Marketing Mechanism That Doubles Your Sales & Results With Todd Brown

[00:00:00] You know, you can learn, you can study, you can read, you can watch, but the real growth occurs from the doing when you implement and execute. It's beautiful that you went out and applied immediately what you were learning and got

[00:00:13] all these results and now that passion got developed to help other people to the point that you have now students in 55 countries, you know, thousands, and then you have amazing programs that help people get to the next level. Why is it important to be different instead of better?

[00:00:27] Today, more so than ever before, because there is so much information slammed at people, they want to know what makes this different. And that's one of the very first things that you have to learn how to communicate.

[00:00:39] I'm a big believer in being a student of markets, much more than a student of products. That is $100,000 piece of advice. The only reason why people want your product or service is because of the...

[00:00:58] Hey guys, welcome back to Contents Profit and today we have a very special episode. And it's not a special just because of the topic that we're going to be sharing with you but the guest and also what he did to us as Contents Profit hosts.

[00:01:13] This is actually a rerun from episode 40 with the legend, the direct response legend Todd Brown. And this episode meant a lot to us not only because of the things that we talked about during the episode but also because it helped us build up the confidence to literally

[00:01:30] ask whoever we wanted. And Todd, somebody that has been in the direct response industry for more than 20 years, he has helped mentors of mentors. In fact, he coached a few of the people that we were following at the time and learning

[00:01:43] from and that we couldn't believe him, that we could get him an episode 40 for Contents Profit and we got to spend a full hour with him talking about marketing and content and how to make the most profit for your business.

[00:01:56] And it was an incredible experience and shout out to him because, oh boy, that was gold. And I was revisiting some of the content to actually go back and continue to apply it in what we do. And I'm like, man, this conversation was so good.

[00:02:10] So some of the things that we talked about is like you're one big marketing idea on how to get it. A lot of people might have different messages and different things that we talked about you know, your unique message for publishing.

[00:02:23] But this also applies obviously for your business and the things that you sell. What 20 years of indirect response space taught him? So these lessons are awesome. It was almost like a shortcut, right? A hundred thousand dollar shortcut that we're giving you here in this interview.

[00:02:36] Why be different instead of better? And that was another mind blowing thing that we learned at the time because a lot of people is like, hey, I want to be better. I want my content to be better than XYZ and PsychBall.

[00:02:48] I think different might bring a new perspective here. What is your unique mechanism? And we actually define what unique mechanism is and how to apply it in your business. And that also shifted the way that we did business.

[00:03:00] And it basically shaped the service that we've been offering for the last four years, which has been pretty interesting. So we owe him some money because of that one thing we've been able to kind of build a business around it.

[00:03:12] And then we talked also about the single most powerful way to grow your business. So this episode is packed with the golden boulders, as we call them. And if you're looking at or you're watching it on YouTube, that is our first studio.

[00:03:26] That's like a little office that we have when we're freelancing. There's a little corner and that's content profit old school. So let me know. Do you like this studio better? Do you like that studio better? I'm dying to know. But anyways, enjoy and have a good one.

[00:03:39] Please put your hands together and welcome direct response marketing legend, the expert of experts and best beard in the marketing world. Mr. Todd Brown. Welcome, Todd. Welcome to the show. What's up guys? I was wondering with that kind of buildup and description,

[00:04:08] I was wondering if there was another guest on the show besides me. I was excited to interact with this legend and my gosh, you built me up to be well more than what I really am. And your people are going to discover that very quickly.

[00:04:21] Oh my gosh. OK, that's fine. We'll take him on this roller coaster. I think you're being way too nice right now. With you have been an incredible source of inspiration, honestly, on everything that we've done. So it's an honor to have you here.

[00:04:37] Well, it's an honor to be here and I so appreciate you guys sharing that. And so thank you. Awesome. All right. Well, let's get this show on the road. So Todd tells us a little bit, you know, maybe some of our audiences

[00:04:46] know so familiar with what you do, right? So we've been like discovering this journey. We're bridging the gap between people that are starting with entrepreneurship, starting with content, has a ton of questions about how to get this thing started

[00:04:57] and how to turn it into actual profit for their business. Right. So maybe just a little bit of backstory, you know, where you come from, how this everything started, you know, with you and direct response.

[00:05:07] Yeah. So I've been in the direct response marketing world for almost two decades, so almost 20 years. I was born and raised in New Jersey after I went to college for, believe it or not, for clinical nutrition. I ended up going to work for a company that owned

[00:05:28] some beautiful health clubs in New Jersey. And while I was there working for the health club company, I got a direct mail piece in the mail that was offering a marketing program, a marketing training for fitness professionals.

[00:05:47] It was a long form marketing piece, which I had never seen before. I knew nothing at the time about direct response. I thought, you know, marketing was advertising, advertising was marketing, all the same thing. I ended up buying this this kit,

[00:06:03] used what it is that I learned in this kit to grow my department at that health club company to a couple million dollars a year. And and the rest is history. And then I went on and started sharing

[00:06:18] what it is that I had learned and done with massage therapy and then chiropractors. And then, of course, more mainstream coaches, consultants, authors, experts, that sort of thing. And it's been a crazy ride and and a lot of fun and transformational, man. That is absolutely fantastic.

[00:06:38] I get to say, you know, like I had no idea that your background was that one. I thought you were born a marketer, born a marketer. No, I am so not. I think, look, man, you know, and that's why, you know,

[00:06:51] I've got this heart for really teaching and sharing what is effective marketing, because I knew nothing about marketing. I'm not I don't like sales. So I'm not a salesperson. I don't like selling. I'm not good at it. I was never really excited by advertising.

[00:07:13] But when I learned, you know, marketing and how you can you you can educate your prospects in a way that leads them to want your product or service that much more value with that much more. I fell in love with it.

[00:07:27] And and so, yeah, man, no, my background is not at all like I learned it just like and it meets the beauty, right? That this is a learned skill. Anybody can learn and develop this skill. It is a learned skill. It's not a talent.

[00:07:40] Absolutely. And you know, we come from the Brickham order background. You know, we we work in the fitness industry for quite a while, not as long as you did. Obviously. But, you know, the same thing, like we we talk

[00:07:50] with these old business owners and some are willing to go out and learn these new things, right? Or what's happening and test things out. Others are not so willing to ask for help. And they're like, OK, that's it. You know, that's not what I want to hear.

[00:08:04] You know, next, right? And it's like and we've seen that gap, you know, here and there. So it's beautiful that you went out and and applied immediately when you were learning and got all these results. And now that passion got developed to help other people to the point

[00:08:18] that you have now students in 55 countries, you know, thousands even and you have amazing programs that help people get to the next level. Yeah, you know, I see that I think even more than a marketer,

[00:08:30] you're an educator, but I think you love to share your passion with others. Just like you said, and see like see them succeed. And that's what an educator is, right? And you mentioned effective marketing. And I love this because actually one of the first pieces of content

[00:08:46] that I saw from you that like blew my mind because I had never seen anything like that was you compare like you were talking about this really all direct response marketing campaigns that I don't know where you got them from.

[00:09:00] And you were explaining, you know, like why they were being so efficient in my mind. I was like, wow, again, like the intro said, this is so unique. Right. And I know I make specific. I make sure I'm saying that we're unique

[00:09:15] because you mentioned in your book a lot and we're probably going to get into that. But I was like, that is so interesting. The way you're portraying this, the way you are teaching me about all this stuff. I thought I'd learn so much from that.

[00:09:27] So, you know, how how someone develops that skill of being unique through, you know, 20 years, almost 20 years in the direct response marketing world. I mean, look, you know, I think a couple of things. Number one, I was never afraid to take action.

[00:09:44] Like I was never afraid of failing. I, you know, I recognize that look, man, you know, you can learn, you can study, you can read, you can watch. But the real growth occurs from the doing when you implement and execute.

[00:10:00] And so I was never afraid of like executing and having it not work. I knew that I would learn from it and I would figure it out. And if other people were able to do it before me, then it was only a matter

[00:10:13] of time for me to figure out how to do the same thing. And so number one, I was an action taker. I, you know, and to this very day when I learn something or when I hear

[00:10:24] something that I believe can be effective, my aim is to implement it as quickly as possible, not to wait until I've mastered it, not to wait until I have all the answers, not to wait until I've got this perfect picture, but to implement it as quickly

[00:10:37] as I can because I know that the growth occurs from the implementation, the tweaking and so on. The other thing is that like, look, you know, the second thing that I would say is this, you do have to be a student of people.

[00:10:54] You have to be a student of marketing. You have to pay attention to what moves people to take action, what moves people to buy. You have to ask yourself questions. Why do why do some products resonate and other products don't? What is it about what they're saying, communicating?

[00:11:11] You know, so you have to be a student of the game. And the third thing that I would say is you really have to recognize that one of the keys with marketing, a huge key is that people want to know what's different.

[00:11:26] They want to know what's different about your approach, about your product, about your service, right? They want to know what is different. What's different about how your product or service works today more so than ever before, because there is so much information slammed at people.

[00:11:43] They want to know what makes this different. And that's one of the very first things that you have to learn how to communicate. Yeah, I love it. I mean, you mentioned there, I think on the second point, you you were very specific saying, what are they thinking?

[00:11:56] You know, what do they think? What they are assuming as a customer, right? The people that are learning from you or buying from you. And I think a big block that we even had that at the very beginning,

[00:12:07] it's like people tend to create these whole beautiful things in their own eyes. Right? And then they put it out there and sometimes they might not grab any any traction whatsoever. Right? So yeah, what could you say to somebody that thinks they have a very successful thing, right?

[00:12:24] And then they put it out there, they put some money behind and then they discover it flops, right? Yeah. What would you say? Yeah, number one. Yeah, number one, you're not alone. That happens all the time.

[00:12:34] It's one of the most common problems or issues in in the entrepreneurial world. And that's because people make the mistake of starting with what they care about, what they like, what intrigues them, what interests them. And then and they automatically figure that, well, if it interests me,

[00:12:52] if it's intriguing to me, then there's going to be a whole bunch of other people out there that feel the same way. And that's not always the case. In fact, more often than not, that's that's not the case. Everything when it comes to business,

[00:13:02] when it comes to marketing, everything begins with the audience. It begins with right? It's why I'm a big believer in being a student of markets much more than a student of products, right? Because the everything should begin with the audience, with the tribe, with prospects.

[00:13:23] What do they care about? What do what are they fascinated with? What do they want? What don't they want? What are they afraid of? What do they love? What do they dislike? Right? What what don't they want? Everything stems from them.

[00:13:36] You design all of your products, all of your services, all of your offers based on what the market that you are serving is or going to serve is interested in totally aside from what you like, what you care about or what you want.

[00:13:49] What you what you think about means nothing, nothing. Oh, I love that. I really hope people that are watching this or listening to this right now, you guys are taking note because this is absolutely. Amazing. There's so many points you mentioned there.

[00:14:04] I'm like, I want to touch all these points, but I think I have to pick my questions, right? And first that's like Ryan Holiday, right? Ego is the enemy. That's what I keep listening when you're saying this, right? Like stop thinking about what you you you like

[00:14:18] because at the end of the day, you got to be a student of the market, right? And I think that is a fantastic topic to cover. But I want to discuss the different what you were talking about. You got to ask yourself what how can I be different?

[00:14:31] What makes me different? Because I think like a lot of people get caught up on the better, right? Like how can I be better? What why is it important to be different instead of better? Yeah, that's a great question, man. Number one, better doesn't always get attention.

[00:14:47] Different does, right? So your people won't know that you are better until they're a buyer, until they're a customer, a client, right? Like until they're actually using your thing and they're comparing it to somebody else's thing, right? Better is also subjective, right?

[00:15:03] So like better, you know, better based on what? Better based on whose opinion? Because you might think one thing is better. Somebody else might think something else is is is better. The other thing is that the market prospects today, they expect you to say that you're better, right?

[00:15:19] You're a marketer, you're a salesperson, you're an entrepreneur. You got a product that in their eyes, you're peddling, you're trying to convince them to buy. And so of course, you're going to say that yours is the best. Of course, you're going to say it is it is better.

[00:15:31] The reality is that today, what your prospects, what your market wants to know is they want to know what makes your product or service different. And most specifically, and this is important. And so I want you guys to listen to me.

[00:15:43] I want your audience to listen to me here. Here we are here. That there was a there. I know you guys are. I love it. I love it. There was a time and a place years ago where differentiation, differentiating yourself, your company, your business

[00:15:58] was all about what makes you different. It was maybe what's your educational background? How long have you been in business? How many customers or clients have you served? Right. That was critical today. That's far less important to the audience. Those aspects of differentiation are far less important

[00:16:18] because today we've got a global economy thanks to the internet. And so now I can access tons and tons of different people, right? What they do want to know today from a differentiation standpoint is they want to know how does your product or service

[00:16:35] give me the result, give me the outcome, give me the transformation differently from everything else being offered. In other words, how does your how is your product or service different in the way that it works to produce the result? You're promising me.

[00:16:52] I'm going to experience when I pay you for your product or service. And that's another point, just as a side note that is critical for everybody to grasp. The only reason why people want your product or service is because of the result, the change, the outcome,

[00:17:07] the transformation that it's going to give them. Nobody buys a product or service because they want a product or service. They want the result of that product or service. They want the benefit of that product or service.

[00:17:16] They want what they think that product or service is going to give them. And what they want to know, which will make them pay attention is, OK, so you're promising me it's going to do XYZ. Well, how does your product or service work different

[00:17:29] from every other product or service that's also promising me XYZ? Yeah. Make sense? Yeah, no, totally. Total sense. I'm like right here because just listen to that. That is a hundred thousand dollar piece of advice in this thing because it's a massive shortcut, right?

[00:17:45] Because if we don't we don't implement that way of thinking, all you're going to do is you're going to try and fail, try and fail, which is OK at some point. But please, if you're listening, take advantage of this piece of advice

[00:17:57] because it's so important is going to position not just yourself or your business, but your mind to be in a place where you can implement very effectively towards your marketing. Yeah, I'm mind blown at this point already, you know, pretty early in the conversation.

[00:18:13] But I have a question for you now, like I get so for these people that are asking themselves now, OK, but like how can I be different? And I remember seeing a very specific piece of content where you were talking

[00:18:23] about these three ways that people can find to be different themselves. So would you mind? I don't know if there's any more, would you mind explaining some of those ways or like how people can find their different? Yeah, so we look the our go to strategy, the strategy

[00:18:41] that that you guys are familiar with that we teach our our students is what we call the unique mechanism and every take a step back. Every product and service has what's called a mechanism. The mechanism is how the product or service works to deliver the result, right?

[00:18:58] The only products that I guess you could say don't have a mechanism are ones that don't produce a result that are just crap really. But every other product or service that delivers a result has some sort of mechanism, whether it's a piece of software

[00:19:11] and what what produces the result of that software as an algorithm, you know, a formula, whether it's a vitamin supplement and the combination of nutrients are the mechanism. That's what lowers the cholesterol, whatever. There's a mechanism behind every product, right?

[00:19:25] That mechanism is how does that product or service work to deliver the result, to deliver the benefit? So what we look for is what's called a unique mechanism, right? How does your product or service uniquely work to deliver the the result?

[00:19:42] And there are three different types of unique mechanisms that any product or service can have. Number one is if your product or service is truly built on a foundational unique mechanism, meaning there is a unique algorithm

[00:19:58] behind your software, there is a unique recipe behind your your your pasta sauce. There is a unique bodywork method behind your massage therapy. There is a unique formulation behind your supplement, etc. Right? That's what we call a real mechanism. Then we've got what's called an unspoken mechanism.

[00:20:17] And an unspoken mechanism is when there is a part or aspect of your product or service that is responsible for why it works and your competitors, one or more competitors, also have that same aspect or part in their product or service. But they're not talking about it.

[00:20:40] They never talk about it to the public. And so that can become what we call an unspoken mechanism. It only has to be unique to the market, to the audience. It doesn't necessarily have to be unique amongst competitors.

[00:20:53] It just has to be unique in the eyes of the market. And so if you're the only one that's talking about it and your competitors also have it in their product or service, but they're not talking about it, that's what we call an unspoken mechanism.

[00:21:05] And then we've got the third type, which is really it's it is a transubstantiated mechanism. That's a term taken from Roman Catholicism. And it's this idea of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. So it's it's taking your the process that you teach people,

[00:21:27] let's say, for example, for turning their content into profit. And it's looking at that system, that process, that those series of steps and it's it's looking at it and it's naming it. And it's giving your process, your system, your framework a name.

[00:21:46] And then that name, that process, that system, that framework becomes your unique mechanism. It becomes the reason why your your methodology produces the result that it does. And so it's simply a matter of taking the time to look at your product or service

[00:22:03] and to ask yourself questions about how does it work? Why does it work? Why don't like if you if you're in the coaching, consulting, expert business, why do we teach this first, this second, this third?

[00:22:12] Why do we have our people do this, this, this, then this and not in a different order? And then it's it's taking that and it's giving it a unique name. That was amazing. I love obviously all three of those. Again, we saw them here in the book.

[00:22:27] Guys, please go check out the book. You must is amazing. But I love specifically two things that you said, they unique in the eyes of the audience. I think that is a term that people like again, it's kind of like what we're talking

[00:22:40] before, right? People focus on what they like. Oh, if I like this product, this product, I'm going to keep it. I'm just going to use this, right? Like other people might use it as well. But when you think about your audience being a student of the market, right?

[00:22:53] That you were talking about, I think that is absolutely fantastic. And then the other one, I don't think I can quite pronounce it the third type of unique mechanism. But if I'm being honest, a lot of our business is based on that unique mechanism

[00:23:08] right there. And I remember when I when I read your book, I sat there and I was like, how like how can I make content a unique mechanism? Right because so many people, of course, like they work with content.

[00:23:20] And I was like, well, if you look at it, the unique mechanism is that the content can be turned into a digital currency. Yes, people are using content literally, you know, kind of like I'm exchanging this value for eventually your business.

[00:23:37] And when I realized that because of the pretty much because of this concept that you taught in the book, I was like, wow, my mind was blown. And immediately I started talking to people when I was talking about content and about delivering their assets.

[00:23:53] I was like, we come up with digital currency from your podcast and immediately their mind was like, wow, like digital currency. Like what is that? And it was a whole new level of conversation because now they were they were curious.

[00:24:10] Right. I think the unique mechanism helps spark curiosity. Yeah, I think that was yeah, you got to let me say this. Right. You got to recognize this right. Everybody right. You've got to recognize this that, you know, that everybody that's selling marketing, selling advertising is making presenting

[00:24:28] to the market promises, promises of what it is that they can do. Right. They're claiming that their product will do this, we'll do this, we'll do this, we'll do this. And so the reality is that if you come along and you say,

[00:24:41] I can also give you top Google rankings or I can also help you do X, Y, Z. I can help you lose weight. I can help you have a great retirement. Right. All these things that other people are promising.

[00:24:54] What they want to know is, all right, I've heard that before. Right. I've heard that. I've been slammed with all these promises. Tell me why you, why yours? Give me it. Right. And if you if you end up like, look, if you end up saying like,

[00:25:07] I'm going to teach you how to do search engine optimization. Well, I could learn search engine optimization all over the place. There are blog posts, there are videos, there are books. I could go anywhere. So why should I listen to you? Why you and what they're really asking?

[00:25:21] What they really want to know is, what is, tell me what makes your method different? Because what I want to know is why should I be excited about your method? Right. So if you said, right,

[00:25:31] I'm going to show you how to get top Google rankings because our method does X, Y, Z for you and no other method does that. And that is more critical today than ever before. Now you've given your prospect hope,

[00:25:44] hope that maybe this time, right, they will have the results. But what a lot of entrepreneurs and marketers try to do, what they try to do is they end up, they have a product, they have a service and they're advertising. Their their marketing is just screaming loud promises.

[00:26:02] Yeah. They're using hyper language. They're using hype and hyperbole and their writing, their writing copy. And they're just trying to scream a louder promise. And today's prospect, they've heard it. They've seen it. They don't they've heard it. You know what they say? Yeah, right. Sure. Yeah.

[00:26:19] Sure. Yeah. OK. Sure. I believe you. Right. And the and marketers and entrepreneurs, they've got this weird. It's weird, especially new, new entrepreneurs, new marketers, people that don't understand what it really takes to move somebody to whip out their wallet and pay you over the Internet.

[00:26:37] They think that just because they say it on their website, just because they said this product is great, that people are like must be great. He said it was great. So I guess it's great. No, man. No. Most people are like, yeah, sure.

[00:26:52] Right? I've heard it. I've seen it. So what they're saying to you is prove to me, show me why this is different and prove it to me. And if you can't do that, then all you're doing is just screaming

[00:27:04] louder promises or loud promises and hoping that they work. Yeah, I love it. And I first let me say this. I love your energy when you come to talk about this. You're so pumped up. And, you know, for those listening, please go watch the video,

[00:27:17] you know, because it's amazing to see like just the passion comes out like out of the screen. But and, you know, you mentioned a couple of things here, right? People like tend to focus on the copy, the little elements like should we make this long shore or whatever?

[00:27:29] Like what are we saying? Right. And you talk about in your book about simplicity, you know, the importance of simplicity. Can you can you dive in a little bit in here and how how you can mix that big marketing idea with, you know, the results,

[00:27:44] your unique mechanism and simplicity. Yeah. So I love the fact that you, you know, I love the fact that you enjoyed the book. Thank you so much for, you know, I love it, right? Because it's near and dear to my heart because the the story that I tell

[00:27:56] in the beginning of the book went down exactly like I told it in that in the book. And this is worth sharing with everybody that, you know, like so, you know, this guy, Mark Ford, who's one of the greatest direct response

[00:28:08] marketers, you want to talk about a legit legend? Forget that guy is a legit legend in the world of direct response. And he is the guy who's the mastermind behind, you know, $1.5 billion direct response driven company Agoura.

[00:28:23] And I asked him one day, I said to him, I said, Mark, how have you been able to help this company grow from, you know, 10 million to 1.5 billion? You know, at the time it wasn't 1.5 billion yet it is today.

[00:28:37] And I thought he was going to tell me, you know, great copy or the size of our budget or the size of our email list or something like that. But that is not at all what he said.

[00:28:47] What he said, he looked at me and he said something that forever changed my course as an entrepreneur as a marketer. He looked at me and he said, he said, Todd, he said, the thing that changed everything for us was very early on.

[00:28:59] We realized that we are in the idea business. We are in the business of generating and developing and disseminating interesting, unique, compelling ideas, ideas that cut through the noise, ideas that are different, ideas that resonate deeply with people on an emotional

[00:29:18] and an intellectual level, ideas that captivate attention. And so that is, you know, that is, you know, part of a big part of obviously the book that you read. And the thing to recognize is that behind every marketing campaign, behind every marketing message, behind every advertisement,

[00:29:38] behind every email, behind every blog post, behind every video sales letter is an idea. That idea could be run of the mill, plain vanilla, right? Like how to grow big tomatoes. Ordinary idea. Heard it before, seen it before, blog posts about it,

[00:29:53] videos about it, books about it, pamphlets about it, you name it, right? Nothing new. Or it could be a big marketing idea. It could be new, unique, different, fresh, timely. It can be something that makes somebody say, whoa, this feels like news.

[00:30:08] Like it can be an idea that makes them say, why haven't I heard this before? And right in there is, you know, obviously a lot to it. It's in that book. But one of the things that makes up a big, a big idea, a big marketing idea.

[00:30:21] And we're not talking about a big idea like a product. We're not talking about you inventing the next iPhone or, you know, we're sending a rocket to space. Or we're talking about the idea behind your marketing campaign

[00:30:33] that part of being a big marketing idea is that it's simple. It's immediately understandable. It is, it's an idea that your prospects can immediately grasp. They don't have to read on to find out what you're talking about

[00:30:45] or watch the rest of your video or listen to the rest. They get it right away. It hits them right away. It's instantly accessible. And that part of that is that it is a simple idea. It's not complex. It's not composed of many ideas.

[00:31:00] It is just a simple idea, simple where you get it right when you hear it. Yeah, I think that the example that you give in the book is that you can prepare a couple of them and then is a four hour work week.

[00:31:11] But, you know, so it's that that incredible like that just puts a picture in your head, right? It's like, oh man, if I'm that ideal audience is I'm looking for that problem. You know, it just puts that picture in there.

[00:31:21] And I'm going to consume either that content, that book, you know, buy the product and find out a little bit more. Yeah, I mean, you can even tell that that book is probably one of the most famous books for entrepreneurs that are starting, right?

[00:31:34] Because usually people that are coming into entrepreneurship, they're like, I don't want to work my nine to five. They see a book called the four hour work week. Let's go get it, right? Well, also, you know what for what it's worth, you know,

[00:31:44] and you learn this in the book, you know, big marketing ideas have that they exist within a time in space, right? A big marketing idea a year ago isn't necessarily a big marketing idea today. Why? Because again, big marketing ideas are new, unique, different, fresh, timely.

[00:32:00] And so something that was new, unique, different, fresh, timely a year ago might not be new, unique, different, fresh, timely today. The idea of the four hour work week or work, you know, part time, whatever.

[00:32:11] That's nothing now it's in it's a fairly ordinary run of the mill idea. Back then when Tim Ferriss launched that book, it was new, unique, different, fresh, timely. And as I explained in the, you know, in the in the book, you know,

[00:32:26] that the at the core of that book is the idea of outsourcing, right? But he didn't say how to outsource your business because that was already being said, right? That was ordinary back then. And so he came up with, well, what's a different way?

[00:32:41] What's a different, unique perspective? What's a different, unique way to talk about getting freed from your business through well, let's call it the four hour work week. Boom. Boom. Explosion. Wow. Yeah. No, that's amazing. I love that, especially the the power of simple that you were talking about.

[00:32:57] And I could honestly, I think that's a concept that we were introduced not too long ago in our business. Hey, we we we struggle for a while for like three, four years, like almost four years, you know, trying to find our own big idea, right?

[00:33:13] Yeah. And we just we were just jumping from one thing to the other. That shiny object syndrome that a lot of people have, we were hooked on that instant gratification. What is the thing that is going to give us the best result in the shortest

[00:33:27] amount of time we didn't have? I don't think we had that concept of consistency. Let's work hard for it, right? So yeah, when you find this this big idea, right? Like I wanted people that are watching and listening.

[00:33:42] How consistent you need to be with this big marketing idea for it to work, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, look, you build your entire you build your entire campaign, an entire campaign around the idea. The way to think about it is, right, is you've developed an idea

[00:33:58] that the market is going to look at as new, unique, different, fresh, exciting, compelling, intellectually interesting and and emotionally compelling. And now you're bringing that idea to the market. And through that idea, you're presenting your marketing marketing message, right?

[00:34:15] And so it becomes the foundation of your of your campaign. It's not like just some idea that we're going to run in an ad. And then we bring them over to a web page and there's no congruence between the ad and the campaign.

[00:34:28] People are going to bounce the moment that that happens. I see that all the time from from new students who come in. And so you've got to recognize what, you know, the way to think about this is like this.

[00:34:38] Number one, one of the best things that you can do for yourself is put time on your calendar at least once a week, if not a couple times a week for about a half hour. Sit down with nothing more than a yellow legal pad and a pen

[00:34:52] and ask yourself, sit there and just ask yourself, what ideas? What topics that could I present to the marketplace that would drive them wild? That would make them like that would grab their attention and make them immediately stand up and say, like, whoa, what is this?

[00:35:10] Right. And it's going to take a lot of brainstorming, a lot of ideas to find the seed of a big idea. What you're looking for is you're looking for an idea that you can then build a marketing campaign around that will grab the market's attention.

[00:35:28] And it begins with a great idea. It doesn't begin with sitting down and writing copy or writing a headline or it begins with the idea because if you don't have a good idea, you're going to struggle to write copy because you're going to try to.

[00:35:41] It's like if you have an ordinary plain vanilla idea, the only way that you can make it sound exciting is if you use all kind of puffery and flowery language and you use exaggeration, right? Because why? Because you're talking about an ordinary idea.

[00:35:55] So how do you make it sound great? You use great language. But when you've got a great idea, your job is easy because you don't have to puff it up. You just present a great idea. You just say, like, look, here's the great idea. Like here it is.

[00:36:09] And and really it changes the game because it makes everything else so much easier from a marketing perspective. Yeah. So I have a question here, right? Because before we were talking about again, people saying, yeah, my product, my thing, and then they put it out there

[00:36:26] and it fails and they're like, oh no, and they get all sad. Right. And now we're talking about spending at least one hour a week sitting down and say and coming coming up with ideas that I can present to the marketplace so they can go wow.

[00:36:40] Right? Yeah. So someone might be saying right now, OK, but like, isn't that if I'm sitting down? Am I just talking to myself? Like, what do I like? What does how do they test that? How do they know when they find that big idea?

[00:36:53] Yeah, that's a great question. So let's set the stage, set the context a little bit and recognize that you can only sit down and start to think about what would drive the market wild if you are being a student of the market.

[00:37:06] Right? So in other words, if you're paying attention to what are people talking about? What are the topics that are trending up in popularity? Which ones are trending down? What are people commenting on? What are the posts that people are really getting enamored with that they're talking about?

[00:37:22] What are the things that the market is now considered considers old? What's the products out there in the marketplace that people are buying? What are the products that people are no longer buying? What is the market saying as they're talking?

[00:37:34] What do they think is kind of new hat? What do they think is old hat? Right. So I'm a student of the market. And so I'm constantly looking at those kind of things. And then I'm taking those kind of things

[00:37:45] and I'm bringing them with me into my thinking time and based on what it is that I've seen and studied and I'm aware of and that's ongoing, right? What do I think the market would respond to? Based on that, not based on me.

[00:37:58] Not based. There's a lot of things I'd love to talk about. There's a lot of things I'd love to write that I'm smart enough to know that very few people care about the things that, you know, that I care about.

[00:38:10] And so you have to have to keep your finger on the pulse of the market by being a student of the market, a student of the people, a student of your audience. And then you use that and now you are kind of

[00:38:27] you're making some you're making educated decisions about the ideas that you believe. Now, look, here's the reality. The reality is this, that the best marketers in the world, some of the best marketers in the world, the majority of their ideas that they think are good

[00:38:43] don't turn out to be home runs. That's the nature of the beast. The beauty in this world, right? As crazy as it sounds is, you know, the 80-20 principle, the Pareto principle, right? Which set, right? Well, in this world, all if you have

[00:38:58] you know, if you bomb six, seven out of 10 times but you hit, you do really well three, four out of every 10 times, you will be extraordinarily wealthy in this business, right? With a three, just like in baseball, how like, you know, 300 batting average or 350 batting average,

[00:39:20] you're getting into the Hall of Fame and same thing in direct response. So you could bomb six out of 10 times but if you do well with four out of 10 ideas, you'll be insanely wealthy. Yeah, I love it. I wanna like bring this like to the listeners

[00:39:34] as far as like the big idea on how to test it. I think content has been that vehicle for us. Like, taught like 60 days ago we had no podcast. Like we had like no platform, right? And it's like, we follow Russell

[00:39:46] and I know that you guys are really good friends and we're like, okay, do what Russell says, right? And Steve Larson, all these people, right? We're like, okay, this is the time in coronavirus to transition into publishing and we started doing it very often.

[00:39:57] We do three shows a week live for a reason. We gotta wanna get it out there, right? And through this process, we've discovered what you just said like, hey, you're gonna sit down and do it, right? So we took it where we sit down,

[00:40:08] we'd write these ideas, we test them out and then we see the audience feedback and then we come back and we implement, right? And it's just a constant thing. And I think we found on this show, on this platform, a really fun way to do it, right?

[00:40:20] But to the core is exactly what you were saying, that you gotta sit down and put in the work to make sure, to take action and see what are those ideas or those headlines. And Prince EA was actually talking about this on Funnel Hacking Live,

[00:40:31] where he starts all his videos with the title, right? And it's kinda like each of these title, he treats them as a big idea and he attributes a lot of the success of like his millions of views to that one title,

[00:40:45] just like you say with the big idea. So yeah, I wanna compliment what you said here a little bit with people, you know, cause they might be thinking, oh, so I have to change my product a lot of times, right? Like when I go back to the paper

[00:40:56] and this is my perspective, I don't like, it's no, right? Like that's what you get, the unique mechanisms, right? You have your one product, but there are unique ways that you can present it, right? Again, we've been dealing with this content for a while now

[00:41:11] and we couldn't make it work and we finally develop our own process, right? The macro to micro, the M2M we call it that when we present it to people now, they're like, wow, what is that? Is that curiosity?

[00:41:25] And it came because trial and error, trial and error. And like you were saying, we were listening to what people wanted. We were opening up, we left our ego way far back and we took feet back, you know?

[00:41:36] And some of those hurt, but at the same time they help. Yeah, like you said, being a student of the market, I love that term, student of the market. I think you look, I think you guys are spot on. What you both said is absolutely spot on.

[00:41:48] Number one, I think that you guys have a, you know, you guys will continue to grow your platform and that platform is an amazing opportunity for you to put ideas out there and see which ones resonate most, right? Like, and so whether it is your titles

[00:42:01] and you're seeing how many downloads you're getting from different titles, whether it is when you're on Facebook Live and you're taking comments and you're seeing which idea resonate. And you know, like look, the beauty is with a show like this,

[00:42:14] you get to have a conversation with the market. And so through that conversation, you get to learn and that's a beautiful thing. And so certainly, you know, recognize the opportunity that you guys have to learn more about the people that you are serving.

[00:42:28] The other thing is that the beauty is with something like the big idea is that it gives you a way to market the same product long-term without being repetitious because you can develop a new big idea for the same exact product. You don't have to change the mechanism.

[00:42:46] You don't have to change the product but the big idea gives you a different way to get the marketplaces attention and then ultimately lead them to talk about your unique mechanism in your product. And so you've got an infinite number of ways

[00:43:00] to enter the conversation going on in your market's mind, right, to leverage what it is that's top of mind for them, what's most important and then lead them to talk about your product or service when that idea is no longer a big idea

[00:43:13] whether it takes six months, 10 months, 12 months or three weeks or whatever it is, right? Cause every market is different. Well, then you've got the ability to come up with a new idea to talk about the same product, right? There's an infinite number of ways

[00:43:25] to talk about a product or service or a mechanism. I love it, Tom, thank you so much. Yeah, that was like a golden nugget right there for everybody listening. Not just a nugget, like a full mountain and you just like fell over.

[00:43:38] But yeah, so I want to transition a little bit because I was listening to your podcast last night and on your last episode you talked about the front end and the back end and how we should approach, right? We obviously deal with a lot of organic

[00:43:52] but also pay is very important is that fuel that goes in and I know that you're big on it and you have a unique way to approach like that type of investment, right? And so I want you to kind of explain to the audience

[00:44:04] like what's your take on paid ads and if I'm paying 50 bucks to acquire a $50 customer is that a good thing or is that a bad thing? Yeah man, I love this question. I'll tell you this, number one, right? Every the biggest direct response driven companies

[00:44:23] all rely heavily on media buying, on paid traffic. When I first came into business I thought the objective was to spend the least amount of money as possible on marketing, right? I thought marketing is an expense or advertising is an expense

[00:44:38] and so I'm going to try to spend the least amount of money that I possibly can to build my business. Not realizing that that is the complete antithesis it's the complete opposite of the way the biggest fastest growing direct response companies

[00:44:50] are growing and have grown and so on. The single most scalable way to acquire customers is through paid traffic, right? When you can pay for the acquisition of a customer sky's the limit, right? So when you can go out into the market

[00:45:04] and pay for the acquisition of a buyer you've got this leverage because then you can just go out and do it over and over and over and the opportunity for you to buy media for you to buy traffic is gargantuan. It's bigger today than it's ever been

[00:45:17] and it'll only continue to get bigger as more and more platforms traffic and so on. The thing to really understand at the root of your question is this. Number one is that we are in the business of investing into the acquisition of assets. We're investors as entrepreneurs.

[00:45:33] We are investing in the acquisition of assets. Those assets are customers. Those assets have a value today, right? What is it that they spend with us when they become a customer, right? What we typically refer to as average order value in this world, average order value.

[00:45:49] Average order value is the average amount of money that a customer spends with you when they go through your entire marketing campaign, right? That's day zero. When you turn a prospect into a buyer, right? There is an average amount of money that's average order value.

[00:46:02] But then there's also a future value of that asset, that customer. What we call lifetime value, lifetime customer value. And that lifetime customer value is the amount of money that the average customer spends with you over the life of their patronage with your company or your brand.

[00:46:19] And so we know over time, as your company matures, you'll know your metrics. Like the biggest fastest growing direct response companies, they have, they track everything. They track all their marketing and they know their metrics. So they know their average order value

[00:46:34] and they know their lifetime customer value. So when you know what a customer is worth today, let's just call it for argument's sake, $100. The average customer spends $100 with you when they go through your campaign. Some spend less, some spend more, but it's an average and direct response.

[00:46:50] We use averages of $100. And then let's say we know that those people go on to, on average over the first year, spend an additional 500. So a total of 600, right? 100 on day zero and another 500 throughout the course of the year. Well, when we take a perspective,

[00:47:06] the perspective of being an investor, and we look at that and we say, well, that's an asset. There's a value today of $100 and then there's a future value of another 500. So based on that, what is it that I'm willing to spend to acquire a customer?

[00:47:21] What is it that I'm willing to spend to acquire a customer? And you have to understand that the business that is able and willing to spend more will be able to acquire more customers, right? The business that is able to spend the most

[00:47:34] to acquire a customer, all else being equal, is gonna win. If you can only spend $50 to acquire a customer and I can spend 200, you're done. You're done because what I can, yeah, it's game over because what I can do, right? Is far more than what you can do.

[00:47:49] I can send people to their house, I send them gifts, I can do all kinds of crazy things, right? Where you can't. And so I'm gonna have the ability to acquire customers that you're not gonna have. So knowing that we're investors, we're investing in the acquisition of assets,

[00:48:04] those assets are customers. In this example, customers have $100 value to us today and then another 500 over the course of the year. How much are we willing to spend? Well, if I said to you, right? And I do this everywhere I speak, whether it's a podcast or live events,

[00:48:17] I always say, okay, in that example, would you give me 50 bucks to acquire a customer? Would you spend 50 bucks to acquire a customer? Of course you would because you spend 50, that customer spends 100 with you today. Now you're positive, you're up $50, right?

[00:48:32] And then they go on to spend another 500 with you, of course. Okay, but would you spend 100 bucks today to get that customer? Well, why wouldn't you spend 100 bucks today? You spend 100 bucks, they pay you back, you get 100 bucks back, right?

[00:48:45] Now they go on to spend another 500 bucks with you. In that example, you spent $500 or invested, excuse me, invested $100 to get a customer that gives you $100, you are at break even, you've just acquired an asset, a customer for free

[00:49:02] that then goes on to spend another 500 bucks with you. Why wouldn't you do that? That's break even. The next level though is, well, would you spend 150 bucks today to get a customer that spends 100 with you today? Meaning now, you've gone out of your pocket $50

[00:49:21] to get a new customer, but that customer goes on to spend another 500 bucks with you over the year. If you know your metrics and you've got the cash flow to float, you have a mature business, well then sure, tons and tons of tremendous companies,

[00:49:37] fast growing companies do that. When you think like an investor and you realize that your customers are assets that have a value today and a future value, it should radically impact what you're willing to spend to acquire that asset. Yeah, incredible.

[00:49:52] And you know, I wanna take this, yeah, exactly. Wow, that was me walking to the doctor last night and listening to that one episode. Am I insane? Right, because there's a lot of things that we talked with a lot of businesses

[00:50:02] that are on the front end, they're like, oh my gosh, I'm losing money. Not really, if you sell a membership, a gym membership, right? This member is gonna stay at least six months with you. You guys technically spend so much more money.

[00:50:14] And I wanna take this as our action point because we've had so many good nuggets. Just how to come up with that big idea. That was an action point. We leave our audience always with these action points. This I think is so much valuable.

[00:50:26] With the pay done and the change of you knowing your metrics and acting as an investor, I think is an amazing. The change of perspective, I love it. Yeah, and we've been touching on perspective lately a lot which is awesome. We talk about this on the show, obviously,

[00:50:42] content's related and you see content in a very unique way as far as like the big idea, the paid traffic, right? And we wanna help our audience encourage them to show them like this is the right path. Either they're publishing, it's either investing $1 to move their audience up

[00:50:58] and see what are the new messages and how can I test them out? So we wanna ask you this question. Like where will you be right now if you do not publish? I don't even know, man. I really don't, God only knows. I don't even know.

[00:51:15] I mean, I have very little skills honestly. This is no joke, man, right? Like I was first of all, I was a terrible student in high school. It took me six years to get a four year college degree. I can do very little.

[00:51:30] I have no idea to be honest with you, it'd be a cluster. I have no idea. Yeah, it'd be a disaster. Who knows? And so- I hope this serves as a motivation for everybody because obviously- That's no joke, man. Like there are a lot of people that,

[00:51:44] like there are a lot of people that invent all kinds of crazy stories for their marketing. Like no joke. I almost didn't graduate high school. I did not bring a book home. My aim in high school was never to bring a book home.

[00:51:59] I just did not wanna carry a book home. And then I ended up, I couldn't get accepted to any college so I had to go to community college for two years and then I was able to transfer to a four year college

[00:52:11] and then again it took me six years. And the point is like what we started off together talking about like this is a learn skill. You can learn it. I didn't learn it in college. I didn't go to college for marketing or business or entrepreneur, none of that.

[00:52:24] And so you gotta be willing to learn and act. Learn and take an act, take action on what it is. The value of learning is only extracted in the action, in the implementation and you can't be afraid to fail whatever that means.

[00:52:39] You can't be afraid to do something wrong. You certainly can't be afraid of what people think. Like that is one of those things. Man, I wish I could go back way back to 20 years ago and tell myself like who cares man what these people think?

[00:52:53] At the end of the day, who cares? Live for your dream man. Like go for implement, share. That's how you're gonna grow. I look back at some of the original info information products I did. Some of the original marketing I did years ago. It's a horror show.

[00:53:10] A horror show in turn. It's a cluster man. Like and remember I'm going back like almost 20 years so I've got stuff offline. Like I've got deskettes and cassette tapes and oh my gosh, cluster. But you know what? That's how you grow. Yes. That's how you learn.

[00:53:28] That's how you evolve. That's how you get better. You don't get better at golf by watching videos and listening to golf instruction. You do it by getting out there and being willing to say you know what? If others have done it, I can do it

[00:53:39] if I stay at it long enough and take action. Todd thank you so much. That was incredible. We really appreciate you and your time. It was an amazing, we're gonna have to go back and rewatch this thing like three times because we normally take these notes here

[00:53:51] but I was like, I'm just gonna enjoy the moment and I'm gonna capture as much as I can because this was an amazing opportunity. So thank you Todd so much. Fonso do you have any last thoughts here? Honestly I'm like beyond words

[00:54:03] and so grateful for you taking your time to be here. I really appreciate it and honestly everybody that's watching and listening this was a real treat. So go back. Let me, can I say one thing? I wanna say two things actually

[00:54:19] and then I'm gonna jump and let you guys wrap up. And so first thing is this, there's so much in this space there's so much, you know, this person's a guru and this person's an expert and right and man that's nonsense.

[00:54:36] It really is like at the end of the day like you know what? There are like you guys can go on to be tremendous and like an incredible and don't look at, you know the only difference between me and you

[00:54:49] is that I've just done this for so long, right? 99% of the gurus that I, the gurus that I know that I'm friends with that today are normal like misfits and goofballs and right like off camera I'm a knucklehead. My wife's yelling at me.

[00:55:05] My kids are like what are you doing dad? Like and the point is, the point is just recognize that like don't buy into, you know this image of like be you and be the best you that you possibly can be and know that that is,

[00:55:23] don't get caught up in this whole guru thing. The second thing that I was gonna say is this and I mean it, you know if you haven't gotten this from me already know this. I don't say anything that I don't mean. I'm not here to pander to anybody

[00:55:37] to the marketplace, to podcast, none of that right? I'm gonna say this, I think you guys are gonna be big. I think you're the way you've hosted this podcast man. This is, I think you guys are gonna be big. I really do.

[00:55:50] I think you guys are gonna be awesome and I think if you just keep at it, man, I'm gonna come back on here one day and I'm gonna be like remember when little me came on your show at the beginning and now you haven't forgotten the little guy

[00:56:04] and so keep it up. You guys are doing amazing. I can't wait to see what the future holds for you. Thank you man. We're definitely, yeah we're gonna definitely visit you so you know where your classes and your masterminds and everything is right there in the target.

[00:56:16] So we're definitely gonna come visit and thank you so much for those amazing words and guys like he might have said it to us because he's looking at us but also to the audience like if you're sitting on that spot

[00:56:27] that if you're struggling to start it to publish this is what we did and look, I mean even like 60 days tall has been doing it for 20 years or so. But it's incredible right? It's consistency and frequency. Stay there, test your message.

[00:56:42] Come up with that big idea and keep on going. So with that being said, where can we find you? Where can the audience connect with you? So if you're interested in the book which is just a few bucks you can go to bigmarketingideabook.com.

[00:56:58] You can also check me out on Instagram I think it's Instagram slash Todd Brown Instagram.com slash TODDBROWN. Those are the best spots. Awesome yeah that's how fun to go to all of you. That's how I got a hold of you

[00:57:14] then I got a hold of the book and I haven't looked back since. Awesome guys, well with that being said thank you so much for tuning into the content's profit but guys hit smash that subscribe button and we'll see you will connect with us

[00:57:28] also on social media at Beats Roseco. That's right guys and if you found this episode impactful please don't forget to share it with others and don't forget to leave a five star review. See ya.