It’s been 10 years since we met Jordan Belfort.

10 years since “The Wolf of Wall Street” became a household name.

10 years since Leo DiCaprio took to the stage alongside Margot Robbie (who was, much to Leo’s delight I’m sure, well below the ripe ol’ age of 25) and engaged in precisely 180 minutes of superyacht destruction, lude-fuelled Lambo driving and dwarf-hurling debauchery.

And even though it’s been 10 years (feels like it was only yesterday to me), one infamous line still remains:

“Sell me this pen.”

I’m sure you remember the scene.

Leo standing eerily in front of a packed out stage. Watching, smugly, and with a facial expression that’s well beyond arrogance, as a simple request to sell him a little blue biro sends every bloke in the front row into a such an extreme fit of shakes that they’d show up on the fucking Richter scale.

And I’m sure you also remember the related scene from earlier in the movie.

The one where Jordan demands the same task of Brad Bodnick, John Bernthal’s character. And how he, ever so cunningly, requests that Jordan perform the simple task of writing his name down on the napkin in front of him. A simple task which Jordan, for obvious reasons, cannot fulfill. And thus, in a moment of sheer Scorcese brilliance, we are introduced to the big, bad world of supply and demand (quickly forcing every high school economics teacher and university lecturer sitting in the cinema to take an impromptu bathroom break because they have, unfortunately, creamed their pants).

And we all get it.

You’ve got a product or service.

You want to make money by selling it.

And so you need to create some demand. 

(This is, incidentally, the wrong way to do marketing. You don’t build a product and then try to sell it to the market. You observe a market and then create a product which solves a burning problem within it.)

But let’s put that aside for now.

Let’s assume you’ve got a product or service you want to sell.

And that now you don’t just want people to be excited about your product.

You want them to read about it on the train and miss their stop because they’re so caught up with how incredible it sounds.

Well, you could take the traditional route.

You could plaster the walls of social media and Google with ads.

You could fire out cold DM’s like a dad that’s been let loose at the local paintball arena.

You could force your product down your readers throats day after day, month after month, year after year and with such unrelenting aggression that you turn into the business equivalent of Miss Trunchbull from Matilda, incessantly forcing chocolate cake after chocolate cake down Bruce's swollen gullet until some poor sod has has to jump in and perform the fucking Hiemlich manoeuvre on him.

You could do all that.

Or you could take the smarter approach.

The smarter approach to marketing and sales

The approach that barely requires you to do any marketing at all.

The approach where people start spreading word about your product on their own.

The approach where selling your product doesn’t deface your brand, but instead enhances it. 

You could think about what your customer actually wants.

Not their surface level desires.

Not their apparent pining for money.

Not their aspiration for a big social media following.

Not their ostensible cravings for fortune and fame.

But what they actually, at the very core of their being, truly want. 

Because blokes buying a 4-inch drill bit don’t want a 4-inch drill bit.

They want to see the look of respect and admiration their wife gives them when they catch sight of the new bookshelf you’ve just used the 4 inch drill bit to erect in the hallway.

Kids buying a football don’t want a football.

They want an escape from the mundanity of their homework. The social status of making the school team. The indescribable sensation of playing an absolute blinder, having your mates all gather round you and, just for a brief moment, feeling like you’re a damn king.

And people trying to grow a social media following on 𝕏 - or any other platform for that matter - don’t want a big social media following.

They want what growing a social media following on 𝕏 gives them:

Leverage. 

Freedom. 

And to not have to to wake up every morning, sit on a sweaty train for an hour and spend the entirety of their 8-hour workday dreaming of what it would be like to get up from their desk, saunter over to their boss, and RKO their smug face straight through the fucking floorboards (I’m more of a 619 kinda guy, but hey, everyone’s got their own style).

That’s what you need to tap into.

That’s what you need to build your brand around.

And that’s how you need to market the solution you’ve built.

Because once you boil down what your customers actually want - their true, core desires - then you’re able to craft one, consistent brand identity that taps into that desire.

And that’s what makes you memorable.

That’s what will make people gather around you.

That’s what separates you from all the other people out there that are trying to flog sun loungers to a bunch of Eskimo’s. 

And suddenly that pesky product you couldn’t give away before will start to sell itself.

Now, that’s a lot of prelude, metaphors and cinematography for a Monday morning.

But what does this actually mean for you?

What are some action steps you can take today that will make selling your product or service 100x easier in the coming weeks and months?

Let’s have a look, shall we.

What does all this mean for you?

Step 1: Is there an actual desire for your product or service?

Easiest way to tell this?

Are other people successfully selling a product or service similar to yours in the market?

Yes? 

Great - you’ve simply got a positioning problem. Which we can fix.

No? 

Sad times. Can the product. Build something that’s already selling. And then simply position it differently. Trust me - it’s a lot easier to go this route than try to bring something entirely new to market and become the next Mark Zuckerberg (as much as films like The Social Network might glorify that whole process).

Nextttttttttt.

Step 2: Why did YOU decide to start selling your product or service?

You’re not here for money.

How do I know?

Because if you’ve made it this far then you’re clearly an intelligent individual. You could quite easily work your way up the corporate ladder and earn a very good income without all the stresses and headaches that arise from running your own business.

So there must be another reason why you chose to discard the default path.

To go it alone.

To embark on the weird, but ever so wonderful journey of entrepreneurship.

For me, it’s autonomy.

The ability to do what I want, when I want, where I want and for no one to be able to tell me otherwise.

But that may not be the case for you.

You might be here for a different reason.

A desire for mastery?

A love for innovation and creative solutions? 

To feel a deeper sense of community and belonging than a standard 9-5 could ever provide?

The motivation itself doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you understand it.

So ask yourself - why are you here?

Take some time today to introspect and figure out exactly what brought you on this journey.

(If you need help with this, I’d encourage you to look up Carl Jung’s 12 human motivators).

And once you’ve done that, you’re then ready to tap into a whole wealth of experiences that you didn’t even know existed.

Step 3: List out every single moment of fear, frustration and anguish that led you to where you are now

Think back.

Remember how you used to feel.

Every story, experience and anecdote that brought you to the place you’re at now.

That time your colleague pissed you off but you couldn’t say anything.

That impending sense of doom you’re faced with every time Sunday rolls around and you realize it’s time to get back on the hamster wheel tomorrow morning.

The way you’d sit, slumped and miserable at your desk, desperately waiting for the day when you can finally stand up, give your boss the finger and walk out of the damn building without a second look.

Tap into it all.

The more specific the better.

Because this is how you create an unlimited pool of content ideas, marketing angles and sales pitches that actually resonate with your readers. 

Every email you send.

Every landing page you design.

Every sales letter you write.

It will all be authentic as fuck because it’s all based on a life you’ve actually lived. And, more importantly, it’s the life your readers are currently living.

You want brand affinity?

You want die-hard fans?

You want a product that sells itself?

Tap into your specific, unique, irreplaceable range of emotions, stories and experiences that led you to exactly where you are now and plumb those into every single piece of content you ever write again.

You’re still marketing.

You’re still selling.

You’re still building a brand.

It’s just that this time you’re doing it the right way round.

Talk soon,

Harry

PS. I built a $10k/month business in under 4 months.

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