Episode 1

Breaking Down the Difference Between Branding, Marketing, and Advertising

Season Two of Unfuck My Business is sponsored by Seide Realty. If you're moving to Florida, Kathleen and her team will unfuck your real estate experience. Learn more at whystpete.com

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About This Episode:

On this episode of Unfuck My Business, our team explores the ins and outs of building a successful brand and marketing strategy. From understanding the different layers of a brand's subculture to leveraging the five types of people in building a community, our guest takes us through the critical components of brand development. We also discuss the double-tap advertising method and the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Additionally, we explore the importance of being authentic in your business and building a distinct brand. This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and those working in corporate settings who want to master their marketing and build a successful business.

  • Importance of having the right people in the focus of building a community
  • A brand's subculture and multiple layers lead to a growing community with shared values and language
  • Guerrilla marketing based on shared value, language, and communication
  • Understanding oneself and identifying strengths in building a community
  • Five forms of people: educator, energizer, engager, doer, or director
  • A brand is not just the logo and aesthetics but also includes quality and engagement of service
  • Customer feedback is crucial for brand development
  • Effective brand development involves creating conversation and connecting with a customer's dialogue
  • Placeholder brand can be created, but true development is necessary afterward
  • Branding involves much more than aesthetics and is not a quick process
  • Importance of authenticity and understanding oneself in building a brand
  • Starting with branding and building out marketing and advertising can lead to success
  • Clarity in branding, marketing, and advertising messages is important for speaking clearly to your ideal audience
  • Understanding unique value and contribution is crucial for building a brand in any setting
  • Attracting the right audience through niche and specific specialties
  • The difference between branding, marketing, and advertising
  • Branding focuses on identity, strategy, and tactics while marketing is about engagement, connecting, and developing a conversation
  • Advertising creates awareness and entices people and all three tiers work together to drive sales
  • Importance of repetition and clear messaging in advertising and marketing
  • Word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing
  • Double tap method and brand allies can generate word-of-mouth marketing
  • Reducing steps and friction in the sales process to lead to more sales
  • Clear and repetitive messaging is necessary to capture attention
  • Negative impression and harm on brand created by “numbers game” approach to generating leads
  • Staying true to oneself, creating contrast, and staying distinct are essential aspects of building a brand.

In This Episode:

Robyn Sayles, Shea Jeffers

About Our Guest(s):

Shea is a brand strategist and business catalyst specializing in connecting the dots between problems, opportunities, and strategy. Owner of Stratgix Consulting and Co-Owner of the Keystone Mastermind Alliance. He provides perspective and context that burns away the "fog of business" and allows businesses to develop and focus on solutions customized for their distinct world.

Connect with Shea here:

  • Https://www.StraTgixConsulting.com/SJ
  • LinkedIn: www.LinkedIn.com/SheaJeffers
  • IG/FB: Stratgix
  • FB: CatalystToSuccess-Shea Jeffers

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Mentioned In The Show:

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A rough transcript is provided for your convenience. It’s not perfect because we want to spend our time unfucking your business, not unfucking this transcript. 🤘



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Transcript
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Hi, my name is Siobhan and you're watching Disney Channel.

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What? That's not what this is.

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Fuck. Alright, alright. How about this?

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What's up on fuckers? This is Siobhan Colleen from Industry Explorers.

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You're listening to unfuck my business.

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No bullshit advice for business owners who want to be resilient as fuck

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without any further a fuck a dude ado, here are your hosts.

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Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Unfuck my business

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show. I am Robyn Sales and

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I'm going to be leading the conversation today with one of my favorite people

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that I get to nerd out with about all things

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branding, marketing, advertising, and the impact that

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that has on your business. My friend, Shay Jeffers.

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Shay, say hello to everybody. What's up, people? How are you all doing today?

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So, Shay, we are going to dissect

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and pull apart what tends to get all

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clumped together, which is the concept of marketing

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and advertising.

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Yeah, and I think I talk a lot about

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the idea of commoditization. So especially

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in the branding space, getting a good, solid brand helps you differentiate

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yourself, set yourself apart from the pack and remove yourself

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from being potentially commoditized. So I think specifically about

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real estate agents. That's my favorite example. There are so many real

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estate agents that it could be really easy for consumers to go,

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well, all real estate agents do the same thing. And so it's the

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real estate agent who has to take charge of that narrative and go,

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no, we're not all the same. Here's. How I'm different. Right? And so when

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a marketplace becomes saturated, when a concept becomes

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overly used, that's when it becomes commoditized.

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And so I very much feel in the wake of

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instagram and influencers, the concept of marketing

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has been commoditized, if you will.

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And people have a sort of general sense of what marketing is,

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but they tend to lump a lot of things in there and they don't realize

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that there are different facets of marketing, there's different subsets of

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marketing. And there actually is a hierarchy of

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branding, marketing and advertising that need to be deployed at

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the right place and the right time. And you have the

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way you sort of conceptualize stuff and

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break it down for people I really appreciate because you come up with these things

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that are really easy for people to follow. So I want you to talk through

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what you've determined and help people understand

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the hierarchy of branding versus marketing versus advertising.

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Yeah, and this really came from the need of when

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I first really stepped into from just being designer or creative

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to an actual strategist and helping people craft these things. So when they gave me

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a product just to create they're like specific

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needs, I'm actually fulfilling a specific need, just like not just giving gobligook.

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And the big part of that was helping people break down and break

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away from, oh, you're just a marketing guy, or I just want

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some marketing and so three tiers, and he starts

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on the top, which is more focused, and that's where your brand is.

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If you look through the lens, it's like looking through the lens of a camera.

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You look through the focal lens and the most focal point is in the middle

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and it just gets broader and broader as you go out. So you go from

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branding, which is super focused, to marketing, which is not as focused, but still

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specific, and in advertising, which is just straight out open to

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the masses. So with branding is all about your identity, strategy and tactics that

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you implement through your marketing, which is about engagement,

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connecting, developing a conversation. Because marketing

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is that one to one engagement and that one to one engagement can

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be you literally with one to one person or just with a very select group

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of individuals. And then advertising is about enticing people

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to you, creating more awareness around your product or service,

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giving out information so then they have the knowledge so that

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when they get engaged with a conversation with you, they can truly understand your

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brand. So it works both equals from broad to focus

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and focus to broad back and forth. And it's all about getting the sales,

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to be honest with you. Absolutely. So I was actually just in

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a conversation yesterday where we were nerding out about the topic of

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branding and marketing and advertising and sales and how they all should be

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connected. And unfortunately, in many companies, they operate in separate

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silos. So I want to give a quick

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call out to Heather Campbell, who runs Double Dutch Creative

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in Denver. Heather and I particularly were nerding out over

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some concepts, and she gave a sentence which I think

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sums it up so clearly she said, marketing is the path

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to the transaction, right? And so if we use

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your lens idea there, the advertising is drawing

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people in, the advertising is getting the attention,

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but it's the marketing that more intimate back

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and forth that should be the path to the transaction.

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The thing that makes people go, yes, I need to purchase this

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particular product or service. And I don't know about you, but I

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see it all the time where people start on the wrong step,

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right? How many times does somebody come to you and gone, well, I'm thinking about

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doing some Facebook advertising. To whom?

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What conversation are you creating? What are you going to be talking about other

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than here's a price and here's a product or service?

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I was at a training once where the guy was talking about digital marketing automation

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in specific, and he, same as

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us, gets those same questions about Facebook advertising. And he's like,

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okay, so here's what you do. If you don't already have a clear

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conversation with a warm audience in mind for that Facebook advertising,

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what you want to do is go walk into the bathroom, take your wallet

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out of your pocket, and just dump it out over into the toilet

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bowl because that's what you're doing. It's just flushing your money down the

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toilet if you don't truly understand who you're targeting

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with this Facebook advertising, the other thing I hear all the time is,

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oh, I need a logo, or I need a website. And on our

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community calls, we have people coming to us for that all the time.

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Like, oh, I need a website.

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Have you made a sale? Has your product

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or service been validated at all? Do you know if anybody even wants this

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right? Yes, an ask coming.

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Yeah. So they jump to logo. Well, your pretty logo doesn't

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mean anything if it doesn't resonate with the audience

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who actually needs your help and needs your product and

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service. So when somebody comes to you, if I was a client and I came

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to you and I was like, yes, I need a logo,

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right? How do you sort of back somebody through that

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thinking to get them to start where you know they actually need

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to start? Well, I cut to the

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chase. Very simply, your brand is not your logo. First and foremost.

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That is the first thing I always get people to say to

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understand is the aesthetics of your business does not trump the

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actual quality and engagement of your service. And so

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it is asking those questions like you touched on earlier. It's like,

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okay, so what have you sold? What have

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you put out there and gotten feedback on? Because a big aspect of

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brand development is customer feedback. It's all good and well

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to have an idea in your head of what you want it to look like,

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but it doesn't matter if that does not actually create

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a conversation or fulfill a conversation that people are naturally

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having as they walk down the street in themselves. So a brand is

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most effective when somebody has a running dialogue in

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their head and they see an image. In terms of the

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aesthetics of your business, they see that image and it connects with that running

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dialogue. So without understanding that customer and

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that dialogue that's going on in their head, that conversation that you're trying to create

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and be a part of, we'll create a placeholder

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brand, get some feedback, and then do this true development

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afterwards. Brand development is not a

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30 minutes, hey, I slapped together this

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square and this triangle, and I made it look pretty. And then now

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we have a brand that's going to make thousands and thousands of dollars of sales.

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But you're not saying anything, right?

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I love one of my favorite

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pet peeves is there's so many

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services out there that are offering, like, do it yourself logo

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creation. My inhale exhale.

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Yes. I was having a chat about the

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commoditization of brand, and that's another thing

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that kind of drove my desire to break this down because the

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conversation was being commoditized. It was really becoming

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so overly simplified and AI driven

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where, oh yes, go to Wix and they'll easily

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match. I cringe at that commercial where he's like,

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oh yeah, I want this brand to be more organic and

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natural, so I'm going to bring a mountain in it's like organic

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and natural to who? To a

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techie. Something that is more of

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a chemical symbol or whatever can be just as organic and real to them

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as some nature feel. So it

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really drives me nuts. Yeah. Talk to me a little bit

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about how marketing and advertising

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should work together. Right. So if marketing

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is a more intimate you've now

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come into focus, you're in the inner circle, right.

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You're thinking about, I think I want to work with this person. I think I

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want to buy this product. If that's that type of conversation,

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then how does that relate to advertising being more

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of the town crier bullhorn? Like, hey, we have this thing

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over here. Where do you see those two things?

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Collaborating and working together best and most effective. All right,

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so we always say that the best form of marketing is

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word of mouth. That's the most engaging, the most

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powerful, actual sales driving thing.

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But the only way to get that is through brand allies, right? So this

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whole idea of the double tap method, where you have the advertising and marketing

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working in tandem, the advertising so, like you said,

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they're close to purchasing. They engage in that marketing conversation

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with you. But if you are not consistently

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advertising where you are making a general offer and

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presenting you your product or service to the world that is available at

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this time, at this pricing, or at this is

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how you get it you'll miss that sale because you

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will miss the double tap because you only go in one side of the fence.

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So they're having that one on one conversation, but they never know when

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they could buy or when they should buy or how they could buy. And that's

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what all advertising does, is it tells you, hey,

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you're driving down the road, right? And I use the restaurant metaphor.

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You're driving down the road and you start to

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get hungry, and there's tons

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of restaurants on the side of the road and you see a bunch of signs.

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They all have their marketing. They all have their branding because they're different colors and

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they're different shapes and size or whatever. And they have their marketing,

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which is saying, hey, we have food available for you at this

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particular time. But if they say, hey, we are selling two for one burgers.

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Now you're combining the marketing conversation that's went on

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with the immediate need in advertising, and that's a double tap as

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sold. Sorry, go for it. Another piece of that is that brand ally

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in the car with you that says, oh, I want to go to this restaurant

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because I was there last week. And that's the word of mouth. There it goes.

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And that's how you bring it all together, folks. Boom.

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I was trying to think of another way to say it, but I'm just going

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to use the quote that pops into my head. It's a little controversial and I

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don't mean it necessarily in the way it was intended, but this is something that

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I think of as an underlying subtext, especially when you're writing copy and

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you're trying to create messages for folks. You cannot

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over explain it. When we're talking about

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marketing and advertising, so every entrepreneur,

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solopreneur, small business that's worried about being repetitive

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on social media or being repetitive in their marketing,

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that's what you're supposed to do.

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Repetition builds reputation and you cannot over explain

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it or oversimplify it. Part of this is

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the experience, right? And so when you talk about that double tap effect,

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part of the reason why that's effective is because they've not only told

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you what they have, but how you can get it.

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And we tend to think that, like, oh, people know that they can pull off

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the highway and go through the drive through and get our burgers. We just have

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to tell them they're two for one. No,

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that's why billboards say, get off at exit 27,

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turn to the right and come through our drive through. Because especially when

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people are in a space when they're making like a car trip on a highway,

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you get like zombie brain and you kind of forget how to process

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things. Things that seem obvious are not always obvious in

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the moment and so you have to over explain

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it. And so the quote that I use all the time that kind of

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stays in the back of my head to remind me to make sure

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that these messages are simple and are repetitive and do

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explain is individuals are smart,

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but people are stupid.

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Right? Especially when you're in this sort of

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I'm one of thousands of cars that are driving on the highway. If we

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continue with your restaurant billboard example, right? Do you know what it's like

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when all of a sudden you've driven 20 miles and you don't remember

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the last time you looked at a sign or paid attention to where

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you actually are? Right? So just having a billboard that

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says, we've got juicy, delicious hamburgers isn't enough. Like,

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you literally have to help my brain remember how to go purchase

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a juicy, delicious hamburger and how much it costs, right?

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And that all sounds ridiculous, but if

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you take a minute to think about where your customers

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are and what's happening for them at the moment they encounter

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that bit of advertising, or by the time they come to you for the

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more direct marketing, then you'll realize how important it is

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to be beyond clear. You cannot

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oversimplify it. You cannot over explain it. It's all

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necessary. Without that continuous

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explanation, that continuous presence, you start to have this roller coaster in

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your business or your sales, and sometimes it's

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easy to get locked into one or one aspect of

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these three disciplines or the other. So, like, focusing on your branding,

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but not having the marketing or advertising to maintain your presence

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and the ongoing conversation about your brand.

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Or you're focusing on the advertising, but you never say anything of

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substance. So people start to tune out because it's

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just noise. It just becomes white noise in the background. Or you're so honed in

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on your marketing and you're having that conversation. You're so engaged. I engage

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with everybody. I'm so good at engagement and building a community. And then people's

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like, so what are you selling? Or when can I buy it?

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So that's what I say, making sure all these three things are continuously

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engaged. And I think we all I'm sure

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you've been there at points in your business as well, but even those

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of us who do this for a living, we have to keep learning this stuff

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as well. Recently, we learned

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yeah. Right. So I think about the evolution of my own website.

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I had this website that looked great and was very clever and

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people but here's what would happen. People would come to me and go, oh,

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Robin, I love your website, it's so fun. But I'm still not entirely

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sure what you do then.

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It's not working. Right? If you love my website

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but you don't understand what I do, then my website is broken. It's not working.

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It's only performing a part of its job. And so

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to reinforce the point I was making just a minute ago, something that

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I had to learn personally was you have to sacrifice cleverness

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for clarity. So I had buttons

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on my website to schedule a call that would be like,

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Launch a call, because my business is called Launching Your Success.

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And that's actually too clever. People were not

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sure if they should push the button because they weren't sure what was going to

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happen when they pushed the button. Right? And so the button literally has

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to say, Click here to schedule a call because

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it said Launch a call. What we did is, when we started investigating,

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we realized people thought launch a call meant a phone call was

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going to dial and start right there in that moment.

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Yeah. And so that's why they weren't pushing the button. Right.

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So my cleverness of trying to tie in all the wording

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to my branding was actually causing people to not

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take an action that they would normally take. Smart for

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your own good. Well, too clever.

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Which, go look at my report cards from school and you'll see that's been

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my problem my whole life.

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I still have to keep going. Okay,

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what do we really need to say here? And I

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do think you can balance that, too, because there are some brands where

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you do want some of that cleverness and craftiness to be there as part

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of the messaging and be there as part of the marketing. Or I think about

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some clients I have where they've cultivated very specific language

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because of the industry and things that they're in. And I don't just mean

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jargon, but like there are certain industries where there's a way in

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which people speak within that community and within that

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industry. Right? And you want that to be there. But when

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it comes time to pushing a button, taking an

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action, you want the cleverness to lead up to

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the action, but you want the action to be very super clear.

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Click here to schedule a call.

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I can use all my fun, clever language to lead up to

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that button, but the button needs to be super clear. Click here to

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sign up for our email list. Like, you have

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to tell them exactly what's going to happen the minute they click that button.

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And so it's hard sometimes to turn

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that mirror back on ourselves. And you need that outside help and that

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outside influence sometimes to help you realize

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where you've overcomplicated things in your own messaging and

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in your own branding and marketing. Very true.

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And like you said, you didn't add advertising to that piece. You just said branding

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and marketing and you didn't talk about advertising because that clarity is the most important

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part of advertising. The best jokes have the simplest punchlines.

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She's like one word, three words, and then she did it.

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And then everybody's bossing to laugh because that punchline

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was just everybody understood it. And another thing is making sure that it's

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accessible, properly accessible, making sure that you're projecting

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that message correctly across the whole spectrum.

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Yeah, those things. And we have to remember you've

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talked around this, but I think I want to be super clear for

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people who are listening that you do have to actually ask

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for the sale.

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You do have to actually say, and this is how much it

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costs to buy. Do you want to sign up right now? I'd love to

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get you started. Can you start today?

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And I could go down a whole rabbit hole about closing techniques

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from a sales training perspective and a soft close and a hard close and

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an assumptive close, and there's all these different ways that you can

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approach it. But ideally it should sound authentic, it should

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sound natural, it should sound intentional,

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but we do have to actually ask for the sale and tell people

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how they can purchase the thing and buy from us. You and

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I have a mutual friend, Liz.

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Hi, Liz. And she at one networking

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event, she made a very good point, which is reducing

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the steps and reducing the friction in that sales process

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which it's tied. Right. So if

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the advertising is leading to the marketing, which is leading to the transaction

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leading to the sale right. We want to reduce the friction points

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in that and make it as easy as possible for them to click the

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button to buy or to sign up or whatever it is we want them to

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do. And so she made a very good point, which felt

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like a punch in the gut at the time, but has stuck with

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me, which was, you should always be

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ready to take the sale. Like, if we're having a

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great conversation here in this moment, and I

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want to buy right now. If I'm ready, I want to

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buy right now. Don't make me wait. Because my sales

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process at the time was like, great. I'm so happy you're interested.

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I'll send you an email when I get back to my office. And then you

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have to click the link, and then you have to fill up the form,

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and then you can purchase the thing. There was, like, five steps that

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involved waiting until I got home, right? And she's like, no, you need to

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have the little thing in your bag. You need to plug it into your phone.

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You need to check my credit card, and I need to be able to buy

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from you right now, capture the interest in that split second.

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PayPal me. Strategics.

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S-T-O-H-D-I-X. It's just that simple. Like,

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having those links in the email in hand, on hand,

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ready to go. Yes. I have stuff

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that I keep on a Notes app, right?

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Maybe I don't have the dongle or on my new phone, the dongle doesn't

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fit. Right? I would need an adapter. So having a customized link,

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and I go, Great, I'm so excited. Here, I just texted

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you to the link. You can click it and sign up and complete the purchase

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right now. Right? So having those things so that

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the friction is minimized and making the information available,

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we had I don't know if you were on that call, but in one of

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our Tuesday night community calls, we had somebody who was kind of

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talking us through their new business thing, and we were all

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like, great, send me a brochure. Send me to a website. And she didn't

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have it. And it turned out that there was a valid

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reason why she didn't have it. It was new, new, and that

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stuff was still being built. But if you're going to

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start talking about it, then you need to be prepared with the things that,

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you know, people are going to ask for. And so I think she lost

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interest because so many of us were like, send me a one sheet.

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Send me a brochure, send me to a website. And she didn't have anything that

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she could point us to that was hers.

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Right? And so I think even if it's not

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a sale directly, just when someone's curious

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and wants to know more, you need to have a place ready

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to go to send them to learn more. Never be

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a dead end. Yeah, never be a dead end or never be sure.

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I'll email that to you when I get back to the office.

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Right? Once you have done the right storytelling

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and engagement, and you build up all that energy, that energy,

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the amount of effort think about it, the amount of effort it took to build

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up that momentum. You're grinding and you're pushing

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this rock up the top of this mountain, and you get to the

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top of the mountain finally, and they say, hey, I'm ready. And you don't have

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anything to keep them or get them over the cusp,

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it's immediately rolling right back to the mountain, usually right over you.

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So it's definitely a good thing to have on

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hand. Such a great metaphor. And so we've talked about how

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our experience, particularly, has been people not understanding

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that you can't jump straight to advertising. You can't even

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jump straight to marketing. You have to start with the brand.

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And so I know that I have things that I, like, will get on a

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soapbox at the drop of the hat and chirp about when it comes to branding.

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But what are your soapbox things? Like, if people take nothing

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else away from this conversation today, Shay, what's the thing you want

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them to understand about where they need to start

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or what their brand needs to start with?

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So especially if okay, let's say we're all in, quote unquote,

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in business, right? Guess what? There's literally only

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one you in business. So don't forget the

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you in that. That is my

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my primary thing. You need to brand beyond your logo. You need to go beyond

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the aesthetics. You need to maintain who you are

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in your organization and what it means, because that trickles down.

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Whether you think that you have salespeople or whatever in front of

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you, they all take leadership from you.

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They all take messaging from you. It all starts from

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the you. So don't forget the you. Make sure that you're distinct.

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Make sure that you are creating contrast with

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the world around you. That contrast is what allows you to then be different.

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So a bunch of pebbles at a beach,

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you see black pebbles, you see the white one, or vice versa.

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It's whatever. A bunch of pigeons, the pigeon that is oddly colored in some

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weird way, that's what you see Robin, her red hair, you see

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her, it stands out. That it's to her. It's to you in

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her organization, in her business, in what she does. Don't ever forget that.

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That's the most important part of me. I believe in building a brand.

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What people listening to this can't see right now is the minute you're like,

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don't forget you, I'm literally, like, spazzing out over here on my end of

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the camera. Like, yes,

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cannot enthusiastically support

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and encourage that enough. And I think

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understanding that, it really does start from you.

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And let's talk about folks who are entrepreneurs for

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a moment. All of this applies whether you're running your

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own business, you're a part of somebody else's small business, or you're

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a part of a larger machine in a corporate setting,

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right? The way to get ahead, the way to get

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better at whatever it is you're doing, is to understand who

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you are, how you work best, and what is the

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unique and intrinsic value that only you can provide within

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that situation. The better you understand that, the better you're

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going to be at representing your company, at representing the product or

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service you're trying to sell. So I would say that that bit

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of advice is not only critical,

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like not just important, it's fucking critical from a brand

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perspective when you're trying to build a brand for your product,

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for your business, for your service. But that bit of advice is also

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applicable in just building your own personal brand

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within anything that you're doing. If you're

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trying to cultivate thought leadership if you want to get out on the speaking circuit,

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if you want to be known as the expert for a certain thing,

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if you want to be the go to person for something within your organization.

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If you're trying to pivot from one area of your organization

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to another, really, truly starting with you

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and understanding what that value is and what you can

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contribute is so critical. And then I think

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what I'll add to that, the other side of that coin is once you're

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really clear on who you are and how it impacts your

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brand, understanding why people are

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drawn to that and why people need that,

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right? And so, as Shay said,

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you're the only you in business and I don't

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care. This is my favorite joke to make when

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I'm giving speeches and stuff is like,

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I don't care how weird,

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subversive, ultra niche or

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bizarre your particular specialty is, I can guarantee you

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there's at least a dozen people on Google right now looking

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for exactly who you are and what you do. And the only

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reason that they haven't found you yet is because you haven't figured

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out how to clearly explain I'm the one who does

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these things, right? Yeah. I'm the one who can

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provide this. And so we've

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talked about understanding who you're talking to from a

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marketing and advertising perspective. But I think that starts with

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the brand and not only understanding yourself, but understanding who's

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naturally going to be drawn to that, right? Because it's not I

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don't know about you, but for my brand, my ideal client is not other people

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like me. I'm not working with

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other people like me. People are coming to me because of

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these things that I do and have and I'm

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filling a gap or I'm providing something that's not already there.

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Right? And so it's one thing to

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understand who I am, but then if I don't understand why

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people would be drawn to that, I'm going to aim

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my marketing and advertising in the wrong direction.

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Right? So I don't want to aim my marketing and advertising towards people

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like me. I want to aim my marketing. And advertising towards the people who

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are looking for people like me. Yes, you want to have the right

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people, in your viewfinder. Taking it back to the idea of the camera lens and

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the focal point and all kind of stuff. You want to have the right scene

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in focus. I love that part

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about that there's at least a dozen people, and to me, I would say

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there's at least 1000 people. And the way this works because your

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brand has a subculture and that subculture

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has another subculture on top of it. So I definitely believe in the whole idea

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of the thousand community and

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developing that organic sense of who you are,

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getting that out to ten people, and then those ten people into ten

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more people. And now you have a growing and growing, growing group of

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individuals that are focused on a similar shared

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value, and they want to be part of a community to share the language.

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I think Cenks was talking about it last time in guerrilla marketing was shared

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value, shared language, shared shared forms of communication.

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And that's where you kind of start from in terms of finding those

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individuals that are not like you,

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but need your services to fill the gap. Once you understand

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yourself, you can then take a glimpse at what

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things you aren't. And then once you understand what you aren't,

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combine those and then find the overlapping areas

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where you can fit in to improve

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those things for other individuals. So I have five forms

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of people that they can use. You can be an educator, you can be

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energizer, you can be an engager doer

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or somebody who likes to put out directions. You're one of those five things.

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And me, I'm an educator and an energizer. I like following,

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I like helping, supporting causes, and I'm always out educating you. Find those

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things that you are and you leverage those strengths.

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Don't be afraid to leverage your strengths. Absolutely leverage

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your strengths. I'm a big believer in screw your weaknesses,

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their weaknesses for a reason. Don't waste your time trying to improve the

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areas where you're weak. Like no,

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hire somebody, find a system, find a software

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that does those things if they have to be done in your business. And we

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all have those things that have to be done in our business that don't

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float our boat. So be smart about how you leverage your time,

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because that's going to allow you to do exactly what Shay said, which is leverage

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your strengths. Right? So find out the things that you are and the role

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that you can fulfill for the people who are looking for you and

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focus on that and don't waste time trying to figure out how

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to be better at things that you're not good at. Right?

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And let's bring this back around because something just connected

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in my head. Shay, let's bring this back around to

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marketing and advertising. There's a lot

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of when we go back to the concept of marketing and

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advertising being heavily and branding even being heavily commoditized. Right now.

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There's a lot of people pitching scripts, pitching funnels,

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pitching swipe copy right here,

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use my swipe email copy here. Use this funnel that

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I've already built. Oh, here. All you need to do is follow this pattern

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for your email onboarding. Right. What is

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the biggest problem with that? It's not you.

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It's not going

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to say you can start because if it gets helps you

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get rid of the blank page problem, that's fine. But you

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have to then take this stuff and test it

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and get feedback and get data like we talked about and start

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to learn your way of speaking. You have your own way of talking

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so far in your life. You've gained friends and community

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by speaking a certain way, by having a certain language.

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Don't diminish that. If you talk with big words,

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talk with big words. There are people who want that

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from you. If you talk like you're

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just a bloke from Australia, talk like that,

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it's just your thing. It's going

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to resonate with the people that is going to gain the most value from

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you and the people that you can then generate the most feedback,

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the most community, the most value, the most

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connectivity, all with you have to start speaking your language.

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Yeah, 1000%.

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And I love the idea of if you are facing that sort

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of blank page, use these things that are

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out there abundantly at the moment, but use it

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as a starting off point. Don't just copy paste and go

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because let me tell you, especially right now, consumers are

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pretty fucking savvy and they can smell a formula and they

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can smell a funnel from a mile away. Like, look,

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no shade to click funnels. But when you send me to a

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link, I can tell in about 3 seconds if it's ClickFunnels,

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right? And so if you haven't taken

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the time to customize the fuck out of that and really

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make it your brand, if I've ever been through ClickFunnels,

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or if I have any familiarity with it, I'm going to sniff out ClickFunnels in

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about 3 seconds. Right. And positively

Speaker:

or negatively, that's going to impact my impression of you

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and your brand. Right. If you went to a

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LinkedIn lead generation course and are copying and

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pasting their DM things to send me a DM

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in LinkedIn and I've already gotten four of those from

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other people who graduated from the same course that you did,

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guess what? That's going to impact how I view you and

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your brand. Because you can't even fucking take the time to

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make it sound like you right. Hi,

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Shea. I read your profile and I've seen that you've had

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a great journey just like me. I'm looting

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to the area. I just want to get to connect with you. I don't even

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have a journey on my profile. Like, what are you talking about.

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Or we all like the MLM situation where

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you're walking down the street or you're in the grocery store and it's like,

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hi, so are you in the market for new income

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or new opportunities? No, I'm not.

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I've been down their throat. I know exactly where this is going to end.

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I'm cool. Goodbye. And here's the thing.

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I wish there was a way that I could tell, god, this is going to

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make me sound like an asshole, but I'm going to say it anyways. I wish

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there was a way that I could tell LinkedIn. Like, I don't need any

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more bropreneur. LinkedIn lead generation people,

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so please stop showing them my profile as someone

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that they should connect with, right? I don't need

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any more of them. And then I really want to respond to these

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guys. Like, the whole reason you found me proves

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that I don't need your lead generation

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bullshit tactics, right? I showed up on

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your page, dude. You're reaching out to me. Clearly my shit is working

Speaker:

that drives me crazy. So I think there's

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a lot of that. There's a lot of stuff out there that will tell you

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you just need to follow this process or follow this formula, or copy and copy

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and paste these emails that are guaranteed to work and guaranteed to get

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your results. And it is sort of that same MLM

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philosophy of being a numbers game. And if you want to play a numbers game,

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great, go for it. But just understand that everyone who's

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not one of the winning numbers in that numbers game now has a shitty impression

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of you.

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If you're truly trying to cultivate a brand, then you don't want to create any

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opportunities for that, right? You want to

Speaker:

be speaking directly to the people who are speaking

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your same language, who need what you have to say, and not just

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blanketing a whole list of folks and hoping that

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one person's going to go, okay, sure, and. That goes with a

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piece. Now, we've said that advertising goes to the masses,

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but that doesn't mean that your message is

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as broad as that. You still have to have that connected tissue

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of who you are and the way that you speak being presented through

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that advertising message, through that marketing conversation, through that branding

Speaker:

presence. It is the same tone, the same language.

Speaker:

That way, when they find that breadcrumb way on the outskirts of

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your advertising, they can follow it back to you. Oh my gosh,

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I just said you again, didn't I? So bringing that

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trail has to be consistent all the way through.

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I love it. Clearly, you and

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I could go on and on and on and on and on about

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this forever. And we

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both have some horror stories that we've touched on a little bit, but I'd love

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to hear if you could, before we wrap up here, do you have

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any examples of a success story of,

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like, when they came to me, it was like this.

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And here's what we work through and here's the results that they're getting.

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Now. Can you share, like, a quick case study with us of when you figure

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out how to do this and how to do it in the right order?

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This is what can happen? Yeah, actually it

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is a mutual friend, and I was happy to hear back that they took

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a general concept of messaging,

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of really leaning into their community and what a community

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means to them and how they speak to that community and making sure

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that they weren't afraid to share themselves with the community. They then

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took that and over the course of two years, doubled their business year

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after year. So the power of showcasing

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you, you will find the returns

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to be exponential. Because now people aren't just

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invested in your product or service, they are invested in

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you on a regular basis. Now you're in their head on a day to

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day and a moment to minimum basis. They're thinking of you. They're not just waiting

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to see the advertisement. They are now brand allies. They're speaking out

Speaker:

about you and your organization and what you're accomplishing. And that's what

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they did the next two years. They just really took

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the time to express themselves, learn more about themselves and express it fully.

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And that doubled their revenue. Yeah. And I think

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so many folks out there right now need to hear that because there's

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so many folks who are thinking, well, I can't share that.

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I can't truly be myself. If I was truly myself, nobody would want

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to do business with me. No, dude, actually, probably two,

Speaker:

three, four times as many people would want to do business with you if they

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really knew who you were. It's a bit of a paradox,

Speaker:

but I think we just have to lean in. The more you lean into that

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paradox, the better it's going to be on behalf of your business.

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Oh, Shay, my friend, thank you so much. This has been so fun.

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I love sort of dissecting this. Thank you for

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crystallizing it in a way that I think people will easily be

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able to wrap their head around. I love the driving

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down the highway, restaurant billboard analogy. That's going to stick with

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me in particular. I think it's such a great way to explain the impact

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of this and how one thing connects to another.

Speaker:

And I cannot reinforce enough that it all

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starts with you. You have to really understand who

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you are, how you add value, how you can be of service to people,

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the types of people you can be in service to. And then if you

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really get that right, if you get that core of your brand right and

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build out your marketing and your advertising from there,

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that's when the magic happens. That is when the magic happens,

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folks. So if you do nothing else,

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folks, please take some time today to think about where

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did I start? Did I start at the end and did I start with advertising?

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Did I start in the middle and I start with marketing, or did I start

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with branding? And even if you did start with your branding, is it truly

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clear? Have you taken the time to really understand who

Speaker:

that ideal audience is and why they need you specifically?

Speaker:

And how can you make your branding, your marketing, and your advertising

Speaker:

messages speak more clearly to those folks? Take a

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few minutes today. Think about if you can get

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clarity in any of those areas. And if you have more questions,

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you can always email us. We love getting questions

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in from our community here at unfuckmybusiness,

Speaker:

so you can email us at wtf@unfuckmybusiness.com.

Speaker:

And we always love dissecting these things on

Speaker:

our Tuesday night calls as well. So if you're not already in our

Speaker:

Facebook community, click the link that's in the Show Notes. Get your ass in our

Speaker:

Facebook community so that we can help you master your marketing

Speaker:

along with everything else for your business. Shay, thank you so

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much for joining me today, and we will see you

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next Tuesday. Bye, y'all. Ciao.

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What the fuck are you waiting for? Take what you learned in this episode

Speaker:

and do something with it. You'll find all the links and resources

Speaker:

we talked about in our Show Notes for this episode. Go to unfuckmybusiness.com

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Unf*ck My Business
Unf*ck My Business
No bullshit advice for business owners who want to be resilient AF.

About your hosts

Profile picture for Robyn Sayles

Robyn Sayles

HOST | SHOW RUNNER
Twitter + IG: @robynsayles
Profile picture for Chris 'Jinx' Jenkins

Chris 'Jinx' Jenkins

HOST
Twitter: @immrdubious

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