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Your Brand is More Than Just A Logo · The Expert Method

• speaker-0: It's so easy to get caught up in ⁓ and take for granted what you already know about it. The world out there, for the most part, probably doesn't have that same background that you do. If you tell the client at the end of this week, they think that means tomorrow, by slowing down, it'll actually allow you to build out a proper strategy. A true brand is something that like evokes emotion from the audience. Anything that makes life easier for your client is usually gonna be the differentiators you're looking for and like how to separate yourself. speaker-1: So how do you build a great relationship with a customer? speaker-0: Under promise over deliver. speaker-1: Every business wants customers to like their brand, but that doesn't mean that they recognize the logo or remember the name. It means they feel something when they interact with the business. They trust it. They understand what it stands for. And when something goes wrong, there's enough of a relationship there to work through it. So with that, I'm excited to be joined today by Jared Harmon. Jared is the CEO and co founder of the One Group Agency, where he leads a full suite marketing agency that works across brand, creative, digital marketing, web, and social. In our conversation, we discuss what brand actually means, how service businesses can use relationships as a real differentiator, why clear expectations matter so much in client work, and how Jared thinks about customer service, accountability, and underpromising so you can overdeliver. If you get value from this conversation, be sure to subscribe and share it with a friend. And now here is my conversation with Jared Harmon. Jared, thank you so much for doing this. speaker-0: Yeah, stoked to be here. Thanks for having in. speaker-1: Absolutely. So, Jared, I have a hypothetical for you that I would love to explore throughout our conversation today. So let's say a founder comes to you with a genuinely new and innovative idea, right? They understand why it matters, they're excited about it, they're enthusiastic, but the marketplace does not have the language to describe it yet or really understand it. People don't immediately recognize like what category it's in, why it matters to them, or what they're supposed to do with this thing. So if that founder comes to you and asks you to help them launch this new idea. build the campaign around this new product or or service. Where would you start with that founder? speaker-0: I mean the easiest first step is really answering the most important questions. And I I think a big part of it can be when you launch something new or have an idea for something new and you you kind of mentioned this or touched on it, like you understand it, right? So you you get it, but you to you gotta dig into the your potential audience, what they look like, what you know, what form of communication is gonna work best for them and why they would be interested. I mean, at this point, you know, in the world there's probably less and less completely new things out there. So figuring out how to, you know, categorize and and explain your product effectively is going to be the best place. But like the first thing even before that is just kind of to slow down and try to pull yourself out of it a little bit because the one thing I've learned working with multiple brands is when it's your brand or or something that you're passionate about, you know, it's so easy to get caught up in ⁓ and take for granted what you already know about it, right? Whereas you've got remember that the world out there for the most part probably doesn't have that same background that you do. And, you know, pulling yourself away from the emotions and the heartstrings and all the, you know, late nights staying up thinking about this idea or whatever you've done ⁓ to to really try and find ways to connect with your audience as a starting point. And and by slowing down, it'll actually allow you to build out a proper strategy. Too many entrepreneurs or business owners get excited, get passionate. Which is fantastic. Like there's nothing I don't wanna discourage that by any stretch, but they just want quick results. And ⁓ usually when you do that, you end up kind of falling flat on your face a little bit. I mean, don't get me wrong, there's always anomalies and it's sometimes you do hit that home run, but nine times out of ten, you're gonna miss a few steps and it becomes a matter of attrition and whether you can afford to miss those steps and still carry forward. speaker-1: Right. Yeah, there's a learning process, right? Especially if you have something new and you've never done anything like this before. You don't have any data to look back on to say, hey, this worked, this didn't. If you're starting completely fresh, you have to expect that there's gonna be a learning phase where you're gonna go in, obviously fully prepared, do the work to think things through. But once you launch that first campaign, launch that first ad, whatever it may be, it may not hit as ⁓ as big as maybe you would have expected, just because you you had didn't have any data, you didn't have any information that you were building on. It's just all kind of a guess. That makes sense. So you really zeroed in on like, okay, you need to understand the customer and put yourself in your customer's shoes, your potential customer's shoes. Like what would they say about the product? Right. Like, don't use your jargon, right? You've been in the business, you're the person that built this thing. You understand it extremely well, obviously. We need to understand that we're talking to people who don't understand it. Is that right? speaker-0: Yeah, exactly. And and I think you've got to be open minded to the fact that, you know, when you're building your brand, just because you think it should be X, the audience that you're trying to appeal to thinks it should be Y. I think a lot of people can get offended by that, you know, unintentionally or or disappointed, maybe a better word. But when you're trying to build a business, you wanna make it appealing, right? So just 'cause you think it should be called, you know Ian's pizzas, you know, the Ian's pizzas might not mean anything to the people who want to buy the pizza, right? So and so you've gotta be open minded to ideas. You know, I think marketing in general, you know, to be a f an effective marketer and and really understand brands, like you have to accept the fact that you are just one part of of the of the target audience. And in some cases you might not be part of the target audience at all. Like just 'cause you have an idea doesn't mean that you're part of that audience, right? So ⁓ that can be a bit of an uphill climb for people to get over. ⁓ and and again can delay things sometimes. speaker-1: Yeah. I'm gonna put you on the spot here. ⁓ but how would you define brand? Like what is brand in your mind? speaker-0: To me, a true brand is is something that like evokes emotion from from the audience, like and and and establishes a connection, right? It's not just the name or the logo. ⁓ those all play a part of it, but it's it's kind of that feeling you get. Like I I mean it's such an easy example to use, but I always use it like Nike, right? Like Nike's brand is just so strong that you can watch a million Nike commercials and not ever be totally clear as to what they're trying to sell you. Like, I mean, don't get me wrong, they're selling you stuff for sure. But like, you know, like a a perfect example, I don't know if you're a basketball guy or not, but like with with San Antonio going the finals, they've been running all these When Bayana ⁓ ads and and like there's no product I mean there's subtle product placement and those types of things, right? But it's it's all just built to evoke emotion, right? And and make you feel a connection to their product so that you go like, yeah, like I I I want those shoes or I want those shorts or Whatever it is that they're selling you without knowing. speaker-1: Mm. Yeah. It's the the things your customers say about your business, right? It's that feeling, that emotion that is evoked within your business or about your business in your customers. It's like the personality of your business. Yeah. It's it's brand is one of those ethereal concepts that it can be hard to kind of put your finger on sometimes. speaker-0: Yeah, it's like life, right? Like you everybody wants to be liked. Let me not everybody, but most people want to be liked. It's the same thing. You want people to see your brand and be yeah, I like those guys, right? And like, and and I want to support those guys. And, you know, at and like the grassroots of it, like, yeah, like I I like buying their product and like I don't care how much money it is because I, you know, I I like what they're about, right? And so the logistical elements of that brand, ⁓ you know, such as the logo, the name, like, you know, font types, whatever, those those become supporting structure to that feeling in in my opinion, right? Like those are the things that create that recognition about the feelings. speaker-1: Right. Yeah. Absolutely. So when you're going through this brand planning or campaign planning process with your clients, what are the things that you're looking for? Like kind of what are those questions you're asking, the things that you're finding that would inform the decisions that you're making about a business's brand? Like if somebody was listening to this today, you know, obviously first decision First option is go get in touch with Jared Harmon and his team ⁓ to get help with with your brand. But if somebody wanted to just consider this on their own, ⁓ like what kind of questions would they asking themselves? What would you encourage them to go out and explore and find to find the information needed to inform the decisions that they're making about their brand? speaker-0: I think it's simple actually. I think it's what what's the differentiator? We always ask our clients that, like like w like why your product? And again, like I I I'm just I can't think of a ton of examples, if any, where somebody has put something in front of me that I haven't seen some version of before, which isn't a bad thing. I mean it's you know, it's you know, twenty twenty-six, like I mean it's not like we're reinventing the wheel anymore, right? So, you know, and and even when you look at You know, like things like AI, which is like new technology, there's a million different platforms and a million different options. Like they it just it all comes out ⁓ you know, ⁓ in bulk, it seems like. So I think it's like, well, what is gonna make your product service, whatever it is, different? Like and it doesn't have to be, you know, super elaborate. I think people sometimes will overthink that part of it as well. Like, you know, ⁓ but it it could just be simple as price point, right? Like, okay, like we're cheaper. Cool. That's a great for most people. That's the best differentiator, right? Like I can I can get these same shoes for fifty bucks or for a hundred bucks. Well, it's pretty, pretty easy, right? And so like it becomes a real simple equation as to what you're going to promote and sell. But you know, beyond cost, you know, obviously product quality, anything that makes life easier for your client is usually going to be the differentiators you're looking for and like how to separate yourself. But that's again, I think. You know, you see some people when they're building something, they'll say, like, ⁓ like, you know, mine's just better. Like, that's not good enough, right? And like it's it's it's really kind of hyper analyzing. And again, being not being afraid to like run tests to see like what people think and and identify those things that resonate with potential audience or p potential customers. speaker-1: Yeah. I think it's worth underlining something that you said there is you know you gotta hyper analyze, which I think I'll reword into saying that you need to get more specific, right? You can't just say better, higher quality, right? You need to get a lot more specific, especially in the world of marketing. You need to get more specific. And if you can, get more specific in a way where you're using your customers and your buyers' language. Would you agree? speaker-0: Yeah, I I I think that that is a where you can get pretty like micro about it though, because unless you have a really niche brand or niche product or service, like you know, like ideally if you really want to be successful, you you're you know, you're building something that could appeal to a larger spectrum of people. So now you've got to get into you've either gotta find a way to, you know, communicate that messaging to everybody, which can It's hard to do until you've built that brand or to, you know, attack the the smaller markets that are there. You know, and and that becomes a question of budget, right? Like we've got this we've got this one client, it's ⁓ a a really unique ⁓ training facility, like really targeted in terms of like how it offers its services, but there's really like a bunch of, you know, fifteen to twenty niche categories that would be appealing and like you know, a a campaign targeted one niche category won't hit the other one. So it's now you're trying to figure out how either how to broad swipe everybody or or really dial each campaign down to go after those individual audiences. speaker-1: Is there a better option there in your mind? Is it like one broad campaign that could resonate and hit all 15 of those micro niches? Or is it the, you know, you create a a new tailored campaign for each micro niche? Like obviously there's c there's trade offs. The if you're coming up with a new campaign or you're tailoring the campaign to each micro audience, it's gonna be a lot more work, a lot more effort. Is it worth it? Like does it pay off? speaker-0: So my initial answer is is if you can if you can run a bunch of different campaigns and a bunch of different, you know, assets ⁓ that are targeted at specific audiences, I will always say that that's the better option because you just have you're just increasing your opportunity to connect. And and in and worst case scenario, you're just learning across the board, right? And so like you're you're you know, like even if the campaign's a total flop, you're gonna build a bunch of data and information that will hopefully help the next campaign. So I I would always answer better, but the problem is is that that becomes a a budget challenge for a lot of companies, right? And so whether it's just like the simple cost of doing that or just the time and resources required to do it, right? And so that usually leads back to like the broader piece and which like I said can be a challenge depending on what it is you're doing. And that even then the variables are too many to to be able to answer that definitively. I think you I it it kind of speaks to my first comment where you you have to approach it like it You know, on a case by case basis as to what you're doing and how you're doing it. So speaker-1: For sure. Yep. It's a science, right? And there's just it really depends on the ⁓ on the on the exact situation. ⁓ 'cause there are so many different variables that go into it a hundred percent. And I know I'm putting you on the spot trying to Yeah. I love it. ⁓ cool. Another thing that I just I think is worth saying just 'cause it's an idea that popped in my head. But you talked about how today there really aren't that many new things being made, right? Shoes have been around, training gyms have been around, like these things none of this stuff is new. So a lot of the reinvention isn't really happening on the frontier of new products, new services, new things. But I think a lot of the reinvention and the innovation is happening on the branding, right? Like if you don't have a new product or a new service, you need to have an innovative brand or like a new angle in which you're talking about this thing. Which I think is a really cool idea. It's like, okay, you can sell shoes, but you just sell them in a like you make sell them in a very different way, right? You have a very different brand of shoes, right? That's why we have eighty different shoe shoe companies that are out there because they all came up with a new category or a new way that they were branding themselves. Is there anything there that you think is worth expanding on? Like okay, maybe you're not coming out with a new product or service, but you need to come up with a new innovative way in which you're branding if you want to carve out a market for yourself. speaker-0: Yeah, I I th there's an element of you know, copycat, you know, marketing that goes on there and it's like, you know, everybody kinda follows the trends in terms of how they're doing it, right? And I think ⁓ I think what we're seeing right now is successful campaigns are becoming more experiential in terms of you know, like how people can engage and it's like, you know, engagement, engagement, engagement, right? And and ⁓ you know, quality over quantity, like all those things that, you know, buzzwords, whatever that you hear. Yeah, I think if you were to go back sixty years, a hundred years, whatever it was when like, you know, TV ads started or whatever it was, you know, like I think you'll see that like that's really just the product of like a constant development of like you ever watch Mad Men and like, you know, the ide the the ideas where, you know, they're always trying to come up with new cutting edge ideas from old products. And like I think I think that's just the net result of people always trying to find that edge or that push, right? Like what if what if I do it this way? Like I don't think that that's so much a matter of like effective versus ineffective. I think it's just trying to find ways to better engage with their audience. And I the one thing I'll say too is that they're which is maybe less that, but the result of that is one more so than ever. Like when I first got into marketing and sales in my early twenties, like ROI wasn't like a thing. Like it was I mean it was, but it wasn't something that people were concerned about, right? It was like if people were concerned about the brand awareness. It like they weren't necessarily like, okay, one dollar in equals two dollars out or whatever. Whereas I think there's, you know, a renewed focus on that ROI because of the data. Like you now you can actually test and gauge that. So th there's that piece of it, but you know, at the end of the day, people are always just trying to find the best way to sell. All of us something. And so it's and and trying to break those boxes, you know, as best they can to to get in our faces and and get us to purchase. speaker-1: Absolutely. That is the never ending battle that we're all in on one side or the other. So you've been in the game for a long time and you have built a team. And as a leader of a team, every leader has like these things that they repeat all the time. Like the feels like they repeat them all the time. They just kind of say the same things. Like you build up these principles where it's like, you know, simple scales or like whatever, like little principles like that. So I feel like you strike me as a guy who might have some of these Principles and things that you've learned, these fund fundamental things about marketing, about branding, about the services that you deliver to your clients that you maybe repeat often. Is there anything there that comes? It's just like these are the fundamental principles and things that I've learned. I'm always driving the team towards these things that you find yourself repeating often. speaker-0: Yeah, I I think ⁓ I don't think any of them are super like groundbreaking. I like one big thing is just being proactive, which isn't like again, nothing, you know, super special or or fancy, but it's just I find in the marketing agency world I mean when you're dealing with like, you know, I think we've got about forty retainer clients that we deal with on a monthly basis. When you have that kind of volume, like it can it can become challenging to get outside of the routine and like you know, look for ways to be better for our clients or look for ways to help our clients perform better because it's just there's so much that goes into like this like the basic function of it. That can be tough. So I'm always pushing the team to try and find make sure not try and make sure that they find time to analyze what we're doing, how we're doing it and see if we can find ways to to outperform the previous month. Now, I mean in some cases like we're you know, we are doing all the right things and a good job, but I I think as you know, like the world of digital media, like it changes like daily. So if you're just sitting on it unresting your laurels, you're kind of getting left behind. And that's a really bad look for a marketing agency. ⁓ so and then and then the other one is just, I mean, like I've always really, really pushed this customer service and like kind that old school face to face approach. You know, like for me, ⁓ I've always kind of joked I'm not I've I've never believed I'm the smartest guy in the room and and ⁓ you know so what's helped me have whatever success I've had is just by having good relationships and establishing a good network of people that I can not just from like a client standpoint, just from like a relationship standpoint from a resourcing end of things and like, you know, knowing that there's people I can call to bounce things off of and run ideas by and all that kind of thing. Right. I think I think that goes a long way. And I I do think not to overgeneralize, like that younger generation has lost sight of that a little bit, like relative to what it was like, you know, in my teens and twenties. And so you know speaker-1: I mean, there's something to like I kinda grew up in this younger generation and I've struggled with it myself. Like I find a really hard time asking for help. Right. And I you know, I can blame all these other things that are out there, right? It's like, ⁓ you know, social media media makes it feel like, you know, you're consuming content and all you see are people who have it all figured out. So, you know, you feel like you need to pretend like you have it all figured out. I don't think that's I think that's probably really overthinking it and overdoing it. I don't know. I think it's probably a case by case, person by person basis, but I have a really hard time asking for help. And I think that maybe there is something there, right? Like you talked about the humility that you have. I feel like for us, like in our younger generation, we were supposed to put on this face of having it all figured out, you know, our whole lives, like with social media. It's like, okay, no, I'm doing great. What are you talking about? I'm nothing that I'm struggling with, right? So it's harder for us to ask for help, maybe. That's my personal experience. It's something that I'm really trying to get intentional about. Is being okay with not having it all figured out. speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, I completely agree with that. I mean, it's it's definitely I mean it's it's a people's acceptance for that side of things. It's funny that you say that 'cause I like I would say that not having it all figured out there's way greater acceptance for not having it figured out than there ever used to be. But but going back to the customer service side of things, like I used to joke, you know, when I was younger and I first started, I was a marketing and sales director for a hockey team and and you know, the clients I kept forever were the ones that knew me personally because they didn't Even though they might not want to buy that rink board or buy that ad, they didn't want to upset me or like leave you know, like they knew me enough that they didn't want to be like, Yeah, you know, I'm not gonna renew this year. Whereas, you know, when you don't have those relationships and you're just a transaction and it's so much easier to be like, Yeah, you know what, like we're gonna cut our services this month, right? And I think, you know, like that's not gonna work for every business, obviously, like especially retail or, you know, anything that's that is, you know, super transactional, but Anything service based, like you you want to give them reason to stay with you. And again, it comes back to there's a million different marketing agencies out there and you know, or mortgage brokers or realtors, like you know, the list goes on. What's gonna make those people wanna work with me or with my team? And it's you know, and and not just like, you know, fire us if something goes wrong or whatever, right? Like it's it's they you need that relationship. And I think that's just such a lost art, right? speaker-1: Absolutely. Yeah. And I think I maybe mis misinterpreted what you were saying earlier and I kind of went on this whole tangent about me not being able to ask for help. But yeah, the relationship thing is is is another big part of it, right? Like we have kind of lost the value of the relationship, right? And what intentionally building a relationship and really just giving a sh about the other person kind of looks like, which is sad, but it creates a huge opportunity for the people that are focused on that. If you do come in with a really intentional care. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: And focus on developing and nurturing and building this relationship with everybody that you work with, it's gonna go a really long way in your business. And I think I find myself trying to do this all the time, but like tying back things that we're talking about now to things that we mentioned earlier. I don't know what that is about me. But anyways, you talked about okay, branding is kind of that like if we could redefine branding as like the relationship that your customer has with your business or the relationship that you have with your customer, which might be a little bit of a stretch in the service business. Right, you talked about all these different there's so many different marketing agencies, there's so many different realtors, there's so many different mortgages, mortgage brokers, right? There's the way that you can differentiate yourself, like the main differentiator could be the relationships that you have with your customers, right? Like why would they choose you over another marketing agency or over another realtor or over another mortgage broker is because of the relationship that they have with you, right, as the person. So really speaker-0: Yeah, in s in service that sorry to interrupt, yeah, but in service that is the differentiator, in my opinion, 'cause like you've got to assume and expect that if you're in that if you're in a service based industry, like I don't know, it'd be kind of disappointing if you didn't think you were any good at what you do, right? Like so y I'm I'm gonna like assume that you think you know what you're doing or that your you know, your quality of work is good. And so like, you know, for us, like ⁓ yeah, like obviously I think we're good at what we do. But I also don't think that it we're not prone to or you know, we're not able to make mistakes. Of course we do. Like we we've we've Up every once in a while and it's you know, it's not never a fun conversation. But like I'll tell you it's a lot easier to have that conversation with a client when you have a relationship with them and you can call them and say, Hey, like, you know, whatever, we tried this, didn't work, or whatever the case may be, as opposed to like sending them an email, you know, or whatever it might be. And so being responsible for, you know, and for you know, what you output what your output is and what you produce, I think is a is a big piece of it as well. I I like I I worked in restaurants for a long time and like I I swear, like when you know, growing up in restaurants, you know, if it didn't matter if you thought the person pulled that hair out of their head and stuck it in their dish, you you w you they weren't paying for that dish, right? And I feel like that doesn't happen anymore either, like a really like micro example of that kind of stuff. But I think like I feel like ⁓ like no, it's not our fault. Like yeah, like hairs good people in like restaurants now are like, Well, yeah, like that that kind of stuff's gonna happen, so you just gotta deal with it, right? And and the customer service customer always right kind of mentality is just not doesn't seem to be as prevalent as it used to be. speaker-1: Yeah. I think just to ask a very similar question a different way where you might repeat yourself a little bit, but so you mentioned that when you have those strong relationships with your customers, it makes everything else easier, right? It makes it easier for you to admit your mistakes, just to have that conversation with them. They're gonna stay with you longer if you have that great relationship. So how do you build a great relationship with a customer? speaker-0: I think honestly just it's kind of cheesy, but just listening, you know, and like understanding what it is they're after and what they want. You know, being I talked about being open minded before, but but just trying to be open minded about what they're after. I think, you know, we've always been intentional about not trying to like force clients into spending ⁓ you know, spending money just for the sake of spending money. And I think I think that actually goes a long way for us because trying to, you know, work to customize packages that fit their fit their budgets and their needs and their goals and objectives I think can go a long way. But I like again, I think it's just about being yourself, you know, and like not trying to BS your way through the relationship. And like I where I've lost clients is, you know, where I've had a hard time before is where you go in like, you know, maybe being a little bit too cocky or arrogant about the opportunity and just letting that get in the way of just like having a conversation and and, you know, letting them into my world a little bit so that they'll let me into their world a little bit. So that we can build that relationship, right? It's you know, it's just like you know, and I I would say it's kinda cool in a way like a lot of my clients have become friends, which can be tough sometimes too, don't get me wrong, but it it you know, it goes a long way. speaker-1: Yeah. Yep. Sometimes when they become too friendly, then they start, you know. Honestly, like there's an internal thing with you, it's just like, ⁓ well, yeah, okay, sure, we can we can shave a, you know, a grand or two off there or whatever. Like they start giving up discounts or whatever. It can be tough. Yeah, same. I was the same. Same with me. But, you know, it makes business a lot more fun when you're working with people that you really enjoy. And I think if we could summarize like how do you build a great relationship with a customer, is you just care about them, right? You just genuinely care. You're not coming into this relationship looking to get something from them, but you're looking for all the ways that you can give and you can serve and you can provide value. Right. And just honestly entering that relationship from the mindset of just I want to help this person any way that I can. That doesn't mean that I'm just going to force like, you know, get them to move up to the next level. It's just I'm going to do whatever is best for them based on what I've heard them say, which I love that you said listening. So it's just really listening and identifying the ways, okay, how can I genuinely help this person? And then just following through on that. And then I think another great thing that I think is worth sharing is there's a great clip from Alex Ramosy. Creating satisfied customers just all comes down to meeting expectations, right? Because all frustrations stem from unmet expectations. So all you have to do is just set really clear expectations, meet expectations. Set expectations, meet expectations, right? And ⁓ that's a whole nother tangent and diatribe that we could go on about like the importance of onboarding, because onboarding a new customer is where you have the opportunity to set really clear expectations that you can then follow through and just check the boxes as you go through the service journey. speaker-0: Communicating those expectations too effectively, right? Like I think that's a big thing as well. Like, you know, and and we I literally just came from a meeting with our team about that, right? I think to the customer service end, like we've always been not the greatest at establishing boundaries when it comes to revisions and things like that on content we create. Because you like it just I don't know, like I don't want to say no, you know, like it's like, ⁓ like we're trying to help. And like I I will say it's like such an obvious thing to say, but I I do think our whole team genuinely cares about our client's success. So like if they're not happy with the video, like the or you know, the social whatever it is that we're doing, the last thing you want to be like, sorry man, like you're stuck with it, like you know, you only paid for one revision, you know, get bent, right? And and ⁓ and ⁓ and we constantly like push and push and push, which, you know, hopefully our clients appreciate. But the backside of it is is that you can only go so far before it's costing money and that does have an impact. So I like I'm always on the team about like Nobody's gonna get mad if we say they only get two revisions or one revision. And this is like a really small example, obviously. But if you don't tell them they only get one or two revisions and then you try to implement that after the fact, you're hooped. Like you're like so like it's even though those expectations aren't unreasonable, I think it's just if they're not communicated effectively, that's gonna be another challenge. speaker-1: Yep. The set expectations part of that equation is absolutely critical, right? If you don't intentionally and clearly set those expectations in the mind of your customer, they're gonna be setting their own expectations. Like a really great example. I was literally talking about this Sunday night, went out to dinner with some friends. And we go into we walk into the restaurant, it's packed, we had no reservation. We go up to the front desk and we ask, Hey, can we get a table for four? And they said, Okay, yeah, great. ⁓ we don't know how long the wait time's gonna be, but just kind of sit over there. It's a nice place. So in my mind, I was like, okay, we're probably gonna have to wait like 20 minutes. Right. They didn't tell me the expectation. They didn't tell me how long I was gonna have to wait. So in my mind, I was like, okay, we'll probably have to wait like 15, 20 minutes was the expectation that I set myself. And then we wait 25, 30, 40 minutes, and I'm just getting like I'm just over it. And then we just leave. Right. We just leave. I'm like, this is ridiculous. But I think if they had set the expectation and clearly had been like, hey, it's probably gonna be like forty, forty five minutes, we probably just could have gone downstairs, sat at the bar, waited forty five minutes, been happy. Cause they had clearly set that expectation. So that's the expectation that I set in my mind. So I'm not going to be frustrated when it takes 45 minutes. But if they let me set the expectation myself of 15 minutes, now as soon as it's 20, 30 minutes, I'm going to be pissed. Right. So you have to clearly set those expectations. And that's what in a service business, what onboarding is for. Right. Onboarding, the number one objective of onboarding is I always broke it down into to two, but the number one priority of onboarding is is setting as clear expectations as you possibly can on everything. You're gonna get invoices on this day, they're due this day, you're gonna get this many revisions, this is what the process is gonna look like. We're gonna have one day to, you know, film all the content, then we're gonna send it to you to review. Like you just go through the entire experience and just set exhausting expectations for every level of the experience. speaker-0: Couldn't agree more 'cause and and we've spent a lot of time like constantly re reworking our our statement of work documents for that reason. It just could like constantly add, like, you know, like, okay, like, you know, we didn't have this before, so we should, you know, and like this came up recently with this client, so we should just add that in because like hopefully it never happens, but if it does, at least it's there. Right. And I think the other thing too, like to go back to your restaurant example, if they had told you forty five minutes and you walked in at thirty five, you would have been stoked. Right. Like it was like, ⁓ like ten minutes early, that's that's rad, right? And so and it and like I think people underestimate that. It's it's like the same meeting I was referencing earlier, we're talking about deliverables. And one of my project managers was like, Well, I sometimes I'll just tell the client, like, yeah, like probably end of this week. And I'm like, I and I just stopped her and said, Like, if you tell the client end of this week, they think that means tomorrow. And like, 'cause they want it. Like they, you know, you like it they want to see, you know, that new cup shiny new content or whatever it is we're producing for them. And so you're way better off to tell ⁓ middle of next week and then send it to them on Friday. Yeah, and and you know, the d the difference in the response will be night and day, right? speaker-1: Absolutely. Yeah, you can intentionally give yourself some buffer and then an opportunity to like really impress. Right. Yeah, I flip so it's like, all right, today's Tuesday, we're gonna have the content delivered to you by Wednesday next week, but internally your deadline is Friday. If something goes wrong, you have a little bit of a buffer, or you can just deliver it on time on Friday and they're gonna be absolutely thrilled. I love that. That's not something that I've put into practice. Yes, under promise I would deliver. I love it. speaker-0: Promise overdeliver. speaker-1: Jared, thank you again so much for the time. I have a coup like a couple more questions for you, but before we do that, I want to let people know how can they get in touch with you? speaker-0: Best way is probably just through our website, one groupagency.ca ⁓ or you can find me on LinkedIn, just Jared Harmon. speaker-1: No. speaker-0: We're different that way to be honest with you. We work with just about anybody and everybody. Like when we started out, I I felt it'd be short sighted of me to say no to potential partners in revenue and and you know, as you're growing your business and and ⁓ I ⁓ now I look at it more like we work in so many different industries and categories that it it it provides some unique perspective for us to be able to, you know, beg, borrow and steal ideas from different industries and apply them in other places and plus it just keeps things interesting. speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. You're working in new industries, new audiences, new businesses, new products, new services. It's super fun. And it just keeps those creative juices flowing. When you look at one group agency, your website, you'll be blown away by the suite of offers and services that you offer to your customers. Like thank you. It's incredible. Like I had a marketing agency we built for like four years. We had half the amount of services that we provided to our customers and I it was hard. It was a lot. So the fact that you've built a business that offers that scope of services to your customer base and you've built it to the to b the place that you have is really a testament to ⁓ to you and your ability and and the team that you've built. So props to that. thank you. Yeah, absolutely. So my final question for you, Jared, is a recurring question that I ask every guest. If you had a giant billboard that everyone in the world could see for ten seconds, what would it say and why? speaker-0: Yeah. Appreciate every moment. Like I just I think that like, you know, ⁓ even as part of this journey as a business owner, like I've had I remember we do some work for a large hotel chain. They've got a a beautiful location in the British Virgin Islands. And so like when I started this business with my business partner Matt, we were we were small, it was the two of us, right? And so about a year and a half ago, we were on our first trip to the British Virgin Islands, and I remember like landing and and I don't if you know if you've never been there, it like It's like straight out of a movie, like you're flying over the water, all of a sudden this like little island appears and it's just it's just one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. And I you know, it sounded I I was telling all my body is like it was super cheesy, but like it was totally like a pinch me moment, right? Like I can't believe like work has you know, work has taken me here. And so I think, you know, especially as I get older, the more you appreciate like all the little things and and and those opportunities and experiences along the way. So speaker-1: Amazing. Appreciate every moment. Jared, thank you so much for the today. speaker-0: Yeah, it was awesome. Thanks for having me on. speaker-1: Thank you for listening. The main thing that I'm taking away from my conversation with Jared is that brand only matters if the customers can really feel it. A logo, a fancy message, or a campaign can create recognition, but the relationship is what makes people stay. Jared's point about service businesses really stood out to me because customers assume that you're competent before they hire you. What they're really evaluating over time is whether or not you listen, communicate clearly, and own your mistakes. That means brand is not separate at all from operations. It is reinforced or weakened every time your customers interact with your business and your team. If you want to get connected with Jared, you can find the links to his website and LinkedIn in the description of this episode. And if you're an author and you want your readers to engage more deeply with your ideas, download the free program execution system toolkit in the description. It'll show you how to install what I call execution infrastructure for your book. And I'm excited to get your feedback. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you all in the next one.