Small Business Success

Great Falls Development Alliance Brings Destination Business Expert to Montana
August 13, 2026 in Small Business Success by

Jon Schallert, the international Destination Business expert who has helped transform small businesses and communities for more than 30 years, will address leaders in Shelby and Great Falls, Montana, October 6-7, sponsored by Great Falls Development Alliance.

‘I’ve wanted to bring Jon up to Montana for a long time,” said Brett Doney, the Alliance’s President and CEO who attended Schallert’s first Destination BootCamp more than 25 years ago.

“I think Jon’s strategies could be of real use to a wide variety of businesses in our region,” Doney said. “He takes a very practical approach. A lot of what Jon teaches is common sense and his ways to do it that are realistic with the time and resources that a small business has.”

Great Falls, population 60,000, is at the center of a 13-county, 46,000-square-mile region east of Glacier National Park with 200,000 people and an economy focused mostly on farming, ranching, and military employment.

“The biggest challenge has been low earnings, so we’ve been trying to restructure the economy to bring in opportunity for higher-wage jobs,” Doney said. “Entrepreneurship is a big part of that. We have a lot of potential to grow tourism in our region – outdoor activities, cultural activities, recreation. It’s a big focus of ours.”

Rural towns suffered from a decline in agriculture jobs driven by efficiency, and many local businesses closed under competition from mail-order and internet sales.

“Now there’s a resurgence…but a lot of it is based on creative entrepreneurship,” Doney said. “Your market can’t just be 200 people in town. If you can become a destination, that really expands the market, not just capturing tourism dollars but getting people in the surrounding area to travel on a regular basis.

Schallert has conducted his “Destination Business Workshops” in nearly 700 communities, including many rural towns and downtown business districts. In each of those communities, Schallert interviewed owners in their places of business, accumulating a count of interviewing over 10,000 owners in their locations.

His strategy focuses on a 14-step process of promoting the one-of-a-kind qualities of each business and providing an irresistible experience for consumers who are drawn from miles away, as well as attracting a greater number of locals.

Doney expects Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development, Main Street and Tourism officials from across Montana, along with business owners to attend. “Every region of the state has businesses that can benefit from this,” he said.

To register for either of these workshops, follow these links:

For Shelby’s October 6 Destination Workshop, click here.

For the Great Falls October 7 Destination Workshop, click here

NC Certification Requirement #6 and Rich Carraro Zoom Links
August 4, 2026 in Small Business Success by

This is Jon Schallert and if you joined me last week for my workshops in Stateville and Goldsboro, thank you!

If you were unable to attend, you still have the opportunity to become a Certified NC Destination Business by learning on your own through the Destination University library and completing the Certification Checklist (which can be downloaded once you’re in Destination University).

There are seven (7) Certification Criteria to become a Destination Business and in 2024 and 2025, many owners fell short of the goal because they did not complete Requirement #6, creating a Brand Image.

Here is what needs to be completed in Certification Requirement #6:

You must watch the webinar “Zen and the Art of Destination Advertising” by Rich Carraro, OR have listened to a live presentation by Rich. Then, you must email Jon a photo of the Brand Image that your business uses to convey your business uniqueness. Email it to [email protected]”

To help you achieve this goal, Rich Carraro of Clownbike Advertising will be conducting two (2) Live Zoom webinars: One on Wednesday, August 12 and one on Thursday, August 13 and both will be conducted at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time. The length of the webinar is typically between 30 to 45 minutes, not including questions.

If you are serious about having your business become a Certified NC Destination Business, I strongly recommend you attend one of these live Zoom webinars with Rich. It is the easiest way to be able to learn what qualifies for a Brand Image and then, you also have the opportunity to pick Rich’s brain during the Q&A.

Below are the links to the two Zoom webinars below, under my name. Make sure you click on the correct link on the day you want to attend.

Thank you!   Jon Schallert

Click on the link below to attend the Zoom Meeting with Richard Carraro for Wednesday 8/12/26 at 8am EST

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88460648447?pwd=64mAna233RkWLmwOv4WQ8woSmwkhOg.1

Click on the link below to attend the Zoom Meeting with Richard Carraro for Thursday 8/13/26 at 8am EST

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82363038065?pwd=C7HlLTggFFPyWuojDQbViJRoAyG9HO.1

24 Points of Uniqueness, Why McD’s Won’t Ever be a Destination, “I am So Inspired”, Creating Consumer Magnets, and a 45 Second Contest
July 25, 2023 in Small Business Success by

It’s July 2023, and here are your inspirational, educational Destination tidbits to get you through whatever part of the day or night you’re in.

Please read this all the way to the end and you’ll find a link to take a 45-second survey. If you complete it, you could win something that no one in your city or state owns.

First up: I’m going to share with you how to pull customers to your business from hundreds of miles away. And if you’re a community leader, I’m going to tell you how your local businesses could be attracting more high-spending customers to your area.

All of this would be kind of nice to know, don’t you think?

OK, stay with me on this: When I go to a McDonald’s to buy two of their cheeseburgers, I always do so in a moment of weakness, usually while driving, usually stress-filled, and while time-rushed. I always buy two cheeseburgers because they always taste exactly the same. Ketchup, mustard and little tasteless onions, all randomly scattered and squirted across a miniscule piece of meat on a soft, flavorless bun.

Perfect!

This is when I realize that I can be motivated by McD’s brand consistency. I do NOT want surprises, I do NOT want whatever’s new. I go there NOT to get a great burger, but to get the repeatable satisfaction of tasting something that is decades familiar.

McD’s is NOT a Destination business. They will never be. They would never take my Destination BootCamp class and even if they did, they would NEVER be able to pull customers from hundreds of miles away. Why? Because their business model is based on creating sameness and consistency. When I go into any of the 181 McD’s in Colorado, or 29 McD’s in Vermont, or the 1,165 of them in California, or the rest of the 40,000 of them around the world, I can count on them to create the familiar food buzz I’ve been addicted to for over 50 years.

But, if you want to be a Destination, you must create surprises, and the extraordinary, and you must be positively amazing and unexpected. And that all comes not from sameness and replication, but from creating the unique and one-of-a-kind.

So, here’s what we know about being unique. We know consumers respond positively to 24 points of uniqueness that they love and find fascinating. I’m not going to tell you the 24 points here, but you should know that they are like little buttons in a consumer’s mind, and when you correctly create uniqueness in one of these 24 ways, consumers say things like: “I like that!” Or, “I’ve never heard of that!” or “I want to go see that place!” or best, “I only want to buy from that place!”

Uniqueness is the start of creating a Destination Business. It is the foundation of creating customer insistence. And if you’re an independent business, Uniqueness gives you 24 tools that chains and franchises cannot use.

Want to learn more? Read on.

Second, registration is now open for our upcoming Destination BootCamp in Denver, Colorado on October 17-19, 2023. Below is the April, 2023 class and they have all learned those 24 points of Uniqueness and my entire 14-step Destination process.

This was a brilliant group. I was told repeatedly by them that they learned things they’d never heard before with a group of people they’ll never forget.

Now, our upcoming October 17-19 Destination BootCamp is being held at a fantastic hotel with amazingly affordable pricing, and when you stay there, you’ll receive so many free amenities, including our Monday night (your arrival day), BootCamp Open House with free drinks and appetizers.

The free treats and drinks and surprises are all fun, but remember that everything you will learn in this class has already been tested and shown to work because I interviewed over 10,000 independent business owners in over 600 communities and I took the smartest, most successful ones who shared their top secrets with me and created a 2.5 day class.

By the way, we ask every attendee who takes the BootCamp this one question: “How would you describe your BootCamp experience?” Here’s what one attendee wrote:

“I have so much work to do; I am so inspired; I need to get back to the office! I know how to fix what has been broken! I want to do it all NOW. Thank you for breaking that block up so I can take the steps necessary to make the changes.”

Again, these aren’t my words. Go to www.DestinationBootCamp.com if you want to register or learn more.

Third: If you’re a community leader who would like to dramatically improve the business conditions of your area, you should know about our 2023 Community Reinvention Program. The Community Reinvention Program is where your organization sends a group of independent business owners and a Community Coordinator to my BootCamp and then, I come to your community and consult with those businesses.

If you haven’t read about our 2023 Program, Click hereto download the PDF that you can share with your city’s leaders and your Board members, and if you’d like to learn more, go to www.CommunityReinventionProgram.com.

Fourth, our Destination Train-the-Trainer class is September 5-7. This is the class for trainers, educators, and community-inspired leaders who want to help their local businesses with a class that teaches the basics of my Destination process, by becoming a certified Facilitator of my Destination Creation Course.

We currently have certified Facilitators in 27 states and 3 Canadian Provinces. There are 50 United States and 10 Canadian Provinces. (Do the math: 23 States and 7 Provinces are not represented)

But we are about to have our first Facilitator in Italy! è fantastico!

To see if your area is represented and to learn more, go to www.DestinationCreationCourse.com, or call me directly.

Fifth, here’s the 45-second survey and how you can be a winner!

If you’ve made it this far, I’ll tell you that the prize that will be awarded is a Hamster Escaping His Wheel t-shirt.

Why are we giving away a Hamster escaping his wheel shirt? Because business owners who take my class tell me they feel empowered, renewed, and that their businesses is no longer running them like a hamster on the wheel.

So, we created the design below, and now, you can win this shirt!

To take the 45-second survey, just click here.

That’s it for this newsletter.

Let me hear your thoughts, problems, and successes! My email address is [email protected] and you have my office number below.

Thanks,
Jon

The Power of Shortcuts, Best Advice Starting 2023, and a Cow that Comes When She’s Called
January 26, 2023 in Blog, Competing in Today's Economy, Destination BootCamp, Small Business Advice, Small Business Success by

So much to cover in this blog post, so let’s start with:

The Power of Shortcuts

This Christmas, I received a new phone. Technically, it’s new to me, but not new (it’s an iPhone 12), but compared to my old iPhone Zero, it’s amazing.

I was trying to figure out some complicated process with it and my son walked by. He watched me for about 10 seconds and then said: “Dad, what are you trying to do?”

I told him.

“Well, just do this.” And he took my phone and with a few click-here’s, a click-there, one swipe this way… he did what I wanted to do.

Young whippersnapper. For him, it really wasn’t so complicated.

It pays to know shortcuts.

In business, there are Shortcuts, too

I just spoke at an amazing conference with hundreds of business owners in my audience and every one of them was a top producing business. I believe most of the owners (if not all of them), ran multi-million-dollar companies and they were all at the top of their game.

But before I spoke to this group, I had interviewed over a dozen of these owners to learn more about problems they were having. And with each interview I completed, with every owner I spoke to, I had a long list of notes on ways these owners were running their businesses ineffectively and how they could run them more easily.

You see, these owners were all marketing their businesses in the hardest way possible. They were using methods that really don’t work well (sometimes don’t work at all) AND techniques that cost them a lot of time and money AND steps that allowed their competition to copy them.

The majority of these owners didn’t know that there are business shortcuts that Destination Business owners use to attract more customers, at less cost, with less time expended, with techniques that make it nearly impossible for your business to be copied by competitors.


Would you like to learn these Destination Shortcuts? Learn them here:

Here’s some Big News on our Destination BootCamp class, the only 2½ day class where I teach my entire 14-step strategy to make your business a Destination.

Registration will open soon for our first live, in-person (everyone sitting in the same room, learning and talking to each other with me presenting in front of the room!), Destination BootCamp class.

This will first in-person Destination BootCamp class since 2020 and this one will be held on April 25-27.

We’re finishing all the hotel details now and our DestinationBootCamp.com website will be taking registrations soon, but if you want to be notified immediately when the site is live, just email me at [email protected] and I’ll shoot you an email first.

Upcoming February 7-9 Destination Train-the-Trainer class:

If you would like to become one of our certified Facilitators who can lead our Destination Creation Course (my shortened version of the BootCamp), make sure you register now for our class on February 7-9, (presented virtually via Zoom).

When you complete the Destination Train-the-Trainer Facilitator class, you’ll join the list of our North American Facilitators who can lead business owners through my class right in your community.

To see our USA Facilitators, click here, and to see our Canadian Facilitators, click here.

When you’re on the DestinationCreationCourse.com website, you can also click on the Facilitator map to find if you State or Province has a Facilitator in it yet.

If you’re wondering if this class would be good for you, your association, or your community, just give me a call at (970) 281-2923. This class isn’t for everyone, but you might just be our next, great Facilitator bringing Destination training to business owners who need it.

My Top Piece of Advice for 2023

Here’s my go-to piece of advice for 2023 and I found this nugget of wisdom on a greeting card. Everyone reading this e-newsletter should paste this on their mirror, look at it daily, and buy a couple of these cards to send to your best friends. Click here to see my advice:

Thank you, Near Modern Disaster greeting card company, for creating this!

 The cow who comes when I call her

Here’s something to smile about: Every time Peg and I go to our daughter’s farm, we help her with her cows, steers and chickens.

A couple of years ago, we went with her to a dairy that had several baby calves they wanted to sell and as our daughter picked out the ones she wanted to buy, I roamed around the barn. There in a back stall was a little, shy calf that had a face like Bambi. Big eyes, teetering on her young legs, looking right at me.

“I want this one,” I told my daughter.

Jenna told me that she’d already spent the money she brought to buy the calves she wanted. They were already being loaded in her trailer.

So, I asked her, “How about if I buy her?”

She agreed, I paid, and I immediately named her Fawn.

Fast forward to today, and that little calf has grown up, and still remembers me. In fact, when I go to our daughter’s farm, I can call Fawn from the edge of the fence and she comes running.

For your entertainment: If you’d like to see and hear me calling my cow, click here to see the YouTube video.

Wrap-Up

Don’t overthink 2023. Learn something new. Use powerful shortcuts.

Attend a Destination class!

And you’ll be prepared for whatever economy we find ourselves in this year.

Thanks!

Jon Schallert

Insights, Updates, a Contest and a Laugh for August 27
August 27, 2022 in Small Business Success by

Here are some insights, updates, a contest and a BIG LAUGH to help keep your mind growing.

Let’s start with Insights:

First, this isn’t so much an insight as my desire to have an insight: I don’t understand why our CPA won’t let us write off our pet expenses on our taxes?  They’re part of the company, they’re definitely an expense item, they’re like very hairy interns with great personalities, and they stay in the office when I fly to speak at a conference, just like my office desk and bookcase.

Someone, help me understand.

Second: Here’s our company cat, Sunny, and her response to me writing this newsletter. Formerly a feral cat, she’s made herself at home on my desk.

Third, if you think that a Convention and Visitors Bureau that helps attract visitors and tourists to a community can’t benefit from one of my Destination workshops, just read the article that was written on the workshop I conducted in Norman, Oklahoma for the VisitNorman team, the city’s Destination Marketing Organization. Click here to read it

The Most Disturbing Business Question

I’ve come to realize that one of the toughest, most disturbing questions I can ever ask business owners is this: “What parts of your business are average or below average, compared to your competitors?”

Every business owner can answer this. Fast. Every single one of them. Owners naturally evaluate what parts of their businesses are the same or below average every single waking minute of every day so when you ask them, it’s right there, at the top of their consciousness.

And if you’re an owner who is unsure of your average or most lacking parts of your business, just ask 10 customers. They’ll tell you. If they’re regular customers, they see the same below-average components you do. By the way, most customers who know you won’t want to hurt your feelings or get into a discussion about it, but they know. Oh, they know!

A Contest for You!

I’m going to award one of my nifty “Hamster Escaping his Wheel” post-it note desk packs (you can see one in the foreground of the Sunny the cat photo link on Instagram, link above), to five (5) newsletter readers. Just email me at [email protected] and tell me what’s average or below average in your business, and I’ll pick five (5) winners with the most honest assessments and send you prize. Be sure to send me your mailing address, too.

Smartest Coffee Shop: Is Your Business as Smart?

My wife recently tried a new coffee shop and signed up for their loyalty program with their app. Immediately after her very first purchase, the store emailed her a certificate for a free cup of coffee, any size.

This shop is brilliant! Peg made one purchase and she received an immediate reward, unlike some coffee shops that ask you to make ten purchases and get your card punched ten times and then, you get a free drink.

Giving a free incentive away early to a new customer helps create a repeat customer more quickly, and that’s really what a business wants, isn’t it? You want to train a customer to come back, again and again, and in the process, spend as little on marketing as you can to get them to return.

Honestly, the fundamental challenge of any business is to turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer for as little as possible, and the largest hurdle to this is between the first visit and the potential second visit.

This coffee shop understands that, and frontloads the incentive after visit #1, not after visit #10, so what happens is: Peg gets more coffee. For free! Plus, like every other consumer, Peg was expecting that she’d have to visit a bunch of times before she got anything free (because every other coffee shop makes you visit ten times and get ten punches), but with this coffee shop and their “give it away early” technique, she’s totally caught off guard and surprised.

Surprising customers with unexpected goodness creates great repeat customers!

Write that down.

I don’t come up with this stuff too often.

Look at it another way. This early incentive also gave this coffee shop the chance to lure her back, if her first visit was a poor one!

Think about how your loyalty/customer reward program works. Think about how you’re turning a one-timer into a full-time repeat customer. Front loading great surprises for first time customers into your loyalty program is one of those high impact, low effort activities that you need to move up to the top of your to-do list.


Upcoming Opportunities and Deadlines

Our final virtual (via Zoom) Destination Train-the-Trainer class of 2022 happens in 3 weeks on September 13-15. This is the class you must attend if you want to become a certified Facilitator of my Destination Creation Course, (my condensed version of my Destination process) where you can start offering this class in your own community or for your association.

Our registration deadline is Tuesday, September 6 at 12:00 noon Mountain time if you want to be in this training class. Click here to learn more: DestinationCreationCourse.com

One more thing that we’re VERY EXCITED ABOUT ANNOUNCING!

The Great Lakes Community Action Partnership (GLCAP) is adding the Destination Creation Course to their small business trainings and three (3) members of their team have become certified Facilitators.

As one of our newest Facilitators said in the article, when business owners take the Destination Creation Course: “You’re creating a sustainable and successful small business and helping the community as a whole.”

Click here to learn why the GLCAP agency that consults with businesses in a 7-state region is praising and using our Course in their entrepreneurial programs. Link is:

https://www.destinationcreationcourse.com/great-lakes-community-action-partnership-adds-the-destination-creation-course-to-its-rural-business-trainings/


Open to the Public Destination Workshops/Conferences in Michigan, New York, Wisconsin, and Virginia

 

In the coming 3 months, I’ll be speaking in the following communities and at these conferences (many of which are Main Street downtowns). If you want more information about that presentation, just click on the link.


Wednesday, September 28, Pontiac, Michigan, sponsored by Main Street Pontiac:  https://mainstreetpontiac.org

Monday, October 3, Livingston County, New York, sponsored by Livingston County Economic Development and the Livingston Downtown Partnership: https://www.growlivco.com/ and https://www.growlivco.com/downtown

Monday, October 17, Ripon, Wisconsin, sponsored by Ripon Main Street: https://www.riponmainst.com

Tuesday, November 13-15, Norfolk, Virginia, at the VA1 Virginia Governor’s Tourism Summit:  https://va1tourismsummit.org

 

Final Laugh

If you haven’t seen the Chewy commercial with Ralph and Georgio, it’s become my favorite Summer laugh, mostly because Ralph reminds me of our Bernese Mountain dog. See for yourself here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nRuiZbb1D8

Thanks, Everyone!

Let me hear your questions and successes by emailing [email protected]

It’s 2022: Get Massive Free Publicity & How to Help Rural Businesses, Canadian-Style
January 11, 2022 in Destination Creation Course, Small Business Success by

It’s 2022: Get Massive Free Publicity & How to Help Rural Businesses, Canadian-Style

This is Jon Schallert and in my first 2022 newsletter, I have a 100% surefire method for you to get your business MASSIVE FREE PUBLICITY that uses a technique that was first unveiled 20 years ago, plus I’ll show you how one business organization in North America has figured out how to connect business owners who are separated geographically by a 20,000 square mile region (that’s 32,500 square kilometers in Canada), while helping them drive customers and sales to their businesses.

But first, if you’re a business leader or training professional, think about this:

Have you ever thought about helping independent business owners learn new techniques to grow their businesses and strengthen your community?

If so, you are the perfect candidate to become one of my certified Facilitators to lead my Destination Creation Course in your community or State.

Most of our certified Facilitators are currently working in roles like Main Street Managers, Chamber Directors, SBDC Counselors, or in the field of Economic Development. And to be successful as one of our Facilitators, you do NOT have to be a business expert to lead this class.

Just to be clear, this class that you’d be leading is NOT my Destination BootCamp, my entire 14-step, 3-day class. The Destination Creation Course is my simplified version of my Destination process.

As one of our Facilitators, you’d lead local business owners through the Destination Creation Course right in your own community, or you can choose to conduct the course online. We provide you with the training and all the recorded webinar content and a digital workbook for every attendee. Regardless of how you deliver the class, both methods are designed to generate a profitable return on your time investment, and that revenue can go to you or to your organization.

If this sounds intriguing, I have a Destination Train-the-Trainer class next week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, January 18-20. To attend next week’s class, you must register with us by this Thursday, January 13th by 9:00 a.m. Mountain time. (If this is too quick for you to react, I also have another class scheduled in March, 2022).

Currently, we have over 60 Facilitators in 23 States and 2 provinces in Canada and we are looking to add Facilitators to our team. Want to see where we need Facilitators? Just click on our map:

https://www.destinationcreationcourse.com/facilitator-locator/

Learn more about becoming one of our Facilitators or bringing the Destination Creation Course to your area, go to www.DestinationCreationCourse.com

Next up, the If-Then Challenge

In 2001, the public relations firm that represented Pepsi announced that if the 135-ton Soviet Mir Space Station (which was crashing back to Earth after 15 years in orbit), hit a floating, 40 foot by 40 foot vinyl target that Taco Bell had placed in the ocean, that they would then give every American a taco.

What happened next was that hundreds of television, newspaper, and radio outlets picked up the story and publicized it. A massive publicity tsunami flowed for Taco Bell.

Not mentioned in the press release was the fact that the ocean consists of 139 million square miles of water and the company’s promise was contingent upon the space station hitting the 160 square foot target which had the company logo and the words “Free Taco Here!”

Now, if the space station did hit that tiny target, every American would receive a free taco, equaling 300 million tacos, a huge expense for the company.

I like to call this challenge the “If-Then Challenge”. Create an unlikely event with a huge payoff. It starts people wondering: Will this space station really hit the float? And the media loves jumps on this oddity and talks about it.

Be forewarned that this publicity event cannot be used repeatedly with the same media people. If you do this annually, it will become stale, but once in every couple of years, the media will love this!

Oh, and to make sure you don’t go bankrupt on the “Then”, look up Hole-in-One insurance policies and get one before you do this.

Creating Destination Businesses in Saskatchewan, Canada

Finally, I want to tell you about a call I received late last year:

I received a call from an organization in Canada called Community Futures Sunrise and two members of their team wanted to talk to me about the success they were having with my Destination Creation Course.

At the time, I didn’t know what Community Futures Sunrise was, but I soon learned that this Canadian organization is part of a group of nearly 300 offices across the country providing loans, business advice, and business support to entrepreneurs and business owners in southeast Saskatchewan. The Sunrise office covers a huge area of geography in southeast Saskatchewan, over 32,500 square kilometers (that’s over 20,000 square miles), helping businesses in 43 rural municipalities, 54 urban municipalities and three First Nations communities, serving a total population of approximately 65,000.

I learned that this organization was engaged in using our Destination Creation Course in a way that no other group was running classes, and their results were continuing months after the course had been completed.

I don’t want to rewrite the whole story here because I had writer Gene Stowe interview the Sunrise team and he has allowed me to post the story on my blog.
If you’d like to learn about this innovative use of my class in a rural setting that is helping independent business owners create revenue increases during this pandemic, take the time to read this incredible story by clicking here.

That’s it for the January, 2022.

Again, if you want to reach out to me, I’m at [email protected]

Thanks, Everyone!

Jon

3 Keys to Becoming a Destination Business: My Post-Thanksgiving Blog
December 14, 2021 in Blog, Small Business Success by

3 Keys to Becoming a Destination Business: My Post-Thanksgiving Blog

This newsletter started out as a Thanksgiving post, but evolved into the 3 keys to growing a business into a Destination, a $300 discount code for owners (near the end), and a promotion that could be worth well over $1,000 for any association or community that wants to have me speak in person in 2022.

All this, in this newsletter.

But, I started with Thanksgiving in mind and began by mentioning the people I am thankful for who helped me over the years:

  • I started with Karen Slevin, the Eustis Florida Main Street Director, the first Main Street Director to walk me around her downtown when I was totally clueless about downtowns.
  • Then came Ronni Wood from Winter Haven Florida, the first Main Street Manager to hire me to speak to her downtown businesses.
  • Then, Glenda Purkis, the Atchison, Kansas Chamber of Commerce Director who first hired me for an out-of-state speaking engagement.

And as I kept writing, I wanted to thank the owners who shared with me how they created their businesses, and though I couldn’t remember all of their names, I remembered how they unselfishly told me how they created their profitable businesses in marketplaces that often had demographic disadvantages, low population density, high unemployment, or low household income. And these owners persevered, creating many multi-million-dollar businesses there.

Which brings me to Key #1: Some of the greatest Destination Businesses operating today were created in cities and towns where a market analysis of that area said they’d never make it.

I thought about the Destination doll house maker I’d met in a struggling town in West Virginia; a Destination dry cleaner in rural Indiana that specialized in mascot costumes; a Destination heating & air conditioning company (in Kellogg cereal’s hometown); a green tea importer in Oregon; a Destination yarn retailer in Maine; and a Destination flak jacket manufacturer who created protective vests and sold them to pro rodeo riders (if you guessed Texas, you were right.)

Which brings me to Key #2: Destination Business aren’t just restaurants and entertainment venues (as one well-known consultant told hundreds at a conference). It’s any business that wants to attract more consumers.

Which brought my mind to a marketing professor from a college where I was speaking who introduced me as a speaker who specialized in business differentiation.

He was wrong, and that brings me to:

Key #3: Being different has nothing to do with becoming a Destination. Being different doesn’t cut it. Forget differentiation because Destination Businesses must be Unique and one-of-a-kind. “Existing as the only one” says Merriam and Webster, the married dictionary couple.

If you are an owner who wants to make your business Unique, this step will often mean there will be times when everyone in your industry, your neighbor in the business next door, and your family sitting at your dinner table, all might think that your ideas are illogical and impractical.

“No one does that,” they’ll say.”

That’s OK. I tell owners to trust their crazy ideas. Nearly all Destination Business owners have told me that they went in a different direction from the majority of their industry.

Here’s a simple example in an email I received last week. You’ll see what I mean:

“I want to thank you for expanding my mind to bigger ideas! I ended up with an extra 5000 copies of my holiday gift guide and decided I would send them out to towns and cities outside my area. I did an EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail), to cities that were from 60 to 110 miles away, to their highest earning routes! We are getting orders and calls like crazy! My website is on fire! Thank you! Before I met you, I would have never considered paying for towns that far away to get our catalog!

The Destination process I teach isn’t for owners who want to maintain their existing sales volume. It is designed for owners who want to get their businesses to generate a higher level of revenue that gives them the income they need, without their business consuming their lives.

That’s the trick.

So, I hope this non-Thanksgiving newsletter has been beneficial to you.

Here’s something else that might help:

Our 2022 Destination Training Schedule and Incentives

We are now taking registrations on these four (4) classes that kick off in 2022.

First, our Destination BootCamp, 3-day, online class that covers my entire 14-step Destination strategy. We have two (2) online Destination BootCamp classes scheduled in the first half of 2022:

  1. February 22-24, 2022 (click here for the February BootCamp class), or
  1. May 10-12, 2022 (click here for the May BootCamp class)

Additionally, if you register for either of these BootCamp classes by December 31, 2021, and you type in the Promotion Code SAVE2021, you will save $300.00 off the tuition fee!

Again, Promo Code SAVE2021 (all CAPS, all 1 word), and you’ll save $300 per registration.

Second, for those of you who are community leaders, Main Street Managers, Chamber Directors, SBDC Counselors, or you are a person who wants to train businesses in your community to help them generate more revenue, you might consider becoming one of our certified Facilitators of my Destination Creation Course.

The Destination Creation Course is my simplified version of my Destination process that’s taught by Facilitators all over North America. We have Facilitators in 23 States and 2 provinces in Canada.

To become a Facilitator, you must take my Train-the-Trainer class and two (2) classes are scheduled for 2022:

  1. January 18-20, 2022 (click here to learn more), or
  1. March 8-10, 2022 (click here to learn more).

Want to see where we need Facilitators? Just click here to see our map. You could become our first Facilitator in our State or Province.

Finally, If your association, organization, or community is interested in having me conduct an in-person single-day or multi-day workshop for your group in 2022, we have a year-end promotion that could save your organization tremendously. But don’t delay – this promotion ends December 31, 2021. To learn more, go to: Jonschallert.com/year-end-promotion

That’s it for my non-Thanksgiving newsletter! Let me know what you liked or disliked. Reach out at [email protected] or give me a call at my office (970) 281-2923.

Thanks!

Puyallup Main Street Hosts “New Rules of Small Business” Workshop After Pandemic Delay
October 8, 2021 in Jon Schallert Blog, Small Business Success, Small Business Success by

What was supposed to happen in 2020, finally happened on October 5 with business owners from the City of Puyallup, Main Street Directors from multiple downtowns, and business owners from all over the State of Washington joining me for my “New Rules of Small Business Success” 1-day, in-person workshop.

Puyallup Main Street Jon Schallert workshop

There aren’t a lot of in-person conferences right now, but this one was successful thanks to the Puyallup Main Street Program and the help of multiple sponsors, including the City of Puyallup.

What was also extraordinary about this event was the attendance from multiple groups and individuals in the City who came together for this event.

In my audience were six (6) Puyallup Main Street Board members; the City Manager of the City of Puyallup, Steve Kirkelie; and the City’s Economic Development Director, Meredith Neal, to name a few.

 

 

This workshop, delayed because of the pandemic, was a great example of what can occur when a community wants to help their local businesses.

In attendance were independent business owners, new start-up entrepreneurs, and several independent Farmer’s Market vendors who now have the ability to expand their products and services to a much larger audience, now that they know more about making their businesses a Destination.

These photos were taken by Kerry Yanasak, the Executive Director of the Puyallup Main Street Program, and others who were in attendance.  What a great venue to speak in.

If your community would like to sponsor a similar event and help your local business owners, just give me a call.

Thanks again to Kerry and others for making this happen, and for these great photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

California SBDC Brings “New Rules of Business Success” Training to California Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
May 5, 2021 in Small Business Success by

Rob Taylor had decided to take his three-location Stafford’s Chocolates business to a higher level, so when the Central California Small Business Development Center offered a 2-week class conducted by Jon Schallert, Rob signed up immediately.

“Jon really helped me to re-evaluate my entire business,” said Taylor, who bought Stafford’s in Porterville, California ten years ago and added new locations later in San Luis Obispo and Solvang. “I was looking for something to help guide me to that next step. I needed a class I could take for some guidance and information without flying somewhere for two weeks. This class was just perfect for a small business guy who can take a couple of hours in the evening three nights a week for a couple of weeks.”

Rob and more than 20 other business owners participated in Jon Schallert’s “The New Rules of Business Success: Becoming a Destination Business” training earlier this year. By sponsoring the training, the SBDC was determined to help owners position themselves for a rapid recovery and agile pivoting in the post pandemic world.

Taylor had already invested $150,000 in retooling equipment to expand wholesale opportunities. Now he’s reviewing his media strategy, he’s refreshing his website, and more – all because he spent a few evenings watching Destination Business expert Jon Schallert via Zoom.

“We’re really prepping the businesses for 2021,” said Rick Liebowitz, the Assistant Regional Director for the Central California SBDC. “Jon’s workshop delivered results. He gives owners the tools to keep them engaged with him. He recognizes the need to keep people going.”

Liebowitz, who attended Schallert’s Destination BootCamp in Longmont, Colorado in 2012, recruited him to create a customized, virtual version of his long-proven strategy for California businesses. The SBDC provided scholarships to owners who participated in six 2.5-hour long evening sessions. The SBDC will offer scholarships for another training session with Schallert later this year.

“It was just so engaging,” Liebowitz said. “Jon has those real-world examples. He personally connects with different people, different ways to approach success, different ways to talk about positioning with a retail business versus a service business.”

“The program was extremely well-organized,” agreed Cy Cerro, a consultant who attended with a client who owns the century-old Malibu Fashions & Posh II retail stores in Fresno. “Jon has a very unique approach which pulls people in. His approach is very direct, very informative, very warming, very engaging. There was a long-term benefit to this program.”

Schallert’s teachings, which includes increased online and social media presence, greater media coverage, and other marketing skills, trains owners to develop a Unique Positioning Statement that sets them apart from competitors and makes them irresistible to consumers, even when the businesses are located quite far away.

“The biggest takeaway for me was the importance of the Unique Positioning Statement, which I immediately implemented and put on my website, says Wendy Mosgrove, owner of Best Yoga Studios. “I like that he gave us the time to really think it through. Some of us wanted to give our positioning statements in front of the other participants, and we got great feedback from the other participants. He gives you exact step-by-step instructions – ‘This business did it this way, this company did it this way.’ You get a lot of great ideas from the diversity of his participants.”

Schallert, a onetime marketing professional for Hallmark Cards, devised his 14-point Destination Business approach over decades of interviewing successful small business owners across North America. Last year, after years of holding his 2½-day Destination BootCamps in Colorado, he launched a customized, online version of the training. The California training participants received follow-up meetings after the six evenings of class and were able to download other resource materials online through his Destination University® app to sustain their progress.

“We decided to make this more broadly available early last year, just before COVID-19 closed down in-person meetings,” Schallert says. “The online delivery turned out to be more important than we could have imagined. I was excited to see so many businesses in California participating in this class, our first SBDC partnership. The owners now have the tools to position themselves for rapid growth in 2021 as businesses comeback from this pandemic.”

This blog post was written by writer Gene Stowe, whose book “Inherit the Land” is being made into a major motion picture.

Kansas Department of Agriculture Hosts Destination Business Workshops to Assist Rural Towns and Business Owners
June 21, 2019 in Small Business Success by

The Kansas Department of Agriculture is partnering with Jon Schallert to present his two-day “New Rules of Business Success” workshop in Abilene on October 7-8, focusing on his strategies for making independent businesses and towns irresistible to both local consumers and long-distance visitors.

“Our big push right now is how do we help our rural communities?” says Russell Plaschka, Agribusiness Development Program Manager for the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

Schallert’s approach addresses the leading concern of agriculture – how to help the economic health of rural areas where farmers, ranchers, and most businesses depend on each other to thrive.

“It doesn’t have to be an agriculture business to benefit from Jon’s workshop. If they’re in any small community, they’re dependent on agriculture in that community.”

Schallert’s workshops are part of a continuing effort by the Kansas Department of Agriculture to address issues raised in a major canvass of agribusiness-related industries several years ago that included some 500 interviews and revealed the broad needs of rural communities. These interviews led to the creation of an annual Kansas Governor’s Summit on Agricultural Growth.

“How do we get a larger audience for agritourism?” Plaschka says. “How do we expand small businesses in our rural communities? That is probably our biggest program right now – helping businesses thrive in our small rural communities. That’s where Jon comes in. How do you make your small town in the middle of nowhere or your business in the middle of nowhere really stand out from everywhere else?”

Schallert’s Destination workshops give participants an opportunity to work on their own projects with professional advice and networking.

“He doesn’t give them generic stuff,” Plaschka says. “He makes them come up with something. When they’re in his workshops, they’re working on their idea, not Jon’s idea. I think that’s more impactful.”

Testimonials from Destination BootCamp Attendees
May 14, 2019 in Small Business Success by

On the last day of our Destination Business BootCamp class, we ask every attendee this question:

“If another business owner asked you why they should attend the Destination BootCamp, what would you tell them?”

Here’s what our class from April 9-11, 2019 (pictured above) said:

  • “If you want to save yourself years of struggle—go here first to start out with the right tools.”
  • “It has been eye-opening for me. I’ve learned a lot and feel hopeful about the future, but it also confirmed a lot of ideas I’ve had but have not implemented.”
  • “I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t gaining the customer base I wanted, and this BootCamp helps clarify how to gain it.”
  • “The knowledge and guidance you get is beyond anything I ever imagined.”
  • “Taking 3 days to reimagine your business is the best investment you’ll make this year.”
  • “You’ll get specific, actionable steps—and resources to help you do them—to get your business noticed!”
  • “It just opens my mind to so many things that I know I can do to improve sales.”
  • “It is a good experience. It’s great to see all the business stories and transformation examples.”
  • “It is very informative. As a new business starting out, the 1-on-1 information is truly priceless.  I felt I had no clue.  Now I feel like we might be able to survive because another failure is not an option.”
  • “Gained valuable insights into methods on spreading a wider net, and gain customers for a little effort and money, words matter when targeting customers and retaining customers.”
  • “I would tell them [business owners] that even though this course is tailored towards retail, and I don’t have a retail store, I am still taking away very valuable skills to apply to my business. Jon’s a wonderful teacher and has a unique ability to reach the different attendees on a very personal and relatable level.”
  • “Simple package of Top Gun business tactics.”
  • “This camp has made me stop and think about details of my business that I hadn’t already thought about.”
  • “I’ve gained so much insight and knowledge in how to promote my business. Tons of new ideas to implement.”
  • “As a hospital CEO, I think we get bogged down in the pure financial and regulatory component of our business and spend less time on product development, marketing, and growth strategies. This BootCamp has opened my eyes to some areas that sorely need attention.”
  • “Information is invaluable and [business owners] must attend to build business.”
  • “This course has shifted my outlook on my next phase of marketing and outreach. It has also provided tools to take tasks off mu plate and still be more effective.”
  • “You will learn ways to promote your business on a larger scale.”
  • “You’ll gain insight into the importance and impact that various marketing tools have on growth of your business.”
  • “GO!! Jon gets you thinking in every aspect of your business.  So much info but given in a fantastic, memorable way!”
  • “This class is packed with information. I am a very visual person, and all the examples from other businesses trigger thought processes for my own business.”
  • “Very informative and educational. I’d do it all over!”
  • “You must learn something new every day and be willing to change, innovate, and learn 21st century skills and strategies.”

Need more information on attending the Destination BootCamp?  Call me directly at my office and we can talk about how the BootCamp class can grow your sales, increase your customer traffic, and put your business on the map.

Thanks!

Jon Schallert
(303) 774-6522