As you can tell from the title, I have done 400 of these podcasts; most of them are with myself, but yes, you know on a Wednesday, I do the expert interview series.
I interview the top entrepreneurs, the top celebrity entrepreneurs, they’re not celebrity, celebrities, they are in the entrepreneurial world, they are celebrities, if you get what I mean.
So I interview those, I learn a lot from those, I learned a lot from just talking to you guys, because you are fantastic.
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And I thought I’d give a quick recap because it’s a weekend challenge so I am going to word it in ways that can help you as well, may give you something to think about over the weekend.
Weekend Challenge
So, where do we start? As you know, get your pad, get your paper, start writing these down.
#1 Engagement Trumps Numbers Every Time
Now I’m trying not to say “trump” because I don’t want anyone to think I support Mr Trump, your American, I am just not even going to go there.
But anyway, engagement trumps numbers every time. So you could have 20,000 Twitter followers, you can have a subscriber list of 100,000, of 50,000, of 10,000 but if nobody is reading the stuff, if no one is commenting, if no one is engaged, if no one is listening, I could put this out into the ether, if no one is listening, what is the point?
You’ve got to get engagement, you’ve got to talk to people like they are real people.
#2 It’s Not About You, It’s About Them
The person, your listener, your reader, your e-mail reader, your customer, your potential customer, they rightfully are not interested in you, they want to know what’s in it for them.
So I’m sorry if you have an ego, Mr Trump, and if that doesn’t sit well with you, I am sorry, but you’re not going to get far if you feel you have to impose your will.
I had a job done by somebody the other day who was very very nice and did a great job, a freelancer in America, and I could tell he is probably a little older because he had to stress that when I commented and said, “I don’t think I understand.”
He had to stress, no, I am not understanding him, he had pointed this out before and I didn’t read the instructions properly.
See, that’s not the way to do. Now, it’s fine, he was good, I could give him some leeway. But that’s not the way to do it.
If he wasn’t doing a good job, I would have been out of there. So remember, it’s not about you.
#3 Talk Like a Friend and Not Like a Company
Have you ever read those corporate e-mails? Or read those corporate websites where they have that stock photo image of a bunch of multiracial women, men, different colored hair, all wearing suits, all smiling, all shaking hands?
Then underneath they have a full corporate spill of how wonderful their company is and all that kind of stuff.
No one speaks like that, do they? If you go to the website and to read this podcast, this podcast is transcribed, so this guy Jon, the way I speak is transcribed.
It is edited a bit because it makes me look like I’m totally incompetent if you read it fully transcribed with no edit.
But you can start sentences and paragraphs with “And”, you can have one line things, you can just go like that, you can just go like that.
And that’s how people speak like that. Have a laugh with people, be like a mate, people buy from people they like and people they trust. They don’t buy from companies, okay?
And you’re not selling to a company or a family, you are selling to the person, the one person who is reading at the other end.
#4 Refer to Short Stories
So when you are explaining things, make them relatable to your audience.
So, for example, if I was talking about how not to send out offers, I once sent out an e-mail to people. It was a bargain affiliate offer from someone I know, I trust them and I know it’s a good product.
And I thought, oh, it’s some easy money, I actually quickly just wrote out an e-mail and said “Hey everyone, this is great, I think it’s wonderful, I know her, you should buy this.”
And I sent that out in an e-mail and that got me more complaints, complaints back to me from people saying “We didn’t sign up for this, this isn’t why I subscribed to you, Jon, this isn’t what you normally do. Is this from you? Have you been hacked?” Things like that.
So complaints fortunately directly back to me. But don’t forget, so for every five people that complain, there is probably fifty who think the same, who don’t.
And the whole point of this, the whole point of me just saying that is it’s a story, it relates.
So if I’m talking about e-mail and explaining what not to do, there is a story, a story from my experience, from real life, from memories. Use those because that puts it into context, people understand them, people think you are a real person. Yeah.
#5 Entertain and use Humor to Accompany Anything You Discuss
Whether it’s figures, even if you’re giving a presentation to someone like a PowerPoint. Are you one of these people that does that pour point thing?
By the way, FYI — nobody likes those PowerPoint where you’re giving a talk on your putting up right after slide with figures and writing all over it, because they’re trying to listen to you, but they have to read that. Don’t do that, be more interesting, put up pictures of cats, whatever.
Be interesting, talk to them, but entertain them, people want to be entertained, they don’t want to be talked to, they want a laugh. It doesn’t matter if you put some people off. Some of you, may not like me.
Gasp! What?!? Gosh! “Jon! Surely not!” It’s true. There may be one of you that thinks I am horrible. In the UK, we talk of it as it being like Marmite.
Marmite is a yeast extract, if you’re in Australia, Vegemite, put but in the UK, we have adverts on TV that say “Marmite, you either love it or hate it.” And that it doesn’t matter because the people that love you, love you.
The people that hate you, probably will tell people, “I don’t like him. He’s all right but doesn’t sit well with me.” Because you’re going to be nice.
You don’t have to appeal to everybody, there are seven billion people out there including me. I like you, but you don’t have to appeal to all the others.
So entertain, please have a laugh. Don’t tell me you don’t know how to laugh. Actually I know a couple of people that are not very good at it. But let’s not talk about all the Canadians. You know who I am talking to.
Have fun, it works in business. Remember what I said earlier? Talk to them like they are a friend and like a mate, mates have fun.
#6 Ask Them to Take Action
Have a call to action, a C.T.A. and make it simple. So if you say to someone on your website, the end, “If you’re interested in this, phone us and we’ll be glad to help.”
Write the phone the number. So, phone us on, write the phone number there, don’t say, oh, it’s at the top of the page, make it simple.
If you say e-mail us, e-mail us at, put the e-mail address or anchor text link the word “e-mail” or say “Go to our contact form”, link to that contact form.
So read our article about this, link to that article. Make it easy. “Buy now”, don’t say “Go to our e-commerce site.” Link to it, give a call to action.
Has that stressed it enough?
Anyway, that’s all the stuff. So I have learned quite a bit over 400 episodes and a lot of that has come from myself, lots of that has come from top people I have interviewed.
But these are important lesson I have learned, I have actually learned loads more but it wouldn’t fit on Jennifer’s graphic, so I can’t say anymore. Maybe I’ll come back to that some other time.
Anyway, you have yourself a fabulous weekend. It’s sunny outside, you can hear the birds tweeting and see the golf course in the back.
And now the guy has gone and finished his mowing, whoo hoo! When I am finished. Have yourself a fabulous weekend, I will be back on Monday for the second batch of the next 400.
Okay, have fun.
