17 Years of Marketing Advice in 46 Mins

Key Insights on Marketing Mastery, Storytelling, and Business Growth

Marketing is the most valuable skill you can acquire, impacting both business success and personal branding. It’s not just about having a great product; it’s about attracting and retaining clients, delivering on promises, and being in the reorder business. Many businesses fail because they focus solely on product development without effective marketing, leaving them without customers. The key is to sell something the market is starving for, not something you have to convince people to want.

Direct response marketing is crucial for driving immediate actions, while brand marketing reinforces your presence. Successful brands, like Apple, often start with direct response before evolving into strong brands. Both approaches can lead to big businesses, and they are not mutually exclusive. Storytelling is the most highly leveraged skill in building businesses and attracting customers. The first sale you make is for someone’s attention, and in today’s saturated market, attention is a new form of currency.

Creating incredible products that solve pressing problems allows businesses to charge a premium and generate strong demand. Marketers need to articulate pain points, show how their products solve them, and present their offers as unique and exciting. Pricing should be based on the value of the problem solved, not just the cost of delivering the product or service. Entrepreneurs often start businesses based on passion, but they must transition from being practitioners to business builders to avoid burnout.

Revenue-producing activities are essential for hiring and building a competent team, allowing marketers to focus on higher-leverage tasks. Mastering one marketing channel and focusing on demand capture is key, as it’s easier to convert people actively seeking solutions. The larger market formula shows that only 3% of the market is actively looking to buy, while 60% is not even problem-aware. Balancing quick wins with long-term growth is crucial for business survival.

In the age of AI, many manual marketing tasks will be automated, but the differentiator will be the ability to come up with big ideas and apply imagination. Imagination, as Einstein said, is more important than knowledge. Solitude and quiet reflection can stimulate creativity and lead to big ideas.

The very first sale that you will make is the sale for somebody's attention, and we're living in a day and age where attention is a new form of currency.

The Balance Between Product and Marketing

Marketing is not just about promoting and selling products; it’s about attracting clients, retaining them, and delivering on your promises. It’s a skill that can change the trajectory of your life, no matter what career path you choose. Every business should aim to be in the "reorder business," meaning the focus should be on creating repeat customers, not just one-time buyers.

There are two common but flawed schools of thought in business. One believes that if you have a great product, customers will come to you naturally, and the other believes that marketing alone can sell anything. Both are wrong. Success requires both a great product and great marketing. Businesses that focus solely on product often fail because they spend years perfecting their product but never get any customers. They end up working harder than a regular job, but with no success. On the other hand, businesses that focus only on marketing without a good product also fail. They spread a bad product, leading to negative word of mouth, and eventually, they have to move on to the next business.

The most successful businesses in the world have both an exceptional product and exceptional marketing. You need to get out of the mindset that it’s just about product or just about marketing. It’s about both.

When starting a business, the most important factor is market selection. You can have the best product, the best team, and the best marketing funnel, but if you’re in the wrong market, none of it matters. You need to sell something that the market is already hungry for. Trying to convince people they need something they don’t want is an uphill battle.

Start with a minimal viable product (MVP) to test the market’s appetite. Only after proving demand should you develop the full business. Many people waste time looking for a completely unique business idea, but that’s a mistake. Instead, look for markets with competition, as that proves there’s demand.

Direct Response vs. Brand Marketing, Organic vs. Paid, and the Power of Storytelling

Direct response marketing is all about getting an immediate reaction from your audience. It’s the kind of marketing where you ask people to take action right away—whether it’s calling a number, visiting a website, or making a purchase. On the other hand, brand marketing is more about reinforcing a message or lifestyle. Think of Apple. Today, it’s one of the most recognized brands in the world, but it didn’t start that way. In the beginning, Apple was cold-calling computer dealers to get their products stocked. They were doing direct response marketing. Over time, they earned the right to focus on brand-building.

This is a common debate in marketing: direct response versus brand. Some people think it’s all about hardcore direct response, while others believe brand is everything. The truth is, both approaches have built massive businesses. Take Guthy-Renker, for example. They do $2 billion a year in sales, using direct response marketing to promote people like Tony Robbins and products like Proactiv. On the other side, you have LVMH, the luxury group behind Louis Vuitton and Sephora, which spends $16 billion a year on advertising.

The mistake many people make is thinking they have a brand when all they really have is a logo. A brand requires customers. If you’re just starting out and don’t have a lot of capital, direct response is the best way to go. Whether it’s cold-calling, DMing people, or creating organic TikTok content, direct response helps you understand your customer. Once you know your customer, you can start building a brand. You’ll know what’s important to your market, and you can spend money on brand-building exercises that emphasize those things. Over time, this creates a flywheel effect, where direct response and brand-building feed into each other.

When it comes to organic versus paid marketing, there are two schools of thought. Some people believe you always need to spend money to acquire customers, while others focus on organic growth through content and word of mouth. But both approaches require resources. Paid marketing costs money, while organic marketing costs time and energy. Organic isn’t free. It takes time to create content, and you need equipment like cameras, lighting, and microphones.

That said, organic content can be incredibly valuable. It’s a great way to test hooks and messaging. Platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok allow you to get distribution without a huge following, so you can see what works organically and then turn that into a paid ad to amplify it. The customer journey isn’t a straight funnel anymore. Someone might see your ad, then check out your YouTube channel, get retargeted on Facebook, download a content offer, and eventually buy. Organic and paid marketing should work together. If you rely only on organic and no one is engaging with your content, it could kill your business.

Finally, storytelling is the most powerful skill you can have when it comes to building a business or brand. Everyone talks about storytelling, but few explain how to do it. The first step is to become a good writer, because good writing comes from clear thinking. Storytelling is important not just for attracting customers, but also for attracting team members. You need to be able to clearly articulate why someone should join your team, and you need to tell compelling stories that make people want to buy your products.

The Power of Simplicity and Hooks in Storytelling

When you sit down to write anything—whether it's a job ad, a Facebook ad, or landing page copy—the first step is to get clear on what you want to say. You need to crystallize your thoughts before putting them into words. Clarity is essential, and tools like the Hemingway app can help simplify your writing. The most successful communicators, from bestselling authors to world leaders, all share one thing in common: they use simple language. They write and speak at a sixth-grade reading level or below. This ensures that their message is accessible to everyone. You won't alienate people by making your message too clear, but you will lose them if it's too complex or verbose.

Communication is a skill that needs to be practiced regularly. It's not just about business; it's about all your relationships. You're going to be communicating until the day you die, so it's worth dedicating time each week to improve this skill. Like any other skill, it can be acquired and refined with practice.

One of the most critical aspects of storytelling is the hook. A hook is a statement that grabs attention and makes people want to hear more. A good hook is worth more than a thousand perfectly crafted sentences. If you can't hook someone, it doesn't matter how good the rest of your message is. You should spend a disproportionate amount of time on your hooks. To get better at this, study platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Look at the videos that get the most views and analyze what they're doing with their hooks.

What you say is far more important than how you say it. Most people spend too much time finessing their words, but the real focus should be on saying the right things in the first place. To do this, you need to understand your market deeply. Look at customer service complaints, reviews, Facebook groups, and YouTube comments. These are gold mines for understanding the pain points of your audience. Once you know you're saying the right thing, then you can focus on how to say it in the best way possible.

The first sale you make is for someone's attention. In today's world, attention is the new currency. You're no longer just competing with other businesses; you're competing with Netflix, Instagram, YouTube, and every other distraction on your prospect's phone. If your content is boring, you're dead on arrival. The biggest brands in the world understand this. They create ads that might seem outrageous or unrelated to the product, but what they're really doing is winning the first game: getting attention. You need to ask yourself, "Is this piece of marketing communication worthy of my customers' attention?" If the answer isn't a resounding yes, you're already pushing a boulder uphill. The best way to increase consumption of your content is to make it entertaining, with strong hooks and good packaging.

Finally, marketing's job is to make sales redundant. You should be building so much desire in your marketplace that people are already sold before you even ask them to buy. Think of an Apple store: the staff there aren't salespeople; they're order-takers. The desire has already been built, and people are lining up to buy. That's the level of desire you should aim to create in your market.

The Art of Building Desire, Pricing, and Escaping Death Valley

Creating a product that solves a pressing problem in the most elegant way possible is the foundation of success. When a product is truly exceptional, people will line up to buy it, even at a premium. But it's not just about the product itself—marketing plays an equally critical role. The best companies are masters at both. They don't just create great products; they also know how to market them in a way that builds immense desire. As a marketer, your job is to articulate the pain points your product solves, agitate those pain points, and present your offer as something unique and exciting. If people aren't handing over their money, it's because you haven't built enough desire yet. Either you're not marketing enough, or your marketing isn't effective.

When it comes to pricing, it's important to understand that price is what you pay, but value is what you get. A transaction happens when the value of your product exceeds its price. The goal in business is to create more demand than supply, and then play with the price elasticity to find the sweet spot on the demand curve. Most people make the mistake of pricing their products based on cost-plus pricing, where they take the cost of delivering the product and add a markup. This is a flawed approach because it often overlooks other overheads like customer acquisition, sales teams, and product innovation. Instead, you should price your product based on the value it provides to the customer. The more money you make, the more you can invest in improving your product, hiring more people, and innovating to solve the problem better for more customers.

Many people start businesses because they love the craft—like a chef who loves cooking and decides to start a catering business. But soon, they find themselves doing everything: cooking, scrubbing potatoes, handling accounts, and even doing tax returns. This leads to overwork and stress. At some point, every business owner faces a fork in the road: continue doing everything themselves or hire people to help grow the business. The problem is that the skills that got you to this point—being hands-on and doing everything—won't get you to the next level. You need to transition from being the practitioner to being the business builder. This means focusing on activities that move the business forward, like bringing in enough cash to hire, train, and retain people.

This transition is often referred to as "Death Valley." It's the phase where you're doing everything yourself, working long hours, and feeling stressed. Yes, you're making good money, but you have no time to enjoy it. You don't have time for your family, and you're constantly overwhelmed. The solution is to hire people, but this creates a chicken-and-egg problem: you need money to hire, but you also need time to train those people. It's a cycle that every business goes through, and it's incredibly stressful. However, it's important to understand that this phase is temporary. The key is to get in and out of it as quickly as possible by focusing on the activities that truly move the business forward.

Revenue-Producing Activities, Big Swings, and Mastering Marketing Channels

In business, the first priority is to focus on revenue-producing activities—those that directly bring in customers and generate cash flow. This is essential because it gives you the resources to hire people, build a team, and delegate tasks. As your team grows, they can take over the day-to-day operations, allowing you to focus on higher-leverage tasks. Early on, this might mean one-on-one interactions with customers, but as you progress, it could evolve into running ads or even focusing on your employer brand. The key is to always evaluate how much your time is worth. Take the total profit you earn in a month or year, divide it by the hours you work, and ensure you’re not doing tasks that fall below that hourly rate. If you can hire someone to do those tasks, do it.

As you accumulate success and resources, you’ll have the ability to take bigger swings. In the beginning, success often comes from taking smaller, safer swings that won’t put your business at risk. But as you grow, you need to take bigger, bolder risks—wild swings that no one else in your market is attempting. These are the moves that lead to disproportionate results. The more experience you gain, the more you’ll realize that the bigger the swing, the further you can hit the ball.

When it comes to marketing, it’s crucial to master one channel before moving on to others. Marketing can be divided into two categories: demand capture and demand generation. Demand capture is the easier of the two because it involves converting people who are already searching for what you offer. These are the customers with a "bleeding neck"—they have an urgent problem and are actively looking for a solution. You don’t need elaborate offers or storytelling to convince them to buy. This is where the millions are made.

However, demand generation is where the billions are made. This involves going out into the market and creating demand for your product or service. Think of Facebook or YouTube ads—these platforms allow you to reach people who aren’t actively searching for what you offer. It’s a more challenging skill because you need to capture the attention of people who aren’t even aware they need your product. But once you master this, it unlocks massive scalability for your business.

This ties into the larger market formula. In any given market, only 3% of people are actively looking to buy. These are the people who know they have a problem and are searching for solutions. Another 17% are in information-gathering mode—they’re thinking about buying but aren’t ready yet. Then, 20% are problem-aware but not actively seeking solutions. Finally, 60% of the market is completely unaware of any problem. As a marketer, your job is to engage this larger, unaware portion of the market. You need to grab their attention, build desire, and eventually convert them into buyers. Mastering this skill is what leads to geometric growth in your business.

Finally, there’s a balance between quick fast money and big slow money. Early on, you need to focus on quick wins because cash flow is the oxygen that keeps your business alive. But as you grow, you need to shift your focus to the long game. The longer your time horizon, the bigger the payoff. Most people are too impatient and only care about how much money they can make this month or this year. But if you look at the biggest businesses, like Amazon, they played the long game. Amazon lost money for over a decade while building out the infrastructure that would eventually allow them to dominate the market. They were willing to make that investment, and now they reap the rewards.

Long-Term Thinking, Skills, and Fundamentals in Business

In business, the real game is played over decades, not years. People often say they want to get rich, but what they really want is to be rich. The key is to fish where the fewest go, because that's where the best opportunities lie. Most people chase quick, small money, but the real payoff comes from playing long-term games. When you start thinking about where you want to be in 10 years, it changes how you invest in your business. The few who think in decades will always outpace those who are focused on short-term gains.

One of the most important lessons is to focus on skills that have the longest half-life. In business, there are countless things you could focus on, but not all skills are created equal. For example, becoming the best Facebook media buyer in the world might seem like a good idea, but the reality is that what works in Facebook ads today will be completely different in four years. Those skills have a short half-life. Instead, focus on skills that will compound over time, like leading people, communicating effectively, and being a clear writer. These are the skills that will serve you in any business, no matter how the landscape changes. The biggest hack is to make yourself redundant at every step of the journey, so you can focus on the skills that give you the most leverage and build bigger opportunities for everyone involved.

When it comes to customers, the 80/20 rule applies. Spend 80% of your time focusing on how to increase the average lifetime value (LTV) of a customer, and only 20% on reducing customer acquisition costs. Too many marketers obsess over lowering their cost per lead or customer acquisition cost, running endless split tests and buying every Facebook media course out there. But the real focus should be on delivering a better product or service that gets people to buy more or buy more frequently. If your LTV is higher than anyone else in your industry, you can afford to spend more to acquire customers and dominate the market. You won’t need to worry about shaving a few dollars off your cost per acquisition because you’ll be making more from each customer.

Another key insight is that advanced people always do the basics. It’s easy to get caught up in chasing the most advanced tactics, but the truth is that the fundamentals are what matter most. When you read biographies of billionaires or talk to successful people, they often speak in generalities and frameworks, not in specific tactics. At first, it might seem like they’re leaving out the "juice," but the reality is that they’re focused on the basics. They have exceptional products, charge premiums, and reinvest in R&D. None of the advanced tactics matter if you don’t do the fundamentals exceptionally well. If you master the basics, you’ll outperform those who are obsessed with the latest shiny tactic.

Finally, skepticism in the market is at an all-time high. With platforms like TikTok and YouTube lowering the barriers to entry, and the rise of the "Guru model" where people sell courses on quitting your 9-to-5 and starting a business, there’s more incompetence in the market than ever before. This incompetence leads to bad experiences, which in turn increases skepticism. The antidote to this skepticism is simple: value. Prove to people that you can help them by actually helping them. There’s no headline hack or ad targeting trick that can beat genuinely helping people and lowering their skepticism. When you do that, you’ll find that a much larger portion of your market will actually buy from you.

Marketing Mastery: Value, Offers, and Showmanship

In marketing, the first step is to provide value. You prove to people that you can help them by actually helping them. This extends beyond just your potential customers; you also need to help those who will never buy from you. This builds goodwill in your marketplace. But it’s not enough to just help—there’s a need to throw stones at the alternatives. You must show how other products have failed to deliver on their promises. This is where the concept of a "unique mechanism" comes in. Take the weight loss market, for example. Many people have tried diets like paleo, keto, or intermittent fasting, yet they’re still struggling with weight. You need to explain why these methods have failed and then present your product as the unique solution to their problem. Without this comparison, you’re not addressing the skepticism that exists in the market, and if you don’t address that skepticism, your conversions will remain low.

A compelling offer, often referred to as a "Godfather offer," is far more powerful than any convincing argument. In most transactions, the business owner asks the customer to take on all the risk. But the key is to shift that burden onto yourself as the business owner. The more risk you take on, the more clearly defined the benefit of your offer becomes, and the more compelling it is. Many business owners worry about refunds, but they fail to consider that a more compelling offer will lead to more conversions, which in turn lowers customer acquisition costs. The litmus test for a strong offer is simple: if it doesn’t keep the founder up at night, it’s not strong enough. You need to think about what you can add to make your offer irresistible, how you can define it more clearly, and how much more risk you can take on to make it a no-brainer for your prospects.

Showmanship is a lost art in business. People may forget what you say in your ads or emails, but they won’t forget how you made them feel. Showmanship isn’t just about getting attention in your promotions; it’s also about how you service and delight your customers. A great example of this is the Ritz Carlton. They give every team member a $2,000 allowance per incident to resolve any customer issue. This empowers employees to not only fix problems but to surprise and delight customers, creating an unforgettable experience. The goal is to create such a remarkable experience that customers feel compelled to tell others about it. Injecting showmanship into your business, from marketing to customer service, can light people up with a smile and lead to handwritten letters of appreciation. It’s not just good for the soul—it’s good for business.

Finally, there’s the looming question of AI and the future of marketing. Every day, people ask whether AI will make agencies and businesses redundant. The answer to that question is still unfolding, but it’s clear that the landscape is changing.

The Differentiator in the Age of AI

AI is rapidly automating many of the manual tasks that marketers have traditionally handled. Interpreting data, operating within auction pools on platforms like Facebook and Google, and media buying are all tasks that are inevitably going to be fully automated. As AI takes over these logistical aspects, the question arises: if everyone is using AI for their media buying and marketing campaigns, what will set businesses apart?

The answer lies in ideas and imagination. As Albert Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." In the future, it will be the ability to come up with big ideas and apply imagination that will give businesses an edge. AI can handle the logistical tasks—script writing, media buying, running ads, writing headlines—but it needs to be guided by human creativity.

Creativity, however, requires solitude. Constant consumption of information stifles creativity. The more you consume, the less you create. To foster creativity, you need to consume less and allow time and space for quiet. Solitude, like going for a walk without your phone, can spark the imagination and lead to the big ideas that will differentiate businesses in the age of AI.

Ultimately, as AI continues to evolve, it will be these big ideas and concepts that will set businesses apart.

Conclusion

Transition from practitioner to business builder, prioritize clarity in storytelling, and ensure pricing reflects problem-solving value. Allow time for reflection to generate big ideas.