Latest / Authentic Living / David Somerfleck – Digital Marketing Specialist
Transcript
- 0:01Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we conscious conversations about
- 0:08things that really matter in our lives.
- 0:12And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
- 0:36Hi, everyone.
- 0:37It's, Roxanne Duhach.
- 0:38Thanks for tuning in again this week.
- 0:41This week, I have, David Summerflick, and he's a digital marketing expert, something that I
- 0:47can literally say.
- 0:48I pull my hair out about often, not, you know, and feel like I've learned probably a a tip of
- 0:55the iceberg and what's needed since I've started my business.
- 0:59So, David, thank you so much for going on today.
- 1:02You're very welcome.
- 1:04So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Davis background and, how we're gonna spend our time
- 1:08today.
- 1:09So, David, he's worked, he has 20 years experience in digital marketing and project
- 1:16management.
- 1:17He helps businesses, and owners accelerate growth in business.
- 1:22He's worked with 100 of business owners from multinational CEOs, college presidents to
- 1:28advertising agency owners, tech start ups, law firms, restroom chains, and retail outlets.
- 1:36His goal is to get more customers for you, and he can do that in in many ways.
- 1:40So so, David, what got what got you what's your background?
- 1:45What got you involved in in digital marketing?
- 1:49We'll basically, my career with digital marketing, basically, What happened with me was
- 1:57I went to college to be a writer or a journalist.
- 2:00I have a degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing.
- 2:04I had done some freelancing internships while in college, and my first job out of college was
- 2:13working for several newspapers.
- 2:15And I very quickly saw that, even back then there was a pecking order that you needed a
- 2:24master's degree to really, get, you know, high paying positions with major newspapers So even
- 2:32though I've always loved creative writing, I saw very quickly that there wasn't gonna be
- 2:38much future in it unless I had a master's.
- 2:41And I had just finished a BA.
- 2:43So I started studying digital marketing back in the nineties, when the internet was still very,
- 2:49very young.
- 2:51And I found that there were a a a a a great number of businesses that really needed someone
- 3:00who could come in and just do everything.
- 3:03And so I started doing that freelancing while I was working as a writer and editor.
- 3:10And then I slowly changed from that, got into editing, and then I was a teacher, a para
- 3:17professional, a teacher's aide, then I was a college professor.
- 3:21Then, I was a college administrator.
- 3:25And during all of that time, I either worked freelancing for clients as a solo consultant
- 3:32And then after working as a college administrator in between, I would go and work
- 3:36for different marketing agencies.
- 3:39So over the course of 20 30 years, I've worked for more marketing agencies either as an
- 3:44employee or as a contractor than I could ever count.
- 3:49And I also was a volunteer for SCOR, which if, your listeners are not familiar with SCOR, is a
- 3:55division of the United States.
- 3:57Small business administration.
- 3:59So I was a certified, business mentor for them for off and on, almost 10 years.
- 4:07And I also volunteered as a business mentor for another nonprofit.
- 4:11So one day I just tried to do an assessment of how many people I spoke to and nobody knew.
- 4:17And I realized that it had to be several hundred people over the over that duration of
- 4:22time.
- 4:23And I realized, you know, what?
- 4:24I need to give myself credit for the work that I did, the people I helped.
- 4:30There were many businesses that got in touch with me and said, hey.
- 4:33Look.
- 4:33Because of your help, because of your help, you turned our business around.
- 4:38You literally saved me 1000 upon 1000 of dollars.
- 4:41You saved me years of stress.
- 4:43You've saved my business.
- 4:45Now we're profitable.
- 4:46And I just started collecting those testimonials and putting their pictures up on
- 4:50my website.
- 4:51And I just said, you know what?
- 4:54I need to give myself the credit for what I have.
- 4:56I had, this is my I had 2 startups as well.
- 5:021 was a mediation nonprofit.
- 5:04Then I opened my own digital marketing agency in Denver with my wife.
- 5:09Now I'm older.
- 5:10I'm semi retired, and I just decided, look, named the the due individual practice what it
- 5:19is.
- 5:19It's me.
- 5:20I'm a digital marketing specialist.
- 5:23DMS also happens to be my initials.
- 5:25My favorite color is blue.
- 5:28So I just looked online one day and just said, I've gotta get that domain name.
- 5:32Dml.blue.
- 5:33That's me.
- 5:33It's what I am what I do.
- 5:35I like the color blue.
- 5:37It was perfect.
- 5:39So that's how I'm at where I am now.
- 5:41So, I've never met a business owner that I couldn't help, but I have met a lot of business
- 5:48owners who were resistant to change.
- 5:52Which is a big difference, or business owners who were not a good fit.
- 5:57So now I look specifically for business owners who need and want accelerated growth and can
- 6:05scale for that.
- 6:06So I handpick who I work with typically one pot one client per quarter, and that's enough for
- 6:14me at this phase where I'm at.
- 6:18So tell me, I know that, for me with my business, what became really important and, and
- 6:25also in writing my book, And, when I speak, keeping my voice is very, very important.
- 6:33Yes.
- 6:33Right?
- 6:34And sometimes, you know, as an editor, as a writer, you can appreciate it.
- 6:37Like, I remember, using one editor, who was completely out of alignment of what my voice
- 6:45was.
- 6:45She was actually changing my voice.
- 6:47Yes.
- 6:48And not really seeing how that was impacting my voice out there in my in my worlds of
- 6:57authenticity.
- 6:57She was she was ready.
- 6:59She I I, you know, And, of course, to to put it politely, we we didn't get along so well for
- 7:05for a very short period of time, and and I went on to someone else.
- 7:09So I I found that very, very interesting, but when you work with people, how do you kinda vet
- 7:20them out in reference to
- 7:23That's critical.
- 7:23Whether a good fit for you because
- 7:25That's yeah.
- 7:27That's that's critical.
- 7:28I can't say that enough.
- 7:30As a matter of fact, I just answered a question just like that.
- 7:34There's a website called Quora quora.com.
- 7:37Yes.
- 7:38And every once in a while, I'll go on Quora, and I'll answer questions.
- 7:43I'll try to include a video if I can.
- 7:45Then, depending on what time of day or night it is and and everything, what my wife is doing.
- 7:54But authenticity is critical.
- 7:57I can't say that enough.
- 7:59I'm still discovery, my own true voice, and who I am and how I've changed because we get so
- 8:06used to this paradigm of going to work, taking orders, and then fulfilling those orders.
- 8:14And there's someone overseeing you, the supervisor, the project manager, in my case,
- 8:21this the company CEO.
- 8:22I worked for a marketing agency once it was very, very small.
- 8:25There was the company CEO and then there was the director of marketing.
- 8:31And that was it.
- 8:32That was the chain of command.
- 8:34And, but I remember he was a very, very smart, very, very, educated, gifted person, but he had
- 8:42this habit of shouting profanities and using racial epithets So as you could imagine, that
- 8:47would make things a little bit uncomfortable at times.
- 8:50Now I learned a lot from working there.
- 8:54Both positive and negative, but it that was one experience where I had to get my own voice.
- 9:00And I remember at one point just saying, look, don't use that language around me, but on a
- 9:05larger a larger scale, how do I vet my clients?
- 9:11I basically really require that we have at least at least 1 or 2 serious, conversations on
- 9:21an adult level about business objectives and business goals.
- 9:27If If I responded to every phone call that I got in every email, literally, it would consume
- 9:34every hour of my live educating potential clients on why they should care, what is SEO,
- 9:43what is web design, how do I do everything myself for free?
- 9:47You get all of these questions.
- 9:50And you could try to be a nice person and help them all.
- 9:53But literally you would have no clients, no money, no income, and no time.
- 9:58So I require at least 2, maybe 3 phone or Skype conversations before I really take them
- 10:07seriously.
- 10:08And the way I look at it is, look, if you and I can't have 1 or 2 conversations for 15, 20
- 10:14minutes, how can we work together?
- 10:17Mhmm.
- 10:17How could we possibly achieve business objectives if you can't focus long enough to
- 10:23talk?
- 10:24Now I don't know about you, but from my perspective, it's extremely common to get phone
- 10:29calls.
- 10:29I had one person call me up out of the blue.
- 10:32And this is when I listed my public phone number on my company website.
- 10:36Right?
- 10:37So they could call me directly on my phone.
- 10:39And I would get phone calls such as how much is a website.
- 10:43Mhmm.
- 10:43Well, how much is a car?
- 10:45It depends on what your business objectives are.
- 10:47Right.
- 10:48I don't know if you have goals in life or not.
- 10:51Right?
- 10:52And it sounds like a silly question, but many people who would call me, they didn't know what
- 10:56I was talking about.
- 10:58When I would say, what are your business objectives?
- 11:00Well, what are you talking about?
- 11:02I just want a website as cheap as I can get it, and you're not gonna be done.
- 11:07It's not like they're ordering a stack of business cards.
- 11:09There's no connection to achieving goals.
- 11:14So I learned from that experience.
- 11:17First of all, I don't put my public phone number up anymore.
- 11:20I put my Google voice number I would probably say I probably get about 40 or 50 calls per day
- 11:28where people call and hang up, call hang up all day long.
- 11:33But, yeah, I require at least 2 or 3 phone conversations or Skype calls to see if we're a
- 11:38good fit for each other.
- 11:40And after that second or third call, maybe we'll talk about budget, but budget is
- 11:44secondary to having objectives.
- 11:48And that's really, really key.
- 11:50It's very easy today to go online and say that your company CEO and not be one to say that
- 11:58you're something and you're not.
- 11:59And it's still today to this to this day surprises me to go in.
- 12:05That people will do that.
- 12:07But if you have ever seen that TV show catfish
- 12:10Mhmm.
- 12:11Yes.
- 12:11Yes.
- 12:11I have.
- 12:13To some extent, I get people doing that because they're dating, but look, at some point,
- 12:17they're either gonna meet you or they won't.
- 12:19And if they're not gonna meet you, then what's the point?
- 12:22Mhmm.
- 12:23Mhmm.
- 12:23Aren't you be cruel when you show some male models photo?
- 12:28But you don't look like that.
- 12:29That's not who you are.
- 12:30Aren't you be cruel to the other person?
- 12:32Are you are you being inauthentic?
- 12:34How are you ever gonna have an adult relationship like that?
- 12:38And yet, how many people do it?
- 12:41You know, uh-uh, the, you know, I think there was a study done by Facebook that they said
- 12:46something like 60% or more.
- 12:49Of accounts on Facebook were from people who are not real people.
- 12:53They're either duplicates or scam or spam.
- 12:58Pages.
- 12:59Businesses that were no longer in operation that weren't real.
- 13:03People who would show photos celebrities or cartoon characters or male models or whatever.
- 13:09So there's a lot of in all authenticity, a lot of phoniness out there.
- 13:16And I think it's just the nature of the internet, you know.
- 13:19So as an individual and as a business owner, it's really important to find your true voice
- 13:28you know, who you are, what you want to be, what you aspire to be, who you wanna
- 13:33legitimately help, and who you don't want to waste your time with who you can't help.
- 13:39It's not that they're bad people.
- 13:41It's just I can't help you if you will be honest.
- 13:44Or forthcoming, or you say something silly that's were completely ridiculous.
- 13:48Like, my budget is $200, and I wanna be number 1 of Google.
- 13:52That's not gonna happen.
- 13:54You know?
- 13:56So does that, you know, now as far as my end, I have a workbook on my site that I offer for
- 14:02sale that basically walks people through various steps.
- 14:07You purchased the ebook.
- 14:09It helps you get clear on what your objectives, should be and could be when working with a
- 14:16digital marketer such as myself.
- 14:18So I sell that on my website.
- 14:21Let me try turning this down and see if this helps.
- 14:24Any I don't know if you're hearing any back.
- 14:26No.
- 14:26I I'm not hearing anything at all.
- 14:28Hopefully, I'm clear also.
- 14:30Yes.
- 14:31But but those are some of the things I do to try to facilitate more effective and clear
- 14:36communication.
- 14:38So if
- 14:38you're a startup
- 14:39Yes.
- 14:40Then and you have no real business objectives, it's it's kinda tough, right, because if I I
- 14:47think back to when I started my business, you know, I, obviously, I'm I'm like you.
- 14:52I'm kind of mid career.
- 14:54So I'm a psychotherapist.
- 14:56I've been a a corporate consultant for years.
- 14:58And then I went off and I started to, I wrote a book and started to write and train and coach
- 15:04on the book.
- 15:05So but, again, not really having a plan back then other than I knew I wanted to continue
- 15:11what I was doing, but in a different way.
- 15:15And has have the credibility obviously coming into it.
- 15:19What I see a lot of out there is a lot of people don't have the credibility.
- 15:24But they're they're promoting a lot of things and to your point eventually, you know, the
- 15:30guy's gonna have to or the girl's gonna have to see who she's dating.
- 15:33So that speaks to that authenticity in being in line because if I'm saying I'm a mental health
- 15:40and wellness specialist and you look into my background, You should be able to tell if I'm
- 15:45authentic relatively quickly on Google.
- 15:47Would you agree with that?
- 15:49Yeah.
- 15:50I think there are a lot of self help gurus on the internet.
- 15:57You know, I say I'm a digital marketing consultant.
- 16:02But that encompasses many different tools.
- 16:05And just using Facebook as an example, If I go into Facebook, primarily what I do is I check
- 16:13forums to find technical specifications, to ask a technical question or get help with a
- 16:20technical issue.
- 16:23I would say almost every time that I log into Facebook.
- 16:26I will see an ad for a new, guru person or some guru expert.
- 16:31I'll help you get a 1,000,000 referrals for, you know, amount or what have you.
- 16:36And I'm sure you see that as well.
- 16:37Sure.
- 16:38And you just have to practice a little critical thinking You know, it does this sound
- 16:44reasonable?
- 16:44Does this sound even realistic?
- 16:47In most cases, it's about having what I call adult mature conversations with people.
- 16:55What are you really trying to do?
- 16:57Why are you trying to do it?
- 16:58What have you tried to do so far?
- 17:00How's that been working for you?
- 17:04You know, if I were to talk to, let's say a psychotherapist, so let's say you wanted to be
- 17:09number 1 in Google.
- 17:10I would say, okay.
- 17:13You know, how long have you been in operation?
- 17:15What have you tried before?
- 17:17What were for you, what has not, why do you think that is?
- 17:21Basically a little psychotherapy, only without the experience.
- 17:25But I would try to ask
- 17:26digital psychotherapy, David.
- 17:28Right.
- 17:28I would try to ask probing questions that would try to identify.
- 17:33Is this real to you?
- 17:35How important is this to you.
- 17:38And I I think in a lot of cases, people see as, like, I'll go to Amazon to see how much a
- 17:45camera might be.
- 17:46Right?
- 17:47So by the same token, somebody will wake up in the middle of the night and have an idea for a
- 17:51business or something.
- 17:52And they can't go to Amazon and look up how much a website might be.
- 17:56They're not going to go to Google and look up typical digital marketing budgets.
- 18:04So they'll just call us the first person they can find and just say how much.
- 18:07There's no context.
- 18:09So it doesn't mean that, you know, that there's any, bad feelings or or anything like that.
- 18:15It just means we're not a good fit.
- 18:18You're looking for a a low ball price that you may or may not act on.
- 18:22I'm looking for people who have very specific business objectives they want to accomplish
- 18:27that are very, very important to them.
- 18:31So that open communication, trying to build a true voice, authenticity is very, very
- 18:38important.
- 18:39It's difficult.
- 18:41It's difficult.
- 18:41It was difficult for me to learn, you know, who to stop talking to, whether it was in dating,
- 18:48whether it was as an employee, whether it was as a subcontractor starting my own business.
- 18:54It was very, very important to realize, look, some people just aren't good for you.
- 18:59Stay away from them whether that's for dating or for business.
- 19:02If somebody wants to talk to me for 5 hours, but they have no intention of ever working or
- 19:08or resolving a problem.
- 19:10That's not realistic.
- 19:11It's not a smart use of my time.
- 19:13The same way with dating and and all these other analogies that we could come up with.
- 19:18Does that kinda answer the question?
- 19:20Oh, absolutely.
- 19:21Because, I mean, at the end of the day, like, I mean, you can get people, you know, putting up
- 19:27something in on Wix for free to being able to have a state of the art But I know can runs
- 19:341000 and 1000 of dollars, but it's kinda like, you know, I always say, like, what is the image
- 19:39that you're trying to project out there?
- 19:40And and and so website is just a flat con concept on on a on a screen if you have
- 19:47anything behind it.
- 19:49Yeah.
- 19:49Let me give you 2 examples.
- 19:51I was a mediator.
- 19:53So, I was a trained certified mediator where I would resolve court just I went, resolved a
- 20:00court dispute that was scheduled to be on Judge Judy.
- 20:04And, yeah, I was very surprised when they showed me the letter from the Purdue and
- 20:08everything.
- 20:08And I just said, look.
- 20:09You can go on there and be a television celebrity and be known as, you know, this type
- 20:14of person.
- 20:15Or we can resolve it right here and now without the drama.
- 20:19But anyway, I'd I've spoken to a lot of lawyers and there's a lot of pushback from them.
- 20:28And I don't really know for sure why.
- 20:30I think some of it has to do with the nature of being a lawyer being argumentative and
- 20:36defending or fighting, one or the other in court.
- 20:40But There were 2 lawyers that I spoke to recently.
- 20:45There was one lawyer who said that he wanted to start his own solo practice.
- 20:51And we talked on the phone twice.
- 20:53The first time we spoke for at least an hour, the second time we talked for at least another
- 20:58hour, And after the second time I spoke to him, I just said, look, you he had a Wix website.
- 21:07His problem was no one could find him online.
- 21:11If you looked up a lawyer in his city and his state, he would never show up.
- 21:16And I just told him, I said, look, your lawyer, your smart guy, you're educated.
- 21:21What do you really expect for free?
- 21:24Do you really think that these people are gonna put you at the top of Google for free?
- 21:28And then you're gonna get a 1,000,000 phone calls overnight for free.
- 21:33Come on.
- 21:33Let's get real.
- 21:34They give you an empty template that looks like a million others, and it's your job to fill it
- 21:40in.
- 21:41And if you don't know what you're doing, then you're gonna get out exactly what you put in, a
- 21:46big doughnut.
- 21:47And I asked him, how many referrals have you gotten from it?
- 21:49None.
- 21:50How how many 1000 of dollars do you think you've lost over the course of the 3 or 4 years
- 21:56that you've insisted on having that?
- 21:58He said, well, I don't know.
- 21:59Could be tens tens of 1000 of dollars, probably 70, $80.
- 22:05But he was insistent on never investing a penny in his solo practice.
- 22:11Now after probing a little bit deeper, I realized that the reason for that was because
- 22:15he also worked for a much larger established older firm, what we call a legacy law firm.
- 22:22They would get all the referrals through court referrals in networking, none of their clients
- 22:28came through the Internet.
- 22:29So they were all older people getting all the referrals through the the court system.
- 22:34They didn't care about the internet.
- 22:35They didn't take it seriously.
- 22:36It was a fad to them.
- 22:38So he had the same mentality.
- 22:41So I just said, look.
- 22:42I wish you a lot of luck.
- 22:43I can't spend any more hours answering questions trying to cajole you to give a
- 22:48blankety blank about your business.
- 22:51If you don't, I wish you well.
- 22:54Have a nice day.
- 22:55God bless.
- 22:56Hung up.
- 22:57Never heard from him again, and I knew I wouldn't.
- 23:01There was another lawyer I spoke to who contacted me, because she had a Wix website
- 23:07too.
- 23:08Same problem.
- 23:09She was losing tens of 1000 of dollars in potential clients every day because nobody
- 23:14could find her in Google search.
- 23:16And at that particular time, I was very tired.
- 23:19My wife was going through a radiation therapy for cancer.
- 23:22I was stressed out, and I was tired.
- 23:24And I just said, ma'am, I'm happy to answer any questions you have.
- 23:28So she asked me all kinds of technical questions.
- 23:30I answered them.
- 23:32About an hour later, she was said, I'm exhausted.
- 23:36I'm more confused now than I ever was before.
- 23:38I don't know up from down.
- 23:40I'm just gonna keep what I have.
- 23:42And if it means I end up losing my practice and I have to go work at Starbucks and so be it, I
- 23:46can't get a grip on this.
- 23:48I said, okay.
- 23:49Well, you know what?
- 23:49I'm too tired to argue with you.
- 23:51If you wanna talk again in the future, give me a call.
- 23:55So that that's interesting, right, because you know,
- 23:58not sad.
- 23:59Yeah.
- 23:59Not having a vision.
- 24:00Right?
- 24:00Like like I said, you know, you go out there and you and you you think if I'm not searchable
- 24:07or or positioned to be found, how am I gonna get business in this day and age?
- 24:15Like, I mean, that's a tough thing.
- 24:16Right?
- 24:16Because, yes, and I know, and I want you to talk I want you to talk about the frenzy about
- 24:20being on everything.
- 24:22Because that's the other thing that I've I've seen it myself.
- 24:25I've been there themself.
- 24:26I should be on this and that and that and really kind of how you guide people to decide.
- 24:31So let's say you have the strategy, you know, you know, you wanna I wanna be the top keynote
- 24:37in mental health and wellness in in, you know, North America, how do you kind of approach
- 24:46like, you know, because everybody says you should be on everything, Instagram, and and
- 24:50Snapchat, and
- 24:51No.
- 24:52LinkedIn, and Facebook, and blah blah blah blah blah.
- 24:55So how do you so can you tell my dizziness?
- 24:58I've obviously, I'm gonna be truthful.
- 25:01I've been there.
- 25:01Sometimes I get back there again when I think, oh my god.
- 25:03I haven't been doing this or that.
- 25:05How do you guide someone like that when they think they should be doing everything to have a
- 25:10digital footprint?
- 25:11You cannot be all things to all people.
- 25:15The only business that I can think of that has successfully tried to do that was Walmart.
- 25:21Walmart tries to be all things to all people.
- 25:24And even they don't succeed, there was a period of time where Walmart's revenue was dipping
- 25:29very, very low.
- 25:30Kmart went out of business.
- 25:33And there will be more, big mega retailers that go under very soon as well.
- 25:39So You can't be all things to all people and you can't do everything yourself.
- 25:45You've heard the expression.
- 25:46No man is an island.
- 25:48One of the biggest issues that I see business owners doing.
- 25:53In fact, I'd say the number one issue is spreading themselves too thin.
- 25:57Trying to do everything themselves.
- 26:00And what happens is you know the answer.
- 26:02They end up doing, many, many different things poorly.
- 26:07Rather than 1 or 2 things really, really well.
- 26:11You know, I can't do everything myself.
- 26:13I don't have time.
- 26:14And, I don't try to be number 1 in Google Nationally for digital marketing.
- 26:22The reason for that is that there are other people doing the same thing I am.
- 26:26Let's get real.
- 26:28And they're going to be not necessarily more experienced, but there are people who are more
- 26:34experienced than me, certainly, but most of them are most of them are companies.
- 26:42Let's put it that way.
- 26:43They're larger, more corporate companies.
- 26:45So their pockets are gonna be much deeper.
- 26:48They can spend 20, $30 per month on advertising because they're going to charge $10 or $20 per
- 26:55client.
- 26:58I don't try to be number 1.
- 26:59I target specific cities or or demographics.
- 27:05Typically those in the state of Florida.
- 27:08Just because I can't work with everybody, and I I'm not I can't.
- 27:14I'm not gonna be number 1 in Google for that.
- 27:16So that's where the expression Niching comes from, n I c h I n g.
- 27:21Where you pick a niche and work for that.
- 27:24If you can, it doesn't work for everybody.
- 27:26You know, it would be like me saying, pick a city and state, and say I'm only going to work
- 27:33with pizzerias in this city and state because I love pizza.
- 27:37Now I may love pizza, and I do.
- 27:40But that's not a good demographic because our pizzeria is going to be willing to invest 2 or
- 27:48$3000 if I can explain to them that they could make back $30 just a few months later.
- 27:56Most of them won't do it.
- 27:58They just won't.
- 27:59They'll push back on it because they're low usually very small operations.
- 28:04They've got a handful of employees.
- 28:05There's push back on that.
- 28:09It's but you can't be everywhere all at once.
- 28:12What I recommend my clients do is pick 3 or 4 social media outlets and just focusing on first
- 28:21producing really good quality, engaging content first.
- 28:25That's difficult enough.
- 28:27Then get on a schedule and editorial calendar and produce it on a regular recurring basis.
- 28:34Then what we do is repurpose material.
- 28:38And if for anybody listening doesn't know what that is, that would mean, let's say, for
- 28:43example, I wanna write a blog post, and we're gonna call it 6 reasons why digital marketing
- 28:49is great for a new business.
- 28:51Right?
- 28:51As an example.
- 28:53So I'll write that blog post.
- 28:56I'll include a lot of links to scholarly journals and research.
- 29:01In that article.
- 29:02I'll make an infographic, diagram showing the 6 reasons.
- 29:09I'll include that in that blog post as well.
- 29:12Then I'll also make a brief video going over that infographic image, right, Now in my blog
- 29:18post, I'll include the image.
- 29:20I'll include the video.
- 29:22I'll include a downloadable PDF.
- 29:25Okay?
- 29:26Maybe I'll do a podcast on that as well.
- 29:28Maybe even a series, right, or the podcast on each one of the 6 reasons.
- 29:34Now this gives me a lot of content.
- 29:36Yeah.
- 29:36Yeah.
- 29:37That's all associated that can all link back to itself.
- 29:41That I can now distribute on Facebook, which reaches over 2 billion people a day.
- 29:47I can, post it on, LinkedIn.
- 29:50And specifically use certain hashtags.
- 29:54I can post it that or different elements of it on Twitter, and I could do it once a week.
- 30:00Or maybe even once a month.
- 30:02So there, I've already come up with a lot of content.
- 30:04Now imagine if I stick to that edit editorial content for 6 months, Imagine the backlog of
- 30:11content that I'll have.
- 30:14Right?
- 30:14And then you get on a schedule where you submit that content once a week same day, same time.
- 30:21Now you're training Google that every week at the same day and the same time, this person
- 30:28releases content.
- 30:29So we need to index their site and do it more often.
- 30:32Does that make sense?
- 30:34Absolutely.
- 30:34And I that's you know, if anything I've learned about, my podcast, like, I've been doing it now
- 30:41for about a year and a year and 3 months,
- 30:44Yeah.
- 30:44It's
- 30:45it's out every Thursday at 11 o'clock.
- 30:48You know, and and you can see the traction based on the metrics that I see that's coming
- 30:52back.
- 30:53It's being watched.
- 30:54It's being watched by the right or at least I think that's being watched by the right people,
- 30:59at the senior executive level, who are interested in mental wellness.
- 31:05And now it's kinda okay because credibility, right, like credibility and What is the
- 31:10content?
- 31:10What are we talking about?
- 31:12My brand is authenticity, but it's really about the more authentic we are, the better people we
- 31:17are, and whatever we do.
- 31:18That's right.
- 31:19And it's and and you post that content to your website.
- 31:22You post it to your YouTube channel.
- 31:25You share it.
- 31:26So you've got content for every video I mean, how many places are there to share videos, you
- 31:32know, audio?
- 31:35Blog posts.
- 31:36So that gets you out.
- 31:38And then if you use different hashtags or change things around in terms of what you write
- 31:43a little bit every time you share it.
- 31:46And if you can if you can, stay focused on that for about 6 months or so.
- 31:53Inevitably, you see the tide slowly begin to turn.
- 31:58So it's really about, I I've heard this this word repurpose a Right?
- 32:02Like
- 32:02Yes.
- 32:03People talk about it so much that's
- 32:05We don't mean that we all.
- 32:06Yeah.
- 32:06Yeah.
- 32:07Exactly.
- 32:07Because if you're if you're if you're producing content, like you said, like if it's an hour or
- 32:122 hours a week.
- 32:14And you you see all the different modalities of which, you know, visual auditory you know, like
- 32:20you said, graphics, all those things from one piece of content, you know, so what happens
- 32:26you're saying is when you put it out across the platforms, Google starts to recognize that this
- 32:31person is, being consistent, or is it that they're seeing the same kind of, themes.
- 32:38What is it that Google looks?
- 32:39It's it's both, but also if you use hashtags for your area of expertise.
- 32:46Right?
- 32:47So if you're a psychotherapist, you wanna include psychotherapy, wellness, related
- 32:53hashtags.
- 32:54Mhmm.
- 32:55And every time you repost it, try different hashtags now is that necessarily the best use
- 33:03of your time?
- 33:05No.
- 33:06Maybe it might be seeing patients.
- 33:09Right?
- 33:09Right.
- 33:10And then and then outsourcing that to an individual or agency who knows what they're
- 33:15doing, and we'll do that for you on a reliable consistent basis.
- 33:19Now there, that's your marketing division of your practice.
- 33:23Mhmm.
- 33:24Mhmm.
- 33:24Right?
- 33:26So That basically means that, you know, repurposing is is basically doing that on a
- 33:35regular recurring basis, getting that word out and focusing maybe on 3 or 4 top level social
- 33:42media platforms.
- 33:44You know, Facebook reaches over 2 billion people per day.
- 33:48But if you post on there, it doesn't mean that 2,000,000,000 people are going to see what you
- 33:52post or that 2,000,000,000 people are gonna start calling you.
- 33:56And most of them won't be a good fit for you.
- 33:59A lot of people are gonna be people in other countries that you may or may not be able to
- 34:02reach.
- 34:03There're gonna be people who have issues that you don't wanna treat or can't help.
- 34:08You know?
- 34:10But it's easy enough to add it, but I've They're they're different.
- 34:13LinkedIn is more of very surgical to reach specific people who are more professional.
- 34:19Mhmm.
- 34:20Facebook is more scattershot.
- 34:22Twitter is more for very brief focused conversations.
- 34:26So you kinda wanna go with that.
- 34:29Pick, what is it?
- 34:30Pinterest is more for people who specifically look up images related to a search.
- 34:37So would people who are seeking psychotherapy necessarily go to Pinterest to for images of a
- 34:42psychotherapist or images of stress or things like that.
- 34:46I don't know.
- 34:47It's possible you could still reach people But for me, I'd probably look at LinkedIn more.
- 34:53Right.
- 34:54And that's per that's pretty much where I kind of hang out because with the speaking and the
- 34:58training, you know, the practice not so much because I'm my the growth, projection for me is
- 35:04more on the speaking and training, and wanting to spend my time doing more of that.
- 35:09And obviously, the the decision makers that could do that would be mostly on on LinkedIn.
- 35:15Right.
- 35:16And now now all of that being said, a marketing division of a company or a practice, you would
- 35:22always want to include what I call boots on the ground.
- 35:25I grew up around a lot of military people, so I use military terms and analogies at times.
- 35:31But I would like in that to say, look.
- 35:35We've got our marketing division online.
- 35:39Now a boots on the ground division would be giving presentations.
- 35:43I love as you know, I love to, be a guest on podcasts.
- 35:50But I also love to give presentations in person, because that tells me I'm reaching
- 35:57people who are serious who want to be there.
- 36:02They may or may not end up working with me.
- 36:06But they're serious and committed enough to come to this presentation.
- 36:13So you still wanna give a presentation to people who are non hobbyist, but really serious
- 36:18about their business who have a need and a want to change things.
- 36:23Using marketing, not seeing it as a hobby or something, but I would say I probably have
- 36:29about an 80 or 90 per set return on investment when I give a presentation in person because
- 36:35usually people who come to this wanna hear what I talk about.
- 36:40And I tried and I try to get people in passion and interested.
- 36:45You know, what I called giving a blankety blank about your business.
- 36:49You know, being deliberate and proactive as opposed to being a passive observer.
- 36:57You know?
- 36:58And I and, you know, the reason I stopped volunteering for score, talking to so many
- 37:04business owners, was that honestly, it it it began to take up all my time, but it also
- 37:11became very, very depressing.
- 37:14Because every single time that I talked to somebody, the problems were always the same.
- 37:20The problem was always the same.
- 37:22I can't get enough customers, but I'm trying to do everything myself.
- 37:27So the solution always is do you want help?
- 37:34And 99% of the time the answer was no.
- 37:41I have to keep trying to do everything myself, or I'm addicted to this poverty mentality that
- 37:46I could never afford it.
- 37:49Or that just not something that that I do.
- 37:51It's for other people.
- 37:53So dealing with I don't know how many phone calls and emails it was per day just in line
- 38:01with that.
- 38:02Just was, like, I can't I can't take this anymore.
- 38:05You know, I just reached a point where it's just too depressing, but I realized, look, I
- 38:09know all the problems that you're gonna come at me with.
- 38:12And I know what the solution is.
- 38:15And people always say, oh, wait.
- 38:16You hear my problem.
- 38:17My problem's gonna be different.
- 38:18Wait.
- 38:19Do you hear my situation?
- 38:20You don't know.
- 38:21But when you win all it down, it's always the same.
- 38:26You're trying to do everything yourself.
- 38:28You're not empowering people to help you.
- 38:31And you're not taking a stand.
- 38:33You know, if you watch these reality TV shows with Gordon Ramsey where he goes in and he
- 38:38helps people with their restaurants or or bar rescue where he helps people with their bars.
- 38:43There's a million shows like that.
- 38:45I saw one on Amazon where the the expert helps people with their farms.
- 38:50And it's always the same.
- 38:52Stop trying to do everything you want, everything yourself, rather, work with a
- 38:56professional list of what they tell you.
- 38:59But there's always pushback.
- 39:01But it's so true, but I guess the dilemma that I you probably hear a lot, and I know I've been
- 39:06there.
- 39:06And I've been I'm around entrepreneurs all the time.
- 39:09When they're starting off.
- 39:10Yeah.
- 39:11Right?
- 39:11The the, you know, you become the guy with every hat, but then eventually there comes a
- 39:15point.
- 39:15You're so right where you realize you can't do it all.
- 39:18I can't I can't I can't create the service.
- 39:20I can't see the clients.
- 39:21I can't coach.
- 39:22I can't speak.
- 39:23I can't train.
- 39:24Yeah.
- 39:25And be able to to be able to keep, you know, the podcast.
- 39:28Obviously, I have to do them, but somebody else takes care of everything else.
- 39:32I do them and somebody else takes care of everything else.
- 39:35With social, how what do you suggest?
- 39:37Do you when you work with your clients, do you, suggest strategy and then they go out and they
- 39:42find a firm that doesn't, or is that part of your business that you do?
- 39:47Well, 1st of all, it comes down to time management.
- 39:51I know someone who had a podcast for several years, and it was a very, very good referral
- 39:58engine for him.
- 40:00And, he wanted to spend more time with his family and more time running his business.
- 40:05So you just hired someone to do the podcast for him.
- 40:09And they still run the same commercials.
- 40:10He still gets referrals through it.
- 40:13It still gets more and more leads all the time.
- 40:16So, you don't have to do anything.
- 40:19You choose.
- 40:20You know that.
- 40:21Mhmm.
- 40:22Because it's a psychotherapist.
- 40:23You know that we make decisions whether it's conscious or not.
- 40:27And, so what do I tell clients who contacted me with problems First, I have to get them to talk
- 40:36about the problem and realize it either is a problem.
- 40:40Yeah.
- 40:42And then that takes the majority of the time.
- 40:46Tell me what you've done, you know, what's worked for you, what hasn't worked for you, if
- 40:51it hasn't worked for you, why do you keep doing the same thing over and over?
- 40:56What does that feel like for you to make it real?
- 40:59It has to be tangible and visible for them.
- 41:01The pain must be real.
- 41:03Then if that's the case, then I'll say, what would you what would you do if someone could
- 41:07take that away.
- 41:09You know, if you're not getting enough leads right now, you're not getting enough phone
- 41:12calls, what would it feel like if you got 1 or 2 phone calls per day from people who wanted
- 41:18legitimately to work with you.
- 41:20Would that be enough?
- 41:22Or would that be worth to you?
- 41:24You know, There was a website I made a long time ago for a kitchen and basement remodeling
- 41:30person.
- 41:33And I'll never forget.
- 41:34He was a very nice person, and I made the website for him.
- 41:38There was no competition locally because none of the other remodelers had decent websites.
- 41:43So he immediately shot to the first page of Google.
- 41:46He started getting phone calls every day.
- 41:49And he panicked.
- 41:51And and he wouldn't respond to phone calls.
- 41:54He wouldn't respond to emails.
- 41:56And I called him up, and I said, Jim, What are you doing?
- 42:00He said, well, I'm too busy working, at Home Depot and working on my own stuff.
- 42:06So I said, alright.
- 42:07Well, you know what?
- 42:09Have a nice day.
- 42:11A few months later came and he didn't wanna pay to renew the site.
- 42:16He let it go.
- 42:17So all the work that we did was for nothing because of this inner dialogue.
- 42:23He didn't he wouldn't he wouldn't respond to phone calls, and I can't tell you how many
- 42:29small business owners have been in that position that I worked with, nonprofits, that I
- 42:35I've tried to help, where they would get phone calls from people seeking help, but then it
- 42:41would like, well, what do we do now?
- 42:44Somebody just donated a $100.
- 42:46Uh-oh.
- 42:46What do we do?
- 42:48And so what I tell them is to take it seriously to really get medieval and deliberate on this.
- 42:58And look at it as something that could potentially support a family that this is real.
- 43:04You know, your husband or your wife or your family is counting on you to pay the rent.
- 43:09Do you wanna go back and work for someone who is abusive?
- 43:13Or go work at a 9 to 5 that's running you ragged, and you're still not making enough to
- 43:19pay the rent.
- 43:21How and so you try to make it real to them that they care enough to be like, okay.
- 43:26What do I have to do, David?
- 43:28Right.
- 43:28Right.
- 43:29Tell me if you tell me what to do, I'll do it.
- 43:33And, you know, I like to show bar rescue because, the main character is an older man who
- 43:39became very successful in the later on in life.
- 43:43So naturally, I like that.
- 43:45Right?
- 43:45He's not bald, but you did not you can't have everything, but I remember him saying once
- 43:51sometimes he had to break people down in order to build them back up because it was so much
- 43:56resistance and pushback that they don't wanna do the things that you could help them.
- 44:02Right.
- 44:02And, of course, if he came into the equation and said, look.
- 44:06I've got 30 years experience I could help you change this.
- 44:09I can make people come in and spend more money and give you more business.
- 44:12All you had to do is do what I tell you.
- 44:15Well, if he if that were the case, it wouldn't be a show.
- 44:17It would be a drama.
- 44:19And for my own circumstances, if that were the case, It just it's not that way at all.
- 44:27And you know that when you treat people as a psychotherapist, you spend the majority of your
- 44:31time going through all this resistance and pushback.
- 44:34No.
- 44:35I'm not going to be honest.
- 44:37I'm not gonna let you help me.
- 44:40So that's authenticity, but it's also getting real and just cutting through the BS and the
- 44:48excuses.
- 44:49At the end of the day, we only have ourselves to look in the mirror.
- 44:54You know?
- 44:55And I've I've gone through that where you know, I started my own digital marketing agency with
- 44:59my wife and, my own mediation company.
- 45:03And there were times when I had to look in the mirror and just say, look, I don't know if
- 45:06we're gonna make it this month.
- 45:07I really I honestly, I don't know.
- 45:10I just don't know, and it wasn't until I got honest about who I was choosing to work with
- 45:18and how I was presenting myself that things slowly began to change.
- 45:23So if I were to meet you in a networking group, now I don't say I'm a digital marketing
- 45:27consultant or digital marketing specialist, I see I'm a business growth expert or business
- 45:33growth consultant, and people who want to ignite growth in their business will hire me.
- 45:39If you're not interested in growth, I'll wish you well.
- 45:43We can, you know, have some some pleasantries, but we're not gonna be a good fit.
- 45:48And surprisingly enough, there are a lot of businesses a lot of business owners who will
- 45:52say that they don't wanna grow.
- 45:54That they can't handle it.
- 45:55They can't scale for
- 45:56growth.
- 45:57Scale up, yeah, accordingly.
- 45:58Right.
- 45:59I talked to a lady who owned a a secondhand clothing store and she also sold retail
- 46:05clothing and jewelry there.
- 46:07And she was complaining to me about her free Wix website or Weebly or whatever it was, and
- 46:13nobody was finding it online.
- 46:14She wasn't getting any orders, and I looked at it, and I could see all the problems right
- 46:18away.
- 46:19And I just asked her, just out of curiosity, if if I could get 2 or 3 new people calling you or
- 46:26coming into your store every day, would that be something you would want?
- 46:29What would that be like?
- 46:30And she's like, oh, no.
- 46:32We couldn't handle that.
- 46:33I'd have to hire someone new.
- 46:34I'd have to hire somebody.
- 46:36I don't wanna do that.
- 46:37Isn't that what business growth is?
- 46:38Like, isn't that why you go on an I would I I I would think that that most business owners
- 46:44would want that to be a problem because, you know, it's hard to get.
- 46:47Yeah.
- 46:48But that was her response.
- 46:50Yeah.
- 46:50Yeah.
- 46:50And then and then the little voice in my head said, Dave, why are you talking to her?
- 46:55Yeah.
- 46:56Tell her have a nice day and go on about your business.
- 47:00So I typically will set aside Tuesdays Thursdays to talk to new clients.
- 47:07And what I'll do is I'll stack them so they get 15 minutes, and we'll stack as many as we can
- 47:14fit into a Tuesday or Thursday.
- 47:16And in those 15 minutes, I just try to cut through all the BS and all the noise and just
- 47:21say, I just wanna know, is this real to you?
- 47:25I don't want people to suffer.
- 47:26I don't want people to feel pain, but if there's no pain, I can't help you.
- 47:31Because you won't be doing you won't be willing to do what's necessary.
- 47:36So do people have to work with you, in blocks of time?
- 47:39Like, a couple months at a time based on, business strategy and growth.
- 47:45Like, do
- 47:46Typically, it, yeah, it depends on what their even though the problems are almost always the
- 47:52same, sometimes the solution is a little bit different.
- 47:56Sometimes the solution shorter or faster or quicker depending on where they are in stages.
- 48:01So, for example, if a lawyer were to call me up say, look, Dave, I really wanna get new
- 48:07clients.
- 48:08That's a priority for me.
- 48:10I'm not playing around.
- 48:12I'm more than happy to invest you know, $3000 if that means getting 1 new client per month.
- 48:19Because for a lawyer, again, if a lawyer gets 1 new client, That new client could be worth
- 48:25anywhere from $10 to $30 on up for them.
- 48:28Right?
- 48:30So if I tell a lawyer, look, I could guarantee you're gonna get at least one new lead every
- 48:34day after I work with you.
- 48:36Right?
- 48:37I can guarantee it because I know I'm gonna take them to the top of Google or I won't work
- 48:42with them.
- 48:44Right?
- 48:44So if if that person were to say, yes.
- 48:48I'm ready to commit.
- 48:50I don't have an issue paying this amount.
- 48:52I don't have an issue with you creating a beautiful custom site.
- 48:56I don't wanna be in control.
- 48:57I don't wanna second guess you.
- 48:59I don't want the website to have a picture of a puppy dog on it or some silly thing like that.
- 49:04I can work a lot quicker.
- 49:08It's a lot easier for me to work with that person because there's less resistance.
- 49:13You know?
- 49:15So you know, another example, I remember working for a nonprofit government agency.
- 49:20And, we spent several months working together This is for a government agency.
- 49:26Okay?
- 49:27After several months, the person that I corresponded with said, look.
- 49:32The purse this person on the board of directors loves puppy dogs.
- 49:39They want you to have a puppy on the front page of the website, and they want you to have a
- 49:43rotating glowing logo.
- 49:46And they want you to change the colors because their six year old son prefers this color.
- 49:51And I just said, you're kidding.
- 49:52Right?
- 49:53And he said, oh, no.
- 49:55This is what we want.
- 49:57And I just said, look, I gotta be honest with you are hundreds of pages for your site in the
- 50:01newsletter, the murder, everything else.
- 50:04I'd have to gut everything that I've done.
- 50:07Start all over again,
- 50:09and it would not look professional.
- 50:11I can't do that
- 50:13as well.
- 50:13So people people get off track about why why they're doing maybe because they didn't know
- 50:18what they wanted at the beginning.
- 50:20Yeah.
- 50:20And that's my fault.
- 50:21Yes.
- 50:22Yeah.
- 50:22Again, that goes back to me vetting them more carefully and saying, how serious is this to
- 50:28you?
- 50:30What does this change represent to you?
- 50:33What would it be to you to get this?
- 50:35And, again, if I were to go back in time and do that with this government organization, I would
- 50:39handle things very differently.
- 50:40I would require several conversations first to see if there's really serious, find out what
- 50:47their budget is, or is not who's in control, who are the key people involved, And are they
- 50:52all in communication?
- 50:53I need one central person to work with, not 3 or 4.
- 50:57I can't have any second guessing.
- 50:59Once I start working, we have to work in a professional way.
- 51:04We can't keep making changes over and over again.
- 51:06Now they don't know that.
- 51:08So it's up to to the service provider, like you and I, to show them the boundaries and rules
- 51:15with how we work.
- 51:16You can't have someone being disrespectful or rude or evasive with you.
- 51:21So I can't work with somebody who's gonna constantly change the mind.
- 51:25And that's a very common problem with digital marketing.
- 51:29So that's, I know we were almost at time, but I was curious if you can talk a little bit about
- 51:35SEO.
- 51:36Sure.
- 51:36I know that's I I know that's a huge topic for, you know, but just to to speak to what it is
- 51:43and what people should consider.
- 51:45Absolutely.
- 51:46You know, about SEO and, you know, like wanting to be ranked accordingly based, what were some
- 51:52basic things they need to consider when they're developing a strategy, working through a
- 51:57business strategy, those types of things.
- 51:59Okay.
- 52:00You get out what you put in, so you need to have a business voice and identity and
- 52:07structure.
- 52:08Again, I gave many examples during our conversation of companies that would reach
- 52:14number 1 in Google But then once they start getting more phone calls and emails, they don't
- 52:20respond because they're not scaled appropriately.
- 52:22They're not organized.
- 52:23You don't wanna be in that position.
- 52:25It's a waste of time and a waste of whatever money you invest.
- 52:28And if you think that these free do it yourself empty template generator things are going to
- 52:34make you number 1 in Google.
- 52:35They won't.
- 52:36They're, in my my feelings are that they're a horrible waste of time and really in a moral
- 52:42way to to conduct a business.
- 52:44You're taking advantage of people who don't know better.
- 52:46So I really object on it on a moral and ethical level.
- 52:52But people are attracted to it.
- 52:53And they go to, like, moss to a flame, and then they don't get any results and they're angry
- 52:58and resentful.
- 52:59And then they would call me and want me to do some magic and do it for very low prices.
- 53:03It doesn't work that way.
- 53:05SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it basically means getting to the top of Google
- 53:11search results.
- 53:12So that you can get more phone calls and more emails and have greater visibility.
- 53:17Now that's not for someone if you're not prepared to handle the increase in phone calls
- 53:25and emails.
- 53:27When I lived in Denver, Colorado, I was number 1 in Google for a period of time for several
- 53:33months without spending a penny, but I'm also a very experienced developer and programmer.
- 53:39So I was able to do I was getting on average a phone call or an email from a new prospect
- 53:44about every 15, 20 minutes.
- 53:46I'm not I'm not exaggerating that.
- 53:51Most of the people who contacted me wanted a price just a flat rate price.
- 53:58Without giving me any information, what they wanted, what their needs were, anything.
- 54:02Just give me a set price, or they would call and just say, I need a price.
- 54:07And I would just answer, you know, how much is a car.
- 54:10I don't know what you want.
- 54:11I don't know what your objectives are.
- 54:12So you've gotta be clear about what your objectives are.
- 54:15What your business goals are, why you want these.
- 54:18And if you could reach that that level, could you handle a new phone call or a new email from
- 54:25someone every 15, 20 minutes.
- 54:28How would you deal with that?
- 54:32SEO is is a lot of work.
- 54:35It's a lot of work.
- 54:37Not all of it is pleasant or fun.
- 54:40There's Google Analytics.
- 54:42There's a thing called Google Console.
- 54:44There's Google Tag Manager.
- 54:46You have to be an experienced web developer and have some experience in in design and in
- 54:53programming in order to know where to put the right tags in the right terms and the right the
- 54:58right links.
- 54:59If you don't know these things, then you can learn yes, but it would typically take 4 to 5
- 55:07hours probably every day for at least several weeks to get up to speed.
- 55:13I started in the mid nineties And guess what?
- 55:17Google changes their algorithm every couple of months.
- 55:22Facebook changes their there's their way of doing things every of the months now.
- 55:27So unless you have that time and energy to study programming in SDO, not just programming,
- 55:34but web design, and whatever you're using, whatever tools you're using on top of Google
- 55:40Analytics and tag manager and console, it's a lot.
- 55:44Mhmm.
- 55:44So what I tell people is, look, what is one new client per day worth to you Is that worth
- 55:52investing?
- 55:53Is it worth investing on average?
- 55:562a half from $3000 in order to get back double or triple that a few months later.
- 56:03If the person's answer is no, then the business should be worked on more.
- 56:10Right?
- 56:11If their answer is yes, then you wanna work with a professional who knows what they're
- 56:16doing, and you can typically judge that by looking for testimonials from from people you
- 56:22can verify real photos or real people, not models.
- 56:26With phone numbers, you could call references, educational credentials, professional
- 56:31affiliations, and background.
- 56:34Mhmm.
- 56:34Sure.
- 56:36That would be my answer to that.
- 56:38It's about scaling and prioritizing.
- 56:41It's it's much easier to speculate than it is to do the hard work.
- 56:47And it's not always pretty.
- 56:48It's down and dirty.
- 56:50And you know, you can do things for 6 months and not see the tide turning yet.
- 56:56But if you keep at it, usually around at that point, you start to see things change.
- 57:00When I work with small business owners through SCOR and as a freelancer and as a agency owner
- 57:07of my own, statistically businesses will begin to make more profits at around the 5 year mark.
- 57:16The majority
- 57:17From inception to 5 years.
- 57:20Statistically, according to the US Small Business Administration, typically at that 5
- 57:25year mark, that's when they begin or they shouldn't begin making more profits and having
- 57:31a lot lower, loss of debt because they've learned so for a business owner, usually, you
- 57:39can't really do much to help them until they're five years of age because they don't have the
- 57:44money to invest.
- 57:45If I talk to a startup owner or a new business owner and say, look, can you invest $2000 in
- 57:52order to get more referrals.
- 57:54Most of them would bulk at that.
- 57:56There's no way everything has to be free or super cheap.
- 58:00And you're saying 2 to 3000 per month or 2 to 3000 generally.
- 58:04Typically, it's 2 to 3000 one time, and then you usually pay maybe around a $100 per month
- 58:11to keep it maintained to make sure you're not gonna get malware.
- 58:15You're not gonna be hacked that your site is being backed up on a daily basis.
- 58:21That you get help updating the site with all the social media channels that you have a plan
- 58:27connected to the site.
- 58:29Right.
- 58:29So so you would typically be paying that to get help to maintain it and build it.
- 58:35Mhmm.
- 58:35Post your podcast, for example.
- 58:37You know?
- 58:38So, typically, most individuals can't really do much for you under below that amount.
- 58:46They just can't anything below that amount is like, come on.
- 58:49You know, I they have bills to pay.
- 58:51If you were to go to an agency, most agencies won't even talk to an individual business owner
- 58:57unless your budget is some will do something for 5000, but most can't do for under $10
- 59:04because they have employees, a lease to pay, and utilities, and benefits, and so on.
- 59:10Legal issues as well and have a lawyer on retainer.
- 59:12They can't do anything for less than that.
- 59:14So, you know, that's where the bigger corporate companies would go to an agency and the smaller
- 59:20business owner would go to someone like me.
- 59:22And I'd say, look, I'm semi retired.
- 59:24I can work with one person per quarter, and I'm very happy with that.
- 59:28Right.
- 59:28Right.
- 59:29I could dedicate myself to that person, whereas the agency can't.
- 59:33So those are the differences.
- 59:35If that makes sense.
- 59:36Oh, it makes a lot of sense.
- 59:37This is, you and I could probably talk for a couple of hours about this because there's so
- 59:42much, to learn from it.
- 59:45This has been a very, very insightful David.
- 59:49And I guess the one thing that I'm getting is just about Knowing knowing why you're doing
- 59:54what you're doing and investing, your monies or your time where it's gonna count is are 2 of
- 1:00:02the the main things that I've kind of pulled out from today.
- 1:00:07Yeah.
- 1:00:07I agree.
- 1:00:07You have to be very surgical and very measured.
- 1:00:11You know, if you're a parent and you have children, you know, that you can't do
- 1:00:14everything all at the same time, and you know how they will just wear you down physically, if
- 1:00:20not mentally, very quickly.
- 1:00:22So you have to pick your battles.
- 1:00:24Right.
- 1:00:24Right.
- 1:00:25What do you stand up for?
- 1:00:26What what do you let go?
- 1:00:28Yeah.
- 1:00:29And it's kind of the same way with business.
- 1:00:32But a business you've got to grow, you've gotta make more money.
- 1:00:36If you've ever seen shark tank, it's like, Kevin O'Leary says on shark tank, If you have
- 1:00:41more debt, then you have revenue coming in.
- 1:00:44If you're not operating in a profit, it's not a business.
- 1:00:46It's a hobby.
- 1:00:48Mhmm.
- 1:00:48You have to be able to support a family, and that's where it gets real.
- 1:00:54That's where it gets real.
- 1:00:55And those are the people I wanna work with.
- 1:00:57You know, I I need to be able to support my family.
- 1:01:00I need to be able to put food on the table, pay the rent, pay the lease, pay for my employees,
- 1:01:06I'm willing to do whatever is reasonable or logical to get get from here to there.
- 1:01:13So, David, where do where can people read you?
- 1:01:15Is I'm sure you're gonna have a lot of people that are wanting more information that are
- 1:01:19listening, to the podcast today.
- 1:01:22Sure.
- 1:01:22Where where can they what you know, if they wanted to work with you, where can they reach
- 1:01:26you?
- 1:01:26And, do you do consultations like you said that people might be able to, access?
- 1:01:33Absolutely.
- 1:01:34My business website is d like David, m like Martin, s like Sam, So it's dms.blue, like the
- 1:01:43color blue.
- 1:01:43So dms.blue.
- 1:01:45If you go to my website, you can see a very quickly on that front page, everybody's welcome
- 1:01:52to schedule a free 15 minute phone consultation.
- 1:01:57This is it's not a game.
- 1:01:59It's not silly time.
- 1:02:00It's not for spammers.
- 1:02:03It's real.
- 1:02:03I'll talk to you about serious business concerns and just see initially if we're a good
- 1:02:08match for each other.
- 1:02:09If we are, then I will schedule another phone consultation that will be either for the same
- 1:02:15amount of time or maybe a half hour after 2 or 3 consultations, then I'll decide, okay.
- 1:02:22We're a good fit for each other or you know, no.
- 1:02:25We we probably aren't.
- 1:02:28You can also go to my website and email me as well.
- 1:02:32And I'm always happy to answer a few questions to get the ball rolling and try to help.
- 1:02:37Okay.
- 1:02:38Awesome.
- 1:02:38Also, I should add, you can call my Google Voice phone number at 424 David01.
- 1:02:46That is a voice message line.
- 1:02:49So people who have to leave a legitimate voice message, identifying themselves and telling me
- 1:02:55what you want help with and and so on.
- 1:02:58If you call it trying to be funny, it's just not gonna take it.
- 1:03:01So it's important to say these things, especially when you're using the internet and
- 1:03:06reaching a broad audience.
- 1:03:07For sure.
- 1:03:08Well, thank you again, David, for taking your time.
- 1:03:11This has been, very helpful for me as I kind of progressed but for everyone listening, I think
- 1:03:17it's, again, it's congruence.
- 1:03:19It's about being authentic and really thinking about how is it that I'm what is it that I'm
- 1:03:23showing the world out there?
- 1:03:25In reference to what my business is.
- 1:03:27And if you're not if you're clueless, like, I can be, could say that 5 years ago, I was, to
- 1:03:34get the right help.
- 1:03:35That's the one thing I spent a lot of money, with the wrong people getting the wrong advice,
- 1:03:43before I kind of got to where I needed to and still continue to make different choices, on an
- 1:03:47ongoing basis as I've grown my, speaking business.
- 1:03:51So thanks again for tuning in.
- 1:03:52As you know, I'm a mental health and wellness specialist, and I do keynotes training and
- 1:03:57executive coaching if you'd like to get a hold of me.
- 1:04:00I can be reached at roxannedurhodge.com.
- 1:04:04So take care, and we will connect with you again next week.
- 1:04:07Take care, David.
- 1:04:08Bye bye.
- 1:04:09Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne, creating the space for positive,
- 1:04:15healthy change.
- 1:04:16Roxanne is a key speaker, psychotherapist, and coach to work with Roxanne, visit
- 1:04:22rocksandirhaj.com/blueprint.
- 1:04:26We'll you next time.
- 1:04:28An authentic living with Roxanne.