The Last Safe Investment Is You

The Last Safe Investment: Spending Now to Increase Your True Wealth Forever

by Bryan Franklin and Michael Ellsberg

This is a stellar book that teaches us about the most valuable Super Skills to be successful in business and personal life.

Interpersonal Super Skills

  • Leadership and Influence

  • Public Speaking

  • Visioning

  • Teaching

  • Selling

  • Networking and Building Tribe (See Relationships Pillar of Life)

  • Holding Paradox

Creative Super Skills

Physical Super Skills

Technical Super Skills


The Most Profitable Technical Super Skill: The Marketing Crank

Three components that must work together: the clear story, the assets, and the offers

Part 1 – Clear Story

Narrative that explains why a customer should buy your product

It places firmly in the customer’s mind four key statements:

    1. You think…

    2. But really…

    3. And if you just…

    4. Then you’ll get…

Ex. “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance”

You think that changing insurance companies is a hassle that takes a lot of time and effort and you’ll end up with basically the same rate.

But really we’ve figure out how to give you a competitive quote in just fifteen minutes.

And if you just take a moment out of your day and give us a call,

Then you’ll get hundreds of dollars in spending money and basically the same insurance coverage you have now

Part 2 – Assets

Cogs in the machine that predictably and repeatedly generates new customers

Tangible elements of your marketing system (i.e., email subscriber lists, Facebook ads, online sales pages, etc.)

Clear story describes why a customer might be interested in your product

Assets describe how a customer can express that interest and eventually be directed to make the purchase

7 Marketing Crank Assets

1) Lead Source -> 2) Initial Message -> 3) Lead Capture -> 4) Prospect List -> 5) Lead Nurture -> 6) Sales Message -> 7) Lead Conversion (Sales)

1) If direct marketing is fishing, then the lead source is the lake

A good lead source contains plenty of reachable people like your target demographic

A good lead source has an affordable way to put your initial message in front of many of them at once

2) Your initial message is the money shot

It’s the headline of your Google or Facebook ad, subject line and content in email, call to action on the radio

3) Your lead capture asset is the backbone of direct marketing

Process of recording a potential customer’s contact info and getting permission to contact them further

Most effective web-based system is asking people to subscribe to mailing list

In exchange for capturing the lead, you want to offer them something free and valuable, making them your prospects

4) Prospect lists can be traded, bartered, leveraged, or even sold

Remember that this list is made up of human beings

Each human has a very personal relationship with you, your brand, or your company

5) Direct marketing and lead nurturing is like dating

Some people experience love at first sight – most don’t

Sequence of touchpoints with the prospect to go on a few “dates” with you before getting serious

Nurture your leads by teaching them your clear story, demonstrate your credibility, and prep mindset

Everything involved in the education process is included in the lead nurture asset

This process could look like a “drip email campaign” of template emails sent every few days

You can “move the free line” which means investing so much in lead nurturing to give away valuable products to maintain a positive relationship

6) Sales messages are an invitation to have a “sales conversation” with you about the customer’s problem they want solved (by your product or service)

Conversation might be words on a shopping cart page on your website

Conversation might be with a friendly employee outside the dressing room at retail store

Conversation might be a series of meetings between executives at two large companies

More low-touch sales process (online sales page or retail checkout counter), the more you rely on the initial sales message to close the deal

Be careful – don’t introduce new doubts, inconsistencies, or barriers for the customer at this point

7) Lead Conversion (Sales) is where your marketing team hands the baton to the sales team

Many businesses have completely touchless or automated sales processes (i.e., online retailers or consumer packaged goods)

Therefore, all the “salesmanship” has to be accomplished by the Marketing Crank

Part 3 – Offer

Clear story = why

Assets = how

Offer = what the customer is buying

More compelling the offer, the less precise the clear story and assets have to be to attract new customers

Solid offer is made up of four parts, commonly referred to as “The 4 P’s of Marketing”

1. People – who is your product for?

a. Great offers are specific about who can benefit

b. What is special about the people who are making the offer?

c. Be clear about the credibility of the people making the offer

2. Promise – What problem or opportunity is the customer trying to address?

a. To what extent will this product or service help the customer address it?

b. Stick with what customers already know they want or need

3. Process – What is the form in which the promise will be delivered?

a. Is it a large appliance to be delivered to the customer’s home? Is it a B2B sale to be delivered to a customer’s business? Is it an online subscription service? Is it hands-on, like massage or dental procedure? Is it one-on-one consulting?

b. Describe both the buying process and the process or using the product or service

c. If your customers are pushing back on price, try changing the process to be one of higher perceived value…

4. Price – How much will the customer pay?

a. Customers don’t know how much they would pay until they’re actually in the position of having to make a purchase decision