7. Scarcity
Limited stock warnings increase desire. Even the anticipation that stock might run out boosts conversions, whether the scarcity is real or not.
7 Social Media Psychological Strategies
1. Authority
Three versions: borrowed (name-dropping Harvard/experts), stolen (deepfakes of celebrities), and authority hacking (faking news site endorsements like CNN or CNBC).
6. Social Proof
Reviews, unit counts, and viral trends all lower perceived risk. They also use trend-jacking — latching onto what’s already popular to show momentum.
5 Things To Get People To Buy
THE CORE IDEA
This is presented as the simplest and most reliable structure for getting people to consistently speak in a way that drives buying decisions. It breaks down into 5 specific vocal variables — 3 that are constant and 2 that you actively control and adjust depending on what you want the listener to feel or do.
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THE 3 CONSTANT VARIABLES (MAXIMIZING COMPREHENSION)
These three are the non-negotiables that must always be in place before anything else works. The first is volume — you have to speak loud enough that people can actually hear you. Simple and obvious but frequently ignored. The second is pace — you have to speak slowly enough that people can comprehend what you’re saying. Speed kills understanding, and if people can’t follow you they won’t buy. The third is articulation — you have to round out your words clearly and avoid mumbling. Every word needs to land cleanly. When you get these three right simultaneously, you maximize comprehension. Without comprehension, nothing else matters. These three are not things you turn on and off — they are your baseline at all times.
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THE 2 VARIABLE TOOLS (EMPHASIS AND INTENT)
On top of the constant foundation, there are two variables you actively manipulate to control attention, emotion, and response. The first variable is pauses. When you want to emphasize a point, you pause. The length of the pause is what communicates your intent — a short pause draws attention to what you just said, while a longer pause signals that you are expecting a response from the other person. Pauses are one of the most powerful and underused tools in sales because silence creates weight and makes people lean in. The second variable is vocal frequency — whether your voice goes up or goes down. A rising tone at the end of a word or sentence signals a question and invites a response, just like a question mark does in writing. A falling tone signals a statement and communicates certainty and authority. The example given is a single word — saying someone’s name with a rising tone turns it into a question that solicits engagement, while saying the same name with a falling tone makes it a declaration that requires nothing back. This means even a single word can carry completely different meaning depending solely on the direction your voice moves.
THE COMMITMENT INCENTIVES (THE FRONT DOOR)
Once people are warmed up and understand the value, you incentivize them to actually buy with 3 commitment pieces. The first is a launch week price cut of around $20. The copy is: “Don’t take those knives to the knife store — save $20 now and hundreds in the future.” The second is a free add-on — either a knife sharpening guide or a polishing strap included with the purchase. The key insight here is that adding something is always better than discounting, because discounting signals lower value while adding something makes the product feel like a pro-level kit. It also reinforces the commercial grade positioning. The third is a two-use challenge guarantee — if the sharpener doesn’t pay for itself in two uses, return it. This turns the key marketing claim into a trust-building promise and removes the risk of buying.
WHY THIS SPECIFIC STRATEGY WORKS
There are 4 reasons this approach is effective. First, it targets a hyper-specific pain point — not just “dull knives” but the specific frustration of waiting days and paying $50-60 every time you need them sharpened. Second, it creates premium positioning by reframing the product as the pro shop in your kitchen rather than just another sharpener. Third, it uses a clear math story — two uses equals ROI — giving buyers a clean logical reason to justify the purchase. Fourth, the CTA is both direct and emotional — “tired of waiting? Take control. Sharp knives on command” — which speaks to both the rational and emotional side of the buying decision.
StoryBrand SoundBite Strategy: How to Sell Premium Without Lowering Price
THE 3 PHASES OF THE STORYBRAND SOUNDBITE STRATEGY
The entire strategy is built around reducing friction at every stage of the buying journey. Phase 1 is Curiosity — 5 sound bites that grab attention and get people interested. Phase 2 is Enlightenment — 3 pieces of content (PDFs, YouTube videos, social media) that warm people up, build trust, and get them comfortable with the idea of buying. Phase 3 is Commitment — 3 incentives that push people over the edge and get them to actually place the order. The metaphor used is a house: the sound bites are the front steps that get you onto the porch, the enlightenment content is the porch where you get comfortable, and the commitment incentives are what gets you through the front door.
THE CORE PRINCIPLE: ZERO COGNITIVE LOAD
The entire strategy is built on one foundational idea — the higher the cognitive load, the fewer people will buy. If your messaging makes people think even for a second, you lose them. The answer to confusion is always no. Most ad agencies make the mistake of being clever, sophisticated, or creative — but all of that asks people to think. The goal is to get to zero cognitive load, meaning your sound bites are so simple and clear that they require zero mental effort to understand. Every word, every claim, every message must be instantly digestible.
THE 5 SOUND BITES EXPLAINED (KNIFE SHARPENER EXAMPLE)
The product used as the example is the Work Hog knife sharpener, a commercial grade sharpener that retails for around $100 when you can buy a basic one on Amazon for $10. The messaging angle chosen was to anchor the price against professional knife sharpening services (which cost $50-60 per visit and take 5-6 days) rather than against cheap competitors. This reframes the $100 price as a bargain, not a premium. The 5 sound bites are: (1) Problem — professional knife sharpening is expensive, (2) Empathy — you shouldn’t have to pay that much just to have sharp knives, (3) Solution — Work Hog is a commercial grade sharpener that lives in your kitchen, (4) Transformation — sharpen your knives like a pro in minutes anytime you want, (5) Happy ever after — commercial grade sharp knives and a tool that pays for itself in as little as two uses. The controlling idea repeated throughout is “commercial grade” — hammering that phrase builds the premium positioning. Adding a personal transformation (“sharpen like a pro”) increases the perceived value of the product beyond just its physical features.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT CONTENT (THE PORCH)
Once the sound bites have sparked curiosity, the next step is to warm people up with 3 pieces of content before asking them to buy. The first piece is a PDF or YouTube video titled “How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife Like a Professional.” It covers how to use the Work Hog, what makes professional sharpening expensive, why commercial grade sharpening at home is smarter, and a simple math chart showing that the cost of two professional sharpenings equals the cost of one Work Hog. It ends with the decision trigger sound bite: “If you are tired of waiting and paying for sharp knives, sharpening them yourself is the right move.” The second piece is a social media mini campaign built around the hook “Can this knife cut this?” — short videos showing the knife being sharpened with the Work Hog and then cutting through something interesting. Each video repeats the decision trigger at the end. This format naturally attracts engagement and gets the product in front of cold audiences. The third piece is a video ad called “The Professional Knife Sharpener’s Secret.” It opens by showing how much the person used to spend on professional sharpening (showing the receipt for credibility), then cuts to clean B-roll of the Work Hog being used in the kitchen, and ends with the cost breakdown showing it paid for itself after two uses, followed by the CTA.
SEGMENTATION
Run separate funnels for men and women at minimum. If you want to go deeper, split by age — a 55-year-old woman and a 25-year-old woman need to be spoken to differently, and the page design should reflect that. The more targeted the message, the better the results.
How To Make Ad Headlines That Get Clicks — Alex Hormozi
THE 3-PART HEADLINE FORMULA
Every ad banner headline should follow this exact structure: Duration + Benefit/Result + Power Word. This is the foundation. If your headline doesn’t have all three parts, your conversion rate will suffer. It sounds basic but most gym owners skip one or more of these pieces and then wonder why their ads don’t work.
PART 1 — DURATION
This is the time commitment implied in the offer. It tells the prospect how long until they see the result. Examples: 21 days, 28 days, 42 days, 6 weeks, one month. Always lead with this. It sets expectations and makes the offer feel achievable and finite.
PART 2 — BENEFIT / RESULT
This is the specific outcome the prospect is buying into. Not a vague promise — a concrete, visual result. Examples: six-pack, bikini body, six-week booty, smaller jean size, drop two belt notches, little black dress, skinny waist. Get creative here. Hormozi’s favourite example is “skinny friend” — as in, wouldn’t you love to always be the skinny friend in your group? That kind of benefit speaks to identity and status, not just physical change, which makes it far more emotionally compelling.
PART 3 — POWER WORD
This closes the headline and frames the offer as a structured, valuable program. Words like: challenge, blueprint, accelerator, intensive, transformation, program. Combined with the first two parts you get headlines like: “28-Day Skinny Friend Accelerator” or “6-Week Six-Pack Challenge” or “42-Day Belt Notch Transformation.”
THE CREATIVE
The visual side of the ad exists for one purpose — to stop the scroll. It doesn’t need to match the headline perfectly. What works: group workout shots, sweaty selfies, people training together, food pictures, eye-contact selfie pitch videos, testimonials. Use the “Legion Scrambler” method to rotate and test these creatives while keeping the headline consistent.
COLORS AND FONTS
Colors and fonts matter as much as the words, sometimes more. Dark colors — black, red, yellow, blue, green — work for men. Softer tones and lighter palettes work better for women. Stencil or military-style fonts feel masculine and will underperform for female audiences. A font like Permanent Marker from Google Fonts works across both genders. Always match the visual aesthetic to the prospect you’re targeting.
THE AD COPY — ATTRACT AND REPEL
The first lines of your copy should qualify and disqualify. Call out exactly who this is for, and just as importantly, who it is NOT for. Repelling the wrong people is as powerful as attracting the right ones — it signals selectivity, increases perceived value, and raises the quality of every click you get. Hormozi’s own example: GymLaunch ads that say “no personal trainers, gym owners only, must have 25+ clients and a signed lease.” They found through data which clients were most valuable and built the copy around that profile.
THE LEAD-IN / SUB-HEADLINE
After the qualify/disqualify opener, write a sub-headline that ties directly back to the benefit from your headline. This is where you pull the reader emotionally into the offer. Example using “skinny friend”: “We all have those friends who seem to eat whatever they want and never gain weight. What if it’s not their genetics — it’s their habits? And those habits are teachable.” Now the reader is hooked and wants to know more. Follow that with implied authority — “we’ve done this with over 1,000 people in this area” — then your call to action.
LANDING PAGE CONGRUENCE
Once someone clicks, the landing page must match the ad completely — same offer, same language, same benefit, same energy. This is where good marketers separate from lazy ones. If the ad says 28-Day Skinny Friend Accelerator, the page better reflect that exact promise. Disconnect between ad and page kills conversions.
Method Four — Build The Ritual
Starbucks does not win because of better coffee. They win because of the ritual. Someone asks your name, writes it on the cup, you wait, your name is called, you pick it up. Same sequence every Starbucks, every city, every country. Patagonia does the same thing differently — every design decision, every repair program that says we would rather fix this than sell you a new one, was engineered to make the person wearing it feel like they belong to something bigger than a transaction. A name on a cup and a jacket with a moral code have nothing in common on the surface but they are doing the same thing underneath — turning a small forgettable moment into a small memorable ceremony. That ceremony is why people keep coming back. The ritual is how you live in someone’s imagination without being intrusive. You are not interrupting their day — you are becoming part of it. Look at your customer’s journey and find the dull moments — the checkout page, the confirmation email, the delivery notification. Every one of those is a missed ceremony. Pick one and make it feel like something. Not grand or expensive — just personal, repeatable, and theirs.
Method Five — Give Them A Superpower
Before Stripe existed, accepting payments online required a merchant account, bank approvals, hardware, contracts, and weeks of waiting. The system was telling small developers and businesses — this is not for you, wait until you are bigger. Then Stripe launched with a few lines of code and the implicit message — you can build now. No approval, no waiting, no middlemen. People who used it did not just feel like they had a new tool — they felt like a different kind of person. Nimble, fast, a builder rather than someone waiting for permission. Twilio did the same thing with phone and messaging infrastructure, turning what used to require telecom negotiations into something you could just add to your project. The capability did not just solve a problem — it expanded what people believed was possible about themselves. This is the most powerful of all five methods because it does something the others do not. Flipping the status makes people feel sophisticated. Hijacking the myth makes them feel part of a bigger story. Opening the hidden door makes them feel more literate. Building the ritual makes them feel like they belong. But giving someone a superpower makes them feel more capable than they thought they were — and that is the deepest place you can live in someone’s imagination because it is no longer about your brand. It is about who they become because of it.
The Key Takeaway
Nobody casually walks away from a brand that made them a new version of themselves. Stop selling products. Start asking — what could my customer do after finding me that they genuinely believed they could not do before? Find that answer and you are selling something no competitor can touch.
The Secret Ways To Sell Anything As A Creative — Summary
The Core Idea
The best sellers and influencers in the world are not selling products. They are changing how people see themselves. Every method in this video is built on that single insight — identity is the most powerful lever in all of selling and marketing.
Method One — Flip The Status
Tassimo had objectively better coffee pod technology with a barcode system that brewed at perfect temperature and pressure every time. On paper they should have won. Nespresso had no real technical advantage but they had George Clooney, a boutique retail experience where you sampled pods like wine, and a design language that looked nothing like a kitchen appliance. Nespresso won because they changed the identity of the person drinking the coffee, not the coffee itself. They took something people saw as a cheap convenience product and reframed it as a mark of taste and sophistication. The lesson is to look at your category and find the part people secretly feel a little embarrassed about — the thing that feels cheap or boring — and flip it into a symbol of sophistication. You do not need a better product. You need a better story about who someone becomes for choosing it.
Method Two — Hijack The Myth
The brain does not adopt new ideas. It adopts new versions of ideas it already has. In the 1960s Marlboro could not just advertise cigarettes as advertising regulations tightened and health conversations grew. So they did not invent a character — they borrowed one. The American cowboy had been living in the cultural imagination for over a century — rugged, self-reliant, stoic, free, answerable to nobody. That mythology was already running in millions of minds. Marlboro just attached its brand to it with a man on a horse and a wide open sky. Over time Marlboro stopped being about cigarettes entirely and became shorthand for an identity. People were not buying a product — they were declaring something about themselves. The mythology did all the heavy lifting because it was already installed. The lesson is to find the story your audience is already telling themselves about who they are and show them that your brand belongs in it. Do not ask what you want them to believe — ask what they already believe and start there.
Method Three — Open The Hidden Door
This method works when there is no existing myth to attach to — so you build one yourself. In 2014 Blue Bottle Coffee was a single cafe in San Francisco. They went viral not through ads but by publishing a free video course on how to brew the perfect cup of coffee. Most brands would never do this — why teach people something that has nothing to do with buying right now? But Blue Bottle understood something deeper. They were not teaching coffee. They were opening a door to a world most people did not know existed. When you walk someone through a hidden door they become a different person on the other side. Someone who used to order whatever was on the menu is now asking about the roast date. They are literate in coffee and that literacy changes how they see themselves in every conversation where coffee comes up. They have something to contribute, something to share, something that makes them more interesting — and Blue Bottle gave them that. The hidden door works because it changes your customer’s self-image. Once you are in, the generic version stops being an option because it is beneath who you have become. Ask yourself what your industry knows that most people do not and what would make someone feel smarter or more sophisticated for learning it. That is your hidden door.
Pick The Right Avatar
Do not try to sell your expensive thing to the same person buying your cheap thing. The person willing to spend $1,000 is a different person from the one spending $100. Think about who that higher-level buyer is — they have the money, they feel the pain acutely, and they are easy to reach. Design your premium offer for that person specifically, not for who you already have.
Describe Their Pain Better Than They Can
One of the most powerful things you can do in copy and sales is articulate someone’s problem more accurately than they can articulate it themselves. When you can do that they will instinctively believe you can solve it. A great tactic is to go into Amazon reviews of books in your niche and extract the exact language people use to describe their pain. Use that language in your copy. Pain and persuasion only exist in the specific, never the vague.
Speed Is The Most Underrated Value Driver
If you had to pick one thing to maximize persuasion it is speed — or more specifically reducing latency between when someone starts and when they get the result. Latency beats magnitude every single day. Wealthy people are not sold on how much money you will save them — they are sold on how much time you will save them. To add value to your premium tier simply cut your current delivery time in half or by two thirds. For your highest tier the promise is always priority — first in line, first to know, fastest response, pulled off another job to deal with your emergency. All of those things are about speed and they justify the price premium completely.
The Key Takeaway
No matter how many customers you have, if you simply create an offer that is 10 times more expensive than your current one, the probability that someone buys it is greater than zero. When that first person says yes it will permanently change how you see pricing and what you believe is possible. Add the zero. Make it available. Let people surprise you.
How I’d Build A Business Starting Over — Summary
The Core Principle
Either sell extremely expensive stuff to a select few or sell something super cheap to everyone. The middle is where businesses die. Every business comes down to one economic equation — the cost of getting customers versus what you make from those customers. Start high and work your way down. Tesla began with a $250,000 Roadster to prove the concept and generate capital, then worked down to the Model S and eventually the Model 3. That is the model to follow.
Why You Should Sell Your Time One-On-One First
Most people have limiting beliefs about selling their time or charging a lot. Here is why those beliefs are wrong and why starting with expensive one-on-one work is actually the smartest move you can make.
You learn more from fewer high-value clients. Working closely with premium clients shifts your entire belief system about money and what is possible. When someone hands you $15,000 without blinking after you struggled to sell $50 memberships, it permanently rewires how you see pricing and what services you think about creating.
You have 100% margin. When you trade your time directly for money nobody else takes a cut. The food that keeps you alive is your cost. Everything beyond that goes in your pocket.
You can iterate faster. With fewer clients you can change things on the fly without retraining staff, rebuilding systems, or recoding anything. It is the ultimate beta testing environment.
You can cap supply to force higher prices. When you have demand and cut supply, basic economics forces your price up. The supply in one-on-one work is fixed and contracted by nature, which is exactly the kind of leverage that makes a business powerful.
It lifts your entire brand. If you charge $10,000 an hour for one-on-one access and also sell a $100 product, you can naturally say “a lot of people can’t afford to work with me directly so I packaged everything into this.” The anchor effect of the high price transfers perceived value to everything else you sell even if nobody buys the premium tier.
It generates your best case studies and marketing material. Your private high-ticket clients are where your most powerful testimonials and stories come from. They also tend to be more interesting people who will shift your worldview and become genuine connections.
The Math Most People Miss
If you have a $100 product and add a $1,000 product and 10 out of 100 buyers take the expensive one, you double your total revenue. But here is the part people miss — on your $100 product you might make 40% margin so you pocket $40 per sale. On your $1,000 product your margin is close to 100% so you pocket $1,000. Three quarters of your total profit comes from that top 10%. That is why having the expensive tier matters even in tiny volumes — lots of zeros still add up.
Three Frames For Building Your Expensive Offer
Frame one — ask what you would include if you charged 10x or 100x more than you currently do. Write everything down without limits. Then look at the actual cost of doing all those things. Most of them will not cost nearly as much as you think. Cross out anything with hard costs and price what remains accordingly.
Frame two — imagine your only way to get new customers is word of mouth from this one client in front of you. What would their experience look like if that was the requirement? Design that experience and present it at a higher price. Some percentage greater than zero will always say yes.
Frame three — if you had to remove everything unscalable from your offer but still make it worth 10 times as much, how would you do it? This forces you to think creatively about value creation without relying on your time as the differentiator.
Van Cleef’s 4 Tactics to Sell $6,000 Bracelets
• Price increases as a demand engine — VCA raises prices up to 20% every 2 years, which signals growing demand and actually increases desirability rather than killing it. Announcing price increases in advance creates urgency and pulls in buyers who want the current “deal”
• Price on value, not cost — The bracelet costs $300 to make but sells for $6,000+. The markup funds the luxury experience (beautiful stores, sparkling water, prime locations). Price based on the value delivered to the customer, not your cost. Example: charge 10% of the revenue you unlock for a client
• Sell status, not stuff — Buyers aren’t paying for 18k gold or mother of pearl — they’re paying for what the bracelet signals about them. VCA engineers status through branding, store design, and partnerships. There are 44M+ TikTok posts about it. Apply this by asking: how does buying your product elevate your customer’s status or identity?
• Entry point strategy — VCA starts you with a $2,650 single pendant, then upsells to stacks, then iced-out pieces — escalating a customer from $2K to $100K lifetime value. The first sale exists to set up the second. Identify your “keychain” — the lowest-barrier entry into your world — then advertise that heavily and sell bigger on the back end
Steve Jobs — The Master Of Simplicity
Jobs boiled everything down to one word — simplicity. From the way he dressed to product design to communication. He would sit with his design team and ruthlessly ask how they could remove more buttons. At the 2007 iPhone launch he used the power of three, announcing the iPhone as a breakthrough internet device, a widescreen iPod with controls, and a revolutionary mobile phone. The audience thought he was launching three separate products. He repeated the three things over and over until the crowd got it — and then revealed it was all one device. One of the greatest product reveals in history, delivered at a 1st grade reading level.
The Five Rules Of Writing
Use short and sharp sentences — three to four words per sentence makes each line so digestible it pulls the reader through the message. Use transition words like “yeah” and “okay” to keep things conversational. Write to one person, not a crowd — your reader should feel like they can hear your voice in their head. Use stories because you cannot argue with a story and they make complex concepts far easier to understand than just explaining them directly. Read your copy aloud to find the snags and the rhythm problems. Do not use brand-speak like referring to yourself in the third person — use “I” and “we” so there is no artificial layer between you and the reader. Remember that 80% of the work is done in the edit — ruthlessly cut everything that does not push the story and message forward.
The Five Rules Of Speaking
Eliminate filler words like um and ah entirely — they instantly kill your credibility and compelling presence. Use a serious downward tone instead of upspeaking — upward inflection makes you sound like a salesperson immediately. Match your pace to your audience — Gen Z consumes information fast while older generations need a slower delivery to absorb the message. Study Obama for his use of pausing and cadence — he lets points sink in deliberately and strategically. Record yourself and review the footage obsessively — the presenter listened to his own sales calls every single day for a year on his iPod instead of music and went from the worst salesperson at his company to number one.
The Swipe File
Keep a Google Drive or Dropbox folder and fill it with great copy you come across. Screenshot ads and headlines that catch your attention or make you laugh or think. Pay special attention to ads that keep appearing repeatedly — if a company keeps spending money on an ad it means it is profitable and worth studying and stealing from. Good writers are good readers and you must be absorbing great copy from as many different sources as possible.
The Key Takeaway
Consumption always precedes conversion. Before anyone buys from you, votes for you, or follows you they first have to consume your message. Make that message so simple, so clear, and so emotionally resonant that it is impossible to ignore. People will forget what you said. They will always remember how you made them feel.
How To Take Over The World With Simple Words — Summary
The Core Principle
The single most important idea in the video is simplicity. The best communicators in the world write and speak at a 4th to 5th grade reading level so their message reaches and sticks with the widest possible audience. Complexity kills attention. Simple wins every time.
Real World Examples Of Simplicity In Action
Mr. Beast scripts score at a 4th grade reading level. His early video concepts were dead simple — literally counting to 200,000 on camera, or putting people in a circle and telling them the last person to leave wins $10,000. As his channel grew and budgets increased he still kept everything Sesame Street simple. Trump’s 2015 presidential announcement speech scored at a 5th grade level. Steve Jobs’ iPhone launch presentation scored at a 1st grade level. Jeff Bezos banned PowerPoint at Amazon entirely because bullet points make it easy for the presenter but hard for the audience. Instead he requires all leaders to write a one-page press release in plain language before every meeting. Every Amazon meeting starts with 30 minutes of silent reading. His rule is to think deeply, write clearly, and then let ideas dominate the conversation.
The Copywriting Checklist
What does your audience want more than anything else? What keeps them up at night and how can you solve that problem in a way they have never seen or heard before so it feels completely novel? How will your product or service make them feel and what emotion do you want to create? How will their life improve after taking action — speak to that end desired outcome more than the product itself. What is the cost of not acting — you must assign a cost to inaction. What has already frustrated them about other solutions they have tried in the market? What will the cynics and skeptics say and do you have enough proof to handle every objection? What is your competition unwilling to do that you can use as your edge? Handle all of these objections as specifically as possible so that by the time the prospect gets to the end of your message there is nothing left for them to do but take action.
Trump’s 2015 Announcement — A Persuasion Masterclass
After greeting the crowd Trump wasted no time and opened with “our country is in serious trouble, we don’t have victories anymore.” He immediately triggered attention by signaling threat and danger. He hit specific pain points — China, ISIS, Mexico — giving people a clear visual of the enemy. He called out all politicians as all talk and no action, taking what people could use against him (being an outsider with no political experience) and flipping it into a strength. The speech was written at a 5th grade reading level, used no verbose language, and left nothing open to interpretation.