Episode 493 – The Gray Man Theory
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:23] Hey everyone, it's Tom here with episode four hundred and ninety three of Screw the Commute podcast. We're in Vetrepreneur Month. This isn't a Vetrepreneur episode. This is a training episode, but make sure you check all our September episodes for the wonderful veterans that are doing great things in the entrepreneurial world. This episode's about the Gray Man theory, or I'm putting it in Gray Man in business theory now. This is a concept taken from the survivalist community on how to blend in, so no one noticed you in an SHTF situation now. If you don't know what SHTF stands for. Ok, Google it. Anyway, I'm taking this gray man or could be gray woman theory into the business world. All right. That's what we'll do in a minute. Right now, I want to send you big checks and PayPal and send you money because you referred me for business. So check out my affiliate program by emailing me at Tom and screw the commute. I'll give you details. You can make big commissions in all ranges. We have products and services, all kinds of stuff, and we hardly ever get any refunds or upset customers because we take care of people. So we'd love to send you some money. So email me if you like details now, pick up a copy of our automation e-book.

[00:01:50] We sell it for twenty seven bucks, but it shows you how I really run this operation with inexpensive and free technology to make me respond lightning fast to people and. Ethically steal customers from people too slow to get back to prospects and all kinds of great things, so pick up your copy at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. And while you're at it, pick up a copy of our podcast app. It's screwthecommute.com/app, and you can put us on your cell phone and tablet and take us with you on the road. Now we're in the middle of our pilot program with my school for persons with disabilities. We're doing a program where I'm going to have five people with disabilities going through the school so they not only can learn a highly in-demand skill remotely, which is internet and digital marketing, but they can legitimately get hired from home. So it knocks out all the trouble they have with mobility and sight problems because they can work from home now. I'm not claiming we're going to knock out all the troubles in their world, but I'm going to do my darndest to knock out a lot of them and I want your help with it and something you can really be proud of. You can check it out and this will be in the show notes at IMTCVA.org/disabilities.

[00:03:19] And check out the Go Fund Me campaign. We're using some of the money to hire people with disabilities to help run the program and to give full scholarships to the people in the program. So it's a great thing that you could do to. I mean, it's a legacy thing. We're changing people's lives forever and something you can be really proud of. So check it out.

[00:03:43] All right, let's get to the main event. See, Gray Man theory historically, is the idea that before or during an emergency, you can blend in with the crowd. I mean, you might be fully prepared for whatever the emergency is, but you don't want to become a target for people that want to take what you have. That was the gray man theory. Now, I didn't invent the idea of the Gray Man, but many people like me have used it successfully in business. Now, you may have heard stories of this concept on TV and not even realized what you were hearing. For instance, a business person running for office on behalf of a certain political party is outed by the media as having donated to the opposite political party. And this is to make the politician look like a traitor or look fake, and not that that person might not be a traitor and fake. There's plenty of them out there. But the other possibility is that he or she when acting solely as a business person, didn't want to alienate the other political party so he could do business with them.

[00:04:57] Now except in certain circumstances, which I'll talk about later, coming out with a strong political or religious belief could cut out half your business. Now, here's another, for instance. It's that many time builders need permits, and when both political parties are on the planning board for the city, it doesn't make much sense for them or the builder to give to one party and not the other. It may mean they never get the permits. They never get enough votes in the Planning Council. Now, being a great man or woman in business is not that hard. You just have to skillfully avoid political or religious topics that like you shouldn't have bumper stickers on your vehicles touting things, and you shouldn't wear clothing or hats with slogans that are divisive and you shouldn't have political signs at your home or place of business. Now, do you have the right to do all these things? Absolutely. But is is it a good idea? I would say no. Now, recently, I was talking to a customer of mine in one of the major cities that had loads of riots, and I kind of jokingly ask, Hey, are you buying a gun? And he seriously said it was no joke at that point, it wasn't any joke at that point.

[00:06:27] No, all that stuff was overblown by the media. So he was getting defensive about his city, which was literally on fire. Police cars on fire, riots, people getting shot. All right. So I knew, right, right then not to pursue the argument and that he was ignoring what was actually happening. And to this day, he writes endorsements about me and continues buying products. All that would have quit had I argued with him. And speaking of arguing, do you think you have ever actually come out ahead on a Facebook or Twitter argument? All right. Maybe, maybe you came out ahead because the heated back and forth on one of your posts brought in a lot of engagement. So Facebook likes you better. But did it help or hurt your sales? Well, I doubt that it did. I mean, there's no winning an online argument. Maybe you feel like you got the better hand of some online troll, but all you did was take time away from your business and create a lot of stress for yourself. Plus, if you've ever watched any political confirmation hearings, you see see people get turned down for their position because of what they said years ago on social media. So I don't say crap on social media about what I think about these kinds of events I might. The only thing you see for me is business stuff, because I'd hate to see you go for a super big piece of business and then they review your social media and somebody says, Well, we don't want to deal with that kind of person.

[00:08:13] You know, that's just crazy. You might be the greatest person to do business with them that they'd ever seen the greatest vendor, but you get kicked out because of something you rapped about on social media to make yourself feel, you know, like you beat the other troll, you know? Now, if you're going to do anything on social media, I suggest you concentrate on your reviews. Which carry lots of weight in the eyes of potential customers. I got to tell you, I have to bite my tongue when I see some of the things said on social media and mainstream media. I'm so tempted to say what an idiot you are for thinking this way or the other, but I take my own advice and I keep my mouth shut. Now, there are times when clearly taking a side can benefit you and your business and cause you to get a greater share of one side while giving up sales from the other side. You have to decide if this is right for you. For example, there are Christian businesses that make a big deal of being Christian, and they even have Christian Business Association associations. So I suggest they get a higher percentage of business from the Christian community because of taking that stand.

[00:09:32] Now, if their product or service is really good, maybe they they don't lose too much from other religions or agnostic communities, maybe they do, I don't know. Now, what I think is that many of these business owners are most likely proud and happy with their decision, regardless of any business laws. You've seen this in the media with bakeries and photographers refusing to work for gay couples. I suspect they're happy to be true to their principles. But I also suspect they aren't too happy with the lawsuits and protests against them. You have to make the decision for your business. Now, obviously, if your business is on the one side of what is considered a divisive issue, then your decision is already made. I mean, what if you were a Democratic or Republican consultant? Well, there you go. You're on one side or the other. If you sell Jewish religious items again, there you go. You know you're going after a certain market and you don't really care or expect to get business from other markets. The bottom line here is that you have to decide what's right for you. I choose to keep my mouth shut on divisive issues other than one that I'll tell you about in a minute. But I'm happy to sell my services to anybody, regardless of their political beliefs, sexual orientation or religious affiliation, or whatever else is going on with them. Ok. But the one thing that crosses the line with me is if you are fraudulent, I will come out against you and dare you to sue me because I don't come out against someone unless I have evidence.

[00:11:21] And so, anyway, that's my one stand I'll take regardless of the loss of business, and I got to tell you, I've done very well not making deals with the devil, which a lot of internet scammers are. I mean, I could do way more business had I made deals with these people, but I would have to promote them knowing that they're going to rob you, and that is a line I will not cross. So anyway, that's the gray man principle. You have to decide, are you going to take stands or you're just going to stay middle of the road so that you can get business from both sides? And both ways will work, but you have to decide what's right for you. But I'll tell you what what's really right for you is if you help me out on this Go Fund Me campaign for persons with disabilities. Check it out at IMTCVA.org/disabilities and you can be really proud of what we're doing with the money, and you can see updates over at the Go Fund Me campaign of how people are doing. All right, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. We'll catch you on the next episode, which is still part of that first month.

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