First, let me start off by telling you a bit about Joe Polish and Genius Network, because it provides a lot of context.
Joe Polish is one of the most influential thought leaders in the marketing industry. Genius Network, which he created and runs, is frequented by individuals who operate - on average - a $9-million-per-year business with strong desires to take their business to the next level (or 10x it, as some would say). Polish leads the charge by connecting industry titans with the brightest minds in their respective fields to help create transformative results at his events, which are deeply-curated discussions that focus heavily on deepening personal and business relationships.
Members of Genius Network include:
Genius Network events host the best of the best as speakers, including:
- Tony Robbins
- Harvey Mackay
- Naveen Jain
- Thomas Bilyeu
- Randi Zuckerberg
- Jay Abraham
- Daymond John
- Tim Ferriss
- Brendon Burchard
- Robert Cialdini
- John Paul DeJoria
- Richard Branson
Needless to say, when I was chosen to present during one of the monthly meetings, my first question was: “What can I teach the smartest entrepreneurs and marketers in the world?”
When you share the stage with expert speakers who influence millions of people per year, such as Tony Robbins, how do you offer real value?
That’s when it hit me: The only difference between an expert and a thought leader is that people know the thought leader (as the title implies), but they may not know the expert. The fact that your personal thought leadership ‘brand’ may not yet be at the same level as the other speakers on this stage does not mean that you know any less.
That said, you must come from a place of wanting to add incredible value and have the confidence that the best speakers in the world are, in fact, human beings. They’re just like you and me, they just spend more time up on the stage.
Side Note: I am fortunate to say that InfoTrust works with a number of Fortune 500 companies and the largest online retailers. We also have a number of Genius Network thought leaders as our clients, all of which adds to our confidence that we can indeed pass on our expertise to others. When in doubt about your capabilities, think of what you have accomplished and reframe the issue from that perspective.
This is all leading up to the topic of the presentation, of course. For many months now, I have been fascinated with building a framework of how to understand user behavior. So, in my opportunity to speak with the Genius Network group, I focused on maximizing the value of analytics through understanding.
In general, people suck at utilizing all of the information they collect!
The steps to using data successfully are to: Measure + Understand + Influence. Many people skip the second step, using their dashboards to tell them who clicked through or entered a funnel and then jumping straight to an attempt to influence their users, all without attempting to understand their behavior in the first place.
I propose that we develop a narrative about our users: Try to understand who they are, what they were doing and the results. It humanizes your marketing and is a critical component of influencing others.
Utilize the InfoTrust Influence Quadrant: You need to test in a variety of ways across both your current customers and your prospects – don’t stop at just one, because you won’t get the results you want!
You can watch the whole presentation here.
If you don’t have 12 minutes to watch the video (hey, we all have those days) then the three key takeaways are:
- Break out your marketing process into the smallest steps that can be measured
- Build a narrative about what your audience is or is not doing on your site/app
- Identify 2-3 desired behaviors that you would like to test and influence (consider one for each quadrant)
Speaking at Genius Network was an amazing experience and not one I’ll soon forget. Interested in having me speak at an upcoming event? Send me a message!
