Living The Red Life - Apple's Mastery: Strategies Behind a $3 Trillion Empire

Starting point is 00:00:00 When you look at Apple, it's done a crazy good job of expanding out of where it started. It started with computers, it went into music, it then went into phones, back into computers, laptops, now AirPods, right? Headphones, a massive part of Apple's product suite. Apple has really conquered multiple different industries. And why? Because A, it knows that it's got the customer base. B, it knows it has the brand and it sees synergistic avenues. This is something that you must do as a business owner. You must create synergistic avenues. My name is Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast. I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. What's up guys? Today we're going to talk about

Starting point is 00:00:50 business lessons from Apple, a $2 trillion company, one of the best companies in the history of the planet and what you can learn in your business today from Apple. I'm sat here right now if you're watching on video with the new Apple Vision Pros, they just came out. I've been playing around with them in the last 24, 48 hours. And it just makes me continually think how Apple are ahead of the game. I've done a YouTube video on this. I've talked about Apple from my stage, when I do my presentations, and I'm constantly referring people to Apple about different business lessons they can learn and apply for their own companies. So let's dive in. What are some of the biggest lessons you can learn, billion dollar, trillion dollar lessons that you can learn in today's show? Well, I'm going to

Starting point is 00:01:35 cover a few things. The first thing I'm going to talk about is separating yourself from the market. I'm going to talk about innovation. I'm going to talk about premium luxury quality and prices. I'm going to talk about lifetime value and I'm going to talk about more products, innovation, creating new brands, creating sub-brands and owning multiple different industries. We're going to cover all of that in practical lessons for you and your business. So let's start with the history of Apple, right? Apple started many, many years ago, and it actually branched out into many aspects of business and products over time. Famous, firstly, for the Mac, right? The computer. But then they go, huh, well, we need something that can penetrate a bigger marketplace.

Starting point is 00:02:19 Not everyone is able to buy these expensive computers right now. So what did they do? They released the iPod. This was a big, big moment for Apple because it now penetrated new generations that would one day, people like me, 20 years later become their best, biggest, lifetime fan, lifetime customer. And in hindsight, that was pretty smart

Starting point is 00:02:40 if you think about it, right? They got me hooked as a 10, 12 year old kid, right? Obsessed with the iPod. And then I progressed. They released the iPhone. And then I progressed as an adult, started buying MacBooks, obviously, eventually computers for my office. I've spent over $100,000 with Apple. So they've been very good at developing products for different age ranges, developing different products over time, learning what people want and staying ahead of the game. If you look over the last 30 or 40 years, technology has changed so much, right? So one thing I love about Apple is not only do they adapt to the times, but they kind of lead the times. So think about for yourself in your business,

Starting point is 00:03:23 what do people want right now? What is everyone selling in my industry? We all do that, right? We look at what's the competitor doing? What are they selling? What's hot right now? Very few of us do what Apple does. Where they go, what's selling right now? But I care about what's selling over the next 10 years. What can I start selling over the next 10 years? How can I separate myself? They brought out the vision pros. They weren't the first, right, to do it, but they made it really, really great. They weren't the first to invent the mobile phone, but they did it really, really well. And they created separation, which leads me to point number two. So point number one

Starting point is 00:04:01 is progressing through the marketplace, different products to meet different needs, understanding the marketplace, not only what's selling right now, but where the marketplace is going. Okay. Which leads me to point number two, how does Apple create separation in the marketplace? There's a lot of mobile phones out there. There's a lot of technology. There's different ways to listen to music. There's TV. Apple has Apple TV. But they're very good at creating separation. Something that I teach everyone. Something that I wish a lot of my customers and clients focus more on when I'm teaching them business. You have to separate yourself from everyone else in the marketplace. Most people sell the same thing and expect different

Starting point is 00:04:40 results. Kind of like the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. It's the same in your business. Generally, if you're just selling the same thing with nothing unique about it, you're not going to compete. You're not going to beat the competitors. You're not going to separate yourself. So have a think, right? How do I take my current products and service and create a little bit of separation. How am I able to separate myself from the rest of the industry, the rest of the market? How am I able to create some uniqueness? I've done that many times in my business and it doesn't always have to be like crazy wild. You don't have to hire hundreds of engineers and create the next iPhone, but it can be something that flips it on its head, right? If you can flip the normal product or service on its head, you're generally going to win. Apple's done a great job

Starting point is 00:05:30 of this in their space, right? There was a lot of phones out there, but they were the first to create a full screen based phone. They disrupted Blackberry, which were the leaders for a very long time with their keypad, right? They disrupted them by creating that full effect of the full glass effect, right? And this was one thing that really separated them. They had the simple, small sleek button at the bottom and then a full glass phone. So again, they're not reinventing the wheel. They're just changing how the wheel looks and operates, okay? So that separation in the marketplace, they've always crushed and they've also crushed it from their branding, okay?

Starting point is 00:06:08 Apple have this like amazing placement in the marketplace where they're not super luxury premium and they're not cheap, they're expensive but affordable, right? Which means everyone can still afford it, even people that probably shouldn't be able to afford it, people that don't have money make themselves afford it because it's still within grasp, right? It's kind of like if you look at a Lamborghini. A Lamborghini is out of grasp for most people. It's just not possible for them to

Starting point is 00:06:34 buy a $300,000 car. But then a brand like Mercedes or BMW, often seen as premium, but still within grasp. They probably, a lot of people shouldn't be paying that much in car payments and leases, but they do because it's still kind of within grasp. That's what I think Apple does a great job of is they hit mass market, they're more premium luxury, they have better margins, right? And they're still able to create enough buzz and effect that even people that shouldn't be buying Apple products because they can't really afford it are buying Apple products. If you can master those two things and combine them where you're luxury and premium, you've got higher margins, but you're still mass market and people want to buy it because they love it so much, you're going to win the game of business, okay? There's other brands that have done the same. You know, good examples are water. I always talk about actually selling water,

Starting point is 00:07:26 the liquid that you drink, right? Water is one of the biggest commodities in the world. It's everywhere. 70% of the planet is water, but companies are able to sell four, five, six dollar bottles of water because of how they position their brand, okay? So think about for your brand, depending on your pricing model and your positioning in the marketplace, how do I create that luxury premium feel that people want to pay a little bit more and they're actually okay paying more for because of how well I've branded myself, right? The next part that I think is fascinating with Apple is how it's continued to grow into different industries. When you look at Apple, it's done a crazy good job of expanding out of where it started. It started with computers. It went into music. It then went into phones, back into

Starting point is 00:08:11 computers, laptops, now AirPods, right? Headphones, a massive part of Apple's product suite. It grew into apps, right? So now it makes a lot of money from app revenue. It grew into TV. Now it has its big Apple TV channel. The list goes on. Apple has really conquered multiple different industries. And why? Because A, it knows that it's got the customer base. B, it knows it has the brand. And it sees synergistic avenues. This is something that you must do as a business owner. You must create synergistic avenues. So for example, Apple says to itself, well, we have millions of customers that all buy the iPhone. Why don't we sell them the earpieces, the headphones that can go with the iPhone so they can listen to music and take calls on the go

Starting point is 00:09:05 without the old-fashioned cable version. Voila! Becomes a crazy big part of Apple's success. Tens of millions of copies sold and they re-bring out a new AirPod every single year to make even more money and they even get a bunch of suckers like me that have spent millions of dollars buying replacement pairs.

Starting point is 00:09:27 They don't make money the first time you buy. They make money every time you buy. I'm on my 35th pair of AirPods, I believe. So like I said, there's some suckers out there that have made them millions more dollars buying pair two, three, four, five, six. And I think they're pretty genius how they do it. If you ever hold an AirPod, right? Put it in your pocket. It slips around everywhere. It's the sleekest design ever. Not because it wants to look good, in my opinion, because they know it's going to slide out your pocket and you're going to have to buy more pairs, right? So Apple is so genius at adding these synergistic products, okay? They thought, okay, well, we've got a massive customer base listening to music. We want to build our subscription services. Why don't we add Apple TV?

Starting point is 00:10:08 Now people can use Apple TV on all their platforms that they own, the iPad, the iPhone, the Macs. Right. And it will come pre-installed. And if they get a membership to Apple Music and Family, we can include these items, right? So Apple is genius at creating these synergies that bolt on top to their current customer base. Every single one of you out there right now can all do this. It's super easy. It's not complicated. And one of the biggest mistakes product owners and brand owners make is not creating more products. You have a group of customers right now that want more products. They want more items. They want more products. They want more items. They want more products. They want to do more business with you.

Starting point is 00:10:50 So have a think to yourself. How can I sell more good stuff, stuff my customers want, need, and are probably buying somewhere else to my customers, okay? Now, of course, you've got to do product research. You've got to look at the market. You've got to look what your market. You've got to look, what are your customers are buying? What's easy to sell? How do I test it without ordering 100,000 units, right? So there's got to be a level of common sense. But if you get that level of common

Starting point is 00:11:13 sense squared away, then you can make a ton of money selling more of the product your customers want that they're buying from a competitor by simply adding it as an order bump, adding it as an upsell, emailing it out to them. It's one of the easiest ways to grow a company. And we've made millions and millions of dollars doing this. And Apple is a great example of that. Okay. And that leads me beautifully onto the next point. Lifetime value. What does lifetime value mean? How much money do I make over a lifetime? And I often reference Apple when I do live calls, consulting, all of these things. I say to them on a live call, I say to members or on stages, I go, hey, tell me, put your hand up if you have an iPhone. Go through this in your head with me, guys, if you listen on this podcast. How much, okay, you have

Starting point is 00:12:00 an iPhone, good. How much do you think you're going to spend with Apple over your entire lifetime? Have a think. People kind of think, and they go $10,000, $20,000, $50,000, $40,000, $10,000, $5,000, right? That number is generally going to sit between $10,000 and $30,000. I've spent way over $100,000 with Apple already between all the computers, iPads, phones for my office, devices on my own phones. I upgrade every year. So Apple are amazing at increasing how much they make per customer, lifetime value. Every big company in the world does this very, very well. They're able to increase the lifetime value of how much they make, which means in turn you can pay more to acquire the customer.

Starting point is 00:12:47 So for example, say Apple sells an iPhone for $1,000, but they actually know they're going to make $20,000 over a lifetime. And say the iPhone costs them $400 to make. On the first purchase, they have $600 in margin. However, over a lifetime, they have $19,600 in margin, right? So Apple can happily pay $600 to acquire a customer. I know they pay way less than that, I'm sure, right? But they could pay that $600 to make the sale because they're going to make $19,000 on average over a lifetime, right? A lot of brands don't see this long term. So a lot of brands will sell a $50 product and they'll want to make $40 in profit selling it. And it's like, it's never going to happen by the time you advertise it and all those things. When really you should go, how can I sell

Starting point is 00:13:35 a $50 product at break even, or maybe make a little bit of money, or maybe even lose a little bit of money, but I make $300 from those customers over the rest of the year. That's what marketing is. That's what business building is. That is one of the secrets of billion dollar brands. And that is called lifetime value. How'd you do that? Well, all the ways I just explained, create more products they want, promote those products, upsell them, cross sell them, text them, engage with them, build a brand, build a tribe, build a community, make them want to do more and more and more business with you and stay a lifelong fan by, of course, having an amazing product like most people would say Apple does, okay? Now, that leads me to the next point. Build a monster brand. No one can deny Apple has not built a monster brand. It's famous around the world. Everyone wants it. Everyone has it. There's lines out the door whenever they release a new product. Everyone wants the sleekness,

Starting point is 00:14:30 the likeness, and the association with the brand Apple. There's other brands out there that do an amazing job too, but in the technology space, it's hard to name someone that does it as well as Apple, and that's probably why they're a two trillion trillion company with a T because they've built the game of branding into technology. Not many companies are able to do this. Most tech companies are kind of boring. Think about the TVs, Roku or whatever, right? The TVs on your wall, Sony and stuff. You don't care about being associated with Sony, right? As much as you do with Apple. So Apple has been able to penetrate people into a brand, tribe, community, society. Think about it when you're texting with your buddies in a group chat, that one person has a group, has a green text because they have an Android phone. You're like, oh no, someone with a green text, right?

Starting point is 00:15:22 They've created this tribe, this community where people love Brave and die hard fans of Apple. And it has this kind of like hip, kind of sleek, like kind of luxury, like yes, I've got the nicest items, but it's not crazy expensive, like I said at the start of this episode. So they've really found that perfect balance where they can kind of make it feel luxury,

Starting point is 00:15:43 make people want to show it off a little without it being too outrageously priced that most people can't afford it. Okay. So Apple's done an amazing job with its branding. There's very famous stories, for example, like Steve Jobs would walk into an Apple store and make them tear down all the lighting in the Apple store because it was too dark in there. So like he's very, you know, he's very specific. Obviously, he's not with us anymore, but he's very specific in his vision for the brand. And he would often, I think, argue with Steve Wozniak and people because he had this like, long term brand vision that no one really understood. And that's the truth of entrepreneurship. Most people think you're crazy until you're not right. But he had

Starting point is 00:16:24 this ability to kind of foresee the future and create this unique sleekness behind Apple. And if you think about it 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 25, 30 years ago, he was really the first, right? No one was really thinking about technology that way. Now you can kind of argue Elon's done it with Tesla, right? He has that like luxury sleekness I kind of see Apple and Tesla very similar in that fashion where Tesla's also affordable it's not like a 250k Lamborghini but it's kind of luxury and it's very sleek and modern and people love to show it off so great lesson in terms of branding, painting that vision, having that long-term plan, creating that tribe, creating something that people notice, right?

Starting point is 00:17:09 You see the Apple logo or you see a Mac that looks like, you know, you see a laptop that's sleek or a phone with a screen that's all glass. You probably think it's an Apple device, okay? So think about that for your own business too. How can I build that into my business? How can I really position my brand in a way where it has that like luxury feel maybe, but it's not too expensive and people wanna associate, people wanna show it off. You're creating these diehard fans

Starting point is 00:17:37 because those diehard fans are the biggest promoters, right? These are all like the holy grail home runs that entrepreneurs look for, combining all these ingredients. And when you combine all of those ingredients, innovation, separation, knowing where the marketplace is going and staying ahead, creating a lot of new products, expanding into new industries, creating lifetime value, and then building a monster brand that is the secrets of a two trillion dollar company one of the biggest companies in the history of the planet and will probably remain one of the biggest companies in the history of the planet for a very long time some amazing business lessons there that i hope you can take away and roll with into your company and i hope you can

Starting point is 00:18:20 apply them and not ignore them because look the proof's in the pudding guys apple has crushed the industry it continues to crush it these vision pros are super exciting i just dropped a new youtube video out about these explaining how these work and running my entire business 100 staff through the vision pro so go check that out on youtube too if you're not subscribed on youtube go do that if you're not subscribed on apple or go do that. If you're not subscribed on Apple or here, wherever you're listening, make sure you do that. Please leave a review on this platform as well. And until next time, guys, apply those lessons and I hope you have as much success as Apple does. I'll see you guys soon. you

Living The Red Life - Apple's Mastery: Strategies Behind a $3 Trillion Empire

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