But what you gotta realize is everyone else tends to see themselves that way.

Also, whether they consider themselves a hero or not. They certainly see themselves on a journey and you can help them out in that.

It’s just about trying to unlock the way to describe that to them.

Hopefully, that’s helpful to you. If you’re looking for ways to be able to then take that story and get it out there to the public and stand out in your industry.

Go check out my book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business.

Amazon-Proof is all about being competition-proof, even from someone as big as amazon.com.

You can go and purchase a hardback copy or you can get a free one over at my website AmazonProofBook.com.

We’ll be back here tomorrow night.

In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.

What Is Your Primary Aim? 📘 (E-Myth Revisited)

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Brian talks about a section talking about primary aim in your business from Michael E. Gerber’s book, E-Myth Revisited.

Transcription

What is your primary aim?

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

We’d like to talk about business concepts. But what are business concepts, but people concepts?

So we talk a lot about, yeah, human life and psychology and everything else. And I tried to tie it back into business because I’m a business investor, always looking for new people to work with.

If you’re looking for an investor, if you’re looking for help in your business, please go look me up, I’d recommend checking out my book. First, it’ll kind of give you an idea of my philosophy where I’m coming from.

It’s called,9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business.

You can get yourself a free digital copy at AmazonProofBook.com.

I’d like to welcome you back for those of you who are returning, you can you may notice a little bit of difference, a little different look, today, I’ve got a brand new phone on which I’m recording these.

And so we’ve I think we’re coming out through and 4k at least we’re recording it in that.

If you’re listening, you may not notice a difference. But if you’re viewing it, you’re probably noticing that it’s a little brighter and probably a little clearer.

Why am I bringing up primary aim?

Primary aim was a concept. It’s a it’s a term that was mentioned in this book e myth revisited. I’d like to thank my friend, my new friend, Joel Daniels for the posts the other day he had a LinkedIn discussing chapter 12, which is all about the primary aim you see how yellow these pages are, there’s an old book.

I’ve got this old copy and I love what he says about this, because this is very similar to what we were talking about before, about having dreams and so forth. Having things that you’re looking forward to that is this book, The Dream manager, we talked about that a couple episodes ago.

And this is the same concept, it’s only talking about in a slightly different way.

And I love just the first few paragraphs, actually, the first few pages of this are great, but I’ll read you a couple of the paragraphs from this first.

From the first part of this chapter, he says I doubt that by now, you’d be surprised to find out that I don’t believe your business to be the first order of business on our agenda, you are, nor will you be surprised to hear that I don’t believe your business is your life.

Though it does and can play a significant important role in your life. Your primary aim is Excuse me, I jumped ahead. But before you can determine what the role will be, you must ask yourself these questions.

What do I value the most?

What kind of life do I want?

What do I want my life to look like to feel like?

Who do I wish to be?

Your primary aim is the answer to all these questions and then he goes on and talks about different questions you can ask yourself in different ways you can identify what your primary aim is, what’s the primary aim, it’s just the idea of where you’re headed, you know, most people, and he discusses this in this chapter, that most people don’t have a conscious idea of where they’re headed.

And even though they may have something down deep, they’re not conscious about it, they’re not thinking about it, they’re not putting it out in front of themselves. And so when we do that, we tend to gear ourselves toward toward pleasure and away from pain. We take the animal route, okay.

We tend to just go where whatever feels good, as opposed to doing what we think is the right direction and things that will make a difference in our life and in the world and everything else. And obviously a person can have the wrong primary aim, they can go in the wrong direction.

But how worse off are they then if they’re just kind of floating along without any concept of where they’re going? It’s not that there isn’t time in life for that, right? There’s periods of time where you don’t necessarily need to know where you’re going where you got to find that path.

But if you’re looking for it, that’s that’s an aim in and of itself, if you’re looking to see where you want to be going, rather than just existing, because I think there’s a whole lot of people out there just existing that. I don’t know, I think their life might be a little a little better for themselves.

I think they’d enjoy life a whole lot better if they went beyond existence. So I love that. I love that concept. It’s important in business, it’s important for you to have and if you’re a business owner, if you’re out there doing stuff, you probably already kind of have a concept of this.

And it’s a reason why you’ve gone in this direction. It’s the odd direction to go in anyways.

But a lot of your employees a lot of possible business partners, of vendors, other people that you work with in business may not have a concept of the same path.

How do you know and why would you want?

Why would you want to encourage them to do it?

Because if you’ve got people around you that are all trying to make themselves better, won’t that make things better for you?

Won’t you be able to relate with him better and everything else?

I think you would and if you really want to see life get better for people. I’ve recommended to him now it’s it’s kind of tough to bring up. But here’s how you talk about ask people questions.

What are you doing?

Where are you going with life?

What’s new?

Why are you doing that?

You know, where are you headed?

What what’s been happening?

What’s been your focus lately?

You dropped out of college now what what were you going next? Where do you see yourself in the next five to 10 years?

You know, those type of questions in just everyday normal conversation. I think you’ll be surprised what you hear back from people. Just a quick tip for tonight.

Thanks again, Joel, for that for the idea. It’s really one of those things that isn’t discussed enough. And that’s all I have for tonight.

You come back tomorrow. In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.

Business Is About Psychology 🧠🤔

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Thoughts on Psychology, and how to communicate with your ideal prospects.

Transcription

Business is about psychology.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

To come in a little closer here, we’ll talk a little bit about psychology because I think I’m going to use books as a great example of this because that’s where you can really get down deep when it comes to the psychology of business.

Because what is business other than you offering something in exchange for money in most cases, and trying to convince the other person that they need it?

What you’ve got more than they need the money that’s in their pocket, or the potential money that they had, can have in their pocket.

And so that’s psychology, that’s behavioral psychology for the most part. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re doing one on one sales, or whether you’re talking widespread marketing, or you’re talking long-term PR, it’s all the same thing.

It’s all about human psychology because our brains don’t work if they work predictably.

But not until you look back far enough, you step far enough away, then you can see the predictability of human beings that we are we’re extremely predictable, but we’re predictable and how unpredictable we are. We’re predictable in how non-logical we are and how emotional we are. That’s where our predictability comes in.

And people will talk about it enough in overall society and in business, you have to understand that at some point, or you have to have someone on your team that understands that. Otherwise, you’re always going to be shooting in the wrong place and offering stuff that people just don’t want.

For me, that all starts out in the one-on-one relationship.

So they say even about marketing, that what marketing is, is its salesmanship and print it, so to speak.

It’s salesmanship. Salesmanship in terms of a one on one relationship, except stretched out to the masses, okay, whether that be print or video or audio or what have you. So, I like going back to some of the classics. This is one of my favorites, I’m going to use books as an example because these books kind of hit on a lot of these major issues and these are all excellent books for this.

Okay, this one talks about selling it’s how I raised myself from failure to success in selling by Frank batcher. Okay, really good book.

I’ve talked about this one in the past you can see mine has a roof you see there, yellowed and drawn in and highlighted and everything I can go back at any time and flip to a random page and read something go, oh my gosh, I forgot how good this book is. Every time. Every time I come back to it, I’m gone.

Wow, so much wisdom in such a simple title and you think it’s just about sales. It’s not about sales is about humans.

This is about how to communicate with other human beings.

I don’t care whether you’re selling anything or not. This book should be required reading for everybody. Honestly, you should read it at least once. And look at how it affects your life. Because no matter what you’re doing, you need to be able to communicate with other people if you want a better life.

Now, if you’re in business, that is what you’re in, and I don’t care.

I know you think that you are in the window tinting business, or that you are in the dog food business, you’re in the people business, you’re in the communication business at all business comes back to that and someone on your team needs to understand humans.

This is a good start. Books like this have a kind of one-on-one. There are ones that deal with very broad subjects that are also psychologically related. This is one specifically it’s a psychological term, Triggers. This is Triggers is the classic by Joe Sugarman.

30 sales tools you can use to control the mind of your prospect to motivate, influence, and persuade.

Whenever you see stuff about controlling the mind. In most cases, if you’re talking about good marketers, and so forth, it’s a tongue-in-cheek concept.

And they’re playing to you they’re selling to you while they’re also talking about what they’re trying to do. So while they’re saying they’re wanting to control your mind, they’re enticing you to be interested in this because it controls the mind.

They’re not necessarily talking about controlling minds.

Now a lot of this stuff could be used for good or it can be used for evil but don’t get thrown off by a title. I know a lot of you would.

This is an excellent book and very simple.

He uses stories to talk about each of these very simple psychological triggers. And these are the reason why I put this right after the other one is because it these ideas can be used in direct sales.

And he talks about direct sales situations that he was in as a salesperson. But he’s also somebody that transitioned into the marketing era, and has done extremely well for himself, and is considered one of the sharpest people out there.

One of the reasons is this darn book, here is an excellent book. Another book I talk about all the time, and I know you’re probably sick of hearing about it, if you watch very often breakthrough advertising.

So this is a person that’s talking about sales in print. This is Eugene Schwartz. And he goes into depth on really not in terms of technique in terms of writing.

But that’s what he’s from. He’s a, you see an old typewriter on here. He’s an old writer or was a writer. And when he wrote this, he’s talking about the writing process, but he’s talking about it in the sense of how people think, and the lies we tell ourselves versus the lies that are true underneath those lies.

I mean, the truth that is true underneath those lies, scary book, very deep. Takes a lot of re-reading, I don’t know anyone that’s read this that would not want to read it again. But little by little, because it’s such a thick concept. The book is very, very heavy.

Another book, that’s a classic. And I don’t have my copy here, I’ve got another Robert Cialdini book.

But Robert Cialdini, his influence is a classic book, Dealing in Psychology.

Okay, a lot of the ideas have been spread out so often, that people miss the original purpose. And so it’s good to go back to that book because other people have taken these ideas and ran with them and created courses and everything just out of one chapter that he created, it was such a such an awesome book.

But influence is very good because it very much has to do with the manipulation that happens through marketing through everything else. And he gives names to these concepts. Not that you would want to use it for manipulation, but you at least need to know how people are manipulating you.

You need to know the structure of the mind that allows for these things to occur so that you communicate properly with people. And the final one is also an extremely scary book. This is the father of spin and this is Larry Tyes classic all about Edward Bernays.

And if you haven’t heard of Edward Bernays, well, you haven’t lived you’ve got to go check this book out and or look up anything on Edward Bernays brilliant, brilliant marketer, the father of PR, basically came up with the concept of public relations and made it popular made millions of dollars back in the day and changed lives way far into the future.

So many of the things we do today that don’t necessarily have a logical reason for doing them. We do them because Edward Bernays program does long go in the past very amazing book. I’ve also talked about him quite a bit too.

Anything you can find about Edward Bernays is interesting. And he is someone who tied it directly to psychology.

So his uncle, or cousin, or whatever was Sigmund Freud. And he used to use that as a kind of credit, to give himself credit, but he is actually somebody that understood the psychology of people and understood how to get around that to do what he needed to do.

Whether he was dealing in sales and marketing, or whether he was consulting with politicians. So those are just books to kind of wrap around.

And we’re talking about psychology here on a regular basis anyway, don’t discount the human mind. That’s where everything happens.

So between last night’s video on mathematics, businesses about mathematics and psychology, and you can’t get around those two things, they’re part of what we do because it’s all about communication. It’s all about counting the money. So hopefully that makes sense. We’ll be back tomorrow.

Go check out my book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business. Get a free copy at AmazonProofBook com. And like I said, we’ll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, get out there and just let the magic happen.