Brian J. Pombo Live

Brian chats about Dan Kennedy's checklist, The 10 Smart Market Diagnosis and Profiling Questions from his classic book The Ultimate Sales Letter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK9XUL8lK7A

Transcription

Customer research methods.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I wanted to talk a little bit of a piece out of this book and it's really good for research.

Sometimes it gets tough in the very beginning, especially when you're getting into advertising, and you're wanting to learn more about your customers. And that's really the beginning of the good direct response advertising is really knowing about but who, really know about who you're trying to reach, and making that kind of your primary start.

If you've at least got that in your mind, you're on a good track and sometimes if you start there, it's like, Okay, well, what do I need to know about him?

I mean, there's a million things, you got your demographics, and psychographics, and all these different things.

Well, this is a great checklist from Dan Kennedy's book, the Ultimate Sales Letter, I think this checklist is in a couple of other formats floating around out there also but this is a good book to begin with.

I mean, this isn't a complete review of this book but it's an awesome book. It's not just about sales letters, it's about communicating a thorough message when you're trying to sell something to anyone in any way, especially online, where you have actually sales letters printed on pages. On websites, you've got video sales letters, in a sense, you have audio coming through and podcasts and other formats.

There are a million ways to be able to sell people now more so than ever before. And it all really originated with mailers, and direct mail, and, and advertising that way and through magazines and newspapers.

It's moved to today, but at the same time, the same things are true. And so when we're looking to find out more about potential customers, we're wanting to do research and really find out what they're all about so that we can communicate properly to them, and be able to speak their language, then this is a great way of going about doing that this is from chapter one.

It's the first step in his process of creating a good sales letter, and specifically a good sales message.

He says step one, get into the customer.

And he has this list. It's called the 10 Smart Market Diagnosis and Profiling Questions.

Okay, so there's 10 of these, let's go through them real quick, shall we?

Number one, what keeps them awake at night, indigestion boiling up their esophagus, eyes open, staring at the ceiling?

And what keeps them awake at night is all bolded. It's what really has your customer on edge, you got to at least know that whether it has anything to do with your product or not, you got to know where they're coming from.

In general, once again, a whole lot of this is guessing unless you already have a customer, or unless you are already familiar enough with the market unless you know them personally. And you could base this off of one person to begin with if you needed to.

Number two, What are they afraid of?

There's a very common thread throughout all of this. We'll hit on that at the very end.

Number three, and then once again, that could be number one. Number two could be the same thing, right? It all depends.

Thoughts on what it means to be mentally tough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV9xC24AwGE

Transcription

Mental Toughness Training.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

How do you become mentally tough?

This is an issue and it's one of those things I'll probably read some more upon and come back to this in later episodes. But I wanted to kind of give you my perspective for now.

As a kid, you tend to hear, especially as a male child growing up, you tend to hear suck it up, you know, suck it up and deal with it. You know, that's kind of the idea behind mental toughness, but at the same end, there's more to be mentally tough than just deal with it. Because we're usually not taught, we're certainly not taught in schools and in most cases not taught by our parents, how to be mentally tough.

I had some examples, but they were never direct examples. So my grandfather, my father, both had their own ways of dealing with things. And through their life example, I learned ways of being mentally tough, but it was never discussed directly that I can remember.

What it really comes down to, I think is this conversation of mental toughness.

We talk a lot about business here on this show so I'll tie it in as we go along here but this is a life kind of a life lesson.

If what toughness really comes down to is resilience. And that resilience comes from realizing what makes you less tough.

What brings weakness?

And we don't talk about that either. We never talk about, you know, what makes a person weak on the inside is mental toughness, no one talks about mental weakness.

Weakness is I think, the bigger issue if you you will be tough if you can keep from being weak. And if you know what causes mental weakness, that can change your whole life, if you learn how to handle it properly.

And what I have found is that most of my mental weakness was self-inflicted. It was always based on circumstances. So it's based on this process of victimhood that we put ourselves through were some situation is causing me great pain and agony or stress, depression, some person or people are causing me horrible situations in my life.

It's always someone or something else's fault, some cataclysmic event, whatever it is, there's always something else outside that is causing the issues inside.

But a huge part of mental toughness is just understanding that how you react mentally, spiritually, everything else, inside how you internally react to whatever is occurring outside is your responsibility.

This comes back to this conversation that I've had previously where there's a big difference between fault and responsibility. So a lot of things can be other people's fault. circumstances, yeah, 99% of all circumstances in the world are someone else's fault. They're not your fault. You know, it was their fault.

In fact, a whole lot of things that happened to you throughout your life are not your fault. They really are. They're not your fault.

You know, you didn't get to choose your parents getting choose your name, getting into choosing your genetics, you didn't get to choose your race, your religion, oftentimes, a lot of these things you don't get to choose, you get raised up in it, and that raising up in those circumstances make you who you are from that point forward.

So a whole lot of how you react to things, how you are based, it's all someone else's fault, and that's okay.

NO, Dan Kennedy didn't endorse Brian's book. But…Brian does highlight advice from Dan in an old Newsletter that fits with what Brian's book is all about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXWyz0KVz9I

Transcription

Dan Kennedy endorse my book?

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Let me just say, first off, that Dan did not come out and officially endorsed my book. But I wanted to bring it up because the things he's saying he might as well be endorsing my book.

So this is the NOBS, magnetic marketing letter from October 2021.

Let's talk about this a little bit, because starting on page nine, there's a conversation that Dan Kennedy is having with Darin Spindler, the head of marketing over at magnetic marketing.

And they mentioned this book, The War On Small Business by Carol Roth, which I have not read, but discusses how that and Darren starts it out, as it is how Amazon has destroyed a lot of brick and mortar businesses.

Today, they announced they're building brick and mortar department stores themselves.

They go back and forth, talking about how Amazon has done this to companies and how companies have set themselves up to make themselves into fodder for Amazon.

It's a term that, that Dan Kennedy uses here, he actually calls that Amazon, as if it's a verb. He says they just want to deploy and leverage all the assets they have, and every asset that they develop in every way they possibly can.

A little later on, he says, look, Amazon is very aggressive. They tell you that by their name, they're a pretty ruthless company. They're cash-rich, and they're very data-rich, I have to say, for quite some time that there, if there is any real money in it, and it can be Amazon, it's going to be Amazon.

And he goes on explaining about how so many things out there, especially commodities have been taken over by Amazon and Amazon goes in there and just strips that bear and finds a way to undercut people.

See here, a couple of other spots he's talking about. Even in your industry, even if you're in this industry can be Amazon, maybe you can't.

I have a client now I talked to every month who's in the hearing health business, and the hearing aid business is being Amazon.

I don't mean just by Amazon, when I use that verb, I mean by Amazon or by Amazon like entities, in this case by both the whole bottom of that business gets eaten alive by being Amazon.

He talks about how the hearing aid business is being commoditized and being brought down to inexpensive have the ability to create inexpensive products by Amazon, by a Costco, and how they're getting around that how this is one person's get around that as he works on cochlear implant surgery.

Well, that's not the type of thing that's going to get Amazon because it's so specific. It's so high-end, people aren't going to be shown how to do it on YouTube.

Really great stuff here from Dan Kennedy in his NOBS Magnetic Marketing Letter, which you can get by joining Magnetic Marketing.

I don't get paid by endorsing them but it's a great organization. And they just got acquired by Russell Brunson of ClickFunnels fame. Good stuff.

Hey, if you haven't read my book yet, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business.

I wrote this and I talked about Dan Kennedy and one of his books in here, at least one of his books, actually, I think I discussed two of his books in here.

Brian comes to you during his flight back home, while wearing his favorite mask.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCA3rJxOMUc

Transcription

Brutally enforce minimums.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

You know, most of the time, if I'm in an airport, I will normally find a quiet space to have a conversation with you.

But I have a really good spot here when my planes gonna take off. Now I'm not going to have time to talk with you today. So I gotta sit here with my mask, my federally enforced mask on to just give you a quick tip. And, this video is an example of a minimum that I have to enforce myself.

Of course, now I have this new phone and every once in a while, I will hold it the wrong way and put my thumb right in the camera. So I apologize for that.

I know I have a problem. Oh, hey, I got an idea. See if I drink, I can take this off. Here we go.

See if I can move this without messing up the microphone look like a goofball. So let me take a sip.

I have a million things right through my mind.

Let me just talk about this idea of enforcing the minimum. So if you have minimums, daily minimums, things that you need to do, you just need to have them first, and then enforce them, make sure they're something that you're going to enforce that you're that you can easily build a habit out of that daily minimum, and I just have a handful of things.

None of them are too difficult, that I'm going to dread doing them. One of them includes doing these videos, I've made it to where it's an easy thing to be able to do in most cases.

But I don't dread doing it, I enjoy doing it. I have just a couple of other minimums doesn't mean that's the only thing I'm going to do in that space for that day.

But it does mean that I do have to do it at least this much, at least one, a handful of these different things. So you got to have that for yourself.

Doesn't have to be major things just enough to keep your head in the game. And then if you have employees, if you have partners, if you have other people, you've got to have minimums for them all.

So maybe it's not a daily minimum, maybe it's a weekly minimum or a monthly minimum.

But you'd have to have minimums and you have to enforce them. Keep on it. It's not going to happen unless things move forward. It has to move forward at least a little bit. Every day, every week, every month. Hopefully, that makes sense.

Hey, check out my book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business will get a free copy on AmazonProofBook.com. We'll be back tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will be probably in a different airport. This is that right? Yeah. I'll be in Phoenix. Right now. I'm in Charlotte. So we'll see you in Phoenix. You have a good one. Get out there. Let the magic happen.

Thoughts on digging deeper than the first response that comes up when talking with prospects about problems in business.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vysbq2a1MLc

Transcription

When problem-solving, go deeper.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Hey, these episodes that I bring to you on a daily basis, they're all brought to you, at least in the current time by AmazonProofBook.com.

AmazonProofBook.com is the only place you can go to get a free copy of, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business, which is basically nine ways to be able to become absolutely competition-proof even if your competition is as big and bad as Amazon.com.

So go check it out, AmazonProofBook.com.

Let's talk about problem-solving.

So I was having a great talk with a new friend tonight and she was discussing issues that they were having at their bank. And I was asking her very specifically, you know if there was one thing that you could change, what would it be?

And she said, If I could somehow make it to where we can hire credible people, that would really be best.

I asked her what kind of people and we went into depth on that. And I said, what's holding that back?

What's keeping that from happening right now?

And she said, Well, I think it is the leadership of the bank, not being willing to spend enough money on the right type of people.

I said, Okay, and then we talked about that for a while.

Then we talked about some other issues at the bank and so forth.

We went back to it and I said, Do you still think that's the number one issue?

And she said, well actually come to think of it, we would probably if I had to replace all the people, a whole lot of them don't really need replacing they need better training.

So what we really need is better training.

And I said, Okay, well, what's it gonna take to get that and we started talking about the solution to that issue, and we started going a little bit deeper.

Never be satisfied when you're working with someone on trying to solve a problem, whether it's in your own organization, or whether attend somebody else's, or whether someone else is helping you to bind the problem, don't be satisfied with the first thing that comes to mind, or the first thing that comes to their mind.

What you have to do is go a little deeper, look at it from a couple of different angles.

Question the way you're thinking about it, question the way you have thought about up until now, and question them in the same manner without being accusatory.

Because I don't know what the right answer is. I don't know if the right answer is what she's providing. I do know that she thinks about it a little bit differently, just from me asking her questions about things that she already knew.

But most of us don't take the time to dig down deep into solving a problem.

Most of us just get consumed with the fact that there is a problem.

We don't like the problem and we tend to hold on to it and resent it throughout the day or what have you.

I'm working more and more with clients and with the people around my clients and partners who have issues that they're not resolving. And they're holding on to it and they're holding it in their back pocket.

While staying at Minute Suites, Brian gives his review of the place while on the road to give a speech in Alabama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly1NhfIZ_As

Transcription

Minute Suites review.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Coming to you today from the Charlotte International Airport in North Carolina.

I'm sitting here in a rocking chair the airport's covered with these things where you could just sit down on a rocking chair, which is nice.

I want to talk about the MinutesSuites, and I'll just take a quick minute to talk about it.

Especially long layover here, so I had to stop over and I just could not find a place on the ground where I can get any shut-eye. So these places called minute suites are these little rooms that you can rent.

That of course, they're airport pricing, so it's gonna be quite a bit higher than anywhere else you'd rent for something even close to similar if you could find anything out there in the real world.

But I found this and it was worth it just to test it out because I've never done them before.

So it was an interesting experience. Relatively you know, I mean, it's very clean and everything else that there's a whole lot that is unexplained. I wasn't there was like a Bluetooth speaker and there I wasn't quite sure how to get it working or what have you.

There was a just the TV wasn't all that self-explanatory. I'm pretty good with those types of things.

So it didn't take me much but and it's just not all that well explained, I wish they would have done a better job at trying to upsell me to a shower because that's an option there that they didn't say much about.

So it's unique, it's something I'd like to see more in America is the ability to just have a quick place where you can snooze open Airport, you know, Asia and so forth are filled with these pods where you can, you can just buy a bed, and then I don't know how they charge those.

This is charged in like 15-minute increments after a certain amount and they kind of limited their daily amount is eight hours.

So if you get close to that you might as well just get the full eight hours. So interesting experience.

Would I recommend it?

I don't know I probably recommend a regular hotel if you're going to be in for a really long stay.

But if you just need just a few winks, it might be worth it for you. So go check out many mended suites. It's only in certain airports.

This Airport has two of them.

I stayed at the one at the atrium. So that's all I got for today, you have a great night.

We'll be back tomorrow.

Go check out my book. Excuse me, a little tired here. 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business. You can grab yourself a free copy at AmazonProofBook.com.

We'll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.

Making a case for not having to be controversial with your content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jNNiW0v_DI

Transcription

You can hold your cards close.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Yesterday, we talked about the benefits of sharing, and specifically in content marketing. So if you're putting things out there on a regular basis, it's good to share, it's good to be able to show who you really are, and appear more human, whether you are or you aren't.

And that's all good but there's also a benefit to holding back.

Let me get into this is this isn't discussed very often. So. I think oftentimes, people tend to hold back initially when it comes to politics, sex, religion, you know, kind of the taboo areas, as people don't want to offend.

That's all fine and good but eventually, you get to the point where you don't care about offending too much. But then you got to think Okay, so what should I say and what should I say?

For me, I could just give you an example from my perspective, because I've been doing content marketing in terms of ongoing daily videos and podcasts.

Now for, you know, we're close to 900 consecutive videos that we put out there. And the one thing that I found over and over again, is that just because you're being controversial, doesn't mean you're achieving anything, okay.

You can achieve some shock, you can push away people, you don't want to work with it, do it intentionally, though, don't just say things just to say things unless you just want to be working with people who think identically to you in politics, religion, and everything else.

That's the way I see it, because I would be happy to work with somebody that's very different from me politically, that's very different from me religiously, that's very different from me, and how I view sex and everything else. And honestly, I love talking about those things, especially with someone that's open.

It's not the first thing I talk about when I walk into a room of strangers. I want to know where people are coming from first before I lead on where I'm coming from. And I will be mainly for the point of communication, it's because I will say something a little bit differently if I know that they're coming from a different perspective, not that I'm worried about offending them, not that I'm worried about.

Not that I'm worried about showing myself for who I am, or anything of that sort. It mainly comes to communication with me. And I want to be able to communicate directly with people.

The more I know about other people first, the easier it is for me to communicate with them and I think most people appreciate that. So I'm careful. I don't lay it all out there. I say a lot of things that most people wouldn't say when I do say things that may be controversial. I do a purposefully. I do it with a little bit of forethought.

And at least for the most part, every once in a while I'm sure I'm saying something that it Well, I'll tell you the truth.

Some of my most controversial videos were completely unintentional, I had no idea. There were certain controversies that existed. And all you got to do is look at some of my highest-rated videos.

And you can see these huge arguments that came about or attempted arguments, people trying to put me in my place. And I normally won't join in on it, especially if that wasn't my point.

So a lot of times, I'll bring up something that has controversy attached to it.

The value in sharing value and bonding with people through content marketing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBMtTKc_Ggo

Transcription

The benefits of sharing.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

As I knock over the camera, let's talk about sharing, shall we?

Social media is all about sharing in there are a lot of benefits to sharing and showing a little leg, so to speak. If you are wanting to really connect with your audience, if you're doing content marketing, in order to build more of a connection if you're wanting people to know like, and trust you so that eventually your business grows.

All these things are reasons that you should share. Okay?

And I don't care if that's, I mean, honestly, it gets made fun of a lot. But I don't care if it's the things you're eating, or what's going on with you today.

I don't care if it's religion, or politics, or sex or all the taboos, there are benefits to sharing a whole lot of that stuff.

Can you overshare?

Ah, I don't know, I haven't seen it really done.

You could overshoot to the point that you can push away certain people. If you get popular enough, though, if you're able to, to get wide enough and cast a wide enough net, you, you may turn people away, but you'll also attract more people to you.

So it all depends on where your comfort level is and how far you're willing to expand that comfort level. a certain amount of sharing.

When it comes to content marketing happens. Kind of becomes a necessity after a while, especially if you're doing content marketing on a regular basis. And you've got personality wrapped around it.

For example, I do content marketing, just about every single day, every once in a while we miss one. But for the most part, it's a daily thing that I'm on.

And it's personality-based because it is one way or the other. I'm there, whether I'm interviewing somebody, or it's just me talking just the two of us, you and me talking.

I'm here. So wherever I am, you're along with all along for the ride. So you get to deal with all the craziness.

For example, this weekend I'm flying into Pensacola. Going to be giving a talk I'll be maybe I'll tell you more about it as we get close.

But I'm going to be given a talk over at Perdido Beach Resort at a conference over the weekend. So that'll be fun.

I've never been there before.

Never been to Alabama, I don't think I think this is my first time.

So I've been to Florida before I've never been to Pensacola.

So this will be this be interesting just there for a handful of days. But it's gonna be a long trip.

So next time you see me maybe at the airport.

Well, not tomorrow, but the day after so but that's part of the sharing thing.

So if you come with me, I have to share those certain things. I can't hide the fact that I'm not where I normally am, which is where you normally see me. So that becomes part of the story, it becomes part of it.

There's a lot of things that I don't share and there's a certain reason why I don't share.

If you want to know why you wouldn't want to share certain things.

Join me tomorrow, we're going to go over some of that stuff. So come on back then or if you're watching this way in the future,

Simple but important message Brian noticed from Gary Bencivenga about not taking yourself too seriously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cBwmtJp4jo

Transcription

Don't forget this.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I've got a secret for you. It's something you never want to forget. And it's one of those that's it's such a simple idea. It's really easy to forget. But I'll tell you what it is anyways.

First, though, I want to remind you about my book,9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business.

It's not one of these that I'm looking to sell a whole bunch of the whole point is I want to get the ideas out there and start discussions. find out whether you agree, disagree and otherwise.

So go check it out, you go get a free copy at AmazonProofBook.com.

What is the secret that I want to pass on to you?

Well, it's not a secret. It's something you've heard before. It's a very simple idea. This, what brought it to mind today is I was looking over some of Gary Bencivenga. That fabulous stuff that he has out there, if you type in his name into Google, and he's got a great page, what would you call it Marketing Bullets.

Gary, if you're not familiar with Gary, he's a famous copywriter, marketer, he really has a large understanding and a great way to be able to describe it is a fabulous teacher describing how just everyday marketing works.

It doesn't matter what century you're talking about humans are humans. And there are just certain things that never go away. So he's got some great material out there and this was just on one of his lists on that website about success tips, and so forth.

This is it, don't take yourself too seriously. And the real problem is, is that if you achieve any type of success whatsoever in your life, it doesn't take much it has its own where you set the bar.

You know, I was thinking about this earlier today, success really is an illusion, in a sense, because it's, it's an invisible bar that you're setting to reach. And it but the best thing about success being an illusion is that failure is also an illusion because it's an invisible bar that you've dropped below.

So you can move those as much as you want in order to achieve success or to overcome failure, or to completely ignore them and just see it as this is life and I'm moving, I'm going for the next thing and I'm going to try it and we're going to see what happens.

And doesn't matter whether I make it or not, or whether I do it in the period of time I want to or not, that's a side note, I'm going off on a tangent here that I don't need to be going on. But you're going to come to a point where you feel like you've achieved some form of success.

At that point, it's really easy to get all puffed up and to think, Okay, I figured it out, you know, this is I'm better than a whole lot of other people, I've achieved something and you have you probably have it depending on how lofty.

The goal is that you've been able to overcome, you probably have done a whole lot better than everyone else. But here's the problem, we get into this trap of taking ourselves too seriously. And when you do that, when you take yourself too seriously.

You know, pride comes before the fall like that, say, and you're just liable to make a fool of yourself.

You're just setting yourself up to and so how do you keep from doing that?

Well, when you start finding yourself getting a little bit big-headed...

Thoughts on outsourcing work in your business.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw0WzCJNDMc

Transcription

Top Secret outsourcing secret revealed secretively.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Today we have a very secret secret secret. It's very secret.

So secret, it's something that I didn't really realize, until recently.

And if we're talking outsourcing what we're talking about the people I'm talking to, if you're a business owner, if you are a manager, if you are the executive in charge of the business, at some point going to be looking at outsourcing what you do, or what any number of people do right now at your business.

And so it's like, where do we go, what's next?

So I'm recording this in 2021, we're going through a situation now where it's difficult to find workers directly, especially if you're looking in a local area, it's very difficult to find people to do certain things for a reasonable amount of money.

So it's tough to just outsource by hiring people, it's still possible.

So I don't want you to not try, you should try you should attempt, especially on a local basis, to find people that can do what you need them to do.

That's the first place you got to check, then you got to start looking online, you got to start looking at all the places and you can do searches and find all the details on this, we've discussed this previously.

One of my favorite places is fiverr.com. That's a Fiverr.com, it's a great place to find people to do especially one-off items.

So things that you only need help with once in a while you can find someone on Fiverr, that will do it long term for you. But you can at least find people to do things once on Fiverr.

And there's a number of other places that you can check to find people who will outsource and it's and you're not limited to just the borders of your country.

So if that's an issue, then you've got the opportunity to go beyond the borders. But you can also find people in your country and so forth that are willing to work.

They do have specific things that they're good at and it might be what you're looking for, and they might be able to do it in a decent amount of time to really be able to make it work for you.

Okay, though, these are all options that if you don't know they're available, it won't take you long to be able to find this stuff out. It's out there, you can find people to do things.

But here's another option that people don't discuss very often partnering with businesses that already do it.

So especially if you're a solopreneur, if you're somebody that's starting out, and you're, you're having difficulty breaking into a certain area, you're having difficulty fixing a certain area, or finding the right people to do with a certain job, find someone that's already doing it, and see if you can bring your expertise to them.

What can you do for them?

What can your business do for them? Or what can you bring to them? Or who can you connect with them?

That would work to where you can have a partnership to where you bring something to the table that they may not be doing well or that they can always use more of.

And they can provide you with something that you don't have the expertise on, you haven't outsourced yet, or haven't found the right people to do.