S. 3 Ep. 9 – Busting Common Marketing Myths In Thought Leadership Businesses

Intro: You know those moments when you’re doing what you love in your business, maybe it’s standing onstage or creating content, whatever it is, you’re totally immersed, and time just seems to slip by? This is called the flow state. At Speaker Flow, we’re obsessed with how to get you there more often. Each week we’re joined by a new expert where we share stories, strategies, and systems to help craft a business you love. Welcome to Technically Speaking.

Austin: All right, boom. We are Live. Ford, welcome to the show, man. So good to have you here.

Ford: I’m excited. This is going to be fun.

Austin: Yeah. Oh, we agree. We see you around at all the conferences and stuff, and you’re always just a bright spot in the day. You bring so much good energy with you. I feel like I need that in my life, so thank you for that.

Ford: Well, thank you. I guess I’m an activator. You can call me caffeine, I guess; from now on.

Austin: That’s great. Ooh, I like that. All right. Well, you have a reputation that doesn’t even need an explanation, so I’m sure a lot of the people listening to this show already know you very well. You have a very decorated background, 10 companies, I think; you’ve started based on what I read in the bio, which is wild. I don’t know how you have time to do anything else. Probably not all of them operational right now, I imagine, which may be a story for another day, but something that really caught my eye is that you hold a couple of patents. What are those patents?

Ford: Yes, I do.

Taylorr: Three of them.

Ford: Well, it’s, actually, 17 companies now, but nobody cares about me, right?

Taylorr: 17. Whoa.

Ford: It doesn’t care. Wait, wait. That doesn’t mean they were all successful. Okay.

Taylorr: Sure, of course. Naturally.

Ford: There’s been, never any bankruptcies, but I’m an entrepreneur, right?

Austin: Yeah.

Ford: I started my entrepreneurial journey at 15 years old. I patented a few products in sporting goods and medical products in my early twenties. Built a manufacturing company up to over a hundred employees and worked through all channels of distribution; retail, wholesale, specialty catalogs, mass merchants, chain stores. And so, that gave me a really big foundation, and then that led right into the speaking, training, coaching, and consulting.

Austin: Wow.

Taylorr: Wow. Really? So, the original background wasn’t even in marketing, you’re an entrepreneur and the marketing skillset has just been developed over time.

Ford: A hundred percent. Yeah. This is in theory, when I talk about it, I’ve spent my own money, millions of dollars of my own money, and then now millions of dollars of my clients’ money to figure out what works and what doesn’t. And really, when people say, what do you do? I bridge the gap between where people are now with their value proposition to help them do four things, Austin. I help them increase their influence, increase their subscribers, whether it’s their list or whether it’s their following on social media, get leads, quality leads, and increase sales. And so, that’s it. So, yeah, marketing creates those opportunities for salespeople, but I’m known for marketing, but really, what’s the result of marketing? It’s accelerating growth.

Austin: Absolutely. Wow.

Taylorr: That makes perfect sense.

Austin: Well, you speak in outcomes too, which speaks to your ability to not only pair the marketing tactics, but the psychology of selling. So, is a meta layer that I think we just witnessed happen as you were explaining yourself there.

Ford: It’s true, I’m going to jump in because I know it’s your show, but you brought me on, right? So, you have to expect I’m going to say something.

Austin: Good use of the Stream Deck.

Ford: So, I was on the phone with a client earlier, they’re in my coaching packet, and they sent out a proposal and they were upset that the client didn’t take it. And I said, well; let me take a look at what you put. And so, it was a training package, the three different levels, and it was all feature, feature, feature, feature, feature. I’m going to do these modules, feature, feature, feature, feature, feature. And she was wondering why she didn’t get the sale. And I said, do you know what their average transaction is? What’s that? Do you know what their exposure is and their capacity and what their market share is? Do you know what the cost to acquire a customer? 

I asked them all of these basic or these questions, she didn’t know any of the answers. And I said, the reason you’re not selling isn’t because you don’t have a quality product, isn’t because you don’t have something great to offer. And the same thing with your viewers and listeners. It’s because you’re not communicating it effectively. And so, we’ve all seen people that are more talented than we are. Certainly there are more people more talented than I am in the speaking business, but my ability to communicate effectively, to create awareness, and then get them to act, that’s the unique skill. 

And so, we went back and we rewrote her proposal and redid her cover letter. And now she’s in discussions with him again, because I had her go back to the client or the prospect and say, Hey, I was thinking about the proposal I sent, I want to clarify a few key points. All of my packages that I prepared for you were custom-designed for your specific needs and outcomes to help you. And then we had a list of bullets; avoid this, avoid this, prevent this, and then get this, get this and get this. And so, when we were done, she’s like, oh, well, I didn’t do that. And I said, yeah, that’s why you didn’t get the job.

Taylorr: Yeah. Well, the true psychology there, it’s all about emotions and bridging the gap for people. It’s hard to understand what a feature does if it doesn’t connect emotionally. So, yeah.

Ford: Taylorr, the features are important, but benefits come first. So, I just tell people, if you’re listening and watching this, you have to go back and review what is it that you’re leading with. You want to give them the headache and sell them the aspirin. And, again, it’s not manipulative, it’s just the way communication works.

Taylorr: It’s the way it goes. For sure. Were you always fascinated by marketing? What was the transition there? Why was that the sweet spot for you today?

Ford: Well, I grew up in orphan in foster care and in detention centers and homes, and I would get attention the wrong way. I’ll just leave it at that. You can Google me and you can find out about my past. Okay.

Taylorr: Sure.

Ford: So, I found that when I started my first business and I was going door-to-door selling things, at a very young age, that I could get positive attention by solving people’s problems.

Taylorr: Ah.

Ford: So, that is where the desire came from. And that’s why I started and launched so many products because I was always looking for, well, if I can just solve this problem, then people will pay me, they’ll like me, they’ll know me and they’ll trust me. So, it really was driven by, I guess, abandonment issues to get attention and then to be able to do it in an authentic way to build trust, and so that’s where it came from. So, marketing was never the goal. Marketing was the byproduct of, how do I get in front of the right people with a clear message? 

And because I was pretty street wise, I already had some pretty good skills at reading behavior. And at the time I didn’t know what NLP was or psychology of selling. No, I just like, I have this really cool product or solution. I know you need it. Let me share with you why it would be helpful. And I had to learn the difference between influencers and decision makers and personality styles and all that. So, you crafted, just like what you guys have done with Speaker Flow and your businesses.

Taylorr: Yeah.

Austin: Well, the School of Hard Knocks is a good teacher, a lot of the times. So, you’re paying attention and then just constantly trying to improve.

Taylorr: It is.

Ford: It’s expensive, I would’ve liked to pay the tuition a different way, but that’s the way it is.

Austin: Sure.

Taylorr: Yeah. At least made money doing it, so there’s that.

Austin: Well, this is a really good foundation to build off of here. The reason that we brought you in is because of this expertise and the working experience applying it. You’re a perfect person to help bust some myths that are out there. We sat down and we’re planning the show, we were just thinking to ourselves like, everybody’s got the marketing advice. And, honestly, the tried and true principles are, they work, they just work throughout time. You go to any major marketing expert and probably they’ll share 75% of the same ideas, because the tried and true principles work. There’s also a lot of bullshit out there. We think that somebody needs to be able to. Thank you.

Taylorr: We got the label. It’s fine.

Austin: We got a label. Yeah. So, yeah, I think you’re the best person to just bring the truth hammer down in a few instances. So, you game?

Ford: Absolutely. And just for the record, for those of you watching this, this is not pre-scripted. These questions are live and in color. So, let’s rock. Go for it. Give me your best shot.

Taylorr: Hell, yeah.

Austin: Absolutely. Okay. We’re going to see if we stump you. I don’t know, maybe the myths that we think are myths aren’t even myths; we’re going to find out.

Taylorr: Maybe. There we go.

Austin: All right. So, we’re going to start out with one that is near and dear to Taylorr and I’s hearts, because we never hear the end of why people find this to be so important. So, the myth is, social media is the only way to build a following for a thought leadership business. What’s your take on that? Is that true?

Ford: No, that’s bullshit. I can [Inaudible – 8:28] belief system. I didn’t even censor my own.

Taylorr: Don’t even worry about it.

Austin: Come on, man. You have to bleep.

Taylorr: Blatant censor.

Ford: Look, here’s the deal. Social media is just a communication tool. All social media websites are our databases. What can you do with a database? Well, you can have a profile, you can put content up and you can communicate. So, I don’t care if it’s Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, I could go on, or the new ones that haven’t even been invented as of this live broadcast. Social media are just communication tools. So, the key isn’t what tool, don’t get seduced by the technology. What you want to do is fish where the fish are. Where does it make sense? Where does your target prospect congregate? And then how do you get in front of them? 

So, certainly social media is a great tool. Direct mail still works. Cold calling still works. Market and automation still works. Funnels still work. EBooks and giving away free things and free web, all methods work if they’re executed. So, the key is not to get seduced by the method, but to go back and say, what’s the message? Is it compelling? Are we communicating effectively to our target prospect? And whether you say avatar or ideal client profile or whatever, at the end of the day, these concepts aren’t new. It’s so funny. I’ll watch TikTok and someone will say, hey, everybody, I have this new strategy, it’s called a benefit headline. And I’m like, yeah, like they didn’t know about that in Rome, right?

Taylorr: Yeah.

Ford: So, the myth here is social media is a communication channel, but it should be used with other things. It should not be your only channel. Those people who sell those masterclass and think, oh, this is the only way to do it. Well, not necessarily, it depends on your product, it depends on your price, it depends on the sales process. Something social media is a great way to sell. For me, I’m now wearing the perfect jean and this is no endorsement for anybody, this is not an affiliate link. But the jeans, they’re comfortable, they stretch; found about it on TikTok. I didn’t need a sales letter and a mini-course to do it. I saw the product went and bought it. Right? 

So, some things, the sales cycle dictates the method. So, don’t get seduced by the method, oh, you should be using LinkedIn. Well, maybe that worked for you, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to work for everybody.

Taylorr: Heck, yeah.

Austin: Well said. I totally agree. There’s nuance, right? With anything. Does social media work isn’t the right question, especially after hearing you say that, that, kind of, solidified that for me more. The real question is, is that where your people are? If so, then could be great. If not, then probably not the right fish.

Ford: Yeah. Austin, if you’re asking the wrong question, the answer doesn’t matter. So, a lot of times, you and I both have prospects that come to us that think they know what they want. Hey, guys, I need this. And then they tell you all of the things they need and you’re listening and you’re saying to yourself, this person doesn’t have a clue what they need. They’ve read a few books or they’ve watched some webinars and they think they know, but they don’t know what they don’t know. Now, there’s no offense to that person. I’m not judging that person. You have to ask questions, you have to be intuitive and you can always learn from everybody, but it’s really about what are they trying to accomplish? 

So, I could come to Speaker Flow and I could say, Hey, I’m converting from Sharp Spring and I want to do this, I want to do this, I want to this. And, at some point, you’re just going to say, you’re more polite than I am. But you’re going to say, Hey, hey, hey, let’s stop. What’s your fee? How many bookings do you want? What other things do you sell? What’s your average transaction? And then you’re going to be able to mathematically go, well, if his keynote fee is 25 grand and he wants to speak 50 times a year, now you know, okay, the guy’s got money. At least I know that I’m dealing with someone who could possibly be a good client. Because some of the clients need our services, but they can’t afford it, right? 

I just had a proposal right before this broadcast someone just sent me and they didn’t take my package. And they said, my budget’s about a third of what you said, thank you very much. And I sent back and said, I understand that we’re not a great fit for everybody. I wish you the best of success in what you’re doing. If you have anything change, call me back. And then I put it into Zoho that I’ll call him in 90 days and ask him where he is at, because I know where he is going to be at. He’s going to be frustrated that he went with an Upwork vendor for a cheaper price. In most cases, they’re not going to be able to deliver it because if they could deliver it, they’d have to charge what I charge. And so, a lot of times when it comes down to fee, people are trying to compare the fee apples to apples when it’s not apples to apples.

Taylorr: Yeah, no, you’re totally right. Okay, so myth number two is around SEO. Okay? So, some search engine stuff. SEO isn’t important to my business.

Ford: So, the biggest misconception, again, is people call it SEO, but what they really need to be asking is, is traffic and rankings important? So, if you want organic traffic, now this is, well, let’s back up, and I know it’s only a half an hour show and I won’t go three hours here.

Taylorr: Oh, we’re laying them on you.

Ford: Yeah. So, there are only three ways you’re going to get traffic. Create, borrow or buy. You’re going to create it using content to build your reputational equity. That content has to be optimized. So, we’re drilling back down to what SEO is, right? So, for search engine optimization, they think they don’t need it because they might say, well, I get all of my business from referral. That’s because you don’t have any other marketing, it’s not because referrals are bad, referrals are great, congratulations. Referrals are a great thing. What other opportunities are you missing because you don’t have your ranking? 

So, just real quick, the myth is, everybody needs optimization of their content that comes from keywords and content. AI runs everything now, artificial intelligence. So, it’s not about stuffing keywords in, it’s about having a body of work that the search engine or the platform, LinkedIn, social media, Facebook, whatever; can use. So, the myth is wrong and busted, you need to make sure that you properly title, describe and format your content for whatever medium or platform it’s on to help them. And there’s no secret, if you want to rank on LinkedIn, LinkedIn is completely different than Facebook or another platform. 

Posting articles on LinkedIn does nothing. Posting a video on LinkedIn does nothing. It’s all about the conversation, it’s not a pump and dump type platform. Facebook’s pump and dump, you can put more content on it. Or Google used to be that you had to have a big website and use page titles and meta descriptions and H1 tags and all this other stuff. Yeah, that’s still important. But now you might have, if Speaker Flow has 700 pages on their website, but 600 of them haven’t been viewed in a year, you’re going to get penalized because your site isn’t quality. And if you got rid of those 600 pages, you’d, actually, get more traffic on the hundred. So, for SEO, it’s not about more, it’s are you formatting your content in a way that helps whatever platform properly indexed.

Austin: Yeah. Man, the science and the art combined with that response. I love that. Do you think that this is a skillset that people should, I hate that word, but could invest their time in and reasonably expect to learn how to do it well? Or do you think SEO from the technical standpoint is better outsourced for a, typical, thought leadership business?

Ford: I would probably say they need to outsource it to a competent professional, but what they do need to do, if they’re a professional speaker, thought leader, expert, author, trainer, consultant, they do need to understand that keywords drive traffic. Your content drives traffic, and they need to craft the content in a way that allows the medium to understand it. So, as the author of that content or the person or if you hire an outside company, the content has to be relevant. So, if I give an example. I just signed up for an affiliate or a program called My Outdesk. And, yes, I’m an affiliate, if you click my link, but we’re not talking about that on the podcast. 

My Outdesk is for virtual assistance. I need sales support; I’m going to try these guys. I talked to the owner, Daniel Ramsey. So, I have a good relationship with him and I said, okay, I like your product. So, what did I do? I went to ChatGPT and I said, act as a creative marketer and write me an article with lists and bullets, including dos and don’ts to why small businesses need a virtual assistant. Because see, they gave me a bunch of content to use as an affiliate, but I don’t want to put the same content up that 500 other people are using. That doesn’t make any sense. Google’s not going to give it any juice or any other platform. 

So, I used ChatGPT, I got the article, I, obviously, tweak it because you can’t just take whatever you get because it could be wrong. And I went to Synthesia, which is another AI program to create videos, because I don’t need my video. I have technology in a studio and I don’t want my face on the video. So, I went to Synthesia, took another 15 minutes, created a short video with the five reasons why you need to outsource to get a virtual assistant with an affiliate link at the end of the video. Hosted it on YouTube. It got 12 views in the first 20 minutes. I don’t know how many of views it has now. But I don’t need a lot, if I get a $500 affiliate referral from it, well, so what? 

So, maybe I get 1500, $2,000 a month from referrals. But the content drove it. So, I didn’t just put a video up and say Video1.mp4. I titled it, I tagged it, I used the words I wanted in the video because YouTube transcribes it. I put it in the description, I put the tags, I put the end screens, I did all of the things necessary so that when someone is interested in that topic, it’s going to show up. But that’s because I understand how the medium works. So, the first step is you have to have quality content. Second, you have to optimize that content for whatever medium you’re using. That’s it.

Austin: Myth busted.

Ford: Maybe I’ll agree with one of them, give me the next one.

Austin: We’ll see. All right, Taylorr, go for it.

Taylorr: Okay. Email marketing is dead.

Ford: Okay. Again, I think we’re following the theme here. The theme isn’t that it’s dead; it’s that it’s overused and misused. What I’ve seeing work very effectively with email is instead of fancy email templates with headers and 25 links, which automatically go to promotion or spam, that you create a text-based or an email that looks text-based with only three lines of text and either no links or one link. No links was, actually; if you want to get, and you’re starting to see this, we’re all starting to see this in our inbox now, where we’re seeing text links from someone that we don’t know, but they’re making it look very personal, but it’s showing up in your inbox. 

So, email marketing works, it’s about the relationship. So, if I’m a, and since I am, full disclosure everybody, I am a customer of Speaker Flow and use Zoho and Taylorr and Austin helped me set it up. So, full disclosure and testimonial, it was a great deal, I’m a paid customer; it was not a free trade, right?

Taylorr: That’s right.

Ford: The key point, though, is I’m a fan. So, if Taylorr and Austin are doing some retreat or a get together or a special event or a coaching session, I’m going to pay attention, and most likely email’s going to be a great way to reach me because I’ve already got the relationship. So, it’s not that the medium doesn’t work; it’s what’s the relationship. So, for example, if I’m doing lead capture, which Speaker Flow has helped me set up and I go speak at an event, I use a QR code and someone downloads my special report, well, that relationship is much different than someone who paid me 25 grand to speak or hired me in my agency. 

So, the medium works, and I would say this, if you’re using any medium, and we still want to talk about the other myths, but if you’re using any medium and it’s not working, it’s not the medium. It’s what you’re saying and it’s the relationship.

Austin: Yeah. I think this is so important, and I think, maybe even a way that we could expand this one out a little bit is the idea of using an email marketing system for cold outreach. This is one of the most common things that we run into when we’re working with a lot of our clients is they want to upload a list of 50,000 names that they got from some database and then send them all a bunch of generic emails, not personalized, nothing else, and then just play off of probability, basically; that something is going to come back. And what’s interesting, to me, is it seems like even the law of averages, as it relates to sales and marketing, falls apart with that strategy. It’s like.

Ford: It does.

Austin: The probability goes away. And it seems like that’s a reflection of what you were just talking about, is it’s a shift of how people look at email. What are your thoughts about that?

Ford: Yeah, I think if you’re spamming, and full disclosure, I worked with a guy out of Florida, we created a company where we were selling continuing education. We built it up from one 12 or one 6 CD set to over $120,000 a month. And guess what we did.

Austin: Is this ACEs?

Ford: This is another company which I am no longer involved with. So, I won’t say who it is, but I will tell you that I was the brains behind helping them scale, considerably, from one product to thousands of products. I was on their faculty. We did one site, we did it for legal, so we did continuing legal education, we did continuing CLE, CPE, CME, we went and researched all of the different continuing educations and then we created satellite sites for each one. Then I went to a company called Mozenda, M O Z E N D A, and I scraped databases. So, I scraped all the names from all of the databases. And then we spammed them. So, yeah, full disclosure, that’s not something I would do now, nor was that a problem back then. So, don’t write that down. Oh, I’m going to go scrape databases. Don’t do that. But I was sending out 6 million emails a month with no complaint. Cold databases and getting about $120,000 in sales. So, does it work? Yeah, it works. Did the laws change over the years? Yeah, which is why I got out of it because I’m like, you know what? I’m going to leave well enough alone. This has worked long enough, time for me to let that go. But if you have a cold list and you don’t have permission, it’s spam. 

So, full disclosure, this broadcast is for educational and informational purposes. You are holding us, our affiliates and assigns harmless of anything that we might say during this broadcast.

Austin: Okay for the disclaimer.

Ford: So, we’re good. But, no, look, test first. If you have a list and you have a bunch of cards and you want to mail somebody in your area, do 50 emails and see if you get any response, do a test. I would say that’s a smart strategy. If there’s any relationship that you have, it makes sense. So, I’ll give you an example on the legal side. We went to state associations that have public listings of attorneys, scraped the database, add their names and emails, and then we just sent them an email that said, Hey, John, the deadline for your CLE credits is coming up by the end of the month. I didn’t want you to forget to get it. Here’s where you can get your certificates. Forward. 

If he’s an attorney and he gets an email like that, he’s like, do I know this guy? Well, maybe I do. Well, you know what; my CLE credits are coming due. And for 39 to $79, they go and put their credit card in and they get a certificate. And now they’ve solved their problem. So, it’s always about that. So, email marketing works, but if you’re going to do cold email, I recommend having a relationship or having something that’s [Audio Cut Off -] what you don’t want to do is send those emails that say, I just want to know, are you the right person who makes the buying decisions? No, if you haven’t taken the time to do your research ahead of time, don’t waste your time.

Taylorr: Do you hire speakers?

Ford: Yeah. Right? Right? And you guys deal with that because you guys have been very successful navigating the speaker world because as I’ve been in it for 34 years, there are certainly some nuances I’ve learned over the years. Calling and asking a company if they hire speakers is terrible. What I would do, if we’re on that topic for two seconds, I’d go to that conference, I’d look at who they hired in the past, I’d look at their social media, what did they post about it? What was the hashtag they used for the conference? 

I’d reverse engineer it and find out who they hired. Then I would go to the bureau pages and figure out what’s the fee of the person they hired? Did they have a budget? Now, that doesn’t mean that conference paid that person, but that’s a good way to at least start. At that point, I could send an email and I could say, let’s say Austin had the Speaker Universe Event, and I know that you hired Taylorr to come in and speak. I would send you an email, Hey, Austin; I know you brought Taylorr in last year for your event. Taylorr and I, typically, follow each other on the circuit. Some years they book him, some they book me, I’d love to have my name considered for next year’s conference. Here’s my demo video. 

Now, I didn’t say that I knew Taylorr, I didn’t say that he endorsed me. I’m saying, Hey, I noticed you had Taylorr. I’m in the same circuit that he is. Typically, clients either bring him in one year, then me in the next year; I’d love to be considered for next year’s conference. Then you could say, who would be the best person to talk to? I think that’s a reasonable request. That is a very effective way to get the phone to ring. Or at least have someone email back and say, yeah, I’m interested.

Taylorr: Booyah.

Austin: Yeah. Cheers to that. Myth busted?

Ford: Yeah.

Taylorr: Myth busted.

Austin: Okay, I’ll load the next one up. You ready for this?

Taylorr: Let’s do it.

Ford: Yeah.

Austin: Video marketing is too expensive for a thought leadership business.

Ford: I don’t think we have to spend any time on that. Look, if you’re not using video in today’s day and age, again, price is relative. Okay. My keynote fee is 25 grand. Why am I on podcasts? Why am I on fortify live on Wednesdays at 11:00 AM? Why do I use video so effectively? Because if I’m going to expect someone to spend 25 grand, minimum; as a speaking, then they have to be able to see the product. And if you’re a speaker, author, trainer, or consultant, and you’re not leveraging the power of video or video courses or masterclass or some other way to monetize your expertise, then you should just go hang this up and go hand out french fries.

Austin: Ooh, fighting words.

Ford: Sorry. Sorry. I have to be careful because I work with a lot of quick service brands. But most of those quick service brand, I do, I have to be careful. There are probably those brands that follow this.

Austin: People need to hear this.

Ford: Yeah. But there’s nothing wrong with handing out french fries if that’s your entry-level job. I just want to say, if you’re trying to be a thought leader or keynote speaker or an expert, you have to be using video to communicate.

Taylorr: That’s what you signed up for. Yeah, for sure. Nailed it. Okay. So, kind of, nearing the end here. So, I want your soapbox.

Ford: I can do sound bites if you got more. I’ll be really quick.

Taylorr: Okay, great, that sounds good. So, I want your biggest soapbox. So, wherever you have that in your office, just go pull that out, step up on it here. What is the most aggravating excuse people have? Let’s put this in the lens of speakers, since you know them so well, for not focusing on marketing. What’s the most aggravating excuse?

Ford: I said I’d be short. The biggest excuse is that they want to hire somebody else to market themselves. They say, I’m just great onstage, if you would just sell me.

Taylorr: Right?

Ford: And I even have people say to me, well, if you’re such a great marketer, how about I give you 50% of everything you do? Well, my job is not to market you; I can market myself for a hundred percent. The biggest mistake is that people think marketing is selling. Marketing and sales is just giving people enough information that they can make informed decisions. If you care about helping people, if you care about making an impact and making a transformation, then you would tell people about it. That’s marketing.