Getting customers is the biggest secret money gurus fail to teach, and it’s quite simple.
Want to know how to get customers? Well, you need the basic foundations of “fishing for traffic” first. Because, just like fishing in a lake, fishing for clients is a simple process, once you ‘get’ it. Fortunately, you’re about to learn all about getting customers on a deep level, and with practice, master traffic generation for any business, yours included.
Note: Instead of a shallow “X # of steps to get customers”, below are the core foundations that give you rock-solid confidence in getting customers forever.
In my decades as an entrepreneur, I’ve failed an embarrassing number of businesses.
5? Hardly. 10? Nope. 20?
Yeah, that’s about right.
And each of those failures inspired me to take business courses, sign-up for webinars, read books, and apply lessons learned.
So many gurus taught me what they believed was ‘most important’ to have a successful business.
Some taught me that the first step in business is ‘creating an awesome product or service.
Others taught that it’s ‘finding a gap in the market.’
Still others taught me it’s ‘attracting the right business partner.’
I’ve done all these things first in various businesses, and it has led to failure every time.
Plus, I’ve seen countless other failed entrepreneurs do the same.
Business schools and MBAs often teach this stuff upfront, as if they’re the most important.
I respect and appreciate everyone who shares their ideas, insights, and tips to get customers.
I really do.
But the vast majority of blogs, books, and videos on how to customers… barely work.
They’re full of headlines and advice such as:
Yes, growing your email list is a great way to get customers, but you’ll fail to implement this without knowing the basic foundations of getting customers first.
Great advice, lol.
This is like telling people who are learning how to swim “Just dolphin kick, bro.”
Vaguely helpful, but applying this won’t magically bring you customers.
Sure, you can get customers from freelance platforms, social platforms, or any other platforms, but countless folks will still fail to do this without traffic foundations.
I’ve gotten many customers from Facebook groups… does that mean this is good advice? Not really, and definitely not compared of what you’ll read on this page.
This is pretty solid advice, and works for many… but what do you do when it doesn’t work for you, or when the search engines change their algorithms and de-rank you?
We dismantle a ton of myths about “networking” in our 1-hr podcast episode:
Headlines like this make me laugh. It has nothing to do with “getting customers” and everything to do with “upselling or retargeting customers you’ve already got.“
Anyway…
I consider these “fake” customer acquisition tips, because they only work for an obscenely rare few, such much so that they’re practically useless.
Basically…
None of these tips are “bad” on their own, but I’ve never seen a headline like this that actually explains the core basics and foundational principles necessary to make them work or implement them properly.
Each of them are a waste of time 99% of the time if you don’t already have the “why” and “how” of traffic mastery.
I’m not kidding.
You can watch every bit of content from Gary Vaynerchuk, Grant Cardone, and Alex Hormozi and for some reason or another, they don’t teach the most important thing for any business… first.
How to get customers.
Well, technically they teach various tactics to get customers, but they don’t teach the core principles of it.
But…
What’s the point of starting any business if you haven’t learned how to keep a business alive?
What all those biz gurus should’ve taught first, is traffic mastery.
And there’s a good reason why.
Seasoned entrepreneurs often call “potential customers,” traffic.
If traffic is flowing well, your business can do just about anything.
You can test new products. Attract new staff. Get buzz, testimonials, and leads. Test new marketing messages. Anything. \
Healthy traffic flow sets the stage for health in all areas of your business.
But if traffic dies, and you struggle to get customers, your business can’t do anything.
When it’s just your mom or your friends trafficking to your business, your biz doesn’t have enough candidates to test a new product. You won’t attract talented staff. You won’t get buzz or testimonials. You won’t be able to test new marketing messages. You won’t be able to do anything and your biz will die.
Unhealthy traffic flow guarantees your business dies, instantly or eventually.
Anyone learning business is wise to start with traffic mastery, because then…
–even if your entire biz model is wrong–
…at least with traffic you’re still helping people and you still have precious traffic to work with, test with, and refine with.
So what exactly is “traffic?”
Or perhaps ‘reachable groups of potential customers.’
Groups of people are just like schools of fish.
They’re abundant, and naturally occurring.
If you don’t have reliably reachable groups of people to get your marketing, messages, and products in front of, your business will fail.
It’s pretty much a law of physics.
So the question is…
How do we get traffic?
And especially, how do we get it as a ‘first step’, when we don’t even have other parts of our business in place yet?
Well, it all comes down to getting the attention of ‘tribe leaders,’ but we’ll get to that later.
First you need to identify who you want to serve.
This is key because there are 8 billion people on the planet, and even the most successful mega-corporations can barely reach half of them.
And every business’s offering, whether from a small enterprise or mega-corporation, is like a vehicle taking customers on a journey from problem to solution, or from dream to reality.
The bigger the business, the more customers can board your vehicle, and the wider you can target and serve.
The smaller the business, the less customers can board your vehicle, and the narrower you must target and serve. (At least until your business grows.)
So if you want to succeed easily, it’s wise to “niche down.”
To really succeed, you must target a small niche of humanity to start, no matter how badly you want to ‘target everyone.’
And how do we choose a niche?
Some teachers call this your ‘customer avatar’ or ‘persona’ or ‘ideal client.’ I ditch all those fancy business terms and just call it your ‘one person.’
Every business that has ever succeeded at getting customers, started by helping one person.
They helped one client, then a second, then a third, and scaled up from there.
And the type of person that one client is… became the template for all the other clients they helped.
Business is all about helping people, serving them, and providing perceived value to them, so your first step is to pick one person you know you can help.
It’s easiest to pick someone like you.
This is why many businesses start by ‘solving their own problem’, and then marketing the solution they created to others, because it’s easiest to understand ourselves.
Another path is to choose someone you’re super passionate about.
For example, although I’m not a woman, I have helped many women elevate their femininity, and I’m passionate about women realizing the power of their femininity, so I could choose to help a woman seeking femininity.
You want this to be a specific person, with a specific identity, because if you just choose a group like ‘jocks’, ‘gardeners’, or ‘writers’, you’ll trick yourself into thinking you have an audience you can serve…
…but you’ll still struggle to serve them.
“You’d have the same problem if you identified your audience as truckers from Tacoma. Hipsters from Hollywood. Recent retirees in Richmond. Or even rock climbers, tweens, or middle-aged men who like to watch football… These groups sound specific, and it might feel as if we’ve nailed it. But the truth is categories like these are still way too general.” – Lisa Cron
Whatever you choose, if you want traffic for your biz, then you have to be able to find ‘streams of people’ who are just like your ‘one person.’
And to be able to find those streams…
…you must understand your one person on a much deeper level than you think.
But deeply understanding a person can be a 24/7 job.
Many spouses live with their partners for decades and still fail to understand them fully.
As an entrepreneur, you don’t have time to fully understand your ‘one person’ fully.
Even if you had an entire department for ‘client understanding’, they’d only be putting in 40 hours a week or so, and understanding another person fully is a 24/7 tier job.
Fortunately, there’s a trick to make it easy on you.
Whoever your one person is, they definitely have the three core desires that all humans have.
Namely: Health, Wealth, and Relationships.
I call this their ‘favorite.’
You have these three desires. I have these three desires. And your one person has these three desires.
I call them the ‘big three’ desires.
But one of them will be more important than the others to your one person.
(Which means it’s more important to your ‘dream customers’ too.)
I call this their ‘favorite.’
If I’m talking to a lonely single woman, chances are relationships are their favorite.
If I’m talking to a concussed jock, chances are health is their favorite.
If I’m talking to a failing life-coach, chances are wealth is their favorite.
Once you know your one person’s ‘favorite’ of the big three, you’ve cut your job of understanding them down by two thirds!
And there’s another trick to make it even easier…
…which is to find your one person’s submarket.
Health can be broken down into submarkets such as: ‘mental health (self-help, anxiety, medication),’ ‘physical health (nutrition, training, weight-loss),’ and ‘spiritual health.’
Wealth can be broken down into submarkets such as: ‘marketing’, ‘sales’, ‘investing’, etc.
Relationships can be broken down into submarkets such as: ‘love life,’ ‘family,’ ‘marriage,’ etc.
As soon as you know your one person’s ‘favorite’ submarket, your job of understanding them becomes even easier.
And there’s one final trick to make understanding your one person effortless.
Sure, your one person may be an entrepreneur focused on wealth.
And sure, they may be passionate about marketing.
But what specific marketing niche do they call their “home niche?”
Do you see how these things are more specific than the “marketing” submarket?
And how they’re drastically more specific than their favorite of the big three, “wealth?”
These are niches.
And when you discover which niche your one person calls home, now you’re really starting to understand them.
Now you can locate exactly where your dream customers hang out.
Now you can make a list of words that resonate specifically with them, as you learn to speak their language.
This lets you name drop and connect with influencers and tribe leaders in their niche, and niches adjacent to it.
So many well-meaning entrepreneurs passionately create and market things they believe will serve their chosen customers.
They deeply believe in the value of what they’re offering.
But oftentimes, customers still won’t even like or share their offerings, let alone buy.
This is because most entrepreneurs are so focused on the product they created or the advertising they bought, that they fail to resonate with the conversations going on in their one person’s mind.
Customers live in their own worlds, their own realities, and they have a stream of consciousness going in their minds constantly.
Just like you and I do.
And the businesses we buy from are the ones who are able to penetrate our autopilot minds, interrupt our routines, and resonate with the conversations we have going on in our minds.
If you want to hook any traffic to speak of, you must know their hopes, fears, objections, and excuses.
The key to this is understanding…
We all have these, and when any business intentionally or accidentally resonates with them, they earn our attention.
Not sure what I’m talking about?
Here’s some examples:
Away From Pain Convos
Towards Pleasure Convos
Can you see the power in knowing these conversations?
Let’s say your one person is into fitness, and you come up with a blog post to reach them titled “New Fitness Cure The Industry Doesn’t Tell You.”
At first, this seems great, right? It’s on target, your potential customers (leads) are gonna love it, right?
Wrong.
It doesn’t resonate with the conversations in their minds.
If your one person is obese, they don’t care about ‘the fitness industry’, they care about “Secret Ways To Lose Weight (And Still Eat Cake)” because the conversation going on in their head has those concepts and phrases in it.
If your one person is a gym rat, they also don’t care about “the fitness industry”, they care about “The Most Fun Exercise To Get A 6-Pack (Fast!)” because the convo in their head has those concepts and phrases in it.
Even if you understand your one person’s favorite, and their submarket, and their home niche…
…you’ll still struggle to get their attention and buy-in unless you know the conversations going on in their head, and can piggyback off of them.
So make sure you do this step.
Identify your one person’s mind-convos, both away from pain, and towards pleasure.
Then you’re ready to create your Dream100.
This is a concept I stole from Russell Brunson’s book Traffic Secrets, because it’s the best book I’ve ever read on traffic generation.
(I actually took his pain / pleasure convos idea from it too.)
He takes many chapters to explain it, but basic concept is this:
You write a list of 100 great leaders of tribes that your one person is already part of.
This works beautifully because humanity is tribal.
In ancient times, tribes may have been things like what village a person belonged to, what language they spoke, their specific tradecraft, their religion, or something else.
In pre-internet times, tribes may have been things like social clubs, school classes, magazine subscriptions, television watchers, sports fanbases, etc.
In the post-internet era tribes are often things like Facebook Groups, subreddits, specific hashtags, YouTube channels, email newsletters, and so on.
The point is that tribes have always existed in some form, and tribes clump, cluster, and gather around certain places, making them easy to spot.
And every tribe has a leader that the tribe rallies around and listens to, officially or unofficially.
So if you focus on connecting with the leaders of the tribes where your one person belongs to, you’ve just given yourself the highest chance possible of winning an avalanche of customers.
In fact, as long as you understand and serve your one person, you’ve guaranteed yourself many leads.
So how do you find your Dream100 tribe leaders?
Easy.
People are like schools of fish, flowing through different streams, and if you want a successful business, you’ll need to find fishing holes brimming with your preferred type of fish.
So, while keeping your one person in mind…
Ask yourself, “where do my fish (customers) gather?”
If you’re helping either a) people like you, or b) people you’re passionate about, many gathering spots should spring to mind.
If you put any reasonable effort into answering these questions, you’ll end up with 100+ fishing holes where your tribe (of dream customers) hangs out.
And your Dream100 are the LEADERS of each those tribes & fishing holes.
So note down the names, emails, and social channels of each leader, because once that’s done, you can start connecting to them.
And keep in mind…
Often during this process you’ll think of “faulty vehicles” in adjacent niches that your one person has already tried using to solve their problem.
Earlier I mentioned that all offerings from all businesses are ‘vehicles’ that customers buy passage on, to take them where they want to go in life.
And if you’re running a business, your vehicle must be ‘a better fit’ for your one person than what’s already out there.
For example, if you’re selling a “mental health guide” that gets amazing results for people with anxiety…
…but there’s a lot of anxious folks desperately using yoga to feel better…
…then ‘yoga’ is a ‘faulty vehicle’ fully of anxious yogis that you can come along and serve.
Or if anxious people are investing heavily in benzodiazepines but still remaining anxious, then benzos are a ‘faulty vehicle’ with tons of traffic waiting for you to scoop them up with a better offer.
Your one person has already tried a few different vehicles to solve their problem, but they’re still suffering.
Your customers need your vehicle, your offering, you.
Because other vehicles are faulty, weak, and not getting them the results they want.
These “faulty vehicles” are a great place to find your traffic, because people are already streaming to them.
Depressed Stay-At-Home-Moms may be desperate for self-help, but they’ll often seek happiness in other “faulty vehicles” in the market instead, such as: yoga groups, crafting forums, asmr, drugs, and other things to “lose themselves in.”
Struggling League Of Legends players may be desperate to increase their rank, but they’ll often seek happiness in “faulty vehicles” such as youtube tutorials, different champions, amateur coaches, learning from their friends, etc.
This is a huge win for you.
Because these “faulty vehicles” have already attracted large streams of traffic, but much of their traffic still remains unfulfilled and hasn’t had their problem solved.
Figure it out, and then use offers that resonate with those folks…
Because they’re ready, eager, and waiting for you to come along and hook their attention.
So whatever home niche your one person is in, it serves you greatly to brainstorm any “faulty vehicles” they’re already exploring, because that’s where very warm traffic is gathered.
This step boils down to:
Be a kind human or provide (perceived) value.
But let’s dig into it a bit.
You choose a fishing hole that your one person visits. (Let’s say it’s the r/crafts subreddit.)
There’s plenty of other ‘fish’ there as well, crafters who are all part of the r/crafts tribe.
It’s tempting to instantly post what you have to offer, but if you want to succeed…
…be patient.
Instead, realize you’re in a new tribe, with its own unspoken rules and protocol, and every tribe is different, whether you like it or not.
And as an extra bonus…
Since these “faulty vehicles” are in adjacent niches, they’re unlike your own business’s offering.
This means you’re not competing with them or stepping on their toes, so they’ll often collaborate with you or put you freely in front of their audience.
They’ll see your offering as a complementary vehicle that serves their audience, rather than steals their customers.
Whether you’re able to come up with faulty vehicles and adjacent niches or not, by this point you should be able to come up with 100+ tribe leaders and/or fishing holes that your customers gather around.
*If you can’t, you either a) haven’t put in nearly enough effort, or b) you have chosen a poor, far-too-small market to create a business around (though this rarely ever happens.)
Now, on to the next step.
On reddit for example, some of the unspoken rules are as follows.
There are also clearly outlined ‘spoken’ rules for most subreddits, usually in their sidebar or in a pinned post. For example, in r/crafts rule #4 is this:
And rule #7 is:
If you try engaging with the r/crafts tribe without obeying their rules, you’ll end up ignored, downvoted, or even banned before you even get started.
Which will cause you to lose out on huge traffic, because r/crafts is a tribe of 2.5 million warm leads.
If you make wonderful comments for a good chunk of time, appreciatively tag or DM the mods for what a great job they’re doing with the subreddit, and even make a high-value post or two that has zero self-promo…
…you’re likely to get on the tribe-leader’s radar.
This is kind of like being charming at a party, because most of the fishing holes that tribes gather in aren’t business channels.
They’re not for selling or self-promotion.
Social media, and all “social” channels really, are like parties.
You can make highly valuable connections who can grow your business, just by attending a party or two…
…but only if you’re charming, and understand social etiquette.
To make connections at a party, you put all thoughts of money, promotion, and business out of your mind.
You engage with people in friendly ways, talking about whatever seems relevant at the time, without a care in the world about your personal passions, business, or offerings.
You focus on others. You focus on making connections.
And eventually, one or more people will invite you to talk about yourself.
Then, and only then, do you tell them “what you do” or “what you help people with”, and when you do eventually discuss these things, whatever comes out of your mouth had better hook them, or they’ll move on to other topics.
Does that make sense?
If you understand how to be valuable and make connections at a party, you understand how to do the same on social media, and you understand how to create rapport with customers and the leaders they rally around.
It just takes dropping egoic self-interest, observing social rules, and a bit of practice.
(And you can improve results even more with creativity and an understanding of ‘attention’ or persuasion too.)
So…
Would you rather patiently observe, research the rules, and then try small post experiments that are pure value (with nothing in it for you) first?
Or would you rather pursue your own selfish selling and traffic-hunting, ignorant of the tribe’s rules, and get banned from the tribe?
This should be an easy choice, and I’ve never personally been banned from a tribe for disrespecting their rules or culture…
…but you’d be surprised how many people actually do choose the latter.
If you walk into a cafe, it’s not wise to just post your offer up on their bulletin board.
The unspoken rule is you buy a coffee or something first, chat up the clerk, and then ask if you can post on their bulletin board.
And if you want to be extra sure it goes smoothly and you build a good relationship with the restaurant’s tribe, you take it even further, buying coffee and befriending the clerk initially, then befriending the manager or owner on a return visit where you bring them even more business…
…only then asking for bulletin board privileges.
If you’ve done this well, they may feel inspired to offer you a chance to put your business cards in a pile on their counter, even!
The point is this:
Whether your fishing hole is a subreddit, Instagrammer’s page, or a brick-and-mortar store…
There’s a protocol you must learn to enter their tribe, and there are healthy ways to get on their tribe-leader’s radar, as well as ways to get yourself banned from the tribe.
If you want reliable, significant traffic, you must practice walking this line until you get the hang of it, or delegate the task to someone who can.
No way around it.
The shortcut to this is “be a kind human” and “provide (perceived) value” until you’re clearly and undeniably a “friend of the tribe,” first.
Follow all 100+ tribe leaders on all their socials, or at least on the most active and update-to-date channel for each of your Dream100.
Worried you’re going to clutter up your social feeds?
Avoid this by creating new social channels you can use to keep tabs on your dream100.
If your normal social accounts are called @billyjoe for example, create @billyjoesecret or @billyjoe.elite or @billyjoe100 or something.
Do the same on each channel or social platform you’d like to keep tabs on, and then follow ONLY your dream 100 on them.
That way, you can pop into your accounts for 5 or 10 minutes a day and look for opportunities to add value to your Dream100.
This makes it very likely that each tribe leader ends up with positive personal experiences on their channels with you. It makes them likely to notice you and remember your name.
It makes them likely to check out your work, and to say yes when you eventually make them a juicy offer. It makes them likely to pimp you out to all their millions of tribe members.
Can you see how patiently obeying the rules of the tribe, and patiently keeping tabs on tribe leaders and providing value to them makes you a friend of the tribe?
This is how you earn your way into the tribe.
If possible…
Be a guest on their channels. Get them as guests on your channels. Make tribute content to them. Create an award or ranked list that features them.
Be creative.
Do whatever you can think of to serve, uplift, and appreciate your Dream100.
If you do it like it matters, if you do it like it’s a valuable job, if you do it with passion and a kind heart, not caring if 90% of your Dream100 reject you or don’t respond…
…you will land about 10% of your Dream100, and your business will thrive.
And actually, you just need to land one.
Because as soon as you get one of your Dream100, you have proof for the other 99 that you’re legit.
More and more people will say yes, especially if you go back and revisit them with your new proof and credibility.
And technically, if you want to shortcut all this…
I imagine if you’re reading this post you’re probably not ready to burn lots of capital in figuring out the right way to pay your way into various tribes, so I’ll just say this:
There’s an art to buying your way into a tribe, and if you’re not good at it, and ready for it, you’ll just end up burning through all your capital for minimal results, leaving you broke.
I highly suggest you don’t try this until you’ve:
a) gotten the hang of the other traffic concepts first, or
b) are already skilled at paid advertising, brand deals, sponsorships, and so on.
Regardless of all that, if anyone puts a true, persistent, agenda-free effort towards serving their Dream100…
You will befriend certain tribe leaders who have many tribe members hungry for your vehicle.
You will become a friend of the tribe.
And once you’re a friend of the tribe, as long as your hook, story, and offer are well-crafted…
You (or the tribe-leader) can post yours to those tribes and start pulling in the traffic.
The basic process for connecting to a Dream100 members (usually without paying) goes like this:
And a quick note about repetition:
Have you ever noticed how when something “pops up” in your life often, in various places, at various times…
…it can “feel like a sign?”
Well, this applies to all humans.
When something (or someone) repeatedly pops up in our lives, we notice the pattern, we notice the repetition, and we begin to pay more attention, feel more familiar, and see that thing as “a normal part” of our lives.
And this is how you want your Dream100 to feel about you.
Which means, you need to persistently and consistently “pop up” in their feeds and lives.
How?
Well, I’ll summarize some of the above using Russell Brunson’s Dream100 connection roadmap.
(Day 1–14): Create new social accounts *JUST* for following your Dream100. Then, daily, subscribe to and consume your Dream100’s content, both new and old.
Yes, this takes work…
…but so does anything worthwhile & beneficial in your life, from feeding yourself to exercise.
(Be careful you don’t do too many actions on each platform, or they’ll see you as a bot/spammer and ban you.)
You will come across content that resonates with you, at which point you engage with it, praising them for it, =sharing what you find noteworthy, and finding ways to provide value and serve them.
Each time you engage with a Dream100 member in this way is the same as a single wave of the hand, so do it many times throughout the two weeks, if you want to “wave enthusiastically.”
(If you really want to connect with your Dream100 members… BUY THEIR STUFF. Because nearly everyone responds to “happy customers.”)
(Day 15–30): Next you graduate to a more personal connection, introducing yourself to your Dream100 personally via email, direct message, their personal assistants, or whatever.
This is like digitally “shaking hands” and opening up a dialogue. While doing this, keep the focus on them and what they like. Be a decent human. Your goal should never be to pitch them anything during this time.
Don’t send a templated message or you automatically lose.
Don’t tell your story or discuss your sh*t yet. There’ll be a time for that, but it ain’t in the first or second message. Provide value ONLY.
Don’t ask for anything. Just don’t.
Do make sure they’ve seen your face, name, or avatar photo enough in phase one before you message them. Everyone responds more positively to familiar faces, period. You’re selling YOU to the Dream100 in this phase, NOT your product, service, or offering.
Do praise them and let them know how they’ve positively impacted your life, because everyone of your Dream100 responds positively to praise and affirmation that they’re uplifting others like yourself.
Do do your homework. Know what your Dream100 are focused on recently and know what the core pillars of their life are, and talk about these things in your introductory outreach.
And make sure you care about it sincerely, whether it’s their family, mission, pets, hobbies, latest product, or whatever.
Do this and they’ll relate to differently than others, and remember who you are.
(Day 31–60): In this phase you make your Dream100 your fan.
As long as you’ve done the first two phases well, and persisted through rejections and being ignored, finding the Dream100 members who are most receptive to you…
…This is where you invest in your most receptive and engaged Dream100 more heavily.
Give your Dream100 a taste of whatever you want them to promote, free of charge (or as cheaply as humanly possible), because you care about them, and you want them only to promote something of yours that they’re truly enjoy.
Not to mention your relationship with them and their tribe is going to be worth millions to you in the future.
If you want them to promote a book, entice them into reading a copy of that book. If you want them to promote a course, make that course juicy enough for them to take themselves. If you want to promote a service, provide that service to them.
Your best promoters first start as your biggest fans, so they need to experience your ‘creative offerings’, and now, when they’ve been primed and engaged well, is the time to get your offer in front of them.
Yes you’re spending time, money, and energy on your Dream100 members, but this is the only way for you court them effectively.
This phase is like treating them to a nice meal with them, now that they’ve agreed to get a bit more personal with you in the other phases.
"Pretend like you are trying to date your Dream 100, because you kind of are. Treat them right, and one good relationship can be worth millions of dollars to you."
(Day 60+): Here’s where you be a guest on their show and get exposed to their audience.
Or you get linked in their Email newsletter, and get seen by their list.
Or get tweeted by them, and reach their social audience.
There’s an art to this step, and it’s explained deeper in Traffic Secrets, so I’m not going to get into it here since this post is giant already…
..but if you’ve done the other three phases well then some of your Dream100 already know, like, and trust you. They’re fans of you. They’re receptive to you.
So setting up a win-win offer to interview them of collaborate on something isn’t too much of a stretch.
Some percentage of them are likely to say yes to a collab of some kind.
And all you need is one of your Dream100 to say ‘yes’, because as soon as you have ‘proof’ and ‘backing’ from one of the Dream100, you’re now part of the “in crowd” or the “cool kids”, and everyone else will be way more receptive to you.
Creating a healthy rapport with some percentage of your Dream100 is fairly simple, but it takes patience, persistence, discipline, and personal investment.
If you lack any of these qualities you won’t connect with your Dream100, nor do you deserve to until you’ve developed such qualities.
And that’s not the only thing you need to take care of, either.
There’s a certain skill you must make sure you’ve got the hang of too.
As a business your basic function is to find streams of traffic, throw out your hooks, and reel in some customers.
The better you are at this, the more people you’ll serve, and the faster your business will grow.
Your ‘hook’ is the thing that gets potential customers’ attention when you interrupt them with it. It’s the (click) bait that gets them interested.
If you choose a good fishing hole with a decent-sized stream of traffic, interrupt them with your hook, and your bait fails to get a satisfying amount of clicks…
…you need to work on your hook.
It’s basically anything that gets your tribe’s attention.
Online, it’s often headlines and thumbnail images, but offline it could be an attractive hostess giving away free samples.
It could be a Facebook Ad or a Billboard.
A hook can be just about anything, but everyone pretty much recognizes one when they see it, because they’re everywhere, and the good ones are hooking us all the time, while the bad ones are annoying us just as often.
I cover this in-depth in my attention article, and you can read the book “Get Different” by Mike Michalowicz if you want an even deeper dive on hooking people’s attention.
I’m not just talking about any story here, I’m talking about a particular kind of story.
This kind of story is what you give your leads once they’ve been successfully hooked.
Russell Brunson calls this an ‘epiphany bridge story’, which is a mouthful. Some people call it a ‘from A to B story.’ Others call it a ‘before/after’ story.
I call it a ‘butterfly story’, because it’s all about the journey from problem to solution, just like a caterpillar’s journey to become a butterfly.
Whatever you call it…
It’s a tale that resonates with your tribe’s pain/pleasure. It’s a yarn that amps up desire in your already-warm leads. It’s a story to help them believe what you’re about to offer will change their life for the better.
You see them all the time:
And on and on in countless ads, content, and posts.
The reason these kinds of stories have been around since caveman times, is because they work.
Stories like this trigger something deep in our DNA, letting us know that we’re on the track towards a solution, and on a subconscious level, we know they’re going to prepare us for life improvement.
Which means they’re preparing us to change, act, or buy-in to whatever is offered once the story is complete.
We secretly *love* stories that prepare us for a better life; that prepare us for growth.
So if your hook work, you have a lead who’s not ready to act, change, or buy right now…
…but they are ready to hear a butterfly story.
And if you really can help your customers, then you know exactly what kind of story is going to resonate with them. You know how to take them on a journey from problematic situation, to a fulfilling future where that problem is long gone.
And if you’ve told that story effectively, with enough vulnerability, detail, and emotion…
…your warm lead is now engaged and invested, and primed for a juicy offer.
Your leads’ minds are constantly considering 4 factors before they say ‘yes’ to anything.
I explain this more in-depth in my I.N.F.E.R.N.O.S. article, but here’s a quick summary of Alex Hormozi’s “Value Equation” (In this case it’s more of an “Offer Equation”, but same diff.)
When your leads receive an offer, they’re considering:
The more your offer increases the top two factors of the equation (A & B), and the more your offer reduces the bottom two factors of the equation (C & D)…
…the juicier your offer becomes.
Most people don’t understand the offer equation, which means they put very little effort into increasing the dream outcome or perceived success rate.
It also means they put little effort into reducing the time delay for a customer’s results, or into reducing the effort and burden involved.
Consequently, most people’s offers aren’t very juicy, which results in few, if any, leads taking action and/or buying.
Don’t let that happen to you.
Practice making juicy offers.
Tweak your offers til they’re extra juicy. Make offers so good that people feel stupid saying ‘no.’
If you do, you’ll serve more people and receive more money.
Whether you want customers to buy, or to subscribe, or to share, or to like, or to comment, or sign-up, or to attend, or whatever…
…the hook-story-offer combo will still apply.
It’s a huge key to getting people to do anything.
So if there’s anything you can practice in business, the hook-story-offer combo is surely one of the most essential.
Because a tribe leader could gift you with traffic made up of millions, even billions of tribe members, but if your hook-story-offer combo is ineffective, you’ll just waste the opportunity.
The traffic will swim by your hook, or you’ll fail to reel them in, and get nothing.
On the other hand, if your hook-story-offer combo is high-performing, you can plug any traffic above a baseline into it, and gain customer after customer.
If you understand this, then any time potential customers aren’t doing what you want…
Let’s say you’re losing customers, or simply not making as many sales as you like.
How can you figure out the problem using hook-story-offer?
Well…
If you’re not making as many sales as you like, look critically at each step of your hook-story-offer combo, and you’ll discover how to fix it.
Heck, you could polish and refine all three parts of it with better copy, images, storytelling, value-adds, bonuses, etc., because there’s always room for improvement, whether you’re a small biz, or mega-corporation.
A good fisherman switches up bait sometimes.
Some fish get bored of the same bait. Some fish need a very specific bait. Some fish learn to avoid certain bait.
This is why businesses are continually coming up with new ads, new creative, new copy, new imagery, new marketing.
This is why businesses are constantly testing what works, because customers’ tastes change.
So make peace with the fact that if you run a business, you’ll continually be playing around with different hook-story-offer combos.
And just like you’ve continually tried different groceries in your fridge over the years, it’s something to enjoy, not complain about.
None of us think “Ugh, what a hassle, I have to keep trying different foods and constantly filling my fridge all the time,” we just do it with as happy a heart as possible.
Same goes for refining your hooks, stories, and offers.
Fair?
One of the best things to do with traffic is use your hook-story-offer combo to get leads onto a list that you own.
Not a list owned by YouTube or Instagram, that they can delete along with your account, but a list on your own computer, or your own trusted cloud CRM, or even stored on paper.
Why?
You might think it’s their products. Or their machines. Or their location. Or their secret recipe.
And those things are valuable, sure.
But if you took them all away from any business that had a large list of loyal customers, that business could create some new thing, offer it to their list, and be back up and running almost instantly.
Whereas, if you took away a company’s list of loyal buyers, but left them with all those other resources, they’d still be starting from scratch, and it would take them ages to build up a list again.
So build your list of loyal followers, subscribers, customers, fans, whatever.
And keep in mind…
No new business builds their list in under a year.
Commit to serving people as best as you can for a year, at least.
If you don’t have the heart, guts, or discipline to serve people consistently –on a platform you happily commit a year to– you don’t deserve a list…
…and you absolutely won’t get a list, at least not one worth its salt.
In fact, even if you were to buy a list, you won’t earn credibility with the majority of those new leads for about a year.
Sure there are a few naturally talented people who can do it a few months earlier, but even the world’s best list-builders know building a list is like birthing a child. It’s 9 months of gestation before you have anything others your industry can truly interact with.
Here’s a quote from Nathan Barry (pulled from the Russell Brunson’s Traffic Secrets):
"How many great TV shows have you discovered in season three or later? I started watching Game of Thrones after they had released five seasons. Pat Flynn had released at least 100 episodes of his podcast before I even knew he existed. I discovered Hardcore History years after Dan Carlin started producing it… There is so much content being produced that we can’t possibly discover it all. So instead, we wait for the best content to float to the surface after time."
Here’s another quote from the same book that drives the point home:
“I made a list of the people I wanted to be part of this promotion, and then I started calling them. The first person told me no, and the second person said the same thing. I kept calling and kept getting no’s. Somewhere in that list I called you, and your answer was the same, but I was determined to make this work no matter the cost, so I kept calling… I got 48 no's, but the 49th person said yes! I asked him if he knew anyone else that might be interested, and he gave me three names. I called each of them, and they all said yes.” - Tellman Knudson
It takes persistence and perseverance to build your list, but once you’ve got your list, your value is huge.
Your list is your cred.
It’s a living record of the people you’ve helped, the value you’ve provided, and the effectiveness of your offerings.
And it’s something you must earn.
But it’s the foundation for every other part of your business, and once you know how to do it, you can give lifeblood to any business.
There’s not much that’s more empowering, or more worthwhile.
So get out there, and start courting your traffic.
Your customers are waiting, and the longer they have to wait for you, the more they suffer.
The first few sections of this page, starting with “identifying your one person“, will help you identify your dream clients.
C’mon… did you read any of this page?
The beauty of the customer-getting principles explained on this page is that they’re timeless and evergreen, so even though the examples use current social media platforms, the concepts of ‘fishing holes‘, ‘tribe leaders’, and ‘creating rapport’ work in every era, culture, and platform, including brick-and-mortar businesses.
The best way to get people to buy your products is by persuading some percentage of your Dream100 Tribe Leaders to vouch for your product and to share it with their tribe. This has been accomplished by countless folks, and if done persistently, always results in a substantial influx of sales.
You get way more than 50 customers if you create rapport with your Dream100 Tribe Leaders, convert them into fans of your products, and inspire them to share your offerings to their tribes. Seriously, just apply the basic foundations of getting customers outlined above.
Getting customers to buy more is another topic entirely, much different from ‘getting customers’ and ‘traffic mastery,’ so you’ll want to look into upsells, re-targeting, bumps, one-time offers, urgency, scarcity, and sales funnels for that.
The principles outlined above are timeless evergreen basics that work for any business of any size in any culture. Please just practice them until you get the hang of them, and I guarantee you’ll see fulfilling results.
Post Author:
‘J-Ryze’ Fonceca's diagnosis as 'genius' as a child made him arrogant. This led to him scraping by as a homeless entrepreneur... for years. Eventually he got out by helping Evan Carmichael build his empire of 3 million followers. A brief stint as 'the bimbo whisperer', coaching OnlyFans models followed, after which he finally pivoted to his "Eyes Wide Open" podcast with his partner Cyn. His clients call him the ‘living mindf*ck’, ‘mindset adrenalin’, & ‘best mentor ever.’ He lives in Toronto, has read thousands of books, & can play any champ in League Of Legends serviceably.
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