Having worked in investment banking for many years, this item intrigued me…

“Goldman Sachs shares plunge after chief Lloyd Blankfein hires high-profile lawyer Reid Weingarten”.

Now, I have no more idea of who Reid Weingarten is than anyone else who has read just that article.

But clearly Lloyd Blankfein, head honcho of the “Masters Of The Universe” sees Weingarten as “The Go-To-Guy” in this situation.

What’s a “Go-To-Guy”, you ask?

Well…

…I heard this explained by legendary marketers and copywriters Gary Halbert and John Carlton in one of the legendary “Scuttlebutt Tapes”. The first one in the series, in fact.

Essentially, “The Go-To-Guy” is the person you turn to when the consequences of failure are catastrophic…

“When there’s one second left on the clock and you’re one point behind, it’s the guy you want to have the ball, to take the shot. No matter how good everybody else is, he’s the guy. He may not even be the best player on the team, but he’s the guy you want to have the ball because you trust him to do whatever is necessary to get it done. If it can get done, he’s the guy that will do that.”

Fictional examples would be Sherlock Holmes…

…or Mitch Rapp, John Rain and Jack Reacher.

In the real world, lawyer Johnnie Cochran (who got O.J. Simpson acquitted) and Red Adair (legendary oil well firefighter).

One of the characteristics of “The Go-To-Guy” is that they tend to be a “no limits” kind of person, someone who doesn’t take “No” for an answer.

Basically, they will do whatever it takes.

But, it’s not just about being determined and hard-nosed.

It’s about being a master in a particular area…

…and the “10,000 hours” that it takes to get really, really good at something.

Back to Reid Weingarten…

…do you think that he has to advertise much and hustle for business?

Or that people haggle over his (no doubt high) fees?

I suspect not.  That’s one of the big benefits of being “The Go-To-Guy” (or “The Go-To-Gal”).

So, you might not want to play in the high-stakes legal world…

…but there are big rewards to being “The Go-To-Person” in your field.

Three posts from the last week from copywriting (OK, one of them this week is strictly “marketing”) blogs you may have missed.

Something of a “marketing mindset” theme this week, certainly in the Frank Kern and Clayton Makepeace articles…

Here they are…

Frank Kern on “The Two Magic Powers”.  Remarkable lessons from the life of a lady named C.J. Walker

Some thoughts on lessons learned over a long copywriting career in “The Moral Of My Story” from Clayton Makepeace

Also from “The Total Package” site, a post from Daniel Levis  “Indefatigability: Your Greatest Weapon On The Battlefield Of Higher Response…” It covers some thoughts from legendary copywriter Gene Schwartz, the biggest asset a copywriter can possess and ties in with my recent post  “Key Question To Answer”.

Read and enjoy!

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”

- Albert Einstein

…or, wherever you are in life at the moment, your best thinking got you there.

Why the quote?  Well kind of sums up the message of the main speaker at the afternoon session of the Crocodile Marketing conference, Pat Mesiti.

Now, like many people who teach about success and prosperity, Pat has attracted his fair share of controversy, critics and detractors.

However, I’ve now seen Pat speak twice and he’s someone well worth listening to, in my opinion.

His message isn’t new.  The idea that how we think determines the results we get in life is almost conventional wisdom in the world of personal development.

But Pat has a unique and very dynamic way of getting his point across.

And his key points…

…if you’re not where you want to be you need to change your thinking…

…successful people think differently…

…you can learn from successful people!

Hey, you may well have heard this sort of thing before.

Perhaps many times (I certainly have!).

So, how’s that working out?

I know that for me it was a useful reminder.

Now, I confess that I left halfway through the afternoon to catch my flight home and missed the end of Pat’s presentation.

That meant I also missed the wrap up from Pete and David McMahon…

…which presumably covered their plans going forward after this last ever Crocodile Marketing Inner Sanctum conference.

From what I gleaned over the 2 days, basically Pete is going back to what he was doing before Crocodile Marketing and will be relaunching his “Emotional Ad Writing And Marketing Letter”.

David will continue to run Crocodile Marketing as a company offering training and other services to business owners (first program will be “Online Sales And Social Media Mastery”).

All in all a worthwhile trip for me.  Great to catch up with old mates and met a lot of new friends too…

…as well as picking up a few new tips and insights.  Jennie Armato’s talk on social media was particularly useful for me.

So farewell to the old “Crocodile Marketing”…it was good to know you!