Marketer’s Mind Memo – Issue #46

Listen to these 5 entrepreneurs share their battles along the way to "going big"...

Every entrepreneur deals with issues, obstacles, or handicaps along the way. 

Seldom is the path a straight shot to the top.

Most entrepreneurial journeys, if charted, would look more like the stock market 📈 -- peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys. ⛰⛰

Sometimes those valleys are caused by a lacking skillset or poor strategy. Others, maybe, by unexpected events. A collapsed partnership, a lawsuit, theft or fraud, a pandemic, who knows. 

It's not the absence of these valleys... or issues... or obstacles... or handicaps... which demonstrates an entrepreneur's skills. No. It's their response when facing those, which does. 

Lack of cash?

Lack of connections?

Lack of certain skills?

Lack of manpower? 

Lack of time?

Yeah... all of those... and more... have been dealt with and overcome by other entrepreneurs before you. 

There is almost nothing you'll face which other entrepreneurs haven't also had to deal with and surmount. 

You stink on camera?

You have terrible internet access? 

You write poorly?

You have ADD? 

Your breath smells? 

Doesn't matter. None of it.

Believe me... others have dealt with it and worse.

The majority of the most successful entrepreneurs I know are almost always the ones with the most battle scars. 

Your journey is not one meant to be free of battles. No, it's meant to be one of victory... overcoming and winning the battles you face along the way. 🎖

Accept it. Embrace it. Revel in it. 

Because what you choose to do in the face of your issues, obstacles, or handicaps is the biggest determinant of your success as an entrepreneur.

With that, let's get to this week's goodies...

MY FAVS THIS WEEK

• Is Parkinson’s Law sabotaging your productivity?
  
  "Parkinson’s Law is the old adage that work expands to fill the time allotted."
  
  Whether you're aware of it or not, Parkinson's Law is likely impacting your ability to get things done in a timely manner. 
  
  This article gives one of the best overviews I've seen for what Parkinson's Law is, why we struggle with it, and how to overcome it. 
  
  
• VIDEO: How to Remember What You Read | Tim Ferriss
  
  I read a lot. So I'm always curious to hear from other avid readers how they process their notes and thoughts from books.
  
  Here, Tim shares the simple indexing process he uses to turn learning into new actions. 
  
  
• Why Throwing Out the "Old Bananas" is Imperative to Your Success
  
  If you often find yourself sitting on lots of ideas or projects which are partially completed or yet to be started, this is for you.  
  
  Sometimes you gotta just throw out those "old bananas". 

🚨SWIPE OF THE WEEK

This week we have the legendary Personals Ad from the late, great Gary Halbert.

While this isn't a traditional direct response promotion, it is most certainly packed to the brim with fantastic copy. 

I believe this was published in 1985. Not sure how well it would go over today. As you'll see, Gary didn't mince words. Especially when it came to the ladies. 

Regardless, every serious student of direct response should read this at least once. Enjoy.

Note: If you're offended by talk of S-E-X, this most certainly is one swipe to skip. 😳 

WHAT I'M TELLIN' MY TEAM

This week on our internal Team Marketing Training...

We talked about the difference between your prospect's problem and your prospect's pain points.

The two are not the same.

The problem is the underlying issue, the reason why the prospect is experiencing the pain points. The problem is the cause of the pain points.

Paint points are symptoms of an underlying problem. Similar to the way a fever is a symptom of an underlying issue such as a viral infection. 

Often, marketers focus their copy on the prospect's problem. Yet, it's almost always the pain points (symptoms) which are top of mind for the prospect. 

More often than not, most prospects don't even know the underlying cause or problem. All they know are the pain points they have, the symptoms. 

So your copy should focus on showing prospects how your solution will remedy those symptoms. 

TEAM TAKEAWAYS IN THREE BULLETS:

• When talking about the prospect's pain points we need to be careful not to get too specific. We want to keep our explanation of the symptoms universal so prospects can fill in the specifics in their own mind.
  
  
• When describing pain points, it's important we use the prospect's language. Detail them the way the prospect would. And we should be as real, raw, and authentic as possible.
  
  
• It can be powerful to show prospects what the real root cause of their symptoms are. Especially when we can show how our solution is the only one to alleviate that root cause, and therefore, all the corresponding symptoms.

MY ADVICE

A question posted inside the E5 Nation Facebook Group...

Below is my response:

***
NOTE: If you're not in the E5 Nation Facebook Group with us yet, you're missing out on the opportunity to have me answer your questions. Not too mention, some killer content and live streams only shared inside the Group.

Go here and join us inside the E5 Nation Group (it's FREE!). 

ROCKSTAR RESOURCE

I'm not a fan of "article writing" software or spinners or whatever you call them. 

But, I do find Quillbot to be an interesting app with some potential value.

It's positioned as a paraphrasing tool. So it rewrites existing text. 

And there are several settings you can use depending on your goal (i.e. greater clarity or fluency, shortening, lengthening, more scientific, summarizing, etc.).

I've only played around with Quillbot at this point. So I don't know if it will become a part of my writing workflow at all, or how I would use it, but... I am intrigued. 

Check it out and let me know what you think. 

PIC OF THE WEEK

We did it. We escaped in under an hour. 

A few years back I took the team on a company retreat for a few days. Spouses, kids, the whole nine. 

We stayed in a luxurious, monster cabin (14 bedrooms) in the hills of Tennessee overlooking the Great Smoky Mountains.  

It was a blast. We brought in a chef, had game night, movie night, and even put our skills to the test in one of those local escape rooms.

My crew, as seen above, was the only one of our company to escape in the allotted time. Not because of anything I did, though. Nope. In fact, I completely froze up the moment the timer started. 

Regardless, I got the "I Escaped" sticker... and continue to proudly display it on my laptop to this day.  

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