I’ve written about my incurable disease extensively over the past few years, and if you need to get caught up, here are a few posts on it: Moonshot 1 “Embrace the Change That’s Coming”, Moonshot 2 “Positive Progress”, and Moonshot 10 “ Update On My Clinical Trial.”
In summary: I have achalasia, a rare esophageal disease where the muscles and nerves that contract food to the stomach do not work. They are dead. I’ve had 15 minor procedures on my esophagus and 3 major surgeries. Without a cure, I will have my esophagus removed in the near future.
Most of the posts I’ve written about have been on my “moonshot” to find a cure. But there is another side to my story I’ve only written about once (Moonshot 9 “Dr. Gundry Saved My Life”): My diet and health maintenance.
I’m not just in a race to cure my disease, I’m in a race to reverse the damage caused by a lifetime of eating the wrong diet — a diet I thought was “healthy.” Two and a half years ago, I read the New York Times best-selling book The Plant Paradox, by Dr. Steven Gundry — and it resonated with me like nothing I’d ever read.
Not only did I decide to cure my disease, I also decided to change my diet with the outcome of eliminating all of my prescription medications for the rest of my life.
If you know my professional life, I’m an absolute maniac about helping business owners market their services to massive success. And I identified a formula, rooted in electing presidents, that when applied to business marketing, grows those businesses every time.
It’s undefeated.
Here’s the crazy thing — this formula that elects presidents, senators, governors and every other kind of politician — is the same formula Dr. Gundry utilizes for his patients, to cure them of diseases and put them on a path to abundant health. (As I’ve studied this 5-step approach, I also realized that every major sports franchise uses this exact same formula to win championships — but that’s a post for another day.)
For the first time ever I want to share this secret formula — that wins presidential races, NFL titles and even cures diseases.
I discuss this formula (as hard as it is to believe, 99% of business marketers and owners don’t know or use this formula for their clients — which is total insanity) in detail with Dr. Gundry on his top-rated podcast. But, let’s break down how Dr. Gundry used it on me — to improve every health vital in my body. To completely eliminate all prescription medications dealing with my disease.:
Step 1: Evaluate the Data. Nothing is more important than this step. Data does not lie. Dr. Gundry uses it this way: He took 18 different blood samples (the blood lab nurses thought I was crazy for doing this much blood work) and studied the results. 127 different vitals were tested, and the results were put into three different evaluative buckets — the positive zone (great results), the average zone (needs improvement) and the dangerous zone (we got a problem).
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- How does this work with marketing? I always study a business owner’s customer/client/target market data to evaluate how they feel about a product or service, what they care about in life and the platforms they visit to consume their marketing. Most business owners and marketers never even utilize this step to understand their customers.
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Step 2. Create a Strategic Plan. Now that the data was in hand, Dr. Gundry devised a strategic plan based on my blood work results. Our outcome was to take my average and dangerous zone blood results and get them into the positive bucket (+ I wanted to eliminate all prescription medications). Gundry’s plan called for me to increase my supplement intake where I had major deficiencies (based on what the data stated) and adhere strictly to the Plant Paradox Diet.
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- How does this work with marketing? With businesses we work with, we evaluate their customer data as a first step, and develop a strategic plan that marries their ultimate outcomes with said data. No guess-work is allowed. Follow the data, build a great strategic marketing plan and a business owner will grow their bottom line.
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Step 3. The Re-Brand. Hey, your body is your brand. If you don’t look great and feel great, you won’t be great. Now that the data and direction (strategy) with Dr. Gundry was set, it was time to rebrand my body and diet. A focus on cleaner eating, taking supplements (that help fight the bad and improve the good) and consistent exercise in my schedule became a “must” not a “should.”
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- How does this work with marketing? When I talk to business owners, I tell them, your brand is the first (and lasting) impression you leave on a customer/client. A disorganized website says something about your business … and you as a business owner. Not leading with compelling video for your brand (using key messaging found in the data)? That’s going to cost you money. Why? Because Google, Facebook, streaming companies, etc. — they all optimize your customers’ eyeballs for watching compelling video.
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Step 4. The Testing Phase. Dr. Gundry recommended I take 40+ supplements a day to combat the dangerous blood test results and improve the average results as well. Gundry used the data and then recommended various supplements to improve my health outcomes. After six months of proper diet and supplement intake, Dr. Gundry conducted all the same blood tests I underwent originally and evaluated the results again. Where did I improve? What worked? What didn’t work? What supplements should I take more of/less of? Step 4 is so important because, my entire life I just guessed what supplements to take based on a “one-size-fits-all diet.”
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- How does this work with marketing? If you are a business owner that has failed at marketing, does the above scenario sound familiar? Before you launch an expensive marketing campaign, you must test your message (and your creative). And, when you include verifiable data into the tests, you’ll know quickly what message, creative, platform and video converts at the highest possible rate (with the least cost).
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Step 5. Launch It. After Step 4 is complete, we had a total and complete understanding of my body and what it lacked, what it needed and how it should be fed. By this point, we had a 100% certainty of what worked. We also had 100% certainty to know what didn’t work. We eliminated mistakes, dumb decisions (without utilizing evidence) and had a complete focus on success.
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- How does this work with marketing? With businesses, it’s the same process! Utilize the data to build a winning strategy, re-brand your business based on customer feedback/data, test out the top messages the data tells us will resonate with your customer. Now that we know what pops the most, execute a full-scale marketing campaign to grow your company.
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The lasting results of this 5-step formula on my health today? At 45 years old:
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- I take zero prescription medications for my incurable disease.
- I still take 40+ supplements per day and every vital in my body (according to the blood results) is either in the positive (good) zone or neutral zone. Every single test result has moved in the right direction (from when I started with Dr. Gundry) and not one vital is moving in a bad direction.
- According to the data, I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been in my life.
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Whether you apply it to your health or your business, the formula works.
So, how do you apply this lesson to your marketing?
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- Watch my recent interview with Dr. Gundry here where we explore this formula and other health issues (including Parkinson’s Disease).
- If you follow these 5 steps in your marketing, you will absolutely grow your business. I’ve seen it. It will absolutely work. You can also watch my short video explanation on it here.
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Phillip
P.S. — David Ralph is a business coach and a top-ranked podcaster on Join Up Dots. We sat down and talked about marketing principles and how we take the guessing out of the process for our clients. Click here to check out our conversation.
P.P.S. — If you know of a friend or a colleague that would enjoy my bi-weekly updates about incredibly cool, funny and idiotic marketing ideas, please have them email me (ps@phillipstutts.com) or sign up below: