Thinking Out Loud with Dean Jackson
Hosted by Dean Jackson
Short, unscripted marketing thinking from Dean Jackson.
Dean Jackson thinks out loud about marketing, referrals, positioning, and the small ideas that quietly change how a business grows. Short, unscripted episodes. The raw thinking behind BreakthroughDNA and the 8 Profit Activators.
I Almost Can't Believe I've Gotten Away With This Daily Schedule Over 30 Years
I found my daily schedule on page 31 of a 1996 journal, and 30 years later I'm still running almost the exact same rhythm. Same bands of time, same protected block, no negotiation.
I Predict These 7 Business Categories Will Survive & Thrive In The NEXT 30 Years
Page 20 of my 1996 journal listed the seven things people spend money on. Thirty years later, every one of them is still standing, and still wide open.
Stop Trying to Convince People. Just Start Telling the Truth & Watch What Happens…
In the summer of 1996 I learned the most exciting thing you can do in marketing is tell the truth. Put your sword down, say here's my dilemma, and people lean in instead of resisting.
30 years later people still spend their money on these core things.
The contextual certainties of life, from babies to retirement, never change. Organize a whole category as people's advocate and you win.
How I talk my ADHD brain into doing the thing I'm procrastinating now
The trick I use to beat procrastination: write out a dialogue with yourself to break a vague task into specific steps, then pin down a real time and place.
A 7-Step Checklist That Instantly Improves Any Ad, Postcard, or Mailer
A seven-step checklist I've used for 30 years on any ad, postcard, or mailer, starting with one target market and a headline that tells the whole story.
You Don't Actually Want More Money
You don't want a sum of money, you want a feeling: peace and the agency to live how you choose. Marketing is the lever that funds that life.
Why the Best Marketers Make Ads That Don't Look Like Ads
The fourth cornerstone of an enduring marketer is design: package your message so it looks like content, not an ad. People read content differently.
90% of Copywriting Comes Down to 4 Words
Everything worth knowing about copywriting fits under four words from Jeffrey Lant's Cash Copy: you get benefit now. If a word doesn't fit, cut it.
The Psychology Behind Why People Buy
Why Cialdini's Influence never goes obsolete, and how reciprocity and commitment-and-consistency quietly drive buying decisions you never notice.
Turning Buyer Psychology Into A Marketing Model
How I turned buyer psychology into a repeatable model: don't convince anyone, just get people to raise their hand, then treat them like they'll buy.
Master These 4 Marketing Skills First...
The four skills every marketing thing I've built traces back to: behavioral psychology, mental models, copywriting, and design. Master these first.
The Less I Do, the Richer I Get.
The less I do, the more I make. How I mapped out a system where every step gets done by someone else, and I still get paid for deals I never touched.
If You're in Business & Have ADHD -- Watch This...
Why I build every business as a duplicatable model I can copy 5,000 times, and how being wired for novelty means I create the system but never scale it.
These 3 Principles Built A $2 Trillion Company
Thirty years of journals say people don't change. Build your business around what customers will always want, and the payoff compounds.
Cold Calling Worked. That’s Why I Stopped Doing It.
Cold calls work, but the result stops the moment you do. That's why I put everything into intellectual property that keeps working for years.
If I Ran Your Marketing, Here’s Exactly What I’d Do...
Exactly how I'd rebuild your marketing from scratch, from picking the highest-value market to using a book to make your best prospects raise their hand.
How I tricked my ADHD brain into building my business & life
Instead of fighting my ADHD, I ask my mind a guiding question, paint the ideal, and list the ways to get there. It can't help but solve it.
The 1996 Marketing Idea That Changed My Life
If you help enough other people get what they want, you can get anything you want. That one idea took my marketing far beyond real estate.
I haven't made a cold call in 35 years… here's how
The lead-getting system I built in 1988, a guide to local home prices, replaced cold calls for good and became the model I've used ever since.
I journaled everyday for 30 years & here's what I know so far...
Turning 60, I opened the first of hundreds of daily journals I've kept since 1996 to trace the vector-changing moments that shaped everything.
Establishing a BRAND
A brand is a buying reflex affecting now decisions. You don't have to beat Coca-Cola, you just have to win the individual moment someone chooses.
who not how zoom
In under 90 minutes I'm live on Zoom with Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy on their new book Who Not How. Join at ilovemarketingzoom.com.
Lee Iacocca target market
Lee Iacocca sold the Mustang to 18-year-old boomers, then the minivan to those same buyers at 38. Demography is an inevitability worth getting in front of.
Ideas versus execution
"Ideas without execution are worthless" misses the point. You can't execute nothing, and the only thing that beats flawless execution is a better idea.
Love is pain
To experience love you have to be willing to experience pain. The heart is a muscle, and heartbreak is how it grows stronger.
The tyranny of convenience
Convenience is the most powerful, most underrated force shaping every decision we make. Make things effortless and people will flock to you.
Execution arbitrage
There's never been a better time to be an idea person. Bundle up a high-value outcome, outsource the execution for a fraction, and pocket the difference.
Specialized data
Richard Viguerie hand-wrote 12,000 donor names to own a list no one else had. In a world run by algorithms, the hard-to-gather data is the edge.
When is a diet pill worth $153
A $153 diet pill outsold the $19 ones by speaking to one exact frustration. The friction stopping people is where the opportunity is.
Working backwards
The man who ran the MGM Grand booked the gap between what he earned and what he could earn as a loss. That mindset changes everything.
What's in a name
Naming is everything. The closer a name gets to exactly what someone's looking for, the more it sells, even when the product inside doesn't change.
Live referral field report
A lunchtime sushi recommendation shows the referral formula in action, and why doing the whole thing for someone raises your status in the tribe.
Secret psychology of referrals
Referrals happen in conversation. Instead of asking clients to spread the word, hand them the exact words to say the moment it comes up.
Thinking Out Loud Episode One
The very first episode of Thinking Out Loud, recorded live from Genius Network.