It debuted at #2 and is now certified Gold (500,000 copies sold). Pay close attention because this goes far beyond food or country music.

Cracker Barrel is a southern style dining place that sells bacon-laden “comfort food” in a cleverly engineered country store that encourages you to buy candy, games, plaques and rocking chairs while you wait for your table.

A Dolly Parton music fan and a Cracker Barrel customer are very nearly the same person.

What does this mean?

A LOT. This applies to you whether you realize it or not.

The music industry is in free fall. Labels can barely afford to pay artists to record albums. Every force you can imagine is eroding their margins. Music is merely a front-end for concert tickets. Bands make their dough by selling merchandise on tour.

So Cracker Barrel has become a music label. This means music fans will make a deliberate stop at Cracker Barrel to buy the $11.99 DVD.

—> What else will they buy?

A catfish dinner, plus meals for three other folks totaling $65; a box of candied walnuts, some audiobooks and a game of Chinese Checkers. Total bill, $96.19.

Who else can reliably score a $96 sale from an $11.99 DVD? Amazon can’t.

According to Perry math, what would normally be a six million dollar rollout by a record company becomes 50 million dollars of business for Cracker Barrel.

3 Signs of the times:

1) Front end profit margins are eroding everywhere, and you need to find ways to chain previously unrelated purchases together.

2) Everyone else is experiencing the same problem. Most people have no idea how to think this way. There’s a big consulting opportunity in finding synergy.

3) I’m teaching this kind of thinking to consultants, so not only can you capitalize on the need out there, you can also embody this principle yourself.

Pull this off, and in economic chaos, you’re the last man standing.

-Financial binge/purge cycles (hint: they might have to do with thinking you have to ‘prove something’ at a deep level – and if you don’t get out of the loop, all the marketing or financial wizardry in the world won’t fix it)

-The deep connection between addictions, money and dark family secrets

-My own very discouraging foray into this world, a ton of experimentation with everything from 12-Step to tapping acupressure points, and eventually, HUGE discoveries.

Stream or download the MP3 here:

MP3 (Right-click and select Save Link As…)

This guy named Tim was up for his hot seat. For a little while it looked like we were going to head straight down the “marketing techniques” trail.

Then I asked him some question about why he was in the business he was in, and about his business partner – then stuff started pourin’ out. He was terrified his partner was gonna screw him.

“Have partners screwed you before?”

“YES. Two other times.” He went on to describe how, every singe time, X happens, then Y happens, then Z happens, then “Don’t let the door smack your butt on your way out.”

I had a hunch this might have something to do with his dad. I drew a line on the floor. “This is the time line of your life, and this is now. Stand on this line and walk backwards until you feel that ‘He screwed me!!!’ feeling one more time.”

He walks backwards on that line, then suddenly BAM – he bursts into tears. (This has never happened before or since in an Intensive, but like I told you, each one is different…)

Suddenly he’s six years old and his dad has just done something to him and it’s heartbreaking.

You’d think this would be terribly awkward and I guess it was, but everyone in the room was remarkably calm and empathetic. Tim was completely safe; it was instantly obvious that EVERYONE related to this on some level. Everyone had some comparable piece of flotsam and jetsam floating around somewhere in their brain.

In fact, without even being prompted, everyone in the room went around in a circle and said, “Yeah, the thing I struggle with is ____.” It was spooky.

Tim told us exactly what had happened with his Dad. I said, “I can’t fix this right now, but at least we’ve gotten past Square One. You now know that this partner problem is really just a replay of the old dad tapes. You get those tapes healed up, and things are going to shift for you.”

I explicitly told him to find a Sozo facilitator, which he did. I also told him to read Stephen DeSilva’s book “Money and the Prosperous Soul,” which he did.

That was a year ago.

I talked to Tim this morning on the phone. He emailed me a copy of what he wrote in his journal, the day he began erasing the tapes:

“The Holy Spirit bound up doors, sealing the tomb, and locking away anger…fear of not enough…fear of not enough help, low self worth.  The perimeter of the door was sealed, the handle removed, and the key hole fused shut.  I have now taken a position on the front lines and I am ready to fight the good fight.  There is no fear in my veins, but only courage and might.  I am ready for my life’s purpose.”

Since I don’t have two identical copies of Tim, I have not performed a scientific A/B Split Test on both versions the guy. All I have is anecdotal evidence. But here’s what Tim told me this morning, just a few minutes ago on the phone:

Tim liked Sozo so much, he got it tattooed on his arm. His words to me: "It's a word rich with meaning. Wanted it on my mind for life." The word Sozo is Greek, it means "Saved, delivered and healed."

“I’ve forgiven my dad. I’ve experienced a release of identity. I no longer fear LACK. There is always enough. And right now I’m just playing in the sandbox, maybe I’m even a little careless about some things. But the deal flow is INSANE and I’ve never made more money than I’m making right now.”

That’s what can happen when you un-learn the lies you’ve picked up along the way, when you commit yourself to pursuing the truth and fulfilling your God-given design as a entrepreneurial human being.

Tim had to make multiple trips across the country and pull together all manner of disparate ingredients. I organized the Financial Sozo workshop because there was no place in the world where all these elements could be put together the way entrepreneurs need them.

We’re a huge step closer to having it all in one place.

Join me June 1 in Chicago:

http://www.perrymarshall.com/financial/

Perry Marshall

P.S.: Just now he sent me this picture. Tim was so impacted, he got a tattoo on his arm that says “Sozo.” Wow. I had no idea.

“Laura’s unwavering support of Perry has touched even more lives than she knows, including my youngest Charlie (now 10).

Although I had a 25 year career in IT before becoming a PPC Consultant, he’s only known me working from home doing this “advertising thang.”

My wife has a full time career as a teacher, so I became the house-husband after the catastrophe of 2001 and 9/11.

I’ve raised Charlie, and I do all the school runs, kids clubs and activities, music lesson taxi rides, weekly cooking, drying washing, some ironing and constant dish washer cycles!
In return I get to set my hours, charge my own rates, pick or fire my own clients, work when and from where I want including my car, my hotel, my study or anywhere with an internet connection.

I’ve now become “permanently employable”.

With the technology now available to us, and our ability to create value for people needing it and prepared (happily) to pay, there have never been more opportunities.”

~~

Because David has created autonomy in his life, he has a different relationship to his kids than he ever would have before. They’ll enjoy the benefits of this for the rest of their life.

He has a different relationship to the world at large: It doesn’t control him anymore. That changes everyone he deals with.

He has a different relationship to work: He enjoys it. He has the upper hand.

But the REAL reason he has autonomy is not so obvious. It’s not simply because he’s a consultant.

It’s because he’s a consultant who *knows how to make the customers show up* and he can prove it.

The guy who knows how to make the customers show up is always the guy in charge.

Now… there are different ways to make customers show up. Wildly different skill sets that can get the job done.

-David does it with analytical skill.

-Some people do it with deep empathy and emotion.

-Some people do it by speaking.

-Some people do it by writing.

-Some do it with their tremendous grasp of systems and processes.

-Some do it with the power of their personality to move the masses.

Each of these skills is different and must be sold differently.

This is why, between now and September, the Consulting Accelerator course and Chicago Rainmaker Alchemist seminar on September 21-22, are customized to your unique marketing signature.

I know of no one who has ever done this. 21st century businesses are built on strategic teamwork – especially now. (I just got an email the other day from a guy who landed a $25,000 contract one week into the course and I’ll tell you more later.)

Largely because of my wife’s undying support, I got free. Which helped David get free. Who’s next? Somebody’s next.

If you want to get free, you’re going to do it with YOUR fingerprints, your eccentricities and your unique brand of mojo:

http://www.perrymarshall.com/alchemist/

Perry Marshall

A few months ago I sent a CD to Renaissance Club members, where Jack and Matt interviewed my wife Laura. Got more feedback from that than any other interview I’ve put out in years. Peoples’ favorite part was when she said,

“Every time Perry would have yet another a massive failure I’d go in some other room and cry, and when I got done, I’d compose myself, go out and support him.”

Ah, the joys of being an entrepreneur’s wife.

For years we rented a basement apartment for $150/month to a guy who worked at a nearby rail yard. He was ending his lease and he owed me money and he talked me into waiving the last month’s rent.

When I admitted this to Laura she grew very sad and said, “That was the money I was going to use to buy some new clothes, and now I’m not going to get them.” She hadn’t had any new clothes in years, and I suddenly realized, she’s right: I just lost her clothes money and I have no way to get it back.

Year 1 of our marriage: We did, I think, a decent job of adjusting to each other and building into a relationship that had already gotten some bumps and bruises.

Year 2 of our marriage: I started drinking the MLM pink koolaid and threw myself into it 125%. That, plus finishing my engineering degree, managing an apartment complex, editing a university magazine and me generally discovering “You can hurl yourself into LOTS of things, seemingly without limit” meant she had a very lonely life. This went on for a LONG time.

She stuck it out.

I remember one time, listening to the radio – I am quite sure we’d been married less than a year then, long before we had kids – someone was talking about foster care. Laura said, “I want to do that.”

“You want to do WHAT???”

(The thought of taking a kid for awhile and them ‘giving them back’ horrified me. S-C-A-R-Y.)

“I’d like to do foster care someday.”

Sure enough, between Bambino #1 and Bambino #2, we took in a drug exposed infant for three months, her name was Drea.

Of course Laura did 90% of the work, cuz she was at home while I was out slaying dragons and trying to sell technology. The state of Illinois paid us something like $200 per month for doing the foster care and she saved up all that money so I could buy our first computer with Windows that could get on the Internet.

When we were in debt to the tune of 18 months income and paying 20% interest on our credit cards – entering the death spiral – guess who went to her dad and asked him to co-sign for a loan so we could refinance our house and actually have a shot at paying it all off?

When I escaped from the Dilbert Cube one month and one day after 9/11, Laura’s the one that said to me, “THIS is your chance, Perry, TAKE IT.” She was the one who was choosing yet again to plunge into the turbulent waters of entrepreneurship.

Five years ago, Laura decided to ‘graduate’ from foster care to adoption. She plunged into the abyss of paperwork and bureaucracy, beleaguered by dead-ends and constant runarounds. (For example, our agency went out of business right after we finished our Home Study, so we had to start that all over again. Set us back at least six months.)

Five months ago we flew to China, and even though we’re otherwise ‘done’ having kids (Laura’s last pregnancy had complications, it was rather scary) we came home with Bambino #5. Laura’s got kids who are 16, 13, 11 and 8, and now a 2 year old tugging on her skirt all day long.

That, plus being assistant to the costume manager in a children’s theater production of “Tom Sawyer” that’s going onstage next weekend. 88 costumes, every one catalogued and organized by Laura. Running the financial side of our business, playing hostess when we have clients at the house, holding the fort down when I’m gone.

Laura has no interest in the spotlight, most of my customers don’t even know her name, all kinds of things magically get done without word or recognition.

But today I want to recognize my lovely and industrious wife. Solomon’s words come to mind:

She gets up while it is still night;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her female servants.
She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.

She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.

She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.”

Laura, Thanks for putting up with me. I love you and I’m so very proud of you.

Perry