Full transcript
0:00everyone Sam Evans here and in today's
0:02video I'm going to tell you what Steve
0:03Madden shoes can teach you about natural
0:07selection now I know that sounds kind of
0:09weird but stick with me for a moment
0:11because if you truly understand the
0:13lesson in this story here and if you
0:16implement it in your life and in your
0:18business it's gonna have some profound
0:20effects and its really gonna help you a
0:22lot
0:22the story goes you know back when Steve
0:25Madden shoes was just starting out so
0:27Steve Madden shoes as a female shoes
0:30company and back when they were just
0:32starting out they had one of the coolest
0:34business strategies that I have ever
0:36heard of so they had one store in San
0:40Francisco and they had another store in
0:42Manhattan you know to to places where
0:45early adopters and to places where
0:48trendsetters and influences are hanging
0:51out and shopping so they had those two
0:54stores and what they did is they would
0:56have their shoe designers create about a
0:59hundred different designs of shoes now
1:02they designed a full you know a full
1:05range of about a hundred of them and
1:06they only produced one of each you know
1:10one one shoe of each style and then what
1:13they did is they sent those shoes to
1:15their to our flagship stores and they
1:18displayed them in there and they lets
1:20they let people come into the stores and
1:23look at the shoes and what they did was
1:26genius they looked at which shoes people
1:29were interested in and what happened is
1:33every single time they did this
1:35most people just fell in love with about
1:38two or three shoes out of the whole 100
1:41you know most of the hundred just people
1:45had no interest in at all and you know
1:47there was a small segment where people
1:49had some interest but there were these
1:51just hot shoe designs there was only
1:54about two or three of them and every lot
1:55of 100 that people were obsessed with
1:58and they they wanted really badly and
2:00you know this is genius because what
2:03Steve Madden was able to do is is create
2:06a huge range and then test it in a
2:10market that's representative of of you
2:12know essentially
2:13the whole market so you know just using
2:15Manhattan in San Francisco that small
2:18tests and that like self created
2:21microcosm that hit that Steve met and
2:23created that is going to be
2:25representative of the whole market so he
2:27was able to test without having to
2:29produce you know millions of shoes which
2:32ones would be winners and people would
2:34say I want to buy these shoes and the
2:36the shop owner couldn't sell them
2:38because they only had one of them and
2:40people were kind of angry but that was
2:42fine because you know they only let down
2:44about a hundred people or so and they
2:46would take their names anyway for
2:48backorder and then after they had done
2:51their tests and they'd worked out which
2:53their which shoes were true winners then
2:56they would call up their suppliers who
2:59were their manufacturers who were in
3:01Mexico I think at the time and they
3:03would order them in bulk they'd say
3:05these three shoe models we need you know
3:09a ton of these things and then what they
3:11would do is they would call up the
3:13distributors which were you know the
3:15shoe stores inside of big malls and
3:17things and they would say look we've
3:19tested these shoes and we know these are
3:21going to be hot and we know these are
3:22going to sell like crazy and sure enough
3:25the distributor's agreed to buy a small
3:28shipment they put them in their stores
3:30and they sold like crazy and that is
3:33basically how steve madden you know went
3:37from selling shoes out of the out of the
3:39trunk of his car to having a business
3:41which is worth hundreds of millions the
3:44main lesson in this is really it's
3:48really natural selection so steve madden
3:51knew that most of the things that he was
3:55most of the shoes that he was going to
3:56design were going to be flops and what
3:59natural selection is is that you know
4:00it's survival of the fittest it's it's
4:03you know the world in the universe that
4:04has this way of of ignoring most and
4:08only you know paying attention to a few
4:10and i'm sure you've been into a clothing
4:14store before and the one thing that you
4:17want in there is probably they don't
4:18have your size and it sold out and it's
4:20on back order but there's just you know
4:22the rest of the store is is full of the
4:24stuff that no one ever tries on and on
4:26it
4:26wants that's just that's the law of
4:29nature and in business and in life most
4:31of the things that you do are gonna fail
4:33and the the secret to it is to test
4:37small first so steve madden you know
4:39created the whole range of a hundred
4:41different shoes but he only made one of
4:44each he put them in a store in a hot
4:46market which was going to be
4:48representative of the whole market and
4:50then he found out what those winners
4:52were and when he had those winners he
4:54produced a ton of them and sold a lot in
4:57business if you were to take this and
4:59apply it to your own business what you
5:01could do is if you're thinking about if
5:03you're thinking about coming up with a
5:05new name for a product or a new price
5:07for a product or if you're thinking
5:09about anything one of the best things
5:13you can do is just run a test through
5:16google adwords or through facebook
5:18pay-per-click what you can do is if
5:21you've got a product and you're thinking
5:23of four different names you can create
5:26four different ads on facebook or four
5:28different ads on Google pay-per-click
5:31and you can run those ads and see which
5:34ones people click on the most and what's
5:36amazing is that the distribution isn't
5:38going to be normal the distribution is
5:40going to be skewed you know one of the
5:42names that you come up with or one of
5:44the price points that you come up with
5:46is going to have probably 80% of the
5:49interest and the others aren't really
5:50going to have much at all this is just
5:52the way everything works in life and
5:55this strategy they just told you this is
5:57exactly what Tim Ferriss used to choose
6:00the title of his book the 4-hour
6:01workweek he came up with I think a list
6:04of 20 different titles for his book and
6:07he ran Facebook Ads and he was testing
6:09different names and the one that got the
6:12most clicks and the one that got the
6:13most attention was the 4-hour workweek
6:15and you know Tim Ferriss was essentially
6:18using the same rule of natural selection
6:21that Steve Madden used but instead of
6:24instead of using it to choose what
6:26choose to produce Imbolc he was using it
6:28to choose a book title now you know
6:30there is a million-in-one in different
6:33ways that you can use this lesson of
6:35natural selection in your own business
6:37and in your own life
6:39and it's you know if you use it it will
6:41have a profound effect on you that is
6:45the story of Steve Madden and and
6:47natural selection and what I want what I
6:50challenge you to do this week is if
6:51there's one critical thing in your
6:53business whether that's your price or
6:56your offer or the the name of a product
6:59is run a small test like Tim Ferriss did
7:02and like Steve Madden did through
7:04Facebook pay-per-click now run a small
7:07test see what see what natural selection
7:09our selects for you and you know use it
7:12as a way to make decisions in your
7:15business instead of using your gut no
7:17use natural selection to figure these
7:19sorts of things out it will have a
7:21profound effect if you're watching this
7:23video anywhere else other than my blog
7:25what I want you to do is head over to
7:27Sam Evans dot-com right now that is
7:30where more blog posts like this are
7:32that's where the video more videos are
7:34and that's where the comment section is
7:37now if you have liked this video if
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7:51the questions and respond to them
7:53personally that's it for this video
7:55thank you for watching and I'll see you
7:56next week