#TheBestYou Peter Hoppenfeld has worked with personal development giants including ...
BARBARA DE ANGELIS
BRENDON BURCHARD
CHARLES J GIVENS
T HARV EKER
franchise sector. Through networking that he came to direct marketing, which he calls the "soft underbelly" of marketing. "There are billions of dollars in the world of direct marketing, which has nothing to do with placing an advertisement on the TV or in the newspapers." He says it's quite an art, and "it's something the players in Wall Street know nothing about."
His first large contact with self help came way back in the 1980s with Charles J Givens, who was the major financial guru in the US at the time. He was running seminars, he had a multi-level marketing operation, a membership club, a monthly newsletter, TV appearances, infomercials, bestselling books. It was the ultimate way to see how it all worked.
Peter also saw how it didn't work, when Givens also became embroiled in scandal - an insight and experience that he brings to his clients to this day.
Peter sees his role as that of honest voice to his clients. He is a smart, detached observer who maintains a professional distance that enables him to give the best advice on a number of subjects, unclouded by his clients' reputations. It is a great lesson for anyone working in the business, and it is this that has given him his staying power.
He is focussed on depersonalising his view
of the business, understanding that many of the people he works with are also brands that have to be managed in this way. At the same time, when he works with them, he sees them not as "rock stars" as many of their clients see them, but as mothers, fathers, daughters and sons. "They are people with foibles and their own approach to the world. I never get stars in my eyes. I let the people I work with know exactly how I see them, and give them the best advice for the both them and the brand they represent. I try to understand the client's risk tolerance, too."
The advice he has to give to someone setting up in the Personal Development business, he says: "You can't appoint yourself a thought leadrer. The idea that everyone is an expert and can sell their expertise is wrong. You really have to passionate about what you do and you need to have something of value to bring to the table. If you have that and it's well developed and you've given it some thought, that's a great starting point. But to think you are an expert in something when you haven't accomplished it yourself - that just doesn't work."
So, what drives Peter? His answer: "To aspire to greatness. To do the best you can do, and not to settle for average."
"I've always said, give me a 9 on the give a sh** scale." He tells me. "It's vital to care, and to engage."
“There are billions of
dollars in the
world of direct marketing, which has
nothing to do
with placing an advert on the TV or in the newspapers”
If there is one piece of the Kool Aid that he has drunk, then, he admits, it is T Harv Eker's piece of advice:
"How you do anything is how you do everything." It's this attitude that makes him one of the best. b