It’s tempting to be a crusader marketer, but it’s risky.

Doctor Dorian Paskowitz, MD, author of Surfing and Health: Live Long, Live Well is an example of someone who experienced the risk & reward of being the messenger to a neglected market niche. His sacrifice led to surfing endorsements, one of the most prominent surfing camps for children in the world, and of course his best selling book.

The Paskowitz Family Surf Camp is a summer home for our children for many of us who called San Diego home for years.

Witness his complete dedication in this brief video below.

It’s extreme, but Doctor Paskowitz in marketing terms matched his message to a neglected market niche minority. Here is what he did:

• Credibility. Doctor Paskowitz helped to shape the stories that he wanted people to share after hearing his story. He lived the life he was telling others to live. People, even those who did not agree with his lifestyle, respected his sacrifices of walking away and re-inventing himself.
  
• Work hard to make similar stories come true for others. Doctor Paskowitz wanted his 9 children and the world to know his life philosophy. He cared so much about helping others that he has been accused of only trying to help himself.
• Teach people what they already know to be true. People know if you don’t have a great attitude of the mind, fail to eat to nourish your body and don’t get enough rest or recreation that you will be unhappy and not capable of taking care of yourself and others you love in this world. His message was obvious to all, but followed by only a dedicated few.

Here are some action steps for you:

• Make your About page on your website a story vs. a commercial of useless features and benefits.
• Develop a tactful online and offline process for prospects to exclude themselves from what you have to offer so you don’t have to waste any time doing it yourself.

Doctor Paskowitz risked it all, but was the reward worth the risk?

Resistance and risk are no strangers. Steven Pressfield says it this way about resistance towards risk:

“Resistance’s goal is not to wound or disable. Resistance aims to kill. Its target is the epicenter of our being: our genius, our soul, the unique and priceless gift we were put on earth to give and that no one else has but us. Resistance means business. When we fight it, we are in a war to the death.”

The big idea is that you must have a complete dedication to your authentic story or you will not be believed. The reward is risky.