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zephan blaxberg interview

Zephan Blaxberg: Re-Scripting Your Life Through a Year of Purpose (AoL 028)

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They say that your life can change by simply meeting one person. That new person can connect you to world that you only dreamed of living in. For some people, it might be landing that awesome job at a Fortune 500 company. For others, it might be finding a coach that will push them to excel and do more in life. Yet for others, it might just be that first client that will not only be a future raving fan but might actually be a mentor for years to come.

I think about that last one quite a bit. Not necessarily because I’m looking to find a mentor. No, I have my own.

Actually, I think about it because I want to help others succeed. So much has been given to me that I want to pass that power on to others.

This session’s guest, Zeph Blaxberg, knows all about this feeling. He, too, had a mentor that broke him out of mental jail. Working at an Apple Store as a fan of Apple’s… sure, that might sound like a great opportunity. However, when approached by his first client, he was quickly transformed to someone that was unemployable.

Like me, he wants to give back to others. He wants to help people break free of their every day lifestyle and live the life they could only dream of. He does this through multiple platforms including, but limited to, his podcast, a book, and an inner city social program that he helps with regularly.

Recently he was a guest on Pat Flynn’s podcast as someone that is indeed going places. So much so, that he inspired Pat to place an image of him on one of his keynote speeches.

In this chat between Laila, JC, and Zeph, we learn about his experience being featured on Pat’s podcast, his book and where the idea of it came from, his thoughts on the “fad of entrepreneurship”, and the success he had after hiring a business coach.

If you ever have felt that you want and deserve a better life, maybe you just haven’t met that one person – or people – yet. We hope our chat today can help you re-script your life.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Where his unusual name comes from.
  • What his high school experience was like and how he received double credit for it.
  • What the SPI podcast meant to Zephan when he first heard it.
  • What he’s realized about Pat after meeting him in person.
  • What it was like to have an impact on Pat.
  • When he felt like he had “arrived”.
  • When he hired his business coach and what that did for him and his success.
  • What his current work is focused on.
  • When he knew it was time for him to write a book.
  • How the launch for the book went and what he learned from the whole experience.
  • What Zephan believes makes his podcast successful.
  • The secret to getting busy guests on your podcast.
  • Why he does the podcast the way he does.
  • His thoughts on the “fad of entrepreneurship”.
  • …and MUCH more.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Zephan’s Filmography Company: ZMBMedia

Zephan’s Podcast Interview with Tara Magalski:

Pat’s Podcast Interview of Zephan (SPI Session 202)

SPI-202-sharing

Zeph Interviewed by Alex Harris:

BONUS: Zeph’s 2014 presentation on Overcoming Your Fear of Being on Camera

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, and/or Podbean. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

Choosing the Right Business Idea for Your Future Success

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Last week we came up with a way to make a list of decent ideas for a business. However, these are all ideas and while they might be good ideas, they might not be worth our time in pursuing. So how do we really find out if they’re ideas that we want to pursue and actually pilot? We have to dive a little deeper.

1. Is it Something You’re REALLY Passionate About?

Again, I can’t reiterate enough how important this really is. You must have passion about what it is you’re doing. Recently, the Fizzle crew talked about how doing a business you’re passionate in will be what carries you through the tough times.

See, here’s the thing, if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing (meaning you don’t naturally think or do it), even if you do the following 2 steps, it really doesn’t matter in the end because as soon as a problem comes up, then you’re going to have some issues going forward. The simple truth is if you’re passionate about your idea and you really believe that it will work, then your chances of succeeding increase drastically. You’ll put in the extra effort and extra time to make it all work for you if you have the passion behind it. Plus, you’re more likely to create a better product, which will make your customers happy and more likely to buy from you again in the future.

Think of passion as a necessary part of successful long term business.

2. Is it Something that People are REALLY Actively Looking for or Need?

Just like passion needs to be mentioned again, so does this part. Hopefully you’ve done some market research before just to make sure that your idea is worth keeping. Is there an interest in it? Are people going to use it? Even if you have the best intentions, the worst thing that could happen is that you spend a ton of time and resources building something or things that people aren’t going to utilize.

I’ve seen this way too many times in the tech field. A lot of folks will think “Oh, Idea A is good. So is Idea B. If I put them together to Idea C, I’m sure to win!” This isn’t necessary true. Sometimes it’s possible to make something a little more complex than it needs to be… and that little extra complexity can be a problem for folks.

So how do you test that people want something?

  • Ask! – As I mentioned, in the Foundation and via Ryan Levesque, we find that the best way to figure out if a product is going to be utilized is to simply ask. You can ask 10 to 20 people and get an impression of whether or not something is worth pursuing. Remember that if you know a pain so well, that the people you’re asking will think you already have a solution. That’s the point where you make the presale!
  • Are the similar sites and businesses already out there? – If you can’t tell, this is the method I used in deciding to pursue New Inceptions. While Pat is focused on passive income, and Fizzle is focused strictly on online businesses, New Inceptions is focused primarily on those of us who have stumbled into this world of business as a second career path. A resource for those who feel that their inner needs and desires were not being met in the work that they were previously doing.
  • Do some Keyword research – Similar to the one above, you can check the internet to find out if a given topic is already being used. This is achievable by doing some keyword research. There are tools that are available for this. Google has a free one called the Keyword Planner. One that I’ve been using for years is called Market Samurai.
  • Survey Your Already Existing Audience – Perhaps you already have a platform and you’re wanting to offer something new. Instead of asking random people, ask those who have already bought from you once. In fact, those that have already bought from you might realize that your quality is to their standard, so

Remember that when you’re doing this research, it’s not you that’s on trial – it’s the idea. We’d love to believe that all our ideas can make us money, but in reality, it’s up to other people – the market. The best way to see if an idea will sink or not is to find if people will buy in before we ever do the work to do it.

3. Determine Your Scalability

In the passive income world, this is the big question. You don’t want to start a business that the more success you have with it, the more your position consumes you. (However, if you’re a work-a-holic like Gary V, you might actually enjoy that kind of thing.)

Ideally, if you’re in a real passive income setting, the more sales you have, doesn’t necessarily mean you work more. If a million sales suddenly happened one day, would that be a good thing or a bad thing? If you’re pure passive, it’d be an AWESOME thing. It would mean that you wouldn’t have to do ship anything else (as either they get electronic copies or you have another company sending things out) and/or you don’t have to handle accounts payable and receivable – it’s dealt with electronically.

Even if you’re not focused entirely in generating passive income (which, let’s be honest, who isn’t?), you’ll want to think about scalability too. Just in a different perspective. Once you run your idea past a few folks and you know you’d love doing it, think about whether or not you’ll be able to have other people to do it for you. I’m not talking about paying them. Let’s say that’s taken care of. I’m saying, actually have them doing the part you’re doing. Can you train them to do what you do?

If not, then maybe you’re planning on being an artist or musician that makes it so big you that you have orders coming all the time? If so, you’ll want to hire someone to take care of your marketing, office work, and other things you shouldn’t be dealing with. If you’re giving lessons of some sort (say like Roger Love), you might also want to learn how to take care of all the paperwork and marketing that goes into making something like he does successful at his level.

Conclusion:

So, last week, we were collecting ideas that might be part of your overarching theme. This week, we’re inspecting them a little more thoroughly and sorting out the ideas that don’t quite fit. If you follow the above 3 steps, you’re planting some good seeds for a successful business. If you want further help with this subject of choosing a successful business, feel free to take a look at the course in Fizzle called Choosing a Topic by Corbett Barr. Get your first two weeks here free so you can get in without paying a cent.

AoL 027: The Process of Reinventing Yourself and Your Business with Theresa French

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Sometimes, things just don’t work out, in life or in our businesses, the way we expect them to. Whether or not we really wanted to succeed simply does not compute at times. And it’s those times that we find ourselves having to quit the path we were on. Sometimes this can be really hard. Especially since most of us are taught from an early age that we’re not allowed to quit something. (Which, I talked about how to quit without regret in a recent blog post.)

When you do finally quit something, though, whether planned or not, you’ll be starting something again soon. Whether it’s a new job, a new career, or a new business, there’s a process of reinvention.

For me, 2015 was all about reinvention. I had to figure out what I was good at and then I had to choose a business that fit my interests, what I liked to do, and even more importantly, how I wanted to make income.

This session’s guest knows more about reinvention than she probably guessed she would during her college years. While she always had the makings of an entrepreneur, it was only recently that she felt that what she did was truly an extension of her inner self. Sure, she was good at other things, but that didn’t necessarily mean that it was her passion.

Today, Theresa French finds herself loving to work with people in training environments. Helping them be more successful in their work as well as their lives.

In the chat, we specifically talk about where her perseverance comes from, how she got into photography, how she eventually transitioned into speaking and training, and one important thing you need to do before you transition from one job or career to another.

If you have ever felt like you’re lost when building that new business or are simply tired with what you’re doing now, then you can learn a thing or two from what she’s gone through. Reinvention is definitely a process that we all have to go through from time to time.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Where her business ownership inspiration came from.
  • Why she still went to college.
  • How she got into her first business after school.
  • How she was able to take advantage of multiples niches in that business.
  • Why many of us don’t like to see ourselves in pictures and/or videos.
  • What she learned when she had to hang up the keys on her first business.
  • How she eventually started her marketing firm and where FocusWorks Consulting came from.
  • The ONE thing that Theresa wants everyone to take away from this talk.
  • The path to how she got into graphic design.
  • The one important thing you need to do before you transition from one job (or career) to another.
  • How she plans on doing more speaking and training in 2016.
  • …and MUCH more.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Reinvent Yourself (Motivational Video) – a new favorite of mine?

Wesley Goo (Founder of Reinvention International) on Reinvention:

Robert Green shares the key of transforming ourselves and also talks on his own personal transformation.

Dr. Mario Alonso Puig talks about Reinvention

Steve Harvey talks about Chapter 13 of his book Act Like a Success, Think Like a Success (Amazon Link)

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, and/or Podbean. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

girlboss

AoL 026: Crushing Graphic Design like a GirlBoss with Sharlotte Bouniol

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Many entrepreneurs start out as freelancers. They might call themselves consultants, but they’re really freelancers.

The difference, we learned in session 17 with Frank Forte, was that consultants are contracted for a much longer time. Maybe a year plus. Whereas a freelancer works per the project.

Either way, your services are for sale, and you live and die by each individual project.

Needless to say, you better have a natural gift or passion for what you’re going to be helping with. Otherwise you’re going to grow tired of the hustle to do jobs you don’t like doing really quick.

For me, the time that I spent at AMS you could have considered me a consultant. The IRS labeled me a contractor, but I definitely helped build the business… and continue to do so in different ways. Just today I was asked to take a look at something on the back end of the website and see if I could do something about it!

If you’re a freelancer, I’m sure you understand that feeling.

Today’s guest is someone that has a huge passion in what she does. In her past life, she’s been in various marketing positions including a Chief Marketing Officer. Eventually, though, she realized she liked helping Beach Body coaches with their branding. Word got out about her work, enough so that eventually she left the executive position to pursue her interest in branding and marketing.

In this session’s chat with Sharlotte Bouniol, we talk about a number of things including: how she became an intern for the Nielsen company, how she got a job at the #1 State Farm Agency in the US, why she started GirlBoss Graphix, and what inspires her creatively.

If you’re serious about becoming a freelancer, I think you’ll get a lot of inspiration from this chat. In reality it’s all about leveraging who you know so you can get referrals to do more work. Start in a niche, like Sharlotte, then work your way out!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How Sharlotte got into marketing.
  • How she became an intern for the Nielsen Company.
  • Why she sees the world differently after the experience there.
  • How she got a job at the #1 State Farm Agency in the US.
  • The difference between niche marketing and niche product design.
  • Why she finally started GirlBoss Graphix.
  • How she actually gets paid for the work she does.
  • How she was able to say goodbye to her last job and boss.
  • Why she chose to build an online business vs being a “brick and mortar” agency.
  • What inspires her creativity.
  • Why she believes that personal development is important.
  • Where her passion for helping special needs kids came from.
  • …and MUCH more.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

How to be a Freelance Artist (Dos and Dont’s)
In the video, Jazza talks about some of the hard learned lessons he’s had over the years

What Successful Freelancers Wish They’d Known from the the Start
(Just because it’s from the UK doesn’t mean it doesn’t apply EVERYWHERE!)

Is web design more your thing? Here’s John Morris on finding your first client on Upwork, Elance, and oDesk.

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, and/or Podbean. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

udemy

AoL 024: Unlocking the Secrets of Success to Drop Shipping and uDemy with Matt Bernstein

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Online business comes in many forms. In fact, I’ve mentioned that there are 10 archetypes that people can utilize to do online business.

One of the types that I’ve had an interest in, and one that I think has a relatively low entry cost, is the Retail archetype. In session 13, our guests, Dennis and Claudia Haddix, talked about the lifestyle that their eCommerce business provided for them.

But we didn’t really get into how they do things. Heck, I didn’t even know until a few weeks ago when Dennis mentioned that he drop ships in our eCommerce meeting here in Indy.

Interestingly enough, I soon became a member of the Smart Passive Income Community on Facebook and bumped into today’s guest who has taught over 50,000 students on uDemy in various subjects, including drop shipping!

Nice!!

So, we got to talking and eventually, I learned that he was starting his own course platform called Skillhance.

Today’s guest, Matt Bernstein, is a wealth of information when it comes to building various types of businesses. Like Gary Vee, he started with baseball cards, and has worked his way up to where he is today.

In our today’s chat, we talk about how he became an entrepreneur at a young age, how the book 4 Hour Work Week changed his perspective on what and how he sold online, and how he transitioned to uDemy and how he’s managed his success on that platform.

Make sure you listen to today’s session ready to take notes as a lot of tactics will be dropped.

Also, stay tuned to the New Inceptions’ Resource Page in the future as I’ll be linking any of Matt’s courses that I think would add value to you guys.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How he started his first business.
  • Some of the first items he sold on eBay.
  • One the key things he got out of the 4 Hour Work Week.
  • How he got into drop shipping and how it works.
  • Some of the things to avoid when you’re working with sourcing from manufacturers.
  • Why Matt did drop shipping vs using Amazon and, particularly, FBA.
  • How he got banned from eBay.
  • Why he started doing course on uDemy.
  • How to use uDemy as a funnel to your main platform.
  • Types of courses he has on uDemy.
  • A brief overview of he makes a course.
  • How he uses social media platforms, including YouTube, Blab, and Instagram.
  • How to create content for each of those platforms. .
  • …and MUCH more.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Matt’s Course called “How I Made $50,000+ in Profits on Udemy”
Save half off and get it for $9 here!

Matt’s Interview with Dennis Smith:

Shopify Article: How I Imported Gaming Glasses With Alibaba and Made $2,416.51 in 5 Weeks

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, and/or Podbean. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

Social Confidence Mastery

Myke Macapinlac: Helping Shy Guys Succeed in Life via Social Confidence Mastery (AoL 022)

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Being anxious is part of life. And, as we all know, it can be a problem. Ask anyone who’s ever tried to give a speech. Stage fright is definitely a thing. The question is whether you let it control you, or you use it to boost your ability to connect with someone.

Likewise, when we’re dating and meeting new people, anxiety has that ability to get in our heads. What if those people don’t like me? What if I don’t come across as my true self? What if my true self is too weird? What if… what if… what if?

There’s many ways to deal with this anxiety. Many of us learn how to cope with it early in life when making friends. Others, tend to avoid it. Those that tend to avoid it… we say that they’re shy.

Kids (especially teenagers) don’t want to stick out. In their mind, being part of the herd is part of what it is to be popular. If you don’t fit in, then you’re going to be ridiculed for being the odd one out.

When I was growing up, I didn’t fit into any one group. Being the biggest kid in my class AND being a geek, I kinda stuck out. Needless to say, I was picked on quite a bit.

That stuff sticks with you and can have a great affect on who you are later in life. So much so that instead of opening up to the world, you get further into a shell.

Today’s guest, Myke Macapinlac, wants to get guys out of that shell. Being a big kid himself, and not being able to speak English when he first moved to Canada, he was ostracized quite a bit. In fact, he felt it so much that he’d eat his lunch in the bathroom by himself.

Eventually, he felt that life was passing him by and that’s when he started to make a change.

Now he helps other guys make that change.

In today’s talk, I chat with Myke about how he got started, where the idea of the Social Man Project came from, where he gets some of his coaching techniques, and what separates him from other coaches.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How he fell into the coaching arena.
  • When he knew it was time to start his own path.
  • How he landed his first client.
  • How he finds space to do his bootcamps and courses.
  • Where the idea of the Social Man Project (now called Social Confidence Mastery) came from.
  • Where he gets some of his coaching techniques and how those set him apart from other coaches.
  • What are Myke’s 3 cornerstones of his coaching.
  • How to be a Nice Guy without being a pushover.
  • Thoughts on Neil Strauss and his teachings.
  • 4 questions answered on dating issues.
  • …and MUCH more.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

 

Myke on City TV for the Calgary Stampede in 2014

Cam and Myke discuss how you can create Charisma on Game Quitters:

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, and/or Podbean. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

niche marketing

How to Use Niche Products and Marketing In Developing Your Brand and Business

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As creators who are wanting to start a business from our passions and interests, we are told from many marketing experts that choosing a niche audience is how you start a profitable business. They say you have to niche so deep that when you find an avatar – a representation of your perfect audience member – which will consider anything you make for them a must have. An example of an avatar might be a 25-34 year old, married, woman who finds herself stuck in middle management and wants to start making crafts for a living. (That’s an example, not my avatar!)

Basically, from this perspective, you make products for this one avatar. This type of business building is based on having a Niche Product.

The best way to get a niche product is to question anywhere from 5 to 20 of people who fit your avatar, find out what they want, how much they’d want it for, make it, and sell it to them.

Are you familiar with this method? If you’re a Fizzle member, you should be. If you’re a Foundation graduate you definitely should be. Both suggest that this is a relatively foolproof way of selling products.

Essentially, if you go this route, your recommended elevator sentence goes something like this: “We make ______ for _______ so that they can _______.”

I have no question that this model works… and it works well.

However, it seems to me that this might be missing the mark for some folks. If you’re like me, you might want to put your time into something that has a little more meaning for you in it. Something that you have a definite “Why” in doing. And to be honest, if you niche too far down, you might lose that Why. (We’ll talk about what that “Why” actually is in a second.)

To make it easier on themselves, some solopreneurs make their niche fit who they used to be. They make products and platforms for their old selves. Pat Flynn, Tim Ferris, and Lewis Howes are great examples of this. This seems like a straight forward solution. However, if you choose something outside of that, you might grow tired of working with that group. This fear of growing bored or even unwilling to work with a certain industry has given me issues in the past. The deeper I niched down, the further I got away from what I wanted to do. I have so many interests that all relate to each other that I couldn’t stick to one thing.

However, over the weekend, as I was listening to Brendon Burchard’s Thought Leaders Roadmap training and I had a eureka moment. Everything was made clear by a small section he discussed and I want to share it with you guys.

Definition of Niche Marketing

One of the things that Brendon touched on was a piece where he talked about Niche Marketing. He said that it wasn’t actually initially designed as I described niche product building above. I can see how many people use the terms interchangeably and it can become confusing. So let’s clear it up.

Niche Marketing is simply defined as

targeting a product or service to a small portion of a market that is not being readily served by the mainstream product or service marketers.

You might be wondering what the difference is. Well, for one, there’s no mention of an avatar. And, there’s no mention of building a product based on what that avatar wants.

It just simply says that you market based on the niche… not make the product itself based on the niche.

Example of Niche Marketing at Work

Can you think of any companies that use niche marketing? For me, Apple comes to mind. In his TEDx talk, Simon Sinek gives a perfect example of what separates their marketing practices from other companies. He talks about the Why factor being key in why they build what they build.

Let’s look at this elevator sentence: “We’re Apple. Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making sure our products are beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly. We just happen to make computers. Want to buy one?”

Now, let’s look at the first commercial series for the iPhone:

All you have to do with this is recognize that Simon’s message fits perfectly with these ads. Also, realize that it’s one product but multiple niches are messaged to through the various ads:

  • The first ad (after the intro ad) is for people already using an iPod. It shows how the iPhone is like an iPod – but better.
  • The second ad is geared more for a general demographic – maybe a little technology friendly..
  • The third ad is designed for the “on the go” type.
  • The fourth ad is designed for people who only browsed the web on their computers because they don’t like mobile versions of the web.
  • The fifth ad was designed possibly for those who might not know about the current trends in tech.
  • The last ad was for the busy on the go executive who needs things for their business.

You can see the same message being displayed in the next generation of ads. The difference is that they just added video:

And finally, here’s an example of an ad that shows their message for the Macbook Pro.

They didn’t even talk about the computer’s capabilities here! But why should they? They have brand recognition that it’s going to be easy to use because the iPhone was. What they did illustrate is that it was beautifully designed to drop weight down even more. This is part of their Why!

My Big Eureka Moment

The message that I’m getting across here is that there are two ways to market to a niche. We can take the advice of many of the popular marketing experts out there and make a product for a particular niche and get a definite sale. But we’ll be limited to our overall scope of how many people we’ll be able to sell to.

Or…, and here’s the big eureka moment, we can do both. We find out what several markets want, make one solution for all of them, then market it out to all of those markets like Apple has done with its products. (Apple may very well do this already. However, I know that part of what makes them who they are is that they build products that a lot of people don’t even realize they wanted. Most recent example is the Watch.)

I think that’s what Brendon does and that’s why he’s been able to grow so quickly in recent years. 4 Million Facebook likes of this writing. I think he knows what he’s talking about. 🙂

This Week’s Challenge:

Think long and hard about what you want from your future business. Do you want to create quick seller products? Or do you want to become an expert in your field – offering products that are not only meaningful to your brand, have a lasting impression, but also match your Why? If your answer is the second, think about what modality you’d prefer to provide your services in first and also think of a couple of possible complimentary products as well. In other words:

  • Create “high level” niche products and sell them through niche marketing.
  • Make sure that these products fascinate you (and you can talk about for 3+ years)
  • They’re in the modality you LOVE first. (Book, audio, video, or … etc.)
  • There are 3 products per “brand topic”. Then Stop. (Book, audio, and video, then … etc.)

If you’ve already started creating products, I’m curious – did you start with a Why? What kind of products have you sold that match that Why?