I’ve been following him for a few years now. I ingest large swaths of his content in waves. He’s calculated and strategic in what he does. Recently, there have been a huge amount of podcast episodes published on his self-titled show.
This isn’t particularly surprising. Podcasting has picked up popularity during the pandemic.
I took interest when he started showing up on other podcasts. Tim is notoriously selective with his time and doesn’t often feature on other podcasts. Generally, guests are plugging something, but I couldn’t figure it out.
Guy Kawasaki and Guy Raz have both done recent episodes with Tim and I’m now expecting other features to show up all over the place.
I’m also expecting them all to share a similar story. The story of Tim’s long-term depression and various strategies he’s used to combat it.
I expect psychedelic treatment to come up as a consistent topic too, though it may not in some of the more conservative conversations.
Overall, it will fit into the narrative of psychedelic treatments for long-term depression with Tim as a case study.
And this shouldn’t surprise anybody who follows Tim. He’s a vocal advocate and investor, so there’s a double stake for him (triple if you consider the fact that psychedelic treatment IS the future and has real potential for harm reduction).
He has 14 links to “psychedelic” related blog posts on the homepage of his website. He’s not hiding anything.
That’s what makes it all so brilliant. It’s true, it’s meaningful and it’s reaching millions of people at a time when audiences are craving long-form content to soak up all those screen-time hours.
And that’s a recent take on a brilliant marketing strategy by one of the living greats. One day a book will be written about Tim, but until then the podcast (and its transcripts) will have to do.
Let’s look at some of the fundamental reasons why this marketing season was a success.
The first is that I work as a marketer for a great product, and it’s executed by an even better team. $98 Exterior Window Cleaning (this get’s people in the door) and we 100% Guarantee our work. It’s a low-cost provider that simultaneously offers great service and guarantees the result. There are not a lot of businesses that can say they offer the lowest price AND a quality guarantee.
So I have a great product, which makes my job much easier.
And I have a sales team that is able to work magic. Part of that magic has come from having my working desk in a call centre for the past 2 and a half years. I get to hear the pulse of the company, whether or not I want to. It can feel overbearing at times, but the value in hearing what customers have to say at different points along their purchasing and servicing journey is an intangible asset.
I can’t tell you how many of my own ideas have been proven wrong just by listening to the other end of a client call. There are invaluable lessons hidden away in your clients, you just have to listen.
So I’m close to the action, and I keep my finger on the pulse of the company. The last piece of the puzzle is that I’ve actually been a window cleaner (albeit for a season and a half only) but I’ve done the work. I’ve seen the look in a client’s eyes when they look at a home of perfectly cleaned windows. Knowing what that is like, understanding the feelings going through a client in that moment – that’s the magic.
It can’t be rushed, it just has to be worked away at consistently. You will begin to see the patterns emerge over time, and you’ll continuously interpret and re-interpret. It’s all a part of the cycle and it’s all good. Keep thinking, learning and challenging your assumptions.
So that’s the background on my understanding of the service offering, execution of the service and the client interpretation.
Now where did I spend the money? Digital, mostly. Of that, mostly Google AdWords and Bing, bidding on specific keywords and trying out different programmatic ad strategies (which I now recommend against using). I also used Mailchimp, and spent about $2K on a small radio buy.
A quick note on using Bing. First, they let you import your campaigns from Google AdWords, which is just incredible. Second, there’s much less competition, so you can easily dominate results. Finally, the people that use Bing are older and less tech savvy, someone that uses Internet Explorer. They are more likely to click on ads and they are likely to be older. This was our target market, so it was a great fit. I don’t expect companies to sleep on Bing forever, but it’s a solid platform if you know what you’re doing. This is mostly because it mimics Google, but what’s new?
The keywords and campaigns that I use on Google and Bing have been refined over the past 2 and a half years. I have trimmed all the fat on them because from the get-go they needed to be self sustaining. I didn’t have a burn rate until after I didn’t need it anymore. The first year it was a tough conversation to get any money for advertising that didn’t immediately drive sales.
That last sentence is probably painful for any marketer to hear, because anybody worth anything in the marketing world knows that things take time. Just because you can have better ads or copy today, doesn’t mean that people will buy it immediately after you change it.
And yet you do need to make change happen, and the faster it happens, the better off you will be.
As far as I can tell, Elite Window Cleaning creates a significantly larger amount of content than any other window cleaning company on the planet. This means that there is a lot of material for me to work with as a marketer. It also means that we’ve found a way to harness creativity in our teams across a collective brand identity. That last point is critical, because it means that we will consistently be producing high volume and high quality content. Both of these things bring us ahead of the curve, but it’s what we do next that solidifies it.
We engage with and post in localized groups and platforms in the areas that we operate in. Specifically, I use our Facebook organic presence, Facebook Groups and Google MyBusiness. I use these platforms first because they are the ones that I see consistent returns on (except Facebook organic in certain situations).
We also post on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter and occasionally Snapchat, but the point is they don’t drive consistent revenue, so this is where I spend my spare time, not my priority time. I post on all of them, because each of them has the ability to go viral in some capacity. We recently had a Facebook video start to track globally 12 weeks after it had been initially posted. It’s pretty cool for a window cleaning video, but it also didn’t lead to any additional revenue yet. I expect that video to lead us to significant revenue in the future, the value of it just hasn’t been recognized yet.
The value that recognizes itself immediately is the spend that gets a client on the other end of the phone or filling out our quote calculator. I had to scrape the bottom of the barrel with free posts and free email blasts (limited to under 2000 people) to generate the revenue, then I could justify putting spend behind it.
That’s the same strategic mentality I use with paid channels of advertising.
“Lock down” revenues with proven methods, improve those methods consistently, then use that success to allow you to operate in unknown territory. Cover your bases so that you can have the freedom to express your creative ideas, without worrying about the security of your position.
This season I ran a pretty tight ship as a one-man-marketer, but that doesn’t mean I could not have done a better job (just see the last week of June to early weeks of August below). I was also, essentially, just pulling levers and making sure things looked good, while I was mostly occupied with experimenting on a bunch of other ideas, or going deep into analytics to try to find more inspiration.
I also was able to run a tight ship because I had a lot of design work from a former colleague who helped bring a professional flair to our brand image and another who was an AdWords genius. I had the luxury of working with both of these people for just 8 months, but the work that they put in during that time will continue to pay dividends for years to come.
Anyways, we’re almost at the juicy part of the post (the actual numbers). The marketing bookings for the first 4 weeks were all generated through free channels, SEO or email blasts. This is what I mean when I say “Lock Down Revenues with Proven Models”. Build on what naturally occurs (such as a huge influx of calls and searches in Spring) but also don’t try to fight fire with money.
The end of June to the beginning of August is a definitive dip. I’ve graphed it in a multitude of ways, yet I still thought I could just throw money at the problem in the same channels we were using. I was wrong. I should have been looking for a different and more creative approach to the mid-season dip that we see every year.
The work that you do diligently in your spare time, the stuff that you know will make a difference down the road – you’re right about it. It will make a huge difference. In fact, it’s the reason why I didn’t need to spend marketing dollars in May this year, but I couldn’t start with the long-term solutions, I had to chip away at them consistently over a few years. It’s a marathon, not a spring, you’ll get there.
Next year, I won’t make those same mistakes, I’ll make new ones. And I’ll make sure to cover my bases first again.
I’ve learned a lot in the last 2 years and 7 months. That’s when I jumped head first into a window cleaning company, working in an office where the back doubled as the shop for storage, parts, ladders and sometimes vehicles. My first desk was on top of a filing cabinet.
I was supposed to do “marketing” and was supposedly the 4th on the line for calls. I didn’t really answer the phone and the other three quickly learned that. I’m still not a natural on the phone by any means, but it gets better.
I quickly felt like I was out of my league, they were all naturals where it not only intimidated me, but also made me feel inadequate. So I tried to double down on what I was doing, while hiding “the why”. And I wasn’t hiding it from anybody except myself.
I was refusing to properly acknowledge the hard work of the people around me, and it led me away from collaboration. It was hard for me to recognize my own weaknesses, especially in the face of others’ strengths.
Looking back, I’m honestly surprised it turned out as well as it did given my stubbornness. I struck gold once I realized my success was linked to the success of the people around me. When you phrase it like that, it seems so simple, but when you’re living it day-in-and-day-out, in those moments, it will not be simple.
Unless you let it be.
Learn to control your emotions and let other things be. Learn that the things others do is the stimulus to your feelings, but not the cause. The cause of your feelings is based on your needs.
Then seek to make others pleased in the work they do.
I try to remind myself all the time that I’m surrounded by other people that work hard and diligently, all for the same purpose, the company. Then I try to take a role in guiding it.
I hope I’m not coming across as a saint or a preacher. I probably fuck up more than most. I try not to let that stop me…for more than a few days max…who doesn’t throw the occasional pity party for themselves, but sometimes it does last longer than that. I’m here to say it will come around, though, even if it takes a while, it will come around if you work on it.
I’ll try and leave you with some specific advice, rather than this rambling garbage I’m treading into rather quickly.
When you’re marketing, you’re only as good as the weakest player in your customer interaction chain. This means that you have to go through every single point and make sure that it is exactly the expectation you have set from the get-go. That means aligning sales, operations and customer support and complaints – mapping out each of those touchpoints.
If you want these changes to actually be implemented, you’ll need to have good working relationships with all the members of your team, otherwise, it’ll be dead in the water. There, I brought it full circle.
As a last point, if you map out all of the touchpoints, and ask yourself how to improve from the client perspective, you will find creative and outlandish answers. In other words, the best kind of answers.
Netflix has just launched their first linear programming channel in France. According to Variety this is what the company had to say, “In France, watching traditional TV remains hugely popular with people who just want a ‘lean back’ experience where they don’t have to choose shows”.
Further, “We’re trying a new feature for our members in France – called ‘Direct.’ Maybe you’re not in the mood to decide, or you’re new and finding your way around, or you just want to be surprised by something new and different”
The serpent has come all the way around the world to eat its own tail. Ragnarok begins, and Thor gets a new movie (hopefully directed by Taika Waititi until the end of ends). It really is all about circles, but I’m getting carried away from myself.
The point is, nobody wants to decide on anything at the end of the day. This is amplified when you’re trying to relax (think about that for a second) and watch some TV with (a) loved one(s). How many times has there been difficulty in choosing from an endless selection of movies and shows that just don’t seem right in that moment.
At least with linear television we could all complain about the shit episodes we saw together. The point is we had something to share. Sometimes it was a new experience (although usually not), but the important thing is that we did it together. This is where Disney+ has some serious magic (looking at you, weekly episode Mandalorian).
Once you pick a movie or TV show you’re happy for the most part. This is how people (myself included) can re-watch things many multiple times and continue to try to watch it again with the same social circles. We want to share experiences of what we watch. Netflix knows this and they’re probably going after an older demographic that craves a serialized channel.
What I’m really excited to see is how they branch off of this for younger and niche demographics. I think about how when I watch a movie or TV show that I really like, I try to scan the internet for other works by the contributors (writers, directors, actors, etc.). I usually compile a massive list that I could never get through and my biggest hurdle is comes back to simply choosing what to watch.
Netflix will come to know these behaviours, because I’m certain they’re not particularly unique. It’s the same problem heavy book readers work out (usually at a young age) there is not enough time to read all of the content you will want to read. You have to be selective at a certain point. The moral is do what you enjoy and do not judge yourself harshly, but it usually just paralyzes decision making.
All of this to say that I think curated content is the future. I think Taste & Talent do mean something, and the people with it will become incredibly successful in the coming decade. I believe curated content will be a pillar of the way humanity consumes media.
I think Spotify has a long way to come with their auto-playlists, but I have faith that Spotify 2 years from now (let alone 10 years from now) will look incredibly different in their ability to curate content. With the amount of data flowing through their system and their investment in AI and Machine Learning, it’s not far fetched to imagine popular curation in the near future. According to Harvard Business School, “As of December 2019, Spotify has 217M users that log over 100 billion data points per day”
This is great, and I’m not trying to sound like a luddite, but at a point, there’s no accounting for taste, especially with machines. Netflix has the closest model, but their biggest limiting factor is their ability to attract the best talent to work at their level. There are only so many high performing people in the world and not all of them can want to work at Netflix (though Reed Hastings is certainly trying to entice them all – and it’s a really good book so who can blame him or Erin Meyer).
Other companies are going to scoop up good talent, like HBO did with Judd Apatow, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to deliver it in well curated ways. I am talking about you Crave, your interface sucks, and it makes me consume less of your content.
So we’re going to need a lot of really good content, and we’re going to need it spoon-fed to us on a beautiful platter, but was that ever really up for debate. It’s just that there are some companies that are looking like they will be able to do it in really impressive ways.
The three biggest ones* that I can see in streaming platforms currently are Netflix, Prime Video and Apple TV. Nobody is in the same ballpark as Netflix in terms of content creation, and it’s going to be at least 2 years before anyone is able to catch them at this point (my money would be on Prime Video, but who knows what Tim Cook wills Apple to produce).
The thing about Prime Video and Apple are they have the ability to distribute in unique and powerful ways. Amazon has a presence in over 80% of homes in the United States. Apple is a status symbol cult that is working to brand itself as the “Privacy” option. Both have money to spend and unparalleled influence, so I’m willing to bet a programmatic viewing experience from either would be incredibly popular in select groups (if not mainstream).
Final point for Apple, their influence through Apple music is a great overlap, but if either Netflix or Amazon were to partner with, or acquire, Spotify, I’m fairly confident to say it would be game over.
I think the basic principles covered above also apply to the news world, especially in terms of linear programmatic content and having a beautiful viewing platform. To take a quote from Tom Rogers, “There is no ‘Spotify’ of the news world”.
If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for reading my prediction. If you have thoughts on anything I’ve talked about, or questions on why I think pre-curated content will become important let me know in the comments.
-Jake
*Notable contender was Disney+ (and I plan to expand on this in the future)…HBOmax/Crave you have a long way to go before you earn that respect…
I haven’t written on this blog in a while, and it’s because I wasn’t willing to confront my own failure. I had failed to create written blog content every single day for 100 days in a row, so I stopped entirely for months. It’s so obviously silly when you write it out like that.
I still have draft blog posts that could I could post, but I didn’t want to accept my failure. If I walked away from it I didn’t have to think about it. But I still thought about it, because I had ideas I wanted to post all the time.
What changed?
I started thinking about the content that I had created.
I thought about the work that was building on top of itself, and what that I wasn’t in a sprint to get there. I don’t expect to have millions of views on anything for a long time, maybe never, and both of those actions are totally okay.
That’s the absolute bare minimum, but there are plenty of people out there who won’t take a single step towards what they want out of: life, their career, relationships, themselves, as they let days pass them by.
Take at least one step towards what you want every day – it’s that simple.
(Note: If the embedded player above isn’t working CLICK HERE to listen)
This is the first episode of The Lemonade Stand – thank you for joining! Please leave feedback in the comments if you have it. This is a learning experience and I am here to do just that.
In this episode, Chris Stoness, founder and CEO of Lemonade Window Cleaning (and Elite Window Cleaning), goes through the origins of starting out as a window cleaner himself, growing a multi-million dollar business in Canada, and applying that model to the United States.
We also discuss how the business intentionally re-branded, the changes that occur during the process of scale and how to shift your focus accordingly.
We wrap up by talking to the values of Lemonade Window Cleaning and the most important piece of the puzzle – people!
Thank you for reading this far, there are links to several socials as well as the Lemonade website below.
Precursor: I do not travel home shows for a living and I do not have a background in sales. Instead I went into the environment with my eyes open, pen in hand and ended up being part of a team that closed over 1100 clients at a 10-day Toronto venue. I then did some travel around Ontario to spur up business in areas where we were launching corporate locations.
I am a cross-breed of someone who has done the physical work (allows me to communicate service details with customers very clearly), someone who works with the service centre (allows me to live the customer experience) and someone who is behind all marketing and social efforts (allows me to see how people react to us – probably my favourite part of my job). When I go to a Home Show I go for 8-10 hours straight, usually with (1-2) 15 minute breaks on top of water/bathroom breaks (always stay hydrated). In my breaks I usually walk around to other booths and try to find a cured meat/jerky vendor – these are my favourite (sauce booths are a close second though).
I make it my point to try to talk to literally (yes I mean that) every person that passes my booth – everyone there is THERE TO BE SOLD TO. I am constantly astounded by the amount of sales reps at these shows that wait for people to come to them. I am also constantly astounded by the amazing customers that I’ve acquired who I did not think would buy, BUT DID BUY BECAUSE I ASKED (and had something great to sell).
There are a 2 things you need to do at a homeshow – recognize it’s a gladiator arena, and put on your salesperson skinsuit (shed all the “no’s” you get and covet your spoils of war).
Enough preamble, now onto who you’re going to see there.
Those that Buy (highly profitable, not time consuming)
These are your bread and butter. Make sure to get the details correct, but don’t bog them down with too much if you’ve already closed the deal. Yes they should know about your programs, but can you let them know at a better time if they’re in a rush (you be the judge, and consider you want to keep this client for life). On the flip side, if you have someone who is willing to listen to every up-sell you have in the book, go wild and ask them for all their family & friend contacts. Be courteous, but if you have something big to offer them in return, why not give it a shot? Recognizing opportunities like this can make you incredibly profitable – always pay attention to people who pay attention to you (basic reciprocity).
Special note: I find it incredibly important to re-emphasize talking to EVERYONE, even if you think it makes no sense. I have had my pitch land with so many people I never expected it to work on. Get your pitch down quick and clear, then get ready to say it hundreds of times. Understand that what you say to them defines what they see you as; you have to build their entire understanding of who you are.
Those that Ignore (not profitable, but not time consuming)
These people are awesome. You might feel like they’re being rude, but that’s just you (you’re trying to sell them something after all aren’t you?). It seems perplexing in areas like home shows, but honestly I hate being sold to as well (even when I could use the help). Let these people go by and if they cut you off mid-pitch so be it. Make sure to be polite, but don’t waste more breath if you don’t need to. They will find you if they need it (and sometimes they might) but if not they’ve just let you focus more energy on people that are going to make you profitable.
Those that Listen (long-run profitable, but time consuming)
This group and the last one are the tough to distinguish from each other, but you’re going to find out at some point. You have to be the judge of if someone is really listening to you, or if they’re waiting for their turn to speak. Building real relationships in a fast-paced environment is tough, but the connections I’ve made were much more meaningful and powerful because I sunk the time into them. Worst case, you’re sucked into a story, best case you’ve made a customer for life. Just don’t get sucked into a second and third story…especially if they’ve already told you no, aren’t listening to anything you say, and just want it to be their turn to talk.
Back to the people that ARE long-run profitable. These people will look from afar, maybe take a pamphlet and your information, but they likely won’t give you theirs. They may have friends or family that could want it, so make sure that you let them know about EVERYTHING for as long as they’ll listen (so long as you’re not overflowing with customers trying to pay, building a crowd is a good thing – it attracts more people and that’s the whole game). Tip: Honesty goes a long way in sales IF you can follow through, otherwise it doesn’t mean shit.
Get attention and keep it by educating. Don’t sell AT people who aren’t interested, but make potential clients immediately aware of what your benefits are (then make it clear where you can be reached later). The more people that know what you stand for the better, and a lot of the time it might not be the right time in that specific moment. These opportunities increase in probability of closing a sale dramatically if you can get follow-up information – rather than them following up with you – but it’s a tough game and getting used to people walking away knowing more should feel like a win to you.
Those that Waste (not profitable and incredibly time consuming – if you let them be)
This is the person that tells you “no” and then wants to stick around and tell you about their company or their brother’s company, BUT NOT IN A CONSTRUCTIVE WAY. These people are looking to get a rise out of you or talk about how much better off people they know are. Don’t engage because they just want to talk and your voice/attention is a valuable resource in an arena like that. It can be hard to try and work around them or dismiss them in a respectful way, but it’s critical that you find a way out of these situations before you find yourself invested by association of time shared together.
Talk to the people walking behind you, get your co-worker talk to them for a bit or make up an excuse to get rid of you. Or go to the bathroom. Or explain the situation at hand – you are busy and it’s important that you try and talk to as many clients as possible, not just them. Honesty goes a long way in an environment like this.
I’m going to try and mix in more long-form content during the 100 day stretch.
More “Home Show” posts coming in the future…
Do you have any other “types of customers” you run into at home shows? Let me know in the comments below.
It’s not a new concept, but it’s an incredibly important one in a world where brand loyalty is low and a slew of options are at your fingertips. Not only do consumers not care about you (until you give them a reason to) but employees feel the same way. Linking the successes of employees to the expectations of the clients is what will cause you to be truly profitable in the long-run. Now how do you get there?
Think hard about how many people you need to “Jaw-drop” to sustain the lowest level of operations. Consider that impressed/wowed clients will make larger purchases, more frequent purchases and spread the word talking about how great your business/service/product is. The amount of clients you need isn’t the problem – it’s the relationship you build with clients that needs to change.
Figuring out how to create actual value with your client base is incredibly exciting too – one of the best parts of my job. Thinking about ways to delight people that I want to build decade-long relationships with.
If you don’t enjoy this part of the process then you should seriously re-evaluate why you’re doing what you’re doing (and you definitely don’t need to read this blog). If you’re in business only to make money, then I don’t want you taking my advice.Don’t try to scale garbage just to sell it. Don’t try to acquire hundreds/thousands/millions of clients if you don’t care about them. I have no respect for businesses that try to do this.
Start by creating value. Start with the clients in front of you. Delight them, then see what happens.
Here’s another tip for when you’re just starting out – don’t value your time so highly until you’re actually making something. If you’re not willing to do this, maybe your aren’t confident enough in your idea – to being a successful entrepreneur you need this confidence and you need the willingness to execute for yourself. Once you’ve proved something is there, then you start valuing your time appropriately to scale.
Future posts coming on how to link this value back to your employee performance/morale…
Spoilers: For actual long-run success you will need product, team & delivery, but you can get away by starting with just presentation.
Presentation is what stops people in their tracks. It’s what gets them to circle around and come back to the aisle to read the label once more, just to make sure they saw that right. It’s what gets them excited before they really know what’s going on (this is so powerful – setting tone).
And you have to present to the right people – understand your audience and speak directly to them. If you can make a real connection with clients it will be so much more powerful in the long-run.
Spend the extra $30 for the fluorescent pink fake grass – it’ll make the booth pop!
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