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- [00:00]
Nicole Lapin
Coming up with a great idea for a business is hard, but once you have that great idea, starting a business should be simple. Get More when you start your business with Northwest Registered Agent, your entire business Identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Northwest registered agent has been helping businesses launch and grow for nearly 30 years. If you want to build your business while keeping your personal information secure, Northwest is the partner you need. They'll form your business, create a custom website and set up your local presence wherever you need it. Get everything from formation paperwork to custom domains and trademark registration all in one easy to use account. Form your business for just 39 bucks plus state fees. Backed by real business experts with decades of experience. And if you want more, Northwest's Premium mail forwarding gives you a physical business address separate from your private information. So don't wait. Please protect your privacy. Build your brand and set up your business in just 10 clicks. In 10 minutes, visit northwestregisteredagent.com helpwanted and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered agent@northestregisteredagent.com helpwanted do you ever feel like your money is working against you? I mean, I've been hit by overdraft fees that I didn't see coming, waited for days for paychecks to clear, and gotten blindsided by surprise charges when I just wanted to grab some quick cash from an atm. It is exhausting, especially when you're trying to get your money right. Chime understands that every dollar counts. That's why when you set up direct deposit through Chime, you get access to fee free features like free overdraft coverage, getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit and more. Learn more@chime.com helpwanted. You know that I'm a big budgeting nerd, so Chime's tools for daily balance updates and real time transaction alerts have made it easier than ever to stick to my spending plan. Chime is just banking done right. You can open a Chime checking account with no monthly fees and no maintenance fees. Plus you get access to over 50,000 fee free ATMs. That is more than the top three national banks combined. Work on your financial goals through Chime today. Open an account in just two minutes at chime.com helpwanted that is chime.com helpwanted Chime feels like progress.
- [02:07]
Morgan Lavoie
Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancor Bank NA or Stride Bank NA Members FDIC Spot Me eligibility requirements and overdraft Limits apply. Timing depends on submission of payment file Fees apply at out of network ATMs, bank ranking and number of ATMs, according to U.S. news and World Report. 2023 Chime checking account required.
- [02:26]
Jason Pfeiffer
This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfeiffer, editor in chief of.
- [02:32]
Nicole Lapin
Entrepreneur magazine, and I'm money expert Nicole Lapin. On Tuesdays, Jason and I answer the helpline and help callers solve their work problems.
- [02:40]
Jason Pfeiffer
And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.
- [02:45]
Nicole Lapin
And it starts now.
- [02:48]
Jason Pfeiffer
Think of the last time you saw something and you said, that sucks. Maybe it was a song or a product or a marketing strategy. The thing is successful, let's just admit it. It's out there in the world. It's doing its thing. Some people like it. But you, you think it's dumb and you're convinced that you're right. Today, I have a challenge for you. Instead of dismissing it, ask yourself, why does that work? It is a magic question. The more you ask it, the more you will recognize the mechanisms of success, which helps you build more successful things too. Today I will explain why it works, but first I'll show you the negativity that I'm talking about because I recently saw a lot of it and here's how. Have you ever heard of the brand Liquid Death? It is a masterclass in marketing. So in case you don't know, Liquid Death is a brand that sells canned water and iced tea, but it is packaged and marketed like an overly aggressive beer. Its tagline is murder your thirst and its advertising is ridiculous. Like making kegs of water for pregnant women, which it calls kegs for pregs. That really made me laugh. The gag has worked. It's funny attention getting and skyrocketed this brand to a 1.4 billion with a B billion valuation. And a couple weeks ago, I shared a marketing lesson from liquid death on LinkedIn. It was something that I had gotten straight from their director of marketing. And instead of engaging with the lesson, many people on LinkedIn just trashed liquid Death in the comments. Like here's one from some person who says that they're a podcast host and writer. They wrote, I cannot understand Liquid Death. I think it is the stupidest brand I've ever heard of. It is just so stupid. And then here's another one from a marketing director. They wrote, still the worst name in the history of naming products. Now, okay, everyone's entitled to their opinion, but to me Negativity is an intellectual dead end. If you only focus on not liking something, then you will never understand why others really do like it. Imagine instead if those people, those people who think that liquid death is stupid, imagine if they had instead asked themselves this. You know, I don't like liquid death, but its success is undeniable. So why does it work? I know it is hard to see something you're resistant to and then eagerly consider all the interesting ways that it works. So let's start with something a little easier by looking at something that you are not resistant to. In fact, let's look at something that you've never even thought to question. Let's look at shelves. Shelves, like shelves in your home. If you're listening to this in your home, just like, turn around, you'll see a shelf. They are an unquestioned part of life. But let's. Why do they work? This may sound obvious until you rewind 6000ish years. Shelves, I will have you know, are not new. They were developed in the Neolithic era and they were a regular part of those people's homes, too. Just go online and search, like Neolithic shelves, or try to find photos from the Orkney Islands, and you will find these amazing images of these stone walls. Like the, you know, the roof of the wall long since disappeared because these were from 6,000 years ago that the basics of the house exist. And what you will see is there's usually kind of a fire pit in the middle, and then there's some beds around the side and then shelves. I recently discovered the shelves and I became fascinated. I mean, we're talking the late Stone Age here. When humans first developed agriculture, their world was so different from ours, but they created a tool that we still use today in basically the same form. So I wanted to know, where exactly did shelves come from and why do they work? So I called an anthropologist named John Shea, who teaches at Stony Brook University, and he gave me this amazing breakdown. He said, all right, imagine living in Neolithic times. You are among the first humans to stay in one place. So you must accumulate food and medicine to survive, and you must store those things safely. Pottery was around before the Neolithic period, but it was not nearly as widespread as it became during the Neolithic period. So, okay, so you make pottery. You can't keep pottery on the floor in your home because your children might break it. And given the high child mortality rates, you are likely to have a lot of children. And breaking the pottery means losing food and medicine. And losing food and medicine means death. So what do you Do? Well, John said, the answer is that you invent a way to store things off the floor. So you invent shelves. When I heard this, my mind, like it blew open. It is just clear and simple and beautiful logic, stringing together needs and solutions in a way that I just hadn't thought of. So now that we've considered the interesting reasons behind something we like, we can start to repeat that process with things we don't. It is time to reconstruct success. Humans are pattern matchers. The more you see how things work, the more you can apply the pattern in new and valuable way. So here is my challenge. When you see something that you don't understand, start by asking my question, why does this work? And to find the answer, you can start by asking these next questions. Number one, what else must be true in order for this to work? And then number two, why was that true? For example, let's look at Liquid Death. It works. People buy it, $1.4 billion valuation. So what else must be true? Well, let's see. People will buy a funny water brand. And then why is that true? Because, let's see, the water shelves are pretty boring. Every other brand that sells water looks exactly the same with the same messaging about the purity of the water or whatever, which made it actually pretty easy for Liquid Death to stand out. And in what might have otherwise seemed like an overly crowded and not interesting category. Because, as it turns out, every category can be innovated and there are opportunities in the most unexpected places, and we can go even deeper. What else must be true? Well, ridiculous marketing works. Why? Because it doesn't come off as marketing. It feels like entertainment. And in a digital world, when ads are really easily skippable, people only stop for entertainment. That, by the way, was the lesson that I had picked up from the head of marketing at Liquid Death. He says that his brand is Entertainment first, and he advises that other brands think of themselves as Entertainment First. Liquid Death's entertainment is comedy. But it doesn't have to be that. It could be something else. It's just the idea of you have to hook people by giving them something that they will actually stick around and watch themselves anyway. You could just keep going with this forever, revealing new insights about how things work and where opportunities are and how you can replicate success. This is not easy, but it is satisfying. I know it is fun to dismiss things. I do it all the time. Like when my kids ask me to play pop music in the car. I hate pop music. Blech. But you know what is more satisfying than being negative, it's being curious. Instead of stewing over my hate of pop music, I could wonder, what does this tell me about culture today and musical trends? And when you think like this, you will find revelations everywhere. For example, here's one final example from my newsletter. As you may know, I write a newsletter. It's called One Thing Better each One way to be more successful and satisfied and build a career or company that you love. The thing that you hear every Thursday on Help Wanted is actually me reading my newsletter. So you could subscribe to it at One thingbetter email if you would like. That's a web address. Or you could just also stay tuned here to Help Wanted, where you will hear it out loud. Anyway, okay, so the point is that I ran a newsletter a couple weeks ago and it included an ad for a bookkeeping service that I love that I use called Kik. And a reader replied telling me that she was annoyed by this ad because she had clicked on the ad and then received two marketing emails from Kik even though she hadn't given them her email address. And she wanted to know how did this happen and was I responsible? That was totally news to me. So I decided to ask Kik. And as it turns out, they told me they use a tool to identify website visitors. Or at least it guesses at the identity of website visitors. And if a visitor is in the top 1% of their target user profile and it sends a few follow up emails to that person. And Kik tells me this has been very effective. So at first when I heard this, it was surprising, I'll be honest, and it felt a little invasive. But then I paused and I thought, okay, but it works. And then I came up with a hypothesis. If someone visits Kik's website, it is because they are seeking a bookkeeper. And there are many reasons that they maybe didn't sign up immediately upon visiting the website. They might be busy, distracted, they accidentally close the window. Who knows, they wanted to think about it more. Therefore, email serves as a helpful reminder. And because it works, and let me remind you, it does work, because Kik told me it's been very effective, then that means people like these kinds of relevant reminders. Because you know, people might still be interested in you even if they didn't buy immediately. And that is a great lesson in consumer habits and psychology. The thing is, you don't learn anything by dismissing things. You learn by reconstructing why they work. So one more time, look at something, something you don't understand. Something that seems maybe stupid or obnoxious or that you are annoyed that the rest of the world is willing to tolerate this thing and and ask why does it work? The answer to that will help you build something else that works. Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason.
- [14:01]
Nicole Lapin
Pfeiffer, and me, Nicole Lapin. Our executive producer is Morgan Lavoie. Do you want some help? Email our helpline@helpwantedoneynewsnetwork.com for the chance to have some of your questions answered on the show. And follow us on Instagram at Money News and TikTok MoneyNews Network for exclusive content and to see our beautiful faces. Maybe a little dance?
- [14:21]
Jason Pfeiffer
Oh, I didn't sign up for that.
- [14:22]
Nicole Lapin
All right, well, talk to you soon.
- [14:42]
Morgan Lavoie
Sam.