Primal Desires and The Big 4 – With Lukas Resheske

Lukas Resheske is one of my most trusted copywriting mentors. – his clients consist of guys like Ryan Levesque and Josh Turner.

In this interview he gives us a peek behind the curtain, and shows how the most profitable sales messages are born.  At the end of this episode he ties each piece of the puzzle together in the form of a quick headline formula.

Anyone can use to immediately get better results in their marketing efforts.

I’m probably beating a dead horse here, but I’ve invested thousands of dollars and even more hours just to learn what Lukas shares in this episode.

It’s available to you for FREE, and it is not to be missed.

Interview Notes

The Big 4:

Target Market:

Demographics – age, sex, income, location – the basic stuff everyone starts with

Psychographics – how the prospective client feels, what keeps them up at night, what are their current beliefs, what is reality like for them? What do they believe to be true/untrue?

Primal Fears

Almost all advertising in interruptive in nature – people aren’t seeking it out – it’s coming into that person’s life on your purpose not theirs.  It’s up to us as marketers to do the research and make sure the person reading the ad knows what they are reading is relevant to them.

Extinction – fear of death/ceasing to exist, triggers our most primal reactions ex: jumping out of the way of a bus

Mutilation – won’t kill you, but will physically damage you in some way – or could be losing your mind due to illness such as dementia

Loss of autonomy – No longer having control for some reason, being paralyzed, being in prison, felling like you’re in prison in something – such as an abusive relationship or job

Separation – separation from society, not feeling connected. Could be physical or psychological separation

Ego Death – the fear of being humiliated, looking foolish, saying the wrong thing…

Examples when you can use primal fears and when using them will kill the sale – 13:50

Primal Desires

Pride – achievement oriented, internal greatness – ex: I want to be in the best shape or I want to live in the nicest possible neighborhood.

Envy – external focus, fear of loss, preventing people from being better than you, desire to spite people around you.

Lust – sex drive, desire for a specific object – but not greed.

Gluttony – having the most to consume, desire to consume things – food, information, etc.

Greed – the hording and acquisition of things, and keeping them just for yourself, away from other people.

Sloth – Want something, but not willing to work that hard to get it. Desire for ease, Ex: life hacks that make things easier.

Wrath – Anger and spite, want to get revenge.

Core Needs

The easiest way to murder a conversion as soon as possible is to threaten and not replace a core need. 31:10

If you threaten one of these with your ad, and don’t offer a solution to “re-fill” the need the person reading your ad will automatically disregard your message.

The 6 core needs:

The first 4 are most important and will always be filled – everyone will always have these filled in their life or seek them out until they are filled. The first 4 needs = your comfort zone.

Certainty – the need to feel you are in control of your life and know what’s going to happen – humans aren’t very comfortable in the unknown. For some people this certainty could be a drug like heroin, they know the feeling they will get each time they take the drug. Or it could be certainty around a job, you go to work every day at the same time, they pay you the same amount of money – it’s certain.

Variety – the opposite of certainty, but works in tandem with it. It comes from different, interesting things that come into your life. It could be meeting new people in the heroin den, or dealing with different clients at work each day.

Significance – how other people perceive you – your standing with your peers – being valued by others and being part of a group.

Connection – very close relationships, knowing there are other people around you who can support you.

Last two core needs:

Growth and contribution – these are never reached until the first 4 needs are filled.

You will use these when your prospective clients are more affluent, and are achievement oriented / performance driven people.  Ex: successful entrepreneurs

You don’t need to worry about these unless your product is dealing with clients who already have their other four needs met. A person who is dealing with serious medical issues and financial issues, is not likely to be looking for ways to improve their personal growth and the society around them.

Lukas’s Headline Formula Tying it all together:

How to X without Y even if Z

X = Primal Desire

Y = Primal Fear

Z = Core Needs

This can be applied to almost anything, but here’s a few quick examples in different markets you can listen to these right around the 39min mark in the podcast.

 

If you’d like to contact Lukas you can do so here: https://www.lukasresheske.com/