Jim Edwards and Stew Smith discuss the importance of being authentic in your marketing. Sometimes this takes a journey of years to become proficient in making products or selling services. Being an authority in something and then able to teach those skills to others in a real way that saves them time and money is being authentic – being a real person that backs up any words with efficient action.
Don’t want to miss any episodes? Subscribe to “Sales Copywriting & Content Marketing Hacks” YouTube Channel Here for more information about creating successful sales copy to sell ANYTHING:
Stew Smith: Hey, everybody!
Welcome to the sales, content marketing sales, copy content marketing hacks, podcast number 77.
Jim Edwards: It’s only the 77th episode, and Stew almost knows the name, I guess.
Stew Smith: Yeah, I have it written down right in front of me too.
Jim Edwards: And that’s exciting.
So today, we’re going to talk about being authentic in your marketing.
Now, Stew, I’m just going to ask you, what does being authentic in your marketing mean to you?
Stew Smith: Well, to me, I would say you’ve kind of been there, done that.
Right?
So, you have a history of what you are selling.
You have a history of maybe even a journey of your progression throughout the years of you doing something…
Getting good at that something and being so good at it that now people want you to teach them how to do it.
Progression.
Or you’ve just been doing the same thing for 20-30 years, or you’re just good at something naturally, sometimes people are just good at something naturally, and they just start off as, can be pretty authentic, depending on what they’re selling…
Yeah, that’s a real pretty person…
That person can go online and probably do really well, especially if they start shedding clothes.
Jim Edwards: Where is this going?
Stew Smith: I am just messing with you…
But no, it really, being authentic means you’re genuine, and you back up everything that you’re saying.
With actions, you walk the walk.
Jim Edwards: Okay.
Stew Smith: Yeah.
Jim Edwards: So, to me, says are when you turn this on and off, did you turn it off?
Off, or did you?
Did you go?
We’re still alive on Facebook, and I am just recording live video interrupted it says, anyway,
Stew Smith: I’m on I’m recording on mine.
So, we’re good…
Jim Edwards: Okay…
So, to me being authentic means…
Yeah, I think to me being authentic is all the things that you said been there, done that walk the walk all that.
But you also have to be able to tell this, your story has to back up why somebody should pay attention to you.
In other words, it’s not enough to have done it, but you have to be able to tell the story of your journey in such a way that people go I want to follow this person.
So, you see people that are doing things that I don’t know…
It just it, it sort of makes sense that they’re doing it…
But in other ways, it doesn’t…
It doesn’t jibe.
If that makes sense.
It doesn’t…
In other words, even though they’re doing it and they have a track record, if they don’t tell the story the right way…
About where they’ve been what they’ve done, it can either alienate people, or it won’t communicate the benefit or the big reason why people should pay attention to them.
And so, it’s important for you to be able to explain your story, and that’s why we a lot of times use the Epiphany Bridge story or the hero’s journey story to explain that because that answers the questions of why should I listen to you?
Why are you doing this? And why should I give you money?
Because it shows “Okay, I was like you. I was on, I was lacking in some way. I went through a process to figure out how to get the result that you want.
And then I was able to learn enough and help enough people that it made sense for me to turn around and create this product create this course create this coaching create this software, so I could help even more people.”
And I think that’s, that’s the second half.
So just like what you said, you got to walk the walk, you got to talk the talk, you got to talk, and then you got to be able to tell the story…
Now, one thing Like with you is you don’t really toot your own horn ever you’re home.
Even your motto or the slogan for heroes of tomorrow is “only the motivated find us.”
Which basically means if you really want this, you’ll start doing research, and you’ll trip across us.
And if you really want it, you’ll move to Maryland and live in an abandoned band van body down by the river, to be able to come train with us, three, four or five days a week…
If you’re serious about this, you’ll live in an apartment with eight other guys you don’t know, eating ramen noodles and dumpster dive and to be able to do this until you head off to BUDS prep or whatever…
And I think part of it also is that you also don’t it’s that whole you were raised in the generation that was like the quiet professional rather than the chest beater…
Hey, look at me.
So, I think you were ingrained not to bang your own chest.
But your results tell the story now, and there are other guys that tell the story of Stew and that kind of thing.
So, but the story is still there.
Stew Smith: Sure.
That makes sense.
Yeah, that helps with all of the
Jim Edwards: authenticity.
Stew Smith: Yeah, another one is staying in your lane…
I think a lot of people tend to diversify a little bit too much, depending on what area they’re in…
So, for instance, people have asked me, “Hey, why don’t you teach, hand to hand or self-defense and shooting and stuff like that in life?”
Jim Edwards: Me.
Like, I mean, I love all that stuff…
But I, and I can do it, but I’m not good at it enough to teach it…
and I realized that now have I taught it before sure, but it’s not something I don’t think I’m good enough to teach it and market it as a good program to do I focus on the fitness side of the equation.
Jim Edwards: Well, part of authenticity is also mastery.
And so, you can see the old jack of all trades, master of none…
Sorry, Jack…
Yeah, you can go hang out with
One-inch Chuck.
But the thing is mastery in some ways is part of authenticity.
Sure, but also, you shouldn’t stay in your lane so long that like you’re the only one riding the ride on that highway anymore.
It’s like if you want it to be, “Hey, I’m the I Am the world’s best video game champion at Pac Man on the Atari 2600.”
Well, that’s the 80s called, and they want their video game system back.
Stew Smith: Yeah,
Jim Edwards: That doesn’t count…
So you also have to know you can develop a track record for figuring things out for your audience to like I help these people that I help them with changing technology changing the changing world I mean if you look at my story look at my path…
I started out with ebooks, and then we went to audio files or mp3 files and playing mp3 over the web when everyone was on dial-up, which was a big deal…
Oh yeah, screen capture video across dial-up, figuring all that stuff out, then full-motion video then membership sites, then webinars, then all these things…
I mean,
Stew Smith: Podcasts.
Jim Edwards: Big thing was, yeah, was bridging the gap between where people wanted to be and the understanding of how to get there.
So, I developed a reputation as the guy who figures things out, but it was all just done for an audience of entrepreneurs, info-marketers, authors, people who wanted to create content, basically people who wanted to create content and sell it digital download type stuff.
That has always been my, my audience.
Stew Smith: Yes.
I get the Exact same thing…
Um, but with fitness and I stayed in my lane, but I evolved with technology…
Yeah, so I think there’s the two are the same, you can stay in your lane and evolve with technology and watch your business, develop with technology because they used to not be social media, there used to not be podcasting, they used to not be able to, download large files, right, all of those things started to evolve…
And you just kept up with that technology, whether it was video content or audio content, written content, still did the old school stuff, but you brought it to the new school, so you still stayed in your lane, you just evolved with technology.
Jim Edwards: Exactly but also looking at different things like that book behind you that 101 best pyramid training workouts that apply to any of your audiences.
I mean that could be the tactical guys.
It could be the FBI Academy guys the SWAT thing the police firefighter all that stuff…
Stew Smith: Sure…
Jim Edwards: So, it’s you’ve got your bubble of your world that you’re known for.
And you want to master within that bubble-like if I were to try and come out with a fitness thing I got a lot of people as well…
Jim, you got in great shape…
Why would Why don’t you come out with a fitness product?
Like why in the hell would I come out with a fitness product that makes absolutely no sense for me to do that?
I tell you to go see Stew.
Why would I do that same thing with a lot of people say why don’t you come out with a gun, something on guns are shooting?
Because I’m not that’s not my thing…
It’s Just not, yeah, I could do it to a certain level, but not
I’m not a master in that, in that it just doesn’t make sense for me to do that.
Stew Smith: Sure.
Jim Edwards: It doesn’t make sense for me to partner with somebody on that.
So, it’s just it’s not my lane.
It’s not what I’m known for.
So, I believe authenticity like we said, it comes down to you have you walk the walk, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?
Have you walked the walk to get results for your own self?
Does it make sense that you have that your story there, your real story, makes sense and answers the questions of why you why this why now?
And then I think the third thing is, have you proven if you really want to be perceived as authentic, have you proven that you can get results for other people.
That’s where you go from this level to this level.
Because ultimately, when people buy from you, they buy results.
That buys the perception that you’re going to be able to help them get results…
So, it’s one thing for people to look at and say, “Oh, yeah, well, you got results for you.
But can you get results for other people?”
And that’s where you really need to go out there and prove that you can get results for others.
Like with Stews, heroes of tomorrow, he trains these kids for free…
And he experiments on them…
Figures out what will get them good results
And every-once-in-a-while he does something
he’s like, oh, maybe we shouldn’t do that again…
We all got turf toe from doing this…
I think we’ll start in the development section of my business…
That’s right.
But I mean, he’s always doing it always getting those results.
Now, you don’t necessarily have to do it for free.
But when you’re first starting out, you can do it for free.
And nothing speaks like results.
I mean, if you look at Russell Brunson in his Expert Secrets books, one of the things that he tells you is basically if you want to become an expert, you got to go serve a bunch of people and help them get results.
And you don’t have to do it forever, and you don’t have to do it for 1000 people, All you need to do is take a handful of people and help them get results to the degree that everybody else would be like, “Oh, hell yeah, I want that!”
And by actually doing it, you can see where what you do is idiosyncratic for yourself, versus do you have a process that somebody else can really use and, and get results from?
So, it whether it’s putting up a website, or it’s writing a sales letter or getting in shape,
Stew pretty much knows when he sends out those workouts that if you do what the workout if you do what’s on the list, you’re going to get a good result…
I mean, it’s just it’s proven, but it’s not just like he didn’t just makeup workouts like, he did the workout…
Then he had, then he did the workout with a bunch of other people…
And then we see how they react…
Do they, do they bonk for the rest of the week?
Because we’ve made them do 1000 burpees on Monday, or do they have a little bit too much energy on Thursday?
So, we need to beat the crap out of them on Friday because Lord knows, why would Jim not be really tired by the end of the week?
We can’t have that!
But I mean, it’s the actual doing it
It’s practical experience with other people.
That is, the third leg of the stool for being authentic in your marketing is that you can actually get results for others.
And it’s also the part of your marketing that’s going to make you the richest with results with getting paid with everything because people buy results.
And if they look at your marketing, and they “Okay, if that guy can get results, and that one and that one, they look like idiots!
I’m smarter than them!
I know I can get a result!
I know I can kick some ass!
So, I’m, this is me I’m in.
Yeah, I’m getting it!”
Stew Smith: What I like Jim, I like it when I buy something.
And what gets me to buy that item is that person has saved me a lot of time and effort in the journey itself.
Jim Edwards: Sure.
Stew Smith: With techniques with just lessons learned in learning from their mistakes.
So, they teach learning from their mistakes to me.
That’s…
I can’t tell you how many times I have struggled through things on the internet, for instance, or webpages and took hours to do and had I just looked at this one YouTube video of some guy showing you do this, do this and this and I’m like, Oh, damn it!
It’s what I should’ve done.
To say, six hours.
Jim Edwards: I spent two hours trying to install a plugin and a piece of software the other day, and then I said, let me go look on YouTube and see if somebody has like a really obscure thing…
Let me see.
And I found this video that had 382 views in like the last two years…
Wow, the guy showed exactly how to install this plugin, and I had it done in 30 seconds.
And I was like, this is so dumb.
Why did I do this to myself?
Stew Smith: So, you can say people that kind of time that is when you are the authentic guy that can share those kinds of experiences with your customers that saves them so much time and effort.
From your own personal mistakes or maybe mistakes you’ve learned along the journey.
Jim Edwards: And I think what also makes you authentic to follow along with that is when you tell people “Hey, yes, I am at this level, but I am also still learning We can learn this together.”
I mean, one of the things with fitness a big change in the last six years that I’ve been working out with you has been your invention of the mobility day…
And we weren’t doing that six years ago when we first started out, and everybody was feeling like why am I so tired, I’ve shattered a life-changing, and I don’t know where you got the idea for it, but it’s changing lives!
And then you wrote it, and then you figured it all out…
And then he wrote a frickin book about it.
Stew Smith: I did.
Jim Edwards: and made money.
So that’s, letting people…
It’s people think if you’re going to be an authentic expert or authentic in your marketing that you can only wear the hat of the expert, you have to be completely and totally bulletproof at all times…
And that’s just stupid.
Nobody knows everything.
So, there are three hats that you wear.
If you are truly an authentic leader.
You have the expert hat, which is all based on what you’ve done, you have a lot of stories to share, not the boring old man stories where everybody wishes you were like…
Really good stories okay?
Stew Smith: Back in the day…
Jim Edwards: Yeah…
Oh, geez…
Okay…
But you’ve got, you’ve got the expert hat, you’ve got the student hat, which is you’re learning stuff all the time…
That’s one of my favorite hats to wear…
When I’m like, Okay, I’m going to go figure this out…
I’m going to go I see what somebody is doing…
And I want to see if I can figure out how to do it…
Oh my god…
This is amazing!
I spent hours figuring out how to get through it in the dancing Jim thing to work
Um, and then so wearing the expert hat, sometimes wearing the student hat…
And then sometimes you wear the reporter hat, where you basically say, hey, look, this is what I’m seeing going on…
This is what I think it means…
But here’s the who, what, where, when, why, and how of what I see going on out there.
And you don’t have to make a judgment about it at all.
You can just say, so like with Russell’s Traffic Secrets book, if anything, I was the reporter when we were promoting that.
It’s like, “Hey, I read it, it’s really good.
I think it’ll really help you and I think you ought to get a copy of it.”
That was being the reporter.
It wasn’t being the expert
It wasn’t being, it was sort of being the student too.
But authentic mean, I wrote that that’s good…
You’re doing the, your, your, your authentic, genuine, real person that’s traveling through life and helping people along the way, and you’re not intimately as authentic,
Stew Smith: You’re staying relevant.
Jim Edwards: And staying relevant.
That’s, that’s good!
Where’d you pull that one from?
I said it a few times.
Because I know guys because I’m the old guy in this fitness world
Right now, younger guys coming up behind me, but I’m staying in probably bought your book back in the day.
The first fitness book I ever bought was a Navy SEAL guide to fitness by Stew Smith.
Stew Smith: And I’m staying relevant.
Jim Edwards: Exactly, yeah…
So, but staying relevant…
There are a lot of people that I’ve known along the way, if you say staying in your lane on the highway of life, a lot of these guys who will remain nameless…
Pulled over on a rest stop 1000 miles back and there because they didn’t like the fact that the highway was bending in a way that they didn’t like they want to keep spent send going east, but the highway’s going north now…
And so, they stopped in the rest stop and there Wait until the highway straightens itself out never going to happen.
It’s always going to change.
It’s never going to change back.
The principles never change, but circumstances and everything is constantly changing.
So be a person of principle
Understand principles.
And, like, just like in Steve’s business, there are five principles of fitness, there’s a push, pull, abs, legs, and cardio.
Those are the five things, okay?
But the world around those is changing the world of copywriting, hook story, offer headline, offer stack, all these things have, attention, interest, desire action calls to action, all these principles that never change, but the way they get implemented on different platforms and in different mediums change all the time and will continue to change.
So, that’s part of staying relevant as being able to apply principles to changing circumstances and changing conditions.
That’s key to “Wow, that’s good to know…”
We can’t pull that one out.
All right, any other earth-shattering things that we want to share in being authentic in your marketing, or is that pretty much sum it up?
Stew Smith: Oh, yeah, I think that’s good.
Jim Edwards: Okay.
Stew Smith: I think that’s good.
Jim Edwards: All right, cool…
Well, we appreciate everybody being here…
And we appreciate everybody who joined us live for the creation of this podcast episode.
I know we had a little hiccup in the feed, so thank you for sticking with us.
I think the recording will be good.
So, make sure that you check out the Sales Copywriting And Content Marketing Hacks group on Facebook if you’re not already a member.
One other thing you want to make sure that you head on over to copywriting secrets.com, you can get a free copy of my book copywriting secrets.
All you have to do is just pay shipping and handling.
It’s amazing.
And I know you’ll enjoy it.
So, we will have the oh, and if you want some help with your sales copy, you can always go check out Funnel Scripts…
Funnel Scripts is the web’s number one and BEST push-button sales copy solution with over 70 different scripts to help you to create everything from headlines to complete webinars, and definitely is your easy button for creating the copy you need for any of your funnels.
Leave A Response