SFR 54: How Stuffed-Crust Pizza Happened

There was a foundational error being taught in my college classes when it came to making money. It all revolves around the "product big-bang" theory..

Oh, baby. What's going on guys? It's Steve Larsen, and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio.

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. And now, here's your host, Steven Larsen.

Hey, how you guys doing? I'm so grateful that you guys are tuned in. Let me just say that, first off. Thanks so much, I really appreciate it. This podcast, last month, got 8,000 downloads, which is nuts. And then this month, we're only half way through the month right now, right?

Yeah, about half way through. And we're already at about 8,000 again. It's awesome. It just continues to grown and grow and grow. And I just really appreciate it, so thanks to all you guys. You guys are all rock stars.

About three or four years ago, I was talking to somewhat of a mentor, but he's also a professor. And I was like, "Man, I don't know what I want to do." Was this three? Yeah, it was about three or four years ago. I was like, "I don't know what I want to do." He's like, "Well, currently you're major is selected as finance." I was like, "Yeah, but it's so boring." And it's not that ... Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Finance is awesome, you guys are awesome. But it just wasn't interesting me ... To me, that much.

And I was like, "I don't know if I really want to do it." And he's like, "Well, you could do supply chain." I was like, "Okay, here's the problem. I could see myself doing any of the things that you're saying right now. Okay? I could see myself going out and doing this, or doing this, or doing this." And I was like, "What do I do? I don't know what I want to do with my life."

I did not know what I wanted to do with my life until about two years ago; no joke. And it was a constant question in my mind all of the time; constant question.

And I was always wondering that not just what should I do with my life, I was wondering product-wise, as well. Hey, what should I do with my life? What things should I sell? What's a good offer to go out there and try it? Have you guys ever felt that way? I'm sure you have. If you've ever felt that way before, give me a little nod. Okay? A little raised fist pump, or something like that. Because that's a huge question; hey, what do I sell? What do I do?

And it was kind of cool because he sat back and he was like, "You know what? I think you should do marketing." And I was like, "Marketing?" And I always thought marketing was kind of the burner ... If you didn't know what to do with your life, then you went and did marketing kind of thing. And he goes, "No, no." This guy was awesome, by the way.

He was the CMO of Denny's and Pizza Hut; it was Pizza Hut or Domino's. Anyway, he was the guy that invented the cheese stuffed crust pizza. Crazy story, by the way, really funny. Not that it's a huge deal, but we all have a special place in our heart for that stuff.

But it was funny because I was like, "All right, fine. I'll go with the marketing route." And it ended up ... I was taken to it really, really fast. And I was like, "This is kind of cool." And what was interesting is he started mentoring me outside of class far more one-on-one that I ever expected or thought he would. It was very, very interesting what ended up happening.

And at the time, I was trying to find all these products to sell, and he knew I was doing that. And there was all this stuff that I was doing outside of class. And most of my learning was not happening in the classroom, and I told him that. And he knew that. And he's like, "Yeah, I get that. No, that's fine. You're a little bit of a different cat." I was like, "All right, cool."

So anyway, he was like, "Hey, go do this. Go do this. Go do this." And he was really the first guy that actually started guiding me in the path, first of all of marketing, but then second of all how to actually create products that sell.

And a lot of it had to do, honestly, with this idea of the cheese stuffed crust pizza. And I know that that sounds ridiculous, but it's true. I was like, "How did you know to do that? How did you know what to go out and ... How did you get your ideas? How did you find products to go sell?"

And I mean, I spent quite a bit of time with him. And I actually still talk/chat with him every once in a while. And he actually put me up for ... There was only 10 of us in the whatever thousand people graduating, nominated as distinguished entrepreneur student.

You know what I mean? It was really cool. I got a trophy and everything. It was really kind of fun.

But anyway, he started telling me these nuggets that were just amazing; they totally changed my life. Even just talking about it, I'm remembering all these little things he used to do. And he told me ... I was like, "Okay, well how do you get ideas for these products? Okay, you were CMO of Denny's, CMO of Pizza Hut. You were the head honcho guy of a lot of different companies." And he's generated just tons of revenue with his marketing tactics. And he honestly, along with one other guy, was by far the best teacher I had.

He's just so, so good. Anyway, I really had spectacular people in my business classes, which was just ... It was really, really cool.

But anyway. So I said, "Hey, how do you do this?" And he said, "You know what, ideas just come to me." And I was like, "Okay. But come one, you got to give me more than that. You know."

He's like, "Well, think about it." Okay. He's like, "Okay. When I was at Denny's, I was going to Kohl's. And as I was driving to Kohl's, I get out and I walk out. And as I'm walking up to the store, there were these posters of bands wearing the Kohl's clothing. And they were promoting the clothing; the bands were, by wearing it." And I was like, "Okay. That's interesting."

That's not very direct response [markety 00:05:55], and I prefer that now. I feel like those big corporate style marketing, I don't really like that style. But anyway, direct response marketing all the way, in my opinion.

Anyway. And he goes, "Okay. So I saw that poster, I saw that board." And I was like, "Okay. Well I'm going to jump out there and we should do that with Denny's." And so what he did, is he had all ... He said, "I started noticing all of these people after concerts would come into Denny's really late at night, really late. You know, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 a.m. because the concerts were over and they were hungry, so they wanted to come in and get food. And so they came in, and he's like, "That's interesting."

So what he did is instead, he started inviting some of the bands that were playing to come in and make food in the kitchens, just for fun. And they just experimented. They did whatever they wanted to. They made the craziest food, they made the coolest food, they made food that was all over the place. And it was just a bit of a research period for him.

But he would have these different high-end bands come in and literally make food with him...

I was like, "Wow, that's interesting. That's really crazy." And he said, "...