Unusually Focused

I should be charging you for this episode. It's a conversation with Danny Twoguns - the creator of the Fitness Nerd Academy - and founder of not one, but TWO, popular gyms in the relatively small town of Erie, PA.

Danny was one of Rabbit Hole's Most Valuable Rabbits. When someone had a question, he was always there to drop serious knowledge.

The main reason I wanted to bring him on the podcast is to discuss what he’s doing with Facebook and Instagram advertising and what's working RIGHT NOW.

Specifically, I ask him what is the single best thing he’s doing right now to turn a cold, social media audience into CUSTOMERS for his and his clients brick and mortar gyms -- and as expected, he DELIVERED.

One of my favorite takeaways from this episode is what i’m now calling the $150/month Facebook Membership. Which isn’t actually real - but it’s a cool way to look at what we both to consider a prerequisite marketing budget.

And we walk step-by-step through a 3-part campaign that both of us use on a regular basis to turn social media followers and lurkers into customers, members or clients

We also talk about a bunch of other cool shit.

Learn more about The Fitness Nerd Academy

And check out the podcast we mentioned in the part where we talked about the single best thing he's doing right now. The Erie Fitness Lifestyle Podcast. (BRILLIANT)

And if you want to learn more about how to do all of this FB & IG Advertising stuff to get clients and help more people - take a look at Magic Pixel Dust.

Here's a brief overview:

7:58 - Danny discusses his fitness businesses (2 gyms in Erie, PA) and his marketing business. (advertising & marketing agency for fit pros)

26:00 - This is the way everybody should approach learning from a mentor.

28:00 - How important is the exchange of money when it comes to helping people?

31:00 - A lot of Yoga Teachers have a hard time with marketing… here’s why.

35:00 - How to increase referrals and familiarize people with your business.

38:00 - If you think your marketing isn’t working, listen to this.

46:00 - Ryan and Danny address the question, “Who should I show advertisements to?”

48:25 - An in-depth, real-life example of an advertisement Danny ran on Facebook/Instagram.

50:25 - Danny shares his experiences with FB/IG Advertising. Here are some things that work/don’t work.

55:00 - One thing you need to know about local advertising

1:08:00 - Is Facebook dying?

1:22:00 - Danny gives actionable tips on how to get the most out of your return on FB & IG Advertising

1:33:00 - How much content should you consume vs how much to produce?

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This episode is a conversation with my friend Nelson Cuadras - from The Daily Practice podcast.

I met Nelson through the #randomtalkingvideo community - just as I've met hundreds or thousands of other cool ass people. But Nelson's got some special kind of thing - because not all of those thousands of people have me wondering "hmm I wonder what's up with this dude/chick?"

I think it's a combination of these things:

1. I compare myself to him on social media because we have similarly sized audiences and many of the same thought-leader friends
2. He's got an unfairly good voice for podcasting.
3. He seemed to be dealing with similar mental health issues as me
4. He has cool people commenting on his stuff
5. He has cool guests on his podcast.
6. He seemed/s like a genuinely good dude.

He does a lot of cool handstands and stuff with his body - but honestly, I don't even care about that. The only reason it's cool to me at all is that he's shown his audience (me) a more interesting side of his personality through talking videos and his pocast.

In this episode, Nelson and I talk about how to use social media differently in order to build confidence, pull yourself out of your "funks," get excited about your stuff again, and all kinds of other cool shit.

We talk about how we've both used unedited talking videos and guerilla podcasting to get over our s***.

And a whole bunch of other stuff.

And at the end, at the risk of him being worried about some of his podcasts feeling slighted - I asked him to share the Best 3 Little Tidbits he got from the whole lot of geniuses he's had on as guests.

Basically "give me the Top 3 Greatest Hits of All Time - none of this fluffy stuff."

One of them that I thought was particularly interesting was Devin Kelley's idea about the prerequisite for meditation.

It was a fun conversation. Hope you like it.

Before our conversation begins, Kassidy Crawford (Director of Marketing & Shenanigans at Unusually Focused) and I give you a few quick tips to break the stranglehold social media has over you. (testing a new segment concept)

Check out Nelson on Instagram at @nelsoncuadras
And his website (including The Daily Practice podcast) is at nelsoncuadras.com


(this is the first time we used an editor. I've been doing it myself. Not quite sure what I think of it - but maybe you can let a brother know?)

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This is the second part of the conversation that began in the previous episode: Trigger Warning: Yoga is Dead & White Women Killed It (Part 1) - so if you haven't listened to that one yet, do that first.

"Yoga is Dead is a revolutionary podcast that explores power, privilege, fair pay, harassment, race, cultural appropriation and capitalism in the yoga and wellness worlds. Join Indian-American hosts Tejal + Jesal as they exposes all the monsters lurking under the yoga mat."

We talk about a few hot button issues like cultural appropriation, intent vs impact and a lot of stuff regarding race.

And we get into specific action steps you can take to be better, do better, and make more money.

Before I published it, I asked a few people, both white and not-white women, about what they thought of this conversation — and they made no qualms about telling me that I could have pushed back harder on a few of the points.

I suppose that might be true — but I didn’t do this to be combative or anything… 

The main issue I wanted to raise was surrounding how much responsibility a business owner has to be more inclusive when the primary goal of any business is profit. Because without that, the conversation is moot because the business won’t exist.

I had my own issues in yoga classes and we discuss what led me to be jaded enough to start attacking a few years ago.

At the time of this recording, they had something like 6,000 downloads of their first episode in the first week… which is definitely Top 1% of 1% for new podcasts…

So it seems they’re onto something here.

And you can find their podcast at yogaisdeadpodcast.com, and apple, and google and all that stuff.

And go follow them on Instagram at @yogaisdeadpodcast.

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There aren't a lot of things I love more than pissing off yoga teachers - especially the soft ones - which tend to be white women. It's just too way too easy.

unusuallyfocused.com/s2e2

And I can't think of many betters ways than talking to the creators of a new podcast called Yoga is Dead, Jesal Parikh and Tejal Patel, about their first episode: "White Women Killed Yoga."

"Yoga is Dead is a revolutionary podcast that explores power, privilege, fair pay, harassment, race, cultural appropriation and capitalism in the yoga and wellness worlds. Join Indian-American hosts Tejal + Jesal as they exposes all the monsters lurking under the yoga mat."

It's one conversation broken into 2 podcast episodes for digestibility. Both are available right now.

We talk about a few hot button issues like cultural appropriation, intent vs impact and a lot of stuff regarding race.

And we get into specific action steps you can take to be better, do better, and make more money.

Before I published it, I asked a few people, both white and not-white women, about what they thought of this conversation — and they made no qualms about telling me that I could have pushed back harder on a few of the points.

I suppose that might be true — but I didn’t do this to be combative or anything… 

The main issue I wanted to raise was surrounding how much responsibility a business owner has to be more inclusive when the primary goal of any business is profit. Because without that, the conversation is moot because the business won’t exist.

I had my own issues in yoga classes and we discuss what led me to be jaded enough to start attacking a few years ago.

At the time of this recording, they had something like 6,000 downloads of their first episode in the first week… which is definitely Top 1% of 1% for new podcasts…

So it seems they’re onto something here.

So check this episode out… then it continues in Part 2.

And you can find their podcast at yogaisdeadpodcast.com, and apple, and google and all that stuff.

And go follow them on Instagram at @yogaisdeadpodcast.

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A couple of months ago, I got a text message from Kass that said "check out  trollcakes.com. I am officially a fangirl."

I clicked. And immediately, I thought "HO-LEE SHIT. WHO IS THIS AND WHY IS SHE SO MUCH SMARTER AND BETTER THAN ME?"

Then I Googled her and found her main website with an absolutely hilarious portfolio of projects she's worked on.

Cat Hair Pills, Wax Strip Fortune Teller, Lululemon or Chairman Mao -- the list goes on and on.

Which only made me feel worse.

Ok not really. But I knew right away I had to get her on the Podcast.

Her bio says "I like to advertise real and fake things. I own a fog machine."

Her stuff has been featured on fucking EVERYTHING - including but not limited to:

NPR, Playboy, CNN, Inc., Boing Boing, Buzzfeed, ABC, Upworthy, Design You Trust, Mashable, Grub Street, Pix11, Food&Wine, AV Club

Her approach is entirely unconventional and she has a really sharp marketing mind.

We talk about a bunch of cool shit:

• How she uses low-cost Loss Leaders to build a body of work that is magnetically attractive to the right types of business partners and clients…
  
  
• And how to get over your paralysis by just selling something.
  
  
• We talk about Creating opportunities and building a reputation by executing on projects that make you happy… even if they don’t make money.
  
  
• How she met her goal of $80,000 and beyond on Kickstarter to fund a brilliant card game called Side Effects.
  
  
• And a lot more.

Here's the official Episode 22 page at UnusuallyFocused.com

Here's her stuff. Buy everything. Especially Side Effects.

Troll Cakes: Bakery & Detective Agency

KatThek.com: Check her portfolio for the projects we talked about in this episode. And a whole bunch more.

Side Effects by Pillbox Games

@kat_thek on Instagram

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And as always, if you're interested in finally taking action on your ideas - you should take a look at MoneyMoves. It's our premium training on how much to build an audience and sell your stuff with social media.

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The most expensive book I own is called "Breakthrough Advertising" by a marketing legend named Eugene Schwartz.

It's a regular hardcover book. Not an overblown 'info product.' And I've seen it running anywhere between $500 and $1000 - which is a feat in and of itself.

It's full of down-n-dirty marketing brilliance.

But there's one concept that I have never been able to forget. It colors everything I do.

It's called the '5 Stages of Customer Awareness.'

It's absolutely critical to understand this if you want to get results with your marketing.

A few key takeaways in this episode:

• The single best way to build influence over someone
• How to tailor your posts to speak to the right people at the right time.
• One of the biggest mistakes I see people making with their social media marketing efforts (ESPECIALLY those promoting "local" businesses.)
• And a bunch more.

Mentioned in this episode:

MoneyMoves: How to make shit happen with social media

Magic Pixel Dust: 5 Marketing Magic Spells

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This episode is totally different.

It’s not even a ‘podcast,’ per se.

It’s more like the result of me experimenting and practicing my skills in sound design.

An immersive auditory concentration training exercise. 😏

Kinda like a meditation training for people who “can’t meditate.”

Or if you have a meditation practice and you’re having a hard time connecting with your breath or your preferred object of focus - this is a great technique to ‘drop in.’

You can even use it when you just need to chill the fuck out.

No hippie shit.

After the first few minutes of “podcast” intro and explanation - the immersion begins.

The idea is simple:

Focus ALL OF YOUR ATTENTION on sound. Hear EVERY-THING. And EVERY-WHERE.

Which means your goal is to notice when your mind is wandering and you’re NOT paying attention to sound.

Use headphones.

And definitely let me know what you think.

—

And you might be interested in this video too:

5 Marketing Magic Spells.

Here’s what Joanne said:

@bendyogadundas "I cannot believe how well done this video is - but also over my head. WHICH IS A GOOD THING!

It means I need this training and you showed me WHY! That should be the ad: if you watched this video and thought I need to take this training to learn all of this - I will also show you how to plan a video like this so that people will realize they need your stuff as well.

Here is the biggest difference that I see between you and other people trying to market to yoga teachers for marketing - you are clear, concise and your content helps. I am in shock by how incredibly USEFUL this is."

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"He's self-help packaged in a systematic approach to marketing with authenticity. You can't be authentic until you know yourself, and you can't truly deploy Ryan's strategies of marketing without truly getting to know yourself, your message, and ultimately what your purpose in life is.

He helped me get over my crap by realizing my purpose transcends all my fears and insecurities. My excuses became my reasons to execute, because nothing good ever came out of playing it safe by living in fear, letting things that make you uncomfortable dictate how you live your life." -@marcussmithfitness

The last thing I want to be known as is a "self-help" guy. But I definitely DO NOT MIND people feeling the self-improvement benefits that are packaged inside of the Unusually Focused marketing principles, methods, products, and events.

Which you can learn more about at unusuallyfocused.com

In this episode, I talk about how #randomtalkingvideo is the single best tool I've found for using social media for self-invention.

And the final 10 minutes is a breakdown of the Inspire the Fuck Out of People Challenge.

Here are a couple of things you might dig:

👉🏼 5 Marketing Magic Spells (free)

👉🏼 How to Get More Comments on Your Posts (free)


And here's the review in full: @marcussmithfitness.

This is self-discovery packaged in authentic marketing
★★★★★ in Apple Podcasts by @MarcusSmithFitness

I'm finding it hard to formulate the words to express just how my life has changed since coming into contact with Ryan and the message he brings, so I'll start off with the first thing that always comes to mind when I think of him, then I'll just rant from there:

Ryan is one of the greatest teachers I've ever had the opportunity to learn from. I feel that ultimately, a teacher should help you see and understand yourself at the deepest level. The ideas I've learned from Ryan have brought me to a place of self-awareness and gratitude that I never knew was possible.

"He's self-help packaged in a systematic approach to marketing with authenticity. You can't be authentic until you know yourself, and you can't truly deploy Ryan's strategies of marketing without truly getting to know yourself, your message, and ultimately what your purpose in life is.

He helped me get over my crap by realizing my purpose transcends all my fears and insecurities. My excuses became my reasons to execute, because nothing good ever came out of playing it safe by living in fear, letting things that make you uncomfortable dictate how you live your life."

And he cares, I mean like really. He's reached out to me personally just to check-in, and I'm not even one of his private clients, I've just bought a couple of his marketing courses.

Ultimately, I love listening to Ryan because he's a man that thinks, and takes his craft seriously. I think it's very important to find people with the best ideas and to drown yourself in their message, you'll capture so many gems in the process.

- Marcus 

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This is a 10minute clip from an episode of The Body Awake podcast. It’s called “Connection, Audience and Being Real on Social Media.” (episode 47)

We talk about the ethics surrounding the use of “FOMO” as a marketing tactic.

I posit that FOMO is an unavoidable emergent property. Not a marketing tactic.

Practicing Ethical FOMO means you’re not a dick, you make cool shit, and people don’t wanna miss out.

TL;DL: I woke up like this. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I can’t help if people don’t wanna miss out.

And as we talk about in the clip, I can’t imagine why your goal is not to be so good that people don’t want to miss out too.

Check out the full episode at The Body Awake.
“Connection, Audience and Being Real on Social Media.” (episode 47)

You can also just search The Body Awake wherever you’re listening to this. C’mon bruh.

🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻
And here’s his Show Notes:

“I started following Ryan's page on Instagram. I was nearly immediately put on edge by some of his posts. He, at least a lot at that time, was playing a bit of a villain, challenging me and anyone else reading to put ourselves out there in a way I'd been, and to a large extent still am, uncomfortable with.

I was intrigued and, upon diving a bit deeper into what he was offering, have really been enjoying a community movement that’s about being generous with your work, and showing up, and not hiding.

This episode may strike a chord with anyone making a living in the body-related work world, but is ultimately about communication, and so may be for all of us. It’s about how we talk to ourselves and others alike. It's a challenge to find the passion in the work you're already doing.

(There's a line about midway that's been rattling around in my heart ever since, something about "if you're not excited about what you're posting, you're not posting the right stuff" ... which sounds a bit hokey now that I put it out of context, but didn't feel hokey then and, hopefully, doesn't to you when you listen.)
🔺🔺🔺🔺🔺🔺

And if you like this sort of thing, you might dig this series of articles I just published at Unusually Focused. They’re about how to create more rich, dynamic, and engaging conversations on your posts.

unusuallyFocused.com/howToGetMoreComments

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Comment sections have the potential to be the single-most powerful sales & influence device you have.

In fact, I just posted a scintillating series of articles on unusuallyfocused.com about how to create more rich, dynamic, and engaging conversations on your posts.

For it is in the conversations you create (and participate in) that relationships are built and you earn favor with The Algorithm.

It’s where your “brand” is developed, influence is built, and money is made.

That’s what people come back to see. They don’t come back to re-read your post or re-watch your video.

They come back to the conversation in the comments - whether they’re a participant or a “lurker.”

So in this episode, I give you just a simple way to help improve your comments sections so you create more meaningful conversations.

And check out the series of articles here.

• A Terrifying Look Behind the Glass & Inside your Mind
• Engagement 2.0 and the Truth about “influencer” marketing
• Ghost Followers & The Upside Down
• How to Build Trust & Authority with Social Media Comments

They’re all free to read.

And on the second article, if you get there before the spots are taken - you can register for a free social media audit.

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