Tai Lopez bought Bodybuilding.com. Here's his marketing playbook.

This week I listened to a 2.5-hour podcast with Tai Lopez.

You may be asking yourself: "John, why would you spend 2.5 hours listening to Tai Lopez?"

Because I am bad at managing my time. Don’t judge me. 

People love to hate Tai Lopez, but one thing is undeniable: 

Tai Lopez is an incredible marketer

His playbook is simple: 

1/ Be remarkable (for him, it was Lambos, models, and mansions, for others, it can be dildos and unicorns.) 

2/ Catch trends early 

3/ Exploit the living shit out of them 

4/ Move on when the crowd shows up

Let's break down each one:

Be remarkable 

Controversy is remarkable and remarkable goes viral. 

An extreme opinion can reach 100,000x+ more people than a moderate one.

Massive personal brands Ben Shapiro, Grant Cardone, Andrew Tate, and the Liver King understand this. 

They craft their online personas to be controversial and therefore viral. 

There is value in thinking of your online persona as a character and expressing your "spiky points of view."

Catch trends early

Good marketers seek cheap traffic.

The largest podcasts, Youtube channels, and blogs started when there was little competition on their platform. It's easier to stand out.

When Lopez started doing Youtube ads, Mike Chang from 6-pack shortcuts was the only other personal brand spending big on the platform.

(Remember this guy?)

Tai said when he started on Youtube, he would spend $50k on ads and make $120k back ON THE SAME DAY. It's easy to see how you could scale a business with numbers like that. 

His products were also trend-based. He taught social media marketing, crypto, and e-comm. 

As a business owner, you should constantly look for cheap traffic sources and emerging trends. 

Exploit the living shit of them

Tai Lopez pushed his infamous “here in my garage” ad to 70M people. He claims he sold $100M+ in online courses to the audience he built from that ad. 

I've coached a lot of business owners that prematurely turned off ads. 

When I'd ask why they'd say, "lead costs went up to much."

Then I'd ask their ROI and it'd be something crazy like 5:1. 

Don't overcomplicate things. If something works, keep doing it until it doesn't. 

Move on when the crowd shows up

Most people see “creating content” as this flurry of activity that when done will earn more attention. 

But if following the same playbook as everyone else produces average results.

It's okay to ditch commonly accepted best practices when they become a waste of time, effort, or money. 

 It isn’t lost on me that Tai Lopez still makes money teaching people what he did to make money In 2016. 

That said, there is value in swallowing your pride and learning from people who’re excellent at what they do. And it’s hard to argue that Tai Lopez is not a phenomenal internet marketer.

Current trends?

After publishing this, a gym owner emailed me and said, “so here's the million dollar question: What are the trends to catch early right now?”

Here’s a recent example in the fitness industry:

Jamie Weeks is the largest OrangeTheory franchisee. He went from 0 to 140 locations in 6 years.

In 2020 Weeks noticed influencers were talking more about wellness & recovery. So he opened SweatHouz, an infrared sauna + cold plunge recovery studio.

He started franchising in mid-June and sold 30 licenses in 30 days and is on pace to hit 75 licenses by the end of the year.

With people like Andrew Huberman, Joe Rogan, and Tim Ferriss frequently promoting the benefits of hot/cold exposure, Weeks is in a perfect position to ride this trend out over the next few years.

In a recent podcast, Weeks said same studio revenue is growing 5% month over month.