Founder's Story - Lead Magnet Mastery: Jon Davids Unveils Marketing Superpowers | S2: E36

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

This is brought to you by BiOptimizers, whom I LOVE their MAGNESIUM BREAKTHROUGH product has helped me sleep better, stay focused, and feel all-around healthier.Check out their products at http://bioptimizers.com/danrobbins use promo code FOUNDERS for 10% off any order.Jon Davids, founder and CEO of Influicity and the author of "Marketing Superpowers," dives into the essentials of effective lead generation and building a brand that magnetically attracts customers. Davids shares his journey from a struggling student to a savvy entrepreneur who mastered the art of identifying business opportunities and leveraging media to amplify his ventures.Discussing his transition into authorship, Davids describes writing his book as a marathon, an intense seven-month endeavor that culminated in a comprehensive guide to creating compelling marketing strategies. His book distills lessons learned from working with over 20,000 influencers, revealing how businesses of all sizes can draw in audiences without relentless advertising.Our Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Founders Story. If you've watched this show, you know, I've mentioned it. Leads are the lifeblood of your business. Marketing, if you don't have any lead generation, if you're not creating a product or brand that people want to buy, people want to go after, then your business will likely die. And which is sad. That's why today we have John Davids. He's the founder and CEO of Influicity and author of

Marketing Superpowers. He's talked to some incredible people in his time. We're going to dive into all that. John, welcome to the show. Daniel, I'm so excited to be here. Man, I love that you got this new book. Do you have the book with you? I got it right here. I got so many to be here. Man, I love that you got this new book. Do you have the book with you? I got it right here. I got so many right there, man. So how was it? Before we even dive into your story and everything, we're going to do something different.

How was it becoming an author? It was a grueling seven-month process. And if you had told me at the beginning all the work that was going to go into it, I probably would have backed off. But I got to say, by the time you're finished it and when you're in it, you're just going. It's like running a marathon. It takes a long time, but at the end of it, wow, to actually get a printed copy of your book in your hands, nothing like it. How was the process of the writing? Did you write like a chapter a day, a page a day. Like how was that process? The process. So fortunately, I had spent two years prior actually getting into the writing habit.

I write these long posts on LinkedIn and on Twitter. And so I have an audience there and people kind of like my stuff. And so I was already in the habit of spending a lot of time writing. For the book, the difference was you would write and write and write, you know, hundreds and hundreds of words. And then you'd realize like maybe you got a chapter out of that or two pages. So for me, it was just a matter of when I got into the groove, keep it going as long as you can. And, uh, and then at the end of it, I think I had something like, uh, you know, I don't know, 90,000 words, but it takes a while to get there. That's amazing. I'm writing a book right now. So

I really needed this advice and I feel like many days I'm not totally not motivated. Let's go back to your story and how it all started. What was that spark in your life where you're like, you know what, I'm going to be an entrepreneur. This is what I want to do. I want to work for myself. I was a kid that just wasn't very good at a lot of stuff. I tried hard at school, didn't do super well. I tried hard at sports. I was okay. I was never all that good. And what I really figured out was I'm really good at this whole figuring out supply-demand arbitrage thing, which as you get older, you realize that's just business. Get something for cheap, sell it for more money, provide a lot of value in the interim, and that's called a business. So when I was in college, I figured out that I loved magazines. I'd always loved kind of media. That was my business. And I started a little online internet company. This is like BuzzFeed before BuzzFeed was around. And long story short, I figured out how to get people to write stuff on the internet for free

because I had no money as a 17-year-old kid, just first year of college. And then from there, I figured out how to build audience. And over the course of about eight months, I went from having this little tiny blog with no readers to having 2 million people on my blog reading it every single day and started making money with Google AdWords and just kind of selling advertising. So that was how I started. And I've been going from there. So it's been a while and I'm sure the landscape has changed, but a lot of things maybe remain the same. I feel like I look at some videos, some branding videos from 30, 50 years ago, and I'm shocked about how those videos might still do well today.

So what are you seeing? I know your book is, it's not a marketing book, but creating a brand that people really love and that just generate leads for you. How do people do that? Yeah, marketing superpowers is basically the formula that I figured out after working with 20,000 influencers over the last 10 years or so. So I started this company in 2015 called Influicity, helping brands work with influencers. These are people on YouTube and then eventually it was like Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and everything else. And what I started to realize was people that create content online have this magnetic draw

to them and they're able to bring people in. They get your thumb to actually stop swiping mid-swipe because you're doing something that's interesting. You say something. You have a certain look. You have a certain activity that you're doing. And so I started to study how influencers build audience and build brand. And then I extrapolated all that and said, okay, how can a business do this? If you are an e-commerce company or you're a construction company or a home services company, maybe you're doing a million, 5, 10, 20, 30 million in revenue, but how do you take it so that you don't need to constantly market and sell and instead have people forming lines outside your door? How do people

follow you because what you're doing is so compelling? And I put all that in a book and hopefully people can take it and use it to build their business and get a lot more leads. So what is something that you've done or something that maybe your clients have done that just always works? I create content that consistently provides value

in an interesting and educational way and brings people back to my own feeds. So LinkedIn, podcast, email, Instagram, that's where I make a lot of content and other places as well. And so figuring out what is your, I call it the movement formula. What is the unifying belief that you have that you're going to surround all your content with? What are all the things you're going to do to create faith that what you're saying is true and is right? And then the last piece is what action can people take? And in the case of social media, they can follow you. In the case if you have a newsletter, they can subscribe.

And in the case if you sell something, they can buy it and actually consume your product. So it comes down to those three things, belief, faith, and action. And for me, creating content, I'm always trying to provide tons of value. And again, do it in a way that's interesting. We will return to our show shortly. But first, let's talk about today's sponsor, Magnesium Breakthrough by BioOptimizers. Did you know four out of five Americans don't get enough magnesium? Crucial for over 300 biochemical reactions in your body.

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other platforms. We've seen this. They had this stories feature for a while where they tried to copy Instagram stories that lasted maybe two weeks. I think it's a good idea. I think that people are getting into the habit of consuming short form online video a la TikTok, Instagram reels, YouTube shorts. LinkedIn is a different animal though. And I can tell you, cause I make content for all the platforms. LinkedIn is a place where people do go to generally do business and advance their careers. So are people going to want to swipe in the same way they do on TikTok in the LinkedIn app? I'm not so convinced, but can you retrain them to maybe think of the app a different way? Maybe. So I think it's a good experiment. We'll

see if it's still around when this recording actually is broadcast in a little bit. I hate to laugh, but it is kind of funny how many times they've tried to do something and then it kind of fell off. And then the old stuff just remains working. What are you seeing when it comes to the platforms that you're on or your clients? What are maybe one platform that you're like, I'm really, really focused on this one? Short form video is the most universal use case right now for brands of any size, whether you are a one person business working out of your garage or a 50,000 person company. Brands are built right now with short form video. That means YouTube shorts, TikTok, Instagram reels.

And the reason is because you're able to flood the top of funnel, which is the top awareness that you create. And then from there, you can have all kinds of longer form and more rich features like long form written content, long form podcasts, etc, where people can learn more, but you're going to get their attention generally with short form video. I was watching a recent interview with Mr. Beast and I was fascinated by the fact that he still totally focuses on YouTube and they were asking him about different platforms that seem like YouTube is still king for him. How do you feel about that? Since I know you were on YouTube and stuff for a long time, you know, way back in the day, you've also done media side. So

how do you see these changes with, is it YouTube that you feel like is super strong, a giant still? Or is it something else? YouTube is the new television. You talk to anybody under the age of 20, they don't sit down in their living room and turn on this big honking thing that we call a TV. Their TV is their phone or maybe their iPad or maybe their laptop. So I think YouTube is the default television.

And the other thing that I pull from that quote from Mr. Beast, which is you're right, he's still very, very focused on YouTube, is that people should stay in their zone of genius when it comes to making content. So Mr. Beast is built for YouTube. Could he do very well on Instagram? And yes, he can and he does. But I think it's a smart thing to do to say, as the creator, where does my content live in the most real and the best sense of the content I'm making? And if it's YouTube, then just stay there.

I appreciate that because I feel like, you know, there's been certain people out there who are very vocal around like, be everywhere every minute, but most people don't have the ability or capability to even do that well. And I feel like, you know, am I doing something wrong because I'm really only focused on like one or two platforms?

So I appreciate you saying that. How do you feel about with AI and disruption and changes and, you know, the ability to now pump out, I can make short form content using like Opus Clips or Opus Pro, you know, the ability to now pump out, I can make short-form content using like Opus Clips or Opus Pro, you know, in 10 minutes. How do you feel about what AI is going to change all this? I think there are probably kids out there, teenagers and people in their 20s who are the Walt Disneys of our day, who are figuring out how to make the next Mickey Mouse, how to make the next Bugs Bunny. If you think about

the evolution from silent films to real people to talkies, and then all of a sudden you had cartoons in the 50s, 60s, 70s. And at the time, I can only imagine people would have thought, why am I watching this animation, these characters? What do I want to watch a mouse on the screen for? And I think people that feel the same way right now, why do I want to watch an AI character on the screen? For the same reason you watch Homer Simpson on the screen, for the same reason you watch Bugs Bunny on the screen. So I think that's probably where we're headed over the next couple of decades.

And we're in very early stages right now. Yeah, I've seen the software that you can write a prompt and it makes a whole TV show or movie. I can only imagine Hollywood is freaking out. The movie industry is just really freaking out right now based on that. But I think as a consumer, I can only appreciate being able to customize my own content. I have so many show ideas or movie ideas. If I could make that, I mean, that's amazing. So if I picked up Marketing Superpowers right now, what are some things that you hope I learn from it. So if I picked up Marketing Superpowers right now, what are some

things that you hope I learn from it? I hope you do. MarketingSuperpowersBook.com. You can go there and actually get a few free chapters. The big takeaway that I want people to have from it is that there's a way for you to build your brand, which is a 180 from what you're doing today. And the way I describe it to marketers, so if you're someone who spends a lot of money on Google ads or on Facebook ads, I have conversations with the marketing math people, as I call them, where all they're focused on is, here's how I can spend a dollar to make $5. Hey, I just figured out how to spend a dollar to make $7. And then I come at them and I say, if you pick up the information in this book, you can spend a dollar to make $100, make $1,000. Because when you have a brand that brings people in magnetically and also has them pay more money for the product you're selling, the ROI is infinite, literally infinite.

I hope people at least have a change of mindset and can start focusing more on brand and making a lot more money off of it versus just continuing to rent the audience on Google and Facebook forever. That is something we all need. I think a lot of people don't charge as much as they should. You know, one of our biggest pain points, I guess, as businesses, we're not making enough money and it might be because we're not charging what we should be charging. So if we could charge more and get more and have lifetime value from these customers and clients, then, you know, more people will survive over the years. And I hope we do. You know, I hope entrepreneurship will continue and we can continue thriving. So thank you so much, John. Is there anywhere else if they can get in touch with you besides the book? Follow me across social media. I'm at johndavids.com. Get on the newsletter there and pick up the book at marketingsuperpowersbook.com. Marketing Superpowers Book. I read my free chapter. So thank you for that. I can't wait. I hope you have an audio version, by the way. Oh, man, I have the whole thing. It's on Audible.

There you go. So there's no excuse. Pick up the book. You can get a free chapter. You can get the Audible. But John, thank you for joining us today on Founders Story. Thanks, Daniel. Thank you for tuning in to Founders Story. Keep exploring, keep dreaming, and join us next time for more inspiring entrepreneurial journeys.