Adam Street's Blog
The spiritual and practical path to freedom to do your art

Old School Marketing is so Gangsta

Seth Godin is an OG (original gangster) of marketing.

I would recommend you read all of his books.  The man is just that good.  His audiobooks books can be a little monotone but his content is off-the-wall good.  

His newest book, This is Marketing is a new “old” book.  Brand new book but what Seth talks about is old school.  Forget the glamour and glitz of trying to reach the masses.  Reach a few people instead.

   

It’s really important if you got pulverized by 2020.  It’s like starting over again or you may have started a completely new biz altogether.  Your transformation starts with your marketing.

I wanted to do a break down on Seth’s Marketing in Five Steps.

The first step is to invent a thing worth making. with a story worth telling , and a contribution worth talking about.  

Why are you offering coaching or marketing courses?  And why should anyone buy it from you.  The transformation?  Well, duh but you can get that from anywhere with a good google search. 

Your story and your why is what makes ‘your thing’ worth making and telling.

Look at Lily Born, this kiddo started her own cup company.  You may think the story is that she is a child entrepreneur.  That’s cool, but those story grows on trees.

The real story is when Lily was 8, she noticed her grandfather, who has has Parkinson’s, spilled  his drinks a lot.  She made him a cup from moldable plastic and later a ceramic cup for coffee.  She eventually started a business and made The Kangaroo Cup.

Yes, her cups solve a problem.  But she invented a thing worth making, and her story is worth telling.  And people talk about it.  Kinda like now…

That’s actually the litmus test for your product.  If it’s not unique in it’s own way that people talk about it you need to do two things.

You either need different people to show your offering to or you need a different offering.  

Sometimes it’s both but iterating will get you there.

Next time we’ll talk about Seth’s second step.

Adam

Angry Enough to Slap Jesus

My wife has had a bipolar relationship with her weight most of her life and a few months ago she hired a weight loss coach.  His name is Chris but I call him Jesus.  

Jesus is perfect.  All I ever hear is…

  • How fine he is.
  • How he knows calories and macros. 
  • How great his recipes are.

He’s helped her drop about 20 pounds and I’m happy for her.  But when she talks about him, I throw up in my up mouth a little.

Yesterday she told a woman at the gym she’s NEVER lost weight before.  My wife is like Oprah, she loses weight all the time.  But now that she’s found Jesus…

It drives me crazy because his ‘plan’ is all stuff someone (usually me) has told her before.  

But it didn’t matter.  Now that Jesus says it, it means something.  

It’s annoying.  It’s make me wanna run off and slap somebody.  But you’ve probably spotted the problem already.  Haven’t you?

People who get free advice rarely use it and don’t value it the same as paid advice.  Charge for your advice.

You may need to offer freebies to get started, or to test your course, and that’s ok.  But this ain’t charity work, baby.  Charge for what you do.  And charge the right amount.  Don’t bill what you think they can pay.

Action and lack of action have a price.  Your clients will eventually pay.  That dinero may as well go to you.

Adam

2 Ways to Improve Your Reviews

I used to suck at getting reviews of my work.  I’ve gotten better but I’m still no where near AKC best of show.

You want to get reviews.  They help people trust you and believe in what you do  Whether you get a few or a bucket load.  There’s a couple of things you can do to make the ones you get better.

First, show the diversity of your clients.  Like attracts like.  

If you have a course that teaches cats to pee on a toilet (don’t laugh, this is really a thing) and one of your testimonials is from a retired grandma.  There’s another Meemaw in Oklahoma captivated, thinking…  Hey, I can do that too.  

Let’s get fancy and put it in a more scientific way.  Author and most bad-ass psychology professor ever Dr. Robert Cialdini said in his book Pre-Suasion, thinking is linking.  

“The brain’s operations arise fundamentally and inescapably from raw associations.  Just as amino acids can be called the building blocks of life, associations can be called the building blocks of thought.”

You also want to add some drama when you can.  Which sounds better?

• Adam coached me and helped me lose 30 pounds. 

• I struggled with my weight for nearly a decade after the birth of my second child,  After I was coached by Adam I lost 30 pounds.  

Same result but the second one is much more impressive and relatable with some back-story sprinkled in there. 

“Readers want to see a character overcome obstacles.  They want to live vicariously through the character in your book, feeling every setback.  Feeling the conflict.  And getting the satisfaction of accomplishment when the character finally reaches his goal.”

Debra Dixon, from Goal, Motivation & Conflict

In the movie Iron Man, imagine if they glazed over Tony being captured and creating his armor out of necessity?    They could have done that but the movie wouldn’t have been no where near as good.

And neither would have Spider-Man.  Thor.  Or any other super-hero movie.

Don’t for a minute think I’m telling you to make this stuff up.  Pay attention to what your clients say and their individual experiences.  And when they give you a review coach them on framing their story. 

I used to work at an insurance company and we used to joke that all the customer reviews started in the rain or with some other melancholy situation.    

You don’t have to get all Joseph Campbell on them but do what you can to get great feedback.    It is for you after all.

Adam

The Marketing Secret No One Talks About

When it comes to marketing ‘secrets’ tactics always get mentioned.  They have their place but they’re a bit over-rated.  

It’s better to understand principles.  Like, WHY you do what you do.  Your story is SO important.  It’s what holds it all together like Gorilla Glue.  

If you don’t pump your why into your story you risk being generic.  It’s like baking a cake with no sugar.  You can call it cake it but…almost no one will want to eat it.

In 2009 Simon Sinek introduced us to what he calls the Golden Cirlce.  And no, it’s not a new James Bond movie.  

I love Sinek’s work.  And when I first saw his TED talk video it hit me like a brick to my chest.  His philosophy works like this.  Most leaders (and successful companies) market and talk about WHAT they do.

• We deliver sandwiches the fastest.  

• We unlock your greatest potential  

• Our pizza is the best tasting.

 

These things are Unique Selling Propositions (USPs).  They work for a while until someone does what you do better.  You have an alternative though…

WHY.

If you talk about WHY you do what you do, now you are a original story.  People know what you stand for.  They know why they should care or why they should have nothing to do with you.  

Many pros think they need a story like Brendon Burchard who almost died in a car accident to find his why.   It makes a for a cool story but you don’t need ALL that drama.

There’s a book called Save The Cat.  According to the author Blake Synder  there’s only 10 genres to EVERY movie ever made!  Ten!  And just about every song ever written was made with 7 notes.  

Don’t fear simplicity, embrace it.

Focusing on and marketing with your why is the real secret sauce of standing out.   

John Carpenter said, “Movies are about making mental things physical”.  That’s what we do too.  A person wants a change in their life and they hire you to help them make waves.

But none of that happens if you keep freaking out looking for great headlines and SEO rankings.

Adam

Writing Copy isn’t Just about Spacing

“Now, listen up. When a person first looks at something you have written it should be something that looks inviting to read. Easy-to-read. When he looks at your page of copy he should be drawn to your copy like a convict is to a Penthouse Magazine.”

Gary Halbert, The Boron Letters

Gary Halbert was never one for subtleties…  So how do we apply this advice from one of the best copywriters that ever lived?  

A lot of website design is done for us.  LeadPages, Wix, Click Funnels, they make our lives easier.  E-mail is another story.

I understood this in the beginning but Neville Medhora really helped this point hit home when I took his Copywriting Course.  Good spacing is a thing but don’t forget extras like using different colors, underlining, and using bold and italic text.   

Take a look at one of his e-mails.  

Neville uses a headline, sub-headlines, bold letters, and little arrow thingies (and this is one of his more simple e-mails).  He regularly uses a lot of little fun cartoon drawings, graphics, photos, and he plays with paragraph alignment.  These are all tips that make your e-mails more inviting.

If you don’t follow Gary’s advice the opposite will happen.  Instead of drawing in your readers you will repel them. 

Adam