Steal a Page From the Cult Leader Playbook. Your Prospects Will Thank You.
You think you just want an audience. This is what you really want.
Military basic training is intense.
Most people who haven’t been through it will think in terms of grueling physical conditioning. But it’s so much more than that.
“Boot camp” is essentially a process of resocialization, an intentional campaign in which recruits’ social values, beliefs, and norms are re-engineered. The goal is to cause new soldiers to unlearn what they know and relearn the way of the corps.
Beyond physical conditioning, psychological techniques are used to shape attitudes and desired behaviors so that recruits will obey orders without question and kill their opponents in battle, all while facing the prospect of imminent death themselves.
But the most important shift is from an individual in general society to a member of a unified group of warriors. While broader unifying concepts of patriotism and nationalism may already be in play, recruits are intentionally bonded with other members of the military in general and their unit in particular.
Combat veterans will tell you that their greatest motivation was protecting fellow soldiers that they fought alongside with. When it comes down to the trenches, you’re not fighting for a flag; it’s the brother or sister beside you.
The Magical Effect of Group Action
Acting together is a powerful thing. Even when group membership already lends itself to a shared identity, unity can be amplified when people take action together.
For example, football fans of The University of Michigan share an identity around the team. This group identification also extends to the school itself for students and alumni, but nothing beats sportsball when it comes to bringing people together around a collegiate brand.
On October 1, 2016, at a Michigan home game against Wisconsin, fans took action together in a way that has further bonded them ever since. And all it took was the guy in charge of stadium audio for “The Big House” trying something new.
He played the song “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers at the end of the third quarter. The sold-out crowd not only sang along, but they kept singing even after the music was cut. “Mr. Brightside” has been a third-quarter crowd ritual ever since.
It’s an odd choice when you think about it. The song is about infidelity, and has nothing to do with football. None of the band members have any association with Michigan. And none of that stops the crowd from joyously singing together.
Or consider the fact that during the first-ever World Cup halftime show featuring Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber, and Shakira, the runaway highlight was the entire stadium chanting along with Seven Nation Army performed by the Muppets(!) and the New York Philharmonic.
Tens of thousands of people singing the exact same lyrics, or dancing in unison to a favorite artist, creates a powerful, vibrant emotional bond. It’s called collective effervescence.
That’s a sociological concept coined by Émile Durkheim describing the euphoric energy and sense of unity that emerges when a group of people gathers for a shared purpose or ritual. It makes individuals feel they are part of something bigger than themselves, much like a religious experience.
Military boot camp and crowd singalongs are drastically different examples of unified action that drive home an important point. Group unity can occur across a broad spectrum of experiences, ranging from life-or-death to life-affirming.
And ultimately, unity can make the difference between having no audience and becoming a profitable solopreneur. It’s already what’s at the core of many successful brands.
Take a Page From the Cult Leader Manual
Marines will tell you that the United States Marine Corps is indistinguishable from a death cult that puts the Manson Family to shame. The context and aim of the former make it acceptable and even admirable, while the latter group of murderous hippies were unacceptable and terrifying.
Unique language, ritual and symbolism, and a desire to belong led by strong authority figures make the two essentially the same type of group phenomenon. But ultimately it’s the unified activity the group engages in that strongly bonds members and leaders together.
Now think of SoulCycle and CrossFit, two commercial organizations often accused of being “cultish.” And it’s true that all the basic elements of a cult are present in both, combined with the potent glue of unified fitness activity.
Remember, all unified groups operate on a spectrum of fanaticism, and these two fitness brands intentionally incorporate indoctrination, ritual, and symbolism into their memberships, both for marketing and retention.
Nike, Harley-Davidson, and Apple are considered the top “cult” brands in the world. With impactful advertising messages and the right products, fans of these companies run, ride, and compute in a way that facilitates a shared identity with each other and the brand itself.
If talk of cults makes you squeamish, let’s dial it back to the idea of a movement.
That’s a group of people with a particular set of ideas working together through a series of organized activities toward an objective. It’s not the same as a cult, but it’s in the same ballpark.
All sorts of unified groups — from a cult to a movement to a spin class — require leadership. And that’s what a “leading” expert provides to prospects. But you must lay the groundwork before you can lead your audience into action.
As a leader performing the role of mentor, you have to understand who your prospect wants to become, what motivates them, and how to concurrently elevate their individual status while satisfying their need to belong.
The ultimate goal is to prompt a specific type of action, and that’s a purchase. But that action is often sparked by first leading prospects to engage in other activities.
You want people to act in general. That means not only buying from you but also succeeding at solving their problem.
When your audience takes action that leads to their success, they’ll attribute that success to your advice, products, and services. And that’s the beginning of a powerful marketing flywheel that leads to higher status and credibility for you, which, in turn, leads to a larger audience and more sales.
You have to lay some important groundwork first, and that’s what Leading Expert Launchpad shows you how to do, step-by-step. But once the foundation is there, you can design aspects of your business to naturally create even deeper unity.
Spark Unity with an Action-Focused Audience
Some people want to attract an audience to be the focus of attention and adulation. But the most effective audience-builders put their people first.
In fact, they think of their following as a team they’re a part of and responsible for, just like any good leader.
Once you’ve established initial credibility and exposed people to your new or reframed ideas that depart from the status quo, it’s time to find ways that inspire action. And before you get mass purchasing action, it helps immensely to spark other unified activity.
Here are three ways that work:
1. Challenges
Email challenges done well are a smart way to build an engaged email list. Essentially, you offer to guide someone through the process of solving a problem or achieving a goal through a sequence of content lessons delivered by email.
Some people do 30-day weight loss, exercise, and meditation challenges. Other challenge examples include getting your first 100 email subscribers, creating a website with Claude Cowork, or learning how to bake sourdough bread.
The idea is to solve one aspect of a prospect’s total problem before offering a solution to the remainder.
Challenges are a great way to build a list, but not everyone understands the true power of attracting prospects in a way that allows you to establish your credibility while leading people through a unified process.
Too many marketers conduct the challenge mechanically as a simple way to make an offer at the end of the activity, and sometimes it works. But it can work even better by playing a slightly longer game.
Structuring your “lead magnet” into a group challenge allows for both indoctrination and unified action right from the start, which can be incredibly effective. You’re establishing authority with the audience even while providing them with an early actionable success that they will attribute to your advice and leadership.
And yes, this puts you in a perfect position to make the first offer to purchase your products or services. But don’t forget that not everyone buys right away, so you need a follow-up strategy to nurture prospects in a way that maximizes your overall conversion rate.
2. Community
Digital marketing is a buzzword-generating machine. And the buzzword that’s consistently been around since the beginning of the commercial internet is community. Ironically, companies that invoke this “C” word the most are often the least likely to be at the center of a real one.
It’s important to note that not every audience amounts to a community. There are plenty of ways to build an email list where people have no affinity for you or the other people you send messages to.
Make no mistake though, organizing a true community of customers, clients, and prospects is a powerful thing. This is why my former company was known for its community aspects as much as its content.
When WP Engine acquired our StudioPress line of business in 2018, the larger company bought our popular Genesis Framework, our hosting infrastructure, and a SaaS product that was patented in several countries. But what WP Engine really bought (by their own admission) was the community that had developed among our 200,000+ customers.
We noticed early on that web developers and designers were building their entire businesses around Genesis and sharing both marketing and design tips in the support forums. That led to our active encouragement and support of this community, which developed into the marketing flywheel everyone dreams of.
We also created paid membership communities for advanced education beyond the free content we shared. These became arenas for active participation and collaboration among our best customers, giving us invaluable insight into their problems and desires and enabling us to develop other winning products.
I could go on and on about the power of community, but it’s a topic unto itself. Remember, if you can get your most engaged people acting together in a community environment, whether paid or free, you’ve transcended “content marketing” and have established leadership.
3. Co-Creation
Have you heard of the IKEA effect?
Named for the Swedish furniture brand, the IKEA effect causes people to more highly value items that they have assembled themselves, even if they did a poor job. In turn, they also value the company that provided the parts to assemble.
This is an aspect of the broader concept of co-creation, in which people feel a special affinity for things they have a hand in creating and with the person or brand they co-created with. In other words, co-creation sparks a context-specific merger of identities.
This is another example of the power of unified action, which means finding ways for your prospects and customers to participate in your business that lead to potent bonding effects. While this seems like a tall task, it can actually come down to simply asking your audience for feedback in a particular way.
Audience feedback is critical to evolving your content and developing winning products and services. Often, this feedback comes in the form of signals your prospect provides indirectly: clicks, email open rates, sharing, and unprompted questions and comments.
But you can also specifically ask for feedback. Research reveals that to spark the unifying aspects of co-creation, you should frame your request as asking for their advice.
You’re not asking in terms of opinions or their expectations of you. And you’re certainly not asking them what they will buy, as the only valid answer to that question is an actual purchase. While it may seem like a minor detail, conducting a survey or other request in which you ask for advice leads to a linking of identity with the party making the request.
For example, a group of online survey takers were given a description of a new fast-casual restaurant and then asked for feedback. Some were asked for “advice,” while others were asked for “opinions” or “expectations.” Those who provided “advice” rated the concept more highly and showed the strongest desire to eat at the new restaurant.1
There are all sorts of ways that asking for feedback from prospective customers can go wrong, such as when you suggest the answer you want with the questions you ask and the multiple-choice answers you provide. But an open-ended request for advice will often deliver surprisingly useful information while unifying you that much more with your audience.
Unified Action as a Source of Good
Group unification can result in both wonderful and horrific outcomes.
“Tribalism” originally developed out of the necessity for the protection and survival of the group, and eventually evolved into sophisticated civilizations. It’s a remarkable process, but we also know it has a dark side.
It’s essential to understand the psychological forces you’re using for that very reason. As Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” And you can’t afford to ignore the power of unity with an audience-first business model.
The techniques of email challenges, community development, and co-creation can be immensely useful when it comes to helping people in a way that elevates your business.
It ultimately comes down to your intent. Are you genuinely interested in helping people, or are you seeking to control them for your own personal gratification and gain?
No one admits to the second option. Every cult leader in history probably thought they were one of the good ones.
But your prospects will find out which one you are. Not from what you say, but from what happens after they act.
Unity without competence is a cult. Unity with competence is a movement. The forces are identical, and the outcome depends entirely on what you deliver once people follow you.
Most experts never consider any of this. They create content instead of building belonging. They collect email subscribers instead of an engaged following. Then they wonder why nobody sings along.
Are you ready to build the kind of unity that earns trust instead of exploiting it?
Leading Expert Launchpad teaches you how to position yourself in a movement that gets people to follow and take action. It’s the difference between having an audience and leading one… and that makes all the difference in the success of your business.
Find out more about Leading Expert Launchpad →
Keep going-
1 Liu, W., and D. Gal. 2011. “Bringing Us Together or Driving Us Apart: The Effect of Soliciting Consumer Input on Consumers’ Propensity to Transact with an Organization.” Journal of Consumer Research 38: 242–59.
further: flashback
🎶 Faith No More - Epic, The Real Thing, 1989 🎶
After the first single off The Real Thing bombed, the record label had low expectations and let Faith No More pick whatever song they wanted to release next. They chose Epic, and it became an epic hit. And don’t worry, no fish were harmed (much) during production of the video. (YouTube)
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