How Many "Cults" Have You Joined? - Dave Woodward - FHR #329

We all join CULTures throughout our lives, Apple is a CULTure you’ve undoubtedly heard of. Do you know many people who have a Mac yet don’t have an iPhone? They have RAVING FANS, and if you want to dominate your market you’ll need some raving fans of your own.

"I want you to start thinking about the customer experience, the customer journey. How excited are your customers about working with YOU. What is the pain that you solve?" - Dave Woodward

I for one am in LOVE with the Albert Tennis Shoe. This is weird for me because I am NOT a clothing guy, I simply have little to no connection to what I wear.

My connection to them though is how they’ve developed a cult-like following with still being a relatively small company. They are a great model to emulate.

They do what every great brand needs to: DELIVER ON WHAT THEY PROMISE.

I have yet to find anything as comfortable and functional as this brand of shoes for the same price.

Identify what your CULTure needs and then intentionally deliver.

Some Topics Discussed This Episode:

• Your RAVING Fans
• The Everyday CULTures You Are In
• Investing In Your Current Customers
• Hooking People Onto Your Value Ladder
• What Your Cost to KEEP Your Customer?

"Make sure that you treat existing customers the same or even better than new customers." - Keith Cunningham

Don’t treat people like you’re a phone company is all I gotta say.

All they are focused on is getting those new clients to increase their revenue and couldn’t care less if you left. Why should they care? You’ll find nearly the same care in every big name cell provider.

When you think back to your clients’ experience is it similar to this?

Are you just another company trying to make a quick buck or are you a FunnelHacker?

FunnelHackers are a CULTure, and we do NOT look at clients like dollar signs. They are people and, more importantly, people who YOU are able to help.

Important Episode Links:

One Funnel Away ChallengeDotCom Secrets Book

Contact Episode Guest:

Email DaveConnect on FacebookFollow On Instagram

Episode Transcript:

00:00     Welcome to funnel hacker radio podcast where we go behind the scenes and uncover the tactics and strategies top entrepreneurs are using to make more sales, dominate their markets and how you can get those same results. Here's your host Dave Woodward. Come

00:18     back to Funnel hacker radio. I'm actually down in Austin, Texas and right now I have been attending a four day MBA program put on by Keith Cunningham. I was referred to this by, uh, Jerrick Robbins and it's been a crazy, interesting kind of experience going through this. But while I was coming out, I was trying to record some of the ideas and thoughts recently, um, as we kind of transitioned to this next phase, a funnel hacker radio. I want to talk a little bit about culture and soon I'll come back to, I'll do a podcast or two just on the things I've learned from Keith Cunningham, brilliant guy. Do you have an artist? Got His book, uh, take a look at the road, less stupid, but I want to talk to you a little bit about this whole concept of culture. So we're going to be the process of making a transition here in the podcast over the next couple of weeks into this idea of, of really focusing on how do you build a massive following and a culture.

01:15     And for us it's going to be join us on our journey from 70,000 to 100,000 rabid fans or a funnel hackers or buildings, whole culture. For us it's again, it's, it's a journey from 70,000 to 100,000 excited culture of building funnel hackers. So that's our whole focus and I want to make sure you understand some of the things we're going to be going through. But to do that, I need to give you a little bit of backstory, some backstory on some of the different quote unquote cults that I've joined. And the, and I use it because it's more as a, not in a religious standpoint, but more than nice. This whole idea, we talk a lot about culture because if you've read Russell's book about expert secrets, you understand the importance of really building a following that is almost cult like following almost to the point where people will literally follow because they're so excited about it.

02:09     So there's four different ones I want to talk to you about. Um, two I joined a long, long time ago and two I've joined just recently. So the first one I probably joined, Gosh, uh, it's probably been almost 10 years now and that was apple. Apple was by far one of the most exciting companies to follow and look at and to see how they built this crazy business. Most people really thought they were in the business of creating computers. And that's really what they were known for it first. But then Steve jobs had this amazing ability to build more of a marketing company then actual hardware company. And in doing so, he built a marketing company that right now actually doesn't even produce their own products. They actually outsource all their products, but because of the marketing company they built and because of the passion that exists among anybody who follows in apples footsteps or buys their products, you literally find everybody else trying to compete with apple and the PC world.

03:09     You either had a PC or you had a mac and there's, again, I'm going to Austin, Dell's capitol here, Delis in round rock, just you know, 30 minutes up the road from me, but no one really thinks of, well, do you have a Dell? No, you just have a PC, but do you have a Mac? And as soon as you say a Mac, everybody knows. I love watching in our inner circle or too comical Beck's coaching program or even at funnel hacking live anywhere. I go these days and you see people taking out their computers. All I see are apple lights. That's all I see. Rarely ever do. I see a PC these days and it's just, it's mind blowing to me. You see the same thing right now where all the other phone companies are trying to compete against and iPhone and they've built this following where it doesn't necessarily have to be the very best product, but what it has to be is something that someone connects with somewhere.

04:00     They say, you know, I am like this group. I like what they stand for. I like what they represent. I like what they do. I like the innovation. I like the creativity. I like the graph, whatever it might be. For me, as far as apple, one of the main things I love about it is how seamlessly everything always works together. I have an iPhone, I have an Ipad, I have an Imac. I everything. It's uh, I've become this, I junkie and again, it started with just one product, but because they did such an amazing job at customer service, again, you go into the apple store and you go to and meet with the digime genius bar and not necessarily ever behind. There's a genius, but there is so helpful. They're so aware of the customer journey, the customer experience. When you buy something, literally the person who you meet right there, they have the product brought out to them and you purchase on the spot.

04:48     I don't have to go stand in line or anything else. They understand the customer journey. More importantly, the customer journey that I want, the experience that I want to have. They've already, they've already gone through. They understand what I want and because of that I literally will say no to a whole bunch of other things. I will drive further just so I get to an apple store. So apple is one of the main, uh, quote unquote cult like businesses that I'd been following and I actually participate in. Another one is jeep. I've been married now 25 years. We're going into our 26th year. And my very first introduction to my wife when we got married was her dad and her dad has been, I think his dad is for her whole life, has always had a jeep, whether it was a jeep, grand, Cherokee, jeep wrangler, whatever it might be.

05:33     I remember Libby would, I think it was in the first couple of months and we got married, he always had a jeep wrangler, but his wife, my mother in law, got a brand new grand Cherokee and I remember getting in that, oh my gosh, it was the smell of this genuine leather seats and it was almost like a pillow top seat back then when you sat in it and you just felt this luxurious experience in a jeep. And I thought, oh my gosh, they totally up their game. And then later that day we hop into chucks jeep and it's, it's the smell of gasoline. It's the smell of the experience of a four wheeling a ride. That was definitely not the most luxurious comfortable ride, but it was everything that a jeep represented and I, when my boys got to be 16 the first car I decided to buy it for them was a jeep.

06:24     And if you get to know anyone in the jeep culture, one of the things you'll know is the jeep wave where if you, and it typically is, it's more so with the wranglers than it is with the Grand Cherokees or anything else. But anybody's got a wrangler, you will find that they understand the jeep wave. And my son Christian is, he's so funny with it because if I, it's not one of these obnoxious waves where he's like, Hey, are you doing trying to get their attention now it's the subtle, my hand is over the top of the steering wheel and my fingers just come up just enough to say, hey, I see you. You got the same thing I got were good. And it's this whole jeep like culture. So now all of my boys have this passion for jeeps. Uh, it started with their father in law.

07:07     I brought chair on the, into it when he got his first car and then Parker and now Christian and Jackson soon to follow. But it's been fun because all of them understand the jeep wave they all in. And, uh, my youngest son, Jackson, his buddy just got a jeep wrangler, an older one. And it's just, I mean, there's a terminology, there's a vocabulary. Everything's behind this. My only reason I mentioned this is when you start looking at products and you start looking at building a culture, you've got, there is, there's a vocabulary behind it. It's not a common with the jeep. It's almost this secret handshake, Secret Shea, uh, wave, whatever it might be. And the amazing thing is as you start talking to people, you very, very quickly can identify whether they are part of it, the group or if they're not. Um, the thing I expect the, so those are the two that I've been a part of for awhile while the s now the two that I've just recently joined has been, it's been an interesting experience joining them.

08:05     So the first one is all birds and these are tennis shoes that again, they are super, super comfortable. But the crazy thing about it is I didn't realize how many people had them. And the very first person who introduced him to me, uh, was our co founder. Good friend Todd Dickerson. And whenever Todd travels, I've never seen anybody Todd liberal leave Atlanta. He'll come to Boise for a week with just a backpack. I'm like, what are all of your clothes? He goes, I got him on my backpack. And I'm like, how in the world? And again, Todd is super simple. It's always so funny. He reminds me so much of almost a Steve job mentality. Black shirts, liking or jeans and then Albert's, that's what he wears and wears it all the time. And so I was talking about this whole Albert things. Oh my gosh, these are the most comfortable shoes.

08:55     They're super lightweight and goes through all this different stuff. It says, the part I love the most about them is if they get dirty, I let me just throw in the wash and they're brand new spanking clean, it goes. So it's, they're easy to travel with them and I'm like, really? So I didn't think much about it. And then I'm just going through Instagram and all of sudden Allbirds came up. I thought, you know, I'm going to go ahead and try this. So I bought a pair of Allbirds and they came in. The cool thing is when they come in a box, you opened this box up and inside. I mean they are positioned perfectly in the box for shipping and for travel, so they don't move around. They have the little cardboard wedge that is there, and then the shoes are basically side by side.

09:31     And when you inside, where the tongue area is is you pull this out, it's basically a smiling bird looking at you and in on cardboard. And each one of them has it. You put them on and they instantly fit. They're the softest shoot, the they mold to your feet. They're just amazing shoes. So I warm looming for the first day. I walk into the office and all of a sudden I see John Parks has a pair. Jamie Smith has a pair of Clayton Fletcher has a pair. I'm like, you guys got to be good. And then I sit, they saw mine and they were like, oh my gosh, you're to love. And they'd go on and on and on about this crazy, amazing experience that they've had. And I'm like, I didn't ask for it, but I'm literally getting testimonials thrown at me by their, by the consumer here.

10:15     And I'm thinking, how do you build a product that is that good? Literally, I've never seen it advertised on TV. The only place I've ever seen it advertised as Instagram. And then all of a sudden I come home and my son Chandler is like, oh my Gosh Dad, those look like the most comfortable shoes in the world. I'm like, dude, they totally are. We have to wear the same size. I said, go ahead and try them on. He puts them on and Lilly while he has him on, he goes and he goes online and buys a pair and then I'm like, that is crazy. So I go back to the office two days later and while on there John's got a different pair on. I'm like, John, how many pairs of these do you have? He goes, I don't think I got three or four. I'm like, seriously?

10:54     So I went in my office and I bought another pair. And again, I'm not traveling with them out here in Austin. They literally are some of the most comfortable shoes, most versatile shoes. They're super lightweight and you literally, they're dirt whenever they get dree Louie just throw them in the wash through the most easy, comfortable and easy to take care of. Shoot you'll ever find. And there were like 100 bucks, 95 bucks I think is what it is. And so John then goes on to tell me about his wife Vanessa. She has a pair and I'm literally getting pitched by all of my friends who are wearing them about how awesome these shoes are. I've had a ton of shoes my lifetime. No one has ever pitched me on their shoes like I got pitched on Allbirds because of the culture and because of this great product.

11:36     And so as you start thinking about, as I look at trying to get to 100,000 colt, like excited, passionate funnel hackers, I'm right now out here, Austin, think of what do we need to do? What can, what more can we do? How can I enhance the customer journey? What types of things can I add to the customer experience that people are so excited that literally started talking to anybody. Everybody they know because they're having such an amazing experience. So that's the third soil. It was, first of all, it was jeep, then it was apple, then it was all birds. The fourth one happened just last week. So while we were out, I think we're actually at funnel hacking live. Um, my youngest son wasn't with us, but ends up totaling my, my car. I've had this car literally, so it was a, it was a 2002 Lexus es three black convertible I, and it was, you know, 240,000 miles on this thing.

12:31     But it still looked in great shape primarily because it been wrecked by a couple of my other boys. He didn't pay and I'm like, okay, you know, I'm not good with young teenage boy drivers. I'm just not going to get a new car. And I, I think my wife has had four different SUVs during their period of time. I've had this, we've had, I think I bought, we summed up, it was like I've bought like eight or nine cars for my, my family during the period of time that I've had this one Lexus. So anyways, but tat the Lexus is totaled and I'm sitting there going, oh my gosh, what am I going to get? A, you have to understand that I don't, I don't dry. I mean I am literally maybe a mile, two miles at most from my house to our office. And so while I'm there, I'm thinking I don't need a car.

13:12     I don't want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a car on this exotic car. I've played that whole exotic car game. I love it. I, I'm a car guy at heart. I love him and everything else, but I'm like, I just, it just doesn't make any sense. I can't logically justify this even though I'd love to. So I started thinking, well, maybe I just find that a used Maserati. I love Maserati. The one I really wanted, the Aston Martin, I've driven the Ferrari's and I'm like, what am I doing? So I thought, all right, let me just go onto lease trader because I don't want to get my youngest son Jackson is going back and forth whether or not he wants the jeep or if he wants to get a truck. And I'm thinking, well, if he's gonna get a truck, I'm going to keep the jeep. And as I'm going back and forth through this, I thought, you know, if I'm going to get a car menial, just least one, but I don't want to at least for the next three years.

13:54     So I went to lease trader, at least trader.com is a site where you can literally go and buy people out of the end of their lease. So if someone's trying to get out of a lease for whatever reason, you can literally get like the last six months or year or whatever it might be. So I start going through and looking at different cars. All of a sudden I come across a Tesla and I'm like, you know what? I've always loved Elon Musk and what he's done with Tesla and all this kind of stuff like that. Maybe I'll take a look at Tesla will. All of a sudden this one pops up and it's like 620 bucks for the next $14 or 14 months and I'm like, oh, that's a no brainer. So I contact the guy is like I, he was, he didn't get back to me for a week or so.

14:35     I kept following up with them. I finally get in touch with them. He goes, Dave, I've been out of town, I've been traveling. I just got back in town. He says, there's a couple of other people who want the car. I said, listen, what's it going to take me to just to to take this car off the market? He goes, well, do you want to put some money? I said, sure. So I'd pay out 500 bucks and he instantly takes it off the market. So now I'm sitting there going, now I've got to go through all the transfer. And Tesla is just a unique experience when all of a sudden you start working with Tesla with least trader use. Usually you just buy out the lease or you just, you quickly get a different financing company. Tesla will only allow Tesla to finance Tesla cars.

15:11     So in doing this, I have to work through, test the financial and I think get assigned a person and I'm like, wow, that's a unique experience. So my person through this whole process is Erica. And so both, uh, the guy buying the car with his name is Wayne, my, and this lady's name is Erica. So Erica is dealing personally with Wayne and I on this transaction. And I'm like, that is a really super cool experience. So we go through this and it takes a couple of weeks and all of a sudden I'm a head now for spring break, I'm going to be gone and the car's going to be delivered. So I'm coordinating with the, uh, with the delivery company and everything else. And so when the car, as I'm doing all the coordination, I thought, you're not going to go to the hole, this Wayne Guy and make sure everything's going to be okay.

16:00     When there's a transportation company picks it up. He's out in New York. I'm an Idaho and I call Wayne as weird, literally driving from Boise, uh, down to Moab, Utah for spring break. And I, this is the first time I've really had much of a conversation with him and I'm driving thing. I've got plenty of windshield time. Let's just see what's going to happen in this conversation. So I start talking to Wayne. This is the guy who was selling me the least, and I'm thinking he must be in, you know, maybe financial hard times. He's got, you know, I don't know what typically, why would you get out of a lease unless you had to type of deal is, at least that's my thought process going into this phone call. So I start talking to them and I'm like, so why don't you tell me why?

16:43     Why did you decide to get out of the Tesla and you know, what are you going to get next? He goes, Oh, oh, I'm sorry. I thought I explained all that to you. He goes, I go, hi. He goes, Oh man, is this your first Tesla? And I'm like, yeah, it is. He goes, oh, I'm so excited. You're going to have the most amazing experience. You could even imagine this. You will literally be a Tesla fan from here on. You will only have Teslas. I'm like, I don't even know this guy is, and I've never met him. We're just having a conversation with the phone and he's like, I'm like, what do you mean? He goes, well, I, I thought I explained to you what I was doing. He goes, he goes, no. I said, I have no idea what you know, what are you doing?

17:19     He goes, well, I bought another Tesla. I'm like, you're leasing this Tesla so you're getting out of this lease for another one. He goes, yeah, this is X. My 14th Tesla. I'm like, 14th Tesla goes, well, that's between me and my wife and my three kids. I'm like, are you kidding me? He goes, no. You have to understand this is the most amazing driving experience you can even imagine. He says for one, yes, it's a super fast car and they're super sleek. The body style is amazing. The lines are awesome, but when you start working with Tesla, you now you're part of the family. And so welcome to the Tesla family. I'm like, who is this guy? And my wife's going, who are you talking to you as we're driving down to Moab and we literally have a conversation for the next 20 to 30 minutes about how awesome Tesla is.

18:08     This guy happens to own a, uh, a co the remodel, high end kitchens and he has a cooking studio and teach people how to cook. And so one of the things he's, he, because he is in love with Tesla, he's now started talking to test and they actually have Tesla driving days where they all will come together and they will all go on a drive together or they will all meet for wine and cheese. And that's one of the things he sponsors. So the people up in the New York area all come to Wayne's business on a regular, on a quarterly basis or semiannual basis for wine and cheese. And they just had this and all of a sudden we start having this crazy conversation about the car and how amazing the cars, but more importantly about the people and about the company. And he goes, Dave, you're going to be like Eric Right now is who's assigned to you for this transaction.

18:59     But as soon as the transaction finishes, you're going going to be assigned to someone else who's your customer service representative and they anytime you need anything at all that. So he contacted, I'm like, really? I've never, he goes, you have to understand Tesla's a publicly traded company because of that, they have quarterly numbers they have to hit. And so I got a call from my person, uh, last month he said, listen, we've got a couple of cars we're trying to clear out of our inventory and stuff. If you'd like, what would you like to buy? Whatever the next car was. And he goes, yeah, I'd love to. So that's why he bought that one. He then goes on to tell me that his wife has the Tesla. So this is the Tesla s his wife has a Tesla x, which is kind of the SUV with the goaling doors that are super, super cool.

19:42     And while we're on the phone he goes, Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. Um, if you know anybody who wants the ex, I'm selling my wife's ex because of the same situation. So he's buying two brand new Teslas, all because the sales rep, because he has a relationship with them, calls them and offers them a great deal because of this. And so I'm going through this listening and thinking about the impact that the relationship he has with a company to the point where he literally is having the wine and cheese gatherings at his, at his corporate office. He literally is, is going out of his way to make sure that I feel comfortable with his, with the new car I, and so when I get, so the car, when I get back, the is parked in my garage, um, miles was kind enough to actually go and have, so I have the car delivered to the office and miles took it and charges all up.

20:35     And had to sit in my office. And so when I opened up the hood thinking there's an engineer there of which there's not, there's a gift from Wayne and it's this gorgeous s a cutting knife that is a ceramic blade. Everything else just saying, welcome to the family. So you have to say, this is not Tesla, this is a Tesla owner who is welcome me to the test, the family, because he's so excited about it. Then he goes out of his way, own way to provide a gifted to me without testing even known about it. So my only reason I mention this to you is I want you to start thinking about the customer experience, the customer journey. How excited are your customers about working with you? What is, what is the pain that you overcome by? What does the pain that you solve? Is it just something where it's like an aspirin and they're never going to talk to anyone else about it?

21:27     Or is it an experience where they overcame such an amazing pain that all of a sudden they're telling everybody in the world about this crazy product or service or company that you are? Same thing happens as far as when you start looking at other companies and the way in which they interact with you, the customer service. Uh, there's nothing that I, so while we were here in Austin, I had the experience of talking to Keith Cunningham, um, about click funnels, about some things we're doing. And one of the things he was talking about was the importance of, uh, making sure that new customers are, that your existing customers are treated as well as if not even better than new customers. That's not what are you talking about? He goes, well, have you ever had the experience where especially like with mobile phone companies or cable companies or anything else or the satellite dish where they have these great offers for new customers.

22:17     But if you're an existing customer and you call in, you can never get that offer. And you're like, what? Wait. He said, I've been with you and I had this happen with Verizon when I was in California. I was at Verizon for like 15 years. And I remember going in there cause they have this new promotional offer and they said, nope, you can't get that, that new phone at this discounted price. I'm like, wait a second here. I've been with you for 15 years and you're not going to give me a discount on the phone. And Nick, no, no, that's a promotion only for brand new customers. I'm like, that is crazy. And so think about the experience that you're giving to your existing customers. And I was looking as far as you know, what's your cost to acquire a new customer? But more importantly, what is your cost to keep a customer?

22:57     And this is one of the things I'm going to exploring quite a bit over the next couple of months personally with clickfunnels has tried to make sure that we're doing more to keep our existing customers or making sure that we understand the cost to keep a customer in comparison. What's our cost to acquire customer. So, with all that said, pay attention to the companies that you've, that you buy products from. How loyal are you to those companies and why are you so loyal to them? That is, that to me is what branding is all about. It's the reputation that you have with your customers and how much they're willing to talk and they'll crazy ranting and raving about you to someone they don't even know. So with that hope that makes sense to you guys. More importantly, I really want to make sure that you guys are having a ton of fun in your own business.

23:39     And for us, one of the ways we're trying to help people get have even greater success with click funnels is draw one funnel a challenge. So if you haven't taken the one funnel away challenge, please go to one funnel away, challenge.com sign up, take the go through that experience and let us know kind of what your feedback is. Um, what we found right now is anyone who goes through that, they become one great fans of click funnels, but more importantly they have amazing success in their own business. And for us, our customer success is the most important thing. So having an amazing day, check out one funnel away. And thanks again for listening. Thanks so much for listening. Another episode of [inaudible] radio. We are about ready though to change some things and I wanted to kind of reach out real quick and let you understand some things you're going to see happening real quick here.

24:22     Uh, probably about the middle of April, 2019 we're asking me changing the kind of, the format in this and really the purpose of this podcast. So up to this point, I've been doing a lot of, spend a lot of time interviewing some of our funnel hackers and things that I tell them their stories. We're gonna continue to do that, but we're going to add in a new little twist. Currently right now, as of today, we are just under 78,000 customers currently using click funnels. And what we thought is why not have you guys come join us on the journey to create a culture of 100,000 rabid, excited funnel hackers. So what I'd like to do is just invite your lawn, continue to, you've got mind rate, review the podcast, let us know of, uh, other people, even possibly outside of our funnel hacker community you'd like just to bring in interview and really want to make sure that you understand the purpose of this podcast is to help you in building your culture and building your community, your tribe, and really helping you understand what it takes to build a community of its super, super excited, passionate customers who rave about your service.

25:27     More importantly, they, they spend time talking about it, referring clients to you. So what that said, join us as we hit our journey to over a hundred thousand customers. We're going to try to get this done before the end of 2019. So thanks so much for listing rate and review this and enjoy the journey.