Unstoppable Success: Knowing What’s Your first Domino | The Domino Effect

Achieving great things often starts with the first domino…

People ask us all the time, where do I start? How do I achieve greatness? Where do I start with my marketing? What’s going to get my business ‘there’?

All good questions, and they can all be answered with one simply analogy we love:

The Domino Effect

I.e. Who or what is your first domino that will automatically trigger an unstoppable chain reaction knocking over every other obstacle in your path to success. Figure that out, and you have instantly created a path to success with no obstacles to get in your way.

You may be skeptical but this effect is so powerful. Now we don’t want to go all cheesy here but it is absolutely true – dreams are going to be made after reading this article.

Let’s give you a few examples…

1. When running an event or conference, you may have a few things that will draw people in, but what’s that one thing that will draw people in? For most events it’s a really big name speaker. Once you have them, any other big speakers will want to share the stage with them also (more often than not for free – just to share the same stage). Whereas if you started with smaller speakers first and tried to build up, the really big speaker wouldn’t want to know. Moreover, once the really big speaker is confirmed, more people will want to come so you sell tickets easier. Following on from that, news that there will be large crowds draws in yet more speakers and more people. What’s more, because you have all this building up it is more likely the press will take interest and get involved. Do you see the domino effect here? It all came from that first big domino – getting in the really big speaker. If you can focus on that and nail it, the rest is a doddle.

2. Guests on Podcasts. Too often people don’t go for the people they know to feature on them, not pushing themselves to go for the really big names to be their guest. This is a shame, and destines the podcast (and this is the same with webinars etc) to never reach greatness. That one BIG name could be the first domino that will lead to a bigger listenership, more subscribers and a bigger audience that will attract even more big name guests in an ever more upwards cycle of prosperity.

This idea doesn’t have to always centre around influencers, it’s just an easy example. Here’s another example that doesn’t involve influencers:

3. We know a company who won a business award extremely quickly after setting up her business. Oh boy did this have a tremendous effect! Instantly she could hit the ground running, charge higher prices and attract better clients. The bigger clients create an environment whereby successes on projects are more likely, and thus news of ‘how well’ she was doing spread fast. PR releases and speaking gigs all came to follow. All this from that one award – her first domino. 

4. Writing a book – if you have a physical book, everyone looks up to you like you are a god! We wrote a blog on this phenomenon. It is the ultimate status symbol of a credible expert – yet despite it being easer than ever most people never get round to doing it. So perhaps a book is your first domino for what you want to achieve, maybe because of the book you will feel confident about raising your prices, doing more speaking gigs, or appearing on webinars, podcasts or even TV shows. This will lead to a bigger audience, more sales, maybe awards, and god knows what… We have seen quite a few people use this technique to powerful effect. 

Too often though people don’t leap up to that all important first domino. Instead they think that they will build up to it. Ever heard this come out of your lips: “we’ll start off small and then next time it should just grow and grow slowly but surely.”

This is a lie we tell ourselves. It is ‘Hope Marketing.’

This is imposter syndrome at its best. We don’t want to fail, nobody does, that’s human nature – so all the time we set ‘realistic’ goals.

Remember this quote:

“Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land amongst the stars.” Norman Vincent Peale

That’s our point, dare to reach for that first domino. It’s easier than you think. And even if you fail, you will A) be proud that you tried and; B) be further on that you were if you set a mediocre goal that was realistic.

Realistic goals mean that you aren’t pushing yourself. If you are not pushing yourself then you are destined not to achieve your potential. We’re sorry for the harshness, but it needs to be said. Some people are just cruising, step it up people! We want you to be a success! 😀

So today, we challenge you to not slowly grow, but rather LEAP ahead and figure out who/what that first domino is for your business or event – then go knock ’em down!

It may be a big speaker, it might be an award, it may be a high profile testimonial, it may be featuring on a big news site or radio show… whatever it is for you – focus on nailing that one thing. Rather than spreading your time doing 100 other things.

Once you can knock over that first domino, everything else becomes so much easier. Your path is set.

ACTION: Brainstorm what that first domino is for you.

ACTION: Do everything you can to get that domino ‘knocked over’. Be creative, pull out all the stops, aim to impress, put the work in, aim high and be persistent. You can do it.

Remember you can use this principle in everything you from big projects, small projects, and to non business projects too.

Let us know in the comments box what your first domino is and how you’re going to take on our challenge.