078 - Book | The Pumpkin Plan
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About a year ago, my friend, Sammy Jo, who works with me on my content creation and producing this podcast, she recommended this business book to me called The Pumpkin Plan. She recommended it at the time that I was launching this new brand that I have. I had just launched this podcast. I added this book to my long list of books that I wanted to read.
As we were starting to do research and kind of figure out what content we wanted to make, she started asking me these questions that were really good questions to challenge my thinking and think outside the box with work and not just go the same direction that everyone else was going, but to blaze a new trail and do something different. And it challenged me. It challenged me to push pause on all of my own ideas, to zoom out a little bit, to get some more perspective, and ask better questions, not only of myself, but of my clients, my audience, and my work.
So, I've been so excited to read this book since then. Let me just say it did not disappoint. I'm really excited to dive in today and share what I learned!
For the full episode, hit play above or read through it below!
Mike Michalowicz is the author of The Pumpkin Plan, which is a business book all about how to grow your business and be a real entrepreneur. Now, the book is based on the premise of growing massive pumpkins, like huge pumpkins. He talks about these pumpkin farmers who compete to grow these world-record-breaking pumpkins, and he takes those principles of how to grow a giant pumpkin and he applies it to business.
For example, to grow a huge pumpkin in seven steps, you would:
1. Plant a promising seed.
2. Water, water, water.
3. As the pumpkin grows, as several pumpkins grow, routinely remove all of the diseased or damaged pumpkins.
4. Weed like a mad dog. Not a single green leaf or root permitted if it isn't a pumpkin plant.
5. When they grow larger, identify the stronger, faster-growing pumpkins, and then remove all of the less promising pumpkins. Repeat until you have one pumpkin on each vine.
6. Focus all of your attention on the big pumpkin. Nurture it around the clock like a baby and guard it like you would your first Mustang convertible.
7. Watch it grow. And in the last days of the season, this will happen so fast you can actually see it happen.
So he takes those seven steps and then kind of translates them or applies them to business:
1. Identify and leverage your biggest natural strengths.
2. Sell, sell, sell.
3. As your business grows, fire all of your small, rotten clients.
4. Never ever let distractions, often labeled as new opportunities, take hold. Weed them out fast.
5. Identify your top clients and remove the rest of your less promising clients.
6. Focus all year attention on your top clients. Nurture and protect them. Find out what they want more than anything. And if it's in alignment with what you do best, give it to them. Then, replicate that same service or product for as many of the same types of top clients as possible.
7. Watch your company grow to a giant size.
I love that analogy. I have a few friends that are avid gardeners. I don't garden myself. But, my friend, Laura, who owns Cultivate What Matters, has shared this principle with me several times about growing a huge pumpkin. She's done this herself, and she literally has shown me how she rips off any little flower, or leaf, or any tiny little pumpkin on the vine. Anything that's not the target pumpkin, the healthiest giant pumpkin, she takes it away. She prunes it off and allows that one pumpkin to soak up all the nutrients and grow to a massive size.
Likewise, when you get focused in business, when you weed out the distractions, when you weed out the clients that you don't want to be working with, when you weed those things out, it allows you to focus on what you're best at and focus on your top clients.
Now, like I do with every book that I have in the Nancy Ray Book Club, I share my top three takeaways. But before I do that, I just wanted to kind of go off script and share one side note about this book that was kind of funny to me because I actually grew to appreciate it, even though at first I really didn't like it.
I feel like Mike is a guy's guy. As he's writing this book, he gives advice. He talks straight. He brings in funny examples. He's totally like a dude's dude. Yeah, that's all I can say. He uses some colorful language and colorful illustration sprinkled throughout the book. So for me, I was kind of like, "Okay, I could do without those things." I would definitely say that I am not Mike's target market or top client. But as he continued to write the book, even though I didn't really care for those things, I came to appreciate it because he knows exactly who he's writing to, and he knows his ideal client. Even though I fall outside of that, I still greatly benefited from the book.
So all in all, it was the side lesson that I took from reading this book that even though maybe I didn't love ... I mean, he was hilarious. He's an excellent author, and even though maybe I didn't love the colorful language or the illustrations that he gave because they just weren't my taste, I came to respect it because I'm like, "Hey, you know what? This guy is a guy's guy. I'm not in his top market. He's not writing to me. He's writing to some dude entrepreneur out there, and that's okay."
I just wanted to share that with you before I totally endorse this book and then you start reading it and you're like, "Whoa, Nancy Ray endorsed this book, and it's a little sketchy in some parts." Well, that's my view on it. I think you can learn to appreciate it as you read the book.
Moving into the top three takeaways for me as I read this book.
Takeaway #1: Frank’s definition of entrepreneurship
First, he starts off with a great illustration of a conversation that he has with his business mentor, Frank. Frank gives a ton of great advice. In a nutshell, he just says like, "Hey, I don't want you to be that guy where at the end of your life you are just worn out. You're depleted. Your business did not actually enhance your life. You just spent everything on your work and your business, and you don't have anything to show for it." He was like, "Don't be that guy."
So in the advice that Frank was giving to Mike, he said something out of everything else he said that really stuck out to me. And that was Frank's definition of an entrepreneur.
He defined a real entrepreneur as:
someone who identifies the problems, discovers the opportunities, and then builds processes to allow other people or other things to do the work and do it right consistently.
I'm going to read that again because it's really good. An entrepreneur identifies the problems, discovers the opportunities, and then built processes to allow other people or other things to do the work and to do it right consistently.
I think that my definition of an entrepreneur has been someone that builds a good, healthy business, and can sustain that business, and draw an income from that business, and just keep going.
But, Frank took it to another level saying, "No. If you're an entrepreneur, you're supposed to build the business, but then you're also supposed to build up the team and the people, and delegate, and build the processes and systems to allow those other people to take it over for you. And they do the work and they do it right consistently so you're building your own freedom." That really challenged my way of thinking.
When I ran Nancy Ray Photography and I built a team of wedding photographers and family photographer, I really was trying to duplicate myself so they could do the work that only I could do. I had them blogging. I had them doing marketing. I had them doing everything. I really was pretty hands off. I mean, I took three maternity leaves where I would take three to four months off each time and I could be completely hands off in the business, which was awesome. But, I don't think I ever quite got to this point where I could be totally hands off.
So, it just challenged my thinking. I think it's a really great way to look at entrepreneurship. And it's really fascinating to look at Mike's life and the stories that he shares throughout the book, the businesses that he built, got to that point, and then he sold them and then would just start over and start another business. Really fascinating.
Takeaway #2: Don't treat all your clients equally
This one challenged my thinking a lot. I'm going to dive into a personal example here in a second, but I just want you to know that this is a takeaway because it made the greatest impact on me. I'm still somewhat wrestling with if I agree with this 100%. But, I think it's so good to read books that challenge you. I think, ultimately, I think I agree with him. But, it was hard for me to read and understand it. I'll kind of explain why.
Mike says, "Don't treat your clients equally. Treat your top clients as VIPs." And top clients are like ideal clients. They behave in the way that you want them to. They're high-ticket clients. They're paying you well. They trust you.
They're just a perfect match for the business that you're running.
His chapter, Play Favorites and Break Rules, was so interesting. He says,
One of the biggest fallacies in business is that old saying the customer is always right. The customer is not always right. The right customer is always right. Your focus is on the top clients. Not just because you want them to be happy, not just because you want to cultivate and expand those relationships, but also because you want more clients just like them. You want their doppelganger so that you can grow your top client list, adding other people and businesses who meet your requirements, clients who get what you're about, and who have the potential to grow into a giant record-breaking pumpkin.
As I was reading this, I was like, "Okay, all of this makes a lot of sense. You serve your top clients like crazy, word spreads, and you get more of your ideal client or your top client just like them, and it's amazing." What happens is when you're serving clients that you're not really fond of: difficult clients, clients that are calling you all the time, clients that are maybe trying to negotiate deals that aren't paying you very much, they end up sucking so much of your energy and emotional effort, and it's frustrating, and really taking up so much more of your time, and you aren't able to serve your top clients like you should.
Now, personal example for me. Looking back to Nancy Ray Photography, I did this unintentionally. This is where I'm like, "I think I agree with Mike," because I didn't set out to pumpkin plan my business,—I didn't even know what I was doing—but in the last couple of years that I was running my business, my goal was to shoot four or five really top, high-end weddings so that I could make the same amount of money as if I were to shoot about 10 medium or low package weddings. I just wanted four or five really high collection weddings that I would book, and that would free me up to serve them really well, but also to be with my family more, to be home with my kids more, to be available for my team that I had trained as they were shooting more weddings and families.
So, I unintentionally started to just only book really top clients. The way I did that, I just dropped my lower packages of collections that I was booking. I just eliminated them from my offers. If a bride contacted me, I would send them my pricing, and it was so high that only the high collection clients would really book.
The bottom line is what happened was that it freed up my time. I became more profitable in my own work, and more available, and I served them better, and they spread the word about me to their like-minded friends and clients. The bottom line is I didn't mean to do that. I think I didn't intentionally say like, "Oh, I'm eliminating these lower price clients." No. I was always very grateful and happy to serve anyone who booked me. I say that genuinely. I mean, the greatest honors that I had as a wedding photographer were when a bride with a 5, or 6, or $7,000 budget for her entire wedding would book me when I was priced at $4,000. I mean, using her money to book me and my work, as it was over 50% of her budget. It happened a handful of times. I will say, I adore those memories. And those brides, to this day, will never forget that.
I served them like crazy. I mean, I never served them any less than my top clients back then. And that was when I was growing and building. I mean, I served all my clients equally no matter what collection they booked while I was in business. But what naturally happened is as I raised my prices, I just kind of kept dropping those lower clients and had less on my plate, was more profitable, and I kind of accidentally pumpkin planned my business in the last few years of it. And it worked beautifully.
I say all that to say I'm wrestling with it because I see anybody who wants to pay for your services as just an incredible opportunity to serve them and love them. I believe that's what good businesses do. Go listen to the Secret of Success in Business, that podcast episode I recorded several months back. But really, it's just about serving and loving people well. And I did that no matter the client.
But, I will say, if I had this knowledge and I went about this a lot earlier in my business, I think I would've gotten to that place a lot sooner, to that place of not running myself ragged trying to serve, honestly, some difficult clients, the ones that really weren't my ideal fit, no matter how much money they're paying me.
If they didn't respect me and trust me, and if they were all over the place with breaking normal social boundaries, and texting me and emailing me all these special requests—we all have those. We all experience those—but if I had less of those earlier on, that would have been amazing.
I really could have put my energy in the direction towards the people who really would have grown my business faster.
So anyway, that's me kind of working it out here on the podcast with you. That was my takeaway number two. I just thought it was so profound and so interesting. He says, "Don't treat all your clients equally. Treat your top clients as VIP." I just really encourage you, if that's interesting to you, go read the book. His chapters on it are way more interesting than I could cover in five minutes on a podcast. So, it's really challenging, really good. Ultimately, I'd say I agree. It's pretty fascinating.
Takeaway #3: The value of a client interview
Let me just say one of my biggest mistakes that I have made in my work in business is I ... Listen, I like to do things. I like to have a cool idea. I like to try it out. I like to see what happens. And I am really slow to gather information and research first, because I think, "Let's just do this. This is a good idea. Let's run with it."
This is one of my biggest mistakes in business is that I don’t gather enough information first. I think this is a lesson that God has been trying to teach me for years now, and this book finally allowed this to sink in, the importance of asking your clients questions, really asking them questions. So number three, my big takeaway is the importance of the client interview.
Now, he says this is not a hey-give-me-feedback-at-the-end-of-this-call kind of interview or would you rate me on a scale of one to 10.
No.
This is you get with your client, you ask questions, and you make it all about them, not you. Not you. Not your services. Not what you provide. You make it all about them and what they need to be happy and grow, what they want to grow or yeah. What do they need in this season of their life, or in their work, or whatever you're trying to provide for them?
You ask questions about your industry, not your company.
You make it really broad, and you ask them questions that will help them kind of think big picture with you and then give ... I mean, they're giving you feedback, but they're ultimately giving feedback about their needs and what they would like to see change in your industry. Then, boom. You have the actual answers to do what you need to do to set yourself apart.
The best part is, is that Mike puts these questions in the book. Here are some examples of questions that you could ask during a client interview. You're going to ask questions, if they're in another business, and your business-to-business, then you can ask questions about their industry, but you'll also ask questions about your industry, and then ... I mean, you can translate this and apply this to whatever business you're in. You customize these questions as you see fit, but these are the questions Mike put in the book that you can ask during a client interview, and I thought they were really, really great.
What is your chief complaint about your industry, your clients, or other vendors?
If you could do it easily, what would you change about your industry, your clients, or other vendors?
What is your biggest challenge right now?
What would you need to change so you could finish work an hour earlier every day?
What would you like to accomplish in the near future?
Where do you hope to be in five years?
What frustrates you about the vendors in my industry?
What do you wish that we would do differently?
If you could tweak the products or services that my industry provides to better suit your needs, what would you change?
What is most confusing about my industry?
What do you wish vendors in my industry would offer?
Do you see how it was so benefit driven for them, that it's these really broad questions about their industry, and your industry, and your greatest challenge, and what can I do to get you off work earlier, and what can I do to serve you? I mean, it is so service oriented. It's amazing.
So, those are my top three takeaways:
The definition of a real entrepreneur.
Don't treat all your clients equally.
The value of a really good client interview.
Now, there are so many other things in this book that he teaches on that I wish I could dive into with you. But for time purposes, and just the depth of the book, I just recommend you go buy it.
But, a few of the other things that I just I can't help myself, I have to mention here are:
the underpromise, overdeliver policy.
I'm sure you've heard of it if you are in business. But, always, always, always, even in just timing with meeting someone for coffee: underpromise, overdeliver.
Say, "I'll be there at 3:00." You show up at 2:55.
Anything with a product delivery or a service. Applying this to my old business, again, delivering photos, we would always promise 8 to 12 weeks for photo delivery after a wedding. We would try to consistently deliver it at six weeks, and it would always be a delightful surprise to them.
So, just underpromise, over deliver in everything. He has a great section of a chapter on that.
He also says don't hide the secret sauce, the thing that makes your business special.
It's like maybe your secret thing that you do in business. I don't know. Whatever it is, don't hide it.
A lot of people feel like they need to hide it and they need to charge for it. I don't know about you, but in the day of Google where you literally find anything on the internet, YouTube, Pinterest, whatever, you want to have your name in the game out there. Don't be hiding and hoarding your secret sauce if it's going to make you stand out. Share it. Now, obviously, use wisdom, but don't hoard it. It's only going to be a brilliant way to do content marketing if you're sharing the thing that you're really good at and showing that you're helpful, and you're competent, and you're putting it out there.
Then, the last thing that I want to share that, honestly, I debated this being one of my top three takeaways because it was that good ... It's just so good. I'm like, "You know what? I'm just going to share it anyway." It was the last chapter about delegating, and having a team, and really getting to that last part of the definition of being an entrepreneur where you train other people to solve the problems, and do it right, and do it consistently. He says,
Train your team to ask themselves three questions.
And you actually have to train yourself first as an entrepreneur to ask these questions first, but you need to train your team to ask these questions, and it will really give them authority, and autonomy, and just the independence to answer and problem solve on their own without coming to you constantly.
The three questions are:
Does this decision better serve our top clients?
Does this decision improve or maintain our area of innovation?
And does this decision grow or maintain our profitability?
Those three questions, I wish I had the filter of those questions myself when I was running my business last year. I am absolutely applying those three questions to the business, the online business that I'm in right now. But certainly for anyone listening, if you have a team or someone who works for you, you need to start implementing these yourself for about two to three weeks, maybe a month.
Put them above your computer and ask yourself for every decision, does it better serve your top clients? Does it improve or maintain your area of innovation? And if you want more info on that, read the book. And does this decision grow or maintain our profitability? And if you can say yes to all of those things, then you can say yes to that decision and you don't need to consult your leader, or the owner, or fill in the blank.
Finally, y'all know I'm all about seasons. You know that's important to me. You know my perspective on life is just to live fully in the season that you're in, knowing that it will one day change. You can go back and listen to episode four, one of my very first episodes, on seasons of business if you don't know what I'm talking about.
But, one thing that Mike says towards the end of his book really stuck with me. I remember highlighting it, bracketing it, starring it. I loved this. He said,
There is a season for everything, even businesses. Pumpkins don't last forever. Eventually, you're going to have to plant a new seed and start all over again.
And Mike is proof of this. He did this three times over. He's grown three businesses. He sold the first two. Each were grossing millions of dollars by the time he sold them. And he's still working in his third business, as far as I know, while being an author and speaker. But, I love his approach. I love the fun and joy that he obviously takes on when transitioning from business to business. He knows it's seasonal. He knows there's a beginning and an end to these businesses, and he's always looking for his next move.
So, what about you? How can you pumpkin plan your business?
What small pumpkins, or leaves, or rotting pumpkins are sucking the nutrients from your main thing?
What clients do you need to let go of?
What clients do you need to treat as VIPs?
What questions do you need to be asking?
How can you delegate more effectively so you can be a true entrepreneur?
Work and Play Cornerstore
This is where I share a book I'm loving and a thing I'm loving. I'll get a small commission from anything bought through these links, which help me continue to bring this podcast to you every week. But, the price is the same for you, which is a win-win. So, stay tuned to the Work and Play Cornerstore features at the end of every episode.
Today, I'm definitely adding the book The Pumpkin Plan to the Cornerstore, as well as, get ready for it, my Shout Color Catchers. Listen, these little color catchers, they're these tiny kind of like sheets of paper. They are laundry game changers. You just throw one in with your load of laundry. They soak up all the colors. So the colors don't bleed on each other. Listen, we've got three small kids. I do one to two loads of laundry every day, and I don't have the time to sort all my lights, and darks, and delicates. Nope. I throw them all in there together. You can judge me if you want. I throw all of them in there together, but I always make sure I have my Shout Color Capture in the wash with them.
And it's crazy because I pick it up out of the wash after they've been washed. My whites are still white. The colors are fine. But that tiny little sheet of paper that's the color catcher, it's like a dingy grayish red. It's literally soaked up all the colors. It's really magical. Just had to share that with ya. If you don't want to buy it online, you can always find it at Target. Most grocery stores have it. But, they are life savers.
Now, The Pumpkin Plan is part of the Nancy Ray Book Club. And you can always find what I'm reading and join me if you go to nancyray.com/bookclub. I'd love for you to join me the rest of this year.
I'm going to close with words from Mike Michalowicz.
Dare to be exactly who you are, let your business be an amplification of your authentic self, and watch it grow by leaps and bounds.
Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.
