← The Think Media Podcast
Loading summary
Transcript142 lines
- [00:00]
Sean Cannell
The economy is shifting fast.
- [00:02]
Neil Dhingra
If you're an entrepreneur or creator serious about scaling with YouTube, this is your moment. October 2nd and 3rd in Las Vegas, we're hosting the Think Media Mastermind. It's exclusive, it's application only, and spots are almost gone. Apply now atthink media mastermind.com if you're building a YouTube channel, a personal brand or an online business, this is the episode that you didn't know you needed. These are the exact insights that top creators and eight figure entrepreneurs just revealed behind closed doors.
- [00:36]
Guest Expert
The person with the most attention is going to win. It's not about the best product or service, it's about the most known.
- [00:42]
Neil Dhingra
The new rich are playing different games. They're not working for money. They're building leverage. The fastest executor wins. I've got the notes in front of me and I'm going to be giving you the entire playbook today. I'm sitting here with Neil Dhingra, who is the founder of Forward Conference. And this conference has been one of the fastest growing conferences for entrepreneurs. It happens every year in Las Vegas and we have the top 20 takeaways. These are some fresh, tactical insights for what's happening right now in online business. I personally was not able to attend this last year, so I was like, neil, will you leak the best notes and the insider information and could we talk about it on the Think Media podcast? And he agreed to do it. Neil, are you ready to go?
- [01:27]
Guest Expert
Yes, sir. This is good.
- [01:29]
Neil Dhingra
So Dan Martel was one of the speakers and he said, this business is not about your idea, it's about your ability to distribute it. Distribution is the king maker. Expl. That sounds kind of fancy. Explain that to your average entrepreneur of like, what that even means.
- [01:45]
Guest Expert
Yeah, so he talked about, you know, hiring. He's, you know, build, buy back your time is his book. And he talked about building the system. And one of the things, you know, that got brought up throughout the event and Dan leaned into this was like, what's the thing? If you sat at a table with 10 of your competitors, what's the thing that they would be unwilling to do? And maybe it's like, dude, I'm going to hire somebody that's specifically going to blow up my YouTube channel. A YouTube strategist. Like, wait a second, you're not going to get a social media person, you're going to also get a YouTube person. Yeah, like he talked about revving up and reinvesting in distribution because the person with the most attention is going to win. Right. It's not about the best product or service. It's about the most known. And if you don't have attention, you're losing right now to people who do have that mic and that attention. And so you need this thing to be like a megaphone. And you need more distribution right now and than ever.
- [02:35]
Neil Dhingra
And distribution practically means are you putting out YouTube content? Are you. You could also be active on LinkedIn, any of these seven social media platforms. Your success in email marketing, it could be paid ads. It could be all kinds of different things. And so distribution is the king maker for any serious entrepreneur. We all could improve in this area. And how much money Courage Team do we want to put behind that?
- [02:58]
Guest Expert
All right, it might be just like a va. Like, sure.
- [03:01]
Neil Dhingra
Just the first step could be a.
- [03:02]
Guest Expert
Va. You're doing it by yourself. You post when you feel like it. Okay, I'm gonna start doing this more Serious on hire. $2,000 a month va. Yep. To make sure we post every day. Cool.
- [03:12]
Neil Dhingra
And like, I definitely probably 99 your competitors out of 100 aren't going to take that step.
- [03:18]
Guest Expert
Correct.
- [03:19]
Neil Dhingra
So distribution is the king maker number two. Cody Sanchez said this. The new rich are playing different games. They're not working for money. They're building leverage. Break it down.
- [03:29]
Guest Expert
So she talked about turning herself into a walking billboard. So I don't know if you know this, but I guess all the VC money that comes out, all this, you know, billions of dollars that comes from venture capital into businesses, 40 cents of every dollar, 40% of this is going directly into advertising on all the platforms. Meta, YouTube, all these platforms, like, they're just dumping money into ads to promote the products and services that they're backing. And so this is driving up ad costs. But it's kind of like David versus Goliath. Us small creators, we have an advantage against these people. We have personal brand, which can dramatically bring down the cost of ads. So she talked about, like, one piece of leverage and is building your personal brand and then running ads to the people who have watched your content because the cost to acquire those customers goes down a lot. I saw this in my own business. For example, we were advertising people to market to for forward. And the people who are running our ads, the media buyers, like, hey, man, you should get prepared to spend about 10 to $12 per lead for a webinar. And I was like, what do you mean $12? That sounds like kind of expensive. Because people may not even show up. And they're like, yeah, that's just what it is for coaches, consultants, people in your space. I ran the ads to people in my audience. I paid $2.60 because I was running to people who already were lukewarm.
- [04:43]
Neil Dhingra
Yep.
- [04:43]
Guest Expert
So my costs can be way lower. So it's like David versus Goliath in this case. But David can win because you have a unique advantage.
- [04:50]
Neil Dhingra
I was talking to Layla Hermozi about that. And for all the businesses they work with@acquisite.com, all the businesses that invest in organic content drive down customer acquisition cost massively.
- [05:02]
Guest Expert
It's not even like half. It's like a quarter or an eighth of the cost.
- [05:05]
Neil Dhingra
So if they do organic content, well, the. The best businesses are doing paid media also. But it's driving down CAC in a significant way. All right, let's hit number three. So if your marketing isn't working, it's probably because your offer sucks. This was Sharon. How do you say his last name?
- [05:21]
Guest Expert
Shasta.
- [05:22]
Neil Dhingra
Sharon S. So fix your offer before you fix the funnel. Then test new hooks and tighten your message.
- [05:30]
Guest Expert
Yeah. You think about, like, a lead magnet or something you're offering online. Is the thing actually valuable? Like, would people want to go so. Or would they want to download it? And so I think you just need to raise the bar. Like it used to be. Just generic stuff. Worked. We're past that.
- [05:44]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah.
- [05:45]
Guest Expert
People are information overload. Information has been commoditized. Same thing with events. I noticed. People will sell an event and they'll put up an image of all the speakers. Well, now information is everywhere. They're not like, they don't have this great connection to go see these speakers. And because they can watch them all day on YouTube, they're everywhere. And so what's different about it? Well, maybe it's. You're marketing the community. Maybe you're marketing the energy. How you need to get out of your. Your current environment, get into, like, there's other angles you can take. And so I just think about, like, the thing needs to be actually good. And that's what he talked about. Fix that thing first before you start trying to fix your videos.
- [06:19]
Neil Dhingra
You know, the language used about offers is how to create an irresistible offer. Or about lead magnets is how could create a irresistible lead magnet. And the truth is that most entrepreneurs. Offer is resistible.
- [06:32]
Guest Expert
Yes.
- [06:33]
Neil Dhingra
It actually is resistible. Like, it's very. Like, I don't even want it. Yeah. The idea of if it's irresistible, just think about the word itself. Like, meh. I don't know. I could take it or leave it.
- [06:44]
Guest Expert
What if it sounds like work? Like, I found that one thing I have written down on my thing is don't sell work. Now, I understand what we talk about is hard work you gotta invest in, but in the beginning, the way you.
- [06:53]
Neil Dhingra
Market it, you sell the destination, not the process.
- [06:56]
Guest Expert
Correct. And so many people are selling the thing. It's like, it's the classic Maui problem. You know, you selling a trip to Maui and you're like, bro, dude, you got to check out the seats on Southwest. You get like two bags of peanuts. They even give you a Diet Coke. Like, this is amazing. You should be selling the beach.
- [07:11]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah.
- [07:11]
Guest Expert
So many people are talking about the thing. Nobody wants the thing. They want the outcome.
- [07:15]
Neil Dhingra
Number four, speed is a feature. Make decisions faster. This was Dan Martell, the fastest executor wins. Use AI teams and SOPs to compress timelines.
- [07:28]
Guest Expert
Yeah. So he has a big team and some of us might be thinking, well, we don't have the benefit of 10 people to bounce ideas off of. But you can still use AI. You know, I use AI as a thought partner. That's one of my biggest lifts I've seen from AI. So any one person watching this can literally go into ChatGPT. Some of you guys are already using it as a therapist. You know, use it as your business advocate advisor. Start talking to it about it. Use the newest model. Make sure you're using the paid model. The O3 is incredible at bouncing ideas, coming up with frameworks. Just give it a lot of context and you can start bouncing the ideas and then you should be able to pull the trigger with confidence quicker. You know, the people I've noticed who are the richest, the most successful, their ability to pull the trigger is fast. Like sometimes, yeah, I'll leave a meeting and they've already launched the thing, you know, by the time you got home. It's crazy. Like on from a trip. I've left one of these conferences and somebody came with an idea live. And then you get home and you see the landing page already launched.
- [08:22]
Neil Dhingra
Speed of implementation.
- [08:23]
Guest Expert
Yes.
- [08:24]
Neil Dhingra
So the first five was the category was online business and growth. We we have personal brand and identity coming up. Social media and content, strategy and mindset and leadership. And we're talking about the top 20 takeaways from your event forward conference. We which we'll link up 20, 26 details in the show notes. If you're curious about Neil's event that happens in Las Vegas. But the next one comes from Chris Doe. Your personal brand is not your logo. It's your promise repeated. Define the transformation you offer. Then show up Consistently in that voice and tone. Break it down.
- [08:56]
Guest Expert
So you need to be the leader by example. So the best marketing you can have is your own zero to hero story. You need to be a product of your own advice. People don't like contradiction. And so, like, if you're preaching something but you're not doing it, like, if you're selling health advice and you're out of shape, you know, that's probably not going to fly today. So I think he was talking about just making sure to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk.
- [09:20]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah.
- [09:21]
Guest Expert
And making sure that that's in your content and you just get way more connection, way more results whenever you do make an offer. Chris is more on the brand side. He doesn't really talk about conversion, but you'll notice that whenever he does make an offer, it converts better because his brand is so strong.
- [09:34]
Neil Dhingra
Number six, you don't have to fake perfection. Your authenticity is your strategy. This is Ryan Leak, and he said vulnerability is converting better than polish. Let people in behind the scenes.
- [09:45]
Guest Expert
Yeah. And he talked a lot about, like, asking people, making more connections with people, including your clients, people that could refer you business. And one thing he brought up at the event that stood out was like, he's like, yo, everybody today says, how's it going? And it's kind of a drive by. How's it going? Because then you're like, yeah, yeah, I'm good. And then you kind of move on and there's no, like, connection. So he said, why don't you slow down and ask him again, how's it going? They say, great. You, like, put your hand on the shoulder. How's it? How's it going? And they'll be like, you know what, man, I've been really struggling here. I have something I went through. Somebody passed like, bro, yeah, Nobody tells you anything up front. And so he's like, slow down and do this. And I've been. I had some happen with me where, you know, our family went through something recently, and then I may be like, you sent me a text. Other people in my network sent me a text. Yeah, like, yo, dude, anything I can do to help? I'm so sorry to hear this. Like, those are the reasons. Those are the people you want to work with, do business with because they actually care. So he's like, slow down and be intentional with the relationships that you have that could. That you care about, you know, because a lot of people don't say anything.
- [10:44]
Neil Dhingra
It's powerful point. All right, number seven, design your life around your identity. Not your insecurity. So this is Shade. How do you say her last name?
- [10:52]
Guest Expert
Shade? Zari. Zarai.
- [10:54]
Neil Dhingra
Shade. Shade Zarai.
- [10:56]
Guest Expert
She came from Australia. She's like a communication expert.
- [10:59]
Neil Dhingra
And design your life around your identity, not your insecurity. That hits. Man, I wish I was in the room. High performers are shifting from achievement to alignment. And the market rewards clarity.
- [11:09]
Guest Expert
Powerful. Yeah. She was talking a lot about getting out of your own way. And I was getting texts live, Sean. Like, as she was speaking from the women and guys in the group, they were like, man, this is exactly what I need to hear. And so I always think about this. I tell people to do things and they don't do them. And I'm like, all these people are lazy, you know, they just don't want to. They don't want it. Like I want it, you know, and you just go to that mindset. But like, maybe there's a mental block. Maybe there's something you need to work on for yourself so that you could be confident to put this stuff out there. So she talked a lot about breaking through those internal barriers. So that way now you can be confident and put yourself out there. And a lot of times it's like you don't align with the thing. And I mean, somebody told me they took it to the extreme. They're like, bro, I don't want to be in this industry anymore. I want to do something else. I'm like, maybe you should then, you know, maybe you just got burnt out and you need to get re ignited. But like, if you truly don't like what you're doing, you're probably not gonna be able to make content about that.
- [12:01]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah.
- [12:02]
Guest Expert
So we, if you don't, if you're not into this, we can tell. Yeah, you need to get aligned with what is you're actually interested in.
- [12:08]
Neil Dhingra
It's a strong word. Yeah. Being in alignment is a superpower. And being out of alignment could be why you're stuck.
- [12:15]
Sean Cannell
Hey, we're about to get back into the podcast in just a second, but.
- [12:18]
Neil Dhingra
I have a question for you.
- [12:19]
Sean Cannell
Do you want to grow your personal brand this year? Do you need more leads and sales in your business? If the answer is yes, then right.
- [12:28]
Neil Dhingra
Now is the best time to go.
- [12:29]
Sean Cannell
All in on YouTube. Today's podcast is brought to you by thinkmasterclass.com where you can get on demand access to a one hour deep dive training revealing how to start and grow a profitable YouTube channel.
- [12:43]
Neil Dhingra
This year.
- [12:44]
Sean Cannell
For a limited time, you can get access to this on demand class entirely for free. Where you will learn the three biggest mistakes that people make when starting a YouTube channel. The new rules and changes that have been happening on YouTube and how you can use them to create an unfair advantage. And the exact strategy we use at Think Media to generate over 350,000 organic views every single day. The data is clear. 70% of viewers claim that YouTube makes them more aware of new brands. So don't wait any longer to start growing your brand and business with YouTube. Just go to thinkmasterclass.com to get access to this. No fluff, highly tactical, free on demand training. That's thinkmasterclass.com number eight.
- [13:29]
Neil Dhingra
You cannot build a personal brand without out personal convictions. That was Chris Doe again. Stand for something. Take a bold stance even if it polarizes because attention is earned.
- [13:41]
Guest Expert
Yes. Like I would take out a list. Just start a list in your favorite note app and just write down the things, your isms, the things that you believe, what are your principles? That and it could be business and personal and then just start inserting those into the content. I think people take this strategy for granted. Like they just, it's totally underrated. If you would just think about the reasons why people like you, they refer you because of certain reasons. Imagine if a thousand more people felt that way about you or knew those things about you, what would happen to your business? So all you need to do is make a list of that and then just start intentionally putting them in your content.
- [14:17]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah, I mean that's, it's, it's a good first step because you don't have to post it yet. Write down your convictions on paper first. Then it's. The next step is to be like, am I going to put out that thing that is maybe a little polarizing but it is true to myself?
- [14:29]
Guest Expert
Yeah, there might be things that are like less polarizing. Start there, just dip your toe.
- [14:32]
Neil Dhingra
That's good. So now this is social media and content strategy and this is cool because we're getting tactical now. So Brian Miller said short form video is still underpriced, but only if you make it native. Whether that's reels, YouTube shorts, TikToks, they need platform native pacing and editing. Basically don't repurpose lazily.
- [14:51]
Guest Expert
Yeah, I think like I would love to hear your opinion on this. So I think about it as if you don't have the time or the team to do this. Just take the clip and put it on all the platforms. Yeah, sometimes it gets a prize. It goes viral on TikTok. It didn't hit on Instagram. I don't know why I never get that deep into it, but my main platform is going to be like IG reels and then YouTube for long form. But I have noticed that the text, the style, the movement of the camera, the people who are super into this, it does vary. Like a YouTube short is different than an Instagram reel. It's a different style. It's super nuanced.
- [15:24]
Neil Dhingra
By the way, I would, I. So I would agree that 99 of us, even if we start scaling in content and we have some help, like we're still not going that crazy native. We'll take vertical videos and distribute it everywhere. I would agree with don't repurpose lazily meaning sometimes like it's like if a square video that could have been properly formatted is literally repurposed lazily or you download a video off one platform and the. The music is embedded so it's going to mess with it being uploaded somewhere else because the music wasn't selected. So if you could still use trending audio, if you were to chop up clips in Opus clip and then go into TikTok, upload it natively and then you are able to make a thumbnail that has the animated tick tock thing that is actually taking the time to properly post. It's kind of a hybrid approach.
- [16:18]
Guest Expert
Yeah.
- [16:18]
Neil Dhingra
You're not making like necessarily an entirely original tick tock, but you aren't being lazy by just thinking about platform distinctions, best practices.
- [16:27]
Guest Expert
Yeah. 100. So just take the extra few minutes to do that.
- [16:30]
Neil Dhingra
Just have your team do it or have your team do it and, and get educated. Like so, you know, maybe some people listening were like, what did I just say? Like talking about these little details. That's why. Well, that's why this podcast exists. So if you're new here, you know, definitely subscribe and stick around because we want to help you win with content, win with YouTube. And so this is interesting from Iman, how do I say his last name? Abu Iman. Abu Said stories outperform static posts 3 to 1 in engagement tell more, show less.
- [16:59]
Guest Expert
So I don't know if you've seen this trend on YouTube. If you look up storytelling, there must have been a spike. Recently I've seen, you know, millions of views on from like one guy's channel. I don't know if you've seen this guy Callaway.
- [17:10]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah.
- [17:11]
Guest Expert
His most viral content long for YouTube is storytelling.
- [17:14]
Neil Dhingra
Yes.
- [17:15]
Guest Expert
And then I. It wasn't just him. I've seen it over and over and over. People really want to become better Storytellers. Why? Because it's the best content right now. People like on short form even you can tell a story in 60 seconds with the B roll. Talk about your, talk about your journey, talk about your client's journey, talk about whatever it is that you're doing, you're building. People will rally behind those stories and they'll choose to do business with you because of it. So she was just, she founded a platform, this gal, Iman and she talked about how on their platform they help people create stories better using AI. So she found that most people are not great at storytelling. So she allows them to dump their kind of rambling on thing into her platform and it turns, it uses AI to turn it into more engagement.
- [17:56]
Neil Dhingra
Oh, that's cool.
- [17:57]
Guest Expert
And she found that those videos are outperforming the standard talking head video.
- [18:00]
Neil Dhingra
That's a killer tip too. And so practically if you're listening to this, you can check out her platform. But one of the coolest things you could do with AI, if you're using Chat, GBT or whatever LLM is turn on the audio feature. That's just going to record you.
- [18:12]
Guest Expert
Correct.
- [18:12]
Neil Dhingra
And start talking and tell the story.
- [18:14]
Guest Expert
Yeah.
- [18:15]
Neil Dhingra
And then, and the final prompt be like, help me clean this up, reorder this, maybe give me some follow up questions. And then, and then tell it what the final output is and can you help me actually tell this in a punchy, attention grabbing way for a 62nd final output? And so then even if you take five minutes to ramble and remember the details, you just having a conversation with AI could help you really design a script. And even if you don't hit your script perfectly now, it's going to have the best storytelling elements.
- [18:45]
Guest Expert
Yeah. And so the number one way for people to reach more people on social today is going to be to tell better stories. But if you're not good at this, use Claude. Okay. I would tell you like, I found that Claude is way better at creative writing than ChatGPT for whatever reason. And so I don't know if you had the same experience.
- [19:00]
Neil Dhingra
Yes.
- [19:01]
Guest Expert
But what you want to do is use the, I don't know if Claude has the audio feature on desktop, but definitely on mobile.
- [19:06]
Neil Dhingra
It does, it does now. Or, or I don't know that it does. There is a cool plugin, I think it's called Voice Wave and it's, I think it's called Voice Wave GPT Free Google Chrome plugin. You hit the little microphone and if you've got your USB mic, your webcam mic, I was Dictating to Claude today.
- [19:22]
Guest Expert
Yes. And so you want to dictate that long message and just ramble on and ask it to clean it up. And then I would just make this tweak. This will make it crush. Just say, help me make this more emotionally resonant. Like I want it to connect and make the audience feel something, especially if there's something in there that you felt. And then obviously start it with that, with the, with the goal of retaining the viewer. And so when I do this, bro, it changes your story and makes it much more concise and hard hitting.
- [19:50]
Neil Dhingra
It's really good. All right. We're still talking about social media tactics. Chris do said, every post you make either builds or breaks your positioning deep. Don't trace, don't chase trends, blindly. Use every post to reinforce your core expertise.
- [20:08]
Guest Expert
Yeah, he went deep on that and he. It's like next level advice because some people like, hey, I'm just trying to be consistent on social media. He's like, well, you should really think about your messaging, who you speaking to? And so he went through this exercise with me that kind of changed the game for me. He said, neil, who do you want to speak to with the content at the event? Like, as far as forward goes, who do you. Who are you targeting? I was like, well, it's like people within this age group, these industries, usually, this is what they want to learn. He's like, no, no, no. Who's the person? I'm like, okay, it's like a man or woman? He said, no, no. Is it a man or a woman? How old are they? Where do they live? What do they do from eight to five every day? And then how would this event serve that person? And so we got down to the exact person. I even named the guy. I think his name's Johnny and he lives in San Diego. He's 37 years old. Here's what he does and here's the person we want to serve. Now, it doesn't mean that you can't serve more than that person, but the messaging becomes so much clearer when you have this dialed in.
- [21:00]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah. Every post either either builds or breaks your positioning. So that's. In fact, I actually have a playlist. I'll link it up in the show. Notes on positioning. We called it the Battlefield, the battle for views.
- [21:15]
Guest Expert
Yes.
- [21:15]
Neil Dhingra
Based on the book Positioning. Classic book. So if you've never studied positioning before, I. You check out the book, by the way. It's actually crazy how relevant it is for today. Even though the second edition came out like right around 2000. But we're talking about positioning. So your brand positioning, your business positioning, but it's a pretty weighty post. I, I, you know, I might go a little bit contrarian and say that almost, almost feels like too much pressure for me.
- [21:41]
Guest Expert
Yeah.
- [21:41]
Neil Dhingra
I mean, to feel like it's gonna. Because some, I, I think that could almost lead us to fear.
- [21:45]
Guest Expert
I think it just, the post would bomb. I don't think it breaks you.
- [21:47]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah. Like if, yeah, if you have a bad post or it doesn't really resonate, it also dies off in the algorithm. So don't be too afraid that, like, it's, and, but I get what he's saying. It's not necessarily adding to what you want to build. Are you building up the brand or are you just wasting time or not adding to it or tearing it down because you're distracted from, like, your core positioning that you want to build?
- [22:09]
Guest Expert
Yeah. And just think about, like, doing the small things. Like, for example, what are the ways you could position your brand? One way is just by improving the quality of your content. Like, that's just something simple. Everybody could do.
- [22:20]
Neil Dhingra
The quality, the look, the vibe, the.
- [22:22]
Guest Expert
Production value, just a few things. Like with audio videos, it speaks and people will do business with you. They'll actually, I just found that people treat you better when your content looks better. Yeah, I mean, that's just, it's, it's facts, you know, and, and people take you more seriously. So that's just one thing that everybody could do. And he's probably saying, well, what if you post a shoddy video with your phone and the lens wasn't clean and you couldn't hear? Well, maybe that had a bad effect on your brand. Like, you went down a notch with a few people who saw that video.
- [22:49]
Neil Dhingra
Yep, got it. All right, 12 is the algorithm rewards consistency, but the audience rewards connection. This is Ryan Leak. So, so the algorithm rewards consistency, but the audience rewards connection.
- [23:02]
Guest Expert
So he's always trying to find clips. So Ryan Leak actually discovered through our mutual friend Rory Vaden, who was, you know, was telling, hey, you gotta check out Ryan. And I checked him out, like a couple years ago, and he didn't really have any social. All of a sudden, in the last 18 months, he's blown up and he's just putting out clips. But the clips that go viral make the audience feel something. So I think he's using AI or his team is, you know, really good at scrubbing the talks. But he has sermons that he does. He has also all these keynotes that he does. Cause he speaks like, like even on the day he spoke for us, he spoke in another city that morning. This guy's on the road speaking everywhere and so he has so much content to go through and scrub through, but they're really finding the best clips. And what he told me was he was kind of surprised that many of the clips that they didn't think would blow up are the ones that got millions of views and brought him all his followers. And so this guy, I wouldn't be surprised if he's at a million follows next year, you know, or like in, in short period of time just because of how quick he's blown up makes.
- [23:59]
Neil Dhingra
The audience feel something. The algorithm rewards connection. All right, so here's what I want to do for the mindset and leadership for speed. I'm going to hit these ones. If you want to expound on any of them, I'm just going to read them all. This will be 13 through 16 and then we'll get, we'll land the plane on marketing, sales and positioning on our 20 tips. Biggest takeaways from forward conference that can help you have an edge today. Social media, online business, your brand. Here's some rapid fire mindset and leadership ones. Sharon said, proximity is a growth hack. Get in the room, always a solid point. Get to events, get to masterminds, connect with people, actually rub shoulders in person. 14. Sade Zerai said, Don't seek balance, seek rhythm strong. 15. Clint Pulver said, leadership is not about being right, it's about being real. 16. If you don't deal with burnout proactively, it will deal with you. Brian Miller talking about Resilience going into 2026 means managing, managing your nervous system, not just your calendar. A topic I would love to go deep on. But let's move into the final few. Marketing, sales and positioning. Number 17 people don't buy products, they buy stories about themselves. This was Johnny Cupcakes. What was he talking about?
- [25:23]
Guest Expert
So he talked about the story of his brand, how he's built like a cult like following and the reason why people would wait in line to buy stuff from him. You know, he's selling T shirts and other shot keys and all kinds of stuff and it was because of the story. So he got really into creativity, really showing his interests, putting the weird quirky things into his brand and then as a result built like a cult like following. People would literally line down the block on down the street just to get one of his new release T shirts and it was really cool. The story that he told, which then was like a meta thing because everybody in the audience got so much connection to him because of his story that he talked about on stage. So he's like, teaching you the thing while doing the thing.
- [26:05]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah. And what does it mean that they buy stories about themselves?
- [26:08]
Guest Expert
So it's weird. Like, people will talk about the story, that they. They'll. The best creators will share the story, but the viewer can see themselves in the story. They don't care about your story. They care about their own story. And so he talked about how you can inspire people by sharing these things, but don't make it about yourself. Make it about the way you felt, the adversity you were able to overcome. And then that makes it relatable.
- [26:30]
Neil Dhingra
I think that's a light bulb moment for listeners because we tell people that are like, I know I should, like, tell my story more as from a personal brand standpoint. But then it's like, but the art form is telling your story in such a way that the listener can put themselves in your story.
- [26:46]
Guest Expert
Yeah. And there's like a weird thing where people have said to me, they don't want to share their story because it sounds like they're showing off. And we've all seen the people who are, like, sharing success, and it feels a little cringe. You don't have to be that way. You could make it about the. The impact you made, the people you served, that how you. The lives you changed, all those kinds of things. So you're still sharing success, but at the same time, it's inspirational. Not like, look at me.
- [27:08]
Neil Dhingra
Yes. And I think the fix I've learned is people will not relate to your success until they've heard about your struggle. So you don't want to be afraid of amplifying your success, but also don't minimize the struggle that you paid to get there. The vulnerability, the pain, the mistakes. And now there's also. Not only because it'll connect, but also it's literally a cognitive, dissonant dissonance people will have if they. We won't believe it.
- [27:32]
Guest Expert
Yeah.
- [27:32]
Neil Dhingra
It was kind of like Marvel characters, which is a big lesson for entrepreneurs. They can learn from Marvel characters. Was early on, people couldn't connect with the Marvel character superheroes if they didn't have a weakness.
- [27:44]
Guest Expert
Yeah.
- [27:44]
Neil Dhingra
And early on, DC versus Marvel, there were superheroes that were only super, but they didn't really resonate. And when Marvel broke out, it's when they started to have a weakness into every character. And now all of a sudden, these superheroes Every single one will always have a weakness. And that's why we love these characters. Yes, Superman. But if there was no kryptonite, then Super Superman wouldn't resonate with us as much. Batman of like, man, look at this guy. He could kick so much butt. Now we're talking dc, but it's like, oh, but he's still human and he could still bleed. And so that for anybody that's telling the story, of course you want to lead people to victory, but share your vulnerability along the way.
- [28:22]
Guest Expert
100%.
- [28:24]
Neil Dhingra
Number 18. Christo said, this be the first thought, not the best thought. Top of mind beats top quality if you're forgotten.
- [28:32]
Guest Expert
Yeah. He just talked about being more consistent and being dominating multiple platforms. You know, like, I don't know what the strategy is. I don't know if you heard this number, but I think it was Dana Priestly. You told me 7, 11, 4. You know, and it might have been like one of those things where it's like seven platforms, 11 pieces of content, four different.
- [28:49]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah. Areas 7, 11, 4 rule, 7 hours, 11 touch points for platforms.
- [28:56]
Guest Expert
Yes, that's what it was. And so this is top of mind. And you might think that's overwhelming, but you have to kind of figure this out now because that's actually science from Google. There's a study that was published that said this is how buying decisions are made. Yep. And so, you know, when you get to that zero moment of truth, they call it Z mod. When is somebody going to pull the trigger to buy something from your brand? It's after the 7, 11, 4.
- [29:18]
Neil Dhingra
It's good, too. And, like, with the amount of even information in this podcast and how much work this all sounds like, because it is, I think, you know, keep the vision clear. On the other side of this is following impact, changing lives money. Six figures, seven figures. Multiple seven figures. This is best practice. This is. This is top 1%. This is the game. This top 10%, I would say, actually, like, my. My big thing lately with things being too saturated is you only have to be in the top 10%. And that's not a new thing. Brian Tracy would always say this. He was like, the top 10% of salespeople, they get the best commissions. They make like 10x to 100x more than everybody else. So I think you also look at it. It's like, okay, you know what? I'm probably not gonna be able to compete with Alex Hermosi or Dan Martell or whoever, you know, Patrick David, like, for sure, you know, I'm not going to compete with Mr. Beast. Yeah, no doubt. But, like, you don't got to be in the top 1% or even 2% if you're in the top 10%. The amount of accolades, prestige, opportunities, money.
- [30:19]
Guest Expert
Dude, is life changing.
- [30:20]
Neil Dhingra
And it's not that crowded. Yes, It's. It's not that hard to get there. I'm not trying to downplay the work. If you get intentional, you put in the work. You're willing to put in the work over time. Just get it. Just get just nine and a half. If you're at the bottom of the top 10%, you're gonna get.
- [30:37]
Guest Expert
Yeah, but the other thing that, you know, people don't. They just underestimate is the fact that what takes you hours, days, weeks, will eventually take you minutes. Like, for example, today we jumped on this pod. This is like your thing. You do this like brushing your teeth.
- [30:51]
Neil Dhingra
Yes.
- [30:52]
Guest Expert
You hit the intro. We did the thing. Now somebody else might be starting. They might. They might take all day to do what you just did.
- [30:58]
Neil Dhingra
We spun up this part two. A real time.
- [31:00]
Guest Expert
Yes. And so think about, like, as you get good, the lift becomes a lot easier.
- [31:04]
Neil Dhingra
True.
- [31:05]
Guest Expert
So it's not going to take you as much time to shoot that one video or that one podcast, and then you can get help. Then you can start scaling things up.
- [31:11]
Neil Dhingra
Well, as we land the plane, we got a couple more here, and I've got 19 and 20. But, Neil, if people want to connect with you, if they want to check out Forward Conference, give a shout out before we hit the final two points.
- [31:19]
Guest Expert
Yeah. So you can DM me on Instagram. It's @neilhome. Shoot me a DM anytime I respond to all of them. And then if you ever want to check out our event, go to forwardevent.com we host this event every year. It launches in the spring and then it sells out. It's been awesome. This is our sixth year coming up.
- [31:33]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah. And it is an incredible event. I've got to be there. The way what's actually cool is. Yes. Great speakers, incredible information. You're getting a lot of these takeaways here. There's obviously so much more at the event, but the community, the connection, the experience, the physiology and psychology of being in a physical room and how that propels you forward in relationships in business, it is priceless. And so we'll link everything up in the show notes to check that out. All right, we got two more in the category of marketing, sales and positioning. 19. The best ad is a great client result with a story Sharon said that. So good. If the only point business owners applied right now was, number one, actually getting client testimonials and client results, and number two, packaging that and putting it out, it could change your business and start generating sales.
- [32:23]
Guest Expert
Nothing sells like results. You could just show the proof.
- [32:26]
Neil Dhingra
Yes.
- [32:27]
Guest Expert
Of the results you're getting. Instead of just talking, show them. So don't just tell people, show them the actual results. And what better way to do that is like from the client's point of view. Now, sometimes clients don't want to get on camera or send you those things, but you can use screenshots of the things they sent. You could do the voiceover with the imagery. And there's so many different creative ways.
- [32:44]
Neil Dhingra
To tell their story. In a vertical video, if they give you permission, they give you some text, you tell the facts of their story, show some pictures. Yes. I think though, the big block is people haven't actually taken the time to ask and the due diligence to follow up, to keep asking, to constantly getting referrals.
- [33:00]
Guest Expert
And bro, I think something simple is like when you obviously ask for reviews, you know, a lot of people in our industry build their public reviews.
- [33:07]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah.
- [33:07]
Guest Expert
Many times you get a text from a client or a review and you can just ask them, hey, thank you so much for the review. John, would you mind if I share this online? Because I think it would inspire people and help. Dude, no problem. Please share it. You know, go ahead. Now, the one off chance they say no, then you're. But that's fine. But like I would say 90 plus, 95% of the time, they're going to be a yes.
- [33:27]
Neil Dhingra
Yeah. So good. So the best ad is a great client result with a story and then chop that up, repackage that, put that across social media, YouTube, weave it into your content and then 20. Everyone is doing funnels. Dan Martel said everyone is doing funnels. The winners are doing follow through.
- [33:44]
Guest Expert
Yes. So, you know, right now the value of a lead generated online has never been lower because people opt in for things and then they kind of forget. I mean, just getting people to a landing page is tough. And then getting them to follow through on that, a lot of times people leave the platform to opt in, then they forget what they were doing. They go back, they don't even fill out, finish filling out the form. You know, it's like getting tougher and tougher to get people to, hey, hold on a second, stop what you're doing, pay attention. And so the follow through is going to be really important. Like what Is that opt in sequence? Are you emailing them? Do you have like a, a drip afterwards of six emails? One of the emails is a success story. One of the emails is this and you're really taking people on journey after they opt in. And then are you following up? He has a sales team that he, you know, he's used to scale his coaching business in DMs and they follow up like crazy. Now some people would argue it's a little too aggressive, but you can't argue with the results. I think he's crushing it from that standpoint. So you have to find what works for you. But if you're not following up, you're leaving so much money on the table.
- [34:39]
Neil Dhingra
And that, yeah, that's a famous quote is the fortune is in the followup and so many people are just focused on top line views. They don't even go one layer deep, let alone multiple layers deep of thinking about follow up. Multiple touch points.
- [34:52]
Guest Expert
I think about the event hardest thing right now you would agree to fill live events. It's very difficult. It's not easy, it's just become difficult. For whatever reason people aren't as motivated to go. So how do you feel them? You have to follow up. People forget. So I posted about things and I post everywhere and then someone's like hey, when is forward again? I'm like dude, you missed 40 times I talked about this. Yeah, they forgot. They don't remember. They might have seen your post, even liked it, but they were in the middle of dropping their kids off and then their mind went elsewhere. They're not going to go to a landing page and buy a ticket. So how do you follow up? So what we do is we get them, we show them the stuff multiple times and then once they've opted in. I was actually seeing the biggest conversion with sending a personal video. It's a one to many video. It's not like hey Sean, it's just like hey there or hey, saw you were at the thing, dude, I would really love for you to be there and let them know like a personal invite. And so Gary told me this years ago. He said your biggest advantage in business is going to be scaling the unscalable. What is something unscalable that you figured out a way to scale? You can send out personal videos through DMS and text to follow up with people. And I found that that was the biggest conversion piece.
- [35:54]
Neil Dhingra
That's strong. Well, these were 20 takeaways from Forward Conference in 2025 and 2026 launches in spring details in the show notes. And if you've gotten value out of this Think Media Podcast episode Smash like, leave a comment. What Was your favorite one? Check out Time Codes and Chapters on the YouTube version and maybe let us know your feedback. And if you're listening on audio, it really does mean the world. If you rate review wherever you listen to the podcast, I know Spotify sending you massive love over there. Come on. Five star rating on Apple if you leave a text review really does mean the world. My name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel and I cannot wait to connect with you in a future episode of the Think Media Podcast.