Get Different: Marketing That Always Gets Results with Mike Michalowicz: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. are brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like The Product Boss. Today, we're pulling a timeless EO Fire episode from the archives so the giveaway may not be active and we'll be breaking down how to get different, marketing that always gets results. To drop these value bombs, I have brought Mike Michalowicz into EO Fire Studios. He is the author of Profit First, Fix This Next, and Get Difference. Over the years, Mike has traveled the globe speaking with thousands of entrepreneurs and is here today to share the best of what he has learned.

0:39Today, Fire Nation will talk about how success is not the accumulation of stuff. Instead, it is simply being comfortable with who you are. Unexpected marketing garners attention. Marketing is the ultimate act of kindness. And so much more, Fire Nation. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Mike and our sponsors. Online Marketing Made Easy podcast, hosted by Amy Porterfield, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with a focus on online business, including digital courses, list building content, and more. Online Marketing Made Easy breaks down big ideas and strategies into actionable step-by-step processes.

1:14A recent episode that will help you get more results with a whole lot less stress is on four ways to avoid burnout. Listen to Online Marketing Made Easy wherever you get your podcasts. Leveraging fractional staffing might just be the key to unlocking growth for you and your business. Get started today with an exclusive offer from Belay. Download their latest resource, the power of productivity for free. Just text FIRE to 55123. That's F-I-R-E to 55123 to get started. Mike, say what's up to FIRE Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:54What's up, FIRE Nation? I'm pumped that you're here. and I'll tell you what I disagree with about success is success is not the accumulation of stuff to trophy about. It's simply living in your most comfortable skin of yourself, to be comfortable with who you are. And there is no necessity to show off. If you want those things and stuff, it's wonderful because it gives you joy, but not in a comparative way. That's what I've discovered about success. It's just really being your true authentic self and allowing whatever you experience to amplify that. And you act that out in real life too. I mean, we were just talking pre-interview about how you've been down in my house in Puerto Rico.

2:37And I mean, what you see and what you hear, Fire Nation, is what you get. I mean, Mike is the same guy all the way through and through, from sitting Indian style, barefoot on my couch, hanging out and just talking the talk, walking the walk all the way through to having a conversation on Entrepreneurs on Fire, and that's his real skin, and I love that. Dude, and there's something that's happening right now, I gotta tell you, that you inspired. Compression socks, those running socks. I'm wearing some right now, and since that day, it's amazing how little elements of an experience can have prolific change.

3:13I used to wear compression socks only for travel. Right. And then I saw you, and you had a pair of socks, and I'm like, what are you doing? I stand a lot and it just makes it's better for blood flow. I'm like, oh my God, how did I not know this? John, let me do this. And so from that day forward, compression socks all the time, including right now. And not when I'm sleeping, but otherwise all the time. And I love it. I feel so much better. Well, I am literally wearing them as we speak for obvious reasons. I've never stopped. I'm probably wearing the exact same pair that I was wearing when you were over here.

3:42Kate's like, do you want me to throw this in the laundry? I'm like, eh, maybe next round. next rounds, next rounds. So we'll make it happen at some point. There's so many dead skin cells right now by my toes. It's unbelievable. But anyways, Fire Nation, a little too graphic. And we're talking about getting different marketing that always, not sometimes, always gets results. And let's break it down, brother, because everybody starts marketing with the best of intentions. Nobody starts with the worst. They start with the best. So why do so many marketing plans simply fail? Because they start with the best of everyone else is.

4:18So that tagline of marketing that always works, it sounds audacious, but it is truthful. Let's start off with what doesn't work to your point is, you know, you go to a conference or something, John, and people are like, oh, dude, here's the best practice. The hey friend email, like that thing closed like crazy. Here's the truth. From the consumer's perspective, when we receive a new piece of knowledge that's unexpected, we do pay attention to, We have to. It's our hard wiring. But only the first pass. If it fails the sniff test, the second one we see, right, hmm, this looks manipulative, not appropriate for me.

4:56The third one we never see again. So that first hey, friend, I got, like I was jacked up. This is, I don't know, five, ten years ago. I'm like, oh, my God. Like who's this friendly friend of mine emailing me? You know, I couldn't wait to read it. And I'm like, oh, this is irrelevant, not appropriate for me. Second one that came through was hey, friend. is like, hold on, this is not a real friend. This is a fake friend. I've never read it again. That process of ignoring is called habituation. And the human mind is designed actually to ignore 99.9 to whatever exponential factor percent of what we see.

5:33There is constant stimulus. If you look at the desk you're standing next to or if you're sitting outside listening to this, if you just look around you, that tree leaf could be drawing your attention for hours. But we don't pay attention because our mind's already determined that's not a threat or an opportunity. It's not something we have to pay attention to. So when something unexpected presents itself, our mind is forced to evaluate, is this something I should consider as a threat or an opportunity? And that's why unexpected marketing always garners attention. It has to. Unexpected marketing garners attention.

6:04And when you were talking about that email subject line, something came up for me. I don't know if you've seen this. I don't know where this came from. But I get these all the time. and I've been getting them for years now. So somehow they work their way into somebody's top 10 list of email opens or whatever that might be. I have something to say. Like just those five words. It drives me nuts. It drives me nuts. Yeah, you'll see these common flavors. Now here's the irony. The first time someone said that, I strongly suspect it was wildly effective. But the second time it was said to the same populace, being the same recipient is less effective.

6:43By the third one, it's almost nil. That's the irony is when you attend an industry conference or something and people share best practices. Best practices are actually amazing when it comes to recruiting employees, servicing clients, maintaining certain protocols. But the one area that best practices fails us within our industry is marketing because that's what everyone's already doing. So the prospect will only be stimulated to pay attention if it's something new and unexpected. and following a best practice like that one, that email line, it's going to burn out. And I strongly suspect, John, you're not even opening those emails.

7:18Not even opening those emails. Again, most of the time I probably don't even see them because I'm kind of scanning down the email subject lines for ones that I'm actually going to look at. And those probably just are automatically, subconsciously skipped over at this point. And that kind of works really nice into the next thing I want to talk about, which is copying others, like people copying others. And one thing that I see, especially in the podcasting world, running podcasts, is paradise is that everybody is just trying to be this pale, weak imitation of other successful podcasters they see out there.

7:49And I need to hear it from you though. Why does copying the best practices of your competition pretty much guarantee that your marketing is going to fall flat and go unnoticed? Because it is not you and they've seen it already. Like in the podcast arena, you and I spoke about this extensively. And if you remember, we were in your weight room downstairs. there's, um, talking and you're like, you know, I was, you were the first guy to say, Oh, if a podcast, uh, was like a radio show where every day there was a new broadcast, that would be different. So you were the innovator and that absolutely catches attention.

8:25It's similar to the concept of the first mover advantage. Then you have all the clones that come out and say, Oh, look at what John's doing. I should do the same thing, but it's already been done. So the consumer has been habituated. Well, my side as a, as an author and the website, I, I created my website to be, first of all, authentically me. And your show is authentically you. That is absolutely key because then when people meet you in person or have a different experience with your brand in some capacity, there is consistency. And the second you break consistency, you break trust. So you have to be consistent.

8:59Now, people that replicate what you do or perhaps what I do or what others do, and it's not truly who they are, are actually compromising trust. And that's why they don't get traction. Think about it, Fire Nation. Why would you want to be a pale, weak imitation of somebody else when you have the opportunity to be the unique, authentic, real version of yourself? I mean, would you rather get up every day and put on somebody else's skin, somebody else's personality, somebody else's - Compression socks. Their compression socks. Let's get back to that. You do not want to put on my compression socks for reasons - I wouldn't even touch your compression socks.

9:32Previously stated. If I burn these - Anyways, Fire Nation, we have some really cool stuff. including a framework named DAD when we get back from thanking our sponsors. If you're anything like me, then you're looking forward to a lot of outdoor time this summer. I'm talking about hitting the pool, going on epic hikes, and maybe even getting in a few pickleball matches. But in order to do all that, you and your team need to work smarter, not harder. That's why we're so excited about HubSpot's integrated AI tech. It's helping teams automate the more tedious parts of running a business. With AI-powered tools built into HubSpot CRM, You can do research, pull reports, and write copy in a flash.

10:12In fact, recent research shows that marketers are already slicing time spent on manual administrative tasks in half thanks to AI from five hours to 2.5 hours a day, which amounts to almost four weeks of saved time per year. And with four weeks of your time back, you could be enjoying a lot more pool time, hiking, and pickleball. So what are you waiting for? Learn more and get started today at HubSpot.com. Successful entrepreneurs are always looking for ways to maximize efficiency and increase productivity, especially in a startup environment. Maybe you've taken a few steps towards this goal by automating tasks with AI or finally nailing down a morning routine that gives you energy to crush your day.

10:51While these things definitely help, the best way to increase efficiency and productivity is to work on what you're best at and delegate the rest. Belay has been helping entrepreneurs increase productivity and scale their businesses for over a decade. Leveraging fractional staffing might just be the key to unlocking growth for you and your business. Belay has the help you need in so many areas, including virtual assistants, bookkeepers, social media managers, and more. Stop wasting time on tedious tasks that are better done by someone else. Delegate with Belay and watch your productivity soar. To help get you started, Belay is exclusively offering Fire Nation their latest resource, The Power of Productivity for free.

11:25It's full of practical tips and tools to help you increase your productivity and make the most of your time to grow your business. text FIRE to 55123. That's F-I-R-E to 55123 to get started. Mike, we're back and you have this framework that I just have to dive into because we were about to go down a really weird compression sock rabbit hole that I want to avoid. Yeah, we avoided that. DAD, D-A-D, expound. DAD is the foundational essence of effective marketing, marketing that guarantees attention. I won't guarantee you business, but I guarantee you tension, and I'll amplify your potential for getting that transaction you desire.

12:05DAD, obviously, is an acronym. And the first element, D, stands for differentiate. So the assessment that I made or the final analysis, I derived that any time something unexpected presents itself, we always pay attention. It's unequivocable. Like if you and I were in Puerto Rico having this discussion, all saying something wiggles in the grass in front of us, we will jump back and say, oh my gosh, that could be a snake threat. Maybe someone turned the hose on, the garden hose, and it's irrelevant. Or maybe it's something else. But our mind is rapidly evaluating for threats and opportunities or if it can be disregarded.

12:43So if you do the common, you're already qualified. If I walk into a meeting with you, John, and say, hey, I wish we did an hour podcast, and I plop down my gun, I guarantee I'll get your attention, but this is a known threat, a.k.a. you're going to pop me in the nose and break my face wide open. So not a smart move. I will lose. Secondly, if I plop down like a million dollars and say, hey, John, can we do this for an hour? I probably will garner your attention, but you have the right to pick up that money and say, you know what? Thanks for the money. I don't think we're going to do an hour. So I'm putting myself at great risk.

13:16The one way to guarantee attention without any risk is to do unexpected stuff. I'll give you an example. I sent out an email because email is a popular platform. Everyone does it. I sent out invisible ink emails. Literally, the email came and was blank except for one line that was in black text. It said, click and drag over the rest of the text, which I'd made white against the white background. Therefore, it was invisible to decode the message. It harkened back to yesteryear. So people, and it was different. No one ever seen Invisible Ink emails before, so people did it. I had a great click-through rate and great open rate.

13:49The A stands for attract. And attract means that whatever your marketing is, it must speak to the person's problem. It must entertain them. It must invoke curiosity. And there must be a compelling reason to continue. And back to that Invisible Ink email, the reason people clicked and dragged is curiosity is a big player into that. But secondly, it did harken back to when they were children and we played those little invisible ink or decoder games. So what's this mystery? The last element in dad is direct. We must give our prospect and our marketing a specific action to take. What do we want them to do?

14:24There's a key component here. It must be reasonable. Meaning if I'm selling cars and you come into my lot and I say, hey, John, give me$100 ,000. We're going to find your dream car. Just give me that cash right now. No way. Like, what? But if I said, hey, John, my job is to help you find your dream car. Would you be willing to give me your cell number so I can text you pictures of inventory we have? That might be a reasonable ask. So the direct is to ask something that the customer is still comfortable with, but it moves them closer to that final transaction, which is the sale. That's the DAD framework.

14:56DAD. D-A-D, Fire Nation. And you believe the people that we are marketing to consume the marketing that we actually produce. and we're talking millisecond increments. So what do you mean by that? Like what is this consumption by the millisecond? Our mind is constantly scanning the environment around us. I mean, constantly. But our mind will make a subconscious decision if something is a threat, opportunity, or to be ignored within about one-tenth of a second. So right now, Fire Nation, if everyone will do the simultaneous blink, the blink heard around the world, if you blink your eye right now as fast as you can, what you just demonstrated, If you did that, it actually takes longer to blink than it does to consider proceeding forward with an advertisement or marketing piece.

15:43Well, literally that's how fast it is. And I think what we hear about all the time, John, is marketing plans like, oh, you need to implement a marketing plan. But the problem with a marketing plan is here's a strategy that we're going to roll out for a long time over Facebook ads and so forth. But we're not really considering do the different micro elements work. So I like to use the term marketing, marketing experiments. And what we experiment with is first, are we garnering attention? Is the, is the prospect seeing our ad and willing to continue to the next step, which is attraction. Attraction is where we have a compelling message, but they constantly in these millisecond drips are saying subconsciously, is this worth continuing?

16:24So if I drone on and on and on, and there's decreasing relevancy, I'm going to lose them. That's the old kind of show up and throw up. And you see it, not just in sales, you see it in marketing. Um, but there's gotta be compelling reason. It's anything with the direct. If the direct is unreasonable within a, within a 10th of a second, their gut instinct is like, ah, this is too much or too time consuming or too much of a distraction or too costly of an effort. I'm not doing it. So marketing is a win that happens in incremental milliseconds and you need to win each one to get to your goal. Milliseconds.

16:56That's crazy. And I was just blinking over here, like obsessively being like, I'm a really slow blinker. That's just what I kind of was thinking to myself. But anyways, you dropped countless value bombs, but nothing compared to what exists in your new book, Get Different. Tell us more. Yeah. So my brand new book, it releases on September 21st of 2021. So this year, uh, it's called Get Different. And what I did was decode what makes marketing successful. Here's the ultimate value bomb. In my opinion, I've determined once I completed this book, I had the epiphany. I said, oh my gosh, marketing is the ultimate act of kindness.

17:35And let me just stage this. If you are, particularly if you're a small business owner, I strongly suspect you're better than your competition in some way or maybe multiple ways. Perhaps you're more responsive than the bigger guys. Maybe you care more than your competition. Maybe your offering is just plain old superior. But if we don't market that and our prospects don't discover it, well, they're going to end up buying an inferior alternative. Therefore, if you truly care for your customers, you're going to market to them. That's why I believe marketing is the ultimate act of kindness. All that stuff is in my book, Get Different.

18:10Give us that call to action, brother. Where can we go? GoGetDifferent.com. If you go to GoGetDifferent.com, of course, you can purchase the book if you so desire. Before you even take that step, you'll see the free resources and that ubiquitous button you always see. I think there's something super compelling. My team and I compiled a hundred different marketing strategies, experiments you can run that cost nothing or near nothing that are radically different than what you've done before. Therefore, it will garner attention. They pass the dad test. So we've done all that work for you. These have been tested out in the wild.

18:44Now you can apply it to your business. It's completely free at gogetdifferent.com. Go getdifferent.com. And Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people. you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with MM and JLD today, so keep up the heat. Head over to eofire.com, type Mike in the search bar, and his show notes page will pop up with his other multiple Entrepreneurs on Fire episodes, each of which are an absolute blast. I promise you, we don't mention compression socks in any of the other episodes. Actually, that might not be true. I'm not quite sure, but we don't talk about it as much or in as much detail.

19:21So listen to all. going a little Michael Michalowicz binge, not just on the episodes, by the way, but on his books. Like I love all of his books, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, The Pumpkin Plan. I mean, they go on and on. So check them out, gogetdifferent.com. And Mike, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you, brother. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Mike and Fire Nation. If you've ever thought about creating your own podcast, The Podcast Journal is for you.

19:53It is gorgeous. It is faux leather, and it will guide you step-by-step to the creation and launch of your podcast in 50 days, 5-0. Visit thepodcastjournal.com. Use promo code podcast for a discount, and thank you for listening to my podcast, and I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Online Marketing Made Easy podcast, hosted by Amy Porterfield, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with a focus on online business, including digital courses, list building content, and more. Online Marketing Made Easy breaks down big ideas and strategies into actionable step-by-step processes.

20:27A recent episode that will help you get more results with a whole lot less stress is on four ways to avoid burnout. Listen to Online Marketing Made Easy wherever you get your podcasts. Leveraging fractional staffing might just be the key to unlocking growth for you and your business. Get started today with an exclusive offer from Belay. Download their latest resource, the power of productivity for free. Just text FIRE to 55123. That's F-I-R-E to 55123 to get started.