James Schramko Podcast

01:14 - James bought his shirt for a purpose, which didn’t work out quite as planned.

02:38 - Charl brings a lot to the table of today’s episode on keeping customers - James enumerates.

05:55 - The start of the story is about your customers gaining awareness…

10:30 - How do you get people hooked on what you’ve got?

11:42 - Now you set about giving value for money…

15:02 - The last sale that you have to make is retention. 

17:27 - Can you keep customers only with a subscription?

21:16 - If you use KLEQ and think Charl can help you…

24:27 - Two tips for customer retention are knowing your customers and playing the long game.

26:38 - When you want to push a great product forward, here’s what you do…

01:54 - James and Tega share common views when it comes to leading your team, and it largely boils down to treating people as people.

03:45 - Does it matter what you call your team members?

09:14 - James gets emotional about being a good boss, and doesn’t mind admitting it.

12:12 - What’s the sweet spot between being a solo business owner and making $10 million plus a year?

15:49 - Here’s how James made the decision to downsize.

20:20 - It all started with hiring two key roles…

23:14 - These people and places raised the benchmark of what was possible.

26:52 - James discovered the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant from the Philippines, and the rest is history.

30:16 - Taking responsibility for your outcomes makes a world of difference.

34:05 - James and Tega discuss the impact of artificial intelligence and good remote team communication

37:44 - Remote team collaboration is crucial to deciding what tools James’s business uses.

41:07 - Managing a remote team well means letting them make mistakes.

01:05 - James and Will have talked before about the impact of AI for copywriting. Here’s the difference the last two years have made.

03:31 - Who better to discuss the application of AI copywriting tools than a brilliant copywriter?

04:59 - The quality of the output inevitably depends on the human input.

08:19 - Will AI replace copywriters? Will says it depends on the writer’s caliber.

10:08 - You can think of copywriting AI as a three-year-old super kid.

12:37 - It takes a certain strategy to get the best results from an AI tool.

14:21 - At least two of James’s friends recommend a multi-step prompt engineering approach to using AI.

21:02 - When you’ve got enough output, it’s time to refine.

22:47 - This is where the copywriting tool still can’t beat the human touch.

25:40 - AI copywriting software does have something to offer copywriters, Will concludes.

28:42 - If you’re running this kind of business, you can benefit from Will’s help.

01:09 - AI has been on the edges of news for some time, and now it’s something massive.

03:06 - Can knowing how to use AI in marketing give you an advantage?

07:03 - Technology has come a long, long way since school computers used cassettes.

09:13 - AI is powerful, but there are a few caveats for creating effective AI content marketing..

12:14 - James challenges Ilana with a hypothetical setup for applying the AI marketing tool ChatGPT…

17:21 - If ChatGPT were a marketer, what sort of things could it do?

24:28 - How does an AI copywriting tool measure up against your average copywriter?

28:56 - It has to be asked: what are the jobs that will be replaced by ai?

31:09 - Given what AI can do as a content idea generator, here’s where it could fit into one’s marketing strategy…

34:09 - The growing role and acceptance of AI has a parallel in grocery checkout technology.

01:59 - Nils found a gap that needed filling in the leadership space, and stepped up to fill it with organizational leadership training.

03:48 - Assumptions lead to surprises, and when surprises happen too often in your business, it could be because of poor leadership skills,

06:48 - Consider the possibility that bad leadership behaviors are the problem.

09:08 - The ability to be responsible can give you a lot of power.

12:26 - This is what leadership looks like to a leadership coach…

15:33 - In a leadership training workshop, Nils learned being a leader doesn’t mean having all the answers.

20:45 - There’s the person who doesn’t know the answer, and there’s the one who knows but doesn’t give it.

24:28 - Feedback is often very much desired, but very hard to give.

27:41 - When giving positive feedback, it helps to be as specific as possible.

29:39 - Negative feedback means not assuming, but confirming what you think.

33:34 - You’ve got to properly set expectations, and just as you are accountable, you’ve got to hold people accountable.

39:26 - Nils has a favorite way of driving accountability.

43:08 - How do you ensure that what was promised is still on track?

45:40 - This is the recommendation when performance is subpar….

02:51 - James has read a lot of books, and ranks Sue Rice’s Tiny Thunder among the really good ones.

05:29 - You can only tell your brand’s story so many times. But there are endless other stories you can tell.

10:27 - The hero’s journey gets old. Little story snippets can be much more effective in marketing.

12:41 - Forget about the nitty gritty. People want to know where you can take them.

15:57 - When you tell the right stories, prospects relate to you on a much higher level.

18:19 - The market is flooded with cut-and-paste templates that win nobody over.

20:34 - Sue Rice’s method of using stories not only works, it’s actually fun for you and your audience.

23:11 - The big names have used storytelling for ages, and shaped public thinking with their content.

26:29 - You do not have to talk only about your product to get the sales.

31:22 - What is a metaphor, and how is it different from an analogy? Sue explains.

34:46 - Is it really, really bad to use cliches?

39:21 - Speaking to emotion is not light marketing. Here’s why.

00:57 - For James, 2022 was a year of breakthroughs in surfing and in business.

03:25 - Travel was once again possible last year, and James took full advantage.

04:05 - Household and health improvements were also in order in 2022.

05:35 - James took a rest from recording, but the James Schramko podcast powered on.

06:48 - And the team’s cracked the formula on social media, which has been exciting.

08:12 - Podcasting was huge in 2022, and Charley Valher gave us the benefit of his knowledge on the best podcast tools. 

09:19 - How do you make seven figures as a freelancer? Will Wang let us in on his trade secrets.

09:59 - When COVID struck, Brendan Elias took to Zoom, and shared with us how to host a successful virtual event.

11:29 - With all the noise and competition in the market, you need a good offer - a Holy Grail offer, which Kenneth Yu is a master of.

12:20 - A launch campaign may be easier than you think. John Lint and James discuss.

13:16 - Zero to 100K in just nine months? Nils Vinje did it, and revealed how in Episode 890.

14:46 - When conversations get heated, Mark Joyner knows how to keep his cool, and teaches other people his methods.

16:34 - SuperFastBusiness was a good thing, but James had something better in mind. In episode 927, he explains his drastic decision to delete SFB.

18:34 - Is video podcasting really better than audio? Charley Valher discusses why it’s worth the extra effort.

19:25 - Dr. Justin Sung struck the biggest chord with our audience, on his missio