How Taking Action On Your Intuition Actually Pays Off
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A page in Dean's 1997 journal, one phone call to the local cable company, and the $500 TV show that meant he never lost a listing on the nights it aired.
Good morning.
I was looking at today's journal page. Number five, and we're still in 1997.
And there it is at the top of the page. Today's Homeowner.
Which got me thinking about how many of the things I've done started out as nothing more than an intuition.
A curiosity. A little pull toward something.
The only difference between the ones that turned into something and the ones that didn't... is that I pursued them.
Here's one from just before Today's Homeowner.
I read somewhere that public access cable was mandated to provide airtime to the community.
That's it. That's the whole seed.
At the time I was running ads and filling a room at the library in Halton Hills, doing a home buyer workshop for first time buyers.
And I thought, what if I could do that on television?
So I called.
Sometimes the best thing you can do with an intuition is throw your hat over the fence. Make the call. Talk to somebody.
I called Halton Cable and told them what I wanted to do. A 30 minute special on buying your first home.
He said that sounds like a really good idea.
They had a studio. Cameramen. A whole professional broadcast centre sitting there waiting.
So I built it. Thirty minutes, adapted straight from the live workshop. I called it Six Steps to Home Ownership.
And I modelled it on the infomercials that were everywhere in the late 80s and early 90s.
At the ten minute mark I'd stop and say, don't worry about taking notes. I've got the whole thing in a workbook for you right here.
Call this number for a free recorded message and I'll send you the Six Steps to Home Ownership booklet.
The only money I spent was $500 on the editing.
A friend of mine wrote the theme song. Shout out Tim Alberts.
And it ran twice a month for a year. First and third Thursday.
As a lead in to Must See TV. Seinfeld. Cheers. That era.
Every single time it aired, people called for the book.
Now here's the part I really want you to have.
I made sure to book a listing appointment on the Thursdays my show was on.
The show came on at 7:30.
So I'd be sitting in somebody's house. They'd walk me around, we'd sit down, we'd start talking about marketing their home.
And I'd say, can we go into the TV room for a minute?
While I'm in here talking to you about selling your house, I'm also out there looking for the buyer for it. I've already been looking.
And we'd turn on the television. And there I am.
Standing in their living room, and up on their screen at the same time.
You should have seen their faces.
Then I'd call the line and let them listen to the recordings. Real people, asking for the booklet.
Over a hundred of them by that point. That's the pool we're working with.
And I'd show them the Guide to Halton Hills, and how I'd already been looking for their buyer for 180 days.
I never lost a listing on a first or third Thursday. Not one.
The second year, I made a deal with a pizza company. Anybody in the apartment complexes who ordered a pizza got a video of Six Steps to Home Ownership delivered along with it.
Same asset. Working again.
And that's the whole pattern.
An intuition, followed through, turned into something you can use over and over.
It's a funny thing to look back on at a time when there was no YouTube. No way for a normal person to get a video in front of anybody.
Tomorrow I'll tell you about Today's Homeowner itself, which came from a magazine I happened to see on a flight from Toronto to Ottawa.
I got a funny email from Rick the other day. Dean, question. Are you saying you can teach me to make fat stacks by hanging out at a pub drinking coffee like you?
And I laughed to myself, because... yes. That's exactly what I do.
Every idea I've ever had, and every dollar I've made in thirty years, went through my brain and my pen and onto a journal page before it ever went out into the real world.
So I'm running the 50-Minute Profit Finder this Friday at 1pm. Free, live on Zoom, and I'll walk you through the exercise myself.
Bring a pen and something to write on. We'll go looking for the lowest hanging fruit in your business, and probably some fruit you didn't know was there.
And here's your nudge for today.
What's the intuition you've been carrying around and haven't acted on?
Make the call. Just the one call... and throw your hat over the fence.
Transcript
Auto-generated transcript, provided as supporting material. It may contain errors, and speaker labels are occasionally mis-attributed.
Good morning. Okay, you know, I was looking in today's journal, journal number five. We're still in 1997, and I saw a page that had today's homeowner on the top of the page. And I was reminded about how the genesis of so many things that I've done have started with an intuition.
I've had an intuition about something, a curiosity, and I've pursued it. And that I I look back before I tell you about today's homeowner. I was thinking about one of the things that I was able to pursue something that I read. I read somewhere that public access cable was mandated to provide airtime to the community.
And I thought to myself, this was back in in Halton Hills. I thought to myself, you know, I've been doing these home buyer workshops at the library. I was running ads. I was bringing people to the library and doing a whole home buyer workshop for firsttime buyers.
And I thought to myself, what if I could get that on TV where I could do a special 30 minute program about buying your first home. And so I called. I just called. Sometimes the best thing you can do to pursue an intuition is just throw your hat over the fence, make a call, talk to somebody.
So, I called the cable, Colton Cable, and I found out that yes, you can put a show. I presented the idea of what I wanted to do, and he said, "That sounds like a really good idea. They've got a studio. They've got cameramen.
They've got the whole thing, a professional broadcast center for you." So, I went to work and I created what was basically an infomercial for a uh my home buyer workshop that I called six steps to home ownership. And it was a uh 30 minutes adapted from my live workshops. And I created a workbook called six steps to home ownership that I would offer to people who were watching the uh watching the show.
I modeled the infomercials that were becoming popular in the late 80s and 90s. And so at the 10 minute mark, I would, you know, go through some of the the six steps. And then I would say, and you don't need to worry about taking notes or uh doing anything. I've got a whole workbook for you right here called six steps to home ownership.
And if you call this number for a free recorded message, I'll send you the six steps to home ownership booklet. And so for $500, I had to pay. The only thing I had to pay for was the editing for the video. I had a friend write a theme song for it who was a professional musician.
Shout out Tim Alberts. And it was a big hit for $500. I got this on the air 12 time. It was on no twice a month for a year on the first and third Thursdays of the month.
Right. as a leadin to mustsee TV. This was a time when Seinfeld and Cheers and these shows were were on the air. So, I could run this TV show on the air and uh people would call and every time it aired, people would call and ask for the uh for the book, the six steps to home ownership book.
And I would make sure that I set up a listing appointment whenever I could for that Thursday that my show was airing. m. The show came on at 7:30. And so I would be in the house with somebody talking about selling their house.
They'd show me around the house. We'd sit down. We'd start talking about marketing. And then I would say to them, um, can we go into the the living room or the TV room?
And I would say, while I'm in here talking to you about selling your house, I'm also out there trying to find a buyer for your house. I've already been looking for the buyer for your house. And we went in, we'd turn on the TV, and there I am on TV while I'm standing in their living room. And it was a wow moment for people.
Like it was so funny to see their reaction when I'm standing there with them, but I'm also up on the the screen. And then I would call and let them listen to the recordings of the people who were calling to ask for the uh the six steps to home ownership. and they immediately would see that I have a system for finding buyers. And at that point, I'd already had, you know, over a hundred people who had called for the six up the home ownership.
And I would always tell them that this is the pool of people that we are uh working with. and I'd showed them my guide to Halton Hills, how I had already been looking for the buyer for their house for 180 days. I never ever lost a listing that I did on that first and third Thursdays because I was completely uh focused on showing them how I was the most likely one to find the buyer for their home. And that happened because I followed my intuition.
I had this and I pursued it. That I wonder what the value of that would have been for two airrings, 30 minutes at a time for an entire year. Um it's kind of a crazy thing to uh think of at a time when there's no YouTube. There's no way for normal people to get videos accessed to people.
The second year after this, I set up a relationship with a pizza company that anybody that lived in any of the apartment complexes that ordered a pizza. Also, I would deliver a video with the uh with the pizza of the six steps to home ownership. So, the leverage of trusting my intuition, following through on it, creating something that was an asset that I could use again and again was the establishing of a pattern. And I see it here.
And tomorrow I'm going to tell you about the today's homeowner program that I was able to uh to create because I saw a magazine randomly on a flight from Toronto to Ottawa. So tune in tomorrow and I'll tell you all about that. I got a funny email the other day from Rick. It says, Dean, question.
are you saying you can teach me to make fat stacks by hanging out at a pub drinking coffee like you? And I laughed to myself because I was thinking, you know, yes, I I can do that. That's what I do. is the funny thing.
What I really realized is that every idea that I've had, every dollar that I've made over the last 30 years has gone through my brain, through my pen onto a piece of paper in my journal before it went out into the real world. And if I can turn people on to that activity as a driver for what to do, what to think about, what to ask yourself to draw out, what the next most valuable action is for you, and how to find the most profitable things that you can install in your business. I'm all for it. m.
I'm going to do for the first time a 50inute profitfinder workshop and you're going to join me live on Zoom and we're going to go through a 50inute exercise. Bring your pen. Bring a notebook or piece of paper. And I'm going to guide you through a thinking process that will help you identify where the lowest hanging fruit is in your business and maybe some fruit that you didn't even know was there.
But I'm going to show you where to look for it. So, it's free. It's for you. m.
this Friday. Just watch. Go to What did we call the website, Josh? >> 50inut profitfinder.
m.
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