Joe Turned Trash to Treasure and Built an Empire

From a seaside cafe, Miami Beach, Florida…

Melissa and I had a spectacular dinner last night at Joe’s Stone Crab — a legendary restaurant in the heart of Miami’s South Beach neighborhood.

Before Joe’s, stone crabs weren’t a thing.

I mean they existed, scuttling along the sea floor and such.

But humans didn’t want to catch, cook, and eat ’em.

If a fisherman found a stone crab in a trap or net, they tossed it back…

…until Joe Weiss tried something different at his Miami Beach fish shack.

Legend has it that Harvard ichthyologist John Speck, who had been studying the species, asked Joe if he could find a way to cook stone crabs.

Joe told him to come back in a week.

The rest is culinary history.

Since 1921, Joe’s has been serving chilled stone crab claws — with mustard sauce, creamed spinach, hash brown potatoes, and key lime pie on the side.

Joe cut deals with local fishing operations to bring him stone crabs. He cornered the market.

For decades, he was the only restaurant that served the trash-turned-delicacy.

Today, Joe’s remains the biggest buyer/seller of stone crab claws — 400,000+ pounds per season, by some estimates.

When the season opens, customers line up out the door to enjoy the year’s first stone crabs.

(By the way, the crabs are not killed when their claws are “harvested.” They can grow back their claws multiple times.)

So many business lessons in this story, including this one:

“Watch what everyone else does. Do the opposite.”

Earl Nightingale said that. Dan Kennedy says something similar.

Defy conventional wisdom.

It’s great advice.

Joe Weiss built a culinary empire by heeding it.

Speaking of conventional wisdom…

Most everyone says you need a smooth-as-silk transition from the story to the offer in your marketing emails.

People tie themselves in knots to relate their story to the offer, and it makes content creation harder and more frustrating.

I say: Do the opposite.

Just share you offer without any attempt to tie it back to the story you shared. Like this:

Yesterday, I told you about a video I have called: “5 Tips to Write Irresistible Subject Lines and Headlines So Prospects Tune In and Read On.”

If you reply to this email and write, “Do the opposite” I’ll send it to you.