The Purple Cow

Best selling author and marketing guru Seth Godin wrote a book that has helped redefine marketing in today's business world. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable is about standing out. I often think about what makes Victory School of Wrestling stand out. How have we created a "Purple Cow."

This important book claims that the key to success is to find a way to stand out--to be the purple cow in a field of black and white Holsteins. The essence of the Purple Cow is to make your product or service remarkable to a specific niche target market group. Being remarkable makes your product or service worth talking about. The old marketing and advertising methods no longer work. The new rule is to create remarkable products or services that the right people (those you identified as your target market) seek out.

I hear athletes and parents say to me on a regular basis that they hear great things about Victory. This is encouraging, especially if I'm following the Purple Cow model. It's important that I make Victory exciting enough that athletes and parents tell others about it. In fact, I aim to make it something they cannot keep themselves from talking to others about.

What makes us different, though? In addition to providing athletes and parents something they cannot get anywhere else, Victory is unique because I, as the owner/operator, have embraced my own uniqueness and have made our program fit with who I am. I've been around a lot of great coaches and tremendous programs, and I have used bits and pieces of each of them, but I haven't lost sight of who I am and what I was created to do. This is sort of the "behind the scenes" aspect, though.

To the public, the difference is in our approach to build the Total Athlete - body, mind and soul. What's great is I believe we have the ability to teach the body and mind as well, if not better, than any other program in the country. What's more, is we focus on the third dimension as much as the other two. We're about building up Godly men and women with sound character who are equipped and ready to change an entire generation. In order to do this, I have to me (and trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit). I cannot try to be somebody else. I was created for this moment, in this move of God to be uniquely me. God doesn't want me to be someone else or try to be another coach. If He did, he would have placed that person in the lives of these athletes, but he didn't. He put me here. So, with a humble spirit and following hard after God, I need to be me. That's the first part of this Purple Cow. The second part is our athletes have to be themselves, too.

Thirdly, although closely linked to the above, we don't play follow the leader. We're different. We challenge the process while maintaining a clear self-awareness. Instead of building self-esteem, we're building self-respect. We're building up humble, meek and courageous leaders who aren't afraid to do what's right and respect authority. This seems to be the biggest thing missing from youth sports, so when we provide it, we become unique.

Our Purple Cow stems from a truly meaningful strategic plan with a lot of foresight and innovation. It's not rocket science, though. Our "secret" is in how we approach life and we're not ashamed to admit that it's based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is something that is different about what we do. Something people see as uniquely Victory. Our Purple Cow is Jesus.