The Five Lightbulbs: Simple But Potent Marketing That Sells with Billy Broas

So , like you as a marketing consultant , a copywriter and the creator of the Five Lightbulbs messaging framework , please tell the listener right now what is the Five Lightbulbs messaging framework going to do for their marketing and why does that matter for their business this year at the time we're recording this video the end of 2023 and going into 2024 .

And so what the Five Lightbulbs does is it gives you he'd like to follow , it guides your path , and so you need all those other things too , but if you just check these five boxes , you'll be in good shape .

But she introduced us and you were kind enough to hop onto a call with me and I really kind of just got to understand that you were doing mainly consulting and copywriting first , right ?

And me , being me , I tend to geek out on things , and I just did a deep dive into the art and science of brewing , and then it eventually led to this website where I was teaching online home brewing courses and , yeah , beer freed me from my nine to five .

But I also had this entrepreneurial itch and I also you know , I was 2008 or so , so the four hour work week had just come out I read Tim Ferriss's book and said I want that and I want to

be free . I felt very limited in my career and so the thing to do was to start a website . So I started a website , a WordPress website . I started blogging . Blogging was very big back then and all the experts said , well , blog about what you know . And I said , well , I know how to brew a darn good beer . So I started blogging about that .

And this is when the technology was getting to the point that you could do an online course pretty inexpensively . And I love to teach . I really do love to teach . I love to learn , I love to teach . So I started teaching courses and eventually it took some time .

It wasn't not an overnight thing and it was really hard , but after a few years I was making enough from my courses and a couple other revenue streams on that website that I put in my two weeks , much to the shock of my boss , because they knew I had the side project but they didn't think it was actually going to go anywhere and I was able to leave and I

haven't looked back .

I was able to sell it and , yeah , like I said , I haven't looked back . It's been a great journey .

I didn't want to live there , like that was where a lot of my peers went after college , but I stayed in the beautiful hills of Virginia and just made the occasional trek to the big city .

I'll call it the most expensive vacation of my life , where everything was going well when I was living in China and my wife and I with no kids back then decided to move to Washington DC Because I spoke fluent Chinese and she spoke fluent Spanish and we were going to go and work for the government . And , long story short , that didn't work out .

But what I learned is that all those counties right around Washington DC , those areas , some of the most expensive cost of living places in the entire US of A Am I right ?

In hindsight I should have had more savings going into it , but hey , I guess that's the benefit of youth , right ? Yeah , you jump in first , ask questions later .

Genuinely curious , and then so copywriting is what you attribute the success of that website to .

A lot of people like to bash those degrees . It really did help with my career because I was doing a lot of . I was doing finance for those clean energy projects , so I needed that . But when it came to selling a $47 beer brewing course over the internet , those MBA classes were not too helpful . And so I discovered this thing called copywriting .

So how do I sell it ? Like , how do I sell it ? What is the skill that I need ? Because I spent my whole life learning things and learning skills and then I thought that was the other copywriting . I thought it was a legal term , right , like with an R , but no , it's copy or write like writing with a pen .

And once I discovered that I've always enjoyed reading and writing . So you combine that with my interest in business and building ventures and it's no surprise that I latched onto copywriting , so like I did with beer , I did the deep dive into copywriting .

Was there like this kind of well , you can't call an overnight breakthrough , but did you have a situation like that where you just were struggling and then figured out copywriting and saw like your first sales come in because of it ?

So I had those reserves , I had something to fall back on , which is probably also why I stayed so long in that job , you know , and I also enjoyed that career too . So if I didn't have those things then I probably would have gone quicker into self-employment . But there are certainly times where things just didn't work .

I mean , I remember a product that I launched . It was a physical product too . I took an info product and I turned into these . I created laminated , essentially worksheets that people could fill out these home brewers could fill out as brewing their beer so they can write down the temperature and the time and all the ingredients and everything .

And I asked people if they wanted it and they told me yes . And this is a good marketing lesson is that they might tell you yes , but it's different to tell you yes verbally than with money , and so I printed off all these things , I did a big launch and everything , and I think I might have sold one , and that was to my brother .

But before we get to that , since you said this messaging framework matters so much for the online course creator and the online coach , and like I've seen it , because I've gone and consumed all the info on your website Well , not all of it , but a lot of info on your website Can you just touch on the importance of messaging ?

So I was like , okay , well , if we can get the cost down of the equipment these solar panels then our ROI on the project is going to go up by X amount . Okay . So my brain was wired to think that way and so I was thinking that way too when it came to online business

. And what I saw was that a lot of these things that I was doing , that the experts were telling me to do , and that other people my peers were doing , just weren't high leverage , weren't big needle movers , mainly when it came to these tactics and like plugins and countdown timers and all these little things sort of at the margins .

And then I distilled it down and said , hey , well , rather than , if I want to boost conversions , I can install one of these countdown timers or a popup or something , but that adds a lot of complexity . It's something now that can break . I'd rather just rewrite a headline and boost my conversions . That way it's a lot simpler , it's a lot higher leverage .

And then , within copywriting , the same thing happened , where I said there's a lot of these low leverage things in copywriting , which is mainly around these copywriting tactics and the wordsmithing . And all that Because , when you get down to it , the most important thing in copy is really the thinking that goes into it , and that's what the five light bulbs does .

It helps you think about your core message and it's not about wordsmithing . That's downstream . Once you get your core message correct , then you can wordsmith it and tweak things later on when you're writing your sales page or emails or Facebook ads in your case .

I believe that there are more lessons to learn from them , not so much because they were more talented , but because they had favorable constraints in the sense that they didn't have all these distractions . They were sending out direct mail and they had to pay for an envelope and pay for a stamp .

It's not like today we can just send out an email for virtually nothing , and so what that means is that it was their lessons were sort of born out of necessity , and those lessons are very valuable and we've forgotten a lot of those .

So this idea of the unacceptable status quo and most of my lessons , and really the five light bulbs if I had to say it was inspired by one person , it would be Eugene Schwartz .

What you can do is find someone who has demand and channel it towards your product . So that's what light bulb one represents . It's where the customer is now , where they have this demand . They have a place that they want to leave . It's a bad place . And please check out the visuals . Have a great illustrator , matt Streebe . We created a whole world .

We got a bear , we got an owl . It's very visual . I'm a very visual thinker and you can see like it is a gnarly place that this bear wants to get away from . And so you want to give voice to light bulb one . You want to use the word you , not the word I or we . It's the language of empathy . Light bulb one .

You tend to see that at the end of , say , a sales page . But they are their ingredients that you can mix and match and have a lot of fun with and using different recipes .

Sure , and we all know that experience of being marketed to and you're like , does this person even get me to even know my problem ? They're just talking about themselves and how many awards they've won and how great they are . So we get that . But it's also hard .

I found when we do , when I teach courses on the five light bulbs , it's hard to sit down and write light bulb one copy , and usually not because we're not empathetic , but because we are so empathetic that we want to jump right into the solution . And so the people I work with are very compassionate people and they want to get into solving the problem .

But I tell them that you can only invest , do that , if the customer first knows that you understand the problem in the first place .

That's keeping them from their problems Like they're perceived challenges , real or not , like you got to be in their head , so to speak . And that requires a lot of research . And that's what I see when I look at things like what you've written the language of listening , the language of empathy , of understanding . You say it's pretty accurate .

We don't like this one because we want to pretend like we're the only game in town , but it would be wrong to ignore those things . What you want to do is to give voice to them . Okay , and so that's true with all the light bulbs . Don't leave these as just Andrew's on a worksheet . Give voice to them . Are the words on the page ?

Are they on your webpage ? And when you do that , you become a buying coach of sorts . You're helping them shop for products like yours , and it's important to do this honestly . So one thing we would say about light bulb two is that there should be some case where there we go , ta-da .

You can see the bear there with the different bridges , and you can see the broken bridges representing light bulb two is the other bridges that they've tried , that haven't worked , but he's a resilient bear and he's climbed back up and he's ready to try again . But , man , he's jaded and so you really got to earn his trust .

And that's where light one and light bulb two can really come into play . And you see the owl there as well . So the owl represents you , the entrepreneur , the business owner . Reason it's an owl is because an owl has perspective and now we'll fly .

You can see the landscape , and I'm sure your listeners have been in this situation where you have a client or customer come to you and they think they are the very first ones to experience this problem . And you're like you've been there , right , and you're like I've seen this a million times before . Right , I've seen this because I have perspective .

I'm an owl , I fly high . There's a lot of hidden symbolism in the illustrations here , but that's what the owl represents .

And so what you wanna do is not so much say no , those things aren't right for you , Like the competitor stinks or terrible , I'm the best in the world . Because that's not making an honest argument , and I do believe that marketing is making a strong argument .

And so what you wanna do is lay out the criteria and say , hey , first of all , those bridges might be right for you . And here are the circumstances where they might be right for you . And that's what I was saying earlier that there should be some cases where you are sending people away to those other bridges because you're not the best fit for them .

It should never be the case that you're always the right fit for everyone all the time .

So , before we go to lightbulb three , four and five , how do the lightbulbs actually work ? Like , let's say , somebody does their research and they understand lightbulbs one through five as pertain to their offer . Now it's time for them to write a sales page or to write copy for Facebook ads , like how do they end up using the lightbulbs ?

And is it all lightbulbs in every piece of copy , or are you doing certain combinations ? Can you break that down ?

So that's primarily what I do in my copywriting and then that's also what we do in our courses is help people bridge that gap . But you can use , so you can use all the lightbulbs in a content piece or you might just use one , and so I would encourage people if you go to the website , you can look at the swipe file .

We have a file like both , swipe file . I mean , it's totally one of those things where once you see the lightbulbs , you can't unsee them and I go back and I'll walk through a sales letter from a hundred years ago and point out the lightbulbs in it . So it really is this hidden language and some of them you'll see all the lightbulbs .

Some you'll see just lightbulb three . So you and I know you're a master of Facebook ads and a lot of your listeners do Facebook ads . I would say test different lightbulbs . As I said about that client , tiagra Forte . For him it was lightbulb one that really opened the floodgates for him and that was the one that he needed to hit .

For other people it's been lightbulb three . That's a very common one , because that's the one that helps you stand out in a crowded industry . So that's my answer is to test these different lightbulbs .

But nowadays people need to hear that you understand that they have tried other things , that you do understand where they're trying to get away from and I like how you mentioned that . Is it frequently that you contrast lightbulb five with lightbulb one to provide some healthy tension ?

And when you put those side by side it's kind of like the before and after , lightbulb one and lightbulb five . So we actually use that term tension and release . So tension seeks release . So when you create that tension through your marketing copy , people are gonna wanna release that through taking action , the action of buying your product .

And what he found was that when markets get really saturated and when everyone's making the same promises , when you hear that word promise , you should think lightbulb five from now on , because that's what you're promising right as the other side of the bridge .

But what happens when everyone's making the same promises , like , what else do the customers have to buy upon ? Well , that's where he noticed that the emphasis in the marketing material shifts in the copywriting . The language shifts from lightbulb five to lightbulb three . And that was in the fifties and he was complaining about crowded marketplaces .

I mean , that was pre-internet , right . So imagine now . So that's why lightbulb three is really crucial today , and that's the one , like when I work with clients and the students that we spend a lot of time on , because that is your best bet for standing out in a crowded marketplace .

But then you see a call out where we zoom in on the bridge and what do you see ? You see these steel reinforcements . Okay , okay , why is there a steel reinforcement ? Well , because bears are heavy and because you have this heavy bear crossing the bridge . So it's tailored to the bear and that's an important word , tailored .

And so your LiveBulb3 should be tailored to your customer , and when you do that , it plays into the LiveBulb2 , because they're all related . You're able to say you know what , like this bridge isn't right for , say , a fish that wants to cross a fish might need something more like an aqueduct to swim across . Sure , a fish ladder .

But that's what you want , because when you try to please everyone , as we know , you please no one .

So , yeah , in the online course or information marketing world , it's something like your formula , your blueprint , your system , and the supplement world it's your secret ingredient , and the clothing world it's the shock absorbers in your shoes , your sneakers . So that's what I mean by once you see the LiveBulbs , you can't unsee them .

And then the cool thing is , you can pull lessons from all these different ads . Now you can borrow if you're in the online course world LiveBulb3 inspiration from a sneaker ad and use it to sell your course .

It's the vehicle for your approach , for your system , for your LiveBulb3 . So set another way your LiveBulb4 is a vehicle for your LiveBulb3 . And that's the action step . That's where the customer , the bear , says okay , I believe that you understand me . I believe that those bridges aren't the best bridges for me . I believe in your approach .

How do I make it happen and how much ?

a price for a program 797 , if you will . So , looking at LiveBulb4 , what other LiveBulbs do you combine with LiveBulb4 to reduce the risk , let's say lower the hurdle , of actually someone pulling out their credit card and buying your program Not yours , but let's say the list I love that question .

And so one thing we do I mean I do a lot of copywriting and consulting on online course launches , online product launches and what we notice is that when we dedicate or shift more messaging to LiveBulb3 , selling our approach we more easily sell the product .

You can go back to you know , you can read Aristotle's teachings on this and to distill it down , what you want to do is make claims and back them up with proof , and not a lot of people do that . These days you see a lot of copywriting where it's just big , bold claims and no proof whatsoever . But it study the old copywriters .

They weren't too big on these big hypey promises . They were very much looking for proof , elements that they could weave into their copy .

And so when you do that and you make a strong rhetorical argument for your light bulb three , making claims , backing them up with proof , then you essentially remove any objection that your customer has to buying and then that makes them a lot more likely when they scroll down that long sales page to look at the cart .

But then the way that you then going more into the proof side of things , the way that you point across is through emotion , and so you can use a story to help connect those dots . So it's always that combination , that duo of logic and emotion .

But you pair this one with light bulb one to create tension , kind of like a before and after shot . But is this like painting ? What's possible ? Or you tell me you're the creator of light bulb five .

I was especially big in the copy blogger community back in the day and met a lot of other people like me subject matter experts , not professional marketers and so I started helping them because I was , like I said , I , geeked out on copywriting .

So even though they had much bigger businesses than me , I could say , hey , well , if you just tweak this headline or do this , you can really boost things . And the pitfall that I see with a lot of them , with subject matter experts even today , is that they tend to not connect the dots between their solution and what the solution can do for someone .

They get so caught up in their product and the nitty gritty of it , and so light bulb five is a way to check that box and make sure that you connect the dots between your product and what it can do for someone , because you cannot take that for granted when it comes to copyrighting .

A great thing to study , again going back to the Greek philosophers , is this idea of teleology , or Telos , and it's this idea of looking at something and looking at its end purpose .

So I can describe something like this water glass here scientifically , and I can say that it's four inches high , three inches in diameter , it's quartz crystal , but the Telos of it would be to refresh my mouth during this podcast recording . So that word , telos , is a great one to keep in mind when writing copies .

It's been largely forgotten , but it's so relevant today .

They both still like them , even though my four year old is not good at connecting the dots and even like bro catch account . It says one , two , three , right there , there's only six dots on the whole thing .

And it goes he who does the work gets paid , and so if you do the work as the copywriter and connecting the dots between your product and what it can do for people , you get paid in the form of them buying your product . If the reader has to do the work , then they get paid in the form of them keeping the money that they were going to pay you .

So that's Garf's law of work .

Get that email series and then , on my own personal website , billiebrosscom , I have a weekly newsletter that goes out . Obviously , I love light bulbs , so this one is called Billy's Monday Light Bulb .

So this framework was like the 19th , 20th iteration of one that I had been working on and then , literally , the light bulb came out of my head and I said , okay , well , this is how I can compact it and make it all simple , but , as you can see , there are lots of layers that you can peel back .