Thinking Out Loud with Dean Jackson

Good morning.

It's a cloudy morning. Looks like it's been raining.

Somebody asked in the comments... do you ever write negative things in your journal?

Great question. Because I do.

And I've got some very specific ways I use writing when things are on my mind.

Disappointments. Troubles. Negative emotions. Whatever's getting in my head.

Most of the time I use my journal to have conversations with myself.

That's something I was doing a lot back in 1997, figuring out my way and where I was headed.

I'd walk through a decision and play both sides of it. I still do that a lot.

Asking myself questions about a specific situation is a very helpful thing.

But there are some things I don't want in my journal.

A conflict with another person. A situation that's really gotten under my skin.

For those, I do something I call tea therapy.

Here's how it works.

I go to a cafe and get a cup of hot tea. I take some loose sheets of paper... printer paper, or a yellow pad.

Then I write a letter in super small print, and I get everything out of my mind.

If I need to have a difficult conversation with someone, I have it right there on the page. Or I write the letter that unloads what I really want to say.

It's cathartic. There's something about saying the things you'd normally hold back and getting it all out on the page.

I spend 50 minutes, maximum.

At the end of the 50 minutes, I tear the pages into little pieces.

There's usually a little tea left at the bottom of the cup. I put the pieces in, stir them up... and let them go.

When I throw out the cup, it's gone.

That's the symbolic ending to that particular issue. And it's very reliable.

I don't do it that often. I have a pretty happy life, and I stay away from conflict and from people who bring me down.

But there are still times when you're in something that needs thinking through.

And this is a very helpful way to do it.

If you've got something on your mind, give it 50 minutes and a cup of tea.

Then let it go.

Show notes: https://deanjackson.com/podcasts/tol/127-how-i-use-my-journal-when-things-are-on-my-mind/

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Good morning.

Day 110 without rain, and today it rained. So I'm in the car.

I want to talk about the thing that's been the biggest key to every ad, postcard and letter that's worked for me.

The headline.

I was looking through journal number seven, from 1997, and I found something I learned back then that I still use every day.

It came from a great book called Great Print Advertising, by Tony Antin. He ran creative at Reader's Digest, and they blended an editorial approach into their advertising that made everything crystal clear.

The first thing... the best headlines meet people where they are.

I'm not trying to impose my will on anybody. I'm trying to get the attention of the right person.

One of the most reliable ways I know is a headline that starts with "if you."

We've run this one for over 30 years: "If you plan on selling your house in the next 6 to 12 months, what you do right now can make a difference of thousands of dollars."

A realtor client asked a lady what caught her attention. She didn't even hesitate. "I'm selling my house next year, and I saw there were things I should be doing now."

That's it. It called out exactly the right person.

Same chassis. "If you're looking for an amazing lakefront house in Winter Haven, read this."

There's something about "if" and then "read this" that's magnetic.

And sometimes meeting people where they are means letting them sit in their uncertainty.

When mortgage rates kept dropping, everybody was shouting "refinance now." Even Dave Ramsey went on a rant about it.

But most people didn't know what their rate was, or whether lowering it would make a difference.

So for Churchill Mortgage we wrote "How to know when it makes sense to refinance."

We're not telling you to do it. We're telling you there's a time... and you'll want to know when it is.

The second thing is about the space around the headline.

Tony said to make the headline as big as you think it comfortably should be... and then make it 15% larger.

I tried it, and it pops. It's like your pupils dilate a little.

That's been a signature for us ever since.

The third thing is visual cues that support the benefit.

Think of David Ogilvy's Rolls-Royce ad. Half the page is the car.

If you're selling a lakefront home, don't show a picture of a house on a lake. Show the view from the house to the lake.

That's what they want.

And if you're offering a book, show the book. Our best Facebook ads have been the headline, a picture of the book, and the word download.

Put it all together and you've got a headline people can't resist, because you're speaking to exactly your ideal prospect.

The more specific you get, the more responsive they'll be.

You can't broaden your way into a magnetic headline.

Show notes: https://deanjackson.com/podcasts/tol/126-how-to-write-the-headlines-real-prospects-cant-resist/

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Good morning.

We're leaving breakfast, heading to the cafe, and I want to talk about the practicalities of journaling.

I get a lot of questions about it. How do you actually do it? How do you get started?

The number one thing... decide that you're a journaler.

I made that decision in April of 1996.

I'd always written things down. Thinking on paper, notebooks, goals and affirmations going all the way back to tennis.

But I'd never kept any of it.

It was Joe Stumpf who showed me journaling as something worth archiving. So I followed his lead and bought an archival accounting record. Blue lines, one page, no columns.

That was my journal for the first 10 years.

Just deciding it was worth keeping made it feel different.

So that's decision one. Turn pro, and keep it.

Then get a journal you're happy with.

After the accounting books I had a whole Moleskine phase. About 10 years ago I switched to the pocket-size hardcover, and for me that's the perfect balance. I can write in a comfy chair, in the car, anywhere.

Then get into the routine.

I'll often take 20 or 30 minutes before a focused work session to free write in my journal.

Start with lists. Ask yourself questions.

I used to do what I called five by fives. Five questions, five answers each. What are five things that would make my life better right now? What are five things I want to do in the next 90 days?

Sometimes one question is enough. Dan Sullivan kept a daily journal for 25 years, and he'd just ask... what do I want?

When you write it down you see it, and you hear it in your mind as you read it back. It's a reinforcement loop. It tells you this matters.

Looking back through 30 years, the early journals have pages and pages of affirmations.

It's amazing how many came true. I wrote that I drive a Midnight Blue Porsche 911... and I do.

If anything, I undersold myself.

What you write about, you think about. What you think about, you talk about. And what you talk about, you bring about.

Everything happens first in the mind, second on paper, and third in the real world.

Journaling has changed my life, and I'd love to see what it does for you over the next 30 years.

But you can't journal every day for 30 years if you don't journal today.

Show notes: https://deanjackson.com/podcasts/tol/125-how-to-start-a-journal-and-watch-it-change-your-life/

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Good morning.

One of the easiest ways to multiply your business is to multiply every transaction.

Every time you make a sale... that is not the end.

Back in 1997 I was writing out the whole sequence. Picking who you want to work with, getting them to raise their hand, educating and motivating them, making an offer, doing business.

Most businesses stop right there. They sold the car, sold the house, cleaned the carpets... on to the next one.

That's a missed opportunity.

Stretch the transaction to include the 30, 60, 90 days after what you'd call the conclusion.

It starts with intention. You're becoming a transaction multiplier, not a get it done and get on to the next one kind of business.

And here's the elegant part. That's naturally when people talk about it most.

Somebody buys a house and for the next 90 days that's all they talk about. "You've got to come see the house."

Same with a new car, a new club, a new restaurant, a new book.

It's like a jet stream. The attention is already moving. You just need to channel it into more business.

We call one version of this the listing next door. A sold sign often begets a for sale sign.

I watched it happen on my own street. One neighbor sold, and a couple of weeks later another one listed.

Maybe they didn't want to step on toes. Maybe the price surprised everybody. Either way, now it's their turn.

Then make a game of it. If you have a game, you need a score. If you have a score, you need a metric.

Not just "will I multiply this transaction?" but "how many times can I multiply it?"

Think about mosquito control.

Before the treatment, nobody can sit by the pool or have dinner on the patio.

After it, they have a mosquito-free backyard. That's remarkable. They'll brag about it to their inner circle.

So hand them a free mosquito treatment to give a friend. That's putting legs on the momentum that was going to happen anyway.

In real estate, as soon as a house goes on the market, we put out an info box flyer so the neighbors can scan a QR code and get every detail. An instant open house.

We send a just listed card to the closest hundred neighbors. "Do you know what your neighbors at 22 Graystone did last night?"

Whatever you do, people are going to talk about it. Let them be the hero who introduces somebody to you.

A restaurant can hand out a $25 gift card. The person who walks out of your treatment room with 85% less foot pain is going to tell everyone who complains about theirs.

So adopt the mindset. I'm going to multiply every transaction I get.

Then ask how you can equip people to make it happen... and watch what happens with your next few transactions.

Show notes: https://deanjackson.com/podcasts/tol/124-how-to-multiply-every-sale-you-make/

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Good morning.

Something came through my algorithm today. A memory of a talk I gave at Joe Polish's Genius Network annual event in New York, probably 13 years ago.

And the timing is perfect.

A few days ago we were talking about irresistible offers... making your offer so good that people would feel crazy not taking you up on it.

You saw the genesis of it in my reading of My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins.

This talk is the perfect summary of all of it. So here it is.

It comes down to one question.

What would you do if you only got paid when your client gets a result?

I call it a clarifying question. The first time you ask it, it's more of a terrifying question.

But here's the good news...

If you only get paid for results, you have to deliver less than you'd have to promise.

Here's how it works with our real estate websites.

We give agents the website. I buy the domain name. I take them through a 90-day training program.

No money out of pocket. No credit card up front.

And if they've done a transaction at the end, they pay $1,500 and then $99 a month.

There's no friction in getting people to say yes to that.

When I have to convince people to pay in advance, I have to parade the results of everyone who came before them.

When I only get paid on results, I just have to help them get one.

I did the math. Delivering the result costs about a quarter of what it costs to acquire a customer.

And people are far less attached to future money than they are to present money.

Imagine a coaching program where on the 1st of the month we deposit $2,000 into your bank account... and on the 2nd we take $1,000 from your card.

Who would ever leave that?

A compelling offer is 10 times more powerful than a convincing argument.

Your prospects are like mice. You don't have to convince a mouse to go get the cheese.

So what would you do if you only got paid when your client gets a result?

Ask it seriously... and see what it changes.

Show notes: https://deanjackson.com/podcasts/tol/123-the-mindset-behind-irresistible-offers/

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Good morning.

A couple of days ago I talked about how to get anything started and done.

One of the tools I use is having a framework. A checklist or a formula for doing things.

Because when you're creating marketing materials, whether it's a brochure, an ad, an email campaign or a funnel... we tend to think about the whole thing.

Not the steps that make it manageable.

"Work on the sales letter" gives you nothing to latch onto. It can even be a way of avoiding it.

In November 1997 I was introduced to a book called A Millionaire's Notebook, by Steve Scott.

Steve was one of the pioneers of infomercial marketing. Billions of dollars of products sold.

And in a couple of chapters he shows exactly how he writes the scripts.

So I adapted that into the procedure I use to start every new project.

It starts with questions.

Who is my ideal customer?

Not "homeowners." That's the forest. Get down to the individual trees.

Let's say you want listings in Winter Haven real estate. It could be condos, lakefront homes, acreage, horse farms...

When you list them out, some jump out at you. Especially the highest value prospects.

That's why you hear me talk about lakefront so much.

Then... what problem or need does this solve?

It's just as valuable to think about who's NOT likely to be your customer.

Then, what's every excuse for not taking any action at all?

Call it the enemy. The reason somebody does nothing.

Then, what's every excuse for not buying from me? Maybe their best friend is a realtor.

And what are the other possible solutions? What will people do instead of me?

Steve Scott would list every possible question and objection... and answer each one.

An infomercial is really just a VSL. A delivery device.

And the one I learned the most from... what images could I build emotional word pictures from?

We have an ad for lakefront homes in Winter Haven, and the picture isn't the house.

It's the view from the dock at sunset. Two Adirondack chairs looking out over the lake.

That's what people really want.

Nobody dreams of looking up at a high-rise condo. They want to be inside it, looking out over the city.

All of this becomes an idea palette you draw from for every headline, offer and email.

It's like stepping onto a moving sidewalk.

So before you write the next ad... ask the questions first.

Show notes: https://deanjackson.com/podcasts/tol/122-how-i-start-every-ad-letter-postcard-or-marketing-piece/

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Good morning.

This might be the shortest video I do.

About the length of the drive from Honeycomb to Concord for coffee.

But I want you to do something today.

Right now is a great time to get people who are thinking about doing something... into action.

It's October. The end of the year is on everybody's mind.

So here's the email.

A nine word email, with a deadline that's already in their head.

"Were you hoping to get your deck done before the end of the year?"

"Were you hoping to get your beach condo before the end of the year?"

"Would you like to get your fence built before the holidays?"

"Would you like to get your carpets cleaned before the holidays?"

People have things they'd like to get done.

What they're missing is the prompt.

Put a deadline in front of them that they already care about, and it spurs them into action.

We did this with an HVAC company in the UK.

Right now it's the transition into winter, and over there they have boilers instead of AC units.

So the email was, "Would you like to get your boiler sorted by winter?"

That's an amazing thing.

And it's repeatable.

Every fall, every new year, every spring, every summer, before every holiday.

Just look for the transitional times in your business.

So think about how this applies to you... send it today... and let me know what happens.

Let's see if we can get you some business before the end of the day.

Show notes: https://deanjackson.com/podcasts/tol/121-send-this-email-today-and-let-me-know-what-happens/

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Good morning.

We're back in the journals. Journal number seven, late fall of 1997.

And I noticed something on these pages.

I was building a process for getting things started... and getting them done.

I didn't know it then, but that was my ADHD. I always had the inkling I was different. Why do I struggle so much with things?

But I'm very thoughtful. I love to think things through. That's why I'm a journaler.

So I started working out a process that works for me.

Seven checkpoints.

The first is a commitment to getting started on time.

So much of the struggle is "where do I start?"

For me, setting up the environment and setting the time aside is the first step.

I just saw a video with Jerry Seinfeld. When he figured out that everything was about the writing, he committed to two hours a day.

He doesn't have to write. But he can't do anything else.

For me, that's 10am. I'm in position.

The second is deciding what I'm going to focus on in that time.

Being there and prepared means all I have left to do is decide.

The third is dispatching whatever you can.

Dan Sullivan's first question is, "Is there any way I can get this done without doing anything?"

If not, what's the least I need to do? And is there a who that can do my least?

The fourth is focusing my attention.

Eliminating distractions. Putting myself somewhere I have the best chance of working on what I decided, for the time I set aside.

That was the beginning of what became my 50-Minute Focus Finder.

The fifth is having a method.

If you're going to do something again and again, have a procedure for it.

When I write a sales letter, an email, a postcard or an ad, I've got formulas and frameworks. I break it into its components and work on them one at a time.

The sixth is speed of implementation.

With ADHD, what drives us is novelty and urgency. That's why we wait till the last minute.

But you can bring that urgency to the beginning of a project, even if it isn't real.

I set a timer and try to get something done before the buzzer.

The seventh is knowing when it's enough.

I'm a big fan of the minimum viable product.

Dan Sullivan wrote a great book called The 80% Approach. Most of the time, 80% is good enough... and the extra work for the last 20% isn't worth the squeeze.

These videos follow exactly this process.

They go up every day, so I shoot every day.

The journal prompts what I'm going to talk about.

The only thing I'm responsible for is looking at the camera and talking. The team handles everything else.

We do it in an 8 to 12 minute window. One take, no editing.

Could it be better? Could we script it, add graphics, edit it, punch cut?

Absolutely.

But it's not going to make the boat go faster.

What matters is getting it completed and getting it out into the world.

105 days in a row and counting.

So pick one thing... set the clock... and get it started today.

Show notes: https://deanjackson.com/podcasts/tol/120-how-to-quickly-get-anything-started-and-done/

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Good morning.

This is day 104 of going through my journals.

I've journaled almost every day for over 30 years. And looking back, one theme keeps coming up.

I spent a lot of time trying to maximize my days.

What's my ideal week? How can I get more done?

I didn't know it at the time, but I'm ADHD. We seek novelty and urgency.

What hasn't changed in all those years is that we still get 24 hours a day.

Life moves at the speed of reality. 24 hours a day, 60 minutes an hour... in real time.

So I'm always looking for ways to make things feel like going downstream.

My friend Dan Sullivan has just published a new book called Yesterday Creates Tomorrow.

And looking back over all these journals, I realized it's absolutely true.

Every drop of ink that made it onto one of these pages happened in real time. In the present.

When I read them, I'm not looking back 30 years. I'm right there.

And everything I have now, everything I've accomplished, is the result of the yesterdays I created.

It's simple, but it's profound.

Dan and I have a friend, Lior, who was on a trip with some other parents.

They were all talking about how to prepare their kids for the future.

When it was Lior's turn, he said, "We don't know how to prepare our kids for an uncertain future. So what we're focused on is making sure they have a better past."

That's one thing you can control.

You can make sure that when you wake up tomorrow, yesterday was a great yesterday.

When you really embrace that, you start to sense the urgency of it.

I've been calling it the permanent record.

The things that count are the things that get on the permanent record.

So when you wake up tomorrow and look back at today... what would make you happy that you got done?

Here's the trap.

When we have a future orientation, it feels like we have an abundance of time.

Time to think about the future. Plan for the future. Ruminate on the past.

But none of that goes on the permanent record.

The only time you have to get something on the record is right now. And if you don't, that moment is gone forever.

I told Dan it reminds me of an old game show called Supermarket Sweep.

You got a shopping basket and a couple of minutes to run around the grocery store. Whatever was in your basket when you crossed the line, you got to keep.

Every day is kind of like that.

All these shelves full of things you could put in your basket... on the permanent record.

But when you cross the line at the end of the day, you only keep what actually got in the basket.

The only way I have 104 daily videos out in the world is by having 104 yesterdays that included shooting one.

Now, if you were a contestant, you might plan your route.

Head straight to the steaks. Go for the highest-value things first.

Or you could let the clock run, wander into the snack aisle, and mosey through the store.

It's a whole different approach.

And it's changed how I approach my days.

I look at what I'd really like to put on the permanent record... and build scaffolding around making sure it happens.

These 30 years of journals are the result of creating a better past. Choosing to write every day.

And looking forward, I'll have 30 years of videos on the record too.

So try this.

Before the clock starts, decide what you want in your basket... and see if you get more done today.

Show notes: https://deanjackson.com/podcasts/tol/119-try-this-and-see-if-you-get-more-done-today/

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Good morning.

We're still in My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins. Still in the fall of 1997 in my journals.

And there's so much I've underlined... and re-underlined.

I can trace the genesis of things I do to this day right back to these pages.

Here's the one Claude bases everything on.

Our success depends on pleasing people.

And by an inexpensive test, we can learn if we please them or not.

I've built so much on that idea. Test something in a small way first.

Start with a hundred dollar test.

If it's going to show signs of life, you'll see very quickly whether you've got an appeal on the winning side or the losing side.

That's all I'm looking for in that first test. Winners and losers.

The things that kill you are the middling things. The ones you think maybe you can salvage.

There's no need to send 10,000 postcards to get an answer you could get with a thousand.

And no need to start a Facebook campaign at $1,000 a day when $100 will show you which direction it's going.

Here's another line from Claude.

The man who argues for his own advantage is usually disregarded.

You've heard me talk a lot about gift cards and free trials. Something with real value that isn't attached to somebody doing something for you first.

Half price, or buy one get one... that's you hedging your bets. Covering your costs.

They still have to take a chance on you first.

Sure, a small percentage of people might take advantage of you.

But for the most part, people are very honorable.

One of my guiding thoughts is this.

Sometimes it's less expensive to get a result for somebody than it is to convince them to give you money to get the result.

You hear a lot about tripwire offers. The idea that somebody who'll pay a dollar is a much better prospect than somebody you give something to for free.

I've never found that to be true.

Think about the lifetime value of someone who uses your product or service again and again.

They're only going to do that if they see a distinct advantage in it for themselves.

That means pleasing people.

So if you've got something that pleases people, you owe it to yourself to make sure they experience it first.

You go first.

Give somebody a free facial. They come into your studio, feel the warmth and the care, get an amazing facial...

That's a much easier person to get back than someone who never came in at all.

Same with a mosquito treatment.

Convincing people to pay even half price is less compelling than them standing in a mosquito-free yard.

And the table stakes are a dream come true experience for your clients. That's Profit Activator 5.

Now here's something I've used quite a bit.

Claude says aim to get action.

Your reader is scrolling Facebook. She's paused because your headline attracted her. But in a moment she'll be interested in her reading... and forget you.

That's why I'm such a fan of lead ads on Facebook.

We're not trying to interrupt their day. We're asking for something they can do right now, with one tap.

I love the word download. Never sign up.

Download a gift card. Download a free mosquito treatment.

Their information is already filled in. All they do is confirm.

We're not asking for the ultimate decision. We're turning an invisible prospect into a visible prospect.

And now we've got lots of runway, and an open dialogue with someone who's interested.

I do the same thing with events.

I separate the decision from the logistics.

When I invite people to a Breakthrough Blueprint workshop in Orlando, it's a short email.

Here's what we're doing. Three days in the boardroom, a small group, all eight Profit Activators applied to your business. Here's the date. Here's the cost.

"You don't need to do anything right now. Just let me know you're in and I'll save you a spot."

Replying "I'm in" takes two seconds.

No landing page. No credit card. That's all logistics, and logistics disrupt their day.

Once they've decided, the plane, the room and the payment are all easy on the back of that commitment.

Read Influence by Robert Cialdini alongside this book. That's commitment and consistency. We stay consistent with the commitments we make.

So always look for the easiest action somebody can take.

Test small. Go first. Make yes easy.

My Life in Advertising is one of the top five books you need if you're going to be an accountable advertiser.

Pick it up... and start testing.

Show notes: https://deanjackson.com/podcasts/tol/118-how-to-know-for-sure-if-your-ad-is-a-winner/

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