Shownotes
Episode 12 with Frederick Dudek (Freddy D)
Amplify Your Brand: Tech Tactics for Skyrocketing Customer Engagement with Catherine Oaks
In this podcast episode, Catherine Oakes, founder of Slice XR, discusses her journey in marketing and the creation of her agency. She highlights the importance of customer-centric branding, leveraging technology like VR and AI, and the power of consistent, authentic messaging to create superfans. Catherine also touches on the effectiveness of rewards programs, the relevance of email marketing, and the necessity of tracking marketing efforts. She suggests that small businesses can use AI tools to manage marketing and stresses the need for a resilient mindset, adaptability, and a supportive management style to foster a positive work environment and business success.
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Transcripts
Founder of SliceXR, Catherine Oaks is a highly experienced marketing
Freddy D:and branding professional with a distinguished career spanning over 30
Freddy D:years across various regions, including Europe, Asia Pacific, United Arab
Freddy D:Emirates, North Africa, and the USA.
Freddy D:Catherine is well known for her innovative thought leadership campaigns
Freddy D:that boost brand recognition and awareness for B2B and B2C companies.
Freddy D:She is fluent in English, French, German, and Spanish, which combined
Freddy D:with her extensive global sales and marketing background helps businesses
Freddy D:expand their marketing research and gain international exposure.
Freddy D:Her strategic thinking, creative genius, and tactical clarity enable
Freddy D:her to uncover a business's core values and turn brands into magnets,
Freddy D:generating viral impact on any platform.
Freddy D:By bringing something extraordinary to the world that did not exist
Freddy D:before, Catherine's visionary approach enables her clients to establish a
Freddy D:purposeful life and achieve their goals.
Freddy D:Hello, Catherine.
Freddy D:Welcome to the show.
Catherine Oaks:Hello, Frederic.
Catherine Oaks:How are you doing today?
Freddy D:I am doing fantastic.
Freddy D:How about yourself?
Catherine Oaks:Wonderful.
Catherine Oaks:Great.
Catherine Oaks:Wonderful.
Catherine Oaks:Thank you for having me here.
Freddy D:Thank you.
Freddy D:Tell us, Catherine, how did you get started in marketing?
Catherine Oaks:My father wanted me to be an engineer and I said,
Catherine Oaks:I'm not going to be an engineer.
Catherine Oaks:So he said, what else serious can you do?
Catherine Oaks:Because I wanted to be an actress.
Catherine Oaks:And my father said, you're not going to be an actress.
Catherine Oaks:I said, okay, but I'm going to go in marketing.
Catherine Oaks:That's how it happened.
Catherine Oaks:Marketing was still a serious topic.
Catherine Oaks:And it was going to involve a lot of creativity, which
Catherine Oaks:is what I always enjoyed.
Catherine Oaks:So I'm going to go into marketing.
Catherine Oaks:That's how it all started.
Catherine Oaks:Okay.
Catherine Oaks:And then what led you to start your own agency?
Catherine Oaks:Slice?
Catherine Oaks:Because I'm an entrepreneur at heart.
Catherine Oaks:I've tried to work for other people and it does not work very well for me.
Catherine Oaks:I think I'm too opinionated.
Catherine Oaks:Express my opinions too often, which very often creates a lot of chaos
Catherine Oaks:or arguments and, insecure leaders.
Catherine Oaks:don't deal very well with someone who has lots of opinions.
Catherine Oaks:I totally agree with that.
Catherine Oaks:Because we feel threatened.
Catherine Oaks:And so it's a combination that, that does not very well, work very well.
Catherine Oaks:So this is why my first agency, my first company I built in 2006,
Catherine Oaks:it was another advertising agency.
Catherine Oaks:And I realized I am made to work for myself.
Catherine Oaks:And I did.
Catherine Oaks:And since then I knew that there was no other option for me that working for Other
Catherine Oaks:companies is not what allows me to thrive.
Catherine Oaks:It's not what allows me to create to put in practice my inspiration and my
Catherine Oaks:ideas, and I decided, okay, that the best platform for me to have my own agency and
Catherine Oaks:spread my creativity as much as possible.
Freddy D:So how long have you owned your own agency now?
Catherine Oaks:This agency, which is was the second one, because the first
Catherine Oaks:one happened just before the 2008 crash, which took everything away from
Catherine Oaks:me, just like a lot of other people.
Catherine Oaks:This one I've had now since 2017.
Catherine Oaks:So it's going to be, it was September 2017.
Catherine Oaks:So it's going to be almost six years now.
Freddy D:Okay, excellent.
Freddy D:So what can businesses do from a marketing perspective that You know that they're
Freddy D:missing out on or they're not doing a good job of doing marketing that's
Freddy D:going to expand their brand awareness.
Catherine Oaks:A lot of companies make the mistake of talking
Catherine Oaks:about themselves too much.
Catherine Oaks:You see a lot of websites where they display their products, their services.
Catherine Oaks:So we speak about them.
Catherine Oaks:That in itself does not attract a lot of people because you are
Catherine Oaks:not putting customers first.
Catherine Oaks:Everything in your communication needs to be customer centric.
Catherine Oaks:Someone is going to come to you because they have faith that
Catherine Oaks:you will be solving the problem.
Catherine Oaks:So you have to speak benefits.
Catherine Oaks:It's benefits.
Catherine Oaks:That's important.
Catherine Oaks:What's also very important is to determine what is your main product?
Catherine Oaks:What is your core product?
Catherine Oaks:What is it and how is it different from anywhere else on anyone else
Catherine Oaks:on the market to be put on your top banner on your website or the top
Catherine Oaks:areas of your marketing materials?
Catherine Oaks:Because you have to remember one thing.
Catherine Oaks:People have no time nowadays.
Catherine Oaks:In average, it takes people about three seconds to make an opinion
Catherine Oaks:of your company on your website.
Catherine Oaks:So if in three seconds you don't grab their attention, they're gone.
Catherine Oaks:We just don't have time to read.
Catherine Oaks:They don't read.
Catherine Oaks:It's simple.
Catherine Oaks:People do not read anymore.
Catherine Oaks:And then they have the attention.
Catherine Oaks:Yeah, we always laugh at that, but it's true.
Catherine Oaks:They have the attention sparrow of a goldfish, even less than that.
Catherine Oaks:The goldfish had about eight seconds.
Catherine Oaks:It's proven that humans attention in 2023.
Catherine Oaks:It's about four you go.
Catherine Oaks:If you don't grab four seconds, you lose po it hurts your company.
Catherine Oaks:It that's very damaging.
Catherine Oaks:So when I said, you have to define your unique selling proposition, i.
Catherine Oaks:e.
Catherine Oaks:USP, and what problems you're going to solve for your audience.
Catherine Oaks:And then once that is determined, you have to develop the confidence, self
Catherine Oaks:confidence, that you can deliver.
Catherine Oaks:Your clients are going to want to see results.
Catherine Oaks:So you have to provide statistical data showing progress in the right direction.
Catherine Oaks:And then you have to leverage technology.
Catherine Oaks:Nowadays, we are incredibly lucky to live in the world of the metaverse.
Catherine Oaks:Although there is a lot of questioning about new technologies, just
Catherine Oaks:like we had a lot of questioning with the internet 25 years ago.
Catherine Oaks:It's really critical now that businesses stay aware of the
Catherine Oaks:options that they are going to have.
Catherine Oaks:Very soon they have them now, but very soon they're going to be forced to
Catherine Oaks:change the way they market themselves because their competitors will
Catherine Oaks:have embraced new technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality,
Catherine Oaks:artificial intelligence, everybody's talking about this, and they will have
Catherine Oaks:leveraged those technologies while at the same time grabbing market shares.
Catherine Oaks:So if you react too late, it's going to take you too long
Catherine Oaks:to get to that same level.
Freddy D:You'll miss the window of opportunity, it'll have gone by.
Catherine Oaks:Not going to miss the boat,
Freddy D:Yes.
Freddy D:Yeah, and as you mentioned, I think a lot of companies get caught up and says I just
Freddy D:got the stuff and it's all good and stuff, but it really needs to evolve marketing
Freddy D:needs to be continually changing, adapting with the times and the approaches and
Freddy D:the messaging needs to be refreshed on a regular basis where people build it.
Freddy D:And, I've heard in the past where, people says I used to show up on the
Freddy D:front page of, Google now I'm on page 27 and that's when's the last time you
Freddy D:up posted anything to your website?
Freddy D:About three years ago.
Freddy D:There you go.
Freddy D:So it's a consistent and constant effort.
Freddy D:It's being very light on your feet because you need to adapt very quickly.
Freddy D:You don't have months or years to adapt anymore because the speed train
Freddy D:is going at a higher speed nowadays.
Freddy D:So first you have to educate yourself to really understand your options.
Freddy D:Then you have to bring with you the right partners that can help you along
Freddy D:the way, establish the new strategies that will take you where you need to be.
Freddy D:And then you have to implement properly.
Freddy D:So you have to have the right team with you to be able to
Freddy D:implement a team you can trust.
Freddy D:Because there is no way you can do everything on your own.
Freddy D:You have to have the right team to put in place your strategy and your tactics
Freddy D:and ensure it's done with professionalism and it is constantly measured.
Freddy D:So Catherine, how can, we're talking about market hustle, how can a small
Freddy D:entrepreneur, small business, medium sized business take marketing to
Freddy D:engage with their customers and create and convert those customers, those
Freddy D:business partners into superfans that in turn are out expanding that brand
Freddy D:awareness for that particular business.
Catherine Oaks:First of all, you have to have a very clear message that
Catherine Oaks:resonates with your core audience's needs.
Catherine Oaks:Once you have that message, you have to spread the message on all social media
Catherine Oaks:channels and communicate every day.
Catherine Oaks:And that's, it's not just once a day when you launch communicate two or three
Catherine Oaks:times a day, use videos, use audios, use mediums that most people don't want
Catherine Oaks:to use because we just don't want to be on video for some reason, or they
Catherine Oaks:just don't want to make the effort of.
Catherine Oaks:Developing an audio message, so you have to do what others
Catherine Oaks:don't and leverage social media.
Catherine Oaks:Social media is very inexpensive.
Catherine Oaks:You don't have to buy paid ads.
Catherine Oaks:You can make organic social media by posting with the right hashtags by
Catherine Oaks:commenting on people's feeds that are your target audience by engaging others.
Catherine Oaks:We've posts that are not just sales oriented, but posts that
Catherine Oaks:are going to provide inspiration that are going to entertain them
Catherine Oaks:because people need that nowadays.
Catherine Oaks:They need to be entertained too, so that they feel better.
Catherine Oaks:Once you allow your clients to feel better, guess what?
Catherine Oaks:Everybody's emotional.
Catherine Oaks:They're going to talk about you.
Catherine Oaks:And this is how you're going to generate those super fans
Catherine Oaks:that you're talking about.
Catherine Oaks:And, but key is consistency.
Catherine Oaks:You have to do it.
Catherine Oaks:Day in day out.
Catherine Oaks:That's beyond the network.
Freddy D:So for example, on the social media, you start getting a super fan
Freddy D:is someone that would start reposting because they resonate with your message.
Freddy D:So now they're reposting it to their audience and their people.
Freddy D:And so now some you're growing.
Freddy D:Brand awareness is growing exponentially because you've got, let's say, 55 super
Freddy D:fans that really like the messaging and the service and the business
Freddy D:and the products that, you know, whether it's a service or product
Freddy D:that your business is providing.
Freddy D:And now they're starting to promote the messaging to their audience.
Freddy D:And let's just say that.
Freddy D:You have a following of, let's say, a thousand people, I'll
Freddy D:just keep it conservative, and they have a thousand people.
Freddy D:So you've got five superfans that reposted that, now you've got
Freddy D:an audience of 6, 000 people.
Catherine Oaks:That's exactly what it is, and that's very important.
Catherine Oaks:There's one thing I think is even more important, is that
Catherine Oaks:you have to have a personality.
Catherine Oaks:You cannot blend and be just like everybody else.
Catherine Oaks:You have to have a personality, which means you have to have self confidence,
Catherine Oaks:you have to know yourself, and you cannot be afraid of being a little bit eccentric.
Catherine Oaks:Because people like that, they want to be entertained.
Catherine Oaks:Remember if you're flat boring, nobody's going to follow you.
Catherine Oaks:If you're a little eccentric and fun and you go over the edges a little
Catherine Oaks:bit while still being very correct.
Catherine Oaks:I'm not telling people to not be correct and being very ethical and respectful.
Catherine Oaks:But if you find a way to, to establish a personality that's unique and that
Catherine Oaks:will be attractive, then your super friends are going to grow a lot faster.
Freddy D:Absolutely.
Freddy D:That's why, my business name is Frederick and for this podcast
Freddy D:and stuff is the Freddie D dude.
Freddy D:He's much more fun, much more relaxed, business is, the tie and everything else.
Freddy D:And here we're having a show.
Freddy D:We're having fun and we're educating people on how to grow their businesses
Freddy D:and build their own superfans.
Freddy D:So it's
Catherine Oaks:Very important to be approachable.
Catherine Oaks:Yes.
Freddy D:So what do you think about rewards programs and retention programs
Freddy D:that from a marketing perspective that businesses could be doing or should
Freddy D:be doing to retain clients and get repeat business out of those customers?
Catherine Oaks:It depends on the business.
Catherine Oaks:If it's a B2B, maybe you have to have a rewards program
Catherine Oaks:that's different, obviously.
Catherine Oaks:But I'm always favorable of using rewards program.
Catherine Oaks:People love rewards, or even referral programs.
Catherine Oaks:People love to get something in exchange of sharing somebody else's information.
Catherine Oaks:So these are additional benefits.
Catherine Oaks:That maybe others don't offer and another way of differentiating yourself
Catherine Oaks:and bringing value and rewarding saying thank you with a little gift.
Catherine Oaks:People love that.
Catherine Oaks:Just, we're still big kids.
Catherine Oaks:We will always be big kids, whether we are five or 95 years old.
Catherine Oaks:So you have to play those cards.
Freddy D:Because yeah, loyalty program is a great way to say thank you to
Freddy D:a unique way to say thank you to the customer, especially if you're the
Freddy D:B2C type of a business, you keep them there, but you got to make it work
Freddy D:so the loyalty program is worthwhile and the goal and the achievement of.
Freddy D:The prize, whatever it is achievable.
Freddy D:It's not something that, is designed as a gimmick to where, the chances of
Freddy D:really getting the reward is slim and none versus, oh, wow, I come here five
Freddy D:times and I get something out of it.
Freddy D:I'll be back here five times,
Catherine Oaks:it has to be simple and achievable.
Catherine Oaks:Yes.
Freddy D:That's important.
Freddy D:What about when you look at email marketing and engagement of that,
Freddy D:how important is that today?
Freddy D:And do you think cold email marketing is coming back?
Catherine Oaks:I think it has to be part of your marketing mix because
Catherine Oaks:it's an additional touch point.
Catherine Oaks:And the good thing about emails is that people passively
Catherine Oaks:get messages in their inbox.
Catherine Oaks:They don't have to take any initiatives themselves.
Catherine Oaks:It's a passive way of communicating.
Catherine Oaks:Now, a lot of people don't like it.
Catherine Oaks:That's okay.
Catherine Oaks:They can delete it.
Catherine Oaks:Even if you delete the email that you're sending, they're
Catherine Oaks:not going to see your name.
Catherine Oaks:It is brand awareness.
Catherine Oaks:It can be positive, right?
Catherine Oaks:Like I said, they want to delete it, they delete it.
Catherine Oaks:So I always recommend including email in your marketing mix because
Catherine Oaks:it's an additional touch point.
Catherine Oaks:And the more touch points you have in marketing, the better.
Catherine Oaks:However, it has to be consistent.
Catherine Oaks:All those messages that you're sending out, whether it's on social media,
Catherine Oaks:via YouTube, with with PowerPoint presentations or emails, you have to
Catherine Oaks:have that consistent core message.
Catherine Oaks:Consistent branding because this is how people will recognize you and this
Catherine Oaks:is how you will build credibility.
Catherine Oaks:That's very important.
Catherine Oaks:This is why I always tell my clients before you start a program or
Catherine Oaks:strategy or communication strategy, you need to have a brand book.
Catherine Oaks:You need to know exactly what to say, when to say it.
Catherine Oaks:You have to have your own style.
Catherine Oaks:You have to use the same colors.
Catherine Oaks:You have to make sure everything is presented in the right way,
Catherine Oaks:because this is part of your brand and the more you follow your brand.
Catherine Oaks:The more successful you will be.
Freddy D:Yeah, no, absolutely.
Freddy D:That's absolutely 100 percent correct.
Freddy D:And I think another part, component in the engagement of various marketing channels
Freddy D:is people forget to use, we've got all the social media stuff and all these
Freddy D:other tools, but there's an old platform that works very well, and that is Mail.
Freddy D:And, mail still works because it gets to the person, there's a couple countries,
Freddy D:I think it's Canada and Germany, that you can't do cold email suits against the law.
Freddy D:And, but you can do anybody and that will get into their email,
Freddy D:their mailbox, and most likely people don't get real mail anymore.
Catherine Oaks:And so it gets open.
Catherine Oaks:And so you have a solid chance of being seen.
Freddy D:Absolutely.
Freddy D:That's something that most companies don't use anymore.
Freddy D:So if you have, I do a couple of oversized mirrors that are very
Freddy D:beautiful, very attractive, that communicate the message clearly.
Freddy D:And they are so beautiful, so big that people don't throw them away in the trash.
Freddy D:Very often they keep them on their desk.
Freddy D:And guess what?
Freddy D:That's something that your competitors probably don't do.
Freddy D:And when you're top of mind all the time, you have a better
Freddy D:chance of getting some business.
Catherine Oaks:Yeah, absolutely.
Catherine Oaks:It's I think direct mail is overlooked in a lot of cases.
Catherine Oaks:And postcards is another good platform, I think, not the smaller ones, but a
Catherine Oaks:bigger size postcard, because at least it gets you a chance to get, someone's
Catherine Oaks:going to look at it and okay, they may toss it aside, but it's still
Catherine Oaks:registered and got the message across.
Catherine Oaks:And they may say second time they see you at night, you hit them with an email
Catherine Oaks:marketing or they see on social media.
Catherine Oaks:I was like, Oh yeah, I remember that.
Catherine Oaks:I saw that company someplace.
Catherine Oaks:No, that's true.
Catherine Oaks:This is why I mentioned each time.
Catherine Oaks:The average person reacts after touch point number nine.
Catherine Oaks:It takes an average nine touch points for someone to start remembering you.
Catherine Oaks:So people remember that because a lot of people give up after
Catherine Oaks:touch point number three.
Catherine Oaks:And they say marketing is not working.
Catherine Oaks:That's the reaction we have.
Catherine Oaks:So this is unreasonable type of reaction.
Catherine Oaks:It's it's not grounded on the right type of strategy.
Catherine Oaks:And it's something that needs to be rethought when they have
Catherine Oaks:this type of Belief, right?
Catherine Oaks:Nine touch points.
Catherine Oaks:I'm going to remember nine touch points.
Freddy D:No, that's very good.
Freddy D:So how important is it?
Freddy D:If a company is looking to create superfans, basically brand advocates
Freddy D:are going to be going out there, promoting their business, which would
Freddy D:be, customers, business partners, employees, and stuff like that.
Freddy D:How important is tracking your efforts in your marketing initiative?
Catherine Oaks:Tracking is always important, no matter what, because
Catherine Oaks:whether you're looking for investors or you're looking for partners or
Catherine Oaks:you're looking for influencers that can become the source of your super fans,
Catherine Oaks:they're going to ask you for statistics.
Catherine Oaks:They are they're going to want to see the amount of people who
Catherine Oaks:come to your website every day and where those people come from.
Catherine Oaks:They want to know how old those people are, if they are
Catherine Oaks:part of your target audience.
Catherine Oaks:So they are going to ask for data that needs to be organized.
Catherine Oaks:If you don't have it, they won't talk with you.
Catherine Oaks:It's as simple as that.
Catherine Oaks:So that's something that you need to do regularly and keep track
Catherine Oaks:of in reports and in a way that's ready to be shared professionally.
Freddy D:So what are some things that a small business, you've got
Freddy D:the solopreneur, you've got the small business that's, 10 people in your
Freddy D:organization, how can they manage their marketing efforts themselves?
Catherine Oaks:Can tell you, I've launched my company on my
Catherine Oaks:own, no seed capital, nothing.
Catherine Oaks:I did everything by myself.
Catherine Oaks:You, if you really want something, you find a way.
Freddy D:What tools what tools could they be using?
Catherine Oaks:You can nowadays with artificial intelligence, you have
Catherine Oaks:incredible platforms out there available.
Catherine Oaks:That's going to save you so much time.
Catherine Oaks:Chad GPT is one of them.
Catherine Oaks:You have content creation tools, design tools that do the work for you.
Catherine Oaks:All the AI tools are there.
Catherine Oaks:You have thousands of them nowadays.
Catherine Oaks:It's like having 25 assistants that are working with you,
Catherine Oaks:saving you huge amounts of time.
Catherine Oaks:I did not have that when I launched my company.
Catherine Oaks:I did everything on my own.
Catherine Oaks:I learned.
Catherine Oaks:You learn Photoshop, you learn Illustrator, you now Canva.
Catherine Oaks:Canva is an incredible tool to create your own graphics.
Catherine Oaks:You can even create videos using Canva.
Catherine Oaks:You can create audio using Canva.
Catherine Oaks:These are tools out there that are really easy.
Catherine Oaks:They are very user friendly.
Catherine Oaks:They don't require a lot of training in order for you to use them.
Catherine Oaks:And YouTube.
Catherine Oaks:Everybody knows YouTube, you can train yourself on YouTube.
Catherine Oaks:There's a tropic on everything on YouTube.
Catherine Oaks:So when there's a way when there's a will, there's a way and too many people
Catherine Oaks:give up because it's so difficult.
Catherine Oaks:Yes, for sure.
Catherine Oaks:Most businesses don't make it because it's hard.
Catherine Oaks:So if you want to, you can learn and you can make anything happen.
Catherine Oaks:Then what's really critical is to work on your mentor, because I just said it's very
Catherine Oaks:difficult and because it's very difficult.
Catherine Oaks:People give up.
Catherine Oaks:You have to have the mentor of a warrior.
Catherine Oaks:Where you have to push every barrier in front of you, every wall in front of you,
Catherine Oaks:you have to make a conscious decision that you will not give up because you will
Catherine Oaks:be tempted to give up 10 million times.
Catherine Oaks:So surround yourself with positive people, have the right mindset, develop
Catherine Oaks:self confidence, work on yourself.
Catherine Oaks:Have a healthy lifestyle because this is going to take everything you have
Catherine Oaks:is going to take your strength, your mental strength, your physical strength.
Catherine Oaks:So you have to establish a healthy environment at all levels.
Catherine Oaks:If you want to succeed and determine that you will reach your goals at the
Catherine Oaks:same time, be flexible because you're.
Catherine Oaks:Vision or your tactics may have to change.
Catherine Oaks:So don't establish tactics that are not going to change.
Catherine Oaks:You cannot have something that's set in stone.
Catherine Oaks:You have to be flexible.
Catherine Oaks:You have to make some adjustments along the way.
Catherine Oaks:So I think that's really the recipe for success.
Catherine Oaks:But the most important thing is to have the right mindset.
Freddy D:MIndset.
Freddy D:And then it's, that's everything.
Freddy D:Mindset is everything.
Freddy D:But at the same time, I think that you have to track what you're
Freddy D:doing to see if it's working.
Freddy D:And if it's not working, you also have to be, be able to have the wherewithal to
Freddy D:make the decision, say, okay, the strategy that I'm using, I've tracked it and I've,
Freddy D:I've done my Google analytics, I've done my, I looked at my Facebook marketing
Freddy D:activities and stuff like that, and I'm not getting the traction, I'm not getting
Freddy D:the conversions and therefore that effort.
Freddy D:Needs to be scrapped and I need to start all over again and go a different approach
Freddy D:because , that didn't work where I think a lot of people get stuck and say I put
Freddy D:all this effort, I put all this money.
Freddy D:It's got to work.
Freddy D:It's got to work and let it run a little longer.
Freddy D:And now they're just wasting money and are hurting their
Freddy D:brand versus helping their brand.
Catherine Oaks:That's so true.
Catherine Oaks:That's so true.
Catherine Oaks:I've seen many cases where people have invested a lot of money and they
Catherine Oaks:are not willing to adjust anything.
Catherine Oaks:And then we think it's inevitable.
Catherine Oaks:They're going to sink because especially nowadays, things
Catherine Oaks:change at the speed of light.
Catherine Oaks:So like I mentioned before, you have to be flexible on your feet.
Catherine Oaks:You have to be adaptable,
Freddy D:Right, and that's the thing that I think that's what a lot of
Freddy D:businesses make mistake is that they don't, they're too afraid to Say, okay,
Freddy D:that didn't work, and admit that it didn't work, and make an adjustment, regroup.
Freddy D:Go back out, change the messaging, improve the messaging, make the messaging more
Freddy D:as we talked earlier, customer centric.
Freddy D:Not about them because nobody cares about them.
Freddy D:And, but everybody cares about, what are you going to do for me?
Freddy D:How are you going to help me?
Freddy D:How are you going to solve my problem?
Freddy D:That's what everybody's at.
Freddy D:And so the messaging has to come across that way , to.
Freddy D:Get somebody to make the phone call, and then more importantly, okay, so they
Freddy D:found your website, they made the phone call, they filled out the form, the
Freddy D:next, that's all the marketing, but then.
Freddy D:The response has to be the same messaging within the people that the the team at
Freddy D:the company has to have the right attitude and the right mindset to continue that
Freddy D:messaging of being customer centric.
Catherine Oaks:That's important.
Catherine Oaks:And on top of that, you have to have the right management style.
Catherine Oaks:You have to be themselves.
Catherine Oaks:You have to allow people to be creative and not watch every single move
Catherine Oaks:they make and criticize everything, single thing they do, right?
Catherine Oaks:That's the difference.
Catherine Oaks:I always compare, there's a difference between Apple and Microsoft almost,
Catherine Oaks:I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea.
Catherine Oaks:It's, it, when you have a management style that allow people to be
Catherine Oaks:creative and to feel secure in their environment, it's a game changer.
Freddy D:Oh, absolutely.
Freddy D:Because, yYou can have the person that handles that inquiry, and they feel
Freddy D:unappreciated they haven't been recognized for any of their efforts and stuff like
Freddy D:that, so they're gonna they're told for that prospect that's actually looking
Freddy D:to potentially do business with you, and that could turn that person off, and it's
Freddy D:just all that marketing effort that was just done, the money that was spent, the
Freddy D:effort goes out the window, thank you.
Freddy D:Because you have a begruntled employee because, you didn't
Freddy D:recognize them, didn't appreciate them, and they feel underappreciated.
Freddy D:And there's a disconnect.
Freddy D:And so you can have all the best marketing and the best approach, but you have to
Freddy D:have the team mentally on the same page.
Freddy D:So
Catherine Oaks:true on the same page and motivated.
Catherine Oaks:It's part of the the success picture, right?
Freddy D:Yes.
Freddy D:It's important.
Freddy D:Yes.
Freddy D:It's very motivated.
Freddy D:Yeah.
Freddy D:Yeah.
Freddy D:So the company has to have their own super fans with, of the employees.
Freddy D:So it comes across to the new prospective customer that,
Freddy D:this is an exciting company.
Freddy D:As people were excited to work there, there was an example that
Freddy D:somebody brought up to me is you go into a circle K gas station.
Freddy D:They have them here.
Freddy D:I don't know if they have enough in Nevada, but you go there and the
Freddy D:person they don't even say hi to you.
Freddy D:They don't say nothing.
Freddy D:It just you go in.
Freddy D:There's a cutie, which is a different a gas station.
Freddy D:You walk in and the tenant might be working with somebody look up and say,
Freddy D:Hello, welcome to cutie, and it's just a whole different Ambiance and just that
Freddy D:little thing is a huge marketing aspect.
Freddy D:That's why you look at, a QT gas station here in Arizona.
Freddy D:And I think there's there in a few other states, they're always packed.
Freddy D:And you look at some of the other stations that are not, and this is just simple
Freddy D:gas station level stuff, but, they don't have the same level of customers.
Freddy D:Everything
Catherine Oaks:trickles down from the top.
Catherine Oaks:Yep.
Catherine Oaks:So you don't have the right management.
Catherine Oaks:Yep.
Catherine Oaks:Yep.
Catherine Oaks:It's all important.
Catherine Oaks:Catherine, how can people find you?
Catherine Oaks:They can go to slicexr.
Catherine Oaks:com.
Catherine Oaks:It's sliicexr.
Catherine Oaks:com.
Catherine Oaks:Slice with two I's.
Catherine Oaks:And we'll have them grab a slice of their market.
Catherine Oaks:Everything is in there to connect with me.
Freddy D:Okay.
Freddy D:And do you have anything that that you're offering any of our viewers and listeners?
Catherine Oaks:Yeah, so people can send me an email at info at slicexr.
Catherine Oaks:com and I can provide them with a deck that gives them the guidelines to
Catherine Oaks:establish a presence in the metaverse.
Freddy D:Okay.
Freddy D:All right.
Freddy D:Great.
Freddy D:Catherine, thank you very much for being on this show.
Freddy D:Appreciate it.
Freddy D:It was great conversation.
Freddy D:Great talking to you.
Freddy D:And I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again on the show down the road.
Freddy D:And thank you again.
Catherine Oaks:Thank you so much for having me.
Catherine Oaks:Appreciate it.
