Predictive Social Media: A Six Sigma Guide with Jim Lupkin: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation! JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire! Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Goal Digger Podcast. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives and we'll be breaking down predictive social media. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought Jim Lupkin into EO Fire Studios. Jim is a social media architect, international speaker, and author. He is the only social media expert endorsed by Dr. Mikkel J. Harry, co-creator of Six Sigma. In today's information, we'll talk about falling in love with the idea of being authentic, building real relationships with other human beings and falling in love with learning how to scale, knowing how to align core values in your personal life and oh, so much more.

0:48And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Jim and our sponsors. Nudge, hosted by Phil Agnew, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Ever notice how the smallest changes can have the biggest impact? On Nudge, you learn simple evidence-backed tips to help you kick bad habits, get a raise and grow a business. Oh, and it's the UK's fast-growing business podcast. A recent episode on how to win any argument shares decade-long research into persuasion from a world-leading neuroscientist. Listen to Nudge wherever you get your podcasts.

1:19Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker, Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions. Jim, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Oh, well, first of all, hello, Fire Nation. I so appreciate being here. And what is one thing? I would say that the power of relationships in growing a business as an entrepreneur is absolutely incredibly important for your business.

2:07Don't lose sight of the power of relationships. Fire Nation, there's a reason why they say your network is your net worth. You want to be building that network. You want to be fostering those relationships. They will pay massive dividends. And as we talked a little bit about in the introduction, we'll be talking today about a Six Sigma guide to mastering core values, relationships, and a disruptive system that is changing the world across all of business. So let's talk about Six Sigma, specifically, Jim, for social media. How does this specific model guarantee that one out of five prospects, that's 20 % Fire Nation, will convert into customers?

2:54I think to guarantee it, you just need to look back at the last 35 years of Six Sigma in general. You know, when you look at Six Sigma, and some of you might be thinking, what is Six Sigma? So I would say Google it. And you'll see that 87 % of the Fortune 100 companies, and I believe it's seven out of 10 of the Fortune 500 companies here in the US, use Six Sigma in their framework. And it's just as powerful around the world. And why is that? And it's the same reason for what I have today. It is predictability. It's being able to take a set of sequences, timing and process, wrapping them together through social media, and then it spits out a predictive result.

3:35And in the case of what I do, it has always been one out of five. And of course, you need that vary of some. Sometimes it might be one out of three. Other times it might be one out of six or seven, depending on people's backgrounds and relationships, et cetera. But when you follow the methodology of something so documented like Six Sigma, That's why I can sit here and say, John, it is one out of five. And then I've been doing this for 25 years, almost 26 years now, coming this December. There's been a lot of trial and error to get to the point of being able to say it's one out of five. And Fire Nation, this is why I love when there are systems and there's data and there's analytics out there, not just for days, months, but for years and years and years, because then you know that you can get to these numbers, get to these percentages if you're applying these principles correctly.

4:25And that's why I want to talk next about disruption. It's a misunderstood concept. So why and how can Fire Nation become a disruptor? You know, let's first think about disruption. Because of COVID, one thing that I actually did, John, I'm 44 years old, and I decided I'm going to go back to school for a little bit and tidy up some of the things that need tidying up as an entrepreneur. So I've been taking classes at Babson College. And any of you that aren't familiar with that, they're rated number one in, I believe, North America for entrepreneurship, as well as Harvard Business School. And one of my classes at Harvard was disruptive innovation.

5:07And the reason I took that class is because a lot of people say they're disrupting. And I'm not even sure if they really understand what the word means. And so, you know, how do you disrupt at that 100 ,000 foot level for this call? First, you got to understand what it is. And when you look at disruption, it's really three roads that you can go down. One is sustaining innovation. Another one is low end disruption. And another one is new market disruption. So a sustaining innovation is when you create something that eventually the big boys that you're competing against will eventually do because it makes sense as part of their business model and how they make money.

5:48You do not try to build products based on that because no one ever makes it. And a good example today, John, is Clubhouse. I don't know if there's something behind the scenes that we don't know about, but just looking at it from a public point of view, everyone was all excited. And I heard so many times, Clubhouse is disrupting, disrupting. And then people would ask me privately and I go, they're not disrupting. They're in a sustaining innovation and I don't think they're going to make it. And this was about nine months ago when it was really, really hot compared to today. And look what happened.

6:18Facebook recently launched audio rooms exactly like Clubhouse. Clubhouse is not going to be able to compete with Facebook. It's a sustaining innovation. Now, maybe there is another plan there with the investors. Maybe they're looking to build it up to a certain size and then sell it off. Maybe that will work. But in a sustaining innovation, you don't win. So what you have to focus on is new market disruption or low end disruption. New market disruption is you build a product or service that a certain group of people want to use and they're currently not getting the job done anywhere else with any other product.

6:53Or a low end disruption is you build a product or service that the market wants, like what would be considered your low end customers. They want it and the competition that you're taking the customers away from, they don't mind that you're taking them away because they're the low profit margins. They're the customers that they really don't care if they lose or not. And then what happens is you take them, you start adding features, you start swimming upstream, and you keep taking away these layers of customers. And then one day, the big boy or girl that owns a big company wakes up and realizes that you're a real competition and now they can't beat you because you have too much momentum.

7:29And that's where you see industries collapse and these new companies pop up. So I hope in the world of entrepreneurship, I hope people that are launching companies stop misusing a word, get educated on it, because if you truly understand disruption, you can own your market very easily. You can own your market, Fire Nation. And that is one thing that I've talked a lot about is the higher the barrier that you put up with what you're doing, the lower your competition is going to be. So what can you do that's building a motor on your business so you can get that momentum, them that traction that Jim's talking about so that if and when your competition actually wakes up and sees you crushing it in your area, it's too late.

8:10Like they're too far behind you. And then, you know, if it's a big enough competitor, they may just, you know, come with you at you with an offer you can't refuse because they just want to acquire you instead of trying to play catch up because they know they may not even be able to. And I love how Gary Vaynerchuk talks about how he day trades attention because that's the name of the game. It's about attention. And And if it takes disruption to get that attention, then you need to be that disruptor. And now, Jim, we know that word of mouth is key, but we also know that we need to perfect the scaling of this word of mouth so that people are talking about us, about our businesses and products and services when we're not in the room.

8:49So how can we perfect scaling word of mouth? First, we have to believe word of mouth. And we have to believe that word of mouth works. Then we have to believe that word of mouth can happen on social media. And then we have to ask ourselves, can it scale? And many people believe it's not possible to scale. And I see that's why a lot of people then resort to paid advertising and start pouring in a lot of money with advertising. And I'm a big fan of advertising. It's great as long as you have a word of mouth strategy that scales. So I believe we're in a day and age now, John, where people do believe word of mouth works.

9:31I think majority of entrepreneurs believe it does work on social media. There's just too many great stories of it working. I think we're at a point now where this passe of, but can it actually scale where I can document it and see the actual conversions and have key metrics the way that I can with advertising? I think we're at that crossroads right now. And so that's what I've been doing for over two decades is perfecting that. So how do you do it? First, look at how you do it offline. and then start asking yourself, how do I take that and transfer it online? So a few examples for our time together is one, how do you have one-on-one conversations offline that generate business quickly?

10:26And then how do you do that online through something like a Facebook messenger or a private messenger on LinkedIn? How do you follow up? Maybe old school is you do a lot of email or maybe you do text marketing and that's or maybe you send snail mail and that's how you do your staying in touch. To me, that's called communication. So how do how do you stay in touch with your good friends offline? Now, how do you do it online? For example, an 80-20 rule of posting 80 % personal and 20 % business in your news feeds on any social media platform will actually do it. So this is definitely a loaded question.

11:07So I would sum it up into think about how you build real relationships in the real world and then ask yourself, how do you actually replicate that in the online world? So Fire Nation, you're getting a lot of value bombs and we've only just begun. We're going to talk about value-based entrepreneurial thinking. We'll be talking about building fierce brand loyalty and so much more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Welcome to the world of entrepreneurship. More things added to your to-do list every day and less time to accomplish the things that matter most. Add to all that the number of tools it takes to run your coaching programs, online courses, growing team, and your physical product sales, and you've really got your hands full.

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12:24It's not a miracle, it's HubSpot. Visit HubSpot.com to get started today. Entrepreneurs on Fire is sponsored by BetterHelp. As entrepreneurs, the comparison game is real, and we've all experienced it to some degree, whether it's comparing your recent launch to someone else's or second-guessing your team setup because another business owner said having more employees is better, there's one truth. Comparison is the thief of joy. Not sure how to get out of the cycle of comparing your business to others? Well, therapy can help you focus on how you want to run your business versus how others say you should be doing it.

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14:07Taylor has put together a free training that's going to teach you how to land a TEDx talk in as little as 90 days. Join Taylor to learn exactly what TEDx organizers are looking for in their speakers, how to write a talk that goes viral once it goes online, and more. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire. Join Taylor for this free training and get your message out of your head, out of your heart, and out into the world where it belongs. That's thought-leader.com. So Jim, I want to talk about value-based entrepreneurial thinking. What exactly is this and why do you believe in it so much? I learned about value-based entrepreneurial thinking about 11 years ago.

14:51It was around 2010, 2011. I met the creator of Six Sigma when I lived in Arizona here in the United States and started teaching me this idea of building companies based on core values. And it was a very interesting concept to me because everyone makes decisions based on money earned. And here he's teaching, you don't make decisions based on money, you make decisions based on core values. So the idea in layman terms is this, you discover your five core values, your top five core values, the ones that bring absolute joy in your life, which could be connected to what people call as passion or hungry, but it's, it's peeling back the onion even more and, and seeing what are the five things that actually bring me joy where I can get out of bed every day and find joy in the process.

15:39You, you, you hear all the time on entrepreneurs saying, if you want to make it big, you got to find the joy in the process. You got to find the joy in actually doing the work, not when you sell your company or you go public or or something big happens. You're finding the joy in the process itself. And that's why you see some of these very big entrepreneurs building trillion dollar companies. It's because they're finding love in the process. But how do you actually do that? And one way is determining your core values and then saying, OK, here's my top five core values. And this is an exercise that I that I cover in my system.

16:13And how does these core values align with my business. So when I wake up every day, how am I living my core values in my work today? And if I get frustrated with work or something feels like it's taking too long, it's probably conflicting with one of my core values. And that's when I know I need to go hire somebody to do that job because it's not aligned with one of my core values. But when you get there, you also got to say to yourself, how do I align these core values in my personal life. Because if your personal life is off, your business life is going to be off. It got to all flow together.

16:49So find joy with your core values in your personal life, your business life. And your business thrives because every day you wake up, you can't help but to be excited to work, work, work, work. And it's that thing where people say, I don't feel like I'm working. I feel like I'm on vacation all the time. And I saw this reiterate when I was taking a course at Babson this past year, their entire program has been switched to value-based entrepreneurial thinking based on a particular book. And they're teaching it from a company value position, not just the core values. So even leading entrepreneurial universities now are starting to pick up on this because they're realizing we have to stop making decisions based on profit.

17:34we have to start making decisions based on connecting with our soul with our heart that brings us to joy because then we make the right decisions in business we don't take advantage of people we don't hurt people we actually embrace humankind i know it's big out there but that's where i i believe the world is moving towards and it's something that's essential fire nation this is fascinating stuff i mean i hope you're asking yourself while you're listening to jim talk where you find your joy. Because how do you want to live your life? I love this quote by Earl Nightingale, which is success and happiness is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.

18:15It's not the realization. It's not the end state. It's not the accomplishment of that goal. It's the progressive realization of that goal or ideal and the worthy goal and ideal at that. that means it's the journey, Fire Nation. It's the day-to-day. I've had so many guests on my show in the past 10 years and 3 ,000 episodes who have said their worst day of their life is the day they sold their business. And they literally were working for years and some of them decades with this in mind, that that was going to be the best day of their life. And it happens to be the exact opposite. So where do you find joy?

18:55Jim, let's talk about building relationships through social media. How have you found that building these relationships through social media actually drives the fiercest brand loyalty? I would love some examples of this. I love relationships. I love relationships because it creates a connection between you and someone else. And think about it, when you build a great relationship with someone, and even the idea of building a great relationship with someone is definitely many different layers. Like you can be an acquaintance with someone or you can be best friends. And then there's all these things in the middle.

19:34But how does that create fierce loyalty? When you're looking at a relationship, how do we define a relationship? And a lot of things out there say it's based on no like and trust. They know that you exist. They like you and they like you because your core values are lining up. Like if you look at any and this goes back to the core values. If you look at anyone that you have a decent relationship with, one or two of your core values are the same as theirs or they vibe perfectly together. It's why you guys feel connected. And so that's that like the trust piece. The trust happens with spending time.

20:17So fierce loyalty. Think about it. If 100 people like you because they feel that your your values are aligned and they trust you, they believe that you would never take advantage of them, that whatever you offer to them is only goodness to elevate their life. won't they be loyal to you? Or if you're doing some sort of fancy marketing where you are advertising and selling them on feature benefit and getting them sold on your product, well, what happens when the next company comes out and has maybe the same identical product or service? The difference is they have better marketing and they're going to go with them because there's no loyalty there.

21:02I'll give you a few examples from my own life. This is a great example for what's happening today. So I am working on a platform that I'll be launching that I believe is going to disrupt the world of business. And in order to do that, I'm going down this road of do I get funding? Do I not get funding? And in a COVID time, there's a lot of reasons not to do or to do. But because I've been doing this for so long, you know, I can fund this to a certain point. And I reached out to a group of friends, colleagues that know, like, and trust me, John, that know my background. So I have influence with them.

21:49I got the relationship with them, meaning everything I've ever done in my life with them, I've helped elevate them. I have literally an army of people right now that are helping me launch this platform without pay right now. That is significant. Why would an army – now, one or two, you may say, well, Jim, that's kind of how it works. I'm talking an army of people, John, more than 10 people that are working to launch this platform for no pay, all with let's change an industry and let's unite together and lock arms. You are all here for a very special reason. I can go out and raise money and take six months of my life to do it, which is not an issue.

22:32Or let's just get it going now and start making a difference. What do you guys want me to do? And the team is like, let's get going now because we trust you. We have a relationship with you. We know you'll lay on the battlefield exhausted before this thing fails and you have the influence. That is fierce loyalty to have a team work with you with that thinking. Every time I share that with some people, the response is always the same. How did you get those people to work with you without demanding that they get paid right now? And I say it's fierce loyalty. It's that relationship. They know that I'm gonna take care of them and they're gonna take care of me.

23:12It's a two-way street. We have trust for each other and we believe in each other. Um, that might be one of the greatest examples. And then I have a lot of examples from a customer point of view with working with businesses and I think 106 countries right now in my career. Um, but that might be one of the biggest ones. Cause when I, when I shared that with people, John, people seem to be shocked that people are willing to give that much time to an idea. I mean, we, we, we haven't even officially launched a platform yet. So it's still an idea mode to have that level of commitment. It comes back to fierce loyalty.

23:44Because that's people's most valuable asset is time. And so it is surprising when people will give up their most valuable assets to help. But Fire Nation, when you build this type of fierce loyalty through the process that Jim's talking about, it becomes less surprising and actually, in some cases, even expected. And so let's get right down to it. How does the predictive social media system solve, let's just be frank, one of the biggest problems that we all as entrepreneurs have, which is running out of people to talk to about our business, our products, our services? It was about 20 years ago when I was doing a business and social media was definitely in its infancy stage compared to now.

24:29And someone asked me, how were you able to do as well as you did. I was 22, I believe. And, um, I was, I was mid college and I, and, and I sat back and I took a, and I had to think for a moment because I did, I didn't have very many skills, John. I was a young kid. Um, I didn't, I didn't really know anything about business and, but I had a lot of fire and heart, but I lacked everything else. And I really thought for a moment and I said, I think it's because I never ran out of people to talk to. So as many times as people said no to me, I always had a new fresh group of people to talk to 24 hours later.

25:04And that has been one of my staples throughout my whole life is if you never run out of people to talk to, you'll figure things out eventually and become successful. And that is one of the C's within the predictive social media system, which is seven C's. So the way it all works with never running out of people is this. First, you have to start with contribution. And contribution is broken into three components. The first component is what people would know as personal development. So it's like you got to get all those cobwebs out of your head so that you can think straight. Then you go to core values.

25:38Now that your head is clear, now you can figure out what your core values are. Then and only then can you actually build real relationships with people that are true and authentic and not fake. Those three components are in the contribution. Now you move to capabilities. The capabilities of my system is how do you actually do predictive social media on any social platform, no matter which one it is. The third C is compliance. And there's just a lot of do's and don'ts on these sites that can get you in trouble, not just with the sites themselves, but with the FDA, the FTC and other government regulation or every other government agencies around the country and the world.

26:19So it's understanding the do's and don'ts when you're growing a company on social media. Then you go into the fourth C. The fourth C is conversation. So you go out to all of your existing contacts on social media, and it's how to have the right conversations that build the relationship stronger while at the same time bringing up your business and actually getting them excited. Once they're excited, you bring them into the next C, which is called community. community is a series of steps that motivate people to get excited kind of like in a big group and i mean i i have some friends that have groups of over half a million people uh in in inside of facebook as an example and that community is very it's just a fire and here's what happens though at this point you run out of people to talk to even though everything i just said sounds great you mastered all of that, you just run out of people to talk to.