In this episode of the High Ticket Online Course Podcast, our guest is the founder of the Custom Box Agency, Mark Stern. Over the past few years, he has helped from course creators to large Fortune 500, adopt game-changing business strategies to stand out in the Marketplace. Today, he talks with us about the Custom Box Challenge and his secrets in Digital Marketing.

The Custom Box Guy

[1:28]

Mark lives in Austin, Texas, and runs an agency called the Custom Box Agency. He works with clients to create fully branded custom box experiences. He says that it's not about putting swag into a box but bringing together the physical and digitals realms to better activate, engage, and monetize the business.

The Digital Marketing Bite

[2:06]

Mark was deep into corporate America. For years, he thought that corporate America was the only way to do business. He then got exposed to a way of life that he didn't know existed, and the bubble surrounding him with people just like him bursted. That moment, he saw a new reality and knew that nothing would ever be the same again.

The Custom Box Agency

[3:07]

When Mark left corporate America to pursue the dream of being an entrepreneur, he went all-in on virtual events. Whenever he launched a product or service, he always introduces a physical box because he thought it was cool. It was just one of the things he wanted to learn because it made his products better. People started to promote his products and service without him even asking them to do it, which he didn't expect.

[3:53]

People started asking Mark and his team about how they do their work. Mark constantly receives 4 to 6 requests a week about how they were doing it, so he launched the Custom Box Challenge to buy back his time. People who took the challenge started to take off, and they wanted Mark to do the box for them, so Mark launched his agency, and they became a distributor.

The Secret to Creating a Profitable Online Course

[5:26]

Mark says the secret is to take people on the journey with you. Take people on the journey where they can experience you going through the trials and tribulations of building an online course. Many people feel the need to do a course in a vacuum by themselves, which is one of the worst things to do. You are limited by what you know if you try and build a course where you're locking yourself in a room and filming it.

[6:00]

The second you engage with other people and pull them in on the journey or help them develop a concept, you're connecting the data points between what other people are experiencing. It starts to build and leverage the insights, and you get a better product, and people feel that they're part of the creation of the product.

Gamification

[7:27]

The whole premise of gamification is introducing gaming tactics in terms of how you present your course to get people through it and get the right feedback loops to celebrate accomplishing certain milestones throughout. Many people just go through a course, and then they just finish the course.

[8:11]

Mark says that you buy products and services for a reason because you have a pain point or there's something that you want to accomplish. Gamification has those incentive loops, which are designed so that you can do it where there are so many different ways. Mark does this with the Custom Box Challenge, where it creates micro wins that people celebrate.

Entrepreneur Elements

[9:21]

Entrepreneur Elements takes the periodic table of elements and turns it into the elements that every entrepreneur should know. It starts with your foundational elements, then strategy, then tactics, and then implementation. The whole idea is that the biggest struggle for starting entrepreneurs is to have focus.

[10:20]

The idea is if you have your strategy and know your foundation, all that should be your north star in terms of the tools that you need because you don't need to force your strategy to fit the tools that you need or the team you've hired. You've created the tools you need need to support the strategy that you've defined.

How to connect with Mark

[11:23]

Anyone can reach Mark on Facebook. Just look at Mark Stern on Facebook. If you want to learn more about custom boxes or reach out to our agency, just go to customboxagency.com where you can book a free session and connect with him remember his team. They also have an awesome Facebook group called Custom Box Central.

Follow Mark and his team

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marustern

Website: https://www.customboxchallenge.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.sterno