Have you ever found yourself in the left-hand turn lane needing to turn right?  Have you ever found yourself needing to make a u-turn when signs clearly stated that safety officials have decided that you are not allowed to u-turn at that spot?  Have you ever found yourself at a stop light late at night or early in the morning with nobody in sight for miles and what feels like a 5-minute red light?

If you’re anything like me, you adapted.  While I have a flawless driving record because I almost always drive defensively and keep to my lane, I sometimes take my own path – the path of least resistance.  And while it has been, geez, years – maybe 5-10ish since I’ve even been pulled over, I am not exactly a saint when it comes to my speed.

If you’ve ever had one of those moments where you gave a quick 360° look, hit the gas and went against the flow, then you know what its like to be an entrepreneur.  As an entrepreneur, you sometimes have to make quick decisions that alter your course and go against the flow.

If you’ve never driven your vehicle in a fashion contrary to the posted signs – speed, turns, lights or otherwise – then, well as Gomer Pyle would say, ‘You lied! You lied!  Ur goin straight to hell!’

So, here we are making a quick 360° look with LifeMAPP and steering this baby in a direction that is contrary to the signs.  This would be the 2nd time in 3 months.

You see our original business plan was to build our online knowledge center and memberships when we hit Austin and decided that our seminars could launch us faster and provide the capital to build the online business better and faster.

And we recently learned a hard lesson – radio advertising, at least advertising on 1 station with an under analyzed, understated message does not work.  And it’s not cheap.  Sure it only costs $20-60 for a single 0:30 commercial, but you have to run that commercial 5 times a day for 2 weeks.  There goes $3000.  And after 1 week of ads and 2 weeks of ticket giveaways, you really expect to have more than 25 radio visitors to your website and $0.00 in sales.

When that happens, look both ways and flip that sucker around, eh?

So, we are going direct sales.  I called up S.C.O.R.E (Service Core of Retired Executives – they volunteer time to help entrepreneurs) yesterday and met with John who is 77 and rather quiet.  At first glance, you might wonder what kind of crazy me and a 77-year old, quiet retired executive from corporate America can come up with, but as an entrepreneur, you have to leave no stones unturned.

And sure enough, John sparked a new approach.  Something Jul and I had considered, but with a new twist.  First off, John loved what we are doing and at one point in my brief story, he looked like he was crying.  I don’t know, but I think he connected to our mission.  Then again, maybe he wanted me to shut up? ;)?? And he must have connected with me as he invited us out to his church and wanted his friends and family to hear our message.

So, here’s the twist – or u-turn in this case.  Rather than book an expensive hotel, then sell to 40, 60 or 100 individuals, we should sell to churches, fitness centers, schools, etc whereas we use their facilities and sell only to 1 or 2 decision makers.  Then, we let THEM sell the event to 20, 40 or 60 people. BRILLIANT!  Much easier for a 2-person team to accomplish.

Jul and I had already considered selling to businesses, churches, organizations, but our idea was in the framework of us still arranging and paying for a meeting place.  But John’s twist of using their building as the meeting place means we can focus on group sales and presentation rather than scheduling and individual sales.

Now, we still want to do the larger events, but with a failed radio attempt, it’s hard to reach the masses on a budget. We will have to re-think that strategy.

Ah, great job John and thank you S.C.O.R.E.  Having spent a lot of money for our first semianr and adding a new baby to the mix, we need the path of least resistance – at least for April.

Do you remember that Clint Eastwood movie Every Which Way But Loose with that goofy orangutan?  I still laugh thinking about those two sitting at the traffic light when the bikers pull up along the right side of their truck and heckle them.  Clint listens and spars a bit then directs his counterpart – ‘Right turn, Clyde’ – and the hairy ape delivers a cherry bomb to the bikers chin!  How could that movie have been simultaneously so bad and so funny??

Author | Dave Darby

Dave Darby is a husband, father of 5, son, entrepreneur, speaker and well, a renaissance man who frequently needs to dump his brain on thoughts about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.