Engineering a Reputation (Taylor's Version)

Speaker A: Okay, so today we're going to talk about engineered word of mouth and if how nobody is talking about you, nobody knows that you exist. It's not because you do bad business. It's not because people don't like you. They just simply don't know that you're a thing. They don't know that your service is something that will help them get what they want to get. And that's what today's episode is going to be all about. It's just talking about how to get people to talk about you. Welcome back to another episode of Marketing Made Easy for Small Business Owners. I'm going to try to talk, uh, a little bit more at the camera today because I've been posting these videos on YouTube, uh, more and more. And my whole goal, if you are a small business owner, whether it's digitally service based, physically a shop, whatever it is, you might have the marketing principles across the board apply to you. And your business is just going to be the tactics on which we deliver them. So like I said a moment ago, we want to get people to know that we exist and build up a clientele because the first step in building a business is getting a good reputation so that people refer you. When people refer you, you get reviews. When you get reviews, other people read them and the business continues to grow. My dad always said Rome wasn't built in a day, but. But then again, he wasn't there. That's a little dad joke for you. But my dad actually did say that, which I guess is where dad jokes come in from. So anyway, point of the matter is today is about engineered word of mouth and how we can get that moving inside of your business. A good example, um, is when people, restaurants particularly, will boast something about, oh, yeah, we're the best little secret in town. Uh, we're the best kept secret in town. Something along those lines, like it's some sort of flex, but in reality it's not. Um, or for example, a contractor who does the best tile work in town, but nobody knows he exists. Um, I used to use the reference all the time or the analogy. You could be the best photographer in the world that takes the best photos, but if nobody knows that you take those best photos, then it doesn't matter. On the flip side, you can be a subpar, mediocre photographer who's really good at generating buzz and you're going to get all of the business. So it's not just a matter doing quality work, it's about doing the things that you need to do. To generate buzz. And I get it. You're a business owner, you're not a marketer. But when you are a business owner, by default, you have to be a marketer, you have to be an accountant, you have to be a promoter, at least at the beginning. And you have to know enough about all of those things, wear all of the hats so that you can actually hire that out and have a conversation with somebody and like myself, who does know everything about it. Okay, for example, I don't know everything there is to know about, uh, financial services. Right. I have an Edward Jones guy that does my financial planning for me. However, I know enough about finance to sit down in a room with him and ask him the right questions to have the appropriate conversations that are going to benefit me, and so that he knows I know enough about what I'm talking about so he can have that conversation. As a business owner, you need to do the same thing with what it is you've got going on. Again, wear all of the hats. You have to know a little bit about marketing so you can talk to me about it. You have to know a little bit about promoting so you can talk to a promoter about it. You have to know a little bit about design so you can talk to a designer when you're building your website. That is part of being an entrepreneur, and that is what ultimately separates, you know, W2 employees from those of us who break free or are trying to break free from the 9 to 5. If we can't do that or we're not willing to do that, then we need to stay in the rat race. We need to stay in that grind. It's those of us who get out of our comfort zone, learn the things that need to be learned, who are going to see results. And we have to do that over a consistent, compounding amount of time until we see results. And the tragedy is too many people quit before they actually get the results that they have been seeking, myself included. I'm guilty of that. There's been a lot businesses over the years that I quit on too soon. And here, uh, I am today running my marketing agency, creating this content, doing these things. I don't know everything there is to know about doing a freaking podcast or posting on YouTube, but I know enough to where when I sit down and talk to somebody about it, I can understand the information that I'm getting from them. And that's what I want you to strive to do as well. So let's go ahead and talk about why nobody's talking about you. Number One reason is imposter syndrome. You don't feel that you're actually doing the things that you're qualified of. You think that you're just trying to do it and nobody's actually going to believe that you're any good. So you don't want to post anything, you don't want to do anything. Um, ultimately you're just, you're scared of or you're fearing that people are going to talk negatively about you or they're not going to believe you do what you do. However, if you're in the business and you're doing the dang thing, just ask people for reviews. Ask people to share their stories with you. Ask people to, hey, what did you think of my work? You know, if you're a tile guy, ask through text. And this is a little, uh, pro tip from the industry. Never get, uh, feedback. Let me back up. Never get feedback over the phone talking to somebody. Always get feedback through text or a recorded conversation. And the reason you want to get it through text text is because guess what, you screenshot it and you can post it to your website. So if you do a bang up job for somebody and they're really, really happy, cool. It feels good for them to tell you that in person. But if they're ranting and raving about how great it is, hey, ask them, hey, you mind if I record you saying that? Or would you remind recording a 20 second video of you saying that at your own leisure? Just point of the matter is, don't be afraid to ask. Give them a reason to share. Tell them you're going to give them a discount on something else in the future. It's having the courage to ask for feedback and then knowing how to get that in the medium that you can share it with other people. Because let's be honest, the start of your business, the referrals, the social cred, all of that stuff absolutely thrives on the foundation of you asking the question to get it to begin with and then putting it out on the Internet, not being scared of what anybody else has to say. You do good work, everybody needs to know about that. And if they don't, what are you doing the work for? Another thing that people tend to do is they don't ever develop a personality or let, uh, me, let me be a little bit more specific, a backstory, um, a brand, a story, okay? Something that actually tells the story of who you are, what it is you do, but more importantly why it is you do it. And I've got clients that are they're hesitant to do this because they think it's all about me, me, me. And I get it. It seems like that on the surface, but when you get a little bit deeper, ultimately what you're going for is something that resonates with your target audience, with your target prospect. You want somebody to read your story and you want them to shake their head like, yeah, that's me. That's what I'm going through. I resonate with that. But you do it in a story version through your own experience. Like, there's a reason you started your brand, there's a reason you're doing what you're doing. Don't be afraid to talk about that. Do it in your content, your social media posts, do it in your, to, uh, your email list. Do it on your website, your About Me section. Stop promoting just your homepage. Start getting people to click to your About Me section. But when you're writing your story, when you're talking about yourself, do it in a way that is going to resonate with your target prospect. Not, um, oh, this is me and I'm awesome because of this. More so, this is me, and I'm here because I struggled because of this, this and this. Maybe you can relate. Question mark. Those are the kind of stories that you want the prospect to show up and read and you want them to say, yeah, I get it, I understand. Wow, this person gets me. And that's what's most. Whether you run a restaurant business, whether you're a digital creator, the story is the same. You need to have a backstory. And I'll give you the stuff to Google right now. Google Russell Brunson. Um, the Hero's Journey. All right, uh, well, Russell Brunson repackaged the Hero's Journey into what he calls the Epiphany Bridge script. Um, but it's the same thing. The Hero's Journey is what every Hollywood movie has been based around for the last 70 years. Okay? It's psychologically developed. It works for a reason. There's a whole process and you've been through it, whether you know it or not. And your prospect is going through it right now. So the more you can write your story in that format, the more it's going to psychologically resonate with your audience. And I promise, when you can do that, you're going to see conversions boost regardless of what you're in. Okay? Um, another thing I really like to talk about and a little point, uh, when I write my emails, when I write my content is, ah, specifically I Say things like, uh, pick up in the conversation that's already going on inside of your prospect's head. So think about them. What are they dealing with? What are they handling right now? What are they, what are they struggling with? Probably things that you were struggling with at once. So talk to those pain points specifically. Okay, so what can we really do about this? Okay, number one, I just talked about how to write copy about your story, but let's go back a little bit to the review portion. Okay. Um, it's just about engineering buzz. Ask people to leave reviews. If you're a service based business, all you have to do is say, hey, can you leave me a review? But don't stop there. Make it stupid simple for them to leave that review. Send them a direct link that goes straight to the review portion. I recommend doing it on Google, especially if you're a service based, um, make it so there's no friction as soon as there's extra steps that somebody has to go through. Think about yourself. As soon as you get distracted or as soon as it becomes difficult, you're going to click out, right? So the trick is to make it stupid simple, straight to the review, super easy. Give them exact instructions. Hey, here's the review link. It's only going to take you 30 seconds. Let me know what you thought of my service. Boom, done. Send it to them, wait for them. Have them click on it right then and there. Or if you run a restaurant business, for example, have it a QR code right next to your register when you're checking out. Ask them. I do this with my clients all the time. Ask them, say, hey, uh, how did you enjoy your meal today? Oh, it was great. Awesome. We're so glad to hear that. If it was so great, would you mind leaving us a review and then pointing at the sign, this is going to enter you to win a hundred dollar gift card towards our restaurant. You know, a little bit of a bait piece and we can talk about that on another episode. How to get, uh, entice people to do these things. But right now all you have to do is point at a QR code. They already said they like liked their service. Now you're putting them on the spot to go ahead and scan it real quick. And let's be honest, QR codes are way better, way faster than they were at any point in history, now more than ever. So get them to scan the QR code. Make sure that goes straight to your review link. Um, and watch them leave you. Five stars. Boom. You got a review. That's it, that's that simple. And as far as content goes, um, a lot of content creators, you're out there trying to go viral, you're out there trying to, uh, um, you know, get a lot of likes and boost that serotonin level up. And I get it, it's addicting. It feels good when you get a lot of views and things like that. But keep in mind that all views are not created equal. If you get a hundred million, uh, views on TikTok, but those views are from people all over the world, what's that doing for you and your business locally? What's it doing for you and your specific customers? I get it. If you're a digital content creator, maybe you have some online services that you sell. But again of, um, those millions of views that you got, how many of them are in your target audience? Okay, what I'm trying to say is if you're running a small service based business, for example, and you have 100 people on your, uh, Instagram list, you might not seem like that's a lot, but those are 100 people that may be in your community interacting with you on the day to day. Start posting content from behind the scenes. Um, if you're. Again, I keep using restaurants because that's who I've been working with a lot lately. Post stuff from your kitchen, you know, staff members, kind of just shooting the shit and talking a little bit of trash, having a good time, showing your personality, um, ultimately the best person you are equipped to serve is yourself. From three years ago. I use this example a lot. Think about Taylor Swift. Why is Taylor Swift so popular? Why does she have such a massive following of kids of all ages, 20s, 30s, you know, teenagers? Why does she. How is she able to reach those kids so specifically or those people so specifically? It's because she's done it through her eras tour. She is speaking to herself at any given point, at any particular age. And the struggles and the pains and the desires that she had when she was going through that era of her life. If you can do that in your own marketing, if you can speak to yourself at any given point, you are going to by default resonate with the people watching that. And that is marketing, that is storytelling, that is branding and resonating with the people that you want to sell to or that you want to serve, that, uh, you want to bring into your world. That's what it's all about. And if you can do that, follow the Taylor Swift model, I promise she didn't do this by accident. She knows that she's reaching those people on a visceral level, that everybody thinks she's just some sort of fluke. She's done it by engineer, she's engineered it. She's done exactly how we started this out. Engineering the buzz. Engineering that word of mouth, getting people talking about you. Look at Mr. Beast, Jimmy Donaldson. He's from Greenville, North Carolina. Literally lives three miles away from where I'm talking right now. And he did the same thing. He learned his audience and spoke to himself a couple years ago. What is he thinking? What was he thinking back then? He's talking to that. If you can do the same, whether you are a freaking plumber, whether you're a digital content creator, a realtor, an electrician, it does not matter. Speak to yourself what you would have wanted to hear when you were in that person's shoes. I do the same thing. The reason I am so good at marketing, the reason I understand it at a level that I do, is because when I see an ad, I dissect it. I, uh, break it down, and I put myself in the shoes of the person it was intended to be designed for. Okay? A new client of mine that I have coming on is a tile guy. He does tiles, bathrooms, kitchens, and things like that. Um, I happen to be building a house right now. And because I am, that's how I met him. And because I'm building a house and because I've been looking at more ads on kitchens and bathrooms, uh, because of my house, but also secretly because I have him and I'm going to be doing his marketing for him. So when I read those ads from other businesses, I'm dissecting them or who are they going after, what are they trying to say? What pain points are they speaking to? And once I start to wrap my head around that, I'm going to be all the better to be able to serve my tile client. And that's the name of the game. Put yourself in the shoes of, uh, the prospect you wish to serve, and you're going to make more sales, you're going to convert more customers. That's the name of the game. All right, so Actionable Con or Actionable tips that you can do. What I want you to do right now is to ask three people this week, in the next seven days, get three people to leave you a review, whether it's on Google, whether it's a testimonial on your Facebook, your Instagram, doesn't matter. Take one of those reviews that you get now. We got three reviews. Take One of them and post it, screenshot it, and post it, uh, to your socials and write a story about it. Don't pitch, don't say something like, look at the results that so and so got. Hit me up if you want the same. Don't do that. Take that testimonial and write a story about how that person came into your world and how it makes you feel that they've got great results. Write us. Marketing is storytelling. At the end of the day, if you can't tell a story, then you're just a salesman. If you are a good storyteller, then you can be a good marketer. And that's again, what it's all about. So take your reviews, ask three people for reviews, get them, take the best one, screenshot it, and post it to your social and write a story about that. If you need any help, hit me up, Reply to this video, leave me a comment below. Hit me up and through email. Uh, be on my email list. Uh, check that out on, uh, my socials at me. Whatever it is, I'll help you with it. That's my whole point again. To be successful in life, you need a big why. Why do you get up in the mornings? What do you think about when you wake up? What do you think about when you go to sleep? My big why is to be the person for others that I wish that I had when I was in their shoes. So every morning I wake up, I'm thinking about how I can help people. How can I help them get to where they want to be? Part of it is recording these videos. Part of it is posting on my threads. Part of it is writing to my email list. Part of it is serving my clients. Whatever the case, whether I'm getting paid or whether I'm doing it out of charity. The point of the matter is I want to lift people up. And if you're able to do that with your services, you're gonna be all the more successful for it. You just have to stay consistent. You have to stay on the grind. You have to want to do it. But more importantly, you have to have that why figured out. If you can do that, you will be successful. My name is Dan. Thank you so much for watching. Watching or listening. Whatever it is you did this on, leave me a comment like, share, subscribe, all of that stuff. Um, I'm really busy with my clients all the time, so it's really hard for me to, to build my own personal brand, my own personal following, even though I preach it all the time. But I got stuff to do. I got things going on, and, uh, this is just going to help me a little bit more. So leave me a comment, drop me a like, um, share this with a friend, anything like that, if you did enjoy it. Thanks so much for watching. We'll catch you guys next time. Have a great day.