My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Every dollar spent on unreasonable hospitality generates more impact than any dollar spent on traditional marketing because it creates stories people tell repeatedly.
The Reasoning
Unreasonable hospitality creates emotional experiences that people naturally want to share. These stories get retold multiple times, creating compound marketing effects that traditional advertising cannot match.
What Needs to Be True
- Hospitality gestures must be genuinely memorable and story-worthy
- Customers must have channels to share stories (social media, word-of-mouth)
- Stories must be specific to individuals rather than generic experiences
- Business must execute consistently to maintain story quality
Counterargument
Traditional marketing has measurable reach and targeting capabilities that hospitality cannot match. Hospitality impact is hard to measure and may not scale efficiently.
What Would Change This View
Data showing traditional marketing consistently generates higher lifetime customer value than hospitality investments, or evidence that hospitality stories don't actually drive new customer acquisition.
Implications for Builders
Allocate marketing budget toward customer experience improvements
Measure word-of-mouth and story sharing as key marketing metrics
Train teams to create shareable moments rather than just good service
Invest in systems that enable personalized customer experiences
Example Application
“Instead of spending $10K on Facebook ads, hire a Dreamweaver for $30K annually to create memorable customer moments that generate organic word-of-mouth.”
Related Knowledge
Three Categories of Unreasonable Hospitality
A systematic approach to customer experience divided into three categories: one size fits all (improving every touchpoint for everyone), one size fits some (pattern recognition for recurring situations), and one size fits one (personalized gestures for individuals).
Rules for Productive Criticism
A systematic approach to giving feedback that positions criticism as investment in someone's growth rather than negative judgment.
Enable systematic execution of creative hospitality ideas without bandwidth constraints
Frontline staff consistently execute creative customer experience ideas because someone dedicated removes execution barriers.
Identify and enhance overlooked customer interaction points for maximum impact
Customers notice and remember your business because you care about details others ignore.
Go to the Tapes for Successes
When something works exceptionally well, analyze it as thoroughly as you would analyze failures to understand exactly what made it successful and how to replicate it.
Bridge Authority and Information Gap
In most organizations, people with decision-making authority lack frontline information, while people with detailed customer knowledge lack authority to act.