I’m A Lucky Guy!
July 21, 2010
By David Lawrence, Pangea River Rafting
Michael J. Fox wrote a book entitled, Lucky Guy. I’ve got to say that if you wrote a book about my life right now, you couldn’t pick a better title. I’m one extremely “lucky guy!” Ten years ago I got into the professional recreation business (yes, it’s actually a “real” career opportunity) as a freshly minted college graduate with an English Literature degree and a burning desire to see the West.
For a native son of Virginia, the West meant the Rocky Mountains. When a friend called and asked if I wanted to take a job at a resort in Washington State, my first question was, “Does Washington have mountains like the Rocky Mountains?” Not only did it have big mountains and massive, glaciated volcanoes, the state offered a firsthand degree in outdoor recreation.
Washington is where I got my whitewater rafting start, on the Methow River. The waters of the Methow led me to the Spokane River where I worked as a guide. Those waters led me to Montana and the Clark Fork River, where my wife, Brooke, and I own and operate our own rafting company, Pangaea River Rafting.
I’m one lucky guy because I spend my summers as a raft guide in Montana and my winters in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State as a cross-country ski instructor. Making that kind of lifestyle work as a single twenty-three-year-old was pretty easy when you live on a tight budget. But how do you make a nomadic, recreation-based lifestyle work in your thirties, married, with one child, with hopes of having a couple more, and wanting to own your own house, actually two, one in each state?
The answer is pretty easy: you learn what business you’re really in. At the America Outdoors trade show last year in Reno, NV, I heard Ron Rosenberg present his Outrageous Marketing strategies. I learned from Ron that my business isn’t rafting and skiing; it isn’t even entertainment and teaching – it’s marketing and customer service. The customer service part we got in spades, but the marketing…
I joined Ron’s Inner Circle, read his newsletters, listened to his audio CD’s , reviewed the manuals and supplemental materials, and completed all of the requirements from Ron’s incredible new “Business Self-Defense™ Program.” And I became this weirdly voracious student of marketing!
Because of this, our sales at Pangaea River Rafting increased 15% in one summer. But what’s more amazing, we did this despite losing a whole month of revenue because the rivers were too high to raft! And on top of that, we, like everyone else that summer were battling outrageous fuel costs and operational expenditures. I would have been ecstatic just to duplicate the previous season’s totals, but we blew those numbers away by 15%!
I came back to the America Outdoors show this year because I wanted to see Ron and I was able to schedule a one-on-one meeting with him to review my web site. That one-on-one time with him discussing various marketing strategies was worth the fuel costs to drive to Knoxville, Tennessee; it was worth the cost of registering to attend the show; and it was worth all of the membership fees and educational resources I purchased. Because all of this will offer me a return of more than 10 times their value.
The best part, while I was at the America Outdoors conference and attending Ron’s program, he personally presented me with my Black Belt in Business Self-Defense™.
Brooke and I aren’t anywhere near our financial goals, but every day we get closer to making our outdoor lifestyle more financially viable. I know I’m a lucky guy, and I’m also a hard working student of marketing with a great teacher.
Brooke and I want to meet more of Ron’s Inner Circle Members. Just go to this special web page and tell us your story. There’s a special offer waiting there for you…20% off any rafting adventure and a free waterproof camera! (http://www.leaveboringbehind.com/ron.htm)
While you’re there, tell us how you met Ron, a funny joke, or whatever “floats your boat.” We’d love to meet more of Ron’s clients who are pushing the marketing boundaries of their businesses.
