Word of Mouth Exclusively is A Recipe for Mediocrity Indefinitely

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Over the last 51 years I’ve slept some 18,615 times.

My experience has been pretty diverse too, as I’ve slept in the Soviet Union, China, Mexico, Italy, England, and Vietnam. I slept on trains, airplanes and boats. As well as on the floor, at the office, and in the woods. It could be said that with approximately 148,920 hours of sleep, under my blanket, I’m somewhat of an expert on the topic.

And in all of that time, and in all of the places where I’ve laid my head down, never have I given much thought to the pillow under it. Sure, some we’re better than others, but not in one instance did I get up in the morning and feel compelled to call a friend and tell them about my extraordinary pillow experience.

So, if the pillow manufacturer was exclusively counting on my referrals, it would prove to be a disappointing business model.

On the other hand, Michael J. Linden, founder of My Pillow, built a 300-million-dollar business, selling what is perhaps one of the least thought about products in the world. Primarily by forcing this sleep-utensil to the forefront of our minds. And, for all intents and purposes, he was probably the most unlikely person to have built that.

One of the rules in polite society is that you don’t bring up politics or religion at the dinner table, lest you offend someone with opposing beliefs. In business as well, it’s recommended that you keep your personal views to yourself and try to present your message in a neutral manner.

Michael however, instead of sporting a customary jacket and tie in his ubiquitous infomercials, wears a large silver cross prominently displayed over his dress shirt. In addition, he is an enthusiastic Trump supporter, telling anyone who will listen why this President is the best choice ever. And if that wasn’t polarizing enough, he began building this business, while addicted to crack cocaine.

Word of mouth exclusively is a recipe for mediocrity indefinitely:

●     Primarily because you’re operating at the fiercest level of competition. Where everyone else in your industry is fighting over the same small percentage of the population who are already believers. These people understand your unique approach, and they understand how effective and helpful it is. They also know what to google when searching. So now they just need a provider in proximity, who they think can help them, and can do it at a price they are willing to pay.

●     Word of mouth is also sporadic and unpredictable. Usually resulting in a feast or famine roller coaster. Relying on this tactic alone, most entrepreneurs will keep their head just above water, never gaining the momentum necessary to achieve the results they envisioned when starting their business.

●     The only word of mouth that spreads virally is the negative kind. Much like a weed it requires very little help. The positive word of mouth that we’re looking for, must be cultivated, woo’ d and courted like a shy maiden.

●     Most entrepreneurs, who use word of mouth exclusively, will tend to be less selective in who they accept as a customer. Willing to take on anyone who knocks on their door because of practical pressures. Which in turn frustrates the therapeutic outcome, and dilutes their statistics, confidence, and reputation.

●     Also, since like attracts like, on the off chance that a difficult and frugal client makes a referral, it will be of someone even more frugal and difficult.

●     You are giving up all your personal power, and control, and placing it on the lips of people who are very busy living their own lives.

●     Additionally, word of mouth alone won’t generate enough force to tear the gravitational pull, and propel a business to prominence, and the founder towards prosperity and freedom. It will just kind of coast down the runway indefinitely. And eventually, this brave entrepreneur, will come to the inaccurate conclusion that she was simply not meant to fly. 

●     After a few years, this can become demoralizing, exhausting, and result in a downward spiral and inevitable burnout.

Please don’t misunderstand, I think that word of mouth is an important part of growing any business. And will naturally bubble up, from our willingness to serve our clients to the best of our ability, and from the bottom of our heart. But what is preventing us from serving the larger population and providing value to them in a similar fashion.

Won’t that as well generate world of mouth?

There is also the placebo factor that comes into play when an expert achieves celebrity status, by educating the public, on a large scale. So, by the time a patient shows up in the waiting room they know who you are, what you do, how you work, and are primed and ready to get better.

Looking at his reviews, I know Michael gets a tun of referrals, sent to him by happy customers who have already purchased his product and swear by it. But those amazing clients, came from his ongoing effort, of putting his well-thought-out message consistently in front of millions and millions of people.

He turns a lot of dirt, sort of speak, to find a few gems.

In fact, he spends 100 million dollars per year (30% of his gross revenue) on bringing his evangelical message to the masses. And you’d think, to enjoy that level of success, his product would have to be the best quality or the best priced. It did not even make it into the top five best pillows in the Bestreviews report and is about 40% more expensive than many of those options.

The mistake most entrepreneurs make is thinking that the quality of their product, service, or infrastructure alone, is enough to bring the masses to their door.

Marketing, why none of it works, and how all of it does.

Most people who say they’ve tried marketing, and were disappointed with the results, left something out of the recipe, used a wrong ingredient, or did not stick with it for the full term. A onetime ad in a local newspaper is not enough. A sporadic mailing or lecture, a social media post or being a guest on a local news program even, won’t do it.

But when you combine all these approaches, and consistently bring your unique message to the public in a passionate, almost evangelical manner, you will begin to get attention, and create converts. People who go from being the grumpy and skeptical ‘Walter” (Jeff Dunham’s ventriloquist dummy) to an enthusiastic Amway recruit, as spreading your message becomes their personal mission.

Alex Lubarsky is the founder of the Health Media Group, Inc. a company that produces the Science of Human Optimization Conference and the Physician, Inc. Mastermind, he is the author of The Art of Selling The Art of Healing: How the Rebels of Today are Creating the Healthcare of Tomorrow and Why Your Life Depends on it. In his weekly RADIO program, he interviews some of the more innovative physicians, authors and celebrities from around the nation.

Why Medicare for All is an Idea worth Considering

Born in the former USSR, and having seen socialism first hand, I’m not a big fan of this political legerdemain. Although, I think that the program aggressively pushed by Senator Sanders and his minions, may be worth our consideration.

What could be the problem with providing government-sponsored health insurance for all 320 million citizens of the United States? Especially when virtually all democrats and a significant number of republicans seem to favor it? With the health status of the average person in our nation declining from one year to the next, isn’t this the natural next step for us to take? Isn’t it humane and righteous to provide care for all those who need it?

Or is it this system that is the very reason for the precipitous decline?

I of course understand, and am certainly not immune to the suffering of others. And at least in theory, I would love to see everyone provided with all of their worldly needs. As all suffering is extinguished and the sick healed. It is the real-world practicality of the situation however, and my experience in actually living in a society that was built up on the very pillars of this misleading ideology, that wanes my enthusiasm for it.

And please believe me when I tell you, I have no interest in changing your mind on the topic, either one way or another. For, I’ve lived on this planet long enough to realize that it’s not that ‘if we do not know our history that we’re doomed to repeat it’. We will repeat those tragic events of the past regardless. Being familiar with them however, may give us a glimpse of where the wind will be blowing the inevitable inferno, allowing us a few extra moments to make our own plans accordingly.

Before the passing of Medicare into law on July 30 1965, Ronald Regan warned us of its dangers, and predicted that our placing a toe into this particular pond, one receiving the lava spillage from an erupted volcano spewed from the depths of hell, will be the beginning of our demise. At the time of course he was thought heartless and callous, but today his prophetic vision is much more palpable, as we find ourselves up to our neck in simmering water, convinced that once we submerge the head, all of our problems will be solved.

Please bear with me as I do some math so as to clarify my point. In 1960 our healthcare expense as a nation was 27.2 billion dollars per year. That’s when you can go to the hospital and give birth for under $100.00. Then with the passing of Medicare in 1965, we opened a Pandora's box that made the management of disease, and not its resolution, the most profitable business in our nation.

By 1995, the healthcare expense hit a trillion dollars per year, as most of the payments for health services were relegated to third-parties, such as the government, and the insurance companies. Which, with some 2000 governmental mandates, became an arm of this entitlement bureaucracy.

It would be at this point, or more likely much earlier, that any sane entrepreneur would recognize this trajectory unsustainable, and abandon the project post haste. The government however has a different view on the topic, and eternally seeks to answer the illusive question of: how can we find the funding to sustain and even grow this burgeoning program. So, by 2005, healthcare spending hit 2 trillion dollars. What it took 40 years to do the first time, it now easily accomplished in just 10 fast years. And today, at 3.67 trillion dollars in annual healthcare spending, we’re about to double again.

Practicality be dammed you say!

England has made it work, Canada, Switzerland, and Australia all have some version of socialized medicine. All ‘civilized’ nations in fact are providing ‘free’ care to their citizens except the United States. And although I won’t pretend that I understand the financial and social nuances of those nations, I am very clear on the fallacy of this system. And no matter how loud the masses become, as they chant ‘healthcare is a right’ you cannot convince someone who has seen the devil with their own eyes, that she does not exist.

It is so easy however to sell people on fleecing their neighbors when it benefits them personally. Although we would not gather as a mob and walk down to the biggest home in our neighborhood, to take some of their furniture, and give it to someone who has been eating off milk crates. Even though, in some minds, that would be the ‘fair’ thing to do.

But somehow, we don’t have a problem in doing exactly this, with their bank account.

If we look throughout history, especially if we agree with the premise that ‘healthcare is a right’ it would be interesting to know its biggest promoters. You’d think it would be the more righteous men like Winston Churchill, or Abraham Lincoln perhaps, who were our most revered historic leaders.

But I was surprised to learn, that socialized medicine, the brainchild of Otto von Bismarck, chancellor of Germany, was embraced by non-other than Adolf Hitler. As he began to subdue the masses by offering them something of value for free. Eventually of course, the simple math of the situation, suggested that he begin to exterminate those who we’re the biggest burden upon the system.

Stalin as well promoted socialized medicine. But maybe you would expect that in a communist society. And yet we can be pretty sure that he was not so much concerned with the health and well-being of his constituents, since he put millions of them to the death with very little cause or thought.

Our ‘problem’ here in the United States, is that unlike the above dictators, exterminating those who place the biggest burden on our system of healthcare, is not in vogue. But don’t for a minute believe that it’s not possible, even likely, when the system suggested becomes fertile for the unthinkable.

No, my friend, the only hope our system of care has, in fact our future as a nation, is when we rebuild the relationship between the physician and the public. Get rid of all third-party intervention and refocus our attention from the indefinite management of chronic disease to the art and science of human optimization.

Because socialized medicine is hell.