Podcasting Secrets

I recently interviewed John Rampton, who is one of the top digital marketing influencers. He is a regular contributor to leading business sites, such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal. John is a serial entrepreneur, and currently operates digital ventures such as Due.com and Calendar.com. In this interview, John and I discuss...

Read at: https://www.monetizationnation.com/how-john-rampton-lost-92-million-of-annual-revenue-by-building-a-skyscraper-on-land-he-didnt-own/

Hello Monetization Nation. I recently interviewed John Rampton, who is one of the top digital marketing influencers. He is a regular contributor to leading business sites, such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal. John is a serial entrepreneur, and currently operates digital ventures such as Due.com and Calendar.com. In this interview, John tells the story about a business he grew to $110 million of annual revenue. $92 million of that revenue was from sales on Amazon. Amazon essentially shut down that business after they launched a competing product. John and I discuss why it is so important to build a “skyscraper” on “land” we own, along with other monetization stories and secrets.

Building a Skyscraper on Land You Own

John and I first met when we both worked for a company named FamilyLink. Family Link created the We’re Related Facebook app, which became the 4th largest Facebook app with more than 60 million app installs. As a part-time Chief Revenue Officer, we went from almost no revenue to more than $5 million of revenue in 12 months. 

Unfortunately, Facebook saw how many people wanted this functionality and built similar functionality into their core offering. Then, Facebook made it extremely difficult for the We’re Related app to continue to operate. The reality is that publicly-traded platforms are going to ultimately make decisions that are in the best interest of their shareholders, which includes making decisions that better monetize their platforms.

Family Link truly built a skyscraper on leased land that Facebook owned, and Facebook had the right to take the land away any time they wanted. As a result, FamilyLink lost most of its business value.

Amazon Competing with 3rd-Party Vendors

Amazon used a similar strategy in which they allowed 3rd-party vendors to sell on their platform. Many of these 3rd-party vendors made a lot of money from their relationship with Amazon. Unfortunately, this is another example of building a skyscraper on leased land. When Amazon learned which products sold the best, Amazon decided to go directly to manufacturers and cut many of the 3rd-party vendors out of the loop. The 3rd-party vendors were essentially doing market research for Amazon so Amazon knew the most profitable products to sell directly. Amazon owned the land, so as soon as they had their own product, it was easy to preference their products on the Amazon platform.

The Rise and Fall of Organize

John purchased and grew a company named Organize. He sold a “scrap trap” that hangs on the end of kitchen counters. As you cut, you can scrape your scraps into it. He used Amazon and other platforms to grow his business. He estimates that more than 30% of the kitchens in America have this scrap trap. He went from “smaller 7 figures” to “8 figures a month.” Annual revenue exceeded $110 million. 

John says that “Whatever a platform can give, they can take it away.” This is what happened to John and his company. One day the Organize team noticed a competing product that showed up higher in Amazon search results than his product. He tried bidding much higher amounts per click but was unable to get his listing above this new product. Amazon also undercut John on price. 

After they launched a competing product, Amazon turned off John’s product listing and would not turn it back on. As a result in a very short period of time, John lost a $92 million per year revenue stream from selling products through Amazon. John had to lay off 76 people in one day. He liquidated his inventory and the business went under. 

How Should We Work with Platforms

It’s ok to work with other platforms such as Facebook and Amazon. This can help to radically accelerate our growth, especially before we’ve built our own large platforms. However, it is important to realize that our relationships with those platforms will most likely change over time to their benefit and our detriment. So, we must build platforms of our own, such as our own blogs and email lists, where we have direct relationships with our customers and can contact them when we choose. Then, as we use other platforms such as Facebook and Amazon, we are focused on driving the traffic to our platform, so we can own the relationships, and are not dependent on other platforms.

Diversification

John encourages entrepreneurs and business leaders to diversify, to sell through other channels such as affiliate partners, so we are not dependent upon a handful of platforms, such as Amazon. John says about 85% of his revenue was from one source, and when Amazon chose to compete and shut down John’s business, he lost the entire company. John recommends that no more than 40% of a business’s revenue be from one source so they can weather the storm when they lose any one revenue stream. If a revenue stream becomes more than 40% of revenue, John pushes really hard to grow revenue through other sources, even less-profitable sources.

Here are four effective ways to diversify our revenue if one source grows too large:

1.  Create new products and services so we aren’t too dependent on one product.
2.  Develop new marketing channels so we aren’t too dependent on one channel.
3.  Try to drive customers from other platforms to our platforms, such as your email list so you can build direct relationships with customers, and contact them directly when a platform shuts us down. John advises us to focus everything we can on driving every sale through our websites, so people learn that is where they go to buy from our companies.
4. Work with a diverse group of influencers through an affiliate program. Pay the influencers for sales that result from them sending visitors directly to your site. Platforms will probably not be able to take away these influencer relationships.

Liquidating Inventory

John tells a great story about how he learned to liquidate huge amounts of inventory quickly. He grew his liquidation revenue from about $5,000 per day to more than $150,000 per day just by hiring people to dance with signs on the sidewalk. He used this strategy to liquidate $500,000+ in three days. 

Due.com Invoicing System

John purchased an invoicing company, then he required hundreds of people to send him invoices to use that system. He logged in one day and the invoicing system had ballooned to 32,000 registered users and almost 200,000 invoices sent in the last 30 days. He was excited by this huge growth, so he purchased the Due.com domain name and added an upgraded subscription for people who wanted to send a larger number of invoices. Due.com now has more than 500,000 active users.

Calendar.com

John has created a new business, Calendar.com, that brings all of our calendars together into one place, allowing us to merge our personal and business calendars, but not allowing the personal events to be seen by business colleagues. Business managers can sign their teams up for Calendar.com, and see how their team members are allocating their time. With Calendar.com we can easily book meetings and publish our calendar online if we want to. Calendar.com already has hundreds of thousands of customers.

Freemium Business Model

John has very successfully used the freemium business model to monetize both Due.com and Calendar.com. John allowed customers to use the core software for free so that the services could get some traction and momentum. Then, once a lot of people were hooked on the software, he started selling upgraded versions of the services.

The freemium model also allows businesses to launch quick (MVPs) minimum viable products that can be rolled out to the market quickly to see if we have something the market really wants. Furthermore, as initial customers used the service, John was able to see what they were actually doing, and once he knew the most valuable features, he used that information to develop the premium subscription service. John also emailed all of the free customers and asked them what they would be willing to pay for. Then, he found the most common responses and turned those into features of the premium subscription service.

Recurring Revenue from SAAS Companies

John transitioned from being an e-commerce entrepreneur to being SAAS (software as a service) entrepreneur. He loves the SAAS model because it provides consistent, recurring revenue. He’s able to avoid huge revenue swing months and able to easily calculate the lifetime value of a customer. 

High-Level PR Engagement to Grow SEO

One of John’s secrets to digital marketing success is using high-level PR engagement to grow SEO. John starts this process by writing for high-level publications such as Forbes, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Inc, Mashable, TechCrunch, and New York Times. He is not paid for these articles, but he is allowed to add links from those articles to his sites. Those links from high-quality sites provide tremendous value to John’s ventures and help them to rank much higher in search engine results. 

Become the Very Best at Something

John advises that we should pick something and learn everything we can about it, and become #1 in the world at it. So many people think that to succeed in business you have to be the best at a million different things. Instead, he suggests that we should focus on becoming the best at one thing, and then expand over time into other things.

How to Become a Writer for Leading Publications

John gives advice on how to become an effective writer for leading publications. 

1. Start writing for your own blog and start to build your following.
2. Then, approach smaller publications to help you build your reputation and following. As your following and reputation grow, you can start writing for larger and larger publications.
3. Then, network to an editor at a leading publication you want to write for. Work on nurturing a relationship with that editor, such as by commenting on and sharing content from that publication. 
4. Focus your articles on providing actual value to the readers. Don’t be promotional at all, but it is ok to add links. 
5. Be really authentic in what you write. 
6. Build a large personal social following and share what you write with that following. It will take time, but be consistent. 

Genuinely Help People Without Expecting Anything in Return

John says, “If you can build up trust with someone, they will follow you for life.”

John has a motto in life. He likes to genuinely help others without wanting or needing anything in return. John finds that 1 in every 10 people he helps will help him back. 1 in every 100 people he helps will turn into a financial relationship where John makes money. And, 1 in every 1,000 people he helps turns into a multi-million dollar relationship. So, John tries to genuinely help 3 people every day. The people that John helps are his tribe. 

John shares a story of someone he started helping, and that person helped John in return. This relationship of reciprocity continued for years, and now they are making millions of dollars together as business partners.

Connect with John and His Companies

If you want to learn more about John Rampton and his companies:

Due.com - https://due.com/

Calendar.com - https://www.calendar.com/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrampton/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/johnrampton

Monetization Secrets

Thank you John for sharing your monetization stories and secrets with us. Here are some of the top secrets that stood out to me from today’s episode: 

1. We can use a platform strategy to quickly grow our business. However, we need to build a skyscraper on land we own. This means we should focus on driving as many people as we can to our site and email list so we have direct relationships with customers that cannot be shut off by a platform. 
2. We should diversify, so no more than 40% of our business is coming from one source.
3. The SAAS (software as a service) business model is very attractive because it can provide consistent, recurring revenue.
4. We can effectively grow our credibility and search engine backlinks by writing for leading publications. However, we should remember that when we do this we are building on land that someone else owns. For example, John put a lot of time into writing for Inc. One day he received a call that they were done working with him, and all of the effort he invested there was gone. So, we have to focus on bringing people back to something we own, such as an email list when we are doing a platform strategy.
5. We should genuinely help people with no expectation of anything in return. However, because of the law of reciprocity, many of those people will want to help us as well.

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer? Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

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 

What ideas do you have about how we can leverage platforms to build a skyscraper on land we own? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read more at: https://www.monetizationnation.com/how-john-rampton-lost-92-million-of-annual-revenue-by-building-a-skyscraper-on-land-he-didnt-own/

On September 11, 2001, I was in New York City during that horrible terrorist attack. I had a flight scheduled to leave JFK that morning. In this episode I’m going to share my story, and what I learned that has changed how I see the world and run my business.

Read more at: https://www.monetizationnation.com/8-6-business-secrets-i-learned-from-being-in-new-york-city-during-the-september-11-terrorist-attacks/

On September 11, 2001, I was in New York City during that horrible terrorist attack. I had a flight scheduled to leave JFK that morning. In this episode I’m going to share my story, and what I learned that has changed how I see the world and run my business.

I Was There

I was in New York City that day and I’m going to share my story, and the secrets I learned about normalcy bias. This will help us understand how normalcy bias can paralyze businesses. It will also help us understand why many businesses do not seize the opportunities at tectonic shifts.

The Days Leading Up to 9/11

On Friday, September 7, 2001, my wife and I, with our daughter who was less than 1-year old, walked up to 1 World Trade Center in New York City. This taller of the Twin Towers had been the tallest building in the world when it was first constructed, standing more than 1,350 feet and 110 stories high. I was in New York City on business and was blessed that my little family could join me. 

That Friday afternoon we were doing some sightseeing, and as we reached the revolving door of the tallest tower of the World Trade Center I wanted to go to the top. I’m always up for an adventure. However, my wife didn’t feel comfortable with that. She felt there was no way to get down if something bad happened. She said I was welcome to go up, but she and our daughter would be staying outside the building. So, we moved on and found another part of New York City to explore together. The streets were packed bumper to bumper with cars and the sidewalks were filled with people scurrying like ants in an ant farm. 

The next day, Saturday, September 8, 2001,  my wife and daughter flew back to our home in Arizona, where we lived at that time. I was scheduled to go home with them but extended my trip a few days to take care of some additional business. I rescheduled my flight for the morning of Tuesday, September 11. 

I remember lying in the bed in my highrise hotel room on Monday night September 10, hearing an airplane fly by, and thinking to myself, “What would prevent an airplane from crashing into one of these buildings?”

September 11, 2001

The next morning, Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I woke up in Midtown Manhattan, about 4.4 miles away from the World Trade Center. As I got ready, American Airlines Flight 11 departed from Logan Airport in Boston at 7:59 a.m. At 8:14 a.m. that flight was hijacked over central Massachusetts. As I was preparing to leave my hotel room, that flight crashed into the north side of 1 World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m.  Only a few minutes later I was down in the lobby, asking the front desk to help me hail a taxi to go to the airport. It was only then that I learned that a plane had hit a building in New York City. I hurried back to my room to turn on the news. As soon as I realized that America had been attacked by terrorists, I quickly called my wife in Arizona to tell her I was safe. 

While on the phone, my wife turned on the same news channel, and we watched together in horror as a second airplane crashed into the other Twin Tower at 9:03 a.m. Within 1 hour and 42 minutes of the first plane crashing, we had watched both of the Twin Towers collapse, just a few miles from where I was sitting in my hotel room.

At 9:25 a.m. the FAA closed all U.S. airspace to all civilian aircrafts, and flights had to make emergency landings around the country. For two unprecedented days, no civilian flights flew in America. The skies went quiet. Commercial flights did not resume until Thursday, September 13 but commercial flights to and from New York City were delayed even longer. For at least a full day after the attacks, even bridges and tunnels to and from Manhattan were closed to non-emergency traffic. Rental cars in the city became an incredibly scarce commodity.

I stayed in my hotel room in Manhattan for hours watching the worst terrorist attack in the history of humanity unfold with 2,997 fatalities, more than 25,000 injuries, and more than $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage.

Later that afternoon I went outside and walked the streets. I walked up the middle of one of the previously packed streets, without a single car or person around me. It was like a scene from the Twilight Zone. Eventually, I found a taxi and convinced him to take me as close to Ground Zero as he could go. My most vivid memory from that ride is of a fire truck covered with white ash. 

In the early hours of September 12th, the train I needed resumed service. I was able to get out of New York City and go to New Jersey where my cousin Drexden Davis and his wife lived. I am so grateful for their hospitality during that crisis. My cousin had been on the tarmac of a New York City airport when the first plane hit. He and the other passengers were evacuated, and he rented a car and drove home. It was very lucky for me that he’d gotten one and was able to transfer it to me. The next day I started my drive to Chicago, which was the departure city for the second leg of my original flight home. 

I remember thinking as I drove to Chicago that all I wanted was to get home to my family. Nothing else mattered. I am always amazed and embarrassed at how often crises are blessings that help us put our lives in perspective and focus on the things that truly matter. I was able to book a flight home in Chicago and finally make it to my family on Saturday, September 15. 

Other Disasters I Have Witnessed

The September 11 terrorist attacks were not the only disasters or crises to which I have had a direct connection. 

• As I wrote about in a previous blog post, I was the CEO of a publicly-traded dotcom company when the dotcom bubble burst. 
• In  2014, I was in Thailand when the military launched a coup d'état, dissolved the government and the Senate, repealed parts of the constitution, took control of the media, declared martial law, and implemented a curfew. 
• My family and I were stuck in a horrible snowstorm that closed the highway during a road trip. All the hotels were full, and we were sheltered in a very generous church for the night. 
• In July 2019 I stayed in the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel for a conference. During that same week, there was an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the hotel. At least 1 person died, 11 cases were confirmed, and there were 63 probable cases. 
• We are all now in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic that is wreaking havoc on many lives and organizations. More than 1 million people have already lost their lives to this coronavirus globally, tens of millions of people have lost their jobs, and unknown thousands of businesses have closed their doors permanently.

Those are just a few examples of the disasters, crises, and tectonic shifts I have seen. Maybe you shouldn’t hang around me. :)

9/11 and various other crisis situations I have been through have resulted in me seeing the world and business differently. I have tried to learn from these situations so that I can prevent or mitigate the negative effects of similar crises in the future. 

Understanding Normalcy Bias in Business

Normalcy bias is a common situation that is experienced during or related to disasters and crises. It is sometimes called “analysis paralysis” or the “Ostrich Effect.”  As a result of normalcy bias, people underestimate the risk of a disaster or crisis because it has never happened to them or their organization before. The assumption is that if a specific disaster or crisis has not happened to me up to now, then it will not happen to me in the future.  Or, when we are in the middle of a disaster or crisis, we refuse to admit it is happening and underestimate the effects of the disaster or crisis. This is a very common way of thinking for most humans and business leaders.

I often travel with a “get home bag” so that I have the basic supplies I need to get home if I get stranded somewhere. To someone who has never been stranded, their normalcy bias might tell them my “get home bag” is unreasonable. However, because I have been stranded on multiple occasions, my normalcy bias is different and this “get home bag” is a wise and responsible risk-mitigation strategy for me.

As a business example, when I went back to school to get my MBA, a teacher taught us how business leaders should leverage debt to fuel growth. In that lesson, I don’t remember the teacher exploring the risk of leverage that the debt would add to the company. However, a leveraged company becomes a huge risk during an economic crisis such as the 2008 crash or our current global pandemic. When I lost a leveraged company during an economic crisis I learned the hard lesson that there is a huge risk to taking on debt. 

I’m not saying we should never take debt. There are plenty of times when debt is the right choice. But we have to factor in that risk. Is the risk associated with that debt worth the benefit?

To someone who has only seen a growth economy and never seen a company lost to debt leverage, their normalcy bias might tell them that my concern about debt leverage is unreasonable. However, because I have lost a leveraged company, my normalcy bias is different, and carefully weighing the risk of debt leverage is a wise and responsible risk-mitigation strategy for me.

When businesses face tectonic shifts in the business landscape it is very normal for us to ignore or underestimate the severity of that tectonic shift, and its effect on our businesses. We often hear of businesses “doubling down” on a business strategy. Doubling down can be a great thing if we are doubling down on a tectonic shift opportunity that is proving successful right now. However, if we are doubling down on an old and ineffective strategy that used to work, but is being disrupted by a tectonic shift, that can be an almost certain recipe for disaster and a doubling of the crisis.

Sticking with the old, ineffective strategy and ignoring a tectonic shift is a great example of normalcy bias. Business history is littered with thousands of businesses that ignored tectonic shifts and lost market share or completely went out of business.

Normalcy Bias Causes Paralysis

70% of people have normalcy bias during a disaster. Normalcy bias commonly paralyzes people in the middle of the disaster or crisis. Here are a few examples:

• When the Vesuvius volcano erupted the residents of Pompei watched for hours without evacuating. 
• As Hurricane Katrina approached, and the government pleaded with people to evacuate, thousands of people refused to leave their homes. 
• 70% of the 9/11 survivors stopped to talk to others after the plane hit but before they evacuated the building. 
• As the Titanic was sinking, people refused to evacuate because they underestimated the odds of the worst-case scenario. (source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias)

Preventing Normalcy Bias

Our businesses do not have to be victims of our normalcy biases.

During the September 11 terrorist attacks, not all of the hijacked planes caused the damage intended by the terrorists. On Flight 93, 46 minutes after the takeoff, 4 al-Quaeda terrorists stormed the cockpit. They intended to crash the plane into the U.S. Capitol Building. Some of the passengers and flight attendants learned from phone calls that other airplanes had been hijacked that morning and flown into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. As the passengers then sought to retake control of the plane from the hijackers, the hijackers crashed the plane into a field in Pennsylvania, rather than give up control of the plane. They were only 20 minutes’ flight time away from Washington. In that crash, 7 crew members and 33 passengers tragically lost their lives.

During the hijacking, the passengers and crew members realized quickly that they were in the middle of a crisis situation. They acted rapidly and decisively to mitigate the damage, made the best of a very difficult situation, and saved many lives.

In my business career, I’ve been blessed to hit some home runs. However, the strategies used for each of these home runs were different. I did not use the same strategy twice to hit different home runs. The common denominator is that we found a tectonic shift that was changing the business landscape for that business, and we quickly leveraged that tectonic shift to accelerate growth and leapfrog over established competitors.

In the book I am writing, I talk about tectonic shifts that are happening right now and how to leverage those tectonic shifts to leapfrog competitors. It is critical that entrepreneurs and business leaders leverage these tectonic shifts today to drive growth and protect their businesses. However, tectonic shifts this year will likely become common business practices in future years. Then, new tectonic shifts will happen, and we will have to adjust to those as well. Furthermore, specific industries, geographic locations, and individual businesses will face their own unique tectonic shifts. The main point of the book is to teach us how to identify, leverage, and protect ourselves from tectonic shifts today and in the future. Great companies will even be able to create their own tectonic shifts. 

We Must Innovate to Survive

Tectonic shifts are inevitable. They have happened, they are happening, and they will continue to happen. This means as businesses we need to be constantly adapting our strategies to survive. Just because something worked well for us in the past does not mean it will continue to work well for us. Finding the tectonic shifts affecting our businesses and industry today and leveraging them is one of the most effective ways to innovate. 

“If you don't innovate, you die” 

- Gary Vaynerchuk, New York Times Bestselling Author

Fortune 500 companies are the largest corporations in the United States based on their revenue. When you compare the Fortune 500 companies of 1955 to the Fortune 500 companies of 2019 only 10.4% of the companies have stayed on that list (Source: AEI https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/only-52-us-companies-have-been-on-the-fortune-500-since-1955-thanks-to-the-creative-destruction-that-fuels-economic-prosperity/#:~:text=31%2C%202019).,started%20(see%20graphic%20above). Staying stagnant is not an option. These tectonic shifts will cause either growth or destruction. Innovation with tectonic shifts is one of the keys to ensuring our businesses continue to experiences growth. 

Monetization Secrets

Here are some of the top monetization secrets that stood out to me from today’s episode:

1. When crises strike, as they will, instead of wallowing in our plight, we should focus on what matters most, such as our families and the monetization of our businesses (because revenue helps solve many of the business crises). 
   
   
2. We shouldn’t wait for crises and disasters to strike and remind us to focus on the things that really matter in our lives and businesses. We should be doing that every day.
   
   
3. During a business disaster or crisis, we need to quickly identify what is happening, and immediately take action to create the best outcomes possible instead of sticking our heads in the sand and just hoping things get better.
   
   
4. We need to learn vicariously from the normalcy biases of others who have already “been-there-done-that” so we don’t have to learn the same tragic lessons for ourselves the hard way.
   
   
5. We must prepare so we are ready to respond to tectonic shifts. What is in our metaphorical “get home bags” that we can use to keep our businesses safe when we go through a crisis? Do we have a cash reserve, a stable recurring revenue stream, education about the newest trends in our industry, low expenses and leverage, a huge list of loyal customers who trust us, etc.?
   
   
6. Tectonic shifts are all around us, and they will continue to happen. These tectonic shifts will cause destruction or growth. In many cases, it is our choice based on how we prepare and respond. The difference between companies that fail and companies that thrive is often how we prepare for and respond to tectonic shifts.

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer? Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

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

Have you observed a company with normalcy bias that did not prepare for or respond to a crisis effectively?  Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read more at: https://www.monetizationnation.com/8-6-business-secrets-i-learned-from-being-in-new-york-city-during-the-september-11-terrorist-attacks/

It used to be that only big companies with big budgets and professional videographers could use video for advertising. Now nearly anyone with a smartphone can make great videos, and nearly everyone has access to a high-speed internet connection and a device where they can watch videos any time. Furthermore, video is usually much more engaging than long pages of text. Because of this democratization of video, we’ve seen a huge tectonic shift towards video marketing.

It used to be that only big companies with big budgets and professional videographers could use video for advertising. Now nearly anyone with a smartphone can make great videos, and nearly everyone has access to a high-speed internet connection and a device where they can watch videos any time. Furthermore, video is usually much more engaging than long pages of text. Because of this democratization of video, we’ve seen a huge tectonic shift towards video marketing.

There is no other form of communication that trumps in person, face-to-face communication, but that kind of communication isn't always possible. Video is the next best option. It allows us to closely replicate face-to-face communication in many ways. We can see facial expressions and body language and bring those elements into the conversation in a scalable way. According to HubSpot, 78% of people watch online videos every week, and 55% view online videos every day. Some would even say that video is better than face-to-face communication because videos can be recorded once, uploaded to the Internet, and then be available nearly any time anywhere. This can give video communication much more reach than face-to-face communication, which is limited by our location and our time. Because of this reach and engagement of video, it is a force multiplier. 

In this episode, I interviewed Benton Crane, who is the CEO of Harmon Brothers, the ad agency behind the most viral ads in internet history. In 2011, he was hired by Deloitte where he served as a consultant with various clients across the national intelligence community. He was the co-founder of VidAngel. In 2013, Benton joined the newly formed Harmon Brothers for a campaign to promote Poo-Pourri, an amazing ad that transformed the way products are marketed. Harmon Brothers went on to produce the most viral ads in internet history including Squatty Potty, FiberFix, Orabrush, Purple, and Poo-Pourri. 

Success with Poo-Pourri

The founder of Poo-Pourri saw what Jeff Harmon, a friend of Benton’s and the future co-founder of Harmon Brothers, had done with Orabrush and reached out to him. He didn't take her seriously at the time, and she ended up sending samples to Jeff, and he really liked the samples. He called Benton, telling him that he was thinking about leaving Orabrush to do the Poo-Pourri campaign. Benton wanted to be a part of it because he had seen what they were doing at Orabrush and knew they were pioneering the future of advertising. He told Jeff to let him join up and he'd bring the data analytics side of the venture. 

Benton left his stable job and moved his family across the country to work on this ad campaign. When the ad was ready, the first people he showed it to were his in-laws. They were appalled. They didn't laugh, and they didn't crack a smile. So Benton turned it off two minutes into the video, knowing that they weren't going to find it funny if they hadn’t already. Luckily, the public reception was the exact opposite of how his in-laws had reacted. They ate it up and it took off like wildfire. Poo-Pourri’s videos have now been viewed more than 350 million times collectively.

Use Video to Tell a Story in a Unique and Approachable Way

Squatty Potty was already a successful business when Harmon Brothers started doing their ad campaign; they were earning around $4 million per year. However, a large portion of their customers were women around 55 or older who had often embarrassing medical conditions. They were ashamed to talk about the Squatty Potty as a solution to their problems, and they would hide it away in the master bathroom. So Benton and his coworkers were faced with the question of how to make this taboo thing into something safe, something that could be talked about and laughed about. 

They realized that in order to talk about this product they couldn't use anything real for the ad otherwise it would be seen as disgusting. So they came up with ice cream and the mythical unicorn and set it in a medieval land with a prince to further remove it from reality. They designed the unicorn to be cute and cuddly to make it approachable. In doing all these things, they took the taboo and grossness out of the subject and turned it into something funny. 

After the ad went viral, their customers no longer had to hide the Squatty Potty in the master bathroom; they could put it in their guest bathroom and it would turn into a funny topic of conversation. Harmon Brothers used video to tell the story in a unique and funny way that made it safe and approachable. It massively expanded the audience of customers to whom Squatty Potty could sell these stools, and it fundamentally changed the business and the owners’ lives while making customers' lives better.

Pioneer the Video Ad Skip Button with YouTube

More than 1.9 billion people, one-third of the internet, use YouTube (YouTube). Before Google bought YouTube, no one saw it as an advertising platform. It was just a place where people could share things like funny cat videos. Google bought it and turned it into a place for advertising. Now we can use this platform where people are finding joy to reach more customers through the ads before videos. 

Around the same time Google bought YouTube, Benton's business partner, Jeff Harmon, created an ad that was about two and a half minutes long, but ads back then were either thirty-second TV ads or thirty-minute infomercials. Everyone was telling him this ad was too long, but he had an idea. He went to YouTube and said, "I want to try something out. Can you give me a skip button for this ad, so that people who want to watch the ad can and those that don't want to don't have to?" YouTube agreed to test this out, and they built in a skip button. This idea completely revolutionized the way we do ads.

Don’t Rely on Virality

The Harmon Brothers are known as the viral video guys, but really only a handful of their videos have gone viral. If you look at all the different variations of the Squatty Potty video, it has been viewed about 300 million times. However, it probably would have reached only ten to fifteen million views if they had just put it out there and relied on the virality of it.

The Harmon Brothers rely on a formula that says if their clients spend a dollar to drive advertising to this video, they should get back two dollars in revenue. It becomes a machine: money in, revenue out, at the same time generating awareness for the company. They can use that machine for weeks, months, or years to drive business results and awareness. This advertising model is how the Purple mattress video has been viewed over 500 million times, while never going viral.

If we can get our ROAS (return on ad spend) to be double or triple what our advertising cost is, then we really don't have an advertising budget. We can have an almost unlimited advertising budget because we know that for each dollar we spend we get our money back and make a profit.

Building an Effective Video Script

An effective script will have all the elements of a great sale: a hook, problem, solution, and call to action. It will build credibility, overcome concerns, and finish with another call to action. The hook is very important; 33% of viewers will stop watching a video after 30 seconds, 45% by one minute, and 60% by two minutes (Ad Age). 

The Harmon Brothers teach how to do research and behind the scenes work to make sure the right pieces end up in the script. The way to make sure the script is really effective is through research. We can ask ourselves, “What part of my message is it that really resonates with my audience?” Once we know the answer we must make sure the script focuses on the parts that resonate. 

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” -Peter Drucker, management consultant, educator, and author

Focus Our Time on Things We Love

One day when Benton was in high school, he was venting to his dad about how he wasn't finding school fulfilling. He felt like he was wasting his time and that high school was just daycare for teenagers. He wanted to be doing something more, something that he cared about. Benton expected his dad to say, "Stick it out. School is important," but his dad didn't. He said, "If you've got a problem with it, do something about it. If you don't like school, leave. Go do something better." 

His dad's answer was like a slap across his face that woke him up. He started questioning what he wanted to be doing with his life, and the answer he came to was cars; working on cars was the thing in his life that he was most passionate about. He was always buying old cars, fixing them up, and selling them. He read every issue of Motor Trend magazine from cover to cover because he loved cars. 

So Benton dropped out of high school and enrolled in the automotive repair courses at a local college. He absolutely loved it there. A professor saw his passion and urged him to compete. Benton did, winning at the school level, then the state level, and eventually they sent him to Kansas City where he took second place at the national level.

From an outside viewpoint dropping out of high school seemed like throwing away a great opportunity and promising future and pursuing a dead-end career in repairing cars. In reality, though, instead of just going through the motions, he was pursuing his passion that was lighting a fire in him and causing him to excel.

Key Takeaways

Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode.

1. Video marketing is a massive tectonic shift, and a huge opportunity for our businesses if we leverage it effectively.
2. We may consider using video to tell the ad’s story in a unique and funny way that makes the product or service safe, fun, and approachable.
3. Try to create a viral ad, but don't rely just on virality. Instead, try to create an advertising money machine that earns you a profit on each dollar you spend, and gives you an almost unlimited advertising budget.  
4. Ask “What part of my message is it that really resonates with my audience?” Make sure the script focuses on the parts that resonate.
5. Focus your time on the things you love, and your chance of excelling will increase. 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer? Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

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

Do you have any tips and tricks about successful video marketing?  Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read more at: https://www.monetizationnation.com/7-video-marketing-secrets-from-one-of-the-creators-of-an-ad-with-300-million-views/

 

Sometimes, we as entrepreneurs and CEOs implement “normal” or traditional strategies that we learned in our business schools. In this episode, we’re going to talk about one of the most common reasons this happens, and we’ll discuss a more effective way to accomplish what matters most.

Read more:

https://www.monetizationnation.com/6-a-more-effective-way-to-accomplish-what-matters-most/

Sometimes, we as entrepreneurs and CEOs implement “normal” or traditional strategies that we learned in our business schools. These may be the strategies that are supposed to work or the strategies that many other companies are using, yet we don’t see the results we were expecting. In this episode, we’re going to talk about one of the most common reasons this happens, and we’ll discuss a more effective way to accomplish what matters most.

Doing Things The Same Way as Everyone Else

Years ago I began working with a company that had a very talented, successful, and intelligent executive. This executive (who was not the CEO) had graduated from a great business school where he had been taught strategies and models that have been widely used to run many successful businesses in the past. 

The problem was, these were the same strategies and models that were being implemented by a huge number of businesses around the world. If most business leaders are following the same business strategies and models, then the business with the best resources is often going to win. This could spell disaster for the entrepreneur starting out with fewer resources and brand recognition than the larger companies. 

This is one of the reasons why close to half of all small businesses fail within the first five years and only 1 in 3 stay in business for 10 years (Source: Forbes). They simply don’t have the resources to compete head-on with the larger, more established companies.

Finding a More Effective Way

When I started working with this company, they gave me a very ambitious goal. To achieve this goal we decided to go into a niche that had two Fortune 100 competitors already dominating it. These companies were well-established in this space and had far more resources than we could ever have. I knew we could not compete with these companies head-on with the “normal” or traditional strategies they were already using. Instead, we needed to do something different and compete in a smarter way. 

So, we asked ourselves: “What is the most important thing we need to do?” Once we figured out the answer to that question, we went on to ask ourselves: “What is the most effective way to get that done?” 

Why can’t you just do anything the normal way?

The strategy I created based on the answers to these two questions was new and very different from what this executive had been taught at his business school. Over time, my strategy of doing things in a non-traditional way very understandably started to be a little frustrating for this executive. I completely understand where this successful executive was coming from, and I may have felt the same way if I had been in his shoes. He was taught strategies from professors much smarter than I am. 

To read the rest of the article, visit: 

https://www.monetizationnation.com/6-a-more-effective-way-to-accomplish-what-matters-most/

During the last 23+ years of my business career I’ve experienced various tectonic shifts in the business landscape firsthand. For businesses that didn't adapt to those tectonic shifts, those shifts were very destructive. The businesses that seized the opportunities of those shifts often had the power to rise above their stronger competitors. During this episode, we’ll take a look at three of these tectonic shifts and the effects they’ve had on transforming businesses.

During the last 23+ years of my business career I’ve experienced various tectonic shifts in the business landscape firsthand. For businesses that did not adapt to those tectonic shifts, those shifts were very destructive. The businesses that seized the opportunities of those shifts often had the power to rise above their much stronger competitors. During this episode, we’ll take a look at three of these tectonic shifts and the effects they’ve had on transforming businesses, right after this intro.

1. The Tectonic Shift from Brick and Mortar to the Internet

“The tectonic, technology-driven shifts that characterize the Internet Century have rendered some of the commonly accepted strategic fundamentals we learned … on the job incorrect.”

- Eric Schmidt, Former Google CEO

I remember arriving at college my freshman year in 1992 and having no idea what the internet was. And yet, by 1996 I was creating Adoption.com.

Blockbuster vs. Netflix

The story of Blockbuster and Netflix is a great example of the tectonic shift from bricks and mortar business to internet business.

Blockbuster was the king of video rentals in the late 90’s. They owned more than 9,000 stores in the United States, had 84,000 employees around the world, and had 65 million registered customers. The company received $800 million in late fees alone in one year and at its peak was valued at $3 billion (Source: Business Insider). They must have felt invincible in their industry. 

Netflix was created in 1997. It wasn’t the streaming giant it is today. Back then it was simply an online video rental company. It’s main differentiators were that it shipped the DVDs to customers and it didn’t have late fees. The founders of Netflix, Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings, believed that the internet was the future but weren’t having much success competing with a giant like Blockbuster. 

“While Blockbuster… focused on brick-and-mortar video stores, technological innovations meant that competition was on the rise.” 

- Irene Kim, Business Insider 

In 2000, Randolph and Hastings met with the Blockbuster CEO. They came with the offer of selling Netflix for $50 million. Owning Netflix would allow Blockbuster to be the king of both physical and online video rentals. But the CEO laughed at the deal, considering Netflix to be a niche business. 

When Randolph and Hastings went into that meeting, Randolph describes feeling like “a country mouse in a big city” standing in his shorts and t-shirt when Blockbuster’s CEO came in with his “beautiful Italian shoes” (Source: GQ). However, the Netflix co-founders understood the powerful tectonic shift taking place while the Blockbuster CEO did not. 

Ten years after that ill-fated meeting, Netflix was posting earnings of $116 million while Blockbuster was declaring bankruptcy. Blockbuster had the resources, reach, and reputation. If they had effectively leveraged the shift to the Internet, they would have catapulted their growth. Instead, the Netflix small startup was able to surpass the giant industry leader greatly because they took advantage of the tectonic shift. 

2. The Tectonic Shift from Printed Yellow Pages to Search Engines 

Do you remember that giant phone book that used to get dropped off at your house every year? The yellow pages were filled with different size advertisements of businesses to help people find whatever they were looking for. Advertising in the Yellow Pages was so popular because its audience was ready to spend when they opened the pages. In fact, 9 in 10 customers who saw Yellow Page ads made a purchase (Source: Simmons Market Research Bureau). Many industries enjoyed great returns from their Yellow Page advertisements, such as attorneys who gained $17 per dollar spent, restaurants that earned about $3.50 per dollar spent, and car dealers that earned around $280 per dollar spent (Source: CRM Associates). 

“The Yellow Pages have offered advertisers and businesses an extremely strong and steady return on investment in a medium they can count on — providing a direct, measurable, cost-efficient vehicle for their marketing expenditures.”

 

• John Greco, President and CEO of the Yellow Pages Integrated Media Association

 

The Yellow Pages were slow to adapt to the internet. In 1995 Elon Musk approached the Yellow Pages with an offer to partner with them and get the Yellow Pages online. As Musk tells it the executive “picked up the Yellow Pages – this book, this big thick book full of ads, this multibillion-dollar risk industry – and threw it at me and said, ‘You ever think you’re going to replace this?’” (Source: CNBC). 

By the 2000’s, internet search engines were already beginning to cut into the Yellow Pages’ profits with 1 in 3 consumers using internet over Yellow Pages (Source: AdAge). Yellow Page publishers slowly began putting their content online as well as in print around this time but search engines were continuing to change the game. 

Google introduced targeted, pay-per-click advertising that was changing the world of advertising. As Larry Page, Google’s Co-Founder and CEO described the new product,  “AdWords offers the most technologically advanced features available, enabling any advertiser to quickly design a flexible program that best fits its online marketing goals and budget.”

“Yellow Page usage among people, say, below 50, will drop to near zero over the next five years.”

• Bill Gates, said in 2007 (Source: Seattle Times)

Over the years, consumers turned more and more to internet searches. By 2014, more than half of the United States had replaced their phone books with online searches (Source: comScore). Marketers turned to internet advertising because of the returns and flexibility it offered while Yellow Pages has a 1 out of 5 rating in overall satisfaction (Source: Rhino Digital). 

The yellow pages already had the relationships with the advertisers, the reputation and loyal subscribers. They could have been unstoppable in transforming to a business search engine. However, they were slow to take advantage of the tectonic shift occurring and because of that they’ve practically been buried by search engine startups. Google took full advantage of this shift and has experienced massive growth thanks to it. In 2019 Google had $29.9 billion in just ad revenue while the yellow pages announced their last printing of their physical phonebook (Source: Owler). 

The Tectonic Shift from Desktop and Dumb Phones to Smartphones 

Thanks to the immense capabilities of smartphones, we are able to do almost anything on them. Mobile has become the most popular platform for gaming, social networking, and now shopping, with about four out of five Americans making purchases on their mobile devices (Source: Pew Research Center). In fact, 52% of global website traffic comes from mobile devices (Source: GS Stat Counter). 

The tectonic shift from dumbphones and desktop computers to smartphones became very apparent to me when I was sending my oldest daughter to college. I offered to buy her a laptop and her response to me was that she didn’t need one. She believed she could do everything she needed from her smartphone. Although she eventually agreed to the laptop, it amazed me to realize how much people are shifting away from desktop computers and even laptops.

The invention of mobile apps has led to the creation of many startup companies that are able to surpass their larger internet rivals thanks to the ease-of-use smartphones offer. Let’s take a look at how Uber was able to break up the near monopoly taxis held for decades. 

Taxis had been a necessary headache in the world of travel for a long time. The first problem of taxis was getting one. Hailing a taxi from the side of the road during busy traffic required riders to wave their arms and hope that a taxi would come driving by and stop just when they needed it. It was also a problem for taxi drivers who would often waste fuel and money driving around searching for passengers. 

I can remember my own very frustrating experience trying to hail a taxi in London during rush hour to get to one of the most important business meetings of my life. I stood on the corner trying to hail a taxi as literally hundreds of them drove past me. Each minute that passed made me worry more  that I was going to miss my meeting. It took me more than half an hour to get a taxi to stop and take me.  

The solution to this hailing problem was to call and order a cab. However, when you did that, it often took a very long time for the taxi to arrive. There was no guarantee that your cab would actually arrive when you needed it. It may come early, late, or never at all. And of course, as you stood there waiting for your ride, you had no idea if the taxi was just around the corner or in the completely wrong part of town. 

Once you got a taxi, you had to hope that your driver understood where you wanted to go. Airports were easy enough but almost any other location, even major hotels, could cause confusion and have you end up somewhere you never wanted to be. 

And then there’s the cost of the trip, which your driver could change on you at any moment. Regularly in my travels the taxi payment screen would tell me my cost was a certain amount but the driver told me the cost was actually more expensive because of special circumstances or fees. 

And, you never knew if the taxi driver in an unknown city was taking the shortest route, or driving a longer route to increase the mileage fee.

Based on how much difficulty and frustration surrounded using taxis, it’s not surprising that a company like Uber came along to improve things using the tectonic shift of mobile. It’s only surprising just how much of an improvement they were able to create. Uber’s ride-sharing app ultimately erased almost every challenge related to getting a ride. 

“[Uber] is the perfect illustration of how the ubiquity of smartphones enabled clever entrepreneurs to take friction out of a process that, until Uber came along, seemed set in stone.”

- Roger Dooley, Author of Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing 

As you know, with Uber, riders are able to secure a ride almost always exactly when they need it, put their address into the GPS and share it with the driver so there is no confusion about the destination. The driver and rider can see the route and how much the ride will cost them even before the ride starts. Uber is so fast that I have had to stop requesting an Uber from my hotel room, because I usually cannot even walk from my hotel room to the hotel entrance before the Uber arrives. Riders are even able to see how close their driver is to them so they don’t have to stress about why their ride is a few minutes late. 

In 2019, Uber’s annual revenue was $65 billion (Source: Uber) with 110 million monthly active users (source: Wikipedia).

Taxis had been the industry leader for so many years. Buying a taxi medallion was one of the surest investments someone could make. As the New York Times reported, “Taxi ownership once seemed a guaranteed route to financial security, something that was more tangible and reliable than the stock market since people hailed cabs in good times and bad (Source: New York Times). However, by April 2020, 94% of taxi trips in New York City were from ride sharing companies, with Uber accounting for 67% of all those trips. In Chicago, traditional taxis have seen trip numbers drop 96% from April 2019 to April 2020.

The taxi industry had the resources it needed to create an app and make the other necessary changes to take advantage of this tectonic shift. But because they did not effectively adapt to the shift, along with other consumer needs, Uber has achieved dominance in their industry.

Key Takeaways 

Here are some of the key takeaways that stood out to me from today’s episode:

1. We need to quickly and effectively identify, leverage, and protect our businesses from the tectonic shifts that are constantly happening.
   
   
2. Just because our business is a powerful industry leader does not mean that a tectonic shift cannot disrupt our business. It will happen. Count on it.
   
   
3. Don’t underestimate the upstart business in our industry that is successfully leveraging the tectonic shift. Find a way to acquire or work with them, or leverage the same tectonic shift before they leapfrog us.

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer? Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow the following channels to receive free digital monetization content:

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

What business tectonic shifts have you seen? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.