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Episode 17: Atiba de Souza - The Content Superman
Episode 1712th October 2022 • The Backstory on Marketing and AI • Guy Powell
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About This Episode: 

CEO of Client Attraction Pros sits down with Guy to discuss his backstory on marketing, and his specialty: content. He explains how essential video content has become. Atiba touches on how valuable video content has become in regards to SEO, especially in a post-COVID world.

He expresses the importance of understanding the customer's purchase journey. What are people Googling? How do you use SEO to market your brand? Check out this episode to understand the impact content (specifically video content) and SEO has on your brand and business.

About Atiba de Souza:

The Content Game is Intense with Third Party Data restrictions. New privacy laws and growing competition.

So what is the answer to generating more leads? Nothing less than fresh, original, and engaging content. But who's got time to create content, much less launch it across every platform in the appropriate format?

The answer? A customer-focused, tactical, technology-driven plan for radical content creation and repurposing that will land your content on Page 1 of Google.

Atiba de Souza is the Content Superman. Decades of running an exclusive agency combined with hardcore technical skills -- I'm talking CODE, people, REAL CODE! -- have made him one of the few people with the skills and insight to marry emerging software and Google’s algorithm with an intuitive feel for the culture of every social media platform.

His clients call him the SEO Super Sleuth, the Business Ninja, the “Build Your Team” Guru, and the Super Connector!

He was killing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) before the term was even invented, ranking regional and national brands in the US on page 1 of Google for over 15 years.

His content strategies are not just bells and whistles; his vision is inspiring and his voice is thunderous in the B2B SEO space. 

Kasim Aslam, owner of the  #1 rated Google Ads Agency in the US was blown away by his tech-backed ingenious process, “Nobody else is doing this. You’ve got stuff people need to hear, ” he told him.

Not even the best of the best can say that they ranked more than 3000 pages on the first page of Google results while helping companies enjoy qualified leads. 

Atiba’s experience and insights are so mind-boggling that Lauren Petrullo of Mongoose Media believes that there is “brilliance oozing out of his pores”

This Superman CEO of a Video Marketing Agency has been featured on many renowned platforms including Traffic & Conversion Summitt, Digital Marketer Blog, Fox, Digital Journals, The Times, & USA Today.

It's time to grab the content marketing bull by the horns! And Atiba is your man.

Links: 

https://marketingmachine.prorelevant.com/getting-started/

Sign up for ProRelevant Emails: https://mailchi.mp/prorelevant/newsletter  

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/83DU8io7eL8

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/atibadesouza/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/atibadesouza

Thought Leadership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu7Np_hjeakCER3xFzeu-Tw

Team Building YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChjej0lyswDeDd91x7y63ew

SEO Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoEGC8wJj2WjotcfFU8Xudg

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theatibadesouza

Transcripts

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Hi, I'm Guy Powell and welcome to the next episode of the

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backstory on marketing. If you haven't already done so please

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visit pro relevant.com and sign up. For more of these episodes

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and podcasts. I am the author of my just released book, the post

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COVID marketing machine, prepare your team to win. You can find

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out more information on this at marketing machine dot pro

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relevant.com. Today we'll be speaking with a Teva D'Souza,

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welcome ativa Hey,

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guy, thank you so much for being here. And man, what a great

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title for a book. Genius.

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Well, you know, it's funny when when we were doing it, we we did

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some social media, and we did a handful of polls on it. And, you

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know, during when and this was in the middle of COVID. And so

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everybody really, really liked it. Now that we're kind of post

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COVID Truly, then it's kind of like, well, you know, I don't

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know, but I think it's good. I think it'll I think it'll do

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well. So yeah, thank you for that. So, yeah, tell us a little

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bit about yourself, what is your backstory on getting into

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marketing?

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Well, my backstory goes way beyond COVID. So that's for

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sure. But I actually started off in 1996, building my very own

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search engine, me and two friends sat in my mother's

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basement, which, believe it or not, y'all, my mother's moving

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out of that house right now as we speak, as we record this, and

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we sat in that basement, and we wrote a search engine, because

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it was a cool thing to do. And we thought we needed it. And

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that started me in search. That way back in 1996, then I went

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over to the government and did search for the government and

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then got tired of the government. kind of tough

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working with the government, and then went back into the private

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sector. And at that time, which was right around 2005 2006

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timeframe. I was looking at Google and the search results it

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was providing and what people were saying about those results,

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and I realized Google had a problem. At that time, Google

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was also realizing it was having a problem. Right, it was

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returning search results that people weren't happy with. And

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there were people, business owners who had really great

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content, even back then, who could not get their content in

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front of their right customer. And being an old geek, who wrote

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search engines, I was like, Well, I know how it works. And I

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think we can figure out how to get your content to the top of

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page one of Google, I think we can do that. And that started me

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in at least search marketing.

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Right? Right. Yeah. Fantastic. You know that. And that is so

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true. Google, I mean, you know, who knew back then how important

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that search engine is, and now with our clients, paid search

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and organic search are just about everything to their

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businesses. And if you're not successful in those, then you're

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not, you're not your business is missing out, it's missing out on

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opportunity. So tell us about your business client attraction

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pros. Tell us about that.

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So as you said, organic, right and searched. And so that's

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where we started. right around that time 2006, and really got

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going 2007 2008 and saw the market and what we can do. So we

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did a lot of trials in those first couple of years. And by

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2008 is when we really got started. And it was all about

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written content, blogs, that's what we had back then. Okay,

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that's what everybody had. And that's what people still have.

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And we were helping our clients produce fantastic written

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content, whether it was just a copy on their website, or more

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often or not blog posts and blog content. And we did that, really

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up until 2018 2019. And about 2018. And really excited 2019 I

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was tired. I was tired. We went on vacation. And at the end of

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2019, my wife and I, and she said she wanted to get her

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business really going. It's a great because I'm getting tired

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of written content. And I've been doing this a long time.

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Maybe it's time for a change. And at that time as well. In I

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had written really a spec in 2018 about video and that video

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was the future, right it was becoming harder and harder and

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harder to write rank for written content and video content was

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really starting to pick up steam. And as I was saying, I

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just, I think I'm done, then well, we all know what happened

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after 2019. Right? Yep. And when COVID hit in early 2020, I said,

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Well, maybe this is good timing, then. Because a lot of my

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clients started saying, Hold on, we're not sure what we want to

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do. We're not sure if we want to keep spending money, we're going

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to pump our brakes a bit. So I started thinking this might be a

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good time. But then something else happened on the other side,

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bunches and bunches of people who I'd said for literally a

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decade, you need a web presence, and you need SEO, started

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showing up and knocking on the door saying, hey, we need help.

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We need to get online, or we're online, but our online sucks.

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Can you help? Can you help? Can you help? And it forced me into

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this juxtaposition of okay, how can I really help you? What is

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it that I can really do here for you? Because the other thing

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that COVID did, for any of you who don't know, listening, is it

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made a bunch of people who I'm not saying this to to be

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disparaging to them. But who took a course. And then started

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a Facebook account, AD account, and ran ads and said, I know

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everything about SEO, I know everything about paid search,

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because I took a course. Right? And so and you know, this guy,

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and so people were just inundated, but they didn't know

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who to trust. And it became even harder to rank on page one.

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Because there's even more content being created. That

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sucked. And so I said, Okay, what are we going to do with

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this? And how are we going to help? And it was about that time

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I met someone who was a really close friend of mine now us,

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they're from the UK. And he's like, man, I've been doing this

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YouTube thing. And I've been doing this since, like, 2016.

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And here's my results now. And it reminded me of that spec that

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I've written way back in 2018. Okay. And I pulled it up, and I

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said, Hold on. This is actually really close to what he's doing.

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And he was having some issues with just a written SEO. And so

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we started collaborating on some stuff, and his stuff has

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skyrocketed, you should go check them out. SF digital, absolutely

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wonderful in this space. And what I learned there, though,

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was that there was a way that we could help people create videos

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using the same concept of spec in terms of content that we use

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with written content, create videos, and then get those

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videos ranked on page one of Google. Giving if you don't

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mind, yeah. Quick, quick example of this. And I'm not listened to

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listen to me yet. I'm not saying that these results are typical.

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And always. But this just happened last week.

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We have a client who has been struggling for several years to

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get anything he's done, ranked on page one of Google two weeks

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and two weeks, we were able to help get 14 out of 18 videos

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ranked on page one and eight of them. And spot number one.

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Now, that's phenomenal. That is phenomenal. So and you're

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talking about page one of YouTube as opposed Oh, one of

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Google? No, I'm

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talking about page one of Google. Oh, no kidding. Wow.

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page one of Google?

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Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I do want to talk to you a little bit

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more about that. But one of the things on your LinkedIn page, I

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saw a couple of really good videos on there. And, you know,

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and I really liked what you did in terms of, you know, your

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customer value journey. And the key, I think you called it the

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key to good content. Tell us about that. And then we'll get

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into some of the YouTube stuff because I was, I thought that

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was pretty impressive.

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No, thank you. I appreciate that. And so this is what we

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figured out back in 2005, to 2008, and we've used to help

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written content rank, and we then took it to video content.

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And that is the problem that Google has. And the problem that

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Google is trying to solve is it wants to answer people's

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questions. Google has been spent really the last 20 years trying

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to figure out how do I take what you type in figure out exactly

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what you mean exactly what your question is, and then give you

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an answer. Sir, that exactly fits your question. And 2017,

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they've they came as close as they've ever come, and they keep

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getting closer and closer and closer every single year. The

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challenge that they've had though is even though they're

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getting better at figuring out what we call user intent, or

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searchers intent behind what they typed in, the results

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aren't getting any better. So what we do is very simple. We

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figure out what real questions sorry, what what questions real

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people are asking. So that backwards, what questions real

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people are asking? What are people really asking Google? And

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then how does Google interpret the intent? And then does that

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intent match who you are as a business owner, and what your

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business is all about? If it does, let's create video content

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for that. And so we map that to the customer value journey, in

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that it's important to understand before you buy

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anything, there's a journey that you go through with that brand.

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There's a process that you go through. Sometimes the process

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is really short. Look, I need toothpaste. Okay, I'm gonna go

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to store buy toothpaste, what was my journey with that? Well,

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my journey was I went to the store, it was on sale, I buy

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what's on sale, that was the journey. Lowest price one

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journey. My journey could have been, I saw my mom using this to

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say there's always a journey. And everything that you pursue

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Brian car, there's a journey that you go through the

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businesses that can master that journey can understand that

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journey, and then create content to help the buyer along that

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journey is going to win every single time.

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Okay, yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, one thing too, in my

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book, post COVID marketing machine. And actually, the last

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two or three books, one of the things that I talked about is,

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you have to understand how a consumer makes a purchase

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decision. And you now widen that out even further, which I really

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think is, which I really like is how that consumer then takes

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that journey to go from, you know, I want to buy a couch or

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whatever it is, or a car or whatever it is. And then how do

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they follow that journey, all the way, then to the final

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purchase? And I like, what you're saying is that the

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content that you put out has to feed into the different steps

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along that journey? That makes a lot of sense.

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Yes. And, um, we did start doing that 2005 2008, then Google, and

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this is when we really knew we were onto something Google came

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out and then said, it's still way to go in 2011. Okay, so in

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marketing in the history of Miami, go all the way back to

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the 60s, there was this concept of moment of truth marketing.

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Right. And the moment of truth marketing was, hey, these

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moments that you've got to master with yada, yada, yada in

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order to make the sale, right. And in 2011, Google published a

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spec, and it's still out that you can go sue Google, this zero

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moment of truth marketing. And Google said, Hey, I think people

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need to start to realize that there are moments of truth that

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happen before the customer ever calls you. And that's true,

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because they can come to us and search, right? And if they come

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to us and search, then the answers that they find, create

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moments of truth. I'm going to back that up to with a study

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that was done. And forgive me, because I forget it was either

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Princeton or Yale that did this study. I forget which one it

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was, but it was one of the Ivy's. And he was the study.

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There's absolutely astounding. So that people are more than 90%

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likely to blindly follow the first person that taught them

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something about a topic. Just think about that.

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That is very true. That is very true. That is and I know I'm

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guilty of that as well. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So

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that's then kind of like the the value of influencers if you if

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an influencer in whatever fashion then really comes out

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and has something that you can learn from and if you as your

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brand or that influencer and teaching then that makes a huge

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difference.

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Yes, yes. And though being that brand, and the one that teaches

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about your topic is even more important, the COVID marketing

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machine.

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To your point about the customer journey and the customer value

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journey, which I like is, is how do you influence those, those

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zero moments of truth to points that you may not even be aware

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of, because I especially for, for what I call high

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consideration products, typically products that are, you

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know, that that are more expensive, or have a big impact

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on your on yourself or on your business, you're going to be

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trying to learn about them way, way, way before you actually

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start to seriously consider your purchase. And, and I know I'm

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definitely guilty of that, you know, well, I'll start thinking

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about something today. And, and then maybe, you know, a month or

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two from now I'll finally you know, pull the trigger and say,

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Okay, I'm now going to, I'm now going to really seriously do

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something and buy it within the next couple of hours. And if I'm

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a brand, and I am not involved in that, in that activity, now

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very early on, and I'm I'm not even going to be part of the

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journey throughout the whole thing,

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you lose out. And so this is the key. So so guys got us a great

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question. It's an absolutely great question. And that's what

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we do for our clients is we help them figure that out. Right? So

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yes, everybody sees the videos, and everybody wants to talk

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about Yes, but the real crux of it all, is we've got to figure

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out what those questions are. And in figuring out what those

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questions are, the thing that you have to consider is, every

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solution creates a new problem. Every solution creates a new

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problem. So when you went from living in an apartment, to

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buying your first house, you solved the problem, you no

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longer had to pay rent, okay, now you have a mortgage, but you

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no longer have to pay rent. Well, what's the problem that it

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also created? Well, now you also have to pay for trash. Now you

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also have to get the lawn cut. Right? So if you're a lawn care

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company, you know, there are people who are going to have a

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problem after they buy a house. So who do I need to communicate

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with? So that's one thing is understanding where you fit and

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the life of your customer? And asking what was the problem that

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they had right before mine? Something caused them to have

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the problem that I solve, what was that? Let's go figure that

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out. Because if we can educate to the end of that process, or

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even through some of that process, then again, going back

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to that study, we're the ones who educated them. When they,

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when they have a need later, they'll blindly trust me. Here's

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a case case study for this. I have a client, that's a caterer.

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Okay. And they primarily do weddings, large weddings, most

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of their weddings are minimum 20,000. So you're talking 20 to

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60,000 hours, just for the food service, not for the whole

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event. Right? Larger weddings, okay. And obviously, that's a

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very tailored type a couple. It's not every couple. And they

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were in a place where every couple was coming to them and

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they were wasting a lot of time talking to a lot of couples who

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had no business ever using their service. Right. So okay, what's

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the problem that they have? Right before they get to you?

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Well, they've got to the venue before they get to me. So we

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created content for them around educating about the venues that

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they work at. Yeah, right.

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Yep. Yep, makes total sense. And you know, to your point, you

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know, you would call those life stages or life moments. We work

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with a furniture company and exactly to your you know, your

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example when somebody is going to change from living in an

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apartment to you know, to moving into a home. Just like you said

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they need the lawn cut they need you know, to sign up for

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electricity and gas and whatever but they also need new

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furniture. Absolutely. I mean, typically the house when you

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move from an apartment to a house, it's going to be bigger,

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you need more furniture and and if you're in that early process,

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that is exactly where to where you as a brand want to be and

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then I do like your your your story about that IV research.

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Will it you will have to give me the link on that because that

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will post that with that because that I've really liked what that

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means. In terms of being the first, it's not, you know, it's

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always interesting, the fear of missing out. Well, this is the,

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you know, the opportunity to to to miss in, you know, do you

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want to be in there right there?

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Yes, yes, absolutely. And you know, it's so very important,

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right? Yeah, that's that's the. So if you've listened that those

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are the things you have to really consider. Now, to your

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next side of the question is, okay, so I've, I've figured out

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where they were, before they got to me, maybe I've educated or

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maybe I've talked to them. But now how do I, it's still like, I

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just bought a remarkable, I don't know if you're familiar

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with them. But I have been looking at a remarkable for a

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year and a half. So how do you communicate with somebody for a

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year and a half? What, what's going on there for a year and a

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half? Right? So one, that's a lot of what we do with the data

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analytics and the research that we do to figure out the

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questions that they're asking along that year and a half

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journey that you need to answer to keep them in your value

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journey until they're ready to actually make a purchase. But

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then here's the second thing that so many people miss. It's

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voice of customer research. Ask your current customers.

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Absolutely, absolutely. You can't learn more than I mean,

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they are the fount of of all information. And if you're not

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doing that, you are so right. And you are so right.

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Yes, yes. So you got to ask your current customers have those

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surveys. And so many people are afraid to have those types of

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servers. And I know, I'll admit, I've been in business a long

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time, I've owned multiple types of businesses, and I've been

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there too. And every single time that I've done it, I've been so

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very thankful

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that I did. Well, let me let me tell you a short story, as well,

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even on my post COVID marketing machine, I had the concept more

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or less down. And and you know, you wanted to refine it. Well,

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instead of just going off and writing and researching online,

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I went off and did 25 customer interviews earlier, and get

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their case studies and then write up those case studies and

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understand how each one of those fits into how you build a

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marketing machine. And, and I, I don't know about you, when I was

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younger, you know, I was afraid to talk to customers, oh my god,

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they're gonna give me some negative feedback or something

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like that. Yeah. And now I want that negative feedback, because

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I need to learn, you know what I'm doing wrong? Yeah. And then,

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and then to your point is, how do you learn what their, what

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their customer journey was, their customer value journey was

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six months or 12 months before they made that decision to, you

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know, to start the search. And, and that great point, I really,

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really like.

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And so, since you went there, let me give give for everyone

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listening, the advanced point, because this is the other thing

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that we do, okay. We had a customer, whoever the customer

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was, whatever we delivered for them. And it was successful. And

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even if it wasn't successful, really, but we're done,

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engagement is done. I then have a staff member, go back through

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all communication, and audit, all communication and look for

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What questions did they ask along the way? Absolutely.

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Absolutely. Right. We take those. And then we create

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content from those. So that that content becomes like, let's be

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real, especially if you're selling high value, high ticket

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stuff, your sales cycles are longer. You may send a proposal

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and you may not hear from somebody for three months.

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That's real. Right? And so what do you communicate with them? In

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that timeframe? The answers to all the questions, all the other

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customers have already asked. Because guess what? They get

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those same questions too. Yeah,

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absolutely. Yeah, I like that. And you're so right. And, and

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when we do a proposal or where you are presenting our proposal

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or whatever, we very carefully, just like you're talking about

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write down exactly what those questions are. And and actually

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use those words in the next round or in the next meeting. So

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when they say you know, something like, Hey, I want to

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build a, I want to, you know, improve my overall marketing

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effectiveness. And we want to do it with word ABC. We absolutely

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make sure that word ABC is in the next conversation that we

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use, and so important, that is so important.

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Yes, yes. And so Study was pilgrims. It's called the

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Milgram experiment. While you were talking, I was looking it

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up. Okay. Well, I had it in my notes because it uses the funny

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story. It used to be on our old website. When we redid it, we

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actually took it off because people were worried. But we

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found it interesting. Most people didn't. So yeah, it's

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about what your customers know what, let me touch that point.

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When we're talking about the value journey, so many of us

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gets stuck in talking about what we want, versus what they want.

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Yep. I'm guilty of it. I'm telling salutely. Absolutely.

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And this Milgram experiment was one of those things. We love it.

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But nobody ever read it. Oh, we took it off.

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Yeah, yeah. Well, and it's so and it makes so much sense. But

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you are so right, though, quite often. And I think, you know,

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it's, it's often, you know, founders bias or entrepreneurs

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bias. It's, you know, we do as as we are guilty of it, you try

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not to, but you put those blinders on. And you say, you

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know, I heard you when you say, but I heard, you know, I think

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you mean this, and in reality, no, no, they said this for a

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reason. And that reason is then what's going to get you to the

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next level, in whatever it is you're trying to do with your

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clients.

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Yeah, so let me share this with you. And this is a friend of

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mine, Christina Hooper. brilliant marketer, as well, by

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the way, just taught me recently this framework for that, to help

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us as entrepreneurs, you ready for this? Get this, give them

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what they want. Give them what they need, and then give them

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what they want again. Right? And so, and so she framed that I was

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like, okay, yes, that's what they wanted. And so we're gonna

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give them what they want, we're gonna give them and she does

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this in a presentation framework. So she's telling you

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how to present she's teaching you how to present, right? So

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they can't do a presentation to learn this big thing. Because

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they want to slay this big dragon, whatever it is, right?

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So you give them that upfront. But you and I both know that in

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order to get there, you gotta go through bla bla bla, bla, bla,

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bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla bla to get there. Right?

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They don't care about that. But they actually need to know it.

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And most of us as business owners, we say, Oh, I know you

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want to do that. But first you got to go through and we lose

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them. Yes. Because they don't want to hear that. Yeah. Right.

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So she said, So instead, do the presentation in a way where you

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give them exactly what they asked for. Give them all the

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bells and whistles, take them to the end, and give them the

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victory. And then to Okay, that's the victory. Now, let me

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tell you the story of how we got to the victory. Bla bla bla bla

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bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. And then they're like, oh, yeah,

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yeah, yeah. And then you say, and when you do all of this,

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then the next thing is, here comes the big moment where

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you're going to get the victory. Yeah, the victory?

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Yeah, no, that is, that is so true. And, and, and I think I

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think you, you have to sell exactly what they want. Because

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that is what they're wanting to buy. Now, of course, there's

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other just like you said, there's other obstacles or costs

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or steps or whatever it is, that has to be done. But if you if

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you really say this is what you you know, if they tell you, this

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is what you want, and you're answering what they want, then

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how you get there is totally secondary. They just want to

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they know what they want. And you just have to answer that. I

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really liked that. Very good. Very good analogy with what was

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it? Tell them what you want. Tell them what you need, and

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then tell them what you want, again,

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give them what they want, what they need, and give them what

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they want again.

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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very good. Very good. So. So we talked

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about the customer value journey. You also had a notion

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in your in your, in your LinkedIn videos, you had

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something called a customer avatar. What did you mean by

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that?

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Okay, so this is the next piece. So we've talked about these

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questions. And the next question, the next logical

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question that you should be asking me, right, because we

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said, okay, find out where they were before, but then ask your

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current customers. But the next logical question you should be

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asking me is okay, but who are my actual customer? When when

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you say think about where they were before? How do I know

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exactly where they were before? Because is it anybody buying a

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house or going back to the furniture example? Right? Is it

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anybody buying a house? Or is it anybody going back to the

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catering example? Anybody who's looking at a venue? No, it's not

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because if they're in a rinky dink venue that was $10 They're

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not affording your $20,000 wedding. If they're buying a

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house that's only 200 square feet bigger Other than their

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apartments, then they're probably not what you're looking

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for either, right. And so the avatar gives you the ability to

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do the first time. And they're the three keys to traffic, and

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let's go there for a moment. But the three keys to traffic, if

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you really want to generate organic, organic traffic, the

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three keys, and the first key is being completely and utterly

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obsessed with your audience. One of the ways to get there is by

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building a customer avatar, the avatar is a real person in so

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much that it's on paper. But you need to think about it as a real

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person. We talk to our avatar, we name our avatar, when we have

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meetings, we talk about the avatar as a real person. Well,

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how would Maxine respond to this, when we do it? The Avatar

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grows, as you interview your customers, you learn more, you

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build more of your avatar, the avatar is your ideal, perfect

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customer, then not every customer. They're the customer

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that you want to wake up and serve every single day. Because

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be real with me, you notice some customers, you'd rather stay in

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bed and to serve. Let's be real, right? But this avatar is the

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one who's going to make you jump up and say, I'm ready to serve

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you today. Because I love working with you. But the only

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way you're going to get to know that avatar is you got to be

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obsessed. You have to create them as a person, give them a

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personality, learn about them. Where did they go to school?

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What type of work do they do? How much money do they have?

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What do they need? What do they do on a Friday night? When you

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know you have your avatar, correct, is when you're having

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conversations with your clients. And you keep getting the

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feedback. I feel like you're in my head. How did you know that?

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Yeah, it's just making my life. Yes. Those are the moments when

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you start to realize, yes, I'm dialing into who my avatar is. I

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know you. What motivates you? What are you afraid of? What

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makes you happy? What makes you sad? What makes them get up out

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of bed. And then finally, finally, as it relates to your

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product and service, there's a before state that they exist in

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right now that they don't want to be in. There is an after

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state after they've experienced you and your brand, you need to

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clearly define the before state. And clearly the fine after

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state. That my friend is your avatar?

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Absolutely, absolutely. And I like that I we call that a gap

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analysis basically and where they are today where they want

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to be. And then the second piece of that as well. How much is

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that worth? And you know, how much are they willing to invest

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to get from where they are today and the pain that they're

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suffering today? To the promised land? Which is, you know, on the

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other side of that gap? Absolutely. That makes so much

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sense. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So. So here we are, we're in 2019.

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We're running rolling along real well. And then big oops,

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pandemic hits. And so what happened? How did that affect

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what you're doing? How did that affect what your clients and

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customers are doing? So that you now we're able to respond and be

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able to really help them to take advantage of, in some ways the

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disaster called COVID.

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Right? So is it for me, at first, it was almost a blessing

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in disguise, because I was thinking maybe it was time to

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leave the industry and go a different route. Maybe it was

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time my wife wanted to build her business, like, you know, maybe

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just take a back seat and kind of do her marketing and be done

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with it. Right. And that's kind of where I was, and then COVID

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hits, hadn't quite made the transition or the decision to

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transition yet. And when clients started freaking out, right, we

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had a couple who didn't, who buckled down and said, Okay,

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this is a great opportunity. Let's figure out how we can get

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better. But most most of them started freaking out and saying,

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Well, we don't know if we want to spend and we don't know and

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then the team started to scatter. Okay, because writers

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who all of our writers are freelance. We're just losing

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their minds. Because all of their clients were starting to

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scatter. And so it became harder. And really about July of

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2020, my top writers were all gone. You know, the ones who are

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rock solid, I'm IKEA. been with me for a long time. Awesome.

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They are, they all had to make lifestyle changes, given what

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was going on and where life was going. Right. Especially since

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most of my writers were stay at home moms. And now, they have

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spouses who income is being jeopardized because of COVID.

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Like, I gotta do something different. I got to Yes. And

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that's, again, around the time when I started, but I already

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met users, I met us in like March or so. And started

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thinking again, about this whole video thing and said, Oh, maybe

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video. And we started doing some research, and started trying

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some things out and started seeing some things that were

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working and started realizing that what we've been doing, we

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could translate over to video very, very well, which is

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answering specific questions, helping customers answer

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specific questions. The question was, could we get our current

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client base? To come over with us? Short answer no. By and

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large, the answer was no. One sub for someone who was too

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early stolen COVID. For others, you know, we were a lot of times

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dealing with, with people who are extremely busy. And so they

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didn't have enough time to even help us with the written

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content. And so that it felt like, especially in the early

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days, it felt like it was going to be too much work for them.

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Which, again, folks listening to customers. And so one of the

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things that we saw for is, yeah, we create quality content for

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you. And I only need you two hours a month. I actually need

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my clients less time now than I did when we were doing written

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content. To do video content, we need less from you. Because we

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heard when we had that exodus of clients who were like, it's too

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much. It's too much. It's too much. We're like, Okay, we got

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to do this thing. We got to figure out that it's too much.

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And it's too hard. And it's going to take too long problem,

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which we did, which we absolutely did. It's easy. It's

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fun, and it's painless now. And people actually tell us how much

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they enjoy it. Right, which is absolutely amazing. Because who

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the heck likes to be on camera? Most of us

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well, I always say I have a face for radio. So but yeah,

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absolutely. And interesting, though, that what you said is

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interesting that the the so the writing component actually went

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down when you when you shifted over to media.

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Yeah. And so what ended up happening for us there too, was

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by 2021, we had made the commitment that we were going

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video, and at the time we were even coining the term, we were

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going to be a video first content marketing agency like

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we're going to do first, right, that we don't do written

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content, but our written content is based on video. Okay, that

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was for a shot. And so I had to make that very, very hard choice

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in 2021. To say, the rest of the clients who were still paying,

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by the way, right, who were still around, they said they

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weren't going to convert they, you know, besides some really

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big clients paying north of six figures to say, Hey, I know last

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year I said, Either we're gonna go video or not. And a lot of

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smaller guys when they catch up because y'all are big. Because

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we weren't dumb, but now I'm going to be done. Understand.

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Either you come to video, or the relationship ends. We lost

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clients.

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Well, that's a hard that is a hard thing to do for us for a

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small business or for any business.

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Well, think of it this way. Like I said, we lost six figure

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clients and dropped our income down to

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under 10 grand a month animates? Yeah, it was tough. It was

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tough, but it was the right thing that Do what we needed to

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do. Had to do. Otherwise, we would have always still been on

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that other side and we would have never made the

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right. The full switch over the commitment. Right. And so we've

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had to say goodbye. It was hard.

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Yeah, sometimes, you know, you have to do cold turkey on that.

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That is that is a tough decision for anybody that's for sure. So

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So what do you see now is the the biggest challenges facing

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your clients, as they are now shifted? Or have shifted over to

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video? What do you see as the next big challenge for them? Are

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we going to be inundated with video is that is that now what's

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going to happen?

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Video is the future. videos, videos, the presence and video

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is definitely the future. Now video is the future for a bunch

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of different reasons. Number one, there is no better way to

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connect with another human being outside of being physically in

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their presence than video. No words on the page can do it. No

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audio can do it. No slideshow can do it. But I can sit here on

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video and look you dead in your eyes, even though we're not

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together. And you can feel my heart, you can feel my reality.

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You can feel my sincerity as we sit here and communicate. And so

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video is absolutely 100% the future and the future of

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marketing at that. It's absolutely the future of

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marketing. Now, video is going to be changing. What do I mean

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by that? When we started, and so this is now 2020, late 2020. And

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we started talking to people about this, people started

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saying okay, I remember the very first person, but one of the

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very first people to say this to me. Alright, so we're gonna do a

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video, and you guys are gonna make it be able to make it look

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like a Superbowl commercial, right? That Well, number one,

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you don't have a Superbowl commercial budget. So no. Right.

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But now the question get this now the question. So this was

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this was late 2020. Right now, late 2022. The question that I

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get all the time is, so is it going to look like a tick tock?

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Because that's what I want. There's a vast difference

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between a Superbowl commercial and a tick tock video. Yes, but

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it speaks to the shift that has happened. Post COVID. And where

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the marketing machine needs to go. And that is people want

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real? want authenticity. And the Tick Tock video, even though

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they're becoming really good at being professionally

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unprofessional?

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That's the point of them. Yeah, I'm not saying that we're trying

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to create tick tock videos, either.

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What we're trying to do is help you the brand, be you on camera.

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Yeah, well, I've been so amazed about how Tiktok and Instagram

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reels and then YouTube shorts have just exploded, you know, a

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friend of mine, he, he's been on there for a while now. And, and

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I you know, in the hundreds of 1000s of of downloads and views,

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it's just it's really incredible. And how how can you

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otherwise get that kind of exposure with the message that

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you want. And to your point about, about being authentic,

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that really does allow you video does allow you to actually see

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the person, it's not just marketing speak, you're seeing

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the person to see what you know, and look in their eyes to your

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point and be able to really see and get that that all of those

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visual cues, in terms of what they're saying and what they're

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showing and what they're talking about.

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Yes, yes, absolutely.

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So do you see so do you see regular YouTube videos that are

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longer than let's say 60 seconds or a couple of minutes? Do you

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seem to see those continuing? Or do you see everything really

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getting down to the you know, the 30 to 62nd time sighs?

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But that's a really, really great question. And one of the

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things I learned early in business is when you're small,

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and you don't have big budgets, look to those who are big and

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have big budgets and a trying to do or answer the same questions

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that you are and figure out what they're doing. Because if

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they're doing it, they didn't do it accidentally, they spent a

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lot of money to figure out or to believe that that's the right

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answer. Okay. So let me answer your question in this way, a

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little less than a month ago, YouTube released a new feature.

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Were a short video on YouTube now has a very highlighted

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button at the bottom of the video that you can click on,

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that takes you to the long form version of that video. So Google

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is telling us, Google is flat out telling us where they see

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the world going, is that shorts will lead to someone wanting to

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consume more information from you. In other words, that shorts

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are going to help people move along your customer value

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journey. Mm hmm.

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Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And, and that actually is an

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advantage, I guess over tick tock, I don't know if Instagram

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has that same capability. But but that would be an advantage

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over both of those because as an as an advertiser, as a marketer,

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as a brand. We want them to engage longer. And in getting a

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32nd or a 45 second engagement with a button to do several

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minutes or even a half an hour or whatever it happens to be,

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then that is for the advertiser anyway, then, you know, really a

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major advantage. Yeah, yeah. Brilliant. Yeah, absolutely. And

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I think to your point, as well, if the consumer is on their

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value journey, then it's, if they're very early in that in

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that journey, then they you have the ability to take them to that

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first 30 seconds to get them to the next five minutes. And then

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to your miligrams experience experiment that makes a whole

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lot of difference to be early on to be that influencer, that

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educator so that when they really get to that moment of

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truth when they're about Dubai, they can then you know, they you

Speaker:

will have you will be a preference for them.

Speaker:

So now let me take that plane that just flying guy up here,

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right because I love where you're flying the plane, you

Speaker:

know, I love it. Right? And so for anyone listening who is not

Speaker:

as theoretical as guy and I and need this plane Landis, let me

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let me land a plane for you already for this. Absolutely.

Speaker:

Atlanta plane. So here's what this looks like. So on your

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customer value journey, it starts off there eight stages on

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the customer value journey, but it starts off with awareness.

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Okay, then it goes to engagement. And then to

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subscribe. Okay. We also call that people getting to know you,

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liked you, and then trust you. Oh, you like you and then trust

Speaker:

you another way of looking at it. Okay, the first three stages

Speaker:

of your customer value journey, at the subscribe stage is where

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they come to your website and give you a piece of information

Speaker:

that you can communicate back and forth with them. Email

Speaker:

address or phone number they sign up for something. Okay, so

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follow me for a moment. As I land is playing they see a

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YouTube short because they're on YouTube and shorter just

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scrolling through. They see a YouTube short Oh, what's this?

Speaker:

They consume 30 seconds they got they were AWARE. AWARE. Okay.

Speaker:

Then they click either in the description or the big button

Speaker:

down below, and they go to the full video. Now they're watching

Speaker:

your full 1510 minutes, six minutes, whatever it is longer

Speaker:

than 30 seconds minute, right? They're watching your full

Speaker:

video, they watch that full video. They're engaging, they

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went from knowing you. Now they're beginning to like you as

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they're beginning to like you. And they're watching this video.

Speaker:

In the video. If you follow our process, there's always a call

Speaker:

to action. And they say you tell them, hey, I've got a link down

Speaker:

below of a guide or a cheat sheet or something that you can

Speaker:

go get that will help you and they click that link. They go to

Speaker:

your website. They go to your website, they put in their name,

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their email address, they hit submit, they've just subscribed.

Speaker:

They know like to trust

Speaker:

that's how it works. Yeah, I like that. And and you see that,

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you know, all over the place and and that know like trust is is

Speaker:

critical. I can talk to you for hours. And so our 32nd to our

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hour now and then but anyway, we're going to have to close but

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is there anything that we haven't mentioned that you want

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to mention before we close out?

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Here's the deal. Video is here, it's here to stay. And you have

Speaker:

a major opportunity right now. Because Youtube earlier this

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year published a study and get these numbers. YouTube has said

Speaker:

that 91% of your competition does not have a YouTube channel

Speaker:

right now 91% of your competition does not have a

Speaker:

YouTube channel, which means they're not creating video.

Speaker:

Which means even if you don't have a YouTube channel right

Speaker:

now, you have an opportunity today, to go start a channel to

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go start creating video right now. And get ahead of 91% of

Speaker:

your competition.

Speaker:

How else can you do that in your business? And do it so

Speaker:

inexpensively? I don't know any other way. Now, exactly. If you

Speaker:

need help with that, come talk to me.

Speaker:

If you can, obviously go to client attraction proz.com. If

Speaker:

you want to come to me directly meet a tebow.com that will take

Speaker:

you to my LinkedIn page, send me an AD Connect with me send me a

Speaker:

message on LinkedIn. I'm here to talk to you.

Speaker:

Fantastic. No one. I like that. And yeah, and no question. If

Speaker:

you get an expert like yourself, it makes so much of a

Speaker:

difference. To get it right. Get it done fast, and then beat that

Speaker:

other 91% Because you know that being first in, in many areas

Speaker:

can can be a game changer for a business.

Speaker:

Absolutely. Especially something as big as this

Speaker:

right? Exactly. Exactly. Well, Atiba, thank you so much. I'm so

Speaker:

glad that we were able to set up this podcast and spend some time

Speaker:

chatting together and really understanding what the what the

Speaker:

whole market is doing. And then specifically as well, how you

Speaker:

can take advantage of that in search, which is so critical for

Speaker:

that customer value journey. So and you definitely helped to

Speaker:

educate me and I hope that our audience will also like what

Speaker:

you've talked about, so where you can learn more information

Speaker:

about a teba is meet a tv.com. So I heard that one. And then of

Speaker:

course, client attraction proz.com client attraction

Speaker:

proz.com for learning more about this incredible new opportunity

Speaker:

for businesses of all sizes. So whether you're small, medium or

Speaker:

large search is where you want to be. Video is where you want

Speaker:

to be. And and so client attraction proz.com for fortiva

Speaker:

Otherwise, please stay tuned for many other videos in this series

Speaker:

of the backstory on marketing, please visit marketing machine

Speaker:

dot pro relevant.com and download the first chapter of my

Speaker:

book and also learn about some other valuable excerpts from my

Speaker:

book, The Post COVID marketing machine. And also don't forget

Speaker:

to sign up for more episodes and if you liked this episode,

Speaker:

please give it five stars and rate it for five stars. Thank

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you very much.

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Bye nice guy and John catch that he just didn't know like and

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