Do you know where the drive thru restaurant came from? It was a revolution in fast food, a business model that defines the industry today, an innovation responsible for hundreds of millions (billions?) of dollars in sales. Today, without a drive thru, no fast food restaurant can survive. But where did the idea come from. Well, one day some fast food executive was using the drive thru at his bank, and the idea hit him...the drinks would make a mess, but we could send the burgers and fries through the shoot! Why do I bring that up? Well I was at a local business group last night, the Tampa Bay Business Owners. (TBBO.org. By the way, if you are in or around Tampa and you're not involved in the TBBO, what are you doing with yourself? Whether you have a multi-million dollar business like mine of a small business you're trying to grow, TBBO can help. Chris and Katie, the owners, are wonderful. Get to the website and get to the functions. Tell 'em Everte sent cha for a special gift from me. Back to last night...) I had an occasion to talk with a great guy who has just opened his business. When I suggested the mastermind group TBBO offers, he wanted to make sure the businesses in the group were like his so it would be helpful. Unfortunately, too many business owner have this same idea, that they can only learn to build their business from people who are in their same or very similar business. However, the fast food exec would've never come up with the drive thru had (s)he kept clinging to that delusion. Here's what happens, a business owner has a problem and starts doing something to take care of it. Then other business owners in the same industry see what business owner A is doing and they copy it, normally badly. Then people see the copycats, and they copy them, normally badly, and the cycle keeps on. And you end up with an industry in which businesses are doing a bad job copying businesses, who did a bad job copying businesses, who did a bad job copying businesses, who did a bad job copying a business, whose owner did something smart to handle a problem 50 years ago that likely doesn't exist anymore. And they all do it because, "that's the way business is done in this industry!" Can you imagine a dumber reason to do something in your business?! It's called marketing incest, and it works just like the real thing..that is each successive generation gets dumber and dumber! In the guys defense from last night, he was new to business. If you're past the newby stage as a business owner, and you're still clinging to the idea you can only learn via marketing incest...STOP!! You have to expose yourself to other ideas and other industries to get the raw mental material to make real breakthroughs. That's one of the advantages of these blog posts, I am exposed to all kinds of industries, businesses and entrepreneurs, many, many of whom are doing a lot of very smart things. That exposure seeps through to these emails, so by a close and regular reading you can really find some gems...promise! Talk with you tomorrow. Everte Farnell PS. Some folks have asked me about taking on client work. Yes I am, yes I am picky, and yes I'd be happy to look at your situation. Just a few things, first I don't work for Banks or insurance companies. It's a shame because I know some very good people in the insurance business, but the companies, by and large, are very open about lobbying the government and other businesses to try and get people forced to buy their products (car insurance, home owners if you have a mortgage, and now health insurance). I can't, in good conscious, help an industry whose practices are so diametrically opposed to my libertarian beliefs (EnoughLies.com) So if you're not in an industry that has loads of government regulation, and your not in the banking or insurance industry, and you'd like me to take a look at your project, please fax 1 page with some specifics about your business and your project to 941-761-5167 and I'll have my office call you back within 7 days to let you know if I'd like to set a phone appointment and set up a mutually good time for the appointment, if appropriate. Thanks and I look forward to talking with you tomorrow, same bat-channel!