For the most part, email gives you a lot of control and something you can lean on when other things stop working . So build your list… and nurture your list with great content. 

I spend $7,000-8,000 on ads and I get all of that back almost instantly. As you may know, we’re working towards a spend of $100,000 per month.  So you might have been hearing about the evolution of that funnel and thinking “I want that!”.  Yep, I am sure you do lol.  But here is reality… please listen up as I don’t want to create a false impression.

I’d like to tell you a story about a client and friend.  In just 24 months, he built a business that pulls in $5 million a month.  Yes, two years. Now, there are many reasons for his success. But there’s one in particular that I’d like to focus on. Self-liquidated funnels.

Some of the people on your list are miles away from buying. For those people, do NOT pitch.  For others on your list, they’re waiting to spend money with you… they NEED an offer. So offer them something! But how can you know the difference? Let me show you one of the ways we do it with our book writing service. 

So just keep that in mind… if you’re struggling to convert sales. You either: 1. Need to ramp up your sales skills never a bad idea) 2. Slow down and don’t sell to people too soon - give them time to experience some of your awesomeness over email and social.

Ya see, having great content is important. Sure. In fact, it’s critical.  But what you DO with the content is almost as important.  And of the things this client does with our content is monitor what works. 

If you follow my podcasts or read these emails, you know how I feel about content marketing. t’s best used to support funnels and ads.  But what happens when you invert it and make content the priority? 

By the time they get to the originally assembled batches, the leaves are everywhere again. And I see this happen every Tuesday morning time and again. Because these council workers are not on the hook for the quality or the number of leaves collected, they just keep doing the same thing.

I touched on the concept of The One in my last email. As you recall, I relayed a conversation I had with my successful cousin. Here is what he said to me...

It’s not necessarily about building a company complete with A players... or filled entirely with great people.  Sure, that’s awesome if you can pull it off.  But more important is to find The One - that special person that is a leader and can lift the performance of groups of people. 

I want to delve a little deeper into the subject of funnels and content. More specifically, I want to address the common thought that content alone generates leads. It’s true - content can generate leads. But for most companies it’s a half truth.  Let me explain.

In my last email I talked about batching… and why it’s so important for being productive.  Well, today, I’m going to talk about probably one of the most productive humans alive today.  Mark Zuckerberg.  In an interview with Reid Hoffman (Founder of LinkedIn), Zuck mentioned that he’s always asking himself one question… 

I am super passionate about productivity hacks. And one of those hacks that I’ve found most useful is batching.  It seems I’m not the only one :) Recently, I bumped into an article about Tim Dorsey (Founder of Twitter) about how he manages his business and life:

In “our” case I don’t want the conversion rate any lower than that. I’m happy with about 50% because our content machine can set up the conversations quite nicely.  As you know, given you’re on our Fubbi email list - we’re pretty consistent with the ongoing content emails and podcasts.  And there’s one thing I KNOW by looking at our numbers…

Today I want to touch on how to build for scale.  Now, of course, scale means different things for different people. So it’s a personal definition. But now matter how you interpret “scale”, the first step to building for scale is always the same… Begin with the end in mind.  Visualise what your company looks like at “scale”. Some things to consider:

In my last couple of emails, I’ve talked about how I maximise my energy and productivity each day. Once the day starts, I’m usually working in sprints. So, I try to work to 50-minute sprints and then take a 10-minute break. But I don’t do that every single time.  Like I have mentioned in my prior emails, I can be undisciplined too!

One of the first things I do is a quick check of email. I know you’re not supposed to do this, but I don’t get many emails in the first place - probably 10 overnight, mostly marketing emails. That’s because most communication from my team comes over on Slack... so I don’t have to worry about getting derailed.  After that, it’s time to start my morning.

Many times over the years, I’ve had business partners, clients, friends, and even family comment on my levels of productivity. Now, that’s not ego. That’s a fact. 

Bottom line: story is the most potent and hypnotic communication framework you can ever deploy! I take the subject so seriously that almost every single communique I create is story based. When I’m not using a story it’s only because I couldn’t find a great story for a specific situation.  But that almost never happens.  Especially when I do speeches. 

There’s a reason that I keep getting such positive feedback from my talks.  And it’s because I prepare like an animal! To prepare I do the following: