There's two types of people who hear consensual sales in the first go, Oh, Eww, Shawna, that is not what you want to say. There are better words to use and the second type here, consensual sales and say, you know what? You're right. I don't want to talk my way into the sale. I don't want to memorize a script. You just want to work with clients who are excited to work with you. Now that's consensual sales.
There was a period of my life, where I was living in Connecticut. We were there for about three years while John got his post-doc and Connecticut is real close to New York city. It's only like an hour, hour and a half train ride. And I was invited to this conference, this two-day workshop slash networking event with infusion soft. And I decided to go, and I met this guy named Todd who, well, I don't know, like he seemed cool, I guess, but he told me this story about how he got the name for his company.
(00:56): And it was called Tresona media, which was like a digital marketing company that did like social media and like ads and all sorts of stuff. So he tells me about the name of his company. Long story short is they, when he was a kid middle school, high school, they would pray. They would take out the phone book and prank call mattress companies. And one of the names, one of the companies they had called was like Dresnick present or something. I dunno, but I thought it was a funny story. And I always remembered that story. Well, a couple of years later I was putting in a Facebook group and I recommended a book and like a comment section, right. And this guy replied and he was like, Hey, like, I've been meaning to read that book, yada, yada, yada, I clicked his name, checked him out.
(01:36): And it was the same. It was a transgenic media guy. And I was like, Oh my gosh, like the internet is such a small world. And over the last few years we have just kind of become fast friends. He has helped me tremendously with my own marketing when I can't make sense of all the things that I'm doing, he just kind of helps recalibrate like the stuff that's going on in my brain and how to best market my services. He's a wealth of knowledge and he's incredibly generous. He's a family man. I consider him my friend and he is on the show today. Todd, he also runs the growth suite.com. You can go check him out there, but I hope that you enjoy the show and it starts with his story about where it all began, which is this crazy, funny story about cooking meat love with his friends. I hope you enjoy. We'll just kind of jump right into it. And I want everybody to know who's listening is that you are actually one of the few people that I enjoy and implement marketing advice from. Thank you very much. Oh yeah. So catch us up to speed. Tell us how you got involved with marketing. Cause you got to like a unique backstory. I mean, I started in corporate communication while I started a web designer and
(03:00): Then I was in corporate communications for a few years and eventually cubicle life just was a, you know, not my gig. And I left that started.
(03:10): Did you go to college? Yeah.
(03:12): Communications. Okay. This was 2006. And so in 2006 there was not digital marketing or web or anything. And so my actual degree, my degree is in communications. I have a specialization in computer graphics and a certificate in web design. And that basically it was because like web design had two classes. So I got a certificate and like computer graphics had four classes. So it gave me, you know, I got a specialization, but like back then they didn't have those as like actual majors. But like, I, I always knew like I wanted to be online doing something. Right. So that's I kind of graduated, got a job as a web designer, worked at universal records, making websites for like little Wayne and Stephen Marley
(03:57): And people like that. And it was super
(03:59): Cool, which is like, when you think of that, you're like, Oh man, huge job, awesome freelance gig. And it's like, no, it was like 10 bucks an hour. And I worked, I worked in like this tiny little office in the city with five other 21 year old kids. Like we're all just like crammed in one little closet of a room, cranking out, you know, MySpace pages and stuff like that. But it was cool. I mean, it was, it was a fun experience. And then I worked in corporate communications for four years after that. And that's where I kind of like transitioned professionally from just like designing websites into like actual communications. And it wasn't called blogging yet, but like, you know, publishing content on a daily basis and social media again, like kind of before, really social media, as we know it today, how I really like came to understand the power of like content marketing and what we know of today as content marketing and more of what social is in 2009, my parents got me a flip camera for Christmas and for anybody like too young for what those were, they were like, it, this was before cell phones had cameras on them and it was a video camera that like fit in your pocket.
(05:06): And it was like the coolest thing that ever came out at the time. Right. And so I got that and I was like super excited about it. And I was like in my mid twenties. And so I went back to my apartment and my roommate was like, Oh, this is super cool. And after like five minutes, we're like, okay, like now what? Like there was no blogging in 2009. Right? Like, and like YouTube was like just becoming a thing, but there weren't you tubers. Right. And so at the time we had, you know, put on a couple extra pounds being like mid twenties bachelors that just ate every meal out at a restaurant and you know, went drinking every night and we wanted to learn how to cook. And so being kind of like a geek, I was like, why don't we start a video show about learning how to cook and I'll make a website about it.
(05:53): And so every week we would go and get like the finest $11 bottle whiskey that bottle King had to offer. And we would Google a couple of different recipes and we would just make these like five minute videos with the flip cam and I movie and put them on YouTube and nothing of it. Right. Like I've was not an entrepreneur at the time. Like I was still like working in corporate and a couple of weeks go by and I get an email, you know, the YouTube notification thing. And it's like, so-and-so commented on your video. And it's like, you guys are hilarious and this actually tastes pretty good when I made it, like whatever, something or whatever. Right. And I'm just like, I'm like, yo Greg, who is this person? He's like, I don't know why. And I'm like, well, no, you have to know them.
(06:36): I don't know them. And they commented on our video. I mean, who else was watching these? And I like went and looked at the stats and there were like thousands of views on our video. And I was like, Oh crap, what's happening here. And then like, and then I started kind of looking around at like the analytics and stuff of the site. And it turned out that like we were at the top of Google for easy recipe for meatloaf. And as we were doing this like weekly, we ended up at the top of Google for like easy recipes for beginners, easy recipes for chicken parm, easy recipes, easy French toast recipes, these like we did like 10 or 15 or something like that. And like, we got like 60,000 YouTube videos in like, not that long of a time without doing anything. And all it really was, it was like a simple WordPress site that I built and like video content.
(07:27): And I was like, wow, that, you know, I didn't know anything about list-building this, obviously it's just a stupid drunk project. Like we didn't turn it into anything, but that's when I realized like the power of just creating helpful content and creating these valuable resources. And, and what I didn't know I was doing was we were the target audience. Like we were making videos of ourselves. So like these mid 20 year olds who were trying to learn how to cook was the target audience. So although we didn't do any research at the time, because we were scratching our own itch, there were people searching for the stuff that we were putting out and it resonated with them. We got that kind of, part of it was a little lucky, but then that's when it was like, okay, if we create these really great pieces of content, it's going to show us to all these people.
(08:09): All these people are going to start sharing it with their friends and, and all that kind of stuff. You know, this is the approach that businesses need to be taking to building up their audience and getting attention and creating a relationship with their audience. Right. I mean, that's really what it comes down to. And that's over the last 11 years only become more important where having that relationship with your audience means so much, whether you are a single freelancer or a large corporation, like it comes down to the relationship you can build with your audience, not just so they know, like, and trust you enough to buy, but so that you really have like a community of people on a tribe that are like really into what you're doing. They know what you're all about. And you're attracting people based on like the vibe you're putting out so that, you know, these are going to be your perfect customers when you start working with them, right?
(08:56): Like they're all kind of pre-qualified and free, educated before you start working with them. So that one, by the time you get on a sales call, it's kind of easy, right? Like they already know all about you. They dig everything you're doing. And they're like, we know like, Hey, like, okay, what's the process for us to get started and hire you. Right. And that's really kind of what I learned and developed over the last 11 years. And it's ever evolving as things, you know, obviously have changed from what channels you're on and how long and short pieces of content needs to be and how do you get them to reach the right people and all, all that tactical stuff is always evolving, but you know, the strategy of just like be helpful and be yourself and be consistent. And that will attract people who are going to be great customers for you. And then like, you're going to love the work that you get to do.
(09:40): Absolutely. Do you think that when we're talking about content, I'd love to kind of get your opinion on this because people come to me and I think they expect their content to always like convert. Like they think that they can just throw up or a blog post or like whatever the thing is, like they expect to create this piece of content and it will convert for them. And that's never quite been my experience. Like the content does some of, so much of the heavy lifting of like trying to talk somebody into something, but it just facilitates an easier selling process that I do behind closed doors.
(10:13): Right. Yeah, totally, totally. I totally agree. And, and one, I mean, like let's pick a, a particular business to, so that we're on the same page, because I do think like there's different things that sell different ways. Right. And so we're talking about selling like services, right? Yes. Like, you know, client businesses. And so really the same way when people come to me and ask about like, quote unquote, social selling, right? Like social selling is a little bit of a misnomer because you don't sell on social media, you use social media to create relationships and conversations with the people that you will sell to. And the actual selling happens, like you said, kind of behind closed doors and maybe it does happen in DMS or email or or on the phone. But the social aspect of it is really about like making those connections and building a relationship and creating the perspective, like giving them the perspective of what you bring to the table, what your values are, what your approach is like.
(11:09): So that not just so they know like, and trust you, but also so that, like, there are pre-qualified good fit for your approach to business. Like anyone who follows my stuff or gets my emails, knows that I am super conversational with the content I put out with the emails I send. And so anyone who comes to me, that's been through my funnel, so to speak. And, and I don't mean like, you know, they went to a landing page and signed up and now they're my client. I mean, like they've been in my ecosystem of content for a little while. They know if they're looking for someone to write buttoned up email copy for them. That's like, dear mr. Tessio, we, you know, blah, blah, blah. Like, that's not my approach. And people understand that because of what I'm putting out. And so it helps to filter out the right and wrong types of people too.
(11:52): But I also, like when we look at, when we talk kind of a little more on the tactics side of things that has evolved over time, like if you read something like Dan Kennedy's ultimate sales letter from, I don't know what year it is, I could check real quick. But you know, I mean, it's definitely from early nineties, eighties, maybe it's about how you write a long page sales letter that gets sent in the mail, right? Like it's in an envelope, someone opens it up and they read this from start to finish. And I mean, some of the stuff that he sends or used to send, it was like booklets, right? Like, and people had the time to go through that. And then there was like an evolution when everybody came online, like, no, one's really reading that lengthy of a sales page. Like you can't just go to a cold, strange audience with this long letter and expect them to buy something from you.
(12:39): And so that's kind of when Jeff Walker's product launch formula came out and that's like what? He calls the quote, like sideways sales letter. And he basically took the same elements of Dan Kennedy's ultimate sales letter and turned it so that instead of one visually you would think of the long sales page as top to bottom, he turned it sideways because now you're chunking it and you're taking it into multiple sections. So you're taking each section of that one letter and you're making it into four different videos. Right. And so that became the sideways sales letter, which was like, get people signed up for your video series. And then, you know, it comes out every day for a week. And then they buy from you. And I think now we're at a point where like all of those same pieces of the message matter, but the same way that people weren't reading full booklets, that Dan Kennedy was sending out any more and it had to get changed into four videos in today's world.
(13:32): The four videos thing is super hard to do successfully one because of the time and attention of someone sitting down and watching them. But also even if I do sign up for something, that's going to be five days long, like what are the odds that every day I'm ready and waiting to watch your 20 minute video, like it's just not likely going to happen. And so now I think it's even further. And like what we call is like an evergreen incubator content strategy, but it's still taking like most of those same pieces of the sales letter and the sideways sales letter, product launch formula, but it's chunking them down even further into bite size kind of snippets that you put out onto social media over the course of a month. People are picking up these little, the shorter posts that's on Instagram or Facebook. And then, you know, maybe a little longer on, on an email and then maybe you send them in there as a five minute video, but you're taking kind of like, you're hitting all those same points. It's just happening over a longer period of time, as opposed to just that one sales letter. And so, like you said, sending someone to one piece of content and expecting them to convert into a customer, it's just not realistic.
(14:33): So how do you know what each piece of the puzzle you're talking about? Like each piece of content? Yeah,
(14:39): So basically my like values, principles, whatever that like I take when it comes to marketing and what I call like the modern marketing principles are that you really need to be customer centric. You need to be, you need to be value first and you need to really humanize your brand and have a personal connection with your audience. And then ultimately you do always want to have a call to action or a next step. Right. Even if that next step is like, let me know what you think or leave a comment or like, whatever, like, it doesn't have to be by something, but I think you should always at least be giving a next step and making sure you're communicating those things. And so value first is one of the things that my mantra is, is like, don't sell to strangers. And so you shouldn't be going out and just saying like, Hey, here's our product and all our features.
(15:23): But rather you want to kind of attract the people who are going to be in your audience by calling out the problems that they have, or if they have like some kind of self identification. So like the initial content that I like people to go with is stuff that speaks to the problems that they solve. And that's going to attract the problem aware audience, right? Like people who have that problem will naturally be interested in learning more about that. And then that's kind of the customer centric thing where we're putting the audience first where like, Hey, if you're one of these types of people, or if you have these kinds of problems, here's a couple of tips for you. You know, it gets them engaged with your messages, whether that's through cold or warm email, whether it's through social organic posts or ads, or if you're just at a networking meeting, right? Like if you went to a networking meeting and you spend time like giving five minutes of like, let me ask a couple of questions about your situation and I'll give you some tips and pointers is much more likely to help you get a follow-up meeting than if you just went around, handing your business cards to everyone and said like, Hey, if you know, you need your taxes done, call me like, it's just
(16:25): You know what he does. It's true. That's what it is.
(16:32): So I think when you take that, like the customer centric problem focused content upfront, like that's how you can make sure you're attracting people who have the problem that you solve, which kind of qualifies them as potential customers to begin with. Right. And so you should always have like, be talking of that kind of stuff. And then after they know the problem, they need to know the kind of solution, whether that's like a generic solution or your proprietary method or approach or style or strategy. So I think you should have some pieces of content that speak to how you do things and how you get results for people or how you give them the transformation that they want. Right? Like if you're a photographer, you can start with content around like, Hey, you know, people who want family photos, especially this year, like with COVID, maybe there's issues, getting family pictures, taken, blah, blah, blah.
(17:16): And here's some tips that you can when you're working with a photographer, blah, blah, blah. And then you can put out some content about like getting great family pictures, because now we know like they want your family pictures. Now let's talk about how do you get great family pictures? Like, you know, here's a couple of tips for like the kind of clothes that the family should wear. Like, you know, if you want to take this type of approach to matching each other or this or that, like, here's some tips for like wardrobes for your family photos for the holidays, or it's always hard to get kids paying attention. So like make sure before you show up that they ate and that they're changed and that whatever, like whatever kind of helpful tips you can give people who want this solution that you have. Right. And then you can also start tying in like, you know, during our photo shoots, we always make sure we have an extra couple of granola bars on hand in case the kids get hungry or cranky for whatever.
(18:01): Right. And now you start introducing like reasons to work with you specifically. So from a straight line approach, like I think that's really, and then giving some kind of offer, like having content that does have offers, like, you know, this weekend looks like it's beautiful. And this is actually a real thing that we signed up for a couple of weeks ago. Was it a local photographer? I don't know, in some Facebook group my wife signed up for, but it was like, Hey, this weekend looks like it's going to be beautiful. I'm going to do a 15 minute photo shoots. And obviously there's only this many hours in the day that are going to be good for the lighting. And so there's this many slots open, if you're interested, shoot me a message. And like, it was like a special deal. I forget it was like a hundred bucks for, for X amount of pictures.
(18:38): And then I'm sure she'll, you know, want to then sell us into like holiday photos later on. But like, that's how she got a whole, you know, however many photos she did that day. How many, however many families. Right. So if you're putting out, you're building your audience and then you can put out these kinds of offers once in a while. And again, I think the importance of putting out like the content first and in the mix is like, if all you do is put out promotions, like people are just going to stop paying attention to you and anytime you post something, they're just like, Oh, that person's always selling something. And so I think putting out that content is like super important. And then like through that kind of journey, I kind of have a map out of like 30 days, that includes 30 different types of posts and stuff.
(19:15): But like in addition to like highlighting problems and introducing solutions and then giving tips and education and kind of showing like your way of approaching and what makes you better and differentiates you from the competition, then you always want to have stuff that's like social proof or customer highlights. So like, it's not just you bragging about yourself, but show off what other people are doing. And like for the photographer, people, obviously that's super easy. Cause you show pictures of other people's families. And you're like, look at, you know, these photos of the Smith's came out great with their permission and all that, of course. But like, you know, showing that the social proof and testimonial kind of stuff, you always want to have a list of like, what are the objections that you commonly get during your sales conversations? And like, if you can preempt those in your content leading up, right, then they're going to know the answer to those questions that they have before they talk to you.
(20:02): And then that makes it a lot easier. Even if they do ask about the objection, when you answer it, they're not going to go back and forth and like a whole altercation or whatever. Like they're going to know the answer, but sometimes people just feel like they need to say out loud what their objection is and hear the answer back to them. Right. But they'll, at least it'll be smoother because they already know what the answer is. They just need you to confirm it verbally for them. And just, you know, depending on your industry, if you want to use like statistics and data to put out, that's always, always helpful in those kinds of businesses and talking about your love and passion for things, and kind of telling your story, like, how did you get into it? Show some behind the scenes stuff, really the stuff that humanizes you.
(20:38): You know, we, in my group, in the gross suite, you know, one of our members had an email list. He's a carpet cleaner. He has an email list that he got like from home advisor from literally five years ago. So like they're not people that he worked with. There are people who filled out a random form, a home advisor five years ago. And he sent out an email to them last week that just didn't ask them for anything. Didn't tell them anything. It just was straight up his story of like how he got into the business because it was his dad's company. And he took over and he learned hard work ethic and blah, blah, blah. And they said like, at some point you connected with me on home advisor, but I just wanted to follow up and send you this message and keep in touch.
(21:12): This is who I am and how we got started. And you know, look forward to connecting with you in the future. And he booked three jobs off of that because you just showed like, he humanized it. He showed, you know, who he was and that connected with people. And like, of course the story of how he got started tied into doing a good job. Like I learned to do a good job cleaning carpets the right way, because this, this and this, but you know, there was no, Hey, special offer sign up by midnight. It didn't even say if you want your carpets clean, let me know. I'm pretty sure we didn't even say that much. I think it literally was just like, Hey, thank you so much. Here's a little about me talk soon. And it just, basically it resonated because it was like, Hey, if you have these kinds of problems, meaning you have carpets in your house that need cleaning.
(21:53): Like it connected, like people can make those connections. And so humanizing, you know, that, that was kind of one of the last things I said on the list of principles, but you know, showing that behind the scenes personifying your brand and especially, especially, especially for like solo service providers and small businesses, like it used to be like the big trend was that you had to make yourself look bigger than you were. Right. And like, yeah, everyone's like has their own email addresses like info at, and it's like, dude, it's like, you're the only person who works there, like use your own email, we've run tests. I've sent millions and millions and millions of emails over the years. And it's always Shawna Beckman, Shauna at, Hey, Hey Shauna mei.com that gets opened versus consensual sales business, LLC from info at it's always the person's name and personal email address that get opened when they get sent. Right. So
(22:45): I think the internet kind of changed that a little bit. Like, do you think that business has always kind of been that way or is it been a shift with the way that we do business now with the internet?
(22:55): I think there's a lot of different reasons for it, but I think there's definitely been a shift where people have always wanted to do business with people, but maybe there was more of a stigma around it and look like we're kind of of the age where I don't know, like I was an adult, you know, I started business after the internet, but like I grew up without it. So like, I'm kind of in that in-between stage where I don't remember much like from a business perspective pre-internet but like there was this people want it to be bigger than they were and people wanted to, I think they thought they had to do business with companies and things like that. And that got played out. And I think having a connection is so much more important these days and that's people want to know who you are and they want to know the story behind what you're doing. And I think that makes them feel good and makes them prefer doing business with you versus like some faceless corporation. And we've even done even for solo businesses. Like we've run tests on campaigns where we've had the $10,000 a day video production company come in, shoot a ridiculously nice looking video with graphics and all that stuff. Versus like the cell phone video of essentially the same content and the cell phone video outperforms it five times. Right. Like, you know, we're getting,
(24:11): They were just talking about that. I just heard. So I've been working with this real estate company and they just said that they said, do you think that the professionally edited perfect house photos are going to be better in terms of click rates and stuff, but it's always like just the janky from your phone cell phone picture that has the performing. Yeah.
(24:31): Yeah. I think that's because a couple of things, one, it's more native looking through the platform. So like if you're scrolling through Instagram or Facebook and you see a professionally edited something like, even though people don't really watch TV that much anymore compared to like online stuff and we don't really see commercials, but like when you see that really polished, edited thing, you know, it's a commercial and you know, the old Dean Jackson thing, like cheese and whiskers, like if you see something that looks like a commercial where you think you're about to get sold to your whiskers, you know, you see whiskers and you've run away. And the analogies, I didn't flush that out. Well, if a mice sees whiskers, it runs away. But if a mice sees cheese, it runs to the keys. And when we think we're going to be sold to that looks like whiskers.
(25:14): And we put our guard up and we block it out and we run away. And so when you see something that's highly produced, you obviously that's from a company and you are expecting to be sold to. And so your guard goes up and you just block it out. And so that's part of it where like, if you want to get the attention, you have to make sure that like, if you don't get their attention first, then it doesn't matter what your call to action is because they're not even going to see it. Right. And so that's part of it is being native to the platform so that it looks like it fits in, but that's a tricky balance too, because you have to do it in a way that does stand out and gets their attention, but it fits into the context. Right. And I think the other part of it is like, people want like real information and it's like, okay, that house looks awesome.
(25:54): But clearly it's, photo-shopped like, what is it going to look like when I actually show up? And so I think there's more of like the realism to having cell phone videos, cell phone, you know, and, and look, please, if you're doing video, like use a tripod, so it's not wobbly or like, make sure your arm is ready to be steady for while you're holding it and have some decent lighting, even if it's just with the sun, like, don't make it crappy on purpose, but you can do it yourself. You don't need, you're better off not using some kind of highly produced approach.
(26:22): Yeah. And I think people's like, Raiders are kind of a present. Like they're kind of cool. If it doesn't look like it belongs there, they're going to tune it out. I love that she's in whiskers. Yeah.
(26:33): So I pulled that. I injected that into the conversation as if everyone knew what I was talking about, which is, which is actually a great analogy and lesson for everyone. Like when putting out your own content, remember that you need to enter the conversation that's happening in the mind of the person receiving the message, not in your own mind. And so like, I was already having this conversation in my head that like, I know that I'm talking about mice and she's in whiskers, but nobody else knew that. And I just said like, yeah, you know, the whiskers come out. And then it's like, and I lost everyone. It's like, no, one's going to know what the hell you're talking about. So always remember, like when you put out content, like make sure that it's presented in a way that makes sense to the people, right?
(27:12): Yeah. There was I worked with the lady who was like a herbalist. She does like matches. She's like makes a homemade tea for people and matches, you know, their ailments to certain, like
(27:23): I thought you were saying, she makes matches.
(27:25): He's super cool. She's like from Canada. And she's one of my very first clients. And that was what we had talked about with her as well. Which is, if you imagine the average person, like how many books do you think that they have ever read on Herb's and plants and plant medicine, like none. Right. And this is for photographers too. Like the normal people have not read or know anything about cameras or lighting or photography and how many books, if you look at your own education and YouTube videos, classes, courses, you know, material practice, like you have probably spent hours and hours, you know, like a lifetime worth of just reading and learning. And it's just, it's really easy to speak to like your industry rather than the average person who couldn't benefit from that service who doesn't have that knowledge base.
(28:14): Yeah, totally. I think that's a big thing too. Like, you know, you can't teach like advanced calculus to people who don't know addition and subtraction, right? Like you have to remember where they're at and like, and speak to them in a way that they understand. And also like you make a good point too. Like I see a lot of people when it comes to content creation where they're really creating great content for their peers, but that's not going to help them get their ideal clients. Right. So that's another like big thing to like, keep your mind on when you're talking about stuff. Like if you're a photographer and you want to do family photo shoots, is this the stuff that like the busy mom who's scrolling through Facebook right now? Is this going to catch her attention? Or is this going to impress like other photographers be like, , yeah.
(28:54): That photographer is like, knows what they're doing. It's different, you know, it's cool to get the recognition of your colleagues, but that's not going to get you the clients. Right. So you need to make sure that you're speaking to your ideal clients. Like, I feel like we probably made it sound like you need like thousands of pieces of content. And like, you know, there's always the perception that like, you need to be posting every single day and the blah, blah, blah, all that kind of stuff. But like the reality is like when you kind of break down the stuff that I listed off, like, we're really only talking about like anywhere from like eight to 17 to maybe 30 pieces of content forever. Right? Like, unless like, you know, if it's like Christmas or holiday photos, obviously, then that's like a timely thing that's only gonna last.
(29:33): But like, if you do family photos anytime a year, like you just need someone to go through that content journey once. Like, you don't need to come up with all these brand new things all the time. It's just making sure you have that single customer journey. And then all of your customers go through it. I think that's something that like people miss, miss the point on, right? Like the marketing calendar as an idea, this is like something I would love to like blow up the industry on is like killing the marketing calendar because it doesn't matter that to us, we've been talking about something for five years. Our ideal customer is only just discovering it today. And if we bring them into the journey at the five-year Mark, like they're not coming along for the ride with us, we need to go down to the bottom of the mountain and meet them there and guide them up.
(30:19): And that doesn't mean you have to keep doing these things over and over. It means you just have to know what is the dozen things that I want to say to these people and make sure that when they find me, they're finding me at the beginning of the journey or they can easily get to the beginning of the journey and then move through that. And then at the end of that, they're going to be my customer or at least be an ideal customer so that when it is time for them to buy, it's easy for them to buy with me.
(30:41): Absolutely. What has surprised you the most in the last like 10 years of, so in terms of leveraging digital marketing and how it's changed over the years, or maybe what hasn't changed.
(30:53): Okay. What has surprised me the most, especially this year is to me, like we talked about the bubbles that we're in is like as an expert in your industry, whatever industry it is. And like, so you and me, like, we live online and it's like, obviously every business should be online and it shocks me how many businesses still don't realize that. I mean, if you're listening to this show, you're, you're already on the boat with us. But like, that's one thing that has really been surprising to me is like how it wasn't blatantly obvious to every single company that they need to have like a website that functions well and has good content and has a free offer to get people on your email list. Like, those are just like the simple basics that I've been preaching since 2009. And I'm like, man, I'm tired of talking about this.
(31:41): Like I shouldn't, I don't think I still have to talk about this stuff anymore, but I do like people who, you know, they don't know, like I actually did a podcast interview earlier this year that I think it was pre COVID, but it was on the topic of addressing people who think they don't need a website at all. Oh my gosh. Like that's crazy to me. And like, look, I run super lean and I'll give you an same thing as you, like, we could easily build businesses just through Facebook connections and DMS and phone calls. Like, it's not that you need the website to do like, you know, it doesn't have to be this huge, crazy thing, but like the idea that like there's people who say like, who are adamantly just against it. Like, we don't need it. We proactively do not need a website to be in business. It's like, dude, like people are going to need your address or phone number or something. Right. Like
(32:29): I did just to speak to this as just like personal experience. One of my daughters wanted to join gymnastics and I like go to, you know, like do a quick Google search, pull up the gymnastics, local, the local gymnastics page. The font was like, incursive, it was white. Unlike in that graphic, you couldn't find the phone number anywhere. And even there's been places times where I've found the phone number and it's not clickable. Like I can't actually click the phone number and it, and it's, it's gone. Like, I don't remember the name of the place. Like we didn't give her any information. Like you just, it's so silly that something so easy of just having like a functional, like couple page website where people can click the name, download a schedule and see your prices can make, can make a huge difference or that this was the gymnastics.
(33:15): This was the gymnastics example. But also when my family joined like a local gym, I had submitted the contact form like three different times and no call, no follow up nothing. And it was like, it's just nuts to me that it's like, where is the way to make it easy? Well, this goes back to kind of what you said at the beginning where it's like, if you're customer centric, like just start with the conversation in their mind, like when they come to your website, what are they looking for? What are they going to click on?
(33:44): Yup. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And this is a great, a great point where like Dan Kennedy had the sales letters that were booklets, Jeff Walker has these, the four video series, the same strategy applies to your website or to, like I said before, networking meetings, like you want to make sure that like the customer journey, wherever it's happening, happens for them. Right. And that it's easy for them to take the next step.
(34:06): Yeah, absolutely. Todd, okay. This is going to wrap up the episode, give us the details about where we can find you.
(34:13): Yeah, for sure. So the growth suite.com, that's where you can find obviously blog content and a bunch of free resources there that can help you kind of put you on the path and give there's free guides and free templates and stuff for you to do this kind of content planning and build out your business model around this to make your sales calls easier because everyone's pre-qualified and digs your vibe before you get on the phone with them. So the gross suite.com is where you can go and check that stuff out.
(34:36): Cool. Awesome. Todd, I think the world of you and I appreciate all your help and support and insight, especially,
(34:42): Thank you very much. I appreciate it. And I'm in your Facebook group too. So if anybody's in the group and they're interested, you know, tag me or shoot me a message or a friend request, like I'm always happy to chat about this stuff because my quick chats about this stuff turned into my own content, which helps me build and reach more people. So cool.
(35:02): This is ThePodcastFactory.com.
