Happy Friday!! My brother is getting married today!!! Wowowowoowwow!

If you can imagine, I’m real hype to give my best man speech. A chance to test out these storytelling skills I’ve been working on over the last 6 years.

Maybe I’ll share it with you all and break down what went into writing it.

I took a little break this week, so I’d love to offer you my most popular newsletter I wrote last year.

If you already read it, I’ve made a few updates and it’s worth a re-read and I’m sure you can implement some new skills you’ve developed over the last 10 months!

Here it is:

You are not Alex Fucking Hormozi

Recently ​@hormozi​ has been giving the advice to, “give, give, give, give give and give so much they ask you to work with you.”

He’s changing Gary Vee’s advice of “Jab, Jab, Jab, Hook” which basically states to give a lot of value in your content then make an ask (i.e. “sign up for my program”).

I love Gary’s advice.

I hate Hormozi’s advice.

Easy to say to give and never ask when you have a million+ audience.

Hormozi is actually contradicting himself so hard.

Go read his book $100M Leads and you’ll know why.

Actually you don’t have to, I’ll tell you right now.

The entire book lays out a process of getting leads (duh) broken into 2 core groups.

Inbound vs Outbound Lead Gen

• Inbound = Your leads make the first move. You can think “organic” content. ​ They love your content, newsletter, podcast, etc. so much they click the link in the bio and sign up for your program or book a sales call (for example). ​
• Outbound = You are actively going out for sales. ​ Your content is less focused on value and more “asking for the sale.” This could be cold DMs, cold calls, Ads, or an email that says, “Last chance to sign up for the membership!”

Hormozi is now telling you only do inbound. Don’t ask for a sale.

But in his book he not only tells you to do both, he even ​JUST post this reel​ which is him explaining outbound lead gen.

So WTF do we do?

He loves to say, “Success leaves clues.”

You don’t do what millionaires do now. You do what they did that got them there.

What did Alex Hormozi do?

Alex built and sold GymLaunch for $46.2 million in 2021.

GymLaunch helped gym owners use Facebook ads to get people to sign up for a 6 week weight loss program at a gym (their zone of genius) and at the end of the 6 weeks would turn those people into members at the gym thus solving a gym owners problem of having low cash flow (problem they solve).

GymLaunch got their clients through Facebook ads and cold calls (this is all in the book $100M Leads). This is outbound lead gen.

Before Hormozi blew up like he has today, I knew him from the gym and fitness world. He had like 35k followers. He wasn’t nobody. He posted a little bit of content, but not much like he does today (inbound lead gen).

Ads are hard (I’ve tried them). They take a bit of capital and a willingness to lose money at first.

Lots of us don’t have that luxury. ​

So what do we focus on? Inbound or Outbound?

We do both.

I love the Gary Vee approach which I think of like a bank.

Deposit so much money into a bank (inbound) and when it’s time, you make your withdraw (outbound).

Said without the metaphor: Post so much amazing valuable content (inbound) then when it’s time, you ask for the sale/talk about your offer (outbound).

Let’s break down 8 ways to do both. ​

Inbound: Make really great content that actually provides VALUE

Value is broken up into 4 content categories.

1. Educational: This is a post that people can walk away and implement something.
   
   Don’t just post some high level information like, “Here are 2 ways to find peace within. Meditate and Journal!” Anyone could make that. Instead, break down HOW to journal more consistently and effectively.
   
   👉 What you can do: Watch your last educational post. If at the end of your post you don’t know exactly what to do next, then your audience hasn’t learned anything. This makes the post is not valuable. If it’s a waste of time, they won’t come back for more (zero dopamine hit) ​
   
2. Unique Perspectives: Shifting someone’s perspective and breaking their belief on how things HAVE TO BE DONE can be life changing.
   
   You have probably had experience of doing something over and over and it never works. Then you change their perspective. That is MIND BLOWING. “You mean there’s better way?” ​
   
   Imagine you FULLY BELIEVE that being more general will help you reach more people and grow your business. But you’ve been making general content for years and it ain’t workin. Maybe you don’t even know you’re doing it!!
   
   Then I say, “Think about your favorite movie right now. Your story is nothing like the story in your favorite movie. I’ll use Lion King as the example. None of us are baby cubs in Africa trying to be king of the jungle. But we all know what it’s like to think we’re not worthy or capable of our big dreams or what our parents want us to be. While Lion King is a very specific story, YOU found yourself in it. YOU get chills when ​Simba finally steps on the ledge of that rock and ROARS​ and everyone roars back. He fucking did it!!! My dude is stepping into his power!!!! LFG!!!!” Instead of posting general content which builds not connection with your audience. Get specific! ​
   
   I “taught” you nothing. But hopefully I just broke your belief on your fear of getting more specific with your content (and telling your story).
   
   👉 What you can do: Think about metaphors that your client understands and relate them to the thing you teach. In doing so, you relieve them of years of pain because they’ve been doing things that don’t work. If you are responsible for that… damn how could they not work with you?
   
3. Connection: This is even more value than learning something. Why?
   
   We can all Google anything we want. Education and information isn’t very valuable anymore (but still necessary). It’s why diamonds are valuable (hard to get) and a rock is not (shits everywhere). ​
   
   Connection content can be telling a story and your emotions throughout the story. How often do we feel alone and like we’re the only ones experiencing something? Doesn’t it feel SO GOOD when your mentor says, “I’ve had a really down month and have only made 2 sales, but here’s what I’m doing to change that.”
   
   What a breath of fresh air.
   Ahhh, they struggle too. I’m not alone! Okay, I got this!
   It builds trust and connection with your audience.
   
   👉 What you can do: I teach two types of stories: (a) Personal and (b) Industry.
   
   An industry story would be me telling you about a specific moment when my marketing wasn’t working. Or when business wasn’t going so well. Then I would share a lesson I learned (double value! You connect and learn something).
   
   A personal story has nothing to do with the work I do. Like taking the final turn my bike trip across America, or watching my dad hold my mom as we watched our house burn down. Then I would share what this means to me or how it has shaped my values or world views. My audience would relate, feel seen, and we would build deeper connection. ​
   
4. Entertainment: Imagine just having fun with content. What a wild concept.
   
   Probably a lot of content you see simply makes you smile. Why do you think all those videos of randomly giving people $1000 go viral? We fucking love it! We love to feel good. ​
   
   When Geico makes a commercial about ​“Hump Dayeeeeee!”​ you smile. You go into work on Wednesday and yell to Mike, “Mike, Mike, Mike, guess what day it is!” Now you (unconsciously) associate happiness with Geico. ​
   
   So go ahead… Post the video of your daughter taking her first steps.
   Post the video your banter with your partner on whether the TP should roll under or over.
   Post the video telling your grandma your pregnant.
   Post the video of you eating a pickle even though you hate pickles.
   Post the video of you bringing your puppy home for the first time. ​
   
   Have some fucking fun for fucks sake.

Outbound: Here are 4 free options you can do TODAY!

1. Get on your IG stories and tell people what problem you solve for them and let me know you have space for 2 more clients (or if you make art, maybe you only have 5 pieces left!) ​ If I had a nickel for every person who asked me how to make more sales and I ask them how many times they’ve talked about their product on their story and they say ZERO… I’d have like a dollar. ​
   
2. Make a poll, then respond to everyone who votes.
   1. Could be a fun poll where you ask them if they use chapstick or not. Then you go chat with them in the DMs about chapstick because you’re a normal human who talks about normal shit. Just like any friend. If you had 1,000 friends in the DMs by next year, how do you think your business will be doing?
   2. You can of course make a poll about the work you do. Then go get curious with everyone who votes and see if you can get more clarity on what they really struggle with (a great source for more content). You could even support them with a few voice notes instead of trying to sell them. If you’re still early in your business. Do the things that don’t scale. It will set you apart.
      ​
3. Share screenshots of testimonials. ​ Everyone is thinking, “easy for you, Matt!” So show them that you’ve helped others. You can even give background on a person so they can relate. ”Mike is a yoga instructor but wanted to break free of the studio and start a breathwork program.” and bam! You show everyone how he made $8k in his first month. Now Jimmy, the Personal Trainer who wants to break free of the gym, can see himself in that social proof example. Then call them to action. “Comment “YES” and I’ll send you ________” ​
   
4. DM everyone who comments on your posts.
   1. You could ask for feedback, “Thanks for the love Matt! Do you mind me asking, what was most impactful in that post? Any feedback is always helpful so I can continue making better content.”
   2. You can challenge them with action, “Hey Matt! I’m so happy that post was helpful!! So I gotta ask, what story are you going to share this week with your audience?”
   3. You can simply say hi and get to know them, “Matty Ice! Love that you loved my post the other day!! I saw that you’re really into biking. Are you training for anything right now?” ​

Deep Breath 😌

Don’t feel like you need to do all of this!!!

Pick 1 new INBOUND idea.

Pick 1 new OUTBOUND idea.

Give it a shot next week.

If this helps you get some more engagement or even a sale, reply to this email and let me know!!

📚 For your next read: Do you struggle with consistently posting content or feel like content takes you way to long to make. In this post I teach you how I get into flow state when creating so I can make my best work. READ HERE!​

With love,

Matt ​