A sneaky technique to exile any doubt or skepticism around your supplements…

At the start of the 2000s, the U.S. national debt was about $5.7T – or roughly 56% of GDP.

Today?

The U.S. Debt is around $38T – or roughly 125% of GDP.

That’s a 533% increase in just a quarter of a century…

It’s clearly out of control.

(And that’s why this topic of U.S. Debt has been more talked about over the last few years…)

Well, what would you say if I told you…

That no matter who gets elected… what the makeup of the congress is… what kind of political climate we’re living in…

NONE of that matters.

Because as long as you live…

You will NEVER see the national debt improve.

(In fact, it will only get worse!)

You’ll never see it reduced, reigned in, controlled or managed.

Now…

You might even be prone to believe that, but still…

Never?

Never is a BIG word. Really? Is it THAT futile this whole national debt thing?

Let me tell you a story to answer that:

Colin Powell used to be the Secretary of State during the Bush administration.

Now on his first day…

He found out something interesting:

That every cabinet officer, congressman, secretary…

…has this one guy wheel in a bunch of boxes in their office once a month.

The boxes are full of little gizmos to give away for free – cufflinks, pens, tie tacks…

(Stuff you give away to visitors and constituents basically.)

Now the problem is…

He couldn’t give it all away in time.

He couldn’t go through his last box before the guy wheeled in a new one the following month.

So he confronted the guy about this once:

„Wait, wait a minute sir,“ says Colin „I haven’t gone through that last box yet.“

„No, no, no sir“ replies the pushcart guy „you don’t understand. On the first of every month, I have to arrive at your office with this pushcart full of stuff. Your job, every month, is to give away all of it.“

„Yes, but even if I stood by the window and all I did was give this stuff away, I mean… there goes my whole job.“

„You don’t understand, sir“ adds the pushcart guy „on the first of every month I have to arri–„

„It’s all right, it’s all right, I understand. Just put that box in the corner over there.“

Months go by, and nothing changes.

In fact:

Colin’s office starts getting so clogged with all the boxes of those gizmos to give away…

That he had to rent out a storage unit to fit them all in!

„Enough,“ said Colin. „I’ll take this up to the Pentagon!“

So he works his way all the way up to the director of procurement at the Pentagon… and explains the situation to him.

„You don’t understand“ says the director „there’s this guy who comes into your office every month and he has to–”

„It’s all right, I know, I know. Thank you for your time.“ Colin said, his voice flat with disappointment.

So now he’s getting really aggravated…

Because even the damn PENTAGON can’t solve his problem…

But luckily,

He had a meeting with the then-President Bush in the Oval Office.

(Along with a couple of other parties.)

The meeting went really well. Everyone was in a good mood after it. So Bush turned to everyone and said:

„Hey, we’ve got some time! Anybody got anything they want to talk about?“

And Colin says:

„Yeah! Every month, this guy walks through my door with boxes full of gizmos to give away for free on a pushcart.“

The others leaned in.

„I’ve been EVERYWHERE I can to put a stop to it… but they won’t stop sending it!“ Colin’s voice cracked with frustration. „I can’t stop it!“

President Bush gets up from his chair… he walks across the Oval Office… he opens a big four-door closet and says:

„I can’t stop it either, Colin.“

(As boxes full of pens, cufflinks, and tie tacks fall out from the closet.)

Now…

After you’ve read this story – let me ask you question:

Which is more persuasive – to the point of how the U.S. will never ever ever ever ever EVER get that national debt in check…

My statement/assertion at the beginning…

OR,

This story?

?

??

It’s a rhetorical question.

Because the story is IRREFUTABLE.

Even the President of the United States can’t stop the damn pens, tie tacks, cufflinks and the like from coming…

(And each of those boxes costs them roughly $550. That’s at least $6.600/year on EACH secretary, congressman, cabinet officer, etc. See why that national debt is the way it is?)

Even the POTUS can’t fix the super-web of bureaucracy that the government is entangled in…

But I’m telling you all this to illustrate an important point:

Statements/assertions = invoke doubt & skepticism.

Stories = invoke curiosity & interest.

And since the human brain can only hold one emotional response at a time…

If the brain is curious & interested?

It CAN’T be doubtful & skeptical at the same time.

(i.e. the brain doesn’t multitask.)

So if the writing on the wall isn’t clear enough yet…

Stop using statements/assertions to sell someone on buying your proteins, creatines and preworkouts.

Instead of going around and claiming/asserting how you have a pre-workout which is “one of the most powerful pre-workouts on the market!”

(That is an actual description of one pre-workout from a brand that I won’t mention – but just know that it’s real…)

Let me tell you how the average fitness enthusiast will react to that – whether consciously or more likely, subconsciously – to that kind of claim:

“Really?” he says, crossing his arms. “And why is that so? What proof do you have?”

Your natural instinct might be to forward them to the plethora of reviews/testimonials you got…

And while that isn’t the worst thing you can do…

(Although I wouldn’t do it unless it’s a Trustpilot review – since people are just so skeptical of everything nowadays… that even reviews/testimonials are being doubted.)

Proving it to them via a story is simply magnitudes more powerful:

If I went a told a short story of how I was struggling with coming to the gym tired after school/work…

And my usual pre-workout has lost its potency since I’ve gotten used to it…

But by a game of chance…

My training buddy recommended me THAT pre-workout to try out!

And as a result?

In my next gym session, I felt like Goku going Super Saiyan 1 for the first time.

(i.e. I felt like I could shoulder press the squat rack… and THEN some.)

Now,

This is a very shortened and simplified example…

(Because that’s a 300-500-word promotional email right there…)

But the point still stands:

It’s infinitely more powerful than just attaching a review/testimonial to support the claim you made.

(Not to mention… that kind of a story disengages the logical/rational part of the brain – so they’re not able to be doubtful & skeptic… and engages the emotional one, which is where we want them to be.)

And don’t get me started on the pure differentiation aspect of it:

WHO else does something like that?

You don’t have to take my word on it:

Go sign up for the newsletters of your competitors… go to the Meta Ads library and look at the ads they’re running…

And just try and find ONE Sports Nutrition Brand doing something like that?

(Or at least something similar to that.)

I’ll save you the trouble:

There isn’t one.

I mean…

I named my entire philosophy of doing marketing emails “Email Storyselling” FOR A REASON…

It’s because selling via stories is simply the most powerful.

I didn’t invent this.

This has existed for years. Decades. Centuries. Hell, a millennium!

HOWEVER…

There’s one big CAVEAT to this…

This isn’t easy.

(Simple ≠ easy.)

In fact:

It’s actually quite difficult to pull this off – which is probably why very few, if anyone, does it…

(Let alone… at SCALE – to do it daily, or even a few times a week.)

You have to be on the constant lookout for fitting stories that you can “spin” into a pitch for your own products.

(A bit like I used that story of Colin Powell to illustrate my point of using stories to promote/market anything using… well, stories.)

And the only way you’ll get them is to read vigorously – I’m talking a few hours every day.

Every. Including weekends and holidays.

I’m not saying this in some sort of self-aggrandising way…

No.

I’m just telling it like it is.

If you’re gonna do this then you kind of have to live your life inside your head – everything you interact with you have to try and siphon a sellable story out of it.

It ain’t easy. And sometimes it ain’t fun…

But at least it isn’t boring.

Not for me and – more importantly – to the reader/prospect/customer too.

So if you’d like to inject some „Email Storyselling“ power into your own marketing emails…

…without all the difficulties that come with DIY…