You are receiving this newsletter because you are already on our email list, having requested a copy of one of our resources. If, for any reason, you don't want to get this free email newsletter, reply with the words “opt out.”

Once a week, I take one idea and put it under the microscope. Sometimes it’s about business, sometimes it’s about how people think, and sometimes it’s simply an observation about the world around us. If it challenges the way you see the topic, then it has done exactly what it was meant to do.

I am flying Ryanair to Cyprus as I write this.

For those who haven't had the experience, Ryanair is an Irish low-cost airline that operates across Europe. No frills, no apologies, no business class. The concept doesn't exist on this airline. You get a seat, a seatbelt, and the privilege of paying extra for everything else, including the air you breathe, or so it feels. It is the only airline that flies direct from Sofia to Paphos, which is the only reason I am on it, because given a choice between Ryanair and a hot air balloon, I would take my chances with the balloon.

Anyway. Somewhere over the Mediterranean, a flight attendant named Ricardo appeared in the aisle, produced a pack of brightly colored cards, and launched into a five-minute pitch selling lottery tickets. Seven for ten euros, special offer, today only, only on this flight.

I have flown a lot of airlines. I have never once been pitched lottery tickets at thirty thousand feet.

And yet the moment it happened, my first thought wasn't confusion. My first thought was — of course. 

Of course, Ryanair sells lottery tickets. Of course, Ricardo has a pitch. Of course, this is exactly the product for exactly this cabin full of exactly these people. It made complete sense, and the fact that it made complete sense is the marketing lesson.

Here is what I mean…

One thing before I continue…

This ClickBank Super-System skips the hard part entirely.

Most people spend months building an email list with nothing to show for it.

They set up funnels, buy traffic, pay for autoresponders, and wait for the money to eventually show up.

Except it doesn't. 

The bills keep stacking up while the bank account stays empty, and eventually they run out of money and quit.

The entire model is backwards. 

You're told to build first and earn later, but "later" never arrives when you're bleeding cash on tools and traffic with zero return.

My buddy John Thornhill built a system that flips this completely upside down. 

He's a 9x ClickBank Platinum Award winner who figured out how to get paid WHILE building your email list instead of hoping it pays off someday.

I used his ClickBank Super-System to make $214,186.36 while building a 17,081-person email list.

We just recorded a training where John walks through exactly how this system works. 

You'll see the done-for-you ClickBank membership funnel that collects commissions from day one without creating products, writing sales pages, or handling support tickets…

And how you can clone his super-system for yourself without having to build anything yourself.

The replay comes down soon, so I urge you to check it out now:

Back to what I was saying...

On a business class flight, the screens play ads for Breitling watches and luxury real estate developments in Dubai. The airlines know who is sitting in those seats. They know the income bracket, the spending habits, and the aspirations. They know that the person sipping champagne at the front of the plane is predisposed to respond to certain things and completely indifferent to others. So they put Breitling on the screen, and they sell the Dubai apartment, because that is what that person is wired to want.

Ryanair knows exactly who is sitting in its seats, too. Someone who made a deliberate decision to sacrifice legroom, baggage allowance, and basic human comfort in exchange for the cheapest possible fare. Someone for whom price is the primary filter. Someone who is, statistically, more likely to spend ten euros on seven lottery tickets than on a bottle of Château Pétrus.

Ricardo's pitch wasn't an accident. It wasn't a random product someone threw into the in-flight service catalog. It was a precise read of the audience and an offer built specifically for that audience. Ryanair didn't put luxury watch ads on their tray tables because their customers would scroll right past them. They put Ricardo in the aisle with lottery tickets because their customers will actually buy them.

That is what knowing your market actually looks like in practice.

Most people building businesses online get this wrong in a very specific way. They fall in love with a product or an idea, build it with care and real effort, and then go looking for an audience to sell it to. They treat the market as a destination for whatever they decided to create, rather than as the starting point for figuring out what to create in the first place.

The only question worth asking is what this audience already wants and how to put that in front of them.

Ryanair never tried to turn its passengers into Breitling buyers. It found out what its passengers were already predisposed to spend money on and built a revenue stream around that reality. The market told them who it was. They listened.

Your list is telling you the same thing, constantly, if you're paying attention. What they click on. What they buy. What subject lines make them open. What offers make them ignore. What topics generate replies, and what topics generate silence. Every one of those signals is Ricardo standing in the aisle, telling you exactly what to put in the cards.

The mistake is ignoring the signals because you already decided what you want to sell.

I still hate Ryanair. The seats are uncomfortable, the leg room is a joke, and Ricardo's lottery pitch interrupted the only twenty minutes of quiet I had managed to find since boarding. Yet, every single person in my row pulled out their wallet. Whatever I think about the experience, Ricardo knows his market better than most marketers I've ever met.

P.S. If you enjoy these ideas, you’ll love the deeper conversations we have on the List Building Lifestyle podcast.