Zach’s Take: We’re recording this in the fourth quarter, we just got dumped on by a massive snowstorm, and Michael is officially back from the dead. Seriously, we thought he was going to die last week, but you can’t get rid of a legend that easy. Since we’re all still alive, let’s talk about something that actually matters: why most of your sales pitches are falling on deaf ears. If you aren't hitting one of the three core human desires, you’re just wasting your breath.

The Financial Advisor Who Missed the Mark

I remember sitting down with this financial advisor a while back. He kept hitting me with the same line: "I’m going to make you rich. Give me your money, follow this plan, and you’ll have all the wealth in the world."

And I just wasn't feeling it. Finally, he asked me, "Well, why are we even talking then?"

I told him the truth: "I don't care about being 'rich.' I want to build a legacy. I want to leave something for my kids."

In that second, everything clicked. If he had led with, "Hey, I'm going to show you how to leave your family generational wealth," I would have handed him a check right then. He was pitching Wealth, but my lane was Relationships. If you aren't talking directly to the specific pain or desire of your people, you’re just noise.

📺 Watch the Session

Michael is recovering, the snow is piling up, and we're breaking down the "Lumberjack" marketing strategy. Watch it here:

The Slap, The Story, and the Lumberjack iPhone 🪓

Michael likes to call me a hillbilly, but I prefer "lumberjack." I’m out on 17 acres, running a tractor and chainsawing wood to heat my house. Because of that, I drop my iPhone constantly. It gets run over, it’s cracked, and it’s a mess.

If I tried to sell you my beat-up phone for $1,200, you’d tell me to kick rocks. But what if I told you that phone had Russell Brunson’s direct contact info? What if I told you it had every system we used to scale businesses to six figures in 90 days?

Suddenly, the phone is worth $5,000.

• The Slap: I got your attention with a broken phone.

• The Story: I increased the value by telling you what's inside it.

• The Solution: I gave you the bridge to the success you want.

Nothing changed about the hardware. The Story is what printed the sale.

Why Apple is a Trillion-Dollar Company (Without Innovating) 🍎

Look at Apple. They haven't really "innovated" in a decade. A slightly better camera? A longer battery? Who cares. Yet, we all keep buying. Why? Because they are masters of the three core desires:

1. Health: The Apple Watch. They don't sell "tech"; they sell heart rate monitoring and not dying during a workout.

2. Relationships: The iPhone. Every ad is about the camera, FaceTime, and capturing moments with people you love.

3. Wealth: The iPad/Mac. It's all about productivity, Adobe Design, and the tools that help you make more money.

They don't guess. They pick a lane, hit the desire, and print money.

The "Pee Pants" Example of a 10/10 Slap 💦

There’s a legendary story about a woman in a fitness club who accidentally wet herself during a live workout in front of thousands of people. She was mortified. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

But she found a solution. And when she went to sell her book, her ad was a photo of her wearing sweatpants with a visible wet spot. That is a Slap. If you’re a mom dealing with that same issue and you see that image, you stop scrolling. She tells the embarrassing Story, relates to the reader, and then offers the Solution. She made hundreds of thousands of dollars because she had the guts to be real and hit a core Health desire.

Stop Guessing. Start Solving.

Before people care what you know, they need to know that you care. I was just talking to a well-driller whose big issue isn't "more business"—it's that he can't find good help. People don't show up. They stay on their phones.

His core desire isn't wealth; it's the Relationships and systems of his team. If I can help him solve that, I’ve helped him win. As Zig Ziglar said, help enough people get what they want, and you'll get what you want.

Pick your lane:

• Are you selling Health, Wealth, or Relationships?

• What’s your "Slap" to stop the doom-scroll?

• Watch the video above to see how we apply this to local businesses.