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Lesson #1: “I learned to make people love me to get my message across.”
Article Overview: As a boxer, Foreman was known as a mean and ruthless fighter. He fought with fury rather than grace; he stormed around the ring with rage while his opponents danced around him. He even showed up to fight Muhammad Ali with a fierce German Shepherd at his side. It was not so much a persona as his actual personality. He was unpopular both in the ring and out, and unless he was willing to make some changes, Foreman knew that nobody would want to listen to him talk, let along buy anything from him.
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Free Download - George Foreman Quotes By George Foreman |
Lesson #1: “I learned to make people love me to get my message across.”
As a boxer, Foreman was known as a mean and ruthless fighter. He fought with fury rather than grace; he stormed around the ring with rage while his opponents danced around him. He even showed up to fight Muhammad Ali with a fierce German Shepherd at his side. It was not so much a persona as his actual personality. He was unpopular both in the ring and out, and unless he was willing to make some changes, Foreman knew that nobody would want to listen to him talk, let along buy anything from him.
When Foreman signed the $137.4 million deal with Salton to begin promoting the George Foreman Grills, it also marked another beginning - that of a transformation of Foreman himself. He decided to leave behind his nasty nature to become the friendly father his children needed, and the trustworthy businessman his products demanded.
Today, almost 100 million George Foreman Grills have been sold around the world. And, marketing experts unanimously agree that success is thanks to the man on the box himself. Foreman began projecting an almost Santa Claus quality that found appeal with men and women alike. Men liked this man who was big, macho and liked to grill hearty meats, while women were drawn to his softer side - to the father of ten who liked to cook dinners for his family.
Foreman's experience as an evangelical preacher was one of the things that taught him this important lesson. "I cut off all my hair and my mustache. I didn't want to be identified with the old guy. Then I'd get on the street corner and start preaching, and no one paid any attention to me. I was 315 pounds, unrecognizable, and I enjoyed it, but no one stopped to listen to me," recalls Foreman. "Finally, I realized that I had to do something to make these people stop on their way to a bus, so I'd get out there and say, ‘Hey, this is George Foreman. I fought Muhammad All, Joe Frazer, and Kenny Norton.'"
Finally, says Foreman, "people stopped. And if they like me, they'd stay for an hour. So I learned to make people love me to get my message across."
Foreman learned a similar lesson when he left the boxing world the first time around. "I had been 10 years out of boxing, and in my second year out of boxing, I realized that all of the people who were calling themselves my sons really didn't look at me as if I were a real father to them. They really showed me their true colors, if you know what I mean?" says Foreman. "That was devastating for me. I'd call numbers and people who didn't want to talk to me would hang up or they'd put their secretary on and have me wait. That will wake you up."
When Foreman did return to the boxing world ten years later, he did so with a better understanding of how he would have to position himself if he were going to get anywhere.
"When I had a chance to box again, I saw boxing not as a sport the second time around, but as pure business," he says, "which meant making meetings and trying to make myself attractive to Madison Avenue."
Foreman came to understand better than most the real power behind marketing, and he used it to make himself as appealing as possible in the ring and out. He would never again give anybody a reason to turn him down.
Leadership Lessons Heard
You Can't Give What You Don't Have
What Does Your Gut Say?
Marketing With Love?
Change yourself first, before you try changing others
Related Forum Posts
Balance - Make time for things you love
- To kick things off in this new forum category I wanted to share with you some of the lessons I learned from Jim Cathcart. Jim's simple message is to make time for the things that you love.
No matter how busy we get in life, no matter how ambitious we are in chasing our business dreams, we still need to make time for the things that we love - be it family, friends, music, motorcycles, etc - whatever means something to you.
If you don't make time for those things then you're bringing less to the table. If you're just a business machine then eventually you will burn out and have an empty life.
Jim recommends finding time every day to doing the things that you love. It will give your life more meaning as well as make you happier.
In my life, for example, I committed to spending more time with my family and I now only go into the office from Monday to Thursday. I'm home on Fridays and spend time with my wife. I've also created a journal where I try to do something meaningful for someone in my life every day. It could be a heartfelt thank you card to someone who helped me, clipping and mailing a news story to a friend who would find it interesting, or surprising my wife with chocolates.
I find that by doing something every day and by being home on Fridays I've been able to increase the quality of my life and my business has also grown in the process.
What have you done to make time of the things that you love?
Dan Kennedy Marketing Methods
- We haven't sent out the physical letter yet as the person owning the list wanted to make modifications to the letter that we knew would work well but the List owner had a point - it didn't reflect her personality so her clients would know it didn't come from her.
Lesson learned for me. We're back to the drawing board with the list owner more involved in the development of the letter and emails.
I should have known better being a Business Analyst in my day job that you never leave the end-user out.
So Evan we haven't had the opportunity to test any of it yet but it's been a fun process for me to stand back and look at.
Delegating
- Several times I've learned the hard way that delegating too many responsibilities can cause problems. WHen you turn duties over to others, make sure they are qualified to handle them and that they can be trusted. I've also learned after many problems, that I need to keep an eye on people that I delegate various tasks to. This is especially true when people do important things - such as handling the business finances.
Chris
Re: 2 New famous entrepreneur features
- Hi Evan,
I have just posted the Disney video on my blog and pointed it to evancarmichael.com. I gave my blog post a tweet too!
I liked the message, especially as it gave three tips for people to take away. Do what you love is the key, but the second and third tip are crucial to turning what you love into a successful business.
7 words or less for Structogram
- Some "7 words or less" (more or less) for Structogram for your comments:
Training to get your message across(6)
Secrets to get your message across (6)
Training so people will listen to you (7)
Helping you get your message across (6)
Training to learn to get your message across (8)
Communications training for yourself and your team (7)
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