Steve Jobs Marketing Strategy - Sell Your Ideas the Apple Way - Dan Lok

Key Takeaways

[Music] If you're ready, put up your hand nice and high and say, "I'm ready." Good. Good. So, now there's a new movie coming up uh in October called Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs. Now, for those of you who know me, I'm a huge fan of Steve Jobs. Um, I've read his, you know, the book like probably five, six times. So, there's a new movie coming up called The Man in the Machine called Steve Jobs. Now, apparently, there was another Steve Jobs movie a couple years ago. Yes. How many have seen that before? Yeah. So, but apparently some this movie they said that from the people working at Apple that said that this it's a more accurate representation of Steve actually they say that when they watch the movie they think it's Steve they think it's move it's not actually acting they think that's Steve. So that's pretty incredible. Um, so I thought it would be interesting to do maybe a a short keynote on Steve Jobs and on marketing and what uh what makes Apple so successful and what makes them different from any other companies and more importantly how does that apply to you? Would that be of interest? Yeah. And again this is just from my own perspective. My own what perspective perspective. So it's just my own perspect what my observation is and I would do in a way that because you would you might think well I'm not in the computer business I'm not in a software business you see as I share with you these things can can be applicable to you doesn't matter what business you're in sound good okay so here we go so Steve Jobs the secret to Apple's marketing genius now when I say Apple what kind of company if if I ask you the question what kind of company is Apple. What would you say if yall have the answer? What business are they in? Tech. Tech. Okay. What else? Lifestyle. Okay. Culture. Culture. Okay. Information. Innovation. Yes. Cool product. Cool product. Yes. Design. Design. Okay. Good. Good. Challenging status quo. Oh, challenging status quo. Very nice. Yes. Style. Style. Okay. Very cool. User interaction. User interaction. How many of you are are PC users? Okay. How many of you are Apple? Yes. Well, interesting. Interesting. How many use both? How do you do both? Like how do you do both? So, I'm going to share with you a little bit of statistics about Apple. So, in case, of course, you know, it's is Apple very profitable? Everybody say hell yeah. Yeah. But you might not know actually exactly how profitable it is unless you're in the stocks. Now we know that there are nowadays there are a lot of retailers that struggling and the states there are thousands and thousands of retailers going out of business. Yes or no? Are there retailers going out of business in Canada? Name some of them. Sears. Future shop. Target. Zealers. Max. Max. McDonald. McDonald's. They closing some of their shops. Yes. Stores. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. City. Circuit city. Zony. Yes. Now, let me ask you a question. Are these small companies or big companies? So, even big companies are having a tough time with this economy. What is going on now? In spite of all that and you look at you know people say the re retail apocalypse all these major chains not just a certain sector across different people companies been around a long time you see them for five 10 20 years and bam overnight not one store how many stores hundreds thousands long period of time short period of time closing down very short period of time very alternative. Now, how does that apply for small business? Still, if big companies, they're having a tough time kind of big elephant. But with small companies, what do we have to do? What do we have to be aware of? Looking at this as a small business, what do we have to be aware of? You have the answer. Change. Change. Yes. Innovation. Yes. Emerging technology. Yes. Customer needs. Being aware. Being able to Yes. relationship management. Very good. Very good. So, with Apple and just some statistics I pulled, uh, fueled by the popularity of the new iPhone 6 gave Apple an even bigger lead over other retailers. How many have you been to an Apple store? Okay. Over other retailers in productivity with its stores generating a staggering $4,790 82 in sales per square foot on an annualized basis at the end of 2014. Now if how many of you understand a little bit about retail? That's how they measure. Yes. Earning per square foot. Is that a low number? Is that a like a high number? Yeah, it it is a crazy crazy numbers. Uh I was uh when I in few months ago I was in in New York and I went to there's an Apple store right on Fifth Avenue which is very well known. Yeah. How many have you heard of that one? Yeah. Very well known. Uh, and I have to check it out and it was winter and I checked it out went into the store and it was it was winter and was snowing, freezing cold, packed. The place was packed. And then later on I went online just I'm just c I was curiosity how much that's that particular store makes. So I went on actually check um I don't know how much is doing now but they they kind of report approximately that Fifth Avenue store do about $350 million in sales a year. one store, $350 million in sales. Amazing. Uh Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 third quarter. And at June uh 27, 2015, the company post quarterly revenue of $49.6 billion and quality net profit of $9.7 billion. They're getting by. They're getting by. They're doing okay. So, is this something to be learned from Apple? Yes or no? Yes. Yes or no? Yes. But the the problem is okay, yeah, you know, $10 billion, $49 billion in revenue. Well, how does that apply to my business? I'll share with you. My observation is they are basically, and by the way, Apple also has over $200 billion in cash reserve. Not 200 million, 200 billion in cash that they don't know what to do with yet. That's a lot of cash. Yes, that's a lot of cash because Apple's model is a little bit different. Google, they do acquisitions, Facebook acquisitions, but Apple doesn't do a whole lot of that. So, pretty incredible. So, they're basically five powerful ways. How many ways? Five, I believe five powerful ways Apple has cultivated loyal raving fans. Loyal raving fans. So, ready to take notes? Hello. Yes. Okay, here we go. How many you have seen people, you know, the first day of opening a new iPhone, a new iPad or whatever, a new new product coming coming out and people line up in front of Apple store for days sometimes to get the product. Yes. Okay. So, what that tells you they've got a very big loyal following. Yes. Almost fanatic following. Yes. The question is why doesn't people line up to buy Sony products? Why doesn't people line up to buy Microsoft products? H So number one, I believe because Apple give people products that are exceptionally good. And put it in Danlock's term, aka they make cool [ __ ] They make cool [ __ ] Not just good products, exceptionally good products. If you think about it, how many of you use an iPhone? I'm curious. Okay. Now, if you think about it with an iPhone, it is actually, and people might argue about this, but it is actually an unnecessary expenditure. Few years ago, nobody needs an iPhone. We don't need an iPhone. We need food. We need water. We need shelter. But nobody need an iPhone. But nowadays, you ask people, okay, your TV or your iPhone, pick one. Which one are you gonna say? Uh, what about your your iPhone versus your computer? Which one? Uh, computer. iPhone. iPhone. So, you think about it from so what they do, they're selling stuff that people actually don't really need. But now it's to a point where we cannot live without. Like, wow. My god. How many of you if you lose your phone, you'll go crazy? You'll be like, "My god." Right? If I lo I I'll go nuts. All my contacts, everything. I run a lot of my business from here. So, you think about it. Give people the exceptionally good. But how do you make products that are good? A better question would be how good is your product? How good is your service? So, point on that. How good is your product? How good is your service? And it's a great quote by Steve Jobs. It's really hard to design products by focused groups. A lot of times people don't know what they want until you show it to them. Part of what makes Apple so successful is they can predict. What's the word? Predict the needs of the marketplace. What do people want? Maybe they don't even know they want it yet. But how can we create something that's so exceptional, that's so extraordinary, that when people see it, they would be like, "Wow, I didn't expect that you could. I thought just the phone, but phone, music, internet. It's not just a phone." H Steve Jobs. Number two, their products are fun and easy to use. Aka, in my term, they sell cool [ __ ] Not only they make cool [ __ ] they sell cool [ __ ] Uh here's a little article. The the iPad really is child's play. More than half of these babies use Apple tablets when they're just one one. So they make it very very easy to use. Very intuitive. One time I was uh going to my friend's house having dinner. And his son was six years old. I think six or seven years old back then. And then my friend, the dad was telling him, "Oh, go back to your room. Don't eat candy." And we're just kind of talking to the kids. Okay. And the kid is like listening, listening. And finally the kid was like, so he thinks that is an iPad, right? It's like move on. Right. They want to hear from you like that. So I thought that was pretty funny. But how how did the kids learn how to do that? Hello. That's it. Swipe from the iPad. The kid your coach. Yeah. The kids been using the iPad for two years. Since four. Since four. Amazing. Amazing. So the question is, how can you you make your products and services more simple to understand? Is what you're doing too complex? Is your offer too complex? Because complexity is the enemy of execution. Complexity is the enemy of what? Of what? Execution. So I always say there's genius. There's what? Genius in simplicity. So how can you make what you do simple? Just two weeks ago, I was in a business meeting and there was another entrepreneur talking about one of his venture and talk about basically pitching me on on a deal and he was explaining to me and he said, you know, he gave me like a like a five minute elevator pitch and I said, I don't quite get it and he said, I need more time like I need an hour to explain this to you. I said, if you need a [ __ ] hour to explain this to me, we've got a problem. How many follow what I'm saying? If you can't explain what the heck you do, forget five minute. In one minute, we've got a problem because most people don't even have one minute. The attention span is so short. One minute, forget about it. So, it takes and I always say the saying, if you cannot put your business model on a on a on a piece of napkin, you don't have a business. You should be able to simplify, articulate what you do very very simple in a terms that most people will understand. And here's what Steve Job has to say. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. So, whatever you're offering, how can you make it simple? Your marketing message, how can you simplify? Whatever you're offering, how can you simplify? Make it make it very simple. Now, maybe whatever you're offering, your products and services, could there be incidents where it is a complex kind of offer? Yes or no? So if it is a complex offer, what you want to do is do you want to show them everything that you do and everything that your product and service is capable of right up front? Yes or no? So you can take a bits and pieces of it that you know that you know what this is the most compelling piece. Let me simplify. Let me make it compelling and just make that your front end offer so that they get a little bit a taste of what you do. And then you show them a little bit more. You show them a little bit more. you show them a little bit more versus here's what all these things we could do for you. Here's what all my company can do for you. When I used to do copyrightiting, one of the rule that I've learned is when I'm writing my copy, when I'm writing an ad, when I'm crafting my landing page, my marketing message, I picture my prospect as this. Is my message simple enough that Homer Simpson would get it? Is my message compelling enough if Homer Simpson is sitting on the couch drinking beer watching TV that would compel him to take an action and buy? So I always have that picture in my mind. If when I'm crafting my message, would Homer understand this? If I know Homer Simpson will understand this, I got something. Does that make sense? Okay. So take two minutes. How long? Two minutes. Discuss among your table. Just the first couple ideas I've shared with you. Two minutes. Go. Awesome. So, how does this apply to you? Just y'all the answer. How does it apply to you? How does it apply to your business? Yes. Yes. What I do a couple things of course now keep in mind what Steve is saying is he's such an innovator he's predicting in two three years what people want for as far as I'm concerned for most entrepreneurs you go where the money is. meaning you look at what people are already buying and then you sell them more of that versus oh here's I do you know the entrepreneurs approach me all the time I've got this idea I've got this product nobody has it it's revolutionary when they say revolutionary I stop listening nobody's done this before oh [ __ ] not good like it's not a plus because most of the deals that I was involved with that lost money it's because of those ideas because nobody's ever done this before. Nobody ever seen this before. This is going to change industry. Oh [ __ ] It was because it means that it's going to take awful lot of money to educate the marketplace to buy this. And I don't want to play that game. As a business, it doesn't matter six figure, seven figure, eight figure, still a small business as far as I'm concerned. So I don't want to play that game. I want to go with okay, people are spending money on this. Well, maybe I can sell something a little bit similar. Can I sell it cheaper? Can I Can I sell Can I make it faster? Can I make it bigger? Can I make it put a new shring wrap to it so it looks different, but it's not actually different? I don't want a challenge in business. I used to want challenge. Nobody's ever done this before. Let me do it. Cost me ton of money. It's my ego talking. Nowadays, I'm like, "Okay, I don't want a challenge. I don't like the analogy I use all the time and I share that with Benson. If I'm I'm gonna fight a boxing match, I don't want to fight Mike Tyson. I'm not interested in that. I want to fight a 10-year-old kid. I want to go into the ring. I got my glove and I push and he sits and he cries. I win. Yay. Now, I'm not saying like don't beat up kids. That's not what I'm saying. You follow what I'm saying, right? It's not what I'm saying. But that's the analogy. I don't want a challenge. I want to know if I'm going into this business, I'm going to this industry that even though I could be wrong 50% 60%. And I could have a lot of failures, I could make a lot of mistakes, this thing would still work. I have enough margin that this thing would work. So that's why I hate low margin business because there's no not enough margin for errors. If your business only, oh, I've got 10% margin, we've got a problem. So I don't even touch those businesses. I want high margin. I want existing demand. I want lousy competitors. I want I want what I love to see competitors. Their marketing sucks. The customer service sucks. The product is average making a shitload of money. I want to get into that because I know I can create something better. I know I can provide better service. I can provide better experience. I can do better marketing and beat them. I don't want strong competitors. I'm not interested in that. Does that make sense? Now just my perspective. Not saying you cannot do something totally revolutionary. I mean, I support you for that. I'm just saying from a business point of view, I prefer to go with more a proven path because when you go to the bank and when you deposit a big check, the teller is not going to ask you the question, did you did you make this money? Was it was it your original idea or did you know I I can't sir I can't accept this deposit because it's kind of like it's not innovative enough. They're not going to ask that. Yes. They only want to know how much. Okay, great. Right. So, nobody's going to ask you that question. Number three, Apple strives to deliver unique and outstanding experience from the moment of contact. aka they deliver holy [ __ ] moment. They deliver holy [ __ ] moment. It's an experience. When you go to an Apple store, it's an experience. When you when you buy an iPhone, are you actually just buying a phone? What are you buying? An experience. An experience. But what are you buying? What other feature does it have? What can you do with iPhone? when an old lady like you can use. You're not that old. No, but what are you buying? You're buying entire Apple ecosystem. Yeah. Apple ecosystem. Very good. Yes. You're buying access to internet. Yes. You're buying access to music. You're buying access to music. You're buying access to what? Yeah. Everything. So, it's not just the phone. It's access now to a whole much bigger Apple ecosystem. So think of what you are doing as a small business, you want to deliver value and experience more than just your core product and service. This is key. Whatever you're selling, that thing that you're selling, that's good, but you better be able to add value other than beyond than just the thing that you sell because whatever you sell is so limited. You're a financial planner, you're a real estate agent, you're a tech person, you're app person, whatever it might be. Here's what we do. But what you do is only a out of the thousands and thousands of people that you meet only a small percentage want need what you sell at any given time. Does that make sense? So if this is all you do, you're so limited versus hey, you know what? This is what I do, but what you do is not who you are. Write down what you do is not who you are. A lot of people say, "Oh, I'm a financial planner." No, you have a financial planning business. It's not who you are. You are who you are. What you do is not who you are. It's like and let me give you an example. I people would see me and they would think oh Danny's a speaker. Yes. I don't think of myself as speaker first of all. I think of myself maybe maybe more like a teacher. I speak at conferences but I'm not a speaker. Pay attention to this. I can do marketing but I'm not a marketer. I can write written a number of books but I'm not a writer. I do internet marketing but I'm not an internet marketer. Just point on that for a second. Now what do I mean by that? What do I mean by that? What do I mean by that? That's it. Nothing more than the skill sets I've developed over the years. Tools on my tool belt. But versus you look to talk to people. Oh, I'm a blogger. I only do blogging or I'm a Facebook guy. I only do Facebook advertising or social media. No, I do social media. I do blog. I do podcast. I'm all these things and I'm none of these things because that gives me flexibility. It's only what I do. who I am. Who I am I think mainly is just an entrepreneur and I use all these tools versus just so limited. Okay, this is what I do. I only do this. Does that make sense? So think it. So what you do is who you are. When you buy a Mac, you join a community and you don't just own a computer. You become part of the entire Apple ecosystem. The entire Apple ecosystem. When you own an Apple product, people have this pride that hey, you know what? I'm cool. Apple is cool. Use PC [ __ ] right? Apple I'm cool right think of this let me give an example an experience so when Vancouver entrepreneurs group we host our meetings at here Vancouver club why do I do it at Vancouver club how how does that tie in with the experience theory the environment about the environment yes hiance ambiance yes it's interesting because if we're talking about success we're talking about entrepreneur. We want to impact the world. We want to create wealth. We want to provide for our family. We want to increase our income. What's a better place than a building that had is over 100 years old, 100 years of history where you have some of the most powerful, wealthiest, influential entrepreneurs, business people as members. There there's no no place like this. It's a is a is an experience. Yes. I could have done it at McDonald. I could do the same speech but doing it here would have a different impact. Does that make sense? So with what you do, think of how can you create and craft an experience an environment that before they even talk to you even they get in touch with you now they have a it's a different experience for them. It's a different experience for them. People are willing to pay more for the connection with a person of elevated status and perceive celebrity. Write this down. People are willing to pay more for the connection with a person of elevated status and perceived celebrity. Going back to if they do business with you and you have your competitor provide kind of the similar service, similar to what you do, same price, same everything. But if they perceive you as more influential, they perceive you as more well-connected. They would prefer to do business with you. Does that make sense? Okay. And notice I said perceived celebrity. Perception is reality. Repeat after me. Perception is reality. So Steve Jobs has been positioned as the iconic celebrity in the Apple world, in the computer world, in the tech world. Not just Steve Jobs, he's the CEO. He's Steve Jobs. Not you. Think of Bill Gates. Is Bill Gates wealthy? He's probably wealthier than Steve Jobs. But look, look at what they've done. Apple has created precision. I think Steve Jobs way better in the Apple world than Bill Gates versus Microsoft. How many follow what I'm saying? You see the difference? Okay. So, Apple also creates an experience through their retail outlets. Uh, interesting story. Um Apple actually got the idea at first modeled the store uh after get the gap the gap uh the CEO of the gap uh I told you the the the fifth avenue um uh story in New York how much they're doing. So they actually the gap uh the CEO of the gap was involved with the whole process of creating a store creating the Apple store and they want to make it simple make it clean make it uh kind of high-tech and you think about it and funny because Apple people actually used to call themselves gappo because the store looks like the gap gappo but they model what works and the CEO of the gap he was phenomenal and they were involved in the early process so that's an experience as They do things. So number four, Apple has very wisely taken on an overall look at what the computer market is, figure out what they really want to do with their computers and build their platform around that. This is critical. So talking about creating predicting the needs, right? Where the money is, where the cash is flowing, you want to position yourself in front of that. I have a quote coming up. So Steve Jobs said, "You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new." Now, of course, Steve is referring to the tech world because things change how fast in tech world? Hello? Really fast. Very fast, right? Very, very fast. But it's anticipating the needs. You think of I Apple when you buy again which I think one of the most brilliant thing they've done is iTunes because they sell you the phone they make money on the front end. How many of you buy apps by the way? APS. How many of you buy songs, shows all that on iTunes? Interesting. So you don't just spend the money on the iPhone but you spend a whole lot more money. Yes. It's funny. I was playing uh there's a game. I don't play a lot of games, but somehow download the stupid game. Anyway, uh it's called The Walking Dead. Walking Dead. Yeah. You play it? Hey, man. Yes. Awesome. Okay. So, I I told I told my wife Jenny, "Hey, you know, it's a free game, right? Free game." Yeah. Free game. It's a free game. I said, "I'm not going to spend money. Don't worry. I teach marketing. I get all their tricks. Know exactly what they're trying to do. Get you to buy these coins and upgrade out. I I sees all that [ __ ] I'm not going to spend a dime. Right. After playing a game, I don't know, a couple day. I just spend like, I don't know, 10 minutes a day on it, something like that. But in the bathroom, just in case you take your iPad to the bathroom, be honest. I do. What? I do. Anyways, I'm playing a game and uh and I and and I I hit a certain plateau. So, I was getting killed by these other, you know, the enemies, the the walking dead, the zombies. I'm like, "Shit, damn. I need to buy some weapons and ship, right? I got to do something about this thing. And then of course I talk to Jenny. No, no, you promise you're not going to buy. You're not going to buy. No. I mean, I just need some gold coins, little bit upgrade. You know, I'm going to be promise. 10 bucks. Like 10 whatever little 10 15 bucks. That's it. That's it. Promise. Promise. Because Jenny is smart because my um iPhone it account is hooked up with her account because if I buy something, she'll know like she'll get an email. Oh, you just made this purchase, right? Not a smart idea. So, I've spent the 15 bucks and I was, "Yeah, good." You know, killing the zombies and upgrading. Yeah. You know, this is awesome, right? After a few more days, [ __ ] Couldn't get through the next, you know, the next level. I'm like, "Hey, you know, oh, and then Jenny was like, "No, you're getting sucked into it. You said you you you teach marketing. You're not going to fall for these things." You know, they they want you to keep spending money. It's a free game. They hook you in. you buy all this and this. Promise. Promise. Last upgrade. I get this. That's it. It's a stupid game anyway. I'm not going to play that long. This and that. Right. Lo and behold, back and forth. This and that. I spent about 150 bucks on that stupid [ __ ] game. Free. Free. Right. No, but I'm smart. I'm smart. So, the first time it's like 15 bucks, 15 bucks. I'm like, [ __ ] it. Let's spend big bucks. one time, right? So, 50 60 and I did it all in like one day. So, I know my wife is going to yell at me, she's going to yell at me once because if I do three transaction in like three separate weeks, that's three times, right? If you're going to kill me, just kill me once. Three transactions one day. Solve the problem. But seriously, the moral of the story is is is this type of thing is maybe what you do, what is the front-end offer, how can you make it enticing and and how can you build a backend and then you you sell additional product and services to your customers, make it easy for them to buy. So, it is absolutely brilliant. So, what can you do? Here's a question to directly leverage your customer base to increase your backend. What can you do to directly leverage your customer base to increase your backend? And it may not be your core products and services. I'll say it again. It may not be your core products and services. It may be somebody else core products and services. It's called a joint venture. It's called what? You can promote other people's product and services and get a cut because your most valuable asset is not your c. It's it's not your service. It's not your product. It's your customer base. The people the loyal following. Let me ask you a question. The new iPhone 6S is coming up, right? How many have a good iPhone right now? Like perfectly good iPhone. How many are going to get the iPhone 6S? Be honest. Couple people. One person, two people thinking about it. Okay, there you go. So, even predicting myself, I'm like, I just got this phone a couple months ago. iPhone 6s. Don't really need it. Don't really need it, but it's a little bit faster. The camera is a little bit higher resolution. [ __ ] Should I get it? Should I not get it? And then the new Apple TV is coming out. Damn. Should I get that? And the iPad Pro is coming out. Should I get that, too? So, does Apple just sell you one thing? No. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. Not at all. So, lockerism, go where the money is flowing and then just stand in front of it. Simple statement. Go where the money is flowing and then just stand in front of it. Not where you think it's going, not what you perceive and expect it's going. Where it is going is flowing right now. And you can see people spending money and then just stand in front of it. Are people spending money on Amazon? Yes or no? Are people buying more uh digital products? Yes or no? Yeah. Are people buying online courses? Yes or no? So go where the money is. Number five, Apple is absolutely and absolutely shameless and relentless about self-promotion. Aka they promote the [ __ ] out of it. So they make they make cool [ __ ] they sell cool [ __ ] they deliver holy [ __ ] experience moment and they pro promote the [ __ ] out of it. A lot of what we do is, think about it, you are a personal brand. You're a what? You are a personal brand regardless if you think you're one or not. Regardless, let me give you a call. Repeat after me. Attention is the new currency. is the new currency. Again, attention attention is the new currency. is a new currency. Once more, twice as loud. Attention Attention is new currency. Attention is new currency. Most companies fail because they're not getting enough attention because of obscurity. People don't not that their products are not good, not that the service are not good. Nobody knows who the [ __ ] they are. They don't even the marketplace. There's so much noise. They don't even know they exist. They don't even know. There's Is there a lot of noise on the internet? Yes. How many how many Twitters are out there every day? Think about it. How many Facebook posts? Because attention is a new currency. You can't grow your company if you're not getting attention. Period. If you're struggling to get customers, I can almost guarantee you're not getting enough attention in the marketplace. You're not cutting through the clutter. You're not breaking. You're not standing out in this noise. So, how do you stand out? In Japan now they actually have uh this new form of vending machine. Now what is a vending machine? If you want to go buy a bottle of Coke, you go there and you put in what? Put in what? Some coins, right? Couple bucks. Cool. Or iPhone. Yes. Japan, they actually have this new form landing m vending machine. You go there, you press a button, they play, you stand there, and you play a commercial for 60, 60 seconds, 2 minutes, and then out pops a bottle of Coke. They don't want your money. They want your attention. Your attention is even more valuable than money. Now, that says something. That's pretty profound if you think about it. Not so good if you love Coke and you just sit there and all day and it's not so good. But you get the idea. Yes. So they promote that. So shameless relentless self-promotion. Donald Trump is a good example. How many follow what Donald Trump have you know the presidential? Yes. Love the guy. Hate the guy. Doesn't matter. It does not matter. There's something to be learned from him. Now is Donald Trump famous? Yes or no? Is he wellknown? Yes. Is he still promoting himself? Yes. more than ever. What does that say people? I always tell entrepreneur, what when is the best time to do marketing? When you're crazy busy. When you don't need clients. Not when you're desperate and you need clients. Oh my god, I need to make that sale. No, when you don't need clients, when you're busier than ever, you do more marketing. Not when you're when you're desperate. That's not the time to do marketing because also you don't have enough capital. You don't have enough marketing capital to do so. So Steve Job you look I mean he is again relentless promoter the speech every time the announcement new product millions of people tune into that not just a great speaker. So most companies go out of business because of obscurity. So visibility what's the word is more important than ability. Visibility is more important than ability. Now that am I saying that you can sell crappy stuff? No. I'm saying sell good stuff, deliver exceptional service and stand in front of the money where the money is flowing. But I'm saying is visibility is more important than ability. I would consider that in local Vancouver, even on the internet, I'm relatively wellknown. Do I stop promoting my brand? Just this year I I've done over now I think 12 book 11 books something like that. Just this year uh in the last 12 months I've done two more books. In the next 12 six months I'm going to publish two more books. In August while I was on vacation I launched my podcast Shoulder of Titans. In the next 12 months you'll see that on my YouTube channel I'll probably just going out there uploading producing three to 500 videos in the next 12 months. And that's what I am doing non-stop domination promotion personal branding because when you have that good things come to you. You don't have to chase deals. It's easier when deals come to you than you chase deals. Yes. So my question to you is then what should you be doing to promote your brand, your Facebook? I'm talking your social media. I'm talking about your blog. I'm talking about all these things. And that's not even my main business. This is on top of running all the companies, being a partner of the 20 plus companies. This is the side thing. And I do more than probably a lot of the entrepreneurs because I know by pushing that by you got to cut through the clutter. You got to stand out. By standing out, there are bigger opportunities. There are more lucrative opportunities and you can impact a lot more people. Does that make sense? So, here's what you need. You need what I call a PMP, personal media platform. Write this down. Personal media platform. So, what is a personal media platform? I'm talking about your blog. How many have a blog right now? Yes. How often you update your blog? One's what? Once what? Once a day. Good. How often you update your blog? How many of you have not update your blog in in a month? Okay. So, personal. So your blog, your your Facebook, your Twitter, uh YouTube, uh iTunes, uh podcast, where is your platform? Now, what is a platform? A platform is nothing more than a thing, a community, a something that you do that serves the greater goods of others. Write this down. A platform is not something for yourself. Because if it's all about yourself, it doesn't work. It only goes so far. So you think of Teresa Social Light conference. Is that a platform? Yes or no? Yeah. Through that platform, she's able to meet also other other successful entrepreneurs like Richard Branson. Yes. Bob Proctor. It's a platform. If today it's just Teresa alone and she goes knocks on doors on these big names, is she going to get the same attention? No. Because she has this massive platform. So she created the platform first. then you're exposed to more opportunities being to meet more influential people. So how many platforms do you have? If you're not getting enough business, your business is not growing as fast as you want. Pretty much I can almost guarantee again you're missing this. Either it's not big enough, it's not wide enough, it's not impacting impacting enough people. Just like if today your Facebook instead of having 10,000 likes, fans, and you have 100,000 likes and fans, would that make a difference in your business? Yes. It's very simple, but you can't build get attention without this. And this thing, the problem is it is [ __ ] slow. It is slow because you're building a personal media platform. It is slow. Blog. Do you just make one blog post and then your f your phone rings off the hook? Do you just make a 10 post and the phone rings off the hook? No. You got to keep doing it. It takes time. Sometimes it takes six months. Sometimes it takes one year, but when is the best time to start? You got to manage. You got to keep growing. And that's why I said I promise you right now, I'm making this promise. Right now, my YouTube channel has I don't know 1,200, no 1,200 subscribers. It's pathetic, quite frankly. 1,00 on me on camera. 1,200 subscribers. Let's have this conversation again a year later. Let's see how many subscribers I have. Am I just do What did I say? Did I say, "Oh, I'm going to do like, I don't know, one video every two months and six videos, maybe 10 videos, I don't know, a year." Did I say that? I said three to 500 [ __ ] videos in the next 12 months. That's the attitude. That's what it takes. Not, oh, do I do post? No, that's what it takes. Because your competitor is doing 10, he's doing 20. I don't want to win my competitor by a little bit. I want to You do 20, I do 200. You do 100, I do 1,000. Because as I build more and more, the bigger my personal media platform, easy it is to make money. Does that make sense? So, take a moment, take two minutes. Yes, Nathan. What if you're a smaller business? Yes. What if you're a smaller business? Tell me. figure a way to leverage other people. Yes, which you've done to a degree, right? Notes and stuff. But what if you're a small business? Tell me, look bigger. Okay. Partnership. Partnership. What do you mean by that? Yes. Yes. Good. Good. So, if you don't have a platform, is it a good idea to get on other people's platform? Hello. Yeah. To pull people. So, what I'm doing now, I'm on just uh this week I've been on two other podcasts being interviewed because I launched my podcast. So, if I want to grow my podcast, what's the best way? I go other people who has a podcast, who has a following. And then I talk about my podcast. I talk about vision. and talk about what what my podcast is about and I go there and I people a percentage of oh I like Dan's message I will go subscribe to his podcast too so I'm leveraging other people's platform does that make sense yeah so that's perfectly fine how often you do that as as much as possible as much as possible how when do you stop promoting your personal brand I just always look at Trump that's actually a Trump a book about Trump a lot of People have read the art of the deal. Um there's actually an other book that I like a lot. Not very popular called No Such Thing as Overexposure. Not a book written by him, but it's by a reporter. Follow him for a couple years. And he was just talking about the whole premise of the book is basically Trump is a relentless shameless non-stop self-promotion machine. That's basically what the book is about. That's what the book is about. So personal media platform. So for small business, I believe there are five keys. How many keys? That's right. Three keys. How many keys? Three keys. Three keys. Okay. First, you want to be somebody. You want to be what? Be somebody. And then you want to do something. And then you want to be somewhere. Be somebody. Do something. Be somewhere. How do you be somebody? If you example, you have a blog, you perceive as an expert. If you have a book, if you are providing educational videos, you're somebody. If a podcast, your platform, you're somebody. If you're a speaker, you're somebody. Do something means taking me. Yes. Is there a way to merge the other business? Awesome question. What are the two businesses? Life coaching. So, life coaching and website design. Okay. So in this case you think are they you're doing both I assume. So you're life coach as well as you're a web designer. Okay. Which business does better? I'm curious. Which does Yeah. brings in more. H web design. Web design. Okay. Think of what I just said. You are not Yeah. You're not what you do. You're not your business. So look at if take me as an example. Uh it's my brand but all the companies under the umbrella of the personal brand. So I do e-commerce, I do digital marketing, I have a financial planning business in New Zealand, I do events, I do publishing, I do a membership site, a niche membership site, and we have ebooks. We have so I'm all these things, all these different businesses, but if my but my because my personal brand is strong enough that I could use that to promote all these companies. Yes. So you say be someone do something That's just like when you're about us, you just say this is who I am. This is what I do. No, no, no. This is this is the action steps. So after this talk, well now what how do I apply this? What I say is you want to be somebody you by being somebody. The easiest ways to add value to the marketplace by giving they say in your case notes, right? By giving by educating the marketplace before you sell anything else that positions somebody and then do something. It's about taking action every day. every day. If you just do 10 minutes a day promoting your business, moving your business forward, reaching out, tweeting, Facebook, something every day. Every damn single day that's doing something to keep promoting and then be somewhere. I'm talking about this. Don't stay at home. Go meet somebody. Go to these things because you don't know who you're going to meet. You just don't know who you're going to meet. Just like Craig example met Jeffrey. Who would have known? They're doing this massive project together making this. But if Jeffrey or Craig that day was like, you know what, don't feel like it. Want to stay home. He would have missed the opportunity. So I never almost I never turned any places. I could be a speaker. I could I could give back. I could be on podcast. Most of the time unless it's so small, but most of I said, "Yeah, I'll do it because I want to always do something and be somewhere because I don't know where that is going to lead to. I cannot predict where that's going to lead to." I call that unpredictable miracle. You don't know. But I know by putting myself out there, just keep promoting my myself, branding, do something, be somewhere, something would show up. Does that make sense? And in this case, in my case, the problem is too many things show up. So I have to be selective of what I pursue. But it's the same idea. Make sense? Two minutes discuss among your table what you've just learned today. 10 times your finances, 10 times your business, 10 times your marketing, 10 times your life. Hit the subscribe button now.