Picture this, it's early morning in
Canada and all that week schools have
been turning on their projectors and kids
have been focused on one thing.
In fact, now churches are pushing back
their services and welcoming people to
come together to watch one thing.
Restaurants are opening two hours early
and filling up fast.
Why?
Canada is playing the US for hockey gold
and when this happened, our
whole country stopped together.
And if your marketing feels flat, if
engagement is low, if you're doing
tactics that you've heard work but they
just don't seem to be working for you,
then this episode is for you.
Because the Olympics just handed us three
lessons that can completely change how
you think about your business.
So stick with me
because by the end of this,
so many stories that came out of that
Olympics that were just breathtaking.
One of them started in April of 2025.
Now this goes way back before the
Olympics even began.
It was Italian skier Federica Brenone,
hopefully I'm pronouncing her name right,
and she crashed at the
Italian National Championships.
She was a skier like downhill, like super
G, like those super fast, like oh my
gosh, I can't believe they're screaming
down the mountain
that quick kind of skier.
Well, when she crashed, she broke
multiple bones, tore her ligaments in her
knee, her knee was actually dislocated.
Doctors said that she most likely would
definitely not compete, let alone be
walking properly for at least two years.
Like she couldn't even walk without pain.
Now I share this backstory because then
at the Winter Olympics, which was in her
home country of Italy, she was supposed
to be one of the stars.
Instead, it was projected that she would
be watching from a couch.
Now, fast forward from
April 2025 to November 2025.
She puts skis on for the first time.
This was literally just weeks before the
opening ceremony that she finally made
her return to competition.
And two days before the super G at the
Olympics, the pain was so bad that she
couldn't even ski in practice.
Yet she raced anyway and she not only
wins one gold, she ended up winning two
gold in the giant solemn.
She's 35 years old on a surgically
repaired leg in her home country and she
captures double gold.
She said after, she said, it's a
masterpiece of the mind of perseverance,
of going beyond what I
thought was possible.
Now, the reason I'm sharing this and why
it's important for you
is here's the bottom line.
That story likely pulled you in and you
felt something, right?
Like if you're a human being, you can
imagine the thought of wanting to compete
so desperately in your home country in
the Olympics and then crashing less than
a year before and not only just a crash,
but a terrible crash breaking multiple
bones and ligaments just destroying her
knees, thinking and being told that she
wouldn't compete at all in the Olympics
and being able to figure out a way back
from that, to be able to like strap on
skis for the first time, literally months
before having to qualify for the
Olympics, literally like really weeks
before she'd have to compete.
It is just an
unbelievable, incredible story.
But if I had just told you that an
Italian skier wins two gold medals, you
would have forgot the story by tomorrow.
But because you know the backstory,
you're far more invested in that story.
And see your customers do the same thing
with you and your products.
When you share the story behind how you
built the thing or how people are using
the thing or the people behind the thing
or the idea that sparked the thing, all
of that backstory, that
is what builds connection.
So I want you to think about the origin
story of your offer.
Why did you create it?
Where did the idea come from?
And how has it evolved over the years?
I want you to think about a member or
client who had a hard
road before finding a result.
I want you to share their journey.
And don't just show the
finish line, show the messy middle.
Like that's the part that
people connect and relate to.
That's the part that shows the struggle
and then the victory.
See, a movie trailer doesn't just show
you the happy ending, it
shows you the conflict.
Because the conflict is what makes you
want to see how it turns out.
And your marketing
could do the same thing.
So lesson number one, stories sell.
Share the story behind what
it is that you're selling.
Lesson number two from the Olympics.
Community creates momentum.
That opening story that I started where I
was talking about the Canada versus US
hockey game, well, it wasn't just a game,
it was a shared moment.
You know, when Canada is playing in the
Olympics, in the finals for a game that
we are so passionate
about, which is our hockey,
the whole country rallies around.
And not only that, when it is our big
brother, the USA in the final with us, it
has even more meaning.
And so what was crazy was
leading up to that final.
Schools actually got mandate to show the
Olympic games in the classroom.
Like, and then not only that, but like
the day of the gold medal match, it was
happening at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning.
Churches actually delayed their service
and were inviting people to come into the
church to watch the game.
Restaurants were opening up at like 6
a.m. at way earlier than they normally
would to be able to accommodate and
welcome people to
come and watch the game.
It was absolutely bonkers.
People who don't even watch hockey or
have an interest in
hockey were watching hockey.
Why?
Well, that was a common purpose.
We were all rallying
around a shared outcome.
And that shared energy, it made the
experience bigger than any
one person would feel alone.
Now here's what's fascinating about this.
We see this in our own business and in
our own charity work
that we do in our companies.
When we create a fundraising goal for our
charity as an example at a
live event, donations go up.
Why?
Not because people have more money in
that moment, but because they're giving
together toward a common purpose.
See, the community element, it raises the
stakes and the energy for everyone.
And your community works the same way.
Like when your members or customers feel
like that they're part of something,
they're not just buying something, but
they're actually part of
something, engagement goes up.
So I want you to think about challenges
that you can do in your community.
Group goals, shared milestones, these
aren't just features.
They're the actual engine that drives
that engagement and consumption.
Now I'll give you an example of this, of
how we applied it in our program.
So for years, I have been selling a
program called the membership experience.
It is our bread and butter training,
showing people how to take the things
that they're passionate about, their
expertise, their audience, and turn it
into a membership and
generate recurring revenue.
It's the thing that I am super passionate
about because I've seen in my own
business and in my life and in those that
we've gotten to serve, how it can
completely transform
any business owner's life.
So I love teaching business owners how to
launch, grow, and scale
a profitable membership.
Now I've been teaching
this for a long time.
Actually this is my 10th
year of that particular program.
And we've had tens of thousands of
students come through it.
But what we did in our most recent
version is we refilled the entire thing.
We reimagined the whole experience.
And one element that is relevant to this
conversation is we added a launch week.
Now, basically what that means is that as
everybody's going through the program, we
identified a specific week where
everybody would launch their membership.
So if they didn't have a membership yet,
they would be doing their founding member
launch during that week.
If they already had a membership, we
would be relaunching during that week.
But during that week, it was a week on
the calendar that was six weeks out from
the beginning of the program and
everybody was marching toward that week.
It was a group challenge.
Everybody had it on the calendar.
And so when that week came, we saw more
people launch their
membership than we've ever had before.
Why?
Because there was this
communal element to it.
It was we were all striving toward the
same goal, the same objective.
There was a date on the calendar.
It was planned.
Everybody was backing up from that
particular day and we
were marching toward it.
And so I share this
because even something simple
where you have a common goal, a shared
goal, it transforms the sale from just a
transaction to now
adding a community element.
And that community element, it brings
people together like
nothing I can ever explain.
It's the reason why we had people that
were cheering at the top of their lungs
for Canada, is why people were going to
church and going to
restaurants and gathering together.
It was the topic of conversation because
we had a common goal.
The same can be true
inside of your business.
And when you have that common goal, it is
incredible to watch the way in which
people come together.
So the other big lesson, the second big
lesson from the Olympics is
community creates momentum.
And my encouragement to you is to begin
thinking about how you can incorporate
community elements into
the things that you deliver.
Now the third lesson from the Olympics is
that joy is actually a strategy.
So now the dust has settled and we can
look at the final medal count.
Did you notice what
country won the most medals?
No, it wasn't the US.
It was Norway.
Now here's something
interesting about Norway.
Norway has about 5
million people in their country.
The US has over 340
million people in their country.
And yet Norway won more Olympic medals
than any other country.
How?
Well, this is where it gets interesting
because the Norway model for sports is
different than anything that
I've ever experienced myself.
Now I grew up playing sports.
I am an athlete.
I love competitive sports, but Norway
does things dramatically different.
See, when a kid expresses interest in
sport in Norway, they actually don't keep
score until the age of 11.
So kids are playing sports, whether it's
soccer, whether it's different Olympic
sports, whatever it might
be, they just don't keep score.
And there's no regional championships or
national championships
before the age of 11.
And that gives kids the freedom to just
try multiple sports.
There's no pressure for
them to specialize early.
And 93% of Norwegian
kids play organized sports,
Not because they have
to, but because it's fun.
And there's an actual document called the
Children's Rights in Sports that
literally protects the
joy of participation.
And so when you take the pressure off and
you lead with joy, you get better
long-term results, not just
in sports, but in everything.
And how many of us are running marketing
campaigns that we hate?
How many of us have heard,
"Well, you have to do video."
So we do videos that we hate, or we've
heard, "You need to post every day."
So we grind it out with a no spark or
enthusiasm or
excitement for it whatsoever.
And when we don't have that excitement,
it shows up and people can feel when
something is forced.
But what if you only did the marketing
that felt fun to you?
The stuff that lights you up, the format
that feels natural to you, the platform
where you actually enjoy showing up.
Like I'll tell you,
this podcast right here,
I got tripped up and held up for a long
time in bringing this back.
Why?
Well, because my team kept encouraging me
to make every episode a video episode.
Now between us girls,
the video, it means I gotta go like do my
hair and makeup, and I gotta worry about
what I'm looking like and all the things.
Whereas instead, I just like doing this.
Like just you, me having a conversation.
Well, really it's a one-sided
conversation, but you get the point.
Like it's just me sharing what's going on
in my brain, what I'm
thinking, what I'm seeing.
The audio format is a format that I love
best, but I kept getting tripped up
thinking about doing the
video format in every episode.
And so ultimately what we discovered was
I will actually do far more if I have
more fun doing the
things that I enjoy most.
I enjoy audio.
I enjoy you and me
right here in this episode.
And so we found a way to do it.
We do one video episode a week and two
audio episodes a week.
I can do audio all day long.
Now the video we've had to plan and we've
had to sort that out and get ahead and
I'm super grateful and excited because we
have so many stellar episodes.
For me, that has lit me up because I get
to chat with amazing human beings and
bring them to you, right?
So like for me, I found a new love for
the video, specifically video episodes,
but man, video solo episodes, I don't
know, but I love audio only episodes.
So here's why I'm sharing this with you
because when there is joy in what you do,
the results will follow.
I mean, Norway proved this at scale.
So what I want to encourage you to do is
write down your top
three marketing activities.
I want you to circle the
ones that you actually enjoy.
Now this may go against all common best
practice, but I'm just taking
a page out of Norway's book.
And what the whole Norway Olympic
experience taught me was that when kids
enjoy the sports that they're actually
playing, they get better results.
I'm just gonna
transfer that to you and I.
I would argue when you and I enjoy what
we do, we're gonna get
better results long-term.
So write down your top
three marketing activities.
Circle the ones that you actually enjoy,
and that's where you should go all in.
Not the ones that you've been told to do,
but the ones that you actually enjoy.
All right, so here's your next steps.
I want you to think about this week,
taking 10 minutes and identifying the
story behind your offer
that you've never shared.
I want you to write that down.
That's your next piece of content.
Then I want you to think about how could
we bring people together
for a common purpose within our customer
base, within our community?
And I want you to think about how you can
use the momentum that community creates
to help your people get better results
and work towards an outcome.
And then lastly, I want you to think
about your marketing.
And I want you to think about the
marketing activities that you enjoy most.
Let's take a page out of Norway's book.
Let's double down on the things that we
love most, because my guess is it will
actually lead to the
best results long-term.
Now, next week,
we have got some doozy
episodes coming to you.
On Monday, we've got an episode coming
with an author that has
sold more than 4 million books.
In fact, his book is one of
my all-time favorite books.
And so I can't wait for you to hear that
interview as I talk to him about how he's
written a book that has gotten received
so well by millions
and millions of people.
And there are some gems in there, whether
you plan to write a book or not,
specifically how to communicate so that
people get it and want what you have.
It's a great episode that's all coming up
with the one and only Mr.
J.
Papazan.
In the meantime, if you enjoyed this,
subscribe, because we got great content
coming down the pipeline.
And I want to encourage you, share it
with another friend too.
Tell them about it.
Say Stu's back, baby.
Yes.