Subscribe to this show on Spotify | iTunes | Stitcher | Soundcloud
Many of us believe that if we have a website, numerous social media accounts, and learn a few marketing ‘tactics’ our business will suddenly take off.
We spend so much time on tactics and distribution (should I start a podcast? what about Pinterest? What about Instagram?) that we MISS OUT on the #1 ingredient in your marketing…
Today, Adam and Amy will talk about what the # 1 missing ingredient is in your marketing.
We’ll cover:
— The counterintuitive way you need to look at your marketing strategy
— How do you know you are ‘missing’ the number 1 ingredient
— Why we tend to focus on the wrong things, at the wrong time in our business
We also recommend:
- Steve Cockram: Become a Leader People Want to Follow
- Dan Hill: How to Read Facial Expressions for Business Success
- How to Create Videos that Promote Social or Environmental Causes
Transcription of Interview
(Transcribed by Otter.ai, there may be errors)
Adam G. Force 00:12
Hey, what’s going on everybody? Welcome back to the Change Creator podcast show. This is your host, Adam fours. Today we are going to be having a conversation and that is me and Amy, the co-founders here at Change Creator are going to be talking about marketing, you know, there are so many pitfalls, and people will find themselves overwhelmed, stressed. And when that happens, we get into states of panic or doubt, which leads still a lot of bad decision making. So why does that happen? Right? What does that look like? And what is marketing really about? Because maybe we’re thinking about this all wrong. So we’re going to talk about it and go beyond the big audiences and the numbers and take a deeper look at really what might be missing from your strategy that you can start fixing right away. All right, so we’re going to have that conversation today. Okay. If you missed the last episode, it was with Jacob Morgan. This is a really fun discussion, we spoke about what the future leader looks like. So covering things like the different skills and mindsets they need today. He has extensive experience and has done a lot of, you know, research and discussions with major CEOs, and is also obviously an entrepreneur himself. He’s published several books and all that kind of good stuff. So a lot of valuable insights here. So definitely don’t miss that one. swing back and check it out, you get a chance. If you guys haven’t had a chance to stop by Change Creator calm in a while. We have a lot of fresh content, you guys can check that out. We’re going to have some new updates coming as well. So I will as those get a little bit more firmed. I’m going to let you guys know we’re going to be updating the flow of this show, actually. And it’ll start having two releases a week. One is going to be with experts that we interview and that will be released on Tuesdays and then we’re going to have internal discussion Questions about marketing strategy and storytelling, and things that will really help you guys accelerate your businesses. That’ll be between conversations with me, Amy, Danielle, maybe some of the students from the captivate method and their experiences and growing their businesses using these strategies and processes, we think it’s going to add a lot of value. And we’ve had some people asking for those types of conversations. So we wanted to find a way to set that up, and I think that’s the gonna be the flow. So as we kind of pin that down more, we’re going to make an announcement here and we’ll start you’ll start seeing some updates okay with the setup here. With that being said, we are going to be doing this conversation with me and Amy today and we’re going to be talking about some of this stuff around the marketing world. So hope you guys find this helpful and we’d love to hear from you. So when you go to change coder comm you can always reach out let us know your thoughts if you have questions and things like that. Alright, guys, I think that’s it for today. Hope everybody’s staying safe and doing well. We will jump into this conversation. Okay, show me that he knows. All right, we made it What’s up everybody? Adam and Amy here. hope everybody’s having an awesome day. We just wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, marketing and what it really is right? Because we get so excited about having big audiences and reaching tons of people and all that stuff. So we’re gonna tap into what is actually the truth behind marketing what that missing ingredient is today. So Amy, and I’ve been talking about this quite a bit. And so marketing is not just about big audiences and how many people we reach and distribution, right. That’s a small part of it. Do we need to get traffic? Yes. So we’re going to tell you a quick story about a friend of ours who has a killer program. It’s a course-based program, and how they went almost a full year with no results just sales trickling in, and then all of a sudden in the 11th hour, they blew up. All right. So what happened? This is interesting. And Amy, you could chime in with any details here on this as we go. But, you know, you get set up and you’re running all these operations. And they were, they were kind of like fixing their program and trying to really get it to connect with people. And they were getting as much traffic as possible into this program. But the sales weren’t coming in. And so they had to really kind of just sit back and figure out well, what’s going on? And they would try all kinds of different things and different audiences that you would go after to get different types of traffic, right? Well, maybe we need to go after this audience or these people with these interests and things like that. And it just wasn’t making the connection. And so they started figuring out well, we may not have the right story, right. So what was the missing ingredient here that really started to turn things around and after about, I think it was 10 out of 12 like months right out of the year. They were we had a comment from them, and they’re like, we’re so close to having the right story. And we were like, Oh my god, I love that story, tap here, right? And so on the front end, when people think about marketing Amy, right, we say, all of a sudden, it’s like, oh, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook ads, like, that’s what people automatically associate with marketing
Amy Aitman 05:23
email list all the time. All the tactical things
Adam G. Force 05:27
And why is that? Because, you know, we all believe that the more traffic and the people we get in front of the more our businesses will thrive. And so our friends, you know, they were getting in front of all the people, but why weren’t they thriving yet? Over time, they kept refining their story, which is when we say that we’re saying their marketing message, right? storytelling is your marketing and that’s what we teach in the captivating method is really, that’s the most important part of the marketing strategy. So we say marketing instead of thinking distribution and connecting a big audience and all that kind of stuff and ads, we should be thinking, messaging, stories
Amy Aitman 06:07
Definitely
Adam G. Force 06:08
right? Like, we want to connect. And guess what? They finally got the right story there their strategy aligned and in that 11th month and 12 months, that 11th month alone, they had 70 sales. Now you multiply that by I think it was a 1500 dollar program. That’s a
Amy Aitman 06:26
higher ticket offer Sure
Adam G. Force 06:27
It literally happened in that one month,
Amy Aitman 06:31
from one or two sales to 70. In Exactly,
Adam G. Force 06:34
exactly. And all of a sudden, it was like, Whoa, so the power like you can have all the reach and big audience and it doesn’t matter if you don’t take the time to create a really smart marketing strategy. So understanding how to use storytelling to connect with people, get them on board with what you’re doing. That is the key and obviously why we put so much emphasis on it in the captivating method. Did a program? And it’s kind of counterintuitive, right? I mean, people don’t. It’s not something people feel like, oh, I don’t have time to do that. I got to work on, you know, running my ads. And I got to work on Pinterest. So,
Amy Aitman 07:14
I asked a lot of people that a lot of entrepreneurs like, what is your marketing strategy? I’d say nine out of 10 of them do not say storytelling, they do not say anything about storytelling. They feel like storytelling is a great add on or I can fix my messaging when or I can hire someone to fix my messaging. You know, that’s just a copywriting job. But really, I’ve seen it so many times, if your sales aren’t coming in if your marketing is not effective, most nine or 10 out of 10 times it’s your messaging, which is your storytelling. You know, sometimes there’s a problem with the automation or whatever, but nine out of 10 times or 10 times your messaging that’s not working because a lot of People get, you know, get really good at the distribution side of things, they get really good at, you know, creating a funnel or having their website or doing social media. But just because you get attention doesn’t mean you’re getting sales and doesn’t mean your marketing is actually working.
Adam G. Force 08:14
Exactly. I mean, I mean, and we see it a lot, too. I mean, you get on to Instagram, Pinterest, and all these sites, and you get so excited about like, Oh, I’m going to create a killer Instagram strategy and all these things. And you spend so much time to see this over and over again, whether it’s a social media platform, or maybe a podcast, right? I’m going to create a podcast, I’m going to get in front of all these people. And, you know, we have a podcast and we had a magazine, all this stuff. And we started a very complicated business at Change Creator. And I’ll tell you right now, every time I hear someone say, depending on where they are in the business, right, then I’m going to start a podcast. I want to be supportive and say, Yes, get your story out there and get in front of people, but I also know that it’s going to be a massive distraction, and it’s going to be very difficult. to monetize, so this idea of this distribution on the podcast is so sexy and fun. I’m going to interview people and do all this stuff. Yeah, we can enjoy it. And we want to do the things we enjoy, and that we’re excited about. And all of a sudden, a year goes by and we look back and realize, I was just solving the wrong problems. I wasn’t doing what I needed to do, I needed to understand, let’s say, three key things right aiming, it’s, well, how do I create the right marketing strategy based on who I am as a person and the business that I want to run? Right? How do I get clear on how to talk to my perfect customer, right, how to connect with them and get them to understand my business? And then how do I create a system to automate my sales so I can free up my time, like these are your factors, and none of that you can’t create the system and automate sales to have the right message. Right, the right story
Amy Aitman 09:56
that you can ignore. I see a lot of people coming To us in the captivate method, and they spent years not just a year, they spent years and years and years on their marketing, and focusing on the wrong things at the wrong time, and really missing this key ingredient. And by kind of hoping to skip over it, because I feel like this is something that may or may not come naturally to everyone, but it’s something that you can learn and you can develop, and it can become a practice that you that is really energizes your entire business. Yeah. And I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of digital entrepreneurs, especially like, we just focus on the wrong things, and it’s usually things that we like to do. Yeah, so for me, I days, I mean, I love writing. So blogging was like writing blogging, content strategy, I could spend all day doing that, you know, but it’s like, actually getting out and doing the things that I need to do and tapping into my core story into into the stories for our marketing. Well, at first those a little uncomfortable, wasn’t it Adam? I think
Adam G. Force 11:00
a lot more avoid this work because one, they think they’re above it. They think they’re above digging into this. But too, they also get very uncomfortable, right? It’s uncomfortable to dig into what is necessary to really create the marketing strategies that we need today to connect with the right audience. It takes real work to get this stuff done. And that’s why we have such a powerful methodology to help people get through that process. And once you do, you like you don’t ever want to outsource your marketing strategy and your sales in the first several years of your business like you need to master that craft yourself.
Amy Aitman 11:39
Yeah, messaging, you’d never want to outsource that messaging chart and you really can’t it’s almost impossible because I’ve hired a lot of copywriters over the year I’ve been a writer for years. And the first thing any great advertising team is going to do and any copywriting team is going to do is they’re going to ask you for your story. I mean, they really are, they’re gonna ask you for your story, I’m gonna ask you about your customers, they’re gonna ask you for the things you need to know for your messaging. And if you let them guess,
Adam G. Force 12:10
you’re screwed, you’re screwed. They’ll take your money,
Amy Aitman 12:12
don’t take your money. They’ll take your money, and they’ll guess,
Adam G. Force 12:15
and they’ll guess and we’ve done that we’ve hired expensive PR teams marketing barrel, because we were thinking, hey, they know this better than us, or we just don’t have the time for it or, you know, like, we have all these doubts in our brain. And then we start doing that, and we spent tons of money guys sent tons of money. And it was a huge waste of time and energy. Because now like, for example, we have all this stuff, obviously very solidified and tons of stories. This is what we teach and we thrive on. And so we have a Facebook ads team. And guess what one of the first things like Amy said, we gave them a folder of like 3040 stories that were essential. We gave that we know exactly who we’re talking to. So they could set up everything based on who we are as a brand based on the stories that we have in order to accomplish certain things. It depends where someone is on that buyers journey, right? Yeah, that’s right. Do I tell when do I tell it? What, like, there’s so much to this. But the more you focus and practice and get into these flows, then when you put effort into your distribution and reaching many people, it’s going to be effective,
Amy Aitman 13:21
right? Yes, it is. And you’re not going to spend waste time and money. putting things out at the wrong time. wrong message the wrong people. So how do you know how would you know Adam? I have an answer for this one, that you’re missing this number one ingredient that you’re missing storytelling in your marketing, how do you know? What are the signs?
Adam G. Force 13:42
Yeah, well, I guess one major sign is that you’re not you’re not selling consistently. I mean, that’s number one
Amy Aitman 13:48
That’s a big sign
Adam G. Force 13:49
right? And people will start to say, ah, these Facebook ads stink, man. They don’t work, right. I can’t, I can never get sales and I’m like, Yeah, dude, because your messaging is good. completely off course not, not only is it the wrong message, but it’s not being done in a way that’s compelling and thought provoking. It doesn’t, it doesn’t connect with people. Marketing goes deep on how you actually connect with someone. And you should know, do they sit in traffic every day? Are they drinking a glass of wine and having a, you know, drowning their sorrows every night like that? And there’s lots of, there’s lots of ways to get to that. And that’s obviously stuff that we go through and teach in our program because it’s so important. And will Did you have other thoughts Amy about I was gonna
Amy Aitman 14:41
say the same thing that you know that you’re missing this when parts are all of your marketing is not working for you. So if you invest so much time into an Instagram strategy, and it’s just not connecting, it’s not getting to sales. This is where I like to look and I like to say, okay, what’s missing, and it’s usually this method. So if you find yourself getting a lot of people that like love what you do but are buying from you, then it’s you’re missing this key ingredient, right? That’s those are the two like those are two key indicators that I’d say I’ve looked at your marketing and I look at if you if you feel like everyone that you’re bringing into your world is not the right audience This again is probably the missing ingredient for that too.
Adam G. Force 15:30
And you know if there’s a major distraction that causes some of this for people moving marketing Remember we said earlier we think marketing we think social media advertising you know, the distribution side of it, we don’t think the connection, the communication side of it, but when we think about that decision, we think social media, well, we’re gonna say, we have a fear about what people think about us, right? Yes, trade. For starters, people were afraid to put ourselves out there. And then when we do well, what are people gonna think about? When I only have 20 people on my Facebook page, no one’s gonna trust my business. No one’s gonna buy from me. And guess what? That is the furthest thing from the truth ever. Okay, it’s about what you’re saying. It’s about who those 20 people are. What if each of those people was spending $1,000 a month of reoccurring revenue with you because they’re your perfect customer. So you got to face with terrible people making $20,000 a month okay?
Amy Aitman 16:26
This is a big mistake that we see so many people making especially when it comes to story, they we they confuse trust with big numbers. And they say if I had a million followers and everyone would trust me, and I want when I when people tell me that I always ask them, okay, I have a product here. And I’m going to send out an influencer with the million followers and it’s going to try to sell you or I’m going to send your best friend in the world that says you got to try this product dude. This is the best product ever had. I love this product. Someone that is that close to you. Who do you trust more? The Kylie Jenner’s of the world or your best friend, or your best friend?
Adam G. Force 17:10
What about that story? There is that girl on Instagram where they’re like, hey, she has like a couple million people or something following her. They’re like, she tried to sell a T shirt that someone was like sponsored to pay her to like sell or something. Like she was only able to sell like four t shirts to like millions of followers. And, you know, again, no connection. It was fake. Like, we just making the point about vanity metrics, this stuff just doesn’t matter. So that will hold you back. Yeah, it’s an all nighter leaf, right or a false belief. And it’s based on that fear, the fear of what will people think?
Amy Aitman 17:44
Right? Yeah, because really, in today’s in digital marketing, especially for mission driven entrepreneurs, it’s about connection. It’s about building trust. It’s about building a connection. And it’s about finding the right people that our products can serve. That’s what it’s really About it’s really not about how many people we have, you know, on our Instagram accounts or honor, you know, Facebook accounts. And I can tell you from being in the business and in the digital marketing space for quite some time, there’s a lot of ways to fake food Ghazi these numbers, people know that the people totally know that as well. And so I feel like Nowadays, people really want that connection. And it’s more and more important than ever before to have to build that connection with our audience to get that trust.
Adam G. Force 18:33
Absolutely. It makes a big difference to what you’re doing. So, you know, just to recap, the lesson here, guys is to where you’re putting your energy. I mean, we understand storytelling. Again, storytelling is your marketing. It’s how you’re communicating how you’re getting people on board with what you do, and how you’re connecting with them. It’s also grounds your business and what kind of business you are and what you stand for, and there’s so much behind it. Storytelling is where you should be putting most of your energy any any company that is a great storyteller. That is great with storytelling will be a great company. Right? I think that covers that topic. I mean, it’s such an important one. So any final words here? Any questions from anybody that is listening? We were hanging
Amy Aitman 19:20
out with Chris, who just said, Thank you, Adam. It’s so important. only understand what you’re talking about connecting with your ideal customer. That’s true. Yeah, we see that a lot as well. I mean, it’s so important to have these connections and to build that trust.
Adam G. Force 19:36
Yeah. So think about your messaging. And connecting with people don’t worry about the big numbers and the distribution. Everything has its time in place. So we can always do the right things at the wrong time. And so we really want to be putting our priorities in the right order here. So marketing is not just about your distribution. It’s about what you’re saying who you’re saying it to And why you’re saying it?
Amy Aitman 20:02
Definitely. And like our friends that finally got the 70 sales that we finally got the right story. And I can tell you from from knowing their story, they spent a lot of time and energy building traffic and doing ads. Yeah, that wasn’t that that’s not what works. Okay, I think we’ll catch you 20 minute mark. Thank you. And we continue. We’ll continue this discussion of course in our free, private, free Facebook group. And you can click on the link is on our page to join if you haven’t joined already.
Adam G. Force 20:39
Catch you next time everybody. That’s all for this episode. Your next step is to join the Change Creator revolution by downloading our interactive digital magazine app for premium content, exclusive interviews, and more ways to stay on top of your game available now on iTunes and Google Play or visit Change Creator mag Comm. We’ll see you next time. Where money and meaning intersect right here at the Change Creator podcast.
