How I Used the SADR Cycle to Create Million-Dollar Marketing Campaigns
SPY TECHNIQUES IN ACTION
Since starting my own company, I’ve made millions of dollars selling survival and safety gear, books, and online courses, as well as by doing coaching sessions, speaking engagements, and, oddly enough, a Las Vegas stage show (in a million years I never could have seen that one coming). I’m not sharing this in order to brag, but because I want you to know that absolutely anyone can have the success I’ve had. By now, you should have a good understanding of how the various steps of the SADR cycle provide the perfect blueprint for finding the ideal customer, discovering what they really want, and convincing them that you’re the person from whom to buy it.
When I started Spy Escape & Evasion, I didn’t have any fancy investors or employees to help me out, nor did I have business school experience to land me at a lofty starting place. What I was doing was working out of my apartment 24/7 to get things started. I had a fantastic service to offer, but I didn’t have a single customer. Where would I find them? And once I did, how long would it take for me to transform them into a solid, repeat customer base? I knew my business could be a success if I could only connect with like-minded people who would appreciate my expertise.
Growing up, I had always loved the outdoors. I enjoyed hiking and camping, and I am even an Eagle Scout. I’m also an avid shooter and gun lover. I was well versed in survival tactics, and I believed that people would view me as a trusted resource. Since the only startup money I had was my own, I didn’t want to spend a fortune on a newspaper ad or a commercial. Instead, I decided to view my new business as an important operation (and, let’s face it, if it’s your livelihood, it’s an important operation). I’d look for customers the same way I would if I was looking for an asset who could share valuable information with the United States. In other words, I’d start with spotting.
ALLOW YOUR INTERESTS AND PASSIONS TO LEAD YOU TO YOUR CUSTOMER BASE
It was logical to let my hobbies and interests direct me to a place where I’d probably find like-minded people. I loved learning more about survival techniques, security, and guns, and chances were my customers did too. I made a list of all the gun shows, outdoor shows, and survival shows taking place throughout the United States. I wrote them all out on my calendar and made a point to go to every single one—spotting who was there and what they were doing. One day, I was walking through a survival show, weaving in and out of huge crowds of people, all of us looking at the latest and best developments in survival gear, when I realized what a fantastic opportunity this was. Nearly every person in this massive conference hall could potentially be my next best customer. But how did I transform these people from fellow survival enthusiasts to paying customers? I needed to discover what these people really wanted. What could I do that would get everyone to start buying from me? What element was missing that I could fill? What could I do better? I’d have to investigate further. Obviously, scouting for customers doesn’t require the same stealthlike qualities of James Bond or the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes, but I really wanted to maximize this opportunity. I’d have to use my intelligence training to assess the situation. I took note of the following:
The demographic: It was immediately obvious that most of the attendees were males about the ages of sixty and up. Only about 30 percent were women. There was no need to be scientific about this; I just needed a basic sense of who was attending these shows. Once you locate a place where your customers are likely to be, get a general sense of the demographics.
The purpose: I talked to as many people as I could about what brought them to the show. Most people whom I talked to came to the show because they strongly believed in self-reliance. They greatly valued freedom and supported the Second Amendment. The men wanted to have the best skills and resources when it came to protecting their families. Many of the women I talked to lived alone and wanted to ensure their own safety.
The big question: To make the most out of these opportunities, I asked people, “What is the number-one thing I could help you with right now?” Asking this open-ended question of a variety of people gave me a lot of information with which to work. Want to know the three biggest concerns people had? (1) How to protect their family from a home invasion. (2) Self-defense moves if some young punk tried to attack them in a parking lot. (3) Survival gear they should have at home and in their cars. People were basically opening up to me about their biggest fears and their greatest desires. I was able to gather so much information by asking this question that I ended up using it to collect more information when I started up my million-dollar internet marketing funnel (more on that later).
Case the scene: I paid attention to what other companies were present. I wanted to check out my competition. What kinds of services were other companies offering? What kinds of products were they pushing? Were there samples? How were they marketing their product? How were my offerings different or unique? What about my company could stand out? What kinds of people were drawn to which companies?
HOW TO USE THE INFORMATION YOU’VE COLLECTED TO SELL MILLIONS OF DOLLARS’ WORTH OF MERCHANDISE AND/OR SERVICES: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
Armed with information about who my ideal customer was, I started to develop my relationship with people who had concerns about safety and survival. I wanted to be the first person who popped into their heads when they thought about anything from water filtration in an emergency to evasive driving techniques. I wanted to be the go-to safety and survival guy. As you now know, developing is an art form that takes finesse and patience. I wasn’t going to wreck my chances by bombarding people with information about everything I know. That would have been annoying (no one likes a know-it-all or spam email), difficult for me to execute, and, last, pointless. Developing a relationship, even a business relationship, is about personal connection. I wanted each person I contacted on my email list to feel like I was speaking directly to their worst fears or biggest wants. I wanted the parents of twin daughters who were concerned about safety and self-protection on college campuses to feel like I was personally addressing their concerns. I wanted women to feel like I understood their fears about protecting themselves when walking home alone at night. And while my goal has always been to provide helpful information that can potentially save a life, I also learned that it’s possible to make a lot of money while doing exactly that.
Step One: Create a Website as a Selling Base for Your Product or Service
One fantastic thing about being an entrepreneur today is that it’s not necessary to fork out thousands of dollars on a lease for a store or office space. You can make millions of dollars from a well-functioning website. Whatever it is you sell—tacos, dog-walking services, tutoring sessions, or handmade canoes, you need to create an irresistible offer. Whatever route you decide to take for building your website, once it’s up and ready to go, the first thing you’re going to do is give something away. Yes, that’s right. You’re going to give away a quality item for free. “Free” doesn’t mean you’re not going to make money. If you follow my advice, you’re going to make more money than you ever imagined possible. (To get free website templates that I have used to generate seven-figure sales, visit www.SpymasterBook.com.)
Now, you’re probably wondering where I got a list of people to contact by email. Well, the beautiful thing about the internet age is that when you know who your customers are, you can buy email lists of almost every group. For instance, I not only knew that my customers were aged sixty-plus and 70 percent male. I also knew they’re conservative and watch Fox News and listen to people such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. So I went and rented a bunch of conservative email lists, including many gun lists. (There are list brokers for pretty much every email list out there, so just find a list broker and tell them the type of customer you’re looking to find.)
If you’re wondering how to rent out your own email list without alienating your customers, I can tell you exactly how to do it. First, remember that the group “renting” your list doesn’t get the actual names or email addresses. They receive one-time access to your list. They prepare the email they want your list to receive, and your company handles the actual distribution of the email. This is important for a couple of reasons: First, you’re not sharing your customers’ names or email addresses. That’s a violation of trust. Second, I carefully vet the company who wants access to my list—and I test any product or service they’re offering firsthand. I personally make sure that the product or service is something I would be willing to use myself. I stay clear of any get-rich-quick schemes or companies that don’t come off in a professional manner. In the end, this process has brought products and services that I don’t currently offer to my list of customers. It’s the ultimate win-win.
QUICK AND EASY SPLIT TESTING
Split testing is also known as A/B testing, and it’s just a way for marketers to try out two different versions of something to see which one makes a bigger impact. At Spy Escape & Evasion, we do split testing for everything: headlines, order forms, price points, pictures, et cetera. You don’t have to conduct elaborate studies or use a huge sample for this technique to be useful. Create different headlines and take note of which one performs better, and then . . . try to understand why. Over time, you’ll learn to perfect headlines and copy so that you’re getting maximum results right away. I used to be one of the world’s highest paid copywriters (when I wrote copy for many different companies) and have been fortunate to write for Agora publishing, among others.
Step Two: Select Something to Give Away for Free
Who doesn’t love getting stuff for free? Giveaways send a signal that your company is generous and that you have so much faith in your product that you want to share it with the world. I’ve given away copies of my books, video training, flashlights, tactical pens, and survival bags. All of these items are high quality and are a good example of the products and services my company offers. All I charge is a small shipping fee to cover the costs of delivery, since the Post Office doesn’t give me free postage. For a hardcover book that normally sells for $27.95, a $5.95 shipping fee is almost nothing for the customer. This may sound counterintuitive, but giving something away has brought Spy Escape & Evasion so much additional income that we’ve made the giveaway part of our regular sales practice. We’ve found that giving away a free item does the following:
People talk: Our spy flashlight is very compact. It’s a mini light that you attach directly to a battery. It’s so small it can fit in a woman’s purse and take up no more room than a tube of lipstick. But it’s powerful enough to be a lifesaver should you ever end up in the dark. Every time I pull mine out of my pocket (it fits easily), someone always says, “That’s so cool, where did you get it?” And they’re excited when I respond that it’s free. Giving away our spy flashlights has resulted in many people hearing about our company for the first time. It creates buzz and word of mouth—great forms of advertising for your company.
Free items draw people in: A free giveaway can be the final push that gets someone to buy something from you. If someone has been considering ordering a bug-out bag and all the gear but have been putting it off for whatever reason, that little free item can be the carrot that finally encourages them to drop by our site and take a look. A free item is an incredibly easy way to incentivize customers to visit your site.
Your company is associated with positivity: Customers who have been buying from us for a while have likely received many free, quality items from us. When they think of our company versus other companies who carry similar items, they remember these personal touches we give in the form of little gifts. Just like in the SADR cycle, this promotes a feeling of reciprocity, and people are more likely to continue buying from us.
You’re getting people to test-drive your products: Even if someone had no intention of buying anything from us at all, they’re still using one of our products. They’ll have the opportunity to see firsthand that we seek out and sell the best, most useful survival products. Once they’ve seen what kinds of quality items we sell, it’s likely they’ll think of us in the future when the need to purchase something arises.
Step Three:
Recruit Customers by Creating an Irresistible Offer
At Spy Escape & Evasion, we do lots of giveaways. I’m certainly not the only company that offers something free as an incentive. Many companies do it because they know it works. There are countless products and services you can try for free, from Sirius satellite radio and video-streaming services to meal preparation kits and wardrobe subscriptions.
When we do giveaways, we list the offer on the front page of our site, in huge letters. This may sound obvious, but I’m always surprised by how many companies make people dig around for free offers. If a customer can’t find it, it’s pointless. We also have a quick but interesting video that automatically plays when someone visits the site. If the customer somehow didn’t know we were giving away a free book or flashlight, trust me, they do now. Technology today makes it very easy to create a short but impactful video. I’m always sure to remember from my intelligence training that people absorb information in different ways. The text will draw some people, but others will be more likely to respond to the video.
Feature a Meaningful Testimonial
Get testimonials from regular people that describe the quality of your work.
When I was starting out, I got testimonials from people I felt others interested in the survival niche would admire—like Navy SEALs and army snipers.
“As someone who’s worked operations with the CIA, I can tell you that Jason and his team are the real deal.”
—Cade Courtley, former Navy SEAL
“Jason Hanson is a powerful proponent and practitioner of personal defense tools and techniques, all designed to protect you and your family.”
—Peter Earnest, director of the International Spy Museum, and former CIA clandestine service officer
“It’s a rare chance you get to learn from the best CIA operatives on how to stay alive in the crazy world we live in.”
—Alain Burrese, former Army sniper
“Jason Hanson has forgotten more tradecraft than most will ever know.”
—Rorke Denver, former Navy SEAL
If you own a taco truck, ask local parents to write something meaningful, such as “These tacos are so good my kids ask for them for dinner all the time.” Never underestimate the power of a customer testimonial. If your customers are touting your business, people will listen. Trust is something a company earns, as is reliability. Having a testimonial from someone is just like having a “warm introduction” in the spy world. Someone else is vouching for your amazing services, and that’s often enough to push someone to go ahead and check out what you have to offer for him- or herself.
Include a Bonus Item
If you’re panicking that I’m asking you to give away yet another free item, hear me out. At Spy Escape & Evasion, we create webinars that contain highly valuable information. Creating this kind of additional content is fun, easy and can really help you recruit repeat customers. Think about something you can offer that will be irresistible to your target audience. If you sell pet supplies, consider creating a webinar about dog training techniques. Get creative, think about something that your customer will find useful or helpful. Even if you don’t sell a physical product, you can still offer something terrific that people will want. If you’re a mechanic, provide a prewinter checklist for keeping your car running smoothly. If you’re a hair stylist, offer a free braiding seminar. Offer a free consultation—anything that can pique interest in your company.
Step Four: Introduce the Upsell Items
On the page where you click BUY NOW to claim the free item you are offering, explain that while you’re giving the item away for free (and be sure to list the regular retail value), all you ask is that the customer pay the shipping and handling.
The appropriate information is asked for regarding shipping addresses and a credit card number. Once someone fills in their credit card number, they are immediately directed to an upsell, also known as a one-time offer (OTO). An OTO is where you make them a great offer on your other products and services. You can package items together to make them more appealing. You might want to offer a discount on your ultimate dog grooming tool or exclusive training session. Again, you’d want to feature a testimonial about why your service or tool is the best.
On our free book funnel, our first upsell is for our Sharpshooter University. Sharpshooter University is the premier destination for in-person and online firearms training and is the only organization in the world that gives you free live gun courses ($1,200 value). Members of this program receive monthly training videos, live gun courses, special reports, weekly intelligence alerts and our monthly printed newsletter called Spy & Survival Briefing. I have over 37,000 paid subscribers to my Spy & Survival Briefing newsletter (www.SharpshooterU.com) because I make it my mission to bring useful, valuable information that you can’t find anywhere else. Several members have written to me to share that the information they learned by being part of the program has saved their lives.
Sharpshooter University leads customers to a second upsell. Our second upsell is for training videos that demonstrate how to execute all of the potentially lifesaving techniques from our live two-day Spy Escape & Evasion event. I explain that I hired a professional film crew to record the entire session and that this is the perfect solution for people who cannot attend the live event. (The live event is $1,500, so the videos are a more affordable option.) The third upsell is for the tactical pen, an easy-to-use, easy-to-carry self-defense tool that can save your life. Our final upsell is our home defense training program called Impenetrable Home Defense.
If You’re Offering Upsells, You Must Be the Best in Your Industry
I can guess what you might be thinking, because chances are I’ve heard it before: Why so many upsells? Won’t that turn a customer off? I’ve encountered other businesspeople who do online marketing and they’ve told me they don’t feel comfortable offering so many upsells. I tell them the same thing every time: If you provide a quality product or service that tremendously helps people, you should be shouting about it from the rooftops. You should believe deep down that your product is so important that you need to get it into the hands of as many people as possible. I firmly believe that me and my team of ex-CIA officers are the best in the business when it comes to security, safety, and survival matters. We also have the track record to prove it. I know that when someone hires us for a security job or buys one of our products, they will undoubtedly be safer—the product could even save their life. Therefore, I never feel it is inappropriate to offer multiple upsells. If you ever feel badly about selling a service or an item, then you probably shouldn’t be selling it at all.
[ SPY TIP ]
DON’T TRY TO BE EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE
I realize I’ve just told you to develop relationships, so you can tailor appropriate responses to different people. This is crucial, and I stand by my advice; however, understand that you can’t be everything to everyone. There are always people who aren’t going to want what you’re selling. Don’t waste valuable time and energy trying to convert people into buying an item or service that they just aren’t on board with (even if you know deep down it might be the best thing for them). Too much time spent trying to broaden your customer base could end up costing you big in the end. If you have a niche business, don’t be afraid to stick with it. Fellow Shark Tank alums have had great success with highly focused business ideas. As crazy as it sounds, Bombas socks, Scrub Daddy sponges, and even the Squatty Potty have been huge hits.
RECRUITING LIFELONG CUSTOMERS:
Be a Continued and Valued Presence
I’m proud to say that my survival company has thousands of repeat customers. Like I mentioned earlier, my Spy & Survival Briefing newsletter has over 37,000 paid subscribers. People who have received a free book or tactical pen end up buying spy flashlights or bug-out bags. People who take our introductory spy course often come back for our Ultimate Spy Week (www.SpyWeek.com) or send their kids before they go off to college. Customers who have found some of our items valuable and helpful, like our survival water filter, end up buying them for their loved ones. Clearly, a repeat customer is the most valuable type of customer for any business. Regular customers become repeat customers when you continue to develop the relationship. Obviously, you’re not necessarily going to be working the relationship by buying outlandishly expensive dinners like my CIA colleagues in the field sometimes do—but there are other easier, less costly, and authentic ways to continue working on a customer relationship.
STAY IN CONTACT WITH YOUR ASSETS
Other entrepreneurs tell me all the time that they don’t like to send frequent emails to their followers and customers. They worry that the constant contact will get annoying and they’ll end up losing customers. I don’t agree with that approach at all. I worry about what will happen if I’m not in constant contact with my customers who are my greatest assets. I want to ensure that when a safety or survival need presents itself, Spy Escape & Evasion immediately comes to mind as a trusted resource. A spy in the field keeps in constant contact with assets because they definitely do not want that asset sharing valuable information with someone else—that just can’t happen. We work hard to strike the proper balance and make sure we’re providing our customers with appropriate communications. You’ll have to determine a frequency that works best for your company, but at Spy Escape & Evasion we adhere to the following schedule:
SPY ESCAPE & EVASION CUSTOMER CONTENT SCHEDULE
Monday: High-quality article. These pieces are about 500 words on a topic we know to be of interest to our customers. They are designed to be quick, informative reads. We’ve covered everything from how to build a survival shelter in the desert to how to protect yourself from various online scams.
Tuesday: Top five list. We’ll craft an email that contains links to some of the most relevant articles on topics that appeal to our customer base.
Wednesday: A high-quality article, also approximately 500 words.
Thursday: We feature an article from one of my team members, often a former CIA buddy, about a topic that is interesting to them.
Friday: Another high-quality article from a Special Forces operator.
Saturday: Features the weekly mailbag, where I answer questions that are sent in by customers.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A PROFESSIONAL WRITER TO CREATE QUALITY CONTENT
If you love your niche and understand it, you shouldn’t have trouble coming up with article ideas to share with your audience. You need to be a voracious reader who scans the news to be aware of any developments in your area. If writing makes you nervous, just think about it as writing an email to a friend—and essentially, that’s what you’re doing: You’re communicating with your family of customers. If you really think you need help creating content, find a freelancer with whom you can connect to execute your ideas.
CONTINUE BUILDING CREDIBILITY WITH YOUR ASSETS:
Or, How I Ended Up Drinking Out of a Toilet in the Men’s Room at McDonald’s
As I’ve said, one of my biggest goals for Spy Escape & Evasion is for us to be the go-to resource for information about survival and safety. This isn’t achieved by selling a person one tactical pen that they’re happy about and they keep in their pocket at all times. While that’s great, I want to go deeper and build longer lasting relationships. In the intelligence world, a spy’s relationship with an asset needs to be so secure that the asset will do anything for you. I want to recruit our customers into our family of like-minded, self-reliant individuals who want the best, most up-to-date information about survival and safety.
I want our customers to know that I stand behind all of our products—that they work, they are reliable, and that I won’t sell anything I don’t use myself or I wouldn’t let my family use. I practice what I preach, which is how I ended up doing a few things that most people would think were totally nuts. One of the biggest issues in an emergency is drinking water. Obviously, this is something a human being can’t go without for very long—three days at the most. I always encourage people to keep a supply of water on hand: one gallon per person per day in your household, with a minimum supply of seven days but ideally enough to last for thirty days. But, being the good intelligence officer that I am, I always have a backup plan. My company sought out and now sells one of the best water-filtration systems available. I fully believe in this product—but I didn’t want my word to stand alone. I wanted to build credibility by using it, and I did. I made a video of myself using the filter to drink out of the most disgusting water sources you can imagine. I wanted to prove that this device worked and was safe, and how better to prove it than by using the filter to drink the water directly out of a moss-covered and mosquito-infested pond, a trough at a farm (yes, it was used by the animals), and the toilet in the men’s room at a McDonald’s (and no, the last person to use it had not flushed). The filter worked, the water tasted clean, and I did not get sick. I didn’t make this video to shock people. I made it to show my valued customers (assets) that I’m not going to mess around with their well-being and safety by selling an inferior product.
CONNECT WITH STORIES
I love my company’s tactical pen. It’s a solid weapon that can save your life, but it’s also a pen and I use it all the time for regular things like signing papers. Because it’s essentially a pen, that also means you can take it anywhere. I always tell people that the safest way to fly (other than following all the travel safety tips I’ve written about in Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life), is to carry on a tactical pen. Obviously, you can’t take a real weapon on a plane, but you can take a pen. This could be used for self-defense purposes should someone try something crazy. It’s also a great weapon to have on you when you’re traveling in an unfamiliar city. But people are nervous to do this—they’re afraid the pen won’t get through security. Or, worse, they’ll get in trouble for trying to take a weapon on a plane. But when a client reached out to me to tell me how pleased he was to have his tactical pen with him on a recent trip to Israel, I was very curious. El Al Airlines is known for its incredibly tight security. Yet he had no problem taking the pen on board. I immediately shared this story with my customers. Here it is:
I travel quite a bit (within the states and internationally) and the idea of having at least some form of weapon available at all times is comforting. I just went through the safest airport in the world (Ben Gurion in Israel) and I carried my pen with me at all times. Never once an issue, no questions when it was x-rayed, and some peace of mind for me. Traveling alone to new (and strange) countries can be a little scary. But at least I don’t feel unarmed now.
I wanted them to see firsthand how it is possible to empower yourself with this pen while traveling, and this story showed that it was completely possible. To continue being seen as the go-to person for whatever your product is, you sometimes need to share stories about other people’s experiences. Stories are how we connect as human beings, and sharing them can have a great impact on how your customers connect with you.
SHARE YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES
I like to share stories about my own personal experiences with survival and safety. While I’m not interested in making material all about me, I do think it’s important to talk about instances where I’ve been put in positions to use my own techniques or tools. I want to let my readers and customers see me using my expertise out in the real world. I’ve talked about how my experience running with the bulls in Pamplona gave me a good look at what a complete meltdown of society might feel like. When you’re running in a crowd being chased by a thousand-pound animal with horns, all social politeness goes out the window. I’ve written about the advice I gave to a family member who had the horrible experience of being stalked. I’ve talked at length about how I’ve taught my toddler daughter about gun safety; I shared a letter I wrote to her that I want her to read when she’s older and buys her first gun. Then there was the time my wife and I heard a terrible sound in the middle of the night—and I found myself casing the house with my gun out, only to discover the culprit was a suitcase that had fallen from a shelf. I’m not the most public person, but if something is going on in my life that could be relevant to my audience from a safety and survival perspective, I share it.
Always ask them what they want: Once again, I go back to the big question. I provide a small questionnaire on the company website. And I recommend always ending the questionnaire by asking about the number-one thing that can help a customer right now. The information you get from this simple question will prove invaluable. You can also take the answers and customize content that appeals to different groups of people with specific interests.
Here’s an example of what I ask. It is easy to tailor this survey to any type of business.
- Home protection
- Guns
- Food storage
- Self-defense
- Cyber security
- Natural disaster preparation
- Other
ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS OF THE MILLION-DOLLAR SALES FUNNEL
Multiple upsells: Quite simply, different people respond and buy different upsells. Including a mix of items increases your chances of making money.
Good sales copy: We’ve worked hard at Spy Escape & Evasion to develop wording that sparks an interest in our customers. It’s crucial to have well-written copy that creates a sense of value and urgency. Don’t create a great-looking website and not use polished, professional copy. As I mentioned, I used to be one of the world’s highest paid copywriters and wrote for Agora, among others. These days, I only write copy for myself and my coaching clients (www.Spymasterbook.com). However, the ability to write copy is one of the most important skills you can have. It’s just like using the SADR cycle, but you’re doing it on paper instead of in person.
Quality content: Always aim to provide that extra bit of information that others aren’t giving. Consistently providing valuable content leads to your becoming the number-one trusted resource for whatever product or service you sell.
At Spy Escape & Evasion, we’ve used the elements of the SADR cycle to create dozens of successful marketing campaigns that have brought in millions of dollars. Running your own business is one of the most rewarding and also the most difficult endeavors a person can take on. Following the SADR cycle process can lighten the load by introducing your business to lucrative new revenue streams. I realize at first that this might seem complicated and time consuming. Trust me that it gets easier as you refine your technique—and the positive results make all the effort well worth it. If, like me, you’re incredibly proud of the products and services you offer, then you should maximize their potential by creating this simple and successful system. I hope you’ll soon see, like I have, that the possibilities here are endless.
[ SPY MYTHS DECODED ]
SPIES ARE HIRED FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE AND DIFFERENT EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUNDS.
True!
One of the most fascinating things about being an entrepreneur is meeting other businesspeople with so many different backgrounds. I’ve met successful businesspeople who started out as comedians, lawyers, or even circus performers. The intelligence world is similar—people come from a variety of fascinating and different backgrounds. Just like many successful entrepreneurs don’t have an MBA, and contrary to what people might think, Ivy League schools are not a breeding ground for future spies. While intelligence officers are certainly some of the smartest folks I know, the CIA values and respects individuals from a variety of backgrounds. The famous Tony Mendez depicted in the movie Argo studied art in college. He answered an ad for a job as a graphic designer and ended up getting hired by the CIA. The famous chef and cookbook writer Julia Child worked as a copywriter at an ad agency in New York City before she joined the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA) as a typist. She eventually was entrusted with top-secret research. Many intelligence officers have chosen to join the military rather than go to college (I got my start as a police officer). And if you were to sit down with a group of spies and ask them what the strangest job they’ve ever had is, I assure you that you’d get some interesting answers, including florist, taxi driver, and even cowboy. The CIA is more interested in a person’s overall intelligence and ability to quickly solve problems than they are an Ivy League degree. Overall intelligence and ability is starting to matter more in business too. According to a recent CNBC study, the majority of small business owners do not have a four-year college degree. Businesspeople who didn’t attend college outnumbered those who did across both genders and all age groups. It’s great to have access to education, but running a successful business is about much more than a piece of paper.