Memos From the Head Office: Channeling the Muse in Business and in Life

By Perry Marshall and John Fancher

Maybe You Don't Have to Figure It All Out Yourself

 

A currency trader receives a million-dollar algorithm as a "mental download." A financial advisor has ominous dreams three nights in a row, then warns her clients to cash out. Three days later markets plummet as COVID hits. Two years into a bogus lawsuit, a CEO chooses to forgive. His attorney calls four minutes later—case settled. These ideas did not come from within these people, but from a power outside themselves—the Muse.

 

"God's got multiple memos in your message box awaiting your immediate response. Perry's book will introduce them to you, help you effectively see them, and make your life infinitely more interesting, important, and impactful now. This book will inspire you to release all of your memos that have been in a holding pattern." —Mark Victor Hansen, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul, One Minute Millionaire, and Ask! book series selling over a half billion books

 

You don't need to hustle harder, raise your IQ or earn an MBA to solve your most pressing problems. The lines of communication are open . . . if you'll only listen. Whether you're Catholic, Buddhist, Jewish or agnostic, Memos from the Head Office shows you how to:

• Resolve impossible conflicts
• Access new breakthroughs
• Navigate jagged situations
• Reveal hidden insights

This book delivers detailed verifiable stories of real entrepreneurs who found that listening to the Head Office goes beyond a sharp mind or brilliant strategy. In these pages, you'll discover a superior resource for critical decisions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Planet Perry
• Release date: Sep 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781735421124

Perry Marshall

Perry Marshall is the world’s most-quoted consultant on Google advertising. His Chicago company, Perry S. Marshall & Associates, consults both online and brick-and-mortar companies on generating sales leads, web traffic, and maximizing advertising results.

Book preview

Gary Klopfenstein, chairman of GK Investment Management, lives in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood. An extraordinarily successful business executive in asset management, strategic consulting and leadership development, he is former U.S. CEO of Berenberg, the world’s second oldest bank. Before that, Gary grew assets under management for Mesirow Financial from $1 billion to $60 billion in less than 10 years.

Memos from the Head Office Resources

Detailed, up-to-date information about Gary and all contributors to this book is provided in Appendix 4, which is posted online.

A free online resource has numerous additional tools and information, including access to memo calls on a donation basis; a quiz called the Spiritual Perception Profile that helps you identify how you hear the Head Office; and additional stories and videos better delivered online than in book format. All of these are available for no additional charge at www.perrymarshall.com/morememos.

You probably would not expect a guy like Gary to be very childlike. Yet I—Perry—can’t think of many guys I know who exhibit more childlike principles related to Head Office memos. (Just a note here: Throughout the book, I and me refer to Perry, unless you are reading one of the book’s first-person stories.) First, I’ll let Gary tell you one of his most memorable experiences. And then I’ll let him tell you what he does to hear more.

The Head Office Sent Me a Trading Algorithm While I Was Having Coffee with a Friend

From Gary Klopfenstein

I’m a professional currency trader. A few years ago, I tried writing an algorithm, a mathematical model to define currency risk.

The nuances in emerging market currencies make risk management tricky. I was hoping my algorithm would provide a more elegant means of controlling that risk at a lower cost than anything else available at the time.

I knew I was getting close to nailing it, but there was still one crucial piece missing. Anyone who does intense analytical work often hits that point. You work for hours, days or weeks, and you reach a point where you’re just stuck.

The gears of your brain run out of grease. The whirring grinds to a halt, and you just know you’re not going to get the answer by thinking harder. Forcing your brain to work just leads to stress, fatigue and depression.

I’ve learned to recognize that feeling. And that’s when I know that the final pieces of the puzzle are going to come from elsewhere.

So, I had a feeling the Head Office was going to supply the missing piece. It wasn’t going to be me. I just didn’t know when or how Heaven was going to provide it.

While trying to hammer this out, I caught up with a friend for coffee. We talked about a lot of things. Algorithms and currencies never came up! But right in the middle of our conversation, I saw something. I can’t say it was a hallucination. I don’t know if I actually saw it with my eyes, or it was just so vivid in my mind that it seemed like I was seeing it with my eyes.

But I saw a formula. A bunch of Greek letters and numbers.

I must have looked pretty strange when it happened, because my friend cocked his head to the side and said, Gary? What’s going on?

I said, Hey, I just got a download! I saw a formula in my mind. I think it’s the missing piece to something I’ve been working on. It’s the piece I’ve been waiting for!

He said, Do you need to write it down?

I said, Nope. I got it all in front of me in my mind.

When I got home, I did write it down. It was a formula used in other areas of math but had never been applied to the area I was working on.

I popped it into my formula, and everything worked perfectly. My completed algorithm defined risk in emerging market currencies. It was a breakthrough in our industry.

I now license this algorithm to companies outside the U.S. to help them manage currency risk. It’s helped several companies make a great deal of money, likely tens of millions of dollars, as well as protected them from losing a great deal of money. So, it was a very practical memo from the Head Office.

And it came while I was having coffee with a friend. Wasn’t thinking about formulas at all.

TRUE BREAKTHROUGHS OFTEN COME FROM OUTSIDE

Gary’s experience is similar to a great many breakthrough ideas. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky said:

The germ of a future composition comes suddenly and unexpectedly. If the soil is ready … it takes root with extraordinary force and rapidity, puts forth branches, leaves, and, finally blossoms … the main ideas and general outline of the work come without any racking of the brains, as a result of that supernatural inexplicable force we call inspiration.¹

The American playwright Neil Simon once said, I don’t write consciously—it is as if the muse sits on my shoulder and I slip into a state that is apart from reality.² The one thing I hope you get from this book is that receiving memos from the Head Office is not difficult. Yes, there are certainly things you can do to improve your listening ear, and we’ll dive into those things headfirst throughout this book.

But if I could boil down this book to one sentence it would be: Become like a child.

Childlikeness doesn’t come easy for many entrepreneurs and professionals. Most of us approach our businesses and our lives with great seriousness. We study. We analyze. We create systems. We calculate. We draw detailed plans. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But when it comes to hearing, analysis clogs the pipe. You will never capture the Muse with gritted teeth and furrowed brow. Gary has every excuse in the world to be a man of gritted teeth and furrowed brow! In fact for a long time he was that guy—until he tapped into his childish wonder and started honing his listening ear.

In the story above, the answer to Gary’s problem—an old formula used in a new way—came from outside. That happens frequently. The answer, the missing puzzle piece, the revolutionary idea, comes from outside.

I’ve experienced this many times. When I’m trying to solve a business problem, for example, the answer will often come from outside of business channels—especially while I’m doing something that has nothing to do with business.

In 2018, I was prepping to speak at a seminar. People were traveling from across the world to hear me present for three days. Five weeks before the event, I was playing with my 7-year-old daughter when it suddenly occurred to me that a concept I typically explain by drawing a triangle would be much richer if I made the triangle 3D—a tetrahedron. I scribbled the idea down on a piece of paper in my wallet and kept playing with my daughter.

The next day I began working on producing my idea. I found a company to manufacture and print these 3D objects for me. When I passed them out at the seminar, those little triangles were the hit of the entire event. Yes, it was geeky (no less geeky than currency trading algorithms!) but it literally added a brand-new dimension to an already powerful concept.

I’ve discovered the more you listen to the Muse, the more symbiotic breakthroughs you get. I think it’s because the more attentively you listen, the more readily you receive all manner of connections. If you’re open to such connections, they make themselves known to your subconscious mind—then they become conscious.

For Gary, being open to connections starts with having fun. Let him explain.

Can You Give Me a Picture?

From Gary Klopfenstein

Receiving memos is easier than you think. People try to make it difficult and mystical and magical. It’s not. At least, it shouldn’t be. It’s supposed to be fun!

I ask people to just picture something that’s easy for them to see, like your refrigerator or your favorite chair. Bring it up in your mind so you can see it clearly. Now just ask Heaven to give you a picture. Ask: Can you give me a picture of something?

Then, do not filter or judge or edit what you see. Just notice the first image that comes to your mind. Something will pop up. Just accept that the picture is from the Head Office.

Go with it. Then ask: What does that mean?

Then just listen. Again, don’t filter, edit or judge. Then, pass on the information to the person you’re with, saying, I don’t know if this makes sense but—

It will almost always be something positive and loving. Sometimes prescient.

Many times I get so worked up and entangled in my problems and stresses that my memos channel gets blocked off. Usually it’s because I’m looking for some big revelation. I’m waiting for some booming voice or looking for a crystal-clear vision.

And then I’ll realize that a quiet voice has been whispering to me all along. In a still, small, simple voice. If I calm down for a bit and stop stressing out about the big, important problems, I’ll hear answers to those problems.

DON’T MAKE IT SO HARD

Perry here. We humans are so bent on complicating things. Some of us believe memos need to be received in a mystical, mysterious process reserved for a select, holy, monastic elite. Some of us believe only people like Albert Einstein or J. K. Rowling can experience a thrilling epiphany.

That has not been Gary’s experience. Nor mine. Nor that of any of the storytellers who appear in this book, as far as I’m aware. I am a thinker and my biggest obstacle is getting my brain out of the way. I’m also a writer and a strong editor. It took a long time for me to switch my editor off and just let words flow.

When you are listening to the Head Office, it is imperative that you do not edit, judge or evaluate what you are hearing in that moment. Also, do not wonder or worry about whether you’re hearing yourself or listening to the Muse. This is critical because you can discern the source of the memo later. You will have the rest of your life to figure that out.

In a sense, it doesn’t matter whether you are listening to yourself or to the Head Office. Because if you can’t learn to listen to yourself, your channels will never get clear enough to listen to the Muse!

So there you are, writing in your notebook. Or maybe you’re walking your dog or driving your car. You ask a question of the Head Office and you think you heard an answer—unless it was just a bad burrito?

You don’t know! And you don’t have to know! Not today anyway.

Just record the answer as accurately as you can and circle back later to consider its value and its origin. Remember, you might have the rest of your life to decipher it. You don’t need to decide right now. Wisdom and insight come over time.

Register for a memos session and pick up your bonus material and all appendices free at www.perrymarshall.com/morememos.

Perry Learns to Switch Off His Inner Editor

From Perry Marshall

Just when I was beginning to explore the concept of Head Office memos, I went to a conference where I saw a long line of people waiting to talk to a couple named Ivan and Isabel Allum, who were delivering memos to each one, rapid-fire, as fast as they could talk. You could almost say they were downloading each person’s Harry Potter story and relaying it in real time, one after another.

There were at least 50 people in that line, and the Allums would give three to five minutes to each person. I knew some people in the room, but Ivan and Isabel didn’t know any of us. But when I heard them talk to my friends and acquaintances, I could tell that Ivan and Isabel were hitting all kinds of things right on the money. Nailing stuff right and left. It was unreal.

The spiritual atmosphere in the room was thick with intensity. As long as I live, I will never forget the numinous presence, the palpable sensation of love I experienced in that room that evening. I suddenly burned with curiosity. I had to understand how they did that. So, a year later, I drove to a four-day training taught by the Allums in Stratford, Ontario.

During the very first hour of Isabel’s workshop, she instructed everyone to write down their own name on a piece of paper, fold it up so their name was not visible, and pass it to the front. Then, the slips of paper were redistributed to the 60-plus people in the room who had come to this training from all over North America. Now we each had somebody else’s piece of paper.

Isabel instructed, "Ask God to give you a message for this person. Whatever comes into your mind, write it down on your piece of paper."

This shoved me out of my comfort zone! I couldn’t imagine anything more unnatural.

Man, this is so weird. This feels like jumping off a cliff with no net. What if I’m wrong? What if I’m just making stuff up?

It was utterly foreign to me to simply listen to my intuition, completely blind like that. I didn’t even know quite what I was supposed to listen to. I was terrified of sticking my foot in my mouth.

Plus, years of sales training were screaming at me: "You always ask questions and listen before you start telling people anything about themselves, Perry."

Don’t forget: The general idea here was that whatever I wrote down on that piece of paper might be divinely inspired and if the other person has that kind of expectation, you don’t wanna get it wrong! Yet I sensed Isabel wasn’t putting that sort of pressure on us. We were just practicing. Memos kindergarten. OK, I’ll follow Isabel’s instructions: Write down the first thing that comes to your mind.

I asked for wisdom. I began to notice my mind wandering, and it began to form a picture. I was going into a building and walking up a stairway immediately past the front door. At the top of the stairs, there was a table with windows around the top of the room. A blond woman was sitting at a table near a window. Sunlight was streaming through the window.

At this point, my mind picture seemed little