039 - The "Big Ideas" That Created 8-Figure Brands

You ever notice those brands that seem to become wildly successful almost overnight?

Take one of the biggest ones that you've probably heard of.

"The 4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss.

The book and movement seemed to come out of NOWHERE and take the world by storm.

Everyone talked about it.

And everyone shared it.

It struck a cord in people.

The question is, why is that?

Was it luck?

Or was it planned?

Or maybe a combination?

And, is there a way we can do the same for our own brands and products?

That's what we want to dig into today.

From my perspective, every successful marketing campaign starts with a plan. It's engineered. Then, it's tested.

And through that test, there can be some "luck" involved. "Luck", where the right person picks up the IDEA and shares it with others.

We can't do much about the "Luck" part.

But, we can engineer better IDEAS that are MORE likely to become something that marketplace takes hold of.

Essentially, it all comes down to this: The BIG IDEA around your brand.

If your BIG IDEA is right, people will automatically be interested and WANT to learn more.

A BIG IDEA demands attention.

Before we can create a BIG IDEA, we must first determine our brand's POSITIONING in the marketplace.

In a previous newsletter, I covered how to create that POSITIONING using the Problem, Culprit, Solution framework.

After you have your POSITIONING, then you want to come up with the BIG IDEA behind the positioning.

This is the wording that instantly gets attention for your brand.

There are 4 ways to come up with your BIG IDEA.

1 - A Big Desire

A BIG IDEA can come from the BIG RESULT that people can expect to get when they apply what you teach.

It should be something that seems ALMOST too good to be true, but NOT too crazy.

Too crazy and people will roll their eyes and keep on scrolling.

Too "same" as others, and it won't get any attention.

The "4-Hour Workweek" is the perfect example of this.

Positioning was something like this:

Problem: Overworking, being broke
Culprit: 9-5 job
Solution: Outsource your work to others so you can work as little as four hours per week.

Essentially, it's all about outsourcing. However, if Tim would have written a book about "Gaining Hours By Outsourcing", nobody would have paid attention.

EVEN THOUGH IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SAME CONTENT!

Instead, he took what was doing, broke it down into one BIG IDEA phrase that connected with people's TRUE desires.

To come up with a BIG IDEA connected with desire, take time to brainstorm the results that people can get through what you teach.

What is that clear, almost impossible desire that you can connect with?

Make a list.

2 - A Big Culprit

Another way to create a BIG IDEA around your brand is to focus in on the culprit.

By giving the culprit the RIGHT name, you can connect with what people want to avoid.

A good example of this is Pepsodent Toothpaste (as shared in the previous training).

Their positioning:

Problem: Yellow teeth, gum disease, rotting teeth
Culprit: built up gunk from food
Solution: brush your teeth daily with Pepsodent

Taking this positioning, they gave the culprit a name. They called it the "film" on your teeth.

"The FILM" became the BIG IDEA.

Ads that said something like, "Run your tongue over your teeth and you'll feel this FILM" helped them become the best selling toothpaste for 20 years straight.

Allstate did something similar. They gave the culprit a name, "MAYHEM". Then, all they do in their ads is show what MAYHEM does and show how they take care of it.

It's a BIG IDEA that works really well.

Think through it... How could you give your culprit a name that stands out?

3 - A Big Belief

Another way to create a BIG IDEA is to connect with a belief that the marketplace already has that sets you apart from others.

A good example of this is "Invest Like The Rich".

Positioning:

Problem: investments aren't growing like they want
Culprit: Consumer investment strategies
Solution: learn to invest smarter, like rich people do.

The desire is to learn how to make lots of moolah through investing. But, if you're doing it "LIKE the Rich", it implies that the rich KNOW better.

This taps into the marketplace BELIEF that the RICH are better at investing than people who aren't rich.

It connects WHAT people want to do better (investing) and connects it to a BELIEF they have around investing (that rich people do it better).

Another example is "Wealth With God".

Positioning:

Problem: being stuck financially
Culprit: poverty mindset & the world's way of wealth
Solution: learn to build wealth with God, so it has purpose to bring change.

Again, it takes a desire of Wealth and combines it with the idea that you can do it WITH God (a belief).

This gets attention and when explained well, people WANT to be part of the movement.

Take time to think through how you could connect to a belief for your BIG IDEA.

4 - A Big Strategy

One of the most powerful ways to create your big idea is to call out an OLD path of doing something (the culprit) and introduce a completely NEW path.

This tends to be my go-to way of creating big ideas.

The goal is to find the perfect level of "newness". If it's something too new, people will be intrigued but won't buy.

For example, there is a movement out there called "sun gazing". The big idea is that you can get energy from the sun instead of food. On the spectrum of crazy, it's a little bit out there.

People are intrigued by it, but because it's too far off the beaten path, few are actually grabbing hold of the idea.

Instead, we want to introduce a NEW path that is new (like sun gazing), but actually believable for the average person.

There are many examples of this.

Take P90X.

Positioning:

Problem: hitting workout plateaus
Culprit: repetitive workouts
Solution: Constantly switch up your workouts to break through plateaus.

They took their solution and came up with a name for it. They called it "Muscle Confusion".

It was a NEW path to an age old problem of hitting workout plateaus. And giving it a cool name garnered even more intrigue.

That was their BIG IDEA that worked wonders, making them one of the best selling workout programs of all time.

Another example is Clickfunnels.

Positioning:

Problem: website doesn't convert
Culprit: confusing websites
Solution: build a sales funnel that leads to a sale.

They dug into their solution and came up with the BIG IDEA of "Funnel Hacking".

By studying other funnels and modeling what already works, you'll create a sales process that works for you as well.

A simple strategy positioned as a NEW path. A BIG IDEA.

This made Clickfunnels the best selling funnel software for a long time. Note: I don't recommend them, but their BIG IDEA is solid. 

Again, take time to think through your strategy. How can you create new wording for it that comes across as a BIG IDEA?

Conclusion:

Here's the reality, coming up with a BIG IDEA isn't necessarily easy.

Some of the BIG IDEAS I shared here, took YEARS to get right. But, once they were right, the marketplace LOVED IT.

Start with brainstorming as many as you can think of.

Then, pull out the best 3-5 Big Ideas you come up with and simply test them out.

Create posts around them and SEE how people respond.

You can get a pretty good idea if what you have will work or not in only a couple of test posts.

The key is to keep trying until something HITS just right.

One BIG IDEA can change your life and business forever.

Again, here are FOUR ways to get your BIG IDEA:

1. A Big Desire - This is where you find a core desire and create wording around it, like "4-Hour Workweek"
2. A Big Culprit - This is where you give your culprit a name that gets attention like "the film" on your teeth.
3. A Big Belief - This is where you attach your big idea to a belief that the marketplace already has like "Invest Like The Rich". People believe the rich KNOW things they don't when it comes to investing.
4. A Big Strategy - This is where you take a strategy you teach and create wording that makes it a big idea like "Muscle Confusion".

I look forward to seeing what BIG IDEAS you come up with for your business.