In The Weekly Hustle Episode 3 – we’re going to talk about $45,000 Japanese Fruit Market, the best $10 investment I spent this week, and the secret of how Tai Lopez handles his haters… don’t miss this!
YOUTUBE:
PODCAST VERSION:
I went overboard in this week’s the Weekly Hustle.
Let me explain.
Right now I’m binge reading copywriting resources and trying to integrate the “AIDA” formula in my videos and articles.
…so I got carried away and wrote three full articles in this week’s Weekly Hustle. Whoops.
Anyways that’s good news for you.
Because if you take 15 minutes to read them it will help you live a more productive, happier, and richer life.
If you’re new to the Weekly Hustle, I’m doing two things –
- Sharing cool people, processes, tools, and ideas for entrepreneurial hustlers who want to be GREAT
- Documenting the process of the long term game of how to hit 10 million dollars
This week I’m going to be sharing –
- The best $10 I spent this week –
- What I’m enjoying learning about –
- What person I’m following –
- What I’m thinking –
- What my guilty pleasure is this week –
Also if you want to shoot me a question or even updates updates on your end feel free to directly to this email or email me here.
Kevin
The best $10 I spent this week –
Think about the last $10 you spent – what did you spend it on?
Was it ordering delivery from GrubHub while in quarantine? Or was it for your Netflix subscription to watch the newest session of Kingdom?
While I personally love spending on food and entertainment, chances are the last $10 purchase you made didn’t help you make you more money, get more done, or organize your ideas.
So whether you’re a student prepping for your exam or an entrepreneur trying to create a new service offering, you are leaving money on the table by not having this ONE investment.
So today I’m sharing the single best $10 investment you can make in 2020 while in quarantine.
So what is that $10 investment?
It’s a big ass white board.
If you’re wondering how a $10 white board is going to help you make money, hear me out.
Corporate companies will spend thousands to install white boards in every meeting room. Why? Let me explain.
Do you ever have those mornings when a lot to do, but have trouble keeping track of what to do?
By doing a “brain dump” of everything you need to do, you stop the whirlwind effect. You can take a look at all the tasks that need to be done and prioritize based off importance.
Whiteboards turn ideas into action – after all how can you get things done if you don’t know what needs to get done?
Which leads me to the most important point – making more money.
I love writing ideas down of how can I make my existing product, service, or offer BETTER for my client.
Don’t have a product, service, or offer? No worries. A whiteboard can help you brainstorm existing problems in the market and strategize potential solutions, which you can create and sell.
But do you want to know the best part about whiteboards?
They are in your face.
See the truth is you could write everything on a sheet of paper – but 99% of the time, it’ll get lost and disappear into oblivion. I don’t know about you – but it’s pretty hard to lose a whiteboard.
And there’s something about the tactile feel of writing something down, taking a step back, and erasing after it’s done that is so satisfying.
And fun fact – I always like to take pictures of the whiteboard with my phone if I need to keep it.
But here’s the ONE problem with whiteboards… they’re expensive… well not until now.
If you want to learn how to create a whiteboard for $10, keep reading.
Well more like 17 bucks with tax and a few extras we need, but it sure beats paying hundreds of dollars for a glass one!
Here’s how we do it:
- Go to Home Depot’s Lumber Section and pick up this marker board
- Purchase Command Strips by 3M
- Hang the market board with your Command Strips.
You can even hang up a whole wall of white boards – either vertically or horizontally. It’s completely up to you!
But I can tell you this – you won’t be disappointed. This is the best $10 investment for your home office… so what are you waiting for?
What I’m enjoying learning about –
Last year someone in Japan paid $45,000 USD for a pair of cantaloupes. Yes – you read that right. Why would anyone want to pay that much for melons?
So I spent my my entire weekend searching for that exact answer… and I found it.
If you want to know the secrets behind charging 10,000 times MORE for the same type of fruit you can find at a local supermarket, read on.
There already is an existing market demand in Japan.
If you tried selling 5 figure fruit in the US, would it sell? Probably not.
As mentioned in Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz, you can’t create desire for a product.
But what you can do is focus on the already existing desires of the market and bridge the gap onto a particular product.
In Japan, premium fruits are sent as gifts. So it’s not uncommon to spend $100-1000 for present for formal occasions like weddings, business transactions, and hospital visits.
While this is explains the demand for high end premium fruit market, it still doesn’t explain why people pay 5 figures for fruit… which leads me to my next point.
There are four grades quality for high end fruit.
There are four grades quality for high end fruit.
If there were two pieces of fruit in front of you, could you tell the difference?
How would you go about selling a premium fruit?
You have to keep in mind – this is a “natural” product.
Mother nature doesn’t tell us there’s four different grades – someone created these four tiers of fruit in Japan.
Want a breakdown of the four grades? Here they are from lowest to highest grade:
- Yuki – (minor defects)
- Shiro (55% of fruit)
- Yama (25% of fruit)
- Fuji (0.1% of fruit)
Any minor defects are automatically considered Yuki. And Shiro, Yama, and Fuji are dependent on the physical appearance and sugar content.
Classifying the fruit builds natural “scarcity” built into the market since only 1 in 1000 fruit make the highest grade – Fuji.
But that’s not all – you can stack it with other factors to increase the exclusivity. For example – have you ever heard of a white strawberry?
There’s the “White Jewel” strawberry and only 10% will stay a White Jewel after exposure to the sun.
So imagine a Fuji grade White Jewel? But let’s take a step back. So what if we have a rare piece of fruit? Does it justify the $45,000 price tag?
And this leads to the last piece of the puzzle, which is the secret to charging 10,000x the price of a normal strawberry.
High end fruits require a high level of intimacy.
Let’s take two types of fruits.
Which one would you pick for a wedding or business gift?
Melon 1: It’s mass produced and sprayed with pesticides. When it’s time to harvest, they’re tossed in a cardboard box, thrown on a truck. At the supermarket, you not only need to check for bruises, but also fight old Asian grandmas for the non-bruised melons.
Melon 2: These melons are grown individually in a controlled environment. They are grown on raised beds so the farmers can individually hand water and control the water amount for each and every melon. After being watered, each melon is massaged daily with white gloves. In fact – farmers go through dozens of gloves massaging these melons these melons. After the massage treatment, the melons are wrapped with white paper to protect the melon from the sun. When ready for harvest, these melons are sold in individual presentation boxes on a pillow of premium silk.
Which one would you buy for that one time special event? And more importantly… why?
The unique selling proposition of a $45,000 melon isn’t the physical characteristics or sugar content. NO ONE CARES ABOUT THAT.
What sells the $45,000 melon is the the story of the process of how this product is created and the level of intimacy require to produce the product.
So imagine if you gifted these melons to someone you really cared about? How would it make them feel receiving a gift that was cared for with such high intimacy?
A lot more thought goes into the presentation of the $45,000 melon than a $5 melon thrown in a paper brown bag.
There already is an existing market demand in Japan.
This is the true power behind marketing.
It isn’t just “selling” something for 10,000x. It’s about giving meaning to products for the customers receiving them.
If you’re into marketing and positioning, some resources I would check out:
- Breakthrough Advertising – Eugene Schwartz
- Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got – Jay Abraham
- The Boron Letter’s by Gary Halbert
- Full Stack Marketing Academy by Rich and Niche/Rich Ux
What my guilty pleasure is this week –
Have you ever spent your weekend watching the most random thing, took a step back, and asked yourself… why am I watching this?
Well today I’m going to share this exact moment.
Ready? Ok. Breathe. This is embarrassing… I spent my weekend watching koalas wrestling.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t done jiujitsu in over a month. Or maybe it’s interesting watching these furry marsupials “get after it” as Jocko would say.
Jiujitsu isn’t only practiced by all humans, but it’s great seeing jiujitsu practitioners across the animal kingdom too 🐨
Check some of these videos out – and chances are I’ll probably do some commentary on my YouTube channel too 😂
What person I’m following –
When I say Tai Lopez, what comes to mind?
Some people might say “scammer”. Others think of the “here in my garage” ad*.* While majority of Reddit and YouTube might say “KNOWLEDGE”.
Believe it or not, I don’t follow Tai Lopez, buy his products, or watch his content… so why am I following him?
Tai Lopez is a master at how he responds to haters, trolls, and critics.
If you have ever dealt with trolls or haters, there’s not a lot of great advice on the internet. I would know because I’m currently going through it at the moment.
It started around a year ago when I had a few videos blow up regarding MGTOW, incels, and being single at 30.
Since then, every few weeks an anonymous individual or group of haters/trolls flood my live stream, mass dislike my videos, and even harass my Instagram and email as well.
You can’t go to YouTube because they don’t do anything.
… so how do you respond when blocking doesn’t work? Do you legal action? Or look within, take some ayahuasca, kill your ego, and live with it?
What do you do?
Conventional wisdom will tell you – just ignore the haters. But this advice sucks because it doesn’t **solve the root problem of holding the anonymous users accountable.
But it was interesting to see Tai Lopez respond to his hater. He jumped on a live stream with a critic, John Henry, and I noticed three things interesting about the live stream.
- The conversation is documented in unedited raw stream – which means there’s nothing being edited out of context
- Instead of attacking his “hater”, Tai Lopez slows the pacing down and takes the time to understand his critic’s point of view by remaining curious and asking questions.
- John Henry’s speech patterns were fast paced with the intent to potentially “expose” Tai for his lack of knowledge of real estate investing and startups. Rather than argue specific points with Tai Lopez’s business experience, he threw “trivia” questions… which honestly IMO wasn’t effective.
In a world where conventional wisdom tells you to ignore haters, this is rare piece of content that is a much watch for anyone trying to understand the perspective of internet critics.
After watching the long debate – I had this lingering question in my head… why would you “waste” your time with a critic?
“It’s important to respond to haters sometimes. In this world people get mixed up ideas and it’s important to clarify things.”
If you want to check out the video, check it out here.
What I’m thinking:
Have you ever thought about starting your own business, side hustle, or remote work? Chances are you aren’t alone.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, self-employment is expected to grow from 9.6 million in 2018 to 10.3 million by 2026 – that’s a 7.9% growth!
Want more data?
There’s a rising trend of “entrepreneurs” on Instagram posts, painting the dream life through corny generic motivational quotes, Bali beach photos, and thirst traps on Instagram.
…but is this what entrepreneur is really like?
What no one tells you is that it requires MORE discipline running your own business than working a 9-5.
Here are three examples:
- No one is watching over you about getting your work done
- You are expected to withhold your own taxes
- There is no “stable” paycheck – your work is entirely based on you, your performance/fulfillment, and impact to your clients or customers.
Starting a business requires more responsibility – not less. But with responsibility comes the flexibility.
So if you’re already struggling to make meetings on time, staying organized, or struggle with solution based thinking – you might want to reconsider starting a business.
Because chances are starting a business isn’t something that you want – it’s finding work that can sustain your ideal lifestyle and the things you actually care about.
Side note – check out this conversation between me and some of my remote business friends.
