Marketing - Setting the Right Intentions for Your Marketing

In this episode of the Stay Hungry Podcast, Joel and Martha explore why so many entrepreneurs struggle to hit their goals because they never set them properly in the first place. From the dangers of vague targets to the power of decision-making with purpose, this one’s a must-listen for any business owner serious about growth.

Whether you’re scaling a team, running ads, or planning a bucket-list trip, success starts with knowing exactly where you’re heading and why.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

✅ Why “better marketing” means nothing without a clear destination

✅ How to set business goals with real deadlines (and why most people avoid them)

✅ The role of urgency and integrity in ad copy, as well as how to balance both

✅ What intention really looks like in team meetings, marketing strategy, and client results

✅ How data-led decisions beat guesswork every time

🎧 Listen now!

Links:

Website: https://www.codebreak.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codebreakcrew/
Facebook: https://facebook.com/codebreakcrew/

Joel's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joelstoneofficial/
Joel's Facebook: https://facebook.com/joelstoneofficial/

Free Marketing Budget Calculator: https://codebreak.outgrow.us/knowyournumbers

Arrange a call with Codebreak: https://form.jotform.com/241272835208051

Transcript

0:13

Marth, we're back in the game. We're boiling hot, the office is a greenhouse, and I've decided I want a new podcast mic, but other than that. Do you, why? I just think. Do you want the circle thing? No, we've got those somewhere. Oh. I'm upgrading the podcast studio. Oh yeah, it's staying here in this location. Yeah, might be a table for us to sit at, I haven't decided. That'd be great. Bit like a news desk. We've got a table over there. Not that kind of table. Oh, okay. Might be some acoustic slats on the wall behind you with some different things in it. Different chairs, I haven't decided, but the plan is in place. Anyway, what we're talking about. So are you setting an intention? Yeah. So the intention is to have a world-class podcast facility. By? At Cobrake HQ by end of May, because I'm away for half of May. We have this a lot with the team, I don't remember, my second goal was it's like by what date, otherwise it's never gonna happen. Nice. Who taught you that? You, yeah, actually, the funny story behind this podcast topic. Do you remember when you used to get annoyed when they used to say that? By. And you'd be like, I'll do it, okay. No you won't. Yeah, I won't. I won't do it. Yeah, we're having to teach new people that now, aren't we? Yeah, yeah. Funny story behind where I come up with this topic. So I was running and someone was catcalling me. Yeah. And they were like, God, girly. What? What was their catcall, girly? No, they were catcalling me. Hey, girly, you look amazing, keep running. And I was like, what is your intention here? Like. That's not catcalling, that's motivating. No, but it was like, no, it was definitely catcalling. Well, what you're doing doesn't sound like that. You sound like. Okay, well, I had a horn and hanging out the window. Bop, bop. Yeah. Keep running. It was the ice cream man. Diddly dee, diddly dee. No, so it was more of like a wolf whistle and a. Yeah, and I was like, okay, this is so funny because like, what do you expect to happen? Like, do you want me to like chase after you? Do you want me to, am I meant to be like shouting my number? Let me in your car right now. Actually, I just stopped and turned around and I was like, I'm seven eight. You were actually being followed by a fake taxi. Yeah, that was exactly it. And that's how I paid for my last time. Neither of us know what that is. Yeah, no. Okay. And so I was like, oh, it's funny. Cause like, why would you do anything without an intention? Like everything you do is like, I'm going to do this because I want this or I want to, I don't know, think of an example. I want to get 50 new clients. I get really frustrated with people, including people I'm very close to when they don't know what they want. Yeah. I'm like, they're like, oh, should I do this? I'm like, why? Oh, I don't know. It just felt like it. Why? What do you mean why? It doesn't have to be a reason for a thing. Yes, there does. Like, we're not going to just do things for the sake of it. What, like that's mental. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have just been on a family holiday and I'm like, why, what are we doing and why? I vary, I find it a lot when I'm with family groups where they like, everything is for the sake of it. And I'm just, and that's not, don't get me wrong, sometimes you, spontaneity and things are lovely and the reason is to spend time together. That's a good enough reason. But when it's like, should we go for a walk? I know this is a touchy subject for you, but should we go, and it's like, no, everyone's knackered. Yeah, but we should make the most of it, shouldn't we? I hate making the most of things. You know when you're on holiday and it's like, you're tired and you just want to chill and it's like, we can't chill because we're in Mexico. It's like, we can't chill because I'm going to hate my life tomorrow if I'm tired the whole holiday. Yeah, I'll ruin the rest of the holiday for the sake of walking down the beach today. Like, what are you talking about? Because you feel like you have to. Where does that come from? Because you've spent a lot of money maybe? Yeah, that's exactly what I was about to say, is that I know when we were growing up, if like a camping holiday in Wales or whatever, it was always a financial stretch. So if you didn't eat as much as you possibly could out of it, you'd not made the most of it. When actually now, I'm much more of the mindset that I've earned the right to a rest. Yeah, yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. But then you do have that little pang of guilt, be like, I'm in this beautiful, me and Jay's had it in Lisbon. He was actually really ill, but it started with a terrible hangover, like a violently ill hangover. And we were like, we really should do X, Y, and Z, but I just would rather lock myself in the stock room. Like, we have a rule now, whenever we go anywhere, day of adventure, day of rest, day of adventure, day of rest. Because neither of us want to sit by the pool for seven days, that's not us. But also, we would fill that seven days with so much stuff that we'd need another holiday afterwards, and that's also stupid. So how much stuff do you have planned for Borneo? Borneo, well, there's a fucking intention. So on both of our bucket lists, separately before we even met, it was on our bucket lists. Hannah's been to Sumatra before, didn't see any orangutans because she got dengue fever and had to spend two weeks in a room. And she actually, it's pretty touch and go, to be honest, so. And then, this is a holiday that doesn't come cheap, so there's been a lot of planning in the works. And then we found out that Hannah had got her operation date in October last year. And so we went to Trailfinders and booked it. It was like, there's no timeline now. That's fucking me. And it's given us something to be motivated about on the other side of being in a wheelchair. So that was the intention. The big ones for me is I really want to see orangutans, which we will because we're going to the sanctuary as well as seeing them in the wild. I really want to see sun bears, which we will because we're going to the sanctuary as well as seeing them in the wild. I'd like to see clouded leopards, but that's kind of, you'd be lucky. I'd love to see a Bornean rhinoceros. You'd be lucky. I'd love to see pygmy elephants. Again, you'd be lucky. We're going to go snorkeling on a reef. That's happening. We're going to the Shangri-La for a couple of nights relaxation and spa and stuff. That's happening. So just set the intent. And I've approached it with, we're probably never going to go there again. It's a financial stretch. Like it's uncomfortable. But if we're going all that way, we might as well do everything we want to do. Yeah. And like, I totally appreciate I'm saying that from a place of privilege, but that same mindset applies to, I went to Alton Towers on Saturday with Hannah. The queues were bad. So we bought fast pass so we could go on everything. Because what's the fucking point in walking around Alton Towers all day to not go on anything? And then I was like, well that's another hundred quid it's cost me. Which again makes me sound privileged. But it was like, is that a hundred pound well spent or is that a hundred pound frittered away? Or should we have got back in the car and just come home and been grumpy about it? Yeah. And so I always set the intention, be it like something simple, like dieting or trying to eat well or achieving something. something at work or doing my best deadlift to, this is my bucket list of trips I really want, like next year I want to go to the World Cup with the lads. Where is it? Mexico, USA and Canada. Which, which? We're going to do like a road trip around three parts of Texas and then go up to Kansas. Cool. Cause that'll be fun, hire a massive truck and just lads on tour, but middle age lads on tour. So hopefully England do something. I don't care to be honest. I do, cause I love football. Do you want to watch England? Don't care. Okay. Well that makes it easier. I used to go to like a South American game or something and just like atmosphere beyond real. Can you book tickets now, regardless of who? Oh yeah, I'm in the pot. Yeah. That, like off pod, that podcast is killing me. Right, isn't it? I feel like I'm getting a migraine in the corner of my eyeball. 22 minutes Marth, you can do this. Set my intention. Stare this way. So yeah, that like level of intent, like I've committed to the lads that will do that. Committed to you guys and taking you to Orlando in October. I've also committed that I'm going to Miami straight after that trip for a client's event. And I might also have to go to Vegas on that trip, so. What's Vegas for? Acquisition.com, Alex Ormosi's office. Cool. Read into that one, you will. I'm just saying, like your next boss might be Alex Ormosi. So yeah, it's like there's an element of commitment, isn't there, when you have intention? And I think most people struggle with that because they feel exposed. And like, I know we talked about it on the last podcast, but when you booked your first High Rocks abroad, that must have felt pretty intense. Yeah. But even like the run up, like I can't get ill now because I've trained really hard. That pressure is scary. Yeah, I've spent a lot of money. Like nobody touch me. All my friends with children like stay away from me because I really want to do this thing. So how does this relate back to marketing? So there's no point approaching an agency or a freelancer or your team and saying, I want better Facebook ads. Like what's the intention behind that? And what result do you want? And is Facebook ads the best way to get to it? Yeah. And so I think we talked about it on a podcast a couple of weeks ago, where there's people who manifest for manifest sake, they sit on the floor, cross their legs and hum. And there's people who get their compass out, point it north and fucking go for it. It's a totally different type of manifestation. And I don't think you can lead people, be it family members on holiday or business or a marketing team without them having a good idea of what destination we're heading to. Yeah. You can't draw a map if you haven't fucking trod the path. And it really like frustrates me when people are like, I just want my ads to be better. Well, tell me what better is. I actually, I had this with a client the other day, they didn't want something on their ads that wasn't authentic. So I limited stock, if there's not limited stock. So we took it off and the ads bombed. Really? Yeah. But that's bollocks, isn't it? There is limited stock. Of course there's limited stock. Yeah. Unless you're dealing with Amazon, there's limited fucking stock. Well, this is their team were sending out something. So it's like literally there's only so many hours in the day that the team are in the office. But it's so funny because they cared so much about authenticity until they weren't getting the result. And then it was like, I don't actually care about that much. I'd rather have- I think integrity is really important, but sometimes you have to question people's questioning. Where like limited, that's true. I hate it when like, I don't like those ones where people say only seven seats remaining and there's actually 30 seats remaining. That's bollocks. But saying limited seats remaining is true. See, I'm kind of in the career of like, I know the clients we have are selling, what they do is incredible. And either what they're selling is a good product or what they're doing is going to change someone's lives. And so if you've got to get people there, because when they get there, it's going to change their life. So I'm like, let's force you to do this. Yes, but you shouldn't bullshit, ever. I never do. You better not, you'll be fired. But like, do you know what I mean? It's like limited stock is true. Only two items remaining is a lie. And there is an integrity piece there. But you also have to question the client sometimes to say, don't be so wet. Like we do have to lean into a level of urgency. Like even if it's just while stocks last, like there has to be something to get people to take action. Or like we have, I'm just thinking of one client specifically who has in-person events. There are limited seat, like limited capacity in the room. So just put in limited capacity, even though they haven't sold any tickets yet, it is a limited capacity. When they start selling tickets, they tend to go like that. And so every single ad I write- And you can explain that in your copy, can't you? You can say, look, we only run this event once a year and seats go fast, so make your move. Like that's marketing with integrity. What we see a lot of these bullshit merchants do is say, last few seats. So why can't we last few seats? You've just turned the ads on. But even with Zoom, like depending on your Zoom settings- You can only have 100 people. It caps, yeah. So it is still- Relevant. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that's it. It's like, sometimes that's the set. People are being afraid of setting the intention genuinely. So they won't say limited stock. So they won't say limited stock because the intention behind saying limited stock is that they might run out of stock and they're scared to run out of stock because then they haven't got anything else left to sell. So they avoid it. Or they've got to do loads of packing and they don't want to do that. Oh God, what a problem to have. I can love that. So, why does it sort of matter that you're really clear what you're asking people to do? So that you can have the right strategy to get there. Like, if you know what your goal is, like I want to, like making more sales, getting more customers or clients are completely different goals which need completely different strategies. Because sending people somewhere to buy something straight away versus maybe they have a call first, maybe you see them in person. Maybe if they invest in 50 grand versus a 50 quid widget ebook. Even if you do both things within your businesses, that strategy isn't going to work for both things. And so if you know what you want, you can still get there. Okay, another example would be if maybe you wanted to make 50 sales, But you only made 30 what like, are we still profitable? Have we still added more? Yeah. And so I think there's, uh, it's, it's knowing what is a good result and not focusing on what was the bad result. Yeah. And I think like, are you moving closer to your goal? Yeah. Did that move us closer or further away from our goal? Yeah. If you're reviewing intent, that's always important. But if you don't know what the goal is, the review's made up. Yeah. Like that frustrates the hell out of me when people say, I just want to turn seven figures this year. What, what number? Seven figures? Yeah. Do you mean a million pound? Do you mean 1,100,000? Because that's 10% different, that's a massive fucking difference. Do you mean 2 million? And then why is that number important to you? What margin have you got? Why are we pointing in that direction? What things need to happen in order to know we're on track? What are we measuring? What are we not measuring? Who do you need to employ? What kind of office do you need? What equipment do you need? Like, how many hours? And that's what people avoid intent. Intent comes with a lot of fucking questions behind it. And so when you say to someone at home, what do you fancy for tea tonight? Nine times out of 10, they'll say, I don't know. Because intent comes with a lot of fucking questions behind it. Oh, I like chicken and rice. Why do you want chicken and rice? We had rice yesterday. I just like it. Do you not think we should eat some greens? And so then I wish I'd never fucking said anything at all, where like, I think successful people go, I want chicken and rice. Why do you want chicken and rice? Because it's quick. I enjoy it. And we're not going to argue about it because I know you like it too. Fuck me. That's a good answer. See you later. And that's kind of, I think the thing with marketing is like, what do you want to do in the next year? I want to increase my turnover by 40%. Why? Well, we underperformed a little bit last year, and I think we can hit 870 grand this year. What needs to happen for that to happen? Well, I need to increase my marketing spend by 40% too. Right. Okay. And what margin are we working to? Well, normally I'm a 40% margin. But I know if we grow to that level, I'll probably be a 35% margin, which means my profit is being squeezed, but because the pie is bigger, there'll be a bigger chunk of the pie left at the end. Wow. You've really thought about this, haven't you? Yes. I'm leading with intent. Yeah. Well, I think like when we have meetings here at Code Break, everything I do is happening with logic. There's a plan behind it. There's intent behind it. I've sat in meetings in other companies where it feels like the first time they thought about that meeting was at the start of that meeting. Okay. And there's no action points from the meeting. If you have a meeting and there isn't action points at the end of it, why did you have the meeting? Like, there was no point. I love Loom for that now. Because it gives you them anyway? Yeah. And also, it saves me having meetings that I don't need. Loom's great. I fathom on Zoom. It blows my mind. And it's free. Like, the free version is... Yeah, I've upgraded that because I want the transcripts. Maybe I'm not free then because I do get the transcripts. You're costing me money, Martha. I don't know. Yeah. But that is like, you literally like, oh, I know I spoke about ROI. I'm just going to put in ROI into the transcript and it will literally... I've sometimes been certain, drop the transcript into ChatGPT and then ask ChatGPT a question and been like, oh, yeah, that was it. Yeah. It's brilliant. And I did that to you today, actually, with a Google Doc, where I was like, I'm sure you've got the access to the file with your training plan on. And you're like, no, I've looked. Do you know what happened there? I looked in January because I forgot we were in... March. April. We're in April now. Yeah. I was like, we haven't done Feb yet. Today, we're recording on the 1st of April. I've hit people with an April Fool today and a lot of people have fallen for it. Oh, the... Basketball jersey. Yeah. You didn't fall for it. I liked it for engagement, but yeah. You knew. Yeah. Basically, because you're in the office and haven't seen a rail full of basketball jerseys. Yeah. Although, they are quite cool. Yeah. I don't know where the hell... We could wear them in Florida. That would be a very suitable place to wear. I don't know if a basketball jersey is going to suit me. Okay. Me and you, I feel like you will be the person I consult on this, will be in charge of Florida merch. Yeah. Well, I'm kind of outnumbered now because it's all going to be like men. It's got to... Yeah, which is why we need to have the crossover of stuff that you would be... Because you can get women's fit stuff as well, but stuff that you'd be like, yeah, that's cool. To be honest, these three aren't going to give a shit. It's only me and you that care anyway. Yeah. Okay. I've got a point. You've set the intention for that, Marth. Yeah. Action point. Come up with some Florida merch. Bye. Okay. It could be really... It's got to be American style, hasn't it? Yeah. I mean, I think a jersey with sleeves, I could rock. I think the sleeveless ones aren't going to work. Like an American football jersey as opposed to a basketball jersey. Yeah. Basketball, they never have sleeves. Like vests are hard to pull off. I don't. Basketball players wear t-shirts underneath. Okay. But like, yeah, like an American football jersey. Yeah. That'd be cool. That'd be a bit hot for them. They're like that material with all the holes in. Porous. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, how do you, like, if you've set your intention, how do you test and adapt on that? Because you need to know if you're being realistic or not. Follow the data. Bloody hell, I never thought I'd hear you say that. I honestly say this quite a lot. You love it now, don't you? Do you remember when, like, this is no, I'm not talking you down, but once upon a time, data was not your thing. I hear you talking to clients now. Let's just look at the data. Yes. But is it so like, for example, if a lot of what we do is speed, right? Yeah. And people want it now and which I'm more than happy to do. But I quite often have to say, like, if we launch these ads driving to this page, they are never going to work. Yes, they will. People have inquired before. Yeah, but there are people who already knew you. They're not like brand new leads. No, no, I want to try it. Okay. But in a week's time, like, let's see. Oh, yeah. Loads of people are clicking the ads that nobody's inquiring. That's the landing page issue. So let's try a different way. Or let's AB test. I love an AB test. We'll send exactly the same traffic to two different places and see what happens. And it's like, it's not even emotional. It's not like, oh, I'm right. You're right. Yeah. It's like, let's just try it. Let's just try it. And you could AB test the warm audience at the same time. Yeah. So it's like. And that, like, you could even AB, you could even test people who've seen your ads seven days ago versus 14 days ago. So you put a quote in the notes. Did I? By Donald Miller. A confused mind never buys. and I think that's it. People forget that their warm audience, people who've seen them before are less confused than their cold audience. So a warm audience could land on a landing page that literally just says sign up here and they might. A cold audience could land on the same landing page and not take action. You have to guide them through the process. What step am I at? Where's the social proof? What do I need to do next? How long does this take? What happens on the other side? Oh I don't want to press that button. I don't know if I'm gonna get sent loads of emails. Why don't you tell them what happens? I have a perfect example of this with Sophology. Maybe I shouldn't be naming or shaming them. A few level 1 workers at Sophology. Is that where your sofa's from? Yeah and we've been in the shop and like literally sat on the sofa and spoke to a guy in the shop and I was like oh yeah this is like legit. This is the one. But if I hadn't have been in the shop I would never have brought off that website because I was like holy fuck this is so hard. It's so difficult. What legs do you want? What material would you like? I still don't know if I've actually set up my payment. Like I've applied, I've done it and we're getting the sofa but I'm like do I have to do something else or are they gonna take the payment? But I've just decided I'll just wait and see if the payment comes out. The first one. When's it coming? Well they said expected or estimated on the 20th of this month. Oh that's exciting. Yeah I don't even know what day of the week that is. Big purchase a sofa isn't it? Feels like a grown-up purchase. Yeah it's expensive and pretty boring though. Our integrated microwave oven blew up the other day. That sounds expensive. For the second time and when it blows up the glass on the front shatters which when you've got a dog is not good. No. 800 quid to replace it and then the people that came to wire it in wired it in wrong and I electrocuted myself. Oh that's good. I've had a really nice conversation with them. Do you know what they did? They refunded us the cost of the installation. So what about the fact that you've knocked ten years off my life you fucking pricks. And it works now? Yeah it's really good. It feels fancy like because that's an extortion amount of money to spend on a posh microwave but it does cool shit. It weighs things so it warms it up just right. Really? You don't even have to click like you know on a microwave it'd be like pizza and you're like how much pizza? It's like chicken and then you have to put in if it's 400 grams of chicken this nose which I like. Sounds extravagant but it's fucking brilliant. I put peas in it last night which I know peas are not hard to warm up but just for the sake of not getting a saucepan out and blah blah blah my peas were immense. I didn't know peas could be so good. I always fuck up the peas in the microwave. They were like shriveled or still frozen. How does the microwave know? I don't care my intent is I wanted delicious peas and that's what I got. So given that you're getting a migraine and these lights are really bright yeah what's the first thing you should do before you start your next marketing campaign? Know where you want it to take you. Okay. Is it profit? Is it more customers? Is it warm up your funnel? So like what's my real goal? Yeah. And then what? And then put a date on it. And then what's the most likely route to get me there? Yeah. With the acceptance that there might be a few detours. Exactly. Ace.