The BIGG Successs Show
You've Heard of the Purple Cow, but Have You Seen The Purple Tree?
How one man turned a $15,000 investment into $10 million! Read our show summary at biggsuccess.com.
Welcome to the Big Success Show. We're sure you've heard of the Purple Cow. Today we ask, "Have you seen the Purple Tree?" The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. The Purple Tree Mary Lynn, I can't see it, where is it? It's underneath that confounded bridge. Are you sure it's not Barney? It's a purple dinosaur. I love you. You love me. Oh, I'm going to come over and smack you. Well, I think one of the most frequent questions we get here is how we come up with show topics. And we thought we'd give you just a little peek behind the curtain today to show you how we arrived at today's show idea. Well, we were eating. It's really it, isn't it? It's very exciting. So actually, the topic of today's show is, "I can't believe I ate that whole thing." Flop, flop, business. I think it was a Purple Tree. That's supposed to eat those. Sorry. Actually, the deal is we were at a family diner and I started reminiscing about when I was a kid. There was a restaurant that we would eat at when we went to visit my grandma. It was called the Hennhouse. The Hennhouse. Yeah. Was there a fox in that Hennhouse? No. Well, for those of you who aren't familiar and Mary Lynn, I think we're really showing our roots here because the Hennhouse was a Midwestern chain and I would say it's kind of like a small version of Cracker Barrel. For those of you who are familiar with that. Yeah, probably the predecessor of that. The outside of a Hennhouse looked like a big red barn and the inside had that country decor with a little fun gift shop that my sister and I would always visit after eating and they had all sorts of cool stuff like games and books and candy. Well, when you brought up the Hennhouse, Mary Lynn, as we were sitting there eating dinner, I said that I had a book by the guy, William Dooner, that started the Hennhouse chain. And the thing that I think I remembered the most from the book was that he talked about a purple tree in the forest. Hence, today's show topic. There you have it, the inside piece. That's right. So let's talk about this purple tree. This concept comes from Dooner's book, How to Go From Rags to Riches in Real Estate. And we do have a link to that on our site today at BigSuccess.com. Well, and it's a book I highly recommend to anyone interested in real estate. But the thing is this purple tree concept, it really goes beyond real estate. He says to picture yourself walking through a lush green forest. And in the middle of it, you come upon a tree that is painted purple. So you keep walking, but you can't get that purple tree out of your mind. Because it doesn't belong there. Absolutely. Most likely your impressions negative, this thing just doesn't fit. So you wonder why someone would paint that tree purple. And this story made me wonder if this is where Seth Godin got his idea for the purple cow. Because I'd never heard this purple tree story before, but of course, I've heard of the purple cow. I love the book. Well, and I can't speak obviously to Seth Godin's imagination, but they are different. Because William Dooner said, look for something that stands out because it doesn't fit, and it kind of leaves a negative impression. Seth Godin says to find a way to stand out by not fitting in and therefore leave a positive impression. And I think the interesting thing is, Mary Lynn, with either one of those, you're dealing with something remarkable. And since our focus is on the purple tree and not the purple cow, coming up, we're going to talk about how Dooner used this purple tree concept to turn a $15,000 investment into $10 million. Today we're talking about the purple tree in the forest. And this is a concept that William Dooner used. Every time I say Dooner, I want to say Dooner's Berry. I don't know why, but anyway, I know it's Dooner's Berry, but anyway, William Dooner used this concept to start a regional restaurant chain called the Hennhouse. And as you said, Mary Lynn, you eventually sold it for $10 million. So as it applies to real estate, the purple tree in the forest means properties that may be run down, out of the way, unused, underused, that sort of thing. And what Dooner did with the Hennhouse chain is a perfect example. He saw this vacant land next to gas stations along the interstate. The land was ugly, smelly, littered with junk, no landscaping. It was a purple tree. This land had never been used commercially. And what he did was he noticed that when he stopped for gas, and it's certainly different now, but at that point in time, there wasn't any place to eat. So he put everything together, had this big idea. He took $15,000 and started a restaurant chain on that unwanted, unused land that he later sold for $10 million. Not bad. What a story, huh? And this purple tree concept doesn't just apply to real estate. Think about customers nobody wants to serve. Hey, that's me. Employees. Nobody wants to hire. Oh, there I am again. Quit it. That is not you. And jobs nobody wants to do. Well, maybe one of those is your purple tree. So look around today. Where do you see purple trees? You'll find a written summary of today's show on our site at Big Success at spigwith2gsuccess.com. We also have links to William Dooners' book and Seth Godin's book. Next time, we'll go from purple to green and talk about what earnings claims may say about a business opportunity. Until then, here's to your big success. The Big Success at spigwith2gsuccess.com. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]