SFB Newsletter #22

Hey 👋

In 1584 there was a man born in Japan who went on to have 52 battles to the death as a samurai and WIN every single one of them.

Intense character… Perhaps you’ve heard of him…

His name is Miyamoto Musashi.

Back in 2018 I was experiencing a problem in my business.

I would have a big month, then my revenue would dip 20-50% and I’d be back at square one…

It was very much: a feast, followed by a famine.

I knew I was doing something to cause the problem, but I was committed to solving it because I wanted consistency in my business.

Now, when I’m faced with a problem I usually turn to mentors and books - seeking out people with wisdom has been one of, if not the highest ROI activity I’ve engaged in, in my life and business.

Anyways - I’m often intuitively led to read certain books - I can walk into the bookstore and leave with some fairly obscure books.

And it appears that I had done just that at some point because when I walked over to my bookshelf I picked up…

‘The Book of 5 Rings’ by Miyamoto Musashi.

You see, I’d heard about the book, it was referenced by business owners as holding business insights inside.

Probably the reason I was drawn to it.

I was a bit shocked to learn that he’d won 52 battles to the death - but I was even more shocked to see an incredibly philosophic, perhaps even spiritual level of insight in the book.

I guess; to win 52 death matches, you have to be pretty intense whilst also maintaining a lot of mastery over your emotions…

Kind of like a martial artist but 100x more intense.

So there I was one afternoon sitting on the couch learning about this old maniac Japanese master searching for business wisdom.

That’s when I was introduced to what Musashi called his ‘Way.’

The way of the two swords.

This edition of the SFB Newsletter is sponsored by the new Mastermind I’ve just set up. Right now we have 16 business owners in the group, every week we get together on zoom to mastermind business growth principles, strategies & tactics.

I lead the group and give you a bunch of new things to test every month. (including 8+ of my short sword strategies)

We’re also connected together in a Circle.so group where we’re giving each other feedback on our landing pages, sales process, content and ads.

I’m looking to build out the community with growth minded business owners who want to master the 6 pillars: mindset, sales, product, marketing, operations & finance.

It’s very affordable and we’ve got an amazing group building - it would be great if you could join us.

If you want to learn about the program click the link below to book in a 15 minute call with me and I can walk you through how it works.

You see Musashi was unique in the way that he fought as a Samurai - he fought with two swords on the belt.

A long sword and a short sword.

Basically: When he was outside in space he used the long sword. When he was inside or in a tight space he would use the short sword - quickly adapting to his environment, and swapping between the two.

As simple as this may sound when I read this I had a big breakthrough as to the cause of my problem and what to do about it…

Hear me out.

I realised that I was constantly in one of two mindsets.

1. I was building something for the future. This could be creating a book, a new product, or just focussing on my content to build a long term aggregate of trust with my leads. (Long sword) When I was in this mindset I felt like I was delaying gratification and building for the future.
   

2. I was trying to create more cashflow in the business. Here I would be getting active, prospecting, making offers etc. (Short sword)

The reason I was bouncing around was because I was only ever using one sword at a time, and I’d left the other one at home.

I was using wide 45+ day cycles with this, which is the exact reason my cashflow was bouncing around.

I would spend one month building things for the future - cash flow would dip and then I’d have to go into mad marketing/sales mode to solve the dip, I’d make a bunch of sales - then I’d repeat the cycle over again.

Here was my thought…

“What would happen if I bring both swords - the long and the short sword - how can I create a strategy that allows me to do both at the same time.”

That insight transformed the way I approach business and helped me solve the problem of consistency.

Within 6 months I had amassed, tested and verified a new series of techniques to work for me every single week - these techniques have become referred to as ‘My Short Sword Strategies’ amongst my clients and friends who use them.

This edition of the SFB Newsletter is sponsored by the new Mastermind I’ve just set up. Right now we have 16 business owners in the group, every week we get together on zoom to mastermind business growth principles, strategies & tactics.

I lead the group and give you a bunch of new things to test every month.
(including 8+ of my short sword strategies)

We’re also connected in a Circle.so group where we’re giving each other feedback on our business plans & ideas, landing pages, sales process, content and advertising.

It’s very affordable and we’ve got an amazing group building - it would be great if you could join us.

I’m looking to build out the community with growth minded business owners who want to master the 6 pillars: mindset, sales, product, marketing, operations & finance.

If you want to learn about the program click the link below to book in a 15 minute call with me and I can walk you through how it works.

The goal of the short sword strategies is to create quick cash flow in your business and once you know how to use them they can be deployed in 30 minutes or less.

Just one of these strategies I’ve used in my business every month since 2018 and it’s tallied more than $700K in sales.

Now… I say all this because this is the first thing I run when a new client comes on board with me and invariably this one strategy can add $100K + to a business within 12 months.

So let me introduce you to one of the Strategies. I have adapted this strategy from a concept that I learnt from a mentor of mine ‘Dean Jackson.’

He states that ‘sometimes when you have something to sell - the best thing to do is to put a sign out the front that says horse for sale.’

Now this type of ad can be run to an existing email list, or (my personal favourite) you can use it in a retargeting ad to target a warm list or audience.

One of the cool things about these ‘Short Sword Stratgies’ is that they’ll continue to work for your business. I’ve been using them since 2018 and they still work.

For that reason they are amongst the most valuable assets in the business.

Let me show you another example…

And before you get concerned, don’t worry these ads are incredibly cheap to run… Less than $200 and you’ll probably be very pleased with the result, as you can see Elias has had to turn off the tap here because he’s booked too many calls.

He now has a system in his business that he can quickly turn on / off whenever he wants to book some more calls.

That’s one of the most amazing thing about the short sword strategies - they tend to keep working every month.

And you get to pull out the sword and ‘stab the list’ every so often… I guess.

Strange image I know, but fun.

Now it becomes important to mention - the short sword strategies are designed to be run to WARM audiences.

They are warm conversion systems for your existing lists.

Creating your audience is long sword stuff - this takes time to master properly and it’s not something that will happen overnight.

In fact in terms of Marketing you could think of the ‘long sword’ as the creation and nurturing of your audience, and you could think of the short sword as the conversion of that audience.

Here are the specs for ‘The Horse for Sale Ad:’

The GOAL > Book Appointments and Make Sales Quickly - Within 3 Days.

Platform to Use > Anywhere You Have An Existing Audience - Emails / Personal Facebook Wall / Facebook Pixel Retargeting Audience / Video Views Custom Audience / Instagram Followers / Youtube / Twitter / etc...

Type of Ad (if Paid) > Messenger Campaign (Meta)

Targeting > Your Existing Audience - COLD / WARM Leads.
**Do not go to the ICE Market.

Budget > $20-$100 / Day

Placement > Newsfeed (Facebook) / Instagram Feeds / Instagram Stories / Etc…

Headline > RE: Your Product Name (Please RSVP)

Copy Template >

1. Question
2. Real Scarcity
3. Qualifications
4. Invitation
5. Call to Action

COPY EXAMPLE > 

“Want my team and I to run your Marketing to help you bring in consistent 1000% Returns on Your Ad Spend?

Currently I have 5 more spaces open this month to build these systems out. (March)

And just a couple of quick qualifications…

- Your business must be beyond $20K / Month
- And you must be willing to invest at least 3K / Month into Your Advertising

This will ensure you are set up with everything you need to scale.

Want to claim one of the final places?

Just click the link below and leave “ADS” to open a thread with me.

(With these ads I usually drive into messenger VS a landing page as it’s easier to manage them from there.)”

This is the exact copy I ran in an ad back in 2020 - yeah I know I’ve been doing this stuff for a while - and yep, I’ll still be running these Horse For Sale Ads in 10 years time.

CREATIVE > Inviting Personal Image 

CREATIVE EXAMPLE >

Here is what the front end looked like in this example…

So there you have it,

You now know one of my Short Sword Strategies - ‘The Horse For Sale Ad,’ which states that ‘sometimes when you have something to sell - the best thing to do is to put a sign out the front that says horse for sale.’

It’s a strategy that can be run in 30 minutes or less if you have an audience of more than 200 people in your business.

Talk soon,

Ben.

Ps… Whenever you’re ready here are three ways I can help you scale your business in March.

1. I’ve just restocked my Book and my Journal, so you can claim those again via the links below.
   
   Claim a copy of my Book: The Business Owner’s Guide to Profit
   
   Claim a copy of my Journal: The 90 Day Action Plan
   

2. Want to add $100K-500K to your business this year? You’d probably be a good fit for our new mastermind.
   
   Inside the mastermind I support you to scale up, everything from principles to getting deep into the tactical implementation we cover all of it.
   
   For now the best step is to book in a 15 minute call with me, I’ll see if you’re a good fit for our group and If so I can walk you through how it all works.
   
   Here is the link >
   

3. Every quarter I work with a small handful of clients one on one. I currently have two spots open.

   
   If you’d like to chat about working together one on one to scale your business the link is below.
   
   Here is the link >