Latest / Imperfect Marketing / Episode 118: Ernie Martin Reveals: The Power of Storytelling in Marketing

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Episode 118: Ernie Martin Reveals: The Power of Storytelling in Marketing · Imperfect Marketing

• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Imperfect Marketing.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, kendra Corman, and I am very excited today because we have Ernie Martin with us.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: So let me go ahead and read his bio.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: So bear with me.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: It's on the other screen.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Ernie is a seasoned marketing and communications professional and the author of Nobody Cares About Your Business The eight universal marketing principles every entrepreneur must know to make customers love their business.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: With an impressive career spanning over 30 years, ernie has earned a reputation for excellence in his field.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining me today, ernie.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Kendra, thank you for having me.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: I'm excited to be here and looking forward to the conversation.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: So talk to me a little bit about this book.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: First of all, i love the title.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I have to admit that I haven't read it yet.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: But yeah, nobody cares about your business.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Tell me more about it?
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: you know, i started writing the book a little more than three years ago and I literally wrote it or at least the first draft in a weekend, because I had a slow period and I thought, you know, i started pondering all the things that I've discussed with entrepreneurs and small business owners because I, in addition to running my business and writing books, i mentor entrepreneurs and small business owners, and so, over 20-some-odd years of doing this, there were themes that came up over and over and over again, and so one of the themes was you know, entrepreneurs and small business owners think that once you hang a shingle outside your door that says you're open, everyone will flop to your business and you'll be a success.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: And so I would tell people well, you know what?
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: nobody actually cares about your business.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Maybe your mother, maybe your spouse, maybe your high school roommate cares about your business, but nobody cares about your business.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: And it's not because you don't have a good product or service, it's just that everyone's inundated with so much stuff product services, i mean in 2023, we've got thousands of channels, you know, on TV and the internet and computers.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: We didn't have that in the 70s, when you had the three networks and maybe public broadcasting, and so everyone's inundated with stimuli.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: And so to just put out a shingle and think everyone's going to say, oh you know, john opened a business, let's go and frequent his business, it's not going to happen.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: So what you have to do is you have to go through a process where you actually make people love your business.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: And so I wrote the book.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I had another title which was very boring.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: The title was Make Them Love Your Business And I thought, oh, it's kind of boring.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: You know, somebody might pick it up as a oh, that's a nice looking book or title or a cover, and then put it back down, but the nobody cares about your business.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: I thought, you know, i've been talking to entrepreneurs about this for years that might make a better title.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: And so that's where the title came from.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: No, i love the title.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I attended a webinar training by Jam Gamble.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've heard of her, but she was funny because she was talking about, you know, people that were scared to go live, and she's like you're just not that important, nobody cares.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Nobody's paying that close attention to see if your lipstick is right or your eyeliner is correct or your hair's out of place.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: She goes you're not that important to them, they just don't care.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: So share what you have to share And hopefully it'll resonate with them.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: And I think that goes a long way with a little bit with what you're saying here, with with nobody cares about your business, because there's so much other stuff in their lives.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: You need to let them know what's going on.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, absolutely.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: And you know, one of the one of the interesting takeaways from sharing this with entrepreneurs and small business owners is the initial reaction is they don't believe me.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: So they say well, people do love my business and they care about it, etc.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: And so when they start going through the process of putting together a marketing plan and they begin executing it, they realize that it's not a hockey stick.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: In terms of the frequency in which people run and purchase products from them and people are interested.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: It's more of a flat line initially And then over time it has to slowly ramp up.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: And you know I use the example of Coca Cola and Apple, and so Coca Cola and Apple to among two of the most recognized brands in the world.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: But if they stopped advertising and stop promoting, tomorrow and the next month or two, their sales would drop 25% and then, over another six months, 50%.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: And it's not because people don't like Apple and Coke, it's just Apple and Coke realize they have to continually remind people over and, over and over again, because God forbid if there's a day when someone doesn't think about drinking a Coca Cola or someone doesn't look at the little Apple icon on their laptop and think that's a great computer, so they have to constantly remind their audience that they exist.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: So what are some small mistakes that you're seeing people make?
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah what you said.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: You know, that's what got you to write in the book.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Right is that people were making some of the same mistakes, right?
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: There are two mistakes.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: One is entrepreneurs and small business owners not doing anything and thinking that everything's fine, everything's okay, i'm just not going to do anything, i'll just remain status quo.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: And so they don't realize that there's a lot of power in sharing your message and communicating your message and doing it very well And so that, over time, can transform your audience.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: It's a matter of everyone knows about you and cares about you versus no one's ever heard of you.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: And so when I tell people that you have to actually do it, you should get started.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Doing nothing is not going to resonate long term.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: You have to do something.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: So they say, well, yeah, but you know I'm making sales.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: And I say, well, you could actually double or triple your sales over time if you're doing XYZ.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: And so that's one thing.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: The other thing in terms of mistakes is they sometimes think that and I think the Super Bowl ad is spoiled That's okay, because everyone around Super Bowl time you know there is a game on, you know people forget, but they they tune in because they want to see the ads.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: And I know I want to tune in to see the advertisements, especially when my team is not playing, which is most years But when people see those ads and it resonates and they talk about it the next day at work, around the water cooler, at lunch, etc.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: It's great.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: And so a lot of entrepreneurs, small business owners, think they have to do this huge giant splash, spend a ton of money and then that will solve all their ills.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: And I explained to them that that's a mistake.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: If you do that because you'll you'll run through your entire budget, if you have one, and then you won't be able to follow it up with anything else.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: And so what's what's best is to budget for the next week, for the next month, for the next 12 months, and make sure that you are consistent in your approach, and that way it will start to resonate over time with your audience.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Because most of us, unless and I, have this other principle in the book called the principle of selling water in the desert, and what I mean by that is, unless your business is selling water to people in the desert or selling oxygen to people underwater, nobody cares, okay.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: And so, unless your business is is a matter of life and death, which most products and services aren't Apple certainly isn't, coca Cola certainly isn't.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: So if no one had, if no one drank Coke tomorrow, no one would die, most likely.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: And so, unless your business falls into that category of life and death, you have to do certain things, and you can't be afraid to do those things, and so you.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: but you can't do a Super Bowl ad.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: You have to take the long and steady approach.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: So you have to sort of take the tortoise approach as opposed to the hare approach, and it's going to take time.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: So those are the two mistakes that I see people making is number one, not doing anything, and then number two, wanting to do everything all at once, when that really will just be a waste of money.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Well, and it's not sustainable.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Consistency, i think, is key, and it's no matter if you have, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars in your budget or a super small budget or no budget mostly your time.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Consistency is where it will pay off.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Exactly That is really important to keep going.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about the other side of that.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: What do you see startups and new companies doing?
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: well, The one thing I see a lot of companies do that they do it very well is they tell their story, and so everyone's interested in a story, and so I have a story with my company.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: You have a story with your career and what you do.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Everyone has a story.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: And so if we weren't interested in stories, we wouldn't go to the movies, we wouldn't watch television, we wouldn't watch reality TV.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: So everyone's interested in someone's story.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: So a lot of startups do a great job of telling their story and they tell their story about why they're in business, how they came together.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: If it's a single founder or a couple of founders, they tell their story.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: They tell their story how they solve problems with their audience and with their customers, because most companies are in business to solve problems.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: I know I am, i know, receivable Savvy, my company, we're in business to solve problems, and so if you solve your customers problems, then you'll start to gain traction.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: And so I see a lot of companies telling their story, creating the story around their brand too, because telling a story in conjunction with your brand is what makes the difference If you just have a story but no brand, or if you just have a brand but no attributes to that brand, such as a good story, then it's you're again.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: You're wasting your time and you're spinning your will.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: So telling a good story is really what resonates with your audience, and some companies do that very well, kendra.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, people like to hear stories and do stories.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's why podcasts are so popular, because there's a chance to hear the story right, The story behind it, learn something, get something out of it.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: I think murder mysteries right now are like the number one category of podcasts.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: So people you know true crime, those types of things, People like stories, Good or bad, they like them all right.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Yep, yep, absolutely.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about people on a budget, because a lot of small businesses, solo printers, entrepreneurs, especially in the business to business space, have very small marketing budgets, right?
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: So What do you think about, like upwork and fiverr and trying to do things on a bit of a shoestring budget?
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's, that's great.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: I remember a few years ago maybe, well more than a few, maybe 20 years ago, i guess right at really, maybe a little more than that, maybe 25 years ago, you know, the big rage was guerrilla marketing.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: You know, if you don't have a huge budget, do guerrilla marketing.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: And so that was really before upwork and fiverr, etc.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Before the internet took hold in the late 90s, and so I love upwork and fiverr.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: I've used upwork and fiverr myself for years, and it allows you to gain expertise at whatever price point you want, wherever that person or that resource may be.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: And some may say that, well, you should use homegrown talent, you should use someone here in the US or the West all the time, and I think, well, there are reasons to do that, and so an example would be for my website.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: I do both.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I use resources here in the US as well as offshore resources, and it's a good combination, and it allows me to properly budget for things regarding the website.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: And so fiverr is a great resource.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: It's, i think, in the last year with, you know, people leaving their jobs and going doing their own thing, sort of working from home and doing contract work.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: It's really buzzing right now.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: The same thing with fiverr.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: You can find virtually anything on fiverr.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: So someone's starting a business and they say you know what?
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: I've got $500.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: I don't have $5,000 to market, other dude to create a logo or to write a press release or create a brochure or even to build a website.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: And so what should I do?
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: And so it's important to first of all map out your plan.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: So, whether you're a small business, whether you haven't started anything yet, or whether you're a huge conglomerate, map out your marketing plan first, and so you can get a marketing plan template for free online.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: You just Google marketing template, more marketing plan template, and you can see the categories that you have to fill out.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: So you fill that out, you create your roadmap And then, when you need to hire a resource for creating a website, a brochure, a logo, go to fiverr, go to Upwork.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: I think there are some others out there too, but those are the two big ones And you could spend.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: You know your dollars can go very far by using those solutions and those platforms.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: And you know it's there, there are a lot of good people doing really great work on those platforms too.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, i agree, i use Upwork and Fiverr.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: I use Upwork, i'd say, more often for more sophisticated work, but I've hired people off of Fiverr for voiceovers and things like that.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: There there are a talent, there's talent from all over the world that are on there.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Not everything's five dollars.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: You know you get what you pay for sometimes.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you get a deal.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: You know all of it exists, but it's really about finding what's right for you and your budget And I think hiring that expertise and leveraging that expertise on a fractional basis is a huge addition, and Upwork is an amazing tool that I do love for that.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: So that's very cool that you also like it.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: How do we ever live without it?
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: You know back 30 years ago what do people do without things like Upwork and Fiverr.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: It's amazing that you know that was the case back then.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Well, i just look at the quality.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: So I used to be the Jeep advertising manager and now I work with small businesses and nonprofits that have more like the $500 budget than the $5 million budget.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: And yeah, i can get high quality stuff maybe not 100% to the quality level that my agency used to do it for at Jeep, but like I can get pretty good quality.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: You know, it's not those like B-level commercials you used to see on TV back when again, when there was like three or four networks And you could tell when it was the local guy that came on right.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: You don't see that as drastically anymore And so hiring somebody that has the right fit and the right look for what you're looking for, i think is really important.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: So that's great.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: So You said you mentor people.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Talk to me a little bit about that.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: What types of people and companies do you mentor, and what's something that you share with them?
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: It runs the gamut of, you know, it may be a family member or it may be a friend, or it may be someone.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: There was a platform that matched mentors with mentees, and so I've used that on occasion.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: I've mentored people in or across the US, i've mentored people in Europe, and so it's fascinating, it's great, and so what I do is now I do other things to it.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: I actually do hands on consulting as well.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: So I do hands on consulting where someone engages me.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: There's a contract there.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: You know, money changes hands, etc.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: And so that's an official engagement where I'm mentoring or I'm acting as a consultant.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: The mentoring I actually do for free.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: I don't charge people to mentor, to mentor them, but I don't have a long line of people waiting at my door for me to mentor them, and that's because I don't want that.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: It's usually people that I know, or a handful of people that I come across, say, on a mentor matching platform, and so what I what I do is I give them access to my brain and I tell them that I don't take any notes.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: I'm not responsible for making sure we get from point A to point B, to point C.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: That's your responsibility, and so they understand that, and I had a couple of folks engage me and say Hey, can you remember this and remember that and take.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: I said I had to remind them I don't do that.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: That's, your responsibility is to take notes and to remember where we left off.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: So if we meet once a month, then you have to remember, based on your notes, where we left off.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: And I usually remember and I don't have to write it down, but it's great.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: It's like being in the classroom and working with hungry students who are eager to eager, very eager to learn.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: And so I usually meet with them for an hour And so we walk through everything from Do you have a marketing plan?
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: Do you have a brand established?
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Do you know how to establish a brand?
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: If you don't, let's walk through that process.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: And so we walk through that process.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: They have to do everything themselves.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: I point them in the right direction use Fiverr, look for this, this, this and this, and Upwork may be better for these things over here.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: And so I give them basically a roadmap that they have to execute, and I they really do very well And I don't really get a lot of deer in the headlight looks in terms of Oh my goodness, i have no idea what I'm doing, and even though you're telling me, you know I completely lost.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: People actually get it, and I guess that's partly because of the way I teach And that's the way I look at it is I'm teaching, teaching, which is again what I do in the book as well, and so I really enjoy it.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: It's sort of like being being a professor to some degree at a university, but your students are one on one, and so I really thoroughly enjoy it.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: I make sure I don't do it to the point where I get burned out or that it interferes with the business, but I do really enjoy it, and I enjoy it to the point where I don't charge for it.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: And people have offered to pay me to do it, and the reason I tell them I won't take their money is because, no, especially if it's a family member or a friend or something.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: And I tell them you know I don't want you to pay me.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: And they say, well, why not?
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: I need to pay you.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: And I said, well, if you pay me, here's my regular hourly rate, which they can't afford, okay.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: And so then they say, well, okay, i won't pay you.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Plus, the other thing is, if they pay you, then there's an expectation.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Whether they pay you $200 an hour or $20 an hour, there's an expectation of I paid you, so therefore I should.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: I deserve to get this, and that's not the kind of dynamic I'm looking for.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: I'm interested in.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: I do it because I enjoy it, and I do it because I enjoy passing this information on to people that are entrepreneurs, that have that entrepreneurial spirit, that want to do sort of some of the same things that I did also.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: So I really enjoy it, kendra.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: What's something that you tell those people that you're mentoring?
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: What's a piece of advice that you give them?
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: The biggest piece of it?
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Well, they're probably two.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Probably the biggest one is you have to learn to work through and overcome your fear, because every entrepreneur deals with fear, every small business owner deals with fear, me included And so you have to understand what it is, and it doesn't mean that if you're afraid of something or you get fearful about something, it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: What it means is you have to properly navigate through those doubts and those insecurities in order to get to the other side, and so that's what I tell the people that I mentor is you're going to be afraid, you're going to be hesitant, you're going to lack faith, you're going to lack courage, and what you have to do is you have to gain those things.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: You have to gain courage, you have to gain faith Faith in your ability and faith in other things too And so you have to work through those instances of fear, and I've been doing this, for this is now let's see, this is now my eighth year running receivable savvy, and I have had my share of ups and downs.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Normally, and there have been periods where it's it's been very fearful, and I had to work through those things successfully So the fear doesn't go away.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Those opportunities or those moments of fear don't go away.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: What happens is you become better at dealing with it And you realize sometimes those things that are fearful are not really worth being afraid of at all.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: It's just typically you having a lack of faith or a lack of courage, and it's really nothing to be afraid of at all.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: The second thing that I leave people with is whatever you do, make sure you do it consistently.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Don't just do it once and then, you know, forget about it.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: Because some people that I know who are starting their own business, they have a day job And so sometimes it's easy to I'll just do this for my business once and then I will do it consistently, because they're getting a paycheck from their job, but there's nothing wrong with that.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: But sometimes what drives entrepreneurs is the fact that they want to eat and pay the mortgage Okay, so that's a huge motivator.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: So sometimes, when you've got a job, the motivation is a little lower, and so being consistent is very elusive for some entrepreneurs.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: So getting over your fear, working through your fear and then actually being consistent are the two things that I tell entrepreneurs, as small business owners, probably more than anything.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, again, consistency is just so important.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: It's something that people really overlook on a regular basis.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: So I love the fact that you're stressing that And, yeah, i mean there is fear, but I do agree that I find a lot of my clients that take away the safety net of the job.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: They and my friends that take away that safety net out there, that consistent income.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: I mean it worked for me.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: It really.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's pay the mortgage or don't, and it can get scary at times, but you make it happen And that's that's very powerful.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: So, ernie, i got one question that I ask all my guests.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: This show is called Imperfect Marketing because we know that marketing is anything but perfect.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: So tell me a little bit about your biggest marketing lesson learned.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: My biggest marketing lesson learned is really what we've already touched on, and it's being consistent.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: There have been times when I've been guilty of some of the things that I just explained to you, that I share with entrepreneurs, and that is, you can't just do this once, you have to do this over and over and over again.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: So those times when you know I start a newsletter and it's like, okay, i've got the newsletter out, i put one issue out.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: I've got to do that every two weeks or every week, consistently.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Same thing with the email marketing campaigns that encourage people to sign up for my subscription on my website, and so I've got to do that on a regular basis, over and over again.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: It's really nonstop, it doesn't stop and it shouldn't stop, and so that's a huge lesson that I've learned for myself, in addition to the other things such as navigating fear and making sure I'm building my brand, etc.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: It is being consistent day in and day out And, oddly enough, a lot of and you know the stats that most businesses go out of business in five years, and so oftentimes it's because they don't know what to do in terms of how to market their business And they're not consistent.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: They may think, hey, i'll do this one thing And then when money comes in, it's like I'll stop doing this thing because money's coming in.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: But you have to continue to do those things as money comes in, to make sure that six months and 12 months down the road money continues to come in.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: So that's probably the biggest lesson that I've learned is you've got to be consistent.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: You've got to continue to market, tell your story, communicate what you're doing well and reaching out to your prospects to turn them into customers.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: That's an ongoing endeavor.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: So consistency, consistency and some more consistency.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: That is definitely our lesson of the day.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Hopefully you take it to heart, because I'm not the one telling it to you this time, But Ernie is now telling you, and I mean we repeat it all the time on this show.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: People have shared it over and over Consistency, trial and error, but giving things a chance, all important.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: It's not the hockey stick right, it's not going to just rock it straight up for you.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much, ernie, for joining me today on this episode of Imperfect Marketing.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time and the wisdom that you shared.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: For those of you listening that are interested in more about Ernie's book, i want to make sure I get it right.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Nobody cares about your business The eight universal marketing principles every entrepreneur must know to make customers love their business.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: We'll have a link to that in the show notes, for sure, and some other ways to get a hold of Ernie if you're interested.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: So, again, if you've learned something today, it would really help us out if you would like and subscribe and rate this podcast wherever you're listening, or go ahead and ring the bell on YouTube if you're watching on our newer YouTube channel, and we'll look forward to seeing you guys again on another episode of Imperfect Marketing.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Have a great rest of your day.