Product Startup Podcast Episode 228: Build a Prelaunch Community

00:00:00 Kevin Mako: Hello, product innovators. Today we learn how to build digital communities to sell your product directly from a book author on this very topic. This is the Product Startup Podcast, a show to learn from top leaders in hardware product development, prototyping, manufacturing, product selling, and everything in between. Hosted by Kevin Mako, the leading expert on product development for hardware startups. Welcome back, everyone. I'm very excited

00:00:24 Kevin Mako: To introduce Jon Davids to the show. Jon Davids is the author of Marketing Superpowers: Build a Brand So Good That Getting Customers Feels Like Magic. He's also the founder of Influicity, which he has ran for for 10 years, helping hundreds of brands build their digital communities. Today, John will share valuable knowledge from inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what the key pillars of a digital community for a hardware product are, when to start building your community for your product, and how to get the ball rolling before

00:00:48 Kevin Mako: You even have launched your invention idea to the market. Now, onto the episode. This show is produced by Mako Design, the original firm providing end-to-end consumer product development services tailored specifically to hardware startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Take your product from idea to store shelves at MakoDesign.com. Now, onto the episode.

00:01:12 Kevin Mako: Hey, Jon, welcome to the show.

00:01:14 Jon Davids: Kevin, thanks for having me here.

00:01:16 Kevin Mako: We're excited today to talk to you about building powerful communities in and around a hardware startup? These are communities that hardware startups can build themselves. Anybody can do this if they follow your principles, and you've literally wrote the book on this very thing.

00:01:29 Kevin Mako: How do you actually build a community in the specific vertical of individuals that you're trying to sell to so that before you're actually selling, you're building trust, authority, and all these other good things that makes you as the inventor, the founder of this gadget or widget, a reliable source of information, and thus a great tee up to potential sales down the road.

00:01:49 Kevin Mako: Before we get into all these best practices on what it means to build a great community and how you actually build these communities, Jon, just give us a bit of a backstory of how you became the success story that you are today and the book as well.

00:02:02 Jon Davids: Absolutely. Well, so the book, Marketing Superpowers: Build a Brand So Good That Getting Customers Feels Like Magic. That's the name of it. You can grab it on pre-order May 21st.

00:02:12 Jon Davids: My story really goes back 10 years when I discovered the world of YouTube and then Instagram and then Snapchat and TikTok and all these different platforms. And I started to realize that people could really build communities early. And I saw this happening in physical products and software products and consumer packaged goods in B2B software in so many different categories.

00:02:35 Jon Davids: And especially it happens a lot when you're building something that requires a long purchase cycle, especially then having a community and having trust is just absolutely paramount.

00:02:45 Kevin Mako: So let's talk about the pillars of building a great community. What are those kind of core pillars before we get into the how?

00:02:52 Jon Davids: Well, what it comes down to in the core of the book really focuses on what I call the movement formula. And there's three things that you need to create a movement and you really need to have a movement in the crowded, noisy world we live in today for anybody to pay attention.

00:03:06 Jon Davids: What it comes down to is a unifying belief, faith in that belief and some sort of action. So in the simplest terms, what is the thing that you believe?

00:03:17 Jon Davids: The thing I believe is that people should be able to do this faster. People should beable to get here with less effort. Whatever that thing is in a super broad sense.

00:03:27 Jon Davids: Faith is with things like books that have been written on it and experts that have said that same thing and studies that have done. So all the things that I can point to to drive faith in that belief.

00:03:39 Jon Davids: And then action comes down the line. Basically, once you have a product to sell, you say, hey, by the way, if you believe that and you have faith in what I'm saying, here's the action you can take. You can buy my product. You can buy my product. You can buymyproduct, which is ultimately what you want people to do.

00:03:54 Jon Davids: And if you look at anything in the world, whether it's a major religion or a diet fad or the fact that people love to take cold plunges, anything you see in B2C or B2B, it always comes down to some sort of movement like that, where you have a belief, you have faith, and then you have action. So that's really the core of everything we do to build movements and build communities.

00:04:15 Kevin Mako: That's powerful. I mean, you as the hardware founder as well, you've come up with this invention idea. Clearly, you believe in it. In fact, what we find at Mako Design with our clients is most of the products that come in, it's people who could use it in their own daily life or somebody very close to them that they've recognized, hey, if I make this invention, it's going to either create a great opportunity for this person or myself. So you clearly believe in it. Now you've got to give that belief to the world.

00:04:41 Kevin Mako: So tell the world why you believe in this very thing. And then I like how you mentioned, you've kind of tied that in with expertise, which is what you're calling faith in this product. So not just your own faith, because of course you're the founder and the inventor, but who else believes in it? The people may not necessarily know your specific product, but they're believing in what your product can do. And that's all of these references that you as the inventor can find and look up and recognize all these examples, et cetera,

00:05:05 Kevin Mako: Of people who really are validating the product that you've come up with and the belief that you have in that product. And of course, at the end of the day, I love how you mentioned action. So you've got the belief in the product, you've got the faith.

00:05:17 Kevin Mako: Now, how do you put those two things together to get people to actually buy your hardware product? So I wanna dig a bit deeper into this and understanding that if we've got these pillars here, how do we actually do that practically?

00:05:29 Kevin Mako: How does somebody build a community as a hardware startup that is never built an online or digital following before in their life?

00:05:36 Jon Davids: Well, number one, the earlier you can do it, the better. So we live in a world where the who actually matters more than the what much of the time.

00:05:46 Jon Davids: And if you're thinking about buying really anything that you're purchasing or thinking about purchasing, oftentimes you'll look at the experts. And those experts might be people on social media, on YouTube, on Instagram, on LinkedIn. It could be authors that have written on the subject and it could also be books or online reviews and things like that. And so when you're actually thinking about building something in the future, I would recommend

00:06:11 Jon Davids: Starting to create content early and often long before you've built anything such that you can become the expert in that field. I know some people hear that and they say, yeah, but I don't want to be a content creator. I'm a builder, I'm an inventor. And I get that. But putting yourself out there as an expert doesn't mean you have to be making YouTube videos twice a week or posting

00:06:32 Jon Davids: On TikTok daily. It's not that sort of thing. It is creating content in the form that you are best suited for and that also is best suited for the audience. So there's a lot of clients over at my agency, Influicity, who will say, oh, well, you know, I don't want to do video content.

00:06:50 Jon Davids: It's like, cool, then write a blog or post on LinkedIn, go on discord or go on the communities on reddit and just become active in the relevant community.

00:06:59 Jon Davids: So doing it early and getting comfortable with it, it really is a skill that you have to build.

00:07:05 Kevin Mako: That's really powerful advice. I like that you mentioned that too, especially the hardware startup. So many think about that in terms of the fact that it's not their primary skill set. It doesn't need to be.

00:07:14 Kevin Mako: In fact, if you as a hardware startup are not a marketer, a writer, a salesperson, a video producer, et cetera. It actually makes you look more authentic when you do these things.

00:07:25 Kevin Mako: You're coming out and telling the world why you believe in this thing and what experts are backing up the rationale behind it. And of course, eventually selling them the product they're in.

00:07:35 Kevin Mako: But the reality is the more raw and real and passionate that you can describe your story, your personality, the reason you created this thing, the more people resonate that. In fact, they're looking at all these studies these days about user-generated content on any platform, really.

00:07:50 Kevin Mako: And it keeps showing numerous examples of people with like home-recorded iphone videos absolutely outperforming the equivalent in like a totally high production level setup.

00:08:03 Kevin Mako: Because it's the authentic nature, especially when it's your own invention.

00:08:08 Jon Davids: People really, you know, this word that's been bouncing around for so many years is authenticity.

00:08:13 Jon Davids: And for the longest time, it was really just an excuse that big brands use to try to sound cool because they were not authentic, even though they tried to say they were. The reality is being authentic, meaning like picking up your iphone, sitting in the front seat of your car because you're waiting to pick your kid up at school, and then just talking into the camera and posting that, that post will often do better than somebody sitting down making a video and paying $15,000 to have it professionally produced.

00:08:41 Jon Davids: People are so sick of the polished, really like totally neutered way of looking at content. We want to hear from real people. And it's the experts in the field, the people that are the doers in the arena that have the biggest advantage there.

00:08:56 Kevin Mako: Wow, very powerful stuff. Now you talk about this authenticity. Are there some certain key tips that if somebody is putting these content pieces together, like what are some of the elements of a content piece that can help in building the community under those three pillars that you talked about?

00:09:10 Jon Davids: Out? So the I'll kind of break them out a little bit. So the whole idea of belief is actually having one core belief that you kind of stick with and repeating it and repeating it and there's people that I follow that are all about, you know, I'll give you an example that everyone's going to know, like gary vaynerchuk, legendary Gary Vee in the social media world. And for like the first five years, sort of when he became really popular, it was all about

00:09:36 Jon Davids: Hustle culture. Gary Vee defined hustle culture now what is the product that you're selling with hustle culture really it was nothing you know gary didn't sell anything for the longest time and then eventually what did he come up with well he came up with like a conference and he came up with a running shoe and he came up with you know sort of different products and services but the belief the core belief the unifying belief that Gary Vee had was you know hustle you only live once

00:10:00 Jon Davids: It was everything that sort of fit in that vibe and he just repeated it and repeated it and repeated it. The second piece, which is the faith, is where you have to find a little more variety. So you haveto show that what you believe in actually has payoff. Maybe it has payoff because you end up getting a better job or you have more money or you get more freedom or, hey, there are studies that show that people who do this actually have a better life or a

00:10:23 Jon Davids: Better outcome. So looking at different ways that you can build faith in that is where you havemore flexibility and a littlemore, I would say, free reign to be creative.

00:10:32 Jon Davids: And then the action, again, is where you get really simple because the action is always buy my product. It's almost like the core belief is really, really simple. The faith builders are where you get pretty creative. And then the action is always a drive to a specific purchase.

00:10:47 Kevin Mako: Wow, that's very powerful. So a single belief, lots of different validations to that belief by expert opinions and whatever else. And so it's kind of like one thing into many things, back into one thing again, and off you go selling to people who already believe in your vision.

00:11:03 Jon Davids: And if you have nothing to sell, because I said earlier, the earlier you do this, the better. If you have nothing to sell, then the action could be something as simple as just subscribe to my blog, sign up to my newsletter, get on my Instagram because I'm posting content like this that will be interesting to you.

00:11:19 Kevin Mako: That's powerful. I mean, it's nice to see as well when people are just authentically thinking about the value they could provide to that potential customer base. If you're inventing something, you get to know that industry really, really well.

00:11:29 Kevin Mako: You might already be in it before you start developing this invention, and that's why you came up with it. Or if you're not in it, as you're going through that development process, you are going to absolutely become an expert at all the little micro details in amongst that very specific industry that your product serves.

00:11:43 Kevin Mako: So what better way than just sharing some of that knowledge with your potential customer base, even before you've got your actual product to show? So this is amazing. You provide them a lot of value in and around the space that your project is eventually coming out in. Or maybe you have a product and again, you're just first trying to give them a lot of value, then convert that value into sales for the people that you can help best with that particular product idea.

00:12:04 Jon Davids: Yeah. And I go back to this idea from before. We live in a society where so much of it is who and not what. So I would try to position yourself, your brand, your company, if you're at the phase where you already have a project in market as the one that people look to for authority and for trust and for credibility, because that's going to give you such a step ahead, especially if you're selling something that's commoditized or where people are price

00:12:29 Jon Davids: Sensitive. When you can be the authority in a category, it just puts you miles ahead of everybody else.

00:12:34 Kevin Mako: John, talk a bit about your book before I let you go. Absolutely. Marketing Superpowers: Build a Brand So Good That Getting Customers Feels Like Magic.

00:12:44 Jon Davids: The synopsis of the book is really when you look at people like everyone knows names like Kim Kardashian or mr. Beast, and these people launch products, whatever they are, and they just seem to kind of get customers like magic. And the simple answer that everyone goes to is they're celebrities. That's why it's working. The reality is, if you look at the data, and I study this data, most celebrity driven

00:13:06 Jon Davids: Products fail. We've never heard of them. We'd never purchased them, they have gone bankrupt, and they're totally out of sight, out of mind. There are probably over 100 celebrity tequilas on the market today. And we all know maybe one or two, right? No george clooney, we maybe know ryan reynolds, and that's about it. So the reality is when you look at people like mr. Beast and Kim Kardashian, they have built true communities and all the detail about it is sort of in the book.

00:13:32 Jon Davids: But what it comes down to is building a two-way relationship where people trust and admire and sort of have that credibility with you such that they want to buy your product. And when you can do that, let me tell you one last thing. A lot of marketers will say, hey, here's how you spend a dollar on Google to make $5, or here's how you put a dollar into Facebook and make $10. I'm interested in how you spend a dollar and make a thousand dollars. And the only way to do that is

00:13:57 Jon Davids: If you have a community standing behind you. Powerful stuff. Jon, where can people find the book?

00:14:02 Kevin Mako: I think you said it was released May 21st, 2024. Where can they go to buy it?

00:14:06 Jon Davids: Yeah, pre-sale May 21st. And then the publishing date is in june. You can get it at marketingsuperpowersbook.com.

00:14:14 Kevin Mako: Thanks, Jon. Much appreciated for your words of wisdom on helping build these powerful communities around hardware startups. Thanks, and we'll talk again soon. Appreciate it.

00:14:22 Jon Davids: Thanks so much, Kevin.

00:14:23 Kevin Mako: Take care. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Product Startup Podcast. If you found some value in the show, please do us a huge favor and hit the like button and subscribe. If you have any questions, guest suggestions, or anything else, feel free to reach out to us anytime at our email podcast@MakoDesign.com.

00:14:43 Kevin Mako: This show is hosted by Kevin Mako, North America's leading expert on product development for hardware startups. And the podcast is produced by Mako Design, the original firm providing end-to-end consumer product development services tailored specifically to hardware startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Take your product from idea to store shelves

00:15:03 Kevin Mako: At MakoDesign.com that's M-A-K-O Design dot com. Thanks for joining and see you again soon