SPI 820: The Power of Gift-Wrapped Content

SPI 820: The Power of Gift-Wrapped Content

Announcer: You’re listening to the Smart Passive Income Podcast, a proud member of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network, a show that’s all about working hard now, so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And now your host, he’s the president of the Club Thumb Club of America, Pat Flynn.

Pat Flynn: Hey, it’s Pat here. I hope you’re having an amazing Friday. And I’m excited to share a little bit of insight and just a thought with you about packaging. And no, I’m not talking about, like, the gift wrap around a physical product. Although that is obviously important as well. It’s why we gift wrap something on a birthday. We want it to feel special. But, when you think about our content, as I heard Ryan Trahan once say, our content should be like a gift to our audience.

And the way it’s packaged is key. And so let’s unpack this, if you will, a little bit. When we hear packaging on YouTube, we often think about the title and thumbnail together. And that is important. That’s obviously the most important thing, besides the video itself. And many can argue that the thumbnail and title package is actually more important than the video. Because if you don’t title and thumbnail your video properly, nobody’s ever gonna want to click on it. And then nobody’s ever gonna see it and then YouTube’s not gonna push it out, right?

The reason I’m bringing this up in terms of packaging and the way something is presented might be a better way to say this is because right now during the time of this recording there is Vid Summit going on and Unfortunately, I’m unable to go to Vid Summit this year in 2024 for a very good reason. In fact, this is one of my favorite events to go to.

I love the world of YouTube, and this is a great event. VidSummit, unlike VidCon, is definitely more educational. It attracts more of the creators that are teaching YouTube and as well as very popular ones. It’s a event run by Daryl Eves, who’s been on the show before. He partnered with Mr. Beast on this particular event and Mr.

Beast shows up. This is where I met Mark Rober and a number of other large, large, large creators. Colin and Samir, I remember watching them cross 1 million subscribers on their podcast live on stage at VidSummit. It’s very community feel. The events, the lounge, and the area at the hotel. It’s always a great event.

But I’m unable to go this year for a very good reason. And it’s because I was invited by Pokemon, the company, to actually attend an exclusive event. I had to sign an NDA about what this is and all this kind of stuff, so I can’t share any details about it, but I have to continue to strengthen the relationship I have with Pokemon for obvious reasons.

This is like, coming from the top, I got invited. Not the top top, but from the Pokemon company itself. I was invited and I wanted to go and build a relationship with them and also get exclusive access to this thing, which they’re revealing and all this fun stuff. So, anyway. That’s not the point of this podcast.

The point is, I’m not at VidSummit. But, I’m reminded about an incredible thing that happened last year. Because last year, at VidSummit, if nothing else happened other than this one thing, it would have been worth it. And that one thing was, the day before the event started, in the hotel, I met a person named Jonathan.

Jonathan Sipple. And, Jonathan was holding with him a photo album. And I was like, oh, I haven’t seen like a photo album in a very long time. This is a digital space. Now, Jonathan is a thumbnail person. He is a person who helps creators. with their thumbnails. He’s helped me. He’s been very public about that.

He’s helped Mark Manson, the author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Blank, if you know that book. Mark’s great, by the way. And he was holding a photo album, Jonathan was. And inside this photo album, he was going around and opening it up for people who were curious about it. He wasn’t like shoving it in anybody’s face.

And in it, We’re large images. I mean, I’m talking, you know, six by nine or whatever the dimension is. It’s quite large, right? Not quite a eleven and a half by eight inch loose leaf paper, but the equivalent to that and maybe half that size. So. What were on these pieces of paper? Well, they were actually printed nice high quality photos of thumbnails that he’s worked on and I remember seeing Mark there and a few other people who I recognize and even some thumbnails that I recognized that were once on my feed and I It was a beautiful way to display his work.

This was his portfolio, but it was displayed in a photo album, which I thought was really, really cool. And what I wanted to share with you was just how impactful that was. It was so different. And in fact, it made us, and I say us, Dan, my producer from Deep Pocket Monster, and I were there. One of the goals we had at VidSummit 2023 was to find a thumbnail person.

It was obvious who our choice was going to be because his thumbnails were great. He worked with people who we knew about and his presentation was absolutely insane. It was such a cool thing to have him go around and we could flip through and every time we flipped the new page, there it was. He also works with Jay Klaus.

I don’t believe he’s taking new people right now. He’s kind of full, but he does very, very good work. He’s even gone So far as for the DeepPocketMonster channel to build 3D models of certain Pokemon packs and store layouts so I can just take a picture at home with the right lighting and get the lighting right.

He’s actually live with me on Google, Google Chat or whatever it’s called now, and he’s telling me where to put my lights, what the aperture and the ISO setting should be on my camera and all this good stuff. Anyway, it’s really high quality work and it’s no wonder that His thumbnails are always really, really great.

So if you’d like to see those thumbnails in action, you can check out Deep Pocket Monster. But again, this is more the idea of the packaging around his services and the fact that he had a photo album to share his thumbnails was absolutely genius. And I think just it’s so obvious when you think about it, right?

It’s like he could have showed us on the phone or he could have sent an email with screenshots or anything like this. But in person, that’s win number one for Jonathan, right? Being in person with potentially where your clients could be. I often say that if I had 1, 000 and no contacts and I was starting a business from scratch, the first thing I would do would be to spend money on a ticket and or a flight or drive to wherever those people are who I’m serving.

I want to be in the same room as them and get to know them better. Build a relationship with them, chat with them, see who the top players are, and see what I can do to understand more about who that audience is and what they might need help with. Well, win number one was Jonathan was there in person, but win number two was his presentation, and he didn’t have to do any speaking at all.

It was this photo album. It was the opening of it. It was clean. His photos were there. They were high quality. And so, of course, somebody like me and Dan, who are looking to hire somebody who’s doing thumbnails, I mean, there were a number of people who do thumbnails there. We immediately hired Jonathan. The packaging around what it is that we produce, and especially our portfolio for trying to get clients and the way that we share the story about who we’ve helped and served before is absolutely key.

Doesn’t have to be a physical thing like Jonathan, but in a physical place, it made sense for him to do that. It stood out. We got to see large and clearly his work and how great it was. But let me give you another example, the packaging around your testimonials and how you share those testimonials with your audience.

In general, most people put their testimonials on a website and just have maybe an italicized quote with a name, maybe a picture, and that’s better than not having a picture and not having a name. But some people turn that into a video. Some people turn it into a more higher quality video. And the point of sale.

On your sales page or when a person is in that decision making mode as to whether or not to purchase your thing One of the most important things i’ve talked about this before is the testimonials that you have on that page And if you just have a generic presentation of those testimonials People are going to overlook them or they’re not going to make as big of an impact as they could.

So one thing that I did back in the day was, with some of my testimonials, instead of capturing them and putting them on the website, I shared them with people in story format even before they got to the sales page. And I’m talking about episode 275 of the SPI podcast. I always mention this podcast, this one and Shane and Jocelyn’s podcast back in 122.

I mentioned 275 because I invited three students on who had once been successful going through Power Up Podcasting and I had that podcast episode go out the same week we launched that course publicly. This was back in 2017. That podcast episode accounted for over 150, 000 worth of sales because on that podcast episode I invited three students who have been successful.

And I’ve had them record what their before was like, so I ask them questions like, why did you want to start a podcast? Why was it so hard for you to start one? What were the biggest challenges that you faced when you once wanted to start a podcast before? And then I asked them, well, what’s life like now?

And through that conversation, without even prompting, those three students, Dr. B, Shannon Irvine and Rob Stewart from Disney Travel Secrets. They each mentioned how grateful they were for having the opportunity to go through a course, how well structured it was, how it helped them through the challenges that we had just discussed when I prompted them for what those challenges were.

And it was the most beautiful, integrated, integrated, Organic feeling testimonial ever. And so people heard that episode. That’s where my audience was, was on the podcast. And they immediately went to go and purchase that course. Now that course is available in the all access pass at smartpassiveincome.

com slash community. You could see it there and get access to all of our other courses, all in one spot for one low quarterly price. All this to say it was the packaging around. One of the most important things, our testimonial that made a huge difference. I could have easily just taken their word or their written testimonial, put them on the website, but I went a little bit further.

And that’s the thing about this sort of motif and theme that we’re thinking of today. The idea of the going the extra mile, going just a little bit further than most would to display the things that are most important. And going back to the Ryan Trahan quote of your content should be a gift. People notice that when you do take that time.

When you craft your piece of content in a way that’s a little bit different. Take for example, the very successful shorts experiment that I’ve been working on. You can actually go and find that channel. I’m going to mention it here. Short pocket monster. It is a separate channel than my long form channel, deep pocket monster.

I never linked to it. I just posted content there that I knew my audience would relate to. And YouTube did the rest of the work and it found it. And then it started sharing all of these things with everybody else. And now I’m attracting people who didn’t even find or had, don’t even know about me through the shorts channel, which is really amazing.

We’re currently at the time of this recording at 141, 000 subscribers. This is less than two months into the experiment, 141, 000 subscribers. I got my silver play button on its way, which is amazing. And 55 million views. and 4. 1K in revenue or 4, 100 in revenue in less than two months. And so the revenue has continued to be steady.

This is a fascinating experiment. I share more about it on the newsletter, and I’ll be sharing more about it on YouTube very soon and inside of our communities. The packaging around a little 35 to 55 seconds short. You can tell that a little bit more thought was put into it. In the beginning, there’s a little jingle.

I paid several hundred dollars for a jingle that became one of the most memorable things in this community as of late because I went to a card shop and I heard somebody sing it. They sang it before they opened the pack. Should I open it? Or should I keep it sealed? And It’s just become an earworm now, which is pretty cool.

So that’s like the wrapping on this content, this little jingle. So in this format, I found a nice wrapping to put around the content that people are about to watch. And it just takes a second right in the beginning. It hooks them in with that question. Should I open it or should I keep it sealed? Becomes a jingle that becomes a branded.

It’s like a logo but in audio format. And then I go through the process of opening a pack, and at the end it’s either a good card or a bad card, and there’s a little jingle at the end of that too. So there’s even a reward at the end for sticking around. A little jingle that is catchy. This packaging around what hundreds of other YouTubers are already doing.

Opening packs. Sharing the hits. Showing the prices. I’m not the first person to do that, but I thought about the packaging around that, and how it’s just a gift to somebody when they see it on their feed, and it’s fun, and they can’t wait for the next one, they subscribe, and this is why, because it’s episodic, I’m on episode 41 at this point, people are loving it.

So all this just to say, think about the things that you’re creating. Think about the things that you’re selling. Think about how it is and when it is that your audience gets to hear and see from you. What is the packaging like around those things? Are you creating the equivalent of Jonathan and his photo album?

And the display of that work in a way that’s different from other people, because the truth is, if everybody else had a photo album, which they may, may very well have in the future because they’re seeing how successful this is, but Jonathan said now he’s got clients and he’s got people. Like, he’s set, he’s at that level now, but in the beginning, I mean, we hired him because Dan and I were so impressed around the presentation around his work, and I think most of us take for granted the internet and how easy it is to share things without thinking about how it will be received.

There’s a reason why when you go to Japan, and even if you order https: otter. ai Store it will be wrapped packaged there may even be a bow on it And I’m not even kidding Japan takes so much pride in the way that the gift is given from the way It’s presented from the wrapping around it I also see this when I order cards from eBay whenever it’s a card from a Japanese eBay owner That card is in a neat little envelope and oftentimes those cards that I order are Come with even more cards and also a thank you note and also some extra stickers and something that I didn’t even order because they know that that’s going to make an impression, which it does.

Then I continue to order from those people. We could learn a lot from Japanese culture. There’s also a lot to worry about as far as their workaholism and other parts of it, but in terms of the gift giving and how it makes people feel and having that be a part of the culture, I think it should be a part of the culture of the way that we present content to our audience as well.

So food for thought. Thank you, everybody. I appreciate you and I look forward to seeing you in the community and in the next episode. Cheers. Thanks everybody.

Thank you so much for listening to the Smart Passive Income podcast at SmartPassiveIncome.com. I’m your host, Pat Flynn. Sound editing by Duncan Brown, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. The Smart Passive Income Podcast is a production of SPI Media and a proud member of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network. Catch you next week!