What if there was a game-changing and explosive secret that all the agency YouTubers and internet marketers were keeping hidden from you? A secret that could EASILY skyrocket your agency revenue, but they don’t want you to learn it because if you did, you’d never ever need to buy one of their marketing courses ever again? Including mine?
I shared this secret with a client of mine, and she went from $2000 a month to $50,000 in just 30 days, and I want to share this secret with you.
To start, we’re going to figure out what’s making you WASTE hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars every single year. Don’t you wish you knew exactly what to focus on in order to grow your business? Sometimes I feel like all I need is the right direction and I’m happy to put the work in.
The Common Struggles of Business Growth
Most people try to grow their business by having a lot of different products, brands, campaigns, and ideas. When we’re doing this, it feels a little bit like we’re trying to hedge our bets. We think that if we try five things at once, then maybe one of them will take off and we’ll focus on that when we start to get some positive feedback.
Instead, think about an archer. You know – bow, arrow, tights. That kind of stuff. Imagine you’re an archer and you’ve got 5 targets spread out in front of you. You’ve only got 5 arrows, and the goal is to hit as many targets as you can. You’d never nock all 5 arrows at once and pull back on the bow, trying to hit all five targets in one go. And yet that’s what a lot of business owners do. They’re trying to hit all 5 targets at once even though they’re all equally valuable and all score the same. There’s nothing in the rules that says you have to hit all 5 targets.
The Realization
When my client reached out to me, she had about 4 or 5 products and services. She liked doing all of them; they all had pros and cons. This is a really common problem with agency owners and problem solvers, because you think “Hey, I can help with that!” and you get pulled in lots of different directions. Just because you can hit a lot of targets, doesn’t mean you should.
For my client to find out what the “best” target was for us to aim for and hit, we had to do something that sounded counter-productive and almost dangerous.
The Secret Step
Now, something that lots of business owners ignore, which could be the difference between making a few thousand dollars and a few hundred thousand dollars, is this next step. If you follow this, it’ll categorically prove exactly what you need to sell more of, what you can ignore, and what you need to focus on.
Back in the late 1800s, there was this Italian guy who noticed that roughly 80% of the land was owned by around 20% of the population. He also noticed that 80% of the food produced for the people came from around 20% of the land. Everywhere he looked, he saw this magic productivity ratio, from gardening to manufacturing. 80% of the wealth was generated by 20% of the people. 80% of the exports came from 20% of the suppliers. And so he started looking at profits and income too. And sure enough, even today, we see that same magic ratio working as hard as it did 200 years ago.
With my client, we listed out all the products and services that our client was providing. We took the revenue, profit, average order value, clients sold, and (perhaps most importantly) delivery cost for each product. And wouldn’t you know it, when we listed out all these numbers in a clear-to-read format, over 80% of her current success was coming from only 1 to 2 products. We worked out that most of her time was spent on very unprofitable, time-consuming, work-load heavy projects. Or at least, she felt her time wasn’t being valued – she basically said that the money didn’t seem worth it with those projects.
The Pareto Principle in Action
So while 80% of her time was taken up with 20% of her clients and services, 80% of her revenue was coming from a different 20% (ish) of her offers. A bit like how Vilfredo Pareto, namesake of the Pareto 80/20 rule, discovered that 80% of the wealth is owned by 20% of the people. We identified her most profitable, easy-to-deliver products, and that’s what told us what to focus on.
But of course, I bet you’re wondering, “Well how did you sell more of those products then!?” My client asked a similar question: “If I’m struggling to make the money I want with 5 products, how does eliminating most of them make any sense?” That’s because she and thousands of other agency owners were making a massive error which cost them tens of thousands of dollars. Maybe even more.
The LMG Triangle
It’s also the reason that some of your customers are absolute delights to work with, and who always seem to get great results. While others always seem disappointed, usually getting mediocre results, and even when they do get good results, it can feel like you’re exhausted just talking to them. And I don’t know about you, but I’d always rather work with people who I like to work with rather than energy vampires. This is the LMG triangle and it helps businesses focus on the right clients to work with.
It shows exactly who you should target, as well as who is most profitable.
L is first. Basically, do I love working with them? Do I like the industry? Do I like the niche and the people in it? Do I get on with them?
G is something that will always make life easier (and make you look like a rockstar). Basically, “can I help this person reach their goals?” Because as lovely as they are, they might take too much work to help. Or their problems fall outside your wheelhouse. Of course, this takes two sides, because it could be that despite complaining and moaning about their situation, they might not be motivated enough to do anything about it.
M makes sure that you get PAID to do the work. Because if you like someone and you can get them results, but you’re not getting paid to do it, that’s called a hobby. Do they have the money to pay you? Most people won’t. Think about your past clients. Have you ever worked with someone where even if you found them 100 new paying clients, they still couldn’t afford you? If someone only sells a $10 book and you get them 100 clients, that’s only $1000. It can feel a little uncomfortable, but you need to make sure that they can afford you before you commit to working with them.
Finding LMG Clients
And if you’re anything like me, you’re now asking, “Where can I find these LMG clients?” and that’s a pretty simple step. In fact, this next part has made me, personally, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year AND it’s the easiest way to find customers on the planet. If you can get your head around this, it’ll be completely life-changing. And I do mean life-changing. Not just your business, but your friends, life and family. It’s mad.
If we’re ever going out to eat, or if we’re traveling, my wife likes to look at restaurants and menus WEEKS in advance. I’m not joking when I say that a trip in September might cause us to have 3 or 4 lists of places we could eat by mid-April. And these aren’t just recommendations or based on searches; it’s essentially a series of backups just in case where we decide to eat is garbage. We could just use Trip Advisor or ask people. But, in our experience, unfortunately, recommendations are sometimes not quite what we were hoping for. For us, a bad food experience can ruin an entire evening. Plus, when you’re traveling and living out of a suitcase, even if you’re staying in nice hotels, you want to make the best of your trip. And if you’re tired, you don’t want to have to think too hard about where you’re going to eat.
When my wife and I were traveling the States a few years back, we stopped off in a place called St. Augustine. Tired, hungry, and a bit irritable, we searched for a decent restaurant. Italian is often a good shout, because how can you get pasta wrong? Turns out, you can get pasta extremely wrong. The Italian place we went to had possibly the worst food I’ve ever eaten. I’m sure lots of people are about to head into the comments now about how if we’re in Florida, we should have had Cuban or seafood. At the time, we just needed something to eat, we didn’t know the area at all and my wife isn’t a massive seafood fan. We left halfway through the meal, it was that bad. We ended up going to a store and buying some bread and ham and cheese. Which is why we now have a bank of trusted restaurants that we know do awesome food. And if we’re traveling, we have a few backups and backup backups.
Leverage Your Existing Audience
Think about this. We have suppliers that we like and trust. That goes two ways. You already have an audience and people that you’re connected to. Chances are, you’ve probably already got clients. Even with a small list or a small audience, you have people who know you and trust you. Most people, when they need more leads and clients, will immediately start to advertise or look for cold, new leads. Instead, with my client, we leaned into her current audience and tried to see if we could spot any opportunities.
Crafting the Perfect Offer
And so what did we offer exactly? How did we reach out to her audience? Well, if you want to know that and if you want to learn how to avoid dealing with low-value clients who waste your time, you’ll want to pay attention to this next part. And this is where things get really powerful. If you can understand this – you’ll never ever need to buy another marketing course (including mine) ever again. Trust me, this is groundbreaking.
If you’re ever presented with two options, how do you decide which one to go with? What do you do when faced with a question of whether you should buy something? Or, take this blog for example, what led you to decide to click on it? Why do people make the choices they make? That is the fundamental problem we’re trying to solve with most marketing. I came across an incredible psychological principle that might answer this question: “People make decisions based on the description of the choice, not the choice itself.” This is why people seem to make irrational decisions.
The Power of Description
For example, why do so many of our customers choose poorly when it comes to their choice of marketing agency or consultant? You might have the best marketing and consulting program on the planet. But unless you can describe it to someone in a way that they can understand, you’ll struggle to make sales. Let’s take McDonald’s, for example. We know, logically, that we should be eating more fresh vegetables, less ultra-processed food, and (for the most part) less meat. We know that chemicals, preservatives, sulfates, and emulsifiers are bad for us. So why isn’t the largest and most successful fast food chain in the world a healthy salad option? Because McDonald’s has MASTERED the art of describing their choice, not just being a choice. McDonald’s doesn’t sell reformed beef patties from global beef suppliers in a chemically stable, gum-filled bread/cake hybrid, developed by scientists. It sells “delicious, mouth-watering hot food, right when you need it from thousands of convenient locations.” The word beef, burger, or any of the ingredients aren’t even mentioned. It’s the same reason that books are labeled “best sellers” not “best written” or “best reading.” This psychological and economic model, where people make choices based on the description, not the actual choice, is from Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky and their work in behavioral economics and their Prospect Theory model.
Applying the Secret
The good news is that you have a great product – you just need to work on your descriptions. If we take my client, we helped craft a very simple and specific post on Facebook (that I’ll show you in a minute) that got more leads in a few HOURS than she had gotten in months. It’s all how she described the “thing.” Not talking about the “thing” itself. But what the “thing” does for her customers and for people who buy. When we put this next part into place, my client saw HUNDREDS of leads put up their hands and ask to buy. When previously, her social posts were ignored and her lead generation campaigns never generated any leads.
The best part is that you can do exactly the same with a simple Facebook post or via email. In fact, when you get this, you’ll use it to describe everything, from convincing your partner of your movie choices on Netflix, to justifying buying another pair of running trainers.
Crafting the Perfect Description
If you want to know how to create a killer, compelling, and desirable description for your product or service, think about this. What do your clients brag about? Better yet. What’s the thing that they feel defines their own success? Back when I was a kid, the absolute number one valued currency was Pokemon cards. And there was a new kid at school from Japan who everyone obviously avoided because new people are weird and gross. Except by lunchtime on his first day, he was without question, the most popular kid in school. Why? Because of one particular Pokemon card. He had a shiny Charizard. [anime wow!] Actually, he had TWO shiny Charizards. One, he was going to keep, but the other… He said he’d give it to his best friend at the end of the day. His status was now sky-high. Because he had something to brag about. And he was going to help someone else have something to brag about. Genius.
So what’s the thing that defines success for your clients? Leads, sales, clients, speaking engagements? And you can use this framework, just like my friend Tom with his Pokemon card. “I help X people, get Y result, in Z time (without X headache).” I’ll help one kid get a shiny Charizard card by the end of school (without having to buy tons of packs of cards). Here’s another example. Which one of these sounds more appealing? Which one do you think generates more leads and sales? We grow your brand to explore new innovative potentials and bring your creative ideas to life. We help restaurants grow their social media followings so they can drive more customers. We help restaurants book 30 covers a night without relying on greedy delivery apps.
Leveraging Social Media and Email
And if you follow this next part, you can start to make real money using your free social media audience and land clients and sales from Facebook or email, without spending a cent on ads, spamming their DMs, or cold calling. Imagine you’re in a massive stadium. Tens of thousands of people all centered around a stage. And you get a chance to promote your business. Maybe you won a bar bet with Taytay and she owes you a favor. That’s how I got the chance to dance with Katy Perry [show dancing shark with Katy Perry]. This is a bit like having a social media audience. Even if you haven’t built a “following,” you still might have people in the audience you can help. And if you had to promote your business, what would you do? Most people would spend their time talking about their business and maybe some of their successes. But if you’re like me, when someone else starts talking about themselves like that, I switch off. Instead, I’d ask, “Is anyone here a father? Raise your hands if you are.” “And keep them up if you feel you’ve gained a little too much weight since having kids.” “Keep your hands raised if you’d like to lose that weight, but you’re tired of dieting and dumb exercise fads.” “Lastly, if this is something you want to fix today, text me on this number.” I can 100% guarantee you that because you’ve flipped the message to talk about them, not you, you’ll be inundated with leads.
Here’s something we posted to Facebook. I’ve got a video showing how X people can get Y result in Z days (without X headache). Who’d like a link? I’ve got a free video showing agency owners how they can land a $25,000 client in 25 days (even with zero experience). Who’d like a link? I’ve got a free video showing women business owners how to launch and sell a $2000 course in 4 weeks without spending a cent on expensive software – who’d like a link? And if you want to do this over and over, with less and less effort each time – each post generating you leads and sales, I want to show you a time-saving hack that is so powerful I’ve only ever shared it with my team. Plus, if you hate selling and closing – this next part is going to do all the heavy lifting for you.
The Time-Saving Hack
People often think that if they have to promote the same product over and over, they need to change the result they’re selling. Maybe when they launch, they talk about helping with leads, and then in the next campaign it’s advertising and after that it’s clients. When in fact, they should be doing the exact opposite. We call this “change the actor, not the plot.” The Lord Of The Rings has been adapted into movies, spin-offs, books, video games, board games, podcasts, radio shows. No, not TV shows. Go away [me shooing away the Amazon TV show]. In all of those remakes and versions, they keep the basic plot the same. It’s something else that changes. My friend Tom with the Charizard card couldn’t have used the same strategy with a book from the library. It wouldn’t have worked. People want the same basic outcome, but with different deliveries.
If you find an offer that works, with a message that gets leads – keep it. Change the actor, not the plot. So we rewrote a bunch of changes, keeping the result the same. I’m starting a beta group to help XYZ. I’ve got a private community to help XYZ. I’m releasing some training on XYZ. This way, we had a stack of emails, posts, and content we could use over and over without becoming stale or boring, but still being clear and valuable.
The Explosive Secret Revealed
And remember at the start when I told you about the explosive secret that all the marketing YouTubers and gurus don’t want you to know? That if you uncovered it would mean you’d never ever have to buy another course from them? This singular point alone could make you millions, save you hundreds of thousands of dollars and never waste your time again. There’s a model that all these guys teach which is fundamentally flawed and hardly ANYONE fully understands. When they try to do it, they get it wrong and all that ends up happening is it hurts their sales and business. I’m talking about…the value ladder.
It’s a model to explain how to get customers to spend more money with you over and over. A ladder is a great analogy because you get what it’s trying to say. Have a series of products in your business that increase in price and value. In theory, you want a ladder or series of steps that help people get the same result faster, easier, and with less input from them. But that’s not what most people do. Most people are making a critical mistake that’s killing their business. Slowly choking the sales and revenue from every product until you’re left with a ladder of broken dreams. Sorry, that went a bit dark, didn’t it?
Rethinking the Value Ladder
Does your lowest and highest-priced product get the same result from your core XYZ message? Here’s a handy way to tell if you’ve got an actual value ladder. What most people do is create 5 – 6 or more individual ladders with no connection. They might have different price points (or worse, the same). The key to a value ladder is “FASTER” and “EASIER.” Pay more money, get it faster and easier. Simple. But here’s my advice. The thing that internet marketers and business YouTubers don’t want you to know. Avoid the value ladder – get regular recurring income first and then focus on building a product suite.
