Podcast
The RBL Media Podcast
Hosted by RBL Media · EN
The RBL Media Podcast is for the rule-breakers, the misfits, and the ones who refuse to blend in. Entrepreneurship isn’t polished—it’s raw, relentless, and rebellious. Here, we spotlight the founders and creators who go against the grain, disrupt the norm, and build brands that actually matter. If you’re carving your own path and daring to do business differently, this is your space.
32episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
03 - Validating Your Idea
Oct 1, 202400:36:58Tap to summarizeIn this episode of the RBL Media Podcast, Pualena discusses the critical steps every entrepreneur should take to validate their business idea before launching. Whether you're in the early stages of planning or seeking to refine an existing business, these seven essential tips offer practical advice for preparing your business idea. Pualena covers the importance of conducting thorough user interviews, performing comprehensive market research, and developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to test your concept. She also explains how to create a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) that sets your business apart from competitors and why planning for scaling is crucial from the start. Pre-selling your product to gauge interest and generate early revenue is another critical strategy Pua highlights. Through practical, actionable advice and examples from her experience, Pua offers a step-by-step roadmap. This roadmap will help entrepreneurs confidently advance their ideas and encourage building a solid foundation for long-term success. Whether you're just starting or fine-tuning your business strategy, this episode is filled with valuable insights to help you fully prepare for the journey ahead.Resources discussed in this episode:FigmaTypeformGoogle FormsClear Eyes Ben Stein CommercialMuzzy CommercialGoFundMeIndiegogoKickstarter-- Contact Pua Pakele | RBL Media: Website: RBLMedia.coFacebook: RBL-MediaTwitter: @RBLMedia_coInstagram: @RBL.Media--Transcript:Pualena 00:00I don't want to scare you, and there's always going to be a little bit of flexibility here. But if you just blindly go into this and say, this is a great idea, I know it's going to work. I have some savings. I have my credit cards. Let's go. I want you to have more of a plan than that. Pualena 00:22Hello, and welcome back to the RBL Media Podcast. I'm your host, Pua, and we are moving right along into our next episode. So, this is episode two of I think I said six last time, but I do believe that there are seven episodes in this foundational business-building series. These are seven, six or seven, I will figure out the right number of episodes to help inspire action to move forward with that idea that you've had to launch, that business that you've been wanting to launch, from a very strategic perspective. This is going to be sort of each of these episodes will provide you with some actionable, foundational steps, strategies, ideas that you can take and run with if you'd like. I do want to say, let this inspire you. But don't let that this podcast be the only guidance that you invest in or that you take action on. I encourage you to do additional research for yourself, and really, if you are like in it, to win it, wanting to go and create an incredible business or launch an idea, I highly, highly recommend looking at hiring either a business coach or joining some kind of group program, joining an incubator program. I'm about to start an incubator program, which sounds like it's just for startups, but the specific program that I'm about to join is they actually encourage you to be an existing business. You know, you've had clients, you've provided your service, you have products out in the world, so that there is a little bit of data for them to work with, so you don't have to be brand new to join something like an incubator. So, anyway, just wanted to throw that out there. Please don't let this be the one and only source of information for you. But I'm really grateful that you're here. I'm grateful that you've decided to invest your time into listening to this episode. Pualena 02:31So, without further ado, today is going to be all about validating the idea that you have for your business, your product, your service. This is actually a really fun one. The title is really boring, and I hope that you're still here because I think this is one of the most fun things about starting a business, and as long as you don't have the stress of, like, a lack of resources, so like, this phase can be kind of stressful if you've quit your job 18 months ago, and you've blown through your savings, and you're trying to make this work. And there's that, like the little thread of desperation when it comes to idea validation, that's a very different place to be. You just need this to work. You just need somebody to buy it. So, if you are in that place, I highly suggest that you sort of do some meditation around that. I don't mean to laugh, and it's 100% true, like, I want you to really do a mindset shift and understand that this is kind of a longer process to make sure that you can grow quickly after this. We don't want to be necessarily validating while we are launching, while we are in the throes of marketing and getting things out there, and then you're receiving all of this feedback that you would have gotten in the validation stage of products that are now out into the world, that have problems or that people don't like because of X, Y and Z or that could be better because of this and that. So, this phase will feel like it's slowing you down, but it is slowing down to speed up later. Okay? We want to make sure that your concept is viable, that it's good, and so this is going to be a really fun way for you to be able to take some action steps towards that.Pualena 04:25So, the first thing that we're going to look at is the product market fit. Is there a space in the market for your idea, for the product or service that you have in mind and something that people either love or hate? But I must bring it up early, is the idea that you're going to talk to other humans, you're going to do user interviews, and you're going to do them many, many times along the way. So, I would, if I were you, start thinking about who those people could be for you and you're going to do user interviews before we create a concept. In the middle of creating a concept or a prototype, you're probably going to do 1, 2, 3, maybe more rounds of interviews in the prototyping phase. And then once you've launched, you're going to want to do, you know, series of interviews shortly after launch, it's it's smart to do them every so often, surveys are a little bit different. And I think post-launch, what you're going to want to rely on more is surveys than interviews. But interviews are going to be really, really good no matter what because feedback is data, right? Feedback is something that we can iterate on. And once you've launched, you can do things called development cycles, where you have a pool of feedback. And bigger tech companies I know, will have like a kind of like a public billboard of ideas, feedback, feature requests, so you can see what other people have requested. And if they're really great, I love the transparency of having things that are publicly viewable for people to say, like, Oh, this is in development, or this is next in the queue. They're working on this. They're going to launch this soon. So, you can think about that post-launch. But while you're still in the idea phase, we want to figure out, we want to ask people like, is this something that you would buy? Is this something that you would use? Is this a service that you would invest in? So, I'm going to refer sort of back and forth between the prototype or, like, the concept phase versus the kind of pre-idea phase. And in your idea phase, it's a little bit harder to get good feedback. So, talk to people say, I'm thinking about putting this together. Here's a few questions I wanted to ask you. If people say, like, oh, you know what, I don't know if I would buy that, great feedback. Don't even make a prototype. If enough people say that, if people are like, yeah, that's kind of cool. You know, make move forward with your prototype. And when I say prototype, that does not have to just mean a physical product. We will often prototype websites, apps, digital platforms. You can prototype pretty much anything and then allow people to sort of navigate through the prototype. So, when we're doing user interviews, let's say we are, and this is something that I do quite often. We've built a website, a web experience, and in that user interview, I'm going to jump onto Zoom, I'm going to give the person the link to the website, and then ask them to share their screen and navigate through it. And this okay, I'm sort of jumping around. I apologize. In web design, we have the design phase, the prototype phase, and then the actual website build. So, we're getting into the weeds here. But in this case this is your zone of interest, I do want to share this with you. In the prototype phase, we will build in a platform called Figma, and Figma allows you to create kind of a working prototype where you can assign actions to different links and buttons and sort of navigate through things, but it's not a live website. So, for example, if I have a page and I have five buttons on the page, and I have, it's a prototype where I'm just building up the functionality for the top of the page, I'm going to have the buttons connected to where I think people might want them to go, bu...
Transcribe →79 - Superhero Marketing - The Hero's Journey Framework
May 21, 2024Tap to summarizeHow do you hook your readers, inspire confidence, and guide them to take action with confidence? The answer is the Hero’s Journey—a popular marketing framework that uses the power of storytelling. In this episode, Pua walks us through the eight steps that take the audience on a journey to say ‘yes’ using carefully crafted copywriting and visual best practices. You’ll want to save this episode to refer back to again and again whenever you start a new marketing project and need a refresh. Pua also shares tips on how to sound authentic and avoid coming across as spammy, from the structure of your copy to the images you use and how you phrase your call to adventure. With clear examples to follow along with, The Hero’s Journey may soon be your favorite framework for sales copy. In this episode, you’ll also hear some exciting news about the RBL Media podcast and what to look forward to over the summer and into the Fall. -- Contact Pua Pakele | RBL Media: Website: RBLMedia.coFacebook: RBL-MediaTwitter: @RBLMedia_coInstagram: @RBL.Media--TranscriptPualena 00:00Guide your audience on how to take action people need to be told what to do. At this point, they're on your page still. So they're interested enough that they're going to take an action now, because if they weren't, they would have left. Pualena 00:16Hello, and welcome back to the Rebel Media podcast. I'm your host, Pua. And today I am coming to you with Pheobe’s Sticky Shoe’s voice. You get a million points if you know what that's from, and 1,500,000 points if you can name the episode. So I have a special announcement. Before we dive into today's episode, I am going to be breaking the Rebel Media podcast up into seasons. And this is episode 79. Two weeks from now, we release episode 80. And then we are taking a break for the summer. And we'll be back in September for the start of season two. So this episode, I wanted to leave you with something that is tangible, studiable, learnable, repeatable and something that is hopefully going to be useful for you. And something that you can re-listen to this episode as many times as you need to as you create assets and content and whatever else. And it is a framework that I have been utilizing lately for most of our design concepts for things like primarily, I've been using it for landing page design, and email content. But honestly, this can be used for anything from social media captions to ad copy to, you know, anything really, and it is something that we've actually discussed before on the podcast. But since then, it's been several months, I think, probably a good six months since that episode. So I've kind of adjusted the framework that I use, and have studied this a little bit from different sources. And so I'm excited to share with you a content development strategy that is based on a storytelling framework, specifically of the hero's journey. And the reason why I love this framework so much is if you watch movies, or TV there is a very repeatable and somewhat predictable formula that most directors use in story writing in script writing. And it is the framework of the hero's journey. And the reason why we create these kind of binge-worthy experiences is because this formula has been tested over, I think, at this point centuries, to retain viewers, to retain an audience to get you immediately interested and invested in a story. And then it's up to them to carry you with them. Pualena 03:22So you know, you've watched a movie or a TV show, or somebody maybe has given you a suggestion of something to watch. And they'll say it starts slow, but give it a chance. That means the hook is weak. But you can't say, here's a link to my sales page, give it a chance, it starts slow. You are responsible for creating a hook that is going to grab people's attention within those first couple of seconds or they're gone. And you are going to lose that sale, potentially, and that it is literally money on the table. If you aren't able to capture your audience, a lot of people feel overwhelmed by this. And to be honest, a little bit of overwhelm around this is healthy, because it really does matter that much. And I've been given examples from our clients or, you know, we talk through this framework. And they'll say, oh, but so and so does it like this. And this looks a lot easier or a lot more straightforward or a lot shorter, or, you know, in the end, they seem to be really successful. And if we look at some of those examples, you can get away with less captivating content or less conversion-friendly experiences. If you have an audience that you are primed to sell to already so you know these big podcasters or these YouTube influencers or people that have audiences and have been around for you know, 20 years. They have people who are already primed and ready to buy things from them at the drop of a dime? Hat? What is that? So it's if you have no audience or a small audience or you're new to the market or you're building, you do have to be more intentional about things that you create. And make sure that it's aligned, make sure that you have integrity around what you're promising, because that is going to build on itself. Pualena 05:18The other thing about this is, at this point, we've all been swindled, we've all seen an ad on Facebook or somewhere, and we're like, oh, my gosh, that thing looks so cool. And I grew up in a, there was.. what was it called? Infomercials on TV. And I remember seeing like brooms, and like cleaning materials, and, and my dad would always say, like, never buy anything on TV. And so I was always under the impression that, like, if you buy something on TV that thing is not going to be good. And I remember the first time I bought something from an ad on Facebook, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm not supposed to do this. And there was a reason for it, at least back then you had to be able to have your product at a certain level to like, afford the TV ads. And I think, you know, I believe that it was regulated somehow, but now anybody can create something. And if you have the money to run ads to it, like you can sell anything. There's this crazy graphic t-shirt trend right now in the E-commerce world where they're taking events that happen or actually something I became really aware of this in a really sad way. So last August was the wildfires in Maui. And that like, totally destroyed, Lahaina and all of the businesses all of the homes like and in the days and weeks right after that happened, there were a lot of fundraisers and people trying to get money and items and donations to the people of Lahaina to be able to help them in this like huge emergency where they lost everything. And so it was a really challenging time to be able to understand and figure out where your money was actually going to be put to use and what organizations were legitimate. And a lot of individuals like individual families were also having fundraisers. And then there were these companies or these people who came in and started running ads with like, you know, Mali strong or support behind whatever T-shirts that they were selling for their own profits. And I think this happens so so much. And it's kind of easy, because direct printing, what is it called? I forget, it's you can basically like, it's like made to order. So you can order one or you can order 100. And so they have these platforms that you can create all of these designs. And people select the design, and then they go through this e-commerce platform, they purchase it. And then the thing is printed and shipped. All without you having to do anything. And then you can run very targeted ads. So you can run an ad to a specific demographic, like an age range, a location, a region. And so it's, it's kind of scammy out there. So anyway, I say this, because take this and use it for good, not evil. But this is a very influential and coercive way to get a message across. And when used well, for good things like the services and products that you have to offer. It helps people to learn about what you do to get engaged to understand how you serve them, how you provide the results that you provide, in a way that allows them to like, stay on the page, basically, or continue reading the caption or read the whole email. Pualena 09:02So the premise is, we're going to invite your audience into a hero's journey story. And this starts always with your hook. So again, this is review for anybody who's binged the podcast, but on every landing page, you have a space above the fold. That is the first thing that you see either on your mobile or your desktop, the first section of your page. I love putting background video if you have B-roll if you have something or a high-quality image. I think that those work really, really well in Hero sections of home pages or sales pages. Movement is captivating. I say that lightly because too much movement can be jarring. And I see that more in like an animations perspective. So a lot of web builders you have the option to build in movement and animations with each block, and each element, and Sometimes, especially if you're new to this, and you're getting really excited and you're building your page, you can over animate, and animate every block, and every animation is different. And then it's just like an overstimulating experience that makes people feel crazy. So I love a little movement. I love a background video. It's almost like, if you are scrolling through Instagram, and you see a reel that starts with movement, that's a hook. It's a visual hook. So a lot of times there will be l...
Transcribe →