30+ Years
Business Development
Over $225 Million
Generated for Clients
36 Industries
Experience
Contact
Think outisde the box

For Every Hour of Creating, Spend an Hour of Looking and Thinking

This is something I learned from years of working in other people’s businesses.  It’s so easy to take the default path in your marketing, your websites, your advertising.  That’s why so many industries and markets do everything the same.  They watch each other, they follow each other, they copy each other.

What results is a never ending cycle of sameness and usually a whole bunch of ventures and campaigns that don’t work.

The default path is the lazy path.  It is the quick and easy – the gamble.

I’ve watched many competitors each doing the same thing (that didn’t work) because everyone else is doing it.  And because each sees their competitors doing it, they persist – even if by their own calculations it is a failure and should be abandoned.

What they see is the appearance of success from the outside.   What they didn’t see was the internal meetings after the fact where the boss says “never do that again!”

I was once asked to be on a committee for a non-profit fundraiser.  The group was doing a carnival-like event and needed one last activity that the kids would think was especially fun and exciting.  One committee member brought up the idea of archery using real bows and arrow.

Most of the members excitedly agreed that it would be great, and when one member brought up the fact that it could be dangerous and possibly even not legal in a neighborhood and near a school – the group was intent on simply going on with the plan because they had all seen it done in other carnivals for other events.

They may have actually seen the event take place, but what they didn’t see was what happened afterwards with concerned neighbors, parents, and authorities.

The moral of the story, don’t rush to take the obvious path just because it is the easiest to take.  Take the time to think differently, to look from different angles, and see what everyone else is missing.

Use your own judgement and trust your intuition.  If the majority of competitors are taking the quick and easy path and you take a little more time thinking out of the box, you will be able to do things none of them expect.

And, because it took work and thought to come up with, it’s likely they won’t understand what you’re doing – so if they copy you (which they will at some point) it will be down the road after you’ve had a great head start.

About the author

Dane Shakespear helps Residential Treatment Centers, Boarding Schools, and Troubled Teen Programs attract more qualified leads, convert them into paying clients and deliver a better product by doing more of what works and less of chasing shiny objects. Dane works with owners and executives who are tired of relegating the lifeblood of their business - their marketing and sales flow to 3rd party geeks and charlatans.

About Me

About Me
I am a former owner and founder of an Anti-Terrorist, Cargo Tracking Software company for airlines.

I have spent my career leveraging marketing, technology & psychologyto promote high-end services.

For the last 13 years I have focused my work on Business Development for Residential Treatment Centers, and Global Product Development.

Essential Books

80/20 Sales and Marketing Book Cover
80/20 Sales and Marketing
August 3, 2019
Trust Me I'm Lying Book Cover
Trust Me I’m Lying – Confessions of a Media Manipulator
July 30, 2019
Blue Ocean Strategy Book Cover
Blue Ocean Strategy
June 6, 2019

What They Say

“He rebranded our company, fixed our marketing, and got us noticed and absorbed by an Italian manufacturer. He knows his stuff.”
– Ray Lopez, Blackhawk Armory


“As a direct result of Dane’s insights and intuition we are generating an additional $350,000 per year that we would have never seen.” – Joel Bauer


“I’ve worked Dane on several of my projects over the past 15 years and can confidently say he knows how to compete in tough markets.” – Martin Howey


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