Podcasting Secrets

Luke Hale is a managing video producer at one of the largest, most trusted, and most admired companies in the world, but I’m not allowed to say the name of that company on this show because Luke is not authorized to speak for that company in the media. Luke also created and runs Masters of Engagement, which provides video strategy consulting and education. 

There is one pitfall related to video marketing and corporate storytelling that almost every marketer falls into. If we can avoid this one pitfall, we are going to make it further than 90% of our competitors. By avoiding this pitfall we will be able to earn much more attention and follow-through from our story. 

Engagement Loop in Super Mario Brothers

If a potential customer sees a video thumbnail image and wants to know what’s in that video, they are usually going to click play. When that person pushes play on one of our videos, an engagement loop is opened. 

When Mario begins the first level of Super Mario Brothers, or any Mario game, the first thing he learns is that Bowser has taken the princess. That becomes one engagement loop Mario has to complete if the player wants to complete the game. 

This also happens when someone clicks to watch our videos. They’ve opened an engagement loop for some reason, and they are there to close it. 

Then there are other engagement loops within Super Mario Brothers. Mario also has to get to the flag at the end of each level and raise it up the pole before he can eventually get the princess back. In Mario Brothers, when Mario finishes one engagement loop on the first level, the second level (or engagement loop) immediately begins. Likewise, our videos can have multiple engagement loops. When we close one loop in our videos we need to immediately open the next engagement loop.

If our viewers see something interesting on a thumbnail and they click to watch the video, but discover we’ve misled them or we’ve resolved that conflict immediately, then there’s no reason to watch the rest of the video. The engagement loop is already closed. 

As a result when we put our plot together, we have to figure out how to open engagement loops. And, we have to reward the audience by closing those loops, but if we close a loop and haven’t opened a new loop, there’s no reason for the viewer to continue. 

Without Conflict, We Don’t Have a Story

Within storytelling, we usually use conflict as an engagement loop. So, when a viewer comes into our video, he or she needs to hear about the conflict, and that’s what 90% of corporate storytellers avoid completely. They say, “I want to represent my brand in the most positive way possible. We’re not going to talk about conflict.”

But, without conflict, we don’t have a story. 

We have to have the courage to keep the conflict in the story because we cannot have a heroic Luke Skywalker if we’ve removed Darth Vader from the video. 

Luke Hale has lost some big corporate deals by leading with conflict too early when the company was not ready. Businesses don’t always call back if they think you want to focus on conflict. Instead, what we need to do is start by understanding the client’s business, understanding what their audience needs help with, and set their brand up for success as the mentor. 

Video Abandonment

When we have access to engagement level analytics, we can identify and analyze the points of abandonment in the video, the times when viewers stopped watching the video. Then, we can go watch that abandonment point in the video to see if we have closed engagement loops without opening a new engagement loop. When we find places we have closed a loop without opening a new one, that is often where we see abandonment. 

4 Steps to Discover and Leverage the Conflict

Here are the four steps to discover the conflict for your video, and to leverage that conflict to tell an engaging story:

1. Find the Shared Enemy - We need to ask ourselves, “What is the shared enemy of my audience?” The answer to that question identifies the conflict. Conflict is critical for storytelling. If you don’t have conflict, you really don’t have a story. 
2. Tell the Story of Overcoming - We then have to figure out how we can show someone overcoming that challenge. 
3. Create a Hero - We then make that person who overcame the challenge be the hero (or the Luke Skywalker) of our story. Many companies want to put their brand as the hero. When we watch great movies, we have empathy for the hero. We don’t want people to have empathy for our brand. Instead, we want to make our customers the heroes of our stories. We do this by showing customers using our services to overcome their challenges. The hero doesn’t make the transition at the beginning. Instead, they are going through conflict. Then, at the end when the journey makes that transformation, the audience wants to make the transformation with them.
4. Be the Mentor - Position the business as Obi-wan Kenobi, the mentor to guide the hero through their journey. We want potential customers to feel that we can effectively guide them through their challenges and help them make the transformation to become the hero.

Aligning our Videos with Problems the Viewers Want to Solve

Video storytelling should focus on conflict and resolution. For example, if our business is selling servers, our first inclination is mistakenly to give the viewers all the specs and features of the servers. However, our audience really doesn’t care. They want to know about the problems we are going to solve for them. 

So, we should use the first 2/3 of our timeline to focus on the conflict and people trying to overcome that problem. This shows our audience that we are aligned with the problems they are battling against. 

Then, we can show the resolution, or solution, and how the product solves the problem. But, unfortunately, most video marketers will lead with the solution without first developing the conflict. That is an engagement nightmare. That’s how we lose an audience. 

Jenga Storytelling

This framework is not the only way to solve this engagement loop problem. Another strategy is “Jenga Storytelling," which is successfully used in some YouTube storytelling. With this strategy, the video storytellers show the viewers a quick peek of the end result of the video process at the beginning of the video. This could be the craft project completed or the pool filled with jello. This way, the viewer knows the amazing end result of the video to open the engagement loop, and then they are motivated to watch the video through to the completion to see how it was accomplished.  

How to Not Fall on Your Face With Video Production

Luke was producing a piece of media for a major brand with an essentially unlimited budget. The video ended up being the cornerstone of the brand’s marketing efforts for a prolonged period of time. The video production was all shot at the highest level one would expect if they were representing a top brand of this size with an unlimited budget. 

When we have an unlimited budget, we feel like we want to make an unlimited impact. It’s devastating when that project gets released into the wild and we realize it’s a complete dud. Luke feels this is the most devastating thing ever. The client didn’t get a return on their investment because the media was brand-centric instead of audience-centric. 

We always have to think about how we can have empathy for our audience. We should ask, “Why are they coming to our brand?” and “What is the benefit they want to receive?”  We should not ask what message we want to share with our audience, but instead, we should ask what message our audience wants us to share with them.

The easiest way to solve this problem is to start with content that has low production cost and create a ton of it. Then, find out what content resonates best with the audience. This way we will have the information we need to decide where to put our production resources. That will lead to much better results for the brand.

The Hidden Advantage of Live Video

As a video producer, live video can be very frustrating. It’s hard to make a live video of the same quality as one we have time to edit well. But, there is a hidden advantage of live video. Because it is live, we are forced into authenticity. This authenticity and the chance it gives viewers to see us unfiltered or polished is what draws them in. Live video also creates urgency. People show up and stick around to watch live video because their opportunity to consume the content is disappearing moment by moment. To really harness the power of live video, we’ve got to put it out there live. Live video with chats or polls can allow the presenter to get live feedback and close that engagement loop immediately, giving the audience what they are asking for. 

The Power of Vulnerability

In Luke’s Master’s of Engagement course, one of the lessons involves dancing on camera. The emotion that we all feel when we’re about to dance on camera needs to be incorporated into our productions. It creates a powerful feeling of vulnerability and authenticity, which then results in credibility and audience enjoyment. Vulnerability creates authenticity, which people crave. 

Calls to Action

Calls to action are too easy to make nebulous, and we have to simplify them. Too often in video, we rely on metaphors. We need to not hide the call to action in a metaphor.  If you want your audience to clearly take an action, then you need to clearly articulate what that is.  Simplicity goes a long way when making a powerful call to action. Some people are afraid of clear calls to action because they feel they are too “salesy.” But instead of being salesy, clear calls to action can be an opportunity for clarity. 

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Luke for sharing your video marketing stories and secrets with us. Here are some of the key takeaways that stood out to me:

1. We need to open engagement loops in our storytelling and then reward the audience by closing those loops.
2. When we close a loop, we need to immediately open the next loop to keep our audience engaged and reduce abandonment. (Post-production note: Luke let me know that we need to actually open a new engagement loop before we close an engagement loop.)
3. Without conflict, we don’t have a story.
4. The four steps to discover and leverage conflict in a story are: (1) Find the shared enemy, (2) Tell the story of overcoming, (3) Create a hero, and (4) Be the mentor.
5. Our video marketing should be aligned with the problems our ideal customers want to solve. 
6. We should not ask what message we want to share with our audience, but instead, we should ask what message our audience wants us to share with them.
7. The best way to avoid making expensive videos that don’t resonate with our customers is to create a ton of low-cost content, and then focus on creating more of the content that does the best.  
8. There is a hidden advantage of live video. Because it is live, we are forced into authenticity and urgency.
9. Vulnerability creates authenticity, which people crave.
10. Simplicity and clarity go a long way when making a powerful call to action.

Connect with Luke Hale

To learn more about Luke and his video strategy consulting and education, please visit:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-hale/

http://www.mastersofengagement.com

Here’s a link where you can get a great discount on Luke’s Masters of Engagement online workshop for an insanely low price:

https://www.mastersofengagement.com/offers/qsPyfdV7

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Challenge

If we desire monetization we have never before achieved, we must leverage strategies we have never before implemented. I challenge each of us to pick one thing that resonated with us from today’s episode and schedule a time this week to implement it to help achieve our monetization goals.

Share Your Story 

What video marketing stories and secrets could you share? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://www.monetizationnation.com/19-how-to-avoid-the-biggest-video-marketing-pitfall/

Imagine being a real estate developer and building a skyscraper on land someone else owns, and that the landowner has the right to change the price, the rules, and the terms of the land use at any time. That’s insanity. Why would any sane developer invest so much time and money building that skyscraper when the landowner will eventually change the terms and destroy the investment? Yet, that’s what nearly always happens when we build our businesses to be dependent on digital platforms other people own. In this episode, I’m going to share a story of how Harry’s, the men’s grooming company, built an email list with more than 100,000 subscribers in a week prior to their launch. They did this as part of their strategy to build their skyscraper on land they own, along with other great stories and secrets about platform strategy.

How Harry’s Built a 100K Email List in a Week

Jeff Raider & Andy Katz-Mayfield, co-founders of Harry’s, a men’s grooming company, wanted to make a splash when their website launched. That’s why they began a strong campaign to grow their email list before they even had much information about their new company out. 

Harry’s used a strong referral campaign to grow their email list. Instead of launching their company’s website, they had a simple two funnel. The landing page invited the visitor to sign up for their emails with the words “Be the first to know” above the box and “step inside” instead of the usual “confirm” or “submit” button. These word choices created a sense of urgency and intrigue. 

Once the visitor signed up to receive emails, they were brought to the second page of the website, which was all about their referral program. This page contained a unique URL that the visitor could share with their friends and family. Then it had a tracker to show many people you had shared with. Harry’s gamified the referral process by setting up nice prizes for how many referrals a visitor made. 

Referring 5 friends earned you a free shaving cream. 

Referring 10 friends earned you a free razor. 

Referring 25 friends earned you a free premium razor. 

Referring 50 friends earned you free shaving for a year. 

These incremental prizes were a great method for convincing visitors to share their referral codes with their friends and family. Plus, it built excitement over the company finally opening its doors. 

This campaign led to Harry’s receiving 100,000 email sign-ups in just one week. Raider shared that 77% of the collected emails were referrals (Source: Viral Loops). This massive email list allowed Harry’s to ensure that when they finally opened, they weren’t just making their opening to crickets. They had an engaged and excited audience for when their products were finally available, which helped them become highly successful. 

Harry’s successfully built their skyscraper on land they owned, their email list, instead of on land someone else owned, such as shelf space at big box stores. They now own the relationships and can contact their customers at any time, something that would be nearly impossible to do with a big-box distribution strategy.

Platforms Can Give and Platforms Can Take

Years ago I worked as the Chief Revenue Officer for a company called Family Link. Family Link had created a Facebook app called We’re Related that allowed users to connect with family members and show those connections on Facebook. During my first 12 months with the company, the app was wildly successful and we were able to add $5 million in revenue. The app became the 4th most popular on Facebook and had 90 million installs. 

Facebook saw how popular our app was and decided to create much of that functionality into the core Facebook offering. And not only that, they removed our app from the user's main profile pages who had already installed it. Essentially, Facebook decided to compete and then made it extremely difficult for us to compete. It was kind of like the landowner changing the terms of the deal after we had built the skyscraper, and it was perfectly legal because our app was built on their platform. We had built a metaphorical skyscraper on land they owned, and they could do just about anything they wanted. It is unwise to build businesses under these types of circumstances where we are not the masters of our own destinies.

Facebook isn’t the only platform that does this. As another example, Amazon encourages third-party vendors to sell on their platform. However, in many cases when they see a highly profitable product, they create their own version of the same product and compete. 

"Facebook and other social media platforms seem like a shortcut because they make it appear easy to reach new people. But the trade-off is that you're a sharecropper. It's not your land. You don't have permission to contact people; they do. You don't own an asset; they do." - Seth Godin, Best-Selling Marketing Author

Building a List We Own

This doesn’t mean using social media sites is a bad idea. The lesson I learned from the Facebook experience was the importance of building our own lists. An email list full of customers and potential customers that have already shown interest in our products or services is one of the most valuable assets a business can own. 

Joe Pulizzi, the founder of Content Marketing Institute, explained it perfectly when he said: “An email list is critical because you can’t build your content on rented land. So many brands and companies build their audiences on Facebook and Google+, which is fine, but we don’t own those names – Facebook and Google do. If we are thinking like real media companies, the asset is in the audience.”

That quote was obviously from back when Google+ was a viable platform, but it illustrates that building our businesses to be reliant on other platforms can also go out of business, and we lose all of the investment we put into building our presence on that platform.

Does this mean we should avoid using social media platforms or other company’s websites? Of course not. They are still a great source for growing our reach. The point I’m trying to make here is that the end goal of our platform strategy must land outside of these platforms. We need to control the relationships and communication we have with our customers and potential customers. That means we’re building our email lists, gathering phone numbers and mailing addresses, and doing anything that will allow us to contact people off of the platform we found them on. 

“The most effective tactic is the use of email marketing to drive a real return. The reason it is effective is that people may engage and share on social, but they will buy from a sequence of emails that educate first and sell second.” - Jeff Bullas, Social Media Marketing Strategist

LivingSocial Collects the Email of Every Website Visitor

Here’s another example:

LivingSocial is a coupon company that recognizes the importance of capturing the contact information of prospective customers. They recognize that consumers who love coupons are usually willing to give up their contact information in exchange for coupons. That’s why LivingSocial requires the email address of any of their website visitors. 

That’s right. Every single visitor, if they want to see what coupons LivingSocial has to offer, must exchange their contact information to see the company’s website. This is an aggressive campaign that wouldn’t work for all audiences. After all, most visitors need to experience some value before they’re willing to give up their email addresses. LivingSocial has found that it works for their unique customers though. 

One of the keys to LivingSocial’s success is that the emails they send have great value to their ideal customers. For example, one of the emails the company sends out is called Instant Deals. The idea behind this is to help people find a spot to eat lunch. Right when their customers are beginning to think about what they’ll eat for lunch, they receive an email with instant deals that can save them money on their meal and give them ideas for where they might like to eat. 

I love this example because it shows how well LivingSocial knows their customers. Both the manner in which they collect contact information and the information they send in their emails demonstrates that they know their ideal customers well. 

Each business has its own unique audience with its own unique desires and preferences. We need to build our platform on that. The better we know our audience, the better we’ll know what kind of email capturing will work best for them and what kind of plan we should implement. Then we’ll be able to provide them with effective emails that will transition them through the buyer's journey. 

Becoming an Influencer

Authority occurs when someone takes the right steps to combine standout, trustworthy expertise in his or her field with the kind of high visibility you might often associate with a celebrity. When that happens, the expert’s name becomes synonymous with the field he or she works in - Adam Witty and Rusty Shelton, Authors of Authority Marketing

Most business leaders have the expertise, passion, and knowledge that we can share with others. When we share that expertise, passion, and knowledge on our own platforms we can often become an influencer in our niches. 

We can become an influencer and thought-leader by writing a book, speaking at events, hosting a podcast, creating YouTube videos, writing blog posts, sending an email newsletter, and more. As we provide our followers with useful and engaging content, they’ll want more and more from us and we’ll begin to build a true relationship. One of the reasons this works so well is because we’re providing value before we ask for anything in return. Once we’ve established our expertise and created a loyal following, we’ll be able to market our products and services in a way that is authentic and credible. 

Again, it’s important to recognize that as we’re building our followings on social media, we need to find ways to build a list of our followers we own and can contact off social media platforms. The more we can encourage our followers to visit our sites and sign up for our email lists, the stronger our foundation will be. Then we’ll be building our skyscraper on land we own.

Key Takeaways

Here are some of the top takeaways that stood out to me from this episode: 

1. We need to build our metaphorical skyscrapers on land we own. This means growing a huge email list, membership site, or other platforms where we own the customer contact information and permission to contact customers and potential customers directly. 
2. Our social media efforts, when we’re using someone else’s platform, should focus on getting our customers to come to our platform, gathering their contact information, and gaining permission to market to them. 
3. The asset is the audience. In other words, the lists we build will become one of the greatest assets of our companies. 
4. We can leverage our platforms to become influencers when we share our knowledge and expertise. Becoming an influencer can give us more control over our destinies because we cannot get de-platformed. A platform then cannot block us from contacting our own followers. 

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the Monetization eMagazine.
3. Follow the Monetization Nation Blog.
4. Join our private Monetization Nation Facebook Group.
5. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
6. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
7. Connect with Nathan on Linkedin. 
8. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram. 
9. Follow Monetization Nation on Twitter.

Challenge

If we desire monetization we have never before achieved, we must leverage strategies we have never before implemented. I challenge each of us to pick one thing that resonated with us from today’s episode and schedule a time this week to implement it to help achieve our monetization goals.

Share Your Story 

Are you building your skyscraper on land you own or on leased land? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://www.monetizationnation.com/18-platform-strategy-building-skyscrapers-on-land-we-own/

This is Entrepreneurs of Faith, a Sunday episode of Monetization Nation. I’m Nathan Gwilliam, your host. In today’s episode we’re going to discuss the common misconception that money is evil, and share some great stories of entrepreneurs who generated wealth, and used that wealth to do some amazing things.

Jim Edwards Using Wealth to Save Lives

Jim Edwards is the author of Copywriting Secrets and the creator of a highly successful software product called Funnel Scripts, which my company has used. When Jim graduated from college with a history degree, he had no idea what he was planning on doing next. He quit or was fired from 7 different jobs in his first 18 months out of school. Through some turbulent years of many ups and downs, Jim eventually learned to publish books, create DVD courses, and sell coaching programs. Thanks to these programs and his entrepreneurial spirit, he went from being bankrupt and living in a trailer park to making $400,000 in just three months and paying off his house in 18 months. His Copywriting Secrets book and Funnel Scripts software generated more than $10 million within the first year of launch.

Jim’s son-in-law was part of the military and was deployed to Iraq. When his son-in-law was deployed, Jim went to the commanding officer and asked “what does your unit need?” Jim wanted to do anything he could to make sure this young man made it home safely. 

The commander gave Jim a wishlist of all the equipment that he’d like to have to help keep his unit safe. Jim replied that he would take care of it. The commander asked Jim which of the equipment on the list he’d be able to supply, and Jim responded “all of it.” Because Jim had been so successful at monetizing his business, Jim was able to purchase and provide everything on the commander’s wishlist for the entire unit. 

One dark night in Iraq, Jim’s son-in-law was driving with his unit in their Humvees when an IED exploded beneath his Humvee and destroyed the vehicle. In the pitch black and confusion of the wreck, the unit drug themselves out of the Humvee while they were bombarded by enemy fire. 

As the soldiers fought for their lives, the medic on the squad flipped on his headlamp to check on the soldier who was fighting next to him. With that light, the medic quickly saw that the soldier was bleeding out badly. The medic quickly patched up the soldier and the soldiers were eventually rescued. 

When they were back at their base, the medic approached his commanding officer and asked him to thank whoever had provided the headlamps. He told the commanding officer that without that headlamp, the soldier next to him would have died because he wouldn’t have been able to see well enough to know he was bleeding out. The commanding officer then told him that the headlamps had been provided by the injured soldier’s father-in-law. Jim had been blessed with wealth by God. He had chosen to use that wealth to do good, and as a result, he saved the life of someone he loved… the life of his daughter’s husband… the life of the father of his grandchildren. 

Money vs. Love of Money

Some people may question, or even criticize me, for investing my time and other resources into building a business that focuses on helping business leaders make more money because they feel “money is the root of all evil.”

I believe the bible verse these people are referring to is 1 Timothy 6:10. This is actually one of the commonly misquoted and misunderstood verses of scripture. It is so commonly misunderstood that many people feel guilty about generating profits and wealth. Some people believe that profits and wealth are a sin and that poverty is a virtue. Here is the actual scripture:

“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith...." (1 Timothy 6:10, KJV)

This verse does not say “money is the root of all evil.” It says “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Huge difference. 

Money itself is not evil. We all need money to provide for ourselves and the people we love. Orphanages need money to care for children without families. Charities need money to accomplish their charitable causes. Money builds churches, schools, hospitals, and homeless shelters. 

So, what is the “love of money”? The love of money is putting the pursuit of money or materialistic things before God. The love of money is greed, and not using the money with which God has blessed us to help others and do His work. 

Parable of the Talents

Matthew 25 records a parable Christ taught about talents. In this parable, a Lord was leaving for a faraway country. Before he left, the Lord gave his first servant five talents, his second servant two talents, and his third servant one talent. Talents were a unit of money used at the time of Christ. 

When the Lord returned, he had a reckoning with the three servants. The first servant reported that he had traded with the five talents and doubled them to be ten talents. The second servant reported he had invested the two talents and doubled them to be four talents. To the first two servants, the Lord said, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” 

However, the third servant reported that because he had been afraid, he had buried that one talent and not done anything good with it. The Lord called the third servant wicked and slothful and said that he should have invested the talent wisely. The Lord then rewarded the first two servants abundantly. But, he took the talent from the third servant and gave it to the first servant, and cast out the third servant. 

What can we as entrepreneurs learn from this parable of the talents? God gives talents to all of us, and he expects us to use those wisely to multiply our talents and do good things with them. As entrepreneurs, we have talents to create businesses, products, services, jobs, and wealth. God wants entrepreneurs to create successful businesses that can provide well for themselves and the people they love. He wants us to create quality, ethical products and services. He wants us to create good jobs so our employees can provide well for themselves and the people they love. He wants us to use our wealth to help other people.

I’m going to share some examples of successful entrepreneurs who have been wise stewards with their entrepreneurial talents, have generated great wealth, and have then used that wealth to do God’s work and help a lot of people.

Tony Robbins, Motivational Speaker and Coach

Tony Robbins is one of the most successful motivational speakers and coaches in the world. According to Inc, Tony Robbins is involved in 31 companies--12 of which he actively manages--to the tune of a reported $5 billion in annual revenue. His family grew up in impoverished financial circumstances. They often didn’t have food to put on the table. However, one Thanksgiving, a generous person provided Thanksgiving for Tony’s family.  As a result of that kind act, last year alone, Tony’s charity Feeding America provided meals for more than 100 million people that couldn’t afford a meal. 

David Health, Co-Founder of Bombas

Davide Heath is a co-founder and CEO of Bombas, a company that makes high-quality socks. Because socks are the most-requested clothing item in U.S. homeless shelters, for every pair of socks they sell, Bombas donates a pair of socks to someone in need. Each day a new employee joins Bombas and before they are allowed to do anything else, they are given 10 pairs of socks and are asked to walk around the city to hand them out, while interacting with the people on the streets. Bombas is just about to hit their millionth pair of socks donated, in their third year of operation.

Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft

Bill Gates famously made his initial fortune as a co-founder of Microsoft. Bill and his wife Melinda have given away more than $45 billion to charities over the years (source: CNBC), including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. That foundation and its partners are credited with saving more than 122 million lives through their childhood vaccination programs, and nearly eradicating several tropical diseases (source: The National News).

Paying for My Honeymoon

When my wife and I were engaged, we planned to travel to a tropical island for our honeymoon. However, as the date of the wedding came near, the financial situation of my young business did not make it possible for us to have the funds to go on that honeymoon. Instead, one of our generous investors made it possible for us to stay in a cabin for our honeymoon the week after we were married. My wife and I have been forever grateful to this man and his generosity, and we like to pay it forward for other newlywed couples.

Charitable Causes Need Monetization

Nearly any charitable cause requires funds to operate, which often originate from people who have been successful at monetizing a business, whether it be from the owner of the business or the people who received compensation from that business. Without these funds from business monetization, most charities would be unable to do the good they’re trying to accomplish. Most of the things that really matter in our lives, such as health, family, relationships, service, and faith, require money and time that we can only give if we have enough to share. 

Helping Orphans Find Homes

Here’s an example from my Adoption.com business. Some people think you shouldn’t talk about making money in the adoption community. At Adoption.com, we make money in certain areas of the business, such as selling advertising sponsorships because it then gives us the resources we need to do other projects that help many children and families. For example, we have a photolisting with thousands of children waiting to be adopted but we don’t charge anything for the foster children to be listed in this photolisting. We’re able to provide this free community service and help children find loving, forever families thanks to monetization in other areas of our business. 

Money itself is not inherently evil. However, the love of money, or greed, can defocus and distract us from the things that really matter. Money can provide the means for us to take care of ourselves, the people we love, to serve others, and to make a difference for good in the world. 

The goal of Monetization Nation is to help us earn more money so we can be good stewards and have the resources to take care of the things that really matter. 

If this episode of Entrepreneurs of Faith resonated with you, please subscribe for FREE to Monetization Nation so you can receive an Entrepreneurs of Faith each Sunday.

1. Subscribe to the Monetization eMagazine.
2. Follow the Monetization Nation Blog.
3. Join our private Monetization Nation Facebook Group.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
5. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
6. Connect with Nathan on Linkedin. 
7. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram. 
8. Follow Monetization Nation on Twitter.

Share Your Story 

How have you seen money used to make a difference for good? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://www.monetizationnation.com/17-isnt-money-the-root-of-all-evil/

Customers are increasingly wary of companies and brands they aren’t sure they can trust. According to research by Edelman, 67% of people surveyed agree that “a good reputation may get [them] to try a product, but unless [they] come to trust the company behind the product, [they] will soon stop buying it.”

Carla Meine is an entrepreneur with an amazing track record. Her company was one of the Top 100 fastest-growing companies in Utah for five years. She ran one of Utah’s top 10 women-owned businesses for nine years and won Utah’s Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. 

In 2007, Carla Meine and her husband began running a small weight loss company named IdealShape. She implemented innovative credibility marketing strategies that helped transform the business to $60 million in annual revenue. 

Here are some strategies Carla used to create and market through trust:

“One-third of Americans have used social media to complain about a brand or its customer service.” - Microsoft

While Carla owned IdealShape, they put a strong emphasis on customer service. They strived to get their products to customers within two or three days. They quickly replied to comments and posts in their Facebook groups and monitored comments, making sure things never got ugly. When a customer was dissatisfied with their products, they provided refunds and did everything they could to make their customers happy. 

Doing all of these things produced a loyal group of customers who felt that the company really cared about them. It made them feel listened to and appreciated. IdealShape built up their loyalty with these customers to the point where the customers started defending them against anyone who complained in the Facebook groups.

When their company sold, the new owners didn’t put as much emphasis on customer service. They let go of employees who worked in customer service and/or managed the Facebook groups. As a result, they couldn’t foster that community in the same way and sales declined.

"You really don't get credibility marketing if you don't do a great job with customer service." -Carla Meine

While at IdealShape, Carla helped create the Ship Shape Challenge, a competition that leveraged Facebook. Customers would post their “before and after” weight loss pictures and stories, showing off the results of IdealShape’s products. Then the person who received the most votes could win a cruise. 

This contest got people to share their posts on social media in hopes that more of their friends and family would vote for them. It resulted in a lot of exposure for the company. Eventually, the customers asked for a private Facebook group, which the company promptly created. 

Carla and the company recognized the value of these private Facebook groups as customers felt more comfortable posting in this community where people had similar experiences. The group members were connecting with members of their tribe. Because of this, IdealShape started promoting their general Facebook page to everyone who bought their product. After they befriended customers there, they invited them to the private group. In the private group, customers could see positive reviews of different IdealShape products from group members, which helped give credibility to those products. 

Some people try to get influencers to give them promotions for free. This can sometimes give a one-time increase in revenue, but it is not a sustainable strategy. Influencers today generally don’t work for free, and they will especially not continue to do so. When we pay influencers fairly, it can help us establish long-term win-win relationships with the influencers.

After IdealShape started their private Facebook groups, they needed people to help manage them. So, the company reached out to influencers and hired them to do exercise videos while managing a private group. 

The people who watched the exercise videos created by the influencers would join the Facebook groups, and from there they were encouraged not only to join in the community but to buy more of the products shared in the Facebook groups. The use of influencers doubled the company’s revenue from $20 million to $40 million. Then, they added another $20 million the next year, reaching $60 million in annual income.

Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, said, “I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers, and that people flourish when they are praised.”

In the 1990s Carla was the CEO of one of the first large remote call centers. Back then, working from home was almost unheard of in the call center industry. Now especially, working from home is often necessary, but many companies are struggling to effectively manage their teams remotely. Carla’s business systematized accountability, through which employees could receive much more freedom. 

IdealShape told their employees that as long as their stats stayed the same or went up, they could work from home. If their stats went down, supervisors would call the employee and tell them to come work in the office so the supervisor could help them get their stats up. This resulted in natural accountability, and the employee could have the freedom to work from home as long as they met their metrics. 

Employees followed their metrics closely and knew when their metrics were down before the supervisor called. Because the ground rules were laid out from the beginning, the employees knew what would happen. The employees felt trusted that the company allowed them to work from home. Thanks to this systematized accountability, the call center team was able to have the freedom of working from home. Furthermore, with this system of accountability, the team was more effective from home than they had been in the office with all of the distractions.

"Because you trusted your employees, you got more productivity out of them. Because you created a trusting environment instead of a controlling environment, you actually had much greater success." - Nathan Gwilliam

Through her experience, Carla has also realized that it is easier to build a trusting relationship with an existing customer than to market to find a new customer. At IdealShape, they realized they needed to do some type of automatic shipping program to generate more recurring revenue. So after a customer would purchase the first package, the company would follow-up with them when they were close to running out of the product. In the follow-up email, they would offer them a really good deal, such as 20% off their next purchase and free shipping. The company was then extremely flexible with all future orders, making sure to treat their customers right. The average customer would accept the deal and stay for eight to nine months. 

Another monetization strategy Carla used with IdealShape’s customers was diversifying their revenue streams. A customer typically came to them because they heard about how great their shakes were. The company kept these customers coming back by constantly releasing new products such as new shake flavors, new supplements, and new flavors for meal replacement bars. Carla noticed their sales would go up every time they released a new product or flavor, so the company made a goal to release four or five new products a month. 

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Carla or connect with her, you can find her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmeine/

Thank you Carla for sharing your stories and experiences. Here are some of my key takeaways from today’s episode:

1. Find the right motivation for your customers to share their experiences with other customers like them, such as IdealShape’s cruise for the winner of the Ship Shape Challenge.
2. Use influencers to bring in a lot more customers and help build credibility. 
3. Be willing to pay influencers. This will help turn one-time influencer deals into long-term influencer deals. 
4. Customer service is one of the most important ways to build credibility. Take care of customers with every interaction to keep them coming back.
5. Create a trusting environment rather than a controlling environment for employees.
6. Systematize accountability so that employees can enjoy more freedom. 
7. Create recurring revenue streams. It is easier to keep current customers than advertise to find new ones.
8. Diversify revenue streams by giving customers add-ons and new products to improve customer lifetime value. 

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Follow the Monetization Nation Blog.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization eMagazine.
4. Join our private Monetization Nation Facebook Group.
5. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
6. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
7. Connect with Nathan on Linkedin. 
8. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram. 
9. Follow Monetization Nation on Twitter.

Challenge

If we desire monetization we have never before achieved, we must leverage strategies we have never before implemented. I challenge each of us to pick one thing that resonated with us from today’s episode and schedule a time this week to implement it to help achieve our monetization goals.

What are the best credibility marketing strategies you’ve seen? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://www.monetizationnation.com/16-4-credibility-marketing-strategies-that-helped-idealshape-reach-60-million-in-annual-revenue/

“If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” -  Bruce Lee

I’ve observed many incredibly successful entrepreneurs and CEOs who make many more decisions based on time than on money, and I’ve seen the same trend in my career. In this episode, we’re going to discuss how to more effectively invest time, our most precious commodity. 

Going Back to College After a Decade to Get My Degrees

After my junior year in college, I dropped out of school to focus on growing Adoption.com full-time. After running Adoption.com for more than a decade, I felt stagnated and paralyzed in my entrepreneurship. It felt like others were putting limits on me because I didn’t have a college degree, and that I was hitting glass ceilings. I wanted to be a better entrepreneur, and I didn’t want to be a limiting factor in the growth of my businesses.

As one solution to be a better entrepreneur, I wanted to go back to finish my degree. My wife and my business partner were both supportive, so I hired a good friend to manage the day-to-day operations of the business under my direction and immediately enrolled in school in another state. 

Soon after restarting school, my wife suggested I try to simultaneously enroll in the MBA (Masters of Business Administration) program, which was about to start, while I was finishing my undergraduate degree. This MBA program was something she knew I really wanted to do, but I believed I had to finish my undergraduate degree first and then apply for the MBA program the following school year. I didn’t think there was any chance the MBA program would ever let me simultaneously enroll while I was still finishing my undergraduate degree, or that they would let me apply to start in just a few weeks. But, because of my wife’s encouragement, I asked and I was shocked when the university agreed to let me do both programs at once. 

I gratefully did that MBA program and I loved it. I know some entrepreneurs feel college isn’t worth it, but I disagree, at least for my situation. I loved my professors, classmates, and classes in the BYU MBA program. Through that program, I was amazed at how much I learned that I didn’t know I didn’t know through my first decade of entrepreneurship. Doors opened to me, such as the Deseret Digital Media position, or university classes I’ve taught, that would not have been possible without that master’s degree. 

Finding the Best Mentors 

As a second solution to becoming a better entrepreneur, I went looking for mentors. Since I had started my first business as a college student and had always been the CEO since then, I had never had the experience of being mentored by highly successful entrepreneurs who I worked for. I wanted to be mentored by and learn from highly successful entrepreneurs.  

So I started doing digital strategy, marketing, and execution work for other entrepreneurs. Over the next few years, I approached four incredibly successful entrepreneurs from whom I wanted to be mentored, and I was very blessed that all four of them allowed me to work for them. These four men weren’t just successful entrepreneurs, but they were also striving to nurture family and faith at the core of their lives, which I wanted in my life as well.

Those four entrepreneurial mentors for me were:

• David Neeleman who founded 4 airlines such as JetBlue and Azul; 
• Carlos Martins, a billionaire entrepreneur from Brazil who created the world’s largest network of language learning schools; 
• Paul Allen, who started Ancestry.com (not the Microsoft Paul Allen); and
• Clark Gilbert, who was a former Harvard Entrepreneurship professor and the CEO of Deseret Digital Media.

I was able to absorb strategies and insights from those amazing entrepreneurs by helping grow their ventures. My treasured time working for these four men felt like an apprenticeship stage of my entrepreneurial journey. It is very important for every entrepreneur to create mentoring opportunities where they can learn from entrepreneurs who have been-there-done-that and have already achieved the kinds of success we want to achieve, in the areas that matter most to us.

Time is Our Most Precious Commodity 

One of the most important lessons I learned from these great men was that time seemed to be their most precious commodity. I saw them make many decisions based more upon time than upon money. For example, I vividly remember the first time I traveled to Brazil to meet with Carlos Martins and his team, and how he had a helicopter pick me up at the airport in Sao Paulo and fly me to his home to save me hours of driving in traffic to his home. Time was so precious to him. 

Then, later that night I remember playing soccer (or football as we call it in Brazil) in Carlos’ backyard with him and his family. I played soccer as a child and in high school and I love it. I think Carolos was surprised that an American knew how to play soccer. For Brazilians, soccer is just a part of life. For many Brazilians, it is more prestigious to be on the Brazilian national soccer team than to be the President of Brazil. No joke.

Anyway, the helicopter ride had saved hours of driving, which allowed us time to make some fun memories together. I was blessed to help Carlos create several businesses, and that soccer game was a great way to start off the business relationship. He had traded the cost of the helicopter ride in part for the time to make that connection.  

Each of my four mentors had to be incredibly diligent about managing their time so they could accomplish the amazing things they did, and still have plenty of time for the other things that mattered most, such as their faith and their families. They each had to consciously remove many less-important things from their lives so they had time for the things that were more important. It’s kind of like they were constantly working to maximize their ROT (Return on Time).  I believe that because these men learned how to leverage time as their most precious commodity they were able to find much more success in all of those areas.

Reinvesting Time in Things That Matter Most

I have not had anywhere near the success of those four men, but time has also become my most precious commodity. I find myself wanting more time to do the things that matter most to me, such as spending time with the people I love, my faith, my health, and the causes I care about. I strive to outsource and delegate tasks I can so I can get time back. 

More than two decades ago, when my wife and I were newlyweds, she had an OBGYN whose daughter was attending college. His daughter’s college was 1 hour 45 minutes away, but he had a scheduled lunch appointment with her every Friday. That meant he invested about 5 hours each Friday to have lunch with his daughter. He was a doctor, whose time was very valuable, yet he chose to invest his precious time with someone who was even more precious to him.

I was so impressed with his recurring father-daughter dates, that I am trying to follow his example and do a date with each of my daughters every week I’m in town.

Coaches and Consultants Can Help Us Get Time Back

The National Academy of Science survey respondents reported: “...greater happiness after spending money on a time-saving purchase than on a material purchase.” Coaches and consultants can help save us the time of having to learn and execute everything new on our own. 

Almost every entrepreneur I consult for has lamented that they and their teams are maxed out and don’t have enough time to implement everything they want to do in their businesses. Some entrepreneurs identify top priority projects, and outsource those projects to qualified people they know will complete the projects well.  Most of my consulting clients have contracted with me as a way to buy more time. They were capable of figuring out and doing their own digital monetization, but they were very busy and didn’t have the time to wait to learn and implement it on their own. They wanted someone they could trust to quickly do things well for them, so they could save that time.

If you are looking to get more of your time back for what matters most, and if you want some help developing and implementing a revolutionary monetization strategy that leverages tectonic shifts, please visit my consulting site at MonetizationPartners.com to schedule a free consultation. 

Tectonic Shifts Can Give Us Time Back 

Tectonic shifts can be another very effective way for busy entrepreneurs to make more powerful use of their most precious commodity of time. As I mentioned in a previous episode, tectonic shifts can be kind of like catching a wave surfing. If we ride the wave, the momentum of the wave can get us to shore in a fraction of the time. Similarly, as we effectively leverage tectonic shifts, the momentum of that tectonic shift may help get us to our desired business goals faster.

For example, passion-driven marketing can help us connect with our potential customers faster, diversifying revenue with information products can help us grow our revenue faster, credibility marketing can help us increase trust faster, and funnels can help us improve our conversions faster, etc.

Key Takeaways

Here are a few of the key takeaways from today’s episode to help us get a better ROT (Return on Time):

1. Continuously invest in our entrepreneurial education, as I did going back to school. Online courses, live conferences, podcasts, and blogs are other great ways to do this.
2. If we really want to do something, it often doesn’t hurt to ask, instead of assuming the other person will say “no.” They might surprise us and say “yes” as the MBA program did with my simultaneous enrollment request.
3. Create mentoring opportunities where we can learn from entrepreneurs who have achieved the success we want to achieve in the areas that matter most to us, and not just financial. 
4. As we find ways to save time, we should be careful to re-invest that time in the things that matter most to us, as my wife’s doctor did with his daughter.
5. We should consciously remove the less-important things from our lives so we have more room for the things that matter most. 
6. We may consider outsourcing some of our most important projects to someone we can trust will get them done well. 
7. We might consider hiring coaches who can accelerate our learning curve, and save us the time having to learn everything on our own.
8. We should leverage tectonic shifts to accelerate the growth of our businesses.

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Follow the Monetization Nation Blog.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization eMagazine.
4. Join our private Monetization Nation Facebook Group.
5. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
6. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
7. Connect with Nathan on Linkedin. 
8. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram. 
9. Follow Monetization Nation on Twitter.

Challenge

If we desire monetization we have never before achieved, we must leverage strategies we have never before implemented. I challenge each of us to pick one thing that resonated with us from today’s episode and schedule a time this week to implement it to help achieve our monetization goals.

Share Your Story 

How have you been able to save time and reinvest it into something that matters most to you? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://www.monetizationnation.com/15-how-to-more-effectively-invest-time/