I’ve talked many times about the audio I have where John Carlton interviewed Gary Halbert about:
“The Go To Guy”
I first heard it over 20 years ago (on audio cassette).
And I still listen to it several times per year now.
Not because there are any tactical, marketing, copywriting, selling, or any other tricks for making more sales in it, because there’s not. It’s because of the mindset and approach that you only really see or hear about when one gets to the top echelons of the business world. And they’re not something you’re going to see a cartoon avatar guy on Twitter pretending to be bigger and more powerful than they are, or some schmuck beating his chest on Facebook talk about, much less understand.
What do I mean by Go To Guy?
Well, it’s a term they used.
And to paraphrase what Gary said:
Imagine you needed a task done where the stakes are enormous. Literally if this task couldn’t be done, you would be beheaded, or your baby daughter would be killed right in front of your eyes, or some other horrifying thing where (as Gary put it):
“The stakes couldn’t be any higher”
And let’s say you don’t even know what the task is.
You just know it has to be done and you have to pick someone else to do it, and are not allowed to do it yourself. You also don’t know if it’s a big task that takes a year and requires multiple deals and connections… if it means traveling across the world and hopping across multiple continents… if it requires lots of physical strength… or even if it means committing some kind of violence or outright killing someone (or several someones).
In that situation… who you gonna call?
Whoever that is, that’s your Go To Guy.
Very few of us have one of these, incidentally (I certainly don’t).
And even fewer are a Go To Guy.
But basically, a Go-to guy will not question any of it, and just do it. And once they are committed to doing whatever the task is, that person will not stop until it’s done or they die.
Period.
For them failure is not an option.
And, also for them, there are no limits to what they will do to achieve the goal.
Again, I don’t know any real life Go To Guys (to my knowledge).
And hopefully I never will require one.
But, I can think of some fictional examples.
Like, for instance:
* The Godfather — Don Corleone (who Gary mentions specifically) who is truly a no-limits guy willing to do whatever it takes to win
* Fidel Castro — who Gary also specifically mentions, admitting he doesn’t agree with anything Castro stood for, but he was such a survivor, with people trying to kill him for 40 years, there’s no way he’s going down until the job was done
* Rosie from Point Break — the psychopath that Bhodi (the villain) needs to do his dirty work (like kidnap and hold a knife to his ex-girlfriend’s throat to get Johnny Utah to do what he needs him to do, and killing her in cold blood if ol’ JU fails)
* Mike from Breaking Bad — I mean, really, is there any doubt that, whatever the job is, Mike would both get it done and not bother coming back if he didn’t?
* Jack Bauer — the most radical TV character probably ever created who did everything from hold up convenience stores to hijack airplanes to even dumping a bullet in the back of his boss’s head and executing him in cold blood just to save the US from a virus
* Marv from Sin City — Mr. “just give me a name” (when he sees his favorite dancer beaten up) himself who is another guy that, you just know is not going to back down, is not going to give up, and is not going to come back without getting the job finished, complete with carrying back someone’s decapitated head if need be
* John Rambo — a true Go to Guy who even though he was used, abused, even spit on by America, would do anything, especially die, just to get a single POW back
* The Terminator — not a man, so maybe this is cheating, but speaks for itself
There are obviously many more.
But hopefully the point here is made.
And also hopefully, it gave you something to think about beyond just email subject lines, headlines, sales copy, and your marketing for thinking big, and taking your business to the next thing you want to do.
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Ben Settle
