I've Turned The Five Lightbulbs Framework into a Step-by-Step Messaging Methodology
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With the 5 Lightbulb Method, I feel like the fog is lifted on how to write good marketing and sales copy. I can now write compelling emails for my launch quickly, on message, and to my target audience.
Billy’s approach to writing sales copy is creative and authentic.
Gwyn Wansbrough
Facilitation expert and trainer
I’ve never, in all the years I’ve sold things online, had the quantity or passion of replies I’m getting.
Thanks to The Five Lightbulbs approach, I launched a premium product. I launched in June, and it's now September that I record this.
I've never earned so much from one product. And my customers are happy. They love it.
Reuven Lerner
Python consultant and online educator
"I had all of these abstract ideas about what I was doing, and had a hard time simplifying it down into one succinct statement."
Jess Urso
Service provider to career professionals
Billy Broas here, and I help smart business owners translate their products into compelling marketing language.
Smart people are typically so close to their product that they struggle to see it with fresh eyes.
As one client, a service provider, recently told me:
"We know we have something special—but marketing it has been frustrating."
If you're in the same position, where you're getting your customers great results, but struggle to convey your value to new people—keep reading. Because I've created a messaging methodology that allows you to:
My methodology does not teach you to make outlandish promises nobody believes. It does not rely on countdown timers or fake urgency. It does not require you become an influencer.
Instead, you'll follow a classy approach to marketing that puts the focus on your customer. And then you'll craft a strong argument for why that customer should invest with you.
I've baked advanced marketing techniques into a simple package that anybody can follow, and our methodology is currently being used by marketing beginners and professionals alike.
Now, before I get into the details of the online course, it's important you hear how I developed this methodology.
It wasn't created overnight—far from it.
The story begins when I was helping Tiago Forte grow his business
Tiago Forte is the founder of the popular online course, Building a Second Brain, and published a New York Times bestselling book by the same name. In 2019, Tiago hired me to help him improve his marketing results.
We hit a home run.
I helped him grow his small online course into a 7-figure business which then helped him secure his book deal with a major publisher. The rest is history.
Many of Tiago's course students are also business owners, and seeing Tiago's meteoric rise, they began asking him for marketing advice.
Marketing is outside of Tiago's main topic, so he turned to me, his marketing advisor. Tiago suggested I run a program for his students, teaching them what I know about marketing.
I told Tiago, "Let's do it."
One morning, fueled by coffee, I sat down to write the curriculum for our new training. That's when it happened.
The idea hit me when I was working on the Module 1, which instructed students on how to create their marketing message. I was drawing a picture that explained my messaging methodology, and that's when the lightbulb turned on inside my head.
The Five Lightbulbs was Born
I looked at my drawing and saw five lightbulbs hovering over a bridge. While those lightbulbs looked simple enough, I knew what they represented, and the potential they held.
Tiago and I ran the program and incorporated this new framework, which I called The Five Lightbulbs. After the program ended, we surveyed everyone. The surprise?
Out of the eight modules, every person (but one) voted The Five Lightbulbs their favorite. I knew I created something special.
Have you heard that old adage, "Double down on what works"?
I'm always trying to better follow that adage, and The Five Lightbulbs gave me the perfect opportunity. So, on the next round of the training, I made it 100% The Five Lightbulbs—I ditched the other modules.
This second group of students saw even better results:
- An online course creator sold out all his seats in under 24 hours
- A leadership coach found a new USP (unique selling proposition) that landed her a large retainer client
- An agency owner trained his entire team on The Five Lightbulbs
- A media buyer is now using The Five Lightbulbs to test different Facebook ads and find winners
These results confirmed the first group wasn't a fluke. That's when I decided to go all-in on The Five Lightbulbs, so that it could live up to its true potential and help more people with marketing.
I spent two years implementing The Five Lightbulbs on real world-marketing campaigns
Before launching this DIY online course you're about to read about, I implemented The Five Lightbulbs with:
- My 1-on-1 clients
- Students in live group programs
Which meant I've been deep in the trenches with business owners implementing The Five Lightbulbs. That's allowed me to see where people get stuck, what works best, and what doesn't.
We tested The Five Lightbulbs methodology through:
- 125 breakout rooms
- 42 writing sessions
- 100 Messaging Maps (the document that contains your Five Lightbulbs)
- 130 hours of me teaching The Five Lightbulbs on Zoom.
Here's a picture from one of our groups' closing ceremonies. This was our "victory" photo.
After 15 years working with online businesses, I've seen how many products are rushed to market, and that was the last thing I was about to do. I made sure we got our methodology dialed-in.
It's paid off, too.
Read the results we're getting
I doubled the price on my course, so I thought, ‘Okay, well it's probably gonna take longer to sell out these 50 spots.’ I sent out the opening cart email on a Monday, and by Tuesday at the same time, it's completely sold out.
Anyone who wants to sell their stuff in a mega authentic way, in an almost Zen master sort of way of selling – I'd highly, highly recommend Billy's methodology.
Akash Thakkar
Composer and Video Game Sound Designer
I've done so many marketing programs over the past 10 years.
This is different. It makes marketing like a fun puzzle to solve.
The 5 Lightbulbs gave me a definitive structure so I know exactly what to include in my messaging and content while doing it in my own authentic style.
I'm consistently getting a 50%+ open rate for my newsletter and I know I'll be getting ROI from this program for years.
Renita Kalhorn
Executive Coach
The Five Lightbulbs framework helps us think about our marketing messaging in a more structured way.
We don’t have any formal training in marketing, but we have been to the Billy Broas Institute and is better than a university degree.
Stephen Clapham
Founder, Behind the Balance Sheet
We recently had our best ever product launch.
We didn’t do anything complicated and we definitely aren’t marketing geniuses. All we did was follow Billy’s lightbulbs and ideas for the product, promotional emails and landing page flowed naturally.
What I love about Billy’s training is that it gives you a framework, not just tactics. That means you can look at campaigns that haven’t worked and ask why.
For example, we realised that we hadn’t been focusing enough on lightbulbs 1 and 5. Once we fixed this, results improved dramatically.
Thanks Billy!
Joseph Taylor
Copywriter
10 Benefits of This Methodology
Here are ten features of our Five Lightbulbs methodology and how they'll help you maximize your marketing.
1 - Centralize your core message
Disjointed messaging leads to confusion. Our 5L method centralizes your messaging, ensuring it's clear and aligned across your website, social media platforms, and team members.
2 - Get a testing framework
As the saying goes in marketing, "Always be testing." Now, you have a framework to guide you.
3 - Plug & play to create marketing material quickly
Create marketing material faster. With our method's plug & play nature, you'll never create marketing material from scratch again.
4 - Built for collaboration
Copywriters, social media managers, web designers, and salespeople now have a place to collaborate when creating marketing messaging.
5 - Platform agnostic
Text, audio, or video. Facebook Ads, emails, or websites. It doesn't matter the medium or platform because The Five Lightbulbs can handle it.
6 - Visual learning
A bear, an owl, a visual landscape—what's not to love? Our method has a powerful operating system at its core while remaining fun and approachable.
7 - Tells a story
Everyone knows the best marketing tells stories, and storytelling is woven into the fabric of The Five Lightbulbs method.
8 - Gives your team a marketing language
We hear client teams say things like:
- "I love my Lightbulb #2 email!"
- "I need an Lightbulb 3 story!"
- "I came across an awesome Lightbulb 5 headline"
When your team speaks the same marketing language, it empowers them and makes them more autonomous. What leader wouldn't want that?
9 - Based on a timeliness skillset
The Five Lightbulbs methodology is built on the timeless skillset of rhetoric. I studied everyone from Aristotle to trial lawyers, learning their best techniques.In our methodology, instead of hype and outlandish promises, you'll make a compelling argument that wins over your prospect.
10 - Reusable
Once you learn the process, use it forever. Any product, service, business or invention you ever create—send it through this methodology. The best part is you only need to pay once.
It's now ready for a wider audience
As much as I love being a practitioner, I can't personally work with everyone. That’s why I am rolling out this DIY version of The Five Lightbulbs methodology. It brings the methodology to more people.
You've seen the time and effort I've put into developing it. I didn't create this methodology in a weekend. Over 1,000 hours and much blood, sweat, and tears went into its creation.
I've worked in online marketing since 2008, and I've seen all the other marketing courses. Heck, I've helped promote many of them. I know what they lack and what business owners really need.
Finally, 15 years after getting into online marketing, I'm releasing my very first marketing course. And I couldn't be prouder of what we've created.
It's the marketing course that makes all the other ones work.
Introducing: The Five Lightbulbs Method
I have done all the big names from Ryan Levesque to Frank Kern, to everybody else you can imagine. This simple framework that Billy teaches is a game changer.
In my world, as a business owner, there's before The Five Lightbulbs Method and after.
Christy Brennand
Founder of the More Heart Less Body health program
First, you'll choose the product you want to run through the process
When you start the course, you'll choose the first product or service you want to run through the methodology. To help you decide, ask yourself:
- “Which product or service do I want to sell more of?”
- "Which product would I love to have more testimonials from?"
- Fill in the blank: "If [XYZ] product took off, it would be life changing for me"
Anything come to mind?
Use those questions to think of good first candidate for a product, but don’t worry about locking yourself in. Remember, you pay for this system once, and can use it unlimited times for as many products or services as you wish.
Next, you'll create your
product's Messaging Map
A Five Lightbulbs Messaging Map is similar to a brand manual.
You can easily pay $10,000 (and in many cases $50,000+) to get a brand manual created, which will give you your logo, fonts, and website colors.
I asked, “Why don’t do the the same thing for our persuasive messaging?"
"Why not have a centralized document that contains the words needed to lead customers to buy?"
The Five Lightbulbs Messaging Map is like a brand manual, but instead of dictating your visual identity, it dictates the best words to sell your product. You'll then plug these words into your website, emails, social media—everywhere.
In this first phase of our methodology, you'll learn:
- Our favorite tools for creating your messaging map
- The two key steps in building your messaging map
- A workflow for turning your messaging map into finished sales pages, emails, and more
- 3 ways to quickly capture information in your messaging map
- How to handle more than one ideal customer (a common issue)
- When you should use multiple messaging maps
- How to collaborate with team members
When you're up and running with your messaging map, you'll feel much more relief around marketing. If you've felt scattered before, you'll now feel organized.
You'll be ready for the next step:
Then, you'll fill out your Five Lightbulbs
This is where the magic happens.
The Five Lightbulbs are special because they follow human experience of making a buying decision. They represent the things you must say if you want to turn on the lightbulbs in your customer's head and make them say, "Ah, this product is for me."
It works because you're empathizing with your customer, meeting them where they are, and leading them to the best solution for them. That's opposed to the approach most people take and beating customers over the head with their product from the start.
When filling out your Five Lightbulbs, you'll learn:
- How to do customer research using The Five Lightbulbs
- The importance of internal logic when it comes to earning your customer's trust
- How to know when you've done Lightbulb #3 correctly, which is the Lightbulb that articulates your unique approach
- How to pair Lightbulb #1 with Lightbulb #5 to maximize sales conversions
- How to find the Lightbulb on which you most need to turn up the brightness
- 25 questions that will give you endless messaging ideas
After this section, you'll have so much confidence, clarity, and excitement. Who knew marketing could be so systematic?
You only have one step remaining.
Finally, you'll weave your new messaging into your marketing
Completing a Five Lightbulbs Messaging Map is like getting a new Ferrari—you can't wait to take it for a spin.
The final step is to put your new messaging into action. The good news is you've already done most of the heavy lifting. Now, it's a matter of plug and play.
Enjoy the thrill of speeding through your next content creation session—with energy to spare.
Here's how that's possible. You'll:
- Learn how to sequence your Lightbulbs when creating marketing material
- Get a checklist with the 5 traits of good Lightbulb content
- Get a Call-to-Action Menu so you never again ask, "How should I wrap up this email?"
- Receive instructions for using The Five Lightbulbs to create sales pages, email sequences, and webinars
- Download templates for using your Five Lightbulbs on Twitter, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and more
- Get 25 writing prompts with specific prompts for each Lightbulb
- Graduate from the the prompts and use our formula for coming up with your own writing ideas
Enjoy the benefits
The most common phrase we heard in the live group programs was, “I’m updating my website right now.”
Here's what Leila, an Excel educator, reported:
I joined Billy’s program to make our copywriting stronger. We have excellent products, but our messaging wasn’t showing it.
Halfway through the cohort, I updated one of our sales pages using our new Five Lightbulbs messaging.
Our sales instantly improved.
I tracked our numbers closely, and over two weeks we made an additional $7,000 over what that page normally generates. And those numbers have continued.
Needless to say, we’re rolling out The Five Lightbulbs across our entire product catalog.
Leila Gharani
Excel and Power BI educator
Use this process over and over
The Five Lightbulbs is a reusable process. Pay once for this training and use it again and again.
- Got an idea for a new product? Run it through the Lightbulbs.
- Want to upgrade your entire product catalog? Run each through the Lightbulbs.
- A friend needs help with their business idea? Run it through the Lightbulbs.
Whether it's a product, a service, an invention, a speech, or a book . . . if it demands persuasive communication, you'll find that language with The Five Lightbulbs.
Join now
The price for this DIY training program is $500. It's a one-time payment which includes lifetime access.
Click the red button below to lock in the lower pricing and access to the training.
Required Reading: Simple Marketing for Smart People
Before joining The Five Lightbulbs Method, you must first buy and read my book, Simple Marketing for Smart People. Do not buy the course without first reading the book.
One Year Guarantee
I'm happy to give a generous guarantee because I know this methodology works. Try The Five Lightbulbs Method for one year. Do the exercises and publish marketing content publicly. If the course doesn't improve your business, let us know and we'll refund today's payment.
Note: In order to qualify for a refund, you will be required to show you attempted the course.
Is this for you?
You're probably asking, "This sounds good, Billy, but is it a good fit for me?"
Let me help you answer that question. Here are five scenarios where sending an offer through this new DIY training make sense.
1) To prepare for an upcoming product launch or relaunch
This was a common use of The Five Lightbulbs in our cohorts. It's not surprising, because you want to put your best foot forward when it's time to unveil a new product.
We recommend running your offer through the process 3 - 6 months before a major product launch. We recommend this much leeway because dialing in your core messaging should take place first, and before getting into the details of planning your launch, lining up partners, building landing pages, etc.
That said, if you've got a launch next week, you'll still benefit from a quick run-through.
2) Give your marketing material a refresh
Maybe your website messaging looks old and weathered, like the cracked paint on window shutters. Is it time for a fresh coat? This program is the perfect way to eliminate eyesores and make your website more visitor friendly.
3) Explore a new product idea or customer avatar
We had a business owner repeat our cohort for this very reason. She’d been doing well in her business, but within her existing audience, she had identified a new type of customer. This new customer avatar represented a major opportunity.
She ran her offer through The Five Lightbulbs again, creating messaging for this previously neglected — but potentially lucrative — new customer.
Do you have a potentially lucrative new customer avatar? Run them through the Lightbulbs.
4) Align your team on your marketing messaging
Do you work with team members or freelancers?
There’s an old saying: Every employee in your company is a marketer. Sure, you the business owner know who you help and why people buy from you. But do your employees know?
Creating a Messaging Map together is the perfect way to get everyone aligned on who your company serves -- and why.
5) Prepare for upcoming media or press
A successful older friend of mine always says: “Don’t take opportunities—master them.”
When it comes time for press, like a media push, or a book release, make sure to master these opportunities. This program will help you by giving you the best things to say when that opportunity arrives.
Change your relationship with marketing
Marketing doesn't need to feel heavy. It doesn't need to feel like a chore. You don't need to dread it.
I've been where you are.
I come from an academic background and only got into this marketing thing because I wanted to leave my career and strike out on my own.
Yes, most marketing is tasteless, hype-filled, and overly complicated. But it doesn't have to be.
We're proving that marketing can be fun, creative, and simple. We've started a movement -- will you join us? Click the button below to get started.
The question now is, "What's possible?"
I've been doing this for so long, everything has become muddy.
After learning The Five Lightbulbs, I feel so excited. I'm playing around with new business ideas, and am feeling so much more confident that I can message and market those ideas.
Ethan Waldman
Tiny House writer, speaker, and teacher
FAQ's
It's up to you, but it's generally best to start with the low-hanging fruit.
In other words, choose the offer that will give you the quickest financial results. Like a car, a business needs fuel to stay in motion. That fuel is revenue. Revenue lets you pay other people, freeing up your time to focus more on what's important, but not necessarily urgent.
Here’s what we’ve seen with the people who have done via our cohort.
- Before a product launch
- When new competition has entered your market and you need new messaging
- To prepare for a book launch
- Before a big website update
- When your marketing needs a refresh
- When you’ve updated your product and need new marketing material
First, if you're creating content to sell your products and services, you are the exact person this is for.
Landing pages, emails, FB ads, social media posts, webinars, YouTube videos... if these play an important role in your business, this new training will help.
Equipped with the Five Lightbulbs, you'll create that content faster and make it better. We're talking more clicks and more conversions.
Second, what types of businesses will this work for?
95% of my 1-on-1 work has been in the expert-industry. Online courses, coaching, consulting, books, membership sites... these are my bread and butter.
That means The Five Lightbulbs emerged from selling those products, so if you sell any of those, the training is for you.
What about other types of businesses? We have yet to train many other types of businesses on the 5L. A few software companies, yes. No e-commerce yet.
If you have something other than an expert-business, and you use the training, we'd love to hear from you.
At its heart, The Five Lightbulbs is a communication framework, so it'll work for anything. Heck, I'm even considering a "Five Lightbulbs for Couples" book.
This program is for entrepreneurs and business owners who are already creating content online. This program helps you create that content faster and make it work better.
That’s the best way to look at the time investment -- this program will save you time on what you’re already doing.
Of course, there is upfront work. You have to actually go through the program.
We recommend setting aside 2-3 hours per week. At that pace, you'll complete the program within 30 days.
Then, it’s simply a matter weaving everything you created into your ongoing marketing efforts. You'll shave time off the hours you were already putting into marketing, plus all the new marketing you create will perform better.
The program also has a quick start module, and you'll have a basic Messaging Map created in less than 30 minutes.
No, because this is a Do-It-Yourself program. There is no community or place to ask questions—it’s training only. Many people will be good with this DIY format, but if you’d like to work with someone, contact us and ask about our current offerings.
Reach out to Laura, and she’ll get back to you within 24 business hours. Email her here: support@fivelightbulbs.com
This program is intended for business owners already selling products or services and already creating content to support those selling efforts.
That means you must bring an existing product or service into the program – the training won’t help you find your idea.
However, the training can help you vet a new idea.
You will write in this program – there’s no way around it. But you need writing for your business regardless. This program will give you a framework that makes writing easier and more fun.
Yes, you can use it for your own offers or for client offers. If you want to use it for clients, write us and ask for our script. It’ll help you pitch the program to your clients.
Yes, the methodology can be used for videos. It’s medium-agnostic.
You can use this process for:
- Writing
- Video sales letters
- Podcasts
- Advertorials
- PPC ads
- Webinars
- Zoom presentations
- Sales scripts
- Speeches
And more. If it involves persuasive communication, The Five Lightbulbs Method will help.
We are a family business from San Diego, California.
(The fancy legal name of our business is Linchpin Media, LLC. In case you come across it.)
I (Billy) do the content and teaching. My wife Laura handles client and customer success. Our 5-year-old daughter puts the stamps on envelopes, although she's mastered that and is asking for a bigger challenge. And our 6 month old son keeps us all laughing.
We also have a handful of contractors. There’s Matt, our talented illustrator who created the Five Lightbulbs bear, owl, and the world they live in. Then there's Glen, our website development pro from The Philippines. And Mariya, my co-pilot on the Zoom calls.
We’re real people who love our clients and customers, and we can't wait to welcome you to the family.