I've barely settled in on James Vincent's ActionCOACH podcast when he hits me with his first question.
"Is MrBeast a good marketer?"
"How's that for a question?" I say. Look at the audience he's built. It's hard to answer with anything other than yes. Then I start thinking about why, and that's where it gets interesting.
If you're the one writing your business's posts and emails, this is the test I'd put every one of them through, plus one word to watch out for.
James had me on his Business Growth Podcast back in October 2025. The full episode is at the bottom of this post if you want the whole hour.
Famous to the right people
Marketing, as I see it, is about being the best known to the people you want to attract. MrBeast is a household name for his audience. I guarantee plenty of people listening to us have no idea who he is, and that's fine, because they were never his target market.
The problem comes when we forget who we're trying to reach. If you've got four million views and only twelve of them are your ideal customers, those views are mostly vanity. They might feel great. They won't pay the bills.
The word that gives you away
A bit later we get onto the biggest mistake I see businesses make. For me, it's making it all about themselves.
Count how many times a business says we, I or us in its marketing. Every one of them puts a bit of distance between you and the customer, unless that we is a community the customer belongs to.
I don't buy your product because it makes you more money. I buy it for what it does for me and my business. I can grow to care about you, if I know why your product exists and what problem you set out to solve. Until then, I want to hear about me.
Frameworks and stories
We get onto talks and presentations too. The best ones are built from two things, frameworks and stories. The framework gives it structure. The stories fill in the gaps and make it stick.
That's a big part of why I talk about edutainment, which is education with a bit of entertainment in it. I first heard the word as the title of a Boogie Down Productions album when I was a teenager. All business needs a little show business.
Then the fire alarm goes off
About eighteen minutes in, a fire alarm starts ringing. We have to stop recording and get out. James says it's never happened before.
It turns into a useful picture later in the chat. When the alarm goes, staying in the building out of loyalty to what you were doing makes no sense. You get out and do something different. Maybe you go back in later. Plenty of businesses could do with hearing that alarm a bit sooner.
Near the end I point out that the whole episode has been about me. For a man who'd spent an hour telling people to make it about the customer, I'm still not sure how I feel about that.
Watch or listen
Prefer audio? The episode is on the episode page and wherever you get your podcasts.
Try the count
Open your homepage, or the last email you sent to customers, and count the we, I and us. Then rewrite the first two lines so they start with the person reading them. Read both versions out loud and see which one you'd rather receive.
