Alexander Ford

That feeling when you try to turn every inane moment or photo of your life into some warped story you can use for your marketing.That feeling when you try to turn every inane moment or photo of your life into some warped story you can use for your marketing.

I can tell you have your shit together when you reschedule our meeting before it happens.I can tell you have your shit together when you reschedule our meeting before it happens.

What you do is not as interesting as why you do it. . That’s why I appreciate the simple strategy Kyle laid out in this video. Want to get famous, become a category king, and generate tons of organic leads? Then the first thing to do is to connect with your target audience on an emotional level. . Tell them your origin story. Who were you before you became the entrepreneur and visionary you are today? What was the sudden realization or epiphany that made you change direction?... . There’s a reason superhero movies make so much cash. People LOVE a good origin story. Even if you don’t have Kevin Feige producing your life. . The idea is that your audience sees you as a human being, which is sometimes a bit tough with online marketing. Everyone is so inundated with ads and videos and posts and messages all trying to sell us something. It’s refreshing to hear a story instead of a pitch. . When they hear stories, the human beings at the other end of your marketing start seeing you as a human being. Then they'll become much more interested in listening to the problem you solve. . That’s all we can ask. The point of advertising is to break through the noise we all deal with daily. Telling stories is a highly effective way of doing that. See more

We all want to be richly rewarded for being ourselves. . We don’t want to live in a world where we’re trapped into being incongruent. And this is where you must align your marketing with your life. . Do you WANT to be popular?... . Do you WANT to be well-known on social media? . Do you WANT to be celebrity in your own corner of the internet? . Many business owners say yes. But for a lot of them, well, I think they’re just bullshitting themselves. . They’d be much happier deploying funnels and marketing initiatives that don’t depend on them being the face of their business. . And that’s okay. . Heavy is the head that wears the crown so before attempting to become a category king, make sure you really want it. See more

You are not your customer. . You can’t know all their problems and frustrations by yourself. . You can guess, you can extrapolate, you can make a reasonable approximation ... . But nothing is more telling than hearing it from the horse’s mouth. . The utility of that data is beautiful. Once you've heard your customers describe their problems to you in their own words, the world is your oyster. Make content around it, put it on your sales pages, use it when you’re on calls . The difference for your wallet is huge when you solve real problems versus imagined ones. See more

Value doesn’t exist in a vacuum. . To become content creators and business owners worthy of attention, we must bring something to the table. . It’s often easiest to do through creating content that uses our unique skillset to solve problems for our audience. But this begs the question... . What problems does our audience have? . And believe me when I say it is SO easy to get trapped into thinking you know what they are without qualifying them. . Being a category king is a two-way street. You need to deliver content to your audience that solves problems or provides value in some way. AND, you need to listen to your audience to find out what problems they have or what value they want from you. . This simple exchange is the difference between a preacher and a community builder. See more

A great business owner is also a great storyteller. . You already know how you need to tell a customer a compelling story to get them to buy from you . But have you thought about how the stories inside your business play a part in shaping your results?... . In the video, I talk about a goal we had to build a marketing machine. At first, the name of the goal was exactly that: build a marketing machine. But I soon changed the name to reflect the outcome: becoming a category king. I didn’t do that because it sounds way cooler. . I did it because it’s much easier to enroll your team into a result than a process. . As a business owner, I get what I want when my team wants to help me. It’s much easier to get their help when I present them with an outcome-focused goal, rather than a structural one. . I’m sure there are some folks out there who are inspired by the goal of creating a marketing machine. But I’m doubly sure there are more people who are inspired by the goal of becoming a category king. . It’s the same thing, functionally. But one is sexier. . And damn it, if I have the chance to be sexy, I’m gonna take it. See more